"Land ho. I see Tanesrough,"

Everyone aboard instinctively looked up before realizing who exactly had spoken. Morgan and Theo exchanged weirded out glances, but Alexander and Cassandra laughed heartily. "Duly noted, Raven," Cassandra managed after calming down. "Thank you."

"You are welcome."

Still quelling her amusement, Cassandra switched Chief from two-way communication to broadcast. "Be safe, check in, sedate you, et cetera et cetera. Aisha, let me know what your plan is regarding your living situation. I'll give you a couple days to figure out which hotel you want to stay at, that is, if you choose to stay off ship. I'll pay for everything, but remember that the more you spend, the more other people get hurt. Damien, I'd prefer if you behaved, but I'd say you've earned a bit of chaos. Try not to involve anyone important. Amica, I won't forbid you from doing anything, but don't push yourself too hard. You know you're not at 100% yet. The rest of you, do your things."

"If Aisha decides to stay in a hotel, will she come back to teach?" Miserie asked from inside Aisha's room.

"Of course," Aisha assured her. "This is my job. I won't stop just because we hit land."

Cassandra retrieved her weapons and joined Damien at the helm, noting how the weather was hotter than he was for a change. After placing the various boxes in a circle around her, she sat down and began going over her weapons. The novelty of disassembling Haruspex still excited her since she still didn't have a complete feel for the weapon. Her Susurri and backup pistols, on the other hand, were so familiar that she could draw their schematics with her eyes closed.

"Best get ready, dicktaster," Damien said suddenly. "I gotta test yer new toys."

"Oh don't worry," she said idly, checking the glowing blue spiral inside Haruspex's barrel, "I'll be the one testing you. You took on the entire Harpy crew, so let's see how you fare against your own crew. Preferably without you losing complete control."

She could feel his eager anticipation at her words. "That so? Wha'd I miss?"

"I'm not allowed to schedule an intense training session?" she asked innocently, laughing when he shoved her with his foot. "Seriously though, I want to see where everyone's at, including myself. Between me, Raven, and CYCLOPS, don't think you can slack off."

He howled with laughter and reached down to ruffle her hair. "Aye, you three taintlickers 'ave been doin' some fuckin' work! Girlie 'specially cuz I know she's been designin' shit just for me. Tha' clittin' nevermeltice's a slick trick!"

"Which means you've thought about how to deal with it."

"O' course! I been hit so many times, I got one or two ideas."

She made sure the rifle extractor was working with an empty casing, then held it up. "Clean this. I'll gouge your eyes out if you melt it."

He obligingly bathed it in flame, then laughed when she yanked it out just as he raised the heat. "Jus' keepin' ya on yer toes, cocksheath."

She already knew what his response would be, but she wanted to hear it anyway. "You know, the others have been bullying me for not being able to drop my guard."

He scoffed. "That ain' 'appenin' til you're stone dead, and mayhap not even then. 'S our way of livin', ah? Those ingrate fucksticks ain' like us. We know life ain' worth livin' if no cunt wants us dead more than anythin' in the 'ole shittin' world! Need to stay sharp so's you stay outta the Locker! Yahahahar!"

She leaned on his leg, smiling in vindication. "You'd've fit in perfectly at the Academy if you weren't so randomly violent. And if you listened to orders. And didn't act like a dick to your nakama all the time."

"Now who's the one dreamin'?"

"Look, at least let me fantasize about Cain having all of your abilities, ignoring unconscious berserking and all that. Do you understand how useful that would be?"

"Ask Copycat."

"Fuck no. He's as bad as you are. I want someone who can remain calm and collected in your body."

He snickered. "T' protect you when you decide t' fuck bein' calm and collected."

"Obviously." She fully assembled Haruspex and looked it over one final time. Deciding to give her navigator what he asked for, she loaded in a regular round, boosted herself so she could wield it at an awkward vertical angle, and fired directly beneath his chin. Unsurprisingly, he had already moved to catch the bullet with his jawbone, smiling after fingering the dent in his skin. "How is it?" she asked.

