#and the way it seems like katie doesn’t really know about their past…hoooo boy

[titsthedamnseason]

i’m obsessed with this deeper unveiling of lizzie and hughie’s backstory and katie’s role in it. i’m literally eating these details up and i need their book asap PLEASE

[helenaheissner]

Love During Robot Fighting Time: Chapter 22

Kate

I sat at the breakfast table the next morning with my parents, nursing a mug of black coffee alongside a bagel and lox, my mom reading a fashion magazine and my dad parsing the financial section of the Wall Street Journal whilst fiddling with his abacus. Many thoughts swam laps inside my mind, and chief among them was, ‘how the hell do I tell my parents I’m in a polycule?’ 

“Have you got the details for your next fight yet, Kate?” Mom said, looking up from her magazine while reaching for the coffee pot balanced on an oven mitt on the table. 

“Oh, uh, yeah,” I said. “I’m fighting Team Forest Fire on Friday.” 

“Oooh, that’s exciting,” Mom said. “Try not to get distracted by the man-candy though.”

I giggled. “Moooommmm.”

“Just saying, I probably wouldn’t be able to focus that well going up against a bunch of former firefighters,” Mom said. 

“Do I have something to be concerned about?” Dad said wryly, grinning without looking up from what he was doing. 

“Never, darling. You’re the only one for me,” Mom said. 

“Good to hear,” Dad said. “Same to you.”

I gulped. 

“Everything alright, Katie?” Mom asked. 

“I, well,” I said. Hoooo boy this was difficult. I hadn’t had to come out to them as trans, they’d done all the work for me, but this… 

Okay, let’s take a step back, I told myself. Mom and Dad have thus far demonstrated themselves to be completely reasonable, understanding people who will love me no matter what. Maybe I should just rip off the bandage and hope for the best.

“How are things between you and your young man?” Dad asked. He seemed to like referring to Zeke as that- Dad was so inexplicably old-fashioned in the weirdest ways. He used an abacus, a flip-phone, and got a physical newspaper delivered every day. It was occasionally shocking to me how forward-thinking he was when he had such a fixation on the aesthetics of the past. 

Then again, was Mom really any different? Most of the dresses she designed harkened back to some previous decade of women’s fashion. I swear she would dress like a fifties housewife every day if it were remotely practical. 

They were the picture of an old fashioned marriage: they’d met in college and gotten engaged their senior year, used the graduation money they’d been gifted to start a small business, and then had me almost right away. Then again, they’d met through their college’s anime club, the small business they owned catered to all the weirdos and hipsters that came in, and their darling child was… Me. 

“Things are good with Zeke and I, but, uh, there’s something you should know,” I said. 

Dad finally put down his newspaper and shoved his abacus aside. He removed his reading glasses and stared deep into my soul in that way only fathers seem capable of. “Does he have any venereal diseases?” 

“What?! No, no, nothing like that,” I said. 

“You’re sure? You have confirmation of that? Because I understand that you’re young and eager to explore certain long-neglected aspects of yourself-”

“AAAAHHHHH,” I screamed, closing my eyes and putting my hands over my face. 

“David, you’re scaring her,” Mom said. Through parted fingers I saw her raise an eyebrow. “Though it is important to make sure-”

“He doesn’t have any STDs!” I said, throwing my hands into the air with exasperation. “He told me so- verbatim!”

“Oh, good,” Dad said. “So then what’s the issue? He seems like a nice young man.”

I drew a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, trying to push cloying particles of exhaustion out of my lungs. “I’m not just dating Zeke. I’m also dating Faith.”

“They’re… Sharing you?” Mom said, squinting and tilting her head. 

“No, they’re dating each other as well,” I said. 

“So all three of you are dating each other?” Dad said. “All at the same time?”

“Yes, basically.”

“How long has this been happening?” Dad said. 

I looked at the clock on the microwave. “Uh… About eleven hours?”

“I see,” Dad said. 

“How exactly did this happen?” Mom asked. 

