One

Author's Notes:

This is not really the sort of thing I normally do and I imagine it's turned out quite badly. But I was bored, and so it happened. Who knows.

Conceptually it was inspired by this thing right here. I liked the idea so much I kinda wanted to try my own spin. In all probability I've made a huge mistake but, you know. Nothing ventured, eh?

Another exciting night at home on my own. I’d even changed the bed. Thrilling stuff.

I didn’t mind. I actually rather like the days off I have when I don’t even leave the flat. Sure I feel like a hermit and the sun makes me wince after a while but it means I don’t have to talk to anyone and no-one looks at me funny when I talk to myself. That and I got some chores done so I could at least lie to myself about it having been a productive day.

All in all, things could have been much worse.

As far as days to be inside went it was pretty good, too. It had been raining on and off since before I woke up and it had only got more unpleasant as the day had gone on. When I got started on my dinner it had taken a turn for the torrential and was bucketing it down in sheets. I looked up from stirring my saucepan of beans and through the kitchen window, staring at what amounted to basically a wall of water outside. It was ridiculous. I thought I’d left that sort of weather back at home.

Something on the street caught my eye though. Movement that had nothing to do with the weather. A burst of colour. Don’t ask me what colour, I couldn’t tell you. Bright though. Yellow-y. Orange, maybe?

It was someone moving along the street, although the downpour made it hard to quite make out. Squinting and leaning forward I peered out and saw it was a girl. Maybe a year or two younger than me, hard to be sure. She looked absolutely, crushingly miserable on top of being soaked to the bone. This was obvious even with the rain.

It was quite a surreal sight, actually. This horrible, grey street and this brightly coloured, rather attractive girl dragging herself along like she didn’t have a clue where she was going or even where she might want to go. There wasn’t another soul in sight, either. Just her. The sound of the toast popping up behind me really set the whole scene off, at least for me. Really underlined things.

Only when she turned in my direction did I realise that I’d just been out-and-out staring at this girl for a good thirty seconds or more. Which was just plain rude. I made to look away.

But it was too late. The rain slackened off just enough and just at the right time to clear the air between us. She locked eyes with me. She’d seen that I’d seen her. That limited my already limited options. Curses. Either I lower the blinds immediately and forget it ever happened - while secretly living forever with the shame of being a completely callous bastard - or else I, uh…

What? What do I do? Just go out and say hello?

I guess it’d be a start.

Sighing, I turned the heat off on the hob, moved the saucepan to the back and headed to the front door. She must have figured I was abandoning her because once I’d opened it she was already halfway gone.

“Hey!” I called out. Her head turned, eyes big - worried, scared, hurt. All bad things. This was someone who wasn’t having the best day. I waved.

“Nice weather for it! You okay?”

She looked like she might bolt at any moment. That would take her off and into the night and stop her from being my problem but the thought didn’t make me especially happy. I kind of just wanted her safe and dry, if only for now until she could at least go when it wasn’t raining. I wasn’t sure how to approach the situation.

“You wanna, uh, come in for a minute? Just until it stops raining? Or not, you know. You just look - you just look a bit miserable!”

I was aware that I was acting like a lunatic. I imagined half the street was hearing me and they probably thought I was a lunatic, too. From the look the girl was giving me she was thinking the same thing. I began to feel that I had perhaps taken the wrong approach.

“I mean, don’t feel obliged. Just thought I’d offer…” I said with mounting sheepishness, closing the door even as I spoke. I stopped though when I noticed she’d taken a single, tentative step back towards me. Then another. Then another. Pretty soon she was all the way back to the flat and stepping up inside.

She passed quietly into my home and I shut the front door behind her.

In the hallway, with the door closed, everything was much darker all of a sudden. I could hear her dripping to the floor, heard her sniffle and watched her wiped her nose with the back of her sleeve. Whatever makeup she’d had on prior to the poor weather was left in streaks all down her face. At least I assumed that’s what that was. An educated guess on my part.

She wasn’t looking at me.

I really didn’t know where to go from there so took a stab in the dark.

“Do you want...a shower?” I ventured.

I had tried to think of what I’d want if I was waterlogged and had just been invited into some random guy’s house. Personally I would want to get warm, then dry, then warm again. In that order. This seemed to be the proper answer, too. While she kept her head down and still didn’t look me in the eye she nodded.

“Alright, okay. It’s just down there, first on the left, hmm? You just - you know how to work a shower, I won’t tell you. Will get you a towel though, hang on.”

I made a dash to my bedroom (where they lived) and was back in moments with a clean towel. I imagined she wouldn’t relish the opportunity to use mine. She took it without a word but did nothing else. It took me a second or two to realise that I was, in fact, blocking the corridor and standing in her way.

“Ah, sorry,” I said, stepping back and allowing her - silently - to shuffle into the bathroom. The door abruptly locked. Shrugging I went to go and have a sit down on my sofa, for want of anything better to do. My situation was something I was having a bit of difficulty wrapping my head around. Was I doing it right? Was I meant to be doing it at all? Was this going to end horribly? I had no precedent for any of this.

I did rather hope she was alright though. Just on a base level of being concerned about another person. Someone could catch their death in weather like this.

She was a good way into her shower when the thought hit me that when she got out and dried she wouldn’t actually have anything to wear. She’d come in with only the clothes on her back and those clothes were completely sodden. She couldn’t very well put them back on again. It would kind of defeat the point. This had only just hit me.

“Bugger,” I said to myself before heading back to my room to look for something appropriate. I had a good foot or more of height on the girl for starters and my tastes ran very much towards the jeans and black t-shirts end of the spectrum, so my options were limited. Still, better than nothing and a whole lot better than putting wet clothes back on again. I grabbed the largest shirt I could find to be on the safe side and a pair of jogging bottoms because high-fashion was not the aim here.

With these in hand I moved back down to the bathroom door and knocked quietly. The water had stopped by this point and I listened for a response but response came there none. I even pressed my ear up to the wood and cupped my hand and everything. It sounded a lot like someone had just stopped everything they had been doing a second ago. Total silence.

“I’m just leaving some clothes outside the door for when you’re done. I’ll be somewhere else when you grab them so don’t worry,” I said, head still pressed to the door. The silence continued for another beat or two.

“Okay,” I heard her say.

“It’s probably not your style but I figured it’d be better than being naked,” I said, in a misguided attempt to lighten the mood. I hoped she could tell I wasn’t being one-hundred percent serious but it’s hard to tell through a door. There passed a few moments of utterly agonising silence where I worried I’d put my foot in it.

“Okay,” she said again, eventually. I breathed a sigh of relief and sloped back off to the kitchen to resume dinner, which I had all-but forgotten about until that moment. The beans needed reheating and the toast was now stone-cold but worse things had happened. I’m a grown-ass man and making baked beans hot again was well within my abilities. Once that was done I took the meal back to the main room so I could sit down again.

I was set to start when I paused, frowning. The place was a mess. Not awful, but untidy enough to be the sort of place a stranger might feel unwelcome. That was one of the chores I had had put on my list for today but had eventually shrugged off as unimportant. More fool me.

With a grunt I pushed back to my feet and spent a minute or so doing circuits of the room and putting things back to where they should be. Everything looked much better before too long and I sat back down. Good work, me.

A little bit confused why I cared at all what some random girl I’d likely never see again after tomorrow thought about where I lived. The idea had just come to me suddenly. I’d sort of remembered the look in her eyes. Something about it. Oddly compelling. Just so very, very sad. Who knew guilt could have such an effect on me?

Or maybe I was just being nice. Probably not worth thinking about too much.

While I was wasting time sitting staring into space and worrying about things like that, something moved in the corner of my eye and I snapped up to look. There she swayed in the doorframe, damp hair hanging almost all the way down to her legs. Casting wary glances up to me she moved into the room.

Keeping a fair distance from me - understandably! Have you seen me? - she perched delicately on the very edge of the sofa, hands in her lap. She did look a little ridiculous in my clothes as they basically swallowed her, but I’ve always liked a girl in a band-shirt so it wasn’t all bad. Not that that should have been the first thing to mind. It was just nice seeing her less miserable, even by a fraction.

“Feeling better?” I asked. She nodded, the drier portions of her hair bouncing. Even half-damp it was starting to go enormously poofy. I could only imagine what it must have been like normally. Big, presumably.

Her eyes strayed to the still-steaming plate sitting on the coffee table. My beans on toast. I knew that look. The look of confusion I’d seen on everyone here’s face when they learnt about beans on toast, mixed with the intense hunger only someone soaked to the skin and cold from wandering in the rain for hours could manage.

“You can have that, if you like. I’m not hungry,” I said.

This was amazingly transparent of me. Not only was it laughable to claim to not be hungry when the dinner you’ve just made for yourself is mere feet away from you but my stomach also chose that exact moment to grumble loud enough for me to actually feel it. Betrayed by my own internals. She gave me a sideways look.

“By which I mean I can always make myself something else. You go ahead,” I said, leaning forward and nudging the plate across until it sat in front of her. Cutlery too.

“Are you sure?” She asked, though she’d already pulled the plate onto her lap by the time the question was out of her mouth. I’d barely finished nodding before she was halfway through the first bite. Someone was hungry.

It’s never nice having someone watch you eat so I did my best not to, but the rate she wolfed it down was alarming. She finished the whole thing in less time than it had taken the toast to toast and looked for a good second or so that she might actually start licking the plate. She didn’t though, instead setting it back down almost a bit embarrassed and pushing it back towards me.

There was tomato sauce smeared around the outside of her mouth and she absent-mindedly wiped it off with the back of her hand. That this only made her messy again didn’t seem to concern her much, or even occur to her. Her attention still seemed on the plate though, and I could work out why.

“Would you like some more?” I asked. She nodded. Nodding seemed to be her primary method of communication at this point. I assumed she’d had a bad day, so I could forgive her that. Taking the plate I stood and moved to leave, turning back before I left the room completely.

“You want something different or - ?”

“That was fine,” she said. Nodding and three-word sentences seemed to be all I was getting. I shrugged and set off to make beans and toast round two, this time with enough for both of us.

When I returned - plates in hand - I found her reading the back of the DVD case I’d left by the television. Something I’d started watching earlier before scolding myself into actually getting something done with my day.

What types of films I liked varied, though they typically included things most people would likely find rather dull. Unless they were huge nerds, like me. Call me quick to judge people but - from what I could assume and guess about this girl - I didn’t think Silent Running would have been her first choice for the evening’s entertainment. I could have been wrong, of course, but that was just my gut feeling.

“That work for you? Can watch something else if you want. Or do anything else, really. Up to you,” I said, setting the food down.. She put the case back with extreme delicacy and retreated to her end of the sofa, though I notice she wasn’t balancing on the very edge of it anymore and was actually sitting on it properly now.

“It’s fine,” she said.

Well, I wanted to watch it so I wasn’t going to ask twice. She could always tap out later if it became too much for her to bear. Getting up to fuss around with on buttons and remotes I sank into the sofa and got things going. Meanwhile, she devoured her food just as quickly as she did the first time.

There was a brief interlude where I paused things to take both plates back to the kitchen and also brought back a blanket I just happened to own which she draped over herself and seemed to appreciate. Other than that, that was it.

Her disinterest in the film was palpable but she didn’t complain about it. Every so often I could see her turning to looking at me but I didn’t want to make it an issue. She kept yawning, too. That was understandable. Towards the end of the runtime she couldn’t even pretend not to be falling asleep anymore and was starting to nod off where she sat, head bobbing and eyes closing as the weight of the day caught up with her. She was in serious risk of curling up beneath the blanket and dozing right there. That probably wouldn’t be good.

I paused the film. Again.

“Would you like to go to bed?” I asked. She, bleary-eyed and blinking dazedly at me, nodded again. Though this was more like her head dipping to her chest and snapping back again. I stood, and she followed suit after a mild delay, swaying in place.

“Alright. Now this is, ah, the first time I’ve ever had anyone in off the street and into my home but as you’re a guest you can use my bed. It’s just for tonight, after all. It’s all changed so don’t worry,” I said. She was so tired she didn’t even protest. I gestured for the door.

“It’s down the end. After you.”

Off she went with me behind. She very nearly opened up the utility cupboard but I coughed lightly and she got the idea, veering off and going the right way and ending up in the right room. I flicked the light on for her, as she missed the switch.

As covertly as I could I cast a quick eye around to make sure there wasn’t anything especially tempting to run off with. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her or anything, it was more just a hardwired response from having someone I’d never met before hanging around my home. There was barely anything valuable around the place anyway and - looking at her again - she looked so exhausted she’d have trouble even just walking out the front door, let alone robbing me blind.

Besides, by the time I’d done my paranoid check she’d already climbed into the bed. Cocooned beneath the covers she tossed from one side to the other as she got comfortable, rested for a moment and then propped herself up. She actually looked at me properly for what might have been the first time since she came through the front door.

“Do you have another towel?”

“Uh, sure. Yeah,” I said, fetching one from where they lived. I didn’t know why she wanted one, but who am I to question someone who wants a towel? Handing it over she took it and wrapped the pillows in it before settling her head down again. I watched this far too much fascination, because it was something I hadn’t even considered before.

One eye opened and she peered up at me, snapping me back to the moment.

“Oh, sorry. Yes, goodnight. You need anything I’ll just be down the way, okay?”I said. She nodded and curled deeper into the covers, practically disappearing beneath the duvet. I turned the light off, shut the door and left her to her own devices.

Passing the bathroom I doubled back. She’d left her clothes in a damp, mouldering heap on the tiled floor where they sat in a puddle looking dejected and abandoned. On the one hand it was sort of presumptuous to manhandle someone’s clothing without permission. On the other, it would be disheartening to wake up and find that the person who’d fed you and given you someplace to sleep (his own bed, no less) had drawn the line at making sure your clothes were dry.

Grunting, I picked up the heap, hoping against hope I hadn’t somehow inadvertently stuck my hand into the underwear I’d caught a glimpse of lurking around in there. I’d give them a quick wash and hang them out. That sounded like a plan to me. Maybe they’d be ready by tomorrow, maybe they wouldn’t. Leaving the washing machine gurgling to itself in the kitchen I returned to the sofa. My base of operations, it seemed.

I just needed a second to get all my ducks in a row. This wasn’t such a big deal. I was making all of this far too complicated.

It was a bit odd, yes, but really it wasn’t that complex. Just someone in need. She was washed and full of food and was now asleep. Whoever she was. When morning rolled around she would wake up, we could have a pleasant conversation to make sure everything was alright and she could go. Or she could just go. I assumed she would just want to go. Easy. Nothing worth worrying about. Just a few loose ends tomorrow, if that.

There was a problem though. I had work tomorrow. I would probably not be around to deal with whatever needed dealing with. She would be around on her own if she did not leave. I could always have kicked her out and I did seriously consider it but only for a tiny, fleeting moment. I doubted I had it in me. More fool me. So back to square one with that.

A part of me considered maybe calling in sick but the rest of me reacted with horror. I knew for a fact no-one would be there to cover for me and I had a baseline revulsion for missing work for any reason whatsoever in the first place. Not unless I was dying, and even then I would at least try to go in for a bit, just so someone else wasn’t left in the lurch. It wasn’t an option. I rubbed my face and wracked my brains.

In life, it’s generally not a good idea to leave someone in your home that you do not know. It didn’t matter how run-down or pathetic they looked. People aren’t to be trusted easily. Be pleasant, be polite but be prepared - that’s what they always told me. But that didn’t help. My situation was still tricky.

I could always wait and politely ask her to leave when I also had to leave the house. It was a step above simply kicking her out, at least. But there was no guarantee that she’d even be awake by then. That was assuming she even had anywhere to go afterwards. And that she’d agree in the first place. People who walk around in the pouring rain don’t usually do it when they have somewhere better they can be.

Then an idea struck me. Out of the blue. I did have an option. Bringing someone in to watch the stranger for me. Genius! Why didn’t I think of that?

Oh. Wait.

There was an acquaintance of mine. A girl by the name of Sunset. Pleasant girl. Met her while she was working at the sandwich place just down from the bar I work at. Must have been a temporary thing because she isn’t there anymore. Hardly matters.

Point is she knows me and I know her, and she is - as said - rather nice. More to the point I actually have her number and she’s actually been round to mine enough times to remember where it is and what things she is and isn’t allowed to just walk off with.

Poor girl must have been desperate for companionship if she ended up with me as an acquaintance, mind. Most people would go out of their way to avoid that sort of thing. She’ll likely wise up sooner or later. For now though it serves my purposes. Certainly I trust her enough to keep an eye on things with me out at work. She owed me a favour anyway. He who pays for the pizza can come calling anytime, Sunset, as you shall find out!

After finding her in my contacts (which wasn’t hard, there aren’t many) and starting the call I was momentarily struck with worry that she might be asleep. It was getting on in the evening, after all, and she probably had a life. She answered after maybe the third ring though, so that was nice.

“Hi!” She said, brightly. Almost like she’d been waiting for a call.

“Hello, it’s me,” I said. She would have known this already what with modern phones and all, but it was a habit of mine by now. “Got a favour to ask you. You, uh, working tomorrow? Doing anything?” I asked, conscious enough to keep my voice down. This did not go unnoticed and her voice dropped to, a note of concern creeping into it.

“No. It’s Saturday tomorrow. You do know that, right? Why? What’s going on?” She asked. I really did lose track of time these days.

Before replying I cast an eye towards the door but saw no sign of lurking eavesdroppers. Backing up a little I quietly leaned out to check the corridor all the way up to my bedroom but, again, saw no-one. Pushing the door too I settled onto the sofa but still spoke as quietly as I could without going completely inaudible.

“Just wondering if you could house-sit for me. For a few hours.”

“What? Tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Just while I’m at work, then you can go.”

“You need something signed for?” She asked. I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head as she silently tried to work out what on earth I could be asking her to do this for.

“Good guess, actually. But no. You’ll never get it so I’ll just tell you: there’s a girl here,” I said. There was a pause. Everyone is always pausing when they talk to me. Maybe it’s me.

“...is this some kind of bragging call?”

“You’ve seriously misjudged the nature of our relationship if you think I’d call you up to brag about bedding someone. Or that I’d call anyone up about that. Or that I’d be so fortunate in the first place. No, it’s not like that. No idea who she is. Was just wandering outside in the rain looking like a drowned rat. Crying. Cold, hungry, alone - all that jazz. What was I supposed to do?” I asked.

I heard a sharp intake of breath that suggested I was about to be told at length what I was supposed to have done, only for Sunset to falter as she clearly realised she would have had no idea what to do in my place either. I mean really, what could you do in that situation? Other than ignore them, of course. Neither of us seemed to think that was an option. She sighed.

“Alright fine. I owe you anyway.”

“Thanks, Sunset. You’re a pal.”

There followed a brief but pertinent exchange of details regarding when she should come over. It wasn’t particularly interesting, but it was important. With that done I thanked her again and wished her goodnight. And that was that.

I made a mental note to maybe get her a little something sometime to say thank you properly. I hate buying gifts. It makes me sweat, but she was pulling my fat out of the fire on the this one so I figured I might as well. No idea what she might like, but that was a problem for the future, not now.

With that done I finished watching the film, because I wanted to. With that done, I started working out how I was going to get to sleep. The sofa would do, even if it was a little on the small side for someone of my size.

Anything duvet or pillow related was in my room, which was presently occupied with someone whose ability to sleep through interruptions was unknown to me. I wasn’t going to go blundering in half-cocked and wake her up. A prisoner in my own home, that’s me.

I had cushions enough already though, and the blanket I’d given my guest. It’d have to do. I’m a big boy, I can take a lacklustre night on the sofa every once in awhile. Pulling all of these things together I made something that looked more like a nest than a bed but which would definitely get the job done.

Once I’d had my own shower and washed up the girl’s clothes were done so I hung those up somewhere I thought they’d have a good chance of drying and the hunkered down beneath the blanket. It smelt a little of her. Or at least I thought it did, because I don’t think myself or anything I’ve interacted with has ever smelt like that on its own. It wasn’t unpleasant, just new. Sort of sweet.

I did my best not to think about it, rolled over and thought about trees in domes in space until I fell asleep.

Two

Author's Notes:

I don't know how human beings work and interact, really, so a lot of this probably comes off as a stilted and unnaturally.
I'm not especially concerned.

Discomfort got me up before my alarm did.

I’d either discovered hitherto unknown, painful lumps in my sofa during the night or else created them while I slept. The result was the same either way - not the most restful night I’d had. My body was a roadmap of discomfort and fatigue. I creaked when I moved and whimpered when I stood up. Still. Worse things had happened.

Checking the time I saw I was sitting smack bang between too much time before I had to leave but not enough time before I said Sunset should show up. Slouching my way out of the room I saw no sign of my guest. Her clothes were still where I’d hung them and my bedroom door was still closed. I assumed she hadn’t woken up yet.

I had a brief and uninteresting breakfast involving milk and oats. Mostly I just stared out the kitchen window while I ate it and thought about life. No worthwhile conclusions as to its meaning were reached by the time I finished, and after I’d cleaned the bowl I had enough time to catch a flash of colour passing by and twig that it was Sunset before she knocked.

“How’s your guest?” She asked upon me opening the door. She was smiling, which was always a nice thing to see early in the morning. Sets the day up right.

“She’s not awake. I don’t think,” I said as Sunset unnecessarily wiped her boots off on the mat. This made me notice that my guest had not done this last night and had left a trail all the way to the bathroom. I’d have to clean that later.

“Where is she?” Sunset asked. I jerked my head backwards.

“Bedroom,” I said. She raised an eyebrow at me.

“She’s sleeping in your bed?” She asked. Suggestively. Her tone dripped with insinuation. I wasn’t going to rise to it.

“Well, yes. She’s a guest. I slept on the sofa.”

“How very chivalrous of you,” she said, smirking.

That made me frown. I felt I was being misconstrued. I hate being misconstrued. It’s my least favourite thing to be. Think that I’m a wanker, sure. Call me one to my face, fine. But be very clear about my motivations and don’t get them muddled. I hate that.

“Chivalry, posh. It’s just what you’re meant to do. If you slept here you’d sleep in the bed. It’s my home, that’s what you’re meant to do,” I said. The smirk on her face flickered and she looked away, tucking some hair behind her ear and clearing her throat.

“If you say so. What’s she like, this girl?” She asked, turning back to me. I had to think about this. I’d spent an evening with my guest but I really hadn’t learned anything about her at all. Not even her name. And she’d done and said so little that there really wasn’t a lot I could go on. She was a mystery to me.

“Quiet,” I said. I couldn’t really think of any other way of describing her. ‘Hungry’ maybe, but I decided against that. Sunset was obviously disappointed with my answer.

“What does she look like? How old is she? What’s her name? Anything?”

“Uh. Well. Didn’t catch her name but she’s, well, a girl. About your age, I’d think. About your height. Has...hair? Quite big hair.”

I’m not a detail-orientated person. Especially not when it comes to other people. I barely know what I look like. Other people tend to blur together after a while, at least unless I actually get to know them properly. Even then it’s touch and go. Sunset visibly despaired, pinching the bridge of her nose and screwing her eyes shut.

“I worry about you. But it’s okay. You’ve got this far in life,” she said. This sounded to me like a vote of confidence. She got me! She understands.

