The Apples Don't Fall Far ( MGE )

	Telling people about my life at home has always gotten me a few odd stares. Co-workers, friends, and family all feel the urge to send a sideways stare when they hear the tale. How on the night when my car’s alternator needed to be replaced and the mechanic took a week to do it, how the last bus was a few minutes early and I had to book it home on foot if I wanted to sleep before sunrise. How on the sprint home I saw them, lying across the bushes covered up in cuts, bruises, and scrapes. They were a rather odd-looking pair, a Harpy and rabbit passed out on the side of an old oak, about thirty feet sideways of the sidewalk. Friends would joke about how it was my ‘fatherly instincts’ that took over and made me carry them home, I thought it was just me following the angel on my shoulder’s advice and doing my good deed for the day. Either way, I can still remember the first few days with the little ones, as if it had just happened yesterday.

	The sweat was pouring from my brow and back, and I was near ‘bout to lose my legs and crumple to the floor in exhaustion. But ‘we’ made it home before then. For a little while, with the way they didn’t wake up to all the rustling and how they barely made a peep in their sleep I thought I might have been carrying corpses, only the small little kicks in the Rabbit’s sleep and the very occasional shuffling of feather’s from the harpy let me know that wasn’t the case.  The moment I could I put them on the couch, gingerly as possible, and stuffed some quick Mac’ N Cheese into the microwave. Then I pulled up the number for the CPS, I didn’t know if they could help reunite them with any lost family but they seemed like the best bet for anything related to whatever can of worms I was about to open. After that was all squared away, I waited for the Mac’ to finish cooking, and then started to shake awake the girls.

	First was the harpy, it took some effort, but after a good few hard shakes I was able to bring her out of the little comatose she was in. The moment she came to consciousness the fear in her eyes was obvious. She didn’t scream or make any fuss. If I were to try to say what it was, it had looked like any hope she had was gone the moment she saw me. I didn’t know if she was going to do anything drastic, but before she had any chances I pointed to her sister. “Wake her up, meet me at the table. I want to talk to you two.”

	The pink harpy’s expression softened slightly, and then turned to her sleeping sister. I moved onto the table and prepared the two bowls of cheesy glory. When the Rabbit woke up, she let out a shriek, and then silence. I couldn’t see her face but I’m sure it was the same as her Sister’s earlier. They whispered for a bit, and then moved to the table, sitting on the two stools I had set out for them. On closer inspection, they were obviously related. Their faces looked quite similar and both of their eyes were as pink as their feathers and fur. If I had to guess they, probably weren’t your normal Harpy or hare either. Were they two of those wonderland girls?

	“Hi…” The Rabbit spoke, releasing me from my thoughts. I should probably talk to them instead of just staring at them, right? “Yeah, Hi. Look, sorry if this is a bit odd but I found you two lying on the side of a tree in the middle of nowhere and brought you here because I didn’t know what else to do. If you want a ride home, I can oblige, or help get you some directions from here. Also, I made some Mac’ N cheese if you’re hungry.” I gestured towards the two bowls in the middle of the table.

	“If you want to head out now, feel free to leave.” I then gesture back towards the door. I tried to be as non-threatening as possible, however perhaps taking them all the way home before waking them up wasn’t the most intelligent thing to do. The girls looked around for a bit, and then started to whisper back and forth between each other, and then they both stared at the bowls I had prepared for them.

	The Harpy was quick to dig in, barely using her silverware as her face was about an inch from the bowl the majority of the meal. The Rabbit was hesitant, she just watched her sister eat with a look of concern and worry plastered across her face. She just watched for a few minutes before her stomach started to rumble. The harpy whispered to her sister, who started to dig into her bowl as well. They both must have been starving, because they flew through an entire Box’s worth in less than twenty minutes.

