"I am... glad you were able to resolve that successfully."

She shivers.

"Yeah. I had to take it to Mordor - where Sauron ruled from - and throw it in the volcano it'd been forged in. That was - mostly just a really long time behind enemy lines, but my friend Estel knew where I'd gone, and convinced the army generals to create some big distractions so there'd be less of a defense..."

"The volcano kinda exploded after I threw the ring in, but the dragons rescued me and brought me back to El, who wasn't being mind controlled anymore. I - was in a rough place, but three of the really important people in the war apparently had magic rings of their own, which they decided they no longer needed because Sauron was gone, and their rings had been forged against him - so they gave those to us as thanks for what we did, to use as sacrifices to get our bodies back. It was - a lot of a sacrifice, so I was also able to trade for a ton of medical knowledge and the original interdimensional array."

"We've been - fixing things, mostly, since. Pushed for amnesty for Sauron's slave armies before heading back to Amestris... And then Hohenheim showed back up, told us about the homunculus - which was calling itself Father - but the dragons took care of that problem, as well as Dante. And by the time we'd gotten back, Akira-sensei had gotten September comfortable, and I was able to fix her the rest of the way."

"The dragons are very useful."

"Yeah. Good friends to have, and all that."

"Ruby and Ellie have been - helping me get over stuff, too. So I'm in a better place."

"So that's pretty much the story of our life."

"It does sound - eventful."

"The curse of interesting times."

"Things are - interesting, still, but in the way history books skim over. Which's a good place to be at, I think."

"I prefer it this way."

She grins, squeezing her sister. "Where we're at now is great."

Hug.

She giggles a bit, before kissing El. "Exceptionally great."

It's nice to see the young people can still be happy.

Snug.

"...Oh, and, uh... As long as we're on kind of - odd topics," because she doesn't have a good way to say 'incredibly personally upsetting' right now, " - there's this thing Ruby and Ellie do with - dom and sub stuff - and is that. The norm? With - us."

Probably she shouldn't be asking about that but she sometimes get So Anxious about whether the only reason she finds the thought of subbing upsetting is her trauma... Though now she can actually think about it ever without having a panic attack and dissociating, so, hey, progress.

"It is not uncommon, precisely, but not the norm."

Slow nod. "...Thanks."

"You are not the first to find the idea uncomfortable, either."

She nods, slowly.

"I don't - like being traumatized, but - "

Uncomfortable shrug.

"It is what it is."

"Incidentally, one of your alts offers therapeutic services, as part of her domain as God of Madness."

She snuggles into her sister. "I might - talk to her ever."

Hugs.

Lean.

She's - getting tired, somewhat. Mostly emotionally.

"I think that's enough talking for one day. What should we do about dinner?"

"Might be nice to go out. Or get takeout. Have someone else handle cooking."

"How about that new place down past the jeweler's?"