The aftermath of the agreement was chaos, to put it simply. Rachel wanted a schedule for who would get to spend time with Rosalind when. With seven days in a week each of them would get 1.75 days with her, which was mathematically annoying. Logan pointed out they could just do an 8 day schedule, but weekends were the only time that really worked for Mario, thanks to the commute involved. So a seven day schedule seemed necessary.

At least if Mario was going to stay in Cambridge, working at Il Gato, which he did want to do. 

“I have a pretty decent kitchen if you miss baking,” Rosalind said, leaning against the coffee table as she sat on the floor. “It’s not like I’d be breaking the bank to support you.”

“That feels so fast for moving in,” Mario mumbled, blushing.

“It makes scheduling easier if she and I are going to share you,” Rachel said.

The poor man simply blushed more deeply. 

“Are you not comfortable with that?” Rosalind asked.

“I... I need time to get used to it, but... you are very beautiful, Miss Collins,” Mario said, just above a whisper.

“Hey, so, if we’re talking about people moving in... would you have room for me?” Teddy asked. “It’s just that your place is way closer to my work, so the commute would be much nicer.”

“Sure. There’s two bedrooms, and I sleep at the studio at least half the time anyway,” Rosalind replied.

“You are ready to move in this quickly?” Mario asked, clearly surprised.

“There’s two types of lesbians,” Teddy explained. “The type who never realise they’re actually dating and the kind who are planning their move in on the second date... alright, there’s actually some overlap between those groups sometimes, somehow, but... you get the picture. I’m the move in type.”

Mario nodded and then the negotiations continued.

It should have surprised no one that Rachel managed to negotiate first access to Rosalind, who was thus left with two reasons to change forms. The other reason was to be slightly stronger and to have better leverage while he helped Teddy move her stuff into his place. Though he and Logan ended up not having to put their muscles to much use between Teddy and Mario moving most of the furniture. 

Just how ready Teddy had been to move honestly impressed Romeo. It did help that she was leaving most of the furniture behind, to help her former roommate rent the room faster. Romeo was also happy to wave any rent fees for Teddy, so she agreed to cover a couple of months at the current place to further help out. He supposed it was good planning just in case the whole polyamory situation fell apart. Keep bridges from being burned and all that.

Though the move also improved Romeo’s confidence in the idea of polyamory. Teddy and Mario were getting along far better than he’d expected, and Rachel kept muttering ‘a girl could get used to this’ whenever she found herself watching Romeo and Mario working together.

By the time the move was over Rachel already seemed used to it, because she offered for Mario to join her and Romeo on the way back to her condo. Mario refused, insisting he had to get his own living arrangements in order and offer two weeks notice to Erica.

And so, Romeo now found himself sitting in the passenger seat of Rachel’s car as they drove through the central city streets. It seemed too short of a distance to be worth driving, especially with downtown traffic. Every fourth street was closed to cars due to the streetcars or general pedestrianization efforts the city had embraced of late, and a good chunk of the remainder were one way. There was a reason why Romeo only really drove if he was leaving the city. 

“So, do you have a date night planned?” Romeo asked, as they sat at another red light.

“Not really, no. After driving your other girlfriend’s stuff in a rented van back and forth across the city I don’t really have much mental energy left,” Rachel muttered.

“Sorry,” Romeo mumbled.

“I... you don’t have to be,” Rachel said with a sigh. “Everyone else has been getting along. It makes me feel like a jerk... and then makes me feel more defensive and I end up digging myself deeper...”

Romeo raised an eyebrow, wondering if that might mean she was starting to accept things.

“It was really just between you and Logan, just so you know,” Romeo said.

There was a pause, Romeo not sure what else to say. The look on Rachel’s face made him worry that had been the wrong move.

“I know,” Rachel said at last. “And I know I should be glad you found that a hard choice. Really, he was the obvious choice. You’ve been friends from well before I knew you, working together in the band the whole time, while I’m... I’m me.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Romeo asked as they reached the garage entrance to Rachel’s glistening and new Yorkville condo.

“It should be obvious,” Rachel replied as she slowly drove them past luxury cars that caused Romeo to balk at the probable price tags. “I’m cold. I’m abrasive. I scare people. Most people say I severely lack maternal instincts. Oh, and I’m, what, seven years older than you?”

“Guess that makes me the trophy wife who’ll be raising the kids,” Romeo said with a smirk.

Rachel pulled into her parking spot and then stopped to stare at Romeo.

