The next morning, the flock of mismatched birds were reluctant to vacate the nest.

Purity was first, stumbling up and out - careful to replace her breasts with a pillow beneath EJ's cheek as she did - to drift lazily towards the en suite washroom. She was well aware of the amenities, seeing as she had seen this room more times than she could count... but here and now, with only her gentle band to return to? There was a new excitement, and a distinct absence of dread, that came with the flicking of the lightswitch.

Click. On came the lights, revealing the bathroom proper: charcoal-coloured tiles on the floor that led up the wall halfway, pitch-black wallpaper with a striking trim in gold Art Deco style, and a ceiling just as midnight as the wallpaper. The bathtub was enormous, and seemed to be made of creamy white marble (Purity knew it was fake); the toilet itself was nothing to write home about, but there was a bidet function. Finally, the sink was set into the top of a faux-hardwood affair; to its left, a trio of white-with-gold-trim towels hung on a slender rack, and on the right? A nearly-full box of condoms, tucked behind a potted succulent.

Being back here was bittersweet. Bitter if she had been alone; sweet because she was here as a friend, not a worker.

She'd thought a lot about this place, once she had moved past it. Thought a lot about... about the good, and the bad. About coming back here, if only for a steady supply of commissioned material - plus, supplementing her Tsang paycheques with Khetnep's cash-only payroll let her have some real fun when she wasn't on the schedule. She used to go out bowling every Monday... Used to go to a fuckton of concerts, any night she could clean up and fix her inevitably-ruined makeup before the tickets were all gone... Used to think about dating, and then dismiss it as a fantasy.

That brought a wry, sorrowful smile to those plump pink lips. She'd used to think that she would never get to be anyone's girl, much less a drop-dead (literally) cutie like Esper James, or a stunning little firebrand like Esthrielle. Now, here she was - heart full to the brim, back in a familiar room in a familiar part of town, knowing damn well that the five of them were going to be safe for the foreseeable future. Knowing that she was loved, and wanted, and cared for. She hadn't felt 'loved' once in the last three years; frankly, she hadn't felt anything close to it before she moved to Vitus, either.

She didn't close the door as she bared herself, simultaneously writing off her companions as busy with sleep, and relishing a naughty bit of flame at the prospect of one of them seeing her do it. It had been a week or so since she and EJ and Est had had their initial round of lovemaking, in that dorm at the convent... but now, back here, drinking in the subtle aphrodisiac Khetnep had pumped in through the air vents? She wouldn't mind a reminder of what it felt like.

Once nude, she turned to the mirror to inspect herself. Everything was still there, unsurprisingly: the heavy, scalpel-kissed breasts; the midriff that had been cultivated down to an hourglass so very painstakingly; the hips that flared out like a pair of handles for anyone with hands to take them. Thick thighs? Check. DSL? Check. That gorgeous pink hime cut, the one she was so fucking proud of - the one she had gotten when she got her first paycheck from Tsang, as much to try and lure in new prey as to be a part of her body that those fuckers didn't have a hand in? Meh... it had grown longer and less well-kept in their time at the convent, and the factory. She'd see if one of the working girls would trim it for her.

And then, through the strands of her locks, she caught sight of a flash of blonde. Purity nearly jumped out of her skin as she whirled around on a heel, eyes frantic and body tense - but when her eyes fell upon a groggy-looking EJ, she relaxed in an instant. Without even waiting for the ghoulette to say something, Purity strode forth and gathered her petite paramour up as completely as she could. EJ let out a soft 'eep!' as she was swaddled in Purity, but there wasn't even a thought of resistance.

EJ wriggled gently, like a domestic animal uncertain of what to do when embraced. There was even the brief touch of pricking tooth-tips upon bare flesh, though only in a playful manner; claws were withheld, at least what Esper James counted as claws. Really, one could just argue that her fingernails had grown from time untrimmed. She kicked impotently at the air when Purity lifted her, body always surprisingly light to her long-legged lover; Purity didn't let her go even still, laughing to herself as the ghoul whined and writhed in faux-protest.

