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Jasper didn't need to get involved with what she was going to do next so Cami, who was oddly still twenty-seven years old if not drunk and terrified, deposited him in a corner with a hug for thanks. They'd have to talk about what she did in that drunken haze where she'd run around half-naked but that would be another time, another place. Right now she had her blondes to straighten out because this was not acceptable. They could snip at each other all they wanted but taking chunks out of her just because she was there, because she was a soft and unresisting third party, was not okay.

Snagging first Otto, then Maebe, she hauled them back. "Firstly, you." She focused on Otto. "Thank you for letting me know you were doing okay and just snarling about her. And you," She rounded her heel on Maebe. "What's wrong with the way I look? I look ******** amazing. You look ******** amazing. We all look ******** amazing. That's the best part! What is your damned problem? Both of you! You snip and snarl at me for what? No, seriously, why?" Five years did so much for her. Had it been five years in Deus?

Inside of her head, Kidana was so proud she was all but fainted with the force of the emotion. Something had put steel in Camille Ryland's spine and whatever had happened to get her here, she hoped it wasn't incredibly painful.

Otto was in trouble.

Like a dog who'd been scolded, Otto stood with his head low, hands in his pockets. The paranoia and fear still had hold of him. Being scolded, having two girls he liked angry at him. Every possibility and future played out in his imagination, and all of them ended with him alone. "I-I'm just pissed cause she got all..."

Maebe wanted to leave, and she was still pissed.

"What did I even do?" He muttered at Maebe, "You were all nice to me and taking care of me, then suddenly you go red in the face and you're mad?"

Well if there was one thing that could be counted upon five years later it was that when Maebe Grace Bertrand let out her little purr, Cami still had no idea what to do with her. Well, no, that wasn't true. Cami's brain had every idea under the sun on how to handle that hot little package but that...that wasn't applicable right now. She'd been intending to pull the other woman back again because like hell they were done. This had been brewing for some time and Cami didn't care if Otto yelled at her, if Maebe yelled at her, and it was probably going to be the only time ever that would happen.

In any scenario Cami could think of Otto was never alone. He was either next to her or he was walking off on his own. Cami wasn't the kind of person to walk away from a fight -- she stayed until the bitter, bitter end. Maebe? More complicated.

Except Maebe rounded on Otto almost immediately instead of Cami having to do any work at all. Catching something that Maebe said, Cami reached out to snag her arm nonetheless. "Why are you upset, Maebe? What happened?" Care was in her voice. That unrestricted kindness, compassion, the desire to want to make whatever was hurting one of her sweethearts disappear.

She wished that Cami could have known that Maebe was never going to be honest about why she was upset. She was asking questions that could never be answered, and it left Maebe floundering awkwardly. She had to think of a lie, and fast. She was so good at lying, she'd have been able to do this in her sleep. Why was it so hard, now?

She hadn't even realized the fact that she hadn't really lied to Cami, or Otto, for a very long time now. The truth had always seemed far more sinister.

She didn't know what to say to Cami. The girl deserved an answer, and Maebe would never give her one. So instead, she turned to Otto, because answering that was easier. "Maybe I liked you better when you were crying in my arms. You went and grew up, and ruined that." Lying felt like breathing after a century of holding her breath. She sagged, finally relaxing. "Or maybe I'm just mad you're hotter than me now. I'm usually the hot one, between us. Do you mind?"

Practicing on Otto prepared her for the main event. Lying to Cami. She turned back to the woman, now mature and far more luscious, and finally forced herself to drink the sight in. "I'm not kidding. You do look amazing. I'm glad, at least, that one of us is hotter than Otto. I'll take that as a consolation prize."

Her lies made it sound like she was just jealous of their looks. It was the furthest she could finally be from the truth, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the realization that she hadn't completely lost the ability to lie to the people she cared about, after all.

Cared about.

Her relief vanished like the wind.

