Disclaimer : Ah! My goddess does not belong to me.

Ceroxon asked me if I could do a fusion version of my winter special.

-oOoOoOo-

Urd glared at Hildorth as the fusion idly watched TV.

"All you do is sit around, watch TV, and flirt with Keiichi. Why don't you make yourself useful and get a job? Preferably in another country?" Urd asked. "Otherwise, you're completely useless!"

"I learned it by watching you!" Hildorth playfully snapped out, before snickering at her own joke.

"...I don't get it. What is that, a reference to something?" Urd muttered. "Go! Leave!"

Hildorth sighed, "Look, if Keiichi wants me gone, then he has to make an approved wish."

"Then give him a list of those wishes!" Urd yelled, getting madder that Hildorth didn't even bother to look at her.

"And spoil my fun? You're welcome to try and throw me out yourself, but I'm still stronger than you are, little girl," Hildorth retorted. Changing the channel, she said, "Ooh, wrestling. Hey, wanna watch a couple of oiled muscular hunks in skimpy clothes try to hold each other down to the ground?"

When Hildorth didn't hear a reply, she looked around and saw Urd had already left the room. With a flick of her wrist, she sent out a mini-Hildorth to go after Urd.

Urd, heading towards her room, paused for a moment to look in the kitchen.

Belldandy was sitting at the table with a phone in her hand and several notebooks in front of her. The notebooks had various scribblings pertaining to a plethora of heavenly regulatory agencies, more than just a few technical support departments, and various law firms, both Celestial and Infernal.

What bothered Urd the most about that was that Belldandy's normally perfectly styled hair was starting to become frazzled.

-o-

Once in her room, Urd began to furiously type away on her computer. With a chuckle, she said, "So Hildorth thinks she's stronger? Let's see how she deals with Lind, then?"

Mini-Hildorth hid behind Urd's computer and smirked.

Once Urd sent out the Email, Mini-Hildorth made a quick edit to it before flying off to rejoin her main self.

Urd sashayed to the living room, slid open the door to the outside, sat down on the porch, and waited.

A little bit later, Keiichi came outside and sat besides Urd. He asked, "Whatcha waiting for, Urd?"

"Give her a few moments," Urd asked.

"Give who?" Keiichi asked.

After feeling the telltale energy signature of Heaven's gate opening and that someone noticeably powerful had touched down, Hildorth put away the remote and playfully called out for Urd to hear, "Oh, reinforcements?"

"Yup!" Urd chirped, similarly out loud.

As the Valkyrie looked around, she saw Urd and Keiichi. She walked up and and asked, "Excuse me sir, but are you Keiichi Morisato?"

"Yes, I am," Keiichi replied. Around that time, Belldandy came outside, not wanting to spend another moment on the phones just to hear more of the same unsure answers. She blinked in surprise as she finally noticed the new arrival.

"I understand this is customary," Lind said before grabbing Keiichi's head. She was about to shove his face into her bosom before noticing that the look on his face was one of apprehension. Belldandy froze in shock, more of her hairs became frazzled, and the wind began to pick up.

As Lind tried to figure out if she was about to do something wrong, an upset Urd cried out, "Lind, did you go mad or something? Please don't tell me you're making a play for Keiichi, too!"

Glancing at Urd, and then back again, Lind started to blush and asked, "Keiichi Morisato, is it normal for a woman to shove a man's head into her bosom?" After pausing for a moment, she continued, "I'm only asking because Urd's letter said it was a customary greeting in your culture. I find it rather strange."

"No. it's not. Although... for the last few days, I've had my head shoved into Hilldorth's, Urd's and Belldandy's bosoms," Realizing that what he'd said made it seem very normal indeed, he quickly added, "I know that makes it sound like it's pretty normal, but it's really, really not supposed to be at all, I swear!"

"I don't know how..." Urd began before she looked back at a chuckling Hildorth, who had just walked outside. The Norn of the past growled, "I bet you are responsible!"

"Eh? Maybe?" Hildorth shrugged, barely holding back a case of the giggles.

