Chapter 46: 3.03 – Breakfast Together

It wasn’t until she and Rosalie met up with Delta that Zoey realized the two of them were holding hands. The fox-eared girl’s lips curled in amusement, giving a pointed flick of her eyes at their entwined hands.

“I’m taking it you two worked something out, then.”

Rosalie blinked down at her and Zoey’s hands, which apparently had gone forgotten for her, too. She withdrew, flushing, but otherwise pretending nothing had happened, in classic Rosalie fashion.

“Zoey will explain,” Rosalie said, sniffing. “But yes, we have. Let’s get breakfast. I’m starving.”

Down in the lobby, served three steaming plates of ham, eggs, and hashbrowns by the innkeeper, Zoey, Rosalie, and Delta convened at a table tucked in the corner of the tiny inn’s lobby. The innkeeper had barely left before Delta leaned forward and said, “Okay, spill it. Wasn’t expecting you two to be all bright and happy. What changed?”

“Zoey’s rune advanced,” Rosalie said. “It provided … a neat solution.”

“That’s fortunate,” Delta said, eying Zoey. “But I can’t imagine how.”

“It’s odd,” Rosalie said. Then, apparently not wanting to hold this conversation herself, or maybe honest in how hungry she was, she picked up her fork and pointedly tuned them out.

“Odd,” Delta repeated, turning to Zoey. She snorted. “Yeah, what isn’t odd with you?”

Should Zoey take offense at that? Probably not. It was a fair enough accusation. “It’s, uh, a skill that gives bonus experience the longer we go between shards.”

“What?”

“That’s … more or less it. Isn’t very specific.” To Zoey’s knowledge, runes rarely were. The details had to be discovered through experimentation. “So it might not even be a perfect solution. But,” she shrugged. She didn’t need to finish the statement. Even a potential solution was better than the dilemma they’d been in before.

“Huh,” Delta said. “Okay. So?”

“So?”

“We’re sticking together?”

“That’s the plan?”

“Are we getting more?”

“More, uh, team members?” Zoey glanced at Rosalie. “That’s a group decision, I guess. Do we need more?”

Rosalie shrugged. She was shoveling down food with an abandon that was, honestly, a break in her normal composure—enough to give Zoey pause. Zoey wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe the solution, the relief, had been even greater for Rosalie than Zoey had thought. She did seem to have an ease in her shoulders, a slouched, relaxed posture, that Zoey hadn’t seen … maybe ever.

Zoey fought away a grin. Rosalie might have recognized the dilemma, and been genuinely considering leaving, but it had been something causing her deep conflict. She didn’t want to leave—enough that even if it had been common sense to do so, she still might not have.

“Only if we can find someone worth our time,” Rosalie grunted. She made a noise of appreciation. “This is good.” She skewered another slice of ham and shoveled it into her mouth.

“Easy there, Princess,” Delta said, eyebrows raised. She’d noticed Rosalie’s odd mood too, the break in her typical composure. “Don’t you need to breathe?”

“Or less,” Rosalie said. “I could go with less teammates, too.”

Unlike her usual scathing comments, this one almost seemed playful. Delta’s eyebrows continued to creep up, and she grinned, turning to Zoey.

“So. She got lucky this morning, did she?”

Rosalie choked on her food.

Though God knows why, Zoey thought. How could Rosalie have reactions like that, still? Rosalie had literally had fourteen inches of her cock inside Zoey yesterday, and Delta had watched the whole thing. The implication they’d slept together shouldn’t be something that had Rosalie sputtering.

And they hadn’t even slept together this morning, even. It was an incorrect assumption. The past twelve hours had been perfectly chaste. Maybe the first twelve hours of theirs that had been so.

“Let me correct myself. Less teammates would definitely be better,” Rosalie shot at Delta, when she’d controlled her choking. “Very much so.”

Delta rolled her eyes and turned back to Zoey. “I know a few people, if we do want more. And you need a tutor. Could kill two birds with one stone—we need a primary spellcaster. DPS focused.”

Zoey blinked at the casual use of ‘DPS’.

Why were gaming terms so baked into this world? She didn’t think ‘damage per second’ was an acronym that should arise naturally, even accounting for the game-like mechanisms this world operated on. Even LFG had stretched Zoey’s disbelief, but it made some sort of natural sense. DPS, not as much.

