I stood in the middle of my living room.
ra dropped her bag by the couch.
Looked at with those yellow eyes that saw through every excuse I had.
"Alright. Open one."
I took a breath.
Focused on the space in front of .
Tried to rember what it felt like last night when the knowledge downloaded straight into my brain.
The pressure points in reality.
Where space folded back on itself.
How to reach between the gaps and tear them wider.
I pushed.
Sothing flickered.
A ring of amber light stuttered into existence about three feet away.
The interior was dark.
Empty.
Wrong.
It wavered like heat shimr on asphalt.
My head imdiately started pounding.
The drain on my body felt like soone stuck a vacuum hose into my skull and turned it on full blast.
Two seconds.
Maybe three.
The gate collapsed.
Snapped shut with a sound like breaking glass.
I stumbled.
Caught myself on the back of the couch.
"Fuck."
ra walked over.
Touched my shoulder.
"You okay?"
"Yeah. Just. That took more out of than I expected."
She frowned.
Stepped back.
Circled around like she was examining sothing invisible.
"Try again. Bigger this ti."
"Bigger sounds like a bad idea."
"Do it anyway."
I straightened.
Shook off the headache.
Focused harder this ti.
Pushed with everything I had.
The gate opened.
Wider than before.
Big enough to step through.
The amber ring flared brighter.
More stable.
I could see through to the other side.
My bedroom.
About forty feet away through two walls.
Success.
Sort of.
My vision blurred at the edges.
The headache spiked into sothing that felt like soone driving nails through my temples.
The gate held for maybe a second longer than the first one.
Then it died.
I went down on one knee.
"Ro!"
ra caught before I hit the floor completely.
Her hands were warm.
Steady.
I leaned into her without aning to.
"I’m fine."
"You’re not fine. Your nose is bleeding."
I touched my upper lip.
Ca away red.
Great.
"That’s new."
"How bad is the pain?"
"On a scale of stubbed toe to brain aneurysm? Solid eight."
She pulled toward the couch.
Sat down.
Disappeared into the kitchen.
Ca back with a wet towel.
Pressed it to my face.
"You’re pushing too hard."
"You said to make it bigger."
"I didn’t say give yourself a stroke."
I closed my eyes.
Let the cold fabric take so of the edge off.
ra sat next to .
Her tail wrapped around my wrist.
Gentle.
"The gates aren’t stable," she said quietly. "And they’re draining you way faster than they should."
"Yeah. I noticed."
"When I use mine, the drain is constant. Steady. I can hold a gate open for ten minutes if I need to. Sotis longer."
"Good for you."
"Don’t be an ass. I’m trying to help."
I pulled the towel away.
Looked at her.
"Sorry."
She studied my face.
"When you copied my ability last night, how long could you hold the gate?"
"Three seconds. Maybe four."
"And now?"
"Two. If I’m lucky."
Her expression shifted.
Sothing clicked behind those yellow eyes.
"It’s degrading."
"What?"
"The copy. It’s not permanent." She leaned forward. "Last night you absorbed my Essentia directly. The knowledge ca with it. But now that we’re not in contact anymore, the ability is fading."
I let that sink in.
She was right.
The download last night felt complete.
I knew exactly how to open gates.
Where to pull the energy from.
What pressure to apply.
This morning that knowledge was fuzzy.
Like trying to rember a dream after waking up.
And now it was even worse.
"How long before it’s gone completely?"
ra bit her lip.
Thinking.
"I don’t know. Days maybe? Depends on how much you absorbed and how fast your body tabolizes it."
"That’s inconvenient."
"It’s more than inconvenient. It ans you can’t keep abilities long-term without repeated contact."
I stood.
Walked to the window.
Looked out at the city.
"There’s sothing else."
She waited.
"This morning. In Essentia training. How were your gates?"
Her tail flicked.
Nervous.
"Stronger. Faster to open. They lasted longer than usual."
"How much longer."
"Twelve minutes before I started feeling the drain. Usually I hit that point around nine."
I turned back to face her.
"And now?"
"Now they’re back closer to normal. Maybe ten minutes instead of twelve."
The math wasn’t hard.
She absorbed my energy when I drained her.
Got a temporary boost to her own Essentia.
That boost was already wearing off.
Which ant the connection worked both ways.
I made her stronger.
She made stronger.
But only when we were together.
Only when we were.
Fuck.
"Ro?"
I looked at her.
Really looked.
Red skin flushed darker where her neck t her shoulder.
Black hair still ssy from earlier.
Yellow eyes watching like she already knew what I was about to say and was waiting to see if I’d actually say it.
"I need to tell you sothing."
