As Eris woke, she slowly became aware of the comforting sensation of her sister’s arms wrapped around her. She smiled to herself as she hugged those arms tight to her chest.

As had always been the case, her nightmares hadn’t come back. Somehow, Valie’s presence warded them away. Eris was very grateful for that. For years, she’d had no option but to just tolerate them. Her sleep had been chronically awful. But now she didn’t have to just suffer through it. She had her sister back.

Not that sleeping in the same bed as her sister didn’t come with its own complications.

She rolled over in Valie’s arms, looking at her sister’s sleeping face. Eris was struck by how pretty she looked. And how peaceful.

Careful, said her cautionary inner voice. But that voice had gotten softer and softer over the time they’d spent together. Eris had really fallen for her sister. Again. She sighed gently as she looked down at Valie’s lips, finding herself struck by a sudden desire to kiss them. She wouldn’t, of course. Not while Valie was asleep. But maybe, someday…

Stop that, the voice said. Admittedly, it was probably foolish to get her hopes up. But she couldn’t help imagining the possibility. That maybe someday the two of them could actually be something.

Still yearning for intimacy, Eris leaned her head forward, her forehead pressing comfortably against Valie’s, their noses touching. She closed her eyes and let out a long, peaceful sigh as she felt Valie’s steady breath against her face. Eris let her hand wander onto her sister’s waist.

After some minutes, Valie let out a sleepy groan, her body squirming. Eris felt the arm around her pull tighter, her body getting pressed into Valie’s. “Eris,” her sister murmured. Eris opened her eyes, looking into Valie’s as they fluttered open. The hand caressed Eris’s back for a brief second.

Valie suddenly pulled away, her eyes widening, her body stiffening. Eris couldn’t help but be slightly disappointed. “Uh. Right. Eris. Sorry,” Valie blushed.

“Mm? What’re you sorry for?” Eris prodded.

“Oh… Just. Wasn’t sure if I was, uh. I dunno. Touching you weird or anything in my sleep.” Valie rubbed her eyes, her voice a bit deeper and rougher than usual.

Eris just smirked. “You were just cuddling me, silly. Nothing we haven’t done a hundred times before.” Though, honestly, it felt a bit more intimate than usual. She couldn’t help but push. “What would you ‘touching me weird’ mean, anyway?”

Valie’s brain visibly went into panic slightly. Shit. Eris shouldn’t have done that. Valie stammered out, “Oh, well, I mean, sorry, I just, uh—”

“Hey, it’s okay, I was just kidding.” Eris placed her hand comfortingly on Valie’s shoulder, though Valie jerked at the reaction, pulling away an inch before slowly relaxing into the touch.

That… was noticeably odd. Valie didn’t normally react that way to Eris touching her. They’d always been cuddly, using touch as an expression of their love for each other, and although Valie didn’t like being touched by most people, she normally didn’t jerk away from Eris like that. So why…?

A thought struck Eris. What if… what if Valie had realized Eris had a crush on her? Fuck. She groaned internally. That would definitely make things complicated. But how had she figured it out? Well, that was a stupid question. Valie was smart as hell, and in addition to that, the two of them had a sixth sense about each other’s feelings.

“… Eris?” Oh. Valie had been talking to her.

Eris’s attention snapped back to her sister. Goddamn ADHD. “Sorry. What?”

“Uhm. I was just saying. We should probably contact Michael, right? About that person who attacked us last night.”

Valie was right. Normally she’d just fill out the report, but considering they’d been attacked in what was meant to be uncontested territory… “Yeah. Good point. I’ll text him to come over.” She reached for her phone on the bedside table, and discovered it was dead. Right. She’d have to remember to bring her charger if she wanted anti-nightmare cuddles again. “Uh, actually, can you text him?”

“Sure,” Valie said as she rolled over. Eris responded by spooning her from behind. Again, Valie’s body stiffened before slowly relaxing.

“Sorry. Are cuddles okay?”

