“Well then,” Magoi closed the barrier with a clap of his hands and then offered one of them to John. “Let me be the first to congratulate you, although I have to ask… how old are you turning again?”

It didn’t sound like he actually forgot; John could recognize a hook for a joke when he saw one. His hand found the one of the High Fateweaver. “19 now,” he responded and awaited the jesting retort. Instead he felt his hand being gripped more intensely.

“19,” Magoi repeated, a wistful tone dominating his voice. “You’re doing an awful lot in your life for someone that young. You don’t really look the part anymore. When I first met you, you definitely fit the part. Now…” the High Fateweaver let out a relaxing laugh and hit John on the shoulder in a fatherly fashion. “…Now you fit a whole series of greater roles. Not all of which I approve of, but who am I to make that judgement?”

“A good friend, advisor and ally,” John retorted smoothly with a smile. Their handshake ended after one more friendly squeeze. Then, without further words, Magoi opened the door, and John, ahead of the rest of his girls, stepped into the sunlight. The time had passed, almost exactly a year ago, maybe an hour earlier, he had woken up with these strange powers.

What he had done with them, what he had earned himself, became immediately apparent when he was out the door. Jane ‘Rave’ Hollmey, his girlfriend and love of his life, immediately sprung into his face. He had fully anticipated something like this, catching her with his hands on her thighs. She secured herself with legs and arms, and they both laughed as he whirled her around.

He didn’t stop, even as the spinning confused his senses and things got harder to keep track of. Eventually, his endless spinning caused him to fall. The grass was wonderfully soft and he landed with his girlfriend on top of him. Some of the longest strands of her pink hair fell on and tickled his face. The rest framed her head. Before the backdrop of an overcast sky, she seemed like she had taken the place of the sun. The pink lustre in her blue eyes certainly radiated enough to replace the corona of an eclipse.

“Happy birthday and I love you, tiger.” Rave leaned down and they kissed. She tasted of peppermint and bubble-gum, of wondrous hopes and fulfilled dreams, of a sweet life and the promise of an even sweeter future. Her body was warm and so was her breath on his face. She was nimble, sultry, and beautiful. A wild creature of lust, love and longing. One that he had tamed, just as she had saved him. In several ways at several times.

The wet parting of lips quietly bore testimony to the end of their kiss, and John immediately missed her touch. If she had remained there, he couldn’t have talked to her, however. Neither could he have appreciated the rest of his girls that descended on him one by one, as his girlfriend still sat on top of him.

They must have coordinated this in advance, as John realized quickly the order in which they kissed him. Aclysia was there first, tasting of orange, chocolate and home. Gnome was next, then Salamander, Undine and Sylph, all with their tastes and ways to kiss. Then, Rave was suddenly on top of him again. “Close your eyes, tiger,” she instructed, and John did. He even did her the courtesy of distancing the Mandala Sphere from his active mind. Even without it, he had already worked out who was next.

There were rustling, measured steps approaching. A methodical kneeling in the grass. Then a hand on his cheek. Not the delicate hand of a princess that had been sheltered, neither the rough hand of a woman that had to work her whole life. Rather, it was the hand of a musician and of a dancer. Long fingers on nimble hands, not hard or soft, but real and present. Next, he smelled citrus and metal, then her lips touched his.

Her lips had always been the most beautiful part of her. Honestly speaking, they were even better than the already wonderful glossy and full ones of his girlfriend. Naturally red, he knew that without seeing her, and swung with more artistry than the body of an ancient violin. Soft where they should be and as perfectly sized as a man could wish, perfectly symmetrical as well. A mouth made to kiss, to scold, to compliment and to smile. Too bad the person it belonged to liked to scowl so much more.

“Hello, Lydia,” John said and opened his eyes. He was met by the sight of auburn hair, then the pair of greyish blue eyes, like steel forged with the light of the sky. “I missed you.”

“I have been desiring your company as well, John,” Lydia gently flicked his nose in a manner more joking than scolding. “Next time, I insist, you will be the one visiting me. Crossing the ocean for you is tiresome and my affairs are never in enough order to allow me these visits on a clean conscience.”

“I will see what I can do,” John promised her with a smile. The queen of metal backed off and left him open for the appreciation by the rest. Siena was the next, and the nightmare elemental kept him to herself for a surprising while. Her kiss was hesitant at the start, as if she wasn’t sure that she could actually do this. Then she seemed to realize she had done this hundreds of times before. Unlike usual, though, Siena was not willing to use too much tongue or exaggerated movements. It made their union surprisingly pure.

She tasted of the night and of the tense atmosphere before panic. Below all of that, as John noticed for the first time, she tasted like cinnamon, oddly enough. It was weird to find that out at that moment, but then the taste had come to dominate his senses, and he loved every moment of it. Finally, she pulled back, moments before the other girls would have started to complain.

“Fucking finally,” Metra wasn’t stopped in her grumbling by the general mood, but quickly and carefreely dismissed her mild anger when she dropped down. Her taste was difficult to describe. Salt, distantly, and the aromatic smell of leather. Sweetness and the aroma of metal, iron and magic. She didn’t stay for long.

