--Written by Jeanne Alter--
-Micheals PoV-
Gasping Micheals eyes snapped open the gunshot still echoing in his ears as he frantically looked around the room his mind still thinking back to what had happened in the nightmare he had been experiencing moments earlier. He let the tension escape him and he fell back onto the bed as his breathing settled down before he dug the heels of his palms into his eyes groaning. Sensing movement to his left he pulled his hands away to see the gently illuminated view of Jeanne d'Arc Alter as she slept facing him breathing steadily, lit up by the moon overhead shining through the semi-opaque skylight above them.
Making sure not to disturb her, he turned a bit to be better able to see her and watched as she breathed in and out before scrunching her face a bit while pulling the bedsheet tighter around herself. That done her face relaxed into a soft smile that did more for his peace of mind than any breathing exercise he could have done at that moment. He briefly had the urge to run his fingers through her hair but stifled it knowing how tired she said she had been before they had gone to bed.
Smiling a bit himself he carefully slid his legs off the bed, sat up, and got off the bed glancing out the window of the beach house that they had been living in for the duration of their vacation so far. Wandering over to the window he looked out at the moonlit ocean waves and then turned his gaze up to the stars above. He saw movement out of the corner of his sight and looked over to see Morgan walking along the shore by herself. He was just wondering if she was okay when he felt her on the edges of his mind via the Master-Servant bond and let her in,
<| Can't sleep? |>
Smiling a bit to himself he glanced back at his wife,
[ Not… really. I- This is going to sound so dumb but- ]
<| A nightmare? |>
He let the silence speak for him before,
<| If you'd like to talk about it then I'm more than willing to listen. I've… not been sleeping well either to be completely honest. |>
He chuckled through the bond and sensed the other womans annoyed pout come back through it,
[ I'll… Let me get dressed and I'd… appreciate your time Your Majesty. ]
He heard her snort through the bond,
<| I keep telling you to stop that. I'm no countries queen anymore but because of that I've gotten a level of freedom and peace of mind I would have never obtained otherwise. Do get dressed as I'm sure your lovely lady avenger should be the only one to see you otherwise. |>
[ Be out in a minute then. ]
He felt her leave the edges of his mind and glanced back to Jeanne Alter briefly wondering if he should wake her up to let her know he'd be stepping out but….
Furrowing his brow he instead found a pen and a notepad,
Hey sweetie.
Stepped out for a bit to talk with Morgan some. Don't feel like you need to get up or come out so try to go back to sleep.
Be back in a bit,
Love you,
Micheal
After reading the note a few times he left it on his pillow and then pulled on some of the normal clothes he had packed. Slipping on his sandals he quietly opened the front door to their temporary home, pulled it shut, and then jogged over to where he had seen Morgan last. As he got over to her he smiled a bit seeing she had conjured a small campfire and some camping chairs along with a small pot she had placed over the crackling flames,
"Tea? Out here?"
He asked curiously causing her to look up at him and smirk,
"Yup. Ever since I figured out I could use my Shadows for storage I'm never without the supplies for tea," She said while he sat down in the chair next to her and she poured him a mug which he eyed warily before she smiled at him, "Its decaf and I've got milk as well as honey."
Nodding his thanks he accepted the mug and poured in some milk before stirring in a bit of honey then sipped his tea as he stared at the crackling flames while they both fell into silence. Unsure about how to even describe his nightmare he sighed,
"The fact I'm having nightmares after everything I've been through and done is… embarrassing honestly. I've saved the world and yet I'm still- Its like I never left some of the places I've been. Like the horrors have never left my mind or I've left a part of myself in those moments that I can't ever bring back or fully remove."
"Servants," Morgan said after a few seconds of silence, "Normally, are unable to dream. Given what a servant is magically speaking they fundamentally cannot 'dream' like a normal person. 'The Dead cannot dream' and Servants are, for the most part, just that. Dead. Only able to experience their past."
