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It was any other regular day for the people in Velvelfall, the town of the tiny craftsmen. Populated by the Lilts, a race of small humanoids that rarely grew taller than one meter and had fur all over their body sans their face, it was one of the busiest cities in the other world, where Tohru, Elma and Kanna all hailed from.

One of those, Elma, was just now bartering with one of the Lilts for a delicacy among water serpents – the fins of a serenity goldfish, a large but very elusive goldfish that could be compared to the highest caliber of earthly maritime delicacies. Not only did each bite come with a surge of pleasure, running through the body, it also improved water dragon breath, the shimmer of their scales and also counter acted horn erosion. It was the ultimate food – and so of course Elma wanted it. But her other worldly funds were harshly limited.

I haven't gotten paid for my harmony duties in a while because I haven't brought Tohru back yet. I can't spend nearly as much as this… this greedy sawed off thumb demands! "This is highway robbery! Fifty-two gold for ten finds? I can get them for half of that in the capital!"

"Fifty!" The lilt, a veteran fisherman with a long beard, nearly gray fur and a strangely shaped round head from diving hundreds of thousands of times, was not giving in so quickly.

"Twenty-eight!"

"Forty-eight!"

Their bartering continued until they were both out of breath. "F-Fine… thirty-four gold and twelve silver, not a single coin more." Elma still had other duties to attend to. I'm probably already late to meeting Lucoa. Being late when I was the one that pressed for us to go out and on a date in Velvelfall… "Agreed?"

"You drive some bargain, lady." The Lilt bagged up ten finds and exchanged them for the coins that Elma procured from her leather coin purse. Taking the bag, made from paper, Elma immediately ran off without actually running.

Walking around in her usual clothes, purple kimono, black leotard and sandals, was a welcome change for once.

To her right, a sale on fresh cheese made from mofufurun sheep milk. To her left, a new product, a special breed of demi-cockatrice and their eggs. But she had already gone through much of her budget for the entire weekend within the first three hours, but what was a girl to do when confronted with such delicacies?

Going to the culinary district was a mistake… ah, they have grilled kraken over there… and taurus maxwell beef stew over there! Ah… lunar onions… I completely forgot that they have good food in this world too. It's all way too expensive compared to the good human food though! I could have my salary of ten years and not be able to eat even once at all of these places! Making it out of the culinary district in one piece not because of her willpower but because of heavily damaged budget, Elma found Lucoa already waiting by the seven layer fountain. She changed her clothes.

Lucoa had switched sweater and jeans for a Elsium dress, which was basically a Qi Pao with a lower cut that reached all the way to the ankles but provided ample freedom for the legs should the need arise. The one she wore really squeezed down on her breasts and stomach – without the obfuscating effect of the sweater, the ridiculous chest to waist ratio was attracting a lot of hungry eyes that Lucoa was either completely oblivious to or ignored flawlessly. The Elsium dress was made complete with Elsium combat shoes, half Qi Pao shoes and half high heels. Lucoa picked a version that didn't include decorative bindings reaching just below the knee. Both the dress and the shoes were a mix of eighty percent black and twenty percent gold, with a simple Aztec motive on the back and front.

Elma suddenly felt extremely under dressed for their date and vanished into a side alley between two shops. What do I wear? If she's wearing something from Elsium… wait, what other countries were even near there? The Ygdarish Warrior race? They're only into armor. I shouldn't pick something that makes me compete with her sexiness, I can't win there anyway. So something refined? But her dress is sexy and simple at the same time, so maybe… maybe… ugh! This is a lot harder than deciding what to eat!

Adjusting her scales, Elma went with something practical – she was going to walk around a lot and probably spend a lot of time out in the blazing sun, so she wanted something that covered a bit of skin. The resulting choice was the current trend from Neo Novus Atlanti – deep blue high heels that had decorative clasps extending halfway to the knee – a long black shirt with a diamond cutout on the stomach and a thin sky blue jacket above the shirt, the jacket made from the rough skin off of the back of the Giga Horn beast – half-pants that sat tight and provided adequate sun cover without concealing too much of her legs, also in blue, matching the jacket.

Lucoa saw Elma, completely changed, approach from the distance but kept sitting by the fountain side, enjoying the cool air – it was almost forty degrees out in the sun and while it was an average day for the Lilts and Velvelfall, most other creatures in the world found that to be rather uncomfortable. "My, you look fantastic Elma," was the first thing that Lucoa said to her.

"You look super sexy. I'm a little jealous." I'm glad that the outfit pushes her breasts up a bit. It doesn't make them look any smaller, but it keeps them from bouncing so much. "Where do you want to go first?"

"I see you already went to the culinary district." Lucoa didn't try to pry into what Elma had bought. "It has quite a peculiar smell."

"Ah." I totally forgot that these fins have a really stringent smell for anyone that isn't a water serpent or used to salt water environments "I can leave them at our room- no, then the whole room will smell like them… but I don't just wanna wolf them down..."

Because of a precious accident, Lucoa put her palm against Elma's horn and made sure it wouldn't poke her during her next action. Despite being in broad daylight, for everyone to see, the ex goddess proceeded to just kiss Elma – and not just a quick smack but a real kiss, that was drawing attention from everyone that walked by, couple or not.

Elma looked like a fish that had been grilled over open fire when Lucoa finally retracted her tongue, their lips parted and she let go of her horn. The water serpent's legs were wobbling a little for a few seconds. "W-What?"

"I didn't say the smell bothers me. I spent a few years among the sky whales, so I know a thing or two about shutting out smells I, too." Lucoa, with her ever seemingly closed eyes, looked straight at Elma with them open. It was actually a minor camouflaging spell that made her eyes appear closed when in truth they weren't. After Elma had complimented her a few times on how they were almost hypnotizing and so exotic looking, Lucoa adjusted the spell to exclude Elma so she could look at them any time she wanted – even though she was a little embarrassed about that. As far as Lucoa felt embarrassment anyway.

