Misconstrued (Mistaken)

by Pixie Unger

  It wasn’t just us that should get housing though. “Miriam and Nicoli will need a home as soon as possible. Can I help build one for them?”

  A skeptical look was passed around the group at that.

  I gritted my teeth and stood my ground. “There are no babies here and almost no pregnant women. Babies cry and need quiet, and a tent isn’t a good place to raise one. If there is anything I can do about it, I want Miriam’s baby to have a good place to live.”

  At least Erika backed me up on that. “Yeah. In the winter, you split up the families with the moms and kids in one gym and the dads in the other. That’s really hard on people. I would help out with that project if I can.”

  They didn’t seem convinced, but Rosencrantz suggested that they would ask someone named Jo if she could use us. Guildenstern, however, asked if we would be happy with colours and paper instead. I was about to make a snippy comment about pawning us off on a colouring book like we were preschoolers, when Erika patted his cheek and kissed him.

  “That’s a sweet offer, but not right now, okay?”

  He got a familiar dorky smile and nodded happily.

  And that was it.

  Suddenly, no big deal. Erika wanted the conversation to end. She didn’t make a big deal out of it and he just … stopped. That was interesting.

  My two were still watching me. I threw them a smile and they relaxed too. Huh.

  ----

  While Mac and I were sitting on the couch, Romeo was on a mission. I had agreed to paper and colouring supplies, but I also asked for a blank book and some pens. I told him I wasn’t sure how hard that would be to find and if he couldn’t, that was okay. I made sure that he understood I appreciated the effort, and this wasn’t a test.

  He seemed over the moon to have something to do for me.

  In the meantime, Mac was working up the nerve to ask me something. When he finally did, it wasn’t what I was expecting.

  “Why a blank book? Why not one to read? You said you wanted a library,” he pointed out.

  I blinked, then rerouted my train of thought out of the gutter it had been occupying. “People … Humans tell stories. It’s a thing for us in all cultures. I read a book once that argued when we were naming species, we got it wrong for people. That human beings should be categorized as Pans narrans, which is fancy science language for the storytelling ape. We aren’t fast or strong, and we don’t have sharp claws or teeth. We survive by taking care of each other and telling stories so that we can learn and move forward.”

  Mac nodded slowly. “For us too.”

  “People telling stories is a good thing for us. But—” I was struggling to explain when I knew this truth, but hadn’t really thought about it. “—sometimes a person needs to tell herself the story to help her understand it better. I think it would be a good idea for me to tell myself my story to figure it out.”

  He looked skeptical. “Why a book, though?”

  I took a deep breath. “If I write it down, then I can look at it as though it was someone else’s story.” That was when it occurred to me to add, “but it is my story. It would be a betrayal of trust for someone else to read it without my permission.”

  His eyes went wide and he swallowed. “I will not. I will tell the others to not.”

  Somehow, seeing how seriously he was taking it helped me relax. “Thank you.” I was surprised by how easily he agreed, and even more so how easily I believed him.

  “Humans make stories for everything,” Mac added. “Ask five humans to describe a thing and you get five different answers. Our language is a bit more precise.”

  “How so?”

  He grinned. “You have many words to mean the same thing. We have few words.”

  “Must make it easier to write a thesaurus,” I teased.

  He just looked confused. He was very tentative when he asked, “Saurus means a big lizard?”

  I felt bad about it later, but I laughed at him then. “No! I mean, yes, but not this time. A thesaurus is a book that lists words that mean the same thing.”

  “Hmm. Like cuddles and snuggles?” he suggested.

  I grinned. “Yes. Like that.”

  “Hmm.” He was watching me closely now. “Can I try?”

  “Can you try a thesaurus?” I teased.

  He was still watching me as he shook his head no.

  “Oh.” I blushed a little. It was an odd way to ask for my attention. They were like that, though. They didn’t generally ask for things so much as dance around until I figured out what they wanted. “Yeah, okay.”

