Of Monstergirls and Men Ch. 04-06

You decided to turn around.

And you froze. There were forests and mountains, but... You squinted. There was something there, barely visible, but you were sure you could see something in the sea of trees. "Guys?" You drew everyone's attention and point into the distance. "Doesn't that look like a field and some houses?" There was a collective gasp.

"Yes!" It was Tomas, much to your surprise, who screamed out, pumping his fist into the air.

"How far do you figure?" Kat asked, looking excited.

You had to scratch your head slightly. "If we press on it, we should be able to reach those houses before nightfall... but I'm not sure how fast we can go with..."

You said nothing else, but felt Mr. Gabriel stiffening slightly. "I could stay here," he spoke out. "With Tessa, so that you're not slowed down," he added with a stern voice that shocked you. "Once you get aid, you'd only need to come back for us."

Everyone shared a look amongst each other, and it was Kat who spoke up first. "No way in hell, I'm not leaving my grandfather alone in a mouldy cave."

But the thought had been planted, and everyone else had become tense as the idea was chewed on. Would it be worth it to take longer to get to those structures? Just how safe would Mr. Gabriel and the mouse-girl... he had named her Tessa apparently... be on their own here inside Monica's territory? You shook your head. "We're not going to leave you behind," you stated firmly, keeping to yourself the thought about the mouse since you weren't too sure about her right now.

"I will only slow you down."

"Then we'll walk slower," Alice nodded, showing a slight sense of relief at the agreement from everyone. "Better late than never they say."

The chuckle that escaped you was perhaps a bit more macabre than you'd intended; you just hadn't been able to suppress the question about how many were not going to get to safety at the end of all this. And a little voice in the back of your head kept wondering whether, if it came down to it, would you be willing to leave the others behind or not.

You clamped down on that, not letting the idea through.

"And the others?" Tomas asked.

"We don't know how far they are by now, those houses are definitely closer than they are," you stated without a moment's doubt. "If there are people, there should be people capable of finding them and leading them to safety far better than we could ever hope to do."

There was a nod, but the mood had become slightly darker again. Well, at least not for Monica and... Tessa? Monica was still biting your ear and seemingly passively listening in to whatever was being said. While the mouse kept her level of horrified and continued grabbing hold of Mr. Gabriel's hand; all the while, her attention always aimed towards Monica.

"There's a stream over there," you pointed in a slight north-west-ish direction. "We can follow that westwards, no need to worry about water."

"Sounds like a plan."

Everyone became quiet as you began your descent.

Except for Monica who kept rubbing her breasts against your arm and shoulder. "Riii~iick," she kept muttering as you went, doing the kissy-face every now and then when your attention had turned in her direction. The first break was made when you'd reached the river, by now the sun was starting to blaze through the leaves.

"Man, I'd totally kill to bathe right now," Kat muttered, drinking some water and refilling it from the stream. "You were so lucky chem teacher, you got yourself a hot cat-girl girlfriend and got to bathe yesterday and everything." For a fraction of a second, she looked at Tomas, too fast for anyone but you who'd been looking at her to notice. "I wonder when we'll find some cute cat-boy for me to play with..."

"I'm worried about May." You didn't bite the bait, giving Katherine the level look that warned her you were being serious. "She hasn't said a word, and after what she went through..."

"We all went through the same thing." Kat's response was so fast you flinched slightly, realizing this may be a touchy subject. But the tension she showed quickly vanished. "But yeah, it got her hard."

Glancing at Kat for a moment, you turned to the feline of the group. "Monica?" You called out, and she released your arm immediately.

"Rick!" She declared.

"That's Kat," you stated, pointing at the blonde.

Monica tilted her head. "Purrsian?"

"Kat," you said.

"Puuuuurrrrrr," she muttered, making a face. Monica twisted her lips a little, "Ca... Kawt." A pause. "Kat."

The aforementioned ex-student blinked in surprise and then shot you a mock glare. "This is the lowest form of bribery you could've done, you're a monster." Despite her words, she was grinning like a mad-woman, approaching Monica. "But I ain't so cheap." Taking a step forwards, she stopped right in front of Monica and puckered her lips. "Kiss?"

