Pax Multi Pt. 04

Fur.

The fur was mostly collected around their shoulders and their legs, but it was bristly and poofy and it made them look significantly softer and less terrifying. He also noticed that their eyes had been made larger and...

Rounder?

But next to them was what he really cared about.

Beatrice walked along, looking shy and nervous, carelessly naked. Her fingers were touching together -- in the most adorable approximation of a shy girl he had ever seen -- the pointer fingers touching together underneath her chin, her head downcast, her antennas drooping slightly as the entire group came up to the side of the spaceport, while Father and Mother joined Lou at the railing.

"Beatrice," Lou said, biting back the urge to leap over the edge and sprint to her and take her into his arms and hug her and hold her and apologize to her. Decorum kept him locked in place, but every part of his body yearned to feel her lightness.

"Hi Lou," every bug on the field said at once -- and the hissing, sibilant sound of the hundred hellgaunts hissing in unison was almost hilarious. The hellgaunts too looked nervous and downcast, their bodies pressing low to the ground. "Um, I...I was working very hard. It took a great deal of focus, and, I...well, the...uh...this is not as good as the oral sex, but-"

Mother put her hands over her mouth, her entire face going beat red as Father coughed loudly into his hand. Akin Bosch had stepped up to the railing as too, and he was looking more openly disgusted than Lou had ever expected him to see. But before either of them could say anything, and before Lou could literally drop dead of embarrassment, Beatrice (that is, her moth body) flapped her wings, flying over to the large bundle of fluff on the back of the hellgaunts.

She grabbed it and swept it to the side, the fluff unfurling and rippling in the air, revealing it was nothing more than a covering. Underneath was..

"What...is that?" Father whispered.

"It's a gestation pod!" Bosch shouted, pointing at it. "Is that some new weapon system?"

Lou, though, was struck dumb. His mouth hung open in shock as he grabbed onto the railing, all thoughts of decorum forgotten. He swung himself over the railing and then landed with a grunt, staggering and running over to Beatrice. He grabbed her around her thin waist, drawing her in, then looking from her to the gestation pod, which was a sleek, greenish cual of membranous flesh supported by several fingerlike struts of bone that spread outwards and met again, creating a segmented sphere that throbbed in time with some vast heartbeat. Within the cual, suspended in amniotic fluids, was an elephantine shape.

But he knew it.

He recognized it almost immediately.

"No it's not a weapon system," Father said.

"It's a Procyian," Beatrice said, her voice soft and shy. "Finding their genetic records in my memory took a great deal of time. The memory bugs on my homeworlds are very large and it takes a great deal of time to comb through their lattices -- even for me. A-And then I had to decode the biology and I had to begin to make one without modifications or changes, which...I had already adapted some of their muscular systems, and their nerve clusters for certain synaptic functions an-"

Lou cupped the back of her head and kissed her fiercely. Every hellgaunt on the field froze in place, their collective breathing stopping as Bea trembled in his hands, her eyes wide as saucers. Her antennas snapped to full extension, then slowly drooped as she began to kiss him back. Her lower hands cupped the small of his back, and her upper arms slid along his shoulders as her wings began to buzz with growing excitement. But she was so light and Lou held her so tightly that she didn't go anywhere.

He broke the kiss, whispering. "You...are...amazing."

"I-I...it's just one, but...I figured, I could m-make a population that was sustainable..."

"I had no idea they were so big..." Mother said, from the sidelines, her eyes still locked on the gestation pod.

"Y-Yeah...we only saw them in photographs..." Lou coughed. "I guess we...got the scale wrong."

Beatrice smiled shyly. "Yeah." She paused. "I-It doesn't have...um...there's...there are nerve structures, logged in my memory banks, but...t-the detail on them was too fine grained for me to get more than a very crude approximation of them -- so, um, rather than trying to recreate them, I simply produced the genetic structure that grew them. But...I believe those brain structures are where memories and personalities are stored, so..." she looked down. "T-This isn't any of the Procyians I...killed. But..."

"My wife, it is more than we could have ever dreamed of," Lou whispered. He kissed her forehead and she looked down, her antennas quivering.

"I like it a great deal when you kiss my forehead."

Lou glanced back -- and saw Bosch frowning down at him. He became suddenly painfully aware that his wife was naked. "Ahem!" He said, glaring at Bosch. "My wife needs to get some clothing. Could you all please avert your eyes?"

