17. PUBLIC INDECENCY (HANDHOLDING)

Waking up without feeling smothered with doubts and insecurities, not overwhelmingly full of anxiety over what I had potentially done or not done or still needed to do, was a wonderful experience. Simply holding Sam and Beth in my arms, the sunlight sweeping through the room, nothing hanging over my head like a guillotine waiting to drop, left me feeling light, free, and elated. I wasn’t concerned about potentially manipulating Beth into doing something she didn’t want. I wasn’t caught in a position that would torture Sam anymore. I didn’t have confusion surrounding Zoey’s goals rumbling in my mind. No, I was free to lay here and revel in the blissfully content sensation echoing between the three of us.

At least, for a little while longer, I was. I did have to get up to go to the gym at some point. But, at least for the moment, I could lay here. So that’s what I did. My hands wandered down the body of the voluptuous redhead I had dreamed about for years until they reached her ample behind, still somewhat disbelieving it was her that I was holding. The little gasp she made directly into my ear when I pulled her hips into mine warmed my heart.

She let me knead her body for a moment, my fingers drinking deeply from the sensation of gripping her soft skin, before she whispered, “Are you holding me open for a reason, or were you just going to tease me this morning? Because I’m probably going to start leaking onto you soon.”

Inconveniently, she was answered by the alarm blaring. The good news was that we hadn’t really gotten started, which would have been significantly more irritating. The bad news was that I still wanted time with Sam.

Beth rolled over and groaned in disgust at the harsh noise, then clamped my arm over her ear in a half-asleep attempt to muffle the insistent electronic chirping, making Sam and I giggle at her. Beth only pressed my arm more firmly against her head.

It took a few minutes to rouse Beth and convince her that it was time to get moving and ready for the day. Sam kissed me before she went to grab her gym clothes from the room she had initially moved into, but stopped immediately after, a curious look on her face.

“Do you think,” she began to ask, “that dragons, with their natural healing magic, stop brushing their teeth, and that’s where we get ‘dragon's breath’ as a term for morning breath?”

“Is that a way of telling me I need to go brush my teeth?”

“Well, you do, but no, it was just a thought.”

“I imagine that it had more to do with the visualization of breathing fire. Based on how I’ve been interacted with, I can’t imagine many people would want to associate something negative with a vindictive, vengeful, self-important dragon, and I can’t imagine many people who interacted with a dragon intimately enough to be well accustomed to their dental hygiene would then go around undermining them.”

Sam nodded, “Yeah, that makes sense. Was just a thought.”

With Sam grabbing her gym clothes and Beth still sluggishly waking, I picked the water temperature and stepped into the shower. On autopilot, Beth followed me and stepped into the shower. The first splash of spray reflected off my body and onto hers, and she froze, clutching her arms together across her chest, inching up onto her tippy toes, and sliding away from me, shooting daggers at me with her emerald eyes.

“James! How on earth did you get ice out of the pipes?”

I smirked — the water wasn’t that cold for me — and angled the shower head away so she could adjust the temperature. She did, although I turned it back down just a hair so I wouldn’t feel it necessary to shift into my scaled skin to avoid burns. Sam joined us shortly, and the three of us bathed. Now, with some experience sharing the space and the added benefit of hazy telepathy, we functioned almost as one entity using three bodies. Beth really wanted to be the one to wash Sam’s front and showed no regrets when the redhead made her thoroughly scrub underneath her breasts in exchange for allowing her some playtime. Sam returned the favor by washing Beth’s auburn hair.

I found it remarkable when I felt some shampoo drip down perilously near Beth’s eye. Rather than rinse it herself, Sam used a washcloth to dab away the offending foam. She used a washcloth I had taken from the rack, gotten wet under the spray, and passed to her. All of this was done without a single verbalization and with such little hesitation that I only realized how interesting the development was when we were stepping out of the shower and drying off.

Once we were dressed and walking out the front door, Sam asked, “So, what’s the plan for the rest of the day? You wanted individual days with us before incorporating Zoey on Friday. Does that mean this afternoon?”

I answered unconvincingly, “Yes? But, I need to talk to Zoey because she actually lives here. I only gave her a couple of my ideas a few days ago, and she said she’d have more information for me. So, don’t go too hard with your workout because I’m not sure what we’ll be doing afterward.”

She smiled back at me, “Like I’d need an excuse to take it easier.”

Beth added, “That’s fine — I signed us up for a guided yoga class today. It sounded fun.”

“I’m not sure yoga is ever supposed to be fun, but that sounds perfect. I’ll see you guys in like two hours, and I’ll have a plan for the evening.”

I received quick kisses from both of them before they departed, surprising me by holding each other's hands. Beth winked over her shoulder as they stepped away from me, impishly wiggling her behind provocatively as she went.

Zoey greeted me at the gym with a kiss on the cheek, then double-checked that it was alright with me for her to have done that, apologizing for doing it in public without asking. I certainly wasn’t offended, especially given the display she had unwillingly performed a week ago, but I could see where Zoey would want to be sure of things.

The workout was rough. Bench, including paused variations and a few sets incorporating a cambered bar, was the primary lift, but Zoey mixed in plenty of other chest, shoulder, and tricep exercises. By the end, I felt as though I had touched every piece of equipment that could be used for a pressing movement in the gym, putting my body through its paces. She wrapped up by having me use a rowing machine for cardio — something I was wholly unfamiliar with, which she reminded me was a good thing for adjusting to my changing body.

Before leaving, she pulled me aside and asked, “We’re still on for Friday?”

“Yeah. I confirmed it with Beth and Sam.”

“Good,” she said while pulling out her phone and tapping on it several times. “Then this is for you. We’ve consulted with the museum before, and one of the managers owed me a favor. That’s two digital day passes for you and Beth. I can’t really help with Sam other than to offer you a few recommendations based on location — I’ve never used any of them, so you’ll have to just try one.”

I got her message on my phone, a list of locations that could work for Sam’s date, and a PDF attachment with Beth’s tickets. I pulled Zoey into my arms, wrapping myself around her in a great bear hug.

“Thank you so much.”

She tentatively wrapped her arms around me, returning the embrace, and humbly replied, “It’s the least I can do, really, after what I did to them the other night. It didn’t cross my mind that I would have to live with that experience. I thought I was helping.”

“I know. They know. An apology when they see you will go a long way.”

