Demesne Patron EX SS 33 – Good Morning (Patreon)

In the militia, Riz had learned to be aware of the smallest disturbance while she slept, while also not being so light a sleeper that she woke up for every little thing. If she'd woken up every time someone had gotten up to use the latrines, woke up crying from a nightmare of staring down a beast's teeth and nearly dying, or her bunkmates sneaking into each other's beds, she'd never have gotten any sleep.

When she'd started sleeping with Rian—and Mikon and Umu as well, since they were also there—she had needed to learn to sleep through new things. While she'd been with men before—and one disastrous time with a woman that had been so unpleasant it had killed any curiosity she'd had for the experience—the experiences hadn't involved sleeping next to each other after she'd had her bell rung. Most of them had been bellboys, and she'd had to leave after her time was up, maybe get checked by the militia Deadspeaker to make sure she didn’t get pregnant. Just some quick fun to wash of the colors when they weren't being sent out deal with bandits, keep the roads clear of snow, kill goldbloods that had managed to survive since the last dragon by preying on the local ausdeim flocks, and whatever else it was they were being made to do that week.

So despite everything, Rian was actually her first l… lo… lo… her first man, and the first one she'd actually shared a bed with.

Unfortunately, they weren't alone on that bed.

For the first few days, she'd kept waking up to Umu's arm shifting its position on Rian's chest. She also found the woman kept lifting up Riz's arm and trying to push it off, but she'd stopped the second time Riz had woken up as a result and glared at her for it. Rian would also wake her when he shifted slightly in his sleep, shifting from side to side but mostly staying in place. There'd also been how Rian's leg would kick up and down in his sleep, and she hadn't been the only one who'd woken up the first time that had happened, especially since his ankle had bounced down on her foot that first night. It hadn't hurt, but it had certainly roused her of what had otherwise been a tolerable good sleep.

In the following nights, the three of them had learned to just weigh down his legs by throwing theirs over them, and while Rian's legs would still occasionally shudder under them, it had gotten his kicking under control.

Getting used to Mikon had taken much longer, as the weaver had insisted she needed to press up against Riz's back or else she'd fall off the bed. Wrapping her arm around Riz's torso had also supposedly been absolutely necessary, lest Mikon roll over and also fall off the bed…

Suffice to say, Riz had gotten used to it, and had stopped waking up whenever Mikon had shifted her arm or moved her leg or started cuddling or began caressing Riz's stomach…

Then they'd finally started ringing bells with Rian, and Riz had needed to get used to it all over again, because the feeling of her bare sweaty back and Mikon's own bare, sweaty front had been new and disconcerting and that had been the only reason!

Eventually, she'd just gotten used to it again.

However, there were something things she'd learned to wake up for.

Riz immediately opened her eyes as she felt lips on hers.

"Good morning," Rian said quietly, as if afraid of waking people up. On his other side, she could just make out Umu already awake, the weaver rubbing at her eyes to get the sleep dust off.

"Good morning to you, too," Riz said, immediately breaking into a smile as she used the arm lying on his chest to pull his head closer to her. "Come 'ere…"

He obliged, kissing her again, and Riz let herself be lost in the moment.

Far too soon, the moment ended as she felt lips on the back of her neck and something grinding at her hips from behind. Without breaking off from Rian, Riz reached back and swatted something bare and warm and rounded to get Mikon to stop it. All she got was an "Ah!" and a giggle against her neck for her trouble.

Riz drew back from Rian with a sigh. “Mikon’s awake,” she said.

“I noticed,” he said, glancing downwards.

Riz followed his gaze, and saw a hand stroking his clapper through the loin cloth that covered it. He’d taking off his trousers after she and Umu had both complained about it being abrasive on their skin.

“Just getting it ready for Umu,” Mikon said from behind Riz, a giggle on her voice again.

Another hand came to rest on the loin cloth from Rian’s other side. “I can take care of that,” the woman in question said.

“It doesn’t need to be ready yet,” Rian said. His lips gently touched Riz’s cheek one last time before he raised his head up, supporting himself on her elbow, and looked past her. “Good morning, Mikon.”

