Jana decided about halfway through the night that she loved sleep. She loved the peace and comfort of the soft bed. She loved the quiet, she loved the darkness, and most of all, she loved the warmth of Ella holding her through the night. Being so exhausted, she slept long and deep. True restful sleep for the first time in centuries. 

When she finally awoke, it was from the gentle stirring of Ella lying against her. The shapeshifter had been up for a few minutes, but had been laying quietly beside Jana with her eyes closed, gently stroking and playing with the long red hair. 

“Ella?” Jana asked sleepily, unsure if her love was truly awake or not.

“Hey angel.” Ella answered in a quiet voice, squeezing her girlfriend a little tighter now she was awake. “I hope I didn’t wake you. It’s getting late, but I felt like you needed your rest. I was trying not to disturb you.”

“Late? What time is it?” The former genie asked, groggily turning over in their bed to see no clock on the wall or her nightstand, but the sun seemed high in the sky from the light coming in at the edges of the blinds.

“It’s about 11 am.” Ella said with a yawn. “I thought after the day you had yesterday, you’d want me beside you when you woke up.” 

“Considering how I reacted to your breakfast in bed idea the other day, that probably was a good plan…” Jana admitted, still feeling a bit sheepish for having slept so long and having kept Ella bound to the bed with her until she woke up, though she deeply appreciated the gesture. 

Jana sat up in the bed, stretching both arms and her shoulders until they popped and cracked. “Sweet Frigg, do all humans feel this tired in the mornings?” She was fairly certain a full night of sleep was supposed to make you feel less tired. Her immediate impulse was to lay back down and get just a little more sleep, but she felt like she would be wasting this first day of freedom if she spent it all in bed. Slowly Jana started trying to pull herself to her feet.

“No, usually we feel worse, because most of us refuse to actually sleep when we need to sleep.” Ella admitted with a chuckle as she sat up too, kissing Jana’s cheek. “You probably wore yourself out so badly yesterday it’ll probably take you a few days to fully recover.” 

“After so long, it’s hard to know what feelings are supposed to be there. Muscle aches and cramps, itchy eyes, hunger, you don’t know what’s really normal and what’s actual discomfort right away.” Mumbling this more to herself than to Ella, Jana stood up from the bed, her legs a little unsteady as she stretched her body more completely. 

“Being a human isn’t always a picnic, Jana. I’m here to help you with anything you might want, Angel.” Ella smiled and watched her from the bed, picking up her phone from the bedside table to see if there was any news from David. She read a few messages from her brother saying they were ready for brunch any time she was, but she also saw a new news alert on the Kesos scandal. 

“Oh! Update about our little charity heist.” Ella said with a grin. “Looks like his wife has definitely left him… Seems she found out about a mistress he was seeing on the side and…” Her smile widened and she laughed, “Her and the mistress ran away together?! Clearly there’s more to that than the article isn’t reporting! I want to hear this entire story!” 

Jana smiled and gave a little laugh, still glad to see the lingering effects of that huge wish doing more good in the world, especially when that good seemed to be very gay. “That’s wonderful!” 

Jana stared for a moment at Ella’s phone, her mind caught up in a new thought. “I’m not sure if I’m going to want one of those for myself or not. I’m great with game systems and good with computers from my in lamp hobbies, but phones? There was never really a point where I needed to ever use one. But now I’m human and don’t know everything, it might be helpful to have access to Wikipedia at any time.” 

“We can get you a phone as soon as you’d like to, Angel. Just be careful not to get hooked.” Ella warned, knowing just how bad a cell phone addiction could get. “We’ll need to head to the store at some point this week to get you new clothes, some more shoes, maybe some makeup or product if you want it. There’s lots of other things you’ll need to be prepared for in the human world before we get into things like a phone.” 

The girls got up from their bed and quickly made it just to keep the house clean. There would be lots they needed to prepare or fix in the next few days, even if the house stayed clean. With her mind focused on fixing problems, Ella remembered something Jana had told her. “Thinking of getting ready, didn’t you say the other day you had a lot of other different pride flags? Do you have any more we could use to replace the ones Amanada vandalized?” 

