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Disclaimer/Warning: This work is not mine. Contacting the original author is impossible, but I like to think they would be okay with my posting it here for as many people to see as possible. This work is NOT complete and it will NEVER be complete. I'm sad too.

With that said, enjoy.

- - -

On Thursday afternoon, I sat in the cafe thinking about Stephanie. Her presence in the house required some adjustments. The Siblings tried to be circumspect about sex, but Stephanie did not make it easy. I woke up every morning when she opened my bedroom doors; whatever Sibling spent the night opened their eyes to Stephanie staring at them from the papa-san chair. It precluded any early morning action, which was slightly frustrating as I usually woke up horny.

Stephanie did not want to have anything to do with Nancy, the psychologist, and vehemently protested the first couple of days. I let her argue herself out, and then told her to get in the car. I had to drive her to Susan's house every morning, but she got the message that I considered the sessions non-negotiable.

Her mood swings were flash storms that exhausted everyone but me. Unfortunately, those mood swings brought the first clash of wills between Stephanie and me on Thursday morning.

Janet spent the night and was needling Melisa about being put through her sexual paces. Both were spoiling for a fight so quickly devolved into a humorous argument about which one I fucked better. Stephanie threw a glass into the sink shattering it and spooking Melisa and Janet. They tried to apologize to Stephanie, only to have it interrupted by the sound of my glass hitting the sink. My toss was from farther away with a higher arc resulting in a stupendous crash. Stephanie almost jumped out of her skin. Doris Alex ran into the room looking worried.

"The Brotherhood can afford plenty of glasses if those weren't to your liking," I said looking at Stephanie. "To be honest, I prefer plastic but Siblings prefer fine, pretty things. Breaking them until they get me a couple of manly glasses could work though."

She ran towards the door.

"Stephanie!" I said harshly to freeze her. "They're hurting for you. I don't expect you to be friendly, but politeness is something I insist on."

"They don't understand!" she said with tears in her eyes.

"No, they don't," I agreed. "It doesn't mean they deserve your rudeness."

She nodded slowly and walked out of the room with her head high.

"You didn't have to be so hard on her," Rachel said.

Whatever connection Rachel and Stephanie made when the redhead arrived deepened in the ensuing days. Rachel made a small attempt to curtail Melisa and Janet's argument when it started, but had been drowned out by the girls' enthusiasm.

"Don't let her abuse you," I told her.

"That's my business, David," she replied in a hard voice.

"Stephanie is my business, Rachel," I said. "She will suffer the consequences of your excessive kindness."

"You want me to be mean to her?"

"No," I answered. "Just don't drown her in tolerance."

"She was raped, David," Rachel said angrily. "You're a man; you couldn't begin to understand what that does to someone."

I left the room rather than reply. I should have stayed; maybe I would not have been as hard when Stephanie made the same accusation.

Nancy sat down across from me in the cafe.

"Hello, David," she said stealing a bit of lettuce from my tray.

"You're a head-doctor," I said. "Could you tell me what it is about a man's food that a woman finds irresistible when she has something as tasty on her plate?"

"I could," she said with a raised eyebrow, "but then I would have to kill you."

I laughed at the seriousness in her voice.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Of course," I said sitting back.

"Why haven't you introduced your body to mine?"

"Not the question I was expecting," I admitted.

"You were thinking I was going to ask something psychological," she said dismissively. "I really don't want to know what goes on in your head, David."

"Oh?"

"I know why I want you and that's all I need," she said.

"So why do you want me?" I said.

"You're a Brother," she replied. "I have no ambition of my own, but a Brother makes me feel like I have to do my best. Without the Society, I would have ended up a lazy administrative assistant for a mid-level manager in some mediocre company."

I nodded.

"If you're worried about me trying to psychoanalyze you while we're doing it, you can forget that too!" she said. "I burned all my personal notes on your psych-eval. If you're broken, I'm the last person that wants you fixed. There's no reason for you not to fuck me."

"That wasn't why I haven't accepted your invitation," I said honestly.

"Stephanie?"

"Yes."

"She thinks I'm the enemy. She will think you are on my side if we get together," she said with a sigh.

"Don't you agree?"

"That which I know and that which I want have a death-match in my head everyday; unfortunately, neither will stay dead for long," she admitted with a smirk. "It doesn't help that I'm not getting through to Stephanie either."

"It's been less than a week," I pointed out.

"There's no connection between us," she said. "We might have to bring in someone else if she doesn't open up soon."

I sat quietly for a minute.

"Stop trying to save the Sibling, Doctor," I told her.