“Exactly!”

“Somehow…”

She grinned. I gave her a long suffering look. This is what I like to call a ‘moment’. Very fun, highly recommended.

“Cute. Anyway. Once she’s up and about can you just make sure she gets breakfast if she wants it - you know where everything is - and if she wants to leave she can do that. Just check she’s okay, alright?” I asked. This seemed like good instructions to me. It’s what I would have done if I’d been the one to hang around.

“I can do that,” Sunset said.

“Marvellous, thank you. You’re a star,” I said. This made her blush, which amused me greatly.

Checking my watch I saw that it was time for me to be somewhere else. I was, in fact, already running late somehow. I hate that.

“Alright I have to leave. Text me if the building collapses or something,” I said, giving her a pat on the back as I headed on out. She waved goodbye as I walked off and I waved back. All very pleasant. Reliable girl, Sunset.

Definitely have to get her something nice. Should probably ask when her birthday is sometime, too. That’s a nice thing to do, right? Someone should write me a list.

Work, once I got there, was nothing impressive. Unlock the doors, make sure things are working, serve the very few people who feel like wandering into a bar during the day, set everything up for the evening and night guys. Nothing to write home about. That I got paid at all for what was basically no real work seemed like a good deal to me because I was lazy to a fault. No tips to speak of for the day-shift, though. Swings and roundabouts.

At the very least it gave me more time to think. Whether this was good or not was anyone’s guess. My mind wandered over the veritable army of questions I should really have been asking last night or would have to ask in the immediate future. Where had she come from? Was she actually alright? Did she have anywhere to go? Was there anyone she should talk to?

It really wasn’t my area of expertise. I really had no idea where to even start. Maybe I’d done everything I was supposed to. Maybe I’d missed something really obvious. At the very least I hoped I hadn’t been too overwhelmingly bad. She hadn’t died. That was a plus.

So the day happened. The guys for the evening came in. I left. I wondered how things had gone at home. I’d sort of been wondering about that all day. Sunset hadn’t sent me any messages about anything awful happening or anything good happening so I was completely in the dark. I liked to think that everything had gone well. A bit of me really hoped that the guest girl had gone and I could just watch a film with Sunset or whatever. That would be a very pleasant end to any day, in my book.

Another part of me - a surprisingly large part - kind of sort of wanted my guest to still be around. If only on the off-chance that she might be more talkative. I could ask if she was okay, and she could say yes or no, and it’d be interesting. Could even find out her name, maybe. Novelty is a big draw, it seems.

All of which added together to make me more excited to get home than I usually was, which was saying something. I practically had a spring my step as I turned to walk up my street. Oddly, Sunset seemed to have been waiting and watching for me as the door opened even as I was fumbling for my keys and she just stood there, giving me an inscrutable look.

“Uh, hi?” I asked. She said nothing though, and merely stood back to let me in.

Increasingly ominous behaviour, this. She was the one to shut the door this time, and I found this co-opting of what I usually did rather uncomfortable. Best not to make an issue of it.

The flat was silent. Leaning into the main room I saw that it was empty. Looking up the hall I saw the bedroom door was still closed. The build-up of ominous was now almost unbearable. Had something awful happened? Had the girl turned into some kind of weird, gooey cocoon in the corner of the room ala Species?

Why was that the first thing I thought of? Says a lot about me.

I could bear it no more. I had to know what had happened, if anything. I turned back to Sunset. She had her arms folded and was still giving me the weirdest look I think I’d ever got from her.

“Where is she?” I asked. It struck me that she had asked me this exact same question earlier in the day. It’s all cyclical, isn’t it?

“She barricaded herself in your room the instant she saw me. Hasn’t even tried to come out since.”

This was not what I’d expected to hear, but given how weirdly things were going since I let a damp and bedraggled stranger into my home last night I was willing to roll with it. Shrugging my jacket off I moved past Sunset to go and hang it up. This involved squeezing past her, but she was only little so it wasn’t too tough.

“Wow. You have that effect on people before or was this the first time?” I asked. Sunset cocked her head, looking at me as though I were mad. She followed me to the kitchen.

“You know who that is, right?” She asked, voice low, thumb jerked back over her shoulder. I shrugged.

“A person? Not a clue, no. I still don’t really know what to do about her. Do I call social? Probably too old for that. Maybe? No idea how old she is. Looks kinda your age but I really don’t know. Never good with ages, me,” I said. Or babbled, to be more precise. This earned me a frown from Sunset, the accusatory look still coming strong.

“That’s Adagio Dazzle,” she practically hissed. I blinked. I then moved to the fridge and pulled out two bottles. Coke, or the nearest knockoff equivalent. It would have been beer but Sunset lacked my preference for drinking at any available opportunity. Opening both, I handed one to her, though she didn’t seem to know what to do with it. I took a swig and leaned back on the counter.

“You say that like it’s supposed to mean something to me.”

‘Accusatory’ now became ‘disbelieving’ and she just gaped at me.

“Do you not pay attention to anything that happens in town?” She asked, appalled. I took another swig.

“Not if I can help it.”

“Well do you want me to tell you about it? So you know who you let into your house?”

“It’s not really a house but go ahead. Enlighten me,” I said with a regal wave of my bottle-hearing hand. Sunset bit her tongue on whatever response she might have wanted to give this and drew herself up for a full and frank batch of explanation.

I was immediately given a riveting tale of musical competition, fraught friendship and pyrotechnical magical confrontation culminating in the defeat of a trio of otherworldly, supernatural entities. This girl - Adagio- was apparently the leader of these entities, and she and her cohorts had fled in de-powered disgrace following their loss. None of them had been seen since, and this was all a few days ago.

That would explain all the noise I heard. And the fliers I’d seen about the very event she was now describing. And the sporadic local coverage I’d been practically unable to fully avoid. I’d sort of blocked it all out as nothing to do with me. Because it wasn’t anything to do with me.

Sunset was very upfront about the existence of the magical and the awesome. When she started her anecdote out she’d been very clear that I should bear with her and take her at her word and I could sort of see why, now. I’m not sure what I can do when I’m told that three girls became strange, aquatic, emotion-devouring monsters on stage while battling another group of girls who’d spontaneously grown ears, tails and all sorts on account of the magic of friendship.

I did what I always do when confronted by unusual and unexpected information. I listened to all of it with a blank and impassive face and just absorbed it. Because that’s my party trick.

“I see,” I said, once it was all done. I said it with complete seriousness, stroking my chin and nodding.

“I know, right?” Sunset said. She seemed exhausted by her retelling of recent events. She’d had the kind of energy someone who had been waiting to explain things often has, and now it was spent.

“Does this sort of thing happen often around here?” I asked, and her face soured.

“I’m serious!”

“So am I.”

“Yes! Well, I mean - not often. But sometimes. Once or twice. At least once before. It’s not important. Point is that it did happen. I’m not making it up. Ask anyone who was there,” she said, seeming to realise she was going in a bad direction midway through the sentence and veering back onto something she felt was safer. I could see it on her face. I was none the wiser, of course. Probably nothing.

As regards asking anyone who’d been at the event in question the words ‘mass delusion’ bubbled to the surface of my brain. I pushed them back down again. Sure it sounded like nonsense. Sure it was probably some craziness with no basis in anything. What would pointing that out do to help me? Here I was, conversing in hushed tones with an acquaintance while a strange girl holed up in my bedroom. Things were unusual enough already.

“Where does that leave me? Does this make her some kind of fugitive? Am I expected to turn her over to the occult constabulary or something like that?” I asked. Sunset didn’t seem to have thought this far ahead as she was caught flat-footed.

“No. Well, kind of? Maybe? I don’t know! Look - I’m just saying you can’t trust her. She’s dangerous,” she said. Then what she’d just said she’d to have left a bad taste in her mouth as she winced, face wrinkling. Whatever the cause of this was went way over my head and I didn’t feel this was the time to ask. Again, I felt there was a whole layer to this conversation that only she was experiencing.

“I mean, you should just be careful is all. People can change but sometimes it’s not...” she struggled to find words and then obviously just gave up try, shoulders slumping. “Just be careful.”

“Should I do anything else? I genuinely have no idea what I’m meant to do. You said she’s dangerous?” I asked. She hadn’t looked especially dangerous but that meant nothing in the real world. Sunset fidgeted, playing with the bottle in her hands and starting to pick at the label. I hate that. I hoped she would pick up on how much I hated it as I silently thought about how much I hated it. Oh how I hated it.

“She might be. I think something broke when they lost but that could mean anything. Maybe they all just got weakened. Maybe they’re done for good. Maybe it’s all a trick to make people let their guards down. I don’t know,” she said, shrugging, label picking.

“Conclusive,” I said, finishing the bottle and finding my attention drifting to a nearby counter where I saw an especially large toast crumb. Not sure how I’d missed that. Irritating. From the corner of my eye Sunset seemed to shrink in on herself.

“I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

Sunset had said this with such gut-wrenching sincerity that I did a double-take and looked back at her. Her expression was one of genuine concern and her eyes fixed unblinkingly on mine. I had to turn away, clearing my throat.

“I’ll be fine. I’m a big boy. Don’t worry about me.”

“I do thought,” she said. Very sweet of her to say. I couldn’t help but smile, albeit a little lopsided, and that made her smile to. Much better. I decided to maybe steer things in a nicer direction.

“Feel like hanging around this evening or…?” I asked, leaving the question hanging so she could fill in the blank herself. Her smile broadened.

“I’d like that. But it’s probably better if I go. She won’t leave if I’m here,” she said.

“So I’m going to have to deal with this on my own?”

“You are the one who let her in,” Sunset pointed out. I groaned, because I knew she was right.

“This is what I get for being a good Samaritan. I made my bed, now she’s sleeping in it.”

It was now Sunset’s turn to groan. I was actually quite proud of that one.

Neither of us were sure what to say after that, or where to look. I found myself admiring her boots. They really were quite nice. Maybe boots would be a good gift idea. Would they be bank-breakingly expensive? Would I get them wrong somehow? Probably on both counts. Disregard that.

“I’ll go,” she said, setting her completely untouched bottle on the counter. I nodded.

For a second it seemed like she was about to move in for a hug, only to think better of it and instead very awkwardly sort of pat me on the upper arm. Her hand stayed for a moment and we had a very odd, silent moment of eye-contact before she turned and headed to the door. I followed her, for it was polite to walk guests out.

“Have a nice night,” I said.

“You too! Good luck…” She said, smirk returning and giving me an overly-enthusiastic thumbs up as she walked off. I just waved.

With her gone and the door closed again, the place was once again uncomfortably quiet. I stood in place, deliberately not turning to face towards the bedroom. As though keeping it behind me would somehow keep it from being a problem I had to deal with. I gritted my teeth.

Magic. What rot.

I’m a fairly skeptical person by nature, but I’m not averse to believing ridiculous things provided I see some kind of evidence. I’ll even let ridiculous things slide and feel ambivalent about them if they don’t really affect my life in any real way.

The idea that the sodden and unhappy girl I’d allowed into my home was, in fact, some creature from another world that fed on negative emotions and had been banished here as a result was one that I couldn’t quite get on board with. I mean sure, maybe it was true, go nuts, but in all honesty what were the odds of that?

Not that it really mattered. It hardly affected what I had to do right now, which was try to coax a girl out of my bedroom. Not something I thought I’d be having to deal with a week previously but that’s just how quickly life moves, I suppose. Turning at last I tip-toed down the hallway and took a steadying breath.

I tapped a knuckle on the door.

“Hello? You okay in there?”

There was nothing. I tapped again. Nothing again.

“...Adagio?” I asked.

“Is she gone?” Came the reply. I double-checked, even though I already knew.

“Yep, she’s gone.”

I heard movement on the other side and then she opened the door a crack, peering up and out at me. She really did have the biggest eyes. It was quite disarming.

“Why did you invite her?” She asked with considerable venom. I mean she really spat it at me. If she’d put a little more effort in it might have drawn blood. I actually flinched.

“I didn’t know she knew who you were. I didn’t know that apparently everyone knows who you are. I may well be the only person in town who doesn’t. And still don’t, really.”

This she seemed to consider. Then she sighed and stepped back, opening the door up properly.

She was still wearing the same clothes I’d given her yesterday and looked more-or-less how she’d looked then. Apart from her hair. Her hair had regained some of what I imagined was it’s normal glory, and it really was something to see. I’d often heard people describe a ‘mane’ of hair and I’d always figured it was just hyperbole. With her it was not. A mane was what this was. The thing was a veritable thicket of frizz and curls. Actually very impressive. Difficult not to just stare. I shook my head and refocused on her face.

“What did she tell you?” She asked. “About me, I mean.”

“That you were some kind of dangerous, inhuman thing from another dimension. Banishment was mentioned. Songs that could ensnare the mind. Eating of emotions. Things like that. You were the leader of some kind of trio, she said?”

It was her turn to flinch when she heard this and she looked away, shrinking in on herself. I felt it best to try and move things on in a sunnier direction.

“But that doesn’t matter much to me. My primary concern - as the person who asked if you wanted to come in from the rain - is that you’re in one piece and that you’re doing alright,” I said. I probably could have worded it better in all honesty but that’s how it came out.

I probably should have cared more about the prospect of a dangerous person in my home who was not actually a person at all. But no matter how many times I ran the concept through my head it still didn’t feel anymore real or immediate to me. What did, however, was the girl standing directly in front of me. She looked very real, and so I had to work off of that.

From the way she looked at me I could tell she was trying to work out if I was being serious or not. Honestly, I still didn’t really know myself. I’d meant what I’d said, mind. My feelings on all of this magical brouhaha were still unclear. I hadn’t seen any, so for all I knew this was all an elaborate prank.

Still - Sunset had been nothing but open and honest with me from the very moment I met her, so this sort of jackknife turn into fantasy out of nowhere wasn’t really the sort of thing I’d expect her to do. I was torn. Do I trust a girl who’s never steered me wrong, or my own eyeballs and gut? Trustworthy organs, in the past.

Then again, Adagio continued to not look like a giant monster and had shown no signs of feeding off my dark human nature or singing me into acting against my best interests. Yet. Suppose it’d just be best to keep on my toes and play things by ear.

“Do you mean that?” She asked.

“Every word.”

She didn’t look overwhelmingly convinced, but I could tell that in her head she realised she didn’t have much choice either way. Must be a pisser, that. She tugged at the hem of the t-shirt and studied the inscrutable band name printed across it. It remained a cute look on a girl, in my opinion, but again that was beside the point.

“Thank you, I guess. For last night. Letting me in and food and your bed,” she said. Mumbled would be closer the mark, and she was still fiddling my t-shirt as she said it rather than paying attention to me. But it was a start. I was fairly certain that was the first expression of gratitude I’d actually heard from her. Her reluctance in giving it seemed to add to its significance, or that could have just been my imagination.

“It’s quite alright. Anyone would have done it,” I said. She scoffed quietly, still fiddling. I worried she might start picking a hole in the thing soon if she didn’t stop. I liked that shirt.

“We are going to have to talk about this, though. If only to know where we stand, hmm?” I said, if only to draw her attention. It worked and her eyes snapped up to me again.

“Talk about what?” She asked. This seemed obvious to me, but that’s me.

“You. Being here. That sort of thing. I mean, you can’t - and probably don’t want to! - stay here longer than you have to.”

“Oh,” she said, and it became immediately clear that she had no actually considered what her next step should be in the slightest. “I can’t stay here?” She asked, as though double-checking.

“Uh, maybe another night at most but beyond that it’s probably best not. Don’t you have anywhere you can go or anyone you can stay with?”

She did not respond.

“Right?”

This was apparently the wrong thing to say as she promptly burst into tears.

Three

Author's Notes:

I still have no idea what I'm doing.

I’m no good with tears, me. I never know what to do.

What I’d said had clearly been the right combination of everything wrong to say because Adagio was bawling her eyes out. It’d been like flipping a switch. One moment she’d been looking fairly alright, maybe a little dour but nothing too serious. The next everything had fallen to pieces and I had no idea how I was meant to react.

“Uh,” I said. Helpfully.

Adagio lunged at me, her arms coming in underneath mine as she wrapped herself around me. This took me by surprise and I ended up standing there, not sure where to put my hands as she cried even more loudly and now directly into my chest.

“Uh,” I said again. For want of anything better to say. Very, very gingerly I patted her on the back. Whether this helped or not I didn’t know.

I could feel an expanding patch of dampness on the front of my shirt. The amount of tears she must have been putting out was beyond belief. I patted her back again.

“There there? This isn’t really my area of expertise, I’m sorry.”

“Just be quiet and hold still!” Came her muffled response.

I did as I was told.

After maybe a minute - for no reason I could really put my finger on - my arms went around her. She, like Sunset, was tiny compared to me. Well, shorter at least. I heard her hiccough and her crying didn’t get any quieter but she didn’t say anything about it and if anything seemed to try and dig herself deeper into me.

“Hey,” I said quietly, giving her a squeeze. “Hey, it’s okay. It’ll be alright.”

“We lost!” She wailed. Her fingers dug into me and man were her nails sharp. I think my own eyes were starting to water but I didn’t say anything. I was mostly here for moral and physical support at this point, and there wasn’t much I could say anyway. I mostly just tightened my grip.

“We banked everything on winning - everything! And now it’s all gone! Everything is gone! We’ve lost everything! I’ve lost everything!” I heard her say into my ribcage.

I had a feeling she’d lost everything, somehow.

She didn’t say much more after this, going back to just wordless sobbing, hands finding fresh parts of my back to claw at in despair.

I tried to remember the last time anyone had offered me tender reassurance in a moment of vulnerability but I drew a blank. I wasn’t sure that had ever happened to me at all. So I just winged it.

“For what it’s worth you got me,” I said.

Sniffling, she pulled back and peered up at me. Her eyes were red-raw and bleary - though still huge - and she had an impressively disgusting streak of snot down the front of her face that it would probably have been polite of me to point out soon, but her expression cut right through me all the same.

“I do?”

Perhaps I should have picked my words more carefully. No backing down from it now.

“Yes. For what it’s worth, like I say. I’ll help you out as long as you need it. Okay?”

She clamped back onto me but at the very least wasn’t sobbing as badly as she had been a minute before. The extent to which she was digging her face into me was unexpected, especially given she was doing it on a spot she’d already practically soaked through with tears. This shirt was going to need a wash.

“Are you hungry?” I asked.

Adagio sniffed again and finally unwound herself from around me, taking a step back.

“Yes,” she said, wiping her nose with the back of her hand and then not really knowing what to do with it afterwards. Then she decided she was beyond caring, and just shrunk into herself a little bit.

“Figured. You haven’t eaten anything all day, have you?”

“No.”

“Would you like me to make you dinner?”

“Yes,” she said. Adding a moment later: “Please.”

“Alright cool. I’m not, like, a chef or anything so it’ll probably be pretty boring I’m afraid.”

I figured it was best to forewarn her of this. She’d find out soon enough one way or another, but at least this way she couldn’t say she wasn’t prepared. To my surprise she smiled. Not much, but a little. A tiny crinkle at the very corner of her mouth. A good sign, I thought.

“That’s okay, I can’t cook either,” she said.

“Great, we can be bad-cooking buddies. Go on, you go clean yourself up and I’ll get dinner done. You know your way around, I take it?” I asked. She nodded.

“Marvelous,” I said. She sloped off to the bathroom and I promptly shed my t-shirt. It was covered in a variety of fluids by this point, none of which would really be the sort of thing you’d want around food you were preparing. Slinging it into the corner where all dirty clothes went to wait to pulled open a drawer to look for something fresh.

“Uh…” I heard from the doorway. Adagio was stood there with a fistful of tissue pressed to her nose and was just staring at me stripped to the waist and bent over a drawer. I gave her my best raised eyebrow.

“I’m not decent,” I said in what I hoped was a complete deadpan. She did not turn away, which was a surprise. At the very least she was keeping her eyes on my face. It still didn’t make me feel especially comfortable.

“Uh, yeah - I couldn’t get another shirt or something, could I?” She asked, plucking at the hem of the t-shirt she had on. Presumably it too had been splattered with tears and worse. Or maybe she just didn’t want to keep wearing the same thing she’d slept in. I could understand that. I gestured in the direction of the main room.

“I washed the clothes you came in with, they’re hanging up in the lounge. Probably dry by now. Hopefully. Unless you feel a need to keep wearing my stuff?”

“You did what?”

“You kind of, well, left them in a pile of the bathroom floor. Didn’t seem a good place to leave the only thing you had with you so I, ah, washed them and hung them up to dry. Sorry…”

You never know when something that you thought was a nice thing to do might actually turn out to have been the exact opposite of what you were supposed to have done. I braced myself for a severe telling off. Maybe I’d overstepped a bound. Maybe I’d made some assumption or other that I shouldn’t have done. I expected the worst.

“Thank you,” she said with a slightly larger smile than before before disappearing from view.

Oh.

That wasn’t so bad.

I finally settled on a replacement t-shirt and made my way to the kitchen, doing my best to avoid looking into the lounge after catching enough of a flash in the corner of my eye to know that Adagio was changing. I kept my head down and set about making something that involved pasta. Nothing fancy. Tomatoes might also have entered into it. I’m not an expert.

In short order I had something that most people would recognise as a meal. Spooning out the results into a pair of bowls I grabbed some cutlery and moved back to the lounge.

“Done changing?” I asked, pausing on the threshold. Adagio, looking appalled, stepped into view and gawped at me. As horrified as I was at this, I did have to admit she looked a lot better back in her own clothes. It suited her better. The gloves were a bit odd, but they still worked.

“You watched me?”

With my hands full of bowls I couldn’t hold them up for defense. All I could do was vigorously shake my head.

“No no no, I just assumed you would be. Feel better?”

Her eyes narrowed. I held my breath. It felt as though she was trying to penetrate the very recesses of my mind to root out even the merest trace of dishonesty on my part. Even I started to wonder if I had just watched her change, her look was that intense. Then she relaxed.

“I do,” she said.

“You look better. Not that you looked, you know, appalling or anything before. You just look more like yourself. More comfortable. It’s nice,” I said. Or babbled. Again. I always do that. To save myself from further misfortune I thrust a bowl in her direction.

“Dinner,” I said.

Taking her bowl and blowing on it Adagio sat down in what was rapidly becoming ‘her spot’ on the sofa.

“Want a drink or anything?” I asked.

“Please,” she said. I set my own bowl down and moved off.

In the kitchen I spied Sunset’s discarded, untouched bottle still sitting on the side.

For a good second I did consider just giving it to Adagio. She’d never know, right? But no, no dice. I took out a fresh one for her and took Sunset’s for myself. Whatever. Works out the same.

“Here you go,” I said, handing it over and sitting down to next to her. Her bowl was still cooling. She took the bottle with both hands and cradled it between her knees, staring down into the neck of it. I just drank mine, keeping an eye on her as I did so.

“You alright?” I asked. She didn’t respond or even appear to notice, continuing to stare deeply at the bottle. I reached over and gave her a poke on the shoulder. Her eyes snapped up.

“Hmm?”

“You alright?” I repeated.

