Maven awoke sandwiched between a naked Tess and a naked Ellie, and it took her a moment to realize she was naked herself. And, as she woke, the memories started to come back to her; the last night had been a sort of happy blur, and Maven had found herself craving more and more physical affection as the night went on.

One thing led to another, and the three girls had discovered that their definition of “taking it slow” was simply waiting a few hours before they got to business. Tess had been right; the three were closer than their time spent together would suggest. Perhaps it was because of the monumental changes the three had gone through together, or perhaps they were simply innately compatible, but whatever it was all three of them found themselves frustrated by limiting themselves to kisses.

More than once Tess and Ellie had accidentally begun to get more into their kisses than they had intended, and when Maven found that she too was getting more into the kisses than she had expected, they decided that enough was enough and just took it to the bedroom. It had been the best night of Maven’s life, and she still couldn’t believe that it wasn’t a one-off thing, that it was her life going forward.

Maven shifted slightly, and the movement caused Tess to stir. After a moment, Tess opened her eyes and turned her head to the side before giving Maven a groggy kiss. “Good morn…oh.” Tess said, seemingly waking up fully as she disengaged from the kiss. She began to blush deeply, an embarrassed look on her face. “I…sorry.”

“For what?” Maven asked, blinking in surprise.

“For kissing you without warning. I was still waking up and thought you were Ellie. And, um, also for not taking it slow like we intended.”

“Tess, if you took it any slower, I was going to explode.” Maven said. “I think we went at the right pace.”

Maven was interrupted by a gentle hand on her cheek, prompting her to turn her head and receive a kiss from Ellie. “Morning, Tess, you talki…sorry about that, Maven.”

“It’s fine.” Maven giggled. “Tess just did the same, and I don’t mind, really.”

“Oh, good.” Ellie said, a relieved smile on her face. “What were you two talking about?”

“Tess was apologizing for not taking it slow and I told her that I’m glad we didn’t and that I think we went at the right pace. It was probably the best night of my life and, well, I’ve needed this for a long time, I think.”

“Don’t say things like that.” Ellie said. “You’re making me want to spend all day here pampering you, and we have work to do.”

Maven sighed. “I suppose we do.” She said. “But…we can do this again tonight, right?”

“I’d love to.” Tess said.

“It’s a date, then.” Ellie replied, standing up and stretching a bit before picking her underwear and pajamas up off of the floor and beginning to put them on.

Tess and Maven followed suit, and the three soon found themselves eating breakfast. Maven had been tempted to follow her girlfriends’ lead and go down for breakfast in her pajamas, but in the end, she decided to let herself slip back into “work mode” and put on some daywear instead.

Once the three were eating breakfast, Tess spoke up. “You know, I can’t help but be reminded of the time we first met…what was it, nine months ago?”

“I believe it was closer to four.” Maven said. “Though admittedly I have not been counting the days.”

Tess blinked. “Really? Feels like longer. But, whatever the case, I never would have imagined that things would turn out like this. In fact, I thought I was never going to see you again after that day.”

“Remind me how you two met?” Ellie asked. “I seem to recall something about it being at a dungeon, but I’m fuzzy on the specifics.”

“It is an embarrassing story.” Maven said, looking away from them and blushing slightly. “I was not exactly at my best at that time, and let some of my father’s mannerisms rub off on me. But…embarrassing though it is to hear, I must admit I am curious to know your perspective on it, Tess.”

“Well, this was back when Alice, Eyfura, and I were training together, one night at a dungeon I was woken by banging on the door. I opened it and Maven was there, mad that the penthouse she had let people know she was using was full. She made some threats and then Eyfura opened the door and sort of took over the conversation. Which…actually, how did you feel about that, Maven?”

“I was scared out of my mind.” Maven admitted. “I was incredibly tired and irritable, and when I was giving an innocent girl an earful, a living legend walked up behind her and began defending her. I was afraid I had made a terrible mistake and potentially soured relations between Paumen and the City, especially when I learned who Tess was. It was, perhaps, the most scared I have ever been in my entire life.”

“That scary?” Tess asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did Eyfura or Alice give you a hard time after I went back to sleep? Because it didn’t seem like they were trying to be scary from my perspective.”

