Amaranthine

In the end, it was decided the team would set out the following morning. Gwyn still had science bullshit to finish up, and Willow wanted to have a one-on-one with Kennedy regarding what she understood about her powers. Qi was going to make a few high-profile public appearances to show strength before she went off the grid with her team for awhile.

That meant, for the first time in awhile, Cait and Lira had each other all to themselves.

Cait had been the one to break character, suggesting they spend the night having an actual date, instead of in, on, and around each other.

“But Caaaaaiiit,” Lira whined, “Kennedy is such a cock hog! Are you seriously not going to—”

“Whoa, hey,” Cait protested. She noted that while Lira was putting on a show, her heart was not in her complaints. “I never said I wasn’t. Just thought I’d make you treat me like a lady first, given that I’m part of your harem and all.”

Cait winked, and Lira giggled, quirking her head to give Cait an adorable smile that lived in her eyes.

“God, that made me so fucking happy. Finally, someone understands the actual dynamics at work here,” she said, still smiling as she sidled up to Cait, reaching up to wrap her arms around her neck. “So. What do I have to do to get those pants off of you, harem-hero?”

“If I’m being honest?” Cait said, rubbing her fingers along the soft skin at Lira’s waist. “Ask nicely. Or rudely. Shit, I might just take ‘em off myself. But, if you wanna make a girl feel special, dinner and dancing?”

“Ugh, so needy,” Lira teased, rising up on her tip toes, where Cait met her for a soft kiss. When it broke, her own lip was caught between her teeth, a desire in her eyes Cait looked forward to fulfilling. “Better make it worth my while.”

“Always,” Cait said, letting her go, and walking towards her door. “Thinkin’ Downtown, Centro maybe, then hit up the Blazing Saddle. See if we can’t make some gays reconsider?”

“Dick. Though, I mean, to be fair, we’re gay. Kind of? No, definitely gay.”

“You know what I meant.”

“Yeah, and you’re still a dick,” Lira sighed, glaring at her, but unable to stop her lips from curving up just slightly. “Still, good place to dance like a slut without dudes thinking we look like an easy threesome. Pick you up at 8?”

Cait looked at the clock. It was 3 PM.

“That gonna be enough time for you? I mean, you girly -girls—”

She cackled as she used the door to block a flying couch cushion, and ducked into her room.

“Love you!” she called as she heard Lira open the apartment door to head down to her own. The girl returned her affection, but Cait thought she could hear the middle finger Lira must have been giving her when she left.

Cait chuckled to herself, once more reflecting that her life had gotten fucking wild, but also fucking good. She melted into her computer chair, booting up Discord to see if Kevin was online and needed help not being terrible at videogames while Salad jumped into her lap and situated himself.

Dickgirldiva: ayo, hop on?

Censor: hop on what?

Dickgirldiva: idk, what are you being bad at right now

Dickgirldiva: also, having your Guardian name as your Discord handle is gauche, dude

Censor: YOU are telling ME about gauche?

Dickgirldiva: yeah

Censor: christ. Immune to irony too, huh?

Dickgirldiva: yeah

Censor: ….

Censor: alright, hop on VC and boot up OW3, we can duo Junker and Lucio

The hours fell away as Cait caught up with the teen. She had zero plans to have kids of her own, but this one in particular, she felt protective of. To date, Kevin was the only Altered she’d brought into the AEGIS fold, and promptly involved him in a harrowing assault on an honest-to-god supervillian’s lair. Understandably, his mother no longer allowed direct contact between her son and any AEGIS personnel.

When the clock rolled around to 730, she made her excuses and got off the call. She sauntered into her closet, looking through the outfits Kennedy and Lira had picked out for her a few weeks ago. Both were very aware that if they hadn’t Cait would show up to any date wearing some combination of tight red top and tighter black pants, usually athletic wear for both. That was to say, show up looking fucking great, but not exactly classy.

A dress the same dark purple of her hero outfit caught her eye. She grabbed the hanger, looking it over, realizing it must have been a custom job. It mirrored her outfit in a lot of ways, neckline up to her chin, variation on the white stylized A in front, open back. Almost floor length, but with side slits up to her hips.

Hell yeah. She wiggled into it, smiling at the image in the mirror. Pretty good, for Amaranthine’s first public appearance in awhile. If it’s a slow news day and Sharon Smart is lucky with her angles, than this is a wardrobe malfunction gold mine.

Cait messed with her hair a bit, mostly just to show effort. It never really changed from semi-wavy perfection. She did kind of wish she’d taken the time to get her ears pierced before she became fully un-peirceable; the side of her face her hair didn’t fall around could use some ornamentation.

All in all, good enough. People wouldn’t be wondering why a girl like Lira was with her.

She walked to the living room, surprised to find Dawn relaxed on the couch taking a rare breather.

“My my,” she cooed, her cervine features turning away from the Attenbourough classic she had on the tv, “putting in some effort for once, are we?”

“Rude,” Cait said, grinning and plopping down on the couch next to her. Part of her vaguely protested that it wasn’t good for the dress, and that her balls would fall out if she wasn’t careful, but 1. She didn’t really care, and 2. Dawn was, as was her custom at home, totally naked.

