The Honeyed Hive

"Fine." Lucina took a deep breath before stepping away to walk over to Celica. Quickly burying herself in Celica's chest clinging to her friend and starting to shake. "Can we go... I want to go now..." Celica was soon able to feel wet spots on her fur as Lucina had broken into tears.

Celica nodded and glanced at her mother and queen before picking Lucina up bridal style and walking out of the room. "Are you ok Lucy? I understand Edel wants you to keep seeing things here...but is there anything I can do to make you more comfortable and feel safer?"

Lucina curled up in Celica's arms trying to keep herself together. "I'm sorry... it's just all of these changes are so damn horrifying... I don't understand any of it and Edel is treating it like nothing..." She rubbed her head against Celica's chest to get the tears out of her eyes. "I don't know if I'm being paranoid but it feels like they are DOING something to me!"

Celica thinks a bit "Well, mother...Edel is always keeping the hive in general in mind, it is part of the job of the queen. Going off of your sister's theory, maybe because of your worry and all, your small bit of bee DNA is naturally producing changes to make you feel more at ease...maybe the smells and tastes are stacking against your worry to speed up these reactions...I'm not really a biologist or psychologist...therapist...you know. I can only really guess at what sounds right." She smiles "I have an idea though, hows about we go for a bit of a hike, there are still a few hours in the day, and I'd like to show you around more...but being inside seems to be making things worse for you."

Lucina nodded taking deep breaths as Celica carried her towards the exit to the hive. "Have you noticed anything else other than the cravings and fluff that's changed?" She looked up at her friend's face in a whimper as her paranoia from the previous day had kicked itself back into overdrive because of the contact with honey.

"Not anything that has really stood out to me, I'm a little shocked at how fast the fluff grew in, but the cravings...well I could make an argument that being around the source of your cravings for so long has made it worse? It may be wearing down your fear...which might be compounding on your paranoia. Mind you I don't want to disregard your feelings either depending on the situation at hand." She sighs "Honestly I think that keeping you for a week is a bit...extreme given that your sister didn't push for such action...though I do understand detaining you for a little bit if that makes sense...from a peacekeeper point of view." As they step into the sun and fresh air, Celica looks down at Lucina's eyes and blushes some more as she stares in. "Umm...I don't want to sound creepy or anything, still just admiring you and all...and it could just be the light, but I swear I see a hint of gold in them...though it is faint."

Lucina gulped before taking a breath and hopping out of Celica's arms. "Well then why don't we, I don't know... consider this our first date?" She took the bees hand before starting to walk further into the woods following the clearly marked trail. A massive blush on her face as she said this trying to stay ahead so Celica couldn't see her massive blush.

Celica grinned and nodded "That sounds great, we can swing by town, I know a wonderful sandwich shop, then there is a nice clearing which has kind of evolved into a natural park for lack of a better term. The lake is right there too, so we can get our feet a little wet and just enjoy nature together." She leads Lucina to town happily. "Is there anything you would like to do on our date?"

"I would just like to spend time with someone who likes me... it had really just been me and my sister all these years after all. I've got contacts but those aren't really friends." Lucina smiled and pressed into Celica's side as they continued towards the sandwich shop. "Honestly just the idea of us spending time outside of the hive or my shit apartment sounds amazing."

Celica smiles and nods "That sounds really nice...maybe tonight we can play a game before bed too." She stops by the sandwich shop, ordering a rather large one for herself filled with veggies and cheese, before letting Lucina order "Order whatever you want, I'll cover it all. I'm also thinking about grabbing some juice while we are here."

Lucina got a meat and cheese sandwich with a soda. Wincing as unlike she expected, everyone was still staring at her while they were out, more people being interested in seeing the hybrid than the royal guard who was a regular at the shop. Once the food was served Lucina took hers and rushed outside letting Celica catch up with her once they had their own.

Celica buzzed after her and made sure to stay close once they got away a bit more. "Sorry about that, I didn't really think about what being out here for you would be like." She rubs Lucina's back "Let's go find some private space and just relax away from everyone else." She cuddles up to Lucina and enjoys their quiet nature walk.

