"Are you girls going already?" I ask when I see Amelia's friends preparing to leave while I clean up the mess everyone made.

"Li-Li and I have to start packing." Helen answers. "We both want to get moved in as soon as possible."

"And, I want to get an early night." Delilah adds. "There's going to be a lot to get done tomorrow. And, as for Ren-Ren, I think she's just afraid to be left alone with Apricot." She laughs at the face her cousin pulls.

"Well, I still have another day or two of work to do here." I say, ignoring that perfect opening to tease Lauren. "Hopefully only that much, at least. But, I'll swing by your family's apartment building after my run tomorrow and start working up some plans."

"I'm also interested in those fire sprinklers you showed off earlier." She says with a serious look on her face. "Expect a proposal from my family to have you install, or at least produce enough for the entire property, and likely several others."

"Proposal incoming, understood." I reply with as innocent a smile as I can form on my face. "Amelia might have a few things to say about that, but I'm sure that you and she can work it out between yourselves."

"You just had to be a follower of Temmie, didn't you?" My new general manager blows an annoyed stream of air out through her nose. "Good luck with him Amelia. Come on girls." She rounds up the rest of her friends and, ignoring their smirks, bundles them into the carriage they arrived in.

"At least you held back a little." Amelia sighs after they leave. "But, don't think I didn't see that look in your eyes when she mentioned Laren being afraid of Apricot."

"I was just thinking that you would be more than willing to protect her from the depredations of a certain pixie." The pixie and I grin at the lewd look that fills Amelia's face, even if it only lasts for a second. "I can only imagine how grateful she would be to her rescuer."

"I hate you." She growls under her breath as a shiver runs down her spine. "And, we are not having sex with my friends, period! Especially not now that they work for us."

"Of course not." I run my hand along her back soothingly. "But, there's nothing wrong with a little fantasy. It may have been something of a bad dream, but the idea of you buried under a pile of beautiful women is still hot as hell."

"Mnh." She whimpers when I breathe that into her ear.

"Sorry to interrupt your flirting." Adriana says with a smirk. "But, is it alright if we revisit the water again?"

"Of course." I smile over at the fire chief while hugging a blushing Amelia to my side. "I'm repressurizing it now. And, since you're here, I should probably get those fire hoses and sprinklers done for you."

"Thank you." She nods. "But, what about those dust blowers?"

"Oh, Sinclair and I still need to work out a pressure gauge for the extinguishers." I explain. "Without that, each one would need to be checked by an air mage regularly just to be sure it was still good. The last thing I want is for someone to grab an extinguisher when they need it only to have the thing not work."

"I can understand that." She doesn't look happy about the delay but doesn't say anything more.

While the water mages get lost in their magic with the supercritical water, I make all the hoses and sprinkler heads that their chief asked for. All while keeping Amelia glued to my side.

...

Later that night, I thoroughly made up to Amelia for teasing her and her friends. And, then woke her up early the next morning to do so again before my run.

"Mmm. Normally, I'd be mad about getting woken up early." She purrs while I get dressed. "But, that was definitely worth it. Have fun on your run; we'll just be lying here, bonelessly until you get back."

"We are going to set aside a full week where we don't leave bed at all." My voice comes out in a growl. "Nng! Why did I ever decide to start running?" I peel my eyes away from her and Apricot's entwined forms.

"Because you look really fucking hot with all that lean muscle." Apricot answers and I have to fight not to look back at her, knowing that if I do I'll be late for my run.

"Not half as hot as you do right now." I breathe out and collect the salamanders from the tank I made for them yesterday. "I love you... Be ready for round two when I get back." I allow myself a quick glimpse before fleeing.

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...

"How's the arm?" I ask Fawne when she hops up to join me on my run as soon as I step outside. "Any trouble sleeping with it?"

"It's fine, the skin is a bit sensitive." She adds with a shrug. "But, you said that it would be. And, the only trouble I had was that Toni wouldn't let go of it all night."

"Have you two been together long?" I ask and start off to join up with the rest of our running partners at the farm.

"A couple years, now." She waves her new arm at me. "We met at the mercenary guild after this happened. There's a small group for people like us to meet and talk with each other."

"Lesbians?" I tease. "Any chance I could join that club? I am a shapeshifter, you know."

"Snerk." She almost trips over her own feet. "You know what I meant."

"I know, but you were looking all serious there." I tell her with an understanding smile. "If you still have friends there, I'm willing to heal them too. I'm sure Cyril had reason for them not to join the team, but that doesn't mean that I'll just let someone suffer when I can do something about it."

