A Big Shiny Blue Marble Ch. 38

"What about Simmit and Copper?" Rachel asked, "Isn't what we've just done going to hurt them? Rohkanh, it was so good with you. I want to do it again right now, but this isn't right here, where you are now."

"It is and I have told you - that Simmit knows -- or if I know my sister, it is what she wants," he said, "Simmit and I want a family, but while she is mine, she is with Copper and they love each other. This is my new family with Simmit and Copper." While Rachel reeled a little over it, Rohkanh tried to find the best way to put this before he continued -- still in his mother tongue which Rachel could now understand, when he spoke, anyway.

"Simmit is Copper's mate, just as it is done here, I think. I am their male, but not the same way. I want you in my family as my female. I am probably saying this badly," he said, "I wish Simmit was here to say it."

"You shouldn't rely on Simmit, before this even becomes a habit," Rachel said, "Now before I make another bad decision in the long list of the ones that I've made, you tell me if I have this the right way."

He nodded then, so serious and yet rather hopeful that it be understood. Rachel sighed. She wanted to hug him all night just for that look.

"So, You're going to own me? Is that it?"

He nodded, but then realized that it wasn't correct and shook his head, "No. In some of the places where we are from, this is how it was, but it was different in our group, and there were others like ours." He held up a finger as he considered. Rachel thought he was looking too serious now, so she kissed it and sighed as he smiled.

"You belong to me now -- as I wish it," he said, "and Rohkanh belongs to Rachel if you want me. If I was here alone, it would be my joy to be accepted by you, but I have Simmit as we have always had each other. Simmit and Copper are for each other. It is my need to be Rachel's male now. It is what I need and I try to say that I hope that you feel a need to be Rohkanh's female -- here," he said, touching Rachel's chest over her heart.

"We should own each other," he nodded with a little smile.

"I will mate with Copper when it is wanted by them, and though we only did it once because my sister insisted, I think that she wants to be mated by me since we are here. All other times, I belong to Rachel. I could take many females, but I never did. If you want me as your male, there will be no other --" He stopped as he chose the word "adults of either kind in our family. I offer you and Sariel all that I am, since I have nothing here but me. If he wishes for a father who will not forget him -- if you wish for a male who will never leave you alone and lonely in the night -- "

He stopped then and let out a long breath before he looked up and she could see that his eyes were wet. "Please, Rachel, I have never mated as we did and felt what came, but I have heard of it and it is said that it marks a special pair. I have been to the abyss many times, but never like that, and never with one who can hold my heart in hours. Only try with me. You will never doubt your choice and I will never shame you."

He lowered his head then and waited.

The wind was wet and bore the promise of the approaching spring. It was cold, but only because of the dampness. At the moment, there was fog rising from the ground as it gave up the heat that it had gained during the day, and ground fog was developing to hang thick and low.

Rachel looked at Rohkanh. She had never been where he'd taken her. She'd never made love like that before in her life. She considered her options.

To go on alone with Sariel as she raised him, even back at Cheyenne Mountain, would be proper, she supposed, but it would also make a statement that Azrael had left such a hole in her, ...

To hope of finding someone seemed possible, though she knew that it was remote, but did she want this? She leaned a little and kissed his head. "Look at me, Rohkanh," she said quietly.

He raised his head and Rachel had to fight off her desire to throw everything away just to be with him, but she couldn't.

"I want Rohkanh," she said with a soft smile, "but I need to understand all of this clearly, so I have to speak to Simmit and Copper before anything. If they can make it clear to me, and it still feels good after I think about it, then I think that I want to try it. From what you said, we belong to each other, and it's a family. I want to say no, but I already know people who have families that are pretty different and I haven't seen one of them fail yet.

Vadren and his females are so much fun to watch and I can feel how tight they are. It's their family. Selena belongs to Dahlgren and Nahl'een is her little sister, but they're a family. Sometimes, she needs the Xer and she goes to them for a night or two and Shaevre comes to stay all the time. I don't understand that one at all, but I can't say that it doesn't work for them.

It's even a little like what you're telling me. Selena and Dahlgren are so in love, and Nahl'een is the happiest little girl."