“Well, Zeke and I started dating.”

“Yes, we know that part,” Dad said. 

“But he and Faith had liked each other for a while, but neither of them knew that the other liked them back until I came around and… Uh… Forced the issue, I guess.”

“Okay, but when did Faith start liking you?” Mom asked. 

“Honestly, I’m still a little confused by that part myself, but I think it was when I started hanging out with her as a friend and encouraging her to tell Zeke how she felt-”

“Wait, what?” Dad asked. 

“It’s a long story,” I said. 

“Evidently so,” Dad said. 

“When did you start liking her?” Mom asked. 

“I think I always liked her on some level,” I said, looking down and shifting in my seat. “She always seemed so cool and calm and even-keeled, and she’s such a great engineer, I just wanted to impress her, so I kept… Making an ass of myself, trying to get her to notice me. And then I got to know her more, and she turned out to be just as big of a dork as I am, not to mention a ton of fun to be around… And I wanted her to be happy. And when she said what would make her happiest was getting to be with both of us… Well, that made me really happy. It feels… It feels really good, being with both of them.”

Mom and Dad exchanged a Look, one of those mutual expressions of understanding they’d shared intermittently for as long as I could remember. Normally, they infuriated me- some sort of social understanding through nonverbal communication I didn’t think I’d ever truly be able to comprehend, because I’d always thought… I’d always thought I’d be alone forever. But now… I think I understood it then. They were confused, and they were concerned, but… They weren’t mad. 

At least, I didn’t think they were. 

… Okay, I was seventy percent sure they weren’t mad. Best to confirm it. “Are you guys mad at me?”

Mom released a gentle sigh and put a hand on my shoulder. She never said anything when she did things like that, she always just went right for it. I wondered… Did I get that from her? “Of course we’re not mad. Well, I’m not- your inscrutable, stoic, marble statue of a father will need to clarify that for himself-”

Dad scoffed, rolled his eyes, and said, “I’m not mad either. I’m… Perplexed by all this, is what I am.”

“Which is also true of me,” Mom said. “You’ve… Never been what I would call a social butterfly, and now you have two partners. And if you’re happy, and you trust both of them, then I’m happy, and I trust both of them. But please, please, PLEASE be careful. Your father and I… We don’t really know much about this kind of thing. You being trans… Well, we saw that coming and had plenty of time to prepare. This is kinda taking us by surprise. We weren’t even sure… What kind of person you liked, never even considered you might like all kinds.”

I gulped, and I nodded. Finally, I cracked a smile. “Thank you, Mom. Thank you, Dad.”

“Of course,” Mom smiled back. 

“Any time,” Dad said.

I gave a weak laugh. “If you don’t mind my asking… When you guys first started suspecting I might be trans-”

“‘Suspecting’ implies that we ever had any doubt after finding the evidence,” Dad said. 

“Be nice, dear,” Mom chastised him. 

“-How did you… You know, react?” I finished.

They exchanged another Look. Finally, after about thirty seconds, Mom said, “We were… Confused, at first, by what it all meant. Surprised. But after we started thinking about it, and doing research… The more sense it started to make. There were a lot of signs.”

“There were?” I asked, brow furrowing. “Like what?”

“You used to throw tantrums whenever we made you get a haircut,” Dad said. 

“You always played as girl-characters in video games,” Mom said. 

“You would get extremely annoyed at anyone who called you ‘young man’ or ‘sir’ or ‘boy,’” Dad said. “Heck, you barely seemed to hear it whenever anyone called you by your old name.”

“Your favorite character in every Gundam you’ve ever watched is any girl who gets into a robot,” Mom said. “Seriously, I don’t think there’s a bigger Sayla Mass fan in the Western Hemisphere.”

“When you were a little kid, a very small one, you used to offer to model your mother’s dresses for you,” Dad said. “And after she started taking you up on the offer, you got very excited whenever she had you do it again.”