Zoey leaned against me for another ten seconds, neither of us willing to break apart first. Eventually, she said, “I have an official meeting I need to get ready for,” but made no move to leave.

I kissed her forehead before withdrawing, but before I stepped away, something she had said seemed odd.

“Wait, you did consulting work for an interactive museum?”

“Yeah? What’s strange about that?”

I blinked at her in confusion, unable to articulate exactly what was odd about a federal security agent consulting for a private, quasi-entertainment business.

She saw my look and rolled her eyes, “James, you are aware that you’re in a secret society now, right? Just because the premises don’t need security measures to protect wealth or anything like that, they still need to be audited and consulted with to ensure our worlds remain separate. Not everything I’ve done involves chasing down necromancers or blood mages or bringing in vampires who forcefully turn humans.”

Now, I didn’t blink at her. “Is that something I need to worry about?”

She smiled incredibly smugly, “Not anymore.”

“Alright, I have no idea now if you made that up on the spot or actually did something like that, and frankly, I don’t really want to know. Thank you for this; I’ll see you Thursday morning?”

“Yup, for legs. See you, James.”

I returned to the apartment with some pep in my step, now having the information I needed to decide where to go out with Beth and Sam. The only question remaining was who should go first, the woman I had spent my childhood chasing or the one who had accidentally caught my attention and started this entire chain of events.

It was conveniently answered for me when I walked inside. Sam was still in her workout getup, sitting on the couch with her head laid back, and her eyes closed, a half-drank glass of ice water held in her hand resting on her thigh. Conversely, Beth was wearing jean shorts and a frilly blue blouse, a red butterfly hairpin pulling her bangs out of her face, which was done adorably in makeup, presumably with Sam’s assistance.

“Did you know that yoga really uses your core?” Sam groaned. “Because I do, now. I hurt in places I wasn’t aware I had muscles.”

I walked over and kissed her, not just because I wanted to but because my saliva would help her recover. “So, you’re volunteering to go second?”

She reached up and placed her hand tightly around my neck, pulling me in for another deep kiss. After a minute of locking lips, she broke apart breathily, responding, “Yes. I don’t know what you’ve got planned for me, and I’m sorry if I’ve ruined your plans by exhausting myself today, but Beth deserved to go first anyway.”

“No, that’s not a problem. Are you just going to hang out here?”

Sam pulled me in for a third kiss, then sighed blissfully. “Yeah. I’m beat. I actually don’t understand how you’ve done the magic training and the gym and everything else and are still trying to add to your plate. I’m just going to veg out here on the couch and wait for your date to finish. If it goes well enough, do you think she’ll invite you in afterward?” She said jokingly, as though Beth wasn’t sitting in the same room with us.

I stroked my chin, acting like it was a question worth contemplating. “I think so. She’s given me a few hints in the past that she’d be open to a physical relationship. As long as I play my cards right, I think tonight could be it.”

“Well,” Sam said, “I hope she does. She’s good for you. With her, you have a hunger, a desire, an ambition you didn't have in the past. So I hope you treat her well, and she recognizes that.”

“Ohhh-kay,” a blushing Beth interrupted, “How about you go get cleaned up and tell me what we’re doing?”

I did just that, taking a speedy second shower and dressing in jeans and a t-shirt. Then, with Beth's hand in mine, we made our way to the nearest subway station.

“James, where are we going?” Beth asked as we sat down on the train, her arm wrapped around mine.

“Zoey gave me day passes to a museum.”

Beth furrowed her brow and looked at me skeptically, “Are you sure you don’t have your wires crossed? You’re bringing me to the museum?”

“Have a little faith in me. No, I’m taking Sam to a roller skating rink and then to get ice cream, and I’m taking you to a museum.”

“Are you sure you’ve got that order correct?”

“Yes. It’s not a normal museum, and I wouldn’t really care otherwise. I mostly just want to interact with you, by ourselves, away from all of the other insanity.”

“Oh, alright,” she responded, although I could feel a little confusion lingering in her mind. I didn’t press her for a further question, and she never offered one, so we eventually found ourselves standing outside a generic-looking cement building downtown. Inside, we were greeted by a cheerful man with a nametag, although two school-age children obliviously ran between us as he attempted to welcome us.

“Hello there! Welcome to the Franklin Institute Science Museum! Can I help you today?”

I fumbled with my phone and pulled up the tickets Zoey had given me. “Yeah, I believe we have some tickets here to access the museum.”

He nodded and scanned the QR code on my phone. When he read what showed up on his scanner, his demeanor changed significantly. He bowed before me, and when he stood up again, there was a particularly noticeable fear to him, a nervousness in his eyes that his calm words didn’t fully mask.

“The Institute is graced by your presence, Master Anderson. It’s a great honor to have one of our seats patronize our humble museum. I must apologize; my supervisor is currently engaged in handling a minor incident, but if you would be willing to wait a few minutes, I’m sure they would be delighted to guide you around our facilities today.”

I sighed, and the man flinched. “Robbie,” I replied, reading his name from his tag, “please relax. I’m not sure what that said, but we’re just here as any other guest would be. A dedicated guide won’t be necessary. To be honest, Beth and I have some things to discuss while we’re here, and I was hoping for a relaxed, unpretentious day. I think we’d just like to have a look around as though we were any other visitor, if that’s alright.”

“Of course, sir,” he said, but remained frozen in place. After a second, he flushed in embarrassment and ran to the service desk, returning with two colored wristbands, handing one each to Beth and me.

“These are to allow you entrance to our magic section, on the right here, through those doors,” he said, pointing towards an unlabelled set of double doors. “On the left, we have the mundane portion of the museum, if you’d prefer. Is there anything else I can do for you while you’re here?”

“I think that will be all, thank you,” I said. Beth retook my hand after we had both donned our wristbands, and we headed through the inconspicuous doors.

“I think he’s going to need the rest of the day off after that,” Beth said as we stepped into the magical hall of the museum. “You could see his heartbeat practically double as he read whatever he scanned on his tablet.”

“Yeah. I just wanted to have a low-stress day with something quasi-relevant to our new lives in a place where I could interact with you, but whomever Zoey got the tickets from must’ve known who we were and marked them as such.”

On the other side of the unmarked doors was a short, unadorned hallway with yet another set of closed doors. Another attendant sat at a counter beside these doors, and he smiled as he saw the wristbands on our arms, reaching up and opening the door as he wished us a pleasant time inside the museum.

