Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Amelia had known Gura for nearly five years now – more, actually, since she’d gone to the past quite often to hang out with her throughout her life. She’d met her shortly after the fall of Atlantis, and boy was that something she didn’t want to get into, consoling Gura had taken years of effort, but in the end, it was worth it, since she was now one of her best friends. It was only recently that they met in the present time – five years, to be exact – Amelia had just been walking home, off from work for the day at her detective agency, when she was just suddenly bombarded by the guided Gura missile. It was disorienting, and she had no idea how the Atlantean managed to find her since she’d never given her any real hints as to where she lived or what time she actually came from, but hell, she wasn’t complaining, it was nice to have her around. Over the years, she’d grown pretty fond of Gura, and perhaps, maybe, just a little tiny bit, she may even like her in a more intimate way than ‘just friends’, but there was no way she would ever admit to that. Especially since Gura wasn’t even the only girl she had feelings like that for.

She’d known Ina for two years or so, a little more, since she had time traveled to the past and met her in the late 1800s to help her out of a little issue involving cults and other nefarious things. It was quite the adventure, and Ina had been fairly hesitant to befriend her at first, but she’d grown closer to her, and like Gura, it resulted in creating one of her best friendships. Like Gura before her, Amelia quickly befriended the immortal priestess, and also like Gura, she found herself growing fond of her… Too fond, again. Every time she saw Ina anymore, she would always recognize something she did as cute, or she’d focus in on how adorable she was, and ultimately would make herself into a blushing mess that had to hide away to cool off.

She was never going to admit anything to either of them though. Not only did she feel mortified for harboring such feelings for her two best friends, but there was no way she’d be able to choose between them. The mere thought nearly brought her to tears. She was fine with being their friends, she was fine with just admiring them from a distance, looking at their beauty. She would never dare do anything more, she was Icarus, and they were the sun, as far as she was concerned.

She was just lazing around on the couch wearing her pajamas in their shared apartment, flipping through channels, leaning into Ina’s side munching on some potato chips. The priestess had been idly drawing in a sketchbook, also dressed in her pajamas, and both looked up to the Atlantean who entered through the door.

“Hey Watson!”

Their apartment was absolutely tiny, with just a single large living room, a small kitchen immediately to the right of the door, and then there was a small hallway that led to the bathroom and two bedrooms. Amelia had one room, Ina occupied the other, and Gura generally slept on the couch. Amelia had offered the Atlantean her room, as did Ina with hers, but Gura was adamant that she was fine with the couch, that since she made the least amount of money of the three of them, that she would deal with it, and that was that.

“What’s up?” Amelia asked, eyeing a curious little bag in her hands, “Oh? What’d you get?”

“Some weird old lady gave it to me today! I was swimming around in the ocean and I came out with this big-ass fish!” She threw her arms apart, “Like seriously – this freaking huge!”

“Yeah?” Amelia’s brow raised, “I guess she was impressed?”

“Asked me if she could have it,” Gura said, “but she said she didn’t have any money.”

Ina frowned, “So whatever is in the bag…”

“Yeah, she offered me this thing instead!” She reached into the small bag, and pulled out what looked like a giant marble, except the inside was constantly swirling. It kind of looked like Jupiter, but instead of the earthy colors, it was like a rainbow flowing around in there. She walked over to the two girls lounging around on the couch, and they both sat up as she neared, “Pretty freakin cool, huh?”

“Huh,” Ina stared intently at it, “It’s giving off a pretty powerful aura.”

Amelia glanced to Ina, and then back to the orb, “Really? What do the Ancient Ones say about it?”

“It’s nothing that can harm us,” Ina assured them, “The Ancient Ones are being quiet – they wouldn’t be if this could hurt us.” She reached over and gently touched the orb, noticing how the flowing inside started circling around her fingers, a myriad of colors bubbling at her touch, “It is pretty neat.”

Amelia let out an incredulous laugh, “Alright, so some weird hag gave Gura some magical ball of whatever, and you’re just touching it?”

“She said it’s safe!” Gura replied, “Chill out!”

“Yeah, the Ancient Ones say it’s safe, and they’re a cosmic entity that don’t exactly understand what can and cannot hurt a human. I don’t trust their word.”

“You can trust mine though, can’t you?” Ina smiled sweetly at her, and Amelia felt her heart melting, “I promise it’s safe.”

She sighed, outnumbered two to one, “Fine. Let’s go ahead and touch the weird ball. Surely nothing bad will happen.”

“Come on, I bet you want to touch it.” Gura held it towards her, and Amelia had to admit that a part of her certainly did want to reach out and push her finger onto it.

“Aw, fuck it.” She shrugged, and she reached over to touch the orb.

“See? Nothing happened! You’re just worrying over nothing!” Gura crowed, she started laughing, and then accidentally dropped the orb. It landed on the ground with a loud THUD, and all three of them watched it roll until it hit the side of the couch.

“Nice going, doofus.” Amelia rolled her eyes.

Ina reached down to grab it, “Well, whatever it is, maybe we can –”

The moment she touched it; the ball cracked. Three pairs of eyes watched the orb as all around it more and more cracks formed, it was as if it were made of thin ice all of the sudden. The colors inside began to seep through the cracks like a vapor, casting the ball in a mythical glow. Ina quickly pulled back her finger with a quick ‘eep’, and Gura jumped away from it, her tail going straight as she knelt down, as if ready to pounce.

“Oh shit,” Amelia jumped to her feet, “Is that stuff poisonous?!”

“I – I don’t think so?” Ina exclaimed, looking fearfully at her two friends, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to break it!”

Before they could freak out any longer, the orb broke straight down the center, and fell into two pieces, and then both halves just shattered like glass. The colors spread throughout the room, shimmering in the air like little grains of sand. As they reached out to try and touch it, it reacted like a gas, billowing through their fingers. The evening sun outside shone through it, just making it sparkle all the more brightly, dazzling so much that they were forced to cover their eyes. Amelia quickly covered her mouth with her shirt, but both Ina and Gura were breathing it in just fine.

“Cover your mouths!” Amelia screamed, “Don’t breathe this shit in!”

“It – it doesn’t smell like anything,” Gura mumbled.

“It doesn’t feel like anything either.” Ina added on, “What is this?”

As if reacting to her words, the swirling colors ceased all movement, and slowly faded from view. The shards of the orb laying quietly on the ground slowly crumbled, until there was nothing more than a fine dust where it once sat. A few seconds passed, and though tense, Gura slowly stood back up fully, looking around cautiously.

“Is everyone ok?” The Atlantean asked.

“I – I think so?” Amelia muttered, her adrenaline rush was slowly subsiding, causing her legs and arms to wobble. She steadied herself on the couch, sliding down on it and looking towards Ina, “The Ancient Ones have anything to say about that?”

Oddly, before she said anything, Amelia could feel the sadness, worry, and regret from Ina. It was as if she could feel what she was feeling just by thinking about it. She shook her head, wondering what the hell that was about, and then her heart stopped when she heard another voice.

You are safe, priestess.

“Um.” Gura’s voice was an incredibly high pitch, “What the hell was that?”

Amelia could feel the immense surprise, shock, and fear coming from Gura, and she could feel her own heart tightening. One look at Ina, at her wide eyes as she stared between Gura and herself, and she knew that she was also feeling the same thing. “I – I think that shit did something to us.” Amelia squeaked out.

“No shit, sherlock!” Gura cried.

Gura froze – feeling the anger coming from Amelia before she was even able to express it. It was really helpful in letting Gura know that her comment wasn’t exactly appreciated, and when she could feel it so vividly that it felt like her own emotions, she instantly regretted her words.

Amelia was going to retort, perhaps escalate the situation into a shouting match, but then she felt the regret coming from Gura. She could tell how sorry she was for yelling at her, she could feel her fear, and… and… “Guys. I can feel your emotions.” Amelia said, her shoulders tensed as she tried to get a handle on the situation.

“Yeah,” Ina nodded, staring at them wide eyed, “And you guys can hear AO-chan, too.”

Hello.

Gura and Amelia both jolted as if they’d just been shocked, “Oh fuck, I wasn’t hearing things.” Amelia muttered to herself, “This – This is, oh my god…”

Fear – fear was overriding Amelia’s mind right now, and Ina immediately got up and hugged her, not too surprised when Gura was only a step behind her. When her fear was so strong that it was beginning to overpower even her mind, she knew that she had to do something to help. “Calm down, Ame. It’s ok, we’re all in the same boat. Please, try to relax.”

Again, her biting retort was canceled when she felt how genuine Ina was. She could feel her reassurance like a blanket over her shoulders, and it was matched just as strongly by Gura’s own emotions. Both of them were doing their best to comfort her, and she shakily nodded, “Y – Yeah, ok, I’ll try to be calm…”

She felt even more calmed by the happiness and relief that she could feel from both of them, and she couldn’t help but smile fondly at them. Ina and Gura both froze however, and it took Amelia a minute to realize what happened.

They had felt her love for them.

Even if she wanted to play it off, the moment they felt her mortification and horror, she knew that they would realize that her love was a genuine emotion. “Uh – uhhh…” Even though she was shaking, she managed to untangle their limbs from around her, and she scooted away from them, wanting to get to her feet and bolt. She could see both of their expressions, both completely unreadable to her. She never wanted to reveal that she loved them – she just wanted to be friends, now things were going to be super awkward and weird between them all and –.

“Huh,” Gura blinked a few times, “Why didn’t you ever say anything?”

“A – Are you crazy?” Amelia muttered, she tried to smile, tried to make it look like she had the upper hand, but it was practically impossible.

“Gura’s right, you should have said something,” Ina replied softly.

“Huh…?”

“You can apparently read our emotions, can’t you?” Gura asked, “I… I can’t explain this too well, but you can feel it, right?”

Amelia had been so terrified that she had been completely ignoring their emotions, but now that she tried to focus, she was astonished that she missed it. From both of them she could feel waves of love for her and each other – it was – it was – Amelia couldn’t comprehend it. They loved her back, but not only that, they felt affection towards one another as well?

Ina smiled, sensing her disbelief, “Is it so impossible to believe that we would love you?”

“T – that is… B – but…” She rallied herself, trying to form a coherent thought, “You two… You love each other too?”

Gura’s cheeks burned red, and she scratched her cheek, “It’s embarrassing when you say it out loud like that…”

“I wasn’t going to say anything,” Ina admitted, “I didn’t want to single either one of you out, but…” She let out an incredulous laugh, looking between the two of them, “You two have felt the same way this whole time?”

Amelia’s fear was subsiding, quickly being replaced with a hopeful apprehension. She could feel a similar emotion from Gura and Ina, and she let out a nervous laughter, “Are you guys serious? I wasn’t planning on ever saying anything…”

“Me either,” Gura chuckled, “I didn’t want to ruin what we had.”

“Then…” Ina looked to the ground, her own cheeks were turning red, “Uh… What do we do?”

“Um…” Amelia wasn’t entirely sure. “I – I think we should talk about what we want to do with our relationship later.” Her eyes turned towards the dust, “I think we should try to figure out what the hell that ball-thing was, and why it suddenly allowed us to read each other’s thoughts.”

Gura nodded quickly, even though she felt excitement through their link, Amelia could also sense that Gura was happy to put it off for a little bit. She could certainly agree with the sentiment. Ina just looked back up between the two of them before letting out a sigh, and she felt affectionate exasperation from her – it made Amelia blush, and she gave the priestess an apologetic smile.

The orb has lost all power.

“Yeah, no shit.” Amelia rolled her eyes, “It’s just dust no –” She paused, and she turned to look for Ina’s book, “Uh… Ancient Ones, are you here?”

The book floated from the hallway, out of Ina’s room, towards them without Ina’s help or guidance. Gura’s jaw dropped, and Amelia wasn’t far behind – AO-chan almost never moved independently of Ina, and seeing the book floating by was absolutely horrifying.

Amelia swallowed her whimpers and managed to ask, “C – Can you tell us about t – that orb?”

You are safe.

Amelia let out a sigh, and wondered if she’d be able to get anything useful out of the damn thing. Gura staggered over to the couch, and collapsed onto it right next to Ina. Amelia watched the book float closer to her, and it nestled itself in her hands. She could vaguely recall Ina talking about how people were driven insane by this thing, and that was absolutely terrifying. The fact that she wasn’t feeling any adverse effects was interesting, and it made her wonder if the orb had any other effects on them other than allowing them to read each other’s memories.

“What exactly happened to us?”

Change.

She closed her eyes, and counted to ten. This was going to be a bigger pain in the ass than she expected.

XxXxXxX

After playing a torturous game of twenty questions with an Ancient Book that seemed to be hanging around her like an overly affectionate cat, Amelia decided to get something to eat. That took the form of taking roughly ten steps away from the couch to their little kitchen, but at least it was something to do, something to preoccupy her mind. Asking the Ancient Ones so many questions wasn’t the only thing that was so tiring though, it was the fact that she could so easily feel Gura and Ina’s emotions. She wasn’t a mind reader, but being able to sense emotions allowed her to have some pretty good guesses on what they were thinking, and it was really distracting.

It was the fact that she could feel their affection so clearly as she tried her best to decide what was wrong with them. She could feel how warm and fuzzy it felt, and prior to today, she’d have said that such feelings were the utter nonsense of old fairy tales meant for children, but here she was, actually describing affection feeling like something warm and fuzzy. She knew she was blushing, and she groaned as she tried to hide it.

“Whatcha embarrassed about, Ame?” Gura called from the couch, where she and Ina were sitting. They were sitting apart, both also fairly red, and Amelia didn’t even have to check their emotions to know that they were still feeling pretty awkward about becoming open books to one another.

Amelia could snark back, say a sarcastic quip, but she knew that Gura would immediately be able to tell she was trying to hide her embarrassment, and would almost certainly call her out on it. Instead, she just opted to be honest, “Um… I’m kind of overwhelmed.”

“I can understand that,” Ina muttered softly – Amelia could barely hear her.

“Yeah…” Gura mumbled.

“I – I’ll make you both something to eat then, and – and then we can talk?”

“Sure,” Gura buried her face in her hands to hide her blush, but Amelia could feel her excitement, nervousness, and hope.

Ina smiled as she spoke up a little louder, “That sounds good.”

Amelia ducked her head down even as she nodded. The affection and love she felt from Ina truly was overpowering, and her heart hammered at the feeling. She couldn’t get anything from AO-chan about the orb, and Gura didn’t know much either when she questioned her earlier about the old woman she got it from, so at least this was something they could work on… It was clear that they were going to have to do something to clear up the air between them, and Amelia had a feeling that considering they all knew what each other wanted now, things would go fairly smoothly. She knew that both girls could feel her trepidation and anxiety, but mercifully they both stayed quiet for once, allowing her to quickly make a small plate of sandwiches for them all – she didn’t think she could focus on anything more than that.

She walked over with the food, and set it down on the small table in front of the couch, and then took her seat between her two… uh, friends? She supposed they were friends, if only for a little bit longer. AO-chan, who’d been following her the entire time, floated on over, and settled down in her lap, causing her to shudder.

“They like you.” Ina smiled.

“Yeah? Well, they can stop liking me.” She grabbed the book, and set it down on the table in front of them, “Uh… I got us food.”

None of them were really hungry, after all, Amelia had just made something to eat as a distraction, so they just stared awkwardly at the sandwiches, until Gura just sighed, “Alright. What are we going to do?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Ina looked at them, her face still fiery red, “If we all care for each other, then…”

“Yeah.” Amelia felt embarrassed, but also elated too, “I… Like you guys.”

“Just like?” Gura teased, even though she couldn’t look her way. Their bond told Amelia more than enough though, she could feel the intense happiness radiating from the shark girl, and her tail was heavily thumping against the couch.

“I love you guys.” Ina whispered – it was faint, but Amelia’s heart felt like it was going to explode from the open and genuine admission. Even Gura was taken aback.

“Yeah…” Gura mumbled, “Uh, I, um, love you guys too.”

Amelia couldn’t stop her smile, not that she even wanted to. “Me too,” she said, “I love you both.”

“Um…” Gura twiddled her fingers together nervously. Considering she could feel the raw affection, nervousness, and genuine excitement radiating from the shark girl, Amelia and Ina both had a pretty good idea of what she wanted.

Amelia, despite her blushing face, spoke the words she was too nervous to say, “Gura.”

“Y – Yes?!”

“Kiss me.”

Gura’s face turned red, and Amelia and Ina felt an overwhelming weight press into them as Gura’s emotions went a little haywire. They could feel sheer embarrassment from so direct a question, they could feel her immense excitement, and – perhaps most importantly – they could feel her love.

“S – s – sure…”

Usually, Amelia wouldn’t jump straight into a kiss, especially with one of her best friends she’d known for years. However, she knew Gura loved her, and she loved her just as much back. Gura’s love was so intoxicating, it was so nice and warm – and when their lips touched, the feelings only intensified. She vaguely heard Ina gasp next to her, but she was more intent on Gura, the Atlantean’s eyes fluttered shut, and she leaned further into the kiss, humming into it. Her tail was again thumping loudly against the couch. Amelia’s heart was beating in her ears, as she finally parted. Gura’s flushed face made her shiver, and she could feel a vague heat building in her core at the sight.

“M – Me next.” Ina’s voice was only just above a whisper. Amelia turned to look at her, and saw her eyes were glassy, her lips were parted, and she was letting out short gasps. Amelia could feel her anticipation and excitement, along with even a hint of arousal – which only built upon her own. This was going to become dangerous – especially when she could feel Gura reflecting similar emotions just behind her. Above everything else though, just like with Gura, Ina’s love was the most noticeable, and she eagerly leaned over to kiss her too. Ina’s soft whimpering as she kissed her was seriously turning her on, and she squeezed her legs together, especially when she could feel Gura shifting beside her – her breathing increasing heavily.

When they parted, Amelia’s vision was so hazy, and she felt faint. She leaned back into the couch, letting out a grunt as Gura practically crawled over her to kiss Ina herself in excitement. Watching them kiss was again making the warmth inside of her ignite into a roaring fire, and she was sure her face was redder than it had ever been before. She noticed how Gura was using her sharp teeth – lightly biting down on Ina’s lips as they kissed, she could hear Ina’s pleased whimpering, tears at the corners of her eyes, and – and…

“Guys.” She wasn’t surprised her voice was so hoarse, “This – this is going too fast.”

Gura and Ina parted with a soft gasp. They were on a cliffside, one more step over it, and they would do something that couldn’t be taken back. Gura looked like she didn’t care one bit, and Amelia noticed her eyes were red – and she could feel the pure want in her emotions, how much she wanted to express her love further.

Ina in the meantime was slowly nodding, “I – I think our emotions are amplifying each other’s.” She rubbed her forehead, “I – I can barely think…”

Amelia could sympathize, her thoughts were still murky and hazy, and she couldn’t even begin to tell whose emotions were whose anymore. They all loved each other, and she could feel the arousal thick in the air, it was impossible to tell where it all belonged – well, perhaps that wasn’t so much an issue, it was true they all were feeling the same things. She swallowed thickly, she could at least make out Gura’s desire to continue, she could feel her eagerness very clearly.

“Who cares?” Gura asked.

Ina breathed deeply, not pushing Gura back even as the Atlantean leaned in for another kiss. Amelia whimpered right alongside Ina; the atmosphere felt like molasses. She so dearly wanted to give in too – but – but…

Ina was kissing Gura back, and Amelia felt her mental defenses breaking down at the sight. She wanted to get in on that action too. There was a detective missing in that picture, and they both parted and glanced at her. Gura with an eager smile, Ina with an inviting hand. Amelia took one look at Ina’s hand, and she took that metaphorical step off the cliff. She grabbed it, and was pulled into their hold.

The Ancient Ones were on the table just observing their priestess the entire time.

XxXxXxX

Baelz was sitting at the end of a long pier, her feet dangling precariously over the edge without a single care. She was humming happily to herself, a massive fish on pier beside her. The sun had set several hours ago, and the moon was creeping up high into the sky. No one else was around except for one woman making her way over.

“There you are!” Mumei walked over, “I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”

“Oh?” Bae looked over her shoulder with a large smile, “Sorry! Was just having fun!”

Mumei eyed the large fish, “Where’d you get that?”

“Little shark girl gave it to me,” Bae said with an increasingly larger grin, “Gave her a bit of a reward for letting me have it.”

Mumei frowned, “What did you do?”

“Nothing much. She’s just going to have a chaotic few weeks, is all.”

“I see…” Mumei mumbled, not entirely sure what to make of that. When it came to Bae, it was always a tossup on how truthful she was being, and whether her idea of a reward was actually anything of the sort. Still, the embodiment of Chaos was generally a fairly sweet and nice person, as far as Mumei was concerned, so she just smiled, “Well, I’m sure they’ll appreciate it!”

Baelz jumped to her feet, grabbing her fish by the tail, “Yep! Anyway, let’s get back. I don’t want Fauna or Kronii to come after us thinking I’m doing anything bad to you.”

“Huh?!” Mumei’s face flushed red, “W – Why would they?”

With a sigh, Bae shook her head, “You know, I should have given you that orb, now that I think of it. Would certainly stop you guys from pussy-footing around each other.”

“W – What do you mean by that?!”

“Nothing,” Bae replied walking down the pier, “Now come on!”

“Bae?! Wait!”

Chapter Text

Gura lived a lot of her life hating humanity and everything they stood for. She was a proud warrior of the Ancient city of Atlantis. The city that stood the test of time for millennia, and was the most powerful nation on Earth for that entire time. They stood above all other life on the planet, even though they lived within the sea, humanity stood no chance against them, but despite that, they seemed to believe that they were equals! As if! Atlanteans conquered all of the seas and oceans of the world, their technology stood far above that of the humans dwelling above! To Atlanteans, humans were nothing more than insignificant insects. Intelligent ones, sure, but nothing notable.

Despite all of that though, the Atlantean societies collapsed within only a few years. Even to this day, thousands of years later, Gura wasn’t quite sure what caused the destruction of the empire. Her only real explanation, and one she wasn’t too fond of, was that the gods themselves struck them down for their hubris, for believing that they were to be counted among them. She didn’t like to think the gods would be so cruel to destroy an entire civilization of people, including the children. The only reason she doubted her own explanation was because she was saved by a god, or at least, what she assumed to be one.

She could still vividly recall that day over five thousand years ago now. How scared she and everyone around them were, and she could also remember the horrible realization that she may very well be the last of her kind.

It was during those bitter few months after the collapse of the life she knew that she started to meet with Amelia. At first, Gura hated her and everything she stood for – she was a pathetic and weak human! However, Amelia would just laugh off her attempts at insults, and just insult her right back. She hated it at first, but slowly, Gura grew more and more fond of her. Soon, Amelia became the only human she was comfortable enough claiming was ‘okay for a human’. More years passed, and she’d eventually admit that maybe humanity wasn’t so bad after all.

What really cinched the deal though was when she eventually met Ina. For the past hundred and fifty odd years, Ina, much like Amelia, would enter her life every once in a while, and just joke around and have fun. The woman was a priestess of some sorts for some ancient cult, Gura never asked for many details, because all she cared about was that Ina was great to hang out with. Only occasionally her meetings with Ina would coincide with her meetings with Amelia, but those times when the three of them were all together were the best times of her life. She liked them both so much, and they both did more than they’d ever really know in regards to her mental state after the fall of Atlantis.

She loved them both. She loved them for helping her through her depressive moods in regards to the collapse of her empire, she loved them both for never being put off by her more instinctive needs and desires, she loved them for coming to hang out and play around during those long months and years where her life would have been nothing but a void. She would never admit to either of them about her love though, because as much as she loved them both, she knew they were human (debatably in Ina’s case), and humans seemed to have some sort of antagonism towards multi-partner relationships. They were fine to Gura, but she knew Amelia and Ina would most definitely have problems with it.

And that was fine. She was ok with just being friends. They were both so wonderful, and she treasured their friendship so much, and she wouldn’t do anything to ruin that.

…But then the orb came into play.

One fateful decision to help some random old woman, and Gura received an orb that changed their lives forever. She could suddenly read their emotions, and it was truly wonderful. She could feel their happiness and sadness, their anger and fear, literally everything – it made it so they were truly open to one another. It made it so they could feel her love for them, and she could feel their love just as strongly back to her and each other. Suddenly, the prospect of having both of them be her girlfriend wasn’t a fantasy, but something that was undoubtedly going to become a reality.

One thing led to another, and Gura was sandwiched between both girls in bed. She slowly opened her eyes, feeling the sunlight hit them, and she groaned – where was she exactly?

Oh, right, Ame’s room. After they started to get a little frisky on the couch, they moved things into Amelia’s room, where… Well… She just looked at the two of them – they were both disheveled, the scent of last night’s rather intense session was still strong in the air, and she could spot bites all over their bodies curtesy of her – most prominently on their neck, where she’d explained to both of them was a sort of mating mark – something Atlanteans did. Amelia and Ina, after a little bit of prompting were both willing to accept the mark, and Gura’s heart swelled as she looked between the two of them, noticing the ring of teeth marking each of them as hers.

Ina groaned, and she blearily opened her eyes, “Gura?”

“Hey.” Gura muttered – her voice was hoarse, it felt like her mouth was full of sand, “Sleep well?”

Ina nodded, “Hm… Comfy.”

Gura blushed as her arms tightened just a little more around her body, and she could feel the utter content happiness coming off of her in waves. Gura relaxed, hugging Ina back, struggling to find a spot to put her arms around the very naked priestess. It was a little ridiculous, especially after last night, but Gura was feeling a touch shy now.

“Hm,” Ina smirked a little, “Sharky is embarrassed?”

“Oh, shut it,” Gura mumbled.

Ina, after getting over her embarrassment over the whole situation, turned out to be quite the sadistic lover. Once she was out of her shell, she was like a completely different person in bed, and once her tentacles came into play… Oh boy, Gura blushed again just thinking about it, she could feel her body tingling, remembering the sensation.

“Oh?” Ina’s smile widened, “You want more?”

“Ugh,” Gura grunted, feeling Ina’s arousal spike, “We just woke up, Ina… And Amelia’s sleeping still!”

Ina chuckled, but the arousal spiked down, and she felt a hint of apology emitting from her, “Sorry, just – I’m so happy.”

She smiled, “Yeah… Me too.”

Gura closed her eyes again, feeling Amelia’s arms still wrapped tightly around her waist. Even though Amelia was sleeping, she could still feel a vague mishmash of emotions from her – was it her dreams? She tried to focus in on it, and she could feel mostly happiness, but the occasional tinges of worry as well. She frowned at that, wondering what it was the detective was dreaming about if she was worried about something.

“It’s ok.” Ina said softly.

Gura opened her eyes, “Huh?”

“I can feel your worry just as well as Amelia’s.” Ina replied with a soft smile, “Dreams are funny things – I wouldn’t take it to heart.”

“I guess,” Gura muttered, “But you know how she is… Do you think she’ll be ok with all of this? I mean, it’s cool for a night, but… I don’t know how to turn this bond thing off, and I don’t know if Amelia will be ok with that.”

Ina gently cupped Gura’s cheek, and leaned forward to kiss her, immediately stopping her rant, “Gura.” She said in a serene voice, “Calm down.”

Gura sighed, “Yeah… ok.”

“It’s so cute that you’re feeling so concerned for her wellbeing,” And Gura knew Ina meant it, she could feel the same concerns from Ina too, “But there’s no point in working yourself up like this. Once Amelia wakes up, we need to have a real conversation about this – one that won’t end up like yesterday…”

Gura chuckled softly, “Yeah. We didn’t really get much productive done.”

“Not at all,” Ina replied with a soft laugh of her own, “And you seem to be forgetting that Amelia loves both of us just as much we do her. She may be upset about the inability to have her own privacy – I think we all will at some point – but ultimately, I think having the ability to understand each other on such a deep and personal level is a boon. It’s something no one else is capable of.”

“You might be right,” Gura muttered, hugging Ina closer to herself, resting her head on the girl’s chest, “I’m just getting worked up over nothing.”

“It’s not nothing,” Ina assured her.

Gura just hummed, watching as the sunlight slowly seeped into the room and illuminated Ina’s face – despite being the priestess for such a dark and mysterious entity, she still looked so angelic. She watched her face slowly grow red, and Gura’s smile widened, “Embarrassed?”

“It’s… kind of embarrassing to feel how much you love me.” She admitted in a quiet voice, “It’s nice.”

“Yeah,” Gura nodded, “It is.”

Ina’s eyes widened, “Wait.”

“Hm?”

“What time is it?”

“Uh…?” Gura glanced up around Amelia’s room. Her bed was pushed against the wall, and the detective had a desk shoved right next to her bed with a cheap fold up chair pushed in. Atop the desk was a clock, and she squinted her eyes at it, “It’s a little pass ten.”

“Amelia’s late for work!” Ina hissed.

Gura’s brow raised, “We literally just had a life changing event happen, and you’re concerned about that?!”

“Gura!” Ina said disapprovingly, “We don’t have enough money to take many days off! I need to get to work too!”

Gura sighed – feeling like a freaking deadbeat again, since she was the only one without a proper job, “Alright, alright.”

Ina kissed her, much to her surprise. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel like that.” She smiled sweetly at Gura, “I don’t want you to think that you’re not helping us.”

Gura wryly smiled, though there was a melancholic edge to it, “It’s true though, isn’t it?”

“Not at all,” Ina said quickly, “You do help!”

Gura laughed, her burst of self-pity was giving way to straight up bemusement at how much Ina was trying to reassure her. “It’s ok, Ina. I’m fine. Let’s get Ame up, eh?”

She could feel Ina’s uncertainty, but she also knew that the priestess was concerned about the time as well, so she finally relented, and she reached across Gura and shook Amelia’s shoulder, “Ame? Ame, get up. It’s time for work.”

“Hmm?” Amelia cuddled up closer to Gura, much to the Atlantean’s embarrassment, “Few more minutes…”

“Sorry sunshine,” Gura shook her way more roughly than Ina did, “Get up!”

“Ugh!” Amelia groaned, and finally opened her eyes, “Fine! I’m… Up…” She looked at Gura, and then her gaze slowly went up towards Ina. Gura felt her confusion, and then she saw her jolt. “Fuck, we can feel each other’s emotions. That wasn’t a dream… Then we…” She looked down at herself, and her cheeks burst red. “Stop laughing, Gura!”

“I’m not laughing!” Gura replied, struggling not to smile.

“I can feel it!”

“Well – you’re worried about being naked after last night?!”

“Last night was…” Amelia paused, even as she sat up (making sure to cover herself with the blanket, inadvertently exposing both Gura and Ina, which just made her embarrassment triple, “It was… I don’t even know…”

“It was wonderful?” Ina supplied helpfully.

“It – it was…” She admitted softly, her eyes softening as she thought back to it. Gura could remember it just as well – how she made sure to be so gentle and tender with Amelia before she bit her. She remembered how Ina, despite being so, well, powerful, would often continually ask them if they were ok before she did anything. She could remember Amelia’s hesitance, and then how she gave in and did everything in her power to make sure the others were enjoying themselves… It was, quite an experience.

“Well,” Gura coughed, feeling a bit heated herself now, and she’d just told Ina to stand down! It didn’t help when she could feel Ina’s grip on her arm tightening, and the way Amelia inhaled as she bit her bottom lip was making her heart do flips.

“What time is it?” Amelia squeaked out.

“Oh – oh!” Ina’s eyes widened, “Right! Amelia, you’re late for work!”

“Wait – what?!” Amelia jumped to her feet, her blanket forgotten along with her modesty as she reached for the clock, “Oh, fuck!”

Gura sighed as both of her girlfriends got up and started preparing for their day. There was still that lingering awkwardness around each other, Ina was blushing like crazy as she tried to sneak out of Amelia’s room to go to her own room to change, and Amelia was quick to toss on some clean clothes. Being the only one who didn’t have a steady job, Gura didn’t really have to rush, so she just casually watched as Amelia frantically rushed around her room getting ready for work.

“Want me to make you something to eat before you leave?” Gura offered.

She felt Amelia’s appreciation, as well as her regret, “I really wish I could eat,” She replied, throwing on her detective coat, “But I have to go – now!”

With another sigh, Gura nodded, “Alright…”

Amelia paused, and she took a few steps over to her and knelt down. Gura was going to ask what she was doing, but her words died in her throat as Amelia gave her a gentle kiss, “I’m sorry, Gura.”

“It’s – it’s ok…” She replied, blinking a few times in a daze, “Woah.”

Her love was staggering her again. She supposed she was still in shock that both Ina and Amelia loved her so much, but it was still such a new experience than even such an innocent and loving kiss made her speechless. She could dimly feel Amelia’s amusement, as well as Ina’s curiosity through their link, and then Amelia gave her a quick wave and darted out of her room. A moment later, the front door slammed, and Gura was left alone in Amelia’s room, laying on her bed.

“Wow…” She mumbled to herself.

XxXxXxX

They never really got to test the bond since they’ve received it. They didn’t know if there was a way to turn it off, but more importantly, they didn’t even know the extent of its power and what it was capable of. All Gura knew was that it allowed them to see each other’s emotions, and it also seemed to amplify their emotions if they were all feeling strongly about any particular thing. Last night was evidence enough of that – she usually only lost control like that when she gave into her instincts in the ocean, when she was far away from them so she couldn’t hurt them.

The strength of their love and their arousal last night though was nearly blinding, and it was seriously intoxicating. She wished she could just bask in it forever, but she supposed she had to get up and do something eventually. Ina and Amelia seemed to think so at least, since Ina was now in her room doing art commissions, while Amelia was in town doing her work at the relatively small detective bureau that just opened up as an experimental branch of the police department about a year ago. There were several men and women she worked alongside, though Gura was certain that Amelia was the best of them – of course she was! Who else could freaking time travel, after all?

Still, while her girlfriends worked – and she felt giddy just referring to them as her girlfriends now! – she didn’t have anything much to do. She’d often go out into the ocean and catch fish to try and sell along the pier, but that was hit and mostly miss. The days she brought in a handful of twenties was considered a good day. She knew that her contribution to their living expenses was minimal to nonexistent, so she tried not to complain or ask for much, since they were putting up with her. It’s why she slept on the couch, and why she tried not to eat too much – she could eat in the ocean when she went out after all.

Now though she was just sitting on the couch – her bed, essentially – and changing through channels on their TV. She wasn’t feeling particularly strongly about going out into the ocean that day, her mind was a little too preoccupied, and she knew she wouldn’t be able to catch anything. Still, she felt guilty, so she tried to focus on the shows instead.

That was when she felt Ina’s… presence? It was hard to describe, but it felt like she could feel Ina’s emotions, but it wasn’t quite it? It was like she could feel her directing comfort and happiness her way? It was like she was saying, don’t be sad, Gura. We don’t mind.

How was she doing that though? Gura tried to focus on that thought, Are you talking to me? She tried to ask, thinking it in her mind and just tried to picture herself sending it to Ina somehow, like a telepathic email.

She could feel pure amusement from Ina’s emotions, and she blinked a few times. She again felt comfort and love from Ina. There weren’t any specific thoughts, but she could feel the thoughts and emotions she was trying to convey, and it was fairly easy to work out what they meant.

She smiled, “Thank you, Ina.”

She felt Ina’s reassurances again, and she let out a content sigh, before her mind wandered to Amelia. Could she transmit her emotions and thoughts to her like she did with Ina? Was distance a factor in this? She tried to feel Amelia’s emotions like she’d been all night, and immediately she knew that it wasn’t going to be quite so simple. It seemed distance did play a factor, though she still felt a faint echo far off in the distance.

“Huh, she’s pissed off about something,” Gura mumbled, “Bad case?”

She tried to send happy thoughts and reassurances through the bond like Ina had done for her, and she wondered if it would work. She caught a hint of surprise from Amelia, though it was still fairly faint. It was more than enough for her to recognize that it worked however, and she smiled, trying to send more positive thoughts and emotions.

She could feel bemusement, which was quickly followed by thankfulness and love. She could feel Amelia’s anger dim a little more, and then it became harder to focus on her emotions again, presumably because she was going back to focusing on her work. Gura didn’t press the issue, and backed off, blinking her eyes as they refocused on the room she was sitting in.

She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, Ina was standing in front of her.

“Sweet dreams?” Ina asked with a playful smile.

Sweet dreams? AO-chan mimicked, the floating book coming into the room. Gura zeroed in on the book with a raised brow, and then she looked to Ina.

“AO-chan likes to do that sometimes,” Ina laughed sheepishly, feeling Gura’s pure confusion and slight terror, “Don’t worry, they’re not going to hurt you or anything.”

“Uh… Huh…” Gura nodded slowly.

“Anyway, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to head to the beach today? Amelia managed to get off work early, and I’m done with my commission, so we have free time.”

Gura’s eyes widened, “Really? It’s been a while!”

Ina placed a hand on her cheek and leaned in for a kiss – it immediately set Gura’s cheeks aflame. She knew Ina could feel her confusion, “What? Do I need a reason to kiss my girlfriend?”

Both of them went red at the comment. Ina was bold, but not immune to embarrassment from saying such things.

“Uh… I – I guess not.” Gura struggled to get her heart under control, and internally chastised herself. She was over nine thousand freaking years old; this wasn’t her first rodeo! Why was it that dating Ina and Amelia was making her feel like a freaking child again?

“Are you ok, Gura?” Ina asked, “You’re annoyed about something – was that too forward?”

“No!” Gura shouted, jumping up, “No! No that isn’t it! I’m just… Kind of annoyed at myself for…” She struggled to find the right words, “For uh… Feeling like this.”

Ina tilted her head, “Like what?”

“Um…” She wished she could hide it by lying, but she knew Ina would immediately catch on. While she was sure Ina wouldn’t press for details, she didn’t want to hide anything from her, especially something so inconsequential, “I’m just annoyed that I feel, uh, so embarrassed when you kiss me.”

“Oh?” Ina’s expression changed to something slyer, a little devilish, even.

The priestess enjoys this.

“Be quiet, AO-chan.” Ina said quickly.

“Enjoy my embarrassment, eh?” Gura sighed, “You’re so mean, Ina.”

“Is it my fault that I love it when my girlfriend swoons over me like a school girl?” Ina asked, leaning forward again and pushing Gura back against the couch, “Hm? Gura?”

“Uhh…” Gura blinked a few times, and she suddenly felt faint. Ina kissed her cheek gently, and then she leaned closer, her breath was tickling her ear, and Gura shivered.

“Does this make you feel good?” Ina whispered.

“Y – Yeah…” Gura swallowed, one of Ina’s knees settled down right between her thighs, pressing it into the couch to bear her weight as she leaned closer and closer. Gura’s breaths grew shallow, especially when Ina’s hand rested on her shoulder as she started to nibble on her earlobe. She let out a choked gasp, and she could feel the pure want in Ina’s emotions. It was almost physically painful, and it made Gura’s core throb painfully.

“Well.” Ina leaned back, getting off of Gura and lightly dusting herself off, “We need to go meet Ame soon! Get ready for the beach!”

“Uh…” Gura’s mind was still feeling sluggish, “S – Seriously?”

Ina was already out of the room, and if Gura wasn’t capable of feeling her emotions, she’d have thought Ina was a cool cucumber, but that wasn’t the case. She could feel Ina’s embarrassment and absolutely giddiness, as well as the arousal coming from her in waves. Gura steadily sat back up, AO-chan was still floating there, and she was sure the book was just watching her.

“What?” Gura asked, “Don’t you have a priestess to get back to?”

You are all my wards.

“Huh?” Gura blinked at that, “Really? Is that why we can hear you now?”

Correct.

Well, that was the most straight forward answer she’d heard the damn thing give her. She wasn’t entirely sure what it meant now that they were apparently considered wards of the Ancient Ones, but she supposed if they meant no harm, and if Ina vouched for them, then she would hesitantly give them a chance.

You can trust us.

“Yeah, ok, stop with the whole mind reading thing and I might actually believe that.” Gura grumbled, finally sitting up, “Well, I guess I’ll get ready for the beach. Not like I have much to prepare anyway…” She walked pass the book towards her backpack. She had a swimming suit, though whenever she went deep into the ocean, she always took it off – swimsuits were more of a human convention, Atlanteans liked to swim without anything inhibiting their body at all. However, since humanity outnumbered the sole Atlantean seven billion to one, she would follow their rules.

She eyed AO-chan floating nearby, and she had an inkling that the damn thing was curious. Well, whatever, she supposed she’d have to get used to it…

XxXxXxX

Gura and Ina met Amelia roughly a half hour later, after taking the public bus to the beach. Amelia had offered to pick them up with the car, but this would be faster. Gura almost wished they had though, because despite the fact that she’d lived here for a few years now, she’d always have one or two people just openly staring at her damn tail. She’d hide her discomfort though, she just wanted this to be over with.

Ina sat beside her, holding AO-chan, and Gura could feel her growing increasingly upset. She knew it was because Ina could feel her emotions and her annoyance at the stares, and so Gura tried to smile at her, “It’s ok, Ina. I’m used to it.”

“How long has this been happening for?” The priestess asked, her voice clipped.

“It really doesn’t matter.”

“Gura.”

She sighed, “Ever since we moved here. I’m used to it though, I promise.”

“Hm.” Ina didn’t sound convinced, and she just straight up glared at the next person to stare. The man let out a startled cry, and looked outside at the passing buildings instead.

Gura smiled softly at her, knowing that Ina felt her appreciation and affection through the bond, “Thanks, Ina.”

Ina sighed, “Let Ame or me know if this keeps happening, we don’t want you to feel like this, you know?”

“Yeah…” Gura replied, “Ok.”

After that little detour, they arrived at the beach, standing at the bus stop wearing their swimsuits and with their beach gear in hands – that being beach chairs, towels, some small handbags with their cellphones and other little things in them, and of course AO-chan as well, who was thankfully allowing Ina to carry them so they wouldn’t cause a scene.

The parking lot was close to the bus stop, and they both saw Amelia walking towards them, already in her swimsuit, “Hey!” Amelia called, “I felt you guys were kind of pissed earlier, what happened?”

“Nothing bad,” Gura quickly interjected before Ina could say something else, “Um, just some bozos staring at my tail, nothing bad.” She wished she could lie again, but she knew Amelia would feel it, and Ina wouldn’t appreciate her lying about something like that.

“Oh?” Amelia’s brow rose, “Really?”

Ina nodded, “Yeah, she’s been hiding it from us.”

“Hard to hide something like that now,” Gura sighed, “But it’s something I’ve been dealing with for years, guys… Centuries, even. I’m used to it, even if it is really annoying… Can we just enjoy our time at the beach?”

Amelia nodded slowly, “I guess so. If you really don’t want us to do anything Gura, we won’t, but please let us know if someone’s making you uncomfortable, ok?”

“Yeah,” Gura nodded quickly, “Moving on?”

She felt bemusement again from Amelia as she smiled, and the detective turned towards the beach, “Well, considering we can’t do something about this… bond, or whatever you want to call it that we share, I figured we should just relax for the day. It’s nice out, so the beach sounded nice. Plus, we haven’t been here in a while.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ina replied happily, walking onto the sand, “Let’s try to find a spot without a whole lot of people.”

That proved to be easier said than done. There were hundreds of people all along the beach. It made sense really, there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, it was hot as hell outside, so a lot of people made the logical choice of going to the beach to sunbathe or swim. They squeezed through dozens of people on their way towards the shore, and though they couldn’t really get a very secluded spot, they managed to find a spot close to the water between two families. Their children were annoying, but it didn’t matter.

Amelia placed down her chair, put on some sunglasses, and plopped right down in her chair, letting out a groan as she leaned back. Gura could feel how content she was, and she smiled at the sight. She also felt a faint blush grow on her face, she didn’t know where Amelia changed, or why she had a bikini at her place of work, but she definitely was appreciating it now – she looked good. She wore a white T-shirt over it, but she could still see her swimsuit right through it. She glanced at Ina, eyeing her much more modest swimsuit. The priestess was always a bit more reserved – in public anyway – and she wore a black one-piece suit with dark blue stripes on the side. She looked cute though, with her sandals and a straw hat she’d bought a while back.

Compared to them, Gura felt a little plain, just wearing a generic two-piece suit much like Amelia. When she’d gone shopping with Amelia about a year back, she’d just chosen the cheapest option available, and despite Amelia’s protests, Gura wouldn’t budge. She’d just told the detective that she would just take it off when she got deeper in the water anyway, so what was the point of buying something expensive if she wasn’t going to even wear it for its intended use?!

The store clerk had looked at her in open shock, and at the time, Gura didn’t know what to make of Amelia’s red face. She grinned at the memory, before sneaking another look at Amelia, though her heart quickly jumped when she saw the detective looking at her with a smirk. Oh, shit, the whole feelings thing. She had nearly forgotten – no doubt the detective could feel the fact that she found her attractive.

“I’m gonna go in the water,” Gura said quickly as she settled her things next to Amelia, hoping the detective wouldn’t mention her blush, “You guys staying out here, I’m guessing?”

Ina pulled out a sketchbook and sat down on a chair next to Amelia, “We need to let our sunblock settle.” She replied, setting up an umbrella next to the chairs, “Otherwise the water will wash it off.”

Gura shrugged, “Suit yourself.”

With that, she turned around and sprinted towards the water, diving in and immediately kicking off with her tail to dart several meters forward within only a few seconds. When she was far enough away that she felt her heart getting back under control, she let out a sigh, and went out further, her exuberance and excitement at being in the water again quickly overriding any residual embarrassment she was feeling. She laughed at the feeling of water rushing by her, unable to stop smiling. She really was a creature of the sea after all – this was her home, and where she felt most comfortable.

On land Gura mostly resembled a human. She of course had her tail, a large fin on her back, and several fins on her arms and legs that her clothing typically hid, not to mention her teeth… Well, ok, she may not look exactly like a human, but she was humanoid, at any rate. When she went into the water though, her body shifted, webbing appeared between her fingers to allow her to swim faster, her fins on her arms and legs unfolded, her finger nails lengthened into claws, and the scales surrounding her fins and tail began to encompass more of her body – the scales allowing her to reduce hydrodynamic drag – essentially allowing her to swim faster and quieter. Her blue eyes shifted red, and her instincts roared to life, screaming to allow her to unleash.

She didn’t, of course, she had complete control of herself, and though she had a nigh-feral grin across her face, she was still herself. Most Atlanteans learned to get their instincts under control within the first thousand years of their life, so she suppressed the urge to chase after prey (that fish passing by looking incredibly tasty!), and she instead just zoomed quickly into deeper and darker waters, making sure to stay deep enough so boat propellers wouldn’t make mincemeat of her. She let out a joyful laugh, dozens of bubbles blowing out of her mouth, and she grinned as she did several large loops, flipping around freely in the water.

Through their shared bond, she could feel both Amelia and Ina growing fainter the further she went out. It grounded her, another layer to help her keep control of her instincts. After all, she had people to come back to land for, so she couldn’t allow them to overtake her.

Thinking about them made her smile, and she swam over to a nearby shark, twirling around it, causing it to look at her in confusion.

She could feel its question – what are you so happy about?

She smiled at the six-meter-long shark, swimming casually at its side, “I’m just happy to have somewhere to really belong now.”

XxXxXxX

“Well, she’s having the time of her life,” Amelia said with a little laugh, “Do you feel that?”

“It’s impossible not to.” Ina replied, unable to even focus on her sketchbook. They both were looking out towards the ocean, where they could feel Gura’s unadulterated joy and excitement. The sheer glee honestly made Amelia envious, she couldn’t even recall the last time she had ever felt anything close to that happy in her entire freaking life.

“Wish I could feel that way about, well, anything.” Amelia sighed, leaning back in her seat, closing her eyes, just basking in Gura’s joy. It was like a balm to her nerves, allowing her to just – for a moment – forget her worries and concerns about the link between them all.

It’s possible.

“Shut up you stupid book,” Amelia groaned, “I was enjoying the fact that I couldn’t remember that I can now hear you.”

The book was nestled at Ina’s side, but it started to shift a little bit. Ina dropped her sketchbook and clamped down on the book before they could begin floating, and Amelia was definitely appreciative. There was no way she could come up with a convincing reason a book would suddenly just start floating to a bunch of people that would undoubtedly see it!

“AO-chan!” Ina hissed, “We’re in public!”

We apologize for distressing you.

“It’s ok,” Ina sighed, thankful that they stopped moving now, “But what did you mean when you said it was possible?”

The bond permits it.

“Can you explain without being a cryptic paperweight?” Amelia asked hopefully.

The Atlantean’s connection provides access to that which you seek.

Ok, she was fairly certain that the damn book was laughing at her now. It wasn’t moving, or showing any visible signs, but the damn thing had to have been purposely speaking in such a manner. She wondered if Ina would be upset if she tried to burn the damn waste of paper, but she thought better of it. Instead, she translated the sentence the book said into something an actual human being might actually say: “Gura being a part of the link will let us be happy?” She muttered, and then she looked at Ina, “Did I get that right?”

Ina shrugged with an apologetic smile, “That sounds about right, but I still don’t really understand what they mean.”

“Hey, guys!” The two looked up, and saw Gura waddling back up to shore – waddling because she was much more feral looking than usual. She’d seen the Atlantean in her more shark-like appearance before, but it was still quite a shock to see it so brazenly. Eyes turned towards the Atlantean as she made her way over, her webbed feet having difficulty walking on the sand due to how slick they were, but she found her footing, and made her way over. Her red eyes stared at Amelia in amusement, and the detective couldn’t help notice how wild she looked, her hair was more tangled and messier than usual, despite being in the water, and her smile was downright predatory. “I could feel your confusion from the water, I wanted to see what was up.”

“We’re just making the poor life decision of listening to AO-chan here,” Amelia replied, ignoring Ina’s soft huff – she wasn’t going to let up on the book until it started talking to her without being a cryptic dipshit!

“About what?” Gura asked with a tilt of her head, and Amelia couldn’t help but stare at her red eyes, they were almost mesmerizing.

“AO-chan said that we’re able to feel the same joy you do via the link,” Ina explained, “Not that we really understand what they mean by that.”

“Oh,” Gura looked back to the ocean, and then turned back towards them with a thoughtful look, her red eyes narrowing as she thought, “Like, you can feel how happy I was?”

“I guess,” Amelia shrugged, leaning back in her seat, “Whatever. The less we listen to the book, I think the better we’ll all be.”

The bond grants it.

“There it goes again.” Amelia groaned with a shiver. It was still disconcerting to hear the book speaking, to be able to hear the voice of the Ancient Ones. It was surprising though how they acted, she figured that when Ina talked about the whispers she was hearing, that they were malicious or damaging in some way. Instead, it seemed like they just did their best to offer advice and be as cryptic as possible. She wondered if the pages of the book actually contained a thesaurus, with how often it liked it use bigger words in place of simpler explanations.

“I don’t think they would bother mentioning it if it meant you could just feel how I do, we already knew that.” Gura replied thoughtfully again, rubbing her chin. Amelia casually watched her tail swinging slowly behind her.

“You’re right,” Ina replied, “AO-chan is usually not this talkative unless if I’m not understanding them properly.”

“Can’t you like form a connection with them?” Amelia asked curiously.

“I can,” Ina said, but there was a note of hesitance in her voice, “But I don’t know what would happen if I did that while we’re linked – I don’t want you to hear them if it means hurting you in some way.”

“Oh,” Amelia shuddered at the mere thought, “Right. Good thinking, Ina.”

“So, in that case…” Gura muttered, “If it allows us to feel each other’s emotions, and our emotions can amplify, there’s a chance it can do something else too?”

Yes.

“Good job, Gura.” Amelia praised, watching the Atlantean, take a seat next to Ina to look at the book. She still looked bestial, “Um, Gura, not that I mind, but we’re still in public.” She nodded her head to the sides, where there were definitely people all around, several eyes peering at Gura curiously, “You’re kind of standing out looking like that,” She said honestly, “You look more, uh, shark-like than usual.”

Gura grimaced, her instinctive thoughts were to say ‘fuck em’, but she knew Amelia was right. “I’ll go back to normal in a few hours, should I head back into the water?”

“It’s ok,” Ina said softly, “No one will ask questions.”

Amelia didn’t want to argue the point with Ina, especially since she seemed to have a good point. After all, Ina wasn’t exactly human looking either, with those tentacles and all. “Alright,” She relented, “But, just be careful, ok?”

“Aren’t I always, Watson?”

“Gura.”

“Yeah, ok, fine.” Gura rolled her eyes, and picked up AO-chan, “So, uh, Ancient Ones, can you be a little bit clearer on what you’re trying to tell us? You agreeing with me that the bond can do something else was the most helpful you’ve been in a while.”

The three of you share an immensely powerful link. AO-chan explained, actually listening to Gura, its power is beyond mortal comprehension, the work of a god, most likely.

“Huh,” Ina mumbled, “Gura, just who did you talk to the other day?”

“I don’t know!” Gura exclaimed, “I thought she was just an old lady!”

The power grants you access to each other’s abilities and powers.

“Well, I suppose that goes without saying,” Amelia replied, “We can hear you after all.”

“If we can use each other’s powers, then that means we can use something from Gura?” Ina asked, “Something that would allow us to feel the same thing she does.”

AO-chan didn’t even have to speak, they could practically feel its approval. Gura crossed her arms thoughtfully, “Then… Can you guys become Atlantean?”

“Gura, really?” Amelia’s brow raised, “You think it can literally change our species? That’s a bit out there, don’t you think?”

“Is it as hard to believe as us being able to feel each other’s emotions?” Gura asked, her anger spiking. She felt Amelia’s surprise at her outburst, and then guilt, “Ugh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“It’s ok,” Amelia replied softly, “I uh, didn’t mean to shoot you down that quickly.”

“Is that possible, AO-chan?” Ina asked.

The book vibrated in Gura’s hands as it replied, yes.

Amelia’s brow shot up, “No. Fuckin. Way.”

Gura grinned victoriously, “I knew it!”

“Why does the damn book give you straight answers?” Amelia asked, pouting as she crossed her arms, “Whenever I ask it anything, they just give me some vague answer back!”

Ina leaning over and gently patted Amelia’s knee, “It’s ok, Ame.” She replied gently, “AO-chan doesn’t give me straight answers either, usually.”

“You’re saying the Ancient Ones like Gura?”

“Yeah!” Gura cheered, throwing her fist up, “Suck it, Watson!”

Amelia shrugged, “Well, hey, you can have the eldritch monstrosity liking you all you want.”

Gura paused in her cheer, and blinked a few times, “Uh… Ina? Is that a bad thing?”

Amelia could feel Gura’s sudden worry, and she felt bad for inducing it, but before she could say sorry or anything, the emotion was transmitted, and Gura gave her a soft smile. Honestly, this bond they shared was certainly convenient in that way – any potential future arguments they had would be over quickly, and if they had any secrets from one another they were going to be exposed within seconds.

“You should be fine,” Ina assured her, giving her a warm smile, “AO-chan likes us all, you don’t have to worry about anything bad happening.”

“Even me?” Amelia asked with a raised brow, “I haven’t exactly been nice with them…”

“Even you.” Ina replied, “If they didn’t like you, your brain would have melted the first time you talked to them. The fact that you can hear them with perfect clarity with no side-effects at all means that you’ll be safe.”

I will not harm a priestess.

“See?” Ina smiled happily, cute little dimples appearing on either side of her mouth, “They even consider you two priestesses’ now!”

“Woo…” Amelia muttered, still feeling a little uncertain.

“Uh,” Gura shook her head, and put her hands on her hips as she stared down both of her friends – girlfriends, she had to quickly remind herself with a burst of happiness in her chest – “We kind of lost track of what’s important, here!”

“Oh,” Amelia leaned forward in her seat, her arms resting on her knees, “Right. The whole turning into Atlantean thing.”

Gura nodded quickly, “Yeah! We should give it a try!”

“And exactly how do you think we should give it a try?” Amelia asked, “Just think, ‘I want to be an Atlantean’ and BOOM! Magic happens?”

“Well, I dunno.” Gura shrugged.

“Whatever we do, we should probably do it further in the water,” Ina replied as she stood up, “I think the sunblock has had enough time to set. We don’t want to cause a panic or something by doing anything magical around so many people.” She knelt down and grabbed AO-chan, tucking the book against her chest, “You coming, Amelia?”