"You stop that, I'm trying to get her to stop jumping random people," You stated, deadpan.

"But I'm literally asking!" Kat replied.

Meanwhile, Monica seemed to be looking for something on the floor, fortunately not seeming to have paid much attention to Kat's request just yet.

"C'mon!" Kat pressed. "Please?"

"Fine, just... wait." You frowned, shifting your attention to Monica. "What are you doing?"

Monica's eyes immediately locked back on to you and she puckered, clearly asking for a kiss. Blinking in slight surprise, you then frowned and bring out the bottle. Except it got snatched from your hand and Monica turns towards Kat and handed her the bottle. "Wha...?" Kat seemed uncertain what was going on.

And then you started laughing, realizing that every time you'd prompted Monica to kiss it'd been after making her gargle some water to make sure her mouth didn't taste of rotten meat... or at least less so. "Wait, what's so funny?" Kat insisted, seeming more confused.

"She's saying your breath stinks," you pointed out, holding back the laugh in your tone with ease. Being a teacher certainly had trained you for such an event. "Just gargle some water and it should be fine."

"Gargle some... you think my breath stinks?" She couldn't help herself in gawking. "It's minty fresh! I still have toothpaste dammit! I brushed this very morning!"

"It's her opinion, not mine." Laughing was harder.

Disbelief was clear across her face as she stared at a growingly impatient Monica and then at you, but complied. "This better work," she muttered, drinking a bit and then spitting it out. "If this is just some joke you're making up and she won't-" And then her lips were sealed by Monica's.

And then Kat was pinned to the ground as the feline kept going. There were certainly no complaints even as the young woman undoubtedly noticed that Monica had the intention of removing her clothes next one way or another.

"Kat..." You sighed loudly, shaking your head. "We're not in a good situation right now."

"I know, I-" Whatever her response might have been it was drowned in the next kiss.

"You knew perfectly well this was going to happen," you intoned, approaching the girl as she was now trying to fight Monica off but to no avail.

"I thought you had her under control!" She cried out just before her blouse was ripped and her breasts exposed.

"Monica!" You called out in desperation, to which the feline turned her head at you, pausing just as Kat's nipple was taken hold of in the corner of her mouth.

"Rwick?" She stated, giving the protruding piece of flesh a single long lick that made Kat shudder.

"Oh Sweet Baby Jesus." The young woman blushed tomato red, trying to push Monica off with even less result than before.

"Monica, stop!" You declared, approaching her and reaching to her, but stopping just shy of actual contact.

The look Monica shot you was not one of anger but rather vexation; she didn't swat you away, but instead snorted derisively and kept at what she was doing.

Which was Kat.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING TO MY GRAND-DAUGHTER!?"

Monica leapt and turned around, facing towards Mr. Gabriel, growling as all her hairs stood up and her body immediately took an aggressive stance. "Monica!" You stated loudly before she could react, placing yourself in front of her, and more importantly, in front of Mr. Gabriel. The feline paused, doubt, hesitation, anger, moving to concern. Her eyes flickered towards the red face of Mr. Gabriel who was breathing very heavily and almost snarling, then at you. "Stop," you stated, ignoring the cold sweat that was going down your back as you saw her claws unsheathing. "Stop."

You grasped her claws, and she looked down at you, then at Mr. Gabriel, then at you. "Rick."

The tone was a chill down your spine, a warning- she was going to kill Mr. Gabriel, and the warning was for you to get out of the way. You clenched harder. "Kat." You turned to the girl. "Get out of here, now."

She didn't need to be told twice. You waited until Mr. Gabriel had calmed down, the man shooting you a glare, followed by one at point-blank range at Kat. She became deathly pale.

"Monica, stop," you said, clenching her paw and staying right between her and the retreating Kat and Mr. Gabriel. "Stop," you repeated, ignoring your hammering heart and raising your tone. "Monica, Stop!" You said firmly just as she'd been about to take a step further.

