It was a few hours later. Louise, Tabitha, Tiffania, and their Familiars were all bundled away into Tiffania's orphanage. On the way there, Louise had made the unpleasant discovery of Tiffania being a half-elf, but on top of the more important revelations, that fact was left to the wayside.

As such, she found herself at a wooden table, gulping down calming herbal infusion like nobody's business, and glaring at Ramiel and Tabris in between. And that was before Tabris, the orphans and Tiffania learned that most of Louise's familiars are villains, killers, psychopaths and one terroristic AI.

She slammed the latest mug onto the table. "So. Tabris." The herbal mixes were a godsend, and her opinion of the Elf had raised considerably. That didn't mean she had to like the infuriatingly cryptic enigma that was the Elf's familiar. "What's your deal?"

"I simply do as I must, no more, no less," Tabris shrugged, smiling genially and leaning forward, propping his elbows on the table and folding his hands in front of him. "And as I am now bound as a familiar to miss Westwood here, then what I must do is to aid her as she pleases. No more, no less."

B U L L S H I T

Ramiel chirped derisively from where it sat hovering over the table like an ominous chandelier, making the equivalent of an amused snort as that single word brought with it the information that Tabris just liked being a cryptic little shithead about the fact that he was an aimless bum who only did things that he liked. Like playing piano, or Shinji Ikari, whoever the fuck that was. The latter of those two things was delivered with what might as well have been a very obvious wink and a nudge, to which Tabris responded by coughing awkwardly into his hand, blushing, and looking away.

"... Shinji was… worthy of my grace… that's all," Tabris murmured, carefully not meeting anyone's gaze.

Louise coughed. "I'll pretend I didn't hear that, and I'm glad Ramiel can cut through whatever bullshit you're trying to feed me, Tabris. However." She raised a finger. "You said what you weredoing.You didn't say what your deal was. Yes, Ramiel is precise and concise, but I don't expect them to be long paragraphs of actual fucking meaning. No offense, Ramiel."

Louise pointed her finger at Tabris. "What, exactly, are both of you?"

"To put it simply, in our home dimension, we are the closest approximation to what one might call alien life," Tabris answered with a sentence that might as well have not explained anything. "Our cores are the physical manifestation of the soul, and have the ability to produce infinite energy. We are immortal, and our only weak point is our core."

Louise was massaging her forehead. "Right. I'm guessing the infinite energy bleeding over to me through our bond is what makes my magic do ridiculously overpowered things. Good. One mystery explained. And why are Aria and Kanade kissing?"

Kanade leaned away from Aria, disconnecting their mouths and letting the sadist noble she was on top of catch her breath. Aria melted into the bedsheets underneath her, exhausted from their makeout session. As Aria realized, Kanade was a REALLY good kisser.

"Heh, are you alright? You seem tired." Kanade asked, getting off of her with a smile.

"Y-Yeah, a little of both." Aria replied. "But you stopped kinda suddenly."

"Pfft, were you wanting it to go on longer?" The guitarist joked. "Well, I'd like that too."

She sighed irritably. "The rest of your sentence explains jack shit, Tabris. Home dimension? Alien life? I have zero context to either of those concepts, do you realize that?""Ah. I see," Tabris smiled a little bit in that same infuriating way and then just shrugged. "Imagine life from another planet. But from another universe as well. That is what we are."Louise furrowed her brow. "And I summoned both of you, from a distance that far away? And that was before I got the power boost from Ramiel?" She looked between them both with wide eyes. "Just how fucking powerful am I?" "Apparently absurdly so," Tabris answered with a shrug, not entirely sure himself. Ramiel made a noise of agreement, spinning around slowly and scattering light around the area.

