Chapter 43: Is Three Really a Crowd?

Summary: Time for some R & R after their recent burst of activity...

Warning! Chapters 40-43 were published back-to-back! Make sure you don't miss any of them!

Lemon Warning! There is a lemon in this chapter. It is clearly marked with -Lemon Starts Here- and -Lemon Ends Here- for those that wish to skip it!

Chapter 43: Is Three Really a Crowd?

Izuku was enjoying his first chance to really relax in months. He knew he'd probably driven himself harder than he should have, while Aayla was away. But, frankly, throwing himself into his work and training had been the one thing that distracted him from the constant ache of her missing presence. For most of the time she'd been gone, they hadn't even been able to call each other due to the clandestine nature of her missions, and without some sort of visual to guide it their bond couldn't reach over such insane distances. Still, Aayla was back now, and Izuku's ridiculous work pace while she was gone had resulted in them being ready for the raid on the Collective months earlier than originally intended.

That raid and its grueling aftermath had been the last straw, however. Even Mei had noticed that he'd been drained and had actually started pestering him to take a break. That mind-boggling intervention had certainly forced the issue, particularly when Aayla had thrown her own weight in and made Mei join in as well. It's not like the pinkette hadn't put in just as many hours as Izuku had, after all. Mei was simply more used to doing so and ignoring the fallout.

It was thus with only a little feeling of guilt, that he'd handed off dealing with Karazak to the Jedi. The Hope and a small picket force consisting of a single Munifex, an ES-24 carrier, and two Defenders had been left behind to help secure the world. For the most part, however, it was now in the hands of the Jedi, who had arrived with a small Judicial Forces detachment and, surprisingly, nearly two hundred Atarian Rangers. Apparently, Izuku gratefully slipping that organization a mass infusion of cash for its help with setting up the Shattered Shackles had led to the Rangers having something of a recruitment boom of their own. Which, given the circumstances, the Jedi had quietly decided to make use of.

Now, Izuku was once again enjoying sights a man could power plenty of fantasies with, as Aayla had decided they needed another beach vacation. This time, they hadn't gone to a resort world, Aayla and Izuku both agreeing that Mei would likely go crazy with boredom and end up doing something unfortunate to something or someone. Like creating a living Caf Dispenser that gave cheesy life advice, or creating a death ray using parts from some resort world's lightshow equipment.

Instead, they'd rented a private stretch of beach on Naboo, in the Lake District, which had pleasant enough weather for the barely-there bikini's both girls were wearing. Mei had been suitably distracted with an old wave skimmer and a bunch of parts for said, enjoying the tame past-time of rebuilding it into a 'water exploration baby,' between bouts of Aayla dragging her into more traditional beach fun. Given that working on the little wave skimmer involved a lot of bending over, Izuku had been getting a spectacular view of his best friend's ass in a string-bikini. Which he totally would have felt guilty for ogling over, if Aayla hadn't been blatantly enjoying the same view right along with him.

A little too blatantly, actually. Izuku was suspicious, but willing to let that slide for now, instead choosing to just enjoy the sight. Along with the equally enticing sight of Aayla deciding that 'private beach' meant 'topless sunbathing' was called for. Twi'leks didn't tan. But apparently their skin-sensitivity made basking in the sun blissful. Enough so that his lover's expressions reminded him of a cat curled up in a sunspot. Sipping on some local mildly-alcoholic and very fruity thing, Izuku let his cares drift as he enjoyed both the view and the lack of paperwork or training…

... ...

-Lemon Starts Here-

Some would consider the fact that sand got everywhere when you were on the beach a serious downside. Izuku, however, was not among them. He might have been, once upon a time, had he actually spent much time on the beach growing up. Now, Izuku considered it a feature, and the reason was under his hands as he helped Aayla find all the places that sand had ended up, both of them standing at the center of a frankly absurdly luxurious shower. Not only did the spacious shower have an overhead 'rainfall' showerhead, but it had a solid two dozen different nozzles and pressure jets, spread all over the walls. If he was on some trade hub space station, he'd have suspected it of being some multi-species setup. As it was, with this being a human and near-human oriented rental on Naboo, he knew it was just a lot of fancy extra features. Some of which he'd experimented with that morning, out of curiosity.

