Fluff

Epilogue

Arriving home was meant to be relaxing; she was supposed to open the door and just… be free.

To some degree it was like that still. She shoved open her little dorm room’s door and then stepped aside to let her sisters in. Five heads passed by, Emily counting them absently before she stumbled into the room after them and shut the door behind her.

Safe.

She was, for the most part, safe. It was a nice feeling to have.

Now she only had to deal with three brats who would be set on making her life more complicated. Also, she had homework to do. “Alright, what are you girls planning on doing?” Emily asked.

“I could use a nap,” Teddy said, the first to speak up.

“Can I read?” Athena asked. She gestured to some of the books on Emily’s desk.

“I’m gonna make toast,” Trinity said. One of her bodies ran into the bathroom and returned with Mister Toas— the toaster.

“Okay,” Emily said. “Right, those all sound like great ideas. Teddy, please use the mattress. Athena, you can have the chair if you want, and remind me to go to the library with you—we can pick up books that more fun. Trinity… don’t make too much toast? Where did you even get the bread from?”

“Downstairs,” Trinity said.

“And what are you going to put on it?” Emily asked.

“Nothing?” Trinity replied. “It’s crunchy.”

Emily nodded slowly. “Okay. I’m going to do my homework, and de-stress a little.” The dollar-sign-covered bag, the one with all of those secrets within, was right next to the door, waiting for her to pore over it. But that could wait.

The dorm filled with chaotic noise as sisters bumped into each other, argued, then resolved those arguments in the time it took Emily to huff. Then everything just… settled down.

Emily sat on her bed, laptop on her lap, back against the wall. She opened the file for her homework and read the instructions without understanding any of them.

Instead, her mind wandered.

Teddy snored, a low rumble that was already growing familiar. She was the dependable one. A little strange, a little goofy at times, but Emily found the little bear girl actually cared. She wanted to be the one the others relied on, and it showed in the way she always put herself second… most of the time.

She couldn’t exactly call Teddy lazy—the girl was merely very enthusiastic about her sleep and her hobbies.

Teddy was nice. Emily found herself smiling as she thought of her. A brat, certainly, but a good little sister.

Athena was on Emily’s chair, legs tucked under her and neck bent over one of Emily’s course books. She was squinting at the text, which seemed almost comical with her large eyes.

Emily wasn’t sure what to think of Athena, really. The owl girl was complex. Clever, though, in her own way. Likely the smartest of Emily’s sisters, but with that came the impression Athena desperately wanted to be the smart one.

Emily shifted where she sat. Maybe she could spend a little more time with her middle sister. Athena had a good heart too. She was, Emily realized, the sister closest to herself. Maybe not quite as anxious, but she had something similar to Emily’s own approach to things.

Then there was Emily’s newest sister, Trinity, currently with all three of herself huddled around Emily’s desk and staring at the toaster with an intensity that was downright terrifying.

Trinity felt younger than the other two: more energetic, more innocent, a little more naive; but kind and lovable, eager to please and make friends. She was hard to dislike, even if she had more energy than Emily was ready to deal with.

She smiled to herself and refocused on her homework. There was still a lot to be done.

Then someone knocked at her door.

Emily’s blood went cold, and she heard her chair creak as Athena looked up, and Teddy’s snores cut off mid rumble.

She set her laptop to the side and bounced off the bed.

The toaster went off, and Trinity gasped. “Missed it,” all three of her muttered before two of her grabbed some toast.

Emily moved over to the door. Maybe it was Sam again? She desperately hoped it was Sam.

“Everyone, up,” she whispered. “We might have trouble.”

That got her sisters moving, with more noise than she wanted, but still, they were standing and at attention.

Emily cracked the door open and peeked out.

The person on the other side wasn’t Sam. It was a woman, a few inches shorter than Emily, and a couple of decades older. A woman who bore more than a passing resemblance to Emily herself.

Emily slammed the door shut.

“Emily? Sweetie?” her mom asked from the other side. “Um… if you’re really busy, I can come back? Give you time to clean up or… sweetie, are you with a boy? I hope you’re wearing protection.”

“Who’s that?” Teddy asked.

Athena dropped her load of laundry onto the ground. “Should I get my jacket on and look tough?”

“Is it a friend?” All three of Trinity asked.

