AnimeCon Harem 16: Seneca Library Meeting (Patreon)

Two weeks and four days later…

“I dunno why you’re so nervous,” Emily remarked, putting a finger in the borrowed manga book to mark her place, in case she was able to turn this into an actual conversation.

Kelly was standing with arms crossed at the window that overlooked the parking lot of the Seneca public library—they had chosen the quiet corner, because it featured a cozy alcove with a series of padded chairs arranged around a small table. Rows of bookshelves gave them some semblance of privacy from the rest of the library, and although there were several other sitting areas, the seats near the kiddie section were more of a place for mothers and grandmothers to keep an eye on children, and the central table area just past the public computers all had outlets for plugging in laptops, so several students were hanging out over there.

“I’m not nervous,” Kelly lied with a shrug.

“You two have talked almost every day,” Emily reminded her. “She loves you to pieces. I love you. Everything’s fine!”

“I know,” Kelly said, continuing to stare out at the several parked cars and many empty spaces. “Love you too.”

“You’re such a drama queen,” Emily rolled her eyes.

After a moment of trying—and failing—to get back into the manga, Emily let out an aggravated sigh and clapped the book closed, tossing it onto the table.

“Well, now I’m nervous,” Emily groused, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Thanks a lot, bimbo liner.”

“Fuckboat,” Kelly muttered under her breath in reply.

Life between them had fallen into routine over the past weeks—Kelly was working part time now at their Seneca Dollarydoos, and Emily lived with her at Brian’s apartment. It was a strange relationship with a surprising amount of tension, because so much of their attention revolved around Brian, who was still and silent on the bed in his room. Emily kissed Brian three times every day with small naps in between, Kelly kissed him twice a day—once upon getting home from work, once late at night.

The two girls hadn’t kissed each other since their time at the convention, and Emily was increasingly nervous about what that meant. In the evenings they snuggled, they hugged in greeting when Kelly got off work, and that was comfortable, but the sex spark wasn’t quite there like it had been. Emily still thought she was attracted to Kelly, but their focus just wasn’t really on each other, of late.

That and putting magic into Brian maybe saps some of that out of us? Emily guessed, running hands through her hair. I dunno. Don’t know how to bring it up, don’t think she wants to talk about it. Makes me fuckin’ nervous, though.

Even more worrying was the fact that the blue was leaving her hair. Kelly had visible dark roots where her long red hair parted, but when Emily looked in the mirror she saw a full inch and a half of black despoiling the previously perfect blue. The color was leaving, and the many photo comparisons she’d made documenting things proved correlation between it and how much magic she was pouring into Brian.

So—yeah, he better wake up before I run out, Emily bit her lip. I’m sure I can get all the blue back later, but. STILL. Hate the fact that it’s going a tiny bit each time, hate it hate it hate it.

Both girls looked up as a motorcycle with a girl on it rumbled into the Seneca library parking lot, but Emily didn’t even think to give the new arrival a second glance. Until Kelly stepped forward and put both hands up against the window pane.

“Oh my God,” Kelly mouthed in shock.

“Kell?” Emily blurted out. “Wait—no way—”

Disengaging the motor and putting one foot down on the ground for balance, the rider outside was dressed in a form-fitting suit of white and red riding leathers, and had a small backpack hanging from her shoulders. To Emily’s alarm, the petite figure mounted on the sport bike was familiar, though. Suspiciously familiar. Pink tufts of hair were visible poking out of the helmet. In fact, it almost looked like—

“Stephanie?!” Emily exclaimed, jumping up out of her seat.

Kelly was already gone, moving down the aisle between bookshelves to go out and meet Stephanie, so Emily hurried to chase after. The woman manning the front desk gave them a look as the two rushed out the doors, and then the girls were in the parking lot staring at Stephanie’s beaming smile, motorcycle helmet off and propped up against one hip. A surge of blue swelled up within Emily, and both of them raced towards her.

“Kelly! Emily!” Stephanie’s infectious smile overwhelmed their surprise. “Guys!”

