Thankfully, the fabric of spacetime in the Down Below was kind to the five of them as they flew back to Lamius’ home, under Horan’s instructions that he could send them back up to where they needed to go. As they retraced the rough path Salamin had taken two days prior, Omet felt the control pad buzz around the edges. They were getting close.

Lamius was on the roof when the Potirangi approached. He waved them down and smiled hopefully as the gangway was lowered down into the roof-dirt. “Took you a while. How’d it go?”

Horan glanced at the corpse being carried by Waia. “Well, all five of us are still alive. Still, it could’ve gone better.”

Lamius’ smile fell. “...Right. Well, I’m glad you all made it back safe. Even if you didn’t succeed, I…” He lowered his head and nodded in the general direction of Quet and Omet. “I’m sorry for your loss, both of you. You can spend as much time as you need here.”

Omet glanced at Quet, who shook her head. “Yeah, thanks for the offer, but we’d rather just go home. It’s been a while, and we’ve got a body that we’d like to bury.”

Lamius nodded and pointed to the entrance to his home. “Well, I can send you there whenever you’re ready. My portal room is right down there.”

Quet flashed a quick smile. “Thanks, we’ll be out of your hair soon.”

While the others walked past, Horan hung behind and walked next to Lamius. “Well, in other news, I managed to save a spot for me and Mark with the Aztecs. I don’t know if they have their own portal room there, but if they do, you bet I’m gonna be visiting you here more often. Not exactly much else for me to do, so…” He chuckled. “So that’s something to look forward to.”

Lamius nodded and patted Horan on the back. “Great to hear it. It can get lonely down here, you know. I just wish we could’ve gotten to that point without…” He nodded towards Waia and the body she carried.

“Well, Mark tells me that he got the deal set up before everything went down, all this was just a really weird diversion.”

“Hm.” Lamius followed Horan down the stairs inside. “Well, they seem nice.”

Waia arrived at the portal room first, then handed Hurat over to his siblings. “Okay, that’s as far as I’m taking this guy.” She patted Mark and Horan on the back, then waved at the Aztecs. “Well, it’s definitely been an interesting few days. I hope you guys don’t turn mortal any time soon, I hope Mark doesn’t become any mortal-er, and I-I hope you guys can work through all of that.” She rubbed her arm. “Maybe we can visit each other at some point? We know where we all live, and I’d like Ivy to have a more normal picture of you guys in her head.”

Omet nodded and smiled at her. “Sounds nice. Boats can’t be that hard to come by.”

Waia stepped into the circle and waved at Lamius, who stood by a small wall of glyphs. She gave one last half-smile to the rest. “Guess I’ll see you all later. Best of luck, and all that.”

-

Ivy was woken by the sound of a window sliding open and something tumbling to the floor. She groaned so quietly that she could barely even hear herself. That was either someone trying to rob her, or that one persistent mongoose. She hoped it was the former.

She was halfway out of bed when Waia opened the bedroom door and stepped through. “Room for one more in there?”

Ivy yawned. “Hey, I think the mongoose is b-” Her eyes shot open. “Waia?!”

Waia brought a finger to her lips. “Quiet, I don’t want us to wake up the neighbors.” She shut the door behind her. “It’s something like 3:45, I checked a while ago.”

Ivy rubbed her bleary eyes. “Wh- So you just climb through the window in the dead of night? We have a door, you know. Also, it’s been three days! I was started to get worried.”

Waia put her backpack into the closet. “I went to another dimension. I’d say that three days away is surprisingly little, all things considered.” She sat on the bed next to Ivy, bumping against her blanket-covered knee. “But hey, bright side, I’m back. And more people died than I would’ve preferred, but I didn’t do most of it myself, and at least there aren’t gonna be any more monster attacks. By the way, there was only the one attack, right? Nothing went wrong while I was gone?”

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Ivy nodded. “Yeah, not much really can go wrong in that little time. But I’ve been trying to cover for you this whole time, you know! That’s really hard when I don’t know how long you’ll be gone for!”

Waia sucked in her lips. “...Hm. Okay, yeah, that was… I probably could’ve planned that whole trip better. I can tell that things weren’t, uh, weren’t easy for you either.” She looked up. “But you know what? I’m gonna make it up to you. I liked having a little extra action in my life, so how about I take up your hunting jobs for a couple weeks? I’ve got the free time even with the bar, and I can very much handle myself enough for that.”

