"Everything alright?" Dani asked as we exited the room, glancing between the two of us.

Eveline narrowed her eyes at Dani, her expression one of apparent disdain. I suspected she just wasn't entirely sure how to behave with Dani, so chose to fall back on what was safe for her. "I don't imagine you can source foods high in iron, can you?" She asked.

"Of course," Dani replied immediately. "We were planning to load you both up on high-iron foods, given Rick's blood loss."

I nodded, the suggestion making sense. For some reason, though, Eveline seemed to get defensive, and her tail started to twitch as she stared at Dani. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," Dani spoke softly. "You lost a lot of blood from your injuries, trying to save him from the panther, and he was determined to make sure you survived it."

Eveline seemed unable to decide how to take that reassurance, as the part of her that instinctively put up a front warred with the deeper part of herself that recognised what had really happened. "Wish my wounds were healed enough so I could go hunting," she muttered as she looked away.

Dani looked at me with a frown, and I shook my head. "So, what are you planning to get us?" I then asked her, changing the subject a little.

"Well, one of the local farming communities around here has a lot of corn on hand to account for the energy requirements," Dani told us. "He also has a lot of high-density spinach on hand."

I frowned, not understanding exactly what that was. "High... Density... Spinach?"

"Yeah," Dani told me. "Ever since the nanocloud came into existence, it's been bolstering the defences of any life it comes into contact with. It's why wood is so much denser, why corn yields are so much greater, and why spinach is packed with nearly twice as much iron as the naturally-grown variety that used to exist."

"That should restore our iron reserves," I said, nodding. "Protein?"

"Chicken or fish?" Dani asked. "The nearby river is teeming with marine life, and Jacob's sons maintain the largest chicken coop I've ever seen. Never a shortage of eggs. The chicken used for eating isn't actually live chicken. It's grown in a factory-like environment."

Eveline made a disgusted face. "No offence," she said, surprising me; she'd normally be blunt. "But I prefer to catch my own!"

"Well," Dani shrugged, gesturing to Eveline's injured side. "When you're back in top shape, you can hunt to your heart's content. For now, we have to make do with what we can produce here, so just try to deal with it, alright?"

Eveline's tail started to twitch, and I could tell she was getting irritable, as her eyes narrowed at Dani. I stepped in at that point, and squeezed her shoulder gently. She shrugged it off with a hiss. She wasn't kidding when she said it wouldn't be easy to change, but as she turned around with a glare at me, I maintained my placid expression. She didn't know how to respond to that, so she simply turned around to Dani again, then looked down at the table. "Thanks," she mumbled, and then said nothing else, her tail still twitching slightly.

"By the way," I decided to change the subject, turning to Rosalie. "That panther's head was blown clean off his shoulders. What was that?"

"Sniper rifle," she replied. "I did some wet work when deployed over in Kosovo."

I noticed she deliberately avoided saying anything else on that particular subject, but decided it wasn't something I needed to know about. "I don't know if the panther had any reinforcement under his skin, but what if he had a carbon-nanotube armour layer?"

"A what?!" Dani asked, while Eveline looked at me with curiosity.

"If you have a nanocloud with the right tools," I explained. "You can tell it to perform biosynthetic replacement of certain organs. The lower-layers of your skin are able to be replaced with flexible carbon nanotubing to act as a layer of armour."

Eveline shuddered, and Dani looked nauseated.

Rosalie shrugged, clearly not bothered by the prospect. "Even taking that into account," she began. "There are limits to material science. A normal sniper round might have been enough to put a hole in a regular human head but be stopped cold by a few thousand layers of carbon nanotubing, but a fifty-cal with explosive-tipped AP rounds will basically explode someone's head open."

"It did," I quipped.

"Yeah," Rosalie sighed. "If he had carbon nanotubing as an armour layer under his skin, it would have kept his head mostly intact... Save for the hole that would have ripped through it." I let out a low whistle. "I don't take chances when it comes to defending what's mine and Dani's."

No, I guessed not.

"So, what's this you were saying about cybernetic replacements?" Dani asked, her face slightly pale. "Will you turn into a robot?"

"Yeah, Rick, what's up with that?" Rosalie snickered. "Will you turn into an Austrian Bodybuilder with a really bad accent and wooden acting skills?"

