Chapter Text
One of the things that no one told you about having two girlfriends was that the sleeping situation quickly became very precarious. Before on her days off, Nice Nature would laze about in bed for hours (after she’d shooed the overly energetic Marvey out of her room), alternatively dozing off and browsing around for cat videos until the grumbling of her stomach forced her out for lunch time. She would roll around as she pleased, kick her legs out when she saw something funny, and just in general be a slob.
Now that she had been part of a polycule for a couple of months (and Goddesses, wasn’t that still a weird thought!), things were much different. The biggest change was undoubtedly Teio, who was even more clingy asleep than she was awake. Every night, there was a 50% chance that she would pick Nature as her cuddling target, and then things got a little messy. Teio was damn strong, which mostly prevented attempts from her to wriggle out of the embrace without waking her up, and she also ended up in the stupidest positions overnight. One time, Nature woke up to find that Teio had somehow managed to splay herself across her and McQueen, and of course, their carefully arranged blankets had been piled into a lump at the bed’s feet. Weighted blankets were unfortunately more a human thing than an uma thing, so they just had to deal with Teio’s maneuvering. Nature constantly had to wonder how Teio didn’t get colds all the time, but she was a pretty good space heater for Nature and McQueen..
While McQueen didn’t upend the physical arrangement of the big king sized bed nearly as much, Nice Nature quickly learned that she had rather vivid dreams. The first time McQueen yelled out her baseball chants, Nature bolted awake and nearly smacked the heiress in the face with the suddenness of the move. Nature was of course used to wild dreams from being in direct contact with Marvey, but none of her strategies for dealing with that ended up helping McQueen because the root causes were far different. Nature was a light sleeper, so McQueen often ended up apologizing profusely to Nature at 3 AM while Teio snored on top of one or both of the two of them. And when it actually came time to wake up, the smell of McQueen’s tea and Teio’s chattering invariably woke up Nature fully. This made it much harder to laze around in bed, partially because the smell was incredible and partially because it made her feel guilty that her girlfriends were already up and at it. While this led to some sleepy days, Nature could feel it forcibly resetting her sleep schedule.
That being said, it was definitely one thousand percent worth it. There really was nothing quite like waking up to see McQueen and Teio cuddling next to her and feeling so warm that her heart felt like it would burst. It made it so much easier to get up in the morning and keep working.
Nature smiled to herself as she wriggled her hand out of the pile, then used it to slowly pat Teio’s head. Today was a calmer day, partially thanks to Teio studying her butt off yesterday for the test she had coming up in Tracen’s trainer track. “McQueen, are you up yet?” she whispered.
“Yes, I am,” McQueen replied in the same register. “I’m going to bring some tea back; think she’s going to sleep a little longer. Could you take care of her?”
“If you mean ‘lie around here while Teio monopolizes my left arm’, yeah, I can do that,” Nature said with a quiet laugh. Her arm was only a little numb, after all, and it was a small sacrifice to make.
“More than good enough,” McQueen said with a fond smile. “I’ll be right back.”
Nice Nature waved with her free hand, then flicked open her phone. As she did, though, Teio let out a displeased whine, clearly missing the sensation of Nature patting her head. “… Are you awake?” Nice Nature asked.
“… No.”
“Heh.” Nature kept up her ministrations, running her fingers through Teio’s hair as the other girl pretended to sleep. With her other hand, she mindlessly scrolled through her socials some more. She’d managed to filter down her feed to be pretty much entirely official URA announcements and goofy animal videos, and she was reaping the rewards right now. As for Teio, well, she would deal with the background music for a bit, that was the cost of the headpats.
McQueen returned with a freshly made pot of the tea she liked, the Legend of Africa stuff. Nature wasn’t cultured enough to appreciate the differences between brands, but it was a very nice green tea. “So Teio’s up, then?”
“No, she’s still sleeping,” Nature lied after a glance at Teio.
“Hmm… then I guess I’ll just have to kiss Nature all by myself.”
“Wait, wait, wait!” All of a sudden, Teio sprung into motion, escaping Nature’s headpats and bolting upright. “I’m up, I’m up!”
“… You know, I can only kiss one of you at a time,” Nice Nature said. It had taken her quite a bit, but now she didn’t immediately melt into a puddle when either of them talked about kissing her. That being said, it was still a work in progress: her cheeks were definitely quite red, and it only got worse when they actually did it.
“Yeah, but you know I have to be better than McQueen! And how can we tell if we don’t do it at the same time?”
“You don’t have to compete over it…”
“Yes, we do,” the two of them said as one.
Nature sighed to hide her embarrassment, although it probably didn’t work. She had already told them dozens of times that it wasn’t a competition, and she’d probably have to do it a dozen times more. “Jeez… Let me have some tea first at least.”
