Sunday

Awareness slowly came to John, and the first thing he noticed was a very warm body that had his left arm in a tight embrace. Another pressed against his right side, leaving him pleasantly pinned down. As he shrugged off the last vestiges of sleep, his eyes shot open when he recalled last night, his head reflexively turning to his left. The room was too dark to see, but a quick check with Arcane Sense confirmed his memory wasn’t some dream.

As if she was able to sense his mystic gaze, Beth snuggled deeper into his shoulder. John let his head fall back on his pillow, Arcane Sense still active, letting him track Senka, Aeolia and Vivian who lay asleep around him, the spirit mirroring Beth's position. Alone in the waking world, John reminisced on how all this had happened.

---

John gave Senka’s vessel a once over after using some of the metal he had to repair it, finding it slightly off-putting that the spirit was completely absent.

‘Well, I guess she’s not entirely gone,’ he thought as he reviewed his remaining mana. After dinner and a pleasant hour of chatting while watching some tv, John retired to his room, both to finally get to repairing some of his gear and to think about the most weighty question Brenda had asked him over dinner.

“You know, it’s been a while since we’ve had a big Sunday supper,” she’d said as they cleaned up after finishing their meal. “Maybe Vivian would like to come over tomorrow?”

Letting out a sigh, he stowed the repaired knife and leaned back in his chair. Having Vivian over for dinner wasn’t what was weighing on him, but the fact that he couldn’t share the experience with Aeolia and Senka increased his sense of guilt over everything he had to hide from his mother.

“Most people hide porn or booze or **** from their parents,” he dryly bemoaned, withdrawing the Mana Cell Battery from his inventory. “I hide that I have magic and two extra girlfriends.”

He idly tapped the mana storage device against his desk as he filled it with most of his remaining mana, getting it to a nice charge of fifty. There was no easy answer to his quandary. Even ignoring the magical nature of his hidden lovers, bringing up that he had what amounted to a harem wasn’t exactly something he could spring on her.

“She gave me a whole speech about being faithful and all that jazz when I told her we had sex ed classes,” he muttered. “Not sure how’d she take me being in a group kind of thing, even if we are all mutual with each other.”

Stowing the battery away, John summoned his phone and opened up his text conversion with Vivian, the last message from the day prior. After a moment looking at the screen, he closed his phone and set it down.

“I can wait until the morning to ask her about it,” John said, turning his attention to his computer. “Probably not a good thing to keep thinking about this heavy stuff and working myself into a mess. Haven’t lived up to my title in a while. Now, what to play?”

After a few minutes of debate, John decided to boot up Skyrim and just wander about. He had started another new playthrough shortly before his birthday and subsequent dropping into the Abyss, so there were still many questlines untapped.

Two hours later, John leaned back in his chair after a tough dragon fight, the monster’s soul flowing into his spellblade Dragonborn.

“That mod wasn’t kidding when it said it’d make dragon fights harder,” he remarked, stretching out his fingers. “Even those new OP spells didn’t make things unbalanced.”

Before he could end his break, he felt the familiar cool sensation of Senka returning to his aura wash over him, followed by a sudden wave of dizziness.

‘Senka?’ he immediately thought, a knot of worry settling in his gut.

‘My apologies, John,’ the shadowy spirit replied, her words slightly slurred. ‘It would seem returning to this state decreases my tolerance for ****. And some of it passes to you. Interesting.’

‘So I take it you girls had a good night?’ John asked.

‘Yes, we did,’ Senka answered in a sultry tone. ‘Techinally, the night’s not done. You need to open your window.’

‘Um, why?’ John inquired.

‘Becasue Aeolia’s going to be flying Beth and Vivian up in a few moments,’ the spirit informed him. ‘I made sure to tell them to wait a few minutes to give me time to tell you.’

John pushed himself out of his chair, wobbling slightly from secondhand intoxication, and hurried over to his window. He threw it open, the air nice and pleasant. Near the corner of his block, he could make out a car that looked like Vivian’s.

