Idle Talk

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

01/10/99:

"That was a fast trip," Kalie commented as I walked into the
living room. She was curled up on the carpet in one corner,
basking in the sunlight and reading.

My response was to shrug my shoulders. "It was a simple
'in-and-out' trip, took all of an hour." The trip was to
fetch one of the items that Grasion had hidden through out
the multi-verse. This time it was just a simple packet of
chemicals. I had already put it with the other things we had
retrieved.

"That's good. With everything going on I think it's an
excellent idea that you stay out of any of your big
adventures," she said as a slight smile played across her
lips.

"So," I asked as I walked closer to her, "what are you
reading?"

"Oh, this?" she said innocently, snapping the book closed,
using one of her fingers to hold the place. At the same
time, she shifted just a bit to hide the title from me.
"Nothing very important."

"Or nothing I need know about?" I suggested, trying to get a
glimpse of the title of the leather bound volume.

She nodded her head. "Something like that. Do you mind?"

"Sorry, didn't mean to pry," I responded, taking a step
back. Kalie relaxed slightly as I moved away. Actually, I
had meant to pry, there was something going on with her, and
I wanted to find out what it was.

She gave me a knowing smile, but still tucked the book
farther from my sight. "Why don't you go see Oriana?" she
suggested.

I returned her smile, taking another step back from her. "Of
course," I said, like I had just thought of that myself. "I
think I will do just that." Then I turned and left the room.

As I exited, I heard Kalie give a soft sigh. She had been
very jumpy the past few days, wound up like a spring and
read to pop at any time.

The only time she let her guard down at all was when I was
Rhea. Thrysten allowed me to borrow her gem (Ken promised
that he would have our own version by next time) so Rhea
could spend some time on all fours.

She and Kalie got along great, playing a lot in the yard,
some times hard enough that Kalie got hurt. She acted like
she didn't mind at all.

On the other hand, her reaction to seeing me as a lioness
morph was less than restrained. She made it perfectly clear
that she didn't like the idea very much and found it
slightly disgusting. Not that I could fault her, what I go
though for my curse would freak out most of my old friends.
I'm still surprised so many of them took it so well.

Either way it was an enjoyable six days, half on all fours
with Rhea in charge, and half with me being female. I guess
it's hard to deny that I'm starting to enjoy the change of
forms. If I wasn't I wouldn't go past the three days that
were required.

Oria had been doing slightly better over the past week. She
still hadn't gotten over Rachel's rejection. We had both
been so sure that she would accept us. I guess that was our
fault for presuming some things about our friends.

Hazarding a peek into our bedroom, I smiled at what I saw.
Oria was curled up on her side in just her underthings,
asleep, and purring softly. She had one paw wrapped around
her belly, the other just touching a book that was lying out
in front of her. Her tail was flicking gently behind her,
the only motion other than the rise and fall of her chest.

As quietly as I could, I closed the door behind me. Then I
slipped across the room, and pulled myself up onto the bed.
Gently I pulled a bit of her hair out of the way and
whispered, "Time to wake up," into her ear. Speaking the
words in heavily accented Ral'lari, Oria's language.

She shifted softly, rolling her head back as she blinked
open her eyes. She said a few words in her language that I
didn't quite understand yet.

She must have seen the look of puzzlement on my face because
she switched to Prid Standard. "How did things go?" she
asked, stifling a yawn.

I smiled, pushing more of her hair from her face. "Quickly,
there wasn't even a delay."

"That's good," she said with a smile as she rolled over and
sat up on the bed, her legs tucked under herself, with one
paw place like it was supporting her belly.

"How are you feeling?" I asked, running my hands down her
shoulders.

"A bit better," she answered, rolling her shoulders forward,
then back. It was a habit that she had picked up from me.

"Pleasant dreams?" I suggested, as I moved a bit closer to
her.

She nodded, "I think so, I don't remember more than a vague
impression of what they were about." She glanced down at her
book, a short smile creeping along her muzzle, a kind of
hidden joke type of smile.

"Am I missing something?" I asked her.

She shook her head, reaching over and closing the book,
setting it down on the bed next to her. "Nothing important."

"Ah," I answered.

"You're speaking my language a bit better," she commented,
shifting her weight slightly, adjusting the position of her
legs.

"I try to practice," I answered, smiling a bit more.

She gave me a short and fast nod. "I need to help you more,
your accent is horrible."

I laughed softly, "My throat is the wrong shape. I simply
just can't make some of the sounds." I explained, shrugging
my shoulders as I did so.

"That's just an excuse," she told me while she turned
herself around and slid off the bed to her feet. "The curse
made you purr, that's enough to make all of the 'odd'
sounds. You'll be speaking the language fluently by the time
Beca is learning to speak." She spun around to face me, her
paws on her waist, her hips knocked to one side. "I'll even
bet you that by the time Adric and Romana start to speak
you'll talk like a native."

