Tethered

Beta'ed and/or revised by;

Heather Shadelight

Pendragoon

FirstSelector

Bms111

My most heartfelt thanks.

— O —

11-26-08, Tue. Arcadia, noon.

Amelia fought the urge of doing something rash after she found herself accosted between Victoria and various friends of hers, somehow. At first she had looked for – and found – an empty table, choosing the quiet of one of the corners over eating in the middle of the cafeteria so she wouldn't be bothered by anyone else that wanted to see the new hero of the town, or that had been the plan anyway.

She had sunk into her link now that she could do so without coming across as an airhead, given that anything but the softest of touches made it difficult to focus on basically anything else. She had been basking in the view of how brushing against her nerves made Taylor's brain flood with a soup of feel-good chemicals when she was interrupted by her sister plopping herself at her side without a hint of a warning, cutting Amelia's staring short and making her grunt in annoyance.

Another girl friend of Victoria tried to sit herself along the other side of Amelia, but an absolutely withering look cut her intentions short, and with a nervous giggle, she sat further away from her. What was her name anyway? J-something? Whatever.

"What do you want, Victoria?" She asked with a clear undercurrent of bitterness. She just wanted to keep looking, not interact with people.

"Well, I thought you looked quite alone and you had your eyes closed and I didn't want you to fall asleep before class so I came with some friends, and," at that pause, she draped her arm over the guy she noticed just now, her presence having slipped her mind entirely. "I wanted to present you to my boyfriend, Dean."

"Hello," he said in a polite, smooth voice that definitely wasn't completely natural. "Your sister has talked about you a lot. It's a pleasure finally meeting you."

Amelia's eyes met the boy's, on his face laid plastered a polite smile that looked more and more practiced by the second. Sure, she could see why her sister would like to land someone like him – he looked good in a conventional way, so to say, but that was it. She shrugged, settling her arms down on the table once more, ready to rest head on them and go back to her safe place. "Good for you, I guess?"

Victoria looked at her with an exaggerated pout that she wouldn't have bought even if she hadn't seen the twitch of a smile forming at the corner of her lips or how her body language screamed amusement. Dean's, however…

Confused, curious, suspicious.

Now that was interesting and concerning in equal measures. Suspicious and curious of what, exactly?

"Come on Amy," Amelia had to stop herself from correcting her. She liked how Taylor always called her Amelia, speaking about how Amy must be diminutive and how she was too regal for too normal a name. Amelia came back to herself when a pair of fingers snapped in front of her. She hadn't noticed how her eyes had glazed over slightly over her sister's whining at all. "Earth calling to Amy. You there?"

Amelia sighed. Wearily. "Yes Victoria, unfortunately. Now can you please let me sleep for at least the last twenty minutes?" She gave her most polite response despite her first knee-jerk response of snarking at her. She didn't want word of her snapping at Victoria to make it back to Carol, somehow. She was already insufferable as is.

Victoria made a humming sound, "only if you tell me where you get these, and when." She tried to pluck at the new clothing Amelia had bought yesterday, a pair of fishnet sleeves, but she slapped her sister's hand away with a hiss.

" No touching. And no, I'm not letting you know where I got them." She saw that her sister was about to speak, and interrupted her. " No. I'm trying to find my own style, and bringing you along would defeat the point. Can I sleep now, please?"

Amelia sighed and made a quick dive into her link, just barely more than a second, but still more than enough to help her remain calm and give a quick brush to Taylor's nerves. Her smile once she dove out of it was a little wider and more relaxed.

And now Dean had a bewildered look to him that wasn't there just a moment ago. What was up with him anyway?

Amelia put him out of her mind when her sister spoke again, the chatter of the other hanger-ons not even registering to her. "Okay okay, jeez. Prickly much?" Victoria turned to her food, waving a hand at her. "Get your beauty sleep then, but don't blame me if you are late to class."

Fucking finally. Amelia set her head in her hands, and held onto that tight rope that bound them together, a pleased smile starching her/their features when she noticed Taylor's muscles sagging and relaxing against her touch, her/their lips parting in a soft sigh of contentment.

This is what she wanted. This is where she felt at home.

— X —

Brockton General, after classes.

Touch, heal, scan brain, take mental notes, twea-no, no. Don't change anything Amelia, not yet. As tempting as making someone that had a '88' tattoo in their lower back puke their guts out every time someone said a slur in front of them, she still didn't know how to actually twist the neural pathways to do that. At the moment, the most she could do was make the responses and transfer of data between neurons faster but not more efficient. More of an upgrade than a change. That, and shift around the chemical balance of the brain. She had had plenty of practice watching Taylor to know which did what.

She did erase his tattoos, and if his skin was incredibly itchy for the next two weeks, who would blame her?

Coming back to Taylor, maybe they could experiment together? It always was a ride watching Taylor's brain flush with a feel-good soup and pinging off her sensations. Food for thought.

She let out a weary sigh while she whipped out her phone, looking at the hour. And lo and behold, it was just in time for her break. It did have an assigned length, but she usually ignored it depending on how much the burnout of doing the same thing constantly settled in.

