Gentle Brushing 4

“Hey, sis, what’s up?”

Phovos glanced up at Elksia, who was bouncing around excitedly as always. The young Life Goddess was just sitting down, chilling out with a large bottle of water, getting over her daily blood donations. To her left, Elkay had been doing the same, but he’d fallen asleep and seemed to be dozing quite happily. Normally his husband would have been by his side, but Teekay was currently busy helping repair a ship that had nearly crashed into the parking area.

Really, things had been very hectic. A LOT of Corruption infections. Which was why Phovos had been donating more blood than usual. And was also why Elkay had passed out next to her. No one was really concerned about Elkay though, he seemed to be unkillable for some reason.

“Ugh, nothing much, just lost in thought. How are you, Elksia?”

Elksia shrugged and sat down next to Phovos. Oddly, she was holding a hairbrush. “Kinda off. Things are weird right now. Kinda annoyed at Retty too. Can I brush your mane?”

“Uh, why?”

“Am anxious. I know Akah offers sometimes. He’s weird. He’s busy though. But like, normally, I have my feathers, right? I play with them to calm down. But I shapeshift now, and keep on making myself more armoured. So I have no feathers to play with…” Elksia paused. “Also, girly time is fun. Us three just chilling out for a bit.”

Phovos snorted in amusement. “It’s pretty funny that we all blatantly call Elkay female when he’s male-leaning. He’s out cold right now though. Leh vacuumed like 4 litres of blood out of him earlier.”

“He’s also better at shapeshifting now!” Elksia beamed as she turned Phovos to one side and immediately began to brush her hair. “Can hold his shape even when asleep.”

“Oh, so…” Phovos shuddered briefly. She loved having her mane brushed. “So it’s not just me who’s noticed that Elkay has been desperately trying to keep himself looking like a Rethan lately?”

Elksia gently tugged on a rather bad knot. “Lately? All the time. He ain’t a Rethan now. He’s a whatever Arkay was. But not what Kaytee is. Or that Telecharm guy. Kinisis broke his base shape. Am… kinda worried about him. In that regard, anyway.”

Phovos thought to herself for a moment. “Actually, I think, as long as Elkay keeps on telling himself he’s a Rethan, he’ll be alright. Sure, he’s, like, genetically not a Rethan any more, but as long as Elkay believes he’s the third last Rethan alive, his form will stick outside of a few tweaks here and there. Worst case scenario, he’ll default to something still Threanic in appearance at least…”

Elksia shrugged, then went back to brushing Phovos’s hair. Unlike everyone else who had dealt with Phovos’s knotty mane, Elksia knew she could get a little rough. After all, she used to brush her feathery tail, when she used to have that.

“So, Elksia, speaking of Rethans, why are you annoyed at Retvik?”

Elksia snapped her beak shut, making a loud, annoying clicking noise. “Ugh. It’s two things. The first is kinda stupid though. Thanks for the 5k, by the way.”

Phovos rolled her eyes. “Ugh… I hate that you won that bet, but I always pay my debts. I think Tenuk is glad to have gotten double his DSI this, uh, month and I’m sure Retvik was surprised to find an extra 5k in his account. Pretty shitty that he and Litvir get less than Eksi does, and Eksi only gets 4k because he’s never killed anyone before and isn’t even 30 years old yet. But yeah, you seem angrier than normal, and you’re more chill than Eksi is.”

“I guess…” Elksia shrugged as she continued brushing, now working on the ends of Phovos’s mane. “I suppose I can be pretty chill. I can see all this shit before it happens. So I stop the shit. It’s not even that hard to do. Unless I’m distracted.”

“Is it painful though?”

“Nah. Just… complicated, if there’s lots of people. Like, when that stupid snake attacked Litty? I was too focused on pulling strings to stop Litvir from getting too close… I kinda didn’t see Vikalos getting angry and attacking. For me, it’s fine. I, like, subconsciously always protect myself. I kinda half-subconsciously protect Tenuk and Retvik as well, since they’re my last family…”

“You seem more annoyed about the bet that, somehow, you and Tenuk won… Ow.”

Elksia snapped her beak again. “Sorry. Tough knot. But you’re right. Sure, we fucked. But I think Retty was way more interested in Tenuk than he was me. Kinda didn’t think Retvik was gay.”

“He’s a Rethan, they can’t be gay.”

“Well he clearly enjoyed being fucked than he did doing the fucking.”

Phovos glanced over to where Elkay was still dozing. She was glad Elkay was asleep because she and Elksia were clearly about to start talking about very intimate things concerning Elkay’s brother, something Elkay probably didn’t want to hear about.

“Surely you know from Eksi’s jabberings that it’s really hard to both give and take at the same time and put equal effort into both?” Phovos tutted. “Retvik was probably a little distracted from fucking you because he was being fucked at the same time by Tenuk. I’ve got basically no experience in this sort of thing, but come on, we both know getting railed is pretty damn high when it comes to distractions.”

Elksia paused, then put her brush down. “I… kinda forgot that you and Retvik were a thing for a while.”

“I wish more people forgot.”

“You and Retvik actually did it.”

Phovos sighed. Elksia went back to brushing Phovos’s mane, since she’d been enjoying it so far.

“We tried. You’re way taller than I am, Elksia. You’re also, like, slightly armour-plated yourself. You can accommodate for Retvik. I couldn’t. Not without any pain. Retvik felt awful about it all and it just didn’t work, so we parted ways. And it kinda turns out that, well, I’m kinda happy now, going back to being asexual.”

“You don’t care about sex?”

“Sometimes I get needy, but, well, I have options. But still, you really shouldn’t take it personally that Retvik struggled to perform.”

Elksia snapped her beak again, but calmed down and shrugged. “Yeah, you’re right, sis. But still, I’m kinda annoyed at Retty for going on this diplomatic thingy on his own. Coulda fit two people in that pod. Or they coulda sent one of the big guys. I can’t protect Retty now, he’s way, way outside my time powers and your Life Goddess stuff. And Litty is already kinda pining for him”

“I get that, but Retvik’s not completely unprotected.”

“How comes?”

Phovos tutted. “He and Litvir, they’re protected by Arkay. He’ll stop them from dying at least. He has done before, he will again.”

“Oh yeah. Arkay’s promise…” Elksia paused, then smiled. “You’re right, sis. Retty’s gonna be fine. And we’re all fine too. And you’ll be fine as well once I got these knots out.”

“Heh. Thanks, Elksia.”

“Thank you too, sis. We ought to zip it now though, Elkay’s about to wake up.”

As predicted, Elkay groggily lifted his head up from the table, then frowned, realizing he’d been drooling and his acidic spit had left a faint mark.

“Oh. Hello.”

“Did you sleep well, mate?” Elksia asked.

Elkay rubbed his eyes. “I guess so. What are you doing here?”

Elksia smiled. “Just some gentle brushing. Is good for the soul. You go back to sleep.”

“Alright…” Elkay muttered as he lowered his head down once more.