In their cabin the two resurrectees lay together, their naked bodes laid alongside each other, basking in the afterglow of their consummated union.
Their lovemaking this time had been more restrained; with the knowledge of at least one offspring on the way, there wasn’t such a drive to...rut... Their coupling had been no the less intense or pleasurable though. With a growing acceptance of what they were, the Hybrids had begun to explore the possibilities of their new bodies.
The slow sensuous stroking of tails down each others’ bodies was just a part of it.
Ranma had proven particularly inventive, though Kodachi had reciprocated with a few inspirations of her own. And when it came to tailplay, Kodachi’s experience with ribbons had a definite advantage.
To her satisfaction, she found that when she had pulled THOSE tricks out, she had driven her mate to blissful exhaustion. Though she could still feel him, semiconscious, through their shared link, his thoughts were languid, and of her.
However, that meant that she was still awake, and had time to ponder her own thoughts.
What memories of her dreams Kodachi could plumb were typically bad; nightmarish jumbles or delusional fantasies that did not encourage her to explore the roots of those recollections. At least not without caution. But Ranma was right; there might be knowledge there, knowledge worth recalling, if only to inform her of what NOT to do.
Parenting was one such field of knowledge, and a loaded one. Kodachi knew this much; she had NOT had a good childhood. A missing mother, an absentee father, a cold and empty house echoing with the madness and paranoia of a family gone wrong.
While Kodachi might well have given in to the driving instinctual imperatives that had been pounding in her head since she had ‘awakened’, something had given her pause of late.
Something Nanami had said about instinct earlier stuck in her thoughts. The young scientist’s worry and fear had been palpable.
”I’m serious, you two! We’re packed with hardwired genetic imperatives of several species that rely less on conscious thought and more on raw survival instinct! You want to know what has me really worried? What upsets me the most? That everything I’ve experienced, everything I learned, everything I -AM-, won’t amount to anything when faced with that pressure! That I’ll just give in to instincts because it’s EASY!”
Nanami’s fear was real, writ large on her features, and in the thoughts she was projecting through their link. It was part of the wall she’d thrown up between herself and her two companions. Admittedly of late, she’d been less fearful and more forthcoming, but that fear still lingered.
It was for that reason that Ranma and Kodachi had consciously tried to isolate their lovemaking to only their own two shared minds, as consciously as they’d worked on pleasuring each other. It seemed to have worked; there hadn’t been any complaints from Nanami’s distant cabin.
Still, her fears had infected Kodachi. Kodachi admitted her own experiences with parenting left her with the maternal abilities of a goldfish, but she wasn’t about to let instincts take over. Such reliance was insulting and demeaning.
My children will not be animals, raised on instinct! They are born of two great bloodlines, and I will not turn them out like fish spawn! Their legacy will not be simply of our bodies, but of our minds as well!
She remembered the dinner they’d had in the ship’s galley; not merely ripping into the meats and vegetables they’d bought, but a civilized meal they’d worked on together, Ranma exhibiting an unexpected culinary skill with unfamiliar ingredients, Kodachi contributing her own knowledge, and even Nanami adding her own abilities to a feast that was more than mere fodder, refueling, or sustenance. It had been centerpiece for their conversation, a sharing of the day’s experiences. Then, while Nanami had retreated to her cabin, Kodachi and Ranma had gone upstairs to watch through the ship’s ports the nighttime show of the local militia flying helicopters over the town, looking for something. They apparently didn’t find it, though the airshow had been amusing nevertheless, before the two hybrids had gone on to more carnal distractions.
Did animals take such simple joy in the preparation of food, in elaborations of the act of feeding, of gathering and communicating, in watching events? Kodachi thought not.
No, Nanami-san, there will be more to our children than mere survival. Animals survive and are satisfied with that! I want more for my children! I want them to be better than I am, to have dreams they aren’t afraid of!
Sensing her thoughts, Ranma murmured reassuringly in her ear, while his tail twined up protectively around her waist and abdomen.
Assured that she wasn’t alone in this, Kodachi dared let her thoughts surge further ahead, as she descended into sleep.
For now they had to think of survival, learning new ways and new tools of the age, picking up what they could and needed to get by, but in time... In time her children, and Nanami’s as well, when she came around and truly joined their union, would do more. They wouldn’t be mere scavengers, hunters on the fringes of society, picking at the edges of Human civilization. They’d build their own society, one that was a testament to what their parents were. One that would make them more than the sum of their hybridized parts.
It wasn’t delusion that rose in her mind, fogged by animal lusts and primordial drives, but something sharper and more reasoned. Images rose clear and beautiful in her thoughts, blossoming like flowers; her children would be architects and creators and so much more, and they’d raise their castles and walk unashamedly and unafraid among the stars.
Kodachi drifted off to sleep walking the clean and gleaming streets of the cities her children would one day build.
In her cabin, a restless, semiconscious, fitful Nanami caught the images of flowing lines and arches and shining avenues under starlit skies without a trace of chattering hunger or fear and she knew peace as she finally drifted off to sleep, and some rather unabashedly naughty dreams....
”Son? You find what happened to those missing cattle? And what’s with the dogs? Son? Answer up, boy! What’s takin' ya-GAHHH!!!”
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(Posted Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:31)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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