Chapter 32: Mood Reader (◆◆)

Bonny huffed off into the village as we exited the clearing, absolutely inconsolable and unwilling to hear anything I tried to say.

“Prepare yourself, Mr. Drake. The day of reckoning is coming for you. Yes yes yes, your time is almost up,” she snarled just before whipping her head away from me and storming up the hill toward Tater Town. I shrinked nervously from her tortuous glare, but then spied a few of my girls hard at work on their daily chores.

There was Gumi, still little more than a blob, chasing Daisy in the fields as they rid the crops of pests. Ivy looked exhausted as she sat perched on the cabin roof, and judging by the dewiness of the leaves in the field I figured she just finished her hour-long task of watering the plants for the day. Autumn was walking around with a slab, writing things down on parchment with a quill, ever the taskmaster.

But it was Rainbow Sprinkle and May Belle that caught my eye, as both were looking slightly gloomy as they sat together in the spot where Aldon’s tent had been earlier that morning. The grass was still matted down in the spot, and they seemed to share a singular downcast expression as Sprinkle played with a straw doll that May Belle had made for her, cradling it like a baby in her arms while the holstaur braided her hair and sang into the unicorn girl’s ear.

I activated my Mood Reader feat and confirmed the issue. Sprinkle’s satisfaction level was still sitting at around sixty percent. To make matters worse, May Belle’s had also gone down, from a throbbing one hundred percent heart icon to something much closer to ninety or even eighty-five. That was alarming.

I swallowed hard and decided it was time to pay some attention to my girls. I could be a fucking idiot when it came to reading women and knowing when it was time to take action, but this feat made it a bit easier, and I thanked my lucky stars for it.

“Hey,” I said, strolling up to them.

“My Bucky!” Sprinkle cooed up at me. Sometime between this morning and now, she’d seen fit to remove her new bikini armor. It suited me just fine. I was used to her being naked all the time and, frankly, it never got old.

Maybe I was well and truly an idiot, but without the feat, at this moment I wouldn't have been able to tell anything was wrong with her. She grinned up at me happily, though she didn’t stand because May Belle was actively styling her rainbow hair.

“Welcome home, Bucky-Baby,” May Belle said, her voice high and just as sweet. “We missed you so much.”

Now, May Belle was slightly easier to read. She was usually smiling at me, but at this moment that smile was weakened and worn by something. A worry, I figured. Something was nagging at her. I could recognize that look on anyone’s face. I knew it well from the training videos I had to watch on workplace conflict resolution and mediation back when I worked for Ronald McDonald.

“Mind if I sit down beside you?” I asked.

“Of course not,” May Belle grinned. “It’d make my day.”

Sprinkle immediately nuzzled up against me, making May Belle tut as it apparently caused a snag in the unicorn’s hair. “Careful, Sprinky,” she said. “I’m almost done.”

“Everything okay?” I asked, not really sure how to broach the topic. I thought it might be a bit invasive if I just explained that my feat was telling me something was wrong. I didn’t want to make them feel pressured to say something they weren’t ready to say. At the same time, I needed them to know I was open to anything they wanted to express.

Sprinkle smiled at me. “Everything is wonderful when you’re here,” she giggled, planting kisses on my shoulder, gently jabbing my cheek with her horn in the process.

“All good here,” May Belle said.

I nodded. “Lots of changes recently. Lots of stuff on the horizon,” I said, trying to lead them toward whatever might be on their minds. “You adjusting to it all?”

May Belle’s hands froze in Sprinkle’s hair, but only for a second. “Yes,” she said, her smile withered.

Now I had my opening. “What’s wrong?” I said. “Why the long face?”

She sighed, looked at the ground, looked up at me, and then looked back at her hands as she continued to finish off the braid in Sprinkle’s hair.

“Lots of changes, like you said,” she admitted cautiously.

Sprinkle sat in silence. I couldn’t see her face because it was still buried in my shoulder, but her silence was conspicuous, too.

“What can I do?” I asked. It was a simple question, but I hoped it was enough.

May Belle sighed. Sprinkle continued on without a sound.

“I’ve been with you since the first day you arrived in Lusteria,” she said. “And I thought we’d always be together, you know?”

I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “We will be,” I said. “What are you trying to say?”

“I’m really afraid, Bucky,” she confessed, her voice suddenly high and shaky. Her eyes were growing dewier by the second, but she didn’t cry—not yet, anyway. “I’m afraid you’re falling out of love with me. I’m afraid I’m being replaced. So many girls want you, and you want them too. I can’t help but feel like… I’m not enough.”

I looked her in the eyes. “May Belle, I need you to hear me right now. Look at me. Look me in the eyes so you know how much I mean this.”

She did. A single tear was streaming down her cheek.

“I will never fall out of love with you. You—both of you—are absolutely irreplaceable. At worst, it’s possible I’ve taken you for granted, but that’s only because I see you as a constant. You are Lusteria to me. I can’t imagine going on here without you in it.”

