To continue writing as much as I have until now, I ask for your support. Even tweeting about it helps.
Become my Patron on Pa treon dot com/Kuugenthefox
There are perks and you might even get me to continue writing a discontinued fic!
Disclaimer: You donate for me to have time, not directly for fanfics but I use my time for fanfics.
Dissonance
Event XIV
Pace
Even though Ellen had not gotten her voice back yet, that didn't stop Love from asking her all kinds of questions. Agreeing to be part of their relationship was one thing, but now that Ellen actively thought about the consequences, she was becoming really confused. She had a very rough and general idea of how normal couples behaved, but...
"What are we going to do about sleeping? We three won't fit into one bed, and... Ellen, do you think you can handle sleeping next to me?" Setsuna was trying to be serious about the whole thing, but she too, had not thought about what to do if Ellen accepted. If she slept in the same bed as Love, and Ellen was part of their relationship now, then she should be there too.
Blushing a little and staring at her notepad, Ellen nodded twice quickly. As long as they didn't do anything funny, she should be able to handle that much. It was... both unexpected and obvious. Those two had been together for a long time, so they couldn't suddenly behave like they've just started dating.
And that put all three of them in a tough spot. It would be weird for Love and Setsuna to cut back on doting on each other, and weird for Ellen to keep up with those two. They probably didn't start sleeping in the same bed until weeks or months after they started dating. She wasn't being given that luxury.
"We could take a bed from another room and put two together. The rooms are big enough. We could also all sleep in our own bed if you prefer, Ellen. I understand if you can't just jump straight into this..." Setsuna was looking for alternatives since she didn't think it was a good idea to force Ellen into things.
Shaking her head, Ellen wrote quickly on her notepad. "I'm fine. I don't want to be treated differently from Love by you." She didn't want to feel like an intruder, even if it meant she had to jump the gun a little or a lot.
"Well, at most we'll sleep in the same bed. We won't do anything intimate until you... we get used to this." Setsuna wasn't unhappy but a little uncomfortable. Or maybe that was not quite the right word. It was... awkward. She liked Ellen and she liked Love, but she had a hard time imagining kissing either while the other one was right next to her. Everything beyond kissing was included in that as well.
"I can handle that." Writing that, Ellen blushed a little around the nose. She had, a few times, slept really close to Hibiki and Kanade, but that was completely different from sleeping next to someone she had romantic interest in. It didn't take a genius to realize that.
"Whose bed do we take and in which room do we stay? It doesn't matter much since all we have is really the bed." Looking to Love, Setsuna let her decide.
"We'll get your bed and bring it to this room. We'll better do it right now, before everyone else goes to sleep. I don't want to make a ruckus in the middle of the night." Waiting for Setsuna to agree, Love turned around and poked Ellen's forehead with her finger. "Just wait here for few minutes." The blue Cure had already tried to get up, wanting to follow and help the other two. "You rest for now, you had a really long day." Love was still concerned about Ellen's health, considering what she had gone through.
They were barely out the door when Setsuna sighed. It was all a lot more complicated than she had expected. "The more I think about this, the more awkward it becomes. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy that you found a way for both Ellen and me to be happy without sacrificing your own happiness, but this is... so different."
"It'll work out. You like her, and I think in time, it'll spark between her and me too since she's really cute. Of course it'll be different from before, it'll be even nicer." Love was quite happy that everything worked out the way she wanted to. It often didn't go that way, so she was really determined to make it work, no matter what. And Ellen really was cute when she took a closer look.
Lifting a single bed was an extremely easy task for two Cures. Specialized to hand-to-hand combat or not, all of them had the power to break solid brick walls with a punch if they really wanted to. While Love grabbed the upper end and Setsuna the lower, they had some difficulty maneuvering the bed through the door.
"You already kissed her once, right?" Love was a little curious about what had happened on the other side. She didn't know much about Ellen yet, nothing really beside what Setsuna had told her.
"I don't think it really counts as one. I broke it off right away when I started thinking I was cheating on you." She really wanted to forget the catastrophe that thankfully led to a good outcome. Both Ellen and her had been stuck in exile and that wasn't anything she wanted to remember.
"So, you two didn't even kiss yet? Shouldn't you fix that?" The impish grin on Love's face was something Setsuna saw very rarely. Love was pretty forward when it came to all things related intimacy and sex, but she didn't expect her to suggest she should kiss Ellen.
"She had a long day. If it happens, it happens. It feels pretty weird just thinking about kissing her when you're going to be sleeping right next to me. I know you won't get jealous but... it's awkward. Really awkward."
"I don't understand what the problem is Setsuna. I think it might be kind of cute to watch you two kiss." Love was never one to understand why things like unusual situations couldn't be ignored if it made people happy.
"It's not a problem. I just have to get used to this, Love. I really didn't expect things to go this way. I'm happy it worked out for all of us, but it's not something I can deal with like it's the most normal thing in the world." Sighing, Setsuna looked at the older one of her partners. "It's too sudden. I need a bit of time to get used to this. That's all. And I think Ellen feels the same."
Reaching Ellen's room, the two of them put new bed right next to the first one. They fit neatly together, the frame thankfully supportive of two beds acting as one large one. It was only a makeshift solution until they had the means to get a real bed for the three of them.
Throwing herself on the left half of the new double bed, Love exhaled air loudly. "I heard a bit about you from Setsuna, Ellen, want to hear a bit about us? I know Setsuna always leaves out some interesting things."
"You call them interesting, I call them embarrassing." Lowering her head and blushing, she knew that there was no stopping Love. Now that she saw Ellen as part of their relationship, she won't hesitate to tell her everything.
"I guess you could say we're lucky that the battles have been put in the evenings now. The exile run is early tomorrow, but that has nothing to do with us." Setsuna sat down next to love and put on a stern expression. "If you go overboard, I'll stop you." Love responded by sticking out her tongue and smiling.
"You two really get along." Ellen still had to write on her notepad but it wasn't all that bad. She would get her voice back in time, so she could put up with that much for a while.
"It's really easy to get along with Love, you'll see. Easier than getting along with me at the very least. I'm sometimes a bit aloof and quiet, at least people tell me that occasionally. Love on the other hand is a loud philanthropist." Crawling on the bed and sitting next to Ellen, Setsuna leaned against the wall and pointed at Love as she said the last few words.
"Hey!" The blond girl didn't like that term very much although she knew very well that it was absolutely true. "I'm not loud."
"You can be. Not in places where you have to be quiet, but otherwise, you're quite loud. I didn't say it's a bad thing." Setsuna sometimes liked to tease her partner a little bit, though both of them knowing it was in good fun.
"If I didn't have to go fishing for responses from you, I wouldn't need to be loud." Like a seal, Love crawled over the bed and only stopped when she could look up at Ellen. "You can talk to her for an hour and she won't say a word. No sign if she's listening at all. Irritating."
"That's because you never stop talking, Love. You go on and on and on. I'm surprised you haven't hit a world record of some kind yet. I had no problem talking to Ellen, since she actually stops to draw breath." The red Cure had a impish grin on her face when Love started to pout and rolled over, laying on her back.
"Are you sure you'll be fine sleeping in the same bed? If I was in your position, I'd probably pass out from stress." Passion was still worried about Ellen. "It makes things easier for us, but that's no good if you're not happy with it."
Taking her pen and writing a longer message, Beat blushed just a little bit. "I... think if I didn't have at least one of you suggesting this, I'd never be able to come out and say I'm ready. It was like that too when I turned hobby singing into a career. Hibiki had to drag me to an audition and force me to take it. I was so happy she did that in the end." There was literally not a centimeter of space left on the page.
"So you're both the indecisive type? And you still got a crush on each other and acted on it? That's amazing." Love had read the whole story upside down and still understood it. She didn't know who Hibiki was, but that didn't matter anyway. "The one who had to confess first was also-" Love was cut off by a pillow that landed on her face. Passion's face was lit with a bright red.
"Don't remind me of that, jeez!" Everything that could go wrong, had gone wrong that day. It still worked out, but they had taken a loan of bad luck for ten years in the future. Or at least it felt that way. She didn't want to remember anything but the moment Love asked her to be more than just her friend.
"It was a really chaotic day, but I'll never forget how happy Setsuna looked when I asked her if she wants to be my lover." Peach felt no shame at all, considering that she was looking at the two girls in front of her in a similar way now. She had felt attracted to Setsuna for a while but what really got her to ask was that she could see just how much Setsuna liked her. The blushing around her when they took a bath or shower, the caressing when Setsuna thought Love was fast asleep, and all those other things.
"It kind of feels like a shame that you won't have an eventful day to remember when someone asks you how we asked you out." Love seemed a little lost in thought to the others while she tried to come up with something that would make the day memorable.
"Today was really memorable. I finally got out of exile and you two were there with me the whole day. If I had been alone... I'd still be moping and bathing in self-pity, probably. I'm really grateful to both of you." Ellen hid her face behind the notepad as she showed it to the other two.
Laying one arm around Ellen's shoulders, Setsuna pulled her closer to her, resting Ellen's head on her own shoulder. They were the exact same height, so it wasn't that uncomfortable for the blue Cure. All of it seemed more like a reaction that a thought-out action, but Ellen didn't mind at all.
Love waited a bit before she interrupted the two. They were an item now, but she didn't mind giving them some time on their own without doing anything. It was Setsuna the blue Cure had fallen in love with after all.
Slowly crawling up to Setsuna, Love occupied the other of Setsuna's shoulders. While the two fresh Cures usually slept naked, it was pretty obvious that no such thing was going to happen now and not for a few more days. Peach knew now that she had to push Ellen a bit forward, but only enough so she didn't fall down.
"You two are heavy." Setsuna said so with a clear intent of joking around in her voice, and the other two simply started to smile. "This reminds me of the time Love hugged a bear." That roused Ellen's interest and made the blond girl roll eyes. "Want me to tell you?"
"I'm never going to understand how your memory works. You remember the oddest things from the weirdest moments." Love laughed. She really wanted to tell Ellen the story of the day she asked Setsuna out but it could wait for now. If Ellen came out and asked her, all the better.
"We were staying in a snowy village in Russia, this wasn't that long ago, and the room we were staying in had this really huge stuffed bear in the corner. The whole room was smelling like vodka and old wood, and there was a fireplace too. It wasn't bad at all, really. I had already showered and was reading a book on my bed when Love came from work, both of us working at different jobs that time, and she basically just walked straight through the room, to the bear, and started hugging it. It looked so weird, I took a few shots of it." Eas was surprised how much attention Ellen paid to a silly story like that. She really wanted to learn about those two.
"The room smelled like vodka because you worked in a bar and all your clothes, your hair and your whole body smelled like the stuff. I swear, if I had licked your skin, I could have gotten drunk." Love was poking Setsuna's arm, a small grin on her arm.
"At least I didn't have to work out in the snow. The clothes you wore, all of them together, were probably weighting just as much as you did! And you were still cold! Every night when you got into bed, I had to deal with your ice cold feet." Setsuna, instead of laying her arm around Love, played around with Peach's hair a bit, something she quite liked to do.
"How far have you two traveled? I'd love to her what the countries overseas look like." What she really wanted to hear were more details about their relationship until now, but she couldn't say that. If they told her, that was great, but she didn't want to pry.
"We started from Japan, went west to the shore, to South Korea, where we stayed for three months and traveled around, then.. in order, China, Indonesia, Vietnam, India, China again and then Russia." Love counted the countries on her fingers. "Which am I forgetting Setsuna?"
"The Philippines after the first time we were in China and Thailand after were in Vietnam. I didn't like either very much, so it's no surprise you forgot." Without her realizing, Setsuna had also started to play with Beat's hair and had gradually wrapped a long strand around her index finger.
"We've been around. It's really though since they speak a different language everywhere, but Setsuna is really good at picking them up. Or at least memorizing phrases from guides. It's a big help." Love closed her eyes and leaned a bit more against her partner.
"I'm not going to let you sleep like this Love. The last time I did, my shoulder was sore for two days." Shoving Peach away, Setsuna could feel Beat move away too.
"I guess we could try and figure out who is going to sleep where before we continue talking." Without getting up, Love rolled over to the right side of the bed. "Setsuna can go in the center. That okay with you Ellen?"
Not bothering to write up an answer, Ellen simply nodded and watched Love turn back into civilian form, wearing a heavy fur outfit, designed to keep out the cold. Stripping down until she was only wearing bra and panties, Love vanished under the blanket. "Unlike Miki, I can't really take off my Cure outfit, so I have to do this. I hope it doesn't bother you." Ellen just shook her head, used to seeing other girls in their underwear. Kanade and Hibiki, at times, stayed over at her place and they rarely brought pajamas. It was different to see Love strip down to just her underwear though. It was kind of... hot.
Setsuna followed suit, first getting down from the bed and turning back to civilian form, then stripping down. Ellen was watching in fascination for a few seconds before she too started changing. Thankfully, part of her stage outfit consisted of shorts and a shirt, which she could still use. As soon as they were done, three piles of clothes littered the ground. Love was laying flat on her stomach, elbows buried into her side of the double pillow and supporting her head, her eyes fixed on Ellen. "You're a lot cuter this way."
Setsuna couldn't help but smile at the sight of Ellen hiding half her face under the blanket, avoiding Love's gaze. She felt a little embarrassed to be complimented out of the blue by her. Grabbing her notepad, Ellen wrote a few words and then crossed out them, trying to think of a better way to phrase it.
"Yeah, I do really think you're cute." Love was looking over Ellen's shoulder, having crawled behind Setsuna, reading what the musician had crossed out. Hiding the notepad, much too late, Ellen looked a little confused. "If you ask me why, I won't be able to give you an answer to that. Could you explain why you think this and that about Setsuna is beautiful?" The bright and honest smile that played around Love's lips defeated most of Ellen's nervousness.
"No peeking." Setsuna pushed Love back to her own side, a little more cautious than her bold partner. "Do you think we're going to have to fight tomorrow?" She was worried about what would happen if the negotiations put the remaining five all into battle.
"I'll volunteer to go and you should too. We really need the favor, and not just to to avoid you two getting stuck in exile again. It's really up to whether Ellen feels better tomorrow and if she thinks she can handle it." Love had no problems switching gears quickly. "We're your partners Ellen. Not your parents or guardians. We'll accept whatever you decide for yourself. Of course, if you fight, I'll try my best to protect you two."
"That's what she says, but we'd end up saving her butt- ouch!" Setsuna, pretending to be whispering to Ellen, had been flicked in the back of her head by Love. "Why, you-!"
The two of them were surprised when they heard Ellen giggling. Still without voice, but clearly giggling, her eyes closed, her hand covering her mouth. It only took a few seconds before the two got infected as well, and started laughing at their own little pretense.
"Let's go to sleep. I have the feeling if we don't draw the line somewhere now, we're going to be up all night." Setsuna was really tired, having watched over Ellen the entire day. And she wanted to give Ellen some time to get used to the situation.
Love knew that it was just Setsuna being protective of Ellen, but she didn't say a word against it. Pushing Ellen as far as this without seeing any resistance was surprising to say the least, and she didn't know just how much more the girl could take before being unable to cope anymore. Pushing herself up and leaning over Setsuna, the blond girl kissed her partner briefly.
There was no sense to pretending she didn't like it. Laying one hand on Love's cheek, Setsuna pulled her in and made a brief kiss an intense one. Having Ellen watch was a little awkward but they could only get past that if they didn't let it get to them. And Setsuna was trying as hard as she could. She wasn't Love, who could just accept those things with absolute ease, but she was trying.
Ellen on the other hand was blushing but not averting her eyes. They were going so far out of their way to let her be a part of that, she couldn't pretend they hadn't been intimate before. But it was easier than she had thought in the first moments after Love's offer. They were both very considerate of her, giving her enough room to herself, to deal with the sudden development.
She found it easier to cope with than expected. It was a bit weird to go straight to sleeping in the same room, and same bed too, but... it wasn't bad. It was true that if she wasn't pushed to do things at a specific pace, she often hesitated and then tried too hard on her own.
Setsuna had a weak shade of red on her cheeks when their kiss ended and Love laid down, not looking fazed in the least. "Good night you two." As if on command, the light went out and the room went dark. For a while, it was impossible to see anything. As soon as their eyes got used to it, they could see just enough to tell where the others were.
"And she's asleep." Setsuna realized quickly that with the lights off, there was no way for Ellen to communicate. "When we traveled, it was always a rush to fall asleep and get up early to catch trains or get to work. I still can't fall asleep on command, but Love has no problems with it."
Slowly reaching out to Ellen's side, Setsuna found the black haired girl's hand. "I'm happy things worked out like this. It's probably a bit weird for you, but still... I felt really bad when I realized you sacrificed yourself for me. I felt really guilty about all of this until Love made me realize that just feeling bad about it won't help anyone."
Shaking her head in the darkness, Ellen hoped that Setsuna could see enough to notice it. Turning over and facing her first love, Ellen held on tight to Setsuna's hand, slowly moving in to her, laying a hand on her cheek. She could still remember that first, brief, kiss they shared and after seeing Love and Setsuna together like that, she couldn't care less about whatever her reason was yelling at her inside her head.
Instead of backing away at the sudden advances Ellen made, Setsuna leaned forward and moved a strand of her hair that hung over Ellen's eye out of the way. She didn't mind kissing Ellen and it was good that Love was asleep. She'd never hear the end of it of how cute they were if she saw them kissing in the darkness.
It was so completely different from their first kiss. Where it had been a bittersweet, melancholic taste back then, now, a happy and sweet feeling rushed through them as their lips met, parted and met again. Still taking it slow, it was a normal kiss, no matter how one looked at it. But to them, it was still special. A kiss they didn't have to hide, they could repeat over and over without fear of doing something bad or hurting someone's feelings. For Ellen, there was also the lingering aftertaste of Love's sweet lips on Setsuna's, but she didn't mind it all that much.