	“So, do you guys have names?” I asked; both of the girls looked up from the remaining portions I had prepared, saliva and cheese smeared across their faces, “Grace!” The rabbit yelled before her face disappeared back into the bowl. “Faith”, the harpy spoke up, bringing her face up as well. She wasn’t nearly as dirty or grime-covered as her sister, but her table etiquette was lacking all the same. Not that it mattered. On a whim I started to make another box, feeling hungry myself, and started to ask them some questions as I refilled their two bowls while getting my own ready. Why were they out there? Where are their parents? Do they live nearby? What are they?

	Through their munching and scarfing they start to give out answers. They explain they are twins from an Echidna who had spent her summer with her husband in wonderland. Something about the energy in that black hole of debauchery had changed whatever was originally going to come out. They were a March Hare and a Jubjub, though with a few more screws installed then others of their species. Perhaps something about Echidnas do that to their kids?  They were a little hesitant, pausing before both of them rose up from their food as Faith begins to explain what happened to their parents. Their mom , whom had always been a little jealous, started to get more and more paranoid about people stealing away her husband, forcing them into some polygamous relationship. The echidna loathed the thought, and slowly started to do more and more things to sabotage her husband’s life outside of home to keep any potential ‘thieves’ away, eventually it even began to include pushing away the man’s sisters and parents. Eventually, their mother forced out her own kids in order to keep her husband ‘safe’.  That was a year ago, and they were still looking for a place to stay.

	My friends still joke about how that was the very moment my parental instincts took over. They’d say ‘And his eyes flared up when he heard them say they were looking for a home. And with speed the likes you’ve never seen he put them to sleep on his couch, throwing blankets and pillows and cushions galore. He was juggling phones talking to the CPS, schools, and his boss for hours. They say his wallet grew two sizes smaller that day, but his heart a pair of twins bigger.’ Now, that last sentence was probably the only accurate part of their terrible description of what happened. The financial situation was rough, but due to having the most understanding boss in the world and a work ethic to put a team of Ants to shame, I was able to keep us afloat.

	Time slowly passed, and days turned to weeks, and weeks into months.  I never had thought of myself as parent potential, but with advice from all sides of life I was able to keep from doing anything dumb. I also had to help them catch up in all the schoolwork they missed out on, they were reluctant at first, but after three months of intense schooling and tutoring they were able to catch up. They also warmed up to me rather fast. Though I thought they were a tad bit old for some of the games we played when I wasn’t busy, I often spent time I wasn’t working playing with them. We’d also learn to garden together, and explore the woods that extended a few miles behind the house. We had found many a small treasures hidden back there, including a small cave that they told me they turned into their personal garden. They even would ask me to read them to sleep; apparently their parents never had the time to do so before. Even before the mom went bonkers she couldn’t be bothered to do it.  On a side note, once they had been properly fed and cared for, color returned to them quite nicely. I had thought their fur and feathers vibrant before, but after a few good meals and a shower, they were truly brilliant. Their plumage and fur felt otherworldly as well, and I already knew I would miss the nights they’d ask to sleep with me because they were scared to sleep alone; simply because it meant I wouldn’t sleep as comfortably myself.

	Time continued to pass, picking up the pace. Months turned into years and things began to get a little bit…awkward. I had expected them to fill out and mature, both in body and mind.   It turns out nature beats nurture, at least with these girls. While not entirely unintelligibly constantly in heat, they barely passed for normal.  I heard moans and the sounds of a certain shuffle whenever I would pass by their rooms more often than not, and there were many a day they forgot to close their doors.  It’s unfortunate to say I could differentiate them by their moans and ‘toys’ before they even entered high school. Needless to say, quite a few breakfasts would be spent in silence, or with one side leaving quite early to avoid making contact with the other. At least they weren’t bringing any boys home, or talking about any of them. I was worried about when that would happen, I’d like to think I wouldn’t be too hard to anyone they brought in but I’ve heard stories about how girls from wonderland would make priests cry with the kind of men they would fall for. Plus, any time I would even see them with any of the boys they know I couldn’t help but feel a bit…resentful? The few times I would see them hanging out with their guy friends I couldn’t help but feel some strange, somewhat disgusting hybrid of jealousy, disappointment, and worry.  Plus they were always finding something to blush or get embarrassed about, there were moments I couldn’t even ask Grace how her day was without her becoming a flustered mess.

