“You actually came!” Molly exclaimed as I opened the door to our office.
“What?” I asked confused pausing at the door. “I said I was going to be in didn’t I?”
She nodded then looked away. “Yeah but like why?”
“Ok, Molly what’s up?” I asked continuing into the room, a part of me noted that my part of the desk was untouched from how I left it, a small stack of discarded math rough worksheets and a box of fire starters. “I know I missed a lot-“
“That’s what I mean!” Her hands were in tight fists on the arms of her chair. “Like what are you doing coming back to a job which got you stranded in another fucking dimension?”
I continued towards my chair, with only the slightest hitch in my steps. “It’s not like that was something we could have anticipated being a risk.” I pointed out getting a snort in response.
“Yeah but-“
“Molly, why are you here?” She looked back at me startled as I settled into my seat.
“Because I don’t want to stop being able to help people!” Frustration infused her tone, and I have a feeling people have asked her that with a different intent. “We are due for another clash any time now and what if-“
“So you’re here even if it puts you at risk?” I interrupted again.
“I guess so.” She admitted reluctantly. “I’m an adult, it’s not like I can’t make the choice myself.”
“There we are then! Besides I’ve barely gotten a chance to get into that part of the roll myself. I may as well stick around long enough to give it a good shake.” She gave the slightest hint of a nod in response to the smile I gave her before pulling my backpack onto my lap to get my computer out of it. “Oh, and I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that I haven’t heard of any other attacks in Ontario.“ She got a ghost of a smile, though only when she thought I was looking into my bag. “They fucked up grabbing me, then fucked up getting away, then they got broken up before they even finished setting up for an attempt, and then they fucked up an ambush.” I listed out, then paused. “Kinda anyway.”
She sighed. “Unfortunately, they have had had a bit better success elsewhere. Let me just bring up the slides I was going to show you anyway.” She started clicking around on her laptop, before turning it to face me with some red dots on a map. “A couple of these aren’t in the news yet, but there were at least five kidnappings that we know of between the States and Europe, plus one in BC.” A look of frustration flitted across her face. “Wilson actually predicted that one. But our western office closed last year, and without any of our own, it was entirely down to the local cops. They turned out to be incompetent or bought off, either way, the guy they were supposed to protect just vanished from under their noses and turned up dead the next day.”
“Was there one in France where a bunch of cops died or something?” While I had tried to catch up on news to some degree, most of my weekend went to being with family and friends. The goings-on in the world took a bit of a back seat to talking about my life abroad or nonsense social time wasting. “I think Anna mentioned something about it the other day.” I was admittedly fishing a bit including that part and when Molly visibly winced, I made a mental note to dig at it a bit later.
“They didn’t manage to stop the kidnapping but found them before they could use the portal.” She confirmed glumly. “They even captured the portal, but multiple officers were killed in the attempt, and the hostage was killed in the crossfire. At least they got a working portal out of it.” She finished bitterly.
I leaned over the desk to look at the map of incidents closer. “That’s a pretty wide distribution, do you know why they were spending so much effort on here in comparison?”
“Basically a concentration of people associated to dimensions they wanted access to, essentially it’s just dumb luck. One sec I got a slide for this.” She pulled the laptop back and started tapping the arrow keys. “Here, this one”. The slide she showed me a moment or two later wasn’t anything particularly fancy, just a few columns with a wide variety of objects. Some were marked with a check mark, but before I could figure out why Molly continued talking. “This is Wilson’s best guess at their hit list, each of these items is either directly associated with a dimension they have nabbed people from or lines up roughly with those they have gotten before.”
“They either are weapons directly-“ she hovered a finger over what sort of looked like one of those prototype gyrojet pistols. “Or are something of industrial note, like this water filter we talked about at some point here-“ She pointed at another briefly, then sat back in her chair. “This is actually a subset of the list specifically associated with people here in Canada, the actual list is quite a bit longer.”
