Chapter 5: Candid Delight
 
It takes a wise entity to know when this could either go bad or wrong but… Stripes was sure that infiltrating that house was not the best option.
 
Sour thought it was brilliant, Jewel wanted to be ‘on top’, and Candy was just not around when the trio tried to find an entry point. It was late evening, the perfect time to strike and… there was no way inside the house.
 
Stripes was not exactly motivated to put in an effort, and her ‘allies’ were not that clever to understand how ‘breaking into a house’ worked. They just tried to find a hole and ‘go in’. That was not a thing, and it was a painful few minutes of getting the girls to stop being such a pain to her butt.
 
Everything could have been avoided if that idiot of Jewel had kept her pride under check. Yes, she was jealous- big surprise. She was one of the worst beings in living history when it came to unique achievements made by her ‘siblings’.
 
Then again, Violet Echo was known as such. Always pursuing the path of being the best of the best. To outshine enemies, to crush rivals and to fuck around with as much intensity and vigor as sanely possible.
 
To Stripes, however, this was not a priority. Her task was to retrieve Sweet after this major fuck-up that could have ended very poorly if the one that their ‘dolt’ had gone to was actually a bastard.
 
From what she could gather, this was not the case. And that was good news… in a shitstorm of bad ones. They still needed Sweet back and, since she was in a better place than their current hideout, Sweet was too addicted to the good to go back to the ‘bad’.
 
It wasn’t horrible, but Stripes knew that their home was barely livable by normal living conditions. There was an effort to fix it but… but it was tough to make it work without a working income to budget shit up.
 
Plus… she had been thinking about this a lot. It could have all been prevented if she had been more of a leader than she was now. She had grown lazy, bored, and had allowed Jewel to pretty much boss around what was clearly not her cup of tea. Even Sour started to look less hopeful of this working and just wanted to push around the bratty bug. It was a mess, and one that Stripes knew she would have to answer herself on her own.
 
Just… not today. Things had to change if she wanted this idiocy to not happen again. And she would properly wrangle Jewel back to being a ‘restrained brat’, no matter the costs.
 
“The mission is off. Let’s go home.”
 
Stripes’ voice showed a degree of control that wasn’t missed by Sour, the dom nodding calmly while Jewel-
 
“WHAT?! But we didn’t do much here! We didn’t get to-”
 
“No. Enough. And you and I will have a talk.”
 
“B-But-”
 
“I don’t care what you have to say now. We will discuss this back home.”
 
Jewel’s lower lip quivered at this, ready to deliver a tantrum but stopping short of seeing the glare that Stripes had leveled on her. A begrudging nod of acceptance ensued, and soon they were leaving.
 
There will be repercussions, that much was clear, but while Stripes pondered on how to entertain diplomacy without actually starting conflict, she found herself a new disaster in her hands. Well, something close to that but… not bad news.
 
Candy was missing and she left a note.
 
Going to Sweetie. Will try to talk this out.
 
This was… well, promising. Stripes still hid the paper from the other three members and justified Candy’s missing status as her going for a ‘mind-refreshing walk’. Nothing new considering the ‘Vanilla Bug’ did this a lot but…
 
Stripes really hoped this was gonna work. It would be bad if both just mutinied against her. Really bad.
 
—----------d-d-d-d—---------
 
When John told Sweet that one of her sisters was there, the bug girl was not sure how to react to it. Not until she had a clear understanding of which one he was referring to.
 
Candy was… the best option. And it turned out that it was her. Actually, it made sense to Sweet that she was the one trying to reach out. Which is why she told John to let her in so they could talk.
 
The first thing that came to her mind when Candy walked inside the house was… how worried she looked. In fact, Sweetie was confused by this as she spoke highly of the place so it made no sense to her why her ‘older sister’ was so nervous while there.
 
Then, it became clear it was not a matter of the place, but of the things she was keeping up in her chest as they both started to speak to each other.
 
“I am sorry. I really am,” The ‘nice’ sister apologized profusely. “I should have stopped them, but I did not.”
 