“Yeah,” Amelia let out a sigh as she forced herself up from her seat, and walked towards the waves. “Hope no one steals our stuff.”

“A sketchbook and a few cellphones that were outdated five years ago,” Gura chuckled, “What a haul. If someone seriously wants to steal that, then that says more about them than it does us.”

“I guess,” Amelia shrugged, “There’s also plenty of people around, so it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

The three of them (plus AO-chan) approached the water, and Amelia took the first few steps into the waves. She shuddered as the water lapped her feet. Even though it was in the middle of summer, a nice day in late July, it still felt chilly. She pressed onward though, because Gura had already waded out and was looking back at her expectantly, and she could feel the Atlantean’s excitement through the bond. She didn’t want to disappoint her, after all.

“Ready for this?” Amelia asked Ina beside her as they started trudging into the water.

“Yeah.” Ina nodded, holding AO-chan closer to her for warmth as their hips were submerged, “Cold!”

“Want to dive in and just get it over with?” Amelia asked, “We’ll get used to the water faster that way.” She paused, and looked down at the book pressed against her chest, “Uh, will the book be ok in the water?”

“They’ll be fine.” Ina replied softly, smiling down at it, “And yeah. Let’s just jump in.”

Amelia grinned, and didn’t waste another second. She dived in headfirst. It was a shock at first, but since her entire body was submerged, she was able to get used to it relatively quickly. She had her eyes pressed closed, and her mouth shut even tighter. The last thing she wanted was to get salt water in her mouth, and she especially didn’t want it in her eyes. She swam around for a tiny bit, and then surfaced again, her feet finding purchase below. They were a good distance out now, in roughly four and a half feet of water, the water noticeably got much deeper if they went just a little further out, so this was as good a place as any. The people on the shore could still see them well enough, but it was far enough that if anything DID occur, they would at least not be able to immediately tell what was going on.

Ina surfaced beside her with a large gasp a second later, AO-chan was out of her hold, and seemed to have a translucent bubble surrounding it, as it floated gently above the water.

“Feel better?” Amelia asked, patting Ina on the shoulder.

Ina nodded quickly, and reached up and pulled her sopping wet hair behind her, “Yeah!” She claimed, “Usually when I go in water, I like to let AO-chan protect me from it, but it’s nice to feel it like this from time to time!”

“Wait, what?” Amelia blinked, “AO-chan can protect you?”

Ina nodded, “Yeah, I can breathe underwater because of them, and they can prevent the water from even affecting me by creating a sort of pocket dimension like an inch away from my skin.” She paused in thought, “That’s not quite it, but it’s close enough.”

“Huh,” Amelia rubbed her eyes, getting the residual water out of them, “Think you can hook me up with some of that?”

“What is taking you guys so long!” Gura exclaimed as she darted out of the water like a torpedo, launching in the air over them and splashing on their other side. Amelia and Ina raised their arms to protect themselves, and Ina even let out a little surprised shout.

“Just getting used to it,” Amelia replied, “Not all of us are born with water legs, you know.”

Gura’s head was the only thing popping out of the water as the Atlantean casually observed them. Her red eyes were actually kind of scary looking, and her rows of shark teeth were even more so. This was truly her element, and the way she effortlessly swam circles around them reinforced that thought.

“I won’t hurt you, Ame.” Gura said, her voice surprisingly serious, “I promise you that.”

Amelia felt guilty all of the sudden, “I know you won’t, sorry, just… Not a huge fan of the water.”

Gura fully surfaced – as much as the girl could in four and a half feet of water, standing up on her legs, “I will protect you out here. You don’t have anything to worry about.”

Amelia huffed, “Yeah, ok.” She didn’t like feeling weak, but at the same time, she was appreciative of Gura for that, “So, anyway, we were going to test out Gura’s insane plan, right?”

If Gura noticed the change in subject, she didn’t mention it, instead she just smiled widely, “Yes!”

“Yeah, ok, so.” She looked back to the beach to make sure they were far enough out, and then back to Gura, who was standing before both her and Ina with her arms crossed, “How do we do this for real? AO-chan, do you have any advice?”

Look within.

“Yeah, wonderful.” Amelia groaned, “Gura, any help here?”

“Why would I know?”

“Well, you’re Atlantean and all. When you go in the water, what do you think about? How does it make you feel? Stuff like that.”

Gura put a finger to her chin, letting out a soft little hum as she thought about it. “Well, I don’t know, when I go into the water it just feels right, like I belong here. Don’t get me wrong, I love being on land with you guys, but the water is where I – I feel like me. As for what I think about, uh, I just think about wanting to swim, about how I want to go as fast as I can and just let loose. I have to reign myself in on land, I don’t let my instincts take control, but when I come out here, I’m free to let it all out and just have fun.”

“Instincts?” Amelia muttered.

“It’s why her eyes are red,” Ina replied in Gura’s place, “Her form shifts when she goes into the water. Likely as a result her more, uh – I hope this doesn’t offend you, Gura – her more bestial instincts emerge when she’s in this environment.”

“It’s ok, Ina.” Gura grinned at her, trying to send reassurances, and she was rewarded when Ina relaxed her shoulders slightly, “She’s got the gist of it. Being out here, away from humans, I can just let go.”

“Ok then,” Amelia thoughtfully looked at the water, the wave clashing against her chest as they made their way to the shore, “So… Just think about how it’s right to be in the water, then?”

“I guess so,” Gura shrugged, “Sorry I can’t help more.”

“It’s ok.” Amelia replied, “Just… Let me think here.”

In truth, neither Gura or AO-chan had been entirely helpful there. Gura had been an Atlantean her entire life, for over nine thousand years, so of course she wouldn’t know what life was like otherwise, and the Ancient Ones were – as far as she was aware – an all-powerful being that was so far beyond humanity that she literally could not fully comprehend it. In comparison, she was just human. Granted, she was a human with the ability to time travel, but that was thanks to a watch, and not through her own merits, as much as she wished it were otherwise.

She was getting side tracked though. AO-chan said that changing herself to an Atlantean was apparently possible, and as much as she feared and disliked the book, it had generally been truthful with them so far, even if it was through cryptic words or the occasional single word answers. She tried to focus on her mind, thinking about what it was she wanted. Meditation was something she had tried to learn years ago to relax after cases, but once Gura and Ina entered her life, it had not truly been necessary anymore. Still, the advice books she read from then were as good a place as any to start from – breath steadily through your nose, close your eyes, try to center yourself.

“Oh,” She gasped, “I feel something.”

It was true, she felt a strange heat building within her. It was similar to how the bond felt when she was feeling the others’ emotions, and indeed, she could still note how they were feeling. She could feel Gura’s excitement as if it were her own, she could feel Ina’s intense concentration, the hint of excitement and apprehension coming from her. When she was in such a trance, she could almost see her friends – lovers, as if she could turn her head and see them without even opening her eyes. She noticed Gura’s… outline? Spirit? It was like a blue source of power that never fully formed into something clear, and it felt slightly different than hers. She could feel Ina’s spirit too, and noticed how it was different than both hers and Gura’s, perhaps the influence of the Ancient Ones?

“I feel it too,” Ina whispered, “I can see both of your auras.”

“Auras?” Amelia mumbled, her eyes still closed, “That’s what I’m seeing?”

“I think so, yes.” Ina replied softly.

She breathed in deeply, and looked back towards Gura’s spirit – her aura – and gently reached out with her mind. It was a weird sensation, like she was going out of her body almost, and she let out a soft gasp as she finally touched Gura’s aura. It was like touching water, but at the same time it was like a fire, except it didn’t burn. The sensation was so alien that she knew she’d done it right, she was so close to achieving her goal. She grabbed some of Gura’s aura – for lack of better words – and she took some for herself. She heard Gura’s soft gasp.

“It’s like you guys are touching me,” Gura admitted aloud, her voice sounded distant, “I can feel both of you guys! It’s like – woah!” Her exclamation caused Amelia to open her eyes.

“Shit,” Amelia groaned, “I thought I had it.”

“Y – You do!” Gura exclaimed, “You guys did it, oh my god!”

“What?” Amelia glanced over to Ina, and she froze, her eyes widening as she took in the priestess. It was still noticeably Ina, but she was different – Atlantean. Her jaw dropped as she took it in.

Ina’s head had what looked like a veil coming down around her, dropping to just around her shoulders. It was translucent, and faintly purple, but her face was still fully visible behind it. Her eyes were a luminescent blue, with no whites at all, it was oddly beautiful, like looking at two gems. Her purple hair now had several very long tendrils coming from it that spilled down her back and her shoulders, slowly changing color to orange as they went down. Amelia couldn’t see the end of them, the water hid them, but from what she could see below the waves, they became a bright orange at the end like her tentacle hair had, the tentacles themselves were still present on either side of her face, she was still a priestess it seemed, even as an Atlantean.

Her body had a new sheen to it, like it was almost made out of plastic, but when Amelia reached over to touch her, she was startled by how soft it felt, it was also surprisingly wet. Not scales, but like the skin of a squid, she supposed. Ina’s one-piece swimsuit had been cut in the middle however, to give way to an opaque film around her waist. Amelia could make out her legs through it, but it was obscured. Again, the film was a faint purple color, much like Ina’s hair, and thankfully it covered her swimsuit malfunction admirably.

Between her fingers and toes were a similar film to the one around her waist and atop her head, no doubt for ease of swimming. She didn’t have any visible gills, and Amelia wondered if she had any at all. She should, shouldn’t she?

“A jellyfish-type Atlantean,” Gura mumbled, “Dangerous. In times of conflict, they were often sent in as assassins to take out important people, and were really effective at it due to their poisons. Make sure you keep your tendrils deactivated.”

“A jellyfish?” Ina mumbled, she lifted one of her long tentacles out of the water, the bright orange was very prominent, and Amelia felt a little fearful looking at them. It reminded her of a box jellyfish, how their poison could kill a fully grown man within minutes. “Don’t worry, Ame, I won’t hurt you guys.”

Amelia laughed softly, “Thanks.”

She knew that she had changed too, she could already feel it, so she looked down at her hands first. Like Gura and Ina, there was now a film between her fingers, and she knew the same applied to her toes as well. A notable thing about her hands though was how damn big they looked, the muscles in her forearms were much larger, and her hands were at least a time and half bigger, perhaps more, her hands almost looked like fins as a result, though she could still use all of her fingers easily. She was sure if she was holding a rock, she’d be able to crush it into dust.

She ran her tongue over her teeth, and knew they had sharpened much like Gura’s were, thankfully as sharp as they were, it seemed her tongue had become a bit tougher, since she didn’t cut it along any of the jagged edges. Feeling her hair, she didn’t sense anything different, the length was still the same, though when she pulled it into her face, the color had faded. It was still blonde, but it was much lighter, almost white like Gura’s. Looking at her reflection in the water as best as she could, she could tell that her eyes were much the same, left unchanged, unlike Ina’s.

Her body was mostly the same as well, though her abs were a bit fuller too, and when she felt her thighs and calves, that much like her forearms, they had also bulked up a bit. Additionally, the most noticeable change of all was her new tail. Unlike Ina, Amelia had a large and powerful tail that ended in a flipper – a seal of some kind, she suspected. She tried to move it, and was surprised when she could move it as easily as any of her other limbs, as if she’d had it her entire life. The tail itself was mostly brown, though it was splotches of white here and there.

“A leopard seal,” Gura supplied helpfully, “They ruled the Northern reaches of the Atlantean empire in the height of its power. They were really feared for their strength – I can’t believe you became one of them!”

Amelia closed and opened her fist, and blinked a few times, “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Ina chuckled softly, “Wow.”

AO-chan was still at Ina’s side, though they got the sense that they approved of their new forms.

“Can we switch back if we want?” Amelia asked curiously, “Like if I want to go back to being human…” she took a deep breath, closing her eyes again. This time finding the aura was a lot easier. She could sense a bit of Gura’s aura within her, so perhaps if she took that out, she’d revert? She did just that, imagining herself plucking it out of herself, and she let out a soft gasp – opening her eyes again, she looked down, and her hands were back to their human shape.

“Does this mean Gura can become human?” Ina asked, her large eyes turning towards the shark-girl, “I wonder what that looks like.”

“We’re in the water now,” Gura said with a wave of her hand, “We can test that out later, for now, let’s go swimming! Come on, turn back, Ame!”

Now that she knew she had an out, she did just that. She was still a bit freaked out, but Gura’s excitement was infectious, and she changed to Atlantean faster than when she switched back to human – she was starting to really get the hang of this.

“We should go deeper,” Ina said softly, “We’re getting a lot of eyes on us.”

Gura nodded, and dived underwater, and Amelia watched her dart further out within a second. Amelia turned to Ina with a raised brow, and the priestess just shrugged, diving in after her. Amelia didn’t wait much longer diving under the water as well. Gura was already far in the distance, and Ina was already darting ahead as well, as if she’d been doing this all her life. Amelia didn’t waste any time, with a powerful push of her tail she darted ahead, making sure to hold her breath, since as a seal Atlantean, she didn’t have gills like Gura did. Surprisingly, whereas she had trouble holding her breath for more than half a minute, now she was having no trouble. Additionally, she was using her tail and her arms as if she’d been doing this for all of her life, much as Ina had.

Maybe it was due to their connection to Gura? She didn’t know, but she struggled to hold in a cheer as she darted ahead, pulling up at Ina’s side. Ina looked over with a slightly wild looking smile, and Amelia matched it with her own smile. This felt incredible, she could feel a part of her mind wanting her to let loose, and it was very, very, very hard not to simply give in to it.

The two of them caught up to Gura much further out, and when Amelia looked up, she realized they were in roughly thirty feet of water now, very far from the shore. Gura was grinning like a lunatic, and she pointed up, before kicking off of the ground towards the surface. Amelia and Ina followed, and the three breached the surface of the water.

“How’re you guys feeling?” Gura asked.

Amelia coughed up some water, noting that it fortunately didn’t taste that awful anymore. “Did the change murder my taste buds or something?”

Gura shrugged, “I dunno. Whenever you talked about salt water, I never really knew what you meant. It tastes fine to me.”

Amelia packaged that thought in the back of her mind as Ina spoke up, “This feels great – it’s – it’s – I don’t even know!” She let out a laugh, “It’s so freeing!”

AO-chan was still hovering close by, miraculously dry despite being at Ina’s side the entire time in the water. Gura in the meantime laughed at that, “I’m so glad you guys can join me! It’s like – it’s like old times! Back when I had…” She coughed, her voice choking up a little, “Well, let’s play!”

“Hold on,” Amelia stopped her before she could go back under, “I feel this, like, weird presence in the back of my head. It’s strong, and I want to give in to it, it feels so tempting – what is that?”

“Atlantean instincts, I think.” Ina answered in Gura’s place, and the shark-girl’s eyes lit up in understanding.

“Oh – that!” Gura nodded, “Us Atlanteans are part of some animal, so you’ll always feel that in your head. You just sort of ignore it, but sometimes it feels good to give in – like now would be good! Just let loose and have fun, Ame!”

Amelia felt strangely reassured by Gura’s explanation, and she could still feel their link as powerful as ever, even more so, since she had a bit of Gura’s aura within herself right now. With the link she was sure none of them would hurt each other, so she did just as Gura said – give in. If Gura wanted to play, then who was she to say no? They were in her domain after all, and giving in was a mighty tempting offer she really didn’t want to resist.

Gura let out a shout as Amelia’s blue eyes shifted to a darker red much like her own, and she followed Amelia into the waters, Ina just a little bit behind her, her large eyes having turned a shade red as well.

XxXxXxX

Gura couldn’t remember the last time she had so much fun. The moment both Amelia and Ina stopped fighting against their instincts, the three of them were darting around in the water, catching random sea creatures, exploring the ocean floor, and even playing tag. Her mouth honestly hurt from smiling so much – the last time she’d had this much fun in the ocean was thousands of years ago, before the destruction of the empire, when she’d play around with the other Atlanteans. It was an incredible feeling to get back something she’d thought forever lost, but it was something she was going to treasure from here on out.

She of course kept the both of them safe from the more dangerous sea life. There was a great white shark that took a bit too much of an interest in Amelia, and Gura quickly swam over to shoo it away, threatening to gut it if it even THOUGHT about hurting Amelia. The shark quickly swam away after that, and there wasn’t a close encounter since. She was sure that Amelia could defend herself well enough, her muscled arms packed quite a big punch, but she didn’t want Amelia to get scared.

Embarrassingly, Gura also had to make sure to collect their swimwear as they darted around – Amelia’s top came off hours ago, and Ina’s torn swimsuit came off as well. Since Amelia was still Mammalian, she was sure once Amelia returned to her senses, she was going to freak out about her top being missing, but Ina was no longer a mammal, and didn’t actually have anything to hide up top of down below. Granted, she kept hold of her swimwear anyway, because she was sure she’d appreciate not being completely naked when she turned back to a human.

It was only hours later when even Gura was beginning to tire out that Amelia and Ina, both tired as well, started to have their instincts fading away to the back of their mind again. Gura was sure her own eyes reverted back to their natural blue, as did the others. They were actually so deep that Gura couldn’t actually tell the time of day, but considering not much sunlight was piercing through the water, she was sure that it was becoming considerably late.

She swam to the top, leaving Ina and Amelia for a moment, and she breached the surface. The sky was dark shades of orange and purple, the sun had already set in the horizon, and dusk was quickly approaching. It was definitely the most active time for sharks, but she really wasn’t worried, the three of them could take any sharks. The moment a single shark tried to attack Ina, she was sure it would be stung and get the hell away as soon as possible, and as said before, Amelia could undoubtedly tear the others apart with her enhanced strength.

She noticed Amelia surface beside her with a gasp, “Hey, Gura.” She said, blinking the water out of her eyes, “Where even are we?”

“Pretty far out,” Gura admitted, “The beach is… Over there.” She pointed out a far distance. It was at least two or three miles away, maybe a bit more, actually. It would take them about ten minutes or so of swimming to get there, nothing to be worried about.

“W – What?!” Amelia’s shout startled her, and she could feel fear radiating off of her, “We’re that far away?!”

“Calm down,” Gura said quickly, “It’s ok! It’s not that far!”

“Is something wrong?” Ina asked as she surfaced beside them, “I feel Amelia’s fear!”

“We’re so far out!” Amelia exclaimed, “It’s so far…”

“It’s ok,” Gura assured her, trying to convey her confidence through the link. Easy enough, since they were so closely bonded right now, “I promised you I’d keep you guys safe, yeah? Would I really let us swim so far out that we’d get hurt?”

Amelia did calm down, and the detective gave her a grateful smile, “Yeah… Ok, sorry. I shouldn’t have freaked out.”

“It’s fine,” Ina said gently, placing a hand on Amelia’s shoulder, “It’s scary to me too.”

“Yeah, to humans this would be really, really bad.” Gura said, “But to us? We’d have to go out like five times further than this before it would be an issue!”

AO-chan floated out of the water then, The Atlantean is correct. She wondered if Amelia was actually on to something, it did seem like the Ancient Ones were a lot clearer when supporting her, maybe they did like her?

“Let’s head back then,” Amelia said, “Hopefully none of the people who were camped out next to us reported us missing, or we’ll have a lot of explaining to do.” She paused, “And uh… You don’t happen to have my top, do you?” Her cheeks were red, but she gave Gura an appreciative nod when she twirled her top in her fingers above the water. She also discreetly gave Ina her swimwear back as well, which earned her a smile from the priestess.

The swim back was actually pretty peaceful. Ina had a natural serenity about her as they swam that calmed Gura down, and she just felt relaxed as they were swimming. With both Ina and Gura not concerned, Amelia was able to feel assured as well, so they just swam side by the side the entire time.

When they surfaced once for a quick breather for Amelia, Gura asked, “So… You guys have fun?”

“Yeah,” Amelia replied instantly, “I don’t remember the last time I was able to cut loose like that… It felt like I was a kid again, just spending so much time goofing off.”

Ina nodded quickly, “Yeah. It’s nice to come out here and just stop worrying about things. It was great to just forget about our lives for a while and just have fun.”

“So…” Gura looked back towards the land, the beach was still quite a distance away, but at least she could spot where they were supposed to be heading now definitively, instead of just a vague shape in the distance, “Are you guys still worried about the bond?”

Amelia frowned at that, “A little, yeah. I still would like to have my privacy, but…” She smiled, “This was fun, and I’m starting to think that maybe it won’t be so bad after all.”

“Awesome!” Gura cheered, “I’m glad that you –”

“But you have to try being human for a day!” Amelia interjected, “I got to be Atlantean, so I want to see what a human Gura looks like!”

“O – oh?” Gura blinked a few times, “Do you really, though?”

“We do!” Ina nodded, a wicked smile on her lips, “And I also wonder if you guys could become true priestesses like me!”

“Uh,” Amelia didn’t look thrilled by that, and Gura could sympathize, “Are you sure you want to test that?”

“Don’t you?” Ina asked, “It would be fun!”

Gura could feel her genuine happiness, and she didn’t have the heart to bring her down by declining the offer, “Well, since you guys did this for me, the least I could do is try out being a human and a uh, priestess, I guess?”

“Yeah, I guess we can do that.” Amelia sighed.

She could feel Ina’s appreciation again, and felt it was worth it. Amelia still had a nugget of doubt within her, so she figured she could try to expel that for now, “Want to race?”

Both of her girlfriends perked up at that, “Oh?” Amelia’s eyes lit up, a smirk crossing her face, “To the beach?”

“Yeah, I bet you slowpokes can’t -”

“See you there!” Ina had dived ahead, leaving both of them behind. She shared a look with Amelia, and they quickly raced after Ina, not wanting to be last.

It was dark by the time they reached the beach, and miraculously their stuff was still there. Amelia made sure to shift to human before she exited the water fully, and Ina followed suit, though the priestess had to hold up the bottom of her swimsuit, since it had torn clean in half, and it was hanging down otherwise. Gura took pity on the priestess, and made sure to grab a towel for her to cover herself with. AO-chan stopped hovering when Ina hissed at them, and they allowed Gura to hold her as they headed off of the beach and towards the parking lot towards their car.

The entire time, Gura couldn’t stop smiling.

She was technically no longer the last Atlantean anymore. Sure, Amelia and Ina were more of honorary Atlanteans than actual ones, but it was better than she’d had in a very long time. There were two more Atlanteans now, and she would have people who could come play in the ocean with her like she used to millennia ago. It was a great stress relief, and she felt assured that both Ina and Amelia would join her from time to time.

As they packed into the car, Amelia driving, Gura in the front seat, and Ina in the back with their stuff, she felt completely content. More than she had in years.

“That was fun,” Amelia admitted as she started to pull out of the parking lot.

“Thank you for showing us the ropes, Gura.” Ina said from behind.

“No problem,” Gura said happily, “Thank you guys for going through with it even though you were scared at first. It means a lot to me.”

She felt Amelia’s hand on her arm, and Ina reached up and placed a hand on her shoulder. The bond wasn’t even necessary for her to know how much they loved and cared about her, and to think a few days ago she was going to deny herself this in fear that they wouldn’t be able to accepting going into a polygamous relationship. It felt almost foolish, especially with the benefit of hindsight.

Even though she was a little anxious about becoming human soon, she would do for them what they did for her, because she loved them.

Chapter Text

When Ina first met Amelia, she was in a prison. Well, prison was too strong of a word, perhaps. She’d been taken away from her family and locked within an old monastery with a bunch of other young girls her age. She was only ten at the time, and she never did see her family again after that. She and the other girls were taught about the cult of the Ancient Ones, beings of power that were said to grant salvation to a world undeserving of it. She’d been there for many years, having given up hope of escaping, just following the orders of the robed men and women who handled her.

“You ok there?” She looked up – she was in her designated room shared with nine other girls her age, and at the foot of her bed was a blonde-haired woman dressed in an odd beige coat.

“Huh?”

“You’re Ina, right?”

“Y – Yes…?” Ina muttered. This wasn’t one of the cultists that had been corralling her for years, nor was she one of the girls who was being raised here, “W – Who are you?”

“That’s not important right now,” Amelia said at the time, “I’ll be keeping an eye on you.” Ina blinked, and then she was gone.

She wasn’t sure what to make of it, but true to her word, Amelia did start to show up in her life from that point on. When she failed a task and was crying alone in a room meant for solitary confinement, Amelia would somehow appear in the cell with her, and would spend hours talking to her and holding her, not letting her be alone. Then she would be gone a few minutes before she was allowed out again. Amelia would often show up to help her hide from the cultists for a few hours, and would even bring her exotic candies she’d never heard of. She had no idea what Ghirardelli was, but it was so tasty and it quickly became her favorite chocolate whenever Amelia brought it with her.

Eventually on her eighteenth birthday, she and the dozens of other girls were gathered within the cathedral hall, where they were introduced to an odd book. Ina felt her spine stiffen up looking at it, and she felt invasive thoughts entering her mind. She was the only one who didn’t collapse and start screaming at the sight of it, and the very next day, she was the only girl at the monastery. She was unnerved by it, and then she was forced to take the book.

The transformation she went through was painful, she felt like she saw the entire history of the universe within only a few seconds of taking hold of the book, she saw things humans were never meant to see, and her form shifted. Two wings burst from her back, two tentacles formed in her hair. Her garments shifted into an oddly revealing garb that her mind automatically knew was the clothing fit for a priestess. The whispers in her mind intensified, and the book floated at her side, and then she lost consciousness.

When she woke up, she was in the ruins of the monastery, no bodies were anywhere, only destruction all around and rain pouring down upon her.

“Ina?” Amelia appeared, walking around some debris, “Are you ok?”

Ina tried to cover herself at the time, not wanting to scare the only person who wasn’t awful to her, but Amelia just laughed, assuring her it was ok. Ina looked up, “Y – You don’t mind?”

“Nah,” Amelia shook her head, “I don’t. You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

“Friend…” Ina muttered tears filling her eyes.

“Come here…” Amelia hugged her, and Ina returned it gratefully, crying into her shoulder.

Life after that was interesting. She no longer was locked within her prison, and was allowed to traverse wherever she wanted. She had only the clothes on her back and the Ancient Ones floating at her side. During this time, she’d met and befriended a rather beautiful woman that she may have had a bit of a crush on, but that never really went anywhere, and some things were best left forgotten. On a much happier note, Amelia would occasionally appear to give her some company, and that was when she learned Amelia was a time traveler. Additionally, Amelia introduced her to another great friend.

Gura was an actual Atlantean! From an empire that had apparently collapsed thousands of years ago, and she was so nice! Gura was actually around a bit more often than Amelia, probably because unlike Amelia, she was going through time linearly as she was.

It was through these interactions with Gura and Amelia that Ina started to realize something – she loved both of them. Unfortunately, she didn’t want to alienate ether of them by dating the other, so she would settle with just being their friends. It was only recently that she met the present Amelia, and her love for both of them only continued to grow the longer she stayed with them. Amelia allowed her to live with her in her small apartment where Gura had already been the entire time. She did her best to contribute the best she could, using her art skills to assist. Gura had given her the other bedroom that she’d been using prior to Ina’s arrival. No matter how much Ina insisted otherwise, Gura would not allow her to sleep on the couch.

Living with them was amazing, they never expected her to be anyone other than herself. They didn’t fear her because of the book either, and they even tolerated AO-chan’s presence, which was more that could be said for almost everyone else she met. She was going to settle with this. She would be their friends, and she didn’t mind. She truly enjoyed their presence, and she didn’t need to be with them romantically to have a fulfilling relationship with either of them.

And then Gura found the orb, and everything changed.

On one hand, she was disappointed that they missed out on several years of intimacy between the three of them, but on the other hand, she was absolutely thrilled that they all felt the same way. She truly was blessed, and that first night, when they went to bed in a fit of passion, was one of the best nights of her entire life. Amelia and Gura were both so considerate, nervous, and yet excited to keep going, and the fact that she could feel their emotions the entire time… It was absolutely wonderful, and she was so thankful for the change.

And so, after a day of being Atlanteans, they decided to see if they could become priestesses along with Ina. AO-chan already referred to them as such, but they lacked the more eldritch appearance that she had, so clearly there was room for more change. They were going to try turning Gura human, but that morning they could tell she was nervous with the idea, and so they decided to do it another day.

“It’s ok guys,” Gura said for the fifth time, seated at the kitchen table as she wiped her eyes tiredly, “I don’t mind being human.”

“You do,” Amelia replied, cooking some eggs for the three of them. “You’ll do it eventually, but we can put it off for a little bit longer.” She set a plate of eggs in front of Gura, “Do you guys want toast with your eggs?”

“No thanks,” Ina replied, taking the cup of coffee and taking a sip.

It was fairly early in the morning, even though they were exhausted after the previous day spent in the ocean, the lure of the bond kind of kept them awake and interested, additionally Amelia had to work again that day, so she had to leave fairly soon. “And besides, Gura,” Amelia said as she placed some toast on Gura’s plate beside her eggs, “I want to be here when you turn human.”

“Hm,” Gura rolled her eyes, “You know you’re going to miss me getting some freaky-ass tentacles.”

Amelia shrugged, “Eh, I’ll see it when I get home. I expect results!”

“Yes, your highness.”

Ina smiled at the banter as she took another large sip of her coffee, letting out a content sigh as she set the cup down. Gura and Amelia bickered for a little bit, and she could actually feel both of them enjoying it through the bond – she had to struggle to not laugh after learning that. They’ve always been needling each other like this as long as she has known them, and she knew they liked doing it, but she didn’t quite understand how much until this moment. The joy and mirth they were both exuding was quite powerful, and she wondered if either of them noticed it at all, or were just so used to it that they didn’t feel a difference at all.

“I’ve got to go,” Amelia walked to the door and grabbed her coat, “You guys take care, all right? Ina, make sure Gura doesn’t pee on the furniture.”

“Oh, for the love of – Bite me, Ame!” Ina couldn’t quite stifle her laughter.

“Later!” Amelia said with a cheeky smile and a small wave. Ina gave her a happy little wave, and after a few seconds of grumbling with a red face, Gura waved too, and then they were left alone.

Ina ate her breakfast in peace. While she had work to do as well, it was just a commission that wasn’t due for another week, so she could afford to take a day off of focusing on it. Gura was eating beside her, not up for much small talk when she ate, which was fine with Ina, the silence was so rare in the apartment that when it did happen, she learned to relish it.

Soon enough it ended with AO-chan’s appearance. The book floated into the kitchen, and planted itself beside Ina, much to her surprise.

“What’s with the book?” Gura asked, and Ina could feel her unease, “It’s been moving around a lot more lately – ever since we got this bond.”

Ina nodded, “Yeah, I’ve noticed. I don’t know why.”

It was certainly true. AO-chan had always been fairly sedated, laying lethargically on her bookshelf day in and day out, often for weeks at a time, before it would occasionally let its presence known to her to warn her about something. Usually, it was warnings to avoid certain places at certain times, and Ina had never really argued with them, she didn’t really want to know what would happen if she were there, and she’d learned to trust their word.

However, not only was AO-chan more active lately, moving to their rooms and even opting to go on a trip with them to the beach, but they were also far chattier as well. In the last three days, AO-chan had said more words than she could recall them speaking within the last thirty years. She knew it probably had something to do with the magics of the bond. After all, they did call Gura and Amelia a priestess as well, even if they lacked the proper appendages to be a proper priestess like her, but she wasn’t quite sure if that was it.

She’d learned to associate more activity from AO-chan as danger, and that deeply concerned her.

“Ina?”

She looked up at Gura, she’d been staring at the Ancient Ones for at least a minute, and she shook her head, “Uh, yes, Gura?”

“You ok?” She asked quietly, “I can feel that you’re a little, uhm…”

Ina smiled softly, touched by her concern, “I’m fine.”

Gura didn’t look impressed with the answer, a slight frown marred her face. “You can’t lie to me anymore, you know.”

Ina inhaled deeply, and started to understand Amelia’s concerns with the bond. She didn’t want to needlessly worry her girlfriends with something like this, but she didn’t really see an out. “Ah… I’m sorry. I’m not try to be rude.”

“Then tell me,” Gura replied, reaching over and touching her hand, “You can trust me.”

“It’s not an issue of trust,” Ina winced, “I promise it’s not that. I just… Don’t want to worry you.”

“I’m already worried now that you said that.”

Ina let out a little laugh, “Whoops.”

“Well, out with it then,” Gura pushed gently, she could feel Gura’s thoughts, how it was still concern and a hint of curiosity as well. There was a small note of anxiety too, and Ina felt bad that she was going to be expanding that with her next words.

“When AO-chan gets like this, it usually means something bad is going to happen.”

“Uh, gets like this?”

There is a potential for danger.

“Ah…” Gura sighed, and her worry increase tenfold, but unexpectedly there was another emotion Ina couldn’t quite find the words for. It was like Gura was feeling incredibly protective, a warmth was enveloping her, and she was sure it would do the same for Amelia if she were nearer. As it was, Amelia probably only felt a small hint of it – when Ina tried to feel for her, she could feel her in the distance with curiosity, though it was very faint.

“Please try not to be too worried about it. AO-chan has always looked out for me, and that extends to you and Amelia now, too.”

Yes.

“What kind of danger are we talking about here?” Gura asked, leaning forward as she looked at AO-chan, “Is it going to try and hurt us?”

It is uncertain.

“Shit.” Gura cursed under her breath, “So you can’t tell us at all what it’s about? Aren’t you some sort of omnipotent god?”

No. There is a veil hidden from us we can’t pierce. It is unknown whether danger lurks within.

“Ina? Translation?” Gura glanced at her in concern.

“I don’t know,” Ina shrugged helplessly, “That is a new one for me too.”

“Is there anything we can do to prepare for this?” Gura asked curiously, an edge to her voice. Ina placed her hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down.

“AO-chan will let us know if there’s anything we can do,” Ina replied, and AO-chan agreed with her, “For now, we should just keep living our lives. Fretting over things that may or may not harm us will do us no good.”

Gura sighed, “I guess… I just wish we could do something about this.”

“I’m sorry for worrying you.” She felt awful for bringing it up, she wished she didn’t have to say anything.

“Don’t be,” Gura smiled at her, though it was a bit weak, “I asked. I guess the saying is true, eh? Ignorance is bliss.”

Ina let out a chuckle, “Yeah.”

Gura stretched, and pushed her plate away, “Well, food was good.” Her gaze lingered on Ina, and she smiled again, this time a bit stronger, “Don’t you have something you want me to try out?”

Ina’s eyes widened slightly – Gura was encouraging her to share her aura with her? Gura had been expressing uncertainty and anxiety all morning and the previous day at the idea, so why…? Ah, she could feel it within Gura, she could feel her trying to assuage her guilt, trying to make her feel better by focusing on something else. She hoped Gura could feel how grateful she was at that moment, and she was easily able to smile, “Yeah, ok, we can try it out. Amelia will be thrilled to see you when she comes home later.”

“I can’t wait.” There was a hint of resigned sarcasm there, not that it deterred Ina any.

“Alright!” Ina clapped her hands, looking at Gura excitedly, the thoughts of potential dangers successfully tucked away for a later date. After all, AO-chan would inform them if anything was going to happen, so no use lingering on it! “Come with me! Let’s do this in my room so you can lie down if you get sick!”

“Uh, is that going to happen? Me getting sick, I mean?” Gura asked, suddenly feeling a little less sure. Her tail was stock still, a sign of fear.

“I don’t know,” Ina replied with an apologetic smile, “But better safe than sorry. I didn’t get sick when I turned into an Atlantean, so I think you should be safe.”

“Alright,” Gura sighed, “But I’m only doing this because you did it for me yesterday!”

Ina nodded, and she led Gura into her room.

The room itself was small. Much like Amelia’s the bed took up a good portion, and was shoved into a corner next to a window. There was a dresser next to the bed, and then right across from the bed was Ina’s computer and tablet used for drawing. There was very little room for anything else, and quite honestly, two people in there was uncomfortably cramped already. She instructed Gura to sit down on the bed, and she sat in her computer chair, and as expected, AO-chan again followed them in, settling on Ina’s computer desk this time.

“AO-chan, is there anything we should be concerned about?” Ina asked, just to be certain.

The Atlantean Priestess will be safe.

Ina felt a wave of relief at that, “Ok, good. You hear that, Gura?”

“I did,” Gura said, her voice was still tinged with a little bit of fear, “but I don’t think anything you will say can make me feel any better.” There was a wry note in her tone, “This is like going to the dentist, you know?”

Ina chuckled, “I suppose so.” She reached over, and grabbed Gura’s hand, and had the sudden urge to kiss her. She settled for kissing her knuckles, “I promise you’ll be safe, Gura.” She smiled, looking up from Gura’s hand at the red-faced shark, “I love you.”

“Love you too,” Gura mumbled softly, still blushing.

“Alright!” Ina reached out for AO-chan, and pulled them into her lap, settling it down on her thighs, gently pressing down, “So, now that we’re here, hm…” She paused, frowning a little bit.

“Ina?”

“I’m just thinking,” She replied softly, “Of how to explain to you what to do. It’s not that hard, but it does take a little bit of time to get used to it.”

“Okay,” Gura nodded, kicking her feet to try and get rid of her nervous energy.

“Ok, um, close your eyes.” Gura did as she was asked, and closed her eyes. “Good! Now, focus on that feeling you get when you can feel our emotions.”

That wasn’t too hard, there wasn’t a way to turn it off after all. She’d been feeling Ina’s giddiness the entire time, and it was a balm to how nervous she felt. She focused in on the emotion though, trying to figure out if that’s what Ina wanted. “What now?”

“You should sort of feel an aura,” Ina replied, “Um, I’m in front of you, so you should be able to ‘see’ something there, right?”

“Uh…” Gura frowned, and with her eyes still closed, and sure enough, when she focused on Ina’s emotion, she could actually sort of picture it in her mind, like she was looking at what she supposed could be described as Ina’s aura, “Oh – I think I see it!”

“Good!” Ina exclaimed, unable to contain her happiness, she was smiling so wide, “Now! Yesterday, when I became an Atlantean, what I did was that I sort of ‘borrowed’ some of that aura and put it in my own!”

“Ok, take some of it, I’ll try.” Gura looked at Ina’s aura, and in her mind, it was a deep purple, almost black. It was swirling around in an endless void, and yet she didn’t sense any malice from it despite its appearance. No, how could she feel malice from Ina of all people? One of the women she loved with all of her heart? There was nothing but pure love and adoration within the aura. She could feel the warmth and gentleness, and it so perfectly encapsulated Ina that Gura had no problem immersing herself within it. She reached in, took a bit of her aura, and pulled it towards herself, into her heart.

“Gura!”

She opened her eyes, staring at a wide-eyed Ina, “Did – did I do it?”

The question was needless – she could already sense a massive difference. Unlike before, where she only heard AO-chan when they spoke aloud, she could hear a constant stream of whispers in the back of her mind. Never clear enough for her to make out, and even then, when it did murmur just a bit louder, she realized it was in some tongue she could not understand. Generally having such a cacophony of noises in the back of her head would drive her utterly crazy, but if anything, it was like a calming influence, it made her shoulders relax, and allowed her to breath easily.

“Is this why you’re so calm?” Gura asked with a breezy voice, her eyes fluttering close as she just listened to the voices.

Ina smiled, and Gura could feel her happiness and excitement so much more clearly than before, as if they were her own emotions. Undoubted it was due to the influence of Ina’s aura she’d snatched for herself. “Probably,” Ina replied, “I’ve had them with me for so long that I don’t remember what life was like without it.”

“Ah,” Gura exhaled, she closed her eyes again, and just took it all in.

“Don’t you want to look in a mirror?” Ina asked, and Gura could feel her amusement, “You know it’s not just the voices in your head that changed.”

Gura’s eyes opened again, and she was now a bit curious to see what she looked like. Ina’s room didn’t have a mirror in it, so she stood up, and nearly hit Ina across the face with a blue and white tentacle. “Oh no! Ina!”

“It’s ok!” Ina laughed, “You’ve had them squirming away behind you for a while now!”

Gura looked behind her, and sure enough she had eight massive tentacles squirming around behind her like she was an octopus or something. They were blue on top, and white on the bottom, reminding her a lot of a shark to be honest, and she wondered if her Atlantean background somehow influenced their color. They weren’t coming out of her back, but through several portals from back there – it gave the illusion that they were coming from her, however. That said, she could still feel everything they felt, and she could control them just as well as she could her hands, oddly enough. She moved them around the room experimentally, touching the bed, the wall, the ceiling, and everything else with it.

“How can I control it so well?” She asked, watching her tentacles slither around. Even controlling eight independent tentacles was proving to be little issue for her.

“I think it’s my aura’s influence,” Ina replied, “Because yesterday Amelia and I were able to swim around just fine even though we both have never done that before.”

Gura nodded – that made sense. She didn’t even have to think to will them to go away – they just did when she wanted them gone. With her back free of tentacles, Gura walked into the hallway and towards their tiny little bathroom – the only room in the house with a mirror larger than a hand mirror, and she stared at herself.

Her eyes were a deeper blue now, they almost looked like the depths of the ocean with how dark they looked – almost black. Additionally, atop of her head stood two white head flaps, exactly like the ones Ina had on her head. She reached up and touched them, and shuddered at how they felt – it was weird, like rubbing her skin almost. Her hair was still mostly white, though it started to have a gentle gradient from white to blue, until the very tips were a very dark blue. On either side of her face, she had two tentacles, again, going from white to blue, and she reached up and touched one experimentally – and it felt far too sensitive – she hissed at the sensation, and left them alone.

The only other notable thing she had were some wings on her back right above her tail, which she still retained. She supposed a priestess wasn’t necessarily a different species, so she was now an Atlantean that was also a priestess, sort of like how Ina was still human. Ina’s constant complaints that she was still human suddenly made sense, and she suddenly felt bad for egging her on as much she did in the past about that very topic.

“What’s wrong?” Ina asked, sliding into the bathroom, “Don’t like it?”

“What?” Gura blinked and her head flaps shot up as high as they could in her surprise as she turned towards her, “No! This is cool! I wasn’t upset about that, it’s just…” She flushed, feeling kind of foolish now, “Uh, nothing.”

Ina’s brow went up, she could clearly feel her embarrassment, “Oh?”

“Ugh,” Gura groaned, “This stupid bond! I was just thinking that I felt bad about saying you weren’t a human anymore.”

Ina’s let out a soft chuckle, “It’s alright, Gura, I don’t mind. It never really hurt me.”

“Still…”

Ina leaned over and hugged her, and then gently pressed her lips on one of her hair-tentacles, causing Gura to let out a soft keen, “I don’t mind, Gura.”

“Y – Yes…” Gura felt like she was melting in her grasp. “W – Why are these things so stupidly sensitive? What the hell?”

Ina chuckled, “I don’t know, but it’s great to get a hold of little sharks.” She ran her finger up one, and Gura had to back into the sink to stop herself from collapsing to the ground as her legs trembled from her touch, “Oh? Are you extra sensitive? I guess it’s because you’ve never had them before.”

“Stop then!” Gura weakly cried, “We should try to play a board game with our tentacles while we wait for A – Ame t – to…” She let out a gasp as she felt some of Ina’s summoned tentacles starting to gently caress her thighs, while others were hanging above Ina, poised to strike.

“Are you sure that’s what you want to do?”

Ina’s lips pulled further back into a smirk when Gura struggled to form words, to speak a coherent sentence. She could definitely take this further, she doubted that she would have to push Gura much further than this. She could feel how quickly Gura’s arousal was building, and she was sure her own desire was adding onto that, like an endless feedback loop. Still, even if they were dating now, she didn’t want to force her into this if she didn’t want it, so she reluctantly backed off, sending her tentacles back to the void where they belonged. Gura’s face was red, and her eyes were looking at her in what Ina guessed would be confusion.

“Ina?” Gura asked with a small puff.

“I’m sorry,” She said honestly, holding a hand out to Gura, “Um, I’m just getting a little too excited. We can uh, play boardgames now.”

There, she had provided Gura an out, and she would take it with grace if that’s what the Atlantean wanted. Gura looked at her offered hand for a moment, and slowly reached out to take it, and Ina led her out of the bathroom and into the living room to the couch. The hold on her hand grew firmer, and Ina looked back at Gura fondly as she intertwined their fingers. “Thanks, Ina.” Gura said softly.

“It’s not a pro–”

Ina noticed the spike of playfulness within Gura’s emotions immediately, but was still too slow to react. With such a strong grip of her hand, Gura jerked her towards the couch, where Ina let out a startled cry as she fell back onto it, staring up at Gura in bewilderment. Gura’s tentacles came out behind her, and before Ina could even begin to make sense of everything, Gura was leaning down and kissing her with everything she had. This Ina could at least get on board with, and she melted into the kiss, her eyes fluttering close as Gura made herself comfortable atop of her.

“Ah!” Her eyes slammed back open though when Gura grabbed hold of her tentacle-hair on both sides of her face with both of her hands roughly, giving them a hard squeeze. Ina let out a groan as Gura grinned down at her with a sadistic smile, her tentacles looming above ever so threateningly.

“Looks like I caught myself a priestess,” Gura mumbled, her voice growing husky, “What do you have to say for yourself?”

Ina tried to buck her hips, but Gura was pressed too firmly against her, “I’m yours,” She whispered, her head flaps atop her head were flat against her head, and her entire face was red, but she was too laser focused on Gura to really care.

Gura blinked at that – her face turning red, but she quickly regained her equilibrium. Ina tried to squeeze her thighs together, but Gura planted her knee firmly between them, and then her tentacles went on the offensive, and the rational part of Ina’s mind decided to check out right then.

Boardgames could definitely wait until later.

XxXxXxX

Work had been fairly uninteresting for Amelia. None of the cases were particularly fun, and she’d mostly just ridden around town with her colleague to go check up on some leads that ended up being dead ends. Days like this were the worst, making no progress in any cases was like a slap to the face, as far as she was concerned, and she was bitter the entire day, to the point where the others were visibly avoiding her in the office.

It also didn’t help that despite the distance with her girlfriends, she could still vaguely feel their emotions. It wasn’t bad when it was just happiness or a bit of worry here and there. That, Amelia could handle just fine. No, it was when she suddenly felt them both get super turned on, because that felt like it was amplified. Whereas the other emotions had been rather muted, this was like a siren going off in the distance, and it made her already awful job just that much harder to focus on. She kept clenching her thighs together and grinding her teeth, continually looking up at the clock the entire time. She wished she could leave early, hell, she probably could have, but they needed the money, damnit!

So, she was just going to sit her, doing her work, while her two girlfriends made her feel incredibly horny.

To say it was torture would be a bit of an understatement, as far as she was concerned.

Thankfully it didn’t last her entire shift, otherwise she might have actually considered strangling them both when she got home. She miraculously had no overtime, considering none of the cases she was involved in were really going anywhere, so she fortunately was able to head home. She said goodbye to her colleagues – detectives like her, though lacking the advantage of time travel, of course – and then she walked out of the agency to the parking lot where her car was.

The car was a cheap piece of crap, she’d just bought it from some guy for two thousand dollars, and the driver side door didn’t even open properly. She had to unlock it from the passenger side and get in from there. When she turned on the engine, it sputtered a little bit before finally starting, and she was on her way back. Thankfully they didn’t live in a huge coastal city, but it was still a sizeable enough location to where a detective branch of the police was a necessity.

Once she arrived at the apartment building, she parallel parked nearly a block away, and grumbled as she had to walk the rest of the way there, dodging uncaring individuals and carefree children running around. The sunlight was quickly fading, but there was always something going on around here. It made it an interesting place to live, but also exhausting at times… If she didn’t have Gura and Ina in her life, she’d probably have been consumed by her work, and she wasn’t sure how she’d have turned out then.

She entered the building, went up the fourth floor of the eight-story building, got her key out, inserted it into the lock, and then her head darted up. The moment she unlocked the door, she could feel Gura’s elation, and that was the only warning she got before the door was forced open by several large blue tentacles. She simply stared at them for a second, before they darted at her and wrapped around her waist, and pulling her in. She glanced back behind her, and saw that a purple tentacle was closing the door behind her. She heard giggling, and she turned her head back around to see Ina and Gura seated at the couch laughing like a pair of school girls.

“Huh,” Amelia looked Gura up and down, “Looks good on you, bozo.”

Gura’s grin widened, “Thanks. We’ve been having a lot of fun with it!”

Amelia looked at the table in front of the couch, and sure enough, it was covered in a bunch of board games, papers, colored pencils, markers, and all sorts of things, no doubt courtesy of Ina. She lifted a single brow as her gaze returned to the two of them, “Yeah? You know I could actually feel it when I was working.”

She could immediately sense Ina’s mortification, “Oh no,” Ina mumbled.

“What?” Gura looked confusedly between them, “What’s wrong?”

“We’re going to have to set up a few rules,” Amelia replied, still hanging in the air by Gura’s tentacle, “When I’m at work, no fooling around.”

“Fooling around? What, we can’t play games?” Gura crossed her arms, “Why the hell not?”

“Gura…” Ina whined.

Amelia rolled her eyes, “I didn’t want to spell it out, but I guess I will. Don’t have sex when I’m working. Do you know how hard it is to concentrate when I can feel what you guys are feeling? It was like that first night – it was all amplified! I could feel it from work clearly!”

Gura’s eyes widened, and her face went beet red, “O – oh…”

“T – That’s kind of hot,” Ina muttered, her face was buried in her hands, but Amelia knew her cheeks were burning red.

“Uh…” Amelia’s eye twitched.

“It’s true,” Gura mumbled.

“GUYS!” Amelia cried, “No! And can you put me down?!”

The tentacle set her down gently, and Amelia let out a soft sigh and had to concede the point, “Yeah, it was kind of hot. Just please, don’t do it again? It was fuckin torture.”

“We’ll let you know next time,” Gura said, “That way you’ll be prepared.”

“No.”

“What if we give a few days of warning?” Ina asked.

“For the love of – No!”

“But you said it was hot!” Gura complained, “Like, during your break or something call us and we can put you on speaker phone and then, you know…”

Amelia hated the fact that she could feel how much they approved of the idea, and she hated the fact that she was actually considering it. She knew they could feel that from her, considering how they both were smiling at her. “Ugh, fucking… Let’s talk about this later, please? Can I just be surprised by Gura’s looks for a moment here?”

Ina let out a soft laugh, “Of course, go ahead.”

“Thank you.” Amelia coughed into her hand, “Oh my god! Gura, you’re a priestess like Ina now too!”

“How about with a little more feeling, Ame?” Gura asked, leaning back into the couch and crossing her legs, “That didn’t sound genuine at all.”

“Take it or leave it,” Amelia grunted, going into the kitchen to grab something to drink. A can of beer, perhaps, to help her relax, but she passed over it, instead just getting some water. She took a long drink from a glass, and then set it down. “But seriously, that is really cool, Gura, did you have to learn to control the tentacles, or did it just come instinctively?”

“I got the hang of it immediately,” Gura replied, “Like yesterday at the beach. You and Ina got the hang of being Atlanteans instantly, so Ina thinks it has something to do with borrowing a part of the aura.”

Amelia nodded – that made sense. She walked over with her cup, and set it down on the table, moving aside some of the boardgames and papers, and she sat down between Ina and Gura, where there was conveniently a spot open. Surely that was just a mere coincidence, and not an attempt by the two eldritch priestesses to be close to her. Behind the couch were at least a dozen tentacles, purple and blues mixed together, and Amelia wondered when she reached the point in her life where such a sight didn’t even elicit more than a raised brow. Both girls pressed in at her sides, and she looked between the two of them, “Hey.”

“Hey there,” Ina grinned happily, “Come here often?”

Amelia let out an exasperated laugh, “Yeah, I come here from time to time.”

Gura grabbed her arm from the other side, and leaned her entire body against her. A tentacle slid over Amelia’s shoulder, and caressed her cheek, “You up for a good time?”

“Uh…” Amelia blinked at that, “… Yeah?”

“Then turn into a priestess with us.” Ina said.

“Join us, Ame.”

Amelia just shook her head trying to hold in a laugh. The two of them were having so much fun that it was impossible to feel anything negative around them right now. Not that she would even feel negative in the first place, they were one of the few things in her life that she could come back to and feel happy, to keep her head up above the water, so to speak. So, if they wanted her to join them in being freaky tentacle priestesses, who was she to deny them?

Join us.

She turned her head to see AO-chan being jumbled among the mass of tentacles, and this time she didn’t hold in her laughter. The freaking Ancient Ones were joining in as well?! Since when did it get a sense of humor?

“Alright, alright, I can see I’m outnumbered here!” Amelia exclaimed, “Just tell me how to get it done.”

“Same way as yesterday,” Ina replied, “When we became Atlanteans.”

Amelia nodded; the feeling wasn’t exactly something she could forget. She closed her eyes, and felt for their auras, and it was almost instantaneous. She felt Ina’s aura in particular, the color she ‘saw’ so to speak was a wonderful dark purple, and like with Gura’s aura the previous day, she grabbed some of it, and pulled it towards herself. When she opened her eyes, she was about to ask if she’d done it, but then she heard the voices.

“Oh – wow…” Dozens of voices were mumbling in her mind, endlessly whispering in a language she couldn’t understand. Generally, such things would annoy the hell out of her, but for some reason, it just felt relaxing, “Do you feel this all the time, Ina?”

Ina’s head rested on her shoulder, “Yep.”

Amelia leaned forward, adjusting her back and noticing she now had two wings. They were fairly small, and there was no way she’d be able to fly with them, so she wondered what their purpose was. It was also absolutely impossible not to notice her tentacles curling around out of the portals. They were all brown on top, and tan along the bottom, and she could feel everything they did, which at the moment, was them beginning to tangle up with Gura and Ina’s tentacles behind them. It was such a strange sensation, and she shuddered as Gura intentionally grabbed one of them that was slithering around the couch, and she started to gently rub it.

“That feels so weird,” Amelia muttered, “It’s like they’re extra fingers, except they’re way bigger and they’re nowhere near my body – how do you tolerate this Ina?!”

“I don’t remember a time I didn’t have them,” Ina replied, “You also have head flaps too!” Ina wiggled her for emphasis, and Amelia reached up and sure enough, yeah, she had them as well. She was sure that they were the same color as her hair, though she noticed from the side of her eye that She had tentacle hair – her normally blonde hair gently changed to a light brown the further it went down. She shook her head, watching her tentacle hair flap around.

“This is so weird,” Amelia muttered.

“In a good way?” Gura asked.

“I – I think so?” Amelia shrugged helplessly, “I mean, it’s weird, but it’s also kind of cool too? Have you guys tested out anything other than playing around with your tentacles and, uh, doing the deed together?”

“Not really,” Ina answered, “It’s kind of dangerous.” She lifted her head up from Amelia’s shoulder, and then raised her hand, a second later AO-chan floated over and into her grasp, “The text in this book is not in a language any human can understand. The moment you look at it…” She looked down, and Amelia observed her eyes going an intensely dark purple, and a smoky substance seemed to come from them, “You become more in touch with the Ancient Ones, their language becomes recognizable. Your speech becomes theirs; your humanity is set aside to allow the magics to work unhindered.”

Amelia felt Ina’s emotions dampen significantly. They were still there, but it was like it was muffled, like a thick blanket had been thrown them, she supposed. “I can still understand you just fine.” Amelia said, and Gura nodded quickly, looking deeply interested in the conversation.

“I’m not speaking a human tongue.” Ina replied, “You’re priestesses of the Ancient Ones now as well, you have no difficulties understanding me. Your minds however are incapable of hearing the Ancient Ones words without damaging your psyche. You hear it as English because it’s the only way your mind can protect you from the damages of the Ancient Ones. Without the protection of being a priestess, you’d be dead right now.”

“Oh,” Gura mumbled, “That’s… That’s dangerous.”

“It’s why I don’t practice this when I’m in the apartment.” Ina said emotionlessly, “I don’t wish to hurt you.”

“But now that we’re like you, you can do this! Just whenever you want to practice, let us know, and we can shift into this form now!” Gura said excitedly, “So when you’re like this, can you cast spells and stuff?”

