A Moment Like This

John worked well into the morning, though he had finished with most of the Crafting not long after Tricia’s call. Once the cabinets were set up, John started putting his materials to proper use. He was still rather short on ingredients for more complicated potions, but he didn’t have the equipment needed for most of those anyway.

The biggest piece he was able to get working was an infusion table, and all of his recipes called for letting the brews simmer for a long time, sometimes even days, while mana was slowly added to the potion rather than being plopped in all at once via Arcane Powder or any of a dozen other mana-heavy ingredients.

Right now John had five medium-sized vials sitting on there, at each of the outer vertices of a pentagram, with one of his Mana Gems in the center, slowly readying up five slightly different versions of a Draught of Unholy Resistance. He could see a timer hovering above each of the vials, all within a few seconds of each other, but when the sun started to shine over the horizon, they still had several hours to go, and the mana gem was only a little dimmer than when it started.

“Damn, I really should have gotten an earlier start on this stuff, I guess. I could make another table, but that’d be a lot of resources to waste. Maybe I can get by if I branch out my recipes a little more and try to keep all of the equipment going twenty-four seven until the war. At the very least, I’m gonna need to get Yvara in here soon.”

Aside from the draughts, John had managed a handful of elixirs, which seemed to be mostly status-ailment curing concoctions, a half-dozen different kinds of flasks, which he found quickly were the name of a potion meant to be thrown, not only the name of the glass containers for that variety, and two different oils, one that enchanted a weapon with fire damage and one that enchanted it with holy. Frustratingly, all of them had their own quality ratings (of which the best he had done currently seemed to be “Pleasant”) despite their different effects and brewing requirements, and John had learned relatively little about any of them.

John had briefly tried a few different versions of his Potion of Minor Strength, but the most he could do was bump its quality up from (Crude) to (Below Average), and that only increased the duration by fifteen minutes. Which wasn’t so bad in itself, but it required John to manually stir the potion the whole time at a relatively precise speed, massively slowing down the rate he could produce them. Not only would he have to consider alternate solutions to make real use of that knowledge, but he’d have to do further dives into the alchemy texts to find out what else he needed to do to push the quality even further.

But that would have to wait for another day. John was sure the others would be up soon, and he’d sooner find a way to kick his own ass than to miss Lerianna’s day after he’d offered her one. Sure enough, by the time John left the newly finished alchemy lab behind and headed for the house, he could already see flickers of movement in the windows. All it took to gather the lot of them together was to step into the kitchen and begin cooking up breakfast – the smell took care of the rest. Soon everyone was awake and gathered around the dining room table, eagerly passing around piping hot pancakes and bacon.

Well, perhaps not everyone.

A certain long-eared bunnygirl was very distinctly absent, something that even the others seemed to notice when the meal was half-gone and she still hadn’t appeared. John got a few looks cast his way, but he just shrugged them off and gave a quick thumbs up for reassurances. He didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but he had no problem with giving her the time she’d asked for. Cooking and eating took enough time and focus that it wasn’t hard to distract himself, anyway.

“Should I take something up to Lerianna’s room, Father?” Sophia offered as she was helping to gather up the plates, setting a large tray of untouched food aside.

“No, that’s alright, I will. Lerianna said she had something she wanted to do with me today, so I should probably go see what that was all about. Thank you for gathering it all together though; I’ll be sure to tell her you were thinking of her.”

“I see. Will you not be visiting Springfield today, then?”

“Nah. Oh, but I did get a connection set up so that I can call and get internet from here now. I think I’m going to move my computer into one of the spare rooms and show everyone how to use it later – that way you all have some way to access the old world besides going through me. I’ll give everyone a rundown on how to use the computer after I figure out where I’m gonna put it.”

“And after I delete my little collection on there so nobody goes snooping through my fetishes...”

“What can we use this ‘computer’ for?” Sophia strode up beside John with another armful of dishes, the last of them, and started helping him scrub them clean together as they chatted.

“A little bit of everything. Mostly information, things you wouldn’t be able to find out on your own. Lots of entertainment too. But we’ll go over all that whenever it’s set up so you can all use it without having to break down my door.”

“I would like to think the door would be unlocked for us. I did not realize our presence bothered you so much.”

“What? Oh, I mean, you’re always-”

John glanced over to Sophia and immediately broke into a smile when he saw the matching grin on her face – a wry, even playful grin.

“Not bad. You’re getting better at teasing. Now, if I could just teach you how to sound playful, so I don’t have a heart attack thinking you’re actually hurt.” John let a chuckle slip, and found himself surprised even further when Sophia leaned over and wrapped an arm around his waist, pulling him into a tight side-hug.

“Father, so long as you remain the man I swore to follow, you could never hurt me. All I- ah, forgive me. I should return to the task.”

Sophia’s hand twitched and tightened on John for an instant, then was gone as she took a step away and returned to the dishes. John stayed frozen for a moment, flicking his eyes toward the floor, surprised at how much distance she’d put between them suddenly.