Sensing his question before he could formulate it, Senka said, ‘We stopped at the diner first. Cammie offered to drive for us.’

‘Good thinking,’ he thought, peering down for any sign of airborne ladies.

‘They’re going to be invisible,’ Senka pointed out with a giggle.

‘Right. Sorry, guess I’m a bit tipsy,’ John remarked with a grin.

‘In my defense, I did not know I would grow more **** in this state,’ Senka said, giggling slightly. ‘Nor that you would be affected.’

‘Well, let’s not forget it happens for the next time,’ John said, activating Arcane Sense. With a range of only nine meters, John didn’t have the widest view but he had a pretty good idea what path Aeolia would take. Sure enough, he caught her familiar breezy aura, flying towards the window with Beth’s wispy one intermingled.

He backed away from the window, and the small pair flew in, returning to visibility and landing with a lack of Aeolia’s usual grace on his bed.

“John!” Beth loudly exclaimed before Aeolia clamped a hand over her mouth.

“Shhh,” the winged woman hissed into Beth’s ear as they grew to their full height. “Got to keep quiet. Don’t want his mom to hear.”

Beth nodded though Aeolia still kept her hand on the dark haired girl’s mouth and focused on John. “Beth’s a little drunk. So don’t be afraid to shut her up if you need to. I’mma go get Vivi.”

She bounced off the bed, quickly pulled John into a brief, aggressive kiss, then shrank down and flew out the window, fading from view a second later. Beth struggled to get to her feet and John rushed over to make sure she wasn’t about to fall.

His fear proved prophetic and Beth’s foot got tangled in his sheets and she pitched forward. John managed to catch her, his arms wrapping around her protectively as he lowered her feet to the floor.

“You okay?” John asked her softly.

Beth didn’t verbally answer, seemingly taking Aeolia’s warning very seriously. Instead she nodded vigorously and slipped her arms around his midsection, an action that elicited another chuckle from Senka.

‘Feel like I’m missing a joke here,’ John thought.

‘Just something we talked about at the bar,’ Senka said amusedly. ‘We’ll tell you about it once we’re all here.’

John wondered just what they could have talked about that would have led to Senka finding Beth hugging him worth a laugh. As if she could hear his thoughts, Beth tightened her grip around him, giving John a very good feel of her small breasts as they pressed against his side.

A wave of guilt washed through John at the feeling and he began to release Beth from his embrace. She didn’t get the hint and instead let out a displeased sound and only tightened her hold on him.

‘She gets rather clingy when drunk,’ Senka noted. ‘Certainly gave Vivian a hard time when she tried to dance with her.’

Unbidden, John imagined the redhead in his place, only they were more face to face. Or rather, breast to breast. Senka’s peal of laughter rang in his head, meaning he had broadcast that image to her, causing him to flush.

‘Not too far from what happened,’ Senka informed him. Before she could elaborate on that, Aeolia and Vivian flew in, the pair flickering into visibility and landing on his bed before growing to full size.

“Hi, John,” Vivian breathed out as she clambered off the bed, her hair a wild, windswept mess. She swayed towards him, seemingly not caring that Beth was still adhered to his side, and pulled him into a sloppy kiss.

“We’ve got some stuff to talk about,” the redhead said in a singsong voice as she drew back.

Aeolia, who of the physically present seemed the most put together, said quietly, “Might want to step into a Barrier. Unless we want to run the risk of more truths getting out in the open.”

Confused as to what she meant by ‘more truths’, John quickly cast Instant Barrier, pulling everyone into a recreation of his bedroom. He also summoned Senka who materialized next to him and staggered slightly.

“Re-materializing does not seem to affect my level of drunkenness,” the spirit lamented, steadying herself by grabbing John’s shoulder.

“You changed your clothes,” John noted, taking in Senka’s more form fitting attire.

