MGS Chapter 38: Harem Confrontation

This is pretty raw, still. I haven't checked it for errors but I will. I just wanted to get some MGS content up as it has been ages since I've been able to because of Esoterica 3, but that's almost over. Enjoy, and forgive any minor errors and lack of prose polish!

When I returned back to the Sanctuary, I was greeted with a sight that gave me flashbacks to the time in high school where my ex and my then-current girlfriend came face-to-face for the first time. Warning signals were flaring as I studied the tense and irritated faces of my monster girls as they stood out by the field, the rays of a soon-to-be setting sun lighting their backs so that their faces seemed even gloomier.

"What's going on?" I said, trying to be chipper, mentally preparing myself to play the diplomat if needed.

But their angsty eyes all cast on me, with only May Belle beaming at me smugly whilst the others fumed.

"You have some explaining to do," Autumn said.

"Do I?" I asked innocently. "What did I do this time?" I tried to play it off with a chuckle, but no one was having it.

Autumn, Daisy, Ivy, and Sprinkle were all glaring at me, occasionally stealing pained or furious glances back at May Belle. I was truly lost, having no idea as to what this fuss was over.

"Well," Autumn started, her arms crossed, her foot tapping on the ground, "I was sharing the news with everyone that we've all been leveling up this whole time and should probably spend our Trained Skill points and pursue some feats if available."

"Okay," I nodded.

"And May Belle is level fourteen."

I blinked. "So what?" I asked. "Is that bad?"

"Not exactly," Autumn said, her brow furrowed. "But Daisy started at the same level, and she's level twelve. I started at level ten, and I'm only level fifteen. Ivy only gained one level this whole time."

My mouth fell open in horror as I realized what this was about. It was a judgment day I never thought would come.

"So I'm your favorite, Bucky-Baby!" May Belle gushed. "I knew it."

I shook my head and waved my hands as she threw her arms around me, eliciting clicks and hisses from the others. "No, no, it's not like that at all," I said. "I wasn't picking favorites, I promise!"

May Belle pouted. "Don't say that!"

"Sorry, honey," Daisy fumed, her eyes glaring at me with a look not far off from hate. "It's a bit hard to believe you at the moment."

"Well, believe me!" I insisted. Fuck. This was bad. "Wait, why is Sprinkle mad? She only just learned what level she was, so we have no idea how much XP she gained with me."

"We started estimating the number of times you slept with us," Autumn said. "Sprinkle came up lowest--"

"After me," Ivy said coldly.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I thought back to my meditation app back on Earth, focusing on the breath visualizer, conjuring that image up in my mind. Maybe if I just inhaled and exhaled properly for long enough, the problem would resolve itself?

That seemed unlikely. The tension was only growing. "Okay," I said. "I can see how you would come to this conclusion. All I can say is I didn't keep count, and that XP from sex, in my experience, is based on a variety of factors."

"Such as?" Ivy asked.

I chewed my lip before speaking. "Uhhh, well, it might be satisfaction, for one, or maybe... You know what, I can tell this isn't going to help my point. I think the real reason is just that May Belle is the most aggressive."

Autumn nodded a concession at that. "She definitely is the neediest."

"Hey!" May Belle shouted, her smug grin fading to a wilting frown. "That's uncalled for."

"Your gloating is uncalled for," Sprinkle growled. "My Bucky, I'm going to be counting from now on."

I gulped hard at that. "This is stress I don't need in my life."

"I don't think that's the solution, Sprinkle," Daisy said, still eyeing me coldly. "He's just going to sneak off to the girls in town instead of spending time with us, worried about the tally."

"I wouldn't do that," I said, "But your general point is correct."

"You wouldn't do that?" Now even May Belle was getting cross with me, her mood soured by my refusal that she was a definite favorite. "And where were you just now?"

"I was visiting Vale," I tried to explain, but they all just groaned and smacked their lips vindictively as if I'd made a confession. "We didn't do anything!"

"Oh, so you were just spending time with her?" Daisy asked.

"I was picking up this," I said, pointing to the cloak on my back. "She was having a bad day, so we chatted a bit. That's all."

"But the point still stands," Autumn said. "You have the self-control of a toddler. If she exposed half a tit to you it'd be a very different story you had to tell us, and you know it."

They all glared at me. "Okay, that may be true, but I promise you're my favorites, not them."

"Which one of us?" May Belle asked.

"All of you!" I shouted, my voice actually growing frustrated. It was a tone they'd never heard from me directed at them, and their collective eyes went wide with shock at the sound. "This is stupid as hell! I don't have a favorite. May Belle chases me the hardest so she gets it the most. End of story. Autumn, you're always so distracted with running the Sanctuary and drawing up plans and creating situations like this that we barely have time to screw more than twice a day when you factor in all that bullshit. Daisy, you and I just had a heart-to-heart recently, so the fact that you're giving me this attitude hurts the most." I turned to Sprinkle. "As for you, Sprink, you have the most peculiar tastes. I just worry I can't satisfy you, so maybe that leads me to avoid sex with you until I'm in the right mood. I can admit that I should work on that."

There was dead silence for a solid minute. Daisy kicked her hooves in the grass as everyone waited for someone else to be the first to say literally anything.

"I'm sorry if we overreacted," Autumn said.