The magical room was a massive, high-ceilinged space with hundreds of small exhibits and attractions spread throughout the floor. Every corner of the room was used to accommodate something, and as a result, there were people everywhere. In every direction, there were children ranging in age from just able to walk to mid-teens. Many were obviously here on some kind of school trip, accompanied by a chaperone and wearing matching uniforms, but just as many seemed to be here with only their parents or an older sibling.

Beth looked around the room and took it all in, then turned to me and remarked, “Alright, I can see what you mean now. This is definitely more my speed than I was expecting from 'a museum.'”

“You didn’t seriously think I was bringing you to a silent, stuffy old place where old people in suits stood around and lamented their youth, did you?”

“I wasn’t sure. This is nice. Was there anything you wanted to look at?”

“I don’t even know what’s here. I just wanted a place where we could learn a little more about magic from someone other than Antonin and have a day with no stress; I wanted to have fun with you, and be silly, and enjoy each other’s presence, mostly.”

“Cool. Let’s go learn some kid magic stuff, drakeling," she said with a teasing smile.

The first exhibit Beth showed any serious interest in interacting with, beyond just reading the placard or listening to the recorded audio commentary, was a maze game. Under a sheet of blacked-out plastic, visible by a small section of transparent surface, was a blinking green ball on a track, controlled with a joystick accessible to an observer. A second red ball was attached to the top of the joystick.

There was a reset button next to the joystick, which Beth pressed as we approached. The ball moved inside the maze to one of the corners, the clear section hovering above it the entire time, and I felt the change in the mana inside the labyrinth as the ball came to rest. As Beth read the instructions next to the joystick, I frowned, because I already understood what this was.

It was a toy for children struggling to perceive discrepancies in natural mana flows. The maze's goal wasn’t marked, and you couldn’t actually see the paths, requiring you to sense which route to take based on the energy differential of the potential options, relayed to you via the tethered red ball. As the time ticked by, the total mana would increase inside the maze, making it easier over time for less sensitive individuals. Beth placed her hand on the red ball and started moving the joystick, guiding the green ball along the track. Of course, she was simply guessing, largely keeping to the tried and true method of remaining in contact with one side and tracing the outside of the maze.

After thirty seconds of not finding the solution or making any progress toward the target, I was frustrated for Beth. I wanted her to be able to solve the maze and to feel accomplished, not to just blindly amble through the maze. In my impatience, I tried to give her some of my mana, hoping that some of my sensitivity would be shared if she held a piece of it, much like Sam had been able to enchant our names easily.

Instead of simply opening a tap and letting some drip out into a bucket for her to use, trying to give Beth any of my energy was a struggle. Unlike Sam, who was sensitive enough to take what she needed and sufficiently experienced to know what was going on, Beth didn’t even react when I tried to open a channel to her. When I pressed on, trying to push a grain of magic to her, I was caught entirely off guard by what happened.

Instead of simply empowering the woman standing next to me, as had happened every time I had tried to share with Sam, I hit a brick wall. The energy I pushed forward rebounded and came back to impact against my soul. The consequences of the feedback were thankfully limited to an anxious shiver and scattered goosebumps spreading on my neck, only because of the minuscule amount I had tried to send to Beth rather than any sensible precautions. When I tried again, watching closely and holding my energy in my mind more precisely, it wasn’t forcefully rejected.

Instead, it felt as though I was pushing the mote of energy through tar. I felt held down, restrained, subdued, corralled and controlled. For every inch of progress I made forcing the sliver of power towards Beth, I felt like I had to climb a mile up a cliff. Eventually, I reached a point where I couldn’t force it any further without making a scene from my exertion, and I stopped trying to push forward. Instead, I cradled the droplet of aetheric energy and let it slowly glide out of Beth’s defenses and back to me, preventing the sharp ricochet from before.

With that not an option, Beth eventually found a way to solve the maze closer to its intention. After all, she had something no mana-insensitive child would ever have — a dragon mate she was bound to and could feel. Rather than struggle more or try to feel the mana herself, she placed my hand on the red ball and then listened to what my mind sent to her reactively, solving the maze by listening to my reactions to the changing mana flows rather than experiencing them herself. When the table eventually flashed green, signaling that we had completed the maze, she turned and hugged me tightly, seemingly even more pleased that we had done it together than that she had finished it.

From there, we tried another dozen games and puzzles throughout the bottom floor of the museum. Beth struggled with most of them, and one display completely turned off when we approached it, seemingly disabled just by Beth’s presence. She pouted slightly, having been interested in reading the information and seeing the exhibit, but wasn’t overly bothered.

Afterward, we stopped by a booth where a man was displaying a collection of heavily infused mana materials in specialized containers, providing a chance for the youth of the city to feel more extreme natural energies. He had samples of coral from islands in the Pacific, several different rocks from mountains in Nepal and Chile, ice collected from Antarctica and Svalbard, and sand from Yemen. There was a throng of children holding their hands up to the openings of the containers, feeling each of the different sensations and loudly describing them to each other in excited voices.

Of course, Beth didn’t experience anything near the rich tapestry of mana swirling in the air like I did. She watched the children, looked at all of the samples, and listened as the man explained what was going on but didn’t really engage. That is until the man put on a set of industrial oven mitts and brought out a final container he had been holding in reserve. The children around us oohed and aahed as he explained that inside this particular container, there were samples from a volcano in Indonesia and that they could look inside, but they needed to be very careful.

Beth and I watched as the children held their hands up to the opening and remarked at how they could feel the warmth even from a few feet away. After they had all had a turn, their chaperone carefully guided them along to another room, and the man turned to Beth and me, asking if we wanted to see the infused stones.

What neither he nor I were expecting was for Beth to accept. Nor did we anticipate that she would pick up the container with her bare hands. The man was frozen in shock as Beth, still unable to feel the mana flowing out from the boiling stone, reached inside the container and picked it up to get a closer look. When she pulled it out and held it up to her face, smiling at me and saying that she could feel the warmth coming off of it now, he nearly fainted. What I’m sure he missed was that Beth wasn’t actually holding the stone — it remained a hair's breadth away from her skin, floating on an invisible patch of shielding that protected her from everything. She carefully placed the stone back into the container and then returned it to the still-astonished man, grasping my hand with hers as we walked away.

