Young Justice: Gotham City
September 10th, 2010
As much as both of us would have wished to spend the night together, there was only so long that Giovanni would be away and Zatanna didn’t fancy explaining why she wasn’t in her room when he came to wake her up for breakfast There was only so much she could flout the restrictions he put on her before he actually noticed and did something about it.
We spent nearly an hour passionately making up for lost time, cuddled for another half-hour, and then Zatanna reluctantly crawled out of bed and began searching for her discarded clothing. Her shorts and shirt were a little rumpled but otherwise fine, but I ended up needing to hit the torn and badly stained remains of her undergarments with a reparo and several cleaning charms to transform the bundle of wet black threads into something that was theoretically considered clothing.
I looked Zatanna up and down as she bounced and wiggled, trying to pull her shorts up all the way and putting on quite a show in the process. I’d already cleaned both of us up, but there were still marks on her neck, the tops of her breasts, and her belly, all of which many of her clothes left visible. I’d left a few others on her body in less obvious places––and she on mine in turn––and something inside me was loath to remove such obvious signs of our coupling, but the practical side of me won out.
I flicked my wand several times, each time mumbling the incantation. “Episkey, Episkey, Episkey.” With each cast, a patch of Zatanna’s skin cleared, red and purple marks vanishing back into soft, lightly-tanned skin.
Zatanna looked down at herself and smiled. “Thank’s Hydrys.” I climbed off the bed and we embraced one last time. I kissed her forehead, walked her to the doorway, and then watched sadly as a portkey whisked her away back to Shadowcrest.
Then I turned around and headed back inside. It was getting late and I’d had a long day, but there were still a few more things I wanted to take care of today before I turned in for the night. Plus, I was pretty sure my lands would be fully recharged soon and I wanted to summon another one of the huntresses whom I’d collected Blueprints of before I fell asleep. That way my lands would be available again in the morning and I’d have an extra bodyguard and assistant on hand.
Probably, definitely, Glynda. I definitely wasn’t summoning any of the three whose last interaction with me had been so blatantly hostile, I didn’t have the right colors for Amber and Peach, and Blake was much weaker and cost far less mana so she could wait till later. That just left Glynda.
Before that however, I spent some time dumping out the accumulated mountain of things that had ended up inside my expanded bag. Books, terrariums filled with plants, dust, weapons, what I suspected were gold copies of the four relics, and finally the relic itself––an ornate blue-and-gold lamp that almost glowed with power.
I reluctantly set it aside for now, taking the precaution of hiding it from view inside of a warded chest under my bed. I was really interested in examining and experimenting with it, but only after I’d read the instructions that Ozpin had given me and when I had both time and a clear head.
Summoning Glynda ended up going off without a hitch. I didn’t really have anything specific for her to do yet, but she didn’t seem to mind sharing a room with Raven and I was looking forward to dedicating some more time to honing my aura now that I wasn’t on any kind of time limit.
The next day was thankfully a Saturday, which meant that Zatanna didn’t have to go to school. Zatanna and I hadn’t spoken much last night––not unless you counted moans and cries of pleasure––but she’d told me that she now had lessons with Queen Mera on Friday after school and then typically on Saturdays as well.
Typically, that would have delayed our reunion, but in a way I’d gotten lucky. There had been another attack on the city earlier in the week––this time by a supervillain by the name of Ocean Master––and the Queen had spent some time as his prisoner before Aqualad and a number of others assisted in her escape.
Thus, while Mera was okay, she unfortunately didn’t have time to teach. The city was still reeling from the damage that Black Manta had inflicted, and a second event so soon after, particularly one supported by internal dissidents, had left things in a precarious state that required her full attention.
However, this was something that Mera had told Zatanna directly. Not through her father. She was still technically grounded, but Giovanni had agreed to allow her to attend her lessons, though he often insisted on taking her to and from the zeta tube nearest to Shadowcrest. Thus, when Zatanna stepped through the Poseidonis zeta tube, I was there to meet her. I waved to the guard who had escorted me from the Conservatory to the station, wrapped an arm around Zatanna’s shoulders, and a portkey promptly whisked us away right back to the Pub.
The next few hours were rather wonderful. We ate breakfast together in what passed for my dining room right now, Zatanna wiggling in my lap as we sipped on tea and ate fresh pastries from the bakery where we’d first met. Then we headed down to the basement where I’d transformed what had once been a small kitchen into the start of my new library. The room was one of the most well protected places in the entire building, second only to the ward hub itself which lay in the sub-basement directly beneath it.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Someday it would be a library I could be proud of. I could already see the high shelves lined with books, well-lit reading nooks in the corners, a few tables for proper studying tucked away amongst the stacks, and perhaps some powerful magical creature bound to serve as a guardian and librarian.