	Living with them has also had some other more ‘adverse’ affects.  They weren’t the only ones having trouble keeping it in their pants; I started to have dreams of them, dreams that I should never have had. At first the dreams would be of Faith, and the dreams would consist of her straddling me, for hours on end. In the dreams, I would always try to resist and get easily overpowered. Faith would perch on me cowgirl style, and when I tried to raise my hands to get her off she would just grab them and hold onto them, weakly linking her claws and my fingers as she bounced up and down on me, occasionally getting in close so she could put our mouths together. She’d never stop making contact, only when the dream would end is when she would let go, and even then she was reluctant.  Then, occasionally, a dream where Grace was the lead actress would play. She was a fan of the mating press technique, or more specifically, the reverse mating press. Once the dream would play she would force me on my back and then use her rabbit legs and just pin me down and go on for what felt like forever. She’d never break eye-contact either, often using her hands to force me to look at her throughout the entire session. As opposed to the dreams with Faith, Grace was much more bestial and rabid. When she wasn’t forcing me to gaze at her and frenetically slurring her constant stream of ‘love you’s and ‘so good’s she would stick her face in mine and swap spit for god knows how long. Then, occasionally, there would be dreams with both of them. I could never remember them too well; they always passed by in a blur. All I know is that when I would wake up, those would be the days when I’d find myself covered in sweat and my own juices. There were times where I could even recall the taste and touch of them the dreams were so vivid. It was disgusting to think that I had started to dream of such obscenities to the twins. It was a few weeks after these dreams started that I decided to get myself a girl of my own. Hopefully once I started dating and found someone nice, the dreams would stop and I’d sleep easy and guilt free.

	Now, I had a couple co-workers who were single and searching.  They said if I was looking for wingmen, and were willing to return the favor, they’d back me up. Long story short, we went out, got drunk, I met a cute little worker ant named Jenna. We hit off and things escalated from there. We’d see each other a few times a week, often meeting for drinks and a good time after work. Then, much earlier than I expected, she asked if we could take it to the next level. She didn’t seem to mind that I had kids, and was excited to meet them. It was something I had pushed off for as long as possible. You see, I was nervous to see how they would react. Especially after what happened with their birthparents, I didn’t know if they would take to her well or not. The night I had revealed to them I was dating someone certainly wasn’t easy, both of their faces were filled with this distorted scowl, filled with sorrow, anger, and confusion. For two days I had to nearly beg them to give her a chance, and when they finally agreed I set up the date immediately. When they met Jenna, however, the night exceeded all my expectations. They seemed to warm up to her instantly, and were actually quite kind to her. They were also curious, and spend most of the time hitting her up for information and her hobbies and what she did for work. They almost spent more time getting to know her then I did that night, Jenna didn’t mind too much and seemed to enjoy their attention.  This went on for a solid six months, perhaps six of the nicest months I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in a long time. And it looked like it was all to be smooth sailing from then on, that was, until about a two weeks before my birthday.

	I had asked Jenna to come over so we could catch up on the week’s events and have a nice night together, and there was complete radio silence. No texts, calls, visits, anything! When I tried to visit her at home, she’d never open up, wouldn’t even acknowledge that I was there.  Wasn’t too worried at first; I thought maybe it was just her being super busy for a day or two.  The days passed by and my birthday came to be; I couldn’t help but become a blubbering mess. Grace and faith made the day bearable, and were there to console me for most of it. “You deserved better anyway!” and “Don’t worry, we’ll be here for you” is what Grace would say. Faith, on the other hand, was a little more aggressive about her attempts to pick up the mood.

	“She reminded me of Mom anyway”, “Jenna was a huge attention whore”, and “Put her race to shame, was a lazy dyke.” They tried, and the sentiment was appreciated. To be honest, I was worried they would be broken up about it as well; they had seemed to get along perfectly. Like three pieces of a puzzle that had been built for each other. Especially with what had happened to them before, I was sure they were going to be almost as broken up about it as me. They got over it almost instantly, however. It was both a little scary, and amazing, that they moved on from what happened with speed and stride. If only I had been able to continue on like they had done.