“Wilson thinks they have a rough order of operations, it seems to start on automation and robotics then weapons, with everything else after that.” She then did finger guns at me. “Hence why you were pretty much at the start of their attempts here we are assuming.” She then tapped a folder on her desk I recognized as one containing a hard copy of my notes from when I was thinking I would have to make my own way back. “This also lines up with those raids from your research, it also helps explain why they have actually done fewer kidnappings in recent times. Now that they have access to some places with their desired technology, they can spend time going after them rather than tackling with increasingly prepared intelligence services here.”
“Anyway, this means that we have narrowed down their potential targets to maybe a few dozen people, most of whom are in the GTA.” She continued flipping the slide again to an abstract map with a number and a person icon next to locations on a map of Canada. “This does mean we can get the government to put police protection on people, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are competent, or you know, actually protecting them.”
She gave me an eye roll, then pointed out Orchardville being at five people of note. “This number is after discounting their attempt on you and Roger, and it would explain why they were trying to get a portal up here even after their previous attempt failed. We think they didn’t actually realize that CRD is based here at the time, which is remarkably poor planning on their part.”
“Although that segues into the next bit,” She flipped slides again, this time to some pictures of people I didn’t recognize. “These three are the key mooks we picked up when we surprised those guys unloading just before you got yeeted.” She snapped her fingers as a look of sudden realization crossed her face. “ Oh! I never actually told you, we learned what their organization is actually called. And I can’t believe it’s this boring, Fairfield Foreign Item Acquisitions.”
“That sounds like a two-person company you encounter in a random strip mall next to a mini-mart,” I commented looking at her with confusion. “Not like a global conspiracy.”
“I know right?! How can you name yourself in such a boring way when you’re fucking feeding people into a screamgate to loot other dimensions!” Recovering a bit she continued. “Unfortunately, that’s probably the most notable thing we’ve gotten from the horse’s mouth as they’ve been pretty tight lipped. Now, this gets into some weird shit, some lawyers turned up to represent them. While They are still going through the courts in some kinda dramatic horseshit, their help turning up is one of the things that is giving Wilson puppies. ”
“Did they ask for a certain set of people or something?” I asked. “I would have thought you get some kinda government-provided lawyer or something.”
“Nah, these guys just turned up proactively. Turns out the FFIA actually has a ghost office in one of those places with funny tax advantages down in the states, and there’s a fund for their legal fees and everything. “
“Woah, really?” I blinked in surprise. “But where is the money from? Is it from the same route that influence over Kats supervisor came?”
“We are trying to figure that out, but it’s a shell game of course. Honestly, that’s not even the worst evidence of their local backers, but!” she held up a finger with a vicious grin. “We did do some sneaky stuff though. So we had to get the ability to take slivers of dimensional bubbles off in order to get to mech-tech right?”
“I think so, but where do you mean?”
“Oh right, uh that’s what we have been calling the dimension your body is from, for mechanical technology right?” She shrugged. “We’ll probably get a better name from them eventually."
“Ah cool.”
“Yeah so, we figured the part of the dais which does that can work through the table atop it, and maybe it would work through something else. We kinda just nicked a little of those three’s bubbles through the jail’s walls, and what do you know only one of them is local to this dimension.” Realizing I probably wouldn’t know why she clarified before I had a chance to interrupt. “Katherine figured out that a changee’s bubble is a little different from a native when we looked at the tentacled people’s bubbles after a volunteer stepped forward. It’s not really enough to affect making a portal but it’s like purer or something without any of our dimensions’ uhhhh flavor? Something like that. Anyway, when it’s released it really zips off towards its origin, so they can tell they weren’t from here despite looking like anyone off the street.”
I guess that’s why the device, I think Molly had called it an evictor, had been dragged away before me after I had been tossed out into that void. “Neat, so I take it then that this Fairfield org itself is probably not a local thing then?”
“Yeah, we think that probably they are bringing people and equipment over and then augmenting them with locally acquired stuff.” A frown formed again. “Which brings us to the last topic, and one which is a definite L.”
“Remember how you saw they had a base in Wyoming?” I nodded, and I noticed her tone start getting gravelly. “Yeah so, the Americans finally found it, but like a week too late. Those dipshits rolled in on a place with literal fucking tanks and what do they find?”
