Dear Diary,

I swear not just to Loki, but to all the Gods out there, I do not understand women, and I are one.

Yes, I know you don't understand them either, you've made that perfectly clear.

Yes, I know you know how to get them to make the beast with two backs, but I'm talking about predicting non-bed related activities.

Having a God that responds sounds like a good deal. Having a God who is, by all accounts including his own, a massive smart ass, respond is, occasionally, less so.

Anyhow, my third dream of the night wasn't pleasant, but I didn't wake up screaming.

It started sort of where the others left off. I fell endlessly through terrifying darkness, a tiny slice of light at the top of my bottomless prison the only thing breaking up the endless blackness.

I think that's what I finally realized; my fall, the blackness, the... everything, just went on and on forever. Gradually, so slowly I couldn't really feel it happening, boredom replaced terror. I still couldn't take comfort in it, but it didn't terrify me. My own wordless scream echoed away, bit by bit transforming into a silent never ending yawn. I couldn't blink, what with being dead and all, but eventually, after an eternity of falling through nothing, I drifted into something that might be called sleep.

Of course that's when my eyes popped open. The wireframe of my ceiling came into focus as I blinked the sleep muck from my eyes. When I went to twist and roll into a sitting position, I jostled... something. Something body pillow length and blood warm that I'd draped my legs around, and been holding so long that accumulated sweat made it stick to me. Without moving, I carefully raised my head enough to look down the length of my body, only to see, in that same wireframe I saw everything in the complete lack of light in my room, the top of someone's head.

At that point the night before rushed back into my forebrain. I tried to whisper, but my throat wouldn't cooperate. Instead I wiggled the arm holding Saffron up and quietly said, "Saffron? Saffron, I think it's time to get up."

It took more than a few repetitions before she murmured, "d'wanna. Tired. Warm. Tired."

I raised my voice a little and said, "I really don't give a fuck, but people are gonna talk if they find us sleeping together."

She lifted her head and looked around, blinking as she did so, the world's thinnest line of drool stretched between my sodden shift and her mouth. "Wha? What happened to my 'larm?"

"At a guess, it's going off in your room. Which no one can hear, because our rooms are soundproofed."

She blinked hard a few times, as if trying to squeeze her eyes into operation. Despite her complete lack of success, my wireframe view gave me enough detail to realize the moment she remembered the night before. "Oh, shit."

I pulled my hand free and rubbed it around her back in little circles. "It's okay, Saff. We just had an impromptu sleepover."

"No, no, no, you don't get it, my grandma's gonna kill me!"

I stopped, shooting her a confused look before remembering she couldn't see shit. "Why would your grandmother care one way or another that you slept in my room last night? I mean, the only reason you stayed was to help my sorry..."

Before I could continue, she interrupted with, "No, it's Friday morning. She's going to be here with..." She cut herself off with a strangled yelp as she tried to pull away from me and landed ass first on the floor.

"Hold still." I rolled out of bed myself, twisting to let my legs clear her by enough to miss even if she ignored me and sat up, but to my surprise she lay perfectly still while I got up, walked over to the lamp while stripping my sodden nightgown off, and pulled the light open enough to give me enough light to see the red of Saffron's jacket where she'd draped it over my chair.

"Oh, Gods. What time is it?" Saffron seemed really freaked out, so after a few really confused moments where I realized I hadn't noticed the complete lack of clocks for the past month and a half, I directed the question toward my Patron.

Luckily he seemed more amused than annoyed, although I could hear some of each in his reply. It is still before dawn, but not by much. The Dining Hall is three quarters of the way through serving breakfast.

"They're still serving Breakfast. Not sure we can make it if we don't rush getting dressed."

With the lights on, she pushed herself upright and snatched her jacket off of my chair, tipping it over between us in the process. Before she pulled it on, I couldn't help but notice her shirt straining way more than looked comfortable in the boob area, and suspiciously non sweat-colored stains in those same spots.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit. I've got to get to the Infirmary."

I shrugged. "I'm not really thrilled about missing breakfast, but I've got class today."

She turned to me, going from half-panicked to stern, almost maternal, in the blink of an eye. "No, you have to get your ass to the Infirmary too."

"Wait, what?"

"Diaz, you've had nightmares so bad you can't sleep three nights running. You can't keep that up."