	Then, the dreams returned. They were Gentle at first, some of the nights being entirely them just cuddling up to me. Then, they returned to being just how they used to be. At first I was disgusted with myself, not even a week after Jenna had disappeared on me I’d already gone back to dreaming of doing these things to Grace and Faith. Slowly, though, they began to feel comforting. As if they dreams came to embrace me like an old friend after a long split. It was…unnerving. How ‘right’ they felt. So, things fell back to how they were before. Though, often waking up to a sweat covered bed covered in your own seed wasn’t always fun, it was better than waking up and always falling into ‘I’m so alone and sad’ mindset.

	And now? Summer has hit, just having finished dinner with the girls, and it’s time for bed. They didn’t seem too happy hearing about tomorrow’s overtime, well, Faith didn’t anyway. Grace on the other hand was unusually bubbly. Half-way through the meal she just suddenly kicked into overdrive. She kept whispering to Faith about how excited she was for tonight, which would promptly end with her getting kicked in the shin by her sister.  Whenever I’d ask about it Grace would get all preppy and prepare to explain but Faith would stop her almost immediately. This would continue till the meal was done, and then as soon as they were done eating Faith would drag Grace away while I went to my room.

	About twenty minutes had passed and I was now just getting finished changing into my PJ’s as there was a knock on the door. “Yeah? Come in!” And then, a half-naked Grace sauntered in the room. Well, completely naked except for the pair of panties that were dangling off her left foot, tangled up in the fur covering her thighs.

	“You’re already In bed, great! Let’s get started and see how far we can get before Faith shows up. Now, pound me like you always do!” And, without the slightest bit of hesitation came over my side of the bed and jumped right on it next to me.  “Grace, what are you – “Before I could even try to get her off, Faith ran in through the door. The instant her eyes locked with the scene playing out before her, she dived towards Grace in an attempt to pry her away and out the door.  “I can explain! I can explain!” Faith shouted while trying to pull away Grace, who had latched herself onto the bed.

	I rolled over to the other side of the bed away from the girls, “Get started! What’s going on with Grace?” Faith was quick to respond with a “She’s in heat! Don’t mind anything she says she is just being delusional” While frenetically trying to shush her sister. “Shut up! We don’t even have foreplay sessions that last this long, why are you being so hard to get tonight dad? And you’re usually on him before me Faith!”  All this was said while rhythmically thrusting her hips into the bed. “The drug should be in effect right now! Come on!” She shouted while pulling herself towards me. Though as she finished speaking, she had the expression of someone who finally had a revelation; an epiphany. Once it all clicked for her, Grace was quick to let her sister drag her away.

	“Hold up, I want an explanation for this. Now.” I stood up and moved between them and the door. Realization and a whirlwind of emotions dawning on me like a prizefighter going to town on a white-belt.

	“Like I said, she’s just in heat. She doesn’t know what she’s saying!” Faith croaked out, voice cracking with nervousness. We both knew I didn’t believe her.

	“Don’t feed me that. Please, give me a real explanation. Give me the story. I want to hear all the details.” I walked back over to the bed and sat down, arms crossed. Trying to prepare myself for what I was to hear.

	“Oops, looks like the gig is up!” Grace said in a sing-song voice while sitting on the floor with her sister, the both took a few seconds to look at each other. Grace was already acting almost irritably bubbly while Faith seemed to be encumbered with anxiety and worry. They both sat there in silence, waiting for the other to start talking.

	“…so?” I asked, looking over both of them. Grace nudged faith with her elbow and whispered something to her before faith sighed.

	“So, a while ago at school there was this lich who was bragging about this medicine she developed. And how she had so much of it she was willing to sell it to the other girls at school for cheap. We, uh, we stole it. All of it.” She hesitated to continue, but after she started Grace was willing to take her place explaining.

