l
La Cinquième Déesse
"It's amazing to see what can happen when a possible rival appears. It can bring out the best in us, or the worst."
- Nebo, God First Class - Third Category - Unlimited: A Case Study of Post-Traumatic Stress and Borderline Personality Disorders In A Goddess And Angel On Midgard
-24-
"Alright, we're coming to a stop sign. Remember what I said, ease up on the breaks. Gentle now...okay, good, you're doing fine-" The truck lurched to a stop five feet from the actual stop sign, and both Belldandy and Urd were flung forward. The seatbelts stopped them from being thrown into the dashboard, and then the two sisters fell back against their seats.
"Sorry Urd," Belldandy apologized for the ninth time that day. "Um..."
"It's fine, Bell." Urd sighed. "You're getting better, but don't stop so quickly. If anyone was stupid enough to tailgate us they'd have smashed into our bumper and fucked up everyone's day." The woman looked in her rearview mirror, grateful to see the road behind them empty of following cars. Rush hour was finished for the evening, and right now they were driving through the woods back to Keiichi's house, high beams bright and the road around them black.
"It's just-it's nerve wracking, driving without any lights around. Even Japan had street lights, but I can barely see the road it's so dark, and I'm afraid I'll hit something or drive off the road or-"
"Calm down, Bell. Take a deep breath. Remember what I told you about the lines in the road and the reflective tape? Those are your cues for where you're at. You're doing fine. We're not dead yet and the truck is still in one piece, right?"
"You're not filling me with much hope, Urd." Still at the stop light, Belldandy, dressed in a long-sleeved blouse covered in flowers and a pair of jeans, frowned at her sister. "It's just-this is so different from driving in Japan. Having someone just... teach you in a parking lot or out on some small road is just so... strange!" she cried. "I mean, it's all so, so lax here! Did you know it costs over a thousand dollars to get a driver's license in Japan? You don't learn from your sister or your father or your spouse on how to drive-you have to attend a specialized driving course! The idea behind all of this is just so... absurd!"
Urd smirked. "I know, I know, it's out of your comfort zone. You made that clear when you climbed into the driver's seat and told me you didn't have any operational driving experience."
"I thought the United States was more sympathetic to individuals without a personal vehicle!" Belldandy cried. "If I'd known I would need to drive fifteen minutes just to reach a grocery store, I would have included vehicle operations with the American-English language package upon moving in with you and Keiichi!" She looked stressed. "When can we switch out? I-I think I need a break, Urd."
Urd, dressed in a violet tank top and black jeans, pursed her lips. "Let's drive through this intersection and get to the next stop light. We'll pull into the next gas station we see and switch out, alright?" She neglected to say that the next gas station was five miles from the house.
Belldandy stared at her a moment longer before sighing. "Fine," she muttered. "Just-fine."
"You're doing well, Bell," Urd encouraged. "You've got a total of four hours of driving experience under your belt and you haven't done anything wrong yet. This isn't even the worst part! That was two hours ago when we were in rush hour, and now that's over and everyone's back home! You've kept your distance between vehicles, you've used your signals, you've stopped at the proper times-even if you are a bit hard on the breaks-and you speed up to match the speed signs. No one's hit us and we haven't hit anybody. You're doing fine." Belldandy didn't look convinced.
"Come on, you want to impress Keiichi with how badass your driving skills are, right?" said Urd with mock enthusiasm. "You're spending your life together with him, so you might as well learn now. That way, you can pull your weight when the two of you are driving cross-country on a road trip and Keiichi can't keep his eyes open any longer. You don't want to rely on him for everything State-side, do you?"
Belldandy flinched. "No," she said firmly.
Urd nodded. "That's what I thought. Now lift up on the break and let her stall forward a couple of feet." The truck began to creep forward, and the elder Norn nodded in approval. "Atta girl. Now stop. See how much more you can see on both sides of the intersection?"
"Yes..." Belldandy looked both ways, then gunned the gas, throwing them both against the backs of their seats at the sudden acceleration. The engine began to roar, Belldandy leaned forward, eyes wide, and Urd leaned back, closed her eyes, and began to pray for her life for the tenth time that evening. It was the acceleration that scared her. Belldandy was fine so long as she knew the speed limit, and would go exactly the speed that was set up on the signs they passed, but Belldandy had a lead foot when it came to the gas and the break, and every time the truck stopped or started, Urd was afraid someone would either crash into them or Bell would lose control of the wheel.
It hadn't happened yet, but they were still a good twenty minutes from home. Anything could happen. Urd was praying it didn't. Just... let them get home safe. No police pulling them over, no hicks out thinking the truck's revving engine was a challenge for a race in the woods, no suicidal deer jumping out in front of the truck; Urd just wanted a calm evening as Bell adjusted to the steering wheel and got a better feel for driving.
Her cell phone buzzed, and cursing at herself-she'd probably jinxed it-Urd dug it out of her pocket and looked at the caller ID. It wasn't Lind as she'd immediately assumed or even Skuld, who'd taken to calling them on a regular basis in her absence. Not even-well of course it wouldn't be that; Urd was the one to initiate those calls, not the other way around. Not while Belldandy had permission to use her phone on a whim to speak with Aiko. "Huh, Keiichi's calling."
"He is?" Belldandy glanced over at Urd.
"Eyes front, Bell." Urd didn't even bother glancing at her sister. Another bad habit of Bell's was taking her eyes off the road and allowing the truck to drift off course. "And he is. He's probably checking to see when we'll be back home."
"Put him on speaker," Belldandy suggested, and Urd answered the call and hit the speaker button. "Hey, Kei-"
"Urd, where the fuck are you guys?!" Keiichi sounded loud and panicked over the speaker, catching both sisters off guard. "I need you home ASAP! There's another one here! I need your help! Hurry!"
Urd's eyes widened. "Another-another what?!" Urd demanded. "Keiichi?" The truck began to veer to the right, and Urd looked sharply at Belldandy. Just in time to see her dear, sweet, lovable sister disappear from the driver's seat and into the rear view mirror. Urd's eyes bulged in their skull. "Belldandy, you fuck!" The truck drifted off the road at fifty miles an hour and into the surrounding woods. Urd lurched for the wheel right as the vehicle sped off into the surrounding swamp bed. There was a splash, the lights went out, and in the following morning nearby residents would comment on how they heard a horrible, echoing scream.
"It's the Snarly Yowl." Some would claim, while others would claim that it sounded too much like the occasional scream of the Mothman to resemble the dog-like monster that roamed Western Virginia. It'd be a subject for debate that would eventually hit the local six-o'clock news before falling back into obscurity once more.
