Twenty-four years before the Klingon raid on Celos-D42
"Daddy," Jokusho cried, running to Hus, "Gradogh says I killed his older brother but I don't remember killing anyone…"
Hus glared at his son, who was running just behind Jokusho.
"That's because your brother is teasing you," Hus replied as he picked up the little girl. While a human might struggle to pick up an eight year old child, for a Klingon, it was like picking up a newborn.
"I am not teasing," Gradogh replied with a stamp of his foot. "T'udrok was killed wherever you found her from. I want my brother back instead of her."
Hus cast a cold eye on his oldest living son. "Continue this line of discussion and you will regret it, my son."
Gradogh blanched slightly and held his tongue. No one spoke out against Hus when he had that look in his eyes and that tone of voice. Still, the boy knew something wasn't right. T'udrok was dead and even if it was supposed to be a wonderful thing because he'd died in combat, Gradogh missed his older brother. He didn't want this poor replacement who wasn't even strong enough to wrestle properly. She looked funny too and Gradogh didn't like how his friends teased him for having a human as a sister. Casting one last glare at the child in question, Gradogh slunk off to his room to pout. It wasn't fair that everyone acted so careful around the human girl. He wanted to know why she replaced a perfectly good older brother.
Jokusho played with her father's hair as they both watched Gradogh walk away.
"What else has your brother been telling you, my pet?" Hus's voice was friendly but his eyes were cold. He wanted to know exactly how much damage his son may have caused, however inadvertently.
"Nothing else," Jokusho replied. Something about her reply made Hus click his tongue at her.
"Tell me the truth," he chided his youngest.
"He told me you're not my real dad."
Hus stared down at his daughter. "And does that upset you?" he asked, searching her face for clues to her mental state.
"No. You and mommy already told me you found me." She had the resilience of a seven-year-old. She had yet to grasp the complications of adoption, of her alien-ness in Klingon society, and of the missing part of her life removed from her memories. It sufficed that she had been found and taken in by Hus and his family. She didn't like that some of the older kids made fun of her but she also hated eating gladst (like most Klingon children – it was an acquired taste) so it was hard to say how much of an impact her otherness was having yet. Still, Hus worried constantly about the tiny girl, frightened for the time she would regain her memories or realize how different she was from everyone else and ask hard questions.
He sat down on a bench in the courtyard and set Jokusho down beside him.
"Would you like to know more about how I found you?" he asked as she swung her legs back and forth.
"Okay," she said happily, always content to have time alone with either parent.
"I was coming home from a business trip when my ship lost its right engine…" Hus began.
Later, after he'd told her his story, one that he and Katbujo had worked on tirelessly so that they would both be able to answer any questions she might have, Jokusho looked up at her father.
"I didn't kill your other son?" she asked with the simplicity of a child.
"Of course not," he answered quickly. "T'udrok died before I found you." It wasn't a lie nor was it the complete truth but it was all she needed to know. Happy with his answer, she slid off the bench and ran to join Drel'ak and Astori in their play.
Twenty-one years before the Klingon raid on Celos-D42
"You're just a weakling, hiding behind your family's name. You have no honour," the boy taunted.
"Am not," Drel'ak sniffed, wiping his nose and seeing the purple blood from it on his sleeve. "I've got more honour in my finger than you'll ever have."
"Get him," another boy yelled.
"Make him pay!"
"Today is a good day to die!"
Several boys closed in on Drel'ak and he squared his shoulders. "I'm not gonna be the one to die today," he snarled as the boys advanced.
The scrum whooped and yelled as the fight began but even as he dodged the blows of the other boys, Drel'ak heard one scream above all others. It was too high-pitched and growing closer. He didn't know whether to be happy about it or worried. He could take care of himself with little injury but taking care of her as well? That might be a tall order for an 11-year-old Klingon.
But Jokusho was never one to hold back when someone was threatening a member of her family. She'd even thrown in for Gradogh on more than one occasion and everyone knew they didn't like one another.
"Your mother has a smooth forehead!" she yelled as she tackled one of the boys, pulling him down to the ground with her and punching him with everything she had.
"You're one to talk! You're nothing but an ugly human," another boy shouted as he grabbed Jokusho from behind and flung her off his friend.
