Chapter 36

A moment after saying goodnight to Jada, a naked Mark walked into the moonlight by the window and waved. Toshi and Frida waved back from across the pond and came and joined him, throwing their clothes into the strange washer and washing their feet before joining Mark under clean sheets. Frida’s voice was alive with laughter. “A month?! An old Earth month?! Why didn’t you tell them it’s been a new-planet year?”

Mark replied playfully. “Well, a new year is only about five of the old months. And I didn’t say a month. I said more than a month. Five is more than one.”

Toshi understood Mark’s reasoning. “Frida, he doesn’t want to reveal the new abilities all at once. And I agree with him. Let’s break the news slowly.”

“Ah. You think the rest will think of us as something less than human?”

Toshi cocked her head slightly and nodded. “Not less than human, something other than human. I don’t mean that in a cruel way, but yes.” She sighed and sought out Mark’s hand under the sheet. “They’ll have the same abilities of course, once they start to practice. Let’s take it easy how quickly we tell them. There’s no need to be rough with our friends.”

Frida nodded and then came and lay close to Mark’s side, almost touching. Toshi was on the other side, and in the moonlight, Frida could see that as usual Mark and Toshi were holding hands.

They had learned so much this past objective week, this past subjective year. The subjective human mind needed to sleep a third of subjective time, just as the human body needed to sleep one third of objective time. In the tranquil paradise of their ecosystem, it had been so easy to spend several objective hours or more daily in the three-way lock, with each hour close to a week of subjective time.

The quiet sounds of the night drifted in through the screened window. Mark sighed and relaxed, enjoying the warmth and affections of two of his closest and dearest friends. They had shared everything this past week. Mark felt he knew Frida’s younger sister as well as she did, their years together growing up as close confidants, the summer they built a tree-house together.

And Toshi ... Mark was now fluent in Japanese, as was Frida. The complex system of honorifics had seemed so strange at first, with the verb forms and vocabulary all dancing around the relative social status of speaker, listener, and person being discussed. But it all seemed so natural now, far more so than even a normal year of intense studying could achieve. The mind link had allowed a holistically complete transfer of knowledge and perspective. The language had become a second native tongue to Mark because it was the native tongue of the person who shared it.

Frida’s hands came to caress Mark. One cool hand was on his forehead, with soft and gentle pads of fingertips tracing eyes and nose and mouth. Her other hand stroked his leg and hip and ribs, tracing the hard abdominal muscles across his front. As Mark giggled at the ticklish sensations on his lips, the other hand dropped down, brushing aside the limp penis to stroke the soft inside thigh, then returning to cup Mark’s testicles.

Mark gulped, but it was difficult to speak with Frida’s hand caressing his throat. The cool palm and fingers curling around his sac made him shiver. He could feel his testicles lifting up from the stimulation, and also his penis begin to lengthen. Mark squirmed slightly.

“So,” whispered Frida. “Did you get a chance to talk with Jada about us having sex together?” Toshi gave Mark’s hand a friendly squeeze. She knew that Frida’s question covered the three of them.

“I did.”

The cool hand released his sac, and for a moment Mark thought Frida might want to just talk for a while. But then fingertips as light as feathers began brushing against his penis, up and down the shaft. The sensation was exquisite, a delicate touch that Frida had learned from Toshi’s culture of patience and discipline. “That’s nice,” Frida whispered in laughter. “And what did she say?”

“Well, she said ... hmmm...”

“She said hmmm?”

“Huh? Uh, no. She said ... she said not to worry about us getting it on with each other.” Mark gasped. The fingers for a moment had become a vise, a grip so erotically intense his hips had thrust forward into the tightness without need for conscious thought. Mark pulled back to thrust again, and the vise disappeared. He sensed Frida raising her leg under the sheet.

“Frida,” asked Toshi, “what are you doing?”

“Nothing we haven’t done many times in our dreams!”

“Dreams are fantasies. This is real!”

“Dreams are real too,” Frida answered in perfect Japanese. “My speaking like this proves it.” Her hand returned to Mark’s penis, and as she grasped him again, she felt his body jump as if electrified. She gave swift, hard jerks, up and down, rapidly pumping him to a full erection.

Mark was gasping, completely swept away by Frida’s sexual desire. Her hand was slick and moist, and with Frida’s raised leg, he didn’t have to guess where the moisture was coming from. And his mind felt as if it were caught in a vortex. Toshi and Frida were correct. In their year of subjective time, the three had frolicked together in their dreams. There their playtime was without inhibitions, and their sexual exploits had often left their sheets wet with male and female spent desire.