I grinned, looking her up and down, just drinking in the
shape of my wife to be. I also noticed the growing wet spots
spreading out over the front of each cup of her bra. "That
depends, what is the bet?" I asked, trying to keep a
reasonably straight face.

"If you win," she paused, thinking for a second. "Well, if
you win you get to decide, but if I win," she stopped there,
sporting an evil looking smile.

"Yes?" I asked, crossing my legs under myself as I leaned
backwards, resting my hands on the bed behind me, and my
weight on my arms.

"If I win, next time, you get to be pregnant."

That took me by surprise. Thinking about it though, it would
be a lot easier to have kids in that fashion. As a female I
was Lidr'ran, Oria's species. I could just as easily get
pregnant as any other female, though it would require Oria
being turned into a male. Of course if we could do that, we
could just use it on me.

I grinned widely. Knowing my skill with learning languages,
there wasn't a very good change of her winning the bet,
maybe one in four. Still though, it was an intriguing idea.
"It's a bet."

She laughed, crossing her arms over her chest, resting them
on top of her belly. "I'll make sure I win then; I want you
to know what this is like." She tilted her head slightly,
then smiled widely. "Though knowing you, you would enjoy it
even more than I am."

I nodded, "You may be right. We'll just have to find out now
wont we?" I paused, looking at her for a second. By now the
wet spots had grown to cover most of the front of her bra.
"By the way," I said, suppressing a grin. "You're leaking."

She glanced down at herself, lifting her chest slightly for
a better look, then let out a sigh. Beca had been weaned off
Oria's milk only a few days ago. Oria's body, though, hadn't
processed the message yet. So if she wasn't careful she
would just start leaking any excess milk. It was only
supposed to last a few days, and really was perfectly
normal.

Glaring at me as she turned around, she went over to her
dresser. She must have guessed I had known about it for a
time before I told her. Shedding her old bra, she proceeded
to clean herself up, and started to drain some of the
excess.

I slid off the bed, and walked up behind her. "Sorry for not
telling you sooner."

She gave me another sharp look. "It's embarrassing," she
told me as she worked the small breast pump. "None of my
mothers had this problem when they were weaning us."

I shrugged a bit, not knowing what to say in response to
that.

"I hope this does stop soon," she said, more to herself then
to me. "I'm just glad it only seems to happen around here
and not in public. If this happened out in the market I
would blush though my fur."

Still no response from me, but I felt that she was telling
herself these things more than she was telling them to me.

"And you," she said looking at me in the mirror. "You like
it, don't you?"

I blushed gently. "Not that this keeps happening."

She sighed again as she finished with draining herself.
Removing the bottle that held the milk, she looked at it
closely. "Even less than before, only a couple more days."

"Of course you'll have to do all this again with the twins,"
I commented.

She gave me a half smile in the mirror. We both knew that
this was a bit of an act on her part. She actually enjoyed
nursing the children. "Well then," she said faux anger on
her face. "You like it so much, you can drink it."

With that said, she shoved the bottle into my hands and
started to dig through her drawers for a new bra. I looked
at the bottle, then down at her. Her lovely tail was in the
air and swishing just inches from my nose.

Setting the bottle back down on the dresser, I goosed her as
she stood back up.

"Fox!" she cried as she spun around to face me, a look of
surprise and shock on her face.

I laughed, grabbing her cheeks and kissing her quickly and
deeply. Pulling away, I left a very surprised look on her
face, which quickly broke into a smile.

"Speaking of the children," I said, walking back over to the
bed. "I've decided on their middle names."

"That's good," Oria said as she walked over to me, fastening
her bra on the way. "I've been a bit worried about that. I
need to know what to put on the birth announcements."

"Romana Ellie Cutter, and Adric Rathal Cutter."

She smiled, sitting down next on the bed next to me. "Rathal
I recognize, but Ellie?"

I nodded. Rathal was an old friend of mine, and had helped
me remove my exile status three years before. He had been a
close friend, and had died during the HammerHeads' attempt
to take over the Council.

She gave me a knowing look. "You're not going to explain,
are you?"

I shook my head.

She smirked, putting an arm over my shoulder and pulling
herself close to me. "We just need a third name for the
announcements," she said with a soft sigh. "I just don't
know who we can ask."

I put my arm over her shoulder and squeezed her gently to
me. "I don't know anyone else well enough to ask. Rachel was
the best candidate I thought. How do you usually come to
this decision on your world?"

She sighed, resting her head against my arm. "It just
happens. Three people come together to form a family. It's
just how things work."