"I don't understand."

"Yes, you do," I said getting up. "Help Stephanie mourn the loss of who she was. Hold her hand while she finds out who she is now."

"You make it sound so easy," she said in a voice edged with disrespect.

"Be careful, Doctor," I said dangerously. "Speak to me like that again and it won't be just an hour a day that you will spend with Stephanie. I have a feeling you would not enjoy being there for every nightmare Susan holds Stephanie through."

There are days when everyone tries their very best to annoy me and I was wondering if shooting the next shithead philosophy student that said 'But in the Star Wars universe... ' was really such bad an idea. I sat in the cafeteria contemplating philosophical purification with thoughts of my home situation interrupting regularly.

I understood the emotional roller coaster Stephanie was riding. I could also understand that the Siblings, especially Nancy, were not coping well with the injection of reality that Stephanie represented. I was sure Stephanie would lash out at her new housemates regardless of my instructions; eventually a Sibling would strike back.

"You don't look happy," Sandra said sitting down on my left.

Emily took the seat to my right. When Rachel sat across from me, I started to feel surrounded.

"David, I know this is hard to believe but smiling isn't a crime," Rachel said teasingly.

She was the only person I ever met who got amusement out of poking me while I was annoyed. Everyone else either ducked or tried to stroke me out of it.

"Let me take a wild guess," Rachel continued. "You didn't have any writing classes today so it can't be Miss 'broke up with the love of her life six months ago and STILL hasn't gotten over it' poetess. That means someone in your philosophy class posed that wonderful question..."

"What if this were the Star Wars universe?" Emily offered cutely.

I turned to look at her. She wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled me in for an open-mouthed kiss.

"Feeling better?" she asked breaking the kiss.

I adjusted myself and looked at my tray. Sandra decided that was a reply in the negative and dragged me over for a kiss of her own.

"Now do you feel better?" she asked when the kiss ended.

"Why would he feel better after you kiss him but not me?" Emily asked a little annoyed.

"Experience, sweetie," Sandra said with false cattiness.

"Hmmm," Emily said. "Maybe I should get a sample of how you kiss for myself to see what I can learn from it."

Sandra was shocked and then became visibly excited as she considered Emily's rejoinder.

"Excuse me!" Rachel said perilously. "I am talking to David!"

The three of us turned towards her. Her blue eyes were in what Janet would have called the 'Deadly Laser' mode. Sandra and Emily bowed their heads in capitulation and remained silent. Looking at Rachel, I got the feeling that the girls' interruption was the problem and not the kissing. The rest of the meal was one of the strangest experiences in my non-relationship with Rachel. I watched them leave fifteen minutes later.

"Was that what I think it was?" Alyssa asked Heather as they sat down.

"Someone establishing Rank quite forcefully?" Heather answered. "Absolutely not! Rachel isn't one of us."

"I'm not one of you yet," Alyssa said.

I turned to stare at her.

"Don't worry, David," Alyssa said. "The girls and Michael, mostly Michael after sex, have been telling me the rules without telling me anything else. This whole Rank thing is fascinating. I thought Rachel was moving out of your house at the end of the semester?"

"She is," I replied.

"So why does it matter to her that those two understood she's at the top of the David pole?" Alyssa asked. "Even if she isn't on top of David's pole."

"I don't know if that's what she was doing," I said ignoring the last part.

"David, take my word for it. You just witnessed a firm establishing of ultimate Rank," Heather said.

"Ultimate Rank?" Alyssa and I asked at the same time.

I should have known better. No Brother should ever ask a Sibling for details on how Rank works. It is enough to know that his/her attention counts the most. Heather launched into an obscenely convoluted explanation about the difference in Rank between Siblings that are a permanent part of a Brother's life and those that are passing through. Alyssa's fascinated questions said that she was somehow following the whole thing. I stopped listening at the point that Heather described how Rank was decided between Melisa and Doris Alex since I received the crest and my Bloodline origins went public. Doris Alex did not hide her plans to become a permanent part of my life so she and my First were in the midst of a silent power struggle. They kept that part of their relationship far away from me so I ignored it. I made sure they were in my bed together often enough to keep the claws they dug into each other dull though.

It took a minute for me to realize Heather stopped talking.

"Are you sure you want to be a part of this?" I asked Alyssa.

"I'm in a sorority, David," Alyssa said as if it would shine brilliance on me.

"This isn't a sorority, Alyssa," I said seriously.

"David, I want your cock inside me," Alyssa responded. "But it's not really about you."

