“And… and th-aah-t…” Cindy tried to close the program standing, her legs shaking visibly as aftershocks of the past hour continued to ravage her body. “That… it-it finishes the pr-prograa-aah-m. A g-g-good night to you… all…”

She had barely finished those words when the counter above the door deactivated, signalling the end of the livestream. Just like that, her legs gave in. John caught her sweaty body and gently placed her on one of the chairs. That all of the sexual fluids also staining her form immediately tainted the furniture was of little matter, as it was already guaranteed to either need to be replaced or get a very thorough washing.

“Should we leave you here or…?” the Gamer offered his help, but the catgirl weakly shook her head.

“I’ll be fine… please… let’s have another interview… soooooon,” her toes curled and her lips pressed together as another convulsion wrecked her body. Maybe that last bit of piledriving her into the floor had been a bit overkill.

“I’ll see when I can make time,” John promised, gathered his pants and headed for the exit.

“Hope ya can feel your legs soon,” Rave waved goodbye as she followed her boyfriend into the dressing room attached. Meant for last minute make-up, changing clothes or just general pre-broadcast activities like brewing coffee, it was pretty home-y. Sadly, there was no shower around, a technical misstep as far as the Gamer was concerned.

“This entire building is either waiting for more equipment,” he grumbled as he pulled a towel out of his inventory to at least somewhat allow himself and Rave to clean themselves off. “Or extremely poorly planned. What kind of porn show has no way of getting clean afterwards?”

“Prolly some bad investor choices?” Rave suggested, and in a total vacuum of other explanations, John rolled with that. They had a much more interesting conversation ahead anyway.

“So… I have numerous questions,” John spoke up once they were dressed, as freshened up as possible and stepping out into the summer night. “In order of importance: how do you feel as an exhibitionist?”

“Stupid,” Rave groaned, kicking a pebble down the road. “Always thought that was totally not a thing I was into. Always dodged talking about it… still had sex in bathroom stalls... Guess I was just compensating for my denial or some psychological idiocy like that.” She snickered awkwardly and grabbed his hands, their fingers interlocking quickly. “This was one of the more pleasant reality checks I got in my life though.”

“And what’re we going to do now that you know about it?” John wondered.

“No longer flee inside the nearest hiding place when I feel like doing it,” she answered after a moment of thinking. “I still feel kinda awkward about it. Just went with it in the moment and all that. Don’t really feel like testing where my boundaries lie on this. Also don’t have Metra’s unrelenting urge to strip right now…”

“If you had that level of exhibitionism, I doubt you would have been able to even deny it for this long,” John laughed and gained himself a playful pinch in the side.

“Ya jerk,” his girlfriend stuck out her tongue. “Anyway, guess I am coming with on future television appearances as well,” she winked teasingly. “Cameras aside, fucking more catgirls sounds right up my alley.”

“I doubt we’ll have a hard time getting another interview,” John dared to suggest. Well, it wasn’t exactly a dare, since he heavily doubted anything that had his girlfriend’s naked ass in it would go anything less than the porn-equivalent of viral. Also, that small dick rumour would go away guaranteed now. Although there might crop up another about him using some magical version of viagra. He would be way less offended by that notion.

“Can’t wait for the news articles,” Rave drily added, rolling her eyes. “That’s the one thing that bothers me about this whole ‘being famous’ stuff, the sheer amount of dumb articles written about us.”

“Well, you take the good with the bad?” John sighed. “Anyway, to the less important question: why are you here?”

“Heard ya were fucking a catgirl, hopped on a train cause I felt like it,” his girlfriend answered giving him a cheeky glance. “Didn’t check beforehand to realize it was a livestream and not some recording though.”

“Figured,” that was all John had to comment on that end. After all, that was exactly the reason he would have expected from the love of his life. She wanted something, so she went to get it. That she didn’t inform herself properly beforehand was to his advantage for once. “You should really read up on stuff beforehand.”