"I knew it'd be cute to watch you two kissing." The sudden emergence of Love's voice made the two girls part in a hurry, both of them blushing in the dark.
"You voyeur." Setsuna pouted and got hugged by Love shortly thereafter.
"Don't be like that." Resting on her side, looking at Ellen and holding on to Setsuna's right arm, Love smiled. "Ellen, come here too." If they had the courage to kiss on their first day together, it wasn't too much to sleep closer than just holding hands. Reaching out over Setsuna and grabbing Ellen's wrist, Love tested if she could slowly pull Ellen towards Setsuna. It didn't come as much of a surprise that there was little resistance. The girl really loved Setsuna after everything they went through.
A little reluctant to do what Love was doing, Ellen quickly gave in and held on to Setsuna's left arm the way Love did to her right. "Like a prisoner." Setsuna commented jokingly but then smiled. They would let go quickly as soon as they fell asleep.
=== Dissonance ===
"You can't possibly be still bothered by who I slept with on the other team." Urara was combing her hair, sitting on the edge of her bed, completely naked, while Rin was behind her, laying on her back, also completely naked but covering herself with a blanket, watching the back of her friend. They were both in civilian form.
"If you think that way, why don't you just tell me? I know we're not going out and I can't stop you from sleeping with others. Doesn't mean I have to like it." Rin was a little annoyed that Urara slept with others beside her. She didn't really want to date her, they were friends, not lovers, but it still bothered her.
"I'm not telling you because I know you're going to make a fuss. I'm your friend Rin, and that's exactly why I know you'd make one. Beside that, this might be the last time, for a while at least, that we slept with each other. I'm fairly interested in someone and I'm not going to jeopardize me getting her." Urara had told Rin over and over that if either of them became interested in someone and they wanted to put a stop to their arrangement, the other one shouldn't make a fuss.
Rin knew that too, but she still didn't like it. She really liked the sex with Urara and she would be on her own without her. That her luck in romance was pretty much maximum negative didn't help to improve her mood. "I get it. Who is it? You can tell me that much, can't you?"
"Muse." Urara said so casually while finishing the right side of her hair, the comb switching hands. "She's pretty stubborn, and I haven't had a decent challenge in forever. The stubborn types are beasts in bed." Turning around and grinning impishly at Rin, she put a sarcastic tone to her words. "Isn't that right Rin?"
"Oh shut up." The red Cure wasn't in the mood for her friend's usual teasing.
"Why don't you try your luck with someone else? There's bound to be a few lonely girls around. As far as I know, Luminous, Rose, Blossom, Marine, Bright and Windy, Berry, Pine, Moonlight and Muse don't have a partner. Of course, I'm going after Muse so that one is out. You're attractive even as a tomboy, and there are people who just fly for that kind of thing to begin with."
"I tried and failed often enough and you know it. I just don't have any romance in me, I guess." Getting up and sighing, Rin scratched the back of her head. She had a successful career and a few very good friends, but her love life was a total mess.
"It's no good if you try to date someone that matches Karen or Komachi. You'd need someone that's down to earth and pretty smart." Urara was back to combing the left side of her hair. Rin was really wild in bed, so she always had to fix her hair afterwards.
"And those people totally grow on trees, especially among Cures." Rin had her moments of being cynical, sometimes even more so than Urara.
"I don't know most of them good enough to judge that and neither do you, so stop bathing in self-pity already, it's disgusting. You're better than that Rin." Finishing her hair, Urara turned around and laid down next to Rin. "Just going to crash here for the night if you don't mind."
"You have horrible sleeping habits, so yes, I mind, get to your own room. It's right next door even." Shoving Urara out of bed, Rin started to pout. Urara was one of her best friends, maybe even her best right after Nozomi, but she could really rub someone the wrong way. Or maybe she was just pissed off that Urara was going after another woman.
"Don't be a bitch just because I'm putting our arrangement on ice." That was the last thing Urara said before a yellow flash blinded Rin and Lemonade walked out of the door. Rin took things too personal. Their relationship had never been one of love, just one of convenience. Urara liked the wild, passionate sex with Rin and Rin, well, she liked the fact that she could sleep with someone that liked her. Maybe it was more about that than the actual sex for her.
Rin knew perfectly well that Urara slept with some of her fans on occasion, but apparently, sleeping with another Cure was unforgivable or some such. Sleeping with Marine was nice but not something she wanted to make a big deal out of. The girl was much too hyper for her tastes.
Going to her room, Urara stopped at the door. Maybe she should take a peek at Muse while she was still up. That kiss must have left an impression and those types had to be pushed constantly. Marching to the end of the hallway, she quietly opened the door to Muse's room and took a peek inside. The black Cure was not there.
Where had she gone? Closing the door and thinking about it, there weren't too many places she could have gone. Lights were out and it was hard to see, so the labyrinth wasn't a logical place to go. Walking a few steps and looking into the living room, there was no sign of her either.
Taking a short look into the bathroom, there was nobody there either. Where had she gone? Urara didn't have to wait long before a clue literally walked by. Moonlight was walking down the hallway, past her room and heading towards the bathroom, near which Lemonade was leaned against a wall.
"Moonlight, have you seen Muse?" She didn't specify what for exactly she needed to know on purpose. It likely wasn't a good idea to make the silver Cure aware of her plans.
"She's in a room just down the hall, reading a book. That room is the only one that still has lights on for some reason." Yuri was too tired and kind of in a rush to question Urara or care. She had her own problems to take care of.
"Thanks." Leaving Moonlight behind and quickly walking down the hallway, Urara had a diabolical smile on her face. In a room, all alone, at night. That was just asking people to have a little fun with her.
Finding the room was easy enough. The door was open, the shine from inside lighting up the hallway ground. Muse sat down on a small table, focused on a thick book. Urara took great care not to make a sound as she slowly sneaked into the room, up behind the black Cure, who had her back directed towards the door.
Urara was right behind her and Ako still hadn't noticed her presence. She almost shrieked when one arm was suddenly wrapped around her waist, another around her chest, dangerously close to her breasts. Hot air was being breathed in her ear, and she finally did let out a brief shriek when someone started to lick the back of her neck. "Up so late?"
She recognized that voice instantaneously. She couldn't even jump up and get away because of the way Urara was holding her. "Let go." The second she said so, the kiss sprung right into her mind, as if it had been seconds ago. The taste, the sensation, the feeling. She couldn't let that woman push her around like that. She still hadn't made up her mind if Moonlight or Lemonade were right either.
"No." Urara wasn't so much talking as she was whispering in Ako's ear. The hot air forced chills down her spine, not the kind one felt from fear but from excitement. She wasn't in full control of her body anymore. Urara's hand moved over the black leather, drawing a line upwards, over Muse's breasts, up to her chin. Putting some force into it, Urara took hold of the black Cure's cheek and turned her head just enough to make her look slightly sideways, away from the yellow Cure. Ako's eyes were wide open and ablaze with anger when Lemonade kissed her now even more exposed neck.
She was fed up with being pushed around by her. Putting all her strength into it, Muse got up and whirled around, only to see the last bit of golden hair vanish through the door. Her breathing was rapid, her face flushed, her whole body tingling with excitement. She didn't like the way Urara was doing it, but she couldn't deny that she liked what she was doing. She would never admit that to anyone though.
"You're very bold..." "...Cure Lemonade." Urara's attention was directed towards a small balcony above her just as she had gotten away from the room where she teased Muse a little. It was so easy to excite her. A bit of hot air, some caressing, and she could already feel her nipples below the leather become hard. As far as costumes went, hers was fairly unique.
"I'd think that you two of all people would find that interesting." Lemonade had only a faint idea of what kind of people the Kiryuu's were, but she was willing to take a gamble.
"Why do you..." "...say that, Lemonade?" Their legs were swinging back and forth in the air as they sat on the edge of the balcony, looking down on the yellow Cure. They were waiting until everyone else was asleep before they dared to test what they had witnessed earlier.
"No particular reason." Urara put on a poker face and walked a few steps before she turned around once more. "I just find it... very interesting to find you two always in peculiar situations and spots. That is all." It was a total bluff, but even so, it would work. They had no reason not to believe it.
Without giving them a chance to respond, Urara left, a smug smile on her face. It was a pretty decent evening. She had slept with Rin, molested Muse a bit and played a quick mind game with Bright and Windy. All in all, satisfying.
Ako was, meanwhile, trying to cope with the excitement that was slowly going away but leaving a very bad aftertaste of vanishing the wrong way. She felt... unsatisfied. She realized it was a bad idea to further associate with Lemonade, but she couldn't just run away then that was cowardly and beneath her.
Ako was smart, so she was pretty much aware of what exactly the feeling was, but her mind refused to give in to temptation. If she was going to satisfy herself, she would do so on her own whims, not after Lemonade's petty attempts to make a move on her.
Yuri had gone to bed and as things were now, she didn't feel like continuing the book she was reading. Lemonade had single-handedly ruined the evening for her. Was it partially her own fault for not resisting right away? No. It was hard to admit but that woman knew what she was doing. The second she touched her, it didn't matter if she was thirteen or eighteen, there was nothing she could do. And she hated that.
=== Dissonance ===
"Tsubomi, are you still up?" Erika was often silly, but she recognized a hint when it was slapped right in her face. Tsubomi had acted odd and got angry every time she brought up Lemonade. Knocking on her friends door, Erika didn't have to wait long for a reply.
"Come in." Tsubomi was still wide awake, sitting on her bed and counting coins by the light of a candle. It was already night, so the glowing walls were no longer any help.
"What are you doing?" She didn't want to rush the real question. It was kind of a delicate thing to ask and depending on her answer, things could go wrong or change drastically. Sitting down next to the pink haired girl, Erika seemed pretty amazed. She had amassed a lot of favor herself, but Tsubomi was pretty close.
"Counting favor. I want a garden, even if it's a small one. I hate how barren this place is." Looking up and at Erika, Tsubomi found her to be looking unusually serious. Tsubomi was quick to realize when something was bothering other people.
"You changed a last in the last four years. I remember when you transferred into our class in middle school. You were so shy, it was hard to watch." Leaning back, Erika smiled. A lot of time had passed and even though so many things had happened, their relationship had never really changed.
"You didn't change at all. You're still the loud, smart and pushy girl I was harassed by on my first day. But I still like you that way. But what brought this on? It's not like you to suddenly reminiscence about the past." Leaning back and looking at her friend from the side, Tsubomi wondered just what could bother that Erika.
"Don't be ridiculous, even I think about the past sometimes! It's just that I'm usually busy with other things. I don't really have anything to do now, though." Erika didn't account for how sharp Tsubomi was when someone acted differently from usual.
"I want a garden, so why don't you open a small clothing shop? I for one would appreciate not having to walk around as Blossom every day, all day."
"I thought about it but I don't know how it would work. Maybe if I got the material, turn that into clothes and sell them. If I can sell them, that is." Making a short break, Erika focused on why she was here to begin with. "We've been through a lot together, right?"
"Dune, Sabaaku and the others... we survived a lot. Though the worst of all was probably when you missed a deadline by accidentally switching the date on the calendar. I never felt as close to dead before than after those four days."
"I was wondering... did you ever think about me the way you thought about Itsuki?" Moving her hand over the bed to Tsubomi, Erika averted her eyes, easing up on the pressure Tsubomi was feeling.
The pink haired girl was visibly shaken by Erika asking that and didn't come up with an answer right away. Was she really acting that way? And more importantly, was Erika right? Did she have feelings for her?
"I know I've fooled around with you quite a bit, but I didn't think you'd start to like me that way. Not that I dislike it... in fact, I'm quite flattered." She couldn't leave Tsubomi enough time to get caught in her own worries. She knew the girl well and while she was sharp with others, her own feelings seemed like a pretty big mystery to her. She had to push an instinctive answer out of her, a true answer, not one she formulated in her head. "When I asked Mint about Lemonade, you reacted odd. I wasn't really sure at the time, but I realized later that you were jealous. You figured out that I had spend some intimate time with her, and that bothered you. It made a lot of sense the moment I started thinking you might like me."
"Erika... stop, I can't..." Tsubomi was scared of what Erika might say next. She had been turned down by Itsuki once already, and ever since then, their friendship hadn't been quite the same. She regretted ever finding the courage to confess. She wanted things to stay the same, she wanted to keep being close to Erika. She didn't want the risk.
Turning around and facing Tsubomi, Erika smiled wide. "Stupid. You really think I would turn you down? You? The girl I spend most of my day with, every single day? Who helps me with work, cooks for me at times and who I spent more intimate time with than any other person? You're still the same old, silly Tsubomi that was scared of everything but flowers when she transferred into my class." Poking the forehead of the completely perplexed girl, Erika got up. "I'll go out with you as soon as you find the courage to ask me." The scene shattered.
Tsubomi woke up in cold sweat. Her room was dark, her hair sticking to her back, her heart racing. That dream explained a lot about her bad mood whenever Erika brought up that other woman. She had feelings for her long-time friend. But it was pretty unlikely that it would play out just like her dream. Erika was nice, but there was no indicator that she had any real romantic feelings for her.
She didn't want to turn the relationship with her best friend into something awkward. She had done that once already. Turning over in bed and sighing, Tsubomi didn't know what to do. On one hand, if she kept ignoring her feelings, it would eventually become a problem. But there was also the chance that she would just get over it. Confronting Erika and telling her would inevitably become a problem. At this point, she simply couldn't imagine it working out in her favor.
And worst of all, she couldn't stop worrying about it. She would be dead tired the next morning. And she couldn't even tell Erika what kept her up. Another heavy sigh escaped her lips. Why did she have so little control over her emotions and who she fell in love with? She knew so many people and yet the two people she became attracted to were not only girls, Cure's on top of that, but her best friends to boot.
She didn't really have anyone she could talk to about it as well. Yuri might be mature but she had her own emotional roller-coaster to deal with. Itsuki was out as well, given that she had turned her down in the past. She wasn't really that horrible at making friends, but just being friendly with others and being able to talk to them about her romantic troubles were two very different things.
Burying her face in her pillow, Tsubomi cursed her luck. On top of everything, Erika seemed pretty interested in Lemonade. She was absolutely certain that they had slept with each other. It wasn't really any of her business, yet it still bothered her a lot. Hopefully she wasn't being too obvious. The last thing she wanted was for Erika to alienate her because of the way she acted whenever the topic shifted to the yellow Cure.
"I wish I could talk to grandma about this." Tsubomi breathed heavy in the pillow, rolling over, unable to fall asleep. "This is going to be a long night..."
=== Dissonance ===
"Isn't this kind of wrong?" Kaoru was pushing Michiru against a wall, her right arm supporting her, her left arm wrapped around her sisters waist.
"Yeah..." Michiru had both her arms around Kaoru's neck. She had a small blue hickey on her neck that Kaoru left there a few minutes ago. They hadn't tried kissing yet and something was disturbing them quite heavily.
"This isn't how they were. Maybe the position is wrong? Should we switch?" Michiru suggested, trying to think of the exact position they had seen Melody and Rhythm in. "I think Rhythm is the older one but submissive. Which one of us is older?"
"I'd say I'm older. But neither of us is the submissive type. Maybe we're going about this wrong." Kaoru was feeling pretty excited but not the way it looked for Melody and Rhythm. They were missing something quite essential. "Do you know how Saki and Mai go about this?"
"I don't really know. This isn't bad, but it's not really all that special. There must be something we're overlooking, since everyone else seems quite satisfied with it." The fact that, as sisters, it was quite the unusual thing to just start making out, didn't occur to them at all. And thus, it of course didn't bother or hold them back either.
Leaning in and kissing her little sister, Kaoru broke off quickly. She was familiar with the process but not with the specifics of what it felt like. "Open your mouth." A normal kiss was too boring. Starting again, the blue haired girl swiftly slid her tongue into the mouth of her younger sister, the two of them engaging into a wild fight of who could excite the other one more. They both felt their pulse rise and their logical thinking getting weaker.
Moving her left knee between Michiru's legs, Kaoru turned the tide in her favor, pulling her sister even closer, intensifying the kiss. Things took a turn for the worse when the red haired girl started groping her, forcing her to break off the kiss, unable to contain the moan that forced it's way out. "I think we're doing it right. I'm having trouble thinking about anything but doing this."
"It's a really pleasant feeling, isn't it?" Without waiting for a reply, Michiru continued to grope the breasts of her sister, more excited about the unknown sensation than what she was actually doing. There was a certain addicting something to learning and experiencing new things. Pinching the now erect nipples of her sibling, Kaoru let out a painful gasp. "Too much force? Sorry." Adjusting her grasp, it was quite difficult to find the right amount of force.
"I remember a few things we can try too." There was no limit to their curiosity. Thankfully, the older of the two, Windy, had done a bit of studying on adult manga and movies a while ago. Letting go of her sister, Kaoru knelt down, lifting Michiru's dress and started kissing the inner side of her partners legs, her free hand slowly moving up and down the other leg.
"I remember reading the legs are a really erogenous zone but this feels... really good." Michiru started moaning and didn't stop, quite enjoying the impulse to just let go and do whatever her body asked for. Her right hand holding on to Kaoru's shoulder, the other making a total mess of her sisters hair, wildly moving through it.
Kaoru stopped briefly, trying to think of what was next. She had contradicting memories, part saying that she should pull down Michiru's panties and lick her, while others told her to stop and move up to play with her breasts. She didn't want to do all the work on her own, so she decided for the latter. Michiru's face was flushed red, and as soon as Kaoru dropped her dress, she jumped on her sister, pushing her down on the ground, kneeling over her, seductively licking her lips.