Humming to himself, he considered those for a moment, even as he moved on from Aayla's lekku to her back. She was already blissed out from the lekku-massage, and only murmured encouragement, along with uttering a few soft moans, as he worked out a few knots from her muscles as he lathered and rinsed her back. Idly forming a bit of a plan, he refreshed the soap he was using and let his hands wander forward, caressing and washing Aayla's tight abs, before drifting up to cup one soft globe in each soapy hand. Aayla gasped as he flicked her nipples, then began moaning far more actively as he kneaded her breasts, occasionally tweaking her nipples. He was no longer even pretending to only wash her body free of sand, even if he was technically still achieving that result.

Aayla actually whimpered when Izuku teasingly left her breasts behind…and skipped over her rear and core, instead shifting down to work on her legs. Of course, her legs weren't entirely free of their own erogenous zones, and he made sure to keep up the heady feeling of teasing pleasure by tracing the sensitive flesh of her inner thighs, hitting a sensitive spot just below the back of one knee, and the working his way back up to firmly grope her backside.

He grinned as Aayla stopped the pretense of a mere wash at that, moaning and leaning forward to rest her hands on one of the shower walls, not at all incidentally presenting herself in such a way that everything was exposed. Despite the temptation to skip a step or two of his loose plan, Izuku held back. He spent a good couple of minutes just on her ass, enjoying the way she squeak-moaned when he brushed over her rear entrance with a soapy finger. Still, he disappointed her by moving on, though that disappointment didn't last when he shifted his attention to her equally exposed pussy instead. He kept his touch light, pulling away whenever she tried to push back into his caressing fingers for more pressure.

Twi'lek protective outer lips weren't particularly sensitive, frustrating Aayla as she wanted more right now, but Izuku only flicked her lightly on the ass every time she tried for more, until she obediently stopped trying to force it. Only several seconds after she properly behaved did he finally give her a little of what she wanted, pressing hard enough to split her outer lips just a bit, gently teasing the thoroughly engorged clitoris analogues to either side of her opening. Aayla's breath caught, and she whimpered as she obviously wanted yet more, but she was a good girl this time and stopped her motion mid-attempt to hump his hand. Grinning, he rewarded her for her restraint by slipping a pair of fingers inside her and beginning to thrust…even as he used his telekinesis to pull at one of the nozzles on the wall.

That nozzle proved not to be a nozzle at all, but rather a half-concealed shower wand that he'd discovered that morning. Keeping Aayla distracted with his slowly thrusting fingers, he made sure the wand was set to a moderate pulse, then brought it to hover just below his thrusting hand. Now, unless two entire universes of porn had lied to him…

Aayla whimpered for just an instant as his fingers pulled out, instead shifting to hold her lips apart...then she let out the single lewdest moan he'd ever heard from her as the pulsing water jets hit her exposed clits straight on. Using their bond to gauge the effect, Izuku curiously dialed the pressure and focus on the wand, guiding it through a whole range of settings as Aayla went wild. She came quickly, but that was hardly going to stop him when he already knew she was multi-orgasmic. Instead, he kept at it, tweaking the intensity settings, the temperature, the number of jets, and exactly where he focused the stream. She came twice more before he noticed her legs starting to shake and finally let up. She slumped against the wall as he crawled up her body and supported her from behind. Resting his extremely erect cock on her firm ass, he whispered into her ear cone.

"Hmmm, I think you owe me one or two, love. The only question is if you think you can handle me fucking you through the wall right now…or if you want to serve on your knees instead."

He was thrilled at the thrill he felt in Aayla as she contemplated both options, and he let out an amused hum as she made her choice and slowly sank to her knees. Apparently, she must not have thought her shaky legs could take more just yet. As she eagerly grasped his throbbing erection and began to lavish attention on his tip with her tongue, he wasn't about to complain. It's not like he wasn't planning to have it both ways, after all, no matter which one she'd chosen to start with…

-Lemon Ends Here-

... ...

"So, Mei's extremely hot."

Izuku blinked, mind struggling to process what Aayla had just said as she lay with her head on his abs, basking in a second round of afterglow after their shower sex had turned into a second round in the bedroom. Well more like a fourth and fifth round after three in the shower. But, hey, semantics.