That made her pause. She looked at you, frowning. Her hand pulled out of your grasp. A loud snort left her, and she took a step back from you, looking down at you. The look in her eyes appeared to demand an explanation. But you kept looking at her firmly, keeping your breath under control, until she eventually appeared to let go of the idea of carrying out the violence she'd intended, claws retracting, shoulders relaxing.

"Rick," she said, now in a huff. A great inward sigh followed as you realized that, save that moment of contempt, she'd been doing exactly what she was used to doing. She was someone who'd spent her life getting sex when and where she wanted with anyone who struck her fancy, and right now a girl had offered kissing.

And Mr. Gabriel had clearly stepped into her fun.

You had no doubt Mr. Gabriel would tell you just how much of a fuck up it had been on your part not to expect this just as much as Katherine had, or maybe he'd just let it indefinitely hang over your head like a guillotine waiting to fall... But regardless, right now your responsibility was trying to help Monica in regards to this in some way.

You took a second to glance at Monica's confusion and considered what to do here. You couldn't really hope to even begin explaining to her what "permission" meant by sheer force of the fact that Kat had been the one to ask for it. Sure, she'd changed her mind about what "it" meant, but how could you properly explain the nuances to Monica? She barely knew four words! And that wasn't without adding the grandfather's reaction.

How were you meant to explain to Monica, someone who appeared to have taken faithfully to the doctrine of "Anywhere, anywhen, no limits" to heart... about why someone else might be upset about her fucking someone? How in the world could you show her about things such as jealousy or protectiveness? You figured there might be a way were you to use other examples and then apply them towards sex, but...

The communication wall reared its ugly head once more; without finding a way around it there was little hope to properly explain such complicated ideas.

"Rick?" She asked, drawing you back to reality.

And you realized you had to make a decision about how to tackle this right now, and hopefully prepare or at least plan for coming back to the subjects at hand whenever it was that she could process the information properly.

You couldn't reassure her, not really, she had been in the wrong at the last moment and you had little doubt that congratulating her directly and without reserve would undoubtedly end up being bad on two fronts. The first in that she'd do it again, the second that the others would surely know or find out you'd rewarded her. The amount of worry about the second part was far lesser than the first, especially when you considered what'd happen when you reached civilization. If she stuck around, how well would she react to things? Better start working on her learning now rather than later.

There was also the insidious thought that if she reacted too negatively to civilization then there would be higher odds she'd leave back to the forest... but you put that thought away for now. "Come." You motioned for her to follow, looking at her with a forced calm smile.

She appeared to catch that there was something off about your expression, but not what; Monica looked uncomfortable as she started walking beside you, glancing between you and the glaring Mr. Gabriel. "We will talk... later." His tone was chilly but not aggressive, his eyes noteven moving towards Monica. He just turned back towards the glowing red Katherine and continued sternly talking to her.

Tomas was a couple of steps in front of them, remaining quiet. Alice shot you a complicated look that spoke of one teacher's disappointment in another, but there was certainly something else in there that felt closer to sympathy.

You had the decency to admonish yourself for your mistake, but it was more important to move ahead. You definitely were going to need to figure out some way to put things down for Monica, explain to her... everything, try to get her under better control. And yet... as you looked at May, thinking about her quietness, an idea crossed your mind. You chewed on it as everyone began to settle down and prepare to get back to moving ahead. It would only be once everyone had calmed down that you'd speak up again.

"I think we should help Monica learn English," you finally declared.

[06]

"Monica hug Alice," you declared, and before the silver-haired woman could even comment, the feline had glomped her into a tight hug, bodily lifting her into the air and pressing her head against the teacher's before dropping her back down. The flustered woman quickly adjusted her hair and shot you a glare that held little heat, merely looking extremely flustered.

It turned out that Monica was taking to 'being social' far better than you'd anticipated. She learned words quickly but learned words relating to subjects around physical contact far better than the rest. It was a curious thing. Also, she'd mastered the art of adding an interrogative inflexion in her voice whenever she wanted to know a particular word. "Rick sex?" She asked, latching to your arm, eyes filled with the exact sort of intent you'd been anticipating.

You shook your head. "No." This was the... you had lost count how many times you'd said that. A pout followed from her.

"Monica, hug May," Kat said the next instant.

