# 018

"This is going to be a thing from now on, right?" Maddie went from not sure about the slime to already craving her after just one session of lovemaking.

"I suppose that depends on Rosie." I chuckle while lying on my back next to her, petting the slime as she rests on my chest, feeling even more liquid than usual. "But, there's always Queenie if she's not in the mood. Though, I don't think that will be necessary, not with how good Rosie feels right now."

"She's not the only one." Maddie giggles and rolls, limply, over to snuggle my side and pet the slime. "She feels so weird -good weird- she's slick, but there's no residue."

"Yeah, she's amazing in every way." I laugh again when the slime wiggles languidly at the praise. "Now, I really should be enchanting wands right now, but I think I'm just going to lie here and enjoy being cuddled by my girls."

"I like that plan." She snuggles up even closer.

"Mhm, but before I forget." I place my hand on Maddie's belly and cast the contraceptive spell. "I'm sure that Rosie ate everything, but better safe than sorry. We don't want you getting pregnant. Not yet, at least." She giggles nervously at my words.

...

"Hey." I greet Jen when we go in for dinner. I never did get around to making more wands, but even so, it was definitely time well spent. "Was Selene alright?"

"I had to take her back into town." Jennifer growls in reply. "Because she sprained her wrist hitting you, you jerk."

"Snerk." I try not to laugh, but the snort escapes from me anyway. "Sorry, sorry. But... hahahaha." I just can't hold back the laughter anymore.

"Don't fucking laugh." Jen punches me and then starts shaking her fist which only makes me laugh harder. "Dammit! This isn't funny. Selene told me a little about Maria's life before she came to town."

"Sorry." I say and mean it this time. The somber look on Jen's face washing away my humor.

"You should be." She huffs. "Apparently, amongst her father's many stellar qualities." Jen's voice oozes with sarcasm. "He used to sleep around on Maria's mom, treated her like shit, and would flaunt the affairs in her face."

"..." There's nothing I can say to that.

"Then it's a good thing that Cole isn't like that." Maddie speaks up for me. "He went straight to Maria afterward, told her what happened, and broke it off. Even though I told him that it was alright if he kept seeing her." Jen gasps at that. "Maria might be hurt right now, but they barely knew each other. She'll get over it!"

"Ease down, girl." I stroke Maddie's back to soothe her ruffled feathers. "Look, Jen, I'm far from blameless here, but Maddie is right. Maria and I had two dates -if you can call hanging out in the library a date- it's not like we were promised to each other. I feel like shit for hurting her, but it is what it is."

"Alright!" Mom claps her hands together. "That's enough of that for now; the food is going to get cold."

...

After dinner, I sat in the living room to actually work on the taming wands. That, and to watch Rosie practice her shapeshifting. Jen might still be mad at me, but she wants to help Rosie out as much as I do. Right now she's using her earth magic to make complex shapes for the slime to duplicate.

"I thought you were going to work on those earlier." Jenny comments when she sees what I'm up to.

"I did say that, didn't I?" I reply with a smirk that earns me a glare from her and a knowing smile from Mom.

"Pig." My little sister huffs, but she seems to have mostly gotten over her pique from earlier.

"Are you saying that if Selene was waiting for you when you went to do the same that you wouldn't... get distracted too?" I counter and then smile at the blush that creeps onto her cheeks. "And, you should probably be helping with these too; I doubt Dad has been making a lot while on the road."

"True." She agrees but doesn't sound too happy about the idea. "At least we don't have to worry about king cores anymore." The alchemist guild would always bid against us whenever one went up for auction, so Dad would usually have to go hunt one himself.

You'd think a magic-user would be a bad match-up for a giant blob of magic eating jelly, but all you have to do is use magic to attack indirectly. Like my sword attacks, I used the blades to cut through and then a trailing blast of compressed air to blow the jelly out of the way, exposing the core. While Dad would just lob an iron spike straight through with enough force to penetrate it.

"So, are you going to help?" I prompt when she goes back to playing with Rose.

"Nope." She looks over her shoulder to stick her tongue out at me. "I'll think about doing some tomorrow. If I don't get distracted, that is."

"Whatever." I shake my head at the little shit and get back to work.

...

*Knock knock knock*

"Are we expecting anyone?" I ask when someone knocks at the front door during breakfast the next morning. "No? I'll go see who it is then."

"Thanks, sweetie." Mom sends me a look of gratitude while she and Maddie deal with the twins being pests. I grin back and walk out front.

"..." My mouth opens, but no words come out when I see who is at the door.

"I'm sorry." Maria is there, and she's apologizing to me for some reason. "Selene was completely out of line when she hit you."

"Please, don't apologize to me." I finally find my voice. "I deserved that slap for hurting her best friend. I'm sorry for betraying you... and that Selene hurt her wrist." I add as an afterthought

"I need to get back before we open for the day." With that, she just walks away.

I stand there and watch her leave, not knowing what to think about this encounter. I only snap out of it after she turns the corner around the gate. Shaking my head to clear it, I head back into the kitchen.

"Who was it?" Jen asks. The girls are making enough of a racket that she wouldn't have been able to hear our conversation.