"Better than your old one, tha's for fuckin' sure. Can' wait to see yer fancy bullets."

"Can't wait to show you."

They spent the rest of the time to Tanesrough chatting while Cassandra worked on her pistols. Cain and a suitless Theo joined them on the poop deck, where they watched Cassandra's task with interest. After a while, they decided to do their own maintenance, Theo on her hand and Cain on Stratarchis. Morgan eventually emerged, wearing light clothing that matched his large grocery bag.

They were directed towards the dock, and Cassandra assumed what she suspected was going to be her usual position at the top of the gangplank. "As you can see," she told the attendant, "I captain a pirate crew. I am Cassandra Libera, wanted for-"

"I'm gonna stop you right there," the haggard woman cut in as Damien bounded away. "We don't care. Just pay the fee."

With the wind taken out of her sails, she grumpily waved Morgan forward so he could deal with it. "Who's staying on board? Morgan, Damien, and Raven are leaving."

"I use my 'not staying' anti-chore slip!" Theo shouted. "I'll go with Morgan!"

Cassandra was surprised when Chief rang. "Cee, Miserie, and I are staying," Lyn said without preamble. "Everyone else, leave."

Everyone stared at the snail for a moment. "...What she said," Cassandra said eventually. "I'll string you up by your pinky toes if Theo gets hurt, got it?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Morgan said with a smile. "Let's go."

Theo grabbed his hand and skipped alongside him as they left. Cain saluted her as he passed; she nodded in response. Alexander mock saluted as he passed; she clipped his ear. She stared out over the pier until Aisha emerged from her room. "I assume Raven-"

"Doctor," Cassandra said. "Or Doc. Only when we're alone do we say her name."

Aisha glanced about. "Fine. Doctor. The present on my desk was her doing?"

Cassandra nodded. "Your wage for Theo and a bonus for your other student."

"That was a bit more than a bonus."

"I can't express how thankful you are for helping her. I'm ashamed for not realizing her lack of knowledge in that area sooner. It didn't even occur to me and never came up."

"So you know."

"I'm aware of everything on my ship, or so I thought. But yes, I know about your lessons. I'm so grateful for you doing this for her. Hence, the size of the bonus. Remember, if you want to stay on land, I'll fund that separately."

Aisha nodded. "I'll take you up on that. I want the floor to stay still."

"You did well for your first time with Damien at the helm, only threw up four times. Most of the others were closer to ten. Anyway, don't let me keep you."

Cassandra was mildly confused that Miserie left the women's quarters, considering Lyn's order. No sooner had she descended and entered the room than she found herself pinned to the door. Lyn held her face in place as if she were trying to prevent her from going anywhere. She mashed their lips together hard enough to bruise, and her tongue invaded Cassandra's mouth. Cassandra threaded her fingers through Lyn's hair and pressed their bodies firmly together. She had suspected this would happen, but was still surprised that Lyn hadn't acted the instant the twin anchors had dropped. Several days without any intimate physical contact had left her feeling a bit empty as well, and she knew Lyn felt that a thousand times more sharply.

"I'm sorry," she gasped when Lyn finally pulled back the tiniest bit. "I'll never do that again. I promise."

She groaned in ecstasy as Lyn dragged her nails down her back. "You swore-against-fucking idiot," Lyn growled. "You couldn't put aside your pride and paranoia even though both of us were suffering?"

"I'm not apologizing for that. I'm still not convinced you didn't instigate everything."

"Ugh, your dumb side would be so adorable if it wasn't always torturing me!" Lyn practically ripped Cassandra's knife holsters off as she pulled Cassandra's top over her head before pushing her onto their bed. After they stared at each other for a moment, Lyn knelt down and trailed kisses along Cassandra's body. "But we're going to make up for the past few days and more besides," she mumbled between pecks. "Theo's gonna have to sleep somewhere else."

