"Whoa!" Circus exclaimed. "This is incredible! I didn't know you're an artist!"
Circus held an incredibly well-made drawing of a tall, pale, skinny and creepy-looking man, handed to her by Jenny. She was at her desk at the precinct and Jenny just showed up out of nowhere. Everybody looked, and nobody dared tell her she wasn't allowed in here.
"I could hang it on the fridge in the pantry. I think I can find some magnets," Circus said with a smile.
"Ah! No…" Jenny raised her hands.
Others around them chuckled. Circus looked around, wondering if she said something funny.
"This is the ghost that's been haunting Tatters. I saw it with my own eyes and drew it. I thought maybe you could identify it…"
"Oh…" Circus replied.
More laughing from her colleagues.
"I, uh…" Jenny said as she leaned over to whisper into Circus' ear. "We actually stayed in your apartment when you were kidnapped, to avoid arrest."
"Huh?"
"And I saw you have a Necronomicon. Maybe it's in there…"
Then she backed away again.
"Oh," Circus said, "I can do that…"
She looked around the office, and her colleagues turned their heads away and went back to work.
"I go home in an hour," she turned back to Jenny, "you can come over then."
Jenny smiled, gave her two thumbs up and subtly hopped up and down.
"I understand you know your way in," Circus said with a frown.
♦
Circus unlocked the door to her apartment and wasn't greeted by her cat like usual. She heard Jenny's voice coming from her living room, giggling. She hurried to take off her coat and shoes, soaked from the downpour outside.
When she walked into the living room, she found an equally soaked Jenny on her back, and her beloved cat Bulldozer sitting on top of her, licking her face. Jenny moved her eyes to Circus and gave her an excited wave.
"Ugh," Circus sighed, "I can't be mad at you…"
"Mad at me?" a confused Jenny asked.
Circus shook her head and took off her backpack.
"I've been in your house without your permission too, I guess."
Jenny continued her confused gaze.
"He likes you," Circus continued.
Jenny turned to face the cat again, who sat upright on her chest, looking at her.
"I like him too," Jenny said.
Circus crouched beside Jenny to pet the cat's head, and Jenny raised her upper body to get to her eye level, investigating the look in Circus' eyes. The cat half-stood up and moved to Jenny's lap, sitting back down.
"Are you upset?" Jenny asked. "You were quiet all morning."
Circus focused her eyes on the cat on Jenny's lap, looking brooding.
"I hope Tatters comes back… We really had a thing going."
Jenny put her hand on Circus' shoulder.
"She's probably back already," she said with a smile.
"Really?"
"I dropped Plu next to her to work her magic," Jenny said while imitating a claw machine with her hand.
"When?"
"Just now. Before I came here."
Circus grabbed Jenny and hugged her, causing Bulldozer to jump away.
"You really are our savior!"
Jenny fell short of words again at the shout of praise.
Circus let go and happily walked over to the kitchen, making clicking sounds with her mouth to lure the cat over, and she started preparing his meal.
"Why don't we drop by later tonight?" Jenny asked from the living room.
"Don't you think we should leave them be for the evening?" Circus responded while filling up the cat's bowl. "Y'know… Especially after all that tension…"
"Why's that?"
Circus walked back into the living room with the bowl in her hand, and the cat followed, trying to grab at her legs.
"Pfft. Jen, you're so clueless," Circus said with a naughty smile.
"What?"
"They're a little more than just housemates."
"You think?" Jenny asked with a blush.
Circus put the bowl on the ground, after which the cat immediately started dining. Then, she walked over to Jenny, crouched and extended her hand to whisper into her ear, glancing over at the cat, making sure he couldn't hear.
"They're totally hooking up."
"H—Really!? Since when? How do you know?" a flustered Jenny asked.
"C'mon! It's totally obvious! Like you and Saturn," Circus explained with a flirty look in her eyes.
Suddenly, Jenny's body flew up into the air and dropped her on her feet, as if she had a rope attached to her waist that went into the ceiling.
She looked flustered and anxious, like she wanted to say something but couldn't think of what.
"You're not?" Circus asked.
Jenny shook her head vigorously.
"Oh," Circus mumbled, "then maybe I'm wrong about the other two, after all…"
Jenny nodded her head vigorously.
"But Saturn said he…" Circus said, but stopped herself.
She stared at Jenny, who frowned at her.
"He said what?"
"He said…" Circus anxiously looked away.
"… nothing important…"
Jenny frowned even harder and leaned over with her hands on her hips. She moved closer and investigated Circus' face with one eye wide open, as if she had a magnifying glass in front of it. Circus felt like she was being scanned by a lie detector, but Jenny's eyes didn't look any different from usual. Neither one said anything, and Jenny went through a series of facial expressions that betrayed her thought process. From incredulous to surprised to embarrassed, then back to doubtful.
