Incompatible Needs

CW:

Infertility

This one was inspired by a discussion with a friend about her sexuality way back in college. Her thoughts were later repeated by a number of other women I met and a gender-appropriate variation by a few men. This will probably be a two or three part story, possibly with little side stories later fleshing out aspects of it that are fun but not necessary to tell the main story. There's no violence in this one, for the people that found my last two stories offputting; this one's a bit of a palate cleanser for me, too.

Oh, and a bunch of the character and plot development is woven in with the sex scenes. Sorry to the people that read it for the articles. Sex starts about halfway through for the folks that skip the articles entirely.

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"I'll suck your dick if you let me choose." Anne straddled me, her face close to mine. It bore that cute fake pout she made when she knew she was going to get what she wanted, but she'd give me something better in return.

I laughed. "We both know you'll suck my dick anyways."

Her smile flashed, a twinkle in her eyes. "Which is exactly why you should let me choose the movie." It was hard to argue with that.

"During the movie?" Now we were just down to negotiating the details.

"Before." She reached down between us and squeezed gently. "I don't need this thing blocking my view."

I kissed her, and she knew she'd won. Or I had. The art of compromise. Everyone walks away with something they want. It's the foundation of a successful marriage.

"Down in front, huh?"

She rolled her eyes as she pulled my shirt off over my head. I felt her lips on my neck, noisily sucking at me. She always loved to give me a small hickey, like we were high school kids. Marking me, just a little, to show I was hers.

DING DONG

She whispered in my ear, "Ignore it." Yeah, thanks hon, I'd already planned to.

My hands found her breasts, but she moved them off and to my sides. "Nuh uh. Not yet. Blowing you is already going to get me going enough; if you play with my tits, too, we're going to skip the movie."

"My dastardly plan foil--" DING DONG

She lowered her head and sighed, "Fuck." A series of knocks, loud and fast. Desperate. Anne got off of my lap and looked down at my crotch. "You stay here. We don't need you bringing a baseball bat to answer the door." She winked and bounded out of the room, her wonderfully shaped body bouncing in just the right ways as she did.

The door opened, and I heard a voice I recognized. Crying. Coming closer.

I stood up and started to put my shirt back on, but didn't finish before they were in the living room. My wife had Helen, her college roommate, by the arm, leading her as if she was a lost child. Helen was in tears, just trying to put one foot in front of the other. She looked up at me, partially undressed, and gasped, "Oh, shit. Steve, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, I should just-- "

I finished putting on my shirt and crossed to them. The two women were a study in contrasts. Anne was a former high school cheerleader, and she looked like it. Curvy where she should be curvy, tight where she should be tight, blonde, athletic. Helen was shorter, with dark hair. Zaftig, with a very hippie "Earth mother" vibe. If Anne was Boticelli's Venus, Helen was one of Ruben's Three Graces with glasses.

"No, Helen, no. What's going on?" I opened my arms up, and she buried herself in my embrace. I wrapped her in a warm hug, and she began to cry in earnest.

"It's gone! It's all gone!"

Anne quietly said, "Her apartment burned down. It was on fire when she got back from her trip; she's got a suitcase and her laptop, and that's it."

"Oh my god!" I squeezed Helen tightly, trying to give her comfort. "You're staying here, Helen. With us. Got it?"

She just sobbed and hugged me tighter.

We led her to the guest room, and Anne helped her get sorted. I made her some chamomile tea and a light dinner; she hadn't eaten since that morning, a fast food breakfast before a meeting followed by a mad dash to the airport. We'd helped Helen move into her apartment when she came back to town a year ago. She'd gotten divorced from her wife after three years when Helen found her in bed with a coworker. Her highly religious family had disowned her when she came out, and a lot of her college friends had stayed nearby after school, so she moved back here.

I hadn't known her back then, since Anne and I didn't meet until after college. But in the year since she moved back, we'd become fast friends. We shared a lot of interests, and Anne was willing to indulge the two of us more than she was willing to indulge just me, so I got to nerd out a lot more than I used to. Even though Anne had known her much longer, I think she sometimes felt like the third wheel around Helen and me. Part of why I let her pick the movies when it was just us. Well, that and the blowjobs.

