Kit spun in front of her mirror, delighted with the way her white and gold harem-girl costume looked against her tawny skin. All perfect, and as sexy as she could possibly wish for.
With any luck, Eric would think so, too.
Nails tapped on the door Kit had closed only halfway. “Chris?” Val said questioningly. “Your note on the door said we should just come up.”
“C'mon in, I'm decent.” She turned around to face Val and Sara as they entered, and spread her hands. “How do I look?”
Val, who made a rather alluring demon with interesting curves under all the snug scarlet, blinked, and her eyes widened. “Awfully damned convincing.”
Kit grinned at her. “I hope so. Took me long enough to figure out how to shapeshift.”
“Don't tell me you're really...” Val sat down on the edge of the bed, eyes still very wide; Sara—a sleek black cat with a white face and throat—reached for the door-frame for balance, her breath catching audibly.
Kit peeked down her own blouse. “Hm... looks real to me. It darned well better be real, Eric doesn't like boys in bed. Seriously, absolutely no fooling, it's the one and only shapeshift I can do so far, and I only figured it out less than a month ago. I'm really truly a girl right now.” She hopped up on the bed and sat down, legs crossed. “So, like, don't hit me, okay?”
“Why would we hit you?” Sara asked, amazement turning to perplexity.
“'Cause I should've thought of this before. There's no such thing as totally foolproof non-magical birth control, of course, short of surgery. But I started trying to get the local feral cats to have fewer kittens, and then I figured out how to change me and there's no way I'm taking chances, so I worked out how to block everything. And I don't have to do it just on me.”
“Permanently?” Val asked thoughtfully.
“I know it lasts at least three months on the cats, I’m still testing that, but they have a different cycle. And, obviously, I haven't stayed a girl long enough at any one time to know for sure. I do know that it's reversible, definitely. The only thing I don't know is whether it wears off and needs to be redone, on humans, or lasts until I undo it, but I suspect I'm going to need to redo it at least now and then. No side-effects, it just keeps the eggs where they belong so they don't go wandering around and get into the wrong company.” Kit shrugged. “If you want me to, I will. If you don't, I won't. No big deal.”
“I want,” Val said without hesitation. “I trust you. I don't sleep with guys very often, but it's been known to happen occasionally, and I'd be a lot happier knowing there's even less chance of getting pregnant.”
“It won't do anything about nasty diseases,” Kit cautioned.
“If you told me it did, you'd be here a long time explaining how before I'd believe you.”
Kit nodded, and leaned forward to lay a hand gently on Val's stomach, closing her eyes and dropping into a light trance. It wasn't such a big thing at all, just sealing off the passage of the eggs from the ovaries so they couldn't get out and sperm couldn't get in; it wouldn't even tire her out.
“All done. I'd better check once a week or so at first, and then maybe once a month until we figure out the duration.”
“I'm here half the time anyway. If I didn't have to leave for both jobs, you'd get sick of me. Sara?” Val grinned. “Maybe you can convince Mark it's safe.”
Sara blushed, under the make-up. “Is it that obvious?” she asked sheepishly.
“Not to Mark, apparently,” Val said dryly.
“Mark won't, unless he knows I've made sure you're safe,” Kit said gently. She wasn't sure Mark would, in any case; she was going to have to talk to him about it. “He's kind of obsessive about that.”
Slowly, Sara nodded, and came closer to join the other two on the bed. Kit repeated the whole process.
“All done.”
Val sighed theatrically. “You chase Eric—does he know about this shapeshifting thing?”
“Oh, Eric knows, trust me,” Kit purred, eyes half-closing as she licked her lips.
“I see. You chase Eric, and Sara chases Mark, and who am I going to chase?” Her expression turned speculative. “Well, there's always you two.” She eyed them both. “Which wouldn't be hard to take at all.”
“I think we're being tempted by a demon,” Sara giggled.
“We should probably get downstairs,” Kit pointed out. “The kids will be out soon.”
Still teasing each other, they headed downstairs to the dining room. Kit had already filled a large bowl with goodies for trick-or-treaters—Val had warned them that there was little point to arriving early at the dance, since there’d be very few people there until later, and they’d decided the time could be better used hanging around the house and handing out candy.
