Amaranthine

The mood was somber as the away team walked into the Palace that evening, at least until they caught sight of a fantastic rack of antlers bobbing above the crowd in front of them.

“Hey! Dawn!” Cait yelled, shouldering her way through the crowd towards their friend. She saw the antlers turn before she saw the deer herself. When the crowd parted, the deer wore a soft smirk, looking down at a beaming Cait. “You’re out of the hospital!”

“Right as rain, Cait,” Dawn said, her singsong tones now actually having a slight harmony to them. “Better even. I am certain the MedCorps would love to run more tests on me, but they are not ones I am interested in. Given my newfound critical importance to the organization, Director Swan has given me a form of Carte Blanche for my time moving forward, provided I continue to guard against Characters.”

She frowned then, looking a little ashamed.

“I am sorry you all had to deal with those that slipped through my net. The one…. Well, honestly he appeared as just a regular Altered to me, and the other was apparently fortunate enough to not be around any plant life until they attacked.”

“Oh shit, you already know about that?” Cait asked, eyebrows rising in surprise. “Damn, you did get an upgrade.”

“You will find there is little that happens in the city I do not know about, moving forward,” Dawn said, the harmony of her voice taking on a minor scale. She wiggled her fingers faux-menacingly at Cait. “Behave…”

“Nah, I like it when people watch,” Cait responded unphased, clapping the deer on the back and steering her towards the stairs. “Its called narcissism, and it’d be something I’d work on if it wasn’t so goddamn warranted.”

Dawn’s chuckle was augmented with birdsong as it left her throat, filling the entryway.

“Mmm. Cait, if we could save the world through pure confidence, I wager you would already have done it.”

The group entered the apartment, finding Kennedy and Lira pretzeled up on the couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn as ghosts were hunted on the tv.

“Fuckin’, didn’t your mom tell you to come help after you were done?” Cait scolded, internally elated to see the women so intimate. “Not just do, what, nothing all day?”

Dawn sniffed the air, and Kennedy blushed as a sly smile creased the deer’s face.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say they did nothing,” she said. Lira’s eyebrows went crazy from where she sat, head resting back on Kennedy’s chest.

“That’s RIGHT!” Cait exclaimed, running over to low five Lira as Kennedy embarrassedly slapped at their hands. “Good work on that, L. Kennedy came so hard it made me stagger.”

“Can confirm!” said Qi, extending a talon for another low five, which Lira fought valiantly against Kennedy’s grip on her wrist to deliver.

“Highest praise I’ve ever received!” Lira said, beaming as she panted in exertion. By rights, she shouldn’t have been able to overpower Kennedy, which probably meant the goth wasn’t as embarrassed as she was trying to make it seem.

“Things have progressed during my absence, I see,” Dawn said, grinning as she looked over the laughing women.

“Ugh, you missed their four-way fuckfest last night,” Gwyn quipped, and Lira stuck her tongue out at the cute nerd.

“Don’t throw stones when you had tentacle dick thrown in your guts all night!” she shot back, turning Gwyn and Breastman pink and black as their respective faces flushed. Dawn let out a musical, full throated laugh that quieted the room.

“If you had told the old Dawn, living alone in a forest shack, that she would one day find this environment relaxing, she would have turned you into a newt on principle,” she said, with a happy shake of her head. “It is good to be home.”

Lira untangled herself from Kennedy, springing up to wrap the deer in a hug.

“Good to have you home!” she said. “Thanks for saving, like, everyone last night.”

“You do not live here, Lira, ”Dawn replied, patting her on the head.

“Please,” Lira countered, looking exasperated. She waved at Cait and Kennedy. “If I’m not getting my back blown out or my face ridden in one or both of these slut’s beds each night, something has gone terribly wrong. What the fuck else is the point of dating two babes?”

“If they’re both sick, I’m happy to pinch hit!” said Qi, raising a clawed hand to eagerly volunteer.

“Two and a half!” Lira corrected, smiling at her. “So yeah, you can pretty much consider me a roommate. Gwyn too, I imagine, she pretty much sleeps here or in her workshop, which doesn’t really count as a place of residence.”

“Its true!” Gwyn said happily. “My boyfriend is a superhero, so I won’t be paying rent.”

SHES KINDA ONE TOO

NOW

“No kidding!” Lira agreed. “We watched some highlights Pete spliced together on his Youtube channel. You’re now the third scariest person in this room, and until Dawn became a goddess you woulda been #2.”

FEELS GOOD TO NOT BE

NUMBER 1 FOR ONCE

“Still number one for mascot marketability bud!” Cait said with a wink. “Don’t think I didn’t see those folks copping your style at the market.”

PEOPLE HAVE GOOD TASTE

“Awww, you guys went to the market without us?” Kennedy pouted. She’d stretched out on the couch after Lira’s abandonment, and Cait let her eyes linger on the curve of her toned abs and the blue sapphire piercing adorning her navel. “Fuuuck. Sad I missed that.”

