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pixieungerstories · 5 years

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Housemates 16

Vinny rushed in from her homework session at the library, she pounded up the stairs to drop off her books then back down to Bazur’s office to get the grocery money for the day. He always had cash in an envelope waiting for her.

Today, he was on the phone. He waved her over to the couch. Vinny sat but bounced nervously, she was cutting it close to catch the bus.

After a while, she heard the bus go past and she stopped bouncing. Bazur was explaining the history of a property. He finally just referenced the local history room, said good day and hung up.

The phone had barely clicked off when he said, “I’m ordering in Thai for supper and I want you to quit your job.”

Vinny was floored. “What? I… Have there been complaints?”

Bazur frowned at her, “Your other job. I closed a six million dollar real estate sale last week. I make three per cent commission. I will give you a raise so that you can afford to just work here.”

Vinny blinked.

Bazur continued, “My calculations say that you are working three, three hour shifts and two eight hour shifts a week at the cafe. That’s twenty five hours, call it ten dollars an hour. I will give you an extra four hundred dollars a week to quit.”

Vinny was stunned, “Why?”

Bazur grinned, his stone teeth were both pointy and slightly coated in black. “You are one of us now and we take care of each other. Plus, you keep Kevin in line. That is no small job.”

“I-” she stopped. She wanted to say, ‘you don’t have to do that,’ or ‘I’m fine,’ but really the only thing she could say was, “Thank you, Bazur.”

“You are welcome, Vinny,” he said seriously. Then he grinned again, “Plus, you will make an excellent tax deduction.”

The thai was quite good. Vinny was happy to have the night off.

Derick walked her to class before heading off to work. She told him about Bazur’s offer. He was pleased. “Please tell me you are going to quit at the cafe. No more rude customers. No more frantic running back and forth. Just… let us help, please.”

“I’ll give my notice at my shift tomorrow,” she promised.

Derick relaxed a little, “Good. How is the lab going?”

“It’s ok. The prof is kind of a jerk, but I’m learning a lot. I’m hoping to get a job as a research assistant next year, so this kind of practical experience is great.”

“I’m surprised you only have one lab to be honest.”

Vinny shrugged, “I will have two next term.”

Derick nodded, “Think you will go for your masters degree?”

Vinny considered this, “Someday, maybe.”

----

The lab just made Vinny tired. She was surprised to see Tristan waiting for her when she finally got out. Tristan and Stuart. Great. This time she didn’t even try to engage Stu. “Hey! Tristan! Let’s go home. I’m tired.”

Stuart opened his mouth to say something, but Vinny had already turned toward the park and started walking. Tristan hurried to catch up. It was a dark and misty night. Walking through the abandoned, unlit park full of trees gave the walk a horror movie vibe. Vinny was ignoring it. Tristan was vaguely uneasy.

“He’s an asshole, isn’t he,” the minotaur whispered, more for something to say than anything else.

“Yes, he is,” Vinny agreed.

They walked in silence for a while.

“Vinny?” Tristan waited until she was looking at him before he continued. “Um… If you aren’t working this Saturday, would you come to a trade show with me? It works better if I have a human along.” He hesitated for a moment, “I could pay you-”

“Nope. I’m good. I would love to. I’m scheduled to work, but I’m sure I can get someone to cover for me.”

“Thank you,” the relief pouring off of Tristan was palpable.

“That bad?” Vinny asked.

“So much worse than the grocery store,” he agreed. “They all assume I’m the hired muscle. No one believes I own a business.”

“Ugh. Don’t worry. I’ll set them straight.”

“Uh… actually, I was hoping we could good cop/bad cop them into better wholesale deals.”

Vinny froze. Then she laughed. “That sounds like fun.”

It turned out work didn’t want any notice. In fact as soon as Barry saw her letter of resignation, he fired her on the spot. Vinny then dug in her heels and wanted that in writing. He got pissy, scribbled ‘your fired!!!’ on a napkin and threw it at her. Vinny snickered at his spelling and gave it back to him to sign. Once he did, she left.

Of course the bus had just been. She sent out a group text explaining what had just happened and to warn the guys that she would be home as soon as she could catch the next bus home. Then she sent a smirk emoji and the single word ‘pants’ to Bazur.

He texted back as a blushing emoji.

Kogan also texted back that he was in the neighbourhood and would pick her up in five minutes. Vinny sat down on the park bench in front of the cafe to wait. She wasn’t there very long when Barry came out and threatened to call the cops because she was loitering. Kogan pulling up, climbing off his noisy oversized bike and coming to loom next to them put a crimp in Barry’s temper tantrum.

