Heartthrob

Slowly but surely, with no conversation but wreathed in comfortable silence, the trio made their way back towards their dorm. Soft footsteps on soft carpet... The scented smoke, which lingered in a vague haze about the ceiling... For the first time, they saw other women in the hallway. Nuns simply drifting by, each one walking with a steady but relaxed gait, as if they had nowhere better to be... EJ made a mental note to ask Est about that. No one seemed to be very busy; it wasn't anywhere near the military barracks she had been imagining.

Handholding came, as it always seemed to, with each woman participating without the need for verbal discussion. It felt as natural as breathing once had to Esper James... as natural as breathing still did, to her lovers. They fit together perfectly as they walked, each motion complementing that of their partners: footsteps followed footsteps, shifting to the left to avoid a passing nun was a fold like an accordion's closure. Their closeness in the shower lent itself to a physical and emotional proximity when outside of it; they had been spending so much time together, it was hard to imagine themselves apart.

Each footfall was muted by that thick carpet, but spontaneously, Purity slipped her hand away from Est's - Est, this time, had been the filling for their sapphic sandwich. Est went to say something, turning her head to address the pinkette; perhaps she had been gripping Purity too strongly, or her hand was too warm, or the feel of her synthflesh had become unpalatable? But, instead of a livid lover, she was rewarded with the very beginnings of a performance.

Purity's face was drizzled with self-satisfaction as she began to dance, waltzing about the rug as they walked, hands raising and falling as she made sweeping gestures to accompany her swaying hips. Even in the slightly-too-large habit, which draped itself about her otherwise voluptuous frame, she moved with real grace - her time in the varied clubs of Vitus had taught her body as well as any teacher, and her dexterity was enough to halt Est's words in her throat. EJ, too, was left with mouth agape as she watched.

That could have easily been more from her amorousness for her first-living lover, though, in all honesty - the swell within Esper James's chest was colored a stark orange, red, and white. From side to side her pelvis swayed, a boat rocking on an ocean of sudden, soaked joy; there was mesmerism in the movements, and the other women could only find themselves transfixed.

That is, until Purity bumped into a nun as the latter made to pass her. The bump was unintentional, and wasn't even that hard; the nun was set off her stance for less than a breath, righting herself and stopping in her tracks to cast a curious glance at Purity. Purity, by contrast to the nun's placid lake of a face, was nothing but stormy seas. Her mouth fell aghast, eyes went wide, colour rushing to her face to shame a cherry. "Oh, fuck, I'm so- I mean, err, dang it, I shouldn't swear around holy women, um, ah-!"

The nun's placidity snapped as crisply as a celery stick, lips drawing wry and thin. She shook her head with gentle motion, nearly as graceful and measured as Purity's dancing, her chest-length black hair swishing about as she did. She opened her mouth to speak, but it took some time for the words to come; when they did, her vocal cords sounded to have forgotten speech as a whole, only to be impelled by a sudden reminder. "You are fine, sister Purity. I understand you and your companions, sister Esthrielle and sister Esper James, are a bit more coarse. You are not faulted for it; we all have had a time when we were not part of the crusade, oui?"

And with that, she was off, still smiling to herself as she drifted away. Purity's face burned hot and bright, eyes flashing to Est and EJ for some backup. Est looked positively indignant at the other sister, boiling blood threatening to send steam from her ears; Esper James, however, was little more than awed. Purity's dancing had caught her up in its joy - and the nun's words had done nothing save soothe EJ's worries about being treated as outsiders. No harm, no foul, right? She hadn't seemed harmed.

Est rushed over to Purity, dragging EJ along with. "That... That fucking bitch, how dare she talk to you like that?! Ohh, you're coarse, huh?! Fuck her! God damn Frenchwomen, always thinking they're so...!" Est's anger flamed out after that point, having boiled well over the ridge of her temper's pot. She growled, casting a venomous glance at the now-distant woman.

EJ stammered to interject, face a sudden strike of mingled worry and false joy. "Woah, woah, hey...! She seemed fine! Purity didn't do anything wrong, the nun seemed pretty okay, y'know? Water under the bridge, ha-ha-ha! Let's... Let's keep going, okay?" She went to put a hand on either woman's hip, for no reason more than to ground and placate them. Purity was happy for it - hearing how incensed Est was had done little for her own mood. Esthrielle, after a moment to consider the other two, allowed herself to be appeased.

"Fine. Maybe she's just... I dunno, uncouth? Or maybe we give off the wrong impression? Who cares. Let's go back to our room; I think I need that nap more than ever, now... and besides..." A stray thought drifted through the Easterner's brain like a moth lost in a warehouse, eventually bonking into the walls of her skull and producing an idea. She smiled mischievously, throwing an arm around the other two women and dragging them close, swaddling them in a three-person embrace.

"Besides, I think a good group-snuggle would be a great way to get nice and cozy before we sleep. Yeah? C'mon, just the three of us, lazing around in our room like a bunch'a bums... K-Keeping close under the covers... Haha, that would be, uh..." Words failed her as a runner's legs after a marathon, giving way from beneath to let the rest of her sentence collapse beneath its own weight.