“Steph, I—” Kelly grabbed her by the shoulders and crushed her into a hug. “Really? This was the surprise? Steph—motorcycles are dangerous.”

“Fuckin’ sweet as hell, though,” Emily laughed, latching herself onto their hug as well. “God damn. Like—holy shit, Steph!”

“It’s fun!” Stephanie chirped, patting Kelly on the back and kissing the top of her head. “I wanted to do it, so I did!”

“You just—went and got a motorcycle license?!” Kelly seemed torn between pride and disapproval. “Steph—”

“A permit!” Stephanie corrected her. “No license for months. Can’t ride after seven o’clock in this state, can’t have passengers, can’t ride on the actual highway, s-so, so it took me a bit of sidetracking to get here. Wouldn’t want to be on big roads yet, anyways! It’s a bit scary, still. I missed you guys!”

“I missed you,” Kelly trapped Steph again in another smother hug. “A lot. Too much. I love you.”

“I love you!” Stephanie grinned. “Both of you.”

“I thought you were looking at cars?” Emily stepped back and took another look at Stephanie’s wheels. “Damn, Steph!”

“I was,” Stephanie admitted. “But… I don’t know. Time to live a little? And um, well buying this new was about the same as getting a kinda bleh old used car, so. Yeah!”

The motorcycle was a sleek white sport bike, with the Yamazaki logo in bold black. It looked fast, even though Stephanie had arrived on it at a pretty sedate pace. It was easy to picture hunkering down low on it and speeding around, twisting the throttle in her hand, feeling that rumble of pure power vibrating between her legs. The idea of Stephanie of all people leaping right to adrenaline junkie stuff had her feeling a little dumbfounded.

“I just. Just,” Kelly was having difficulty articulating her reservations. “Steph, it’s cool as fuck, but also—what if you get hurt? There’s so many shitty drivers out there…”

“Oh, I know!” Stephanie griped, still smiling. “They warned me and warned me in classes and still it’s like—geeezus, sometimes the other vehicles just cannot give me space or respect my riding! It’s, it’s like no, lady, you can just wait until it’s safe to pass me, because I’m going at the speed I’m comfortable with, and no I won’t speed up! Ugh!”

“Do you uh, need to change?” Kelly asked. “For your interview?”

“I will!” Stephanie let Kelly help her dismount off the bike the rest of the way, and then they watched as Stephanie struggled to flip out the kickstand with several cute little kicks. “Oh—it’s not a real interview, though. Just a talk, they’re not hiring anyone at all until this fall. The Mrs. Candace here that runs the Seneca library, she wanted to go through how she runs things here and what her expectations would be. She seemed very nice over the phone, though!”

“When are you supposed to meet her?” Kelly asked as they walked towards the library doors. “Do you have time?”

“Oh, I’m early, I’m early,” Stephanie assured her, letting Emily take the helmet from her to free up her hands. “Oh—thank you, Emily.”

“Badass as fuck,” Emily murmured in awe as she looked it over. “You’re allowed to have a mirrored visor?!”

“Technically!” Stephanie giggled. “Since I’m not allowed to ride at night anyways with just my permit, it’s actually safer. During the day. Just, it wouldn’t be safe after dark, then a mirrored visor becomes less safe. Were you guys waiting long? Is Rebecca here? Christine?”

“No, not yet,” Emily winced. “We’re actually kinda worried? They both went all off-grid, and then we didn’t hear a peep from either of them, ‘til day before yesterday. When Rebecca said we need to meet up and talk.”

“Hmm,” Stephanie fretted as they stepped inside the library together. “That sounds… worrying?”

“Christine might have not made it,” Kelly said. “I don’t know what else it could be.”

“But, even then—not Rebecca’s fault,” Emily shrugged. “She did what she could, I figure.”

“Emily,” Stephanie scolded her. “That’s not funny.”

“Here, this way,” Kelly led them back in the direction of the corner area her and Emily had occupied. “We were over here. I—Steph, I really missed you.”

“I missed you too!” Stephanie hopped up on the balls of her feet to plant a small kiss on Kelly’s cheek. “Really excited to see Brian, again. To start doing my part.”

