Amaranthine

By rights, the tangle of limbs strewn haphazardly over two pushed-together military cots should have been deeply uncomfortable. But, as the bugle played the next morning, finding Cait laying there with Kennedy’s head in the crook of her neck, her face half covered by Qi’s tail, there was no place she’d rather be.

“What the fuck is that?” Kennedy moaned, trying to stretch but finding herself pinned under a dragon that was still softly snoring. She wiggled around until she could get a good angle, then bit her on the crown of the ear. Qi woke with a snort, and a not inconsiderable ball of fire from either nostril.

“Reveille!” Cait answered, laughing at Qi’s ruby reds as they glared blearily at Kennedy. “Honestly, didn’t think they did it IRL, but I’ve seen enough war movies to recognize it. We’re probably supposed to do some slapstick comedy in our rush to line up somewhere?”

“Oh yeah?” Kennedy said sardonically, lip quirking upwards, “that standard military procedure?”

“When Bill Murray is involved, yeah, apparently,” Cait said with a shrug that turned Qi’s glare to her. With a huff, the dragon lady slammed her head back onto Cait’s chest, squeezing her and Kennedy tight in her massive arms.

“Don’t wanna get up,” she said, nuzzling in further.

“How are you such a big scary dragon and an absolute cuddle bug at the same time?” Kennedy said, voice tinkling with laughter. She wriggled an arm free, stroking her fingers along Qi’s horn, as Cait learned that dragons could purr like a cat. “You make a really good comforter, babe. You’re so hot.”

Qi’s eye quirked open at that, the heat in Kennedy’s last word entirely different than the kind she was talking about. Cait had half a mind to let things escalate again, but as was happening disturbingly often lately, she was forced to be the adult.

“Hey! No dawn-time hanky panky. We’re going to, like, actual war soon. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but we have more important things to do than fuckin’.” She met two sets of defiant eyes, sighing and shaking her head. “What the fuck happened with you two anyway? You barely tolerated each other outside of ragefucking, and now you’re trading soft kisses like newlyweds.”

Now they all looked confused. Kennedy and Qi shared a long look, and Cait could feel a myriad of emotions passing between them, none of which carried a sense of resolution.

“I…. Don’t know?” said Kennedy, more question than statement. “I kind of decided to be okay with Qi, but not like this…”

She gestured to the cuddle pile she was a part of.

“This kind of intimacy is you and Lira only, and the sex the first time was only okay because I was so in control. Last night…”

“It felt like I loved you,” said Qi.

“Yeah, it did,” Kennedy said, blushing as her eyes met Qi’s.

It didn’t escape Cait’s notice that was decidedly not an actual declaration of love from either party. But, it was a damn sight closer than the passive aggression, or actual aggression, they’d shown each other previously.

“Awwwww, lookit you two getting along!” she cooed, lightly pressing Kennedy’s head down towards Qi’s. “Now kiss.”

Instead, Kennedy bit Cait on the tit, then pushed herself up off the pile. Cait watched Qi’s eyes follow her rise, feeling the pang of her disappointment.

Well, I fell for Kennedy the second I laid eyes on her. Can’t really blame Qi, although I think there might be something a little less normal than puppy love going on there.

The disappointment changed to a conflicted kind of fire as Kennedy bent back down to bring her lips to Cait’s, softly pressing her ‘good morning’ into Cait’s mouth. She brought a hand to Cait’s cheek, looking down at her as her lips spread in a grin.

“I don’t kiss when I’m told,” she said. “Just when I want to.”

With Lira, that would have set off a round of brat correction, but with Kennedy…. Well, it was a weird feeling to have to juggle so many different sexual dynamics. Not a bad feeling, mind, but Cait imagined few people in history had experienced the same problem.

Cait shook off the feeling of awe she got whenever Kennedy looked at her like that, gave her a cheeky grin, then bent down to give Qi a long, hungry kiss.

“Don’t you worry about the mean hot topic model baby, there’s enough of me to fill two dragon’s hoards.”

“Oh my god,” Qi laughed, stretching as she decided to rise as well. “I am not letting 'dragon’s hoard, catch on as a nickname for my pussy.”

“Not sure you get a choice,” quipped Kennedy, and Cait felt her link to Qi drop as Kennedy realized she was going to rip the shit out of the t-shirt she was pulling on over her scale armor. “Think about it this way though, implies there’s treasure in there!”

