Fantasy A Morning After Amongst Equals by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Story :- A Morning After Amongst Equals

Written by TMaskedWriter

"I was born to make you happy.

I think you're just my style.

Everywhere I go,

tellin' everyone I know.

Baby, I love to see you smile."

-Randy Newman, "I Love to See You Smile"

[Ramesh_Rocky]

A Morning After Amongst Equals Pt. 01

Foreword: Most of this story takes place the morning after "A Conversation Amongst Equals." The events of the day leading up to that story may be read in "A Remembrance Amongst Equals." I don't know if I've explained my "code" to the titles here before. It goes like this:

"Amongst Equals" means that the focus will be Troy & Julie's love story. Hopefully in the vein of old-timey romantic comedies. They got their "Happily Ever After" the night we met them, and now they're living it. Don't come here looking for sad endings. There's generally less graphic sex in them than in this story; however, this is taking place the morning after their first night together. They're likely to go again.

"Day" means Friends of Troy, Julie, and Susan may take focus over them. Once again, old-timey happy-go-lucky romantic comedy; as opposed to the modern "Jennifer Aniston has to jump through some hoops before eventually fucking this guy. Will her Gay Best Friend™ and Klutzy Gal Pal Who's the Only One Who Brings Anything Resembling Comedy to This Movie™ be able to help? Not until they talk to The Magical Negro™! Honestly, why do we keep making these? Money? No, I've done fifty of these fucking 'can you imagine a world where fucking Jennifer Aniston can't just step out her front door and point at a passerby if she really wanted to get laid that badly' trailer voiceovers alone, I'm rollin' in it! What the hell am I contributing to society? You know what? Fuck this, I'm out of here! I'm going home to pop in the original black & white 'Sabrina,' watch Bogie and Hepburn fuckin' nail it as I lay on my bed of worthless-in-the-next-world money, think upon my sins, and cry myself to sleep" definition of "Romantic Comedy." Don't expect much violence or sadness in these ones, either.

"Night" means that the story will focus on Contessa Helena de San Finzione. Like Propappou said, "She busy. She gots the Queening to do!" Although Helen is family to the others, her world is one where things explode, people die, and she's the one expected to do something about it all. There also won't be much more science-fiction tech involved. Springheel was an idea in my head that had been looking to escape for years. Although, Helen actually FUNDS her Ministry of Science, so who knows?

Susan Bailey gets title billing in her stories because she's got a great agent. (Note from Susan: I really DO!!) She can also do that "House of Cards" thing where she stops and turns to us, the audience, says a few words, then goes back to the story. She employs parenthesis for that purpose. (Note from Susan: Like just back there. Also, right here. I COULD totally do the whole Deadpool thing if I really wanted, but The Foul and Profane Masked Thing That I Worship trusted me with this, ya know? So, I try to keep it down to Ferris Bueller.)

I love you too, Susan. Her stories tend to focus upon the personal journey that she's undergoing, and she walks between their worlds, so she could end up anywhere.

I recall hearing that something that was always on Tolkien's "To Do" list was to go back and rewrite "The Hobbit" as a gorier, more adult tale. The idea being that the version we all know and love was meant to be the "Disneyfied" Children's version of a tale from Middle Earth's mythology. And this second version would be the "Grown-Up" one that they don't tell in the Mythology books in the kids' section.

I've thought about going back and rewriting the first three stories with actual descriptions and details and such. This should take care of that desire, since the Conversation should be nicely bookended here, and Susan's taking care of the fourth and bailing me out before it became "my schtick" was why I rewarded her with Free Will and Fourth Wall Awareness. She has an email address if you want to talk to her about it. (Last Note from Susan: I grant my full permission to post my "writing business" email. It's thisisnotevenmyfinalemail at gmail dot com)

So, on with the story.

* * *

[Ramesh_Rocky]

A Morning After Amongst Equals

Julie Equals and Susan Bailey sat on the couches of one of Air Finzione's SST flights, finding the seat belts between the cushions as the plane taxied onto the runway at SeaTac to take them to San Finzione.

Nine months prior, the two of them had visited San Finzione for the Festival of Cupid, at a time when a dear friend of theirs had been through a life-changing experience and decided that she wanted a child and could think of no better father than Julie's husband, Troy. Because all of them but Susan had been friends since childhood and because Jealousy was not a concept that existed in the Equals Household, they were honored to help.

Now, they were on their way to join Troy and their friend, Contessa Helena de San Finzione, for the birth. Troy had been spending a lot of time in San Finzione the past few months, primarily to help Helen's nicotine cravings, as she was a heavy smoker; but also, to assure her that she could handle motherhood, that the father would be there to help, and that their upbringing would be nothing like her own. She'd gone into labor two hours previously, and they'd been packed and ready to run out the door when the limousine from the San Finzione Consulate in Seattle came to rush them through security to their flight. With the diplomatic plates and the owner of the airline being a personal friend, they were rushed onto the tarmac to the plane for immediate takeoff.

"I keep hearing about all this airport security shit," Susan half-said to Julie, who was on the phone with Troy and Helen. "And I never have to go through a metal detector."

"It's good to be friends with The Queen." Julie responded after ending the call.

"Until one day, it's 'off with your head.'" Susan replied.

"I doubt she'd ever do that." Julie said, locking her belt into place as they turned onto the runway. "Despite everything else, Helena's really not the vindictive type." Julie thought on those words for a moment. "Unless you hurt someone she cares about. Or really piss her off. When that happens, we stay out of her way. Well, you and I do. Troy might be able to talk her down. He says everything's fine there, by the way. Paul's with them now, he's saying we should get there about in time."

Julie referred to Dr. Tenente Paul Maisson of La Squadra de Ultimados, San Finzione's Special Forces division and, since Generalissimo Ramirez had been made Supreme Commander of their armed forces two years before, La Contessa's personal guard.

"The way she feels about both of you," Susan said, tightening the seat belt. "I'm surprised she hasn't tried to steal Troy away from you. Or you away from him. Or both of you."

Julie gave a little laugh at that.

"You might be surprised to hear this, but she was always sort of pushing for us to get together. It wasn't like 'if I can't have you, nobody can.' More like 'if I can't have your hearts, then you two should have each other.'"

"She already had both of them." Susan replied. "Just not all to herself."

"Even with what was going on between us, Helena's still the first person I called the morning after."

"Well, Seattle to San Finzione is the only flight I've ever taken, so I have no way of knowing if it's a long or short flight. Other than the fact that it's Trans-Atlantic, so I'd imagine it's a long one. We've got time, is what I'm saying."

Julie checked the time on her phone. Three in the afternoon meant that they'd get to San Finzione at about ten in the morning.

"It looks like we've got time," Julie said. "So, would you like me to tell you the story, or would you like to experience it?"

Susan leaned over as far as the seat belt would allow. This was something that the power that they, Troy, and Helen all possessed to control the minds of others made possible. Whenever they could, they used it to help others. One of the uses that they'd discovered for it was telling stories of their past. Julie could simply tell her the story, or she could let her experience it as if Susan were playing Julie's role in the memory. Susan chose the latter. With the three of them having known each other their whole lives, and Susan only having come to join their family in the last two years, they'd been able use it to let her in on a few 'you had to be there' stories.