We spent another hour carefully weaving between groups of children to play with the few exhibits Beth could interact with, reading and observing the ones she couldn’t. I was initially disappointed that there were so few things she could participate in, but as we sat down in the cafeteria for a moment, she set me straight.

“James, as cool as it would be to be able to do magic, two weeks ago, I was struggling just to stay alive. I didn’t know any of this existed — and I don’t just mean the magic stuff. Feeling this free to be myself, loved and supported by you and Sam and Cynthia, it would be wrong to complain that I didn’t also get to be a witch, too. Just knowing that this all exists and being able to experience it through you is more than enough for me.”

I smiled gratefully at her and held her hand as she leaned against me. “I did have something I wanted to ask you about today. I didn’t want to bring it up around Sam because I needed to know how you felt first. It’s a bit — well, alright, it’s far too soon to discuss in a more normal relationship, but that isn’t us.”

I paused, trying to decide if I wanted to just come out and say it or if I wanted to lead up to it more, and Beth poked me in the ribs. “Hey,” she said, leaning back against me and looking directly up into my face, “Don’t get lost in your head before you say what you were going to say.”

“Okay. I wanted to feel out your opinions on marriage. For us. In practicality, we already are, and I really enjoy being with you, so I’m not opposed to it in the legal sense, although I’ll have to talk to someone, maybe Antonin, maybe Ev, about how it works with multiple partners. I’m just assuming that it does work because no one has batted an eye so far.”

Beth pursed her lips, pushing them out in a pout, and then responded, “James, why do I hear a ‘but’ still coming.”

I smirked and continued, “But I don’t know how you feel about it. Typically, people get married to demonstrably increase their commitment to each other — something we don’t really need to do because bond — or to celebrate their love and be showered with attention from their friends and families. Which, I was explicitly asked to not reach out to mine and you didn’t seem all that inclined to interact with yours.

“So, I was hoping to touch base with you and get your initial thoughts on the matter. I wasn’t planning on doing anything soon. I know in my heart of hearts that Sam will want a full ceremony with a whole bunch of people invited and to be pampered like a princess during the day of and the week after. But for you, sunshine, I don’t know what you would want, and I don't want to make decisions for you; I want to make them with you. I don’t think there’s anyone either of us would invite that wouldn’t be Sam, Cynthia, Ev — people who already know just how tightly intertwined we are already and for whom our marriage wouldn’t change anything. So, do you have any strong feelings? Do you want to have a ceremony? Do you want to invite people? Do you even want to?”

“Sunshine?”

I snorted. “Is that what you took from that?”

She shook her head, gently rocking both our bodies as she leaned against me, “No. I like it, actually. I was just stalling for a moment because that wasn’t the ‘but’ I was expecting. Um, so, I don’t know? Before last week, it hadn’t crossed my mind that I would ever let someone inside my bubble, you know? I definitely don’t want to invite my family. I don’t think I would mind a private ceremony with us and Sam and probably Zoey by then, but I also don’t really feel like I need one right now. I do feel kinda sad and pathetic having no one to share it with.”

I wrapped my arms around her and held her close, “I’m sorry, Beth. That wasn’t my goal. In order to make what you want a reality, I needed to ask.”

She wrapped her hands over mine, pinning my arms in place where they held her. In that moment, I felt at peace, unburdened, and serene. She echoed largely the same feelings back at me — a touch of embarrassment lingering, a dash of gratitude, and a splash of curiosity adding flavor to her existence. We sat quietly for a minute.

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Eventually, I broke the silence and asked, “Did you want to check out the other section.”

She wiggled her head, “Nah. It’s not nearly as interesting now.”

“Did you want to go home, then?”

Another wiggle. “I was really enjoying our time pretending to be a normal couple, actually. Is there anything else you had planned for our day out?”

“I didn’t have anything planned, but I have an idea for something you probably haven’t done and should enjoy either way. I need to find a place, though.”

“Cool. You’re comfy.”

I chuckled. “You did seem to immediately come to that conclusion as soon as you met me. Even in the car, you were content to use me as a seat.”

Beth shrugged as I searched for a nearby location on my phone, “Even before you grew after shifting that first time, you were big enough to just hold all of me at once. You’re strong but not aggressive with it. Just felt right to be near you. Safe. It was different.”

I flexed my arms around her, pulling her tightly against me. “It was odd at first, and I just went along with it because it was the least crazy thing happening, but now, I don’t mind it. It’s unquestionably you. Actually, that’s wrong. I don’t just not mind it; I enjoy it. It’s reassuring.”

“Good, because I wasn’t planning on stopping.”

“Did you want to stay here like this, then, or head out?”

“Let’s go do your other thing. There’ll always be more time for cuddling later.”

Beth held my hand as we left the museum, making a point to thank Robbie on our way out when we saw he was still working the entrance. Surprisingly, Beth’s grasp on my hand wasn’t quite the needily demanding embrace I was familiar with. Instead, it was a comforting, relaxed clasp, keeping us in contact without being exacting on me. The underlying anxiety Beth had when I first met her was almost completely eradicated. Her new demeanor perfectly fit our leisurely stroll through the city, calmly maneuvering our way through the occasionally crowded sidewalk to my target.

Surprisingly, Beth didn’t ask where we were going. We didn’t even talk after leaving the museum. She walked close to me, but that was more an unconscious reaction to the temperature than any intentional act. The inside of the museum, filled with children running to and fro, had been quite warm. While moving south to Philly had provided what felt like an extra week of summer, the hint of cold from the impending winter was present here now in the occasional swells of the wind. Despite the weather, or perhaps because of the proximity it encouraged, Beth seemed to enjoy walking in silence, reveling in the momentary respite from the demands of her past life and the insanity of our new one.

She was surprised when we arrived at our destination. It wasn’t anything special, a chain takeout restaurant, but I was reasonably certain it was something Beth wouldn’t have ever tried before.

She looked at me with an eyebrow raised, “Vivi Bubble Tea?”

“Yeah. I figured this was the kind of vapid, commercialized indulgence you wouldn’t have ever tried before. I thought we could each get a drink and then walk around the park that’s a couple blocks over.”

“We’re going back outside?”

“If that’s alright. We can sit here if you’d prefer.”

Beth shook her head as she reached to open the door, “No, it would be a waste to not be out with a day this nice when I can actually enjoy it. But, James, what’s bubble tea?”

