Chapter 43

T hings were… I had no idea how to gauge things, to be honest. Buu was the best platonic boyfriend in the world. He was caring, attentive, kind, sweet as can be. It was like fate had mated me to Gopher's cosmic twinsy. I had no other way to describe it.

However, at night we slept in the same cave room but different sleeping pelts. He never made a move on me, not one. It was forehead nuzzles and cuddles galore when we talked, in abundance, but bed time was a quick nuzzle good night and he was toodaloo-ing to his sleeping pelts.

Had I been friendzoned by my new mate and I was too stupid to realize it?

If I smiled, he took it for what it was if a human made the gesture, no more slip ups like before. I was almost sorry he so easily remembered himself.

Trying to broach the subject with him made me feel queasy and uneasy, like I was being a totally unreasonable asshole about all of this. I couldn't blame him if he was feeling a mite put out about this whole thing. My alienness to him was probably as intimidating as his alienness to me was feeling.

What else could I do or not do to incite something?

Afraid to hurt his feelings, understanding just how sensitive he could be, I held my tongue and hoped for some sort of magical, mystical intervention that had yet to come. I had to question how healthy tip toeing around like this with him was.

Weeks had passed and the entrance was not only snowed in, it was now iced over. As iced over as things felt with Buu in the pelt sack.

We were heading into months territory with this shit from the looks of it. My heart ached to think of the villagers looking for me, or god forbid assuming I just fucking up and ditched them like an asshole, my gut gnawed at me with worry over it all. My mates. I missed them all so damn much. Did they miss me? Were they as freaked out about all of this and out of their skulls worried? How the hell was I going to get back to them?!

And, bonus, morning sickness had hit me full force with no sign of letting up.

Hm. Maybe that was it? No sexy times because I'm a nasty, puking mess and he can smell it times a thousand?

Damn. I wouldn't want a piece of me either. Barf.

"Joalee?" Buu called out.

By the time I'd set down the fruit I was peeling for next meal and stood, he'd already hunted me down.

"Sick?" His eyes darted about my person worriedly. "Foods come up? Needs water? Make eeuck sound."

My eyes widened. We could add super hearing to his list of crazy shit he could do. "I was thinking to myself and made an ugh sound. Sorry."

"Joalee ‘kay?" he grunted out, moving in closer to examine me.

"I'm okay. So is bump," I assured him. My hands smoothed over my belly. I couldn't wait for a little bump to start showing. With no baby name in mind yet, Bump became a sort of stand in name.

Moving in for a hug, he nuzzled the top of my head and his arms wrapped around me. One of his hands slid to my belly and his fingers spread out, fanning over it. Ugh. Best snuggler ever.

Lifting my head, I smiled up at him as he pulled back to meet my gaze. "I want to try something," I told him.

Studying my face closely, curiosity piquing, he nodded.

"You have to bring your mouth closer to mine," I murmured. I'd never been so glad for the foul tasting stuff he uses for mouth wash than I was right now.

"What do?" he asked. His throat began to work as he bent and dipped down closer.

"I want to press my mouth to yours, to kiss."

"Kiss," he whispered. He moved in so close our noses bumped and I had to urge him to back up a smidge to angle my face better for this.

Cupping his face, I steered his face back down to meet mine, smiling happily when he complied. Bumping his nose with mine in an Eskimo kiss, an action that had his clicking purr rattling to life, I leaned in then and placed my lips over his.

His clicking purr gurgled to a stop, stuttered, then revved up so loud it had me smiling against his mouth.

When I pulled back, I grinned up at him.

"This kiss?" he rumbled out softly.

"Yeah. It's one kind of kiss."

His furry brows shot upward. "More kisses kinds?"

"Yeah." Licking my lips, relishing the taste of him on me, I had to pause for a minute to collect myself to explain. "There are deeper kisses, some with tongue, and some… on other parts of the body-"

Grabbing me up, he announced, "Kiss deep, tongues," and smashed his mouth to mine.