"I, uh, did notice you seemed to be appreciative of her assets in the bikini you got for her…"

He knew his tone was hesitant, probing. But this sounded like a dangerous conversation if he ever heard one.

"Yep! For a bit I thought she might be asexual, which would have been a shame. Turns out that she has an impressive collection of sex toys though, some of which she built herself."

Izuku could only stare. What?

"Somehow, she even got one made that looks like your cock! An almost perfect replica. I mean, I know she has all your measurements, but I admit I'm curious how she got one of your erect cock, instead of just your resting dick size."

Izuku's eyes were wide.

"She has what, now?"

Aayla shifted to grin up at him, and he saw mischief in her eyes.

"Just kidding, love. She does have an impressive set of toys. But she was actually lamenting that she hadn't gotten one in your size. Still not sure how she knows what that size is, though."

Izuku's incredulous stare finally broke Aayla down and she giggled.

"Seriously, Izu. At first I was really confused by her, but I eventually sorted out that she has a monster-sized crush on you and a remarkably active sex drive. She simply doesn't properly know what the crush is, since it involves social-emotional understanding that she's bad at. She also sees keeping her sex drive satisfied as simply a basic need, like eating or sleep. Something she needs to keep in check so she can work on her inventions. Which makes it even harder for her to make the right mental connections."

Slowly, Izuku shook his head. He could see both of those things being the case. But, why was Aayla bringing it up? He didn't sense any jealousy over it from her at all. When he worked up the nerve the ask that aloud, Aayla smirked up at him.

"Obviously, I need to bring you in on the plan to seduce her into our bed. It would be much harder if I had to do it all myself, after all!"

Izuku spluttered, realized from her emotions she was serious, and tried to make coherent thoughts form into actual words. He might have managed it, eventually. After he got the mental image of Aayla and Mei being 'intimate' out of his head, at least. Unfortunately, his wicked lover had felt his cock stir at the thought and rolled over to mount him. Apparently, she was ready for round six…

... ...

The next day, Izuku couldn't help but look at Mei and her actions with new eyes. Along with, well, reawakened desires, rather than 'awakened' desire. He'd certainly had a fair share of lust towards his best friend when they'd first met, after all. She was one of the few females in his life he'd had positive encounters with at that point, she had nearly zero understanding of basic body modesty, and that body was one that models would have killed for. Since his first ever interaction with him had involved an explosion, followed by ending up with her on top of him, boobs practically wrapped around his head…

Yeah, suffice it to say he'd had a few fantasies.

Before, both back in their original reality and when Mei had arrived in this one, Izuku had pushed that aside. What Mei had originally needed most was a friend. Someone who had cared enough about her to help her overcome her social limitations and get her grounded. Between feeling like he would have been manipulating her if he'd used that lack of social understanding to act on his desires, and the chaos that had been Japan during his years at UA, it hadn't been that hard to shunt aside the lust and simply be a friend.

Mei coming after him hadn't really changed that.

He'd known, probably even better than Master Fay, just how emotionally compromised Mei had been when she'd made that decision. Just how emotionally compromised she'd been when she'd arrived, for that matter. Add in already being in a relationship with Aayla, and Izuku had never done more than look appreciatively. Something he knew Mei did in turn, and which thankfully didn't seem to bother Aayla at all. Indeed, Aayla seemed to be more prone than he was to mentally undressing his best friend. As well as to abusing Mei's delight at cuddling to her own advantage, for that matter. Given Aayla tended to almost glow with satisfied happiness to his empathic senses during said cuddling, he'd come to very strongly suspect she'd been nearly as touch starved as Mei. Bloody Jedi standoffishness.

Still, his mind was drifting off subject. Probably in instinctive self-defense. He was Japanese after all. He knew how much pain and suffering harem protagonists went through! All to usually end up with just the childhood friend route! If even that! Still, Aayla was the one that had brought the possibility up, and their bond meant he had been fully aware she was serious, despite the teasing way she'd done it.

All of which led him to a reevaluation of Mei through the lens of Aayla's claims.