“Well, tea. Especially in the states at chains like this, it’s almost more tea-milkshake, with a bunch of milk and sugar added to make it sickeningly sweet, but the base is tea. The bubble part comes from little balls of tapioca that are added, giving you something to chew on while you drink the tea.”

“Is it good?”

“I’ve heard some people complain that they found the texture of the balls unpleasant. But I wouldn’t have brought you here if I didn’t like it.”

She glanced at the menu above the counter and turned back to me, a slightly panicked look on her face as she asked, “Do you know what you’re going to get?”

“Nope. I haven’t been to a place like this in at least six months, and I always just picked something on the fly, so I’ll need a minute with the menu, too.”

She turned back towards the counter, standing directly in front of me, leaning back against my torso and pulling my arms around her. After a minute, we both knew what we wanted and placed our orders. Beth surprised me by ordering something hot, which I knew was on the menu and the original way it was served but had never crossed my mind as something people would still want.

She clutched her steaming cup close to her chest as we crossed the street back outside, taking tentative sips from the oversized straw. Her green eyes opened wide when she sucked up the first tapioca ball before an amused grin grew as she chewed it.

As we crossed into the green of the park, a place that I was surprised to see had a massive, intricate fountain, a carousel, and a minigolf course that included a putting section through a replica Liberty Bell, Beth gave her conclusion, “This is pretty good, actually. I like it.”

We took a lap around the park before settling into a seat on a bench to people-watch. Now firmly in the afternoon, there were plenty of families and school-age kids around. Beth leaned back against me, cupping her drink with both hands and holding it close to her face. I wrapped an arm around her, and she sighed contentedly.

For half an hour, we sat still in the center of the city, allowing everyone else to move around us. For once, we weren’t pressured to go anywhere, to meet anyone, to do anything. No deadline was hanging over us, no world-changing piece of knowledge waiting around the corner to shake our foundations again. There was no other person I had a meeting scheduled with that would change my life. For a quiet moment on a park bench in Philadelphia, Beth and I had peace.

After half an hour of simply cuddling on a public bench, I had long finished my drink, and the few remaining tapioca balls in Beth’s cup were no longer warm. We discarded the two cups and walked together back in the general direction of the apartment. I could feel from Beth that she was enjoying our time spent doing nothing — despite thoroughly enjoying our time at the museum, having very few opportunities to just relax in the past meant that just sitting on the bench without her head being overwhelmed with worries about today and tomorrow and next week was an intensely rewarding experience for her in a surreal way.

So, rather than head directly to a subway station and return to the apartment immediately, we meandered through the streets in the general direction. It took nearly an extra hour, but I was perfectly content to stroll through the city with my sunshine on my arm, and she seemed quite pleased to be there. At one of the final intersections, only a couple blocks from the apartments, there was a broad puddle, large enough that I would have to stretch my stride to cross it. Beth approached it hesitantly and then squealed, at first in terror but then in relief, when I picked her up in a princess carry and crossed the puddle without incident.

When we reached the other side of the road, she started preparing herself to be set down, but I had other ideas. I carried her all the way back to the apartment. She tried to insist initially but then relented, leaning her head against my chest and watching my face as I brought her home. I was going to set her down just outside our door, but she wiggled against me, reaching down into my pocket to snag my key and unlock the front door, still perched in my arms.

Inside, I carried her to the couch and sat down so that she was on my lap. I untied and slipped off her shoes, and she sighed contentedly. For a moment, we sat in silence, and then she pulled my face down to meet hers, kissing me hungrily, as though it were the first time she had seen me after years of longing.

When we broke apart, she said, “I had a really nice day today with you, James. It was really different from anything else I’ve ever done.”

“Different?” I asked.

“You had this really nice vibe going today. Calm, low-key, intimate and tender without the intensity or chaos I’m used to. And, this is going to be strange for me to say, but I understand now why last week you were freaking out.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“At one point, when we were walking around the park, I saw these parents watching their kids on the carousel. They were both scowling, then would put on the fakest smiles when their kid circled around and looked at them. Standing there, next to each other without standing together, you know? Didn’t say a word to each other.

“It hit me how different it is with you and me. Even if the two of us have to look after Zoey’s child at some point, we won’t be like that. We’ll be standing together, and even if we don’t say anything, it will be because we’re happy, not because we can’t stand each other. And, I thought about trying to have a day like today with anyone else I’ve ever been with, and I couldn’t really place it.

“Which made it sink in that, like, without you being who you are, this could’ve been awful. I could’ve been tied to anyone. And I know that you’re the dragon and you’re the only one in the world who could’ve done this, but just thinking about being in this kind of relationship with anyone else made me really value what you’ve done for me, the lengths you’ve gone to make me comfortable and happy and still independent, despite literally owning me. I still have my own bedroom here — not that I ever want to use it — but I still have it if I ever need space for myself because you thought it was important I have a place to retreat to if I needed to.”

“Beth, I really haven’t done anything extraordinary or really inconvenienced myself all that much. I just did what any good person would do.”

She sighed, “Yes, that’s what makes it extraordinary. There wasn’t a reward waiting at the end for your good behavior.”

“I don’t think—”

“Shut. Up. James,” she said, enunciating each word firmly. “You know what? If you aren’t going to accept that you’ve done anything for me, then I’m going to straight up ask for something I want from you to get you to admit it.”

Beth shifted, sitting up and straddling my lap. She didn’t say anything right away, looking directly into my eyes, her green orbs digging into my soul as she worked herself up to ask for what she wanted.

“Anything.”

“I want you to be more assertive in bed with me. I want you to take control. I want the dragon.”

“Okay.”

“You don’t need to do anything you’re uncomfortable with or be too far— Wait, What? ‘Okay’?”

“Yes. Okay. I can do that.”

She squinted at me, “Why did I think you wouldn’t really be into that if you’re just going to go for it right away? Not that I thought you were submissive or anything, but, I got the impression you were more lovey-dovey than the firm hand I wanted.”

I rocked my head side to side, “Well, I could feel that you wanted more from me. That you wanted to relinquish control since, for the first time in your life, you had someone you could trust to share it with. Not that you wanted to rigidly defer to me at all times, but that you were interested in letting me make the decisions except when you had a strong opinion on something. You were tired of always having to be in control and wanted someone else to have a shift at the helm. I knew you enjoyed our second time, which was certainly more of the real you than our first time, so I was expecting this. That you actually came out and asked for it makes it a lot easier for me to do it for you.”

