“You look tired,” you murmur. You’d woken up to a goodnight text from her this morning that had apparently been sent after three in the morning; by the look of her, she really mustn’t have fallen asleep until around then. “Is something wrong?”
She shakes her head against your neck, leaning closer against you. “No, nothing,” she says. You can feel her lips pull up into a small smile against your neck, and you can feel the contentment practically radiating from her. “Just didn’t get to sleep until late.”
You gently stroke her back. “Any particular reason?” you ask quietly.
Madison leans back slightly so she can look at your face. A moment later, another sleepy smile spreads over her face, and she burrows herself back against your neck. “No, no reason,” she murmurs. Despite her words, though, she doesn’t let go of you at all.
Well, you’re not sure what’s wrong with her, but evidently something kept her up late last night. If she’s in a clingy mood today after that, then so be it. You can deal with a couple of occasional dirty looks if it makes her happy.
Thankfully, her clinginess doesn’t last through the whole day—she peels away from you when the bell rings, however reluctantly. She snuggles back in against your side during first period, but not quite as noticeably as before. You can feel Charlotte staring at the two of you, but she doesn’t say anything.
You make sure to sit beside Madison at lunch—you’re not quite confident enough in Aisha’s attraction to you to allow Madison to sit on your lap in front of her, but you’re quite happy to sit there and hold her hand.
You’re a lot more confident during tutoring, where nobody else is around to see. Not even Charlotte, today. You allow Madison to sit on your lap, where you spend most of the session running your fingers through her hair and giving her small compliments each time she gets one of your questions right.
It feels a little odd. It’s not like you’re even slightly opposed to having this much contact with her, but the last time you felt like she needed this kind of physical contact, she was still coming down off the high of your first time with her. Nothing like that happened yesterday that you’re aware of, and a surface-level sensing of her emotions doesn’t reveal anything but exhaustion and the same warm contentment. Something else must have happened. Maybe she’s on her period?
Whatever the case, she thankfully recognizes the need to let you go once tutoring for the day is over. It’s a good thing, too—you’d feel bad about leaving Madison, but you’d feel bad about leaving Sophia in the dust.
Still, while you’re travelling home on the bus, you make sure to reply fairly promptly to all of Madison’s texts. She’s surprisingly restrained in sending them, considering how clingy she was at school, sending you only five throughout the entire half-hour trip.
Once the bus rumbles to a stop, you begin to move home, then pause. No—you’re pretty sure you don’t have enough fruit at home.
Luckily, there’s a small fruit and vegetable store a few blocks away from your house. It’s more expensive than the supermarkets tend to be, but you just don’t have the time to head there and back before Sophia can arrive.
Luckily, it’s still not too expensive, although you’re definitely not happy about the price. You don’t end up getting much; you walk home with two plastic bags filled with watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, strawberries, blueberries, and a kiwi fruit. Twenty-six dollars is far too much for that kind of fruit.
Once you get home, you check to see if Dad is home yet—he’s not. Humming softly, you hurry over to the counter and begin pulling out the fruits.
You’re almost done when the doorbell rings. Frowning down at the cantaloupe you were just dicing, you hurry to the front door. You’re not surprised to find Sophia standing there, frowning at you. She doesn’t have her schoolbags.
You hurriedly step aside, making room for her. “Come in, come in,” you tell her, allowing her to pull her shoes off and place them to the side of your door. “I was just cutting up the fruit for you.”
“Huh.” She briefly glances at you, her eyebrows raised. She seems inordinately surprised, considering how simple the gesture was for you. “Thanks, Hebert. Skipped lunch today.”
“That was silly of you,” you scold her. She gives you an amused little scoff. “Don’t laugh at me, Sophia! Lunch is the most important meal of the day, you know?”
“Thought that was breakfast,” she replies dryly. You pause, then let out a soft ‘ooooh’, causing her to snicker.
You shake your head, leading her to the kitchen once again, where you resume dicing the cantaloupe. “Well, whatever,” you declare. “Lunch is still very important. Why did you skip it?”
