Chapter 14: What Comes Next

Kasha glowed for weeks after the Junior Bacchanal, as did many of her classmates. It took nearly a week before she even felt the need to have sex again, after how thoroughly she’d been satisfied that night. Although she knew that she wouldn’t be able to handle such an event on a regular basis, having that experience at least once was one she would always treasure.

As the academic year wound down, she found herself reflecting on all the ways she’d irrevocably changed over the past months. She never could have imagined becoming the person she was now when she first arrived on this planet, having so fully embraced the Lupina way of life. She couldn’t believe how panicked she’d been about it when the shuttle had first landed all those months ago; now she couldn’t imagine her life any other way.

She was thinking these thoughts when she came home one day on the last week of the school year, and pondering what kind of hijinks she and her friends might get up to during the break before the new year. She strode in the door, called hello, and found her parents seated in the living room, her dad talking to someone on his macrolink. It seemed a simple enough scene at first, but there was an intensity in the way Mom was looking at him, and not acknowledging Kasha, that made her concerned.

Dad ended his call and turned to look at Mom, who reached out a hand to touch his arm. That too seemed a bit ominous. “Mom? Dad?” she said.

They finally looked up to see her. “Kasha,” her dad said heavily.

Kasha frowned. “Is something wrong?”

Her dad slowly stood. “I’ve been talking with my boss. My job assignment has changed.”

“What do you mean changed?”

“My role here on Lupina isn’t needed anymore. They want me back at my old post on the space station.”

The floor seemed to drop out from under Kasha’s feet. The words she’d just heard echoed in her head as her brain tried to process them. “Wh ... what?”

“We’re going home, Kasha,” Mom said, though she didn’t sound particularly excited about it.

Kasha’s mouth hung open. It took several seconds before she could even close it enough to form words. “G ... go back? Leave here?”

Dad stepped forward and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I know you’ve gotten used to living here—”

Kasha jerked away from him. “No! I can’t go back! I can’t leave! Not after everything!”

“You sound a lot like you did when we first moved here,” Mom said, slowly getting up from her chair herself. “You adjusted, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, Mom, I did! I changed a lot! And now you want me to change back? To go back to wearing clothes? To being bottled up? You want me to leave Gene? And Tatjana? And everyone else? No! I won’t do it!”

“Kasha...” Dad said, taking a step toward her.

“NO!!” she shouted, jumping away. “I WON’T LEAVE!!! I WON’T!!!!” And then she turned and bolted from the house, ignoring the shouts of her parents behind her.

Kasha didn’t know how long she ran for, nor was she consciously aware of where she was going. She had never felt so betrayed in her life, not even when her parents had first told her they were leaving the space station. Back then, the thought of having to come and live on this nude planet had been shocking and horrifying. But now, the thought of having to leave it? It was like being asked to give up an arm or leg.

She must at some point have unconsciously decided on a destination, because she soon found herself at Gene’s house. Gene’s mother promptly answered the door when she buzzed, and initially smiled in surprise at seeing her. “Kasha! What a surprise—” Then she got a look at Kasha’s face, and her smile disappeared. “Kasha? What’s wrong?”

“Is Gene home?”

“Yes, he’s here,” Mrs. Arkin nodded, ushering her inside. She turned and called up the stairs, “Gene! Kasha’s here!”

Gene promptly appeared at the landing above, looking down at her, his brow creasing in concern. “Hey! Kasha?”

“Gene!” Kasha said in a half sob, taking a step toward the stairs.

Gene came running down the stairs as she approached them, and the moment he reached the bottom she flew into his arms, and began sobbing into his chest. She savored from the feel of his arms holding her and his warm skin against hers, as the thought gnawed at her that this might be soon stripped away from her.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Gene said softly, stroking her hair.

“Not now,” she sobbed. “Right now, just hold me.” Then another notion came to her, and she lifted her head and said, “And make love to me.”

“What do you think you’re gonna do?” Gene asked, stroking her spine as they lay in his bed. She had finally explained the situation to him after a long, very tender session of lovemaking. Gene had looked as appalled as she was at the prospect of her having to leave.

“I don’t know,” Kasha said, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I don’t know if there’s anything I can do. If my parents want to take me, I don’t know if I can do anything to stop them. But...” She dropped her head to his chest again. “I just can’t go back, Gene! I can’t go back to living that way, all repressed, and bundled up in clothes! I can’t leave all my friends! I can’t leave my life here!” Then she crawled up Gene’s body and placed her hands on the sides of his face as she looked into his eyes. “I can’t leave you! I love you, Gene!”

He tenderly brushed her hair away from her face. “I love you too,” he said softly. “More than I ever have anything before.”

