136.)

Once upon a time, Blossom Brixley would never have imagined that someone else would be aware of the fact she was reading high-end baby smut, let alone that they might be in the same room and watching her while she did.

But then again, Blossom had also never imagined herself wearing a diaper in any practical sense - well, she'd imagined it but she'd never imagined she'd do it - and she now did that plenty.

Both these situations were made possible by the girl watching over Blossom's shoulder on the sofa, playing with her fingers, afraid to be proud of what she'd written. Her little cupcake; her Mia Moore. Her Amy.

Blossom began to read the chapter, giddy as she held the computer in her lap.

"This is so mysterious. How much time passed? But it looks like she's not alone. But everyone who's there is way zonked out of their gourds, huh?"

"Mmhmm." I nodded my head and urged her on. That zonked out feeling was a lot of this chapter, though there were some fun plays on leaky diapers and childish make-believe. I was probably a little inspired by our pretend-play from the night before.

"I really like this. I feel like there's this kind of chill in the air, like it's suspenseful, but also my brain is telling me "oh hey this is normal" and it's this fantastic little buzz of anticipation."

Blossom read as Wendy took steps out of the auditorium, with her diaper leaking down her legs and her socks getting soaked.

"Oh, Bethany, you can be a ballerina, I believe in you. And gosh Wendy I hope you remember your own name soon, because if you don't I don't think you can be a book-writer or a picture-drawer or a place-finder, let alone a science-maker."

It wasn't long after Wendy and Bethany parted ways that Wendy ran into another character in the story: Summer, Aya's best friend. Summer was playing hide and seek with nobody or everybody. It was up for debate. But she certainly wasn't acting like herself either. All the students at the Academy seemed more like they were sleepwalking.

"This is wild. It's like some Stepford Babies thing, but like... it's like they're all half-asleep or half-braindead or something, but it's so not right. OH! I bet they're drugged up? Maybe?"

Whatever the case might have been; Blossom was utterly and completely enthralled by the way the students were acting. She read quietly as Wendy debated with Summer over whether or not Summer could be a flower girl, or a bee, or anything at all. And then she reread the line about Wendy trying to wet herself more and failing a few times.

"Girl you are leaking so bad, you don't wanna wet more. You're just gonna end up leaving a snail-trail on the ground~"

Speaking of leaking, the next scene had Wendy sitting in a puddle next to the drinking fountain. A girl came up to her and said she was a fish. It was the peak of childish nonsense. But soon Wendy had to leave the girl alone, because she was not a fish and had to find where she belonged. Which led her to the music room, the one where she had looked for the Ghost earlier in the story.

"A ringing in her ears as she's following the piano sounds to the music room? It's all connected. And I bet the Ghost is inside the music room…" Blossom read a few more lines and narrowed her eyes. "Or maybe not. Oh don't you worry Wendy, don't worry about the sheet music; you can't read anyway and…"

Blossom's eyes scanned the words and she blinked a few times.

"There's an arrow on the sheet music? Pointing at a key on the piano? Well she has to press it, right?"

Sure enough, Wendy presses the key on the piano and the Calm goes away. And there's a girl at her side. I sunk a little into Blossom's shoulder so I could read along with her as Wendy and the mystery girl have a talk.

"I knew there was more to Wendy, I knew she was someone!" Blossom's voice was louder than she wanted it to be, but the conversation between Wendy and the Ghost was so interesting. A few more seconds passed.

"Holy shit, holy shit. The ghost is Kione?! Are you for real?! Holy… you always find your way out, you…"

Blossom looked at Amy and then back at the laptop, and her eyes read the line exactly as she said it out loud.

"Ai Sinclair. Wendy is Ai!"

"Mmhmm."

I smiled brightly. This little plot twist was something I'd been planning for a long time, and it felt so great to finally bring her back. Kione was the protagonist of the fourth Academy Works story, and Ai was the protagonist of the first. Ai hadn't made an appearance since the second story. Blossom's excitement was even more satisfying than usual.

"Arcana? What's an Arcana? Kione can teach her… teach her what? Teach her how to break their control? Is she… wait, didn't they say that Kione wasn't allowed near Ai? Is it because of this? And… okay okay, let me finish up before I speculate."

I waited for her to get to the end of the chapter. It had been a lot of work to get Academy Works to this point, and it was all starting to come together. Ai and Kione meeting was a big deal. Like Blossom said: the Academy never wanted them to find each other.

Blossom finally fell back into the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. I could see her mind working.

"So?" I asked. But I wasn't nervous. I already knew it was good. I just wanted to hear it from her lips.

"I still feel a little lost," Blossom admitted, "but it feels like stuff is starting to come together. Like, the other stories had to happen for this one to happen."

"Well, Academy I and Academy K at least."

"True. I guess Bala's story is still unexplained, but Talita's story had to happen for Mrs. Hopper to be in Academy K. And she had to be in Academy K for Kione to get out. And Kione had to get out to be here. Right?"

"Right!" I said excitedly. The end of Academy A was always meant to be a moment of clarity. It was a nexus of stories. But Blossom was right about Bala; she was still unconnected. Her and–

"Wait, what about Aya?!" Blossom asked incredulously. "This was supposed to be her story, but we don't get to see her resolution! It's not called Academy W or–"

Pause.

