Usagi gently closed the door behind her. She held the straps of her duffle bag in one hand and she rubbed her eyes with the other. She looked exhausted, but happy. There was barely any sign of what she and Hebi had been up to, just some faint marks on her wrists. Her short fluffy tail wiggled over her low waistband, and she was deep in thought.

She was thinking over everything she and Hebi had talked about, both during their BDSM session and during aftercare. She knew that Hebi's 'therapy' wasn't the complete solution to her problems; her jealousy was too deep-seated to be solved by a couple hours of discipline and stress release. She would eventually need to talk to the other girls and overcome her issues with them constructively.

Hebi just gave me some temporary relief, and some tools to work toward the full solution, Usagi thought. The rest is up to me.

Usagi trusted Hebi's wisdom; she was very intelligent, always seeking to learn and to understand. So Usagi took it to heart when Hebi had forcefully pulled Usagi's braid backwards, stared down into her eyes from above, and said, "This is a process. First, you took the critical step to calm down and look inward, to figure out why you felt the way you did. Then you decided to change the way you think about your relationship with Inara. Now the hardest part starts: actually changing yourself."

Usagi shivered at the memory. Then she noticed someone approaching in the hallway ahead. It was Neko, wearing a denim miniskirt and a stretched-out black t-shirt that bared one shoulder and the top of a breast. What seemed to be a band logo adorned the front of the tattered shirt, but Usagi didn't recognize the picture and couldn't read the weird font. Completing the punk look, Neko's hair was done up in messy pig-tails.

Usagi's first instinct was to question Neko's fashion, to insult her strange choices. What shoes would she even wear with that? Combat boots? But Usagi knew she needed to do better than that. Maybe someday she could hold a nice conversation with Neko, but for now she'd settle for a simple greeting.

"Hello, Neko. I hope you're well."

Neko blinked, seemingly surprised at the polite greeting. Then she answered, "I'm good, thanks. So… what were you and Hebi up to the last few hours?"

"Huh?" Usagi said with her ears folded back in fear. "What do you mean?"

Neko raised one eyebrow, put a hand on one hip, and scoffed. "You both missed dinner, duh. Don't freak, though. Akari and I cobbled something together. She's a better cook than she thinks."

"Ah, sorry about that. I… we…" Usagi trailed off, then she decided to just be honest, at least about the important part. "Therapy," she admitted. "Hebi was helping me through some stuff."

Neko nodded casually. "Cool, cool. I can respect that. Well, seeya, buns." She stepped close and mimed an exaggerated wind-up motion with one arm, getting ready to slap Usagi on the butt. Once it was clear that Usagi had noticed, Neko lowered her arm and said, "Just kidding. Unless you want me to?"

Usagi rolled her eyes and skirted past the taller woman. "No thanks. It's a bit sore."

"Aha! You were doing something kinky. I knew it!"

Usagi spun back and glared intensely. "Yeah, and what of it?"

Neko backpedaled, holding her palms up. "Nothin' at all. It's just good to see. The world could use more sexual freedom. Spread that shit around like party favors, like radio singles, like love." Then she turned and pranced away, bouncing on her bare toes while her two tails flicked to an unheard rhythm.

What a weird woman, Usagi thought. Then her stomach rumbled and she decided to scrounge up some food for herself and Hebi. She was also curious about what Neko and Akari had made for dinner, and whether there were any leftovers.

That night, as Usagi had feared, the whole house got to hear Inara and Inu going at it. Except the sounds echoing down the hallway weren't sexual at all. Inara and Inu were arguing about something, loudly.

Inside Inara's room, the volume was even louder. Inara and Inu were standing ten feet apart, both fully clothed. Inara's tails were writhing and unstable, fluctuating between six and seven tails over and over again. Her mood swung in time, from mischievous to passionate and back. Inara was dressed in a deep red kimono worn loose and almost falling off her shoulders while Inu wore a blue basketball jersey and small grey jogging shorts.

Red in the face, Inara said, "You didn't have this much of a problem when Akari joined us. Is it just because Neko is a cat spirit? Are your canine instincts just that strong? Who am I kidding? We're here because of your heat, so of course they are."

Inu scowled, her orange eyes gleaming. "Akari is friendly and helpful, and she cares about this shrine. Neko is a useless slob who's gonna bolt from here the first chance she gets."

Inara scoffed. "You've just had more time to warm up to Akari. As I remember, you had problems with her too when she joined us."

Inu stepped closer. "I had reservations. I needed time to decide how I felt. I already know how I feel about Neko. And I'm not alone in this. Haven't you noticed that Hebi and Akari are avoiding her?"

Inara held her ground. "I've noticed that Neko likes to spend most of her time napping quietly and causing no one any trouble at all. The other girls will warm up to her with time."