Ina nodded, and went to get up. She didn’t stand, instead she floated upward, the eldritch magics assisting her. Once on her feet, Ina looked down at AO-chan, and the book immediately began to flutter to the proper page. A second later, and Ina’s eyes started to glow purple, and the once small wings on her back quickly expanded until they were more than double the size of Ina herself – they were massive and Amelia wondered if she would be able to do that, she’d definitely be able to fly then. A halo quickly formed above Ina’s head, gold in color, and glowing brilliantly.

“Ancient Ones, heed my demand.” Ina lifted a hand above the page of the book, and a wind started to pick up in the room. The TV and lights began to flicker on and off, the clocks began to go haywire going from zero to twelve and back again.

Amelia watched, and felt like she should be terrified of this display of power, or even just awed, but if anything, she just felt normal. Gura had leaned forward, watching Ina with rapt attention, her lips spread into an almost impossibly large grin, and Amelia could feel how excited she was. She supposed it wasn’t every day that you got to see your eldritch girlfriend perform a magic trick, after all.

“Allow us to traverse the shadows to where I demand.” Ina hand lifted up an orb of power growing just above her palm, and then it exploded. Amelia blinked once – and then their couch was in the middle of a large and white rocky plain.

“Where are we?” Amelia asked, looking around the desolate landscape. With the power dissipated, Ina just pointed upward, and Amelia followed her finger up, and her jaw dropped open.

There was the vastness of space, and then the Earth came into view. She could see the sun peeking out from behind the Earth, and she could even make out the continents through the clouds. It was a beautiful sight – absolutely breathtaking, and she could see Ina beginning to smirk, now that she was no longer connected to the Ancient Ones as before. Amelia could feel her smugness, but quite frankly, Ina had every right to feel like that.

“We’re on the MOON?!” Gura exclaimed, “Ina! That’s – holy shit!”

“Ok, I admit, that’s pretty freaking cool,” Amelia shook her head, she was sure she was still in shock, “Like… Just… Gura’s right, holy shit.”

“That’s one of the least dangerous spells,” Ina spoke up after watching them looking around, “The other ones can be quite… destructive.”

“So can we just breathe in space?” Gura asked curiously.

“There’s no air to breathe in space,” Ina said with a shake of her head, “We don’t breathe at all. The Ancient Ones protect us out here.”

“How are we talking then?” Amelia asked, “Don’t we need to take a breath to talk?”

“I do not presume to know how the Ancient Ones work,” Ina replied with an apologetic shrug, “But I honestly don’t know how it works. I don’t question the eldritch gods.”

Amelia chuckled, “Yeah, ok, that’s fair.”

“Can we try to use AO-chan too?” Gura asked, her eyes glued to AO-chan. Ina hesitated, still holding the book close to herself.

“Uh…” Ina looked uncertain, and they could feel as much through the link, “I suppose you can give it a try.”

“If you don’t want me to, Ina, I don’t mind.” Gura said quickly, raising her hands, “I don’t want to hurt you or anyone.”

“You won’t get hurt,” Ina replied quickly, “It’s just… The spells are really dangerous if you use them improperly, and I don’t know if your knowledge of being a priestess will cover this as well as it does with your tentacles.”

“Can you at least tell us how to make our wings like yours?” Amelia asked, “You can fly with those, right?”

Ina looked behind herself, as if just noticing her wings were still a massive size. “Uh… Would you believe me if I told you I’ve never tried to fly before?”

“No way – seriously?” Amelia asked, “But why?!”

“Not a lot of places to practice,” Ina answered honestly, “I guess I could teleport to an empty plain or something, but I’ve just never really bothered trying.”

“We should do that, then!” Amelia exclaimed, “It’ll be fun!”

“And if we fall?” Gura asked, “Does being a priestess cover fall damage?”

“I mean, we literally have a bunch of tentacles, we can catch each other, probably…” Amelia shrugged, “Shouldn’t be too dangerous, right?”

“I guess we can try,” Ina mumbled after a minute of thought, “But not today – maybe sometime later? I want to be sure to pick out a safe place, and maybe try to set up a few safety precautions? I think we would be safe if we did fall, but I’m not entirely sure.”

“Alright!” Amelia cheer, jumping up from the couch and going about twenty feet into the air before falling back down to the ground, “Woah, that was trippy.”

“Well,” Ina looked back to Gura, and held the book to her, “I can at least let you take us back, Gura. I’ll take you to the right page, and you can read the passage.”

Gura was about to launch out of the seat, but after looking at Amelia, she thought better of it, and carefully lifted herself up. She walked over to Ina’s side, and took hold of one side of the book, while Ina held the other. The moment Gura took hold of the book, her back stiffened, and Ina looked at her for a moment in concern. “O – okay.” Gura blinked her eyes a few times, “I feel like… The whispers are getting louder.”

Amelia sat back down on the couch, and watched the two of them holding one another.

“Let the voices in, Gura. Allow them to immerse your mind.” Ina closed her eyes and took a deep breath, and then opened them, “Do you understand?”

Gura closed her eyes too, breathing deeply in and out, and then opened them. Unlike Ina’s, whose eyes glowed purple, Gura’s were a dark glowing blue. “I got it.”

“Read this passage, Gura.”

“Okay.” Gura nodded, and Amelia had to stifle a laugh – their conversation was so monotone and lacking outward emotion. It was only because she was bonded to them that she could still feel the protectiveness Ina felt over Gura, she could feel her anxiety and nervousness, though it was all muted. Gura on the other hand was really thrilled, excited to be doing something like this. Gua’s wings grew outward, and a halo appeared above her head, much like how they formed for Ina earlier.

“Ancient Ones.” Gura called out, and the power started to shift around them again. The grains of sand along the surface of the moon began to float upward, and Amelia had to plant her legs on the surface of the moon and hold the couch so it wouldn’t be drawn into the whirlwind forming around the two of them, “Heed my call. Allow us to traverse the shadows to where I demand.”

Amelia blinked, and then there was a loud THUMP as the couch landed back where it was before. They were again in their apartment, and everything was back where it belonged. The time on all of the clocks was flashing and the incorrect times, so they’d have to fix that, and the TV was just showing static, but otherwise everything seemed to be working just fine. Amelia reached over to the table and picked up the remote, and turned off the TV.

“Woah,” Gura blinked her eyes, the power leaving her, and her wings slowly began to shrink back, her halo fading, “That was… Really cool.”

Ina closed AO-chan, and simply let go. The book didn’t fall, instead it stayed floating and made its way over to the table where it settled itself down. “You did really well, Gura!” Ina patted her on the back, a wide smile on her face, “I’m really impressed!”

Gura couldn’t hide her smile, and Amelia just chuckled as they hugged each other. She felt a little left out, but didn’t voice it out, not wanting to interrupt their moment. The problem was that she couldn’t hide her emotions from them, the moment the thought crossed her mind, the moment that brief little nugget of envy appeared, they were both making their way towards her, again on either side of her, and they sat down and hugged her.

“G – Guys!” Amelia gasped, her face heating up, “Shit, stupid mind reading!”

“Aw, don’t be like that!” Gura smiled patronizingly at her, though Amelia knew there was no ill will in it, “We love you too!”

Ina nodded quickly, “Yeah! You’re important too!”

“Ugh…” Amelia wanted to deny it, but she knew they’d just embarrass her further. Instead, she just hugged both of them closer to her. One arm around Gura, the other Ina, and she pulled them in, “Fuck it, come here you two!”

“Aw!” Gura laughed, her tail was swishing behind her crazily, no doubt a result of her mood, “She’s not hiding it anymore, Ina!”

“It seems like that’s the case,” Ina nodded quickly.

“You know there’s one thing we haven’t done with Amelia yet.” Gura’s smile turned a little too predatory for Amelia’s liking, and she felt a little apprehensive now. She looked at Ina, and she had the same smile.

“What are you planning?” Amelia asked quickly.

“I don’t know,” Ina leaned up and kissed her cheek tenderly, “What do you think we have planned?”

“I can feel you two getting turned on again – do you ever stop?” Amelia complained.

“Oh, come on, as if you’re not!” Gura laughed, “Now come here!” She forced Amelia face towards her, and they began kissing. Amelia didn’t even pretend to put up a fight, she’d been wanting this the entire god damn day, and she was glad to finally get it. She wasn’t exactly expecting Ina to grip her hair-tentacle though, nor was she expecting how damn sensitive it was. She gasped into Gura’s mouth, losing her breath from just the mere touch.

She felt Ina’s – or maybe Gura’s – tentacles slithering up her thighs, and she shuddered at the touch.

“Come on Watson,” Gura was still grinning like a madwoman, “It’s time to practice using your tentacles too.”

And practice she would get aplenty.

Chapter Text

Amelia’s job was a grim task on some days, especially when it involved a dead body. An old woman in her eighties had been murdered in her home, and she’d been sent to investigate it with another agent. When they arrived there, naturally the suspects were her son and his wife, both of whom were living in the same household caring for her. There was a bit of a wrench in that hypothesis however, since it was her son who called it in in the first place, and to his credit, he sounded absolutely panic-stricken over the line – Amelia and her colleague had both listened to it in silence at the station before they went to the interrogation room, where the two people were seated.

“I didn’t do it.” The man said immediately when she entered. She had no outward expression – she couldn’t let them think she believed them or not, or even show any sympathy right now. She was here for answers, and she sat across from the two of them. The LED light above them lit the room up in a bright white glow, allowing nothing to be hidden from view.

“We’re not saying you did,” Amelia said softly, “We’re just here to ask you some questions.”

“Right, of course…” The man wiped his brow.

He was a heavier gentleman, with a particularly large gut and an overgrown moustache. He wore a button up shirt and khaki pants, and she looked down at the papers she was holding. According to the police that brought him here, he’d just been coming home from work when he found the body – and that was why he called in a panic. There was nothing incriminating in his profile, though there was a little note that he did enjoy drinking a little too much, but otherwise, his record was clean.

The woman beside him was a lithe little thing, though she was caked with make-up, making it seem like she was trying too hard to appear young. She didn’t have a job, according to her notes, she generally stayed at home to care for the elderly woman and the house in general. It was a little old fashioned, Amelia thought – she certainly wouldn’t be willing to do nothing all day – but she wouldn’t begrudge a woman for her choices. Unfortunately for her though, she appeared to be the prime suspect, she was home at the time of the old woman’s death, and from the police’s recollection, her reacting was rather subdued.

They had no children, and by all accounts they appeared to be very well off. There were notes from the neighbors that they could occasionally hear faint shouting, but nothing pointing towards a violent domestic dispute.

“All right,” Amelia sighed, “My partner and I here are going to ask you some questions.” She pointed to her partner, a young man wearing a beige coat like she was. He was a few years her junior, and while she didn’t mind his company, he was like a puppy, following her every word, and hardly having any initiative for himself. It was useful at times, but she needed him to become more individualistic.

“Ok,” The woman nodded.

“Great,” Amelia looked at the two suspects, “You can call me Amelia, and this is my partner, Moni.”

Moni gave a small incline of his head, “Hello there, just make sure to answer our questions, and you’ll be free to go.”

Amelia smiled, it was thin thing with no real heart in it, “That’s right. You two can relax, neither of you are being charged with anything, we just need some answers.”

And with that, the interview was underway. She asked the basics – their names, age, their jobs, basic things that she already knew, but had to establish to make sure that they weren’t going to be lying to her. Both of them had been completely truthful, and so she started to actually dig into the meat of the issue.

“At what time did you arrive home to find her?” Amelia asked, making sure not to call his mother a body or corpse, she didn’t want to cause any undue distress.

“Right after work – uh, that would be around six in the evening.”

“It’d be earlier if you didn’t stop to buy beer every day,” The woman next to him grumbled.

He winced, “I know – If I didn’t, maybe…”

Amelia kept things moving, “Where were you at the time of their passing?” She directed that at the man’s wife.

“I was at the gym,” The woman replied easily, but Amelia noticed how callous she was, and narrowed her eyes at her minutely, “The police should’ve told you that much – caused a scene when they arrived to fetch me.”

“This is horrible,” The man mumbled.

The woman actually scoffed, and Amelia shared a quick glance with Moni, “I didn’t want the old bat dead, but I can’t say that I’m unhappy she’s gone.”

“How can you say that?” The man asked, his voice distraught.

“You know why! That demon was going senile! She was a god damn menace!” She growled, and looked at Amelia, “I won’t lie to you detective. I’ve wished she would die for months now; she’s grown worse and worse over the years! Every single day she and I would get into a fight about some insignificant little thing she forgot about, and it never ended. Every day we’d fight over the same god damn things.”

“Dear…” The man looked horrified, “She can’t help it, she was sick!”

“I’m sick of people saying that to me,” She growled, “I’m sick of people offering me their sympathy, saying that they’ll have her in their thoughts and prayers for a recovery, for my life to get easier. Well, it never got better, and it such as hell never got easier!”

The interview went on for another ten minutes, and then Amelia was walking out of the room rubbing her face tiredly.

“That was a lot to take in,” Moni muttered as they rounded the corner and went into their own little office. The room was small, and the desk was a tiny thing with a bunch of papers scattered all over it and barely any room for anything else. It didn’t stop Amelia from collapsing into the seat next to the desk, and kicking her feet up with a groan.

“The woman did it.” She said immediately.

“Oh?” Moni’s brow raised, “How can you be so sure? She seemed pretty honest to me.” He leaned against the desk, the poor thing creaking a bit with both his and Amelia’s weight on it, as well as the hundreds of papers in a disorganized mess atop it.

Amelia sighed, and tired rubbing her eyes, “You just sort of get an instinct for this kind of thing after doing this long enough.” She looked at the clock hanging on the wall, and winced, it was nearly eleven at night, she should’ve been off hours ago, but when cases actually got going, she couldn’t just pick up and leave. She hoped Gura and Ina understood…

She closed her eyes, and tried to feel for them, and immediately felt concern. It was severely muted due to the distance, of course, but undoubtedly they could feel her tiredness and just how down she felt. She’d never particularly enjoyed murder cases when it involved families like this, especially when it was a domestic case. They were never pretty, and it really showed her how ugly humans could be at times. She felt Gura and Ina trying to convey comfort and love through the bond, and she smiled – her first genuine smile since she’d started working over fourteen hours ago.

“Instinct?” Moni muttered, and Amelia was brought back to the present. She’d just told him that it was instinct, right. “That’s it?”

“Her alibi doesn’t hold up,” She replied, “She has a strict schedule, always goes to the gym every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,” She looked through her notes, “Today’s Thursday, so that’s a bit odd.”

“Not enough to charge her with anything. Just an odd coincidence.”

She nodded in approval, “Good, you’re right. However, her neighbors say that she left in a hurry, and not to mention they do have security cameras around their household. Neighbors say they didn’t see any suspicious people entering the premise, and this is a fairly low crime neighborhood.”

“So, we need the footage then, to see if anyone snuck in.”

“Yeah, but by that time she’s going to be long gone.” Amelia replied, pulling out her watch.

He eyed the watch, “Can’t we do something about it?”

“We can.” She replied, “More specifically, I can.”

“Oh?”

She clicked the watch.

The world changed around her, the office melted away, and all that was left was an endless void of darkness. She wasn’t afraid though; this was what usually happened when she time traveled. The further back she went, the longer she would linger in this endless void. When she first started using the watch, she tried to avoid doing so to stay away from this place, but over time, she’d grown to like the absolute silence. It was a nice reprieve from her hectic life, a chance to just close her eyes and relax for a moment.

“Amelia Watson.”

She opened her eyes, and turned around, smiling at the woman who appeared out of the darkness. The concept of time itself, or as she liked to be called, Kronii. She was a voluptuous woman who – Amelia had to admit – had legs for days. She always struggled to keep her eyes off of her, because despite not even truly being human, Kronii sure picked a damn attractive form. A giant clock floated behind her, slowly ticking away, though Amelia had noticed a while back it always went backwards when she was here, undoubtedly an influence of her time traveling.

“Hey, Kronii.” She smiled at the woman, though it was a bit forced, “How are ya doing?”

“I was doing fine until someone decided to time travel,” She answered, crossing her arms, “Me and Mumei were just about to eat dinner, and then I suddenly appeared here.”

Amelia winced, “Ah, sorry about that.”

Kronii shrugged, and she crossed her arms under her rather large – Amelia shook her head, bad girl! – and she let out a soft sigh, “Something bad?”

Amelia’s smile dropped, “Yeah… Murder. Domestic case. Woman killed her mother-in-law after losing her temper with her. I’m reversing time so I can stop it…”

“Sometimes people just have to die, Amelia. Doing this isn’t natural.” Kronii said, though her voice did soften, “But I’ll allow it, I suppose. I forgot to go grocery shopping today anyway, so at least this will stop Bae from bugging the shit out of me.”

She looked fondly upon Kronii. Despite being the Warden of Time, tasked with making sure the timeline stayed stable, she gave so much to her. Before she met Ina and Gura, hell, before she knew Calli or Kiara even, the only other person she related to at all was Kronii. At one point she may have even harbored a bit of a crush on her, an unrequited love that could never be, but she’d move passed such things. Maybe… Even now, she could still feel the seeds of it lingering within her, but she quickly stamped it out – she was perfectly happy with Gura and Ina.

Amelia let out a little laugh to hide her awkward thoughts, “I still can’t really get my head around you living just a normal little life on Earth. Why in the world did you do that?”

“Same reason as you, I suppose?” Kronii replied with a shrug, “You live with the priestess of the Ancient Ones and the last Atlantean, after all.” She paused, “And aren’t you friends with the phoenix and the apprentice of Thanatos?”

Thanatos was the god of death, or in other words, the grim reaper. Amelia nodded, “Yeah…” She paused, wondering if she should ask about the bond, if she could potentially figure out what it was and if there was a way to deactivate it, though… Surprisingly, she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to do that anymore. The bond was troublesome at first, but the last few days had been a blast, and feeling Ina and Gura during the day during her case was one of the very few things that kept her from losing her cool – they literally made sure her world didn’t turn gray, they prevented her from losing her faith, so to speak, as dramatic as it sounded.

“Amelia?”

“Oh – sorry.” Amelia shook her head, “Lost in thought.”

Kronii chuckled, “Well. At any rate, time’s up. Try not to turn back the clock again for a little while, ok?”

“You always let me get away with it.” Amelia cheekily replied, noticing her form was beginning to fade, as was Kronii across from her. She was being pulled back to reality, exactly ten hours into the past, where she was going to prevent the horrible crime from taking place.

“If you keep that attitude up, I might not.” Kronii’s voice was dry, and even with narrowed eyes, Amelia knew that Kronii wouldn’t deny assistance to her. The concept of time was a softie at heart, always concerned for her wellbeing.

“I’ll see you around,” Amelia gave a quick wave, and then she was gone.

XxXxXxX

Gura noticed immediately something was different with Amelia when she arrived home after work that day. Amelia thankfully didn’t have any overtime, and came home at her usual time, but she was being unusually affectionate with her the moment she arrived. When she opened the door to their apartment, Amelia made a beeline towards her and started to pepper her face with kisses, much to her complete confusion, she didn’t necessarily mind, especially when she could feel Amelia’s love, and more concerningly, she could feel an almost desperate need for it coming from her. It concerned her, and whereas she would normally push her away, she just held her closely.

“Amelia, are you ok?”

“I am now,” She sighed, holding Gura tightly.

“Did you use your watch?” Gura asked, and she felt Amelia stiffen – bingo.

“Was it that obvious?”

“If I noticed it, yeah.” Gura chuckled, “But I could also feel your emotions too, they were kind of a big help.”

Amelia sighed, and just leaned into the hug, holding Gura tight. Again, Gura could feel that desperate need for affection, and she just held her tight. She wasn’t exactly surprised when Ina came out of her room where she’d been quietly working on some art commissions, Amelia was kind of like a beacon right now with how strong her emotions were. Ina just crept over, and draped her arms around Amelia from behind, settling her head on her shoulder.

“It’s ok, Ame.” Ina whispered to her, “We’re here.”

“Thank you,” Amelia muttered, and Gura could feel her slowly relaxing, the tension in her shoulders were loosening up, and she began to sag down.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Gura asked.

“Not really,” Amelia replied, “Just… Sad work, I don’t like working on stuff like that. It’s part of the job though.”

Gura stifled her smile – she just said she didn’t want to talk about it, and then just started talking about it immediately after. She was glad that Amelia was opening up, and she dearly hoped Amelia could feel her love, use it as a balm on her wounded soul to recover from whatever it was she was dealing with.

“It may be part of your job,” Ina said, “But you’re still human, Amelia.”

“Hm.” Amelia nodded, and she finally loosened her grip on Gura.

“You want to just cuddle tonight?” Gura asked softly as she guided Amelia down to the couch, “I’ll order a pizza, we can put on some stupid movie, and just… try to relax.”

Amelia smiled dimly at that, “That sounds great.”

“And…” Gura gulped, “Tomorrow I can try to become human for you?”

She felt nervous, but was also kind of eager to try it out. Amelia was the only one of them that had the chance to experience being all three of the possible things she could change into now, so it was about time she and Ina got to try out being human – or simply being just human in Ina’s case. She was actually kind of excited to see what Ina would look like without any of her eldritch properties, and she supposed she was kind of eager to see how she’d look without her Atlantean traits, to just have human skin all over her body, and to not have a tail.

“I work tomorrow,” Amelia sighed.

“Call in sick,” Ina suggested, getting comfortable on her other side.

Amelia glanced over, “Don’t you have work to do, Ina?”

“Hush, you.” She settled her head on Amelia’s shoulder, “Work can wait. You’re more important.”

Gura grinned at how quickly Amelia’s face lit up at that, and she felt a little flustered feeling Amelia’s emotions go haywire for a moment, before settling on pure affection for Ina, and some of it was directed at her too. Gura smiled, and knew Amelia felt her affection just as much as she felt Ina’s.

“I love you guys,” She laughed – it was so true, so genuine, and it made her damn happy.

“Yeah,” Amelia’s voice was small, but the gloom and tension that hung over her since she came home was beginning to fade away, and a shy little smile blossomed on her face, “I – uh, love you guys too.”

Ina summoned a tentacle to hug Amelia closer, and Gura went to the kitchen to their one and only landline phone, determined to order a pizza. Her tail was wagging like crazy, looking forward to just cuddling the entire night away. Not only was it to help Amelia get her spirits back up, but, quite frankly, she just loved being with her most favorite people in the entire world.

Hours later, they all fell asleep on the couch, an open box of pizza before them, the TV still on showing some god-awful action movie, and AO-chan lingering protective over them.

XxXxXxX

Ina was making breakfast the next morning. It was usually Amelia’s job, but after yesterday, well, she still wanted to pamper the detective, especially with how down she felt after coming home from work. She’d finally gotten the whole story from her, apparently, she had saved a woman from being murdered, but it wasn’t a happy ending, the woman’s own daughter-in-law tried to kill her, and she was going to be going to trial, and… Well, Ina didn’t want to linger on it anymore, it wasn’t important, and she didn’t want it to be on Amelia’s mind anymore either.

“I can make breakfast, Ina.” Amelia sounded amused, which was a good thing in her book.

“Today I am,” She replied, “You just sit back and relax.”

Amelia still had an amused smile on her lips as she did just that, leaning back in the rickey wooden seat at the small kitchen table. Gura was still fast asleep on the couch, snoring away softly in the distance. AO-chan was floating beside her, simply observing her actions, not saying a single word the entire time. Honestly, Ina felt completely at peace – she wished all mornings were like this. She started to hum a little tune as she cooked, and when she glanced over, she saw Amelia with her eyes closed, just absorbing the homely atmosphere.

“Ame?”

“Hm?” The detective opened her eyes, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing wrong,” Ina replied, “I was just wondering if you think we should surprise Gura?”

That grabbed Amelia’s attention, “Oh?” She leaned forward, her elbows on the table as her fingers crisscrossed with one another, “And how do you suppose we do that?”

“Let’s see how long it’ll take her to notice that I’ve become just a human.” Ina let out a little laugh, “We’ll time it.”

Amelia looked back at the couch, where Gura was still snoozing away, “No way she’ll notice.”

“You want to make a bet?”

Amelia laughed at that, “Ok, sure, if Gura notices your change within the first five minutes of waking up, I’ll do whatever it is you want.”

Ina’s smile widened, “Anything?”

“Yes – but you can’t tell her! That would be cheating!”

“I wasn’t planning on doing that!” Ina huffed – honestly, did Amelia think she would do that? She just felt an affectionate love coming from Amelia, and her minor annoyance melted away at the feeling, she couldn’t even muster up a token anger at her. She just turned back to her cooking – bacon sizzling away in one pan, while she just cracked a few eggs in another – and she focused her thoughts. She spared AO-chan a quick look, “Don’t freak out, ok?”

Understood.

“So, not that I think I’ll lose, but did you plan to make me do if I lost?” Amelia asked, her gaze locked onto Ina, “I just want to know.”

She smiled, “It’s a secret.”

Like she’d done before at the beach, she focused on the aura as she closed her eyes, except this time she felt for Amelia’s. Since Ina was a human – a transformed human, sure, but human nonetheless – when she ‘took’ a part of Amelia’s aura and brought it to herself, nothing actually seemed to happen. She frowned, and opened her eyes again as she looked over to Amelia, “Uh, I don’t know how to do this.”

She could clearly feel Amelia’s emotions, and even hints of her thoughts, but that was to be expected when she literally had a part of Amelia within herself right now. She could feel Amelia’s confusion, and then she felt her mind start to churn, the thoughts of the detective were going fast and furious as she watched her eyes turn to AO-chan. Ina always knew Amelia was smart, but now that she was focusing on nothing more than her emotions and thoughts, it made her truly realize how damn intelligent she was, despite how much she tried to downplay it. She just felt her mind work, allowing it to comfort her just as much as the Ancient Ones’ whispers in the back of her mind.

“Uh…” Amelia looked a little embarrassed, and she knew that Amelia wasn’t sure what to make of her loving listening to her thoughts so much, “Um, so. You’re human, Ina.”

“Yes.” Ina nodded, “I tell you that from time to time.”

“Yeah, well, three days ago, we literally became a different species when we took some of Gura’s aura. However, you noticed how Gura was still an Atlantean despite taking some of your aura the other day, right? There must be another factor at play here, then. Gura didn’t want to become a human, and she didn’t, so perhaps when she ‘grabbed’ the aura, she envisioned becoming a priestess of the Ancient Ones instead? That is what I was thinking too, when I became a priestess. I didn’t even think there were any stipulations like that, but it makes sense I suppose. This power, or whatever we have, must have like a two-way authentication, it needs to make sure we’re ok with the change first before it’s permitted.”

“Huh,” Ina mumbled, “So if I grabbed some of Gura’s aura and didn’t want to become an Atlantean, I wouldn’t change?”

“Maybe,” Amelia shrugged, “We’ll need to test it at some point. We can take the aura from each other and use it to hear thoughts and emotions better, so who knows how the hell this magic works.”

“It’s nice,” Ina replied, “Your thoughts are very comforting.”

“Uh…” Amelia had no response to that, “W – Well… Anyway. Your aura is human, Ina, but I think it’s influenced by the Ancient Ones, which is why Gura and I were able to change when we took some.”

“So rather than taking your aura, I need to separate the Ancient Ones from mine?”

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded, “That sounds about right.”

Ina focused inward again, relinquishing her hold of Amelia’s aura, and she felt Amelia’s thoughts and emotions begin to dim once again. She mourned the loss, wanting to bring it back, but she consoled herself with the knowledge that they were still connected. She felt a little bit returning to her, and looked up at Amelia in surprise.

“I – If you really want, we can share some of it,” Amelia said, undoubtedly feeling her sadness, “It, uhm, was nice to feel you like that too.”

Ina smiled, “Thank you, Ame.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Well, that made her feel better. With Amelia’s assurance, she focused inward again, and once more she could feel the auras around them. She could ‘see’ Gura’s blue aura dimmed on the couch, probably because she was asleep. She could see Amelia’s aura burning brightly next to her, and then she focused further so she could see her own within her mental landscape. She could feel the Ancient Ones influence upon her aura – her very soul – and she reached out and touched it.

AO-chan, could you release your hold upon me temporarily?

Whatever you desire, priestess.

Her eyes shot open, and she let out a sudden gasp. The Ancient Ones constant whispers were suddenly silenced, and the apartment felt eerily quiet, not a single sound. Her connection to them was completely cut, and she couldn’t even feel her tentacles from the void to summon up. She shakily reached up and touched her hair, noticing that the tentacle hair was completely gone, and in its place were purple strands of hair, no orange in sight. She tried to move her head flaps, and found that they too were completely missing. Reaching around her back, she couldn’t feel any wings… She was just an uncorrupted human now, no eldritch abnormalities anywhere on her body.

“Wow,” Amelia muttered, and Ina turned to look at her seeing the detective’s eyes wander up and down her body. Even though she was clothed, Ina felt exposed. The priestess garment she wore was rather risqué, and she brought up an arm over her chest in embarrassment. “You know, the fact that you’re just a normal human now makes you seem more exotic, somehow.”

“Y – Yeah?” Ina mumbled, “Does it?”

“It’s been a few years since I went back to meet you as a kid, but I’ve always known you were going to become the priestess even then. So now that we’re in the present time, and you look like this… Yeah, it’s different…” She paused, and smiled, leaning forward, “Sexy, too.”

Ina’s face flushed, and she couldn’t rely on the voice of the Ancient Ones to calm her, “Uh, I, uh…” It was so odd, how losing her powers made her feel like this, almost helpless to Amelia’s words, “T – Thank you…”

Amelia abruptly stood up, “Hey, AO-chan, get back, I don’t wanna knock you to the floor or something.”

Ina glanced over, and the book did as Amelia asked, floating away from her side and settling down on the kitchen counter instead. Behind her, the eggs and bacon were still cooking, and she stuttered, as Amelia approached, “Um, the food – I uh, need to finish it!”

Amelia grabbed her quickly – so fast that Ina let out a little yelp. The detective’s arms snaked around her waist, right where her wings would have blocked her hands, and she was forced closer to Amelia’s body. The detective was smaller than her, but that height difference didn’t matter, Ina’s legs were wobbling, and her mouth felt dry. She felt drunk on Amelia’s attraction and desire, and she didn’t resist at all when Amelia wrapped her hand behind her head and forced it down into a kiss.

Without the Ancient Ones to help her keep her mind in peace, without the use of her tentacles to try and turn things around, and without the assurance of her power constantly in the back of her mind, Ina felt like a helpless doe before a looming predator, and she found that she liked the feeling – she liked it a lot. When their first kiss broke, Ina was seeing stars, and she offered no resistance when she was pushed roughly against the counter – beside the stove, thankfully – and Amelia continued her assault upon her.

If she hadn’t been pushed on the counter, Ina’s legs would have given out already, but thankfully Amelia kept her pushed up against the counter, and she just continued to follow Amelia’s whims, feeling like she was having an out of body experience. Amelia emotions were so strongly emitting want, love, and arousal that Ina was quickly succumbing to it, and she simply whimpered as Amelia continued to smother her with love and affection, closing her eyes as she let out a little hiss as the detective’s hand reached lower and lower…

XxXxXxX

When Gura woke up, she grimaced at how freaking turned on she was. She didn’t usually dream, but for some reason, she had a rather vivid dream of making love to Amelia and Ina. It was so provocative and felt so real that she was honestly surprised she was actually asleep. When she sleepily lifted her head up and looked around the living room, she spotted Amelia and Ina both in the kitchen. Amelia was seated at the table, eating what looked to be very burnt food, with her collar and clothes completely messed up. Ina in the meantime was standing at the stove, one hand firmly holding the ledge as her legs were shaking, looking like she was able to fall at any moment.

“Oh, Gura.” Amelia noticed her waking up from her seat, “Have a good sleep?”

“Mmm,” Gura wiped her eyes, “Yeah, uh, had a doozy of a dream before I woke up though.” She shifted uncomfortably, her underwear felt a little damp, “Um, I have to go to the bathroom really quick,” She muttered, wondering how discreetly she could go to her backpack to grab some underwear without the others noticing.

“What was it about?” Amelia asked.

“Uh,” Gura knew she was getting embarrassed, and she knew they could feel it, “Well, you guys were in it, and uh…” She knew she was blushing now too, and she hated it, “Stuff happened.”

“Stuff.” Amelia chuckled.

Ina meanwhile had walked over to the table in a stiff gait, and nearly slammed a plate down with her food, “Here, Gura. When you’re finished in the bathroom, I’ve got some food for you.”

Gura distractedly nodded, quickly going to her bag, trying to just work as fast as possible, and then she ran to the bathroom. The idea of working off her frustration was there, but she didn’t think she could quite live it down if the others found out, and considering their emotional link, they were bound to find out, so she just swallowed down her frustration, and jumped in the shower, setting it to its coldest setting and just standing there for a few minutes.

She finished, and after dressing up, she left the room in her trusty shark outfit, and went to sit at Amelia’s side at the table. She gave Ina a grateful nod for setting out her plate, before she started to eat.

When Ina sat down, Gura looked up to thank her, and then paused. Something about her was different…

“Ina?” She muttered, looking at her with squinted eyes. The shower had taken away most of the grogginess from her, but she was still feeling a little out of it, “Did… You do something?”

“Something like what?” Ina asked, and Gura noticed the hint of a smile.

“You’re different.” She said bluntly, “What did you…” She blinked a few times, noticing her ears. They weren’t pointed, they were round, and that could only mean, “You’re human!”

“I’ve always been human.”

“Yeah, but I mean, the ears! The tentacles!” She looked her up and down, her sleepiness was quickly being shoved aside in her excitement, “You’re just a – just a normal human!”

“How’d she figure it out so damn fast,” Amelia grumbled, “She sat down for like thirty seconds.”

“Huh?” Gura blinked, looking over to Ame, “How in the world wouldn’t I notice? We’ve lived with Ina for years now! Are you saying you wouldn’t have?!”

“I would’ve!” Amelia insisted, “Immediately!”

“Liar.” Ina mumbled under her breath, and Amelia stuck her tongue out at her in retaliation. Gura just chuckled, and took a quick bite of her breakfast before looking up again, “It looks good on you Ina, it’s like… You normally don’t look like this, so you’re like weirdly…” She bit her lip, wondering if she should even finish that thought. Too bad for her, her emotions were shining through just fine, and both Ina and Amelia could tell how attractive she found it.

“Yeah, I felt the same way,” Amelia said with a laugh, “It’s hot.”

“Yeah,” Gura nodded, “It is.”

“Oh my god,” Ina hid her face behind her hands, “It’s like you two share the same head sometimes.”

“Oh?” Gura grinned at Amelia, “It’s only because it’s true.”

Amelia quickly nodded, “Is it wrong to find our girlfriend attractive?”

Gura still felt that odd thump against her chest whenever their relationship was acknowledged, and she held in some very undignified little squeals and just nodded empathetically along with Amelia.

“W – Well…” Ina looked elsewhere, “Uhm, anyway, you lost the bet, Ame!”

“Bet?”

“She bet that you wouldn’t notice my changes within five minutes,” Ina said, “I couldn’t tell you anything, and it turns out, you figured it out almost immediately.”

Gura just shook her head, “So what’s the bet?”

“I have to do anything she says, but she didn’t say what it would be when I asked.” Amelia grumbled, shoving her burnt food aside so she could groan and lean forward, planting her head firmly on the table, “Alright, Ina, lay it on me.”

“Well,” Ina looked positively giddy, and Gura felt a little concerned for Amelia, “Since I’ve promised to be fully human today without AO-chan’s influence, you need to take care of them!”

“Take care of them?” Amelia’s brow rose.

“Yes! You’ll be a priestess in my stead until I can go back!”

“Uh…” Amelia glanced over at the kitchen counter, where AO-chan was silently laying down, “They’re being awfully quiet, I don’t think they want me to do that, you know? The book is probably pretty picky.”

We accept you as our priestess.

“You – Ah!” Amelia glared at the book, and Gura slammed her hands over her mouth to prevent herself from laughing out loud and gaining Amelia’s ire. Ina didn’t even bother, just happily laughing, and it sounded like music to Gura’s ears. Unfortunately, her emotions were more than enough to tip Amelia off to how amusing she found this, and Gura just chuckled a little guiltily as Amelia looked her way.

“Sorry,” Gura replied, “But you have to admit, it was pretty funny.”

“AO-chan likes you guys, of course they won’t mind!” Ina said with a serene smile, “They accept both of you as priestess’s as well!”

“I don’t know why,” Amelia grumbled.

“Then in that case,” Gura mumbled, feeling that ball of apprehensive excitement welling up in her again, “Should we both change at the same time? Amelia to a full priestess, and me to a human?”

“Are you sure –”

“You don’t have to –”

Ina and Amelia shared a glance, and Gura just shook her head, “Thanks guys, but the little Atlantean doesn’t need you protecting her, she’s a grown up. I want to try being human, it looks like it could be fun, and like I said, you guys became Atlantean for me, so it’s the least I can do.”

“If you’re not comfortable, you don’t have to,” Ina said quickly, before Amelia could possibly interrupt.

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded, “It’s not like it’s a trade. We became Atlantean because we wanted to and knew it would make you happy, we didn’t do it because we want you to become human.”

Gura let out a little huff. She wanted to be annoyed, but they were both so genuine that she couldn’t properly be upset with them, “Guys, really? I want to do it.”

“If you’re sure.” Ina allowed.

“Alright, then.” Amelia replied, “Then… Yeah, we can do it at the same time.” She smiled, “Ready?”

Gura looked down at her attire. Her shark fin was poking out a specially made hole in the back, and her shorts had a customized little hole especially for her tail, but otherwise, her clothing was completely wearable by a human. She was basically finished eating, not that she ate much, considering how nervous she felt at the moment. Amelia and Ina were both finished, and waiting for her word. With a little breath, she steeled her resolve, and gave a curt nod, “Yeah, I’m as ready as I’ll ever be. I guess I can take either your or Amelia’s aura for this, then?”

Ina nodded, “Yeah, we’re both human. Take Amelia’s though.”

“What?” Amelia glanced over, “Why?”

“Don’t want you to feel left out,” Ina replied, “Besides, I have some of yours still too, it’ll let us all feel each other a lot better!”

“I – I guess…” Amelia grumbled, “Fine. Take some of mine. I’ll, uh, borrow some of AO-chan’s then?” She glanced over to the book as it slowly got up from its resting place, and floated over to her, settling right in front of her on the table, “Uh…”

“Just touch the book,” Ina smiled, “AO-chan can handle the rest for you.”

“Sure…”

Gura watched the byplay, and finally closed her eyes. She could see their auras, and she could immediately notice Amelia’s aura starting to swirl in a mixture of yellow and purple, undoubtedly the influence of AO-chan affecting them, shifting their form. Gura wanted to watch it happen in real-time, but kept her eyes closed anyway, she had her own goals to accomplish here. She felt for Amelia’s aura, and plucked some for herself, making sure not to get any of the corrupted aura, and then she brought it back to herself. With it firmly planted within, she opened her eyes, and let out a startled gasp.

She felt a pinch on either side of her, and when she felt along her sides, she was astonished to feel absolutely no gills. She quickly threw off her shark hoodie, for the moment not minding that Amelia and Ina were present, and sure enough, her gills were completely gone. It was just smooth human skin. She looked at her arms rubbing her sides, and let out a soft gasp. Her fins were completely missing there too, as well as the scales she had, just normal human flesh all over. The hoodie had come off surprisingly easily, and when she reached back to touch her large shark fin, it too was gone. All around her, she just had human skin, no scales whatsoever, and… She frowned as she looked at her chest, there were two bumps that weren’t there before, and atop of them were… “Nipples.”

“Welcome to being mammal, Gura.” She heard Amelia say, but she was too focused on herself to really care for the moment. As a shark Atlantean, she was a sort of mixture of human and fish, she had no breasts at all, so no fatty tissue on her chest at all. Now however, she definitely had breasts. They were still relatively small, but for a woman who had nothing at all there just a minute before, any amount was quite a lot. Additionally, her sense of smell was crippled, as far as she was concerned. She could always identify her friends and acquaintances by scent alone, but now she couldn’t even detect them like that, she could barely smell the breakfast she was eating. Her sight was also weakened – colors were more muted, and things were far less sharp at a distance.

She felt around her bottom for her tail, and while she knew she shouldn’t have been surprised not to have one, she still was. She could now sit in a chair without having to sit at the very edge to give her tail room to maneuver. She quickly sat in the chair like she’d always seen Ina and Amelia did, and felt no pain… She was human, completely and utterly human, and it was so weirdly alien.

“Wow…” She mumbled, “This is so weird.”

“We need to go clothes shopping for you,” Amelia mumbled, “Maybe not today, but sometimes soon.”

“What?” Gura blinked and looked up, “Why?”

“You need a bra,” Amelia replied.

“She might be able to borrow one of mine,” Ina muttered, “The band might be too big for her though.”

“We can fix that,” Amelia said, “You’d be ok with it, though?”

Ina looked practically offended, “Of course I am! It’s not every day that Gura turns human, after all!”

“But, ah, Gura?” Amelia looked over, “You might want to put your hoodie back on.” She smiled apologetically at her, “It’s considered, um, a bit bad to expose your chest like that.”

“I’m with you guys though,” Gura said reasonably, “I don’t mind if you see me.”

Gura felt both of their emotions fluctuate briefly from embarrassment to arousal, and it was that second emotion that encouraged Gura to put on her hoodie. She really wanted to get a little bit more acquainted with being a human before she did anything remotely like that with her girlfriends, even if the thought made her terribly warm.

“Well, Ame?” Gura heard the smile in Ina’s voice, “How do you like being the only priestess?”

“It’s weird,” Amelia muttered, “I feel like I’m in some bizzarro world.”

Gura plucked her head through the top of her hoodie, and glanced over at Amelia, and noticed she was transformed into a full priestess. It had only been a few days, but Gura had almost forgotten what she looked like, and she found that she liked it. Those head flaps were so adorable pressed down against her head like that, and she knew it was because Amelia was feeling a little self-conscious. There were a few summoned tentacles writhing around, and AO-chan was hovering nearby, protectively at Amelia’s side.

“Looks good,” Gura replied, and she tried to make sure Amelia knew she was being serious, trying to convey her love through the bond. With how open they were to each other due to sharing their auras, Amelia got it immediately, and just looked away shyly.

“T – Thanks,” Amelia mumbled, “S – So what’s on the agenda for today?”

“Let’s go to the park!” Ina exclaimed, “We can have Gura practice being human by walking around there! It will be fun!”

Gura felt a little nervous heading out, but it was nothing compared to the immense amount of reluctance she felt from Amelia. She looked over to her, “Ame?”

“Uh,” She rubbed the back of her head, “I’m, you know, like this… Is it ok for me to go out?”

“I did it all the time,” Ina gently reminded her, “No one will bother you. Just make sure to hide your tentacles. People will just assume it’s some weird fashion statement.”

“I – if you say so,” Amelia muttered.

Gura stood, and despite not having a tail anymore, she had no difficulties with her balance. She supposed it was the same way in which Ina and Amelia were immediately able to get the hang of being Atlanteans. She walked over and gave Amelia a quick hug, “I’ll punch out anyone who even looks at you funny,” She promised.

Amelia let out a little laugh, “I don’t want you to get charged with assault, Gura.”

“Plus, you’re just human now, you don’t have your Atlantean strength,” Ina reminded her, “You’ll have to be a bit more careful.”

“Man,” Gura grumbled, letting out of Amelia, “I didn’t realize how much you guys were missing out on until now!”

“Being human kind of sucks, eh?” Amelia asked sardonically, “Not a whole lot of benefits compared to being an Atlantean.”

“Well,” Gura thought about it, “I mean, I can fit in without everyone and their mother staring at me, so that’s a good thing. Plus, I won’t have to worry about, uh…”

“Hm?” Amelia’s brow rose, “What are you getting embarrassed about?”

“Um…” Gura wished she hadn’t said anything. She had never mentioned to a single soul about her Atlantean physiology, especially not this detail… “Well…”

“Gura,” Ina said gently, “Don’t worry about it.”

“No, no,” Gura shook her head, “You guys are my girlfriends, so maybe I should tell you.” She let out a soft breath, “Uh, you know how once a year I leave you guys for like two weeks, and then come back looking like a wreck?”

“Yeah?” Amelia frowned, she never liked it when Gura left. She knew she could find out pretty quickly where she was going and what she was doing with time travel, but that always felt like an invasion of privacy, so she never bothered to do it.

“Uh…” She knew her face was getting red, “When an Atlantean reaches the age of six thousand, we, uh…” She let out a groan, “Wegointoheatonceayear.”

“What?” Amelia asked.

“We go into heat!” Gura exclaimed, “Once a year! It fucking sucks! When Atlantis was still around, there was apparently a drug you could take so it wouldn’t happen, but, well…” She shrugged, “Turns out that humans don’t actually have a need for something like that, so I’ve had to deal with it every year for centuries now. It sucks. A lot.”

“Oh…” Amelia’s face was growing red, “I see why being human would be nice, then.”

“Yeah,” Gura grumbled, “Just… Don’t think of me as an animal, alright?”

“We don’t,” Ina went over and hugged the decidedly human Gura, “We both love you far too much to disrespect you like that!”

Gura knew she was being truthful, and she managed a smile, “Yeah… I guess that’s why I felt comfortable enough to tell you guys.”

Amelia stood up, “Well, the park, right?”

“Y – Yeah?” Gura blinked, wasn’t Amelia just against this?

“Awesome! I’m going to put on some shorts and a shirt, and I’ll be ready to head out! You going to stick with that hoodie, Gura?”

“Probably, yeah.” Gura replied.

“I’ll change,” Ina mumbled, “I don’t want to wear something so revealing in public.” She grimaced looking down at her priestess outfit, and Gura noticed how ruffled it looked, as if it had been forcibly removed earlier… She shook her head, trying to focus on other things. “I’ll get you a bra too really quick, Gura.” She added on as she looked back at Gura.

When Amelia went to her room, Gura stopped Ina really quick, “What was up with her attitude change? Wasn’t she against this?”

Ina smiled, “You were feeling down when you admitted to us about your heat, we could both feel it loud and clear.”

Gura blinked, “Oh, so she…”

“She wanted you to be happy, so she decided to go along with this despite her worries.”

“She didn’t have to…”

“She wanted to.” Ina said, “Gura, she wanted to be nice and do something for you after you told us that.” She leaned forward and hugged the shorter now human girl, “Let us pamper you once in a while, ok?”

“Uh, ok…” She felt embarrassed, and she waited out on the couch for them to get ready.

True to her words, Amelia was just wearing a T-shirt and shorts, though her wings were peeking out of her shirt, since there weren’t any holes cut in it. Ina meanwhile left her room wearing an adorable white blouse and an equally cute skirt, and Gura did her due diligence doting at her about it, causing the now fully human Ina to blush in embarrassment. Amelia just watched the exchange with a smile before she grabbed the keychain and her watch.

“Gura, here.” Ina discreetly handed Gura a rather plain bra, “Do you need help getting it on?”

“Y – yes please.” She felt embarrassed, she knew this was something women knew how to do easily, but she’d never worn one, never had a need. Ina thankfully didn’t laugh, and even Amelia came over to help out. The band was indeed a bit too large for her, but tightening the straps and hooking the band on the tightest notch did the trick – just barely. It was still noticeably too large, but her chest was at least being supported by something.

“We’ll get you some new ones if you ever decide to try out being human again,” Amelia decided, looking her up and down, “looks good.”

Gura managed a shy smile, “Thank you.”

Moments later they left the apartment, locking it behind them.

XxXxXxX

Having whispers in the back of her head within the silence of her home was one thing, but to have them continuously whisper to her even when she was around noisy crowds was something else entirely. It wasn’t that it was giving her a headache, if anything, the voices were just as soothing as they were before, despite the continuous droning, but she felt like she never got a moment of silence to herself. There was always noise! AO-chan was firmly in her hands as she walked, and fortunately the book itself was being quiet, which granted Amelia a little bit of a reprieve.

The Park wasn’t that far from their apartment complex, so they had opted to walk, and Gura was busy just watching at people walked by them without even glancing their way – they were being completely ignored, much to Amelia’s relief. She supposed Gura was just astonished that people weren’t looking at her. That children wouldn’t stop in their tracks and ask their parents about her tail, that people would confront her about it with questions… They just walked on by, and Gura couldn’t have been happier to be ignored.

“This is so cool!” Gura gushed as she led the group. The very human and non-eldritch Ina walked closely behind, a wide smile on her face, and Amelia could feel the pure adoration and humor in her emotions. It was hard not to feel that way towards Gura, it truly was adorable how she was acting, after all. She was almost childish in her glee, in the way that she would just watch folks walking by who had no words for her.

“Most people find being ignored so thoroughly pretty rude.” Amelia muttered, both girls caught it of course.

“It’s a blessing,” Gura said, closing her eyes in pure bliss, “I love you guys, and I love living among humanity, since your species has created some awesome stuff, but man…” She let out a loud sigh, “It was so tiring to be stared at constantly. No matter what I did, no matter how hard I tried to hide myself, there were always eyes on me.” She opened her eyes and smiled, “Now? Now I’m literally standing in the middle of the sidewalk, my arms held wide!” She threw her arms out and nearly hit a few people. She got a few passing glares, but they quickly looked elsewhere, too busy in their own lives to honestly care about some girl’s weird delusions, “Look at that! They just ignored me!”

Ina laughed at Gura’s enthusiasm, “Most people are just busy and want to go home, or are heading to work.”

“And there’s no freak to look at for them now,” Gura said with a smaller – almost melancholic – smile.

“You’re not a freak!” Amelia frowned deeply, “Don’t say that about yourself.”

Gura blinked in surprise, and turned to Amelia, “Ah – sorry, I didn’t mean it. I don’t think I’m a freak. Sorry, I was just making a point.”

“Amelia’s just feeling defensive because of your emotions,” Ina said gently, placing a hand on Gura’s shoulder, “They kind of dipped down for a moment, like you’re sad.”

“I’m not sad, just…” Gura shrugged, “I guess I’m happy to be human and be ignored for once, but I wish people wouldn’t be so scared of me when I’m an Atlantean. I’m proud of who I am, but no one else really is, I guess?”

A sidewalk was no place for a conversation like this, especially since Amelia got the sense that there was quite a bit of emotional baggage Gura probably had to work through. She made a mental note of it, because Gura wasn’t lying when she said she wasn’t sad – it was an odd melancholy, one Amelia was all too familiar with being a time traveler. It reminded her too much of her job, and she knew what it was like to dwell on such thoughts.

“We’re heading to the park, right?” Amelia said as she stepped between the two of them and put her arms around them, “You might be happy people are ignoring you, Gura, but I hope I don’t have to remind you that I don’t exactly look very human right now!” It was true, with her wings sticking awkwardly out of the bottom of her T-shirt and her tentacle hair and head flaps, she certainly looked pretty odd.

She felt thankfulness from Gura for the change in subject, and a little note of exasperation from Ina. She smiled apologetically at the former priestess, but Ina just shook her head – she knew that now wasn’t the time for this too – and Amelia was relieved that everyone was on the same page for once. Feeling each other’s emotions was certainly useful for that at least. “Alright,” Ina conceded, “It’s just another few blocks, then we can walk around.”

“And dare Ame to do stuff with her tentacles!”

“Absolutely not.” Amelia replied immediately, “I don’t want to get the cops called on us!”

“You’re no fun!” Gura stuck her tongue out, and Amelia rolled her eyes at the gesture.

“More like I’m saving you a headache.”

“Maybe something different then?” Ina pondered.

“Like what?” Amelia asked, “And please nothing illegal. I do work with law enforcement, you know.” She said dryly.

“Time travel?” Gura suggested.

Amelia paused at that, stopping in her tracks, “Impossible. Only I can use the watch, if I use it even with you guys next to me, I just travel alone.”

“We’re both bonded to you right now,” Ina pointed out, “Maybe it would work?”

Amelia sighed, “Don’t get your hopes up. Let’s get to the park first, and then we can figure it out.” She turned to glare at a man who was openly staring at her wings, and he hurried along when he noticed her stare, “Come on, before some kids decide to touch my wings.”

The park was a nice little sanctuary, while the noises of the city were still audible, it was at least deafened by the trees. Amelia felt a headache coming in from all of the noise, but then she focused on the whispers of the Ancient Ones, and it went away, funnily enough. She gently tapped AO-chan’s cover, feeling – albeit very reluctantly – a wave of affection for the damn thing. Honestly, she wondered if being a priestess made her more predisposed towards liking the Ancient Ones – was it mind manipulation?

Your mind is safe.

Ina let out a little laugh at Amelia’s consternation, “AO-chan protects me – and you now. They wouldn’t do anything to harm us.”

“I guess,” Amelia sighed, “Just kind of weirding me out still.”

“You like them.” Ina teased.

Amelia groaned, and felt her head flaps press against her head. It was a weird feeling, and if Ina couldn’t already read her emotions like an open book already, then they surely would’ve given away her mood. She was just thankful that the park was not occupied by very many people, undoubtedly due to the time of day. They went relatively early, when most other folks were at work, and the children were generally at school.

“Guys!” Gura shouted, already far ahead of them, making her way towards a large man-made lake. “Hurry up, you slow-pokes!”

Amelia rolled her eyes, and shared a glance with Ina as they made their way over.

The park was pretty damn large, sort of similar to Central Park in New York City, but nowhere near as big. Within the center of the park was a lake surrounded by trees, and there was a rental station nearby for kayaks and canoes. It was exorbitantly expensive, of course, but the option was there. Surrounding the lake was a trail that then went into the wooded areas of the park and out into the town. It wasn’t possible to get lost in the place, it was too small for that, but you could definitely be obscured from observation hidden among the trees, so it was a popular spot for couples, and – as Amelia was all too familiar with – illegal activities as well.

They made their way to the shore, it was a little rocky, and Gura picked up a rock and threw it into the water, failing to skip it at all. Amelia picked one up when she neared, and looked at the water in consideration. She’d never been able to skip rocks before, but she could feel the whispers talking to her directly now. The words made no comprehensible sense to her, but they did at the same exact time. It was supposed to be confusing, she was sure, but for some reason it made complete sense regardless. With a little breath, she held AO-chan with one hand while she threw a rock at the lake, and watched as it skipped further and further out onto the lake, until it landed at the distant shore.

“Woah.” Gura blinked a few times, turning to Amelia.

“Your eyes are glowing, Ame.” Ina whispered quietly, “You conferred with the Ancient Ones?”

“Is that what that was?” Amelia asked, shaking her head, the whispers intensity lowered, and they again went back to that peaceful murmur in the back of her mind, “That was weird.”

The rest of their time in the park was just spent hanging out and just learning the extent of their new boundaries. They’d only been dating for a handful of days at this point, and none of them had much experience with it. Amelia just never had time for it due to her career choice, Gura’s entire life and civilization collapsed before she was at an appropriate age, and Ina of course was hidden away from human contact. Suffice to say, everything was completely new to each of them, and despite already having slept together more than a few times, when it came to less intimate gestures, none of them knew how to appropriately act or react.

It was a learning process, but one Amelia was determined to get down. She’d gone to school to become a detective, so the logics of love shouldn’t be too hard, right?

In the end, it was like just hanging out with them as if they were just friends, just with the little added benefit of a few kisses here and there, hand holding, and – of course – she was also now an eldritch priestess, with both Gura and Ina were normal humans. Couldn’t forget that crucial detail!

“Ame?” Gura asked as they walked around the lake for the second time. The little Atlantean – uh, human, she meant – was walking between both her and Ina, holding their hands and swinging them casually.

“Hm?” Amelia looked down at her, “What’s up?”

“Can we try using your watch now?”

“Ah…” Amelia muttered, “I don’t know…”

“We are bonded,” Ina reminded her, “Like I said a while back, me and Gura have a piece of you in us right now, maybe that will let it work?”

Amelia shrugged, “Maybe. Where the hell do you guys even want to go anyway? I don’t want to accidentally change something in the past and drastically change our future, you know?”

“We can just go back to this morning or something,” Gura recommended, “Something small that won’t change the entire world as we know it.”