“Of course, of course,” McQueen said with a smile, bringing over Nature’s favorite cup, the one she’d brought all the way with her from third grade. “Here you go, dear.” And before Nature or Teio could react, McQueen planted a quick kiss on her cheek as she came by.
Nature flushed a brilliant red and Teio immediately pouted. “McQueen! Fine!” And with that, Teio also kissed Nature on the other cheek, causing Nature’s head to become even lighter. “You know this means war!” Nature could only sit there and wonder what had happened in her life to get her to this point. She’d known that Teio and McQueen were destined rivals for a long time, but being the subject of their rivalry was incredibly surreal. She took another sip of the tea to calm her nerves, although the sight of Teio glaring at McQueen over her affections (playfully, she hoped) kept threatening to overwhelm her. And then McQueen leaned over to kiss Teio on the forehead, short circuiting her as well.
“… Fine, you win this time,” Teio admitted after a moment of recovery, during which time Nature and McQueen got Teio’s own cup of tea ready. “But I’m still the better girlfriend.”
“Alright, alright, whatever you say…” Nature said before hurriedly changing the topic. “How’s studying coming along?”
“Actually, Teio, you’re clearly wrong,” McQueen said.
“Oh, of course, Natie’s obviously the best girlfriend~”
Nature cursed the fact that they knew all of her avoidance tactics now. “One day, I’m going to stop getting flustered at this, and you are both going to pay.”
“Sounds like a good time to me!” Teio said cheerily, and McQueen nodded. As Nature sighed, Teio continued. “But for real, the trainer exam is… honestly, it made me respect Trainer a lot more. There’s so much to learn about! All the little ways to know whether the training is helping or hurting, the different kinds of running styles and how the specific footwork affects each of them, the nutrition… not to mention taking care of another person!”
Nice Nature tactfully didn’t mention Okino’s known issues with managing the many colorful personalities in Spica, although she did look McQueen’s way to confirm that she was having similar thoughts. “I’m sure you’ll be able to pass with flying colors,” she said. “I still remember you cramming all of Calculus II into Mayano’s head in three weeks.”
“Eh, teaching Mayano isn’t exactly like teaching a normal girl,” Teio said. “She slept through that entire class and still aced the final. All I had to do was read her the textbook in less boring words.”
“Is that humility coming from the Invincible Tokai Teio?” Nature teased.
“It’s one of my many amazing features,” Teio replied cheekily, sipping on McQueen’s tea. “You know, Nature, we’re probably the luckiest girls alive right now. Who can say that they have a billionaire making tea for them in the morning?”
“Not you, if you keep being cheeky,” McQueen said, although she was clearly still smiling. “I will say - oh, hold on,” she said as her phone began ringing. Nature would never get used to the fact that her ringtone was Teio and Nature’s duet from that Arima Kinen… “Oh, Ikee? Yes, we’re having a great morning. Oh? My, I must offer my congratulations, then. … A gala? Of course I’ll be there. And I’ll see about Teio and Nature as well. It would be a good opportunity to introduce them.”
Teio looked at Nature in mild horror. “Wait, sorry, McQueen! I’ll never make fun of your tea again!”
“Hmm… We’ll see,” McQueen said with a smile, both towards her butler and towards Teio. “Thank you very much, Ikee. I’ll confirm the details later.” McQueen ended the call there, then turned back to her girlfriends. “Would you care to join me?” she said teasingly.
“W-well, you both met my mom, it’s only fair that I get to subject you to the same embarrassment,” Nature replied, joking to hide her apprehension at the idea. “So what’s the big occasion?”
“Well, my sister Ardan has been involved in a few charities,” McQueen explained. “From what Ikee tells me, she’s recently been approved to collaborate with some international foundations for uma musume health. The gala is being held to celebrate that accomplishment and introduce ourselves to our new partners.”
“That sounds… above our paygrade,” Teio said, and Nature nodded fervently in agreement.
“Not at all. You are the invincible Teio, the girl who rose from the ashes at the Arima Kinen,” McQueen rebutted. “And Nature, you currently have the record for most G1 race starts in Japan, even as the rest of your peers have moved on to the Dream Series.”
“Is that really impressive,” Nature said, waving it off. “Just means I’m too weak to go duel against the real monsters.”
“On ground designed to avoid injury, not for speed. You’re showing that it’s possible to have a long and successful career on turf, even at the graded level.”
“… I guess,” Nature replied after a moment, unable to quite meet McQueen’s wide smile.