“She looks good, doesn’t she,” Beth broke her silence, her words more slurred than the others.

“Yeah,” John agreed, then turned his attention to Beth. “How much did you have to drink?”

“Two,” Aeolia reported with a grin. “And she didn’t even finish the second. Our Beth here’s a lightweight.”

“Am not,” Beth retorted eloquently. “The first one was really strong.”

“Sounds like you all had fun,” John said, still not sure what was going on. “You said you had something to tell me?”

“Well, Beth does,” Vivian answered with a lopsided grin as she sat down on the bed.

John tilted his head to look down at the intoxicated girl still in his arms. She scrunched her face up as if she was thinking intensely then loosened her grip around his midsection. John expected her to back away but instead one of the petite girl’s freed arms shot up, cupped his head and pulled him down towards her lips.

The suddenness, plus being kissed by a cute girl, locked his brain. Once his mind caught up to reality, he was about to break the kiss when Senka’s thoughts flowed into him.

‘Beth wants to join us,’ the spirit calmly informed him. ‘And Vivian, Aeolia and I have already assented to giving her a chance.’

‘Doesn’t exactly cancel out the sudden blast of guilt I just felt,’ he thought back before focusing his mind on the fact that Beth was kissing him and wanted into their odd relationship. It was slightly off-putting that this was happening so suddenly with the rest of his girlfriends watching, but when a cute girl was kissing you with their permission, one doesn’t pass up the opportunity.

John’s arms snapped around her and he deepened the kiss, drawing out a throaty moan from Beth and a wolf whistle from Aeolia. For a moment, John luxuriated in the feeling of Beth’s lips on his and the way her petite frame molded into his. An errant thought about how most of his lovers were shorter than him popped into his mind, but he banished it.

He could taste what he presumed was **** on her as his tongue probed against her lips and his ardor began to dim. He pulled back, right as Beth opened her mouth.

“I think we should slow things down a bit,” John said, though his voice was heavy with ****. “Let the booze work its way out of your system before we go further.”

Beth pouted and whined, “‘Mh fine. Come on, I had to deal with ya guys being all cute today and stuff and I want some.”

She shifted her weight slightly and her balance faltered. Thankfully, John hadn’t let go of her and was able to keep her upright, though in doing so pulled her tighter to his chest, not that she seemed to mind it.

“I think John is right about slowing things down,” Senka remarked. “We are a little off our games, and we should probably have clearer heads to properly deal with things.”

“Senka’s probably right,” Vivian said. “We might not be completely impaired but jumping into things not at our best may not be the best idea. Probably best to turn in and let the **** leave our systems.”

Aeolia nodded in agreement, and Beth let out a sigh and leaned against John. “Okay, I’ll chill out ‘til my brain’s less slippy.”

She closed her eyes and sighed, her body relaxing. “Guess sleeping it off be a good idea, right?”

“It couldn’t hurt,” Vivian answered, falling back onto the bed, her hair fanning out around her head. “I am feeling a bit worn out.”

“Laying down sounds nice,” Beth muttered, suddenly sounding very tired.

“Gets sloshed with less than two drinks and nods off at the drop of a feather,” Aeolia playfully jibed. “Think we’ll need to work on your endurance.”

“Hmm, sounds fun,” Beth said, clearly not hearing what Aeolia said.

“Yeah, she’s fading fast,” Senka said. Her lips formed a sultry grin and she added, “And I can think of some fun ways to do that.”

“I thought we were dialing things down,” John remarked, shifting a bit as Beth snuggled into his chest.

“I’ll keep my banter for tomorrow then,” Senka relented. “Though there is one thing we do need to discuss before turning in: what are the sleeping arrangements going to be?”

---

Senka shifted in her sleep, bringing John out of his reverie. After little debate, the girls decided that Beth and Senka were to take his right and left, with Aeolia and Vivian on the outside. From what he could sense, both of his earlier lovers were spooning the newer additions to the group.