"Hmm... HEAR about you fucking Troy or EXPERIENCE it... I'll take the second one."

Julie reached out to take Susan's hand. She felt her pulse and began tapping in time with it. Susan began to relax and close her eyes.

"In that case," Julie said, her voice taking on a relaxing tone. "Go deeper and relax, Susan. Come, enter my imagination and see him."

Susan sighed and was there.

* * *

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Troy Medina was dreaming about an angel giving him the best, most loving blowjob ever. He slowly began to wake up and open his eyes as it dawned on him that it wasn't a dream, but something happening to him in real life right at that moment.

Another angel was giving him the best, most loving blowjob he'd ever had. In the morning light streaming through the windows and shining down at the foot of the bed that used to be his parents' and was now his, he could make out the halo around her head, but couldn't see her face from it.

A reminder that he'd been drinking the night before came in the form of the hangover that hit him. Troy gave a sound that was half a moan at the amazingly skilled mouth around his dick, and half a moan at his head, when he remembered what had happened last night, and whose face was under the halo that he could now see was hair that started as Dishwater Blonde at its roots, then shifted color as it grew longer to a Buttery Blonde. She took her mouth off of it and looked up at him.

"Morning, Master." Julie Andrews, no relation or affiliation whatsoever to the actress/singer of the same name; said to him as she took a little pause. "He got up a few minutes ago and was looking lonely." She said before going right back to it.

As he enjoyed it, memories of the day before began trickling through the hangover as his blood was diverted away from causing him a headache. Picking Julie up at the airport, his talk with The Colonel, coming back over here to pack up Propappou's things, then taking a nap with Julie. A nap that made him start thinking about her in a way he'd never spent much time dwelling on before. Waking up too late to go out, deciding to grab something from a drive-thru and pop in a movie; having some of Propappou's Metaxa over Cookie-Bar Sundae Rainbow Explosions, deciding to play a little hypnosis game like they'd done since the two of them learned the secret of controlling minds at a young age. And that led to... the building tingling sensation started in his balls. Julie was... amazing at this.

"Julie, I... I'm gonna... I don't wanna..." He tried to tell her that he was about to cum. Julie's response was to toss her hair back, look him intensely in the eye, and redouble her efforts. Despite the movement of her head and placement of her mouth, he recognized the look on the face of his oldest, best friend. It was the look she gave whenever someone dared her to do something, right before she did it. She sped up and swirled her tongue around him until Troy couldn't take it anymore and exploded.

Troy had never thought of Julie as "the little girl next door." Not the little part, at least, because she was a week older than he was. It was an occasional joke that, because she'd been born before him, HE was the one who got to claim that SHE had been his best friend his whole life. And any suggestion of the two of them doing what they'd spent the last night doing usually came as part of Julie's reply to that joke, along with a laugh and a punch on the arm. That Julie might do what he'd woken up to her doing; much less, after Troy warned her what was now happening, and Julie made clear that she was all right with it, had been something they'd laugh off and whomever they were with at the time filed away with all of their other suspicions until inevitably concluding that the two of them MUST be "more than friends."

They had, in fact, been more than friends forever; just not in the way that their partners in previous relationships thought. Julie had been raised just as much by Troy's parents, and then his great-grandfather after they were killed in a car accident, as her own, and vice versa. When she was still a child, Julie learned to speak Greek simply from how much time she spent with Troy and Propappou. By the time they reached the age where boys and girls typically start noticing each other, they were close enough to brother and sister that the idea had been completely absurd to them.

As Julie crawled up the length of his body, he gave a little chuckle and thought the same question they'd been asking each other all night. "Why the hell didn't we do this years ago?" Julie gave Troy a brief peck on the lips, not knowing if he was the sort of guy who'd think a deeper kiss after she'd just swallowed him would be "gross." She was surprised when Troy gently lowered her lips to his again and parted his own to let her know he wasn't that type of guy. He'd tasted himself on other women's lips before, but Julie's taste was something he'd only experienced last night. Troy had always loved her scent, and now he had a new favorite thing about her.

"Morning, Mistress." He replied at last. Calling each other Master and Mistress was another habit of theirs that failed to convince anyone that they didn't have something going on behind everyone's backs. Nothing sexual had been intended by it, though; it had simply gone back to when they were children. The two of them had watched cartoons and read comics where people were hypnotized or mind-controlled to the point of being obsessed with learning how. It had been reflected in their childhood games as well. "Hypnotist" had been a popular pretend game with the two of them, and long before they moved that game into the bedroom like they had last night, Master and Mistress had become pet names to them. They'd learned quickly not to use them in public; so, the fact that it was "yet another little private thing between them" added to the list of suspicions.

"You're probably hung over, too." Julie told him, placing her hand behind his right ear and tracing small spirals. "Let me take care of that for you. Go deeper and relax."

"Umm... thank you, Mistress. You did a pretty good job of clearing my head already, though." Troy replied with a smile.

"Benefit of Doing What We Do," Julie replied, using their preferred term for the power they possessed. "Hel... SHE says that it's because I've been doing it since before we were old enough for this kind of thing, so I've never given a blowjob that I didn't absolutely want to." She gave him a little kiss. "Or to a guy I didn't really love."

Julie had an unusual experience for her upon almost mentioning a name from their past, and again when mentioning love. She and Troy had loved each other forever, and often said so. This was new, though. This time, she'd meant "love" in every possible sense; now that the one way in which they never had before had been accomplished last night.

"I can see the logic there. I certainly felt it, anyway." Troy replied with a smile. He stopped himself from saying more before the "she" that Julie had mentioned came up again.

The "She" in question was known to most of the world as Contessa Helena de San Finzione, ruler of the Sovereign County and Independent Nation-State of San Finzione; the world's most popular and successful tourist destination since the 1950s. She was also CEO Emeritus of the royal family's international business concern, Società Finzione. They had known her almost as long as each other, since she'd been Helen Parker from the bad family down the street. She was also the woman whom both of them occasionally referred to as "My First Girlfriend," although Troy had only found out just how deep her and Julie's relationship went last night; when Julie told him that she was into other women and that Helena had been her first lover, too.

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Troy simply hadn't read much into Julie's friendship with Helen or other girls to pay attention to what went on in her bedroom when they shared an apartment the summer after high school. Thanks to Doing What They Did, Troy was often too busy with the woman or women he was currently with to think much about Julie's sex life. Not having any sisters of his own, he didn't have anyone to explain to him that best girl-friends didn't sometimes just look at each other or kiss the way he and Helen kissed.

His relationship with Helen was more complex. Helen had met Byroni Medina, Troy's Propappou, at the age of eight; when she ran to his house to escape her drunken abusive father. He and the little girl bonded immediately, and Propappou fought in the courts for years to get Helen out of her father's clutches and adopt her. During that time, Troy and Julie taught her their secret to save her from him as well, making Helen Parker the third person in the world who knew the secret of mind control.

