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It was supposed to be a typical morning for Gawr Gura. She’d woken up normally enough. Blurry eyes, leaving her rubbing her eyes to get them to focus, her tail just a bit achy from being slept on when she rolled in her sleep, and a general need for water - both to drink, and to soak in. Stretching her stiff back as she walked through the hallway just outside her room, she let out a quiet groan, careful to not disturb the other occupants of the home.
She glanced at the living room couch and saw the redhead phoenix Takanashi Kiara still in deep sleep, a leg hanging off of the piece of furniture. On the ground in a sprawled position was the resident reaper Calliope Mori. Resting against a wall in a bean bag of tentacles was the Priestess of the Ancient Ones, Ninomae Ina'nis. All three seemed to be content with their positions, no matter how uncomfortable they appeared to an outside spectator. The sight made Gura chuckle to herself.
'I guess they had fun last night. Sucks I was too tired to join 'em…' The Atlantean groggily through the living room and into the kitchen. Gentle beams of yellow peeked through the cloth blinds, casting wisp-like shadows across the cool hardwood floor. A bright yellow sunflower sat on a chair at the kitchen table, groggily sipping coffee from a mug. Gura thought nothing of it as she approached.
"Good morning, Ame~" She spoke in a sing-song voice as quietly as she could. The detective's face rose to look at her, ceasing the nursing of her liquid caffeine. It was at that moment when Gura realized something was off about her detective.
"Hey. What's up?" Amelia’s voice sounded like it had been thrown through a shredder. It almost made the shark wince at the rough rasp in it. The blonde’s hair was scraggly, too. Disheveled. Tiny specks of dandruff littered the flaxen strands.
"You look and sound horrible. Were you up with the others last night?"
Amelia only offered a slight chuckle. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."
Gura moved to sit at the table, across from Amelia. Getting a closer look at her detective’s eyes revealed large, dark bags beneath her bloodshot whites. Her pupils were shrunken, giving her a wild sort of look.
The blonde reached to her coffee, taking another sip. She sighed as she leaned her head back, practically letting gravity do the work of swallowing for her.
The Atlantean kept looking at Amelia. The detective seemed to be swaying back and forth and her hands were trembling. “You alright, Ame? You’re not lookin’ so hot. Are you sick?” Her question dragged a long-winded sigh from Amelia’s lips.
“Gura, I’m… No, it’s nothing. I’m alright.”
Warning signs began shooting through her brain. Her heart was racing. Something was very wrong. “No, you’re clearly not fine. What’s up?”
Another sigh, as though her energy was continually being sucked out of her just by breathing. Amelia took a sip of her drink once more, swishing it in her mouth in an attempt to maybe retain some of her focus. She swallowed, her eyes slowly creaking open. Her right eye twitched slightly. “It’s just… y’know how my stuff is. Time traveling and all…”
“Ame, that’s not good enough. You know that stuff makes no sense to me; talk to me about it. What happened?”
Amelia’s tired eyes found their way to Gura’s. They spoke volumes. Usually the shark girl’s eyes would look like the ocean or the sky, but today they looked like a depressing sheet of rain, or perhaps murky stream water. A grimace formed on the detective’s face as she looked like she was guilty of something.
“I’ve just… been having a rough time. That’s it. I promise.”
It wasn’t enough for Gura. “Then how can I help you?” ‘Just give me anything I can use to be there for you, Ame.’
“I don’t… think you can help with this one, sharky.”
Amelia’s tone of defeat was overwhelming. It wasn’t like the bright sunflower she knew to be like this. It scared her, seeing the detective like this. Sirens blared in Gura’s head, but she kept a look of understanding on the outside. If she panicked, the detective would just feel worse. She got up from her seat, moving to the detective’s side. She looked down at the detective’s hair, only to notice there was a lot more dandruff in it than she’d first taken notice of. It… had been fine when she saw it yesterday…
“You don’t know that unless you talk to me,” she whispered. Her fingers combed through the dry hair of the detective as she leaned down. After placing a gentle kiss on Amelia’s forehead, she stepped back, fingertips still lovingly rubbing against the detective’s scalp. Amelia swallowed, eyes twinkling on the verge of tears, before collapsing to her knees. She wrapped her arms around Gura’s thin frame, silently weeping against the oversized t-shirt the Atlantean was wearing. Gura followed the detective’s move, slowly lowering herself to her knees, wrapping her own arms around and rubbing her detective’s back. Feather-light kisses peppered the detective's forehead, gentle assurances that she would be okay.
