If it squeaks like a bat, it might still be your friend

*May 12, 2020, the James house*

It’s a sunny afternoon in Halcyon. Pages of homework lay around Atlanta as she sits cross-legged on her balcony, staring up at the sky instead of actually doing any of it. Her motivation to do it was low. Between the new stuff with her powers, the leftover stress of figuring out what you’re supposed to do on Mother’s Day again (despite Mother’s Day going well), and Melody’s vague texts about Ellen and Tay being back but different, there’s a lot on her mind. Pulling out her phone, she opens up the conversation with Melody again and scrolls up.    What are you supposed to do when your friends leave and then come back after they’ve been in the future? Should she try to reach out? They didn’t have their phones anymore. If they were at the base, she could just show up...but how different was different? She empathizes with Ernest’s situation with Kurt a little more now. With a sigh, she pulls her knees up and rests her chin on them.
Across the street, a small, dark shape hangs from a branch, looking out at the balcony. The sunlight glints off small golden plates embedded in the bat’s salt-and-pepper fur. If it were a human, it would look excited but worried, and slightly insecure - but it does not, because it is, in fact, a bat. Nevertheless, it reaches out with a wing and smooths its tiny cravat nervously. Finally, it flutters over to Atlanta, a faint purple sheen covering it as it flies through the afternoon sun.

It lands on the railing, raising a wing as if in greeting, before lowering it again awkwardly. It smoothes its cravat again, then hops from claw to claw before finally opening its mouth.

“Cheep!”

Atlanta looks over at the bat in surprise. A clear progression of emotions cross her face: surprise, confusion, realization, excitement, reigning herself back in. She scrambles to her feet and grips the railing. "Tay? Please be Tay or else I'm just talking to a bat. Although I guess if you're just a bat you won't think I'm crazy for talking to you. But you don’t look like just a bat." Atlanta forcibly stops herself from starting to ramble and just looks at the bat in the hopes it'll respond.

The bat jumps up and, with an almost comical \*poof\*, transforms into a short, wiry grey girl in a futuristic spacesuit, leaning against the railing. Two tufted cat ears peek out of her salt-and-pepper hair, now a little wilder than it used to be; and visible on her exposed sternum, cheekbones and forearms are some sort of golden implant, a violet link blinking occasionally. She smiles and waves awkwardly, her tail flicking behind her.

“Yeah - uh. Hey. I thought I should announce my presence before, like…just popping into existence on your balcony.”

Atlanta immediately flings her arms around Tay, but just as quickly backs off, holding her hands up in an apology. "Sorry. Uh. Melody said you have some like, future stuff and I don't know if that's okay anymore, and I don't know how long it's been for you, and you look older which is weird because I didn't think you'd age which is probably racist or something. And are you like, MY Tay, or another version?" *Get it together, Atlanta*. She takes a deep breath. "Uh. Sorry. So. Yeah. Hi. I appreciate you not just poofing onto my balcony. That would have been startling."

“Haha, yeah, it was a surprise to me too. Uh. I…I think I’m your Tay. At least…” She looks at Atlanta, eyes wide, then flings her arms around her just as immediately. “You look like my Atlanta.”

After a few moments and a tight squeeze - careful not to be too forceful - she pulls back, then frowns, obviously struggling to think of what to say.

“It’s, er, been like, two years for me.”

Atlanta happily marks hugs as "okay" in her head. "Two years. Wow." She looks over Tay's new implants. "Looks like you had quite the time. I'd like to hear about some of your adventures sometime. You probably know that it's only been like two weeks here, and - wait a minute, how are you in the sunlight?"

Tay smiles, more certainly this time, and taps the thin golden plate embedded in her sternum. It rings softly, and a field of violet hexagons appears just an inch from her skin. “This protects me from sunlight! I got it in the, uh…23rd, I think, century? It’s technically the shield systems from a small starship, but we met this mechanic on New Halcyon Space Station that knew how to make it work. Isn’t it the best?!” She beams, her tail sticking up excitedly. “I don’t have to be scared of the sun anymore! Night is still obviously superior of course, but everyone’s asleep so it’s boring.”

She looks past Atlanta at the scattered papers. “Wait, did I disturb you? I’m sorry, I got really excited to see you again and I don’t know when we get to fix the bike, so...”

“That’s so cool.” Atlanta waves a hand dismissively at her homework. "I was too distracted to do it anyway. Talking with you is a much better use of my time." Atlanta smiles reassuringly, then her eyes widen as she has an idea. "Oh! You're a vampire!"

Tay blinks. “Uh, yeah? Last I checked?”

“I invited my Tay into my house. So if you’re able to go in without me inviting you, that means you’re her! And we’ll know for sure.” Atlanta beams up at Tay.

“Atlanta, you’re a genius!” Tay grins, hugging her once again. “But… what if I’m not?”

Atlanta hugs back, and shrugs. "I mean, I like one version of you. I don't see why I wouldn't like you, too, once I get to know you. But you don't have to, if you don't want to know."

