“We’re back!” Ainslee called out tiredly as soon as she was able to get her bearings enough to realize that we were in the living room and that nobody else was.

“We’re in the dining room!” came a reply from one of her sisters, the direction of the call confirming her words.

We headed toward the room in question, and I was divebombed as soon as we stepped inside. Well, Ainslee stepped inside while I rode on her shoulder. Poppy crashed into me, nearly knocking me from my perch on that shoulder to wrap her arms around me and start raining kisses upon me. “I was so worried, Love! You said you were just going out to get nectar and stuff and then, when you called and said you’d been attacked and were at Vanguard Tower, I…”

I held her still a moment to plant a very enthusiastic kiss on her lips. Not only did this put a stop to the stream of thought rapidly escaping from between her lips, but it also reassured her that I was okay, like I was hoping it would, and she relaxed her hold on me a bit. “Sorry that I wasn’t able to give more details, Poppy. We’re both fine though, it was just a bit of a rough day, and I promise we’ll tell you all about it over dinner. We even got the nectar like we promised.”

The twins were too far away to hear my tiny voice without the voice projection app on my comm crown so, as I tried to calm down Poppy, I heard one of them ask. “Are you okay, Sis? What happened? Lily didn’t say much when she called.”

“That jackass, Terry Lundburg, decided to attack me with his new special ability and a friend. My special ability manifested, and Lily and I kicked their asses. So, he’s not going to be a problem anymore,” Ainslee replied. I noticed though that she carefully did not mention the fact that she had a hole blown through her in the process.

“That’s what the lawyer said when you got the restraining order, fat lot of good that did,” one of the twins who I thought might be Sammie, spat bitterly.

“Yeah, well this time we can be sure of it. He’d have to be alive to cause me any more problems,” the Baobhan Sith replied as she tried to get them to drop the topic.

That didn’t work out very well as both twins stared at their sister wide-eyed. “Y-you killed him?” the twin that I thought was Selina gasped.

Ainslee groaned and protested, “No! Lily was the one who took him down while I fought his friend. Nobody is dead yet, but he… look, can you just chill and wait a few minutes? Please? We’ll tell everyone what happened while we eat dinner, okay.”

“Holy crap… Lily took down a Frost Giant?” one of the twins asked as their awed gaze focused on me trying to soothe Poppy. Then she shook her head as if to clear it and quickly agreed, “Okay, Sis, we’ll wait. We were just setting the table anyway while Mom and Kelly finished getting dinner ready.”

That wouldn’t give me and Ainslee much of a reprieve as it would probably only be a couple of minutes before Aunt Maya and Kelly emerged from the kitchen to start putting dinner on the table. The twins had indeed finished setting the table, and Poppy had been setting our own little table with Sprite-sized plates, cups, and silverware that she had made for us. Apparently, my girlfriend had been nervously doing things with her special ability to try to keep her mind occupied after I had called.

I felt kind of bad about worrying her like that. I honestly didn’t know how much I was allowed to tell them when I called though, so while I had reported in, I hadn’t given many details. Poppy wasn’t going easy on me either as she gave me a look that was somewhere between a pout, a look of concerned worry, and a stern glare.

“This better be good, Love, you had us worried sick,” she told me, though she sounded relieved that we both had come home unharmed. “I wasn’t sure if I should just hug you or give you a sound tongue-lashing when you arrived.” Then, her cheeks flushed for some reason before she quickly and awkwardly added, “N-not the fun kind.”

It took me a moment to realize what had made her turn bright red and then my own cheeks flushed in response to the picture that was put in my head. “I’m…uhh… sorry, Poppy. I… umm… didn’t know how much I was allowed to tell you when I...”

My apology was immediately cut off by an excited girly squeal, in stereo no less. From the way that the twins were staring in awe with their gazes focused somewhere behind Ainslee, I could only assume that they had spotted Moonlight. I didn’t really have the chance to formally introduce her last night or this morning and since she was still a little worn out from healing Karen earlier, she didn’t have the energy to pull her disappearing trick yet. While they were all seeing her in person for the second time as she stood majestically behind us in the living room, the first time had been very brief.

“What the…” Ainslee managed to get out before her sisters rushed past us and straight for the Unicorn.

“O M G! She’s real! I thought one of you was using magic to prank us last time after she vanished right away!” one of the twins squealed, causing Ainslee to swing around to see what the hell her sisters were getting so excited about.

Poppy and I were dislodged in the process and had to start moving our wings to not fall to the floor and Ainslee just laughed and said smugly. “Lily wouldn’t do that to us. Of course, Moonlight is real.”

