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Ingress collapsed on a barstool and buried her face in her hands. She was seventeen, home for the winter holidays, and heartbroken for the very first time. She heard the front door close, and nothing had ever sounded so final and horrible.
A milkshake appeared. It had extra cherries and sprinkles on top. Ingress peered at it and said, "Th- thanks" through her tears.
"You okay, Ingress?" said Lilly, sliding onto the barstool next to her and stealing one of the cherries. "I haven’t seen you cry like this since your twelfth birthday party and the knife throwing incident."
It took a moment for Ingress to speak. "N-no. No, I’m really not. Lilly… Aragorn broke up with me. Just now. Because- because he met some elf princess or something and has a destiny and duty and there was no way we could be married and blah blah blah." She dissolved into tears again, resting her cheek on Bar’s cool surface.
"Oh. My. God. What an asshole." Lilly shook her head. Ingress had no idea how many were watching her budding romance with a close eye. Not many gave her shaggy and dour boyfriend - the teenage Aragorn of the Dunedain - much credit, but Ingress had been head over dreamy heels a while now. Damn it. It was December 28th, wasn’t it? Havelock totally won the secret barwide pool.
"I just- and we’d just been toge- and I thought- I never even mentioned marriage. I only wanted a- a- romance." She bawled more and leaned her head on Lilly’s shoulder. "And I got all dressed up in a brand new gown and I was excited and... I’ve been a fool."
"Yeah, maybe a little, but we’ve all been there. Come on." Lilly took her arm and slid off the stool, pulling the much taller Ingress along. "Milkshakes are great, but sometimes you need something a little stronger." She peered at the melting ice cream. “Unless there’s kahlua in there?”
Ingress shook her head, sniffling. "It smells plain." She scooped up the glass as Lilly dragged her towards the stairs. Milliways ice cream was nothing to discard lightly.
"The gown is great, by the way," Lilly said, leading her up to the night club where there would be kahlua. Oh yes. Much kahlua. And quiet. No one would be around until later.
"Thanks," Ingress said, dabbing at her eyes. Her dress was a low-cut indigo gown that slipped off her shoulders and showed off her figure. Ingress always had liked to dress up; she was as comfortable in fighting garb as in courtly gowns. But this dress was more of an adult style than she'd worn before. She'd thought she looked quite lovely, tall and curvy and strong, but now she was less sure. Maybe she was a horrid freak, instead.
"Okay, you sit down, and I will take care of you." Lilly made sure Ingress settled down on one of the couches pushed against the wall. She took the milkshake to the bar and poured kahlua into the glass, stirring with vigor. She made herself a drink, too, and came over and sat down beside Ingress. "Tom and Door know yet?"
"No," Ingress said, dutiful slurping some of the kahlua-shake through the straw. "Mmm, good. No, it literally just happened, and, and- Tom's going to kill him."
"Yeah, probably," Lilly agreed. There was another secret barwide pool for that occurrence, as well.
"I mean, it's a shock. You know? I had no idea- and we'd just- we'd been-" Ingress remembered who she was talking to. "We had sex. My first time. His, too. And Lilly? It was awful. I was hoping we'd have a chance to, you know, practice, but now..." She trailed off miserably.
Lilly gasped. "That's officially worse news than the break up. Did you have an orgasm?"
"Only when I took things in hand, so to speak. I don't think he even knew women had them. He didn't know anything. I should have known when he was more passionate during our sparring than when we kissed."
"I wish his elf princess luck," Lilly said with a smirk.
With the mention of the elf princess, Ingress started crying again, oblivious to the clatter of preteen feet as Adrian and Aria ran into the room with Puck right behind them. Of course, Aria was the only one clattering. Adrian was practicing his stealthy walk.
"Mom, Mom, we're going to Ankh-Morpork for our music lessons at the opera now," Aria trilled. "Oh, hi, Ingress!"
Adrian stared at Ingress and waved dumbly. She was so pretty. Even if she was crying and all puffy-faced and stuff.
"Hi, guys," Ingress managed weakly, sniffling and sitting up straighter.
"Dearling, whatever is the matter?" Puck said with a worried frown, disappearing and then reappearing on the couch beside her.
"Aragorn dumped her," Lilly said. "And he was bad in the sack."
Ingress didn't mind talking about sex with Lilly but in front of the children? She buried her face in her hands, knowing that protesting got you nowhere.
"How perfectly terrible," Puck said, patting Ingress on the back. "He was never deserving of you, Ingress. We all thought so." Then he mouthed to Lilly, with a vexed expression, "Havelock won the pool."
Lilly rolled her eyes and nodded her head. Then she jerked her head towards the door.
