The East Asia Tour was now a blur behind her. Laying in her hotel suite bed, Ro (everyone agreed it was just easiest to call her that most of the time) had to admit it had been fun. The Philippines and Malaysia maybe could have gone better, but it things had just gotten great from there. It seemed that most of the countries on the tour got a blast out of the whole genderbending thing. Rubbing elbows with androgynous pop idols in various interviews and talk shows had helped confirm that, even as she’d stumbled through the basics of various languages.

All the practicalities of the water effects and swapping back and forth on stage had been ironed out by Hanoi and had gone over delightfully after that. Especially in Japan.

Now, though... she was more than a little fried. Especially as the whole polycule had come along, Mario and Teddy stumbling their way into helping out security and the transport teams. Which was nice, but trying to juggle touring and four romantic partners was a bit too much for her brain after so many weeks on the road.

A soft knock on the door drew her out of her spacing. Crossing the large and really quite luxurious Chengdu hotel sweet, she cracked the door open to find Jovita out front of it.

“Hey. Logan tells me your brain is at least 50% melted,” she said.

Ro nodded. “Probably more like 70%... why?”

“What do you say to unplugging for a week or two? I’ve got a nice little hike booked, up in the Tibetan plateau,” Jovita said. “The air is fresh and cool up there. Hiking it’s really JK’s thing and you’re my next closest friend in the band.”

The promise of fresh cool air was very tempting, having been dealing with muggy June weather in lowland China. Especially when the alternative was returning to muggy June weather in Southern Ontario instead.

“I wouldn’t be opposed to it,” Ro said, feeling slightly unsure about the sudden proposal. “There’s no way Rachel is fine with me disappearing for two weeks, though.”

“She is,” Jovita replied, the tall woman offering a smile that would have been suspicious from anyone else. Jovita, though, had always been rather trustworthy. “Already checked it over with her. It took a little haggling, but I never ask her for much.”

“Huh... well, I’m not sure about how everyone else would feel about me being gone,” Ro mumbled.

“It would be a good test for the polycule, wouldn’t it? To make sure everyone gets along and it isn’t just running off of your charisma? Plus, everyone would trust me with you, since I have the double protections of being aro and ace,” Jovita explained. “And I’m big enough to keep you separated from anyone else.”

To emphasize the point she flexed, her arms thicker than Ro’s thighs. It was both a tragedy that Jovita was aro-ace, so that Ro could never date her, and a blessing so that any other sapphic within 50km of her could get a girlfriend.

“Alright. Well, you seem to have everything worked out already, so... why not? I don’t get out into the bush nearly enough.”

“Yay! I’m so glad you’ve agreed!” Jovita said, clasping her hands and shaking them up and down with enthusiasm.

If Ro had realised quite how early he’d have to be dragged out of bed the next morning to meet up with their guide then he might not have agreed to things. As it was, he was blinking sleep out of his eyes while nursing an energy drink. At least it was early enough that the suburban parking lot was sticky with humidity but not yet hot.

Their ride was some sort of a minibus that had been converted into something half resembling a mobile home. The vehicle definitely did not seem like it would be road legal in Canada, and Ro had to wonder if it was actually legal in China either. The woman who drove it seemed nice, though. Even if she barely spoke any English and was instead conversing with Jovita in a language that Ro was reasonably certain wasn’t a dialect of Chinese. Something close to Chinese, but he’d heard enough on this tour to think he had some idea about the limits of the large umbrella label of ‘Chinese’.

Sitting there for a few minutes as Jovita worked out some last minute specifics, Ro raised an eyebrow at one word he swore he heard a few times. He hadn’t even realised his ears had been listening for it until he heard it, but once he did he found himself having flashbacks to a joke not too long before the tour started.

Once he and Jovita had clambered aboard the mini bus, shoving their suitcases under the built-in bunk beds, he leaned over to ask her a quiet question.

“I swear I heard the term ‘Amazons’ in your conversation,” he whispered as they turned onto a highway.

“It was ‘Amazonas’, actually,” Jovita said with another one of those smiles that seemed too practiced compared to her normal expressions. “People never seem to realise how far Sao Paulo is from the Amazon rainforest. Our guide was just curious about my outdoors experience.”

“Ah... right. That makes sense,” Ro mumbled, suddenly feeling self conscious. “With how she’s dressed and everything, she, uh... isn’t Han, isn’t she?”

“Oh, no. No. She’s Mosuo. They’re probably a branch of Tibetans, though there’s a bit of debate,” Jovita replied.

Nodding, Ro was about to ask about how Jovita had known whatever language it was the woman spoke when they rounded a turn to reveal a particularly impressive mountain ahead. The landscape began to grow more impressive from then on out, distracting Ro from his original questions.

