We left the tavern with hollow hearts. Yeah, sure, we’d just stopped something awful from happening, but that hadn’t stopped the girl from being traumatised. It also showed the ugly truth about this world. It was harsh, cruel and bitter, with very little happiness to be found in the broader picture.

“Stuff like that happens often, doesn’t it?” I asked as we made our way towards home.

She gave me a sad look. “Far too often. Strong preying on the weak, just because they can.”

“You know that last one, the one who was um… yeah. He was one of my classmates,” I told her morosely.

“He met the goddess as she lay bleeding and wounded trying to save humanity, and he goes and does that?” she asked incredulously, anger rising in her tone.

I nodded, taking a deep breath that was intended to calm me, but did very little. “Yeah. I don’t know exactly why, I didn’t really wait around to hear what he had to say.”

“Evil,” she muttered, shaking her head in disgust. “Goes to show that the god and the goddess are not the sources of evil, just manifestations of their pure forms.”

I didn’t answer, instead just shrugging in mind-numbed apathy. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving behind thoughts that were definitely not healthy. Still, they stuck around all the way back home, where we parted ways at the door to go and bathe.

I had the rest of the day to myself, and once I was done with cleaning the stick of slaughter off myself, I found my way to my room and just stood there, naked in the middle.

What would I do now? I knew what I wanted to do, I wanted to go upstairs and plant myself in Bassi’s bed and not leave for days. I couldn’t though, we weren’t a real couple. Just friends who fucked, and sometimes cuddled… and slept together in the same bed every night.

Staring down at my bed, I asked myself, why couldn’t I just go up there? It wasn’t how things normally happened, but whatever. I doubted she’d throw me out, and I really needed her presence right now. I needed her arms around me and the softness of her body against mine.

Fuck it, I was going to do it.

Putting on a comfortable shirt and loose shorts, I wandered my way up the rough wooden steps until I came to her door. Hearing voices on the other side didn’t stop me from opening it and pushing through.

Jitters and Whistle stood opposite Bassi, who looked even more drained than when I’d left her.

“Mist?” she asked, some small sliver of light finding its way back into her slitted green eyes. Goodness I loved those eyes.

“Hey Mist! I was going to come find you actually, I’ve started making some actually useful tools for everyone!” Jitters exclaimed, her whole face lighting up with excitement. “I made some stun traps that will— uh, where are you going?”

I moved past all three of them, heading for a gap in the partition. “Sorry Jitters. Come find me tomorrow. Right now I’m exhausted and I kinda just want to sleep.”

“Yeah, but that’s Bassi’s bed,” Whistle commented neutrally, and I turned to find him glancing between me and the woman behind the desk.

Jitters on the other hand, had gone quiet, staring at me with her mouth hanging slightly open. Then she turned to Bassi, then back to me, then to Bassi again, her jaw dropping further and further. Guess we hadn’t been as obvious as we thought!

“I’ll be there soon,” Bassi told me quietly, passing a tired but warm smile my way. My heart fluttered erratically in my chest, and for a moment I contemplated simply planting myself in her lap. That would probably be a little too far though. Plus her bed smelled like her, which was also pretty good.

I opted for the bed so as not to shock our two guildmates any further, and diving beneath the covers was such a wonderful experience. Immediately I grabbed Bassi’s pillow from her side of the bed and pulled it to my chest, hugging it and planting my face into the soft cotton. Immediately I felt my emotional state improve, eyes threatening tears of relief.

“Sorry if this is too far, boss… but are you and her… uh, together?” Whistle asked in a whisper that failed in every way to be quieter than his normal speaking voice.

“No!” I called, at the same time that Bassi said, “It’s complicated.”

Jitters stifled a chortle of amusement. “Sounds like the two of you need to talk.”

“It’s complicated!” I called again, a smile spreading across my lips and my heart simultaneously. Just what had Bassi meant by that? Whatever the hell it meant, it was a step forward that I never thought would happen.

“No, see, we’re on the same page,” Bassi told them, a smile evident in her tone.

Our newly appointed mechanic did not sound convinced. “Sure, I definitely believe you both. I could not possibly imagine any sort of confusion and drama between the two of you. There is no reason to suspect that two highly attractive women with histories of confusing themselves over fundamental parts of their psyches could ever find themselves in such a situation. Nope, no confusion here. Everyone is on the same page. That page, of course, being complicated confusion.”