Jana nodded, happy to fix the troubles from the day before. “On it!” She gave a little salute and ran out of the room and down the stairs, returning quickly with a stack of folded material. “Here we go, Bunny!” Jana said, panting a little as she caught her breath. “Side question, did this house always have this many stairs?” Even if she looked just as well toned as always, it was clear that Jana’s body had trouble adapting to the mild burst of cardio exercise.  

“Yep. Tons of them.” Ella kissed Jana in thanks, picking out another rainbow flag and a new trans pride flag to cross off at least one thing on her to-do list. 

“I thought I was in much better shape than this.” Jana flexed her muscles to make sure they were still there.

“You haven’t had to actually use your muscles without magical assistance in centuries, Angel. You can’t be hard on yourself all the time.” Ella called over the sound of the power drill as she removed the screws and tattered fragments of the old flags and put up the replacements. “It just means we can work out together if you want to maintain the muscles you have.”

Jana blushed a little at the idea of gym dates, working out side by side in matching outfits... “That does sound like a lot of fun… Well, doing it with you sounds fun. The exercise sounds like a lot of work if I’m honest.” 

Ella smiled, closing the windows behind her now that the job was done. “No one said that you have to keep this body type if you don’t want to, angel. Six pack or muffin top, you’ll still be the same woman I fell in love with!”

“You dork!” Jana giggled, her cheeks very pink. Her stomach growled noisily at the mention of muffins, interrupting their talk. Trying to distract from the sounds and solve her immediate problem, she asked, “Hey, didn’t you say something yesterday about meeting your dad and David for brunch?”

__________________________________________________________________

A quick morning shower, a change of clothes and both Jana and Ella were ready to go. Not wanting to show up empty handed, Ella had made a quick fruit salad and grabbed a tub of yogurt from the fridge to go with it.

Soon enough, they were back at the Grant house, where they got their first real surprise of the day; Karen’s car was gone! They stared at the empty space where the vehicle had been parked for a solid second before making their way inside, both sure they would get answers to their growing questions very soon. 

“Dad? David?” Ella called to the house in general as she opened the front door. The men hadn’t even bothered to lock it in the madness of yesterday’s events. 

“What is that smell?” Jana asked, breathing deeply, “It’s wonderful!” 

“Oh dear…” Ella could smell it too, and as tasty as it was, she knew it could be a red flag for her father. “Jerry is stress baking.”

“You’re half right,” David called to them from the kitchen, his clothes covered in flour. “Dad started his morning stress baking, but he started to relax when I got up to help him around the third batch of muffins.” 

David gestured behind him at platters of three different flavors of muffins, a large quiche with a homemade crust, and a plate full of chocolate chip and raisin scones. 

“Holy shit…” Ella was less surprised by the amount of goodies as she was by the kind of treats. “Dad hasn’t made his scones in years!” Karen had forbidden anything with that much butter to be in her house. The moment she decided that she was going on a diet, it meant the whole family was going to. And with Karen never happy about her body, the diet had never really stopped once it started. Ella actually felt a bit out of place, bringing the healthiest thing on the breakfast table today. She quietly put her bowl of fruit and yogurt on the back of the table, hoping they wouldn’t notice it. 

“David did a little magic to help.” Jerry said, emerging from the kitchen and coming to join his kids and Jana. Though it didn’t look like he had slept very much last night, he was smiling warmly and greeted both girls with a hug. “Thanks for coming girls, help yourselves, we have enough for an army here.” 

“The magic wasn’t anything fancy,” David started to explain as they all sat down around the table. “Around 4 am, Dad was awake and… in a bit of denial and needed some fresh proof of our story. I showed him a spell that was able to double the baking supplies he already had. With his faith restored and a few new recipe ideas in his head, he calmed down a little and we started talking.” 

“What did you talk about?” Ella asked, pleasantly surprised David was able to use his skills to help dad through such emotional turmoil.

