Chương 365: Day Three Hundred And Sixty-Three

Dear Diary,"The greatest gift that you can give another person is to gracefully receive whatever it is that they want to give us." Fred Rogers That's deep, sir, but it's my wife's birthday in two more days and I have zero idea what to get her. Okay, I've got a lot of ideas, but I'd like at least one that I can give her during the party, y'know? Like something I can actually wrap up in a box and watch her tear the wrapping paper off, then go 'ooh!

A thing I would never have gotten for myself in a million years but always wanted without realizing I wanted it thank you so much I love you!' Y'know, something that makes her feel the way I feel when I look at her. So yesterday turned out to be pretty dull, Calverton-wise. I watched for flags and flares, because our Undead Killer squads are getting deep enough in that there aren't always spots to wave a flag, or even throw up a flagpole. Honestly, I think I might need to move forward to a closer base eventually.

Either that, or figure out a way to get Black Dragon moving and shift her and the rest of the fleet closer to Calverton itself. Really, I'd love to see her moving under her own power, probably even more than I'd like the guns up and ready to fire, because we're trying to liberate Calverton, not level it. We got called in once when Olga had moved out to rescue a Killer Squad, and another one threw up a flare.

I punched my Blend all the way up, grabbed Marie by the hand and stepped us to the nearest roof I could see from the Black Dragon. The Miasma hit us immediately; nothing so bad as one of the Mages we'd faced, but clearly more than the normal background in Calverton.

We peeked over the edge of the roof and saw the problem immediately; the Trolls had formed a perimeter, and were holding out just fine against the swarm of basic bitch Undead gathered around, but there were a few dozen Undead Archers on a roof down the way, firing from cover. Normally our Mages would just toss some fire or shit, but they had to keep Mana Wards up to prevent the Miasma from overcoming the Trolls.

Maybe a little bit of a tactical error on the part of the commander of this squad of Undead Killers, but after I'd stressed playing it safe, I wasn't going to get on somebody's case because they prioritized defense over offense. End those Archers, Murder Mittens. Gladly, Vlickies. White fur and shining steel flashed behind the Archers, limbs flying, strings snapping, and heads flying as several Maries happened to the Archers.

A moment later she reappeared next to me, grinning and doing fancy staff spinning shit with her swordstaff. I Co-Located down to the guy in our squad with the fanciest armor, dropped my Blend to normal, and asked, "can you guys handle it from here?" If he jumped a little when he realized he'd just jostled me, I didn't blame him. Then again, this Killer Squad was packed in a little tight.

"No, Majesty, no problem... I mean yes, yes, we can take it from here." I smiled up at him, tapping him on the pauldron just hard enough to make it ring.

"No worries. Just want to make sure you guys are staying safe out here. If you're good I'm gonna head back to overwatch then?"

"Yes, Majesty! Thank you!" I collapsed back to the me on the roof, took Marie by the hand and collapsed us back to the Black Dragon's mast, then hugged her.

"You were great, sweetie. Any Miasma sticking to you?" She shrugged, so I said, "hang on tight!" and whomped her with a Smite. Her eyes glowed a little, then she kinda melted over me and purred. I took the opportunity to engage in some snuggling time while I watched for more flags or flares. When the sun touched the horizon, which meant our troops had settled in for the night, the two of us hopped back to our suite, where Marie had the Menace waiting for us.

After getting her tucked in with Mister Kraken, I carefully tugged the other two into the bedroom, whispering, "I have to show you two something." A moment later we all stood on the mast of the Black Dragon just as the glow beneath the waves started up. As she watched the rainbow patterns flowed through the Bay, Saffron whispered, "so beautiful." I snuggled her from one side, Marie on the other. Our big tiger lady just purred. When I asked, "what do you think, Mittens?"

"Yes." We both laughed at that, right up until the other two noticed the shadows playing over the water.

"Is that who I think it is?"

"Yeah. That's... that's me, dancing with my Kraken."

"I think I understand now why the Undead haven't tried to retake the Bay." I snorted.

"Y'think?" Softer, I said, "I wish I had a way to talk to them." She shrugged.

"You do, though. Just go down there and do it." I turned her head around to look her in the eyes.

"Dafuq?" She giggled, still lighthearted from the beauty under the waves, I thought.

