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We Three: Hebi No Onna

by Eyeswirl the Weirded

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: Snuggles and Snake-arms!

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Later that day, Adagio again stood on what she was just going to call the porch, smirking with satisfaction as she wrapped up her speech (and carefully-worded orders) to a new total of twenty-one mind-slaves. And Lemon Zest. "If there are no questions, you are dismissed." The majority dispersed, with the few that didn't need to be anywhere right then heading into the house to begin cooking, cleaning, and just generally being ready to serve. Despite this, she caught Aria's slightly distraught face out of the corner of her eye. "Something the matter?"

"You sure about letting 'em go back to their normal lives like that? I mean, I know it's only to keep from raising suspicion if people just totally go missing for a while and that they'll be comin' back to us when they've got some free time, but still...?"

Adagio chuckled. "While I laud your sense of caution, this is our best bet. We can neither build up an army nor keep what we already had without either constructing a barracks to keep everyone in or setting up a lot of tents, either of which would definitely raise suspicion." She blinked. "Well, more than our apparently-sanctioned house here, at any rate. Anyway, if they return to their own homes when not working for us, they'll stay fed and rested on their own, so we won't have to worry about taking care of them instead of them taking care of us. With enough people under our spell, we're sure to have at least a few to tend to us at any given time, and for those that aren't, having them casually invite friends and loved ones to join them at the park for tea will ensure our numbers keep growing."

"Wait," asked Sonata, "why do we even need an army? We've totally got plenty of people to do stuff for us anyway, right?"

Restraining her reaction to an eyeroll, Adagio calmly reminded her of the plan. "If, for whatever reason, our magic doesn't work on certain people again, overwhelming them with sheer strength of numbers is the next best thing." She'd have probably tried that at the Battle, had they not been interrupted before their song was complete. "I'm torn between having all of our minions swarm their school at once to grab and disable the girls in question, or learning where each of them lives, sending squads to abduct them all at the same time in the middle of the night, and bringing them to us in chains, but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Until then," she said while turning to walk back into the house, just a hint of a blush on her face, "I think we could finally use that shower."

Aria was smart enough not to stick her snout straight into the nearest armpit to test the assertion, but watching Sonata do it anyway still reminded her of those socks.

~~~

Following a refreshing scrub with the help of two girls, Adagio and her sapient arms sat in a bathrobe on a cozy chair, with one of the servants that had helped tie up Adagio's hair in the spa working with a few others to tie it up again. Lemon was the only one who understood how to put on a kimono, but her (apparently strict) family had most likely been wondering where she'd gone, so she'd left with the others. Adagio was glad to be free from the kimono for a while anyway.

She glanced to her left to see Sonata contentedly sipping on the straw of a milkshake held by another servant, who had knelt down on one knee to hold it up in both hands as though it were an offering to be placed on an altar. Adagio distantly wondered if speaking while either of her arms ate counted as talking with her mouth full. "Thank you, Upper Crust."

The girl smiled, though it was difficult to say if any part of it was due to her name being remembered. "Anything to please you, Master."

Adagio tittered at this, but made no further conversation as she looked to Aria. As was becoming increasingly common, she wore a worried look. "Aria? Is something bothering you?"

Aria returned only a passing glance as she looked back at those tending to them. "Kinda... Did you see the way they were looking at you while they scrubbed in the shower? They were eyeing you up. A lot."

Smirking, Adagio wished she had a hand to haughtily brush through her hair. She could have ordered a servant to do it, but it just wouldn't have the same effect. "And this differs from usual how?"

"No, I mean, like... they were even giving me and Sonata those stares."

"Of course they were," she replied evenly, "have you seen yourself? Your fins are majestic, your scales are lovely as ever," she quickly moved Aria's head into range for surprise nuzzles, "and who could resist these cute widdle faces?"

"Gah!" Aria sputtered, blushed, and grumbled to herself. "I, I was-! They were-! Urrgh, never mind!"

Adagio giggled merrily. Really, you'd think Aria would enjoy being adored again.

~~~

"You know, when you two told me they'd built us an old-fashioned, Japanese-styled house while I was asleep, I didn't think that included wiring."

Aria nodded sagely. "Rich people. What can we say?"

The sirens stared at the big, flatscreen TV now hanging from a fixture installed in the roof of their front room, Adagio doing so with a hint of apprehension.

"I don't remember ordering this." I never did set those ground rules, I'll have to get everyone here at once to do that.