But always in the week of objective time, while awake they had remained semi-chaste, expressing love and affection to each other but always backing off when anyone would enter sexual arousal. It was Toshi who was guiding this, remembering that all their memories of their missing friends were now a subjective year old. Toshi thought it was unfair for her and Frida to compete against Jada under such conditions.

Toshi sighed heavily in the darkness, feeling Mark’s hand tremble as Frida brought him to full erection. Of course Mark wanted Frida, cherished Frida. They had lived together intimately now for a subjective year, and in their dreams there were no lies, no secrets. But they had agreed! “Frida!” Toshi whispered.

“Hush, Toshi! Not now!” Quickly, before Mark could object, Frida sat up and then squatted over Mark’s supine body. Her hips were above his groin, her legs splayed open. Her intention was to get Mark inside of her before Mark would think to protest. Once Mark had the pleasure of her vagina working his erection, she felt sure he would not resist.

“Frida!” Toshi insisted. “We promised!”

Frida growled, a raw expression of pure emotional desire. “I don’t want to wait anymore!” She rubbed her grip up and down his penis. “I can feel his desire! His desire is for me!”

“Of course it is! He loves you! But don’t take him like this!”

Toshi’s words seemed to jar Mark free from Frida’s magic. He sat up and faced Frida, kissing her cheeks and eyes. She groaned in dismay as his penis slipped from her hand, and then his hand came and held hers. “Frida,” Mark whispered tenderly as he kissed Frida’s ear.

“You don’t want me now, do you?” she whimpered.

There was silence for a moment, with Mark gently caressing her cheek. “Of course I want you,” he whispered. The caress became a hug. “But can we wait, just a little longer?”

Toshi hissed. “Frida! Are you fertile?”

“Huh?” She gulped. “Hell, I don’t know. Maybe. I’ve been off birth control for a month now. My cycle’s all messed up. Oh hell! We spent so much time dreaming today. It’s so hard to keep track of things that are still in real time.”

Mark kept hugging her, an intimate hold, wrapping his arms around her and petting her, rocking back and forth, feeling Frida unwind in the affectionate embrace. They shared a long kiss. It was simply playful at first, but then Frida started offering more with the tip of her tongue, and after a moment Mark accepted the invitation. The playfulness quickly evolved into something more, but this time Mark and Frida were meeting as equal partners. Toshi realized that and kept silent.

Mark’s hands were caressing Frida’s hips, gripping the strong bones on both sides of her pelvis. Her tongue gave a last lick to the visiting tongue in her mouth and then she moved her head to kiss his cheek and ear. “Mark, make love with me?”

Mark shivered, overwhelmed by this beautiful feminine creature in his arms. He shook his head no and reclined from his sitting position, pulling Frida back down to lie with him. Their hands caressed each other for a while, love and uncertainty and sexual desire and bashfulness all mixing together in ways neither had experience with. Mark’s hand came up and cupped a soft breast.

Frida lay perfectly still, her eyes closed, her body in the most submissive posture she could think of. Her thighs were parted and she thought if she could only entice Mark to start playing with her pubic fur, then he would probably mount her. But the hand on her breast, it was not an arousing stroke. He was just cupping her, pure affection and tenderness. She sighed heavily and took his hand and kissed it. “It’s okay. You want to wait, huh?”

Mark answered indirectly, caressing the side of her head with his fingertips for a while and then asking, “Would you like a back rub?”

Frida smiled and nodded, turning over to lie on her stomach and stretching out her limbs. “Rump too, like in our dreams, would that be okay?”

Mark responded patting the back of her thigh and then moving his hand to playfully grip a butt cheek. “Sure, okay.”

Frida wriggled in response. “In the center too?”

“Uh...”

“Come on Mark, we did it in the link today.” Frida smiled at him in the darkness. “Of course, if you don’t think my butt looks cute enough to tempt you in real life...”

Mark snorted. They both knew they were playing with each other. “Well, we’ll see,” he answered noncommittally, and then after a playful swat on her right cheek, his hands moved up to her shoulders and he started the massage.

It took a long time to unwind her. Frida’s body at first was wound up with sexual tension. But after months of sharing intimate dreams, Mark knew just how to unwind her. She liked a combination of firm strokes along her muscles mixed in with gentle caresses on her skin. Mark would often bend down and kiss the back of her neck as he massaged her, and more than once he told her he loved her.