XXX
One hour earlier...
It was late-April as Keiichi pulled back into the driveway of his house on the old Harley. The late spring leading into early summer had led to some phenomenal weather, and it would have been a crime not to take advantage of it. In the weeks since Skuld's departure, Keiichi had gotten to work cleaning the old fixer upper and ensuring it was ready for use, and as the weather heated up from the high seventies into the early eighties, the SEAL exchanged the truck for the Hog. There was something immensely satisfying about the deep rumble of the Harley's engines, and on one occasion, with some prodding from Urd, he'd even managed to take Belldandy out on sunset ride through the forest.
She'd held on tight to him, a solid presence against his back that had reignited old memories of Deb, who used to laugh and urge him to go faster in their younger, honeymoon phase years prior. Belldandy had never urged him to go faster, though, and instead of the excitement that he'd used to feel when out joyriding there was a sense of peace that was attributed to the ride. He'd look back in the Harley's mirrors to see Belldandy-dressed in his older riding chaps and the second helmet that had been in storage for some odd-years-trying to look around her all at once, taking in the scenery Virginia's forests presented her with a joy Keiichi perceived on some otherworldly sixth-sense.
He'd taken her to a greasy spoon joint that his team liked to frequent on their group outings together, and had treated the goddess to her first taste of true-blue Virginian cuisine: an appetizer of Rappahannock oysters freshly caught followed by fried chicken with black-eyed peas for him, smoked rainbow trout with mixed vegetables for her, and a shared dessert of homemade apple pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top for dessert. "How can you eat so much food?!" Belldandy had exclaimed. "It's all so, so heavy! There's enough here to feed you, me, Urd, and Skuld together!"
"Welcome to America." Keiichi said smugly, then dabbed a finger in some melted ice cream and tapped the goddess on the nose with it. "Go big or go home."
The look of sheer astonishment on her face, with a nose tipped in melted ice cream, was something Keiichi had committed to memory. The man smiled at the thought, turning into his driveway and creeping up the gravel path leading to his house. Need to do that again, he thought. He'd managed to get a kiss from Belldandy that night, one initiated by Belldandy herself rather than him. It'd been a hesitant, shy kiss, but her lips had been warm against his, and her face had glowed with warmth in the small street light that had so illuminated the greasy spoon. Maybe he could convince her to go up to the mountains with him this weekend. Watch the sunset in the hills, where if they looked east and the view was good, they could watch the sun set against the waves of the distant east coast.
Or he could take her shooting on one of Team 12's outings to the gun range.
The image of Belldandy dressed in an orange safety vest coupled with ear muffs and safety glasses popped into his head, and Keiichi laughed aloud as he brought the Harley to a stop near the garage. "Yeah, now add in McGuinness's M1 Garand to that picture, Janky-boy." He tried to picture that, and the only image that popped into his head were old YouTube videos of people incorrectly firing weapons and getting smacked in the face with the rifles they were using. "Yeah... maybe not."
The man removed his helmet, rummaged around in a pocket for his keys and hit the button attached to the key ring that opened the garage door. The door rose with a slow, mechanical groan, and Keiichi rolled his Hog inside, hitting the button again to close it once more. "Truck's gone," he noted. "Urd and Bell go shopping?" he wondered, and checked his watch. It was a quarter to six in the evening. Shrugging to himself, the man headed inside and towards the kitchen, checking to see if either of the Norns had left him a note. He found one in Belldandy's neat shorthand on the fridge, held up by a magnet in the shape of the Philippines.
Borrowing the truck for driving practice. It said, quick and blunt, with Belldandy's signiture beneath it. Keiichi raised a brow, then read the second scrawl a small distance beneath the first. This one was in Urd's more artistic cursive. Promise we won't wreck your baby. Bell thought it'd be a good idea to learn since the States are so reliant are vehicles. Going to practice some night driving, may not be back until later this evening.
The SEAL snorted. "Good thing I have insurance," he grumbled, before shrugging it off. At least the two were keeping themselves busy. The man opened the fridge, stared at the contents inside for a full minute, and after finding nothing of interest closed it again. "Guess I'll order a pizza or something," he decided. His last 'cheat day' had been on his date with Belldandy. The man didn't think the Norn had ever had delivery pizza before. More new and entertaining experiences for her to try. Maybe, if she liked it-and who didn't enjoy pizza?-he could take her out to one of the restaurants that made the pies with the hand-kneaded dough. Keigo always harassed him to take him out to those places whenever the topic of pizza was brought up, and he thought that Belldandy might appreciate the amount of effort the chefs put into their product.
But that'd be for another night. Maybe some weekend when there wasn't anything pressing going on and Urd found an excuse to make herself busy enough to leave them alone. She was good about that. But not tonight. Tonight was...Pizza Hut, Dominos, or Papa Johns? How much did he want to hate himself after the amount of grease he consumed? Tomorrow was legs, not cardio, but they were going into an exercise starting tomorrow, so...Papa Johns.
The man pulled his cellphone out of his pocket, unlocked it, and brought up the keypad. He dialed on reflex, trying to think of a good combination Belldandy and Urd might like that wasn't strictly vegetables. Did Bell like Pepperoni? Or was she more of a sausage kind of girl? "Could just get a meat lovers and a vegetarian and call it a night. See how much I can eat before my heart fails." Would she like Hawaiian pizza? Keiichi was a sucker for Hawaiian pizza, though he'd never admit it to anyone. Maybe if he passed it off as a joke he could get away with it...
His watch buzzed at the six o'clock hour, and with it came a horrible shriek that make Keiichi yelp. "Holy shit!" he snarled. The phone fell from his hand and dropped to the floor. "Fuck! God damn it!" He glared at the watch, silent once more, and muttering curses, he bent to retrieve the phone. "Fucking hell, man," he groaned. "Thank god for phone protectors." He examined the phone just to be sure, turning it around and upside down as he inspected the screen and back for damages. There were no obvious cracks on the screen, which was his biggest concern, and relaxing he drew his attention back to the phone itself.
"Wait, it's dialing?"
An assortment of numbers covered the screen, probably from when he'd dropped it and grabbed it again, and shaking his head the man cancelled the call, bringing the screen back to the keypad. Sighing, he redialed the correct number and tried again, this time without the interruption of screaming watches with demons sealed inside. He placed an order for two medium pizzas, one Hawaiian and one vegetarian, and told the man on the other end his street address. Still muttering obscenities to himself, the man pocketed the phone once more and headed upstairs to change.
