24

Enter Rachnera

I open my eyes and see nothing.

Am I blind?

I try to move my arms and my legs. They don't respond.

Am I crippled?

I notice a light at the bottom. At least I'm not blind.

Wait. The bottom of what?

I look around and find the reason for my limbs not answering my call. I'm tied, to the roof of an… auditorium from the looks of it, with… cobwebs?

"Ah." I hear a female voice behind me. "So you're awake."

"Looks like it." I feel the webs vibrating as the voice moves closer. "Whom do I have the pleasure of addressing?"

"My, aren't you polite?" A hand cups my cheek, the tips of its fingers sharp. "Is that why those poor girls are crazy about you, Yamato?"

"You know my name." I smile at the pretty face, with its multiple red eyes and sharp teeth, looking at me. "It's only fair that I know yours too."

"Don't speak to me of fair." Her nail runs on my cheek, threatening to tear the skin. "You are fucking three extra-species, along with a human. Is it fair for a male to be such a slut?"

"I don't fuck them," I speak a notch louder than I want to. "I make love to them. If they have a problem with that, they can leave. I'm not forcing any of them to stay with me."

"So, you're fine if they leave?" She takes a step back, revealing her body.

She is half-human, half-spider. She is human till her thighs. She has six red eyes, and white hair in a bob cut. She is bigger than Cerea. However, her breasts seem smaller than hers, if only a tad.

"I'll be heartbroken if they leave. Any one of them."

"Ho, really?" She grins, revealing her sharp teeth as she moves towards me and cups my cheek again. She is wearing revealing clothes that do not hide her midriff or even the underside of her breasts. Her nipples are an inch shy of coming out. "Why's that?"

"Because I love them. All of them."

"What a convenient excuse."

"It's not an…"

She covers my mouth with her hand as she skitters behind me.

"Shh," she whispers in my ear as her breasts press into my back.

The door of the auditorium opens and the darkness is split by a ray of light from a flashlight. Tentative steps walk in.

"Anyone in here?" comes the scared voice of the cop I have seen walking around my area. "I thought I heard voices."

"Not a word out of you." From her voice, she seems like she will bite my ear off.

I nod, releasing an inadvertent bleat.

The cop below us is flitting his torch around, hoping to not find anyone, or hear a voice. My bleat makes him run off and close the door with a bang.

She releases a sigh of relief, after he leaves, into my ear.

"Well, that was inconvenient. By the way, I'm Rachnera Arachnera."

"Yeah." I try to laugh. "Pleased to make your acquaintance, Rachnera."

"Oh-ho. We're on a first-name basis already. What's with the panic? Don't tell me." Her lips touch my ear. "Are you scared?"

"Yes, yes! Very."

"Hm…" She ponders and notices the center of my fidgets. "Oh, my. All men are the same."

She turns her face away with a blush when she notices my erection under my pants.

"Well, you cannot blame me, can you, Rachnera? You are pretty."

Her hands grip my throat in less than a second. I fear she'll choke me, and I feel scared for the first time.

"Don't lie to my face!" She growls, her composure vanished. "Say the truth!"

"I'm speaking the truth!" I protest, trying to breathe.

"Liar! You hate me!" The world shakes in my vision and my brain threatens to fall out of my skull. "This erection you have is because of my human body. Without it, you would have liked to crush me under your foot, isn't that right! Isn't it!"

She shakes me harder. I try to speak but I lack the oxygen required for it.

I pat her spider leg. She eases the grip on my throat and wraps her pedipalps around my waist.

I cough as my breath starts to flow again. Once the dizziness dissipates, I find that my hand is still resting on her leg, near the joint, if that is what you call it.

"Well," she speaks with a blush. "What do you have to say?"

I don't speak. I slide my hand up and down her leg.

"What do you think you're doing!" Her hands rise to my face but her palms settle on my cheeks, instead of her claws scratching my flesh off.

"Caressing a reason for my erection." I offer her a grin.

"You can't be serious." She looks away with a blush and smiles. "What a dirty boy you are."

I chuckle at her bashfulness.

"What's so funny!"

"Rachnera, you're so cute." I raise my hand to pat her head. "You don't like to show your true feelings, do you?"

She gives me a look but does not remove my hand from the top of her head or her leg. Our gaze lingers. When I think she is about to lean in for a kiss, lights turn on outside the auditorium.

"You damn fiend!" I hear Zombina screaming on a megaphone. "Let Boyfriend go and come outside with your hands in the air, or we'll be happy to come in and force you to do it!"

"What the hell?" Rachnera clenches her teeth as she lowers herself to the floor, in the penumbra between two windows. "You should be happy, Yamato. You have your allies here. Now you can be free, and you can give me a beating too."

"Why…" I begin and the glass shatters. Zombina and Tio jump in. I gather that from the size of the silhouettes.

Without thinking, I wrap my arms around Rachnera's waist and lift her in the air, my feet on the floor.

"What?" Rachnera looks at me, surprised, her hands on my shoulders, as I whirl on my feet, turning my back to Zombina and Tio.

"Whoa!" I laugh. "You're so light, Rachnera."

"What're you doing!" She blushes and fidgets in my grip. "Put me down at once, Yamato!"

"What're the two of you doing?" Zombina asks with a disappointed face, her gun pointed at the roof. "Yamato, do you want us to arrest her or not?"

"Nope." I shake my head as I grin back at Zombina and then at Rachnera. "I'm her victim, and I'll be the judge." I place her legs down on the ground. "She'll be one of my family from now on."

"What!" Rachnera says, along with the two girls.

"What gives you the right to make that decision for me?" Rachnera squirms in my arms, her hands falling on my shoulders in vain attempts to free herself. "Let me go!"

"I take a little pride in understanding the female psychology, Rachnera." I hug her, my hand on the back of her head. "You have been treated cruelly in the past by humans, haven't you?"

"How do you know that, baka?" I hear tears in her voice and tighten my grip around her.

"People judge others based on outer appearance." I run my hand through her bob-cut white hair, silky soft and cool. "I won't do that with you, Rachnera. You are a beautiful person."

"How did you reach that conclusion, Sherlock?"

"You never tried to hurt me once, except when you choked me. But that is not without reason either."

She sounds exhausted. "What's your point?"

"Despite all of your hate towards humans," I look in her eyes, which are like lakes leaking tears, "you are careful not to hurt someone. You are not bad at heart."

"Hmpf!" She looks away with a blush. "You aren't sweet-talking me into anything, baka!"

"No, I'm not." I laugh as I make her face me and press my forehead against hers. "I'm just telling the truth. All you want is a home and a family, where you are accepted for who you are."

"Urk." She swallows as she looks at me, her lips parted. "Baka!" is what she says before dropping her head against my shoulder, her hands grabbing fistfuls of my shirt.

I laugh as I wrap my arms around the small of her back, drawing circles with one palm between her shoulders. "Let's go home, dearest."