“Wait, seriously?” I laughed, rubbing the freshly-shorn back of my neck. “I don’t remember that.”

“We have pictures,” Mom said. 

“You took pictures?” I asked, flabbergasted. 

“You insisted we take pictures,” Dad said, pulling out the flip phone he’d owned for as long as I could remember and pulling up pictures of what did in fact resemble a much younger me modeling my mother’s dresses.

“Huh,” I said. 

“Yeah, plus all those longing glances you gave to the dresses we have up in the store,” Mom said. “Once we found the underwear, it all kinda clicked into place.”

“Alright, yeah, it’s kinda hard to argue with all that,” I said. “Have I mentioned that I love you guys, and that you’re the best parents ever?”

“Yes, but we can always stand to hear it a little more,” Mom smirked. 

I poured myself a little more coffee, and basked in the warmth of my loving home. It felt good. 

I felt good. 

***

After an absolute behemoth of an opening shift, families pouring in at the height of beach season desperately looking for swimwear for hours and hours, I spent a few hours wrenching on Polyphemus in my garage, re-installing the katana. I’d seen Team Forest Fire work their ax, and I didn’t want to try to beat them at their own game. Instead, I focused on making modifications to maximize speed and mobility. If I could stay out of their range, out-drive them, cripple their wheels, I’d have a fighting chance. 

It was all riding on this. If I wanted into the playoffs, I NEEDED this win. 

After that I showered, shaved my legs, blow-dried my hair, and did my makeup. Faith was coming over to help me practice my voice, and it would be the first time I’d seen her since… Well, she and I had started dating. My heart raced backwards at the idea that my girlfriend was coming to see me, to help me be the girl I wanted to be. I put on my favorite dress, the first one I’d worn. Zeke had seen me in it, but Faith hadn’t yet. I did a twirl, then another, then another, reveling in the giddy sensation of gender euphoria as I dove further and further into femininity. Faith wanted to help me cultivate that, and all I wanted to do in return was support her and Zeke both. To be the warmth and light they both needed, just like they were for me. 

An idea struck me then, about what kind of woman I wanted to be, and about what kind of image I wanted to work towards in the tournament. 

I was so busy walking on air I barely noticed Faith was late. First by a half hour, then an hour, then an hour and a half. I texted her, called her, did the same with Zeke, all to no avail. Concern germinated inside me, threatening to choke out reason and serenity, so I hopped into my truck and braved the drive over to their place. 

I knocked on their door, and waited, and waited, and waited, until finally, I heard some signs of life dragging their feet over the floor and lumbering towards the door. 

Zeke opened the door and loomed over me, hair a bed-headed mess, sans shirt (ABS), lipstick marks covering his face and neck. And he smelled like… Well, he smelled like Faith’s perfume. 

Zeke seemed to take a moment to register that I was standing there, but when he did, his eyes bulged wide and he let out a squeak. “Kate!”

“That would be me, yes,” I said, mustering up a wry grin, trying to ignore the green flames of envy smoldering inside my heart. This was okay, this was fine, I’d signed off on this, I had no right to be jealous, none whatsoever-

“Kate?!” Faith’s voice reached out from the interior of the apartment, echoing across the hall and hitting me. It rang a quarter-octave lower than I was accustomed to at this point. Not quite what she’d sounded like last season, but a little closer… 

I wondered what my facial expression looked like at that moment? Honestly, I had no clue- I’d never been terribly aware of what my face was doing at a given moment, not unless I was concentrating on it very, very hard. 

Of course, given Zeke’s rather mortified look, I could probably hazard an educated guess that I didn’t look terribly pleased. 

Crap. 

Faith stumbled across a living room that was a mess of strewn about clothes and disarrayed furniture, hair even more frazzled then Zeke’s was, clad in Zeke’s IGPX t-shirt (it was practically a ballroom dancing gown on her, it was so big). “This isn’t what it looks like.”

I cocked an eyebrow. 

Faith looked like she was suppressing a chuckle.

I squinted and tilted my head to the side. 