Laying down on Kaoru, Michiru let her whole body weight rest on her sister, her breasts pushing against those of her sister, her eyes glassy from the sudden flow of hormones in her body. The blue haired girl quickly laid her arms around her sister, eager to share that exhilarating feeling. Apparently all they needed was some patience to get their bodies in the mood.
Not quite a kiss but tongue play with their mouths wide open, drops of saliva slowly ran down their throats and chins as they kept intensifying their make-out.
They both hadn't noticed that they had an audience. Lemonade was, with a large bottle of sake in her right hand, sitting on a high balcony, watching the two sisters go at it. After having her fun with Muse, she found herself too psyched to sleep. Taking a walk and looking for a nice spot to enjoy a late night drink, she just happened to come across the sisters. She had seen the whole thing.
They were getting a little too wild and intimate for it to be just an interesting past time, not to mention that while she was good at holding her alcohol, it would be difficult to get back to her room if she was staggering. Urara didn't feel, not now or ever for that matter, like watching them actually have sex in public, so she got up and jumped down, losing her balance and needing a nearby walk to hold on until her balance returned.
She could still hear their moaning and from the sound of it, it wouldn't take much longer until clothes would come completely off. Despite everything, Urara didn't judge them. In fact, she quite liked them for ignoring common sense and the rules society imposed on them. They couldn't sleep with each other just because they're sisters? That didn't make sense.
To her surprise, Urara ran into someone unexpected. Of all the people, Urara thought that she would be fast asleep. "Yo, Nozomi. What are you doing up so late? Up to no good?"
"Getting something to eat. I skipped dinner." If Nozomi had learned one thing then it was that it was best not to act in front of Urara. She could smell a lie a mile against the wind and tell fake smiles and acting from real behavior in a heartbeat.
"Don't plunder the kitchen. The others are gonna lynch you if you cause any more trouble after that last stunt. Rin was so damn mad, I thought she'd literally overheat." Urara cracked up at the terrible joke, a little drunk. Nozomi just rolled eyes.
"It's not like I screw up on purpose. I tried to help everyone so we won't have to fight anymore. But after being there with them, I know that's not helping them. It's just me who's bothered by it. I still don't like it." She still felt like a miserable mess but she didn't want to show that to Urara of all people.
"I know that. And Rin knows it too. So do Karen and Komachi. But that doesn't change that it's a problem when you screw up. The fighting is not as bad as you make it out Nozomi. You're only hurting yourself by being stubborn. Anyway, go to sleep after you eat. Chances are, if your luck hates you, that you're going to have to fight tomorrow. I'm crashing, night." Urara waved and entered her room, leaving Nozomi behind, now slightly more depressed than before.
=== Dissonance ===
"I don't want to know where you got that, do I?" Everyone, excluding Lemonade and Dream, was sitting at the table, enjoying breakfast before they picked someone to do negotiations. Nobody had been particularly early that day, but to everyone's surprise, Melody and Rhythm volunteered to fix something for breakfast. They were now enjoying some sandwiches. Mai had noticed a big blue and purple hickey on Michiru's neck.
"From Kaoru." Michiru didn't see the harm in telling her. If Mai could make out and have sex with Saki, there shouldn't be a problem if she did it with her sister. There was really nobody else available.
"I think I need to talk to you two after this." Mai sighed and looked to Saki, who was blissfully ignorant of the situation at hand and stuffing herself while having a conversation about sports with Melody. Rhythm looked incredibly worn out, having huge black rings under her eyes. It was a relatively quiet morning.
"I want to handle negotiations. There are some peculiarities on both teams and I don't want to run into another mess." Yuri spoke up just as the general chatter died down a little. Nobody was objecting. Michiru and Kaoru tried to but Mai stared them down. For some reason they didn't quite grasp, Mai was angry with them.
And with that, breakfast was back to general chatter. "You've known each other for that long?" Saki was talking to Hibiki about her relationship with Kanade, the topic having somehow shifted there after they discussed the peculiarities of professional sports and how a lot of it had fiercer fights between sponsors and management than actual players.
"We were close even before we went to middle school. I don't really remember how old we were when we first met. We pretty much did everything together."
"And then Hibiki stood me up on our first day of middle school and the whole story was passe. We only argued for over a whole year."
"You stood me up too! And forget that, you know that it was a mistake for both of us!"
"It wasn't me who acted all huffy for seeing me walking with some other girls. It's not like we were dating back then!"
"You two really get along." Saki thought that they were really two of a kind. There was nobody else on their team that could keep up with their act.
"No we don't!" They were in perfect harmony as they kept arguing. "Don't copy me! Stop copying me! I said... stop it already!" Saki couldn't watch any longer without laughing, so she turned to Mai, who was in the process of staring down Michiru and Kaoru. The hickey was big enough to be easily visible, and Saki made the connection a few seconds after seeing both Mai's annoyed face and the blue mark.
White was seated next to Muse and Moonlight, the three of them discussing their next course of action. "Dream caused a massive incident the last time she fought. I'm not looking forward to letting her participate. If possible, I'll try to keep it down to four or five participants." Yuri was not going to let another incident happen just like this.
"She screwed up once, but you shouldn't keep on treating her like a problem. It will only make it worse." To Moonlight's surprise, Muse was on the opposing end of the discussion. "She deserves a second chance. If she messes up again, you can still exclude her."
Honoka bad been briefed on what happened. She knew most of the story from her own side and she had experienced the terrible effect of the hymn first hand, close up. She understood why they were afraid of letting Dream fight if there was a possibility that she would cause another problem. But making errors was human nature. "I agree with Muse. I can't imagine anyone here would cause a problem on purpose. There has to be a reason behind it."
"She's stubborn like a mule. She can't accept that we have little choice but to fight each other." Yuri was still furious but she tried to contain her anger and not let it show, though with only limited success.
"She will come to terms with it. We will be here for a while. If she continues to stay on that front alone, she will be alienated, alone. Nobody can endure that for long. Even if she has to bury her ideals, she'll come around." Ako was sure of that.
"Not Dream. Her ideals are her life. She has never yielded on them or changed them." Rouge was following the conversation with one ear. "But this is the first time she has no other choice. Friendship and good will aren't going to cut it. She'll realize that. If she doesn't..." Rin didn't meet any of the looks she was getting. Nozomi had really no choice. But could she really change and adapt?
"Regardless, her screw up was too recent. I can't trust her. Nor do I want to." Yuri didn't even want to see her, much less fight with her on one side. She wouldn't mind fighting against her and showing her some of the pain she had gone through because of her mess.
"We'll see what happens. You can handle negotiation, I have no problem with that." White didn't think Moonlight was incompetent at all, but there was something worrying about her. She seemed cool and calculating, but something didn't really let Honoka trust her, not yet anyway. Muse stayed out of it, saying nothing.
The only other black Cure beside Nagisa, Honoka was curious about her. Granted, her theory that a Cure's color scheme was related to their personality or powers was far-fetched, and so far, Muse seemed like the complete opposite of her partner.
"Honoka, are you done with this?" While they had argued, everyone else had finished eating. The first few were already leaving, Mai and Saki already cleaning the table. "Kaoru, Michiru, you're going to help too, right?" Mai put what she learned from her friend to good use, showing them a smile that sent cold shivers down their spine. The artist could be terrifying when she was scolding people.
"You still have them under tight control, I see. Do they still cause trouble for you?" Honoka knew about Michiru and Kaoru, but no more than that they were Cures and extremely loyal to Mai and Saki, their closest friends. And that they had an insatiable thirst for learning new things, which often caused problems, thanks to their curiosity and lack of common sense.
"Only sometimes. We'll talk later Honoka. I'm curious how things with you and Nagisa are." Showing her fellow Cure a genuine smile, Mai went after Saki, who was balancing more dishes than she should. At least she wasn't klutzy when it came to things like that. Her sense of balance was quite good.
"Saki, get the rest of the dishes please." Ordering her partner out of the kitchen, said partner quite relieved to be able to skip the scolding which was inevitably coming, Mai's expression turned quite serious. "So, which one of you would like to explain to me how exactly it came to be that you two got the idea of getting each other a hickey. I assume Kaoru has one too."
"You're wrong about that. At least not in a visible spot."
"I think I'm going to regret asking, but did you actually do anything beside kissing?" Mai wasn't sure about the extent of lack of common sense she was dealing with. Putting her hand to her forehead, Mai closed her eyes, not looking forward to the answer of the question she had just asked.
"I don't know why you're so angry Mai. You sleep with Saki all the time, so why does it make you angry that we slept with each other?" Kaoru was first to stand up to the unfair treatment. She would do anything for Mai, but she wasn't going to get scolded by her for something that was not wrong.
"So you went all the way. To be honest, I didn't expect that. And the big difference here is that Saki is not my sister. It's already a problem, sometimes, if people ask me who my partner is, but that's just how people are. If someone asks you who you are sleeping with and you tell them it's your sister, they're going to look at you like a crazy person. Normal people don't sleep with their siblings or close relatives."
"I understand if that applies to male with female relationships because of the increased probability of genetic defects, but not only are we both girls and thus neither of us runs in danger of getting pregnant, but we're also not normal people." Kaoru argued with Mai extremely rarely if ever. But she couldn't understand why she should let a social bias ruin her new found fun.
"That... that may be true, but doesn't it weird you out to sleep with your sister? I always thought you two are related by blood and treated you as such, which is why this is really weird."
"You only feel that way because your parents and the people you met have brought you up to think like it. In ancient times, a few hundred years ago, it was even quite common for a lord to marry a son and a daughter to keep the family line going. That was true both in Asia and the rest of the world."
"I still think it's wrong. Is there nobody else you're interested in? I'm sure there are quite a few-" Mai was stopped by Saki, who had heard most of the argument.
"They're right Mai. Well, logically, they're right. And that's just how they think, we both know that. And we're not exactly paragons of normality either." Saki just shook her head. She wasn't excited by the idea of Michiru and Kaoru being a pair, even if only for the sex, either.
"Fine... just don't do it in front of me please. You two are sisters for me and I'd rather not see you two kiss or make out." Mai found it hard to get over something she had thought of as right for so many years. What they said was true, she knew that. But still, it disturbed her.
"We don't understand why this bothers you. It just makes no sense from a logical point of view to be bothered when you're not only our friend but also in a lesbian relationship yourself." Michiru joined her sister, wanting to understand Mai's reason for disapproving.
"Most people get this drilled into their mind for their entire life. And almost nobody can put logic over something they have been told over and over." Mai didn't want to continue that conversation but she was aware that unless she did, they would come back to the topic again and again. That was just who they were. "We know that something is okay under specific circumstances and yet we can't accept it because it's not okay under any other circumstances and that is what we learned."
The sisters seemed to think about it, looking at each other and whispering quite a bit before Kaoru responded for the two of them. "We think we understand and we're sorry if it offends you Mai. We'll try not to be too obvious with it."
"I can live with seeing some hickeys and if you give me some time to sleep over this, I'll probably be okay with seeing you kiss too. Anything more would put me off no matter who it is anyway." Mai wasn't sure she could stick to those words, but she would at least try.
The four of them were startled and Saki jumped on Mai's arms when the door basically exploded and a panicked Melody came running through it. "Hide me!" The pink Cure shouted and tried to hide behind Michiru and Kaoru, who had not the faintest idea what was going on. It became obvious a few seconds after.
Rhythm, her face lit as red as a stop light and visibly about to burst with anger, had her eyes fixed on her partner. "HI...bi...ki!" Each part of the name was pronounced in a different shade of anger. A small golden orb appeared in the white Cure's hand that she aimed at the sisters, who reacted quickly and jumped out of the way.
Evading the blow and letting Kanade effectively blow a hole into the wall, Hibiki escaped through said hole at full speed, Rhythm right on her trail.
"What... just happened?" Saki was still on Mai's arms, the four of them looking like it had suddenly rained down cheese on them.
Hibiki was running as fast as she could. Maybe she had overdone it just a tiny little bit by groping Kanade right in front of Ako, while the two of them had been talking. But it was all Kanade's fault for ignoring her when she was right next to her. And then she throws a fit when Hibiki got her attention back. She didn't mind the groping at all last night after all!
Several white orbs crashed into walls, leaving dents and holes of various degrees, Kanade in hot pursuit of her lover. "You horny lust monster! Can't I even talk to our friends without you feeling me up?!"
"It's your fault for ignoring me!" The two of them were fighting, verbally and literally, while one was running away from the other.
"You don't have a full-time right on my time! I can talk to whoever I want! It's your fault for getting lonely so quickly! I'm barely five seconds not at your side and you start doing stupid things!"
"Look who's talking! You just blew a hole in the kitchen wall!" Hibiki yelled on top of her lungs, trying to point out that Kanade had problems restraining her anger.
"I wouldn't have needed to do that if you didn't run away like a coward!"
"I'm not crazy enough to let you blow me up!"
"You were crazy enough to grope me in front of Ako!"
"So what's the big deal?! She knows we're dating!"
"Maybe I'm crazy for going out with you in the first place!"
"That's my line! I didn't want to date a crazy energy orb throwing girl!"
"So I'm the crazy one now?! Maybe you should look in the mirror!"
"Enough!" Hibiki was thrown flat on the ground and Kanade lifted high in the air. When the two realized what was going on, Muse was sitting on top of Hibiki, a chain of notes binding the pink Cure's arms to her body and her legs together, the white Cure suspended in the air, tied up by a golden chain, held by an extremely angry looking Lemonade. Ako's expression was constantly shifting from explosive angry to suppressed anger, a catastrophic mix between looking serious and gritting teeth in anger. "Do you two never learn?!" Ako found it ridiculous that she had to scold those two. They were so much older than her and about as mature as kindergarteners.
"The nerve... to make such a ruckus early in the morning when some people sleep in." Urara was very pissed, fighting a bad headache from having a little too much excitement and alcohol the last night. The chains were pressing hard against Kanade's skin, leaving red marks and yet still tightening up. "I'm going to have to teach you a lesson so you realize that the world of adults has their own problems, even without you throwing a fit." Kanade gasped in pain as Urara pulled on her chain.
"Stop it, you're hurting her." Muse wanted to stop, but not hurt them. It wouldn't help anyone if they got rebellious instead of listening and seeing reason. Hibiki was trying to get free, eager to punch Urara for hurting her girlfriend, but she was pinned down by Muse's ability.
"You can't order me around. The bitch woke me up and almost blew off my head, so I'm going to teach her a lesson." Urara saw an excellent chance, knowing that those two were on the same team. Throwing another chain that wrapped itself around Ako's wrist, she pulled the black Cure up and a few steps towards her. "I might think this over if I had some company for a late breakfast."
Ako couldn't risk undoing Hibiki's bind. It would escalate into a real fight then, and Lemonade was a very dangerous enemy in a narrow hallway. Not to mention that she already had Kanade tied up. But she didn't want to give in to her demands either. "No? Fine then, a lesson it is."
Pulling on her chain again, Kanade started to groan, the chain making it hard to breathe, let alone talk. Her anger was gone, her eyes fixed on Hibiki, screaming for help.
Ako saw the situation going out of control. "I'm not going to accompany you. But I'm still hungry anyway since I spent too much time talking during breakfast. So I guess I'll also get something to eat." Looking away from Urara, the black Cure walked straight past Lemonade. A diabolical smile played around the lips of the former idol. Letting Kanade down in one go, the white Cure dropped to the ground and started coughing. Hibiki's bind came undone at the same time. Just as she glared up at Urara, the yellow Cure stared her down.
Not a normal look, but one that made Hibiki freeze dead in her actions, kneeling right next to Kanade. That look was a warning not to mess with her again, not to challenge her or it would end badly for both of them. When Hibiki didn't move even a single centimeter and slowly lowered her head, knowing that she might win a single battle but would lose the war, Urara showed a grim smile. "Smart girl."
"I'm sorry Kanade. I didn't think you'd get this angry."
"Stupid Hibiki... I don't mind when we're alone... but I don't want others to see."
"Can I have a moment?" Egret had finally caught up to the fighting couple, looking down on the two, an especially cold smile showing them that she wasn't very happy to have a hole blown into the kitchen wall.
It would be a long day for Hibiki and Kanade.
=== Dissonance ===
"Your sleeping posture is horrible as always, Love." The same complaint as always, Setsuna really wished she had a mirror to look at her face. Getting a comb, she had to fix her horrible bed hair, half of which was Love's fault.
Ellen was still half-asleep on the bed and trying to make sense of what was happening around her while Love was already up and feeling a little bored, watching the two dark haired girls.
"I can't help it. Ever since we missed that train because I fell asleep on the bench and couldn't get up quick enough, my body keeps moving even while I sleep."
"That's just an excuse you're using to not fix your bad habit of moving around like a circus artist in your sleep, and you know It." Setsuna was despairing over her hair and decided it was simply not going to happen anytime soon. Cleaning up the mess that Love caused, that was. Switching to Passion, she casually tossed Love the comb and sat down next to Ellen, who let out a huge yawn. Mornings were not really her thing.
"Sleepy?" A smile played around the red Cure's lips just as she asked. It was obvious that Ellen was still tired or probably again from sleeping too much.
Nodding slowly, Ellen managed to get up, immediately greeted by thunderous laughter from Setsuna. If she had bad bed hair, then Beat was ten, no, fifty times worse. Every single strand was completely out of control, her hairdo looking like she had just been shocked with a million volt. "I'll fix it for you." Realizing a bit late that she could have asked Ellen or Love to do the same for her, she didn't bother to bring it up again.
