The rest of Valerie’s work week glided easily by; but her dreams grew more vivid, erotic, and distracting.

Lucca picked the movie, a polished musical romance from a few years prior. Valerie remembered seeing trailers for it in theaters, but in the years pre-transition she had avoided that sort of picture, afraid of the potential cracks it might reveal in the carefully-constructed masculinity that kept her safe.

Valerie’s headache lingered, much diminished, into Sunday. The exertion of a run that morning would have been cathartic, and she had no lack of stress to work out; but the mere thought of pounding feet on desert regolith to match the pounding in her head was almost enough to bring back the previous day’s dizzy nausea.

“Can’t you just do whatever you did at the door?” Phaine was, very obviously, incredibly annoyed about the situation.

How much love does it take to stand against the horrors of the world?

Valerie rested her head on the wooden counter-top of the island, simultaneously steadying herself and letting the cool, rough wood surface ground and distract her from the way the room was trying to spin and twist around her.

“Wait, you’re still married?” “I didn’t even read the prenup. I trusted Matt. He flipped through page by page and told me what each one said, only he left out a few things.”

Phaine led the group into the antechamber, carrying one of the flickering candles that they had used to light Mira’s bedroom. The thief moved quietly enough that Ness wondered if cat claws were the only enhancements the woman had. The dim candlelight was barely enough to see by, but not enough to rouse the sleeping guard.

Valerie thought seriously about simply leaving. Lucca’s outburst had not been, precisely, violence directed at her; but it felt like a threat, or at least a danger. It was, at least, not a strong indicator that she was safe with them. She reflected blackly that it at least helped settle the tension between her concerns about how they had treated her, and her arousal and attraction to them. Despite whatever other ways her mind was twisted and broken, Lucca’s demonstration did not in any way draw her interest.

“Hey, Mira?” Ness peeled away from the door and floated behind Mira’s elbow, careful not to touch her. “Not now, Ness,” Mira muttered, waving her away dismissively, and ignoring Ness’s answering scowl.