Turned out, the Black Bear had been equipped with six sets of identical individual quarters with private washrooms. Given that Dachande and her four sons only took up five of them, the matriarch had opted to give the sixth room to the women as their own safe space to do with what they willed.
What they willed was to turn it into the ultimate rec room. There was a big ass TV strung up on the wall opposite of the hole in the floor, which was lush with blankets, hides and pillows. A bookshelf was sat up against the wall beneath the window, stuffed with novels and some miscellaneous knick knacks.
There was a large desk shoved against the wall beside the bookshelf, a red hologram displayed above it that Addy guessed was being projected from the desk itself.
The walls were freckled with pictures and posters, and Addy sniffed the air.
"Popcorn?" she questioned with a raised brow.
"Welcome to movie night!" Ingrid burst from the adjacent room juggling four bowls of popcorn. "Well, movie afternoon, I guess." She laughed and jumped into the pile of blankets, miraculously not spilling one kernel.
Andi squawked indignantly at the sudden intrusion into her reading bubble, glaring daggers at Ingrid as the shorter woman got settled.
"Whoa," Addy breathed, "I was not expecting this!"
"What were you expecting?" Charlie smiled as she, too, crawled into the blanket pile on Andi's other side.
"Honestly, I had no idea. I have no idea what the next hour will bring, I'm still kinda absorbing the fact that I'm onboard a fuckin' spaceship with my…" she waved her hand loosely as she struggled to find the right words. "Hell, I don't even know what to call him."
"Lover?" Ingrid supplied lecherously, stuffing a handful of popcorn into her mouth with a smirk.
Addy choked, "No."
"Man-friend? Friend with benefits? Fuck buddy?" Ingrid kept going, laughing as Addy's face got paler and paler with mortification.
"OK, stop that Ingrid," Andi rolled her eyes, snapping her book shut, "she obviously meant to say 'future mother of his babies'."
Andi and Ingrid laughed uproariously as Addy suddenly went from pale to flushed.
She stammered for a response, "That's not, geez—"
Charlie chuckled in tune with the others, but ultimately didn't want to make Addy feel too uncomfortable, "Guys, c'mon. Give her a break."
Their laughter relaxed and Addy drew in a deep breath.
"So, what are we watching?" She asked, moving to gingerly settle on the edge of the bed.
"Well, since we already said Black Bear is like the Enterprise, we thought it would only be right to watch some Star Trek!" Charlie beamed and pulled a remote out from under a blanket beside her.
Ingrid thrust one of the bowls of popcorn at Addy as an olive branch for her teasing. She accepted it with a small smile.
"I like Star Trek." Addy shifted to cross her legs and leaned back tentatively on a stack of pillows.
Charlie grinned and booted up the TV, "Perfect."
Addy noted several things throughout the length of the movie.
One: Andi fell asleep almost instantly, and she snored.
Two: Ingrid finally spilled some of her popcorn and spent most of the movie swimming and digging through the massive pile of blankets to fish out each piece. She ate them as she found them.
Three: Charlie knew every line of every character.
Four: The rec room was quite a bit cooler than the rest of the ship, and Addy actually felt herself shivering lightly by the time the credits rolled.
Five: Ingrid made the best popcorn she had ever eaten.
"So, yeah. You can hang out here whenever you want. We usually watch a movie or play games every few days or so. It usually depends on everyone else's plans," Charlie explained as she stood. She knew training time was nearly over, and Makuba would likely want his girl back right away.
Addy followed, "Do you guys spend much time here on your own?"
Charlie shrugged, "Depends. If the boys are on a hunt or busy doing something we will."
Addy nodded her understanding. "So, did Dachande not want us at training today? Is that why we're here?"
"Nah, she's doesn't expect us there all the time. If she does, she'll tell us, but a lot of the time we'll sit in and watch just because they're pretty to look at," Ingrid hummed, staring blankly at the wall.
Andi snored.
Charlie chuckled, "Yeah, we're all pretty into watching the guys jump around and show off."
Addy laughed lightly. She understood the intrigue, especially after watching Makuba yesterday.
"There's nothing quite like watching them on a real hunt, though," Ingrid added.
Charlie hummed her agreement.
Addy's brow furrowed curiously, "Why?"
"It's just… different. They give, like, ninety percent in training, but when they're hunting it's like they just crank the dial up to one-hundred and twenty," Charlie tried to explain.
"Huh," Addy frowned. "So, you guys have been on hunts with them?"
"Well, once or twice. It's not something that happens often, because we kinda get a little distracting," Charlie held her fingers close together. "They let us watch the video feed from their masks, though."
"All the time," Ingrid chimed in. "Aqida likes to get all snuggled up and play it back like a movie and explain every little detail. It's kinda cute, actually."
"Tensynn likes to narrate, too," Charlie snickered, "but the guy cannot sit still. He practically re-enacts it for me."
Addy chuckled quietly, then asked, "How does it look with all the symbols and feeds, though?"
Charlie frowned, "What symbols?"
Addy waved a hand in front of her face, "All the stuff on the display. I tried to look through Makuba's mask but there was so much in the way."
There was a beat of quiet between the trio.
"Hang on," Ingrid sat up suddenly, "you put on his mask?"
Addy's eyes narrowed between Ingrid and Charlie, "Yeah?"
