"So is this all you?" I asked Rita, keeping my voice low to avoid waking Manu.

She laughed. "You know better than that. I can take credit for Soleil. She brought the food, by the way. I paid for it."

"Thank you both," I said sincerely. "What about me?"

"What about you?"

I cracked open my soda and was rewarded with a little spray on my chest. "Haven't you done the same sort of thing to me as you did to Soleil?"

She shook her head. "Can't call one such as you, remember?"

"But... Regina?"

The dancer smiled. "You called me, not Rita. Or, you gave me sanctuary, right? Or showed me sanctuary, at least."

"But if Rita brought the Presence to me, and I—"

"Not how it works," Rita interrupted. "We belong to the ones that called us, nothing more, nothing less. You don't belong to anyone, at the moment. Not me, not Manu, not Tempest. Manu and Regina are yours." She gave me a warm smile. "I hate to do the Star Wars thing, but search your feelings. You know it to be true."

I took a bite of my pizza. "I don't know what that means," I said.

"It means," Regina said, getting to her feet and spinning around the edge of the table to kneel next to me, "that all I want to do is support you and your creativity. Make your life easier so you can write."

"But..." I paused, thinking. "You have your own hopes and dreams and plans. You just told me your plans a couple hours ago."

"Uh huh!" Regina nodded enthusiastically. "Those are still true, and not going anywhere. But if my dancing or my photography or my writing or theology or whatever can help inspire you, or if I can take some of the work off you, or help you with something else..." She bowed her head down, like she had before. "You accepted me. And you meant it, I could tell. You accepted all of me, and... well do you have any idea what an unusual thing that is? Right? I'm always trying to be something someone else wants me to be. But now I know I don't have to be, I can take all those things that I've put all this energy into and be all of them. I can be a dancer, and a soccer player, and a photographer, and a priest, and... everything."

I didn't know what to say, so I said something without thinking about it. "And that makes you want to support me?"

Her head shot up, and her eyes locked to mine, and it was all fire, a fire that called to me in my heart. She didn't answer me, not out loud, but she didn't have to. She just reached out and took my hand in her own.

I heard Soleil's accented lilt from across the table, saying: "This sounds so familiar."

The fire in Regina's eyes held me there, watching, staring. In the fire, I could see a deeper image, a deeper vision, something I couldn't understand, but it didn't matter that I couldn't understand it. I could see that Regina knew what the fire held for her, and that she knew what place I held in it.

The place she had kissed me that afternoon burned.

So did the place Manu had orgasmed inside me.

It was a strange feeling. She wasn't attracted to me, not as I was, not for my femininity. She was... I looked deeper. She wasn't really straight, either. She had been with men, she had fantasized about women, but... she had decided on neither. She hadn't told anyone, and she had remained open to the idea of sex and romance, but deep in the heart of her fire, she knew that it simply wasn't important.

Something that she would give up for me, if I asked.

That power alone made me wet. It didn't matter that I held it over someone who had no attraction to me, and who I had no attraction for, it didn't matter that without that power neither of us would have even considered the other as a sexual partner. If I gave the word, if I chose the right poetry, she would give her body to me, and holding that power over her would make me love it.

I was aware that I was being watched. Judged. By three other people in the room, and possibly by the Presence that surrounded us in that space.

I didn't know what the right answer was.

It was Rita's hand on my shoulder that broke the tension, at least momentarily. "You don't have to decide now," she said. "You don't have to rush anything. You're trying to deal with everything from a view that isn't built for it. You can wait until you have better information."

I nodded, my eyes still locked on my dancer's fire.

"She'll wait," Rita said, squeezing my shoulder. "Like Manu. Until you have all that you need."

I nodded again, and so did Regina.

The almost-innocent smile on her face nearly broke my heart.

"You know what it is that I need," I said, not sure who I was addressing it to.

Regina's smile faded a little. "Kinda," she whispered. Rita just squeezed my shoulder again. Regina continued. "I hate that this is so easy for me and so hard for you."

My chuckle lifted the mood. "I've heard that before." I put my hand over Rita's, and brought Regina's to my lips, just momentarily, just to see what it was like. The fire faded as Regina closed her eyes and bowed her head again.

"Should we eat?" Rita asked, her hand warm on my shoulder. She let me go and moved back to her seat on the couch.

The question didn't need an answer. Regina turned to the table, staying next to me and pulling her pizza and glass of water towards herself, and I took my slice back in hand. The shift back to casual from intense felt like it ought to be jarring, but it seemed like the most natural thing in the world to go back to eating and making small talk. I thanked Rita and Regina for cleaning up our kitchen messes, Regina claimed it was no problem at all, and Rita laughed at that statement, complaining about getting dried blood and food off tile. Neither of them mentioned the other bodily fluids.

