Chapter 17
Gillian
Solstice dawns cold and bright and it's hard to believe that the holiday has arrived. It feels like this week passed in a blink. And like it's been a year since I met Winny at open swim. I can't believe we've somehow kept our hands off of each other since moving into our new place. Mostly.
The night of our impromptu housewarming, I took Winny's invitation to follow her to her new bed, but we both fell asleep almost as soon as our heads hit the pillows, even though I was aching to kiss her some more.
Then we overslept so I had to dash off to my shift at the aquarium followed by a family dinner with my niblings.
When I got home, Winny was having supper with Clara and her kid, so I joined them to nibble on our mountain of leftovers.
That's when I found out my girlfriend doesn't just swim like it's her job, she also works part-time in the pool's admin office, among other odd jobs around town.
From what Winny explained, her flock sets up contracts that any flock member can do and their wages go into a general fund that the flock divvies among themselves. It means that her hours and the physical demands of her work are flexible enough for her bad pain days with her shoulder.
After Clara and her kid left, we spent a good chunk of the evening tidying up from the party and the next day was running errands and helping various friends and family with last-minute Solstice preparations until I was too peopled out to do anything but retreat to my new room alone.
Solstice itself has been non-stop activities.
Four Corners goes all out with the holiday as a way to bring the entire community into celebrating the festive season.
Harvey's got the diner decorated to the rafters and his strays organized going door-to-door with cookies and cocoa and vouchers for free pie to make sure no one spends the longest night alone if they don't want to.
Basically, the entire day is packed with community observances.
It starts with a costume parade in the morning.
Winny kisses me when I ask if she wants to come along to help True and Linc wrangle their brood into their costumes and keep track of them along the route.
She grumbles that her brothers might rebel if she helps me after refusing to help her own niblings, so she may as well earn some aunt points by bringing Luca over to meet up with Myra for their parade prep early.
Winny ends up arriving with the toddlers instead of her oldest nibling, and we walk together, Nadine somehow sweet talks Leighton into letting her shift and climb onto their cub form's furry back where she brandishes six of her eight arms triumphantly and clings to the cub's fur with the other two.
Winny and I walk together, but with so many kids to keep track of, we can't really talk, just exchange smiles over their antics.
That sets the pattern for the day. We each have smaller events and meetings with friends that we lined up ages ago, so I see her in passing at the school's art walk and caroling with a group of other raven shifters, and we linger over the sweets table at a big community cookie swap the bear clan is hosting.
We spend the entire day orbiting each other when all I want is to hide away with her.
Finally, the sun starts to set as I wrap up my Solstice eve visiting to wish everyone warmth and courage for the longest night. When I get home, Winny has already got the lights on and refreshments on the table for an impromptu pre-vigil gathering with our immediate family to kick off our vigil.
I want nothing more than to fall into her arms and have her kiss me and take me to bed. It feels like we spent the entire day just out of reach of each other. I can't stop thinking about what we have planned for after everyone leaves.
I hug her, but the chaste kiss she gives me is all the affection I get before Marina is tugging on my skirt to get my attention.
"Hi Aunties! Gillian, after you kiss on Aunt Winning, come play Kraken with us!" Marina demands. Then she runs off to rejoin the game.
I shake my head, bemused at the mispronunciation of Winny's name.
I smile at Winny, wondering if she likes the sound of the kids I adore making room for her at my side and in their lives with their childlike simplicity as much as I like it.
Winny looks stunned. Not upset, but like I could tip her over with a feather.
"Dragon?" I pat her cheek. She turns her face toward mine and her expression warms as she gazes into my eyes. I wish she had chromatophores to help me parse that look. Words will have to do. "You okay?"
Winny nods, kissing my forehead in a move that feels like stalling before she traces her fingers around my eyes. "What's this color mean?"
"Hm? What color?" I'm not entirely sure which color she's referring to, but that's not her real question anyway.
Her real question has to do with the way my octopus has already decided that she's our future, not the specific shade of purple and how it's different from the parental shade I show the kids or the sisterly one for True or even the lust-tinged echoes I've aimed at Winny before.
