‘I’d like to ask, daughter, if you got any sleep at all.’ Stef looked up, the warm fuzzies from the word “daughter” beating even that of her third coffee of the morning.  ‘None at all,’ she said and patted the moss-covered stone of the wall beside her. ‘It’s like- I mean, proper agents might not get this, but…trying to sleep before Christmas or a holiday or something, your brain is too excited or hyped or nervous or whatever to properly allow sleep.’ Ryan took off his jacket, folded it, laid it on the cleanest patch of the wide wall, and then sat beside her. For once, they matched – he…

Curt pressed the button for the elevator, then lifted his hand to play with his hair, but it pinged before he’d done anything. No standard wait time, which meant the lift had already been in motion. He steeled himself, hoping he wouldn’t have to share a car with one of the many, many people who looked at him like he was shit and- The breath in his chest untangled as he saw Sacha. A layered black skirt that looked like it could have been borrowed from Mags, a sleeveless top and striking gold makeup. Sacha grinned as he stepped into the lift. ‘Nice,’ he said, gesturing to Curt’s top. ‘That’s…

Magnolia adjusted her skirt as she walked down the hall. Ahead and to her left, two techs were leaning over tablets. However, as she passed, familiar colours told her that they were comparing Rose Room profiles rather than doing anything work-related. Given her own similar romantic intentions for the night, she couldn’t hold back a small smile. She’d been half-tempted to bring flowers, but that had never been their vibe. Picking Screen up from her room, however, was something she was happy to do. Whenever possible, she liked to pick up her date from their room. Most of the time, given her life, it wasn’t. Most of the time, she’d…

The fae boy on the screen was cute – animal fae of some variety, maybe a cat, given the shape of the pupils, but Curt shook his head. ‘You can do better.’ Carmichael pulled the phone back, looked critically at the probably-a-cat-fae and nodded before swiping the profile away. ‘How about him?’ ‘Plin, that’s just abs.’ ‘Good abs,’ Carmichael said, then flagged down their waitress to order another brunch cocktail. ‘Which mode are you on? Peony or Rose?’ The Rose Room app had several profiles you could select from, depending if you were looking for immediate hookups with no questions asked. Rose, for some casual chat and maybe an activity,…

Magnolia leaned her head back, and shampoo-laden warm water rolled down her back. If there was no other reason in the world to be employed by the Agency, it was for…everything to do with taking a bath or shower. Water that was always the perfect temperature and would stay there, even if you ran it on full for hours on end. A showerhead that could spit out water of any combination – fat, soft droplets when you wanted something calming, or thin sharp spikes that drove themselves into your skin like shards of glass. It didn’t matter if you got shampoo in your eye; some bit of blue programming available,…

A dozen different delays had led to the meeting getting pushed back and back and back. Part of her hadn’t minded, it had meant she could keep the image of how she expected things to go in a perfect little snowglobe of expectations. The rest of her had been poking at the little bits of research Ryan had suggested, somehow simultaneously wanting to learn everything and nothing about a significant patch of magic in her life that she had no real memory of. Stef adjusted her back a little, careful to keep her shoulder angled so that it didn’t hit the slats of her bed. Agent or not, small contained…

Curt pressed the tips of his fingers together over the bridge of his nose, his fingernails digging – just a little – into the growing crease between his eyebrows and wondered if it was possible to stroke out as a recruit or if blue stopped that kind of biological malfunction from occurring. ‘Newbie. I know what you’re trying to do.’ Stef, hands clasped in front of her, cheek resting on her left shoulder, contrived to look as innocent as a kitten. At a stretch, it might have fooled the idling Agent Bob, that sat next to Milla on the bleachers. ‘I’m not doing anything,’ she said, voice as sweet as…

With things squared away and Taylor still sleeping, she started to go about her morning duties. As normal as she could do, anyway, given that her entire status quo had shifted since the previous morning. Magnolia smiled as she shifted all of the unread emails from Ryan into their own little folder to deal with in a moment. Aside from those, very little had come in overnight that she had to deal with immediately. Most incoming requests had sorted themselves according to her filters and workflows. Leave forms, education requests and schedule changes all sat in their own sections, ready for when she had some time to deal with them.…

‘I love you.’ Words that she had expected to remain unsaid. Something kept close to her chest, unspoken unto the ending of the world. An emotional reality that would interfere with how everything operated. A change that couldn’t be taken back. And he had accepted it. And let her kiss him. Had accepted touch and intimacy and a thousand small sensations that had barely been part of her imaginings whenever he’d been in her mind as she masturbated. Magnolia tried not to move, tried to keep her breathing even, her movements as subtle as when she’d been sleeping. Still, with how large his back muscles were in her field of…