Momentarily stunned from being hurled off her prey, Jokusho nonetheless sprang up, ready to fight again.
"You don't eat gagh," she yelled at the boy who had thrown her. "Prove me wrong."
Too busy with his own fights to help her, Drel'ak was still impressed that his sister was shit-talking and ready for another round.
The siblings did the best they could but they were sorely outnumbered and as Drel'ak caught a glimpse of Jokusho, with her nose bleeding that strange, bright red blood of hers, he wondered if perhaps she regretted stepping into this battle. He also worried she would end up more battered than him.
But a familiar roar broke through and Drel'ak looked up in relief. Gradogh.
"You honourless targs!" he yelled at the group, which froze at the oldest Morc boy's words. "Beating up those younger than you because you can only hit like Ferengi grandmothers."
The space cleared as Gradogh walked through it. He grabbed Jokusho by the shoulder and jerked her away from the boys surrounding her. "This one has water for blood and you think if you beat her, you will somehow be worth something? Disgusting." He gave her just the slightest of nods before turning to Drel'ak.
"The only one who gets to beat this brat is me. Now get out of here before I invert your ribcages, fill your sinuses with urine, and make a necklace containing the boiled teeth of every last one of you."
Gradogh drew his knife as he spoke and the crowd dispersed quickly. Drel'ak and Jokusho jeered at the boys running away, shouting, "We are Klingon!" repeatedly to them.
"No," Gradogh commanded both of them. "You don't get to make victory chants when you would have been pulverized without me," he lectured. He then turned to Jokusho. "And you never get to claim you're Klingon. You could have gotten yourself killed, tiny one."
Jokusho glared at him. "Don't call me that!"
"What, tiny one? Don't call you what?" He goaded her as they circled one another.
"You know what," she spat.
"You're small and weak," he prodded.
She unleashed a cry and ran at her oldest brother, hitting him at the knees and yanking his left foot so he lost his balance and fell on his backside. But Gradogh had earned the reputation that led to all the other boys fleeing. Even knocked down, he was quick to grab Jokusho by the neck and press her to the ground, a knee in her back.
"Do you yield?" he asked and she continued to squirm, trying desperately to get out from under him.
"Do you yield?"
"Come on, Gradogh. Leave her alone. She was just trying to help me."
"She'll get herself killed helping one of these days. She needs to know her place."
Stars dancing in front of her eyes, and her airways blocked, she finally hit the ground with her palm and tried to choke out her response. She couldn't get the words out until Gradogh removed his weight from her back, flipping her over so she could see him towering over her.
"Say it," he menaced as she panted, trying to fill her lungs with sweet oxygen once more.
"I yield," she croaked.
"Good. You're an idiot, you know that? So smart when it comes to books and so stupid in the real world." Nonetheless, Gradogh offered her his hand and she took it, allowing him to pull her up off the ground.
"You know what it would do to mom and dad if you got hurt?" he asked her roughly.
Jokusho remained silent, letting Gradogh lecture her the rest of the way home. Later that night, she heard a knock at her bedroom door and opened it. Drel'ak looked at her sheepishly.
"Thanks for what you did today."
"You would have done the same for me," she replied, equally embarrassed.
"Yeah, but it means more from you," he said quickly before giving her a tight hug and then darting back to his own room for the night. Jokusho stared after him. She was pretty sure it meant less for her to come into a fight – she was a liability, unable to fight as well as the others. But somehow, Drel'ak always seemed to assign a special value to her. And she accepted it – from him – because he was the first to defend her when the roving packs of boys descended on her.
Sixteen years before the Klingon raid on Celos-D42
"I… just…don't understand exactly how it works. And don't tell me to ask mom. I'm not asking mom about this ever."
"I'm not gonna send you to mom," Astori replied with a roll of her eyes. "Only Gradogh is that petty. But I don't understand. What are you confused about?"
Astori knew Jokusho had already received "the talk" from their mother. And while Katbujo didn't go into explicit detail, undoubtedly as uncomfortable to be talking about such things as her children were listening to them, Astori wondered which part of "the talk" had given Jokusho pause.
"Where, exactly, does his stuff go? How long does it last? What am I supposed to do?" Jokusho became increasingly panicked as she listed her concerns and Astori's eyebrows moved higher up her forehead as she listened to Jokusho's concerns.