Jerry shrugged as he spread too much butter on a warm corn muffin. “Mostly limits and uses for his magic at first. I wanted to understand how it all worked… Then after a bit we moved on to other things…” for a moment Jerry was silent, making Ella wonder if he had shared with David the story he had once told her and Jana. A smile came to his lips with a new thought, “For instance, did you know your brother has a girlfriend too?”

Ella nodded, smirking at David, “Yep, I found out for myself two days ago. She's wonderful, though I still think my angel is the best.” 

“Bunny, stop that!” Jana blushed as she spoke, her mouth full of quiche. 

“Let’s just agree that we both found amazing girlfriends and leave it at that for the sake of not starting a civil war.” David joked, both to spare Jana some embarrassment, and because he could, and would gush over Lupa for hours if given the chance, and didn’t want to cause a scene at breakfast. 

“I agree to your terms, brother.” Ella said solemnly, extending her hand, which David shook. She had also been ready to extol the glories of Jana to the heavens, but figured this wasn’t the time or place. 

“Anyway…” David continued, “I was sure to bring dad up to speed on what I’ve been up to. Honestly, he took the whole “me being a werewolf” thing surprisingly well.”

“Not much could surprise me at this point, son.” said Jerry, through a mouthful of muffin. “Plus, out of all the supernatural things that have happened to you kids recently, David becoming a wolf is honestly not that shocking.”

“What do you mean?” David asked, looking somewhat perplexed.

Jerry smiled. “Ever since you were tiny, you always wanted a dog, but Karen would never allow them in the house. I always figured you’d probably get one when you moved out.” He took a quick sip of coffee. “You becoming one yourself after entering the world of magic isn’t that hard to believe.”

Ella and Jana both snickered at this remark. It was reassuring to hear how relatively well Jerry was taking things. The fact that he was able to joke about such things was a pretty good sign that both Karen’s influence and the shock from the night before were both starting to wear off.

“So…” Jerry said. “You two have met this Lupa already? When did this happen?” He poured them all more coffee as he spoke.

“That’s… a little complicated…” Jana said with a pause. “The short version is that Lupa is related to a very old friend of mine, and we met her on a visit. We didn’t even know she was dating David until our second trip!” 

“Fascinating!” Jerry exclaimed. “So you went to meet this friend of yours, and just happened to bump into David? Of all the strange things I’ve heard lately, that is… not actually that strange by comparison…” His voice trailed off as he realised what he was saying.

David smiled a little. “I can introduce you to Lupa any time that you want, dad. I’m sorry I didn’t say anything before now, but… Well, I just never knew the way to bring it up without more and more lies.” His tone was less jovial now as he neared the difficult truth, “You and... Well, you were so proud of my company job that there seemed no right way to tell you I had quit, been hired by a witch to set up WiFi in the woods and started dating a werewolf. For the longest time it felt like it didn’t matter how beautiful or wonderful Lupa was; all I would hear about was leaving the job.”

The atmosphere of the breakfast table was tense from the indirect mention of Karen. Jerry immediately understood what his son was alluding to. “That woman…” He said softly after a while. “She really had all three of us so scared, we never got to know who we were, did we?”

Jana and Ella were surprised by this measured response compared to Jerry’s inconsolable shock of the night before. David smiled at his father. A knowing, reassuring look seemed to pass between the two men.

“Dad, did you…” Ella asked hesitantly looking between him and her brother, not wanting to accidentally out her father before he was ready.

Jerry nodded, “I did.” He said simply, smiling a little to himself. “It’s funny. I hadn’t thought about Oliver in so long. I had kept it inside for years and years, but after I finally managed to tell you and Jana about it, it became much easier to say it to David.”

“I feel outnumbered as the most straight person at the table,” David said with a small laugh before his face fell, “But it just makes me think about how mom was a worse person than even Ella and I knew. I didn’t expect her to be out of our hair in this way, but I have to admit, I’m glad she’s gone.”

“Speaking of Karen… I’ve been giving the matter some thought…” Jerry continued after a long moment. “It’s true that this isn’t how I thought the separation would start out, but you certainly helped make the process easier for me… But… You aren’t just going to toss her lamp into a sinkhole or the bottom of the sea, right?” 

