Aka Amy

"Hey sis," I greeted her as soon as she picked up the phone. "Are you and Alex ready?"

Hailey replied, "As we'll ever be. Are you sure you don't mind doing this? It feels a little wasteful or something, you know?"

I grinned, "It's fine! Anyways if you drive you won't be able to partake in the drinking, right? And this is way faster and cheaper than a ride share, or taking the bus."

"I can't argue with any of that Amy. It still feels excessive though? You're a goddess, you should have more important things to do than playing taxi for Alex and I," she responded.

I just laughed, "Don't worry about it sis. See you in a couple seconds."

It was Friday evening and the four of us were getting together to celebrate Hailey's new job. At first me and Tess were going to go over to their apartment, then my sister suggested she and Alex could come to our place instead since ours was bigger. They were going to take a ride share out then back home again afterwards, but I had a better idea.

"They're all set now," I told my girlfriend after ending the call. "I'll be back in a second."

Tess smiled, "Sounds good. I'll have the drinks ready when you get back."

The two of us exchanged a kiss, then I teleported myself over to Hailey's place. I appeared just inside the front door, and found both my sister and her partner waiting in the small living-room.

"Hello Amy," Alex greeted me with a smile.

I greeted them back, "Hi Alex, hi sis. Who wants to go first? Or do you want to try going all together?"

"Is that safe?" Hailey asked warily. "When you took us to Ireland you made a big point about taking us all one at a time."

"That was two whole months ago. I've been getting a lot more practice since then, and I'm confident it's safe or I wouldn't have offered," I explained.

Alex looked at my sister and shrugged, "I'm game if you are?"

Hailey made a face but nodded, "All right, let's see what happens."

I grinned as I pulled them both into a hug, then teleported the three of us all at once. And it worked fine, one moment we were in Hailey's apartment and the next moment we were at my and Theresa's place. There was music playing, in the short time I was gone my girlfriend got our entertainment system streaming some pop and dance music. It wasn't too loud, but she had the volume up enough that we'd be able to hear it ok from the balcony where she was already waiting for us.

"Hello Hailey, Alex," Tess greeted them both from outside. "I've got drinks out here if you'd like to come and get comfortable?"

"Perfect," my sister grinned as she led Alex and I out the glass door.

There were a couple glasses of beer waiting for our guests, while my girlfriend had two glasses of wine ready for us. She was sitting on one of the plastic chairs, and the reason she didn't stand up to greet everyone was clear as soon as we joined her.

"Oh my gosh that cat is adorable!" Hailey gasped as she saw the little torty spread out across Theresa's lap. She leaned down and started petting the cat and rubbing their ears as she added, "What did you say their name was?"

Tess replied, "They're called Siggy."

Meanwhile Alex and I both sat down and helped ourselves to the drinks.

After a gulp of their beer Alex asked, "Is it safe to have the cat out on the balcony? Five stories is a long way down, especially for a tiny fur-ball like that."

I couldn't help cringing slightly. I was positive our furry little pest would speak up and start answering questions for themself. Tess and I both talked to Siggy before-hand, we explained that Hailey and Alex were both normal humans and didn't need to know about talking cats who were actually godbys in disguise. They said they'd keep quiet, but I had my doubts.

For now the only noise the cat made was happy purring, so I answered Alex's question. "Apart from walking around ontop of the railing once or twice they seem to know enough not to take chances. So I don't think you have to worry too much about them."

Hailey glanced back at the railing then grimaced, "That must have given you two a heart attack. I'm glad the cat knows better than to keep doing it though. They're way too adorable and precious."

Siggy's purring got louder, and I had no doubt they were enjoying the praise almost as much as the pets and scritches.

"Yeah," Tess smiled. "They sure are."

I rolled my eyes, "Anyways enough about the cat. We're supposed to be celebrating your new job Hailey, so let's hear all about it!"

My sister finally moved on from the cat. She sat down in the last chair next to Alex, then picked up her glass and had a gulp of beer.

"So I start first thing Monday morning," she finally responded. "Nine o'clock sharp, and I'm really not looking forward to that commute. Especially not in winter. I am looking forward to the job itself though? It's almost exactly the sort of career I've been studying for and working towards since halfway through high school."

"Almost?" I asked. "What's missing?"

Hailey shrugged, "My dream job would be basically this, but for a company in the health-care sector? Like maybe doing drug research, or trying to cure some disease or something like that?"

"The lab I'm working for is actually under the Ministry of Health umbrella," she added after another gulp of her beer, "But it's not specifically health care."

My girlfriend asked, "What's the difference? I mean, working for the Ministry of Health but not health care? What else would you be doing?"

"It's more generalized," my sister explained. "Like for example, say some company wants to bring a new chemical to market? That needs to be tested to see if it's safe, but it's not specifically health care. Or if there's some sort of industrial accident, they might need us to do testing to see what got spilled into the environment?"

She added, "Those are just off the top of my head examples, but I figure that's the sort of thing I'll be doing."

I responded, "That still sounds like important work. You could potentially be saving lives, in the right situation."

Hailey agreed, "Yeah for sure. And it might not even be an issue? Once I get into it maybe it'll turn out that it's everything I wanted? But until then, it's almost everything I ever wanted."

"The health care thing is probably just stuff I absorbed from mom and dad over the years," she admitted a moment later. "You know how they both wanted us to become doctors or dentists."

"I know," I said as I made a bit of a face. Then I asked, "Speaking of our parents, did you know dad dropped by for a visit last week?"

I could tell by the surprised look on her face that she had no idea. "No I didn't. So what happened, how'd it go?"

