“Why, that sounds good!” Dema went cheerfully, grinning wide. “Dates are good! Good luck!”

Her words left a particularly strong impact on Hell, who spluttered and blushed in response. “I-It’s not a date. We’re just…”

Balinth glanced back and forth between Dema and Hell with a curious expression. “Date, date. I suppose we could call it one.”

“What!” Hell yelped out. “Look. Just shopping! I just wanted to take you to buy a new dress. Since it’s your birthday… And your leg is getting better now, right?”

Balinth nodded, knocking on her knee. Her foot was still bandaged up, but she’d been moving around a bit more lately. Despite getting yelled at by Hell that one time, something about, ‘Wake me up instead of carrying Zeka yourself when she can’t sleep!’

It had been two weeks since Dema and Theora had arrived at their home. And Theora pretty much spent her entire days outside, taking care of Afterthoughts. At Dema’s behest, Theora still sometimes stayed up with them in the evenings, though typically, Theora would just lie in a corner somewhere and doze away because of exhaustion.

They were sitting in the living room, Balinth and Hell next to each other on the couch, in much a similar manner to the way Dema and Theora had sat on their first day. Meanwhile, Dema sat on the armchair, softly rocking Zeka’s cradle in front of her back and forth with her foot. The little girl had been crying from stomach pains until only a few minutes ago, but fallen asleep by now.

Dema was holding a cup of tea in her hand that she took sips from every now and then. Balinth and Hell also had cups standing on the table, but they were already empty. Next to them was a plate of cookies, as well as empty bowls of dinner they’d eaten — tomato soup with sourdough bread that Hell had baked.

“Oh, also, I’m gonna take care of Zeka while you’re both out! Since she and I get along well.” Dema glanced over to the little girl.

“That would be a big help,” Balinth said. “Thank you.”

“No problem! Gotta support each other. Solidarity and all.”

“What do you mean, ‘solidarity’…” Hell whined, hiding her face in her hands.

At that, Dema’s face got a little gloomy. “Why, the truth is, I’ve been reading Bal’s books, and they kinda hit close to home.”

“Oh? I hope not in a bad way?” Balinth asked, glancing over one of the bookshelves in the living room.

“Yeah, no!” Dema said. “Well, took me a while to get into it. Books weren’t really a thing back before I got sealed, so I never read much. But nobody’s ever outside to mess with, so I gotta fill my time somehow…” She stared into the air in mischievous sadness for a moment, shaking her head as if lamenting her situation.

Balinth nodded. “Books are a pleasure, especially during these times. I’ve been reading since I was small, and it’s how… well, how I noticed.”

“How you noticed what?” Hell asked.

“That I’m not just into men,” Balinth said, raising her eyebrows teasingly, and Hell averted her gaze, embarrassed.

“Yeah!” Dema yelled. “That’s what I was gonna say! You have so many books about women loving women. That’s what’s hitting close to home, because, like, I’m also tryna romance a girl, you know!”

“Oh!” Balinth let out in delight. “Need some advice? I’m an expert on the topic.”

“Are you, now,” Hell lamented.

Dema’s eyes lit up. “Why, that sounds good! I feel kinda stuck right now.”

Hell picked up another cookie to distract herself, and Balinth pulled her eyebrows together in an expression of sympathy. “Want to talk about it?” she asked.

“I guess there ain’t any harm to it,” Dema murmured, and scrunched up her face. “Like, I’m kinda really into her. But also, she’s got a ton of issues? Things are big time hard for her, and she’s tryna work through it all, bit by bit. So I feel like I gotta give her lots of time!”

Balinth nodded. “In my experience, giving people time who still have to figure themselves out makes a lot of sense, yes, yes. Relationships can also struggle if people are swept up too quickly before they are ready.”

Dema nodded. “But what if I take it too slow and she thinks I’m not interested?”

Hell seemed to be getting more and more uncomfortable. “Are you sure we should be talking about this? Like, right now? Maybe some other time?”

“Why not!” Dema chirped, and Hell just raised her arms and made a confused expression as if it was obvious.

“What kind of issues?” Balinth asked.

Hell choked on her cookie. “Oh, come on! That’s taking it too far!”

Dema put her chin in her hand. “Like, for example… I think she was alone her entire life? Just running from one extermination quest to the next.”

“So she doesn’t have a lot of experience with people in general?”

“Yeah, Bal! That’s what I mean. Big time social buffoon, that girl. Makes her really easy to tease, though, so I don’t mind. Also, she barely even talks if she can avoid it.” Dema took her foot from the cradle since Zeka seemed to be deep asleep by now, and sighed. “And like… Dunno if she even ever had a crush before. If I go too fast, I’m gonna overwhelm her, and she’s gonna hop away!”

“That makes sense,” Balinth confirmed, and Hell looked like she wanted to disappear on the spot. “Have you tried talking to her about it?”

“Kinda tough,” Dema said, looking a bit dejected. “Like… When I say things like that, she doesn’t take me seriously at all! Thinks it’s all a scheme and that I’m messing with her.”

