Reverse Psychology, Reversed!

As I walked into the room, I noticed that Nushi was sitting on the bed, and her horns had barely even grown, and I frowned. I remember how adamant she had been about her horns growing back fast, so I was a bit confused.

They had already cleared the books off one of the three tables Nushi had around her room, so I was able to finally set the plate of different kinds of meat. I had to get some pointers on cooking some of the giant bug parts for Jilly.

I was hesitant about even cooking the giant ants, but Lidy had told me that I would get special points with Jilly if I cooked these for her. Mary was easy, and I only had to fry up some rabbit meat, and Lidy told me I could have just fed it to her raw, but I wanted to see if she and the snakes liked it better cooked.

Cera, Bera, and Riez just got big thick steaks, but I had cooked them just past blue, and they were still full of blood and juices. I had also asked Lidy what Nushi ate, and she had said to just cook one of the steaks longer and cut it up for her.

After I was done placing the plater down, the Cerberus girls and Jilly started to dig in and made delighted moans as they ate. I called Nushi over, and she ignored me at first and buried her face in a book she had only just started to read.

"I cut you up some steak into small pieces and cooked it longer. I have it set off to the side on the platter for when you want to come and join us," I said as I took a seat in one of the chairs that were around the table.

Nushi continued to ignore me, so I turned my attention to the beauty that was moving around me to settle comfortably in my lap and lean back against me. I was warmly reminded of the alone time that we had spent together in the canyon as I scoped the rabbit meat into my bowl of tubers.

I held the bowl with one hand in front of me from Mary to pick from, and with my other hand, I started to grab the smaller pieces of meat and feed them to Mary's snakes. They each eagerly waited for turns as I fed the patiently waiting snakes.

The Cerberus girls would hold a piece of meat up to their three heads, and then they would take turns taking bites. I was curious about how they decided how to move, but that would be something that I went over with them before we left.

Jilly grabbed the softball-sized sections of giant ant abdomen and popping was them into her mouth like theory were candy. I had to stop watching her eat when Jilly started to bite the legs off one at a time.

During the time I was watching the other girls and feeding the snakes, Nushi had been moving across to the edge of her bed. I could tell that she wanted to come and eat with the rest of the girls, but her stubbornness prevented her from it.

"You know, I don't think that you would like this meat," I said nonchalantly, making Nushi pull her nose out of the book and glared at me.

"Oh? And why not? How do you know what I like and don't? Maybe I would like it!" Nushi said defiantly as she fell neatly into my trap.

"No, you're right, this steak that was cooked well done and cut up into pieces probably isn't something that you would like. Jilly, are you still hungry? Maybe you could eat these?" I said.

I was trying to be serious, but I was having a hard time. Before Jilly could pipe up, Mary turned around and started to hammer her fist on my chest.

"But I wanted the meatsss! You're sssupposesss to givesss them to me!" Mary hissed at me with a menacing cuteness that could have melted a glacier's heart.

During this, Nushi had snuck over to the table and was trying to scarf down the meat. Unfortunately, her natural ladylike manner seemed to be preventing her from stuffing her face.

Once Nushi was relieved that everyone was looking at her, she froze and looked like she was about to bolt. I hadn't expected Mary to react like this, so I cleared my throat.

"I am sorry, Mary, I wasn't actually going to let Jilly eat Nushi's meat. This was just a trick…" I had started to say, but stopped after Mary reached back into the bowl of meat and potatoes.

Mary had been staring at me intently, but I guess that her hunger was outweighing the need to be upset with me, and she popped a small potato into her mouth. I watched as Mary bit down on the spud, and then Mary looked like she was about to cry as she started to wave her hands in the air with her mouth wide open.

"Itsss ucky! I on't ikesss itsss!" Mary hissed around the crushed boiled potato that filled her mouth.

As I leaned forward to reach around Mary to grab the bowl for her to spit the spud out, Mary seemed to think I was trying something else. As I leaned, Mary grabbed my face and then kissed me.

The feeling of her soft and cool lips was shocking at first, but the mouth full of potatoes I got from Mary really took the romance out of it. Still, Mary didn't pull back right away, and even though I was trying to choke down the potato, I was still able to enjoy the kiss.

Mary pulled back and then turned around like nothing had happened and went back to eating. This time she sniffed the food before eating it, and I was left stunned, or at least until Mary's snakes hissed at me for more food.

That was fun; I was half tempted to feed another one.