Alexandra made the couch look like a throne, Kit thought admiringly. Even given that she could create and alter clothes at will, that had to have taken some time to devise. No human queen had ever been so regal, in her elaborate, semi-medieval dress with its tightly-laced bodice and long layered skirts—not even black, it was a dark garnet-red—and the gold circlet over her raven hair. “Wow. You'll have everyone in the place kneeling at your feet, Your Majesty.”
“That would be appropriate,” Alexandra said calmly. She studied the trio thoughtfully, and smiled. “I think Eric will be panting all over you. With grace and style, of course.”
The next few minutes were taken up by mutual admiration and the first ring of the doorbell—Alexandra, unsurprisingly, remained where she was, completely uninterested, but Kit and Val and Sara all answered it—but there was still no sign of Eric.
“Women are supposed to be the ones who are always late,” Val laughed, sitting on one of the dining room table’s chairs. “So where's Eric?”
“He'll be here,” Kit said, trusting logic and a hunch. “There’s no rush.”
Sara dropped to her hands and knees, and rubbed herself against Alexandra's legs before looking up at her mischievously. “There's a tradition, that only a cat may look at a queen directly without dire consequences.”
“More like just recognition of how uppity cats are and how impossible it is to make one show respect if she doesn't feel like it,” Val laughed.
Alexandra smiled, and ran a hand lightly over Sara's smoothly-braided hair, but any reply was interrupted by Eric's arrival. The tall blond looked every inch like any lady's dream of a knight, although where he'd gotten that chain-mail shirt and the white surcoat with its green shield and rampant golden lion and the long dagger hanging from his belt...
Oh dear. I should've checked what they were both wearing. Anyone who looks at them is going to think they're together.
Val whistled softly. “Wow. Arthur and Guinevere.”
Eric and Alexandra eyed each other, warily. Kit thought she saw sudden tension in Eric, though she'd warned him it would likely be Lexa rather than Mark tonight; what the lamia felt, Kit was less certain, but something strong lurked just under that impassivity.
Sara sat up. “Where did you get that?”
That distracted the pair from each other; Eric laughed, abruptly all charm and composure again. “I have a cousin about my size who's seriously into the SCA.” He swept Sara and Val a courtly bow.
“Oh, that's what was in that box that I had to sign for when it came!” Kit said.
“Into the what?” Alexandra asked blankly.
“Society for Creative Anachronism,” Eric explained. “They dress up in historical costumes, Middle Ages or Renaissance or whatever, and get together for feasts and tournaments and stuff. It's a hobby. Or a lifestyle, depending how into it you are. You might get asked if you belong to it, dressed like that.”
“Hm. Maybe I have something else hiding in my closet I can change to...”
“No, you don't,” Kit said. “You'll be fine.” The doorbell sounded again, and she headed in that direction. “Are we still going to play Clue around visitors, until we go out?” she asked over her shoulder.
The consensus was that it would be a way to entertain themselves that could tolerate frequent interruptions, so they set up the household’s aged and well-used Clue board on the dining room table. Eric had made sure there were fresh rolls and several kinds of cold meats and other fillings, so everyone could concoct sandwiches to their tastes to eat while they were playing.
Some time later, they finished a game and realized that their last visitor had been very early in it. It had been a quiet night for liminals, the few who had come to the door staying well-behaved and polite, and no one had tried to egg or otherwise vandalize the house.
With the jack-o’-lantern candle’s out and the porch lights off, they checked the various doors and decided to walk to the dance—the weather was mild, and showing off costumes was fun.
Kit didn't miss the fact that, though flawlessly the gallant knight in the company of four ladies, Eric kept at least one of the others between him and Alexandra as much as possible—but couldn't entirely keep his eyes off her.
Every bar and nightclub in the city would be holding a Hallowe'en party tonight; they'd decided to go, instead, to the dance being held by the local AIDS project. No one there would care about details like orientation or gender-crossing.
The vampire at the door looked them over appreciatively, as they paid. “Nice. You two look good together.”
“We aren't together, other than in the most literal and superficial sense,” Eric said. “It was a coincidence.”
They were among the earlier arrivals, but Val had warned them to expect that, since everyone always waited. That was okay: the music was decent, and there were a few people around, some of whom Kit or Val knew.