After a few minutes, Amelia finally sobered up enough to speak. “I’ve… been stuck in the same half-hour for the past year.”
“Can you… explain that? Shark brain over here just work up,” she said, trying to lighten the detective’s mood. It seemed to spectacularly do nothing to help, though.
Amelia simply nodded. “Starting two minutes before you came out here, lasting for thirty-five minutes, I’ve been getting sent back in time over and over again. I don’t know how it happened, ‘cuz when it started, I had just woken up. I mean, it's not like I was time traveling for a few days beforehand. I have no idea what’s causing this...”
Gura looked at the detective with concern. “So, you’ve just been… looping?” The weak smile on Amelia’s face tore Gura’s heart apart.
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. That’s actually a pretty good term for it, come to think of it. Usually it only lasts about a day or three. This is… the longest I’ve gone in one. Like, it’s not even enough time to shower! What do I do if I get into the shower and I lose track of time and warp out without my clothes?! Just sit at the kitchen table a sopping, cold, naked mess?” Amelia sighs, shaking her head. “So I’ve just been making do with whatever deodorant and perfumes you guys have.”
‘That explains why she still smells so good despite the flaky scalp.’ “You smell like Kiara.” She couldn’t help but smile at her own comment, double so when Ame chuckled in her arms.
“Yeah, she’s got some nice perfume. I like it more than Calli’s, but that’s ‘cuz I got sick of hers after using it for a month or two.” The sunflower tucked her head further into Gura’s collarbone. “Also, if I eat one more day-old, microwaved pizza, I’m probably gonna blow my brains out.”
“Woah there, chief. That’s taking it a bit far. None of that. I know you’re frustrated, but let me actually make something for you if that’s how you feel.”
Amelia sighed. “...Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that… I’m just frustrated. I mean, I’ve just tried everything! I’ve tried running out of the house to find whatever’s looping me, I’ve tried waking the other girls, hell, I even tied Ina’s tentacles all into a big knot trying to wake her up, but Ina never wakes up! And, like, I don’t wanna hurt her to wake her up, but she’s maybe be the one person to get me out of this, with the Ancient Ones…”
Suddenly, a thought burst into Gura’s head. “Hey, wait. I’m aware of this right now. That means that time’ll keep going right? ‘Cuz you said that the timelines you enter keep going once!” Hope soared high in her heart before Amelia’s lips grimaced. She felt that soaring joy slowly tumble down like a rock falling down a cliff face.
The detective let out a solemn sigh. “Gura… this is, like, the thirteenth time you’ve said that…” Amelia shook her head. “Time doesn’t work like that. It’s… it’s complicated but when I reset you’ll just continue on. It creates a branching timeline where a new Amelia will get summoned to continue on in my place. You’re all still my girls and I’m still your Amelia, but once I loop away I’ll still be stuck in this same half hour.” Amelia smiled ruefully. “It’s gonna be a pain in the ass for whoever has to deal with all these branches in the timeline, but that’s not my problem.”
The Atlantean pulled back reins on her fear, trying to stay calm for her ray of sunshine. “How… long do we have left?”
“...20 minutes.”
Gura nodded, her fingers continuing their work of carding through the detective’s dry hair. “What do you want me to do to help you?” A moment went by before Amelia responded, voice quiet in a desperate way that Gura hated hearing.
“Just kiss me and tell me it’ll be okay…”
Gura shifted Amelia into her lap, despite the detective being taller than her, and began pressing fleeting, chaste kisses on her face and lips. Her hands moved to the weary traveler’s back and sides, gently easing as much tension from her lover’s body as she could. After one of the kisses, Gura pulled away, locking eyes with the detective. “How will I know if you’re the one that’s looping once time’s up?”
Amelia smiled weakly. “If I remember the loops, then I’m yours.”
They spent the rest of the time simply holding each other close and enjoying the warmth of their bodies. Amelia hadn’t cried since her first episode, which Gura was thankful for. She didn’t know if her poor heart could bear watching the strongest woman she knew break down like that again.
