"Go on a date with Elisa?" Eve repeated, her voice barely holding together. Eve's face was a furnace, heat climbing up her neck.
"Correct," the Bloom replied as it looked her up and down. Under its piercing gaze, the remains of Eve's body armour, plate carrier, as well as her combat suit suddenly didn't feel as protective as they should have been.
What's going on? Why is the Bloom itself talking about this of all things, in this situation, no less? Did Elise and Isa lose control to it? Eve's thoughts were a jumble in her head. She swallowed.
The cool wintry air of the cloud forest should have been more than enough to keep her from overheating, however, Eve was still crimson and she cursed herself silently. Eve was half-convinced that she was about to fall over from embarrassment. "W… Why are you asking me to do this?" she finally managed.
"Put simply, my goals currently align with that of my hosts," the Bloom said with a shrug. "I have no choice in the matter."
The Cloud Shepherd remained respectfully silent as the Bloom closed the short distance between them, standing within an arm's reach of Eve.
"Wait. So you're saying that you. The Bloom. Want me. To go on a date. With your host. Which would be Elise and Isa. And that aligns with your goals, whatever that means," Eve repeated.
There was something unreadable in the Bloom's kaleidoscopic eyes, a shifting depth that made Eve's heart skip out of uneasiness. This behaviour was… rather out of character for the incomprehensible being that had done almost everything that it could to kill them about a week prior.
"Correct again." The Bloom twirled a finger idly around the glass flower tucked behind her ear.
"Is that it? What do you have to gain from this?" Eve asked, searching the Bloom's face for any sign that she could use to gauge or guess its thoughts.
"That's it," the Bloom promised. "I just want you to go on a date with Elisa—and by extension, myself."
"I—" Before Eve could reply, the Bloom stepped forward once more and gently pushed her down, guiding Eve to the ground. The ground seemed to part in compliance as pebbles, roots, and stray blades of grass shifted aside, leaving a soft bed of moss beneath her. The Bloom's eyes were still unreadable prisms, but Elisa's face curved softly into a smile as the Bloom softly pressed Eve onto the mossy bed.
Eve's mind promptly imploded.
What the fuck is this happening why does she smell so good I can't move she's so close help my heart wait fuck shouldn't I be fighting back is this hostility—why does she have to be so hot this is unfair— Eve quickly whipped her face away as strands of her silky brown hair fell like a curtain across her heated face.
"You really are pretty," the Bloom murmured through Elisa's lips, its voice soft. "I can understand why my hosts chose you."
Eve somehow flushed a deeper red than before from the sweet nothing. Eve's breaths grew shallow, quickening into short gasps as Elisa bent lower. Her obsidian hair spilled forward, silky strands teasing Eve's face as she leaned in, pushing Eve gently down further into the mossy carpet. Her crystal-lit eyes shone like cut gems, and her face, devoid of the regular black mask was unfairly, impossibly beautiful.
Elisa tilted her head slightly, as if studying Eve's expression. Eve was still positively exploding from the sweet nothing. Elise smiled, then parted her lips. "My hosts asked if you're okay with me going forward."
Eve's thoughts stuttered before she registered what the Bloom was asking.
It was asking for consent. Even though it was in Elisa's body, the Bloom of all things was asking her for consent. It was an anomaly that they originally had intended to destroy, something that was possibly more dangerous and more powerful than anything that she'd ever encountered before.
At the same time, it was Elisa—the body of Elise, the researcher and her alleged girlfriend, along with Isa, a possessive Seaward PMC she'd met but a short while ago. Eve weighed her options, but…
"Yes," she whispered. "I'm fine with this." Lying on her back, the sky above them, filled with clouds, seemed to resonate with her words.
Elisa's smile deepend. The Bloom in Elisa's body shifted, straddling Eve's hips in a movement that felt too fluid for someone, no, something allegedly without personal investment.
It took Eve a heartbeat too long to even register the position they were in. Her pulse spiked so sharply it felt like it might lodge in her throat. How did it get from asking me out on a date—in the middle of an operation with an anomaly of all things—to…this?
The Bloom—Elisa—placed a warm hand under Eve's chin, gently coaxing her to look up. She brushed the stray hair strands aside, her touch sending another cascade of tremors through Eve's chest.
The Bloom fixed its prismatic eyes on Eve's, and in those eyes, Eve saw a reflection of herself—flushed scarlet, trembling like a small animal, anticipation drawing her taut. She couldn't have been any redder if she tried, and though her hands were braced on the moss, she couldn't bring herself to push back. Eve felt like she was going to overheat in her combat suit and uniform.
What the fuck am I doing… When does the QRF arrive? What if they see us like this with the Cloud Shepherd kneeling with everyone else on the ground, unconscious? Eve told herself she should be embarrassed and frankly ashamed, but in truth, she couldn't look away from the woman above her—
"Warrant Falin! Report!"
The Bloom froze, head snapping up, barely hearing the faint shout. In a fluid motion, she quickly rose and stepped back, the warmth leaving Eve in an instant. Eve gasped softly for air, covering her face again, heat still radiating from her cheeks.
Combat boots thudded distantly against the forest floor. "Sir, we've had no response over comms, and this was their last known location. We haven't heard any audible response so far either." came a second voice.
The Bloom turned sharply to the Cloud Shepherd, who remained kneeling, silent. Eve couldn't see under its mask, but she suspected it was burning up from secondhand embarrassment beneath that composure. While she couldn't blame the Cloud Shepherd for feeling that way, she wasn't sorry either.
"Thicken the forest," the Bloom ordered. "Buy us time."
The surrounding trees groaned as branches wove together, undergrowth knitting into a near-solid wall. Eve wasn't sure what she expected when the Bloom turned back toward her, fingertips brushing across her cheek, but when it did speak, Eve felt a twinge of... was that disappointment? "Another time. Our safety takes priority."
The Bloom's voice shifted back to authority as it addressed the Shepherd. "Once I finish speaking, you'll painlessly knock us out with your clouds. Then, open the forest and surrender to the Halcyon operators. Tell them that all of this—" she gestured around the clearing, with the operators still unconscious—"was a misunderstanding. Explain your intent. Let them sedate you if it keeps them calm. If needed, negotiate a binding seal for your own safety. If they don't cooperate, your priority is to flee, not kill. Don't antagonize them. Is that understood?"
Yes, my elder.
"Good."
The Bloom settled beside Eve, arranging herself so their 'unconscious' bodies wouldn't draw suspicion. The glass flower in her hair unraveled, fragments dissolving into nothing.
Her crystal eyes shifted, rolling back into one lavender eye and one amethyst—Elise's and Isa's. Eve noticed that Elisa avoided meeting her eyes entirely, and from the faint color blooming in her cheeks, Eve knew she wasn't the only one flustered by the previous situation.
Eve inwardly contemplated something with herself before coming to a decision. Just before the Shepherd's clouds seized her consciousness, she leaned forward and planted a quick kiss on Elisa's cheek.
Then the world went soft, and she fell to her side.