“Oh. Oh yeah. Just, you know, it’s been a rough week,” she said with a tiny, slightly pained smile. Putting the bottle down onto the table she picked the bowl back up and blew again, taking an experimental forkful and finally finding it the right temperature to start eating.

“So I heard,” I said, getting my own bowl.

Dinner was adequate in my estimation. We ate in silence for a bit, neither of us really knowing each other well enough to make small talk. Someone like Sunset I’d at least managed to get read on and was also very good for just talking about anything you felt like. Strangers and new people were an unknown quantity, and that was always risky.

Do you make a joke and risk it falling flat, or do you say nothing and risk being seen as aloof and odd? These are the things that keep me up at night. Or they would be. If I cared. Which I didn’t.

I finished my food before her and washed up, coming back in time to find her round up the last pieces of errant pasta. With those done she brought the bowl up to her face and was starting to lick the thing clean before she finally clocked me standing there. Sheepish, she lowered the bowl again.

“Enjoy that?” I asked. She nodded, blushing. It was hard to tell if she was blushing actually given the sauce she’d managed to smear on her face. I pointed.

“You got a little, uh, well, everywhere,” I said, taking the bowl from her. She tried and failed to wipe some away, succeeding only in spreading it again. It was sort of cute in how inept it was. How she was so bad at it I could only imagine. “I’ll get you a napkin, hold on.”

In short order: me to kitchen, bowl to sink, napkin back to lounge and over to Adagio. Like a well-oiled machine, me.

“Thanks,” she said, mopping up errant sauce. I sat, keeping myself angled towards her, back straight. A serious talking posture, I hoped. I waited until the napkin was done with. This bit required a cautious approach.

“Now - and don’t start crying again, please. Not if you can help it - you are going to have to think about what you’re going to do. I have work again tomorrow, and the only person I have in this town I could call on to watch the place with you and keep you company is a mortal enemy of yours. That and I already called my favour with her in,” I said. Adagio opened her mouth in protest and then pouted, crossing her arms and sulking down into the sofa.

“Can’t I just stay here on my own?”

There was no delicate way of approaching the lack of trust that comes naturally from having met someone only the day before. As laid back as people tend to say I am I do have limits Letting random girls just hang around my place with no supervision was definitely something I had an issue with. Call me paranoid.

“I don’t really...know you,” I said as delicately as I could. She looked wounded anyway.

“You don’t trust me?”

“Well, uh, there might be a little bit of that, yes - but also I, uh, well, I figured you might get lonely if I left you here all day. You, uh - you know?”

This was the height of bullshit and both of us knew it. It was so bad Adagio couldn’t even come up with anything to say back to me. She just sort of stalled and had to look away. Oops.

If I’d had a clock in the room this was where we both would have heard it ticking. Since I didn’t though all we got was silence. Someone drove past outside, and that was about it.

“I could come with you to work,” she said, not looking up. “Just hang around or something.”

She shrugged.

“Uh…” I said, immediately thinking this was a bad idea. But, actually, maybe not so.

I mean, when I went in in the morning’s I was the only person there. The only person’s feet she’d be getting under would be mine. That’s assuming she even made a nuisance of herself at all, and something told me she wouldn’t. Just a gut feeling. If she sat there while I did whatever it was I needed to do I could keep an eye on her. It was far less than ideal, but it wasn’t the worst idea I’d ever heard.

“That might work, actually…” I said, scratching my chin. Her eyes lit up.

“Really?”

Never had I seen anyone so excited to be told they could come with someone else to work. First time for everything.

“My work is very boring, just to warn you. But it’d work, sure. Bring a book or something, I don’t know.”

Adagio just nodded, and further awkward silence descended. Didn’t even have any cars going by this time.

“It was very nice, what you did,” she said suddenly.

This could have meant any number of things.

“Uh, it was?”

“I completely forgot about all the stuff I was wearing.”

Oh, that. I flapped a hand

“Not a big deal. As metal as you looked wearing my stuff I figured you’d feel more yourself this way. That and, you know, mouldering clothes aren’t so fun. It’s not a big deal.”

“It’s not just that. Everything you’ve done for me has been really nice and you didn’t need to do any of it.”

I hated stuff like this. Really not a fan of being thanked for things. I don’t even care. Just makes me uncomfortable. People have the weirdest habit of thanking me when I haven’t even done anything especially impressive, too. I considered what Adagio was doing to be this, because I really hadn’t done anything that was going out of my way. It’d had been the work of a moment and every part of it easy. I squirmed.

“No really it’s fine, not a big deal,” I said, pairing it with an aggressively apathetic shrug. I wanted waves of ‘not a big deal’ to come radiating out of me, to leave no doubt. She searched my face for a clue of what I might have been trying to communicate while I continued to squirm and failed to look her in the eye.

“Well it’s a big deal to me,” I heard her say.

Before I could tell her (again) that it wasn’t a big deal she scooched across the sofa and latched onto me, coming in under my arms to cuddle in close. I was taken off-guard, just like last time. I sat in stunned silence with her moulding herself around me, bringing her legs up onto the sofa and nestling. I didn’t know what to do.

“Uh,” I said.

“Can just rest here? For a bit?” She asked. She was putting her weight onto me in such a way that I was being pushed back into a corner of the sofa. I didn’t think I had much choice. My arm went around her shoulder almost on its own.

“Uh, sure. If you want.”

She made herself at home on top of me while I stared, wide-eyed, into space. I really had no idea what was going on. This warm, soft bundle of girl getting comfortable half spread on the sofa and half spread on me, for reasons clear only to herself. I had a face full of curly hair as well. At least it smelt nice. All of her did, in fact, somehow. Something that managed to cut through whatever I’d used to wash her clothes. A natural scent, I guess. Rather like the ocean on a warm day. With less rotting fish.

Or maybe I was imagining that. It’d been awhile since anyone got so close or so cuddly.

Not long after that she fell asleep. At first I thought she was just being quiet, then I heard the sounds of snoozing. It was adorable. Painfully, painfully adorable. I was of course now completely trapped but worse things had happened to me.

Adagio didn’t seem so bad to me. No more so than anyone else I’d met. Bit strange how eager she was to cry/sleep on me, but maybe that’s normal? Who was I to question? She’d had a rough week by all accounts, so perhaps she was just feeling bit out of sorts. Who knows?

Some time later - twenty minutes maybe, possible more - she stirred, stretching and yawning. Blinking she turned in place and looked up at me, squinting with bleary eyes.

“Did I fall asleep?” She asked, a considerable amount of her own hair falling across her face.

“You did, yes. A little bit.”

“Pffbt,” she had to spit some hair out. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Maybe you’d like to go take a nap?”

She disentangled herself from me and sat up, stretching and yawning some more, arms raised above her head.

“I don’t know why I’m so tired…” she said, still groggy.

“Bad week?” I suggested. She nodded, eyes half-closed.

“A nap might not be a bad idea, then. I’ll probably make an early night of it as well.”

“You want your bed back?” She asked through yet another yawn, standing up and swaying in place. She very nearly toppled over onto me and would have done so had I not reached up to steady her, hands on her hips. That felt like a weird thing to do, but less awkward than having her faceplant in my lap.

“No, it’s fine. You’re still a guest. Ask me again in six months time,” I said.

Her eyes opened wide.

“That was a joke,” I clarified.

“Oh. Hah. I get it?” She clearly did not get it. I rose to standing as well and gave her a pat on the shoulder.

“You go sleep. I’ll get you up in good time before I go to work, yes?”

“Sounds good to me,” she said, smiling. She even gave me a little wave before leaving the room, one which I couldn’t help but grin with and return.

She’s not so bad.

I actually remembered a proper duvet and stuff this time and took advantage of Adagio heading to the bathroom to quickly nip into the bedroom - my bedroom - to grab some of the guest stuff that was stuffed into the wardrobe. A bit musty and in need of a wash but it’d do. Certainly better than what I’d had the last night. Settling it all down on the sofa I had something that looked much more respectable and pleasant to sleep in.

My eyes fell onto the napkin that Adagio had left wadded up on the little lounge table. I rolled my eyes. Should probably tell her where the bin lives, just for future reference. I’d probably have to tell her how a few things worked around my place, actually, come to think of it. Now that’s weird to consider. All of this weird.

An afternoon and early evening of odd events. A week that has gone in a direction that I did not see coming.

Never really been a hug person. I don’t object to them in principle I was just never really good at them. And like mother always said, ‘a handshake is as good as a hug’.

Still. Couldn’t deny that it had been rather nice. Refreshing. Made a change to things.

It had, as said, been a while.

Then my phone buzzed. This was unusual.

Pulling it out I found I had message from Sunset, which gave me a bit of a lurch. A pleasant surprise, but a surprise all the same. I mean sure she usually sends me something every day but it’s still always a surprise - I live in a perpetual state of expecting her to finally get tired of the bother.

Still. Until then. Pleasant.

“How’d it go?” Said the message.

“Alright. I think,” I replied.

Along with emotions, hugs and cooking, texting was another thing I was pretty sure I wasn’t much good at. It was always either too much or too little. Never just enough. No Goldilocks text-zone for me.

There was a moment or two of nothing as I waited, then the phone buzzed again.

“That’s good! Is she gone?”

Oh dear. There wasn’t any real way to slice what I had to say. Best to just be honest.

“Not yet.”

More waiting, although not that much.

“What?”

Ugh. How can one word carry so much weight? Just sitting there. Even I’m not dense enough to think that a single word reply is anything other than curt, annoyed and confused. I felt my stomach tying in knots though was less clear on why.

“It’s complex,” I sent back. I felt this was a succinct summary of the situation. Succinct and useless, but still. I wouldn’t really know where to start otherwise.

“Can I call you?”

That could only be bad. No way out of it though. I wasn’t going to lie.

“By all means.”

A heartbeat later and my ironically-chosen ringtone started up.

“Hello, it’s me,” I said on taking the call. A reflex.

“How is it complex?” Sunset asked, launching right into it.

I held forth at length, though I really tried not to. I tried to keep my explanation compact and useful. Adagio’s crying episode was mentioned along with my cackhanded response. Sunset listened more-or-less in total, stony silence, only occasional butting in to offer disbelief or astonishment at whatever it was I said I’d done.

By the time I got to the end it was obvious that there wasn’t actually that much to say at all. It boiled down quite simply to the fact she’d cried and I’d bottled out of kicking her to the curb. Worse, I’d seemingly left myself upon to putting her up indefinitely. I hadn’t thought about it that way beforehand but from Sunset’s astonished reaction it became pretty obvious even to me that this was, perhaps, a misstep on my part.

“You said what?!” Sunset had practically squealed after I’d repeated what I’d told Adagio in my effort to calm her down.

“Oops?” I ventured. Not really the best thing to say.

The hug was not mentioned. I didn’t deliberately leave it out, I just didn’t feel it necessary to mention. Superfluous detail, you know? I’d covered the essentials and that’s what counted. Right?

Sunset sighed down the phone and I could almost feel her intense, burning disappointment in me.

“Well I don’t know what you can do now,” she said.

“Shit. You’re my competent friend, where does that leave me?”

“I’m your only friend,” Sunset pointed out. On the face of it this didn’t seem like it could be true but it didn’t take much thought for me to realise that it was, in fact, completely accurate.

“That’s - uh - okay that’s true. Shit. I’ve messed up, haven’t I?”

“Yep. She’s definitely your problem now. Hey, if I cry and snot up your shirt can I get you to do stuff for me?” Sunset asked and I could almost picture that smirk of hers again. I rolled my eyes.

“You’re more than welcome to try. Anything you want me to do specifically, or is this just to see if it works?” I asked, turning my hand over and examining some of the fresher cuts I’d acquired.

“Oh I could probably find something to do with you.”

There was an edge to the way she said this that sent a chill up my spine. I stopped moving and flicked my eyes to the left. An odd nervous habit I’ll admit, but one that’s hard to suppress.

“Huh, is that, ah, so?” I asked, at a loss for words.

Before I heard what Sunset might have wanted to say Adagio appeared in the doorway, so quietly and so suddenly I nearly dropped the phone.

“Who are you talking to?” She asked. She’d put on my clothes again, presumably to sleep in. Which meant she’d been through my drawers. I’d probably have to talk to her about boundaries at some point if she was going to stay here any longer.

“Uh, it’s Sunset,” I said. Adagio’s face fell.

“Yes?” Came Sunset’s voice in my ear. This was the worst two-way conversation I could imagine having at that moment. I wasn’t sure which way to go first. I went with Sunset.

“Sorry, my gue- uh - Adagio came in. Sorry,” I said, ears on Sunset but eyes on Adagio. My brain buckled and bent underneath the strain. But held. Just.

“You should probably see what she wants, then. She is your problem after all,” Sunset said. At least she didn’t sound overwhelmingly annoyed or upset. I would take what I could get.

“Yes. True,” I was doing my best not to convey the anti-Adagio slant of the conversation to Adagio who was - as mentioned - standing mere feet away and watching me closely. I mouthed ‘sorry’ at her but she said nothing and didn’t move a muscle.

“Alright then. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, yeah?” Sunset asked.

“I look forward to it.”

“Me too,” she said. And then she hung up.

“Sorry. Personal call,” I said to Adagio, pocketing my phone. She held up a cable. I had no idea why she would do this and then worked out that it was, in fact, my phone charger.

“Thought you might want this,” she said, tossing it to me. I fumbled it and caught it mostly with my lap. How considerate of her!

If it hadn’t been for the beaten up charger some night-shift person had left at work my phone have died hours ago. I’d quite forgotten about the charger being in my bedroom at all.

“Oh, thanks!” I said, holding the cable up and giving my best and most convincing smile. It did not work.

“Was she calling to check if you’d got me to leave?” Adagio asked. How did she know? Could she read minds? Was this more evidence of sorcery? Otherworldly powers? Or was she just perceptive? I decided to err on the side of ‘perceptive’. Most people would probably have worked it out the same way she did. I was just dense.

No point in lying either way.

“She was, yes.”

Adagio was downcast, shrinking again. Sad to see.

“Oh,” she said. “I can go, if you want. If it’d be better for you…”

This was exhausting. Though understandable. I stood again and walked up to her. I did consider putting my hands on her shoulders. Not sure why. She seemed the touchy-feely sort, so perhaps I felt she’d respond to it. But I did not. Even after the crying and the napping it felt as though it would be taking liberties. But that’s me.

I compromised by just sort of...standing there in front of her.

“I meant what I told you before. I will help you as long as you need or want me to. Okay?” I said. I saw her digging her toe uncertainly into the floor a moment or so before smiling up at me.

“Okay. See you in the morning?”

“That’s the plan,” I said, giving a thumbs up

That was, indeed, the plan.

Four

Author's Notes:

I don't Goddamn know anymore.

I slept better. Maybe I was getting used to. I hoped I wouldn’t have to get too used to it.

Adagio was nowhere to be seen. She must have still been asleep. This worked for me. Yawning and stumbling my way to the bathroom I got all washed up and presentable (but not too presentable - wouldn’t want people looking at me twice) before yawning and stumbling my way back towards the kitchen.

Swaying by the fridge, blinking in the sunlight, a thought occurred to me. Adagio would probably want - and could probably do with - a proper breakfast. The only thing she’d had to eat yesterday was my embarrassingly sub-par dinner. A proper breakfast would be a good thing, I reckoned. Most important meal of the day and all that.

Not that I have any idea what a good, actual breakfast consists of. Or if I even had what it would take to make one. I only ever had breakfast sometimes, and even then it was usually cereal. Or just oats. I’m not an exciting man. I didn’t even think I had eggs. People like eggs, right?

I sighed. Checked the time.

There was enough before work started for me to do something. I knew that the shop down the road would be open. A quick trip out, grab some stuff that would theoretically serve as a breakfast for a hungry, heavy-sleeping girl. I could do that.

I did that.

As I mentioned before I have no idea what anyone would consider a good, full breakfast so I just got, uh, lots of things. Sausages, bacon, some potato waffles, a bagel or two? Is that a breakfast food? Lots of things. Too many, in fact. I didn’t know where to start.

“Great. Go me,” I said, hands on hips. Checked the time again. Still good, but less than before. Certainly not enough time to vacilliate.

Adagio needed waking up anyway.

Yet again this week I found myself knocking gently on my own bedroom door. Pressing my ear up to it I heard something move, the shifting of covers. I knocked some more, a little louder. There came a grumbling and a groaning and a padding of bare feet towards me. I took my ear from the door.

When it opened I was greeted with a wonderful, adorable sight. Adagio’s hair was pressed almost flat on one side and a tangled mess on the other. She squinted at me and rubbed the sleep from one eye with the back of her hand, stretching the other arm above her head. This made the shirt of mine she’d picked ride up, which really added to the picture of someone who had woken up seconds ago. I let her finish.

“S’what? Already?” She mumbled, trying to focus on me but not really being able to open her eyes yet. Adorable, like I said.

“I thought you’d appreciate some breakfast,” I said. Even with her eyes half-closed I could see them immediately light up.

“Breakfast?” She asked.

“Anything you want. Go have a look. I’ll fix it up while you do whatever it is you do in the mornings. Shower? Ugh, I need to wash some towels…”

She blinked a few more times and screwed her face up, working some feeling back into it.

“Why are you so nice?” She asked. This made my skin crawl.

“I’m really not. Chop chop, go pick something,” I said, standing aside and motioning her towards the kitchen. She moved off, bumping into a wall as she went.

After a rummage through the contents of my fridge and freezer she settled on a few things all at once. Some beans, sausage, waffle combo. Not a problem, I told her. She also asked if I had coffee. I did not. Tea would be fine, apparently. I made one for me, too - while everything else was getting along and she was showering. Fastidious girl, her. Then again, it’s probably the healthy thing to do.

I’m not nice. I want this to be made clear. Making breakfast is not hard. Going out and buying the food you needed to make that breakfast is not hard. Letting some random, strange girl sleep in your bed for a couple of days because she apparently has nowhere else she can go and everyone in town hates her guts is not hard. It’s a bit weird, I’ll admit, but it’s not hard.

Nothing I’d done and nothing I would do was like bending over backwards. Anyone could do it. Not a big deal. I didn’t care what anyone said. Not Adagio, not Sunset, not anyone else who felt like making their opinion known to me. I was just doing what anyone could do. What anyone would do. I just got their first. Simple. Nothing to it. Not nice.

I got everything done at more-or-less the same time as every other part and served it all up together, tea included. This I moved to the main room and set down. It was, after all, the de-facto eating room. Sprawling on the sofa and looked around the room. It was much like it always was, and gave me nothing new. Not long after this Adagio appeared, wearing only a towel. I caught the briefest flashes of bare skin because I clocked that this was the case and averted my gaze. Being reserved and repressed is a part of my identity.

“And you’re wearing a towel,” I said, eyes on a wall. There was enough movement in my peripheral vision for me to work out she was looking down at herself in what could only have been a theatrical fashion.

“Yes,” she said. “I was wet,” she added. There was an edge to her voice told me she was enjoying herself at my expense. I would be too, so I could hardly blame her. I waved a hand at the plate on the table.

“That is typically how showers work, yes. Your breakfast is done.”

“Thank you,” she said. The sofa shifted as she sat.

Not looking was probably ruder than looking, as uncomfortable as it might have been. I took it slowly, by degrees, but it really wasn’t so bad. I’d overreacted. My towels had been picked with someone of my dimensions in mind, after all, and on her it looked more like a dress than anything else. Silly me. She caught my eye and smiled, cheeks bulging with a combination of everything I’d cooked up. I smiled back. Couldn’t much help it.

How she kept her hair dry in the shower was clearly the biggest mystery here. If there was anything I’d seen in recent days that might convince me of the existence of supernatural forces beyond the ken of mortal man it was that. You could hide things in that hair.

She said something to me to the effect of asking if I was having anything, though it came out a little on the muffled side. I simply waved her concern aside and informed her I wasn’t hungry. She didn’t seem to believe me, judging from her expression, but there wasn’t a lot she could do about it.

Once she’d finished I washed up and she put actual clothes on. As she left the room she gave me the oddest smile and put the oddest sway into her hips that just seemed entirely unnecessary. Not entirely unappreciated, however. But I probably shouldn’t notice things like that. Probably just a coincidence. I concentrated on the washing up. That was about my speed.

Finishing up I walked out into the hall to grab my keys and wallet and so on. Adagio wandered down from my bedroom to meet me halfway.

“All ready?” I asked.

This whole endeavour still seemed like a sketchy idea that I would probably get in trouble for if anyone above me found out about it, but it was too late now. Besides, I was rather looking forward to it. In an odd way. If nothing else it would be interesting.

“Ready as I’ll ever be,” Adagio said, still smiling from breakfast. She was smiling a lot more now, I noticed. I liked this. This was good. More smiles always a plus in my book. Especially pretty ones.

I let her leave past me, locking the door and following to where she was standing waiting on the pavement.

“We are walking. Thataway,” I pointed.

“Walking?” The idea seemed daunting to her. I’d seen that reaction a lot from those around here. What did they have against walking places? Madness, I tell you.

“It’s good for you. How do you think I got so tall? Come on,” I said. The blatant lack of logic in this sentence forestalled any argument on her part and she could little else but catch up to me.

Not like it was a long walk anyway. Benefits of small-town living.

The bar was only a couple of streets over. Unlocking the door I let her in first and then locked it again behind us. Stuff to do before everything got going, you see? I had a whole routine set up, a whole rhythm in the way I did things. So I got started on that.

She was basically my shadow as I went around and attended all the little tasks that needed seeing to. I told her to stay put on the proper side of the bar but everytime I looked behind me there she was, immune to my frowns and my pointed looks. Eventually I stopped bothering. It wasn’t like she was getting in the way.

While I was fiddling with the taps and getting those all sorted again she drifted off to the jukebox, which I’d turned on but which wasn’t really doing anything yet other than playing automatically. She tried to pick something out but was stymied because, you know, that costs money.

Her inability to pick the music was something at obviously made her rather miserable, and quite quickly. She was even pouting as she forlornly flicked through songs she couldn’t choose. I took the keys off the bar and slouched over.

“Mind your back,” I said, gently nudging her to the side as I opened the thing up and manually bumped up the credits by a dozen or so. Such power in my hands!

Technically speaking it wasn’t something I supposed to do. But who was being hurt, really? It wasn’t like anyone was queuing up to pay to put tracks on anyway. Or like it was the first thing I shouldn’t have done that day. At the very least it seemed to make her happy again. Seeing this buoyed me more than I thought it would.

Her music tastes were not mine. They tended more towards the poppy and the modern in ways that baffled me. One of the things you pick up working in bars is an impressive tolerance to the musical choices of others though, so it was fine. Not like it was awful.

There weren’t a lot of things that needed finishing up at that point. I got them done and out of the way and then unlocked the door, settling back behind the bar afterwards as Adagio bopped happily to something I didn’t recognise and used up the rest of her choices rounding out her selection.

“So what do you do now?” She asked, coming up and popping herself down on one of the barstools. She even spun it around, which is something I normally frown on but I figured I could let it slide just this once. Maybe I was getting soft.

“I wait for customers, mostly. See if anything else needs doing,” I said. I looked around. Nothing needed doing, at least that I could see. I glanced over at the door but no-one came through it. “Mostly it’s waiting.”