Amelia sighed, and she let go of AO-chan with her other hand, and the book gently started floating at her side instead. She reached into her pocket, where the familiar watch was, and she pulled it out, looking down at it, “You guys are sure you want to try?”

“Why are you so reluctant?” Gura asked curiously.

“Because if this doesn’t work, I have to repeat the whole day again,” Amelia replied, “Either that or travel back to this point and hope nothing has changed.”

“Huh?” Gura’s brow rose, “Why would it change if you just go back for a second?”

“Because when I go back, my body in the past essentially ‘merges’ with me. Past me and future me merge into a single being, we share each other’s memories, and we appear wherever I traveled back to. So for instance, if I decide to time travel back to this morning, but I arrive in the past in, say, New York. My body would disappear from the apartment and show up in New York, thus vastly changing how things play out. If I were to go back to the future from that point, I’d be dealing with a version of you two who know that I was in New York earlier, and you’d probably be aware that I was time traveling, and everything would be different. Our bet from earlier would be changed, I probably wouldn’t be an eldritch priestess right now because this morning’s conversation wouldn’t have happened, and, well, you get the drill.” She sighed, “Time Travel is a pain in the ass. It all self-regulates itself so I can’t cause a paradox or anything like that, Kronii makes sure of that, but it is sometimes a hassle.”

“Who’s Kronii?” Gura asked.

“Concept of Time.” Amelia replied, “Assuming this whole thing works, you’d get to meet her.”

“Are you ok with trying, Amelia?” Ina asked softly, “If you don’t want to worry about it, we won’t press it anymore.”

Amelia shook her head slowly, “No… I’ll do it if you guys really want to. Besides, we don’t know if the bond will allow it, and if it does, then I could bring you guys along with me whenever I time travel. It could be fun.”

Gura grinned, “All right! Then what are you waiting for?”

“Just trying to determine where to go back to,” She muttered, “I’ll just set it to our apartment at five in the morning – a few hours before we woke up.”

Both Ina and Gura nodded, they looked excited, and Amelia could also feel it. It was honestly rubbing off on her, and she smiled as she let go of Gura’s hand and started to set her watch up.

She was so used to setting up the watch that it didn’t take her more than a handful of seconds to get it set up, and then she looked up, “Alright, you guys ready?”

“Yeah!” Gura cheered.

Ina was more subdued vocally, but her emotions were just as vibrant and loud as Gura’s, “Yes.”

“Good,” Amelia muttered, “Then hold onto me.” She wasn’t sure if that was necessary, but she didn’t want to take any risks. Gura wrapped her arms around her waist, looking up at her with eyes alight with wonder, and Ina gently held one of her arms, giving her that wonderful little smile of hers. With both passengers holding on tight, Amelia let out one little breath, and then she pressed the button, hoping everything would work out.

XxXxXxX

Ina’s stomach felt like it lurched up her throat, and she struggled not to let loose the contents of her stomach as the entire world brightened around them. She could hear Gura squealing beside her, and she was thankful that Amelia’s body was so steadfast, standing tall and unmoving. She was probably so used to time traveling – assuming that is what this was – that the effects of it didn’t even register to her anymore. Ina focused on her breathing, and then everything just stopped. There was no wind, no noise – absolute silence, and she opened her eyes.

“Where are we?” She heard Gura ask.

Amelia was silent, but she felt pure shock coming from her – did she truly not believe that this would work? She provided the detective a shaky smile when she glanced over, and she tried to stand straighter, though it was difficult on her wobbly legs. “Why so surprised?”

“I didn’t think it would work,” Amelia replied softly. She shook her head, and looked to Gura, it was clear she was still trying to process everything, “This is the passage of time,” She answered the question, “It’s where I come when I travel. The further back I travel, the longer I stay here.”

“So like, what, every hour you go back is a second in here?” Gura asked curiously.

Amelia shrugged, her shock was abating, “I don’t know, actually. Going back a few hours takes a few minutes, but going back a century takes only about a half hour.”

Ina was interested in the implications of that, but her thoughts were interrupted by a soft, “Oh?” She looked up at a blue haired woman standing in an endless void who had spoken, her brows raised in curiosity. Ina’s eyes widened slightly at her outfit, and then she averted her gaze. It seemed the concept of time either didn’t understand the purpose of a bra, or she just didn’t care, and Ina didn’t really have the courage to ask.

“Hey, Kronii.” Amelia waved.

Gura shakily let go of Amelia, and looked around now, and Ina could feel her awe through the link. She certainly agreed with it, now that she was looking around. Stars were appearing all around them – it was like they were standing in space on an invisible ground. Planets and other cosmic entities appeared all around them – it was stunning to behold.

“How’d you get them to show up?” Kronii asked, “I was under the impression that you were the only time traveler among your friends.”

Amelia let out a little laugh, “Well, I thought so too.”

“Uh,” Ina spoke up, “M – My name is Ninomae Ina’nis,” She bowed politely, not entirely sure how to address a concept. Amelia seemed to treat her as a friend, which led her to believe that Kronii was apparently not too high-strung, but she wasn’t sure, and didn’t want to push her luck. She just hoped that Kronii wasn’t offended by any apparent lack of respect from Amelia, despite how they acted.

Gura bowed a second later, “Um, I’m Gawr Gura!”

Kronii let out a little chuckle and walked over, “It’s cool guys, I uh, don’t need you to bow down to me and all, even if I’m, well, me.”

Amelia rolled her eyes before she turned back to Gura and Ina, “Well, I wasn’t exactly expecting you guys to show up here with us, and we’re only going to be here for a few minutes, so let me introduce you to Ouro Kronii, she’s the literal concept of time.”

“It’s your pleasure.” Kronii nodded her head.

“Don’t listen to her.” Amelia shook her head with a slight smile, “She likes to act all tough, but she’s really a softy at heart.”

“Hey!” Kronii protested.

“But she’s nice, she lets me get away with a lot of stuff!”

“Yeah?” Kronii’s voice had a slight inflection of something to it Ina couldn’t identify, but she noted how she had on a slight smile. She could feel genuine affection on Amelia’s behalf for the woman, and from Kronii’s expression, she was sure it was mutual. Considering how often Amelia time traveled, it was quite possible that Amelia has known Kronii for longer than either Gura or herself.

“Are you a god, then?” Gura asked, her eyes were wide.

“Oh no, please.” Kronii looked uncomfortable by the question, “I’m not a god.”

“But if you’re literally the concept of time itself, doesn’t that give you power equitable to a god?” Ina asked.

She works for a higher power.

Kronii’s eyes darted to the book in Amelia’s grasp – interesting, it seemed that despite lacking the bond, she was capable of hearing the Ancient Ones. That was another point in favor of her being a god, despite her protests.

“As a concept, I make sure time stays unbroken,” She answered, her eyes glued to the book, “I work for the good of the universe.” She then sighed, her eyes averted from the book, “But please, I really, really don’t like being called a god, just call me Kronii.”

When push came to shove, Kronii didn’t seem to like being above them – she seemed to joke about it earlier, but the person underneath that joking exterior was kind, and Ina felt relieved to know that someone like that was watching over Amelia during her various escapades.

“That being said, Amelia – what the hell? Why are you a priestess of the Ancient Ones? And who are your friends, why are they here?”

“It’s a long story,” Amelia chuckled nervously.

“Considering I was spending the day with Sana when you decided to drag me along on a time travel experiment, I think I deserve an answer.” Kronii didn’t look amused, her arms crossed under her sizeable chest, and she was giving Amelia a humorless stare.

“Sorry,” Amelia sighed.

“I got an orb from an old lady,” Gura volunteered the information freely, finding Kronii to be trustworthy, “And when it broke it made us all able to feel each other’s emotions!”

“And then we figured out that we can see each other’s auras,” Amelia continued, “Turns out, if I take some of Gura’s I become an Atlantean, and it also allows us to mingle with Ina’s aura and become capable of withstanding the Ancient Ones powers and we can also become priestesses too by either taking some of Ina’s aura, or by holding the book.” She held up the book in question, “It’s, uh, kind of interesting.”

“I’ll say,” Kronii mumbled, she looked at Gura curiously, “An old woman gave you this?”

“Yeah, she just wanted a fish and offered to pay me with the orb,” Gura nodded quickly.

“That’s weird…” She mumbled, “Almost kind of… Chaotic.”

Ina noticed Kronii’s expression flatten, and the concept of time just facepalmed, much to her surprise. She shared a quick glance with Gura and Amelia, both of whom looked just as confused as she did.

“Um,” Amelia spoke up, “Kronii? Something up?”

“I’m just going to have a little chat with a friend of mine.” She grumbled, “I think I might know what happened to you guys.”

“Could you reverse it?” Amelia asked.

Ina frowned deeply at that, and she could feel that Gura wasn’t exactly happy about it either. Amelia started, looking back at them in surprise, and she could feel both the surprise and guilt immediately through the bond.

“You don’t like this?” Gura asked glumly.

“No, it’s not that!” Amelia cried quickly, “But… It’s just…” She paused, and Ina could feel uncertainty from her. Considering Amelia had been the one most against this in the beginning, she supposed going from complete opposition to just uncertainty was an upgrade, but it still hurt that she was still trying to find a way to reverse it. Amelia groaned, “I – I’m sorry guys, it was a dumb question.”

“And I can’t do anything about it,” Kronii replied, “I wouldn’t even know the first step towards removing it, especially when I can feel your auras so intertwined.”

“You can feel it?” Ina asked in surprise.

“I can feel it, but little else.” She answered, “But I do know someone who might be able to do something about it, if – uh, you guys want something done with it.”

The entire area began to fade, and Gura looked away from Amelia for a second, “What’s going on?”

“We’re almost at your stop.” Kronii replied, “And you guys can have a little talk that I don’t really want to be a part of. In the meantime, I’ll go ahead and talk to my friend about it, and then get back to what I was doing with Sana… again.”

“Sorry about that,” Amelia said, her voice surprisingly small.

“Don’t worry about it,” Kronii waved off, “I’ll see you guys later.”

And like that, the world went dark again.

XxXxXxX

Gura felt like she should be more excited that she literally just time traveled. They just arrived back in their little apartment earlier that day, the sky was dark, with only a few hints of the morning sun peeking through their window. The clock was showing just a few minutes pass six, and the couch was covered in blankets and pillows, as if they’d just gotten up. They had proven that now they could go with Amelia when she traveled, that she would no longer have to be the one comforting Amelia, unable to understand when and where she time traveled to – she could literally be there at her side instead.

However, she was just kind of pissed that Amelia was still asking about a way to remove the bond they now shared. It was easily the best thing that had happened to her in a very long time, it allowed some many amazing and miraculous things to happen, it would literally change their lives forever and for the better, and yet she was requesting a god – concept – whatever, to look into a way to remove it.

“Gura – I’m sorry.” Amelia’s voice broke through her thoughts.

“Are you?” Gura asked.

The hell of it was, she could feel Amelia’s emotions, and she KNEW that Amelia was sorry. She could feel how sorry she was, how guilty she felt for asking, for inadvertently hurting her feelings with her question. She wanted so badly to stay mad at Amelia, to be angry, but it was so damn hard, especially when she could see the telltale signs of Amelia’s guilt in her body language. The way she couldn’t even bring herself to look at her, the nervous way in which she laughed – her response to not really knowing what to do or say.

Gura let out a heavy sigh. With the bond, it was kind of impossible to stay mad, “Why’d you even ask that?” She asked instead, hating how quietly she asked, how she could feel that she was on the cusp of tears.

“I don’t know,” Amelia muttered miserably, “I just thought about it, and wanted to know if she could do it.”

Again, she was being completely honest. If she wasn’t capable of feeling her emotions, she was sure this would escalate into a shouting match, that they’d probably stop talking all day, perhaps for a few days while they sorted out their emotions and tried to work themselves up to eventually apologize to one another… Instead, the bond just let them cut right to the chase, it was… weird, but oddly refreshing, it was nice to be able to read Amelia like an open book when it was most important.

“She’s sorry, Gura.” Ina finally spoke up, having opted to stay silent the entire time.

“Aren’t you mad?” Gura asked.

“I was disappointed,” She answered honestly, and they both winced at the added guilt coming from Amelia at the admission, “But I don’t think she meant it.”

“I’m just scared,” Amelia muttered miserably, “By what could happen if the bond stays… It gives us no privacy at all.”

“Is that so bad?” Ina asked, “It’s stopping this from becoming something far worse between you and Gura.”

“It’s not awful,” Amelia admitted – pure honesty. It would be pointless to lie at this point, especially since her girlfriends would be able to pinpoint it immediately. “I’m just… Kind of used to being alone in my thoughts… These last few days have been very different and strange.”

Gura could agree to that, “They have been.”

“But they haven’t been bad,” Ina insisted, “We can share with each other what we were incapable of sharing. You and me now know what it’s like to be an Atlantean – that was amazing.”

Amelia smiled a little at that, “Yeah…”

“And you and Gura both understand what it’s like to be me. You understand AO-chan on a level that you were never able to before. You don’t fear them anymore too – even after only a day of communication, I can tell that you both are a lot more comfortable around them now. You don’t know how happy that makes me! I was always worried about using them around you guys, because I knew it made you uncomfortable, but now… It doesn’t matter!”

“And I can turn human now too,” Gura said gently, “I can be like you guys when I want to be now.”

“You guys can time travel with me now too,” Amelia muttered.

“You’ll never have to be alone anymore.” Gura added on quickly, “Ina and I are going to be with you for the long haul, whether you like it or not.”

Amelia managed a smile, despite the guilt, and Gura, feeling a little bad, hugged her now, and Ina’s arms wrapped around her and Amelia, perfecting their little group hug. The guilt was still within Amelia, but it was shriveling up and instead being replaced by thankfulness and love, two emotions that Gura was much happier to feel within her.

“Thank you, and I’m sorry.” Amelia whispered to them, her tentacles appeared from portals near her back, and they too wrapped around them, “I’m very sorry for upsetting you.”

“We’ve already forgiven you.” Ina said softly.

“Kind of hard not to, when we can’t get out of your dumb head.” Gura grumbled.

“Hey, you’re the one that wants to take up permanent residence there,” Amelia chided lightly with no heat in her voice – just relief, happy to have averted a nasty fight.

“Yeah, I do.” Gura admitted, causing Amelia to sputter. She was sure the detective expected her to say something else, to continue being coy and skittish around the issue, but she had no qualms with letting her know how much she loved her. She loved the minor note of embarrassment that she could feel from her, and she laughed when she felt Ina’s amusement.

This was perfect, and she hoped nothing would change it.

Chapter Text

It was another day of work for Amelia, and she was actually in a pretty great mood. The case they were working on today was simply finding a lost person, which while distressing for the family involved, was far more relaxed for Amelia and her partner. It usually didn’t involve anyone dying, and most of the times it was done to bring back teenage kids who believed that they knew what was best for themselves, not understanding that they didn’t have a job, a car, or any other way to work and live on their own.

It was the same deal with her current case. The person in question was upset with his parents, left home with one of his friends, and didn’t return. It had been over twenty-four hours since he’d gone missing, and they didn’t report it immediately because of the stupid myth that you had to wait so long to file a missing person report. She always groaned and cursed in her mind every time that came up.

“You want a break?” Moni asked as they walked down a crowded street, shops lining both sides of the road and traffic was going crazy, “I can handle this on my own.”

“Hm?” Amelia had her hands in her coat pockets, and looked over curiously, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” He replied, “Just visiting a few houses here and there. Nothing tough, ‘sides, you always tell me that I need to learn to do this stuff on my own, don’t you?”

Amelia grinned, the thought of going back home for lunch to hang out with Gura and Ina for a little while was tempting, “Well, I won’t say no to that. Are you sure?”

He grinned, “Yeah, go on now. Have fun.”

Amelia tipped her hat to him, “Then I bid you adieu.”

It was actually pretty chilly outside, even with the sun shining as much as it was, she wrapped her coat tighter around herself. It was late in August, so it still should’ve been warm, so the weather was certainly odd. However, she just ignored it as she walked to where she’d parked her car down the street. Moni drove his own car thankfully, so they’d probably just meet back up at the agency to compare notes and try to figure out where to go from there, that is of course assuming that the boy wasn’t just staying at one of his friends’ houses that Moni was heading towards.

She pulled out her car keys, and made her way over to her car, but stopped as she looked up one last time towards the sidewalk. She didn’t know why she felt compelled to look, but she saw something near the entrance to an alley. She hesitated to call it human, because it was completely white from head to toe, and appeared to not even be wearing any clothes. It was humanoid in appearance, but it had no visible face, and it was shaking uncontrollably, as if it was having a seizure. Its arms were elongated, with fingers that seemed to be double the length of normal human fingers, and it was tall – easily eight feet tall, perhaps even more – it was hard to tell how big it was from a distance.

People were walking right by the thing as if they couldn’t even see it, which she was thankful for, otherwise she was sure there’d be a panic. It perked up as it seemed to notice her stare, and then it slunk off into the alley, its gait was large and uneven, probably due to the constant shaking, and then it disappeared from her sight.

“Ok.” She mumbled to herself, looking down at her car, “Go home to Gura and Ina, or follow the weird monster?”

She was a detective, but she wasn’t an idiot. She had a cellphone, and she pulled it out, calling Ina’s number. Gura didn’t have one, considering her lack of funds to pay for it, so she usually relied on Amelia and Ina to call for things. It rang for a little bit, and then a moment later she felt marginally relaxed when she heard Ina’s voice, “Hello?”

“Hey, Ina.” She’d have smiled if she wasn’t about to do something potentially stupid, “Something, uh, weird happened.”

“Oh?” She could feel Ina’s confusion and worry through the link, which led to Gura feeling the same emotions. The distance from them made it a little muted, but since she was in town, it wasn’t quite as bad as when she was at her agency, “What happened?”

“I saw some weird white… monster thing.” She couldn’t exactly describe it, “Does, uh, AO-chan know anything about that?”

There was a moment of silence, where she was sure Ina was conversing with the book, “AO-chan says it might be a threat,” She replied, “Where are you?”

“Downtown,” Amelia replied, “I was on a case with my partner, and I was going to come home for a break, but then I saw it.”

“Where downtown?” Ina asked again, “Gura and I will come. Don’t do anything stupid, please?”

“I’m parked at the antique store across from the chocolate café,” She replied, “The thing went into the alley further down the street, I’m going to follow it, before I lose track of whatever it is.”

“Ame!” She heard Ina’s voice spike in distress, and she could feel her emotion reacting accordingly, “Don’t! What if it’s a trap?”

“Then you and Gura better get your cute little butts here fast, eh?” She laughed when Ina let out a little choked gasp, “But seriously, If I don’t follow it, it might disappear, and who knows if this thing is important.”

A moment of silence, and then a sigh, “Call if something else happens. Gura and I are on our way.”

“We’re coming Watson!” She heard Gura shouting in the background, and then there was ruffling closer – Ina must have been changing on the spot.

“Love you,” she said, smiling despite the situation.

“Love you too, stay safe.” Ina whispered, and then call ended.

Amelia let out another sigh, steeling herself, and she made sure her car was locked before she followed after where she’d last seen the creature. She went up to the alley, and looked down into it. It was wide enough for a car to go through comfortably, but it was empty, the monster was not anywhere in sight. She let out a little curse, and walked further into the alley. The chill in the air felt even stronger, and she had a feeling pressing down on her shoulders like she was being watched, and she learned long ago to trust those instincts.

“Hello?” She called out, “Is anyone there?”

As a detective working for the local police department, she was licensed to use a firearm. It was holstered on her belt, hidden beneath her coat. Her hand crept into her coat, hovering over the gun, wondering if she should draw it, or if she was just being overly paranoid. If she fired the damn thing, the paperwork would be insane, and she doubted her boss would believe or accept the fact that she saw a creepy-ass monster as a legit excuse. Not to mention, she didn’t want to cause a panic downtown, and while she could time travel, the fact that she could now bring Gura and Ina along made her hesitate on the idea – the fact that they could now remember her time jumps if they shared her aura made her not want to do them at all if they weren’t around.

She could feel the hairs on her arm standing, and she spun around towards the entrance of the alley, and yet again there was nothing there. She shook her head, and her hand lowered from over her gun. Surely, she was just being paranoid. With a sigh, she looked back up one more time back into the alley, and nearly had a heart attack when the creature was right in front of her.

The thing towered over her, her estimate of eight feet didn’t do the damn thing justice, it was easily double her height, possibly even more, and while it didn’t have a face, it was still leaning forward slightly, its head tilted towards her as if it were looking. Its whole body was still shaking spastically, unable to stay still, and its lanky arms were still at its side, still freakishly long, with horrifyingly long fingers on each of its hands twitching uncontrollably. It was so white though that it was almost painful to look at, it was like looking at the glare of the sun’s reflection.

“What are you?” She asked, despite how terrified she felt with it standing before her.

It paused – literally its entire body stopped shaking, and Amelia felt herself tensing up even more. She still had that uncanny feeling that the damn thing was looking at her, and she took one single step back when it suddenly moved. It was so quick she couldn’t even perceive it, its arm swiped out and its elongated fingers easily wrapped around her neck, and then it slammed her heavily against the alley wall. The wind was completely knocked out of her lungs, and she was seeing spots in her eyes. Its hand squeezed, and she was struggling to breathe.

As she was coughing and gasping for any air, the creature began to press her into the wall painfully. Her eyes were starting to roll up to the back of her head, and she knew that she was going to lose consciousness any second, so she did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed her gun, jammed it into the monster’s gut, and pulled the trigger.

BANG.

The creature flew back as if it had been hit by a wrecking ball. It flew across the alley and hit the other side with a bodily thud, and she would have winced at the sound if she wasn’t so busy emptying her guts on the pavement. She was taking painfully deep breaths, horrid gasps coming from her mouth as she tried desperately to get some air back into her lungs, and she glared up at the creature, tears in the corners of her eyes as her vision was blurred from nearly being knocked out.

“What – what was that f – for…” She coughed out, managing to get to her feet, her gun was held protectively in front of her, her finger off of the trigger, but pointed on the creature. There wouldn’t be an accidental discharge here, but she could easily pull the trigger if necessary. She looked towards the entrance of the alley, and could already see people running off, and she worried about that – did they still not see the monster? Were they just assuming she was some crazy bitch with a gun firing at the wall?

She had bigger things to worry about for now though. She didn’t get closer to the monster. It had moved so quickly that she was sure it could stand up faster than she’d be able to react, so she kept a good ten feet of distance, her gun pointed at it, “Get up!” She called out, “What are you doing here?”

Much to her horror, it did start to move again. It was a tangled mess on the ground, but it slowly began to shake again, like it had been doing earlier, and it stood up again to its full height, facing towards her. There wasn’t any bullet wound in its chest where she had shot it, and then it lifted its hand. Held within its index and thumb was her bullet. It held it up long enough for her to see it, and then it dropped it, where it dinged softly against the pavement, before rolling off to the side.

Her heart was beating rapidly, and she had only one response to that, “Fuck.”

It moved again, rushing towards her quickly closing the distance. She didn’t hesitate this time, she pulled the trigger – a double tap right into its chest, and another into its head, but the creature was unperturbed this time by the bullets, as if it had learned how to manage the impacts. She had only a moment to widen her eyes before it lashed out with its massive arms and swiped the gun out of her grasp, sending it flying away from her. She couldn’t even keep her eyes on the handgun because she was too busy trying to block the next attack. She’d had some training in fighting, and brought up her arms to block the next swipe coming from her right. Its arm smashed heavily against her arms, and she let out a cry as she was sent flying several meters to the side, where she managed a little bit of recovery, rolling against the ground, and getting back to her knees.

She had only a few seconds to react to the next attack, the creature again darted at her just as she righted herself up, and it pulled back its arm, winding up a punch. She knew it was idiotic to try and block the thing’s attacks now, especially since she could feel the large bruise forming on her arm, so she just jumped out of the way right when its fist smashed into the pavement. The pavement exploded, rubble and debris flying into the air, and a small cloud of dust billowed up as if a bomb had gone off. The force was so strong that Amelia swore she was pushed away by a little shockwave.

She stumbled back up to her feet, and stared at the monster with wide eyes. Whatever this thing was, it was out for blood, and she had absolutely no way to stop the damn thing.

“Why are you doing this?!” She tried desperately to stall, to think of a plan. There was the watch in her pocket, and she quickly dug for it – it might be her only chance out of this.

It didn’t respond, it just stood up back to its full height, and began to shake once again as it stepped towards her. This time it was much slower at least, and she was able to match its steps forward with equally large steps back.

“Answer me!” She shouted, “Why are you doing this?”

It jumped forward, and Amelia didn’t even have enough time to brace herself for its attack. The wind was completely knocked out of her as the monster punched her right in the gut, and she flew another half dozen meters completely out of the alley and into the streets. A car quickly swerved to avoid her, honking at her as if it were her fault for being in the street in the first place. She coughed up some blood, and groaned as she got to her knees. She knew the punch probably broke some of her ribs, and she hoped that was the worst of it, but it was difficult to breathe, it felt like someone was squeezing her lungs with each breath.

The monster just walked out of the alley, out into the open, and several people nearby gasped and looked at it in awe. She grimaced – shit, so now people could perceive it? Was it hidden to everyone else initially in order to lead her into a trap?

“Are you ok?” A bystander had gotten to her side and was helping her back to her feet, “You don’t look like you’re in good shape.”

“Thanks for pointing that out, Einstein,” She coughed again, blood dripping down her lip. She knew it was rude, that the man was just trying to help her out, but she was in a ton of pain, and quite frankly, being nice was not something she was too concerned with now, not when the monster was marching up to her again.

The man beside her stiffened, and looked at the creature with his eyes widening in terror. The monster again looked down with its empty face, and when the man went to say something, it just swatted him aside like a bug, sending him flying away and smashing into a car, breaking the glass and causing the car alarm to go off. Amelia felt her heart freeze – she hoped the man didn’t die from the impact, that looked damn painful.

She listened to her instincts and dodged to the side, where again the monster punched into the ground where she’d just been. This time she wasn’t able to gracefully roll since she couldn’t breathe properly and was in too much pain, but she didn’t hesitate. She jumped to her feet and started darting away, her hand in her pocket fishing for the damn pocket watch. She wanted Ina and Gura to be there, but she knew they would be understanding if she explained everything to them. They certainly wouldn’t want her to freaking die, after all!

“Just a few hours,” She muttered, setting up her watch. She’d go back to this morning when they’d just woken up for the day, and she’d tell Gura and Ina about what was happening, and they could figure out what the hell to do!

She was so engrossed in fixing her watch that she didn’t even notice as the monster reached her and grabbed her coat from behind. She let out a gasp as the coat’s collar choked her briefly, and then she quickly undid the buttons from top to bottom so she could breath, loosening the garment so she could keep running – it could have it for all she cared! She undid it, and right when she was free, the monster swiped with its hand, shredding through her coat and clipping her back, making her stumble forward, where she dropped her watch, the device rolling away into the road.

“NO!” She cried, “Damn it!”

She tried to crawl for the watch, but the creature grabbed her foot, and in a swift motion her world was spinning as she was again thrown. Her back slammed into a window display of some toy story, and it shattered from the sheer force, she fell into the store, rolling on the shards of glass and other debris. The glass tore into her clothes and her body, and she lay amongst a bloody display of glass and broken toys.

“Oh my god!” The store owner was behind the counter, having been bored out of her mind when suddenly her day was interrupted by a flying detective, “What is the meaning of th – this…”

The old woman’s eyes were glued to the window, and Amelia tried to sit up, wincing as the glass shards dug further into her skin. She followed the woman’s gaze over to the destroyed window, and her heart fell at the sight of the gigantic creature peeking in. One large foot landed upon the broken shards of glass as if it were made of steel, and it started to kneel down to come in.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck…” Amelia tried to sit up, but she knew she was too messed up to do much. Her back was on fire from the impact, and she could barely breathe, not to mention she looked over to her left arm and saw it bent at an awkward angle. As the creature got another foot in, she could feel panic welling up inside her like she’d never felt before in her life. This thing wanted her dead, and it was going to succeed. She tried to crawl back with one good arm, but just ended up settling on the far wall from the monster, a display of toy trains against her back being smeared by blood and dirt.

“W – What is that thing?” The owner cried, “M – Monster!”

The creature ignored the owner, and stepped fully into the store crouched down. The ceiling was too low for it, and it made its way towards Amelia again, completely ignoring everything and everyone else. People were outside of the store looking in with wide eyes, and Amelia wasn’t sure how she was going to fix this if she couldn’t get her watch… Hell, she wasn’t even sure if she’d be able to do much of anything, because the monster was pulling its fist back, and she knew if it landed another hit on her she was done for. She tried to put up some sort of resistance, tried to roll over, but she couldn’t, she was spent, too injured to do much of anything.

“Do your worst,” She spat at the beast, trying to conjure up any bravery. Ina and Gura’s faces flashed in her mind, and she wasn’t quite able to stop the horrible guilt working its way through her, “I’m so sorry…” She mumbled, closing her eyes as the monster’s fist flew forward.

She waited for the inevitable end, but it wasn’t coming. She opened one hesitant eye, and saw that it was struggling against something wrapped around its entire arm. She blinked a few times – was that a tentacle? The creature turned its head towards its arm, as if it was as confused as Amelia as to why they weren’t able to finish her off, and then just as suddenly its arm was yanked back, and before it could regain its balance, the monster was thrown out of the window, the force of the throw was so powerful it flew across the street and slammed into the opposite building with a loud BOOM.

“Ame!” Gura rushed in through the door, the Atlantean – no, wait, she was human right now – ran towards her with wide eyes, her mouth dropping open at the sight of her, “What the fuck happened?!”

“I don’t know,” Amelia coughed up some blood, noticing how Gura’s face went whiter, “It showed up and just started trying to kill me.”

“It tried to kill you?” She looked over at the window, where Ina was hovering. Dark energy was surrounding her, her eyes were glowing an ominous purple, a large glowing halo was above her head, her wings were larger than usual and fully spread, and all eight of her tentacles were out. She knew Ina was the priestess of the Ancient Ones, but it was at that moment that Amelia could honestly say she truly saw it. Ina may have looked horrifying to anyone else around, but to Amelia she was like a guardian angel.

Amelia nodded, her vision was spotted, and her grip on consciousness was fading, “Yeah… In the alley, and then it threw me in here.”

Ina let out a grunt, and she turned towards the monster as it was getting up from the rubble across the street, looking none the worse for wear. Even without eyes, it was easy to tell the thing was just staring at Ina in curiosity, and then it darted forward with that inhuman speed towards her. Ina was prepared though, she was able to react far faster than a mere human could, and with one raised hand, two of her tentacles twisted together and launched forward, smashing the thing in the face, sending it towards the ground. While it was down, Ina let out an inhuman roar and lifted both hands up in front of her, a ball of dark energy appeared in her hands before it flew forward towards the monster, the impact forcing it back down, digging it into the pavement several inches.

Amelia watched from her perch with Gura at her side as Ina was dealing with the creature, and she closed her eyes. Sleep sounded like a great idea right about now.

“Stay awake, Ame.” Gura whispered, “Here, take this.”

Amelia grabbed whatever it was that Gura shoved into her hand, and she glanced down at it curiously. It was a book, more specifically it was AO-chan. “What…?”

No one harms our priestesses.

Amelia let out a gasp as she felt the voices invade her mind, but she gladly welcomed them. Her arm began to right itself, and she felt the glass shards that were in her body being forced out, as if some force within her was repelling them. She grunted as her ribs begin to repair themselves, and the dizziness and sleepiness both faded away – she regained her grasp on consciousness, and blinked a few times. She could feel the Ancient Ones, and knew without looking that she’d just become a priestess due to the book’s power.

“Thank you,” She gasped.

Anything for our priestess.

“You’re welcome,” Gura sighed, looking absolutely relieved, “You looked like you were in horrible shape there, Ame.”

“I was,” She admitted, “That thing destroyed me, it was so fast I couldn’t even react to anything it was doing.” She looked at Gura curiously, “I’m surprised you guys found me so fast.”

“It was pretty easy,” Gura replied still looking concerned, “You were panicking so badly that it was impossible not to know where you were. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you scared before, so that – that scared the shit out of me…”

Amelia got to her feet, “I’m sorry. I’ve never fought anything like this before.” She glanced at Gura, “You might want to be Atlantean for this – a human isn’t going to do anything against it.”

Gura nodded, and her form shifted until she was back to her Atlantean form. The shirt she was wearing was struggling to contain her large fin, but otherwise she looked mostly the same, just more fins here and there, and of course the gills and the added strength being an Atlantean provided.

They walked out of the store, and saw that Ina was still in the middle of the street, her tentacles were busy smashing the monster into the ground over and over again. It was at least buried a foot into the pavement, and Amelia didn’t even want to think about the cost of the damages.

“Ame?” Ina turned to her when she sensed her, and Amelia could feel the relief coming from her, “Oh thank god, you’re ok.” Even in a near emotionless monotone, she could hear the relief in her voice.

“Thanks to you guys,” Amelia smiled.

“I thought we’d be too late,” Ina admitted as her voice shifted back to normal, her halo dimmed until it was gone, and the horrifying aura she was emitting disappeared. She floated down until her feet touched the pavement, and her wings folded back up and shrunk down to their usual size.

She didn’t want to say how close it actually had been, though she was sure they already knew. Instead, Amelia walked forward and looked down into the hole Ina had created and let out a little whistle, “Holy shit, Ina, you fucked it up.”

It didn’t look any worse for wear, actually, which concerned her, but it wasn’t moving, which was at least the first positive she’d had within the last thirty minutes, so she’d take it. She could feel eyes on them, and when she looked around, she grimaced at the amount of people watching them with wide eyes. Two eldritch priestesses and an Atlantean were definitely not something anyone would see every day.

“Uh,” Gura glanced around self-consciously, “This isn’t good.”

“We need to find my watch,” Amelia replied, “We have to rewind this.”

“No arguments here,” Gura grumbled, “I guess I didn’t need to become an Atlantean after all.”

As if it were offended by Gura’s words, the three of them heard the sound of gravel and pavement being moved, and they turned back towards the hole to see the creature coming out, its head was turned towards them, and Amelia had the feeling that the damn thing was glaring at them. Ina frowned, and power began to flow through her again, a Halo was forming above her head again, but before she could fully power up, the creature darted towards her, and with one hand it grabbed her head and slammed it into the pavement once – twice – three times, and then it threw her far away. She hit the side of a building, and then fell down a story until she slammed hard against the sidewalk, people screaming and running all around her.

“INA!” Gura cried.

The creature wasn’t finished and it went for Gura next, its fist was reeled back and then it threw a heavy punch at her. Gura caught it in her grip though, and her eyes flickered red as her more primal side began to come out. She gritted her teeth, standing her ground as her feet began to dig into the road.

“AME, ATTACK IT.” Gura shouted.

Amelia snapped out of it, and with AO-chan in her grasp, she could feel the overwhelming power clouding her mind. She could see a shimmering light above her, and she knew a halo was forming over her head, and the voices of the Ancient Ones grew stronger than before. Ina had been worried about them using the book before, but quite frankly, this was an emergency. She flipped open the book, allowing AO-chan’s voice to guide her.

This one, priestess.

“For Ina.” Amelia growled, and a guttural incantation followed that she honestly couldn’t make any sense of, but at the same time it made perfect sense. The book snapped shut when she finished the incantation, and when she lifted up her hand, she felt enormous power flowing through her arm, and then it fired out. The beam of pure darkness flew towards the creature faster than it could react, and it obliterated its entire left side – its arm, the left side of its chest, even some of its head was destroyed. Unfortunately, the beam continued, and fired into the building behind the creature, destroying it completely, and then it continued into the building behind that one, and then the ones behind that one…

“Holy shit,” Gura’s eyes were wide as force of the monster’s punch ceased, and it collapsed forward, settling on the ground with a meaty thud, “Ame – that was – holy fuck!”

“Whoops…” Amelia muttered. If she stayed here, she wasn’t going to have to worry about paperwork anymore, but rather a manhunt on an international scale was going to follow. “We need to get my watch as soon as possible.”

“Ina first,” Gura said, and Amelia readily agreed.

Amelia felt the power surrounding her dissipating as she went to Ina’s side, and she let out a relieved sigh to see that she was fine. A little bloodied from the monster’s attacks, but it had already healed, the only reminder of it the remnants of a bloody nose, with dried blood on her upper lip.

“I’m so happy you’re ok,” Amelia sighed, settling at her side.

“I have a bit of a headache,” Ina grumbled.

“At least that’s all you have to worry about,” Gura said with a shake of her head, “Even I would struggle to come back from something like that.”

“Guys,” Amelia whispered, noticing that several people were still around – the suicidally stupid ones with their phones out recording everything. If they had any survival sense, they’d be long gone, they had no idea if they were hostile or not, “We need to get the hell out of here. I need my watch.”

Priestess. The watch is here.

Amelia blinked in surprise as she saw AO-chan floating over to where the device lay, and she smiled, “Well what do you know, the book is useful for something after all.”

“You can’t play the tsundere act, Ame.” Gura laughed as they ran over to grab the watch, “They literally saved your life!”

Amelia picked up her watch from the rubble, relieved beyond all measure that it was undamaged, “I’m free to do as I please,” She said haughtily, “But first we need to reverse all of this, I’m going back a few hours. You both have some of my aura in you, right?”

Ina and Gura nodded, and Amelia started to adjust the settings on it again, having not really been able to focus when she was being chased earlier.

“It’s getting up!” A civilian nearby shouted.

Amelia felt her heart constrict, and both of her girlfriends tensed at her side. She looked back, and sure enough, even with half of its upper body completely destroyed, the damn thing was pushing itself up. The remains of its head turned towards them, and it got back to its feet. The sides of its body that were completely destroyed was just emitting a blindingly bright light, as if the monster was created from nothing but light.

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me,” Amelia muttered.

“The watch, Ame!” Gura shrieked, “Let’s get out of here!”

Amelia was almost done, and she listened to Gura, no point in staying here and letting things get even more out of hand. She quickly hit the button on the side of the watch, and time began to reverse itself. She blinked once, and they were all within the passage of time. She let out a relieved sigh, thankful that whatever that creature was couldn’t follow them in here.

And then she felt something punch her in the back, and she flew forward into the endless void, slamming against the ground far away from where she stood. If AO-chan hadn’t been empowering her, she was sure her spine would have been broken there.

“It followed us here?!” Gura cried. She dodged its attack, and Ina began to restrain it with her tentacles again.

“What the fuck is that thing?!”

Amelia had gotten to her knees, and she saw boots beside her. She looked up and saw Kronii standing there, her eyes focused on the monster they’d inadvertently brought along for their little time travel joy ride.

“I don’t know,” Amelia admitted, not really in the mood for games, “It’s been trying to kill me for the last half hour. Destroyed a shitload of downtown in the process, we’re coming back to reverse it, but I guess it’s able to come back with us too.”

“Whatever it is, I can sense a lot of power coming from it. Some sort of higher being must be pissed at you, Amelia.” Kronii held her arms out, and two bladed clock hands appeared in both hands. She pointed the blades at the monster, “But first let’s take down our uninvited guest, hm?”

Amelia grinned at that, and could feel the Ancient Ones powers flowing within her again much like they were with Ina, “Gladly.”

The fight within that void of space was brief, but the monster was weakened from all of the damage it had sustained from earlier. It was still missing half of its torso, and every time it focused on one of them, the other three would quickly overwhelm it. It would punch at Ina, but Gura would quickly intercept and hold it in place as she had done earlier, and Kronii would jump into the fray, cutting into its flesh with her blades, where bright beams of light would burst from.

“Do you know what this thing is?” Amelia asked as she used her tentacles to try and hold it down. AO-chan had gone over to Ina’s side, and she was already muttering an incantation as the pages of the book began to flip by quickly. If it was anywhere near as powerful as what she did earlier, then this thing was surely done for.

“No clue!” Kronii yelled, ducking under its fist as it tried to pound her into the ground, “All I know is that someone powerful sent it your way!”

“Why?!”

“Hell if I know!” Kronii cut the back of the creature’s knee, bringing it down heavily on the ground, it used its only arm to hold itself up, and it turned to ‘look’ at Kronii, though without eyes it was a little difficult to know exactly what it was observing.

“GET DOWN!” Ina shouted; her voice mingled with the Ancient Ones as an immense power fired from the book, very much like the one Amelia had used earlier. The beam collided with the beast, and there was no way the thing could manage after this – its head, entire torso, and most of its legs were completely destroyed, all that was left were its calves and feet, which after a few moments, they both tumbled over.

Amelia hesitantly walked forward, staring down at the remains, and let out a sigh of relief as they started to fade away to dust. “I think we got it…”

Even Kronii looked relieved, and she’d only been fighting for about a minute, “Alright, tell me exactly what that thing was.”

“Sure, it –” Amelia paused, noticing that everything was starting to fade, the four of them were arriving back in the past again.

“Damn it,” Kronii grumbled, “I’ll come find you. Don’t do anything stupid, alright?”

“I just want to lie down,” Amelia admitted, feeling completely drained. Even with the Ancient Ones muttering in her head bolstering her, she still felt acutely exhausted. She’d nearly died earlier, so at least she had a good excuse for feeling so damn tired.

Gura came over to hold her up, and Ina was quick to reach her other side, and she just relaxed as the time travel was completed, and they reappeared in their apartment.

XxXxXxX

Kronii was fairly used to Amelia’s time traveling. Thankfully Amelia had been putting a cap on it recently, and she only used it to travel back only relatively short jumps, usually a few hours here and there, a day at most. Gone were the days where she’d go back centuries to play with Gura, or go back to explore ancient times, and Kronii was glad for that. There was too much of a risk of her accidentally hurting or killing someone and drastically changing the future. Still, she’d allow Amelia to do as she pleased, since even though she was human, she was the only other person in the universe who experienced time anywhere near the same way she did.

As a result, Kronii had a soft spot for her. She used to just be a concept of time, little more than a thought mingling in the Passage of Time, who’d only regain consciousness when Amelia was within her domain. Lately however, she’d grown envious of Amelia and wanted to experience life as she did, so she created a human body to interact with the detective. She found that she enjoyed their conversations, and thus she wanted to experience life among the humans, to understand what made Amelia the way she was… She ended up finding other concepts who had thought the very same thing, and the five of them became fast friends.

The rest, as they say, is history. Due to Kronii’s desire, they stayed within Amelia’s relative time, and though Kronii was within the same time frame, she was hesitant to find Amelia… She of course let her know that she was living among humanity, and that had startled Amelia the first time she heard, but she had never once seemed to have any desire to meet her outside of their little time traveling meetings… Kronii had often tried to ask, but couldn’t get it pass her lips, so she just settled on enjoying their time together when they traveled together, even if it interrupted time she was using to bond with her friends.

It came as a bit of a surprise when Amelia – who’d ALWAYS traveled alone – brought along two new friends into the Passage of Time. Gura and Ina both seemed very nice, though Kronii was a little awkward around them. She also – embarrassingly – felt a little bit of envy that they were there during what was supposed to be her one-on-one time with the detective, time she truly valued. She just swallowed that envy though, and greeted them and treated them with respect, especially since she realized they were Amelia’s girlfriends… And just like that, a door closed in her life. She didn’t have high hopes for it, but it hurt all the same… At least it would allow her to pursue other interests, such as Mumei.

That however, was going to have to wait.

The concepts of the universe lived in a nice large house outside of the city Amelia worked in, since they were concepts, they could cheat and just create money (or steal it… She never really asked Baelz how they could afford everything), and as a result they moved to a very fancy neighborhood. The house itself was three stories with dozens of bedrooms, a very large foyer, a massive kitchen, and dozens of other equally large and pointless rooms. Kronii didn’t tend to spend much time in any of these rooms, often times she’d just be on her computer reading comics and stories that humans wrote, hundreds of them a day, in fact.

She suddenly appeared in the middle of her room after dealing with that monster, and burst out of it just as quickly, her door slamming against the wall in the hallway creating a reverberating echo down the hall. She didn’t care – she had to get to Amelia quickly, who knows if more of those creatures were going to show up?

“Kronii?”

She turned to see the concept of space standing in the hall looking at her with wide eyes. The concept of space – Sana, as she liked to be referred to by the other concepts – was currently dressed in pajamas that – as far as Kronii was concerned – were far too small for her sizeable chest. The buttons were straining to stay closed, and it seemed she didn’t even notice, or perhaps she just didn’t care? Her cream-colored hair was a big matted mess cascading down her back, her usual twin tails were undone at the moment.

“Sana, I have to go.”

“Did something happen when you time travel?” Sana asked with a smile.

“Yeah,” She answered, rushing pass her, “Something big. Need to go help Amelia.”

“Oh?” Sana sounded surprised, but Kronii didn’t stop – she didn’t need to, as a concept of space, traversing through literal matter wasn’t a problem for Sana, and she reappeared at her side and was keeping up a running pace with her, “What happened?”

“Some sort of monster attacked us,” Kronii answered, running down the stairs two steps at a time, “Came into the Passage of Time with them – that’s not normal.”

“Them?” Sana asked again.

“Long story, Amelia got some friends who shared the same power as her. I wanted to interrogate Bae about it, actually.” She cursed to herself, of course her procrastinating about that was probably going to bite her in the ass someday, “I really gotta go, Sana.”

“I’ll help you!” Sana placed a hand on her shoulder, “Just give me a second to get dressed.”

Kronii sighed – and just waited patiently. When Sana said she would take a second, she literally meant it, though in her head, she counted that it actually took a little over four seconds for Sana to reappear again at her side fully dressed, with her hair was done up in twin tails. Kronii always wondered how she could be comfortable wearing essentially a leotard with a skirt over it, but then she thought to her own outfit, and wisely kept her mouth shut.

“Where are you guys goin?” Kronii tried to hold in a groan as Baelz came up to them curiously. What was that human saying? Speak of the devil and they would appear? Or, she supposed, in this case it was think of the devil.

“We’re going to check up on Amelia and her friends!” Sana answered for her, “Do you want to come?”

Kronii couldn’t stop her eyes from rolling at the invitation, but she was able to bite back her groan. And of course, the rat concept of chaos and destruction agreed readily, looking absolutely excited by the prospect. Baelz was an odd one – Kronii knew that she was a god that caused discord and strife, destroyed many ancient civilizations and all of that, but she herself was so nice… If she wasn’t informed of her concept, Kronii would never have believed her capable of causing any chaos.

And come to think of it, if any more of those monsters appeared, she supposed having the concept of chaos along for the ride would certainly help out on that front.

“Alright,” Kronii nodded, “You can come Baelz.”

“So, what’s going on?” Baelz asked.

“A monster, she said earlier,” Sana replied, looking completely intrigued, her arms crossed under her large chest, “What kind of monster can time travel with you guys, though?”

“I don’t know,” Kronii replied, “That’s why this is such a big deal. I could sense a lot of power coming from it, and I knew someone seriously powerful must have sent it, but I couldn’t tell who did it, only that it was sent to kill Amelia.” She wasn’t able to master her expression at that – they would kill Amelia over her dead body, “We have to go make sure there’s no more of them, and help if there are. This isn’t you doing, is it Hakos?”

Baelz sputtered at the accusation, “Wha – what?! Why would I want them dead?!”

“Kronii-ni.” Sana chided softly, “Calm down.”

Kronii took a deep beath, “Sorry. It just kind of stressed me out.”

“Here,” Sana took a hold of both of their shoulders, “I can get us to them quickly. Do you know whereabouts they live?”

“Not exactly,” Kronii mumbled, wishing she’d have asked Amelia at all in their long relationship. She’d been a little too shy to do so though, “I know they live somewhere near downtown.”

Sana nodded, “I guess that will have to do. I’ll send us to the park then, plenty of places to stay hidden there this early in the morning.”

Kronii felt a little relief at that, “Sana… Thank you.”

She smiled at her, “It’s no problem. I don’t know Amelia personally, but she’s your friend, and I wouldn’t want anything to happen to her.”

And after saying that, the three of them disappeared – reduced to pure atoms as Sana quickly sent their molecules towards the park to reform.

XxXxXxX

“Amelia, what the fuck was that…” Gura didn’t like freaking out, but she was shaking, adrenaline was pumping quickly through her veins, and she knew her eyes were glowing red as her more primal-side was struggling to break free due to the massive amounts of adrenaline flowing through her. She seriously wanted to bite something – anything – right now, and she quickly walked away from her girlfriends, who were still sprawled out on the couch in their living room. She didn’t want to accidentally hurt them.

There was another solution to this though – she focused on the bit of Amelia’s aura she took when she time traveled, and could feel her shark anatomy starting to fade away. The shark fin on her back began to shrink, her scales begin to turn to just plain human skin, and her gills were covered by human skin, the organs themselves disappearing as she turned from an Atlantean to a human… When she licked her teeth and didn’t feel them being so sharp, she let out a sigh… All of that adrenaline was still pumping through her, but now instead of making her want to bite something in desperation, she just wanted to cry, especially since there was nothing nearby to take out her anger on.

“It’s ok, Gura…” She felt arms wrap around her from behind, and she took a deep breath, trying to just focus on that instead. She could smell the shampoo Ina liked to use, and just relaxed back into her chest, trying to calm herself down.

“I’m sorry for scaring you guys like that,” Amelia said from further behind, not making her way over quite yet. Gura could feel a hint of guilt in her emotions through all of the relief, and she let out an annoyed groan – much to the shock of the other two, “G – Gura?”

“Come here.” She held Ina’s hand and forced her onto the couch next to Amelia, and then Gura pounced on the two of them, just holding them close as she shook. “Fuck,” She mumbled, “I’m so thankful that everyone is ok.”

She felt Amelia’s arm holding her on one side, and Ina’s on the other, and she just closed her eyes, focusing solely on that as she tried to calm herself down, to calm her breathing and rapidly beating heart.

“Ina?” Amelia muttered quietly.

“Hm?”

“Do the Ancient Ones have any idea what the hell that was?”

Hostile. The book hovered before them, a silent vigil before them, we’re uncertain as to who they are.

Gura frowned at that, holding the girls tighter, weren’t the Ancient Ones supposed to be some incredibly powerful being? How was it that they couldn’t determine what was trying to kill Amelia?

We’ve never encountered this before.

Gura sighed – of course the Ancient Ones could hear her thoughts, especially when she was bonded so closely to Amelia right now, who was currently still a priestess. She looked glumly up at the book, “Is there nothing you can do to help?”

They caught us by surprise, we’ve never encountered beings like that before. Whatever sired it must be something beyond even us.

Well, that was an unsettling thought – they were stronger than even the Ancient Ones? “So what? Does that mean we’re screwed?”

We believe that only a few can come to our dimension at a time.

“Wait?” Amelia called out, “Dimension? Those things are from an alternate dimension? Just what the hell is trying to kill us?!”

Before AO-chan could respond to the query, the book very suddenly flew towards the window, where they could see the rising sun of that morning for the second time. The book began to vibrate, and off in the distance, Gura could see something making its way towards them. She felt Amelia tense – and the panic invaded her mind again from the detective, “What – what do you see?” Gura jumped up just as Amelia darted to the window.

“Another one! Are you kidding me?!”

Off in the distance, they could see the figure of another one of those giant white creatures making its way to them, jumping from building to building, its head was glued to them, undoubtedly it somehow knew exactly where they were.

“AO-chan!” Ina grabbed the book and opened it, “We can’t afford to have another fight here!” Her halo appeared above her head again as power flowed into her body from the book, her eyes turning purple, “Create a pocket dimension!”

As you wish.

The book flew to the proper page, and as Gura and Amelia stood watching the monster closing in, Ina began her incantation, and then suddenly the world went black for a moment. Gura quickly blinked her eyes a few times, and when she could see properly again, it was like they were in the same room, in the same place, in the same town, and yet everything was different. There were no longer any cars moving down below, no civilians walking, and there was almost a strange purple hue to everything around them.

“What is this?” Gura asked curiously.

“The Ancient Ones created this pocket dimension. It’s an exact replicate of our world, but in this place any destruction we cause will not transfer over.” Her voice was emotionless, but Gura could still feel the anger bubbling within her, and though it was slight, the glare Ina was giving the monster as it continued its approach promised worlds of pain.

“Nice,” Amelia sighed, “We don’t have to time travel back again, then.”

Ina lifted her hands, and AO-chan flipped to a different page. A powerful ball of magic was forming in her palms, and Amelia grabbed Gura carefully from behind as Ina began an incantation – a familiar one, the one that Amelia had done earlier in the street to destroy half of the previous monster’s body. A second later, Ina finished, and the ball of power in her hand shot out like a highly powered laser, shattering the window and aimed directly at the monster as it just completed another jump to a close building.

Its head jerked up, and it darted to the side at speeds that Gura couldn’t even comprehend, the beam of power absolutely obliterated the building it had just been standing on, and several dozen buildings behind that one as well. Ash, smoke, and debris flew into the air from the impact, and one building even collapsed from the immense power of the attack. Unfortunately, the monster was unaffected, having dodged it completely, and it jumped on their apartment building, climbing quickly to their level.

It learns from its predecessor.

“So, every single thing we do to one of these things, they all learn about?” Amelia asked.

Gura shifted back to her Atlantean form just as the creature climbed up to their level and peered in at them. She didn’t even give it a chance to do much of anything, because the moment it looked in, she wound back her arm, and then threw her fist forward with all of her strength, smashing the white creature in the face, and sending it back down to the ground. It caused the entire building the shake, and she let out a breath, looking at her girlfriends, “Well, we took one down, another shouldn’t be too hard, right?”

Ina didn’t waste any time, and her wings expanded again as she just jumped out the window, soaring down to meet their foe. Amelia instead just looked over with an arched brow, “She really needs to teach us how to do that.”

Gura nodded, “No kidding.”

“Well,” Amelia cracked her knuckles against each other, “Guess you and I are going to take the long way down – need a lift?”

“Huh?” Gura let out a startled cry as Amelia summoned forth a tentacle to quickly wrap around her, but she gripped it tightly as Amelia began to climb down the side of the building with her eight tentacles. On their way down, they saw Ina firing more blasts at the monster, and the sounds of explosions were practically the only thing Gura was hearing. Her ears were ringing with the sound of wanton destruction, and she sincerely hoped that Ina would have dealt with the thing pursuing them when they arrived on the ground, but the moment Amelia touched down, they could see already that their foe was standing back up, looking none the worse for wear, despite taking at least four blasts from Ina’s attacks.

“The hell?” Amelia’s eyes widened, “That destroyed the last one – how can this one take the hits?!”

“AO-chan mentions that it learns from the previous ones, so maybe it grows more resistant to all attacks we do to it too, like your gun?” Gura was set down on the ground beside Amelia, looking nervously at the creature as it tried to tackle Ina, but her tentacles blocked the attack and tethered it to the ground.

“I guess that makes sense… When I shot the first one with my gun, it went flying back, but after that my gun was completely useless against it.” Amelia yelled, already sprinting towards Ina to help, and Gura was just a step behind her. The monster pulled its arm back suddenly, forcing Ina’s tentacles to loosen their grip, and then it went to punch her, only to have it quickly intercepted by Amelia’s tentacles instead, blocking the attack for her. “Don’t you DARE hurt her!” Amelia cried, glaring at the monster.

Gura could feel her primal instincts again coming forth, and unlike before where she tried to fight them back, she simply gave in. Her eyes turned blood red, her claws elongated, and she let out a roar, mouth full of incredibly sharp teeth exposed as she jumped onto the creatures back and bit down as hard as she could on its neck – a fatal attack on any normal human. When she started to twist and turn her head, trying to flay it alive, she managed to rip off a huge chunk of its flesh, exposing its inner light, which was so bright that Gura was stunned by it.

She tried to blink the momentary blindness away, and was able to do so only to be slammed against a wall a second later. All of the air in her lungs left her, and the creature leaned forward off the wall again, only to slam its back against the wall again, smashing Gura into the concrete. Cracks formed up the foundation of the building, and rubble started to fall as the building gave an ominous groan. Last she knew, Amelia and Ina had the damn thing tied down with their tentacles, how did it even break free to do this?

“Gura!” She felt tentacles wrapping around her as the monster pulled back again, and she was forcefully pulled off of the monster’s back into Amelia’s arms, “Are you ok?”

