When they got back home – it was so weird that this little cabin in the middle of a death swamp felt like home already – they found a pair of backpacks waiting for them on the dining table. It felt invasive and poisonous that Holt could just drop whatever he felt like in their home whenever he wanted, like he could intrude wherever he pleased. Him interrupting their most intimate moments with forced messages wasn’t enough. He could just walk into their residence. It tainted the cabin in a way nothing else could.

  Otter wanted nothing more than to throw out both packs into the deepest, dirtiest mud puddle she could find, but Rua, ever practical, insisted on going through them and inventorying their contents.

  “Aren’t you mad?” Otter asked.

  “Furious. But never mind that we need the supplies, the backpacks themselves are useful. Besides, when your enemy gives you a knife, you don’t question it or throw it away. You just stab him with it.”

  The packs were exactly as Holt had advertised. One knife each, a tinderbox with flint and steel – something Rua viewed as disgusting primitive – a glyph stone that could find fresh water, a canteen, and enough food for three days of meals.The food was nothing fancy. Dried fruit, nuts, some jerky, and a single loaf of crusty bread, but it was better than nothing.

  Rua made a face inspecting it. “What kind of fruit is this?”

  “Looks like… apricots, cranberries, figs, mangoes, prunes, apples, raisins… oh, hey, banana chips. I hate banana chips. Thanks, Holt.”

  “And you… eat this?”

  Otter cocked her head in confusion. “Well, yeah. Ideally, you eat it fresh, but it’s supposed to be travel rations.”

  Rua picked up a single craisin, sniffed it, made a face, and then tried it.

  “That wasn’t bad,” she said after a moment.

  “Craisins are delicious, and actually fit your food tastes. Everything you’ve fed me has either been a little bitter, or sour.”

  “This is food from where you come from?”

  “Oh, right. You guys probably don’t have our fruit. Huh. This might be the st time I ever get to throw banana chips into the garbage.”

  “And these are banana chips?” Rua asked, pulling one out and looking at it askance.

  “Honey, no. No. Do not…”

  It was too te to save her. Rua put it into her mouth. She chewed. And then somehow, she swallowed. It took everything Otter had to not gag in sympathy. And then, the impossible happened. Rua picked up another one and ate it, too.

  “I am never kissing you again,” Otter said.

  “These are good.”

  “No.”

  “I think I like these.”

  “Well, I guess you had to have some kind of irredeemable fw. You were nearly too perfect.”

  “Your irredeemable fw is that you don’t like these.” She ate another one.

  “We need to save those. We’re rationing, remember?”

  “But you’re not going to eat them, so I can have mine and your share. And I don’t even need to trade for it, because you’re so vocal about it.”

  “I’m breaking up with you.”

  “Oh, that’s a shame. I was going to suck your cock ter tonight, too.”

  Rua gave her a winsome smile, which was immediately ruined by her eating another banana chip. She licked her lips when she was done, and Otter could do nothing but watch her tongue. Something in Otter’s brain broke.

  “I mean… I guess we can stay together.”

  “No, too te. You broke it off. Now you’ll never know if I’d be good at it. At how much I’d want it, on my knees, looking up at you, taking you with my pretty little mouth. You’d like it, wouldn’t you? To see my eyes, these eyes you like so much, looking up at you as I’m your good little girl?”

  Otter didn’t realize her breath had grown ragged until she barked out a quick cough. “You’re… you’re a tease.”

  Rua leaned in close. “It’s only teasing if I don’t follow through.”

  “Oh. Okay. So, you’re going to…” She left it hanging. She could feel her cock throbbing.

  “Continue to tease you? Yes.” Rua took a quick skip backwards. “We need to pn. We need to rescue your fair Criobani maiden.”

  “She’s… she’s not my, well, anything.”

  Rua’s expression turned serious. “Good. Because she isn’t. We’re not going to save her just for her to join our retionship. She’s not your future girlfriend. She’s my enemy. And I want you to understand that. Just because she was ensved and put in that suit of armour, does not mean she is my friend.”

  “She could be, you know.”

  Something like anger fshed in Rua’s eyes. It was there and gone in a fsh. And then they turned soft, and she shook her head.

  “No. She can’t. And that’s just the way it is.”

  Otter let it drop. She didn’t know enough. Didn’t know the history between the Criobani and the Siyans. Didn’t know about Rua’s father, and why she’d betrayed her country. Didn’t know what it was like to live a life as a half-breed in a world that apparently detested them. And she wasn’t going to push.