"Some of them aren't very good people." She warns.

"Is anyone, really?" She almost trips again when I ask that simple question. "I know that if it wasn't for meeting the girls when I did then I would have walked down a very different path. Maybe this will be a chance for them to find a new path."

"And, if some of them don't deserve that chance?" Her eyes bore into mine.

"I may be altruistic, but I do have a bottom that I won't allow to be crossed." I reply in a tone far lighter than the subject matter would suggest. "With all my magic, it's a trivial matter to find out if someone is lying to me. If they want healed they can answer a few simple questions for me."

"Y-you didn't question us." She gulps audibly.

"Do I need to?" I wink over at her. "I had Cyril checked out after offering him the job despite having a good gut feeling for him. I trust him and the good feeling I have for all of you. And, I trust the Baron to keep an eye on me and those around me. But, if you want to tell me all your deepest secrets, feel free. Start with the sexy ones though."

"Dammit!" She growls after tripping for the third time. "You just don't know how to be serious do you?"

"Not when I can help it, no." I say with a wide grin. "Look, sometimes you just have to trust someone. I choose to trust you six. Now, do you think you can finish this run without tripping anymore?"

...

"Why did I think it was a good idea to do this, again?" Fawne collapses with the rest of the guards after we finish up our run back at the farm.

"I'm doing it to look good for my girls." I say while handing out the smoothies. "Maybe you're hoping that Toni will like seeing you with a nice runner's body?"

"..." She tries to hide her blush by drinking her smoothie.

"Hey, that's the only reason I joined the guard." One of the soldiers speaks up with a laugh. "I know I'm too lazy to work out on my own, and getting a date when you look like an underfed kitten is a pain."

"Oh, sweetie." A female guard next to him scratches his cat ears. "Your muscles aren't why girls don't want to date you." This starts everyone laughing. I just shake my head at their antics and walk over to say hi to Will.

"Sorrel! How goes it?" He greets me with a wide smile. "Everyone's talking about your new building."

"Hey, Will. I'm good. Busy, but good." I add with a chuckle. "How are things here?"

"Great." He beams. "No sign of the blight and all the farmers are looking forward to the celebration this weekend."

"They set a date?" I had almost, 'almost' forgotten about that. "Well, I suppose I could use a good party, even if I am the guest of honor to this one."

"Heh. It won't be that bad." He pats me on the shoulder. "It's not like you cured a blight that threatened the city, and then went on to cure half the city of their lasting ailments just a few days later, or anything."

"Mhm." A twitch develops under my left eye, making William laugh. "I wonder if I can learn enough illusion magic by then to send a fake in my stead. Mhm, probably not." I sigh. "Oh, well, I'm sure I'll survive. Alright, you have a good one, Will; I gotta get back to work."

"You too, Sorrel." He sees me off with a grin.

...

"Do you want me to lower the growth rate on your arm so you won't have to eat as much?" I ask Fawne when we stop at Delilah's apartment building for me to make a model. "Your body can support more growth than the others, so I was pushing it to get this over with as soon as possible."

"How long do you think it will take if you do slow down?" She asks hesitantly. "Or rather, how long will I have to endure if you keep going at the current pace?"

"With no more breaks?" I calculate her growth so far compared to how much she has left to grow. "Maybe a couple hours after dark. To compare, Gen will probably be done sometime late tomorrow, Stan the next day, and Hughes a couple days after that."

"Nng." She groans, conflicted.

"Do you want me to just teleport the food directly into your stomach?" I offer. "It's a bit more work, and I might need you to drink a little sap since I'll have to be more precise than with the cleanse spell, but I should be able to manage."

"You're kinda scary, you know that right?" The beastkin laughs nervously. "And, cleanse spell?"

"You ate a good percentage of your bodyweight yesterday." I chuckle at her confused look. "Did you not wonder where all that food went, or why you didn't have to spend half the day on the toilet?"

"Y-you can do that?" Her eyes go wide.

"That was one of the first things I learned how to do with that spell." My words fill her face with a mixture of awe and disgust. "After I use my sap to its limit, I have to eat even more than you've had to, and I sure as hell didn't want to spend half the day indisposed just because I healed someone. Alright, I'm done here; you can decide on the way back to the office."

"Uh, yeah." She nods, absent-mindedly. "I mean, yes. Please, if it's not too much trouble."

"No problem." I pat her on the shoulder and head out, the new model of the apartment building safely tucked away in storage.

...