Foxy finishes the last bite of her sandwich, knocks back her espresso, and gets up. "Shall I go fetch the books?"

"Nope. I want to be snuggling you girls when we start reading again. Let's let Liv finish her oatmeal first."

She leans back and smiles, sipping slowly at her drink.

"Aw." Foxy sits back down and curls her tail into her lap and pets it.

X gets Liv her espresso, and then sits at the table as well.

And a little time passes as Liv finishes off her oatmeal. 

X collects the dishes and puts them in the dishwasher, and then it's time for more reading.

Foxy is naturally first onto the bed.

Violet is right behind her, stretching back into the middle and opening her arms for her girls to snuggle close.

By unspoken agreement, X gets to hug Vi's front this morning.

"... have I been good?", she asks.

"Of course you have been."

"Didn't you hear what Vi said a couple minutes ago?"

X just curls in a little against Vi and looks at her entreatingly. 

Violet smiles softly and tenderly, snuggling X tightly into her chest. "You, my love, my beautiful night-sky, have been wonderfully good."

She kisses X's cheek. "You've worked hard," kisses her other cheek, "you've woken us up lovingly," kisses her forehead, "you've served us delicious food and drink," kisses her nose, "and you've come to get snuggled by your Sun when you're feeling vulnerable." And she finishes with a gentle kiss to X's lips.

"You've been a very good girl."

X blushes and snuggles in close. 

"... Thank you."

She closes her eyes and exhales, laying her head against Vi's shoulder. 

"I'm exhausted. Read to me?"

Vi keeps one arm snugly around X, and pets her hair tenderly with her other hand. "Gladly."

She turns her head and kisses Liv on the cheek with a grin. "My hands are a little full, love. Would you turn the pages for me?"

"Sure."

Liv grabs the book from where they left off, and props it up in front of Vi.

And Violet resumes reading, picking up where Wind is still in their grief, and then the second runner starts chasing them, only to die again. And when Wind slows down for the third young runner, and trusts them enough to try dreaming, and burns up, a tear rolls down Violet's cheek.

"Nnn, that's a familiar regret, a promise you broke because you didn't understand it well enough."

She snuggles into her loves.

Foxy brushes her hands through her hair. "I've made a few of those in my time..." She sighs, smiles. "But we're still together, and that counts for something."

"..."

It would seem that Black Cross has fallen asleep.

Vi smiles tenderly and whispers to her other girlfriends, "Aww, she's tuckered out. Liv, bookmark? Foxy, get her door for me?"

And she gracefully scoops X into a princess carry, rolling onto her knees, standing, and then walking gently toward the sleeping girl's bedroom.

Everyone plays their assigned parts smoothly and practicedly. X falling asleep on them in the mornings isn't too uncommon.

Liv gets back to her tinkering with the ear setup,

While Foxy goes and talks to one of her counselling clients on the phone.

And Vi keeps writing patches for infrastructure software.

Life goes on, weeks pass. The polycule makes time for the Krissan Shirasanmi each morning and evening, and just as they're nearing the end...