“They did not.” Maven confirmed. “In fact, Eyfura was the one to offer letting me go on a couple of runs with you in the morning. It was baffling, though it makes significantly more sense when I look back on it knowing what I know now. Regardless, I feel the need to apologize about my behavior during that time once again. I know I have before, but it truly was a horrid way to treat you and I feel bad whenever I am reminded of it.”

“You’re cute.” Tess said, leaning over and giving Maven a quick kiss on the cheek. “You’ve more than made up for it, and I really didn’t mind that much. You were clearly tired and were expecting to relax in a nice room, and it would have been super upsetting to find out that you had to downgrade.”

Ellie frowned. “Why didn’t you make a reservation?”

“As far as my tutors and I were aware, it was not necessary.” Maven said. “Reservations of penthouse suites cost extra money, and the penthouse suites are rarely taken in low-level dungeons. Simply putting out word that you would be staying there amongst other boosters practically guaranteed that you would get the room, so we chose to save the cost of the reservation. Of course, had we known that Alice was training a protégé, we would have acted differently.”

“That was my first question for her too.” Tess said. “And Alice’s first question for her too. But, yeah, the next morning I found out I was doing a couple of runs with her, and she was nice enough then, so I just assumed it was all politics and did my best to be polite.”

“As much as it pains me to admit it, I am glad events transpired the way they did.” Maven admitted. “It was the catalyst that led to me becoming happier than I had ever dreamed possible. And, for that, I am forever in your debt.”

“I think forever is bit of a long time.” Tess said, smirking. “But, if you insist on being so in debt, I suppose I’ll have to keep you as my lover forever.”

Maven’s cheeks went crimson at the unexpected flirting. “I…I…my heart wasn’t ready for that.” She said, momentarily shocked out of proper speech. “That was…was…I don’t know. Um, thank you.”

“You know, I’m really glad we went through with this.” Ellie said. “I always thought you were cute, but you somehow became a hundred times cuter since you met with Kali, and I’m really glad you’re ours now because it means I get to do things like this.”

Ellie scooped Maven up into her arms, and Maven let out a surprised squeak at the sudden action. Ellie held Maven’s gaze for a moment before giving her a kiss, then finally set her back down in her chair. “See? A hundred times cuter than you were this time yesterday.”

“I…I’m happy to, I mean, I am happy to hear that.” Maven said.

“By the way, you really don’t need to be all stiff around us.” Ellie replied. “Or at all, really. You’re not crown princess anymore, you’re just a freelancer, and that means you don’t have to pay attention to whatever etiquette your tutors taught you; just do whatever you want.”

“I am still crown princess until it is officially announced that I have abdicated.” Maven said. “But…your point is taken; when we are in private, I will endeavor to be more casual. I cannot promise a total, immediate switch in behavior, but I will try.”

“It sounds like we just need to keep doting on you, then.” Ellie said. “That always seems to get you to break character.”

Maven blushed fiercely yet again. “That…sounds very nice.” She said. “I would be happy if you did, though I fear I am not adept at returning the favor. Still, I will try my best; I do not wish to be receiving more than I give.”

“That just means we have to dote on you extra hard.” Tess said. “We have to teach you somehow.”

“You two are going to make me die of embarrassment and happiness.” Maven said. “I…I cannot thank you enough for that. My life has been so much better since I joined up with you, and flirting aside I truly mean that I feel I owe you a great deal. But…I suppose that means I will have to dote on you extra hard once I learn how.”

Tess and Ellie shared a grin. “Well, looks like you’re getting the hang of flirting already.” Ellie said. “But we should probably stop talking about this; at this rate I really will take you back upstairs for the rest of the day, and we can’t have that.”

---

The rest of the month flew by, Maven feeling as if she was in a perpetual happy daze as it did. This was partly due to the fact that the days felt rather formulaic; in the morning they would do two or three runs of the dungeon, then they would proceed to the guild where they would look for jobs for the day.

By and large the jobs they took on fell under one of two categories; first, requests to do something about monsters in the area. While this usually was just killing the monster or monsters in question, on occasion people wanted materials from the monster, and Maven’s party had to either bring the corpse back in as good a condition as possible, or dismantle the corpse themselves and bring back the requested parts.

Those requests were simple enough, the hardest part was usually just finding the monsters. And, to Maven’s surprise, that wasn’t much of an issue, though Maven probably shouldn’t have been surprised by it. Tess had been trained by Ava herself, one of the world’s best trackers, and though most of her training had been within dungeons, dungeons held enough resemblance to real-life environments that it didn’t matter.