“Tempting as it might be, no, we are going to let Karen out of the lamp eventually.” Ella said with a sigh. Though it was true she’d love to put Karen into a block of wet cement and toss her into the toxic waste dump, she knew that no one deserved that. “Rhea and the wolves are keeping an eye on her for now. Once she’s had a few days to cool off and think about her situation, we’ll see if she has learned to stop being such a… Well, you know.” 

Everyone at the table nodded, all understanding it probably wasn’t the best time to try and think of the right words to describe Karen. The atmosphere was far too pleasant for that sort of language.

Ella continued. “If she has indeed changed, we depower her, free her and send her on her way. If she hasn’t… well we put her back inside and try to change her mind as best we can.” 

“Just like that?” Jerry asked, his fork full of eggs stopped halfway to his mouth. 

“It does feel like the best plan for now,” Ella said, holding Jana’s hand under the table, “We can’t leave her trapped in there forever. Even she doesn’t deserve that. But there’s also the risk of someone else letting her out and taking advantage of her new power. I don’t even want to think about what kind of horror that could lead to.”

Again, everyone at the table understood Ella without the need for words. Karen was currently limited by the rules of the lamp and no one to make wishes. In the wrong hands, that lamp would be an instrument of unfathomable carnage… Non lethal, sure, but still horrifying…

“We should give her the chance to reflect on things, and maybe learn a thing or two about how she ended up where she is.” Ella said, after a brief pause. “Then, eventually, we can set her free, and none of us have to ever talk to her again if we don’t want to.”

Jerry still wasn’t sure how he felt about trying to reform his ex-wife, but it was at least a plan for moving forward. As if in answer to these thoughts, Jana asked, “What about you Jerry? What are you going to do next?”

“Good question…” Jerry stared for a moment at the cabinet that held the Scotch bottle he had emptied last night, quietly wishing he had more. “I’m not going to lie, even with the money Karen left-behind, I can’t afford this house with my current job. I can last a while, but unless something drastic happens, I’ll need to sell this place.”

“Good!” David and Ella said in unison, much to their father’s surprise. 

“What?” Ella asked in answer to Jerry’s look, “Neither of us want to keep this house. It’s all bad memories here!” She quickly gestured between herself and her brother. “I can’t imagine it’s been the most pleasant space to live in for you either, dad. If you need to sell this dump, then don't let us stop you!”

Jerry did have to admit; the house, the furniture, the appliances, the wallpaper, everything had been Karen’s idea. Karen’s image of perfection… Did he want to stay in that image any longer?

“It also works with an idea that I wanted to run by all of you.” David paused, taking a moment to clear his throat. “With everything that’s happened since I joined the pack, I already have a new home in the village.” He began, looking between the three of them around the table, “Jana and Ella, you’re already planning to come regularly for magical training. Dad… no offense, but you hate your job and have very few people in town you actually like.”

“None taken.” Jerry said, unable to contradict the statement. It was true, he hadn’t had much freedom, or desire to befriend many of the people he had met through work, or Karen-approved social events. If he moved, he’d leave almost nothing behind.

David smiled briefly at his dad before continuing, “I called Lupa last night after you went to bed, and we both thought it might be good for everyone if you moved up north with us.” 

“Move in with werewolves?” Jerry squeaked out, unable to hide the fear of being one of the only humans in a town of monsters, miles from civilization. 

“Don’t worry dad,” Ella put a reassuring hand on his shoulder, “They aren’t like the movies. It’s perfectly safe… Although, we should warn you that the town is clothing optional.” She figured it was best that particular detail wasn’t a surprise. 

“Clothing… oh…” Jerry gulped a little as the realization hit him. 

“Or… Jana and I had another idea that we wanted to run by you.” Ella said hesitantly before Jana nodded her encouragement. “You see… There’s another place that we visited in our magical hijinks in the last few days; a mermaid city called Tellona.”

“Tellona?” David asked curiously. “I think I’ve heard of that place. I’m pretty sure Rhea has an old pen pal she knows from down there. Hidden away in a pocket dimension under Hawaii, right?” 

“That’s the one.” Jana nodded in agreement, watching Jerry to see if, and when, he made the final connection this location was implying.

