Amaranthine

The next morning, the team gathered around the breakfast nook in their suite, as Breastman slung flapjacks with surprising skill. A faintly buzzing projection of the Director hovered over the table.

“To bring the rest of you up to speed,” she said, inclining her head to Kennedy, “I’m seconding the Dawn Posse to The Council for a while.”

“Wait what?” Cait asked through a mouthful of carbs. She swallowed, then continued. “Why? We got the bad guy.”

“You got two bad guys,” Director Swan corrected. “I’d like to point out whoever was fucking with our communications is still in the wind, and a goddamn headache. Willow has linked me to Kennedy, however, and we have a series of emotional signals set up to confirm information.”

“And also make me better at diplomacy,” Kennedy interjected. “By myself it was all I could do not to fuckin’ smack every asshole on that Council. Plenty of power, plenty of brains, zero common sense.”

“I understand the feeling, dear girl,” The Director said, pointing a motherly smile towards her daughter, who beamed in response. “Regardless, it is unlikely the ER presence within Technocago has been dealt with Root and Branch. They are not, however, the primary reason for my actions. Gwyn?”

Gwyn looked up from her pancakes, blueberry, each in the shape of a heart, long enough to wave at the projection, which fuzzed into a map of the city, laced with rainbow lines. A cartoon version of Kennedy then shot a cartoon Splice, and the lines changed to pure bright blue.

“Over the last few years, much of Technocago’s defense and infrastructure had come to be predicated on Splice’s abilities. Now that The Council is unable to trust her, it will take some time for them to reinstall and reactivate the tech the city is known for in her place. Until then, it looks as though the city will need some good old fashioned Superheroes.”

Cait’s heart soared at that. She’d really only gotten a month or so of that life, back in DSM, but it had been the best of her life, no question. Even yesterday, dealing with the aftermath…. Exhausting, sure, but also the kind of work she was beginning to live for.

“Hell yeah,” she muttered under her breath, and as the projection fuzzed back into The Director, her smirk told Cait she’d heard it.

“I thought you’d like that,” she purred, words sending a guilty shock below Cait’s hips. She’d put the kibosh on a relationship with this woman, and still often wondered if that hadn’t been a case of temporary insanity.

Maybe Kennedy’s healed enough…. A bad part of her thought, but looking over at the girl, Kennedy’s eyes flicking between her mother and her girlfriend, Cait knew that even if she had healed, doing that now would just give her a new wound. The Director seemed to pick up on that, and changed tack.

“Speaking of liking things,” she continued, “I’ll be having Samsara port Lira—”

“And Salad!” Lira’s disembodied voice floated in.

“And Salad,” The Director resignedly agreed, “just as soon as she’s finished screening the Meta-Brains in the Bunker for our mole. Which she should be doing right now.”

“Had to make it clear that if you didn’t get me to my girls, I was going to be everyone’s problem,” Lira’s voice responded, the cheeriest threat Cait had ever heard. “Toodles!”

Gwyn visibly fumed at the mention of the mole in the bunker. The team had already been treated to a number of rants about how her designs being used to perform the most transgressive misuse of nanotechnology in recorded history was a slap in the face to everything she stood for, and…. And Cait usually stopped listening about there. Not that she didn’t agree, what Powershell had done was terrifying, but you could only hear the same grievances so many times before they began to sound suspiciously like whining.

“Anyway,” the Director continued, “Get settled in. This arrangement will not be permanent, but you’ll be calling that suite home for awhile. One last thing: you will officially be seconded to The Council, and I expect you to assist them to the best of your ability. However, Kennedy has AEGIS command for the remainder of this mission. Try to walk the line between being good little helpers and maintaining your autonomy as a foreign delegation. I have the utmost faith in all of you, prove it is not misplaced. Kennedy, love you.”

“Love you too mom,” Kennedy chuckled as the projection faded into its constituent bots. She turned her golden eyes on each hero at the table in turn. “Any questions?”

“I thought Cait was the leader,” Qi said casually, although the glint of teeth beneath her smirk told everyone the jab wasn’t a serious one.

“Have you seen Cait try to be tactful?” Kennedy shot back. “We want her dealing with foreign dignitaries like we want a pig guarding cake. We’d end up at war or dealing with a series of pregnancies that are difficult to explain.”

“Y’all know I shoot blanks, right?” Cait asked. “Because if you don’t you have all been very irresponsible about contraceptive use.”

FUCK YOU MEAN, ‘YOU ALL’?

“Well,” Cait responded with a wicked grin, “sometimes after you and Gwyn are done, I sneak in, and there’s just so much cum everywhere, I figure no-one will notice a li—”

“I am fucking eating, Cait,” complained Gwyn. Cait wanted to point out that technically the grossest part of the last sentence was the literal gallons of baby batter her boyfriend seemed to produce in defiance of physics and God, but let it drop.

“Anyway,” Kennedy said, putting on her Director voice to wrangle the conversation that had quickly gotten away from her, “we’ve got a meeting with The Council in half an hour to discuss next steps and get assignments. Eat up and be ready.”

A series of salutes with varying degrees of sincerity followed, chased by the clatter of silverware on plates.

Cait’s suit didn’t really need adjusting. Honestly, it was so tight it really couldn’t be adjusted. Kennedy still fussed at the collar though, and tugged where it hugged Cait’s hips.

“Nervous?” Cait asked, the flash of golden eyes as they met hers before falling back to her neckline telling her all she needed to know. She gathered Kennedy in tight, her forehead fitting into the hollow of Cait’s neck like the last piece of a puzzle.

“Liked it better when you were in charge,” Kennedy said, her breath tickling Cait’s skin through the porous nano-fabric. She felt her shift, chin laying on Cait’s collarbone as she turned her face up towards her. Cait returned her gaze, smiling softly into her worried expression.

“How is it you’re so cute and vulnerable here, but such a fucking badass everywhere else?” Cait asked, grinning when Kennedy’s lip curved up in response.

“Only place I can be,” she responded, hands squeezing Cait’s hips.

“You were right out there, you know,” Cait said. She could see in Kennedy’s eyes she already knew that, but also that she could use the validation. “I’m the last person you want running point on anything delicate. Or that requires thought at all, to be honest. I’ve got a brain, but you know I don’t use it.”

Kennedy smirked up at her, ego stroked enough to relax a bit.

“You are kind of a barbarian,” she said. Cait still felt her fingers nervously gathering and releasing her suit around her waist. “Didn’t you used to be a scientist?”

“Eeeeehhhhh, Lab tech,” Cait corrected. “Just good with my hands and following instructions.”

Kennedy quirked one black eyebrow all the way up at that.

“Hands, I can believe. Confirm, even. Directions though….?” Her voice trailed off, lips closing inti a teasing smirk. Cait rolled her eyes.

“Like you’ve ever even tried on me,” Cait replied. “Might work though. Qi treated me like you treat her last night and… well, maybe it was just the mindset I was in, but it fuckin’ did it for me.”

A blast of the weird mix of excitement, fear, jealousy, and lust that occurred when that particular fetish of Kennedy’s was activated.

“Yeah?” Kennedy asked, cheeks already flushing a bit, and Cait saw an excellent opportunity to help her relax. She smiled down at her, letting heat creep in in the edges. Cait took Kennedy’s hand, leading her to the edge of the bed, pushing her down. She knelt, getting comfy between Kennedy's legs as she began to work the tight jeans off of Kennedy’s thick thighs.

“Yeah,” Cait purred, kissing the creamy white skin just below Kennedy’s pussy. “Why don’t I tell you all about it? Maybe even show you how it felt…..”