The massage finally migrated to the small of her back, mixed in with lots of caresses starting at the backs of her thighs and then working up to press and relax the muscles around her waist. Frida sighed happily and purred deeply for a while, and then was silent, her breathing slow and steady, and Mark was just starting to wonder if he should stop when Frida slowly moved a hand to each of her butt cheeks, splaying her legs and wriggling in invitation. “You promised...”

So many memories, and Frida had shared them all. She and Dan had grown up together in Keeseville, New York, a small town across the lake about twenty km west of Burlington. They dated in high school and came to the University of Vermont in September of 2017. Their first year in college had been very sweet, so much so that Frida began to assume they would on day marry. But then in their sophomore year, Dan pledged at Beta Sigma Rho and soon afterwards asked Frida to start calling him Diego. To Frida’s astonishment, he also took up pistolry, something he had never shown an interest in before.

Over the last year, their relationship had become more and more of a struggle. None of Dan’s tenderness seemed to have carried over into his new persona of Diego. And the past fall term had been the worst of all, so bad that Frida had begun the sad and painful work of pulling back from her emotional attachment. She had thought of trying to make things work until the end of 2018, and then if there was no progress, to tell him they were splitting. The pre-Christmas party was one of the last events she expected to be with Diego and his horrible friends.

Frida was drifting, almost asleep, but still awake enough to wiggle her hips slightly as Mark cupped her vulva with his hand. Gentle caresses, a thumb stroking lightly near her anus but not pushing down for penetration. It was exactly how she loved to fall asleep with Dan two years ago, her sleep soft and sexy and filled with trust for her partner. Her future had seemed so bright and full of promise, that first year at college.

Mark drifted in his thoughts as he stroked her, the only sound in the room the quiet sounds of the night bugs outside. Eventually Toshi stirred and curled around Mark from behind, pressing her naked body lightly against his and petting his hip and outer thigh. “I think she’s asleep,” she whispered.

Mark nodded and whispered back. “Yes.” He gave a deep sigh. “It feels so nice, the way she trusts me to pet her as she falls asleep.” Mark was confident Frida would not awake unless vigorously roused. She was a very deep sleeper and had had a very strenuous day. She had asked Mark days ago to teach her how to fight and he agreed for both classical judo and street fighting. He would share the knowledge in the link, and then practice for hours in real time.

Today he had driven her body to exhaustion. They had become intimately familiar with each other’s bodies and balance in their throws, and then they focused on kicks and punches until both their bodies ached. Frida was surprised the workouts were so intense, but believed Mark when he told her the skills were learned best this way.

Mark also offered to teach Toshi, but so far she had politely declined, preferring to get her exercise by running. The daytime temperatures were warm enough to do this without clothes, and she loved racing up and down the gentle hills in her bare feet, feeling the rich earth of the flowering meadows between her toes. She would often finish with a quick swim in the pond, playing tag with the fish before her shower.

Mark finally stopped his caresses of the sleeping Frida, tucking her in with the covers and then moving to the other side of the great bed to cuddle with Toshi. They shared a few kisses and then Toshi grinned.

“So, have you ever dated anyone as tall as Frida?” Mark was a fairly tall, a full 190 cm, and Frida was only one centimeter less.

Mark grinned back. “I’ve shared my childhood. You know my memories. I couldn’t hide anyone as interesting or as tall as Frida.” He paused for a moment. “I must say, it is rather nice, exchanging quick kisses with her when we’re out walking together. Kissing is more fun when your partner in your own height, don’t you think?”

Toshi gave a soft laugh back. “I wouldn’t know! I’ve shared my memories too. A few dates in high school perhaps, but you know I’ve never had a steady boyfriend.”

“Not even me?” Mark said with a grin.

“You’re no boyfriend!” Toshi replied with a giggle, and then she got serious. “Father of my child ... I thought when I asked you, that all I really wanted was to parent with you, to provide for my child. Those memories, those desires seem so long ago. This past week, this past year...” She gave a deep sigh. “I can’t hide it. I’m sorry and you don’t deserve this pressure but I just can’t hide it, not when we’re sharing our eyes.”

“Toshi,” Mark whispered. His hand came and lightly stroked the rich pubic fur above her womb. “This is so strange. Before we came here, this planet I mean, I never expected ... never thought I’d be lucky enough to court someone as wonderful as you. It’s not pressure to know that you want me. We just need time to figure out how this is going to work.”

