Chapter Eight
Together
The two feys had been engaged in a long discussion.
Mai, Head of Special Operations and special agent, and Tony, Deputy Director of Special Operations, had been discussing the pertinent issues of the day.
[Those bastards,] Mai snorted, a bit grumpy.
[Well you can't do anything about them. You know what they're like,] Tony said, smiling slightly, and shrugged his shoulders.
Tony's office was quite spacious and had modern office furniture with glass partitions, giving the impression that some objects were just floating in the air. Like the huge desk, whose visible part was only the top, or the red armchairs whose glass legs blended in with the black marble floor. On both sides of the office there were some libraries with old volumes and shelves with different objects, mostly related to the Haitian culture, where Tony was from.
Mai was sitting in one of the armchairs. They were discussing some daily issues of other agents' missions, when Tony gave her some unexpected news regarding Mai's custom weapon. Beyond that, Mai was not present on Siren Island, which was where Tony was. It was simply a connection through the Neurowire to discuss some issues. The whole office environment was simply projected in the mind of the fey girl with long silver hair.
[The last time I needed Azusa I was in the middle of a mission, and they almost asked to pee in a cup before send her to me,] Mai continued to rant.
[Well with what happened at the lake they want to make sure you can use her when you need it. Deliver the replica to someone at the French Base and receive Azusa.] Tony smiled. [Liz has it, it was delivered to her last night.]
[I thought so,] Mai sighed, and her ahoge moved from side to side..
[There was also an attack at Pyrene's Grenoble Station in the early hours of the morning. Pyrene personnel are on repair work because of the assault,] Tony said.
Mai frowned and looked at him as if she had misheard. [What?! Why didn't anyone notify us? What happened?]
[They captured the two Vatican criminals, but a few hours later they were released during the attack on the Station.]
[How could that happen?]
[Apparently it was all done by a group of assault droids and TB-bugs, but most of the chaos was caused by one person.]
[Did anyone died?] Mai asked.
[No, thankfully. But the damage to the infrastructure was extensive.]
[Did we send some support?]
[I already took care of that, Leign sent an FRT group to help with the issue.]
Suddenly she felt something gently touching her cheek. Tony could see how the girl's cheek sunk as if an invisible finger was pressing against it.
[I think we're arriving.]
[Get over there.]
[Are you coming tomorrow?]
[And leave who in charge here? We have diplomatic visitors from Ghana. Send my congratulations in advance to Shin and Liz for me. I'll send them a message tomorrow too.]
[I will. Good luck. Let me know if you need me for anything. Especially with what is happening at the Vatican and Grenoble. Let me know if Van finds anything new.]
[You take care of the reception tomorrow. It's a special occasion for the three of you, I will take care in case something new happens in the Vatican.]
[Thank you,] Mai said. [Disconnect.]
***
March 20, Tuesday. 10AM. 125 S.A.
Nevermore Base No. 2 in French Territory
Pic de Grèzes, Languedoc-Roussillon. France.
Tony's office lost consistency, as if each of the objects were disappearing one by one, until the whole scenario disappeared from her mind and everything was black for a moment.
As she opened her emerald green eyes the first thing Mai heard was Carissia's voice from the cockpit.
"Shin, put on your seatbelt, don't make me kick your ass!"
Mai was in the seats on the side, inside a spacious ship that contained several secured cargo containers.
The ship was one of the Corven-21 series, characterized to be used for transporting high-ranking personnel in Nevermore, although due to its ample size it could even be used to carry heavy transport and even had an attractor device based on the Chaos Dynamics system to lift cargo from the ground, without the need to land. Although that was not what mattered to Mai at the moment.
Diving deep into Another Earth or having a deep-dive conversation was a lot like falling asleep. And the truth was, she had almost been talking to Tony for an hour. She felt a napkin being swiped across her mouth.
"You were drooling," the fey man said, smiling at her. His hair was slightly messy and blue-black in color. The part of his hair at the nape of his neck was tied in a ponytail that reached almost to his waist.
