Unity and Destiny Pt. 07

"Our landlord won't allow a generator, but I buttered up the guy next door. Showed a lot of cleavage, you know, the works. But don't worry, I'm paying my share. Only ten amps, but that's enough for the fridge, computer, and my microwave link to the palace Geoff built. Wasn't it amazing? Like a nerd's wet dream."

"Do you get those?"

"Duh, obviously. Not quite as messy."

Javier smiled. Kat was clearly in good spirits. She made him lean out the window to see the dish antenna she'd installed without asking the landlord.

"I just barely get line-of-sight to Geoff's building, a couple miles away. Extremely narrow beam, definitely above legal power. But everyone's doing stuff like that, and there are too many other things to worry about. It's kind of awesome, really. Like an anarchist's vision of how the Internet should have been done in the first place."

Grace seemed to be running late, so Javier helped Kat cook dinner over her little camping stove.

"All grown up, aren't you?" Kat teased. "You were so cute when you were staying over here that summer."

"Glad I grew out of that," Javier said.

"Nah, still cute," Kat said. "Sexier, though. And a good cook. Honestly, Grace is wonderful at a lot of things, but I didn't expect to be in a relationship where I was the better cook."

"How are things, anyway?"

"Good," Kat said. "Really good. Just last night we had some amazing sex."

"And everything else?" Javier asked, shaking his head.

"What? Sorry, distracted for some reason. Everything else is a lot better too, Javier. Grace would say the same. Now shut up and let me remember where I was ... oh, yeah, Grace had her thumb up my ass and one leg between mine, pressing just the right way."

"Glad it's all working out," Javier said, more grumpily than he'd meant.

"You sure it doesn't make you feel better thinking about us? Even a little? Like, what if Grace were right here, sitting on the counter, and I pulled down her pants and started eating her out. Wouldn't that be pleasantly distracting?"

Javier couldn't help but smile. "OK, Kat, I admit, I like thinking about you two. I just—"

"You just be quiet, and imagine me holding her down, on her back the way she likes, letting her struggle a little while I fuck her with my fingers. She likes that a lot, you know, and my little dildo too. Slowly, so she can feel all the texture sliding along the walls of her pussy."

"Jesus, Kat," said Javier.

Kat smiled. "OK, maybe that's enough of that for now. Besides, I think that's Grace at the door."

When Grace came in, she was smudged with ash and looked exhausted. But she smiled at the two of them, giving Javier a surprised hug.

"He's staying over a little while, Grace! Isn't that great?"

"Only if it's OK, of course!"

"Of course it's fine," Grace said. "We both miss you. All you folks."

Javier had been nervous about crowding in on the pair, but Grace and Kat seemed pretty well glued together again. They talked about Grace's day, and Kat's current work helping the university get more of its machines attached to a makeshift network.

They didn't talk about what happened down near Las Vegas. The two women both knew the basic details, anyway, and someone seemed to have cautioned them about prodding him too much. Or maybe they were just sensitive enough to figure it out.

They hung around for a while after dinner, just talking, the way they had sometimes last semester, before everything turned upside down. Grace disappeared and then reemerged in her pajama top and some extremely short shorts. Javier couldn't help but look at her spectacular legs. And her butt.

"Looks like bedtime then," said Kat, smiling at Grace. "Bed's big enough for three."

"I was just going to crash on the couch," Javier said, though he was torn.

"Just sleeping, Javier," said Grace. "It was really nice when we did that with you and Esther."

And so it was that a half hour later Javier was slipping into bed with the two women, only wearing his boxers and his T-shirt. Apparently Grace was going to be in the middle.

"I'll give you plenty of space," Javier said.

"What would the point be of that?" Kat asked, scooting her back against Grace. "Don't sweat it, Javier. Just get comfortable and we'll see you in the morning."

In the end, Javier lay on his back next to Grace, one shoulder against her back. She seemed pretty tense, and no wonder. Javier hoped Kat hadn't bullied her into this.

As usual, Kat fell asleep quickly, her snoring a little less gentle than Javier remembered. After one particularly aggressive snort, Grace giggled.

"It's not so bad," Javier whispered.

"No," Grace agreed quietly. "Javier, you can snuggle up against me. It's kind of what I wanted."

That was a surprise. Javier turned on his side, spooning lightly against her. She was about Nicola's size. Rounder butt, better legs, smaller shoulders. And she was pressing back against him, obviously wanting him closer. Swallowing, he draped an arm over her, touching Kat's back. Grace sighed happily.