Had he delayed his journey up the stairs by at least five minutes, perhaps he would have heard something from the downstairs storage cabinet in the hallway near the first floor bathroom. A thump. Perhaps a muffled shout. Maybe even something that sounded like an oath. Yet by the time the noise came to be, Keiichi was long gone up the stairs and far away from the cabinet, and was none the wiser. And with no one else around to hear the strange thumps and think to investigate, so it was left to thump and shout and swear its oaths. Belldandy and Urd were out for the evening and Keiichi was changing out of his uniform and showering after a long day of training intermingled with PT.
The presence, trapped in a closet, screamed.
Thirty minutes later Keiichi came back down the stairs, changed in a fresh shirt and jeans and whistling a tune to himself. There was a thump in the hallway. Keiichi, who suffered from a bad case of Tinnitus after years of fire support with M4s, mortar attacks, and IED explosions on convoys during his many deployments, never heard a thing. He passed the hallway without so much as a second glance, proceeding to the living room where he sat down in the brand new recliner that matched the Ugly Beast that had been delivered about a week after Skuld's departure. Sinking back into it, he browsed his phone until the doorbell rang, then collected the two pizza boxes from the delivery man in the Papa Johns uniform on the other side of the door. He handed over a twenty, let the man keep the change, and then headed back to the kitchen to deposit his cargo.
Around seven or so, with half a Hawaiian pizza consumed, Keiichi left the kitchen for the bathroom. The presence missed him by a thirty second delayed thump, and had anyone been around to listen closely, they would have heard something that sounded suspiciously like 'fils de pute' from the closet.
It wasn't until the man left the bathroom five minutes later that the presence was finally able to gain Keiichi's attention. There was a heavy thump from the closet that made Keiichi jump as he left the bathroom, and the man paused to stare at the closet. Another thump followed immediately after it, followed by inarticulate screaming that caused Keiichi to back pedal. The closet door shuddered, but did not open, and Keiichi stared at it with wide eyes. More shouting. "Is that...French?" He asked aloud. "What the... what the fuck?"
A variety of thought traversed Keiichi's imagination in that moment. Perhaps a French burglar had stolen into the house while the girls were out before he'd returned home and had hidden themselves in the closet upon Keiichi's arrival. Maybe the French burglar had got themselves locked inside the closet and couldn't escape. Maybe they really, really needed to pee. Maybe the house was being haunted by a French poltergeist. Maybe this was Skuld's final parting gift to him.
The man stared at the door, listing to the thumps and curses streaming out of it and toying with the idea of fetching his gun. Keiichi owned two guns. One was an AR-15 that he habitually took out to the gun range with his Team for recreational shooting and to keep his accuracy good and ready without being harassed by the Cadre on base. The other was a Colt 45 that he kept in a biometrically controlled safe for self-protection.
But then that brought into question of if a gun would even work on a possible French poltergeist trapped in his closet. Of a French burglar there'd be no doubt, though he didn't like the idea of trying to explain himself to Bell and Urd, or the investigation that would follow. In the end he decided against it. Virginia Law, something he was familiar with thanks to Deb, stated that the use of deadly force for self-defense was only viable if the user's life was in danger. It'd probably be considered an extreme use of force on the poor fool trapped inside, and he didn't want to kill the fucker just to plead innocent. Christ, Deb used to regale him with stories of burglars and thieves who'd turn right around and sue the folks they were robbing because someone shot first and asked questions later. Besides, Keiichi was fairly confident in his hand-to-hand combat skills. He'd drilled with enough rubber weapons to know how to protect himself. There was a long list of insurgents that had tested him and failed.
Of course, if it was still a poltergeist...Well, he could duck, and that was probably it. The man scowled, then brought his hand to the door knob. Please just be a stupid thief, he thought, twisting the door knob and yanking it open. The closet was empty of stupid French thieves just as he'd feared, and instead the man stared at his vacuum cleaner and mop from where they were shoved off to the back wall. "God da-" A shoe box, the one he used to store the camera Deb had forgotten to take with her after she'd moved out, tumbled off the top shelf. The lid popped off the top, and Keiichi was blinded with a camera flash as a voice emerged from the shoe box.
"Je vous ai maintenant, vous putain!"
Deity descents generally came in two different types: Travel via a commercial gate, which required a substantial amount of energy but allowed for multiple deities to travel at once, or travel via a personal medium, which required less energy but were usually weaker to help mitigate the magic used. As such, when a deity did descend via a personal medium rather than a Gate, they needed to ensure that there was no 'block' on the other end that might interrupt the flow of power from one end of the feed to the other. The end feed could be incredibly weak given that the deity was transcending time and space in order to use the medium, and it was easy for something as simple as a cloth over a mirror, a lid on a mug of hot water, a television in a box, or perhaps even a camera in a shoebox, to block the end feed and leave the deity trapped in their medium. If there wasn't enough room for the surrounding deity to manifest in their chosen form, then they were limited to either trying the next nearest outlet or waiting for their chosen medium to lose whatever was so hindering their manifestation on Midgard.
It could lead to some rather cramped, hilarious moments, and every deity who regularly descended to Midgard-especially those whose jobs it was to grant wishes-had one or two amusing stories of being locked in an attic, a basement, or, as was becoming more popular, a box in a storage container for hours, days, or even months on end. Belldandy, if ever asked, could think of three separate incidents where such a thing had occurred, including an incident where the residential family had thought a demon had haunted their mirror and had called for a priest.
And so, as the shoe box fell open and the space around the camera grew substantially larger, Keiichi found himself overwhelmed with an unearthly presence.
One of power.
One of majesty.
One of grace.
One that toppled on top of the Navy Seal as he was too blind-sided to react, and sent them both toppling to the ground in a clusterfuck of arms, legs, and a face-full of big titties.
"At last!" The woman cried. "I feared I would be trapped in there forever!"
Keiichi, his airways blocked by the large breasts on top of him and turning blue in the face, tapped out.
XXX
"Keiichi?!" Belldandy popped out of the large bathroom mirror in the first floor of Keiichi's house and barreled through the door. "Keiichi, where are you?" she cried, and couldn't keep the fear out of her voice. A demon? Was it another demon? Hagall again, or perhaps a demon of relation? She shuddered to think of it and hoped that wasn't the case, recognizing she was at a distinct disadvantage if a demon decided to invade their household. Keiichi, a mortal, was collateral damage that she didn't dare risk, and with him in the house and in danger she didn't dare call upon her full spectrum of power.
The hallway was empty, but Keiichi's presence still lingered. Good, that meant they couldn't have gone far. Her feet thundered across the wood floor, and Belldandy spared the living room in front of her a parting glance. No sign of him there.
