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The three women laughed as Sasha’s last tale of her first attempt at helping children ended. They’d had a good time catching up on their lives over the last hour at the little café.
“Here,” Sasha took the photo they’d just taken and placed it on the table, with a small heart and a little ‘bff’ written on it. “It was about time to update it,” she smirked, taking her drink and slurping loudly.
Anne smiled at it. It was kind of silly. The three of them were crying and looked ugly. It was still a beautiful picture. She put it in her pocket and smiled at Sasha before turning to Marcy, whose hands drummed on the table nervously. Her eyes darted from Sasha to Anne, and she seemed giddy.
“Is everything ok?” Anne asked, cocking her head.
Marcy blinked in surprise at the question. “Oh? Oh! Yes, sorry, I just… I’m just happy we’re all here together after so long.”
“Yeah, I get it,” chuckling, Anne also finished her drink before putting the glass down on the table. “It’s… nice. Even though we’ve taken different paths in life, we can still talk so naturally and everything, you know? I don’t think there’s a lot of friendships out there who could do that.”
“I mean, after what we went through, it’d be weirder if we couldn’t do this,” Sasha said, leaning forward on the table.
“Sometimes, I still feel like it was all a dream,” Marcy looked at the ceiling as she spoke, a dreamy expression on her face. “Good thing there’s video evidence of Anne’s fight with Andreas, otherwise I probably would’ve gone insane.”
“Same!” Sasha added. “I actually dream about it every now and then. Or… well, there’s nightmares too,” her eyes fell to the table. Anne wanted to ask what the nightmares were about, but she didn’t want to bring up old wounds.
It had been a long ten years since… well, everything. It had impacted each of them in obvious ways, from Anne’s non-subtle career path to Marcy’s webcomic being a retelling of their adventures, though with the three of them replaced by a single adventurer—whose story clearly drew more from Marcy’s experience than Sasha’s or Anne’s. Anne had read some chapters, but at one point memories had started to flood back and she’d had to stop.
“I don’t know nightmares, but…” Anne started, her deflated voice trailing off before the end as she realized what she was about to say was kind of embarrassing.
“But…?” Marcy insisted.
“Well, I still… eat… bugs…” she explained, looking down.
Sasha’s and Marcy’s eyes went wide at this. Sasha leaned back with a disgusted expression. “Ew, really?”
Marcy, instead, looked intrigued. “Huh. Is it because it reminds you of Amphibia?”
Anne shrugged. “Maybe? I actually kinda came to like them.”
Marcy nodded with interest while Sasha just faked a gag. Anne looked up again and laughed as she saw Sasha’s expression.
“But hey, thanks for organizing this, Sash,” she said, trying not to be too corny.
Sasha snorted. “Please, it’s not a big deal.”
Marcy interjected. “I disagree! It was a big deal. To me, at least. I… I don’t think I realized how much I missed this until now.”
Anne nodded. “Yeah! I mean… I guess we talked on social media from time to time, but we’ve been away from each other for so long. I’m really glad you had this idea.”
Sasha blushed a bit, sinking into her chair. “Yeah, well, I just wanted to see you gals. I guess this was the perfect excuse.”
Marcy took her drink and finished it too, making a trio of empty glasses on the table. “Well… Then we should start seeing each other more often! I mean you two at least lived in the same town and went to the same schools, but I have barely seen anything of you in the past decade. I wanna change that.”
“I’d like that too. We could meet up every month or so… assuming Marcy’s pocket can handle the plane? Because I don’t think I could with my current wage,” Anne smiled apologetically.
Marcy pressed her lips. “Well, don’t get me wrong, I do have my webcomic… but…” she hesitated, clearly troubled. “Oh, I guess it’s ok to tell you two: Most of my money comes from the government.”
Anne blinked. Sasha cocked her head. “What?” They said in unison.
Marcy scratched the back of her head. “Yeah, well, I just kinda learned programming at one point to be able to hack into an old game no-one else wanted to play. Later I wanted to find some info on Amphibia so I hacked into government files! And then this bald effeminate man showed up at my door one day, said he knew who I was, and offered me a job with the condition that I stop hacking their systems.”
Anne leaned back, putting a hand to her forehead. “You met Mister X? Holy…” She wasn’t even sure how to react to that.
Sasha leaned forward with suspicious eyes. “Wait, does this mean you’re actually loaded?”
Marcy made a dismissive gesture and snorted. “Oh, no. I mean, I’m well off, but it’s not like I can spend my money on whatever I want,” she paused, blushing a bit as she looked at them. “But I certainly wouldn’t mind spending some extra money every now and then to come chat with you. I don’t have many IRL friends back home.”