Faith blanched and went stone-faced instantly. 

“Please come in, I’m begging you not to make us have this conversation in the hallway,” Zeke said, exasperation so heavy it made his shoulders slump. 

This is fine, this is fine, I agreed to it, this is fine, I repeated in my head like a steady drumbeat as I nodded and entered the apartment. 

I sat down on the couch, and Zeke brought me a glass of ice-water. I took a long, cold sip, released an audible ‘ahhh’, and set it down on the table without a coaster. They really ought to get some coasters for this place. 

“So,” I said. 

“So,” Zeke said. 

“So,” Faith said. 

“You guys-”

“Yes,” they both said sheepishly, standing in front of me, nothing between us but the coffee table. 

“All night?” I asked. 

“Yes,” they said again. 

“And into the morning and early afternoon?”

“I guess,” Faith said. “What time is it now?”

“It’s two-thirty in the afternoon.”

“Oh wow,” she said. “I guess we lost track of time.”

“The battery ran out on my phone,” Zeke said weakly. 

“I don’t know why you two look so guilty,” I said, forcing a smile onto my face. “I said this was okay. So it’s okay. Okay?”

“Your smile isn’t reaching your eyes, babe,” Zeke said, shuffling his foot across the floor awkwardly. 

“Huh? What does that mean?”

“It, uh… It means you’re not being totally honest.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Your facial expression.”

“Well what does it look like?” I said, leaning forward. 

“... You mean you don’t know?”

“I very rarely do. What does it look like?”

“Uh, well…,” Zeke said. 

“Like this,” Faith said, scrunching up her brow and conjuring the world’s tiniest smile. It looked like a thin sheet of glass balancing on an edge, about to fall over and shatter at the slightest nudge. 

“Oh,” I said, looking down. Dammit. Dammit dammit dammit this is fine, I should be fine with this, if they’re happy then I should be happy so why don’t I feel happy?!

Faith glided over to me and sat down on my left side, and she beckoned Zeke over with her fingers and sat him on my right. “Let it out. Let it all out.”

“There’s nothing… Nothing to… To let out. I’m fine.”

“Kate,” Faith said. “Like I said before: you taught me a really valuable lesson about being honest with your own emotions and having the courage to vocalize them. So please be honest with us now. Are you upset?”

“I…,” I started, but the words stopped there and then. I closed my eyes and I nodded vigorously instead. 

“Are you jealous?” Faith asked. 

I nodded again, with equivalent ferocity. 

“Alright. That’s completely understandable. We should have talked to you before we did this-”

“You did talk to me, though,” I said, slowly opening my eyes. “I just didn’t think you’d get down to business right away. It… It feels…”

“It feels dishonest,” Zeke said, staring directly ahead, pupils dilated, fingers pressed against his temple while his elbow was propped on the armrest. “Like Faith and I are sneaking around, waited for you to not be there to…”

“Zeke, no!” I said, leaning on him, putting my arm around his arm, rubbing his shoulder. “You didn’t do anything wrong! You shouldn’t feel ashamed.”

“I’m not-”

I glared at him, and if I had to guess, Faith was doing the same. 

“Okay, I do feel a little ashamed,” he grumbled. 

“You shouldn’t!” I said. 

“And you shouldn’t be comforting me right now when I’m the one who upset you by not being able to keep it in my pants!”

“Hey, c’mon, we should be sharing the blame for this,” Faith said. 

“No, there shouldn’t be any blame at all!” I said, running my hands through my hair. “Neither of you did anything wrong. I shouldn’t be feeling upset or jealous at all- I knew what I was getting into when I agreed to this!”

“Yeah, but knowing it intellectually and knowing it emotionally are two different things,” Faith said. “You’re new to dating, and Zeke and I are new to this, so it’s completely reasonable that we won’t always be able to predict how we’ll feel about certain things. Because relationships are full of weird, irrational emotions that you can’t plan for and can’t always articulate. But being honest about having them, and talking them through with your partner-”

“Or partners,” Zeke added. 