She was outright growling at this point, stopping her tirade only to flip the laptop to a picture of an open sliding door to a slightly decrepit warehouse with a huge, blackened arch visible within, surrounded by ruined electronics but no dais in sight.
“Fucking empty warehouse stripped to the fucking ground, only fucking thing left was the smoldering remains of a local portal.” Was leaning over the desk towards me with fire in her eyes. “They clearly didn’t get out of there with that much time given they couldn’t pack away the gate too, but there’s no way they didn’t know they were getting gone on.”
“Some fucker is giving them intel, like Katherine’s supervisor or something. Except for this time its fucking high up in the fucking FBI or some shit.” She flopped back into her chair, arms crossed and brooding. “Fucking looks like we can’t trust giving anything to the states, who knows where the leak is, kinda leaves us on the lonesome.” She sighed, then a grin returned. “Oh yeah! That’s not nearly as bad as it sounds either, cause guess what?”
I made a vague motion to continue.
“They have decided we have a purpose besides just processing artifacts again, turns out they confirmed we have responsibility over both FFIA and all the stuff around portals as falling under clashes! The big bucks are flowing in again!” When she leaned towards me this time it was with mirth and the slightest hint of impishness. “Saaaay, did you notice anything on the way in here?”
“Uhhhhh…” I have been a bit distracted by trying to figure out if I had my door card earlier, I tried to think of something that might have stood out. “They repainted the walls?” The stark white of the stairs had gotten replaced with blue.
“Ha, well that happened but more importantly they kicked out most of the companies above us.” She pointed a finger to the ceiling. “Pretty much the whole building is either CRD or related to us, no more making our way out to that hotel to meet the language nerds.”
“Woah. Wait, there are still empty offices down here though, right? I’ve seen plenty.”
“Ah weeeeellll,” She got a crooked smile. “The basement was pretty much already at the cap for the fire code. Turns out that while as cool and secure as giant underground facilities are, they don’t do so hot in a raging inferno.” She snorted. “Pun not intended. We are keeping it for the hardened stuff though. So the artifact engineers, mil division, and us will still be down here for now at least.”
“Oh and here’s something that will be kicking rad, We got a budget for more field agents too!” She was glancing around our office as if wondering if it was large enough. “Part of the idea is that we will be getting and training some new people to train up and then pass off to other offices as they decide to open them.”
“Oh really? Any candidates yet?”
“A few we got initial interviews with, probably will be a few weeks yet…” There was a slight pause. “Was there anything else I was going to tell you today?” She asked herself then started drumming her fingers on the armrest for a few moments. “Uh, I don’t have anything else off the top of my head, there’s probably a bunch of little things but I’ll remember them later. Got any immediate questions?”
“Did you hear anything else about my exams?” I asked, deciding to tear that band-aid off.
“Oh yeah, should be in your email somewhere.” She said while pointing at my laptop on the desk in front of me. “The school should also hit you up tomorrow.”
“Rad-“ A memory of an impact I had inflicted popped up in my head, sidetracking whatever I had originally intended to say. “Oh uh, would you be up for training? I disarmed someone over in uh… mech-tech, and I think it hurt more than I intended.” I asked a little embarrassed as she pulled her laptop back from where it had been pointing towards me.
“For sure.” She answered with a grin. “How I’ve missed throwing you across the room!”
While I spent maybe a bit too much time considering how best to broach the subject of Anna again, getting some jokingly reproachful comments about being sloppy from Molly for my troubles, in the end, I was preempted by Molly herself.
“Hey Sam?” She asked as I was finishing up cleaning away any stray streaks of grease attempting to escape my elbow.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
“What’s up?” She had usually given me privacy while I was cleaning up after training in the past, so it was a bit surprising to see her leaning around the row of lockers that divided the room.