With a laugh, I wove my arms around his neck and tilted my head to deepen our kiss. A growl tore from his throat as he parted his lips and my tongue dipped inside his mouth to brush along his.

He was so cute, adorably curious, eager to learn more, it was as sexy as it was endearing.

Two hands grabbed my ass and squeezed the rounded globes. Automatically lifting my legs, I wrapped them around his waist. A second set of hands gripped my thighs as if to hold me there.

Stumbling towards the wall, trying to watch where he was going through the corner of his eye as he held our kiss had me forcing back the laugh about to leave me. I highly doubted he'd take kindly to hearing I thought he was being too frickin' cute for words.

Pushing me up against the wall, one of his upper hands buried in my hair, holding me in place as his tongue darted out to tangle with mine. It was sloppy and untried but I was smitten all the same.

The happy rumbling growl he let out told me he very much enjoyed kissing.

My fingers tightened in his fur, eliciting a groan from him.

"Miss- Want," he growled out as he broke our kiss long enough to catch his breath and then dove right back in.

"I want you, too," I told him. My thighs gave him a little squeeze and he pressed me harder into the wall.

Dragging my legs up higher, until they were hanging over his second set of forearms, he held me open to him.

Glancing down as he widened his stance, I watched as his tail, the tip hairless and thick, slipped between his legs, then up the back of my thigh. With unerring precision, it slid through my folds, slicking itself up on the juices it found there. When it was glistening with lubrication and I was all but squirming to get that bit of something inside of me, it brushed my folds, careful to pay special attention to my clit one last time, before he notched his tail tip at my entrance and rammed home.

My nails dug into his shoulders and I cried out. His lips crashed down on mine, eating up the sound, then his tongue took full advantage. My cries of ecstasy were swallowed up by hungry, rumble against my mouth kisses.

His hips canted as his tail took me to the edge, teasing me as I teetered on the brink. I was so damn close. Almost there.

"Mine," he growled against my mouth as his tail drew back, withdrew completely, and then his groin pressed wetly to mine. One moment I felt the lips of the seam I'd spied on his person one eye opening morning as he'd led me to the bathroom and then relieved himself right after me, right there in front of me, and then that unholy equipment he was housing shot free, slamming into my quivering sheath with precision and speed.

A howl tore from his throat, and then his prehensile friend was pulsating deep inside of me, swelling and working its way deeper, until we were good and stuck together and I was a mewling, panting hot mess of ecstasy.

Gasping for breath, digging my nails into his biceps as they raked down his shoulders in a way I was sure was bound to leave a mark, I eyeballed the deep blue whale dick my man was packing. He'd been sporting a bulge for days, pouching the front of his groin, and not one move was made. Any attempts to find out more about him were met with an odd evasiveness that had me holding back. I couldn't help but feel held off, like he was trying to gently reject me.

Was this a situation like Tor, where he was hiding something, or in this case maybe his whole-assed self? He lived in a cave in the woods away from everyone but for this Dace he'd stumbled across and adopted as his roommate.

It was so unlike me not to just put it out there, all cards on the table.

In some ways, I had to acknowledge I wasn't the same person who'd come loudmouthing their way onto the scene.

I wasn't that old Joanie anymore and probably hadn't been for quite some time now.

I supposed, in some ways, I'd sort of… grown.

I liked Buu. I understood that there were going to be misunderstandings between us, probably a lot.

Yes, he'd met and befriended a human and they'd taught him basic English, but everything else between us, I was painfully aware, in a lot of ways was still super foreign for both of us.

Buu panted above me, lifting his head to buss my forehead with his. His legs shook with the force of his release as he continued to empty inside of me and our bodies carried on our dalliance without any further input from either of us. Words spilled from his lips, similar to the Lo denaii speak, if more guttural. I had no clue as to what he was saying but it all sounded rough, hungry, and strangely sweet.

He could be talking about his favorite fucking fruit for all that I knew, but I was going to pretend it was just the right things to say because that's what I god damned needed right now.

