Figuring out what time it was on Taihorca IV was unintuitive. Or, if one asked the locals, it was irrelevant. People woke up when they felt like it, worked for a few hours wherever they worked, and then went to bed when they got tired. There was a wide range of circadian rhythms, which meant there was no real rush hour and none of the stores or restaurants stuck to the same length of time as their definition of a ‘day’.

Either way, Svetlana had been up for about ten hours when she’d landed, so had only been good for about seven hours of vaguely socialising with Ouzzhen that first night. They’d left for separate sleeping options, a security precaution from one side or the other. Svetlana’s polycule ended up in a small house in the hills on the edge of the town (which mostly ran parallel to the waterfront). There was a pool and windows set up to watch the eternal sunset. It was all very nice and the sort of thing someone upper middle class rented out through one of those short term rental apps that drove the price of local housing.

A brief hope that the rest of the galaxy had a better system danced across her mind on the way to find a bed to pass out in.

Houyu’s cries had woken her up a couple times in the night, but that was to be expected with a baby that was only months old. 

The third time had apparently been a reasonable hour to wake up, O’tmyil informing her that it had been seven hours since she’d gone to bed. So she gave up on sleeping further and sat down, holding the small baby and gently rocking little Houyu back to sleep after a diaper change.

“Multi-tasker,” Vivian said quietly, walking barefoot across the smooth floor towards her.

It probably wasn’t linoleum, but it seemed like linoleum. All very smooth and continuous.

“Multi-tasker?” Svetlana asked as Vivian sat beside her on the heavy and well cushioned couch (Kobaroic interior design continuing to be cozy). 

“Mhm, looking after three babies at once,” Vivian replied, running a hand along Svetlana’s belly. “It just struck me as amusing.”

Svetlana blushed furiously. “That--I... I mean, there’s barely anything in there yet. Just a couple small handfuls of cells. It... it probably won’t feel real until the morning sickness hits.”

“Don’t they have something for that out here?” Vivian asked.

“We do,” O’tmyil said, walking in from the kitchen with some breakfast for both of them. “But someone apparently thinks it will give her gender euphoria.”

“Really?” Vivian asked, staring at Svetlana.

“I... I just wanted to see if I could tough out a couple mornings of it. Then I’ll take my medicine like a good girl,” Svetlana replied.

“Just as a test of your abilities and determination?” Vivian said as both of them accepted the plates O’tmyil had cooked.

As Svetlana awkwardly passed Houyu to O’tmyil while holding the plate in one hand she noted it seemed to be vaguely akin to a standard anglophone breakfast. There was some sort of greasy meat. Flatbread in place of toast, but it was close enough. Then there were things that generally resembled beans in some sort of sweet syrup-y sauce. And scrambled eggs from some sort of alien creature.

The flavours were all a little odd, but not bad. Just... different. 

Part way through eating, Svetlana paused, turning to both Vivian and O’tmyil (the latter continuing to rock a now sleeping Houyu). “This... this isn’t too much, is it?”

“Hm?” Vivian asked.

“With Ouzzhen. That’s... I worry I’m ignoring you too much, Viv. You just--we just had a baby, and I’m off romancing someone else for the polycule,” Svetlana said, trying not to feel like the villain. “On top of getting myself pregnant.”

She’d gotten so caught up in political nonsense it had started to blind her to the actual issues of her family. Of those she loved.

Maybe it was what being royalty had to mean, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Or cooperate with the pressures more than necessary.

“Oh no. You’re leaving me alone with just Plynx and Thisbe and Bokarza to comfort me. How tragic,” Vivian said, flashing a grin. “I love you, Svetlana, but you don’t need to carry the whole polycule on your shoulders. Everyone’s pitching in with Houyu. Everyone loves Houyu plenty. I expect to love the two little tykes you’re carrying when you pop them out and I get to meet them... Sure, it would be nice to see more of you, but you also have a job. Plus, the ability to bring peace between two ancient and powerful galaxy spanning empires. That’s pretty cool and worth missing a few cuddles over.”