I couldn't help but laugh, though I tried to suppress it.

"I don't get it," Eveline looked at each of us, a puzzled look on her face. "Was that meant to be a joke of some kind?"

"Yeah," I told her. "Old world humour."

She shrugged. "Still, cybernetic replacements?"

"Right," I replied, and for the next several minutes, I explained that my nanocloud had achieved sufficient intelligence complexity, that it could now implement a program that could make in-place changes to various parts of a person's body, giving them a flexible skin armour, greatly-increased strength with synthetic muscle, enhanced visual systems with replacement retinas, reinforced biopolymer and carbon nanotube skeletal replacement, among many other possibilities. I also explained that if I wanted to make such changes, I would need to add some new tools to my nanites, and all of it would take a while before the changes were possible.

"It's also likely why there aren't more people walking around with upgrades like that, obvious or hidden," I finished.

Dani looked sick to her stomach. Rosalie was slightly grim-faced, though I suspected she knew about this already.

Eveline wasn't surprised. "Some of your pursuers last week were heavily modified," she told me. "One of them threw fucking lightning bolts from his hands."

"Fucking lightning?!" Rosalie exclaimed. Dani wasn't surprised by this, and I guessed it was because she saw Eveline's memories.

"Back in Rheda-Wiedenbrück, there were people capable of snap-freezing targets and using sonic attacks of varying kinds," I explained. "Two of them worked on a wall opening, with the ice maker freezing a section of the wall to turn it brittle, and the other then blasting it with a sonic attack that sounded like the loudest screech you ever heard on the planet. Put those two together? Nice neat hole in someone's defences."

"How do you counter such abilities?" Dani asked, her face white with shock. "I mean, people who can freeze anything they touch? Shatter concrete and other hard materials with sound waves?"

"It's all materials science," Rosalie told her. "The energy needed to pull all of that stuff off needs to come from somewhere, so it's not like you have supermen all over the planet just throwing fireballs and ice around. In fact," she now turned to Eveline. "That guy throwing lightning around when you fought him? I'd be willing to bet that he was very close to being tapped out on his reserves, and I'm also willing to bet that he wasn't able to throw his strikes too far, either."

Eveline frowned. "Well, now that you mention it," she said thoughtfully. "No, he wasn't. It was almost pitiful."

"Yeah, the energy requirements alone would need technology I haven't seen scaled down to fit in a human," Rosalie continued. "Not to mention that there are limits to the gains you can get through power and thermal efficiencies."

"You know, now that I think of it," I realised I'd forgotten to mention this. "The cops in Sept Iles were all able to throw lightning, and the one officer Hardass I came across? He threw an uppercut to my jaw that was electrically charged. Caused my nanocloud to go offline for a few seconds."

"I remember seeing that," Dani told us. "Lightning bolts!"

"Yeah," Eveline looked back at me, an unreadable expression on her face. I'd have to ask her what was on her mind later. "I could scarcely believe it myself when I saw it... Until I got into the scrape with the human who used it on me!"

"The main thing I've learned about our post-outbreak reality," I spoke to everyone. "Is that our nanoclouds are capable of giving us some abilities and protections that no-one had previously imagined possible before it came into existence."

There was a lengthy silence. "But to change ourselves so drastically?" Dani said in a whisper.

"Some of those changes are unlikely to have an effect on us other than to give us greatly increased physical ability. Already, my nanocloud has made me immune to cancers, and since upgrading it back in Berlin, I've already gotten it to a stage where it can heal what once would have been mortal wounds in the old world. Besides..." I then paused and looked at Dani. "Can you imagine having carbon fibre bones that were both flexible and strong? You'd be much lighter, and you wouldn't ever have to worry about being take down by a broken shin bone from a jump ever again."

"There are good and bad points to making changes to your body with cybernetics," Rosalie said for me. "Done properly, and with a sufficiently high technological level, the replacement parts you are given will work just as well, if not better, than the natural original parts you were born with. And I'd be willing to bet that they won't feel different, either."

Dani still looked skeptical.

I decided that the subject could use changing again. Besides, none of us were really ready to make those kinds of changes. "Anyway," I said into the silence. "What's the plan for the next few days while we go through convalescence?"

