MHP: Cold Rains, Epilogue

"Ready, lovey?" 39 asked, opening his daughter's front and hooking up the transfer wire.

"So…I'm gonna look like that?" she asked, eyeing the adult body that had been built for her, which her mother was currently fiddling with. Tethys sat beside her, quiet, clutching her hand. Shen leaned on the wall, his new, grown-up wings stretching behind him.

"Yup, big and pretty and grown-up," 39 said, grinning and mussing her hair. "Now, Mags is the only one who's figured out how to do this, so are you really, really ready?"

"Dad, I'm ready!" 95 giggled. "Shen and Keller already got theirs, I'm ready for mine!"

"All right," 56 said fondly. "Mags!"

Mags trotted over, a pen nib dripping ink in his hands, and painted three symbols on 95's front, in a triangle formation. He went to the other body and drew the same ones, with the triangle reversed. "How does he know how to do dis?" Tethys asked, looking up at 39.

39 shrugged. "We don't know. He just knows stuff."

"Oh! Hmm!" Mags chirped, tilting 95's face to look at him. "Chocolate coating. Helps it go down smoother."

"I think he's about to start," 56 sighed. "All right, darling, just relax and concentrate."

95 looked at Tethys, who squeezed her hand and offered a small, encouraging smile. Then, emboldened, she closed her eyes and focused on squeezing her whole being through that wire. She felt Mags touch the symbols on her chest and suddenly she felt an enormous pressure, almost painful, and her body seemed, mentally, to contract, to curl and shrink as if it was being forced through a funnel, and just as it started to really hurt—it was over. She felt normal again. Had it not worked?

"95, lovey? Open your eyes."

She clicked her eyes open, shocked and immensely pleased to see that she was looking her father on his level for the first time. "It worked!" she squeaked, clicking her eyes more rapidly, flexing her fingers, generally exploring her body. "Oh, oh! Look how tall I am! Look at my hair! Look at—look at me!"

"Look at you," 39 laughed, enveloping his child in a hug, then releasing her and holding her at arm's length. "Lookin' good, kid."

"You look wonderful, darling," 56 said, hugging her as well.

"You're tall!" Shen exclaimed, slinging an arm around her.

"You're tall!" she replied, poking him in the stomach. She looked around rapidly, before her eyes settled on Tethys, who'd stood and was now leaning against the wall, just…looking at her. "Big? What do you think?"

He blinked, slowly, then hesitantly met her eyes. "You're beautiful."

95 laughed, her same tinkling laugh, like wind chimes. "I have to go find Butterfly," she suddenly said, flying out towards the open area of the lobby. Her parents laughed and followed her, hand in hand.

Shen remained behind, walking up to Tethys and jabbing a finger in his chest. "Hey." Tethys nervously met his angry gaze. "Stay. Away. From. My. Sister."

"Da, okay," Tethys nodded rapidly. Shen narrowed his eyes for a moment, then nodded and walked away, following his family. Tethys rubbed the spot he'd jabbed, staring after the protective stitch, before his eyes slid back over to his one friend. She was flipping her new hair around her finger, laughing, talking…and then she met his eye. She winked, like she had a thousand times before, but this time he felt his heart lurch in his chest.

And he hated that. So he pushed it down and went back to his stark little nook below the stairs, avoiding her, her gaze, her laugh, all of the things he just couldn't deal with right now.

***

Bunny had stopped struggling, resigning herself for being tied up until someone found her, perhaps even for the rest of her life. However, three days later, she heard a voice. "Hello? Is anyone here?"

"Yes!" she cried, desperate and suddenly grateful. "Yes, here! Help!"

She heard the other voice pick its way through the playhouse, finally stopping in front of her. "Oh, you poor thing," the voice, a female, cooed. The other untied her wrist and helped her sit back up, and Bunny looked her savior in the eyes for the first time.

She had a wild ponytail of frayed yarn, held at the base with a green band. Silver wires were poking out of her head, looping back around and tucking back in. A black dot sat beneath her left optic, and her front was done up in an obviously homemade gray-green corset. She grinned at Bunny, looking her from ears to feet and back. "Hi, cutie," she purred.

"Oh," Bunny sighed, leaning over towards the stitch. "Quite the flirtatious one. So, my rescuer, do you have a name?"

"Certainly," she said, her eyes fluttering. "Everyone calls me Nereid."

***

"Big?"

Tethys looked up from the story he was penning on the paper spread in front of him, into the smiling face of 95. "Ah, hallo, Leetle," he said with a smile of his own, jamming the pen nib he'd been writing with into the cork of his jar of ink. "I tought you vere going out tonight?"

"I was," 95 laughed, plopping down in front of him. "But we decided it was too cold. So we're staying in." She scootched over beside him and dropped her head into his shoulder. "Why? Tryn'a get rid of me?"

"Nyet, never," Tethys replied, hesitating before wrapping a hand around her side. "I don't vorry vhen you stay in."

"You shouldn't worry anyways." She yawned, snuggling close to him like she had a thousand times before. "Tell me a story?"

Tethys looked down at her sleepy, nestled form and sighed faintly. "Da. All right. Vonce upon a time, dere vas a girl named Leetle."