While Propappou had been fighting in the courts, Helen became Troy's first girlfriend. Between joking about the logic of how their relationship would continue once she'd technically be his grandmother and anticipation of joining his family, she'd taken to calling herself Helena Medina before the courts declared that Byroni was too old and already raising a great-grandson to take care of another teenager. The possibility of one day marrying Troy and still being able to take that name caused her to keep using it until the two of them broke up for reasons Troy still didn't quite understand. Propappou had given her the name Helena, though; and he was her real father by then, so she kept it.

After high school, Helena and Julie had decided to spend a year traveling around Europe. That year became two as they partied their way across Europe, using their abilities to take whatever they wanted from the entitled rich boys and girls of the Continent. Their non-stop party ended abruptly when the two of them met Count Vincenzo Ramon de San Finzione at a Società Finzione resort in Madrid. Helena saw something in the old man and wanted to go back down to the bar and get closer to him. Julie, aware of Helena's criminal upbringing and lack of principles, thought that she had it in her to take the nice old man for everything he had. The argument over it ended with Julie returning to America to get her Fine Arts BA. The next time she saw Helena again was on the news, marrying the Count in a grand royal ceremony; becoming Contessa Helena de San Finzione. Two years afterwards, Count Vincenzo died of a heart attack while making love to his 57-years-younger second wife. The thought that Helena might well have used the power they'd taught her to marry and deliberately fuck the old man to death to become the Ruler of the country wasn't one that Julie had difficultly imagining.

Troy had kept in better contact with Helen than Julie had over the years. Mostly because they still loved each other, but also because Troy felt a pang of responsibility for anything Helen did with the power they'd taught her. Helen had been raised in a household of petty crooks; and sometimes still had that criminal mentality. Troy imagined it was an asset as the ruler of a country but hadn't often been in their lives.

"I hope you felt a lot more than that, Math Boy." Julie said with a nudge. "Because I certainly did."

Julie's choice of words gave them both a thought: It DID feel like more. Not the awkward "What did I do" feeling that people who get drunk and have sex always seemed to get on movies and TV. Those people on TV also didn't have the power of mind control and didn't have the rush of emotions from seeing each other again, dealing with both of their homes being sold, and packing the rest of Propappou's things. And then that nap they took together, and the evening that followed. The drunken suggestion of one of their old hypno-games, leading to... now. In their state, maybe one of them had influenced the other into what both were having to admit to themselves was the best night of their lives.

[Ramesh_Rocky]

This kind of doubt was unfamiliar to both of them. A byproduct of the ability to control minds and the knowledge that one always had the upper hand in their dealings with others was a natural confidence. This confidence had allowed them to excel in their other chosen pursuits. Propappou had told Troy "if you want to steer the world, steer the money," and that gave him an interest in money and finance at an early age, leading to some sound investments and a degree in Economics, where he was going for his doctorate. With his investments and no student loans, Troy already didn't need to worry about money, and was only selling his family's home because Julie's parents were selling theirs and retiring to Arizona, so there was no more point in keeping a home that he would have been able to afford to maintain forever, but had little reason left to visit. Julie's had been a talent for art. Practically every medium she explored, she'd impressed every art teacher she'd ever had. She'd been looking to start a graphic design studio in Seattle, where they were both planning to move after the summer and get a place together...

Thinking about Seattle spawned another thought in both of their minds. It had been both of their planned destinations after this, and the conversation about moving in together had been as brief as "Wanna get a place together?" "Sure." "Ok, cool." But what kind of place would that be now? Had this just been a "Yeah, that was cool, we're gonna have to do it again" thing, or would they, as Julie's mother had joked yesterday, be looking for a one-bedroom?

Troy had the thought about Col. Tom and Vanessa Andrews next door. And how they'd been gone a full day. It made him sit up.

"Damn, your parents haven't heard from us since yesterday morning! They must be..."

Julie sat up as well, looking for her phone. She found it and checked the time.

"They wouldn't worry." She said, scrambling out of bed. For a moment, Troy just looked at her. They'd been naked together many times throughout their life, but it had never meant anything special before now. He was taking her in as she continued. "Probably figure we're passed out at a friend or some random strangers' place. Pee time." She said the last with a smile as she left the room and stopped just before she rounded the corner.

"I have a feeling they know, already." Julie said, bending down for something Troy couldn't see. He started to get out of bed, too. There was a second bathroom downstairs if Julie claimed the closer one.

"What makes you say that?" Troy asked.

"The two plates of fried chicken and the note that says 'We're so happy for you kids, take all the time in the world, us old folks'll be fine over here. PS: Tom says, 'Bout fuckin' time.' I wouldn't use that language, but I agree' sitting outside the bedroom door."

[Ramesh_Rocky]

A Morning After Amongst Equals Pt. 02

"I call you on the telephone,
my voice too rough with cigarettes.
I sometimes feel I should just go home,
but I'm dealing with a memory that never forgets.
I love to hear you say my name,
especially when you say 'yes.'
I got your body right now on my mind,
but I've drunk myself blind to the sound of old T-Rex."
-The Who, "You Better, You Bet"

"Hey, Girl." Troy Equals said into the phone.

"Hey, Boy." Julie Equals replied. "Everything going ok?"

"Yeah, it's..." Other voices and the sounds of medical equipment came over Troy's end, forcing him out of Contessa Helena de San Finzione's bedroom and into the 4 AM air of her balcony. "Sorry, Mistress. It's crowded in there at the moment. Nothing bad; just, you know she wants drugs, and with her history and tolerance, Dr. Maisson and the anesthesiologist were wary of how much would be enough, but not too much."

Julie smiled on her end and stroked Susan Bailey's hair as she lay next to her on the suite's bed. Troy didn't know a lot about medicine, but that sounded like Math to Julie, and she often called him her Math Boy for a reason. Knowing him, he'd probably helped them work the numbers or something.

"You can't help her with What We Do?" She asked him.

"We both agree that it's too risky. In a delivery room, we'd have a closed environment; we could control the room and make them forget that I'd been commanding her to feel no pain. In her bedroom at the castle, there are too many people going in and out to risk someone leaving with questions in their head. Then we've got our friends who know; like Maria and Colleen, in the crowd with everyone else coming and going, to consider. I don't want to accidentally make Generalissimo Ramirez or Jeanne forget San Finzione's worst-kept state secret."

"That's got to be a special kind of Hell for you." Julie said back to her best friend. Because Helen hadn't been as discrete with the ability as the others had, there were whispers that La Contessa was some kind of supernatural creature with the ability to control minds. The fact that she'd appeared in the film "San Finzione Shakedown" earlier in the year, before her pregnancy started showing; where she'd pretended to have that power, caused most people to laugh the idea off along with her. One vice that Helen did not possess was the inability to laugh at herself.

Troy, on the other hand, feared the world learning about their ability, and Helen knew how he felt about it too much to allow it to happen. Almost a year ago, an enemy of Helen's had learned the truth about her power and dragged the Equals and Susan into their private war. She'd prevented him from revealing her secret to the world, but her relationship with Troy & Julie was exposed to the public.