"I hear voices in the hallway. I guess the others are already up and going for breakfast." Love was commenting as she tried to fix her own hair chaos that was nowhere as bad as Setsuna's had been. "If we weren't stuck against our will here and minus the fighting, it's almost like a school trip, isn't it?"
"I guess the part of eating together and people taking turns making food is similar but... well... I can't really bring myself to think about the situation like that." The comb got thrown across the room once more after Love was mostly satisfied with the feel of her hair and switched to Peach. They really needed some new clothes.
Ellen was trying to get the drowsy look out of her face but only reached somewhat of a success. She had very rarely someone take care of her hair for her, mostly because she spent a great deal of effort every morning to keep it neat by herself, but Setsuna proved to be quite capable. And most of all, Ellen didn't think she could show up at breakfast looking like an exploded mop.
While their hair fixed itself when they shifted to their Cure forms, they still had to take care of it the normal way or it would become brittle really quickly. While it was magic, it still put a lot of stress on their hair.
Shifting to Beat, she felt most of her headache from the previous day gone and her throat was feeling better as well. Nothing had changed about her being unable to speak though. The three left the room together, running right into Luminous and Rose, who were slowly talking to each other.
"Morning." All five of them greeted each other briefly. The yellow and the purple Cure continued on their with conversation for a little while until it died down. Ellen was not going to be a great conversationalist right now, and Setsuna preferred her morning quiet and slow, with some tea and a bit of reading. Love decided to take the chance and pry just a little bit into the lives of those other two.
"Say, you two are on different teams, but you knew each other before we all got here, right? How come?" Leaving Ellen with Setsuna, the two of them walking a bit behind the three others, Love started a conversation with Kurumi and Hikari.
"We met each other when I visited the town where she works." Kurumi left out the detail that she had gone there with Karen on purpose. She didn't want to talk about that part of her life right now. "I talked a bit to her when I ordered something but neither of us knew the other one was a Cure too. So when we met again in the incident with Fusion, it was quite a surprise. We became friends right after that." She also left out not being human. Spending the last few years as one, it sometimes slipped her mind that the fact she wasn't originally one mattered at all.
"I was so shocked that I had met another Cure like that and didn't even notice. Of course I was surprised at how many Cures there are too, but I didn't meet any of them. At the time, I only knew of Bloom and Egret." Hikari rarely, if ever, told anyone she was not originally human either. It was simply easier for her and others that way.
"Everyone was surprised I think. It was my first time meeting other teams but it was quite a nice event. I had a fun time but it was so stressful, I forgot to get the phone address of anyone." Laughing it off, Love realized that it had happened three times to her already. Maybe she should do something about being a little forgetful in such situations.
"I always wondered this, but why are there so many Cures? Twenty-five is not really a small number and each team had their own battles. Isn't it odd that the others never really noticed anything?"
"There were some things we noticed occasionally, like that one time when everything turned into a big desert. But we didn't really have any leads on who caused it or where they were, so what could we do?" Love remembered that incident quite well. Everything went back to normal quickly, but it still bothered them. At the time, they had bigger problems to deal with though. Soon after, their final fight with Moebius happened.
"Nagisa, Honoka and I noticed that as well. Black was up and roaring to go and beat whoever was responsible, but we didn't have any clue where the culprit was or how we would get there."
"Same for us." The temporary desertification had been a big shock for everyone on the team, especially Nozomi. They all thought the enemy had come back or a new one appeared. It had been just a month after they had won their most important battle, too.
"It's awfully inconvenient that every new enemy targets a different area. Having Black, White and Luminous to help us would've put a quick end to our problems." Kurumi sighed, just thinking about how powerful those three had been at the time Nozomi and the others just started out. Sure, after all these years, it evened out a lot, but back then, it would've made a big difference.
Love was considerate enough of Setsuna's secrets that she didn't say out loud what she thought at the time. If some other Cure's had been there, stronger ones than they had been at the time themselves, Eas might have never become Passion.
"But it also means we get to meet new people and it's not as harsh here. Imagine if there were only three or six Cures. This place would be absolutely horrible compared to now. I like everyone here and even though it's not that nice to be locked up, if not for that, I would've never met Beat." Looking back at the blue Cure, the person she had just talked about blushed a bit, smiling shyly.
Reaching the living room, they saw a rather unlikely pair bring out a traditional Japanese breakfast from the kitchen. Pine and Aqua, the two of them working coordinated and efficient even while they were calmly chatting. "Inori has always been the type to plan things out quickly. It doesn't surprise me she gets along with the intellectual type." Setsuna didn't fancy herself that type, though she was more of a quiet and reserved person, especially compared to Love. Miki did well in everything she did, but she was different from Aqua. Smart, but not overly so.
Mint was reading a small book, sitting at the top end of the table, occasionally looking over to her partner. Marine was napping, resting her head on her arms on the table. Blossom was sitting at the other end of the table, looking extremely sleep deprived, offering Pine for the third time to help with preparations and getting told the two of them were fine on their own.
There was no trace of Berry and Black. The blue Cure wasn't a fan of breakfast and the black one likely too nervous to eat anyway. She was the exile runner and her absence only reminded Beat of the horrifying experience. Thankfully, nothing of that had appeared in her dreams. Instead, she could never, ever, tell anyone what she really had dreamed the last night. Not without getting a nosebleed and probably creeping Setsuna out.
Sitting down, nobody bothered to look at Ellen any different than before. A day had passed since the whole thing had come to an end, and people were no longer on edge because of it. It did wonders to her self-esteem that people were not afraid of her, just like Love and Setsuna had told her.
Sitting down next to Marine, Setsuna walked right into the Lion's cage though. Waking and looking at the taller blue Cure, Marine found her interest piqued. "Morning." Erika knew well enough how badly people could be traumatized by some things. Yuri was proof of that. "How do you feel?"
Having forgotten her notepad, Ellen looked for a few seconds for an answer and then just smiled, embarrassed she couldn't really communicate. "You lost your voice?" Erika made the connection from the silent treatment quite fast. "I hope you get it back."
Nodding happily and smiling wider now, Ellen signaled Erika with her index finger to stay put, imitating the motion of writing on something just before she left. Having watched the whole scene, Setsuna explained for Beat. "We gave her a notepad, so she can talk to people until she gets her voice back. I expected you to make fun of her, though."
"I might do things my own way, but I'm not an idiot." Erika knew that she sometimes left the wrong impression with people, but that was something that she couldn't help, considering her personality. "But I heard that you two, you and Peach, spent the night in Beat's room and even brought in another bed. I don't know who I should call the lucky girl. Peach, Beat or you."
"Jeez, it's not been twelve hours and apparently everyone already knows." Setsuna was a little shocked by how fast news like that spread.
"It's not like any of us will mind. It's your life. You're free to do whatever with it."
"You say some surprisingly deep things, considering that most of what we see from you is running around playing pranks on people."
"Everyone has their own way to enjoy life. I don't cause any serious problems if you really look at what I do. But if you think that's all there is to me, then you're pretty shallow. I have things I worry about, problems to solve and stress too." In fact, she was worried about something right now, which was also the reason she had been napping at the table. It didn't happen often, but when something was deeply troubling her and she couldn't just act on it right away, then it brought out her serious attitude.
"You're an interesting person." Setsuna was quite surprised that the otherwise so whimsical and energetic Marine could be so serious and mature.
"People who know me say that a lot." From the corner of her eyes, Erika looked at Tsubomi at the other end of the table where the girl was talking to Luminous. "People that know me, huh..." Mumbling under her breath, Erika let out a small sigh. "Say, how did you and Peach get together? You were on the same team and friends before it happened, right?"
"You really pry into personal things easily. I would call it shameless, but it doesn't look like you're asking just out of curiosity." She wasn't Love, but Marine was obviously dealing with some sort of problem. If talking to her could solve that, she saw little reason not to. There was nothing particularly embarrassing or shameful in how they got together either.
"Peach confessed to me after we had spent some time traveling together. We relied on each other to get by so we really trusted each other. It came as quite a surprise."
"It never gets cold around here, even at night." Walking a step in front of Setsuna, Love looked every bit the local with her loose top and the hot pants, the tan lines from working at the beach every day, and the wild hair which she didn't bother to tame in the morning. It suited her a little.
"I wish it would cool down a bit." Setsuna was missing the tan lines and wore a white t-shirt just slightly too big for her, accompanied by a short skirt. The men could be pigs, but she put on an aura of being unapproachable at work, so nobody bothered her.
"It's been half a year since we left Japan. I wonder how the others are doing." Turning around and walking backwards, the blond woman looked a bit like she was day dreaming, staring at the night sky that was brightly lit by all of the towns neon and glamor.
"The last mail Inori sent us said they were both doing fine though Miki is really stressed out. But it's already been half a year? Every day seems to just fly by... we already saw South Korea, China and the Philippines. I can't say I like Indonesia much though. The men are really obnoxious and obtrusive." Using a small hand-fan to cool down, Setsuna still enjoyed the sight of the ocean at night. They had a very small apartment right near where Love worked and it was a fifteen minute walk to where she was helping out. They could have afforded a bigger place, but they were saving up, planning to go to Malaysia next. Her dark purple hair slowly fluttering in the air stream she created, Setsuna felt happy to be at Love's side.
Love only spoke a few words Indonesian and only as much as she needed for her job. A simple conversation was beyond her, but she could take orders and serve food. A waitress at a beach restaurant, which was more or less a stall with a bunch of benches they put away at night so the homeless wouldn't use them. That was one of the things both Love and Setsuna had found depressing in China and the Philippines. Japan really didn't have that many homeless, at least compared to countries in south east Asia.
Setsuna's grip on the language was just a little better, good enough to do her job, helping around an office, doing mostly menial tasks and doing deliveries. She could drive a scooter and had a good sense of orientation. The country was much too hot for her tastes though. Neither of them could really read any Indonesian, but they didn't need to. Things like renting an apartment for cash worked just fine even without stressful paperwork. And amazingly, it was Love who always managed to pull through, with a dictionary in hand a smile on her face.
"I'm happy you came with me." Love had stopped near a pair of stairs that lead down to the beach, only a two meter tall white wall between them and the sand. "I couldn't do this without you."
"I know. I couldn't do this without you as well. And I'm also happy I came with you. It's nice to see other places, hear new languages, work different jobs. Not everything about it is fun, but the experience as a whole is."
Without a word, Love walked down the stairs, Setsuna following her, the two of them greeted by a strong breeze from the ocean, making Love's hair fly in the wind. From behind, Setsuna was looking at her with a surprised expression. No, that was wrong. She was gazing at her. She had fallen for the girl some time ago but didn't want to risk their friendship by asking for more than she needed.
"Traveling with you is fun... but I don't think I can continue the way things are now." Love turned around again, her back to the ocean, Setsuna's back to the bright city. "Don't look so shocked Setsuna. You know I'm good at knowing what people feel. And I also know you well, so..."
There was a moment of silence where Love just concentrated on her breathing, on her smile, on every step she took towards Setsuna until she stood right in front of her, looking at her friends dazzled face. "Go out with me Setsuna." She chose not to say 'I love you too' or anything of the kind because she didn't want to put pressure on the girl.
All that time they spent together, Love had learned every little detail of Setsuna's habits, likes and dislikes, her faults, natural and learned biases as well as her way of thinking. So she picked the best spot and time, the best way to solve the situation. She knew that Setsuna was in love with her, she had known for some time but waited to see if she would act on it.
Setsuna lowered her head, desperately trying to hide her red face, and pouted a little. "You really mean it?"
"Would I make a joke about something like that? I want to be with you from now on too, but not just as your friend. After we spent so much time together... I want more than just to be your friend."
Dropping her fan and running straight at Love, flying into her arms, the two of them crashing into the damp sand, Setsuna cried tears of happiness.
"And that's how I got together with Setsuna." Just as Setsuna had started to tell the story, Love joined the conversation and filled in her half. Ellen had come back as well and was listening to the story. She was amazed at the amount of insight proven by Love.
"You knew so you asked her out..." Erika didn't know if that was a valid way of going about things. Her situation was different from Setsuna's, though not by much. "Thanks for telling me." During their little story, Pine and Aqua had finished bringing out the food and the missing two people had shown up as well. There was a surprisingly large amount of people that looked sleep deprived. Blossom, Marine, Black and on a closer look also Pine.
"I'm surprised to meet someone else that has read 'A Journey to the Center of the Earth', and not a revised version either." Inori was having a discussion about their respective favorite literature with Karen. Komachi was calmly listening in, just commenting every now and then. She read too many books to have anything close to just a casual chat about the topic, so she restrained herself.
"I love Verne's work. I own most of his work. I even have a french copy of 'Around the Worlds in Eighty Days', although I can't read it." Karen never talked much to people outside her team before, and when they all went their separate ways, she became quieter still. It was nice to just chat with someone new.
"I'm a little jealous. Not just of the book, but in general. You're famous, aren't you? I didn't realize it's you until I heard your full name. Karen Minazuki, prodigy violinist that plays at national level events. That's what the papers say. And then you got Mint here as your partner. But I know it's not all roses and shine." The green Cure smiled at the flattery, slowly continuing to eat breakfast.
"Being famous is rarely reason to be happy. Only those who relate being famous to being rich and having a lot of privileges think so. " With a sigh, Karen glanced over to Kurumi. She was starting to get over it completely, but a bad aftertaste would always remain. She was happy that the girl was turning over a new leaf, but that it had taken so much for that to happen still saddened her. Pointing her chopsticks at Inori, which was usually considered pretty rude, Karen looked at her. "But I like my job. Sometimes I think I could have picked something else, but playing the violin is something I really enjoy. I don't like hard physical labor, too. What about you?"
"I was always good with animals and my family owns a pet clinic, so it was always a given that I would eventually take over. I like animals, I love them. But sometimes, it's a real chore. When people bring their pets in and have unreasonable demands or we find them treating their pets badly. When I have to come in at four in the morning for an emergency. We all have our burden to bear with our jobs I guess." Inori looked over to Komachi, who had stopped eating and looked rather distraught. "Everything okay? You look pale."
"I just realized how much time I have to catch up with when we get out of here... I guess I'll be doing all-nighters for a while." Letting her head hang, Karen took Komachi's hand, trying to cheer her up.
"I'll help you. Well, as much as I can. I'm useless at writing, but I can at least keep you supplied with coffee and the like."
"You two make such a nice couple." A wide smile on her face as she looked at them, Aqua and Mint, both of them blushing a bit at the compliment. Inori noticed that the first people were leaving, having finished their breakfast. It was about time for negotiations and the exile run to start. "I'll be on my way then. Karen, snatch Blossom and Marine if you need help cleaning up. I'll help you guys finish up if I get back in time."
"Was it a good idea to let her handle negotiations?" Komachi was a little worried about it. She couldn't quite make sense of Pine, but she seemed smart. Still, up until now, it had been mostly Aqua and Berry who handled negotiations.
"She's smarter than she lets on, really. Considering what the rest of her team is like, I think she fears being alienated if she acts too much like it." Karen knew what that felt like. Back when they all fought as a team, she used to go along with a lot of Nozomi's and Urara's silly antics too.
"Inori." Berry was leaned against the stone wall just next to the corner leading to the gateway. It was obvious she had been waiting for her teammate.
"There is something, or someone, on the other side of the team you have an interest in. And you think they're going to do negotiations because of the situation yesterday. So you want me to switch with you." It wasn't difficult to see through Miki's intentions. She was good at what she did, but she was also predictable.
"If you know that much, you're fine with me taking over, right?" No matter how much she expected out of Inori, it always came as a surprise when she basically read their minds or had a plan all worked out already when an issue arose.
"The one thing I can't figure out is who you're after. I have a guess but it's only a theory." She completely ignored Miki's question.
"I expected Love to be all over this, but for you to care this much is unusual." She wasn't in the mood to endlessly argue her private life. Inori was one of her best friends, but that didn't mean she would tell her just about everything freely.
"I care too, you know. You're my friend and I get curious when you suddenly start showing interest in someone. This is just a gut feeling, but you're after Moonlight, right? She's tall, strong, seems serious and mature. I asked Blossom yesterday. It makes sense for someone like that to be your type." Inori was making a lot of assumptions on her part, but she couldn't shake off the feeling that there was nobody else that fit the bill.
"Impressive as usual. Sometimes I think a detective is lost on you working as a vet. Please don't tell Love, I don't want her to meddle with this. She's our friend but this is my business."
"I know what she's like, so don't worry. She has her hands full with Beat and Setsuna. So you think Moonlight is on the other side of that door?" Inori pointed in the direction of the gateway, her eyes fixated on Miki. "Then go. I was just curious was negotiation is like. I don't have a specific reason to take them today. I'm surprised you fell for someone Miki. I wish you luck." Smiling, Inori turned around, a single giggle escaping her lips.
"Thanks. I knew I could count on you understanding." Turning to the big door, Miki took a deep breath. It would be disappointing if it wasn't Moonlight who was waiting for her on the other side.
Yet, things worked out for her just fine. A strong wind, where it came from was an inexplicable mystery to Berry, was blowing through her hair just as she entered the site. The new battlefield, a massive tower with a single large ramp ascending in a spiral manner. She was standing on the very top, the barrier cutting right through the middle of the tower.
"I'm happy to see you again." Miki turned to Yuri, who was visibly surprised that Berry had shown up. It didn't help that she was still troubled by what she should do about Momoka. The more she looked at the blue Cure, the more she felt attracted to her.
"This isn't really the time for chit-chat." Yuri didn't want to get drawn in by her charms and pace. She had to negotiate an outcome that would be beneficial to her team. Dream was a liability, so she couldn't go for the full amount of people.