Kit wondered whether anyone else noticed that Eric avoided dancing with Lexa unless it was in a group with others between, or that it was mutual. Or if anyone else noticed both Eric and Alexandra insisting, more than once, that they were not a couple.
Still, other than that, it was a fun evening. Sara's friends from online showed up and were duly introduced; a couple of Eric's acquaintances from class paused long enough to greet him and meet his companions, and Alexandra fixed on one of them immediately. Near the end of the dance, she left with tonight's prey. Sara and Val headed home, sharing a cab, since they didn't live all that far from each other; Kit wondered whether Sara would actually go home or stay at Val's, since Alexandra had gone elsewhere, but squelched the thought as none of her business. Eric and Kit caught a cab of their own.
“Are you okay?” Kit asked softly, once they were home and alone. “I haven't really had a chance to ask all night. Maybe we all should've planned something different for tonight.”
Eric shook his head. “I'm all right, you worry too much.” He smiled. “But thank you for the thought.”
“I'm serious.”
“I generally do okay with Mark, as long as we're careful what we talk about. Tonight's the second time ever I've been around her, and it shook me a little. Watching her leave with a guy from one of my classes didn't help, even if she isn't likely to do him any real harm. I don't think she intended to do me any, either.”
And she did, even though I got there in time to stop her from killing him. “She feels bad, I think,” Kit said quietly. “And she has no idea at all where to start fixing it.”
“Nice to know, and I'll keep trying. I'm not going to leave you caught in the middle between us, not if I can help it. But it's going to take a little time.” The sober expression melted away, into a mischievous smile. “Hmm, a fair maiden who appears to have escaped from an Eastern harem and is wandering around without a protector. Whatever shall I do with her?”
Kit decided to go along with it—nothing was going to be solved right now. She squealed, “Eek, a man!” and fled.
Being chased around the house was somewhat hampered by Sid racing around excitedly and occasionally getting under the feet of one or the other. Eric did eventually corner her and drag her off to his bed... of course.
* * *
No wonder humans were so messed up, Mark thought morosely. Caring about people seemed simple enough, but it brought with it all these other emotions that were a lot less simple. Already unsettled by Eric and unsure how to handle it, now Christian told him he had to talk to Sara. And he couldn't bring himself to just tell her to back off; it would hurt her, which would hurt Chris and Val and Eric, and he rather suspected it would make him feel as bad as the situation with Eric did.
It was so depressing, he couldn't even get into the discussion Isaac and Eric were having about inventive ways to use some spell or another. Christian gave him a sympathetic look, while he got his game notes together, but left it at that.
Val and Sara showed up together, both in high spirits. Mark let them drop gear and get rid of coats—and gave himself a chance to collect his courage and remind himself of who he was—before quietly asking Sara if he could talk to her alone.
Sara started to nod, then hesitated and looked at Christian. “Should we?”
“We're still waiting on Dana anyway.” Christian shrugged. “And last I looked, there's no law we have to start the instant she gets here.”
“Okay.”
Mark didn't miss Val's glance from Chris to him, or the half-hidden look of approval, but he had enough to think about right now.
Not sure why, he led her to the den, instead of the closer but more formal sitting room.
“What's up?” she asked. He wondered briefly if she'd learned the carefully-attentive tone and body-language in class.
He sighed, and sank down on the couch. “It's been brought to my attention that I've been behaving rather thoughtlessly.” He waited while she joined him, her gaze never leaving his face. “I flirt a lot, and I have casual sex a lot. But my life centres around this house and Chris, and anything else comes second to that. That isn't fair to you. I think I may already have permanently fucked up my whole relationship with Eric by accident, and I don't want that to happen with you too.” Did I seriously just say that? Where in hell did that come from?
Sara considered that soberly, while Mark began to see why humans invented gods to pray to. “There's more to it.”
“There's more that only Chris and Eric know, yes. Right now, I... don't feel safe, having anyone else know.” Don't feel Chris'll be safe, actually.
Sara nodded. “Okay. I can live with that, and it's nice to know. I was trying to decide whether I'd done something wrong, or whether maybe you don't like girls in bed, only to flirt with.” She smiled. “Flirting's okay, as long as I understand what's going on. You don't have to stop that. But thank you for the explanation.”
“I should probably have done it ages ago. Before Hallowe'en.”
