Mari:

  Light nearly blinded her as she tried to open her eyes.

  “Doctor, should we sedate her?” A male voice rose in concern.

  Dimly, Mari was aware of the frantic beeping of a heart monitor. Then, she realized she was hearing her own heart beating in rhythm with the sound.

  Around her, the world felt at the same time both sharper and more hazy than usual.

  I’ll visit Ivan and pick up some manuals on minor body cultivation for you. Remember to make some more free space in your mindscape when you have time. Medjay’s trailing words echoed into her head as she felt the connection snap away from her.

  Then she was dimly aware of having missed several words from the waking world around her as a needle pressed to her arm.

  “Stop.” Her tone came out commanding and forceful, which she hadn’t really intended. “No need for that.” She tried consciously to speak more softly, but she had to admit that even though her body felt weak, her mind felt more fresh and clear than it ever had before.

  “Miss, your—”

  “Mari! You’re awake!” Kris’ voice bubbled through, cutting off the doctor as Mari tried to reach for her face, feeling the need to clear the sleep from her eyes.

  “The one and only.” Her reply had a dry humor to the tone, even before she could stop herself. Then she laughed at her own joke, dragging into a coughing fit as she realized how dry her throat was. “Ugh, fuck. Dammit.” She spluttered, reaching out a hand, seeking water while her eyes tried in vain to adjust to the bright lights.

  “Oh, here.” Kris audibly pushed someone out of the way, clattering into the equipment, as she thrust a metal cylinder into Mari’s hand.

  “Great, thanks.” She knew the shape. It was a water bottle, simple enough. Kris loved her sports and always had a bottle around to keep herself hydrated. Some things transcended worlds. Basic bodily hydration needs were among those things.

  Before she knew it, the bottle was drained dry and her eyes had begun to clear. The doctor had a stupefied look on his face, but wasn’t about to inject her with a sedative just yet. The Ravien medical aide was nursing his funny bone and standing well clear of the young, pink-haired girl who leaned excitedly over Mari’s hospital bed.

  Mari smirked at Kris, handing the bottle back and mouthing her thanks.

  Then she tested the strength of her grip, then arm, then rolled her left shoulder experimentally.

  Feeble, barely muscled and with joints that were poorly supported by their own tendons. She had a lot of work to do.

  Then she turned her attention back to Kris. The birthday girl had a look in her eyes that turned Mari’s blood to ice with realization. She was quite close. And the first person at her side when she awoke. A Kilthien girl who’d clearly chosen the hospital room at her side over her own birthday. How she knew she had the right day, she could only thank Marielle for, since the woman had somehow kept track.

  Then she took a good look at Kris, and it hit her. Kilthien only ever got to love someone once. A special connection to a singular person that they’d never have with anyone else.

  Knots twisted in her guts as she swallowed the lump in her throat. There was no way Kris had wasted it all on her, was there? They weren’t really that close, right? Then again, Marielle’s horrified, twisted emotional state over Doctor Sylvia Locke’s death was a haunting memory. Sylvia had made her choice on her own, and then had doggedly pursued Marielle until their love ended in tragedy.

  Fuck.

  She then paused. Wondering where the insight had come from to read Kris’ emotions so clearly. [Intuition] popped into her mind at that moment. A skill so out of place within her after years failing to understand the motives and actions of others, she had no choice but to accept what it was telling her.

  “Kris. Tell me you didn’t…” She trailed off, unsure how to phrase it. She glanced at the doctor and then the medical aide. “Can we have the room alone, please?”

  Kris’ face shifted at the commanding tone, but the doctor cut in. “We do have several things to go over about your recovery and rehabilitation, but it can wait for now.” Then, both men left.

  “That’s new.” Kris looked slightly taken aback. Definitely about the authoritative tone Mari had used.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “A lot has changed.” Mari began looking at each machine connected to her body, assessing them before removing the needles and pads stuck into or onto her skin. “I can’t even begin to explain it all.”

  “So you’re not the Mari I knew?” Kris’ voice blended emotions that picked apart for Mari like hearing every note of a chord with perfect pitch. Concern, hope, hesitation… fear. All of them teetering on the edge of heartbreak.

  And there it was. Whatever it was that had possessed Kris to anchor her only feeling of love to Mari’s life was beyond even [Intuition]’s ability to explain.

  “You fool.” Mari whispered, barely able to restrain all her own twisting emotions within herself. “Why did you waste your life—your love—on me?” Then again, it wasn’t like it was a conscious choice. Somewhere, there had simply been a small spark. Maybe it had been a moment of admiration or something even more miniscule, but the spark was all it had likely taken.