"Oh. My. Gosh. Academy A. A for Ai. The answer was right in front of me the whole time."

I must have looked like the Cheshire Cat. But she'd asked a question.

"I think Aya and Bala are right where they're supposed to be," I answered. "They'll get their moment."

"And what about the part about Arcana? That's a tarot thing, right?"

"Um. Yeah, just like... the special cards. Think like, face cards in a deck of cards."

"And Ai and Kione are two of them. Probably the other protagonists too, right? Bala, Talita, and Aya?"

"A fair assumption," I shrugged.

"You've weaved a very intriguing story... and I hate that there's not more."

"Does it feel okay?" I asked nervously. "I mean, you're five books in and you still don't really know what's going on. I don't want the reader to feel dicked around..."

"I mean, a little?" Blossom tried to answer honestly. "But I don't really mind. The big story doesn't feel as important as like..."

"The character stories?" I offered.

"I was going to say smut," Blossom laughed. "But yeah, the characters too. Because each story follows a different protagonist, we get to do the whole 'so and so becomes a baby' thing, or sometimes 'so and so is already a baby and look at their life' thing. And that's usually the fun part of ABDL stories, right? Not the big master plot."

"Yeah?" I was still self-conscious. "That was my goal. I wanted them to be fun to read first and foremost. And for the people who like continuity, there's a bigger story too."

I mean, when I wrote Academy I, it literally ended with "oh, let's just do this whole story again". I even thought about Ai being the protagonist in all the stories, but it felt unfulfilling when I tried it out. Rewriting Ai as Wendy was a lot of fun, because I got to reframe her curious personality as adventurous. I wondered if that came across...

"I think you did an amazing job up until this point, cupcake. Absolutely positively exquisite. Like, I don't know if you ever read the side stories to Audrey & Staycee but they're fantastic, and definitely tell the character stories, but they also don't really contribute to the larger universe as much as you'd want them to. Velvet more so, but Lottie is pretty standalone apart from a bit of MCU/TV bone-throwing. I think you did a much better job with the balance."

"I never read them," I admitted. But I got the gist of what she was saying. I sunk back into the sofa and put my feet on the coffee table.

"So what's next?" Blossom asked. "Academy 6?"

"Still working on it. But I have an idea."

"Do you... know what letter it is?" Blossom asked, leaning in close.

"Mmmm... maaaaybe," I teased.

"You knowwww, you could share that information. Really get some of that burden off your shoulders."

"Oh, and ruin the suspense?"

"But think of how freeing it would be," Blossom went on, leaning in closer until she was nearly whispering in Amy's ear. "You could talk about your plans... think out loud... brainstorm with someone..."

"Mm... true..." I shied away from Blossom's breath on my ear, shifting my shoulder up and my head to the side. But Blossom was so good at putting on that velvety soft voice. She was like a hypnotist or something. I didn't mean to start blushing.

"You've never haaad someone you could brainstorm with, never had someone who'd let you get all those icky thoughts out of your head and into the open..~"

Blossom was definitely enjoying this, even if she was hamming it up with some of her I've-Read-Too-Many-Smut-Stories brain state.

"Mm... but Blossom, spoilers..." I shied further away and Blossom leaned in further. I tried to turn my head, so she took my chin with one finger and turned me back to face her. It was just so... storybook.

And then she put her lips on mine. She didn't kiss me. She touched her top lip to my top lip and her bottom lip to my bottom lip. I felt like my whole body was in this agonizing tug of war to either smash into her or pull away. But both ropes were evenly taut and I stayed perfectly still.

"It's just a letter~" Blossom said lightly, her lips still touching Amy's.

...just a letter... and she could have probably guessed it anyway. If she tried. So...

"F-fine..."

"Green?" Blossom checked, taking her lips off Amy's for just a moment.

I nodded. She wasn't coercing me. Or, at least, she wasn't coercing me in any way I didn't want her to.

"M, I think. Academy M."

"Good girl," Blossom cooed. Then she leaned in and kissed Amy on the lips. Kissed her properly. When she was done, Amy's eyes were glossy and she could see the rise and fall of her chest.

Good girl. The words rang in my head and I looked up at Blossom shyly. She knew all my little brain hacks. She felt so insurmountable sometimes. And gosh, that was sexy...

"You have no idea how attractive you are, Amy. Especially when you're all blushy and breathless. It just makes me want to... kiss you, and praise you, and pose you like a cute little dolly. You're so small and cute and vulnerable, after all; you need someone like me to protect you~"

Blossom wasn't usually the poetic-flowery-flowy-words kind of girl, but she'd read a lot of stories, and she knew pretty well how Miss Academy M's brain worked enough to know that she could make Amy melt like a candle with the flame of a hotly spoken string of syllables.

"Yeah, well..." I had a comeback or something, probably. But gosh, was my head fuzzy. Blossom's lips were always a little glossy, like she applied lip gloss any time she turned her back to me. It kept my eyes on them. It made me think about them. It was a lot harder when I wasn't able to kiss them all the time.