I loaded up a tray and brought it to Helen. She and Anne were huddled on the bed together. Helen looked like she was in shock. I put down the tray on the bedside table and joined them. We just sat quietly together in a group hug, letting Helen know that she was in a safe place. That we'd be here for her. Eventually, she started to eat and said she wanted some time to herself. We left, closed the door behind us, and started to make our way down the hall to our bedroom.

"Jesus, that's so awful. She really has lost everything it sounds like. The firefighters gave up on saving the building and were just trying to keep it from spreading."

I nodded. "I feel so bad for her." I paused, thinking. Then, decisively, "I don't have a problem with her staying here as long as she needs. You know that, right?"

Anne hugged me. She knew that I really didn't like people in the house. I wanted to have a sanctuary that was just for us. We rarely had parties, and when holidays came, we'd try to visit other folks rather than have them visit us. But Helen was different, almost a part of our family. We both loved her. "Thank you. I'm glad you two have gotten so close. She's really important to me, and I missed her while she was gone."

I just smiled and nodded. When Helen came back, she and Anne had quickly resumed their friendship, becoming almost as close as... well, not sisters. Very few sisters fucked each other in college, certain stories and videos on the internet to the contrary. We had talked about it before I ever met Helen; Anne and I had both been very open about our pasts. I knew that Helen had been more serious about the romantic relationship than Anne, because, while Helen was a true bisexual, Anne wasn't.

Anne called herself "heteroflexible," a term she'd found on some forum when she was trying to figure things out. She could be attracted to some women, she could enjoy being with them, but it wasn't... enough. Not right. Something was missing that left her feeling frustrated at the end; not just "a dick," as she'd slapped me on the arm for saying, but a hard to define feeling of being with a man instead of a woman. She'd described it, sexually, as "trying to get full off of an appetizer." Fun for what it was, but just not enough to really satisfy.

I was a little uncomfortable after Helen came to town, especially when they first started palling around together. She flirted with Anne a lot. But then I realized she flirted with me a lot, too. She flirted with basically anything that had a pulse. It's just how she was. One night, when we were all partaking in some very fine cannabis together, she got a little maudlin and explained, "I'm a schlubby nerd with glasses. Gotta make as many shots as I can, cause I'm gonna miss a lot. And if it's with you guys, well, I know those shots ain't gonna land. That's just extra practice." She grinned at her cleverness and laid on the floor giggling herself to sleep.

Over that first year, we saw each other through a lot of ups and downs. Helen dealing with the emotional fallout from her divorce, a promotion for me... Anne finding out she was infertile. That one was hard for us. She had really wanted a big family. We had gotten a large house in preparation for what we'd hoped would be a future with the pitter patter of a bunch of little feet, but that wasn't in the cards. Maybe we'd adopt, but the wound was just too fresh right now. Especially for Anne. We had trouble being anywhere there might be young kids for a while, because the ache was so acute.

Anne kissed me. "You know, I think we were interrupted earlier. It's a little late for a movie now, though. Think you can keep me entertained?" She opened the door to our bedroom and led me inside, her grin promising a bravura performance.

Helen managed to make herself at home over the next few days. She was a wonderful guest. She did her best not to impose, trying to help out with some chores where she could and going along with whatever we wanted to do when it came to entertainment. She was a programmer and her job was virtual, so she spent probably ten or eleven hours a day in her room, coming out mostly to shower, eat, and spend a little time with us at night.

We, for our part, tried to make her feel welcome. She was still pretty thrown by the shock of losing everything in a matter of hours. While she let us pick what we wanted when it came to TV, Anne let me take the lead on the choices, and I always tried to put on something that I knew Helen either liked a lot already or had been looking forward to. Anne bravely tolerated a selection of both the Marvel and DC Cinematic Universes, along with a couple of Treks and Wars over the next week. She managed to slip in a few romcoms from their college days that they both enjoyed. The nights were getting cold, so we often all ended up huddled under one big blanket in a cuddle pile. Helen became comfortable in our home, like she belonged there with us.

