Beowulf and Lily go to bathe and clean up.

Beowulf steps inside the bag with Lily, fasttimes it to '1 second passes
outside'.

Lily slowly begins to revive as she gets herself cleaner and her
hangover fades.

Beowulf looks uncertainly at Lily. "So... um, did you have fun last
night?"

Beowulf conjures her a hangover cure to help out.

Lily says, "I had a really good talk with Mitsune, but then we got drunk
and I don't remember much else except Moriya turning into a woman.  And
now I know to never give you moonglow."

She sighs and works on washing her hair.

Beowulf smiles. "I'd appreciate it, yes. Uncle Tylor taught me a fair
amount about carousing, but I don't really enjoy it."

She says, "Well, I don't want to see you mutate."  She shakes her head.
"Well, we all make mistakes. Did the mission go okay?"

Beowulf asks, "Last night... was the first time I can remember ever
seeing you really drunk, though." He hesitates for a moment, trying to
find a good way to ask. "Were you... feeling tense, or anything?"

Lily says, "Oh, it's just been a while, and it beat sitting around and
worrying about you.  And I'd forgotten how mucho f a kick moonglow has. 
And Mitsune and I got to talking and drinking and talking and more
drinking and, it just got out of hand."

Beowulf smiles a bit in relief, and hugs her in reassurance. "Ah. I'm
sorry for making you worry about me."

She says, "I understand why we all couldn't go, but it's never easy
waiting for someone."

Beowulf says, "I missed having you with me, too. I was afraid... well, I
kind of left things up in the air with you when I headed off to Chaos
without you, and I was distracted with talking to cousin Lucien, and I
was afraid I'd done something thoughtless to hurt you. Like my leaving
without talking to Thoric and Naru first, and having to go back to Amber
to get him."

She says, "Oh, I had stuff I needed to do.  The fortieth anniversary
celebration of the Second Day of Darkness is coming up, so I ran around
doing some work on that."

She sighs.  "Although I suspect we won't end up having much of a
celebration with everyone running around doing other things."

Beowulf nods. "Oh, good. I was worried because I was keeping you away
from your job a lot; I'm glad you had a chance to work things out."

She says, "Well, it's been important interruptions."  She sighs.  "It
means I have to make all my subordinates do work I should be doing,
though."

She continues, "Which is how we ended up with that Rockabilly theme at
Winter Festival two years ago."  She shudders.

Beowulf says, "If I can do anything for you and them when this is all
over, or even when we have a spare day or two... let me know. I really
should make it up to them."

Beowulf shudders in sympathy. "So *that's* how that happened?"

She says, "Well, I can certainly use your help, but I fear you're going
to be too busy, until it's too late.  To make matters worse, Hel's
scheduled her invasion to interfere with the Summer Festival too."

Lily says, "Our entire social season is going to be shot to hell and
back."

Beowulf grins, though there's a strained edge to it. "How inconsiderate
of her. We'll have to drop her a line and ask her to re-schedule."

Lily says, "Unfortunately, she strikes me as the rude type."

Beowulf asks, "Unfortunately, yes. And she has some rather nasty
playmates." His face sets for a moment. "Did you catch that bit about
how Motoko rescued Grandmother from her last night?"

Lily blinks.  "Hel had Anthy?"

Beowulf says, "Apparently so, yes. What I'm guessing was the corrupted
version of the Phoenix from her universe struck at Motoko and
Great-grandfather while they tried to pull her through a trump
connection... and all of the Beings of Power of that universe answer to
Hel."

Lily nods and finishes bathing.  "Ahh.  Well, I'm glad Anthy-sama is
safe now."

Beowulf nods.

Beowulf smiles weakly at her as she finishes and steps out. "Um... I'm
not sure how to say this. How have you felt, about the time we've
travelled together?"

Lily says, "It's been fun sometimes, scary sometimes, and a little
overcrowded sometimes.  I wish we had more time to relax and didn't have
to run crisis to crisis to crisis constantly."  She sighs.  "I neeeed a
vacation."

Beowulf sits down next to her and puts an arm around her. "When this is
over... now that I don't have to worry about Grandmother or anyone else
in the family being held captive, we can find some nice fasttime shadow
and just relax for a while."

She leans against you.  "I hope so.  I like adventure, but I don't like
it all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, four weeks a month."

Beowulf asks, "Or, Kanna and Lian were mentioning something about
finding a nice vacation shadow with their boyfriends, and inviting us
along; would you want to come?"

She says, "YES.  I neeeeed a vacation."

Beowulf leans his head against hers. "I know, I know." He tightens his
arm around her. "I... I just can't relax when someone I know is stuck
and being held captive. Too much of a damn sense of duty, I guess."

She nods.  "It's something I like about you, except when it means I'm in
fear of my life and yours all, all, all the time."

Beowulf says, "But the next thing up on the list is Pharoah Mobius...
and *he* can wait frozen in time while we find a nice quick place to
rest for a couple of weeks. Or more." He grins.

She says, "I sure hope so.  So who is Lian dating now?"

Beowulf says, "Some fellow she ran into when she and Kanna were doing
some training out in a fasttime shadow. They keep dropping hints about
my needing to drop by there sometime, as there are apparently some
spectacular archeological sites."

Lily nods.  "I'll be interested to meet him, then.  He must be quite a
character."

Beowulf says, "To fit that well with Lian? Undoubtedly." He grins.

Beowulf's grins fades into a smile, and he sighs, holding on to Lily.
"I'm glad... you've wanted to travel with me, though. I missed you more
than I thought the last couple of days."

She smiles.  "Well, it's often fun, except when we nearly die."

Beowulf says, "We'll try to avoid that in the future, yes." He grins
again, which fades into an uncertain look. "I've been wondering... where
do you want this to go, when all this mess is over? Us. Our
relationship."

Lily says, "I don't know.  See where it goes.  I'm in no rush to get
married.  But I'm in no rush to move on either."  She kisses your cheek.
 "We can cross that bridge when we come to it."

Beowulf's face relaxes into a goofy look, and he kisses her on the nose.
"I'm glad. I can't imagine being without you... but things are so
uncertain now, I'm not sure what to think about the future."

Beowulf gives her a wry look, and kisses her on the nose again.
"Actually, I was halfway hoping that you might have an idea. But I'm
happy that you don't want to move on."

She noogies you gently.  "We'll live a long time.  No need to make
decisions yet."

Beowulf tickles her ribs. "All too true. Though I suppose there are some
times that might seem to be a disadvantage..." He gives her an arch
look. "Like when you woke up, for example?"

Lily says, "Eh, what?"

Beowulf chuckles. "I distinctly remember you saying you wanted to DIE
earlier this morning." He grins at her, and tweaks her nose, then sobers
up. "Please... don't?"

She says, "Oh, that.  That was just figurative.  I don't plan to die any
sooner than I have to."

Beowulf takes her in his arms. "Good. I love you, and I don't want to
lose you." He holds her tightly.

She says, "I love you too.  So try not to get yourself killed either."

She hugs you, then gets up and stretches.  "Well, I'm ready to face the
world."

Beowulf grins at her. "Indeed. And, in a refreshing change from what
seems to be going on around us, we managed to spend the night in
complete innocence." He winks at her. "Maybe later, though..."

She says, "When we can be sure that small children won't climb in
throughthe dresser."  She winks

Beowulf grins. "Indeed. Well, let's get started." He offers his hand to
Lily.

=====================
=====================

Beowulf asks, "OOC And cut, since Kanna's waiting for us outside?"

John exclaims, "OCO Yep!"