The Divine Gambit

17. Public Indecency (Handholding)

Waking up without feeling smothered with doubts and insecurities, not overwhelmingly full of anxiety over what I had potentially done or not done or still needed to do, was a wonderful experience. Simply holding Sam and Beth in my arms, the sunlight sweeping through the room, nothing hanging over my head like a guillotine waiting to drop, left me feeling light, free, and elated. I wasn't concerned about potentially manipulating Beth into doing something she didn't want. I wasn't caught in a position that would torture Sam anymore. I didn't have confusion surrounding Zoey's goals rumbling in my mind. No, I was free to lay here and revel in the blissfully content sensation echoing between the three of us.

At least, for a little while longer, I was. I did have to get up to go to the gym at some point. But, at least for the moment, I could lay here. So that's what I did. My hands wandered down the body of the voluptuous redhead I had dreamed about for years until they reached her ample behind, still somewhat disbelieving it was her that I was holding. The little gasp she made directly into my ear when I pulled her hips into mine warmed my heart.

She let me knead her body for a moment, my fingers drinking deeply from the sensation of gripping her soft skin, before she whispered, "Are you holding me open for a reason, or were you just going to tease me this morning? Because I'm probably going to start leaking onto you soon."

Inconveniently, she was answered by the alarm blaring. The good news was that we hadn't really gotten started, which would have been significantly more irritating. The bad news was that I still wanted time with Sam.

Beth rolled over and groaned in disgust at the harsh noise, then clamped my arm over her ear in a half-asleep attempt to muffle the insistent electronic chirping, making Sam and I giggle at her. Beth only pressed my arm more firmly against her head.

It took a few minutes to rouse Beth and convince her that it was time to get moving and ready for the day. Sam kissed me before she went to grab her gym clothes from the room she had initially moved into, but stopped immediately after, a curious look on her face.

"Do you think," she began to ask, "that dragons, with their natural healing magic, stop brushing their teeth, and that's where we get 'dragon's breath' as a term for morning breath?"

"Is that a way of telling me I need to go brush my teeth?"

"Well, you do, but no, it was just a thought."

"I imagine that it had more to do with the visualization of breathing fire. Based on how I've been interacted with, I can't imagine many people would want to associate something negative with a vindictive, vengeful, self-important dragon, and I can't imagine many people who interacted with a dragon intimately enough to be well accustomed to their dental hygiene would then go around undermining them."

Sam nodded, "Yeah, that makes sense. Was just a thought."

With Sam grabbing her gym clothes and Beth still sluggishly waking, I picked the water temperature and stepped into the shower. On autopilot, Beth followed me and stepped into the shower. The first splash of spray reflected off my body and onto hers, and she froze, clutching her arms together across her chest, inching up onto her tippy toes, and sliding away from me, shooting daggers at me with her emerald eyes.

"James! How on earth did you get ice out of the pipes?"

I smirked -- the water wasn't that cold for me -- and angled the shower head away so she could adjust the temperature. She did, although I turned it back down just a hair so I wouldn't feel it necessary to shift into my scaled skin to avoid burns. Sam joined us shortly, and the three of us bathed. Now, with some experience sharing the space and the added benefit of hazy telepathy, we functioned almost as one entity using three bodies. Beth really wanted to be the one to wash Sam's front and showed no regrets when the redhead made her thoroughly scrub underneath her breasts in exchange for allowing her some playtime. Sam returned the favor by washing Beth's auburn hair.

I found it remarkable when I felt some shampoo drip down perilously near Beth's eye. Rather than rinse it herself, Sam used a washcloth to dab away the offending foam. She used a washcloth I had taken from the rack, gotten wet under the spray, and passed to her. All of this was done without a single verbalization and with such little hesitation that I only realized how interesting the development was when we were stepping out of the shower and drying off.

Once we were dressed and walking out the front door, Sam asked, "So, what's the plan for the rest of the day? You wanted individual days with us before incorporating Zoey on Friday. Does that mean this afternoon?"