Louise slumped onto the table. "I need another tea."

~~~~~~~~

Tabitha was, inwardly, panicking. She was way over her head. Way, way over her head. Why did she have to be so curious? Why did she have to stumble across not one but two Void Mages? Why did she have to fall in love with one of them? And why were the other's familiars staring at her?

"What?" she settled on asking, when that crimson gaze became too much to bear. What did he want from her? What did he see in her?

"You remind me of someone," Tabris smiled genially, as if he hadn't just been staring at her like some kind of creepy weirdo. "Just with blue eyes and glasses instead of red eyes and no glasses…. And I suppose you're a bit shorter as well."

"I see." She did not see. Were it not for the "red eyes" descriptor, she'd think...no. No, this was not an avenue she wanted to explore if she could help it.

She glanced at Louise, who was bemoaning the lack of sanity around her. That one was an avenue she'd explore much more readily... no! Focus! Shut up, Mental Voice of Kirche!

Tabitha shook her head to clear it of cobwebs. She wished she had something alcoholic to drink instead of all this tea.

~~~~~~~~

Ramiel, meanwhile, hovered silently over the table. Its thoughts were in turmoil, but thankfully easier to sort out this time around. The source of its turmoil, of course, was none other than Tabris- or, as he'd told the humans at the table to call him, Kaworu.

On the one hand, it was nice to not be alone in the universe again after spending several long nights just firing out its longest range signal pings to try and contact some form of progenitor. On the other hand…. Why did it have to beTabris?

Ramiel didn't dislike the white haired Angel, per se, but… why not Zeruel? Or Arael? Or even Armisae- actually no, not Armisael.

Ramiel paused in its rotation and shuddered gently in disgust. To borrow a phrase from the humans,fuckArmisael. Disgusting overgrown terrestrial tapeworm.

Eugh.

That said, at the very least, Tabris was well aware of the fact that Ramiel loathed his squishy, organic meat sack that housed his core and also heavily disliked the fact that he was such a cryptic bum. So that was nice. It meant that Tabris wouldn't try to be overly friendly with it and thus wouldn't touch it with his weird gross not-really-human organic fingers.

Ramiel took a moment to ponder the inherent contradiction that was the fact that it really, really hated the thought of others of its kind being organic when it was, in fact, actually pretty fine with the humans of Halkeginia. Then it decided that it was probably just because it was made of inorganic structures that were more or less perfect and everything else was weird and gross and fleshy stuff surrounding an exposed core.

Idiots. The core is the most important part and most of its organic siblings just had it hanging out for everyone to see like a giant red target.

Zeruel was okay though since Zeruel could blow up small mountains just like Ramiel. Even if Zeruel was kind of gross too, but less so since it had more metallic compounds than actual flesh making up its tissues.

And, Ramiel supposed, at least Tabris didn't have his core exposed either. Even if he was squishy and gross.