And that was a good thing, as we found out about a week after the fire.

"What?! What do you mean you can't pay out!?" Helen was on the phone to her insurance company. "Arson? Wha-- WHAT!?" She listened for another minute, then hung up suddenly, stricken.

"Hel?" Anne poked her head into the living room where we'd both been sitting. "What's going on?"

Helen looked out the window, her eyes unfocused and panicked. "They... they said the fire department and the cops are investigating the fire as an arson. They..." She shook her head, trying to clear it, then looked at Anne as she approached. "They can't pay out until it's done. Or, or at least until I'm cleared of it. I'm not really under investigation, but they can't... they can't-- " She started to cry. Anne and I hugged her, together. "I was just getting to the point where... I was getting my life back. After that bitch cheated on me, after I had to leave town so I could stop seeing her everywhere, I was... I had, I'd built a life here! And it's gone again, it's all gone and I'm back at zero and--!" She started to sob, becoming incoherent.

Anne looked at me and I nodded. I pulled Helen into my lap and held her, shushing her, comforting her like a child, as Anne went to get her a glass of water. "It's going to be okay. It'll get sorted out. You've still got your life here. You've still got your friends. You've still got us." She turned her head into my neck and wailed, a mix of grief and relief. "Thank you. Thank you. You two, oh god, thank you! I don't know what I'd do without you!" I squeezed her against me and patted her back, trying to soothe her.

Once she'd calmed down some, Anne gave her the glass of water. We all sat together as Helen drank, trying to be a comforting presence for her. She finally got herself back together and said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. I have money saved to pay for the first and last months' rent somewhere, and probably the security deposit, but not to furnish it. I could put it on credit, but I just got all of that stuff paid off. Fuck. Fuck!" She shook her head resignedly. "I guess I'm just going to have to go back into debt for a bit until the insurance finally pays out. That could be months, though." She hunched over, staring into her glass. "Fuck." Once more for good measure.

I looked over Helen's head at Anne, a question on my face. She comprehended; a small nod. I returned it, and we were decided. I spoke. "So just stay here."

"What?" She sat up and looked back and forth at us. "No. No, I can't do that. I've already been here for a week, I can't keep..." She waved her hand dismissively, head shaking 'no.' "This is your house."

Anne said, "Yes, it is, and it's too big for just the two of us. We..." She bit her lip, a small expression of grief for why the house was too big. "We'd like to have you here. We really would."

Her face got an odd expression, a mix of hope, embarrassment, and doubt. "I dunno. I... I don't want to be a freeloader. You guys have been so generous to let me stay here, and I know you say you want me to stay, but..."

I laughed. "Then don't be a freeloader. Look, if it really bothers you, pay us like half of what you were paying in rent at your old place. Maybe buy groceries every once in a while. You're already helping out with chores, and you've been a great roommate so far. But, seriously, you don't have to pay us anything at all. We like having you here."

She sniffled and started to tear up. "You guys..."

Anne hugged her. "Don't start that again. Now, let's figure out what we're going to watch tonight. How about the Notebook?" I glared at her. That's one for you, vile fiend.

Helen continued to be a wonderful guest. Well, tenant now, I suppose. Or roommate. Whatever. Her rent checks somehow always went uncashed, so I chose to think of her as a roommate. There were adjustments to be made, of course. Once her residency became a permanent thing, her room turned from our guest room into some kind of hacker's bunker. Monitors and computer equipment everywhere, a game console and small TV so that she wouldn't have to hog the living room TV, and a somewhat persistent but not unpleasant pot and incense smell. While Anne and I rarely partook after college, Helen did, and once she moved in, we joined her fairly often.

Helen did tend to use up a lot of hot water, too. The last one in the showers tended to have to be very quick in the morning for fear of suddenly freezing. But she more than made up for minor inconveniences like this. Our home life had been good before, affectionate and loving, but having a third person in the house gave us another person to bounce off of, making our home so much livelier. It also gave us a tiebreaker when we had really important decisions to make, like what to order for dinner.