So, the monster requests were never an issue, and it would have been easy to just take those all of the time, but they wanted to show they were capable of different things, so they didn’t. The other requests they took were odd jobs that could be completed within a single day, and those were a bit more interesting, if much rarer.

Most odd job requests that came through this place were for guarding goods overnight or on the road to a merchant’s next destination, and neither was something they wanted to take often. They took one night guard request, just to show they were capable, but they were holding off on taking requests that would lead them to another town until they were ready to actually leave.

That really just left the few other requests that popped up from time to time, mostly from the people who lived here full time. Those were much more varied in content, and ranged from needing people to clear out a mouse infestation to looking for earth magic users to help landscape their yards.

Fortunately, their party was versatile enough that any job that didn’t need much technical knowledge was within their capabilities. And, once again, Tess was their greatest asset for these jobs; though her magic was not yet strong enough to be reliably used in battle, not compared to her claws, she did have access to all types of magic, and they didn’t need raw firepower for these requests.

Furthermore, Ava’s training had given Tess quite a few random proficiencies that came in handy. Disarming traps didn’t directly translate to anything outside of a dungeon, but dungeon traps were incredibly varied in construction and in the methods needed to disarm them. So, when it came to surface-level knowledge on things like detecting problems in machinery, altering already-existing furniture or appliances, and even simple work with electricity or magic circuits, Tess was generally able to have some useful piece of knowledge that would help out.

That was…probably purposeful, from a dungeon design standpoint. The goal of dungeons was to strengthen people, and though knowledge of these sorts of things didn’t directly translate to fighting capability, it would help in a myriad of small ways in the context of a war or hunting expedition. Just having someone around who could at least kind of handle many situations would help alleviate the burden on the experts who would otherwise need to deal with those situations, or get a squad out of a pinch, or any number of things.

Seeing it in action left Maven with a newfound respect for Ava. She had, of course, respected Ava greatly before, she was part of the universe’s strongest party and one of the most powerful people alive, but Maven hadn’t realized just how much went into the work she did, both as a teacher and as a freelancer.

Likewise, Maven saw Tess in a new light as well. Much of Tess’s work in disarming traps and scouting the area ahead took place out of Maven’s line of sight, or in a way that Maven couldn’t see the specifics in action. She hadn’t thought Tess wasn’t doing her share of the work or anything, she knew what Tess did was vital to the party’s success and was incredibly grateful for her, but she just hadn’t known the scope of what she did.

The thing that stuck out to Maven the most was just how well Tess had taken to her role; Ava being a stellar teacher wouldn’t explain Tess’s skill with her work, nor would it explain the sheer amount of knowledge she seemed to remember. Tess had clearly worked hard and had innate talent with what she was doing, or else she wouldn’t be as competent as she was.

In a way, it was almost suspicious, like she had been fated to be in this specific role in a party from the very start, but that seemed silly. As far as Maven was aware, the gods weren’t able to touch stat distributions without using Worship, and weren’t in the business of altering the circumstances of anyone’s birth.

And if they wouldn’t interfere and let the Gu – Gramps save his children, then Maven found it hard to believe that they would purposefully tune down Tess’s growths in some vague hope that she would become Fortune’s Appointed. Not only was it far from likely, the price of failure would be immense, leaving Tess with little prospective future as a freelancer and wasting Worship for no real reason.

Maven knew that Fate had been interfering with events regarding Maven’s girlfriends, but it wouldn’t have been to this extent. And, with him out of the question, Amy similarly unlikely to move, and Fortune having said she didn’t alter Tess’s growths, there was basically no being that would have the means or desire to do such a thing.

And that left Maven to assume it was random chance, as astronomically unlikely as it was. Still, there were close to a trillion people alive, and over the almost one hundred thousand years of recorded history it stood to reason that something like this was bound to happen once or twice. And, really, whether this situation was manufactured or just the product of freak chance didn’t change anything. Tess was still working hard, and the situation had improved Maven’s life in ways she hadn’t even dreamed were possible before.

That thought led into Maven’s favorite part of the last month, the evenings. After they had finished their work for the day, they sat back and bonded. They went on a couple of dinner dates, but the town lacked much in the way of entertainment, so for the most part they stayed in the penthouse suite and watched movies or played games.