I answered unconvincingly, "Yes? But, I need to talk to Zoey because she actually lives here. I only gave her a couple of my ideas a few days ago, and she said she'd have more information for me. So, don't go too hard with your workout because I'm not sure what we'll be doing afterward."

She smiled back at me, "Like I'd need an excuse to take it easier."

Beth added, "That's fine -- I signed us up for a guided yoga class today. It sounded fun."

"I'm not sure yoga is ever supposed to be fun, but that sounds perfect. I'll see you guys in like two hours, and I'll have a plan for the evening."

I received quick kisses from both of them before they departed, surprising me by holding each other's hands. Beth winked over her shoulder as they stepped away from me, impishly wiggling her behind provocatively as she went.

Zoey greeted me at the gym with a kiss on the cheek, then double-checked that it was alright with me for her to have done that, apologizing for doing it in public without asking. I certainly wasn't offended, especially given the display she had unwillingly performed a week ago, but I could see where Zoey would want to be sure of things.

The workout was rough. Bench, including paused variations and a few sets incorporating a cambered bar, was the primary lift, but Zoey mixed in plenty of other chest, shoulder, and tricep exercises. By the end, I felt as though I had touched every piece of equipment that could be used for a pressing movement in the gym, putting my body through its paces. She wrapped up by having me use a rowing machine for cardio -- something I was wholly unfamiliar with, which she reminded me was a good thing for adjusting to my changing body.

Before leaving, she pulled me aside and asked, "We're still on for Friday?"

"Yeah. I confirmed it with Beth and Sam."

"Good," she said while pulling out her phone and tapping on it several times. "Then this is for you. We've consulted with the museum before, and one of the managers owed me a favor. That's two digital day passes for you and Beth. I can't really help with Sam other than to offer you a few recommendations based on location -- I've never used any of them, so you'll have to just try one."

I got her message on my phone, a list of locations that could work for Sam's date, and a PDF attachment with Beth's tickets. I pulled Zoey into my arms, wrapping myself around her in a great bear hug.

"Thank you so much."

She tentatively wrapped her arms around me, returning the embrace, and humbly replied, "It's the least I can do, really, after what I did to them the other night. It didn't cross my mind that I would have to live with that experience. I thought I was helping."

"I know. They know. An apology when they see you will go a long way."

Zoey leaned against me for another ten seconds, neither of us willing to break apart first. Eventually, she said, "I have an official meeting I need to get ready for," but made no move to leave.

I kissed her forehead before withdrawing, but before I stepped away, something she had said seemed odd.

"Wait, you did consulting work for an interactive museum?"

"Yeah? What's strange about that?"

I blinked at her in confusion, unable to articulate exactly what was odd about a federal security agent consulting for a private, quasi-entertainment business.

She saw my look and rolled her eyes, "James, you are aware that you're in a secret society now, right? Just because the premises don't need security measures to protect wealth or anything like that, they still need to be audited and consulted with to ensure our worlds remain separate. Not everything I've done involves chasing down necromancers or blood mages or bringing in vampires who forcefully turn humans."

Now, I didn't blink at her. "Is that something I need to worry about?"

She smiled incredibly smugly, "Not anymore."

"Alright, I have no idea now if you made that up on the spot or actually did something like that, and frankly, I don't really want to know. Thank you for this; I'll see you Thursday morning?"

"Yup, for legs. See you, James."

I returned to the apartment with some pep in my step, now having the information I needed to decide where to go out with Beth and Sam. The only question remaining was who should go first, the woman I had spent my childhood chasing or the one who had accidentally caught my attention and started this entire chain of events.

It was conveniently answered for me when I walked inside. Sam was still in her workout getup, sitting on the couch with her head laid back, and her eyes closed, a half-drank glass of ice water held in her hand resting on her thigh. Conversely, Beth was wearing jean shorts and a frilly blue blouse, a red butterfly hairpin pulling her bangs out of her face, which was done adorably in makeup, presumably with Sam's assistance.

"Did you know that yoga really uses your core?" Sam groaned. "Because I do, now. I hurt in places I wasn't aware I had muscles."

I walked over and kissed her, not just because I wanted to but because my saliva would help her recover. "So, you're volunteering to go second?"