“I feel like if we’d met at his place, you’d have kissed him right away,” Emily said with a wry smile. “Then Kelly would sulk all night, ‘cause you’d be passed out.”

“It really knocks you out like that?” Stephanie asked, incredibly interested. “Hah ha, you’re right. I probably wouldn’t have been able to resist. He’s doing better, though?”

“He’s doing better,” Kelly rolled her eyes. “You ask that every day.”

“But, now I’ll get to see for myself,” Stephanie hummed to herself. “So excited! Have you two been doing okay? With everything?”

“It’s like we’ve said,” Kelly shrugged. “I go to work, come home and kiss Brian, and—yeah. Out like a light. There’s not much to it.”

“I wake up early to kiss him, and then kiss him throughout the day,” Emily explained as they reclaimed their seats in the cozy nook. “Kelly kisses him when she gets home, and then she has a late night alarm for kissing him again.”

“Am I, um, is my squeezing in interrupting your schedule?” Stephanie asked, casting a nervous look towards Emily’s hair as if just now really noticing her dark roots.

“You’ll take evening kiss, we figure,” Emily said. “Unless you want evening and night kiss?”

“I want—” Stephanie paused. “I want all of them. Please? While I’m here. Seeing your hair…”

“We showed you it was happening,” Emily mumbled. “It’s gradual, anyways.”

“I know,” Stephanie sighed. “But actually seeing it, is—well. I’ll kiss him as much as I can, while I’m here. Do you feel any different?”

“Feels the same,” Emily shook her head. “Still no closer to figuring out my powers. Kinda just kept that on hold.”

“Kelly?”

“Still just the one send from a future us,” Kelly nodded. “Lottery numbers. They wound up all being correct, woulda been fifty thousand.”

“Yeah, if we’d bought tickets,” Emily grumbled.

“Well, it proves that there’s no rush!” Stephanie assured her. “We know it works, in case we need it. That’s what matters, right?”

“I dunno,” Emily griped. “Feels like we’re leaving money on the table?”

“Too suspicious to win multiple times,” Kelly reminded her. “So, if and when we do win, it’s gotta be a big one.”

“I know,” Emily made a face. “Still sucks. There’s stocks and crypto too, like I’ve said. Be nice for Brian to just, you know, not have to worry about money when he wakes up. Ever again. Right?”

“There’s no rush,” Kelly shrugged. “All of that’s an option. We’ll see what Brian thinks. We can afford to be careful with whatever we decide to do. Okay?”

“Fiiiine,” Emily blew out a huff. “Lame.”

“I love you,” Stephanie said again with a giddy smile. “I love you! Sorry. I just—I missed you both. So much! It’s just such a relief, being here with you, feeling you both again. I love you both so much.”

“I know,” Kelly took her hand. “Separating like that—just. Fuck. What a shitty few weeks? Fuck. I mean, it wasn’t as bad as it coulda been, ‘cause I had Emily. But everything’s just so fucking frustrating. Wanted you to be with us. Want Brian to be there, to be awake and with us. Fuck.”

“Soon,” Emily promised, turning serious. “He’s already a lot better, I think. Steph being here is gonna help out in like, heaps and heaps. She’s—look at her—she’s still full pink. So; fully charged. Whereas I’m at like, sixty percent and you’re at maybe eightyish.”

“So, we go all in on kisses while Steph’s here,” Kelly suggested. “If we can get him the rest of the way healed…”

“And, and—” Stephanie interjected with excitement. “If Rebecca and Christine are back, maybe they can help, too? Do we know if they can put magic in?”

“To be determined,” Kelly murmured. “Maybe, maybe not. Just havta see.”

*     *     *

It was another full hour before Rebecca’s station wagon pulled into the lot, and in that time the girls caught up with one another, and then Emily and Kelly even waited while Stephanie went and talked with the head librarian over in the office. By the time Rebecca appeared, all three girls were back and standing at the window to watch for her, and their hearts fell at the sight. Because Rebecca was alone, and her expression was grim.