Shin was standing next to her. He was the one who had stung her cheek. He was dressed simply in a T-shirt, dark pants and boots.
Mai, on the other hand, because she had had to say goodbye to the Kazakhstan authorities in a formal manner, because of what had happened in Kolsay, was dressed in a dark blouse, a short white jacket, that matched her pants of the same color, and high heels. She had tied her long hair up in a high ponytail, leaving aside the long braid she had been wearing for the past few days. In the long ponytail could be seen a series of dark blue locks that contrasted with the rest of the long silver hair.
Both of them looked really different in some ways beyond height. Mai was a short fey girl, with a delicate appearance, while Shin was almost two meters tall and athletically built. But even though they were both feys of different types, they were both partners, field agents and also something more than that.
Field agents, partners, boss and subordinate, protégé and protector, friends, lovers and confidants, and both had learned in the last few years and months how to trust each other's back no matter the danger. Months in the physical world, but years in the world of shared dreams.
Even when they both knew they were hiding things from each other, that was a different matter.
Shin hated lying to her, but he had to. Mai hated lies even more, but she couldn't claim to be honest about everything either. They both loved each other and could trust each other's backs. Even if the universe conspired to keep them from telling each other some things.
But there was something else that made the relationship special. Mai and Shin were not the only ones in the relationship. It was a three-person relationship for the moment. A ménage à trois.
Now, in France, the three of them would finally be together and they were confident that everything would work out.
"What happened? Are we arriving?"
"Yep," he nodded, as he fastened his seat belt.
Mai looked into Shin's heterochromic eyes. It was the first time she had seen Shin look a little tired in all the time they had been together. He had vision in his left eye, which was yellow, but his right eye was pale blue. Yet she could detect slight signs of tiredness in both of them.
They had left early from the Astana Base for France, but they had rested enough the night before. Beyond the paperwork, and countless repeated questions about what had happened at the lake, the truth was that it was not so bad that they were tired. However, since the night the meteorite core flew away, Shin had seemed a bit distracted and tired. It probably wouldn't make any difference to others, but she had been with him for so many months that she could tell there was something strange.
"Are you ok?" Mai asked.
"Yep, don't worry." Shin said, smiling at her.
"Camila is at the base. I'll have her check you out."
"That's not necessary."
"It's the reason she came from the island so, you suck it up," she told him, as she checked her seat belt. She hadn't taken it off the whole trip, due to the fact that she'd been plugged in the whole time talking to Tony.
"You're too cautious."
"And you don't. Your head was crushed, and you were underwater for hours."
"And you fought giant invisible deer and a monster made of mushrooms. We're even."
"My head was not crushed," Mai repeated, looking at him with a mixture of anger and concern.
"I think I told you, that I was once pulverized by a turbine, right? That time it took ten years for my body to regenerate. I woke up in the Indian Ocean," Shin explained, as he pulled out his automatic translator from his pants pocket and put it to his right ear.
The very mention of it gave Mai a shiver, "Yeah, Liz told me that too. But you're still going to get checked out. Maybe someone put a whammy on you, when you were unconscious underwater."
"...You're going to have to explain to me the scientific definition of the whammy," Shin said worriedly.
"I mean, there was someone there that we couldn't detect."
Shin's expression became slightly serious.
The finding, which Hinata and Nikolai had made, certainly made him uneasy, but he didn't know what to make of it.
He remembered that, at the moment before crossing to the other side of the forest, he had felt a watching presence but, with what happened afterwards, he judged that it was the fungus with the filaments.
The two silhouettes that had been discovered had changed that.
Although, the night before all the radiation discovered by Hinata had already disappeared from the scene and with it the last clue to find out the mysterious identity of who had been with them there. What could have been taken from the tree before their arrival was another issue that worried him, but it would do little good to worry Mai, who was already worried because the amount of work and because he was feeling a little tired.
The latter did not worry him too much, and Shin simply judged that in a few days he would be fine.
There was the issue that he had lied to her about the fight at the lake, but he knew he couldn't tell her even if he wanted to. Mai knew about it, although she could do nothing about it.