Helen had been able to control the story so that the world only knew that Julie was her lifelong friend and a talented artist who had La Contessa's patronage. Because Troy was still wary of gaining any fame whatsoever, the father's identity had been kept out of the press. A handful of male celebrities were suspected of being the potential father, and they were happy to let the media continue to speculate.

Not being able to help Helen more than "any ordinary father could" frustrated him. Troy was a helpful and empathetic person by nature, and little more bothered him than a situation where he had the ability to help, but for one reason or another, couldn't. It was a trait he shared with Susan, and it had created a connection between them that Julie loved seeing.

"How's Susan doing, Sunflower?" Troy asked her.

"Good. She's next to me and in trance. I'm sharing the story about the day after our first time."

Troy thought in silence for a moment. He and Julie had been children when they learned the secret, and they taught Helen in their early teens. Susan was a grown woman when they taught her a year and a half ago and, for many reasons, teaching her had been an entirely different experience than teaching Helen.

"Guess she'll learn what we mean by 'problems no one who can't do this can relate to.'" He mused.

"Like having a husband who still sort of lives in fear that the world will find out he's on good enough terms with his first girlfriend to knock her up?"

"You'd punch my arm if I said something like that. You're too far away yet." Troy replied, wistfully. He'd been needed most in San Finzione the past couple months and hadn't gotten to see much of his best friend and the permanent third member of their marriage.

His missing of them was cut short by a scream inside the bedroom. Although it wasn't something that they discussed; he, Julie, and Helen all knew about Susan's paralyzing fear of hospitals that she still wasn't ready to talk about. Because of her past, it wasn't difficult for them to imagine reasons why a formerly-abused woman might fear hospitals; Helen, in her royal capricious whim, decided upon a home birth at the castle.

"And that was a contraction." Troy said, checking his watch. "Nine minutes, I'd better get back in there. Love both of you."

"If Susan could answer, she'd also say that she loves you." They ended the call.

Julie turned back to Susan and began tracing spirals on her body.

"Troy says he loves you." Julie whispered to her. Susan sighed. "Speaking of which, let's get back to that."

* * *

[Ramesh_Rocky]

While using the bathroom, locked inside with her phone, Julie Andrews pulled up a number that she hadn't called in years. She took a deep breath, then pressed it. It took a couple of seconds before she heard the click indicating that the call was going international to Europe.

The first sound that Julie heard from the other side of the world was the sound of fire touching tobacco and cigarette paper, then being sucked into a soft breath. This was followed by a shout, not into the phone, but to someone in the immediate vicinity of whomever had just answered.

"It's a fucking routine hostage situation! We're a tourist destination; if you do something here, you get the world's attention. So, some asshole tries to pull something like this every couple months! If Santori can't handle a simple negotiation, tell the Ultimados 'Weapons Hard until I get there, that is an order from LA CONTESSA, not the Generalissimo' and have Ernst prep the chopper! Until he's ready to go, fuck all of you!"

A door slammed on the other end of the phone, and Contessa Helena de San Finzione leaned against it and took a drag of her cigarette before putting the phone up to her ear.

"Is everything all right?" Helena asked into the phone.

"Yeah, I think." Julie said after a little pause. "If this is a bad time..."

Helen cut her off.

"Nah, this one SAYS he's got a bomb, but I can see in his eyes that he's bluffing. Everyone's safe as long as my Generalissimo doesn't do something stupid and just lets him read his sick love letter to me or Jodie Foster or whoever without turning things into a bullet festival before I get there. What's going on?"

Julie searched her mind for the right way to tell her "You know the boy you've never stopped carrying a torch for? The one you'd probably abandon a kingdom and run to right now if he only asked? Yeah, that one. Well, I fucked him last night, just blew him before calling, too. What should I do now???"

"Ok," She said, trying to find it. "You know how sometimes, we command a guy to do something, and he turns out to be really good at it, and you can really feel something for this one..."

Helen interrupted.

"But you can never be sure how it would've gone if you hadn't been able to do The Thing to him and let him approach you like a regular girl. So, how much of it was really him and how much was you making him? And do you risk telling him our secret, then making him forget again, to find out? And if he wouldn't have, then you've got to give him a memory of a whole new night where he didn't have sex with you, because you feel bad now? Or you forgot to ask if he had a family who'd miss him before the evening started; so now, there's a bunch of people you have to go give memories of not having sat up worrying all night?"

Despite their personal issues, Troy, Julie, and Helen had made a vow years ago that because the ability to control minds brought with it problems and complications that someone who isn't able to do it wouldn't be able to understand; no matter what else was going on between them, if one of them needed to talk, the others would always answer. And everything else could go fuck itself. The scenarios she'd described had been the most common over the years. Given how they parted, Helen concluded that there had to be another reason that Julie would choose to call her over Troy.

"Not really. I'm pretty sure it was mostly him, and he knew what I could do."

Helen coughed out her exhale before answering, having figured out where Julie was going.

"Julie, there is exactly one 'him' in the world who knows what you can do, and we both know who he is."

Julie raised her voice, then lowered it so Troy wouldn't hear through the closed door from the bedroom if he'd come back yet.

"Yes, and that's who it was! We were drunk, we were playing 'What's Changed..."

Helen cut her off again with a laugh.

"I'd say something REALLY BIG has changed, hasn't it? And I know just how that can happen."

"We didn't plan it, Helena. It just happened."

"Hey, hey, Sunflower." Helena replied. "I'm past that. I've got a fucking castle and servants now, what do I care, right? You and Troy belong together. Everyone has said it. I'm sorry the last time that I said it, I shouted it at you, but that never stopped it from being the fucking truth. Does anyone know yet?"

"Yeah." Julie admitted after a few sheepish seconds. "I don't know if Mom walked in on us doing it or saw the bottles and us sleeping naked, but they already know."

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"I figured you were in the Medinas' upstairs bathroom from that extra reverb that Propappou's choice of bathroom tile gave everyone over the phone when they called from in there with the door closed. Maybe you two were just loud enough to hear across the yard." Helena replied with a little smile.

"Hmm... maybe." Julie mused. "I remember getting a couple of good shows from you when he left the blinds in his room open."

"It was me who opened those blinds every time, Julie. Because I knew you'd be watching."

"Yeah, Helena, but I was watching you, not Troy!"

Helen laughed even harder at that.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Mistress. No, Julie. Last night was neither a drunken mistake, nor a mind control mistake. Last night was the fucking destiny that's been beating you two over the heads since before either of your parents even fucked. Why do you think that long after I gave up trying to tell you that it was About Fucking Time you two did it; I'd still drop the odd 'Hey, you know that Troy guy? Betcha I could talk him into a threesome.' Yes, I said it to Troy when I could convince him to take the rare 'But it's my Name Day, Troilus; and I want you to be high with me today' hit or nip of something. So, when he gave a "Wait, WHAT?' answer, I could always claim to be 'just high, Master, now come take a hit.'"

