2.29.2 – The turning point

2.0 - Edited by: Rellawing, AlliterativeArts - 12/1/2020

Aurora looked at Sarah for a long moment before nodding. “I’ll make sure that happens.” She scooped Sarah up again, imbuing her with her aura. “Thanks for your support, Detective. We did good today.”

Detective Kirby briefly smiled, but his expression regained gravity. “We still have plenty to do here. You two get going.”

Aurora winked and left the main building with Sarah in a princess carry. When she stepped out, she spread her wings and gently took off into the sky. Knowing Sarah’s condition, her concerned friend didn’t want to make her sick. She hoped her aura would insulate against any cold winds and be as warm as a blanket, but she didn’t know if that was the case. Aurora stroked Sarah’s hair, more or less knowing the way home by now since she’d made the trip more than once both ways. Going as fast as she could go wasn’t a good idea right now so she took her time and went leisurely, but even at such a lackadaisical pace the flight time to get home turned out to be less than fifteen minutes.

When they arrived at the Ramses’ condo, Aurora gently set down the somewhat rested. Sarah remained quiet while snuggling closely as possible once she was back on her feet. The heroine looked into Sarah’s eyes, yet uncertain of whether to confess that she was actually Leona.

There was no telling what else may have been done to Sarah in her time at Padua, but the debate inside Aurora, voting yes and no, both gave her good reasons why she should trust Sarah and yet there were many reasons why she couldn’t expect with complete certainty that Sarah’s mind wasn’t compromised in some way after this ordeal.

“Let’s go inside,” Leona said as she opened the front door for Sarah. It was not a good idea to transform back to normal on her doorstep, that was certain. She gently ushered Sarah inside.

“Quinn, are you here?” Aurora called out.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Quinn asked, a little grouchy as she poked her head out from her room.

“Quinn…?” Sarah asked with a gasp, trying to access what sort of relationship the two might have by looking at her and back at Aurora.

“Sarah is back from the Camp,” Aurora explained. “It turned out they were abusing their kids in horrific ways. It’s officially shut down as of today.” She looked into Quinn’s eyes, silently asking her if she thought she should confess her secret identity to Sarah while she stood behind the weak-in-the-knees girl as she held her supportively and comfortingly.

Quinn shrugged, getting the message. “Hey Sarah, Leona’s not here just now. You want to come up and spend some time here until she makes her grand entrance?”

Sarah turned and looked up at Aurora. “I’ll be okay now, I think. Thank you so much for bringing me here. Will I ever see you again?”

Quinn chuckled softly and stepped over to take Sarah into her custody.

“I’m sure you will,” Aurora said with a smile. “I’m taking care of San Isidro now and although I can’t be everywhere, I’ll do what I can where I’m able.” She gave Sarah a quick last hug and finally stepped back, taking Quinn’s cue. At the moment, it seemed best for now not to tell her yet. Sarah had enough to think about right now. “May I take a picture or two of you, Sarah? I haven’t taken any yet but I want to be sure your parents see the way you look right now.”

Technically, she’d taken a picture of Sarah when she came out of the outbox with the boy, but her parents weren’t malicious. They’d realize that what they’d done caused some serious problems for their child and maybe they’d be as regretful as that poor boy whose father had confessed and given them a legal entrypoint.

“I think you should take a nice hot shower as soon as I go. You’ll feel a lot better. Eat and drink if you need it, but don’t take in too much since you’ll just make yourself sicker.” Sarah nodded and took Quinn’s hand and stood there tiredly with her hair a complete rat’s nest, waiting for the pictures. Aurora stepped back, removed her communicator from her bosom pocket and snapped a couple of pictures. Although she would have never wished for it under normal circumstances, she was glad for how tired and bedraggled Sarah looked for these shots. There was no way her parents wouldn’t fear for their child seeing these images on top of the full truth about the camp. Aurora could only hope that Sarah would be happier for having experienced this, since they’d either surely ease off or protect her more seriously.

“Thank you, Sarah. I’ll be seeing you around!” Aurora forced a wink and left the condo to flit high up into the sky. She didn’t go to the usual copse of trees on the periphery this time, instead finding a park reasonably close by that she had played in as a kid and reverting to her Leona form.