"W-Wanna go look at the 'con for your ghost?" Circus asked nervously.
Jenny took a step back, hesitated, then gave a resigned nod.
♦
Plural woke up in the middle of the night to the moonlight shining through her living room windows. She was on the couch, where she fell asleep with Tatters on her lap. But Tatters was sitting on the floor in front of the window. Awake, staring at the moon.
When Plural sat upright, she made enough sound dropping her feet to the floor to alert Tatters for sure, but she didn't move. Plural stared at her friend to see if she wasn't just sleeping while sitting, then stood up and walked over. Again, no response from Tatters to the sound of her footsteps.
"Hey," Plural whispered, "you awake?"
Finally, Tatters turned her head around and looked Plural in the eyes with a vigilant gaze.
"It's you," she said in relief.
Plural gave her a little wave and sat down next to her. Then, she leaned her head forward and looked over to see the front of her friend, seeing nothing unusual. Tatters looked Plural in the eyes the whole time.
"Can't sleep?" Plural asked with a tired smile.
Tatters looked forward and out the window again, then nodded.
"Same as usual."
Plural suspiciously looked around the dark living room around them.
"Is he… in here with us now?" she asked, looking back at her friend for a response.
Tatters nodded.
Plural stared at Tatters, not knowing what to say to make her feel better. Tatters, probably aware, remained steadfast in looking out the window.
"Are you scared?" she asked without making eye contact.
Plural looked around the dark room one more time.
"I don't… know," she vaguely replied. "Is there nothing we can do? To, you know… free you?"
Tatters looked out the window with a frustrated look.
"Even Jenny couldn't touch it."
Plural put her hand on top of her friend's, causing her to look over.
"But you're stronger than Jenny!"
Tatters looked shocked.
"N-No I'm not! Nobody's stronger than Jenny!"
"I-I know!" Plural exclaimed, "I meant your powers. You can kill things she can't."
Tatters looked out the window again, then raised her hand in front of her and stared at it.
"It hasn't really given me a chance yet."
Then she balled her hand up into a fist.
"Because it goes away whenever I look," she said and looked back at Plural.
"I… see…" Plural responded in defeat.
After that, the two spent some time looking out the window together in silence.
"I'm not holding out hope," Tatters broke the silence.
Plural looked at her.
"Gut feeling," Tatters added.
Plural looked upset and powerless.
"I might have to accept that he'll always be with me," Tatters continued.
Plural looked at her in disappointment, like that was an unacceptable reality for her.
Then, she wiggled herself closer until her hips touched her friend's.
"In that case, so am I!"
Immediately, Tatters turned her head away.
Eventually, she responded under her breath. "Me too."
She turned her head towards Plural.
"Me… with you, I'll…" she stuttered and looked down at her legs.
Followed by a frustrated grunt.
"You're gonna make me cry again."
♦
"We stayed up super late!"
The next morning, somewhere in a closed meeting room, Plural hopped around Saturn in circles.
"We talked…"
"And?" Saturn asked in anticipation.
"And," Plural hopped her way back in front of him, "just talked."
"Very nice," Saturn replied, "I'm at that stage with Jenny, too."
Plural grabbed her own hair and looked at the ceiling, visibly in love.
"She told me all about her childhood. She even cried on my lap! Can you believe it?"
Saturn gave her a grin while rubbing his chin, but Plural had her eyes closed and didn't see.
"Doesn't sound like she'll run off again," he said.
"No, sir! We've synchronized our wavelengths, my familiar and I," Plural explained, spinning her index fingers next to her head. "Now, she's even more beautiful than before!" she said as she spun around cheerfully.
After some silence, she opened her eyes to see why her conversation partner wasn't conversing, then she saw the way he looked at her.
"W-What?" she asked bashfully.
"Is that a crush I see?"
"Nice quip, but I'm not bashful like you."
Plural coughed to clear her throat.
"But yes, you see correctly."
She raised her arms and spun around another lap.
"I'm in love!"
Saturn raised his hands and formed his thumbs and index fingers into a frame around her, then observed her through it with one eye closed.
"I think you've got a shot."
Plural leapt towards him and excitedly asked with her hands cradled against her chest.
"You think? You think so?"
Saturn took a step back and scratched his head with a guilty look on his face.
"Well, I don't actually have a clue what's going on in that blonde's head."
Then, Plural grabbed his shirt with both of her hands and pulled him closer.
"I know! Right? It's not just me?"
Saturn raised his hands to suggest he had no clue.
