Aurora grinned, finishing off her wonderful cocoa.  She munched on the cookies while Mr. Plow rubbed against her legs again, begging for a cookie.  She tilted her head and broke off a little chunk of a cookie and dropped it by the fluffy kitty.  He jumped immediately and licked at the cookie.  After a moment he looked up and turned around, his tail standing straight up.  Apparently he wouldn’t eat just ‘anything’.

After a while, Mistral walked back into the living room. She took a seat next to Aurora who put an arm around her lovely hero and girlfriend.  “Did you have your cookies?”

“Yup! They’re delicious, but Plow doesn’t seem to think so, too.” Aurora laughed.

“If they were tuna cookies, maybe.” Mistral rolled her eyes slightly.  Then the cat jumped onto the sofa and planted himself onto her fur mama’s lap.  She started petting and scratching him lovingly.

“Did you eat yours?” Aurora asked.

“Nah… I got them for you at the nearby store.  I wanted to make sure I had the cocoa ready for you… but as soon as Mr. Plow gets off my lap, I’m ready to make you a nice cup of ramen.  I got a few of them too.  I’d been putting off getting the shopping done for a while.” She laughed and shrugged.  “While we wait for Mr. Plow to get done with getting his snuggles, you can take a shower.  Feel free to change back if you’d feel more comfortable. I’ll get you some towels soon.”

Aurora grinned and passed the rest of the cookies to her lovely girlfriend. “You should have some. They’re really good.  I’ll go take that shower. I don’t feel cold really … not like I used to, but with blizzards like that, I can’t help feeling a bit chilled.” She shivered and laughed.

Mistalk laughed and smiled, scratching Mr. Plow’s chin.  “I’d better change back myself.  He’s more amorous when I’m like this … sound familiar?” She grinned. “Do you want me to wash your clothes too?” she asked, distractedly.

Aurora blinked. “Hahaha… Um… well I do have clothes on… I forget what they look like, but I’d rather stay as Aurora for now.” She vanished her winks.

“Before you go, lean over here… I want to show you something.” Mistral winked.

Aurora smiled and nodded, leaning forward. “Is it something about Mr. Plow?” she asked.

“No… this.” Mistral pulled her head into her bosoms which were peeking above the neck of the bathrobe.  

Aurora blushed and giggled. “Mmmm… I wanted to do that seeing Mr. Plow getting loves from you… but I didn’t want to ask.

Mistral giggled in response and stroked her hair.  Aurora snuggled and nuzzled her there.  She had a subtle and nice smell, vaguely floral.

After a few minutes Aurora reluctantly stepped back. Mistral stroked her hair down to her cheek and she wasn’t able to get away.  Mistral bent and kissed her.  Mr. Plow took the hint and jumped off, a little miffed.  They kissed gently on the lips.  “It’s a little weird,” Mistral murmured after. “You know how many emails I get talking about this?”

Aurora blinked, giggling. “What? Kissing you?”

“No… not that.” Mistral laughed again, shaking her head.

“In that case, you mean they actually ask you if they can snuggle into your breasts?  There’s probably a few. You smell like flowers after a gentle rain, by the way.” Aurora winked.

“Ha …” Mistral blushed. “No, I meant fan letters, mostly not from girls, but just fan letters in general.  I almost feel guilty like I should let some of them have a turn too but…” Aurora stiffened and shook her head rapidly negatively.  “But I don’t care about them like I care about you, so …” She giggled.

“Bad idea!” Aurora kept shaking her head.  Well, she was seeing Sarah too so if she wanted to let a fan do that to her she’d have to try hard not to let it get to her.

Mistral chuckled and reverted to her normal Denise Hastings form.  She was a little less voluptuous, since it changed her body somewhat like her own transformation.  Her robe’s fit was much more conservative.  She winked. “I’ll get you that towel.  Go ahead.”

Aurora watched her walk off and then stood and stretched.  She headed to the shower, bared her flesh and stepped in after she drew nice hot water.  It felt wonderful.  She enjoyed the water dripping and running across her skin in rivulets along with the soft massage of the water pressure striking her head and shoulders.  Impulsively, she reverted her transformation so she’d be able to feel the warmth more.  She stood in the shower in soaked clothes.  It was such a strange sensation standing nude in a shower and then her clothes were soaked.