She smiled, though weakly. “Still,” she said. “I see you walking out of the forest with Bonny. Or I hear about you with Vale, or Scalia, or Etherea. It’s been days since you made love to me. Do you know that? Days. I wonder how many other girls you've had since then.”

I felt my heart throb as I knew she had a point. “You’re right,” I said. “I need some self-control.”

She shook her head, though. “It’s not about that. I just don’t want you to forget me. I accepted long ago that you would be popular with the women of Tater Town, but back then I thought your heart would at least remain faithful to me.”

“It is,” I said.

“Is it?”

I looked straight at her, feeling my own heart breaking. My voice trembled. “Yes, May Belle. I love you, and I’m sorry for being a deadbeat. You deserve so much better than I’ve been giving you.”

She looked back at Sprinkle’s hair as she tied some twine in a bow to hold the completed braid together. “Actions speak louder than words, Bucky Drake. I’m going inside.” And with that, she stood up and headed into the cabin. I tried to protest but she just walked away, her shoulders tensed as though she was about to cry.

And at that point I realized Sprinkle was quietly sobbing on my shoulder. Fuck.

“Hey, Sprinkle, honey, what’s wrong? I can tell you’ve been a little unhappy recently too, and now this?”

With a loud sob, she blurted out, “You don’t love me!”

I was taken aback by it. “What? What the hell are you saying? Of course I do.”

“You don’t trust me. You’re afraid when you can’t see me. You think I’ll do something bad!”

“No, it’s just that you’re--”

“—and I lied before! I miss the forest! I’m so tired of this farm!” she sobbed. “I feel like a prisoner here sometimes!”

That fucking wrecked me. “I wish you would have told me that before,” I said, holding her tightly. “I’ll make it right, I promise. I’ll build you a treehouse just where the Sanctuary’s land meets the forest. How’s that?”

She whimpered. “It sounds fine. But I just… My Bucky, do you really love me?”

“Yes,” I said. “But you’re right. Sometimes I don’t know what to do with you because you’re not the same as the other girls. But it’s not a bad thing. I just need some time to figure you out,” I said reassuringly as I caressed her cheek and ultimately stroked the length of her horn.

She shivered with pleasure at that. “When will you figure me out?” she whined. “My Bucky… please, try harder. I waited for you for seven hundred years, and now that I have you I feel like you don’t even want me.”

I’m such a fucking dick. I picked her up and placed her on my lap. I couldn’t help but notice how light she felt in my arms--I was growing physically stronger as I leveled. I'd probably leveled multiple times since the last time I checked my HUD. Yet another thing on my mind.

She looked me in the eyes. “Will things get better?” she asked. “Will you really care for me forever?”

I groaned a troubled sigh. “Let me just say that it’s not easy being a hero and being responsible for the happiness of so many people. Now the whole fucking town wants to get pregnant, and to be honest, sweety, I’m a bit overwhelmed. But that doesn’t mean that things will always be this hard, or that I will always be this incompetent at keeping you happy. In fact, now that I know what the issue is, I’m going to make it right immediately. May Belle was correct. Actions speak louder than words, so the first thing I’m going to do is make love to May Belle, and then I'll take care of you, and after that I’m going to stay up all night working on your tree house. Things get better right now.”

“I’ll be waiting, my Bucky,” she hummed against my neck. Her creamy white skin was smooth and hot to my caressing fingers as I leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.

Her mood? Seventy percent.

Aldon started heading toward us from atop the hill--toward me, as far as he was concerned, since he couldn’t see Sprinkle.

I watched him approach and set her back on the ground. I stood, crossing my arms, and held up a hand to stop him as he neared me.

“I don’t know what you’re about to say, but something came up that I need to deal with right now,” I said.

“Darkmaw was sighted not far from the village on the eastern side,” he said. “Should we attack?”

“No,” I said. “In fact, that’s something we all need to talk about soon. But, tell you what, keep an eye on her, and take Ivy with you. If she makes an aggressive move, which I doubt she will if you keep some distance, you have my permission to do whatever you need to do to stop her.”

“I don’t need your permission,” he replied coldly.

I shook my head. “That's where you're wrong, Mr. Potter. You’re in my territory, under my hospitality. You absolutely do.”

He looked at me in silence for a minute. “Alright then,” he said. He turned his head to the wood elf who was perched atop the roof of my cabin. “Ivy!” he called out. “You’re with me. Let’s go.”

She looked at me, and I nodded my approval. They disappeared into the east together, armed and ready to fight if it should come to that. I prayed—no, I knew—that it wouldn’t.

As for me, I had other more important matters to take care of. I walked to the cabin and found May Belle sitting alone by a dimly lit fireplace, staring vacantly into its diminishing flames. She either didn’t hear me enter or consciously chose not to acknowledge me until the moment I sat down beside her and put my arm around her.

She looked at me, her face empty of that smile I’d become so accustomed to. Seeing her face without her perfect grin was almost alien to me, and it fucking wrecked me.

“I love you,” I said, and I leaned in to kiss her. She let me kiss her, putting up a show of resistance at first, just being cold and passive for the first few seconds as my lips touched hers. Within moments, though, she’d melted, and her hot breath mingled with mine as she crawled needily into my lap.