Only half-reluctantly, he had to admit that it all fit. Mei was more stable now, on a friend standpoint, than she'd ever been in her life. Since coming to this universe, Mei had been able to expand her circle of friends to far more than just Izuku. Aayla was one case, of course. But there was also Nikkila, not to mention 'Megamilk' and 'Triangles,' both of whom had stuck around to work with Mei even after the N-2 project had wrapped up the new design. Even Celeste Morne had, somehow, settled into an awkward older-sister role to Mei that seemed to confuse the poor Jedi Master even more than it did Izuku.

Yet, despite all of that, including the fact that 'Megamilk' in particular was quite physically affectionate, Mei had only seemed to revel more in their occasional cuddle time. The appreciative looks when he was shirtless or working out hadn't changed, but his interpretation of them had shifted, allowing him to see what was likely always there. That, if nothing else, she was certainly physically attracted to him.

Then, of course, was his empathy. Most of the time, he kept the 'gain' dialed way down so that he didn't get overwhelmed in crowds. A mental trick that he'd developed in pure self-defense with how population-dense his home country had been. He knew Aayla did something similar, for similar reasons, given that Coruscant was even worse in that sense. It was less an alteration in how much information they took in, and more a trick of how much they let themselves perceive. The brain was a remarkably adaptable thing, able to build filters like that when you really needed them.

None of which changed the fact that he could get a lot of information from someone when he chose to properly pay attention. Doing so with Mei as she interacted with both him and Aayla had revealed something he mentally kicked himself for not noticing. Mei's emotions did kick in, with more than just lust at that, when cuddling with him or Aayla. Or even when just hanging around them and excitedly talking about her newest projects. The reason he hadn't noticed was that Mei herself didn't seem to understand the emotions. They were a confused, tangled blob, which Izuku could only parse out now that he was actively paying attention. But, well…Mei was still Mei. Even if she'd come a long way from when he first met her, she was still half-baffled by emotions and social cues. And she wasn't lucky enough to have access to examples of other people's emotions, like he and Aayla did, to help her sort out what was what.

Crap. Aayla was right. Mei had a crush. Two of them in fact. What she had on Aayla was an actual crush, though felt like it was building into more even as he watched Aayla drag the once-again-bikini-clad Mei into the water again. What she felt for him? Once he untangled the mess…it felt an awful lot like what he felt for Aayla. Only stronger. Rooted more deeply in Mei by the far greater time they'd known each other for. It wasn't quite romantic. Not yet. But it would take only the tiniest spark to shift if that way. A spark formed of getting Mei to actually make the mental connection.

Well. That was a revelation. Now he just…needed to figure out what to do with it. Aayla certainly had a firm opinion. But was that what Izuku wanted for himself? And was any of this fair to Mei? Izuku was suddenly far less sure this vacation was going to be relaxing than he had been the day before…

... ...

Just a day later, Izuku was proven wrong when Aayla redirected their vacation entirely. He supposed he should have known better than to think his lover would let him stress over the situation when he was supposed to be relaxing. But he was still caught off guard by how nonchalantly she redirected things from contemplations of their relationship, to contemplations of a bit of adventure, with just a few sentences.

"So! Now that Mei is bored with her wave skimmer, it's time to move on to Phase II! Time to find Izuku a proper lightsaber crystal! Actually, I need a second one myself, and I know Mei has been curious about the properties of Kyber and similar Force-Attuned crystals. So I thought we could go looking together."

Izuku blinked, and Mei shot up in her seat with a riveted expression on her face.

"Yes! We should do that! That whole category of crystals are bullshit! They shouldn't be able to amplify energy the way they do!"

Aayla snorted, even if knew better than to disagree. The various types of crystals that could be used in lightsabers, often collectively called 'Kyber Crystals,' even if that name wasn't quite accurate, really would be bullshit if you didn't know about the Force. As it was, they were effectively just specific types of Crystal that had become imbued with Cosmic Force. Usually, they were the result of a planet or place that had a strong Force Nexus present, such as the Crystal Caves on Illum. There were plenty of other known types and locations, at least to the Jedi Order. For some obvious reasons, including the fact that someone who knew what they were doing could used them to amplify energy dangerously, knowledge of them was somewhat…restricted.

