Patience and Schuler slept in late the next morning under the watchful eye of Anax. Warmed by golden rays, Schuler stirred awake, finding Patience nestled at his side. He brightened, tracing the curve of her shoulder blade with his finger. Patience shifted to meet him. As he lifted away a strand of dark hair from her cheek, she peeled her eyes open. Schuler and Anax being the first sight to greet her on this day.

“Will every morning be like this from now on?” she sighed with a soft smile.

A chuckle escaped through Schuler’s nose. “If so, sign me up.” His hand skimmed her collarbone, eyes shining warmly beyond Anax’s sockets. The morning light cast a rim around his hair peeking out the base of the skull. His locks swirled into the billowing mist, lit up like some vision.

“You’re beautiful,” Patience said.

Schuler balked. “Ain’t ever got that from a woman, but I’ll take it!”

He shifted over her supine body. The teeth at the end of Anax’s snout grazed Patience’s skin. Schuler pardoned himself and tilted the skull upward so that all the pointy ends reached over her head. Patience leaned forward, her brow hitting the bottom of Anax’s mandibles. She maneuvered a kiss onto Schuler’s mouth. After she pulled away from the man, she pecked Anax’s jaw.

Schuler smirked. “What are you getting after?”

Patience reached her hand to the man’s chin, running her thumb over his soft lip. He flicked his tongue out to meet it. They exchanged smiles. Schuler ran a hand down Patience’s side, leaving a trail of standing hairs on her supple skin. She shuddered.

“I’ve pined for you for a while now,” Patience admitted. “I only had to overcome my own misgivings and—” She stroked the strands of the man’s hair falling over her face and laughed. “Now I really have you!”

“Well, will you have me again?”

As if on cue, Anax’s tendrils slid Schuler’s drawers down, freeing the man’s hardening length. Patience’s face grew red. In a nearly choreographed move, Schuler shifted his legs to straddle her while Anax removed his drawers entirely.

“I’ll have all of you,” murmured Patience.

A crooked grin stretched Schuler’s lips. His hand roamed over her chest, tugging off her underclothes with her assistance. As her chemise lifted away from her head, Patience caught sight of the vapor behind Schuler condensing. When her drawers left her legs, the fog was nearly solid. Patience greeted Schuler’s entry with a slight groan, unprepared for penetration so soon after waking. He pressed in harder as the weight above him manifested.

“Hey! What’s this about, Anax?” huffed Schuler as he craned his neck over his shoulder for an attempted view.

“I want to join!” Anax whined.

A haphazard body materialized around Schuler’s back. Patience could see the hint of legs by Schuler’s own. She certainly felt the misty claws that came down upon her arms at her side.

“I like this view of you!” Anax’s eye quivered at the very edge of his skull. “I like seeing you under me! Now let’s see what sorts of faces you made while wearing me!” He formed his cock, extending it longer than he normally would simply to reach, and slid right underneath Schuler’s own.

“Whoa! Hey! Take care with that!” Schuler snapped, quite unnerved by the odd sensation.

“I’ll be delicate,” said Anax.

“Uh huh,” Schuler uttered with a wash of doubt.

Anax prodded the base of Patience’s already occupied entrance. A nudge. And then he started to ease his way inside. Patience seethed as she was stretched to a new limit. Schuler caressed her face, wincing slightly himself.

The three lay there for a while. The gentle pulsing of Anax’s length coaxed Patience into eventually accommodating them both. He was not near his usual girth, yet Anax challenged her nonetheless. It was a snug fit, but deliciously so.

“Hm! It feels quite good being up against you, Schuler!” Anax purred.

“Er,” stammered the man, “It’s definitely … different.”

At that Anax commenced thrusting into Patience, driving Schuler further inside her. Earnest as always, Anax carried on as he normally would. But as he slowed, Patience noticed Schuler’s stillness. She could tell the man was holding back, simply letting Anax push him. She smiled.

“Schuler … please … I know you can’t resist the urge much longer,” Patience said in syrupy, languid tones. She felt a throb at the front of her cavity, certain that it was Schuler’s response. A sigh escaped the man, and he began pumping alongside the misty body.

Every time Anax thrust faster, Schuler matched him. When Anax dug in deeper, Schuler matched him. It soon became a contest. The struggle between them overwhelmed Patience, leaving her breathless. Watching, feeling them vie for dominance inside her wiped her mind blank. The only thing she knew at the moment was the fervent grinding and its intense echo. She instinctively rolled up against the bodies atop her to ask for more once there was a lapse in movement. There were two of them. There was no excuse for rest.

