B+Bs: To Stand In A Beast's World

11. Satisfactory

Hi, readers.  Quick message for you.  I'll probably be able to update daily for a week.  If not, every other day.  I'm just over-editing the chapters at this point.  But I always catch one or two grammar/structure issues to fix only to introduce another issue by accident.  The struggle. 

Harvey did not hesitate to accept my proposal when I asked him the next day. Since I had a bit more energy, I silently cheered. This has all been so much easier than I thought. I think that just went to show how difficult Bai made things for the sake of drama and plot.

Harvey was a very reasonable male. He was also more strict than even Winston when it came to certain things. He took health seriously. And I had to say, half a day with the male was all I needed to know that we would get along great.

He was someone I could talk to. I had nothing against the others, but they weren't much for stimulating conversation. I was able to discuss earth concepts with Harvey pretty easily. He was a curious person and asked for more details if something struck him as odd, but he didn't need as much in depth explanation as some of the others needed.

He absorbed everything I said about health and hygiene quickly which wasn't unexpected given his profession. I didn't know anything too in depth medically, but I used to watch several tv series that featured nurses and doctors.

I'm sure real medical professionals would cry if they knew I was sharing medical practices from shows made for entertainment, not realism. But I wasn't talking about how to do open heart surgery or anything crazy.

I brought up some more general things like disinfecting, CPR, modes of disease transmission, and tourniquets to slow blood flow, to name a few. I did not give him a how to tutorial and wouldn't try. I know what's in and not in my skill set. But telling Harvey about the concept of stitching wounds or manually beating a heart should give him some clues on what to do in that kind of situation.

Harvey listened as if enraptured, absorbing everything Grace said. Her knowledge was vast compared to his. Things he never considered were mentioned in a nonchalant manner that he would expect when talking about one's meal, not potentially life saving practices.

Whenever Harvey would snap out of his daze, he made sure to probe Grace's mind for all that he could. His excitement got the better of him often, but Grace did not seem to mind and even humored him.

The other three were left out of these conversations. Shuu really wanted to participate, but it sounded like Grace and Harvey were speaking a different language all together. He didn't even know where to begin.

Winston and Muir both tried to gleam what they could from the conversation, but were failing. It might be better for them to stick with what they were good at.

My family had just started getting comfortable with each other, but the chemistry was thrown off with Harvey added in the mix. It was nothing that I worried strongly about. I knew they'd get used to him being here, just like I would. But I promised myself that I will stop here for now.

With the four of them, I should not face danger or a difficult time while in the city. If a male that seemed like good mate material appeared in front of me, I wouldn't push him away. But I wasn't going to go looking for anymore until my family settled down.

I don't think I've reassured my mates enough as it is and I can't keep messing up the order of things all while continuing to believe that everything will just turn out alright. So, for awhile, I plan to get to know my family and let them get to know me. No more variables will be added unless something drastic changes.

I wanted to stop thinking of them in terms of necessity and come to really see them as my family. Feelings weren't an easy thing to change, but I felt like I could come to like them for who they were. And maybe, they won't mind even the more cynical parts of myself.

With a optimistic mindset and positive thoughts, I joined my family for dinner.

...

Harvey was a mother hen. No, that wasn't quite right. He reminded me of the momma cat that gave birth on my doorstep. Attentive and protective. Gentle and confident in his care.

Even after my period ended, I was given herbal teas of differing kinds. I really enjoyed the ginger dandelion tea the most, especially when I added a generous amount of honey to it. He was also way better at the massages. It was to the point he'd put me to sleep.

Falling into a routine really helped give me a sense of normalcy, and having the protection I did let me have some peace of mind. I rarely had bad days and the nightmares were less. I genuinely loved taking care of the cocky birds that finally started giving me eggs. They liked to puff themselves out and act like they could take me. It reminded me a lot of my aunt's jack russell terriers.

The garden became Harvey's project and it suited him. I'm sure he could keep the plants alive better than I could, but I still joined him to garden. Sometimes we did it in comfortable silence, but most of the time we talked. Although I can't say I learned a lot about herbs from Harvey, it was more than I knew before.

Harvey never asked me to mate with him and I did push it off for the reasons I thought of before. Even though I had a plan, I wasn't inflexible. If Harvey came to me, I would give up that reason without a fight. Because, no mater how much I wanted to plan for the unknown, it wasn't fair to make him wait when any day could be his last.

Life was that fragile here. The novel glossed it over since it didn't kill off the main cast, but that was how it was. My neighbor lost her single striped male to a wild boar the other day. Not a colossus or a stronger beastman, but something we hunted and ate.

Shuu told me his brother from his same litter was double-marked when he died after being swarmed by bees for stealing their honey. Not everything deadly was impressive, and not every death came after a build-up of events. Some were quick and anticlimactic.

I would not make Harvey wait for that fulfillment. But he adamantly prioritized my health. Even more so after I explained how often I could (maybe) get pregnant. I think the hardest thing was telling him about my stripe. It seemed to kill whatever confidence he was building and no amount of explaining how I got it made him feel better.

I didn't know then that my stripe was the biggest reason he set out to earn his own, but I wouldn't have had the heart to stop him even if I did.