"If Eveline feels up to it," Dani glanced at Eveline, who shrugged. "I was thinking we could transfer back to our house. The guest rooms are sufficient for both of you, and the balcony view is nice and peaceful. It's also a lot closer to the farm on that side of town."

"The river is farther away," Eveline muttered. "But I could always ask someone if they're willing to sell me some fish at the local martketplace."

Dani nodded, a slight smile on her face. "Our house is closer to the marketplace anyway."

----------------------------------------

The next day was fairly uneventful, as Eveline continued to heal. Both of us were given plenty of food to eat, far more than we would normally need, but the need to increase our consumption of foods was obvious.

Dani and Jacob, the man who had allowed us to stay in his residence so we had access to the medical bed, were both responsible for preparing our meals. Eveline was given a diet primarily of fish, usually grilled, though she did ask once for it to be served somewhat rare on one occasion.

What had surprised me, was how meek she had sounded. Dani was apparently having an effect on her personality somewhat, or it could just be that Dani now knew her better than even I did.

My diet was different. I didn't need to repair lost or damaged tissue, so I only needed my regular amount of protein, with most of my daily intake of food being given over to various forms of spinach and other iron-rich produce. I only needed a certain amount of iron to contribute to my blood cell replenishment; all the excess foodstuffs I'd consumed went to my nanocloud, which had continued to build additional nanites for itself.

Eveline's enforced idleness was frustrating, and more than once she had snapped at one of us, walking out of the room after muttering an apology to whoever had received her sharp tongue. I was the only exception to this. Whenever she snapped at me in frustration, she would stalk off. The first time she did this, I left her to it, and later discovered she had been waiting for me to follow. She never took it personally that I didn't, but as she subsequently explained to me when we were alone, she wanted all of her apologies to me to be done in private, where she could also tell me what was really bothering her.

The first night, she had slept in a bed specifically prepared for keeping the obliques in her right side as relaxed as possible. The damage to those had been extensive, and the nanocloud had needed to reconstruct most of the muscle tissue from scratch. The first night, you could see the missing sections of muscle from her waist, even though the skin covering it had been repaired.

It was odd, seeing the olive skin that would normally be covered by her tiger-striped fur.

Sleep for her had been somewhat restless as well. Apparently, the itching that accompanied the nanocloud's reconstruction efforts was getting in the way, but I slept on a recliner next to the bed that Dani had dragged from a nearby sitting room. This allowed us to spend time together at night, and Ev could always wake me up if needed.

That first night, she didn't, though she had no hesitation in holding my hand the moment I offered it. Every now and then, she would squeeze it gently, smiling as she drifted into a fitful sleep.

The next morning, I received an alert from my nanocloud, reporting that sufficient new units had been reconstructed to re-enable the level 2 AI extensions that I'd enabled so many weeks earlier. I was still waking up from a dreamless sleep, and Eveline's hand rested on top of mine as she slept on for a few more minutes. I consulted my nanocloud on its present status.

Nanocloud reconstruction in progress.

Blood RBC count is presently 174.8 bn/ltr.

Completion of RBC replenishment ETA 3 hours 28 minutes.

Nanocloud density is 3.04tn/ltr.

Goal density 4.02tn/ltr.

ETA is 44 hours to goal density.

The figures were ultimately meaningless, other than the timescales. I would have my full blood capacity by the time we set off tomorrow, though it would most likely be the following morning before my nanocloud was back to my previous capacity levels.

Resuming project workspace: Imprint Control Project.

I was caught by surprise by this notification. Once again, it seemed as though my nanocloud had taken matters into its' own hands, and now it was resuming the project in my workspace, without any prompting from me?

Why would it do this?

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Your decision to archive the project was based on strong, negative emotional reactions concerning Ev. You were not in a position to make a properly-informed choice regarding the project when you chose to remove it from your workspace. I determined that it would be more appropriate to remove notifications of the project and continue working on it in the background pending a more informed and more permanent decision from you in the future.

Why are you now re-activating it in my workspace?

You are in Ev's presence.

There are no longer negative emotional associations with Ev.

There are some very strong positive indicators in their place.

The nanites previously associated with my nanocloud have been able to provide vital context from her synaptic map while the two of you were asleep overnight.

