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They don’t see each other every day, but it’s a close thing. Every few days Kronii finds herself at her table with a cup of tea in hand and her time traveler sitting across from her. Sometimes breakfast, sometimes lunch. On some occasions, they’ll go out shopping together, but for the most part, it’s the quiet morning of the clock tower and two cups of tea. Amelia has a bowl of oatmeal as her choice. She’d barely touched it throughout her ranting.
“-cause it’s not like 467 to ditch me, it’s whatever, she has her problems.” Amelia is saying. “I dunno. Kiara, a dark phoenix? Am I being unreasonable by calling that edgy?”
Kronii hums, “Does she have dark hair?”
“Yeah.” Amelia gestures with her hands to her face. “Red eyes too.”
“Oh my,” Kronii says. “That’s something.”
Amelia huffs. She tilts her head in consideration when she lifts her teacup to her lips, “You’ve only ever had to deal with me, right?”
“You’re the only pain in my ass,” Kronii confirms with a smile.
Amelia shoots her a single-finger gun from her cup handle. She takes a sip. Kronii takes a sip. It’s pleasant, she sighs. It’s just the two of them here to chat about timelines and each other. It’s a gentle start to healing a ten-year gap. Kronii enjoys it.
“How’s your girlfriends, by the way?” Amelia asks.
Kronii coughs on her drink.
“What?” Kronii belts out, wiping tea from her lips.
Amelia stares at her. There’s not even a teasing note in her expression. Amelia’s brow is furrowing a little like she just encountered an interesting problem, “... Uh. Fauna and Mumei?”
“What?” Kronii says again, her voice an octave higher.
“What do you mean, what?” Amelia echoes incredulously, “You three are a thing, right?”
“No!” Kronii exclaims. She's fumbling with too much embarrassment to speak her thoughts truthfully, “No, gods no, what?”
“ Huh? ” Amelia’s expression sinks with despair, “What do you mean ‘no’?! I thought the three of you were together!”
Kronii feels like all the air has left her lungs. Her face is burning. She very nearly squeaks, “How long have you thought that?”
“Since I met all three of you! As a kid!”
“Oh, kill me.” Kronii places her teacup down on the table and puts her head in her hands. “Oh my gods.”
“Kronii!” Amelia yelps. “You gaslit me!”
“I did not!” Kronii cries, rising her head and pointing accusingly at the time traveler. “You were a kid! It was hard to explain ourselves as concepts to you and-”
“You kissed them!”
“Oh hell.”
Amelia stands up with a gasp, her mouth forming a perfect O as she yells, “Wait, are you leading them on ?!”
“What?!” Kronii yells back. She’s trying to sink into her chair as far as it’ll let her. She’s up to her eyes in mortification. “Amelia, I am not dating them.”
Amelia stares at her. She’s searching over Kronii’s expression. After a long moment, she sits back down. She looks disappointed as she murmurs, “Oh. Well. That’s fine.”
Kronii feels like she just got punched in the stomach. What? Why does she feel bad for not dating them? She runs a hand through her hair stressfully. After ten years, she is not immune to time traveler eyes.
“It’s hard to explain,” Kronii says feebly. “We’re concepts, we- we live a very long time.”
“I mean, yeah,” Amelia says without much enthusiasm.
“Are you really that beat up about me not dating them?” Kronii asks disbelievingly.
“Well, you three were always like-” She chokes on her words, sticking her tongue out, before saying, “Never mind. You know what? This is a great conversation opener.”
“No, it’s over,” Kronii says.
Amelia holds up her watch threateningly. Kronii hisses between her teeth, “Why is my love life so important suddenly?” A thought strikes her. It has all the blood draining from her face. “Wait, Amelia, when I said we’re family did you assume-”
“What do you mean assume? ” Amelia waves her watch around angrily. “Kronii, I swear to god.”
“Did you think all four of us-?”
Amelia’s face is red. She announces, “You know what? Yeah, conversation over.”
Kronii knows for sure that’s not the end of it. She doesn’t know why she feels guilty over such a thing. Amelia is squinting at her from across the table and taking aggressive sips of tea. Kronii slumps.
“What do you want?” Kronii groans.
“How do you feel about them?” Amelia demands.
Kronii really wants to be deleted in a bright light and reduced to ash. She stares desperately across the table. Amelia is impervious to it.
“They’re,” Kronii says stiltedly, “nice.”
“I can’t believe you,” Amelia says.
“What? They’re nice. ” She’s losing her words around the embarrassment in her throat. This was something she didn’t think about let alone let herself think about. She’s shoving thoughts of Fauna and Mumei out of her head. Amelia is looking at her with betrayal.
“Just nice.” She echoes. “Okay, Kronii.”
“What?” Kronii says defensively.
“No no, it’s fine,” Amelia says. “You’re not dating anyone. I see.”
Kronii sneers at that, “Okay?”
“Okay,” Amelia says primly. She takes a haughty sip of tea. Kronii does the same. They spend the rest of breakfast squinting at each other.