Not a good idea… She wasn’t thinking very much at the moment.    After a moment, Mistral pulled the curtains aside and laughed softly.  Leona blushed redly.

“Good shower?” Mistral asked ironically.

“Wonderful.” Leona pouted and laughed.

“Well, on the bright side, now I have clothes of yours to wash.  Now I feel less foolish for saying that earlier. Thanks so much for your brave sacrifice for my sake.” She winked. “You can take those off now.  Pass them out after you wring them out.”

Leona sighed in relief.  She’d saved her some face, maybe…  Leona stripped out of her clothes and did as she was asked, reaching up to push the shower head over.  She had to go to her tippy toes to reach, but she directed the flow towards the wall and started firmly squeezing her clothes.  She winced when she found her cellphone and communicator in her pocket along with a ruined business card.  It was Chuntao’s.  She laughed softly, wanting to fall over.

“Would you dry out my cell phone with your wind powers?” Leona passed them out.  Mistral exploded into gales of laughter.

“I wouldn’t have thought about that.  I guess when you take a shower these things go somewhere, but I wonder where if you don’t have pockets anymore.  Maybe it’s a pocket dimension.” Mistral speculated thoughtfully as she examined the phone. 

“I'm no expert, but it doesn’t look too bad off.  I’ll give it a good blowing for you.  But your clothes are going into the washing machine and dryer.”

Leona nodded thankfully, giggling.  Mistral set the phone on the counter and turned it off for good measure.  “Y’know… seeing you like this makes me remember that you saw me when I was younger… way younger than you.  It’s kind of embarrassing, isn’t it?  I was actually a little afraid to transform back before you got to home… kind of self-conscious. Anyway, I’ll get on with taking care of your phone and clothes.”

Leona passed her wrung out clothes to Mistral and smiled warmly. “Thank you… yeah. It’s kind of embarrassing. I didn’t want you to really see me right now either… I just wanted to enjoy the shower more.

Mistral nodded and smiled, taking the clothes. “I’ll get it making you some ramen, so hurry up. Something nummy nummy for you after all the hard work.” She winked. Was she in a mama mode instead of lover?  Leona blinked as she left.

Leona finished her shower and then stepped out, grabbing the towel she’d hung over her towel rack.  She dried off quickly, feeling happy.  The apartment was starting to smell like ramen again.  She considered the situation and thought that maybe she needed to learn to cook more than fancy ramen.  It was a self-defensive measure for when Goonie couldn’t be around to cook a meal, which did happen rarely. She hadn’t taken much interest in it, but given Mistral’s level of cooking skills, she decided she wanted to be helpful.  Some good meals would probably be good for them, and Goonie could teach her a lot.

She transformed back to Aurora and put herself into the same nightgown she created before and walked out.  Waiting at the table was a cup o’ ramen, chicken flavor this time.  Mistral was slurping her own noodles and Plow was perched on the table, staring fixedly at the noodles sliding into his mistress’ mouth.  Aurora sat and started on hers with the fork she set beside it.

“Do you need any help with any more paperwork? I’m still learning about it and I might be able to help.” Aurora suggested.

“No… it’s all just boring one-person stuff.  It’s all in my account, so I can’t even really share it anyway.” Mistral shrugged. “The last bits should only take another half hour, so it’s no issue.” She reached over and stroked aurora’s hair before slurping up more noodles.

Aurora didn’t want to make any promises since she didn’t know if she’d be able to get anywhere near as good as Goonie at cooking when she tried, but if she had her way, Mistral would have a nice meal when she visited in the future.

They finished the ramen, a few more butter cookies and Mistral checked on her clothes.  She came back with a sigh. “Okay, now that’s over, we can finally relax.  Your clothes will be ready by the morning… well before, really.  Do you have any homework you need to use my computer to complete?” Mistral asked.  Definitely mother mode.

“Not yet.  I’d have to pop back down home for that, but I’m not sure I'm up for spanning the North America continent just for homework.” Aurora laughed. “I’ll have plenty of it to catch up on when I get back.” She said with a wry expression. “But it’s worth it.”