"Mmm..." Julie responded dreamily, but with a tone of understanding. "Coulda been any day of the week in Europe, then. I see. You'd usually jump me right after the question."

Helen took a drag of her cigarette before replying.

"It was to preserve the look on your face, Julie. That half-second of 'Hmm,' where you actually thought about it, before giving me yet another fucking 'Eww.' I was cutting you off with my tongue before you got to that look, because I always hated that look, but I loved the one that'd come right before it, where you'd almost consider it."

Julie winced a bit at that. "Eww" HAD been her typical response whenever Helena, or anyone else, brought up the subject of her and Troy getting together. It was also Troy's as well, not because either of them found the other unattractive, but because they'd had that best pals mentality all their lives; despite reminders from Helen, her parents, Propappou, and others that they weren't truly related.

"If you want my blessing, Julie, you've had it since long before I stormed out of the suite shouting it to you. You always have. In fact, if things had worked out the way I wanted..."

Helen trailed off. Mentioning Madrid had been the turning point of the conversation. Another thing that the power of mind control had brought with it was a talent for observation. It aided in knowing the sort of things to say and how to say them. As a result, they knew each other well enough that whenever their disagreements turned violent, a lot of things around them and anyone who tried to get in the way tended to get hurt, but the damage to them tended to be minor cuts from hurled dishes or glasses. The suite they'd been staying in had to be entirely rebuilt, and if Helen hadn't just begun a relationship with the resort's owner, even with Troy's assistance, they'd still be paying it off.

"Well, they worked out pretty well for you, Helena. You've got the castle and the servants, what else could you need?" Julie said, her hand reaching for a phantom cigarette before remembering that she'd quit five years ago. Nowadays, when speaking with Helena, Julie preferred to have a "wall of vice" in front of her; a drink or something. Anything left in the bottles was still in the living room, though.

She heard the sound of the downstairs bathroom shower turn on. Julie wondered why Troy wouldn't have asked her to join him but figured he might find it awkward just yet. She turned herself back to the conversation.

"I have a feeling that I should end the call before I say something else." Julie told her first girlfriend.

"That sounds like a good idea." Helena agreed. "I heard the downstairs shower come on, and I do have a little thing to take care of. I'll be here later, Sunflower. Ciao."

Julie hung up. That "ciao" since she'd become Contessa annoyed her more than anything. Just because she now ruled a nation of Italian-speakers, she didn't need to use it with HER, on the PHONE!

"Fuckin' cunt." Julie muttered after the call ended, knowing that on the other side of the world, Helena was probably muttering "Skanky cow" into hers; but unaware of her tearful smile.

A shower didn't sound like a bad idea, and Julie had spent enough time in this house to know the water heater was big enough, so she set down her phone, turned on the water, stepped in, and began to think about what she was going to say to Troy when she got out.

* * *

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Troy Medina stepped out of the shower. Upstairs, he heard the shower in the bathroom above running, and figured that Julie decided to have one, too.

He sighed. They'd need to talk when they both got out. But what was to be said? Even through the alcohol and the trance, he knew he'd had the most amazing night of his life with Julie, and she seemed to feel the same. Would Julie want to get serious? Would she not want to? Would it be "a drunk mistake?" Should he ask her what she thinks before or after telling her what's on his mind? What happens next?

Troy was conflicted, but luckily, he knew a third person whom, historically, he'd been able to talk to about this sort of thing. He picked up his phone and said "Helen" into it. He thought about doing a video chat, feeling that she deserved to be looked in the eye for the conversation he needed to have with her. He began toweling off as the call connected to Europe, then to San Finzione.

"Troilus," Helen replied with a serious, puzzled tone. The sound of her helicopter's engines could be heard in the background. "What's going on? Do you need anyone killed? I just saved a family of five AND the disturbed man who put them in danger, so I figure I'm a few ahead with Almighty Athiesmo!"

That gave Troy a little smile. He knew that Helen believed in something, but whatever it was, she wasn't about to give it the satisfaction.

"Oxi, Petalouda Mikro." Troy replied in Greek. "I'm still pretty sure I'm never going to ask you to fulfill that promise. Everything OK?"

"Yeah, it was over pretty quick once I got there." Helena replied in the same language. "And you don't open with the Greek right from the start unless it's important, there's someone nearby who can't know what you're saying, or you're up for a 'we never technically agreed to this whole break-up thing' evening. Since we haven't had one of those since I left America, I presume it's the first thing."

Like the two of them, Helen possessed the same natural confidence that came with the ability. Her interest had been the many languages of the world. While she and Julie had traveled, when Helen wasn't partying, she was sitting in on university courses or visiting the local language schools and absorbing everything she could. Nobody but Helen knew how many languages she understood, and if one believed her, the number was "all of them."

"No, it's not like that." Troy tried to search for words. "It's something else."

"If you need to get out of the country, Troy," Helen asked with a delighted smile as she lit her cigarette. "I don't know if you're still in Seattle or up in Anchorage, but I can get you on a plane here within the hour."

"I'm in Anchorage." Troy said. "Julie got into town yesterday morning, she's here."

Helen was enjoying herself too much to stop now.

"Oh, and how's she doing? We never talk anymore, you know. Suppose you two've been tearing up the town, hanging out with all our old friends? Hey, have you run into..."

Troy cut her off. He didn't often do that. Helen knew exactly why he was calling, but it was fun to hear him squirm for a bit. Not for him, though, so she was about to let up on him.

"No, Helen. She's fine. We stayed in last night and... well, something happened."

"You two back together after how long?" She replied. "Something was bound to happen."

"We had sex, Helen." Troy said, switching back to English. "Despite what everyone's always said about us, for the first time."

Helen hit the mute button and laughed for a couple of moments before composing herself and coming back to the call.

"Are you there?" Troy asked after a bit.

"Yeah." She answered. "Yes, I am, Troy. And that's wonderful."

Now it was Troy's turn to be silent without the mute button for a moment before Helen spoke again.

"Did you think I was going to call in an air strike on the Andrews house, Troy? I mean, I totally could, but why would I? I love both of you; yes, even Julie, despite what she thinks. How could I NOT love the idea of you two together?"

"I don't know..." Troy thought. "I was worried, because of; well, you know, everything you've ever said and done ever?"

"You weren't paying attention to all of it, Troilus. Your mind was always on bigger things. It took me a while to get that, as well as a job where people live or die based upon my decisions, but I get it now. There was something special and beautiful right in front of both of your faces, and you were looking right through it."

She took a long drag before continuing.

"Part of why Vincenzo and I hit it off immediately, Troy, was because he also knew what it was like to have everything in the world except the person he loved."

"You've always had me, Helen."

"I know. But not all of you, Troy. You think so, and I know I have shares in your heart, but I've always been aware of who had controlling interest. And it sounds like last night, you figured it out, too. I'd earn Julie's special name for me if I had a problem with it."

There was another silence. Helen talked to Troy more often than she did to Julie. She'd always been bad at hiding things from Troy, and he'd been able to see through her efforts to play off her grief at her husband's loss to Julie as callousness. Julie was known for having an expressive face, and Helen had seen the look of sorrow and pity for her on it too many times throughout their lives to bear it anymore. Because of this, she allowed Julie to continue thinking that she'd deliberately fucked the Count to death to get his throne.