"Sounds like I missed the excitement," Soleil said with a little giggle.

I sighed, only half-seriously. "I think that there might be a lot more excitement coming."

"Oh, probably," Rita said lightly, and Regina rapped her knuckles on the table for some reason.

"You missed the hard work," Rita continued. "It looked like a hurricane went through the kitchen."

Regina swallowed. "A horribly bloody one, right?"

"Twenty-two stitches worth of blood," I added. I shuddered at the memory of it. "I don't think I've seen anything like it."

"Feet, head, and," Rita tapped the inside of her leg, and flashed me doing so. "Femoral artery. They bleed a lot."

Soleil drew a thumb across her neck. "What about the jugular?"

"I think we can talk about something else, right?" Regina said, laughing. "We are trying to eat."

"Oh sure," Soleil said, smirking. "Apologies. I didn't know there were sensitive stomachs here."

"Hm, not so much sensitive," Rita said, lifting her hand and wobbling it. "Just wanting to talk about something else?"

I grinned. "My stomach wants to talk about the food, mostly."

"It isn't great pizza, but it's a meal," Rita apologized. "I wanted something on the way, so Soleil didn't have to rack up too big of a travel cost."

"It's good," I countered. "And three of us at least have been doing enough work... well, hunger is the best sauce, right?"

"If what you've been up to is work, it's the sort of work I really don't mind." Rita gave me a broad wink, and the four of us laughed.

We lapsed into a comfortable silence, eating our dinner, and I thought about what I had just learned about my dancer. The revelation landed on me, then: that's what she had just learned about herself. I thought about what Rita had told me about Emi, about the sudden switch from 'hyperfeminine' to non-binary when they were exposed to the Presence; the 'radically honest' revelation that Regina was aromantic and possibly asexual seemed perfectly in line with that. Probably it was something that Regina had known somewhat about herself but didn't, or couldn't, acknowledge until that moment of clarity when she found...

"Sanctuary," I muttered to myself.

Rita caught my eye, and nodded, and I felt like I'd learned something. I just wasn't sure what.

Regina finished her slice and took her plate to the kitchen, and I watched her go. She made even that simple gesture look graceful and meaningful. I could see the fire dance through her, could feel it in the room. I could have mapped her steps with my eyes closed.

That's mine, the fire in my head said.

Though she was naked, she moved
as though the fire had clothed her,
and spun about her form,
a sense of purest elegance
that no one e'er had worn
as though the flames had dressed her
in spiritual light,
a power that shone where she had gone
and followed where she might.

I was standing, receiving the hand of my dancer, and across the table I could hear the other two other women breathing heavily. A glance told me that Rita was watching closely, her hand on Soleil's shoulder, but a glance was all I was given before I was drawn into the dance. I didn't have the skill that Regina had, very clearly, or really even any sort of skill, but I didn't need to be brilliant. She was more than brilliant enough. Her body directed mine, showed me by its motions where and how I should step, communicated to me what movements needed to happen. Mostly I was just keeping out of her way, and trying to do so with a certain sense of rhythm and artistry.

I have to admit, after a moment, as the trance shook loose just a bit and I recognized the fluidity of the moment, the effortlessness of it, the acceptance of my clumsiness... it was kind of fun. And then, no longer kind of fun; outside of the brilliance of the Presence and the artistry of my dancer, I was truly enjoying myself. Far from the awkwardness of school dances, no one, least of all me for once, cared about how I looked. Somewhere in the midst of everything I peeked over at the couch; Soleil had moved and was sitting on Rita's lap, eyes half-lidded as she watched us moving across the floor, Rita's hand between her legs with her palm against Soleil's crotch. I got a brief smile from a similarly dazed actress when she looked up briefly from kissing Soleil's shoulder, and then the steps took my attention away and back towards the perfection that was my dancer and her dance.

I could feel the eyes on her, and not just my own. Everyone's look was different. I was watching to make sure I kept my steps as clean and precise as possible. Rita, despite her other activities, was analyzing, Soleil was experiencing. Manu was—

I realized that Manu was standing in the hallway, leaning against the wall, his bandaged foot off the ground and his crutches under his arm, his erection plain to anyone who would look. He was watching for his moment, his opportunity. I didn't know how long he'd been there, and I didn't much care; all that mattered for me, for that moment, was that he was there. He was an audience, a beautiful dark-skinned fire-marked observer watching me do something that under any other circumstance would have been completely embarrassing.