"I'm in the kitchen!" Keiichi's voice met her ears, and Belldandy's head whipped to the right, staring into the dining room that so bordered the kitchen. It didn't sound quite as panic-filled as it had over the phone, but that meant nothing. Her man was in danger, and Belldandy would be damned before she let anything bad happen to him. She raced off in the direction of Keiichi's voice, and froze as she entered the dining room.
"So it is an American custom to put fruit on pizza covered in ham and cheese?" There, standing near the kitchen island with a plate of Hawaiian pizza in hand, stood the last person in all the nine worlds Belldandy had ever expected to see. "C'est la vie." She cut a small piece of it off with a fork and knife. A fork and knife. Who the hell eats pizza with a fork and knife? And paused as she took note of Belldandy's presence. It was a goddess, one who's sigils were similar to Belldandy's in size and shape. Her hair was cut to her cheeks before spreading out behind her in a long ponytail that fell almost down to her feet in a shade of brown so deep it could have passed for black. Her outfit was strange and outlandish on Midgard: A short, black tank top that was so tight across her expansive chest it could have passed for a sports bra, wearing a matching pair of...well, Belldandy couldn't even call them shorts, really. They were more like undergarments made of the same material as her...shirt. They left little to the imagination. Very little to the imagination. A pair of leather gloves that might have been made of deer hide or something equally soft. A pair of matching boots that looked too loose around her ankles. A pair of leather accessories to complete the look that served little purpose other than to distract the eyes from her more obvious features.
"Peorth!"
"Belldandy?!" The woman's eyes widened in surprise, and quickly she put the fork and knife down on the plate beside the pizza.
Belldandy smiled, relieved more than anything else over the fact that there weren't any demons around trying to ruin the house. Another goddess. Not demon. Goddess. "Yggdrasil, it's been so long!" she exclaimed.
"I know!" Peorth approached her. "I heard what happened to you, but didn't hear that your contract was up."
"Yes, well, Keiichi here saved me alongside my sisters..." She glanced at Keiichi, who had an expression on his face that bordered on disbelief, eyeing the two of them with a look Belldandy couldn't quite place.
"Really?" Peorth exlaimed, "C'est magnifique! But then what happened to his wish?" she inquired.
"Well..." Belldandy hesitated. "...He gave it to me!"
"Mon dieu!" Peorth brought a hand to her mouth in shock. "Monsieur Morisato gave you his wish?" she looked at Keiichi. Keiichi's smile was tight and strained. "Peut-être est-ce pourquoi..."
"I'm sorry?" Peorth looked back at Belldandy. Belldandy smiled an apology. "Please excuse me, my current language core only accounts for Japanese and American English."
"Ahhh...je vois, je vois." It didn't seem to stop Peorth from using French, though. Pardonne-moi, my last client was in Verona. Beautiful country. I must visit there more often." She paused, looking thoughtful. "But as I was saying, perhaps that explains why I am here." The smile that spread out across her face was large. "You see Belldandy-dear, I'm here to grant Monsieur Morisatoa wish!"
"...You're what." Belldandy's voice fell flat.
"Oh, oui, oui!" Peorth nodded, a large, brilliant smile on her face. "You did not know?" she inquired. "There is a backlog at the Goddess Relief Office due to understaff, and they have requested the Earth Help Center's assistance in clearing their cases. Monsieur Morisato's case file was still open and displayed as requiring a wish, and so it fell upon me to descend and grant his heart's desire."
"I don't want it," Keiichi said flatly.
Peorth spoke over him. "Et de penser, he is a man who not only has already had one wish, but en résidence avec the goddess that so granted his wish. And to think that goddess was you!" There was an edge to her voice, one that made Belldandy bristle. The air grew heavy with unveiled tension, and then Keiichi spoke up.
"So, you... two... know each other." His eyes darted between the two of them, his expression unreadable. "How about we go to the living room and talk about this further."
"Une merveilleuse idée, Monsieur Morisato!" Peorth exclaimed.
"Please speak English," Keiichi requested. "I'm a dumb SEAL who barely passed his first and only semester of French. I don't understand half of what you're saying.
"Yes, of course!" Peorth said. She missed Belldandy's scowl.
Together, the trio moved from the kitchen to the living room. "Have a seat." Keiichi gestured to the red recliner with its matching flora pattern, and then took a seat on The Ugly Beast. Belldandy joined him. "So you two... work together?" He looked from one goddess to the next, taking in their body language and trying to read the messages both women were keeping from him. It was a skill he'd acquired in interrogation school, though the deployment he was supposed to attend following the course had been cancelled in lieu of a different mission. A part of him had been grateful. Rounding people up and interrogating them in the middle of the night wasn't something he'd ever wanted to add to his resume, though as a SEAL he knew it was something that could be required of him. Instead, he'd gone out to Iraq with his team working in a coalition of Iraqi, Kurdish, and American Forces against the rising Islamic State threat in the region. That had been a couple of years after Syria had gone to hell. It had been surprising in how useful his new skills were at reading through lies, and on several occasions his eyes had picked up what his ears had missed: nervous fiddling, limbs crossed, the movement of their eyes as men were asked to recall events.
Now he started applying that skill to the two women in front of him. Something about Peorth's tone and the way she addressed Belldandy had sent off some sixth sense of warning in his head, and though the new deity had a large smile on her face, it fell short of her eyes. Belldandy's too, when he glanced her way. Co-workers maybe, but not friends per se.
"Non- excusez-moi, no, we do not. In fact, we work for rival organizations," Peorth said, "though we were both acolytes under the same branch. We even received our First-Class, Unlimited Licenses together." She paused, then narrowed her eyes, staring at Keiichi with scrutiny. "Has Belldandy spoken of that with you? On what that means?" She leaned forward (aggression or dominance) and clenched her hands together above her breast (frustration or irritation) and near her lips (possible secret or reluctance to speak).
"She's told me enough to follow," Keiichi replied, and watched as Peorth crossed her legs, leaning away from the two on the couch and angling herself more towards the hallway. Probably doesn't agree with Bell telling me about the 'secrets of the universe', he thought. But there's more to it. That condescending tone, how she speaks to Bell, there's a lot more going on than just that. At least on Peorth's side, there's some kind of bad blood going on. He sighed inwardly. Great. 'Mean Girls Two: Deity Drama', now showing in a theater near you. "So you're working for a rival organization. Okay, got it. And for whatever reason those two organizations are now... you said working together?"
"Yes." Peorth nodded. "The rivalry is not so big as to ignore the plights of our clients, and so we were willing to put our differences aside for the benefit of those who have earned Heaven's Grace."
"And my... case file was still open." Case file. He hated that word. It reminded him of the investigators who'd question Aiko after she was raped. Not a person but a case file. A number in a book.