“Aren’t I the spellcaster?” Zoey asked, obviously not bringing it up. “It’s normal to have two?”

“I’m assuming you’re gonna end up support focused,” Delta said. “Can’t say for sure, with you still on first advancement, but it seems safe. Princess makes an adequate tank, too, though we might want a dedicated one. Two damage, off-tank, tank, support.”

She glanced at Rosalie, who shrugged in agreement. “Uninspired. But adequate.”

“And since we’ll be hanging around town for a while …” Delta trailed off. “How long, anyway? It gives bonus experience, up to how big of a break?”

Well. Rosalie needed to be heading back to her family eventually. “A few weeks? Two, to be safe?”

Again, Rosalie shrugged. “Two weeks is fine.”

Which brought up another point. More important, even, than how they’d be occupying and training Zoey in the short term. “You don’t have any attachments to Treyhull, do you?” she asked Delta.

Delta blinked. “I mean. Few friends, contacts, know the area. Nothing anchoring me. Why? Trying to set up somewhere else?”

“Eventually, yes,” Rosalie replied in Zoey’s stead. “After the next shard, I’ll be heading to family.”

“And taking us with?”

The seventh shrug of the conversation. “Zoey would want you to come. And you’re … acceptable, in the strictest sense of the word.”

“Aw. Stop it, princess. You’ll make me blush.”

It seemed in face of the biggest problem being solved, Rosalie had taken an unusually hands-off approach to their planning. That the ‘real problems’ had been solved and the rest was, more or less, simply details. And while details were something Rosalie normally loved to manage, Zoey suspected Rosalie would only become opinionated on them down the line. Right now, she was basking in the convenience—and relief—of the seemingly unsolvable suddenly solved.

“Though,” Delta said, leaning back in her chair. “Meeting the family. That’ll be fun.” A short pause, then, “I’m great with parents.”

“Uh huh,” Zoey said.

Delta flashed a grin at her. “What?” she said. “Does something about me imply ‘bad with polite company’?”

“Everything?” she suggested.

“Well … yeah,” Delta said. “Guilty as charged, I guess.”

“It’s going to be a disaster,” Rosalie said. “I don’t even want to think about it. Next topic.”

“You haven’t told us who you are, yet,” Delta said.

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“No, I haven’t.”

A pause. Delta waited.

Zoey veered them off the dangerous topic. Rosalie seemed to intend to tell them eventually, but not yet. “You know someone,” Zoey prompted. “A mage. That can train me? And join the party?”

“Yeah,” Delta said, frowning, but giving up on pushing Rosalie. Purple eyes turned back to her. “She’s a bit of … a personality. But I like her.”

“What’s she like?”

Delta frowned. “I don’t like making people’s minds up for them. So you’ll meet her and decide yourself.” A smirk crept onto her lips. “Or, if you meant in a different way—well, you appreciate all shapes and sizes, don’t you? She’s a bit flat, but let me tell you—you’ll like what you see.”

“Not what I meant,” Zoey said, amused. Though, inappropriately, and shallowly, she did appreciate the fact Delta seemed to think she was attractive. Considering the sort of dynamic Zoey’s class filled, that would make things easier. “But you think she’ll … be fine with everything?”

“I’ll be the one to tell her,” Delta said. “I’ve known her for a bit. Done some wayfaring together. It’ll go down easier coming from me.”

“Go easy on the details,” Rosalie said. “Zoey’s class needs to stay a secret.”

Delta rolled her eyes. “I’m not a blabber-mouth like your girlfriend, so don’t worry.”

Rosalie snorted.

Delta—and Zoey—waited.

Rosalie stiffened. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

“She isn’t?” Delta asked.

Rosalie gave her a disdainful look, and spared some of it for Zoey, too.

Like usual, it was up to Zoey to drag things back. “What class is she?”

“Maddy? Illusionist. Not the heaviest DPS, but seems like you’re capable of some yourself, so I think it balances out.”

“Illusionist. Huh.” Inappropriately, Zoey’s mind wandered to what kinds of things an illusionist could do in the … less appropriate sense of fighting. Then—fuck it, right? Sex was clearly a part of their profession, so long as Zoey accompanied her team into shards. So she voiced it out loud. “Something like that might be useful in boss fights. Dunno how, but versatility never hurts.”