Candy’s words reached Sweetie and… the smaller bug girl was not sure how to digest those. It’s been two days since she had decided to pretty much ignore the subject, focusing on the present and being happy, but this brought up the unpleasant things that Jewel told her. And John’s words that made her think on this topic for a while.
 
Currently the human was just watching the two talk by the doorstep to the living room, with both girls sitting by the couch as they tried to make ‘something work out’ and… truth be told, Sweet was not sure what this all meant considering that Candy was not her current issue.
 
“Why are you apologizing?”
 
“It’s not that I don’t care or- Wait, what?” Candy’s shock was met with genuine confusion.
 
“It was Jewel. She said those mean things because she is jelly of me. Why should I blame you for this?”
 
“W-Well, you… left.”
 
“Because I don’t like her. And she has been hurting me with mean words for a while now. So I just took a… what was it?”
 
“A break,” John suggested and Sweet nodded.
 
“Yeah, a break from that.”
 
“So you… planned to come back eventually? On your own?” Candy questioned, trying to get the right clues of this odd puzzle.
 
“Yup. Why would I want to not go back?”
 
For some strange but funny reasons for Sweet, Candy looked extremely perplexed by this and the older bug turned to John.
 
“What is going on?”
 
“She was upset, I explained to her what could be driving this ‘Jewel’ issue and she is pushing the hurt out of her system.”
 
That was right on the spot! Yet Candy took a while longer to fully digest what she just heard. And from quiet thinking, more questions came through. All of which Sweet was more than happy to answer.
 
In less than a few minutes, Candy’s expression went from confused to understanding and… amused. In the end, the general consensus between the two was fairly simple.
 
“We could visit from time to time,” Candy remarked, then turning back to the human in a somewhat apologetic manner. “I-If it’s fine with you, sir.”
 
“John is fine. And yes, if you all behave, I wouldn’t mind that.”
 
“I am glad to hear that,” The older bug girl admitted. “Si- John, I know this sounds very odd but I thought this was a bit more complicated than it actually is. Like, you tricked her to stay here against her will or something like that.”
 
“I am not that kind of guy.”
 
“Once again, it was ill-minded prejudice and I am sorry for that. I… I am sorry.”
 
“Heh, you sound like a good person but… what is it with your people and trying to fuck people like me?”
 
“We just do that,” Candy explained. “I don’t think Sweet can explain this properly as it should be to her as something that is ‘expected’.”
 
Sweet nodded in agreement, but kept quiet as Candy further elaborated.
 
“We are fragments of a single individual. It happens at times that from a single entity we became the ones you met and… we are all Violet Echo. Many know us with that name and we have a reputation due to that.”
 
“Which means?”
 
“We…” Candy paused, then looked away for a brief moment. “We just do this because we can. It may sound selfish, but we are a creature that hardly needs much beyond ‘affection’. And what’s the highest form of affection if not intimacy? The carnal urge, the hedonism- it is all part of our core traits. Sweet has it too, same for me, we just are splintered elements that still retain that as the primary element that unites us. Our… ‘hunger’.”
 
“That’s deep,” John remarked and Candy sighed.
 
“It’s not difficult, but definitely not something that can be simplified as ‘we are just horny’. There’s meaning to it… we are still depraved sluts despite that.”
 
“Oh.”
 
“...”
 
“So… are you staying over?” Sweet offered and Candy looked flustered.
 
“M-Maybe not. I don’t want to impose.”
 
“If you don’t try to fuck me in my sleep, then sure.”
 
“Oh.”
 
“She can really stay, John?” Sweet asked giddily and a nod was enough to trigger some celebrations. “Yay, more cuddling!”
 
That last word, however, triggered something deep in Candy’s mind.
 
“C-Cuddling?”
 
“Yeah.”
 
“Wh-Wholesome cuddling?” Candy was, for some reason, blushing at this thought.
 
“Yeah…?” Sweetie paused. Did she say something wrong? Why was John looking a bit pale while Candy looked quite ‘aroused’ by the prospect?
 
Heh, it didn’t matter. Cuddles soon came and despite the weird behavior adopted by her ‘older sister’ the trio had fun in a proper and nice cuddle sleep session.
 
Still, the next day proved to be far more intense than expected…