Toshi nodded in the artificial moonlight. “Do you remember the latest figures Jada gave us? Twelve guys left and a hundred women left, and most of the guys are people I consider monsters. We don’t have the culture to handle a situation like this. What can I hope for Mark? One night every two weeks with you?”

Mark nodded and lay back in bed on his back, staring at the blank ceiling of their simple home. “At least it’ll be for just one generation.”

“Yes, our children, they won’t have to deal with this. Mark?”

“Yeah?”

“My native culture, we prize patience more than Americans do. I can wait for you. I will wait for you. But maybe...”

“Hmmm?”

“Maybe we should limit our use of subjective time.”

“Ah...” Mark thought for a long moment in the silence, enjoying the feel and warmth of the woman in his arms, almost overcome with a feeling of fierce protectiveness for her pregnant body. He sighed and turned on his side to face Toshi. “That’s probably a good idea. How much do you want to cut back?”

“I’m thinking of really cutting back, almost all the way. How about we spend just ten minutes tomorrow in the three-way link?”

Mark considered. The ten minutes objective time would be one full extra day of subjective time. “Yeah, okay. I think you’re right. These past few days, the three of us have spent so much time locked together...”

“ ... that we’re losing touch with reality,” finished Toshi.

“Well ... Yeah, maybe.” Mark sighed. “I agree, I feel it too. All right. We’ll tell Frida in the morning.”

“Thank you.” Toshi turned to kiss Mark goodnight, and as her hand across came to caress his face, it bumped into a very stiff penis. “My goodness, Mark!” she whispered. “I saw you erect for Frida. Are you erect for me too?” She looked as his groin, saw the full penis clearly outlined in the silver light and gave a nervous giggle. Mark’s penis was sticking straight out horizontally as he lay on his side. Toshi moved her arm and gently let the engorged organ rest on the back of her hand. “Is this for me?”

Mark felt the soft contact as an electric shock. Toshi felt his hips thrust forward, and she allowed his penis tip to press into the warm skin near her stomach. “Mark,” she whispered. “Do you want to play with me?”

Mark came closer to Toshi and kissed her near her lips. Toshi turned and let her lips find his. Her hand returned and curled and grabbed the impudent penis. She was gentle at first, but then increased her grip when Mark accepted her tongue into his mouth. She pulled back for a second. “Future husband,” she whispered, “what would you like?” Her tongue then sought to reenter Mark’s mouth

“So many dreams...” mumbled Mark, with Toshi’s tongue tickling his lips as he spoke. His tongue came out to play and was eagerly welcomed and suckled into Toshi’s mouth. They kissed for a while, Toshi’s hand curling and petting Mark’s stomach in a silky circular motion. Eventually they broke their kiss to take a moment to breathe.

Toshi shifted her body slightly and blew a hot breath of air into Mark’s ear. “I know all your dreams Mark, all your sexy dreams. There is no shame in this. We love each other.” Toshi’s hands were caressing his body, light feathers of pleasure on his face, his arms, his legs, his breast and male nipples. For the moment Toshi left his groin alone. She was truly curious and too polite to assume what Mark wanted. “Do you want to be petted asleep? Do you want to play and be a male?” She paused and whispered again, her eyes twinkling in the moonlight. “Do you want to play and be a female?”

Mark gasped that Toshi would ask such a question so directly. But he knew what she meant. In their mind sharing, Mark had been fascinated with the depth and explicitness of Frida sharing her sex life, from pubescent dreams to her current desire for sex with him. His own experiences seemed so innocent in comparison, and he politely asked inside the link if he could keep his sexual moments with Jada private.

The two women of course agreed at once. Not to would be akin to mental rape. None of them even knew if that were possible, forcing someone to remain in the link and divulge memories against their will. The concept was horrific, and they all vowed to each other that they would never attempt it under any circumstances.

But Frida. The first time a boy petted her, the first time she was suckled, her strange night at a slumber party where she explored sexuality with another teenage girl, the night she lost of virginity, her struggle to keep Diego’s cock out of her butt, all these memories were as clear to Mark and Toshi as they were to Frida. Mark had a profoundly intimate view of lovemaking as the female, and now Toshi was asking if he wanted to playact and live that perspective for real. He wasn’t exactly sure what she had in mind now, but for all her social politeness, Mark considered Toshi perhaps the most thoughtfully playful and imaginative person he had ever met, and her sweet smile was disarming him completely.