Quickly checking around to make sure nobody had seen her landing or people using the park, Leona broke into a run through the park and up the streets back to the condo. It wasn’t long before she returned since on the way, she used her parkour skills to hop over walls and run across fences. Finally, she walked up to the front door of her home but didn’t go in straight away. She waited another ten minutes, panting to catch and steady her breathing after rushing so quickly before making her grand entrance.

“I’m home! Anyone there? Big sis?” she called out.

“Leona!” Sarah called out just a moment after, galloping downstairs probably from her room. It was far more energetic than Leona thought she was capable of given how drained she had been earlier. She threw her arms around Leona, knocking her over in the process. Leona cried out and laughed at having been bowled over but more so from having Sarah in her arms. “Oh, God! Leona! Leona… I love you!” She hugged her tighter than ever in this form. “I’m sure of it now… I love you.”

Leona was dumbstruck, she could only gape and hug her back. This was the last thing she expected to happen. “Sarah! I heard about what happened to you from Aurora. She told me what Padua did to you.” Just thinking about how they treated children left her barely able to suppress the boil of her anger so she instead distracted herself by patting Sarah back in reassurance.

“Are you really sure you love me? You might just be sad and traumatized by what they did. You have no reservations? You know that I’m probably going to have surgery some day, right?”

“I do want you to be a girl. I love girls,” Sarah confessed. “But I love you for who you are even more. Please just hold me. I was so, so dumb. Thank you for sending Aurora to check on me. She really rescued me. Can I stay here with you for a while? At least until tomorrow?” she asked.

Leona stroked her hair gently. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea, Sarah. We’ll need to call your parents, as much as I hate the idea of letting you go, but from what I understand of the situation, Aurora took the responsibility for getting you home today. The police are counting on her to get you safely home. She’s done a lot for us. If your parents took offense or got angry that we held onto you after this, Aurora might be liable for that happening. I don’t know how big of a deal it would be, but I don’t think either of us want to give her trouble, right? Remember, she said she’d be back for you later.”

Sarah blinked tears out of her eyes and smiled. “I understand. Ha, I thought she was Quinn. She said the present I got you was from her…”

“That was what drew her to us.” Leona had to tell at least one lie. “That was her down. Now that she’s reclaimed it, she pokes her nose in once in a while. She might be friends with Quinn now, but Quinn is definitely not her.” She softly giggled. “We’ll spend the evening together, and I think Mom will want to stuff you full of her healthy cuisine.” Leona finished with a cheery wink at Sarah.

“But before any of that, you should take a shower though…” Leona said, concernedly. “I bet you feel horrible. I know how it feels to be stuffed in a box.”

“You do?” Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise. “When? How?”

Leona chewed her lip. “My father did the same thing to me himself… but I was alone and not naked. I don’t know what it’s like to be stuffed in with a boy.”

“Oh, GOD!” Sarah exclaimed. “It was horrible… but it took all this to make me realize I like girls.” She clenched her fists and grit her teeth. “He wasn’t bad or anything… he just cried with me, but with him like that and me naked I started getting self-conscious, and I got angrier and more and more upset. I wondered, maybe I should test to see if I really liked boys, but instead I just cried. I think they wanted us to have sex. They thought that would start something or change us.” Sarah sniffled.

Leona nodded and hugged her again. “Let’s get you into the shower. You’ll feel better after. We’ll play some games like always, and stuff ourselves silly to celebrate. As much as you can comfortably eat, that is.” Sarah bit her lip and nodded softly.

Leona squirmed up when Sarah let her go. She took Sarah’s hand and escorted her upstairs, showing her to the bathroom. She got her a fresh and big fluffy towel, the fluffiest in the whole condo, as well as a fresh loofah. “Use my bath oils or anything else. Enjoy yourself, just let me know when you’re done. I’ll be waiting.” Leona smiled and turned, but Sarah suddenly seized her, squeezing softly.

“Please don’t go. Will you shower with me? I don’t want to be alone. I want to finally know if I truly like girls, even though I know how you won't be able to prove that until after surgery… but I don’t love anyone else, so I won’t be with anyone else to find out.” Sarah sniffled, begging softly.