“Never forget me again,” she whined as she kissed my neck, planting a dozen pecks from my collarbone to my cheek. The desperation of her love struck me deeply, awakening a similar need inside of me. I pushed her down against the mat in front of the fireplace, casting Fire Bolt to reinvigorate the flames so that I could better see her beauty lit beneath me. Sparks flew, figuratively and literally.

“I never forgot you,” I countered. “But I did neglect you. And that will never happen again.”

She pulled my neck down to her, and our tongues became entwined. She wrapped her legs around me, and if we were naked I’d already have been in position to thrust inside of her, but we were still fully clothed.

I tugged lightly at her top, freeing her enormous milky breasts. “Mmmm,” I hummed. “Nothing better after a long day.”

“It’s all for you,” she said shyly, biting her fingertips as she watched me descend upon her tits like a predator upon its prey.

I took her right breast in my hand, massaging it as I looked adoringly into her eyes, glittering with her arousal. I licked gently at the teat, and already tasted the faint traces of her cream as she moaned cutely under me.

“Fuck, Bucky-Baby, I need you so badly,” she moaned, not breaking eye contact. “Suck it, baby.”

I obeyed, latching onto her nipple, my tongue swirling her areola with practiced ease, coaxing the cream into my mouth as I applied suction. Like opening a tap, her sugary milk flowed into my mouth, spilling out of my lips, but I didn’t let a drop escape, licking her entire tit to catch any stray dribbles that dared make a break for the earthen floor.

Meanwhile, she desperately reached down and struggled with my pants, trying to grant my cock the freedom it would need to claim her once more. I broke my latch from her tit to help her, tugging it down, and I could tell it was a bittersweet moment for her as she recognized the necessity of my action but clearly showed her disdain for letting my lips leave her nipples for any purpose whatsoever.

I lowered myself onto her other breast, ready to make everything right for her once again. My cock was prepped to go, hard as a fucking gemstone as the head of my manhood teased her moistened slit. She seethed through her teeth, surprised at her own sensitivity as I finally pushed myself into her folds.

“Ohh Bucky Baby,” she moaned as I slowly brought my cock to the hilt inside her. “Too deep, slow down,” she moaned.

I instantly obeyed. This was about her. I took it nice and slow, seeking her pleasure at all costs. I swirled her tit delicately but purposefully, suckling and drinking her heavenly milk as my hips bucked into her again and again.

Soon she was moaning uncontrollably, running her fingers through my hair in ragged desperation. “I’m losing myself,” she moaned. “I can’t fucking think!”

I let go of her nipple for a moment to speak some soothing words but was flatly rejected when her palm smacked down on the top of my head, forcing my lips back onto her breast. Message received.

I kept doing what I was doing, and soon I could feel the deluge of her pussy on my cock as though a great dam had opened up. The mat we were making love upon was surely ruined. Whose mat was this again? Oh. Daisy’s. That might cause issues.

But soon it was over, and I rolled onto my back, her climbing on top of me, nuzzling into my muscled chest.

“I love you so much,” she said. “You’ll never know, Bucky-Baby. You’ll never have a fucking clue how much.”

I caressed her chocolate brown locks that had grown all the way down to her shoulder, kissing her forehead. “Right back at you,” I said. “Don’t ever doubt it again.”

When we left the cabin together, arm-in-arm, we immediately scanned for Sprinkle but couldn’t see her anywhere. I glanced over at Autumn and called out to her. “You seen Sprinkle, Autumn?”

She waved and called back, “She went to the forest. She asked you to find her where you always do.”

The bloodberry bush. I nodded and kissed May Belle goodbye and headed back into the trees, but it was getting dark.

I followed the path that I knew well by this point and found Sprinkle there, sitting beside the bush, biting into some berries that dribbled a red stream of blood-like juice down her chin into the valley between her ivory-white breasts. It didn’t even seem like she was eating the berries.

She grinned when she saw me. “Do you remember the first time we met?” she asked before offering any greeting.

“Of course,” I told her. “I helped you out of a trap.”

“And then you trapped me on that farm,” she frowned. The words practically gouged me.

“I’m going to fix it,” I said, approaching her.

She nodded, smiling. “I know,” she said. “I wish I told you sooner. I am not good at talking about my feelings to others. I’m so used to just… feeling them... alone.”

I leaned forward and kissed her on the lips once. “Perfectly understandable,” I said.

“I don’t want to make love tonight,” she confessed after a pause. “I just want you to hold me. You can worry about the treehouse tomorrow. Just hold me right here, in this spot, next to the bloodberry bush.”

“You got it,” I said, and then I did something which surprised even me. I bit her lip--hard, drawing blood, making her squeal loudly in shock and arousal.

“My Bucky!” she gushed in surprise, and she bit me back. We played roughly on the forest floor for hours until she finally nodded off in my arms. Just a hint of starlight peaked through the canopy, and I couldn’t help but admire its beauty as I too succumbed to rest.

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