Not banned. Banning something was the fastest way to create a black market for that thing, as well as curiosity about why it was banned. No, the Jedi Order simply didn't talk about the crystals they knew worked in such a fashion. Since virtually every other Force sect in the galaxy was more secretive than the Jedi Order, the result was that the properties of such crystals weren't common knowledge outside Force users. Mei only knew because she'd realized quickly that lightsabers were utterly bullshit space magic that shouldn't work. They simply shouldn't be able to generate enough power for the things they did. Enough badgering of the various Jedi around her had produced an answer…but it was one that frustrated her far more than it satisfied her. Particularly since no one was going to let her take apart their lightsaber to study the crystal inside.

"Well, that's one vote for your idea. If possibly a terrifying one. But how would we even go about that? You've told me about Illum before, but it's a Jedi world. It wouldn't be good if they figured out I'd been there. Assuming you'd even know how to get us there in the first place."

Aayla nodded at Izuku's question and statement both.

"True! But I poked around the Jedi archives and discovered something interesting. It used to be tradition that a Jedi would reach out to the Force, using a medium like an immersive starmap, to try to find their crystal. If was only if they failed at that they went to somewhere like Illum. Failure wasn't uncommon. In fact, the vast majority of the time it simply led the Jedi to one of the known worlds that house crystals even if they succeeded. I'm betting with your special tap into the Cosmic Force, you'll succeed fairly easily. I'm hoping I might be able to as well, since I share a bit of that connection through our bond."

Izuku paused for a few moments to process all of that, then nodded.

"This rental has a full-immersion holo-theater for entertainment. You're thinking we can load up a galaxy map using that and try to meditate on it?"

Aayla smirked…and produced a datadrive. A heavy duty, high-capacity drive with its own processors.

"Yep! I pulled a far more comprehensive galaxy map from the Jedi Archives before I left the Temple, and I've added more data to it from the recovered Ossus archives, too. This drive will help boost the holo-theater's power so it can actually handle it, too. We should have a good chance of it working."

Izuku's lips quirked at the proof that Aayla had planned this out. Well, it honestly sounded like the sort of more personal adventure that appealed to him after so much time doing administrative and leadership crap.

"Alright. Let's give it a try."

Aayla cheered…and so did Mei. Hopefully they didn't offend the Force itself by potentially giving Mei access to some Force Focus Crystals to play with…

... ...

Given Izuku's net worth at this point, none of them had really blinked about the price of the rather luxurious rental property they were staying at. They'd wanted the private beach, so they'd shelled out the cold, hard credits for it. Aayla, at least, properly should have felt wasteful about that. But the reality was simply that all of them worked insanely hard. The occasional treat in order to revitalize themselves was fine, as far as even Aayla was concerned. Particularly when this time it had come with some practical extras.

The extra that they were making use of now was an advanced holo-theater. One that could, very literally, put you in the center of the action by surrounding you on all sides with full color holos. Such setups were expensive, as a general rule, and took up an impractical amount of space and processing power for most normal people anyway. This property had one, though, and it was there the three of them had retired to with the datadrive. It had taken a bit of convincing, mostly by Mei, to get the drive to play nicely with the holo-theater systems, but once she got it working the result was certainly worth it.

The extremely high-fidelity systems of the theater projectors rendered the swirling galaxy map in glorious detail all around them. It was a beautiful display that rendered even Mei mute for a bit. Which was good, as Aayla had been the least affected, having seen even better versions of this at the Jedi Temple itself. She got Izuku focused while Mei was still poking curiously at everything, and both of them knelt to meditate. Aayla focused on her connection to Izuku first and foremost, only channeling the idea of a search for her Crystal once she'd gotten a sort of secondary tap into his own unique connection. For all the differences doing it that way introduced, meditation was a familiar thing for her, and she had little trouble falling into a trance to seek out what she wanted.

For Izuku, it was more difficult. Not just because he hadn't spent his entire life being trained in this sort of thing, but also because his unique connection to the Cosmic Force made the process almost backward compared to a Jedi. Aayla was using her tap of Izuku's connection as little more than an extra-clear communication method to enhance the method she already used, reaching out to the Force to request an answer. Izuku, for all intents and purposes, was constantly being flooded with too much information, rather than struggling to get at even hints and pieces like a traditional Force sensitive. It had only been with copious help from both Master Fay and Master Bnar that Izuku had worked out a system of meditation that let him essentially 'filter' that vast data stream in various ways.

