“You think you can just leave along with me, without looking suspicious?” John asked Scarlett, as they walked around the Boston Airport. There was no reason to take another journey on a train, when they could take a flight to quickly get back to New York.

“No,” she answered, making sure her shades sat neatly on her face. She had contact lenses in to hide her red eyes, but the pale technophile wasn’t used to sunlight in the first place. Luckily, today was a rather pleasant day in terms of temperature, a nice Saturday to get home on. “Not that it matters, my appearance is rippling out in the news cycle anyway. Unavoidable, really, if there is this sudden ally of yours in the area you quickly convinced to join your cause.”

“Fair enough,” John conceded. The theories around that would likely be wild. They had their official story and it was close enough to be true to be told repeatedly without fucking it up, however, so things should just calm down and continue as normally. “Ahhh, I am just so happy that worked out well.”

“Yeah, thanks to whom?” Scarlett asked, throwing a chewing gum in her mouth. Likely as a distraction, so her mouth had something to do while she couldn’t have a smoke.

“Thanks to you, Scarlett,” the Gamer immediately conceded and wondered how he could reward her. “I don’t think you’re the type for reward kisses,” he mused, glaring at her pink lips. When they weren’t distorted in some sort of scowl, they looked soft and sensual, like the lips of young women just tended to. Sadly, they were currently stretched into a mocking half-smile.

“I can’t buy things with your kisses,” she confirmed rubbing her fingers together as if she was polishing a coin. “So no, that’s useless to me.”

“You can’t buy things from getting fucked either, yet you keep wanting me to bend you over the table and spank your ass until it gets as red as your hair,” John pointed out, putting a hand on her waist after they had went through the terminal gate. He kept his butt-touching to a minimum, even if it was hard to hold back between her closeness and his girlfriend walking ahead of them, her round ass stretching her skinny jeans to a degree that was bad for John’s blood circulation.

“Don’t make me horny or we’ll join the Mile-High club,” Scarlett threatened him with a good time.

As much as John was open for sexy times, this was one of the few things he actually had to say no to. “Short flight, small bathroom stall,” he just shortcut his reasons, “plus, do you really think I’m not already a member?”

“No, you had an excessive orgy.” Scarlett knew, of course she knew.

“Excessive is just the right word, even by modern standards,” John agreed smoothly, remembering those few hours fondly. “What reward would you like then?”

“Take me on the beach,” Scarlett suggested, or demanded rather, judging by her choice of words, in a relaxed fashion. Sparing himself the question whether she meant ‘to the beach’ or not, he just nodded and then bowed down to kiss her.

Even though he didn’t get to see her pink lips relax, they were just as soft when they pressed against his. Just like her whole body had, under the mannish suit, that female warmth he just so craved with his every pore. Strands of her scarlet hair tickled his nose, curving unruly out of her bob-cut. He ignored it, as his tongue wrestled with hers for a few blissful moments.

The happy smile that appeared on her face was just as cute as the little blush. Facial structure aside, she looked incredibly feminine at that moment. “So, you’re giving out kisses for free now?” she asked in her usual tone between tease, mockery and banter. “You should think more economically.”

“There is an endless supply, so I can give them away for nothing,” he decided and kissed her again. Shortly after, they got on the plane and went back home.

_________________________________________________________________________

The teleporter John had left close to NYC airport was a godsend. After all this time away from home, he hadn’t felt like calling a cab and dealing with inner city traffic nor to walk there once entering the Hudson Barrier. With the teleporter, he could skip all of that, ending up right on top of his house.

“ARE YOU PROUD?” he shouted up to Lady Liberty, resisting the urge to pull the contract out of his inventory and waving it around like a madman. Purely symbolic, the only reason he did that was for himself. For no reason that was immediately apparent to himself. Something about doing right by the ideals he was raised on.

The girls with him reacted in several different ways. Aclysia and Beatrice just let him do whatever he wanted, Rave giggled but kept her opinion to herself, only Scarlett spoke out. “You’re screaming at a tall tinfoil statue, I think we have better things to do,” the ever-busy Technomancer stated, and it was hard to disagree with that.

“Let me have some things,” John grumblingly pleaded as he lowered his hands. “I like my symbolism. But you’re right, we have a lot of things to do. Beatrice, time table please.”

“Time current: 12:38. Next activity in schedule: return speech. Pre-scheduled since the first of July, attendance mandatory. Time until: 1 hour 22 minutes,” dutifully, the passive maid summarized and then added, “No further planned activities detected in the schedule. Note: Master wanted to make sure all administrative procedures were in proper proceeding. Additional: the Lake Alliance has yet to respond to any attempts at negotiations.”

“Well… if they like playing coy so much…” John sounded joking, but he was more annoyed than anything. The moment he had successfully ended negotiations with Amacat, he had reached out to the Lake Alliance.

A few hours of delay were, while not expected (John figured he would at least have gotten an insult back immediately), understandable. A whole day, however, clearly meant something was going on internally that prevented a clear answer. Which could have been good or bad, John had no way to know.

He shrugged and moved on. “Alright, here’s the plan for today then,” he announced, blinking up to the sun. It was slightly warmer over here in New York, but only bordering on uncomfortably hot, not quite there. “First things first, I’ll go visit Eliza.”

It was obviously up the priority list to look after the ball of insanity, presumably still bundled up in her room. Contact had been limited, sometimes they could only talk for a few minutes. He had made an effort to call at least once every day, but time was a scarce commodity sometimes and especially in the last three days.