My damn traitorous octopus is telling her the words I'm not ready to say out loud yet. Love. I can't possibly love her so soon. But a part of me does, clear as the chromatophores on my face.
Winny traces the colors almost reverently. "It's like when you were bursting with pride about Trip winning the costume contest, but more saturated? And it's all shimmery. Like a galaxy."
"Oh. Yeah. Um. Means you feel like family."
"Yeah?" Winny looks skeptical. Over her shoulder I catch a glimpse of Trudy and there's no way she misses what my octopus is broadcasting, but she only gives me an encouraging smile and a thumbs up.
Ugh. She's no help. Elric, on the other hand, swoops in for a clumsy rescue when the moment drags on for too long. They reach past us for a drink.
"Excuse me, sis, just gotta caffeinate while I can." they wink.
"Nice try, but moms told me that you're still banned from the energy drinks after our housewarming." Winny grabs the energy drink out of the teen's hand and replaces it with a soda.
"Hey! Harsh, does this mean you're going to be a buzzkill about me coming over to get out of chores?" Elric teases.
"Pretty much. Fun aunt does not equal letting you overdose on poison." She gestures at the energy drink. "Don't bring that crap here, got it?"
"Got it, Auntie." They salute with their soda, still teasing, but there's no meanness in it, just an easy closeness. "You really are Winning, huh, Win?" Elric cackles. "Don't let me stop you from kissing your girlfriend."
The teen backs away sipping their soda. Winny rolls her eyes and flips them off as she pulls me in for another kiss.
"Missed you today," Winny says between peppering my face with kisses. Almost like she read the love I wasn't ready to say out loud and this is her reply. She feels it too. And neither of us is ready to say it, but I can pour it into the way I take her face in my hands and kiss her more soundly.
"Hey, there are fledglings present!" Elric protests with faux outrage in their tone to cover their amused snort.
That kid was so quiet until they were the last guest at the party last time, clearly it just takes them time to warm up to new people.
Guess I should feel welcomed into their flock for them to include me in their teasing now.
I know we should step apart and be good hosts, but I really like Winny's hands on my hips, so steady and grounding. Her lips on mine, showing me how she feels when neither of us has the words for it.
"Uh huh. Pretty sure they've all seen plenty of kissing before, and they'll see it again," Winny says dryly. Then she kisses me again, still more chastely than I want, then on my cheek, and then her lips hover near my ear.
"I want you so much right now, you have no idea.
" Her whispered words are warm against the shell of my ear.
I want to rock against her and I feel the truth of them for myself.
I rock into her, savoring having her big alpha-sized clit pressed against me, not because the size of it matters, but because it's part of her.
I want to have her between my thighs. I want her so much it's wild.
'Mate.' My octopus stirs within me, flashing images of all the things we should do with her that are decidedly unhelpful for tearing myself away from Winny when we've got a house full of guests.
'Yeah, but we aren't doing any mating in front of the entire family. Chill.' I push back, thinking of everyone gathered around us puts a damper on my lust. I lean away from Winny.
"They're right that the rest of what I'm going to do with your gorgeous lips will have to keep until the kids go home, though," Winny whispers so softly that even in a room full of shifters, only I'll hear her parting words.
I nod reluctantly; I know she's right, but I still don't want to move apart. Winny steps back, then she reaches to trace the tip of her finger over my lips, emphasizing her wicked promises with a wink. Fuck me, is it possible to combust from lust? If so, I might not last the night.
I take a calming breath and turn to survey the room for something to keep myself distracted. Before I get my bearings, there's a bear cub barreling toward me on oversized paws and a tiny octopus flings herself from their back, shifting to a girl in midair with a delighted whoop.
"Play with us!" Nadine demands as I catch her and she wraps all eight of her arms around me to cling like a limpet while her bear companion nudges at the back of my knee with their big blunt forehead.
"Guess you've already captured me, huh?" I laugh as I allow myself to be conscripted into the game. It strikes me how joyful their play is as I join the game. And how all of the kids here are calling me auntie, whether or not we share a form.