After moving in with Elma and being berated about the way she dresses by Kobayashi and Elma alike, she had become much less daring, picking still seductive outfits over normal ones more often than not, but even the seductive ones were usually no longer the skimpy sort. In Elma's words, more was usually simply more – more cloth was more seductive and impressive, in this case. Although Lucoa suspected that this particular wisdom was more about the size of meals and Elma just misappropriated it.

"How about we test our luck? There is a lot of lotteries in the Gambling district." Lucoa suggested and grabbed Elma's free hand and glanced at her behind. "I see you kept your cute tail out. I like it," this, she whispered to her girlfriend.

Elma was suddenly super self-conscious about her tail sticking out from under the jacket and through a hole in the half-pants' back. Before she knew it, she was wagging it back and forth a little, in rhythm with her steps.

And just as Lucoa suggested, the two of them advanced towards the Gambling district, one of three adult only districts, at a pace that made even the sloth snails of the northern mountains look speedy in comparison. A spell surrounded the district that automatically adjusted for race, species and special conditions like youth potions or plain immortality spells. Elma and Lucoa passed through without any issue.

And right by the entrance was a big lottery of lotteries. "Step closer, ladies!" A particularly excited looking Lilt, that was also particularly tall, was sitting in the booth next to a one armed bandit with seven slots. Behind the lilt, a long list of prizes. "For every five silver coins spent in the district, you get one try at the legendary one armed marauder! And behold the grand prize! The personal dimension pocket of Kong Qiu!"

The two of them just ignored the Lilt – he wasn't speaking to anyone in particular, repeating himself like a broken record, a glorified living advertisement. But they had heard him anyway.

"I invited you, so I will pay." Lucoa wasn't just saying this because it was true – she knew that Elma was, financially, in trouble in this world. Meanwhile, Lucoa had amassed quite a bit of money over the millennia. I see she isn't even making any excuses or attempts to refuse. I love that she can be honest and doesn't put up facades anymore. "Lottery box or Magical Cards first? I don't think I've ever told you that I like gambling."

"Lottery box. It reminds me of the human world." I'm glad she offered to pay. The rest of my money would have been gone in an instant in this place.

Their first stop was really just a series of four booths with a large room behind the booths, housing prizes. There were thirteen kinds of results, ranging from grand prize to consolation prize – which was a complimentary Lilt confection called a Liltiltu – it was basically a manjuu stuffed with a variety of sweet berries that grew in abundance around the city.

It was one silver coin for a try and ten silver coins for eleven tries. Lucoa paid for thirty-three tries up front and paid one gold and ten silver coins for it. The lottery was through a standard lottery box the likes of which existed in tens of thousands of Japanese shopping districts – the human world did have a bit of an influence, even though nobody would ever admit to that.

Lucoa and Elma both took a booth and started turning the box. Elma won ten manjuu in a row, which was, as far as she was concerned, a very good consolation prize. Lucoa did a little better, winning two teleportation stones once, the tenth rank prize. The nine manjuu from Lucoa were vanquished by Elma with the same speed and power a high ranking and experienced adventurer would defeat the common slime.

The final ten were split evenly by the two. Elma got another five manjuu, one of which she saved for later, while Lucoa got four manjuu and scored something rare – the third rank prize, winged sandals, allowing the user free flight. A rare item that sold for as much as five hundred gold coins; but totally useless to dragons that could fly to begin with. Receiving six tickets for the one armed marauder, the two bid the lottery box goodbye and headed across the street to the next shop.

This was completely different from a simple lottery. There were a few dozen people scattered around the immensely large room. The building was four times the size inside than it was outside and it was already fairly large on the outside. A twenty-five on twenty-five meter area surrounded by an iron cage, it looked like there would be a fight. But far to the contrary, the space within the cage was actually filled with cards, numbered from one to one-thousand. What was on the other side of each card was randomized with each round and about seventy-five percent of the cards were duds. The grand prize was a fantastical one in one-thousand chance every attempt.

"This looks like you do a lot better with some kind of system." Elma looked around for some kind of rule board and found one hanging just by the wall near the entrance. The somewhat bad lighting conditions made it just a little bit difficult to read. "Each round has a ten minute betting period with a maximum of five hundred numbers being bet on. Oh, I guess that's so they don't just get a thousand people in here. Every player can only bet on one card. That makes sense too."

Lucoa continued to read from there. "Bets can be made with one silver, five silver or ten silver. Huh? But isn't the prize based on the card you bet on? Oh. A winning card contains three types of prizes, corresponding to the amount it was bet on. A card that has been bet on by someone else can not be bet on unless the first bet was one silver or five silver and the next bet exceeds that."

Elma felt a bit out of her depth there. "This is pretty complicated for a game of chance."

"What's your lucky number?" Lucoa was going to just bet on that.

"399." Elma answered without thinking. "That's how old I was when I was promoted to an active agent of the faction!" Through sheer luck. They messed up the hand writing on the papers and I was promoted instead of Elma. Sorry Elma!

"Here." Handing Elma ten silver coins, Lucoa dragged her towards the booth were one would place their bets. A single Lilt, looking a bit bored with himself, was sitting there. "I would like to bet on card 399. She would like to bet on card 822. Both ten silver."

"Flip over in 4 minutes," the Lilt informed them, relaying their bet to the solitary Lilt inside the cage that now hastily ran around and marked the corresponding cards.

"Is 822 your lucky number?" Elma was a little curious about that now.

"It's how often we kissed." Lucoa waited for that to sink in and then it hit Elma. She is so cute when she's struggling for words. Of course I didn't count how often we kissed, and it probably hasn't been quite that many but it is a nice number. Watching Elma struggle for almost a full minute and not manage anything better than stammering, Lucoa released her from her suffering. "I haven't been to the gambling district since it was wrecked, a hundred and thirty years ago."

"It was wrecked?" Elma was not exactly a history buff.

"The Cloud King and one of the great six from the harmony faction got into a fight after drinking too much and well, the Cloud King quite literally crash landed on the district. That was a bit of a wake up call. The harmony faction considered themselves responsible so they paid for the rebuilding effort."

"Oh. So that's why my salary is so low."