"Right, of course," Father said, his cheeks heating. And soon, Lou and Bea were unobserved by anyone but the hellgaunts, who were beginning to move again after their shocked stillness. In that quiet moment, Lou paused. Then he kissed Bea's forehead. She smiled -- and then a bump at his hip made Lou look down. A hellgaunt had come over, and was looking up at him with its newly enlarged eyes. Lou let out a playful sigh.

"Oh, if I must."

He leaned down and kissed the hellgaunt on its forehead, right between the bony ridges.

"Eee!" Bea squeaked -- and Lou yelped as the hellgaunts, as a mass, rushed towards him, bumping against him from every direction.

And yet, despite being surrounded by bladed horrors, Lou found himself laughing with joy.

***

"You know, it is possible to wear clothing that expresses yourself, and isn't just a white, shapeless shift, right?"

With that single sentence, overheard while waiting in the hallway outside of his bedroom, Lou knew that Amy had ruined his life, his marriage, his dinner prospects, possibly the entire fate of the galaxy. His mind was filled with trying to hold a diplomatic dinner while his lovely wife sat around in a crop top that said THESE TITS KILL FASCISTS, piercings on everything that could be pierced, and a thong that actually left less to the imagination than simple nudity.

"That does explain Lou's many coverings," Beatrice said, wonderingly. "But his coverings lack arm and wing holes..."

"That is not an impossible problem to overcome, my dear mothgirl," Amy said, cheerfully.

"I hear Lou's heartbeat through the door," Beatrice said. "I shall ask him."

Lou had enough time to blink at that before the door opened and Beatrice stood before him. Naked. It was so bizarre how a change of context could utterly alter the seeming of his wife. It was one thing to see her naked in her natural environment of bug warrens and the eerie fields constructed by her hive mind. It was another to see her naked, here, in the country manor fabricated by his parents. There was a scandalous humanity to it, nevermind that she had four arms and antennas and wings. She smiled at him and buzzed her wings with a little fluttering sound. "Lou, what should I wear to the dinner engagement with your parents and Admiral Bosch?"

"Well, ah..." Lou blushed and looked away.

"Why are you looking away and moving blood to your cheeks?" Beatrice asked. "You have seen me naked before. The last time we were together, you-"

"Ah!" Lou blushed even harder. "I...that is, uh, I believe that you should wear something...well, uh, among the Neopolitans, we have a wide range of fashions, from the classical to the neo-classical to the reconstructionist era, to..."

"I do not know what any of those are," she said, then paused. "Are you not looking at me because of your nightmare?" She sounded uncertain. "I thought- you did hug me, and that is how humans forgive, so, I thought..."

Lou blushed and forced himself to look her in the eyes -- and to not look down at her...the rest of her. "I...am flustered because, ah, you're naked, and Amy is right there and..." He closed his eyes and tried to break it down, simply. "There are taboos about being nude in public. Furthermore, there are taboos about engaging in and talking about sex while someone else is right there."

"I mean, there are in the Star Kingdom," Amy said, snickering. "AnComs are less prudish."

Beatrice ducked her head forward, looking down at her naked body. "I see...context has altered how you see me..." She paused. "I still do not know what to wear, though." She sounded so plaintive and nervous. Lou sighed, taking his embarrassment and compacting it deeply down. He placed his hands upon her shoulders.

"Let us see what the fabricator can do with a Classical dress..." he said, firmly, then blushed and smiled as he walked past her to the fabricator in the corner of the room. Amy, who was leaning against the wall, watched him, then gaped as he began to bring up the sartorial program and tease out the design of a dark blue dress with pale white fringe along the edges, to accentuate the coloration of his wife's current body.

"No fucking way," Amy said.

"I thought that fucking was a means of procreation," Beatrice said. "What does it mean when interjected between words like that?"

"It's a way of making the words have more impact," Amy said, grinning at Beatrice. "Linguistic accentuation!"

"I fucking enjoy fucking being fucking with fucking my fucking husband, fucking Lou!" Beatrice said, her antennas twitching happily.

"That's the spirit! But, back to my original statement: No way. No. Way." She pointed at Lou with a single silver finger, accusatory. "There is no way you learned fencing, shooting, dancing, all that kingly shit and how to make dresses using a fabricator. You're a Prince! The Neos are fucking gender roles to shit!"