I have incorporated these latest changes to the algorithms surrounding the module's functionality.

All safety factors concerning the deployment of the functions incorporated into the project have now been resolved.

The risk of physical and psychological damage has been mitigated to absolute zero based upon the capabilities of the nanocloud to reconfigure Ev's synaptic map directly, in the event of unforseen trauma caused by the module's operation.

The project is now ready for deployment.

This was rather overwhelming, but it was a goal I had been working towards now for several weeks. While Eveline had made great strides in overcoming the natural instincts that imprinting on people caused, she was still nonetheless subject to their powerful influence.

And Andries' partial imprint was still in her brain. If it was anything like I felt, then I imagined she would want it gone as soon as possible.

Summarise capabilities of the final compiled module.

Module Name: Imprint Management System (suggested)

Module Description: Managed the imprint-susceptible portions of host consciousness, allowing direct control and increasing host's ability to self-determine their own imprinting with others.

Module functions:

- Imprinting: [ENABLED/DISABLED]

- Manage Imprints

- [IMPRINT-NAME]

- [DISABLE - Timed function set to 18 hours disablement]

- [DELETE]

- [HALT/RESUME IMPRINTING]

- [PROTECT]

Explain each function to me.

My nanocloud then dumped their explanations directly into my memory. Essentially, the overarching function of the new module was to enable Eveline to switch her imprinting ability on or off. That would allow her to accept imprinting with new people in the future, or to prevent them. In addition to this, she then had an imprint management section. The sub-menu identified each imprint that had been discovered in her brain, with an identifier for each person who had been imprinted, presented in date order. She may not know who each belonged to at first, since the nanocloud had no ability to identify each, but she could discover who, just by working with the imprints and observing the effects.

Disabling the imprint would likely have a fairly immediate effect on her, much the same as it did with me. I'd have to warn her what happened to me when I turned Andries' imprint off in the test space I'd set up in my own head, so she was ready for it. The function also had a timer for re-enablement, should the need arise to get it back. Disabling the imprint also enabled the ability to delete it, which was otherwise locked out.

Deleting was self-explanatory.

Halt Imprinting was somewhat different from the ability to disable imprinting altogether, in that this provided the same ability to stop the imprinting process cold, but for specific imprints. The function would be disabled for fully-imprinted people, but for partial imprints, it meant that the process could be temporarily suspended if allowing it to continue caused problems that could not be allowed to run their course, such as when on a dangerous mission that required Ev's complete focus.

The protect function was unique. It was currently irreversible, and embedded a protection mechanism into Ev's mind to ensure the imprint could never be deleted. It prevented accidental removal of imprints for people she wanted to keep a hold of, but because it could not be removed afterward, it would likely need to be avoided for all but people she trusted the most.

To be honest, I'm not sure why my nanocloud made that function available.

Just as I was about to instruct my nanocloud to disable the protect function so it could be adjusted to allow the protection to be removed at a future date, I noticed a slight pressure on my hand from Eveline's.

She was waking up.

"Morning, sleepyhead," I greeted her in a cheerful tone, as her eyes slitted open almost tiredly.

"Ugh," she croaked. "Having that much energy in the mornings is offensive!"

"Yeah, well you'll be back to your old self in no time!" I chuckled, standing up, ready to get down to the kitchen so I could make some coffee or something, but Eveline's hand quickly moved from covering my own, to grasping it instead, and with a gentle, insistent pull, she had me standing right next to the bed. "Don't you want some breakfast?"

"Yes," her voice croaked tiredly. "But I still want you to get over here!" With her other hand, she reached up toward my chest, grabbed me by the shirt, and with surprising strength for a convalescent, pulled me down toward the bed so my face was next to hers. Before I realised what she was doing, I felt her cat-like tongue as it traced a path along my jawline, Eveline letting out a low moan the following moment. "Your scent is driving me crazy!"

I pulled back, grinning, as I caught the look of hunger in her eyes. "You know, teasing me like that is torture!"

"How do you think I feel?" She asked me with a very cat-like growl. "Come on, show me how strong you are and pull me up."