"Love is like that," I commented, reaching over to pet the
fur over her belly.

She pulled herself closer, nuzzling up against my neck. "I
think I would be willing to marry just you, Fox. It seems
like we're always surrounded by females, there would be no
problems with the children being raised right."

"But you need to be married on your world," I restated.

"It would be best for them if we were."

I paused for thought. "Well, if it's going to be really you
and me together, with the third added in just to make it
official, maybe we could ask one of the girls who work at
the house?"

She seemed to stop for a few seconds, pulling herself closer
at first, but then relaxing until she was limp, and I was
holding her up. "No," she finally said. "I don't know them
well enough anymore to make a request like that."

I nodded, pulling her close again, petting the back of her
head, and the top of her belly at the same time.

She nuzzled up against my neck again, and started purring,
her tail wrapping around my back and pulling that way as
well.

"Wait," I said, suddenly having an idea. "Your government
knew of the Council, didn't it?"

She pulled back, then nodded. "That's how I got approved in
the first place. I confronted them with it, and got myself
in the program before they could properly object."

I nodded again. "Right, but if that's so, maybe we could get
married here, just you and me, and they might just accept it
as a valid marriage, and put it in the system back in your
world."

Her ears perked up high and she let out a laugh. "That's
brilliant, I never thought about that before. It just might
be exactly what we need to work. If Prid recognized our
marriage then they should be willing to as well!"

"Maybe I should talk to them and inquire about that." I
suggested. "They should have some sort of representative
with the Consortium, if not appointed, then through a group
representative for a dozen worlds."

"I'll talk to them," Oria told me, her voice suddenly
gaining an edge of almost defiant control as she said it. It
was stated as a simple fact with which I wasn't allowed to
argue.

I smiled, pulling her back to me. "As you wish."

She returned my smile, cuddling closer than before, this
time nuzzling my cheek and beard. "So, we have their names,
we may have a way to be married. Anything else we're
missing?" she asked, half to herself and half to me.

Petting her shoulders gently, I kissed the tip of her nose.
"I don't know."

She hummed to herself, cuddling gently. "We should plan for
their blessings; it won't be for a few months, but I would
like to do all three children at one time."

"Is this a religious thing?" I asked softly.

She shot me a nasty look. "It is not a 'thing'. The blessing
is a ceremony of thanks. All of my world's religions have
such a thing. It is a way to thank the goddess for the
blessing of the children."

I nodded. "I see, I'm kind of uncomfortable with that. Don't
get me wrong, without Thryn's help you wouldn't be pregnant,
but..." I left it there, unable to add anything else to the
statement.

"I know you really don't like religion," she told me, giving
me a critical look. "One of us must take the responsibility
that our children have a proper amount of it in their
upbringing."

I didn't respond, I just held back and tried to come up with
a good response. In our time together Oria and I have had
only three really big fights, all of them involving religion
and the kids. I had to be very careful as to what I said
here.

She must have given up waiting for my response because she
suddenly hugged me very tightly. "I know you don't like it,
but admit it-- it's necessary."

I still didn't respond.

She let out a soft sigh, but seemed to be willing to leave
the matter there for now. I knew I would have to come to a
decision at some point in time. Oria was highly religious,
and as much as I found it personally distasteful, I could
think of no reason for the kids not to have the same
beliefs.

What was it that someone once told me? Oh yes... 'Atheism is
just like every other religion, it denies the validity of
all others. But it also denies that it is, itself a
religion.'

This was going to be a decision I would have to make on my
own. Oria had already made hers, now it was my turn. This
was a hard thing to deal with, and one that was going to
take me a while to come to a decision about.

"Fox," Oria said, still hugging me.

"Yes?" I asked, gently running my fingers around the outside
curve of her ears.

"I just had a disturbing thought," she pulled away from me
as she said this, a look of worry on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, reaching out for her.

"It just it hit me," she said, looking a bit pale. "The way
you describe this Cain that's out to kill you."

I nodded, my hand resting on her shoulder.

"It sounds just like what the Guild Elder told you about
your evil self."

I paused, thinking about that for a few seconds before
swearing to myself. She was dead to rights, one sounded a
lot like the other.

"That would explain Cain's interest in me," I said quietly,
a shiver trailing down my spine. If my double was out to
kill me...

Oria nodded slowly, pulling my hand from her shoulder and
holding it in her paws. "You think I'm right."

I frowned, "Yes, I think you are. I'll tell Elena to talk to
the Guild. If they are the same person it would due for both
of groups to work together."

She nodded again, pulling close to me and hugging me again.
I returned the hug, but any feeling of intimacy we had been
building to was gone. Replaced by a cold feeling of dread
that I felt wouldn't be going away for a very long time.

-----

This story is (c) 1999 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.