Unwrapping Up

Several minutes of well-earned rest and one wardrobe change later, the Barrier finally released. John, Moira, and Kim stood together, their demeanor noticeably different than it was only hours before.

"Well, this has been a productive day so far... and certainly an entertaining one," Kim mused, smiling broadly as she sashayed toward the door. "I look forward to doing this again sometime soon. I hope I won't have to wait a year before the next visit, though..."

Kim walked away without waiting for a response, leaving John to wonder which part of their afternoon Kim had been referring to. He and Moira managed to call out their farewells just before the door closed behind her. The silence in the room thickened until John finally decided how to ask the question now stuck in his mind.

"So, that was unexpected." John chuckled. "How long have you and Kim been... getting along like that?"

"It was... something of an accident," Moira admitted. She had regained some of her usual composure, but still blushed as she spoke. "We were both tense from our duties, and the Northern Ashes were beginning to make themselves known as a larger threat. We began training together after our meetings. One day, tensions and anxieties were running higher than usual. I pushed myself too far, used the Blessing too much. Kim noticed my discomfort, began teasing me about it, pushing my buttons. I'm still not quite sure how it happened. One moment I was about to draw back and punch her, the next we were..."

Moira trailed off, leaving the rest to John's imagination, which was more than happy to run wild with the scene. He did his best to tune out the delicious images in his mind while responding.

“Ah, well, I’m… glad that you had someone around to help you, honestly,” John admitted. “I mean, what just happened and how sexy that was aside, it’s nice to see you and Kim getting along a little better. At least I think you are. And I’m glad you had someone around while I was gone.”

“It is a bit of an unusual situation, but I will admit it has made things a bit more bearable,” Moira said with a soft sigh. “I’m glad to have you back all the same. Though I apologize for not bringing this up beforehand. I had assumed that Kim would not be so bold with you around, but I didn’t realize you two had also…”

“Ah, yeah, that was back when we first started training together. After our little fight about how hard she was pushing herself, she apologized and explained a little bit about her past. She told me why she’s always going so over the top with training, and why she was so eager when she heard what training with me could be like. We trained together again to prove there were no hard feelings and I ended up getting some Elven Wine as a reward for finishing a dungeon. We drank it together to celebrate, and… well, you know how fast she likes to accelerate things.”

An awkward stammer from Moira was enough to agree with John, before she managed to eke out a more proper response.

“Y-yes, I suppose. I’m glad that something like this didn’t bother you, John. I know you have your own little…” Moira trailed off, trying to find the right words, seemingly struggling for a descriptor of his lovers that wasn't too casual or dismissive, but also didn't place them higher in importance than Moira felt herself to be. Eventually she sighed and smiled. "I know you have your own wonderful companions, but I never properly told you about my training with Kim, and… what that entailed. I should have done so, even knowing you would not likely object to such things, but there was so much going on, and- and we just had that big talk about waiting for you, and then Kim elevated everything like this, I just-”

“You’re cute when you’re flustered,” John said, brushing his fingers along Moira’s cheek. The startled and suddenly stupefied look he got from Moira was so endearing, John could’ve left it at that, but he continued so as to properly reassure her, “Moira, I was gone for a year, and we weren’t even a proper… well, whatever we are now that we’ve properly expressed ourselves. You don’t owe me an explanation for anything you did during that year. Honestly, if you want to keep hooking up with Kim, I don’t-”

“I-it’s not the same as hooking up!” Moira objected, a faint squeak coming to her voice as she protested John’s choice of words. “This was merely a way for two tense leaders to… release some of that tension together. Particularly with the burden this Blessing places on me.”

“Well, if you and Kim continue to release some tension together,” John said, emphasizing her words as he repeated them, “I have no problem with that. Not that I minded being included, either.”

Moira scowled at him, though in a way so playful and adorable he could hardly bear it. She nearly tucked her chin into her shoulder as she mumbled out a few more choice words.

“Well, my reputation and stature being nearly as bruised as my body now… did you have anything else you needed, or may I return to my duties?”