Adagio had followed my eyeline to the door and turned back to me with a frown.

“You’re right, that does sound boring,” she said. I grinned.

“You were warned.”

Adagio huffed, sitting on her hand and swinging her feet. They thumped against the bar, at least until I gave her a warning look. I had limits.

“Sorry,” she said.

“That’s alright. Not regretting agreeing to come along?”

“Well it was either this or you kicked me out, right?” She asked. I couldn’t deny that and gave a very awkward half-grin and shrug. “Yeah. I don’t regret it anyway. It’s sort of just hanging out with you, isn’t it? And I like that.”

“You do?”

“Yeah. It’s been fun so far. Not that we’ve really done it much or anything. But it’s been nice. I think. You’re nice to be around.”

This I doubted, but there’s no accounting for taste.

Something she liked must have come on the jukebox because her ears pricked up and a smile started spreading across her face as she slipped from the stool and onto the floor. She had the most hypnotic swing to her hips as she moved out into an open section of the bar, away from obstructions.

“I can dance, right? That’s allowed?” She asked, flicking aside her hair as she grinned back at me over her shoulder. I shrugged, hands on the bar. Weird thing to ask but whatever.

“Go nuts.”

Slipping from the stool she sashayed to a more open part of the floor, throwing me a grin the meaning of which I could begin to fathom. Then she starts dancing.

I’m not a dancer. It’s a miracle I can even walk in a straight line most days. That said, Adagio was obviously very good at what she was doing. There was a grace and fluidity to the way she moved that just seemed to come naturally. Everything just seemed to flow. Effortlessly.

I had sort of noticed that before, actually. It was sort of there no matter what she was doing. Even walking. Now it was just more obvious. But I wasn’t going to tell anyone I’d noticed any of this. That would mean I’d been looking too much.

Other things I noticed about Adagio: lots of spikes. What was up with that? Was that a style thing? She pulled it off, sure, but I wondered if she’d ever accidentally stabbed herself. Or someone else. They were even on her shoes!

Oh but she could move though. Really, really move. And it wasn’t just that she was good at it - and she was, did I mention that? - it was that she had a total lack of self-consciousness as she did so. The whole ‘dance like nobody’s watching’ thing. Radiating self-confidence. Coming off her like a heat haze. Figuratively, of course. Very impressive.

Maybe I’d got a little less sleep than I thought I had? Why else was I just gawping like an idiot as she danced without a care in the Goddamn world?

It was someone coughing that snapped me back to the present. Turned out I had a man staring at me from the other side of the bar. A customer, no less. I jumped.

“Sorry. Miles away,” I said. He just grunted and proceeded to order a coffee. Who orders coffee in a bar? I don’t care if it’s only noon. I curse the day we got that coffee machine put in. Truly we live in dark times.

Once the man had his coffee he slunk off to some far corner of the bar to sulk and slurp at it, leaving me lost for a moment until Adagio settled herself back on the same stool as before. She had the biggest smirk on her face I think I’d seen so far, and even I could guess why. I think I might even have blushed a little bit. Certainly, my cheeks weren’t usually quite so hot

“You’ve, uh - you’ve got some moves there,” I said, scratching the back of my neck.

“Oh, you noticed those?” She asked, leaning her elbows on the bartop and resting her chin in her hands. The smirk did not let up.

“...mighta done,” I said.

I stuck my hands in my pockets to keep from fidgeting anymore than I already was.

“Can you dance?” She asked.

“Don’t make me laugh. Bitterly,” I said. She did not get the reference. “No, no I cannot dance. I mostly just flail, and that’s only when I’m drunk. Rest of the time I just, you know, avoid it.”

Even when they were fuzzy the vague memories of anytime I’d ever danced still haunted me. Horrible, horrible mistakes I had made in the past, never to be repeated!

“You should do it, it’s fun. Even if you’re bad at it. I bet you’re not that bad anyway.”

“Oh, you say that now. Pray you never find out.”

She giggled. An honest-to-goodness giggle. I hadn’t ever really heard anyone make a noise like it. Except Sunset, I guess - once or twice. Have I ever giggled and just not noticed? I doubt it.

It’s quite nice, really. At least Sunset does it. Adagio too. Couldn’t tell you why. Just is.

“You’re probably the total triple threat kind of deal, right?” I asked. She certainly seemed the sort, at least to me. Just gave off that sort of her. From the look she gave me on hearing this though I had the feeling she had not heard this expression before.

“Triple what?” She asked. How had she not heard this?

“You know. Dancing, acting, singing all in one. Or is it singing, dancing and acting? It’s the combination that’s important. Of the three. In one person. Triple threat, see?”

Her face fell.

“Oh. Not really. Not now,” she said, shrinking in on herself. Was it something I said? What can I say to fix it?

“I think you do yourself a disservice. Can certainly dance! Bet you could acct if you wanted. And weren’t you in some kind of musical competition not long ago? That’s what I heard. And sure you didn’t win - again, what I heard - but-”

“What do you do for fun?” She asked, bringing my sentence to a crashing halt and leaving me standing there with my mouth half open.

I had not been making it better. I had been digging myself deeper. I could see it now. Whoops.

“Oh, uh, like here or, ah, in general?” I asked, doing my best to act as though the conversation hadn’t gone somewhere obviously uncomfortable for her. Apparently my incredibly awkward wording of that question helped a little, as a flicker of her former smile returned. Only a flicker, but that was a start.

“What would you have done last night if I hadn’t been there?”

“Pretty much what I did when you were there. Only alone.”

This wasn’t an exaggeration. I’m not an interesting person. Honestly.

“Well we’ll have to fix that, won’t we?” She asked, with overwhelming sweetness. Not ominous at all.

Further sinister statements were cut short by the appearance of further customers (these one here to meet the coffee man from before, it seemed), and following them business seemed to pick up. This kept me more-or-less occupied until my shift came to an end, by which point Adagio looked about set to drop dead from sheer boredom. I had warned her.

“I did warn you,” I said after clocking out. I found her on a stool again, head resting on her arms atop the bar. I would personally recommend against doing that if you had as much as Adagio did, but it was still quite early so no-one had really spilt anything on the bar. Yet. If she’d done the same thing later she probably would have sat up with considerable more beer in her hair than she’d started with.

As it stands she just sat up and looked at me with anguish.

“So...boring…”

“You’ll live. It’s over now anyway. Come on.”

With her in tow I left, waving to my compatriots in the bar - who had responded to Adagio’s presence and the reason for it with bemused acceptance - and heading out into the early evening. A nice day it was, too. Mild!

Adagio’s sense of direction was evidently not the greatest as she immediately started heading off the wrong way until she saw that I was just standing still giving her an odd look at which point she came back looking only slightly embarrassed. Then we got going properly.

As we walked a thought occurred to me. It occurred so hard I actually slowed down and then stopped walking entirely. Something Adagio noticed, turning back.

“What?” She asked, cocking an eyebrow at me. I gestured vaguely at all of her. Specifically it was at her outfit, but she couldn’t have guessed that.

“You must have had other stuff, right? More clothes? Things like that? Where’d all that go?” I asked. I doubted this was going to be a comfortable subject of conversation but it was - in my mind - important. I could already see Adagio’s face falling and she started to rub her arm nervously.

“Everything we had is back at the house…” she said. This was a start.

“Well...can we not go...get it?” This seemed so obvious to me I wasn’t sure why I had to ask it. Adagio winced at the very suggestion.

“That’s probably not a good idea.”

“Why not? You got the keys don’t you?” I asked. Not sure where she could have been holding them right that minute but girls usually surprised me with the ways they got around how pocket-less their clothing tended to be. Adagio could probably hide the keys in her hair, as I had previously speculated. Not that she probably would. That’d be silly. But she could.

“We got kicked out. He’s probably changed the locks. And he might be there. I just…” She said, trailing to a halt and leaving me hanging.

“He?” I asked.

“The guy who owned it. We just rented. He wasn’t happy when he found out what we did…”

“What you did?” I asked. She gave me a significant look. It clicked.

“Oh. Yeah. Magic. Singing. Mind control. I got you.”

I was not even going to get into that. If it was true then great, I was palling around with some kind of evil creature who just happened to have fallen on hard times. If this was all some extended practical joke at my expense then I could play along until the punchline hit then act dumb so everyone could laugh and have a good time. Neither was going to change how I was going to act. I’m stubborn like that. It’s mostly laziness. To act differently would take effort.

“He got angry…” Adagio elaborated. Her nervousness was obvious, coming off her in waves.

I made a rash decision. Reaching out I took one of her hands - now hanging limp - in both of mine. That got her attention.

“I’m sure he did. And that sucks. But this is still something I think would be a good idea. Can’t keep wearing the same thing every day forever, hmm? You don’t even need to worry about it. Wait around a corner while I do it if you like. I’ll be with you either way, okay? I won’t leave you on your own. For what it’s worth,” I said. Speeches aren’t my strong suit.

She stared at me like I was mad for a couple of seconds before what I’d said seemed to register.

“O-okay. I guess you’re right.”

Why was I holding her hand, exactly? What an odd thing to do. Not like me at all. Touching people - ew. I let it go. It had served its purpose anyway. Got the job done. And that was all that mattered. Progress. Her getting some of her stuff back was a step towards her getting off and out of the flat. Right? Right.

She told me the location of her house - former house - and using my mental map of the town I determined it was a little out of the way, but well walkable. We set off. Along the way I do have to admit that I found a certain amount of antipathy coming Adagio’s way from a good number of the people we passed. Especially the younger people - they looked daggers at her and I could practically feel her shrinking in on herself. It wounded me to see it.

I did my best to be a big, lumbering object that could interpose itself between the world and her. Whether she noticed this or appreciated it or if I was even any good was unclear, but it felt good to be doing something.

After we’d walked about halfway (by my estimation) she actually reached out for and grabbed my hand. This was a super-weird thing to do but, you know, whatever makes you feel safe I guess? I looked at her when she did it and she just sort of shrugged and mumbled so make of that what you will.

Kind of cute though. It lasted for a block or so before she took it back. I don’t get girls, man.

Anyway.

We were getting out of the heart of town by the time we reached where the house was, and things were quiet and far more relaxed. Rounding a corner we arrived at our destination. I saw a house number and quickly did some work in my head to figure out which one was the one we were meant to be going to. I then started going towards it. Riveting.

There was a man outside the house doing something with the lock. On catching sight of him Adagio squeaked and hid behind me. Properly this time, and intentionally. As in using me to block herself from view completely. This wasn’t effective, as her hair was wider than I was. Still, points for effort.

“Something wrong?” I asked, trying to glance over my shoulder and not getting very far. Adagio continued to duck down, clinging to my shirt to keep me from moving too much and giving away her position.

“That’s the guy who owns the house,” she hissed. I looked at him again. He did have a certain ‘homeowner’ air about him. In that he looked like the kind of miserable bastard who would decide to become a landlord. It was a mindset I really couldn’t grasp. Someone had to do it, I supposed, I just knew it’d never be me.

“That’s a stroke of luck,” I said.

“It really isn’t,” I heard from behind me. I rolled my eyes.

“He can let us in.”

“I really don’t think he will.”

“I’ll ask nicely.”

“I really don’t think that’ll work.”

I pouted and twisted, delicately removing her hand from where it had been gripping my shirt.

“Ye of little faith,” I said. She did look genuinely scared though, which gave me pause. I tried to appear reassuring. I didn’t have much practise with this. “Look. You can just stay here if you like. I’ll go do it and, uh, try to get stuff that looks useful for you. I guess. You can just stay out of sight and away from him if you’d prefer.”

For a second it looked like she might have taken me up on this but then I saw her resolve stiffen.

“No. I’ll come with you,” she said. Then she added: “Thanks for doing this…”

I waved this off.”

“Pah. Don’t thank me yet. Or ever, actually. It’s fine. Come on.”

We approached, Adagio continuing to mostly hide behind me as we went. This was fine. I hardly expected her to run up and dropkick the guy or something.

Whatever he was doing with the lock - changing it, presumably, as the owner - he was taking his sweet time and was still fiddling and swearing to himself as we walked up the path. I think it was the sound of Adagio’s ridiculous shoes on the paving that made him turn around.

He saw me and didn’t care. Then he saw the enormous poof of hair cowering in my shadow and his face turned to thunder.

“You!”

I moved so that I was back in his eyeline, which took him by surprise.

“Yes, me, hi. Just here to pick up a few things. You know. Belongings. Stuff.”

His confusion over who or what I was and why I was there was momentary. His eyes flashed to Adagio - who I could legitimately feel trembling behind me - and then back to me.

“No. Everything in that house is going to their back rent,” he said.

I was fairly certain this was illegal. Fairly certain. Pretty sure.

This must have been written across my face because a particularly nasty expression appeared on his.

“Unless she feels like making an issue of that?”

Behind me I felt Adagio shaking her head furiously. The nasty expression widened, becoming something very much like a sneer.

“Didn’t think so.”

I did not like this man. As much as I might be able to sympathise with, you know, a landlord who is somehow bamboozled into allowing a trio of girls stay rent-free in one of his properties for an indeterminate amount of time, the level of glee he was taking in this was unseemly. I wasn’t a fan.

I was not going away empty-handed, I knew that much.

“She can at least get clothes, right? Or did you have something specific planned for those?” I asked.

His sneer shifted into something like low-key fury. I could almost see it rolling beneath the surface. He was very obviously weighing up options in his head. I imagined they varied from pleasing thoughts of violence inflicted on myself, through repeated demands that I should leave at once all set against the very real possibility that if he gave in on this we would walk away quietly on our own.

This last possibility clearly won out, as he made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a grunt.

“Fine. Just clothes. You have five minutes,” he said, turning around and opening up the door while grumbling to himself. With it open he spun and wagged a finger in my face.

“Five minutes,” he repeated.

“You and I both know that’s impossible,” I said, pushing past him into the house with Adagio in tow. As if you could accomplish anything worthwhile in five minutes.

I got about five steps into the house before I found a lightswitch and was promptly blinded with how gaudy everything was.

“Jesus Christ,” I said, covering my eyes. The house was rammed with some of the most expensive stuff I had likely ever seen in my life. I didn’t even recognise most of it, it just radiated luxury. I was afraid of touching anything in case my plebeian hands somehow ended up breaking everything at once.

And my God, the colours. This was another day I was glad that I was colourblind or else I’d have probably just lost my mind. So bright, so clashing. Or did it all go together? I did not know.

Still, there was a lot of shit in this house that looked like it had cost a lot of money.

“Are you don’t want to contest him on any of this? This is yours, right?” I asked, turning back to Adagio who was dolefully keeping her eyes on her boots. She shook her head.

“None of it’s ours,” she said. I looked around again. Everything was still there, in what had been their house, where they had lived with their stuff. I felt I was missing something.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean we didn’t buy any of it. We just...convinced people that they should give it to us.”

That took me a second to work out.

“Huh. Oh, right. Magic again, yeah?”

She nodded. Yeah sure, magic - let’s go with that.

“You must have been pretty convincing,” I said. She shrugged.

That wasn’t going anywhere.

“So,uh, clothes? Upstairs in a bedroom or something?” I asked, pointing to some stairs. She nodded and up we went.

The decor and surroundings did not get any more subtle. From the looks of things each of them had had a room of their own and had stuffed it accordingly with whatever they’d felt like. Adagio steered me down a hall towards the furthest bedroom, which was hers.

It was a lot more cohesive than the rest of the house, which was nice, but still just as stuffed with eye-wateringly pricey looking objects. The bed at least was bigger than mine, as was the television. Maybe this magic business has some perks to it?

There were also wardrobes, which snapped me back to the reason why we’d come in the first place. I put my hands on my hips and faced Adagio, who was clearly still very uncomfortable all of this. Best to press forward.

“Now, I’m going to level with you. I don’t understand clothes. So you’ll probably have to just...direct me. Or you just pile up whatever it is you want on the bed and I pack. Or whatever. How you want to play this?” I asked.

“That sounds good. The ‘you packing’ plan,” she said.

“Then let’s get cracking. Five minutes!”

We got cracking. I stood around like an idiot while she emptied drawers onto the bed and yanked things off of rails. As the pile grew and grew I felt like I really wasn’t fulfilling my part of the plan, mostly because I didn’t actually have anything to pack clothes into.

“You got a bag or something?” I asked.

She pointed up to the top of one of the wardrobes and I see a handle poking up. I do have the height advantage, so I was the one to reach up for it. A cascade of miscellaneous nonsense rained down on me the instant I tried to tug the bag out.

Weird little clutch bag things, scarves, a few shoes and more besides all bounced off the top of my head as I just stood there and weathered it. Adagio was standing off to one side, giving me a sympathetic look but little else in the way of actual support or assistance.

“Ow,” I said once the barrage had slackened off. A purse fell on my foot.

“Sorry…” Adagio said.

I pulled the bag down somewhat more carefully. On the plus side it was a quality bag. Some enormous, super-duper ultra-travel model or whatever. I imagined they’d paid extra to make the thing bigger on the inside than it looked on the outside.

Then I started packing.

At first I tried to be neat and even tried folding one or two items but the time pressure was overwhelming. I just ended up stuffing handfuls of clothing into the bag as quickly as Adagio was tossing them onto the bed. This worked for me, as it meant that if the items were intimate - as an alarming number of them seemed to be - I could look away and stuff without watching.

This amused Adagio no end, and it was nice to see her smiling again, if it was at my expense.

We ended up filling at least three bags like that one, by the way. Three!

The more we’d crammed into the first one the more confidence she seemed to build and soon she’d branched out from clothes. Shoes, belts - whatever. Things I didn’t understand. Fair enough, in my book.

I could happily live in the same set of clothes until they fell to bits and survive off of the same sandwich every day for the rest of my life but most people preferred a little variety. That, and makeup and various related products - which I saw her gathering up by the armful - was expensive as shit. Not the sort of thing you’d want to leave behind. This I knew.

That’s about all I knew about makeup and related crap, but it was a good thing to remember.

Ooh, possible Sunset present idea - makeup? She likes that, right? I’ve never actually asked. As an idea it also suffers from the same problem as the boots, in that I’d have no idea where to start. Less than ideal. Keep trying.

“You done here?” Came a gruff voice, making me very nearly jump out of my skin. The landlord was watching proceedings with arms folded. He didn’t seem any less grumpy than he had been before. He was also tapping his foot. The very picture of unhappy impatience. I looked to Adagio.

“Are we done?” I asked. We did have three bags of stuff, after all. She hesitated, looking from the bags to her room in general and then the landlord. Then back to me. She nodded, somewhat sadly.

“We’re done,” I said.”

“Good. Get out,” he said. Charming gentleman.

The first and biggest bag I slung onto my back, arms looped through the handles. A classic trick. The others I just picked up. I felt I must have at least doubled in weight but it wasn’t so bad. Swaying backwards I spent a giddy second entertaining the possibility of toppling over but managed to stay upright, rocking forwards again and breathing a sigh of relief. That would have been embarrassing.

“After you,” I said to Adagio who - with one last fearful flick of the eyes of the landlord - left the house as quickly as possible. I followed at a more lumbering, deliberate pace. Again, the risk of falling over was both real and also quite thrilling.

“I don’t know why you’re helping that one,” the landlord said as I passed. Pointedly. Loudly. He also made a deliberate effort to move back just enough to not be actually helpfully out of my way.

“It’s mostly for me. I’m fattening her up for Sunday roast, you see? The clothes are for me to wear while I’m eating. They flatter my figure. Thanks again for your help,” I said with as straight a face as I could manage.

It must have been a pretty good straight face as the man was so blindsided by what I’d said that he couldn't think of a response by the time I’d walked off and out the house, Adagio having to jog a little to keep up with me.

“What did you say to him?” She asked, risking a look back at the house. The landlord had not yet emerged. I shrugged, which was no mean feat with the bags I was carrying.

“Just a bad joke.”

I was not walking back home carrying those bags, so we located a bus stop. After a short wait we were then on a bus and heading back. This was a novelty to me, as I hadn’t taken a bus trip in years - certainly not since coming to this place. I looked out as we rolled past bits of town I’d never seen before. Nice place. Quiet.

I turned from the window and found Adagio staring at me. It was quite intense. I may have clutched the bag on my lap a little tighter. Its firm and unyielding presence gave me strength. The others were on the seat next to me, one atop the other.

“Why are you helping me?” She asked me flatly.

“I need a reason?”

“Yes. What are you getting out of this?”

I noticed that she was keeping her voice reasonably low through this, likely because of the others on the bus. I didn’t miss a word though. Her voice carried no matter how quiet she got. Must have just had one of those, er, voices.

“Nothing?” I ventured. She didn’t look convinced. “It’s a good excuse to leave the house but that’s about it.”

My flippancy was clearly not what she was after, because this just made her unhappy.

Seemed a bit weird to me you could flip from ‘falling asleep on someone’ to ‘implicitly accusing them of having ulterior motives’ but I was not privy to Adagio’s thought processes. I’m sure it all made perfect sense to her.

“I heard him ask you,” she said, as though this was a revelation. It was not. I imagined she must have heard him as she was leaving the house. He hadn’t exactly been quiet about it.

“Figured. Don’t worry about it.”

“I do though! Why are you doing this? You don’t have to, so why?”

There wasn’t anything I could really say to this. I tried and I failed and just ended up shrugging at her. I really didn’t know what she wanted to hear from me.

“Because you asked?” I ventured.

She growled. As in, straight-up growled at me. I hugged the bag tighter still as she struggled to regain some composure, sweeping back that enormous hair of hers and taking a deep breath or two. Then she started over.

“I’ve never...no-one has ever done anything for me without me...making them do it. They never even had the chance. We - I - just got people to obey us. And they did. Never because they actually wanted to, but because we made them think they wanted to. And now that’s gone, and everyone hates us. Hates me. But you...why? There has to be a reason why.”

“You’re making this a bigger deal than it is-”

“No I’m not! No I’m not. It is a big deal. For me it is. I had a plan and everything was working and then it all went wrong and I lost everything and nothing works now and my sisters are gone and - and -”

And she was starting to cry and people were starting to look - some of whom clearly recognised her and were clearly enjoying the spectacle. Bastards. I was moved to action.

“Hey, hey now,” I said, shifting from my seat, putting the bag down and moving over to side beside her. I barely had time to tentatively put an arm around her shoulder she’d wrapped herself about me and started bawling into my shirt. Again.

“I promised I’d get them home and I failed!” She wailed, face pressed into my torso.

What exactly am I meant to say to that? I have mentioned how bad I am at comforting crying girls, yes? At least I knew enough to pull her in closer, if only to hide her better from view. I also glared at anyone who happened to be looking and most quickly turned away and minded their own business.

“You didn’t fail. You did everything you could. It’s not your fault,” I said. Making it up, mostly. I assumed it was what she would want to hear. She sobbed louder and clung on tighter, which could have meant what I’d said was working or wasn’t. I had no idea.

“Hey hey, you’re okay. Things might be bad right now but it’s not all over, is it? Can pull back together, can try again. Maybe it won’t be exactly the same but it can just as good. You never know,” I said. Again, bullshitting. I’m not the person to go to for comfort. Her sobbing was quieting down though. Or so it seemed to me.