“-That’s what keeps a relationship alive,” Faith said. She grabbed my hand and kissed my knuckles, then rested her head on my shoulder. “So how do you feel right now?”

“I feel,” I said, trying to breathe into what was going through my head, “I feel overwhelmed. Shocked. Flabbergasted. I guess I didn’t… I didn’t really consider everything about this before. I didn’t think that you guys were already at a place where you’d be having sex. I honestly thought… You’d wanna wait a while. But that was me projecting, because I’m a dumb virgin-”

“No talking bad about yourself!” Faith and Zeke said simultaneously, one in each ear. 

“Okay,” I whimpered. 

“Good,” Zeke said. “That’s our girlfriend you’re talking about- remember that!”

An emotion I recognized shot through me: I was flustered. “Mmmmm,” I intoned. 

Zeke chuckled. “What does that mean?”

“Oh, just that I feel better now that I admitted how I was feeling,” I said. “And that I’m grateful you were both willing to talk this out with me.”

“Of course, Katie,” Faith said, leaning forward. “You’re our girlfriend, remember?”

I went warm and gooey again as Faith kissed me on one cheek, and Zeke, as if on cue, kissed my other one. I wiggled in my seat and squealed, then kissed them both on the mouth. 

“Okay, so, one thing I should actually apologize for, though,” Faith said. “I completely spaced and forgot I was supposed to help you with voice practice today.”

“Yeahh, that’s kinda why I came over,” Kate said. “Honestly, in some way I’m relieved- you two are both okay, you just got distracted by each other. Which makes sense- you’re both super hot!”

“No, you’re super hot!” Faith said. 

I stood up and planted my hands on my hips. “No! YOU’RE super hot.”

Faith stood up and mimicked my posture. “No! You’re super hot!”

I leaned in and kissed her, slipped in some tongue, her soft lips and delicate mannerisms an instant balm on any emotional wounds I might’ve still possessed. 

Zeke’s baritone laughter turned raucous. “You’re BOTH super hot!”

Faith and I stopped kissing and turned to him, then did a double-take and looked at each other, then back to him. “No, you!” we said in unison. 

Then we both jumped on him and started kissing him all over his face. 

We three collapsed into a cuddle-puddle after that, interrupted by occasional makeout sessions, before finally, Faith said, “So, do you still wanna do your training today?”

“I know I should, but I don’t know if I still have the energy after all this.”

“Pfft, you’ve only been here for ten minutes, you dweeb,” Faith said, poking my cheek. 

I poked hers back. “That’s my move.”

“Well I’m stealing it,” Faith said. “Seriously, though, if you want to skip it today, we can. We can go somewhere or hang out instead.”

“Ehhh… I’m torn,” I said, resting on Zeke’s chest, feeling his strong arms around me while mine wrapped around Faith. “I know I should, and I should also be trying to prepare for my match Friday.”

“Oh yeah, we have our last one too,” Faith said. “We’re up against Jolly Roger.”

“Oh, no,” I said, recalling their undefeated record and brutally decisive victories in each battle this year. 

“Yeahhh,” Faith moaned. 

“Hmm,” Zeke said, the sounds vibrating into me through his chest, accompanying the rise and fall of his breath and the steady beating of his heart. “That gives me an idea.”

He shimmied out from under me, causing me to fall flat on the couch with Faith nestled safely in my arms shielded from impact. “You two do your vocal exercises- I need to go run an errand. I’ll pick us up some food on the way back, and then I’ll set up my surprise. Is Thai Dishes good?”

“Thai is great,” I said. “Pineapple fried rice, please.”

“Shrimp pad thai for me,” Faith. 

“Awesome,” he leaned over and gave me a kiss on the lips, his beard tickling me and making me giggle as we smooched, then he did the same to Faith before heading into his room and putting on some people-clothes. I got a quality view of him taking off his pants and standing there in his underwear a moment while it happened, Faith wolf-whistling as she straddled my chest. Once Zeke had pulled on a shirt and jeans, he said, “I’ll be back in a couple hours. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do while I’m gone.”