‘Still weird to think about all that’s happened this week,’ John mused. ‘I’ve gone from nerdy and friendless to being in the middle of a cuddle pile with four hot magical women.’

‘Your thoughts are a bit loud,’ Senka’s cool voice whispered in his head, causing him to turn as much as he could to face the spirit, even if the darkness made that impossible.

‘Sorry,’ John thought.

‘Don’t be,’ she remarked. ‘I was close to waking when I overheard you.’

‘Any thoughts on the time?’ John asked. ‘My arms are a little preoccupied so I can’t check my phone.’

‘Certainly don’t want to interrupt what you’re doing.’ Senka laughed and snuggled deeper into John’s embrace. The movement caused a wave of similar motions from the others. ‘It does seem like everyone’s close to waking up. Perhaps if you increase the light levels a bit it’ll encourage them.’

‘Still going to need an arm free,’ John pointed out. ‘Menus still need inputs.’

‘Then I suppose I’ll have to make that sacrifice,’ the spirit said, shifting slightly to release John’s left arm from her embrace.

Frowning at the loss of the pleasant warmth, John brought his freed arm up and activated Instant Barrier. He had found last night that he could manipulate the light levels in the barriers he could make, which meant he didn’t need to kick everyone out into his darkened bedroom to recreate the barrier sans light.

‘Wonder if there’s an auto feature I could unlock,’ he mused as he poked at the display, slowly increasing the light levels. The light bulb set into the ceiling slowly grew in brightness, reminding John of Vivian’s ability. Before he could think further on that, Beth let out a low groan and buried her face into his chest, before her head shot up, bleary eyes meeting his.

“Morning,” John whispered with a smile.

Words seemed to fail the usually brash girl for a moment and her mouth opened and closed several times before she managed to ask in a horse voice, “It wasn’t a dream?”

“Do you dream of us often?” Senka asked with a bemused grin as she peered at Beth over John’s chest. Beth flushed slightly but didn’t answer, which Senka took as confirmation and added, “Well, you won’t have to rely on them anymore.”

“Don’t think we’ll be acting any of them out right now though,” Aeolia said, propping herself up on an elbow to gaze over Senka. “Bet you’ve got a hell of a hangover.”

Beth shot a withering gaze at her and said, “Nothing I can’t handle.”

“Really?” Aeolia teased. “How about if John ups the light levels?”

“Please don’t,” Vivian made her opinion known, though it was slightly muffled by Beth’s shoulder. “I’d rather not have to expend mana just to have things be at a reasonable brightness.”

“Lightweights,” Aeolia teased. “We’ll have to get up and out to the outside world at some point.”

Letting out a heavy sigh John said, “Yeah, don’t want to be missing when Mom wakes up. And there’s something I’ve got to ask you, Vi.”

The redhead perked up a bit, unburying her face from Beth’s shoulder. “Oh?”

Feeling extremely awkward at having to do this with the whole group present, John relayed what his mother had proposed.

“Guess the rest of us are chopped liver,” Beth joked.

“You don’t count,” Aeolia cut in. “You were only in the friend category back then.”

“And sadly, Aeolia and I are a little hard to explain,” Senka added. “And that’s before the whole harem situation.”

John let out a groan and leaned his head back. “I hate that I can’t be honest with all this, but Mom might get suspicious if we evade her. We’re already on thin ice after getting caught on Thursday.”

“Maybe we can swing having some leftovers to take home, so everyone can have some of your mom’s cooking,” Vivian suggested.

“So that’s a yes then?” John asked.

“Of course it’s a yes,” Vivian replied, leaning over Beth to plant a small kiss on John’s lips. “And we should probably get up and not tempt fate.”

With great ****, everyone got out of bed, some slower than others. John and Senka were the first to leave. His real bedroom was lit by the morning sun and John guessed it was around seven or so. He slowly opened his door and poked his head into the hall.

