... I don't know how I feel right now. I'm asking you to deal with the same kind of confusion you have asking me. Is that okay?" His smile appeared on his face. "I guess it is." He put his tens around me and hugged me tightly. "Thanks, Dad." "For what?" "For being the best father I could ever have hoped for." Later that night, while Alexi and Elizabeth slept peacefully in their individual rooms, I gathered the rest of the family in the bedroom. I pointed to P'nyssa first and said "I think you know what this is about?" She smiled. "Well, I sent him, didn't I?" "Aaden?" "No clue, Ken. What's up?" I sighed softly. "Alexi came to me today; he wants to experiment, to make love with a mel. And he wants you and me to do it." "He... That's interesting." Aaden leaned back against the headboard. "What did you tell him?" "I told him to wait until I'd spoken with you two." "Sounds like good advice," P'nyssa said softly. "Let me ask you, both of you: Do you want to?" Aaden looked thoughtful. "If he wants to... If he really wants to, I think I want to as well." "You do?" I asked, surprised. "What did he say when he asked?" Aaden asked me. I relayed, as accurately as I possibly could (and David agreed with my memory by remaining silent) my conversation with Alexi earlier in the day. Aaden sighed, lowering his hands from atop his head and putting them in his lap. "He's right, you know. It's not wrong for him to want his parents to initiate him into sex of any kind." "I don't know if I could do it," I said softly. "That's because you come from a culture where what we're discussing is considered aberrant," P'nyssa said softly. "Beyond the 'culture of consent' we don't have such preconceived notions." She put her mitt on my arm softly; I sighed and leaned against her for support. "Ken... You've slept with Rainy and Ember before. You've even slept with Richard." I nodded. "But they were all well into their adult years when that happened." "Ember wasn't." "Ember wasn't my own flesh and blood." "Neither is Alexi," P'nyssa pointed out tacitly. "Your next objection will be that you didn't raise Ember in your own home. |