I wound up in his arms. Regina put me there, and I'm not sure how she did it. I'm not sure how she did it without any harm or even risk to Manu, but that wasn't my concern. Four sets of eyes were locked on my dancer, all of us with such different viewpoints. Soleil, I think, was looking at her future, or her potential future at least. This, her expression seemed to say, was what she could be to Rita. Rita, meanwhile, was looking at Regina with open hunger, while languidly stimulating the girl in her lap, either looking at Regina as a potential conquest or as a sign of the Presence's spread. Manu was seeing my dancer through the eyes of lust, hypnotized by his fellow follower, and I could tell, I could feel his desire for her. And for me.

And... me, of course. I was watching her for inspiration, and it was flowing. Verses constructed themselves from flame and spun about like her steps, whirling into place and then burning away and leaving behind shadows and smoke and ash that wrote their impressions on the ground and sky of my mental landscape with something more than words that I knew I would struggle to capture later.

Part of me wanted my sketchbook. Part of me knew it wasn't needed.

My dancer made her way to the couch, and suddenly Soleil was in her arms, and I felt a tiny pang of jealousy, which surprised me but also made me aware of how tired my body was. It occurred to me that I wasn't still her partner on the floor because I was just too tired, and I marvelled that in the middle of her ecstasy Regina was able to recognize that.

Rita joined me at Manu's side. I hadn't noticed her approach, but I wasn't surprised to see her there. Without a word, we coordinated to get Manu over to the couch, avoiding the furniture and the two dancers now spinning each other across the floor. Soleil was clearly a much better dancer than I, and just as clearly no match for Regina.

With the physical effort of moving my injured boyfriend across the room, the hold that the dance had over me, over the three of us, had faded a little. I discovered that it was difficult to keep the intensity of my interest when I was so worn out. We manoeuvred Manu to lounge on the couch with his legs up on my lap. Subtly, Regina guided her steps with Soleil to be more in view of the two of us, and before Rita could sit down, Soleil was in her arms again, and the two of them started swaying on their feet like an oddly erotic version of the awkward high-school very-close slow dance clutch: Rita's hands were on Soleil's shoulders and Soleil's on Rita's hips, their fronts pressed together, moving very slowly and almost rhythmlessly. There was no art there, just love. And lust, though that was contained, a future promise rather than an immediate demand.

Regina's flashy spin drew my attention, and Manu's I think, and we could tell she was coming close to the end of her performance. Idly, while watching her body on display, my hand encircled Manu's cock and slowly moved up and down without my conscious thought or intent; Manu's reaction was unsurprised, as if it was simply expected. My attention was on the balletic hip-hop moves that Regina was demonstrating through her own obvious near-exhaustion, slowly letting the fires burn out with a calm I wasn't sure I would ever find myself. Her meditative look fixed on me as Manu's breath hitched, and as her eyes met mine and the flames burned bright I felt his legs tense and the warmth of his orgasm spilling onto my hand. A moan of pleasure from Soleil added to the atmosphere, but I didn't look away to see what she and Rita were up to.

Regina held her pose—even to the point of holding her breath, standing still like sculptor's perfect onyx creation—for a solid ten seconds, before taking three quick graceful steps and kneeling in front of me, head bowed, hands on my knees.

Her touch burned. I knew it wasn't hurting me, but it felt like my legs were knee-deep in a too-hot tub.

Soleil made her graceful way to us and knelt next to Regina. Using her tongue and hand, and some tissues, she started cleaning up the mess of Manu's climax. I looked over at Rita seeking... information? permission? I didn't know.

Rita had sat down in the armchair, her right hand working at her pussy, a smile on her angelic face. "Haven't had a party like this since the summer," she said, her voice unimpeded by her work.. "Since I had my revelation, in fact."

Soleil took my fingers in her mouth in a way that made me squirm. I couldn't think of anything to say.

"She likes to be little and helpful," Rita explained of Soleil. "Like an imp."

Soleil giggled around my fingers and her tongue did interesting things. 

"She's a lot of mischief sometimes. Like now." Rita's smile faded a little. "How are you doing?"

"I'm tired from the dance," I admitted, "but... but I feel so... full." Soleil let me go, and my hand felt the chill of the air hitting her saliva. I moved slightly, and Soleil shifted and put her mouth over Manu's limp cock. "I'm ... I don't know what I am to have Regina's service, but it's good."

"Yeah?" Regina asked, still looking down at the floor from her pose at my feet.