He nodded as they both slipped into the familiar roles of teacher and student once again. She smiled a bit and looked out over the ocean,
"And yet… Exceptions exist as they always do. You know this better than I do given who you're engaged to as Jeanne d'Arc Alter never was a 'normal' servant to begin with. Even as an Avenger with Oblivion Correction she was unlike the other Avengers as you well know since she has always been able to dream. Something that I and Edmond and Okita are all able to do. We all dream ...and not all of them are good ones. I've been having this… recurring nightmare from when I was just the faerie Morgan le Fay and not the Winter Queen. Except details have been altered to make it worse than what had actually happened. Tonight being no exception."
She sighed as he looked at her his brow furrowed,
"The rest of you… are able to dream? Since when?"
Leaning back into her chair she cradled her mug of tea in her hand as she thought about it,
"If I had to hazard a guess… A little bit after Alaya and Gaia incarnated all of us as Living Servants while taking us all out of the Throne of Heroes in the process. I had my first dream about a week after that whole ordeal finally ended," she laughed a bit and looked at him with a happy smile, "I remember waking up and being so confused as to what I had seen and experienced while I was sleeping because I had never done any of it in my life, either as a Servant or Faerie."
"Now I'm curious as to what the dream even was," Micheal said sipping his tea and looking at the Witch who suddenly seemed bashful, "I won't judge. Come on. Tell me the first real dream you've ever had."
Sighing she closed her eyes and leaned her head back causing her ponytail to pool behind her floating five centimeters above the ground like it always did. After several seconds of silence during which Micheal had taken another sip of tea,
"I… was baking sweets. Cupcakes and the like but I don't even know what I was baking them for or if they were for anyone but… I remember being happy just… baking them. Then the oven went off with the same sound as my alarm and I woke up before I could pull out the next batch of pastries."
He stared at her, his mug partially held away from his face unsure if he heard her correctly as she lowered her gaze and gave him a flat look,
"If you spill any of that tea I will not be giving you more."
He winced a bit, quickly drank the rest, and set the mug down before he looked at her in awe,
"Thats…. Awesome. Your first dream in…."
"My first dream ever as I never dreamed at any point I was a living Faerie either," She said laughing to herself and shaking her head a bit, "and it was about making pastries. Of course I want to try and ask Eleanor about it but I struggled on how to even ask without seeming…. not 'weak'. Ugh."
She gave him an annoyed look,
"Whats the term you modern day people use for not wanting to be seen as weak or a dumbass or just weird?"
He raised his eyebrows at her,
"Reminder that almost all of my slang is from the late 1980s to early 1990s. Whatever else I know I picked up from Gudako. We are in the 2030s now so I have just as little of an idea as you do."
She huffed at him,
"Yes but you teach so you surely at least encountered something."
"I teach magus students. I don't think they count."
They both looked at each other before each broke into chuckling as they sat there. After a bit of comfortable silence,
"So your nightmare. Was it something you saw or something your worries forced your mind to create?"
He stared at the flames in the stone circle for a bit,
"Its… It started as something that happened before I met you as the Winter Queen in Faerie Britain. Did you ever read the records for what happened in the Olympian Lostbelt? Specifically the fight against Aphrodite?"
He gripped his wrist with his hand and tried not to think back to the nightmare itself as Morgan made an 'aha' sound,
"That was the Goddess who hit you, along with everyone else, with that mental attack correct? The one that she blindly fired so even the civilians got affected."
He nodded,
"I… don't remember any of what happened immediately after she launched the attack. None of us do but this nightmare… In it… the attack landed but-" He swallowed past the constricting in his throat, "but it only affected me. She… took full control over all of me and made me watch from my own point of view as I killed every single one of my friends and loved ones. Then… as I wanted nothing more than to die myself from watching my own lances pierce through the woman I loved… she made me summon Blessed Hellfire in its pistol form and-"
He jumped a bit as he felt Morgans hand on the back of his own and he looked down to see he was gripping his wrist hard enough that the skin was turning a deep purple. Breathing out a shaky breath, he pulsed his wrist with healing magecraft, watched the bruising clear, and then let go nodding his silent thanks to the Faerie Witch next to him. She stared at him to make sure he was as okay as he could be before sitting back fully into her own chair. They sat there in silence for several more seconds,
"Does she know? Do any of them? That you're having nightmares like this?"