I don't think that's the reason. "You are the breadwinner between us two in the human world though."

Elma looked proud of herself. "I even got praised for working diligently the other day."

"By that scary lead programmer at Eaglejump?"

"How'd you know?!"

"You looked really proud of it."

"I worked over my break because I got there late because I got distracted by a new pretzel shop on my way there from the train..." I wish I could afford driving lessons and maybe a small bike, but… parking is a nightmare, especially near our building. And gasoline is expensive, maintenance is expensive and I would get wet when it rains and…

"They didn't notice?"

"I wasn't that late!"

"So every time you come home late because you missed the train, is that because you got distracted by some kind of food shop?"

"N-No!"

"Really?"

"Not always!"

"So it happens sometimes?"

"Sometimes. Yeah." Elma looked a lot less proud now.

Before Lucoa could tease her any more, the final call for betting was made. "We haven't looked at the prizes yet. Should we check?" I suppose I teased her quite enough for now.

"We probably won't win anything. I hope they give out something to eat as a consolation prize though." Elma adjusted her jacket, feeling a little out of place still. She didn't really wear clothes like this, not usually. "How did you come up with that outfit choice?"

"I went to the capital a few days ago, while you were at work, and looked at the current fashion."

"So Elsium dresses are a trend now?"

"No."

"Hm?" Elma couldn't quite follow. "So why then?"

"The current trends are terrible." Lucoa said that with such a genuine smile that somewhere far away, in the capital city, a number of famous designers felt like someone stepped on their shadow. "Do you think I should wear this back home sometimes?"

"That might be a bit much for Japan… Your sweater look already turns heads, this would probably cause traffic accidents. But if you're just going to wear it at home, that would be nice."

And finally it was time for the cards to be turned over. And just as they expected, they hit duds – everyone did. There was no consolation prize there and Lucoa didn't like the waiting periods. "Let's go."

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (1) ===

Standing on a grassy plain that seemed to extend endlessly in every direction with neigh a tree or rock or anything in the distance, Elma enjoyed the sun there. It was almost politely warm – the perfect temperature. The grass was only about three centimeters high as well – the perfect height to lay down in and not enough to be an issue when walking. Other than the grass and a cloudless sky with an unmoving sun, there really was nothing. "I wonder if it's possible to live in here."

Lucoa walked around for a bit, still wearing the Elsium dress from earlier. "This is amazingly well made. I wonder how long it has been since someone used it."

"Probably a long time. What are you gonna do with it? Do you think food spoils in here?"

"It's a pocket dimension, so time moves at the same speed in here as it does everywhere else. I do think we could use it for storage – not that we actually have enough things in our apartment to warrant such a thing."

"Are you gonna sell it?" Elma sat down in the grass and was glad she had gone with a bit of an airy outfit. There was no wind, so just staying in the sun got pretty warm now.

Lucoa walked around a little more, created a small rock from her powers and throwing them pretty hard into the distance, checking how far the dimension extended. The rock just hit something solid but invisible about a hundred to hundred and fifty meters out. That is pretty big. I guess now is as good a time as any to talk to her about this. Sitting down next to her girlfriend, Lucoa leaned against her, shoulder to shoulder."Would you mind if I started a job of my own?"

"A human world job?"

"Partially. It's been a long time, but in the past I used to be fairly good at alchemy – potions, pills and such. I would sell only to registered magicians and people from our world, whether they live in the human world or not. I know you would be in trouble if your girlfriend started messing with humans by selling magical things. And I want to know what you think about this in general before I decide."

"You're bored at home, right? You're not like Tohru, who is content improving her maid skills."

"I admit it can get a little boring whenever you're at work." Lucoa reconsidered her statement almost immediately. "Quite boring."

"You're gonna use this place as a shop then?"

"It's a little difficult to move this and there will be dangerous things I have to keep where I make the potions, so I'd rather not have strangers around then. I think I would have them either come pick up things or deliver them."

"Want me to help out with delivering then?"

"No." Lucoa turned to the side and prodded Elma's cheeks. "You're working hard at your company and this is more going to be my hobby than anything else. I can use portal magic, too, so don't worry. Unless you're worried about gaining weight."

"I'm not!" Elma denied it so strongly that she realized what kind of suspicion she cast on herself. "Maybe a little."

"I read in a magazine that sex actually uses up a lot of calories." Oh my oh my. That might have been a bit too direct for Elma. I guess she's still young compared to me. "I'll have to move a lot of furniture in here for it to function as a shop. I would be glad to have help with that."

"Do you have a lot of furniture stashed away somewhere?" Elma focused on furniture to avoid thinking about sex for at least the next few minutes.

"I'll have to buy some in the city of craftsmen. We can make that another date if you'd like." Lucoa was keen on doing as much as they could on weekends together or on any days Elma had off work. Just sitting around at home was a bit too boring for her. And the two times they tried, Elma ended up very exhausted – although Lucoa felt very satisfied after, both times.

"Crunch time starts next week so I'm not sure if I can make take the weekend off as usual. They're working with a French company to handle overseas localization for a PC version and they really want the DRM to be top notch."

"You sound like you would like to work there." I'm happy she is enjoying her job and taking it seriously enough that she is thinking about it like this.

"I'll go back to the main office after this. I don't like going all the way to the Eaglejump office and I like working with Kobayashi-san."

"It's interesting how a single human saved Tohru, adopted Kanna and through Tohru brought us together."

"You should teach her a bit of magic sometime. She sounds like the abandoned main character of a fable without a power of her own."

"Kobayashi-san's nature is her power. She manages to attract all manner of strange events and beings." Lucoa got back on her feet. "I think I will put a fireplace in the center, over there. A few tables for open books, flasks and refinement procedures, some chairs. And a large number of shelves and chests to store things. A few bookshelves as well. There is a trader I still know from whom I can purchase some of the books I will need. My, it is a lot of fun already, planning a venture like this." Walking around as she pointed at things, Lucoa pictured the final result already.

Elma was watching from a few meters distance. "I hope you won't be too busy making potions to come to bed at night." Her voice betrayed her happy expression; she was a little worried about that happening.