"Don't worry, I'll be fine," Shin said, trying to smile at her.
"We're here," Carissia announced.
The ship landed so softly that neither of them realized at what point they had touched down. Shin erased the worries from his mind and simply unbuckled his seat belt. The cargo side opened and they both walked down the ramp, accompanied by Carissia.
The pilot, a redhead with pigtails and blue eyes, in her tight-fitting suit, was almost Mai's personal pilot when it came to taking her to places for official visits. Aside from the fact that Mai and Shin often simply used Mai's car to move between countries investigating cases, when the situation called for it, Carissia would go to the location to pick them up to take them somewhere that required Mai's immediate presence. Because Mai was not only a special agent in the field, she was also the Head of Operations for the Nevermore Institute's Special Investigation Division.
Carissia was not just a pilot either, for if she was not required to be on the ground, she would most likely be in orbit in her personal Orbital Knight's Station waiting. A giant mech ready to arrive in case Mai needed support. Although, due to what happened in the lake, there had been some unforeseen events with the huge robot and it had been transported the day before.
The sunlight blinded Shin for a moment. Inside the plane it was not dark, but he was certainly having a heightened sensitivity to light as well. Still his one eye quickly became accustomed to the vision.
The station was at the foot of a small hill surrounded by a small forest and a little more than one kilometer away, the buildings of a nearby city could be seen. Inside the base perimeter everything was fenced off and, in the distance, Shin could see how some soldiers were guarding the fence, and some canine looking droids were also prowling around the place.
The security standards were what one would expect from the place, even if the city was too near.
The Languedoc base was Nevermore's base number two in the French territory. Although it was known for not being very active, like the number one station located on the outskirts of Paris, the truth is that it was huge. The main building was a gigantic block with logistics, hangar and mechanical functions of more than 100 meters high by 300 meters long and 100 meters wide, and the site also had three runways for deployment and landing of ships. In the closest part to the runways there was also an automated control tower. The place had more than a hundred humans and, some dozens of feys and aeons working on tuning vehicles, robots and other equipment that usually arrived destroyed.
At the same time the station had another fifty soldiers from the French army who, along with another twenty Nevermore security agents, served to guard the place, not counting the security droids.
It also had dedicated logistics personnel, medical wings, recreation and rest areas for rotating personnel. Many special field agents, who were in the vicinity investigating a case, could simply stay overnight at the station and the next day continue their work until the investigation was completed.
This was not unusual, as the station's logistics division could deploy agents who were in the vicinity or passing by to investigate something. The same was true of all the stations around the globe. The connection between the different stations served as a mastermind to watch for a Dark Event to develop and send the nearest agents to investigate.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
It didn't matter if it was a sighting of some strange creature, or something more ridiculous. If the artificial intelligences ruled out that it was a mistake, the agents had to investigate.
However, the only agents on the station at the time were on other business and it was a normal working day for the repair shop personnel.
Shin watched as the ship alone began to move across the runway in some unknown direction. Surely there was another facility nearby where ships and other large vehicles were kept.
One detail that caught Shin's attention was that on one side of the huge doors of the building was painted the Nevermore raven logo but also, in a larger size, was a wolf's head. He had already read about that. Apparently Nevermore's base No. 2 had the name La Bête du Gévaudan, and it was related to an ancient legend about a creature that had terrorized the place hundreds of years ago. Many legends related the creature to a large wolf that claimed several victims in the area. Apparently at some point the nearby towns had adopted the nickname to refer to the base, and the base commanders had adopted it willingly.
They entered the huge hangar building and inside Shin observed how there was activity everywhere between the different modular parts.
The place was full of movement here and there. Between small ships, vehicles, offices, modular rigging platforms. For a control station, and machine shop, it looked more like a military base, with a giant hangar. In some parts, hung some huge screens, attached to platforms that gave news from various parts of the world and another projected geological, or atmospheric data provided by the Constellation System of Nevermore. Other screens also projected news from various planets of the Solar System, along with the news of the day in Earth. Apparently nothing bad was happening, or if it was happening it was not being covered.
