Dungeons and Dalliances

6.43 – The Good News

"This is all your fault."

Still bleary-eyed from having been woken up early by soft knocking at her door, Jordan took in the sight on the other side of her door. Sofia stood there, in her pajamas, wearing fuzzy white slippers and an ice-cold glare that only a Theliosian, with their famous bone-white hair and pale blue eyes, could deliver quite so frostily.

"Ah?" Jordan asked, wholly unprepared to have a glaring Sofia at her door so early in the morning. She tried to shake off the morning fatigue. Sofia hadn't woken her that early, only a half-hour before normal rising time. By the glare, she suspected Sofia had woken and been unable to get back to sleep, then stalked over to Jordan's room for … some reason?

Then Jordan remembered what last night had been—the last opportune day of that ridiculous bet of Sofia and Natalie's—and the tiredness cleared away on its own.

"Oh?" Jordan said. "What happened? What's my fault?" She opened the door and waved Sofia in, who stalked in, continuing to shoot glares even as she moved to the chair in the corner of the room and sat. "How'd last night go?"

"Awfully."

"O-Oh?" Jordan's heart sank, before sensing that something was off in the way she'd said awfully—there was a certain lack of despair or heat in the word, at least for the worst-case interpretation Jordan had defaulted to. "Awful how?"

"I took your advice."

"My advice?"

Sofia's cheeks colored, but she didn't turn her eyes away, her anger overruling her embarrassment for once. "I told Natalie I wanted 'the girlfriend experience,' if we were going to be doing all of that."

Jordan's attention was instantly captured. She sat on the edge of her messy bed nearest to the chair Sofia was sitting in. "And what happened?"

"What you said would. She agreed to a date." She punctuated the statement by crossing her arms.

"That's … good, isn't it?" It was more than she'd expected from Sofia, honestly. She had figured the two of them spend all night together and, somehow, not talk about a single thing.

"And then she put her clothes back on," Sofia said flatly.

Jordan blinked.

Slowly, she patched together an image of what Sofia was saying. In fact, she felt like she knew the girl well enough to guess what had happened in a more comprehensive picture than she was being given. The request had probably come at a rather pivotal moment—say, right before the deed was about to be done. Sofia had found the courage to open her mouth and make her intentions at least one percent clear. Then Natalie had put a stop to things, with her confidence in Sofia's willingness put into question, or perhaps deciding that such a climactic event should be saved for after the date, not before.

Jordan's lips twitched in amusement. "And so, what, you're blaming me that the two of you didn't sleep together?"

"Of course not." Sofia's glare doubled, betraying her words. "Why would I be upset by that? I should be thanking you, if anything."

And yet here she was, glaring.

"Her cock is pretty amazing," Jordan said. "So I'd get it if you were a little upset." Her lips twitched.

"Don't be crude," Sofia said.

"But that's the problem, right?" Her amusement by this whole situation grew by the second. "What, getting a date out of that idiot doesn't make up for losing out on a night of mind-blowing sex?" Jordan tapped her finger to her lips, putting on a show of consideration. "Maybe you should've just shut up and enjoyed the ride, then."

Sofia narrowed her eyes at her. Jordan could tell there was even a bit of truth in the teasing: Sofia had obviously wanted last night to continue like it would've, barring her interjection. And Jordan sympathized. If she'd been in Sofia's position, about to be taken by Natalie for the first time, especially with a full week of foreplay working up to the event, she'd be a bit fuming by the anticlimax too.

But hey. The post-date sex was going to be amazing, she bet.

Jordan laughed. "Okay, but you did get a date out of it. So at least there's that. It's not all bad."

Sofia's lips pursed. "I suppose."

"And you're finally willing to admit that's something you want from her?" Getting more, like a confession to a crush, was obviously off the table, considering the extreme levels of delusion—or at least denial—she was dealing with on both ends of this relationship, but she would take baby steps where she could find them.

Sofia sniffed. "I'm willing to see how it goes," she said noncommittally.

Okay. Half a baby-step then, not a full one. It was still something.

"So that's a win? You'll just have to wait a bit longer. Be a bit pent up." Jordan feigned a surprised pause. "Oh. Is that why you came to me? Am I supposed to make … reparations, for messing that up for you?" She waggled her eyebrows. "I mean, I'll have to ask Natalie first, if you want me to say sorry in that way."

"W-What?" That, finally, pulled a blush out of the girl's angry demeanor. "Shut up. I came here to tell you that you meddle too much. That's it."

"Personally, I don't think I meddle enough." She raised her hands in defeat. "But, I'll apologize for depriving you of Natalie's cock. As far as I'm concerned, that is one of the worst crimes a person could commit."

Sofia sputtered. "Stop being so crude!"

"Natalie's lady-like rod, then?" Jordan suggested. "I'm not sure how to put it in a non-crude way."

In a huff, Sofia stood up. "Well, take this as an official notice that I'm upset with you."

"You're sure you weren't just sharing the good news in a way that preserves your ego?" Jordan asked with a grin.

Sofia didn't deign to respond to that; she walked to Jordan's door to make to leave.

"Can I help you pick out your outfit?" Jordan asked. "I know what she likes. And I think together, we can make her head explode, when date night comes."

Sofia hesitated, hand on the doorknob. She sniffed. "Perhaps. I'll let you know."

Jordan internally translated: yes, please.

Sofia left. Jordan's attention lingered on the closed door for a bit, before she fell backward into her bed and stared up at the ceiling. A few seconds passed before she started laughing.

Well. Good for them.

***

A half-hour later, the team was dressed in delving gear and assembled downstairs. There was a new tension between Natalie and Sofia, an understated thing of accidental eye contact and flushes, that Jordan was absolutely delighted to see. Jordan had all kinds of questions for Natalie.

But unfortunately, it would have to wait. They had professional lives to worry about as much as personal ones. After a light breakfast, they set off in the magical carriage to the edge of the Duskwood. It was time to put an end to the goblin menace once and for all.

The question was, with Greed a known influence now, what would they be finding out there, amongst the trees?