  If there was one thing Otter was good at in retionships, it was respecting boundaries. Too bad everyone else seemed to suck at it.

  “Okay,” Otter said. “I understand. We’re not saving her to be part of my future harem. We’re saving her because it’s the right thing to do.”

  Rua snorted. “You wish you could command a harem.”

  “She says, as the first member of my future harem.”

  “More like you’re the first member of my harem.”

  “I can share. We’ll be co-owners of the future harem.”

  “I suppose I can agree to those terms.”

  “Although, since I am poly, everyone is technically a co-owner of the harem. Equal rights for everyone.”

  Rua rolled her eyes. “Can we get to the pnning now?”

  “I’d, uh, love to, but after your teasing, I’m actually a little, uh… distracted.” She was going to have to go outside and rub one out or something. Her mind was getting a little too focused on banter, and the urge to just spend the day fucking Rua senseless was quickly becoming a fixture in her mind. “Just excuse me for a minute, and…”

  “Excuse you? No, I don’t think I will.” Rua pced one hand on Otter’s length, tracing it with her fingers through her pants. “If you can get through this, and actually participate in the pnning, I’ll give you a treat.”

  Images of Rua on her knees, fulfilling her earlier promise, fshed through Otter’s mind.

  “Deal.”

  Otter squirmed the entire time, and Rua didn’t relent or show mercy. The entire time they put together their ‘pn’, if it could be called that, Rua fondled her. Whenever Otter attempted to touch her back, Rua backed away. There was a delight in her eyes, every time she did, Otter’s happiness with it was only matched by her growing frustration.

  There wasn’t much to their pn. It was simple enough that there was no opportunity for a fuckup on their part. It would only come down to dumb luck in the end. It was the kind of pn that could’ve been put together in two minutes, if not for the completely distracting presence of Rua’s hand.

  “Are we done now? Please tell me we’re done now,” Otter said.

  Rua stroked her chin in thought, hummed for a bit, and then sighed. “I suppose you’ve been kind of good. You can have your treat.”

  “Oh thank fuck. Treat, and then we go rescue the girl.”

  “Agreed. Now, close your eyes.”

  At this point, Otter didn’t even argue it. She closed her eyes, and balled her fists in anxious anticipation.

  There was a feather light touch on her lips, there and gone. A soft kiss that promised more. Otter leaned forward, trying to capture Rua’s. Something pressed against her, and she opened her mouth.

  And then was assaulted by the vile taste and texture of a banana chip.

  She went to gag it out, to spit out the taste of betrayal, and then Rua’s lips were on hers, her tongue pressing against hers, and suddenly, betrayal didn’t taste quite so bad. She was happy to have that taste in her mouth, which honestly wasn’t even that bad now that she thought about it, just to be kissing Rua.

  She didn’t know where the chip ended up. She didn’t remember swallowing, so she assumed Rua must’ve taken it, but after a while, she noticed it was gone. Rua’s technique was getting better, if she’d managed to pull that off.

  And then Rua proved her entirely wrong by running her tongue over Otter’s teeth in an awkward fashion which was honestly still kind of hot in a way she couldn’t expin. She reached forward, trying to grab hold of a breast, a shoulder, a hip, really anything, just so long as she was touching Rua, but her hands were swatted away, and Rua pulled back.

  Otter opened her eyes, and even though she’d only kissed with no touching between them, Rua looked a positive mess.

  “Did you like your treat?” she said, her tone pyful.

  “I swear to holy fuck you better give amazing head, because if that was your idea of a treat…”

  “Oh, if you didn’t like it, I can just never kiss you again.”

  “I take it all back, I’m weak, please give me more of your disgusting banana chip kisses.”

  She sat back and seemed to think about it for a second. “No. You don’t properly appreciate these. They’re mine now.”

  She took the bag, and popped another one in her mouth.

  “Shouldn’t you be saving those? Rations, remember?”

  “Fine. But your Criobani maiden isn’t allowed to have any. If she touches these… what did you call them? Banana chips? If she touches these banana chips, she can find her own way off the isnd.”

  “Agreed, I guess.”

  “Great. Now, let’s go get her.”

  “Now?”

  “What? Were you expecting something else?”

  “Weren’t you going to… you know…” She gestured towards her pelvic region.

  “What kind of slut do you think I am? We have things to do. Come on. There’s a maiden in need of rescuing.”

  DorenWinslowe