She was at the outdoor tables, nibbling on a pastry and slowly slipping her black coffee when she felt her link to Taylor strengthen subtly, a sign that she was coming closer. Five minutes and a destroyed croissant later she saw Taylor coming up the sidewalk, her eyes scanning the tables until she found Amelia, her lovely lips stretching into a wide smile that made her want to nip at it.

She came over to her bench, Amelia scooted closer to her once she sat, with Taylor draping an arm around her lower back, away from the eyes of the rest of the people gathered around the outdoor setting. Even if most of them were engaged in conversation with their own peers, eating something or on a smoke break, the caution was merited. Even if they didn't live in a city that was whispered to be the 'Nazi capital of modern America', there was still the issue of Carol discovering that she was seeing someone. A rather probable scenario if any of the doctors or nurses somehow found them out, given that they gossiped like old wives with nothing else to do.

"How was your day?" Asked Taylor, happiness radiating off her in a way that almost made their link unnecessary to know what she was feeling.

"Pretty good, if I'm being honest. Victoria found herself a boytoy and is mostly leaving me alone at lunch breaks. You?"

Taylor's smile reached her eyes in a way that made her glint softly and suddenly Amelia found her robes to be more restrictive than she wanted. "Good. Very, very good. I…" at that, Taylor cocked her head, and continued speaking after her pause. "Well, I have some very good news that I want to share with you, but not here." She scrunched up her nose at that, gaze sweeping around them. "Too many people."

Taylor's fingers brushed Amelia's sides softly and over her white robes, but still in a way that made her jump and squirm a little. "Ah, uhm. That's, very good." She wanted to pull on her shirt and kiss her now, the separation of school getting to her even now, but she couldn't. "I, mostly finished my shift. And, if you can do something about the GPS thing, maybe we can…?"

Taylor smiled, a happy and pleased thing with just a hint of mischievousness, like a cat that was about to catch something particularly juicy and felt overwhelmingly pleased with itself. It made Amelia's blush deepen and her hands twitch. "Sure thing! I found this tidbit in a forum that should make it work, just lend me your phone for a moment."

Amelia complied, Taylor inputting the pattern with deft fingers made dexterous by practice. She mostly had that layer of security due to Victoria, and she had been surprised that Carol had even let her keep the thing. She supposed that her sister doing it had tipped off Carol that maybe letting Victoria have security and not her explicitly would look a tad too suspicious to her sister. Have to keep up appearances and all, she thought to herself.

Half an hour later Amelia was happily walking towards Taylor's home, her fingers intertwined with the brunette's in a way that left her oddly pleased. Amelia noticed the big, wide smile on Taylor's face and how her brain lit up every time she brushed her nerves this or that way. It assuaged Amelia's insecurity, knowing that she could make someone feel good and at the same time having literal evidence staring her in the face via her not-sight each time Taylor glanced at her, neural pathways that she was slowly coming to know more and more lighting up in what she knew was appreciation and affection.

It was a little bit later that Amelia stopped Taylor, the latter giving her a bit of an odd look before she caught sight of the shop Amelia had her eyes glued to, then she smiled. "Want to go inside?"

Amelia nodded with a smile. She had been looking for an opportunity to get her hands on some seeds for Taylor, so she could grow some food basically on demand of whatever she wanted. And if Amelia got creative with the taste she doubted that Taylor would blame her.

Euphoria-inducing apples, here she went.

— X —

Taylor's house, evening.

Amelia's hand brushed against the ground of Taylor's small backyard, her mind lighting up with each strand of grass, how they swayed in the wind, took nutrients from the ground and grew minutely each second. She focused her attention into the little points of light she found beneath unturned soil, and started feeding them, cannibalizing grass and forcing rapid growth with but a flick of her power.

Taylor watched in amazement from the side as various plants and fruits started to grow from little stalks of green matter that moved as if they were particularly animated snakes. Watching Amelia's power at work was honestly amazing, even more so having never seen it affecting another living being that wasn't her. Even when it did touch her, she was usually too preoccupied with feeling good to worry about it.

Amelia got up from her squatting position after said fruits stopped growing, and plucked one from the ground, tossing it up and down before giving it a tentative bite. It was a plump, fat thing that crunched when bitten, and Amelia made a sound of contentment when she gulped down the piece she took. "Here, take a bite," she told Taylor after approaching her, and Taylor did so.

She could see why Amelia had liked it. It was a hard but not too much, it crunched in a satisfying way that left her wanting to bite again, and the juice was sweet. Taylor made a pleased sound at the back of her throat once she finished it, and she noticed how she had eaten the thing entirely, no seeds or awkward bits to be found anywhere, just pure goodness.

"This is amazing, Melie." She licked her lips, and took note of how Amelia's eyes followed her tongue, and her wide smile stretched. "I think I could eat these every day and not tire of them. What did you do?"