“Yeah, same here,” Sasha leaned against her seat, letting out a tired sigh. “I do hang out with some college classmates and whatnot, but I it’s been hard to find a group or at least someone who I feel truly gets me, you know?”
“Wait, you? I figured you’d be going out to parties every weekend,” Anne said with surprise. “I guess I do have a few people I’d call friends, but… yeah, I guess I’m the same. I’ve just been focused on my studies for so long… And now my job…” she sighed too.
Then, the three of them laughed at almost the same time.
It wasn’t a long or loud laugh, but it was enough to make it clear they understood each other perfectly. Somehow, after all this time, they still just… clicked. Was it, somehow, leftover magic? Was it just compatibility? Or was it the fact that they’d gone through so much together?
“So, uhm… I guess this means you didn’t have, you know, partners either?” Marcy broke the small silence. She looked like a kid caught doing something bad as she asked.
Anne made a dismissive wave with her hand. “Nah, hasn’t even crossed my mind,” most of the time, anyways. Sometimes, at night, she did think about possibilities—but they needn’t know that.
Sasha blushed a bit at the question. “Well, I did try a few times, but it’s the same thing. I just find it… hard to connect, I guess. I’ve really liked some of my partners, don’t get me wrong, but there was still something missing that ended up driving us apart. None of my relationships lasted longer than, like, six months.”
“Ah, I see…” Marcy fidgeted with her fingers for a bit. “I just, uhm, noticed the sticker on your car.”
Anne cocked her head. “What sticker?”
Marcy looked guilty all of a sudden, apologetically looking at Sasha. Sasha shrugged. “A small bisexual heart sticker. Why? You interested?” Sasha waved her eyelashes seductively.
While the comment had obviously been made playfully, Marcy blushed hard and sank into her seat. And Anne felt somewhat strange at the interaction.
Sasha was, perhaps, the most surprised. “Woah, hey, it was a joke, are you ok?”
Marcy covered her face with her hands. “No. How would you feel if a hot girl suddenly came on to you like that?” her voice was almost a whine.
“Wait, what?” Sasha blinked in surprise.
Anne nodded in agreement. “I’m with her. Doesn’t matter if it’s a joke, it probably feels like you’ve been hit with a blunt weapon!”
Sasha turned to Anne, raising an eyebrow. “Oh? You agree?” She smiled mischievously as she reached across the table, softly grabbing on to Anne’s hand. “Does that mean if I do this…” she picked Anne’s hand up, and softly kissed it. “… I’ll get a reaction out of you, too?”
The question was a rhetorical, obviously, because as Anne stared into Sasha’s eyes, at her seductive expression, her entire body started to burn. The place where her lips had made contact with Anne’s hand felt like lightning had struck it. Like Marcy, her initial reaction was sinking into her seat and trying to hide the blush that had probably overtaken her face, if the burning on it was any indication.
“Damn you, Sash,” she said.
Sasha laughed.
Slowly managing to recover, both Anne and Marcy sat up a bit straighter. “I’m gay,” Marcy admitted after a moment.
Sasha and Anne nodded. “Well, you do have a small lesbian flag ring around your profile pic on twitter, so… that much was obvious,” Anne pointed out.
Marcy paused. “Right, forgot about that. Wait, you’ve checked my twitter?!” She looked horrified by the idea.
Sasha pointed at Anne. “But hey, what about you? I know you had some crushes on boys when in high school, but I also know what heteronormativity does to a person. You like women, or am I just that hot?”
Anne shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess. Again, I haven’t thought much about it… butIwouldprobablybefinewithkissingyou oops who said that haha.”
Marcy smirked at Anne. “Real smooth there.”
“You’re the one who started this, now you gotta deal with my awkward flirting,” Anne pushed her playfully.
“Oh, it wasn’t awkward, it was adorable! I’d totally like to kiss you too,” Marcy said so nonchalantly it took a few seconds to process.
Anne’s blush came back in force. Marcy’s smile as they lightly wrestled with their hands, and her honest eyes as she admitted that… “So, uhm, like…” Anne paused, starting to realize what she felt earlier when Sasha flirted with Marcy may have been a bit of jealousy. Or double jealousy. “Do you… mean that?”
Marcy stopped. As if just realizing what she’d said, she shrugged weakly and looked to the side. “Well, yeah, I mean… If you want to…”
“Ugh, you’re both acting like virgin teenagers,” Sasha complained, interrupting it. “What I’m getting out of this exchange is that we all would like to try some kissing?”