“Me personally, I don’t mind showing off to fans, but to rich people from wherever?” Teio shuddered. “I seriously don’t know how you do it, McQueen. You guys know my English sucks.” Teio was overexaggerating as usual; her standards for academic success were so high that any merely average performance was treated like a distinct failure.
“From what I’m led to believe, the visitors are local delegates from Japan, so you shouldn’t need to do any studying,” McQueen explained.
“Well, for the gala, at least,” Nature pointed out. “Wouldn’t it be a good idea to study English so you can go abroad? Or maybe you can learn French like Sirius Symboli and aim for the L’arc with your trainees.”
“… Crap, you’re right…” Teio said with a frown. “How come you’re also responsible? I thought we would be allied against McQueen!”
“Maybe you could have asked Gold Ship or Twin Turbo for that. But I’m an old lady at heart and I hate fun.”
“Nature…”
“Er, yeah. Sorry McQueen,” Natie apologized. During the course of their relationship, McQueen had taken it upon herself to object every time Nature made a self-deprecating comment, joke or otherwise. If it was anyone else except for maybe Teio, Nature would have gotten at least a little annoyed and defensive, but McQueen had the ability to bypass all of her built up defenses. It was nearly impossible to fall back on bad habits and think that McQueen was just pitying her because she was just an incredible judge of character. Honestly, Nature trusted McQueen’s thoughts more than she did her own self evaluation.
“We enjoy ourselves with you plenty, Nature,” McQueen said with a self satisfied smile. Nature grumbled some to herself. It would be a lot easier to tell McQueen to stop embarrassing her if she felt less warm and fuzzy after the compliments! “But not enough to neglect our duties, I should hope.”
“… Fine, I’ll just have to learn English and French so I can serenade my two beautiful girlfriends in even more words,” Teio said with a grin. “Maybe I can do Sea Bird’s Winning Live song…”
“. I do support that, but probably starts by getting to class on time, right?” Nature said, looking at her phone clock.
“... Aw, crap.”
A couple weeks later, Nice Nature received a letter from the Mejiro Estate.
Nature had been imagining something truly ostentatious - a card with gold trim and embossed leaves, perhaps, or a card with art depicting the long and storied history of the Mejiro family. But no, it was just a normal card written in normal pen in a normal envelope, albeit one that was much higher quality. Maybe Nature had been watching too many period dramas. Regardless, she sat down at their dinner table and opened the letter with only a little trepidation.
The contents were pretty straightforward:
Dear Nice Nature:
The Mejiro Family would like to cordially extend an invitation to the inaugural ball for the Mejiro Ardan Foundation for Umamusume Health. Please RSVP if you wish to attend. Semiformal attire. Ikee-san will arrange for transportation should you choose to accept.
Yours truly,
Mejiro Ardan
P.S. We all look forward to meeting you! McQueen has spoken very highly of you - and very affectionately, as well!
It was the second most intimidating thing that Nice Nature had ever read, right next to the list of racers for the Wakagoma stakes.
"Ardan has good handwriting," Nature said automatically, still processing the reality of the situation at hand. She absentmindedly ran her fingers along the card, feeling how high quality the card stock was. Nothing like the cards they sent out to their frequent customers at new years.
"Nature, are you okay?" McQueen said from her seat in the couch.
"I'm fine," Nature said automatically. Before Teio or McQueen could call her out on that, though, she actually elaborated. "I'm just thinking. I need a new dress, and I need to prepare a gift for Ardan, and I need to make sure I can walk in whatever shoes that I have..."
"Oh, okay," Teio said, relaxing. Nature could tell that she had been preparing to spring into Intervention Mode and was glad that she didn't need to deal with that today. Well, she was glad that Teio would do that for her, but she hated making her do it and she felt emotionally vulnerable and so forth and so forth. "You're actually fine."
"My therapist says I should try to break up big impossible tasks into smaller manageable ones."
"Is that helping?" McQueen asked.
"It's a process," Nature said understatedly. "Try again in three months."
“Is that so…” McQueen said, a ponderous look on her face.
“Er, McQueen, don’t take this as a formal review. I know she’s your employee, technically, but this stuff just takes time, okay?” Nature said.
“Oh, definitely. I would never claim to know more than the experts simply because I’m part of the ownership,” McQueen replied, making Nature feel silly for even saying it out loud. “I was just thinking about how we could best support you... Perhaps it’s time for another shopping trip?”
“And this time, we all know it’s a date before the trip starts, how about that,” Teio jabbed, throwing her hands around Nature’s shoulders.
“Look, it’s not like you actually asked me on a date,” Nature said with a huff, swatting aside Teio’s hands petulantly. “You showed up while I was having lunch with Machitan and then just didn’t leave until you got to kiss me.”
“Well, it worked!” Teio said at the same time as McQueen said “And that was Teio’s fault.”