"They... they don't speak, exactly, but we communicated when I retrieved you after the Spring Equinox." I looked down into the kaleidoscopic patterns beneath the waves and thought, for just a minute, about diving in.

"I'm gonna have go to talk to them eventually." Saffron leaned into me, pulling Marie against her as well.

"But not tonight?"

"Not tonight. I'm still tired, I think." We sat there for a while until Saffron shook her head.

"Wait, I know! You should bring Siobhan here for your date!" I froze.

"Uh..."

"Tabitha!"

"Yes?" I took comfort in the laughter burbling beneath the surface of her voice.

"Did you Just Happen to Siobhan last night?"

"No!"

"So it was planned then?" Before I could respond, Marie chuckled out, "Probably."

"No! No, I didn't! I was having a panic attack, and I had a question I had to ask her, and I told her about the panic attack, and she came back here to help me stop panicking!" Saffron leaned against a crosspiece of the mast, smiling at me as much as she had been at the water.

"So she came here without you Just Happening to her?" I nodded.

"Yeah! No Happening occurred! I mean, I might have gotten a little flirty, maybe, because I was so fuckin' nervous, but nothing else happened! I even stopped her when she tried to kiss me!" That got her. Sort of. She just stared at me like I'd grown another head.

"You... why?"

"Because you said..."

"I said what?" I took a deep breath, thinking about what she'd said. Okay, thinking about what I remembered about what she said, which even I knew wasn't the same thing.

"You want to, y'know, be watching. If I do anything with anybody else other than you two." A smile teased at her lips.

"And you included kissing in that?"

"Well... Yeah. I mean... yeah." I didn't want to mention exactly how long it had taken for us to go from 'kissing' to 'fucking like rabid weasels', just in case she felt some kinda way about it. The smile that had lurked broke free, and it was fucking sunshine in the middle of the night.

"First you give me both femurs, then this. I love you, Tabitha Diaz, but I never expected this." I couldn't help the tension crawling up my spine.

"Uh, what did I do now?" She pulled me to her. Then, without warning, Marie yoinked me fully across both their laps, spun me around so I lay with my face just below Saffron's, my ass braced by Marie's arm.

"I never expected you to be thoughtful. I know how much you care, but I never expected you to... well, I suppose we did work to teach you restraint, but I never expected you to use it for this." Her voice dropped to a whisper.

"For me. Not like this." Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Before I could reply, Marie whispered, "Truth."

"But... I love you guys. Why wouldn't I do that for you?" She shook her head and kissed me, long and slow, with Marie's arms around both of us. When we came up for air, she said, "because it flies in the face of your basic nature, Goof. You live in the moment, in the eternal now. To think that with her right here, trying to kiss you, you'd stop because you thought I wanted you to wait..." she shook her head again.

"It's humbling, in a way."

"Why?'

"It would be like... like Marie turning away from Dionysus, or me losing control of myself." My brow furrowed.

"But... you've done those things?" She laughed, the sound pure and full of awareness and acceptance of her own fallibility.

"But I'm a mere mortal, My Goddess, and you, you are a force of nature." I nodded to Marie.

"She's a Goddess too." Saffron rolled her eyes.

"She is. She is, and yet, here she sits, next to me, more powerful than me by far, but still... comprehensible. I can compare myself to her. Even favorably, within my areas of expertise. But you... you...." She shook her head, then her eyes sprung wide, and she waved her arms at the sky.

"This. This is you. Shadows stretching to the horizon in every direction. We are both of us, Woman and Goddess, powerless against the force of nature we love so dearly." Again, before I could reply, Marie chimed in with, "True."

"I... I worry about that, y'know." Words leaked out of me as they listened.

"I worry that I'm hurting you... no, twisting you into things you'd never be if I weren't here."

"You are."

"I shou..." Saffron's fingers slipped across my mouth, and Marie's did a second later.

"I would never have become Imperator had you not twisted my fate. Marie would still be a shadow of what she should be, a menial bound to an oath forgotten by those she gave it to. You cannot help it, love. You are a force of nature, and the world bends around you as is right and good." She paused after those last words.

"Marie, would you rather be what you were?"

"No." I shook my head, "but it's never enough. I want to change her even more. I want... I... I'm just this huge pit of hunger and I gobble up everything around me whether..." I petered off as she kissed my forehead.