“Uh. Yeah. Of course,” Valie responded almost too quickly as she tapped away on her phone. Eris’s heart pounded. She had figured out Eris’s crush. That was the only explanation. Dammit.

Eris wasn’t really sure what to do about that. She couldn’t just ask Valie outright if she knew, could she? Maybe Valie didn’t actually know, or at least didn’t know for certain, and if Eris confirmed her feelings, there was a good chance that could destroy their relationship. She clung to her sister tighter.

Valie put her phone down. “You okay?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” Eris lied. She could figure out how to deal with that situation later. Figuring out what to do about the mysterious attacker was a bigger priority right now, anyway. She started to sit up. “I’m gonna go get dressed and all.”

Valie nodded in response, smiling at her, though it seemed that something was still bothering her.

“Also… Thanks for cuddling me last night. It helped. With the nightmares,” Eris continued.

Valie grinned more earnestly at that. “I’m glad,” she said.

“Sorry if… it was a bother or anything.”

Valie’s brow furrowed as she shook her head. “Not at all. You can sleep with me anytime. I…” Her face reddened. “I mean. Y-you know what I mean.”

Eris paused for a second before understanding her sister’s unintentional double entendre. “Oh!” She chuckled, more nervously than she would have intended to, and Valie chuckled in return. “Yeah. No, I understood what you meant. Hahah.”

Unbidden, a brief image of she and Valie “sleeping together”—in the way Valie hadn’t meant—flashed through Eris’s mind. She hoped she wasn’t blushing as her heart raced at the thought.

“Uhm. Anyway. See you downstairs in a bit.”

Valie nodded, still looking embarrassed by her faux pas, as Eris hastily exited to her own room.

Gods, I am so cooked, she thought to herself.

Eris sat at the dinner table, listening to Valie explain to Michael what had happened. She’d managed to mostly put her concerns about Valie suspecting her crush out of her mind. Though not before she’d taken care of some more… carnal desires alone in her room.

She wasn’t entirely sure how to feel about having done that. But it certainly wasn’t the first time she’d done it while thinking about Valie. And it probably wouldn’t be the last, if she were being honest with herself. She sighed, glancing at her lovely sister.

Hey. Focus.

Right. This was important.

“So, there wasn’t much in the way of identifying information,” Michael said as he stood behind a chair, his hands on its back.

“Well, there was that weird device they were carrying. I’m almost certain it was some sort of Mana manipulator. And it was very distinctive,” insisted Valie.

“Hm. Probably just a Mana receiver, surely,” mused Michael.

“I don’t think so. The design was wrong. And besides, if it were a Mana receiver, why wouldn’t they have been wearing it?”

Michael grunted. “Even assuming you’re right,” he said, rather dismissively. “Not much to go on. But I’ll have our other agents on the lookout for a device matching that description.”

Eris spoke up, “So you have no idea what org they might’ve been from?”

Michael shook his head uncertainly. “Well. I doubt they’re from one of the major orgs. Would be very unusual to be working solo. Perhaps…” he trailed off, looking thoughtful.

“Perhaps what?” Eris inquired.

“The Ley Line you unblocked last night was quite close to downtown. We’ve been suspecting that there’s a small upstart org operating closer to the university. A handful of Ley Lines in that area have been attuned without our knowledge over the past year.”

A small upstart org from the university? Eris’s mind jumped to Valie’s friends. Danni and Raine, and their idealistic views about magic organizations. From what she’d seen in the training gym, both of them were good fighters as well. She glanced at Valie, but saw no obvious reaction.

Then she frowned. “If you knew about this, why was the Ley Line we went to marked as uncontested territory?”

“Well, you were farther from the university than any of the previous Ley Lines I was talking about. And, like I said, we’re not even sure if an org exists. It’s more suspicion. Although… Well, with this info, it does look like a more solid possibility.”

“Are you able to do reconnaissance?” Eris pressed.

Michael snorted, “You are the reconnaissance. Frankly, our agents are stretched pretty thin right now. We’ve needed a lot of people over towards Redmond, dealing with incursions from the Duclairs.”