She bent down and kissed him then. It was deep kiss that went on, and on, and on. When she felt him hardening against her thigh again, Kasha didn’t hesitate. She took his cock in her hand and mounted herself atop him, slipping him inside her without even disengaging their kiss. She began to undulate atop him, keeping her forehead pressed to his, her nipples touching his chest, her eyes locked to his as she stirred his cock inside her.

As they had before, they went slow, not seeking orgasm, but just trying to prolong this as long as they could. When Kasha grew tired of being the one moving, Gene rolled them over to put himself on top, allowing Kasha to simply lie comfortably and take his pleasant thrusting. She wanted this to never end, because she feared that if it did, it would be for the last time.

She eventually came to a quiet, gentle orgasm, arching her back underneath Gene and gripping his arms in her hands as he kissed her neck and continued his steady thrusting. And not long after, he finally reached his tipping point himself and released his seed inside her. He collapsed on top of her, and she held his body, savoring the safe, comfortable feeling of his weight crushing her down into the mattress, as if he were keeping her safely pinned in place. Even when he eventually started to roll off her and withdraw, Kasha gripped his body tight to hold him there and whispered, “Don’t take it out.” If it were up to her, she would stay like this forever.

She had no idea how long they stayed entwined afterward. They must have eventually fallen asleep, because she woke up the next morning with her head pillowed on his chest and his dried spunk cooling on her leg. When she lifted her head, she saw his eyes already open and watching her, and he ran fingers through her hair as she ran his over the contours of his face. “I want to remember this,” she said. It was like she was tracing an image of his face in her mind, wanting to preserve it in case she never saw him again.

After several minutes of the two of them silently caressing each other’s faces, they were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing. They looked up to the doorway to see Gene’s mother standing there. “I’m sorry to interrupt something so sweet,” she said, “but you have more visitors.”

“Visitors?” Gene asked. Kasha looked at him warily.

Gene’s mother stepped back, as Tatjana appeared coming into the room, with Celia and Gillian following behind her. “Hey Kasha,” Tatjana said with a kind smile.

“You guys!” Kasha cheered. This proved to be the one thing that could pull her out of Gene’s embrace at that moment, as she dashed across the room to embrace Tatjana, and their other friends joined in hugging her too.

“There’s no way we’re letting them take you away, Kasha!” Gillian declared.

Kasha blinked in surprise. “How did you know...?”

“I messaged them after you fell asleep,” Gene said, sitting up from his bed. “I told them what was going on.”

“It’s so not fair,” Tatjana pouted, rubbing Kasha’s back. “You belong here with us!”

“I know I do!” Kasha whimpered, pressing herself harder into her friends’ embrace. “I don’t want to leave you all! I don’t want to wear clothes again!” She pronounced the word with a tone of disgust. “I won’t do it!”

“I hate to suggest breaking up a family,” Celia said, taking a small step back as the group hug dissolved, “but there might be a legal way out. Maybe one of our families could take you in or something.”

“I could take you in!” Tatjana said without hesitation. “My family would totally take you! We could be sisters! ... Or...” She blushed, like she wanted to come up with a different word but couldn’t quite find it.

“Oh, Tatjana, I love you!” Kasha sighed, bringing her in to hug her again. Tatjana buried her face in Kasha’s shoulder and rubbed her back like she was afraid to let her go.

“That’s really something you ought to talk to your parents about,” Mrs. Arkin said from the doorway. “You can’t just up and leave them without notice.”

“But she can do something, right?” Gillian said hopefully. “They can’t force her to leave if she doesn’t want to, can they?”

“Well ... that’s...” Mrs. Arkin furrowed her brow in thought. “I’m sure there are avenues you can pursue. But you still need to talk to your parents about them first.” Then she blinked as a new thought came to her. “In fact, do your parents even know you’re here?”

“Um ... no,” Kasha admitted. Reflexively she brought a hand up to her ear and, finding it undecorated, looked around. “Where’d I put my macrolink?”

“It’s over here,” Gene drawled, indicating his nightstand. “You almost dropped it on the floor last night.”

Kasha went and retrieved her little device, placing it on her ear and opening the screen. Over a dozen messages from her parents flashed in front of her eyes, most of them asking where she was and insisting that she come home. Kasha cringed as she looked at them all.

“They freaking out?” Celia asked, looking uncomfortable.

“Majorly,” Kasha admitted, frowning.

“Good!” Tatjana harumphed. “Let them see how you felt, with them springing this on you!

“Tatjana,” Mrs. Arkin chided her.

“You can at least let them know you’re not dead on the side of the road,” Gene said, rubbing her shoulder.

Kasha sighed, and nodded. She proceeded to input a message telling her parents that she was with her friends and Gene’s place—and about three seconds after the message was sent, her macrolink started jingling from an incoming call. “Oh, shit,” she moaned, and tapped her device to answer it. She opened the screen to full size with open audio, allowing everyone in the room to see and hear.

“Kasha!” her dad called as his hectic face appeared.