"Guess you and I are into 'special' girls."
Plural looked proud.
"Yes, yes. I'm glad you brought that up."
Then, she let go of his shirt.
"I was actually going somewhere with this meeting, believe it or not."
Saturn crossed his arms and raised his eyebrow.
"It's time, my friend," Plural continued.
Then, she stood on one leg, closed one of her eyes and pointed her hand at him in an exaggerated pose.
"We're seizing our superhero girlfriends! You and I!"
Saturn's could not hide his amusement, and a grin crept onto his face.
"I'm listening."
Plural turned around and hopped over to a whiteboard on the wall. She grabbed one of the markers and started drawing. As she did, she started explaining.
"Summertime makes everybody happy…"
Saturn slowly walked over to the board with his hands in his pockets, watching the drawing unfold.
"And we only have a month left until fall," Plural continued.
So far, she'd drawn four plain stick figures.
"Now, in a week, there's the annual summer fair…" she explained, quickly drawing a large tent in the background with the text "Summer Fair" on it. "And we're going!" Plural announced, then turned around to get a reaction.
Saturn raised his eyebrows.
"To?"
Plural tapped her marker on the board twice.
"To go! On a double date!"
"Hmmmm…" Saturn sounded intrigued.
Plural turned around to continue drawing. Instead of adding more set pieces, she worked on the stick figures. First, she grabbed some colored markers and gave herself some hair with the blue one. Next, she gave Saturn some red hair.
"And will the other two know it's a date?" Saturn asked.
"That part's optional," Plural replied while drawing.
Next, she made Jenny look like a cartoon robot. Her torso was made up of three vertically stacked boxes, and her legs were stretched out triangles, getting wider at the feet. Her circular head had two similar triangles coming out of them to represent pigtails, which Jenny didn't have.
Saturn crossed his arms and gave Plural a frown, wondering what kind of Jenny she was even drawing.
"I thought you didn't like dates?"
Plural waited to respond while she added details to Tatters' stick figure. Yellow hair. Correctly, unlike Jenny, with the two braids at the side and the air vents at the top. A cape. She was neither plain nor incorrect. Furthermore, Plural was putting far more effort into this one than the others. A flirty smile crept onto her face as she drew a heart in between her own figure and Tatters.
"It's unbearable! I want her!" Plural turned around.
Saturn looked amused and nodded.
"She's one in a million!" Plural continued. "And with everything that happened recently, she might slip through my fingers if I don't act soon…"
With the way she talked, she acted like a lovestruck schoolgirl. Saturn had never seen her act this way before. Next, Plural stepped forward and grabbed his shirt, pulling him closer to continue her rant.
"Also! I haven't even been with a girl once! Once! It's like my virginity has been restored ever since I switched sides! Do you have any idea what that's like!?"
"No clue," he replied with an entertained look.
Plural exhaled and let go of him.
"I'm gonna confess! That's the plan!"
She crossed her two index fingers together and explained.
"We split up. Me and Tats, you and Jen… Then I'll do it."
"Poor Circus," Saturn noted.
"She has to work that evening. I checked," Plural said proudly.
Saturn chuckled.
"That doesn't make it any better, you dimwit."
Plural ignored his comment and gave him a serious look.
"Are you in or not?"
"Oh, yeah. Hundred percent. Just need to think of what to do with Jenny if we split up. I don't have any grand ambitions like yours."
Plural frowned.
"Why not?"
"I'm riding it slow, Plu. Enjoying the journey," he spoke while waving his fingers around. "Besides, I don't wanna make a move if I'm not positive she likes me back."
"Jenny adores you. You can do no wrong," Plural said confidently.
"You think so?" Saturn asked while rubbing the back of his head.
"If you ask me," Plural said while twirling her hair with her finger, "I think she'd even agree to go skinny dipping with you."
She gave Saturn a flirty look. At first, he looked happily surprised, but then he gave her a doubtful look.
"Hold on, why skinny dipping?"
"Reliable sources. Voices in my head," Plural explained with her eyes closed, looking confident.
"Okay…" Saturn mumbled. "And—"
"She was upset we went to the hot springs without her," Plural interrupted.
Saturn rubbed his chin and looked intrigued.
"And how exactly do you picture that happening at the summer fair?"
"I dunno. You're the charmer. You tell me."
Saturn took his hand and rubbed his hair backwards, looking like he was processing what he'd just heard.
"Hey, Jen. Remember that pool in your backyard? Whaddaya say we ditch these shmucks and have ourselves a real party?" Saturn spoke with an exaggerated voice.
"Funny. But I mean it," Plural spoke, still twirling her hair. "Think about it, Sparkle Boy."