	“We’ve loved you for a long time. Loved, loved, loooooved you! But we know you wouldn’t want anything to do with us taking it anywhere near the next level. So at first we would just try to satisfy ourselves with…well…your clothes. That didn’t last long though, so we agreed that we would try the Lich’s medicine on you. Slip it into your food two nights in a row, we would both spend a night with you alone, and then never speak a word of it ever again. But then we fucked, and we kept fucking you almost every night since! It’s amazing how your system never really got used to it either. Those Lichs’ sure know what they’re doing!”

	“Grace!” Faith shouted out, she swiftly put her hands around her sister’s face in an attempt to shut her up and keep her quiet. However, she was completely unsuccessful.

	“We quickly discovered that high doses of it would just knock ya out! You could sleep for hours next to a death metal concert and never even know about it, it’s that strong. At lower doses, though, it would just cause some short term memory loss, act as a ‘mildly’ effective truth serum, and, as the lich would say, make you ‘follow your heart’s instructions’. Whatever the hell that means.”
Faith looked as terrified as I felt, she was completely speechless. She couldn’t even muster the will to keep Grace in check anymore as she kept rambling.

	“I still remember the first few nights we tried to use less on you. When it was my turn with you on the low-dose nights, I could barely stay in the mood I was so anxious! However, you were all too quick to pin me on the bed and ravage me all night!” She let out a deep, sensual sigh before continuing, “Although I still think my favorite night was the one where you had gotten two extra days off from work and had a four-day weekend to relax with us. Remember how you complained about how you slept the entire weekend away? I spiked every one of your meals, and we would just take turns mating pressing each other the entire time. Thinking back on it I can still taste your skin on my lips, and the confused face you made when you were cleaning the sheets was adorable!”

	Had I not already been sitting down I probably would have fallen straight to the floor from shock. Grace turned to faith and finished with a “Hey, tell him your favorite night the way you told it to me!”

	“I don’t think I should. It’s not –“

	“Do it, or I’ll start listing off all the things you did to him whenever he was out cold. I shared mine, after all! So you should too.”

	I could barely keep from shaking, had I really done those things to them when under? Exactly how long has this been going on? Did Jenna find out, is this why she left? I could barely form a question before Faith began speaking.

	“Mine was...the very first night we got the dosage just right. You just slipping into consciousness, and I thought you were going to yell or try to stop me. But you just put your hands up to me. Our palms never stopped touching the entire night and I still get shivers whenever I think about how you looked at me before you fell back asleep.”

	When faith finished, no one spoke for a solid two minutes. No one knew what to say or do. A question nagged at me though, and after mustering up the will to ask, I did.

	“Did Jenna find out about this, is that why she left?” Both the girls raised their heads; Grace had a wicked smile across her face while Faith looked as if she was lightly embarrassed.

	“Faith and I got rid-" For the Nth time this night, Faith tried to keep Grace from talking. However, I wanted to hear this. As long as Grace was under the influence, I needed to hear some answers.

	“Let her talk.” I nearly barked at Faith. She reluctantly backed away from her sister and sat back down.

	“As I was saying, Faith and I got rid of her. At first we tried our hardest to let you be happy with her, to be your own couple but…” She shuffled a bit on the floor, rubbing her thighs together and taking in a very large breath before continuing.  “We couldn’t help it. It pained us every time we saw you with her. You were supposed to be ours! We played nice, and tried to pull away what information from her we could. She was very eager to share her address with us, as well as her work info, everything we really needed actually. Whenever we brought up that could help her impress you, she would turn to putty in our hands and tell us everything we wanted.” She took another breath and tilted her head over to Faith before resuming her story.

	“Now, I never wanted to actually hurt her. Desecrate her house, give her a good scare and threaten her to leave you alone, all of that jazz was my idea. Now, beating her until she was almost just a bloodstain…that was all Faith.”