What once came from around her head, Anax’s groans were now heard in tandem with Schuler’s. The two eventually came to taking turns. Schuler would do his work, then hand the reins to Anax. Patience could not help but wonder if they enjoyed feeling the other cock slide against his own, pressing it into the walls of her chamber. She hoped they did. The idea fanned her burning heat.

Anax pushed harder, slapping his groin against Schuler’s ass. Catching glimpses between Schuler’s arching, Patience noticed the man’s sac straddling Anax’s length. Schuler’s breath hitched.

Patience smiled to herself. Her arms folded around the man’s back to find Anax’s torso incorporeal. She passed through the mist and brought Schuler down to meet her chest. He tilted his head and Anax away from her, nestling by the side of her neck.

As Schuler gripped onto Patience’s waist, Anax grappled her arms. He guided her hands down Schuler’s sides, causing the man to shudder and knead his cock in deeper. Patience inched closer to falling into a cascade of pleasure. Suddenly Anax pinned her arms to the bed. He parroted Schuler’s greedy thrusts. The doubled sensation drove Patience over the peak.

She mewled ecstatically. Losing herself in the luscious, relieved throbbing of her loins, she arched herself against the men to squeeze out every pulse. Schuler froze to avoid his own release. But Anax had no such restraint. Patience’s rapturous undulations called him deep inside. The skull thrust in quick succession with bestial growls. In a final push, he came, a curt grunt cutting the air. He held himself there for a long moment, letting his cock pump the sleeve full. His motions were intensified in the tight space, nearly spurring Patience to full arousal again.

“That … was good,” Anax mustered to say. He pulled his length out, a slick of fluid dripped down onto the bed. Patience’s insides relaxed around the now lone member. Before he dissolved his body, the skull wiped his wet cock between Schuler’s cheeks, sending another shiver over the man. “You’re good. I like you,” he said to Schuler.

“Th-thanks,” Schuler wheezed. The man propped himself up and looked down at Patience. Eyes hidden in shadow, she could only see his mouth. It formed into a smirk. “Well, it seems as though Anax had his fill. Now it’s my turn.”

Those words reignited the fire that had just ceased. Patience flushed.

Now able to move freely, Schuler cast all reservations to the wind and indulged in Patience like the sweet of his wildest dreams. The mix of Patience’s fluids and Anax’s seed announced their presence with lusty squelches as Schuler plowed away. Still sensitive from her last release, Patience quickly mounted the pressure to peer from the edge of bliss once more. Schuler’s breaths became ragged as he neared the edge himself. Wishing to take the jump together, she wound her hands to his ass and grasped his cheeks tightly. She bumped her hips into his groin and clamped down.

The man fell upon her with a moan, jerking from his shoulders to his toes. Patience’s walls clenched, milking him empty, filling her already brimming cavity. They each let out one last exuberant groan before falling limp. Once their panting ceased, Schuler pulled away, shifting onto his back next to Patience. She curled up beside his lithe body, basking in the heat of his skin.

“It wasn’t too strange, was it?” she quietly asked, running a hand over Schuler’s sweat-laden chest. Her fingers brushed over the fine, dark hair.

“He liked it,” said Anax.

“I can speak for myself,” Schuler interjected, face reddening. “But—yeah, it wasn’t bad.” He shot Patience a look. “I mean, you were wonderful!”

Patience broke into a chuckle.

“Anax … I’ll have to get used to that,” sighed the man, his hand reaching between the skull’s jaws to rub his whiskered chin. He rested his head back into the pillows. “That was … intense.”

“I’ll say!” said Patience. She roused to stand. Had she not, she could have fallen back asleep in her blissful contentment. Upright the fluids spilled from her gap. Both Schuler and Anax whistled at the sight while she rolled her eyes. By the bed’s side, Patience reached out her hands. Schuler lifted Anax from his head and gave him to her.

Seated on the toilet, Patience hummed in satisfaction. “Did you enjoy that?”

“Yes. Very much so …” said the skull. “Do you think I could be intimate with Schuler?”

Patience’s eyes bulged. “That …” she breathed, “would be a question for him.” She paused a moment, imagining the scenario. “I’m sure he wouldn’t mind you asking. Do not force yourself on him, though.”