  “Waste?” Kris’ fingers wrapped tighter around Mari’s, hope blooming forth within her voice. “Of course not. Only my Mari could be so frustratingly pessimistic.” Then Mari was assaulted by a wave of aching pain as Kris buried her in a hug. “Thank the stars that you’re alive.”

  Mari grunted and wheezed at the tightness of the hug, once again reminded of her own frailty. “Careful you don’t break a rib!” She’d gone far too long with too low calcium.

  “Right, sorry.” Kris eased up, sitting next to her on the bed.

  “Why would you do that, though? Whatever made you do that for me? You know I actually offered myself to her? The only reason I’m still here is because she refused to take my life from me. If it weren’t for her choice and her insistence, I’d be gone and you’d have given up a major part of your future for nothing.” Mari had a hard time rejecting all the emotions and memories of Marielle’s tragic romance. The very feeling of being loved or loving someone felt deeply wrong to her, and she knew that feeling came from the part of her that was Marielle.

  “Your selflessness. Maybe this is stupid, but I thought that if I gave into my feelings and let the bond form, you’d have to come back to me. I thought you’d never subject me to that heartache, and a part of me felt that if you did, the heartbreak it caused me might just pull you back.”

  If nothing else, Kris was generally honest to a fault. The idea that she’d torment Marielle into letting Mari out through emotional blackmail was almost entertaining, had Mari not felt what had happened to the soldier when Sylvia had died. That sort of emotional manipulation would’ve probably worked.

  “You chose the female look, I see.” She changed topics away from whatever rabbithole they were headed towards.

  “Well—” Kris drawled out her response for a long moment, “I will admit that I’ve seen how you flinch around men so much. I thought you’d be more comfortable.”

  Kilthien had a unique sort of androgynous nature when they were young, and then they’d grow into an identity that suited both themselves and their partner, regardless of how they viewed themselves throughout their childhood. Not that it had mattered too much to Sylpharien imperial society, though. Genetic breeding was the method most took to reproduction anyway. Before Karin’s revolution, most had chosen their gender based on the orders of their owner whenever they were bought from the athletic teams they grew up in. One of the best aspects of the new world Karin had built was a freedom for Kilthien to choose their own identity and romantic partner for life.

  Mari leaned her head forward, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath through her nose. “Happy birthday,” she finally whispered to Kris.

  A giggle reached her ears in response. “How’d you know? You’ve been in a coma for almost two months. Have you been waking up just to check the date whenever I was gone?”

  “Marielle kept track of how long had passed.”

  Silence greeted that proclamation.

  Kris:

  Kris felt she was going to be hearing the name ‘Marielle’ quite a bit too often in the days ahead of her. Having someone else rattling around in her partner’s head was just… unpleasant in some ways. Still, the idea that Marielle was a distinctly separate person who’d been keeping track of things for Mari while she was unconscious defined exactly what sort of final shape the procedure had taken for her partner.

  She huffed in annoyance from the chair in the hallway outside the hospital room that Mari wasn’t inside of anymore. She had been swept off by Alynne for tests and planning out a rehabilitation plan.

  Her heart ached for what had and would become of Mari in the future, but it had been her choice to tie herself to the girl in the first place, and there was no going back. In retrospect, she could shamefully admit that doing what she’d done was perhaps a bit rash. Her own mother was happily married a second time, so it clearly could be done, even if the relationship her mothers shared was a little odd.

  Still, Mari was back, and even if there were complications, they would just have to figure them out together.

  They’d only shared a few brief minutes together, though.

  A tension gripped her chest at the thought of separation—of being kept apart for any length of time, really. Just having her gone for a few tests felt like her chest had turned into a blank void of space. It made her wonder if that was how her mother felt about losing her biological father. A nauseating and fathomless emptiness that could only be filled by a single person? She didn’t know how anyone could live like that.

  In fact, most didn’t. Most Kilthien died not long after their spouse did. Her mother was a remarkable exception to every rule, it seemed.

  She sucked in a long breath, holding it in that empty space in her chest, then let it out slowly. Then, she focused her mind. If her new bond with Mari was going to be an all-consuming compulsion, she’d just have to invest her drive and effort into things that might help her partner out.

  She reached into her bag and withdrew the tablet she had access to for school. Then, after connecting to the information repository that had been steadily expanded over the prior fourteen years, she began to research how best to help with major recovery needs after months in a coma.

  “I won’t let her run away next time.”

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