She reached up and placed her hand tightly around my neck, pulling me in for another deep kiss. After a minute of locking lips, she broke apart breathily, responding, "Yes. I don't know what you've got planned for me, and I'm sorry if I've ruined your plans by exhausting myself today, but Beth deserved to go first anyway."

"No, that's not a problem. Are you just going to hang out here?"

Sam pulled me in for a third kiss, then sighed blissfully. "Yeah. I'm beat. I actually don't understand how you've done the magic training and the gym and everything else and are still trying to add to your plate. I'm just going to veg out here on the couch and wait for your date to finish. If it goes well enough, do you think she'll invite you in afterward?" She said jokingly, as though Beth wasn't sitting in the same room with us.

I stroked my chin, acting like it was a question worth contemplating. "I think so. She's given me a few hints in the past that she'd be open to a physical relationship. As long as I play my cards right, I think tonight could be it."

"Well," Sam said, "I hope she does. She's good for you. With her, you have a hunger, a desire, an ambition you didn't have in the past. So I hope you treat her well, and she recognizes that."

"Ohhh-kay," a blushing Beth interrupted, "How about you go get cleaned up and tell me what we're doing?"

I did just that, taking a speedy second shower and dressing in jeans and a t-shirt. Then, with Beth's hand in mine, we made our way to the nearest subway station.

"James, where are we going?" Beth asked as we sat down on the train, her arm wrapped around mine.

"Zoey gave me day passes to a museum."

Beth furrowed her brow and looked at me skeptically, "Are you sure you don't have your wires crossed? You're bringing me to the museum?"

"Have a little faith in me. No, I'm taking Sam to a roller skating rink and then to get ice cream, and I'm taking you to a museum."

"Are you sure you've got that order correct?"

"Yes. It's not a normal museum, and I wouldn't really care otherwise. I mostly just want to interact with you, by ourselves, away from all of the other insanity."

"Oh, alright," she responded, although I could feel a little confusion lingering in her mind. I didn't press her for a further question, and she never offered one, so we eventually found ourselves standing outside a generic-looking cement building downtown. Inside, we were greeted by a cheerful man with a nametag, although two school-age children obliviously ran between us as he attempted to welcome us.

"Hello there! Welcome to the Franklin Institute Science Museum! Can I help you today?"

I fumbled with my phone and pulled up the tickets Zoey had given me. "Yeah, I believe we have some tickets here to access the museum."

He nodded and scanned the QR code on my phone. When he read what showed up on his scanner, his demeanor changed significantly. He bowed before me, and when he stood up again, there was a particularly noticeable fear to him, a nervousness in his eyes that his calm words didn't fully mask.

"The Institute is graced by your presence, Master Anderson. It's a great honor to have one of our seats patronize our humble museum. I must apologize; my supervisor is currently engaged in handling a minor incident, but if you would be willing to wait a few minutes, I'm sure they would be delighted to guide you around our facilities today."

I sighed, and the man flinched. "Robbie," I replied, reading his name from his tag, "please relax. I'm not sure what that said, but we're just here as any other guest would be. A dedicated guide won't be necessary. To be honest, Beth and I have some things to discuss while we're here, and I was hoping for a relaxed, unpretentious day. I think we'd just like to have a look around as though we were any other visitor, if that's alright."

"Of course, sir," he said, but remained frozen in place. After a second, he flushed in embarrassment and ran to the service desk, returning with two colored wristbands, handing one each to Beth and me.

"These are to allow you entrance to our magic section, on the right here, through those doors," he said, pointing towards an unlabelled set of double doors. "On the left, we have the mundane portion of the museum, if you'd prefer. Is there anything else I can do for you while you're here?"

"I think that will be all, thank you," I said. Beth retook my hand after we had both donned our wristbands, and we headed through the inconspicuous doors.

"I think he's going to need the rest of the day off after that," Beth said as we stepped into the magical hall of the museum. "You could see his heartbeat practically double as he read whatever he scanned on his tablet."

"Yeah. I just wanted to have a low-stress day with something quasi-relevant to our new lives in a place where I could interact with you, but whomever Zoey got the tickets from must've known who we were and marked them as such."