"Then why?" I asked curiously.

Doris Alex was a good seductress but Alyssa did not do a whole lot of running away.

"I like being in a sorority," she said quietly. "You're this island in the middle of an ocean of people so you don't understand that I need to feel a part of something."

Heather put her hand on Alyssa's. They looked at each other and squeezed them tightly.

"You've been talking to Nancy," I said with a sigh.

"I spent a couple of hours talking to her about what I want," Alyssa said with a nod. "She led me to the why fairly easily."

"Nancy has an agenda," I told her.

"When Doris Alex came after me, it felt like I was getting a bid again," Alyssa said. "Everyone else welcomed me with open arms... and legs."

I shook my head slowly.

"I'm on the table, David. I'm ready to be served to you and anybody else that makes me feel like I'm going to have friends forever," Alyssa said staring into my eyes. "It's just not dinnertime yet."

"I could go for an appetizer," Heather said hungrily.

I sighed.

"Nancy has an agenda, Alyssa," I repeated. "I want to make sure it's your decision."

"Doris Alex had an agenda," Alyssa pointed out.

"It's not the same thing," I said.

"All Nancy did was help me understand why, David," Alyssa told me. "I made up my mind before I got on her couch. It makes it a lot easier to know it's about what I want and not about wanting you."

"I still want my appetizer," Heather interrupted with a wistful voice.

I could not help laughing at the way she said it. I have not found a better cure for annoyance than a horny Sibling. Heather got her appetizer; she also fed Alyssa and I from the bounty of her body. Keeping my dick out of Alyssa was not easy, especially with her teasing me at every opportunity during our threesome. The thought of how ready she would be when her time came kept me in check.

I might as well have drawn a bull's eye on my back instead of insisting that Stephanie be polite to the Siblings. She made me the center of every one of her emotional mood swings after that. It would not have been bad if she were not also trying to get a rise out of me. The first barrage came after I got home from spending the night with Alyssa and Heather.

"Where were you?" Stephanie yelled at the top of her lungs as soon as I walked in the door.

"It's seven am," I told her. "People are sleeping."

"WHERE WERE YOU?" Stephanie screamed even louder.

She was a big girl so managed a tremendous amount of volume. I heard doors opening upstairs and saw a couple of heads poke into the stairway to see what the fireworks were about.

"You know I can't sleep without you here," Stephanie bellowed.

"No, I didn't know that," I said patiently.

"Why do you think I'm in your room first thing every morning?" she asked very loudly.

I did not see the connection but thought the better of pointing it out. I walked past her into the living room and closed the doors when she stepped inside to muffle some of the noise. I heard a rush of steps down the stairway. I shook my head knowing ears were being pressed against the door. I sat down on the couch and looked at Stephanie.

"You were saying," I said with a gesture for her to continue.

It took Stephanie almost an hour to burn through her emotions. She began with blazing anger, danced over to frustration, rode down self-pity, made a left at sadness, and ran out of the room when all of them hit her at the same time.

I picked up the phone and called Nancy who displayed her unhappiness at the early wake-up call by slamming the door when she walked into my house half an hour later.

"What did you do?" she asked accusingly.

I sighed learning another valuable lesson; when a Sibling invites you to fuck, do it sooner rather than later.

"Stephanie is having a crisis," I told her.

She ran out of the room and took the stairs two at a time. The Siblings evacuated the second floor when the first crash of something slamming into a wall was heard. They walked into the living room and lay down wherever there was space. Melisa and Rachel commandeered the rest of the couch I was sitting on. It was not really big enough for both so they had to wrap themselves around each other. I looked down as they placed their blonde heads on my thigh. They whispered to each other for a few seconds before kissing and closing their eyes. It took them about another thirty seconds to fall asleep.

Rachel using me as a pillow: someone was building igloos in hell!

I dropped my head back and waited to wake up. The varied crashes of breakable items being thrown against walls on the second floor woke me up several times during the next couple of hours. Each time I looked down, and there were still two blondes sleeping against me.

"I am exhausted" Nancy said as she finally came back down stairs.

She looked like Stephanie might have been aiming for her, instead of the walls, when throwing things.

"You're done not yet," I told her.

"What's left?" she asked curiously.

"You're wearing clothing," I said.

"Oh!" she said before swaying into my bedroom while unbuttoning her shirt.

I looked down to see two pair of female eyes watching me. Melisa smiled and blew me a kiss. She got off the couch. Rachel sat up; she turned to stare at me. She leaned towards me and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Have fun," she said following Melisa out of the room.

Igloo high-rises!