Although Shin could not continue to admire the activity of the place for long. The vision in his one eye twitched, and the next moment he was looking at the hangar roof, where some mechanical cranes were moving. The same thing happened with Mai.
And then they saw her.
They had both been knocked to the ground, and on top of them was a girl with hair as long as Mai's but straight and blonde and tied in a ponytail.
"Liz!" Mai said.
Lizbeth Londonderry showed a fangy smile and hugged them both.
"I wanted to see you two!" She said and sunk her face into Mai's chest, breathing into the slit of her blouse, which tickled Mai.
"Stop it! Not here!" Mai said, blushing.
"You smell so good," sighed Lizbeth, sniffing at Mai's chest, who was trying to get out of Lizbeth's sudden embrace.
She wouldn't have minded in a different situation, but she felt that some of the activity in the place had stopped to look at them. While Mai's presence there was important, the people at the base did not necessarily have to stop their activities to greet her.
Shin smiled to Lizbeth and stroked her head, to which she responded by moving closer to his face and kissing him. Then she helped them both to sit up. Lizbeth was a little taller than Mai and had a rather slender figure and wide hips. She had long eyelashes that gave her a certain mischievous air, that was not disguised by her lime green eyes. Although many people overlooked it, anyone who got close enough to her face could see that she had some imperceptible freckles on her nose. Her mischievous, and somewhat teasing, expression was part of her personality. But it was also part of her charm.
She was wearing a shirt with the first buttons undone, which due to the effusive greeting allowed Shin to see that she was wearing a red bra. She had much larger breasts than Mai who was an A cup. She was also wearing a dark jacket and pants of the same color. She was not wearing casual clothes, which meant that she had been working until recently, or just hadn't had time to wear something more comfortable. She was, like Mai and Shin, a special field agent.
She was also the main reason why Mai and Shin were in France. The truth was that they cared little about the Council at the moment. They both wanted to see her. It had been more than a month since they had been together.
The three of them brought their faces close together and although Shin had to bend down a little, the three of them sealed their greeting by kissing.
Not far from them three other people were watching the scene. One was a tall, bald human male, accompanied by two fey girls. One had black hair tied in two pigtails and the other girl had brown hair.
They were Philip and Zi, who had arrived a couple of hours earlier and Oxy who had arrived the day before along with Siren Island personnel. Philip and Zi were wearing gym clothes, because they had been working out around the station, while Oxy was wearing an orange one-piece dress with a tactical coat, a bit baggy for her.
"No matter how many times I see it," Philip said and chuckled, putting his hands on his hips. "I don't think I'm ever going to get used to seeing Mai kissing like that."
Next to him, Zi was eating a high-calorie muffin with a milkshake. At her feet a small pug dog with crystal fur sniffed near her sneakers, looking for sweet crumbs that fell out of the muffin. The animal was the spoils of the Edinburgh case.
"It's what you call an Eskimo kiss," she said and slurped some of the milkshake.
"Eskimo kissing is with the nose, apologize to all the Inuit!"
"Well from here it looks like they're sniffing each other, so it fits… I guess," Oxy observed, one hand on her chin, trying to look serious.
Neither Lizbeth, nor Mai, much less Shin, were aware of the comment as they were busy. Both Mai and Shin had been hugged by the blonde girl.
It was the kind of relationship the three of them had and they couldn't care less what the others thought about it. Although, as they parted, they did notice that some gazes were fixed on them while others were casting cold, dagger-like stares at Shin. They didn't last more than a moment though and the hustle and bustle quickly returned. Mai looked around slightly flushed, but smiled.
"They've taken French kissing to a whole new level," Philip said, folding his arms, and Oxy and Zi nodded in unison at the comment.
Lizbeth averted her gaze to Carissia, who meanwhile was staring at a distant point at the far end of the hangar with bright, but sad eyes.
"What's up? Do you want some affection too?" Lizbeth asked and then latched onto the redhead's neck and gave her a resounding kiss on the cheek, but Carissia didn't even flinch.
She actually looked sad.
