Year 2 – Shift 22- The Price of Change – Mora
“Kay Kay!” Mora groaned as she pushed herself painfully upright from the clinic bed. “Muffy! Where are my honeybaes?”
Two beautiful heads popped up simultaneously from the right side of the bed, tangled together beneath a big fuzzy blanket.
“Momo!” Muffin squeed.
“Mommy!” Kaori gasped excitedly, casually lying in Muffin’s arms.
Pain burned through Mora’s left shoulder as she instinctively leaned toward her honeybaes.
“Ah!”
She fell back against the bed and reached toward the stump, stopping herself just before touching the gauze and dressings. She broke into bawling tears.
“Fuuuuuuuck! It hurts!”
Kaori and Muffin leaned in simultaneously to embrace her. Kaori nuzzled into her neck while Muffin rested her head on Mora’s tummy, one hand settled just above the cast bracing her fractured thigh.
The warmth and love of her honeybaes filled her, and her tears began to slow.
“Girls.”
Doctor Chesthair Badassington and Doctor Mika Shovelda, who had treated Mora since she first arrived in Etokuso, entered the room.
“Give Mora some space,” Chesthair said.
“I get really sad without my emotional support girlfriends.” Mora leaned into them, bearing more pain than she probably should have for the honey wrap. “The only thing I need more than caffeine and revolution is my honeybaes.”
Doctor Chesthair chuckled. “You can have all the cuddles you want, Mora, but you’re still healing.”
“A lot,” Doctor Mika added. “You’re still recovering, and if you go back into the field like this, you’re going to leave them a duo, young woman.”
Internally, Mora sighed.
She had escaped one system that tried to control her for this.
But this wasn’t toxic.
This was love.
“Fine. But I want to go home.”
The doctors exchanged uncertain glances before Chesthair responded.
“In-home care is the goal. You’re right around the corner, so we can be there if you need us.”
Muffori squeed and bounced together.
“But no extracurriculars for at least a month!” Mika said, sobering the celebration.
“Yeah, yeah.”
Mora sat up and braced herself with her remaining, non-dominant arm. She lost her balance, but Kaori was already there to steady her.
“I’m just worried about how to hold two girls at once—ouch!”
Muffin propped her up from the other side. “We’ll take good care of her, Doc!”
“I know you will, Muffin.” Mika relaxed. “With you and Kaori at her side, Mora will be better in no time.”
“Right…ouch!”
Mora took one step and leaned too heavily against Muffin, but she caught her gently and held her with care.
“After I kill my dad.”
“You don’t need to kill him to be okay, Mommy!” Kaori took the brunt of Mora’s weight and guided her toward the door.
“I know, Kay Kay.”
Mora sighed, the inability to wrap her missing arm around Muffin destroying her from the inside.
“I have you and Muffy!”
Kaori pushed the door open to the streets of Etokuso.
Mora inhaled the scent of the lived-in city. Fresh garlic soup and overly pungent fermented shredded cock-choy filled her with love.
As they made their way down the narrow street, people began to notice.
A girl no older than eight ran toward them.
“Mora! What happened to your arm?”
Mora’s heart filled to the brim.
“Nevela! I love your hair!”
Mora used the arm slung around Kaori to point at the girl’s bright blue and red streaks. They were the colors of the kingdom, reclaimed and delivered to the populace for nothing.
She looked toward the stump above Muffin’s stabilizing arm and shrugged.
“Someone has to pay for the revolution.”
The girl’s eyes widened, but when Mora’s smile didn’t falter, one came to Nevela’s lips as she understood. She ran off again into the colorful town.
They continued only a few more steps before another voice called out.
“Kaori! You have to try this new pickled penispepper pie!”
Kaori steered them toward Jezeema’s stall.
“Coming, Auntie Jez!”
As Jezeema plated the minced pie, she looked up at Mora.
“You know, penispeppers are a cure for everything! Have some, and you’ll be right as rain in no time.”
“Thank you, Jezzy.” Mora chuckled. “But I haven’t met a problem yet I couldn’t solve without the use of a penispepper.”
Jezeema handed the pie to Kaori and nodded toward Muffin.
“Want some?”
“No thanks!” Muffin bounced despite holding half of her honeybae upright. “I got all I can eat right here!”
