Cait left a trail of gore leading from her room to Lira’s. If it were up to her, she would have ribbed Dawn a little more and taken a shower, but Kennedy seemed intent on making the janitorial staff hate her. She said as much, and Kennedy whirled on her.

  “Why are you pretending you’re not worried about Lira?” she asked. “I feel what you do, remember? Even if I didn’t, it wasn’t like you to snipe at Dawn like that. She was obviously hurting.”

  “Yeah, well, she also wasn’t there when we needed her!” Cait’s voice raised as she shot that back, and the words felt like acid in her mouth. The only way she could even hurt any more was emotionally, and, shit, when she’d been physically vulnerable, she was way better at dealing with mundane pain.

  It was both better and worse with Kennedy involved. You could put as much vitriol in your words as you wanted, but if you didn’t actually mean it, it would just make an empath worried. Cait sighed as Kennedy reached out to lay a hand on her waist.

  “This was our first date, Kennedy.” Cait said, calming herself and meeting the goth’s golden eyes. “First one I’ve taken seriously in years, too. I almost let her get killed.”

  Cait felt a wave of sympathy and reassurance from Kennedy, but those gorgeous golden eyes twinkled.

  “Christ, I can tell you two haven’t been doing much talking if that’s what you’re worried about.” Kennedy smiled up at her, and turned from a confused Cait to knock on Lira’s door. A moment later, Lira opened it, skin flushed from the shower and wearing a towel.

  “Oh, its you two,” she smiled brightly and let the towel drop, walking back in and plopping down on a couch that looked it had barely been used.

  Well, she’s not mad at me apparently, Cait thought, appreciating Lira’s insane body while Kennedy shot her an ‘I-told-you-so’ look.

  “Judging from the absolute state of you, babe,” Lira said, folding her hands behind her head and running her eyes over Cait’s viscera-dripping frame, “I’m guessing the rest of the fight went in the traditional fashion?”

  “If you mean she tried to get herself swallowed, yeah.” Kennedy said as she cuddled up to Lira on the couch, like she could only do with her. She rested a cheek on Lira’s firm tummy while she looked up at her. “You good, L?”

  Kennedy didn’t wait for an answer. Cait felt the flow-through as Kennedy extended their link to Lira. She was not good. That said, it was also not the mix of emotions Cait expected.

  Cait’s previous romantic partners, with few exceptions, had typically been a long line of women with major self-esteem and co-dependence issues. If she had to guess what they would have been feeling right now, the emotions she expected would be as follows: unreasoning residual fear and panic, fear that Cait would leave them because of this, also maybe anger that Cait hadn’t immediately saved them or hadn’t somehow seen it coming and saved them preemptively. Definitely anger that she’d showed up to check on them with another woman, even if it was their best friend.

  Well, not like they would have been wrong for that in this case. Or plenty of others, to be honest.

  Lira, in contrast had shame, and a few different flavors of anger.

  “Fuuuuck,” Lira groaned, looking down and taking the hand Kennedy offered. “You are the worst person to have as a best friend. What good are friends you can’t even lie to yourself around.”

  “I’d like to think I’m just a better kind of best friend,” Kennedy teased, turning her head to playfully kiss above Lira’s belly button. “Cait, why don’t you go shower up?”

  “Uh, I think I’d like to watch where this is going, actually.” Cait responded, knowing her romper wasn’t doing anything to hide the instant boner she’d gotten.

  “Don’t worry, its not going anywhere,” Lira complained. “Kennedy is the clit-tease grand champion. Get showered up, I’ll be faithful.

  “Last time I left the city you fucked Qi,” Cait shot back, but she had a grin on her face.

  “Didn’t you high five me for that?”

  “No, but that was an oversight on my part. Kudos for surviving.” Cait laughed, and found her way to Lira’s shower. As she cleaned off, she performed the oddest kind of eavesdropping. She didn’t hear a word of Lira and Kennedy’s conversation, but she was keyed in to every emotional shift whatever they were saying prompted.

  Lira’s anger or shame would flare, almost always followed by a wave of calming reassurance from Kennedy. Cait tried to help out with that once, but Lira’s anger flared much hotter at that and Kennedy cut the link, the mental equivalent of sealing the crack in a door.

  Whoops? I guess?