Lucina just quietly munched on her sandwich as they continued down the trail. Enjoying the feeling of Celica against her as they made their way back past the hive and down a secondary trail. "It's just... weird being the center of attention. I am the type of person to fade into the backgrounds to get information that normally would be unavailable to me. It's a surprisingly important trait for being a journalist so this is just... uncomfortable."

"I understand, while my own position is 'royal guard', you would not believe how important just blending in is for that." She chuckles a little bit "I will say your presence is just a little new to this small town though when this is over if you keep visiting, they will back off and treat you as normal. I remember when I first started coming around, they could not keep their eyes off me, really made me feel self-conscious."

"Because I'm an inner-city girl. I'm so used to no matter how different you appear, people just treating you as normal."Lucina chuckled as they got to the end of the woods. The pair being faced with a massive lake and picnic area. "I will admit though seeing this is really wonderful. This is the kinda thing you'd never see without people taking care of nature."

Celica smiled and sat down, pulling Lucina with her "Lucy, people out here are a bit more accepting, I'm sure they see you for how beautiful you are." She blushes a bit before pulling Lucina in to kiss her cheek quickly.

Lucina took the kiss, her cheeks turning red from the contact. "Thank you Celcy. Hopefully, once this is over we can go out together more without any strings attached." She smiled softly nestling into Celica's side as a gentle breeze blew through the area.

Celica smiled and held Luina close "While I do love the fuzz if you do really want it gone, I'll help you carefully shave it off." She gently runs a hand through Lucina's neck fluff, staring into her eyes. "Whatever you want...though I still want to take some time to play games."

"If you wanna play board games we will play board games. I don't have that much experience with them but I am more than up to learning." As the pair locked eyes Lucina found herself leaning in. Gently placing her lips on Celica's, surprised by the sweet taste that she experienced before pulling back with her flushed cheeks.

Celica blushed hard and pressed her finger to her lips with a smile "W-wow...did you get that almost...electric feeling from that too?" She looks at Lucina again and gave the girl a quick kiss back, letting her lips stay a little longer than their first before pulling away.

Lucina just enjoyed the feeling for as long as she could. Eventually leaning into Celica's chest and closing her eyes. "It did feel wonderful, yes... I hope we get to do it more in the future." She had a soft smile on her face taking pleasure in the small joys she could get out of the situation. "Sorry about being really noncommittal. I am just hoping to be able to give you an answer without any outside influence once my punishment is done."

Celica nodded "Take your time Lucy, if you feel deep down despite whatever is happening that you want to commit, then I'm willing to give anything a try, if you need time then I will give you all the time you need." She holds Lucina close, letting her heartbeat and natural pheromones tell a lot about her own feelings.

"I might not like all the changes but being able to smell how you feel makes things feel a little easier." Lucina smiled softly before taking a deep breath. "Also your fashion choices for me are very comfortable. Be careful or I might just steal all of your clothes."

She giggles a little bit "You are so cute, and I'm fine with that, I've always wondered how it would feel to have someone else wearing my clothes." She grins "I kind of like the feeling...don't want to push too fast but it makes me feel a bit like a sign of who you are with so to say." She smiles and brushes Lucy's hair.

"Well, you're the only person I'd wanna be with at this point." Lucina squeezed Celica lightly as they looked around the area. Seeing a few pairs of bee entomorphs flying around the area. "It's nice to see everyone out in the open just having a nice day."

She smiles and looks up "Yeah, I've come out here or there, but I'd love to go do things with you like this some more." She buzzes happily "It is really nice out here...just seeing the clear clean sky, makes me think of the freedom we have out in nature, makes me think of pursuing happiness."

Lucina frowned at that last comment before looking Celica in the eyes. "Are you not happy in your hive?" She had gotten a rather serious look in her eyes while asking this. Clearly concerned about how Celica had been treated in the hive before her arrival and the fact that the other bees seemed to be intimidated by her.