Ivy blushed. “Hey, no, it’s fine, I can-”

Waia came in for a hug. Ivy felt herself, somewhat against her will, soften in response to her wife’s arms wrapping around her. “...Oh. A-alright, then.”

Waia pulled away and chuckled. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just… I don’t think we’ve been doing things like that enough. We’ve just sort of been living together for a while, and I just feel like I could be showing appreciation like that for you more.”

Ivy looked Waia over, still somewhat disoriented from the pace of the last minute or so. “But I thought that you thought that kind of thing was sappy. Same as with pet names.”

Waia raised a finger. “I will continue to draw the line at pet names for now. But in the meanwhile…” She leaned in and pecked Ivy on the cheek. “I love you. I don’t want it to feel like I take you for granted, is all. I probably won’t live forever, and you definitely won’t. But while we’re both still in the same place…” She took off her jacket and shoes before getting into bed next to Ivy. “Still a few hours before sunup. I couldn’t really fall asleep when night fell during my hike back here from Mauna Kea, so I’d like to get at least some before I have to show back up for real.”

Ivy covered her cheek, but didn’t lie back down. “So, you travel with a bunch of other glowy-eyed giants to another dimension, come back after three days and go to bed like nothing happened?”

Waia glanced back up at her. “Sorry, I… Hang on.” She sat up. “Guess we weren’t quite done talking yet?”

“No, we’re not done!” Ivy pushed the blankets off of her body. “I know life hasn’t been normal for anyone for these past few years, but can you at least realize that this is weird for me? I find out that the person I married is some seven-foot amazonian lava spirit, and then she leaves to go deal with some monster army for three days! This has been hard!”

A hand came to her head. “I… Thanks for trying to be more open with me. I do appreciate it. But this is just like the early days. I don’t know if what it was… Primus, uh, Primi? No, it was Primoi. Are you just built different? Do eight hundred years do something to how you see things like this?” She brought the other hand up, covering her face. “It’s just… If this is what things are like for you, how can I keep up? Am I just some small part of everything you’ve got going on? Is this whole life you’ve got here just this place you go to for your days, o-or years off? I don’t even know how you think!”

She pulled her legs up to her chest. “I… I tried to stay calm when you first told me all this. I tried my best to manage all the new arrivals, and the monster on the carpet, and e- and everything, without breaking down. But I don’t even know anymore, if I should be worried about all this or not. I can’t tell… I can’t tell if I can even do anything for you. It actually kind of took me a while for me to realize that you went to another dimension to stop the apocalypse.” A nervous laugh escaped her. “It’s like we both got each other one morning, and the next, I’ve got an alien in my house…”

Waia sank back into her pillow and stared up at the ceiling, chewing her lip. “You know, I sometimes wonder the same kind of thing. I mean, you’d expect that much time on my hands to change how I see things. I mean, that definitely seems to be the case for all the other Primoi in Hawaii. But, I dunno. I think living in this world full of magic and superpowers and a monster afterlife just makes me want to live like a human more.”

She looked over at Ivy. “I mean, sure. The Down Below had some pretty sights, and I got to know a few people while away. But I don’t think I went more than a day without almost dying at least once, and the whole reason I went down there was to make sure that the whole world wouldn’t be invaded by armies of monsters. The things I get involved with are exciting, but I just wish the world would chill out once in a while. You know?”

Ivy sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I feel that.”

“I do think it’s weird, how human I’ve stayed for these past few centuries. I guess that’s the best way to put it. But honestly? I’m fine with it. It means I can settle down with someone like you and spend a while just living life, without getting bored and going off to find some ocean monster or whatever to wrestle. Believe me, I’ve done enough stuff like that to fill up a lifetime, no matter how long that ends up being.”

Waia let out a long, slow sigh. “The world’s full of wild stuff asking for an adventure. But I’d say that adventure’s overrated. I’d say that a quiet life with the one you love is a hundred times better.”

Ivy opened her mouth, but said nothing. A slow rush of wind exited her mouth as she relaxed. Instead of saying anything, she just lay back down and nuzzled her face into Waia’s wavy hair.

Waia sighed and smiled. “...Thanks.”

They both went to sleep. The sun wouldn’t come up for another two hours. They had time.