Leona froze, hesitating as she wondered why Sarah had changed so much. Was it natural for her to suddenly be this affectionate towards her? She could understand how all this might have changed her, and yet…

“Ah… I don’t think that would be for the best.” Leona reached for the doorknob and Sarah hauled back on her, cooing softly.

“Stay.”

“But I just… I’ll be waiting for you on the other side of the door.” Leona flailed and reached for the door.

“No.” Sarah smiled. “Please.”

“Why?”

Sarah looked seriously into Leona’s eyes. “They locked me in a box. Do you know what that’s like, really? I thought it’d be nice to be alone, but it’d be better with you. If you won’t get in with me, just stay here on the toilet for me, please.”

Leona acquiesced but still blushed furiously when Sarah started taking the camp clothes off right in front of her. Leona had seen Sarah naked earlier that very day, but that was in the context of freeing her and she didn’t have any time to get distracted. Now however, she had plenty of time to be distracted. To make matters worse, this was the girl she had loved for a long time. How could she not react? Leona turned away, embarrassed.

Sarah looked at Leona and smiled softly before stepping into the bathtub and started the shower. Leona sighed in relief, sweating and it wasn’t the steam filling the bathroom to blame. Mercifully, a knock on the door soon came to rescue her.

Leona opened the door and peeked out to find Quinn. “Hey, everything going okay in there?” she inquired.

“Oh God…” Leona whispered softly. “She’s going in full blown reverse.” Sweat drops. “She said that she loves me… she wants me, I think… even though… But, Mistral… I have true love.” Even though that pleading look on Sarah’s face had moved her heart. Leona covered her face with her hands.

Quinn nudged the door open and hugged Leona. “Okay, serious talkie-time now. C’mon.” She tugged her out and closed the door gently. “So let’s look at this objectively. Didn’t you tell me that Mistral loves Aurora, but not Leona, or rather, cannot be with the younger you. Well, think about it. If Sarah wants you and she’s totally in love with you, you knew she’d have to be backed into a corner before she’d ever admit it. Well, she was and she did. Can’t you just let her be in love with Leona and let Mistral be in love with Aurora? I know it’s complex… but the fact is, I only see upside for you to have a love as Leona. Someone who loves who you naturally are. Not to mention, it’d be good cover for your relationship with Mistral. You could honestly say you’re taken. Anyhow, if this isn’t what you want, then you know the drill…. Be honest and tell Sarah she had her chance. Tell her you need time to just be good friends. She spent all that time hiding your relationship from the world, denying it, denying you. There’s no way that wasn’t going to come back around.”

Quinn sighed softly, “If you don’t feel comfortable with a full blown ménage à trois, I’d say go for the superhero between the two. Let Sarah sit in the friend zone she worked so hard at keeping you in.”

Leona nodded, chewing her lip. “That’s the problem. I still do have feelings for Sarah. But the way she was talking at the steakhouse… it broke my heart. She was so set against me, and yet, she still tried so hard to protect Aurora from being arrested, supporting her in any way she could. She showed amazing courage and strength. The turmoil with her made it easier to be with Mistral. I needed someone who wanted to shower me with affection. And Mistral’s just plain wonderful on top of that.” Leona put her hand to her head, thinking desperately. “But you’re right. You’re right that Mistral is interested in Aurora and only her. Even though I think she’d cuddle me no matter how I looked, there’s the issue with her tastes and the age gap, and I wouldn’t want anything to harm her career. I really do wonder if Mistral would be jealous about Sarah.” She fished around in her pocket for her communicator and thought. “I wonder if I should send her a text and ask her what she thinks and feels. There are things that are off the table… but I need to know.”

“Ask her if she’d be down for a foursome when you do.” Quinn laughed, reverting to non-serious talkie-time mode. Leona’s face turned even more red. Jeeze! Idiot cousin! “And with my job well done here, this dramedy protagonist will be in her room if you need any more advice.” She messed with Leona’s hair.

Leona rolled her eyes and smiled as she left downstairs. She thought for a moment and tapped a message to Mistral.

Leona has a friend who has been going through some awful stuff.