“Mermaids are real too?! A whole city of them in Hawaii? Oh, Oliver would’ve loved that…” Jerry exclaimed as another strange new piece of information was added to his growing world view. 

“They’re very real, and lovely people,” Ella continued, “They have their own kind of powerful magic and make it their mission to rescue drowning sailors. Most sailors they rescue get to come and live in Tellonna. After… becoming a merperson themselves…” Ella’s eyes met her father’s as she spoke the last few words

“Wow! That sounds… wonderful…” Ella and Jana could almost see the spark in Jerry’s eyes as the realization finally hit him. “...no…”

Jana held up her hand to stop his question, feeling it might be easier for her to field this topic. “Now, we don’t know for sure. We didn’t meet anyone named Oliver when we were visiting, or anything concrete like that. But we do know lots of merfolk we could ask, and they would be happy to help… Maybe they saved him and he’s still there. Maybe they took him ashore somewhere and they could tell us where to look… Or they might have no news at all. We won’t know for sure until our next visit. But it is a chance. I’d maybe even say it’s a probable chance…”

There was yet another silence at the breakfast table, as Jerry pondered yet another world-shattering revelation. Ella and David made eye-contact across the table. Through their non-verbal sibling bond, Ella was able to read David’s expression as “I’m not mad, but how come you didn’t mention this earlier?!”

Ella gave a small shrug, and gave a look that said, “I had meant to tell you, but the whole werewolf-genie-family-drama-chaos thing kinda took priority!”

After about a minute of pondering, Jerry spoke. “That… That certainly is a lot to think about…” He said, his voice having gone very quiet as his mind raced with thought. A light of hope seemed to be shining in the back of the older man’s eyes. The one great love of his life could be alive! Alive after all this time!... All this time… Ella saw the light dim as his face fell. “But… If Oliver had been alive this entire time, wouldn’t he have tried to contact me? He’s probably forgotten me… moved on… If he even is alive, that is…”

Jerry looked so forlorn, that Jana almost regretted bringing it up in the first place. “I can’t answer that for sure, Jerry. Maybe he didn’t know where to find you. Or how to contact you? Or maybe he just thought you wouldn’t believe him? As we said, we don’t even know if Oliver is there or not… But there is that chance. The chance for the life with him you wanted.”

Jerry didn’t answer right away. Both options were equally appealing and frightening to someone who had spent years living in a monotonous haze. Huge changes for the better, with massive chances for things to go horribly wrong.

 “I might need to give both ideas some thought.” Jerry finally said, a bit anticlimactically. “There’s a lot to do before I even think about relocating…” He pointed at his daughter as a more comprehensive thought hit him. “And there’s tons for you and Jana to do before you think about moving too.”

“What do you mean?” Ella asked curiously.

“No, I see what you mean,” Jana had made the connection that he was implying. “If me and Ella are gonna move out, we’re gonna want to cover our steps, and that’ll mean selling the house. We can’t exactly buy the house, flip it, install an in-ground pool and sell it again all in less than a week. Realtors can be thick, but they aren’t that clueless.” 

“Oh…” Ella had to admit she hadn’t thought of that. After relying so much on magic the past few days, she had forgotten that there were still some situations where boring adult tasks would still be required. With Jana’s powers gone, they’d need to figure out how to move the old fashioned way.

Unless, of course, Ella took Rhea up on her offer to commit arson, the day before? “No, Ella! Bad idea…” She thought to herself. Better they went with a less dramatic and dangerous method.

Jerry nodded, glad that at least Jana seemed to understand. “Give it some time, Ella. Stay here for a month before you try and sell it and it should keep most people from asking questions… Besides, you seem to have already made your mind up. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I should know for sure what I’m doing too.” He didn’t look confident, but he sounded sure of himself. Maybe this would be the start of a new chapter in Jerry’s life. He was going to start living his life with renewed purpose in every choice. 

“There’s no need to rush things, dad. If you need a little longer…” David advised, refilling his father’s coffee cup. “You’ve been through a lot. Take a few days off of work. Hell, quit your job outright if you want to! The neighborhood will probably expect you to mope and sulk for at least a little while when they hear that Karen is gone! Might as well play it up for them.” 