“Wow… Jitters,” I laughed, my smile expanding into a full blown grin. “That stings. I resent all implications.”

Bassi was quick to follow up on my cheekiness, chuckling, “Jitters, I am banishing you from the room for being so hurtful to my complication. Go break more of the locks around the house, or whatever it is you do.”

“There’s one right there,” the mechanic shot back, not at all fazed by her leader getting bossy. “Would you like me to break that one?”

“Definitely not… don’t you dare!” the bossy boss exclaimed, and I heard her chair scrape on the ground as she stood up. “Out, both of you!”

“No, you’re right,” Jitters giggled as the sounds of the two thieves being shuffled out the door intensified. The last thing she managed to say before the door shut was, “Wouldn’t want the two of you to be locked in here until you’d had a proper talk! Definitely not!”

With the door closed, a blessed, if awkward silence descended on the room. 

Bassi slowly made her way around the partition, her eyes downcast and expression chagrined. "I'm sorry, that just sort of slipped out, I didn't mean—"

"Complicated works for me," I interrupted quickly, before she could go back on it. "Definitions and labels can wait."

Her gaze flicked up to meet mine, searching my face for something. Probably a sign of any feelings I might have for her. Time to show a few of the cards in my hand I guess.

"I… didn't come here for sex," I explained quietly, heartbeat increasing as anxiety gripped it. "I came here because what happened earlier has me shaken, and being with you gives me comfort. Even just… gosh, this is embarrassing… even just breathing in your smell from the pillow had a calming effect."

She didn't reply right away, just staring at me while she nibbled at a lower lip with a fang. Slowly, she moved around the bed, first sitting on the edge. “Two things,” she began quietly. “First… don’t toy with me. Please don’t toy with me…”

“I’d never toy with you Bassi… at least, not your heart,” I told her sincerely, a slight smile quirking my lips as I said the last.

Her serious expression showed a few cracks, and a return smile flickered into being on her face. “Fair.”

“The second thing?” I asked as my hand left the safety of the covers to trail down her arm.

“The second thing…” she intoned gravely, gravity returning to her expression for a few moments before it broke into a grin and she was lunging at me. She snatched the pillow out of my clutches and placed it back where it had been. “The second thing, is that I want my pillow back.”

“Hey!” I complained, trying to grab it back, only to be thwarted by a slap from her lightning fast hands.

“No,” she growled, pointing a finger at me.

I opened my mouth to complain, but she gave me a glare and raised her finger yet again, so I settled for pouting grumpily up at her. Of course, she wasn’t done messing with me, reaching out with a finger to lightly boop me on the lips. “Don’t pout, let me get these pants off and we can cuddle instead.”

“Oh, that works,” I said with a laugh, my mind getting overly excited by the imminent cuddles. They were cuddles for the express purpose of cuddles too, not just cuddles where we pretended there weren't any cuddles happening.

Her pants were off very quickly, and then she was in the bed and opening her arms to me. I wriggled across the intervening space like one of those snakes that moves sideways somehow. I don’t know, all I know is that getting there was the sweetest single moment of my life up until that point.

My heart swelled to bursting the moment I smooshed my face up into her neck, and when her arms closed around me I let out a breath I hadn’t known I was holding. A small whimpering sound escaped me, and I clutched at her with force to match the growing affection that swirled and danced within me.

Her arms tightened harder around me at the tiny noise I’d made, and I could hear her heart begin to race, her breathing following suit as it became erratic and hitching. The embrace turned into a feedback loop, where we held each other tighter and tighter, until ribs were creaking in alarm and we could hardly take a breath. Neither of us cared though, because this was the first openly and plainly affectionate embrace we’d ever shared. Goddess, I was falling for this woman so hard.

We didn’t speak either, the moment felt too fragile to throw words into it, and right now we were communicating on a whole different level. That of raw emotion, felt and transmitted through a hundred little instinctive cues. I could feel her finger brushing at my back, and I was sure she realised that I was gently kissing at her neck, just the barest pout to elevate it from mere contact.

Wow, I was overwhelmingly happy, my mind seared clean of the day’s stress by raw emotion. I knew that I’d be craving this feeling for the rest of my life.