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"I wish you two could talk about this." Troy sighed.

"Troilus, let me tell you about my day. I wake up, make some enemies, decide what I want with my morning croissants, make a couple more enemies, go get cleaned up and probably make an enemy or two while using my bathroom. After that, I go out to the balcony and have my morning coffee and croissants while reading up on the enemies that I made while I was asleep. From there, it's time to leave my bedroom and get started on a long day of SERIOUS enemy-making. I can take Julie disliking me."

"We've both always been here for you, Helen. You just needed to pick up the phone. I don't need to call the consulate. There's an open-ended ticket to San Finzione already waiting for me at SeaTac from all the times I saw you on the news in the middle of a crisis, saw in your eyes that you were in trouble, and usually got as far as the metal detector and wondering if I should call Julie and tell her about the one waiting for her in San Diego before thinking 'No, Helen would have called if she wanted our help. We have to let her handle this.'"

"And maybe you should have a few of those times, Troilus, but this is what I do now. Of all the possible reactions I could have to the news that you and Julie are together now, the only one that I even have the time to feel is happiness."

"That's the other thing." Troy whispered, even though he could still hear the shower going upstairs. "I don't know if we ARE together now or not? If Julie's going to think it was just a 'we got drunk and played some hypno games and one thing led to another' thing to laugh about later on, or if it's... the beginning of something."

Helen laughed again. Troy heard her lighting another cigarette.

"Which one is your heart going for, Troy?"

That question caused Troy to stop and think about their lives together. He sat on the toilet lid and took his phone away from his ear. He sat thinking until the screensaver on his phone made it black out. Pressing the button to bring the screen back up, and hoping he hadn't dropped Helen, Troy looked at the wallpaper on his phone for a second.

"The second one." He said at last. "Last night, I shared something beautiful with my best friend, and now I'm feeling something that I haven't felt..."

Helen cut him off before he could get to the "since we were together" part.

"In case you're really as dense as you've acted all these years, Troy, I've had you AND your best friend. I know that neither of you held anything back, and that it was definitely something beautiful. I won't ask you to put Julie on, because I'm sure she can't walk yet from how beautiful it was."

"I hope you don't think I held anything back with you, Helen."

She took a deep drag before responding.

"Not consciously, no. You're not the only one who can look into people's eyes and see stuff, though. I saw the part reserved for someone I could never be in both of yours; the part for the only other person I know whom I'd have a problem stealing something as precious as that from. I stopped allowing it to hurt by the time we met Vincenzo. And it still doesn't, Troy."

Troy listened to Helen's words, but was too caught up in the picture on his phone to reply. Helen broke the silence.

"You've figured out what you're going to say to her, haven't you?" She asked. Above him, the sounds of the upstairs bathroom's shower turned off.

"Yeah, I have." Troy responded, toweling his hair off one last time.

"Well, don't tell me. Whatever it is, I'm sure it'll sound better unpracticed."

"Ok. I'd better get back upstairs before she gets out. I love you, Helen. And I know Julie won't admit it right now, but she loves you too."

"I love you. And Julie. But this Hallmark Moment is meant for her, not me, Troilus. Get up there."

Helen ended the call, a happy tear on her cheek.

Troy left the downstairs bathroom and tried to quickly, but quietly pad his way back up the stairs and to the bedroom. Maybe if he got back under the covers, Julie would know that he'd be fine with the two of them talking about it right now.

Troy walked through the door and saw Julie naked on the bed, a sheet covering the lower half of her body. The look on her face said that she had something to talk about now, too.

[Ramesh_Rocky]

A Morning After Amongst Equals Pt. 03

"Here's to the babies in a brand-new world, here's to the beauty of the stars.
Here's to the travelers on the open road, here's to the dreamers in the bars.
Here's to the teachers in the crowded rooms, here's to the workers in the fields.
Here's to the preachers of the sacred words, here's to the drivers at the wheel.
Here's to you, my little loves, with blessings from above.
Now let the day begin.
Here's to you, my little loves, with blessings from above.
Now let the day begin. Let the day begin."
-The Call, "Let the Day Begin"

Julie Equals turned on the bedroom TV, making certain the sound was low, so that she wouldn't interfere with Susan Bailey's trance.

Their flight to San Finzione had been forced to go around a storm in the Mediterranean. Although they were flying above the cloud layer, it was still a better idea to go around than risk it. Julie couldn't get a signal to call and see how Troy and Helena were doing, so she'd turned on the TV to get one of the San Finzione news channels.

When she finally found one, the reporter was speaking from the castle's courtyard, in front of the Speech Balcony, where a large television screen had been set up. Reporters were not being allowed into the castle, and they were saying that La Contessa would likely be addressing them via the screen when she was ready to do so. Black lines and blocks glitched on the screen as the storm interfered with the TV signal as well.

Circumnavigating the storm meant that they'd land at least an hour late. Before the call cut off, Troy had told her that Scappa, Helen's chauffeur, and an escort from La Policia were waiting by the runway to rush them to the castle. Helen was already sedated and wouldn't be able to "delay" for them.

Julie tried to exhale away the tension of going from being in constant contact with her husband and first girlfriend to being less informed than anyone in San Finzione who lived within shouting range of anyone else with a television. She tried to send with it the frustration of not being able to simply go up to the cockpit and make the plane fly faster or go through the storm. She COULD use her ability to command the pilots to try those things, but that felt like a bad enough idea to not need a second opinion upon.

Julie muted the television and returned to the bed, where Susan was still smiling dreamily in trance. Julie smiled back. She had one of her loved ones with her and she still had a story to finish telling Susan. She turned onto her side to face Susan and took hold of her hand.

"Now, where were we, Susan? Oh, yes. Back in the bedroom."

* * *

"Hey, Boy." Julie Andrews said to Troy Medina from the bed.

"Hey, Girl." He replied from the doorway.

He surveyed the scene. Julie on his bed, a couple of plates from her mom on the nightstand. It was a Saturday morning, so he was certain that if he picked up the TV remote and turned it on, he could still find some decent cartoons on one channel or another. He wanted to go join her on the bed, turn on the TV, and just snuggle close and watch them, like they had on any given Saturday morning together in their lives.

There were several differences to the usual image in his mind, though. The most important being that generally, both of them were at least wearing underwear on those previous Saturdays. The fact that the word "edible" was now in Troy's mind with regards to both the food Julie's mother had made, and Julie herself, was a close second. Beyond that, he thought all the scene was missing was Helen and/or another relationship partner to read more into the scene than "My best friend spent the night and now we're laying on the bed and watching some cartoons together. Come join us!"

Helen missing from the scene wasn't unusual. Before Troy and Propappou gave Helen his old bedroom across the hall, when the three of them had a sleepover here, she often picked up her blankets and pillow in the night and went downstairs to Propappou's room. She'd curl up in the TV chair next to the old man's bed and sleep next to him. The fact that if there'd been someone else present to read into the scene, they would have been right this time, was the last difference.