  I was a bit surprised when he pulled me into his lap and cradled me in his arms. He rested his chin on the top of my head and made a happy noise.

  “Orcs have smells in the skin of their neck,” he explained. “If you stay here, you will smell like me.”

  I remembered how Romeo had tucked me up against his neck too. “Huh.”

  “I would like for you to smell like me,” he admitted. Then he hastened to add, “Or like someone from our … family. It is good for us to all smell like each other.”

  “When I first got here...” I wondered how I was going to describe this. “I saw you tasting Tybalt.”

  “Hmm,” he considered this. “Did you like seeing or not like seeing?”

  Shit. I had no idea how to answer that. “I was surprised. Everything scared me at the time.”

  He made that little humming, purring noise again. “Better now. You aren’t as afraid.”

  “No, I guess I’m not,” I agreed.

  “You are still afraid of making us angry, though.”

  I blinked and sat up a bit straighter to look at him.

  He shrugged. “It’s okay. You are. You don’t want to make us mad by picking. It’s okay to say you like someone best. We will be sad, but we will still be proud to be in your house.”

  There was a lot to unpack there, starting with, “Erika didn’t choose.”

  “Erika isn’t afraid.” He said it so kindly, without the judgement that could so easily have crept in.

  That got me thinking. It was true of course, but why? Erika had talked about sexual harassment at work. Why wasn’t she afraid?

  Because she chose to come here. She had gone with the orcs who had fed her when the riot broke out. I had been captured like a wild animal. She had plenty of time to get used to them. I hadn’t been here as long. I was coming to terms with the idea that if I couldn’t choose to leave the camp entirely, I could certainly choose to leave these particular orcs.

  I just no longer wanted to.

  They were weird and quirky, but they were mine.

  I settled back in against Mac and nuzzled my forehead back against his neck. “This is nice.”

  He hummed his agreement and just held me. I reached up and stroked the other side of his neck, running my fingers over his shirt where I could feel his piercings. To me they felt oddly like a xylophone under his skin, but Mac groaned softly and shifted me in his lap. I wasn’t sure if he was hoping I wouldn’t notice that it was turning him on, but I did.

  “The living room isn’t the best place for this,” I murmured. He slid me back onto the couch and looked at me. I took a deep breath and tried to focus on anything besides how much warmer I had been in his arms. “What are Iago and Tybalt really doing?”

  Mac looked away. “Iago said you do not want the place that Erika wanted. Hers will not go out to look. He is looking for something else.”

  “But why take Tybalt?”

  His face darkened and he still wasn’t looking at me. “To give you a chance to get used to me.” Now I was blushing too, but he wasn’t done, “Too many of us around, and you feel trapped. You told us that from the beginning. We are finally listening.”

  I nodded slowly. “But why send Tybalt away? Why are you the person I’m getting used to?”

  He looked at me sharply then. “You want him instead of me?”

  I frowned a little. “I’m trying to understand. How did you decide?�
��

  “Tybalt is rude,” Mac said bluntly. “You don’t need rude.”

  I nodded a little and leaned in against him, pulling his arm around me. “You are warm and comfortable.”

  “Easier when no one is watching?”

  I nodded against his chest, feeling the different texture of his metal against my cheek. “Yes,” I agreed simply.

  He nodded and stropped against the top of my head again. “You were very upset that Erika saw—”

  “I wasn’t doing anything!” I protested, then realized I had just made his point for him. I sighed in defeat. “Yes. I don’t like people watching. I get embarrassed.”

  Mac rubbed my arm. “Don’t have to be embarrassed. It isn’t bad or wrong.”

  I realized he was right. It just wasn’t how I had been raised. It was one thing to know about slut-shaming, making women solely responsible for controlling men’s sexuality, and how this gave the guys an easy out when they should be taking responsibility for themselves. It was different to try to live with that hanging over me.

  “Did you give the guys birth control?”