Anne and Marcy looked at Sasha and, weakly, the two of them nodded. Sasha smiled, standing.
“Where… are you going?” Anne asked.
Sasha’s smile became wider. “To pay so that we can get out of here.”
About fifteen minutes later, the three of them crashed into Sasha’s apartment. Anne had been here exactly once before, when Sasha had thrown a party to celebrate getting it, but it had looked vastly different back then. She’d decorated more, gotten some different furniture, and there weren’t colored lights dancing around with music loud enough to blast one’s ears off. The living room had a big leather couch and a lot of rock-n-roll posters and some guitars on the walls. Wait, was that an armor stand with a replica of her armor from Amphibia? And there were replicas of the swords on the wall, too.
Anne wondered if she could ask Sasha to get her a replica of her old armor, too. She still had some of her old photos from the time in a safely stored memory at home…
“Home sweet home,” Sasha said, turning to Marcy and Anne. Marcy fidgeted with the hem of her shirt, while Anne was just stiff like a plank. “Ugh, what’s up with you girls?”
“Well, I…” Marcy pressed her lips. “I’ve never kissed anyone!”
“What? Really?” Sasha was in disbelief.
Marcy shrugged. “I’ve tried flirting but… I guess I’m just not very attractive. I’ve had a couple of relationships over the internet, but they didn’t work out. I just…”
Anne sucked up some of her own nervousness and placed a hand on Marcy’s shoulder. “H-hey! It’s alright. I haven’t kissed anyone either! Not seriously anyways.”
Sasha stepped closer and threw herself in between them, putting an arm around each of their shoulders. “Ah, so you mean to say this is gonna be a serious kiss, Anne?”
Anne tried to ignore the teasing, instead smiling at her. “Yeah. I mean, if we’re gonna do this, I wanna do it right! And, well… If I’m ever gonna have a first—serious—kiss… I guess I don’t mind giving it to one of you.”
Surprisingly, this got a reaction out of both of them. Marcy smiled brightly at the sentiment, while Sasha blushed lightly and looked away.
“I… didn’t actually expect this to be that serious…” Sasha mumbled.
“I don’t mind giving my first kiss to either of you, too!” Marcy echoed.
Anne patted Sasha’s back. “You don’t have to take it too seriously if you don’t want, Sash.”
Sasha frowned. “No! That’s not what I mean, I…” she pulled away from them, sighing before looking them in the eyes. “I’ve had a crush on the both of you for… well, ever. I mean… Hell, Anne, I watched you die for us. And I wouldn’t be who I am today if it weren’t for you, Marcy. If you say this is serious, then… I’m going to take it as such. But I do want you to understand what that means to me.”
“Wait, so… you actually had a crush on us?” Marcy asked.
Sasha rolled her eyes. “Of course I did! I just wasn’t very good at… expressing it…” she smiled awkwardly. “And, well, then… life happened, and… I mean, I guess I thought I’d moved on, but here I am…”
“Oh, well, that makes things easier. I’ve always kinda felt I liked the both of you, but I never allowed myself to explore those feelings,” Marcy shrugged. “So I guess we can take this chance!”
Anne felt a bit of embarrassment coming to her as she thought of what to say next, looking down. “Huh. Guess I wasn’t the only one thinking about what could have been alone at night, then?” she asked.
“Oh my god, Anne, are you admitting to think of us late at night? That’s so gay,” Sasha teased, walking closer with a smirk.
“I did that too! In some of the first drafts of my webcomic there were three heroes too, and they all ended together, but I figured it was like… too obvious…” Marcy looked a bit ashamed of the confession.
“Ok, come here, you two,” Sasha pulled them into a hug, bringing their faces super close. Anne’s face burned up again, and she could hear her heart pounding against her chest. At the proximity. Sasha and Marcy were beautiful. “How do you wanna do this?”
“Uhm… kiss of three?” Marcy asked.
Anne tried to form words with her mouth. “Would that even work?”
Sasha made a ‘meh’ expression. “It can work, but it’s kinda uncomfortable… I mean, it’s fun, but I’d rather kiss each of you for real.”
“Alright, then… Do we take turns?” Anne asked.
“Hmmm…” Marcy’s face became thoughtful.
“You’re thinking too hard about this. Just kiss already,” Sasha said. “Plus, I think the idea of each of you giving each other your first kiss is cute, don’t you?”
“Well, I, uhm…” Marcy looked at Anne and then down again. “I do like the idea.”