"Well, uh," muttered Sonata, her maw of pointy teeth forming a nervous grin, "I might've said it would be cool to just kick back and watch a big ol' TV while you were all snoozy in the spa, just kinda offhandedly."

Staring straight at the hopefully-not-stolen piece of electronics helped to prevent distraction by scaly cuteness. "Apart from a delayed reaction, they'll adhere to the slightest suggestions? Interesting, but..."

"But what?" asked Aria with a fin-flick, "They're doing whatever we want, isn't that a good thing?"

"Do the words 'be careful what you wish for' mean anything to you? That may apply to us in full now, because if they respond to even passing comments, we-"

"We get every little thing we want without even having to ask for it all the way," Sonata said with an optimisitic grin, "totally a good thing!"

"It's not that sim-"

"HEY, NEAREST WORK-MONKEY," Sonata shouted, "I MAY OR MAY NOT WANT A SNOW-CONE!"

The sirens listened as the sudden sounds of many moving feet rapidly grew quieter. About two minutes passed in silence before they came stampeding back; five people with snowcones, offering the frozen sugar to all three heads as though they were poor, malnourished, overheated little girls. There was a pause as Adagio tried to appraise whether or not these were adoring looks or pitying ones until Aria spoke up.

"See? They're even quick about it. No downside. You weren't worried about them eye-humping you, right?"

"There's a difference between-"

She was cut off by a servant enthusiastically offering her a snowcone. "Take mine, Master!"

"No," said another, "take mine!"

"This one's cherry!"

The trio (mono?) returned their attention to the waiting treat-fetchers. Looking at their bright, smiling faces, their sparkling eyes filled only with will to please her, Adagio sighed and glanced at her arms. "Fine, fine, I guess this isn't a problem, but be careful what you say around them." She closed the conversation by licking one of the snowcones being held for her while Aria and Sonata did the same with two others. Three forked, serpentine tongues caressed frozen treats, which left two snowcone-holding servants to wait. Noticing that they were both girls, Sonata had an idea.

"You two," she said with a little smirk, "feed each other!"

Sharing a quick glance, they nodded, faced each other, held out their respective snowcones, and licked the one being offered to them by the other. It was with quiet glee that Sonata noted a growing blush on Adagio's face as she observed this, not commenting on it, but not looking away. Then Aria had to go and spoil the moment.

"You guys are perverts."

Snapping out of her daze, Adagio blushed a little brighter. "Wh-what?!"

Sonata wore an impish grin. "Nothin' wrong with knowing what you like, Aria."

Adagio shook her head. "No, we are not using our servants for... g-gratification!"

There was a heavy pause. Aria didn't want to be the one to ask, but Sonata's sudden, stone-faced look of shock and despair told her she'd have to. "Uh... If you mean like, never, then... are we going celibate from now on, or...?" It was rare to see their leader so flustered.

"Ye- no, I-I don't know! For one thing, we never touched anyone under our influence before, but doing anything... intimate... while we're fused together like this is just-"

Aria clenched her eyes shut. "Agh, gawd, stop, I totally get it!!"

"It wouldn't be all bad," muttered Sonata, "I mean, what if we share kinks now?" She stopped to think about it, then grinned. "Hey Dagi, how do you feel about-"

Their host exerted control to clamp Sonata's mouth shut, distantly relieved that not only were the five servants not laughing at them for this, but that their admiring gazes hadn't changed in the slightest. She was still glowing like a stoplight, but it was nice not to feel the sting of salt in her wounds. "We'll, rgh, w-we'll figure something out later," she said through gritted teeth, "but for now, let's just focus on preparing for the Rainbooms."

Come to think of it, those girls might actually make for fitting concubines, if they're still immune and therefore capable of giving in to our charms under their own free will, but that would hardly be fair to Aria. At the same time, I'm not sure I can stomach letting anyone with a Y chromosome put their hands on me. What do you do when you have different orientations in the same body?!

It was something to put on the back-burner of things to stress about later. For now; snowcones.

~~~

That night, Aria and Sonata lay nestled in Adagio's hair as she slept on her stomach. When she heard Adagio softly snore into her pillow, Sonata whispered to her fellow snake-sister.

Note to self: Never say that out loud.

"What do you think the sex would be like, anyway?"

Aria didn't even look at her. "Really uncomfortable and awkward as all Hell. Goodnight, Sonata."

"No, really! Like, would we even feel anything? And, what if she uses us for a handj-"

Aria's low hiss said discussion was over. "Good. Night. Sonata."

