Homeward Bound

“You’re welcome, by the way!” Ellie exclaimed with a smug grin, as she walked towards the dirt path.

“What for?” John asked, reaching over and interlocking his fingers with hers.

“If it wasn’t for me, you would have zero chance with Cyn, I don’t think she’d have even looked at you twice... no offence,” Ellie informed him before letting out a laugh.

“No offence? How else would I take that?” John chuckled.

“You know what I mean, you don’t exactly have what she’s looking for. Though maybe if you grew a couple of bra sizes, she might think about it… You might make a cute girl.” She giggled again, using a finger to circle his chest as they walked.

John shrugged off the comment and playfully batted her hand away. “So, you planning on giving her a call?”

“Why? You looking for round two already? I guess I can’t blame you, that was fucking hot. Eating your cum from another girl’s pussy was way better than I anticipated and I will definitely be doing it again in the future.” Ellie shivered slightly as she teased him.

John’s jeans tightened a little at the thought, but he shook his head, ridding himself of the mental image. “No, I meant, do you plan on meeting up with her? Like just the two of you?”

Ellie looked at him with a slight bit of shock. “Huh, I gotta admit the thought didn’t really cross my mind, though she and her friend were very hot, I guess maybe I should think about it.”

John nodded in agreement. "Definitely! Also, you shouldn't be surprised I asked, you were the one who suggested we have this… Uhh, semi-open relationship thing."

Ellie looked at him with amusement. "Semi-open relationship? That’s not a thing."

"Well, you said it only counts for sleeping with girls, so that like cuts who we can sleep with in half," John defended as he became slightly flustered.

Ellie smirked. "You hoping to get some dick then? It's not really my thing, I’m fine with just the one, but if you’re really curious, I could always get a strap on and you can try out being on the receiving end."

"NO!" John blurted. "I am more than comfortable with my sexuality. Thank you very much!"

Ellie looked at John. "Yeah, well you never know, I thought I'd never date another guy again and look at me now."

The two laughed, but were interrupted by John's phone beeping twice. He pulled it out.

< 2 new messages: Mom >

< Mom: Hey sweetie, I've decided that we should go out for dinner tonight. I thought we could go to the Fox House, it’s been too long since we went there. I’m going to go get some nice clothes to wear, so can you please wear something half decent >

< Mom: No, your hoodie or a T-shirt with a videogame on it is not suitable. I know you have a few shirts so wear one of those >

John groaned while Ellie laughed.

"Hey, are you reading my messages over my shoulder?" John accused.

"Yep," Ellie chirped before giving him a kiss on the cheek and leaning on his shoulder.

John groaned louder.

"Oh shush, it's not like I'd catch you cheating on me. And besides, it was kinda rude of you to just start looking at your phone while you were accompanying a lady," Ellie teased.

"I'm accompanying a lady? Where is she?" John laughed, which after faking a pout Ellie joined.

The two finally reached the bus stop and looked over the schedule. "Ah shit, my bus won't turn up for another hour and a half," John complained.

"And it looks like mine is due soon." Ellie smiled. "Why don't you just get the same bus as I am, then get a bus from one of the stops on that side of town to go back towards where you need to go?"

"I mean, I could, but it would actually take longer than just waiting. This sucks," John complained. "Oh, actually, I could use the fast travel skill to take us back into town."

"Hmm, yeah, but it's probably not gonna be cheap like last time you wanted to try that. Plus, my bus should be here in like ten minutes so it'd probably be better just for me to get the bus, and you use your fast travel thing," Ellie reasoned.

John sighed. "Well, I've learned that there's no arguing with you... so I guess that's what we will do, but I'm going to wait here with you until your bus comes."

Ellie laughed. "Fast learner, and I will not complain about having you wait with me."

John lifted Ellie's hand and kissed it, causing Ellie to laugh at him. As he did, he noticed something, and turning her hand over, he saw a small white gem-like mark on her ring finger, just between the first and second knuckle, glowing faintly. As he looked at it, the mark seemed to have a slight opal-like shimmer to it.

"Uh… I think this might be part of the Mate’s Mark skill,” John confessed, turning her hand so that she could see.

“Oh, it’s so pretty, it’s like the jewel on a ring but better. I’m kinda surprised we didn’t see it bef-... Hey look at that,” Ellie said, grabbing John’s hand and twisting it towards him. On his ring finger, there was a band of four plaited lines, one of which had a similar shimmer to the mark on Ellie’s finger.

“Oh shit, how am I going to explain this? And you, why aren’t you more surprised or concerned?” John asked.

Ellie shrugged. “I kinda expected something, if I’m honest. Leilani has that thing on her ankle, so I just assumed, I guess. Hey, wait, if you got a ring from me, then did you also get an ankle thing like she did? And if so, why didn’t you show it to me sooner?”