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Amelia is trying to kill her.
She should have known better. Kronii despairs. It’s BBQ night at Calli’s which would be nice band ordinary if Amelia didn’t immediately give her a look when she’d arrived like the time traveler was trying to brand her with her eyes alone. Kronii returns the look as best as she can.
Amelia squares her shoulders. Glass of juice in hand, she saunters over to Fauna with the kind of innocent cheer that’d win her cookies in her youth. Kronii scowls.
“Fauna!” Amelia chirps. “I wanted to ask you something.”
Kronii feels a cold chill down her spine.
Fauna is in a sundress for this little get-together. She’s nursing a cup of water and a bendy straw. Her hair is pulled back into a ponytail. Flowers bloom and wind into her hair to form a makeshift scrunchie. She tilts her head to smile at Amelia, her hand flying up to touch the blonde's cheek. It’s sweet and Kronii would think so if Amelia wasn’t side eyeing Kronii with the smugest glint to her smile.
“Hi, Ame.” Fauna greets. “Oh, are you wearing makeup?”
“Yeah yeah, aren’t I cute?” Amelia is putting on a show of leaning her chin into Fauna’s palm and being all kinds of gooey and clingy.
Kronii narrows her eyes.
“The cutest.” Fauna praises, cupping Amelia’s face with both hands. “What’d you wanna ask?”
“I was actually wondering if you were dating anyone.”
“What?” Fauna laughs. “That’s a silly question.”
“Is it?” Amelia asks lightly.
Kronii’s legs are moving her closer. Amelia starts to speak faster, “I was just wondering if you could say it plainly.”
“Oh, well,” Fauna laughs shyly, “You don’t know?”
“I don’t know what?”
“That I’m with-”
Kronii places her hand on top of Amelia’s head and shoves it down. Amelia yelps. Fauna startles, looking up at Kronii with thinly veiled amusement. Kronii’s cheeks begin to burn.
“My juice!” Amelia yells.
“Oops, my bad.” Kronii grips her shoulders and steers her away from Fauna. “Let’s get you another.”
“Kronii?” Fauna’s voice draws her back, a leash against her will that has her halting in her tracks. She looks over her shoulder warily. Fauna is smiling, her eyes curved upwards warmly.
“When you have your drink, you should join me.”
“Yeah, Kronii.” Amelia hisses, her nails digging into Kronii’s wrist. Kronii fixes a smile on her face. “You should be nice. ”
“Later,” Kronii says to the both of them. She makes sure when she ruffles Amelia’s hair she uses a bit of friendly force. Amelia elbows her in the ribs. It makes her jump and knock her hip against a table. She can hear Fauna laughing.
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Kronii is on the lookout, but she’s dealing with a time traveler.
Movie night at the clock tower is smooth sailing. It’s her, Sana, and Mumei and while she’d extended the invitation out to everyone these were the only confirmations she’d gotten. She wasn’t expecting an extra. She’s distracted by the movie. She hears Mumei giggle and glances over.
She nearly drops her popcorn.
Amelia is sitting directly next to Mumei. She’s wearing her detective coat. She just got off work and she was spending that time leaning over and whispering into Mumei’s ear. If Amelia had just been dropping by for mischief, Mumei wasn’t going to let her go easily. She’d wound an arm around the time traveler's shoulders and brought her closer in her arms. She was leaning her head against Amelia’s and smiling. Every whisper would occasionally get a giggle.
Kronii stares warily. It was cute. Nothing concerning.
Amelia glances at her. She grins impishly.
No, that’s incredibly concerning.
“Hey, Amelia,” Kronii announces loudly. Sana perks up from beside her. “Welcome to movie night.”
“I didn’t want to interrupt.” Amelia chimes in sweetly. “Hi, Sana!”
“Hi Ame!”
“You’re not interrupting,” Mumei says, a sleepy note in her voice as she cuddles the time traveler. “She was just telling me about her day.”
“Oh,” Kronii says lightly. She pauses for four seconds before saying, “That's all?”
“Actually, Mumei, I have a question for you,” Amelia says.
Kronii makes a face at her. Mumei hums, resting her chin on Amelia’s head. She mumbles, “What?”
“Are you dating anyone?”
“Oh my,” Sana says. “Should I clear the room?”
Kronii feels her face go hot. She looks at Sana but Sana is looking at her with raised eyebrows and a cheerful grin. She’s being betrayed on all ends. Mumei giggles and she whips her head back around to look at them.
“Yeah,” Mumei says dreamily. “I am.”
Oh god. Kronii wants to disappear. She’s desperately trying to appear cool and also freaking the hell out. She glances from the movie back to her scheming time traveler.
“Ohhh.” Amelia practically beams, “Who is it?”
“Like you don’t know.” Mumei drawls.
“Hey,” Kronii says feebly. “Are we watching the movie or what?”