Three weeks without Romeo had an interesting effect on the polycule’s dynamics. Rachel and Mario largely split off to act like a couple, why Logan found himself hanging out with Teddy a fair bit. She was lots of fun, and devoured any embarrassing high school stories about Romeo with glee. 

Still, it wasn’t ever going to be romantic with the incompatible genders and sexualities, so the pair of them were left pining for Ro together from time to time.

The wait was finally over, though. Ro and Jovita were both due back on the next plane from Beijing any minute now. The entire polycule was assembled to wait for them, along with Frankie, Beata, and little Roza. While Ro hadn’t asked for any parental status, it seemed Beata had interpreted that as ‘close member of the extended family’. At least as much as she could this early on, while Roza was still more or less a potato.

A cute potato that also cried sometimes, but a potato.

All in all it meant the only one missing from the band was JK, who was up at his Rez visiting family. Which was fair. It wasn’t any sort of official band event.

Thinking about the tiny baby and how happy Beata seemed to be to have her (while Frankie mostly looked slightly overwhelmed by parenthood) Logan found himself wondering if he had any desire for parenthood. 

Further thoughts were interrupted by Jovita and Ro both stepping out of the arrivals area. Both women looked exhausted, but there was no surprise in that with how long their flight was. Just as it was no surprise Ro was female, to make better use of the leg room on the flight. Despite the tiredness, though, Jovita was beaming away. Ro, though... looked shell shocked in a manner somewhat similar to Frankie. Either way, the pair hurried over through the crowd of other arrivals, glad that taking a commercial flight the way they had meant no press presence. 

Hellos were exchanged, along with hugs, before any more significant words were exchanged. 

“So, how are you both?” Rachel asked, taking charge as she usually did.

“Pregnant!” Jovita said with a chipper tone.

The confused blinks from the welcoming party were almost audible.

“P-pardon?” Logan managed to ask.

“You got her pregnant!?” Rachel asked, turning to Ro. “Without running the idea past any of us?”

“No,” Ro mumbled, slowly shaking her head.

“You asked how we ‘both’ were,” Jovita added.

“Uh... but you do not have... did I miss you getting that surgery when we were in Thailand?” Mario asked.

“That doesn’t--Ro would have been bed bound for weeks for bottom surgery and I don’t think they’ve worked out womb transplants yet,” Logan explained. 

He’d paid some attention to the subject since he’d have been more than happy to ditch his own as soon as he had the chance, but he didn’t keep up with cutting edge research.

“No, it’s because someone,” Ro said, pointing her thumb at Jovita. “Decided to use me as a dowsing rod... and to hide from us all that she was actually an Amazon this whole time.”

“She’s a--wait, dowsing rod? How does that...” Logan muttered, trying to make the two ideas fit together.

“You don’t still do the killing men bit, right?” Mario squeaked while hiding behind Teddy.

“No, we never did that. Everyone always thinks we did, though, so we tend to hide our ancestry,” Jovita said, before turning to Ro. “And I’ve already apologized... but, you’d found one magical spring. I figured either your luck or the magic on you would make things easier.”

Logan found himself staring at Ro, an eyebrow raised. He knew he wasn’t the only one, Frankie leaning over his shoulder.

“Apparently there’s an old one from Chinese folklore that something called the ‘women’s kingdom’ in China used to get pregnant in an all female society... that didn’t actually have any connections to the Amazons, but they’ve made friends with their descendents since. It was in Journey to the West and everything. The spring was lost at some point when the kingdom fell... hence Jovita using me as a dowsing rod, since I was already under one type of water magic,” Ro mumbled. “And now I’m pregnant. As well as doomed to have a c-section scar...”

“She keeps complaining, but we actually still knew where the magical cave that undid the pregnancies was and she refused to use it,” Jovita explained. 

“Well, yeah. This is the only way for me to actually carry a kid and it’s giving me all sorts of gender feelings,” Ro said, blushing slightly. “But it’s also a bit of an unplanned surprise.”

“So you’re going to be stuck as a woman for the next nine months?” Rachel asked.

Nodding, Logan couldn’t help but feel some concern for Ro. That was surely going to be rough some days. Still, he was ready to provide Romeo with all necessary support. The same was likely true of the rest of the polycule.

“What? No,” Ro replied, sounding honestly confused. “I don’t have the bits either way, so it doesn’t matter. So far I’ve swapped to guy mode, like, four times since drinking from that spring. Still plenty preggers. Apparently that thing works on anyone.”

The rest of the polycule exchanged looks that told Logan they were all also going to need a few more minutes to process all of that. The confusion did not seem to extend to Beata, however, who had heard enough to decide it was time to wrap the freshly pregnant duo in a whirlwind of advice from someone who had just gone through the process. 

Slowly processing the bizarreness of it all, Logan found himself simply shaking his head. How did Ro manage to be in the centre of so much chaos?