"Indeed." Peorth nodded.
"Okay, I'm still tracking." He looked between the two of them, his eyes lingering on Belldandy, feel free to jump in any time. "And now you know that I've already gotten a wish, right?"
"Oui-yes." Peorth corrected herself. "And you... gave it away." That disdainful tone again. "Because maybe you did not actually fulfil the requirements of the wish or some other reason, your case file is still open, and so I have been assigned to take over and ensure you acquire your heart's desire."
"Heart's desire, huh?" Keiichi grunted. "And you couldn't just go home and close out the case on something like a bug in the system? I had my wish, and my heart's desire was to give it to Belldandy, who I felt would benefit from it more than me."
Peorth laughed. To Keiichi it sounded fake. "No! Silly man, that is not how it works! The System Force is what dictates who should receive a wish and allows us to populate our systems. If your case file has not been closed out than it is beyond our means. We cannot simply return and say that there was a 'bug' in the system, it is not Yggdrasil! If I leave now than another goddess will appear in my stead, and if she is sent back without fulfilling your heart's desire, than another shall eventually take her place, and another, and another still until you succumb and speak your heart."
"Okay, still tracking." Keiichi nodded slowly. "I'll make my wish then." He ignored the sharp look Belldandy sent his way. "I wish for a gold-plated toilet seat."
Nothing happened.
Beside him Belldandy snorted and looked away, trying to contain her laughter. Peorth stared at him aghast. "What?" He asked. "What red-blooded American doesn't want a gold plated toilet seat?" He paused and looked thoughtful. "Actually... can I make it a two-fer? A gold plated toilet seat and maybe some gold foil toilet paper to wipe my as-"
A resounding SMACK echoed through the living room.
Peorth sucked in a deep, soothing breath and released it slowly. "Now then..." Keiichi clutched his reddening cheek, staring at the goddess in shock. "...I hope you will take this more seriously!"
"Did you just-" Keiichi rubbed his cheek, not so much hurt as shocked.
He almost missed Belldandy's words, whispered with such venom it was startling. "This bitch." The goddess rose to her feet at once, and Keiichi, too shocked over the fact that a woman-hell, a goddess- had actually slapped him, did nothing to stop her. A livid rage lit Belldandy's eyes, and the Norn sprang on the other goddess.
Right as the television turned on in a hail of loud static. A woman, her face masked in a wave of wet, black hair, appeared on screen, crawled through the screen like something out of a horror film, and crawled on all fours towards them, scuttling like a crab across the living room before leaping on Belldandy. Peorth screamed. Keiichi screamed. Belldandy stared comically at the strange entity with large, blue eyes.
The TV horror collided with the Norn leaping for the goddess's throat, and Belldandy and the television woman vanished as the television went off.
Peorth fell off the recliner, staring with wide eyes at the spot where both Belldandy and the entity from the television had vanished. "What-what-" there was a puddle of murky black water on the floor. It smelled like a swamp.
"What the fuck just happened?!" Keiichi screamed.
The television popped back to life in another rage of white noise, and then a high screech emerged from the television speakers as once more the wraith appeared on screen. A fresh chorus of screams emerged from the last remaining survivors of the Morisato household, and Peorth threw herself at Keiichi. "Kill it!" she shrieked, wrapping her arms around him and clinging to the SEAL for dear life. The creature began to once more crawl out of the television. "Kill it with fire!"
Keiichi, a man who'd experienced all kinds of horrors in the past several months thanks to the Norns dwelling in his house, continued to scream. If it took out Belldandy without so little as a 'how you may' than what fucking hope did he have of killing the monster?
The television woman, dressed in sopping wet clothes and covered in some kind of duckweed, climbed to her feet in a slow, graceful manner that defied human capability. Her face was obscured by dark, black hair that fell level with her waist, and in it intermingled was black tar and muddy water that left dirty puddles on the floor. The woman's neck cracked-first to the left, then to the right-and then the woman meandered towards them in shoes that squelched with each wet step.
Peorth and Keiichi screamed louder.
The woman from the television proceeded to ignore the both of them, moving out of the living room and into the hallway, where she then made her way up the stairs.
The threat of their imminent death departing for what sounded like the second floor bathroom, Keiichi and Peorth were left sitting on the floor, trembling and shell shocked, clutching each other, surrounded by a large puddle of water as they basked in the afterglow of a television's white noise.
"Am I dead?" Keiichi asked. "I-I saw-there was a movie... cursed videos, I'm cursed, I'm gonna die, it took Belldandy and I'm gonna die, oh god, oh Christ on a cracker, I'm gonna die from a woman in a television, oh god..." He sounded close to weeping.
Peorth bolted away from Keiichi as though he had the plague and laughed nervously. "The-that wasn't a-n-no, it couldn't be." Shaking, she climbed to her feet, leaving Keiichi in his shell-shocked state on the floor. "I-I..." At a loss of what to say, the woman took a tentative step out of the living room. She released another nervous laugh, then headed to the first floor bathroom, hoping to wash away whatever evils the strange malignant presence had brought with it into the house.
The goddess moved into the dark bathroom and snapped on the lights, stumbled over to the bathroom sink, and proceeded to stick her head under the faucet. The water came as a cool relief, and regaining a bit of her composure, the woman straightened and looked into the mirror.
And straight into the haunted, wrathful gaze of another malignant entity.
Peorth screamed bloody murder and ran out of the bathroom without a second thought, leaving Belldandy, wet, covered in swamp scum, and smelling like an outhouse, to climb out of the mirror that was her medium and into the bathroom. Her legs were still shaking. It was difficult to stand. She burped and tasted duckweed and muddy water, and made it to the toilet just in time to rid her stomach of the combined contents. With a groan that sounded more like a croak, the goddess turned on the bathtub faucet and crawled inside, clothes and all. "I'm going to kill Urd for this," she moaned.
Peorth ran out of the house screaming into the night. It'd be hours before, bound by contract to fulfill the wish of a cursed mortal who claimed his heart's desire was a gold plated toilet seat, that she reluctantly returned.
XXX
Forty-five minutes later and feeling a bit more like herself, Urd trotted down the stairs in a fresh t-shirt and shorts, her hair still wet but no longer black with dirt and smelling of a swamp.
Keiichi hadn't moved from his spot. He was still staring blankly at the screen while the puddles of swamp water began to dry around him, soiling the polished wood with its pollutants. Belldandy, still recovering from her own dip in the swamp, was still in the bathroom trying to rid the last of the duckweed from her hair, and Urd could hear the shower faucet running from the back hallway. Urd headed towards Keiichi, a slight frown on her face as she took note of him staring at the television screen, and with a flick of magic turned it off. Keiichi started badly at that, releasing a harsh, coarse yelp that startled Urd as well.