A groan left him as his hands smoothed down my thighs. His upper hands slid up my back, one of the hands on my thighs slid down to my calf while one of his upper hands smoothed right over the large map of scars spanning my left side.

My body's reaction was involuntary, instantaneous. A heady gasp escaped me and my back arched, thrusting my breasts out in the process, I shook with the best holy shit that feels so damn good shivers. Instant arousal. With him buried deep, my cunt tried to choke his dick, my channel clenched so hard.

A growling moan followed, his lips smacking to my forehead in a kiss.

Then he smoothed his hands up and down my calf and side, over and over, until I was a mindless, screaming, mewling mess demanding between nonsensical noises that he fuck me, and he was grinding his pelvis with mine, gritting his teeth to force back the howl in his throat.

Intense. That's how I'd describe sex with Buu. Mind blowingly intense.

By the time our bodies had called it quits, I was ready to call it a night, forget even thinking about making dinner. Mama needed a nap.

Buu hissed as his retractable penis slipped back into his body, the seam housing his genitalia sealing shut right after. His fur hid it well, but I knew exactly where the opening was now.

Slipping me into his arms, he carried me to the salt baths and dipped us into one of the pools towards the back of the large room. Nuzzling my way up his shoulder, my tongue darted out to run along the vein bulging in his neck. He was furry, and I'd licked him, it was a furball waiting to be coughed up I was willing to risk.

I was not expecting him to yelp and then drop me in his shock.

Resurfacing with a splutter, I gave him a long, measuring look through the eye I wasn't squinting shut. "I keep forgetting," I mumbled, almost absently, "that we're so different." We could label neck licking your alien cave dweller a big nope.

Buu looked hurt for all of two seconds, before his expression smoothed out. Seeing that, I just snapped. "No. No, we are not going to be that couple, the dancing on eggshells headcases that end up resenting each other." Taking a much needed deep breath, I continued, "Look, I like you, a lot, we're heading into love your squishing insides to pieces territory, but this is never going to work between us if you can't be honest with me, with yourself, with us and where we stand in our relationship, and just fucking tell me what it is I'm doing that you don't like, why you don't like it, so I can promise never to do whatever it was I'd unknowingly done to offend ever again, okee dokee?"

Buu just stared down at me unblinkingly, as if I'd grown three heads.

"I did that song and dance once- a lot, actually, and it won't work. It never does. So, you know, you be you and I'll be me, and if you have any questions about the many varied customs of my people, you know, just fire away, okay? I don't want there to be any confusion between us."

He nodded, but I wasn't entirely sold on him understanding.

"Joalee… want stay with Buu," he said slowly.

Frowning up at him, my brow furrowed so hard it hurt. "I mean, yeah, I'm your mate, aren't I?"

"Buu claim Joalee," he agreed with a nod. "Joalee Buu mate." It felt like there was a but in there but I was lost as to how, so I let it go. Maybe I was just reading into it.

"And you're my Peekaboo Buu-Kehr-bear. End of story. We're together. We're having a baby. You're my fuzzy wuzzy, purple nurple angel. We're good." There. That should settle it. No confusion. Short and sweet. You're mine, I'm yours, no more frowny faced what the fucks.

"Buu Joalee Peekedaboo, Buu-Kehr-ed-beared." He gave a firm nod.

"Right." My head bobbed in a nod. "Exactly. We're together, a couple, forever and ever, amen."

"A-ed-man," he repeated, which just made me think he was repeating after me with no real idea what he was saying.

Fuck me.

My hand lifted to my forehead to rub at the spot between my eyes. I was getting a headache already. Praying for patience and that he didn't get super upset with me and storm off, I took a deep, fortifying breath and dove in. "Do females of your kind… not lick their men?" I guessed. We could start there. That was simple.

"No know. Claiming private," he admitted. "Go deep in caves, no want others watches."