“But that’s what I have ya for!” Rave protested. “Ya do the thinking, I do the doing and I allow ya to be together with me, that’s the deal!”

“I feel like this deal needs a rewrite.”

“No refunds, only kisses,” she giggled and quickly placed one on his cheek.

“…I will live with this deal,” he conceded and they arrived at a teleporter outpost shortly thereafter. Pretty quickly, they made their way down to John’s apartment, where a certain maid was already awaiting them.

“Welcome home, Jane,” Aclysia greeted. “I have prepared everything for a shower and or bath.”

“You’re just the best, ya artificial wonder,” Rave hugged the white-haired girl. “I missed ya, days are so long without any banter around!”

“Speaking of no banter around…” John broke the subject he least wanted to talk about. “What am I going to do with you now, Jane? You’re still supposed to guard the border…”

“Where nothing has happened whatsoever yet,” she rolled her eyes. “Ya value your border too much anyway. This is Abyssal warfare, most of the skirmishes will happen by some infiltration forces dropping in via public airline.”

“Unless they want to attack in full force,” John pointed out.

“In which case my small unit isn’t going to be able to stop them anyhows,” Rave returned and poked him on the forehead. “And all of them are still there until the Hidden Tradition gets ready. Ya need to relax your paranoid brain a little.”

“If I relax at the wrong time, dozens or hundreds of people die,” the Gamer was ready to continue, but then drew a quick breath and forcefully relaxed. “No… you do have a point… at the very least, I don’t want to get angry now that I can see you again.”

That Rave appearing on a high-profile show with him would let everyone know that she was gone from the borders. That could have all kinds of reactions, positive and negative, but in the grand scheme of things it really wasn’t important enough to lose a lot of sleep over. As she had rightfully pointed out, should a great assault happen, for which there was no indication as of that moment, her presence would win them only a little time before she needed to retreat to avoid encirclement.

“See, that’s the spirit,” she embraced him, and within moments they stood forehead to forehead, swaying to whatever beat Rave had stuck in her ears today. “I am going to come with ya to the Small Lake Pact as well.”

“Is there any way I could even convince you otherwise?” John wondered quietly.

“Nope, I’m not going to be stuck here administrating or bore my thumbs off at the border,” she answered with the pink lustre in her blue eyes flaring. “Adventure is my middle name, so gimme one, tiger.”

“Why did I have to involve myself with a headstrong thrill seeker?” John grumbled while lovingly caressing her back.

“’Cause the alternative was a headstrong morality enforcer,” Rave reminded him. “Ya think ya would have any more fun with Moi-m- Moira right now?”

“You know she isn’t around, right?” John giggled, not answering the question since it seemed obvious. “You can use her nickname.”

“Not until I beat her to get that right back, honour between enemies and all that jazz,” Rave announced. Their little talk would have continued, were it not for Aclysia clearing her throat to get their attention.

She got it immediately by the unilateral and completely synchronized decision of the pair to include her into the hug. Confused and greatly pleased, Aclysia snuggled up to both of them before she could stop herself. “Ehem,” she cleared her throat again, this time with a light fluster on her face. “As much as this position pleases me, I do have to remind you that there is a train we have to catch in four hours and thirty minutes. I heavily advise that you clean yourself now so that you may sleep at least three hours.”

Rave gave the weaponized maid a kiss. As the smallest of the three of them, the Lightbearer needed to stretch to accomplish that much. “Only one and a half hours planned in for us to celebrate our reunion? That’s pretty brazen,” she stated.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Rave was sleeping deeply, unbothered by the rumbling of the wheels on the tracks. She had been absolutely right, it had taken something closer to two hours until all of them had been completely satisfied. Aclysia with her lack of sleepiness had just gone along with everything while John and Rave, already in the mood from the CPDI podcast, had just been drunk off each other’s body. It was a drug they really couldn’t resist, and they didn’t try either.