I pulled off my pumpkin spice sodden panties, threw them onto the pile of clothes from last night, and pulled a fresh pair of my new silk panties from my armoire. "But... I've got a solution now!" I smiled at her brightly, hoping she'd let that stand while I pulled on a pair of pants.

No such luck. She stood there frozen, giving me an indecipherable look for a few moments before shaking her head and saying, "Me rocking you to sleep multiple times a night is not a 'solution', Diaz."

She muttered something after that, and I pounced on it while I pulled my shirt sleeves over my arms. "What was that, Saff?"

She sighed, slumped, and turned to face me. Before saying anything else, before I could say anything else, she held up one hand and walked over to stand half an arm's length away, close enough the difference in our heights made it a little uncomfortable to talk casually. I stood there as she raised her head until she looked me straight in the eye, then said, slowly and clearly, "No matter how much I'd like to spend the night for other reasons."

I stared down into her eyes, like deep wells of dark chocolate, as I tried to figure out how I felt about that. Yeah, I'd teased her a lot, but I hadn't really thought it would go anywhere. She wasn't ugly or anything. Far from it, really. A petite little thing, with looks that danced between being pretty, cute, and handsome, almost making a mockery of traditional feminine beauty just by being her. Curvy hips I'd noticed in passing during our paired workouts in the Practice Yard, and way bigger tits than I'd realized, although I had the excuse of the heavy uniform Jackets there. Full lips, round cheeks, a cute little nose, and dark brown eyes I'd been sinking deeper into by the moment.

My hands decided what they wanted while my brain still spun endlessly through images of Saffron collected since I'd met her. Slowly, gently, as if trying to avoid my own notice as well as Saffron's, they slipped through the air until my fingertips brushed feather light against her cheeks.

The moment they did she lunged at me, her fingers tangling in my hair, her legs wrapping around my waist, her weight inconsequential compared to the heat of her pressing against my belly. Her lips sought mine, her tongue darting into my mouth accompanied by sounds of desperate need. Her lunge tangled my fingers through the curls of her deep brown tresses, and I buried them further as I wrapped my hands around the back of her head, holding her mouth to mine. I stepped over toward my bed, my eyes slipping shut as I tilted my head to plunge my tongue into her eager mouth. One of her hands clutched at my hair while the other frantically clawed at her jacket, taking far too long to finally dislodge the buttons and let her shake her arm free of the confining sleeve.

I slipped one hand free of her hair and slid it between us, my palm barely brushing across the linen before a whimper of need and pain filled our mouths. I pulled away from her, having to clutch her hair and forcibly pull her back to do so. She just glared at me, her breath coming in panting heaves, each one still echoing that whimper. "Are you sure, Saff?"

I'd lost track of her hand, but realized what she'd been doing when her blouse practically sprang open, shoved aside by round, firm, full breasts that occupied my attention completely the moment she exposed them. She squeezed her fist behind my head, forcing me to meet her gaze, despite a sudden need to look down to where she'd shoved her hand down between us, past where she pressed herself against my belly, straight down under my pants, until only the thinnest layer of silk lay between her questing fingers and my suddenly aching need.

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"What did you call me?"

Half of my open mouth quirked up into a smirk. "Saff?"

She slid a finger across me and bucked herself against me, her eyes fluttering half closed before snapping back open as her hands and hips froze. "What?"

I couldn't help it. "Saffie?"

She ruthlessly plunged a single silk-wrapped finger inside me, then froze again as I shuddered, "What's. My. Name?"

Because despite an eternity of torment in the darkness and the endless aching need between my legs, I am absolutely That Bitch, I said, "I'm sorry, who were you talking to again?"

Had I not had every erg of fear wasted over the past three nights, had I had the slightest remaining iota of self preservation, the smile that bent her lips before she spoke would have terrified me, and the feral growl in her voice would have made me wet myself. Not that doing so would change the overall humidity down there right now. "What's. My. Name. Tabitha?"

I couldn't force my voice to work the way I wanted, but it didn't matter. I'd still not gotten an answer to my earlier question, so I decided I would ask exactly one more time before considering my due diligence done. "Are," I gasped, as an involuntary shudder made both of us twitch, "Are you sure, Saffronnnnnnnnnggg...."