Eventually, the taller of the two spoke up. "EJ! You spooked me! Babe, what's up? You wanna take a bath together? I was right about to hop in, soak in the tub... There's no shower in the room, but if you'd rather have a shower, there're showers backstage for the performers. I could-" Purity was cut off by EJ biting her again, harder this time - hard enough to hurt. Puri yelped, but followed it down with another bounce of giggling.

"Oooh, you're hungry, huh? Yeah, it has been a bit since we've... You know...~ There are razors in here, I think; you want me to open a vein for you?" Purity's eyes were glazed like a donut, all sugar and sweetness and sultry decadence; Esper James, by contrast, was now trying to look serious. However, that word... trying? It was doing a lot of work. Finally, however, the blonde pulled her head back and away from Purity's cleavage to form an answer without a pornstar's bosom falling into her open mouth.

"Purity. We've gotta talk. Let's bathe; I'll close the door, you get it running. We'll talk once we're in the water." Her brows had furrowed; her emerald greens were trying their best to be piercing and stern, but to Puri, they just came off as adorable. It didn't help that EJ had finally begun to reciprocate their hug, now clinging with koala-esque determination to the other woman.

The woman with the pink hair was taken aback. Despite how adorable Esper James looked, especially after her hair was all tousled from a night of good, comfortable sleep (sleep that she still smelled of), she was still unnervingly serious. Even a face full of Purity's breasts hadn't slowed the ghoulette's roll, at least not in the way it often did - obstruction didn't count, really. It wasn't the same. Puri lowered herself a bit so that EJ might make landfall, bare soles touching cool tiles; as the meat eater went to close the door, Purity stammered out a slipshod response.

"U-Uhhh... yeah! Yeah, sure, yeah, we can talk. Is it about Khetnep? Is it about La Scission? -er, that's this place's name..." The hair on the back of Purity's neck would have been raised, if any hair was left there. She went quickly, awkwardly, to the tub, turning the valve and letting the water run. The door clicked as Esper James closed it; she didn't lock it, because she wasn't really opposed to the idea of being joined, but... closed felt right. It felt like what she should do.

The blonde turned slowly, crossing her arms as she did, finishing the play-by-play rotation by leaning back against the door. She looked at Purity for a few moments before responding - her expression wasn't so stern now, but neither was it joyful, or playful, or even pleased. It was a bit terse, honestly, and the way her lips were screwed up into this expression of awkward discomfort felt like a dagger between Puri's ribs.

"No. It's about us. About you, specifically. And, I wanted to have this conversation away from Esthrielle - because it can be just between us, if you want it that way. But we've gotta have the conversation either way." EJ pulled air into dead lungs, freeing them as a sigh of utmost resignation; Purity felt a cold sweat break out, despite the room's rapidly ascending temperature. The club darling's gaze flicked away as soon as it met EJ's own, ill at ease with every conceivable avenue that this could be going down. She tried to smile - the waver of her lips betrayed that creeping dread threatening to encircle her heart.

There was silence, then, outside of the vent in the ceiling and the rush of perfectly heated liquid. The tension in the air was so thick, you couldn't cut it with a knife - it was far too dense. One would have needed a chainsaw. Thankfully, however, Esper James's maw was sorta close to a chainsaw - if gnawing on something could be considered even vaguely close to a chainsaw's mode of operation. It was close enough in this case, though.

As the tub filled, and Purity shut the valve, EJ spoke up. Her tone was leaden; there was unspoken turmoil hiding just behind her shocking green eyes, and a reluctant weight to every syllable she uttered. "Purity. I... I have some serious questions. Questions about you, and about your... your time with Tsang. Specifically, what they did to you - and if you're keeping anything from me, and Est, and the nuns." As Purity processed the gravity of these statements, Esper James began to strip down, leaving her panties (still no bra; the nuns hadn't seemed to mind, and so she hadn't either) on the floor. Purity scrambled to get into the water first, so as to not make Esper James feel even more awkward about all this - and she nearly slipped in doing so, half-falling into the steaming bathtub with a comical splash.

EJ didn't even crack a smile at the display. That felt worse than death to Purity.

