”Tell me a story about where we’re going? Please mother?” Lanam asked Kes, looking up to her from between her and Anara.

Kes felt her skin heat a little at being called mother. She liked it. ”All right. Of course.”

Kes told them the story of how she, Lona, and Tae started their gardens. How it had been Lona’s idea, and she’d started it on her own, but then she’d offered some berries she’d grown to her and Tae – they were the best tasting thing Kes had ever eaten, and Kes had asked how she’d gotten them, and it had gone from there. Lona’s brother, Daggin, had found out about it a couple days later when Lona offered him some of the barriers too (Lona wasn’t the kind of person who very often said things about herself without being specifically asked or without others finding out another way), he and his best friend Farran had joined in as a result. Then later Mers, the boy Lona liked, had joined their group too. Since then, a few others had joined as well, but Kes’s favorite memories of it were probably when they were just starting out – just her Lona, and Tae – so that’s the story she told.

…It wasn’t that she hadn’t liked Daggin, Farran, and Mers, she had, she did, it was only… she’d never liked that she had to guard herself, pretend, around them more, or that, Daggin especially, expected her to be someone she wasn’t. Tae and Lona had had some of those kinds of expectations too, but it had still been much easier for her to pretend she was normal when it had just been them.

Later that night, once Lanam had gotten tired and Anara had put her to bed with Tresit, Kes began to take her clothes off as she watched her wife come back to their bed. ”Let me do that…” Anara asked, sitting down with her in bed.

”Alright…” Kes agreed easily with a smile, letting Anara take her clothes off for her, her eyes on her wife in rapt fascination as she did.

Once Anara was finished, she let Kes do the same for her and then Anara pushed her down onto her back and was on top of her, her lips claiming hers, her hands were one in her hair and the other caressing one of her breasts. It was unusual for Anara to be quite this forward so soon, but Kes found herself liking it very much. She wrapped her arms around Anara, one hand on her back, the other in playing in her wife’s long hair. Anara seemed very intent on her and Kes brushed her mind over her wife’s… Something was bothering her, but she sensed Anara didn’t want to talk or share thoughts quite yet, so Kes contented herself with simply letting Anara make love to her and resigned herself to thoroughly enjoying the feelings Anara was bringing out in her.

She didn’t go very deeply at all with their mental connection, just a vague sharing of feeling and sensation. She felt how much Anara desired and wanted and loved her… and when Anara’s fingers traveled down between her thighs and took possession of her, Kes felt her thoughts all fall away again and welcomed it eagerly. Kissing, touching, knowing one another again…

———-

to be continued