Anne chuckled nervously. “Yeah, I…” Looking at the two of them from this close was messing with her brain. “I do want that…” she said, suddenly becoming conscious of the warmth her friends’ bodies expelled.
“Then go for it! I can step back if it’d make you more comfortable,” Sasha said.
“N-no, I think I’m more comfortable like this,” Anne said.
“Same,” Marcy nodded.
Then, they met eyes. They stared at each other for a while, growing redder by the second.
“So, uhm… do we just do it or?” Anne leaned towards her a bit, but then pulled back. Marcy leaned a second after.
“Oh my god,” Sasha let go of Anne for a second to pinch her nose. “You’re a pair of disasters, aren’t you?”
“Hey we have no experience with this!” Marcy complained.
“Yeah, give us a break.”
Sasha looked at them with a very serious expression. “Listen, I want you to kiss already so that I can kiss each of you in turn, alright? So please just do it.”
The seriousness of her voice made Anne’s heart skip a beat. Sasha wasn’t messing around.
She looked at Marcy. “Alright, on the count of three,” the black-haired girl said.
“Got it,” Anne nodded, determined to do it once and for all.
“One… Two…” they counted on unison, but Marcy suddenly raised a hand.
“Wait! Do we go on three, or after three?”
Anne considered her answer.
“OH MY GOD JUST KISS ALREADY,” Sasha snapped, putting her hands behind each of their heads and shoving them together.
Anne fought it, but then realized she may as well take the chance. For a split second, her eyes met Marcy’s, and they reached a silent agreement.
Letting Sasha push them together, their lips met.
Anne had kissed people before. At parties. Trying things out with friends and even a coworker not that long ago. But they had always been nothing but pecks, experiments. They had never made her feel… anything.
This was different. This was like an electric shock. Energy flowed through Anne as soon as their lips touched.
Sasha let them go, but there was no longer a need to keep pushing them. The warmth and softness of Marcy’s lips, the light fruity flavor of the drinks they’d had earlier, all of it drew Anne deeper into the kiss. She pressed herself more against her and Marcy did the same, putting her hands on Anne’s hips and pulling on her.
After an eternity that felt too short, they pulled back from each other, lightly panting.
“Woah,” Marcy whispered.
“Yeah…” Anne agreed.
They both turned to Sasha, whose eyes had gotten a bit teary. “I’m so proud of you.”
Anne rolled her eyes and chuckled. Marcy extended a hand, and Sasha walked over to them again. “So, how was that?” Marcy asked.
“Well, it was basic as fuck, but I think it’s understandable. Now, allow me to teach you how it’s done,” Sasha said. Without pause or warning, she took Marcy’s chin and pulled her close, sealing their lips together.
Anne was taken aback by it as much as Marcy seemed to be, but soon it was obvious that she was enjoying it, because she closed her eyes and threw her arms around Sasha’s neck.
Anne almost looked away, but… she couldn’t. Sasha’s lips aggressively overtook Marcy’s with movements Anne only thought possible in movies. Small grunts left Marcy’s mouth as she did so, the unexpectedness of it all clearly too much for her.
And when Sasha pulled away from her, smiling and licking her lips, Marcy was panting for real.
“Woah times ten,” she whispered. “No offense, Anne.”
“Non-taken,” Anne didn’t have time to be offended anyways, she was busy being impressed.
Sasha’s eyes turned to Anne. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten about you,” she extended her hand, cupping Anne’s cheek as she stepped closer.
Anne could have stopped it if she wanted. But why the hell would she do that?
Sasha leaned forward, and just as Anne braced herself for impact, Sasha paused. “Happy birthday, Anne,” she whispered.
Then she kissed Anne without even the hint of a doubt.
The initial contact was like before: A burst of energy, a heart-pounding boost to Anne’s senses.
But that was about where all the similarities ended.
Sasha’s lips were hungry, and Anne’s were their prey. As soon as Sasha started moving, Anne fell in line, following her rhythm without resistance. Sasha’s lips were hot and not only in the metaphorical sense, almost as if she had boiling blood, and it was hard to even understand what was going on.
But it was easy to tell that it felt good.
Anne lost strength in her extremities, understanding why Marcy had thrown her arms around Sasha’s neck: For support. Sasha seemed to notice this, picking Anne by the waist and pulling her up. Anne’s entire body burned with the kiss, her heartbeat seeming to follow the fast-paced rhythm of it, and before she realized, Anne was also making strange noises with her mouth.
Noises of need.
The need wasn’t satisfied as Sasha pulled away from her, giving her the same look she’d given Marcy earlier. “There. Next time we do this, you’ll have a bit of experience to make your own kisses more interesting.”