Normally, the biggest way he did that was to simply localize the data. To filter out anything that wasn't relevant to the immediate area he was in. That, however, was obviously unsuitable when looking for some form of information or guidance that involved the rest of the galaxy beyond his direct surroundings. Thus, this time, he carefully crafted a filter based on the concept of not just 'lightsaber crystals,' but 'a lightsaber crystal best suited for Izuku Midoriya.' Well, actually, that last bit was really his own Force signature, combined with his best understanding of himself, rolled into a sub-concept of its own. But it boiled down to the same thing at the practical bottom.

With a deep breath and still in a half-trace, Izuku stood and drifted toward a section of the map. Aayla had already marked out another planet, having much more quickly gotten a result for her own search. Unlike Aayla, whose planet was out in the Outer Rim and not actually too far from them at all, Izuku found himself standing in front of the Deep Core. He zoomed in again, and again, and again. On the fourth attempt to zoom there was a noticeable lag as the datadrive hummed and whirred. Mei had drifted over to it and broke the silence as the map jerked a bit before zooming in.

"Huh. It's accessing the Ossus data. Which isn't compressed as well."

Izuku did his best to ignore the comment, keeping to his half-trance as he zoomed two more times, each one having the same sort of momentary lag. Finally, it settled on a world that got a strangled sound from Aayla.

"Tython? How the heck are we supposed to get there? The hyperlanes collapsed, again I might add, centuries ago."

Mei, surprisingly, perked up and provided a solution.

"Oh! That was one of the planets that was on the Infinity Gate list! That means I get to check it out again. Awesome!"

Izuku and Aayla both blinked at her, before slowly remembering what they'd been told by Mei and Celeste about the mission the two of them had done together. Aayla made a disbelieving noise, but shook it off a moment later.

"Right. Force shenanigans at work or something. Anyway, that means stopping by Felucia and uncovering the Star Temple there. That will be an interesting diversion, though possibly not very relaxing. Both Felucia and Tython are…energetic. Though I only know a little bit about Felucia and have no idea what the current state of Tython is."

Izuku nodded. But then gestured to where Aayla had been standing before he'd taken over the map.

"We might want to take Master Bnar if we go to Tython anyway. The system you found looked a lot nearer by, though. Like, really close by, actually. The map barely twitched away from Naboo. What world was it?"

Aayla looked chagrined.

"Also not exactly a resort world. Though it's one we sort of wanted to scout at some point anyway. Apparently, my crystal is on Tatooine of all places."

Izuku blinked in surprise, then grinned.

"Oh? Do we get to play Master and Slave again to keep you away from the greedy Hutts?"

Aayla pouted, but there was no actual feeling of trauma in the bond, thankfully.

"That's probably the easiest way. And hopefully we won't have to do anything involving the Hutts themselves. Just pass through their spaceports. We can use it as a chance to check out the local conditions, though. Even if it won't exactly be a super fun stop."

A wicked idea or two ran through Izuku's head.

"Oh, I don't know. I think we could probably find a way or two to make it more entertaining…"

Aayla seemed to pick up on at least a little bit of his naughty thoughts, as she blinked and tentatively smiled back at his grin, blushing for some reason she didn't yet understand. Somehow, she just knew he had something kinky in mind. Which was giving her very mixed thoughts. Given that this was both supposed to be a spiritual quest, and they were heading to Hutt Space. Still, she supposed it wouldn't hurt to hear him out…

... ... ... ... ...

Author's Note 1: Woohoo, moving more in the direction of getting Mei involved, now that this story has been officially declared a multi-pairing! A whoooollle bunch of people specifically called her out as 'she should be involved.' And I sort of agree, to the point I'd even previously included bit and pieces that could be considered buildup for it. Right now, she's the only one I've solidified as a certainty to join them.

Author's Note 2: I only mention this once per release, but my stories have a  page where some early access content is available. In example, I just released chapters 44-47 of Displaced Hero there, giving it over another 16,000 more words which will remain in early access until next month. Similarly, there are at least a few Early Access chapters there for ALL of my stories, though NONE of them are ever permanently paywalled. All fanfiction content I make ends up here (or on Fanfiction.net and Questionable Questing) eventually, as new content for each story is released.