"And miss cuddling?" Lucoa turned to Elma and charged her, grabbing her hands, pulling them up and smiling straight at her. "You know how much I value our nights together. You are quite literally, by the meaning, my dearest." Lucoa legitimately closed her eyes, grinning wide. "You are quite precious to me, and so is our time together."

Elma just opened her mouth and no words came out, only muffled noises, stammering and letter babble. Until finally, she found her courage and dignity hiding around a corner. "You just love embarrassing me."

"That is entirely the fault of how wonderfully cute you are when you are embarrassed." Lucoa let go of Elma's hands and turned around, taking a deep breath of the warm air, rich with the smell of grass. "Where do you want to go to eat dinner?"

"Can we go back to the human world for that? There is a new barbeque place that just opened two weeks ago and I- we haven't had a chance to go! They have a buffet option right now that they won't keep after the first month!"

"Your stomach is more insatiable than the hoarding drive of any dragon I have ever met. But I find that endearing. Shall we go then?" Lucoa stepped back, cleared her throat and spoke the magic words. "Kong Qiu, my friend." A sliding door, ancient and oriental looking, appeared before her. It was the gateway that transported them back to their anchoring point; the point in space where they had entered from.

Stepping through the door, the two of them were back in Velvelfall, just short of the park area in the northern part of the town. Nobody looked twice at two women appearing through a sliding door out of nowhere in public – the Lilts were fairly easygoing about magic that wasn't violent. "Kong Qiu, your wisdom travels with me." Lucoa felt an intense strain on her mind right after. I see… moving the pocket dimension requires a lot of magical power. If anyone else had won this, they would have been unable to move it and most likely relinquished ownership of it to the Lilts. Craft little people. "Shall we go home then?" I want to put this pocket dimension down as soon as I can.

Elma herself couldn't move from world to world on her own, but Lucoa had no problem opening a portal. Unlike Tohru, she could be fairly specific about where it led to as well. It just wasn't very fun to cut out the journey to the goal, so most of the time she just walked.

But this time she created a portal that directly led back into their apartment back home. Elma went through first, Lucoa followed and the portal closed behind her. "Kong Qiu, spread your wisdom." Lucoa settled the pocket dimension right inside their apartment.

While Elma checked their answering machine, there were two missed calls from Eaglejump, Lucoa sat down and contemplated that at some point, she might want to invest in regular clothing. Of course, washing them, finding them in the right size and everything was a bother, but after hearing from Tohru how much fun it could be to wear them, she wanted to try it for herself. But not tonight. "Did they call you to work?"

"No, just Ahagon calling to tell me that they moved up a meeting and I need to bring a few documents. And then calling again to make sure I got the first message and telling me to ignore any calls from the director." Elma deleted both messages with a few button presses. I'm so technologically advanced now! "We should hurry, my network tells me that they put out the best meat between six and eight!"

Lucoa looked at her with an amused grin. "Your network?"

"The local gourmet circle. I talk to them online."

"My, human technology is quite a thing." Lucoa was not too interested in computers, although she did enjoy watching TV and was interested in owning a cellphone.

Elma dismissed that nation right out of the gate. "You read too many books. Now, come on, if we go now, we can make the six forty-five train and be there at seven. It'll be prime time!"

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (2) ===

Putting down the fourth of the large wooden tables, Elma stretched and immediately her stomach growled. "That was the last one." Thank the gods I was born a dragon. Carrying this stuff around as a human would break my back. "Lucoa?" Looking around, Elma couldn't see her girlfriend anywhere on the grassy meadow that they had just turned into an open air apothecary. "Lucoa!"

"Back here." A voice, slightly muffled, came from behind one of the larger book shelves. She had splurged quite a bit and bought a very large number of reference and work books – over three hundred in total, filling eight shelves worth and leaving the most frequently used ones on the working tables.

Elma peeked around the corner of the shelf and found Lucoa balancing a large number of books on her chest, pressed against the wooden frame. The shelves were double sided, allowing each to hold twice as many books. "Can you get the Advanced studies of the Kupoto Moogilitis from the ground? I dropped it and it's supposed to go into the second row from the top."

"Sure." Picking up a thick book with a red cover, thick enough to be a formidable weapon, Elma put it where it belonged and then sat down right there on the floor. "I finished getting all the furniture. How about lunch break?" Elma was still guided by her stomach and yet – she could have eaten lunch on her own at any time and she didn't. She wanted to eat with Lucoa.

"Is it already that late?" Lucoa realized she had no regular clock or anything in this place and she would definitely need one. "Just let me put these away; there." Freeing up her hands, and chest, Lucoa held out her hand to Elma. "Don't sit in the grass, it'll cause a stain."

"This won't, these are my scales." Wearing her working clothes-scales, for lack of better fashion sense, Elma was comfortable that way. "Where are we going for lunch? There is-"

"I was thinking of making something here." Lucoa quickly cut her off before she could get all too excited about lunch somewhere else. "You didn't already eat the ingredients on the table, right?"

"How rude! I would never eat food that isn't mine." Taking Lucoa's hand now, Elma got back on her feet and let out her tail and horn – they had gotten in the way when she was moving furniture. "What are you gonna make?"

"I was thinking of something simple, so it doesn't weight us down. We still have to put up a roof and some walls, lights and a few other things, like protection circles, although I will be handling those on my own."

"A roof and walls?" Elma couldn't get very excited over a lunch that was so mysterious so she focused on something else. "Do you think it's gonna rain in here?"

Lucoa just smiled and within seconds, Elma felt drips of water come down. "You're making that happen." Elma didn't look the slightest bit impressed. "Isn't it pointless to put up a roof if you can just keep it sunny?"

"Some medicine needs specific humidity or can only be made at night or during a storm."

"Oh. You mean like the Invigorating Potion of Neptunus?" Elma was not an alchemy buff but she knew a thing or two. "The older water serpents at the harmony faction always order that." Although I don't know what it does. But I do know the alchemists always tell me that the earliest order is after the next rainstorm.