The deathless followed the death-destined into the tub, stepping deliberately and precisely to contrast Purity's own hurried fumble. In a surprising display of beneficence, she took a seat directly in Purity's lap, eliciting a relieved sigh from the other woman, who gently put her arms about her petite lover's middle. They sat like that for a while, letting themselves soak up the heat of the water and reacquaint themselves with the feeling of one another's skin. It was a calming prelude for the coming storm.

"Purity. What are you?"

Those words hung in the air like a death row convict, swaying side to side in a nonexistent breeze. In sharp contrast to the heat of the bathwater, Purity's body felt like her bones were made of solid ice. She took her time in replying, working over the question in her mind; she wasn't immediately sure how to respond, because she wasn't really sure what EJ meant. However, just as she was opening her mouth to try and proffer an answer, Esper James spoke again.

"You always smell like perfume, even though you haven't touched a bottle in two weeks. It's almost Christmas - only a few days, less than a week. And yet, you still smell fruity and sexy and gay. Your tongue tastes like candy, but when I pull away, you have an undertone of diesel on your spit and breath. Your skin is perpetually soft, which I get is a thing Tsang can do..." EJ took a deep breath in, steeling herself for the continuation of this list of evidence. She felt like a detective in one of the shows she used to watch; it wasn't a good feeling, it felt awful, but it had to be done. She pushed past the knot forming in her alkahest-filled gut and kept the list of evidence flowing, shutting her eyes tight to focus on what she needed to do.

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"...but also, even your voice is off. It's so fucking lovely. So fucking hot. Constantly. Even when you're at your lowest, when you're bawling your guts out, or scared to the fucking core of your being, or fresh out of sleep and still dazed... Even hearing you fucking breathe can get me feeling weird and horny. That's not normal - so, I'll say it again: what are you?" The silence now was less oppressive, but where oppression was absent, violence was in profusion. EJ had really backed Purity against a figurative wall, here, and there was no way she was gonna let it go.

Or was she? Purity's brain was in panic mode now, frantically poring over any details she may have overlooked; any breaks in her facade that may have been unnoticed, any possible ways that Esper James could keep her from wiggling out of this. Old ways and old habits were even harder to kill than the second-living, it seemed: her right hand relieved itself of EJ's midsection, slipping down to take a tender hold of the interrogator's intimates. Her left hand went up to EJ's chest, gingerly palming her breast; meanwhile, Purity leaned down to give her ghoulfriend a long, firm kiss on the neck.

"Mmmnh... EJ, so sweet of you to say that~ You like my scent that much, eh? And my voice gets you horny? Fuck, here I thought you were mad at me... Look, babe, if you wanna role play, just tell me first... I-" EJ's own hands went up to take Purity's and pull them away, the strength of the dead easily overpowering the living. Purity didn't really try to resist it; it would be more suspicious if she had, after all. Instead, the pinkette felt a shudder roll down her spine as she realized she was fucked.

"No, Purity - none of that. No getting out of this by getting me horny, not again. You already did that the last time I started to notice something weird. This time? I'm not letting you go without an answer." EJ didn't turn her head back to Puri as she spoke, but the corporate courtesan felt every word like a hammer blow. In an instant, tears threatened her eyes - but she didn't cry, forced herself not to, screamed at herself within the confines of her mind. She couldn't keep this up anymore. The act wasn't worth ruining whatever she had with EJ and Est; it wasn't worth this little pocket of happiness collapsing on itself. She sighed, eyes closing, head leaning back against the bathroom wall.

Outside the bathroom, sleep still held all three Waywards in its sway. It was so still out there, so devoid of sound and movement that EJ nearly forgot there even existed a bedroom at all - with barely any real blood to listen to, ghoulish senses could barely perceive the odd pneumatic hiss of readjusting internals. It was just her, and Purity, and the fuck-off sized issue they had to tackle. For better, or for worse.

Purity, eventually, began to speak. Her lips trembled as she spoke, and for the first time, her voice - wavering like a reed in a tropic storm - held no bassy, husky undertone. It wasn't as seductive, wasn't as hypnotic, wasn't as... wasn't as charged. It was the voice of a scared, hurt, desperate woman, one who was pleading with the executioner to spare her from the guillotine.