“Ah…”

John trailed off, biting his lip in a bit of uncertainty. He’d had one last thing planned before returning to his world, but he hadn’t expected to bring it up amid such sensitive topics.

“Hm?” Moira perked up, sensing something amiss in the way John’s expression changed. “Was there something bothering you, John?”

“Moira… I need to know something. Since a year ago, when you took Arista captive… who took over the Springfield mercenaries?”

“How’s she doing?”

“Her? Great. The other recruits? Actually, believe it or not, they’re doing better than they were an hour ago. Still a bunch of useless wankers, though.”

John quirked an eyebrow at the chaotic scene before him. Seven Order trainees were all chasing Maera around the courtyard, apparently attempting to grab onto the nimble Neko and restrain her. It was going about as well as expected, considering how much difficulty John had in wrangling even the kittens if they got particularly rambunctious. Maera was treating it all like a game of tag, one she was exceptionally talented at, weaving in between the grasping hands of the recruits and always managing to stay just out of reach. Even when they surrounded her, she would simply bound away, leaping across their shoulders or nearby training dummies and barricades to make distance again.

“What’s the, ah, purpose of this training?” John asked, fighting the urge to giggle at the display. Maera nimbly dipped out of the way of an incoming charge, causing two of the trainees to crash their shoulders into one another hard enough to fill the courtyard with the sound of their rattling armor. They barely had the strength to pull themselves apart; John wasn’t sure exactly how long this had been going on for, but all of the recruits were clearly exhausted.

“Besides my amusement?” Glenna snorted, rolling her eyes. “They need stamina work, agility work, coordination, cooperation… they’ve never done something like this before, so I’m letting them fumble around for a bit before I give them an earful and tell them all the ways they’ve fucked up. But no, if you were wondering, I don’t need them to become experts at cat-wrangling, but they’re putting a lot more effort into this than they would be running laps or doing agility courses.”

John gave a slight sideways nod in consideration. It made some sense – though admittedly it also made John extremely grateful to be able to train by fighting. It was a bit riskier, but it didn’t involve making a complete fool out of himself while an admittedly beautiful instructor berated him…

“Don’t worry, by the way. I haven’t just been using her as a tool – taught her plenty more about holy magic while she was here, and even got some combat training in. She’s come a long way since I first started instructing her, but I suppose after so much time, I shouldn’t be surprised. Thank you again for bringing her by. With everything going on, I didn’t actually expect you to find the time,” Glenna admitted.

“It worked out better than I expected; had quite a productive day, overall. Besides, I should be thanking you – Maera loves the armor you made for her, and she’s adapted her whole fighting style with the magic you taught her. I barely know anything about learning and teaching spells with the way my abilities work,” John admitted sheepishly.

“Don’t need to, not with the way you fight,” Glenna said, punching John’s shoulder affectionately before turning her gaze back to the scene before them. “Alright, worms, back in line! Couldn’t even lay a hand on her, eh? Thought seeing a pretty woman would be enough to get you wastes of time grabbing properly, but I guess I was wrong! Line up by the dummies, we’re back to sword drills until I’m confident you lot can at least hang on to your blades without letting them slip away too!”

While Glenna marched off to join the recruits, Maera looked somewhat sad for a moment as her game came to an end. By the time she bounded over to John, though, she was back to her usual, bubbly self.

“Myaster, Myaera had lotsa fun! Got real strong, too. Can we play when we get back?” Maera asked, bouncing on her heels excitedly.

“We were off playing our own games all day; I think you’d better play with the kittens… or maybe Lerianna,” John said, giving Maera a playful pat on the head as she started pouting. “Let’s go find her and you can ask her if she feels like playing.”

“Aww, fine, but I gotta burn off all this energy somehow,” Maera said, voice half threatening and half teasing as she crossed her arms and gave John a very pointed look.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” John replied, pivoting toward the door with a final wave to Glenna, not sure if the instructor actually caught it while watching over her recruits. “Glenna told me that you did a very good job today, Maera. How do you think it went?”