She felt dazed, and even with her enhanced strength, she knew her back was going to be bruised for a while, “What happened?”

“When you bit the thing it freaked out, and it broke free of our tentacles and slammed its back into the apartment building as fast as it could to get you off. She smiled down at Gura, still holding her in her arms, “Good job, that’s the most damage any of us have done to it so far.”

“Wish it didn’t hurt me so fucking bad in return,” She complained.

Ina hovered over nearby, and she looked down at Gura, “Take my aura, Gura. You’re at a disadvantage without the Ancient Ones power.”

She nodded – feeling for Ina’s aura, and more specifically, the aura that was already infused with the Ancient Ones. It was a quick process, and she knew it worked immediately when she felt the bruising starting to heal up quickly. She summoned some tentacles of her own, righting herself up, and she cracked her neck, “That’s what I’m talking about.”

“It’s facing us again,” Amelia noted, and true enough, the monster stood up right now, its arm lowering from its neck where Gura had bit them, and it was just facing them silently, not making a single move. Gura was sure it was assessing them, and she had a horrible thought that perhaps it was analyzing her attack and quickly formulating counters to it so it wouldn’t work… Just like every other attack they threw at the damn thing. She had a feeling that the next time she bit into it, her teeth would not be enough to pierce its skin.

“You guys turn into Atlanteans,” Gura said, a thought hitting her, “Humans are kind of useless against this thing, you’re both only still fine because of the Ancient Ones powers. If you’re Atlantean, you’ll have more strength and Ina – you’ll have poison to use against it – it hasn’t faced that before, so it’ll probably be super effective.”

“We’ll have to save it for when it’s weak then,” Amelia noted, “So we can finish it off quickly afterwards. If it’s like everything else we throw at it, it’ll become immune, or at least resistant to it pretty quick.”

Ina didn’t hesitate at Gura’s words. A translucent purple veil flowed down around Ina’s head, and her already glowing eyes grew more ominous as the purple energy burning within them extended to cover even the whites of her eyes until they were just pure darkness. The most important thing though was the long tendrils that replaced her hair that flowed down her back, two of which were far longer than the others, and which contained the poison that would have to be their secret weapon against the monster.

“You know I never found jellyfish to be particularly frightening,” Amelia muttered, “But she’s kind of making me reconsider.”

Gura chuckled, “They’re dangerous, Ame, but so are we.”

Amelia’s form shifted too, her forearms bulked up, and even with her clothing on, Gura could see her body bulking up too with pure muscle, far stronger than even Gura was as a shark Atlantean. Considering their enemy, it would be damn useful.

All three of them were now Atlantean priestesses, using AO-chan’s power to fuel themselves, and they faced the creature just as it was doing to them. The standoff was silent, and Gura didn’t dare even swallow lest she miss anything. Almost a minute passed before the creature fired forward, running at them at full speed with its fist pulled back for an attack at Amelia, and Amelia pulled back her fist just as quickly and punched at the same exact time as the creature did.

Amelia’s strength was incredible – when their knuckles collided with one another, the force of the blow destroyed Amelia’s sleeve as her muscles bulged with absolute power, and the monster wasn’t expecting the force of the impact to shatter its hand, its long fingers twisted crookedly, and its arm flew back, utterly ruined and broken from the blow.

“Fuck!” Amelia cried, “That hurt!” She pulled her arm back and blew on her knuckles which were bloodied red, “That was like punching a steel wall!”

“Its skin must have hardened because of my bite,” Gura muttered, “Sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” Amelia grunted, “It wasn’t hard enough, I fucked up its arm.”

Before their eyes they could see the monster’s skin ‘flutter’, as if a pulse of something went through it just directly under its skin. It was the first time Gura had seen it do something like that, and she had a sneaking suspicion that it would be able to handle the force of such blows significantly better now.

“It has strengthened itself again,” Ina muttered, confirming her thoughts, “Be careful.”

And with that, Ina dived in on the attack, quickly followed by Amelia, and Gura went in too. The fighting was the most brutal thing Gura had even participated in, it felt like everything she did to try and hurt the damn thing was being repelled. It was strong against her bites now, though she was still able to pierce the skin if she was given enough time, which she was never give any, because even restrained by Amelia or Ina, the monster would just break free and rip her off of it with a brutal throw.

She lost count of the number of times the three of them had been thrown into buildings, destroying street lamps or abandoned cars in the road. The entire place was starting to look like a warzone, and she would have been losing hope if it weren’t for the fact that with each throw, their foe seemed to be weakening just slightly, its throws were having less power in them, it was moving slower, and it was reacting slower to her bites and Amelia’s punches. Ina even managed to get a few damaging beams from AO-chan on it.

“Ina,” Gura grunted, backing off from the monster as Amelia held it in place, using both hands to hold its good hand so it couldn’t break free while her tentacles were wrapped around it to hold it still. “Ina,” Gura tried again as Ina was gasping for breath. The priestess did eventually look over, sweat covering her forehead, “I think it’s time, it’s weakened enough, right?”

Ina looked at the beast, and slowly nodded, “You may be right.” Her hair tendrils moved, and she could see the two longest ones in particular coming to the fore, and she knew immediately that they were laced with poison, ready to inject venom into the damn thing.

“Good luck,” Gura sighed, “I hope this works.”

Though she had no real expression, Ina did look over, and she bore a slight smile, but through the link Gura could feel immense reassurance coming from her, “It will be ok, Gura.”

Ina darted forward at that moment, and the monster, still too preoccupied with Amelia, didn’t react to her attack as she managed to stab her two tendrils into it with no real difficulties, even with the hardened skin. Perhaps the monster wasn’t expecting Ina to do anything it hadn’t already seen, or maybe it actually was getting tired and wasn’t able to do anything about her, but in the end, it started to convulse, shaking like crazy as its body loosened up, and Amelia tossed it to the ground with a grunt.

It was almost unsettling to watch it convulse the way it was; its entire body was shaking so badly that its head was slamming with heavy thuds into the ground below it, and it was fruitlessly trying to grab anything with its one good arm, but it was of little use. After nearly a full minute of that, it just suddenly stopped, and its entire body relaxed as settled down in the destroyed road…

“Fuck,” Amelia groaned, wiping her brow, “That was insane…”

Gura fell to her knees, letting out a breath she’d been holding the entire time, waiting for it to fall. Now that it had stopped moving, she finally allowed her muscles to relaxed. Her adrenaline was still sky high, and she seriously wanted to just go into the ocean and hunt until she could get it down to a more manageable level, but with the bond she was at least capable of fending off the worst of the effects, using the other two to buoy her.

Ina didn’t power down, instead, she hovered over its body watching it silently, awaiting any sort of movement from the thing. Gura wanted to tell her to stand down, but after seeing how damn difficult it was to take the monster down, she actually felt a bit safer know that Ina was standing guard over it.

“AO-chan,” Amelia called, “Details. Anything. Why are they attacking us?”

“They said earlier that they didn’t know who they were,” Gura growled, “If they didn’t know then, why would they now?”

“Is it some other cosmic entity though? Is it stronger than the Ancient Ones?” Amelia asked, and there was a note of worry in her voice that Gura shared.

Amelia was gasping for breath as much as she was, no doubt the adrenaline flowing through her was begging Amelia to give in to her instincts, and considering she’d only had to deal with it once so far, the detective was doing an admirable job keeping them at bay. Again, Gura would have just told her to turn back to a human to stop the adrenaline from trying to make her go feral, but she didn’t know if the damn thing was dead yet.

“I wish I had my trident…” Gura grumbled, standing back up fully and walking up to the body, “Could give it a few stabs here and there to make sure it’s dead.”

“That’s assuming you could cut into it,” Amelia muttered, going to stand at her side.

Gura didn’t have any time to response, to tell Amelia that Atlantean tridents were made of some of the toughest materials on planet Earth, because the body in front of them began to move again. Her eyes widened, but her surprise was fairly muted – she didn’t think it would be that freaking easy.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me!” Amelia shouted, “What the fuck does it take to put one of these things down?!”

Ina was already acting. Both her hands were held out, ready to blast it again with one of the Ancient One’s beam attacks, but the monstrosity struck faster – in a movement that Amelia couldn’t even perceive, it lifted itself up just by the heels of its feet, and it punched Ina right in the gut, sending her flying away like she was nothing more than a fly. Her body flew across the road and into a building – she burst through the wall and disappeared somewhere in the interior, and the building gave an ominous groan.

Gura felt that worm of worry growing in her head – were they actually going to be able to beat this thing?

“Alright, Gura, we need to distract it while Ina gets back up!” Amelia went to punch it while her eight tentacles went to restrain it again, but the creature again moved unperceivably fast, and it pounded Amelia in the head, sending her to the ground faster than Gura could see. Amelia let out a gasped cough, blood flying from her mouth, and she tried to stand, only to have the monster hit her again.

“No you don’t!” Gura tried to help, she grabbed its ruined arm and yanked it back, sending it off balance from its assault on Ame, and then it turned to her and just backhanded her across the face, and she felt completely dazed as she flew across the road the opposite direction Ina went. There were no buildings in her way here, just a vast open road. She only stopped when she hit the ground, and then bounced a few times like a rock being skipped across a pond, until she slammed into the side of a car.

Her consciousness was beginning to fade, the sides of her vision were going black, and the lull of unconsciousness was so sweet. She just wanted to close her eyes and go to sleep, but she tried to force them open. Forced herself to watch Amelia try to take it on by herself, she watched it move unbelievably fast and just continue to pummel Amelia like she was a punching bag. She wanted to scream, to get up and help, but her entire body protested the movement. She could feel the magic of the Ancient Ones healing her, already her pain and soreness was slowly fading, but it wasn’t fast enough, she needed a bit more time.

How was it so much faster now? Was it another adaptation to fighting them? Did it know that in order to beat them it had to move faster? She grunted, trying again to get up, but couldn’t manage more than to fall forward and onto her knees, holding herself up as she gasped for breath.

“Ame…” She tried to cry out, but her voice was weak.

Amelia was not doing well, she had collapsed to the ground, and was not moving. Through their bond, Gura could feel Amelia’s fear, and after another few seconds passed, she could feel her resignation to her fate. Tears streamed down Gura’s eyes as she watched in slow motion as the final fist that would end Amelia’s life came down, she wanted to scream, to do anything other than just WATCH.

“DON’T YOU DARE HURT HER!”

Time stopped – or at least, the monster did. Its fist was mere centimeters from Amelia’s face, but it didn’t move. Gura blinked again – and Kronii was standing with her arm held up and the golden glow of what looked like a clock was at her palm, there was also a glowing ethereal looking clock just behind her as well, its hands stopped. The golden glowing clock had an hour hand and a minute hand just like a normal wall clock, and slowly the minute hand started to move in reverse both on Kronii’s palm and her back, and astonishingly the monster’s fist backed up as if it were being rewound.

With her free hand, Kronii summoned what looked like a clock hand, but the hand was bladed, and she swung it up to cut the beast, and then let out a loud curse as it just bounced off of its skin.

“Gura?”

Gura turned to her side, and saw that a new person was there, her red hair was almost blindingly bright, and she oddly enough had two large mouse ears as well as two human ears – kind of reminded her of Ina and her head flaps. Her spiked collar was strange, but so was her entire outfit really, a mix of blues, reds, and yellows set in an almost chaotic way, no rhyme or reason to why they were the way they were. She had a thin mouse tail that was twitching in agitation behind her, and her clothes… A miniskirt and a crop top that exposed her shoulders? Didn’t she know she was in a war zone?

“Who…?”

“You don’t remember me?” The mouse girl asked, “I suppose that’s all right…” She let out a rueful little chuckle.

Remember? Gura blinked a few times, and tried to kickstart her brain. She’d just been thrown across the street like a ragdoll, trying to regain her equilibrium, and then this weird person arrived? Still, now that she mentioned it, she did look oddly familiar…

“Baelz?” Gura muttered.

The woman was pleased, she smiled, showing all of her sharp teeth, “Hole in one! You do remember me! Thank god, I was going to cry!”

“Sure you were,” Gura groaned, “What are you doing here?”

“Kronii brought us here. Took us a little while to realize that you guys created a little pocket dimension though, sorry about that.”

“Don’t be,” Gura grunted, getting up with Baelz help. She leaned into her side, “You guys saved our ass.”

“Just like before, eh?” Baelz asked, though her tone was softer, and Gura knew why, of course. Baelz was the one who saved her from the destruction of Atlantis, after all. Not exactly a happy memory.

“Guess so,” Gura grunted. She was long over the destruction of her civilization, so she didn’t hold anything against her for bringing it up again. Not to mention she was – as she said – the one who saved her life, so she couldn’t really hold anything against her even if she tried.

“What is that thing? Kronii didn’t tell us anything.”

“Don’t know,” Gura replied honestly, “It just appeared and tried to kill us. Ancient Ones don’t know anything either.”

“They don’t?” Baelz’s eyes widened, “In that case…”

“Yeah, probably some sort of big shot god is trying to kill us, as far as we can figure.” Gura laughed at Baelz wide eyes, “Sorry for getting you involved in this shit.”

Baelz smiled, and shook her head, “Don’t worry about it! This will be fun! Pitting you three against a god isn’t sporting though, is it? Fortunately for you, you have us on your side!”

“Us?” Gura asked.

From the wreckage of the building Ina had flown into, a tall tanned woman was walking out cradling Ina to her chest. It seemed even infused with the power of the Ancient Ones, Ina had been unable to resist the beck and call of unconsciousness. Gura fretted as she looked over, but Baelz put a hand to her shoulder, “She’s ok.”

“I need to go to her.”

“Then we will. Kronii can hold off whatever that thing is for a little longer.”

XxXxXxX

Kronii didn’t think she’d ever been this pissed in her entire life, and considering she has existed as long as the universe itself has existed, that was really saying something. The sight of Amelia about to be murdered was going to be burned into her mind for the rest of her significantly long life, and she was going to teach this damn thing a lesson on hurting people close to her. She didn’t have anywhere near enough loved ones to lose ANY of them, especially the only one who could come close to understanding what her own life was like.

Amelia was important to her, far too important, and she was going to make sure this monster never touched her again.

Her time stop ability was working just fine, but oddly enough her blades were doing absolutely nothing to the beast. They were bouncing off of its skin like it was made of freaking diamonds or something, and she growled and tried again and again, each blow from her blade chipping just a tiny bit of its skin away, revealing light hidden away underneath.

“It grows stronger with each attack,” Amelia got to her feet beside her, and she could feel the power of the Ancient Ones flowing through her, she knew Amelia was healing, and she was thankful for that, though she was still pissed beyond all belief.

“Oh? I assume you guys have toughened it up to this point then?”

“Yeah,” Amelia sounded guilty, “We thought we finished it off with Ina’s poison, but… Well…”

“Hm.” Kronii hummed softly, looking over at Amelia even as she held the creature in her time stasis, “What’s with the muscles? You take some steroids or something?” She looked behind her, where there was also a large tail, “And uh… surgery?”

“I just saw you like a half hour ago,” Amelia huffed, “How would I get surgery in that amount of time?”

Kronii shrugged, “Dunno. Is this related to why you’re also powered by the Ancient Ones too?”

“Yeah,” Amelia replied, “Orb. You remember?”

“That’s right…” Kronii mumbled, “Remind me to talk to Bae when this is all over, alright?”

“Uh,” Amelia blinked, “Sure?”

“BAE! SANA!” Kronii called, “We gotta finish this thing off!”

A moment later, Baelz arrived at her side, and Sana on her other. Kronii could see from the corner of her eye that Gura had been dropped off next to Ina off in the distance, caring for the unconscious girl. Bae looked at the monster up close and let out a whistle, “Wow, that thing is buff as hell looking.”

“Hits like a god damn truck.” Amelia confirmed for her.

“I doubt it can do anything to us,” Sana mumbled, “Shall we try?”

“Amelia says it grows stronger with each attack. So we’re going to have to finish it immediately.”

“Easy.” Baelz said, and with a snap of her fingers, her hands began to glow with what looked like embers, except they were an odd distorted red color. Every time Kronii attempted to focus in on them, it was like they would glitch, and then the ember would appear elsewhere. She never actually understood Bae’s power too well, but she didn’t need to really, she knew that the moment she touched the creature with those glitched embers, its skin would start to harden and soften at the same time, no rhyme or reason to any of it, chaotic, just like Baelz herself.

The moment she touched its skin, Kronii got to work, striking the monster over and over, some of her blade strikes didn’t cut anything, but others pierced right through the skin like it was simple paper. Sana walked up, and Kronii just stopped striking. At this point, the creature was still stopped in place, and it had dozens of big and small cuts all over its arms, legs, torso, and even its head.

Sana being the concept of space was interesting. She had on a limiter above her head that once removed, she would expand to her original galaxy sized body, which would not only destroy the Earth, but the entire Milky Way. What that meant is that compressed to as small as she was, she was an absolute powerhouse. A single punch against her wouldn’t even make her flinch, it would be like punching the hardest material ever made. Conversely, if she punched you, well, you wouldn’t be alive to tell the tale. It was a very good thing that Sana was such a kind woman, someone who’d never resort to violence unless if it was called for.

“This is for Ina,” She whispered, and Kronii’s brow shot up, did Sana actually know one of Amelia’s friends?

She didn’t bother asking the question now, it wasn’t time for it anyway. With the monster still frozen in time, and weakened by Baelz chaotic embers, the moment she punched it, the monster simply ceased to exist – it was blown apart, as were the buildings behind it. The destruction Sana wrought was so severe that the force of her punch went on for miles, Kronii couldn’t even see the end of it. However, nothing of the monster existed, so Kronii ceased her time stop on the thin air in front of her, and let out a sigh.

“Holy shit.” Amelia muttered, “You guys just… Destroyed it!”

“We’re amazing like that.” Kronii replied with her usual smug aura. It was easier to slip into now that she was sure Amelia was going to be safe. She held out her hand for her, and Amelia gratefully took hold of it.

“AO-chan!” Sana called, and the book hovered over. Again, Kronii was surprised – Sana was her friend, but she tended to be a pretty private person despite how open she liked to act around everyone. The fact that she knew the Ancient Ones well enough to call them at all was a shock. To her side, she could see that Baelz was also staring at her in surprise, as was Amelia. “Are there any more of those beasties around?”

We are safe for the time being.

“Thank god,” Amelia sighed.

Gura made her way over holding Ina bridal style, she noticed that the tentacles that surrounded Gura were gone, as were all signs of her being a priestess – interesting. Even more interesting was when Kronii looked at Amelia, the detective seemed to almost shrink. Her muscles went smaller, her forearms back to a human size, and her tail was sucked back into her… She looked like a normal human being again, no influence of the Ancient Ones, nor any Atlantean changes… Whatever that orb was, it was pretty damn powerful.

Ina began to stir, letting out a groan in Gura’s arms, and the Atlantean quickly lowered her down, “Ina?” Gura gently whispered. Sana appeared at her side quickly too, looking just as concerned if not more so. If Gura was bothered by the taller woman’s concern, she didn’t show it.

“Gura…?” Ina muttered.

“Hey,” She smiled.

“T – The monster!” Ina groaned, and went to sit up, “Is it-?!”

“Dead, yeah.” Gura replied, “We were saved by some friends.”

“Friends…?” Ina looked over, and her eyes widened, “Sana?!”

“Hey there, Ina.” The concept of space smiled, “I’m glad to see you’re ok. When I saw you unconscious like that, I was so worried.”

“I’m fine,” Ina mumbled, and like Amelia before her, Kronii watched at the Atlantean features of hers disappeared, the veil around her head went away, the film around her waist similarly going away, and the tendrils around her hair shifted back to normal hair. Her outfit was cut in two due to the film around her waist, but it seemed to be holding at least.

Amelia stumbled over, and Kronii averted her eyes the moment she, Gura, and Ina all shared a group hug. It felt like far too intimate of a moment to watch upon, not to mention she felt a small snake of envy working its way through her gut. Amelia was with them now, she had no chance – She tried to focus on her own life, she had others she cared for, not to mention she should be very happy that Amelia was still alive, and she certainly was.

“Can we get out of here,” Amelia asked, looking around the space. Of the buildings still standing, they had several large holes blown in them either from laser beams or just having each other be thrown into them. Smoke was billowing from the sky, fires burned, it was like a bomb had gone off… A horrifying sight, and one that Kronii was very thankful only existed in this little pocket dimension meant for it.

“AO-chan,” Ina called wearily, “Can you take us home?”

No sooner than when she asked, their entire environment changed, and they were in a small apartment room. Calling it small was a bit of an understatement – the place was absolutely tiny. With six people in one room, it was even more crammed than usual. Amelia, Gura, and Ina all collapsed on the nearby couch, not caring how dirty and sweaty they were, while the concepts stood around uncertainly.

“I’ll cook something to eat!” Sana called out, “That kind of wore me out!”

Kronii glanced over at the kitchen, and shrugged, “I’ll help.”

“Me too!” Baelz called, undoubtedly feeling awkward and out of place.

“You don’t have to,” Amelia called, and Kronii chuckled when she noticed her stiffen, as if she just realized she had guests, and she went to get up, “I’ll make it, you guys just relax and –”

“Stay down.” Kronii pushed her back into Gura and Ina’s cuddles, “Those who nearly died don’t get a say in this.”

Amelia let out a huff, “Yeah?”

“Yeah, so stay there. We’re going to make something to eat, you three will clean up, and then we’ll talk. Understand?”

Amelia sighed, leaning back into the comfort of the couch and her girlfriends, “Yes, mother.”

“Watch your mouth,” Kronii wasn’t quite able to hide her smile though, and she turned back to the kitchen.

Food first, and then, yeah. They were going to have a long talk.

Chapter Text

If she wasn’t so freaking tired from having her face literally smashed into the ground over and over, or if she hadn’t been thrown through several buildings and have rebar and concrete fall atop her, Ina might have been more inclined to be helpful to their guests as they made something for them to eat. She would have helped them set up the table, or at least got the dishes ready, or done anything to help, really, but she had a pounding headache, and every single movement made her whimper in pain. Holding Amelia and Gura close to her, letting their love and reassurances roll over her, and just trying to focus on that was far more appealing than doing pretty much anything else at the moment.

Eventually however, Amelia and Gura stood, and the three of them made their way over to their small kitchen table. The table only had four chairs, so while she and her girlfriends each had a seat, the last chair was settled in by Kronii, Amelia’s friend. She could barely focus on her food however, she was so busy just holding her head in her hands, trying desperately to breathe as the Ancient Ones took the pain away from her, soothing her headache. It was slow going, and considering the amount of damage she’d endured, it at least made sense why she was taking far longer than usual to recover, but it still sucked.

She felt a hand on her shoulder, and she looked up with one squinted eye at Sana, who was giving her a concerned look, “Are you ok, Ina?”

“Mehhh…” Ina managed to mumble out. Even speaking made her head pound, “I’ve been better.”

Sana gently rubbed her back, and while it felt nice, it was really both Gura and Amelia’s concern that helped her relax. She tried to let them know that she was fine, that she appreciated their concern. Both of their emotions lightened again, and she smiled softly.

Kronii had her arms crossed as she leaned back against her chair, just watching over them, and Ina saw the red-headed rat girl nervously pacing around, not really saying much of anything, but her eyes would occasionally dart over to Gura. Ina wasn’t sure what to make of that, but it gave her a sneaking suspicion that Gura had a bit of a history with her. She wanted to ask about that, but she figured she’d be polite first and eat. She took a little bite, while at the same time trying to stave off her headache with a little success.

“So,” Kronii finally spoke up after a few minutes have passed, “I suppose introductions are in order.” She coughed into her hand, “You three have already met me, but this here is Tsukumo Sana.” She pointed to the tall tanned woman still standing beside Ina, “She’s the concept of space, otherwise known as the Speaker of Space, like how I’m the Warden of Time.” She took a breath, “And this over here is Hakos Baelz, she is literally just Chaos.”

“Thanks for saving our ass,” Amelia spoke up, “If you didn’t arrive when you did Kronii, I would’ve…”

“Yes, well…” Kronii was at a loss for words, and Ina could see her shuddering at the mere mention of Amelia’s potential fate. She knew that they had known each other for a while, but seeing it more closely like this, when she was more vulnerable was quite revealing. Kronii actually did care a lot for Amelia, and the thought of her death seemed to scare her quite a bit. Ina could sympathize with the point, just the mere thought that Amelia had almost died when she’d been knocked out was terrifying… She reached over and grabbed Amelia’s hand to comfort herself, to reassure herself that she was still there.

Amelia squeezed her hand back, and gave her a small smile, “Yeah… You guys too.” She looked at Sana and Baelz, “Thank you.”

“Oh, it’s no problem!” Sana insisted happily, “It was my pleasure!”

“I couldn’t let anyone hurt Gura,” Baelz muttered softly, her arms crossed as she leaned back against a counter, unable to look at the table.

“What’s your history there?” Amelia asked curiously.

“She saved my life,” Gura answered in her place, “Thousands of years ago. When Atlantis was being destroyed, I was in trouble, and she came for me.”

Silence from everyone, even Baelz.

“Thank you, by the way.” Gura looked up at her, “It seems that you’ve saved me again.”

“It’s because of Kronii.” Baelz replied, guiltily looking to the side, “I wouldn’t have come to you in time if she hadn’t said anything.”

“Still,” Gura smiled softly, and again, Ina was struck by that. Like Amelia and Kronii, it definitely seemed that there was more between them that she thought form only their initial meeting. Much the same way that she and Sana shared quite a bit of history, she supposed. She never brought it up, because she hadn’t seen Sana in quite some time now, but seeing her again was actually making old feelings resurface.

“And you and Ina know each other?” Amelia asked, turning to look at Sana.

Ina felt Sana’s hand on her back stiffen for a moment, and then it loosened up just as quickly, “Yeah, Ina and I know each other because of the Ancient Ones, actually. I’m one of their apostles!”

“The Ancient Ones have apostles? And you’re one, even though you’re literally space?” Amelia’s brow rose.

Sana nodded, “They sure do! And yeah, the Ancient Ones and I meet quite often. I expand the known universe after all, I have seen and been everywhere there is to be! They’re nice, even if their shape and thoughts tend to drive most mortals mad!”

“Huh…” Amelia blinked a few times, and turned to Ina, “And you never thought to mention her?”

Ina blushed as she averted her eyes. She’d never meant any deception, “Uh, we haven’t met for over forty years now, I just thought that we wouldn’t be seeing each other anymore…”

“Ina!” Sana chided, “We live forever – what made you think I wouldn’t come to see you?! I never gave you an answer…”

“An answer?” Ina mumbled, her voice had a little heat in it, “I thought leaving me and never coming back was your answer.”

Sana froze at that, her hand on her back lifted, and Ina noticed she brought it back to herself and she winced. Was it not the right move to bring that up now? Amelia at least seemed to have the good sense not to engage with that line of questioning anymore, she undoubtedly could feel her guilt and her wariness around the subject. Amelia looked at her and shrugged, and she could feel the guilt and apology coming from her now, and Ina just smiled and shook her head – no hard feelings.

Amelia cleared her throat, “Well, uh. I’m Amelia, I’m a time traveler, and uh, now I guess a part-time priestess and a part-time Atlantean. This over here is Gura,” Amelia patted Gura’s arm, “She’s an Atlantean – uh, sometimes…” She noticed Gura was actually back to being human again, “Human right now though, and she’s also a part-time priestess.” She took a deep breath and turned to Ina now, “This is Ina, full-time priestess, usually human, but also a part-time Atlantean.”

“Yeah, ok, I have questions!” Sana raised her hand having already bounced back after Ina’s rather icy response, “What do you mean by the part-time Atlantean thing there? And how can you also be priestesses?”

“Yeah,” Kronii spoke up, and her gaze slid over to Baelz, “I was wondering if you would be able to explain that for us, Bae.”

Baelz’s eyes widened as she looked over at Kronii, and Ina’s interest was piqued. It seemed that Kronii had an inkling of what caused it, and additionally, it seemed that Baelz was also somehow directly involved in what happened. The concept of chaos let out an aggravated sigh, and looked elsewhere, “Look, I didn’t know exactly what it would do, I wasn’t expecting it to do THAT to them!”

“The orb?” Gura asked as she blinked, “You know about it?”

“I’m the one who gave it to you.”

“But an old… woman…” Gura blinked, “That was you?”

Baelz smiled, and she held her arms out wide, “You caught me!”

“But… Why?”

“I didn’t realize what exactly it would do,” She replied, “I knew it would make it so you could feel each other’s emotions, but the rest of this stuff? I didn’t know it did any of that. I’m sorry, if I had known it would’ve been THIS chaotic, I probably wouldn’t have given it to you.”

“You’ve been watching me this whole time?” Gura asked quietly.

“Eh?”

“You gave it to me, does that mean you’ve been keeping an eye on me ever since Atlantis fell?”

Baelz face went red, and she again averted her eyes, “W – What gives you that idea?”

Gura let out a scoff, “I wasn’t sure, but your reaction is making it obvious!”

“That’s not the point,” Kronii pointed out quickly before their little argument could take over the discussion, “The point is you gave it to them and made all of this madness happen!”

“Hey wait a minute!” Baelz stomped her foot, “You don’t know if that’s why those things were trying to kill them!”

“It’s an odd coincidence that that they only appeared after they got the orb,” Kronii replied curtly, “I’ve been keeping an eye on Amelia for over a decade, and while she does occasionally strain the timeline, it has never resulted in something like this!”

“Eh?” Amelia looked at Kronii in surprise, “Keeping an eye on me?”

“Ack…” Kronii’s cheeks turned red, and Ina felt a wave of sympathy for her – if that wasn’t the signs of unrequited love, then she didn’t know what else it could be. “Y – You know what I mean, Amelia!”

“Orb or not, correlation does not equal causation, Kronii-ni.” Sana pointed out reasonably from behind Ina, “Just because they showed up after the orb doesn’t mean that it was Bae’s fault that they appeared.”

“And even if it is the case,” Gura interrupted, “We need to move on and figure out if there’s going to be more of them!”

At the moment we are safe.

All eyes turned to the book seated beside Ina’s plate. It had stayed quiet the entire time, only now opting to speak. It wasn’t even attempting to be cryptic anymore, and Ina wondered if that was because Gura and Amelia were influencing it with their connection, showing it how to be more straight forward and explain things clearer.

“Can you tell us if they’ll reappear?” Sana asked curiously.

It’s uncertain if more will come.

Amelia groaned, “So we don’t even know if giant white motherfuckers will be coming to kill us tomorrow or a week from now?”

If the next one attacks, we believe that we can determine their patterns and when they will arrive.

“We just need to keep an eye out for another attack.” Ina sighed, “That’s not very comforting, AO-chan.”

We apologize.

“It’s ok,” Amelia sighed, and Ina boggled at that. Just a week ago, Amelia didn’t like AO-chan whatsoever, she would go out of her way to antagonize them, but now she was telling them that it was ok that they couldn’t calculate the next time of attack? She smiled, trying to hide it behind her hands, it was clear that Amelia was growing to like the Ancient Ones, and she couldn’t really blame her, if it weren’t for them, they would have more than likely died. Amelia glanced over and flipped her off, and Ina couldn’t help but laugh at that.

Gura ignored the byplay, “So should we just set up shifts at night, then?”

“We can keep an eye out,” Sana replied, “Sleep isn’t required for me, and now that I know what to keep an eye out for, I can make sure nothing enters our dimension anywhere in the universe without my knowledge.”

“You… Can you do that?” Amelia asked in surprise.

Sana smiled, “I am space – while I can’t keep an eye on everything at once, I can feel everything if I focus on it, and after fighting those things, I think I will know what to look out for. The Ancient Ones will help out, right?”

We will assist.

“Yeah!” Sana nodded, “So don’t worry about keeping a night shift going! I’ve got you covered!”

“You’d do that?” Amelia asked, an odd tone in her voice as she looked at Sana, “For free?”

“You’re Ina’s friends! Of course, I’ll help!”

Ina frowned at that – if she were so willing to help here, then why did she leave all of those years ago? Why did she refuse to… She let out a sigh, she didn’t want to dwell on such thoughts, not to mention she was happy now with Amelia and Gura, there was no need to reopen old wounds needlessly.

“Her girlfriends, you mean.” Kronii pointed out.

“Eh?” Sana blinked in surprise, “What?”

“You didn’t know?” Kronii’s brow rose, and Ina felt her heart sink, why was Kronii bringing this up now? “You saw them hugging, right?”

“I just thought they were really close friends…” Ina didn’t have the heart to turn around and look at the concept of Space, she wasn’t sure if she’d like what she saw. She just steadfast looked ahead, even when Amelia and Gura both looked at her curiously. They could feel her emotions, she knew, and it was becoming increasingly obvious to even them that she and Sana had a bit of history.

“Uh,” Baelz walked over and slammed the table, immediately understanding that they’d hit somewhat of a sensitive issue, “Right. So, Sana will watch for those things and let the rest of us know, right?”

“Y – Yeah…” Sana muttered.

“Then I guess meeting’s adjourned?” Baelz asked, looking between the five, “Is there anything anyone would like to add?”

“Well,” Amelia sighed, “I know I said this earlier, but seriously, thank you guys for coming to save us.”

“Yeah,” Gura nodded quickly, Ina was not far behind her, humming in agreement.

“Yeah, it’s uhm, no problem.” Kronii again looked aside awkwardly, “You’re my, uh, friend.”

Amelia smiled gently, and Ina could feel the affection through the bond. It was difficult to tell, emotions being so complex, but she wondered if there was anything more to the affection Amelia felt towards Kronii, perhaps more than even Amelia herself realized. She wanted to laugh – it felt like everyone in here had some baggage.

“So uh,” Kronii coughed, and went to stand, “I guess, I’ll leave? You guys seem to have things under control, and Amelia does work today, I think?”

“Y – Yeah…” Amelia nodded, “I forgot about that…” She let out an aggravated sigh, “Fuck, I’m going to have to redo all of the progress on this missing person case again. Hopefully this time there won’t be a pissed off monster trying to kill me at lunch time.”

It was a poor attempt at a joke, no one even attempted to laugh, and Amelia just looked down at her empty plate in thought. Ina coughed into her hand, and looked back at Sana, “Uh… Sana?”

“Y – Yes, Ina?”

A part of her was yelling at her to just stop and let things stay in the past, to not do what she was about to do, but she couldn’t just leave things as they were. If Sana left now, she had a feeling that the air between them would never be resolved, and she wasn’t sure if she wanted things to end on terms like that between them. Sana was important to her, even if she did leave, especially after everything Ina said to her that night.

She’d be a coward if she didn’t say anything, so she managed to ask, “Do you… Want to hang out for a little while? Go for a walk, or something?”

Sana looked surprised, her eyes widened, and then that tender smile crossed her face, the one that Ina had always looked forward to seeing, “If you’d like Ina.”

“Yeah…”

“While they’re out then, Baelz, do you want to talk too?” Gura asked the concept of Chaos, who looked taken aback by the question.

“Eh?” She blinked a few times, “Me?”

“Who else?” Gura scoffed, a smirk crossing her face, “You don’t want to?”

“W – Well…” Ina couldn’t really decipher what was going through Baelz head. She looked guilty, but she wasn’t sure what she’d feel guilty about? The orb? Perhaps, but she thought it was something more than that. “I – I guess we can,” she said.

“Then I guess Kronii and I can catch up while you guys are doing your own things,” Amelia muttered.

“W – Wait! Don’t you have a job to get to?” Kronii asked with wide eyes.

Amelia shrugged, “I can take another sick day, they’ll understand.” Ina stifled her chuckle when Amelia quickly tacked on a ‘I hope’ under her breath. “I have it on good authority that there won’t be any big cases to deal with today.”

Kronii let out a laugh, “Ah… Well, I guess that’s fine.”

The concept of time looked nervous, and Ina knew why, of course. Hopefully she made the right decision to ask Sana to stay for a while, to talk to her. It seemed to have caused a domino effect for the others to try and resolve whatever was going on between them as well, and she hoped that by the end of today they could all figure out what to do.

XxXxXxX

Amelia knew Kronii had started to live amongst humanity outside of the Passage of Time quite a while ago. Kronii would often mention it, of course, and while Amelia was curious about it, she really didn’t want to intrude upon her life. After all, she uprooted her life every time she reversed or fast-forwarded through time, so surely Kronii wouldn’t want to see her outside of those moments? A part of her knew that that was just a bullshit excuse she told herself, because she was far too nervous to ask Kronii to meet in real life. Amelia was a shy person, all things considered, and while she considered Kronii a friend, she wasn’t sure how the concept of time considered her.

Oh sure, Kronii mentioned her being a friend, but it was difficult to gauge if she was being genuine or not. At one point in time, Amelia could have admitted to liking Kronii, and truthfully a small part of her still did. She just didn’t know if the concept herself cared for her, or if she wasn’t being truthful with her statements. Kronii so often spoke sardonically that Amelia never knew if she was being serious or not, and thus Amelia never worked up the nerve to admit to her how she felt, and so she’d quietly just allowed that love to flicker out, until a new flame was lit with Gura and Ina.

Now, however, she could feel that old flame again, and when Kronii admitted to watching her all this time, she wondered what would have happened if she had admitted to her feelings so long ago. Well, she saw that Ina had something unresolved with Sana, and she was braving it to talk to her, and Amelia wouldn’t be outdone! This was probably her best chance – if not her only chance – to get down to the bottom of this!

It was strange walking down the sidewalk with Kronii, the very same sidewalk she’d just been destroying earlier too.

“Nice, uh, weather.” Kronii muttered.

Amelia was glad she was wearing a coat, because it certainly wasn’t nice weather, it was damn cold. She supposed Kronii wasn’t technically a human though, so despite how much skin she had exposed, she wouldn’t actually feel the chill in the air.

“I guess,” Amelia shrugged, “It’s cold.”

“Oh, right.” Kronii nodded, “Humans don’t like cold, eh?”

“Right,” Amelia replied.

This was awkward. There was so much she wanted to talk to Kronii about, but she just couldn’t get the words past her lips.

“Do you want to get something to eat?” Kronii asked, “We can go inside and warm up a bit too – if you’re too cold, I mean. We uh, don’t have to if you don’t wanna, of course.”

Amelia looked to where Kronii was pointing. It was just a little deli on the corner of the road, a handful of tables were outside of the shop, but all were empty due to the cold air. She peered in through the windows, and saw that there was a single employee behind the counter looking bored out of their mind on a phone, and none of the tables indoors were occupied. The place really was small, she doubted it could hold more than twenty people inside, but it would be fine… No one around meant that there would be no one to hear what they talked about.

“Sure,” She replied, only a few seconds passed as she observed the place, “I’ll pay for you.”

“No,” Kronii shook her head, “I’ll pay for you.” Amelia went to open her mouth but Kronii shook her head, “I insist. Consider it my treat.”

“But you saved my life, I have to repay you for that.”

Kronii bashfully looked away, much to Amelia’s amusement. Kronii didn’t seem to take compliments or favorable words regarding her too well, she just broke apart at the seams at such a simple but true statement. The Warden of Time had no rebuttal for that, and Amelia smiled triumphantly as they entered the deli, and she just stood there for a second as the heated air inside rushed onto her. It was utter bliss, after how ridiculously cold it was outside.

They each ordered a sandwich, Amelia making sure to get gluten-free bread (which she was honestly surprised such a small place had any of), and the two went to sit at a table furthest away from the counter. It didn’t seem to matter in the end, since the employee just went back to tinkering around on their phone once they dealt with them. That was just fine, it would give them the privacy they desired, well, the privacy Amelia desired at any rate, she had a hard time reading Kronii, despite knowing her for so long.

Minutes passed in silence as Amelia just ate her sandwich, her eyes focused completely on her food. It wasn’t that she was too interested in what she was eating, but she was just kind of lost on what to do or say to Kronii. Speaking to her in the Passage of Time was one thing, she was only there strictly for time travel, and she could just explain to Kronii what she was doing and be on her own. Here, in the real world, so to speak, she just couldn’t really come up with anything to say that wouldn’t sound incredibly awkward.

“Do you…” Kronii spoke up, breaking the silence. She tapered off, not finishing her thought.

“Do I what?” Amelia asked.

Kronii coughed into her hand, “Uh, how’s life with Gura and Ina?”

Amelia was sure that wasn’t what she was going to ask, but she’d indulge her anyway. It wasn’t quite what she wanted to talk about, but close enough for now. “It’s… Interesting.”

“Huh…” Kronii looked back down, “Is it now?”

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded, “Living with them before all of this crazy stuff happened was… Fun, I guess? Paying rent is a pain in the ass, because I don’t get paid anywhere near enough what I deserve, and Ina’s commissions are hit and miss, and Gura doesn’t really make any money. So that’s always a little stressful, but it works out.”

“Hm,” Kronii nodded, “Freeloaders, eh?”

Amelia shook her head, “Gura feels guilty about it, even before I could feel her emotions, I knew she felt that way. When we first got the place, we basically had to force her to live there with us, and even then, she refused to accept any of the rooms and just sleeps on the couch. She also gets us food a lot, usually seafood due to her whole, you know, Atlantean stuff.” She shrugged, “Ina also tries her best, staying up until really late working on a bunch of different art commissions. I’m always worried she’s going to burn herself out.”

Kronii frowned, “I didn’t mean to insult them. I was trying to tell a joke.”

Amelia did laugh this time, and shook her head, “Needs a bit of work, Warden.”

“Ah, Kronii is fine.” She replied softly.

“Kronii, then.” Amelia nodded.

“And then after you felt their emotions, things got better, I assume?”

“You assume right,” Amelia answered, leaning back in her chair with a fond smile, “I hated it at first, because I had no privacy in my thoughts. They could feel everything I was feeling, and they could tell when I was lying or hiding something, it was so freaking annoying.”

“I imagine it is.” Kronii nodded, “But you got used to it?”

“Well, yeah, I guess I did. It sucks not being able to hide anything from them, but the tradeoff is that they can’t hide anything from me either, and not to mention, well…” Her cheeks turned red, and she ignored Kronii’s rising brow, “I… I don’t really know how to explain it to you, but… Well, being able to feel their love, and being able to feel how much they care for me is… It’s something that I don’t even know how to describe properly.”

“Give it a try.” Kronii asked, and she sounded genuinely interested, so Amelia decided to indulge her.

“It’s like… A warmth, that you can feel in your chest, but it’s a nice heat. I don’t even have to look at them to know that they’re smiling, I can feel it in my body and mind, I can feel how much they care and how much they – they love me.” She whispered the last bit, “I’d given up on the whole love bullshit, you know? I loved both of them, but I didn’t think it would go anywhere, especially since…” She stopped, she couldn’t even bear to look at Kronii, “Well. I guess that doesn’t matter anymore, does it?”

“I suppose it doesn’t…”

She sounded sad; her voice had a tinge of melancholy that Amelia had been all too familiar with for most of her life.

“Kronii.” She mumbled, “I – I have a question.”

“Sure.” Kronii inclined her head, though she still opted not to look at her.

“If… If I had…” Her mouth felt dry, and she wished she had some access to liquor. She wasn’t really one to drink, but it would certainly make this easier to get out. It would also ease her doubts. This was in the past, after all, why bring it up? What was the best-case scenario if she brought up her old love for her? Of whether it could have actually gone anywhere? There was nothing to bring forth here other than lingering regrets.

“Amelia?” Kronii’s voice pierced through her thoughts, “If you had what?”

“Nothing.” Amelia shook her head. “Just… Lost in thought.”

Kronii nodded along with that, “Ah. That’s fair. Happens to all of us.”

“Yeah.” Amelia replied.

Perhaps she was a coward, but this wasn’t something that needed to be brought up. It was in the past, and they had both clearly moved on. What could have been was no longer really important, she had a life with Gura and Ina, and she loved them with all of her heart, it almost felt like a betrayal to be thinking of Kronii in this way.

“May I… Ask you a question, then?” Kronii asked.

“Go for it.” Amelia sighed, “Anything you want.”

“Alright, then.” Kronii muttered, “You were going to ask me about whether I would have said yes, right? If I would have said yes to, well, dating you, I believe is the human words for it, right?”

Amelia’s face turned red; she had been so blatantly open about it! She could see that Kronii couldn’t even look at her, the concept of time was just twiddling with a napkin in front of her.

“It doesn’t matter, does it?” Amelia asked.

“It… Matters to me, I guess.” Kronii mumbled, her eyes finally looking up. At one time, Amelia had loved her eyes, and she was ashamed to see that she still felt an attraction. Kronii’s deep blue eyes had an intense glow that made them shine in an unnatural way, but undoubtedly one that she found to be intoxicatingly beautiful.

Amelia breathed in deeply through her nose before answering, “Yeah. I was going to ask that.”

“Why didn’t you ever ask?”

Amelia shrugged, “A lot of things, I guess. You mentioned someone named Mumei quite a lot, and I got the feeling that you cared about them a lot. Not to mention I’m just a human who you granted the ability to time travel. I’ll die in a mere fraction of your time. You’ll blink your eye, and a million years will have passed, and the person you knew as Amelia Watson would be forgotten to history.”

“I wouldn’t forget you, Amelia.” Kronii replied, “You’ve been a huge pain in the ass for a while now, not to mention every single time you go back or forward in time, I’m there for the ride, so I couldn’t even let time pass naturally if I wanted it to.”

“Hah, well, I’m not getting any younger.” Amelia shrugged.

“Aren’t you connected to the Ancient Ones now?” Kronii asked, “You’re as ageless as they are.”

Amelia blinked in surprise there, “Am I?”

Kronii let out an amused huff, “You didn’t even think of it, did you?”

“Not really,” Amelia replied, “There’s been, well, a lot on my mind these last few days.”

“Allow me to welcome you to the club of immortals then.” Kronii smiled, and Amelia was able to smile back at her. This was easier territory to go over. Sure, it was a shock to learn she was immortal, but she supposed she shouldn’t have been so surprised. After all, she’d been a priestess for the Ancient Ones ever since the orb did its magic, she should’ve known since then.

“Thank you,” Amelia replied, “I, uh, am not really sure to what to do with that information.”

“Just keep living your life,” Kronii advised, “We’ll be there to help you along the way.”

“We as in?”

“The council will help you,” Kronii replied, “We watch over the universe and everything within it. Helping Immortals is generally up to Mumei and Fauna, since they deal with civilization and nature respectively, but I’ll help you too…”

“You will?” Amelia asked, her voice going quiet again.

“You’re… Important to me.”

Amelia averted her eyes again, “I am…?”

“Mumei’s important to me too, as are the rest of the council, even if they annoy the crap out of me.” She took a deep breath, “But you’re different, Amelia, you always have been.”

“So, if I’d have asked you, then…”

“I would’ve said yes.”

Amelia closed her eyes, and she let out a tired sigh. She felt regret, and then guilt for feeling that regret. She couldn’t feel Ina and Gura’s emotions to her reaction, and when she felt out for them, she could tell they were a little too preoccupied with their own conversations to see her guilt and regret, and for once she was thankful for that. Pictures of what could have been flashed in her mind, and she wondered if just ONCE she’d bothered to ask Kronii to see her in the real world, outside of the Passage of Time, if they would have started dating. Would they have been happy together? She didn’t know, she wasn’t a mind reader, after all, but she’d like to think they would have been.

“Sorry,” Amelia muttered, her throat felt constricted, her mouth dry.

“Like you said, it doesn’t matter now.” Kronii replied, she sounded resigned to it, and Amelia supposed she should be too.

She reached over and touched Kronii’s hand, and gave her a sad smile, “For what it’s worth, I think Mumei, or whoever else you end up with will be very happy. I – I know I would’ve been.”

Kronii let out a watery laugh, “Yeah? Thanks for the vote of confidence.”

Another long silence between them, one filled with melancholy, and again Kronii spoke up, “Can… I ask one favor?”

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded.

Kronii lips parted, but then she shut her mouth again, “No – never mind.”

“Kronii.” Amelia huffed, “Come on now, I said I would do it.”

“You’re in a relationship,” Kronii replied, “I couldn’t ask you to do it.”

Amelia frowned at that, “Do what?”

“Nothing.”

“Kronii!” Amelia growled, “I’m not going to get mad at you!”

Kronii rolled her eyes, “Ugh, geez. I was just going to ask if… God, you’re going to think I’m such a creep.”

“What is it?” Amelia asked, trying not to sound whiny, but she really wanted to know now.

“A kiss.” Kronii hid her face in her hands, “See? It’s stupid. Please, for the love of everything that’s holy forget I ever asked.”

“Ok.”

“Huh?” Kronii blinked in surprise as she looked up, “What?”

“I’ll do it.” Amelia replied.

“But, Ina and Gura?”

“They’ll understand,” She replied, “I can’t hide anything from them. I’m an open book, they’ll understand it, and… A part of me wants this too…” A kiss to see what could have been. She felt guilty coaxing Kronii into this, but her heart yearned to know. A kiss would hardly be a betrayal now, would it?

Kronii looked towards the counter, and saw the worker still sitting there browsing their phone. No one else had entered the shop in the entire time, and then she turned back to Amelia, “A – Alright.”

Kronii was almost cute in how awkwardly she shifted in her seat. She began to fidget even more so when Amelia leaned over the relatively small table, and shakily leaned in. A part of Amelia wondered if Kronii had EVER been in a relationship, or if it was just a human concept she’d never been too familiar with. Did Kronii even understand what love was prior to taking a human shape? The way she was acting, she wouldn’t be surprised if Kronii only knew what kissing was from movies and other human entertainment.

“Close your eyes, Kronii.” Amelia whispered, and when the concept of time did just that, she whispered, “And trust me, okay?”

“I trust you.” Kronii mumbled.

The moment their lips touched; Amelia was immediately surprised by how mundane it was. She wasn’t sure what to expect kissing the Warden of Time, but she wasn’t quite expecting it to be so… well, normal. It was like kissing Ina or Gura, and considering Kronii made her body specifically to be human, she supposed it made sense then. When she got over her surprise though, she deepened it, and gently caressed the side of Kronii’s face.

A kiss to what could have been, and then it ended.

She could feel how exhilarated Kronii felt from the kiss. She could feel how taken aback she was even before her eyes opened, and she watched Kronii bring her fingers up to her lips and she gently rubbed them. She could feel the pure sadness radiating off of her, no doubt from the realization that that was the end of what could have been, of what their life together could have comprised of. A gentle smile crossed her face, and Kronii was filled with acceptance, and though it was being overwhelmed by the sadness, there was some happiness there too. Their friendship would still last, and… and…

Amelia blinked. How in the world did she know all of that?

Kronii blinked too, “Uh… I don’t know how to explain this, but… I think I can feel your emotions?”

Amelia’s mouth dropped open, “Oh, fuck.”

She was sure that Gura and Ina could both feel the sheer panic she was feeling now, and the way Kronii winced, she knew that the Warden of Time could feel it too.

“Um… This wasn’t supposed to happen, right?” Kronii asked, “Uh… Whoops?”

Yeah, whoops.

How the hell was she going to explain to Gura and Ina that their little bond now included a fourth person, and not just anyone, but someone she still maybe had a bit of love towards. They were going to feel that, and that terrified her.

XxXxXxX

She'd known Amelia and Gura almost her entire life, ever since Amelia saved her from a life of loneliness she'd meet them constantly throughout the years, never having enough time to wallow in misery or focus too heavily on the changes done to her. It certainly helped keep her spirits up that the Ancient Ones were so kind, even if they didn't truly understand humans that well. Still, there were nights where she'd go to bed crying from the migraines, headaches that would last for days on end that nearly left her crippled, unable to even leave her bed for any basic necessities. AO-chan, as she'd come to refer to them as, tried their best to limit their interactions with her, but even at the most minimal contact - for she could never be without them truly – it was difficult for her to manage.

It was one of those bitter nights of fitful sleep and endless tears that she met Sana. The woman scared her half to death through her half-lidded gaze. Even under the effects of a particularly nasty headache, she managed to maintain eye contact with the woman standing at the end of her bed, staring down at her with a smile. She was supposed to be alone at a small motel in the middle of nowhere, a place where she could practice using the Ancient Ones without interruption or the possibility of hurting innocents, and yet here was some weird woman just watching her at night, when she was at her most vulnerable.

It is safe.

The Ancient Ones rarely spoke to her anymore in fear of hurting her further, and she winced, letting out a soft whimper as their words reverberated through her mind. She rubbed her head gently, and then looked back up at the woman still standing there.

“Hello?” She gingerly whispered.

“Hey there,” The woman’s voice was soft, but there was a kindness to it that Ina felt compelled to relax, “It’s ok, I’m here to help.”

“Did Amelia send you?” Ina asked. After all, Amelia did introduce her to Gura too, and they’d quickly become fast friends.

“No,” She shook her head, “The Ancient Ones called me. I’m one of their many apostles, and they want me to help you.”

Ina didn’t know what to make of that. The Ancient Ones were a being far beyond her comprehension, and it surprised her that they were even capable of asking that of anyone, even more so that they actually cared to do so in the first place.

You are our priestess, they whispered in her mind, she bit her lip in pain, we care.

She felt like crying hearing that, they were an ancient and incomprehensible presence to humanity, but they truly did care, and wanted nothing more than to help her. She reached out from her bed, towards the book sitting at the bare bedside table, and she gently rubbed the tome, smiling gently at it.

“Thank you.” She whispered.

Sana was a weird one, Ina had discovered that day. She wouldn’t stay for very long, but she appeared frequently, helping her learn to meditate and connect closer with the Ancient Ones. It was a learning experience for both Ina and the Ancient Ones – Ina may have had the best resistance to AO-chan’s immense power amongst humanity, but they were still hurting her quite a lot. Slowly, over time, Sana was able to judge what was wrong, and she was able to instruct not only Ina on how to handle their might better, but she was also able to explain to the Ancient Ones how to lessen their burden on her, to make their whispers inflict significantly less pain, until the dull whispers in the back of Ina’s mind started to become almost pleasant to listen to.

“How can you do all of this?” Ina asked one day.

“Hm?” Sana was sitting cross-legged across from her, they were sitting out in a park during a sunny day, and surprisingly not a single bead of sweat was on Sana’s brow, she looked pristine, as she always did.

“Like…” Ina struggled for words, “How can you handle the Ancient Ones so well? Aren’t you human too?”

Sana smiled widely at that, “No, silly. I’m space.”

“Huh?”

She learned that day that Sana was literally the concept of space. She encompassed the entire universe, she bore witness to the Big Bang that birthed their universe, she witnessed the birth of their planet, and watched as it grew to become what it was. The reason Sana could handle the Ancient Ones so well was because she was perhaps just as old as they were, assuming of course that the Ancient Ones only started existing at the moment that reality itself started. Given their nature, Ina wasn’t too sure about their origin.

Their lessons continued, usually after a day filled with fun with either Amelia or Gura, who she’d never really bothered to fill in about Sana. There was just something about her that Ina wanted to keep a secret from them. She chided herself one time due to those thoughts – she knew Amelia and Gura would probably have loved Sana too, but… A part of her just wanted her all to herself. She felt embarrassed at the thought, even more so at the admission, and as time moved on, she began to recognize the start of her love for space.

She loved all of her friends, Amelia, Gura, and Sana… Amelia and Gura though were both very close, and she knew that Gura liked Amelia from the looks of things, so she really didn’t want to get in between that… So, one day, during their training with Sana, Ina had the idea to ask her out.

“Aren’t we hanging out now?” Sana had said.

“No,” Ina shook her head, “I mean, uh, like in a relationship…” Her face was beet red, her heart trembled in equal parts anticipation and dread, and she couldn’t bear to look up.

“Oh…” Sana went quiet, “I… Ina. I don’t know…”

“Then it’s a no?” Ina muttered.

“I don’t know,” Sana muttered again, “I need to think about it.”

“Oh, ok…” Ina muttered.

Sana left that day, and that was the last time she ever saw her. Until now, that was.

Ina opted to just stay in the apartment as everyone else was leaving. Amelia and Kronii had left a while back, and Gura left shortly after with Baelz in tow a few minutes afterwards, but not before the Atlantean ran over to give her a hug.

“It will be ok, Ina.” Gura whispered to her.