“She’s alive,” Rebecca reported as they ushered her in. “We need to talk.”

“What happened?!” Emily demanded. “You’re okay? She didn’t hurt you? Did she get loose?! Was there—”

“Hold on,” Rebecca stopped her.

The girl stalked around each of the corners of the area, checking behind the shelves to ensure no one could listen in or accidentally overhear their discussion. They could smell her, faintly, body odor and campfire smoke, and it seemed clear that Rebecca had been roughing it for just about the entire past few weeks just by looking at the state of her hair. With a deep frown, Rebecca sat in the fourth chair with them and stared down her hands for a long moment before speaking.

“Christine weaned off the blood magic halfway through the second day,” Rebecca reported. “I kept her restrained, and evaluated her situation so I could be sure for another two. No broken bones. Dislocated both shoulders, that’s taken care of. Will need wrist braces maybe. She’s bruised all over. Her gums were bleeding a lot, and she was in significant pain. She. Well.”

The three girls waited in tense silence for Rebecca to continue, but for a full minute Rebecca just stared down without saying anything.

“She’s back to how she was,” Rebecca finally admitted. “How she acted before. Threatened, multiple times, to expose our whereabouts to the Masters, or ensure the Masters were set upon us.”

“Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!” Emily rose out of her seat in a blind rage. “IF—”

“Emily, sshh,” Kelly snapped. “Stop.”

“She just,” Rebecca bit out the words while grinding her teeth. “I don’t know what happened. The pain—she wasn’t dealing well with the pain, maybe, so I thought I would give her time. She’s just gotten worse. A lot worse. Screaming. Threats. The things she’s said, I. I. I didn’t know what to do.”

Emily was so tense she felt like she was going to explode, and she watched in outrage as Stephanie and Kelly exchanged glances.

“So,” Rebecca continued. “I’ve kept her restrained. I… dug a grave. Out where it won’t be discovered. I’m not freeing her if there’s any chance she’s serious about contacting the Masters. I can do what’s necessary. If I have to. Can… take care of her. But. Thought we should discuss. Back while she was a half-thrall, or, or partway vampire or whatever, she, she wasn’t this bad. I want to think that if she’s put on the charm magic you are all on, she might revert to being reasonable again. Being like Christine was, instead of Chloe. But, we don’t know for sure how it all works, and—I don’t know what to do.”

“Fucking Christ,” Kelly swore, slumping down to drop her face into her hands.

“Kill her,” Emily snarled. “We can’t risk it. We can’t risk it.”

“No, we—” Stephanie said in a fluster. “We can’t. We need to, we—can we wait for Brian? I, I think he needs to be part of the decision. We can’t just kill her.”

“I don’t know what to do,” Rebecca said again. “I thought the charm magic’s influence didn’t—well—didn’t brainwash us. It wasn’t like mind control. But, if it’s really not, if it can’t completely turn her around…”

“She was fine as ‘Christine,’” Kelly pointed out. “Less of a… homicidal fuckwit towards us. Right?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Emily argued. “We can’t risk her going to the Masters about us. Period. End of story. Sorry. We can’t.”

“We can’t,” Rebecca agreed.

“But, but—” Stephanie interjected. “I think it’s like, it’s like a bipolar disorder, or, or maybe a mental imbalance she has, that makes her so—so psychotic. We know that when she was on the blood magic path, that imbalance seemed like it was corrected. If—”

“We can’t risk it,” Emily refused to accept the possibility. “Steph, no, we just can’t.”

“How long do we have to decide?” Kelly asked Rebecca. “Can we wait for Brian?”

“I don’t know,” Rebecca said. “Chloe’s medically stable, I think. Two days ago I ran out of food for us, and had to make the trip to Tionetta. Guys, I just—I can’t keep her there forever. I thought about just… taking care of the problem, so that this wouldn’t be on any of your consciences. But, in the end I couldn’t. I was not able to. I’m sorry.”

“We can’t just kill her!” Stephanie insisted.

