Cairn groaned and opened their eyes.  Eyes which were now glowing green with horizontal slit pupils.  I tenderly grabbed a horn and wiggled their head.  "How'd it go?"

    They slapped my hand away. "Watch it with the horns.  They are new and sensitive"

    Lilly chuckled.  "How about if I do this?"  She reached out with a graceful hand and trailed her fingers from tip to base down Cairn's right horn.

    Their whole body went rigid and their eyes rolled back in their head.

    I couldn't help but laugh at them.  "I think they made things work like that on purpose."  I turned within to my connections on the network and there was a new link.  In addition to my links to Sylph and the grove, and all the links through them to her people and The Consensus, there was now a link to Cairn.  I nudged them over that link and shared what they looked like to me at that moment, rapturous facial expression and all.

    Their eyes flashed open and focused directly on me.  "I'm telepathic now?!"

    I smiled at them.  "Essentially yes.  We are linked now and can share our thoughts."

    Cairn lifted their head slightly out of my lap to look at my girlfriend, blinked a few times, and then smiled bashfully.  "Oh… thank you Sylph.  I guess I'm connected to you too?"

    "Yes.  If you follow your link to Marin you'll find several other links, myself being one of them.  Through me you'll find even more links to my people and our entangled network.  You'll find one of those to what I've called The Consensus as an English translation.  This is the forum where my people have discussions, make decisions, and collaborate on problem solving."

    I pushed lightly on a horn to bring their gaze back to me.  "I wouldn't recommend going there without being prepared to be overwhelmed.  I blacked out the first time I tried.  Also there's a whole thing where you have to create your identity to be shared like some social media linked business card."  Cairn's face went all incredulous and I laughed.  "Sylph's people are a little weird but it's actually pretty wonderful once you get past how silly it sounds."

    Lilly stroked Cairn's cheek.  "Cairn Dear, how do you feel?"

    They slowly tried to sit up, but hooked a horn on the hem of my sweater and started lifting it so I had to disentangle them before they could find their way to upright.  "Sorry Marin…  Um, It feels, I don't know… weird?  But like mostly, just intellectually weird.  Like if I take a second to think about what all I'm experiencing, it's weird as shit and if someone told me about this at random last week I'd have just laughed and made fun of them…  But as I go through everything, it just sorta makes sense like it's some new way of breathing."  They turned to their partner.  "You should totally do it, you'll love it."

    Lilly still looked a little unsure.  Like there was a battle of attrition going on in her head between anxiety and the will to go through with it, but it very much looked like anxiety was not going to be holding out for long.  "How about when Marin shared eir thoughts with you?"

    "That was amazing.  Ey shared what ey were seeing.  I could see myself, but not just like a picture of myself, how Marin actually sees me.  Like all the emotion and history between us warping my face into something beautiful.  Fuck you Marin, just thinking about it is gonna make me cry!”  Cairn started wiping their eyes dramatically.  “I knew you were all sappy and shit, but damn bitch, you fucking love me!"

    I smiled and felt my own empathy tears well up.  "It's true.  I don't know why sometimes, but I do!"

    Lilly sighed and looking at her face, I can tell Cairn had just struck the killing blow at what little anxiety remained keeping Lilly from taking the plunge.  "Okay fine, Marin, would you please do me the honor of giving me your hand in fungal infection?"

   I laughed, sat up and rotated around so I could hold out my hand for Lilly to take. "I do!"

   She held it lightly in both of hers.  "I'm ready."  She closed her eyes and kissed the back of my hand before inhaling deeply of a collection of glowing motes of light I'd just released.

    Cairn laughed.  "You two are sappy as fuck and it's both disgusting and adorable."

    I dramatically swooned, falling back into Cairn and Sylph as the couch erupted in laughter.

    * * *

    Lilly's transition was pretty unremarkable according to my mental copy.  As we waited, more cartoons were watched, more cuddles were had, more flirting was engaged in, and all three of us grew more and more tired as we grew closer together.

    When Lilly awoke from her reboot, she had made only minor changes.  Some alterations to her voice and prominent trachea to curb some dysphoria there.  Her face had changed to soften the lines of her jaw and brow.  Knowing her, there'd be other changes taking place that I couldn't currently see.  I was exceedingly happy for her gaining control over these things that have been bothering her all the time I've known her.  

    As I did for Cairn, my first mental sharing with Lilly was the mental image of how she looked to me when I gazed into her eyes.  She accepted and it startled her.  She stared back at me like she couldn't accept all the things I felt for her, but the direct form of communication we had wouldn't allow her brain to hold that bias in conflict to my shared feelings.  