"I'm... I-I... Phew... EJ. When Tsang took me, and put me i-in that... in that lab, I was down there with the expies. I was near where they did all the testing, all of it, and... and I was fresh meat, with no legal paper trail to tie me to anything or anyone in the city. I was fair game for whatever they wanted." Now the tears came, hot as sin and burning like Hell, running fast and free down her cheeks to drip-drop-drip into the waters below. Her grip on EJ had, unconsciously, become vice-like in its intensity. With silence entreating her encore, she continued.

"Tsang is a biotech company at its core, yeah? L-Like, they invented the process of revival. They made the cold-wombs. They made you, and they - sort of - made me. But... But they're limited, yeah? L-Limited to the second-living. Limited to what they can do to a person, because most of what they can do... they can only do to someone who's already died once." A hard swallow followed this; for Purity, gulping down the pain of admission was worse than forcing a burning coal down her throat. This hurt nearly as badly as telling EJ about everything else, the 'work' Tsang had forced her to perform; that, at least, had given her the mercy of necessity. This was not so gracious.

EJ listened intently, unmoving but not uncaring. It tugged at her heart strings to hear Purity so choked up... but she couldn't relent. She couldn't let Purity stop her recollection; this was important, god fucking damn it, and if she backed down now? She wouldn't ever have a spine. She'd never be able to stand up for herself, or Est, or even for Purity; if she let this all slip, then she'd be resigned to act as a perpetual doormat. EJ was fucking done being a doormat.

Purity kept the reverie going, her eyes pressed shut to keep the tears from welling. "S-So they experimented with people. Living, breathing people. People like... p-people like me. They were - might still be, but I don't fucking know nowadays - they were performing second-living operations and transfusions on first-living people. I've..."

A wry smile came now, eyes opening up once again, though their gaze was misty and locked on the void-coloured ceiling. Her voice came through ragged, now, seconds away from falling to the forces of sorrow which assailed her. She wished, subconsciously, that she could press EJ hard enough into herself that they'd never be apart. She hated the idea of a world without EJ... Hated the idea of EJ leaving her, or being taken from her. She hated it more than she hated herself for keeping this buried for so long. Why had she been so reluctant to tell EJ in the first place?

Judas. It all came back to Judas, in the end. She had always told herself that, if they were caught, Purity could give herself up as a martyr - she could go back to Judas's little experiment, and be a good dog, and spare her lovers as much punishment as she could. But now, with EJ's bounty, why did it even matter? She wasn't worth that much money. She probably wasn't worth anything to Tsang anymore - not now that she had tasted freedom, and found it sweet.

"I've got vampire bits in me. Ripped out of a va- fuck, fuck it, fuck it! Ripped out of Judas her-fucking-self! Stupid arrogant self-centred bitch put vampire parts in me!" If she wasn't in a bath right now, she'd have taken her hands away from EJ and slammed them against the nearest surface. Rage bubbled in her core alongside the sorrow, eager to erupt in a way that would put Yellowstone to shame. "That's... That's why I can get by on the same diet you do! That's why I can talk like her, and do the stupid fucking vampiric mind control thing! Experimental stuff, too - altered vampire sweat glands to make me smell good! Aphrodisiac in my s-spit! I'm...!"

She grit her teeth so hard that, somewhere in her furious grey matter, she feared that they may break. A scream ruptured her monologue, pushed through those perfect pearly whites, frustration and despair and anger and absolute depression all commingling into a single release. The words were coming of their own volition, now; her mind was freed of its previous tether, now that she was finally letting this all out. It only made her cry harder when she stumbled onto the real reason - the reason she wouldn't even admit to herself - that she had held it all in.

"I...! I thought you'd fucking leave me, okay?! I thought you'd... Y-You'd think that your attraction to me was all fake, that it was all mind games! That all I had ever done was play you! I swear, I n-never thought of you like that - like someone to use, to manipulate for my own gain! I..." And just like that, fury's battery was drained of all its juice. Every ounce of rage left her through the stinging salt-stream that ran down her cheeks, and Purity collapsed against Esper James. Her body began to shake from the sobs, quivering with anguish between each tormented heave.

