Chapter 50

O ur night of crazy and claiming had the added benefit of smoothing some ruffled feathers. Rek was the first to say anything about any of it, because of course he was.

When he looked up at Odix across the table from him at breakfast, stared him dead in the eye and demanded to know, "What you do my Jojomine, make her scream like that?" it made for a funny, if awkward for the poor human guest staying with us indefinitely, conversation.

Thankfully, they all quickly switched to their native tongue to talk about it, leaving both humans present in the dark.

Hey, if they wanted to swap make her hoohah sing and our woman scream pointers, who was I to argue? They were bonding.

Sitting at the table sandwiched between Buu and Rek with Dace seated at the end next to Buu since she didn't really seem to trust anyone else really besides him and to a growing but small extent me, I almost felt bad for the woman.

She freaked out at the smallest things. She's passed out twice since she's been here and I wasn't even sure what triggered the second episode, to be honest. The woman was fearful of just about everyone and everything. It was kinda sad and helped me understand a bit better how and why she loved her cave living as much as she yammered on that she did.

"No eggs," Jeh-kal instructed Gopher, who was manning the stove today while Celuk sliced bread.

Jeh-kal made a mean pot of tummy tea, mixing it just right to ease the early morning pregnancy pukes the baby had ambushed my ass with.

"What's that?" Dace asked, peering around Buu to eye the pen in my hand.

"Working on baby names," I told her.

Dace nodded as she eyed my paper. "What do you have so far?"

"I definitely want to have my cousin's name in there somewhere. Rosa instead of Rosalinda, because it's much easier for the furred fiends to pronounce." Tapping the butt of the pen along my lip, I stared off out the kitchen window.

"If I ever have a child, I'd like a boy, so I can name him Melvin," Dace admitted with a straight face.

I stared at her for a long moment, to be sure before I opened my fat trap. Yep. Blondie was dead serious.

"Meld-van?" Rek tried the name out loud but grunted, scowled, dropped it and got back to the hot tea he was sipping beside me.

My pen lifted and I pointed it at my sock monkey. "That, right there, that's what you've gotta prepare yourself for. The name butchering."

"Melvin's a beautiful name," Dace squeaked. "It's my grandfather's name."

"No get pick, boy, girl. No work like that," Rek grumbled. "Have the sex, make the baby, no say what it be."

"I know that." Dace scowled over at him, but there was a moment there where she looked surprised to hear it.

"It's just like with humans procreating," I chimed in.

"There are positions you can do to get a certain sex of the baby with humans, though," Dace informed me.

"I'm not exactly sure those are tried and true, Blondie," I murmured quietly.

"Oh, but they are!" she insisted. Frowning down into her untouched mug of tea, she muttered after a bit of a think, "I mean, that's what my Gigi told me."

"What Geed-geed? That name?" Rek shrugged. "Rek like that name."

"Gigi is what I called my grandmother," Dace sputtered.

"No want baby name old people name," Odix blurted, blinking wildly as his gaze swung between us. "Why name baby old people name? Like naming them say, you old, here go."

"Wait. No. That's not-" I started to explain.

"Gigi means old?" Dace chirped in surprise. "But- But I thought it was short for Gloria. She told us to call her that because she was too young to be a memaw!"

"Maybe she want be Geed-geed ‘cause her name Glow-ree-uh," Rek muttered. Making a face, he grunted out, "Sound like big humans word means cha-ch-"

"A perfectly lovely name!" I cut in to call out over him. Aiming a dirty look his way, I sighed in relief when he scowled but zipped his big ol' yappy lips.

Dace scratched at her head. "How do you get Cha-cha from Gloria?" she blurted.

My gaze swung from Dace to Buu.

Buu made a face and lifted his upper arms in a half shrug that said he understood that nonsense about as much as I did. His lower arm, I noted, reached around Rek to cover his mouth.

"Rek no say it!" Rek barked as he slapped Buu's hand away. "Man's-handle Rek. No touches touches, Boob!"

Right. So Dace was a bit of an airhead, and Rek was still a dunderheaded ninnymuggins.

"Keh-Ro," Odix rumbled out softly. "Sound like you Buu say him name Buu-Kehr, has you Rosie, and Kehko."

I could only sit there and stare at him. It was cute.

Buu nixed that quick. "Kehr Buu second name. Clan name. Come after first name.

"What if that was the baby's second name?" I haggled.

"Buu like that," Buu agreed.

Odix beamed, happy to have a hand in naming our little one.

"Where Rek name in baby name?" King of the center of his own universe grumbled. "Where my Jojomine name in there?"

"You want to name our daughter Rek jr?" I spluttered, incredulous.

Rek made a face at me. "No, but Jojo cousin gets name in baby's name, Rek wants Jojomine name or Rek's name in baby's first name."

"Anie. Ah-knee," Celuk rumbled out softly. Glancing between all parties, he shrugged. "Like our Jo name, Jo-knee, but baby's own. Easy say. Anie Keh-Ro."

"Easy say," Jeh-kal agreed.

"Anie," I murmured thoughtfully. "I like it."

"Next one, Rek help name," Rek muttered, which in Rek speak meant he liked the name too much to argue to have a say. Leaning into him, I pecked a kiss to his cheek and then laid my head on his shoulder.

"Who is Annie?" Dace blurted out of the blue, cutting in on our cute family moment.

"Baby," Buu patiently reminded her.

"Your baby," she said with a nod.

"Our baby Rek make with my Jojomine," Rek grumbled as he nuzzled me right back and wrapped an arm around me.

The Huh? look on Dace's face, utter confusion, was followed by a frown close to a scowl. Mouthing what Rek had just told her, mulling it over, she finally nodded, but she looked anything but sure of what he'd meant. "The baby is still yours?" She leaned in to ask Buu softly.

Buu nodded. "Buu bebeh, too. Rek make but bebeh Buu's too, jes."

Another nod from Dace, who'd started wringing her hands anxiously. "This is all so confusing," Dace confided to Buu in an overloud whisper.

"It ‘kay." Buu reached out and gave her back a comforting pat.

Dace looked anything but comforted as she stared down into her untouched tea.

I had a funny feeling about her I couldn't quite shake, but what could I do? She struck me as a runner but she had to have some can't quit in her if she'd been living in a cave all this time, right? Whatever her deal may be, we were kinda stuck with her for the indefinite future.

Celuk followed my frowning gaze, scowling along with me as he eyed Dace.

It was hard to try and picture her in a villain's role, but I knew all too well anyone could play the villain or the hero in a scenario, and then alternately swap sides if they so choose—it was all about choices.

Not wanting her to feel like eyes were all on her and get nervous realizing it's the head honcho of this pad glowering over at her, I quickly glanced away in the hopes Celuk did the same.

Call it a silly hunch, but I just couldn't shake the funky juju vibes with that one. I had an odd kinda sense about Dace. My Spidey sense were-a-tinglin'.