~~~

"So you're the one that picked out the chair for the living room!" Adagio stepped forward to wrap the helpful servant in the highest honor she could bestow upon those who pleased her; a cuddly snake-arm hug. "Thank you, it's easily the most comfortable I've ever been in."

"I live to please you, Master," she answered with a dopey smile.

"Hehehe! I know."

Behind the servant's back, Sonata whispered to Aria.

"You think she'll ever get comfy enough with us being attached to think about it?"

"No," Aria hissed, "and quit breathing down my neck!!"

~~~

"I'm just saying, sooner or later, she's gonna want-"

"Stop, or I'm gonna bite you!"

"...Where?"

"Gah!!"

~~~

Smiling as amicably as one could with snake fangs, Adagio stood up from the little table in the center of the Tea Room.

"Thank you for joining us, Fancy Pants."

The moustachioed man smiled as the red light faded from his eyes. "It is my pleasure, Master."

Adagio moved toward the room with the TV and a big, cushy chair as Aria popped out of her sleeve of the kimono. It was the pink one, because Sonata had won the coin toss that morning.

"That's like twelve more today. How many do you think we'll need?"

"I'm not going for a specific number, but if the magic we have now still can't affect those girls? The more the merrier." She chuckled. "Don't worry, though, we shouldn't need five months this time. A few weeks at most and we'll be ready to storm their territory."

Sonata grinned. "Goin' with the total zerg-rush plan? Why didn't we just do that the first time?"

Snake-like eyes were rolled, but Adagio was still in too good a mood to stop smiling. "Because we needed the Rainbooms' magic, remember? Just pinning them down and telling them to argue wouldn't have gotten us nearly as much power. This time, however? There are no such limitations, and we're free to crush them as soon as we're ready."

Truth be told, a few dozen people might have been enough to overwhelm six girls anyway, but as it only might have been enough, it was prudent to keep building while they still had time. They saw Lemon sitting in the slightly smaller chair next to theirs in the front room. She waved at them, though it was very difficult to return the gesture.

"Heya! All done with the hypno-magic?"

"Indeed we are, Lemon Zest," confirmed Adagio as she sat in the chair with the extra soft armrests, "at least until tomorrow." Having anticipated being woken in the middle of the night to convert new servants brought to her by older ones, she had outlined the specific hours in which doing so would be acceptable.

Stretching out on her armrest, Sonata inclined her head toward Lemon and grinned brightly. "And thanks for helping us with the dress, nobody else we asked got it on us right!"

"Yea," she giggled, "no problem. I'd kinda hafta be good at it by now."

It was with a hint of amusement that Adagio watched Aria nestle into her armrest not unlike a cat sinking into a large pillow, but she kept her ear inclined anyway. "Why is that, pray tell?"

Lemon shrugged, her smile weakening almost imperceptibly. "Well... Y'know how I said my family was strict?" She got two nods, part of her wondering if Aria was asleep. "They are. Really up the butt about tradition, too, about making sure every little thing is done the way it was done hundreds of years ago because reasons. I mean, even Granddad still uses phones and junk, but you know it's only because he couldn't get away with sending messenger pigeons or something instead. Lucky for me, though, I've got a sister that fits the Perfect Princess gig a heck of a lot better than I do; walks straight, always super polite, covers her mouth at the right times (still don't know what that's about), all that crud, so all I had to learn was the fussy stuff for looking nice at boring parties where old people stand around trying to out-compliment each other."

It was here that Lemon noticed Sonata and Adagio giving her these odd, annoyed little frowns. The former answered before she could ask.

"A whole lotta 'do this, do that,' huh? Hours and hours of lessons, day in, day out?"

Lemon blinked in surprise. "Uh, y-yea... Are you guys old money too, or...?"

"Something like that," Adagio muttered noncommittally, "though at least we benefited from it in the long-term. What of your own conditioning?"

Only because her grandfather had referred to the sessions in which perfect behavior and how to play old-timey dress-up were drilled into her as 'her conditioning' did Lemon understand that question. "Well, I mean, it definitely wasn't all bad. I don't usually do much with my hair, but with all the time I had to spend getting my look just right, I actually kinda started to like playing with make-up." Indicating her eyeliner, she giggled. "Got a few friends at school that usually come to me for beauty tips, and Dean Cadence even asked me for help with getting dolled up for a date once!"

Intrigued, Adagio raised an eyebrow. "And that won you a place at Crystal Prep?"

