Minor
A persistent nudging in the back of my mind. Not quite a voice, more like a tapping. I begrudgingly pulled myself to consciousness just enough to push back. That was apparently enough acknowledgement for my siblings to burst into laughter, their voices filling my mind as they playfully pulled me awake.
'Oh come on, let me sleep!'
'It's been more than a full day! How long are you gonna laze about?' Shooter teased, his mental prickling actually making me shake my head to push him away as if he was actually there and nipping at my face.
'Leave him alone, he's been... buusssyy...' Galaxy voice rang in my head.
'Ew! Gross!' Stardust and Major chorused with a fit of giggles.
'You're all just jealous I found my partner first.' I didn't bother to hide my joy, and hint of smugness, as I tried to push their minds away to get a little more sleep. I should have known that was the wrong move.
'You don't need to rub it in!' All of their voices filled my head, and I barely had time to register Shooter's intent before he actually appeared in a gust of wind, his full weight slamming into me and his jaws playfully biting and nipping at my ears and hair.
"WHOA! WHAT THE HELL!" Qualin called out, sounding alarmed and a little angry. He had been fully asleep with his arms wrapped around me. Now a dragon the size of a large wolf was half on top of him, yipping and mouthing me and beating his wings.
"I'm so sorry!" Shooter's just being a jerk!" I shouted over the ruckus my brother was making. I really didn't want Qualin to be annoyed by my family.
"Shove off!" Qualin managed to get a foot by Shooter's hip joint and have him a hard kick, knocking him half off the bed. My brother laughed and pounced, but I caught him around the neck next before he could barrel into my partner.
"Come on! Knock it off!"
"They always like this?" Qualin asked with a dry chuckle.
"Unfortunately..." I sighed as Shooter gnawed harmlessly at my arm.
And, as expected, the voices of the rest of my litter mates began to fill the air as they all joined us, giggling as they each jumped on the bed.
"Well, that's what you get for bragging about finding your partner first." Galaxy laughed, but at least he pulled Shooter off of me.
"You were bragging, huh?" Qualin looked at me with a teasing and rather proud grin.
"Not... like that...." my voice squeaked a little and I felt my face growing hotter.
My brothers all began laughing and teasing me. Stardust just giggled and hid her face. I noticed that Shooter was the only one in a beast form; the others were all humanoid hybrids. Major was still in the same form as me and Qualin.
"So, how was your honeymoon?" Stardust asked in a sing-song voice, actually snuggling up between me and Qualin. Thankfully, we were mostly under a blanket.
"Great, up until a few minutes ago." Qualin chuckled. I was immensely grateful he was taking this with good humor. I pressed my gratitude and apology into his mind and was delighted by his reassurance that he wasn't really bothered.
'I have a feeling things will never be boring with your family.' He replied with a sense of genuine amusement.
'True.' I couldn't help a little laugh as Stardust pinched my side a little.
"So... you have a good time?" She asked with a teasing tone and smile that made me feel so embarrassed I wanted to crawl into a hole.
"Th--That's none of your business!" I pulled the blanket over my head, curling into a ball and burying my face.
My sister squealed, spinning around on the bed and bouncing on her knees. My other siblings all laughed and giggled while also bouncing on the bed. They kept poking and pulling at me to coax me out from under the blanket.
"Come on, don't be shy!" Shooter teased as he tried to pull off the blanket. I held onto it. I was not ready to talk to my siblings about sex! I knew they were mostly teasing, but their curiosity was also seeping through our connection. This was not a topic any of us had given much thought to previously, but now that it was one of US with a partner, it would obviously feel more relevant to their lives. But it was too embarrassing!
***
Qualin
Minor was just too cute. And it was bizarre seeing how immature his siblings were when it came to sex. Even Galaxy who had seemed so impressive during our fight, was giggling and teasing Minor like a little kid.
"How old are you guys, again?" I couldn't help laughing at them as I pulled Minor onto my lap so he couldn't keep hiding under the blanket.
