Nobody Left Behind 5 (Patreon)

I really want Siki's character to shine through in this story, and yes, I realize that her attitude toward sex might not make complete sense in this scene, but let's just go with it for now, okay?

Regardless, this picks up after Siki hears about getting loser-sex.

Nobody Left Behind 1
Nobody Left Behind 2
Nobody Left Behind 3
Nobody Left Behind 4

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Sarsuk finished his story and looked down at the little geroo. “Aw, that’s sweet,” said Siki.

With no small amount of humiliation, he groaned, “Yeah, she…” But then, he stopped. “Wait. What?” Instead of cringing at his tale of woe, she was smiling up at him.

“That was a sweet story.” Siki sighed, “Noke sounds like a wonderful gal. No wonder you fell for her. I bet you must think back on her often.”

He stared at her for a long moment before nodding. “Uh, yeah, I guess I do,” he admitted. His face tightened, and he waited, but her scorn and ridicule never materialized. “You don’t… You don’t think she was trying to … use me?”

“Use you for what?” asked the geroo, her ears up, without sign of malice.

“I’m … not sure,” he said. “I mean, I’ve wondered that a lot over the years, and sometimes I catastrophize some really upsetting reasoning, but I never saw her again. All I can really do is guess.”

Siki rested an arm on the lab bench for a moment, then opening her other paw, she asked, “Maybe she was using you for sex?”

Sarsuk blinked. He was fluent in Geroo and the various dialects that cropped up from time to time before the education system clamped them back down, but her words left him confused. He couldn’t understand what she meant. “Using … me?”

“Yeah, like she wanted to have sex,” said the geroo, “not a lasting relationship or anything, just a little intimacy and fun with another person. Y’know?”

He nodded, and earnestly agreed, “Yeah, I can imagine feeling that.”

“Maybe she wanted that and told you a little lie to get it?”

The krakun’s face pinched to a scowl. Her theory sounded far-fetched at best. Noke had stood to lose so much and gain nothing, but Siki’s naïve reasoning still sounded plausible. “Maybe…?”

At last, her ears drooped in a frown. “I guess it’s a little sad if she got your hopes up, but really, it’s not right to expect anyone to be your long-term forever-match when you’ve only just met them,” she explained. “So, that was hardly her fault, right?”

“No, I suppose I shouldn’t have.” He tilted his head and squinted at her, still certain he was the butt of some elaborate joke, then added, “This is really weird. I thought you were going to laugh at me.”

Siki blinked. “Laugh at you for what?”

“Well, for letting her—”

“For being brave?” she asked, interrupting him. “For taking a risk and letting yourself be vulnerable? For letting another person in instead of shutting them out?”

He froze with mouth open, and though she wouldn’t see it, he had one digit raised, ready to contradict her. A moment passed, and he asked, “Did… Did I do that?”

“Of course, you did,” said Siki. Tapping a finger against her palm with each point, she said, “You brought her back and opened your home to her—the place where you feel safe from anyone who might be cruel to you. You confided in her, made yourself vulnerable by telling her that you didn’t understand something that you felt you should…”

The little marsupial winked at him. “And then intimacy itself? How much more defenseless can someone get than when they’re putting their private bits inside of someone else’s?”

“I… I…” He flopped back on his couch and stared up at the ceiling for a moment before returning a suspicious gaze to the dark brown geroo. He asked, “But what about those slaves?”

“Don’t!” she barked a warning.

He frantically waved his palms, afraid she’d walk out before he could get an explanation. “I mean, that cleaning crew,” he corrected himself. “What about how that cleaning crew was taunting me?”

Siki blinked and shook her head slightly, as if to clear it. In a softer but still sincere tone, she asked, “You don’t think they were trying to help?”

“Help me?” he gasped.

“Well, sure!” she said with an easy smile. She winked again. “You don’t want sex to be too great, do you?”

He raised one eyebrow, caught by surprise yet again. “I don’t?”

“Well, it wouldn’t last very long like that,” she chuckled. “Wouldn’t it be better to have good sex that lasts much longer, rather than amazing sex that lasts only for a moment?”

“I guess so. So, you think those sl—” He slapped his forehead, barely stopping himself in time. “You think they were trying to distract me?”

“Well, sure,” said the geroo, as if it were obvious. She explained, “I mean, you can’t really know, but from what you described, it seems to me that they were saying, ‘Don’t be so intense! This is fun. See? Just have fun with it!’”

Sarsuk sat back on his couch once more and covered his palm over his mouth. For a long while, he stared off into space while he relived that horrible episode over and over again. Had he been mistaken? Was he so vulnerable at that moment that everything seemed like an attack?

“Huh,” he whispered. “I… I’ve thought back on that night so many times, and I never considered—”

Siki slapped her huge thighs before standing. “Well, it’s getting late.” She turned to leave then looked back over her shoulder. “Can we talk about this more in the morning?”

“Uh, yeah, okay sure,” said Sarsuk, still lost in space. “Thanks.”

The geroo missed a step at his gratitude and nearly toppled. She turned about and her ears smiled wide. With paws on her hips, she said, “You’re very welcome, Mr. Sarsuk.”

———

Reviewer's link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qBaNxEJgUNqrpP01HGY7A7xCMZ_moakqzEvXd_8fzpA/edit?usp=sharing

Thoughts?