Chapter 8: # 008

"So, you four seemed to get along pretty well today." Mom waited until we were eating to broach this subject, likely so we wouldn't just walk away.

"Yeah, Maria seems nice enough." I shrug. The two of us only just met, so it's hard to say whether I really like her or if I'm just interested because she's a reasonably attractive girl. "But, Jen and Selene seemed to hit it off; all snuggled up together with the same book all day."

"Quit teasing your sister, Cole." Mom rolls her eyes at me but has a smile for the blush on Jen's cheeks.

"Sorry, Jen." I respond perfunctorily. "I'm just a little surprised that you like girls, and maybe a little jealous that you got the cute one." She blushes even deeper at that.

"Cole!" Mom warns. "And, you can like or not like whomever you want to, Jennifer."

"So, are you spending the night with me again, Runt?" I say to change the subject, and because Kaitlyn still looks pretty down.

"No!" Sera cries. "We were going to stay in her room tonight."

"Yeah." Esra huffs. "She still has to do everything we say."

"Well, sorry, girls." I reach across the table to ruffle their hair. "But, I'm invoking my big brother powers to steal her away." They shoot me identical glares while Katie looks at me like I'm her savior.

"C-can I come too?" Jen asks in a quiet voice.

"I already said that you could this morning." I lean over to give her a side-hug.

"Well, I'm stealing these two for myself." Mom laughs and puts her arms around the twins.

""Yay!"" They both shout in joy for getting to have a sleepover with Mom.

...

"You have another nightmare, Katie?" I ask the next morning when her groans drag me from my slumber.

"Nnh, no." She sounds miserable. "Don't look." She puts a hand over my eyes when I try to lean up and get a look at her. "Just call the slimes in to clean up the bed, alright."

"Uh? Oh! Alright." I nod even though she's pressing my head down with her whole body weight. "Queenie, clean please."

"I'm -nng- so sorry, Cole." I can hear the embarrassment in her voice. "I thought I was just -ow, damned cramps- feeling bad because of what happened."

"Don't worry about it, Kaitlyn." The noise or Queenie crawling all over us must have woken Jen. "It took me forever to get used to them too. And, here. Warmth! Sooth!" Katie moans when Jen attacks the cramps directly with magic.

"Gods, I should practice magic some more." Kaitlyn finally takes her hands from my eyes. "Thank you, and I'm sorry again."

"It's just a little blood, no big deal." I ruffle her hair. "Queenie didn't get too intrusive, did she? I haven't trained her on how to give baths yet."

"Hah!" She barks out a laugh. "No, but I wouldn't have minded if she had, I'd shove a damned slime in there for the next few days if I could."

"Kaitlyn!" Jen sounds shocked.

"Oh, like you haven't thought of it." Our younger sister just rolls her eyes making me laugh. "Even if the slimes can clean the pads up, they're still gross."

"Sorry, little sister." I choke out a laugh for the look on Jen's face right now. "But, you're going to have to catch your own queen if you want that level of cleaning."

"Whatever." She pushes me back down and climbs over me to get out of bed. "Just wait and I'll find a way to catch one without melting half my arm off." She stomps off towards the main house.

"That girl." Jen sighs and flops back down. "Ugh. The sky is just barely starting to lighten up too. How's your arm feeling?"

"It's better." I reply. "But, how are you? I know I heard some groans from your end of the bed last night. Did you have more nightmares too?" I roll over and stretch out to lay my hand on her belly. "See, my arm is fine."

"Mhm." She covers my hand with hers.

"Silly sister." I start tickling her stomach. "Come on, how about we make breakfast for Mom, for once?"

"Nnh. Can you just hold me for a bit instead?" Her cheeks flame at that.

"Of course." She's always been bad at asking for help when she needs it, so I'm not going to turn her down when she's feeling bad.

"Thank you." I swear she's about to tear up when I make her my little spoon, and I can feel her heart racing as she holds my injured hand gently to her chest. "I'm sorry for being such a horrible sister."

"Don't say stuff like that." I hug her as tightly as I can without hurting myself. "I only went for such a crazy plan because I knew I had the bestest sister in the world keeping me safe." Leaning over her, I kiss her on the cheek when she does start crying. "It's alright, Jenny, just let it all out."

"I love you, Cole." She clutches my hand tightly enough to hurt but I just let her cry herself out without saying anything. "I'm sorry you got hurt because of me."

...

"Took you two long enough." Mom says when we finally drag our butts in for breakfast.

"Jen decided to be lazy and hold my hand hostage." She's still holding onto it now, as if to reassure herself that it's still there. "Any chance I could have that back now? I think I can manage some cutlery with it now."

"Nnh." She grumbles and sits down without letting go.

"Well, I think that answers that." Mom laughs.

"Whatever." I roll my eyes. "Is it alright if we head into the forest today? I want to see if Queenie really can control wild slimes like the books say."

"If it's just for that, then we can all go." She says after thinking about it for a second. "I have to say I'm interested in seeing what she can do myself. Even if it means shepherding the twins around."

""Yay!"" Their identical shouts of joy make me smile.

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"You're just hoping that we'll spot another one, aren't you." I tease, and the look Mom gets tells me that I'm right on the mark. "Well, you can stick your arm in that one. Just make sure to be smarter than me and use your off hand."

...