  She finished up in the shower, unused to the anxiety creating static in her head as she hurried to dry off. Given the company, and the fact Lira didn’t feel compelled to dress, Cait didn’t either. She regretted that choice almost immediately when she walked out to find Kennedy wrapping Lira in a tight hug, the redhead obviously having been crying.

  “Uh, I’m gonna just….” she started, but Lira waved at her to come over.

  “No, no,” she sniffed, smiling at Cait with red-rimmed eyes. “Nudity helps. At least yours.”

  Cait chuckled as Kennedy passed Lira to her, and wrapped her tiny frame in a big hug.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t…” Cait started to say, before she saw a wide eyed Kennedy shaking her head vigorously. Confused, she shut up and stroked Lira’s wavy red hair. Lira gave her a tight squeeze before stepping back. She smiled, looking between the Amazon and the goth.

  “So! That fucking sucked.” Lira held up a hand when Cait started to speak. “Nope! Let me explain. Cait, you’ve pretty clearly got some kind of hero complex. Makes sense, given that you’re a superhero, and probably worked great for you with other girls.”

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  Lira took a deep breath.

  “But damsel in distress is not part of my self image. I fucking hate that you had to save me. No, I’m not mad at you for doing it. In that situation I was just some dumb civilian bitch, no more prepared than that receptionist.”

  Her face twisted up in anger, but her eyes were unfocused. Cait could tell whatever she was feeling it was directed inward. Also, while it was never bad to see any part of Lira, this speech was coming off real strange given naked.

  “Then I watched you two and B-man turn that thing into clownfish nigiri in less than five minutes. I’m going to be honest. I’ve left the AEGIS campus, like, 5 times in the 10 years since I started living here. I’ve never had to come face to face with my own helplessness like that.”

  Cait expected the next part of the speech to be something on the lines of coming to terms with that being difficult, but the fire in Lira’s eyes as they refocused told her she was wrong.

  “So!” she said, grin as fully manic as when she’d been running Cait’s durability tests. “I’m not going to be helpless anymore!”

  “What?” asked Cait and Kennedy simultaneously.

  “C’mon, Cait,” Lira replied, gesturing at her. “If Gwyn can turn you into Punchmaster with like, zero effort, think what the Bunker could do with me!”

  A documentary on old world War Crimes Cait had watched once flashed through her mind.

  “I am thinking about it!” she yelled. “Fuck that!”

  Lira scowled at her, shooting back, “God forbid a girl get superpowers, huh?” She, insanely, looked legitimately upset with Cait.

  “You have superpowers!” interjected Kennedy, throwing her hat into the ring on Cait’s side.

  “I mean, yeah, I have brain wikipedia, big whoop!” her scowl was directed at Kennedy now.

  “Lira, you know these things broke Freeflow’s arms when he tried to use them, right?” asked Cait, summoning the golden lines of her nano-tech along her arms.

  “And,” Kennedy butt in, keeping up the assault, “think about those rings Breastman uses! They burn his arms off every shot.”

  Man, throuple fights are weird, Cait thought as she and Kennedy’s eyes met, nodding their support to each other. Lira, on the other hand, was digging in.

  “Okay!” she yelled, “but those are pretty extreme examples! I don’t need to hit like a freight train or be a…. walking? death star. But I don’t feel good about dating you two if I can’t get my own ass out of those situations!”

  Her eyes went wide, mirrored by the other two women. Despite it being obvious, none of them had actually openly acknowledged the growing dynamic between the three of them. Worse, she had a point. It had never been proven in controlled studies, but trouble tended to follow powerful Altereds, even more so than you’d expect given that Guardians actively sought out trouble.

  Today’s situation drove that point home. Cait’s interaction with the Waves up until two weeks ago had began and ended with them (maybe) giving her a big ol’ dick. Now, she seemed to be at the center of every major event in the city.

  Lira, for all her athleticism and competence, was still a normal, fragile human. Being around Cait and Kennedy was going to be dangerous, and not in a fun, sexy way.

  Kennedy broke the silence first, sighing. “Okay. We should talk about the dating both of us part, eventually, but for now, lets talk to Gwyn. There’s probably something she can cook up, even if it is just an escape route.”

  She smiled at Lira then, saying, “I wouldn’t mind being able to have you around more often anyway, without having to worry about some squishy human.”

  Kennedy finished it off by sticking her cute pink tongue.