It wasn’t like this was the first time Amelia had been in a pinch, after all. In fact, Gura couldn’t even count the number of times the detective had popped into their timeline covered in blood and gasping for air. That wasn’t even mentioning the times when Amelia had used that damned concoction… Sure, they saved her life, but Gura knew that they were damaging the detective. Bright blue eyes like Amelia’s weren’t meant to shine a menacing pink, glowing in the darkness. Nor was she supposed to see those strange hallucinations…
Despite that all, Amelia never cried due to her time shenanigans. She always grit her teeth through the pain or smiled and laughed her way around it. Never had the mighty Amelia Watson ever succumbed to time like this. And that was painful for Gura to witness.
As the minutes ticked down, Amelia’s weak hold on Gura tightened, desperate to cling onto her lover and not be torn away. Gura responded in kind, wrapping her arms around the detective’s neck and allowing her shoulder to be used as a pillow for the exhausted victim of this time anomaly.
”It’s gonna be okay, Ame.” She didn’t know what had spurred her on to say that, but the relieved sigh she felt from her sunflower’s chest was worth it.
Finally, the time was nigh. Amelia held her breath, waiting for the moment when the gentle touch of her shark would be gone, waiting to wake up in that damn corner of the room just to live the next thirty-five minutes over again. A morbid part of her wondered how she’d go about navigating the next one, if she’d even try to stay awake for it.
Gura pressed a fleeting kiss against Amelia’s forehead.
“Ame? Are you alright, Ame?”
Amelia’s eyes opened slowly. They shone, framed by the faint light trickling through the nearby window. Light blue, clear as the sky. Her eyes locked directly onto Gura’s, her expression unreadable.
“Do you remember the looping, Ame?”
She almost teared up, but her eyes were far too dry for that. “I’m still here.”
Relief washed over Gura's body. Her detective was here, still here in her arms. She was done with the torture; she could rest. Of course, she had to try to lighten the mood somehow. "You were drinking room-temperature coffee earlier, weren't you?" A giggle was teasing the edge of Gura's lips.
Amelia playfully retorted while giving a lackluster slap to the shark's back. "When you repeat things for a year straight, you start to do stupid stuff to stay sane. Now shut up and let me sleep." A smile was plastered onto the blonde's face as she buried her head into Gura’s pale hair.
The Atlantean placed a gentle kiss on Amelia’s lips as the detective promptly passed out. She used her superhuman strength to carry Amelia princess-style, moving through the living room down the hallway. She opened her unlatched door with her foot, careful that it wouldn’t fly open, lest she wake the weary traveler in her arms. With the love of a wife and the care of a mother, Gura set Amelia into the sea of dark blue that was her bed. She dragged the covers upward before pausing.
‘I mean, the others are still asleep… I could probably use a bit more rest after all of that…’
Thus the Atlantean climbed into the bed, wrapping her arms and legs around the detective and nuzzling into her neck. Her tail moved over the blonde’s stomach, and she felt Amelia’s arms coil around it. An infectious smile spread across her lips, her heart fluttering at the display.
“It’s alright, Sunshine. I’ll be your anchor.” She kissed the detective’s neck before closing her eyes. She was glad the others didn’t see the ridiculous smile that she made before sleep claimed her, especially when she felt her lover squeeze her tail tighter. “I’m not gonna let you slip away again. Promise.”
~~~
Ina’s footsteps clacked along the hardwood as she exited the library. A few minutes ago, she’d been alone. Then, her detective showed up, happy and energetic. Much too energetic for her own laid-back self, but still a welcome change in demeanor from the detective nonetheless. Amelia had excused herself, saying that she was dying to pull a prank on Calli. She and the reaper had been in a little back-and-forth prank war that had been waged over the past few weeks, and Calli had gotten her yesterday. Ina chuckled quietly, shaking her head at the antics of her lovers. Not long after Amelia had left, she finished her book and decided a check up on their garden was in order. Fauna wasn’t around this week, so the duty naturally fell onto her.
After only a few steps outside the door, a loud crash rang out from inside the library. The priestess quickly ran inside, worried that one of the spare candles might have fallen and set fire to the books. When she entered, she saw a sight that she didn’t think she had ever seen before.
There on the floor, buried under a small pile of books, was the sunflower that had wandered out of the library just before her. One of the books had comically landed on her head, balanced perfectly despite the obviously dizzy detective’s head bobbing from the impact.
Ina rushed over to Amelia, crouching down in front of her. “What happened? You just left, didn’t you? You said you were pranking Calli, not me.” Her voice was calm, though a little on-edge at the sudden commotion.