“It was fun! Learned how to punch really hard,” Maera said, jabbing her fists in the air a few times as she followed John out into the hall. “Myaera doesn’t really understand the stuff that Glenna goes on about sometimes, like when she talks about ‘mana densertty’ and stuff, but Myaera tries anyway, and the nice lady says she’s a natural at controlling this kinda stuff. Glenna says Myaera can release lots of mana at once, and hits like a truck! What’s a truck?”

“We can go over that later,” John mused, curious just how much of a ‘natural’ Maera really was. Did Glenna mean that she was good at offensive magic, or that she was particularly good at the Order’s brand of holy magic for some reason? John made a mental note to check in with her about that next time she wasn’t so busy.

“Always later. Later play, later talk, what we do now?” Maera said, huffing in mild annoyance.

“Right now, we go see what exactly Tricia managed to cook up for Lerianna. Hopefully whatever it is makes her happy, she seemed pretty excited. Would you like to come with me, or would you rather have me send you back to join the others?”

“Nyaa, can Myaera go home? Maybe kittens want to play,” Maera said excitedly.

“Alright, I’ll see you soon,” John promised, just before warping the eager Neko away. He smiled ruefully at the thought of what he was unleashing on his home – it seemed like the time with Glenna had only amplified Maera’s energy, not used it up…

John didn’t waste any time in his trip to the lab, picking up his pace now that he was alone. Even with the occasional cook or soldier marching through the halls, John never felt lonelier than when he didn’t have the sound of at least one pair of feet trailing behind him. Especially when he was back in the old world… John shook himself lightly as he caught himself staring out the windows warily, as if expecting them to burst inward at any moment.

”Enough of that. This world is my home, and I want to fix it. Can’t be so on edge the whole time I’m here. I’ll either stop coming or I’ll have an aneurysm...”

Thankfully the lab door was ahead of him in no time, and the sound of John’s fist rapping against the wood was a welcome substitute for his creations’ footsteps, particularly with a rather buxom one waiting on the other side. To John’s delight, it was actually Lerianna who opened the door. She was smiling at first, though she quirked up an eyebrow and gave John a playfully neutral look once she opened the door. Even then, though, she couldn’t hide the slightest of smirks.

"Geez, about time. Hurry up and get in here," Lerianna said, quickly opening the door for him. Despite her words, something seemed different about Lerianna - and John didn't miss the lit-up piece of tech now resting on the right side of her skull, sticking out from under her silver locks. How it was attached, John wasn't entirely sure, but he tried not to stare too closely as he walked past her and into the lab.

“So, how did the experiment go? I hope whatever you two have been working on was a success,” John noted as he sauntered inside, eyes casually glancing around to see if he could catch some hint as to what had been going on. There was virtually nothing to give it away, though – the only thing that was notable in the lab were the various monitors surrounding Tricia, printing readouts John couldn’t understand at a speed even he had a hard time processing.

“Remains to be seen,” Tricia said without turning away from her monitors. “We have yet to conduct proper field testing.”

“What kind of field testing does it need?” John asked. The question was innocent enough, yet it only seemed to annoy Lerianna, one of her long ears twitching as she glared at him.

"N-not important, just shut up and stand there!" Lerianna said, huffing as she walked up to John and braced herself. She was standing so tensely, John worried he was about to get kicked again.

"Tricia, would you care to explain? Not that I don't trust you two, but I'd at least like to know what I'm being volun-"

John's words stopped out of shock, lips fluttering awkwardly for a moment as Lerianna's met his own. The kiss was brief and stiff - Lerianna's lips seemed to strike, rather than embrace him. Still, the press of her caramel skin to his was unexpected and pleasant enough that he scarcely noticed the awkwardness.

