"Yeah, I'm making another pet so we can leave without worrying about any of our territory. The device that Ishtar specified in that vision, I think the mask of Loki should suffice and It will add an extra level of camouflage. The reason I hadn't made it was because I was worried that the only thing that can't be seen, might stand out even more than things in the open."

"So why did you wait if you figured that out?" Kyubi asked, as she started wiping Kitsunoko's face.

"I need something else, permission to use what you both gave me for Aegis."

Kyubi and Klaire looked at him and asked why he was asking for permission, thinking that it should have been obvious to him that they wouldn't miss the opportunity to be helpful to him.

"Well, it will make you both more powerful when on any land I own. It may also overwhelm your senses a bit, you may need to even hide on Archyon while you retrain."

"Why would we be so massively affected?" Kyubi asked as she tried and failed to follow Carl's logic.

"It will produce massive amounts of divinity on both of your wavelengths, essentially making our territory a battery of power for you two. Oh, but don't worry, I'll still be able to see you since I have the law of divinity and you'll be able to walk about with me."

"Why do you even need those parts of us?" Klaire asked, already ready to agree and just satisfying her own curiosity.

"I'm not letting any creature I don't trust completely have that kind of ability and I can't have it producing just one of ours, if anything happened that one would be way too powerful."

"How powerful are we talking?"

"If I did my math right you will be about one and a half times stronger when it balances out, but for the first few weeks you will be seeing increases of about four hundred percent, which is why I want to make it when we're going to be gone for a while."

Kyubi stood up and quickly made her way over to Carl, kissing him as she tried to seduce him into granting her request. "Please... Let me... Spar... your grandmother..."

As Ki-ko pulled faces and Tiamutael just stretched his sight to see what other people were doing, Klaire was chuckling at the sight of the woman who held her affections try seducing her husband into letting her fight his grandmother and wondered how her life got to that point.

As she laughed, Omedra leant over. "Mum if Mum can fight Great-grandma, can you fight Tiamat for me?"

"No sweetie, I already nearly beat your Mum, times my power by four and I might kill Tiamat by accident."

"Tch, I suppose that's bad..."

When Carl resisted the attempted seduction, Kyubi returned to her seat and everyone continued dinner, then built a nest so that the family could watch a vid together...

It was a day-to-day moment that to everyone else was like as mundane as one could be, but to them it was a precious moment of monumental significance.

As Klaire, Carl, Kyubi and Omedra sat on the sofa, with Levi laying across the top of the back rest, Squidge puddled out on Klaire's lap and Tiamutael and Kitsunoko on Carl and Kyubi's respectively; they all suddenly realised that this was the first time they had had a chance to sit as a family together.

Even the "family dinners" everyone insisted on had been overrun with work, with faction necessities often the topic of conversation and immediately followed by daily debriefing and task assignment.

The sudden, long-overdue lull led to the children falling asleep immediately.

Kyubi and Klaire had come to rest on Carl's shoulders and Omedra had slumped into Klaire, half-asleep, who in turn had an arm around her.

Not Carl, Kyubi or Klaire were particularly interested in the movie, but they found that in that moment every scene of it, along with every detail of that moment, was being burned into their memories.

The lingering aroma of their meal, quickly disappearing as the scent of the sea air purified it.

The gentle snoring from the sleeping children, sporadically interrupted by their occasional sleep-talking, accompanied by the rhythmic breathing of Levi and Omedra.

Kyubi caressed both Klaire and Carl with tails while her and Carl stroked the children's heads, making them smile and their parents smile in turn.

None of them spoke or sent a message, it was just silently acknowledged that none of them would do anything to bring the moment to an end.

Even when the vid ended and the screen reverted back to the date and time, it was just another reason to saviour that miraculous moment of merciful peace.

Wednesday 5th November 1111 P.I.D 21.17

'Closing ceremony was on the thirtieth of August.' Carl thought as his mind drifted back to what Gillian told him about his chat with Daniel.

'If I'm not mistaken I met Carl on the twenty-seventh of June.' Kyubi thought to herself, annoyed that she had let her dislike of humans actually cost her something as important as the day she met her love.

'I wonder if anyone knows the date of our anniversary...' Klaire asked herself as her eyes flitted between the display and her ring finger.

They all considered everything that had happened in such a short time, remaining silent until Kitsunoko stirred and stretched herself awake, looking around with the grogginess of freshly awakened child.

"Mama, can you take me to bed please?" The words woke Tiamutael up who shuffled over to her and asked for the same.

"I guess they want Mama Kyubi to say goodnight. We'll get these three sorted and meet you in bed." Carl said as he kissed her on the top of her head.

"Okay... Say goodnight to your other Mum and Dad little ones."

The kids gave Carl and Klaire a hug and kiss goodnight, then each pulled one of Kyubi's hands and led her away.

Carl then stood and picked up Omedra, who had completely fallen asleep. "She might be bigger than the others, but she's still a baby at heart isn't she?

"They all are..." Klaire smiled as she reached back and pulled Levi onto her shoulders, then scooped up Squidge.

A short while later, all the kids were asleep and the three of them were once again alone in the silence together, this time with Klaire between the other two.

"So what are we all doing tomorrow?" Klaire asked, as she snuggled in.

"Well, I technically owe Gillian and Scylla a double date and it might be a good idea to get the others together and discuss the trip during the day and then have that dinner."

"As much as I like the sound of going to a dinner where we can tell Gillian's fiance all the stupid stuff he's done, shouldn't you be planning to meet with Gilgamesh?" Klaire replied.

"No, that won't be necessary, I don't really need to plan. It's clear that we aren't going to reach diplomatic peace, so I'm just going to declare our neutral stance and leave."

"I agree, with Gilgamesh leading them, we can't risk Carl interacting with him too much." Kyubi added, reinforcing what Nergal had said about not letting him discover Carl's ties to Ishtar.

Klaire reached over and scooped the rest of Kyubi's tails over with a yawn. "Kyubi can you turn into your true form? Not enough fluff."

"I could, but that will mean Carl spends two hours scouring fur off the bed."

"I'm fine with that. He can do that while we're in the bath."

Carl nodded in agreement and she slowly changed, becoming the massive celestial fox and wrapping around them like she had done for Carl in her cave.

"I'm not gonna lie, you are definitely the comfiest out of all of us, no matter what form you're in." Klaire sighed as she sank into the patterned, silvery fur.

"Hugging you is like hugging a heater though, you're so warm..." Kyubi said

"I agree with both of you, I'm the quietest sleeper though. You two ask each other to stop snoring in your sleep."

"Carl what are saying? How could you possibly want to sleep on the floor when Kyubi is this cozy?"

"Yeah and why would you want to get cold when you could have our body heat to keep you warm?"

"Point made... Shutting up... Love you Kyubi, Love you Klaire."

"Carl, before we sleep, how did you fall in love with me so quickly?" Kyubi asked the question as she brought her head to read on his lap.

He stroked the base of her ear for a bit, then answered. "I already loved you, I realised that thanks to Gaia, but when I separated it and focused on the feelings for you and took the time to think about things; it was easy to change the type of love it was and accept it with my law of Change."

"You used a law?" Kyubi asked the question with a hint of sadness.

"Yeah, not on the love itself, I used it on my mind. The love changed the moment I thought about everything, the way you've been there for us, the way you raised Ki-ko, the way you helped Klaire learn about herself. Everything you've done has brought more love into my life.

The reason I needed a law was because I'm stubborn, was to stop me feeling like I was betraying Klaire by accepting your feelings. The trade off was that you two will be my only loves for my entire life, but I was happy to accept that."

"Did you say you gave yourself a banshee heart?..." Klaire asked falling into him. "...Can you give me a second?"

"To be more precise it was like I already had one, I had to relax my monogamous heart to give me a second, but I wasn't joking about walking away from you both if either decides they want another... Relaxing things causes others to become more rigid and vice-versa."

"I won't lie, celestial foxes are polygamous by nature. so if you could give Klaire the ability to truly love me, then I would ask that you make mine stricter."

"Can you two think about this for a while, I have no idea how it will change other things, so I don't want you to ask me to on the spot."

The two of them agreed, then resettled for sleep.

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