“I was! I was about to do a flying tackle, and bam! Right into the bookshelf. I must have looped.” The book on her head fell off as Amelia tried to pick herself up.
Ina, ever the scholar she was, took the liberty to tease the bundle of sunshine poking through the mound of books by taking them off her body one by one.
It seemed to work, as Amelia looked irritated in the best way. “Y’know, you can get them off of me any day now.”
“Take your time, Ame.” She smirked knowingly at Amelia.
“Oh, boo. That one sucked.” Despite Ina’s chuckling response, Amelia continued. “Seriously, I don’t know how much time I have before the loop happens again.”
Ina placed a hand to her chin. “Well, I’m guessing you’ve got about five minutes. You left about six minutes before I did, and you looped back to when you were in front of this shelf. But if I remember that, then this was only a one-time thing. Did I get it right?”
Amelia stopped, humming with a finger against her chin. “Might be. If I was stuck in a temporal loop, then when I warped away, a different Ame would have popped up right where I was in front of Calli. And since you remember me being here, that means that it was only a spatial loop and not a temporal loop.” She looked at Ina, smiling. “So we don’t know if it’s a proper loop yet, but we know which kind of loop it is, if it isn’t just an isolated event.”
“Detective speaking time stuff. Tako brain can’t compute. Human words please.” Amelia giggled, and Ina swore that was a sound she’d never tire of hearing. It felt as though spring daffodils were sprouting and blossoming inside her chest, watered by the sound of her detective’s laughter alone.
“Kronii changes which of the rules of time are actually observed versus theorized like, every few weeks. It’s to ensure that no other time travelers outside the Amelias can exist. Sorta like a failsafe so the real rules of it can never be understood. Grandpa paradox and all that stuff, you already know.” The detective shook her head. “Basically, time works either spatially or temporally - affecting a person’s place, their time, or both. In a temporal loop, when I vanished, you would’ve been back at your spot in the library. Since you were still moving, only my relative time was affected, which sent me back to where I was earlier instead of to a new timeline where the situation was also rewound.”
Despite only vaguely comprehending the information, Ina nodded. Even if she didn’t fully get it, she enjoyed listening to the little ray of sunshine ramble on and on about her time shenanigans. “Humu humu. Well, in the time it took you to explain that to me, you haven’t looped. Must have been a once-and-done.”
Amelia huffed. The pout was cute. “Pshh, then why’d it send me into the friggin’ bookshelf? What the heck’s with that?”
Ina laughed outright at Amelia’s misfortune. “Perhaps the universe wanted you to get a better read on your situation.”
Amelia looked at the priestess with a look of disdain as she winked coyly. “Come on Ina, you’re being horrible with the puns today… at least make them good if you’re gonna make them!”
“Fair point. I’ll be sure to loop back to this conversation the next time I do.”
“UGH! I’m gonna go bug Calli.”
Ina let out a heartfelt laugh, wiping a tear from her eye as her detective moved to the door. “I love you Ame!”
“I love you too!~”
Ina smiled as she heard the distant singsong reply. She looked to the pile of books that had fallen to the ground.
“Guess I should put those back. Goodness, that girl’s a walking safety hazard. Soon we’ll need to bubble wrap the walls just to keep her safe.” A moment passed, before Ina continued talking to herself. “Well, considering what Gura told us about her looping before, I guess we should be thankful it only happened for a brief moment.” Ina finished putting the books on the shelf before exiting the library once more. This time, she decided against the plants for a little while. Her detective was having fun with her reaper, and she didn’t want to miss a single second of the fun if she could help it. With a pep in her step, the Pristess jogged down the hallway to see the aftermath of Amelia’s prank.
~~~
Calli set her headphones down on her desk. Her most recent track had just been mixed, and to be honest, things were going great. She still had another week before her next deadline, the house was preparing for Thanksgiving, and it had been a long time since the last world-ending event had prevented them from a night of sleep. Gura had been promoted to a higher position as a marine biologist a few days ago, and with the pay raise was dead set on spoiling everyone in the house with at least one present.
Calli and Gura had a long-lasting bet on said promotion. Calli had bet that Gura would get the promotion before the New Year, Gura had bet afterward. Now, between the pre-Thanksgiving gift and the spoils of her bet, she was four bottles of expensive red wine richer. Said bottles were stashed under her bed for the most dire of emergencies or the happiest of occasions.