"We're...of age." Stardust shrugged, plopping down next to me. "But personally, I'm still getting used to the whole, 'being adults', thing."
"And no offense, but I don't think any of us thought Minor would be the first to find his partner. He's like... the most shy! Even Major tends to be more social." Shooter scoffed a little. Minor actually stuck his tongue out at him, and his brother responded in kind before adding, "So it's funny that he's supposed to be all mature and grown up now."
"Wow." I couldn't help laughing. "You guys really are kids if you think having sex makes you mature, let alone 'grown up'. It's just sex. There's something to be said about being mature enough to have sex, or to not be freaked out by it. But just doing it doesn't mean much." I was suddenly aware that they were all watching me pretty intently. Even Minor was looking up at me with a curious expression, his chin flat against my chest. Hopefully I hadn't saif anything offensive....
Galaxy spoke first, sounding calm again. "That makes sense. And I know we probably seem kinda silly. In a lot of ways, we all grew up pretty quickly. We learned to deal with danger and tragedy and responsibilities very early in life. But one thing we've always clinged to was each other. We have a big family, but the five of us have always been together. Often, just us. And with each other, we could always be silly and just...kids."
"Yeah." Stardust laid against Minor's back. "We've never really kept secrets, or had anything that was separate from each other. But now things are different. And they'll keep changing as the rest of us eventually find partners. Minor is just the first to pull away, and really is signaling that we aren't kids any more... It's kinda scary.... so, sorry if we're a bit intrusive... and a bit immature." She giggled and playfully poked Minor's side, but there really was a sad expression on her face.
This was not something I had ever dealt with. I couldn't really pinpoint a time when I felt I had come of age or was afraid of leaving a stage of life behind. I had spent so much of my life just trying to move forward and hoping for the best. The last thing I wanted was to interfere with something that was precious to Minor.
"You're not interfering, or coming between us." Minor smiled and wrapped his arms around my neck. "Things change, and some things are definitely just between you and me." He smiled. "But," he looked around at his siblings, "I really want our family, our group, to grow...not grow apart."
"Yeah, we're not gonna let that happen." Galaxy gave a matter-of-fact smile. "So, little brother, you're gonna have to stop coddling your partner and acting like we're gonna scare him off. And," he looked directly at me, "you're gonna have to get used to all of us being around."
"Are you giving me a command?"
"I am the leader, so yeah, get used to that to." He smiled broadly, looking a bit smug but also charming.
I chuckled, wondering how much I could mess with them. "Alright, fine by me. But, uh, just to be clear, I'm not shy or bashful. So If you all are gonna be hanging around all the time, you better get used to things like this," I gave a wink and swiftly pulled Minor by his arm until I could reach his mouth and kissed him deep and passionately. He squirmed and whined a little at first but that quickly melted, even as his siblings all burst into giggles and rolling laughter.
'Ok, that's enough! Proved your point!' Minor's voice in my head sounded alarmed and I quickly realized why. I laughed and couldn't resist slapping his ass once before pulling away so he could calm down.
"Ok... well, guess we'll get used to seeing you guys doing that kind of stuff..." Galaxy's face was bright red and he couldn't keep a straight face.
"If you're uncomfortable, you can always leave."
"Ha, ha. Not this time. Sorry, to inform you, but we do actually have things to do... so... you might need to...you know, cool it... for a bit."
"What's going on?" Minor was suddenly more collected and sat up, turning to his brother with a serious expression.
"We've got work to do. And seeing how it's related to your partner's former dealings, we thought you two might want to be involved. See? We weren't just trying to bother you for no reason."
"Of course, if you two would rather just keep lying around being all kissy-kissy, we can handle things without you." Shooter teased.
Tempting as that sounded, if they were going to do something related to Murkoross and my old life, I definitely wanted in.
I caught Minor's expression out of the corner of my eye. He gave a slight nod and engulfed us in light. A moment later we were fully clothed and he turned to Galaxy. "We're Ready."