Amelia shrugged and draped an arm across Taylor's waist, a head of curly brown hair spraying itself across Taylor's shoulder. "Bit of this, a bit of that. I don't really know how, exactly, I do things, just the gist of it. Now," she lifted her head, and started pushing against Taylor's back and in the direction of the house. "Are you going to tell me why you were in such a good mood earlier?"

Taylor hummed happily while they used the back entrance and approached their favourite spot on the couch, Taylor sitting on the couch itself and Amelia on Taylor's lap. "Well," she said while her fingertips brushed against Amelia's arms, Taylor noticing how her touch made Amelia's hairs stand on end and her muscles twitch. "I was reading all on my own in the library-"

Amelia interrupted with a snort of "nerd," at which Taylor took offense, retaliating with a nibble aimed at Amelia's ear that made her squawk.

"As I was saying," she continued with a fond glare that made her girlfriend squirm, "I got called out to the principal's office, and did you know what he offered me?"

Taylor stayed silent, her smile turning just a little bit sharp when she saw Amelia wiggle and squirm in her lap. "Come on!" She finally bit out. "Don't leave me hanging like that! You know I hate it!"

Taylor held tighter onto Amelia, her tone full of happiness as well as their link. "I got the offer to skip a grade. And," Taylor started nuzzling Amelia's neck, the tickles that the tip of Taylor's nose caused contrasted by her body heat and the bits of skin that were left feeling as if on fire each time her lips brushed against Amelia's neck. "I get to select someone as my mentor while I catch up on the work. Would you like to–"

Taylor hadn't finished before Amelia reversed roles, turning and tugging on Taylor's shirt and getting on top of her, Taylor's back now against the couch, her mouth sputtering incoherent half-sentences. " Yes. Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. I get to help you catch up like we always did and a legitimate excuse to pass the time with you if someone starts bitching about lost time at the hospital? Count me in, all the way."

Taylor's expression morphed into one of pure happiness, lips stretched wide and cheeks flushed. Amelia didn't want to resist the urge, so she didn't and leaned in to capture her lips, a wonderful current of electricity running up her spine at the yearned contact.

Taylor's body relaxed completely, melting against her when she deepened the kiss at the same time Amelia touched on her nerves in a way that made Taylor squirm animatedly beneath Amelia's weight, her breath slightly labored and her eyes locked firmly onto Amelia's. She licked her lips and spoke slowly. "Hey, Melie. Can you… use the Link? Can you make it deeper? Please?"

Amelia leaned back slightly, her hands on Taylor's still covered stomach and supporting her weight. She frowned, a bit despite the atmosphere. "Why? Is there something wrong with it?" She asked with growing anxiety, a small ball of dread growing in her stomach. Something should have shown on her face, because Taylor's response was rushed, almost stuttered.

"No! No, no there's nothing wrong with it, it's just…" Taylor rubbed her arms, averting Amelia's gaze and looking in another direction. "It's just that when you don't use it everything feels, I don't know, so cold. I don't like it. I…"

Amelia snorted, a hit of self derision in her tone. Leave it to her to be inattentive when she had a literal direct line to her girlfriend and only positive contact outside the family – read family as: Victoria. Great one, Amelia, you moron.

"I think, yeah, I think I can do something with it. If you want…" Amelia couldn't finish her sentence before Taylor started to nod enthusiastically.

"Do what you need to, I, I don't care. I just don't want to feel cold. I want," she paused, cheeks reddening, but eyes looking directly into Amelia's in spite of her embarrassment. "I want to feel you, always."

Amelia cooed and Taylor frowned, her blush deepening once more and covering not only her cheeks but her neck and collarbone, with more hints of red should she go exploring. Maybe she would.

"Alright, then stay still for a moment, I just need to…" Amelia sunk into Taylor's body, 'looking' in the direction that something was urging her to. It looked like a little nub inside Taylor's head that wasn't actually doing anything. Was that a Pollentia? It looked like it, and that meant that Taylor had the capability to Trigger. Amelia vowed to herself right in that instant to never let that happen, no matter the cost.

Now that she thought about it her sister seemed to have one too, but somehow better than this one. Less atrophied? Less badly connected? More or less.

Her power was tugging insistently at it, almost as if it wanted her to fix it. Well, it was a part of Taylor, and it looked damaged, so she couldn't have that now could she? Just a little twist and little body fat brought the nub back to a respectable size and the connections she knew should be there back into place. Amelia started to doubt if it had done anything at all when Taylor pressed her body against Amelia as much as she could, clawing at her back and squirming constantly, a hissed breath fleeing her clenched teeth that opened just for a moment, biting into Amelia's shoulder while she let out a lengthy moan.

She reached out with their connection, afraid that she had fucked something up irreversibly when Taylor's sensations slammed against her like a freight train going at maximum speed, her mind almost shattering beneath the waves of pure euphoria.

She imitated her partner, clinging to her and moaning into Taylor's neck. "Wh-wha–"

She didn't get any further before something snapped in her body, and then she stopped being able to think.

— O —

Under the red sun of the Firmament, Shaper's Avatar smiled.