“I’ll go look for Mat then, don’t want her to feel lonely,” Rave announced with a smirk. Nodding, her boyfriend gave the Lightbearer a thankful look. In another situation, he would have visited Metra first, but Eliza was simply a more troubled person. Plus, the berserker babe was unlikely to mind. Still, he liked that Rave would let the blonde know they were back while also making his visit less crowded.

“Afterwards I’ll go hold that speech, spend a few hours catching up on my paperwork, make sure everything is in order with the government officials that are going to Amacat and all that.” The Gamer looked over to the short-haired of his two maids, “Beatrice, I would ask you to start sorting now so I have less to do on that front later.”

“Affirmative,” she confirmed his request with a little bow and began the walk towards the elevator that would bring her to ground level. From there, it was only a short distance to the Guild Bank and John’s office. She continued listening through the mental connection even as she went out of view, since she had been tasked with keeping his schedule in mind.

“Then, I’ll swing by your place,” John looked over to Scarlett, who had lit herself a cigarette and was already halfway through smoking it. “I think another strategy meeting is in order. I’ll bring Chemilia, just so you know.”

“And?” Scarlett gave him a challenging smile. “Someone watching isn’t going to stop me. Especially since that girl already saw you naked.”

“Sure, but I thought we could hit it up on the beach afterwards instead,” John replied. He wasn’t too shocked to hear that Scarlett didn’t care whatsoever about people watching them bang. Actually, the opposite would have surprised him more than anything. “Celebrate your newfound freedom, since you asked for it earlier and it’s a nice day for it anyway.” He gave her a wide grin. “I can bring some toys as well, although they won’t be of the usual beach variety.”

“See, now you’re thinking like the guy I wanted to fuck from the start.” Scarlett took a page out of Rave’s book and gave him a wink. The day laid out, they spread out to get their individual tasks done. His girlfriend gave him a peck on the cheek before going into the building, them separating right there, while Scarlett shared the teleporter ride to the skyscraper with him before taking her own turn into her mechanically shut-off compartment.

It was only John and Aclysia then, the weaponized maid happily tapping along her master in silence. Normally she would have asked him something, just so he would start a conversation and let her hear his voice, but she was evidently more than content just walking next to him with their arms around each other.

John, however, felt the need to hear her calming voice, so he asked, “How do you feel about being back home?”

“It’s been a long two weeks,” was her immediate answer and John could only agree. Not only because they had been busy throughout most of it, but because it’s been actually closer to three weeks. They had left on Monday, July second, 19 days ago. The delay had largely been on the back of the renovation efforts on Savage Island.

“Right, that reminds me,” John said, following that train of thought. “Maybe we should rename Savage Island to Servant Island, given your plans with it.”

“It’s not necessary,” Aclysia assured, despite looking clearly flattered by the idea that he would change the name of an island for her.

“I’ve been looking for a new name anyway,” he waved off with his free right hand. “Savage Island is a pretty awful name to call my base of operations in the region.”

“May I suggest Servitude Island instead then, Master?” the maid suggested with an adoring glint in her emerald eyes. “Servant Island does not have the correct ring to it, in my opinion.”

“Whatever my beloved maid wants, my beloved maid gets,” John promised and, as his reward, felt Aclysia lean her head against his. It didn’t look like much, it wasn’t even that much more body contact, but it made all the difference the Gamer wanted. He didn’t even need to look at her thoughts to feel the joy beaming from her being like warmth from the sun. “We’ll have a lot of time in the coming days, by the way,” he said, “maybe we should look into getting that driver’s license.”

“That would be most helpful,” Aclysia’s head shifted as she nodded slightly. They had agreed a while ago that they should be looking into getting a bunch of licenses for things, mostly cars of different sizes and for private airplanes. John was tired of calling cabs or sharing space on the plane that he could use to instead stretch his legs or stretch his girls’ bodies. Plus, independence from the shackles of public availability meant John could upgrade his private vehicles with all the things he wanted.

Like a massive bus with a sauna. Sounded impractical in reality. Combining space that was bigger on the inside with the mana machinery that could convert magical power into water and electricity, however, made it more than feasible. Now he just needed a great car engineer, a master spatial enchanter and a magical engineer to get all of that done. That was actually where the trouble started. Plus that wouldn’t be cheap whatsoever.

The tent of Rave’s father, Reagan, had been worth 500 million dollar according to her. John assumed that something on wheels would cost a whole lot more. A vanity expense he couldn’t justify just yet. Regardless of that, being able to drive a normal car would already solve a bunch of annoying problems.

“…I wonder if I can get a black Cadillac,” John thought out loud. “Like, of the old timer variety.”

“I will look into it,” Aclysia assured, followed by, “What do you require that specific car for?” If he had been dealing with most other people, those comments would have come the other way around. The weaponized maid was eager to first make her services known and then ask the (for her) unnecessary details.

“Honestly, just something incredibly vain,” he shrugged, footsteps echoing in the corridor that led to a single, familiar door at the end of it. “I want to drive somewhere while blasting Back in Black by ACDC and they sing about being in the back of a Cadillac. Also think it would fit being black.”

“Where would you want to drive with that?” Aclysia asked, already knowing the answer.

John just gave her a kiss on the top of her head and smirked, he didn’t feel like saying the obvious out loud. “Okay, brace yourself for impact,” he warned her instead. The door to Tamara’s room, where the blood addict was currently looking after the source of said blood, was solid black and blocked all sounds from entering or escaping. At least to John’s hearing which, while sharp, didn’t exceed human boundaries in any meaningful way.