He shook his head and stared at the sand under his feet when he felt her hand on his shoulder,
"You should at least tell your wife Micheal. She deserves to know so she can help you like you've always helped her and have helped everyone else around you. Which includes me."
She firmed her fingers around his shoulder,
"You, along with Gudako, shouldered everyone and everything for far too long during those ten years. Let us help you however we can. Its not about being weak. Sure, you are what you are now due to what happened during the Second Ordeal Call but you still have people that care about you… and want to help. I know I want to help if I can."
Looking up he stared into her ice blue eyes with his own golden ones and nodded silently,
"I'll leave the fire for you to sit by for as long as you want. Just be sure to put it out when you're ready to go back to bed. I'm gonna walk for a bit and leave you two alone."
Blinking unsure if he heard her correctly he looked up just in time to see Morgan walk through one of her shadow portals moments before,
"Micheal? Is… Is everything okay? I got your note…."
He looked around to see Jeanne wrapped in the bedsheet from their bed, her own hair hanging loosely behind her and floating just above the sand in the same way Morgans had been, as she held up the note before noticing the chairs, mugs, and then furrowing her brow at the fire,
"Who-"
"Morgan."
"Ah. So she set all this up…"
"Likely for herself and me at first then she must have sensed you waking up or something. Did she tell you anything over whatever link you share?"
Jeanne shook her head before she moved over to sit in the now free chair and pulled the blanket around herself as she shivered a bit in the night air,
"I... tend to notice subconsciously when you aren't next to me in bed and not long after I notice, no matter how deeply asleep I am, I always wake up to see you not there. The note you left helped my immediate worrying though so… thanks."
They fell into silence as he thought back to what Morgan had told him to do and then looked over at the woman he loved as she stared out at the ocean in content silence. He sighed and decided to look at the crackling flames in front of them instead,
"You're still having nightmares. Aren't you? Thats why you got up."
Blinking he looked from the flames to see her looking at him worriedly and he wondered how much she'd noticed remembering, once again, how observant she could be when she wanted to be. He smiled guiltily,
"Yeah. Its almost been a little over half a decade since Chaldea was forced to disband and yet… I still occasionally have nightmares about the stuff we've seen…. The worlds we were forced to destroy. The battles we've fought and barely survived."
He heard her hum a bit to show she was listening and glanced at her to see her looking at him expectantly before looking at the flames again. Hesitantly he told her the nightmare that had woken him up, how Aphrodite had taken control of his body and forced it to do everything it did while all he could do was watch, and just like Morgan had done Jeanne had stopped him before he could say what he'd done in the nightmare that snapped him awake like it did.
Instead of grabbing his hand though, she instead had quickly crossed the meter or so distance between them to hug him to her tightly which he responded by wrapping his arms around her himself as he felt the stress of the nightmare finally start to crack through the dam. He tried to hold back the tears only,
"Let it out. I'm here. I'm fine and I know you'd never hurt me. Let it out."
She murmured softly into his hair.
And so he did.
They stayed like that for how long he didn't know but eventually the tears stopped and he tightened his arms around his wife as she hummed a song he couldn't place at that moment while she ran her fingers through his hair. Eventually he pulled his face away and sniffled a bit before looking up at her to see her smiling at him like he was her entire world,
"You've helped me so much with my nightmares, I want to be able to help you too. Okay? So… please don't feel like you need to shoulder all of this on your own. I'm with you and am never leaving so let me help you with your burdens. Please?"
She leaned down to kiss him chastely before pulling away that same loving smile gracing her face,
"Promise me?"
He sniffled a bit more and then nodded his voice hoarse,
"I promise… and… thank you. I'll… remember to lean on you when I need to."