"Fine," Rachel said, "I'll try it, but everything has to be out in the open, so I need to talk with the others and I hope there's a place to wash there." She kissed him then and she meant it before she climbed up onto him and he hefted her a little to hold her with both arms as he spread his wings.

A moment later, she was still in his strong arms as he flew them higher, seeking the glow of the lights on Copper's machine through the thick fog on the ground below that was only about ten feet thick yet it turned the world into a magical place and Rachel felt a little of that now.

Rohkanh climbed higher and higher until he just saw them far off in the distance, and then he began to descend as the wind rushed past them both. Rachel struggled over what he'd said. She had a clue, but she knew that if anything, she didn't want her heart jumping at silly notions. She hid her face against him from the wind, but she called out to him so that he'd listen.

"There won't be anybody else, right?" she yelled into the wind, "Just you and me and you need to take care of the girls?"

"Yes," she heard him reply, "No others." He tried to look down into her face for a moment, but it wasn't possible, "Why? Is there another male that you want?"

"I don't know," Rachel grinned, "I don't think so, but it doesn't seem quite fair to me." She shrugged, "We can talk later, just fly my leaky butt to where we need to go and promise me that you won't ever sneak around behind my back."

"Never," he said and she nodded, having a sense of him now from what had been revealed to her as she'd seen into him. As she understood it, a falsehood was a thing that protectors knew nothing of within themselves, unless it was told to them, and they were very good at detecting it in others.

She settled herself carefully against him and felt his arms take up the slack, "Damn," she said to herself with a little grin, "I could sure get to like this."

After a while she felt his head against hers and she knew that he was saying something very quietly. She couldn't understand the words in the wind and she knew that he must be talking to himself somehow. All that she was sure of was that she was feeling better, so she let it go at that.

-------------------

Rachel smiled to herself a little as she looked around and wiped her face for the thousandth time. She hadn't really been crying for herself this time. It was just what came out as she'd comforted her son.

A large bed, she smirked. This wasn't what she'd have called a bed. This was like a great pile of furs in a warehouse.

She looked down at Sariel as he slept facing away from her. It had taken a long time before he'd crumbled and broken down. He'd held so tightly onto that notion which boys carry that grown males don't ever cry. But he'd fallen apart all the same.

His moment had come just as he was telling her that he was the man of the family now and that he'd do his best to take care of her. He fell apart then and she'd hugged him as they both cried.

She wanted to kill Azrael herself now.

Rachel vowed to herself that she'd insist on going along when Rohkanh set Azrael free. She was pretty certain that he desperately needed to feel her foot hit his balls for making her son feel this shame and this much hurt. No one had looked down on Sariel, but they all felt sorry for him and she knew that it hurt, though they all loved him as though he was their own. It was just the way that things were.

She looked down again, watching as he slept in the darkness. This was the only thing that she had left, and he was the same as when they'd been alone on their mountain. Sariel was the only good thing that he'd ever given her, not that they knew it at the time.

She looked around at the chamber for a moment. It was one of the four that were off the large chamber. It was cooler here, but just like the inside of Cheyenne Mountain, it was never really cold at all. It was probably even a little warmer from the heat of the cascade far off.

She knew that Yuan was with Sheth and Luddy in the bed where they usually slept in the next room. She could hear them, though they were trying to be quiet.

Her eye caught a small motion near the doorway and she looked to see Simmit there, looking as though she wanted to ask to come in, so Rachel nodded and the small female came to sit with her in the bed.

She looked down at Sariel for a long moment before she whispered to Rachel, "Something that I love to do is to watch my boys as they sleep. Boys are so sweet then and you want to reach for them to hold them. I do not think that this goes away as they grow, does it?"

Rachel shook her head with a little grin, "No, it never does. I guess it comes with being a boy's mother."

"I am so happy that I met you and him," Simmit said, "I can get a look ahead to see what my little beasts will look like at least a little." She looked at Rachel for a moment, "Are you better now?"