“What? Alright, fine. I’ll actually address the nonsense you said... there’s nothing wrong with being a little cold, it just makes getting access to your warmth all the sweeter. Your ability to be abrasive and scare people makes my heart flutter when you’re doing it for me. I don’t really care if you have maternal instincts or not... and that’s not really that much of an age gap anymore. Maybe it was when I was eighteen and your dad first handed us over to you, but now? It’s nothing really.”

Rachel nodded a few times, not quite smiling but clearly reassured. “... how old are Mario and Teddy, anyhow?”

“Er... I haven’t asked yet?” Romeo replied.

“Please do. We should get that out of the way in case Mario really is too young for me,” Rachel said, getting out of the car.

“He’s an adult. I know that much. My mum wouldn’t break labour laws,” Romeo replied, following her towards the elevator.

There was a bit of a wait, the building being absurdly tall. Even once they got on the elevator, awkwardly quiet due to a few other tenants stepping on at ground level, there were another 79 floors to go. Which took a while, even with a fast elevator.

Romeo really wasn’t sure it was worth it, but Rachel liked the prestige of the address and wasn’t going to be anywhere but near the top of the building. Something about dignity and self respect. 

“We can whip up some dinner, since I guess you’re as hungry as I am,” Rachel said as they made the short walk to her condo.

“You cook?” Romeo asked.

It wasn’t his first time in her condo, and he’d seen that she had a nice kitchen, but he’d figured it was mostly for show. Wasn’t she too busy with work and planning to do anything as basic as making her own meals?

“A round trip up and down the elevator takes nearly twenty minutes. Cooking is easier,” she replied flatly as she led him into her apartment.

“Fair,” he replied with a nod.

The agreement was followed by a few minutes of Rachel digging through her pantry and fridge, then gathering together the various cookware and utensils. She was making a face as she did so, however. One that seemed mildly annoyed. Watching her more carefully between peeling a couple of potatoes.

“Bra bothering you?” he asked, sympathy in his voice.

She paused her slicing of carrots to stare at him for a moment. “I was forgetting you would know what that was like... but, yes. It got twisted up... do you mind if I take it off?”

Romeo raised an eyebrow. “You’re asking your fiancé if he minds you taking your bra off?”

“That--what gender are you right now?” she asked. “Because I feel like I’m getting some mixed signals.”

“Uhh... I don’t know? I’m pretty sure I’m not usually anything overly specific,” Romeo replied. “Maybe, like... if masculinity was a real Hollywood movie I’m currently one of those knock-offs with just barely legally distinct names?”

Rachel let out a sigh. “I should have expected something like that. It’s the sort of thing Geordie would say too.”

Before Romeo could complain about Geordie being brought up, Rachel began unhooking her bra. It proved a good distraction and Romeo decided to not let his mood be ruined. 

The need to focus on cooking soon firmly distracted him. The vaguely Indian inspired stir fry came together a few minutes later, and it was on towards eating. The conversation of the meal soon shifted towards work. Rachel was only able to ignore the subject for so long and clearly had been pushed towards bursting by the distractions of the day.

Romeo was left slightly embarrassed by how thoroughly he’d forgotten about how close the East Asian tour coming up that winter was. A whirlwind across the Philippines, South East Asia, a quick stop in Macau and Hong Kong, then up to Japan and South Korea before swinging back to mainland China. Ending in Chengdu, which surprised Romeo.

“Isn’t that a bit out of the way?”

“Not really. The urban area is apparently about the size of LA, and the whole of Sichuan has something like 80 million people. It’s inland, especially for a foreign musician, but the paperwork has been going surprisingly smoothly,” Rachel explained.

“China has so many people,” Romeo muttered under his breath.

“Indeed. Though, also, Jovita was oddly invested in us going to Chengdu... maybe it’s just because she’s from Brazil and knows what it’s like to see Anglophone bands ignore major cities in the rest of the world,” Rachel said with a shrug, before finishing off her dinner. “Well, I did most of the cooking, so you can load the dishwasher.”

Having not been thinking ahead to that, Romeo curled a lip in annoyance but made no further effort to complain. It was a reasonable balance. 

They ended up sleeping together that night, of course. It wasn’t like Romeo would say no, and he also felt he somewhat owed her for last time. So he did his best to make the night completely about her, and Rachel clearly appreciated that. All while trying not to sweat off his locking sigil. 

Unfortunately they spent a bit too much of the night with sex and so both found themselves more than a little tired the next morning when they came into the recording studio. It left Romeo quite relieved when the band took a break to wait for mixing and he could retreat to his dressing room to flop on the couch, trying to get a little shut eye.