Out of some odd instinct I reached around Manu's feet and patted my dancer on the head. "Really good," I clarified, tangling my fingers through her hair.

God, I swear she purred, and the sound made my heart swell, alongside the soft moans of Manu's pleasure.

"You don't have to know," Rita said. "In fact, as much as she's yours, in a sense, in a bigger sense, she's just hers, now. She's been freed from a lot, even if it was a bit of a process."

I played with her hair a bit, her happy noises echoing Manu's. "Freed how?" I asked, curious.

"I know what I want, now," Regina answered me, not raising her head. "And I know what I don't want."

And for all that she was kneeling naked at my feet, I understood; she wanted exactly what she had in that moment. She didn't want love, she didn't want sex. She wanted freedom, a community that surrounded and supported her like the people in that room who would give her the strength and liberty she needed. She sought a chosen family to exist in parallel with her blood relations, that didn't need her to be a parent or a lover, so she could put that energy into her other obsessions; ministry, dance, teaching, photography, whatever else she found to excite her creative spirit.

Right now, we were that family. Five naked friends, me with fingers in her hair, Soleil licking cum from Manu's cock, and Rita sitting nearby touching herself to the sight. That was the family an aromantic, somewhat asexual dancer had chosen.

"And I know," Regina continued, "that I can have it. Without giving up anything." She looked up at me. "It doesn't mean it'll be easy. Or frictionless, right?" Her smile was simply radiant. "And if it's not with you, it will be with someone. But right now..."

I wanted it, so badly, to be with me. With us. I mean, if the Presence was going to be a constant third party to my relationship with Manu, what was another warm body? At least it was a body, and not some sort of... eternal non-corporeal creative resonance. The point is, I could hug Regina. I wanted to hug Regina. With the Presence, all I really wanted was answers.

"I admit," Rita said, her voice now rough with arousal, "I was hoping Regina would be part of my family. I'm a bit jealous."

Soleil's mouth came off Manu with an audible slurping sound. "But you still have me, yes?" she said with a petulance so over-the-top as to be obviously teasing.

"Of course, ma petite impette," Rita replied with a giggle. "Ready for a little more?"

More? I thought to myself. Soleil seemed to know what Rita meant, at least, and spun to her feet, taking a slow, seductive walk around the coffee table to kneel in front of Rita. Regina, meanwhile, was full of that familiar fire, her eyes and her hands burning into me. I smiled back at her in what I hoped was an accepting manner, and patted the couch beside me. As I slid over to let my dancer sit next to me, I lifted Manu's legs just a bit and looked over at him.

"How are you doing?" I asked. "You've been left out of the discussion for a bit."

Manu shook his head, wearing a sleepy, content expression. "I'm as happy as a man could be after a traumatic foot injury." He sighed. "If this is what getting hurt is like, I'll have to do it more."

Regina giggled. Rita moaned.

"I think this is pretty much a one-time thing," I said.

"M-maybe not," Rita stammered. I looked over to see Soleil's head between her thighs, where her own hand had been. "But it's... mmm... definitely not a daily thing."

"Or even once a week," Regina added, rubbing Manu's good foot. Her leg pressed against mine felt surprisingly nice, given how warm and sweaty we all were. "Hey, um, you're staying here tonight, right?" she asked me.

"Yeah, I guess," I said. "I hadn't really planned on anything, everything kind of went sideways this morning."

"Do you mind if I—" Regina began, only to be cut off by Rita's long, low, satisfied cry. Somewhere in the midst of that, Regina's hand slipped into mine.

"I don't mind if you stay," I replied after Rita's voice trailed off into warm deep breathing. "Manu?"

His look was one of disbelief. "I don't see any way I could object to that."

I ran my fingers along his inner thigh. He hummed in pleasure.

Regina squeezed my hand. "I would like to get back to campus to go to church in the morning, though, right?"

"We should probably get back to campus, too," Soleil said, wiping her cheeks with the back of her hand.

"Why don't you all stay?" I asked. "I'll drive you back to school with Manu's car in the morning."

Everyone looked over at Manu.

He smiled, looking right at me. "Sounds like a dream come true, if you ask me."

"Hey, uh..." Regina began, looking at the table, "there's all this pizza there, and I just burned a ton of energy, you know?"

"And Manu hasn't had any at all," Rita pointed out.

"Right!" I said. "Enough sex. Let's eat."

We all laughed, breaking some of the intensity of the moment, and Regina and Soleil were up and serving us, and to all appearances except our complete lack of clothing, we were again just five friends enjoying a casual evening together.