Letting go of Keiichi, Lind asked Urd, "So… your letter was intercepted?"

Pointing at Hildorth, Urd said, "Peorth and Hild fused into that and altered my mail to you. So, yeah, she pranked you."

"I see…" Lind muttered before she rushed at Hildorth with her poleaxe raised.

Hildorth barely dodged, saying, "Hey! So it was a prank! That doesn't mean chopping my head off is the punishment!"

"I'm not going to kill you! Just unfuse you!" Lind cried out as she swung her poleaxe, sometimes missing, sometimes knicking Hildorth in the process of trying to pin her down.

"Don't just stand there! Somebody's gotta stop them!" Keiichi cried, and started to run towards the combatants. Urd grabbed his arm before he had a chance to get anywhere with that thought.

"That's not something you should try to interrupt, Kei. Believe me, they're safe enough," Urd chuckled as she held Keiichi in place. "Heh. Besides, I'll bet Peorth's ruining Hild's reaction speed,"

"Is… is this even right?" Keiichi asked with concern in his voice.

"Look, either Hildorth unfuses or she gets knocked out. Long explanation short, there's a system out there that puts a big damper on killing for any of us. If someone dies, then someone else on the other side will die, too," Urd explained. "Besides, it's not like they're tearing up the house, and you know that Skuld and I have done way worse to each other."

"What about a God or a Demon who snaps and becomes a psychotic killer that doesn't care about their own kind?" Keiichi asked.

"That's never happened, and it never will," Urd quickly replied, not wanting to give Keiichi's question a single thought.

The fight, if one could call it that, was mostly Hildorth dodging or blocking Lind's attacks. Eventually, Lind delivered a rather nasty kick that slammed Hildorth to the ground hard enough to form a shallow crater.

"Unfuse now!" Lind ordered, aiming her Poleaxe at Hildorth.

Hildorth opened her mouth, but coughed up some blood. After shaking himself free of Urd's grasp, Keiichi ran between between Lind and Hildorth. "Leave her alone. You beat her."

The sight of blood snapped Belldandy out of her shocked state, and the constant breeze died down. She quickly made her way over to the crater.

After a few moments of staring at him, Lind said, "You have no idea just how dangerous she is, Keiichi."

"She's done nothing too bad since she's appeared," Keiichi replied. "She's teased us, but that's about it. Whereas you attacked her as soon as you arrived."

"Is she a guest you welcomed into your home?" Lind asked.

Belldandy got on her knees and began to heal Hildorth, who accepted it without complaint.

'Fuck! Shit! Hell!' Urd thought as her eyes widened. 'Lind's a stickler for those rules. Especially those rules.'

"Well, Peorth is here because of her job, and we allowed her to stay because she can't go back yet. Then Hild merged with Peorth a few days ago. They haven't done much, but I guess it's okay?" Keiichi stammered a little.

"Has Hildorth harmed you or anyone else?" Lind asked.

"No worse than anyone else here," Keiichi answered.

"You're practically a saint, Keiichi," Hildorth deadpanned as she stood up. Urd pinched the bridge of her nose in disgust. 'Gee, thanks,' the eldest Norn thought.

After a few moments, Lind sighed and seemed to relax her posture. With a bow, she said, "I apologize for my actions. I respect your courage and dedication for trying to follow the Sacred Laws of Hospitality, Morisato. I merely hope you aren't making a mistake. I shall take my leave."

"You don't have to go, I mean, Urd invited you here for a reason," Keiichi quickly said. "Just… try to keep your temper, Lind."

"Thank you, Morisato, but I-" Lind said before Belldandy grabbed her arm.

"Lind, I require your honest opinion on some notes and records I took while I was calling a few places. Could you please come with me?" Belldandy asked in a concerned voice.

"I would help, but-" Lind began, but was pulled to the kitchen before she could give a full answer.

Urd shot a glare to Hildorth and asked, "So… who enjoys Belldandy's falling apart more? Hild or Peorth?"