"The time has been standardized, so why not? We only have to decide the number of people participating. It's been so long since I last saw you and I wanted to talk to you." Walking closer to the barrier, Miki saw Yuri back off a little, as if the blue Cure could just come right through the barrier and jump at her.
With someone like Berry acting like that, she wouldn't get anywhere if she tried to force her will through. Compromising a little wouldn't hurt. And there were some questions she had for the woman, too. "Just to make absolutely sure... you were serious, the last time, right?"
"I almost feel insulted you ask that. Did it look like I was making it up? It's not just your looks I like, but you're mature and smart. You're like me in many ways. I want you to be my partner, my lover."
"You know nothing about my personality and you're still saying that?" Yuri felt like she was being held to impossible standards. Berry would be horribly disappointed when she turned out to be so much less than 'perfect'.
"My intuition is rarely wrong. And even if I'm off the mark here, what are my chances to ever meet someone that comes as close to being perfect as you, who is also a Cure? Abysmal, at best. I see you, I want to hold you and be held by you. I hear you, I want to whisper in your ear and listen to your reaction. When we fought, I realized how quick witted you are, how fast you adapt to new situations, new enemies. And your indomitable, iron will. I've never seen anyone who could break free from my ability." Miki put a hand to her cheek, closed her eyes and recalled the moment Moonlight overcame her attack. "I shiver just when I think about it." She couldn't stop herself from happily sighing just a bit.
"I don't know if I should feel flattered or weirded out." Giving Miki a weird look was inevitable but Yuri did a good job hiding how much she really liked hearing those words. Being with Momoka was one thing. She loved her just for who she was. Or half of who she was. Cure Moonlight was not a part of the relationship and she had to constantly hide that side of hers.
"I'm just honest about it. Lies and hypocrisy rot the world so I prefer to do things this way." Walking around for a bit, Miki waited for a response from Yuri.
"You should give up on me. If you value honesty so much, I'll tell you why. I'm not perfect. I went through horrible things in the past and they still haunt me. Even now, I'm despairing over what I'm supposed to do with my relationship I have with a girl that's not part of our world. My father was manipulated by the enemy and died in the end because of it. And I had to kill someone that might have been my sister in another life. I have more issues than I can count by myself." Turning around, lowering her head and facing the ground, Yuri knew that all of that would have come out eventually but she might have been able to pretend just a while to be what Berry wanted.
"You're dealing with a lot but you're not running away. You worry, feel anguish, make decisions, don't you?" Shaking her head and shrugging, Miki walked up right to the barrier, close enough to feel the energy sizzle in the air. "That means you have a great character. Sure, it doesn't make you perfect and that disappoints me somewhat, but if that were enough to turn me off from wanting to be with you, that would be really horrible of me. I don't know you, that's right. Even after you told me all that, I still don't know much about you. But that's not something I look at as negative or a fault. I have my own problems too, but even so, I strive to be perfect and do everything perfectly."
"I thought you were pretty shallow but it seems like I'm at least partially wrong. Guess I shouldn't judge a book by it's cover." Yuri looked over her shoulder, feeling relieved. Throwing all of that garbage at Berry just like that should have put her off if her interest wasn't absolutely genuine.
"Well, I have a very nice looking cover if I may say so myself." Miki presented herself like a real model would.
"So you're still going to say you want me to go out with you?" Yuri just had to make sure.
"I'm not going to go back on my word just because you have issues to deal with. I didn't expect you to live a life without worries and conflict. It's never that easy. What makes people perfect is not that they're without fault but that they don't let those faults stop them."
"Wise words. I'm sorry for thinking you're shallow. And still... it's hard for me to just leave the girl I'm with now. I work with her, I live with her, I do love her. But hiding our world from her is becoming too much. I'm worried about her too. What if she becomes involved in something after we're released from here? What if the new enemy is more dangerous than the ones we faced before? I could never forgive myself if something happened to her because of me."
"I'll aim for you to love me just like that one day too. Except I can fight with you, too. I don't intend to badmouth the girl you're with or you, but I think you're making the right decision. She's not part of our world. All the other Cures, if in a relationship, have picked yet another Cure as their partner. I'm sure that's not just coincidence."
"Let's start the negotiation. We'll have another chance to talk. I... can't keep talking about this for too long. It's..." Narrowing her eyes and staring at the ground, Yuri exhaled slowly. It hurt her heart and mind to try and let go of Momoka. But what Berry said was what she was thinking too.
"I'll let you pick and go along with it, as a favor. In exchange, let me see your face up close, without me having to worry about you hitting me." Cracking a smile, the model tilted her head slightly and waited for Yuri's response.
The silver Cure didn't see the harm in following her request, even if it seemed a little odd. Maybe not all that odd considering the conversation they just had. But facing Miki that close gave her a weird feeling. The woman wasn't just looking at her but almost... inside her. Being that close, Yuri realized for the first time what a beautiful face Berry really had. Her heart started beating just a little bit faster.
Closing her eyes and smiling, Miki turned around. "I worry you'll melt if I stare any more. Pick a number, I'll just go with that. Thanks for talking to me, listening to me and letting me gaze at you, Moonlight."
"Yuri is fine. After all this, it'd be weird for you to just call me by my Cure name. We'll go with four people then."
"You should call me Miki then. Four people is fine. I'll try to get the negotiation in two days. If you feel like talking to me, I'd be happy to see you." Waving with the back of her hand as she left, Miki smiled to herself. She was finally making progress. And she had not lied about anything.
The gate closed behind Yuri with a snapping sound. She could still feel her heart beating. She had lived though many difficult and intense situations, but just being stared at like that was surprisingly taxing for her. She wasn't used to the fact that people liked to look at her. That was, people other than Momoka.
"You look tired. Was the other team being stubborn about it? Honoka was the only one waiting at the gate, greeting Yuri, expecting to hear the chosen number of fighters. The time had been fixed and nobody had any intention of changing it.
"Yes, they were very stubborn. Four people are going to fight. I intend to leave Dream out of this. Someone else can rest as well." Yuri used a half-truth to answer at least part of White's question. That she had talked to Berry about herself was none of White's business.
"I'll fight. Black will be running exile, so she's out. Four people was a good decision. Are you feeling okay? You're looking a bit pale."
"I'm fine. Thanks. But could you do me a favor and ask the remaining people who wants to fight? If nobody else volunteers, I will, and we'll pick the remaining two from there. If not, I'll sit this one out." Yuri slowly walked past Honoka, feeling tired. She just hadn't been sleeping enough lately, her thoughts constantly swirling around Momoka.
"I'll take care of it." Being suspicious of Moonlight wasn't going to help anyone. She was curious what exactly had tired her out so much, but there were other things to do now.
=== Dissonance ===
"It doesn't feel right, not telling those two about leaving. They'd want to wish you luck at least." Kaoru was with her sister, standing nearby the gateway to the exile run, which was about to start momentarily. The two of them had silently disappeared while Mai was lecturing Melody and Rhythm.
"I don't want to worry them, you know that. It's hard enough leaving as it is." Michiru had been staring at the ground, slightly worried about what was ahead, the first time since long ago that she had felt so.
Taking away her sisters freedom, lips and worries, Kaoru managed to do all of that by just hugging and kissing the redhead in front of her. "You're strong, smart, and we both know, if it comes down to it, we can make the hard decisions Mai and Saki can't." The two of them looked at each other with cold, serious eyes. They clearly liked each other, but something else was overpowering desire and love.
"Don't tell those two that, Kaoru. I want them to think we feel just as much empathy for the exile as they do."
"They probably already know. We care about people but not in the way Mai and Saki do. They would sacrifice themselves if someone was in enough pain. We're not like that. We have to protect those two from this."
"So we're going ahead with the plan?"
"Yes. It's simply the easiest way to ensure neither of them gets stuck in exile. I don't like the idea of you taking the role, so see who the exile is before you decide. I have higher odds to get out than you because of my abilities."
"Sometimes I wonder if it was smart to focus the growth of my Cure powers into one category. Yes, it's the same for Bloom and Egret, even for Black and White, but I find myself lacking when it comes to speedy opponents."
"That's why I'm there for you. Black is undoubtedly going to be the one that runs today to get to White. Leave her alone, she's too strong to reliably knock out. I don't want you to take any risk. Today has too many variables for the plan to work flawlessly."
"So you want to delay it until tomorrow, your run? I'm not happy with that scenario, but I trust you. If you think it's the safest way to do things, I'll follow your plan."
"Good. One last warning. Black might try to get the exile out and leave you stranded. Don't bother with her and go straight for the exit."
"This way, we won't see each other for a few days. I wish we could have slept with each other one more time. It's sort of addicting. I can see why Mai and Saki enjoy it."
"Mai wasn't happy about us doing it, but there is nothing really wrong with it. As soon as we're both on the other side, we can spend a day in our room."
"Sounds good." Nodding and returning the kiss from earlier, Michiru separated from her sister. It was time to go. "See you soon, sis."
As Michiru's form vanished in the gateway, Kaoru too, vanished into the shadows of the hallways, undetected by all that could be watching.
The absolute darkness surprised her. She knew the new battlefield, a large tower with a spiral staircase and a wide open field. Taking a few steps in the direction she classified as behind herself, she found proof of her theory. A rough stone wall that ascended slightly diagonally. She was inside the tower. That was a problem.
The exile as well as Black, both of them had to be lost in the extreme darkness as well. No matter how long they would stay in the dark or trained their eyes, it was impossible to make out anything. It wasn't difficult to create a light, but it was much too risky to do so. Black and the exile would both see her and come right at her.
A solution presented itself quickly. Far in the distance flashed something briefly. Apparently Black didn't care that she could be seen. True, she was one of the strongest Cure's, but being over-confident was a mistake nonetheless, no matter who you are.
"One defends when his strength is inadequate, he attacks when it is abundant." A quote from 'The Art of War', a famous book by an ancient Chinese military general. It held true even in modern times. Black must either be not thinking things through or very sure that nobody could possibly beat her.
Either way, Michiru took a wait and see approach while slowly approaching what she believed to be the center. If the wall was right at her back at the starting point, then it was highly likely her exit was right across the field, at the other wall of the tower.
It was obviously impossible to walk into one direction and expect to arrive where one wanted to if there was no way of orientating or making sure of the route. It was worse than walking in a snowstorm or blizzard.
A few theories on how to navigate inside the dark popped into her head but none of them were any good. Cutting the ground, using rocks, using the walls, creating a glowing energy orb, relying on the idea that the vector of one's movement changed only slightly during a jump. It was all too unreliable.
Unable to see anything, the darkness started to irritate Bright. A natural reflex of being robbed one of her main senses. Turning about and facing the wall, Michiru hit the unknown material with nearly her full power, not even making a dent in it. Going outside and circling around, breaking into the tower again, was not an option either it seemed.
The darkness... eyes trying to adjust. There was a loophole there. It would be difficult to exploit and only work once or twice, but thankfully, her opponent was Black. She wasn't known to be a notorious planner.
"Full-moon Flash!" Amassing energy into an orb in her right hand, Bright threw the orb high into the air towards what she believed was the center point of the field, shielding her eyes with her other hand, only watching what was on ground level through a very narrow rift between her fingers.
The orb itself attracted attention enough to make anyone present follow it with their eyes that had desperately tried to adjust to the darkness. Just as it was, it was already a blindingly light. And just as Bright clicked with her fingers, the orb burst, bathing the entire field into enough light to hurt the eyes of whoever had been stupid enough to stare at the orb. Namely, Black.
It only lasts a few seconds, but Michiru saw the exit and a general layout of the field. A wide, open area only encased by the tower walls. Making a powerful jump towards the exit, Bright noticed that Black was dangerously close to the exile, a yellow Cure she recognized as Sunshine. The girl was sitting on the ground, apathetic and unmoving, her arms wrapped around her legs, her head resting on her knees.
She didn't feel a thing. Maybe it was because of their origin or that they were not exactly normal humans, but both her sister Kaoru and she could almost turn off their feelings. It wasn't really a switch but rather, they suppressed feeling anything that was not related to the mission at hand. Rarely, if ever, did they need to do it, but it came in handy during fights and the exile.
A second jump and the orb vanished, plunging the area in utter darkness. But she didn't need it anymore. Landing on the ground, Michiru didn't dare move even a single centimeter. Facing the same direction, knowing that she was straight on course for the exit, Bright leaped for the third time, coming close enough to feel the magic that originated from the exit.
Relying on touch, hearing and her mind, she slowly got closer to the source of the magic that would transport her to the light team.
"My eyes still hurt... who in their right mind would do this? Unbelievable." Nagisa had to rely on her luck. Her abilities relied on blacklight, which was invisible in this darkness. If only Honoka was there with her.
But Nagisa's luck was down. Instead of finding the exit, she found her remaining opponent, the exile. A weak, almost non-existent, glow originated from the yellow Cure, barely enough to see her from a few meters away. Nagisa had seen what happened to Rose, Passion and Beat, so she backed away cautiously.
No sign of aggression, however, came from Sunshine. She just sat there, whispering things to herself, bathing in depression and hopelessness. Nagisa was not exceptionally smart, but she could tell one obvious fact from another. The exile didn't just drive people crazy, it tormented them.
And people reacted differently to that. Standing a few meters away from the yellow Cure, Black was torn up on the inside. The girl looked like she was really suffering badly from depression, not even registering her presence or that an exile run was happening. Who knew how long she would stay there if she wasn't saved now? If the depression got even worse, where would it lead?
But no amount of caring for others could dominate her desire to be with Honoka. Her conflict ended as quickly as it arose, her decision clear. Leaving Sunshine right where she was, without saying even a word to her, Nagisa left, trying to find the exit.
There would be someone else that saved her. Or she would get a grip and get out. Maybe become crazy, just like Rose, and get out then. There were many possibilities for how she would leave. Right now, she needed to find the exit for herself, getting to Honoka her priority.
In the past, she might have helped Sunshine, but that was before she had become White's partner in more ways than one.
Navigating in the dark had it's pitfalls. For one, without seeing or hearing anything, one would start seeing and hearing things that really aren't there. Nagisa wasn't particularly fond of things like that.
Raising the speed she was walking more and more until she was running, trying to escape from things she thought she saw in the dark next to and behind her, things she heard, sounds that no animal or creature should make, all around her. A horror that sent chills down her spine.
Out of breath, she finally arrived. Back at Sunshine. Her pulse high, the skin covered in cold sweat, every single hair on her arms and legs standing up like she had seen unspeakable terrors. She was starting to feel the exile.
"I need to get out of here before I end up like her..." Looking at the faint glimmering Sunshine, Nagisa realized just how terrifying the exile really was. It wormed it's way into the mind, leaving behind corruption, making you think things you otherwise never would.
"I feel sorry for Honoka. Always having to put up with that klutz." "Yeah, she, like, can't do anything right." "You'd think she could do better than that." "Maybe she's just into worthless people?" "I heard she doesn't even have a real job! She's only working part-time!" "Eh, seriously? Wow, that's horrible."
"Shut up... shut up... shut up!" Nagisa shouted out, trying to drown the voices she was hearing. No matter where she looked, faint silhouettes of teenage girls appeared, looking, pointing, laughing at her. Their words were lies!
But she wasn't the only one starting to feel the exile. Michiru was getting sick of waiting, and she had trouble resisting the whispering, ignoring the shadows. "Full-moon Flash!" The same ability, but with reduced power. No matter who, as long as either Black or the exile would escape, they would get out of there. Throwing the orb in the air, it started to illuminate the whole place.
It would only take a moment for either Cure to reach the other exit. From the distance, Michiru could see that Sunshine was not moving. She would be the exile for another day, enduring the torment of it. Black would reunite with White.
To Michiru's surprise, it took over a minute for Black to reach the exit, despite the orb maintaining mild lighting in the area. As the field around her finally started to change, Michiru let her guard down just a second too early. For just this one moment, she could feel the ice cold grasp of the exile on her mind, making her feel sick to the stomach.
=== Dissonance ===
"I'm happy you made it through. I was worried since the runner from this side was Bright. She's not exactly... a paragon of self sacrifice." Letting Nagisa use her lap as pillow, Honoka felt that it was fine to spoil Nagisa a little. Her partner had come out of the exile run pale as a ghost.
"Unless you're Mai or Saki." Smiling and reaching up to play a bit with her partners long, dark blue hair, Nagisa tried to improve the atmosphere a bit. The two of them were just outside the living quarters, enjoying a bit of peace and quiet together. Not that there was any shortage of that. Or at least there shouldn't have been.
Honoka had fled the living quarters after Melody and Rhythm had continued on with their games of denial, rejection and making up. "Are you thinking about Melody and Rhythm again? Because you're making a face like someone made you eat raw lemons."
"They look so good together, but by god, they can be just as annoying. Mai already threw a fit earlier because they blew a hole in the kitchen wall. The favor to fix that came out of their pockets, obviously. And that only made it worse. They started accusing each other after that and-" Honoka was quickly interrupted by her partner. She had a nasty habit of talking herself into a rage when someone really annoyed her. Her patience wasn't what it used to be.
"Wow, they must really be getting on people's nerves if they get you to act like that."
"Mai was furious earlier. Saki had to calm her down. You don't see that everyday. They're nice people. As long as you keep them away from each other or somehow find a way to stop them from fighting." A heavy sigh signaled Nagisa that it was best to drop the topic.
"Bright's name was Michiru, right? I guess her sister will be the one to run next. Are Saki and Mai going to switch too?"
"They said so, and I can't imagine them going back on their word, now that one of those four has switched."
"Say... you met Sunshine in exile too, right? It's easy to piece together that she got stuck there during your run. I saw her during mine as well. She was... what was the word... catatonic? She didn't even register there were other people."