“It’s fine,” John said cautiously. “You’re helping me out, and I didn’t even ask for it – I don’t mind if you want to talk. And I definitely don’t mind if you want to hug me. It’s nice when you show affection, Sophia. I like seeing you open up.”

“Ah? W-well, perhaps…” Sophia lingered on the last syllable, then seemed to think better of her next word as it was still being formed, “...later. For now, let’s get these finished so that you may bring Lerianna her food. It is your job to ensure that the entire flock is fed, after all.”

John’s eyes fell to the silverware in his hand, and he spent a little longer than strictly necessary scrubbing at it while he replayed that sentence in his head. If he hadn’t known anything about Sophia, it might have sounded accusatory, as if he weren’t fulfilling the very job he was speaking of. But even knowing beyond a doubt that it held another meaning, he still couldn’t quite piece together why she had emphasized it like that.

“Sophia, we should set aside part of a day and have a talk,” John finally said, figuring that being direct was the best way to handle things with the very blunt harpy. He realized his mistake when Sophia’s fingers squeezed down on the plate she was holding so tightly John could clearly see the whites of her knuckles – it was a miracle the ceramic didn’t snap, even with the enchantments Yvara had added to all their dishware.

“A talk about what, Father?” Sophia asked, a very **** tone of normality flowing from her as she resumed the cleaning.

“Nothing dire. Just… you’ve been taking very good care of me, Sophia. I want to make sure that you’re taken care of as well. We used your day for training, but you used it to teach me a lesson as much as anything you really wanted to do. I want to know if there’s anything I can do for you, anything I can give you, anything I can- well, I just want to make sure you have everything you want before the month is up,” John finally said, giving a casual shrug.

“I have everything that I could possibly ask of you, Father. You are all I need.”

John gave Sophia a grateful smile, but he didn’t miss the way she was looking at him when she spoke. John thought about saying more, but he knew they weren’t alone. The kittens were still traipsing about the dining room, playing between the scattered chairs and only very slowly making their way toward the living room. A few of the others were gathered near enough in the living room to easily overhear their conversation if they so chose, though he doubted they were actively listening.

“Well, as long as you’re sure.” John gave an easygoing shrug, and they finished the last few dishes in silence. “Thanks again. I’ll go take Lerianna her food now.”

“Of course, Father.” Sophia’s head bow was a little lower than usual, her hand clenched a little tighter, and she kept her eyes down long after John had turned away. He noticed because she was still standing there when he turned through the doorway, leaning up against the counter with her whole body looking tense.

“Everything you could ask for, my ass,” John noted. “I don’t know what’s up with her, but now that I’ve seen it, I can’t stop seeing it. If it’s something that Sophia doesn’t want to talk about, though...”

The implications were more than a little troubling, but Sophia was so blunt and forward most of the time that John knew there must be a good reason for whatever she was covering up. Sophia might have been the type to push herself through injuries that should’ve laid another person out on the ground, but aside from some bravado issues…

“Whatever it is, if she doesn’t want to talk to me about it openly, I’m definitely not going to start prying while everyone else is around. I’ll have to have a chat with her soon, though.”

John was halfway to the stairs when he heard one of the doors upstairs open and close, then another, just a few feet away. The noise didn’t mean much to him until he ascended the stairs and noticed a small cloud of steam gently drifting out into the hall,

“Must have been Lerianna. Nobody else had enough time to get a whole shower in. But why was she showering during breakfast?” John strode over to Lerianna’s door and balanced the tray in one hand while knocking gently with the other.

“Hey, you missed breakfast. I saved some for you, though! Still warm, if you’re hungry.”

“Okay! Um, can you come back in a few minutes? I just showered.”

“I know, I saw the door was open. I’ll leave it outside your door, I just-”

“N-no, I don’t care about the food, just… come back in a few minutes, alright?”

“...Okay?” John mumbled, not sure if he was even loud enough for her to hear. He stored the food away in his inventory so that it would at least stay warm, hesitated a moment longer, then gave a shrug no one could see and turned back toward his room.

“Is it something in the air? Maybe everyone is just weird today.” John thought to himself, rolling his eyes. “Well, I can always move the computer over while I’m waiting, I guess. I should set a Build order to expand the house, too. I’m not planning on any new additions, but then again, I wasn’t planning on any when I headed west either, and I wound up with three since then…”

With a combination of manual cable management and quick inventory swaps, it didn’t take John more than five minutes to set up not only his PC, but a Build add-on to the house that would give them another four bedrooms, two on each floor. Thankfully the Build silhouette didn’t break down the walls when it went up – he’d have to Salvage them later, but that was much better than having a giant hole in their house until it finished, not to mention keeping the kittens from swarming the hall at all hours of the day to watch the process.

Once he’d finished with the chores, John goofed around on his phone for a few minutes to give Lerianna some more time.

“When was the last time I just… sat down, head empty, and browsed?” John thought as he brushed past feeds too mindless to do more than skim. “Guess doomscrolling doesn’t really hold the same appeal these days. Kinda nostalgic, though. Still have all the old bookmarks too...”