Letting out a low chuckle, I did exactly what she asked, pulling her slowly but easily to a sitting position, a slight grimace appearing on her face as she felt the injury at her side. "Still hurts?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Only when I put too much strain on those muscles," she grunted. "Most of the time, it itches. Maybe my nanocloud is still rebuilding the muscle?"

"You could always ask it," I told her. "Oh, that reminds me."

"What?" She asked almost immediately.

"When we've eaten, let's go out to the balcony. I've something I want to talk about with you."

Eveline's expression betrayed apprehension and a slight hint of fear. "What is it?"

"Nothing bad," I told her gently. "But it's private and I want to talk to you about it where you can be yourself when we talk it over."

It took a brief moment before she nodded. "Alright," she said, her tone not quite as reassured as I'd hoped it would be. "Let's go eat, so we can have that chat!"

Downstairs, in the dining room, we ate a breakfast of eggs and tomatoes over toast, with some fruit juice. Once we were done, I grabbed coffee, Eveline filled up a flask with cranberry juice, and we walked back up the stairs to the top floor balcony.

"Let me get a look at that injury," I asked Eveline, who didn't hesitate.

She pulled up her shirt, just enough to show off her taut abs and olive skin, right along with the exposed skin of the site of the injury. It looked a lot better than when I looked it over in the Tim Hortons building while she was still in her coma. The entire wound was sealed under a freshly-healed skin, with no evidence of scarring at the site of the attack. The only way you knew there had been an injury there, was the slight indentation where the panther claws had torn chunks out of her obliques, and the almost smooth, fur-free streaks where the claws had penetrated the skin and destroyed it.

I suspected even that would grow back in a few weeks, if the nanocloud was this effective.

"You mind if I..." I asked, gesturing with my fingers to the site of the wound.

With a placid expression, Eveline nodded. I then traced my fingers gently over the site of the wound, feeling the smooth skin as I did. Eveline twitched slightly, and I glanced up in concern, only to see a slight smile on her lips.

"It tickles," she said softly.

I smiled back, continuing to trace my fingers over her skin, consulting my nanocloud the same moment.

Connect with her nanocloud and get an injury report.

Acknowledged.

Handshake successful.

Receiving report.

Internal Oblique muscle repair in progress. Estimated completion time is 18 hours.

External Oblique muscle repair in progress. Estimated completion time is 36 hours.

Hair follicle restoration at affected epidermis sites tasked as low priority.

Restoration not scheduled until all other repairs are complete.

Estimated completion time is 336 hours.

A day and a half, and she would be virtually back to normal. Her fur pattern would be restored later, and two weeks had been set aside for it by her nanocloud, but she would be able to jump, run and perform her usual acrobatics by tomorrow evening.

Transfer compiled module 'Imprint Management System' to Ev's nanocloud.

Acknowledged. Sending transfer request to nanocloud.

Transfer request acknowledged.

Transferring nanocloud module nanocld_imgmt_sys_a0.01_elf.

Transfer complete.

Ev will now be able to activate the new module.

Disconnect from her nanocloud.

Terminating connection.

Closing data channels.

Task complete.

You may now freely move as normal.

"Curiosity get the better of you?" She asked, her tone laced with amusement.

"You could say that," I grinned at her, withdrawing my hand, but not before giving her another gentle stroke over the bare olive skin of her exposed obliques. "Just wanted to make sure you were still healing well."

She reached out to take my hand. "Well, even though I'm capable of asking my nanocloud myself," she let out a low growl, the effect of which was spoiled by the twinkle in her eyes as she squeezed my hand. "I do appreciate your concern."

"Good," I whispered, taking her face with my free hand, stroking her tiger-striped cheek. "By the way, check your nanocloud. There should be a new module."

"I noticed the transfer request," she told me, then her eyes unfocused as a few moments passed while she was processing what her nanocloud was doing. "Wow. It's taking a while for this thing to calibrate itself to my... Oh, it's done. Wait-" she then looked at me with an expression of shock. "Imprint Management System?"

"Yeah," I suddenly felt shy for some reason, and my cheeks flushed. "I've had my nanocloud running simulations all the time, and just this morning, it told me it was ready, so..."

Eveline's expression remained shocked, her eyes wide, her jaw going slack, and her eyes beginning to glisten. "You worked on this the whole time we...?"