"As well as Gudako, and Edmond, and Okita, and Morgan, and your mom, and Sakura, and Alison, and-"
He rolled his eyes and smiled at her,
"Yes, yes. You've made your point my sweet Avenger."
She leaned down to kiss him again and then after maintaining their hug for a few more seconds went back to the chair she had left. Sitting back down in it she yawned, blinking sleepily,
"You can go back to bed you know."
She shook her head,
"Are you coming back to bed?"
He hesitated long enough to let her know his answer as she huffed and eyed him out of the corner of her eye,
"Then I'm not going back to bed either."
"My Sweet stubborn Avenger."
He said causing her to stick her tongue out at him and shiver a bit more in her seat making him roll his eyes and adjust how he was sitting. She looked over at him, furrowed her brow, and he made a 'come on' motion with his hands causing her to smile. She got up and sat down in his lap wrapping the bedsheet more tightly around herself as she kissed his jaw and then nestled her head against his chest and shoulder. They sat there for a bit until he thought she had gone to sleep when he heard her murmur,
"You're… just as stubborn…."
He pressed a kiss into her hair and closed his own eyes while his lips turned up into a smile,
"Good night my love."
-Jeannes PoV-
"So~", Gudako said teasingly as Jeanne Alters face heated and she gave the other woman a light glare, "Just the two of you. On the beach. By yourselves. At 2am. With no one else awake or nearby… and nothing happened."
"No. Nothing Happened. I swear you're just as bad as that Pervert Saber."
"I heard my name~! Whats going on?"
Gudako smirked as Okita called out from where she was lounging in a hammock reading a book and raised her voice a little,
"Teasing Jalty~"
"Fucking nothing!"
Jeanne said a bit louder and more annoyed before sighing and staring at her food while poking at it with her fork. She felt Gudako move to sit next to her before wrapping an arm around her shoulders,
"You know neither of us mean any of this in a mean spirited way. Its our way of making sure you don't get into your own head about what you want to have happen."
She hummed a bit to show she was still annoyed with their teasing but stuck her fork into the shrimp fried rice, and ate some of it smiling a bit regardless. Gudako reached across the table and pulled over her own plate of salmon fried rice along with her chopsticks snagging some and eating it. Unsure if she wanted to eat Jeanne tapped her fork on the side of her plate and frowned which wasn't missed by Gudako,
"So whats got you all anxious?"
"I'm not-," She bit back the deflection almost as soon as she said it and winced before sighing, "Just.... Tomorrow makes three weeks since we got here and we only have a week left. The entire trip has been amazing, I've gotten to see so much stuff, but.…"
Her eyes trailed across the table to where Micheal was sitting eating his own meal and reading a book before he looked up at her, smiled, and arched a single eyebrow in a silent question. Smiling back she shook her head, he went back to his book, and she let out a shaky breath,
"But you've yet to actually get him to see you in the swimsuit,"
Her friend said quietly enough that only she would hear her as she nodded a bit,
"I've put it on in the bathroom seven different times now but everytime I get everything put into place I turn around and- I'm scared of a door Gudako. Do you know how pathetic that is? I've faced down Gods and Divine beings yet I can't open a door while I'm wearing the stupid thing."
She hissed back under her breath and then ate some more food before deciding that she was actually done eating. Putting down her fork she rested her jaw in her palm to just stare out across the island in silence as Gudako finished her own meal, offered her thanks for the food, and then set her chopsticks down onto their rest. Turning to look at her Jeanne caught the other womans gaze and turned her head a bit to look at her as she whispered,
"Would it help if someone was there to give you that push? How were you going to make sure that Micheal was the only one who saw you in it anyway?"
"Morgan... gave me an idea," She said quietly back, "I'd wear a big zip up hoodie over it, get Micheal somewhere away from the cabins, then unzip and take off the hoodie all at once. I can worry about what happens after that after its off of me but its the getting to that part thats the issue. I packed the hoodie and its one of the ones I wear all the time that I stole from Micheal years ago."