"Wow, Jank? You okay?"
Keiichi wheeled to face her with such speed and force it knocked him over. "It's gonna kill me!" He cried. "Oh god Urd, do something! Don't let it come back for me!"
Urd's silver brows shot up in first surprise, then confusion. "Wow, let's slow down a minute here," she said, raising her hands and keeping her voice calm. "What's going on, what happened?"
"Th-the thing and the TV and Peorth and it took Belldandy and-" The man fell into a fit of hysteric babbling, and frowning Urd kneeled down before Keiichi, brows furrowed as she tried to understand what he was saying. "It took Belldandy!" He exclaimed in a broken voice, and Urd winced, realizing what he was talking about.
"Oh Yggdrasil," Urd muttered. "Jank, Keiichi it's okay, it's okay!" she soothed, and then took it a step further by sitting down beside him on the dirty floor and wrapping her arms around him in a comforting hug. "It's alright! Calm down, okay?" He didn't fight her off, and she could feel him trembling against her. "Tehome's depths, everything is okay, everything is fine. Belldandy is fine. She's in bathroom taking a shower, okay?"
"She-she," Keiichi stuttered and looked up at her. The terror in his eyes hurt.
Like staring into the eyes of a wounded puppy. Urd thought, and felt her heart lurch with guilt. "She's fine, Jank. That was—" She bit her lip, staring at the television. He'd seen that? He'd been there? Urd hadn't even noticed him in her efforts at getting Belldandy back for ditching her in a swamp. The goddess sighed. "Jank, that was me," she confessed. "You made us all freak out over the phone. Belldandy went to your rescue, and she sent me and the truck catering off into the swamp. I had to crawl out of that nasty shit covered in moss and mildew and find a beat-up television someone was throwing out as a medium to get back home."
All at once Keiichi went still against her. "Tha-that was you?!" The man stared at her in disbelief.
Urd tried to smile and failed. It came out a grimace. "Yeah... Belldandy pissed me off mightily," she said. "I didn't know you were here. I guess you could say I had tunnel vision."
For a moment longer Keiichi stared at her in disbelief. "Then Bell-"
"Is in the bathroom washing up because I decided to pay her back for my little swim in the muck," Urd said. "The nearest medium she could use is currently resting at the bottom of a swamp. Don't worry, we'll get it out and clean it up for you." By which Urd meant Belldandy would get it out and clean it up and make sure the truck still worked properly. Maybe then she'd come to understand the dangers of simply ditching her sister in a truck going fifty down a highway.
Keiichi barked with disbelieving laughter. "That was-Belldandy is-" Another bark of laugher, this one relieved, came from the man, and Urd sensed some of his fear leave him. "Urd, you absolute cunt!" He cried, and wrapped his arms around her, returning the Norn's embrace. "God fucking damn, you scared the ever-loving shit out of me you crazy bitch!"
Urd joined him in laughter. "Yeah, I probably deserve that," she reasoned, and earned another burst of relieved laughter from the man. "Sorry about that, Jank. I've gotten better control over my temper over the years, but sometimes it still gets the better of me." Feeling a bit more at ease now that she knew Keiichi was okay and that he wasn't upset with her, the goddess leaned back against the base of the couch, still arm-in-arm with the SEAL at her side.
"Thank fucking god," she heard Keiichi mutter, and the man leaned into her, resting his head against her breasts as he took a deep breath. "Christ, I thought I was gonna fucking die, Sheila." It'd been a while since he'd called her by her nickname. The man had stopped using it around Belldandy, and for whatever reason the use of the silly name made Urd feel warm. She rested her chin on top of his head, sighing to herself as a small piece of her listened to the shower down the hallway. "I think you even managed to scare that Peorth-chick out of the house."
Urd looked down at Keiichi, eyeing the man in confusion. "Who now?"
The man grunted and tilted his head, looking her in the eyes. "Pe-"
All at once both parties went rigid. In such a close proximity to each other, piled up against each other and, heaven forbid, practically cuddling, they realized the position they were both in.
Urd heard the shower turn off.
And with her face darkening to a deep-sated red, Urd vanished from sight, leaving Keiichi staring at nothing but a dirty floor in his living room.
"Fuck," Keiichi swore.
XXX
"Ah, so I see Mademoiselle Urd is here as well." It was very late in the evening when Peorth reluctantly dragged herself back to the house. It was hard to say who was actually happy about it. No one seemed to be in high spirits that evening, especially after Urd's return and Belldandy's inpromptu bath in a swamp.
The woman in question grunted but said nothing, her arms crossed from where she sat at the dining room table with the others. "Monsieur Morisato-"
"English, Peorth." Keiichi growled. The man was sitting across from Belldandy, with Peorth on one side of him and Urd on the other. His fingers drummed irritably on the table.
Peorth sighed in exaggeration. "Mister Morisato neglected to tell me he had two goddesses sharing his roof."
"Give or take a couple more depending on the day," the man muttered under his breath. Peorth raised a slim brow but did not ask for elaboration.
"Yep," Urd agreed. "Two goddess, almost narrowed to one goddess." She sent a look to Belldandy. Belldandy returned it with a scowl of her own. "But currently two before someone ends up committing fratricide."
"It was an accident," Belldandy grumbled.
"I'm sorry, do I look like Jesus to you?" Urd asked. "Does Keiichi have a sticker on his dash that says 'Jesus is my copilot?' Because I seem to have fond memories of you saying, 'Jesus, take the wheel' and bailing on me through a goddamned mirror."
"Was this before or after your attempts at drowning me in a swamp bed where only Uhlanga could have found my body?" Belldandy snapped.
Peorth and Keiichi looked between the two sisters and then back to each other. Keiichi, ever so slightly, shook his head. Peorth, in an act just as slight, nodded in agreement.
"Let's...return to the matter at hand," Peorth said slowly. She looked uncomfortable. Keiichi, who'd never seen Belldandy and Urd so upset at each other before, felt the same way. "Mister Morisato still has a wish that is open and up for review, and contrary to his more popular opinion," she glared at Keiichi this time. "It is not a gold plated toilet seat that his heart truly desires."
"Really." Keiichi's eyes widened in false shock. "Well you could have fooled me! When did you figure this out? When we were both screaming bloody murder?"
Peorth sighed. "Je devrais t'entendre comme un cochon," she muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" Belldandy glared at the goddess.
"Nothing," replied Peorth with a dismissive wave before returning her attention to Keiichi.