“Well… Ah, fuck it. I won’t beat around the bush. Do you think Anna would be willing to let me do something to try and make it up to her? I can understand if she hates my guts at this point, but I want to apologize at least and I dunno like buy out her entire wish list of stuff for cosplay or whatever.” I struggled to prevent a grin from breaking out as she continued, her gaze not quite focused while playing with the cuff of her shirt. “I could go through Reiko but that feels…” She sighed. “Wrong? Plus she’s been er icy, but that might be because I’ve been avoiding her.” She grimaced. “Ah fuck forget about it, you just got- What’s with that look?”
Evidently, I wasn’t able to completely hold it back. “Sure, want to do tomorrow? We can go out to a park or something if you want neutral ground or just come by my place and we can do games or something after.”
She was staring at me mouth hanging open. “Just like that? No way!”
I shrugged. “Probably better not to stew on it, besides it’s going to work out fine anyway.” I don’t know if it’s quite the best approach, but I was mostly trying to keep them off-kilter so neither of them would have the time to develop some planned speech or something equally counter-productive.
“Wouldn’t you need to coordinate with her though? It can just be some other day…”
“Nope, she’s interested in talking to you and-“ I waggled my eyebrows for comedic effect. “I can assure you she will be by tomorrow.”
“Uhhh...”
Dang, she was flabbergasted instead of extending the joke herself. I guess Molly really was out of it over this stuff.
“Wow, I set you up and everything!” I continued cheerfully, looking to get her mind out of a rut. “You were supposed to assume something sexual, so I can counter with she’s got some readings to do and I haven’t nearly gotten enough snuggling time with her yet.” I gave her an impish grin at the end while she started to get the hint of a smile again.
“Are you sure the snuggling isn’t sexual?” She asked the smile broadening.
“If it is, then I’m definitely an exhibitionist. I can’t get enough and definitely wouldn’t stop just because people are watching.” Maybe leave off the details of some of Anna’s and I’s exploits, no need to make the joke too real.
----------------------------------------
“How’d that go?” I asked as Anna approached me where I was sitting overlooking the small creek running through the long narrow park near my house.
Molly had only a bit of time today before she had to participate in a trip to a ‘wet’ dimension as she referred to it without additional context, and they had wanted some privacy so I had spent a while watching the tiny fish making their way along the stream.
“Ah, um good.” She said a little evasively. “That was too easy.” I cocked my head at her with a raised eyebrow. “I had expected her to be mad or something, but she was all apologetic and stuff over stuff I did.”
“I did tell you something like that would be the case.” I pointed out with a smile as she plonked herself onto the bench beside me with a sigh.
“It kind of makes me feel more guilty and stupid.” She responded while slumping forward. “It would have been easier if she was going off at me.” I let her think for a moment as it looked like she had something working its way through her head. “She was fishing around to see if I wanted to do stuff like she had to convince me to let her be my friend and I just had no idea what to say. I don’t think we ever did anything before when you weren’t around, so I didn’t know what to suggest. What if she thought I was brushing her off or-“
“You’re probably overthinking it.” I interrupted her while shaking my head wryly. “Besides I barely even know what to do to hang with people one on one, I’m sure she would be happy just to be included in a group thing. We could watch something, play fighting games or wrangle a crowd for a mall crawl or whatever at some point right?”
“I suppose.” She agreed, if she had intended to say anything else it was interrupted by the briefest toot of a car horn behind us, look over my shoulder revealed Molly’s civic rolling by. I raised a hand in a wave before she vanished into the houses as the road curved away from the park.
Turning back I let my hand fall to give Anna a one-handed hug, shaking her out of the conflicted funk she seemed to be in still staring where the civic had been last with a hand half raised. “It’ll be fiiinnee, now how do you feel about grabbing lunch? I’m kinda interested to see what’s in that box of stuff Mike came back with earlier…”
----------------------------------------
“Mmm, you were right it does sound nice, very melodic,” Anna commented while resting her head on mine as I worked on math a couple of days later. “Kinda a pity I might not get to hear it again.”
“Are you guilt-tripping me into finishing my math minor because you like listening to me think?” I asked incredulously.
“Is it working?” Her voice had gotten an impish tone to it.