“We can’t let her go, either,” Emily shot back. “No. No fucking way. And, honestly? I don’t want this to just be a huge fucking problem we dump in Brian’s lap the second he wakes up. We should take care of it. Guys. Come on.”

“I can do it,” Rebecca said, staring down at her hands. “Or—or, maybe I can’t do it. I don’t know. I came close to. It’s bad. She’s—she’s lost her mind. I can do it, if everyone decides that’s what we need to do. I—I don’t know what to do, I’m sorry.”

“Brian deserves a say in this,” Stephanie decided. “Whatever we have to do in the meantime. If I have to take off school—I can. I can stay with Brian, or I can come out with you to watch over Christine—whatever we have to do. I don’t think we should just kill her.”

“I think we should kill her,” Emily admitted, feeling coldblooded to hear the words come out of her own mouth but unable to muster any sympathy for the bitch. “Sorry.”

“Is there, ah,” Rebecca fidgeted. “Is there any way we could see what happens? Through your power, Kelly?”

“I’m not sure it will help,” Kelly shook her head. “You saw how it worked last time. The timeline that saved her will think they’re in the right, the timeline that kills her will likewise think they were justified. Us here, we in the present—we have to make our own choices.”

“But, but, maybe if we knew more, we could be better informed about… all of it?” Rebecca asked, all but wringing her hands in worry. “I’m sorry. I just—it’s been difficult. It has been a very, very difficult few weeks. Haaah. And, I need to drive back in the morning. To make sure she can stay hydrated and eat.”

“This is stupid, we should just—” Emily started.

“Stop,” Kelly shot her a glare. “We know how you feel about it already, okay?”

“We’ll wait for Brian, and we’ll see if we get any sends from future Kellys,” Stephanie proposed, putting her fingers to her temples. “How does that sound? Rebecca, should one of us go back with you? I don’t like you being out there with her alone for so long.”

“Can you feel Rebecca?” Kelly asked. “With your empathy thing.”

“I don’t know,” Stephanie admitted. “Emily’s being distracting.”

“Well sorry. Fuck.”

“I don’t think I’m connected to the charm anymore,” Rebecca spoke up. “Most of the way through the first week, I was able to still enter the dreamscape. I can’t anymore, there might be—there might be a period of time where I need to have kissed Brian to remain attached to the group. From coming into contact with the charm, to kissing him, I feel like that’s maybe a temporary period, and without kissing him after some days to finalize it—well, I’m not connected anymore.”

“Shit,” Emily swore. “You can’t help us put magic into the spell frame bullshit, then.”

“But,” Rebecca looked up from her hands and made eye contact with each of them. “Brian was awake and somewhat aware in the dreamscape. I met him. Spoke with him, sort of. It’s like he was dreaming. He misses you all. He loves you. He’s worried about what’s going on, but maybe not quite following all the exact details while he’s in the dream state.”

“He—he’s awake?” Emily felt herself choke up with emotion. “He’s—like, you talked? In the dreamscape thing?”

“Not awake, exactly,” Rebecca’s brow furrowed. “But he is there, and he was somewhat aware. He’s dreaming.”

“Th-then,” Stephanie stammered. “Then before you go back, you come with us to Brian’s and you kiss him. So we can see if that—so we see if that does anything? Or, or—is it possible for any of us to dreamwalk? To go into the dreamscape like you do?”

“I don’t know,” Rebecca shook her head. “I—I’m willing to kiss him. To be a part of this with all of you, if it still works like that while he’s like this. Just, there’s—”

“You have the charm?” Kelly asked. “With you?”

“I have it, it’s safe,” Rebecca nodded.

“See if it sparks you back in,” Kelly suggested. “Then, we’ll see if you can dreamscape back in to communicate with him, somehow.”

“Kiss him, too,” Emily added. “You weren’t even the whole way on the charm magic path and you could dreamscape—who’s to say if you don’t get a better version of whatever power thing you have if you’re the whole way initiated. Right?”

“Do you, um,” Stephanie paused. “Do you think you could love Brian? Are you okay with… being with him? With us? I know that’s a big decision, and uh, and I hate that this feels like it’s being forced on you.”