“Speaking of Karen gone,” Jana raised a finger to interrupt David’s train of thought, “What happened to her car? We didn’t see it this morning.”

Jerry’s smile widened a little, “Another piece of impressive magic from the great Wizard Prostero!”

“Prospero, dad,” David corrected over the sound of Ella and Jana giggling at his expense.

“That’s what I said,” Jerry muttered a little before he continued, “This morning, he used an illusion spell to make himself look like Karen, and went for a drive in her car. Once he was sure enough people had seen “Karen” driving out of town in a car full of packed bags, he called one of his wizard friends to teleport the car away and himself back to the house!” Jerry finished the exposition with a wide grin, as if he had just finished telling a hilarious anecdote.

David nodded. “Now we have plenty of eyewitnesses to say that Karen left town this morning, just in case Amanda tries telling anyone what really happened. I think it’s fair to say people will find our story a little bit more believable than anything Amanda tries to spin.”

“Holy shit…” Ella was genuinely impressed how much devious thought David and Jerry had put into this plan. Just then, she suddenly realised something that Jerry had said. “Wait a minute! You can do illusion magic? Since when?”

David raised an eyebrow, perplexed that that was what Ella had chosen to focus on. “Since I failed to learn transformation magic. I mean, it’s pretty much the next best thing! How else did you think I created those robes I wore back in the village?”

That wasn’t the revelation Ella had been expecting. “Wait, what?!” She spluttered a little into her coffee. “Do you mean to say that your freaking clothes weren’t real!?! You were showing us around the village naked!?!”

David paused for a moment, realising he had probably said too much. “It makes transforming easier…” he mumbled. “Plus, I can’t conjure clothes like Rhea or Karl can yet, or else I would…”

At that moment, Jana came to David’s rescue and jumped in. “Could we get back to discussing the plan, please?”

“Agreed.” Ella and David said in unison. Jerry nodded, having struggled to follow the conversation after it had gone off the rails.

“Just want to clarify a few details…” said Jana. “We aren’t trapping Karen forever after all. She can go free and rebuild her miserable old life as soon as she’s ready.” She looked at David. “I’m guessing Karl teleported her car up to the village?”

David nodded. “Once she’s free, we can send her wherever she wants to go, as long as she never bothers us again.”

“Good.” said Ella and Jana together. 

Ella squeezed Jana’s hand under the table. “No one’s gonna believe her if she tries telling her story after we free her, especially with all the horrible stuff Amanda could then pin on her.” Ella smiled at how everything was coming together. It really felt like her most enduring troubles were finally over.

“Heh… Y’know…” Jerry spoke up.

I can see why you girls wanted me to come with you to the village. We’re all gonna need to go into hiding after this.” He laughed a bit at the absurdity of the situation.

“Well…” Jerry said, downing the last of the coffee in a single gulp, wincing a bit from the heat as it scalded the roof of his mouth. “Life moves on, and there’s a stack of dishes a mile high waiting for me.”

“Let me help you with that, dad.” David offered, starting to get the dishes together.

“No, let Jana and me help,” Ella said, wanting to assist.

“Yeah, you two did all of the cooking, let us at least help with the clean up.” Jana added, accidentally knocking over an empty glass in her haste to get out of her seat.

Jerry smiled, quickly righting the glass before it could roll off of the table. “Thanks to all of you… But I could use something mindless to do for a little bit. You kids have given me a lot to think about today, to say the least.” 

It was true. Jerry had gone from a quiet directionless future, to a one filled with multiple potential paths, each as bizarre as the last. It would take some time for any man who had only learned that magic was real a day or so ago to rationalize any of this.

“Alright dad. But I’ll be sticking around here for the day in case you need anything else. Deal?” David asked, but it wasn’t much of a request. He was staying to keep an eye on his old man regardless.

“Deal.” Jerry agreed with a small smirk, hugging his son in thanks before turning to Jana and his daughter. “What about you two?” 