“And yet you still don’t think you’ve done anything special for me.”

I smirked. “Not really. I’m not trying to be difficult here, but in my mind, doing good requires some sort of sacrifice, alright? And I’m not giving up anything to do this with you. I get to try something I haven’t done much of before, but enjoyed the time I tried it, with a beautiful woman who trusted me enough to place her desires in my hands and asked me to make them come true for her. Dreams that happen to align with the brand new second set of instincts growing in my head. On top of that, I’m not even giving up regular soft, intimate, gentle experiences because you went and convinced Sam to join us, and what you’re asking me to move away from with you is precisely what she wants.

“And, besides, sunshine,” I continued while stroking her cheek with my thumb, “it’s not like you’re saying I’m not allowed to smother you on the bed, holding you in place and patiently using your body as you squirm desperately underneath me, trying to get any leverage so that you can drive your hips hard against me and get yourself to the climax I’ve been denying you on the precipice of for the last ten minutes. Nothing is stopping me from taking control, pinning you right at the edge, and then dragging it out until I finish describing all of the parts of you that I love, all of the parts of you that warm my heart every time I’m reminded we’re together, filling your lust-drunk brain with nothing but my adoration for you. You’re not asking me to stop loving you; you just want me to be more assertive when I do. You want me to take the driver’s seat when we go for a ride.”

“Yes, please? Now? Can we?”

I smirked, amused at Beth’s change in tone and how ready she was for any attention. “We can do something, but I’m not going to do what I just described. It loses some of its potency when you know it’s happening. I’m going to wait for you to forget I promised to do it, and then I’ll find a time when I think you need the reminder.”

“Okay. What about now, then? Because I wanted you just after the date, but, damn, am I ready now.”

I slid my hand down her neck from where I had been idly cupping her jaw, continuing on over the frills of her shirt, coming to rest in the temptingly small patch of exposed skin between the bottom of the shirt and the top of her shorts. I let it linger there momentarily, both of us staring down as my index finger tapped the metal button. Then I pinched her shorts and undid the button, her zipper sliding down a hair as the tension was released.

However, before I either pressed forward or answered the hanging question, a timer on the kitchen counter dinged. Beth flinched in my lap in response to the noise and froze in place.

Sam came walking down the hallway, bouncing along to the music playing from the earbuds she was listening to. In just a bathrobe and a pair of fuzzy slippers, she hopped along and into the kitchen, where she took a pan out of the oven and then a bowl of something white out of the fridge. I was suddenly aware of the smell of baking chocolate, having previously been inundated exclusively with Beth’s desires, missing the dessert entirely.

Beth and I remained frozen as Sam continued, isolated in her own world, spreading the topping onto what she was baking to the rhythm only she could hear. Sam twirled in place, dancing with the butter knife she was using to smooth out the topping before returning to complete the final touches. After several more gratuitous hip shakes to what must’ve been the song's peak, she put the now empty bowl into the sink and the pan back into the oven.

Then she turned back towards us, cocked her head, raised an eyebrow, and popped one of the earbuds out.

“Why’d you guys stop? Thought I’d have a show to pass the time while these baked.”

Beth tentatively responded, “Hi, Sam. What’s for dinner?”

Sam shrugged, “Wasn’t sure if you guys were coming back for food or not, so I just started cheesecake brownies. I didn’t mean to interrupt you, though. Do you want me to go out for an hour or so? You’ll have to watch these, but then you can do what you wanted without me listening in.”

Beth shook her head, “No, this is your place, too. Is Ev here? Did your mom come back?”

“Nope! Just us.” Sam replied, still wiggling to the beat.

When Sam said that only the three of us remained in the apartment, I slid my hand further towards my goal, wiggling it inside Beth’s shorts to cup her smoldering sex. She whimpered as my fingers toyed with her, slowly stroking her through the thin fabric. Otherwise ignoring Beth, I asked Sam, “What did you mean by ‘a show,’ Sam? Were you actually interested in watching?”

Sam shrugged, lifting the bottom of her robe and revealing a tantalizing amount of her milky thighs in the process. “I mean, kind of? I don’t want to intrude on your date if you want some one-on-one time, but Beth and I talked about this already, about what she wanted from you. I can’t say that I really know what she means. I get what she’s saying, that she’s comfortable letting you do anything you want because our bond means she trusts you more than she trusts herself. But I don’t actually understand what the firm hand she just asked you to take with her entails, and I’d kinda like to watch just to confirm that I’m not really interested.”

As Sam slowly explained how she felt, I listened intently but simultaneously kept toying with Beth. My hand in her shorts had been active, rubbing all over her nethers and gently teasing her opening through her panties, applying a pressure that made promises of things to come if only the tiny slip of lace wasn’t blocking the way. My other hand started on her hip, dragging my fingertips along her torso, pausing a moment to circle my thumb around the nub of her nipple that was poking through her shirt and begging for attention. I teased her by tracing a perimeter around it before moving on, leaving it achingly untouched, moving to her neck.

My hand wrapped carefully against her neck, applying just enough pressure to hold Beth in place, a little whimper and a heavy pant the reward for my touch.

“So, you want to see me try to give Beth what she wants in order to decide if you’d be interested in ever experiencing something similar?” I asked Sam. My lower hand slipped inside Beth’s waistband, my index and forefinger exploring the damp depths they found there. My other hand continued pushing upwards, gently tugging on Beth’s neck, lifting her chin up until she was looking down her face at me. I paused there for a moment, hearing her heavy breathing whistling in her nose and feeling the pulse of her fluttering heartbeat racing away under my fingertips.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Sam answered. “I mean, I don’t think I’m going to want what she does. But I want to conclusively cross it off the list, you know?”

My index and forefinger, lubricated with the juices from her needy body, dared to delve further into Beth, spreading her open and pushing inside her. She opened her mouth and moaned wantonly, shamelessly begging me for more without using a single word. I stroked her jawline with my thumb before drawing it to the front of her mouth, tapping it lightly against her chin twice. After that slight hesitation, I inched it forward, putting it into Beth’s mouth, where her lips wrapped around it, muffling the yearning gasps and melding them into sweltering groans.

“Yeah, that makes sense to me. Is there anything you know you definitely don’t want to see that you think could happen?”