"I'm surprised you know about a potion that enhances sexual vigor." Lucoa's expression went from neutral smile to highly amused smile after realizing, through Elma's expression, that she didn't know what the potion did. "I suppose old men will be old men no matter what race."

"I am never doing errands for those old farts again!" Elma wiped her already clean hands on her vest, as if they were dirtied by delivering those potions.

"You're so cute when you are embarrassed."

"I'm disgusted!"

"Not many dragons can say about themselves that they look cute when they are disgusted with something."

"Jeez, take me seriously!" Elma clenched her fists and shook them in front of her chest. Trying to look as menacing as possible by squinting, frowning and curling her lips all at the same time, Elma got quite the reaction out of Lucoa.

Covering her mouth with one hand and covering her stomach with another, Lucoa could just barely remain standing, internally shaking with laughter at the sight of Elma trying to look upset. "M-My how frightening."

Elma immediately stopped her attempt when she saw just how hard Lucoa was trying not to laugh. "Feathered serpents are really rude."

"I-I apologize." Lucoa was lightly chuckling now. "It is one of your finer qualities that you have a very cute and pleasant face. I could look at it for a thousand years and not become sick of it."

"That's a bit obsessive." Elma's stomach growled again. "Are you sure we can't go somewhere to eat? It's.. it's not that I don't trust your cooking skill! But there's a sandwich place nearby that has a new special and-"

Now that she's talking about it, she'll be disappointed if we don't go. I can just put what I bought for lunch into the fridge for later. There is still a lot of work to do, so I'm sure we'll have time for a second lunch or an afternoon snack. Elma is always hungry anyway. "We are only going for lunch."

"A dragon lunch!"

"Yes, yes, a dragon lunch." Watching Elma spin on the spot and head towards the door, which was still standing freely on the ground in its own frame, Lucoa felt glad that she had decided to do this. Not become Elma's girlfriend, that was long since beyond doubt and any question. It's been a long time since I put down roots anywhere. I'm glad it's here, with her. And doing all of this makes me realize how much I missed having responsibilities. Humanity no longer accepts gods to guide them, but with this I can still make a difference. "Elma, wait for me." Hurrying after her girlfriend after being left behind, Lucoa slid open the door and stepped out – into their living room. The pocket dimension was connected to a closet. Elma was now registered as co-owner, so she could come and go whenever she wanted.

"Do you think I should ask the harmony faction to advertise your shop for our people on this side of things?" Should I switch clothes? Hm, no. If I go like this it will look like I'm an office worker on break. I don't want any attention when I'm eating. "I'm good to go."

"Maybe wait for a few days so I can create a stock of product first. And I think we should let Tohru, Kanna and Fafnir have the first orders. They're our closest friends out here." Lucoa had no intention of changing clothes. Sweater and jeans was fine for basically every occasion – except going on dates and receiving customers. "I'll have to go to the other world tomorrow and get some ingredients for permanent magical applications like a direct-to-home shipping portal. It won't do trying to transport sometimes dangerous potions through the human world."

Elma was already by the door, waiting. "The harmony faction is gonna appreciate that. We can't exactly come down on you with any rules or such because you're a goddess that originally hails from this world, but still, I'm glad you're looking out for me."

She is really cute in thinking I am doing it for her. But if I offer shipping like that, even though it'll cost me a bit up front, I will get more customers. They will all be accustomed to mail and phone orders so- "Elma, can you order things over the internet?"

"Hm, sure? It's not much different from mail or phone ordering things. Less of a hassle, too." She's so cute when she doesn't understand technology. Elma was blissfully unaware that, for a lot of modern things, she was just as ignorant as Lucoa was. "Do you want me to order something?"

"How do you order stuff?"

"Usually there's online shops where you can look at their products and then pay for it online and have it shipped to your address. Sometimes you can pay later, too." Leaving their apartment, Elma made two attempts to take Lucoa's hand and failed miserably both times. She wasn't embarrassed to stuff her face in public, but walking the crowded city streets with her beautiful girlfriend still invited a lot of stares. Thanks to her black hair and skin color, Elma could pass as a Japanese – Lucoa however was basically the stereotypical crazy proportions foreigner woman.

As always, Lucoa grabbed Elma's hand without hesitation; being a thousand years too old to care about humans staring at her. "If I was a dragon like you or Tohru, we could hold our tails together as well. But even like this, I could probably work on my shape-shifting abilities a little to make that happen."

"Holding tails?" Elma glanced upwards and imagined it. "You perverted woman!"

"I don't understand what's perverted about it."

"Tail tips are sensitive!" Elma blushed.

Lucoa looked over her shoulder and then up ahead. "There is hardly anyone there to hear you. Why are you blushing like a young maiden?"

"That's not the point." Elma pulled on Lucoa's hand hard enough to make her sway to the side. "And what is that supposed to mean anyway? Like a young maiden? I'll have you know that I am definitely in the prime of my life!"

"Young maidens are girls before their prime. I remember the sacrifices the people made for me were always of a certain age."

"They did human sacrifice in your name?" Elma was not too knowledgeable about the past of the human world. Certainly not around 2000 years ago.

"Well, technically speaking. They brought them to an altar and stabbed them, like a blood sacrifice. I didn't like the idea of wasting a young life like that for no real purpose, so I showed up with thunder and pomp and spirited the girl away before she could bleed out. I couldn't return them to where they came from so I dropped them off at another tribe. I did this for a while actually, but the more I did it, the more they tried to sacrifice over every little thing and so I stopped intervening."

"That's a bit dark."

"There are some really nice humans, like Kobayashi and the human Fafnir lives with, but as a general rule, they can be quite awful."

"And you were their goddess?"

"Hm… I wonder if that makes me awful as well." I never considered that angle before, actually.

"Definitely not. If you tried to tell them to stop, they would just find another awful practice, right?"

"I do remember there being a number of gods up further north and to the west that encouraged sailing parties, pillaging, rape and murder on strangers."

"What's up with that?"

"There are some pretty unlikable gods out there."