This situation would prove to be one of the former when her dark mahogany door slammed open. A very irritated Amelia stood in the door frame. Her casual clothes were wrinkled as she trudged into the reaper's room.
"Calli, I need you to get me as drunk as physically possible. I mean, absolutely sloshed.”
Calli blinked. This was… very unlike Amelia. “Woah. Watson, is that you? When have you ever wanted to get slammed?" The blonde plopped onto the red silk blanket on Calli’s bed. Calli could swear she saw a vein or two from how angry Amelia was.
“Right now. I’ve been looping the next three hours for the past two weeks.”
And there was the problem.
Ina and Gura had gone out for a dinner date tonight. It was to make up for Gura accidentally eating the fish Ina had been waiting to use to prepare dinner. Kiara and Calli had both said they’d order takeout and that the two could go have fun. Amelia had been at work in her office combing through documents. In short, Amelia hadn’t seen two of her lovers in two weeks, and it was eating her up inside.
“Ah, shit dude. I didn’t realize. Hang on, move your legs real quick.” The detective shifted, moving up onto the bed. Calli ducked down and reached under her bed, groping around until she finally felt the telltale sign of thick, wrinkled paper. She grabbed the paper, pulling out and revealing a large brown bag with her four newly-acquired wine bottles. With practiced efficiency, she grabbed two wine glasses from a nearby table, because of course she’d be ready to share a drink with any of the girls if they wanted. She deftly popped open the most expensive of the wines, eyeing the ABV that was a startlingly high 16%. She shrugged, pouring it into the glasses and setting the opened bottle down. The reaper handed one of the glasses of crimson liquid to the detective, sitting next to the blonde while raising her own. “You have anything to toast to?”
Amelia, with a hint of sarcasm, raised her glass with a scoff. “Yeah. To getting me the hell outta this stupid loop.”
Calli clinked her glass to Amelia’s. “To getting you the hell outta that stupid loop.”
They both downed the glasses in a single gulp. Both let out satisfied sighs once they had swallowed, letting the gentle warmth of the alcohol slowly burn its way through their bodies. Now that Calli was next to her, she could see Amelia close-up. Her eyes were slightly swollen, probably from crying sometime recently, but she was at least wearing fresh clothes. She wondered how many times she had been questioned by Kiara for washing a single set of clothes in the past loops. It’d be grating on anyone trying to explain the situation she was caught in, and Calli was no genius. She didn’t act like she understood the complexities of time travel, especially after Amelia had expunged that Kronii changes the fundamentals of time travel in order to make sure nobody could track it. It did, however, give her a sense of understanding for the detective’s hardships.
Calli hated admitting it, but Amelia was really special to her. Well, that wasn’t entirely true; she didn’t hate admitting it. She just hated that she thought she hated it. It was a complicated feeling that she still had yet to sort out.
All of the girls were precious to her. She’d mess around with Gura one minute then be able to cuddle with the shark for hours on end without skipping a beat. She’d had more than one moonlit tryst with Kiara by this point, and after nearly an eternity of one-way pining, had decided to just let it be and fell in love with the phoenix. It was something she was used to, the constant fire in her life. Ina had the Ancient Ones by her side, and could deal with nearly anything because of them. For Calli, it was only the occasional headache that humbled the mighty priestess, thus she really didn’t feel the need to be gentle with them when they got into their playful antics. Gura was strong, Kiara would revive if things went south, and Ina was nigh-immortal with AO-chan in her possession.
With Amelia… there was a fragility that she gave off. She would put her nose to the grindstone to get things done even if they didn’t need to be given nearly as much effort as she gave them. A lot of the time, she’d end up hurt in her investigations, which would lead to Calli very frantically performing mediocre first aid until one of the others got home. The reaper didn’t enjoy seeing that mortal side of the overly-confident detective.
This was one of those times where the mortal was slipping out over the veneer of impervious willpower; where Amelia was lost in her own emotions and needed someone else to serve as her guide through the murky fog. Calli figured she’d had enough time guiding souls through the misty fields of Asphodel to be able to serve as this escort. She grabbed the next bottle, only 11% ABV, and popped it open. She poured Amelia’s glass first, then her own. She simply set the bottle on the floor, making sure it was stable before looking at her detective.