Sophia shrugs, a motion half-seen out of the corner of your eye as she jumps up to sit on the kitchen bench. “I was busy,” she replies. “Coach has been giving me a lot of extra work on the side.”
You frown. “But a proper diet is essential for any athlete,” you argue. “Couldn’t you speak to your coach and tell her the extra work is cutting into break time?”
She lazily shakes her head in response. Before you can stop her, she leans over and picks one of the strawberry slices out of the large bowl you’re storing all the fruit in. You scowl at her, waving a wooden spoon threateningly. “Nah,” she drawls. “I could speak to her, but it’s all good enough work, I guess. Looks good on the college applications, you know?” She smirks at some joke you’re not privy to, and before you can do anything, she leans over and steals a blueberry. Your wooden spoon smacks ineffectually down on the bench a moment later.
You shake your head. You don’t get it, but you’re not the sporty type—jogging is as far as you’d like to take your physical activities, personally. And you do understand the desire to have extracurriculars on your college applications. But—“Don’t let it become a habit,” you tell her in a severe voice. “You could hurt yourself.” You tap her abs with your wooden spoon to emphasize the message.
A wry grin spreads across her face. “I’ll make sure to skip lunch on Monday just for you, Hebert,” Sophia replies. You turn and give her a look, which in turn she returns playfully. She also takes the opportunity to lean across and steal another blueberry, causing you to let out a huge sigh and give her a disappointed look, which only makes her give you a faux-apologetic pout in return.
It ends up being way too much fruit salad for the two of you. You make both yourself and Sophia a bowl of it, and you prepare two smaller bowls for you and Dad to eat later, but there’s still enough that you’re able to make a fifth bowl of it to press on Sophia.
She frowns down at it. “Keep it. It’s yours.”
You don’t push it at her. Something in her emotions stirs—something… uncertain, lost, but also angry. Like a vicious little puppy, hackles raised and teeth bared. “I made it for you, not for me.” Your voice is calm, soothing.
She glances at your face for a moment, looking you straight in the eye. You meet her glance, then meaningfully drop your gaze back down to the bowl. With an exaggerated roll of her eyes, she takes it from you and moves to your fridge, placing it there. “Thanks,” she mutters. The anger quiets, although the uncertainty remains, if anything growing a little stronger.
“No problem,” you say cheerily.
Tutoring with Sophia goes well, as expected. You’re long since used to her mercurial moods—back before she shoved you in that locker, she would flash from boredom to anticipation to seething anger with no apparent cause.
She departs at eight thirty on the dot, leaving your lower lip swollen and your hair tangled in knots. You follow her down, checking to ensure she takes the bowl from the fridge—she rolls her eyes, but does—and go to pat her on the ass as she leaves, but she ducks forward, turning to smirk at you again as you fumble awkwardly with the air.
You watch Sophia as she strolls down the street, still carrying her bowl of fruit salad uncertainly in her arms. When she fully disappears, you pull back inside and head into the living room, where Dad is waiting.
It doesn’t take you much convincing to take you to work after you’ve had a shower, although you get the vague feeling that he’s not happy with you working this late. To be fair, it is just before nine at that point, and you are working until three. It doesn’t bother you too much, but you can see why Dad wouldn’t be too happy with it.
It’s not particularly strenuous work, though—just, long. There’s a marathon of some Earth Aleph movies, the production of The Lord of the Rings they’d made over there. All three movies were playing, and the marathon wasn’t expected to end until after two. It’s a full sitting, too—although on reflection, it isn’t that surprising. People in Brockton Bay don’t get to watch Earth Aleph movies very often.
All it means is that by the time Dad picks you up and you collapse into bed at home is, you’re exhausted, and all you can think about are volcanoes and elven bread.
You barely have enough time to consider your plans for the weekend before your head hits the pillows and you’re asleep.
[Pick three of the following options. You currently have two large expenses and one small expense remaining. Note that interactions with Victoria are locked in, and will canonize the omake Openness.]