    Tears began to streak down her cheeks as she reached for my own and pulled me into a kiss.  She poured into that kiss an ocean of feelings she had gathered for me over the course of knowing each other.  My link with Lilly was saturated to the point where all awareness of anything other than her lips and her love for me was washed away into the void.  

    After I don't know how long, I was allowed access to reality again.  She pulled her lips away, rested her forehead against my own, and we both just breathed.  Our peace was cut short by a well coordinated "Awwwwwww!" from both Sylph and Cairn, but Lilly and I were still too in the moment to care.

    Lilly pulled back slightly and looked into my eyes with so much meaning in hers.  "I love you."

    "I know."  I smirked at her.  A look crossed her face I couldn’t identify, but I blinked and it was gone.  She glared at me and pinched my thigh.  "Owww…  I mean I could very much tell from that kiss and your thoughts and all.  I love you too, but you already knew that."  I booped her nose with my own.      

    Lilly shook her head.  "You really are insufferable sometimes."  

    There was something in her voice.  Disappointment, after that kiss?  "But you love me so you'll suffer through it, right?"  I kissed her, a soft peck this time with nowhere near the same level feeling to it.

    "I suppose that is true."  Lilly sighed and leaned to the side of my face to look past me at Sylph.  "So, what now?"

    "Our network operates on entangled pairs of subatomic particles that humanity has yet to discover.  Each time a pair is read, they lose coherence so communication is limited, but the amount Marin shared with each of you will last at least a decade based on extrapolating how fast Marin uses them.  Despite this I would suggest one of you share with the other so you are not using Marin's connection to link with each other.  If you'd like, I could also share with you."

    "Sylph, knowing this, I wouldn't dare leave without having requested this of you."

    I watched as my girlfriend blushed her beautiful purple.  "Be careful Lilly, as Marin has discovered I am highly susceptible to flirting."

    Lilly smiled.  "I do not see a problem with this."

    I shook away the slight concern I was feeling over Lilly and I sighed dreamily.  "Neither do I.  It's so cute being stuck in the middle of this."

    Lilly and Sylph giggled, Cairn groaned.  "Gosh, get a room you three."

    "I have several to choose from, but I doubt I have the energy.  Sylph and Lilly are welcome to pick one though."  We all giggled, but the two women did so slightly more nervously.  

    Badger, wonderful dog that they are broke the sexual tension by dropping their leash in my lap.  "Also it appears it's time to walk the dog lest they pee on the carpet."  I stood and began putting on the Badger's harness.  "I'll be right back, but anyone is welcome to come with."   

    Lilly stood up after me.  "I think I could use some air.  I'll join you."

    I gave Cairn and Sylph a quick questioning glance.  

    Cairn yawned and flopped over into Sylph's lap.  "I am le tired… also I'm not ready to put my horns away.  You two have fun."

    Sylph giggled and started scratching Cairn's scalp.  "I have a pile of rocks in my lap and don't believe I'm allowed to get up."  She smiled at Lilly and I.  "Also I feel like you might have a few things to talk about."

    I turned back to Lilly and there was that unknown look in her eyes again.  Perceptive Sylph is perceptive.  I gave Sylph a kiss and Badger, Lilly, and I headed out the front door.  

* * *

    It was slightly overcast with a nearly half moon high in the night sky.  Some stars twinkled through the clouds.  Light wasn't ideal, but I shared with Lilly a few techniques I had found within Fungie's instincts for enhancing night vision of my eyes, Badger of course, was fine as is.  

    Lilly's hands had been firmly shoved into her coat pockets the entire way since we had left the house.  I finally reached out and pulled one of them free as we had arrived at the beginning of Badger's path into the aspen grove.  I shared over our connection curiosity as to what was going through her mind.  

    Lilly gasped slightly, she still wasn't quite acclimatized to the abilities of the connection.  "You might not be aware, but I'm not great at being vulnerable with people."

    I squeezed her hand.  "I know.  You always put up such a strong front, but inside you're quite soft and squishy."

    Lilly let out a long sigh.  "You've always been able to see right through me.  Even when… maybe especially when you should have been focused on yourself as you were coming out, beginning your transition.  You…  Sometimes I worry you focus too much on being sensitive to the feelings of others."

    "Yeah, I've been worried about that too.  I think it's all the trauma of being raised partially by Janice."  Now it was my turn to sigh.  "But I've been working on that, lots of time to be introspective this past year… even more so this past week."  I shoulder checked her.  "But no deflecting onto me, we were talking about your vulnerability."

    Lilly giggled.  "I told you, it's hard.  Being open about my feelings is hard.  This connection, it really just lays it all bare doesn't it?"

