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“Hey Jupiter?..."
"Yeah?"
Jupiter, Venus and Neptune were lying in what could practically be considered a human puddle on top of Jupiter's bed. They were at her dad's house, which meant being together was fine as long as they weren't too noisy, and didn't eat every snack in the house. Since they all went to different schools, getting together like this was a rare occasion, and they decided to savor every moment of it, even if they could probably manipulate the inhuman parts of themselves so that they could be together in more ways than physical.
Speaking of which, Venus reached up to gently touch one of Jupiter's hands. Two of them were absentmindedly combing through her hair, while three others were braiding Neptune's. Jupiter herself was sandwiched inbetween the two of them, her face making little grimaces once in a while. It wasn't that she was displeased with anything- Neptune had learned to know when Jupiter was displeased, and she certainly didn't show it so easily- but rather that her body did it on its own, always popping out a little even when she tried to hide it.
Neptune casually handed a hairband to one of Jupiters hands when they tapped her shoulder. It was a little damp from the dark liquid that seeped from her skin, but it'd work well nonetheless.
"Sorry if this is rude but-"
"Venus, what did we say?" Neptune interjected, getting up on her elbows to give the other girl a teasing glare.
About 5 of Venus's eyes shifted sheepishly to the side, and she laughed a little.
"Right. No apologizing unless you're sure you have something to be sorry about. But-"
Jupiter turned around to cup Venus's face in her hand, one of the two that was actually attached to her body. She had found that touch was good for keeping Venus on track, and given how much Venus seemed to space out and her own tactile nature, that was definitely a good thing.
"What were you going to ask? Just say it," Jupiter said.
"Oh.... well... have your tics... ever affected your other hands?" Venus asked, eyeing nearly every hand in the room at once. "Because they're part of you, but I wasn't sure if neurological stuff translated over whatever connection you have with these?..."
Neptune laughed into Jupiter's shoulder as Jupiter stumbled for an answer. That was another thing about Venus- her questions were always so straight to the point. Most of the time anyways. When she wanted to be a little shit, she could get vague, but most of her time her questions carried innocent and brutal honesty. She liked her for that. She wanted the truth, like Neptune did, even if she didn't know how to find it.
"Sort of?... I used to have a lot of compulsion tics when I was younger. I'd just... reach out and touch things or people because I needed to, or when I wasn't focused enough to stop it. That's part of the reason my parents were so harsh on me about touch. They just couldn't understand why I was doing it, and it was probably weird and distressing for whoever I touched too, but... I didn't know why I was doing it. I grew out of them somewhat as I aged but..."
Neptune looks over to the bedside table, where one of Jupiter's hands is tapping repeatedly. Jupiter lets out a sheepish laugh, and scrunches her face up, seemingly trying to will the hand back to her, but it doesn't listen.
"Wait!! That makes so much sense!" Venus exclaims, glee shining in her eyes. "Do you remember when we did that band thing and afterwards you were looking at us really softly and then we felt hands on us?"
"Oh my god," Jupiter buries her face into a pillow. "No, that's so embarrassing-"
"And then in the closet where-"
"I AM SO SORRY ABOUT THAT," Jupiter exclaims, trying to drown out Venus's recounting of the event with sheer apology. "I swear I didn't mean to and-"
"Hold on," Neptune says, casually resting on Jupiter's shoulder with a shit-eating grin on her face. "What happened in the closet? I don't believe you told me about this."
"Jupiter tried to choke me," Venus helpfully supplies, as if she were ordering ice cream instead of telling about a game of seven minutes in seven gone wrong.
"Jupiter tried to what?" Neptune repeats, trying to stop herself from laughing. "Choked you?"
"As in she seemed like she was actively trying to kill me," Venus elaborates. "Not sexually."
Neptune bursts into full blown wheezing at this point, while Jupiter lets out a muffled agonized scream into her pillow.
Jupiter turns under Neptune's weight, red in the face.
"For the record, that was neither a conscious action or a tic, I am extremely sorry, and I'm very glad I have more control over my hands now."
"Oh, so you were just subconsciously trying to kill Venus?"
"I was not!"
"You kind of were. Felt like it."
"I'm. Sorry."
"I know, but at least give me some warning first before you do that again," Venus says, poking Jupiter's nose and smiling as she faux-sneezes.
"There won't be a next time!" Jupiter exclaims indignantly, as one of her hands knocks a pencil off her desk.
"I'm so glad we're having this conversation," Neptune says, reaching out to ruffle Venus's hair. "No one's allowed to murder the princess."
"For gods sake-"
Venus presses a kiss to Jupiter's cheek. That shuts her up real quick.
"Besides what happened in the closet, I think I like the fact that you are made up of things you can't really control," Venus murmurs into Jupiter's ear. "You are a series of spontaneous events. I love you. Especially for your randomness and inability to follow the rules even if you wanted to."
Jupiter feels like her face is on fire. Venus tends to have that effect on her- even when she's not expressing the devilish part of herself, Venus seems so holy that she can't look away. Neptune too- a vast encompassing kind of person who could drag her all the way into her depths if she wanted to.
Christ on earth, remind her again how she went to catholic summer camp and came back with too many hands and two girlfriends again??
The rest of the evening is spent exchanging conversation and touches and feelings. After all, since the end of summer camp, they haven't felt quite the need to hide those parts of them anymore.