Her mom knocked again. “Sweetie? I’m sorry, but I did call. You haven’t been answering your phone.”

Emily closed her eyes and, as she hadn’t done in a while, wished the floor would swallow her up whole. She didn’t have much of a choice. Still, that didn’t mean she couldn’t think things through.

Opening the door up a crack, she looked at her mom. “Mom. Give me two minutes.”

“Sweetie?”

“I’m naked.”

Her mom looked at her very much clothed shoulder. “Okay?”

Emily nodded and closed the door. Then she turned. “Alright. Teddy, keep the talk about communism to a minimum. My mom’s a boomer—they don’t do politics well. Athena, no scaring my mom. Trinity… Only one hug at a time, alright?”

She received five nods. That was about the best she could expect.

“And be polite. My mom is… actually, she’s pretty nice, I’m sure you’ll like her. But no”—She wiggled her hand—“crazy stuff.”

“That’s easy,” Teddy said.

“I’ve never done a crazy thing yet,” Trinity said.

Athena just shrugged. “I’m the sane one here. You probably don’t need to worry about me.”

“Right,” Emily said. She spun around, took a deep breath, then opened the door.

Her mom was still there, standing in the corridor and looking a bit lost. Emily reached out, grabbed her mom’s hand, and pulled her in before closing the door. “Emily?” her mom asked.

Emily wrapped her arms around her mom and tucked her head into the nock of her shoulder. It was nice. Warm, and it smelled like her mom’s shampoo. She felt the stress keeping her back tense washing off.

“It’s good to see you, sweetie,” Her mom said as she dropped her purse and returned the hug. “But who are all these girls?”

The tension returned.

“Mom, we need to talk.”

“I can imagine,” her mom said as she broke up the hug. “You need to tell me how you’ve been? How are classes? Did you make any friends? Why do you have five children in your room? That last one especially.”

“Right, right. You might want to sit down for this,” Emily said.

Her mom placed a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow. “I might not be a spring chicken, but I can still take a surprise or two.”

Emily licked her lips. “Right,” she repeated again. “Like ripping a bandaid then. I’m… a Hero. More or less.”

“Pardon?”

Emily laced her fingers over her stomach and focused on the ground. They really needed to vacuum. “You remember Power Day, uh, about a week ago?”

“Yes?” her mom said. She was starting to sound concerned.

“Well, I got a power. I can make, um, little sisters for myself. Sorta.” Emily gestured to the girls who were all smiling. “These are my summons? I can’t unsummon them or anything. They all have their own powers too.”

“Can I sit on the bed?” her mom asked. “Or would you rather I use that chair?”

Teddy raced over to Emily’s chair, then rolled it over so that her mom could plop herself down on it. “There you go, uh…” Teddy turned to Emily. “Hey, Boss, what do we call the old lady?”

“Anything but ‘old lady,’ you dumb bear,” Athena said. She yanked Teddy back and stepped up to Emily’s mom to bow. “Hello, grandmother.”

“Emily, you know how I always wanted to have grandkids one day?” Emily’s mom said. “I was expecting maybe one. Two at most. This is considerably more than that.”

“It’s okay,” Trinity said. “You can count all three of me as one.”

Emily rubbed her face. “So, I should probably introduce everyone. Mom, this is Teddy. She can turn into a bear. She won’t demonstrate that here because it’s against the rules.”

“I’m real soft,” Teddy said. “Way more soft than any of the others when I’m a bear. I bet you’d like petting me just as much as the Boss does.”

“The Boss?”

“That’s Big Sister Emily’s Hero-slash-Villain name,” Athena said.

“Villain?” her mother asked.

“Don’t worry, Best Mom,” Trinity said. “We wouldn’t Villain you.”

“Emily?” Her mother looked at her. The smile she wore was a bit brittle at the edges, and she looked like Emily did when shoved into any sort of social situation.

Teddy, of course, noticed that too. “Hey, Boss, does your mom need to poop?”

“No, Teddy, my mom doesn’t need to poop,” Emily said. She patted Teddy’s head absently, if only to give her hands something to do. “Okay, Mom, where do you want me to start?”

“I think that maybe you should start from the top?”

Emily nodded. She could do that.

“So, it all began on my first day here…”

***