I toppled over backward onto the bed as she showed me without fear of misinterpretation that sure or not, she was doing this thing. Doing me, fast and hard and without fear or mercy or pity or...

"Saffffronnnmffpph." She pulled my mouth to hers, her hips working against me, her fingers insistent and incessantly working me closer to completion. I pulled her away, muffling her complaints before they could begin by forcing her down and filling her mouth with my breast. Her tongue had more skills than her hand, and although a moment later I had the incredible opportunity to compare the two, as she pulled her hand from my hair and moved it to my other breast. I completely lost the capacity for rational thought at that point.

I lost myself to her hands, her mouth, her fingers, drifting moment by moment toward and away from climax, until the tiniest whimper of need vibrated my nipple. My free hand slid down her back, under her pants, under her panties, grabbing her ass and forcing her to grind her hips against me, mindlessly pushing her back and forth by my grip on her hair and ass, until that whimper against my nipple became an aching moan, her teeth scraped across the skin of my breast, and I lost all sense of self control as my orgasm shook me like an earthquake. My breast slipped out of her mouth as coming made my hands sloppy, and her moans echoed my own as she twitched on top of me, against me, inside me as even her fingers shook.

We lay there like that, every overwhelming wave of pleasure forcing one of us to shudder, setting off another wave in the other in turn. That lasted long enough for the sweat to cool beneath us, and my own natural inclination toward mischief made me deliberately rub her against me again.

That set off another cascade of involuntary post-orgasmic shudders bouncing back and forth between both of us. When we went still, before I could start another round, she whispered, "stop."

"You no like?"

Her initial reply to that was to moan and twitch her own fingers, which set off the predictable reactions in both of us. When we lay there panting, I stifled a giggle long enough to say, "I thought you said stop?"

That set us both to giggling, which took another few rounds of involuntary delightfully torturous twitches before the giggling dialed our mutual lady-boners back from 'kill with extreme prejudice' to 'lightly stun with a side of aching sides'.

"No, you goof. I mean, yes, I said that, and yes, I like that, but we still need to get to the fucking Infirmary."

"Oh, no. I think Sister Siobhan will object if we do that there." I feigned speculation and continued with, "unless you think she'd want to join in? I'm not really into older chicks, but I'm willing to try anything at least three times."

She pushed herself up enough to look down her nose at me in disbelief. "Three times?"

"I mean, the first time might be a fluke. So might the second. So you need the third time as a tiebreaker."

"What if you like it the first two times?"

I let my hands trace lazy circles across her back, under her shirt, congratulating myself on keeping my eyes on hers, rather than staring at the surprisingly impressive pair of knockers dangling over me. "Well then I like it, so it'll be a lot more than three, but you can't get to four without three, after all."

Her snort spoiled her arch look. "What if you don't like it the first two times?"

I huffed out a sigh at her, "There's no point in having a rule if you don't enforce it, after all. So I'll just have to force myself into a Saffron Siobhan sandwich a third time."

She rolled her eyes at that. "I think she's taken a vow of chastity."

"Pfft. What does that even mean?"

"It means she has to be chaste."

"So? I know you get winded pretty quick, but I'm sure I can chase her sufficiently for any vow she's taken."

That started her giggling again, and she collapsed onto my chest, giving in completely to the giggles this time while I held her, just smiling down at her. After a while she settled down and, without looking at me, continued, "seriously, we need to get to the Infirmary."

"What's the deal with that, anyway?" She tensed, and I waved a hand around the wreckage in the room; at some point my chair had been tipped over to lay atop our abandoned clothing, two of my drawers stood half open, and the armoire doors both gaped wide. "I mean, I get you're kinda private about it, but," I paused, hope and fear battling in me, "we kinda got pretty deep into each other's privates, I mean intimate bits, I mean," at that point I couldn't keep a straight face and giggled a little, and she reached down and slapped me on the thigh.

"You goof. Not the same. But," she trailed off, laying there silently in my arms for an endless moment until she heaved a sigh and wriggled around until she lay face down on top of me. Then she lifted herself up with one arm, reaching the other around to tangle in my hair and force my gaze down to her blatantly gravity defying breasts.

"I mean, the view is really fuckin' good, which I did not expect at all what with you hiding it under your jacket this whole... oh." A single milky white drop coalesced at the tip of her nipple, growing until it fell to splash against my own currently entirely lactose free boobs.

