Amaranthine

“Huh,” Cait and Kennedy said in unison, staring into each others eyes. Their own eyes? It was tough to say. After Kennedy’s revelation, all attention had fallen on Cait to see if the logical thing had happened. It had. Cait gazed at Kennedy through one of the forest green orbs she’d had her whole life, and through one of the golden spheres she’d fell in love with on sight. A perfect match for the set currently in Kennedy’s skull.

“This seems like it would be a really good time to have Willow around,” Cait observed, to enthusiastic nodding from Kennedy. Both of them were somewhat at a loss for words. This seemed unimaginably significant, especially after the moment they’d shared within Cait but…. Nothing else seemed different?

There was some sense that their bond was firmer, that the feelings of one another flowed a little more easily between them, but that seemed to be improving all the time. It was difficult to tell if this was a qualitative leap. They stared at each other a few more minutes, aware that it was awkward for everyone else in Honey, not caring.

“It looks really good on you,” Kennedy blurted out, blushing, then covering her face and blushing deeper, “oh god, is that like the most vain thing that’s ever been said? My eye looks good in your head?”

Cait laughed, reaching out to wrap her up, pulling her tight to her chest. It felt so different than the intimacy they’d just shared. Though not worse, not really. It would always be tough to beat a warm, loving, flesh-and-blood hug.

“Nah, or maybe, but even if it is; I was thinking the same thing,” Cait answered, stroking the few strands of hair that had escaped Kennedy’s messy bun. “that said, no-ones ever accused me of being modest.”

“Yeah, well, not like you have much reason to be,” Kennedy said, relaxing into Cait. If Cait hit her guess, and the link said she had, Kennedy found having the partial face swap out of her field of vision just as pleasant as Cait did. It was beautiful, but that didn’t make it less weird.

“Qi,” Lira asked, “do you wear glasses?”

“What? No, obviously, you’d have seen them by now,” Qi answered, confused.

“Okay, so no vision prescription or anything?” Lira asked, as though the line of questioning made perfect sense.

“Noooot since I was Altered,” Qi said, sounding a little wary.

“Ooookay… we still might have to get yours made custom,” Lira continued, tapping away at her phone and scowling at something on the display.

“My what?” Qi asked, though her tone of voice implied she’d figured it out along with the rest of the crew.

“Your color contacts!” Lira exclaimed, beaming as she whipped her phone around, displaying a mock up of one of Qi’s ruby red slit eyes. “I believe in pol-e-quality, and if these two are gonna be special snowflakes all the time the least we can do is fly each other’s colors.”

“By getting color contacts of each other’s eyes,” Qi stated, without enthusiasm or agreement.

“Exactly!” Lira said excitedly, clapping her hands quicky. “So glad you’re on board. We’ll need to take you to MedCorps to get your eyeballs mea—”

“Nope!” Qi said, letting a bit of the dragon out, needing the confidence in face of Lira’s boundless positivity. “Nope nope nope nope nope.”

“I’m with Qi, babe,” Kennedy said, raising her hand, “I think that spring green lighting up your eyes is the prettiest thing in the whole world, outside maybe the freckles on your tits.”

“Awwwww,” Lira cooed, playing up how much she appreciated the compliment, but only a little. She nuzzled up to Kennedy, and the two were sharing soft kisses and sweet nothings in no time at all. Cait shifted them off of her, leaving them to it.

That whole performance Lira had just put on hadn’t been for her. She was faaaaar too secure to need that kind of reassurance. Qi, though…..

“Think if we kiss hard enough we can turn my other one red?” Cait asked, sauntering up to the dragon lady.

“Hah!” Qi laughed, “anyone else? Absolutely. Your skull is waaaayyy too thick to bleed though.”

“Says the 8-foot bitch with horns,” Cait countered. Qi leaned forward, bringing her forehead to Cait's.

“Kennedy’s right. It looks really good. On both of you.”

She tilted her chin forward, just enough to bring their lips together.

“Right, anyway,” Gwyn said, “you guys are… cute is the wrong word, but close. Boyfriend, I’m not volunteering to get any tentacles grafted on, and I don’t think you’d appreciate it if I did. Also, we’re coming up on DSM, and I think you guys are gonna want to see it.”