Cassandra pulled Lyn up so she could reach her lips. "She'll understand." She couldn't hide her pleasure when Lyn bit her neck and dug her nails into her back. "Uunnnnggh… You being this rough is driving me crazy. Maybe revoking wasn't so b-"

Lyn cut her off with a kiss, and she forcefully rolled onto the bed so Cassandra was on top of her. Cassandra barely had time to register Lyn had somehow stripped without her noticing before Lyn seized her hair and used all of her strength to force their faces even closer together. She was only briefly able to enjoy Lyn's breasts against her chest before Lyn smacked her ass with as much force as she could muster.

She tapped Lyn's arm so her head would be released, and she knew her own face mirrored Lyn's look of exhilaration. "Fuck, I love you so much."

"I need you, Cee," Lyn pleaded, "so, so badly."

Cassandra kissed Lyn's nose. "I need you too, amica. Fuck everything else. Tonight, it's just us." Lyn's delighted laughter buoyed her heart, especially since her girlfriend followed up by peppering her with kisses. "But if you don't fuck me as roughly as you were just now, I'm going to be severely disappointed."

Lyn responded by biting Cassandra's lip just short of drawing blood, eliciting a rapturous moan, before fiercely kissing her again. That was definitely the last time Cassandra revoked Lyn's girlfriend privileges. She had assumed that she would be fine since she hadn't felt touch-starved before dating Lyn, but being around her adorable, sexy, loving girlfriend and only engaging with the most platonic physical contact felt like something was terribly wrong. She hadn't realized how used she had gotten to Lyn touching her all the time, and being near Lyn without even something as little as briefly pressing their cheeks together was shockingly painful. Although depriving Lyn of intimacy had gotten her this worked up, the sacrifice had been way too great to be worth it.

\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\'/.\\

"Tell me again what happened," Cassandra sighed, rubbing her temples.

"So this idiot pounded ten shots before I knew what the fuck," Lyn emphasized, pointing at Alexander, "which was so unfair because that meant I had to be the responsible one! I was barely two drinks in! You know I can't be the responsible one! I tried to get Raven or Cain over but-"

"I was gathering information," Raven said. "Cain was on watch duty."

"-and Morgie was gone too, which left Damien as the only other one! You know he can't supervise anything! That's a surefire way to get alcohol poisoning! Surefire! Because he makes fire!"

"You could have asked me," Cassandra said.

Lyn leaned on her so hard she almost drunkenly fell out of her seat. "You're always so pissy until you learn everything about everything within ten miles, especially since your 'first night' happened on your second night, and you were mine again on the third night, so you had to make up for it on the fourth night. Which was tonight. Do you remember how we couldn't stay out the first night we got to Matarm even though I had just been majorly traumatized?"

"Do you mean the time when you tried to lie to me and say you were totally fine? Repeatedly?"

Lyn blew a raspberry. "Look, just because you were right doesn't mean I can't be annoyed with you about it."

"That exact sentiment caused her no small degree of friction between those around her even at a young age."

"That doesn't surprise m-"

The only people who didn't jump out of their skins at the sudden appearance of the person in their midst were Raven and Cassandra, the latter breaking down into laughter. "You see? I'm not the only drama queen in my family!"

"You most assuredly are the worst," Eirwyn said. "Thank you all for sticking by my daughter no matter what she put you through."

The stunned silence was entirely expected considering the air of inevitable doom surrounding the head of the Black Glove Assassins. Theo was hiding under the table, and Lyn had frozen solid with her arms around Cassandra's torso. Alexander was the first person who had never been an assassin to recover. "Captain's father, I presume. I'm not going to pretend you don't know who we all are."

He nodded. "The apple addict does not fall far from the tree."

"Always the comedian. So, Dad, to greet you the same way I did everyone I knew before I met Lyn, why are you here? Again? And please don't tell me what I really hope it isn't."