Well, if that's what she wanted, Javier was going to sleep well tonight. Maybe he'd escape the nightmares.

When he woke some time later, it definitely wasn't from a nightmare. His hard dick had found an incredibly comfortable resting spot, nestled against Grace's ass.

He moved very slightly away, and then Grace's voice surprised him.

"It feels good, Javier."

Her hand found his, and she led his higher on her stomach, over a rounded breast, and inside her pajamas. She must have unbuttoned them more.

It was obvious enough what she wanted, but Javier could hardly believe it.

"Just this," she whispered. "No more."

He found her nipple, circling it gently with his fingertips. She was moving rhythmically, most likely masturbating gently the way some women could, without her hands.

They didn't do anything more than that, and eventually Javier fell asleep again, dreaming urgently of Grace, and Kat, and Nicola. And Esther most of all.

* * *

Jacob answered when Esther rang the doorbell. She would have stopped anyway, to check on him and Tomiko, but while she and Selena had been running errands, she'd felt something upset Jacob terribly.

He welcomed them in. Tomiko wasn't in sight, but they heard the television in Jacob's room. And Esther opened her mouth in shocked horror.

"Yes," Jacob said sadly. "The earthquake in Kobe. It has hit Tomiko very hard."

Selena was looking at Esther with concern. "An earthquake? Did you sense it, Esther? I'm so sorry."

Esther shook her head and swallowed, trying to order her thoughts. "Jacob, I need to talk to Selena a minute."

"Of course." Jacob disappeared back into the bedroom, sitting on the bed and putting his arm around Tomiko.

Esther sat on the couch with her eyes closed, the images from the television swirling through her head.

"I realize now I did sense the earthquake," she said eventually. "But only vaguely, subconsciously. There are terrible things going on all the time, and it would destroy me to dwell on all of them."

Selena nodded. "Especially an earthquake. I heard what the newscaster said, and it's awful. But it's not like Black Christmas. Earthquakes just happen. Nothing anyone can do but try to prepare, and then do what we can to help afterwards."

"That's just the thing," said Esther shakily. "They keep showing this picture of a big section of elevated highway on its side, crumpled and zigzagged. I saw that, Selena, months ago. Exactly that image. It was one of the visions of the Chosen in Oregon."

Selena frowned. "Unity. Oh, hell. Could someone have made this happen? Rigged the highway? Or, shit, triggered the earthquake somehow? Is that possible, like you did with the avalanche?"

Esther swallowed. "I don't know. I suppose I can't absolutely rule it out, for someone astonishingly skilled, with abilities more potent than mine. That's a terrifying thought. But to accomplish such a thing and also predict exactly what would happen as a result—that would be vastly beyond my ability. No, Selena, I have a bad feeling that this was a passive prediction of Unity, one that required no human intervention to happen."

Selena sighed and nodded. "How predictable are earthquakes, anyway? Is this the kind of thing scientists might be able to do in the future?"

Esther shook her head. "They've tried. I think something so specific would be shocking to anyone who studied them. I read an article saying they worried there was a fundamental unpredictability to them, that they might be chaotically sensitive to every tiny variation. But maybe it's possible if we knew more. And maybe our minds are optimized to solve problems like that."

"Your mind, you mean," said Selena. "But then, we still don't know how Unity works. And if it's like a big computer, with all of its participants helping do the calculations that you can do on your own—"

Esther nodded. "We can't rule it out. Of course the collective skills of the Chosen are far beyond my own abilities, if they could all work on pieces of the problem. Selena, I don't think we should burden Jacob and Tomiko with these worries. They have enough to deal with."

But an hour later, as Selena drove them back towards the mountains, Esther kept imagining herself in the future. Standing atop a volcano, feeling the subtle ebb and flow of gas and magma deep below. Weighing trillions of trillions of possibilities, and putting her thumb on the scale, until the eruption was inevitable, and she could be sure it was directed away from the village below.

Would she have the power to do that, or more? What would she be in twenty years, or in a hundred? What would she be when all that remained of Javier was her perfect memories?

She desperately wanted to believe in God, but her faith was weaker every day. Whatever Unity was, it was a perverse comfort to recognize there was a power still far beyond hers. Maybe the Kobe earthquake had been a fixed point in the future, something beyond anyone's ability to prevent or alter.