Gudako snorted a bit and arched an eyebrow,
"I know we said we were gonna have you flatline him but wearing that under one of his hoodies that you stole?"
Feeling her face flush she glared at her friend who chuckled and bumped her shoulder against her own before smiling at her,
"How about I give you an idea of what you could do: Wear something thats not a part of the outfit, but still fits and yet sticks out enough to pierce through your worry and anxiety."
Furrowing her brow she turned her head to look at Gudako properly,
"Like?"
The woman shrugged,
"I tend to use a bracelet myself. Its not a mystic code or anything like that. Just a woven leather braid that wraps around my wrist twice. Whenever I know that I might hesitate in the face of something I always wear it before I go and do it. It can be anything though as long as it enters your sightline while you're hesitating."
Glancing over at Micheal again she firmed her jaw and thought for a few seconds,
"I have my bracelet I wear with my black and gold bikini which should work with the... swimsuit I bought."
Gudako wrapped an arm around her and gave her a side hug making sure to lightly bump her head against her own,
"There ya go. Do try to get back inside the cabin before you let him tear it all off of you though~"
Groaning but smiling a bit she pushed the other woman off of her as she laughed while Jeanne just shook her head a bit glancing over at Micheal before picking up her fork and resuming her meal,
I've fought and won against harder enemies.
I'm not gonna lose against a stupid door.
Feeling that familiar Avenger stubbornness kindle in her chest she quickly finished her food and went back to the cabin to kill time until that night.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Okay.... I just... need to put it on now."
She looked at the Swimsuit on its hanger that she had hung on the hook that was placed on the bathroom door and closed her eyes breathing in a bit. Opening her eyes and feeling that familiar determination kindle in her gut she pulled off the shirt she was wearing, slipped off the shorts, and quickly took off her underwear. Mentally she went over the plan again in her head as she made sure that she brought in the hoodie as well before she walked over to the nearby window.
Gudako and Okita are distracting Micheal until I give them the signal that I'm ready.
Using her fingers to pull apart the wooden slats that formed the closed blinds she looked outside to see that the moon had well and truly risen by that point while the sky was cloudless, the stars overhead glimmering on the oceans surface. Nodding to herself she let the slats fall closed and walked over to where the swimsuit was hanging. She slid it off the hanger and looked at it briefly before frowning as she pulled on the bikini bottoms and then looked at the mesh strips meant to circle her hips and thighs while the part that went around her hips was completed with a silver metal ring.
Adjusting the bikini bottom a bit she then slid the mesh rings up her thighs until they seemed to be about right. Then she took the other mesh strap, connected it to the mesh thigh rings, and then pulled it back around herself like a belt after which she connected it to itself. Looking at herself in the mirror she idly adjusted one of the mesh thigh bands before she went back to the bikini top.
This one was clearly more involved given the fabric strings but as she held it out she narrowed her eyes knowing what it should look like once its on properly. Nodding to herself she started with the bikini top putting it on like a normal bra as she felt the mesh cups wrap around her breasts comfortably. She ran the strings running from bottom around under her arms and tied them in place while she tied the strings coming off the top around the back of her neck.
That done she closed her eyes, breathed in, and then opened them to look at herself in the mirror suddenly feeling a sense of thankfulness to Morgan. She could just barely make out the pink of her areolas through the mesh but even seeing that much made her blush before she smacked her cheeks. Reaching for the strings she remembered how they should wrap around her as she hooked them around the ring centered between the cups and then ran them along the inner curve of her breasts.
Letting them fall over her shoulders she reached around and crossed them over each other before then wrapping them under the bra part of the swimsuit to then cross under her breasts. She then crossed them again behind her and as they came back in front she noticed that there was just enough left to connect it to the ring that connected the mesh belt. Hooking the strings to that she hesitantly looked at herself in the mirror seeing the way that the swimsuit hugged her curves as well as how the strings naturally drew the eye across her body.