Cait and Breastman shot nervous looks at each other as she said that. The topic of whether or not to tell Kennedy about the fight at the market, or more specifically, who they’d fought, had been a heated one. It also hadn’t been decisively concluded. Cait was all for honesty in this relationship, but didn’t want Kennedy relive what she had just gone through a week ago. In this environment though, she found her resolve.

“No, babe, I don’t think you are,” she sighed. Kennedy’s face fell into a look of confusion and apprehension. “We fought your parents.”

Cait watched her girlfriend freeze. She wanted more than anything to reach out to comfort her, but knew there wasn’t a worse move in the playbook right now. Instead, she held her gaze, pushing as much comfort and reassurance across their link as she could, fighting back the cold, unreasoning static rising in Kennedy’s mind.

“Its okay. We won!” she smiled, hoping it looked real. “B-money ate part of your dad!”

Breastman let out a satisfied burp.

The shock of that statement was enough to pull Kennedy back, her frozen expression melting into bewilderment.

“Ate… part of…?” she asked, her voice shaky but not breaking.

NO QUESTIONS PLEASE

I DON’T UNDERSTAND

ANY MORE THAN YOU DO

She started to giggle then, opening her arms and reaching out for Cait. The big girl swept her up, crushing her in a ball against her chest.

“Thanks for telling me,” she said. “I knew something had happened that was fucking you up, but this… didn’t expect this. But I needed to know.”

Right, girlfriend literally knows when I’m hiding something now, not just justifiably suspecting it. Gotta remember that.

Cait grinned down at her, cute as a button bundled up against her.

“Ya know, if that had occurred to me, it would have made the choice a lot easier.”

Kennedy giggled, and slapped at her shoulder. Then she bit her lip, tracing her finger along the curve of Cait’s collarbone.

“It doesn’t matter anyway,” she said, steel and wonder in her voice. She ran her finger up Cait’s neck, along her jaw, stopping her black manicured nail just below her chin. “They will never take this from me again.”

Cait let herself be pulled down into a deep kiss, smiling as she tasted Lira’s cinnamon on Kennedy’s breath, alongside a familiar, more intimate flavor. It was exciting enough that a full makeout sesh had begun before a coughing hiss interrupted them. Kennedy blushed as she pulled away from the kiss, laughing as Cait frowned, eyes closed while she continued wiggling her tongue like she was searching for hers.

It found a tentacle instead, shooting into her mouth to flick her uvula as she tried to spit it out.

“Hey!” She coughed, gagging and finally opening her eyes.

WHAT

ARENT WE DOIN KISSES

“Fuck you! The only person that kisses like that is Lira!”

SMOOCHY SMOOCH

OPEN UP!

“This is harassment!”

“You just played tonsil hockey in front of all your friends, babes,” Lira said, slapping Breastman’s threatening tentacle away to go on her tiptoes over Kennedy for a soft, short kiss. “I certainly didn’t mind, but hard to blame the rest of ‘em.”

Cait kept Kennedy bundled close to her chest as she refocused on Dawn.

“Speaking of ‘the rest of ‘em’, what the hell Dawn? Major glow up!” Cait said, raising an eyebrow at the deer.

“Major glow up indeed, Cait,” Dawn agreed. “While I don’t think it is as divine as the ‘goddess’ moniker people keep using would indicate, my power has become…. considerable.”

“So, what, you can just straight up control all plant life anywhere now? Can we all retire?” Cait asked, joking, but just barely.

“No, not quite that drastic,” Dawn said, chuckling, “but less far off than you may think. I believe I have forged a bond with rhe animus loci of Des Moines. Within the city, the ‘Goddess’ classification is relatively apt. Outside, however….”

“You put down roots, basically,” Kennedy finished, getting a nod from Dawn. “Well fuck! Does that mean you can’t leave the city at all?”

“I…. Honestly don’t know,” Dawn answered with a shake of her head. “I am quite certain I will not be as powerful if I do, likely less so than I was before the change to be honest. That is if Elizabeth would even allow it. I suspect I have become something of a trump card in her eyes.”

“Makes sense,” Gwyn agreed, “I’m not sure how we would have ever actually dealt with Myriad without you, and being able to sense Characters…. We need you here. Full stop.”

Dawn nodded, pride and regret written on her face. She locked her wide brown eyes on Qi’s ruby reds. She could have done a lot of things in the next moment, but what she chose to do was smile, wide and warm.

“It looks like you may be stuck with these fools a while longer, friend.”

Qi felt a warmth spread over the back of her neck, that beautiful tingle of acceptance and belonging that she’d been chasing for years. Her eyes scanned the room, seeing the warmth in Dawn’s eyes reflected in everyone present. Even the honey-gold of Kennedy’s eyes was kind, her guard finally down. Somewhere along the way, the substitute had become a teammate.