“Too early for this,” Qi complained, her body doing the opposite of Kennedy’s, armor growing thicker and more extensive. “How do you guys think the food is here?”

The answer was ‘not great’, but it was a little nostalgic to be reminded of an elementary cafeteria. Cait fenced one of Breastman’s tentacles with a pancake wrapped sausage as the rest of the team discussed plans for the day.

“B-man and I are going to be doing exercises with the Mech detachment, focusing on neutralizing major threats in the assault tomorrow,” Gwyn explained, drawing Cait’s attention. The big blonde grimaced, and not because she missed a parry and took a tentacle to the face.

“Y’all better watch out,” she said, fixing both of them with her gaze. “Not sure if ol’ Cap’n Schwinn is the head honcho, but she’s definitely got friends, and she hates me. I don’t think she’d take that out on you, but I doubt she’d be that upset if someone got proactive.”

“Yeah, I don’t know about that Cait,” Gwyn continued, an amused grin on her face. “Maybe she’ll turn us to her side. Everything I’ve heard says you deserve it. That poor girl.”

Cait frowned, then looked confused.

“Wait, heard from who?”

“Who do you think?”

“Goddammit.”

C: spreading rumors, huh?

C:better be ready to spread something else when I get back

L: duh

L: its so much better when you’re mad ;)

Well, fuck it, that’s at least a net wash.

The first group of Guardians arrived right after breakfast, tromping through a swirling mandala right outside the gates. At their head stood Warhawk, flanked by the rebuilt Rodeo Squad; Bullrush, Harambe, and Thoughtless.

Cait, Kennedy, Kevin and Qi accompanied Lieutenant Hale out to meet them. Warhawk’s scowl at Cait was undercut, as usual, by Claudio’s genial wave and broad smile.

“Dawn Posse!” he called as they walked through the gate. “Glad you all made it in one piece.”

He held up his bionic arm and winked, by all appearances filled with genuine good humor. Harmabe the Cyber-gorilla beside him seemed less amused, but kept that to himself.

“If there was something that could take a piece of me off,” Cait said, clapping Claudio’s hand and flexing in her best Predator handshake, “Lira would have found it. She behaving herself? Scratch that, I already know she isn’t.”

Next to her, Warhawk groaned.

“Goddamn I’d forgotten what a menace she can be. Girl is bouncin’ off the walls without you to bounce on,” she said, letting her scowl crack into a reluctant grin. She ruffled Kevin’s hair as he approached, in the single most tender action Cait had ever seen from her. “How you doin’ kiddo?”

“Great!” exclaimed Kevin, bouncing excitedly as he gazed around at the gathered Guardians. “You shoulda seen the fight these guys put on last night! It was like psssshhhpow! Ahhhhhhh ba-wham!”

He punctuated his sound effects with a little shadowboxing, to adorable effect, before reddening as he remembered he was a surly teenager.

“That so?” Warhawk asked, cocking an eyebrow at Cait. “Trouble?”

“Nah, just giving Qi and Kennedy some practice fighting as a team. We’re… uh, we’re kinda assuming I’ll get taken out of the fight somehow.”

Instead of mocking her, Warhawk nodded sagely.

“Smart. You’re still a rookie, lot of shit you ain’t seen yet, and Bookkeeper has the biggest arsenal of powers in history to throw at you. Glad you’re plannin’ for the worst.” She ran her eyes over the present members of the Dawn Posse. “Speakin’ plain, practice is a good idea for all of us. Let ARMOR say whatever they need to say and lets get to it.”

A couple hours later, the Guardians had settled in and were split off into the units they’d be supporting. That just left Kennedy, Cait, Qi, Warhawk and Kevin. The teenager shifted nervously from foot to foot as he waited for the Guardians to plan.

“Right, so you’re joinin’ this shitshow Qi?” Warhawk asked, to a roll of the eyes from Kennedy.

“I am, gotta make sure our girl here has something a little more impressive than the physical characteristics of a brick.”

Cait opened her mouth, raising a finger to respond, but shut it again before interjecting.

Yeah, my shits only dope cause I’m all the way fuckin’ invincible. Fair enough.

Kennedy punched Qi playfully in the shoulder, her scales making a weird scratching sound against Qi’s own.

“I can do both! Get to be a brick dragon. Never saw that in any DnD books.”