Kogan’s insistence that, since Vinny was fired, she get severance was not well received. Nor was his offer to have his lawyer call corporate headquarters to get that arranged. Vinny gave his arm a tug. “We should just go,” she insisted.

Kogan narrowed his eyes at Barry. “Sure. But I’m not letting this guy take advantage of you. Only fair to let him know that and give him a chance to do the right thing.”

Kogan, however didn’t take her home. No. He took her to a bar.

“What’s up, big guy?”

“I need to talk to you, but I’m so inherently shy and demur that I need a shot of courage first,” Kogan answered.

Vinny just laughed. That was not how she would have described him. It was an orc bar. That was… unusual. Vinny hadn’t very been to one and from the looks on the patrons faces, they didn’t get many humans in here either. It was dark and old, but had beautiful Edwardian high ceilings and millwork. It was just that everything was slightly yellowing. You could tell that this place had been in operation since well before the indoor smoking ban. Kogan put his hand gently in the small of her back and led her to a table near the bricked up fireplace.

An orcess came over to the table and completely ignored Vinny. “What can I get you Kogan?”

“A pint of Guinness and a glass of Heineken. Thanks, Maxine.”

Vinny was curious that the waitress knew Kogan by name but couldn’t figure out how to ask about that without it sounding like she was implying either that all orcs knew each other or that he had a drinking problem. She knew that neither was true so she just let that go. She was sipping her beer when Kogan finally said, “I have a good pension.”

She blinked, “Um… congratulations?”

He shook his head, “I know how hard you work. I’m really sorry you got fired. I could top up your salary at the house.”

Vinny wasn’t sure what to say to that. “Um…” She would have thought that Bazur would have told the guys about his offer. Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe he didn’t want them to know. “I made other arrangements, Kogan. I wouldn’t feel right about taking your money.”

“We take care of each other, Vinny. Please let me do this,” he was so ernest and worried that Vinny got a little choked up.

“Thank you, Kogan. I think you should talk to Bazur before you do anything. I will be fine.”

He fumbled in his shirt pocket and pulled out something that he handed to her. It was a credit card with her name on it. “I added a second card to my account for you. For emergencies. In case you are ever stuck somewhere and need a cab or you have unexpected expenses. Or anything. It had a thousand dollar limit on your card, so you won’t accidentally bankrupt me, but if you need it, use it. I’ll take care of the payments and you won’t have to pay be back.”

Vinny was flabbergasted. “I.. I don’t know what to say. I can’t-”

“It’s for emergencies,” Kogan stressed. “Don’t say you can’t accept it. Take it. If you don’t use it, that’s fine. But if you are ever stuck, I want you to have a way out. Orcs are tribal. We are used to large family groups. I think of you as family. I want to make sure you are safe. Please let me do this,” he repeated that last line with a look of intense pleading in his eyes.

Vinny nodded. “Thank you.”

Kogan nodded, “Good.” Then he finished his beer. He nodded at her again, “Don’t rush. I need a moment with the owner before we go.”

Vinny took a sip of her beer. Kogan headed over to the bar. Maxine came over to clear his glass and wipe the table.

This time she looked at Vinny. “Kogan’s pretty old school. I’m not sure you understand that he is treating you like one of his spouses here.”

“What?”

Maxine just shrugged. “Orcs have group marriages. Not like humans where one guy takes a few wives. Actual group marriages. Several males, several females, no one knows (or cares) who fathered the children, group marriages. Look. This is me telling you don’t fuck this up. Kogan is well liked in the orc community. He’s going to ask us to keep an eye on you. If you are leading him on, just break it off now. If not, well, you found a good one.”

“Um… Thank you?” Vinny really had no idea what to say to that.

Supper was already in the slow cooker, so she didn’t have much to do when she got home, so Vinny headed up to her room to research orc group marriages. She was barely settled in when Derick knocked on her door.

“I hear it didn’t go so well. I’m so sorry.”

Vinny waved him into her room, looked to see if Kevin was in the hallway then closed the door. “I had the weirdest conversation with Kogan.”

“Oh?” Derick asked. If Vinny had been paying attention, she would have noticed the look on his face as he said that.

“Yeah! Um… He gave me an emergency credit card. Then the waitress at the bar said Kogan was treating me like one of his wives.”

“Huh. He finally worked up the nerve, huh? He’s been carrying that thing around in his pocket for a couple of weeks already.”

“Derick! She said I was like his wife!”