Anne nodded, still in a daze.
Marcy lifted a finger. “So… we are doing this again, right?”
“Of course we are,” Sasha nodded.
“No doubt,” Anne said.
“Oh, thanks lord. I was afraid because that was the best thing I have ever experienced in my life. And I have experienced unlimited power!”
Sasha chuckled, dropping on her couch. Anne and Marcy followed suit, sitting on each side of her. “If that was good, imagine what I’m like in bed.”
Anne and Marcy fell really quiet. They met eyes, mutual understanding that they definitely wanted to experience that too.
“So… like… you want to go all the way?” Anne asked, just to make sure.
“Hell yes. You… don’t?” Sasha’s confidence wavered for a second.
“Oh no, it was just to make sure,” Anne said, her earlier timidity replaced by newfound desire.
“Yeah. I’m going back home on Monday. We’ve come this far, we may as well go all the way,” Marcy added.
Her comment seemed to give pause to the three of them.
“Ok, ok, before that, let’s talk for a minute. How… serious is this? Like, for real,” Sasha said, looking at each of them in turn. “I don’t mind one-night stands, but… I don’t want this to remain as that. I like you two. And I mean it.”
Marcy looked down, and Anne knew what she’d said before she even said it. So she stopped her. “Well, that depends on how we feel about long distance relationships. Plus, we may make Marmar feel left out, given that she’s the one not living in the city.”
Marcy looked at Anne with a thankful smile. “Well, I… I do want to d-date,” she admitted, growing embarrassed. “But… I do live far away. And I don’t have the income to move away and rent something here.”
Sasha considered for a moment. “… Well, if you had the income to do it, would you? Not to push you into doing it or anything! I’m just curious.”
Anne paused, slowly realizing what Sasha could be implying. “Well, yeah! I mean, I’d be away from my parents, but it’s not like I talk to them too much nowadays anyways. I’ve considered moving to another city for a while, actually, but rent prices are a bitch and the apartment I’m at is cheap.”
Sighing, Anne looked at the ceiling. “At least you guys live on your own. I’m still at my parents’.”
Sasha took a deep breath. “Ok. Now, hear me out. This is crazy. It’s definitely rushing it. And moving too fast. And we’ll probably blow it. BUT! What if we tried… you know…”
“Living together?” Anne finished for her.
“Sharing rent?” Marcy offered too.
Sasha blushed, for some reason. “I know it’s insane. We’ve only just reunited after ten years. But I… I can feel this connection with you two I haven’t felt with anyone else in so long. I… really want to try. But only if you want, I won’t push you into this.”
Marcy leaned on Sasha, giving her a big hug and kissing her cheek. “Of course I want this,” she said with a smile, teary eyed. “I love you two. I don’t care how much time we’ve spent apart, we’re… We’re best friends. And I definitely want to be more.”
Anne leaned on the two of them. “And I definitely want to move out of my parents’ house. I think I could afford a split rent. And I’m willing to make the sacrifice if it’s for you two,” she said.
Sasha chuckled. “You and your sacrifices,” she mocked.
Anne laughed. Marcy followed.
“Yeah! I mean, it’s definitely moving fast, but we’ve always been fast-paced girls anyways, haven’t we? Let’s do it!” Marcy added.
“And who cares if it’s crazy? We’ve seen things that would probably put us in a madhouse if we told them to others.”
Marcy cocked her head. “But we have video evidence of-”
“Not the point, Marmar,” Anne interrupted.
“Right,” Marcy laughed.
Sasha finally hugged them back, and the three of them squeezed each other. Sasha was definitely the strongest, though. Did she go to the gym or something? Because right now Anne could feel her abs and she was ripped.
“Ok, we can figure out economics and whatnot later,” Marcy interrupted the hug. “I really want to see what Sasha’s like in bed.”
“Same.”
Sasha let out a hearty laugh and squeezed them to the point where it hurt a bit. “You horny bastards, I was trying to have a moment,” she said, clearly not mad.
Anne and Marcy squeezed too. And a second later, Sasha stood, picking the two of them up effortlessly with a pair of yelps, and heading towards her room.
“Damn Sash, you’re still this strong?” Marcy asked.
“I go to the gym every other day, and do HEMA on weekends,” she explained.
Anne was amazed of learning that. Then she realized something.
“Will we even fit in your bed?” Anne asked.
“Of course. I have a queen-size, because I am a queen,” Sasha explained.
Anne and Marcy laughed as Sasha entered her room walking sideways to be able to pull them in.
The door closed behind her, and the rest of their lives began.
