"Oh, huh. Their opposition really must have had some resources for things to be difficult with future sight on their side. I'll probably want to read a history book about that at some point myself, honestly."

She nods. "Yeah. We can get you one when you come visit the office, at the latest. Maybe sooner."

"Lovely. I'm looking forward to it."

Another little squeeze.

"Hmm, actually, should we rotate hugs through all of you so none of you miss out?"

She smiles and nods. "Good idea!"

And then she kisses Alethia's cheek before starting to shift in place.

And in a moment or three, Hailey's back. "Hi," she says with a wry smile.

"Hi Hailey! I bestow upon you: squish! The most sacred of treasures!"

She squishes the Hailey!

She grins, looks a little like she might blush if she could, and snuggles in. "Truly the most holy and reverent of gifts. I will cherish it always."

She smiles softly and gives Hailey another little squeeze. She thinks she likes her new- uh. Girlfriends? Potential-mates? Whatever the label, she likes them all.

"I am pleased by this."

Hailey nestles into the squeeze and smiles softly. Her girlfriends/mates/insert-label-here seem to be pretty damned fond of her too, so that works out.

"We have different favorite colors, by the way," she adds, head resting on Alethia's shoulder. "Matches eye color except for Ruby, who likes red best."

"Ah, I see Ruby has the best taste. Um, just to be clear I don't actually think there's objectively better or worse colors or anything like that, I just thought that would be funny to say."

Hailey giggles and shakes her head. "Of course you'd get embarrassed about making a joke like that. Dork. We could tell it was a joke, and it would take a whole fuckin' lot more than that to piss us off. Not sure you can piss us off, honestly. Probably possible, but what even would it take?"

Oh, good, she's glad.

"I could attempt to launch you into the sun for foolish and poorly-thought-through reasons? That would work, probably."

She giggles and grins. "I might be a bit huffy in that case, but mostly we'd just be so sad! What even made it necessary? I can tell you're a very thoughtful and careful person, s'not like you to do something so haphazard."

"I can't actually say you're wrong about me, honestly. Or, well, wrong about the person I think I am, at any rate, I suppose we could the both of us simply be very confused. It's a theoretical possibility!"

She snickers and shakes her head. "Doesn't feel very plausible, for all that it's theoretically possible. Also, mate bonds have yet to be documented to be wrong about people, ever."

"Well, you could be wrong about the set of people you could mate to! The mate bond doesn't have to be wrong about compatibility, you'd just need to be able to have a fulfilling relationship with someone who wasn't thoughtful and careful."

She tilts her head, considering the idea.

"I mean. There's an argument, 'cause I love Neo, and she's an absolute gremlin, but she's got a thoughtful side she balances it with, and she's careful not to catch people she doesn't mean to in collateral from her pranks."

Then she shakes her head. "Nah, can't see it. You're just a thoughtful, careful sweetheart."

She wiggles the littlest bit next to Hailey and gives her a tight squeeze. She can squeeze as hard as she wants, for Hailey is highly durable! This is good. She is not often seized by the desire to squeeze as hard as she possibly can, but it turns out it does happen occasionally!

Hailey wiggles into the squeeze and grins. And to think, if they don't fuck this up, soon Alethia will be able to squeeze them even harder, and they'll be able to squeeze her without worrying about breaking her!

"You're pretty great, y'know that?"

"I am relatively sure you are magically obligated to think that, given the matebond, but probably you'd think pretty similarly without it, so I shall still accept this compliment! I shall place it inside a compliment case and treasure it forever."

She giggles and nods. "We know ourselves well enough to say that you're correct on both counts. Also your compliment case is adorable. It's now a goal to fill it to bursting."

"Nooooo, don't burst the case, all my compliments will spill out and I won't have anywhere to keep them!"

"Well, we can't have that. we'll have to fill it just short of that, and then make you another case."

"More cases! How kind! How generous! How lovely!"

She somehow actually means this, despite the fact that the cases are fictional.

Perhaps that's because the fictional cases come with implications of large numbers of impending nonfictional compliments to fill them?

"I should start now. Beautiful, smart, hard-working, studious, stylish, charming, adorable, and sexy."