"Fucking gender roles to shit?" Beatrice murmured, sounding as if she was trying to parse the sentence.

"I was, ah, how you say..." Lou said. "AFAB?"

"Oooooooooh holy shit that's so cool!" Amy exclaimed.

"What is AFAB?" Beatrice asked.

Lou, his cheeks darkening, stammered. "I-I...we shall cover that later. How does this dress look to you?" He asked, stepping aside to let her look at the holographic design. Beatrice blinked, then cocked her head.

"I don't know," she said, her antennas drooping. "But it has a great deal of soft, downy parts, like the fluff that I have heard is very appreciated, and so, I believe, it is quite pretty and I will be glad to wear it on this bioform." She smiled, slightly, then threw her arms around Lou, hugging him tightly as she pressed herself against him. Lou laughed, then slid his hands onto her hips and picked her up, then set her down before the fabricator. His mind thought, irrelevantly: She's so light...

"Now, I shall leave you two to get dressed," he said, kissing her cheek over her shoulder. She grabbed him with her lower arms, keeping him in place.

"Kiss me again..." she said, quietly.

"Ah..." Lou glanced over at Amy, who grinned at him, then stretched her arms over her head.

"Wow, gee, I sure do have to go to place," she said, casually ambling out of the room. "What an amazing random happenstance." She closed the door behind her -- but paused to lean in and wink at Lou. Once the door had clicked shut, Lou blushed, then placed his hands upon his wife's hips. He kissed her neck, gently, this time. His nose breathed in soft vanilla of her scent -- which made him blink.

"You smell...different?"

"This bioform has a scent I hope you find pleasant," she said, quietly. "I...may have asked GF for a good smell. And then I asked Amy. Then, I compared it to a number of scent structures in the human nose and ran simulations on the human brain, and body, to make sure that it wouldn't...cause..." She paused. "Issues."

Lou nuzzled against her, his eyes closed. "Wow. And you did that all while resurrecting the Procyians?"

"I created a...a part of my mind that...is focused upon a task," Bea said, her hands tightening on him. "The same way that I used to handle certain functions that didn't need my full attention, but were complex. It's..." She shook her head. "It is hard to describe. And I do not quite enjoy doing it. It makes my mind feel less like my mind." She bit her lip, then ducked her head forward. "But I wished, very badly, to make you happy, after I had made you sad."

Lou closed his eyes. His hands slid around her, squeezing her tightly. "Y-You know, there are easier ways to learn things, right? Humans, we've been writing things down for millennia. I'm sure we can find a way for you to access that knowledge." He turned her around, then cupped her cheeks. His thumbs brushed along her forehead, almost touching the base of her antennas as he looked down into her eyes. He had been planning to say something comforting or useful -- but instead, he was struck by the delicate, alien beauty of her. The deep black/blue of her eyes, the darkness of her lips, the sleekness of her skin.

"I would enjoy accessing that information," she said, quietly. "I...Lou...is it...normal to be unable to think of anything but the way your hands feel at a time like this?"

Lou blinked, and felt the immense weight of Beatrice's attention -- several solar systems and countless billions, if not trillions, of discrete lifeforms, webbed together into a quantum latticework, all of it focused upon the hands of a simple man, holding her. His breath caught and he whispered, very softly. "It is...for a human, I..." He gulped -- feeling the twin warring needs. Decorum said that they needed to be on time for the dinner, which was going to be held in a mere twenty minutes. But every part of his body, from his heart to his hands to his immortal soul, wanted nothing more than to kiss Beatrice for an entire cycle.

"Yes?" Bea asked, her antennas twitching. Her wings buzzed.

"I..." Lou leaned forward and caught her lips. Soft and moist and eager, and then, her tongue, then, her hands. They caressed along his shoulders and his back at the same time, her antennas drooping as her eyes closed and Lou pressed her backwards, against the wall. Her wings fluttered and she was so very light. His hand slid along her thigh, finding the join of her knee, lifting one of her legs instinctively. Lou didn't know what he was even thinking -- his heart was hammering as his mouth and hers remained locked together. Then he drew back, purely for air, and Beatrice trembled, her hips rocking against him.

"W...Wha...wha...what?" She whispered, her eyes wide as saucers, her antennas straight edged and eager. Lou felt her heat, her moist slickness, grinding against his...bulge. He looked down, seeing that the excitement of the moment had been translated to his most base component -- he wanted to stammer an apology -- but then Bea rocked her hips in a single sweeping motion, grinding her heat against him. "Whaaaaat?" She wailed the word. "Is...happening?" She trembled.