The girl in question became a statue, becoming incredibly tense as she barely turned her head to look at the completely oblivious Monica. The feline took her diminutive form into a huge hug, and then set her down before stopping and looking down at her. "May sex?"

Her face lit up like a Christmas tree. "N-no..." She said in a stutter, lips curling before turning away.

It was the first time you'd seen her react to anything. "May hug?" Monica persisted, clearly undeterred. May kept the blush, and apparently became unable to say anything, and for Monica that might as well have been all the consent in the world. She grabbed a hold of May in a great big hug that... admittedly, was a lot handsier than just a hug.

Way handsier, you were sure May's clothes had been squeezed against her figure in a very un-student-like fashion. Monica almost got away with slipping in some tongue with the girl who'd frozen up and wasn't struggling at all.

"Monica," you called the feline, and she unglued herself from the wriggling student, the girl taking deep calming breaths, turning towards Alice who'd been quick to approach with reassuring tones.

The feline, for her part, had approached you and was looking at you with an impish little grin, obviously pleased about what she'd done. You had to sigh, but left it there. "It's getting dark, let's set down for the day," you commented to the rest, earning sighs of reassurance. Some didn't even wait to just plop down on the dirt and heave in relief.

"How much farther do you figure we have to go to get to the houses?" Tomas was the one to speak up.

"I'm not sure, maybe about half a day?" You shrugged. "Monica, stop," you called out to the feline as she was moving back towards a very shy May, obviously feeling a tad too frisky for everyone's current level of sanity.

"Stop?" She pouted, looking at May and then at you, her eyes turning back towards May.

"St-st-st-stooop," May hastily stuttered the word.

Monica looked down at the girl, huffed, and turned around. The teenager hastily got some distance from the feline and curled herself against a tree, blushing up a storm and shrinking into herself once more.

Sighing, you felt slightly encouraged that Monica's over-affection was causing reactions from the girl. Hopefully, she'd recover more easily with this. Still, it wasn't something to take lightly; the feline was clearly one wrong sign away from starting to have some "fun" with whoever was in her path.

Your eyes moved towards Mr. Gabriel, seeing him speaking to the mouse girl. Softly he stroked her hair as she hid behind him, fearfully looking every which way and then setting on Monica before repeating the process. You had to wonder if he was having any success because there were some signs of concern as he looked at the girl he'd named Tessa.

Tomas and Kat were in their own corner of the impromptu camp, sitting side by side with their backs to the group, they seemed to be quietly looking at something. Then there was Alice; she had moved from reassuring May and was taking inventory of what all of you'd been lugging around. Overall, she appeared to be making sure everything was accounted for. Her forehead was very wrinkled in deep thought that looked well past what was needed to count how many water bottles each one had.

Lastly, there was Monica- she'd been sulking from the refused offer from May for only a minute before something had caught her attention. She'd approached the edge of the clearing and was now looking at the darkness of the forest. Whatever it was she was looking at, you didn't get the impression it was dangerous as she just stood there, her tail swinging left and right leisurely while she sniffed.

You approached Alice, the only one that looked like the most embroiled in her own thoughts... besides May. The woman raised her eyes at you the moment you'd approached before shaking her head and turning back towards the bags. "We're going to start starving tomorrow."

"Hopefully tomorrow we'll get help," you replied softly, keeping your tone low as you crouched next to her. "So?"

Alice blinked slightly. "So what?"

"So you have that look on your face that you'd kill for a smoke even though you quit years ago," you replied.

"How..." A pause, she seemed bewildered, then frowned. "Been so focused on this... mess... You have some don't you?" She asked.

"Yeah, can't testify on their condition though."

"Haven't seen you take one since we got here."

"Smoking distracts me," you replied with a shrug, handing her the crumpled packet and lighter.

"Yeah, smoke break," she said, glancing at the others for a second.

Dropping what she was doing, she stood along with you and you moved to the edge of the clearing, facing away from the others. Alice didn't speak, and you decided not to interrupt the silence. Her eyes turned upwards towards the last specks of the illuminated sky that could be seen through the trees. "What if everything else is like this?"