“I—” Rebecca frowned. “I am okay with it. I knew I was. I wanted to wait and see what he thinks, before I kiss him and make things more binding, or… anything like that.”

“That’s fine, too,” Kelly said, standing up. “We’ll take things step by step. I think we should go back to him now.”

*     *     *

Kelly sat on the edge of the bed, watching Stephanie curled up to snuggle against Brian. For reasons unknown, Stephanie had possessed more metamagical juice than them—the girl’s first kiss pouring power into Brian didn’t knock her unconscious from the strain. So, after a few minutes to catch her breath, Stephanie had kissed their sleeping prince again, until all of her magic was spent and she dropped down on top of him. Close examination of her hairline as Kelly arranged Stephanie into a more comfortable position beside Brian revealed a millimeter or so of pale blonde appearing at the roots of Stephanie’s pink tufts.

Looking over Brian as they always did, no glowing magic lines or runes or anything of the sort were evident to show the spell frames were almost done—she had no idea what that might even look like and the longer this farce went on, the more frustrated she became.

We could wake him up early, Kelly thought, not for the first time. We need him here with us. He maybe doesn’t have to be COMPLETELY healed. Right?

Life here with Emily was okay.

It wasn’t good; it wasn’t great. It was okay, it was an awkward game of make believe where the two pretended things were going to be alright, where alright was status pending. Their focus on just getting through each day without him grew more and more strained, and working towards being able to see him awake again felt increasingly hollow and fragile. Their patience and sanity stretched a bit further to encompass each day, with them going through the motions of life while trying to focus only on a resolution that was always just out of grasp.

So—so, yeah, I’m definitely in love with him, and that just makes this suck, Kelly blew her bangs out of her eyes with an annoyed puff of her lip. Steph was right about it. She’s always right. Things just aren’t the same without him.

Almost every day, Kelly went to work and played at being their family breadwinner, while Emily imagined herself the dutiful housewife, taking care of laundry and dishes and making sure meals were ready. Only—at minimum wage, the meager income Kelly brought in was laughable, a joke. The Dollarydoos job here in Seneca was a complete cakewalk compared to the inner city one she’d worked, and Kelly spent an excruciating amount of her time on the clock looking for work to do, because it just wasn’t busy enough there. Emily had latched onto the simple series of basic chores out of a desperation, more to feel like she was contributing rather than actual necessity—they both knew it, and were in some unspoken agreement to not bring up the fact that Kelly could have easily taken care of the basic everyday stuff herself after work.

That wasn’t to say Kelly didn’t appreciate the support; it was just that none of this life-in-waiting felt very real to her. The only meaningful thing they seemed to be accomplishing was kissing Brian full of magic on their little made-up schedule rotation. That was weird. Surreal. He didn’t need to drink or stay hydrated, he didn’t pee the bed or make messes, didn’t seem to sweat. He was just laying there on the bed as if asleep, the magical stasis bullshit just sort of handwaving away fucking reality in such a way that he didn’t need basic staples of life like a calorie intake.

Sure, supposedly he still needed air, but it wasn’t like they were going to smother him anyways. Emily reported shifting him about so that he wouldn’t get bed-sores, but neither of them were sure if that was a real problem for him. Kelly had carefully knocked his knee with the edge of an empty coffee mug once and discovered he didn’t have a kick reflex right now. They had undressed him and wiped him down with a washcloth the one night, but he didn’t seem to sweat or have body odor. The only thing they seemed to accomplish was preventing dust from building up on him.

Too fucking weird, Kelly frowned.

The weirdness weighed on her mind a lot, not at all helped by the fact that Emily apparently had semi-regular phone calls with her mother. Kelly hadn’t yet had an opportunity to meet the Mrs. Rivera persona of Actress, and Emily somehow hadn’t thought to question the woman about her involvement in a previous harem. The tunnel-vision Emily was locked into surely played a part there, because all of Emily’s current attention was laser-focused on their current situation with Brian—but, the whole thing made Kelly seriously uncomfortable.