“I’ll call this toast.” Amelia raised her glass as Calli did. “To Amelia Watson, bravest damn person to ever exist.” That got a chuckle out of the blonde. It tickled her ears and lit a fire in her stomach more intense than alcohol ever could.
“Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, Calli.”
They clinked and downed their drinks once more. After that, they just let the silence of their drinking take over. Calli would pour them both a glass when they were empty, not a single word being exchanged between the two. It was comfortable, a natural lull between the two of them.
That happened often. Lulls between them. Sometimes it was caused by work or missions, sometimes it was just because they didn’t have anything to say. They were more physical in their interactions, talking through playful slugs to the arm and high-fives and silent hugs. This, this much was fine to her.
Still, the reaper felt uncomfortable. She’d never dealt with Ame being trapped in a loop before. Usually that happened to the others, not her. After about 20 minutes went by, Calli finally found the inclination to speak, feeling the beginning hints of tipsiness grasping the edges of her brain.
“So, Watson, what have you done during your time in this loop so far?”
Amelia, who couldn’t hold her alcohol as well as the reaper, was starting to sway to and fro slightly. “Ah, well… Buncha stuff. I got my next week or so of work finalized, so that’s a plus. Or, well, I did. I know what I gotta do once this loop is over. Hmm, what else? Bumped into Kiara a few times. You should probably hang out with her tomorrow, by the way, she seems like she needs a day off.”
Calli nodded. “No kidding? Hmm, well, maybe we can all do something tomorrow. If you’re not hungover, that is.”
Amelia nodded, a stupid smile plastered to her face. “That would be nice… if I don’t loop back again.”
There it was, the mask was being pulled back again. Calli needed to make sure that Amelia’s foundation was stable now. She reached over to the detective’s face, cupping the blonde’s cheeks with her hands. A blush spread across Amelia’s face, and Calli didn’t know whether it was the alcohol or the situation she was in. She didn’t think she really cared, either.
Their lips met, sending electricity bolting through Calli’s spine and into her fingertips and her toes. It was an ecstasy she never tired of, no matter which of the girls it was she kissed. They parted, gasping slightly. Amelia’s slightly glazed eyes had a fire in them that Calli adored. The determination was back. She was in her normal headspace once more.
“I think I’m gonna have to make this the best loop, then. That way you can’t loop back. You’ll be too happy with this one to let it happen.” It was drunken logic, Calli knew, but she didn’t care. She just wanted Amelia to stay.
Amelia reciprocated, pushing the reaper down onto her own bed. The wine glasses fell to the floor, spilling the leftovers of the drinks within. Neither reaper nor detective paid any mind to their drinks, too caught up in a world made only for the two of them. Calli’s lips were captured by the detective’s, the rays of sunlight tickling her skin as arms wrapped around her body. She responded in kind, ensnaring the detective’s body against her own. They finally pulled away, breaths heavy to collect much-needed air.
The detective moved in to kiss again, and the night melted away into a series of tender, devoted kisses.
When Calli woke up the next morning with her arms holding a sleeping sunflower close, a smile spread across her lips that would stay the rest of the day. She closed her eyes and let herself fall back into a gentle slumber with her lover.
~~~
Amelia had a cute little hobby of leaving notes for Kiara. The phoenix simply adored it whenever she would go about her day and find a sticky note left for her, as though the author had known where she’d be.
“You’re a roaring fire that burns away my fears.” “You light up my path when it’s too dark to see.” “I love your hair today, did you use a different shampoo last night?” “You look like you’re glowing when the sunlight hits you.” “It might be cold, but I know you’ll warm me up ;)” “I love you.”
It made her heart soar even further when the notes implied something was about to happen. Thus, the situation where Kiara was in right now, standing at a sidewalk corner, waiting for a special someone who had promised a special walk in the park tonight via a note found on her dresser this morning.
Kiara checked her phone. 19:26. That was odd. Amelia had said 7:15 on the note. Now, Kiara was never one to bash the promptness of someone, as she herself had missed far too many appointments, meetings, or other gatherings by a half hour or sometimes even a few hours. That said, this was Amelia Watson. Amelia was always prompt. Always. To the point where she could even tell you which second she’d be somewhere if she had a mind to be there at a specific time. The fact that she was over ten minutes late didn’t exactly sit well with the phoenix. Still, like the loyal girlfriend she was, she decided to simply give it some time. Certainly Amelia would explain when she arrived.