"It was fine," I replied with a shrug. "I was surprised, he didn't call ahead or anything, he just dropped by and called from the lobby. We talked a bit, then he took me and Tess out for lunch? Basically he said he wanted to get to know me again, and he wanted to know my fiancée too. Since she's going to be his daughter-in-law in a couple years."

Hailey seemed impressed, "So that's pretty good right?"

"Yeah," I frowned. "Except I'm worried it's going to cause problems between him and mom. He didn't tell her about visiting us, and he seemed pretty intent on having a relationship with me and Tess no matter what mom thinks of it."

"Ok I can see how that's a little worrying," my sister replied. "But if mom's determined to burn bridges with you that's up to her. She can't expect dad to go along with it just because she says so. And if he wants to have a relationship with you that's none of mom's business, as long as he's not trying to force her into it."

"It's still going to make things awkward at family get-togethers though," I grimaced. "Like if you and dad and I are getting together for a holiday or a birthday or something while mom's excluded?"

She conceded, "Yeah good point. Not much we can do about it right now though."

"Yeah," I agreed.

By then everyone was about ready for another drink, so I took care of that. When I came back out with another round of drinks the others were talking about dinner plans.

"Amy and I were thinking of ordering in tonight?" Tess told our guests. "We don't have the same sort of variety out here that you get in the city, but we figured there'll be something that works?"

Hailey shrugged, "That's fine, I'm not picky. Actually something fun and simple would be nice, so how about pizza?"

"Pizza and wings?" Alex suggested.

"Sounds good to me," I grinned as I handed out the drinks.

The four of us quickly figured out what we all liked, then I put in the order. While we waited the conversation shifted back to the topic of work. Instead of hearing more about my sister's new job Alex told us a bit about their summer job. Then the enby asked Tess how work was going for her, which led to some awkwardness.

My girlfriend grimaced, "So a week ago today I helped perform a miracle for a young trans client. It happened in my office, in front of her mother. The girl was still in the closet so her parents didn't even know she was trans, she told her mom about a minute before the magic happened? Needless to say her mom freaked out, my boss freaked out, and all my coworkers also freaked out."

"Holy crap," Hailey stated as she stared wide-eyed at Tess. "So what happened? Do you still have a job?"

"I can't imagine they'd have any rules or regulations to govern the use of miracles and magic," Alex pointed out.

Theresa made a face then spent the next few minutes giving our guests a brief run-down of what happened, how she was put on probation and the new rules her boss gave her.

She finished up by saying, "The good news is the girl's parents aren't going to sue or file a complaint or anything. The teen is really happy and grateful that Amy and I could help her, and her parents are making an effort to educate themselves as they gradually get used to the idea of having a daughter rather than a son. Now I'm just waiting for my boss to give me the go-ahead so I can start taking on new clients again."

"I hope things at work get back to normal soon," she added. "This week was rough and I'm really hoping my coworkers will get over it and things will lighten up again."

My sister gave me a look, "Can't you do something about that sis? What's the point of being a goddess if you can't help out your girlfriend with some trouble at work?"

I shook my head, "I'm not going to mess with people's minds. So what else could I do? I already showed up last week and confirmed that Tess is my cleric and she's doing my holy work. If I visited them again and told everyone to lighten up it'd probably have the opposite effect? They'd just get more uptight or stressed about it."

That led to another conversation, with the four of us talking about free will and my self-imposed rule against using magic on people's minds, versus the greater good and making life better for queer people without running into the sort of friction and push-back that Tess was dealing with.

It wasn't an argument and nobody was actually advocating for me to mess with people's heads. It was more like a philosophical debate, as we all chimed in with pros and cons along with ethical and moral arguments. Which actually kept us all busy until dinner arrived.

I went to answer the door and got the food, while the others all came inside to help out and get more drinks and everything.

We got a couple pizzas and two dozen wings, plus some potato wedges and some veggie sticks and dip. So there was a good selection of food and plenty of it, plus we had a bunch of beer in the fridge for our guests along with our usual boxes of cheap white wine.

Soon enough the four of us were back out on the balcony again with our food and fresh drinks, along with plenty of napkins.

A minute or two later I was munching on a slice of pizza with a couple wings on my plate, when our furry little pest struck again. They nabbed one of my wings, then hid under my chair while they enjoyed it. I just rolled my eyes but continued eating my slice, I was used to Siggy's food crimes by that point.

"You're just going to let them get away with that?" Hailey asked. "I didn't think chicken was good for cats."

I shrugged, "It's not the first time they've stolen food off my plate, and I'm sure it won't be the last."

Tess asked, "Why would chicken be bad for cats?"

Alex clarified, "It's not the meat that's the problem, but the bones? I'm sure I've heard something about chicken bones being a serious concern for cats."

"You two really don't know anything about being good pet owners do you?" Hailey said as she gave me and Tess a look. She frowned as she added, "Come to think of it I didn't see any food or water dishes in your kitchen. Where are you hiding this poor kitten's food? Where do you keep their litter box?"

Theresa and I exchanged a look, neither of us had answers to difficult questions like that. We'd never even thought about it, since Siggy pretty much moved in on their own and seemed to care of themself.

The short awkward silence was broken by a smug self-satisfied voice that announced from beneath my chair, "I don't actually need to eat, I just really like chicken. And the occasional saucer full of cream is also appreciated."

Both Hailey and Alex immediately froze, while Tess grimaced slightly. My sister and her partner seemed shocked, as the two of them slowly looked down towards the floor where Siggy was once again munching on their stolen chicken wing.

I didn't say anything either, I just let out a long quiet sigh and took another bite out of my slice. I wasn't surprised that the little pest insisted on talking, despite our earlier conversation. The only real surprise was that it took them so long to do it.