My fingers lodged themselves fully inside Beth, and I could feel her velvety insides clench and tighten around them, hungry for more — more contact, more stimulation, more of me inside her, more everything. Her tongue wrapped around my thumb, and she giggled deliriously, starting to bob her head back and forth as she fellated my digit.

Sam shook her head, “I don’t think so. I don’t really want to see any abnormal bodily fluids, but I doubt you’re going to go there.”

The pads of my fingertips stroked Beth’s spongy internal surface, dredging a growl of impatience out of her when I stopped with a single pull against her sensitive spots. She tried to drive her hips back and forth to create more stimulation, but I kept my hand pinned against her, synchronizing my movements to her gyrations, denying her anything more than I allowed.

“‘Abnormal bodily fluids’?” I questioned.

Beth dragged her teeth along my thumb, contemplating doing something drastic to spur me forward. Without taking my eyes off Sam or losing the conversation I was having with my childhood sweetheart, I rapped my other fingers on Beth’s cheek — several quick, light taps just to remind her of what we were doing. When she relented, I rewarded her with a dozen patiently drawn out, curled strokes with my other hand, providing a cacophony of overwhelming sensations.

Sam winced but elaborated, “You know, blood, pee. Things like that.”

Both of my hands were now thoroughly soaked with Beth’s juices, one with her saliva and the other with her lubricant. With the one playing inside her pants, I began applying pressure to her clit with the base of my thumb as best I could, sliding my fifth digit side to side as the others stirred her insides. It was challenging to do anything precisely with how she was sitting; my hand left little room to operate, constricted by her shorts and practically pinned against my own waist as she ground against me.

“Ahh, yeah. I can confidently say that I won’t be introducing anything like that,” I responded to Sam.

As the new stimulus sent shockwaves up her spine, Beth moaned throatily around my finger, some of her saliva now smeared all over her face where it had dripped and run under my hand. She leaned limply forward, where the only thing holding her body upright was the finger in her mouth she was still mindlessly pleasuring.

“Cool, cool. I think I’m alright seeing anything else, even if I don’t really want to participate,” Sam responded. “If Beth wants it, who am I to tell her she can’t have it? If I have any real issues, I can excuse myself.”

I continued moving my hand, but not to pleasure Beth, strictly speaking — I had allowed the dragon in to guide my, well, hand, and he wanted to torture Beth. He wanted to drown Beth in stimulation, letting the tide inside her swell and swell until it was an ocean of pressure weighing down on her brain. Still, we weren’t going to let the wave crash over her and wash her out to sea until we had drawn an excruciatingly gratuitous amount of pleasure from her.

Holding the petite woman in my lap and having turned her, over the course of a few mere minutes, into a drooling, mewling, needy facade of a woman was terrifyingly intoxicating. I felt empowered by how easily I had turned her into what some would rightly describe as a plaything, a vessel for my satisfaction with no other function.

Even more surprising was that I felt stronger. Not full of hubris or sentimentality, I felt literally stronger, both the muscles of my questionably human form and the magic coursing through my veins growing more potent with each sloppy squelch from between Beth’s legs. I could feel our bond growing, too; the line of magic tethering our souls across time and space thickening and pulsing as new power flowed into it. I could feel, unquestionably, that I hadn’t even come close to pushing her boundaries yet. The momentary primal instinct to conquer the woman in my lap was, astoundingly, scratching the burning itch in her loins even more than it was mine. The bonfire in her nethers raged for specifically this.

For half a heartbeat, I was concerned about what it said about me that I was suddenly willing to meet her here. I was ready and willing to bend her into something approaching an object, a toy for my dragon instincts. But, assuaged from the worst of my fears as I kept a constant ear for any worries coming through our binding, I realized that wasn’t exactly what I was doing. This wasn’t destroying who she used to be and forcing her into a box for my own enjoyment. I was participating in something that was a part of who she was, and who she needed to be, something that had gone wholly unfulfilled before. This was a game. I was in control, but at any moment, at the first hint of genuine discomfort, I would draw back and share the driver's seat again.

Sam drew me out of my reverie by leaning against the back of the couch, an eyebrow raised at me and a criminally plunging neckline from her sagging robe, asking, “Uh, James? Are you trying to melt her brain forever? ‘Cus you’re succeeding.”

I looked at Beth for the first time in several minutes. Her slumped, half-closed eyelids obscured hazy, vacant eyes. Her hands had gone to mine, one each holding onto my wrists, but now they hung loosely. She was grinding back and forth side to side in my lap in uncoordinated, imprecise lurches, her legs wiggling back and forth more by the random firing of overstimulated synapses than any concerted effort to control them.

I stopped what I was doing with my hands, pulling my now pruning thumb from her mouth. As my barrage of caresses slowed to a halt, Beth bubbled to the surface to catch her breath.

Still some way short of all of her faculties, she whispered out, “Let me fucking cum, you bastard.”

Hearing her sudden flash of vitriol and feeling that it was still inside the bounds of our playtime, I didn’t temper the dragon's reaction. She needed to be shown that she would only be cumming on our terms tonight, her body placed where we wanted it to be and played with until we were satisfied. Then, only then, she could cross the precipice and collapse against the shoreline, carried by the waves.

I picked her up exactly how she was sitting on me, one hand with several fingers fully inside her, pressed against her hips from the inside. The other went around her back, holding her against my chest. She let out a shocked squeak as she was lifted from her dripping slit, and Sam inhaled sharply, watching wide-eyed as I carried my sunshine to our bedroom.

Once there, I tossed her onto the bed from far enough away that she had a momentary flash of panic without ever being in actual danger. She released another involuntary gasp as she crashed against the blankets in a heap, sluggishly trying to right herself with confused, unresponsive limbs. I didn’t let her, pulling her shorts and panties down.

But only to her knees. The dragon had a plan now, an idea he wanted to enact. I flipped her onto her back as I undid my own jeans, hastily shedding them. Beth merely lifted her head up and watched me, content with a momentary pause for the sake of inevitable logistics. When I returned to her, I gathered her legs, restraining them between our bodies as I folded her in half. I collapsed onto her, kissing her, my body encapsulating her against the bed.

Then, much to her surprise, I wrapped my arms around her back and picked her up again. Her legs, still unwieldily tangled by the shorts around her knees, bounced by my face as I held them both to one side. Beth looked at me, her eyes wide open even if they weren’t as sharp as they normally were, as I lifted her from the bed to press her against the wall. Her ankles crossed over my shoulder as I pinned her body to the wall with my torso.