“That’s true,” Delta said. She leaned forward conspiratorially. “You’re not the only one who’s thought it. I have it on good authority she doesn’t wear clothes—just wears an illusion around.”

“Are you serious?”

Delta shrugged. “Maybe I just made it up. What do you think?”

Zoey narrowed her eyes and tried to read Delta … but she couldn’t.

“But yeah,” Delta said, laughing. “I bet she could do all kinds of freaky things. Illusions are useful. She’s in high demand, so she might be hard to snag.”

“Have you two … ?”

“Fucked?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Nah. We’re just friends.” A pause. “Not that I wouldn’t.”

“Is there anyone you wouldn’t?” Rosalie muttered.

“This is where I say you,” Delta shot back. Then, a sideways grin. “But some lies are too blatant, even for me.”

Delta’s response had Rosalie’s face turning red with comical speed. As usual, she pointedly didn’t reply, focusing instead on her plate of food.

Which reminded Zoey of yesterday’s escapades. Zoey wondered how thoroughly the body-swaps had affected Rosalie. Rosalie definitely had appreciated using Delta’s body. In a way, she’d lost her virginity—cock-virginity, at least, for an awkward way to put it—to the fox-girl as much as she had to Zoey. It’d been Zoey piloting Delta’s body, but it had to be hard for Rosalie to ignore the fact it had been Delta’s body she’d been thrusting into.

And she was blushing a little too brightly at Delta’s teasing for Zoey not to think Rosalie might return the sentiment—that Delta wasn’t a ‘hard no’, either. Their personalities might not mesh, but attraction? It was there. Maybe it had always been, but it’d become more pronounced since the events of the last shard.

Zoey would have to keep working that angle. It’d already been established that polyamory was more common in this world than Zoey’s, and Zoey would be ecstatic if these two girls could work out their issues—grow closer to each other. In … a few senses of the word. Because a threesome with Rosalie and Delta? Where everyone was enjoying each other, rather than just Zoey and one of them at a time?

Er … probably best Zoey didn’t think about it. She might have received those ‘Panties of Holding’, but she didn’t have them equipped. Hardening would be as insanely obvious as always.

“Back to Maddy,” Zoey said, maybe a bit too loudly to not be suspicious. “If she’s an illusionist, she’ll still be able to train me?”

“Mages are mages,” Delta said. “Sure. Not perfectly, but yeah. The bigger question is, how are you going to keep topped off?”

It took a second for Zoey to understand. Right … because I need to collect lust to keep casting spells. Presumably, during a training session, she’d be pelting off spells faster than normal. So even more recharges would be necessary.

“Better put the moves on her,” Delta smirked, “because I’m pretty sure me and blondie are gonna have our own stuff going on.”

Rosalie nodded in agreement.

“And what will you be doing?” Zoey asked, curious.

“Training. Research,” Rosalie said. “Vetting for a fifth member, our tank—if Delta doesn’t have one.”

“None good enough for your standards,” Delta admitted. “Tanks are hard to find.”

“And other things,” Rosalie continued. “I might have an excuse to not rush shards as fast as possible, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be advancing through alternate methods.”

Zoey’s own plans would include alchemy, spell casting, and general combat training, so she’d have a packed schedule too. Plus, hopefully, that date with Rosalie—she assumed that was still on the table. Which, speaking of, she needed to work something out.

And hopefully some outings with Delta. She wanted to get to know her teammates better. In a more casual scenario, not this hectic life-and-death frenzy that had been the standard. Something calm. Easy-going. She didn’t think this fantasy world had movies, but something of the sorts. A play? That’d been the standard in old-times, hadn’t it?

Or a picnic? A picnic sounded nice. Anything with Rosalie or Delta sounded nice. They were just … enjoyable to be around.

That crush might be expanding to two girls, from one.

“And you?” Zoey asked Delta.

“Get wicked drunk?” she said, shrugging. “You’re free to join me. Besides that, the usual. Some of what blondie said. I’m not wholly a slacker.”

Zoey laughed.

Getting wickedly drunk … honestly, didn’t sound like the worst thing in the world. Maybe she’d spare a night to take the offer. Rosalie wouldn’t approve of the lack of studiousness … but on the flip side of that coin, Zoey also planned to be chipping away at that aspect of Rosalie. She needed to learn to cut loose.

It might take some effort, but either way, she was excited to try.

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