  Her eyes went wide as Lira rushed over, grinning wide, hands reaching for Kennedy’s head. She stopped herself short, dropping her hands to her side. She stood there smiling, bouncing on her heels as her fists repeatedly clenched and unclenched.

  “Can I kiss you?” she asked Kennedy.

  The goth girl immediately blushed, but she was smiling, her eyes locked on Lira’s.

  “Uh.. yea-,” Lira cut her off, pressing her mouth to Kennedy’s lips, hard.

  And they said this wasn’t going anywhere, Cait thought.

  That did turn out to be mostly true. There hadn’t even been tongue. Cait had been as focused on that kiss as she’d ever been on anything, if there had been any spit swapping, she would have seen it. That said, wow, progress.

  The two beautiful women stood there, one fully clothed, the other casually naked, gazing into each others eyes after the broken kiss.

  Time to be an asshole, Cait thought, and began a slow clap.

  Kennedy giggled while Lira shot her a scowl that probably would have killed her pre-Alteration.

  “Sooo… I should get dressed then?” Cait asked, gesturing down at herself. She was standing at attention, which implied a second question she didn’t feel the need to voice.

  Lira, switching moods quick, bit her lip and shot her eyes sideways towards Kennedy. For her part, the goth just rolled her eyes, dashing both of their hopes.

  Woulda been a lot to hope for, Cait thought, hopping to her feet.

  “Got anything that’ll fit me Lira? Or anything we can steal from your roommates?” Cait looked around the room, and noticed there were only two doors off the main living area. Given that she knew one led to a bathroom, that meant…

  “Holy shit, do you not have roommates?” she gasped as Lira grinned at her.

  “Perks of seniority babe,” Lira bragged, opening the door to her room. “Maybe some day when you’re older!”

  “I’m like, 90% sure I’m older than her.” Cait said to Kennedy when Lira disappeared into her room. Now that they were alone, Kennedy seemed a lot more aware of Cait’s nudity, and the blush left from Lira’s kiss deepened as she looked away.

  “Should try being less of an old hag, probably,” she squeaked, sneaking a peek back towards Cait. It was Cait’s turn to roll her eyes.

  “Actually, I should probably make sure this hasn’t been illegal. I’m pretty sure you’re both over 18 buuuuuttt….” Cait let it trail off as Kennedy pursed her lips at her.

  “I’m 23! Can you really not tell the difference? How old are you?” Kennedy asked.

  “27!” Cait answered. “You can call me Dommy Mommy, from now o-.”

  A sports bra hit her in the face, followed by a pair of athletic shorts.

  “I’ll be the only one of us mostly ironically referring to themselves as ‘mommy’, thank you very much!” said Lira, bouncing out of her room in her usual outfit of tight grey leggings and green sports bra. “Get dressed, slut.”

  Cait pulled on the shorts, finding them a good size too small, which felt familiar. Suspicious, she sniffed at the sports bra.

  “Are these mine?” she asked. “Like, worn by me?”

  “I’m horny and you smell good, sue me,” replied Lira, walking up to Cait and helping her pull the bra over her head.

  “I’d rather-,” Cait said, but Lira put a finger to her lips as she adjusted herself.

  “I know what you’d rather do,” she said, kissing Cait. Plenty of tongue on this one. Then she pulled back, grinning up at her. “But! Too fucking bad! We’re gonna go see a woman about superpowers!”

  “Again, you already have superpowers,” Kennedy said from behind Lira. “Also, Gwyn and B-man were dealing with a pretty upset Dawn when we left. Maybe we let them handle that? Cait shot her mouth off basically immediately.”

  “So I got dressed for nothing!?” Lira whined, slumping her face into Cait’s tits. The big woman hooked a finger into the red-head’s sports bra and snapped it, drawing a scowl from Lira.

  “I don’t know about y’all, but I could use a come-down after that fight.” Cait meant the relationship conflict, not the Clownfreak, but didn’t specify. “Kennedy, where were we at on Ghost Adventures?”

  Kennedy’s face lit up at that, and she pushed the two women onto the couch, booting up the TV. Lira snuggled up under Cait’s arm, and Kennedy laid her head back in the redhead’s lap.

  “We cooould see some ghost punching, or I could upgrade you a step on the supernatural entertainment ladder. Ever heard of Ghost Hunters?”

  [news]Hey folks! Book 1 is now live on ! Obviously I don't expect any of you to buy it, but if you'd like to help me out, head over and leave a review! Thanks![/news]