"Has Sister Siobhan been added to your list of lovers?" I pouted.

"No." She whispered in my ear, "did you want her to be?" Guilt grabbed me, but I answered honestly.

"Kinda."

"Do you still want her?" Tears leaked from me.

"Yeah?" She kissed my tears away. I think she might have licked a couple of them away, which was just so weird it interrupted my whole guilt thing long enough to understand when she said, "I look forward to that."

"So... so fuckin' weird. But I guess you like blondes?" She chuckled.

"As I've said, I've grown up in a City where 'fair' is seen as synonymous with 'beautiful'. Wait, are you offering to share her with me?"

"No! Wait, yes? Shit, it's not like she's a new bike and I can just offer everybody a fuckin' ride. But, like, I'd be a complete bitch if I said 'no, you can't have her' after telling you straight up that I want to get with her, wouldn't I?" My sniffles were sneaking back, despite lingering weirdness from her licking my tears away. She nuzzled me.

"You are My Goddess, love. You are a storm and a sea and strength beyond measure. You may be any kind of bitch you like and I will love you no less." I buried my face into her neck.

"You deserve better than a bitch." She sighed.

"Marie, I think it's time we put our bitch to bed." The next moment I tumbled into our bed, and Saffron's face filled my vision, a joyful Grin stretching her lips.

"Now, my beautiful Bitch. Bark for me." I don't really remember any details, because the two of them did exactly as I asked and pile drove my consciousness into the soft, pillowy mattress with an absolute lack of mercy. Mimic danced with her Kraken in the Bay, an impressive feat with chibi Chef Marie yeeting chibi Chef Saffrons into her maw as fast as her arms could throw them. I swear if that bitch had a face it would have looked like a Jackson Pollock painting under UV light after they were done.

Some tiny guilty part of me wanted to not enjoy it. But oh, god, she tasted so good, felt so good splashing across me like a torrential downpour. That tiny voice lost itself to endless frenzied feasting. I woke up to the sun streaming in through the curtains, with Saffron lying next to me playing with my hair.

"Good morning, Kitten." She stretched, yawning, then snuggled in next to me.

"Good morning, Goof. Sleep well?"

"I think you know I did, no matter how disturbing the awesome dreams were. I think you're responsible for both the good sleep and the.... dreams." She pouted into my side.

"Not good dreams?"

"They still scare me. But..."

"But?" It took me a second to find the words, during which she burrowed into my side.

"I'm humbled that you think I'm worth all that." She pulled away, a finger on my chin turning my face to hers.

"I do. That and any other prize you desire." I don't know what came over me, but whatever bit had taken control of my vocal cords while on the Mast with Sister Siobhan decided to pay another visit.

"Even if..."

"Go on?"

"I bring Hilde back in the sluttiest lingerie I can imagine, then cart her off and despoil her while not letting you watch?" Her eyes wide, Saffron just wheezed at me.

"Oh. Oh, you cruel bitch."

"Despoiled her beyond ever wanting anything ever again? Despoiled her right into the ground?" She panted, one hand clutching at me.

"I know, in my heart, that you are joking, because you would never kill someone for that, but..."

"Ericson." She swallowed, tensing.

"Someone innocent of any wrongdoing." I whispered into her hair, "are you ab-so-lute-ly sure?" I teased each syllable out, enjoying the way she tensed with each one. She just melted across the front of me, murmuring, "I am sure of only one thing.

Whatever you choose, I am yours and I love you, and whether you choose the path of savior or destroyer, whether you build me up to let me rule the world or fatten me up to swallow me Soul and all, I will drown in ecstasy every moment your attention is focused on me, and it will echo in me for as long as any vestige of me remains, whether a statue viewed by some far distant descendant, or a tiny dissolving mote in your voracious maw." I laughed; not cruelly, but with more than a little bit of nervousness.

"No pressure or anything, though, right?" She frowned at me.

"Of course not? I just said, I'm yours no matter what. Joyfully. Gleefully."

"You... you sound a little bit fanatic there."

"Duh." I pursed my lips.

"So. What about that then? What if I told you to not be so fanatic?" Her frown got really deep.

"Is... I'm not... Do..." The tiniest sparkle in her eyes had me kissing her eyelids.