"Hey, what's wrong?" Lizbeth urged, releasing her, and Shin turned to look at where she was staring.
On the far side, three huge robots could be seen on platforms from which a shower of sparks rained down from the welding machines. One of them was red.
"My child," sobbed Carissia, looking at the huge mecha, which at that moment was attached to a platform several stories high and on which several technicians and mechanics were moving around parts.
The huge robot had arrived a day earlier from Astana. It had not suffered any major damage, but during its descent to Earth, due to Mai's call, it had damaged some parts of one of the legs that had cushioned the blow on landing. At the time Mai had made the call, several technicians in orbit were busy doing a routine check and one of the parts failed to engage properly. It was nothing significant, but it had been disassembled to check that everything was in the right place, and to change the wings.
The three of them tried to cheer her up a bit but Carissia seemed really sad to see that her robot had some parts disassembled. They couldn't blame her, after all she always treated him like a living being, even though the robot was not an aeon, which Carissia was.
They stood for several minutes comforting her while Lizbeth, told them about her adventures of the recent days. Although they were in constant communication, it was different now that they were together. And Lizbeth was quite hyperactive so, it was convenient for her to say everything she had to say at once. But that didn't bother them, seeing her really made them erase the thoughts of what had happened in the last few days.
But it didn't take long for a memory of what had happened to appear.
At that moment, looking at another platform nearby, it was Mai who gasped. On the vehicle platform, Shin saw something he knew all too well.
"My car," whined Mai, looking toward the same spot.
What is it with these machine-loving girls? Shin thought.
There stood Mai's rally-fighter, which had been dragged into the lake and then pulled out. It had arrived along with Carissia's robot and was also undergoing repairs. It had been stripped of its bodywork and various parts were on a huge table nearby, while other parts were connected to other equipment reading diagnostics. There were also the drones and among them Shin's favorite one, which looked off at the moment.
Moving around the vehicle, working busily, were three girls with tails wagging back and forth.
Shin knew the owners of those tails well. Two of them were the ones who had set up his turtle device and one of the custom guns Shin used as a field agent. They were not only in the division that developed weapons and special equipment, they were also part of the mechanical team that serviced the vehicles of the senior agents in the SID. Their names were Kon and Kanna.
The owner of the third tail was a little taller than the other two girls, and her name was Camila.
Kon and Kanna were two fey girls of the Kitsune type. Both sisters had fox ears on their heads and tails. The differences between the two were that Kanna was a head shorter than Kon, and Kon had a rather large chest. In addition, Kon had short, light brown hair, almost the same color as Oxy. Kanna, on the other hand, was blonde and had longer hair.
Both of them covered their fey ears with the famous Schrodinger's hairstyle and they only showed their fox ears, hiding their other two ears. Both were dressed in dark tank tops, and cargo pants and from their waists hung a belt with tool pouches, Kon was especially distinguishable as she was wearing also a yellow jacket.
Both belonged to the Research and Development Division at SID.
And then, there was Camila.
Camila was a fey wolf with a wheat-colored tail and long hair. Her ears had slightly white tips and like Kon and Kanna she covered her fey ears with Schrodinger's hairstyle. She was dark-skinned, red-eyed and with some almost invisible straight marks on her arms. She wore a long white robe, a red shirt that was somewhat detached and a black skirt that showed off her hips. Her knee-high tactical boots made her look even taller than she appeared, as they had heels of fifteen centimeters.
Shin knew her well because she dropped by quite often in the Teratology division, even though she didn't belong to the team. Camila belonged to the medical wing, and also the forensic division of the SID. She was a bit eccentric and given to strange experiments that used to give Mai headaches.
Suddenly the wolf girl spotted Mai and Shin, and waved her arm in the distance, which with the movement disheveled the hairstyle that covered her pointed ears. Kanna and Kon stopped and waved as well. The two sisters wagged their tails and ears happily from seeing Mai, who they had not seen for several months. The movement of the ears puzzled Shin who wondered if the other pair would also move in the same way, although being covered with the hairstyle it was a mystery.