“It’s still insane to think that you were the one holding the two of you back, Teio,” Nature said. She fought back against Teio’s onslaught of hands for a bit before giving up and letting Teio do as she pleased. She probably deserved it for teasing her, anyways.
“I dunno, I think you’re the one most at fault here.” Teio hummed as she fiddled with Nature’s hair, grabbing her poofy twintails and mussing them then up. Nice Nature leaned back into the sensations, choosing to enjoy the warmth of Teio’s hands rather than admit that Teio was certainly right. Ever since they’d started dating, she had been getting steadily more physical, and she was already pretty touchy feely. Soon enough, she would probably latch on like a parasite and never let go… although, a not insignificant part of Nature wouldn’t mind.
"Alright, we can go shopping wherever rich people buy clothes," Nature said after a minute or so of hair floofing. "McQueen, what does Ardan like for gifts? We should give her something."
"To be honest, she doesn't really want anything. She already gets more than she can handle from her Chinese fans." McQueen replied. "Here, take a look."
Teio and Nature got up and crowded around the back of the couch to look at McQueen's phone. Sure enough, Ardan had taken a picture of a massive stack of presents and wrapping paper filling an entire room. She couldn't quite tell from the angle, but it looked even bigger than their dorm rooms, and it was all gifts. An uma had thrown herself into the pile and seemed to immediately have regretted it - Nature thought her name was Sakura... Chuyo? It was the girl with the pink-purple hair that hung out with Maruzensky.
"Yo, is Chiyo okay?" Teio said from her right shoulder. Oh good, she didn't have to ask for her name.
"Ardan says that she got a nosebleed from hitting something metal but has fully recovered." McQueen said, shaking her head. "Nature, if you ever think Teio is silly, just know that that's Ardan's date for the night."
"That's fair."
"McQueen, that was really slick of you to remind Nature who Chiyo was without her having to ask," Teio said with a cheeky smile at Nature. Nature flushed - Teio clearly knew that the point was that Nature didn’t have to admit the obvious out loud, which was exactly why Teio did it instead. She was lucky she was cute. "But yeah, that's Sakura Chiyono O." Teio explained. "She was a really strong runner and took the Derby a couple years ago, but injured herself doing so and never quite recovered well enough to race on actual turf again. She’s actually performing really well in the Dream League, though - she won way more races than people ever expected. ... I didn't actually know that she was dating Ardan, but it was pretty easy to guess."
"Woah," Nature said. “You know your stuff." Shamefully, Nature never actually had been too interested in the history of the sport or the racers in other leagues, and Chiyo had long since entered the Dream League.
“Eheh, well, you know… I was still trying to make it in the Dream League until the fourth leg fracture,” Teio said. “It wasn’t a good idea, but I definitely was still doing all that research. But the scouting is still really good practice for when I do become a trainer, so it wasn’t a waste.”
Nature remembered that particular day well - Teio had said that she was ready about twenty times before going to the doctor’s office and she still cried for an hour. “Right, yeah. Sorry, I should have realized. I guess I thought you could just barrel through the competition no matter what.”
“No, no, I spent a lot of time scoping out the competition - and that includes you, Nature. Did you think I was dressed up like that for fun?”
Nature kept her mouth shut, trying very hard not to let anything show on her face. She was almost successful with that, but after almost ten seconds of silence, McQueen started shaking slightly. That caused Nature to let out a snort, and after that the whole game was up and Nature and McQueen were both laughing outright. Teio pouted widely, but she could only hold the pout for a minute before she started laughing too. “Okay, okay, I did look pretty silly, but it was Trainer’s fault. He’s the one who had the costume.” And it was her fault she was wearing it, but Nature didn’t mention that out loud.
After they’d had their fill of laughter, McQueen patted each side of her, beckoning Teio and Nature to sit with her. “Here, Ikee-san gave me a tentative list of guests already. Shall we go over them right now?”
“Yeah, sure,” Nature said, sitting down on McQueen’s right side. “Although I think we might need to do like, a test. I’m definitely going to forget at least a couple.”
“You aren’t expected to actually know everyone here. But having some familiarity will help you not feel as overwhelmed when meeting everyone. While we aren’t going to be the main event tonight, I imagine quite a few people are going to be interested in hearing about my new girlfriend,” McQueen said. “So this event will also serve as your introduction to the family.”
“Oh boy,” Nature said, sighing. “… Do you know if they like, uhh, care that you’re in a polycule? Or are they old fashioned?”
“Hmm…” McQueen said, thinking about it. “Grandmother can have some outdated ideas sometimes… We’ll have to make sure she doesn’t think you’re a part of my harem.”
Nature blinked. “What,” she said.