"She was left behind there when I got Beat out. I didn't want to get stuck myself and at the time, the priority was to stop Beat from singing. At least she's not going crazy. I mean the violent kind of crazy."
"I know what you mean. I still... feel bad about leaving her there like that. I didn't even talk to her. I hope she gets out during the next run."
"No matter what, someone will always be stuck out there. I have nothing against Sunshine, but I'd rather have someone in exile that doesn't turn into a murderous psychopath after a day. Being depressed and non-responsive is almost negligible compared."
"Don't say that Honoka. I know you like to look at things analytically but this is still one of our comrades that's stuck in what is essentially a personal hell. I felt some of it's effects shortly before I got it. Facing the Dark King was dangerous and a fight for our live. But even that didn't scare me as much, didn't terrify me as much as those moments where the exile crept it's way into my mind, made me think things... I understand really well now why people are coming out of there with their mind in pieces."
"It looks like it confronts each person with their worst fears, even those you never even thought about. It's a dreadful place. I don't want either of us to be left there. I already have a good idea of what it would show me. Fighting you, losing you, betraying you. Something along those lines. I love my job, my family, my life. But the most important part of it is you, Nagisa. Without you, I wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't be happy."
Blushing fiercely from being told those things, Nagisa still smiled and looked at her partner. They were long past the time of when they would be embarrassed of each others secrets or habits. Living together, sleeping together, they couldn't imagine life without each other.
"Even with all this, even with all the fighting, I'm so grateful we got to be Cures. Because it let me meet you, get to know you, fall in love with you. Even though it wasn't always easy. Right, Honoka?"
"Did you ever notice that both of our names have three syllables? Mai's is just one, Saki's is two. We match better than them." That wasn't entirely correct and Honoka knew that. But if that was what it took to sidetrack Nagisa, she didn't mind.
"I never really thought about that. I don't think it matters what our names- stop changing the topic Honoka. I know you're not too fond of remembering the hard times we went through. And Mai is still two syllables."
"There's enough bad stuff going on around here without me dipping into bad memories. I could go well without knowing that you once almost set the kitchen on fire. Took me weeks to trust you with cooking anything." The white Cure rolled eyes and smiled, half amused, half annoyed.
"Honoka, Nagisa, are you around?!" They were disturbed by Saki shouting, looking for them.
"Back here." Honoka shouted back. "I'm looking forward to not sleeping alone again tonight." Almost whispering the words, White leaned down to Black and kissed her quickly.
Though Honoka was back up in her old position, Nagisa didn't move at all. Saki and Mai knew them almost as well as Hikari did, so they didn't see any reason to act any different than they usually did.
"Finally found you. Mai needed to calm down a bit after the whole thing with Melody and Rhythm, so she got herself a canvas and some paint. She heard that Nagisa got here safely, so she wants to ask you two if you want to pose for her next painting."
"It's been a while since I posed for Mai. I think the last time was when we... help me out here Nagisa. Was it when we were in Okinawa?"
"On the beach, yes." Nagisa nodded, remembering Honoka in a swimsuit put a smile on her face.
"Let's go then. I've not seen Mai paint for a long time." White was curious about her friend and whether she had gotten even better. And she could use the distraction to make Nagisa forget about Sunshine.
=== Dissonance ===
Ako's mood was rapidly approaching the apex of being annoyed. The way Lemonade manipulated her, pushed her around, lured her in. She was barely in control of her own life. And now she was eating breakfast for the second time, any hunger she might have felt before drowned in anger over falling into another pitfall, and her mood deteriorating further yet.
"If your face freezes like that, you'll never be able to go out in public again. Calm down, I just don't like eating alone." Taking a bite from her toast, Urara sighed. The morning had started off a bit too wild for her tastes. Getting her head almost blown off by a stray energy attack wasn't exactly what she called a good morning.
"Whose fault do you think that is?" Despite her earlier resolution to punish Lemonade with the silent treatment, she found herself unable to follow through with it. Everything the yellow Cure said invited another snide remark from her. As if she was fishing for responses of any kind.
"By proxy, your own. Directly, Rhythm's. To make me out to be the bad one here, you need a few corners. Like I said, calm down." Urara sat on a chair across the table from Ako and watched her with remarkable interest and intensity. "You have some real hot heads on your team. Are they always like that? I mean, hunting each other down with murderous intent, causing massive collateral damage."
"Sometimes. They've never really gone that wild as Cures." Ako bit her lip as she found herself responding almost on order to whatever Lemonade asked her. That woman had a knack for catching people off guard.
Urara wanted her to struggle more, fight more, reject her. Seducing a girl like Marine was okay, but she wanted a real challenge. And Muse was interesting to boot. "You're on the same team as Beat, right? Any more killing hymns we should know about?" She knew there wouldn't be any. Finishing up her toast, leaning back and looking at Ako, Urara was smiling to herself. If the girl had really disliked sitting there with her, she would've just gone and left. There was nothing stopping her after all.
"Why do you care?" Ako was smart, but she lacked experience with people. She was like a puppet in Urara's hands.
"I don't like to sleep with the mysterious type, not even for a one-night stand. If you don't want to talk about it, that's fine though. What kind of music do you like? Your powers are music based, so you gotta like something out there." Lemonade had to try hard not to burst out laughing when she saw Muse's face turn bright red as soon as she mentioned sex. "I like mostly rock, little bit of power metal sometimes, bit of jazz to relax. Classical isn't bad, but I'm never really bored enough to listen to it on my own. Might give it a run if there was someone who's interested."
"I'd be surprised if you could really appreciate music. You don't seem like the type of person that-"
"That what, likes music? Oh come on now. Everyone likes music. Good people, bad people, crazy people, kids, the old. So, you like classic? Bach? Wagner? Beethoven?"
"Not exactly my thing, no. I prefer... modern things. Happy stuff, too." And it had happened again. Being swept up in her pace, Ako revealed more of herself, unintentionally. Unable to bear it any longer, she got up and stomped away, angry with herself for being so easy to manipulate.
"You enjoy teasing her. Sadism?" Kaoru walked slowly past Lemonade, looking over to the kitchen, where a few hours ago had been a big hole in the wall.
"No. I just like seeing her flustered. Curiosity killed the cat by the way." Taking a sip of coffee, Urara looked at the blue haired Cure from the corner of her eyes. "Feeling all alone now that your other half has gone and switched?"
"You must really like Muse to focus so much on her."
"You must really like putting your nose in other people's business."
Both of them trying to shift the topic towards the personal issues of the other one, neither had success. Kaoru caved first, seeing that it was pointless to play that kind of game with Lemonade. "It's part of my work. Does your work include seducing innocent girls?"
"Have you seen her? How can someone with a body like that possibly be innocent. Unless you mean by innocent she's a virgin. That I can imagine." Urara looked over to the exit, recalling the image of Muse's butt in her mind.
"You have a very... extreme view of innocent. Or should I say, absolute view?"
"To each their own. If you want to keep this banal meta conversation about nothing up, you can join me for a little run. I'm getting out of shape, locked up in this place. Otherwise, look for entertainment elsewhere." Putting her empty cup and dish on her tray, Urara put everything away in the kitchen.
It came as a surprise to the yellow Cure that Windy actually followed her, apparently bored and not knowing what to do with herself. The two of them started off slowly, at just normal jogging speed, randomly picking a path into the labyrinth.
"You're one of Egret's pals, right? Are they too busy to hang out with you?" Urara had a lot of stamina, most of it reaching all the way back to the time she had been working as idol. That was a competitive sport alright.
"Mai's painting Black and White. Saki is watching." Kaoru left out that she was simply bored with watching Mai paint. It wasn't something she took a great interest in. If she was painting herself, maybe, but not watching someone else.
"What's your job?" Lemonade figured that a simple topic was as good as any other to make simple conversation.
"We do all kinds of odd jobs. You can hire my sister and me practically for any kind of work, specific things like erotica related jobs aside."
"Pity, I'd have hired you as a pole-dancer. I bet you'd look good as that." It was a joke. She wouldn't really make the offer if not for her saying those things were out of the question. Watching Windy seriously contemplate it, she found herself clarifying. "I was joking."
"I know. I just tried to imagine if you were right in saying I would look good doing it. I think my hair would get in the way, and I'm-" Kaoru liked to analyze things like that.
"Just take my word for it. I know an attractive girl when I see one. You're not my type though." One blue haired girl a week was more than enough. The sex with Marine had been pretty good, but nothing special. Windy had nice looks, but her personality was...
"What is your type?" A rather unexpected question from Windy. They upped the tempo a little and continued on in silence while Urara looked for the right words.
"Someone I want." They turned right at a corner and went up the stairs. Windy was lucky to be quick on her feet, for the yellow Cure was pretty fast herself.
"That's not an answer."
"It is. It's just not one you can accept or comprehend. Doesn't mean it's not a valid answer to your question." Up another stair, this time one that was easily over a hundred steps.
"Which factors determine if you want someone?"
"Looks, personality, my mood." She enjoyed messing with Windy's mind a little. There was no real way to generalize what exactly her type was. Sleeping with Rin was nice, but she wasn't exactly a paragon of femininity. Marine looked the part, but she was too wild for her tastes. She enjoyed sleeping with both, but they had very little in common.
"Understanding you is complicated. But the same can be said about many people. What do you for a living?" Seeing that she was not getting anywhere, Kaoru postponed that particular topic until a later date.
"Vocalist in a rock band." She didn't like to talk about the work she had done before, mostly because Urara didn't like the kind of person she had been five years ago.
Both of them came to an abrupt emergency stop at the top step of a long stairway as a literal burst of fire passed through the hallway right in front of them, leaving the ground deformed and partially melted. "Rin?! Is that you?!" Staying outside, Lemonade had a good idea who was the cause of the fire. Though, both parties had to shout.
"Urara?! What are you doing out here?!" Rouge had distanced herself quite far from the living quarters to do a little training and tests on her abilities.
"Getting almost roasted alive! Doing some tests?!" The still scorching hot ground didn't exactly invite the two runners to go over to the red Cure. So they kept on conversing by yelling.
"Sorry about that! Just training a bit! If you go down the stairs and take a right turn, you can pass under this hallway!"
"We'll do that! Don't burn down the whole place!" With that, Urara went down the stairs and took a right turn just as Rin told her to. Using 'we' had not been an accident. Teasing Rin a little every now and then wasn't so bad. It kept her interested.
The conversation between the two having died down a bit, each side focusing on not falling behind, they went further and further, until Lemonade finally had to call a break. While catching her breath, the vocalist started looking around. "Hey. Where the hell are we anyway?"
"Are you saying you didn't memorize the way we came?" Kaoru found herself to be a little perplexed.
"Of course not. Do I look like I have photographic memory? Are you saying you remember every turn when all of this looks the same?"
"I could, if I had paid attention. I was making the assumption that you, since you were leading the way, knew how to get back." Kaoru felt a little irritated.
"Well, nice going, now we have to find a way back." Urara's mood took a dive. She didn't like the prospect of being stuck with Windy for a couple hours. Assuming it would take only that much to find the exit.
=== Dissonance ===
"That settles the combatants. The fight will be in four hours, so be ready then." The group of five sat at the big table. The full Fresh team was going to fight. Beat looked a bit depressed that she couldn't fight alongside her new partners, but with her voice still gone, she wasn't going to be much of a help. Bright had just arrived and didn't want to fight without Windy on her side.
"It's been a while since we all fought together. I wonder if we're out of shape." Inori gave Miki a look, knowing just from the satisfied look on her face that things had played out the way she expected.
"We've all been fighting in battles. If anyone is out of shape, then that has to be Setsuna." Berry leaned back and looked at the trio that sat on the other side of the table, Setsuna in the middle, Love to the right, Beat to the left. She didn't mind their relationship even though it was highly unusual.
"Now you've said it. I'll show you later." Looking to Love, who gave an approving nod, the four of them started laughing. "It's really been a long time. I'm happy to see you two after so long. We didn't really have a lot of time to talk, so... how have you two been?"
"Under stress, mostly. Love likes to pry, so she already asked us all about it. I'm working two jobs, I know I wrote that in the last letter I sent you, and it's taxing, but I like both my jobs. I want to succeed at them." Miki suddenly felt like coffee and some cookies and had to resist the urge. Too much coffee and sweets in general were a threat to her figure.
"Not so much stress for me, but I'm really feeling the responsibility of working as a vet. It can get pretty bad when I have to get up in the middle of the night for an emergency though. Get the rest from Love, she's like a walking information center." A sarcastic grin and gesture later, it was her turn to ask questions. "So how exactly did you three happen to get together? I have a rough idea but I want to hear it from Setsuna."
"It's... not really that long a story actually. I met Ellen on the other team, and..." Stopping and whispering something to the blue Cure next to her, Passion waited for approval to finish her sentence. She didn't want to blurt out Ellen's past without her consent. "Ellen used to work for the enemy of her team at the time, just like I did. We just... I don't know, we really got along quickly and..." Blushing and stopping again, she just couldn't bring herself to say it. Not only because Love was present but also because it was embarrassing.
"You hit it off. I can really understand Ellen getting a crush on Setsuna." Love nodded a few times with her eyes closed, making an approving mumbling sound.
"Your girlfriend is approving you getting a crush on another girl Setsuna." Miki pointed the obvious out as if it was something unheard of. In reality, it probably really was.
"Technically, she's not just my girlfriend anymore." The intensity of Love's gaze made Ellen blush enough to lower her head a bit. She finally realized that Love was truly always like that, not just when they were alone. It was a bit difficult to stomach at first.
"So you just thought: Lets make this a three-way relationship, Love? You're crazy. Nice, but crazy." Miki shook her head and looked at Setsuna, then Ellen. "You two are crazy too, for going along with this so easily."
"Cut them some slack Miki. If they're happy like that, we should be happy for them too. Not to mention, we're sitting on a table in some weird dimensional prison, or something like that, fighting each other as proxies for powers of nature of untold magnitude to restore balance... yeah, you know what I'm getting at, right?" Inori landed an overwhelming victory.
"Yes, yes. Sheesh, you're harsh sometimes Inori. Did you learn that by dealing with unfriendly patients?" Miki took the jab and hit back.
"You two are still like this? You're almost like an old married couple. I'm surprised you haven't tried dating each other yet." Love was joining the fray, just to tease her two friends a little bit.
"I can't tell if they get along or not." Ellen felt a little overwhelmed by the way the three seemed to argue.
"Look at their faces. They're all genuinely smiling, having fun. They get along better than anyone else I can think of."
"So which one of you three is the top? Or how do you handle that?" Miki brought out the big guns.
"Miki!" Setsuna felt the need to step in, the conversation shifting into an uncomfortable direction.
"I bet it's Love. I can't see Setsuna taking control of both of them." Inori joined the assault.
"That's..." Looking over to both her partners, Love grinned. ".. a secret."
Just as Miki was about to protest, the attention of the five was drawn to the exit of the room, where they caught a glimpse of Rose chasing Luminous around, laughing, holding something that looked awfully like a water gun in her hand.
"What are they doing...?" Inori was the first to recover from the confusing sight. The answer hit her seconds later, literally, in the face. Blossom came running into the room, jumping into a corner and pressing against the wall, breathing heavily, her eyes glued to the entrance. She didn't even notice the five.
There was total silence for just a moment. Then all hell broke loose as Aqua and Mint shot around the corner, the two of them aiming at Blossom, who saw herself outnumbered and in a bad position, with no cover.
"Erika, now!" Throwing herself flat on the ground, Erika appeared almost out of nowhere, right behind Aqua and Mint, who couldn't possibly turn in time. Instead of wielding a gun, Marine used her powers. A large wave of water was rapidly approaching the green and the blue Cure. But it was easy for Mint to defend herself. Putting up a shield, most of the attack was deflected.
And by then, the five knew what was going on. They were also soaked to the bone. It took them less than five minutes to track down the base of sorts, where a handful of water guns were still available, joining the fight.
The entire light team was chasing, hunting each other, trying to hit the others with water guns, or in Marine's and Aqua's cases, with their toned down powers. Nobody could say who exactly started it, but the popular opinion was that Marine was responsible.
Inori was on the ground, pretending to be exhausted and defenseless. Up above her, on a balcony, was Miki, laying low and waiting for prey to stumble into their trap. And there she was. Rose, looking for anyone to shoot at, spotted Pine, who pretended to not see her. Trying to approach from the backside, the purple Cure walked right into the trap. In a split second, Pine jumped up, and Rose was hit from above and the front, looking like someone had just emptied a bucket of water over her head. By the time she realized it had been a setup, the two fresh Cures were already gone.
Pine almost walked into a trap herself, when she took cover barely in time to avoid Marine literally sweeping the floor with Beat and Passion, who walked right into an ambush. The situation grew catastrophic and Pine had to escape to higher ground when Aqua tried to overpower Marine with her own attack, setting the grounds under water. Thankfully, they had relocated to just outside the living quarters, so no real damage was being done.
It was kind of an odd thing to use their powers for something like that, but even Karen had fun letting really loose without being in a fight. Just getting soaked didn't do any damage after all. And it was fun to be able to really pay Marine back for being annoying every now and then.
Komachi tagged along with Karen and found herself enjoying the game more than she thought she would. Her aim was horrendous yet that seemed to lure people in thinking she was an easy target. With Karen at her side, she was like a walking on command tsunami.
Just as their contest of raw power reached it's high, the full fresh team assaulted the fighting parties from all sides, with Beat supporting them from above. None, except Inori, had taken into account that all the water had to go somewhere after Aqua and Marine lost control after being hit. Pine and Beat were the only ones to escape safely while everyone else was being swept away.