“Yes! Stop it!”
She laughed while lifting her head off mine before rolling her chair back to her desk to resume working on some commissioned foam gun that I didn’t recognize. It was some big chunky sci-fi gun that could have been from basically anything.
I’ve gotten so used to my thoughts being noisy that it felt quiet without the normal background music Anna would normally have had playing before, although I did enjoy listening to the sounds of her working away as my pen scratched its way across the practice exam. At some point, she started tunelessly humming, and it took me a few more questions before I realized that her tone was tracking the rising and falling whilst of my thoughts.
I saw a drop hit the paper in front of me, then I blinked a couple of times.
I’m crying?
Why?
I’m just working on math; it’s going pretty well and I am getting to be with Anna. What about that is upsetting me…
Oh.
“Sam, what’s wrong?” Anna softly asked a hand on my shoulder. I hadn’t noticed she’d come over or that I was past a few tears and right into outright sobbing.
“I d-didn’t think I would get b-back…” I answered wiping my eyes with my left hand.
“Ah.” She pulled me sideways into a hug as I let the pen drop out of my hand with a clatter onto the desk, I blubbered as she stroked my hair gently with one hand and the other holding me against her.
Eventually, my sobs faded away into the pseudo silence, the continuous whirs of my thoughts, soft rumble of my burners, burbles of boiling water, and the hum of my power turbine an ever-present soundtrack saying that I was still alive but the gentle sound of Anna’s breathing in my ears was a reminder that I was home.
The last few days had been a whirlwind of surprise after surprise that I had gotten back or getting caught up with anything and everything. This was the first time it had just been a quiet day where there wasn’t really something to remind me that this was anything but my normal routine before being tossed into another dimension. I guess there’s always going to be more to process about a traumatic event like that. Even if I hadn’t really been that much in harm’s way for the majority of the… outing it very much hadn’t been something I had desired, and the fear of being discovered or never returning isn’t just something that vanishes in an afternoon or two. Parts of me knew I was home days ago, but I had been wound up too tight to feel anything past moment-to-moment reactions.
I will admit having to contemplate such things is in some ways easier when I have the deeply settling feel of Anna’s arms around me.
“I was thinking of green,” Anna said suddenly breaking the quiet, I blinked a bit as I realized I hadn’t quite been really conscious for a bit judging how the light had changed in the room. “Is that too much?”
“Sorry?” I mumbled missing the context.
“You’re back so I don’t have an excuse for not getting my hair dyed again.” She explained with a guilty chuckle. “I promised myself I would when I knew for sure.”
“Oh,” I thought for a moment, picturing her hair in a few different shades. “Anna I can’t think of a color that wouldn’t look wonderful on you.”
“Flatterer.”
“Unrepentant,” I confirmed, then let the silence hang for a bit. “Anna, is there anything else you put off because of my being gone?”
“Err, a few things yeah.” She admitted without elaborating.
“I haven’t heard you say anything about cosplay for yourself, only about commissions.” I asked quietly, with a growing feeling of guilt.
“Ah, ha-ha,” She laughed nervously. “I hoped you wouldn’t notice.”
“Oh Anna…” my burners stuttered while I reached a hand up to caress the side of her face.
She leaned her head into it and then started to respond a little hesitantly. “We still have a couple of months to the next big con nearby, we can still make that.”
“Anna I really need you to take care of yourself,” I said not letting the point slip by yet as I looked up at her face from below. “Please, I really do want you happy.”
“OK, OK, I hear you Sam.” She said slightly bobbing her head against my hand.
The quiet stretched for a moment more, then I lifted myself off her and reached up to gently pull her head down into a kiss.
Silly girl.
I may have kept her there a bit longer than the situation might suggest, as a hand started its way under my shirt. I released her and she looked a bit disappointed, but I smiled at her to take any edge off. “I am more than happy to continue Master but first we need to at least get a start on what Master and this one will wear.”
The hand withdrew reluctantly. “Tease.” She accused me, some mixture of amusement and disappointment across her features.