The warm skin that had been pressing against Riz’s back pulled away, and she kept her head down as Mikon leaned over her. The two kissed above her head, and giggling from both sides. Rian could be strangely girlish sometimes.

But then, given how he rang their bells…

On the other side of Rian, visible past the arm he was using to prop himself up, she could see Umu fidgeting, no doubt touching herself. The woman had taken off her blouse and no doubt her skirt as well, and Riz could see her bare shoulders moving, glancing towards the still-kissing Rian and Mikon with an impatient pout on her face. When her eyes met Riz's gaze, the woman blushed and looked away, making Riz roll her eyes. For all her enthusiasm when she was getting her bell rung, the woman was still very timid before Rian had tended to her.

Rian and Mikon finally parted with one last giggle. "All right Umu, he's ready for you," Mikon said.

The blonde was quick to move at the announcement, sitting up and throwing her arms around Rian to tug him towards her. He turned to face her with a practiced movement as she fell back onto the bed.

With a sigh, Riz resigned herself to waiting as she reached down to touch herself. Her fingers were a poor substitute for Rian's… well, anything, but they were better than nothing as she lay back.

"Do you want to lay her head on my lap?" Mikon asked, laying down beside her as Rian and Umu kissed again as he reached down to touch the blonde's bell.

Riz glanced towards said lap and grimaced. "Not now that you'd been touching yourself there. I don't want to get that on my hair."

Mikon followed her gaze. "I suppose that's fair," she said. "Do you want me to do that for you, then? You know it feels better when someone else does it."

The other woman had made the suggestion so many times by this point that Riz no longer had the repulsed shudder that had gone through her the first time Mikon had made the offer. She just gave the weaver the same flat stare she did when she couldn't just ignore what Mikon was doing. "Don't you get tired of asking?"

"Of course I do," Mikon said as Rian began to move down Umu's body, continuing to kiss her skin as he did, his fingers between her legs as he tended to her bell. "That's why I only ask once, maybe twice a day."

"So, every time Rian tends to us," Riz said flatly. The Great Binder herself couldn't have done better.

Riz was answered by a wide smile and a kiss on her cheek that just made her sigh in resignation. "See? Not nearly tiring enough to keep me from asking if I can offer you a little help."

"Even if I keep saying no?"

"We're both naked and waiting to get our bells run." The weaver somehow managed to sound almost prim. "It's only polite to offer. Maybe this time you'll be curious enough to change your mind."

"Not going to happen. I indulged my curiosity about that years ago, and I learned I didn't like it."

"Oh? What happened?"

For a moment, Riz said nothing as she pulled her hand away. She didn't want to touch herself while she was thinking about… that. Still… "If I tell you, will you finally stop offering to 'help' me?"

For a moment, Mikon was silent. "If it's something that's painful for you—"

"No, nothing like that," Riz said. "No one touched me when I was a child or held me down and raped me. It was… look, I was young, all right?"

Mikon nodded, recovering her usual humor. "All right…"

"I'd just joined the militia, we'd just finished training and gotten our first pay, and had three days off before we had to leave for our first posting. Me and a bunch of my friends decided to go and have fun since we were militia now, and we decided to become proper men and women. So we went to a bellhouse." Mikon nodded as if she'd been expecting that answer as Riz shifted to make herself comfortable, lying back and folding her hands on her stomach. Thinking back on it, they'd all been lustful young idiots who'd finally had the beads to indulge in the things their parents had cautioned them against, but she wasn't going to say that. Still, Mikon probably knew from the look on her face.

Next to them, Rian had reached Umu's bell, and the woman was squirming and moaning happily as he kissed it, his hands gently caressing her legs and sides.

"So what happened?" Mikon prompted, glancing towards the two of them, her grin distracted as she visibly enjoyed the sight.

Riz shifted uncomfortably, glancing there as well. All right, maybe it made her bell vibrate a little, but only from the memory of Rian doing the same to her. "Well, I'd heard that it hurt the first time with a man, so…"

"You asked for a bellgirl?"