Lerianna pulled back after just a moment or two, breaking the kiss, but not leaning too far away just yet. Her eyes were wide, her pupils constricted slightly, and a flabbergasted grin was breaking quickly across her face. Before John could ask either of them to explain what was happening, Lerianna closed the distance again. She was just as aggressive as before, but this time her lips lingered. John wasn't sure exactly what was happening and didn't imagine that pushing things further would endear the sexy rabbit to him, but the kiss itself was still enjoyable.

Lerianna's lips were a bit stiffer, and perhaps a bit less practiced, than most of his lovers’, but the eager way she melded them into his own set a spark blazing in John's chest. When Lerianna pulled back, she did so with a look of astonished joy.

"It... it worked! I barely felt a thing!" Leanna exclaimed, touching her lips almost reverentially.

"Not the ideal compliment to get after a kiss, I have to admit." John chuckled, honestly too shocked to feel hurt. "So, just a wild guess, but that thing on her ear is the device you were talking about? The one that’s based off of the tech in your suit?"

"An astute observation," Tricia praised, finally turning away from the vital monitors. "Though the scope of this device is far narrower and only targeted to one particular emotion, as well as the hormones responsible. Lerianna, would you mind giving the target drone a test strike now?"

"Hell yeah," Lerianna said, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet as she hopped over to one of the drones nearby. This one was outfitted with something that resembled a high-tech speed bag, which Lerianna squared off against before throwing a powerful left hook. The bag bounced loudly for a few moments, then a large reading popped up on the drone’s screen.

47%

"Aw geez, less than half?" Lerianna grumbled.

"We should also do a test at your most stimulated to get a full range of effects," Tricia noted. "Don't worry, I promise if you lose control, I'll have a drone ready to spray you down."

"I-I don’t..." Lerianna stuttered for a moment. Her eyes flickered between Tricia and John, and a slow blush crept across her face. She finally huffed and half-stomped one of her feet in annoyance, but nodded. "Fine, but only for science! And I'm keeping one hand on the dial!"

Lerianna walked over to John again, while tinkering with the device on the side of her head. The green circle of LED lights on the outer rim vanished one bar at a time, until all of them had faded. Lerianna became noticeably more agitated as the device powered down, fidgeting in place and grimacing as she stared John down.

"I-I'm gonna kiss you again," Lerianna said, practically growling the words at him. "But just a little this time! And don't get all handsy!"

"Alright, I won't-" John didn't get his words out before Lerianna jerked forward into him again. She seemed far more hesitant this time, their lips barely touching at first, and she did start to pull back after a brief moment.

"A-ahh..." Lerianna let just enough room pass between their lips for that shuddering moan to escape. In that moment John got a good look at her eyes - they were very different than after the first kiss. Her pupils were dilated, her cheeks flushed, and her breathing was steadily becoming more and more ragged. While John was observing her, Lerianna surged forward as quickly as she had parted, with less aggression, but far more enthusiasm. Her lips seemed to melt into John’s, and it was only a few moments before he felt her tongue sliding against his lips, practically begging for-

"No."

John's hands gripped Lerianna's shoulders as gently as they could, although it took more **** than he was expecting to pry her away. Lerianna had grabbed onto him quite tightly, and seemed to have no intention of letting him go - gone was the grip she'd had on her device, despite her vow to keep a hand at the ready.

Her lips left his with a slight whine, and Lerianna's face changed into a pout as they stared at each other again. "W-why not?" Lerianna asked. It took John a moment to realize he had actually spoken that word - all he had really heard was it echoing in his mind.

"Because you don’t actually want this, you're just horny," John chided.

"But... but don't you want it?" Lerianna whimpered, rubbing her legs together as she tried to press against John again. "Aren't I good enough for you? I've seen how you look at me, you pervert. You know you-"

John was considering whether to adjust Lerianna's device himself, or at least use Siphon on her if he couldn't figure out how, when a jet of water struck Lerianna from the side. Ice cold water, judging by the splashes that landed on John. Lerianna squealed and beat a hasty retreat from the offending drone.

“You were serious about the water?!" John half-shouted, fighting the urge to burst out laughing.