“Something to motivate you, my dear Master,” I confirmed with a mischievous grin, then I pushed my math rough work aside so I could pull the keyboard and mouse over into reach.
“Have you at least been considering what you might go with?” I asked while bringing up a browser to google any of her ideas I didn’t immediately recognize.
“A bit I guess.” She admitted while moving her chair so she could lean over me while looking at the screen, one arm wrapping around my torso. Hell of a nice feeling and I got a bit distracted for a moment, the giggle behind me confirmed that it was definitely intentional. “It got a bit too painful after a while, but I did try to distract myself with it.”
“I looked into that idea of a knight and lady theme, but I wasn’t really finding existing characters I wanted to do.” She started once she had recovered a bit after a weighty pause. “I really want to do something established and even well-known so we can get a good showing at one of the competitions though.”
“Hmmm, true. Is there not an original character one?”
“Varies a bit but I don’t think they are going to this year at the Expo at least. There’s definitely a couples show, and I really want to do that. “ She was getting excited about the prospect, and I could feel her bouncing a little in her chair- and against me. “I’ve never gotten to be in one of those!”
“No?” I asked curiously attempting to keep myself on track. “Were you not into cosplay back when you were with your ex?”
“Ah, well. I was but, she really really wasn’t.” She admitted a bit of her excitement bleeding away. “Couldn’t really convince her to give it a try.”
“Hmm, well their loss,” I was a little dismissive with good reason, imagine not wanting to do something with Anna. how bizarre. “Any characters you did consider though?”
“A few? The closest was like doing the protagonist and Doll from Bloodborne.” A vague picture of the characters were in my head but I started searching anyway.
“I like her dress,” I commented once I had brought them both up on google. “A bit somber though.”
“Yeah, that was sort of my thought, I want to do something bright,” She agreed. “There’s the option where we just do like Fate characters, there’s like a million of them to pick from.”
“True, but that almost feels like cheating,” I commented, then a thought crossed my mind. “Actually wait, I know of a kinda couple in a game you might like.”
“Oh?” I was already typing in ‘Blaz blue all characters’, then scrolled through to ‘Relius Clover’.
“This pair, I’ve seen Mike play them a few times, it’s a dude and a puppet.” I explained as she leaned forward to look.
“Huh, yeah that’s a definite option.” She confirmed.
“I’m a little short for her though, she’s supposed to tower over him right?” I mentioned.
“Well, we could always reverse the roles.” She said thoughtfully. “Going counter to expectations can work well too.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” I admitted, then added a bit sheepishly. “But I kinda like the idea of being the robot though.”
“Ha, what other characters are in this game, I’ve never really looked at it.” She took the mouse and started scrolling through. “Wait there’s a bunch of robots, oh my god look at her is she a robot?”
She had paused on Mu-12, and I tried to remember.
“Uh, maybe? I dunno.” I paused while I was staring at well, the lack of coverage of her ‘clothes’ in most of the images that Anna had clicked into. She seemed rather enamored with the character, but maybe she was just being horny. “Want me to do her?”
There was a long hesitation followed by a gulp. “Would you?” She asked hesitantly. “That’s a lot of skin.”
“Anna, I already said I will do anything for you.” I looked at the character a bit more, then indicated the thin strips of material over the character’s breasts. “How would those even stay on, glue?”
“Holy fuck Sam, ok no not making you wear that.” She was hyperventilating a bit, to the point where the mouse skittered a bit. “Hoo boy Sam don’t tempt me like that.
“Mmm, well there’s a slightly less extreme character too,” I said as I took the mouse back to return to the other characters then scrolled for a bit. “Here, Nu-13.”
“Oh yeah, now we’re talking.” I could hear the grin in her voice. “Still that body suit is tight, are you sure you want to wear that?”
“Yeah sure,” I confirmed with a shrug, then bounced the question back. “Would you want to see me in it?”
“Fuck yes.”
“Then we have something for me, now how about you…” I started scrolling back and forth through the characters. “Any preferences?”
“Uh not sure yet.” She would pause me at characters for a second or two.