Ina smiled at the Atlantean, and held her tightly, “Thank you.”

And then they were left alone. Sana sat at the table, still a little shellshocked from learning about Ina’s three-way relationship, and Ina was up in the kitchen making some tea. It was just a little pass ten in the morning, and she had some commissions she really had to get to work on, but right now his was more important. It meant she was going to have to stay up all night undoubtedly to finish it all, but it was worth it to finally talk to Sana again… To clear up everything between the two of them.

She came back to the table a few minutes later, and gave Sana a cup of tea, before she settled in a seat across from her. She watched Sana carefully as she took a sip – she saw how Sana suddenly blinked, her eyes zeroing in on the tea, and how she reached over to carefully take a hold of the cup.

“Uh, thank you.” Sana mumbled.

“Hm.” Ina hummed, taking a little sip, still keeping her eyes on Sana.

Sana didn’t bother taking a drink, she just stared down at it silently, before she suddenly smiled. “I suppose I should congratulate you, then?”

“You don’t have to,” Ina replied.

“No, I should!” Sana laughed – it was obviously forced, “I’m glad you’ve found someone – two someones! That’s… That’s exciting, and um, a little, uh, unexpected.”

“Sorry,” Ina mumbled, “You weren’t exactly around for me to tell.”

Sana’s smiled dropped quickly, and she went back to frowning at her cup of tea. Her fingers gently tapped the side of the cup, and she opened and closed her mouth several times, but didn’t say anything. Finally, she spoke, “Ina… I… I never left you, you know.”

“Oh?” Ina’s brow rose, “Considering the last time I saw you was, what, fifty years ago, I beg to differ.”

“I was thinking.” Sana said forcefully, “I told you I would consider it, didn’t I? I… I should be upset with you.”

“What?!” Ina gasped, “With me?”

“Well, you asked me! I said I would think about it, and then you just went ahead and started dating two other girls! What am I supposed to think here?”

“You’ve been gone for decades!” Ina cried, “What – What in the world made you think I would wait that long?!”

“Ugh!” Sana groaned, “What even is a decade?!”

“Uhm…” Ina blinked, “What?”

“We JUST had that conversation, Ina! Do I really need to give you an answer so quickly? Did you not trust me to come back with an answer?!”

“J – just?!” Ina balked at her, her mouth hanging open at the – the freaking audacity! “Sana! Are you serious?!”

“I am!”

“I loved you, Sana!” Ina cried, “If you had just come back at any time…”

“Loved?” The heat in Sana’s voice disappeared, “So… That means you don’t anymore?”

This was bringing up feelings she’d long gotten over, or at least she thought she had. Not to mention, though she was feeling frustrated, she felt like she was beginning to understand what was happening here. To Sana, a being that was literally billions of years old, fifty years was comparatively a small fraction of that time. The Ancient Ones summoned her to Earth to help her learn to use their power, so it wouldn’t cause pain, and that was perhaps the first time Sana had ever dealt with a human before – a human that was immortal, much as she was. Sana wasn’t training someone who would die within the century, she was dealing with an immortal, someone much like herself…

… And so she treated Ina as she would have treated any of her other conceptual friends. She knew Kronii and Baelz, both beings who were again, immortal and long lived. Unlike Kronii though, who could understand the concept of time due to the sheer fact that she WAS the concept of time, to Sana, a hundred years was very little time. To her, it must have felt like she’d just met Ina just last year, hell, probably significantly less time than that even… It made sense, Ina realized, why Sana didn’t show up for so long.

For a human fifty years was a long time – over half of their lifespan, but for Sana, it was nothing. Even living amongst humanity now, it was clear that Sana had yet to truly understand humanity very well.

“Oh…” Ina mumbled, the simmering anger fading away, “Sana… I… I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t answer the question.” Sana pointed out.

“I… Still feel something for you,” Ina admitted, “It’s… probably still love.” It was difficult to admit.

“Then why…?”

“I’m human, Sana.” Ina mumbled, “I know I’m immortal, as you’ve said, but a single year is still a long time to me. For someone like you it might pass like a second, but for me, it’s… It’s a lot of time. I’m sorry, I still think in terms of human days and years, I still measure time in what to you are fractions within fractions that you wouldn’t even consider.”

Sana sighed, “Oh… I didn’t even think of that. So even though I was gone for what felt like a little while for me…”

“It was a long time for me.”

It… It was such a stupid misunderstanding, one that made Ina want to laugh and cry at the same time. She was of course happy with Amelia and Gura, sincerely happy, happier than she’d been in a very long time. It hurt though, to think of what could have been, how different things would have been if either she or Sana had realized their problems sooner.

“I don’t have an answer for you, still.” Sana mumbled, “It’s so sudden.”

Ina let out a humorless huff of an attempted laugh, “Well… It doesn’t matter now.”

“I suppose not.” Sana muttered.

“Can… Can I just make one request?” Ina asked.

“Sure.” Sana looked up and smiled, this time it was genuine, even if she could see the hurt in her eyes. Though she wasn’t sure if she loved Ina, it definitely hurt her to know that Ina didn’t wait for her, and had moved on, conversely, Ina felt awful for making her feel that way.

Ina licked her lips, “A kiss?”

“Huh?”

“Just one kiss,” Ina mumbled, her face growing warm, “I’ve… always wanted to kiss you, to, uh, thank you for everything you’ve done for me.”

Sana blinked several times, and she smiled softly, “Yes, of course, I guess that’s ok.”

Ina got up from her seat and made her way around the table, until she knelt down right next to Sana. She made sure to pull her hair back over her shoulders, and then she leaned forward and kissed her. Ina had to admit, she’d grown rather fond of kisses with Amelia and Gura, and even though Sana lacked the experience that they had, it still made her legs wobble, and she had to steady herself on the table. Since Sana hadn’t been human for very long, she of course had never been in a relationship with anyone, and thus kisses to her were a very foreign concept. She’d consumed some human media at least, so she knew the importance of them, but experience was quite a different thing altogether.

“That was weird,” Sana mumbled as they parted, but she gave Ina a toothy grin, “But I think I liked it.”

“Yeah…” Ina muttered breathily, taking a seat beside Sana, “It… Was nice.”

Sana’s emotions were a jumbled mess, and Ina couldn’t really parse any of it particularly well. There was happiness and sadness in equal measures, an odd melancholy of sorts. The most prominent emotion she felt though was love, though she wasn’t sure if Sana would truly be able to identify it as such. She only knew from being bonded to Amelia and Gura for so long that that was how it felt.

“Is this love?” Sana asked in wonder, “Is that how it feels?”

Ina could feel Sana’s love mingling with her own, their emotions amplifying one another, and she let out a content sigh as her eyes gently closed, Sana’s love like a warm blanket over her shoulders, “Yeah. That’s love.”

“It feels wonderful.” Sana whispered.

And then Ina’s eyes flew open in shocked realization, “WAH?”

XxXxXxX

Atlantis was an empire with no equal. Before the British Empire had expanded the entire globe, before it was even a mere thought in anyone’s mind, the Atlantean empire stretched the entire ocean, everywhere underwater was conquered and owned by their empire. The Atlantean people enjoyed luxuries that humanity would not have for thousands more years, and their technology was so advanced that even today, humanity was struggling to reach the heights of what once was. Unlike humanity, who shunned their mages and magics into obscurity, and then into myths and legends, Atlantis treated them as leaders and heroes, furthering their expansion and power.

Due to their proximity to the ocean floor and the volatile volcanic vents, one of the most important jobs of the empire were the scientists in charge of keeping track of the tectonic plates, making sure that the unexpected movements of the planet wouldn’t destroy their lands and territories. Sometimes it was inevitable, but they were usually granted more than enough time to issue out a warning several days, if not weeks in advance of incoming catastrophe.

It was at the height of its power that Gura was born, and she partook in all of its luxuries as any Atlantean before her. To the people of Atlantis, they were the strongest and highest power on Earth. Humanity was of course known about, but Atlanteans preferred to keep their dealings under the waves, where they couldn’t be observed. Above the water, while they were still powerful, they lost mobility, and some of their kind just couldn’t tolerate being outside of the oceans for long.

Perhaps that was the main contributing factor to why Atlantis today was nothing more than a myth. They hid away from humanity, and when their end came, there was no one to remember them.

No one but a single survivor.

Gura could still clearly remember her sheer panic as the beautiful marbled buildings deep below the ocean crumbled down. She could remember the fear she felt as the ocean floor was literally ripped asunder and lava super-heated the water, causing a deadly explosion of extreme heat, and then how poisonous it was for their gills to take in with all of the various chemicals the vents brought into the waters.

She witnessed dozens attempting to swim away, but were quickly attacked by the ocean life, which had gone berserk and was indiscriminately attacking and killing them. All around her was death and destruction, and she wished she had tried to be brave and help people, but she didn’t. She was a scared little girl, just shy of four thousand years old, a mere fraction of an Atlantean’s life. She cried and screamed for her family, tearfully trying to get some comfort in all of the destruction around her.

The memories became a bit of a haze after that, and she was honestly thankful for that. What she could remember was awful, and even then, the millennia of distance that time created made the throb of pain associated with them even duller. It still was so painful to remember, but it wasn’t the crippling depression that it used to be anymore.

Her only vivid memory was of a woman with bright red hair who showed up after she’d been attacked by some sharks trying to swim away. Her tail was ruined, having been bitten into by a berserk shark, and she was barely hanging on to consciousness, but as she thought death was coming for her, the red-haired woman with two large mouse ears and a strange tail appeared before her.

“You’ll be ok.” Is all she said, her voice torn with emotion, holding her close.

“Who are you...?” Gura whispered.

“Hakos Baelz,” The woman replied softly, “I’ll keep you safe.”

Gura believed her, and held tightly as she drifted off to unconsciousness.

After that, Gura awoke on a beach on the surface, her savior nowhere to be found, and that was when a certain detective ran into her... The rest, she supposed, was history.

But then she met up with her again after so many years, and again she had saved her life. Then she learned that not only had she saved her life twice, but apparently, Baelz had been keeping an eye on her this entire time... She wasn’t sure what to make of that revelation, but she supposed she felt a little annoyed that she never revealed herself, and also a little happy that after all of this time, her savior was still around keeping tabs on her. She’d be able to properly thank her now, at any rate.

While Amelia left earlier with Kronii, and Ina was sitting around with Sana, Gura decided to take Baelz to the park she had visited the other day with her girlfriends. She was still in her human form, because there was no way she was going out in public with a tail anymore if she could help it. People had been unable to keep their eyes off of Amelia last time, due to her eldritch appearance, but now as she walked to the park, people were staring Baelz. The concept of Chaos however owned it, she just gave little waves to people who stared too much, and gave others large grins – quite effective at making them look elsewhere considering her full mouth of sharp teeth.

“That’s amazing,” Gura said in awe as a man tripped over himself.

“Aw it’s easy.” She replied good naturedly, “Humans falter at the first sign of trouble.” She paused, and gave Gura a quick look, “You don’t count, you’re an Atlantean at heart.”

Gura gave a little laugh at that, and shook her head as they made it to the park.

Walking with Baelz was making old memories surface, of her terror and fear that night Atlantis collapsed on an unimaginable scale. She grimaced as her thoughts once again focused on those horrible days, and she let out a discontent sigh. Those days were over, she was happy now, and with people who truly loved her.

“You ok?” Baelz asked.

“Yeah,” Gura replied, “Just thinking.”

“Bout what?”

“The past.” She replied, “Seeing you again is just bringing up old memories.”

“Oh,” Baelz looked aside, “Um, sorry about that.”

“No, don’t be.” Gura smiled as she nudged her shoulder, “You saved my life that day. I never got the chance to thank you, you know?”

Oddly, Baelz frowned at that, and she just mumbled, “You really don’t have to thank me.”

“Why not?” Gura asked softly, “Without you, I’d be dead after all.”

The concept of Chaos sighed, and nodded, “Yeah, that’s true, but… I wish things had turned out differently back then.”

Gura let out a little incredulous laugh, “Yeah, you and me both… I wish it never happened, but because of it, I went onto the surface and got to see and meet so many people, so it’s not all bad.”

Baelz looked at her with an unreadable expression, “You don’t miss it?”

“I miss it – of course I do!” Gura said with a shake of her head, “A lot. It used to be all that was on my mind, and I would have done anything to bring it back.”

“But now…?”

“I’ve moved on,” Gura shrugged, “I still miss everyone, m – my family,” She coughed, “My friends, I miss being among other Atlanteans, and I miss a lot of other things too…” She sighed, “But I’m also happy with how things are now. Living with Ina and Amelia is fun, and, well, I love both of them…”

“Have you ever considered going back? Amelia has the power to do so.”

She looked over at Baelz again, and saw how intent her face was at the question. It was kind of odd, but she indulged the thought. True enough, she had thought of it more than once these last few days, but she slowly shook her head, “I… I don’t think I could convince Amelia or Ina to go through with it. It would change the future too drastically if something were to change.”

“So you’re not changing it because of them?”

Gura groaned, “I guess it did sound like I was blaming them… To answer your question then, I – I guess no. I wouldn’t do it… The past is the past, and even with her power, Amelia is very careful not to change anything too drastically. She usually just goes back to mess around…” She smiled now, “Like how she decided to start bothering me after the fall of Atlantis… If it weren’t for her, I don’t know what I would have done…”

Baelz looked more relaxed now, Gura noticed, but she didn’t have any idea what it was about, or why she would be so relaxed by her answer, but she was happy that Baelz was finally smiling again, though it was a small tentative thing. Chaos reached over, and patted her head, “You’ve grown, Gura!”

“H – Hey!” Gura cried, grabbing her hand and throwing it off of her head, “Quit it!”

“It’s true though!” She skipped away laughing, and Gura was just a little bewildered by her sudden change in temperament – the hell was that about?

“Get back here!” Gura laughed, running after Baelz, who just gave her a manic grin and darted off ahead.

It was certainly childish, Gura was a grown adult! Over nine thousand years old, er, well, as a human she was what, twenty? She didn’t actually know the exact age that correlated with her Atlantean age… Regardless! She knew what she was doing was childish, chasing Baelz around the park like a pair of children, laughing and jeering each other, but it was just fun to give in and be a child sometimes, especially after such a heavy conversation, and especially after nearly dying that morning. Doing something stupid like this was an incredible stress relief, and it helped immensely with getting her worries out of her mind if only for a little while.

And when she caught Baelz, they were lost in the wooded area of the park, and the red head turned around with a big smile, “You better run! Otherwise, you’ll be it again!”

And thus, two grown women, an Ancient Atlantean, and the concept of Chaos who has been alive since the beginning of the universe played tag together. Time slipped from Gura’s grasp, and when she stopped for a moment to take a breath, she realized that nearly an hour had passed. They must have run around the park a good half dozen times, if not more, and she realized just how tired she felt. If she were an Atlantean, so much exertion would have meant nothing, but as a human, she supposed her limits were much smaller. It would certainly explain why Amelia and Ina got tired so quickly when they were –

“Gura!” Bae called, “You coming?”

She was standing beside a tree, looking curiously with that big smile as usual, “Sorry,” Gura called, “I’m getting tired, come here, would you?”

Baelz let out a laugh, and made her way over, and she didn’t bother fleeing even when Gura shakily reached over and touched her cheek. “You’re it.” She mumbled, taking in another deep breath. As Baelz began to laugh again, Gura stood up straight, and she leaned her head slightly up to kiss her on the cheek. The red-haired mouse stopped her laughter, and just looked at her with a surprised expression. “Eh…?”

“Thank you for protecting me,” Gura muttered, smiling gently at her companion, “But don’t hide anymore, ok? I want to get to know you better.”

“Uh…”

Gura could feel a mixture of emotions from her. Pure confusion was at the forefront of her mind, though she could detect smaller amounts of embarrassment, and inexplicably, she could feel a fairly prominent amount of guilt. She didn’t know what to make of that, or why Baelz would feel guilty in the first place.

“Gura?” Bae squeaked out, “Why can I feel your emotions?”

“Oh…” She had a point, why could she?

A moment passed.

“Oh!” Gura’s eyes widened, “Wait a minute – you’re bonded to me?!”

“Wha – seriously?!” Baelz cried, “H – how?!”

“I – I don’t know,” Gura mumbled.

Just then, she felt pure terrified panic coming from somewhere within town, and from the direction of her apartment, Gura felt a surprised shock. Additionally, she felt two more foreign additions to the link from their directions. Focusing her mind, she could vaguely feel Amelia’s yellow aura, and next to hers was… a dark blue aura? What? Next to Ina’s brilliant purple aura was a creamy yellow aura, sort of similar to Amelia’s aura, but still distinct in how it felt and the emotions coming from it.

“This…” Gura mumbled, looking up at Baelz, “Might not be good.”

Chapter Text

“Can you please calm down?” Kronii asked for probably the millionth time, “You’re really making me freak out too!”

Amelia was fumbling with her keys, trying to unlock the door to her apartment, but her hand was shaking so much that she couldn’t even get it into the lock. It was probably shaking due to the intense amount of fear and panic she was practically radiating. Kronii liked to think that she was able to keep her cool in most situations, and truly she could, but having someone feeling like that so close to her was, well, it was quite distracting, and honestly some of it was rubbing off on her. This whole sharing emotions business had only been around for maybe thirty minutes, but it was already exhausting!

“Amelia!” Kronii said sharply after Amelia dropped the keys. She reached over and held her shoulder firmly, and she shivered as she felt Amelia’s emotions sweep into her. She felt herself start to shake, but she took a deep breath, “Calm down.”

“H – How can I?” Amelia asked, “How can I explain this to Ina and Gura?!”

“They can feel your emotions, Amelia.” Kronii said calmly, “They will know you’re telling the truth, but right now you’re scaring them.” She motioned her head towards the door, “You feel Ina in there, right? She’s so concerned for you right now because you aren’t calming down!”

Amelia nodded, taking in a few deep breaths finally, and Kronii felt herself start to relax just by the sight of it. She didn’t want to mention to Amelia that she also felt another aura in there, one that she was a bit more familiar with. She didn’t know how Sana joined the bond, but she wondered if it was something along the same lines of how Amelia and her bonded together.

“Sorry,” Amelia muttered finally, “I – I just… I didn’t mean for this to happen!”

“I know you didn’t.” Kronii muttered, “And I’m sorry for asking you to, uhm, kiss me.” She turned a little red there, memories of the kiss still warmed her, and she could feel Amelia having similar thoughts. She smiled a little at that, “You can explain to them that I fucked something up, and now you’re unfortunately bonded to me too. A horrible fate, I know.”

Amelia didn’t smile at that, she shook her head, “Oh, Kronii…”

“Huh?” She blinked, “What?”

“I – I don’t want you to think that this is awful or something, I would be ok with it if it weren’t for, well, you know.” She motioned towards the door, and then laughed a little bashfully, “Gura would probably kill me for saying that. I was so against the bond in the first place she would probably eviscerate me if she heard me say I wouldn’t mind it with you now, hah…”

“Not really, Watson.”

Amelia flinched, and she looked over her shoulder at Gura, “Gura!”

“Hello.” Gura waved with a flat stare, and Kronii stared over Gura’s shoulder at Bae. She blinked a few times before she realized that she could feel emotions from her too. She could feel her exasperation at the situation, her fear, some guilt – she wondered just how in the world she joined the bond too.

“H – Hey…” Amelia waved.

Gura sighed, and walked over, “Oh please calm down, Ame.” She hugged her, “I could feel your fear from the park – do you know how freaked out I was?”

“Sorry,” Amelia muttered, melting into the hug, “I didn’t know how to explain it to you guys.”

“We’d listen to everything you’d say, Ame…” Gura shook her head, “We can feel your emotions, we know when you’re being truthful or not.”

“Still…” Amelia frowned as they parted, “I – I didn’t mean to do this.”

“It’s my fault.” Kronii raised her hand, “I asked her to kiss me.”

Kronii’s face reddened as Gura turned to look over at her with a raised brow, and Amelia just simply stood there frozen in place. Probably shocked that Kronii would be so forward like that. Kronii shrugged though – might as well rip the bandage off quickly and as painlessly as possible. She didn’t want Amelia to face any consequences, even if it honestly seemed like she wouldn’t face any. After all, it appeared that Gura and Ina had both accidentally added their own additions to the bond.

“Well,” Gura sighed, “That lines up with what happened to me.”

“What?” Amelia gasped.

“Do you not feel me?” Baelz asked, speaking up for the first time, “Because I can sure feel you!”

Amelia glanced over, and a few seconds passed before she looked back at Gura, “What the – did you kiss her too?”

“Yep.” Gura nodded, and then she quickly added, “I didn’t mean to add her.”

It was truthful, as far as Kronii could tell. She just crossed her arms and sighed, wondering if there was a way to get out of this mess. To be quite honest with herself, she wouldn’t mind being bonded to Amelia. It felt… Well, it felt absolutely amazing. Even if her emotions were just panic, she could still feel Amelia’s underlaying love. Additionally, feeling her aura was also just so incredible. She felt closer to Amelia than she had to anyone else in her entire existence, she could potentially have someone to actually share her life with… Well, maybe multiple people, actually, especially if the bond was impossible to break.

The door opened unprompted by any of them outside, and she saw Ina poke her head out into the hallway, Sana behind her standing aside tentatively.

“Hello girls,” Ina said dryly, “Would you like to come in?”

“Ina…” Amelia groaned.

Ina chuckled, holding the door open, and Kronii just followed everyone else into the room. She had no idea what was going to happen in there, and judging by Baelz’s guilt she could still feel, she had a feeling that she was now going to have to contend with feeling five other people’s emotions in her mind, and to be honest…

Well, she didn’t think she’d mind that much, really.

XxXxXxX

Sana stood beside Ina at the kitchen counter helping her prepare more tea. It wasn’t exactly difficult work, the kettle was just on the stove boiling more water, and that was mostly all that needed to be done, but she just wanted to keep standing beside Ina. Their kiss earlier had been incredible, and now that she knew what love was, she didn’t actually want to leave Ina’s side, let alone not feel her touch. She was still feeling tingles from how intense it was, and she felt giddy despite the overall atmosphere in the room. The girls at the table were quiet, lost in their own thoughts, and Ina was also quiet as she just stared at the kettle in intense concentration.

“It’ll be ok,” She whispered to Ina, nudging her shoulder, “Don’t you worry, you’ll see.”

Ina gave her a little smile, and just like that, Sana’s mood increased a hundredfold. She was practically skipping as they made their way to the table, cups in hand as she settled them down in front of everyone, and Ina followed pouring in the boiling water. When she set a cup down in front of Kronii, the concept of time just raised a single brow at her.

“You’re in a good mood.” She commented.

“Well,” Sana replied, “This feels wonderful, don’t you think?”

Kronii let out a huff, “Read the room, Sana, come on. We’re supposed to be terrified.”

Gura let out a little snort of laughter, “After nearly dying this morning, I think this is pretty mundane in comparison.”

Amelia shook her head, “God, you’re making me feel like an idiot here, Gura.”

“Better than feeling scared,” Ina leaned down to kiss Amelia’s forehead, “Gura and I won’t leave you or blame you for anything that happens, alright? So please stop freaking out, we’re going to all sit down, and have an adult conversation about this.”

“If that’s the case, should we excuse Ame from the table?” Gura asked.

“Fuck off,” Amelia said, though she was smiling even as she said it showing there was no intent to insult her. Not to mention Sana could feel the playfulness from her, which helped set the mood a little lighter.

“Adult. Conversation.” Ina said again, punctuating the words.

“Yes mom.” Amelia and Gura chorused, which just caused Ina to groan. Since there were only four seats, Ina summoned some tentacles to create two seats for herself and Sana to sit on, and they all crowded around the table with their drinks in front of them. AO-chan was sat neatly on the counter, decidedly not having anything to contribute to the conversation, but they were near enough if needed by their priestess… Or should she say priestesses? Sana wasn’t actually sure. Since she was bonded, was she a priestess too now?

Huh, questions for later, she supposed.

“So, uhm…” Baelz looked around, “Anyone want to explain exactly what is happening for those of us in the dark? I can, uh, feel all of your emotions, and it’s kind of weirding me out. Did a kiss really prompt all of this?”

“Seems like it,” Amelia replied, crossing her arms as she leaned back, “Kronii and I, uh…” She turned read, looking away, and Sana found the action to be super cute, actually. She couldn’t help but smile, and wondered if since they were bonded if Amelia would be opposed to doing some of this ‘kissing’ too. It felt incredible when she did it with Ina, but then again, it was a super intimate gesture, wasn’t it?

“Kissing is something you do with someone you love, right?” She quickly asked for clarification, it wouldn’t do to make anything awkward!

“Oh god…” Amelia covered her face now, and she noticed Ina was blushing now too. Kronii was just staring at her incomprehensibly. Baelz looked ready to laugh, and Gura was giving her an odd look. Checking their emotions, she could feel embarrassment from Amelia, Ina, and some from Kronii, pure amusement from Baelz mixed in with her confusion, and disbelief from Gura.

“She’s being serious.” Gura muttered, “If I couldn’t feel your emotions, I would think you’re pulling my leg, you know that?”

“Sorry…?” Sana muttered.

“It’s ok,” Kronii sighed, “She’s actually pretty new to humanity as a whole. She’s only been on Earth at a human size for ninety-four years, two-hundred and six days, three hours, twenty-three minutes, and nine – make that ten seconds.”

“For the record that’s not a very long time.” Gura said quickly, “Just in case the humans in the room are confused.”

“Which, I feel the need to add, includes you now.” Amelia pointed out.

“You should feel honored.” Gura grinned, and Sana marveled at the playfulness between the two of them. Even when they were so worried and embarrassed about everything that was going on, they were still doing this with one another. A way to relieve stress, clearly, but Sana wasn’t sure how they could so seamlessly say such things to one another and not be offended. It was a nuance she wasn’t familiar with, but with the bond, she hoped to get a clearer picture of it.

“Anyway,” Kronii coughed into her hand, “As a result, Sana doesn’t understand human customs or how relationships work.”

“I have somewhat of an idea,” Sana huffed, “I knew what Ina meant when she asked me to be in a relationship so many years ago!”

“SANA!” Ina cried, her face burning up.

“Oh?” Amelia’s brow shot up, “A secret lover that we didn’t know about?”

“Ina! I didn’t know you had it in you!” Gura exclaimed.

“Ohhh….” Ina sunk down, her tentacles lowering her further to the floor so she could hide her head under the counter. The flaps atop her head were pressed firmly against her head in embarrassment.

“Yes, that’s true,” Kronii conceded, “But you didn’t know the significance of kissing.”

“And you do?” Sana asked, “You’ve also not been human too terribly long either!”

“Yes – well! I – I…”

“You’ve been spying on a certain little detective, maybe?” Baelz replied, her grin growing wider when Kronii fell silent, and she felt pure embarrassment from across their bond.

“Um…” Amelia looked down too, “Y – You’ve been watching me?”

“Only sometimes.” Kronii said quickly, “And not much!”

“Yeah, only a few hours a day or so.” Baelz chortled as Kronii let out a choked gasp, and her eyes turned to her with a sharp glare.

“Shut up!” Kronii growled.

“M – Maybe we should change the subject?” Amelia tried desperately, “To something else. Pretty much anything else. Please.”

“So, you kissed Kronii?” Gura asked.

“Ok, anything but that.” Amelia whined, “Please?”

“Was it nice?” Sana asked genuinely. Amelia just looked at her like a fish out of water, her mouth opening and closing for several seconds.

“Come on, give us the details! What I heard out in the hall was pretty spicy stuff.” Gura added.

“Spicy?!” Amelia growled, “We didn’t talk about anything that could be considered spicy!”

“Something about how if you weren’t already with me and Ina, you’d be cool with having a relationship with Kronii, right?” Gura grinned, “That’s pretty spicy, isn’t it?”

“Spicy is like, y – you know.” Amelia coughed into her hand, “Stuff that’s uh, a bit more... Something else.”

“You’re really off your game right now Watson,” Gura shook her head, “Come on, I’ve lived with you for years, do you seriously think I don’t know what it actually means?” She actually looked a little concerned now, “Are you ok?”

“Just a lot going on,” Amelia answered, honestly, rubbing her forehead.

“Ina said it earlier, but I feel I should reiterate it.” Kronii muttered, “Let’s just be adults about this. We’re all grown women.” She paused in thought, “Well, three of us aren’t even technically human and are older than you guys by an order of magnitude more, but that’s not important. What is important is that this happened, and we need to figure out… I don’t know, what to do.”

“Yeah, ok.” Amelia agreed, and Sana felt her gratefulness towards Kronii for getting things back on track. She watched in fascination as Kronii seemed to relax from the emotion, and even had on a little smile too. This bond, as new as it was, was good for her. Despite the embarrassment, she’d never seen Kronii so lively and, well, happy. She was always so serious and on topic, and now she was smiling and her emotions felt so at peace. Sana smiled at that – maybe she wasn’t the only one who was happy about this little accident either.

Ina finally poked her head back up, mastering her embarrassment, “Ok, yeah, we’re adults.”

“Then…” Amelia sighed, “I’ll explain what happened to me first.” As everyone went quiet, Amelia bit her bottom lip. Sana saw Kronii reach over and gently touch her fisted hand, and slowly their fingers intertwined, and miraculously, Amelia’s nervousness faded just a little bit, “Ok. I… I have always kind of… Kind of liked Kronii, ever since I first met her. When we first met, she was just some voice in that weird passageway, but over the years, she took a form and we talked, and I… I grew to admire her, I guess?”

“Admire me?” Kronii blinked in surprise, “Really?”

“Well, yeah,” Amelia shrugged, still holding her hand, “You’re always so level headed and cool. You never really judged me for anything I did, and you even would offer advice every once in a while.” She smiled, “You helped me a lot too. Like when we brought that monster in there this morning, you didn’t even think twice, you just started helping us fight it, and it’s because of you that we are even alive right now.”

“That’s not true.” Kronii shook her head.

“It is!” Sana said quickly, “If she wasn’t in such a rush to leave our house, I wouldn’t have bothered to stop her and ask what was up!”

“Yeah, she was nearly in a full-blown panic,” Baelz replied.

“W – Well…” Kronii looked down at the table, her thumb running over Amelia’s fingers continuously, and Sana wondered if either girl were even conscious of the fact that they were holding hands. “I’ve always admired you too, Amelia. I looked up to you, in a way.”

“What?” It was Amelia’s turn to be surprised, “But you’re so much better than me in every way…”

“No,” Kronii shook her head, “I just watched time go linearly all of my life. I knew how things started, and I knew how things ended, and I was content with that. I didn’t have a single thought to obtrude on the simple facts of time until you arrived… You didn’t care at all about causality or irrevocably changing the stream of time, you did what you wanted. I was opposed to it at first, I was ready to stop you, but something stopped me…”

“What was it?” Amelia asked, sounding genuinely curious.

“You never did anything bad with the watch,” Kronii replied, “You’re not the first human, or even the first species to grasp an artifact and go through time, but you are the first who’d only go back to watch, or to change things that wouldn’t drastically alter time and damage your world. There are certain parameters as the concept of time that I must abide by, and you never breached any of those protocols, so I just watched and allowed you to do what you wanted. I guess, over time, I just grew interested in you and your purpose.”

“I just wanted to investigate the past and help people if I could.” Amelia said softly.

“And you aren’t lying about that. I always knew it, but now I can feel it too. You only had pure intentions, you use it only to assist people, you don’t go back to try and change the fate of kings, or to kill.” She sighed, “I admired your restraint and skill, it made me realize that not all mortals were horrible, and it made me want to get to know you more until, well…” She shrugged, “Here I am. The concept of time literally in love with a mortal being.”

“I love you too,” Amelia whispered.

Their eyes were locked, and Sana wondered if they were actually going to share another kiss until the moment was suddenly ended when they both jolted and looked around the room, realizing that others were still there. Gura wasn’t upset, Sana could feel that she was a little bemused by their little speeches to one another.

“Don’t let me interrupt you two,” Gura said dryly.

Baelz was pretty indifferent overall, while Sana could feel a little bit of envy coming from Ina. She frowned at that – did she not support their love? Wasn’t it important to be supportive of your friends, after all?

“I – Ina,” Amelia muttered, “It’s not… I…”

“No, it’s ok,” Ina grimaced, “I shouldn’t be feeling like this, because… Um, I kind of have a similar reason for kissing Sana too…”

Sana smiled at her, that was better! Though she could still feel envy within her, and she reached over at the same time Amelia did. Amelia grabbed her left hand, and Sana her right. She gave her hand a little squeeze, trying to convey her love, and she could feel Amelia doing the exact same. The complexities of their emotions was amazing, Sana just closed her eyes as she felt their emotions play out. There was no need for words.

Amelia’s deep concern for Ina was palpable, as Sana indulged in feeling their emotions closer as she envisioned their auras, she could almost see Amelia’s yellows mixing with Ina’s purples. Ina replied to Amelia’s concern with a flustered gratitude, but a note of self-depreciation was within her emotions, creating disharmony. Even with her eyes closed, Sana could practically see Ina’s red face, she could picture the way she would bite her bottom lip and look aside. Amelia – bless her heart – Immediately snapped back with immense love and reassurance. There was no need for any self-depreciation, Amelia, being the only other human, understood Ina perhaps the best of them all, and could relate to her emotions the best.

Ina needed Amelia for that reason alone, as the only other human – well, before this orb business, anyway – Amelia understood the way she thought, could understand her reservations towards what was happening in a way that none of the others could. It was because of that she felt absolutely no envy or ill will towards Amelia when she cupped Ina’s cheek, tenderly turning her face. The two stared at each other for only a moment, and then Amelia provided Ina the reassurance she desperately needed – perhaps more than she thought she needed – in a tangible and true way. A kiss that conveyed more than words and even their emotions could.

“Wow…” Sana muttered as they parted.

“What?” Amelia looked at her in exasperated amusement.

“That was wonderful,” Sana whispered, “Your love and compassion for one another was so clear. I can feel how much you two care for one another, and I hope that we can share something like that one day too.”

“Uhm…” Amelia blinked at that, and her face started to turn red. Beside her, Kronii’s brow raised.

“That’s pretty forward there, Sana.” Kronii leaned forward, her elbows on the table as she rested her head in her hands.

Ina smiled towards Sana affectionate, “She’s still learning, give her some time.”

Sana nodded quickly, “Yes, I’m like a big baby.”

Gura and Baelz both chuckled at that, and Baelz eyes landed on her sizeable chest, “A pretty mature looking baby, then.”

“Oh shush, Bae, you know what I mean!” Sana replied, “But wow! After Ina and my kiss earlier, and especially after that, I understand why Ina wanted to date so badly, this is amazing!”

“Usually people can’t read minds,” Gura reminded her, “What we have here is pretty unique.”

“Still! It’s amazing! Even without the bond, I didn’t realize a human’s emotions could be so complex, I didn’t realize my OWN emotions were so complex, I – I don’t know, this is all just so new to me!” She looked at Ina again, “When the Ancient Ones asked me to personally help Ina, I did it out of obligation – I’m their apostle after all, but I befriended her and learned about humanity, and learned what it’s like to be a mortal. Everything is just so different than I expected!”

Ina grinned happily, “I’m glad you’re coming around, Sana, even if you uh, are really enthusiastic about it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be? This will be so fun!”

“Yes, well,” Gura coughed into her hand, “While Ina and Amelia were busy rekindling their long-lost loves, I ACTUALLY accidentally added Baelz to the bond.”

“Oh?” Amelia blinked in surprise, “How?”

“Same way as you,” Gura replied, “A kiss. Just one to the cheek though, because of…” She paused, and Sana frowned at the sudden shift her emotions took, how the happiness dulled as a pained sadness emerged. This sadness too was dulled, but even a dull blade can puncture if used properly, and Sana quickly got up and went to her side, the tentacles she was sitting on slithering under the table as she did so.

“Sana?” Ina said in surprise as Sana circled the tiny table, and she practically tackled the still-human Gura, her arms encircled her in a massive hug, and she held her close.

“It’s ok, Gura.” She muttered.

Gura was frozen like a piece of glass, her eyes were wide and she frantically was looking over towards the affection concept of space. “Uh – Uhm?!” She couldn’t even speak. She let out another squeak when Amelia was at her other side, “Ame?!”

“Hey, I’m not going to be outperformed by someone who just got bonded to you, got it?”

And then Amelia hugged her too, and she was wrapped in a warm hold like a cocoon. She let out a soft little laugh, and she muttered, “Guys, it was a really long time ago – yeah it really sucks, but I’m over it.” She sniffled, “B – But if you keep this up, I actually am going to cry.”

Both girls took mercy on the poor girl, and let go of her, though Amelia still had a hold on her shoulder, “Feel better?”

“It’s kind of impossible to feel sad with you guys around…” Gura muttered, wiping her eyes quickly, and she gave her a shaky smile, and then turned to Sana and said, “But, uh, thanks, guys. It means a lot to me that you care so much.”

“Well,” Ina said pleasantly, her arms folded neatly in front of her, “Now that we’re all bonded together, we should -”

“Hey wait,” Gura raised a brow, “I didn’t tell you about me and Baelz!”

“You don’t have to,” Ina said, “If it makes you sad. We know what happened, the details aren’t important if you don’t want them to be.”

“No,” Gura sighed, “It’s fine. I’ll explain it, besides…” She looked to her right and left again, Amelia and Sana grinning at her, “If I feel sad again, I think I’ll be assaulted, so that’s a good incentive not to.”

Amelia swatted the back of her head, while Sana simply kept smiling, her hands folded nearly in front of her. In fact, Sana was content to just stand there, but was surprised when some tentacles slithered out from under the table and formed a seat for her to sit down on. She gave Ina a little wave, and sat down gently on the tentacles, and she noticed Amelia doing much the same on the other side of Gura. There was a free seat open beside Kronii that no one seemed particularly interested in filling, amusingly enough, and it was left unused. Sana was practically pushing Baelz aside, but the concept of chaos just sighed and scooted her seat over a little.

“Baelz and I –”

“Call me Bae,” Baelz cut in quickly, “You’re my friends, you don’t need to be so formal.”

“Your full name is formal?” Kronii asked from across the table.

“You know what I mean,” Baelz grunted, “I don’t know why I consider you a friend though…”

“You love me and you know it,” Kronii grinned, leaning forward with a large smirk.

“Not at all!”

“Your emotions say otherwise.”

Sana chuckled, because true enough Baelz’s emotions were telling a different story. She could feel the love between them. Granted, it wasn’t romantic in nature, which she felt was a shame, but a platonic respect they held for one another. Then after Kronii’s last statement, she felt a massive burst of embarrassment from Baelz, and the girl crossed her arms and mumbled under her breath as she looked down at the table, not keeping any eye contact.

“Anyway,” Gura had just watched the entire banter with a slight smile, she truly had relaxed, and Sana was thankful for that. She couldn’t help but gently pat Gura’s shoulder, and she wished that the girl would let her hug her again, but she didn’t think Gura would be comfortable with that. “Uh…” Gura gave her a little confused nod, “Right. Baelz – uhm, Bae, I mean – and I met during the destruction of Atlantis.”

“Oh my,” Ina gasped, covering her mouth with her hands.

“She saved my life,” Gura replied, “I was scared and desperately trying to get away, and… and it was so horrible,” She sighed, “I was attacked by a shark which is why my tail here was…” She shifted in her seat like she was going to bring up her tail, but then paused, as if just remembering she was a human right now. A complex array of thoughts went through her head, thoughts and feelings that Sana could only just barely parse. Relief, sadness, happiness, anger, and so many more within the span of a mere second… Sana felt dizzy from it, and she looked over to Amelia, who was frowning deeply at Gura.

“Gura,” Amelia spoke, her voice low, “Are you ok?”

“Fine,” Gura answered quickly – and it was easily identifiable as a lie.

Amelia’s frown deepened, and her brow lowered causing her eyes to narrow. Not quite a glare, but close enough to the same effect, “You’re lying. You know you can talk to us, right?”

Sana winced at the annoyance running through Gura’s emotions at Amelia’s first statement, and she could feel Gura about to angrily retort, but then Amelia said that she could talk, and that severe look on Amelia’s face lightened up, and immediately the fire building within Gura seemed to extinguish. “I’m…” Gura swallowed, “C – Can we deal with this later?”

“Gura…” Amelia’s voice was still so soft.

“Please, Amelia.” Gura sighed, “Not right now… I don’t even know what I’m thinking right now either. This is still so new to me, and… I just need some time to think.”

Amelia’s stare lasted another few seconds, and then she looked away, “If you’re sure…”

“I am,” Gura muttered, and sensing Amelia’s worry just as strongly as Sana was feeling it, she reached over and hugged her, “I promise I’ll come to you – you and Ina – when I’m ready to talk about it.”

Ina smiled pleasantly, looking pleased to be included. True enough, she was just as worried as Amelia was feeling.

“A – Anyway,” Gura coughed again, trying to get things back on track, “Bae saved my life. I thought the sharks were going to kill me, and then she appeared and got me to safety. If it weren’t for her, I’d be dead.”

“I couldn’t just sit by and watch,” Baelz muttered, “I didn’t want to see any more death…”

If Sana thought Gura’s emotions earlier were complex, then Bae’s were even more so. She could feel immense guilt and sadness, between flashes of hatred, and maybe even some self-loathing. She didn’t know where to even begin to figure it out, and judging by the looks of the others, they didn’t know either. The only other one in the room who seemed not to be at a complete loss was Kronii, and she could sense a feeling of resigned sadness from her… She wondered if Kronii knew why Bae felt this way, and she wondered if she should bring it up.

“You did what you could,” Gura muttered.

“Yeah…” Bae mumbled, “I guess.”

Gura sighed, “Bae got me to safety, leaving me on the surface, and then I never saw her again. Shortly after I met the most annoying person in the world, and the rest is history, really.”

“Love you too.” Amelia muttered dryly beside her.

“But it turns out that Bae’s been keeping an eye on me this entire time. She’s been making sure I was safe all my life. I don’t know how many times you saved my life, because this morning was the first time I’ve actually noticed it.”

“You usually don’t need saving,” Bae replied, “You can protect yourself.”

“All the same,” Gura said, “Thank you.”

“Please stop thanking me,” Bae whined, “It’s weird.”

“I also thank you for helping her,” Amelia chuckled at Bae’s glare.

“As do I,” Ina replied, and Bae just groaned and smacked her head on the table.

“When we met up today,” Gura continued, “I thanked her, and then gave her a kiss on the cheek…” She ruefully chuckled, “If I knew this was going to happen, I would’ve just given her a hug or something.”

“If only,” Bae sighed, “And yeah, that’s pretty much what happened to us. Not so much unrequited love as you guys.”

“Aw,” Sana hugged Bae close to her now, pressing her head into her chest, “If you want, I can shower you with love!”

“Ack!” Bae pushed her back, “No thank you!”

“Uhm… Would anyone object to me taking up that offer?” Amelia asked with a raised hand, as if she were a child in school.

Gura reached over and smacked the back of her head, “Pervert.”

“What?” Amelia rubbed her head, “You’d do it!”

Gura frowned, and looked over at Sana, “I’m not attracted to weird bags of flesh like you are.”

“Even as a human?” Amelia asked with a raised brow.

“Um…” Gura stared thoughtfully at Sana, “I – I think so?”

Sana could feel Gura’s confusion, and she decided to just help the poor girl out and gave her the same hug she gave Bae. It was probably an appropriate time, right? She was trying to figure things out, and what better way than to just give it to her? That way, they both win! Sana got to hug her, and Gura got a face full of her chest.

“Wha – Sana?!” Gura cried out, and she could feel pure embarrassment as her arms wheeled around comically in the air before she tried to force herself back. Her hands landed on Sana’s breasts, and she pushed back, her hands molding them as she finally got free, and then she let go like she’d been burnt. Her face was on fire, and she looked down, unable to look anyone in the eye.

“Oh? Did we unlock a new attraction, Gura?” Amelia asked.

“Shut up!” Gura cried, looking up quickly at Amelia, and then her eyes flicked down, and she let out a soft whine and looked elsewhere towards Kronii… That wasn’t good. She looked elsewhere to Ina, and she let out a sigh.

Ina’s brow tilted up, “Should I be offended?”

“N – no…” Gura mumbled, “Y – You’re beautiful too…”

“O – Oh…” Ina’s face reddened, and Sana chuckled at how flattered she felt. Beside her Bae, was gagging.

“Oh my god, I want out of this. I swear to god, you horn dogs are going to be the end of me.”

“Oh, don’t be like that Bae!” Sana exclaimed, “This could be fun!”

“And is there even a way to get out of it?” Kronii asked, for once she sounded serious, “Is there any way at all? I meant to ask you this earlier, but it left my mind for… reasons.”

“I don’t know,” Bae sighed, “Everything about this bond is unknown to me. I didn’t even know it allowed them share powers.”

“Speaking of which,” Ina spoke up, “Does that mean that we can use your powers now?” Her eyes wandered to Kronii, Bae, and then Sana, “Can we become time, chaos, or space now?”

“Before we attempt that, we should try to take some precautions,” Kronii warned, “I don’t know what will happen if there’s two concepts of time running around. I literally control all of time, and I don’t know if we’d share the power, or if it will kick me out of the role. Same thing with Sana and Bae, we don’t want to risk harming ourselves or others.”

We can create a space for this.

“Even if that’s the case,” Kronii looked over to the counter where the Ancient Ones were still sitting, having stayed quiet the entire time up until now, “Lets do it tomorrow or something,” She sighed, seemingly melting into her chair, “After everything today, I’m kind of beat.”

Understood priestess.

Kronii blinked towards the book, “Priestess?”

“Well, you’re part of the bond, and AO-chan recognizes Amelia and Gura as priestesses, so I guess that means you’re now officially viewed as one too.” Ina smiled at Kronii, “I suppose I should welcome you to the club?”

Kronii was speechless, before finally she just shook her head, “Right. Ok.”

“I’m with Kronii-ni,” Sana said, “I would love to show you guys around space! There are so many amazing places to see in the universe, but you should get some rest! I can feel how tired some of you are!”

“Good enough for me,” Amelia replied, “Though I really do have to work tomorrow…” She grimaced at the thought, “I called in today, even though I did work part of my shift. I’m sure Moni can handle it, it wasn’t exactly tough work, but still…”

“Do you want us to wait on testing it for you?” Gura asked.

“No,” Amelia shook her head, “Go ahead, this is important stuff. Hell, considering those monster things might come back for us again, this could potentially give us a huge advantage against them, so definitely try to get familiar with the powers if you’re able.”

The mood lowered at the thought of the creatures, through the emotional link Sana felt worries and fear from the various people assembled, “Uh, I’m still keeping an eye out for them.” Sana reminded them, “We’re safe for now, right AO-chan?”

Correct.

She smiled, “See? You guys trust AO-chan, right?”

“I guess so,” Amelia replied dubiously, “They haven’t exactly been wrong about, well, anything so far.”

“And if you want, I can stay here so I can tell you immediately if they come.”

“Huh?” Ina looked surprised, “No – you don’t have to do that!”

“I know I don’t have to,” Sana muttered, “But I want to. I want to be with you some more. I want to experience this bond some more.”

“O – Oh…” Ina muttered.

Kronii chuckled, “It’s not even evening yet though,” She pointed out, “What are we going to do?”

“You’re staying too?” Amelia asked.

Kronii smiled, though Sana felt a little bit of worry coming from her through the bond, “I was planning on it, yeah. Unless… If you don’t want me to, I guess.”

“I want you to!” Amelia said quickly, “It’s just, don’t you have like, important stuff to get to?”

“Like what? Observing time progress naturally as it always does when you aren’t messing around with it?” She smiled, and Sana felt her relief clearly. She certainly wasn’t fooling anyone with her attitude, not when her emotions made her so easy to read. Kronii dearly wanted to stay too, undoubtedly for the same reasons as Sana.

“And Bae can stay too,” Gura stated, “We can have a party! Order some pizza!”

“I guess we can splurge a little,” Amelia muttered.

“Do I get a say in this?” Bae asked, though she was smiling, and Sana knew that she was fine with the idea.

“Not at all,” Kronii said good naturedly, and she finally stood up and stretched her arms above her head, “And – ah!” She settled her arms back at her side, “I’ll pay for the pizza, Amelia. Money isn’t exactly a concern for us.”

“We can split the difference,” Amelia haggled, standing up too now and walking over to Kronii to bicker over prices.

Ina watched them fondly, most of the envy she felt earlier was gone, though there was still a little bit there in her heart. Sana wouldn’t have that though, and she went back over to her side and gently touched her shoulder, “Ina?”

“Hm?” Ina looked over, “Oh, Sana, what is it?”

Sana didn’t say any words, and she kissed Ina’s cheek, much to the priestess’s surprise.

“S – Sana?”

“I think I might have an answer to your proposal.” She whispered, “I’ve thought about it enough now, and I think I would like to start dating, if you’re willing.”

Ina blinked in surprise, and a shaky but very real and very happy smile crossed her lips, she nodded, “If – if you’re ok with Amelia and Gura… And Kronii, maybe, then yes. Yes, I’m very willing.”

“Good.” Sana muttered, and then leaned in to kiss again.

“Get a room you two!” Bae groused from beside them.

She and Ina parted, and they heard Gura’s chuckles. Despite that, Sana felt happier now than she had in her entire life. Who knew all they needed was some dimensional monster attacking them to get to this point? Given all of the shenanigans that happened around these girls, she was surprised something like this didn’t happen sooner.

Ina grabbed her hand, and leaned closer to whisper, “We can continue this later, Sana…”

For the first time in her entire existence, she began to understand the human concept of time, because whatever unit of time “later” was, it wasn’t coming anywhere near fast enough.

XxXxXxX

This was the weirdest day of Amelia’s life, and having lived the life she had, that was really saying something. From nearly being murdered in the morning, to being saved by Kronii and her friends, to a tearful confession, to finally entering into an unintentional bond with three beings of immense power, Amelia wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. She was happy, sure, but it was also so very confusing to be sitting on the couch, Kronii on one side of her doing her best to pretend she wasn’t interested in Amelia (despite the fact that her hand was rested on her thigh, and she could quite clearly feel how happy and content she was), and on her other side was Gura, who was squeezed pretty tightly between her and Ina. Next to Ina was Sana, who unlike Kronii, wasn’t trying to hide anything – the concept of space was hugging Ina and just having a grand old time. Lastly, there was Baelz – Bae – on Sana’s other side at the opposite end of the couch, her arms crossed as she just pointedly watched the television.

There was a movie that Amelia had barely been paying attention to playing, two large boxes that once contained pizzas in front of them, and a bunch of empty glasses that once contained soda, coffee, tea, or water depending on the person. The evening sky outside was quickly giving way to night, and having two people so close to her was providing her a comfortable warmth, not to mention the bond itself was strongest when they were so close to one another. Feeling everyone happiness through the bond was another balm on her weary mind, and she found that she was struggling to stay awake.

“I think I’m going to head to bed,” Ina announced to them all after another few comfortable minutes passed. Her voice startled Amelia, and she blinked sleepiness out of her eyes as the couch shifted.

“I’ll come with you?” Sana got up quickly – too quickly and eagerly – and looked at Ina like a lost puppy. Amelia could feel barely contained excitement coming from the concept of space, and she gave Ina a questioning look.

“Yeah,” Ina rubbed the back of her head nervously, a minor note of embarrassment in her emotions, but more prominent was the same anticipation and excitement Sana was feeling.

“Have fun, you two.” Gura said as she scooted over, making herself more at home. Bae moved to fill in some more room at the opposite end of the couch as well, bringing her legs up. There was a blanket atop the couch that Gura often used when she slept, and Bae pulled it down to cover herself with it. Amelia didn’t blame her, with Gura not so pressed into her side anymore, she felt a little cooler too.

“Ah… W – We will…” Ina muttered, and her gaze wandered over to Amelia, and it took a minute for Amelia to notice the emotion Ina was feeling. There was an underlying guilt in her emotions, as well as concern.

Amelia almost wanted to laugh, even at this point, when she was about to obviously go do something with Sana, she was asking her for permission? She was touched on one hand that Ina cared so much for her approval and permission, but another side of her wondered if Ina genuinely thought she was this controlling? Well, she was going to have to dispel that notion, then.

“Make sure not to do anything I wouldn’t do,” Amelia said with a wink, and Ina let out a little laugh at that, the mood immediately lightening, “But really, have a good rest, Ina.”

“I will,” Ina replied, and there was an undeniable relief in her voice and emotions, “Thank you.”

And then she and Sana walked down the hallway towards her room. The door opened, and after a few minutes it was closed. She wondered what exactly they were doing in there, what they were going to talk about, and what they were going to do on a more, well, physical level – that was one way to put it, anyway. She of course felt a bit odd thinking about it, but she couldn’t help it. Sana had just been reintroduced into Ina’s life today, and they were already progressing this fast? But then again, the moment she, Ina, and Gura were bonded, they didn’t really have any brakes either, so why would they? The bond took care of all misunderstandings, it made arguments completely pointless at worst, and unnecessary at best.

The bond definitely had some drawbacks as well though, since due to the proximity to Ina and Sana, when things started to get heated between the two of them, their arousal and excitement amplified each other’s, and Amelia found herself crossing her legs distractedly as she suddenly stopped being so sleepy. She tried to focus on the movie, but it was becoming a bit more difficult as time passed.

“Fuck,” Gura mumbled, “This is like getting heat all over again.”

“I see why you hate it,” Amelia grumbled, “This is kind of torturous.”

“Just focus on the movie,” Bae advised, “I think it’s helping… Maybe.”

Another handful of minutes passed, and Amelia felt Kronii leaning heavily against her, the woman’s breath against her neck and she buried her head against her shoulder, and her hands started to rub her arm, “Amelia.”

“Hm?” Amelia glanced over to Kronii, “Y – yeah?”

“Um… Do you…” Her eyes flicked over to the hallway, “Uh, want to…”

Dear god, yes, she did. She wanted to so badly, but she didn’t want to leave Gura and Bae alone. Unlike the rest of them, the bond Gura and Bae created wasn’t done out of any romantic emotions whatsoever, it was a genuine accident. Sure, she could feel their emotions through the bond and knew that they shared a great mutual respect, but there wasn’t anything more than friendship. She knew that could change with time, and perhaps it could even change sooner if they stuck around when the bond was like this…

“It’s ok, Amelia.” Gura’s voice was a bit strained, “You can go, if you want.”

“Huh?” Amelia blinked lazily, “What?”

“I can feel your emotions,” Gura smiled, “It’s fine. I’m totally cool with it. Bae and I can keep watching this movie together if you want to go into your room, and, uh, sleep.” She eyed Kronii, “With Kronii.”

Amelia inhaled, “Are you sure?” She hated the fact that she sounded so desperate asking that, but she needed to get explicit permission.

“I am,” Gura replied, “I’m from Atlantis, remember? Stuff like this is normal there.”

“I don’t know if this bond was ever normal for the Atlanteans,” Kronii mumbled, her voice had a husky edge to it that made Amelia want to squirm, especially since she was still so damn close to her.

Gura actually laughed, “Yeah, not quite, but everything else is normal for us. It’s fine to have multiple partners, I don’t mind.”

With permission granted from her girlfriend, Amelia stiffly stood up, and Kronii was quick to follow. She waved goodbye to Gura and Bae, the latter of whom looked very annoyed, and then made their way down the small hallway to her room. Once inside, Amelia shut the door, and the moment she turned towards Kronii, she was pressed against the door as the concept of time practically threw herself onto her and their lips met. Amelia moaned into the kiss – not expecting so much force, but she adored it.

“I’ve been. Wanting to. Do this. For years,” Kronii whispered in between kisses, her hands held Amelia’s shoulders tightly, and she pressed her knee right between Amelia’s thighs, and Amelia just groaned at the sensation, her eyes fluttering close and her attempts at kissing back were stopped for the moment.

“How – are you so good at this?” Amelia asked hoarsely, “H – have you…” She hissed as Kronii began to kiss down her neck and was using her hands to unbutton Amelia’s blouse, her knee was moving in a very slight rhythm, but it was more than enough for Amelia to feel.