With that she leaned in and kissed Svetlana on the cheek. It led to a smile spreading across Svetlana’s face and she leaned in against Vivian’s side. 

“I’ll still try to catch up on the cuddles as soon as I can.”

“I just want to know why I was excluded from the list of other lovers,” O’tmyil said in a quiet protest.

“Because you go where Svetlana goes,” Vivian replied.

“... true. I shall also have to catch up on missed time together when possible,” O’tmyil said.

It turned out that Ouzzhen had rented out a home much closer to the water. Walking over to it with O’tmyil in her pocket, Svetlana had found the low sun now felt more like early morning than sunset. Once she was inside, though, the curtains were drawn on the sunward side, the lighting currently artificial. (The windows on the other side had open curtains, and probably a dozen security personnel watching from a ‘discrete’ distance.)

“Good morning, Svetlana,” Ouzzhen said, looking rather more impressive in the somewhat human scaled home.

Sure, it was actually sized for Kobaroians, but they still had at least a good metre of height on any Kobaroian woman. Somehow the two other Zuumults managed to look smaller where they stood, but Svetlana supposed that was a matter of confidence.

“Hello, Ouzzhen,” Svetlana said. “I see you have a video screen set up already.”

“It seemed foolish to waste time when you seemed to have so many shows to, well, show me,” Ouzzhen replied, grinning again. “I’m certainly interested in the idea... Vahr has connected us to a copy of your internet, so we should be able to watch whatever has been digitized.”

“A copy of the whole--that’s, like, terabytes? Uh... lots of terabytes.” Svetlana said, mildly baffled.

“Mhm? A good amount of data for a single planet,” Ouzzhen replied. “I believe our search algorithm should be better at hunting for data than any Earthling ones.”

“I... I really feel like a medieval peasant out here sometimes,” Svetlana mumbled.

“It’s cute,” Ouzzhen said with a grin.

“I’ll take that as a win,” Svetlana replied, before heading over to the couch.

After a bit of instruction she found she understood the interface well enough and was able to start hunting for shows. Which also meant hunting for episode lists, because the first episode was rarely the best episode for many of the shows she wanted to find.

The search function that the Zuumults had was really quite amazing, managing to pull up forum posts from 1998 as easily as major corporate websites or Digipedia articles. Copyright blocks were absolutely useless in the face of it. 

Which meant that soon enough they were watching through all the most classic episodes of Svetlana’s favourite anime. While the shows were great and her Japanese was still spotty enough that she had to check what the subtitles were saying at points, her main focus was still on whether or not Ouzzhen was enjoying things. 

The slapstick seemed to go over well, so that was good. Some of the other comedy seemed to escape them. As did the entire concept of genderbending... to an even greater degree than it confused most aliens, but that was understandable all things considered. 

There was one response that seemed quite genuine, though.

“I quite like this priest fellow with the purple hair,” they said, wearing that sharp toothed grin once again.

“Oh, yeah. He’s fun. Evil, but fun,” Svetlana replied, before trying to hunt down another show.

The first thing Bokarza did with having a proper day off was sleep in. It was such a wonderful luxury; just laying in bed until it got boring. Especially on a planet where it never became noon, so it was hard to feel bad about getting up late.

Once she’d had enough, she and O’ktaubr headed out to explore the town and its surroundings. There were some good restaurants with traditional Kobaroic dishes. There were also small grocers selling bags of junk food. She’d not had a chance to indulge in any of her guilty (cheap) pleasures in a while, even when back in Kobaroic space, so happily munched on a bag of deep fried juk leaves while she strolled about the town. Sure, even here people recognised her as the queen, but they didn’t care much. Just the occasional autograph request. Which she was happy to give.

Plynx was sitting with Agent Lee, watching the home Ouzzhen had taken up residence in. There were a couple of rooms with stronger insolation that made infrared readouts difficult, but Svetlana had only briefly stepped into one of those. She’d been completely alone and the blueprints showed it was the toilet. So, when she left a couple minutes later it was agreed there was no cause for concern. 