"I gather you've discovered Tanesrough is home to a branch of the Bast Family. It appears they have been eagerly awaiting your arrival. The Eternal Sun Assassins have called upon you." He tactfully ignored her shout of disgust and the fork embedding itself in the wall by his ear. "Your official invitation will arrive sometime tomorrow, and they will not tolerate being refused."

Cassandra knew leaving port without Damien was too risky for so many reasons. "So what do you need me to do?"

"Need?" A trick of the light made it almost seem like he frowned. "You aren't part of my Family any more. My visit is purely social. I'm not asking you, indirectly or otherwise, to do anything. I'm merely forewarning you so we can avoid very public differences of opinion that might be counterproductive for everyone involved."

Cain smiled ever so slightly. "Captain Libera does enjoy very public differences of opinion."

"Precisely," Eirwyn said as she flipped Cain off. "Their request will be an invitation for you and your nine crew members to attend a social gathering of theirs."

The beginnings of questions were all spoken simultaneously, then gave way to a confused silence. "Nine not including me?" Cassandra asked. "Do they mean Aisha? She's not part of my crew. She's not even here."

"By that qualification, Damien is usually not part of your crew either."

"That was a joke," Alexander whispered to Raven.

"Not everyone learns as deeply as we do," Eirwyn mock sighed. "They only know that you arrived with nine other sentient beings aboard your ship and formed an invitation based on an erroneous assumption."

"And they're too fucking proud to admit their mistakes." Cassandra ignored Lyn's pointed look and raked her fingers through her hair. "Okay, what's the catch?"

"They want five pairs to be introduced as they descend the steps into the Room of Asps. Each pair must consist of one person wearing a suit and one wearing a dress."

Cassandra leaned in, her interest piqued. "Will those be the only explicit instructions?"

Once again, it almost looked like Eirwyn frowned. "That is all that the Eternal Suns have required. There will be representatives of other Families there, most prominently the Predators and the Breakthroughs. As I understand it, your Sisters and sister have elected not to attend because, to quote Helen, 'she'll break like half our limbs if she catches us fussing over her again.'"

She nodded in satisfaction. "Because I would. Five pairs of us, each with one suit and one dress, huh?"

"And presented during the opening ceremony for all to see. No weapons can be brought inside. Those are their only specifications that would result in action without interference from the other Families if they were unmet."

There was another silence, one filled with incredulity rather than confusion. "Have they ever met Cap?" Theo asked at last.

"It is good to see you all understand each other so well." A knife twanged softly as it vibrated next to the embedded fork. "It does not say who will be paired with whom; I assume they wanted you to agonize over that yourselves."

"Well, I'm with Cee, obviously," Lyn stated. "You like red dresses the most, so my suit will-"

"Your suit?" Morgan interjected. "Surely-"

"If you think I'll be able to concentrate on anything but Cee if she's in full Pirate Queen mode and wearing a suit, you're wronger than these people who think Cee won't take weapons in. I will literally be useless. That's why she has to be in a dress."

Most of the pirates jerked back when Eirwyn stood up. "I trust you will be able to sort out this brain teaser before you meet them. If I may borrow my daughter for a moment-"

"Can I come too?" Lyn chirped. "Only for a little bit. I won't take all of your daddy-daughter time."

Eirwyn's completely unchanged expression screamed to Cassandra how surprised he was. "Of course. Let us adjourn to a nearby boat. Follow me."

Cassandra kept her own astonishment from her face when Lyn merely held her hand instead of rattling off questions faster than Theo's rotary cannons. Her father led them to a completely unassuming boat that looked completely deserted. Stepping into the main room, which seemed to be the only room in the boat, revealed nobody either. The lamp that hung it from the ceiling barely illuminated anything. Cassandra sighed in contentment as she sat in one of the chairs and held Lyn's hand. Now this was a situation where she could almost completely drop her guard. Eirwyn Negras was never caught unaware.