The pair stared at each other for a moment. "So, if you know that I don't want a gold plated toilet seat, then what is my heart's desire?"
Peorth furrowed her brows in anger as she shook her head. "Non non non non. This is not how it works! While I know what is in your heart, it's not like I have a copy of your wish list ready for me to reference on a moment's notice!"
Keiichi turned to Belldandy for help, only to see the brunette goddess sigh and nod in agreement. "It is true. We can only tell in the vaguest terms what a client desires, which is helpful in determining when they are being untruthful about their wish."
The Navy SEAL dwelt on this for a moment. Remembering again his interrogation training, he realized that Peorth, on a deeper and much more mystical level, was doing the same to him that he was doing to her. However, unlike a human, who with practice can learn to hide the little tells that they were trained to pick up, there was nothing he could do to hide it from the new goddess. But what of Belldandy? She used to have the same job as Peorth. Did she retain those abilities as well? "Can you tell what's in my heart?" he asked the brunette goddess.
"Um, not directly, not anymore," replied Belldandy as she fidgeted and poked her two index fingers together. "I can tell you what I am hoping is there..." she offered with a smile.
Peorth watched the exchange with an inquisitive demeanor. "Oh ho ho! From beyond the pale I am receiving a vibe." She smiled triumphantly at the others assembled. "Is it that you, Mister Keiichi, are living with two beautiful goddess traipsing through your lovely yet humble abode, and vous n'avez pas eu de relations sexuelles avec l'un ou l'autre?"
"English, Peorth!" Exclaimed Keiichi.
"She said that you haven't had sex with Belldandy yet!" Exclaimed Urd in exasperation.
Peorth stared at Urd for a moment. The silver haired goddess met her eyes with a glare of her own, as if daring the dark haired goddess to contradict her. After a moment, she returned her attention to Keiichi. "Yes, let's go with that, shall we? You, Mister Keiichi, desire carnal relations with Belldandy." She paused to take in the brunette goddess's reaction, which was a mixture of terror and pure venom before continuing. "But, alas, due to whatever trauma was bestowed upon the poor goddess, she is unable to reciprocate." Another quick glance at Belldandy, who looked ready to explode, much to the short haired goddess's delight. "So that, I believe, is why I am here: to satisfy your carnal desires!"
Belldandy launched herself over the table at Peorth, but was intercepted by Urd before she could make it half-way through her vault. "Nope, not this time, no fighting in the house." She picked up the enraged goddess and deposited her back in her chair. Urd then towered over her sister, who rose again, only to be roughly shoved back down in her seat. The two engaged in a staring match for a moment before the blue eyed goddess relented. Satisfied, Urd returned to her spot.
The incident past, Keiichi looked back to Peorth, whose eyes never wavered from him. "Carnal desires, huh? So basically, you have come all this way just to have sex?" He crossed his arms across his chest. "Peorth, if I wanted that, I would have just picked up a frog hog from a bar in Norfolk!"
"Keiichi!" screamed Belldandy. Beside her Urd burst out in huge, whooping laughter that almost knocked her from her seat.
The man looked at her and shrugged. "What?" he asked, then turned back to Peorth. "I don't need to have a one night stand with a goddess like some dipshit at a bar to feel fulfilled. I ain't some horny kid fresh out of boot camp looking to score with a hot babe. For fuck's sake, I was fucking married, alright? You know how much sex I had to look forward to on a weekly basis?" Belldandy's face darkened in a blush, and Peorth leaned forward in interest. Keiichi raised his thumb and index finger in a circle. "I'd be hit on by the folks swinging left field on deployments more than I'd get it on in the bedroom some months. You honestly think I give two shits about sex? Get the fuck out of here."
"I believe that was... a bit too much information for one night." Belldandy muttered, covering her eyes with one hand as the flush worked its way up to her ears, turning them a bright pink. Urd erupted into a fresh shriek of laughter.
"Hmm." Peorth looked skeptical. Her eyes darted from Belldandy to Keiichi and finally to Urd, who was starting to calm herself down from her laughing fit. "Perhaps," she said. "Yet I remain unconvinced. My senses speak of a lust unfulfilled, and I, a goddess first-class, am never wrong." She narrowed her eyes at them, then shrugged. "Yet I suppose we have time to argue this further. I cannot leave until I have granted your wish, Monsieur, and until you confess to me your true heart's desire, I shall remain here. Another goddess to add to your... collection."
"The hell you say!" screamed Belldandy as she stood once again, slamming her hands on the table.
"Tsk tsk, Belldandy dear." Peorth's voice was dripping with condescension. "You of all people should know that I cannot leave until the contract is concluded." She leered at Keiichi and smiled as she said, "Or consummated."
Belldandy turned to the dark haired man. "Keiichi, I demand that you wish to have sex with me this instant!"
The silence that followed permeated the room. It reminded Keiichi of that split second a grenade is dropped into a room and everyone looks dumbly at it before their training kicked it. Peorth stared at the goddess with a look of shock. Urd just stared wide-eyed at the brunette goddess, and Keiichi's mouth hung open in shock. After what seemed like forever, but was actually just over a minute, the Navy SEAL cleared his throat. "Um, can we talk about this? Alone?"
Belldandy simply stared at him as she nodded. Standing from his seat, he and the goddess stepped to the sliding glass door to the back porch and slipped outside. When the couple were safely outside, Urd turned to the black haired goddess. The look of shock on the rival goddess's face was beginning to transform into a smug look of victory. "Peorth, I know what you think is going on here, but leave me out of it. It's Belldandy and Keiichi."
Peorth conjured a rose, sniffed the flower, then twirled it absentmindedly in her hand. "Awfully defensive about that, aren't we?"
Urd said nothing.
The goddess smirked, bringing the rose up to hide her lips. It was a teasing gesture. A tantalizing gesture. Sensual. Sexual. One designed to hide certain aspects of the face and leave the imagination to fill in the blanks. Urd knew that tactic well, was guilty of using it herself in her time before meeting SEAL Team 12, and watched as Peorth narrowed her eyes as she looked the silver haired goddess up and down. Analyzing her. "You see, you say that-that it is all about Monsieur Keiichi and Belldandy, but you do not mean it. You can lie, cheat, and talk your way around it, but I see you. I see you very well. And as a goddess of love, just as myself-despite how...lacking you are in terms of such a title-you know just as well as I that you cannot hide what dwells within your heart." The woman's eyes sparkled, yet were not malignant. No, Urd admitted, they were not malignant, no matter how much the Norn wished they were.