“Would've saved me some confusion,” she admitted. “But so it goes. For the record, I'm not a little girl, or as innocent as some people tend to believe, and I have definitely been flirting with full intent.” The smile came back. “So now I'll be flirting just for fun, but let me know if anything changes, okay?”
“I will.”
“Good.” Mark was too used to Christian's impulsive need for contact to be overly surprised when she hugged him. “Things work best when everyone knows what's going on.” Her tone turned teasing. “I'm starting to feel like I'm running second to Eric, here. I really like Chris, but he's kind of obviously obsessed with Eric at the moment. You don't want to repeat whatever happened with Eric. If he weren't so friendly and charming and genuine, I could start to dislike him. Flirting with him's a lot of fun, he's so good at it, but I'm not quite sure yet how I feel about him beyond that. You guys are enough to give any sensible girl major neuroses.” She hesitated. “The situation with Eric is none of my business, but it doesn't look to me like anything totally unforgivable happened. There's lots of tension there, but I've been trying to figure out what was up with the pull together-keep distance thing that's going on between you on both sides. It might not be as hopeless as you think.”
“I screwed up bad.”
“Did you tell him you're sorry? That can do a lot.”
Mark frowned. “I don't remember.” I very much doubt it. I'm not sure I've ever apologized to anyone for real, except Chris.
“It doesn't fix things like magic, but it's a darned good way to make sure the other person knows you didn't do it intentionally and that you want to fix it.”
“I think I'd better think about that. But right now, I think we'd better go see if Dana's here yet.”
She nodded, but paused just before they left the room. “If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am. Sometimes it helps to tell it to someone who's a bit outside.”
“I'll remember.” Okay, humans may be messed up, but some of them seem to have a knack for helping each other through it. Maybe that has something to do with how they all keep from jumping off cliffs.
“Welcome back,” Christian said neutrally. “Are we ready to get this show on the road now?”
“I think so,” Sara said cheerfully.
Maybe I should tell him Sara likes him? I think I'm losing track of who's just playing when they're flirting with who and who's really hoping for more than that. And Chris is surprised any young lamias survive? At least all we have to deal with is straightforward territorial fights. How any humans survive all this stuff is way more of a mystery.
Kit spun in front of her mirror, delighted with the way her white and gold harem-girl costume looked against her tawny skin. All perfect, and as sexy as she could possibly wish for.
With any luck, Eric would think so, too.
Nails tapped on the door Kit had closed only halfway. “Chris?” Val said questioningly. “Your note on the door said we should just come up.”
“C'mon in, I'm decent.” She turned around to face Val and Sara as they entered, and spread her hands. “How do I look?”
Val, who made a rather alluring demon with interesting curves under all the snug scarlet, blinked, and her eyes widened. “Awfully damned convincing.”
Kit grinned at her. “I hope so. Took me long enough to figure out how to shapeshift.”
“Don't tell me you're really...” Val sat down on the edge of the bed, eyes still very wide; Sara—a sleek black cat with a white face and throat—reached for the door-frame for balance, her breath catching audibly.
Kit peeked down her own blouse. “Hm... looks real to me. It darned well better be real, Eric doesn't like boys in bed. Seriously, absolutely no fooling, it's the one and only shapeshift I can do so far, and I only figured it out less than a month ago. I'm really truly a girl right now.” She hopped up on the bed and sat down, legs crossed. “So, like, don't hit me, okay?”
“Why would we hit you?” Sara asked, amazement turning to perplexity.
“'Cause I should've thought of this before. There's no such thing as totally foolproof non-magical birth control, of course, short of surgery. But I started trying to get the local feral cats to have fewer kittens, and then I figured out how to change me and there's no way I'm taking chances, so I worked out how to block everything. And I don't have to do it just on me.”
“Permanently?” Val asked thoughtfully.
“I know it lasts at least three months on the cats, I’m still testing that, but they have a different cycle. And, obviously, I haven't stayed a girl long enough at any one time to know for sure. I do know that it's reversible, definitely. The only thing I don't know is whether it wears off and needs to be redone, on humans, or lasts until I undo it, but I suspect I'm going to need to redo it at least now and then. No side-effects, it just keeps the eggs where they belong so they don't go wandering around and get into the wrong company.” Kit shrugged. “If you want me to, I will. If you don't, I won't. No big deal.”