"Okay."
"And you’re going to hate it."
She crossed her arms.
"Try ."
I sat back down next to her.
Close enough that our knees touched.
"The boost you got from last night. It’s fading because the connection between us is fading. The longer we go without fucking, the weaker the effect becos."
"I figured that part out already."
"Right. And the sa thing is happening to . The abilities I copied from you are degrading because I’m not refreshing the connection."
"Also obvious."
"Which ans."
I stopped.
She raised an eyebrow.
"Which ans what, Ro."
"Which ans to keep the abilities. To make them permanent. I need repeated contact. High intimacy contact."
"Sex."
"Yeah."
She didn’t react.
Just sat there.
Processing.
"Okay."
"Okay?"
"I an. That makes sense. Your Essentia drains through physical contact. The deeper the contact, the stronger the drain. Sex is about as deep as contact gets."
"ra."
"What."
"I’m not just talking about you."
Silence.
Long.
Heavy.
Then she laughed.
Not a happy sound.
"Of course you’re not."
"I didn’t design the ability this way."
"No. You just got handed an Essentia that requires you to fuck people to get stronger." She stood. "That’s convenient."
"It’s not like that."
"Then what’s it like, Ro? Explain it to ."
I stood too.
Faced her.
"It’s like I have a power that only works if I form genuine connections with people. And those connections require intimacy. Real intimacy. Not just physical."
"But also physical."
"Yeah. Also physical."
She turned away.
Walked toward the window.
Stared out at the sa view I’d just been looking at.
"So what. You’re planning to sleep with half the school to collect abilities like trading cards?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"I don’t know yet."
"That’s a great answer."
"ra."
"I’m serious. What’s the plan here? Because from where I’m standing, it sounds like you’re asking permission to cheat."
"We’ve been together for less than forty-eight hours. I don’t think we’re at the exclusivity conversation yet."
She spun around.
Eyes bright.
Angry.
"You told I mattered. This morning. You said I mattered."
"You do."
"Then why does it feel like I’m already getting downgraded?"
I crossed the room.
Stood in front of her.
"You’re not getting downgraded. But I need you to understand what this ability is. It’s not just a power. It’s how I survive. How I get strong enough to deal with the shit coming my way."
"By fucking other girls."
"By forming connections. Yes. Which will sotis involve that."
She looked up at .
Hurt bleeding through the anger.
"And what happens to when you’re off forming connections?"
"You’re still here. Nothing changes between us."
"Everything changes, Ro. You know that."
I didn’t have a good answer.
Because she was right.
Everything would change.
Already had.
The mont I woke up in this world.
The mont I stopped pretending this was anything other than what it was.
A harem story.
With as the protagonist.
And her as the first girl.
Not the only girl.
She turned back to the window.
"I knew this would happen."
"Knew what."
"That I’d catch feelings for soone I can’t actually have."
"You have ."
"I have part of you. For now. Until soone more interesting cos along."
"That’s not how this works."
"Then tell how it works, Ro. Because I’m really struggling to see the version of this where I don’t get my heart broken."
I moved closer.
Put my hand on her shoulder.
She didn’t pull away.
Didn’t lean in either.
"I like you. Actually like you. Not because of your ability or what you can do for . Because you’re smart and funny and you don’t take my shit."
"But."
"But I can’t promise exclusivity. Not with this ability. Not with what’s coming."
She was quiet.
Then she said sothing that surprised .
"I want to try anyway."
I blinked.
"What?"
"I want to try. Even knowing it’s going to hurt eventually. Even knowing I’m sharing you." She turned to face . "Because the alternative is walking away now. And I don’t want to walk away."
"ra."
"I’m not asking you to stop. Or to lie about what you need to do. I’m just asking you to be honest with . And to co back."
"Co back?"
"When you’re with soone else. When you’re doing what you need to do." Her voice cracked slightly. "Just co back to after."
My chest tightened.
Because that was the most generous thing anyone had ever offered .
Permission to be exactly what I was.
With the only condition being that I didn’t forget about her in the process.
I pulled her close.
Kissed the top of her head.
"I’ll co back. Every ti."
She wrapped her arms around my waist.
Tail curling around my leg.
"You better."
We stood there.
Holding each other.
While the weight of what we’d just agreed to settled between us.
Then she pulled back.
Wiped her eyes.
"Okay. Enough feelings. Let’s get back to training before I start crying for real."
"We don’t have to."
"Yes we do. Because if you’re going to be sleeping with other girls to steal their powers, you need to actually know how to use those powers. Otherwise what’s the point."
Fair.
"Alright. What do you want to do?"
User Comments
0 comments from readers