"Did you grab it off the wall or something?" Charlie demanded.
"No, he handed it to me," Addy scowled. "Why the interrogation?"
Charlie and Ingrid shared a quick look. Makuba's bond with Addy was far deeper than they had originally guessed, as even neither of them had been allowed to handle their respective yautja's armor past simple touches.
Addy clocked their serious expressions, "What?"
Charlie faced her again with an appraising eye, "We've never worn their armor before."
Addy scoffed, "I'd hardly call it wearing, he gave it to me to check out and I took a look through the eyes of it, then gave it back to him. I didn't, like, strap it to my head or anything."
Ingrid stood up to address Addy better, "I don't think you get it. Charlie, who's been here the longest with them and is mated to probably the most relaxed of all the yautja, has never even held Tensynn's mask in her hands."
Scowl deepening, Addy asked, "Is this a bad thing? I don't understand what you're saying."
"They're saying," Andi sat up with a yawn, causing Addy to flinch at her sudden addition to the conversation, "that Makuba is serious about you. It's not bad, it just means you're here to stay."
"I already thought I was here to stay," Addy rubbed at her temple, feeling a headache coiling behind her eyes as she tried to process what they were saying.
"Sure, but there's no chance of going back now. He wouldn't let you go," Andi shrugged and slowly crawled to her feet. "Not just anyone gets to touch their shit."
Addy suddenly felt a little overwhelmed, and desperately wanted to go hide in a room somewhere by herself.
Charlie saw the fleeting look of stress pinch Addy's features, and she empathized with the newest addition to their little group. It had all been overwhelming for her, too, once. She was the first one to come aboard the Black Bear, and it had taken a long time to get things figured out.
She was going to do her best to ensure Addy's transition into the workings of the family dynamic on board went as smoothly as possible.
"C'mon," Charlie beckoned her, moving towards the door, "let's head back to the kehrite."
Makuba was riled. Training with his brothers was going well, certainly, but there was a tension in his body that was not going to dissipate any time soon.
His brothers teased him relentlessly about it, they themselves familiar with the fire that plagued him.
"Why do you wait, Makuba?" Tensynn goaded as they circled one another.
"I do not need to explain myself to you," he snarled, feigning left to test his brother's defenses.
Tensynn did not take the bait, but he did match his elder brother step for step.
"You know you want to," Tensynn chittered in amusement.
Makuba clacked his tusks together with exasperation.
"Truly, brother, why have you not mated your Chosen yet?" Tensynn inquired, stepping back to draw the bulkier yautja forward.
Makuba didn't take his bait, but did release a sudden gust of air, "Because she is not ready."
"What the fuck does that mean?" Tensynn snorted derisively, then lunged suddenly at Makuba, using his extra height to close the gap in a split second.
Makuba had anticipated Tensynn's attack, the second eldest brother never patient enough to wait. Sometimes, Makuba wondered how he ever passed his chiva, given his impetuous nature.
The pair grappled and rolled on the floor, throwing heavy hits and vicious growls. The spar ended as Makuba captured Tensynn in a choke hold, claws primed to rip out his throat.
"It means that I will not beg my female for a quick fuck like an eager Unblood," Makuba spat.
"Enough!" Dachande barked. Makuba leapt off of Tensynn, and the tall hunter jumped to his feet.
"This family is strong. This family is honorable!" their mother shouted, circling the pair. Kateyus and Aqida watched with rapt attention from the sidelines. "We will not disgrace this bloodline with dishonour!"
A heavy silence fell upon the kehrite, no one willing to speak out of turn. Dachande moved slowly, tapping her tusks intermittently. As Dachande stepped around in front of Tensynn and Makuba again, she stopped to face the green hunter. She flared her mandibles and hissed lowly at her tallest son.
"One male," she snarled, leaning into Tensynn's space without touching him, "one male once tried to dishonour me."
Aqida's mandibles snapped shut with a click, realizing that this was more than the usual reprimand Dachande would give. Kateyus' claws twitched at his side as he fought to keep still in the wake of his mother's wrath.
After a long pause and direct eye contact with each of her sons, Dachande stood straight and puffed out her chest. "I tore this male limb from limb."
She resumed her slow pace around both Makuba and Tensynn, "If any one of you so much as attempts to dishonour your females, I will remind you of this bloodline's namesake."
Dachande had no doubts that her sons would protect their oomans, even from themselves. She had raised them well, and she knew how highly they each valued their chosen female.
She knew that the younger three teased Makuba, and that it was all in good fun, but she would make it clear that the women, the future of their species—their bloodline—were not to be harmed.
Makuba had kept her apprised of the development between him and Addy, and had even come to her for advice, unsure of how to proceed with his courtship of the shy ooman. Charlie, Ingrid and Andi were very outgoing, and had not given Makuba much insight into how he would need to behave with a quieter personality.
She was incredibly proud of her first-born son, he had been performing spectacularly in his mating hunt of the ooman Addy. She was making her son prove himself beyond that of a hunter, and Dachande approved.
She had little doubt that it would be much time before they bonded and coupled.
They would produce strong sucklings.
"Am I understood?" Dachande demanded, eyeballing each one of her sons.
"Yes," came their chorused reply.
She chuffed and nodded once succinctly, dismissing them from training, "Good. Go see your females."
Turning on her heel, Dachande strode swiftly out of the kehrite.