Faith looked at me with a naughty expression as she said, “I think we’ll manage, darling.”

I just laughed before sitting up. “C’mon, horndog, let’s get started.”

After a few more minutes of smooching, I convinced Faith it was time for vocal exercises, and we got to work. It took up about an hour, after which point we wound up going into her room so she could show me her massive…  Comic book collection. 

No, that’s not a euphemism. She really just had a massive collection of American comics and manga. Mostly Stargirl, JSA, Captain America, and other Golden Age themed titles on the American front, and a ton of magical girl and shoujo stuff on the manga front. 

“I’ll be honest, I haven’t really read a ton of comics,” I said. 

“What, you haven’t?!” Faith said, 

“I don’t really read much,” I laughed awkwardly. 

“Sit,” Faith said. 

“I-”

“Sit,” Faith repeated, pointing at the bed. 

I felt my face go flush, a warm and lovely desire to trust her on this running down my spine. She pulled a Stargirl comic off the shelf and then hopped onto the bed with me, pulling me down onto my back and putting her arm around me while opening the comic with her free hand. “Let me know when to turn the page.”

“Okay,” I said, melting into her arms and letting myself get lost in the story. 

We got halfway through the thick tome before the front door came unlocked and Zeke stepped back inside the humble abode. “Honeys, I’m home!” he called out. 

Faith closed the book and said, “First one there gets to kiss Zeke first!” She hopped off the bed and ran off. 

“Hey no fair!” I said, chasing after her. Fortunately, my legs were longer and I caught up and overtook her pretty quickly. “Hahaha!” I said, sticking my tongue out at her then burying it in Zeke’s mouth. “Hi,” I smiled. 

“Hi,” Zeke said. Then Faith caught up, grabbed his lapel, and pulled him into a kiss. “Also, hi. You two ladies keep entertained while I was gone?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Faith said, wiggling her eyebrows. 

“Oh, hush,” I said, boldness bubbling up inside me. “A lady shouldn’t kiss and tell.”

“No, please tell, I’m begging you,” Zeke said. 

“Maybe. If you’re good,” I said, tousling his hair. I noticed the six paper bags he was carrying then. “What’ve you got there, hot stuff?”

“Oh, a few things. I stopped by a few stores and got us a projector, and then burned a few discs.”

“What for?” I asked. 

“We all need to go over some film for our upcoming fights,” Zeke said. “Figure we could do something fun and make a movie night of it. I also bought a tarp, so we can watch them on the roof once the sun finishes going down.”

“That sounds amazing,” I said. 

“Agreed,” Faith said. “But first, dinner!”

“Dinner!” I said, pumping my fists. 

“Dinner,” Zeke nodded, holding up another bag, deliciously salty scents emanating from it. 

We ate while listening to Faith ramble about comics, and I diligently took mental notes on her lecture. Once we were done, the dark had finished falling for the evening, and we made our way up onto the flat roof of the building while Zeke set up the tarp and projector and loaded the DVD into the slot. The night was cool and clear, with a gentle breeze tossing about the air.

First was Jolly Roger. Captained by Nia Westfield, a five-foot-nine wall of muscle with a short-cropped head of natural hair framing her dark face, a golden-stud nose ring, and legs for days (and days. And days. And days-), she cut an imposing figure with her crewmates- all of whom were her former subordinates from when they’d served aboard the same ship during their tour in the Navy. Faith growled when they came on screen, and when they played the Navy song as their walkup music. 

“Interservice rivalry flaring up?” Zeke asked. 

“Little bit,” Faith said, sitting cross-legged on the blanket she’d draped over the cement surface of the roof. “Just flashing back to my brother’s college football career- Annapolis played Westpoint every year and they always freaking won!”

“Well, think of this as an opportunity to avenge your brother,” I said. 