Still, it was nice to be able to use the binoculars to watch as Svetlana showed various works of Earth media to Ouzzhen. Just for her own piece of mind.

“That is not the anime,” Plynx muttered, eyes narrowing.

Agent Lee stepped up beside her, binoculars of his own pointed at the viewing screen. “Ah. Indeed it is not. Still, the protagonist is a samurai. I believe that is within an acceptable margin of error.”

“It still strikes me as an odd means of approaching galactic diplomacy,” A’khaun, the Lanthonean head of the imperial guard, said as he also watched what was playing out. “Seduction I have heard of, but this is... something else.”

“This is how to find one’s way into the target-diplomatic’s heart, not merely they-target’s pants,” Plynx replied. “Far more lasting, though perhaps less reliable.”

“Valuable with a target that is asexual,” Agent Lee said.

“Zuumults reproduce asexually, but that does not mean they do not have appetites for the pleasure,” A’khaun said.

“Whatever the case... I have realised what episode this is. Of course she has gone with that episode,” Plynx said, purring briefly in amusement.

There were lots of antique shops to dig through in the small beach town. That seemed to Thisbe to be indication it did indeed normally get a good number of visitors. Whatever the case, she was happy to poke about as well as to chat with the elderly Kobaroians who staffed many of the stores. 

They all complimented her on how good she looked for being 200, causing Thisbe to remember with slight embarassment that was roughly the same as being 80 for a Kobaroian. They had meant it genuinely, rather than as a playful joke.

In fact, she discovered one particularly ancient woman was actually older than she was. The woman’s accent was rather old fashioned, which tested Thisbe’s Kobaroic, but everyone here spoke without hurry. Things happened when they happened, a patience that came with living next to the ocean and its tempestuous weather.

Really, all of it was leaving her a little homesick, thinking about how long it had been since she’d last been in Barbados. Or the Caribbean in general. Moving to mainland Canada had been useful for finding work, but it simply wasn’t where her island heart lived.

Distracted by that she very nearly missed Vahr hurrying along and popping into a small grocer. Curious what any of the Zuumults were doing alone she slipped into the store as well. She found them staring at a wall of crispy chip-like snacks and looking utterly baffled.

“Svetlana sent you on a snack run?” Thisbe asked.

Vahr jumped slightly, clearly not used to having anyone sneak up on them. “Um, yes. She said we required ‘chips’. And not the micro kind.”

“Mhm. Some popcorn would also be good,” Thisbe replied, before looking over the selection. “Ah, there’s a party mix. That’s probably fairly close... oh, and those are blue flavour. Svetlana likes to say that blue is good when you want something deliciously artificial. Doesn’t work with Lanthonean cooking, but seems reliable everywhere else. I recommend also grabbing her some blue and white or transparent pops.”

With that, Thisbe found herself leading Vahr through the store, finding their efforts to not bump into anything despite being too large for the store rather endearing. After a few minutes she’d loaded their basket up with significantly more food than she’d normally get for a party. It seemed needed with just how large a Zuumult’s appetite had to be. 

Though it also led to rather a lot of bags being handed over by the slightly terrified looking Kobaroian man behind the cash. 

“I’ll take a couple,” Thisbe said as she noticed Vahr struggling to grab them all.

“Oh, I could not impose upon you further,” Vahr replied.

Smiling, Thisbe found herself liking them, and decided to project some of that fondness to relax them. “There’s nothing else on my schedule.”

“Ah... well, thank you,” Vahr said. 

Stepping out of the store, however, she found them in rather a hurry to get back to their elde--larger sibling. With those long legs it would have been rather a struggle for Thisbe to keep up if she hadn’t been a vampire nearly on her third century of vampirism. As she was, it was merely slightly awkward to hurry after them.