This was funny coming from the girl who couldn’t stop staring at Moonlight after she appeared to heal Karen. After Karen was healed and Moonlight was resting, she kept sneaking awed glances until she and Karen were dragged off for testing. I made sure that my bestie knew it too as I teased, “You took it so much better of course. Moonlight can’t disappear right now, girls, she needs some rest, so you can probably spend some time with her this time.”

“Hey, what’s all the noise about out here?” Kelly asked as she and Aunt Maya came out of the kitchen. Then she saw the twins fawning over my Unicorn pal and gently stroking her mane as they introduced themselves and smiled. “Ah, I see you’ve finally met Moonlight for more than, like, two seconds.”

Aunt Maya was staring but quickly managed to shake it off. “Now that I’m getting a good look at her, she is very lovely. You had all best get washed up for dinner though. Girls, you can get to know Moonlight later. Does she need to eat, Lily?”

I turned on my voice projection app and replied, “No, Aunt Maya, she ate earlier. She probably would have gone all ghostly by now if she wasn’t so tired.” Then to the Unicorn in question, I inquired, “Is there anywhere you would prefer to rest? The backyard seems to have plenty of space.”

-The backyard will be fine,- Moonlight agreed. -I suppose I can spend some time with these girls later if they bring me some apples.-

I gave her a mental grin, pleased to see that she was trying to interact with people I considered family, though it probably helped that the twins knew to be gentle with her despite their excitement. They also weren’t little kids anymore, no matter how much I wanted to think of them that way. Then I passed on her message. “Maybe the twins can bring her some apples a little later, they’re her favorite. She’ll just be resting in the backyard for a bit.”

Soon, everyone was seated at the table, with Poppy and I at our little table on top so we could be part of any conversations with our voice projection apps. We all had full plates bearing our dinners. Kelly and Aunt Maya had split the cooking, and we were looking at a spread of ham, mashed potatoes, corn, fresh-baked bread, and cherry pie for dessert. Poppy and I both currently had cups of the flower nectar that I had brought home with a Sprite-sized plate containing a small piece of thinly sliced ham, a kernel of corn, a small glop of mashed potatoes, and a little chunk of bread.

It all tasted really good, and we were gathered as a family, reminding me of simpler times before that Incursion had changed all of our lives. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before Ainslee and I had to come through on our promise to explain things as Aunt Maya looked pointedly at the military fatigues her eldest daughter was wearing and said, “Well, that is definitely not the outfit you left the house in, Ainslee. Lily didn’t tell us much on the phone, so do you girls want to explain what happened now?”

It may have been phrased as a question, but her tone said that we would not be getting out of giving this explanation any longer. I could hear Ainslee mutter, “That was my favorite dress too,” before we gazed at one another to see who would take the lead on this. She had been offered the military garments during her testing since her dress had been too badly damaged to keep wearing with half of the torso material gone, and her undergarments had apparently taken some damage from the acidic properties of Karen’s magical blast as well.

Finally, Ainslee nodded at me, took a deep breath, and began to explain how Terry Lundburg had seen her while we were walking after leaving the greenhouse, followed us, and tried to kill her from behind with his special ability before I stopped the ice he had created for the purpose. From there we both chipped in as we went back and forth while telling everyone about the fight in as great detail as we could remember. We had to stop and elaborate several times, such as when practically everyone started freaking out when I mentioned that Karen’s beam had put a huge hole through Ainslee’s torso.

Yeah, that kind of got everyone talking over one another as they all wanted to know if Ainslee was okay. Aunt Maya was grumbling about how that bastard of a Frost Giant should have been behind bars by now, the twins were wide-eyed with concern for their sister, and Kelly looked like she wanted to hit something, most likely Karen. Even Poppy seemed pissed, but that was likely because it was Karen threatening me that caused Ainslee to lose it and attack in the first place.

Most of them were properly relieved once Ainslee told them that she had been able to regenerate by feeding on Karen. She assured them that not only did she get fully healed, but she felt full for the first time since she started feeling the Thirst, and she didn’t even kill Karen by doing so. The bit about her cutting off her arm while using her new special ability caused eyes to widen further and earned a concerned look from Aunt Maya. I figured she was probably worried about how Ainslee might be handling that.

With all the stops and starts to explain things, it took almost an hour before we finally finished explaining the attack and the whole courtroom thing with the leaders of the Vanguard. Dinner and dessert were both long finished by the time Ainslee finished telling everyone about what she had found out during her testing. Then it was my turn to pick things up as I told them all about my talk with Vice-Commander Carpenter.

“At least that big blue asshole is finally getting what he deserves,” one of the twins muttered darkly, her arms crossed and a grimace on her face once I had finished explaining things.

