Chapter 21: Shadow Voices — Part 9

Orchid and Nikkei stared at each other from different sides of the master suite. Neither of them spoke as they waited, and neither would be intimate in the absence of Yap and Diane. Neither of them, after all, had been intimate before. Pablo and Frank Montoya still shared the mirror suite adjacent Orchid’s, and were, from what Orchid could tell, still working on leads to Ambria’s whereabouts. Orchid looked awkwardly at Nikkei, wondering what to say. The silence, Orchid was surprised, proved comforting. She was the only one who hadn’t been crying just moments before. Rather than talk, Nikkei set back the blankets of the bed, her hands still trembling. She carefully undressed and settled into a robe, never showing her front to Orchid. Orchid sat at the side of the bed, unable to fully understand her emotions.

Orchid reached back and disabled her bender suit. The suit lost its illusion of a robe, folding in on itself until it was nothing more than a disk of metal lying on the left bedside table. She felt hot and sticky, having been in the climate controlled, self-contained environment of the bender suit for days. The suit had been keeping her clean, but now, Orchid felt she needed water to calm her nerves, and so she turned on a bath and left it to run. Orchid settled into the hot tub, large enough to hold six people. Nikkei, towel wrapped around her hips and upper legs, stepped into the tub, pulled the towel away at the last minute before it could touch the water. Nikkei settled into the heat, her hand set to cover her groin momentarily, until the water concealed her.

“I’m not a man, you know.” Nikkei said quietly.

Orchid smiled, but said nothing, closed her eyes, put her head back against the tub, and let her mind drift away. She fell asleep, thinking, hoping in some ways, that the entire evening had been a dream, that, when she woke from the water’s heat, she would be alone, having just finished pleasuring herself, and that the complications of being a loving quartet of two humes and two androids would be something she wouldn’t have to deal with. Part of her, after all, had indeed felt she had been alone for too long to have the patience to give herself to three other sentient beings, and to endure their ‘cuddle buddies’ that apparently came with the relationship. A few minutes later, however, the slosh of bodies woke her up, and Orchid found herself one among six women. Sissy and Pearl, apparently, had joined Yap and Diane for a bath.

“Joanie had a fist all balled up to hit you with.” Sissy said to Orchid, leaning in a little too close for comfort, and then settling back to the other side of the tub.

Pearl waved off Sissy’s comment as melodrama. “Don’t worry though, I managed to calm her down when she found out that Sissy and Ren were also starting to get close like Toni and Kamau, having promised children to each other when they were older.” Pearl said, smiling as if she were the wisest woman in the world.

Orchid felt suddenly claustrophobic as the five of them sat and talked and gossiped, while she said nothing. She had to get out. She rose, wrinkled from the water, heading for the door. Her bender suit flashed about her body, stealing away the moisture and sealing tightly around her. Nikkei put a hand on her calf, causing her to look down into eyes she had at one time longed to be noticed by. Now she simply longed to escape them. Her bender suit kept Nikkei from catching even a hint of Orchid’s thoughts.

“Hey sweetie, where are you going?” Diane asked.

“I need some air.”

Nikkei smiled, a hint of longing in her expression. “Don’t be long, honey, I know it’s scary right now, but we’re all here for you.”