“Been watching you,” Kronii muttered, “A lot.”

“What…?” Amelia blinked a few times, lucidity returning to her gaze, “T – Then you saw?”

“Other girls before Ina and Gura, yeah,” Kronii mumbled, and she hummed happily as she undid the last button, exposing Amelia’s chest. A part of Amelia was mortified that when Kronii said she’d been watching her, it meant she’d literally been watching over her to that extent, and she tried to figure out how exactly Kronii even saw… But another part of her was far too turned on to even give a shit.

Not to be outdone, Amelia shakily reached up and started to undo Kronii’s white jacket thing… She honestly wasn’t sure what it was, but knew that no one other than Kronii would actually be willing to wear something like that, especially with how much of her chest it exposed. There were buttons for it though, just hidden under a bit of cloth, and she worked them off.

It was a little difficult to do though with Kronii just playing with her chest while she continued kissing her like her life depended on it. Amelia knew her neck was going to be covered in so many red marks, and she wondered how exactly she was going to explain it at work tomorrow… Well, she supposed she could just wear a coat to hide them, but that would seem a little odd, but… Well, that was a thought for tomorrow. For now, she undid the final button, and got Kronii’s caped white jacket off, and Kronii was very cooperative, holding her arms up so she could get the damn thing off entirely.

“How can you bear to wear only this?” Amelia asked as the jacket came off, and the only bit of clothing covering Kronii’s chest was a black tank top that was far too small. If Kronii shifted even a little bit, she would be exposed, “Aren’t you embarrassed?”

“Embarrassed?” Kronii rasped, her breath tickling Amelia’s ear, “When you have a body that looks this good, there’s nothing to be embarrassed about.”

“A – Ah…” Amelia couldn’t exactly deny that.

“Let’s take this to the bed, hm?” Kronii asked, completely in control. Amelia felt like a puddle of jelly, and she just nodded dumbly as Kronii stopped kissing her so intently, and her knee fell away. Amelia let out a soft whine, already wanting it back, but she was surprised when Kronii lifted her up as if she weighed nothing, and then she just marched over to the bed to drop her. “Alright then,” Kronii straddled her, and then she unzipped her tank top and threw it aside.

“Woah…” Amelia just gulped; her mind fogged with a hazy lust as Kronii leaned down to kiss her again.

XxXxXxX

Baelz was not in an entirely great mood. She entered into some incredibly powerful magic bond with five other women, and that meant they could share their emotions and powers with one another. That was great – incredible, even! But now as she sat on the couch next to Gura, she wished desperately to get out of the bond, to just go back to how things were. Feeling the arousal thick in the bond was absolutely torturous, and she found herself twitching in agitation every time Gura shifted. Clearly the Atlantean – human, she wasn’t Atlantean right now! – was feeling it just as badly as her.

“Are you ok, Bae?” Gura asked. The TV was still on, but neither of them were really paying attention to the damn thing.

“This kind of sucks,” Bae muttered.

“Sorry about that,” Gura mumbled, “I didn’t mean to get you into the bond.”

She could feel the regret from Gura, and any residual anger she had disappeared with it, “No, it’s ok, Gura… I’m just… Kind of really wound up right now.”

“I know what you mean,” Gura whispered, “How long has it been?”

“Too long,” Bae grumbled.

Gura chuckled hoarsely at that, “Yeah.”

More silence again, and then she felt Gura shifting a little closer. She could feel her thighs with her toes, and she raised a brow at the other girl, “What are you doing?”

“Well…” Gura licked her lips, “Um… Do you want to…”

“No.” Bae immediately shot her down, “Whatever you’re about to say. No. I don’t.”

Gura looked aside, “Ah… Ok.”

However, after another long and drawn out ten minutes where it felt like the arousal and heat within the bond was only increasing, Bae was wondering if she should take up Gura’s offer, whatever the hell it was.

“Gura.” She muttered.

“Yeah?”

“What… What were you going to ask?”

Gura let out a little chuckle, though it sounded very forced, “I was going to ask… If you wanted to just…”

“Uh huh?” Bae looked over, seeing Gura looking down towards the messy table with red on her cheeks, “If it’s to like, kiss or stuff, then you know at this point I probably won’t say no.”

“Oh,” Gura chuckled again, “Then… Uh, yeah. It is.”

“I figured. Come over here.”

She was surprised at how fast Gura was despite not having her Atlantean strength or speed. She just shoved her legs off of the couch, and then she forced herself right up to her until their thighs were pressed tightly together. Her arms wrapped around her waist, and then she leaned forward and kissed her. It had to have been a record, but Bae didn’t have time to snark or say anything of the like, because she was too busy melting into Gura’s hold.

When they parted, Bae felt shy, and she didn’t even know that was possible. She averted her eyes “I uh, I’ve never actually done anything like this before…”

“That’s ok, I’ll teach you,” Gura whispered.

“I don’t know if I actually care for you in, well, that way.” She warned, “I don’t know if it’s just those stupid assholes in their bedrooms influencing me, or if I actually want to do this.”

“I guess we’ll find out, won’t we?” Gura asked as she gently bit down on her neck. Without her Atlantean fangs, her teeth didn’t pierce through, but Bae let out a strangled gasp anyway as if she did. Honestly, she felt like she was super sensitive right now, any touch felt like electricity going down her spine.

“I guess so,” Bae whispered back, and when Gura kissed her again, she made sure to give it all she had.

Chapter Text

The apartment the following morning was a bit of a mess, as were all of its occupants. Amelia was getting ready for work, but her hair would not cooperate even after a shower, and she grumbled as she tried to pat it down. Her neck was covered in red marks, and she put up the collar of her blouse and her coat to hide them, but it made her look a little ridiculous. She grumbled as she made some toast really quick to eat before she had to head out, and the other people in the apartment started to stir.

Kronii was seated at the table, wearing one of Amelia’s pajama tops, which was slightly too small for her, since every movement exposed her belly, not that she seemed to mind. She was just drinking a cup of coffee silently, her eyes closed as she tried to return to the world of the living. It seemed that even Time was not a fan of mornings, though she did smile at Amelia as the time traveler sat down beside her.

“Keep an eye on everyone,” Amelia told her, “I’m pretty sure they’re going to try doing stupid things.”

“Yeah,” Kronii nodded, “I think they want to try to become concepts today…” She sighed, “So yeah, stupid things. I’ll make sure they don’t destroy anything.”

“Thank you,” Amelia muttered, finishing the last of her toast. With that done, she quickly tossed her dishes into the sink, went to the door, but then paused before putting her shoes on, and she walked over to Kronii and leaned down to give her a little peck on the cheek, “Love you.”

Kronii smiled, “Yeah… Love you too. Have a good day at work.”

Amelia winked at her, “Definitely. I feel recharged!”

“Make sure to call if anything suspicious happens.” Kronii called as Amelia was walking through the door. When it shut, Kronii was left alone. Gura and Bae were both still sleeping on the couch, and looking at the rather compromised position they were in, Kronii had to stifle a laugh. It seemed that Bae had given in to the bond despite the fact that she didn’t seem to want to be a part of it. She could have just gone home after all to weaken the strength of it, but the fact that she stayed, well, it said more than Bae was probably willing to admit aloud.

Kronii then paused. Thinking of home brought up thoughts of Fauna and Mumei, and she frowned worriedly as she walked over to the only landline phone in the apartment. It was built into the place, otherwise she doubted any of the girls living here would have bothered with it, considering they could use their cellphones. Still, she was thankful that it was there, so she could call home and let the others know where they had been.

She dialed the number and waited for all of five seconds.

“Hello?” She heard Mumei’s pleasant voice.

“Hey, Mei-mei,” Kronii smiled into the phone, “It’s me.”

“Oh, thank goodness. I was worried! Where were you guys last night? Fauna and I ended up eating alone!”

“Sorry about that,” Kronii muttered, “Something important happened yesterday that needed our attention, and then after that something, uh, very uhm, interesting happened.” She had NO idea how the hell she was going to explain the bond and the powers it granted, especially over the phone. “When we meet again, I can explain it better.”

“Oh, ok,” Mumei sounded confused, which quite frankly was a usual state of being for her, “When are you coming home?”

“I don’t know,” She replied honestly, “We have a schedule of things to do today, but I promise we’ll drop by at some point, so don’t worry.”

“Got it! I’ll let Fauna know you called!”

“Please do,” Kronii was thankful it was Mumei who picked up actually. Fauna could be quite scary when she wanted to be, and if she was annoyed that they didn’t leave a note or anything, she didn’t exactly want to face that ire.

“Well, take care,” Mumei said sounding a little distracted, “I have to get back to work, so if you’ll excuse me?”

“Of course,” Kronii mumbled, “Have a good one.”

And the call ended. A part of Kronii felt a little sad. A little pang of sadness in an otherwise ocean full of contentment. She actually did like Mumei quite a lot, the concept of civilization was always so sweet and innocent and kind, and she couldn’t lie to herself – she was definitely attracted to her. She and Fauna would constantly fight for her attention and now that she was bonded with a bunch of other girls, well, she didn’t want to drag Mumei into this… She was worried so much stimulation would be overwhelming for the poor girl. Not to mention as much as she found Fauna to be annoying sometimes, she didn’t want to hurt her either.

“Emotions suck.” She concluded to herself as she made her way back to the table to take another sip of coffee.

“What’d you say?”

Kronii jumped as she looked at the seat beside her, and Sana was sitting there with a happy smile on her face. In fact, she was positively glowing, and she looked so at peace and relaxed that Kronii felt a little envious. Her envy only grew as Ina settled down in the seat beside Sana, setting down a cup of coffee for Sana and then herself. When they sat down, Sana just leaned over and gave Ina a kiss on the cheek, and the priestess giggled happily, not a care in the world.

She wished Amelia were here now. Why did her girlfriend have to work? And wow, she felt her heart give a little bit of a thump when she referred to Amelia as her girlfriend.

“Cheer up, Kronii-ni.” Sana said after taking a long sip of coffee, “She’ll be back later.”

“Ugh, stupid emotions,” She grumbled, crossing her arms.

“Do you want some more coffee?” Ina asked, a polite smile on her face.

“Nah, I’m good.” She replied, and she wondered about their relationship now. She didn’t really know Ina that well, but they were connected by a bond that allowed them to see each other without the veil of secrecy. She wasn’t sure if she liked that to be honest, the fact that she had to be so open with someone she wasn’t familiar with was not a very good feeling, even if she logically knew that Ina was a good person – hell, she could feel her emotions, of course she knew she was a good person.

“It’s ok,” Sana gently patted her shoulder, “We’ll figure this all out.”

She let out another sigh, “I’m sorry, it’s still early. I think I’ll take you up on that offer after all, Ina.” She watched Ina get up and go to the counter, and she wordlessly brought over the pot of coffee and poured her a little bit. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.” Ina replied. There was a tiredness in her voice, but she sounded happy nonetheless. Considering what she felt from them last night, she had a strong idea as to why that was.

A moment later, she heard groaning coming from the living room adjacent to the kitchen, and when she looked over at the couch, she saw Gura and Bae both waking up. She watched them stretch, and then when Bae opened her eyes, she looked at Gura incomprehensibly for a second before she let out a little shout and shoved her aside, sending Gura down to the ground.

“Wha – What the?!” Gura cried as she banged against the floor, “The hell?!”

“Oh no – Gura!” Bae jumped up to her feet, instantly awake, and she helped Gura up to her feet, “Are you ok? Sorry, you startled me!”

“I’m fine,” Gura grumbled, wincing as she gingerly touched the back of her head, “Ow.”

“Do you need AO-chan to look at you?” Ina called.

“Huh?” Gura looked over at the kitchen, spying everyone in there immediately, “Oh…” She shook her head, “Nah, just a little bump. I’m built tougher than that, you know?”

Once she was certain that Gura wasn’t hurt, Bae stalked into the kitchen, and sat at the last available seat on Kronii’s other side, where she was also seated close to Ina, completing the circle, and she just groaned, “Is there anymore coffee left?”

“Yeah, I can get you some. Would you like any, Gura?”

“Nah, I’m good. Thanks though.” Gura walked over, and Ina got up and offered her seat. Gura nodded her thanks to Ina and sat down, and when Ina arrived back with a cup for Bae, she settled down between Sana and Gura, her tentacles again forming a chair for her to sit on.

And like that, everyone was again assembled at the table, though this time there was significantly less discussion, and more just everyone waking up. Gura was already fairly alert, Ina and Sana both seemed to be pretty awake too, while she and Bae were both still pretty tired, by the look of things.

Still, since they were all here, it was as good a time as any to start discussions on the day’s activities.

“So…” Kronii said as she set her cup down, “How are we going to test you guys becoming a concept?”

“We’ll need to go somewhere safe,” Sana mused, tapping her chin thoughtfully, “Somewhere that we won’t be able to harm the Earth.”

“Would AO-chan be able to create a dimension for us to work in?” Gura asked as she looked around the assembled group, “So we won’t harm anything?”

“Probably?” Ina muttered, “For Kronii and Bae’s power it could work, but for Sana it would require a LOT of space, and I think trying to make a subspace that large would require so much power my body would disintegrate from the overwhelming might of the Ancient Ones abilities.”

“Oh…” Gura blinked, “Let’s not do that then.”

“I’m glad we both agree.” Ina smiled pleasantly, “But that being said, if we follow Sana’s suggestion and go to someplace far away from Earth to use her power, you’ll have to take a bit of AO-chan’s power so you will be able to breath in any atmosphere – or lack thereof – that we find ourselves in.”

“That’s fine,” Gura agreed amicably, “Where is the book anyway?”

As if knowing it had been called, AO-chan floated from out of the hallway as before. Kronii just watched the possessed book for a moment before she just shook her head – honestly that looked like it came straight from a horror movie, especially since she could feel such a powerful magic coming from it. It surprised her that all of the others were unphased by its entrance, with the possible exception of Baelz, who tensed up very minutely when it arrived. Granted, the other three were far more familiar with the Ancient Ones, so she supposed it made sense why there was a severe lack of caution around the damn thing.

“Hey, AO-chan,” Gura waved at the book like an old friend, “Mind helping me out here?”

Yes, priestess.

It was fascinating to watch Gura transform before her eyes. The book hovered over, and the moment Gura took hold of it, her ears immediately became malleable and shifted into the familiar points Ina had. Two weird head flaps that she honestly had NO idea what the purpose of appeared on her head. Her hair started to shift to a deep blue the further down it went, where two tentacles appeared on either side of her head much like Ina, and lastly, the last obvious change was how her shirt began to lift up in the back as her two wings grew in.

Gura let out a sigh, shifting uncomfortably until her shirt was riding far up her back so her wings could be fully exposed, “There we go.”

“Huh,” Kronii mumbled, “neat.”

“How do you feel?” Sana asked curiously, “Did that hurt?”

“Nah,” Gura shook her head, smiling, and Kronii saw that she had two fangs now like a vampire. “It feels a little weird, and it takes a little bit to get used to the voices in my head, but oddly enough it doesn’t really hurt or anything.”

“Can I try?” Sana asked, stars in her eyes her hands shaking excitedly in front of her, “I wanna try it too!”

“Uh…” Ina looked startled at the admission, “Um, m – maybe?”

“You actually want to get tentacles?” Bae asked looking decidedly unimpressed by the entire discussion, “That’s… Very weird.”

“It’s fun!” Sana countered, “Don’t you want to explore the limits of this bond?!”

“Not really. I want out.” Bae admitted openly, and true enough, Kronii could feel how genuine the emotion was.

“Aw, but what about poor Gura?”

“Eh?” Gura blinked, her cheeks flaring red, and Bae wasn’t much better.

“W – What about Gura?” Bae asked defensively.

“You two looked awfully comfortable this morning,” Ina added teasingly, and Bae just turned to her with wide eyes.

“It’s true.” Kronii replied, “Amelia thought you two were cute together.”

“We were like that because of YOU guys!” Bae exclaimed.

“You could have left.” Kronii pointed out, smiling even wider as Bae sputtered some more, “You didn’t have to stay here and do all of that with Gura.”

“A – all of that?” Bae gasped, “W – We didn’t do any of that!”

“Y – yeah… We just cuddled and kissed a little bit,” Gura exclaimed, “Nothing else!”

“Well that sounds like something girlfriends would do,” Sana said sagely, “And you want out of this bond with her, Bae? You would do that to poor Gura?”

“That’s dirty and you know it, Sana.” Bae growled, “I like Gura… She’s nice, and – well, I don’t know…” She struggled to find words, “Ugh… Can we just please change the subject?”

“Gladly!” Gura brought their attention back to her, “Anyway, Sana wants to be infused with the Ancient Ones, right?”

“Will that interfere with her space powers?” Kronii asked, fully bringing everyone back on track. It was fun to joke around, but Bae was clearly uncomfortable with the subject, so she mercifully dropped it, feeling a little bad for bringing it up in the first place.

“I don’t think so?” Ina muttered, “Being infused with AO-chan’s power doesn’t change your species, so I think the same would apply here, right? She would still be the concept of space, just with AO-chan’s powers.”

Kronii nodded slowly, “Huh… Ok.”

“Don’t worry, if anything bad happens Kronii-ni can just turn back time.” Sana replied patting her shoulder.

“I don’t exactly want to see anything bad happen,” Kronii mumbled, “And we’d need to go grab Watson before we go back so she’d remember everything.”

“Nothing bad will happen,” Ina smiled nervously, “Right, Sana?”

“Who knows!”

“Yeah, ok, I vote no to this whole idea then.” Bae raised her hand, “Anyone else?”

“Aw come on!” Sana pouted, “Aren’t you chaos? You should be excited to do this!”

“That doesn’t mean I want to potentially hurt you or do anything worse!”

It is fine. No harm shall come to any priestess.

Again everyone glanced at AO-chan as they floated out of Gura’s hands and made their way over to Sana, who was squealing happily as the book lowered into her awaiting hands, and like Gura before, the transformation was instantaneous. Her ears became pointed, she gained two tentacles on either side of her head, this time instead of the deep blue of Gura’s hair or the orange of Ina’s, her hair started as a nice creamy white and the further does the length of the tentacle it shifted to a light brown, almost looking like chocolate at the very tips. She gained two head flaps exactly as Gura and Ina did, and two wings poked out from her back, ripping through her rather tight leotard.

“Oh! I hear them!” She exclaimed, “The Ancient Ones in my head!”

“Usually, people aren’t so excited to hear voices in their head,” Kronii pointed out with an awkward smile.

“Look!” Sana lifted her arm, and immediately eight tentacles were summoned from portals directly behind her. These ones were creamy white, and the underside was light brown, easily distinguishable from Ina’s, and presumably from Gura’s, considering the color. Kronii noted that the color of the tentacles seemed to match their hair, and then she wondered WHY that was the case. Weren’t these tentacles a part of the Ancient Ones? Why were they color coded like this? Or were they actually a part of the person that summoned them?

She hesitantly touched one of them, and Sana let out a little gasp, and she immediately threw her hand back, “Are you ok?” Kronii asked.

“I’m fine,” Sana laughed in good humor, “I just wasn’t expecting to feel your touch!”

“You feel what they do?” Kronii asked, “Huh, so maybe they are a part of you?”

“What?” Ina asked, “A part of us?”

“Nothing,” Kronii shook her head, deciding to drop the subject lest they get sidetracked yet again, “Are we ready to head out? We aren’t getting any younger…” She paused, “Actually, none of us are getting any older either, considering Me, Bae, and Sana are concepts, and the Ancient Ones stops your aging,” She pointed to Gura and Ina, “But whatever. The point still stands.”

“Yes!” Sana jumped to her feet, and her tentacles knocked down her chair and smashed against the wall behind her with a meaty thump, “Oh – whoops.”

“Be careful,” Ina chastised, “You don’t need to have them out at all times, you know.”

“Aw, sorry, sorry.” Sana chuckled and her tentacles disappeared through the portals they had once arrived, “Anyway, let’s get going!”

“So, we’re settling on space then?” Kronii asked, quickly clarifying.

“Why not? She seems eager to do it.” Gura pointed out dryly, “Why not?”

“Why not,” Ina repeated happily, “I’m all for it!”

“That’s great, but how are we going to get far enough from the Earth, exactly?” Bae asked, getting up when she noticed everyone else was too.

“AO-chan!” Ina held out her hand, and unlike before where AO-chan casually floated, this time the book flew into her hand like a guided missile. Ina flipped the book open, and they all felt immense power burst from the pages. Ina’s eyes darkened considerably, and waves of dark purple energy started to radiate from her. “Sana, where shall we go?”

Kronii noticed that Ina’s emotions felt far more subdued now, though she could still feel them if she focused. Ina was excited and quite happy, but AO-chan just naturally suppressed emotions, probably to make sure that the priestess using them wouldn’t make any mistakes, she figured.

“Well,” Sana tapped her chin, “If we want to make sure Earth is not harmed, we could probably go to the next nearest galaxy. I think humans call it the Andromeda galaxy? It’s pretty far though, can the Ancient Ones take us there?”

Ina paused, looking up at the ceiling and turning her head until it locked onto seemingly a random point. She lifted a single arm, her index finger pointing to the nearest corner of the ceiling. Kronii could see a spider web there, but no spider, and she frowned, “What… Are you doing?”

“The Ancient Ones say that is the way to the Andromeda Galaxy. The distance is…” Her voice garbled, and Kronii winced at the sound. She didn’t think a human was supposed to sound like that. It was deep and guttural, and it quite frankly made her feel quite concerned for her. Ina paused again, and she looked at the table towards Gura, “I apologize. The distance is approximately two point five million light years away.”

“Ah, thank you.” Gura nodded, “But uh, that sounds pretty freaking far.”

“It’s perfect!” Sana replied, “Trust me, Gura! Nothing we do there will affect the earth! Well, I mean, unless if we mess up, in which case anything we do there will affect your planet in a few hundred thousand years!”

Kronii nodded, “We better be careful then. I’m sure people would freak out if we told them the Earth was going to be destroyed in only a few hundred thousand years.”

“Exactly.” Sana replied.

“Are you ready?” Ina asked looking at them all now, her eyes slowly looking over the group, “Good. We will transport there now.”

And before Kronii could even blink again, they disappeared from the room.

XxXxXxX

Gura found out pretty quickly that she wasn’t particularly fond of space. When Ina transported them to the Andromeda galaxy, she expected to land on a moon or some remote planet, but instead they just appeared in the middle of nowhere in the vastness of space. She could see distant stars and planets, and it truly was absolutely stunning and very beautiful, but then she started to spin out of control, and she couldn’t STOP spinning. Fortunately, Sana seemed to be able to handle space just fine, and floated beside her and grabbed her leg, and then she turned her until she was upright… Well, what she assumed was upright. Without gravity, telling up from down was nigh impossible.

“So here we are,” Bae floated on by, and she looked as if she were laying down. Her arms were folded behind her head, and she had her eyes closed, as if she were just resting. “we’re in space.” She stopped by Gura and Sana, and looked at them curiously, “What now?”

Ina and Kronii were just a handful of yards away from them, and they could see the power fading away from Ina, who let out a breath, and then took another breath in, despite the fact that there was no atmosphere in space to breath in. Gura tried not to think about it, because it honestly made her brain hurt to try and figure out how the Ancient Ones powers worked.

“Now,” Ina opened her eyes, and they were back to their normal hue and color, “We will take some of Sana’s aura, and she will show us how to be a concept of space.”

Kronii crossed her arms and watched passively, her lips drawn thin. Gura could feel her concern, and it made her a little happy, really. It was clear Kronii only really loved Amelia out of everyone in the bond, but the fact that she was concerned for their wellbeing, and the fact that she was even here in the first place was a wonderful gesture, and she wondered if one day the concept of time would come to love them all just as much.

“What?” Kronii’s brow raised, “See something you like?”

She spotted Kronii’s teasing grin, and Gura rallied herself, winking at Kronii, “Yeah, you free tonight?”

“I’ll have to check my calendar.” She replied, idly floating a little further away, “I’m a busy woman, you know. Watching time and all.”

“Oh, definitely.” Gura nodded sagely, “Gotta keep your eyes on Amelia. I understand.”

“Hey!” Kronii cried, “No!”

“Guys!” Ina interrupted, “Flirting later, ok? It’s space time now!”

“Alright, gather ‘round, everyone!” Sana called, and Gura tried to float over to their little circle, but she couldn’t really get any momentum in space. She had no idea how the others managed it. A second later, and a coffee-colored tentacle gently wrapped itself around her waist and helpfully brought her over.

“Thanks, Sana.” Gura muttered, keeping a hand on the tentacles even as it unwrapped around her. It was all she could do to stay steady.

“So how do we do this?” Bae asked.

“Um, I’m not so sure.” Sana replied, “Ina?”

“Like I said earlier,” Ina replied patiently, “We need to take some of Sana’s aura. Um, if you close your eyes and focus, like you’re meditating, you can sort of ‘see’ everyone else bonded around you.”

Gura knew how to do it, but she followed Ina’s instructions anyway as the others closed their eyes as well. She took a deep breath, and focused her mind on trying to see them, and sure enough their auras appeared. Sana’s aura was the same color as her tentacle really, an off-white, reminding her of cream. Across from her, Bae burned a warm red, and next to her was a deep and dark blue. Kronii’s blue was far darker than her own, almost looking black. Then there was Ina’s familiar purple, and she smiled as she felt Ina’s happiness when she gently touched her aura.

Ina must have felt the touch, because Gura felt a little tickle as well as Ina’s aura reached over to touch her. They didn’t collect each other’s aura – now wasn’t the time for that, of course, but it made her smile anyway. She instead just watched the other auras began to move, the concepts with them grasping how to use their auras.

“I see it,” Kronii whispered, “Woah. This is kind of trippy.”

“Your colors are so damn bright,” Bae muttered, “Beautiful, too.”

“Aw, thank you.” Sana laughed, “You’re beautiful too!”

“I meant your aura!” Bae cried, her eyes opening, “N – Not you!”

“Someone’s embarrassed!” Gura sang, opening her eyes to see Bae pouting.

“Focus, everyone.” Ina reminded again, and Gura had to commend Ina’s patience. Guiding them through all of this must have been like herding cats, and Gura decided to be kind and fall back into line for her. “Ok, so, does everyone see everyone else’s aura?”

“Yep.”

“I do!”

“Yeah.”

Ina smiled, “Good! Then as Gura demonstrated earlier, you can reach out with your aura to touch others.” She showed it off while the others were watching her, and it was like a tendril of aura from Ina’s intense purple reached out. The tendril of aura went towards Sana’s aura, and the concept of space let out a gasp as she felt Ina’s aura touch her, “You feel that, Sana?”

“Yeah! It feels weird, but nice too.”

“Yeah, we’ve figured out if you do this, it strengthens the bond even more.” Ina said, still in instructor mode, “The person’s emotions become clearer, and, well, it just feels nice.” She finished lamely. She coughed quickly, hiding her embarrassment, “But, uh, you can take some of a person’s aura – more like borrowing, actually – and when you do so, you’ll become what they are. So, if I just do this…” The tendril of Ina’s aura wrapped gently around Sana’s aura, and pulled back, a whisp of creamy white aura in its grasp as it floated back to Ina. Gura noticed that there was still a string of white connecting Sana’s aura to the piece that Ina took.

Ina gasped – and Gura opened her eyes to watch.

Unlike when She turned human, or Amelia turned Atlantean, the change wasn’t extreme. In fact, she’d say there wasn’t a change at all. The only differences she noticed were that Ina gained a weird little spiral attached to the top of her head by a very thin looking wire. Additionally, when Ina opened her eyes, her pupils had changed drastically into a star shape. She looked around them all, her mouth dropping open as if she were seeing them for the first time. She lifted her hand, waving it around for some reason Gura couldn’t understand.

“Ina?” Gura whispered – she could feel her awe, and she wondered exactly what she was feeling.

“This is – it’s so weird.” Ina mumbled, “I feel everything.”

“What does that mean?” Kronii asked, her brow lifted, “What exactly is everything?”

“I don’t know,” Ina mumbled, she bit her lip and closed her eyes, “Over there…” She pointed in a random direction, “I feel the Earth. It’s far – very far – but I know it’s right there.”

Gura looked over, and all she could see was the vastness of space.

“I can feel those stars,” Ina pointed to individual stars off in the distance, stars that humanity had yet to discover and were likely never to see in their lives, “They’re so warm, and…” She let out a soft gasp, “I feel the Ancient Ones over there – and there – and there…” She was looking all around.

“The Ancient Ones exist far, far, far at the edge of the universe.” Sana helpfully provided, “Oh – they’re saying hello.”

“Hi…” Ina mumbled, “I – I feel them touching me, they’re curious.”

Greetings, Priestess. The book vibrated, and Gura heard its words through her mind, it’s not often we meet with our disciples.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She said, smiling as she stared off in a far-off direction, her eyes not even focusing on the book, and Gura wondered if Ina and the Ancient Ones were actually looking directly at one another. A few weeks ago, the thought would’ve sent shivers down her spine, but now Gura felt happy for Ina – to finally meet her lifelong companion in person… Well, sort of in person, she guessed?

“Would you girls like to try?” Sana asked, since Ina was now far too preoccupied with her own changes.

“Well, I guess it’s safe then,” Kronii let out a sigh, “I wasn’t sure what having two Speakers of Space would do, but the universe didn’t end, and nothing was destroyed.”

“So, we just take some aura?” Bae asked, her eyes already closed and Sana let out a little giggle, “Oh, sorry.”

“It’s fine, it just tickles when you touch me like that!” Sana replied, “Gura? Kronii? You want to try too?”

“Yeah,” Gura nodded eagerly, and she closed her eyes to focus in on Sana. When she could feel her aura, she plucked some of it like Ina had earlier, and she noticed Kronii and Bae’s auras also taking some of their own. When she brought Sana’s aura back and wrapped her own protectively around it, Gura inhaled deeply.

Her head felt heavy all of the sudden – her whole body did. It felt like every single molecule in her body increased in weight a hundred times over, and yet she could still move her hands and arms just fine, as if she were still just a human. She opened her eyes and gasped – she could see the vastness of space, but there were so many new colors – colors she couldn’t even identify. The spectrum of light she could see was vastly improved, and when she looked off into the distance at a star, it was like she was right there in person looking at it, despite being millions of lightyears away. She both saw it from a distance, but also saw the hydrogen and helium within the star colliding and fusing and burning in a beautiful explosion of light… It was unlike anything she’d ever seen before in her life.

She turned her head, and saw a distant planet far off in the galaxy. She could see the desolate landscape, and when she looked a little off to the right, she could see the white dwarf that used to be that planet’s sun billions of years ago. However, she could see the sun still burning brightly from her position in the Andromeda galaxy – the light from when it was once a beautiful giant of burning gasses still existed, it was proof that once it had been a wondrous celestial body. All around her, she could see other galaxies, other suns and planets, billions, trillions, countless things all around her, and it was the first time she ever realized how vast the universe was, and how small and insignificant she was in comparison.

It was humbling, something she would have never truly understood if she weren’t space itself at that very moment. She could see, feel, and hear everything in the universe. She looked towards Earth – it was easy to tell where it was when she could feel it – and she looked at the distant planet with its moon revolving around it. She could see lights from humanity burning brightly even from space, and she could even see the monuments and buildings from the Andromeda galaxy. She was so far, and yet she was also so close – it was a juxtaposition that she could barely wrap her head around.

Gura had no idea why she wasn’t suffering from sensory overload, but she chalked it up to the same reason that Amelia and Ina got the hang of being Atlanteans so quickly – why she and Amelia got so quickly used to the Ancient Ones. She turned around, focusing in on the others, and she saw Kronii and Bae were both still in just as much awe as she was, looking around and seeing the beautiful expanse of space and all of the amazing sights contained within.

“Wow,” Bae mumbled under her breath, “This is – like – I can’t even…” She sputtered, “I was created at the start of the universe like you were Sana, but I never realized how amazing our universe truly is. How big it is.”

“Yeah,” Kronii mumbled, “I observe time, and that has been my main focus.” Kronii muttered, “I’ve ignored everything else around me. I have seen suns burn out from my domain, seen planets being born, saw life flourishing elsewhere, but… I’ve never actually sat down and watched, and now that I’m space, now that I can see it more clearly than I ever could have as Time, I wish I had paid more attention. This is incredible.”

Sana smiled, “And that’s not even everything. We’re still in our smaller forms – the form I use when I wish to mingling amongst species.” She touched the weird spiral above her head, “This is my inhibitor. When I wear it, I take the form and average size of the species I wish to be a part of, but when I remove it…” She clutched it, and then with a little tug, she removed it, and Sana was no longer there, because she was everywhere. Gura watched her grow to a truly titanic size, and she realized now why Sana wanted them far away from Earth. Her head craned up, and up, and up, and still all she could see was Sana’s toe.

Ina had stopped conversing with the Ancient Ones at that moment, and looked over, her starred eyes looking up, “What the –”

“Remove your inhibitor,” Gura told her, pointing to her head, “See you on the flip side!”

Gura didn’t wait for a second, and she removed her inhibitor as well.

It was a testament to how incredibly vast and massive the universe truly was that even when she suddenly over ten thousand times larger than the Earth, she still felt lost and alone in the vast void. Ina, Bae, and Kronii joined her and Sana mere seconds later, and Gura had to quickly avert her eyes. One thing Sana had failed to mention was that clothing was apparently not going to grow alongside you – and everyone was now suddenly very naked, and Gura had no idea where exactly to settle her eyes.

“Wah!” Ina covered herself, her cheeks flaming red, “We’re naked!”

“Um, yeah,” Kronii was awkwardly shifting around, using her hands to cover herself up like Ina was, “A little warning next time Sana?”

“We don’t need clothing,” Sana said happily, “Watch.”

Gura looked over to Sana, and strategically used her hand to cover most of Sana’s ridiculously overendowed body, but it proved to be a useless gesture, because Sana suddenly literally exploded into a massive kaleidoscope of light. It was like billons of new stars were suddenly born, and Gura gasped at the beauty of it, her embarrassment momentarily forgotten as she stared where Sana once was.

We are space! We don’t need to be confined to a human form! Sana’s voice was all around them, it was gentle and kind, and Gura realized that Sana had literally just become space in that very moment.

Gura realized that she knew how to do that thanks to the power of the bond, and she felt her consciousness expand even further when suddenly she no longer had a human body anymore. She was so massive and vast, and it felt like she had millions – billions – of arms to reach out and touch everything. She could feel and touch every inch of space, of the entire universe. There was so much to see and explore and to touch and – it was incredible. She felt like a literal god. She could feel Sana’s amusement in her head – well, mind, she supposed, she no longer had a head – as well as the others continued awe.

She felt the cosmos of Sana wrapping around her, gently guiding her away from potentially harming any planets or stars. Similarly, Sana was helping the others as well, keeping them away from harming other places, as well as keeping them away from potential dangers, making sure their curious nature didn’t lead them into a black hole or anything else potentially dangerous. It was so hard for Gura to think of herself as being literal cosmos and space, she still pictured herself having hands and legs, she pictured herself still walking around, but she wasn’t doing any of that. It was like her consciousness itself was moving around, going to other places around the universe to explore and look.

Gura, stay with us. She heard Sana speak, and Gura’s consciousness made sure to keep track of her. Made sure to stick in the Andromeda galaxy for the time being.

It’s so beautiful. She heard Ina’s thoughts, and she agreed wholeheartedly.

I’ve been all over the universe, Bae thought, but it’s always been to cause chaos. It’s incredible to see it the way you do, Sana.

Is there anywhere you girls want to visit? Sana asked, she could feel her happiness and amusement. She couldn’t blame her, of course. This was a once in a lifetime opportunity, she doubted Sana ever expected to have friends that could experience this with her, to show them the things she could actually experience.

I’ll follow your lead, that was Kronii’s thoughts, and Gura nodded – er, she had no head to nod with – she agreed with the thoughts.

I can hear your thoughts just fine, Gura. She heard Sana’s voice again, don’t think too hard about it. I know this must be overwhelming for you, but I’ll keep you safe!

Thank you. She replied.

Can we visit AO-chan? Ina thought, I would love to see them in person – or, um, as a celestial being?

I get what you mean, she could practically hear Sana’s happy laughter, Follow me!

The lights from stars bled together as Gura made sure to keep up with Sana. She could see so many planets that she wanted to stop and visit. For every hundred dead planets, there were dozens with life thriving, and in some cases that life was even more advanced that humanity, though these planets were millions of light years away from Earth, so the chances of them meeting humanity and interacting was impossible. Gura wondered how such interactions would go. Would humans embraced aliens – would they co-exist, or would they wage war? It depended on the species, she suspected, and how well they could communicate.

Her thoughts were abruptly halted after what felt like only a few minutes. They were far out of the Andromeda galaxy now, at the edges of the universe. They must have traveled billions upon billions of lightyears. The universe was infinite, so there technically wasn’t an ‘edge’ to it, but there was a point where it was continually expanding from the initial explosion of the big bang that created the universe itself, where the fabric of space continued to become more and more. The universe was still young, there was still so much heat and energy for it to expand with, and it was accelerating even now. It was at this expanding horizon where the Ancient Ones resided.

The Ancient Ones were not what Gura was expecting. She was expecting some sort of tentacle monstrosity that could destroy planets just by blinking an eye. Instead, The Ancient Ones were not even a perceptible being to the human eye. It was only thanks to Sana’s abilities that she could even perceive the Ancient Ones in the first place. They weren’t a giant monster, in fact, they weren’t anything. It was impossible to explain, it was impossible for a human, Atlantean, or any mortal being to comprehend it, and even though she could see it, she could not truly describe it. Gura knew that if she were to look upon this as she were before becoming space, she would have been driven mad by its formless body by the fact that it was something that her mind would refuse to comprehend.

No wonder it resided so far away from everything, she wondered if it wasn’t because the Ancient Ones were some destructive force bent on the end of the world – the universe – but because they wished not to destroy the universe.

That is correct, priestess.

Hello, AO-chan! Ina happily looked upon the incomprehensible, no fear in her voice.

Greetings, priestess. The Ancient Ones said, and Gura almost had a feeling that they actually cared for her beyond her just being their priestess, we are pleased to make your acquaintance.

We’re all happy to meet you too. Ina replied, and if she still had a body, Gura was sure Ina would have been smiling like a dope, I never thought I would get the chance.

We have Hakos Baelz to thank for that. The Ancient Ones rumbled, and Gura had the feeling that the beings’ eyes shifted over to them, you’ve broken your orders to give the Atlantean the orb.

Orders? Bae felt confused, I just found it in Mumei’s room – there weren’t any orders not to give it to them. Mumei didn’t know where it was from, but I could feel power coming from it – I knew it would allow them to feel each other’s emotions, but this – this I didn’t expect.

You also gave the one known as Amelia Watson the watch, and you saved Gawr Gura’s life.

How were those even tangentially related Gura wondered, but she could feel Bae’s sudden spike in fear, she wanted to ask her what that was about, to comfort her, but Kronii interrupted her thoughts before she could formulate any words.

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO GAVE HER THE DAMN WATCH? Kronii’s voice boomed in her mind, and Gura would have winced if she could.

How could you not know? Bae asked, who ELSE would’ve given it to her?!

H – hey now… Sana’s voice appeared, calm down guys, we’re in front of the Ancient Ones, we should be a bit more presentable.

It’s fine, Ina said, chipper as Gura had ever felt her being. The only time she could recall Ina feeling this happy was when they confessed a couple weeks ago, AO-chan doesn’t mind.

I do not. The Ancient Ones confirmed for her, However, you may wish to go.

Why? Gura asked curiously.

Four days have passed on Earth since you left the Andromeda galaxy. Amelia Watson is concerned.

Gura felt a spike of panic coming from everyone, though it was hard to notice theirs when she felt her own panic rising. FOUR days?! She was amazed that Amelia didn’t even use the watch to go back to before they left! They had to get back to her – she felt guilt gnawing at her, they didn’t even leave a note! Granted, she didn’t expect to be gone for more than a few hours at most…

We have been informing her of your progress. The Ancient Ones said, and Gura felt herself calm down somewhat, traveling back to Earth from here will take you several days however. Use this to go back, before the detective grows more concerned.

An absolutely miniscule book appeared in the vastness of space they resided in. She had forgotten about it entirely once they became giants. Apparently, it had traveled back to Earth to keep track of Amelia for them while they were off having their own adventures, and she felt immensely thankful to the Ancient Ones for that.

To shrink back down to a human size, just think of it. I guess it’s similar to the aura thing? Sana’s voice rang in her head, and she followed its advice. A minute later, Gura felt her entire being compress. It wasn’t painful, but it was decidedly odd to feel absolutely titanic, and then to have her perspective shift down so dramatically. She closed her eyes, and then a moment later, she was back to her original size along with the others. Ina reached out and took the book.

“Thank you, AO-chan.” Ina’s voice was already powered up, and her eyes were glowing, “We’re heading back home.” She didn’t stop to ask for any objections, she just said how it was, and a second later, they disappeared from their spot beside the Ancient Ones. The Ancient Ones just observed where they stood for a moment longer, before their gaze shifted back up towards the ever-expanding universe, looking forward to what new would come.

XxXxXxX

The first night Amelia arrived home to no one home, she was a little put out, but not overly concerned. Her girlfriends and the others were all very capable people, and she knew not to be worried. Not to mention, she could still very faintly feel the bond, which led her to believe that they were at least not dead, so that was another worry gone. Still, as she prepared for dinner all alone in the empty apartment, she hoped they would come home soon.

After dinner, she spent some time watching TV, and she checked the clock. It was well pass midnight… With a sigh, she turned off the television, and went to her room to sleep… Well, try to sleep. It was kind of difficult to sleep when her thoughts were constantly thinking of Gura, Ina, and now Kronii added to the mix too. She liked Sana and Bae well enough, but she wasn’t certain if she were really willing to consider them more than friends quite yet. Still, she wouldn’t have complained if either of them appeared to let her know they were all right.

Her bed felt uncomfortably cold that night.

“You ok, Amelia?” Moni asked the next day at work, “You look like you didn’t sleep at all.”

She grunted, taking another large sip of coffee and setting it aside on her desk. She and Moni had a few leads to follow up on today, but nothing significant. She was thankful for that, because her thoughts kept going back to her girlfriends constantly, so she just went back to work twice as hard. Then when her shift ended, she stayed an additional three hours, hoping that it would give everyone time to come home.

Unfortunately, no one was home to greet her.

“Where the fuck are you guys?” She tossed off her coat onto a nearby chair, and nervously looked around the room. She reached into her pocket, feeling the watch, and wondered if she should go ahead and turn back time…

Priestess. The others are safe.

Amelia let out a surprised shout, and looked back towards the table, where the book of the Ancient Ones lay. She let out a choked gasp, and walked over to the damn thing and picked it up, “Where are they!? Did they forget about me?”

They’re traveling many lightyears. They said, though they’re fast, they don’t realize that so much time passes traveling such distances.

“Lightyears?!” Amelia could barely wrap her head around it, “Just what are they doing?”

It’s not intentional.

Amelia blinked, it almost felt like the Ancient Ones were covering for her girlfriends, trying to ease Amelia’s wounded heart. She knew Ina had to work too, but the priestess had put aside her work to do this. Amelia almost wished she had just called off saying she had the flu or something so she could join them too… It was lonely without them, and a part of her was hurt, since it felt like she was being left behind.

I will inform them as soon as I can.

“Thanks,” Amelia muttered roughly. She coughed, biting back her negative emotions, “Guess I’ll just… Make dinner alone. Again.”

That night was much like the previous, except the Ancient Ones at least kept her some company. At one point she despised the Ancient Ones, had assumed that they wanted nothing more than the destruction of her planet, but these last few weeks had gone a long way to change her mind, and tonight was no different. They stayed at her side as she watched television alone with the lights off, and it was also the first time she very willingly grabbed the book and allowed them to change her.

Having their voices in the back of her head did much to calm her down, and she just held them tightly to her chest as she drifted off to sleep on the couch as that night. With the Ancient Ones soft whispering, she was actually able to get more than a few hours of rest.

Two more days being alone, and Amelia’s sadness was quickly shifting to anger. The Ancient Ones of course were telling her that they didn’t mean to abandon her for this long, that they didn’t know so much time was passing, but that did nothing to stop the hurt she was feeling. Her tentacles were twitching in agitation that night as she was preparing dinner, and even with the Ancient Ones voices mumbling in the back of her mind, she was finding it hard to stay calm.

They’ve arrived to me.

Amelia looked up, “What?”

The other priestesses have finished their journey to me. I will inform them of your plight.

“Don’t bother,” Amelia bit off, “They clearly don’t care.”

You know that’s not true, priestess.

She grunted, but didn’t bother replying with anything else. She opened up a can of soup, tossed it in the microwave, and sat down at the table, browsing her cellphone. She was hardly paying attention, since the Ancient Ones were presumably telling the others that they’d left her alone for four days, she was sure she’d hear something very soon, and as pissed as she was, she was glad that she was potentially going to receive some sort of update now.

She wasn’t quite expecting the form of that update to be a collection dark power emitting from the middle of her apartment. The blankets and pillow on the couch flew away as an intense wind started to blow all around. She raised a single tentacle up to cover her face, while she quickly darted out with the others to hold down the chairs and table so they wouldn’t fly off and get damaged. A few seconds later the wind died down, and standing in the middle of her living room were the same five people who’ve been missing for half a week now.

Gura’s eyes darted around the room, and when they landed on Amelia, she darted over, and jumped onto Amelia, “Ame! I’m so, so, so, so sorry!” She cried, holding her tight. Amelia let out a soft grunt, Gura felt heavier than usual, and she had a weird spiral above her head, it kind of reminded her of the things used to repel mosquitoes, except it wasn’t lit and didn’t smell like shit.

“Hey,” She replied curtly, and she could immediately feel Gura’s guilt intensify. Looking over at the rest, Ina was walking over too, looking just as guilty as Gura felt, and the others were sheepishly watching. Kronii looked as though she weren’t quite sure what to do or say, so she stood there awkwardly. Sana was apologetically smiling at her, her hands clapped together and she bowed for some reason, and Bae was standing there with her hands crossed. When her eyes met with Amelia she shrugged helplessly, and looked elsewhere.

“Amelia,” Ina cupped her cheeks and kissed her, “I’m sorry too, we completely lost track of time. We didn’t mean to leave you alone for so long – we thought only a few minutes had passed.”

Amelia relished the kiss, her eyes closing. It was nice, and though she was still upset, she was glad that they were home at least. Feeling how sorry they felt was also keeping her anger at bay. It was one thing to hear an ancient and powerful being telling her that her girlfriends didn’t mean to leave her behind, but it was much more convincing when the girls themselves were telling her that, especially when she could feel their emotions so close and personal.

“Can I ask you one question?” Amelia breathed out, her arms wrapping around Ina and Gura.

“Yeah, whatever you need.” Gura muttered, holding her tight.

“Alright…” Amelia took another breath, “Why… Are you guys naked?”

“Eh?” Gura blinked a few times, parting from Amelia and looking down at herself. Sure enough, she wasn’t wearing any clothes. They were probably lost out in the Andromeda galaxy, floating around ripped and torn, never to be seen by human eyes again.

“Ah…” Ina’s face was burning red, and she didn’t dare look back at the others who were also just as naked, “Um… W – Well, that’s a long story…”

“Alright then,” Amelia sighed,” Do you guys want to get dressed really quick, and then you can explain everything to me?

Everyone quickly dispersed – Gura had a backpack in the living room she ran towards to dig out some new clothes, and Ina rushed to her room quickly. Sana was confused by their embarrassment, but ended up following Ina. In the meantime, Amelia beckoned Kronii and Bae to follow her – she was sure she had some spare shirts to loan them.

A part of her still wanted to be upset with everyone, but after feeling their emotions, feeling how genuinely sorry and guilty they felt, well… It tempered her anger significantly. She was still upset, Kronii surely sensed it when she took hold of her hand.

“I’m sorry,” Kronii mumbled, “I should have kept better track of the time, after all…”

“You’re time, yeah.” Amelia chuckled, “I know it was an accident. You don’t have to apologize.”

“No, I probably do.” She sighed, “Look…” When Amelia opened her door, Kronii wrapped her arms around her, hugging her tightly, “We’re in… I guess we’re in a relationship now, right? I should have considered you more.”

“I get it,” Amelia smiled, feeling happier now than she had in the last few days, “I forgive you… Though if you want to make it up to me…” She grinned, and hugged Kronii back, “I can think of a few things we can do.” She leaned in to kiss Kronii, who quickly recuperated.

“Oh my god, guys. I’m right here.” Bae groaned, “Can I get dressed first?”

“O – oh, right.” Amelia laughed nervously, “Right…” Her eyes flicked up and down Kronii really quick, and she realized her desire was being transmitted by the way Bae just groaned even louder. Kronii just winked at Amelia.

“Later, Amelia. Later.”

XxXxXxX

Ina felt horrible that entire day. It was a Saturday, and Amelia fortunately had weekends off, so she could try to express her feelings to Amelia as much as she could. At first Amelia seemed to bask in it, but the longer the day went on, and the longer she, Gura, and even Kronii to a lesser extent stayed at her side, the more she could feel Amelia start to feel guilty too. Amelia had actually taken them aside to their small kitchen at one point. Granted, Bae and Sana were both still right THERE, but at least it gave the illusion of privacy.

“Guys, please.” Amelia looked between the three of them. Ina looked to Gura, who gave her a little shy smile, and then to Kronii, who just gave her a curt nod. She wasn’t sure what her relationship with Kronii was yet, so she just returned it back.

“We’re sorry,” Gura said again.

“I know you guys are – seriously.” Amelia held up a hand, not even noticing the tentacle behind her doing the same. It amazed Ina that Amelia had resorted to using AO-chan to keep herself company over those four days, and she was so thankful for the eldritch entity for doing so. Without AO-chan there to warn Amelia that they were off and unable to come back, she wondered if Amelia would have eventually used the watch to reset everything. After all of the experiences she had in space, Ina didn’t want to lose that.

“We just want to spend time with you, is that so wrong?” Kronii asked in that usual tone – the one that implied she thought she was better than everyone. If Ina couldn’t feel her emotions, she would have probably bought that Kronii had a good grasp on her emotions. Unfortunately for the concept of time, however, Ina had a first row seat to view how much of a mess she actually was inside. It quickly dawned on Ina that Kronii spoke like that as more of a defensive mechanism than anything else. She hoped that one day she would come to realize that she could just be herself around them, and not hide behind such ridiculous things.

“It’s not wrong per se…” Amelia muttered, “And I was really pissed at you –”

“You still are.” Gura pointed out.

“I am,” Amelia acknowledged, “But I know you guys didn’t mean it, and that is doing a lot for you right now… Not to mention, it’s just good to see you all again.”

“Amelia…” Ina muttered.

“None of that!” She cried, “I feel your guilt and how sad you are! Please, stop, I’m begging you. You’re going to make me start feeling bad!”

Gura laughed, “We can’t exactly turn off our emotions, Ame.”

“Yeah, well, try? For me?”

“Yeah, I’ll become an emotionless robot for you.” Gura rolled her eyes.

Amelia groaned, “Damnit. I was hoping to hold this over your head for a few days, you know? Try to milk your sympathy for as long as I could, but I guess I can’t. Oh woe is me.” She leaned against the kitchen counter, “So I guess I’ll just say it…”

“Yeah?” Kronii’s brow lifted.

“I forgive you.” Amelia sighed dramatically, “I forgive you all.”

Ina let out a little giggle, “Ame!”

“Yes, I truly am a very loving a loyal girlfriend.” Amelia shook her head, “But it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make.”

What sacrifice Amelia was talking about Ina truly had no idea, but after that, things felt a lot more at ease. When they went back to the couch to do nothing more than cuddle and hang out with each other all day, Gura had burrowed into Amelia’s side – and Ina noticed Gura was still in her human form. After they all shifted back from being space (with the exception of Sana, of course), she just sort of expected Gura to turn back to an Atlantean again, but like every other time for the last week or so, Gura had been human every day. She was feeling concerned about it, to be honest, and wondered if she should talk to Gura about it at some point.

Kronii tapped her shoulder, “You want her other side?”

“Huh?” Ina shook her head, “What?”

“Amelia’s other side,” Kronii clarified, “If you want, you can sit there. I’ll just go… over there.” She pointed vaguely towards Bae, who was sitting beside Gura.

Ina smiled, “No, it’s ok.”

“You’re sure?” Kronii asked a little more softly this time, “You were her girlfriend first and all, and I don’t really want to impose…”

“It’s not a first come first serve basis,” Ina smiled dimly at that, “I don’t expect to have seniority or something dumb like that… We all love the same person, and that’s all that matters.”

“Oh,” Kronii mumbled, “Then… I guess I’ll sit beside her.”

There was something oddly humorous about the concept of time itself being so shy about something so ridiculous mundane, but watching Kronii sit beside Amelia and awkwardly scooch just a little bit closer was adorable. It was even cuter when Amelia leaned against her, and held her hand. Kronii looked like a deer caught in the headlights, but a smile slowly appeared on her face shortly after, and she relaxed marginally.

Ina settled between Kronii and Sana, the latter of which Ina had to try very hard not to look at. When they got changed earlier, Kronii, Bae, Gura, and herself at least got clothes that fit them relatively well. Sana however had gone with Ina, and being both taller and significantly more blessed in other departments meant that none of Ina’s clothes fit her very well… It was honestly a struggle for all of them to avoid looking at her all day – her chest was stretching her shirt to the absolute limits, and exposed her toned belly for everyone to see. The sweat pants Ina gave her fit marginally better, but were still notably small. Amelia had offered to get her something larger, but Ina had a suspicion that Sana actually liked feeling their attraction, and she quickly denied Amelia’s offer.

“They’re cute,” Sana whispered to her when Ina sat down beside her, nodding her head towards the three cuddling girls. Even Bae was leaning against Gura somewhat, though she was obviously trying to appear uninterested in doing so.

Ina nodded, “Yeah… They are.”

She was happy to note that the bitter feeling of envy she felt regarding Kronii was quickly disappearing, and it was in no small part in how Kronii behaved around them. From her offering Ina the option to sit with Amelia, to her hesitance to even be openly affectionate towards the detective, Ina got the impression that Kronii was very conscious about the others, and didn’t want to impose. In the end, it made Ina less wary of her, which she supposed was the entire point, but she was thankful that Kronii was so thoughtful.

Sana wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and Ina decided to lean into her side, letting out a content sigh. It certainly helped ease her envy to know that Sana was there for her as well. The concept of space was so loving, and though Ina knew that Sana was interested in getting to know the others in a way that Kronii and Bae weren’t quite as interested in, it did nothing to dimmish how she felt about her.

“Sana?” Ina whispered as they continued to watch TV and cuddle… It was still fairly early in the day, but already Ina was feeling tired. It didn’t help that she’d spent the last four days travelling in space without a wink of sleep.

“Hm?” Sana hummed; her eyes closed as she just relaxed.

“I’m sorry.”

“About what?” Sana’s eyes opened.

“I never really realized how you perceived time until today… It felt like maybe an hour, if even that. When we were traveling together in space. I was having so much fun that time just got away from me.”

“It’s ok,” Sana whispered, “Amelia forgave you for that.”

Ina was glad the television was so loud and the others were distracted among themselves. This wasn’t really a conversation she wanted overheard, “It’s not about that.”

“Then what is it?”

Ina sighed, “I didn’t realize how you viewed time. If it is that easy for you to lose track of just four days, I can see how a year would just fly by… I was so angry with you when I thought you abandoned me, but you never did.”

“I told you I didn’t.” Sana reminded her, “I just needed time.”

“Time on your scale.” Ina replied, “I’ve figured that out, but a small part of me was still a little resentful… And then today happened. Now I understand completely. I see how you can just let time get away from you. I can see how you can need so much time to figure something out.”

“Ina… It doesn’t matter now. You don’t need to apologize to me. We’re together now, and that’s all that really matters. We should enjoy our lives from this point on, rather than dwelling on past regrets, yeah?”

She felt herself smiling. This was one thing she loved about Sana. She was an endless font of positivity – and now that they were dating – love as well.