"We needed a secondary security measure. One that wouldn't affect her hormone levels like the suppressor does. As it turns out, even ice water isn't enough to keep her species in line for an extended period of time - but it does give them a few moments of clarity. As you can see, she's almost back to her normal self," Tricia explained. For just a moment, though, John was sure he saw the start of a rather devious grin.

"Okay, okay, I'm fine now!" Lerianna protested, taking a swing at the drone. It gave one last spritz as it darted out of reach.

"Strike the proper drone, please," Tricia instructed, piloting the target back over to the upset rabbit. Lerianna didn't hesitate to throw a frustrated haymaker, one that sent the punching bag bouncing around noticeably louder than before. The drone was actually knocked off balance from the impact, rotating awkwardly as it hovered away while trying to right itself.

"Two-hundred and eighteen percent. It isn't clear if any of that is from the anger as well, but I doubt you're up for more tests."

"Absolutely not! I'm turning this thing back up right now!" Lerianna declared. Her hand twisted and the device lit back up immediately. as the suppressor grew brighter, the flush in Lerianna's cheeks faded, until only moderate annoyance could be read on her face.

“Well, then based on the tests we’ve conducted, I think it’s safe to declare this device optimally functional,” Tricia noted, the vital monitors disappearing altogether as she stood up. “We can perform software updates as needed via the same connection my drones use to communicate with John. Given the inaccessible nature of John’s world, it will be difficult to perform hardware repairs or adjustments on a whim, so try to keep it protected as best as you can in combat… although combat is probably the least problematic place for it to fail.”

“Y-yeah, I get it. I’ll take good care of it,” Lerianna said, her breathing already nearly back to normal. She looked over to John, clearly embarrassed but now without so much reservation. “Can you send me back home, now?”

“Sure thing,” John said, giving her a nod. Lerianna warped away to his world, only the softest smile touching her lips before she vanished.

“If she expresses any anger over the second test, I apologize. I did have safety measures in place, and I presumed you would use your abilities to nullify her lust if necessary in addition, but I did not accurately predict how much of an effect letting her guard down would have on her,” Tricia said contemplatively. John could see that one of the drones behind her was furiously typing away, taking down some thoughts on Lerianna’s condition that Tricia must have been conveying to it through the link even as she was speaking to him. “I am glad I decided to err on the side of the device being more powerful than necessary. It must take a tremendous amount of willpower for her to merely exist like that if giving in for a moment can reduce her to such a libidinous state so quickly.”

“Well, thank you for all the help, Tricia. I’m sure Lerianna appreciates it more than you can imagine. I’m sure she’ll tell you as much when she’s… less embarrassed.”

“No, thank you for allowing me the chance to put some of this technology to good use,” Tricia said as she joined John at his side. “It was a refreshing change of pace to be the one giving someone else hope. And I’m glad that all this emotion and hormone suppressing technology has a purpose aside from keeping me in check.”

“Well, with any luck, you won’t need them for much longer… I don’t suppose any of the craziness around here has given you any new eyes to peek out of?” John asked, trying to keep his tone light despite the subject.

“Not since the last, I’m afraid. Now that you’re back, who knows? I’d gone nearly two decades without progress, and then you show up, and…” Tricia’s suit gave a soft beep, stifling the smirk that had almost fully formed. “As I said, and am sure I will say again, you have given me a great deal of hope, John Newman. Not the least of which is your reckless but admirable efforts to keep this place safe. I’m just glad I could give some small part of that back.”

“Things are a bit insane. I guess they always are, or so it seems, but… don’t ever think I’ve forgotten you, Tricia. I’ll get you out of that suit one day, even if I end up having to pry it off you myself.” John let a beat pass, then chuckled awkwardly. “I… didn’t mean it that way.”

“If you’re the one to help me achieve what nearly two decades of constant research, self-improvement, and psychological innovations could not…” Tricia began, and this time even the persistent pinging of her suit was unable to fully stop the chuckle that made its way into her voice.