  He looked confused for a moment, and I admit that I panicked a little.

  “Birth control for females. Fertility control for males,” he corrected, carefully. “But yes. I made sure you will not have unexpected babies from us.”

  I nodded. I was glad to hear it, and yet still uncomfortable that they’d just all done that. “It’s reversible though, right?”

  “If you want,” he agreed. He had tilted his head and was watching me. “What are you really asking, Mina?”

  I groaned and hid behind my hands. “I don’t even know,” I admitted. “It’s too quiet here. There was always music and background noise before you got here.”

  “Were you looking for music while Erika was looking for a swing?”

  Was I? “I don’t know what I was looking for. Anything that reminded me of home, I guess. I just feel lost,” I admitted.

  He shifted his weight and adjusted himself. “You are lost and we are demanding.”

  Were they? I didn't even know anymore. “But you give good backrubs.”

  His eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I know exactly where all your muscles go!”

  ----

  That was how I ended up face down on my bed, wearing just my panties and moaning as Mac worked his fingers into my calf muscle.

  “Fuck me! You’re good at that!”

  He just laughed. “I’m good with my hands. And I’m not dumb enough to think that was a request.”

  Something in my stomach fluttered at the suggestion that it might be. I rolled slightly over to the side to look at him over my shoulder. “It wasn’t a request, but what would you do if it was?”

  He gave me a sly smile and repositioned himself to rub my foot. My eyes rolled back in my head a little. “I would find the places where you have lots of nerve endings and take advantage of them,” he purred.

  I let myself flop back down on the bed. A foot rub wasn’t something that I had previously considered sexual ,and yet the feeling building inside me was close enough. I suspected that if he continued, I would either cum or end up incredibly frustrated when I couldn’t. “That’s nice. You can keep doing that.”

  “Your culture has toys for pleasuring women. We have many for men, but we didn’t ever invent the vibrator.” It was said in passing, as though it was of no importance.

  I snorted faintly in disbelief. “How does that work?” Then I moaned as he found a particular spot in the ball of my foot that made me melt.

  “We are supposed to pay attention,” he explained in a soft voice. “Still, I am lucky that you tell us what you want. I would guess wrong. We all would. You are too different from us.”

  “Any port in a storm, huh?” It stung, but it was understandable. I had a hard time imagining one of their females looking anything like me.

  Mac froze. “I don’t know what that means,” he admitted.

  “You just want someone and I happen to be here,” was the most polite explanation I could come up with in that moment.

  He let go of my foot and sat on the bed to look at me. “I am lucky that you tell us what you want. I would guess wrong. I don’t just want someone. I see you as a person and that is what I want. You.”

  That was enough to make my heart melt. I sat up and crawled over to him. I kissed his lips that couldn’t return the favour and let him rub his cheek on my face again.

  “And you are really okay sharing? This isn’t some prank to upset Romeo?” I asked, still uncertain.

  “I am really okay sharing. It’s different. If I am busy or away, you will not be alone because the others will be here. I don’t want you to be alone. None of us do. And I can wait until Iago and Tybalt come back to tell you that.”

  He didn’t say “tell you that again,” but my mind added the last word anyway. Don’t make it complicated, Erika had told me, but I was. I didn’t want it to be complicated. What did I even want?

  “I want you to touch me, Mac,” I admitted. “I liked that. I want more.”

  “Other foot?” he suggested as though I wasn’t already keyed up.

  Was I really just going to tell him to make me cum? No. I wasn’t ready to say that yet. “Wherever you like,” I tried instead.

  He was watching me intently now. “You might not like where I like.”

  “I’m cold; I would like to be warm,” I admitted, “and I would like to know where you like.”

  “The inside of your arms and legs, the small of you back, hands and feet. Places with lots of nerve ending.” He gently ran a finger over each place as he spoke.

  “Between my legs?” I teased. I wasn’t expecting him to just shrug.