There was a moment of pause, a hitch in the order, then Beatrice approached. The passive maid gave him a thorough kiss. Perhaps a bit too robotic, but still filled with love and care, with barely found purpose but clear desire. Her mouth tasted weakly of incense, cherry and jasmine. The last kiss of this cycle. Except for Rave, who allowed herself to give him another quick peck, before standing up and pulling him with her.

“Alright, 1, 2, 3,” she directed with a laughing count and then all girls spoke as one, a chorus of absolute beauty to him, the man who loved them all. “”Happy birthday, John.””

“Thank you.” He was the happiest man in the world right then, he didn’t doubt that for one second. The only damper to his mood were the girls that weren’t there and the two girls who hadn’t partaken in that group kiss right now. The order had been the one in which he had met them all, with notable holes. Some of which they couldn’t fix, some of which they could. “What about you two?” he therefore asked Eliza and Scarlett.

“…I really fucking want to, but...” The blood mage gestured towards her eyes, the lines and dots therein, and made an annoyed grimace. Understanding this, John still approached her. “What the fuck are you doing?!” she asked, her voice outraged even as she got on her toes and leaned upwards.

“I think I will take my chances,” John said and kissed her as well. He wasn’t entirely naïve in doing this. He had been kept up to date over the most important developments via text messages, so he knew that Thana hadn’t done anything since the little talk they had at the beach. There was still a chance she’d burst out at that exact moment, but John wanted this day to be the happiest it could be and that had to include kissing the pretty little psycho.

They hadn’t kissed properly in almost a month, and the initially careful meeting of their closed lips soon became a complete indulgence of each other. Although her overly pale appearance gave the impression of someone who had been in cold water for too long, Eliza always was a bit warmer than the average person. Although her taste was nothing too out of the ordinary, the sweetness of saliva with a hint of metal from blood, it was the way she met his advances that he loved the most. Her head was tilted even more than necessary, making herself the clear bottom in the situation and leaving him to lead everything down to the way their tongues wrestled.

She grabbed him by the sleeve, clearly wanting this to continue for a while, and John obliged her. For several minutes, they continued to kiss, and as they got more confident that Thana wouldn’t intervene, they got bolder and bolder until John was about to swoop her off her feet and do things with her body that he had longed for every moment he couldn’t.

“Keep it for later,” Rave stopped him just before he could by whispering those four simple words into his ear. “Don’t ya worry, this’ll be a long night, tiger.”

With a fair bit of difficulty, he and Eliza departed from each other. The blood mage actually looked like she was about to cry. Her breathing was clearly accelerated and her legs shuffled in a tell-tale fashion. Rather than say anything, she just whimpered.

“Later…” John nodded and reined himself in, glancing at Eliza’s body. Under the open robe, most of her was revealed, as always. Although all of the girls were wearing the best versions of their most comfortable clothes, they were still wearing their most comfortable clothes. John wouldn’t have it any other way. This was his birthday, the one who set the formalities was he and his highest wish was for all of them to be happy and relaxed when they were with him.

It did help that all of them looked so sexy in their favourite outfits.

“Anyway, what about you.” John turned to Scarlett, who was standing there with both hands in her pockets, clearly waiting for this whole thing to just end.

“Seemed like an absolute waste of time,” the Technomancer retorted clearly.

“Hmmm,” John hummed thoughtfully while walking the few steps over to her. With red eyes, she followed his movements until they stood almost chest to chest. “A waste of time, huh?” he repeated and then kissed her anyway. She didn’t struggle, not genuinely anyway. Unlike Eliza, Scarlett liked to put up a fight, so he had to slowly ‘convince’ her. Of course, it was all a charade.

Likely, Scarlett had simply calculated that she would like this kind of kiss more than being one in a series. Loner that she was and so badly integrated in the wider harem, she didn’t want to play by the rules. John should have punished her for that, but not today. Instead, they ever so slowly escalated things. She had that minty taste of alcohol and an echo of nicotine that had been freed from the unclean ash and left only the aromatic note.

He kept it short, at least when compared to Eliza or the previous series of kisses. However, the second he was separated from Scarlett, he immediately grabbed Lydia again. The queen let him pass, his arm wrapping around her narrow waist and pulling her close as if they were about to enter a tango. “Are you not satisfied?” she asked with a sharply raised eyebrow.

“Not by a long shot,” he answered, he had been without her even longer than Eliza. The only difference was her missing hadn’t been as evident to his mind because he didn’t have to see her all the time. Now that she was there, breathing, speaking and luscious, he was going to recharge the parts of him that desperately needed it.

Eventually, that last kiss also ended, although he kept an arm around Lydia. In a gesture that showed, clearer than words ever could, that she also did not want to leave his side, she nuzzled against him and put an arm around him herself. “Have you gotten taller?” The question was more formulated like a statement. As Rave claimed his right arm for herself, John got a pop-up.