John’s brow furrowed. “I don’t think I got anything, but I didn’t really think about it until now, and I’ve been equipping and unequipping clothes, so there’s been no opportunity to look,” he said as he lifted his foot up to the wooden barrier next to the road. Pulling up his jeans and pulling his socks down revealed a similar knotted band around his ankle which had a faint pink-purple shimmer to it. “How haven’t I noticed that? I mean it’s kinda hard to miss; I thought it would be something small and that was why I never saw it,” he complained.

Ellie giggled. “No clue, but both your band things are similar, do you think you’ll get a new one in a different location each time?”

John looked at her. “Each time what? Do you think I plan on giving a bunch of people marks?”

Ellie walked closer, draped her arms around his shoulders, and locked her fingers together before leaning in and kissing him. “Maybe? Doesn’t seem like you have all that much control over it, wonder if that busty teacher of yours will get one too next time you happen to cross paths with her.”

“It’s not exactly something I plan to do. Not only that, how are we going to hide this? It’s not like we can just explain away glowing marks on our bodies,” John groaned.

< Sigh... >

John hadn't had time to react to the strange text before another took its place.

Top Tip:

In a similar way to how you change your draconic mutations back to human, try focusing on the mark.

“Oh…” John sighed. Looking at the ring, he thought about it fading and having his finger return to normal. True to the tip, as he focused, the ring began fading until it was gone. “I guess it’s that easy, uh, just imagine your finger going back to normal while you focus on the mark,” John instructed.

Ellie did as told and the jewel on her finger was gone. “Not going to lie, that’s cool. It’s like my own little bit of magic.”

John grabbed Ellie by the shoulders. “Ellie, seriously. Why are you not surprised by all this? It’s kinda been bugging me. I get magic, and you’re fine with it, you die and it’s just another thing that happened, we go to another world and you just shrug it off. What’s the deal?”

Ellie sighed before lightly bumping her forehead into John’s. “I dunno what to tell you, John; I guess with how everything’s gone in my life, I just feel like I need to roll with the punches. Am I surprised by all of this? Definitely, but it’s more exciting to me than it is scary.” She leaned in and planted a soft kiss on John’s lips. “Our relationship isn’t too much different either. I have had some doubts, thinking maybe you’ve used magic on me, but even if you have, which I’m certain you haven’t because I trust you, I’m happy and excited with what we have.”

John wrapped his arms around Ellie, pulling her in and standing silently for a moment. “It still seems kinda odd to me to be honest. You aren’t going to turn around one day and tell me that you’ve known about the Abyss all your life, are you? If you are, you can tell me now and it wouldn’t bother me.”

Ellie laughed. “No, I wish I was but I’m just me, no magic to speak of, well, other than my fancy new ring thing.” She pulled away from John and looked him in the eyes. “You’ve questioned me but you don’t seem to be showing much more surprise than I am with things and you said you’d only had your powers since the morning we met. Maybe try not worrying so much, nothing bad’s happened to us yet, at least nothing permanent.”

John rubbed his temples. “I guess you have a point, kind of. But I haven’t exactly been as calm as you have; everything I do, I’ve been worried about the outcome and stressing what it could mean.”

Before they could continue talking, the bus pulled up. Ellie kissed John again before stepping onto the bus. “Hey, I love you. Also, here, catch.” Ellie tossed something towards John and he snatched it out of the air. “Don’t think I forgot about that. I’m appreciative that you want to give it to me, but I’m not with you because of the things you can give me.”

The door to the bus closed as he looked down into his palm to see the pendant with a gold rose at the centre. John sighed, put it on, then looked back up in time to wave Ellie off. Once she had sat down and the bus began to pull away he took out his phone.

< J: You know it couldn’t hurt for you to keep the thing, it’d keep you safe and I have magic to protect me xx >

< E: Aww too bad, plus I have my bag of tricks now, if you think I can’t protect myself, then come 1v1 me ;P xx >

John laughed then sighed with a smile on his face.

< J: Fine, fine. But if I think we are ever doing something dangerous and you need extra protection, I will be giving it to you and you can’t argue about it xx >

< E: Hmm, we will see, I’m pretty good at arguing :P anyway, you better get home, don’t want to be late to your date ;) xx >

< J: Thanks… -_- Love you xx >

< E: Love you tooooo ;) xx >

John put his phone away before tapping the bus stop.

< Fast travel prices under rework. This one’s on me. >

“Fuck, I could have just teleported Ellie and me around if I realised,” John grumbled.

He tapped Lower Eastside, and after blinking and getting a strong sense of vertigo, he was suddenly standing tucked into the corner of the wooden bus shelter close to his house.