“I don’t know if it’s wise to put us in that role. Particularly when Valie isn’t… very experienced with this kind of work.” Eris glanced at Valie, who looked a little disappointed. Eris instinctively put her hand on Valie’s shoulder, and added, “Though you did a really good job holding that person off. I just… I’m worried about you.” Valie’s disappointment transformed into a soft smile at the reassurance.

“Look, I’m not sure what to tell you,” Michael sighed, glancing at Eris’s hand. Eris pulled it off Valie, self-conscious. “Fact is, you two are best positioned to handle Ley Lines in this downtown area. And we can’t afford to just give them all up.”

Eris frowned. “A turf war, then?”

Michael shrugged. “If it’s just one upstart, we can handle that. And on the off-chance it’s a larger org, we can reevaluate if they make themselves known to us.”

Eris liked this less and less. “This sounds giga sketchy,” she said. “Especially considering, from what Valie said, the attacker was a very experienced combatant. And you just said our agents are stretched thin. How could we handle a turf war?” Valie nodded in agreement.

“I have confidence in you two.” Michael gave her a smile, though it wasn’t a very friendly one.

“You couldn’t at least get us a pair of Mana receivers? Or even just one, for Valie? Something to even the odds if we run into that person again, or worse, them and some friends.”

Michael grunted noncommittally. “I’ll see what I can do. Like I said, though, my resources are stretched kinda thin. I dunno if that’s in our Mana budget.”

“Fair enough,” Eris sighed. Hopefully, at the very least, her parents would be impressed if the two of them managed to handle this situation. She looked at Valie. “Guess you and me are gonna have to get more serious about training.”

After Michael had left, the two sisters collapsed onto their couch. Eris sighed, her head rolling back as she looked to the ceiling. “Like talking to a brick wall. What an exhausting man. He didn’t even give us a real plan.”

“Yeah… Guess we’ll have to figure this out on our own.” Valie sighed as well. Then she sidled closer on the couch, wrapping her hand around Eris’s wrist—though Eris noticed some hesitation to the motion. And again, Valie seemed uncharacteristically cold, just for a second, when Eris scooted up against her side in turn. Eris almost said something. Could she ask why Valie was asking strange? Did she really want to open that can of worms?

Eris decided to try, but carefully. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” Valie responded. But that was a lie. Valie had never been a good liar, and if anyone could read her, it was Eris.

Eris tried again. “You sure? You’ve been acting kinda weird.”

Valie opened her mouth, frowning slightly. Then she sighed, looking down at the carpet. “It’s nothing you need to worry about,” came the eventual reply. She offered an unconvincing smile to Eris.

That might have been the most worrying thing Valie could have said. They never kept things from each other. Well, except for Eris’s crush. That had to be what it was. Valie had figured it out, but didn’t want to say anything because she didn’t want to make things weird. And who could blame her? Eris had kept that a secret for almost a decade, for similar reasons.

Eris did her best to smile back at her sister. “Well,” she said, “you’re always free to share anything with me. But I won’t force you.” In truth, she wished terribly that Valie would just say it. Just so she knew how Valie felt about it. But Eris couldn’t bring herself to say it herself. Because what if she was wrong? She would just have to wait until Valie opened up about it. Hopefully that conversation went well.

Valie simply nodded back, then snuggled a little closer. That was good, at least. Her closeness was comforting, despite the uncertain circumstances.

As comfortable as it was, Eris found herself growing restless. “Hey, Valie,” she spoke up. “You still owe me an ice cream date this week.”

The word “date” had left her mouth before she could think it through. She felt Valie spook slightly.

“I mean,” she attempted to backpedal, “not that kind of date, obviously.” She chuckled nervously. “Just, you know. That was a tough situation last night. We should treat ourselves. Celebrate our victory. We earned it. You earned it, especially.”

Valie slowly smiled. “Yeah,” she nodded. “Okay.”