“I want,” Val said without hesitation. “I trust you. I don't sleep with guys very often, but it's been known to happen occasionally, and I'd be a lot happier knowing there's even less chance of getting pregnant.”
“It won't do anything about nasty diseases,” Kit cautioned.
“If you told me it did, you'd be here a long time explaining how before I'd believe you.”
Kit nodded, and leaned forward to lay a hand gently on Val's stomach, closing her eyes and dropping into a light trance. It wasn't such a big thing at all, just sealing off the passage of the eggs from the ovaries so they couldn't get out and sperm couldn't get in; it wouldn't even tire her out.
“All done. I'd better check once a week or so at first, and then maybe once a month until we figure out the duration.”
“I'm here half the time anyway. If I didn't have to leave for both jobs, you'd get sick of me. Sara?” Val grinned. “Maybe you can convince Mark it's safe.”
Sara blushed, under the make-up. “Is it that obvious?” she asked sheepishly.
“Not to Mark, apparently,” Val said dryly.
“Mark won't, unless he knows I've made sure you're safe,” Kit said gently. She wasn't sure Mark would, in any case; she was going to have to talk to him about it. “He's kind of obsessive about that.”
Slowly, Sara nodded, and came closer to join the other two on the bed. Kit repeated the whole process.
“All done.”
Val sighed theatrically. “You chase Eric—does he know about this shapeshifting thing?”
“Oh, Eric knows, trust me,” Kit purred, eyes half-closing as she licked her lips.
“I see. You chase Eric, and Sara chases Mark, and who am I going to chase?” Her expression turned speculative. “Well, there's always you two.” She eyed them both. “Which wouldn't be hard to take at all.”
“I think we're being tempted by a demon,” Sara giggled.
“We should probably get downstairs,” Kit pointed out. “The kids will be out soon.”
Still teasing each other, they headed downstairs to the dining room. Kit had already filled a large bowl with goodies for trick-or-treaters—Val had warned them that there was little point to arriving early at the dance, since there’d be very few people there until later, and they’d decided the time could be better used hanging around the house and handing out candy.
Alexandra made the couch look like a throne, Kit thought admiringly. Even given that she could create and alter clothes at will, that had to have taken some time to devise. No human queen had ever been so regal, in her elaborate, semi-medieval dress with its tightly-laced bodice and long layered skirts—not even black, it was a dark garnet-red—and the gold circlet over her raven hair. “Wow. You'll have everyone in the place kneeling at your feet, Your Majesty.”
“That would be appropriate,” Alexandra said calmly. She studied the trio thoughtfully, and smiled. “I think Eric will be panting all over you. With grace and style, of course.”
The next few minutes were taken up by mutual admiration and the first ring of the doorbell—Alexandra, unsurprisingly, remained where she was, completely uninterested, but Kit and Val and Sara all answered it—but there was still no sign of Eric.
“Women are supposed to be the ones who are always late,” Val laughed, sitting on one of the dining room table’s chairs. “So where's Eric?”
“He'll be here,” Kit said, trusting logic and a hunch. “There’s no rush.”
Sara dropped to her hands and knees, and rubbed herself against Alexandra's legs before looking up at her mischievously. “There's a tradition, that only a cat may look at a queen directly without dire consequences.”
“More like just recognition of how uppity cats are and how impossible it is to make one show respect if she doesn't feel like it,” Val laughed.
Alexandra smiled, and ran a hand lightly over Sara's smoothly-braided hair, but any reply was interrupted by Eric's arrival. The tall blond looked every inch like any lady's dream of a knight, although where he'd gotten that chain-mail shirt and the white surcoat with its green shield and rampant golden lion and the long dagger hanging from his belt...
Oh dear. I should've checked what they were both wearing. Anyone who looks at them is going to think they're together.
Val whistled softly. “Wow. Arthur and Guinevere.”
Eric and Alexandra eyed each other, warily. Kit thought she saw sudden tension in Eric, though she'd warned him it would likely be Lexa rather than Mark tonight; what the lamia felt, Kit was less certain, but something strong lurked just under that impassivity.
Sara sat up. “Where did you get that?”
That distracted the pair from each other; Eric laughed, abruptly all charm and composure again. “I have a cousin about my size who's seriously into the SCA.” He swept Sara and Val a courtly bow.
