Smith stared across the picnic blanket at Caboose as he finished relating the story of why there was a Dryad now living in the forest inside his home. "...seriously?" she asked in disbelief.
"Yup!" Caboose confirmed happily. "That's exactly how it happened!"
"But what was she even doing there in the first place?" Smith demanded in confusion. "And how did Papi know?"
"Oh!" Papi cried out, winging away from playing with Kii and Suu to answer the question. "Papi ran away from Smith once, and found Kii off the side of the road where cars, people, and demi-humans were making lots of noise, fire, and explosions! I planted Kii where she'd be safe…" Her head slumped. "And forgot about her...this is Papi's fault…"
Smith groaned, remembering the scene as she'd correlated demi-human incidents in recent times with the location and deduced where Kii had come from. She'd actually been there for that one. Someone had been illegally kidnapping and smuggling young demi-humans for unknown purposes, and had gotten into a car crash on the way into human territory. "And Kii wants to stay here now?" Smith asked carefully.
"Yup!" Caboose declared happily. "She wants to take care of my forest!"
Smith nodded. "Alright. I can have her assigned here for her homestay if that's what she wants. Easy enough to get the paperwork for her to sign-"
"You need to wait until Polt teaches her to read and write!" Caboose pointed out. "She doesn't know how!"
"She doesn't?" Smith asked Polt in surprise, who shook her head sadly. "I see...well, she can't be 'D' then…" She shrugged her shoulders. "Still...how did she make such a big tree beast?"
[Side effect to exposure to super growth serum,] a new Freckle - this one with a brightly glowing green optic - stated as it hovered over Kii's head. [Serum still present in system. Will need to be drained.]
"How do we do that?" Caboose asked curiously.
"Dryads...expel excess nutrients through their...nipples," Polt explained, gently cupping her breasts in the hopes that would get the point across.
"She needs to nursing?" Caboose asked in surprise. "That's perfect! Suu's the baby, so she needs to nurse! Will you nurse Suu, Kii?"
Kii's eyes widened. "You are...asking me to tend your infant?" she asked in surprise.
"Yes!" Caboose explained happily. "It will be good for both of you!"
Kii's cheeks flushed brightly. "I...would be honored," she said softly as she gently lifted Suu into her lap. Suu, for her part, happily curled up to suckle at the presented nipple.
Polt, for her part, was trying not to groan or laugh. "Do you realize what you just did, love?" she asked carefully.
"I want to say solved a problem, but it sounds like I made one," Caboose offered sadly.
"Not exactly," Polt explained. "It has to do with Dryad culture. Inviting a Dryad to live in your forest is...courtship. Asking them then to tend your young...that's making a home together."
Miia suddenly let out an intense, angry hiss. "Darling!" she gasped out in stunned amazement. "You brought home another girlfriend!" This caused Rachnera to burst into peals of uncontrolled laughter.
"Yay!" Caboose cheered happily. "New marriage friend!" Nearly everyone else facepalmed.
Since 'D' had still not been located, the next date would be Cerea, Polt, and Rachnera. It was originally going to be Cerea and Rachnera, until Rachnera pointed out she didn't like the idea of going on a date, as she preferred to crash them. Caboose had promptly invited her to crash his date with Cerea and Polt, an invitation she'd happily accepted.
Cerea had initially intended to go out in full armor to 'protect' Caboose from 'D', but Caboose had flatly vetoed it. "How can it be a proper date if I can't see your pretty face?" he'd asked plainly.
As a result, he, Cerea, and Polt were now walking down the street together, Cerea's cheeks tomato red. Manako was doing ranged surveillance from a nearby rooftop. Caboose looked around as he considered where they could go. "Hmm...let's go to the park!" he said finally.
"The park, Master?" Cerea asked in surprise.
"Yeah, I feel like a running date where I have lots of room and don't have to worry about smashing into anything," Caboose confirmed happily. "I don't want people yelling because I break stuff."
Cerea lowered her gaze. She knew Caboose would never hide the intentions of his words in any way, but she couldn't help but feel that she was the more likely one to smash into something and break it given the city wasn't really equipped for her equine hind portion-
"Wah!" Caboose screamed out as he tripped, reaching out to grab something to steady himself only to push the vending machine he'd been reaching towards across the street and into a parked car, which flipped end over end in the air before coming down and exploding against the corner of a building, causing it to teeter over into the one next to it, two more falling over afterwards in a domino effect. "...Tucker did it!" Caboose insisted defensively.
"...I think we should get out of here before anyone figures out there's no one named Tucker here," Polt whispered to Cerea.
"Agreed!" Cerea declared, feeling much better about herself for some reason as she threw Caboose onto her back and raced off with Polt.
High up on another building, a green-haired, dark skinned girl with horns, bat wings, and a long whip-like tail with a heart shaped tip stared down at the mess. "...maybe I shouldn't mess with that one…" she muttered worriedly.
"Oh?" Rachnera asked cruelly from behind her as she tensed a rope of her webbing. "Were you going to make trouble, little miss devil-chan?"
The girl - who despite her petite, child-like body was more than adult enough to know exactly where this was going - slowly turned to the spider-lady in fear.
The running date progressed without problems. The picnic lunch they'd brought with - prepared together by Cerea and Polt, as Cerea needed someone to taste those items not made of vegetable to ensure they tasted right - was extravagant and delicious. There was no sign of 'D', however, so as an operation to draw out the threat, the day was a failure.
None of those who'd gone out on the date saw it that way, though.