"And I thought I had it tough with my supervisor making me do errands all the time. Now that I think about it, do gods ever get into fights with each other?"

"We try to avoid that as much as possible because… hmm, I suppose I'm not a goddess anymore, so I'm not bound by the pact of secrets anymore, so it's okay to tell you."

"No. I reconsidered. Don't tell me about whatever you were going to say. I don't want to end up knowing some extremely forbidden knowledge that's gonna get me into trouble."

"A wise decision." Lucoa smiled knowingly, which freaked Elma out a little.

"It's not okay to just tell whatever you were gonna tell me, right?"

"Probably not."

"You'd get in trouble with other gods?"

"Only if they find out."

"I'm good after all. I always thought of lunch when we covered the ancient war between chaos and harmony."

"The one where an entire planet was lost?"

Elma just stopped walking and looked at Lucoa like she had just revealed the truth of the universe to her. Like the universe was actually just the small area of space they knew and everything beyond it was made of fire and hostile marshmallows. "What?"

"Not that one? Was it the one that sunk Muu? The small continent I mean."

"Stop! You're ruining my worldview!" Elma wanted to cover her ears and at the same time didn't want to let go of Lucoa's hand. "How many wars were there? I only know about that one, fourteen hundred years ago."

"Oh, the one that hmmm?" Lucoa's words were blocked from coming out by Elma's hand, covering her mouth whole. I didn't know the harmony faction dragons were so poorly educated regarding their own past. Maybe I should find some thunder-drops and explain things to Elma over a drink.

"No more horrific reveals of the past. I'm going to lose my appetite." The single greatest fear of Elma the dragon.

Pinching Elma's hand and freeing her mouth, Lucoa kept on smiling like always. "It's not good to ignore history."

"I'm not ignoring it, I am choosing not to know!" Elma took a single, decisive step forward and pulled Lucoa with her, both of them continuing to walk towards the sandwich place that Elma wanted to visit. "How do you know so much? You were always in the human world, right?"

"I was a goddess here on earth, but of course I had a lot of dealings with the other world as well. All the gods did and do. The congregation at Izumo Taisha during Kamiarizuki here in Japan for example still happens, although there are far less gods now than there were a few centuries ago."

"But you weren't a Japanese goddess."

"Gods that lived in the region I was active in interacted a lot more casually than Japanese deities do. Sometimes we would spar for fun alone and that caused large storms, earthquakes and floods. We always felt bad after that, so eventually we went somewhere else to spar."

"Were there any gods you didn't get along with?"

"Hitoha." Looking at Elma's Oh yes, her. I know her. Who is that again face made Lucoa explain in more detail. "Huixtocihuatl. She was revered as a goddess governing salt and sea water. She was… not easy to get along with."

"Rather than a salty goddess, she's a sour one!"

"I think she would try to drown you if she heard that pun."

"Was there anyone you really liked then?"

"Peto." And once more, Elma's expression made her explain. "Xipe-Totec. He was one of the four rulers. I was ruling the west and he was ruling the east. He had a lot of titles and I barely remember any of them. He really liked to engage in… recreational usage of some things."

"You're telling me one of your fellow gods liked to do drugs?"

"We called it ascending back then." Lucoa's smile had turned into a grin at this point. "I might make something like that for personal use. Don't worry, I won't bring it into the apartment, I'll keep it in my workplace."

"You can make drugs yourself?"

"Medicine is nothing different."

"It's not addicting or anything, right?"

"Are you worried for me?" Lucoa pulled on Elma's arm, making her walk closer by her side. "That is really cute of you, but with our physiology, not even the honey of Ra would really be much of an addiction." Although, psychologically, Elma is quite addicted to human cuisine. And Tohru is addicted to Kobayashi. And Fafnir… I wonder what exactly it is that he is so addicted to.

"What does it feel like?"

"It depends on whether it is smoked, breathed in, drunk or eaten. I am not particularly keen on drinking or eating these things. I am partial to smoking or breathing it in. Are you curious enough to try it sometime?"

"I am not really-"

"It gives food a truly interesting and fantastic taste afterward."

"Please tell me when you're gonna try it!"

So easy. I feel almost bad for taking advantage of how driven by her stomach she is. But only almost. "We still have a long day ahead of us. And I'm glad that you are helping me out. It would be really boring, not to mention tiresome, to do it all by myself."

"I've been thinking this, but can't you just magic stuff into place?"

"I could, but it would be like a constant strain on my energy and it's nice to move your body sometimes. A bath always feel quite fantastic afterward."

"You've seen me in my real form before, right?" Not that I really care. It's a lot more convenient to be together like this actually. Dragons don't have the best precision movement with their fingers.

"Yes. Remember that time you were terribly late for work and flew there? Perception block does not work on me. You are of course very beautiful in either form."

"That's… not what I was getting at… but thanks." Elma felt suddenly very self-conscious about the way she looked. "You know, now that you bring up my looks, people have made fun of my horn before."

"My. I hope nobody shall be quite so insensitive and foolish to do so with my present or I might have to erase them from the face of this planet in an instant." Lucoa's smile was enriched by dangerous elements and scared Elma for a moment. "But if that was not what you wanted, what then?"

"I was wondering what your true form looks like."

"You want to see?"

"If you wanna show."

"I don't mind, but I imagine it is quite different from what you would expect. I am very comfortable in my humanoid form because it takes up considerablyless space than me as a feathered serpent."

"Are you larger than Tohru?"

"Hm, if you, Tohru, Kanna and Fafnir all got into line, my true form would still be several times as large."

"As… expected of a goddess I think?"

"A lot of us gods don't really take our true forms because they are cumbersome. Even when we fight, if we end up fighting, we rarely do. There are some exceptions, like Izanami."

"I'm glad I'm normal sized." Elma saw the funny expression that Lucoa was making. "For a water serpent I am totally normal sized!"

"You are beautifully slim. Tohru is much more unwieldy than that."

"I don't know how to feel about this anymore." Elma looked away for a few seconds and then focused on the important matter at hand. The target destination was coming into sight. "What do you wanna do after lunch?"

