Amaranthine

She had needed to use a lot of leverage to roll Qi off of Kennedy, the dragon was out, but once she did, she’d found herself quite cozy between the two. Qi had developed a habit of sleeping facing away from her partners, but wrapping her muscular tail around them, pulling everyone tight and close.

If she was being honest, Cait wasn’t sure she could have slept like that, back when such things were a necessity. Still, there were worse ways to spend a night, and it was worth it for Kennedy. Since Kennedy had reclaimed touch as a source of comfort, the girl loved to be held. Tightly, securely, the stronger the better. The amout of static it calmed in her mind always astounded Cait when she paid attention to the backflow down their link. There were few things tighter or more secure than the loving grasp of a dragon’s tail, so Cait endured. Not that it was any great sacrifice.

After a night spent contemplating the inside of her own soul, and the further implications of such a thing existing, Cait was well pleased when the rest of the team began to wake. She heard movement outside her bedroom first, the clatter of pans and telltale sizzle of breakfast. Couldn’t tell who was cooking, but could tell whatever they were making smelled good.

When the scent of sausage wafted into the room, Qi twitched. Cait heard her sniff a few times, before the dragon came to wakefulness with a confused ‘hmnph?’. Her head perked up as she got her bearings, looking over her shoulder to give Cait a bleary eyed ‘Good morning!’. Her tail slid off of her lovers, and the bed creaked as she stretched to meet the day.

Cait followed her up, against Kennedy’s muttered complaints, stroking Qi’s spine beneath her silky black hair. The Dragonlady looked at her, still shaking off sleep, but wearing a smile that was clearly riding the good vibes of last night.

“Good job,” Cait whispered, giving a soft smile and nodding her head back towards Kennedy, who was stretched out facedown on the bed, one hand wedged between the hips of the two women in a weak attempt to regain some cuddly security.

Qi’s toothy smile in response carried none of the predatory theat it sometimes did, more of a incongruously bashful pride.

“I don’t really know what I did!” she whispered back, with a helpless little shrug. She rested her massive claw back on Cait’s knee. “She just kinda….”

Insanely, Qi blushed. Despite the wild couple of months they’d had, Cait had to remind herself that she’d been a virgin when they met. She’d dove headfirst into the world of superpowered sex-play and polyamory, sure, but that didn’t mean every aspect of it wasn’t brand-new to her. Cait smiled at her, wrapping one arm around her waist and pulling her close while the other hand squeezed her claw.

“You’re good, Qi,” Cait said, keeping her voice low and comforting. “I was hoping for something like this.”

“It feels weird,” Qi said, ruby eyes having trouble staying locked on Cait’s. “Like I’m cheating on you, or stealing Kennedy.”

Cait sighed.

“Yeah, we probably need to get Lira and have a talk about boundaries for all this at some point,” Cait admitted. Still, she grinned and bumped her head into Qi’s shoulder. “But what happened last night is definitely okay. Uh, technically I should probably be the one that feels bad. I mean, I don’t but that’s due to undiagnosed sociopathy.”

QI raised one perfect eyebrow.

“I kinda… well, not kinda, I totally wrecked Willow’s shit last night while you two were busy,” Cait admitted. It just now occurred to her that while she’d checked with Kennedy, and was enough of a kindred spirit with Lira to know she wouldn’t care, neither of those covered Qi’s reaction.

Her ruby eyes went wide as she processed.

“So, wait, so…” she said, clearly talking before she knew what she wanted to say, “Like…. What the fuck are we, Cait?”

“You’re my girlfriend,” Cait responded, carfeully cheerful, “If you want to be. And so is Kennedy. And Lira.”

“But you just fuck the team’s new witch, like, two days after we met her?” Qi shot back.

“Little accusatory, coming from you,” Cait said, drawing another blush out of Qi. The timeline for her and Cait getting together after meeting had been hours, not days. Same for Lira, come to think of it.

“Don’t do that,” Qi said, face hardening after the shame passed, and now, Cait really did feel bad.

That kind of gaslighting was the old you. Qi deserves better.

“Fuck, yeah, sorry,” Cait replied, letting regret show on her face. “Look, Qi, we’ve talked about this kind of thing before, but we kinda just…. Let things progress, without landing on an answer.”