Inu shook her head and spat, "Whatever. That's not even my point. You should have asked the rest of us before inviting her into our home."

With an exaggerated frown, Inara put a hand on her chest and feigned concern. "Oh! I didn't realize I needed to seek permission from the council."

"That's not what I meant and you know it." Inu's voice grew louder and her cheeks were just as flushed as Inara's. "We're a family. We should talk, we should cooperate! Even if your decision was final, you should have let us know what you were planning. It's not right to drop something that big on us out of the blue." Inu's chest was heaving now and she had stepped even closer.

Inara's tails stopped lashing and shifting. They settled on seven distinct tails: 'Passionate'. She shivered, then smiled at Inu. "Damn. You're so sexy when you're angry." Her left hand reached forward and pawed at the elastic band of Inu's shorts. "How about we table this discussion, and get wild for a while? You'll feel much better after you let off some steam."

Inu stepped back, out of reach. "I'm not in the mood anymore." She swallowed hard, then looked down at the floor. "Thanks, by the way." Her voice was raspy. Oddly quiet.

"For what?"

"For discovering another way to overcome my heat. Even if it's miserable." Then she turned and jogged out of the room. Inara started after her, but she froze when she saw how Inu's fluffy tail and ears had gone completely limp. It wasn't like Inu to get sad. Grumpy, annoyed, even angry, but never sad.

For a moment, Inara wilted too. She had no idea what to do to fix things. For all her power, all her experience, Inara had nothing for this situation. Maybe if she had been in her Caring mode she would have had the patience to hear Inu out. But it was too late and that part of her was beyond her reach. She couldn't tap into that mood no matter how much she wanted. Once again, her ancient decision to split herself into pieces had gone and complicated things.

"Well, I certainly botched that," she admitted to the empty room.

Then her seven tails fluffed back up and she smiled. "But I bet Neko's up for sex."

Neko paused her music, some sort of rhythmic industrial dance music with rapping on top, then opened the door.

A curious look appeared on her face when she saw her visitor. "Inara? What's up?"

Inara stepped into the room. Then she let her silk kimono slide open down the middle, revealing nothing but bare skin beneath. "Are you up for some fun?" she asked.

Neko smiled, wide and full of teeth. On anyone else, it would have been a little creepy, but on her that catlike grin looked natural. Then she answered, "Always."

Inara used her tails to push the door closed behind her, then darted forward and kissed the grin off Neko's lips. After that, everything was a blur of passion and physicality.

Within seconds, Inara was sitting on the blanket pile that served as the room's bed and Neko was straddling her lap, eagerly kissing her face. Then Neko switched and nibbled at her neck, earning halting moans from the goddess. As she worked, Neko pulled Inara's kimono off her shoulders. Then she pushed Inara backward to get at her breasts, grabbing and massaging and mewling with desire.

Suddenly, Inara grabbed one of Neko's hands and licked from wrist to fingertip, then pulled Neko down on top of her. She didn't have a plan in mind. Neither of them did. They rolled over and tussled, not for dominance, but for leverage and for access to the other woman's body. Passion was their only concern, the sweaty, panting, damn-the-consequences kind of passion. The 'let loose and forget your problems' kind of passion.

Inara wanted to forget what she had said to Inu, how she had hurt her dear friend, how she had apparently caused everyone pain by inviting Neko into the shrine. She wanted to prove to herself that she'd made the right call, that Neko was a good person at heart, capable of love and compassion. But there was a dark current running beneath that thought: the creeping feeling that Inara herself was the one who needed to prove herself, the one who wasn't capable of real love.

For the self-described Goddess of Love, that thought was beyond terrifying. All she could do was run and hide, trying to bury that awful feeling underneath physical contact, as if sex could erase the pain inside. And for a little while, as Neko returned all her passion two-fold, it worked. But eventually the pleasure would end and Inara would be forced to deal with reality again.

When that time came, would Inara have five tails again, and be equipped to listen calmly to Inu's concerns? Would she have one, and become the curious child, eager to learn and grow and improve? Or would she be unstable again, a surefire recipe for another conflict?

Those thoughts sapped most of the pleasure from the experience, turning it into a simple transaction: Neko got the energy and sex she sought, and Inara satisfied the needs of her seven-tailed mood. She knew it wasn't healthy, and Neko probably did too. But that judgement didn't mean much to them. This was all they had.

When the passionate sex—Inara was reluctant to call it lovemaking—finally stopped, Neko quickly curled up and fell asleep. As the rush of sensation left Inara's system, she felt her mood switch. She watched as one of her tails vanished and left her with six.

Wild, she thought with a sigh. Then she made a snap decision, attempting to make the best of the hand she'd been dealt. She transformed into a fox, jumped out the open window, and vanished into the woods.