The truth was that Schrodinger's hairstyle was incredibly popular since the twentieth century of the Ancient Era among the feys. To cover their pointed ears some feys used their hairstyle. Although in species that had another pair of ears such as nekomata feys, kitsune, and other species that was more complicated. It was no longer necessary to hide the extra ears, but still the Schrodinger's hairstyle was almost the most common among feys, even though everyone could give it their own particular style.
The name Schrodinger's hairstyle came from the famous Schrodinger's cat mental exercise, although applied to ears. The normal fey ears could be there, but they could not be seen, hence the name.
"What the heck?!" Mai suddenly said, on the verge of tears welling up in her eyes.
On one side of the platform lay the car seats that Mai was quite careful about, because they were sporty and no longer manufactured. Mai walked towards the platform followed by Lizbeth, while Carissia had disappeared at some point towards her robot. Shin was thinking of accompanying the two girls but, remembering that Camila was there to examine him, he slowly backed away and walked towards the group of three others who were watching the scene with amusement.
"Come here. Join the group, loser," Oxy greeted with a gesture that reminded Shin of how a bully would pick a fight.
"Who are you calling a loser? Squirrel in a hyperglycemic coma," Shin said, and they both bumped fists in greeting.
On the other side Mai, holding hands with Lizbeth, looked at the discarded seats with pity. Lizbeth was with slightly flushed cheeks.
If only these could talk, Lizbeth thought.
"Why the sad face Izumin?" greeted Camila, in a singsong voice, leaning against the platform railing.
"Why did you pull the seats out like this?" Mai decided to ignore the funny way Camila had called her, she wasn't the only one after all that use that sort of nickname.
"I'm sorry Izumi," Kanna said, lowering her head a little. "The truth is, they were muddy too."
"That's true," third Kon, "it would be best to make new ones with a printer, same quality and all."
"These were vintage," Mai pouted and Lizbeth took the opportunity to hug her from behind while rubbing her belly. The girls saw the gesture and blushed a little.
"Oh! You have dark hair," said Lizbeth, who had just noticed the change of coloring in Mai's ponytail locks.
"I'll most likely be halfway done by tomorrow," Mai told her, without taking her eyes off the seats, but stroking Lizbeth's hand, which was scratching her belly.
Kanna watched the gestures between the two, then looked at Shin in the distance chatting with the others and smiled nervously, trying to hide her blush with her hair.
"What's wrong?" Mai asked.
"You tell her?" Kon asked Camila.
Camila just smiled and walked over to Mai and Lizbeth.
The two sisters returned to their work with the car, they had enough for the rest of the day. They had to change the interior panels and adjust the interior space compression mechanisms, to make it more comfortable for the three of them, since starting the next day the Blue Midnight team would receive a new member and change its name as well.
Mai's car had not received an upgrade in years, and it was necessary to upgrade the safety. Changing the interior space was vital as well. In cases where they needed to be on a stakeout somewhere, and the deferred space inside the vehicle could make them more comfortable. Not to mention that if they were caught out at night in the middle of nowhere, they could sleep much more pleasantly.
That was the main reason why the girls were blushing.
Camila began to explain it by approaching them and began to speak in a low tone, but with a smile that showed a certain mischief.
"Liz-tan, Izumin... you both know that the automatic cleaning system activates itself, right?"
"...Yeah." Mai couldn't understand what it could have to do with discarding the seats.
The automatic cleaning system consisted of a special nanoparticle spray that, when no one was inside the vehicle, could activate and clean the interior of any dirt or debris. It was no longer necessary to waste hours cleaning a vehicle as was done hundreds of years ago. Although certainly in some cases it was not very effective, such as what happened in Kolsay where the car had basically received tons of dirt, mud and fungus filaments. Still, with a multi-sweep cleaning system it would be enough to clean it, without having to get rid of the sport seats that had taken Mai quite some time to find.
Camila started to explain. "Well, good. The system is very good, it can clean off any remaining dirt without any problems. No problems with that."
"W-what's going on with the cleaning system?"
"Well a multiple sweep analysis like ours can uncover anything that the cleaning system missed."