With no lights on or sounds to be heard, John pulled his head back into his room and closed the door. As he did, Vivian, Aeolia and Beth popped in behind him, each with their own suppressed groan of discomfort.

“Well, good news is Mom’s still asleep,” John whispered. “Or at least still in her room. How are you three going to leave?”

“Cammie told me to text her,” Vivian answered, grimacing as she looked at her phone. When it beeped, she added, “She’s going to pick us up where she dropped us off last night. Says it’ll be about twenty minutes.”

“Would you like some…” John began to say before Aeolia dashed forward and gently placed her hand over his mouth.

“Think your mom’s up,” she reported in a low voice. “And as much as chilling out would be fun, having to do it at whispering level isn’t. Think we should just head out. Plus, getting some fresh air wouldn’t hurt.”

“Great,” Beth muttered. “I join up and only get a few minutes with ya before having to go.”

“Plus a good chunk of hours using me as a pillow,” John pointed out, using the banter to distract from the disappointment of having to usher them away.

“I guess that’s true,” Beth sighed. “Alright, enough of this mushy stuff. Let’s get flying.”

“There is one thing before you guys go,” John said.

“What’s that?” Beth asked.

John swept up to her and pulled her into a kiss. The dark haired girl stiffened slightly then relaxed into his embrace, gently pushing her lips against his.

“A nice goodbye,” John answered her pre-kiss question.

“You can say that again,” Beth said somewhat dazed. After a moment to recover, she added, “Is there a ‘nice hello’ version?”

“We’ll have to see.” John grinned at her before he repeated the farewell with Aeolia and Vivian. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught Senka following in his footsteps as the spirit gave Beth her own kiss before gliding over to capture the lips he had just left unoccupied. Once all the goodbyes were ‘said’, Aeolia flew Vivian and Beth out under the veil, leaving John and Senka alone.

“It’s weird,” he mused softly, watching his two visible lovers walk down the sidewalk to where Cammie would pick them up, arms interlocked. “I used to hate being around people and couldn’t wait until they left.”

“You didn’t have the right people around you,” Senka said, slipping her arms around him, her breasts pressing into his back.

“Yeah, that makes sense,” John muttered.

“I should return to your aura,” Senka continued. “Don’t want to risk being caught especially after having sent the others away.”

“Yeah,” John agreed. “Better tell Mom it’s a go with Vivian and to make extra.”

Senka nodded and, following stealing a kiss of her own, vanished into John’s aura. Pulling away from the window, John closed it and ventured out of his room.

---

An hour later, John and Brenda pulled into the parking lot of their usual grocer.

“So, what are we getting?” John asked as he slipped out of the car, slyly putting the Mana Cell Battery back into his inventory, having spent the last hour putting most of his regened mana into it, storing another ‘18’ points.

“I’m thinking a nice roast with some red potatoes,” Brenda answered as she followed suit. “Maybe whip up a cake for dessert too.”

“Sounds great,” John said. “What’d you need me to grab?”

“Why don’t you handle the cake stuff,” Brenda replied. “Box of yellow mix, eggs, and frosting.”

“Dessert mode, got it,” John remarked with a salute.

“Mind grabbing my purse?” Brenda asked, pointing to said item in the backseat of the car. “Looks like it slid to your side of the car.”

“No problem,” John said, dipping back into the car to grab her purse.

“Thanks, sweetie,” Brenda said as John handed it to her, his fingers brushing against hers.

Suddenly, the world twisted and everything became a whirl of colors. John felt himself land on the ground, only it wasn’t the rough blacktop of a parking lot but coarse dirt.

You have been pulled into a Trap Barrier. You may only leave once all hostile entities are defeated.

John pushed himself to his feet, but before he could take in the scenery, a groan drew his attention. The color drained from his face when he saw Brenda collapsed on the ground beside him.

Thanks again for reading this little story. If you liked the chapter, please hit that thumbs up, and if you want to support my writing, check out my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ScrapCrow. Get access to my chapters before they’re published here and join my private Discord.