Right now however, it was little more than an expanded room with two nearly-empty shelves, ugly gray paint on the walls, an oversized table piled high with the spoils of my trip in the middle, and a single green armchair looking rather out of place in the corner.
There I finally began to regale Zatanna with stories from my trip. I had yet to figure out a method to transfer memories between Zatanna’s copy and her real self, but at the very least I could tell her about what I’d seen and done.
We worked as we talked, sorting, cataloging, and shelving the precariously stacked books I’d brought back. Zatanna flipped through a few of them and I pointed out pictures of the Grimm I’d run into in a bestiary, promising to show her real versions as soon as I was able.
When she finally uncovered some of the fake relics, Zatanna boggled at the solid gold staff and sword, then pretended to be a princess and posed with the crown on her head. It didn’t really fit her very well and was very heavy and uncomfortable so she didn’t keep it on for very long, but something about Zatanna dressed like a princess, my princess, deeply appealed to me. I’d have to keep an eye out for some more appropriate attire and headgear.
Eventually I mentioned the huntresses I’d met and copied, and Zatanna quickly demanded to meet them. I acquiesced easily enough and soon after I introduced her to Raven, Glynda, and then Blake, who I summoned when Glynda made an offhand remark about how Zatanna had befriended the members of team RWBY.
Overall, it went quite well. There was some minor awkwardness where the trio of huntresses were familiar with Zatanna via her copy while Zatanna knew little more than their names from the scant few times I’d mentioned them, but we got over that hump quickly enough and by the end of it, Zatanna looked well on her way to befriending Blake for a second time. I thankfully had a few pictures that Zatanna had taken using my scroll which helped fill in some of the gaps.
When it was finally just us again, Zatanna pushed me up against a wall and kissed me again. “I can’t believe you spent more than a week surrounded by hotties like Raven and Glynda, plus those RWBY girls, and didn’t even try to get with any of them.”
I was almost offended. Had the words come from anyone else, I would have been, but this was Zatanna. Still, it did somewhat hurt. I had better self control than that. I hadn’t even slept with Zatanna’s duplicate, not knowing how the original witch would feel about such things since I couldn’t yet transfer memories between the two.
“I wouldn’t do something like that to you,” I said, my voice slightly sharper than I intended. “And to imply otherwise…”
Zatanna silenced me with another kiss. “These copies, they’re like. Sort of real? But you can like, kind of control them? Right?”
“Something to that end, yes. They are…near as I can tell, predisposed to listen to me. I have not tested the limits of such things as of yet, but I plan to at some point.”
Zatanna barely looked like she was listening, her lips slightly open and a strange smile on her face. “The cat girl, that’s the one you said you saw reading smut on the plane?”
“Yes?”
“Perfect. I saw the way she was looking at you in some of those photos. I bet it will be a piece of cake to get her into bed.” Zatanna took a half step forward, pressing our bodies together and my back into the wall. “That naughty kitty looks like she wants your cream. She’s going to look so hot on her knees with your cock in her mouth.”
I was rather dumbfounded. “Zatanna––” I began, but she shushed me.
“Oh don’t start with the whole ‘infringing on my honor’ nonsense or whatever. It's not cheating if I don’t mind. You’re going to be gone sometimes and I’d rather you have plenty of people taking care of you than let some random whore sink her teeth into you.”
“That’s not––”
She continued, “You said it yourself. They're not really people, right? That’s why you didn’t sleep with the other me. Cause it wasn’t me, but just a blob of mana with my face on it. I’m not cheating on you if I use a vibrator to get off, and I don’t see why this is any different.”
Her argument was blatantly flawed, but I was too dumbfounded to point that out. I was so busy staring down at her in confusion that I missed the next few words out of her mouth.
“––and then Glynda! You said she fights with a riding crop. A riding crop! And she’s got a boob window! I bet she’s into all sorts of kinky stuff. It's always the quiet ones, right? We could do some naughty teacher roleplay and she’s an actual teacher to boot.”
Confronted with a side of my girlfriend I’d never seen before, I did the only thing I could think of. I changed the subject. “We should go get lunch,” I interrupted loudly, “I’m getting pretty hungry. How do you feel about uh, Mexican food? They don’t have anything like that on Remnant.”
Zatanna raised an eyebrow. “That does sound pretty good, but this conversation isn’t over.”
I disagreed. In fact, this conversation never should have started in the first place, but now I was struggling to get the image of Zatanna, Blake, and Goodwitch all lined up naked on my bed out of my head. I was suddenly reminded of something I’d thought of near the start of my time on Remnant. A copy offered certain opportunities that a real body that could be seriously injured did not.
I sighed heavily. “If you say so…” I said noncommittal.
Zatanna stood up on her toes and kissed my nose. “I’m sure I’ll be able to talk you around.”