After the slight dizziness wore off, he set off home. John couldn’t help but smile to himself as he walked, it was another warm day for the time of year which made for a pleasant walk.

’Okay, so hopefully Mom won’t be home yet when I get in. I’ll have a quick shower then I’ll rummage around my closet for some fancy clothes… Wait, actually, I have those magic clothes, don’t I? I can just do a google search for some half-decent clothes and then do whatever it is I am supposed to do to change the magic clothes into them.’ John nodded as he thought.

Unfortunately for him, however, when he arrived, he noticed Brenda’s car in the driveway. “Shit,” he groaned.

He headed inside and expected to see his mother waiting for him, but she was nowhere to be seen. He headed upstairs to see her door was shut; pressing his ear to the door, he heard music playing quietly. ’She must have finished her shower and is getting ready, I probably got time to get a super quick shower and then equip my clothes,’ John thought to himself.

He rushed to his room and dumped all the unnecessary things out of his inventory, including his equipped clothing. He tossed the savvy merchant attire into his inventory and wrapped a towel around his waist.

He opened the door and looked across to his mother’s door a little down the hallway, then went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him before freezing in place.

John’s eyes locked with Brenda’s as she rubbed lotion across her face. Though his eyes didn’t take long to wander further down to look at her completely naked form; her ass was sticking out and John could see everything as she leaned over the counter to look in the mirror.

His face immediately flushed red, and he turned to exit when Brenda stopped him with a chuckle. “It’s about time you got home, we’re going to be late at this rate.”

He kept his eyes on the door. “Uh, yeah… Sorry for barging in on you… again. I thought you were in your room because I could hear your music.”

“Oh, well, I guess it’s my fault then, I turned that on while I picked out my outfit and must have forgotten to turn it off. Anyway, hurry and get into the shower,” Brenda ordered.

“I, uhm, but-” John started.

“Nope, the only butt we are talking about is yours getting into the shower, now hop to it,” she interrupted. He stood motionless, not knowing what to do with his hand still resting on the door handle. “Oh, for goodness sake, John,” she sighed, closed the distance, and yanked the towel off him, tossing it onto the toilet lid. She then grabbed his shoulders and led him to the shower. “Now, turn it on, get cleaned up, you smell like you’ve been running through the woods and, uhm… ahem, get cleaned up.”

Shocked, John turned on the shower and stood under the spray for a moment. ’What the fuck was that?’

“Sweetie, I can see that confused look on your face, I already told you the other day; it’s not the first time we’ve seen each other… indecent. Though I understand if you don’t want to see your mother’s old body,” Brenda lamented with a rueful chuckle as she finished lotioning her face and moved onto her arms.

“What? No, your body is fine… ahem, I mean there’s nothing wrong with the way you look… it’s just…” John paused, looking down at his more than half-hard dick, “it’s awkward is all… You are my mom after all.”

“Well, what is there to feel awkward about then, if you think my body is ‘fine’?” She giggled. “As I said the other day, it’s likely that we will walk in on each other and it’s only awkward if we make it that way.”

“Well, it didn’t happen before this week… Why did you get rid of your en suite anyway?” John questioned.

“I just felt like a change, and I’ve always wanted a walk-in wardrobe, plus I didn’t expect that we might have so many accidents. If you’d feel better about it, I could get a handyman in to put a lock on the door?” Brenda suggested.

“If they’re anything like the guys who came and pulled your bathroom out, I’m gonna have a hard pass, thanks,” John scoffed.

“Well, I guess you’ll either have to start being more careful or just get used to us occasionally seeing each other,” she hummed as she continued.

John huffed, and tried to quickly shower, but not only did his eyes often wander over to his mother, it also seemed as if she’d hum or clear her throat to catch his attention whenever he was trying to focus on not looking, and all the while she caressed herself while applying lotion. ’Shut up, stupid brain! Obviously, she’s just putting lotion on normally but your dumb fuck monkey brain is looking into all this too much, now stop looking!’ John chastised himself internally.

Brenda looked back, locking eyes with John as he looked over at her again. “That's a really nice necklace by the way, sweetie, was it a gift?”

“Y-yeah,” he half-choked before trying to focus on his shower again.

Brenda didn’t seem like she was in any rush, and once she’d finished applying her lotion, she took out a soft brush and began dusting herself with some kind of sand-coloured powder, the scent of which quickly worked its way over to John, a very sweet raspberry smell that he could almost taste.

After she’d finished, her eyes flicked up to meet John’s and seemed to have a knowing look in them, though again that could have been John’s guilty conscience mixed with the rampant thoughts flowing through his mind. “All finished, sweetie. Enjoy your shower but don’t take too long.”

With that Brenda walked out of the bathroom, her ass almost bouncing from side to side, begging for John to stare.

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