Ella reached out her hand and took Jana’s in hers. “I was thinking maybe a shopping trip was in order for today. Jana needs a few new things to get more comfortable.” 

Jerry nodded his approval. “Sounds like a fun day. Both of you, be safe, ok? And if you don’t feel like cooking tonight, feel free to come back here for dinner. I’m sure I’ll cook too much again.” He joked, giving them each a hug.

“We’re a phone call away if you need anything Dad.” Ella said into her father’s shoulder as they hugged, both father and daughter concerned, yet still happy for each other.

As the girls walked out of the house they faintly heard David suggesting inviting one more person for dinner that night. “Looks like Lupa is probably stopping by later.” Ella said with an approving smile. “I think we have to come back for dinner now, I don’t wanna miss that first meeting.”

“Jerry’s family is already getting bigger and better, and Karen has only been away for less than a day.” Jana laughed, walking hand in hand with Ella and leaning her head against her just to be close.

“Not just Jerry’s, Angel. Yours too.” Ella turned her head slightly to steal a kiss. Both girls jumped when they heard a loud crash from a nearby house. Looking, Ella saw Mrs. Croft, an old neighbor of the Grants, standing over a shattered flower pot and staring at them in utter shock from behind a low garden fence.

“Good morning Mrs. Croft! Lovely day isn’t it?” Ella called to her with a radiant smile and a wave of her free hand, too happy to care what anyone thought of her love for Jana.

The old woman didn’t speak. She moved slowly back into her house without breaking eye contact, as if staring down a wild bear, before slamming and locking her door.

“Nice talking to you too!” Ella blew a kiss in the direction of the locked up house, still unperturbed as she watched as Mrs. Croft rushed to close her curtains so they couldn’t see into her home.

“That might be the most literal case of homophobia I have ever seen!” Jana laughed loud and proud, sneaking another kiss before they moved on.

“Ridiculous, right?” Ella sighed happily, looking around her childhood neighborhood, knowing that Mrs. Croft had probably already started the bigotry phone tree to let all her neighbors know there were evil gays about and to bar their windows. “I never liked any of these idiots, but if we are going to move away to be around the much more reasonable village of cryptids, we might as well be as gay as possible until then! Let them be as uncomfortable as they want about my feelings for you!”

__________________________________________________________________

Soon enough, they arrived back at their magically acquired home and stopped outside briefly. “Are you going to be okay leaving this place, bunny?” Jana asked softly, looking up at the new flags still hanging from the second floor.

“Absolutely. It was a lovely place, but there was only so much we could do living in this neighbourhood.” said Ella. “We’ll have a chance to really make something of our own at the village! I can paint some new murals, and do all sorts of things in a more tolerant setting.” Ella laughed and pulled gently on Jana’s arm to get her moving again. The bus stop to get to the mall was still about a block further down.

“We’ll be giving up so much space, so many things! Are you sure?” Jana asked again, the anxiety much more apparent in her voice.

“Jana, stop that.” Ella implored, taking the taller girl’s face in both hands to make sure she met her gaze. “I never needed this much of anything,” she briefly let go of the Viking’s face to gesture towards the house, “Give me a place to paint, a place to cook, and a place to snuggle up to you and I can be happy anywhere. You are my home, Jana. Not some silly house! Never forget that!”

“Oh…” Tears began to form in Jana’s eyes, as she picked her smaller girlfriend up from the ground in a very tight hug. “… Ella.” Jana said again after a moment, enjoying the embrace.

“Yes, Angel?” Ella said softly into the crook of the red head’s neck, her eyes closed and content.

“We just missed the bus.”

“What?” Ella’s eyes shot open and she turned around to see the bus pulling away from the stop. “Ah nuts! Oh well. Next one is in a half hour.”

“Is it now?” Jana’s smile was suddenly very mischievous. “Let’s make the most of that time, shall we?” She shifted her arms to carry Ella into their house bridal style.

“Jana!” Ella blushed and giggled at her partner’s antics, knowing there was a fair chance they might miss the next bus… And maybe the one after that… The lovers kissed as the door closed behind them. Happy to be home…