Letting off some steam felt incredibly good. Being locked up in the same place for a week could raise the tension between people, even if only subconsciously. The game went on for almost two more hours. Luminous was the first to drop out and take a hot shower, closely followed by Blossom. Next to go was Komachi and Ellen. Michiru had joined the battle shortly after the fresh team and kept sniping others from impossible locations. The last four standing were Karen, Erika, Rose and Bright.
"Let's... let's call it a draw..." Erika was completely exhausted, hiding behind a wall, knowing that Karen was just around the corner.
Rose was hiding above them. "I... agree." She too was exhausted and cold. She would've been less wet if she had fallen into a river or lake.
Michiru didn't say anything but was in silent agreement with the two. She, too, was soaked to the bone, unable to escape really every single attack over the course of the game.
"Fine... by me. You're... pretty good at this." Karen was just about to call it quits anyway. She didn't like losing, especially not if she had such a big advantage.
The four of them marched together, like a group of beaten soldiers, to the shower. They had let off a bit too much steam. The people who were going to fight had pulled out early, knowing they couldn't exhaust themselves like the last four did. "I'm so happy I don't have to fight today." Karen took the first cabin. She could hear Marine pull on her own hair, trying to get the cold water out of it, in the cabin next to her. That small girl was a formidable opponent, not just in a real fight.
"You people have insane stamina... I got tired just using the gun." Rose was in the last cabin, but talking loud enough for the others to hear her.
"You're one to talk... it was hell to get away from you. You're like a bloodhound. I saw you chasing around poor Luminous." Karen was leaned against the wall, enjoying the hot water. Like everyone else, she had switched back to civilian mode.
"You're no better. You had Mint protect you until she dropped out from being worn out." Michiru didn't know any of those people all that well, but that didn't stop her from trying to change that.
"I had a lot of fun. I didn't expect that you would lower yourself to some wild playing around, Aqua." Marine was happy that everyone had participated, even the calm Komachi and the extremely nice Luminous.
"I was surprised too. I didn't think you were the type to participate in this Karen." Kurumi knew her well, which was the reason why it surprised her so much.
"I don't mind something... exciting sometimes." Thankfully nobody could see her blushing under the shower.
"It's almost time for the fight, isn't it?" Michiru brought it up, interested in who would fight today. The battles had grown on her over time. It was more like a contest than a real battle now, despite the brutality.
"The full fresh team is going to participate. Whoever is on the other side is going to need luck to win this." Kurumi was not uninterested as well. She liked competing.
"Black and White are there. If they're going to participate, it'll be hard. They're really strong. There's also Lemonade and Rouge, and both of them can be a big problem for a whole team." Michiru didn't know who was chosen, that usually happened after the exile run.
"I've known Lemonade for a long time and it still surprises me how strong she's gotten. Not so surprising for Rin, she was always someone who I thought would grow up to be really strong." Karen rarely talked about either of them, ever since they broke off contact back then.
Marine remembered the time she spent in bed with the yellow Cure. Recalling it was both pleasant and unpleasant at the same time. The first simply because of the experience, the second because she could tell Tsubomi had feeling for her and she was trying to figure out where she stood herself. Was it worth a try to go and pursue Lemonade? "What's Lemonade like? As a person."
"She's not who she used to be. I don't really know her all that well now, to be honest. You're better off asking Rouge or just getting your own impressions." Karen didn't inquire why Erika was interested in knowing more about Urara. She could figure that one out pretty easily on her own.
=== Dissonance ===
"We're going to win this one." After sitting around for hours without being allowed to move, Nagisa was eager to get a good workout. Cracking her knuckles, Black was ready for action, waiting in front of the gate.
"You're annoyingly excited about this." Urara's mood had taken a dive down to the deepest depths of the world. Getting stuck finding a way back with Windy had been a horrible experience. May someone have mercy on whoever got in her way now, because she wouldn't have any.
"Don't go crazy and drag us down." Rin feared that Urara would snap and just do whatever she wanted without considering the rest of the team.
"Who the hell do you think you're talking to? Me? Dragging you down? Ha!" Lemonade had a fearsome blaze in her eyes, one that spelled pain and misery for her opponents.
"Calm down and save it for our opponents." Honoka tried to save the peace, but with Nagisa eager to go, Lemonade pissed off and Rouge as a wild card, that seemed like a futile thing to do.
And finally, the gate opened. Pushing Black aside, a pissed off expression on her face, Urara was the first to step through. "Haven't seen her that angry in a while. Something must have pissed her off really badly." A final comment from Rouge as she followed the chain using Cure.
Nagisa and Honoka stepped through the gate as well. The red light had barely faded from their eyes when they saw Lemonade already attacking the other team. To make matters worse, they were barely twenty meters apart from each other and on a platform. The top of the tower.
A dozen long chains spawned from her hands and arms, Urara used the first like a whip, catching Peach on her ankle, pulling abruptly on the chain, smashing the pink Cure into the ground, tearing the chain to the side, smashing Peach into Passion, the two of them flying right over the edge.
Berry attacked from the air, aiming for Lemonade's face, when she was blocked by a multitude of chains. But that was not enough to stop her. "Spade Sphere!" Ramming an energy orb between the cracks in the chain wall, Berry clicked her fingers, making the orb expand and explode, rupturing the blockade.
"Spade Six!" Pointing quickly at six points around Lemonade, Berry clicked her fingers again while still in mid-air, making each point explode with the force of her Spade Impact attack. Lemonade had no time to evade the attack and took the damage head on and was thrown high into the air by the attack.
Pine came up right behind Berry, ready to take out Lemonade. "Blacklight..." "Whitelight..." Those two words spelled danger in big red letters for her. Grabbing Miki by her arm and throwing her out of the way, Inori had to pull out the big runs right away.
A quickly blown kiss and wink reached Black just in time. "Domination." The whispered name of a dangerous ability reached Nagisa, who instantly stopped targeting the yellow Cure and instead rushed towards White.
Peach and Passion had problems dealing with Rouge, who was literally both fired up and on fire. The heat she emitted was turning the tower into a stone grill, and there was the issue of her weapons as well. Facing each other off, Rouge was confident that she could beat either of them in an one versus one, but two was risky. Neither of them could get too close, but she didn't know if they had any range based abilities.
They couldn't go into hand to hand combat with Rouge. It would boil them if they stayed too close to her. It would be really useful to have Marine or Aqua with them just about now but alas that was no option. "Club Bomb!" Passion aimed carefully at Rouge and launched her ability, a small shell of magic flying at Rouge at the speed of sound. Just as she heard the name, Rin felt a hole in her right arm. Passion had shot her, almost like a gun. Checking the wound, she found that nothing was actually there. It was magical damage, giving the illusion of a real wound.
Using the red Cure's confusion to increase the distance between themselves and their enemy, Peach and Passion started running down the ramp.
If Lemonade had been pissed off before, now she was about to boil over. Seeing the airhead Black getting taken over didn't add to improve her mood. Throwing one chain and hitting Black's right arm, throwing another and hitting Pine's left arm, Urara changed her vector just slightly and went over the edge, pulling both annoyances with her. Throwing Black simply far over the edge, sending her falling down several dozen meters, Pine was not as lucky. Using her full power to flail her around like a piece of wood on a rope, Lemonade smashed Pine continuously into the wall until she stopped moving.
And again, Berry took aim at her. "Spade Slam!" Extending both her palms towards Lemonade, first moving them up in the air, then throwing them down like she was throwing something. The yellow Cure was flattened on the ground by a faint blue force.
Shooting a chain at Berry, the same old trick didn't work forever. The blue Cure grabbed the chain and pulled Lemonade off the ground, using the force of her descend to pull her with her, further descending down the tower. The kidnapping was off as Berry was hit by a massive white energy burst coming straight out of the wall, passing through her body, making her cough up blood and crash on the floor, holding her chest in pain.
"Club Bomb! Club Bomb! Club Bomb!" Passion was firing rapid shots against Rouge, keeping her at bay at a distance just outside her effective range. Rouge was keeping her guard up, having lost sight of Peach while the two were running. She had no longer any idea where the other three were. There was no other choice. Gritting her teeth, Rouge rushed straight at Passion, ignoring the pain that surged through her body from taking bullet after bullet. There were no visible wounds but the pain itself was numbing her reactions.
Peach had just waited for her to rush in. Jumping down from the upper level, landing a direct hit with a double kick in Rouge's face, they believed her down. But Rin was sturdier than that. Grabbing Peach's leg so forcefully that Rouge's nails cut straight through her boots, burying themselves into Peach's skin, Rouge took the full force of the kick, endured the pain and the damage and hammered Peach so brutally into the ground that the pink Cure bounced off the hard stone before rolled over and coughing up blood.
White had saved Lemonade's ass once and was aiming at Passion from the distance. "Whitelight Illumination!" Another burst of white energy but she missed. The red Cure was quick on her feet and was already close enough to Rouge to hit her again. "Club SDS!" A single red orb appeared on Rouge's chest, increasing it's size at terrifying speed. Resisting all physical contact, Rouge left Peach and charged at Passion. "Burst!"
The ramp was consumed by a monumental fiery explosion, Rouge's magic absorbed by the sphere and then detonated on command. A devilish attack that utilizes the power of the enemy to deal damage.
Black, rid of Pine's domination, was almost back up when the red energy detonation happened. Lemonade was dealing with Berry and Pine, who had just managed to crawl out of the hole in the wall, coughing in pain. Her left arm was horribly broken but thankfully the pain in battle was reduced. It was bent in an unnatural way and already swelling up. She couldn't use that one.
Lemonade had all her attention focused on Berry who, despite taking a direct hit from White's burst ability, was surprisingly nimble and powerful. Unable to defend against Pine from her back, she felt something insanely sharp cut a few centimeter into her back. "Diamond Sting."
"Spade Impact!" Berry was right in front of her, ready to take her out now that her guard was down. But she wouldn't go that easily. Using her elbow to hit Pine in the stomach, Lemonade let herself drop flat on the ground, using a chain to bind Berry's ankles together, making her lose balance. The attack was off.
"Blacklight Devastation!" Berry was literally sent flying through the air was the terrifying brute force attack hit her from behind while she was off balance. Lemonade's eyes didn't say a word of gratefulness, instead it was the look of someone who wanted others to mind their own damn business. Nothing else was on Nagisa's mind as she pursued Berry, who already regained her balanced in mid-air.
Rolling over and kicking Pine, who had not yet recovered, Urara ignored the loss of blood that was already making her vision turn blurry. She would take out that bitch, no matter what. A golden chain wrapped itself around Inori's neck, another around each ankle and wrist, all of them sunk into the wall, locking Pine's movement completely down. Hitting Pine with everything she got, Lemonade punched her four times until the blood loss from the wound that crafty Cure had given her became a problem. She only had a few more seconds before she would pass out.
Tightening the chains around the wrists and the ankles, Lemonade only stopped when the almost unconscious Pine was wide awake again, screaming out in terror as her bones were breaking under the tremendous pressure. A simultaneous cracking sound signalized the double knockout of both yellow Cures.
Peach, Passion and Rouge were all very much still alive and kicking, the two fresh Cures still keeping their distance from the highly dangerous ability Rouge had. Passion was on the run from White, while the fiery Cure was hunting down the pink one.
"Club SDS!" Setsuna aimed at White but she was too quick witted and fast to fall prey to an attack she had witnessed before. Rouge had taken a significant stamina and energy loss, but she was still formidable because of her physical attributes.
Honoka knew that she won't be able to hit Passion with her special move unless she somehow nailed down her movement. Black was busy trading blows with Berry and Rouge wasn't going to be a help for anyone after taking damage like that.
Stopping for a brief moment, White took the risk of getting hit by a dangerous ability, yet she needed the time to focus energy into her legs. Passion was just about to launch an attack when White was done focusing, pushing herself off the ground so hard that the red Cure didn't see her move until Honoka's fist hit her enemies face. It lacked the force and impact a punch from Rouge or Black had, but Honoka was a highly tactical and still skilled fighter at close range. Good enough to beat her partner in a match of pure skill.
Her next punch blocked by Passions elbow, the follow up hit by her left hand, a series of quick blows only hitting the front of her arms and hands, not causing any real damage. Trying to increase the distance between herself and White, Passion jumped away, only to find her enemy at the exact spot she was moving to, a kick hitting her right in the back.
Grabbing Passion by her ankle, White threw her on the ground, dropping down and ramming her knee in the red Cure's back, making her scream out in pain, her right arm grabbing Passion's left arm, bending it back so hard that it caused enough pain to make Setsuna's vision red and blurry. It was a risk, but she had already endured it once. "Whitelight..."
Passion tried desperately to get away, without any luck. "Lucky Seven!" Honoka heard the words but couldn't associate any specific attack with it. She felt like something was ripped straight out of her and something slightly alien took it's place. Something she knew very well but it was not truly her own. Her attack faded and Passion used the confusion to get away, knowing exactly what that previous attack was.
"It's showtime!" Using Berry's ability, Passion forced White to pay absolute attention on her enemy, completely stunning her. "Club..."
Passion didn't get to finish her attack. Rouge was quick to figure out new things and just happened to be right there, behind the other red Cure. "Whitelight Devastation!" The energy ripped her costume to shreds both on her back and around her stomach. Spitting out blood and falling over, Passion was unconscious within a second of the direct hit. Rouge's left hand was slightly deformed, multiple bones broken, but she had taken down the other red Cure.
Nagisa met a similar fate but it was not enough to knock her out. The sudden appearance of fire claws on her arms completely threw off her focus. Berry took the chance and hit Black with a Spade Impact, sending her crashing into the ground.
"Spade Reave!" Miki's right hand was glowing brightly in a blue light when White came to Black's aid. She didn't have time to evade. Trusting that the force from her descending from over twenty meters in the air and her most powerful physical attack was enough, Berry went for it.
"Blacklight Devastation!" Luck really hadn't been on the side of the fresh team. White had received Nagisa's special ability, and she had little problem using it. Two nearly equal forces meeting, Honoka was still pushed back, but she could hold out long enough for Berry's attack to weaken significantly and for Nagisa to recover and get out of the way.
The fire claws were just a little bonus, and she couldn't quite figure out how the other ability worked, but it was undoubtedly Rouge's. Berry was helplessly locked into a stalemate with White, though she was quickly gaining ground and forcing Honoka on her knees.
Black didn't need any fancy moves to deal a lot of damage. Jumping up and aiming properly, Berry took a devastating blow to the back of her head. Her vision was like she had spun around her own axis a thousand times. Standing became impossible. "Blacklight Devastation!" White took the chance and used the attack a second time, hitting Berry right in the stomach. Gasping for air, the attack lacked the power to knock her out, but it dealt a lot of damage. Black put her hands together and swung both her arms high over her head before slamming them on Berry's back. The blue Cure bounced off the ground, rolled a few meters down the ramp and stopped moving.
Rouge had finally managed to catch up to Peach, who protected herself with flying, heart-shaped shields against any attack. Jumping at her and grabbing her waist, Rouge held on tightly to Peach as both of them flew far over the edge of the ramp.
No special attack, no attempt to change their vector, the two of them fell and fell. Love punched and kicked Rouge but she wouldn't let go. Peach could feel a dozen and more bones breaking, her vision turning dark and her whole pain trying to burst apart from the pain she felt as they hit the ground after over fifty meters fall. Rouge was hit just as badly as Peach. That last almost suicidal attack, the battle was over. Black and White were still standing though heavily injured. Fresh was down.
=== Dissonance ===
"I have blue spots all over the place. To face those four... our luck is horrible." Setsuna was twitching every time Ellen put a bit of ointment on a blue spot on her new partners bare back.
Ellen periodically checked on Love. Over twenty minutes had passed since the battle had ended, and she was still unconscious.
Miki, her sides and back still hurting quite a bit, checked in on the others. She had already talked to Karen and Komachi about the result of the battle. It was depressing to lose twice in a row, but they had a really hard match up there. Black and White were really strong and experienced fighters. Lemonade was... difficult to handle, and so was Rouge. Setsuna had done well to keep at her bay with ranged attacks.
Knocking on the door of the room the trio was staying in, Beat's room, Miki waited for Setsuna to ask her to come in. "Love's still out too? She and Inori got hit pretty hard it seems. I'm full of blue spots too, though." Sitting down on the edge of the bed, Miki gave the unconscious Love an amused look. "She looks really peaceful like this."
"I'm sure you fought with everything you had. I don't think anyone will say anything about losing to those four." Ellen's voice still hadn't returned. The pain in her throat was gone, the rest had to be something she needed to work out by herself. She really did want to cheer the others up, but she couldn't right now.
"If anyone asks if I'll show up for dinner, I'm skipping. I'm beat, literally even. If Love doesn't wake up before dinner, just save her something. For Inori too. I'm going to sleep, good night you two." That she was beat and tired was only half the story. Losing to the others like that was a blow to her pride. Losing to Moonlight was one thing but...
Setsuna spent the next thirty minutes laying on her stomach and telling Ellen about the fight while said girl finished up treating the leftovers of the fight. Her partner still twitched every time but didn't complain even once. Considering what she had gone through, getting away with blue spots was really nothing.
There was little surprise that, as soon as the smell of food reached their room, all the way back from the kitchen, that Love started groaning and coming to. "I thought I was done for... ow..." Rubbing the back of her head, she felt sick just trying to move. Maybe a slight concussion. "Sorry we lost."
Slowly, as if in slow motion, she rolled over and looked at Setsuna, who was still laying flat on her stomach, Ellen sitting next to her. "I didn't think Black and White were that strong."
"They've been Cure's for six years, longer than anyone else. Even when you randomized abilities, White had no trouble using Black's ability. Luck wasn't really on our side." Setsuna slowly got up, knowing that it was just about time to go to dinner. "Feel like you can stand up? If not, we'll bring you something to eat. I don't mind doing that."