A few seconds had passed now while Troy stood in the doorway, so Julie spoke again.

"You coming to join me, Master?"

"Yeah." Troy responded with a smile, sitting on the bed next to her. She scooted closer to him and wrinkled her brow.

"Thought I'd get cleaned up while I was in there." Julie said, sitting up and wrapping her arms around him from behind. "Wasn't sure what you'd feel like doing now."

Troy reached out and patted her hand, for once in his life, wondering how much holding Julie's hand might be too much. Or not enough?

"There are a few things I feel like doing right now, Julie." He answered. "I'm trying to think of the right one."

"You're Troy." Julie said, letting go of Troy so he could turn around to face her. "Thinking of the right thing to do is most of what you do."

Troy looked down, realized he was looking at Julie's naked boobs, and looked back up to her. This time, he noticed the little smile on her face.

"Mistress, I just need to know: That was really us, right? I mean, I didn't get drunk and maybe Do What We Do to influence..."

Julie cut him off. The two of them hadn't had what could be called an awkward conversation since the day that, his mother gone and having no sisters, Troy had to ask Julie what those cotton and paper things that she and Helen shoplifted from the Women's Health aisle were for.

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"No, Troy. You didn't do the thing I've been half-wondering if I might have been out of it and horny enough to do to you at some point in the night, too. You're not the type, I would have caught on; and if you don't remember the conversation we'd been having before, I said that if you'd ever decided you wanted to do something like that before, I'd have been cool with it, because 'I trust my best friend with all that I am' means everything. And because there isn't another man in the world who COULD do that to me, so it seems now like the only way either of us might've gotten that fantasy fulfilled."

That gave Troy a smile.

"Ok, good. I would never want to do something you didn't want."

Julie sighed.

"Some of these 'ethics lessons' of yours have sunk in, you know. 'Persuading someone who didn't want to have sex that they do is simply Seduction; how the human race continues to exist. We have an edge over everyone else, why shouldn't we use it? Forcing someone would be wrong but talking someone into an idea is just a thing that people do.' I don't think I was doing anything, Troy; and you told me you weren't, so if I'd had any doubts, I believe you now. I think we just might have to accept that everyone else we know has been right and we've both always wanted this."

Troy took hold of her hand again.

"It was amazing, Mistress. You were amazing. I'm feeling... all kinds of stuff right now, Julie. And all of it's good. What are you feeling?"

Julie laid back down onto the bed, so she was alongside him, looking up into his face.

"I'm feeling great. Feeling like I've needed that for years. And yes, kind of feeling like I need to know where we are now, too; because that wasn't 'a fuck.' We absolutely made love last night, so if we're not together now, then we need to sit down and iron out that fuckbuddy arrangement everyone's always accused us of having, because I am absolutely going to want more of that!"

Troy laid down to face her.

"I've always planned to love you forever, Julie; the only thing that's changed this morning is the way I'd like to go about it." He showed her the phone that he was still holding. "I've been trying to figure out what to say when I came back in here. Not knowing what I'm going to say to you is an unusual feeling for me, Julie, and I was searching for the words until I saw this."

He pressed the button and his phone's screen came to life. The wallpaper on his phone was a familiar one to Julie, because she'd seen it yesterday.

It was a picture of the two of them at the age of four, sleeping in the bed that used to be across the hall in what was Troy's childhood bedroom and, although she likely wasn't coming back, was now "Helen's room." The bottom of the bed was dirty, but Julie's mud-covered feet solved that mystery. She was curled up to Troy, who had his arms wrapped around her; the way they'd slept together every time from before the night the picture was taken until they fell asleep last night.

On that night, Julie had a bad dream. Rather than crawling into bed with her parents, she left her house, walked across the yard to Troy's house, and got into bed with him. It was a scene that repeated over the years until Julie's parents stopped frantically calling Troy's in the middle of the night, because everyone knew where Julie would go and that she would be safe.

"I woke up some of those nights." Troy explained. "Not that night, and never completely. Enough to register 'Oh, Julie's here. She must've had a bad dream. Ok, get in here, Best Friend, I will protect you' and go back to sleep. Even if I didn't, I never questioned waking up holding you. I just woke up happy to see you."

"And I always woke up in the morning with everything better." She replied. "It just always... made sense to come to you."

"And it made sense that you were here, Julie." He wrapped his arms around her, the way they had in the picture, the way they always eventually fell asleep. "This, right here; holding you like always, makes sense. So much other shit in the world doesn't, but this feels right."

"Luckily, you have the power to control minds and a Propappou who taught you right from wrong; you're someone who can do something about all of that, Troy. I mean, you found a way to get rich AND help people with it at the same time!"

"The second one's always mattered more. The whole 'take what we want' aspect of it has never really appealed to me the way it has..." Troy was hesitant to bring up Helen because that might spawn a whole other discussion. "To some."

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"Yeah, she's honest about that much, though." Julie replied, also wanting to avoid talking about her. "Like she says, 'Sometimes, we ALL need something that PRESENTLY belongs to someone else. Doesn't mean I have to be a liar about it.'"

"And that's something I was thinking about downstairs, too, Julie. Not that thing; About how we can have anything we want, any ONE we want, any time we want..."

Julie interrupted him.

"I think I know where you're going with this, Master. Because I've been having this thought, too. Do you mind if I complete it?"

Troy nodded no, in the way that Greeks do, before shaking his head, indicating that Julie should continue. She understood what he meant and did so. He mouthed the second part along with her, because it had been his exact thought.

"We've always been able to have anything we want. But the only thing I've ever NEEDED is you."

Troy's response was to lean in and kiss her. The way he'd only kissed her for the first time last night. Julie kissed back in agreement.

"So," she said after the kiss ended. "It's safe to use the word 'boyfriend' now?"

"As safe as it is to use 'girlfriend.'"

Julie's response was to reach down and take hold of his cock.

"That answer that?" She asked. Troy nodded yes, this time.

"It's all yours, Mistress. I love my best friend with all that I am, too."

Julie thought about that for a moment. Troy began stroking her breast while she thought. It caused her to drag the thought out longer as she enjoyed it and he appreciated just being able to reach out and do it.

"I'll have to think about that, Troy. I mean, I DO love other women. There's one we've both been avoiding talking about since last night who; despite everything the fucking cunt has done, I can't stop loving her. She was my first girlfriend long before she was yours. And long after. We didn't think of it as cheating on you because... well, thinking back on everything now; Helena pitched the idea of asking you to join us a few times, and it's not like either of us wasn't down for sharing..."

Troy interrupted the spiral he was tracing around her nipple to raise a finger at that. Julie stopped and let him step in.

"But not me. I get that. It's the same reason I always said no if you were the one she suggested. Whatever else you think of Helen, Julie, she taught me that love can be big enough to share. How could I be upset that my best friend and my ... well, all the stuff that I can't deny Helen is; experienced that as well?"