"I know the cabins are soundproof but we need to get back to them first before I let him have his way with me.... I don't want him... taking me on the beach where anyone could hear us."
She muttered to herself as she tried to push down her blush at the scenes her mind was conjuring and breathed out a shaky breath while shaking her head. Grabbing and pulling on the hoodie she zipped it up and then pulled her hair out from under it to hang behind her before turning around to stare down the door leading out of the bathroom. She felt that hesitancy again that made her bite her lip and briefly closed her eyes as that hesitancy turned into worry before she opened her eyes. She started to reach out to the door and then her eyes locked onto the golden bracelet that she had put on earlier.
She stared at it where it sat on her wrist as she remembered the conversation she and Gudako had had during lunch before she felt her lips twitch up into a smile. The worry was still there but it was more manageable and easy to ignore as she opened the bathroom door to walk out into the living room of the cabin. Nodding to herself she slipped on her sandals, opened the front door, and stepped out right as an ocean breeze blew by her pushing her hair out from behind her.
Briefly wondering where Gudako and the other two were she didn't have to wonder long as she sensed Gudako at the edge of her mind via the bond they had established but rarely used. It was a simple unspoken feeling of a question. There were no words because there didn't need to be any. She sent back a feeling of confirmation then immediately felt Gudako's presence leave. Putting her hands into the pockets of the hoodie she started walking out from the cabins when she felt the smallest trickle of Okitas mana coming from the other side of the small island.
...Thats where the palms block the view from the cabins as well.
Understanding what the Saber had just done she suddenly felt a sense of overwhelming thankfulness to her friends as she started walking towards that side of the island, noticing Gudako along with Okita walking back, each holding water guns but otherwise pretending they didn't notice her. Smiling she faced forward and walked between the trunks of the palm trees eventually catching sight of Micheal standing nonplussed clearly wondering what the hell was going on his own watergun still in his hand. He saw her and blinked a bit before smiling,
"Bonjour mon amour."
She said,
"...Is that one of my hoodies?"
He asked curiosity clearly written on his face before she looked pointedly at the water gun. He followed her gaze and smiled sheepishly,
"Gudako and Okita challenged me to a 'late night water gun duel'. Let me portal it back to the shed."
Beneath the water gun a small puddle of shadows gathered that he then dropped the toy through before closing the portal and putting his hands into his pockets to smile at her in that way she loved. Quickly walking up to him she wrapped him up in her arms quickly enough that he grunted a bit before hugging her back,
"Everything okay? Awfully aggressive hug just now."
She tightened her arms and took comfort in knowing he wouldn't judge her or think badly of her for what she was wearing,
"Just... needed some extra bravery is all."
She felt his fingers start to run through her hair causing her to look up at him to see his brow was furrowed,
"You're already one of the bravest people I know so what do you need extra bravery for?"
Firming her jaw she pulled away and walked to the edge of the ocean letting the surf wash around her ankles as she turned to look at him while she was illuminated by the moon and stars overhead. She smiled at him and took the zipper between her thumb and forefinger,
"I need it-"
She unzipped the hoodie and let it fall open while going partially down her arms to her elbows as she let him see everything that was his and his alone,
"For this."
She finished hesitantly watching his reaction. He had frozen in place, his eyes wide, mouth partially open, and was clearly about to reach out to her only to have stopped moving. After several seconds of silence,
"Micheal?"
He blinked and breathed in as she watched his eyes dart over every inch of her in tense silence before finally he spoke his voice cracking a bit,
"How- How long were you... preparing this? I- I don't know where to look that doesn't make me- You- This-"
He smacked his cheeks and then looked at her with a look that sent shivers down her spine at what it promised,
"You are the single most beautiful woman on the planet... and I love you so fucking much that my chest hurts and I can't think straight. Every inch of your mind, body, and soul is so close to perfect and-"
He closed his eyes and inhaled shakily before opening them as she saw them glow a little, moments before a shadow portal opened under her making her yelp, feeling that all too familiar pressure on every inch of her before she fell backwards onto their bed in the cabin. Immediately she sensed what was going to happen, her core immediately warming, as the portal she fell through closed and another one opened at the foot of the bed that Micheal walked out of, his swim trunks already halfway down his thighs.