“I’m sure you’d never mess with her, yes,” Hell said sarcastically, shaking her head in a way that made her red hair dance around her head. “Obviously she’s completely wrong for ever thinking that.”

“Yeah!” Dema agreed wholeheartedly. Then, she leaned back in her chair, expression turning into a sad frown. “Also, she has this really bad idea stuck in her head where she thinks she’s gonna kill me, and that messes her up big time. She slept a hundred years so she didn’t have to deal with it.”

Both of the others stared at Dema in confusion, but Balinth was used by now to half of Dema’s statements to be complete nonsense, so she quickly caught herself. “You think she likes you back?”

“Bal!” Hell yelped out, slapping her shoulder gently.

Dema grinned. “Oh, I think she does! Like, you wouldn’t believe the kinda things the flowers said.”

“The flowers said,” Hell repeated, exasperated.

“She likes how I smell!” Dema cheered proudly.

“Oh yeah, that whole ash theme you’ve got going for yourself, right?” Balinth smiled. “That a perfume?”

“Nah, that’s just me! Can’t help it!”

Balinth laughed. “No reason you’d need to help it. I was confused at first, thought our apartment was lighting on fire until I realised it was you. But, it’s an acquired taste.”

“Why, thank you!”

“So, what do you like about her?”

Dema gulped, and scratched her head, slightly embarrassed. “Tons of things, honestly,” she said. “She dotes on me and doesn’t realise, and she’s such an airhead in the cutest way. But like, if I had to pick one… I was into her at first sight, you know? Because of that.”

“Please share!”

“I don’t think you should,” Hell murmured, but she was overruled.

“Actually, the thing is… I’m kinda really inexperienced myself when it comes to stuff like this,” Dema admitted, ruffling her own hair. “Like, I also never had a crush before her, you know! I never met anyone who was kinda… my type.”

“She’s your type?” Balinth asked, by now brightly grinning.

“Yeah, like… I kinda got the hots for people who’re stronger than me, you know…? I like the idea of someone treating me really rough.” She shrugged. “And it’s not just that. She makes me feel safe, too.”

“Oh, she’s stronger than you, huh?” Balinth said. “I suppose it’s not a surprise, considering she’s the one going out to take care of the Afterthoughts. But based on how the two of you act around each other…”

“Yeah like, I’m not weak or anything… But imagine li’l old me, who never really met anyone who was stronger. And then this girl breaks into my eternal prison and is all like ‘you can’t hold a candle to me, give up or die’. I got the shivers!” In reciting that, Dema actually very much shook herself for a moment like a wet animal.

Hell choked on another cookie and then gave up eating. “She did that?!”

Dema nodded. “And you know, we were in this one place with that one strong guy, and he impaled me, and not gonna lie, that felt kinda hot. But damn, Theora just wiped the floor with him right after, and then she picked me up and carried me out, and I felt like I was just gonna faint.”

“You’re really goddamn brave for just saying all these things right in front of her,” Hell murmured, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Why! Don’t worry, she’s asleep!”

“I’m not asleep,” Theora croaked with a dry throat, blushed in deep strawberry red, lying on a blanket next to the wall of the room so she could rest. “You meanie.”

“I’m pretty sure you are!” Dema cheered.

“I don’t think that’s true.”

Dema had absolutely no clue about the damage she was causing. Ever since the conversation had steered to this topic, Theora’d been paralysed by one truth bomb after the next, unable to react or defend herself. Just a little blushing mess in the corner of a room, overdosing from praise.

‘Taking it slow’? What a total meanie Dema was. This was tearing into Theora’s defences with a fully loaded carriage. She couldn’t even look at Dema. Maybe Dema truly was the Ancient Evil.

Of course, Theora called it ‘truth bombs’ despite them probably not actually being that. There was no way Dema actually liked her to that extent — this was a scheme, after all. That, or Dema was messing with her. Having fun. She meant none of it. And even if all of what Dema had said was the truth, how could Theora possibly acknowledge that? She would turn into a puddle. In fact, she was already melting.

Handling Dema roughly?

She would never be able to do that. Dema was way too precious to be handled that way. It was unthinkable. As such, a relationship between them could never work. Theora couldn’t even touch Dema gently right now. Doing it roughly was impossible.

“You alright, little rabbit?” she asked, staring into Theora’s face with her large and beautiful amber eyes and her soft smirk. “Or did I overdo it?”

“Yes,” Theora blurted out. Yes to both. “Make up for it.”

Make up for it how? Maybe some of what Dema had said contained a grain of truth. Maybe she really did want the two of them to get closer.

Perhaps — just perhaps — Theora could learn to be a strong girl and ask for a hug one day too. Because right now, she just felt hot and overwhelmed and her head was spinning, on top of her already feeling exhausted and tired and bad about all the things she’d done, and she would give anything to have someone — to have Dema — press that all out of her like juice from a fruit.

The truth was, Theora really wanted to be handled roughly for once, too.