Derick considered that. “I doubt it. Orcs don’t have a word for wife. They have a word for spouse, but it translates to ‘adult I live with and may sometime have casual sex with,’ so I have a hard time believing he would have called you his wife. As for the spouse part, everyone else in this house fits the definition, so I don’t see why-”

“But I’m dating you! I can’t have sex with Kogan!”

Derick just looked puzzled. “I would never insist on that! I mean, I would much prefer you didn’t sleep with anyone outside of the family, but -”

“Are you serious?”

“Yes.” He looked at her shocked face and sighed. “I completely understand that monogamy is great for preventing the spread of disease and knowing who the father is. But those are human concerns. None of us are going to be able to get you pregnant. If you turn up pregnant, we would all come together to raise the baby. And really, as long as no one is playing favourites, there are a lot of advantages to living in a pack.”

Vinny stared at him and then sat heavily down on the bed.

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

Derick just shrugged. “You don’t have to say anything. It’s your decision. I’m not going to pressure you into anything. But if the thing holding you back is some catholic idea that I want you to be faithful, well, you need to understand that doesn’t really apply to these guys.”

“Derick? Are you sleeping with them?”

He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “I was, before you got here. Since we’ve been together… well, I’ve been off limits because we weren’t sure how you would feel about sharing.”

Vinny felt like her brain just shorted out. “I don’t know how I feel about sharing!” She was quiet for a moment. “I never even considered that it would be an option.”

Shrugging, Derick replied, “It’s up to you. No one was expecting to even like whoever we got in here. Turns out we all love you in our own way. If this is going to make it weird, or make you want to leave, then don’t. I’ll never bring it up again.”

“I… need some time to process,” Vinny admitted.

“That’s fair,” Derick replied. “Anyway, if you are OK, I’m going to go set the table. Dinner smells amazing.”

Vinny nodded absentmindedly as he left. Yeah, she was going to need some time to think.

------

The landscaping trade show was interesting. Tristan had given her the heads up on what he was shopping for. Then, as it turned out, all he needed to do was step back and let Vinny take care of it. He didn’t even need to bad cop. She would smile and flirt and put her hand on the sales guy’s arm. She would put up with them talking to her like she was as idiot. They would give her a ‘special deal, little lady’ then offer her 10-30% less than Tristan was used to paying. In the end, she got contracts for everything on his list for the year at a substantially lower amount than he had been hoping for.

It was dark and raining by the time they ran out to his truck as the show was shutting down. Tristan held open his coat to try to cover them both until he lifted her into the cab. He climbed into the driver’s side and reached around to the back seat to grab a towel. He scrubbed off his face where his hair was longest, then turned to look at Vinny. “You were amazing. Thank you.”

She smiled at him and reached out to push his hair out of his face. Then she stopped and looked horrified. Tristan tried to ignore how much that stung.

“I am so sorry! I just became another woman touching you without asking.”

Tristan paused, “You aren’t some woman touching me. You are my friend, VJ touching me. It’s different.”

Vinny blushed. “Can I borrow the towel?”

He handed it over silently. She tried to dry her hair a bit. Despite their best efforts her t-shirt was soaked and sticking to her in places. “I was going to take you out for dinner to say thank you, but maybe we should go home and dry off first.”

Vinny nodded and did up her seat belt. Neither one of them said much on the ride home, but when Tristan parked in the garage, Vinny caught his arm before he got out of the truck. “Is it true this whole house is one big open relationship?”

Tristan coughed, “Sort of. I mean, I don’t trust my dick around Derick’s teeth and I’m pretty sure Bazur is ace, but.. Um.. I guess. Sometimes.”

Vinny chewed thoughtfully on her lip for a moment, “I would be OK with my friend Tristan touching me too. I know you don’t. Except for helping me in and out of the truck, you don’t ever… Anyway. You don’t have to be careful with me, and I promise not to try to take advantage of you. If friendly touching is ok, I mean.”

Tristan smiled softly. “I’d like that. It was really nice have cuddles after a bad day. It would be great to even just curl up and watch a movie sometime.”

“We can still get take out and do that, if you want.”

Tristan grinned, “I’d like that.”

----

Vinny was comfortably dozing on Derrick’s chest. She had her hand in his shorts and was cupping his dick. He liked that and over the last few weeks it became their default sleeping together position. It was extra nice that Derick was spooned up behind her with a hard on pressed against her back. She wasn’t awake enough to understand the incongruity there.

Derick looked up at Tristan, who was sitting up in bed enough to watch Vinny’s hand in his shorts, and whispered, “Sorry. It’s kind of our thing.”

Tristan grinned, “I can understand why.”

#werewolf #orc #drider #Minotaur #slime #gargoyle #mimic #terato #exophilia

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