"Wait, do you actually have someone you're considering doing it with?"
"Well, no. Not yet. But I could!"
Jokusho felt a sudden defensiveness at the look Astori was giving her.
"What? I'm not that ugly…am I?"
"No, you're not. But you're also a daughter of the highest House on Boreth. You're not just gonna hook-up with randos."
"Why not? You've been doing it for years."
Astori took no offense at Jokusho's words. It was true. She'd been getting laid with regularity since she was 14. But she was a very different person from Jokusho.
"Yeah, I have…because I could get away with it. Come on, Joku. You really gonna tell me you'd be willing to give it up to the first guy that comes along? If so, I can find you a guy tonight."
Astori's challenge, and the fact that Jokusho knew her older sister would follow through if she said yes, made her look down, her cheeks flaming red.
"That's what I thought."
"Please, Astori. Please tell me about what it's like. Even if I don't find someone anytime soon, someday I will and you'll be married with a billion kids by then. Just…tell me what I need to know."
"Sure, sure. I'll tell you. Even better, I'll show you." Astori grabbed her PADD and sat next to Jokusho on her bed.
"Wait, what?"
"I'm gonna show you porn. It's the best way to really understand things."
Jokusho was pretty sure porn was not, in fact, the best way to learn about sex but who was she to argue when Astori had actually had a lot of sex and she'd had none?
Astori typed in a command and held the screen out so both girls could watch but before pressing play, she gave her little sister a hard look.
"You tell anyone about watching porn with me and I'll deny it to my dying day. I'll sic Gradogh on you."
"I promise," Jokusho stuttered. "I'll never say anything to anyone."
A little later, Jokusho had answers to at least some of her questions. But there were a couple lingering concerns.
"Is it always so rough? I'm not sure my bones are ready to be broken…"
"If you're gonna be with a Klingon, your bones will have to get used to some damage. That's how you know it's good sex."
Jokusho gave Astori a dubious look.
"For the right one, you'll want to break a bone or ten," her sister assured her. "Anyway, who says you'd be the one with all the broken bones? What if you break some of their bones too?"
Jokusho decided to think about her biggest concern, unconvinced that she'd ever like someone enough to let them break her bones. She certainly couldn't imagine herself hurting another in a display of affection. But it did explain why Astori was always using the bone knitter after a night out.
"So…what happens when you don't have two vaginas?" she asked Astori hesitantly.
"Oh yeah. I guess that would be something you need to know. Don't worry." Astori typed a quick command into her PADD and held the screen up again.
"What now?" Jokusho asked, feeling mildly queasy.
"Now we watch Klingon/human porn."
"That exists?" Jokusho squeaked.
"Oh, sweetie. There's porn for everything."
After the first holovid, Jokusho's eyes were as wide as saucers and Astori turned off the PADD before the next vid started.
"Hey, it's okay," she said, giving her sister's back a rub. "It's not really like that in real life."
"But…where else would the other penis go?" Jokusho asked, feeling dazed. "I…I don't know if I can do that."
Astori was starting to regret using porn as a learning instrument. It had made so much sense at first – it was how she'd studied up on sex and that had worked out well.
"You don't have to do that – certainly not your first time and maybe never, if you don't want to," Astori said softly. Jokusho slowly looked over at her.
"I'm serious," she continued. "Sex is supposed to be fun and feel good. Never let anyone talk you into doing something you don't want to do, okay? The right one – they'll understand, alright?"
Jokusho nodded slowly before getting off her sister's bed and moving to the door.
"Maybe it's good if I wait a bit before I try it?"
"Sure. Take your time," Astori replied. "There's no rush."
Later that year, Astori would get engaged. The next year, she moved out of the House and started her own family with her husband. But she never forgot that conversation with Jokusho – one of the last times the two girls had been so candid with one another. And after Jokusho left Ovic, Astori did her best to visit, to help take care of her little sister. When her husband complained about Jokusho, was ready to believe Ovic's lies, Astori lashed out at him with a vehemence that surprised both of them. In her mind, Jokusho was always that timid 15-year-old on the cusp of adulthood, uncertain of how or who she was supposed to be in a world that wasn't quite hers.