"If I had to guess, Hild. I looked over certain incidents, one of which was the first time Peorth and Belldandy worked together," Hildorth answered in a dismissive tone as she headed back inside. "As for Peorth, Hild had a little chat with her and she is too busy trying to digest the fact that her great dislike of Belldandy was just a misunderstanding."

"What misunderstanding?" Keiichi asked.

"Oh, Peorth and Belldandy were teamed up for a debugging mission. The bug invaded Peorth's body and disabled her. Belldandy was able to extract it, but in the end Peorth thought that Belldandy took pity on her by claiming it was a team effort. The thing is, that little bug had been around for so long that it couldn't be detected unless it invaded something new. So in a way, it really was a team effort," Hildorth answered before sitting down.

"Huh…" Keiichi muttered.

"So where's that damned list of wishes?" Urd asked as she and Keiichi followed Hildorth inside.

"You're gonna ask that until Keiichi stumbles across one of them, aren't cha?" Hildorth asked. When she received nothing but a glare, Hildorth produced a list. Urd tried to grab it, but Hildorth made it vanish, saying, "Ah-ah-ah! Agree that you won't tell Keiichi what's on the list first!"

Having no other option, and being in no mood to continue the deadlock, Urd said, "Fine, I'll play your little game."

A few moments passed.

"Well?" Urd asked, holding out her hand.

"You didn't agree," Hildorth cooed.

"Fine. I agree," Urd stated.

"A few more moments passed."

"DON'T HIJACK THE NARRATION, DAMNIT!" Urd bellowed, stomping her feet.

"Fine. Then say what you're agreeing to," Hildorth retorted.

"I...agree to your terms, Hildorth," Urd hissed, frowning.

"Granted," Hildorth replied, producing the note. Unknown to Urd, a solid barrier quickly went up around them, blocking Keiichi from seeing any of Urd's reactions.

Urd snatched it away and started pouring over it it. After a few moments, she said, "Keiichi's not gonna wish for any of this. It's all too erotic for him," she continued commenting as she read further, "He's only into Belldandy, so the harem ones are out... He's too much of a wuss, so even the lesser erotic stuff is out too... Besides, the block prevents him from lusting after Belldandy anyways," Urd's eyes were still on the paper, searching for something, anything that would provide a loophole, or at the very least, a palpable exit strategy.

"Only Belldandy and on her own, you mean. Throw another girl into the mix and he can lust after them both," Hildorth answered. "It's a flaw, but one we can exploit, missy!"

"He's never going to go for any of this," Urd deadpanned as she looked up, still frowning. Glancing to both sides, and then looking all around. She turned back to gaze at Hildorth and said, "So… what's with the barrier?"

"Oh, just preventing any idle chit chat that would break your end of the deal. You know what the penalties are like for breaking one of my contracts, dear, and I'm still your Mother," After giving that thought another second to sink in, "So," she instructed, "destroy the note and it'll go down," Hildorth answered.

So with an attitude-loaded snap of Urd's fingers, the note went up in flames and the barrier collapsed, letting Urd see that Keiichi was sitting on the floor, nursing his shoulder.

"Keiichi, what'd ya do? Slam yourself into the barrier?" Urd asked with a forced bit of humor in her voice, getting on her knees to help the mortal.

"I thought you'd been trapped, so I tried to get you out," Keiichi answered as Urd helped him up.

"Heh, you're sweet," Hildorth said with a smile, then continued "but there was nothing to worry about. It was just a little matter between us that we needed to settle, and I didn't want to risk you getting hurt or the temple being damaged in case she took it badly,"

Urd glared at Hildorth, but then started a scan spell on Keiichi to check him for any injuries.

-o-

"There are some peculiarities, but nothing I see that's problematic," Lind said as she looked through a notebook. "At least nothing on it's own."

"But all together?" Belldandy asked with a bit of worry.

"It's odd and suspicious. I can't come to a final decision until I go over the rest of your notes, and then check Heaven's records on my own," Lind answered. "I do have one request, though."

"What is it?" Belldandy asked.

"Could you tell me a bit about Keiichi? I'm curious about him," Lind stated.

A few more of the hairs on Belldandy's head noticeably frazzled out of place.