Admittedly that had been a little weird at first, although for awhile they’d barely spent enough time in the apartment for it to matter. In the last month though, it had really only served to reaffirm to Cait that she wasn’t a furry.

Considering Qi, not super sure where the line is for me. Maybe the face?

That settled in her mind, it had become more like having a moving masterpiece sculpture lounging around the apartment than it was having an omnipresent beautiful naked woman.

“So, you and Swan?” Cait asked, again, seeing that faint blush.

“Are very good friends,” Dawn answered, not inviting further conversation on the topic. To be fair, that could be true, but even when Dawn had been hooking up with dear departed Freeflow, she’d been intensely private about it.

“Alright, I get it, I’m real good friends with Lira too,” Cait chuckled, seeing Dawn’s cheeks darken just one shade beneath her tawny fur. “Happy for you either way, can’t be easy to be around our circus all the time.”

The front door flew open, and Lira sashayed in like she was on the runway.

“Alright, motherfucker,” she was already yelling as she passed the threshold, “I am dripped the fuckup and ready to paint this town whi—”

She noticed the deer looking at her with the expression her species usually reserved for headlights.

“—oh, hey Dawn!” she greeted with her usual bouncy cheer, bravado gone but not replaced by shame. She pointed at Cait. “Here to grab that one.”

Lira’s dress was simple; tight, shimmery, and green, but the rest of her look wasn’t. She’d painted her face like DaVinci, and sculpted her hair up like Michelangelo. Her ears dripped with gold, and her neck matched. All told, maybe people would wonder why she was with Cait, given that Cait looked mostly human, but Lira looked like a goddess.

She walked over to Cait, eyes like lighting lit emeralds burning to Cait’s forest green. Lira looked her over approvingly, then leant down to kiss her. When she pulled back, Cait realized she hadn’t breathed since she walked into the room.

“You look—”

“Oh I know how I look babe,” Lira said, doing a little spin on the spot, hair flowing around her head like a wheel of fire. She stopped facing the door, but looked over her shoulder, crooking a finger to indicate Cait should follow. Like she wouldn’t have followed that ass anywhere.

When Cait hustled to catch her, Lira laughed, wrapping her arms around Cait’s bicep and leaning into her. She bumped her head softly against Cait’s shoulder, smiling up at her with an intensity that was dazzling.

“Y’know, I don’t think you’ve ever actually taken me out before,” she said, the curve of her lips letting Cait know she didn’t actually mind. They climbed into one of the motor pool SUVs, and Cait started the beast up, laying a hand on Lira’s thigh in the passenger seat. She squeezed it high, giving her a little cheeky side eye.

“Well, you kinda skipped a lot of the normal relationship stages when you joined me in the shower that first night,” she said, and could see Lira smirk out of the corner of her eye.

“I know what I want! Sue me.”

They kept chatting and laughing through the drive, and through dinner, which was excellent. The nice thing about Centro was that, being an Iowa fine-dining restaurant, you could show up in a t-shirt and athletic shorts or formal wear, and no one would really bat an eye at either. Throughout the meal, as Cait found herself thoroughly wined and dined by Lira, she was constantly reminded of why she loved the girl, instead of just lusted for her.

Lira was fucking funny. She was perceptive, and sweet, but almost every word had at least a hint of spice. She could build an entire character for one of the restaurant patrons based on their hat alone, narrating their life with confidence based on nothing. Through all of it, her eyes sparkled, and Cait was transfixed by each motion of her mouth. There was more than once she came back to herself, lost looking at Lira, with the girl’s fingers snapping in front of her face. She was never mad though, taking Cait’s distraction as the compliment to her beauty that it was.

“God, sorry,” Cait groaned after the third time she got caught up in watching Lira’s lips move instead of hearing the words coming out of them. She smiled sheepishly into Lira’s self-satisfied smirk. “I’m so much smoother when I’m not actually into someone. You get lovestruck Cait, when fuckboi Cait is better company.”

Lira took her hand, bringing her fingers to her lips and kissing softly before laying her cheek in Cait’s palm.

“Nah, I get both. Also, I think you’re underestimating how much fun it is to see you like this,” she said, kissing Cait’s palm, her soft lips tickling indestructible skin. Out of the corner of her eye, Cait saw their waitress approach with the check, clock the scene, and turn around.

“God, what would we do without PDA to spice things up,” she laughed pulling Lira across the table for a gentle kiss. Lira giggled as she sat back down.

“Think this is PDA? Wait till we get on the dance floor. Not gonna be much difference between what I do there and what I do when I finally get you alone,” she promised, eyebrows going wild.

“In this dress?” Cait purred, “Doesn’t have to be any difference, this thing is next-level easy access.”

Lira glared back playfully.

“Down girl. I like the Saddle, and while it’s a pretty liberal place, I think full penetration on the dance floor will get us banned.”

Their waitress finally realized there probably wasn’t going to be a non-awkward time to drop off the check, so chose that moment to interject. Cait scanned her thumb, hoping AEGIS added decent gratuity. The poor girl had done a good job navigating the conversational minefield Cait and Lira represented.