“And if nothing else you got me. Like I said before,” I said.

She sniffled.

“So oh shit, I guess things are kinda messed up, now I say that. Like you hadn’t suffered enough.”

She made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a hiccup of grief.

“I’m glad I found you,” Adagio said. I’ll admit I felt a flutter at this. Just a little one, right in the chest. Nice to feel wanted, you know? I gave her a squeeze, to make sure she really knew I was there.

“Let’s go home, eh? You could even put on a whole new outfit, if you felt like it. Or not. World is your oyster, you know?”

Nodding, she didn’t disengage and instead just curled into me some more and stayed there until we hit our stop. This was a little odd for me, but I was the one who’d moved in to comfort her so it was too late to complain.

And it wasn’t so bad. If I was going to be honest - and the odds of that were slim - it was actually quite nice. Nice to hold someone. Nice to know you were making them feel better. Nice that she smelled nice. Nice the way I could feel the heat of her through my shirt. You know. Stuff like that.

It only lasted for a few more stops anyway. I gave her a little jolt so she knew we had to get up and go and then we did just that. I picked up the bags again and led the way back to mine, letting her in and dumping the bags in the lounge. They could be dealt with later.

“Can we eat?” Adagio asked. I rolled my eyes as theatrically as I could but actually I was quite pleased. Her eyes were still a little red but she had cheered up immensely. She could really bounce back, this girl. A pleasure to see it.

“One track mind, you,” I said. She pouted. Also a pleasure to see if only because it was quite cute.

“I didn’t have lunch! You didn’t have lunch, actually,” she said, jabbing an accusing finger towards me. I just shrugged it off.

“I forget about it. Maybe you have a point. Fine. I’ll whip something up. You’re going to have to make some food sooner or later, you know. It’s only fair! Even as a guest.”

She looked geared up to protest this when there came a knock at the door. My turn to pout.

“Now what? You go to the kitchen, pick something out. I’ll see who’s come to bother me now,” I said. She did so and I moved to the front door. No peephole, unfortunately. I did all my spying through the kitchen window. But it was fine. I’m sure it wasn’t anything or anyone spectacular on the other side.

Opening it up I found myself confronted with a group of girls who did not look happy to see me. Now that’s timing - we only just got in and away from other unhappy people!

If it’s not one thing it’s another. I tell you.

Five

Author's Notes:

This is getting long. And meandering.
I should really go back and fix some of the earlier parts. They're peppered with typos and some sloppy bits I could punch up. If I cared enough.
Which I don't, really.
What even is this

Standing outside my front door was a gaggle of glaring girls.

All alliteration aside, actually it was quite unpleasant. I never liked anyone being upset with me, especially when I hadn’t the foggiest idea what it was I might have done to annoy them in the first place. And they all looked very annoyed.

Except Sunset, who was off to the side. She looked a bit apologetic.

These were girls I was passingly familiar with, at best. Sunset’s friends. I had seen her out and about them from time to time (and waved at her from a distance on those occasions) and she had spoken about them once or twice. All good things. Rainbooms or something. Whatever. Shorter than me.

This was the extent of knowledge of them. I did not know their names and as far as I was aware they didn’t even know I existed in the first place. So why they would be standing there looking at me like I’d personally shat on each of their pillows I had no clue.

“Are you guys here to sell me something or…?” I asked, in an effort to break the horrible silence we were all swaddled in.

“We’re here about her,” said one girl. With rainbow-coloured hair who had taken up position foremost amongst her squad. Nice hair, actually, but now was not the time to be noticing these sorts of things. She looked serious, not to mention a little cranky.

I hate the vague-name game. I know who they’re talking about and they know I know who they’re talking about but why can’t we just use names?

“Ah yes. Her. ‘Her’. I getcha,” I said, winking.

This is what happens when you don’t use names! Stupid bastards like me waste your time!

The girls didn’t seem to enjoy my attitude.

“We saw you with her. At that bar,” the fashionable one said. Was her hair purple? I genuinely had no idea. Very well turned out either way. So well turned out I almost missed what she’d said, which blindsided me.

I blinked.

“The bar I work at? In the day?” I asked.

“Yes. That bar,” she folded her arms when she spoke this time.

I wasn’t sure where they were going with this. They were all looking at me as though this was a slam-dunk but I really had no idea what point they were trying to convey. Presumably this was some sort of slanderous accusation that I had to defend myself from. Perhaps we were approaching this from two different angles.

“I took her to work, yeah. Was I going to leave her at home? On her own? I got one person I can call to watch the house for me and I’d done that already. I doubted Sunset would have wanted to do it again. Was that a bad assumption?” I asked, gesturing at Sunset who flinched at being put on the spot so suddenly and having all the girls turn to her.

“...no,” she said, quietly.

“There you go.”

“Why didn’t you just get rid of her though? She’s dangerous!” The one with the rainbow hair said.

There was something about her voice I really couldn’t put my finger on. Something distinctive. Kind of like a scratchiness but not quite. It was driving me mad. I kind of hoped she’d keep talking so I could try and pin it down but also kind of hoped she didn’t as every word from her mouth was to my disadvantage.

“I haven’t seen anything from Adagio that makes me think she’s dangerous. And she’s got nowhere to go and no-one to go anywhere with anyway. No idea where her, uh, sisters are or anything like that. House gone. I mean, agreeably it turns out they used their - ah - you know, mind control powers to get the house in the first place so fair play. But still. Doesn’t change her circumstances now.”

Mind control powers indeed. I’d wiggled my fingers as I’d said it to try and underline how unlikely I found them. So-far I had still seen nothing concrete to prove anything. Everyone else seemed to be buying into it so why not roll with the crowd? Certainly, no-one called me out on it.

“She’s just manipulating you into helping her - it’s what they do,” said the girl with the hat. Nice hat. Funky accent.

Did they normally divide up the talking like this? Did they practise? I would have elected a spokesperson, myself. But then I’m always on my own so maybe it’s just not a state of mind I’m used to.

“I think I can survive a little bit of light manipulation. What else was I meant to do? She was in the rain. She was hungry, I check to see if she’s alright - I’m meant to just wave her on her way after that? And she’s all alone, you know?” I said, laying down some reasons.

Again, this was something I’d brought on myself. And had Adagio not been a very sad, forlorn looking and pretty girl would I have opened the door to help at all? Had she been a very sad, forlorn looking middle-aged man? I liked to think yes, but the possibility of no still gnawed at me. Oh, I’m a bad person.

“There’s a reason for her being all alone!” The rainbow-haired one said. Emphatically.

I’d really have to get these girl’s names at some point. Good thing they all looked so incredibly distinctive. Almost like it had been a decision someone had made.

“She’s using you!” Squeaked one girl who immediately hid behind a curtain of hair. If she hadn’t hidden so abruptly I might not even have noticed she’d spoken at all. As it was I just sort of looked at her in bewilderment for a moment before replying.

“I guess I haven’t slept in my bed for a day or two now. And she did eat my dinner that one time. And she’s picking more of my food to eat right now.”

“This is serious!” Rainbow-haired girl said. She seemed the most outspoken.

I felt outnumbered and a little worn down. I looked to Sunset, hoping for perhaps a glimmer of support. Sunset was not looking at me. Rather, she was looking just to the side of me. Glaring would be closer. She didn’t look happy.

I glanced around to see that Adagio was hiding in my shadow and inching closer to me by the moment. I had no idea what this meant or why she was doing it so I shook my head to clear it of the nonsense and faced the girls again.

“Look-” I started to say, only to be distracted by the feeling of arms working their way around my waist. In alarm I glanced down to see that Adagio was wrapping herself around me.

“What on earth are you doing?”

“Nothing,” she said, lying to my face.

I’d had to raise my arms up a little to properly see what was going on with her and she’d taken this opening to further entwine herself about my midsection and was now clinging to me like a limpet. Through all this I noticed that she was also staring down Sunset, for reasons that I’m sure made perfect sense to her.

Staring her down to the exclusion of all the other girls present, in fact.

“Well, uh, could you stop doing nothing and...let go of me? Please? It’s distracting.”

She pouted but let go, again using me as a buffer between herself and the girls outside the door. The girls outside the door, it should be mentioned, who were looking daggers past me and at Adagio. I was serving as a very literal barrier and Adagio seemed to be revelling in this.

“Fine. I picked something for dinner,” she said.

“Ah, good. I’ll get on that in, uh, a minute. Once whatever this is has wrapped up. Gimme a minute, yeah?”

She gave me a smile, gave the girls a look that could well have been triumph but was there and gone so quickly I couldn’t really tell, and then she flounced off towards the lounge. I was very confused by all of this and I had had a long day by this point, so I took a second to catch my bearings and then turned back again to the girls.

Sunset was now staring at me. She didn’t look happy.

“What was that?” She asked.

“What was what?” I asked right back, bewildered. She looked unhappier.

“How come she hugged you!” She didn’t so much ask as yell, plainly outraged. It was so sudden and so loud I was taken aback. And I wasn’t the only one - her friends all flinched too, stepping back away from her.

“Uh. I didn’t know she was going to do that. I’d rather she hadn’t, in all honesty. Uh. Sorry?” I said, feeling myself wither beneath her attention. The girls seemed to be parting to give Sunset a better, wider field free of obstacles to lay into me across.

“But why did she do it?” Sunset pressed. Even though she hadn’t moved the force of her questioning made it feel as though she was bearing down on me. I did my best to stand my ground, mostly as I didn’t understand what was happening. This seemed like a sudden and confusing shift in priorities as far as this conversation went. Weren’t they in the middle of telling me how dangerous my position was? I was so tired.

“I really don’t know what to tell you, Sunset. Maybe she’s touchy-feely. Some people are like that? I don’t know. She just-”

“Has she done it before?” Sunset asked, cutting me off and leaving me gaping like a fish.

“Uh, done what?”

“That! Hugged you! Or anything like it.”

“What? This is - what has this got to do with-”

“Just yes or no!”

I looked at those gathered before me, searching for even a hint of moral support. I’d even have settled for one of them looking as confused as I felt. Instead all I got were expressions of disapproval, apprehension and other associated bad things. They all clearly had some grasp of the situation, while I floundered. And as is often the way my confusion started curdling into irritation. Didn’t want it to, but it did.

“Yes. Couple times Cried on me and stuff like that. Even fell asleep on me once. Guess she was pretty tired. Why?”

Sunset did not say anything to this, but her face spoke more than enough. Even for someone as dense as me. I had said something very wrong. She’d looked angry before and now she just looked hurt. The anger all vanished in an instant and was replaced with raw, obvious pain.

Whoops.

“What did I do?” I asked. Stupidly.

For a moment it looked like Sunset might actually tell me what it was I’d done. But she didn’t. She obviously couldn’t. She gave me a look that was like being stabbed in the gut and then walked away, leaving me standing and gawping like an idiot.

The pink-haired girl went after Sunset, as did another pink-haired girl (the hair was poofier) who had been incongruously silent this whole time and also the well-turned out purple one. They caught up with her quickly but did not stop walking, huddling close around her and putting their arms around her. I watched, swallowed. My throat was very dry all of a sudden.

“What?” I asked the remaining two, hat-girl and rainbow-girl. Both of whom were looking daggers at me. The hat-girl shook her head and also walked off, doing what sounded a lot like swearing under her breath.

“What was that? What happened? Are you guys just going now?” I asked. Rainbow-girl just shook her head.

“You’re an idiot,” she said. Then she also left.

“What? What?”

But I was on my own now. Sunset was gone, and before too long all of them had disappeared. The street was empty, the street was quiet. Just me, standing with my arms spread apart like an idiot, my face like a slapped arse.

It took me a while, but once it finally sunk in that they’d just gone and probably wouldn’t be back I pulled myself together and shut the front door. Then I felt bad. I felt so bad I had to take a moment to properly experience the depth of it.

I’d hardly been a font of happiness before they’d showed up. I’d been tired and I’d been looking forward to a low-key evening of nothing in particular. Feed Adagio, maybe lightly touch on the prospect of where she planned on going since she couldn’t just move in with me, maybe get drunk and fall asleep on my sofa. I didn’t have anywhere to go tomorrow, I had options.

What I had not been prepared for - and not wanted - was a weird doorstep grilling on who I allow into my home. Especially not from people who’ve never taken the time to talk to me in the first place. And then I say something wrong and upset the only person who’s anything close to what I might possibly consider a friend.

And I still don’t fully grasp how that happened. Her being my friend and me upsetting her. Both of them were horribly confusing.

The look on Sunset’s face though. That had hurt to see. And I’d done that. Somehow.

I pulled my arm back and was all set to vent some of my frustrations on the wall but held myself in check. The last time I’d done that it hadn’t worked out in anyone’s favour. My hand had come off badly, and the wall had acquired a nice hole that had only recently been patched up. Turns out they made walls a bit more flimsily here than I was used to - who knew?

So no. No punching walls for me. Not today.

Instead I took a nice, calming deep breath and uncurled my fingers. No use getting angry anyway. Wouldn’t solve anything. Would just make more problems and leave me none-the-wiser. Always best to be calm. So I tried to be calm.

Sunset would probably be off somewhere calming down as well. At least I hoped so. She had friends to help her, too. I’d leave her be for a bit, given that I was the apparent cause of her distress - for whatever reason. I’d see if she contacted me first and if not I’d give her a little while and then see if she replied to me. Hopefully patch things up. Maybe understand what had happened, even a tiny bit.

This sounded like a plan in my head. Plans were good. Plans were something you could hold onto. Like a bit of wreckage to keep you from drowning. Or something.

I was probably overthinking it.

“Are you okay?”

This made me flinch it was so sudden. Turning, I found Adagio leaning against a wall and looking at me with what appeared to be concern. At some point since hugging me for no obvious reason and wandering off she’d apparently changed into pyjamas. Good for her.

“Hunky-dory,” I said, giving her a thumbs up and rubbing my face with my free hand. From between my fingers I could tell at a glance she didn’t believe me. I wouldn’t have believed me, either.

“Did they say something to you?” She asked, stepping closer.

“Oh, couple things. Nothing really specific though. Just general things.”

True, actually. They hadn’t really told me anything I hadn’t already known. Just sort of angrily hinted that Adagio was no good, was up to no good and things like that. This was nothing new to me at this point as this was the message I’d been getting - either from people straight-up telling me or just whispering whenever I moved past - for a day or two.

I probably could have handled something more direct. If they got loud and told me to get rid of her at once, maybe. Something like that. That I could at least work with. But no, just stuff I’d heard already about how dangerous and malicious and scheming she was. Stuff about being used. So nothing new. And nothing useful. Leaving me exactly where I’d started.

Only with Sunset mad at me now. Obviously.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Adagio asked, getting closer still.

“About what?”

“You don’t look happy.”

“That’s just my face, it always looks like that,” I said. She visibly deflated, clearly having got herself ready for a different answer.

“It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want. I just thought it might make you feel better.”

I’d heard this before. Talking about things was apparently a healthy thing to do, though I doubted I’d be much good at it. Certainly not something I had a whole lot of practise with. The only person around here I spoke to consistently was Sunset and we mostly just chatted shit to one another - it lacked depth. She and I shared interests, not vulnerabilities.

Which was fine by me.

Still though. Thinking about that did make me think about Sunset again, something I’d been doing a lot in the last few minutes. Made me think again about how she’d gone off looking like someone had just died. This was not a thought I enjoyed. Would it have been an idea to talk about that? What was I supposed to say? I wouldn’t know where to start.

Best to just keep quiet. Would only put my foot in it.

Some rogue part of my brain even considered for a moment perhaps mentioning to Adagio that taking her in had proven to be more trouble than it was worth but the mere idea turned my stomach.

As much grief as I’d caught for doing it - and the amount was rather more than I’d expected, given that I’d expected none for sheltering someone who’d been wandering the streets for days but whatever - I’d still do it again. Because, uh, well it was a nice thing to have done.

“We can talk later,” I said, by way of compromise. I had little intention of doing so, of course, but maybe I’d change my mind. Adagio perked up almost at once, if only a tiny bit. This was nice to see. There was a very particular way her mouth curved when she smiled and even seeing a hint of this was pleasant.

“Anyway, I got food to do so you just, uh, sit down and wait for that,” I said, turning to move back to the kitchen. I was stopped though by her hand coming onto my shoulder. Surprisingly firm grip, Adagio. I turned again.

“I can cook,” she said, letting go. I squinted at her.

“I don’t doubt you, I’m just saying you don’t have to. You’re a guest.”

My worldview did not allow for guests cooking for their hosts. It just didn’t sit right with me. Cats and dogs living together and all of that sort of thing. Just not right, at least not in my head. Guests were looked after that was just how it was meant to work.

Judging from her pout she clearly had other ideas about how the world could work.

“I want to, though. You can’t just keep doing it for me and not expect me to,” she said. She even folded her arms to help underline how seriously she was taking this.

This made her look more cute than imposing, but that’s probably more the way I viewed it than anything else. I rather imagined Adagio could be rather scary when angry. Not sure why I got that impression, but I just did. You get a vibe from people sometimes.

For now I supposed that I couldn’t see the harm in letting her do this. Not like I actually enjoyed preparing food anyway.

“Well then. Go ahead.”

I never said I wasn’t a pushover.

The pout vanished and she poked me in the sternum, finger staying in place and keeping me pinned to the spot. Probably more psychological than anything else. Still potent.

“Your turn to go sit down and wait,” she said, with every appearance of triumph. I shrugged.

“If you insist…” I said. I assumed she’d be able to figure out her way around the kitchen on her own.

Sure enough, not long after I’d sat I could hear the sounds of activity coming down the hallway and following this came smells. Quite nice ones, too. At first. This did not last.

She was wrong. She couldn’t cook.

Rather, she was able to cook - that I couldn’t dispute. She made things go from ingredients into something resembling food. She just wasn’t very good at it, and what she made resembling food did not resemble edible food.

On the plus side she was at least aware of this and so things didn’t get awkward with me having to pretend or anything like that. We actually had a nice laugh about it and I ended up heating up some pizzas I’d had collecting frost in the freezer. This worked much better.

“So you can cook?” I asked, grinning. I’d waited until she was midway through a slice before saying this and all she could do was glare in mock-offense as she hurried to swallow so she could reply.

“I can! It’s just been a while,” she said.

The television burbled to itself but neither of us was really paying it much attention. We shared the sofa, and the table held the pizza. It as rather cosy, all told, even if she did keep bumping into me with her elbows as she ate.

“Lived off ready meals or something?” I asked.

Adagio shook her head, moving in for another piece.

“We mostly just got take out. Or went to eat in town.”

That made me raise an eyebrow. Town was not cheap when it came to dining out. Not that I had anyone to do it with, but even as a freakish loner the prices made me baulk at times. I blame the economy.

“That must have stacked up pretty quick,” I said. Then I remembered. “Oh. Right. Mind control.”

That really did solve an awful lot of problems, if you had it. The practical applications were extensive. Adagio smiled, letting the pizza rest in her hands for a moment.

“You still don’t really believe that, do you?” She asked. I shrugged, again. Shrugging is good for all sorts of things.

“Whether I do or not doesn’t really matter, I think. It’s just a thing, it’s there. Everyone else does, so,” it really wasn’t something I felt especially concerned by. I still thought it was very weird that all the people in town seemed to be in on some kind of joke I’d apparently managed to miss but whatever - stranger things had happened.

One time back home I’d walked into an area the police had taped off without noticing until a very angry PC in a high-vis came barrelling towards me. That hadn’t been fun to explain.

I then noticed that Adagio had a serious look on her face. She’d even put her slice of pizza down.

“It matters to me,” she said.

“If I believe it?”

“Yeah.”

This was one of those important moments where what I said would have implications. Like earlier with Sunset. At least this time I was paying more attention, even if I still didn’t know what the best thing I could do was. I swallowed.

“You tell me,” I said.

That foxed her.

“What?”

“Tell me the whole thing. I’ve only heard the proper story from one person. Everyone else just treated you bad and assumed I’d know why. So you tell me what happened and what the deal is. So I can hear it from you. It is about you, after all.”

This was pretty obviously something she hadn’t expected me to say, which was an improvement. Of a sort. At the very least she didn’t look upset.

“I don’t know how that’ll help,” she said.

“I’ll look you in the eye as you tell me and feel the truth of it filling me up,” I said. She squinted.

“...right.”

This did not stop Adagio from doing what I’d asked though. She told me about it.

It was more-or-less the same story that Sunset had told me. The one about another dimension and magic and friendship and so-on. Gryphons got mentioned, along with ponies of all things, and at least one wizard who she didn’t seem to have a high opinion of. Of course, from Adagio the emphasis was rather more on how she and the others who’d come with her had been banished here.

About the point she got to the point in the story where that happened she started tearing up, but only a little. More a reflex. The obvious effects of a painful memory rather than something fresh and raw.

She told me about being trapped in foreign, ill-fitting bodies for years on end, cut-off from abilities so fundamental to their old lives that it’d been like losing a limb. Even with a fraction of their power having been retained it was nothing like it had been before and the absence of it had been a constant, gnawing gap that they’d struggled with. She said.

So what else could they have done when the opportunity arose to go back? Or, failing even that, regain something of what they’d lost? Could they be blamed? At this point the tears came more freely, all of it being far more recent. She kept going though, not slowing in what she told me. Until she finished.

All this I listened to quite politely. I wasn’t sure what else I could do. When she was finished she looked spent and her eyes fell on me for a response.

“Do you believe me?” She asked, sniffing, though not wiping her eyes. I swallowed.

The story was just as fantastical and ludicrous as it had been the first time I’d heard it. Evidence to support any of it was still very thin on the ground for me, too. I had yet to see glowing magic nonsense, spontaneously appearing tails and/or ears, rainbows where there shouldn’t be rainbows or even so much as a talking animal.

Still. My gut told me she wasn’t lying. This really brought my gut’s judgement into question, given what she’d said. Still. I’d rarely been misled by my gut in the past, and poor Adagio looked like she’d run a marathon from the effort having to say all that she’d said. I did not think she had been lying to me. For what that was worth.

She had looked me in the eye and I had felt the truth of it fill me up. Couldn’t do much about it. It might have sounded fantastical, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t true. That’s my gut, pretty girls and logic for you. You can do anything with those.

“I do,” I said.

Her relief was palpable and I got another hug. A rather big one. I sat there and accepted it because, really, I didn’t have much of a choice. Once it broke she settled back down as happy as anything and picked up her pizza again.
“It’s still rather odd to think that I am friends with someone who isn’t technically human. Guess there’s a first for everything,” I said. She smiled, but not in a way that was wholly comfortable. She hid this discomfort behind pizza and a shrug. That I’d called her a friend without actually thinking about it went unremarked upon.

“Not really the first for you, though,” she said. I paused.

“How you figure that?” I asked. You’d think I would have noticed something like that.

I had to wait for her to finish her mouthful before I got a reply:

“Sunset, too.”

My eyebrows lowered this time as my eyes narrowed. I still had no idea what she was driving at.

“Sunset what?” I asked.

Adagio looked at me as though I dense. This was a look I was used to. I could hardly blame her.

“Sunset is also from Equestria,” she said.

“...huh.”

