The hunger remains.

Those with money enjoyed a standard of life unheard of before.

Without thinking for a second about the infrastructure making it possible. The social, technological, and personal work put into a thousand things behind the curtain, to put on a glittering show, and help people forget the manifold troubles and worries that modern life had also, very generously, given them.

That was long the reason for Hyun-ji Seong’s existence; giving that distraction.

Now, the second reason, one who had come much more recently into her long life, snuck up behind her in the middle of a nearly-empty, dark stadium, and gave a good, hearty grope to Hyun-ji’s massive chest.

Milking a squeak and a gasp from her wife, as Ya Liao’s grin was lit up by the natural, eerie glow of her devilish eyes. “Hey, babe. Out here to yell at the workers?”

“Hey, you.” The white-haired angel was always jittery before a big performance, especially with recent events. It had been days since she’d taken her ‘medicine’ from Sora, but she was still going. “I was actually thinking about helping them, up there.”

The Aerodyne Megaplex was so large, it developed its own weather patterns even when the ceiling slid closed, as it would for the show.

The ability to fly without aid had long made certain races well suited to vertical jobs, and more than a few pairs of flapping wings could be seen throughout the vast stadium, cutting through swirling cloudbanks and beams of sunlight.

Ya shook her head. “C’mon, we’d just be in the way. Let them do their jobs, you need to rest up and save your strength.”

There had always been a doting streak to the tomboy’s affections, but since Hyun-ji’s diagnosis, that had shifted into smothering overdrive. It was ironic, given of the two, the most likely by far to smother their partner was Hyun-ji herself. Her abundant curves made the idea practical. Yet now, she was being treated this way, encouraged always to sit down, to lie back, to let others handle things for her.

“If we wanted to, we could retire,” Hyun-ji sighed. “Right now, both of us. Given what fraction of our lives still lie ahead, that is a rare and precious luxury. Many people would literally kill for it. Yet I have it, and you know I could never take it.”

Ya gave a booming laugh that boomed all the more, given the cavernous space before that huge stage. “Yep. I’ll be gone for four lifetimes ‘fore you take it easy.”

When you exit my life, Ya Liao, I’ll never ‘take it easy’ again.

Every couple with a large gap was destined for the Lifespan Conversation.

Quite understandably, Ya wasn’t interested. She lived life facing forward, but never looking to the future. What was immediately in front of her always took priority, and in the past that had been a procession of pretty girls and boys.

Right now, it was a sick wife, with an urgent need she wasn’t planning to address.

For all their differences, they wore those glittering silver bands and opposite-colored chokers because deep own, they were the same soul. Neither one of them were the types to budge, not even for the world itself.

“I noticed that you invited Sora, and arranged for front-row tickets and the backstage pass,” Hyun-ji said. “Quite generous.”

Ya shrugged. “He’d start showing up in person, even if we didn’t comp for him. When he really gets going, he’s like a pink buzzsaw. This is just smoothing things along. That’s not a problem, is it? I thought we talked about this, babe.”

“Indeed we have.”

Hyun-ji had been a hardcore lesbian all her life. Women only. Ever. She’d never planned on changing that policy, or even truly reconsidering it. She still wasn’t, because physical equipment or actions didn’t determine orientation. Especially in a survival situation.

But it would be hard to still call herself a lesbian moving forward.

Not if she was to regularly take these ‘treatments’, which she’d supposedly already done. Intimate memory was wiped clean, but not knowledge of the act. Sora had been so kind to go along with this, and neither make a fuss, nor refuse.

They’d brought him on a secret known only to their sharp manager, a handful of doctors and medical technicians sworn to secrecy, Hyun-ji’s powerful father back in her distant homeland, and that was hopefully it. Despite the swarming press and paparazzi, there was no hint of such things, even online.

It was the only way for their careers as a lesbian, married, idol couple to survive.

To all my fans, I’m very sorry. In the end, we all do what we must.

“After the concert,” Hyun-ji said, “I’ll consider another ‘treatment’. I must admit, I’ve been feeling light-headed, and the headaches and shakes are getting worse. It is conferring a sort of nervous energy I’ve been working through, but it could lead to worse bouts of weakness.”

Ya nodded. “Right on. This is the move to make, honey. Sora’s rock-solid, and for once that’s not a joke about his dick. Although that’s also-”

“Please, none of that,” Hyun-ji sighed. “I’m trying not to think about it.”

Ya grinned, and scooped her wife up in a big, wing-squishing hug. “Then c’mon backstage! Let’s go get dolled up for the show. I’d say at this rate, we could spend at least an hour alone in our dressing room, the door locked and barricaded, denying all inbound comms... hell, we could just go off the grid…”

As she was carried off by her corrupting devil of a wife, the stoic angel, pure of course as the driven snow, nodded in assent, face burning red.

“That sounds entirely acceptable.”