Puck took the hint, and, truly, he did want to meet Havelock without much more delay and get rid of the children - or, rather, escort them to their music lessons where their lives would be enriched - as soon as possible. He patted Ingress' hand before moving. Poor dear. "Come, children, we must not be late."
"But I want to stay and hear more about Ingress' sex life," said Aria.
"Maybe I could help," ventured Adrian, his chest puffed out.
Puck ruffled his hair and laughed. "Not until your taller, lambkin." He ushered both them towards the door.
"Oh, hey, Puck?" Lilly gave Puck a Look with an arched eyebrow. It's funny how longtime married couples - even the less traditionally married couples - can speak without using words. Puck took her meaning and smiled back with sharp teeth. Young Aragorn was going to be sorry he'd ever made Ingress cry. Tom Riddle wouldn't be the only he'd need to watch out for.
The door closed again, and Ingress dared to look up again. "The children have grown a lot."
"Yeah, they do that, but we're not talking about them right now. We're talking about you. So, the sex was bad, and now, what? You're thinking it will always be bad?"
"Well. No. But." Ingress paused for several moments. "I think maybe I wasn't very good at it, and I didn't say what I wanted, and I was confused and... Temple and Arch, it was not what I'd expected. At all."
Lilly wasn't about to let Ingress' self-esteem take a hit because of a jerky kid who didn't appreciate her. That was unacceptable. "So are you interested in anyone else? Because I'm here to tell you, that was not how it's supposed to be. You need to be with someone who has a fucking clue about what they're doing. Is there anyone in Valdemar? Dating at Milliways is extra challenging at the best of times."
"There are a couple of classmates I wouldn't mind knowing better, and an older Herald, but she's not around much. It's just- it's harder there. I already have trouble fitting in, sometimes, and sex would complicate matters. I don't know." A flexible upbringing in places like Milliways and the Underside, along with life in tolerant Haven, made it easy for Ingress to fall in love with people and not fret overly much about things like gender and labels.
"It's all- I- I thought I loved Aragorn. I think I still do. He was- I thought we were a good match. And it wasn't like I was looking for marriage. He acted like having sex meant we were betrothed or something even though I was very clear on the subject." She sighed and drank more kahlua-shake.
"Ingress? Seriously. You're better off without him. That type of guy - all honor-bound and serious? No fucking fun at all. Okay, so here's what we need to do. I still run the brothel; you totally get a night with anyone you'd like. It's on the house. Sex is fun, and you need some fun after all this."
Ingress nodded and wiped her eyes. That would be okay, she supposed, but not ideal. "I'm going to be in my Whites sooner rather than later. There's a war heating up, and it looks- it's going to be bad, Lilly. I just wanted- I just wanted something fun and romantic, you know?"
"I know," Lilly said, and put her arm around Ingress. They all knew Ingress would grow up to be a soldier. They'd known it a long time. The reality still sucked. "Then you need some extra fun."
Ingress nestled into Lilly's embrace and finished off her kahlua-shake. She was a lot less distraught now. She was warm and safe, and Lilly knew what to say. She also smelled really amazing. When Ingress was smaller, she'd had a little girl crush on Lilly, who was always fun and talked to her about grownup things and looked beautiful all the time. Lilly hadn't changed since then. This didn't phase Ingress. It was a part of life at Milliways.
She wasn't drunk, but she did feel a little fuzzy and sparkly from the kahlua. Her hormones were in a whirl, and her heart was in need of comfort. She lived in a world where sudden and violent death was a probability she could not ignore. It was because of all this that Ingress leaned in and pressed her lips to Lilly's.
Lilly didn't move away from the kiss. She was not all that surprised, either. The next generation had to grow up sometime, and Ingress had grown up smoking hot. As far as Lilly was concerned, Ingress could have whatever she wanted. She shifted her glass to the end table and decided to let her call the shots.
"You could show me," Ingress breathed, pulling away just enough to look into Lilly's eyes. "If you wanted." She had always been good with picking the best of teachers for whatever skills she needed to learn.
"Yeah. I'd like that. I'm really good at sex, and you need that bad experience completely blotted from your memory."
Ingress laughed, and it was far enough away from the joyous giggle of her girlhood that there was no weirdness. "Just don't tell Tom. He might have a heart attack. Or a fit of jealousy since he's always fancied you."
"It can be just between us," Lilly said, and she pulled Ingress into another kiss. Ingress was a natural. Aragorn must be gay. "Or whatever you want."
Ingress sighed and watched Lilly with half-lidded eyes a moment before she leaned in again and wrapped her arms around Lilly's waist. Her heart still hurt, and she wished things could have gone differently with Aragorn. But things were looking up.