Celica smiles "I mean...I am happy, and I love everyone there. I just sometimes want to see a little more. I think it is more...when I do leave the hive to do patrols or accompany one of the stand-ins for the queen when we go to human cities...everything feels so suffocating...then I return to our land, and while I feel free here, just the fact that there is so much more out there almost makes this feel suffocating...does that make sense?"

"You live in a world that doesn't accommodate for your natural size along with the only place you can feel comfortable in is your home, and that can feel suffocating." Lucina chuckled a bit. "I can relate to that feeling. Marcy doesn't talk about our dad but he really did do his best to keep us safe from those who would try to hurt us until he passed. Our home for years felt like the only place where we would be seen as normal."

Celica nodded "Yeah, that seems right when put into words like that." She pulls Lucy down as she lays in the grass, letting the girl lay on top of her. "I just want everyone to be happy and able to do what feels right without harming anyone or anything." She smiles and gently runs her fingers through Lucy's fuzz some more "I want to see more places that I feel comfortable in."

"Ditto... while there will always be people who hurt others for the sake of their own pleasure and power, but hopefully someday even if it's decades down the line we can live in a society that actually cares about each other." Lucina yawned, closing her eyes and just relaxing on Celica's chest.

Celica slowly closes her eyes "Yeah, that would be great." She yawns and wraps her arms around Lucy as she soon falls asleep, simply enjoying the sounds and smells of nature. After a short time, a fawn peeked out from the tree line and slowly approached the pair, giving some cautious sniffs.

Lucina cracked her eyes open before smiling at the doe and just nestling more into Celica's arms. Not wanting to spook the animal and just letting it curiously observe them for a few minutes before running back into the brush as a pair of bees had started heading towards them to head back to the hive for the evening. Once the doe was gone Lucina shook Celica lightly sliding off of the bee to stand up still a little drowsy from the nap.

Celica yawned "I was having such a comfortable sleep too." She grinned at Lucy before standing up, making sure they had whatever trash from their sandwiches gathered up before holding out her arm. "My lady" She smiles and bites back a giggle.

Lucina did a little bow before locking arms with Celica and heading back to the hive. As they arrived everyone who was out for the day was shuffling back inside the pair able to blend in surprisingly easily as Lucina didn't resemble her past appearance nearly at all unless you were looking closely at this point. "So I assume you're gonna have to go do your guard stuff for the night while I wait in my room then we can play some games together?"

Celica grins "Well, my current job is to guard you, so unless you want a little alone time, I don't have too much I need to do right now." She smiles kindly as she stretches some "I'll need to do a little bit of my work out either tonight or tomorrow though."

"Why don't you go do that now and I'll just go take a bath in my guest room. We were kinda laying around in the dirt today and all so I feel like that would be the best plan." Lucina continued through the halls with Celica holding the guard's hand tightly out of excitement. "Then we can play games and hopefully I won't face anymore... changes and things will just be stable until the end of the week when we can establish a more... solid relationship."

Celica smiled and nodded, bringing Lucina to her guest room before leaning down and kissing her on the cheek. "I'll see you in a bit, be safe." She pulls back and passes the hallway guards on her way deeper into the hive. In the room, Amy stretches and runs over, purring and rubbing against Lucina's legs.

Lucina smiled leaning down to pet the kitten before heading into the restroom. Looking at the massive tub before turning the warm water on and starting to strip down. Putting Celica's clothes on the sink, smiling at them before stepping into the tub and curling up hugging her legs as the warm water started to fill up around her. In her nude state, she was able to get a much better view of how her body looked, noticing that her wrists seemed to have the beginning of fluff poking out of them. This caused Lucina to take deep breaths as she attempted to not throw a fit about another unwanted change.

As she was bathing, Amy sniffed at the clothes, before jumping up and purring as she sat down next to them to watch Lucina. "Meow" The cat's eyes almost twinkled as she watched her 'human'. Upon seeing Lucina beginning to panic, the cat jumped over and onto the edge of the tub, leaning in to lick at her cheek.