"We'll have to get a specific type of wood. I'll take you to the other side if you will accom-"

"I'll always come with you."

"I'm happy to hear that. We'll need laughing hardwood from the impish forest."

"I was always told to stay away from there. It's not safe, even for dragons. I don't think even the higher ups go there."

"We are not going there either. You need a special license to fell trees in the impish forest because it is so dangerous."

"What's so dangerous about it anyway?" Elma was surprised when Lucoa just averted her eyes and looked towards the other side of the street. "Did something happen to you there?"

"It's a terrible, terrible place that even the most powerful of gods avoid for good reason." Lucoa still didn't face Elma. I can never let her learn what happened that day. I would die of shame. I'd kill her and then myself.

"So, we're getting wood. And after-" Elma's instinct kicked in and she scanned the line before the counter, the daily special, the constantly fluctuating prices for extras and the smell. Speeding up, Elma pulled Lucoa along, into the shop.

=== Curses can be a Blessing too (3) ===

Elma was completely pooped. "Even an earth dragon would be tired after all of this. I am never going to make light of carpenters again. Ever." Sitting on the roof, her legs over the edge, Elma fell backwards, the eternal noon sun burning down on her. I'm gonna turn into fried and salted sea serpent if I don't get off this roof. But I'm so tired.

"Shut your trap, Elma!" Tohru was down below, flat in the grass, swiping the sweat from her forehead. Just this once, and only because it was really hot and tiring, she had switched from a maid outfit to something more simple – a white sleeveless shirt that had a green dragon motive on the back, complete with half pants that let air circulate freely. "I really, really, really, hate working with haha wood!" She had barely said that when she started to chuckled, then giggle and finally break out into laughter. It was infectious.

Elma was rolling around on the roof, inside the small house was Lucoa, who was holding on to a table, trying to suppress the laughter. And from the other side of where Tohru was came a horribly menacing laughter that belonged to Fafnir. Kanna, Kobayashi and Takiya were not too far away but safe from the effects of the laughing wood. Because Kanna was uniquely unsuited to the hard work that made Lucoa ask Fafnir and Tohru for help, and Kobayashi was far more unsuited still because she was human,

"They got infected again." Kobayashi looked to Kanna, who picked up a large paper fan. "Can you handle Tohru? She is sort of out of control like this."

"Leave it to me!" Kanna was oddly pumped for her duties.

Laughing Hardwood was a very peculiar substance to work with. It not only resisted all kinds of magic and fire, but it also nullified almost all magical or otherworldly powers around it. And to top it off, it was really really hard to work with because it frequently caused everyone that breathed in the fumes it gave off when being worked on to break out into laughing fits. All those factors together made it a huge bother to build a small one floor room out of it – usually, something like that would cost the other world equivalent of twenty to a hundred million yen.

"There." Kobayashi was extremely unenthusiastic about slapping Fafnir, laughing like a crazed madman, in the back of his head with an oversized paper fan. It didn't need to be a paper fan specifically but those were the only affordable alternative.

With the slap, Fafnir calmed down, panting, breathing heavily, and looked both tired and annoyed. "You have my thanks… to think I would be so easily affected. Accursed, detestable laughing wood…!" With his eyes glowing red and his hand about to light up like a light house, Fafnir made for quite the image.

"Uh. Yeah. Okay." Kobayashi quickly made her exit and entered the building, where she found Lucoa kneeling on the floor, laughing so hard but quietly that she looked like she was about to choke. "There." Slapping her on the top of her head, Lucoa snapped out of it.

"T-Thank you, Kobayashi-san… it was starting to hurt." Lucoa's face was red not from embarrassment but the strenuous laughing.

"I'm just glad I don't get infected by this." And I can't hear Tohru anymore. That means that deep voice laughter is Elma. "I'll go and free Elma before it infects everyone again."

"P-Please do."

This is the seventh time now. We've been here for hours. It must be dark outside by now. I kinda wish the sun would go away. I feel like an over baked cookie. Well, Lucoa is providing drinks… I kinda want sake now. Climbing up a ladder to the roof, Kobayashi could already see Elma rolling around, her face so red that it looked like her head might explode any second. From what Lucoa said, that's something that can actually happen. The wood is so dangerous because anyone with magic energy can get infected. Except Kanna it seems. And unless someone makes you snap out of it, you will laugh yourself to death."There."

Elma was three-quarters on her way to a funny death when Kobayashi finally rescued her. She couldn't even say anything, just pant and gasp for air. "But this is some dangerous material. Why is Lucoa building a place out of this?"

"It's required for the really powerful potions." Lucoa had come up the ladder as well. Excluding their elevated strength, which was not quite superhuman anymore around this wood, they had very little in the way of magical powers left. "A potion that reverses immortality will kill anything within a thousand meter radius if it isn't made surrounded by laughing wood. A salve that is used to treat the blackening death causes erosion of the mind unless it is surrounded by laughing wood. And there are lots of magical ingredients that are dangerous if they're not in a magic dampening environment."

"What a dangerous job." Kobayashi shouldered the paper fan like an oversized sword.

"That is what makes it interesting." Kneeling next to Elma, Lucoa gently slapped her girlfriend's cheek a few times. "It's snack time."

Elma rose from the almost-dead like someone had injected her with pure adrenaline. Just two minutes later they were all there, about thirty meters out from the house or shack or hut or whatever Lucoa would eventually settle on calling it. Elma was happily stuffing her face and competing with Tohru over who could fit more oversized cup cakes into their mouth.

"Why did you decide to start a business?" Kobayashi was enjoying some alcoholic drink she couldn't even read the name of, much less pronounce. When Lucoa had said it, it sounded like a growling demon from the depths of hell had possessed her. In a manga her entire speech bubble would have been a white scribble on black background.

"Elma really seems to like her job and is fitting into society well, and as her partner I want to be able to share that with her."

"So what kinda stuff are you gonna make? I hope you're not planning on just selling these online." Kobayashi took another sip from the drink and felt like she had swallowed one of the lesser hells. What's in this stuff? Distilled jet engine fuel?