    I nodded.  "It really only allows you to lie to others if you are also convincingly lying to yourself, and even that seems iffy.  Sylph's people… they live like this as how they interact throughout their entire lives.  Their society thrives on shared values of trust and openness.  If Cairn thinks I'm sappy and weird, they are going to be in for a shock when they poke their head into The Consensus."

    Lilly laughed again, took a deep breath and stopped walking.  Her hand pulled me to a stop with her, my hand on Badger's leash stopping them in turn.  She squeezed my hand and I felt a memory press against my mind over our connection.  I accepted and it flowed over me.  It was me, probably five years ago, when I was still going to school.   I was in the first dress I had ever worn in public.  I had smiled at Lilly and I could feel an ache in her heart.  It was bittersweet.  Her feelings swelled as she looked at my happiness, but we're tamped back down with inadequacy.  She didn't say anything.

    Another shared memory.  We were on the couch in her apartment, my head resting under her arm, tears rolling down my face.  I had just gotten back from a horrible date.  The woman wasn't so bad, the man that had accosted us… no, accosted me coming out of the women's bathroom had scared her away.  She had blocked my number, couldn’t deal with dating a visibly trans person.  The ache in Lilly's heart was stronger now.  She wanted nothing more than to kiss me and tell me everything would be okay, but this was buried under a burning need to never ever be seen as predatory or taking advantage of anyone.  She didn't say anything.

    Another memory.  We were at the airport, it was the day I left to go help take care of my mother.  Lilly had me in the strongest bear hug of my life and I was somehow unable to breath but also still crying.  Cairn told me, "Everything is going to be alright.  She's got some of the best doctors in the country in Denver and ovarian cancer has a very high recession rate these days.  We will be here when you get back."  The ache almost physically hurt.  She wanted to come with me, but would feel guilty leaving Cairn or pulling them away from their studies.  She wanted me to stay, but couldn't imagine clamming herself more important than my mother.  She wanted to tell me something, anything of her love for me.  She didn't say anything.

    Another.  Lilly was sitting at her desk when the phone rang.  It was me.  She picked up and my voice wailed out, "She's dead!"  The ache pulled tears from her eyes.  She was filled with the need to console me.  To help me mourn the loss, even as she was still mourning her own loss of my presence.  All she could say was, "I'm here," when what she actually longed to say was, "Come back to us…  Come back to me!"  She didn't say anything.

    And another.  It was twenty minutes ago on my couch.  She had just sat up after awakening her fungal buddy.  I shared how I saw her and she could barely recognize herself without all her own bias clouding what she saw in the mirror every day.  I saw her as one of the most beautiful women in existence, inside and out, and this absolute knowledge tore apart everything she ever looked at in herself with disgust and remade it into something worthy of desire, worthy of love.  I felt that ache in her heart explode into warmth all across her body.  She kissed me, and she said something.  "I love you."

    Lilly broke down laughing and crying all at once.  "And then you had the audacity to make a joke out of it with your 'I know' and it only made me love you more."  She pulled me to her and took a deep shuddering breath into my shoulder.  "But fuck Marin!  That didn't help me out at all!  How can you be so fucking perceptive, and so fucking dense at the same fucking time?"

    I buried my face into her shoulder, but managed to eek out, "It takes practice."  We both cackled and sobbed for a long time.  Badger nuzzled up between our legs after marking a few trees in range of their lead.  "I really am sorry."  I kissed her tear salted cheek.  "I think on some level I really did know all along, but had convinced myself you weren't really ready for anything.  Bad humor and bad flirting was how I coped I guess.  I can see how that probably never helped."

    Lilly took my face in her hands.  "It didn't.  It distanced you from me, but it is also who you are.  If you didn't do that I don't think I'd have fallen for you nearly as hard as I have been falling the whole time since I met you.  It's so fucking frustrating how much I love how you frustrate me."  Lilly groaned and pretended to crush my face between her hands.

    I grabbed Lilly's face right back and pulled her to me, forcing my lips upon hers.  She groaned again, but I was delighted by how different this was than the last.  I pushed my tongue into her mouth and was rewarded by pulling more delightful noises from her.  

    She reached down and grabbed my thighs, hoisting me up into the air and wrapping my legs around her waist.  I moaned into her mouth.  This was all so right.  I could no longer count how many times I'd daydreamed of Lilly using her very strong arms to pull me up against her like this.  Warmth filled all through my body and my heart was hammering in my chest with desire.

    Badger yawned and unfortunately reminded us that we were here for them and not purely for us.  

    "I guess we have put that off for six years, we can probably put it off for at least long enough to get back home."  I winked at Lilly.

    She set me down and kissed me once more.  "After you."

    "Always so gallant, and I’m not even a lady.”

    “Then I shall endeavor to be lady enough for the both of us.”  She held out her hand for me to take and we walked hand in hand, smiling the whole way home.