Lucina smiled nuzzling against Amy lightly. "Good girl... thank you for helping." She slowly sunk into the water grumbling a bit as she just let the warmth soothe her fried nerves. She sat in the bath for almost an hour before crawling out of the tub and pulling the plug. Using the towel that was in the room to start trying to dry herself off. Getting annoyed by how much water is retained in her neck fluff.

Amy followed along, once Lucina was close to a spot she could perch on, the cat got up and playfully batted at her neck fluff, mewling cutely. Just outside Lucina would hear a door open and close from across the hallway, probably Celica coming back from her workout and going to clean up herself.

Lucina sighed, grabbing her borrowed clothes. She then brushed her hair putting it into a ponytail and pulled the sleeves of the jacket up to change her appearance. "A little bit of snooping in your free time never hurts anyone. Anyway, she's gotta bathe and I wanna check on Marcy." She took her notebook out before opening the door and peaking to make sure the hall was empty before slipping out and leaving Amy behind. As she moved down the hall she scrunched her head down a bit to hide her face structure trying to appear to just be another human in the program. She then used her newly acquired ability to smell to lead herself around the hive. Wanting to make it back to the conversion chambers.

Things were a bit quieter, several bees and humans wandering around together getting in her way, but overall the general mood was quite relaxed. The conversion chamber guards were talking a little bit, not looking her way as she made her way inside. In the chamber, Marcy was floating with her eyes closed, alone for now, though she looked towards the door and looked a little surprised. "Oh, hi there Lucy."

Lucina waved lightly before coming over to the chamber to sit down. "Sorry about sneaking around a bit. I just needed to talk to you away from... everyone else honestly." She smiled softly while sitting down and making herself comfortable. "Marcy I've got a problem... the changes seem to be accelerating and I don't know why. My eyes have apparently changed. I've got neck and now wrist fluff, and despite my fear of it if honey is in front of me I can't seem to resist consuming it despite my fear. I'm... scared ya know?"

Marcy nodded "Well...that does fit with a theory of mine regarding the bee genetics in our antibodies. By fearing them and everything, your body is adapting to make you comfortable...but that is not getting rid of your fear, which is compounding on all this." She gives a little hand wave over Lucina's body "Mind you, you are also the first who has gone through something like this, and I can't exactly take a blood sample and study it currently." She sighs "Sorry if I am getting all rambly, I find it fascinating, but I am trying to focus on how you feel about it." She shifts around and reaches out to grab one of Lucina's hands "I love you sis, so how do you feel...not about the honey or anything else, just deep down how do YOU feel about you right now? Anything at all could help me try and come up with a more detailed answer at the very least."

"There are two other things that are in my head right now... I have a small crush on Celica, we went on a date today and it was... nice." Lucina smiled, holding her sister's hand and taking deep breaths. "Then there's the queen... Edel... I don't trust her. She's said a few things that after years of being a reporter set off some alarm bells in my head. Especially her openly admitting that her motive is trying to emotionally pressure me into being a queen. Then she said some vague stuff about the end of the week that gave me a pit in my chest, but that could be paranoia."

Marcy nodded "I'm thrilled about you having a crush, Celica comes around Mist and me here and there, she always seems super nice, and I'd fully support you if you wanted to pursue a relationship with her! As for the queen...she doesn't like to lie, but she also will sometimes not say everything on her mind...you can always trust that what she says is the truth though." Marcy leans back a little bit "I will say, that until we find more people who meet all the qualifications that raise chances of being a queen, you make it literally as of my current numbers a 1/200 chance of someone meeting all the qualifications, there is a good chance that she just doesn't want you to leave with a bad feeling about the hive while you are the only candidate that I have tested to hit that number so far. There are more to check, which could adjust those chances though, so I just want you to do what feels right to you."

"Yeah, and she probably sees me as a selfish ass who won't give up my life and dreams for the sake of everyone else." Lucina sighed standing up and looking at the door. "I think it's about time we talked privately, every other time we've both had eyes on us..." She sniffed a few times before nodding. "Alright, I know where I'm going... good luck with your changes sis. I'll see you again soon I promise." She then marched out of the room towards the queen's private chambers.