In many ways, it was the same as how they spent their evenings before, but the small changes made them feel completely different to Maven. For one, there was a lot more flirting involved, and Maven found that she liked flirting a lot. Receiving confirmation that someone liked her for her and not for her status and being able to return the sentiment made her feel good in a way she had never really felt before.

The flirting aside, Maven felt like some sort of invisible barrier in her mind had been torn down. Before she had always been keeping at least some sort of distance, she had assumed out of a desire to give the couple their space, but now she suspected it was a way to subconsciously suppress her own feelings. Regardless of the source, though, that wall was gone, and she allowed herself to get as close as she wanted.

She had thought she had been comfortable around them before, but that was simply not true; she just hadn’t been truly comfortable around anyone before, and they had just been the most comfortable she had been. But this…this was something different, something new. At first she had to constantly remind herself to switch out of her “work mode” and into “relaxation mode” in the evenings, but after a week or two she found that the dynamic had switched.

Instead of forcing herself to relax, she was forcing herself to tighten up and act more formal, and that provided her a bit of rebellious satisfaction. Her parents had worked very hard to ensure she always acted like a “proper princess”, and it had taken remarkably little time for her to make significant headway in undoing that conditioning.

Still, she would have to force herself to act the part until her parents officially named Taru heir. As much as she disliked the formality her parents had forced upon her, she recognized its usefulness in preventing political incidents, and she didn’t wish to harm Paumen.

That was another snag she had stumbled upon; her status would impact the wedding. After the first week or so the three of them were all pretty sure that this was going to work out, and after they had officially decided to share a bed every night instead of sleeping separately, they had become certain; Ellie had even begun officially changing plans so as to include Maven.

Unfortunately, Maven didn’t want to officially announce that she was married while she was still crown princess; it would set certain expectations, and when those expectations were shattered there would be at least some negative impact on Paumen. Tess and Ellie had said they were content with a private wedding, family and close friends only, but Maven didn’t want them to have to settle because of her.

After some discussion, Tess and Ellie had convinced Maven to consult with her grandmother once they began to tell people about their relationship. Amara was the person with the best read on Paumen’s political state that any of them knew, and she was far more familiar with these types of things than they were.

That would have to wait for a couple of days, though. The party was in the midst of escorting a merchant’s caravan towards the portal back to the City, and once they arrived they would be taking the rank exam before telling their friends and family. Ellie in particular was filled with a sort of mischievous delight with the situation, claiming that she couldn’t wait to see all of their faces.

Maven wasn’t quite so enthused. She could already picture Alice’s smug expression when she realized that she had been right and it had been love, and she wasn’t looking forward to it. But…aside from that, she was happy to tell everyone.

“Maven, Ellie, monsters to the right!” Tess called out, snapping Maven out of her reverie. She was still on the clock, and though her services were only required when Tess found monsters, she couldn’t afford to be distracted during those times. So, she hopped off of the back of the cargo hoverer that was carrying the goods, and began to get to work.

Fighterman481

I have to admit that, though I'm quite happy with how this chapter turned out, I do have a couple of regrets. But, before that, there is one quick thing I want to talk about: some of you might think it's odd that Tess greatly misjudges the time she and Maven knew each other, but believe it or not that's something straight out of my life. I had moved states near the end of the school year in middle school, and I ended up finding a friend group pretty fast. Within like two weeks they were asking 'oh, remember (X thing that happened years ago)?' and I'd say, no, I didn't live here then, and they'd take a second before remembering that they had literally just met me a couple weeks ago. So, as far as I'm concerned, this isn't even that bad.

Anyway, the regrets:

First, there's a bit of repeated information in there, with discussion about how Maven and Tess first met. I left it in mostly because it's been a hot minute since that scene, and I figured most people would need a refresher. I wanted to sort of get Maven's perspective on it, since...I dunno, it just felt important, especially given how differently she acted then as opposed to now.

The second and more significant regret is that we didn't get to see the relationship develop a bit more. The rest of their time in this little town would have been boring, and I didn't want to write just a montage of scenes of them together, it'd distract from the pacing a bit too much and be too weirdly disjointed, so I eventually settled on summarizing it.

I figured everyone knew where this was going anyway, and that the more interesting consequences of this are when other people find out, so...yeah.  Anyway, what's done is done, so next time we're going to get into the aforementioned consequences a bit more, so look forward to it, I guess.

And, as always, thanks for reading!