He got his swimtrunks off, crawled over the foot of the bed, and eventually she was looking up at him as he looked down at her clearly fighting between love and lust as she reached down to gently wrap her fingers around him making him growl a little as he twitched in her hand. Giving him her best bedroom eyes and licking her lips she reached up with her other hand to grab his jaw. She pulled him closer and kissed him their tongues intertwined as she let his tongue ravage the inside of her mouth until they both were breathless. He began to pull away when she held him in place making sure to lace her next sentence with as much lust and need as possible,
"Just tear it all off of me."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"And everyone is sure they repacked everything? We can't exactly turn the plane around once we've taken off."
A sleepy chorus of "Yes Morgan" echoed tiredly from everyone else who was sitting around the usual meal table as the sun started rising in the distance. As Morgan walked away to signal to the mainland to send the boat over Jeanne yawned and leaned on Micheal more as she felt her eyelids start to droop. Her husband responded by wrapping an arm around her and pulling her partially into his lap as he got some breakfast onto his fork with his other hand. He held it up in front of her face and she briefly felt annoyed at the implication she couldn't feed herself but she quickly stowed her annoyance feeling him press a kiss into her hair,
"Come on. I've already eaten my breakfast and you need to eat something while we're still here."
He murmured softly before kissing her again. Pouting a little she leaned forward to get the food off the fork and into her mouth as her lips curved into a small smile at the taste. She tilted her head up a bit to kiss his jaw,
"Thanks for breakfast... Its really good."
He got some more food onto the fork and hummed a bit as she rolled her eyes deciding to just let him spoil her a bit by feeding her. Inbetween bites of food she looked around at everyone else and smirked seeing both Okita and Gudako trying to each sit in a clearly exasperated Edmonds lap themselves. Gudako caught her eye, smirked back, and then leaned further into Edmonds chest while Okita made an annoyed sound. Edmond just wrapped an arm around both of them, kissed the tops of their heads, and then sighed while shaking his head,
"You know Edmond," Micheal said his voice still a bit gravelly from waking up, "A lot of people would kill to be where you are right now."
Both women turned to give him an annoyed look while Edmond chuckled and pulled both Okita and Gudako a bit closer,
"They'd have to kill me first and thats not happening. I'm quite content with my lot in life even if both of the gremlins in my lap test my patience every so often."
At this both Gudako and Okita turned their annoyed looks at their husband who smirked at them,
"Not a damn gremlin…"
Okita muttered annoyed as both Edmond and Micheal laughed a bit making the Saber pout then lean up to bite Edmonds ear,
"Ow, ow, ow… Okay point taken! Let go of my ear!"
She leaned back and nuzzled against his chest as he gingerly rubbed his ear then looked around the small island smiling a bit,
"You know? I don't think I could have ever seen... any of this happening to me when I was summoned to Chaldea. I certainly didn't expect to have two wives either but here we are."
Jeanne moved over fully into Micheals lap and leaned into his chest a small smile curving her lips as she felt him wrap his arms around her. She leaned her head up to kiss the underside of his jaw, feeling a bit of stubble on her lips, and then settled herself back down closing her eyes to enjoy the moment when she heard rumbling in Micheals chest as he chuckled,
"Yeah you're telling me Edmond. This whole thing started for me-"
She poked his chest with a finger and pouted at him causing him to amend his sentence with a smile,
"All of this started for us back in 1993 which is wild to think about sometimes. To think the start of this entire adventure for my and my lovely wife all started with her head in my lap and promising to meet each other again."
Feeling her face flush a bit she leaned up and nipped at his jaw making him jump a little before she smiled while looking around them,
"We all... went through some rough spots both with the Fourth Grail War, Chaldea, and the Lostbelts but... now that its over? I wouldn't change much."
