"Dad, what are you doing here?" Chia asked.
She looked indignantly at Vard who was sitting at the edge of the clearing, leaning comfortably against a tree. Roy stood next to her, manfully trying to control his irritation with the intrusion into his privacy.
"And more to the point, how long have you been here?" he asked.
Vard nodded calmly, a faint smile on his face. "We've been here for quite a while, Roy. And the reason why we're here is that someone tried to kill you just a few hours ago and almost succeeded, so at least one of us had to watch out for you. Both of you were likely to be distracted, and Tami and I didn't have anything to do that couldn't be postponed. So here we are." He looked up. "Ah, there she comes."
Tami stepped into the clearing. She shivered.
"Hi, Roy, hi, Chia," she said. "Sorry to do this to you, Roy, but as Vard said, it was the sensible thing to do. Damn, that pool is cold."
She stepped up to Roy and hugged him. He almost screamed when he felt the chill of her skin against his. The shock was enough to give him goose bumps. Tami giggled while Roy looked at her incredulously.
"You went for a swim?" he asked.
Tami nodded. "Yes, I did." She chuckled. "I figured that if that didn't cool me off after watching the two of you, nothing would."
"Hm," Roy grunted. "Well, I hope you both enjoyed the show."
"Oh, I'm sure they did, Roy," Chia said, smiling. She didn't seem bothered at all by the thought of having had an audience.
She sat down across from Vard, lowering her well-fucked butt onto the ground rather carefully, Roy thought, but he managed to keep a straight face, even when Tami gave him an amused sideways glance.
"Anyway. it's good to see you, dad," she said. "Just... Next time, just knock or something, okay?"
Vard's smile was unruffled. "Fair enough, Chia. I'll just knock on a tree, if that's alright."
Roy sat down as well. "I suppose you do have a point about someone being after us," he admitted. "So thanks for watching our backs."
"Our backs and everything else," Chia muttered, her smile turning into a grin. Roy felt himself flush.
Tami sat down next to him and put her arm around him. "I'm sorry if we made you feel uncomfortable, Roy," she said. "But it's no big deal. Really it's not."
Roy smiled wryly. "Yeah... I guess so. It's just that..."
She nodded. "You're not used to it. I know that, my darling man. But you will be. I promise you. And it will be easier than you think."
She put her hand on his arm. It felt good, warm and comforting.
"Relax, Roy," Vard said easily. "It's nothing that any of us haven't seen many times before." He smiled. "Or something that we all aren't intimately familiar with."
Chia nodded. "Speaking of familiar," she said to Vard. "How many more times do I have to ask, dad?"
"One of these days, sweetheart," Vard said. "Patience is a virtue, remember?"
"Yeah, right." She turned to Roy. "I wanted dad to take my virginity. But he said no. I've been trying to trip him ever since."
"Maybe I'm more old-fashioned that you'd expect, sweetheart," Vard said.
"Then it's time you get over it," Chia replied. "Roy didn't have any problems giving me a good fuck, so why should you? Or are you trying to say that you're more old-fashioned than he is?"
Roy gave her a long, hard look.
"Oh. I guess that didn't come out exactly the way I meant it, Roy. I'm sorry."
He chuckled. "That's alright, Chia. You are talking to a four hundred year old fossil, after all."
She stuck out her tongue.
"That's quite enough of that, young lady," Vard said.
"Oh, don't be a square, dad," she replied.
Vard looked at Roy. "Do you see what I'm up against?" he asked with a look of long suffering on his face. It would have come off better if he had managed not to smile.
"Are you asking the four hundred year old fossil for advice?" Roy said.
Chia poked him in the ribs. "Four hundred years old, my well-fucked ass! You're young, Roy. Don't be stupid."
"That's what I keep telling him," Tami said. "But he just won't listen."
"Will you stop ganging up on me?" Roy said, smiling. "I surrender, OK?"
Vard chuckled. "You should have done that long ago, Roy," he said. "It would have saved you a lot of trouble. Anyway, I'm glad to see that you're doing so well."
"With Chia, you mean?"
Vard shrugged.
"It's those spiked berries she's got growing here," Roy said. "They're amazing."
Vard shook his head. "I know all about Chia's experiments in gengineering," he said, smiling. "But all those berries do is keep you hard, isn't it, Chia?"
Chia nodded. "Yes."
"But then why..." Roy started.
"Why did you cum again and again so copiously just now?" Vard said.
Roy could only nod.
"That's because you're now healthier than you were ever before," Vard explained. "When we revived you, we were forced to rebuild major parts of your endocrine system almost from scratch, because the defunct nanotech in your body hadn't been very kind to it. So we did a lot of re-balancing and fine-tuning in the process. Health is mostly a matter of biochemistry, and sexual health even more so. Your body still has its limitations, of course, but its overall performance is better than it ever was. You haven't had any problems with bad digestion, insomnia or headaches. No coughs and sneezes, no unusual fatigue, no cravings for carbohydrates or any of the other things you used to have, right?"
Roy nodded.
"And you won't have any", Vard continued. "Nor viral respiratory infections, tooth aches, rashes or any of that. That's largely because your body now maintains optimum levels of all the substances that make it tick. There's more to it than that, of course, but the main thing is that your biochemistry is now as good as it can be."
"The mind also plays a role," Tami said. "As you become more accustomed to your improved physical condition, your mind is also learning to shrug off the limitations it had become used to." She smiled. "And you've already gotten over most of the inhibitions and taboos of your time, too."
