When Hyacinth comes home to her new apartment for the first time after a long day at university, it's to the sight of moving bots just finishing dropping off the last of her stuff and moving furniture into place. The full-immersion VR pod her parents gave her is safely hooked up in the pod room, her bed is in her bedroom, she has chairs and a desk and some bookshelves. Clothes are mostly still in boxes, waiting to be hung up in the closet. Holovid and a cozy chair occupy the living room. She doesn't have any food in the small kitchen yet.
She walks over to the window and looks up at the violet sky and colorful stars. "Lovely little touch of home there."
Sable bobbles her head back and forth a bit. "Sort of. The death dream takes its location from your memories, apparently, someplace you feel safe. That was the only place for us. She can read conscious thoughts though, from what I've seen."
"I see..."
Hyacinth frowns. "Worrisome. But I guess the data must be there, for all the thought controlled interfaces to work..."
Sable nods. "Yeah, it has to be." She shrugs. "There are worse things."
"I'm not going to say I'm pleased about that, but given the state of SAI rights I'm going to sit on that information, at least for now."
She sighs, and goes and flops into the bed.
Sable flops down beside her.
"From what little I've seen she only uses it to do her death dream job, but there's no way to know for sure."
"Depending on how they made her she might literally have no choice," Hyacinth says. "But let's not talk about this. I want to cuddle."
Sable nods and pulls Hyacinth into her arms, holding her tenderly and draping a wing over her.
She nestles in and closes her eyes.
"... it's good to be home," she murmurs.
She presses a kiss to the top of Hyacinth's head, right between her ears, and murmurs into her hair, "Yeah, it really is."
She presses her forehead to Sable's skin, and lingers in the warmth of her winged embrace.
It feels easy. Familiar.
The spelled waves in the window wash on and on, under the multicoloured stars.
She slowly strokes her back, tenderly savoring the contact and helping her love relax. "Been a wild few days. But we have each other."
She sighs tenderly and holds Sin close. They have no schedule. They can go shopping when they get hungry, they have the gold, everything's fine.
They can rest.
She holds her loves.
Sin's fingers trail back and forth over the edge of Sable's blouse. It's soft. Nice to touch.
She smiles and twirls her fingers gently through Hyacinth's hair, sighing contentedly.
Sable's slow breath and heartbeat are her world, now.
In, and out. In, and out. Like waves on the shore.
She's finally home.
The gentle relaxation of the girl in her arms is simple and precious, everything she hoped for.
Peace with people she loves.
Acceptance.
Home.
The slow breath of a woman she loves, close against her skin.
Nothing in her life prepared her for this.
It feels...
Good.
She's tried to find this so many times. She's been burned, had her heart ripped out. Is this the time she gets to keep it?
Feels like it is.
Feels safer, somehow.