We all got closer. I don't mean that in any kind of prurient way, just in the way that people that happily live together do. I learned more about Helen's past, like the details of what happened with her family disowning her. She learned about my family, too; they were halfway across the country, and I rarely saw them, but we were still emotionally close. I knew that she envied that, but I think the blow was softened by having such a strong found family in us and her other friends.

We started to have rituals, as a lot of folks living together do. Standard seating order on the couch and at the dinner table. In jokes. A regular bit for us was a reminder from me to her when she went out, "you be back in time for curfew, young lady," followed by the rejoinder, "you're not my real dad!"

There was another ritual, though, that started a couple of months into her time with us. I came home from the gym, and Helen and Anne were both in the kitchen, preparing for dinner. I tended to quietly enter the house so I could try to sneak up on Anne and steal a kiss when I got home, and did so as usual. Helen joked, "Hey, where's my kiss? I'm cooking here, too!" I made a big show of giving her a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Anne and Helen both laughed, and it became one of our regular rituals: a husbandly kiss for Anne and a friendly kiss for Helen.

And that was fine, for about a month. Sometimes she'd kiss my cheek, sometimes I'd kiss hers. But one day, I was distracted by Anne, and Helen was distracted by her preparations for dinner, and we both went in for a kiss at the same time. Our lips touched, an accidental and brief but very real first kiss. The two of us giggled with embarrassment like schoolkids doing something mostly innocent that seemed terribly naughty. We pulled away almost immediately. But it had been electric, like a spark passed between us, the kind that could light a fire to warm a hearth. Or burn a home to the ground.

Anne saved us from our embarrassment by loudly proclaiming, "You brazen hussy! Get your mitts off my man!" then wrapping me in a passionate embrace with a fiery kiss. Helen averted her eyes and laughed nervously. Anne was marking her territory, and we all knew it, even if she was making a joke.

Anne could be jealous at times. She had been through the whole of our relationship. We'd talked before about various fantasies we'd had. A lot of them we acted out. But even though we both fantasized about scenarios that involved multiple partners, both hers and mine involving a second woman in some capacity, that was a clear line that Anne wouldn't cross. As she put it, "the only place your cock belongs is inside me, and the only place my pussy belongs is on your cock, and don't you forget it." I never pushed on it, because I was perfectly content with our fantasies being just that: fantasies. But I also never pushed because she was so adamant about it, and I didn't want to screw up the good thing I had.

Helen's closeness to me was tolerated more than any other woman's had been. I can't imagine cuddling under a blanket with anyone that wasn't a blood relation in front of Anne. Except for Helen. I'd carried Helen to bed when she'd had too much to drink and tucked her in; she kissed me on the cheek and told me what a great guy I was, how she wished she could find someone like me. Anne barely batted an eye. And, of course, Helen and I regularly hung out both on our couch and in her room playing videogames, yelling and laughing. Anne actually encouraged this so that she could have a little time to herself. But her tolerance for our familiarity still had limits, and that accidental kiss made things a bit tense for several days.

Eventually we all moved past it. As fall turned to winter, I started getting home after the sun set. I tended to go to the gym after work, because I liked to build up an appetite for dinner. My girls, as I had taken to thinking of them, had started drinking a little wine and smoking a little pot early in the evenings, and we had fun, mellow times hanging out together after dinner most nights.

Until everything changed.

I had to work late and texted Anne that I'd be home late from the gym, too. Only about half an hour, but enough that they should delay dinner. My last meeting of the day, however, unexpectedly canceled, and I was able to go to the gym at my usual time. I went through my workout and headed home, planning to surprise the girls. I still enjoyed sneaking up on Anne and stealing my first kiss of the evening from her; it always made her squeal with delight, and I loved the way she laughed.

When I entered the house, she was already laughing. Both she and Helen were very giggly. I could tell that they'd gotten the party started a bit too early, had a bit too much wine, and did so on an empty stomach. I could hear them talking as I approached the kitchen.

Helen's voice became clear first "-- glad you found Steve, but was always a little disappointed we didn't work out."

Anne laughed, a sad little chuckle. "Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I love him with all my heart, but I did enjoy our connection."