2.16 – Gift

Mention of buying people (slavery), mention of Emma's trauma

It was while they were resting and cuddling together that Emma came home—early! Caught with another woman, yet again! Maple smiled.

"Emma! You're back—oh no. What's wrong, cutie?"

Her face was a big frown. She didn't even look at Maple or Thera, but immediately made for one corner of the room, slapped her bottle onto the floor, and then retreated into it. To sulk? Thera glanced at Maple and asked via thought.

"Should I go?"

"Um, no, not yet. You might even help cheer her up—I'll find out what happened."

Maple worried it was about the pot earlier, but everything had been fine when they parted. What could Maple have done between then and now to get her so upset? Something else must have happened, with her job, or Marielle? Maple squatted nude by Emma's bottle.

"What's wrong, cutie? Wanna come out and talk about it? We can cuddle."

Emma ignored the question and Maple chewed on her lip. It was possible Emma just needed some space for now, but bottling things up was a tendency of hers, so Maple decided to make full use of her arsenal.

"I could tell you about my day first if you wanted. I ran into Anemone—you remember her from the Cum Race, right—and it was kind of funny. We were too right about her exhibitionism fetish, it turns out."

She knew Emma would find the full story hilarious; at least once she was feeling better, because she ignored it for now. Maple tried again.

"I got the best dirt, for our baby. I waited for you before planting it, of course, but I'd understand if you wanted to do that when you feel better."

Maple switched to a cross-legged position on the floor and rested a hand on her chin.

"Hmm. You're lucky I can't go in there myself, you."

Tempting her with sex could work, if she weren't quite as upset as she'd seemed. No, Maple needed more info before she tried that, and that left her final option—the gift.

She hesitated because it'd be better to not have any negative memories or context tied to a present...and what if she really didn't like it?

"Are you hungry? We could get some food. No? Um...I did also get you a little gift, and I hope you'll like it, but maybe that'd be better for later too—"

Emma ignored the food question, but then her tiny head poked out of the bottle and looked a little more curious than glum. She tilted it in confusion, actually.

"Why, you ask?"

Emma nodded, and Maple gently pet her with a finger.

"Because I love you, silly. No reason. Are you curious about what it is?"

Emma nodded with a semblance of her usual smile, and brought out half of her body so that she was at head level. Maple pounced, stealing a kiss, and then smiled at her. Emma feigned a pout, but then her lips quirked upward. Maple was slowly gaining ground.

"Are you okay, first? Are you mad at me for something, or—oh, something else?"

She fiercely denied that it was about Maple, which was good at least. Maple caressed her cheek.

"Okay. Do you want your present? Or, should I tell you the whole story about it first? We can go sit on the bed. Thera's there too, but I could ask her to leave if you wanted? She already offered to."

Emma rolled her eyes expressively before nodding and gesturing. Maple interpreted it as how dare you cheer me up, but fine. She scribbled a quick note.

Whole story. Thera can stay.

Emma left her bottle and they moved to the bed. Maple guided her so that she was between herself and Thera, trapped and outnumbered, and told both of them about the stationery shop.

"So I almost got you that one, because...you like food, and seafood I imagine, right? And you love tentacles. I think you definitely would have liked it best, am I right?"

Emma frowned, fighting back a smile, and Thera laughed.

"Who even eats dolphin? Or starfish..."

"Emma would! Right? Right, cutie?"

Maple tried to tickle her, and Emma crossed her arms, still adamant about her mood. Eventually she gave in and silently laughed.

Okay, maybe. What's it taste like?

"Dolphin? Heh, I don't know. Most people didn't eat them. Because they're smart? Or, just cute? I think it might have even been illegal, actually. Octopus is good though, if I remember right. But they're supposed to be smart too, I think? Or was that squid? But I think we also eat squid, so. And pigs are kinda smart too..."

Maple was ambivalent about it. Maybe there was another reason eating dolphin might have been illegal, but cuteness wasn't a good argument when other animals were plenty cute.

And intelligence...it probably wasn't okay to murder something just because it was dumb, right? The line for intelligence was probably drawn somewhere around being able to communicate. It had to be drawn somewhere, or else in this world—cow beastkin, and such, were a thing.

Emma rubbed her tummy, like she could go for some seafood right about then. Maple imagined her back when she was a blob-slime, with much less visible intelligence and ability to communicate. If she'd been made of something tasty, like soup, instead of soap—

That was enough thinking about that. Maple shook it off, and changed the subject. She felt nervous.

"Anyway, I did get you something else instead. And I hope you like it, but it's okay if you don't, I could probably return it, I don't know—"

Could she even store chalk inside of her? Her membrane wasn't wet unless she wanted it to be, but what if she couldn't? It might melt, or maybe she'd just prefer pens, and now she'd talked it up a bunch, and—Emma interrupted her words and her thoughts by kissing her. For a moment, their roles swapped and she was the one comforting Maple.