Mistral changed gears. “I’d almost say we should be naughty and spend the night in a clubhouse, but just in case I wouldn’t want to get walked in on, eh?” She giggled and blushed faintly.

Aurora laughed. “What’s the camera surveillance system like there? We’d have to behave like really good friends and I’d have to stay transformed for the time and you too, maybe.  But we could have all kinds of fun there.” Aurora winked. “We still have two days yet. As long as things stay calm, we can watch movies, much on snacks, and play games at the Clubhouse.”

Mistral plopped down on the couch and patted the cushion next to her. “Do you want to spend time with Mistral now?” She winked.

Aurora blushed and wiggled, dropping down next to her. “Mmmmm… I thought you’d never ask.”

Mistral gestured and assumed her heroic form.  Her hair turned platinum blonde.

Aurora blushed and smiled, nuzzling at her.

Mistral smiled. “Actually, I was thinking about something special… like a make-a-wish thing, except you're not terminally ill.  Did you know that Bombshell got a request once from them?”

Aurora blinked, not sure she actually meant that she should change back to little Leona.  She shook her head to the question.

“She couldn’t resist letting the poor boy have some topless time, but she didn’t do anything but letting him snuggle.” Mistral shrugged and laughed.  The hand around Aurora hugged her. “I’d say about a third of all the make-a-wish things for heroes are just personal time of varying degrees.”

Aurora chewed her lip.  Did this mean that someday a horny guy on his deathbed would request her to do something like that and she’d be morally obligated to...  She turned red.

Mistral laughed softly.  “You don’t have to do it if you’re requested.  A lot of the time we can get by doing something thoughtful for them.  They tend to feel bad for asking.  Only the really awkward ones throw a tantrum about it, but Bombshell takes most of the requests seriously.  She’s easy going like that.  Then there was this sweet guy who asked Vanguard to make world-wide peace a reality before he passed away.  He couldn’t fulfill that wish but he did enter his name officially to the list of those Sentinels members honored for giving their lives in action.  That was really sweet of him.”

Aurora nodded and smiled. “I hope I can find something that is graceful to do if that happens to me someday.” 

Mistral looked at Aurora with a smile. “Mistral would like to spend time with her girlfriend, but she’s happy to let her biggest fan spend time with her before bed.” She winked, reminding Leona.

Leona swallowed hard. She’d never suggested doing this before, but it was just as sweet.  Just spending time with her as her fan would be nice too.  Leona reverted to her normal form, totally naked, though.  Mistral laughed softly and embraced her, snuggling her in a motherly way.  “If I was dying, I’d have asked for this, but I’d have been really sweet and polite.”

“Just to meet me?” Mistral asked. “Why not take a flight around your hometown with you? Maybe stage a fight for you?” She giggled. “Later, I need to log into my hero account and delete some emails,” she said. “Later, though… I bet someone is having fun just relaxing against her hero.” She stroked Leona’s blonde hair.

Leona blushed and snuggled. “Mmmmm… yesh!”  She said cutely, feeling so warm.  Far warmer than she felt as Aurora unless she was soaking up some sunlight.  “I feel so warm…”

Later, they went to sleep and Mistral held Leona like she was her child, and it was a dream come true.

~ FIN ~

“Ever since the first machine was created, Humans have feared the always-advancing march of technology. Even in today’s age where technology is constantly growing and evolving, there are still a number of people who fear this speedy advancement. People fear the carelessness of machines, their lack of a heart, of lack of a spirit … but what if there was a machine that did have a heart? A heart full of HATE?! Aurora challenges a collection of contraptions created by a crafty and clever captain of computerized cacophonous carnage!”

“Who is the maleficent mastermind behind these mechanical marauders? What is the reason for this oncoming dreadful disaster? Stay in your seats, the worst is yet to come!” --- A voice from the ghost in the shell

Rellawing

Thanks for reading! This last bit was a tease for the next arc which is coming in the near future. I just can't say how long it will be before I focus on this story again.  I do want to finish this one.  If in the unlikely event it ended up on the main page as a trending story, I'd change my priorities!  When I'm ready to write arc four, Circuits of Madness, I'll announce it! <3 <3 <3 I appreciate all the lovely hearts and comments!  Thank you all! *purrs*