Eugh.

~~~~~~~~

In another room, Cyclonis and Hibiki are discussing some stuff about Cyclonis calling Kanade and Hibiki 'Lady Otonokoji'.

"Well, I usually could call you by your surname, but most of them don't have surnames to begin with," Cyclonis pointed out. "But I'll have you know that for someone not of this world, you have earned more of my respect than anyone else I've come across."

"You are just full of flattery today!" Hibiki let her arms drop. "Okay, I cave. I'm not getting anywhere with this on my own. You've got delicate fingers and a robot arm. Are you good with back rubs?"

Cyclonis briefly stabbed herself in the thumb with a sewing needle. After a pause, she looked up at Kanade, who was calmly awaiting her answer. "…I suppose I could give it a try," she stated before reaching over to plant the needle in a pincushion on the nightstand and putting a spare jacket on top of Hibiki's.

Hibiki quickly crossed to sit on the bed, turning the back of her shoulders to Cyclonis. Cyclonis willed her mind into thoughts of strict professionalism – and that was no small feat – as she gently placed her hands over Hibiki's shoulders and began digging into the skin with her fingertips, turning the vibration setting on.

Hibiki gave a light moan of approval; "Now THAT'S the stuff. Keep doing that, will you?"

Cyclonis didn't know what to say to that, assuming it was one of Hibiki's little jokes. She didn't expect her to follow up by chancing it: "So…are you interested?"

Cyclonis froze. She removed both hands from Hibiki in surprise. There was simply no way he could have heard Hibiki say what she thought she'd heard him say. It really must have been a joke, she realized. "Okay, I'll admit," she replied, smiling and joking, "You had me going there. Having a little laugh at Cyclonis' expense, are we?"

"I'm serious." Hibiki twisted around to face Cyclonis directly. "If you want me, you can totally have me."

"I don't believe it for a second," Cyclonis stated, rolling her eyes. "Do you know how much of a joke it became around Cyclonia, that the day someone could get into Cyclonis' pants would be a celebration? I've got no delusions. I'm well aware you're looking for someone much more attractive.."

"Are you KIDDING ME?" Hibiki blurted. "You're an evil GENIUS. You tried to take some Atmos place. You've got a voice like an angel, and for the record, you're hot as hell. And, here's the best part, you're as ruthless as me. Though given all that, by all rights, I should be asking what a girl like you would even see in me!"

"Well, ambition, for one!" Cyclonis replied without missing a beat. "You took what you wanted from the moment you see it! There's a certain unquenchable fire in you that makes you an utter delight to work with. And, I might add, you're quite good looking indeed."

"Wait," Hibiki realized. "You ARE into me, aren't you?"

Cyclonis found herself frozen again.

"Because I'm into you," Hibiki went on. "And if you want me, and I want you, then I think it's pretty obvious what we should be doing. Don't you?"

Cyclonis, consumed by utter disbelief, didn't say a word.

"Quite right," Cyclonis relented. "Very well. I fancy you quite a bit, Hibiki. Now, if I might ask, what is it you believe we should be doing in such a circumstance?"

"Well, first of all," Hibiki suggested, "I think you should kiss me as hard as you can. Second, grab my ass while doing it."

"I'll take you up on that."

Still held back by old ties to conventions and taboos, Cyclonis gingerly, cautiously leaned in to press her lips lightly to Hibiki's. Hibiki responded hungrily, wrapping both arms around Cyclonis' chest as she leaned hard into the kiss; her fervor broke down the last of Cyclonis' reservations, and soon they were at each other in equal measure, tongues and lips seeking the best position to savor each other. As Cyclonis' left hand curled up around Hibiki's back to find a home in her fluffy red-lavender hair, her right hand moved lower as she'd been invited; Hibiki signaled her approval with a brief "Mmh!"

"When you're done," Louise broke in, "the rest of us are waiting in the hall, and it would be nice if you could spare two seconds to actually pay attention to the rest of us."

Startled, Hibiki and Cyclonis broke away from each other to turn and face the doorway, where the smirking Louise was framed, in shock. After a pause of indeterminable length, Hibiki asked, "Er, boss, did you ever learn to knock?"

"I've heard of it," Louise replied. "Not that I've ever felt a need to do it."

"Can I ask you to not be a killjoy about this?" Hibiki sighed. "I can just TELL you have some monologue locked and loaded about not wasting our time on – "

Louise held up her hands. "Whatever you two want to do in your spare time, I don't care. Just don't forget we have work to do."

"Right!" Cyclonis replied, and as she stood up, Hibiki decided to do the same. "To the hall it is, then!"

Louise turned and left with a sweep of her cape. Cyclonis to Hibiki ask, "Shall we?", offering her arm.

Hibiki linked her own arm right through. "We shall."

They strode out of the room together.

~~~~~~~~

Louise upended another mug of tea down her throat, and then stared at it for a long while. "I wish I had alcohol," she groused, unknowingly echoing Tabitha's thoughts from earlier. "I'm too sober for all of this."

Sighing, she looked at the Boob Demon, no, sorry,Tiffania,and asked the question she had been contemplating for a while now."You don't happen to know any good waysoffthis floating rock, do you?"She ignored Tabitha's quiet facepalm behind her.