"She was right all this time. I told myself I was thinking about her, but it WAS always hotter when you were the last guy she was with." She nuzzled his neck and inhaled. "When she'd come to bed with Troy Scent still on her." She leaned back and partially sat up. "And you never questioned why you'd sometimes wake up to find her in my bed? Or that we were both naked?"

"I've woken up to find myself holding you since I was four, Sunflower. And I knew that girls were freer with the nudity than two guys might be."

"And I suppose the fact that we were the only two girls you really knew had something to do with that." Julie sat upright. "We should tell her. We both owe her that."

Troy nodded yes. He sat up and put his left hand around Julie's waist.

"We do." He agreed. "However, we should probably make sure it's a good time." His right arm joined his left and he pulled her close again. "Helen's busy, she gots the Queening to do. We can all do a Skype call some time later before we tell too many others. We owe her the courtesy of eye contact, too."

Julie nodded her agreement. She stood up and bent down to the pile of clothes she'd left on the floor.

"Speaking of things that are owed, Master. I know that this is a long-standing tradition of yours."

Troy saw her rummaging through the pile and knew what she was reaching for.

"I stopped doing that a while back, Mistress. In fact, the only pair I've kept is Helen's, and that's because she insisted I hang onto them because they're probably worth something by now. She signed a certificate of authenticity, in fact. I didn't even have to ask, she just did it."

"Well, you absolutely earned them, Math Boy; and I know that's one of your rules. For another, I really want to." She produced the pink lace panties she'd been wearing the night before, knelt at the side of the bed, and presented them to Troy. "Thou hath slain these panties most mightily. Please accept your trophy, Good Sir Knight."

He took them, smiled, and held them close to his heart.

"When we get to Seattle, these are going someplace special."

Julie's eyes lit up.

"So, we're still on with that plan, Master? Nothing's changed for Seattle?"

"Only the kind of place we should look for, Mistress." Troy said with a smile. "And that I imagine bed shopping is only going to take half the time I expected."

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"I know we've got a couple months before it happens, but I've got a thought on that." Julie stood up and looked out the blinds, at the yard between their two houses. She was too far back from the street to see the For-Sale signs in front of the two houses, but she knew they were there. "Mom and Dad settled in Anchorage for me. The Colonel called in every favor he had left from The Days We Don't Ask Daddy About to get his assignment made permanent; because Mom was an Army Brat who became an Army Wife and came to love Alaska. She wanted her daughter to have roots and a home."

Julie turned back to him and sat back down on the bed with Troy before continuing.

"And now, for the first real time in my life, I'm going to call a different place 'home.' Oh sure, college and the apartment that summer; but I knew I'd be coming back here after both of those. Everything's changing except the most important thing, that Troy Medina will still be right there with me. Well, that's changed now, too, but in the best possible way."

Troy nodded his agreement. She kissed him for a moment, then resumed.

"What I'm getting at here is that I like the idea of a big house. It doesn't look like we're going to get our tunnel dug before we move, but I still like the idea of living in the same big ol' house with you, Troy. The main difference now is that I want to have the same bed instead of bunk ones. I'd like to get one soon, is what I'm saying. Oh, I definitely want it your way, not Helena's. You know, everything fair and legal and ours and all." Troy agreed. "I'm sure I can afford it if you don't want to go buying a house right away. You know better than me what I've got in the bank, and I can always go to my jewelry boxes and pick out some stuff I don't like anymore..."

It was Troy's turn to cut her off.

"Partner-In-Everything means just that, Mistress. And the idea of having a great big fort with you sounds totally cool!"

Julie smiled.

"So, that's not rushing things? All the changes in our life right now seem to be big ones."

Troy's response was to hold her tightly and slide a hand down to cup her ass.

"We've always been intimate, Julie. Last night was just the first time it happened physically, and we've got a lot of catching up to do there. It doesn't feel like rushing anything; more like What We SHOULD Do."

She kissed him.

"So, what should we do next, Master?"

Troy kissed her back, and then began tracing kisses down her body, taking some extra time with the boobs he was looking forward to getting to know a lot better.

"What we should do next?" Troy continued between kisses. "Is that I should repay you for that lovely wakeup call. We should see where that takes us. After that, we take that shower together that we should have earlier. Then we go next door, face your parents, and endure what I'm certain will be the first of many 'I Told You So Dances' that we're going to get from everyone we run into this summer."

They both smiled. Then Julie smiled more.

* * *

"And now, it's time to wake up, dear." Julie Equals told Susan Bailey. "We just landed."

Susan opened her eyes. She was back on the couch, where Julie had led her and buckled her in for landing. Julie continued filling her in on what she'd missed.

"We had to go around a storm, it delayed us about two hours. She's already done it."

Susan smiled and noticed that they were no longer moving. Julie stood up and offered Susan her hand. She took it.

"So, everyone's ok?" Susan asked.

"Yeah, she's about to make the announcement. Scappa's downstairs, we can watch in the limo."

They grabbed their bags and ran out of the suite and down the stairs, into the noonday sun of San Finzione. La Contessa's limousine and an escort from La Policia were waiting to rush them to the castle. A flight attendant held the door for them. Scappa drove off as soon as it was closed, lights flashing and sirens blaring outside the vehicle.

Julie found the remote and turned on the TV in the back of the limo. She flipped it to the English State Television channel, where the camera was focused on the monitor on the castle's Speech Balcony. It was now on and showing the interior of La Contessa's Royal Bedchamber. The camera was zoomed in on Contessa Helena de San Finzione, sitting up in bed and looking like she'd just run a marathon. Jeanne stood to one side of her, and Maria stood to the other. The fact that Helen was wearing any makeup at all was only perceptible to those who knew her well. An arm by Maria's side came into the camera's view before quickly backing away. Julie pointed Troy's arm out to Susan, who recognized it.

"Good afternoon, People of San Finzione." La Contessa told the camera in English. "I hope your morning has been... an easier one than mine. I'd like to take a moment and introduce you to the newest member of La Familia Royale de San Finzione. Lady Maria?"

[Ramesh_Rocky]

The arm came into view again and gently handed Maria a pink, wrinkled face, sticking out of a bundled blanket of Emerald Green.

"This," Maria told the camera as she passed the baby to his mother. "Is my grandfather, Lord Byroni Troilus de San Finzione."

Tears started forming in Helen's eyes as the crowd of reporters gathered below the monitor couldn't help cheering.

She shifted Byroni into her other arm as Maria introduced a second bundle that was passed to her, then to La Contessa.

"And, his older brother by three minutes, Lord Vincenzo Ramon de San Finzione the Second."

The cheers intensified. They could now be heard coming from outside her bedroom as well. Helen couldn't contain the tears any longer.

"Forever do they reign in my heart." She said down to them.

The crowd began cheering the phrase in in the four official languages of San Finzione.

"Forever do they reign in our hearts."

The cheer carried out into the streets around them, and was whispered inside it as well.

Julie turned off the television, crying. She saw that Susan was doing the same. Susan took hold of her hand.

"That's how you know they're Equals." She said to Julie. "Because they were born with a best friend."

They continued toward the castle to meet the newest members of their family.