Kaori’s eyes widened as Muffin gave her a playful spank.
“Ooh! Wait. What? Huh?”
Muffin and Mora chuckled and limped onward, pulling the adorably confused Kay Kay with them.
“Stop for a second, my lovelies.”
Mora took a deep breath, pushed away from Kaori, and put weight on her still-healing fractured thigh.
“I…ah…no. I got this.”
She placed her hand against a bollard and steadied herself.
Muffin took Kaori’s hands, and they pulled close together as they watched Mora grit her teeth and take her first unaided step.
“Mo Mo!” Muffin squeed and moved closer to flank her.
Kaori caught her toe on a curb and lurched forward, nearly falling into a fountain.
Mora turned on instinct and caught her, bracing Kaori before she hit the ground.
Ouch.
Fuuuuck.
She grimaced and lifted Kaori back onto her feet.
“Oh no, Mommy! I’m so sorry!”
Both girls rushed in and held Mora.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, little one.” She winced. “I love you, honeybae.”
She kissed Kaori on top of the head, then Muffin.
“I love you too, my little Muffy Muff.”
“Mora!”
A voice called across the bustling concourse.
She turned, wincing as sharp pain shot through her thigh.
“Jerry! Buddy, hey!”
She reached out and pulled him into a light hug, showing no one the agony.
Jerry pulled back and looked at her.
“Mora, are you okay? You look like you’ve—”
“Fought off a giant ballsack with dozens of flailing dicks for a tiny camel toe dug into a vagina?”
Mora smiled and stifled the giggle that her girls did not.
“Fuck. Yes.”
Jerry stared at her for a long moment before his smile finally cracked.
“I’m so glad you’re alive. Oh, hey. I have one question. What was it you called your economic model again?”
Mora smiled.
Jerry. Always the inquisitive one.
“Loxlian Capitalism. We make ourselves so self-sufficient that we no longer serve the overlords, and then we get to set the standard of labor in the market. We, the people, hold all the cards.”
Jerry nodded, but she could see an unresolved question still working behind his eyes.
“What…” He looked upward, trying to formulate it. “Does that have to do with Robin of Loxley and his best friends Morgan Freeman and Bryan Adams?”
Mora chuckled.
“Because we take back what was stolen from us by the elites.”
She waved her stump.
“Even if it hurts.”
“But…” Jerry scratched his head. “Why does it have to hurt? I don’t think I’d give up an arm.”
“Well.” Mora smiled, her honeybaes floating all around her. “Someone has to be willing.”
“And we are!” Kaori chirped, raising her right hand with the tip of her pinky missing.
“Because we love every one of you!” Muffin bounced on her heels, then stopped sharply and pressed one hand over the spot where she had been stabbed straight through.
Jerry looked over the trio, all covered in bruises, cuts, scrapes, black eyes, and swelling.
He puffed out his chest.
“Thank you, HT.”
Mora placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you, Jerry. For being such a positive force around all the kids.”
Jerry smiled as the idea settled into place. He turned to leave.
“Thanks.”
“I want our bed.”
Mora leaned against a support beam, already visibly worn out.
“And I know she said no extracurriculars, but I, like…really need dick. You have no idea.”
Muffin moved to her side and offered an arm.
“Maybe you should have played Lady Dixia Pounding!”
The Honeytrio giggled with delight as they made the final turn toward home.
Mora saw it before it happened.
The coupler on a transverse brace in the scaffolding gave way.
Her eyes shot upward.
Chark Mavez didn’t notice until it was too late.
Mora launched herself out of her honeybaes’ arms, took two steps, and dove with her remaining arm outstretched. She landed beneath Chark and caught enough of him to throw him clear.
Screaming pain ripped through her body.
She cried out as Chark rolled away to safety and the scaffolding began to collapse.
At the last second, wide-eyed Muffin and Kaori grabbed Mora’s remaining arm and injured leg and yanked her out from beneath it.
“Mommy!”
Kaori dove onto her, covering her from the gathering crowd.
“KiKi.” Muffin gently pulled her away and made space. “Give her room, kitty.”
Mora groaned in agony as she pushed herself upright and looked down at the blood spreading through the dressing around her stump.
“Does this mean I have to wait longer for dick?”