"Yes," Rachel sighed, "Thank you for, ... well, for letting your brother help me and for making it so that we had a place to go tonight. I was afraid that I'd ruin the evening for you and Copper."

Simmit shook her head as she reached to touch Rachel's shoulder, "Nothing was ruined. This night is for Copper to know that Rohkanh can love her and that she is safe to give herself to him. We all need this, because we take him into our family. We are his females, so this needs to be. And I have a gift to give to him this night as well."

She looked at Sariel again for a moment, "Can you come with me? I wish to say things to you, but I am a little afraid that your fine boy will wake up. He tried very hard, but we all heard him a little when he cried. He was quiet about it, but it was heard anyway and we all feel so sad for him."

Rachel nodded and they left the bed very carefully. Out in the hall, Simmit looked up a little to Rachel, "I hope that I can say this so that you can understand it.

Simmit," she pointed to herself, "and Copper will be his Rohkanh's females, but Copper also belongs to me. We hold each other's hearts tightly."

Rachel nodded, "I saw that. You two make a lovely pair, and it really shows."

Simmit nodded her thanks, "What I wish to say is that my brother spoke to me about you. He said that it is too early and he doesn't not know the words to say to you. He told me that he tried, but that he failed very badly until after you had been to the abyss with him."

Rachel hadn't said anything about their tryst until now. She'd been waiting for a moment with Simmit alone and now that it was here, she just came out and said it, wanting to see how this would be taken.

She found Simmit in her arms, hugging her tightly, "This day has more happiness in it for me that any that I can remember," Simmit sighed.

"Huh?" Rachel felt that she'd missed something here -- or that Simmit must have misunderstood her somehow.

Simmit shook her head and smiled as she hugged Rachel again, "This will be hard to tell. Rohkanh can have several females and love them all in his heart. He loves me so much, but I am his sister, so that is easy. He already loves Copper, but because of how we are between us, this will not be enough for his large heart -- no matter how he smiles and likes to watch when his girls roll around in their passion with each other as he has done while you were comforting your fine son."

She grinned a little then, "And he does love to see us like that. It makes him laugh a little. He likes to lie with us and we can make him happy easily, but ... we are his females." She looked away for a moment, thinking, "I need another word for one that he needs."

She looked back up at Rachel, "You said a word when we met outside the mountain. What you were to Azrael."

"Wife?" Rachel suggested, and she saw that she was right when Simmit smiled and nodded. "Yes. He can be happy with his females, but there is another that he needs for his heart as well. He has it as his strong hope right now, because he thinks that you would never want this with him for what he has done, but he wants you, Rachel, and we do as well."

She'd lost Rachel right there, so Simmit pulled herself a little tighter and higher up, "You do not like females, but we like you and if I can get you to see what I try to say here, then you will need to see that Rohkanh's females -- all of them -- will need to be at least a little close, because we will all live together. He tried to say a little when he spoke to Sariel today in the long hall. Maybe he tried again after you mated.

Rohkanh wants a family and he is already a little late to begin. He wants to raise my little ones with me and Copper, and he thinks that Sariel needs someone who will not make him feel forgotten. My brother would never do that. He said what he did because it is what he offers and wants at the same time. He knows that it will be hard for Sariel to come to the thought, but Rohkanh is patient."

Rachel shook her head, "I'm having a lot of trouble with all of this and I feel what he wants from me and - and I want it too, but I've just had my world ripped out from under me. Now you're telling me that he wants me as his wife? Simmit, I don't know about where you guys are from, but it doesn't work that way here. It takes a little time at least to come to ideas like that with anybody. I thought that I had the world in my hand once with Azrael. Now I know that I had nothing. I can't just -- "

She groaned as Simmit kissed her for a moment, and then the smaller demon was there a little lower again, looking up. "You were getting loud. Come."

"You could have just shut me up with your hand," Rachel glowered a little, but Simmit shook her head, "I do not think so," she smiled, but then she giggled to herself, "I am sorry. I forgot that my mouth was in the same place. I hope that you like Rohkanh's seed."