"Maria." Everyone stares at me, even the twins settle down, even if just for a second. "She came to apologize for Selene hitting me."

"What?" Jen's eyes go wide.

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction." I start moving the food around on my plate, not really in the mood to eat anymore. "I told her I deserved it, and apologized again. But, she just said that she had to get back to work and left. I'm gonna go get ready." Setting my utensils down, I leave before anyone else comments.

...

"Hey." Madison comes in while I'm changing. "Are you alright?"

"Just a little thrown, I guess." I shrug and finish tucking in my shirt. "I wasn't expecting to see her again, certainly not like that. And, if you're worried that I'm going to go chase after her, don't."

"I told you that it's alright if you want to keep seeing her." I stop buckling my swords on and got wrap my idiot girl in my arms when she brings up that nonsense again.

"And, I told you that you deserve better than that." I press my lips to hers. "I'm never going to cheat again, not after seeing that look in her eyes. I can't do that to someone again, least of all you."

"Mhm. Why are you so good to me after what I did?" Maddie asks after hiding her face against my chest.

"I like you Madison." I stroke her hair and pretend not to feel the tears wetting my shirt. "And, truthfully, I thought about you a lot more than I ever did Maria. She's nice, and I do like her, but I like you more. So, let's just forget about how we got together, okay?"

"Okay." She nods her head against me and just stays there clinging to me. I don't mind though, and just keep holding her until she recovers.

...

"About time." Katie huffs when Madison and I finally go back outside. "I know you're dating or whatever, but do you really need to do it every chance you get?"

"We weren't having sex." I bop my middle sister on the head. "We were talking about Maria. Not that it's any of your business. Now, what are you doing out here, shouldn't you be slaving away for the twins?"

"Didn't you listen to what they were screaming about during breakfast?" She glares at me.

"Gods, no!" I laugh. "I learned to tune you girls out years ago."

"Grr." She actually growls at me. "They tried to make me cut my hair off, so Mom said I don't have to listen to them anymore."

"How was I supposed to know? They have a fit like that at least once a week." I laugh again for the expression on Maddie's face right now. "So, judging from your outfit, you want me to take you with me today."

"Yes!" She nearly shouts. "Please?"

"Alright." I ruffle her hair. "You can beat on some slimes and pretend they're Sera and Esra."

...

"You do know that I need to tame at least some of these, right?" I comment with a laugh as Kaitlyn goes all out for the third time in a row on the wave of slimes drawn in by Queenie.

"And, I need to hit something." She barks back. "Now, shut up and let me fight."

...

"Are you done?" I ask Katie several dozen slimes later when she drops to the ground panting. "You know stuff like this is why Mom and Dad won't let you go out on your own yet."

"Shut up. Eek!" She screams when a slime bounces off of a barrier that I conjured to keep it from eating her face.

"It's alright to take out your frustrations in the field." I walk up and bop her on the head again before taming the slime. "But don't ever take it so far as to leave yourself helpless. Just because you saw your idiot big brother take a nap in the middle of the woods, doesn't mean that you should."

"Sorry." She hangs her head.

"Don't worry about it." I lift her off the ground and carry her under my arm like a sack of potatoes. "Now, come on. You cleared out -almost- every slime around here; we need to go deeper if I'm going to be able to tame any."

"Do you have to carry me like this?" Katie doesn't even bother squirming; she knows from past experience that it won't make any difference to my strength.

"Backpack means no piggy-back rides, and trees mean no shoulders." I explain with a laugh. "It's this or I carry you on my hip like a baby. Or, would you prefer a princess carry from your big brother?"

"Grrr!" She growls at me again before going quiet for several minutes. "...maybe the hip? Any more of this and I'm going to barf."

"Did you inherit Dad's weak stomach?" I tease while gently shifting her upright before setting her on the ground so I can adjust my swords. "You're lucky my sheaths can slide around, otherwise it would be princess carry or nothing for you."

"Shut up." My well-tempered middle sister kicks a clump of forest litter at me, but her legs are still so tired from the fight just a few minutes ago that it doesn't even reach me.

"Oh, is my little Katie-girl being a fussy baby?" I imitate Mom almost perfectly, and she blushes a deep crimson when I set her on my hip. "Hold on tight, baby, we're going to run now. Isn't that exciting?"

"I will stab you in your sleep if you do not stop with the baby talk." Her vow of violence just makes me laugh.

"No, seriously, hold on." I break into a run, finally happy for the chance to stretch my legs, even if she is throwing off my balance a little bit. "You're better than Jen, but you just run too slowly for me."

...

"You doing alright, runt?" I laugh again when Katie sinks straight to the ground after I set her down once we reach another good spot for slimes. "Did I run too fast for you?"

"Hate you." She glares at me, her cheeks burning red.

"What's that?" I cup a hand to my ear. "You want a princess carry on the way back? I might actually be able to put on some decent speed that way; you kept throwing off my balance."

"Shut up and go catch your stupid slimes." She grumbles while sitting there in the dirt. "And, gimme your canteen, I need some water."

"Yeah, yeah." I toss it down next to her and go to collect all the slimes Queenie is calling over. "Try not to get your face melted off while I'm distracted."

***