I took a chance then and kissed her again. At the same time, I gave the precarious position the benefit of the doubt and took a hand away from supporting her. Our hips were already enmeshed, and it took only a few breaths to connect my throbbing member with her soaked sheath, brushing against her once and then hilting myself with my first thrust.

“Yesssss,” Beth hissed directly into my mouth.

She quivered, her hips bucking and pushing us away from the wall for a second. I recovered, my hand coming up underneath her just in time. I withdrew slowly, then forced myself entirely inside her depths, driving her back flat against the surface in the process.

Her hand came up behind my head, grabbing a fistful of my hair at the base of my skull to pull me forward. The resulting kiss was heavy, demanding, distracting, and sloppy. Beth had very little fine control of her limbs, and I was still trying to bear her weight more than I was trying to properly kiss her, so her drunken enthusiasm left her nibbling and feathering along my jaw just as much as it left her actually kissing me.

My hips seemed to continue towards our goal as if they had a mind of their own. They hammered away at Beth’s smothered thighs, driving my erection into her with a frenetic pace. The dragon was determined to find our release, and he kept us moving forward even as our arms burned from holding Beth here.

I didn’t realize it at first, the sound falling into the background behind my need and Beth’s moans, but, in the final moments of clarity, as I felt my release approaching, I noticed a repetitive thumping. It was, in fact, Beth’s lower half repeatedly crashing against the wall as I forced myself against her.

Her eyes found mine, her hands grasping out to clasp onto either side of my face, steadying her just enough to sustain eye contact. She took several deep breaths and then groaned as her insides fluttered around me, pulsing rhythmically. She pulled her forehead to mine in a desperate attempt to remain looking at me as her world exploded and moaned, “Fuck me, James. I love you. Oh, James, fuck, I love you. Oh!”

Her last utterance was shouted out as I followed her over the cresting wave of climax, flooding her insides with my seed. I cemented her to the wall, my hips moving on instinct to plant myself as deep as possible inside her, crushing her against the solid vertical surface.

When my mind returned to me, I still had her pinned in place, our faces pressed together as both of us panted heavily. Her arms were wrapped around my neck, helping to keep her from falling.

I slowly withdrew myself from her, eliciting a shiver and a whimper, before laying her down on the bed. When I sat down beside her, she shifted to put her head on my thigh and grabbed my hand. For a minute, neither of us said anything, just basking in the moment and trying to process the endorphins coursing through our brains.

A flushed Sam came into the room with a damp washcloth, and she kneeled in front of the bed. She wiped down my thighs and around my hips, then looked at me with her cheeks matching her hair. Keeping her eyes on mine, she took me into her mouth. I could feel through our connection that this was in no way intended to be erotic — Sam had simply found some leftover juices that would increase her magical potency, literally giving her one of the things she had dreamed about for years. To wipe it away with the washcloth was nearly sacrilegious for her.

She did the same to Beth, wiping her down before taking a few swipes with her tongue. Again, there was no sexual intent there, but the few drops of my magical elixir leaking out of Beth were just too much temptation for Sam to resist. Beth whimpered and quivered in over-stimulated agony while Sam cleaned her yet never asked her to stop.

Sam departed after that, and I moved up the bed, laying against the wall with a pillow behind my back. Beth sluggishly came after me, leaning against my side when she tremblingly arrived, and I pulled the sheets over her. She had a mindless smile on her face, and her eyes fluttered closed as she collapsed against me. I couldn’t help but reach up and stroke her cheek, brushing her bangs away with the tips of my fingers.

“Was that what you needed from me, sunshine?”

She giggled deliriously for a moment, then reached up and tapped my chest.

“It was pretty good, I think. Ask me again when I come down and my brain works.”

I kissed her forehead and her smile grew. She wrapped one of her tiny legs around mine, her knee brushing along my mid-thigh. Sam came back into the room carrying a tray, and she quickly crossed the room to place it in my lap before slipping under the covers and snuggling in against me herself. On the tray were a dozen bite-sized brownies, a caramel swirl cheesecake topping on each, still warm from the oven. Without opening her eyes, Beth reached out and took one, moaning as she bit into it.

“Fuck, Sam, that’s so good,” she whispered. “Are you sure you and your mom aren’t culinaromancers?”

Sam blushed at the suggestion. I took a bite out of the one I had picked up, and the gooey warmth contrasting with the somehow still chilled cheesecake layer made me wonder if Beth was onto something. I raised an eyebrow as I looked at my redheaded lover.

“Well, we’re definitely not naturally culinaromancers,” she responded, her eyes shifting around guiltily.

“But?” I asked.

“But, with James’ magic being a cheat code for life and letting me be proficient at everything, I might have tried some stuff on these. I kind of wanted to help you cook for Mom when she gets back. I miss having her around. I only really noticed now that she’s gone, but, if we’re getting second chances here, I’d like one with my mom. Not to sound ungrateful about getting real magic or finding out I could be with the man I loved or that he’s actually super powerful and yet for some reason still wants me to be around, but…”

Beth interrupted her, “Sam, sweetie, we get it. Having your mom as a mom is great. Especially if it means you get to take her recipes and make them magical.”

I nodded, “I think that’s a fine goal, Sam.”

She nibbled on a brownie herself and then said, “Oh, fuck. That is really good. Damn. I was hoping you guys were just being supportive.”

I furrowed my brow in confusion over her words, asking, “Why would that be a bad thing, Sam?”

She sighed, “Because now I have to cook everything, too. Or at least help. Otherwise, I will be innately disappointed with everything I eat, you know? Just knowing that there was another level of deliciousness possible if I simply helped out will ruin everything I eat from now on.”

Beth and I giggled as Sam glumly ate her delicious desserts. When we finished, she put the tray back in the kitchen, returning to join us for bed.

In the darkness, she whispered to me, “I don’t want to judge Beth for what she wants, and to be honest, I’m not sure you went far enough for her, but I don’t want what you did tonight.”

I pulled her tightly against me and whispered, “That’s perfect, Sam. You took a chance, tried something, and decided you didn’t like it. What you want is something I want, too. We’ll figure out exactly what we want together, just as Beth and I are going to find exactly what the two of us want.”

As she relaxed beside me, mirroring Beth in snuggling against my shoulder, she capped off my night by whispering, “God, James, I love you so much.”