Just becomes another thing hanging over our heads, Kelly thought. The Masters. Some previous harem, and us being tied to it. The anime bullshit powers with the charm. The different future timelines of us that the send crap has me freaking out about all the time. This new shitshow with the whole CHRISTINE nonsense. All of this stuff to deal with, and it’s like none of it can be really dealt with properly, not until we have Brian back. I’m really gonna flip out soon—this is all too much.

It went without saying she was extremely concerned about her own relationship with Brian. She’d hustled him off in a hurry to rescue Christine, and she still didn’t even know how he felt about that. Did he think that was the right thing to do? Would he resent her? Was all of this here some fantasy of wishful thinking, because any day now he would wake up and want to break things off with her? Kelly needed to know what he thought about everything, how he felt about her. Not knowing was driving her a little bit more insane each day.

“Kelly?” Stephanie asked in a sleepy murmur, not even opening her eyes.

“Steph?” Kelly whispered back.

“It’s gonna be okay,” Stephanie promised. “S’gonna be okay.”

“Yeah,” Kelly tried to sound convincing. “Sorry if my uh, my mood woke you up or whatever.”

“It’s okay,” Stephanie’s eyelashes fluttered as she stirred and tried to struggle up onto one elbow. “How long was I asleep?”

“Almost four hours,” Kelly said. “How was it?”

“Good!” Stephanie beamed. “Draining, but nice. It felt like it helped him a lot. Rebecca was right—he’s dreaming.”

“Can you go into it?” Kelly asked, gently tracing her fingertips along Brian’s arm. “Like, the dreamscape thing?”

“Hmm,” Stephanie pouted. “No, not like she does, I don’t think. But, I can tell he’s dreaming. He feels… funny. Not uhm, not ha ha funny, but more like… off kilter? Funny?”

“He’s okay?”

“He’s…” Stephanie paused, rubbing her eyes. “Maybe a little confused?”

Kelly felt her heart ache at simply looking at Stephanie, because the girl was too adorable. She could admire and appreciate each and every minute gesture and movement Steph made and be completely engrossed and simply never grow tired of it. The love she felt for Emily, and even her feelings for Brian weren’t quite as mature as the longing she had for Stephanie, just yet—although it also helped that both of them were here with her every day. The thought of Stephanie leaving again to go back to her university tomorrow morning made Kelly want to have a small breakdown.

“I feel like,” Stephanie sighed and rested her chin upon Brian’s chest. “The feeling I get is that he’s a little lost, like he’s lost his place in a book. He’s not sure what’s really happened, and what might be part of a dream, where his place was in the story of what’s going on. He does want to wake up and figure all of that out again, though. I can tell.”

“Stay with us,” Kelly asked in a quiet voice.

“I want to!” Stephanie beamed. “I’m working on it. I’ve had this, this fixation on just getting here. The bike was a big part of that. The library is, too. My credits can transfer to the college here in Seneca, but I still have to finish out the semester back there, first. I am moving here, as soon as I can. That’s also why I didn’t get an actual car, if I can put part of my savings towards an, an apartment or—”

“That’s dumb, you can just stay here,” Kelly insisted. “I’m being so serious. Brian—look, I know this is Brian’s place and not mine, but he isn’t going to fucking turn you away. We can just all be here, with him, who the fuck cares if it’s crowded. It’s never gonna feel crowded, so long as it’s—you know. Us.”

“I know,” Stephanie assured her in a soft voice. “I’ve—I’ve actually been messaging back and forth with Emily about that. She um, she snuck through his email stuff, since his computer here was still logged into most everything, I guess. Not to just snoop around! She was able to check on his bank account and everything that his bills here draw from.

“But uh, but anyways, he has four more months on this single bedroom, single bath lease here. Or… or, instead, we could maybe pay the penalty and move out earlier, find a bigger place. Emily wants us to move in over at aunt Mattie’s place where he used to stay, since they have a big ranch house, there. Their friends Michael and Tanya live there, but the other one, Will, moved out. So, now there’s two empty rooms over there. Have you met any of them?”