“Oooooh we could homebrew that, Sandy, is Claudio still down to DM for B-Man, Kennedy and—”

“Holy fuckin’ shit, Cait,” Warhawk groaned. “Shut your nerd ass up. Its embarrassin’ you lookin’ like you do and talkin’ bout that. Shameful to hot folks everywhere, and I’m one of em. Also, call me Sandy again and…”

She paused, then scowled.

“I guess I’ll just be fuckin’ upset. Aggravatin’ tough assed blonde. Anywho, lets get this kid in the sky, how’d he do on the way over?”

“Great!” Kennedy lied, causing Kevin to look first surprised, then elated. “Lil’ Kev is a trooper. Gonna be good to get him some more practice though, and I can see how well we cloak on the ground, figure out ranges…”

Logistical discussion went on for awhile longer, but in under an hour the team was in the woods, moving in darkness.

“I can’t fucking believe we all forgot Qi wouldn’t be able to see,” Cait complained, holding the dragon in a princess carry that was cartoonishly lopsided.

“Honestly I don’t even mind,” said Qi, nuzzling into Cait’s neck. With the horns and scales, it probably should have hurt, but instead it just scratched an itch Cait’s hands had been too full to take care of.

“Yeah, stop complaining!” chided Kennedy as they crested a wooded hill. “You can never keep your hands still anyway, now you get to grope all you want on the walk.”

“Oh, believe me, she is,” Qi said, before their radios crackled.

“Shut the hell up ya damn hens, I can hear you from up here,” complained Warhawk. “Then confirm you can still hear me and that Kennedy’s blackout control is as good as she thinks.”

“Damn, you are spicy today Sandy,” Kennedy said into her comm. “and these are important tactical discussions! Cait, babe, are you honestly not impeded carrying Qi?”

“Nah,” Cait responded, and Qi yelped when she gave her scaly buttcheek a squeeze. “Not like I get tired, and you were spot on with the groping.”

Qi gave the girlish giggle only Cait seemed to get out of her, tail slapping at the blonde’s ass in mock protest. Gagging sounds from Kevin came over the airwaves.

“Good power control K-money!” Cait said, meaning it. They hadn’t lost contact any of the times they’d checked in, and Warhawk hadn’t complained of sudden blind flight even once. “Honestly, if I wasn’t already fucked up on the ethics of having you do this, I’d say we should leave Qi and keep you around for the final fight, Kennedy would be a goddamn menace if she could blind everyone around us.”

“Not. Happenin’.” Warhawk’s tone left no room for debate, but no-one present had any inclination to disagree. Kevin’s involvement was a matter of desperation and necessity, not a whim.

“Also, fuck you!” Qi said, drawing another round of giggles out of the girls. They practiced the entire day, even managing to discover some new things about Kevin’s powers. Kennedy, worried about the amount of noise Cait was making both from being herself and carrying Qi, had wondered if she could make it so sound didn’t leave the area, similarly to how light got fucked up inside.

After an hour or two of attempts and some surprisingly philosophical discussions on the nature of retention and rejection with Kevin, they had found the answer was yes.

They approached a rabbit, walking totally normally, and it stayed put until it entered Kennedy’s radius, at which point it bolted. The ground team did that a dozen more times before they accepted it wasn’t a fluke, and they all felt a hell of a lot better about their chances of getting to the Bookkeeper undetected.

As dusk began to fall, Warhawk alighted beside them, letting a windswept Kevin out of his harness.

“I want a superhero name!” he announced, difficult to take seriously still wearing the detachable part of the harness like a shitty BDSM outfit.

“How bout Gimp?” suggested Cait, to a punch, not playful, from Kennedy.

“Be nice!”

“I’m serious! Its like he makes people wear the mask, go blind and shit you know?”

“Cait! He looks up to you!”

Looking at Kevin, Cait did feel a little bad. He was trying to look tough, but… yeah, having a hero make fun of you was probably hard.

“I’m sorry bud,” she said, jostling his shoulder and giving him a smile. “If this works out, you’ll deserve a hero name more than I do. Any ideas?”

Kevin perked up immediately.

“Yeah! I was thinking Blackout!” he said, emphasizing the last word with a broad hand gesture. All of the women shared a look.

“Qi,” Cait said, holding back laughter. “I think you have to tell him. The rest of us are too…”

She waved around at herself, Kennedy and Sandra, all varying shades of white-as-hell.

“What? What!?” Kevin demanded, before realization dawned on his face. He looked at his hand forlornly. “Oh. Yeah, bad optics on that, huh?”