“Oh, that's what was in that box that I had to sign for when it came!” Kit said.
“Into the what?” Alexandra asked blankly.
“Society for Creative Anachronism,” Eric explained. “They dress up in historical costumes, Middle Ages or Renaissance or whatever, and get together for feasts and tournaments and stuff. It's a hobby. Or a lifestyle, depending how into it you are. You might get asked if you belong to it, dressed like that.”
“Hm. Maybe I have something else hiding in my closet I can change to...”
“No, you don't,” Kit said. “You'll be fine.” The doorbell sounded again, and she headed in that direction. “Are we still going to play Clue around visitors, until we go out?” she asked over her shoulder.
The consensus was that it would be a way to entertain themselves that could tolerate frequent interruptions, so they set up the household’s aged and well-used Clue board on the dining room table. Eric had made sure there were fresh rolls and several kinds of cold meats and other fillings, so everyone could concoct sandwiches to their tastes to eat while they were playing.
Some time later, they finished a game and realized that their last visitor had been very early in it. It had been a quiet night for liminals, the few who had come to the door staying well-behaved and polite, and no one had tried to egg or otherwise vandalize the house.
With the jack-o’-lantern candle’s out and the porch lights off, they checked the various doors and decided to walk to the dance—the weather was mild, and showing off costumes was fun.
Kit didn't miss the fact that, though flawlessly the gallant knight in the company of four ladies, Eric kept at least one of the others between him and Alexandra as much as possible—but couldn't entirely keep his eyes off her.
Every bar and nightclub in the city would be holding a Hallowe'en party tonight; they'd decided to go, instead, to the dance being held by the local AIDS project. No one there would care about details like orientation or gender-crossing.
The vampire at the door looked them over appreciatively, as they paid. “Nice. You two look good together.”
“We aren't together, other than in the most literal and superficial sense,” Eric said. “It was a coincidence.”
They were among the earlier arrivals, but Val had warned them to expect that, since everyone always waited. That was okay: the music was decent, and there were a few people around, some of whom Kit or Val knew.
Kit wondered whether anyone else noticed that Eric avoided dancing with Lexa unless it was in a group with others between, or that it was mutual. Or if anyone else noticed both Eric and Alexandra insisting, more than once, that they were not a couple.
Still, other than that, it was a fun evening. Sara's friends from online showed up and were duly introduced; a couple of Eric's acquaintances from class paused long enough to greet him and meet his companions, and Alexandra fixed on one of them immediately. Near the end of the dance, she left with tonight's prey. Sara and Val headed home, sharing a cab, since they didn't live all that far from each other; Kit wondered whether Sara would actually go home or stay at Val's, since Alexandra had gone elsewhere, but squelched the thought as none of her business. Eric and Kit caught a cab of their own.
“Are you okay?” Kit asked softly, once they were home and alone. “I haven't really had a chance to ask all night. Maybe we all should've planned something different for tonight.”
Eric shook his head. “I'm all right, you worry too much.” He smiled. “But thank you for the thought.”
“I'm serious.”
“I generally do okay with Mark, as long as we're careful what we talk about. Tonight's the second time ever I've been around her, and it shook me a little. Watching her leave with a guy from one of my classes didn't help, even if she isn't likely to do him any real harm. I don't think she intended to do me any, either.”
And she did, even though I got there in time to stop her from killing him. “She feels bad, I think,” Kit said quietly. “And she has no idea at all where to start fixing it.”
“Nice to know, and I'll keep trying. I'm not going to leave you caught in the middle between us, not if I can help it. But it's going to take a little time.” The sober expression melted away, into a mischievous smile. “Hmm, a fair maiden who appears to have escaped from an Eastern harem and is wandering around without a protector. Whatever shall I do with her?”
Kit decided to go along with it—nothing was going to be solved right now. She squealed, “Eek, a man!” and fled.
Being chased around the house was somewhat hampered by Sid racing around excitedly and occasionally getting under the feet of one or the other. Eric did eventually corner her and drag her off to his bed... of course.
* * *
No wonder humans were so messed up, Mark thought morosely. Caring about people seemed simple enough, but it brought with it all these other emotions that were a lot less simple. Already unsettled by Eric and unsure how to handle it, now Christian told him he had to talk to Sara. And he couldn't bring himself to just tell her to back off; it would hurt her, which would hurt Chris and Val and Eric, and he rather suspected it would make him feel as bad as the situation with Eric did.