She has feelings for that girl, but she also has feelings for Mistral,

particularly, as Aurora. Would Mistral be upset if Leona comforted

this friend she cares about? Or would Mistral think Leona was being

bad?

She sent the text and waited. A response thankfully came quickly.

Leona is an underaged girl who is different from Aurora, though

they share the same mind. I love you either way, but I’m physically attracted

to Aurora. If Leona has a friend who is close to her, I

wouldn’t be angry. Leona needs love too, and I can’t give her that.

That isn’t something we can share in the public eye because of the

age differences.

Leona watched as the text appeared on the screen.

Isn’t it easy if Aurora simply loves Mistral? If that were the case, we could

just say your civilian ID has her own business. I love you enough to let you

live both your lives so don’t worry about my side.

Love you, xoxo

Leona smiled warmly. Mistral really was an amazing person.

Deeply. Aurora loves Mistral forever. Will share details about friend

later. Time is of the essence right now. Love you so much.

Hugs and kisses!

She pocketed her communicator and opened the door, slipping back inside to walk up to the shower curtain and sigh softly.

“I’m sorry I had to step out. I got a call, and Quinn wanted to have a little talk,” Leona said softly, smiling.

Sarah peeked out and returned her smile with dividends. “I’m glad you came back. If you’d sit and talk with me now while I finish the shower, I’d be really happy.”

Leona nodded in affirmation. “Can I scrub your back for you with the loofah?” She asked gently.

Sarah nodded and beamed. She grabbed the loofah she’d set aside and lathered it up again. She slid aside the shower curtain and turned, baring her back to Leona.

Leona swallowed a little but still put a smile on her face. Sarah passed it behind her and Leona gently started lathering her up, giving her back gentle scratches to get some tricky grim loose. Sarah purred, appreciating the touches even Leona finished the scrubbing and set it aside. “Leona… more… lower.” Sarah winked over her shoulder, sticking her tongue out playfully.

Leona’s face turned even more red. Oh jeez… She giggled. “I can’t… I mean… I… You know…”

“Shut up!” Sarah turned and bounded at Leona and threw her soaking body onto her, getting her thoroughly wet. She looked impishly into Leona’s eyes, smiling.

“I think… it would be smart if you took a shower too. You’re getting pretty wet.”

Leona stared, agape. Sarah was a completely different person. Uninhibited. “I can change my…”

Sarah kissed her. That was the turning point. Leona couldn’t resist any more. She returned the kiss softly. They’d shared kisses before yet there had always been a sense of holding back, but this time she was holding nothing back. She was truly committed for the first time since they started kissing under the bleachers at school, sneaking snuggle sessions under the noses of the teachers. This was the most truly intimate Sarah had been with her.

When the kiss broke, Leona was flushed. She gazed up into Sarah’s eyes and spoke, trying to think clearly. “I need to think about this, but I love you. I always have. Ever since I met you at the rave. I just think you’d regret…” She was silenced again with another kiss and Sarah shifted around on her, rubbing herself against Leona’s clothed body. Certain parts were indirectly touching through the clothes and Leona couldn’t help reacting. And it was her boy part that was reacting strongly.

After a while Sarah broke the deep kiss and spoke, “Ah… I’m s-sorry… I feel you… I know this is overwhelming… But I want you… I know you still have a boy’s part, but even so…” She rubbed against Leona even more. “I didn’t want to be a bad girl, but I don’t mind it so much now.”

Leona’s heart thudded in her chest. “You’re not a bad girl. You’re being a perfectly normal girl. Vulnerable, needy. What difference does that make? And this isn’t bad.”

Sarah smiled softly and seemed a little relieved. “Leona… will you try touching me a little? You can help me with this.”

Leona swallowed and nodded. “I want to. I love you, Sarah.” She reached up and put her hands gently on her breasts. Sarah looked down with a flushed face.

She let the air out of her lungs in a happy exhaling. “I love you too, Leona. No matter what’s between your legs,” she said. She rubbed her breasts against Leona’s hands and ran her hand along her side, pressing Leona’s thoroughly soaked and slightly soapy shirt against her.

Leona shivered softly. Remembering what she’d done with Mistral, she took the lead and began rubbing up against Sarah in earnest.

Sarah giggled and Leona kissed her.