"It's alright, I guess," Rachel said, "I mean that it was ok to kiss - " She shook her head and groaned, "I can't even say what I mean anymore. Was that what I tasted. .. But --"

Simmit held up her hand, "I have nothing else to shut you up with. Please only listen first."

Rachel nodded and stood silent to listen. She was a little surprised. She thought that she'd have wanted to spit, but there she was, she told herself, running her tongue around the inside of her mouth looking for something of him to taste.

She watched as Simmit shook her head, "I have spent so much of today trying to convince females of what should be plain. I think it would be, if they didn't know of each other, but that would really be wrong."

She shrugged with a smile, "So, I must go on for everyone.

"I agree with you," she nodded as she began to whisper, "mating for one's lives is the same where I am from as what you say. But here, we have little time. Yuan will seek to bargain with my brother soon, maybe even tomorrow. You should try to decide, because she wants you as well."

Rachel had thought that her jaw couldn't open any farther. But she was wrong.

"Copper and I love Yuan. She is a wonderful friend to us, but she is a dragon," Simmit said, "and they love to control things. We sought to be her pets, but she has never allowed it to be, so we think that she does not want us as pets. Now we have Rohkanh and she will want him.

I will not let her have my brother, and I do not want for her to have the one that he wants for his own heart -- and you are my friend as well, I want to believe. But I have no time -- nothing like I know would be the best thing for you and him. If you can close your eyes for a moment and try to see him as your male and if this pleases you, then come with me."

Rachel didn't need to close her eyes, but this was a bit much, all the same. "Where are we going?"

"I need a wash under the cascade and you will want to feel that too. Rohkanh was loving with Copper again when I left to come to you. We must pass by there, but not close by. You may look if you wish, neither of them will mind, or you may look away. It is over here."

Rachel thought that she wouldn't look, but she did look and then she wanted to look a lot more. She couldn't help it, especially when she saw that Copper sure looked a lot better out of her coveralls as she rode Rohkanh. Simmit stopped when she saw that she'd lost Rachel and she came back.

"Copper's been hiding that body," Rachel said, shaking her head, "That's just wrong."

Simmit nodded, "As I often tell her. Maybe she will believe it now. You can do me a favor and tell her this yourself. She needs to hear it."

"Man, she's got a set," Rachel grinned a little in admiration and Simmit chuckled, "She has more than that. You should see her bottom. I have spent hours gnawing on that, and she loves it so much."

Rachel turned at Simmit's touch on her arm. "From what I saw tonight, there is a lot of unused space where you live. It may come that we will leave here soon. Is there a way that we can live where you do?"

Rachel was still stuck on thinking about Rohkanh being her male. She kept fighting it -- and losing steadily. "I guess so. I'd have to ask the others, but I don't think there would be any big problem -- especially if Copper makes us all a little of that fine stuff that I tasted. She'd really very good at brewing, isn't she?"

Simmit grinned slowly, liking the way that Rachel was saying this. "Are you beginning to feel the way that I tempt you here? Maybe you should walk a little closer and get a good look at what Rohkanh has for his females."

"I felt what he has," Rachel snickered, "He's incredible, I just didn't get that much of a chance to look. Do you think they'd mind?" she asked as she saw that they were changing positions. She laughed very softly, "Do you think they'd even notice?"

They stepped closer together, Simmit still holding on to Rachel's arm lightly. Rachel led them around to watch from behind where they wouldn't be seen. She groaned, softly, "Look at those balls. I love the way that they're bouncing against Copper's legs. Get me away from here, Simmit, before I do something stupid and dive right in there with them."

She looked down as Simmit led them back in the direction of the cascade Simmit was giggling a little as she leaned against Rachel a little.

"What's so funny?"

"I think that you are like me," the small demon grinned, "So it may not be trouble to go to where you lived?"

"Crap," Rachel said, shaking her head, "We'd have to move all of the lights in the bar, wouldn't we?"

"Is this bad?" Simmit asked, "He would help if it was needed. I ask since he will want to have all of his females together -- especially his, ... "

Rachel laughed as she pulled Simmit close and hugged her, "You're one hell of a little temptress, Simmit. I can see that having you as a friend will get me into all sorts of trouble."