Maybe her sister's drowning had been the same. Predicted and fixed, like in the Greek tragedies. Something of the gods, or merely the uncaring universe. Something to humble the ego of anyone foolish enough to play God.

* * *

Javier was surprised to realize he was the last up. For a moment he just lay there, in sheets smelling of Grace and Kat. Gloriously relaxed.

He didn't have any extra clothes. But he knew where the towels were, and he got in a quick shower while the other pair talked in the kitchen. By the time he emerged, wearing a shirt he'd borrowed from Kat, Kat was gone.

"Some kind of emergency at the school lab," Grace said. "Probably she'll be out for the day."

"Maybe I should go help," Javier said, getting up. Grace looked nervous, and he realized that they probably needed to talk a little. So he put together some breakfast and watched Grace.

She was wearing the same shorts as last night. And a T-shirt this time, one a little too small. With no bra. It seemed practically designed to drive Javier crazy, and for a strange moment he wondered if she was flirting with him. Trying it out with a guy, the way she'd done last night.

"I was so horny this morning," Grace blurted, out of nowhere. "I had to get myself off in the shower."

"Ditto," Javier said, and Grace started to laugh. "Uh, the first part," he hastened to add.

Grace laughed harder. "Well, so much for solidarity."

"I can go do that if it would help."

Grace was starting to blush profusely, and she couldn't stop giggling. "OK, I think you win this game. Too much practice with Kat, I guess."

"No doubt. So, what's on your mind?"

Grace paused, looking nervous.

"Is that where you usually do it? The shower?"

If that was what was on her mind, he could oblige.

"Often," he said. "Only since we got the hot water going up there, obviously. Outhouse a couple times, when I didn't want to bother Esther."

"I interrupted you that night, didn't I?" Grace said.

"Afraid so," Javier said, starting to laugh.

"Well, I feel bad about that," said Grace. "Can I make it up to you?"

Without waiting, she walked over and pulled him into a kiss. A very, very serious kiss that involved most of their bodies. She shuddered slightly when he put his arms around her.

She broke it off suddenly. Then she silently took his hand and led him back to the bedroom.

Javier's heart was pounding. She pulled off her T-shirt and flopped back onto the bed. For a minute Javier couldn't breathe. His dick was throbbing need.

"I'll stop whenever you say," he muttered.

"I know," Grace said, closing her eyes. "Condoms in the drawer."

That was what Kat had been telling him last night. She'd been telling him how to fuck her girlfriend. Javier wanted to kiss every inch of Grace's body, to taste her on his tongue. But that didn't seem to be what Grace wanted.

Nervously he undressed, watching her. When his dick popped out, he gave it a few strokes, but he hardly needed that.

"Hurry," Grace said, eyes still shut. Her hands were clenching and unclenching with excitement. Or nervousness. Javier fished a condom package out of the drawer, and then knelt between her legs. Swiftly he yanked down her shorts. She had nothing on underneath, and as soon as he pulled the shorts off, she spread her legs for him.

She had a big patch of black hair, trimmed a little but still hairier than anyone he'd been with in—well, maybe ever. She was beautiful, and obviously wet. Just to be sure, he moved his mouth to her, licking gently along the side of her clit.

Grace jerked slightly. "No, not that now, Javier. Just fuck me."

Slightly shocked, and ridiculously aroused, Javier hurried to get the condom on, and then he scooted up to lean his weight on her. She struggled slightly, and he pinned her harder, his forearm across her upper chest. He wanted to take his time, to tease her huge brown nipples, but it didn't seem to be what she wanted. Grace's eyes were still closed, her breath coming quick and shallow.

Javier slid his cock along her hairy pussy, getting the shaft well coated. She was nothing like Esther. It was thrilling to realize she might really be ready for him already. But Kat had implied she wasn't used to something as large as his cock. She licked her lips, helping him rub her. Eyes closed, thinking of Kat probably. Javier didn't mind at all.

Slowly he pressed against her opening, and Grace gasped, struggling hard enough to dislodge him slightly. He leaned down with all her weight, pinning her firmly.

"Oh, God," she said softly, trying to thrust against him.

Slowly, inexorably, he bore down against her, trying to keep control, trying not to hurt her in the slightest. She struggled harder, but he was stronger than her. Stronger than Kat.