There was still some difficulty, and even some trepidation, to such outright expressions of adoration for Est. She had never really been accustomed to that sort of thing, after all; and here, now, after everything that had occurred in the last two weeks, she was thrust into a world of emotion and closeness she could never have imagined. Finding the words to correctly convey her emotions wasn't just difficult; it felt wrong, like she was indulging in a pleasure too guilty to be properly administered. It felt selfish, to see herself beside the other two.

Esper James picked up on that negativity nearly instantly - now just as before, she and Esthrielle were more alike than either could ever truly consider. She knew all too well what it was like to be unable to express positive emotion due to believing herself unworthy, or undeserving, of it. On the internet, they called it 'impostor syndrome'; EJ wasn't sure if that was a real medical term or not, but it sure fucking felt real. She didn't want Est to flounder and feel any worse, so the blonde was quick to jump in.

"Yeah! A good cuddle session sounds great, Est! I'd love to get a chance to get nice and cozy with you two, hehehe~ Ok, c'mon, let's go! You can't just put that sort of idea into a girl's head and then drag your feet making it a reality!" EJ took the two's hands once again, going to tug them back down the hall; Est was quick to lead the way again, falling back into her role as the leader of the trio. Purity was silent but smiling, still trying to calm herself down, but there was wordless thanks given for the chance to get back to it.

Down the hall they went, then, just as they had been not long before. The amount of nuns they saw gradually dwindled... and by time they reached the door to their own room, they seemed to be just as alone in the hall now as they had been when they had first awoken. Est gestured to the door with the same panache as a gameshow hostess showing off a hot new prize; Purity gave her a flamboyant bow, playing into the bit, before pushing it open.

Within was the same as without - empty, and just as it had been when they had first risen from the depths of slumber for dinner. Clothes were left exactly where they had lain... The bed was in the same state of disarray, bedsheets and comforter in that same rat's nest that came from three people sharing the same bed... it was reassuring, EJ thought. Some part of her had worried that the nuns would be rifling through their belongings for whatever reason, maybe even just to fuck with them and put them on edge.

It was calming to know no such thing had happened. After the trio were all fully in the room, EJ lamented the lack of lock on the door - sure, it didn't make sense to have a lock in such a communal place as the convent, but still. Apparently her worries weren't shared in her companions' brains, though - Est had already begun to undress, nearly tearing her habit with how she made the fabric strain in her haste. She cursed and cussed as she fought with the midnight hued cloth, commenting on the marital state of its mother, the legitimacy of its birthright, and calling into question its intelligence and predisposition towards mothers.

Purity, meanwhile, shimmied out of her habit in an instant. Once again, a skill that seemed as much a natural one as a trained one: her grace was once again called upon to display itself, and it did so admirably. It reminded EJ of a snake shedding its skin, and while that wasn't the most flattering comparison the ghoulette could have made, it did still feel the most apt.

She realized, then, that Purity and Est were undressing, and here she was, standing there and watching like a fucking weirdo. That put her body into double-time to peel herself out of the religious garb as quickly as possible, having just as much trouble as Est was; the custom-fitted garment was body hugging, and detrimentally so. She fumbled and futzed with it, brow furrowing, a scowl beginning to form... Every failed attempt beginning to fan the flames of frustration at her core...

After her fourth or fifth attempt to worm her way out of the habit, that frown of rage ever more prominent on her face, Purity's hands came down to EJ's slender torso to assist. The taller girl giggled softly, tutting her tongue in such a way as to be obviously sarcastic. "Oh-h-h, EJ, what're we gonna do with you? You can't even get your own clothes off... God, imagine if we were gonna screw, huh? You'd be over here floundering, wriggling like a worm, while Est and I had a go at one another on the bed...~"

The thought was capped with mocking laughter, but the mockery was only barely at EJ's expense. With Purity's help, EJ's body was quickly and cleanly excised from its textile prison; now, she stood in little more than the bottoms she had arrived in. That was the perfect sort of attire to snuggle in, though, so she hardly cared. Besides, what did she care if her beloved partners saw her semi-nude?

She certainly didn't give a damn. Puri and Est didn't seem to give much of one, either - at least, not more than usual, at least. The usual amount, of course, being enough to stare a little in appreciation, and silently appraise every facet of EJ's physical appearance to fixate even harder on their favorite aspects of the blonde. Very normal things for them to be appraising, I'll have you know. EJ wouldn't have been able to refute that claim, even, had it come up in the first place.

She pouted once Purity had stripped her bare, crossing those pale arms and casting a pseudo-salty gaze up towards bubblegum skies. Looking up to the sky with such a sour face only brought down the rains, of course - in this case, Purity's lips. The pinkette's hands started at EJ's underarms and slowly made their way down, reaching the shorter gal's hips and pausing just as Purity's lips met the blonde's face. First the forehead, then the nose, then the cheeks, then a momentary locking of the lips... and then, absence.