John waited until it had been a full fifteen minutes before he finally returned to the door, leaning in closely.

“Hey, Lerianna, are you, err, ready yet?” John asked uncertainly as he tapped the door, still not really sure what Lerianna had needed to prepare anyway.

There was a long pause this time, but John could hear the sounds of something rustling around occasionally, only furthering his curiosity at what could be going on inside. Finally, after almost a full minute, Lerianna's voice tiptoed its way to him. The sound was very unlike Lerianna – it was hesitant, almost meek, and her voice quivered with each word.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m as ready as I'll ever be, I guess. Come on in."

"What the heck does that mean?"

John opened the door with one eyebrow already quirked upward, prepared to be caught off-guard by whatever was awaiting him inside. In fact, he was looking so hard for something unusual that his eyes scanned the room twice without stopping before he noticed the twitching bunny ears sticking out from under the blankets.

"Oh. Lerianna, the way you were talking earlier, I thought you came up with something crazy.”

“Maybe I did,” Lerianna said, her voice muffled. She had the covers pulled all the way up to her nose, like a frightened child trying to ward off the sounds of thunder on a stormy night. “Now close the damn door. And lock it.”

“Okay, okay,” John said, giving her a casual smile as he acquiesced. “You know, if you wanted more cuddling, you could have asked.”

“John, I’m not asking you for that!” Lerianna huffed, her eyebrows furrowing as she glared at him.

“I know, I know. I mean, I don’t exactly know why making a ‘day’ out of it makes you feel better, but it’s not like I mind. Are we testing anything this time?”

“You’re misunderstanding, John!”

“Am I? You asked for a day, you’re waiting for me in your room, you look incredibly embarrassed,” John pointed out, resisting the urge to chuckle. He enjoyed teasing the poor bunnygirl, but he didn’t want to make her truly uncomfortable – just a little **** for her always treating him like a degenerate. “Tell me, what exactly makes this time so-”

The sound of a sheet being tossed aside and crinkling up atop itself filled the silence left by John’s words, followed shortly by the sound of heels tapping on the floor, wobbling, then steadying at last. Lerianna had slid her legs off the bed and taken a moment to balance herself before pushing up, giving John an even better look at what had been uncovered.

Gone was Lerianna’s skintight leotard, and as little as that left to the imagination in many ways, the outfit she stood before John in did so much more. The red lace, so thin in some places that it barely counted as decorative, didn’t so much hint at Lerianna’s figure as it leaned in close and whispered sweet secrets of the flesh. It stood out proudly against Lerianna’s cinnamon skin, drawing the eye where it covered, while also highlighting all the many wonderful areas it distinctly did not cover.

The top was a combination bra and decorative corset that was thick at the straps and shoulders, and seemed to compensate for that by thinning out most everywhere else. Her dark pink nipples were clearly visible, both due to the sheer fabric and because they were quite boldly presenting themselves. The bunnygirl’s ample chest was left largely to hang free with relatively little in the way of proper support from the minimal material, just perky enough to keep the shirt taut and pulled high.

Thanks to that, the inverted V-shape of the lower half stayed widely spread, revealing all of her well-chiseled abs that flexed with every step she took toward him. John wasn’t sure if she was nervous enough to be tensing up unconsciously, or if she was doing it intentionally to tease him with the waves and undulations of her stomach, but he didn’t have enough time to linger on the question before his eyes were locked on the pair of panties Lerianna had chosen to go with the outfit.

John had been unaware that so little fabric could hold itself so well against such shredded thighs and well-built glutes, but hold it did, even if John could hear every thread screaming as Lerianna strode up to him. The crimson cloth fully covered her slit, but was nearly translucent above that point, highlighting a well-trimmed bush in a wide patch kept well back from her mound. Three straps secured it in place, hugging tightly to her wide hips and ensuring that John couldn’t get a proper glimpse of Lerianna’s most intimate area – though not for lack of trying in the brief moments he had before she was standing there in front of him.

“I- I am not asking you t-to cuddle me,” Lerianna growled, standing taller than normal on her two-inch heels, with her arms crossed and somehow managing an annoyed glare despite the fact that her face had nearly turned the same color of red as her lingerie. Her lips trembled slightly as she spoke, and her breathing was uneven and came in shuddering gasps, yet her eyes remained completely locked on John’s own, unwavering. Unapologetic.

“...Holy shit,” John whispered, mind unable to reconcile what he was seeing with what he thought he knew. Lerianna let a confident grin zip its way across her lips, and in that moment, the woman he knew seemed to shine through.

“Gonna take that as a compliment. Now get on the fucking bed.”

“Hang on, Lerianna – what are you asking for?”

It felt like such a stupid thing to ask, but given who he was talking to, John didn’t want there to be any doubts. Lerianna seemed to understand his thoughts – she didn’t seem exasperated with him as she so often did, or disappointed. She leaned forward slightly, wobbling on her heels but managing to recover it by gripping John’s shoulders as she touched their foreheads together, met his gaze unflinchingly, and whispered to him.