"Oh. Well, okay. I can work with that. So, uhm, for us, are there any things you don't want me to do to you?" The Joanie was on a roll. My dude husbands support group back home would be proud. I thought of them frequently and all the advice I'd given as things cropped up with Buu. Couldn't say I always followed it but, uh, yeah…

"Leave," he said after some thought. "No want Joalee leave Buu."

I smiled at that and hugged him to me. "I'm never leaving you. You're kinda stuck with me." Giving him a squeeze, I teased, "How would I ever manage without my Peekaboo?"

His clicking purr had me grinning like a fool.

Rubbing his hands soothingly up and down my back, he cleared his throat roughly before asking, "When- How- What Joalee do, want Buu to… Want Buu mount for claiming?"

"What do I do to tell you I'm ready for some lovin'?" I mused, but then countered immediately with, "What do you do, because I'm going to admit it's been a rough couple of weeks and smiling at you like I'm ready to jump you just gets me a frowny faced stare."

A choking noise left him. "Joalee want Buu mount, gives the teeth smiles for Buu mount?" Gently pulling me away from him, he grunted, "Which ones. Which smileys for mounting?"

He looked so stunned I sucked in my lips to hold in my laughter.

He gave me a look that said if I laughed I was going to get to experience his unfettered annoyance firsthand. It helped squash the mirth bubbling inside of me. So serious, this guy.

"Can't you smell when I'm, you know, in the mood? My arousal?"

"Joalee smell sweet, very sweet, she ready, but Buu no know when Joalee want Buu mount."

"God, this is more complicated than I thought," I muttered. "Spontaneity goes right out the window."

"Spontane-a-etty?" he repeated slowly.

"Uhm, like, spur of the moment, unplanned. Like if you were feeling frisky, ahem, I mean, if you wanted to mount me, and you weren't sure if I was into it or not, and you, like, came up and got all sweet on me— kissy and huggy and come on, baby, I wanna claim ya . You know?"

His brow furrowed and his expression turned skeptical. "Joalee ‘kay Buu spontane-a-etty? Buu approach Joalee for mounting?"

"Do you mean to tell me that this entire time I've been looking for some kind of sign from you, it's been a ladies' choice kind of deal? You've been waiting for me to tell you I want to have sex, make love, to be mounted, in some way I wasn't aware you were looking for that you weren't even sure of as to what yourself?"

"Female tell male," he told me. "No want. Male no mount. Wait for female. No take. Wait. Buu not greedy."

"Well, if I'm into it, and you're comfortable with the idea of taking the lead… I'm good with you making the first move, too." I had a feeling he'd be needing a minute with that one. "I mean, sometimes it's nice, you know, when your lover comes to you for lovin'." Tossing him an overdone wink, my smile grew lopsided. "Sometimes a greedy male willing to give as good as he gets, it's kind of sexy."

Poor guy eyed me like he thought I was pulling one over on him. "Joalee mates, back her village, they do this? They come to Joalee for mounting?"

"Sometimes I'm the one that does the mounting," I purred.

Buu's jaw about dropped. "Joalee mounts?" he spluttered.

"Yep." I made the p pop. Hefting my butt out of the water, I stood, salty water dripping everywhere, wet, bared, not a care, and smiled at him from over my shoulder as I walked away from him. "We could try it sometime, if you want. It's a lot of fun. I'll forewarn you, though, I'm kinda bossy."

A gurgling noise bubbled up his throat as he watched me go.

He looked like a bug-eyed, wet ball of fur.

My sultry laugh echoed down the hall as I headed for our room. He kept a small stack of woven cloths in there for drying off.

When he didn't follow, I couldn't say I was necessarily disappointed. I mean, I'd clearly shocked the poor guy senseless. He obviously needed a minute.

By the time our next meal rolled around, he seemed quite chipper.

I had to wonder, as we crawled into our own respective beds five nights later to catch some shut eye, every sexual encounter left at my hands despite our little chat, if I'd been talking to a very sweet and cuddly, immovable wall.