“Love you.” Ina mumbled softly, feeling embarrassed saying it aloud.

Sana smiled until the whites of her teeth were showing, and Ina felt her grip tightened, pulling Ina closer to her chest, “I love you too!” She squealed.

“What are you guys talking about?” Kronii asked, turning to look over. She had a blanket over herself and Amelia. Gura was sharing one with Bae on the opposite end.

“Nothing!” Ina said quickly.

“Ina says she loves me!” Sana exclaimed happily.

“Sana!” Ina gasped, her face turning red. Sometimes Sana could be so frank, and she covered her face in embarrassment.

“Oh?” Kronii’s brow lifted, “Well, I’m happy for you.”

“Me too.” Amelia grinned cheekily, “Anyone would be lucky to have you.”

“I guess we’re all lucky then.” Gura replied at her other side.

Though her face was still covered, Ina couldn’t stop smiling, and she hoped days like this would never end.

Chapter Text

The following morning was a bit hectic, more so than Amelia was generally used to. Bae was freaking out because it didn’t occur to her – or any of the other concepts that were among them – that they had been gone for five days, so she called their home in a panic to talk to Fauna and Mumei. From the way Bae was apologizing and hopping around the room, it was clear both of them were apparently extremely worried.

“Uh,” Amelia watched Bae running around, trying to find any clothes to wear in an attempt to be presentable, “What’s going on?”

“I need to head home,” Bae replied, “Mumei and Fauna are worried sick!”

“Oh.” Amelia nodded slowly. She remembered Kronii talking about Mumei and Fauna a while back, and hoped they weren't as upset as she'd been during their extended absence.

Ina had taken a cup of coffee and darted to her room, looking no less panicked than Bae, presumably due to the amount of work she was behind on. Amelia sighed when she saw that, because it meant that Ina was probably going to be doing nothing but work all day. Sana was seated at the table along with Kronii, and they both watched the priestess preparing her drink and then rushing off.

“I think I’ll go help her!” Sana said happily, “Two pairs of hands make work go by faster!”

“You’re not going home?” Kronii asked.

“Are you?” Sana replied cheekily, “Seems like you don’t want to go either.”

“And face Fauna’s wrath?” Kronii shuddered, “Nah, I’ll leave that to Bae.”

Amelia walked over, “Uhm, I don’t think you can help. Ina does art commissions. I’m pretty sure people are expecting her artwork, not someone else’s.” Could Sana even draw, anyway? She watched as Sana casually shrugged.

“What if I take some of her aura though – it makes it so we know how to be a completely different species perfectly with no issues, so perhaps skills like that can transfer as well?”

Amelia blinked in surprise, as did Kronii seated beside her, “That’s… Actually, a good point. Will that work?”

Sana shrugged, “Who knows? If it doesn’t, I’ll just be there for moral support!”

Kronii just let out a little laugh at that, and patted her shoulder, “Go knock yourself out, Sana.” Sana gave them a little wave – even a little kiss on Kronii’s cheek, utterly embarrassing the concept of time, and then she left to go be with Ina.

Gura yawned from the couch, just grumpily watching Bae destroy the room, and she finally stood up and touched Bae. A moment passed, and Amelia could feel their emotions growing, and then quickly waning. It was a silent communication between them, and then finally Gura let out a sigh, “I’ll go with you.” Her voice was still gravelly from just waking up.

“What?” Bae shook her head, “N – No, you don’t have to!”

“You don’t want me to?”

“Well…” Bae sputtered, looking around for help, and not receiving any from the people watching her.

“Have fun?” Amelia offered cautiously, earning her a grateful smile from Gura, and an exasperated look from Bae.

“Fine, I guess you can come… Maybe Fauna will be a bit more lenient with me if I bring a friend…” She shuddered again at the thought, and Amelia saw Kronii suppressing one of her own. Hm, who was this Fauna person, exactly, and why did it seem like the others feared her?

“Oh shit.” Amelia slapped her forehead, settling down next to Kronii, “We forgot to ask Sana if she felt anything unusual.”

“Unusual?” Kronii’s brow raised, “That’s not very specific. Considering what’s been going on, I’d say anything we do is pretty unusual.”

“No – well, I mean, you’re not wrong, but that’s not what I meant. I mean she can detect if those things that tried to kill us are uh, in our dimension or whatever it is. Where’s AO-chan, they can detect it too, right?”

“AO-chan followed Ina into her room,” Bae helpfully provided, walking over to the table with Gura in tow, “But I can check really quick.”

“Oh?” Amelia intoned.

Bae closed her eyes, and after a few seconds, Amelia could feel Sana’s emotions rise in curiosity from the other room, and then a muted excitement. She watched a weird spiral appear above Bae’s head at that moment, and when her eyes opened, they were star pupils. Ah, so she became a concept of space, she should have guessed. Bae took a deep breath, and looked around the room momentarily, her eyes darting all over the place, before they finally settled back towards Amelia, “We’re safe. I don’t feel anything.”

Amelia let out a breath, “good.”

A second later, she could feel Bae and Sana’s mingled aura dissipating, and Bae just went back to being chaos, into whatever mouse, rat, whatever form she was initially. Amelia wasn’t exactly sure what kind of rodent she was, and she was afraid that it might be a little rude to ask, so she kept it to herself.

“We ready to go now?” The decidedly human Gura asked from Bae’s side. Amelia could feel her excitement through the link, and had to hide her smile behind her hands. Gura was so cute when she was this happy, and even Kronii cracked a smile. She and the concept of time shared a look, and that only set Amelia off – she laughed harder when Bae just looked at them in confusion.

“Yeah…” Bae said after a moment, “Yeah, ok. We’re good to go. Let’s leave these crazy people behind.”

A few minutes passed, where Gura went to brush her teeth and Bae waited impatiently by the front door, and then they were gone. Amelia could feel their auras growing more and more distant, and a part of her was worried. She knew that Bae had just said that they wouldn’t be attacked, but a part of her was worried that something would happen, and with them separated like that, getting to them to help could take a bit.

“It’s ok, Ame.” Kronii scooted her chair over so she could lean into her – the dork, “Take a breath.”

Amelia took her advice, and inhaled deeply, “Sorry.” She breathed out, “Just getting worked up over nothing.”

“Hm.” Kronii nodded, “Well. It’s Sunday, everyone else is busy… Let’s say we do something together?”

“Like what?” Amelia asked. She got up to get some coffee from the pot Ina had prepared earlier. She wasn’t actually a huge fan of the stuff, but it would do in a pinch, and she really wasn’t in the mood to prepare anything for herself. “Want some?” She offered to Kronii, who gave a small nod.

She arrived back at the table with two mugs of coffee in one hand, and another hand carrying the cream. She would have done it at the counter, but she wasn’t sure if Kronii wanted any, so better to just let her prepare it herself. She grabbed a little bit of sugar as well, and started to prepare the coffee to her liking.

“Well, yesterday… Er, five days ago now – shit. I can’t believe I lost track of time like that.”

“It happens.” Amelia shrugged, sipping her coffee and letting out a soft sigh as it warmed her right up.

“I guess…” She shook her head, “Anyway, since we were experimenting with becoming space for the last handful of days, maybe today I could teach you how to become a Warden of Time? Bae said that we’re safe for today, and everyone else is busy, so it would just be you and me…” She faltered a bit at the end, “It – it could be fun, yeah?”

Amelia smiled as she brought her coffee to her lips, “Are you asking me out on a date?”

“Ah – well…” She knew Kronii could feel her amusement, and the concept of time just huffed, “Yeah. A date. Just you and me. To make up for me ditching you for five days. This is an exclusive offer, by the way. I wouldn’t do this for just anyone. Better take it while it’s still hot.”

Amelia laughed at that, “Well, shit, when you put it like that, I guess I can’t refuse!”

And quite honestly, the idea excited her. She had to miss out on becoming space, and she regretted it a lot since everyone else seemed to love the experience so much. Without Sana to guide her, she wasn’t quite confident in her ability to use the powers on her lonesome, nor did she trust herself to keep track of time, plus she couldn’t really miss out on work. Being a detective was her passion, even if it was becoming increasingly mundane in comparison to the chaos of her normal life.

That wasn’t even getting into the fact that taking Kronii’s offer would literally be a one-on-one experience, and teaching a single student was much easier than a group of five. Kronii would be able to dedicate her attention solely on her, and, well… Kronii was her girlfriend, and considered they literally went from zero to hundred in their relationship in a span of a single day, it would be fair to say that Kronii struck a homerun and missed out on actually reaching any of the bases along the way. Having an actual date would be fun, and Kronii’s idea of a date was far better than anything Amelia herself could come up with.

“Should I dress up?” Amelia wondered.

“Just look nice,” Kronii gave her a wink, “It’ll be a casual date. Though you’d look good in anything, I think.”

As far as flirting went, Kronii needed some work, but Amelia let it slide since she was literally time, and probably didn’t have a lot of practice upping her game. Not to mention, as dorky as it was, Amelia did feel her face flushing red, so she really couldn’t say anything. It was effective, and she felt giddy from the compliment. It also helped quite a lot to feel how anxious Kronii actually was, and she knew her own emotions reflected it back just as strongly.

“Alright then,” Amelia drained the rest of her coffee and stood up, “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go get dressed…” She paused, “Uh, I guess you can come with me and see if there’s anything you can wear too?” That was a problem, Kronii’s clothes were destroyed in her space adventure, and she didn’t know if Kronii would be comfortable wearing her clothes. A part of Amelia wouldn’t mind, there was just something about a woman you loved wearing your clothes that just… She felt herself shuddering, hoping that Kronii wouldn’t feel her arousal spiking.

“You do want to go out, don’t you?” Kronii asked a moment later.

Amelia felt her face warming up – damnit, Kronii could feel it. Of course she could! “Yep! Now come on, lets get dressed, I’m sure I have some larger shirts you can wear and then we can buy you something once we’re out.”

Kronii stood to follow her, and Amelia spared her only a single glance, saw that damn smirk on her face, and then quickly turned back forward as she went into her room.

Despite the fact that Kronii said to be casual, Amelia quite frankly wasn’t having any of that. If she was going to go on a date, then she wanted to look nice, damnit, and she was going to blow Kronii away. Makeup was something that Amelia didn’t really get the chance to use often anymore. Sure, she’d apply a little bit before work of course, a bit of concealer and foundation to hide her freckles, and a tiny bit of eyeliner, but that was it. She didn’t want something overblown, especially when she had to spend upwards of twelve hours at work, sometimes sweating her ass off doing quite physical work at times.

Now she pushed Kronii out of her room after the woman had picked out some shirts and a cute little skirt to wear, and she went to work on herself. She would worry about getting Kronii some new clothes later – for now, she had to focus on herself! She applied her foundation again, hiding her freckles, and then she went to work on trying to make herself look as good as possible for Kronii. Some eyeshadow, a bit of eyeliner, mascara – the whole nine yards. She decided to apply a lighter pink lipstick, and she smiled at herself in the mirror.

She wasn’t a narcissist by any means, but Amelia knew when she looked good, and she knew that at that very moment, she looked damn good. She smiled, and felt Kronii’s curiosity through the link. Oh, right, she forgot about Kronii for a moment. She hurried along, selecting some golden heart shaped earrings to wear, and she grabbed some lensless glasses that she rarely wore anymore, and put them on. She certainly thought they made her look attractive, but Kiara had made fun of her once when she wore them, and it had been at least half a year since she last put them on. For Kronii however, she’d give it another shot.

Almost twenty minutes had passed since she pushed Kronii out of her room, and she quickly went around looking for things to wear now. Her closet was a complete mess, and her dresser was in a similar state of duress, but she managed to dig through them and find at least something to wear. It had been an unusually cold August so far, so rather than light shirts and skirts, she opted to wear a cute white blouse, and over the top of it she put on a beige cardigan that she quickly buttoned up. As for legwear, she opted to wear a frilled white skirt that went to her knees, and then she wore lengthy socks that went up to just below her knees. Hopefully that would keep her warm enough.

She wished she had more than the tiny little hand mirror in her room, but the only large mirror in the entire apartment was in the bathroom, and going out to it would ruin the surprise for Kronii. She looked at herself as much as she could through the hand mirror, and decided that she looked good enough. She quickly set aside her makeup, putting a little bit into a handbag she was bringing along, and then she went to the door.

“You finally done?” Kronii called as her door clicked open. She’d been seated on the couch, just watching television as she waited, and then she looked up, “You took for…ev…”

Amelia felt incredibly flattered by Kronii’s shocked silence. The way her eyes widened when she came into view, and looked her up and down several times over. It was even more flattering to be able to feel what Kronii was feeling. To feel her surprise and longing, the way her desire welled up… Amelia let out a shuddered soft breath, and shakily smiled. “S – so, like what you see?”

Kronii didn’t answer right away. Instead, she stood up and took large steps to Amelia, until she was so close that Amelia had to crane her neck up to maintain eye contact. She felt Kronii’s hand rest on her waist, and she managed to find her tongue and say, “You look incredible, Amelia.”

Amelia heart thumped loudly against her chest, “Th – Thank you…”

“Um…” Kronii looked a little uncertain, “Can I kiss you, or will that ruin the makeup?”

“I don’t actually care,” Amelia answered, and she reached up and pulled Kronii’s head down for that kiss she damn well deserved. She loved the way Kronii held her waist tighter, the way their bodies slowly pressed together like a perfectly fit mold. She fisted some of Kronii’s hair, wishing so badly to shove her down back onto the couch and having her way with her. They parted, and Kronii licked her lips, hunger in her eyes, and it set a fire aflame within Amelia.

“We should probably go,” Kronii whispered to her, “Otherwise we probably won’t be leaving here anytime soon.”

Amelia conceded the point, and with great effort, she let go of Kronii and patted down her clothing, making sure there were no folds or ruffles. “Alright,” she said, grimacing at how hoarse her voice sounded. Amelia was quickly realizing that missing her girlfriends for four days really made her feel especially feisty. She forced herself to calm down, tried to pour a metaphoric pail of water over her metaphoric fire, but it was difficult when Kronii was feeling very many of the same things, and their emotions only exacerbated each other’s. Still, after much effort, she was able to at least bring her desire down to a manageable level.

“You know,” Kronii mumbled, “You make me feel really underdressed.”

Amelia smiled at that, “We’ll get you clothes, don’t worry.” Her eyes brightened at the thought, “We’ll make you look good too. I just don’t really have many clothes that fit you well.” It was true enough, Kronii was a good seven inches taller, not to mention she was larger in other dimensions as well.

Kronii smiled at that, “I look forward to it.”

After checking a few more things – making sure her hair was nice, and Kronii took the time to do the same, the two of them left the apartment, shouting to Ina and Sana that they’d be gone for a little while. The only sound they made when they left was a soft click as the door closed shut behind them.

XxXxXxX

The first order of business was definitely getting Kronii some better clothing. Amelia opted not to drive into town, their apartment was close enough to the downtown area anyway. It was about a twenty-minute walk or so, and there were plenty of shops around the area to get something new for her to wear. Amelia checked her purse really quick, making sure she had enough money to cover everything, and smiled as she saw all of the bills. She’d be just fine, at least fine enough to get Kronii a handful of outfits, as well as a late lunch afterwards.

Oh, right, and then after all of that they could become time and so on. Amelia truly did look forward to that, but another part of her was absolutely childishly excited to be on a real and proper date with Kronii. She’d been on a few with Ina and Gura, but this was the first time with Kronii, and that set her heart racing.

“You ok?” Kronii asked, glancing over as they walked hand in hand down the sidewalk, “I can feel your emotions going a bit haywire.”

“Just excited,” Amelia admitted, “I’m happy to be going on a date with you.”

“O – oh…” Kronii didn’t know how to respond to that, and just stayed silent. However, her emotions said more than enough – Amelia could feel her happiness just fine through the bond.

“Hey,” Amelia nudged Kronii’s shoulder, “Let’s stop in here.”

Kronii looked over to the store Amelia was guiding her towards. It was a relatively small shop, there were some outfits on display in the window, but beyond that she really couldn’t see further in. On one side of the building was a small candy shop, and on the other side was a chocolate café, which Amelia wondered would be a good place to go afterwards – but clothes first! She pulled Kronii forward, and they entered the little shop.

The interior was homey, instead of the bright whites of most stores, the lights were a warm yellow, bathing the room in a comforting glow. There were dozens of racks of clothing lined up on either side of them going pretty far into the building. It was squeezed between two other shops, so it made up for the lack of its width by its length. The checkout counter was at the complete opposite end of the entrance, and next to the checkout counter there was a little path to the changing rooms. There were a handful of customers inside perusing the clothing, while a smaller handful of staff was around, offering help when needed.

“Um…” Kronii rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, “I’ve never bought clothes before, so uh, I’ll leave this to you.”

“That’s fine,” Amelia muttered, pulling Kronii further into the store, “I guess we’ll start with the basics, then.”

“Basics?”

“What colors do you prefer?” Amelia asked, looking at a nearby rack curiously. She let go of Kronii’s hand and started to look through the various frilled shirts and blouses hanging.

“Dark.” Kronii replied, “You also don’t really have to get me anything fancy, you know.”

“Uh huh.” Amelia absently noted, “Dark colors…” She tsked her tongue, and moved on to another rack, Kronii looking back in bewilderment.

“Those looked fine,” Kronii replied, glancing back to Amelia.

“You’d prefer plainer clothes then?” Amelia asked speculatively. She pulled out two shirts, “Which of these do you like more?”

And thus began Kronii’s first experience of clothes shopping. Amelia actually had a lot of fun checking out a bunch of clothes, visualizing them on Kronii, and deciding whether to get them or not. After a bit, Kronii started to get in on it too, and became much more involved. By the end, Amelia had dragged her over to the changing rooms with a half dozen different outfits to try out, and she eagerly waited outside, wondering how Kronii would look in any of them. Good, obviously, but she wanted her to look perfect, and more importantly, she wanted Kronii to like it just as much.

“I’m just not sure why you want me to wear a suit.” Kronii’s eyes traveled the entire length of the outfit Amelia held, “Isn’t that a bit too formal? Or is it normal for humans to wear something like that?”

“Not normal,” Amelia admitted, “But I think you’d look good in it.”

“I’d look good in anything.” Kronii’s tone was smug, but the red on her cheeks and her emotions told a completely different story, “But if you want to see it…”

“I do.”

And so Kronii went into the changing room, switching out from her rather plain T-shirt and shorts into a suit and tie, and nearly five minutes later, she came out to present herself to Amelia. Her blouse was buttoned up to her neck, where a dark blue tie hung, fit snugly around her neck. The slacks she wore were a little tight, but they showed off her legs perfectly, Amelia’s gaze lingered a bit too long on her thighs before she averted them, but not before she caught that smug look from Kronii again. The top of her suit wasn’t buttoned up, which in Amelia’s opinion just made her look that much more attractive.

“Like what you see?” Kronii crossed her arms, “I was under the impression that men were supposed to dress like this?”

“What? Maybe like fifty years ago it was exclusive to men, but nowadays no one would bat an eye if you wore something like that on a date, and let me tell you – wow. You look amazing.” A deep warmth was building within her, and she wanted nothing more than to just jump Kronii and rip that suit off of her and… “Fuck, you need to change before you make me do something bad.”

“What if I want you to?” Kronii asked, brows raised with that tantalizing smile.

“Not in here,” Amelia replied, swallowing down her arousal she added, “Thanks for indulging me though – try on the next outfit.”

“Sure thing,” Kronii laughed, “Make sure to keep this one handy though, might be fun to wear it again.”

“Save it for a fancy occasion.” Amelia mumbled thoughtfully, “A special date night.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

The next outfit was even sexier, in Amelia’s opinion. Kronii put on a black turtleneck shirt that had white stripes going up, and over it she wore a rather sharp (and dashing, and sexy, and… Uh, she tried to focus again) light jacket over it that was a dark gray in color. Instead of slacks, this time she wore a skirt matching the same color of her jacket that stopped just above her knees, her turtleneck was tucked into the skirt as well. To finish it off, she had one some black thigh-high tights, and wore black heels and oh my god, Amelia wanted so badly to reach over and kiss her. She pulled out her purse, thankful that she brought some makeup, and beckoned Kronii to lean down some.

“Oh?” Kronii allowed Amelia to work on her, “What’s this about?”

“Making you look drop dead gorgeous,” Amelia replied, “Give me a second.”

“Some people say you can’t improve on perfection.”

Amelia snickered, applying a little bit of mascara, “Keep telling me that, Kronii. I know how you really feel.”

“Ugh, these stupid emotions giving everything away.” She groused, “Can’t keep anything to myself, can I?”

“Not at all,” Amelia finished up, and took a long look. Kronii was already conventionally attractive, so she didn’t really need much makeup at all. Just a little bit of mascara and some hastily applied eyeshadow, and just making her eyes pop out just that bit more did wonders. “Oh my god,” Amelia groaned, “You’re so beautiful.”

“Uh…” It was difficult for Kronii to come back with anything to that, the genuine emotions she had to feel from Amelia were probably a little overwhelming, “W – well…” She coughed into her hand, trying to regain control, “It… Takes ones to know one?”

Amelia chuckled, “Are you trying to say I look good too?”

“Yes.” Kronii replied honestly, “Sorry. I’m not allowed to say things outright like that. Against the rules. You know how it is.”

“Rules?” She rolled her eyes, “Come here, Kronii.” Amelia couldn’t hold herself back, she pushed Kronii back into the dressing room and shut the door behind her. That done, she laid into the concept of time, undoubtedly smudging her lipstick with how sloppily she was kissing her. Kronii was momentarily caught off guard, but after a moment’s delay, she was giving back for all she was worth.

Amelia wanted to rip the clothes right off of Kronii, to have her hands touch her smooth skin. She managed to untuck the turtleneck shirt at least, and Kronii groaned into their kiss as her hands explored her toned stomach. It was all well-known terrain at this point, but Amelia enjoyed it all the same, especially with the soft gasps and grunts Kronii was letting out. Kronii wasn’t slacking off either – her hands were busy unbuttoning Amelia’s blouse, and her body was rocking against Amelia’s like a wave in a rough sea. Amelia bit back a moan when Kronii cupped her chest and squeezed.

“I wish we’d done this sooner.” Kronii mumbled hoarsely between kisses, trailing down from Amelia’s mouth to her neck, leaving a line of red marks the entire way. Amelia struggled the entire time to hold in her moans, little gasps of air and grunts all that was leaving her lips. She forced one hand off of Kronii to slam over her mouth when Kronii’s knee grinded into her, her legs weakened, struggling to hold her up until Kronii’s ministrations.

“Ye – AH!” Kronii bit down on her neck, and that caused her to make a sound that was far too loud, and if anyone was nearby, they surely would have heard it. The nails of her free hand were digging into Kronii’s back, and her legs began to shake like crazy when Kronii just kept touching her and wouldn’t let up.

A knock on the door, “Ma’am? Are you ok in there?”

“F – fuck,” Amelia whispered breezily, “K – K – Kronii…” She squeezed her eyes shut, “T – They’re r – right outs – side the door.”

“Who cares?” Kronii asked, fully in charge, “What are they going to do?”

“W – We need to b – buy these – ah! – clothes,” Amelia muttered, her mind struggling to find the right words, “I – if you keep g – going I w – will…”

“Do it, then.”

Amelia whined needily as Kronii just. Wouldn’t. Stop. A line of drool trailed down her chin, and fruitlessly she tried to bite down on her bottom lip to suppress her moans, but it did little good. Both of her hands were around Kronii now, digging into her back, and she just barely managed to hold back from moaning loudly – not that it mattered. The fact that they were so close to getting caught was inexplicably making her get turned on far more than usual, and add Kronii’s arousal through the bond over that, and Amelia was so close to the edge that she was in tears.

“MA’AM!” Another bang on the door, “I’ll have to ask you to leave!”

They were caught, no doubt about it, but Amelia didn’t care. She cried out, holding tightly against Kronii as she helped her come down from her high. She let out a shaky little whimper, her head placed firmly against Kronii’s neck as her whole body shook.

“Now watch a master at work, Amelia.”

Kronii snapped her fingers, and the world seemed to glow blue. Amelia’s cheeks were still flushed as she watched, she let out little puffs as she looked around, “W – What’s going on?”

“A bit of time manipulation. I’ll be teaching you to do this later, let’s just go ahead and…” Another snap of her fingers, and Amelia’s eyes widened when the rips and tears on Kronii’s shirt knitted themselves back together, and then the shirt tucked itself back in neatly. Likewise, Amelia’s blouse buttoned back up, and all signs of wear appeared to reverse themselves. Just a few seconds later, they were both presentable again, except Amelia’s hair was still a little wild, and her makeup was still a mess.

“Did we go back in time?” Amelia asked startled.

“Just about ten minutes,” Kronii replied, “I made it affect everyone and everything except for you and me.”

“Woah.” Amelia mumbled, “So you can do what I’ve always been able to do with the watch, then?”

“Yeah,” Kronii nodded, she let go of Amelia, “Uhm, can you stand?”

Amelia’s legs were shaky, but they held. “We, uh, should do that more… Not now!” She said quickly as Kronii’s eyes widened, “But… Later. If we can reverse times by only a few minutes like that if we’re caught, then holy shit. It’s like having the thrill of being caught without actually being caught.” She didn’t even KNOW she was into that until literally this moment, but God damn did it do wonders for her.

“Noted,” Kronii chuckled dryly, “Then shall we go pay? I’ll take what just happened as an endorsement for this outfit. I’ll also get the suit since you seemed to like that one so much too.”

“Alright,” Amelia nodded, “Yeah, then I’ll pay…” She opened the door to the changing room they’d been occupying, and she grimaced at how difficult it was to move.

“Need a hand?” Kronii asked walking beside her.

“Ugh, no. Shut up. I’m fine.”

“If you say so.”

XxXxXxX

There was a wonderful little café Amelia liked to occasionally visit during her lunch breaks from work. It wasn’t anything extravagant, but it was on the corner of a street and had some outdoor seating. Granted, it was too cold for her today, but some day she’d love to take Kronii here during a warmer time. They went into the small café, ordered some sandwiches and some drinks, and then sat down at a small table beside the window. Kronii settled her bag with her suit beside her, though she still wore the second outfit she showed off to Amelia – after the reaction that had gotten, she was more than willing to keep wearing it.

“Is there anything else you want to do today?” Amelia asked, taking a sip of her water. She’d gone into the bathroom and cleaned up, and while her hair was still a mess, her make-up was fortunately somewhat back to normal.

“I don’t know,” Kronii shrugged, lifting up the sandwich she ordered and examining it closely, “I’m not entirely sure what human dating customs are.”

Amelia covered her smile, “Oh, well, that’s all right. I’ll guide you through all of our very sophisticated and unique customs.”

“You’re making fun of me.”

The unamused frown marring Kronii’s face may have made Amelia apologize if she also didn’t feel the relaxed playfulness of her emotions. The concept of time couldn’t hide away behind her indifference anymore – that façade was going to be a thing of the past, and she wondered when Kronii would begin to realize that.

“I might be,” Amelia conceded, “But hey, you’re having a good time, so I think what we’re doing right now is just fine.” She picked up her sandwich and took a bite of it, “Hm, good.”

“Is it?” Kronii looked down at her own.

“Do you not like sandwiches?” Amelia asked, swallowing her food. Then she paused, “Huh, actually, can you even taste anything, being time and all?”

“Well,” Kronii took a breath, “I’m still physically here, you can touch me and all.”

“That’s true.”

“But other smaller things are different, I guess. I don’t really taste things. I guess the body I’m in is sort of like a vessel that I created to mimic being human.”

“Huh, does that mean you can’t feel it when I touch you?” Amelia asked, “Oh… Actually, that would explain why you don’t really let me do, well, you know, to you. I thought you were just being nice!”

“Uhm,” Kronii chuckled weakly, “I mean, I feel it through our bond, so I know what it’s supposed to feel like, and I can get aroused just like you can, but as far as that goes, well, considering I’m technically not human, no. I don’t feel what you can.”

“Would you like to experience it?”

Kronii shrugged, “It’d be interesting.”

“Well, we happen to have a way to do that, you know.” Amelia replied, her eyes lighting up in excitement, “Why don’t you try out being human then? Before you teach me how to be time, why don’t I teach you how to be a human? That could be fun!”

“I don’t know…” Kronii mumbled, a note of hesitance in her voice.

“It would make me really happy,” Amelia mumbled, twiddling her fingers together and pouting cutely, “And after leaving me alone for five days without any way to contact you, it would be a nice way to make it up for me.”

“You’re a bitch when you want to be, you know that, Amelia?” Kronii asked, heaving a sigh.

Amelia chuckled, Kronii’s exasperation was evident in both her voice and emotions, but she couldn’t detect anything overall negative in how she felt, “I mean, if you really don’t want to, I won’t force you.”

“No, it’s fine.” Kronii sighed again, sitting up straighter, “So I assume to become human was the same was as it was to become space?” She closed her eyes, letting out a soft breath, “I gotta just look for your aura, and then take some for myself.”

“Yeah,” Amelia nodded, “That’s right!”

“Ok then, um… Just grab a bit and…” Amelia’s aura was grabbed, and she let out a soft gasp. It always felt so strange to have a bit of her aura taken. It was never an unpleasant feeling, and immediately after it was taken, her connection to Kronii was much clearer. Her emotions were already fairly easy to read, but now since Kronii took a bit of her aura, they could both feel each other’s emotions much more powerfully, to the point that it was difficult to distinguish it from her own emotions.

“How do you feel?” Amelia asked, shaking aside the strange feelings.

“Heavy.” Kronii grunted. Her eyes rapidly blinked, and Amelia noticed that the constant glowing blue was gone. It was always a subtle detail that made her eyes radiant, but now they were just like, well, normal human eyes. Kronii’s form was already very reminiscent of a human however, so there truly wasn’t much change overall.

“What do you mean by heavy?” Amelia asked curiously.

“Ugh,” Kronii sat up straighter, and cupped her chest, “These things weigh a freaking ton, hell, my entire body feel like it’s heavy now. How can you tolerate this?”

Amelia grinned, trying to hide her laughter, but not really achieving it. Kronii’s glare only made her laugh even harder, “S – Sorry!” She exclaimed, covering her mouth and looking over to the counter to make sure that the employee wasn’t looking their way, “But… Wow, that suddenly explains a LOT! I always wondered why you dressed the way you did! You freaking cheater!”

“Cheater?”

“You didn’t need to wear a bra!”

“Uh,” Kronii grimaced, “Oh, so that’s why you wear those.”

“Yeah, it helps support em,” Amelia tittered, “So you don’t get back pains and shit.”

“Well, this was fun, but I think I’ll go back to not being human now.”

“W – wait!” Amelia cried, “Hold on! There are advantages to being human!”

“Oh? Like what? So far it kind of sucks, not going to lie.”

“Try some of your food! It’s good! We can get some chocolate cake too while we’re here!” Amelia clapped her hands together, “Please? For me?”

“Ugh, Fine.” Kronii gave in, and took a bite of her sandwich, and then she paused. She chewed a few more times, swallowed, and then looked at the sandwich with quickly widening eyes, “Huh…”

“Good?”

“Yeah,” Kronii took another bite, “It is good.” She took another, and then another.

“Uh… Make sure to chew your food before you swallow.” Amelia quickly warned, “Don’t want you to choke, you know?”

“Mhm…” Kronii acknowledged, too absorbed in her food to really pay much attention.

While she was distracted by the sandwich, Amelia got up and got a slice of cake from the counter. It was a small little slice, the fluffy cake was drenched in a chocolate frosting, sprinkled in chocolate chips, and Amelia could practically SEE the calories. Still, she wanted to impress Kronii, and while the sandwiches were good, they were fairly basic in terms of taste. Now this? Oh man, she chuckled as she brought it over to Kronii.

“That smells so good.” Kronii eyed the cake hungrily as it was placed in front of her, “Wow… I didn’t know how good your sense of smell was either.”

“It’s not very good,” Amelia replied modestly, “You should try becoming an Atlantean if you wanna know what it’s really like to smell things.”

Kronii picked up the plastic fork beside the plate, and she stabbed into the cake. She brought up a small bite to her lips and cautiously stuck her tongue out to take a little lick. A moment later, her eyes grew so wide, and her jaw dropped, “Woah…”

“Good?” Amelia laughed, “That was just a tiny little bit of frosting! Try the whole thing!”

Kronii didn’t need further instructions, she bit into the treat, and the moment she tasted the cake it its entirety, she let out such a loud moan that Amelia quickly looked over to the counter. The man working looked surprised by Kronii’s outburst, and Amelia tried to shush her girlfriend, but with little effect. “Oh my god…” Kronii moaned, “This – This is so good!” She shivered as she swallowed it, “Amelia… You’ve been holding out on me!”

“S – sorry?” Amelia fretted, “Um, keep it down a bit, Kronii?”

She didn’t listen, she just kept taking a bite and moaning as she chewed it. Honestly, if they were alone in their house, Amelia would have been… Well, not really FINE, because those noises, holy crap! It was like Kronii was experiencing the best pleasure of her life! Amelia’s face was burning red as she looked back to the counter and glared at the employee openly staring their way, and they thankfully looked elsewhere, but that did little to make Amelia feel better.

“Kronii?” She hissed, “Stop moaning like that!”

Ignored again. Amelia squeezed her legs together tightly, her fingers playing with the hem of her blouse, nervously flicking her fingers. Kronii was seriously turning her on, and she wasn’t even doing it intentionally! She shut her eyes, just praying that the cake would be gone when she opened her eyes next.

It took far too long, but eventually she was finished, and Kronii was letting out a satisfied little hum, “That was amazing.” She sighed happily, “Could we maybe get more?”

“No.” Amelia shook her head, “Dear god, no, please. No.”

“Um…” Kronii blinked in surprise as she looked up at Amelia, “Why are you so freaking aroused? Holy shit, Amelia…” She started to fan her face, “Was watching me eat really doing it for you?”

“Not at all.” Amelia replied hoarsely, “Just uh, when we sleep together again, I would seriously, seriously appreciate it if you could be human for me. Please?”

“Oh, uh…” Kronii blushed heavily at that, “That’s rather forward of you…”

“You made me sit through that torture. It’s the least you could do for me.” Amelia replied, reaching over and grabbing her hand, “Please.”

“Well, I won’t say no…”

“Thank you.” Amelia breathed out as she leaned back, taking a few deep breaths to try and regain control.

Paying for the food was awkward as hell, and the poor employee couldn’t even look them in the eye, but soon enough they were out of the building and walking along together.

“This is so weird,” Kronii muttered, taking things step by step, “I feel so heavy.”

“Heavy again?” Amelia rolled her eyes, “Come on, you’re doing fine!”

“Yeah, I mean I know I’m fine, but like… Each step is so loud! I’m afraid I’m going to fall over each time!”

“Some people say walking is just falling forward,” Amelia replied thoughtfully, “So I suppose you’re not wrong about that.” She looked to Kronii, “What else is different about being human?”

“Well, I can’t sense time either,” She frowned deeply, and Amelia could feel worry working its way through her emotions. “Before I knew the exact time on Earth down to the microsecond. I knew the age of the universe, and everything within it without even having to think. Now though, it’s like I have to think about it. Hell, I know the Earth is roughly five billion years old, but the fact that I don’t know it down to its very second is… Is kind of scary to me.” She shivered, “And it’s so cold too!”

“Are you ok?” Amelia asked in concern, Kronii was actually shivering a little, so she reached over and pulled her close, their sides touching as they walked, “You don’t have to stay human if you don’t want to.”

“No,” Kronii shook her head, “I’ll stay human for now. For you. You wanted this, right? I’ll just have to get used to not having what I did before, it’s not like I can’t just turn back at any time.”

Amelia smiled. Kronii was always so thoughtful like that, though she was usually a bit better about hiding it behind her aloofness. She must have really been out of it if she was being so straightforward. “I appreciate it,” Amelia replied, holding her hand close, “I’m glad you’re willing to do this for me.”

“Yeah, well, you are my girlfriend and all. I should reward you once in a while.”

And there was the Kronii she was more familiar with. Amelia chuckled, and just kept holding her close. They walked around for a while doing some window shopping. While they went into a few stores, they never bought anything else, and it was probably the nicest and most relaxed time Amelia has had since they got the bond. There weren’t any cases to worry about, and nothing out to kill her or her friends, it was just a good time with her girlfriend.

“It’s getting late.” Kronii muttered, looking up at the sky as they picked a bench to sit at.

“It’s probably around seven or so,” Amelia helpfully said, “Was there anything else you wanted to try?”

“Nothing.” Kronii replied. She looked over to Amelia and smiled, “Well, I guess there’s still one thing we haven’t done yet.”

Amelia smiled at that, “I guess it’s time to become Time?”

“You guess right, my young apprentice.” She replied, “Now where can we go to get a little bit of privacy?”

“Um, some sort of bathroom, I guess?” Amelia muttered, looking around, “Hey, this ought to do.” She pointed to the bar nearby. There was a small parking lot where it looked like a building used to go, and already a handful of cars were parked there. They ignored them all though, and just walked inside. The interior was dimly lit, and a loud thrumming beat was playing, but again they just ignored it all. Ignored the whistles from some of the patrons who saw them, and just made a beeline to the bathroom.

“Wow, this place in annoying.” Kronii muttered.

“Eh, it’s fun with friends.” Amelia replied, “We should come here with the others when we get a chance. The owner’s a nice lady. She’ll probably chew the ear off of those guys whistling at us.”

“Hm.” Kronii shrugged, not having too strong of an opinion, “So this is where you want to do the deed, eh?”

“Don’t make it sound dirty.” Amelia swatted her shoulder, “As if I would EVER do that in some dingy little bathroom.”

The room was really small though, it could just barely fit both of them in it, and Amelia had to stand over the toilet just to make enough room. The light was flickering a little, and one of the knobs on the sink was broken, but otherwise it seemed like a typical bathroom with all of the necessities.

“Alright then,” Kronii looked over with a smile, “Ready to become Time?”

“You know it.” Amelia grinned right back.

Kronii returned to Amelia her portion of the aura she took, and she shifted back to being a concept. Her eyes regained the deep blue glow, and she stood up straighter, no longer held down by the weightiness of being a human. Amelia meanwhile had her eyes closed, and she reached for Kronii’s aura. She poked and prodded it, before she took a little bit for herself, and brought it back, hugging it tightly.

She immediately understood what Kronii meant about heaviness now. Becoming a concept made her entire body feel like it weighed significantly less, like she could simply jump and touch the ceiling with ease. All of the things she’d been feeling were also absent – the chill in the air felt like it just disappeared, and when she rubbed her coat, she couldn’t feel it whatsoever.

“Huh,” She mumbled, “This is weird.”

“Now you know how I felt.” Kronii replied, “Nice eyes, by the way.”

Amelia looked over to the mirror right above the sink. Thankfully it wasn’t damaged, and she could see that her eyes were glowing a beautiful blue. Not as dark as Kronii’s, but a lighter blue. She smiled at her reflection, and blew herself a little kiss, “Looks good.”

“Very good.” Kronii nodded, “Now let’s get out of here, yeah?”

Kronii lifted her hand and snapped, and Amelia knew immediately that time had been stopped. She looked at Kronii in amusement, “Was it necessary to stop time? We could just walk out, it’s not like we look like monsters or anything.”

“What’s the fun in that?”

“Touché.”

Heading outside, Amelia looked around curiously at the frozen world around them. Kronii noticed, and turned towards her, “Any questions so far?”

“Yeah, is the entire universe paused when we do this?” Amelia asked, “Or is it just a small area?”

“We’re literally time, Ame.” Kronii replied, crossing her arms, “When we want time to stop, it stops everywhere. Nothing is more important than us.”

“My, someone has a big ego.” Amelia chuckled.

“Amelia, dear, WE have a right to that big ego. For without time – without us – the universe would cease the exist. The other concepts are important, sure. Space keeps the universe held together, Nature makes sure life thrives, Civilization helps the sentient beings, Chaos just… destroys, I guess… But us? We make sure everything moves forward. Without us, there wouldn’t be anything else.”

“I dunno, those other things sound pretty important too. Without Space, there’d be nowhere for Time to be relevant. Without Nature, there’d be no life in the universe too. Hell, without civilization life would –”

“Amelia, please.” Kronii placed her hands on both of her shoulders, “You’re Time now, too. That means that you must agree with me on this. Don’t contradict me. We’re the most important. Those other concepts are just child’s play.”

Amelia grinned and stifled her laugh, “Alright, sure, whatever you say Kronii.”

“Yes, it is whatever I say.” She nodded, “A good policy to follow.”

“Alright then, all-powerful Time, how can we unpause the universe now?”

“It’s simple my young protégée,” She let go of Amelia’s shoulders, “You should be able to sense time now, yes? It’s just innate within you, something you just know. You know looking at something how old it is.”

Amelia looked around, focusing on a car, and realized that it was exactly as Kronii said. The headlights were made in a factory twelve years, five months, two days, eleven hours, and fifty-seven minutes ago. The leather seats inside were fifteen years old, the tires were fairly new at only four months. She looked up to the sky, spotting a bird frozen overhead, and knew that it was born two years ago. A nearby man frozen mid-walk was thirty-three years old, and so on. She blinked a few times before looking back to Kronii, “Woah, that is… That is really damn cool!”

“Isn’t it?” Kronii asked, obviously pleased. “Anyway, resuming time works in a similar way. You just look at whatever it is you want to resume, and just will it to. Nothing to it.”

“And if I was to make everything start moving again, how would I do that?”

“Just will it,” Kronii reiterated, “Make the universe start operating again. Demand to see its damn manager if it doesn’t listen to you! You’re better than the universe! It better listen to what you say!”

“O – ok!” Amelia replied, stepping away from Kronii, “Um…” She closed her eyes, focusing on just trying to get the world to move again, and after a second, she could hear the sounds of cars driving, the sounds of people walking by, the distant sounds of birds, and she opened her eyes to see things going back to how they were. “I – I did it!” She exclaimed with a happy smile, “Thank you, Kronii!” She hopped over and hugged the concept of time, her arms squeezing her tightly.

“Y – You’re welcome.” Kronii muttered, her face going red, “Um… There are still more lessons though, so don’t go celebrating yet!”

“Alright, so what’s next, sensei?” Amelia let go of Kronii, and stood attentively. She was sure her excitement was rolling off of her in waves, given the way Kronii smiled so fondly at her.

“Hm… I could get used to that.” Kronii chuckled, “Alright… Next step then… How about rewinding and fast-forwarding time?” She muttered, “Yes… That sounds like a natural progression. Alright, Amelia, listen up!”

“Yes, Sensei!”

Kronii’s grin stretched across her entire face, and her eyes seem to glow even brighter, “To make time go back, it’s as simple as freezing time! You are time, so you can bring this world to its knees! You don’t like how something has progressed, then you can just stop the world and say ‘hey now, I don’t like that shit, stop it!’ And BAM, you’ve rewound time back to where you want it to be!”

Amelia focused on the feeling she had when she started time back up again, and she tried to will it to go back, and it really was just as simple as just thinking about it, everything around them started to slowly go in reverse. “I did it… This is really easy, surprisingly.”

“What do you expect?” Kronii asked with a raised brow, “You ARE time now! It’s not a super power, you literally are time!”

“That’s so weird to think about. I’m not even human right now, I’m just a – just a concept, how can something like time even exist like this?” She walked aside for a woman walking with her children, all of them walking backwards as time continued to progress slowly in reverse, “So I can speed this up?”

“Sure can.” Kronii replied.

Time began to go back faster and faster, suddenly the people around them began to almost sprint in reverse, until they began to blur. The sun began to reverse in the sky, noticeably moving across at an accelerated pace, “Uh, how will this affect you if we go back to the time you were missing? How will it affect me? Will we just disappear from where we were and show up here?”

“We’re exempt from the passage of time when we control it like this.” Kronii explained, a blur rushed by them, passing through them like water. “When things move so quickly, we become detached from the natural world, and can’t affect things until we resume time at a normal rate again.” She held up her hand, and time stopped, “However, I don’t want to explain to the others why they can suddenly feel two of us, so lets just go back to where we were, hm?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Amelia nodded, “So to make things go forward it’s the same feeling as making it go in reverse?”

“Exactly. You’re learning.”

And so, time did just that, the blurs reversed, going into the proper direction this time, and the sun began to move across the sky in the proper direction now. “Make sure to go back to very exact second we started reversing time,” Kronii warned her, “We don’t want to become misaligned with time.”

“Sure thing,” Amelia answered as she focused. With how simple it was to know the exact time; it wasn’t exactly difficult to do that. In less than a minute she made time progress several hours back to right where they were before, and with a simple flick of her fingers, time slowed back down to its proper speed. “This is actually kind of fun,” She smiled, “Anyway, did I do good, sensei?”

“Very good.” Kronii nodded, “But that’s to be expected from my student, of course.” With time resuming how it should be, she started walking down the sidewalk, still holding the bag she’d purchased earlier that day. Amelia stayed at her side, just looking around noticing how old everything was. Some of the buildings made her concerned when she realized they’d been constructed nearly a hundred years ago, and she hoped they were up to code!

“What else can we do?” Amelia asked, “When you mentioned earlier that I needed to unfreeze the entire universe, doesn’t that imply that I can do it on a smaller scale too?”

“Yeah,” Kronii replied. She pointed up at a bird flying, “You see that?”

“I do.” Amelia answered, her eyes tracking it precisely, “The one that’s a year old, six months, and seventeen days?”

“That’s the one.” She smiled and actually giggled. Her eyes widened, “Oh – uh, sorry about that…”

She was so happy and giddy to be sharing something like this with someone else, Amelia could easily feel it. She completely understood, of course. When Gura and Ina could both travel through time with her, it made her so happy and excited too, so she could easily relate to the way Kronii was feeling. “It’s ok. So, what about that bird?”

Kronii composed herself, “Right, so watch.” She pointed at the bird, and it immediately froze in the air. However, unlike last time, it was the ONLY thing frozen. “We can pause just individuals, or even smaller areas.”

“I see.” Amelia muttered, and she pointed at the bird to unfreeze it, “So does that mean the bird is out of sync with time? It’s younger now than it otherwise would be?”

“Yeah. We can do the same to people. Oh – I guess I should demonstrate that for you now…” She paused, looking around them, “Hm… Who should I do it to…?”

“Do what to whom?”

“We can reverse or forward the age of anything without having them move at all.” She replied, “I’m just trying to figure out how to demonstrate it best to you. I don’t really like randomly changing the age of people though, to be honest.”

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait!” Amelia held up her hands, stopping them in their walk, “You’re saying we can make adults into kids and vice versa?!”

“Yeah,” Kronii replied, “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Is it hard to believe?”

“Not really, but… Yeah, we really shouldn’t do that to random people. Definitely a consent sort of thing, you know?”

“I doubt an elderly person would mind if we reduced their age back ten years,” Kronii said reasonably, but she shrugged, “But if you don’t want to see it done, I won’t do it.”

“… Do you think Ina and Gura would be up to it?” Amelia asked softly.

“Say that again?”

“Nothing.”

“No, no that certainly wasn’t nothing.” Kronii’s eyes were alight, and amusement was rife in her tone, “You want to see what they would look like as kids?”

“W – Well, wouldn’t it be cute?!”

“Now for them, we’d definitely need permission!” Kronii laughed, “I don’t want a pissed off shark or priestess on my ass.”

“Hold on, would their memories be altered if we did that to them?”

“Nah,” Kronii shook her head, “Not if we do it this way. If we reverse time itself, yes, but if we just reverse their ages, then no.”

“This sounds kind of overly complicated,” Amelia grumbled.

“It should be fairly simple for you since you’re literally time and all,” Kronii shrugged, and resumed walking with Amelia at her side, “Plus don’t you time travel anyway? You should be used to stuff like this!”

“Does it only work on people?” Amelia asked suddenly, “Or can we reverse the age of objects too?”

“Amelia, we’re time. We can do anything. We’re amazing like that. If something’s broken and you want it fixed, then God damnit, you tell that damn thing to fix itself!”

Amelia grinned, “That is so cool.”

“Isn’t it?” Kronii puffed up, and Amelia snickered. If she got anymore of an ego, she was sure she’d be able to deflate her with a pin.

“Any other cool tricks, master?”

“Master now? I like the upgrade.” They crossed the street at a crosswalk, a few other people among them. If they were confused about their conversation, then they didn’t show it. Though the crowd was walking suspiciously fast, and were far ahead of them by the time they crossed the street. “To answer your question though, yeah, I guess there is one last thing. You’ve seen me do it a few times, even.”

“Oh?” Amelia pursed her lips, and after a few seconds of thought she asked, “And what would that be?”

Kronii raised her hand and paused time again, and before Amelia could even ask what it was about, she lifted up her arm, and a blade suddenly appeared in her hand. It was the clock blades she had used during the attack, “Remember these bad boys?”

“Oh – right! I forgot you could do that,” She admitted, “Uhm… Do they have to be clock hands though?”

“No,” Kronii shook her head, spinning the blades casually in her hands, “They can be pretty much anything, but you know, after living among humans for so long, I just kind of unconsciously started to think of time in your terms. Years, months, weeks, days, hours, minutes… All of these have no meaning outside of your little planet. In the vastness of space, in other civilizations you’ll never meet, their measurements of time are significantly different. I just like the uniformity of your measurements, and so as a tribute to that, I use these as my weapon.”

“Huh, that was a deeper answer than I was expecting,” Amelia replied.

She shrugged, “I figured I’d give you a real answer for once. You deserve it for doing so well, after all.”

“And for being your girlfriend.”

“I guess that too.”

Amelia laughed, with time still paused, she didn’t have to worry about appearances, or people freaking out if she summoned swords out of nowhere, “So… To summon it I suppose it’s as simple as manipulating time?”

“Why don’t you find out?”

Amelia didn’t have to be told twice, and she held up her hand much like Kronii did. She already had a really good grasp on the concepts of time and how manipulating it worked, and so wasn’t surprised when a blade appeared in her hand like it had for Kronii. Much like Kronii’s, it appeared as a clock hand, and when she summoned another in her other hand, it was similarly a clock hand as well.

“Not bad,” Kronii walked around her, nodding her head appreciatively, “Clock hands too, nice.”

“Can you train me on how to use these things? I don’t think swinging them widely is going to do me very much good.”

“Of course,” Kronii replied, “Though we’ll have to go somewhere private. Where we won’t be spotted. I have just an idea for that.”

And with a wave of her hand, they disappeared.

XxXxXxX

Kronii laughed softly as Amelia stumbled, nearly dropping her blades in the process. It was cute to watch her get her bearings, and while she could feel a little bit of concern from her through their bond, she could also feel the implicit trust Amelia had for her. It was in the way she didn’t raise her guard, and in the way that the moment their eyes met, Amelia just let out a little sigh of relief. It did funny things to Kronii’s heart, and she just wanted to go over to her and hold her tightly, never to let go.

“We’re in the passage of time.” Kronii answered the unasked question, “This is where you come when you time travel.”

“Oh,” Amelia blinked a few more times, “Oh – you’re right. I didn’t recognize it at first.”

“Probably because we’re not time traveling now.” Kronii replied, “In here we’re completely alone. Nothing but time itself can come in here, though you’ve proven that people can forcibly enter through other means.”

“Heh, well, sorry about that I guess.”

“Don’t be, I’m not mad or anything.” And she wasn’t, honestly. It led to her meeting Amelia in the first place, and well, look at where that brought her now! She didn’t even know she could feel these complex emotions, she thought she’d always just be a silent vigil, watching over time for this universe’s lifespan. Now though, she couldn’t imagine going back to that. It would bore her to tears, and quite frankly, there were others she’d rather spend her time with.

“Does this mean I don’t need the watch anymore?” Amelia wondered, “Should I just give it back to you, since I can travel through time at will now?”

“Keep it. Who knows when I won’t be around to give you a bit of my aura?”

“It’ll never come to that,” Amelia muttered darkly, concern and minor distress coursing through her thoughts.

“It probably will never happen. I know we want to make sure that everyone is around before we travel through time so no one forgets anything,” Kronii assured her, she hugged Amelia, attempting to make her feel better. It seemed to work, Amelia relaxed, and her thoughts returned to a happier note, along with some love lingering in her emotions that Kronii still wasn’t entirely sure how to deal with even now. “But we have to make sure to not close the option down, right? Keep the watch, and keep it safe.”

“Ok,” Amelia sighed, her limp body causing Kronii to grunt a little.

“Hey, get off.” Kronii grunted, “I’m not holding you up.”

“But you’re comfy…” Amelia whined, holding her so she couldn’t be thrown off, “Just a little longer? Not like I weight much anyway, right?”

“No. Off.” Amelia huffed, but was smiling nonetheless as she got off, “Good.”

“By the way, nice death flag.”

“Eh?” Kronii blinked, “What do you mean?”

“Telling me to keep the watch just in case? Have you ever heard of tempting fate? Because that’s exactly what you’ve done!” She put her hands on her hips, a stern expression on her face, “What have you done, young lady?”

“Uh, sorry?” Kronii muttered, “I didn’t realize you were superstitious.”

“I’m not, but there’s no point in asking for trouble!”

“Alright! I won’t do that next time!” Kronii exclaimed, “Sheesh, I try to be nice and this is the thanks I get? Is this how you treat your master?”

“Eh, I got everything I need from you. Doesn’t the apprentice kill the master at that point and take over their position?”

“W – What?!”

Amelia just laughed, “You’re too easy to tease, Kronii.”

Kronii shook her head, “Well, whatever, this is all I wanted to show you. We can practice using our blades in here, but for now, it’s getting late, and the others will get worried if we don’t let them know what we’re up to. We’ll head back and then I can unfreeze time. I don’t think there’s really anything else to show you. Just whenever you’re using my powers, feel free to come here, all right? Assuming I’m time still, I should be able to sense you arriving here as well, and we can meet up to train.”

“Sounds good,” Amelia replied, “Thank you for sharing this with me.”

“W – Well, of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Who knows,” Amelia muttered evasively.

Kronii wanted to push it, but decided it truly wasn’t worth it. With a shake of her head, she sent them back to the exact positions they were on Earth. Just after the crosswalk, and then she unfroze time. Everything began to move like normal, and Amelia grabbed her hand, forcing her to start walking at her side to keep up. The bag she’d bought earlier was still in her grasp, and she kept it close, wondering when they could go on another date so she’d have another chance to impress Amelia with that suit.

“Oh.” Amelia stopped.

“Huh?” Kronii looked over, “What’s up?”

“Want to see a movie? It’s something humans do on dates. I’ve never been a huge fan of them to be honest, but it could be fun.” She pointed to the theater down the street. It was a classic theater that only had a handful of screens, considering the location, but there were already dozens of people waiting to go in. It was getting late, so it made sense why there were so many couples among those in line too.

“Sure,” She replied, “If it’s a human custom, we might as well end the night with it.”

“Great!” And she felt Amelia shift suddenly – she was no longer Time, but a normal human. She heard her grunt, “Damn, I get what you mean about being heavy…”

“Why’d you go back to being human?” Kronii asked. The bond between them was weakened now, but still ever present, “Don’t want to be time anymore?”

“Well, I figured it’s a human date, right?” She pointedly looked back at Kronii, her brows rising, “So why are you still time?”

Kronii laughed, “Well, got me there.” She shifted – this time taking some of Amelia’s aura, and again the bond strengthened between them.

“Now come on, we got to decide what to watch!”

As she was dragged forward, Kronii just smiled. Today had been perfect, even if it was a little unconventional. A day with Amelia all to herself, without the others around. She knew Gura, and Ina were going to be taking up some of Amelia’s time now, and she had a feeling that Sana would be interested in giving it a go as well, and while that disappointed her a little, she also felt happy that Amelia had so many people who cared for her. People who could help keep an eye on her, and people that she could possibly come to love as well…

… Her face burned red at the thought.

“Something wrong, Kronii?” Amelia asked as she glanced back, “I can feel that you’re embarrassed, and your face is red.”

“Nothing,” Kronii denied quickly, “Just a little cold is all.”

Amelia didn’t look convinced, but didn’t pursue the thought either, and a few minutes later, they walked into a dark theater together hand in hand.