Elena made her way home, slightly drunk, in ‘both’ the punch and alcohol varieties, because recovery potions tended to make one tipsy, if one took too many all at once.  

Her light cotton blouse and road leathers were all sticky red. Covered in blood. Mostly her blood. Today’s job had been, a bit of an ordeal. She’d had to lean on those regenerative abilities of hers a little more than she’d have liked.

If she hadn’t she’d almost certainly be dead, but that was besides the point. If she were as good as she was aiming to be, she wouldn’t need to push as hard and she wouldn’t need all the leeway her healing powers gave her.

Getting hit, meant not being fast enough, strong enough, skilled enough. Getting knocked around meant she was making mistakes. She’d have to go over things in her head to see what she was doing wrong.

That would be her personal assignment for the rest of today, and maybe tomorrow too, if Edna didn’t need her for anything major.

Edna had gone back to the Bone Tree Tower in Nereida, to set up the finalized paperwork for the Lloyd Job. Things had ended with the Mercury-Knight’s defeat. Lloyd wanted a little more help than that and it was looking like things were going to be a bit complicated on that end.

It wasn’t anything Jermaine and his people couldn’t handle but Edna was a worrier, which meant that she’d probably insist on doing it herself, or at least overseeing the process.

Elena on the other hand was content to go rest, Edna knew where to find her if she needed her. Plus Elena was fairly well concussed, and dog tired, facing against more than ten thousand high level monsters all on one’s own, was only fun in the moment.

And like all ‘fun’ activities there were usually some consequences that would have to be endured. As probably should have been expected, in this case the consequences were on the unpleasant side.

Elena felt like all her strength was gone, like her skin was paper and her bones were sticks. She imagined that all it’d take to knock her over was a stiff breeze.

Elena walked through the house, undressing like a toddler who’d just come in from play. Lazily shrugging and kicking off her clothes. Leaving bloody footprints as she made her way through the house.

The first item on her itinerary for the rest of the day, was a nice hot bath. One with bubbles and soaps that smelled of sweetness and spice. The next order of the day was sleep. There were no other orders or plans made for the day. Anything else that might have been waiting, would have to wait just a little bit longer.

Elena headed to bed, not ‘her’ bed off course, that thing remained largely untouched. Instead she headed to Billy’s room where she saw him sleeping, his back faced to the door. She slipped into bed alongside him, with a sigh of relief.

The comfortable mattress receiving her body with a care that made her feel that the Bone Tree Company wouldn’t be mistaken were they to start selling furniture as well. In fact she liked the idea enough that she immediately decided to bring it up with Edna later.  

A housewares and domesticate products line would likely be every inch as profitable as their more martially angled wares.

*****

Billy lay in a sleep that was just a hair away from being a coma when a certain light and husky whisper invaded his dreams.

“Oi, you...You know, I’m mad at you y’know.” said the speaker. Her words half lost in a yawn.

Billy reluctantly woke and turned around.

“Nh...What did I do?”

“Gah!”

Sleep fled Elena as she sat up in bed and stared at the  raw, red, skeletal visage that lay next to her.

“Nh?... What’s wrong?” said Billy.

“Are you okay? What happened to your face?” said an alarmed Elena.

Billy blinked, or he would have, if he’d had any eyelids. Instead he simply stared. The lights in his eyes turning his head into a horrid irrlicht, a bony lantern, that lit the room without providing any real amount of light.

“Ah,This?…It’s nothing.”

Elena frown and she reached over and pulled him closer. Peering down the front of the blood soaked t-shirt, that he wore beneath the weird, see-through, plastic ‘pajamas’ he wore when he was worried about getting the bed messy.

“That doesn’t look like nothing. Will, I can see your insides, what the hell happened?!”

“It really is nothing...It’s just a little death curse. A stubborn Archmage managed to get off a final spell before he succumbed to his wounds. I’ll be better by tomorrow.”

She frowned, staring at the glistening organ meat and the thin muscular membranes that held it all in place. His raw red bones looking like a dog had been chewing them.

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Billy had explained the war with the Mages guild discussing it with Elena and Edna before going through with it.

For the most part she understood and agreed with his reasoning. What she didn’t understand or agree with was his insistence on fighting the war alone.

“Do-...Do you promise?”

“I promise.” said Billy.

His attempt at smiling, made his low jaw pop free from its frayed muscular moorings.

It dangled from his skull, his tongue flopping loose, like a long pink snake, making Elena feel slightly nauseous, and much more worried.

“I’m serious here. If you die, if you die, I swear I’ll give you such a pinch.”

Billy chuckled, awkwardly scratching the side of his non-existent face, as he pushed his jaw back into place.

“I promise. A little thing like this can’t kill me.”

Elena nodded deciding to take him at his words and then reflexively leaned in to kiss him, her lips hitting his teeth, because because he had no lips to kiss her back. Laughing off any continuing feelings of unease and uncertainty, she flopped down onto the bed.

Protectively snuggling in closer, slinging her arm across his bony chest.

“Sorry about Missing the thing for today…” said Billy. Making a guess at why she might have been mad.

“Huh? Oh...that? Nevermind, I was mostly joking anyway.” said Elena. Eyes half closed, because she was just ‘that’ tired and because she trusted that Billy would keep his word and ‘not’ be a cold corpse at her side when the morning came.

“How’d the replacement I sent worked out?” said Billy.

“You know there’s no replacing you, babe.” said Elena. Yawning.

If Billy had had cheeks he might have blushed, but neither of them would know that since it currently wasn’t the case.

“Th-..thanks?” said Billy.

“....So where’d you get the winged guy from…” said Elena.

“Oh...he’s a new hire.” said Billy.

“A new hire, huh? Ed was just as shocked as I was when he showed up.” said Elena.

“Nh...well he’s a ‘very’ recent hire, and he mainly reports directly to me...Or rather, I kind of own him. He’s mine for the next six hundred trillion years, but I’m thinking I’ll keep him on for longer, if he works out.” said Billy.

Elena laughed, not quite getting the gist, but fairly sure she’d just heard something that was either more than a little scary or childishly ridiculous.

A feeling that usually occurred when she was bothering him in his lab. Or chatting with him about work.

“Oh?...That’s nice I guess...how’d that happen?” said Elena. Her interest waning as her exhaustion took over. Making each of her eyelids feel like it bore the weight of a mountain.

“Oh...it’s a funny story, at first it was just one billion years when he started a fight with me and I beat him...Then it got longer when it turned out that I could give him back something very important to him.” said Billy.

Elena listed to him, while her thoughts grew lighter, and airier, she wasn’t sure how much was the conscion and how much was just normal exhaustion. She figured she probably shouldn’t be sleeping but knew she was going to do so anyway.

“That’s nice...G’night, Billy. Love you.” said Elena. Her words half lost in a yawn.

“....Love you too.”

*****

Billy lay in the dark staring at nothing, while he waited for his consciousness to sink within itself. He remembered the combination of scolding and explanation he got, when Edna was finally willing to talk to him about what had made her so upset.

He’d been a bit confused when a red faced Elena, had sidled up behind him and told him that she wouldn’t accept more than twelve. To this day he was still a little afraid of asking ‘twelve what?’...but he’d decided he’d try to avoid the number for however long their new arrangement lasted.

He remembered being shocked and a little embarrassed that he hadn’t understood earlier. Then he remembered a very quiet part of him smiling. Filled with a peaceful, giddy warmth.

A feeling that he still couldn’t quite put words to, but accepted as another pleasant emotion that he’d get to enjoy so long as he was with the girls.