Buu seemed no more interested in starting the party than he had before. Eh. Perhaps it was just not his way. Maybe he really liked to have me initiate it and then go hog wild on me. Hey, I wasn't complaining, I just wondered sometimes if this was what he wanted, how he wished things to be.

My thoughts drifted to my guys, as they always did when I was left to my own devices.

Did they miss me? Had they forgotten about me? According to my markings on the wall, it's been long enough I wouldn't be surprised in the least if anyone had decided to call it and pronounced me dead or something.

Iced in like this, no one was getting in and no one was getting out.

"Gopher and you, I think you guys will get along great. You have pretty similar personalities in so many ways," I murmured.

"Gopher look like Buu?" he asked hopefully. I listened to the sounds of him shifting on his furs.

"Well… no, but Tor, he has a horned side, Hyde, and a middle side, the mix of the two that he calls Jeh-kal, and you're similar looks wise. Kinda."

"Your village? They keep this Tor-Hyde? Even though him different?"

"No one really talks about it," I admitted. "I'm not entirely certain everybody knows."

Buu made a sound in his throat. "Buu not welcome villages. Buu different. Think Buu… bad like Krampus."

"They won't," I swore. "Not my people. Not Rosa or Mal, or Gopher. Not once they see who you are. Rosa's mate, he's part Zhubar beast, so are her kids."

"Zhubar beast in village?" Awe filled his voice. "No makes him leave? Lets him stay?"

"He goes on hunting trips with the other beasts and everything. Built his house under a tree. It's really badass. And Zhuii is smart. He's kind of a mad scientist beastly inventor. I should introduce you to him, too," I murmured as I glanced his way one last time, snuggled down and then closed my eyes. "Do males ever snuggle females while they sleep?" I asked on a yawn.

"No," he grunted out. "Females sleep in females' den," he admitted.

"How come you left yours?" Tugging up my pelts, I snuggled down.

"No leave." Clearing his throat, he murmured softly, "They leave. Die. Old. Sick. Fight in the outside. Krampus take. No come back. Buu only one of Buu blood clan left. Kehr-tir. ‘Lone ‘til find Dace."

If that wasn't the saddest, heartbreaking shit I'd ever heard. "Would it be alright if I slept with you? Cuddled with you?" Sitting up, I hefted my blankets up along with me.

Buu stared at me as if I'd just asked him if I could suck him off. He couldn't move fast enough to make room for me.

Dragging my pelts over to him, I made my bed right next to his and snuggled right up against him, the big spoon to his little spoon.

"You have me, and Bump now, too, and soon you'll have a whole village," I whispered, pressing a kiss to his shoulder.

His clicking purr, which had really gotten going by this point, sputtered out a bit when I talked about going home. I knew he had his worries about it but he'd see.

We'd get thawed outta here and head out and he'd find himself with so many friends and family he wouldn't know what to do with them. He'd have a clan again.

My arms wrapped around him tighter. I couldn't even imagine what it must have been like for him, losing everyone you love, being left all alone.

As much as there was a tiny green gremlin grousing about his mysterious roommate in the back of my mind, I was honestly grateful he'd stumbled across a human and brought them back to his cave, to then take them in as clan. As green-eyed as I could be, it was too damn selfish to be an ass about that.

Whenever, if ever I met this Dace, I assumed a woman from the way he'd briefly described them, squeaky voiced, small, long hair and large eyes. Trying to picture a man like that, I just kept picturing a ring loving creature from a much enjoyed fantasy book made into a movie and snorted my ass off.

Well, whomever they were, I owed them for befriending my preciousss.

Smiling to myself at my silly thoughts, I settled against Buu with a happy sigh.

His lack of tail flicking and the soft twitches taking over his frame, didn't occur to me until later. Much later.

Sometimes odd signs are there, we're just not paying them any mind.

Sometimes, our new partner is alien and it doesn't click right away.

Sometimes, we're too happy to pause and just think.

Sometimes, it's already a problem, it's been a problem, but by the time the problem is clearly acknowledged and seen, it's too late.