His surprise was once again evident when Lyn spoke without her usual exuberance or much drunken slurring. "First of all, I want to thank you for everything you've done that led to Cee entering my life. Although you abused Cee since she could move on her own, you also helped her become the woman she is today, so I can't be too mad. She is by all accounts her father's daughter. I've smoothed some of her rougher edges with varying success, but she is still the woman you exiled months ago. I know you opposed the decision, but I'm glad you failed. Otherwise, I wouldn't have ever met her. You're also never getting her back, so deal with it.

"I know that she outed herself when she started dating me, so I hope it wasn't too big a shock. She never said anything about how accepting you guys were, so I don't know if your feelings changed when you found out. I hope it's evident why she didn't say anything: she didn't need the Moon Sisters wondering if she was trying to form a harem. I had to trick her into confessing to me because she's just that stubborn.

"Anyway, ask me your questions directly, not trying to find out through your network."

Eirwyn stared at her, and it really sounded like she gulped hard enough to swallow her tongue. "Very well. How long do you see yourself remaining in a romantic relationship with my daughter?"

"Until she breaks up with me. She's too unique for me to even think of breaking up with her."

"How do your sexual activities affect your relationship?"

"As a non-manogamous pansexual with a sky-high sex drive, I really like to sleep with other people when Cee's busy. Also, it's way fun to be intimate with people all over the world. As an Alementian novice, I'm extremely good at sensing who people are, and I've never had trouble with any partner I've had. I always have safe sex, I'm on birth control, and Raven's an amazing doctor in case anything goes wrong. What I do with others doesn't affect Cee or the crew. She understands all of this and doesn't interfere, which is one of the reasons I love her with all my heart."

"Most people aren't quite this candid with their girlfriend's parents."

Lyn's shivering increased, and Cassandra gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. "Most girlfriends aren't related to people who really badly want to kill me."

"You are safe from me. Assassins do not kill people on a whim. That would be murder. If we started murdering people simply because we wanted to, the world of assassins would collapse."

"Yeah, that doesn't help the fact that I feel like something really bad is going to happen to me right now if I lie or don't speak the whole truth. Also, I was talking more about her Sisters."

"Ah." He mulled this over. "Fair enough. How do you reconcile the part of Cassandra you love unconditionally and the side you don't?"

Lyn took a deep breath. "I may not like it, but that's who she is. Honestly, it can be really hard sometimes. She'll be my cute little Cee laughing with her nakama, then casually say or do something that chills me to my bones. That said, she doesn't target innocents, and that means everything to me. I couldn't even be on her crew if she did, much less dating her."

"I believe those are the most salient questions. Is there something else you want?"

"Nope! Have fun, you two!" She gave Cassandra a lengthy kiss before fleeing as fast as she could.

They didn't wait for her to be out of earshot, instead switching to their Family's language. "I'm amazed you let someone that soft into your life."

"She's harder than you think," Cassandra snapped. "She's still with me despite everything she's gone through. Everything I've put her through. She's seen the worst of Damien and I and still loves us. Plus, you can't be ignorant about how severe Fantasia's Fruit is."

"I am not. What does your crew think about your relationship with Lyn?"

"Don't think for an instant that my other nakama mean less to me than Lyn just because I'm dating her. Romantic love does not trump all other forms of love for me. She's just important in a way unique to her. It doesn't matter if it's her, Morgan, Helen, or Shinobu; they're all equally important to me."

"I understand."

"And I'll never be able to change what I am. I know how easily happiness can be taken away. I've done that to countless lives, after all. My crew knows that and gives us privacy when we need it. I enjoy my time with her as much as I can because there's no guarantee I'll be able to do so tomorrow."

"And if that tomorrow comes?"

"Then I'll keep moving forward without her by my side. What kind of question is that?"

"How foolish of me to imagine otherwise. In lighter tidings, Helen sends her regards, along with those of some of your Sisters."