Perhaps three minutes later they’d crossed the two kilometres to where Ouzzhen was staying, Vahr having to place a few more bags in Thisbe’s arms to be able to open the door.

“Ah, Vahr, we were starting to miss you,” Ouzzhen said, turning to the door with that nearly ever present smile on their lips.

“I was unfamiliar with the sorts of snacks I was sent to get,” Vahr said, sounding rather more apologetic than Ouzzhen’s tone had seemed to require. “Consort Thisbe assisted me, however.”

With that they stepped out of the way while grabbing the bags from Thisbe. Not sure what to do with herself she gave a small wave.

“Woo Thisbe!” Svetlana said. 

“It is very appreciated,” Ouzzhen added.

“No worries,” Thisbe replied, still standing awkwardly at the door. 

Svetlana had hurried over to look through the snack collection, which left her only watched by Ouzzhen. It was hard to deny that Thisbe wanted to stay to keep an eye on them... she’d known enough older vampires in her day to know that many Supernaturals saw mortals as mere playthings. Unfortunately, she was a vampire herself, and so had no easy ability to follow Vahr across the open door.

“The help was very appreciated,” Ouzzhen said, “but if you have other things to attend to there’s no need for you to stand there. We won’t find your departure rude.”

“Of... of course not,” Thisbe said, knowing that asking for an invitation would be overstepping at the moment.

And so she left.

The first day had gone very well in Svetlana’s opinion. Sure. Ouzzhen had interesting tastes in characters (purple haired priests, silver haired pyromaniacs, and so on), but they were all pretty iconic characters.

On the second day they’d spent most of their time out and about. Hiking was pleasant, with Ouzzhen able to help them over a few obstacles with ease. Really, it was so much ease that Svetlana felt her heart racing. The power displayed was... well, she couldn’t help but wonder how that would translate to certain other activities. (She’d already worked up her durability a bit with Bokarza after all.)

For the third day, though, it was back to cultural lessons. AKA: anime and giant monster movies. There were just so many excellent series to watch, and Ouzzhen seemed quite happy for the coziness of watching a show while seated on a couch, occasionally munching on snacks.

“There are lots of alien invasions in your media,” Ouzzhen said, leaning back as two hours of monster madness rolled to an end.

“There’s lots of invasions from other countries in our history,” Svetlana replied, feeling a bit embarrassed. “Making up an enemy was the politically safe option.”

“Understandable,” Ouzzhen said, nodding, before turning to study her with those space-black eyes. “I am glad to see it has left no great fear in you.”

“I’m... I’m an optimist like that,” Svetlana managed as Ouzzhen leaned in.

Soon enough their arms were to either side of Svetlana, leaving her heart racing. This was the moment she’d waited for. Either she was about to be kissed or eaten by the large apex predator she’d been spending so much time with.

At least those were the options the reptilian part of her brain were offering (or, maybe the fish parts, considering how shark-like Ouzzhen was). 

Of course it was a kiss. Rather a cold one, but she’d kissed Thisbe while the vampiric woman was famished, so she’d had cold kisses. It was, other than that, a touch disappointing compared to the build up, but that just meant Ouzzhen lacked practice.

They did not lack enthusiasm, however. More kisses followed, Svetlana realising the others were hurrying out of the room. Someone closed the curtains, she vaguely noticed that, but Agent Lee had said the curtains were no great concern to the safety monitoring force, so that didn’t panic her. In fact she barely noticed as her clothes began to be removed, partially feeling like a doll next to Ouzzhen. 

Oh, but those large and firm hands were wonderful as they traced her body...

Utterly nude after an hour of ecstasy, Svetlana made her way to the shower. It was both a matter of washing up and hoping that some high powered hot water would massage her muscles out after some of the force Ouzzhen had just used. It had never been unpleasant, but it had been rather more... intense than Svetlana was used to. She was almost as sore as she’d been after fighting.

It was definitely something she hoped to try again, though. 

So she wandered into the washroom and let the hot water blast her. Things were definitely going well.