I finally sat up before Blossom could get the better of me again and took my laptop from her. She smiled that knowing smile, like she knew I was trying to avoid her. She looked like a cat who liked playing with its food.

"Is M for Mia Moore?" Blossom asked. Her voice was still lingering and velvety.

"No, uh. I think Maria."

"Maria..." Blossom pulled her phone out of literally nowhere and typed it into Google. "Maria, derived from Mary, means 'of the sea', or 'bitter'. Latin origins. So someone else from South America?"

"It's a common name," I said, still getting my bearings. I closed my laptop.

"Another person of color though, right?" Blossom asked, her voice almost back to normal.

"Uhh..." That was a hard question to answer. I didn't want to be invalidating, and I didn't understand race well enough to make the call. Typical white egocentrism on my part. I decided to change the topic.

"Wanna stay until Monday?" I asked. "It's MLK day, so no school."

"I promised Becky I'd spend some time with her," Blossom said apologetically.

"Oh. Okay. No worries." I knew Blossom and Becky were having issues, though I didn't pry into them. If Blossom needed time with her, then she needed time with her. But a part of me was feeling... insecure.

"Um. You and Becky... do you... like..." I wasn't sure what I was asking exactly. "You've mentioned you kiss sometimes, so I just wanted to know, like... what's your..."

"What's my dynamic with Becky?" Blossom offered, completing the question for Amy to save her the awkwardness. And honestly, the question wasn't even a simple one, especially given recent events.

"Well. She definitely has a crush on me, which I didn't really know until recently; we do make out, sometimes we get a little handsy, although it's usually to show off and entice other people. But she's my best friend, and I guess that's the simplest way to put it. Would more certain terms help you? I know ambiguity isn't great for you, cupcake."

"No, uh... that's fine..." I wasn't sure if it was fine. The way Blossom put it, she was going to keep kissing Becky and maybe sometimes getting handsy. Did that bother me? Not exactly.

"You don't look fine," Blossom intuited. "Do you want me to stop kissing Becky?"

"No, not really." I didn't want Blossom's sex drive to be my responsibility; that would freak me out. But Becky was also Blossom's best friend... maybe that was the part that was causing me anxiety.

"I guess I was just wondering..." I paused to pick my words carefully. I didn't want to sound insecure, even though I was. "If you kiss both of us, uh... why am I special? Not like, I don't want you to convince me I'm special. I just want to know what's different about me?"

"Well…" Blossom took a breath, because there were going to be a lot of wrong ways to word this. "You're not Becky. You're Amy. Becky is my sorority best friend who knows what dresses to buy me for Christmas, who knows what people are saying about me, who goes out to Panera with me and knows my drink order. She goes to bars with me, and clubs. You're the girl I've got a crush on, that I am an ungodly fan of the writings of; I wear diapers with you, I spend the weekends with you, I go on dates with you, and lay in bed and daydream about you. When I think about going to Disneyland, I think about going with you. I can't really compare you with one another, because you're both incredibly important to me."

"Right..." That made sense. I knew that made sense. But my brain kept telling me that I could learn her Panera order, and I could go to bars and clubs. And why did Becky get to be something I didn't get to be? I didn't even want to be that thing! But knowing I couldn't be everything was so hard to admit. Knowing I didn't want to be everything...

"You do not seem assuaged," Blossom laughed a little, trying to add levity to the situation.

"No, I am. I mean, I think so. It's just... weird. Or, uh. New. I'm just not sure how to feel. I don't really do the whole... dating someone thing. And dating people and kissing other people..."

"You're jealous," Blossom shrugged. "Super common in poly relationships."

"Is that us? Are we in a poly relationship?"

"Um..." Blossom didn't know how to answer that one. "I'm not technically in a relationship with anyone else, not like with you. But I do have other non-relationship relationships, like Becky. And by saying it's poly, it helps me prioritize people better. Like, I give more weight to my friendships..."

"Makes sense..."

"What about your friend? Lin? I can't be her, can I?"

"No, I suppose not..." I didn't even want Blossom to be like Lin. I already didn't have enough time with Blossom: imagine if we played Final Fantasy XIV together! I'd never have time for diapers. Well, I guess there would be raid nights...

"The important thing to remember is that the place you hold in my heart isn't for sale. Other people can't take it over. Okay?"

I nodded. Blossom was right. I didn't need to rely on societal standards of a relationship to be in one. We had our expectations of each other. We knew what we wanted. I just needed to trust Blossom, and that was easier than ever these days.

"I'm proud of you for trying, babes, and I'll be even prouder of you to know that you'll keep coming to me to ask questions and let me help you figure out tough feelings about this, okay? Polyamory is a paradise in the middle of a minefield; it's beautiful once you get there, but some people have trouble making it. But don't you worry, cupcake. Where there's only one set of footprints - that's where I carried chu."

"Hey, I got that reference!" It was a really dumb Xenogears meme I stumbled upon years ago, but it made me happy that Blossom made a Xenogears reference at all. Speaking of - now that I had a Switch, I should maybe try out those new Xenoblade games. Maybe they would inspire more Academy Works ideas.