“I still can’t believe I just learned about him like a week ago,” Zeke said. 

“I should write him a letter,” Faith said, errantly scratching her chin. 

Jolly Roger looked like a wooden ship driving on four wheels, though the sails were strictly ornamental and the wood was more of an exoskeleton than anything else- beneath it was solid steel on four wheels, and in place of its mast was a drill. Only one, but it was much bigger than even the biggest ones I’d seen on DG. The film of JR’s fight with Flipper played; Flipper flipped the enemy bot a half dozen times in the first minute and shattered its wooden shielding entirely. But the good ship simply wouldn’t sink- that was its greatest strength. It was nearly impossible to KO because of the sheer amount of armor it had. 

“What do you guys think will happen if drill meets drill?” I asked. 

“Probably the drills shatter and the fight turns into a shoving match,” Faith, drumming her fingers on her knee. 

“Hm,” I said, running my hands through my hair. “What if it doesn’t have to, though?”

“I mean, they have a bigger drill than us, so I suppose it’s entirely possible that only DG gets crippled in that scenario,” Faith said. 

“Hold on, I think I see what she’s getting at,” Zeke said, leaning forward. “Jolly Roger is heavier than Dai Gurren, and it doesn’t have any obvious weak points like Pendulum does. But it’s every bit as slow, and its weapon isn’t nearly as strong or as well protected as Pendulum’s. We disable that drill-”

“-And it’s still denser than us and can shove us into the screws pretty easily,” Faith said.

“Not if we stay mobile, it can’t,” Zeke said. 

“He’s right, at that point it’s a driving contest,” I said. 

“Okay, but let’s look at the driver in question,” Faith said, hitting fast-forward on the film then pausing on an image of a five-flat east Asian woman with long black hair worn in a regulation bun. “Lenora Li. She pilots that thing like it’s a damn aircraft carrier, and in her hands, it may as well be. She’s no Gregson, sure, but most people aren’t. She can dodge a staggering amount of blows- more than should even be possible given the relative speeds of Jolly Roger.” 

“How many opponents with multi-bots have they gone up against?” I asked. 

“Not many- there aren’t that many of those,” Faith said. “I don’t even really think of ours as a multi-bot. We hardly ever use Gurren.”

“Yeah, but I think our last bout made a good case for using the little guy more often,” Zeke said. 

“Fair point,” Faith acquiesced. 

 “Very fair,” I said. “You guys should use it in this match. Anything for an edge.”

“This gives me an idea,” Zeke said. “What if we attach a new face plate, and install all of our drills at once? The three big ones and the five small ones? Give us maximum firepower, so we can disable Jolly Roger’s primary weapon with a direct assault and still have more to work with?”

“I like it,” Faith said, “But where are we gonna get a new face at such short notice?”

“Gaines,” I offered immediately. “He has one exactly like that. You can use my employee discount; should be well within your budget at that point.”

“A-are you serious?” Faith balked. 

“‘Course I’m serious,” I smiled, giving Faith a peck on the lips, holding her chin between my fingers. “Anything for my woman. And my man. And especially both of them at once.”

“Hmmm,” Faith sighed dreamily. “Okay.”

We watched a bit more fight footage for Jolly Roger, just to get all of our bases covered, but the plan remained intact. 

After that, we switched discs and started on Forest Fire. It had a relatively simplistic design, a rectangular body with a chopping ax that came down from overhead. But that simplicity made it dangerous- the ax was double-bladed and worked just as well as a ramming weapon as it did a chopping one, and the lack of frills belied a focus on speed and maneuverability. It ran circles around Ultimate Frisbee in the footage we watched, dodging each attempt at ramming and getting the fragile spinner to crash into the sides of the box. And at one point, under the screws. Then, as soon as the spinning function was disabled, FF buried its ax in the circular bot and reduced it to scrap metal in three blows. 

“You said you were going with the katana on this one, right Katie?” Zeke asked. 

“That’s the plan. My ax-work just won’t cut it compared to theirs-” “Boooo,” Faith said. 