"I thought it was a good place to start. A woman would know the best way to ring my bell, wouldn't she? Besides, I'd heard some of the older militiawomen talking about it, and… well, like I said, I was curious back then. My friend Mevt told me she knew someone who'd take good care of me, so I let her pick the bellgirl."

"Was she pretty?"

Riz paused, turning to look at Mikon… who she found quietly panting as one hand rubbed frantically. The woman was actually ringing her bell to this? "What kind of a question is that?"

"So, your first time was with an ugly woman?" Despite those words, Mikon's hand didn't slow in the slightest.

She rolled her eyes. "She was pretty enough, I suppose. She was older than me, dark hair like the Great Binder's, large chest…"

"Bigger than mine?"

"I don't really remember, it's not like I stared at hers or yours enough to tell. Do you want me to tell this story or not?"

"Sorry, sorry, go on. What happened?"

Riz snorted. "What do you think happened? It was terrible! The woman was tail-fisted, she pinched my nipples too hard, her idea of kissing was sucking on my lips like she was trying to drink them, she put too many fingers in my bell… my bell rang, but it was almost painful…" She shuddered just remembering it all. The liar had kept insisting she'd start enjoying everything soon, that all she needed to do was get used to it, but even as her bell had rung, things hadn't become any less painful or uncomfortable. "I left there as soon as I could."

"Oh, Erzebed… I'm so sorry…" Mikon said, and Riz was surprised to hear that she actually seemed to mean it. The weaver wrapped an arm around her shoulders, and Riz allowed herself to be pulled into what was probably meant to be a comforting hug. It was the sort of thing that she just sighed and tolerated, but that seemed cruel when Mikon seemed to be trying to—wait.

"Is that the hand you were using to touch yourself?"

"…it's not touching you?"

"Um… Riz…? Sorry for interrupting, but…"

The two blinked, Mikon pausing in reluctantly moving away with her hand held up, and they both turned towards where Rian was still between Umu's legs. The blonde seemed in her own demesne as she lay moaning and shivering from Rian's finger as he looked towards the two of them from where he lay on his chest, his legs hanging out over the edge of the bed.

"Yes?" Riz said.

"Your friend… the one who set you up with that woman…" Rian said hesitantly, "Is there any chance she might have been… glittering with you? You know, told the woman to do badly on purpose…? I heard that the militia did things like that to new recruits…"

Riz stared at him.

…

"Mevt, you glittering—!"

Before Riz could get beyond that, Mikon's hand was over her mouth, and Riz's first thought was to be thankful that it was the hand that was dry. "Erzebed, don't yell. You'll bother Umu."

Riz glared, even as she continued the tirade in her head. Eventually, she nodded, and Mikon lowered her hand. Rian had gone back to using his mouth, but he had one eye looking towards them. Umu didn't seem to notice.

"I'm going to kill her," Riz eventually managed to say. "I spent my own beads on that bellgirl, and she… argh!"

Fortunately, Mikon didn't cover her mouth that time. Instead, Riz felt lips gently touching her forehead. "I'm sorry, Erzebed," the weaver repeated, kissing her forehead again.

Riz shrugged. "Well, it was a long time ago. It doesn't really matter now…"

One more kiss, this time between her eyes. "So, you'll let me do that for you now?"

She gave the woman a flat look. "Weren't you listening?"

Another kiss, this time on the time of her nose. "I listened. Erzebed… do you think I would hurt you? On purpose?" Another kiss under her left eye. "I would never hurt you, Erzebed. I swear, if you tell me it hurts, I'll stop." Another kiss on her cheek. "Let me make you feel good like Rian does…"

Next to them, Umu let out a loud cry that sent a shiver down Riz's back.

…

"Only two fingers," she said with sigh. This felt… strangely familiar…

Lips touched her mouth gently. "Only two," Mikon promised.

Riz shivered again as she felt those fingers touch her bell, gently stroking the lip. For a moment, she was a young militiawoman again, lying down nervously on the overly fragrant mattress of a bellhouse room, waiting eagerly…

…

Oh. Oh…! Oh…!

Riz leaned her head back on the pillow and moaned, her voice rising to join Umu’s.