She let go of my hair, and I looked up into her eyes. "How old is...?"

"Isnomi. She's six months old. She spends Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays here with me, although sometimes on Tuesdays and Fridays Sister Siobhan sits for me while I'm working with professors on independent study work, and my grandma takes care of her the rest of the week."

I glanced down at her tits, not just to get another look, but so she knew what I meant when I said, "don't they hurt when they're like that?"

"Yes? Kinda? More like they're a little achey and incredibly sensitive."

I moved a hand, saying, "So, if I..."

Before I got any further she slammed my hand back onto the bed, pinning it, and growled, "Tabitha Diaz, if you do not cut that out right now, I swear to Artemis I will sneak in here every night," she paused, and I just stared at her. "I will learn paralysis magic to keep you from doing anything," she paused again.

This time I couldn't help myself. "I'm all in so far."

"and after taunting you right to the edge I will leave you like that every single night until you die."

I couldn't help it, I broke up laughing, and before long she was laughing right along with me. That ended when she said, "We need to get you to the Sister about your nightmares, too."

I finally recognized her tone of voice; a mother refusing to brook any pushback from a recalcitrant child or partner. I decided to come at things obliquely. "Do you pump on the other days?" Okay, really obliquely.

She pushed herself up off the bed and started trying to get her clothes into some semblance of order with nothing but her bare hands. "Where did you hear about that? I only learned about it here, and only because Heroes really don't get maternity leave."

That gave me the opening that I needed, and I forced myself through it. "I'm not from around here."

She just rolled her eyes at me. "No shit, really?"

I reared back a little at that and started pulling off my own pumpkin spice sweat soaked clothes. "How the hell did you figure that out?" Another thought occurred to me, "Who else knows?"

She gave up trying to get her shirt into anything approaching 'clean', but before she could pull it back on I handed her one of mine, just saying, "oops, laundry mixup."

She shook her head and, while pulling it on, said, "Bill, probably. Angel, maybe. Some of the other Camden Yards kids might suspect, because you're not exactly subtle, and Camden Yards isn't that big of a City. It's also a poor City, so all of us who had prior military training chipped in for the same Veteran to teach us."

I hadn't thought about that. I tossed her a pair of pants and pulled on my own stuff. I took a deep breath and said, "I'm not from Camden Yards. I'm from Camden. New Jersey. United States of America."

That brought exactly no comprehension to Saffron's stare until I added, "I grew up there. Lived there my whole life until a little under two months ago. I... I died there." As her eyes went wide I hurried to continue. "I was murdered at the aquarium there. I fell into the water, and woke up at the aquarium here."

She just stared at me, eyes darting back and forth as she pulled on my too-big pants. As she took a break to speak I finished up with, "That's what my nightmares are about. I get shot, I die, and I fall into the water. Forever. Dead."

She finished up, rolled the waistband up until the crotch of the pants snugged up to give her some painful looking camel toe, then rolled the cuffs up a few times before pulling her boots on. She didn't speak until she'd pulled her jacket on and snugged it down to hide most of the excess fabric of her shirt and pants. Then she took a deep breath and said, "I believe you."

I opened my mouth to thank her, but she held up one hand, forestalling me. "I believe you're telling me the truth. I'm fairly certain you've left something out, although given you being you," here she smiled to take the sting out of her words, "it's just as likely you completely failed to notice something important, or you noticed and forgot, or you just haven't thought to tell me because you don't realize it's important. But I believe you're telling me the truth as you experienced it. And I completely understand how being murdered, then living through that murder night after night could leave you as fucked as you've been the past couple days."

I smirked, "I much prefer being as fucked as I am now. Although more fucked is still an option?"

She just chuckled. "Tabitha Diaz, you are as irrepressible as you are incorrigible. Now, if you promise to be on your best behavior, I'll help you explain things to Sister Siobhan, and introduce you to my daughter."

I finished putting my own outfit on and held one elbow out to her, "Saffron Aetos, I would be delighted to accompany you to meet your daughter."

"And..."

I rolled my eyes at her for once, biting my tongue to keep from saying, 'Yes, mom'. Instead I muttered, "and talk to Sister Siobhan about my nightmares."