"I can get dressed on my own, Jen." I laugh when she blushes after trying to follow me back to my room. "I promise you can hold your big brother's hand all day after that."

"Shut up." She grumbles. "I'm still tired."

"Uh-huh." I pull her into a hug and kiss her on the forehead. "It's not your fault, Jennifer. I'm the one who chose to do what I did, and I likely would have done the same if you two weren't there. I've wanted a Queen for as long as I've known about them."

"Nng." She just grumbles, so I kiss her again and escape before she can take my hand once more. "Butthead brother." Her words trail me out of the house.

...

"What are you doing here?" I'm surprised to see idiot girl waiting outside the gate and it shows in my voice. "And, why are you still dressed like an adventurer?"

"What happened to your arm?" Her eyes fill with worry at the sight of the bright, freshly-reapplied wrappings.

"Stuck my arm in a slime." I reply like it's an everyday occurrence. "Now, answer my question. I thought you actually listened to me when I told you that you weren't suited for that life."

"Maybe you should introduce your friend before interrogating her, Cole." Mom says from right next to me.

"Sorry. Mom, this is... Madison, the one I was stuck in the bubble with." I catch myself just before calling her idiot girl. "Maddie, you already met the girls, but this is my Mom, Caroline, and my sisters, Jennifer, Kaitlyn, Sera, and Esra. Now, talk."

"Nice to meet you, Ma'am." She bobs her head at Mom. "And, it's not like I want to." A tired sigh escapes from Madison's lips. "I've looked all around town these past two days and absolutely no one is hiring. Mason left me what money we have, but it won't last until he gets back."

"And, you were hoping I'd help you out again." I look to the heavens with a sigh, only to get smacked on the head by Mom.

"We'd be happy to help you get a few cores, dear." Mom says with a smile. I think Jen was right, and she really does want those grandbabies. "We were all just going to head in and test out Cole's new pet."

"This is Queenie, the one I stuck my arm in." Madison blanches when the over-sized slime hops out from behind us. "Don't worry, she's perfectly safe now. We're all going to see if the stories about queens controlling normal slimes are true."

"I didn't even know there were queen slimes." Her face falls at realizing yet again just how ill-suited she is to being an adventurer.

"What about kings?" Katie asks. "You've heard of them, at least?" My little sister and I share a look when idiot girl just gives a tiny shake of her head.

"You know, with the new baby on the way..." Mom is not doing what I think she's doing. "...I could probably use a little help around the house." She is, she's taking pity on this poor, useless, idiot girl and offering her a job. "The slimes keep everything clean, but that doesn't do anything for the messes, and tidying up after these monsters is enough hassle when I'm not pregnant."

"Th-thank you." Madison looks like she's going to break down right then and there.

"No good deed goes unpunished." Mom glares at me and Jen when she starts giggling at my breathed words. "Well, come on. You're already dressed for it; you might as well join us." I doubt she'll slow us down much more than the twins will.

...

"Eek!" Idiot girl screams when I use her to practice Queenie's control of the lesser slimes.

"Hmm, it looks like she can tell them where to go and what to attack." I comment while Madison is fighting like her life is on the line against a lone slime while several others bounce around her in a wide circle. "Just keeping them all from attacking at once is about the limit to what she can do though. But, they can be drawn them in from a fair distance which will make my job a lot easier."

"Gods, she's even worse than I thought." Mom sighs when the girl nearly drops her sword after hitting the ground instead of the slime.

"Her brother is even worse." I reply. "I can't wait to see what kind of face she makes when she sees the twins." An evil smile creeps onto my face as I watch them each toy with a different slime, batting the poor things around with sticks.

"You should've just let the wargs eat her, bro." Katie can't even stand to watch Madison's fumbling.

"Kaitlyn!" Mom swats the back of her head. "Just because she's not suited to be an adventurer doesn't mean she deserves that."

"Sorry, Mom." She rubs the spot where she just got smacked.

"Mhm." Mom shakes her head before turning to me. "You might as well just tame the rest, Cole, we're going to be here all day otherwise. I'll just give her an advance on her salary."

Madison sinks to her knees in relief when the slimes all hop away from her. I'm so tempted to send one back to teach her a lesson, but Mom glares at me as soon as the idea pops into my head. Just watching her face fall when she sees Sera and Esra was more than enough to make up for it through.

...

"I think we should get a maid outfit for her." I say with a smirk to Jen while Mom shows the idiot girl what her duties will be.

"Pig." Jen elbows me in the ribs.

"I'm just saying." I defend myself. "I'm not talking about one of those skimpy ones like on the covers of Mom's hidden books. Though that might be nice." I add when the girl bends over to pick up one of the twins' toys. "We're the richest family in town -for what that's worth- we might as well show it off a little."

"Double pig!" She hits me again. "And, what books are you talking about?"

"You haven't found Mom's dirty book stash yet?" I ask, honestly surprised that the booklover hasn't sniffed them out before now. "She's got some good ones in there too."

"No!" She breathes out the word as shock fills her face.

"Yeah, and she moved them to the library when we came here, so it's even easier to get at them than before." I try not to laugh at the light in her eyes. "Check in the back behind the regular books. I forget the title, but the one with all the flowers on the cover might interest you and Selene."

"Shut up!" She hisses and hits me for a third time.

...

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