Mai's face was starting to turn a shade of red and Camila approached both girls hugged one on each side, while her voice had become only a whisper that only Lizbeth and Mai could hear. "There was enough genetic material from the three of you to create a new country."
https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dfzylpl-29561dd3-3238-455b-a051-d4aef3f53003.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGZ6eWxwbC0yOTU2MWRkMy0zMjM4LTQ1NWItYTA1MS1kNGFlZjNmNTMwMDMuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.5Kf2BD3kw7vXSbCeEUQ1_ebzq339fai8ubZkvp2qU1Q [https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/42dd80f9-5ac6-42d5-8ccc-bcea020b6152/dfzylpl-29561dd3-3238-455b-a051-d4aef3f53003.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7InBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzQyZGQ4MGY5LTVhYzYtNDJkNS04Y2NjLWJjZWEwMjBiNjE1MlwvZGZ6eWxwbC0yOTU2MWRkMy0zMjM4LTQ1NWItYTA1MS1kNGFlZjNmNTMwMDMuanBnIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmZpbGUuZG93bmxvYWQiXX0.5Kf2BD3kw7vXSbCeEUQ1_ebzq339fai8ubZkvp2qU1Q]
Mai was as red as a tomato. For her part Lizbeth simply smiled nervously.
"Your samples Liz-tan are a month old but yours..." she said, then looked at Mai smiling, "are only a couple of weeks old."
Mai hid her face in her hands.
"I'm not judging you, just be more careful. Erasing the record of cameras and qinetic movement in the car is not enough for our systems."
"S-sorry," Mai said.
Camila had achieved her goal. To see Mai completely red.
She wasn't doing it out of malice. Given that Mai always seemed so serious to talk to, and given her rank and that she had been used to dealing with dangerous situations for most of her life, it was rare to see her relaxed, unless it was in the intimate circle of people who knew her best. Seeing her who could act like a normal girl was important.
Balancing the state of mind that always seemed to be in seriousness due to the Dark Events, was also important. Shin was the one who had taken care of it in the past few months, not only as her research partner but also as her boyfriend.
Seeing her act like a normal girl really took a load off Camila's mind, because it indicated that she was fine and not focusing her mind solely on horrible events related to the DEs. Still she couldn't deny that it was a nice sight to see Mai so out of her serious personality.
"Don't bother her," Lizbeth grumbled, hugging Mai.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. It's not a bad thing. But...I mean. You guys have access to the best hotels in the world. Is it really necessary to have sex in the car?"
At that Mai hid her face in Lizbeth's jacket.
"What's wrong with that. Sometimes we're miles away from any lodging. Also is not sex we are making love. Big difference!" Lizbeth said.
"I guess that's true," Camila admitted, with a serious gesture and nodded. "May I ask something?"
Mai showed her face slowly. "W-what?"
"At least you' guys are keeping it safe, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?"
"Liz was caressing your belly just now, Izumin."
"I'm not pregnant!" Mai exclaimed obfuscated.
"She likes belly fondling," Lizbeth admitted.
"I'm just worried that you guys aren't taking care of yourselves."
"We are taking care of each other," Mai nodded.
"It's just... well, Shin is a being from another universe. So technically he's an alien."
"What's wrong with that?"
"Well, he's compatible with both of you but ,we honestly don't know what would come out of the union of him and a fey. A moth-fey, a banshee-fey and a alien..."
"We're not pregnant..." they both shook their heads.
"Well, I'm glad. The last thing we need is a monster coming out of you two."
"You're really mean!" Lizbeth said.
"Just cautious! You guys saw that old movie called Alien, right? That didn't end well for the crew of the Nostromo."
"Shin is not a xenomorph!"
"Let's hope not. The last thing I want to see is a chestbuster coming out of you two," Camila expounded with a smile, now full of malice.
"You're really horrible!" Mai sentenced.
Still blushing, she then ordered them to discard the seats without further ado.
Although Lizbeth wanted to keep them as souvenirs in something she called a “Museum of Love” and Mai didn't want to know what it was about.