"Thanks, that would be a great help. My head is still ringing from the impact and I feel a bit sick." Love rubbed her forehead and closed her eyes. She had fought before and been knocked out before, but this was on a whole different level. Even with the reduced level of pain in the fight, it had paralyzed her whole body.
"Ellen, let's go." Switching to Cure form and twitching a bit while she got used to some places stinging as she walked, Passion left together with Beat, leaving Peach behind to rest.
"Is she going to be okay?" Ellen was not so sure about leaving one third of her new relationship behind to go and eat. It felt like something was missing. Instead of being happy that she got to spend some time with Setsuna alone, she was worried about Love. It really surprised her.
"Love's really, really tough, despite what she looks like. If she voluntarily stays down, she must really need the rest. Oh, you're up Inori?" The two of them came across Pine, who was still staggering after every step she took. Her wrists were colored in a mix of blue, purple and green.
"Damn that Lemonade, she really knows no mercy at all. Broke both my wrists and my ankles in the fight. How did it go for the rest of us? Did we win?" She hadn't seen anyone else yet.
"We lost. I'm pretty sure I heard Rouge's voice just before I lost consciousness, Love got hit so bad that she's awake but not getting up. Miki said she's going to bed, she looked really exhausted, too."
"Well, that's a given. Everyone always looks exhausted and beaten after a battle. Though I'm happy we don't carry over more that some scratches and this." Pine showed her wrists to the other two. They reduced their walking tempo to something Pine could keep up with.
But they were not the only ones late for dinner. Luminous and Rose caught up to the small group, the two of them just coming back from doing a little training after spending most of the day playing around. "I heard you were up against Rouge and Lemonade." It was a casual question from Rose, not meaning anything specific.
"And Black and White." Hikari added with a scolding look. They were in constant disagreement about who the bigger threat was.
"All four of them, yes. I thought we would have the advantage of teamwork, but it's not really as easy as that if you're being overwhelmed." Setsuna didn't see the need to hide that they were outclassed by those four.
"Lemonade is a real pain, literally. I took over Black and had her going against White, but not only did she stop me from turning it into five versus three, she even knocked me out for a bit. My Domination went to total waste." Inori was not too happy about her plans being completely spoiled. "I fought Rouge before so I know she's a problem with that bothersome ability of hers. But I didn't think Lemonade would be this strong."
"Honoka and Nagisa have been Cure's even longer than me. They fought a lot of hard battles and they kept on improving even after that, thinking that someday, another enemy would appear." Hikari had trained as well, but by far not as rigorously as those two.
Kurumi couldn't really comment on either of her former friends. She didn't know how they spent their time until now and how much they had trained. But based on everything she heard, Urara had gotten really, really strong.
"I know this smell." Kurumi only needed a single sniff to determine what dinner was. "Pasta Carbonara. I'm fairly good with western food since Karen often cooked it." That memory ruffled some feathers but she hid it well. Losing Karen had been a shock, but she was trying to cope with it the best she could, taking the chance to turn over a new leaf.
"Who's cooking?" As soon as the five entered the room, Kurumi asked loudly everyone already sitting on the table.
"Karen and Erika." Komachi answered without even looking up, completely hooked on a novel she had wished for.
It was increasingly common for the Cure's to call each other by their first name. They ate together, fought together, played together. It would be odd to just keep on using Cure names as a way to speak politely.
"That sounds like an explosive combo." Kurumi sat down next to Blossom, Luminous to Rose's right, the other three filling in the spots between Hikari and Komachi. "Is Berry still unconscious?"
"She said she's skipping dinner and going straight to bed." Setsuna didn't feel like explaining what the real reason for Miki to distance herself for a bit was. Losing a battle like that hurt her pride and consciously or not, she blamed herself for not being strong enough. She had known Miki for long enough to understand that much.
"Food's ready! Since the pot's too big and heavy, come one at a time and get it!" Erika shouted from the small window in the kitchen wall inside the living room. The smell alone was inviting, making it hard to line up and wait for everyone to be done. There much more than just enough for everyone. Setsuna would get a big portion separately later and bring it to Love.
=== Dissonance ===
"Stop wolfing down the food Nagisa, there's plenty left." Honoka had to remind her partner just what exactly table manners were. Having gotten just the workout she needed, Nagisa's appetite had peaked just as they got back. Finishing up her second plate of meat, Nagisa reached for more. The people preparing the mixed grill meat had been Hibiki, Kaoru and, to everyone's surprise, Nozomi, who finally dared to show her face outside her room again. She was still greeted with a bit of a sour mood, but it wasn't as bad as she expected it to be.
Sitting at the same table as everyone did raise her spirits somewhat. Hibiki to her right, Kaoru to her left, Nozomi was still getting glares from Moonlight whenever she happened to look in that direction. Rin had come late to dinner and sat on the other end of the table, so she couldn't see her.
The dinner was a lot wilder than usual. Skewered meat was easy to eat with just the hands, and with a few exceptions, nobody bothered to use table ware that evening. The battle had been won, and everyone was quite happy to have won twice in a row now. It meant another increase for the teams favor, so they could upgrade facilities. Instead of the old stone table and chairs, they had nice, comfy wooden furniture now.
As a treat, they had some beverages to drink together with the meat. Saki was the first to blatantly display that even beer could make pretty one drunk, and now she had started to tell all kinds of embarrassing stories. Mai, barely any better than Saki at drinking, was constantly interrupting and correcting her to the point where nobody knew which one of the two, if either, was telling the truth.
While Kanade tried to abstain from drinking, Hibiki didn't see things that way and eventually roped her partner in as well. It wasn't really that unusual for sixteen or seventeen year old people to drink beer. It was even legal in many countries. Sure, it wasn't allowed in Japan, but that didn't exactly stop one from going a bit wild at a party. And that was exactly what was happening.
Even Nozomi was sharing some stories with Kaoru, who seemed to be very experienced at holding her alcohol. The blue haired girl had her own amusing tales to tell, though she herself didn't perceive them as such. For the first time since she got there, Nozomi had some resemblance of fun.
"That's nonsense and you know it! You were the one who leaned back too far, I tried to save you and we both dropped in the river!" Another argument where Mai was trying to correct a story Saki was telling to the best of her, now cloudy, knowledge.
"You were the one that had me lean back for the photo! And when you tried to help me, you pushed me over the fence!" It was a rare sight to see those two argue, even though it was only in good fun, and they both still knew that.
"Nagisa is just as bad as that." Honoka, not a great drinker but certainly not detesting drinking at all, was joining the story telling round, while Nagisa was distracted by her self inflicted pressure to try and have a bigger pile of empty skewers than everyone else. "We took a vacation at Shiretoko and Nagisa just really wanted to see the brown bears there. I never understood her fascination with bears, but anyway. We're close to the fence and it clearly says Do not trespass. No brown bear in sight, Nagisa lost her patience, checked if anyone was nearby and transformed, going over the fence as Cure Black, wanting to check out the bears. It didn't take five minutes until she came running back, chased by an angry brown bear, who apparently wasn't very happy to be disturbed while taking a nap. The look on Nagisa's face was absolutely priceless." Honoka mimicked the face, the eyes wide open in terror, teeth gritting together, breathing hard as she pretended to be running. She lasted a few seconds before everyone around her and Honoka herself broke out in roaring laughter.
"I know someone else who loses her patience easily. Right Hibiki?" Ako was making a jab at her teammate. Hook, line and sinker, Hibiki reacted exactly the way Muse wanted her to.
"You're one to talk! I remember when we were catching notes and you had problems because you were small, so you got your hands on some platform boots to compensate!" Hibiki was grinning wide, believing to have won, but it was not that easy.
"At least I didn't walk all the way to the elementary kids school while my head was up in the clouds. Maybe the classes there are more your field of expertise?" Ako shot back with a big bang, That half the table was watching them argue with nonsense didn't bother them in the slightest. Even Lemonade couldn't stay pissed off with a mood like that.
"At least I can actually say what I'm thinking out loud!"
"Don't be ridiculous. How many times are you going to argue with me just to tell me later how much you like me and my cakes?" Kanade jumped right into the conversation, earning applause from the rest of the audience for such a brave act. People were still eating and drinking, but the arguing and storytelling had by far overtaken those aspects.
"Might as well drink something good. One for you, one for me." Lemonade had managed to procure something better than beer, a big bottle of something that smelled like really strong alcohol and two very small glasses. Sharing a drink with Rin in good friendship after a battle to let old issues rest was always appreciated. People had already changed seats to better listen and nobody was really paying attention to who was eating what anymore. "Time to get over yourself Rin. Come on." Urara didn't need to explain what exactly she meant. Taking her drink and walking over to where Nozomi was, she sat down and put down a third glass in front of her former leader. "Let's drink and forget the past."
Rin almost crashed on the chair, pouting enough to make Nozomi uncomfortable. "Fill up." Sighing hard and leaning against Nozomi, Rin shook her head just a bit. "You're such a piece of work Nozomi. But you're still our friend."
Nozomi was really happy to have both of them back at her side. She was afraid of the content of that glass though. But sometimes there were things one just had to deal with and forget about the consequences. Picking it up, taking a deep breath and emptying the glass in one go, Nozomi felt her throat on fire. Coughing, leaning on the table, her face turned into a deep crimson and a few tears ran from her eyes. That was a lot harder than she was capable of dealing with. But she still earned applause from both Urara and Rin, who took their glasses up and emptied them with ease, though Rin was still shaking her head hard as she swallowed the swill.
"If you think that's a long day, you should see my schedule. Getting up at five in the morning, trying not to wake up Momoka, spending some time in the bathroom because I got horrible bed hair and already dealing with mail at the time. Getting breakfast on the go, I have to deal with possible clients and negotiate new shoots and deals with labels. And that's just up to ten in the morning." Yuri had taken a liking to the drinks and had been spending more time emptying one glass after another than actually eating.
"At least you actually get around. I love my job, by god I swear I love my job, but sometimes you just can't see any more numbers, vials and long waiting periods of nothing happening while you wait for results. It can be fascinating but also mind boggling boring. I'd love to have a treadmill in my lab." Honoka was still sitting next to Nagisa, who was just leaned back on her chair, having decimated as much of the grilled meat as she could and finally giving up. The white Cure was one of the few that were of legal drinking age, and she did enjoy a glass or two after work, but only sometimes.
The party got wilder yet when Lemonade and Rin captured Kaoru and Muse, both of them already slightly drunk from going with the mood and having a few beers. Ako's resistance wasn't enough when she was at her peak, so she had absolutely no chance to refuse and get away now. The glasses multiplied magically and soon they had a small round of taking one glass at a time for every stupid story told.
"...and just as I get back up from cleaning up the broken dish, I hit my head on the tray of a co-worker, knocking it out of her hand and the contents all over her and myself. Trying to apologize, I slip, take her down with me and we're both on the ground, dizzy, full of food and about to get the lecture of our life from the manager. She talks so fast! She's like a crazy hamster on steroids! Her mouth opens and closes so fast, you'd think she talks at the speed of light!" Nozomi finished up her story and Lemonade grabbed the bottle to fill up the glasses in the round. Even the pink Cure had gotten used somewhat to the strong stuff, by mixing it with some of the non-alcoholic refreshments that someone had brought in. It was a lot easier to bear if it tasted like fanta or sprite and not liquid fire.
Kaoru and Ako had both been hit with surprise by the liquid and both had the same reaction Dream initially had. Rin's face had a deep crimson red on her cheeks already, while Urara seemed mostly fine, if extremely easy to amuse by now, but that was something they all shared already.
An hour later, only four people were left. The rest was either sound asleep in their chairs and sometimes half on the table or had managed to sneak away to their beds. Urara had trouble filling the glasses by now, and Rin was worse yet, having trouble just holding the glass. But neither of those two wanted to endure the shame of giving up before the other two.
Ako was comfortable asleep half in her chair and half leaned against Lemonade, a peaceful look on her face. Peaceful and ridiculous, as she was drooling in her sleep.
Honoka had just finished her story, though she was just about to give up, grab Nagisa and go to sleep, if she somehow managed to get back to her room in one piece. Kaoru was there as well, switching from wide awake and laughing loudly to asleep and peacefully quiet.
It was Kaoru's turn to tell a story now. The bottle was almost empty, which was a miracle by itself, considering how very small the glasses were and how big the bottle was. "Lets... see. That one time, we took a repair job from a dry cleaner... no wait, it was a repair job for a laundromat shop. They had one.. or two, I don't remember, machines broken and the mechanic couldn't make it. Michiru's pretty good with that stuff, so we said we'll give it a try. We barely touched the thing and my sis just somehow managed to set the whole place underwater. Worse, they had the washing powder in the back, so it turned into a giant bubble bath that smelled horrible. It took us hours to clean up the place. After we were finally done cleaning up, I found the problem. It was no wonder the thing didn't work right! They moved the machine from one side to another and forgot to adjust the pipes and stuff!" The entire story was filled with exaggerated gestures and a much more loose style of speaking than Kaoru usually employed.
Taking another shot, Kaoru was finally done for. Waving, unable to even strand properly, she was headed for the bathroom, not quite sure why herself. "I'm out too. Let's do this again though. Hey... Nagisa... wake up... Nagisa..." Honoka tried to wake up her partner by shaking her sufficiently, but she was only greeted by mild success. Moaning and groaning, Nagisa slowly got up, and the two of them staggered away, leaving behind only Urara and Rin, who were just about to go to sleep as well. "She looks so peaceful like that." Rin didn't need to ask for confirmation after seeing just how much Urara flirted with the black Cure. She was definitely going after Muse.
"Not so peaceful when she wakes up. You going to sleep as well? Not much fun with just the two of us playing." Looking for an excuse to go to sleep like the others, Rin took the hint and played along.
"Let's call it quits for today. We'll do this again another time." Rin had to hold on to her chair to avoid falling over. Slowly moving off, Rin waved her friend. "Night."
"Now... how do I get back to my room while carrying her?"
=== Dissonance ===
After over-eating and bringing Love a nice portion as well, Setsuna had left Ellen with Love and went for a walk, hoping that it would rid her of feeling bloated. Lights were already out, which is why it surprised her to find someone else taking a walk. Most of all, it was Marine.
Erika had been in such deep thought that she didn't even recognize Setsuna until the taller girl called out to her twice. "I didn't notice you. Can't sleep?"
"Ate too much. I blame you and Karen for that, the pasta was delicious." Walking a few steps past Erika, the blue Cure followed up quickly, the two of them walking together. "What were you so deep in thought about if you don't mind me asking?" She didn't have Love's insight, but she still wanted to help when she could. Something was clearly bothering Marine.
"It's not really that hard to explain, but... remember how I asked you how you and Peach got together? I was wondering if there are any others who went from friends to more." The matter with Tsubomi bothered her a lot.
"I think almost all the couples here were friends before they became more. I heard Karen and Komachi were friends for years even before they became Cure's and it took them a long time to get together." Setsuna didn't know if she should make the push, but it didn't look like Erika was going to talk about the real issue on her own. "This is about Blossom, right?"
"I must be really obvious. Yeah, I'm sure that Tsubomi likes me and I don't mind. It's just that I'm not sure where I stand with this. She liked Itsuki, Sunshine, before and that didn't work out. Itsuki turned her down and their friendship has been a little awkward at times ever since then. I don't want to ruin what I have for a gamble of improving it."
"If you're sure she likes you, it all comes down to whether you like her as well. If you don't, you should just stay friends. If you do, it's not really a gamble. It's closer to the situation Love and I were in." It felt odd to give others relationship advice when she had just thrown herself into a new, unusual one herself.
"I suppose so. But that only makes it worse. I've known Tsubomi for a while now and I'm not sure how I feel about her. I can't really go up to her, kiss her and decide then if I liked it or not. Although that might be kind of hot." Erika laughed briefly and shook her head. "No, can't do that."
"Keep thinking about it and you'll figure it out. It's your feelings, nobody but you knows them." Setsuna yawned. The drowsiness from digesting was setting in and though it wasn't exactly perfect, she could go to sleep like that. Love had probably already asked Ellen a thousand questions. "I'm going back. You should get some sleep too. Nothing is going to come out of brooding over this when you're tired."
"You're right. I'll go back in a few minutes as well. Good night." Erika waved Setsuna as she left. Feeling really sluggish, Setsuna was ready to throw herself in bed as soon as she got back to her room.
Setsuna could think of a lot of things Love would do while she was alone with Ellen. But she didn't expect her to make a move on her that soon. Entering her room, Setsuna found Love and Ellen in a peculiar position. Ellen leaned back, as if she was not quite sure about what was happening, and Love having both her arms wrapped around her neck, her face a few centimeter from Ellen's. "I was waiting for you to get back. I didn't want you to miss this." Love had a happy smile on her face just seconds before she gave Ellen a brief kiss.
The last few words she had scribbled on her notepad spelled Just a kiss is okay.
Setsuna didn't feel betrayed at all. On the contrary, when Ellen looked to her with her face painted crimson red, she smiled approvingly. "Love's always been a bit pushy with this. She won't ever do anything you don't want to, though."
"I don't know if you're praising me or making fun of me." Love had already let go of Ellen and leaned back, supporting herself with both arms on the mattress.
"Praising you. And Ellen too. I'm happy you can let Love get that close. I feared the whole time it would be awkward if you two wouldn't get along, but I guess I don't need to worry about that anymore. It's cute you waited for me to come back."
"I wouldn't kiss her without you being there as well. We need to trust each other, so of course I waited, silly." Love wasn't so much experienced with such a rare kind of relationship than her instincts pushing her in the right direction. She was going to make it work, no matter what.
=== End of Event XIV ===