Lou's com began to ring.

"I, ah, did you, uh, modify this body in other ways?"

"Yes yes yes yes!" Her antennas rubbed together, her eyes closed. "Suck my nipples!"

"What?" Lou, who had been reaching for the com unit, fumbled and dropped it. It struck the floor, skidding, showing that it was his father calling.

"I don't even know!" Beatrice said, her breath catching slightly. "I simply, that is, I feel...things and...ah...I want you inside of me." She blinked. "I...in me? In. Me. Right now?" She shook her head. "Is this normal? For human women?" She bit her lip, trembling. "I'm so confused and...and I feel things and-"

Lou grabbed the com unit, his cheeks beat red. "W-What did you add?"

"S-Some nerve endings..." Bea said -- him no longer grinding against her seemed to have made it easier for her to think and speak. "A-And, um, hormones that seemed common along the bodies that I have identified as being-"

"What is going on?" Father asked. "The hellgaunts are acting...unusually!"

"One moment!" Lou said -- then clapped his hand over the com's receiver. He looked over at Beatrice -- whose hands were beginning to slide over her body. Her eyes widened.

"I can create these sensations as well!" Bea exclaimed, her upper hands cupping her breasts, gently teasing with the bright blue nipples that tipped her dark breasts. Her lower hands slipped along her thighs, then tentatively, her finger touched the folds of her sex, sliding along the edge, and Lou could see both fingertip and skin glisten with her arousal. His eyes widened and he froze as Beatrice drew a short breath. "N-not as intense as Lou...but...ah..." She trembled. "What is happening?"

Lou knew that she needed to stop. After all, it was...a...

Then again, he had...

Beatrice drew her hands away from herself. Her eyes glittered.

"Lou," she growled.

"Well, uh-" Lou stammered, while his father's voice, faint and barely audible, squawked from the com unit.

Beatrice tackled him.

It was...comically ineffective.. Her body thumped into him and she rebounded off Lou as if he was a brick wall. Her wings fluttered and slowed her fall, so that she ended up on her back, blinking. "Density defied," she mumbled, sounding faintly pouty.

Lou stepped over, smiling. He held out his hand. Beatrice took his hand, then placed her leg between his legs, crooked her knee, then tugged him forward. Lou yelped and it took every bit of his combat training to land without crushing his wife. His palm slapped the ground beside her head, and her three free hands planted themselves on his chest as her fourth caressed the back of his neck. She smiled, and he swore, she looked mischievous. "Application of fulcrums."

"Who taught you about fulcrums?" Lou said, grinning down at her, ignoring the faint ache in his arm and shoulder and knee. It was worth it to see that glitter in her eyes.

"I learned the basic physics of levers and fulcrums while your common ancestor was just figuring out...well..." Bea paused, then grinned shyly. Slowly. "This." Her thighs twitched open, slightly, and Lou's heart almost exploded.

"Louis, what is going on?" His father's voice drifted, faintly, from the com unit that was right over there -- and before Lou could do anything, Beatrice picked it up, then held it to her face -- not noticing that it was upside down.

"My husband is busy at the moment," she said, then threw the com into the fabricator, which consumed it in a matter of moments. Lou sat back, then grabbed onto her upper arms, pinning them above her head. He leaned down close, his voice husky.

"We need to get ready for dinner..."

"Then why have you gripped me like this?" she asked.

Lou blushed. "Because...I..." He shivered. Her lower hands were caressing along his sides, rumpling his shirt. "Because..." He leaned down and kissed her. A far better answer than anything else he could come up with. Her wings buzzed, making a staccato patter against the floor that nearly matched the racing of Lou's heart. His member ached to be released, and he ached to slide into his wife, to take her right now, to make her his in a way more primal and feral and ancient than even the strictures of his court. The urge burned, while her fingers played with the buttons of his shirt, tugging and pushing with no real effect -- she clearly wasn't sure how they worked.

And...

Well...

She was distracted...

Lou drew back, panting -- and then whispered. "Beatrice..."

"Louis," she said, then softer. "Lou. I prefer this name of yours. It is the one I call you. Not the one your father calls you." She bit her lip. "I worry that he does not like me. I've overheard some of his comments about me..."