“Language, Selina,” Aunt Maya scolded. Then she turned her attention upon me with a concerned look on her face. “I’m glad that you girls will be able to stick together and watch one another’s backs once you start classes and training at the university. However, I am not certain that having this Karen girl working so closely with you is a good idea. From what you said, she could have killed Ainslee if she didn’t have her regeneration, what’s to stop her from just shooting one of you in the back?”

Honestly, I had similar concerns, even though Vice-Commander Carpenter had explained her reasoning and such. I sighed before replying, “It’s not like they’re giving me much choice. Vice-Commander Carpenter looked through Karen’s mind very carefully during the trial though. She only thought that Terry was going to mess with Ainslee and that was all she wanted to do. She was trying to be intimidating and only actively used her ability because she was panicking when Ainslee suddenly rushed her with that fuck-off plasma sword.”

That earned me a frown and a stern, “Language, Lily. Are you sure that you can all trust this girl?”

“No, I’m not,” I said with another sigh. “Vice-Commander Carpenter seems sure that she won’t do anything and believes that she just needs a positive influence and maybe some friends or comrades that aren’t so toxic. I can even kind of see that too. Okay, yeah, she’s a total tsundere, but I don’t think she’s really a terrible person under that prickly exterior.”

“You’re not making me feel very safe, Sis, and I’m supposed to be invulnerable. I’m not sure I want to test that against what sounds like a really nasty ability,” my sister remarked with a frown.

“I’m kinda with Lily on this,” Ainslee spoke up after a brief silence. “Yeah, she’s a prickly bitch, but that’s understandable since I did cut her arm off and feed on her. Honestly, I think she’s just acting tough because she’s scared, and that totally makes sense in her situation too. I’m not gonna treat her like we’re besties right away, but I’ll give her a chance and hope she gives me one too. I… know what it’s like for people to look at me like I’m a monster and not see the person inside.”

Both twins hurried to wrap their arms around their sister and consoled her and their mother sighed. “I’m just worried about your safety, girls. We just got you and Kelly back in our lives, Lily, and it sounds like we almost lost Ainslee today because of this girl.”

“I know, Aunt Maya. I’ll be careful,” I promised, “but Vice-Commander Carpenter seems to truly believe that Karen isn’t as bad as she makes herself look on the surface after going through her mind. The Vanguard will be monitoring her through her tracking implant too, just to make sure that she’s not doing anything or associating with people she shouldn’t. They’ll be giving me an app to monitor her implant too so I can keep track of her as her commanding officer, and if she does turn on us for some reason then I can use that app to activate the implant’s taser function and bring her down fast. I’m not going to jump the gun on that though unless it seems she’s a present danger. We need to give her a chance to prove herself.”

Aunt Maya didn’t seem happy, but she nodded and said, “As long as you’re taking precautions. Don’t hesitate to do what you have to if any of you are in danger though.”

“If you and Ainslee are willing to give her a chance, I guess that I will too, Love,” Poppy offered.

That only left my sister since Moonlight thought we should give Karen a chance, though she too would be watching her. Finally, Kelly groaned and muttered, “Fine. We’ll give Ainslee’s new tsundere juice box a fair chance. I’ll be watching her though.”

Yeah, Kelly wasn’t happy about his, that much was apparent from how she left for the kitchen to start taking care of the dinner dishes and blow off some steam. She had gotten pretty worked up over my description of Ainslee’s injury when we were explaining what happened. I knew that she would keep her word and give Karen a fair chance though, even if she watched her like a hawk.

Aunt Maya kicked her out of the kitchen before long though, insisting that we should all just try and relax and take our minds off things. So, while the twins went out to the backyard, armed with apples, to try and woo Moonlight into being friendly, Ainslee and Kelly decided that we should all curl up on the couch and cue up a movie to watch. Soon, the pair were armed with a bowl of popcorn and some drinks and sat side by side on the couch while we watched a movie.

I wasn’t sure what movie we were watching, but then I was a bit preoccupied with snuggling with Poppy in the warmth of one of Kelly’s tails while we had a very intense snogging session. I did have to get up to use the little Sprite’s room at one point and before settling back into my sister’s tail to get cozy with my girlfriend again, I noticed that Ainslee and Kelly were sitting very close together. I was pretty sure that they weren’t paying much attention to the movie either with the way that they kept stealing glances at one another.

I zipped between their heads, giggling as I said, “Geeze, will you two just kiss already? You’ve been making bedroom eyes at each other since we all got reintroduced last night.”

They both turned bright red, but I didn’t stick around to see if they would go for it or not. That was between the two of them. Instead, I flitted back to join Poppy in my sister’s tail and continue our make-out session. It was so damn cozy, warm, and pleasant just kissing and snuggling Poppy there that before long we both drifted off to sleep.