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After getting to spend her previous nine lives each on a different planet, Wanda genuinely believed she was fully prepared to face any strangeness regarding gender and sex issues.
It would be kind of short-sighted to assume everything would be the same everywhere -- and even when it looked similar, there were still big differences. Just look at Origin and the See Weeds and the Flowers: the basics were the same -- a single organism producing several hundreds of offspring without external assistance -- but neither the See Weeds nor the Flowers needed to die for birthing their younglings, and where the See Weeds produced essentially cloned seeds through parthenogenesis the Flowers needed to fertilize themselves as they were hermaphroditic organisms. Same core principle, but hugely divergent processes.
It started to become weird when you added gender to the recipe: the Dolphins needed three of these -- one for laying eggs, one to fertilize and one to incubate -- the Bats were born "male" and became "female" once they reached their equivalent of menopause, and Bears actually were agender until they decided it was time to mate, then one could become a male or a female without any control of the final decision.
It made the Fire-tasters look almost restful: male sees female, male has sex with female, male leaves female to whelp her litter alone, female leaves the litter to fend for themselves. No shenanigans of any kind.
Wanda tried to keep an open mind, she really did, and yet she was there, unexpectedly annoyed by Earth's fiendishly intricate gender system, primary and secondary.
"So let me sum up", she almost growled at Ian, who adressed her a crooked smile, "you are a male. I am female. But we're currently in a gay relationship because our secondaries don't fit each other?"
"Welll", Ian sighed, slightly dragging the last consonant, "it's not about fitting together -- because we do, we really do, and really good..."
"I don't need you to remind me this", Wanda tried to snap, but a traitorous flush warmed her neck and cheeks.
"This is about having children. Or rather, how complicated it is to have children with a specific partner."
On the matter of children, Wanda had quite the divided opinion. She couldn't envision motherhood as a Soul. She would gleefully commit murder for Jamie, a boy without the slightest bit of shared DNA with her. She felt reluctant towards the possibility of Pet's body enduring a pregnancy.
Maybe complicated was a good thing for her.
"Well, you're male", she pointed.
"And I'm Omega", Ian sighed. "It's much more easy to fall pregnant, since any O man has really low sperm count. Just like it's easier for an Alpha lady to sire a kid on someone else, but carrying their own baby often fails. Oh, you still can, but you will probably need to see a doctor a lot before it takes."
Wanda considered the information. It... made sense. The secondary genders exerced a potent influence on people, almost more powerful than the primary ones that determined the biological presentation.
Life was all about perpetuating itself, wasn't it? So people would be biaised towards fertile couplings, in which it would be easy to reproduce...
"Ian", Wanda slowly articulated, "if I still was within Melanie's body, I could easily have a child with you, isn't it?"
Ian blinked.
"She's Alpha, if that's what you mean. But I'm not interested in Melanie, I want you."
The Soul couldn't help but feel a knot forming in her belly.
"You're saying that now... what if you change your mind?"
Because he could. Instincts were powerful, and the urge to have a legacy, to leave a breathing reminder of your existence was one of the strongest ever seen in the Universe. Would her partner -- her mate -- start to resent her, for not having the ability to fulfill a craving of his?
"Wanda", Ian sighed, his eyes so blue it almost hurt to directly look at them, "I know what I want now -- what I love now, and this is you. Alpha or Beta, I choose you, and I can't imagine choosing anything else than you. Maybe later, I would like a kid, but I don't want for them to have another mother than you. But if we can't get a kid, that's okay too, because we won't be alone, remember? You're mine, and I'm yours."
This time, the blush fully engulfed Wanda's being in its delicious warmth. You're mine and I'm yours, forever and a day, forever and always.
"You're saying that now", she nonetheless repeated, without any energy behind the words.
Ian's lips pleasantly burned on Wanda's forehead.
"Yes, because we are in the now. And, I said it would be complicated, not impossible. One chance on a million still is a chance, you know?"
Wanda would have protested it wasn't a big chance, but... well, look at her, a Soul happily mated to a Human, living among Humans. If that wasn't really improbable, then what was it? So she wouldn't raise an objection over it.
Besides, kissing Ian was more pressing. And enjoyable.