Rising Shards

Stella and I were having a nice chat about polycules when her younger sister decided to sneak up on us. She could be sneaky when she wanted to, but usually something startled her first (I had babysat for Stella enough to know this).

"When the hell did you get here?" Stella asked.

"Just a minute ago," Zeta said. "Hi, Pippi!"

"Hey Zeta!" I said.

 Stella looked around until she spotted the nearest clock. "It's only like eleven in the morning, why aren't you in class?"

Zeta shrugged. "We got a free study period so I thought I'd say hi."

"Well, we're having a big talk here, you don't want to hear this stuff," Stella said.

"I heard the polycule part already though, I just thought I'd chime in," Zeta said.

"You shouldn't butt into conversations without asking," Stella said.

"I'm not butting in! I just said I'm chiming in!" Zeta said.

The Faleur sisters had a pretty precious dynamic, what with Stella being Zeta's big sister and her main guardian, so basically her mom. If I needed a dose of sweetness in my day hearing the two chat was an easy source, even when they bickered it was still cute.

"Why are you talking about polycules, anyways? Am I getting another canon mom?" Zeta asked.

"Canon mom meaning another Evy, not another Octa," Stella explained to me.

"I know! You told me about Evy's canon mom thing," I said.

"OK, I gotta be honest, I just wanted to say that canon mom line, I heard you say Alix and Kitty," Zeta said, unable to keep even a slight fib in without confessing. "Wait, Kitty? Really?"

"Ask Pippi," Stella sighed, already giving up her 'get Zeta out of this conversation' plan. I didn't mind having Zeta talk about this, it was good to get lots of outside perspectives.

Zeta turned to me. "Kitty? Really?"

"Yeah, really," I said. "As like. A potential person in a polycule."

"Interesting," Zeta said. "I don't know if I'd want to date someone with her personality type."

"Pippi has a unique taste in women," Stella said, accurately summing me up. "Also, don't spread this gossip around, got it?"

"I won't, I'm great at secret keeping!" Zeta said. "And I know all about polycules, so you can ask me for advice and I'd totally help!"

Stella and I looked around, still making sure there wasn't anyone else close by.

"You have me off my game, usually at this point I'd say something embarrassing to get you to leave." Stella kept looking around as we talked, caught off guard by Zeta sneaking up on us.

"Heh, not this time!" Zeta said.

"What do you know about polycules?" Stella asked. "Did you get another girlfriend while I wasn't looking?"

"No, but I read a bunch of fanfics," Zeta said as Stella sighed deeply. "Mainly Raina Starlight ones."

"Send them to me!" I said.

"I'd...yeah, send me those too," Stella said.

"Hehe, will do," Zeta said. "And! Oka and I talked about what we would do if we ever had a polycule."

"And how'd that go?" I asked. I tried to not talk to Zeta like she was a little kid anymore, but sometimes that tone just slipped out. Again, the Faleurs are precious and adorable, so I am blameless in my reactions to their adorable preciousness.

"Pretty well! We didn't have anyone in mind or anything, but we did set some ground rules, talked about what we'd need to do if we ever let anyone join us, a lot of like. How to figure out how to not mess up a good thing!" Zeta said. "But again, we're both really happy I think, so it's kind of hard to picture anyone else with us. And we both kinda got jealous and and a teensy bit upset thinking about hypothetical other people being with me and her, so we probably don't have that personality for it either."

"All good points!" I said. "I only just started this whatever it is with Alix, but I don't want to mess it up. But we also I think are more the type to not be tied down to just one person."

"I think that's a big part of it, like that mindset," Stella said. "To me, it's not tied down to one person, it's more just like I'm with this person I'm madly in love with. I don't think it's wrong for anyone who wants more than that, but I'm so happy with Evy, I'd almost be scared of adding anything to the recipe that would unbalance that."

"Yep, that's it for us too," Zeta said. "Like, you bake a great cake, you don't wanna put a peanut butter and chocolate bar on it, because it's a fruit flavored cake so the tastes would be all weird mixed up like that. But some couples have a cake whose flavor would mix well with peanut butter and chocolate, so it works for them!"

"That's not the food analogy I'd use, but pretty much what I'd say," Stella said. "It probably doesn't help you hearing us say how happy we are with one person, huh Pips?"

"No, I think it's great!" I said. "You and your respective partners have your own thing going, and you figure out what works for you, that's cool. I'll keep it in mind thinking about my business."

"Yeah!" Zeta said.

I wanted to keep talking about this, but my morning break was pretty short.

"Dang it, gotta head back," I said.

"Alright, talk to you soon, kay?" Stella said. "I should probably get back to work, too." She bonked Zeta's head. "And you should get some actual studying done instead of gossiping with us."

"Fiiine," Zeta said. "And good luck if I didn't say it already, Pippi!"

"Thanks," I said. "And thanks for the advice, too. And don't forget to send me that fanfic."

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