Kes and Anara woke the next morning, and it was the most unexpected and baffling feeling she’d ever known. They woke both at once, slow and unhurried, and Kes could feel Anara’s arms around her and hers around Anara as if they were almost one person… or, not one person, but two people both in two bodies at once. It should have felt very confusing for her, but it was surprising just how much it wasn’t confusing.

They both smiled and snuggled closer and luxuriated in the feeling, in the warmth of touch and the familiar presence of one another… their scents, the contours of their bodies, the feel of skin, the rhythm of their hearts beating in time to one another. It felt like a miracle – something that anyone with any good sense at all would know better than to question.

They moved together and kissed and let go of any lingering sense of confusion, just wanting to feel the joy inside that this new closeness brought out in both of them. As they kissed though, slowly, their senses brought the world around them back to their awareness.

They were alone in the house, they realized. Artem and their children outside in the morning sun. Tresit and Artem sparring with each other, Lanam sitting and asking Artem about his family while they did. Artem was telling her harmless everyday stories. The sparring wasn’t serious enough that there would be any cause to worry. They had the house to themselves.

Anara backed away, getting up and looking down at Kes beneath her… looked down at her… with eyes that saw… saw clearly. Anara stared and was caught in a sense of shock strong enough to partially break the spell of their deep joining to enough of an extent that they both came back to having two separate perspectives again, instead of both sharing the other’s. ”How can it…” Even more of a miracle than they’d thought, apparently. Anara sat back, straddling Kes and looking down at her face and bare chest. A little of an appreciative smile started to come to her lips as she took in Kes’s breasts and remembered clearly what it was like to have her lips about the nipples in the centers of them. Kes could still hear her wife’s thoughts as clearly as she could her own and she smiled, feeling flattered and good about herself at the desire Anara felt for her. -I’ve never seen them before- Anara said, thoughts to thoughts.