"Well, my nanocloud did much of the work," I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck. "I-I'm not sure how well it'll work-"

I found myself unable to speak when Eveline pressed her lips against mine, wrapping her arms about my shoulders and hugging me tightly, a tremulous whine resonating in her throat, her body beginning to shake. After a moment, she pulled back, wiped her eyes, smiled brightly, and then continued to plant more kisses across my face. "I don't care how well it works," she said, sniffling and laughing at the same time, landing more kisses on my lips. "You've been so good to me!" She then continued kissing, hugging and running her hands through my hair.

After a few minutes, I pulled back, to see her disappointed pout.

"Awww, you're so cute!" I grinned.

Eveline tried to hold a stern expression as she stared at me. "I'm not a cub!" She said sourly, but her wry smile slipped out anyway, as did her sweet blush. "Ok, so how do I use this?" She asked, wiping her eyes.

"Pull up your imprint interface," I told her. "Is there an option to toggle imprinting on and off?"

"Yeah," she replied excitedly. "Is it that simple?"

"It should be," I told her. "But there's more."

Eveline's eyes widened. "There's a 'manage imprints' option on here!"

"Take a look," I grinned at her.

Eveline's eyes unfocused for a moment as she appeared to look over the choices presented. "Two full imprints and three partial ones," she relayed to me. "I'm guessing the two full imprints are my parents."

"Probably," I agreed. "Select one of them."

A moment passed. "Delete- No, don't want that one. Wait. It won't let me choose it. Keeps blocking my focus on it."

"You haven't disabled it," I told her. "It's so you don't accidentally delete someone you want to remain imprinted with."

Eveline nodded. "Disable- No, don't want that one either. Halt imprinting, no, that's blocked. Protect. Protect?"

"It's a safety feature. It allows you to prevent yourself from messing with it now and in the future."

"Good to know," Eveline replied, nodding. "Alright, let's go back... Look at... This is different."

"What is?" I asked, not able to see her interface.

"I chose the oldest of the partial imprints. I suspect it belonged to... You know."

"Yeah," I growled. "Aryan dickhead."

Eveline tried to suppress an amused smile, and failed. "For now, let's see... 'Delete, blocked. Disable, Halt Imprinting, and Protect.'"

"Alright," I began explaining. "Be careful, here. I ran a test of this once, just after we arrived at Mary's Harbour, and it made me sick to my stomach."

"You... When?" Eveline frowned. "When we were in the... Hotel..." Her voice trailed off, and her face flushed, her expression crestfallen, as a heart-wrenching sob escaped her throat, her eyes watering rapidly, and her head fell forward.

"Hey! Line in the sand, remember?" I quickly took her face in my hands, stroking her cheeks. She raised her head and gave me an intense gaze, allowing the tears to flow, but the next moment, she composed herself right in front of me, as though she was drawing strength from me. "Ev, come on," I continued, continuing to stroke her cheeks. "Line in the-"

She silenced me with a kiss to the lips that lasted for a few moments, before pulling back to look at me again. "Let's give this a shot," she suddenly said, and before I could urge caution, her expression twitched, before she turned slightly green, letting out a gagging sound. "You could have warned me!" She groused, giving me a glare.

"I did," I shrugged.

She shuddered, grimacing. "Yeah, I know," she admitted. "Still. That was hideous." The next moment, she took a deep breath, as though she experienced clear lungs for the first time in her life. "When I disabled that imprint, I felt relief that it was gone, and revulsion that it was ever there in the first place! I had my nanocloud just put a block on my reaction when you warned me earlier, but still, I nearly- Yeah, anyway." She then had the faraway look she usually held when she was concentrating on her nanocloud interface, and she started speaking under her breath. "Delete! Are you sure? Yes I'm sure, that man was a fucking pig! Gone..." Eveline stopped muttering at that point as she shivered again, then took a deep breath, looking at me again. "Rick, you have no idea how I feel right now! It's like a weight has been lifted from me!"

"Good," I told her enthusiastically. "That's wonderful. I'd hoped it would work this well."