Gudako chuckled at this and arched an eyebrow,
"Oh I can already think of one thing I'd have you change because in the end despite Micheals and my best efforts to honor it you wound you breaking that contract yourself. At the time you had us sign it I wondered what the point of it was but seeing where you are now~? It makes sense."
She glared a bit at the other woman who just laughed even as she felt Micheal hug her a bit tighter before kissing her forehead. She hummed a bit to show she wasn't happy but otherwise leaned into the hug,
"I only wrote the damn thing because I had convinced myself that I needed to fall out of love with Micheal and that having anyone I cared about in my life would inevitably get them hurt," She grumbled feeling Micheal run his fingers through her hair, "Unfortunately for me I decided to fall in love with the one man who would not only always and unconditionally love me back but would also be in my life no matter how much I tried to eject him from it. So in the end I scrapped the entire contract since there wasn't any point."
She heard Micheal laughing and looked at him out of the corner of his eye as he smirked down at her,
"Was this before or after Shinjuku my sweet Avenger~?"
She glared at him and started poking him in his side with a finger as he alternated between laughing and saying 'ow' then saw Morgan walking up to them,
"Boat's here?"
She nodded and looked around at them all with her arms folded,
"The beds better still be in one piece. I don't care about the sheets."
Jeanne choked on air as Gudako blushed crimson while Okita groaned with her face in her hands only for Micheal and Edmond to lock eyes and start laughing as Morgan watched on smirking. They all eventually made their way back to the mainland and a few hours later were back in the air to fly back to the UK. However, the minute they all got back into the United Kingdoms Airspace all of their phones beeped at the same time twice. Knowing that the first beep was the one saying that the device had reconnected to the UKs cellular network, Jeanne along with everyone else pulled out their phones to see what the second beep had meant only for her to see that she had gotten a message.
Unlocking her phone and opening her messaging app she saw it was a message from Mash as she furrowed her brow before tapping on the message to open it,
"Remind me what Mash said she was doing?"
Okita asked uncertainly after several seconds as Edmond responded his eyes narrowing on the text itself,
"She said she was hunting down the relics we'd need to start the opening stages of the plan to get the Rulers back. Remember? Based on what we got out of Kirei we'd… need…."
He trailed off, tapped his phone, and his golden eyes went wide as he openly stared at the device,
"Check the second message she sent. Now."
Blinking a bit at his tone Jeanne frowned and saw that the Shielder had indeed sent a second message after the first one which was an update on how she was doing as well as a wish that they were enjoying their vacation.
Opening the second message she saw it was a photo and was clearly taken inside what looked like the ruins of a church but what was bizarre was the fact that the entire thing looked to be inside a cave of some sort. Crystal formations covered the stone walls as well as formed the stained glass sitting in the windows that formed the usual Christian iconography.
It almost looks like the glass or rather the crystals forming the 'glass' are being lit from the inside.
She thought to herself before she noticed the rest of the photo her eyes tracing over the carved stone pews eventually looking at the back of the church which is when she noticed something odd about the angle the photo was taken. The photo itself was at an odd angle and even then it seemed almost rushed as though the lens hadn't had the time to properly focus. But what the overall layout signalled to the Avenger was the feeling as though the former Shielder had taken it while hiding. She looked back at the photo just in time to hear Gudako breath out something in Japanese that would have impressed Shuten.
She knew immediately what had made the woman do that as, along with everyone else who was stunned into either oathes or silence, she saw what Gudako had seen first, and she sucked in a breath as she what was floating above a pure white crystal lectern set upon the dais in the back of the church. Floating above the lectern and seemingly the source of the very light that made the picture possible...
Was single Pure white metal nail that seemed to be dripping blood.
She swiped up to see the message that came with the photo,
The_bett3r_Shielder: <<"Found one. Get to Greenland as soon as you can.">>-Sent three days ago
She looked up at Micheal to see his Golden eyes glowing with power as he breathed out a slow breath laced ashen mana before Edmond finally spoke into the tense silence,
"We're going to need more PTO."