“Sure,” Mumei says. She yawns, utterly content to curl around Amelia like a glorified pillow. Amelia preens. She’s shooting Kronii with that damn smug grin.
Kronii flips her off. She’s annoyed with herself for feeling proud when Amelia shoots her back a double bird.
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It’s the four of them.
Kronii is being normal about this. In her opinion, she’s put up a valiant defense. At the end of the day, she can’t resist when Amelia asks her to hang out because it’s been years. If Amelia just so happens to invite Mumei and Fauna along- she isn’t even surprised. She tosses the time traveler the driest look she can muster.
Amelia ignores her as she holds her hand out for Fauna’s handbag, “I can carry it for you.”
“After my heart, aren’t you?” Fauna teases. She lets Amelia carry her bag for her while the four of them browse down the shops of this mall. Kronii isn’t going to let anyone see her from behind her sunglasses. As it stands, she can’t see anything either from inside a freaking building.
“I wanna buy little towels.” Mumei murmurs. She’s got a cute hoodie on today, little cat ears sewn onto the hood that flop with every step she takes. “Multicolored ones.”
“Oh, can they have our colors?” Fauna swoons.
“That’d be so cute.”
“Who’s paying for them?” Kronii asks. Mumei looks at her like Kronii just kicked a kitten. Fauna giggles.
Amelia says, “I’ll pay.”
“No way.” Mumei shoots her down instantly. “Even if I don’t have any money, I’ll make them pay.”
“Uh, that’s not how transactions work.”
“What are you talking about? It always works.”
Fauna giggles, “Oh, Mumei.”
“Should I be investigating you?” Amelia asks airily, with a playful nudge to the owl. “Seriously though, I can pay.”
“No way,” Mumei repeats. “Let your mothers pay.”
Kronii’s lungs snap off in her chest and she ends up in a coughing fit. Her sunglasses fall off and she fumbles to catch them. Even Amelia had halted, eyes wide with surprise. Fauna was doing a poor job of hiding her laughter behind her hand.
Mumei ruffles Amelia’s hair, “You torture Kronii a lot. I had to get back at you.”
“You,” Amelia says, her lips twitching with irritation. “Okay, you got me.”
“Torturing me?” Kronii echoes, her voice nearly a squeak. She clears her throat to recover. “I’m doing perfectly fine- hey.” She feels her face grow hot when Mumei looks at her with gleaming eyes. “What was that anyway?”
“She’s flustered,” Mumei says.
“She definitely is.” Fauna agrees, amusement radiating off her to the extremes. Kronii was half hoping Amelia would be on her side about this. The time traveler starts to grin, a small thing that develops into something wicked.
“Hey, are you guys all dating each other?” Amelia asks out loud.
“Yes,” Mumei says.
Fauna’s eyebrows are raised. She looks at Amelia and back to Kronii. Kronii feels put on the spot, but more than that, Fauna was looking at her accusingly. Kronii felt like receding into a turtle shell and never coming out.
“I love them both,” Fauna says. “I love them dearly. We’ve never labeled it anything if that’s what you’re wondering about.”
Amelia looks fascinated, “Oh, so that’s why Kronii was so skittish.”
“Hey.” Kronii snaps.
Mumei laughs, leaning her head against Amelia’s and saying, “I raised you well.”
Amelia looks pleased. Kronii is angry about a lot of things but she latches on one and says, “Hey, I raised that.”
“That?” Amelia echoes, offended.
“ We did.” Fauna corrects gently, slyly slipping her fingers into Kronii's hand. Kronii drops her head back in defeat. She can’t win when they tag team against her like this. She’d been embarrassed enough to well make up for a ten-year memory gap.
“Kronii said you guys weren’t dating,” Amelia says.
“You don’t want me to live.” Kronii accuses.
“You’re gaslighting us!”
“Oh, Kronii.” Fauna sighs, but she’s smiling as she leans her head against her arm. Kronii exhales lengthily. She loses a lot of her steam when Fauna gets clingy like this. Mumei is herding away their terror with a laugh.
“C’mon, let's give her some breathing room.”
“They’re going to conspire against me,” Kronii says flatly, already knowing those two together will get up to no good.
“That’s just how families are,” Fauna says contently.
Kronii squirms at the word. She was fine with that attached to Amelia, but now that label was expanding to two other pieces of her heart. It made her nervous. She wasn’t good at emotions. Fauna pats her arm, well aware of unsaid words between them.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself, darling.” Fauna murmurs. “I can wait for you for centuries. Mumei is just as patient.”
“That’s so corny,” Kronii complains. She buries down the emotions in her chest. She’s feeling affectionate as she leans down to kiss Fauna’s cheek. “Sorry, if it bothered you.”
“It doesn’t.” Fauna looks more amused than anything. “I’m just happy to see us all together.”
“... Yeah.” Kronii sighs, content with that. Despite the ribbing, she thinks she’s fine with this. If everyday life is as hectic and adventurous as this, she knows she’ll love it.
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