“Ominous,” Cait said, voice a little tight. Most of the people she cared about were in the APC, but not all.

“No, not like that,” Gwyn laughed, “Just.. pop out the skylight and look west, you’ll see.”

There was no way they could all fit, so Cait just hopped out and locked a hand around the rim, while her girlfriends popped out like a sexy Dugtrio. It would have warranted comment, if the sight in the distance hadn’t taken everyone’s breath.

It had been slow going, from Technocago. The interstate was ‘maintained’ but not to pre-Wave levels, so the sun had already dipped behind the horizon as the Dawn Posse returned home. And what a home it was.

The immense weeping willow that had come to be known as Dawn’s Arbor dominated the skyline. Not only for its size, eclipsing any feat of human engineering, but for its beauty.

On the way out, in the light of day, it had been stunning, sure. But now, as its boughs pressed against the Tortoiseshell, its every movement cast flickering shadows across the surrounding countryside. Its leaves softly glowed, providing their own moonlight before the moon even made an appearance. Even this far out, tiny globes of light, pollen, maybe, peppered the air, like a flight of fairies showing the way home.

Cait pulled herself up close to Kennedy’s ear, feeling the shiver her own breath sent down the girl’s spine.

“Still only the second most beautiful thing I’ve seen today,” she purred, and the gentle laugh, the soft hand Kennedy reached up to cup her cheek, were all Cait needed.

They stayed like that, through the ‘shell, along the streets, under the boughs, until they reached Blank Park. Cait didn’t even recognize the kid who was manning the gate, and there was no way she would’ve forgotten his outfit.

He looked, to put it in the kindest way possible, like the gayest conceivable mummy. Rainbow strips of fabric crisscrossed over a frame Cait was only 80% certain was masculine. He also wore the body language of a man who did not want to be where he was, but that was typical of gate duty.

“Daaaamn,” Lira said, “we really are running low on Guardians if they’ve got you out here FiberFix.”

“Mmm,” the man responsible for at least the design of Cait’s costume grunted, “well, if your little fuckpuppet and her mascot hadn’t pissed off all of ARMOR The Director could have just had an officer at the door, but nooooo she had to be safe.”

“Jesus, dude,” Cait protested, “I get why they don’t have you in public most of the time. Thanks for the threads though. Now open the gate, this fuckpuppet wants to go home.”

The mummy keyed his comm, and the gate slid open.

Here, at the base of Dawn’s Arbor, the stem of the Tortoiseshell, earth felt almost like another world. The great willow had begun to, well, Cait didn’t really get it, but it seemed to be absorbing some of the properties of the ‘shell. Lines of the same coruscating, life-saving energy of the ‘shell traced its bark, not unlike the kintsugi effect Gwyn’s repairs tended to leave on buildings, but made of pure power.

She felt Kennedy’s hand rest on her own, staying there comfortably. They basked in the magic of the Waves until B-Man pulled Honey into the motor pool beneath the Ready Room, and the sky was replaced with concrete.

Cait just dropped off the side of Honey, and as such was the first to notice their greeting party.

“The windswept look suits you, Cait,” The Director said appreciatively, eyes eating up every inch of Cait. Never one to put on a bad show, Cait shook out her hair, sashaying confidently over to the Director. It had worked once before, so when Cait didn’t stop, pulling Elizabeth’s red lips to her own, she expected to stun her again.

Expected it so much, in fact, she didn’t react quickly enough to lock her knee when Elizabeth hooked a leg behind it, collapsing the joint and dipping Cait back into a deep, passionate kiss which she was in total control of.

“Mom!” shouted Kennedy’s voice from somewhere far away. It sounded like miles, Cait was amazed she could hear it. It had to be at least a world away, since her entire world right now consisted of The Director’s tongue, exploring her mouth with a skill Cait hadn’t realized kisses could impart.

Then Elizabeth let her complete the fall she’d started, and Cait crashed into the concrete floor of the pool as she went to greet her daughter.

“I mean, I know what I said, but in front of me?”

Given the circumstances, Cait knew Kennedy should sound madder. Instead, those words carried barely contained excitement.