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It was always harder to get a message saying that someone wanted to talk rather than to simply talk, and when the message came from Siegfried, who she only really knew from his role as Albireo's husband, it was an even worse feeling than normal. Was he upset about how close she was getting to his wife? Had something happened?

The first possibility was awkward, but the second made her stomach twist and put a lump in her throat. It was lucky that she ran into a youma on the way over that she could dust to at least take the edge off of the anxiety.

After that, though, she walked as quickly as she could.

"Siegfried," she answered him, approaching at ground level. "Is it all right if we talk down here? I freeze up a bit with heights."

She clasped her hands in front of her to keep them from shaking with nerves. "Also, is everything all right?"

He had nice hair, thought Cybele, just for a moment, as he leapt down to perch in front of her. She flashed a smile at him as he landed, doing her best to ignore the way that her heart was pounding behind her ribs.

Although, it took a moment for her to process exactly what it was that he was saying.

"My girlfriend?" She didn't have-

Oh.

"Albireo?" she asked, because she didn't know who else it could be. For one thing, it was Siegfried telling her this. For another, she'd slept a few times now curled up in the other woman's arms. Albireo was always calling her my Cybele, my Ellie. That meant something.

Cybele hadn't thought to put a label on it but she didn't think girlfriend sounded wrong.

That wasn't the most important thing here, though. Cybele's heart jumped to her throat when she heard that she'd lost her starseed again. At least Siegfried wasn't sounding like it had been a permanent thing, and if she'd told him not to tell Cybele, that meant she was alive, but Cybele's voice was still thin as she asked, quickly, "Why? What happened?"

The way she talked about her? Cybele's skin was usually almost the color of paper, so the way her face flushed pink wondering what that meant was probably obvious even in the low light. Being called cute immediately afterwards only deepened the blush.

"You're cute yourself," was all she could think of to say as she suddenly found her thoughts disintegrated all at once, which probably wasn't clever, or appropriate, but there it was. "Our girl has good taste, doesn't she?" A moment passed before she added, "But no, we're not dating or anything. Yet."

As he kept talking, though, as he kept talking about what had happened, the warmth in her chest deepened into something hotter. Anger.

Not anger at Albireo, though. Yes, she was concerned for her not-quite-girlfriend, because she knew how quickly death could come, she knew, but she wasn't about to victim blame when some agent had willfully chosen to go after the soul of the sweetest senshi that Cybele had ever met.

"Whatever senshi and agents you hurt probably deserved it," she said, her voice going cold. Her eyes narrowed, that anger flashing just behind them. "Who was it that hurt her?"

The description did not bring to mind anyone that Cybele had met before, but her eyes still flashed cold as Siegfried spoke of this woman, and she did not flinch when he said that he would kill her. Instead, she said, "I'll help you."

People who took starseeds had committed themselves to Chaos enough that they needed to be stopped, no matter what it took. Someone who took Albireo's starseed made it personal.

Still, this Captain was not here, and Albireo was alive, and Cybele took a breath before she could swing too deeply into a violent mood.

Which meant her thoughts swung back to something else that had been distracting her since Siegfried had arrived.

"Do you really think we could be girlfriends?" she asked, and the tension stayed in her shoulders, just for a different reason. "How would that even work? Do I just ask?"

Just ask? All right. She could try that, perhaps, although she could already fed her heartbeat getting faster at the thought of putting all of her feelings into a simple question.

“Yes, I think I know about polyamory?” She said, although she didn’t sound quite sure. She hadn’t been researching it, the way Siegfried might have been. Albireo was her married best friend, and in her eyes, that had been where her thought process stopped until about five minutes ago.

Perhaps she’d known about it in her previous life, though, because the suggestions that Siegfried were making were hardly shocking. On the other hand, it might have just been that she was quickly realizing she wanted that relationship with Albireo, and with Siegfried, too, however he fit into that.

“I’ll ask her,” she said, cheeks turning pink. “See where that goes. I might not mention the starseed, that seems a bit personal,” and it wasn’t like Cybele was any good at keeping her own starseed in her chest, “But on that front, I’ll see if I can look out for her. I’ll see if I can keep it from happening again.”