Either I’d missed the part where Sunset had mentioned that to me or she hadn’t mentioned it at all. I tried to slot this new information into how my world worked but it wouldn’t quite fit. I stared at the pizza as though this might help me, but it did not.

“That wouldn’t make her, uh, a tiny, brightly-coloured talking pony that just happens to be in the shape of a person now, would it?” I asked.

“It would, yes.”

“...huh.”

Well now I was just confused.

Things were a bit subdued after that. Adagio seemed to be lost in her own thoughts and I was lost in mine, too. For the first time since all this started I was properly thinking about magic and bollocks like that, and I wasn’t sure how I felt about it.

I’d been perfectly happy just ignoring it and shrugging it off before but now it seemed a legitimate concern, and the more I heard about it and the more people around me acted as though it was real the more I had to confront the possibility that I was going to have an opinion about it sooner or later.

What with, you know, the two people who I now spent most of my time with apparently not being people at all but actually being strange and wonderful creatures from some magical world beyond. That wasn’t the sort of thing you could just ignore and let slide. However much I might have liked to.

Adagio insisted on doing the washing up despite my vocal protests. I didn’t know if she was any better at it then she was at cooking but she was certainly loud about it and came out of the kitchen looking surprisingly frazzled. I felt it best to maybe give it a while before going and checking myself. I’d had quite enough for one day.

We sat and we watched something after that, still not really talking. Neither of us seemed to want to be there at that moment, and both of us wanted to be on our own. But she wouldn’t do anything about it and I wouldn’t either. So we sat, occasionally commenting on something on screen but otherwise sitting at opposite ends of the sofa feeling awkward.

Eventually she said she was going to bed.

“Sorry,” I said and she cocked her head.

“Why?”

“Just for...dull evening. I remember you wanted to do something fun and we just did, uh, well, nothing. Sorry.”

She hugged me. Again.

“It’s not your fault,” she said, with a smile that went some way to convincing me she meant it.

While she went off and got showered and settled down I pulled out my phone and scrolled to Sunset’s number. Nudging the door to the room closed Is at and stared at the number, licking my lips and wondering if I should even bother.

Eventually I figured what did I have to lose. I was surprised she even picked up the phone.

“What?” She asked. Bluntly.

“Look, Sunset, I’m really sorry,” I said, as an opener.

“Do you even know what you’re sorry for?” She asked back.

A devastating response. I genuinely still had no idea. I grimaced and was glad she couldn’t see it through the phone, though I bet she knew I was doing it anyway.

“...no,” I said, not wishing to dig myself deeper.

To my immense relief I heard her give a muffled hiccough of a half-laugh that at least meant I hadn’t just made things worse.

“Then don’t say you’re sorry, because you’re not. It’s not your fault though. I just…”

She trailed off. I let her gather whatever it was she wanted to say. No sense butting in.

“I really want you to get her out,” she said, sounding a lot like she was sniffling.

“I’m working on it, believe me.”

This clearly touched a nerve.

“Just throw her out! It’s your house!” She said, much louder. I sort of pictured her suddenly leaping to her feet as she said it, possibly waving a hand around for emphasis. Certainly, she’d look angry. She sounded angry.

Again though, my place is not a house. But I got what she meant.

“I can’t really just throw her out, I mean, I can, I just - uh - that’d be - ah - fuck -”

I was not good at this. Conversations like this tore me to ribbons. On the one hand I had Sunset, a proven friend and ally who was obviously upset and who’s only clue about how to fix it was getting rid of this person who I hadn’t known for very long but who was already proving very nice to me for reasons I couldn’t fathom.

The thought of ditching Adagio - summarily, without warning - didn’t make me especially happy. Doubly so because she was still being so cagey on the subject of whether she had anywhere to go or not. Would have left me feeling very bad just shoving her out and wishing her the best of luck. Couldn’t just send her packing now. I’d just spent the day getting her stuff!

Life is full of tough choices.

“Get. Rid. Of. Her,” Sunset said through what were obviously gritted teeth. I rubbed my temples with my free hand.

“Look,” I said. “She’s in bed right now. PRobably asleep. She sleeps a lot. Eats a lot, too. Can’t just wake her up and turf her out right now. It’s getting dark. But first thing - first thing, right, Sunset? - I will tell her she needs to go. Alright? I haven’t got anything else on tomorrow so I can devote all my energy to it.”

She was quiet. All I could hear was her breathing. Angry breathing.

“...then we can...get ice cream or something?”

A shot in the dark. Who doesn’t like ice cream though?

She giggled. Again, hr and Adagio being the only people I’ve ever heard in my life ever doing it. Not that this was a bad thing. The sound alone had me smiling.

“Ice cream would work,” she said.

“Fantastic. Brilliant. Tomorrow is shaping up to be pretty great. Ice cream with a fabulous friend and I’ll get to sleep in my own bed again. My idea of a good time.”

“Mine too,” Sunset said, hurriedly adding: “Not the sleeping in your bed bit. Just the ice cream bit.”

“Everyone in their own bed,” I said, nodding sagely.

Something was nagging at me. Tugging at the corner of my brain. I wasn’t sure what it was but it was still there. I stopped nodding when it came to me. The whole ‘not a human but looking like a human’ thing. The part about Adagio and Sunset both being something not-of-this-earth.

“Can I ask you a question?” I asked before I’d thought it through.

“Sure?”

My throat was very dry all of a sudden.

“Are you a, uh, I’m not sure how I can put this...” I mumbled

“Am I a what?”

Now that I wanted to ask it all I could think about was what a dumb question it was and how much I wished I’d never started down this road. But it was too late now, and I very much doubted I’d be able to back out. Sunset could be persistent when it came to things like this. Best to bite the bullet. Best to just get it out of the way.

“Areyouactuallyamagicalponyintheassumedshapeofahumanbeing?” I blurted. The words were so ridiculous my mouth felt as though it had tried to reject them.

She was so quiet on the other end I thought - reasonably - that my garbled question had completely failed to make sense and expected any moment for her to ask me to repeat myself. She did not. She just hung up.

“Hello?” I asked the tone, to no avail.

My heart sank even lower, settling into the pit of my stomach. My stomach, in turn, had already moved down to somewhere around my knees from the feel of it. My phone stayed pressed to the side of my head from lack of any motivation to move. I blanked.

Well this was great.

Off somewhere behind me I could have sworn I heard a door closing, but I could have imagined it. I didn’t really care. Everything was a bit numb.

Slowly, delicately, I put the phone down. I then lay on the sofa and stared at the ceiling for a long, long time not really thinking about anything before finally rolling to the side and shutting my eyes, mostly to just make the world away.

I must have drifted off though, because when I next opened my eyes I could hear birds. I stared at the back of the sofa since it was in front of me and seriously questioned how a week can go so sour so quickly.

Rolling around and sitting up I spent a pleasant minute or two cradling my head in my hands before rising to standing with a grunt and shambling off towards the bedroom to see if Adagio was awake. I had no idea what time it even was. ‘The sun is up’ was enough for me right at that moment.

I stopped the moment I stepped out of the lounge. Something was amiss. Blinking furiously I leant against a wall trying to figure out exactly what. Then I noticed how light it was in the hallway, and how breezy. That wasn’t normal. I looked at the floor. Light coming from behind me. Odd. Turning, squinting, I saw the front door, and saw that it was wide open.

“Huh,” I said. “That’s not good.”

Moving up I had a look at it. Nothing about the door was broken or forced. It was just open.

Sticking my head into the street I could see nothing and no-one of any interest. The street was empty, in fact. Frowning I shut the door and tapped my foot on the floor. This was all very odd, at least for me.

I headed for the bedroom as a sneaking suspicion of an idea started forming in my brain. By the time I got there the idea had solidified into ‘Adagio has run off’ and what I found did much to confirm this.

She hadn’t taken everything with her - that would have been a bit difficult given how much we’d brought back - but there was enough strewn about that it looked as though she’d picked what to take and then taken it. One of the three bags I’d brought back was gone. The place was a mess. The kind of mess someone makes when they know they’re not coming back to it.

So she’d gone then.

And she’d left the front door open at that, too.

Dick move, Adagio. Dick move.

Six

Author's Notes:

It's not like I'm putting my boot on anyone's neck and forcing them to read this or anything like that.

Although on reading it you may feel that the effect is much the same.

My day was off to a rollicking good start.

The one person I had in my life who was anything even close to a friend was angry with me for reasons I couldn’t fathom but may well have had something to do with me questioning whether or not she was even human.

On top of this the mysterious, hated-by-everyone-in-town-except-for-me girl I inexplicably let stay in my house left in the middle of night without saying goodbye and without closing the door behind her.

Less than ideal.

I’d had grand visions for my day off. Adagio and I would have reached a mutually satisfying compromise that ended with her leaving and going somewhere else happy and safe and comfortable. Following this I’d then meet up with Sunset, we’d have ice cream and thoughtfully discuss whatever it was I’d done that had made her unhappy and we would have resolved it and gone back to being bestest buds.

Everything would have been lovely and simple and by the end of the day things would be back to normal. Just like that.

Only not.

Now the odds of things going comfortably back to normal seemed pretty slim. My good intentions had left me all alone and generally confused. No obvious idea of what I should do next. No-one around to push me in the right direction. Left to my own initiative.

God help me.

I had a sort through of my bedroom, if just for something to do. Stripped the bed - the bed, I noticed, now smelling strongly of someone who was not me - and also gathered together all of the bits that Adagio had not taken with her. I stacked them up in the corner, just because I couldn’t think of anything else to do with them right at that moment.

My main issue and my main problem, I felt, was that I’d actually quite liked Adagio.

Sure, I hadn’t known her very long and the bulk of our interactions had mostly just been me letting her use my stuff while I made her food. But something about her had just struck me as pleasant. I had enjoyed being around her. It had made me feel good. Not any particular kind of good, but just a generic, slightly fuzzy ‘good’.

Which was weird, really. I’m hardly a people-person at the best of times and yet this person I’d literally taken in off the street had filled me with warm feelings and a nagging urge to make sure they were fed and watered and looked after. And now here I was getting morose over the disappearance of a relative stranger.

How did that make sense? Was that even normal? I couldn’t see anyone else doing it in my position, now that I ran it through in my head.

All things considered I was probably thinking about it too much. That sort of thing could only end badly. A person’s thoughts can do unpleasant things to them if left unchecked and unopposed. I needed to do something else before my brain ate itself.

I’d go and have ice cream. Just because things had gone tits-up didn’t mean I had to sit around wallowing in it. Wallowing wouldn’t fix anything. Eating ice cream wouldn’t fix anything either, but at least that way I’d have something delicious, which was some improvement over nothing at all.

That, and it would give me an excuse to get out and away from the flat. This could only be a good thing.

Showering, dressing and swiping my wallet I left the flat at speed, heading off into town doing my best to move quickly enough to leave bad thoughts behind me.

I ended up in going circles for a bit because I arrived in town far too early for anything to actually be open, but that was alright. Time spent walking was time letting my mind wander away from confusing, angry-with-me girls or absconded strangers.

When the ice cream place did eventually open I was starting to actually feel the tiniest bit better about things, if only because no-one had shouted at or hung up on for me a while, and that was liberating.

The staff were surprised to have me coming through the door barely thirty seconds after they’d opened but I didn’t really care. I ordered something large with many scoops and sauces and hundreds and thousands (or ‘sprinkles’ as they insisted on calling them) and sat in a corner in a booth to brood over it.

“At least you understand me,” I said to the ice cream, which had the good grace to not reply.

A delicate hand came to a delicate rest delicately upon my shoulder and I flinched. Twisting in the seat I found Sunset looking down at me. I think my gut twisted too at that point but I couldn’t be sure.

“Hi,” she said. I swallowed my ice cream too quickly and choked. Eyes watering I just about managed to gasp out my own ‘hi’ in return before shuffling over in the booth to give her some room. Amazingly she actually sat down, grinning at my expense.

“You alright there?” She asked. I, spluttering, nodded.

“Fancy seeing you here,” I wheezed.

“Well you did say you were getting ice cream today and it seemed a safe bet you’d still do it even if you thought I wasn’t going and I wanted to see you so…”

I moved to check my watch before remembering I hadn’t worn a watch for at least ten years now.

“Good timing,” I said. She smiled sheepishly and shrugged, running a hand through her hair and tucking it behind her ear.

“Totally,” she said. “Wasn’t just planning on hanging around here until you showed up only you beat me here.”

The conversation stalled out, because my brain couldn’t come up with anything to say to this. Mostly because it was worried about saying the wrong thing and so causing me to put my foot in it again. So I just sat there in silence and the silence stretched as she waited for something - anything - she could work with.

Eventually I had to do something. So I acted on instinct.

“I can get you an ice cream too, if you want,” I said, moving to get up and slide past only to stop as her hand came down onto my arm.

“Maybe - no, no thank you, not right now. We - we need to talk first.”

Her hand was very warm, I noticed, and didn’t leave my arm even once I’d sat back down.

“Is this going to be about Adagio?” I asked.

“No. Well, not really. Kind of. No,” Sunset said, helpfully, brow furrowed. “Mostly it’s about what you asked me last night. On the phone.”

“The magical pony thing?”

She winced, and I felt a little bad for having been so blunt.

“It’s not that you asked, it’s that…”

The sentence hung. She didn’t seem to know where she wanted to go with it. I watched her tap her finger together and chew on her lip as she considered how best to continue. I gave her space and kept my mouth shut.

“You were the only person here who didn’t...know about me. What I did. My friends forgave me but they still know. Everyone at the school knows. Everyone in town. But not you. And I kind of...I kind of liked that. I didn’t always worry about it being there, thinking that behind people being nice was them knowing what I used to be like. What I did.”

This was all very heavy for me. The effort of what she was saying was obvious, written right across her face. Made my guts churn just to see it. At the same time she was being incredibly vague about whatever it was she had apparently done that was so horrible it had marred her reputation this badly. But that was fine. I was sure she’d get around to that part.

“My obliviousness seems to be one of my most attractive traits these days,” I said. She chuckled but still didn’t look me in the face, instead staring down at her hands which she’d started wringing.

“You were - you weren’t worried about me. You weren’t scared. You didn’t act like I was dangerous or couldn’t be trusted. When we talked you just talked to me about normal things that didn’t involve...non-normal stuff. Like I was normal. You just treated me like me. Without anything else.”

I could not for one moment imagine anything Sunset could have done to make anyone, anywhere think she was dangerous. In all the time I’d known her I didn’t think I’d even see her get angry. Properly angry, I mean. Annoyed with me, sure, but that was normal. Everyone did that. It wasn’t like I’d seen her furious. Not even close! She didn’t seem to have it in her. Certainly I couldn’t picture her scaring people. Maybe I was missing something.

Sunset finally looked up from her hands, her eyes onto mine. I was very suddenly pinned in place. Had I ever noticed how big her eyes were before?

“And it just made me sad that we’re not going to have that anymore,” she said.

She was quiet after this, and it was clear she’d said her piece. I cleared my throat and managed to break eye contact. I nudged at my ice cream with the spoon. She’d done a fantastic job of saying a lot while telling me very little, and now I was just quietly terrified without having any solid idea why I should be.

“At some point you’re going to have to explain this to me. I mean, you don’t have to if you don’t want to - that’s fine - I’ll just be very confused. And I just want to, you know, not put my foot in it and make you sad all the time. I don’t like doing that. So anything I can learn to be better is good,” I said. Jumbled, but well-meant, and she seemed to get it because she smiled nervously at me and shifted a little closer.

“I don’t really know where to start.”

“Wherever works for you. Start at the end if that’s easier. Fill in the bits you need as you go. I can probably work it out. Or do my best,” I said.

“This was a little back. Before I met you. There was the Fall Formal…”

Things went from there. I mean they really, really went from there.

She jumped around a bit, filling me in on how she’d divided and conquered the student body for her own benefit. Driven friends apart, played on insecurities and vulnerabilities, created cliques where there had been no cliques and all that. A one-girl wrecking crew turning a harmonious school into a carefully constructed device built from the ground up to serve her own nefarious designs, every component moving the way she intended it to.

Or something like that.

There was also a diversion into her own personal history. About being the top pupil of a divine monarch with control over the sun only fleeing and stealing a magic book for reason she seemed reluctant to get into with me. In a land of ponies, obviously. Of which she’d been one. And still was, technically? Sort of?

There’d been a lot of magic involved. And portals. And escaping through portals. And shapeshifting. And magic fighting magic. And some kind of demonic possession which had also been defeated with more magic. Or maybe it wasn’t demonic? I wasn’t clear on the details.

I felt it best to keep my questions for the end even though by this point there was a ringing in my ears and I was starting to get a bit lightheaded. I just nodded and kept on listening as the story - the truth, I supposed? - poured out of her.

“...and their gems broke and they lost their magic and they ran off. And then, well, I guess you’re pretty much caught up now.”

With that she drew to a close. Things seemed very quiet afterwards.

“Oh,” I said.

“Oh,” she said.

I contemplated my ice cream, now melted.

This town had some stuff going on in it that I probably should have investigated before deciding to move in. It having been so cheap made a touch more sense. Bit late now, though.

“You never run into this sort of thing back home,” I said. Sunset - who had scooched all the way next to me during her spiel - reached out and took my hand in both of hers, for whatever reason. I frowned a little at this but she didn’t appear to notice.

On top of being warm - as I’d already found - her hands were also quite alarmingly soft.

“This is probably a lot for you to take in,” she said, somehow sounding more sorry for me, the unrelated idiot who’d showed up after the fact than for her, the girl who’d actually been heavily involved in the event she’d described.

“It rather lines up with what I’ve already been told, actually. At least the more recent bits. The, ah, stuff about you and the...demonic...episode...that was new to me. But does fit, I guess. Busy place this, eh?”

It was now Sunset’s turn to frown.

“What do you mean what you’ve already been tol- oh. You talked to Adagio, didn’t you?”

“She was a guest,” I said, defensively, before clearing my throat. “She did most of the actual talking. Seemed very insistent I see her side of things.”

“Bet she did…” Sunset growled, her grip on my hand tightening for a moment.

“Said a fair amount that lines up with you said, as I say. Magic and all that. And, ah, about not actually strictly speaking being from around these parts or, you know, human. Which reminds me…”

Another sentence left hanging, though this time by me and this time quite deliberately. I was looking at Sunset’s hands - still holding mine - and no matter how hard I stared they continued to look like regular, human hands. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting to happen. When I looked back up to her face I found her already staring at me, which was a surprise. She blushed and looked away.

“Yeah, about that…”

“Magical pony, huh?”

I saw her start to chew her lip. She nodded.

“Yeah…”

“Presumably not quite ‘pony’ like I’m thinking?”

Dinky little hooves. Vacant eyes. Floppy mane. Beloved by tiny girls for reasons that have ever been beyond my comprehension.

That would have been absurd.

“I’ve seen what hum- you peopl- what a pony is...here…” Sunset said, stumbling noticeably a few times in ways that I hadn’t seen happen before. This sort of thing was plainly difficult, so I was gentle and patient. Or tried to be. Anyone who ever claims they are without reservation should be watched with caution.

“And?” I nudged. I’d put my free hand on top of her two by now. Didn’t know why. Just seemed like the thing to do. There was a ripple of surprise that ran across Sunset’s face when I did but she got over it. Maybe this was a friend-thing I wasn’t aware of?

I’d have asked Sunset about it but, you know, she was the one who I was doing it to.

“And not really, no. Not like that. Maybe some broad similarities if we’re being generous. But not the same thing at all, no. The ones here are just animals, us back home are, well, like you. Kind of. It’s complicated.”

“Sounds it,” I said, without irony. I had to clear my throat again. “So this body is…?”

I really wanted to understand. Desperately. But I didn’t want to come crashing in and upsetting her by pushing too hard.

“I look like this here. Back home I look like what I’m supposed to look like. Which is a pony. Unicorn, actually.”

“...I see.”

Well at least she was being specific.

“I understand if - if you don’t want to be friends with me anymore,” she said. I blinked, fairly certain I must have heard her wrong. A very odd case of hearing her wrong, of course, because what she’d said had been very clear and couldn’t really have been anything else. But it had been so unexpected it made my brain fizz for a moment or two.

“I’m sorry could you run that by me again?”

“I said that it’s okay if you don’t want to be friends with me anymore after this. I’d understand.”

“But why wouldn’t I want to keep being friends with you? You are literally my only friend here.”

“I lied to you,” she said simply, almost plaintively.

“You didn’t really lie to me so much as you deliberately withheld significant information about yourself. Uh, why did I put it like that, that sounds terrible.”

I scratched my head and tried to gather together some better words, giving her hands a pat.

“Look, it’s fine. I can see why you wouldn’t, like, shake my hand and tell me this the first time we met. It’s not a good opener, not a good ice-breaker. And the more it goes on the more awkward it gets to kind of slip into conversation and, really, why would you even need to tell me? I’m just some guy. So no, it’s fine. Really, it’s fine.”

“Not just ‘some guy’...” she mumbled, but I was having none of that.

“Look, point is this doesn’t matter. I believe you about all this. The magic and the portals and the...singing competitions with more magic. So I also believe that you’re not technically a human, I guess? But whatever. That was always the case and you never did wrong by me. This doesn’t change you this is just something about you i didn’t know. And now I do. And I still like you. So no, still friends. Can’t get rid of me that easy.”

Her ears had gone pink. That was new.

“You like me?”

“How could I not? You’re lovely,” I said.

I could not tell if this was the right answer or not, because her face was utterly unreadable. Ears still very pink though.

“Oh, oh you mean like - uh - I mean, that’s great!” She said.

Sunset smiled. I smiled. Everything was so much better. Except for my ice cream, which was a depressing lost cause by now. A puddle in a cup where once a proud sundae had stood. Worse things had happened.

“Would you like to go for a walk or something? It’s a nice day,” she said, bringing me back to the moment. I glanced over to a nearby mirror which showed the front window of the shop. The day beyond was glorious. Stunningly so.

“It is a nice day, yes. Sure, why not. A walk would be lovely.”

Sunset, beaming, shuffled out of the booth and I followed after her, keeping close behind all the way back outside. The day was somehow even more pleasant once I was standing outside and I took a moment to just soak it in, closing my eyes and enjoying the way things had somehow - stunningly - managed to work out a little better without me even having to do anything strenuous.

Something worked its way through my fingers. I opened my eyes and looked down. Sunset was now straight-up holding my hand. I blinked.

“This is a thing we’re doing now? Is this a friend thing? I have to ask.”

She froze for an instant and then smiled maybe just a little too widely and in a way that did not reach her eyes.

“...yes. Totally a friend thing. Uh, Twilight - the one I mentioned? - she taught me about it. Friendship thing. I don’t have to if you don’t want me to.”

I wasn’t going to start questioning extra-dimensional magical princesses of concepts. Or Sunset, for that matter. She tended to know better.

“No, no it’s fine. We’re friends, we can do friend things. New for me, is all.”

Not the worst thing that’d ever happened to me. If I was being completely honest it was actually rather nice. Weird, but then I had no real idea of how friends were meant to work anyway so maybe I was the weird one. I just knew that I was grinning. Sunset was too, I saw, and somehow that just made it harder to stop.