And arrive she did, like a whirlwind of tulip petals being blown through a storm. She stopped her sprint right in front of Kiara, panting and holding up a single finger to indicate she needed a moment. When she’d finally gathered her breath, the detective looked up at the phoenix.
“Hey. Sorry I’m late. Oh man, I really hope I didn’t keep you waiting that long.”
It wasn’t that Kiara had shown up 10 minutes earlier in anticipation for her girlfriend’s on-time arrival that had her emotions jumbled up. It was the fact that Amelia looked like she had just gotten thrown into a wall with how messy her hair was. There were scuff marks on her face, her clothes were wrinkled, and her eyes were slightly bloodshot. Without thinking, she reached over to grab the detective’s shoulders.
“Ame, what happened? You look… like you just got beat up.”
A nervous chuckle left Amelia’s mouth. “Well, I guess I did in a way.” A beat passed before Amelia took Kiara’s hand. “Let’s walk and talk, yeah? I think I promised you a walk in the park anyway.”
They strolled down a winding path surrounded by grass. Squirrels hopped about and birds floated through the breeze. They hadn’t let each others’ hands go since Amelia had taken Kiara’s hand. At one point, the detective had playfully begun swinging their arms until they were flailing in such ridiculously wide arcs that both couldn’t help laughing. When they’d settled down, Amelia finally spoke again.
“Guess I should explain, huh? Well, I wanted to do something nice for you, just because, and I slipped down the steps heading toward the door. Well, apparently the universe thought that was the perfect time to start a loop for me, and I just tumbled on the steps for, like, 5 minutes. It was stupid and it roughed me up, but it wasn’t enough to get me to cancel. Sooo, I just went to clean off my face from the few cuts it had. It’s not a huge deal or anything, promise.”
Kiara knew uncertainty in the detective’s voice when she heard it. She grabbed the detective’s other hand and gently led them off the path into a patch of the grass. She led Amelia a little further, until they were a good distance away from the path, out of earshot of any passersby. The phoenix plopped down on the grass, smiling up at Amelia. The setting sun cast an orange hue in the sky, truly capturing the radiance of Amelia’s bright, flaxen hair. It shone as the gentle wind blew, tiny glittering chains of gold. Kiara would have been in awe of it, had it not been for the light concern painting the detective’s face. She then pulled Amelia down, sitting in the cool afternoon grass. When Amelia followed suit, Kiara shifted closer and closer, until her knees were atop the detective’s. With a caring embrace of feather-light love, Kiara brought her arms around Amelia.
The blonde immediately dropped the tension in her body, practically melting against Kiara’s heat. The phoenix lovingly cradled the puddle that was the weary detective, placing a quick peck against her cheek. She felt the blonde’s fingers threading through her own hair, scratching her scalp in a way that was all too relaxing. She felt the detective place a reciprocating kiss against Kiara’s neck, and the phoenix felt her heart soar higher than her wings could ever take her. She responded by finally claiming Amelia’s lips with her own. After a short time, she pulled away, staring at her detective’s eyes.
“Don’t feel bad about making me wait. Okay? I’ll wait as long as I have to, as long as I know you’re okay. Don’t ever feel like you have to hide things from me, or any of the others, alright?” Amelia returned to the space between her neck and shoulder, the heat between them radiating gently and igniting their hearts brighter. “We all love you, Ame. We might not get it like you do, but we’ll listen if you need to vent, or if you’re stuck and need a break, or if you need absolutely anything from us.”
Amelia peeled herself away from the warmth of the phoenix, smiling fully for the first time since they’d arrived. “I might just take you guys up on that. Can we all go out tomorrow? I need a day to forget about stuff.”
Kiara smiled back. “Of course. I’m sure they’d all be happy to have a date tomorrow.” Kiara felt the detective giggle giddily before moving in to snuggle closer to her. “You know, maybe we should go back home if you want to cuddle so badly.”
Amelia finally moved away from the phoenix’ comforting embrace. “Then let’s get outta here. I’m hungry anyway. Falling down steps for as long as I did really wears you out.”
“I’d bet!”
They picked themselves up, Kiara extending her hand to the blonde. Amelia smiled and took the hand, her fingers intertwining perfectly with Kiara’s. Despite the minor mishap that postponed their stroll, they resumed their walk through the park, commenting about the birds and animals as they went. Finally, once they reached the end of the path, the two began to make their way home, where three more were waiting.