Otto wanted to tell Maebe she was stupid. His judgement thankfully seemed a little more careful. Calling her names wasn't going to solve her problem. If this even was her problem. He especially didn't appreciate hearing her say his ten year old self was more desirable. Like a puppy who grew into a less cute dog and was no longer wanted.

He stayed quiet, letting Cami use words. She was better at them. However, he gave her a small scowl when she said he wasn't her type. Why? Vanity, maybe. "Story of my life." He grumbled to her comment about family. Little brother, even in a twenty four year old body. Sure, he didn't want to get with her either, but that was besides the point.

Or something.

"Maebe..." Otto grimaced. She was lying. It was in her face. Her mask. "I know you're lying."

"If you wanna leave your answer at that, then fine. But you ain't foolin' me."

Little brother? No, if Otto had asked, Cami would have probably said big brother. But it really didn't matter because she didn't know how to be a sister. She hadn't had anyone grow up with her, hadn't played house, hadn't really even learned how to be much of a daughter. There was an ache inside of her for family even though she had no idea what family really was. To say that Otto was family meant that he was someone that she would kill for, die for, sacrifice for.

The last person that had been family, that she'd been incidentally ******** at the same time, left her. Broke her into tiny pieces that Camille still had not found all the pieces for. Ugly, horrible things wheeled out through her brain in connection with that man and it was a way she never, never wanted to think about Otto. He didn't deserve it. Still the reasoning was that Otto was in a place so close to her unguarded, soft center that she could never, never have sex with him. It didn't matter that she was mildly curious, that he was a devastatingly handsome man, it just mattered that she couldn't lose him. He couldn't be a regret.

His grumble had her frowning and she wanted to explain, somewhat needed to explain, but was afraid to say it all now. Not because she didn't trust Maebe it was simply that there were things that Cami didn't want to really even share with Otto. But she could. She hoped.

Maebe's nod was so soft and hesitant as to be immediately confirmed as untrue but Otto was there before Cami could even bother to voice her own objection once more. A little harsher, perhaps, than the redhead would have been but he knew her better. Understood her better because there was something they shared she could not comprehend even if she'd somehow tried. Cami wanted to open her mouth, wanted to reassure Maebe that she did need her but heard the woman's voice in her head.

'No you don't need but you want me and that's good enough.'

So, saying nothing, Cami sighed and looked off into the distance for a long moment. Torn between smacking all three of their heads together and just screaming with frustration and sadness. Wishing that perhaps there would be something she could dig up, some deep irrefutable proof that there was something Maebe offered that no one else could. It didn't matter that Cami preferred her. It wasn't a need. ******** semantics!

Reaching out to snag the pink-tinted blonde by her hand she squeezed it. "I always worry whether you like it or not. You're important to me whether you like it or not, Maebe baby." Reaching out, her other hand snagged Otto's and squeezed his too for good measure because it made her feel good. Made her feel connected when she felt so very...outside. "You too, Otto. Sorry." Except she wasn't sorry. At all.

You're important to me, whether you like it or not, Maebe baby.

You're both important to me.. even if I don't alway say it aloud, and even if I can't explain why.

Maebe wanted to fall into a hole, and die.

She stood her ground, and her expression never faltered, but inside she was dying. Everything about those words screamed warnings to her, and it wasn't long before she pictured the two of them dead, or lying in a pod, clinging to their last shred of life. Just like -

"Okay, okay," She chirped out sarcastically, without a single whisper of the turmoil tearing her up inside. "No need to get weepy on me, now. You'll start to infect me with feelings or something." She rolled her eyes and smiled, but her heart was beating a mile a minute. She needed to get away, to run, to never look back.

She needed to not need this.

"Let's keep moving before somebody makes us drink something again." She suggested, her breath catching from the pain that was digging into her heart. She couldn't hold the facade for long; she knew her breathing was starting to become affected, and she needed to go.

Fast.