I gave her face a playful shove and continued, “Screw you, puns are awesome. Also, I’m thinking of ditching the flamethrowers for this fight.”

“Are you sure about that?” Faith said. “There’d be a certain delicious irony to beating the firemen with flamethrowers.”

“Oh, trust me, I appreciate that,” I said. “But FF is way too fast for me to get a clean shot at it. I have to out-pilot these guys if I want to win.”

“What if their ax shatters your sword?” Zeke said. 

I paused. “That… That is a good question. I didn’t think about that.”

“What about a side-knife?” Faith offered. “I can help you install it- we have one on DG. It’s pretty simple. If you’re not using the flamethrowers, you can install a secondary weapon pretty easily without slowing yourself down.”

“Faith!” I said, cupping her face. She blushed, which was probably the single most adorable thing I’d ever seen. “You beautiful genius! Thank you!”

She kissed me. “Well, I don’t know about all that. Genius, sure, but beautiful-”

“Oh shut your mouth, you’re gorgeous,” I said, leaning closer to her face and planting another kiss on her. 

Zeke leaned in and pulled her face towards him, giving her a kiss as well. “I’m inclined to agree.”

“W-w-what? Me, gorgeous?” Faith stammered. “That’s absurd- I’m not even cute, let alone gorgeous.”

I smirked. “Yeah, but there’s literally nothing cuter than a cute girl insisting she’s not cute.”

“I am not cute!” Faith pouted, putting her hands on her hips.

“Case in point,” Zeke said. 

“Your honor, the defense rests,” I said. 

“Stahp!” she whined, collapsing backwards onto the blanket. 

Zeke and I nodded at each other, and then we both laid down next to her and started cuddling her and kissing her cheeks. “It seems we’ll have to convince her, Mr. Underhill. Are you up for the task?”

“I’m more than happy to undertake this righteous cause, Ms. Calloway,” Zeke said. 

Faith, for her part, wouldn’t stop squealing. 

We wound up not watching much more film after that- we got distracted taking turns making out with each other. 

***

“I should probably go home,” I said, looking at my phone and noting the approach of midnight.

“Awww, do you have to?” Faith groaned as she helped Zeke take down the tarp. 

“I got work in the morning, and another photoshoot in the afternoon,” I said, turning off the projector and putting the discs into their respective sleeves in the CD binder. 

“Sounds so glamorous when you say it like that,” Faith said as we all headed out the access door and went back downstairs. We stopped in front of the door to their apartment. 

“It’s really not,” I said. “It’s just what I’ve got to do right now. I don’t think it’ll be forever.”

“As long as it’s working right now, that’s the important part,” Zeke said, giving me a kiss. 

“Amen,” Faith said, giving me one as well. 

“Exactly,” I said, hugging the both of them. “I had a good time today-”

“Hurt feelings notwithstanding?” Zeke asked. 

“All is forgiven,” I said, pulling out of the hug. “You two get some sleep. And remember- you’re allowed to bang. I don’t mind.”

“Yes, ma’am,” they both said as they opened the door and went inside.

Elation saturated every fiber of my being as I left their building and made their way to my car. We could do this, the three of us. We all cared about each other, and we were all willing to be honest with each other about how we felt. And we were able to help each other in our robot fighting careers as well!

Still, though. An errant, terrifying thought couldn’t help but dance through my mind. We were all helping each other get to the tournament, but… If both our teams made it, what would happen if we had to fight each other again?

I searched for the answer my entire drive back home, and to my dismay, my chagrin, my abject horror, I couldn’t find one.

***

Hello, lovelies! Hope y'all are doing well :)

Don't forget you can read three chapters ahead on this story, two chapters ahead on "Magical Girl Exorcist Squad", and the entirety of "A Dream of Summer Rain," by becoming a paid subscriber on my Substack or my Patreon!

If that's too steep for you but you'd still like to support my work, consider making a one-time donation via Ko-Fi: