Me1odiUs sat with a familiar body lounging in her lap. It was that of a human girl, Ayle. Ayle's bright gold eyes sparkled as she looked adoringly…happily…emptily up into the beady plastic eye-cameras of the shell which presently served as Melody's body. There was some amount of lag between the body recording information and the time that Melody's brain received it from the helmet on her actual head, she was sure, but she'd never bothered asking how it worked. Reducing these meetings to such cold, metal details…it felt deeply wrong. 

"I love you, Ayle," Melody's doll-avatar whispered softly. Far too softly for Ayle to actually hear it, let alone process the words. She was drooling on Me1odiUs's leg, and the tactile information streaming into Melody's brain told her that the saliva was warm- warmer than normal- but lost its temperature and became unpleasantly cold just as quickly as any other person's would. Me1od1Us stroked Ayle's hair- it was dark, thick, and curly- with a plasticine hand and delighted in the familiar sound of Ayle's voice purring. The body she was inhabiting was cute, it was pretty, but it was more…deliberately cold and inhuman than she'd have preferred. Still, it wasn't for her, and she liked it enough that she wasn't especially bothered to wear it for these visits. 

"Has your owner been treating you well?" Me1odiUs's crackling synthesized voice asked. No answer was forthcoming, and Melody knew it. She'd known it since before she asked. All that Ayle said back was a long, high pitched, very happy moan. It was like talking to a beached fish that had been given something to ease its suffering. The Ayle that she loved, was gone. The Ayle who…

No. No time for that. If her body back home started crying, Cordelia would worry. 

Me1odiUs lifted Ayle into a soft hug and cradled her like a teddy bear. She was fatter than Mane, just like Melody was, but Me1odiUs was built to be able to lift and cradle human bodies with ease. Ayle gurgled and nuzzled in lovingly. Did she know that the cute robot was Melody? Did she even know there was a cute robot? It would be a shame if she didn't…

"Mane is back…that's Ser, for the record. She picked a name…Mane, like my plushie? You remember my plushie, the one my ex gave me?" Still, no words. That was just as well. What would Ayle say, though, if she was still in there? Melody didn't know. Me1odiUs squeezed Ayle closer. "I don't know whether you'd be happy to hear that, if you, you know…" melancholy struck her like a meteor. She recalled a brief period when the three had been happy together.

Or did she? Had it only seemed that way on her end?

No, no. It was patently absurd to paint herself as the selfish one in the situation that had evolved. Mane had been happy, even if it had likely been in a selfish and toxic context. Ayle would agree with her, probably. Perhaps? 

Her heart hurt. She recalled some of what Ayle and Mane had said to each other in the months between the breakup and the departure. Ayle had won- by all heteronormative accounts, she had every right to step back and gloat in her victory. But she didn't. Ayle was kinder than that, sweeter than that, gentler than that. 

"You loved her, remember?"

No answer. Me1odiUs's fingers did not clench into sorrowful gripping mittens like Melody's would have if she was here in person. Instead, they merely moved their tips back and forth slightly to rub the skin on Ayle's arms a bit. This visit was proving to be even more taxing on her emotionally than most of them were. It made sense, given Mane's recent return, but it still felt like showing up to a track meet and being shot in the heel right as the starting pistol went off. Her robot shell's arms squeezed Ayle's body just a little bit closer against her. Were Me1odiUs's metal and plastic outsides warm like those of a person, or cool to the touch like a doll's? She wasn't terribly certain. It was a machine, after all, and its inner mechanisms had to generate heat, but it was hardly unthinkable that the affini could somehow design the body such that its innards could contain that heat without raising the temperature to a point the machinery couldn't handle. 

She felt guilty for getting distracted from Ayle and alleviated her feelings by giving the girl a nuzzle. Ayle chirped and looked into Me1odiUs's fake eyes for just a second. The glittering gold of Ayle's irises was off putting to Melody, just like it always was. She made Me1odiUs lean forwards and "kiss" Ayle on the forehead, something she desperately wished she'd had Me1odiUs designed to be able to actually do. As things stood, the robot girl's mouth could only move its lips straight up and down. It was moderately frustrating, and she forgot about it every time until she tried to kiss Ayle. 

"Mwah," said Melody half-heartedly. Me1odiUs's voice failed to capture her feelings.

—-----

A machine beeped, signalling to Cordelia that it was time to start the return protocols. She moved over to a console in the corner of the room and began to operate it using three hot pink vines. Had this visit taken longer than usual, or were the vibes in the room just slowing time down more because they were rougher to sit through? It was impossible for Cordelia to accurately say which was the case. She was far too frazzled for that right now. She tapped at keys and swiped at a screen, her thoughts racing non-stop. 

"Come back home, Melody, you've been such a good girl," she whimpered to herself. Her vines helped the computer confirm the accuracy of multiple calculations, set a program in motion to help Melody's mind avoid crashing when she returned, and administered the drugs to adapt to the helmet disconnecting. It was a several stage process which came to Cordelia naturally now, even when she was in an emotional fervor. 

The helmet beeped as it connected to the console. Several more computery noises played as it worked with Melody's half-conscious brain to disconnect it from Me1odiUs and bring her home. Needles poked into her and added xenodrugs to her blood as steady streams of different xenodrugs from other needles slowed over time to zero. The latter set retracted and folded into the helmet. The former continued their work.

"Connection successfully cut," chirped the helmet's voice. A minute or so passed. The new set of xenodrugs now started to diminish as well. Once they reached a certain point, the needles slid their points out of Melody's body. Then they, too, folded back up into the underside of the helmet. 

A hiss escaped from the device as it finally broke off from Melody the rest of the way. Cordelia delicately removed it from her floret's head and looked her over with concern. It turned out that her worries were likely justified: Melody was pale and her head and neck sported more sweat than was the norm for her. Cordelia flicked away most of the liquid and watched Melody's eyes flutter as the girl shakily transitioned from a half-conscious stupor to fully awake. The last of the xenodrugs were fading from her system. 

"H-hi," Melody mumbled, her voice shaky and uncertain. She sounded hurt and afraid. Cordelia squeezed her close and sprayed a weak mist of perfume in Melody's face- no drugs, just a scent she knew Melody liked. The human mewled, her voice still weak, and nuzzled in. "Thank you, Cordi…"

"You're welcome, Little Flower." 

—--------

Effus's tablet lit up. She had a message from Cordelia. 

"The appointment was incredibly stressful, but we made it. Melody doesn't have it in here to see Mane right now- do not tell her that, I promised Melody that you wouldn't- but she does desperately need company. Could we perhaps borrow Aria?" 

Effus's flowers drooped with empathetic pain. What had happened to poor Melody? 

"Of course you can! Don't worry about Mane, and tell Melody she doesn't need to feel guilty for not coming, alright? Someone else did." 

Effuslucia was about to add something else when that girl with the fuzzy ears burst out of Mane's room with the most comically square-shaped posture of snarky confidence she had ever seen on a human. 

"I'm taking Mane to the beach!" She squealed with…was that defiance? Glee? It was kind of hard for Effus to tell. "We'll be back!" Before Effus could say anything, the bear girl and Mane had both disappeared through the front entrance. For a brief second, she caught a glimpse of Mane's face on the way out- staring adoringly at Ursula with a heavy blush that implied attraction, possibly?

Was Effuslucia really feeling jealous of a Terran? 

No, actually, jealousy would stick around. This emotion came and went in an instant, and it was more baffling than upsetting. She was probably just amazed to see that kind of expression on the girl. She turned back to her tablet and rewrote the message entirely. 

"Actually, if Melody is open to the possibility of a double date I'd happily come along as well! But regardless, of course you can have Aria."

Cordelia answered, almost upsettingly quickly,

"Just Aria, thank you." 

Wow, thought Effus to herself as a breeze passed through her and made an annoyed whistling sound. Rude as dirt, okay. 

She wasn't actually mad, of course, she understood that Melody would probably be reminded of Mane if Effus was around. Still, Cordelia responded so stars-burningly fast that it was as if she'd predicted the possibility and prepared an answer specifically to snipe it as ruthlessly quickly as possible. 

Aria hopped up into Effus's lap and hugged a vine against her soft, gentle body with a big happy noise blasting from her mouth all the while. She stared happily up into Effus's face and nuzzled the vine in her arms. Effus wriggled with glee and all the flowers in her back, in unison, did a happy little dance for a gust of wind that wasn't blowing. She reached over and petted Aria with a soft hand made of flowers and vine. 

"Do you wanna go on a date with Melody, little one?" Effus asked softly. "I think it'd be good for you, things have been hectic recently and you deserve some time with her." Aria gasped loudly and her jaw dropped open as she stared up at Effus even harder than she had been already, her eyes practically awash with stars the way pure innocent joy was radiating out of them. 

"Yes yes yess Mistress I love thaaaat!! I'd love that, I mean- that sounds lovely!" Aria practically vibrated in place with excitement and her voice sounded every bit as mirthful and giddy as she was acting. "Can I can I pleaaaase mistress?"

"Yes, darling, of course." 

Effus giggled and shifted her body to extend a soft, snout-like appendage towards Aria's face. She used it to lovingly nuzzle Aria and then loosed an odd purring noise that was somehow more canine than it was catlike. A tongue made of soft, waxy plant matter popped out from Effus's makeshift jaws and lapped gently at a giggling, extremely happy Aria. As Effus did this, her vines sent one last message to Cordelia asking whether they wanted to pick up Melody here or meet her somewhere else. 

Owner and pet snuggled for a while, all happy sounds and laughter and joyous bubbly energy. Not a bad vibe existed in Aria's head, nor in Effus's core, only the beautifully good noises coming out of the other's body. All the tension the two had allowed to build up in them from Mane's outburst earlier melted away (not that the two possessed it in equal measure). They were focused only on each other, exchanging soft touches and happy sounds, until Cordelia sent yet another answer. 

"They wanna meet us at the Class-J cafe," murmured Effus. "You wanna get dressed up for your date?" 

"Yes yes!!" Squeaked Aria. "Oh my stars, I'd love to!"