"No, no, no, no, no, Kitten. Don't cry. Please don't cry. I was playing."

"But... do you want that?"

"No. No, not if it hurts you."

"So you do."

"NO!" I grabbed her and pulled her up so I could look right into her eyes, so she could see how serious I was.

"No! I want you to be you! You just... oh, shit." Confusion replaced some of the hurt, and I rejoiced.

"Oh shit?"

"You scare me." That broke a dam in her, and after a single barked out laugh, she laughed and cried both at the same time, snark flowing from her all the while.

"Oh. Oh, no! Not fear! Not that! Whatever could possibly be worse than fear!" I shut her up by the only means I had available and acceptable. I kissed her, even as she laughed and snarked into my fuckin' mouth. Eventually she settled down a bit, and as she lay there chuckling she said, "so, what did you have to ask Siobhan about?"

"Uh..."

"Ooh! Was it favorite foods? What she wanted to do on your date?" She batted her lashes at me and stared out from under them.

"Positions she wants to try before you inevitably exhaust her?"

"Uh... it's a secret?" Her head tilted.

"Seriously?" I nodded.

"Nothing bad. Well, a little embarrassing for me, but nothing bad. I promise. I'm gonna go talk with Marie about it later, and it's not anything bad."

"You said that twice." A laugh burbled out of her.

"You do this to me so easily. Make me laugh, make me cry."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be! I feel... Better afterward. Lighter. Happier? Maybe. More content, definitely. Oh! Wait! You asked her what kind of lingerie she wants you to wear!" Inspiration hit, and after my immediate response of, "no!" I paused, then acting like I was all smooth and shit asked, "so... What lingerie should I put Hilde in, anyhow?"

"Oh. Oh, you're mean."

"Sorry." She slapped my tit, just hard enough to sting a little, not hard enough to hurt.

"Don't be. In case you hadn't caught on, I think I might like it just a little. But..." When her pause went on a little long, I asked, "but?"

"If you do something like that? Please, please, please, don't hurt yourself. Don't hurt her, because I think that would hurt you. And if you do it..." She took a deep breath.

"If you hurt her to hurt me, do it because it brings you joy, not for any lesser reason." I ruffled her hair.

"You are not good for my intent to be a better person some times. One condition."

"Name it."

"Tell me, right now, what lingerie, on Hilde, would shatter your self-control like cheap glass, like ice falling to the Practice Yard from the Academy roof." She bit her lip, whining, and I leaned my ear over near her mouth.

"It's okay, you can whisper it to me." She breathed her answer into my ear so faintly I could barely hear it, slipping a visual into my brain almost unwillingly as she did.

"Oh. Oh, shit, Kitten. Damn. That's... Wow."

"Is it too much?" I kissed her hair as I answered, "make you a deal. I'll tell you if you're too much, and you just be absolutely as much as you can be until I do." She snorted.

"Isn't that almost exactly what I've been telling you, as regards the Sister?" I tilted my head as I thought about it a moment.

"Not really. You've been telling me to give in to impulses I grew up being told were wrong, and I'm not sure I can. I'm telling you not to worry about whether something you want is too much until I tell you it is. Different, see?" She smiled.

"Not really. Do you love me?"

"Yes!"

"Then anything else is negotiable." I pulled her back under my arm, letting her snuggle in.

"Yeah. Yeah, I can live with that. Negotiable." She giggled.

"You're so mercurial."

"Somebody told me I live in the now. It bites me in the ass a lot, I think, but right here, right now? I think I'm gonna snuggle my wife and enjoy the now." I remembered something and frowned.

"Wait, who's watching Calverton?" She purred at me.

"Marie and I, silly."

"I don't want you in danger." She nodded.

"I know, and that's why you're conquering the world for me, to make it safe for me and our daughter. But I'm as safe as Marie and Vulcan can make me." I settled back down, secure in the notion that holy fuck I absolutely did not settle back down, one of me dropped onto the Black Dragon's mast, The Dress wrapped around me as sloppily as she'd ever been, armored bits clinking into place. The two of them took one look at me and broke up laughing. I looked down and definitely had a chuckle my own self.

'Sloppy' wasn't quite the right word. The correct word was 'gladiatorial'. In all its full frontal glory. Eh. Call it an early birthday present for my Kitten. That's sure as fuck what I'm gonna do.