"Okay, okay. I'll stop stalling. It's...a chalkboard! And a, um, pouch with a bunch of colors. It has a heart on it, see?"

Maple pulled both objects from a drawer and handed them to her. She'd written a note across the top of the chalkboard in red earlier: Hope you like it, cutie. I <3 you. -Maple

Emma made an 'o' face and held the gifts reverently. She chose the blue piece of chalk to write with.

Ooooooh I love it!

"Do you really—oof."

Emma engulfed Maple in a hug, nearly knocking her off the bed. She was almost back to her usual cheerfulness. Maple sighed in relief.

"Heh, I'm glad. The chalk is fine, though? There's a cloth you can use to erase with too, but I wasn't sure if you'd just, you know."

Emma grinned and nodded. She erased the message she just wrote by using her hand, but carefully avoided erasing Maple's message.

How much it cost?

"That's secret, silly. It's a gift."

She looked happy with it, and that meant Maple was happy. She hated to end the moment so soon, but figured it might be better to while the mood was high.

"Do you want to talk about what happened now, or—or, do you want to become an Em sandwich and be squished between me and Thera?"

Emma flinched, but looked behind her at Thera, who was also naked. She waved at Emma. After some thought, Emma held up two fingers.

"Option two it is! Hehe, come here you."

Maple squished Emma between them, laying on their sides, and Emma formed her head between their chests with a giggling look of bliss. She was such a cutie, and Maple was glad it helped.

They cuddled like that until she was ready to talk about it.

The explanation began with a chalk drawing. She'd angrily tapped the chalk once, but then kept her strokes reverently gentle. A blue blob with an angry frown devoured the helpless stick figures. She kept adding more, and then scribbling over them in blue. Thera raised her eyebrows.

"Dang, wrath of Emma."

Emma nodded once. Anger was often better than sadness, at least. After they'd both gotten a good look at the drawing, she erased it. Again, she was careful to leave Maple's message at the top, and Maple blushed. It made her happy that Emma liked the words enough to do that, but also regretful she hadn't written something better. Or written onto the wood? Could she have had someone engrave it?

Emma wrote in blue chalk.

A customer tried to buy me

"Buy you a what—or, no. They tried to buy you? From who? What the fuck."

Maple clenched a fist. Those bastards. Whoever it was today, and also—the people from Emma's past. No wonder she was so upset.

Asked Marielle if he could buy me.

"And what did she do?"

Kicked him out, but

Emma shrugged, and her lip trembled. Her eyes went toward her bottle still in the corner, and it looked like she was barely holding back a wave of despair. Maple pulled her into a tight hug and stroked her head.

"That's awful, I'm sorry cutie. You're safe here."

She didn't know what to say. Nothing had happened, fortunately, but someone had actually inquired about buying her—as if that was just a totally normal thing to do. And—was it, in some places? Thera gently placed a hand on Emma, and chimed in with her thoughts.

"That wouldn't have been legal, in any case. Syber is strict on slavery, unlike some other places, and slimes are considered a people—as they should be—but what kind of idiot would even ask that here? I'd have knocked them one, if I had been there. Maybe more than one, if they were a..."

She trailed off at the end, and Maple sent her a quick thought explaining that something like that had really happened to Emma in the past. Not any details, because that was Emma's trauma to share if she wanted, but enough so that Thera would know it was a sensitive subject.

Emma rotated her head all the way around to look at Thera, perhaps only then realizing that Thera had her back too. Maple couldn't fight, but she would still do everything she could to protect her if it came to it. Emma reached a tendril out to pull Thera into the hug with them, and Maple scooted closer.

"Emma sandwich again! Hehe. We'd both protect you, cutie. Maybe I should try to get some kind of combat class. Being half-erogel would help with that, I think, but..."

Emma squirmed and hugged both of them. Thera spoke seriously.

"Syber's mostly safe, but if you ever go elsewhere then, yeah. Magic can be just as capable as any weapon-based class, if you're serious. That might be a better fit for you, and—oh. Emma's getting handsy. Or, tentacley."

Maple felt Emma rubbing between her legs, and even applying some suction to the parts of her around her nipples. She wasn't sure there was much more to say about what had happened—some people just sucked, and it was scary—so she decided to allow the change in activity.

"Hah, she is. What a little pervert."

Maple rocked against her, and kissed her face. She had a lewd smirk now, apparently feeling better, or just succumbing to the touch of their bodies. Before they got down to some good clean fun, Maple bumped magic up on her mental list of priorities.

She really might need to be able to protect the growing list of people she cared about.