That it had been the first time they had actually seen each other since Sigmund had been defeated hadn’t helped. Although the Contender wasn’t mentioned even in reference, John was still riding that satisfaction along, with his girlfriend indulging it all with him. As the saying went, confidence was sexy, Rave had always loved his proactive side more, and right now, John was feeling incredibly confident.

They had fucked in the shower, went to bed, had needed to go to the shower again, and only after a few more romps in the bed, with a quickie in the living room in the middle, had actually dozed off. Although it displeased her greatly, Aclysia had then forced both of them to wake up.

John had taken it a bit better; Gamer’s Body was just more flexible for these things. Meanwhile, his girlfriend’s least catlike aspect was how she needed her nightly, long sleep (rather than being able to just snooze several times a day) and two hours meant she was almost inoperable. She had barely eaten, trudged along with half-closed eyes, yawned more than breathed, and the second they had made it into the train, she had fallen asleep.

If he had any mind, John would have done the same, that was the plan after all, but he was somewhat occupied between looking at her cute sleeping face and caressing Aclysia’s curves. “You seem incredibly happy, Master,” the weaponized maid noted, nudging as close as the armrests allowed.

“Doesn’t surprise me,” he mused back. “The scars remain, but progress is back on track. Plus, I am with the two of you, so that would make even the worst situations well enough.” Luckily for them, they had the cart for themselves, so he could be as hands on as he wanted without anyone raising an eyebrow. Not that he would have cared a lot about that.

“You don’t worry about all the things that could go wrong?” Aclysia asked; as per usual she already knew the answer. She just wanted to hear him talk.

“I always worry about everything that could go wrong,” he sighed, calming himself of a number of nightmare scenarios jolting through his hands by reaching down to her butt and giving the firm meat a nice squeeze. “Eliza, most of all, but what else is new?”

“Not much of the things around us,” the weaponized maid cheekily answered; the wagon’s interior did indeed look like it was produced a decade ago. “It’s just me at your side, as always.”

“That will age like wine, I say,” John answered, playing with the tips of her hair. “And I will enjoy every year’s vintage.” Happiness radiated off her face and surface thoughts like the midsummer sun on everything. John was almost blinded by the radiance of her small smile and the tiny giggle, like the purest little bells, that he won from her with that comment.

“Is there anything new you need, Master?” she asked to keep the conversation going.

“I need a bunch of things,” John answered and thought about the entire list. Enchanted glasses and contact lenses for his new Possession sight to become more effective, more information about Hellfire to see if an opposite healing force existed, his new Mandala Sphere, more effective combat personnel, a Skill Evolution Point, to just mention the things he immediately could think of. “Most of all I would like to take some time off though…”

“Perhaps you should, then,” Aclysia suggested, knowing full well it wasn’t that simple. “Your happiness should be first, my John,” she was so deeply concerned that she actually used his name instead of his title.

“Happiness is pretty nice,” he told her with a smile. “But I like working on this thing that gives me purpose more. I wouldn’t keep going in this whole guild building effort if it wasn’t satisfying, you know? Every advancement Fusion makes, every person liberated, every secure day that Collide has, it all lets me know that I am making a difference in this world… and that is somehow more important than happiness to me.”

“I will keep a close eye on your behaviour. Overworking is prohibited!” Aclysia sharply told him.

John just laughed, appreciating her worry. “With all of you looking out for me, the only thing I could ever collapse from is this massive gift of a life I have,” he promised and yawned, feeling the sleepiness settle in after all. “I think I’ll doze off for a bit… keep watch, will you?” John asked.

He dismissed the Possession on his glasses, immediately turning the entire world dark. Being blind had the one advantage that, no matter the time of day, John could sleep like it was the darkest night. In that blackness, Aclysia’s whisper rang through his entire being.

“I will always watch over you, Master,” her soft tone turned into a hum, a little song that gently guided him to slumber.