EJ... was silent. Stunned. Speechless. She had nothing to respond with; nothing in the world could have prepared for all this, and while she wasn't entirely shocked by the fact Tsang would experiment on the first-living and try to expand their repertoire... to know Purity was, apparently, part vampire? Part Judas? It was fucked. It was so fucked. And that was putting it lightly.

Still... Purity was Purity, right? She had been with EJ through everything - through living in a fucking run-down factory, through killing a man, through the convent... She had been there for EJ every step of the way. And when Esper James looked back at it - even at their mundane dates, those sweet moments of domestic joy at one or the other's apartments - she would have done it all the same, with or without vampiric persuasion. Even if Purity had been completely unaltered, Esper James knew she would have loved the moments she had loved, and hated the ones she had hated.

As Purity cried, Esper James turned (slowly but surely) around, contorting so that her legs didn't hurt Purity as she did. Once she was now facing her loyal lover, the blonde leaned down, ear set to rest against bare flesh as close to Purity's heart as it could. Esper James's arms went out and around the other woman, holding her with the same force she was being held with in turn; she didn't even think of breaking this embrace, even as seconds turned to minutes, and minutes broke an hour.

Finally... Finally, after countless moments lost like tears in rain, Purity had calmed down to a few whimpers and the occasional sob every so often. Esper James waited a bit longer still, ensuring Purity was present enough to hear what she was about to say; once the pinkette's head pulled away from the wall, looking blearily out at the mirror reflecting the pair of them, EJ saw fit to speak.

"Purity. Thank you. Thank you, for telling me... for being honest with me. Thank you for not fighting me on this, and opening up about it. I... I know it's hard. It's so fucking hard. Talking about... about traumatic shit like this, I... I can't even imagine what it feels like for you, and I'm sorry I can't offer anything more than these words." She moved her own head back, then, to look up at her lover; Purity responded in kind, looking down to meet the ghoul's eyes with her own watery look.

Esper James took another deep breath, steeling herself for the second time this evening. What came next was easy, or so she hoped; it was what she had to say, and what she truly felt. Still, though, the words felt like lead blocks being pushed out by her tongue - and even once each block was set free to cascade from her lips, she could still feel its weight.

"I love you. I will always love you. Even if... Even if you've got vampire parts. Even if you can do vampire stuff. You're still, and always will be, Purity to me. You'll never stop being Purity - Purity Alouise Francharde, my girlfriend and my beloved. No matter what awful shit Tsang did to you, or may do to us, you will always be my lover. I will always love you."

The tears returned with redoubled force - and this time, both parties cried. They cried, and held one another, and lamented - secretly, in their hearts, though in unison - the world they lived in. Theirs was a horrid lot in life, they both figured. But... at least they had one another.

After some time, they broke apart and agreed to wash up. Purity was getting pruny, EJ was feeling lightheaded from the heat, and they both wanted to go back into the bedroom to snuggle Esthrielle. And so, helping one another the entire time, they finished up what was only ever supposed to be a quick bath. Neither woman wanted to get dressed again - there were clothes in the room, fetish costumes though they may be, and both ladies were fed up with wearing the exact same street clothes for days on end. Hell, EJ even suggested that maybe they could nab Est for a quickie. That might be just what the doctor ordered, to try and cheer them all up... let the two nuns take a bath together, and the triad could screw in the main room. That might be nice.

Neither party was expecting the Waywards to be standing there when EJ opened the door, each of them bearing a somber face. Esthrielle rushed Purity before any words could be spoken; Lulu and Zofi hustled to slip into the bathroom, ushering EJ out in an instant before slamming and locking the door. Esper James was stunned into silence; Purity looked like she was about to go catatonic, or start crying again. Esthrielle simply squeezed her, holding her so close she could feel the taller woman's heartbeat.

"I love you, Purity. I couldn't help but hear. I'm... I'm sorry. I love you."