My heart was beating fast. I still felt backed up against the wall, skeptical that it was over, but I nodded. "It's fine," I said. "I understand the anxiety. But it honestly hurts that you'd doubt how much I care for each of you. Remember, I'm just one man. I'm doing the best I can."

They all nodded. May Belle bit her lip and took a step back. "We're afraid. That's all."

Hearing that was like a knife in my heart. "Afraid of what?" I asked. "Tell me."

"Being replaced," she said.

"I'm not afraid of that," Autumn said, shaking her head, her arms still crossed.

"It's easy for you to say," May Belle scowled at her. "He needs you. You're his catgirl and emissary."

"I need you, too," I said, grabbing her hand. "Please stop insinuating that my feelings for you are so fleeting and fragile. It honestly stings." I felt tears burning the corners of my eyelids, and I wiped them away on my sleeve, which was covered with sweat and dirt. It only irritated them more.

Her lip turned out like she was going to cry. "I'm sorry! I can't help it!"

"It's not her fault," Daisy said, looking at her sister with a soft, understanding expression. "We've been through more than we ever want to think about again--it's hard for us to know what trust should entail, even if we feel it."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She looked around at everyone standing around us and shook her head. "Let's just say that you all are the first people we've ever known who didn't treat us as slaves or targets for abuse."

Fuck. There was still so little I knew about all my girls, pained pasts that they all guarded. I realized they all had stories to tell me, but whenever it'd come up, I'd only gotten bits and pieces. May Belle and Daisy's anxiety and neediness around me hinted at some serious damage and abuse in their past. I needed to know more about it, I decided, but I wasn't sure how to get that information without putting them through renewed trauma.

Sprinkle, too, had a faraway look in her eyes as the topic of the past came up. Hers was less about abuse and more about loneliness, I was sure, but I was failing to be there for her even still.

"I really need to get to know you all better," I said. "It feels insane to say that after everything we've done, seen, and been through in our short time together, but we still have too many secrets from one another."

Autumn sighed. "The old me would say that none of this matters." She paused.

"What does the new Autumn say?" I smirked.

She smiled back. "That it's about damn time we started sharing."

I nodded. "I want to understand you all so I can avoid letting you feel this kind of anxiety. I care about Tater Town and all its people, but--" I leaned in close, "If push comes to shove, you are my priority. Never forget that."

"I don't want you to neglect or abandon them for us," Daisy said. "Bonny is very important to me. I love Etherea, too. But... I'd be lying if I said I wasn't glad to hear you say that."

May Belle was still pouting. "Bucky-Baby, I'm really sorry."

"For what now?" I asked. "I think everything is clear for now."

She stomped her hoof, irritated with herself, I thought, from the look on her face. "No," she groaned. "I still want to be your favorite. I can't change that. I know it's selfish, but it's all I can think about. It's the only thought that makes me feel secure. I believed it before--now I don't. And it fucks me up so bad."

I frowned. "I don't know how to fix that," I said. "Can't it be enough that I love you?"

She shook her head, though. "Yes, and no. I would never, ever leave you or regret being with you in a bajillion years, Bucky-Baby, but it still stings a bit."

"You're just being selfish," Sprinkle said. It was almost funny coming from her--she rarely added to these sorts of discussions. "Us marked girls can share the title."

Ivy frowned. "I'm not marked."

"Neither am I," Autumn noted. "Soon, though, I hope to be. But, Ivy, I don't know of a way for Bucky to mark you."

"There has to be some way," I said.

Ivy seemed less certain, though. "Elves are elves. Marking is for monster girls."

"Do elves have an equivalent?" I asked.

"Elves are the progenitors of monster girls," Autumn interjected. "It should technically be possible, not out of the gods' abilities. A long time ago, all monster girls were called Beast Elves."

"Is that true?" Daisy asked, looking like she'd heard something brand new.

Autumn grinned and nodded. "Yes. If it's something Ivy cares about, I can plead with Paragon and Hierophant the next time we're summoned."

Ivy smiled softly but jerked her head 'no'. "That's alright," she said. "I wouldn't want Bucky to waste a feat on something like that."

"It's not a waste," I said, grabbing her shoulder. "If that's what you want--if it'll bring us closer, then I'm all about it."

She grinned back at me like she was trying not to, and it was cute on her angularly gorgeous elven face. Before I could comment further, I caught a whiff of something like smoke. My head turned and spotted a tall plume of dark gray smoke billowing wildly up to the sky.

"There's a fire," I said, nodding in that direction.

"That's strange," Autumn noted, "That's where Jammy's farm is."

"That jackalope girl?" I asked. "That Jammy?"

She nodded. "Yeah. You should go check it out."

I raised my fingers to my lips and blew a shrill whistle. I hopped atop Blue's scaly back and took to the sky in a hurry.

"Be careful!" I heard one of the girls shouted from below. I looked back and saw them waving, worried looks on their faces.

I was certain that whatever it was that I was about to encounter that it would be no issue--though I probably should have brought Sprinkle or Ivy along. Hindsight's twenty-twenty.

As the farm came into sight, though, I realized quickly that I was a bit more out of my depth than I'd originally dared to imagine.

"Well, fuck," I groaned, taking stock of the situation. "How do you feel about fighting other dragons, Blue?"