Finally he slipped slightly in, and Grace moaned. She was tight, but so fucking wet. He was her first cock, and he'd make this last for her. Further, inch by inch, Grace grunting and pushing back the whole way. Javier stroked her black hair, pressing, letting her get used to the feel, waiting for her to relax a little. When he was in all the way, he stayed right there, letting her squeeze against him, over and over. Gently he kissed her on the breast, and she moaned again with pleasure.

He pulled out a little faster than he'd gone in, and he began fucking Grace, his beautiful and utterly unavailable friend. The one he'd fantasized about so many times. It felt better than he'd imagined it could. He suckled on her nipples a while, then pushed himself up, hands on her shoulders, trying for a better angle.

Grace opened her eyes and looked at him. His naked chest, his cock pushing in and out. He couldn't look away from her beautiful brown eyes. And suddenly she struggled against him and grunted.

"Stop! Oh God."

Javier pulled out hastily, sitting on the bed next to her, cock bobbing clumsily in a condom coated with her sticky juices.

She rolled over, and curled up, breathing hard, and Javier stared at her ass. She was beautiful from every angle.

"Should I go?" he mumbled. Christ, he was still so horny. Even now all he could think of was what it would be like to press inside her again, from behind this time. What the hell was wrong with him?

"No," she muttered. "Let me get my fucking head in order."

His erection was finally starting to soften, so he pulled the condom off and pulled the sheet over his lap. He desperately hoped they hadn't just made the kind of mistake you couldn't fix.

Finally she sat up, against the headboard, drawing her knees up to her chest. From the side he could see a tantalizing hint of her hairy lips.

"Shit," she said. "I'm so sorry, Javier. I was honestly enjoying that. Really, I was. I hope you were, too."

"It was fantastic," he said. "But it's OK, Grace. You don't have to explain."

Grace looked up at him and smiled weakly. "You were perfect, Javier. Exactly as I wanted. Maybe a little too exactly. I kept thinking of Kat doing me that way, and wondering why I was so hung up on this, because you're warm and strong and just like I imagined. Better. And then I opened my eyes and realized I was fucking a guy. Does that make any sense?"

"I think so," Javier said.

Grace sighed, stretching her legs out. She was gorgeous.

"We talked about this, of course," said Grace after a minute. "Kat had her one time with you. And so I would try my one time with you. A certain kind of balance, though it must have been a lot more fun with Kat."

Javier shook his head. "Now who's feeling sorry for herself?"

Grace smiled weakly. "Fair enough, Javier. And you told me you enjoyed it. But you didn't even get to finish."

"I-that's not how it works," Javier said. "I mean, it doesn't work that way with Esther, and I can't imagine it does with you two."

Grace nodded, sighing. She gave him another long look. "You're really attractive. I like looking at you, now that I'm getting over my identity crisis."

"Maybe we should stick to that," Javier said. "I think you're stunning. This is a year's worth of fantasies all at once."

Grace sighed. "Yeah. Fantasies."

* * *

Javier spent the rest of the day cleaning at the farm house. Kat and Grace had already done a lot over there, and they'd hooked up a generator as well. But it was lonely as hell, and he was feeling pretty bad about leaving Grace at loose ends, even if she'd asked to be alone. Maybe he should just drive back to the Shack tonight, of course after stopping to say his goodbyes.

But he heard someone drive up. Kat and Grace came in together, looking happy and slightly flushed. Grace was having trouble meeting his eyes, but she looked a lot better. Probably the two had just had sex. Javier squashed that familiar bit of self-pity. He was glad Grace had bounced back from their disastrous morning together.

Kat kissed him on the cheek and handed him a bottle of wine. "Time to celebrate! We're officially not on the FBI watch list, as best I can determine."

"You and Geoff finished hacking them?" he asked, smiling.

"Oh, yes," Kat grinned. "Penetrated them all over. It was like being at a sex toy shop with a bunch of eager sorority girls, dildos everywhere, people moaning and writhing on the floor—"

"We get the picture," Grace said with a laugh. But the two of them shared a private little glance. They'd definitely been having sex.

"I got into that database of dangerous Changed people as well," Kat said. "We can talk about the details another time. The important thing is, only Mark was in there, and they hardly had anything on him. Plus he was marked as 'In Custody,' so I guess everyone really thinks they have him at Area 51 or whatever."

They sat around in the living room, sharing the wine, watching the fire. The other pair was obviously still horny as fuck, their hands all over each other. Javier was turned on, of course. And pretty annoyed.