EJ whimpered softly as Puri pulled away, the familiar gesture having drawn up familiar feelings within her. Now wasn't the time to properly address them, but still, it was nice to be put in that place... To be reminded of the love she was subjected to, and allowed to revel in it. Esthrielle, meanwhile, finally pried herself free of her habit and whipped it to the floor, giving it a pissy little kick only a hair after it had collapsed into a heap on the carpet.

"Bitch." She nearly spat at the habit, a representation of the evils of cloth confinement... but she was gonna be wearing it later, right? She didn't want to wear an outfit that had her own spit soaked into it. That was just weird, especially since she hadn't had a chance to brush her fangs after dinner. Instead, she settled for a disdainful sneer, giving it another kick - this one sending it away, to one of the unoccupied beds on the other side of the room. She turned, then, to see how her partners were doing.

Heat prickled at Est's face for the second time in less than an hour, but this time, it wasn't out of bottled rage that she felt her ears and cheeks flush as darkly as they could. No, in truth, it was raw embarrassment from seeing Purity and EJ staring at her, faces amused, lips pulled into affectionate - if taunting - smiles.

Esthrielle opened her mouth to say something, anything, gesturing towards the balled-up habit as she did; when no words came, she drew her head down and her shoulders up in a graceless pantomime of a turtle. The Wayward turned on a heel and stomped, defeated, over to their shared bed before leaping straight in. As straight in as one could when it was in such disarray, anyways. Purity snickered softly, taking Esper James by the hand without even looking. EJ allowed it without question.

The pink-haired princess led her ghoulish gal pal over to the trio's resting place, nodding for EJ to clamber in first - as the smallest of the trio, she should be the filling for their love pierogi. EJ obliged her, scrambling onto the bed and skittering beneath the sheets and blankets, disappearing from view for a moment. Est raised a brow, looking down towards a shifting lump beneath the bed's thick comforters... and then gasped, exclaiming at the peak of her lungs.

Esper James's head popped out from beneath the ridgeline of the comforter, right over Est's own; it seemed the ghoul had straddled the Wayward, and was now laying chest-to-chest with her like some kind of second-living body pillow. Or, considering the situation, maybe Esthrielle was more of the body pillow between the two. Slightly bigger, slightly squishier (thank you, silicone and latex exterior), somewhat more synthetic... Yes. Esthrielle was definitely the body pillow of the two.

Purity giggled, putting a hand over her mouth to play at hiding her mirth; in truth, she wanted them to see it. It was the gesture itself that mattered, not the result of it. Her hand was removed, and she stepped over towards the bed, slipping in with a measure more grace than her mischievous and/or frustrated partners.

Once she was in, Est turned to flop EJ back onto the bed, between herself and Purity. The trio came together wordlessly, as none were required; they let their bodies, and the closeness they now shared, do the talking. Est drew in a deep, deep breath, and let an even deeper yawn flow from her cracked maw; once it was finished, she gave EJ a peck on the forehead. Purity and Esper James followed suit with the yawn - and once EJ was done yawning, she kissed Est on the neck before flipping 'round to give Purity the same treatment. Purity returned the gesture with the same target Est had chosen, a second kiss planted beside the first's impact.

Esthrielle spoke up then; she had really become accustomed to taking the lead with these two, espeically here in the convent, but she was more than happy to. In truth, she kind of appreciated it... appreciated that they let her do the leading, directing them around, taking them places. It was a respect she had never really felt from the other nuns; all it took was a crippling amount of trauma, and the bonding of shared misery, to get that treatment. Funny, that.

"Ok, ladies... We nap for... Two hours? Three? Three. Three is a good number... Uh, fuck, er, yeah. Okay. Three hour nap, snuggle up nice and close, and then we get the hell up and I message Zofia. Short sleep, cuddled up all nice and warm, and then go do testing. Sound good?" She was met by twin heads nodding in unison, which she responded to with a single curt bob of her own noggin.

The covers were pulled up to their necks - Est's neck, at least, leaving EJ slightly concealed by the comforter - and then, eyes found themselves shutting gently and peacefully. It was gonna be one hell of a night when they awoke, wasn't it? If it was still evening when their eyes opened anew, at least - who knew if they'd even wake up in time? Maybe Esthrielle had some kind of alarm installed in that head of hers, another chrome implant screwed deep into her overclocked grey matter.

The lights flicked off by unseen motion or unspoken command, and the women went to sleep. Shared breaths, shared warmth, shared love... Esper James could only find herself hoping that things could stay like this forever. That nun in the hallway had called her and Purity 'sister', right? Were they nuns? Were they part of the convent? That might be... nice. A permanent place to rest their heads, regardless of anything else... That was the dream, she thought. Somewhere they were safe. All of them.

Sleep came quicker than one may expect - a good, hot shower can ready you for bed way more than you may expect. And when they awoke, the tests would begin. No more delays. No more getting sidetracked; no more excuses.

Or so they all hoped.