On the other side of the unmarked doors was a short, unadorned hallway with yet another set of closed doors. Another attendant sat at a counter beside these doors, and he smiled as he saw the wristbands on our arms, reaching up and opening the door as he wished us a pleasant time inside the museum.

The magical room was a massive, high-ceilinged space with hundreds of small exhibits and attractions spread throughout the floor. Every corner of the room was used to accommodate something, and as a result, there were people everywhere. In every direction, there were children ranging in age from just able to walk to mid-teens. Many were obviously here on some kind of school trip, accompanied by a chaperone and wearing matching uniforms, but just as many seemed to be here with only their parents or an older sibling.

Beth looked around the room and took it all in, then turned to me and remarked, "Alright, I can see what you mean now. This is definitely more my speed than I was expecting from 'a museum.'"

"You didn't seriously think I was bringing you to a silent, stuffy old place where old people in suits stood around and lamented their youth, did you?"

"I wasn't sure. This is nice. Was there anything you wanted to look at?"

"I don't even know what's here. I just wanted a place where we could learn a little more about magic from someone other than Antonin and have a day with no stress; I wanted to have fun with you, and be silly, and enjoy each other's presence, mostly."

"Cool. Let's go learn some kid magic stuff, drakeling," she said with a teasing smile.

The first exhibit Beth showed any serious interest in interacting with, beyond just reading the placard or listening to the recorded audio commentary, was a maze game. Under a sheet of blacked-out plastic, visible by a small section of transparent surface, was a blinking green ball on a track, controlled with a joystick accessible to an observer. A second red ball was attached to the top of the joystick.

There was a reset button next to the joystick, which Beth pressed as we approached. The ball moved inside the maze to one of the corners, the clear section hovering above it the entire time, and I felt the change in the mana inside the labyrinth as the ball came to rest. As Beth read the instructions next to the joystick, I frowned, because I already understood what this was.

It was a toy for children struggling to perceive discrepancies in natural mana flows. The maze's goal wasn't marked, and you couldn't actually see the paths, requiring you to sense which route to take based on the energy differential of the potential options, relayed to you via the tethered red ball. As the time ticked by, the total mana would increase inside the maze, making it easier over time for less sensitive individuals. Beth placed her hand on the red ball and started moving the joystick, guiding the green ball along the track. Of course, she was simply guessing, largely keeping to the tried and true method of remaining in contact with one side and tracing the outside of the maze.

After thirty seconds of not finding the solution or making any progress toward the target, I was frustrated for Beth. I wanted her to be able to solve the maze and to feel accomplished, not to just blindly amble through the maze. In my impatience, I tried to give her some of my mana, hoping that some of my sensitivity would be shared if she held a piece of it, much like Sam had been able to enchant our names easily.

Instead of simply opening a tap and letting some drip out into a bucket for her to use, trying to give Beth any of my energy was a struggle. Unlike Sam, who was sensitive enough to take what she needed and sufficiently experienced to know what was going on, Beth didn't even react when I tried to open a channel to her. When I pressed on, trying to push a grain of magic to her, I was caught entirely off guard by what happened.

Instead of simply empowering the woman standing next to me, as had happened every time I had tried to share with Sam, I hit a brick wall. The energy I pushed forward rebounded and came back to impact against my soul. The consequences of the feedback were thankfully limited to an anxious shiver and scattered goosebumps spreading on my neck, only because of the minuscule amount I had tried to send to Beth rather than any sensible precautions. When I tried again, watching closely and holding my energy in my mind more precisely, it wasn't forcefully rejected.

Instead, it felt as though I was pushing the mote of energy through tar. I felt held down, restrained, subdued, corralled and controlled. For every inch of progress I made forcing the sliver of power towards Beth, I felt like I had to climb a mile up a cliff. Eventually, I reached a point where I couldn't force it any further without making a scene from my exertion, and I stopped trying to push forward. Instead, I cradled the droplet of aetheric energy and let it slowly glide out of Beth's defenses and back to me, preventing the sharp ricochet from before.