  “Maybe, but with care. Too easy to hurt there. Or miss,” he admitted. He ran his fingers along the inside of my upper arm and made my breath quicken. “Long nerves here, so lots of places to touch.”

  I shivered, and not just from the cold. “You’re going to be the one who just teases me, aren’t you?”

  He frowned and leaned back. “I would never make fun of you Mina.” He sounded offended.

  I almost laughed before I realized he was being serious. He was sitting there, fully dressed, watching me while I was only wearing my panties. “I need you to either give me your shirt or pass me mine. I’m cold.” He was half-naked by the time I reached the end of the sentence. “In this case,” I explained pulling his shirt on over my head, “it means touching me until I want you to fuck me, but never actually doing it.”

  He tilted his head like a curious puppy. “I will if you asked me to.”

  “You will fuck me, if I ask you to?”

  “Yes? Or not, if you want the other thing instead,” he added cautiously.

  “How does that work in real life?” I wondered. “You will keep stopping to ask me if I want something and I keep stopping to ask you if you want something and we end up here. Where we are both half-naked, cold, and missing out.”

  He looked shocked, then laughed. “You don’t have to ask me!”

  I frowned. “If you need to ask me, then I'm pretty sure I do, too. Equal rights for all, right?”

  He shook his head. “You sound like Romeo now.”

  “Yeah, well, Romeo has some good points,” I mumbled.

  “How am I supposed to know what you want if you don’t tell me?” he demanded.

  “How did you know to rub my foot then?” I countered. “There has to be some middle ground.”

  He made and held eye contact, searching my face as he put his hand on my knee. Then he narrowed his eyes at me, as if he was daring me to say something. I smiled at him instead.

  “You are going to get me killed someday, Mina.” He just sounded sad.

  “If you don’t hurt me, I won’t hurt you, agreed? A truce,” I suggested. “I’m trusting you here, too.”

  His hand was trembling a little as it slid up then down my thigh. “That’s nice,” I whispered encouragingly. I reached up
and ran my hand over his chest, marvelling again at his piercings.

  He stilled, then closed his eyes. “I like that, too.”

  I started to wonder what the bumpy texture would feel like under my tongue, so I leaned in and licked them. Mac growled out something that I was pretty sure was orc swearing. I looked up at him and traced the pattern over his body and down to where it disappeared into his waistband. “I keep wondering what the rest of these feel like,” I mused.

  That sound he was making was definitely orc swearing.

  “Can I—” I started to ask, but that was as far as I got before he interrupted with a gasped, “Yes!” and hands hurrying to undo his pants. The end of his cock was already drooling, and the first thing he did was actually reminiscent of Romeo. He pressed my hand against the implant at the base of his cock. It was an odd ritual but I was distracted to see that the four piercings on the top of his dick had a matching pair on the underside.

  “They won’t hurt,” he rumbled as he gathered some of the precum to slick over them.

  “I trust you,” I replied as I wiggled out of my panties. He ran one huge hand down my chest, over my belly, and straight between my legs. He was staring at me intently and sucking on his bottom lip. “What?” I asked with a smile.

  “It … you trust me?”

  “Yes?”

  He nodded, then he slid his finger over my folds, pausing to dip briefly inside. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes? Shouldn’t I?”

  His reply was a soft smile and a slight head shake. He stood up. Put his hands on my hips and with the same easy action that Iago had used to roll me across the bed, he spun and pulled me so that my ass was at the edge of the mattress.

  “Feet in my armpits,” he ordered. That was a bit weird, but I did it. “Tell me if you need stop.”

  “I will.”

  He ran the tip of his cock over my folds for a moment, teasing my clit with it, before easing himself inside of me. I was expecting a slam, but this was a gentle rocking until he was seated how he liked. That’s when he stilled and found my clit with his fingers.

  I tried to squirm, but a single hand on my hips was enough to hold me in place. I looked up to see him concentrating on my face as he strummed my clit with his thumb. I whined. He smiled.