It was so depressing, he couldn't even get into the discussion Isaac and Eric were having about inventive ways to use some spell or another. Christian gave him a sympathetic look, while he got his game notes together, but left it at that.
Val and Sara showed up together, both in high spirits. Mark let them drop gear and get rid of coats—and gave himself a chance to collect his courage and remind himself of who he was—before quietly asking Sara if he could talk to her alone.
Sara started to nod, then hesitated and looked at Christian. “Should we?”
“We're still waiting on Dana anyway.” Christian shrugged. “And last I looked, there's no law we have to start the instant she gets here.”
“Okay.”
Mark didn't miss Val's glance from Chris to him, or the half-hidden look of approval, but he had enough to think about right now.
Not sure why, he led her to the den, instead of the closer but more formal sitting room.
“What's up?” she asked. He wondered briefly if she'd learned the carefully-attentive tone and body-language in class.
He sighed, and sank down on the couch. “It's been brought to my attention that I've been behaving rather thoughtlessly.” He waited while she joined him, her gaze never leaving his face. “I flirt a lot, and I have casual sex a lot. But my life centres around this house and Chris, and anything else comes second to that. That isn't fair to you. I think I may already have permanently fucked up my whole relationship with Eric by accident, and I don't want that to happen with you too.” Did I seriously just say that? Where in hell did that come from?
Sara considered that soberly, while Mark began to see why humans invented gods to pray to. “There's more to it.”
“There's more that only Chris and Eric know, yes. Right now, I... don't feel safe, having anyone else know.” Don't feel Chris'll be safe, actually.
Sara nodded. “Okay. I can live with that, and it's nice to know. I was trying to decide whether I'd done something wrong, or whether maybe you don't like girls in bed, only to flirt with.” She smiled. “Flirting's okay, as long as I understand what's going on. You don't have to stop that. But thank you for the explanation.”
“I should probably have done it ages ago. Before Hallowe'en.”
“Would've saved me some confusion,” she admitted. “But so it goes. For the record, I'm not a little girl, or as innocent as some people tend to believe, and I have definitely been flirting with full intent.” The smile came back. “So now I'll be flirting just for fun, but let me know if anything changes, okay?”
“I will.”
“Good.” Mark was too used to Christian's impulsive need for contact to be overly surprised when she hugged him. “Things work best when everyone knows what's going on.” Her tone turned teasing. “I'm starting to feel like I'm running second to Eric, here. I really like Chris, but he's kind of obviously obsessed with Eric at the moment. You don't want to repeat whatever happened with Eric. If he weren't so friendly and charming and genuine, I could start to dislike him. Flirting with him's a lot of fun, he's so good at it, but I'm not quite sure yet how I feel about him beyond that. You guys are enough to give any sensible girl major neuroses.” She hesitated. “The situation with Eric is none of my business, but it doesn't look to me like anything totally unforgivable happened. There's lots of tension there, but I've been trying to figure out what was up with the pull together-keep distance thing that's going on between you on both sides. It might not be as hopeless as you think.”
“I screwed up bad.”
“Did you tell him you're sorry? That can do a lot.”
Mark frowned. “I don't remember.” I very much doubt it. I'm not sure I've ever apologized to anyone for real, except Chris.
“It doesn't fix things like magic, but it's a darned good way to make sure the other person knows you didn't do it intentionally and that you want to fix it.”
“I think I'd better think about that. But right now, I think we'd better go see if Dana's here yet.”
She nodded, but paused just before they left the room. “If you need someone to talk to, you know where I am. Sometimes it helps to tell it to someone who's a bit outside.”
“I'll remember.” Okay, humans may be messed up, but some of them seem to have a knack for helping each other through it. Maybe that has something to do with how they all keep from jumping off cliffs.
“Welcome back,” Christian said neutrally. “Are we ready to get this show on the road now?”
“I think so,” Sara said cheerfully.
Maybe I should tell him Sara likes him? I think I'm losing track of who's just playing when they're flirting with who and who's really hoping for more than that. And Chris is surprised any young lamias survive? At least all we have to deal with is straightforward territorial fights. How any humans survive all this stuff is way more of a mystery.