She met Qi’s eyes head on, red gems burning with confusion and a little hurt.

“Are you going to be okay with this?” Cait asked, gesturing broadly. “It is never going to be normal. No, I’m probably not going to dick down every sexy lady we meet, but its honestly also never going to be outside the realm of possibility. I like it, Kennedy likes it—”

A moan of disgruntled but resigned assent sounded from behind them, indicating Kennedy was following the conversation.

“-and Lira would give me a high five and figure out how she can get in on it next time. Sex just… it doesn’t mean the same thing to me as most people. It can. But honestly, for me, on the relationship side of things?”

She patted the bed behind herself, accidentally bopping Kennedy in the nose.

“This is a lot more important. Who’s at home. You’re part of home for me now, Qi, I don’t want to lose that. But I understand if this is all too much.”

When you talked to Qi about this kind of thing, you were really talking to two people. The relatively innocent and naive young woman, and the proud, possessive dragon. When the two combined, they created weird behavior. Cait doubted either, without the influence of the other, would accept this arrangement. But as far as she could tell, the girl in Qi had interpreted the claim her dragon side had lain on Cait as capital-L Love, and that resulted in some wiggle room as to what either would agree to.

Cait watched those two sides of her war behind her eyes, heated as the actual flames they often reflected. So she was surprised when Qi smiled, and spoke her answer with confidence.

“Yeah, you know what, I am okay with it, Cait.” She said. “I just wish we weren’t having this conversation after the fact. If it really was just for you, I don’t think I would. But, while they might not be whatever weird obsession I have with you, my feelings for Lira are strong. Fuck, I think I’m even starting to actually fall for this—”

She reached back to grab one of Kennedy’s cheeks, drawing agroan of protest when she shook it.

“- big, jiggly white ass. If I have all of you, I don’t really care what you do or who else you do it with.”

She stood, looking through the dresser to find some of her specialty-cut comfort wear. As she pulled on a soft looking T-shirt, she paused, looking back at Cait with a glare more piercing than Cait had seen from anyone who couldn’t actually see her soul.

“Can you say the same?” she asked.

It was a topic Cait had avoided with all of the girls. Avoided because she knew there was no way she came out of it without looking like a hypocrite of biblical proportions. Her slackjawed silence was clearly enough answer for Qi, who scoffed, and shook her head.

“Didn’t think so,” she said under her breath. When she looked back at Cait, she wore the same confident, predatory grin she liked to wear, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “Well, you don’t have to worry about me. I’ve got plenty to eat right here.”

She left the room, letting her armor grow over sensitive areas rather than try and wrestle pants over her tail.

Cait sat in stunned silence for another moment before Kennedy’s soft hand squeezed her own.

“Know it probably feels like you just lost a fight,” Kennedy said, pulling herself up to rest her head on Cait’s thigh, so she could meet her eyes. “but honestly? Probably as well as that could go. Maybe give her a bit of space, Lira and I will help her work through things.”

Cait nodded, forcing a smile, and leaning down to give Kennedy a peck on the forehead before rising herself.

10 minutes later, the entire team sat around the breakfast nook, chowing down on an excellent sausage hash Willow had cooked up. Breastman had found champagne in some cabinet or another, and deftly slung mimosas with the 13 tentacles not occupied stuffing his face-area.

There wasn’t a lot of conversation, instead all focus was on Qi and Kennedy, regaling everyone with the tale of how they’d stopped an honest-to-god bank robbery. To hear Qi tell it, Kennedy had killed 39 bloodthirsty maniacs, each one the instant before they offed a hostage, never once being seen. To hear Kennedy tell it, Qi had torn a literal rock giant to shreds, a threat that would surely have laid the entire city to waste were it not for her draconic might. For her part, Cait just sat back, listened, enjoyed, and tried to be proud of them, rather than being caught up in a completely masturbatory pity party. She was only kind of successful.

Her head snapped around as the breakfast nook was painted with swirling rainbow light, and snapped her head around to find a sight that immediately fixed her mood.

“Your problem now,” said a slightly accented voice, a cinnamon brown hand slipping back through a closing mandala portal as it pushed a figure through.

Lira beamed at the crew, and did her level best to stop a very upset Salad from tearing what few clothes she was wearing to shreds.