"A lot of things. I'll be busy over the next few days, making mostly normal potions, powders, salves and such. After that I'll take requests and make things on demand."

Glancing at Tohru and Elma, the two of them looked kind of bloated now, Kobayashi lowered her voice. "You think you can make a potion that makes my breasts grow?"

"There is definitely a potion like that out there, but wouldn't people in your life find it weird if you were suddenly the same size as Tohru?"

"The same size as Tohru?"

"Humans are very sensitive to magical potions and such. Even the smallest effective dosage would probably be that much."

"Never mind then. My shoulders would kill me. My lower back would kill me even more than it does now and- Do you have anything to relieve that?"

"I am not familiar with human physiology but we could always try a potent healing potion. The worst that can happen with those is that they act like one of those drinks… what's their name? Power drinks?"

"Energy drinks?"

"Yes. That was the name."

"Hm… how much does a healing potion come to?"

"I was not really thinking about selling to humans or for standard currency, but if I think about it…. Maybe two or three hundred?"

"Yen?"

"Oh, two or three hundred thousand yen."

Kobayashi slowly, very slowly, averted her eyes. "I think I'll have to live with my back pain."

"Is… is that a lot of money? I was calculating it up from the food that Elma always buys and the rent."

"That's pretty expensive. You can buy a used car from three to four hundred thousand yen."

"Oh my..."

"Kobayashi… Tohru-sama and Elma are about to explode." Kanna, with a cup cake in her hand, was tugging on Kobayashi's shirt and pointing to the two dragons, lying flat on their back, with stomachs as round as oversized beach balls.

"Why do those two always get into fights? Tohru! No more eating! I don't care if you have to admit a loss or anything! If you barf on the floor, you're cleaning it up!" Sometimes it feels like I am dealing with a teenager and not an adult.

"Our partners can be quite a handful." Lucoa could relate to Kobayashi in that regard. "Have things been going alright with Tohru?"

"Hm… so-so, I think. It's still hard for me to actually behave like a couple. I work all day and there's not really much difference in the evenings because I'm dead tired then. We do… some couple stuff on the weekends."

"Tohru is not being pushy? That surprises me."

"Yeah, she's trying hard. I can tell because she slips up a lot. Sometimes I let her get away with it now because I know I'm being a bit of a prude. Like when she wants to get into the bath with me."

"Our bath is a little too small for both of us to get in at the same time. If I was a little shorter and thinner, perhaps then… well, no use thinking about it."

I think the issue is less your waist and more those oversized melons of yours! Share some, goddammit! "Is there anything left to do? It looks pretty sturdy from here."

"It'll have to dry out over the next twelve hours. But the work is all done. I'm very thankful for all your help." Lucoa raised her voice for the last part.

"L-Lucoa..." Tohru sounded like she had drank empty a lake. "I've… got an order..."

"By the time she finished making dragon stomach medicine you'll be back to normal." Kobayashi couldn't believe that Tohru always let herself get roped into Elma's nonsense after she was bragging how annoying and childish Elma was.

"No… I think those cup cakes… they're like rocks..." Tohru burped and it smelled strongly like sulfur.

"You have no one to blame but yourself." Patting Tohru's head, Kobayashi let her cling to her, despite the sulfur smell.

"Lu...coa..." Elma came crawling after Tohru, only getting as far as resting her head on Lucoa's lap before she too burped and immediately fell asleep.

"Are all dragons like this?" Kobayashi kept patting Tohru's head, who wanted to enthusiastically wag her tail but was too bloated. "And did they seriously eat all the cup cakes?"

"It looks that way. I would love to invite you all for dinner, but with these two as they are… and it looks like Fafnir and your human friend have already left."

"You've become a really respectable person after you were… relieved of your position as a familiar."

Lucoa smiled awkwardly at that. After the incident that ended up costing me my deity status, that is the second most embarrassing thing in my life."I would appreciate it if you didn't bring that up."

"Ah. My bad. But I do have a much better opinion of you now."

"I appreciate that, but please, could we not talk about this?"

"But really, wood that makes you laugh yourself to death? The other world is a lot more dangerous than Tohru told me."

"The world is big. Even in the human world, you have great deserts, frozen wastes, locations that have permanent night for six months every year. Not to mention that not every country is as peaceful as Japan."

"It usually doesn't really feel like it, but you've been around for a very long time, right?"

"From before the big religions your people believe in came to be."

"What did you even do after the Aztec people went away? I have to admit, I don't actually know what civilization looked like on the American continents centuries ago."

"I fear it would take quite a long time to talk about my life at length. I wasn't always around in this world, especially after the people that worshiped me died out. It's actually a very complicated thing, being a goddess. In some ways it isn't at all a bad thing that I'm not… a goddess… anymore..." Lucoa realized what she was talking about and just wanted to change the topic now. "So-"

"Sorry, but let me stop you there." Kobayashi had checked her wrist watch. "It's past eight and I need to get Kanna into bed. I also need to take this gluttonous dragon, this gluttogon, back home so she can asleep off her sugar shock."

"But I haven't really paid all of you for your help!"

"I'm sure there'll be another chance." Helping Tohru stand, Kobayashi headed towards the extremely tiny shack that stood opposite the shop – the door to Lucoa's closet. "It was fun helping out. Tell Elma I'm looking forward to seeing her back at work soon."

The family of three left, leaving behind only Lucoa and Elma. "Why did you start competing with Tohru? And over eating miniature giant space cup cakes, no less." She knew she would receive no answer – Elma was still fast asleep. Patting Elma's head, Lucoa focused on the pocket dimension for a moment and the sun raced towards the far horizon, bathing the small world into perpetual twilight. "This is the first time in over a millennium that I possess such close friends. I am grateful to them of course, but I fear they will go their own ways after Kobayashi dies in sixty to seventy years. But you will be by my side for much longer than that, won't you, Elma?"

And as if to show her affection, whilst still asleep, Elma rolled over, mumbled and smiled wide. "Yes… yes… as much as I can..."

=== Order seconds? ===