[] You’re going to go buy some things. You have some money— not heaps, but a fair amount, and there’s some things you do want to purchase for yourself.
— Chance of success: Depends on the item.
[] Buy Madison a choker. She deserves it for being such a good girl, but more than that, you’re pretty sure she wants it—wants a physical sign of her relationship with you, even if it’s one that only your girls can readily identify. Costs one small expense.
[] Buy lingerie for one of your girls. [Costs one large expense per purchase.]
[] Buy lingerie for Madison.
[] Buy lingerie for Victoria.
[] Buy lingerie for Sophia.
[] Buy a gift for someone else. [Subject to QM approval. Price varies by item; tag the QM and ask for an appropriate price for a given item.
[] You’re still feeling nervous about it, but you managed to convince Amy to go on a date to the museum with you. Or just an outing, but, no. You think she views it as a date just as much as you do. Maybe? You don’t know, but you’re hopeful. Either way, this is something to look forward to. [Costs one small expense.]
— Chance of success: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Increases Amy’s Affection by 1. Taylor will take Amy out on a date to the museum, where both of them will proceed to completely ignore everything on display in order to be awkward teenaged girls and make silly passes at one another.
— Note: If this option is not taken, Amy will be asked to work overtime to assist in healing people involved in a multi-car pileup, and will be forced to call Taylor and cancel their date.
[] Buy lingerie for yourself. The lingerie Madison bought for you… it really does feel nice, even if you’re still mildly upset with your flat chest. Sure, it might be awkward going in there to buy some on your own, but the clerks there were pretty nice last time. Maybe one of them can help you? [Costs one large expense.]
— Chance of success: 70%
— General results: Taylor will go to Parian’s and purchase herself some lingerie. Provides further options later on in the quest, and gives Taylor a small self-confidence boost.
— On a success: Parian will be the clerk to assist Taylor in finding lingerie suitable for her. Will not initiate recruitment with Parian, but will provide a small (10%) bonus to future options to recruit Parian.
— On a failure: Parian will be busy. It will be up to another clerk to assist Taylor in finding suitable lingerie.
[] Madison asked you for a favour. She went down on you in the library, and asked you if you’d be willing to explore some mild temperature play in turn. Your public play got interrupted, but that’s no reason to deny Madison what she wants. It’s not like you’re against the idea anyway.
— Chance of success: Cannot be failed.
— General results: Spends some time on Sunday afternoon at Madison’s house, exploring what temperature play feels like for the two of them. It won’t go too far, as Rick is home, but it may be fun for both of them regardless.
[] Alan called Dad to invite the two of you over to dinner on Saturday evening. He’s left the decision up to you, knowing that you’ve been busy on weekends lately, but it’s as good an opportunity to see Emma as you’re going to get… but, it does mean meeting Emma on her own ground, away from any of your comfort zones.
— Success chance: 50%
— General results: Danny will grow a little happier at further re-establishing his relationship with Alan. Taylor and Emma will hang out in visible sight of the two.
— On a success: Taylor manages to relax herself somewhat by staying within visual sight of Danny, reassuring herself that Emma can’t do anything with her father right there. With that reassurance, she will be willing to engage in a measure of small talk with Emma. Provides a small measure of progress on their relationship, and opens up further options to engage with Emma at Emma’s own house so long as Danny accompanies her. Also opens up a new plotline, with further ramifications down the line, largely positive for both Danny and Taylor.
— On a failure: Emma pushes Taylor slightly too hard in an attempt to get a conversation flowing. Despite Danny’s presence, Taylor feels too uncomfortable to talk to Emma.
[] Dad bought those documentaries. And, well, they’re not your favourite thing in the world, but the one you watched was fun—and Dad had fun, too, which is the most important thing. And, hey. Maybe if you can get the conversation flowing nice, you can get around to asking him about the basement? He seems to be in a jovial enough mood these days that you think he’ll be open to it.