“Oh wait!” I exclaimed while she was considering one a bit uncertainly. “What about having you as a dashing rogue? Probably not really getting us back to the original idea, but it’s like part way there… Here, this guy.” I stopped scrolling on Hazama. “Hey look, even green hair!”
“That’s pretty different for me,” She admitted hesitantly. “Not really done cross-play either.”
“You would look great in a suit though!” I pointed out.
“You would think I look great in a burlap sack.” She said with a snort.
I raised a finger to argue then paused. “You got me there.”
She hummed for a second thinking. “You know what, why not.”
I turned back a bit to look up into her grinning face a smile on my own, then I had an idea. “What if we did each other’s costumes?” I proposed hesitantly at first, turning an eye to considering the details of the character. “The suit isn’t that far off something real, so I could have lots of resources to research for making it and I can probably get it really crisp. You’re insanely good at props and high-detail stuff like that, maybe you could even figure out some animatronics for Nu’s floating blades?” I twisted my head back to look at her to find she had developed a big grin.
“Oh, that sounds great!” She was bouncing around again, the mental gears clearly turning from the distracted flitting of her eyes. “Those people who were ahead of me in that last comp had some really fantastic visual effects and we might have enough time that I can do that too!”
“I thought it wasn’t that long before that con?” I asked uncertainly, I didn’t really intend for her to go overboard on anything.
“Naaaah, it’s fine.” She answered without losing the grin. “I’ve done worse timelines and I don’t have that much class work, plus you’re really fuckin quick with the sewing.”
“…thanks.” I found that I was steaming up and frantically tried to think of something to distract her from my embarrassment. “Actually, here’s a really weird possibility,” I began having struck on a thought. “I have some external data and power ports and we might be able to link stuff up via them. Maybe I could even control them?”
She blinked. “Really?”
“Yeah, they had me wear a big backpack of diagnostic equipment once or twice. Oh! And mum is around and she would know all the technical details for basically anything and might even be willing to help.” I confirmed. “Plus, there’s the literal magic, but that might get out of our budget.”
“Ooooh? Magic, eh?” Her grin turned a little wicked, as she started pulling up her notepad and an electronics site she apparently often used with how prominent it was in her bookmarks. “Now that could be a killer feature to nab the judge’s eyes. Although, even without that I wonder if I could attach those swords to little drones so they actually fly-”
It occurred to me that maybe I got her a little too into this, I think she might have forgotten her reward for getting the creative juices flowing. “Say Master did you want to see the ports?” I mentioned casually when her constant stream of ideas paused for a second while she was reading a spec sheet for some tiny drone motor.
“Hmm?” She responded distractedly. “Yeah sure, maybe they align to something I can buy locally.”
“Well, then you will need to take my shirt off to see unless you want to feel them underneath of course.” Her mouse paused and I could have sworn I could hear her brain churning between continuing to nerd out and other distractions.
“Oh…” She started initially uncertain then after an instant’s pause, her tone turned mischievous. “Let me just finish up here for a bit.”
She went back to browsing through drone parts but took her other hand off the keyboard, to instead rest on my belly for a moment. It then slipped into my leggings and she began exploring my joints with her hand pressed against me by my panties.
The feeling was intense.
An uncountable time later I found myself folded over to rest against the desk and vaguely tried to piece my thoughts back together again. In the end, all I could think about was the sensations that had scattered my mind in the first place. I couldn’t figure out why it was so different for Anna specifically to be the one to touch me. Mum had to have been in my joints while working through maintenance and Autumn had been through most of them when she was polishing me up. I hadn’t even thought anything of it at the time in either case.
Anna’s touch though, it’s literally an entirely different experience. As I was reminded when I felt a warm and gentle caress slip through my shoulder, even the faintest hint of a nail touching one of the sheathed cables running through the joint was enough to send shivers through me. I belatedly realized she had been saying something about moving over to the bed, and I turned my head to face that cocky grin she had plastered all over her face.
Oh, I love you, Anna.
I think I said that aloud from how her smile broadened, well it’s not like I minded letting her know after all.