Tay scrunches up her eyebrows in thought, leaning back against the railing of the balcony. Would she want to know, if she wasn’t this Atlanta’s Tay? She wants to say yes, but she was hard pressed to deny that she had treated the 30-50 other Ellens far different to hers, back when this was her home.

“Urrrrgh!” She rubs her hands through her hair, ears flat against the back of her head. “This is too complicated! I’m just gonna do it!” And so she does, walking forward briskly and attempting to open the balcony door.

The door opens, and Tay can easily enter.

Atlanta starts to tear up. She crosses the balcony and flings her arms around Tay again, holding on. "I missed you."

Tay laughs and twirls her around once before putting her down. “You missed me? That’s my line, I’ve only been gone a week for you! It’s really nice to see you again.”

"Okay, fair, but I still did." Atlanta wipes her eyes. "I'm glad you came to see me. I would have been sad if you'd gotten the time cycle fixed and never said hi. And now that you know you can visit, you can do it more often than every two years! Um, if you want. Melody said you weren’t planning on staying for long."

“I wouldn’t do that!” Tay replies. She droops a bit and sits down, looking quietly at her hands for a moment.

"I'd like to visit. I just haven't brought it up with E…I'm worried she'll think I regret coming with her, that I want to go home." She fidgets. "My home is with her, but I don't know how to tell her that."

Atlanta sits next to Tay and wraps an arm around her. "First, that's really cute. Second, do you think Ellen wouldn't ever want to visit? I know it was really hard for her to leave last time, but…" Atlanta shrugs. "It can't hurt to talk to her about it, right? Especially if you lead with being cute and sappy about Ellen being your home. I'd probably stop functioning for a few minutes if Boon said that to me."

Tay chuckles. “I could see that.” She looks at Atlanta, at the slight hint of a blush underneath the freckles at the mention of her girlfriend, the effortless joy in her expression. “Thank you. You know…Boon is really lucky to have you.”

“I’m lucky to have her, too.” Atlanta rests her head against Tay’s shoulder. “She makes my day better whenever she’s around, even if she’s just sending me a blurry picture of Brimstone. And I can talk to her about anything and she makes me feel like my anxiety rants aren’t a bad thing.” She pauses as she lets herself just think about Boon for a minute. “Oh yeah! Before I forget, do either of you have phones again? So I can contact you while you’re here?”

“Hmmm,” Tay smiles, playing with Atlanta’s hair with her left hand idly. “I feel the same about Ellen. I don’t…bristle, when I’m near her. I don’t feel like I’m made of barbed wire, like everything I say just hurts people. And…And I don’t feel as much like a monster, I guess.” She grins. “I mean, I know I am one and I’m at peace with that, but I don’t *feel* like I’m a danger to anyone I’m close to, so that’s nice.”

At the mention of phones, she reaches into a pocket of her jacket and pulls out a thin, white plasteel pen-like rod. She pushes a button and a holographic screen appears out of it, approximately the size of a hand. On it is a familiar-looking field of apps. “Yeah, I got this, uh, iPhone X-AE, I think? It’s fancy but pretty annoying honestly. I’d be happy to give you my number if you’re okay with every text you get from me ending with a heartfelt plea from Steve Jobs Junior Juniorer Juniorest Jr. to please upgrade your outdated phone.”

Atlanta laughs. “Is that really his name? Wait, don’t tell me. It’s better than his real name if that’s not it. And I don’t mind. And um, for the record, I’ve always felt safe around you.” Atlanta gets her own phone out and exchanges numbers with Tay. “Um, does Ellen have one, too? You don’t have to give it to me if you don’t think she’d want me to have it.”

"Oh, er, no, she doesn't. We've just been using the one for both of us, since we're pretty much always together? I can relay messages though!" She says, apologetically. "I'm glad you feel safe. I've also learned some things in the past year that make me feel like less of a threat. Just…more control, I guess." She flexes her hand, extending and retracting her claws. "My sire used to tell me that control came with feeding, that there is nothing as feral, as uncontrollable as a "virgin" vampire. She did this fasting thing, once, denied blood to the entire complex and didn't give it back until she was the only one not…the only normal one. She said it was to teach a lesson.

I think it was meant to tell us that her way was the only one."

“I’m sorry you went through all that, Tay,” Atlanta says quietly. “She sounds awful. But I’m glad you’re away from her now.” She sits for a minute. “I guess if you could just ask Ellen to like, not be a stranger? I’m not gonna try and convince you both to stay or anything. I don’t want to make leaving again hard, but I don’t want to not see her, you know?”

Atlanta takes a deep breath to steady herself, and smiles. “I know I gave you the recipe, but how long has it been since you’ve had cupcakes?”

Tay smiles widely. "Much, much too long."

Atlanta stands up, excited. “Great! Well, not great, but you know what I mean. I’ve still got the ingredients. Why don’t we go make some and you can tell me some of your travel stories?”

The two head downstairs. Over the rest of the afternoon, they catch up, exchange stories about time travel, wild technology, and Pockets. By the time Tay flies off, Atlanta has forgotten about her unfinished homework, but honestly, doesn’t really care.