Lemon's smile slipped away. "Err... N-no, not exactly. The lady in charge, Principal Cinch, makes a big song and dance about how the school's reputation is important, but she only cares so much because that's where most of our funding comes from, sorta. It's the money she cares about, so if a well-paying family wants their dimwit daughter to graduate from the most prestigious-" she pronounced the word as though tasting something foul, "-school around, Cinch isn't above looking the other way for a little extra cash." She had to look away to keep a lump out of her throat. "So, I know I'm not the only one, but I don't really belong at Crystal Prep."

There was a silence, then Sonata whirled around to look at Adagio.

"Can you tune out for a sec? I wanna talk to Lemon alone."

"What? Sonata, you know you can say anything in front of-"

Sonata dialed up the puppy-dog eyes. "Pleeeeease?"

Adagio's heart swelled up in conjunction with a painfully wide smile on her face. "Hhrnng...! Alright, alright, but what can I do? It's not as though I have fingers with which to cover my ears now."

"Umm..." She glanced at Aria, dozing on her armrest, and smiled. "Did you know Aria snores a little as a snake-arm? It's quiet, but she totally does it."

"Oh?" Adagio leaned over in the chair, carefully maneuvering her upper body so as not to disturb her sleeping sister, but getting close enough to hover her head next to hers. She soon heard the sounds of a tiny little snore, making her beam with delight. "Oh, that is precious!"

Watching Adagio distract herself by gently cuddling her sleeping arm's face with her own, Sonata turned back toward Lemon and whispered. "Sometimes, I feel like I don't belong with Aria and Dagi, either." She only got one of those wide-eyed 'What?!' looks for that, so she kept going. "When we were growing up, they were always way better than me in like, everything. I'm not all that smart, but I know when I'm not helping. Sometimes, I even made things worse, but they always picked up the slack for me because we're sisters, and-" She shook her head, realizing that this was going a little off-track. "I know that if I worked harder, I could do better, but I'm pretty sure I'm already doing my best! It's not a whole lot, but it's the best I can do, and y'know what? Even when I'm dragging them down, my family still cares about me!"

That weird, feeling-things brain-haze was starting to set in, so she tried to roll everything into a bite-sized feel-better sentence. "Don't worry if you aren't all that great, because to the people who matter, your best is good enough!" She blinked, realizing that she'd maybe failed the bite-sized part, because there was kinda more. "I mean, like, that doesn't mean you should never wanna be better at stuff, but like, if you're already doing all you can, then, uh-"

Lemon gave her an earnest little smile. "I think I get it, Nata, thanks."

They stared at each other in silence. Sonata smiled, taking a page from Adagio's book by stretching her neck out and nuzzling Lemon's face, which drew surprised giggles as Lemon hugged and cuddled her back.

Artist's depiction:

They were reminded that Aria and Adagio were still there when the former sputtered awake. "Gah, muh, wh-what are-? Da-Adagio, get offa me! Quit it!!"

Tittering as she released Aria from her snuggly torment, Adagio immediately turned to Sonata. "Your turn!"

"Aah!"

There was another round of nuzzles for Sonata, leading to bubbly laughter as she drank in the cuddly love. To her surprise, she felt a fleeting rub against her cheek from something scaly, turning to see a bashful-looking Aria.

All eyes on her, there was no hiding the blush. "J-just, wanted to try it from this end. Adagio keeps going on about how great our scales are, and I can't really feel my own all that much, so-EEK!" She got a scaly nuzzle right back, Sonata smiling warmly at her when she pulled back.

"Aww, I love you too, Ria!"

"Sh-shut up!!"

There was another little quarrel between the two, though most of it was delivered far too affectionately to resemble the usual routine. Adagio just smiled, particularly at Aria.

Not long after, some food was brought in for the sirens and their only domination-free servant, some crime dramas were mocked, some cartoons were laughed at, and an old animated movie was vaguely sung along to before it was time to head to bed. Adagio needed a bit of help to do so without a fuss, because by the time she tried to get up, both of her arms were asleep! Lemon Zest did her best to keep quiet even with the tickles that came with carrying finned serpents under her arms to the bedroom.

Minding her eyes while helping Adagio change out of the kimono (Granddad would have butchered her if he ever heard she let someone sleep in one) and into her bathrobe was a little more challenging.

Author's Notes:

When I said 'two or three and a half more chapters'? I did it again; never trust me when I say 'only X chapters,' because I will always miscalculate that part. On the bright side, I hope to have the next one up soon.

Next Chapter: Chapter 7: Struggling with Snake-arms! Estimated time remaining: 49 Minutes
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