“Just Michael and Tanya,” Kelly said. “They’re okay. Helped us get Brian inside from the car. Was worried they’d be checking in on him, but I guess Brian and them kinda grew apart during the whole Chloe thing, and his local friends here not hearing from him much just got to be the new normal.”

“We’ll fix that,” Stephanie said. “Soon.”

“Not soon enough,” Kelly blew out another long breath. “Just—I’m just worried. About everything. How he’ll react. How he feels about me. About us, about everything. Like, for us it’s been all this time, but what if for him it’s like, minutes ago he was still at AnimeCon? What if he’s not ready for, for. Cohabitation. Not just me. You, Emily. All of us. Because—I’m so fuckin’ ready for you to be here, but what if he’s not? What if all of that happening is just uncomfortably fast, for him?”

“I knowww,” Stephanie let out an adorable huff. “I know. We’ll see when we get there. Give him time and space and lots of love. Because, I love him, I love you. So, all of this is going to work, and none of the little bumps or hiccups will even matter. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Kelly said.

“Give me a kiss,” Stephanie demanded, sitting up. “Gimme kiss, right now! Then I’m gonna kiss Brian again, and I think that will be the last one I can give him if I have to ride back in the morning. There’s no way I’d be able to kiss him and then be safe to ride afterwards, not for hours.”

“So just… stay,” Kelly suggested, leaning over Brian so that she could give Stephanie a kiss.

“Mmwuah,” Stephanie smacked her lips against Kelly’s but didn’t allow things to get any more intimate than that. “You know I want to. But—I can’t. Need to finish this semester, before I move.”

“Do you, though?” Kelly asked.

“I think so,” Stephanie replied. “I think about it a lot. Brian wouldn’t want me to be rash, or feel like I threw away everything I was working towards before, just to be here more immediately. That would make him uncomfortable.”

“It’s not throwing everything away,” Kelly complained, leaning back in to fish for another kiss. “You’d just be set back like, one year of school, tops.”

Stephanie grinned and awarded Kelly with another kiss, but didn’t say anything else.

“And…” Kelly tried to tempt her. “You’d be here to put more magic into Brian’s healing. So—he’d wake up even faster.”

“You know I want to,” Stephanie said in a quiet voice. “You know how much I want to. It’s better if when I do come, it can be as a library assistant, rather than starting somewhere at entry level.”

“It’s not paid that much more than what I’m making,” Kelly made a face. “Why don’t we just have Emily start working again? If she’s—”

“Hey,” Stephanie put a finger on Kelly’s lips to cut her off. “That’s for all of us to discuss after Brian’s back with us for real, okay? How we all want to live, how it all—how all of this with us together works. Until then, we do the best we can, and we try to be smart. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Kelly said. “I just don’t want you to go.”

“I know,” Stephanie said. “But, everything’s going to be okay! I promise.”

“Yeah?” Kelly asked, giving Stephanie a look. “What about Christine?”

“We’ll get all of that figured out somehow, too,” Stephanie said, settling back down atop Brian and giving his sleeping features a gaze full of love for a long moment. “You’ll see.”

Then, Stephanie moved in and kissed Brian. Being so close while it was happening, Kelly could almost feel the nearby conduit of power open up. Fiery pink magic poured unseen through Stephanie’s kiss and into Brian, the energy blossoming into life upon the catalyst of the fierce feelings Stephanie had for him. After five seconds of those incredibly delectable lips being locked with Brian’s, Kelly watched on as Stephanie relaxed and went still, her weight shifting to the side.

“Goodnight, sunshine,” Kelly murmured.

Kelly climbed up onto the bed beside the pair and followed suit, bringing her mouth to Brian’s in a tickling rush of starlight slivers. Magic moved in a steady current of red, time and space flew past her awareness at bewildering speeds, and before she was ready to give up, she found she could give no more. Darkness and vacuum left behind stole her vision in a dizzying wave of familiar exhaustion, and with a slump across the bedspread Kelly joined Brian and Stephanie in a deep sleep.

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