Wait, how did a pony princess without hands know things about - you know what, nevermind. I’m sure there are ways of learning about holdings hands. It’s not that far-fetched.

We took a scenic route, slowly. There was a park not that far away from the ice cream place and we both knew it was the place to go and so didn’t need to discuss it before heading off in that direction. Nice, being in sync.

I was near getting whiplash from how my life was going these days. One moment this, the other that. At least things were going well right at this moment but it did rather make me worry about when the next snapback was going to happen and what it would involve. Could be me saying something dumb. Or an event I had no way of expecting would blindside me.

Probably best not to worry about things beyond my control.

The park was up ahead by then, visible down the road and across the street. We ended up having to wait for the lights. The morning was starting to pick up speed and traffic was increasing. All the more reason to be in a pleasant, quiet park.

“It’d be poor form to draw comparisons between you and Adagio, right?” I asked. Sunset’s eyes narrowed and for maybe the tiniest fraction of an instant I saw how she might be scary. But only for a moment. I plunged on before I could find out properly.

“Hey! I’m just saying. You know, trying to take over the place, drunk with dark power, failing and becoming a pariah in need of forgiveness. Maybe I’m wrong.”

I didn’t think I was, but I’d been wrong in the past so it wouldn’t exactly be a surprise. Certainly the comparison made a kind of sense in my head. Usually that’s a good sign that I am actually wrong but, again, this time I really wasn’t sure.

From the look that passed over Sunset’s face she wasn’t sure either.

“It’s not really the same,” she said, without conviction.

“As you say. You probably know more about it than I do.”

Sunset chewed this over as we walked into the park. The park, at least, was still empty barring us and we were quite alone as we started working our way around.

“You didn’t see what they did to the school. Or what they were planning on doing. They got very close, too. Could have very easily gone the other way. They’re not harmless. Well, they are now, I think. But they weren’t before. They were dangerous. And malevolent. Whatever they’re like now you can’t forget that,” Sunset said once she’d had time enough to think about it. I nodded.

“True, true. I only saw them once they’d been properly defeated and, ah, humbled I suppose. And even then just Adagio. Never did see the others. But then I’m a forgiving sort of fellow anyway, so maybe I’m misguided.”

“I mean, it’s not - I made a choice. I chose to do what I did. To run away and to...do the other things that I did,” she grimaced. “It’s in their nature to do what they did. That’s different.”

“So they’re inherently evil? That’s unfortunate.”

In the real world that sort of thing was rare, which tended to make life confusing. Running into someone - or something - totally, one-hundred percent opposed to you and your wellbeing just on account of how they were put together would be surprisingly refreshing. You could retaliate with a clear conscience! Surely?

Sunset had a look that suggested she was only now realising what it was she’d just said.

“Not evil, just, uh, naturally predisposed towards certain courses of action.”

“Which are?”

This was a leading question. I’d played my hand too obviously. Sunset gave me a very flat look indeed.

“They’re creatures that feed off of emotion. Especially negative emotion. They’re endowed with natural abilities to compel others to act in ways that amplify emotions. Which is to say they can get people to do things for their own benefit. It’s not difficult to see how these things might lead to adverse consequences.”

Couldn’t really argue with that. Especially not having been there to see it, either.

“Well...that’s fair…”

“I’m not an expert, obviously. I wasn’t around when they got banished here. But I was around to see what they did here and I’ve read up on them since then, so it seems pretty obvious. If you’re set up in a way that makes you act a certain way then that’s just what happens.”

I tried to reconcile this idea with what - admittedly little - I knew of Adagio. It didn’t quite fit.

“Does any of this go towards explaining why me, grumpy bastard that I am, decided to let in some random girl?” I asked. Sunset scratched her head.

“Maybe even with their power gone they still project a kind of...low-key entrancing aura. Maybe she’s recovering. Maybe you’re just too nice for your own good.”

“Maybe all three?”

“Anything’s possible.”

“So I’m learning.”

We walked in companionable silence for a bit after this, hand in hand. We came to a stop in the shade of a tree and watched a duck swim in a circle on a pond. The duck seemed to know what it was doing.

“Why’d you get so bent out of shape over her hugging me, anyway? Or was that a, uh, ‘she’s dangerous and you shouldn’t be letting her get that close’ sort of a thing?” I asked, suddenly. I’d remembered.

Sunset went a bit pink again. And not just her ears this time.

“N-not exactly that,”

“Did you, uh - was it something you wanted to do? Or something?”

A dumb question. Didn’t know why I asked it. Just popped out. I’d half meant it as a joke.

Must have been the heat of the day getting to me. I mean, what a ridiculous thing to have asked. What an absolutely ludicrous-

“Yes!” She blurted.

The silence that followed this was not companionable. It was awkward.

The duck quacked. I coughed.

“You know if you’d wanted to - if you want to - you could have just done it. I’m not averse,” I said. Quietly. My voice had gone tiny all of a sudden.

“I thought you didn’t like people touching you,” Sunset said, trying with some obvious effort not to sound sour about it or rattled about the turn the conversation had taken.

“I don’t like strangers touching me. You’re not a stranger. It’s an important distinction.”

I raised our clasped hands.

“See? Important distinction.”

“Well you could have made that clearer,” she said.

Couldn’t say anything to that. She was just right. I could have. Communication never was my strong point.

A thought did occur to me though:

“Why’d you even hold my hand in the first place if you thought I didn’t like people touching me?” I asked. She groaned.

“I didn’t think about that at the time! Leave me alone!”

The duck, perhaps tired of us, flew away. I watched as the ripples from its departure reached the edge of the pond and reflected back. Very zen. I think.

“Want a hug now, then? Is that how this works? Do I just ask or-”

I did not get to finish asking, because she just did it. Kind of. More of half a hug as she lunged and wrapped in under my arm, which was then around her shoulder. There was no elegance in what she did, and it took us both a few second after it to get us both sorted out. But we did it.

I did not know how to feel about what had just happened, so I blocked it out, really. At least she was warm. It was just odd that it had happened. With Sunset of all people. But maybe this was normal. Again, who was I to say?

“Is she still back at your place?” Sunset asked, out of nowhere. It took me a second to figure out what she was talking about, and then who she was talking about. The change of subject and distraction were welcome. I embraced them. More than I was embracing her.

“Oh, Adagio? No, no she split.”

“She’s gone?”

“Skidaddled, yeah. Sometime in the night. She even left the door open behind her.”

“That’s thoughtless.”

“Yeah well, happened now. All worked out for the best, right? She’s gone. I didn’t even have to say anything. So that’s a problem solved, right?”

I said this, but I did not feel this. Adagio had hardly been a problem at the time. It was only what people had told me and then wanted me to do that had made her a problem. Couldn’t quite shake the horrible feeling I’d been party to forcing her out and chasing her away.

Back into the rain for her, I guess. That did not make me feel great.

Clearly this showed, as Sunset leaned in and frowned at whatever looked I had on my face.

“You don’t look happy,” she said.

I made an effort to try and mash my face into a more neutral, unreadable expression. I do not know how well I succeeded in this. Too late anyway.

“This whole thing has been a learning experience. And not a fun one. I have not learned anything that has made me happier. I did what I thought was a good thing and maybe I did it for bad reasons for a person who was bad. And now they’re gone and they just left silently without me even knowing. I don’t know. This is big boy stuff. I’m so confused.”

From her position there wasn’t lot she could pat comfortingly, so she rather poorly decided to pat my belly. Both of us knew this was weird but both of us knew better than to make it worse by drawing attention to it. She meant well.

“It’s okay,” she said. The classic go-to for when you can’t really think of anything else nice to say. Better than nothing.

I watched the now-duckless water. A random stranger in a hoody wandered around the other side before disappearing past a hedge and out of sight. I doubted they were relevant. Life is full of irrelevant detail.

“So. Unicorn, huh?” I asked.

She groaned.

“Do we have to talk about this?”

“It’s not the sort of thing you can just drop in my lap and expect me not to ask at least one question.”

“You already asked me questions. I already answered a lot,” she said, sulking.

“Yeah well, humour me a little at least? Please? It’s not everyday I get to a bonafide unicorn.”

I thought about that for a second.

“I mean, I talk to you pretty much every day anyway and have done for months now so, uh, you know what I mean…”

“Fine, you get one more question. One more! Choose wisely.”

This she said while holding a finger up to my face so close I almost went cross-eyed.

That’s pressure. So many options. How was it adapting from - presumably - hooves to hands? What was it like having a horn? How did the magic she mentioned work? How on earth were the sun and moon supposed to be moved by magic? Were they tiny? Did that mean her world didn’t actually move? Did it rotate? Were the seasons subject to the arbitrary whim of her divine monarch? Since she said the weather was controlled did they even have seasons at all? How little was a little pony?

A lot of these questions were a touch dry and I also realised I was just standing staring and she was staring at me, too, in deep expectation. So I panicked.

“Do you impale those who aren’t virgins? Or is that something you grew out of?”

“...what?”

I knew exactly one unicorn fact. Well, ‘fact’. Apparently not so, judging by her reaction.

“That was a waste of a question,” I said, sighing.

Sunset did not immediately reply and when I looked down at her again she was chewing her lip apprehensively.

“Things aren’t going to change between us, are they? We’re still going to be close?” She asked, eyes flicking up.

“I’d say we were pretty close right now,” I said, and before she could scoff I plunged onwards: “No, things aren’t going to change. I already said that, I thought, and if I didn’t I just did. A lot of strange things have happened recently but you’re still lovely. So worry not.”

The pinkness came back to Sunset then, obvious even as she turned away.

“I’m not lovely…” she muttered. I tightened my arm around her, as it felt the thing to do.

“Shush you, you’re plenty lovely.”

Conversation petered out a little after that, and we wandered. Without really noticing she led the way right back to the ice cream place, her justification being that we hadn’t actually had ice cream, technically speaking, and this needed rectifying. Another giant, daunting, sundae-thing was ordered from the rather bemused staff and Sunset caved on splitting the cost with only a little pressure.

“You already got one today,” she’d said, insistently.

“Shush you. That melted, this is a sharing thing.”

It didn’t take much to convince her, all told.

Ice cream was pretty great. Much better shared than left to sit and melt.

We’d managed to polish off most of the thing between us - which was no mean feat - when Sunset checked her phone. Her brow knitted.

“I, uh, need to go. There’s been some kind of emergency involving a cake?”

She didn’t sound so sure. Stranger things had happened. I shrugged.

“These things are sent to test us. I can cover for you here,” I said, gesturing with my spoon at what remained. “How common are cake-based emergencies, exactly?”

Biting her lip she tapped a finger on her phone.

“More than you’d expect.”

“It probably depends on who you associate with.”

“Yeah…”

Sunset looked thoughtful a moment or two and then slipped the phone back into her pocket.

“Sorry to ditch you,” she said. I waved her off.

“It’s fine, really. It’s cool. We’re cool, right?”

She smiled. Just a little, but certainly enough for me.

“Yeah, we’re cool. Things kinda worked out.”

“That they did. Now off you go. Solve your cake emergency.”

Sliding out from her side of the booth she halfway lent over into mine, hesitated when about a foot away from me, and then dove in for another hug. This was something she did now, it seemed.

“Talk to you later?” She asked once she’d finished. I - already attacking the ice cream again - nodded and gave a thumbs up. Her smile widened and off she went. I watched her go.

“We’re hugging now, apparently,” I said to myself.

What a strange day. Not unpleasant, just full of odd things.

And no sooner had I thought that to myself than the irrelevant stranger in the hoody sat down across from me. I frowned. Very forward of them.

“Hello to you, too,” I said.

The stranger tilted their head back.

It was actually Adagio.

Oh my God. It had been relevant! I should have been looking closer!

To be fair, she’d clearly gone with the hoody ensemble on purpose as it was form-devouring enough to completely obscure whatever shape she had and also completely the wrong colour for her. Certainly, it had worked on me.

A tug back on the hood and her hair appeared. It didn’t so much unfurl as simply occupy space that had been empty before. The effect made my eyes water.

If I’d needed further proof of her mysterious, magical nature then this was it. It hardly seemed possible. How had it even managed to fit?

Probably best not to think about it too much. I let my spoon drop and rested my face in my hands.

“I probably shouldn’t be surprised by this turn of events,” I said into my palms.

“I didn’t have anywhere to go…” I heard her say. Looking up from between my fingers I saw her staring dolefully at the table. She looked so powerfully miserable it actually made me physically flinch

“Then why’d you leave like that?” I asked.

“You were going to throw me out anyway,” she said sourly, shrugging. I jabbed an accusing finger. Though I wasn’t sure what I was going to be accusing her of. If anything.

“Not throw you out, just try and work out what you should do next. You couldn’t just move in with me. You don’t know me. I’m just some guy. And I don’t know you either. You’re just some girl.”

I scratched my head.

“Turns out there was a lot I didn’t know about you, actually.”

“I did explain it all,” Adagio said, pouting. I wasn’t falling for that. I gave her a look, though I didn’t really put as much into it as I could have done.

“Yeah, after other people had explained it. I mean it’s not a race but still, bit late. Horse, bolted, stable.”

“Horse?”

I remember that I was dealing with someone from a magical land with a significant pony population. Was horse a bad word? Why would Adagio care?

Time to quickly change the subject.

“And you left my front door open, too. There was that.”

That got her. Her eyes fell to the table again and she fidgeted, playing with the too-long sleeves of the hoody.

“...that was petty. Sorry.”

I sighed, rubbed my face, lent back.

“It’s fine. Might not have been, but it was, so it’s gravy. Let’s think more about now. Guessing you saw me and Sunset?”

“...yeah.”

“She’s back to being my friend now, which is nice. Thinks that you’ve left, probably for good. If you show up again - if I let you back to mine again - she might be a little bit upset. I don’t really want that. So here we are.”

“‘Back to being friends’?” Adagio said back to me, head tilted.

“What? We are. She was mad at me, we talked, now she’s not. That’s a win in my book. And don’t try to change the subject, that’s my game. We’re talking about you, here. What’s happening now? You find your sisters or anything?”

Were they even really sisters? Technically? It probably didn’t matter.

“No. I don’t even know where to start,” she said.

Of course she didn’t.

I looked up at the clock the ice cream place had. It wasn’t working. I looked outside. From what I could see I’d guess that it was still pretty early. Probably before noon. Waking up early is hellish, that’s not how a day off should be.

And what remained of the ice cream had melted. Again.

“Alright. Well, we can work on that, can’t we? I have a day off, we can go look. Two heads better and all that?”

“Really?”

“Sure. Not like this sort of thing happens every day. And it works for both of us, right? You find your sisters and hopefully get a nice, proper next step, Sunset doesn’t get mad at me for letting you stay at mine again - we all win.”

The last part caught her attention and her eyes widened.

“Would you let me stay again?”She asked quickly. I held up my hands, scooching out of the booth once more.

“One thing at a time, please don’t ask me that. Let’s just do this looking thing first, eh?”

“Oh. Okay. Sure,” she said, grabbing the bag she’d set down beside her and scooching out as well.

We exited, and I was set to keep on walking when I stopped. Adagio bumped into the back of me.

“Can I ask you a question though?” I asked. A question within a question.

She nodded.

“When I first saw you - when you were in the rain and all that - did you do any mojo on me? To make me more sympathetic?”

“No. Not intentionally, not that I know of. I couldn’t do anything. Still can’t…” she sounded bitter, and not a little sad. I thought about that.

“If you could have, would you?”

She thought about that. Her mouth opened, but she stopped, thought again, and then said very quietly:

“...yes.”

I didn’t know how to feel about that.

Seven

Author's Notes:

I felt something stirring.

I’d never been involved in a mysterious adventure before. I had no idea what I was supposed to do.

Unfortunately, neither did Adagio. She seemed drained, downtrodden and a bit on the listless side. I kept having to wait for her to catch up as we wandered through town looking like we knew what we were doing.

I suppose this was to be expected given all that had happened to her. What little improvement I’d seen from her having stayed at mine had evaporated. Poor girl just struck me as lost. Made me quite upset to see, if I’m being honest.

But then I always was a softy.

“Where did you see them last?” I asked, breaking the silence that had settled over both of us as we’d wandered. To me it felt like the proper thing to ask, the sort of thing that might have a useful answer.

Adagio just shrugged, not looking up. It was genuinely starting to affect my composure seeing just how heartbreakingly morose she looked. I sighed and stopped so that her glacial pace brought her up beside me, whereupon I put an arm around her shoulders.

Forward? Maybe, but then again she fell asleep on me so fuck it I think we’re a little beyond that at this point. Certainly she didn’t pull away or object. If anything she pressed against me.

“Come on, you, what’s up? Beside the obvious.”

I felt another shrug. The last refuge of any conversation, the shrug.

“Just feel bad,” she mumbled.

“About what?”

“That I would have, you know, done that to you. If I could have. Manipulated you. Got into your head. I would have done it. Wouldn’t even have thought about it, if I could have,” she said, voice small, face down.

This was an odd topic of conversation. Not every day you were talking to someone who could, you know, sing to induce a form of mind control. And who was telling you they would have willingly done it to you were the circumstances different.

Adagio sounded contrite enough - astonishingly sincere, in fact - but they was that to be trusted? If I were a mind-controlling creature from a world beyond, wouldn’t I want to sound convincing?

Probably the sort of thing you could just keep worrying in circles about for hours.

Moot anyway. I hoped.

“You didn’t though,” I said. This at least was indisputable.

“But I would have.”

I sighed and released my arm from around her, turning to take her gently by both shoulders. I hoped that was reassuring and not overbearing, especially when I had to tilt her head up so she was actually looking me in the face. This was all very new to me, but eye-contact struck me as important at a time like this. A time of reassurance.

“But you didn’t, so let’s not get all down in the dumps over stuff that didn’t happen, eh? Onwards and upwards, that’s the spirit. Hey, think about it this way: you feel bad about it, right?”

She nodded and I gave her a pat.

“Well there you are then. That’s progress, right?”

I wasn’t wholly sure what we were meant to progressing towards but I guess on a base level a sense of guilt about the prospect of working mind control nonsense on an unsuspecting stranger could only be a good thing. At least in my book. For an emotion-eating creature, who knew?

All of this was really unusual territory for me.

Adagio seemed to take something from it, at least.

“I’m getting better?” She asked.

“Uh, well, better is relative. Less evil? That has to be good! You’re a whole new person, have to start somewhere. Assuming not being evil is a good thing for, uh, you?” I asked. On the plus side Adagio immediately looked less morose. On the downside that appeared to be because I was putting my foot in it, and the look on her face spoke volumes.

“Could you not call me evil,” she said. Not a question. I delicately released her shoulders.

“Yeah, sorry. I really don’t know what I’m talking about. Look, bottom-line is that you’re fine, you’re good, I’m helping you out and everything is going to be Jim Dandy. So let’s get on with that. Still no idea where you saw them last?” I asked, trying to steer things back on course. Adagio shook her head.

“At the battle of the bands, but I was running away so I don’t know where they went after that,” she said.

Well that was a dry hole. Time to try a different angle, something new, best not to get bogged down and lose momentum. I thought for a moment and then it hit me - inspiration!

“The way I heard it you were the uh - and don’t take this the wrong way - ringleader?” I asked.

I got a sharp look but no disagreement, and felt it best to quickly get to the point.

“What bad behaviour did the other two have that you kept in check?”

Adagio raised an eyebrow at me. A potent gesture from her. I think it was the quality of her eyebrows that did it, really.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, what sort of trouble might they be getting into without you there to keep them out of it?” I asked, feeling very proud of myself for being so whipcrack smart. Such a cool guy, me.

That got it for her, and her expression lightened.

“You think we might be able to find them because of the stuff they’ll do without me there to tell them not to?”

Not sure why she was explaining my own idea back to me, but then again she might just have been confirming it out loud. I held my hands apart.

“Just an idea.”

Frowning in concentration and tapping a finger against her chin Adagio thought to herself. I let her to it, casting an eye around and just watching the world go by. The world continued much as it always did. Although now magic was a thing, or at least I was aware of it now.

Probably not really over that, yet. It’ll sink in eventually.

“Sonata did develop kind of a thing about tacos,” Adagio said at length I blinked.

Honestly, out of all the possible answers to the question I’d asked this was not one I had prepared myself for.

“Tacos?”

I was passingly familiar with tacos. Crunchy shells? Fillings? Never had one, only heard of them.

“Yeah, kind of a weird fixation. Comfort food, whatever. Don’t ask me why.”

“We all have our vices,” I said.

“Does that help?”

“Doesn’t hurt. Let’s go find tacos, see where that leads us.”

It was a start at least, and until proven to be a complete waste of time it felt like progress.

Looking up the nearest places that actually sold tacos we headed over to them and, well, starting browbeating the staff. Or gently questioning them, whichever seemed to work best. Gentle questions worked alright. I lead, and once they were amenable Adagio would supply a description of Sonata, in the hopes this might dredge up a memory or two.

A solid plan, I thought, and workable in practise.

Sometimes we found ourselves questioning someone who knew who Adagio was, and things tended to get uncomfortable. At those times I stepped forward to take the brunt of their sudden bad mood, glean whatever we could from them - usually nothing as they usually clammed up - and then moved us both on.

If it was just someone coming at Adagio unprompted because they spotted her and knew her I stepped in immediately. People seemed a lot less keen on starting shit with me than they did with her. Couldn’t think why. Not that having angry people around you is anything less than deeply unpleasant.

Thankfully that only happened once or twice, and she seemed pretty solid about it all in all. Poor girl, having to put up with this nonsense. No wonder she was meandering about in the rain when I saw her first. I’d be unhappy too!

Amazingly, and in defiance of what I thought was going to happen, we actually started getting somewhere. I’d expected nothing but befuddlement and nothingness, a landscape of shrugs and ‘We see tonnes of customers what do you want from us’, but no. People did remember this Sonata girl! And for a pretty good reason, it turned out.

Not long ago she had engaged in ‘despair-driven crawl of taco consumption’ that had apparently shocked and appalled all who had witnessed it. I had very little idea of what this would mean in practical terms, but it sounded pretty bad. Helpfully though, it turned out to be the sort of thing people would remember seeing, which could only be good for us.

When questioned, the staff at the various establishments we went to still shuddered at the mere memory. Yes, they remembered her alright. How could they forget? One chap I spoke to in particular seemed to have some sort of mini-flashback the moment I mentioned it.

How bad had it been?!

“I can still hear the crunching...” he murmured, a faraway look in his eye. I turned to Adagio who seemed unsurprised by all of this, like this was normal behaviour one might expect from Sonata. Jesus Christ, did I really want to find this girl?

“You see which way she went after she was done, by any chance?” I asked. He took a moment then snapped back to the present, a faraway look still in his eye.

“Oh she wasn’t walking out of here after that, no - she got picked up,” he said.

Unusual. I glanced to Adagio but she knew as much about this as I did. Which was to say nothing.

“Picked up?” I asked and the guy nodded.

“Yeah. By a delivery driver. New girl, only just started seeing her around. You notice these sort of things when you’re in the trade,” he said, with what sounded a lot like pride.

“Uh, I’ll take your word for it. Picked up by a delivery driver, you say?”