"I've no idea how you do the things you do with your nanocloud, but it's the most free I've ever felt," she breathed, kissing me lightly. "Years of my life living in fear of becoming a slave to imprinting, and not only do you end up giving me a reason to fight the compulsion to obey my father," she then took another breath, looking into my eyes. "You then use your old world knowledge to make my nanocloud give me control over how it all works! Now I don't have to be afraid!"

"Seeing you this happy, Tiger," I said softly, causing her to giggle. "It's a gift!"

She kissed me again. "I wonder if you're imprinted yet?" She asked rhetorically, then her eyes unfocused briefly, before looking at me again with a beaming smile on her face. "I can feel it! The third imprint started weeks back, I didn't even realise it was there!" She let out a low laugh at that point. "Damn, I think it started while you were giving me your tenderness in Dortmund..."

"My tenderness?" I asked.

"I remember it clearly," she spoke softly. "You were just winding down from giving me an amazing feeling for the third time that night, and you were very gentle with your touch while I was sensitive. It felt..." She took a breath, kissing my lips gently. "It felt like I was being comforted, like you were doing more than just satisfying my lusts."

"I think I was," I told her softly. "I don't know how to explain it, but I wanted you to not just feel good, but know you matter to me."

"Yeah," she whispered, stroking my face. "I really enjoyed it."

I kissed her again. "That's what I was hoping would happen."

"And for the first time in my life, I feel like I want to embrace the imprint without holding anything back!" She kissed my lips again. "I've never experienced an imprint like this! Dammit, I'm so excited right now!"

"You're so adorable like this!"

"Oh, be quiet, you!" she groused in a scathing tone, but the twinkle in her eyes and the gentle brush of her tail against my face let me know she was overwhelmed.

I lazily captured her tail, then breathed in as I passed her tip under my nose. Curiously, her eyes started to flutter and her expression started to relax. Grinning, I started to stroke the tip.

"You-" She snatched back her tail, her voice flustered. "Save it for later! Now's not the time to heat me up!"

"Oh," I drawled. "So that feels nice, does it?" I felt heat rise in my cheeks.

"Fuck," she muttered. "I'm having a hard time keeping my hands off of you as it is!"

"Alright," I breathed. "You were saying?"

"Right, I'm pretty sure that recent imprint is you," she told me. "Which means there's the other partial imprint from when I was about eleven. I've no idea who it could be."

"Not even a hint?" I asked, having no idea who she had known as a youngster, other than the brief glimpses of Sammy the Squirrel, Amélie as a cub, Amber the Lioness and Red the Fox. Amber and Amélie were possible candidates for a partial imprint, but I didn't want to make the suggestion to Eveline without knowing for sure.

Reminding her of Amber at the moment might upset her further, and suggesting that it might be Amélie could offend her if it's not.

"Not really," she sighed. "Still, only one way to find out."

Before I could warn her or stop what she was doing, her eyes unfocused, and then her expression turned sad again, as she let out a choked exhale. "Amélie... I had no idea!"

Automatically, I hugged into her. "We can tell her soon," I said, trying to give her some reassurance.

She squeezed back for a brief moment, before collecting herself once again. "I'll be glad to get that one back. Let's see," she then looked off into space, absently wiping her eyes again, before looking back at me in confusion. "It won't let me re-enable her imprint!"

"There's an eighteen-hour timer," I told her. "I haven't asked my nanocloud why that is, yet."

The timer is to prevent an overload of emotional shifts when switching between states.

The effect of disabling an imprint is self-evident.

Restoring the same imprint has an approximately opposite effect.

Switching rapidly between such states is unhealthy.

The delay is present to prevent such an occurrence.

Imprints will be automatically re-enabled upon timer expiry, unless already deleted.

The timer can be reset to count from eighteen hours again, if needed.

"Ah," I sighed. "Something about rapid changes in emotional states," I then tried to explain.

Eveline was no idiot. "I can see why," she explained for me. "My nanocloud is keeping me aware of how long there is before it comes back." I nodded, pleased that this had worked out so well. She hugged me once more, then let out a sigh. "I think I need a cat nap after all that!" She giggled. "Fancy joining me?"

"I would love to," I said, feeling light-headed and breezy at her words.

And with that all said, we both reclined into her bed. Eveline lay on her uninjured side, curled up slightly, and for the first time since we met, she had me curl up behind her. Sleep quickly overcame us both once again.