	I felt sick, thinking that they would do something like that to Jenna. I tried to motion for Grace to stop talking while keeping my stomach from entering my mouth, but she kept going. Faith saw, but instead let her sister continue. Did she feel it was necessary for me to know this? Or was it to prove some kind of point? Maybe she felt now that the cat was out of the bag that it should roam, but the one time she didn’t try to stop her sister was the one time I wish she had.

	“Faith and me waited for her at her place; said she wanted to help set her up for a great date on your birthday! But the moment Ol’ Jen locked the door and flipped the lights, well, Faith nearly flew into a complete rage. Thwak! Thwak! Thwak! You know that baseball bat that Jenna always talked about, said how it brought her good luck whenever she used it as a kid? Faith found it and used it to turn Jenna into modern art! Oh, and you shoulda heard her screaming. The entire time faith was shouting ‘He’s Mine! He’s mine!’ By the time Faith was finished, there was barely a Jenna left. Oh, and then when she was unconscious, for good measure she made sure to give her a few extra thwaks! She may not be smiling about it now, but when she was laying on the hurt she looked so ecstatic it even scared me a lil’bit!”

	I was nearly about to lose it before Grace spoke, softly at first but then slowly more firmly as she made her statement.

	“I was scared she was going to take you away, make you not wanna spend time with us. Make you love her more than us! And we couldn’t have any of that. Every time I think about how we even let her get that close to you, it hurts me.” A weak smile spread across her face, and her eyes had a dull glaze to them as her tone softened. “But then, she left. Didn’t make any fuss, didn’t get anybody involved. She ran away, and everything returned to normal. Until tonight, but that’s ok. Do you love us Dad?”

	Between my disgust at them for doing something so terrible to anyone, newfound knowledge about what’s really been going on in my sleep, and the fact that I recently found myself enjoying those ‘dreams’, I could barely choke out a response. However, I knew what I had to say before she even asked it.

	“I don’t love you, not that way.” It took all my will to say it to them. I struggled to force myself to continue, “And even if I did. What you did to Jenna is…more than just reprehensible. Its deplorable.” I paused for a second to look at them both; Grace’s bubbly demeanor didn’t change one bit, and it was nearly impossible to read Faith. “I think…I don’t know what to think about this. I’ll need time to think about what to do about you two, and how to go about dealing with what you did to Jenna.” I point towards the door; these were really going to be a confusing few days.

	They got up, but then never moved towards the door. Grace jumped at me and used her massive rabbit legs to lock me in place. Her legs locked around mine, and her arms draped around my waist, keeping my arms tucked into my torso. Her mouth also found its way to my neck, and she started suckling while her sister started to rummage behind…my dresser?

	“You say you don’t love us that way, but I don’t believe that. I’ve seen the way you’d glare at any of the boys who tried to get close. That possessive look you’d throw our way whenever we’d go out.” She rummaged for a bit and from within the empty space between the Dresser and the wall she pulled out a small blue box. It looked to be big enough to carry a pair of glasses at most “I think you just try to bury it, keep it down. Maybe it’s the fear of people’s reactions when you choose to indulge yourself, or maybe it’s your silly conscious trying to keep you from performing one of the biggest social taboos. Whatever it is, if Grace is indication, I’m sure you feel different about it deep down. It’s a shame you have to play hard to get, but we were ready for something like this.”

	She cracked open the blue box, and withdrew a strangely shaped syringe with a light blue liquid inside of it. It looked to be crafted so that the harpy family could wield it with ease, giant holes were on both sides she held it with in her hand, big enough for her talons to slip through.  “We’ll help you learn how to love us the way you should. Now that you know how we feel, we don’t have to take our time anymore. We can get started now!”

	I never realized how strong Grace until I had to break free from her grapple. She didn’t even seem to notice my thrashing about as she absentmindedly rolled her tongue over my neck. All the while Faith looked over the other side of my neck. Soon as she saw what she was looking for, she took the syringe and, with no hesitation, swiftly pricked it in.  Instantly my muscle started to relax, and I had trouble not falling over into Grace, who was now holding me tighter than before. My vision was fading, and as I drifted to my drug induced sleep I felt a quick peck on the cheek.

“Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”