Cassandra smiled. "Tell them I'll flay them alive if they haven't gotten way better since last I saw them. Especially Helen. She needs to be Crimson Glove while cooperating with my Sisters if she's going to be great."

"Speaking of intelligent young women, how is your little inventor? I'm sure you're completely fine with how much more globally important she is than you."

She opted to ignore his comment. "She's either idiotically brave, skittish as a deer, or crying with joy at the smallest things. Nothing surprising. Can't feel her spine through her stomach any more, so that's an improvement. I'm not kidding; we could actually do that."

Her father shook his head. "It never ceases to amaze me that even the smartest and most creative men in the world are not above abject stupidity. Intolerant to the point of abuse of a once-in-a-millenium intellect simply because of her gender identity and consequently driving her away? Mind-boggling. How do you identify, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Bi."

"I see. Are there any other secrets you'd care to divulge?"

Cassandra grinned widely. "Tell the council how incredible my Fruit is. I can hold my boost for minutes, not seconds. I can even move faster than the eye can see and lift several tons since it repairs all of the damage my body takes. Immune to poisons or physical fatigue, able to train impossibly hard-"

"Are there secrets you don't want to lord over your Family?"

"Anybody who's mad about my crew name can eat a bag of clits."

He sighed. "That's not a secret."

"Tell them that even though Raven's the named Granddaughter of the Eighth, she belongs to my crew first and foremost. She's trying to understand manners and how to deal with her emotions, which she has confirmed that she feels."

Her father's facade cracked for the first time in years, his wide eyes conveying his utter disbelief and amazement. "She said that she feels?"

"Yup. She's trying to joke with us, shows consideration when things aren't immediately important, and even asked Damien for help. Tell them as much of that as you want."

"That will be staying with me for the moment. An emotional Skri would shake our world worse than the unification of the Moon Sisters did."

Cassandra could barely contain her pride. "She's progressing painfully slowly to us, but might as well have achieved space travel by Skri standards. She has said she loved me, that Lyn is her nakama, and that Damien showed her that emotions can feel good. She said she actually cares about the Moon Sisters instead of just being part of an undeniably connected group. Fuck her going back to her family. We are her family, and we're not letting go."

Eirwyn's eyes were still abnormally large. "Yes, I'm definitely keeping that to myself. It seems that I hadn't taken the Moon Sister connection as seriously as I should have."

"I got a World Noble princess to breathe our air, facilitated the creation of a sign language capable of being understood by both general people and a girl who couldn't talk to people, and got a perpetual shapeshifter to keep the same appearance when among friends," she said flatly. "This is on top of the fact that they were trying to kill me at the time. Did you think that was pure luck?"

"You've always been bright and shown leadership abilities. Those feats, while impressive, were taking advantage of a still unexplained link."

Cassandra couldn't hide her incredulity. "That's your excuse? Everything is because of a little moon-shaped magic? I thought you of all people would know that our connection just got my foot in the door. It was an icebreaker. All it meant is that we were connected. We didn't have to act upon it. We could have interpreted that as only one of us could live. I chose the borderline impossible task of turning us into family, and I can guarantee that the connection didn't help with that."

"I understand." His face had returned to normal. "I'll take a closer look at the Moon Sisters."

"You do that. Helen'll be pissed if she catches you."

"Your sister's envy can be quite troublesome to deal with," he agreed as he got to his feet. "Anyway, I wager your crew has grown quite restless in your absence. You might be needed before drastic actions are taken."

"They're a bunch of babies." She indulged her inner child and ran over to hug him. "We're not done. You'd better come visit at least one more time, if only to talk to Raven. I would really prefer if you didn't show up when Damien's nearby. I really like him and don't want him killed so senselessly."

Eirwyn warmly returned the hug. "We'll see."

"And I'll find out why you're actually here by the time you leave. I don't believe for a second that you just wanted to see me again."