Instead what dwelt within Goddess First-Class, Second Category Unlimited Peorth's eyes was pity, and in that moment Urd hated her for that. "You've been in love with him for a long time, haven't you?" she asked. "How long have you been hiding your feelings for him?"
XXX
Keiichi took a slow, deep breath of the late evening air. "Okay," he said on the exhale, and turned to Belldandy. "What the hell was that?"
Belldandy bit her lip. "I'm sorry!" She blurted out. "I-she-I don't know what came over me! She just-I-I'm sorry!" The woman was still red in the face from Peorth's attempts to antagonize her. "She just-just-"
"Breath, Belldandy." Keiichi took another deep breath. Virginia's nights had heated up into the low seventies now, even at close to ten thirty at night. Don't get mad, he reminded himself. It's like McGuinness used to say: it's all a game, and whoever raises their voice first loses. Treat it just like a conversation you'd have with one of your sailors, Jank. Keep it calm. "It sounds like Peorth is good at getting under your skin."
Belldandy visibly flinched. "I-" She stopped herself, then took a long, deep breath and focused on a wind chime that dangled near the patio steps. Keiichi gave her time to gather herself, and when she tried again the goddess sounded a bit calmer. "Peorth and I... we have known each other for many, many years," she confessed. "Acolytes... I do not believe I have explained that to you, have I?"
Keiichi shook his head. Belldandy grimaced and looked down. "They are... students, usually. Students under a set master for a specific trade. We-deities-serve under a variety of masters in our youth before choosing our profession, and with each new master there are fewer and fewer acolytes. Peorth and I were... different, I suppose you could say. We'd served under the same masters for years growing up. We would reach our goals side by side, and whenever we were assigned a new master, somehow, by coincidence or intent, we would always find ourselves amidst each other's company. From childhood all the way to adulthood and straight into license categorization."
She paused and scowled. "Peorth was always the type of person who easily made friends," Belldandy admitted. "I had some... difficulties. My family's reputation preceded me, and not always in a positive light. My father was a… politician, and before that a high-ranking officer in our military. My mother was a Valkyrie not yet retired. Urd was-" Again she paused and thought for a moment. "Urd was... feared, to an extent, because of her own mother's history. People avoided me. They thought I was intimidating. But because Peorth and I grew up together, and because it was so much more easy for her to make friends then me-"
"She was your avenue to the 'in' crowd," Keiichi guessed.
Belldandy stared at him in confusion. "I... suppose?" She said, unfamiliar with the term of address. "But... Peorth is not without her own faults. Our time together meant we knew a great deal about each other, and she would often tease me in front of other acolytes." In a lower voice she muttered, "I couldn't stand it."
Keiichi nodded but held his silence. It sounded close enough like standard childhood drama and bullying to him. One friend with the 'in' crowd and one in the 'out' crowd who doesn't want to be excluded. Spice it up with keeping in touch all the way to adulthood and badda bing badda boom, toxic friendships for everyone. One person who keeps taking advantage of the other and another who doesn't want to acknowledge it because of their shared history. Add to that the trauma Bell's recovering from and her own personality, and ohh baby how much salt you want in those wounds?
"Okay, got it." Keiichi nodded. "So, I think we're in agreement that Peorth needs to go." Belldandy nodded. Pehaps with more enthusiasm than she realized. "But that does not mean making demands for sex."
Again Belldandy winced. "That was-"
"Said in the heat of the moment, I know." Keiichi nodded in understanding. "But that brings up an issue in and of itself. We don't make demands of each other, Belldandy."
The goddess opened her mouth to argue, and Keiichi raised his hand. "Hear me out," he said. "I know you've gone through some shit in the past ten years and I know that you're a goddess. I understand that maybe I'm 'just some mortal' who you'll probably outlive in half a century anyway-maybe less if I'm KIA." He paused, his expression firm. "But that doesn't mean you make demands of me. Not in public. Not in private." He pursed his lips. "I want to have a relationship with you, Belldandy. I really do. I'm not just saying that because you took my wish and asked to stay with me or because some 'mysterious system force power' decided we needed to hook up or whatever. But if you want to have a relationship with me, Bell, then it needs to be on equal footing. Neither of us can go off making demands of the other-I don't care if it's food, chores, possessions, or sex. It can't happen." He paused, debating with himself before speaking again. "You know what happens when people start making demands. I don't want that."
The words struck a chord in the goddess. Keiichi could see it in her face. For a moment she looked both sad and angry all at once, and then scared and vulnerable in the next instant. The corner of her lips trembled, and the goddess squeezed her eyes shut and clenched her fists, sucking in a long draw of breath. "I understand," she said at length. "I-I understand. That was...Keiichi, I'm sorry! I-I don't know-"
He could see it had caused her a good amount of distress. Hell, he'd expected it to. The words were an ugly truth that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later, and the regret on Belldandy's face told him more than enough. "Hey, you're good," he soothed. "It wasn't intentional." He stepped forward and placed his hands on the Norn's shoulders, rubbing his palms up and down her arms. "I understand that. I still love you. I still think we need to get Peorth out of the house." He paused for a moment. "...but I don't think me using this wish for sex with you is how we get her to go. We'll find some other way, okay?" He drew her into a hug and felt Belldandy's arms slip around his waist. "We'll figure this out-you, me, and Urd-and then go from there. Sound good?"
He felt Belldandy sigh against his shoulder before nodding. "Yes," she said. "I'm sorry again, Keiichi. That was... that was wrong." She pulled back, staring at him with a deep frown.
Keiichi shrugged it off. "Don't be sorry. Just don't let it happen again, alright?" He smiled at her, and when Belldandy returned it with a small one of her own, the SEAL leaned forward and kissed her on the lips. When he finished he was treated to Belldandy's wide-eyed, startled expression once more.
Keiichi smiled. "Now let's head inside," he advised. "I don't think we're going to get anything else accomplished tonight, and I still have work in the morning. Think you can reign in your temper for me while we figure out sleeping arrangements? Something tells me Peorth ain't the type of girl who'll sleep on a couch."
And Belldandy broke into a smile. That special, warm smile Keiichi only saw when the two of them were alone. That smile that made him fall in love with her all over again with a single look. "For you Keiichi?" Belldandy said, "Anything."
A/N: Yeah! Bell, Urd, and Keiichi are back. And so is the drama! For those at the Goddess Relief Office, if you guessed Peorth, you were right! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Trust me when I say this: Peorth is just getting warmed up.
Comments of a Madwoman: And so a fresh madness descends upon the household. Interesting how Belldandy, after ten years of use and abuse, handles this new antagonist...Also, to any French speakers out there, forgive me for any fuckups in Peorth's dialogue. My experience with French is a grand total of Google Translate.