“All right,” said Anax, wriggling his tendril inside. He flicked Schuler’s remnants into the porcelain bowl.

Suddenly she sat up with a start. “Sch-Schuler?” Patience called.

“Yes? Did you need anything?” Schuler’s arm appeared at the doorway. Even though he had gotten to know Patience on a higher plane of intimacy, he remained shy.

“I … I was wondering if you take offense to this …” she said.

“How do you mean?” he asked outside the door.

Patience wrinkled her mouth, fumbling over the words. “Does it bother you I’m eliminating any chance of pregnancy right now?”

“Oh, Patience!” said the man, “I don’t want to subject you to anything you don’t want, bearing children included.”

Her breath hitched as her heart swelled.

“I have you, and that’s really all I need … for the rest of my life.”

Patience’s head lifted toward the door.

Anax withdrew his tendril and dropped the last clod into the toilet. He muttered, “He has me too.”

Patience flew out of the bathroom, nearly tackling Schuler down to the floor in the process. The girl wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. She did not think she could love him even more. “Thank you,” she uttered.

Still unaccustomed to seeing her naked form, Schuler turned pink. He rested his chin on Anax’s crown, rubbing Patience’s shoulder.

“Now let’s get some food in our bellies,” he said with a pinch of her gut. Patience giggled and went to the bedroom to dress before heading to the kitchen.

“I think I’m well enough to go back to work Wednesday,” Schuler mused over a plate of ham.

“It’s true, his fever is gone,” said Anax.

“At least you have one more day of recovery,” Patience remarked.

The man smiled at her beneath Anax’s snout. “Honest to God, I feel better than I did before I got sick.”

Patience glanced out the window. “I should go home tomorrow while you resume your usual schedule.”

“Right. I ought to contact Whit to make sure we’re still doing the same set and get in some practice.”

The day blazed in full glory without so much as a cloud in the sky. Tomorrow they would return to their normal routine. A drop of sadness rippled through Patience’s heart. She enjoyed staying with Schuler and Anax like this, but a return to normalcy was for the best. It was what she had hoped for. She could find solace in that it would be a new normal at least.

Catching Schuler’s eyes deep inside Anax’s skull, she softened. “All right, then. As lovely as this has been, illness aside, I suppose we both have to carry on with our lives.”

“Our new lives, together,” corrected Schuler, raising his brows, a knowing smile on his lips.

“To our new life,” Patience simpered. She held up her cup of tea to which Schuler met with his own in a toast.

***

The next day, Patience took Anax upon her head. Outside of the apartment’s lobby, she hugged Schuler. Unsatisfied he tipped Anax up to steal a kiss from her. They bade each other farewell before he departed for Haverston, and she her cottage. A morning breeze stirred the cypresses behind Patience, their rustling whispered in her ears. Anax hummed at the back of her neck, elated to see anything other than the interior of Schuler’s apartment. Her shoes creaked into motion to take her home.

But before Patience could travel several feet, she noticed a grimy stain on the path where the fallen chick had been. Its demise was soon to be erased from history, the only remnant being the memory it impressed upon Patience. She wondered if its skeleton had been devoured by some stray cat, or kicked off into oblivion by unaware pedestrians. A shame, for Patience just felt the urge to collect its skeleton to clean and save.

“Schuler will come to your cottage tonight?”

“Perhaps. If not, I’m sure we’ll see him very soon.”

Patience touched her fingers to the jewels on her ring. The token glittered on the fist curling around the handle of her carpetbag. To Patience, it represented everything gained from the time she met Schuler, and Anax. A treasure found at the end of a long journey.

She walked on under the wash of blue sky with her heart aflutter. Her mind briefly wondered in what state they would find her chickens and garden. Surely the vegetables and Rosamund’s chicks had grown some. Patience smiled, certain that she had grown a bit herself.

By now she no longer noticed the presence of the skeletal helm on her head, only when he was absent did she feel strange. She breathed him. His vapor slithered inside her body whether they were aware or not. She needed him as he needed her. They were intrinsically connected in body and spirit.

“Thank you, again,” she whispered.

No other words could express the depth of her gratitude, not only for what Anax had done for Schuler, but for what he had done for her. These words could not express that feeling that wrenched her heart. That feeling of being loved. That feeling of being intertwined with another soul. Patience only hoped Anax could sense all this in her mind.

The skull rumbled, “You’re welcome, my pet.”