“Not how I expected you to solve things,” Hermaphroditus’ voice said, though Romeo couldn’t be bothered to turn to see which mirror they were hiding in. “It’s good to see mortals are getting healthier about the possessiveness we deities accidentally taught you.”

“Mrrmph,” Romeo mumbled, before lifting his head just enough to get out an audible reply. “I’m a bit tired. Can’t you go meddle with someone else today? JK’s single. Don’t you want to get him a fiancée?”

“Oh, there’s no rush there. He’s quite happy single,” Hermaphroditus replied. “We only intervene where intervention is beneficial.”

“... I was happy single,” Romeo muttered.

The silence used to reply to that was more powerful than any words even a deity could have found.

“Alright. Fine. I was lonely and miserable, but I was scared of commitment and I’m still kind of scared of it, so I worry I jumped on polyamory to escape it,” Romeo said, too tired to bother trying to lie to a deity who could probably see through his lies anyway.

“There’s more commitment in your current relationship situation, not less,” Hermaphroditus replied. “We will let you rest, though. There are other things for us to do.”

After managing to get a power nap in during the mixing break, Romeo was better ready to face the rest of the recording sessions. With the interesting choice that Hank had decided it would be fun to have them switch during the song, overlaying both versions of their voice at the same time for a few lines. It seemed both Hank and Rachel were enjoying playing around with the acoustic effects they could pull off between the two different sets of vocals. 

“This is going to happen every song, isn’t it?” Rosalind muttered, relaxing on a couch in the hallway outside the actual recording room.

“Well, some of your songs will probably go one way or the other. Lets you appeal to straight girls, gay girls, gay guys, and straight guys depending on the song,” Frankie said, seated next to her.

As had been the case the whole day, Frankie seemed slightly nervous, which Rosalind couldn’t figure out. Was she uncomfortable with the polyamory thing? Had Rosalind said something to upset her?

Usually she was pretty good with people, at least at the casual level. So she was surprised how thrown off she was on Frankie’s mood. Clearly she needed a peace offering of some sort. Since she’d messed up, she supposed she’d have to ask Teddy for hints on what to do to make a butch lesbian happ--

“Sorry I am late,” Beata’s voice announced, drawing Rosalind out of her thoughts.

Only to send her mind spinning as she took in the woman before her.

“You’re fine,” Frankie said, standing up.

“You... got a haircut,” Rosalind mumbled, eyes noting the pixie cut the woman across from her. “Also. Pants.”

“They are still feminine pants, though... yes?” Beata asked, turning mostly to Frankie as she did so.

“Yes. They’re very feminine jeans, don’t worry. Not that there’d have been anything wrong if you tried men’s jeans,” she explained.

“W--why the change?” Rosalind asked.

“It seemed fitting, after realising I was a lesbian,” Beata replied in a very matter of fact tone.

“Oh. You... that--congratulations on figuring that out,” Rosalind said, standing up and offering to shake Beata’s hands.

Only for the other woman to interpret it as an invitation for a hug, to Rosalind’s surprise. The small squeak of surprise she made was apparently audible as it caused Beata to quickly break the hug.

“Very sorry! Very sorry! I thought you would be more of a hugger... I suppose you were raised a man,” Beata mumbled.

“And in Anglophone Canada,” Frankie added. “Pretty sure we hug less than the English do... but, I am glad you stayed, Ro. It means we can talk about something.”

The nervous look returned to her eyes, putting Rosalind on edge herself. Was it about having rejected Beata while doing the whole polycule thingy? Because... well, she just didn’t have that romantic spark with Beata. The woman was gorgeous (even more so with the cute pixie cut), but, well... how did one describe the spark of romantic attraction? Or its absence?

Taking a deep breath and then a glance to Beata for what seemed to be support, Frankie then continued. “It’s, well... Beata and I are dating now. Which... well, maybe feels awkward since she’s probably pregnant with your kid and I don’t really know what the etiquette around that is.”

“Definitely Rosalind’s child,” Beata added, blushing a little.

“Oh. Is... is that all?” Rosalind replied. “I thought I’d done something to--ok, well, I guess I did do something in this case. Or someo--anyway. Yeah. No. Yeah, I’m chill with it. Heck, more than chill. I know you’d be a great... mum? Is that still right for someone butch?”

“I prefer ‘mum’, yes,” Frankie said. “Others might be different, though.”

“Ok. Well, whatever the case. I’d have always been happy to be a donor for you, so this is just... doing it in the wrong order,” Rosalind said with a grin.

“I suppose,” Frankie muttered, sounding slightly thrown off by the casualness.

“Donor?” Beata asked, though neither of the other women were sure if it was from her sheltered upbringing or her relatively limited English.