“Weird, right? Just slung her on the back of her scooter. New girl, like I say. Kind of scary, actually. She had spikes. More than what I’m comfortable with and I’m okay with spikes, you know? And she just seemed angry, even at a distance. Then again if I had to pick up my friend who’d just eaten her bodyweight in tacos I’d be pretty angry, too.”

Most people would, probably. Not that it was something most people would probably run into. Personally I’d be pretty impressed and horrified, but that might have said more about me and my own standards. I let strangers sleep in my house - I was hardly a reliable baseline.

“Don’t suppose you saw where they went?” I asked, hope springing eternal.

He shrugged. I spent half my life dealing with people who shrugged, and that was because I did it, too.

“Away? I didn’t know I was meant to be paying attention.”

“Fair, fair,” I said, thinking. Then I asked: “Who does she deliver for, this new girl of which you speak? If you know.”

“Uh, Red Planet Pizza I think it was? What it said on the scooter, at least.”

I wrinkled my nose.

“That shitty place? I know where that is. Surprised it’s still in business.”

“Oh it’d take more than a corpse in the kitchen to shut that place down.”

That particular event I’d heard about. In their defence the corpse hadn’t been theirs and hadn’t been ‘made’ - as it were - on the premises, someone had just been storing it there for a brief period while they worked out what to do with it.

Of course, when it comes to food those sort of distinctions don’t really go a long way. People can be so picky.

Generally, when I wanted pizza, I looked elsewhere. Personal preference.

“Again, I’ll take your word for it. Either way though thanks you’ve been a big help,” I said, turning to Adagio and motioning with my head towards the door to indicate we could move on.

“I was helping?” The guy asked, a little lost, apparently not having been privy to the conversation we’d just been having. I nodded to him.

“You were indeed, so thank you.”

“You’re not ordering anything?”

“Not today, no.”

He looked disappointed, but such is life.

Outside, grinning, I rubbed my hands together. I honestly could not believe we’d actually made progress. And significant progress, too! From the flimsiest of beginnings, following a plan I’d made up on the spot we’d somehow learnt something useful and had somewhere we could go to maybe even get actual, proper, definitive results! Amazing!

“I’m going to take a wild guess that the delivery driver who picked up Sonata is your other sister?” I asked. Adagio nodded but then - just for kicks - half-shrugged to. I swear to God this shrugging stuff is getting out of hand.

“Definitely soudned like Aria. Not sure who else would pick Sonata up like that,” she said. Then adding: “Red Planet Pizza?”

“Yeah, terrible place. Lazy name. Not far from here, either. If she’s delivering for them - and kudos to your sister for getting a job in, like, a day or two by the way - then we can just roll on over and, uh, ask them! Or hang around and wait for her to show up. Either way. We can play it by ear.”

I chuckled and grinned wider. Was this what it felt like, when a plan came together?

“I feel like a bonafide detective! Heh. Come on Dagi, let’s follow up on this hot clue,” I said, turning and heading off down the street, pausing only when I got the sense that I wasn’t being followed. Looking behind me I saw Adagio standing where she’d been the whole time, just staring at me.

“What? We going?” I asked, pointing.

“You called me Dagi.”

Whoopsie. How embarrassing.

“Oh, did I? Shit, sorry. Didn’t even think about that, just slipped out. Sorry.”

She kept on staring just long enough for me to start sweating, before smiling at me. Just a little, but enough for me to know I was off the hook. I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding.

“I like it,” she said.

Well that was a relief, and the joy of not getting in trouble for accidentally giving someone a dumb nickname mingled with the joy I was still experiencing on account of my half-baked plan working out, the combined effect leaving me grinning like a loon.

“Good! I’ll try not to wear it out. Now come on, daylight’s burning. Let’s go track ourselves down an angry delivery girl! And, uh, another girl who might well still be stuffed with tacos.”

As far as days off went, this one wasn’t working out all that badly, really.

Eight

Author's Notes:

Understand human emotions, me good, yes.

Red Planet Pizza was not a very long walk away and we made good time, especially now that Adagio wasn’t dragging her feet anymore. It nestled in amongst other restaurants of similar caliber down a street that went nowhere anyone would reasonably want to go.

Everywhere had a place like this, I reckoned. Must be fundamental, somehow.

We could have gone in and asked and that had been my initial plan but I’d jackknifed out at the last moment when a thought had occurred to me: what could they have told me? Yes, she worked for them? We kind of suspected that already. Would they know where she lived? Probably not, so what use would asking be?

Better, I felt, to hang around like a pair of ne’er do wells and just wait for her to appear then rush over. Assuming she would appear. Which I convinced myself she would.

Down on her luck, why wouldn’t she be working as much as she could? So ran my logic.

The place had barely opened by the time we got there so it was unlikely anyone was ordering yet. Lord knew who ordered from there anyway. Cheap it might have been but still, who’d take their life in their own hands like that?

There was a strip of mud and a bench opposite, and it was on this wthat we loitered. I assumed that the mdu had had grass, once, but it had died from shame. Or just from neglect. Either way.

“What are we doing?” Adagio asked, leaning in to whisper, apparently thinking that this would make it somehow less obvious that one person was leaning over to another on a bench in full view. I liked her attitude, though.

“We’re staking it out,” I said, leaning in and whispering as well.

“Why?”

I laid down my train of thought about not going in, only out loud this time. Adagio seemed mostly won over by my reasoning. Mostly.

“What if she isn’t working today?” She asked.

This was probably the biggest gap in my plan. It was the sort of thing going in and asking might actually solve, assuming they told us. Such a thing might be seen as a little weird. Especially coming from me, a guy.

“Then we’ll be sat around for nothing. But I reckon she will, like I say. You could always go in and ask, if you like?”

She looked at the place and silently reached the decision that my way was best, shuffling across the bench and a bit closer to me. For warmth, I suspected, given that the day was turning unexpectedly brisk as we moved into mid-afternoon.

“Chilly?” I asked and she nodded. I cast an eye to the bag she’d left my place with and which she’d been lugging around since meeting up with me earlier. There was probably something in there she could use, but getting it out would be a faff. Sighing, I raised my arm.

“Come on in,” I said, and after a moment of confused hesitation Adagio gave a tiny grin and did just that, snuggling for warmth. I sighed again, though not wholly unhappily I will admit.

Honestly, what was I doing with myself these days?

“Is Aria really spiky, like that guy said?” I asked after a few moments of silence.

“He probably meant more that she gives the suggestion of spikes,” she said.

Whatever the hell that meant.

Our stakeout continued in silence for a few minutes after this, the pizza place continuing to slowly set itself up and no-one in particular going up or down the road. Adagio made herself more comfortable and warm at my expense, but such was life. It was only this one last day, after all.

“So…what’s the deal with you and Sunset, anyway?” Adagio asked out of nowhere, walking her fingers across her legs and then onto mine, at least until I took gentle hold of her wrist and put her hand back onto her own damn leg. She just giggled about it. She was an odd girl sometimes.

“She’s my friend?”

This I thought should have been obvious, given that I had, you know, said as much. With words. More than once, too, I was pretty sure.

My response got another giggle out of Adagio. Nice sound, but unclear intention. I wasn’t sure what there was here to be giggling, or for that matter where this line of questioning had come from or could possibly go.

“Come on, you can tell me. No-one else would believe me anyway,” she said, giving me a nudge and a wink - a wink of all things!

“I really don’t know what to tell you, Dagi,” there it was again, slip of the tongue. “We’re friends. She’s my only friend, in fact. Unless you’re my friend, too, in which case she’s just my first friend. Are we friends?”

“We’re friends,” Adagio said, steadfastly, continuing to try and burrow inside me for warmth.

“There you go then. Friends. I am fond of her and she puts up with me, much as with us two. Friends. Why do you ask?”

I felt another shrug out of her. I should start a running tally at this point.

“You said that if you let me stay with you again she’d be upset, was just wondering why you’d think that.”

My turn to shrug.

“An impression I got. She seemed fairly pleased to hear you’d run off in the middle of the night. I have a sneaking suspicion her and her friends don’t think too highly of you, you know. Probably just didn’t want you hanging around me. Supernatural troublemaker that you are.”

She went quiet for a few moments and I thought that maybe I’d succeeded in putting this strange tangent to bed. No such luck.

“Does she know I slept in your bed?” Adagio asked. I blinked.

“Pretty sure I told her that, yeah. Why?”

“No reason.”

If Adagio was trying to get at something I had no idea what it could be. Where else was I meant to let a guest sleep? The sofa? That wouldn’t be good hosting given it was only a day or so. And why would Sunset care if Adagio had slept in my bed?

I had the impression I was missing something glaringly obvious, but so obvious I had no chance whatsoever of grasping it. Frustrating.

Thankfully, a scooter pulled up at this point and the girl riding it removed her helmet. She looked cross. Cross at the scooter, cross at having to take her helmet off, cross at the world in general.

Could kind of see now the whole ‘suggestion of spikes’ thing. Not that it made the concept any less weird.

“Hey, is that her?” I asked, pointing. Adagio followed the line of my arm and my trusty pointin’ finger and I felt her stiffen against me momentarily before she leapt to her feet.

“Aria!” She cried out, and the girl from the scooter stiffened too before slowly - ever-so-slowly - turning to look towards us. Her eyes locked onto Adagio, widened, and then promptly snapped her head back round again and started striding towards Red Planet Pizza.

“Aria! Get back here!” Adagio shouted, jumping up and jogging over. Aria did not slow and did not look back and when Adagio did catch up and catch hold of her and spin her around Aria did not look best pleased, whipping a hand up to point a finger just under Adagio’s nose.

“You left us! You abandoned us!” She all-but screamed, and even I could tell she was balanced atop an emotional powder-keg.

“I failed you! I wasn’t thinking!” Adagio all-but screamed back, sounding about as het up.

“And then you ran away!”

“I’m sorry!”

“That doesn’t help!”

“I want to help!”

“Helping now is too late!”

It got worse from there and I kind of lost track, if I’m honest. Felt like it wasn’t my business enough to pay too-close attention anyway.

Some collateral damage was unavoidable, though.

There was a lot of yelling, some crying, lots of gesticulation. A back and forth over who’d had it worse since what had happened had happened, a lot from Adagio about how sorry she was and a lot from Aria about how that wasn’t good enough, etcetera.

Some people came to see what the fuss was about then went away once they saw the source. Wise. They had the good fortune not to be involved, unlike me.

I kept my distance and waited for all the emotion to die down. Not really my wheelhouse, and I’d probably just get in the way. If Adagio needed me I was sure she’d say so.

Their argument devolved eventually into a sobbing, wailing hug and petered out from there by degrees. I twiddled my thumbs and rocked on my heels and tried to be inconspicuous.

At length the hug broke apart, and while both of them were very teary and a little on the snotty side they at least looked happier. An improvement? I thought so.

“Who’s this?” Aria then asked pointing at me but not looking at me, finally noticing I was there or at least finally deciding I was worthy of being remarked upon.

“He’s nice, he helped me,” Adagio said, sniffling. Glowing reference, that. Aria plainly wasn’t convinced and leant in to whisper something to Adagio, whose eyes widened in affronted shock. The worst kind of shock!

“No! I did not! How could I?” Adagio hissed back, loud enough for me to hear.

“Thought maybe you’d, I don’t know, got something back,” Aria said, sparing me a glance. I stood like a lemon, superfluous to requirements, wondering what it was the whispering had been about and being sure it probably hadn’t been anything good.

“Well I haven’t!” Adagio said, emphatically, also glancing at me and smiling nervously. I smiled back. Seemed like the thing to do.

Aria looked like she still wasn’t convinced, but also looked unwilling to press it any further. The two of them disentangled from one another and Aria stalked up to me, looking me over. I saw what the guy from the taco place meant about spikes, and about the anger. Even after what had looked be a a thoroughly draining crying session and hug she looked about ready to throw down.

“What’s his name?” She asked Adagio, again not really looking beyond what she needed to to get the measure of me.

At this point I figured it’d be a good idea to interject rather than just loom there being something to be talked about. I told her my name. She didn’t seem especially impressed. There wasn’t a lot I could do about that.

“And what’s he doing here?” She asked, again, not to me.

What am I, chopped liver?

“Ask him, he’s standing right there!” Adagio chided, smacking Aria over the back of the head and earning himself a venomous glare but nothing further. See that ringleader stuff was coming back to her, though dope-slapping your underlings is perhaps not the nicest thing to be doing.

“What are you doing here?” Aria asked me through gritted teeth, rubbing her head.

“I’m just here with Dagi- Adagio, helping her out. She was looking for you guys and I helped her find you, and that’s why I’m here,” I said, gesturing towards Adagio and only very nearly slipping up with the nickname thing again. I bit my tongue.

It was one of those things where you think about not doing it so much that it’s just swimming around your brain, you know? Didn’t help that I thought it sounded kind of cute.

“Right,” Aria said before turning back to Adagio, plainly having finished with me. “I need to work, but this is where we’re staying.”

She jotted down the address in a notepad she pulled out of a jacket pocket, tore it out and passed it straight to Adagio, eyeing me suspiciously as he did so. She then went in for another hug, surprising Adagio who returned it after only a moment.

“We were worried. Me and Sonata. Angry - oh, real angry, I’m going to get into that later with you - but worried, too,” Aria said. Adagio looked appropriately sheepish.

“I was worried. It was only after that I realised I’d made a mistake in running and by then you two were gone and I had nowhere to go and everyone turned on me and…”

She trailed off, assuming that Aria had experienced much the same and didn’t need it spelled out. The pair of them shared a tired smile, the kind one could only really manage after screaming at someone you cared about for a few minutes.

This was all very sweet. Looked to be working out better than I might have hoped! And before the day was even over, no less!

Maybe I’d missed my calling in life. Should become a private investigator. Though from what I understand that mainly involves stalking those suspected of adultery. And that doesn’t sound like my idea of a good time.

Maybe I hadn’t missed my calling in life.

The girls then hugged - again! - and then stepped back from one another.

“I need to do this. If you go to the address I’ll be there later,” Aria said. With that done she - sparing me one final, suspicious glare - went into Red Planet Pizza, leaving me and Adagio outside.

Why Aria had bothered being secretive with her note was anyone’s guess, given that the first thing Adagio did with the address once Aria had gone was hand it to me and ask where it was. But that’s trust issues for you. I suppose I can understand.

Either way, I did know where it was, so it was more walking for us. I carried Adagio’s bag, just because, and off we went.

“Can’t we take a bus?” Adagio whined, plainly having less patience for walking than I did.

“It’s not far,” I said. This was true. By my standards.

She whined more as we went, but I was getting used to it and, honestly, she had quite a nice voice to listen to, even if half the things she was saying then were complaints about how her feet hurt.

At one point about three-quarters of the way there I did offer to carry her - as a joke I hasten to add - and for one or two horrible seconds she actually looked to be considering it before deciding that the embarrassment wasn’t worth it. Did put a stop to her complaints though.

The rate today was going I reckoned I might even make good enough time to get home for dinner before it got dark. And I’d maybe even get to see the sort of girl who could put away enough tacos to scar the psyches of people who work in the service industry.

Not for the first time I reflected that today was a pretty good day off.

Nine

Author's Notes:

You may experience some narrative turbulence as I attempt to wrestle this thing out of a directionless tailspin and into something closer resembling, you know, plot?

Then we hit a mountain.

It wasn’t long before we arrived, and once we did we stood and stared for a bit.

They were squatting, as it turned out. Some unoccupied house out towards the rather more rundown side of town. The place didn’t look great, but that’s kind of a given with house that aren’t supposed to have anyone living in them.

Normally in situations like this you would ask ‘You sure this is the place?’ in a disbelieving kind of a way, but Adagio had handed the bloody address to me. And this was it. This was the place. No getting around it.

And speaking - or rather thinking - of Adagio, her being quiet since me making the offer to carry her had been welcome in ‘I have nothing really to say at this point’ sort of a way, but was now starting to unsettle me. The pensive look on her face didn’t help.

“You alright?” I asked, which snapped her back to the then-and-there.

“Just thinking,” she said.

This did very little to settle me, but everyone thinks from time to time and seeing that your sisters-cum-very-close-friends-from-another-world had been reduced to squatting was probably the sort of thing anyone would think about.

“You going in?” I asked, prompting. It took her a moment but she nodded, resolve stiffening before striding up the path.

The front door was unlocked and we entered cautiously, Adagio leading the way as seemed appropriate. The place was very quiet and very empty. Marks on the wallpaper where furniture had been, bare floorboards etcetera. All very abandoned. No signs of life.

“Aria…?” Came a voice from deeper within. Adagio, finger to her lips, pressed on with me tagging along behind, feeling that this wasn’t quite the triumphant reunion I’d hoped for. Still, some measure of success, right?

We moved down the hallway and into a room at the back of the house which could have been anything before all the furniture had been removed. Tucked up in a sleeping bag against a wall with a damp flannel laid across her forehead, the girl who I assumed was Sonata stirred weakly, groaning.

She was probably hamming it up just a touch, but she looked so plaintive and adorable and plaintively adorable that I couldn’t really hold it against her.

“I think I’m dying…” She moaned, cracking an eye in our direction and then freezing.

“Adagio?”

Adagio said nothing but just stood smirking with her hands on her hips as Sonata stirred, shifting up into halfway sitting and out of her sleeping bag. Her eyes widened.

“Adagio!” She squealed, launching forth like some sort of blue missile and colliding with Adagio in the blink of an eye, wrapping around her waist and latching on like a limpet.

What followed was an ear-piercing stream of what I assumed were words but which were delivered with such speed and enthusiasm I missed most of it. I was able to pick out some fragments here and there ‘Aria said you’d run away’ ‘I’m so glad to see you’ ‘Does this mean everything’s better now’ and maybe a couple of single words here and there, but nothing I could do anything with.

Adagio weathered all of this with what looked like practised detachment, a hand on Sonata’s head ineffectually attempting to prise the girl off. It was only Sonata’s taco-induced illness reasserting itself that put a stop to the stream.

“Ugh...still dying…” she groaned, stepping back and flopping onto the sleeping bag again, clutching her belly.

“You…” Adagio said with what sounded quite close to a snarl before looking to me and softening, crouching down beside the other girl. “How many tacos was that, exactly, Sonata?”

“I didn’t coouunnntt…”

I figured this was probably my time to leave. It looked like Adagio had enough on her plate now with a taco-filled sister and a house of questionable ownership, and I’d done what I’d said I’d do - which was more than I’d expected! I’d expected the day to have ended in ignominious disappointment! This was better than anything.

So what better time to slope off?

Putting a hand delicately onto Adagio’s shoulder just to get her attention a moment I mouthed ‘I’ll be off then’ and made to do just that, only to find her hand whipping up to snap down on top of mine. This stopped me.

“Thank you. For this, for helping me,” she said, quietly, but not so quietly it wasn’t obvious Sonata would be able to overhear. “Could - would you mind staying a little? At least until Aria comes back?”

I had work in the morning but what else did I have to do than hang around in an empty house illegally with some people I’d met in the last week? What could be a better use of my time?

And I couldn’t have said no to that face anyway. This was, after all, probably going to be the last time she and I would be hanging around one another. So why not?

“Sure thing,” I said.

“Who’s he?” Sonata hissed, pointing at me while trying to hide her mouth with her hand but putting it the wrong side so it hid nothing. Endearing.

Adagio looked up at me while she considered her response, favouring me with a most radiant smile. Immediately I felt better about electing to stay around for a little longer.

“He’s my friend,” she said, emphatically.

Adagio’s appreciation of me had really kicked up a gear over the last few hours, or was that just my imagination? Not that I minded either way, obviously, it just seemed a little out of left-field. Maybe it was just me. Probably only imagining things.

The three of us hung around in that slightly chilly, furniture-less room. It became pretty clear to me pretty quickly that Sonata did not fully grasp the gravity of the situation she was in and seemed pretty chipper and upbeat about life in general, all things considered, and barring her occasional bouts of groaning and self-pity for having eaten quite so much.

“She’s usually worse than this,” Adagio said to me at one point. I didn’t know what she was talking about, I thought Sonata was the most adorable thing I’d ever seen. Just wanted to pat her on the head. Didn’t though. That kind of thing never looks good.

It was a few hours before Aria came back, at which point the was firmly settling into the evening. When she did we all heard her coming to a stop on that scooter and Adagio was the one who got up to go say hello. That left me with Sonata, who promptly went to sleep.

Probably for the best.

Aria appeared in the doorway, clearing her throat to catch my attention. She looked to be no happier than the last time I’d seen her, which was to say she looked unhappy. The possibility existed that she only looked this way anytime I was there and I was the problem, but wouldn’t help things.

“I want to talk to you,” she said, crooking a finger at me.

This could only bode well.

“Sure?”

“Outside,” she said, pointing far too aggressively off towards the back of the house, where the garden was.

This could only bode better still. She disappeared from sight and I followed, out through the door and into the garden where she pointed me further out onto the lawn. I did as I was told while she shut the door behind us. Lord knew where Adagio had ended up.

Once the door was closed Aria tramped across the grass to where I’d been standing in the dark. Or twilight, rather. It wasn’t light is what I’m saying.

“What do you want?” She asked. Bit direct.

“What? Right now? Or generally?” I asked right back.

Not the right answer, from the look on her face. Even in the mounting darkness I could tell this much.

“I mean from Adagio. Why did you help her? What do you want from her?”

“Nothing, why would I want anything?”

“You don’t help people for nothing.”

‘You’ in the grander sense of humanity at large and not me specifically, I imagined, given she didn’t know me from Adam.

“I’ll admit it’s a little unusual but honestly, I don’t want anything. See a nice looking girl outside in the rain all on her own, what else was I meant to do?”

Again, plainly not the right answer as Aria’s expression darkened further.

“Oh. That’s what you want,” she said.

“What?” I asked, before fully realising what it was she was implying. When I did, I nearly fell over backwards. “No no no Jesus no, not like that nothing like that. I just wanted to help is all, really.”

“Sure you did.”

Why was I putting up with this, exactly? I’m a reasonable man but I’ve just experienced some very unreasonable things, and even I have limits. Rather short ones in this instance, as it turned out, but it had been an odd couple of days so perhaps I was a little closer to the edges of my patience than usual.

“Well you can believe whatever you want to believe. I’m out of your enormous hair, now. I’ve done my bit you’ll no-doubt be pleased to hear so I’m not your problem. Can I go? Did you have anything else?”

My sudden turn towards the abrasive put Aria on the back-foot, which let me off the hook and I stalked back inside feeling under-appreciated and salty. Inside was a lot darker than I remembered, likely because I’d just been outside and I squinted, heading towards the light of lamps that had been set up.

I found only Sonata, back to being tucked up and still asleep. Being asleep she didn’t notice me and I crept back out into the corridor only to bump into Adagio, who had managed to sneak up on me. This made me jump and made her laugh, so good for her.

She was back to wearing the same thing she’d had on when I’d spotted her the first time, I saw in the gloom. No idea when she’d found the time to change or thought it was a good idea, but there you go.

After having hung around with her all day in her incognito, inconspicuous outfit it came as something of a surprise, for whatever reason. I’d rather forgotten what an arresting look it was on her.

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Adagio was a pretty girl. Not that this mattered, obviously. It was just there. And right then it was rather hard to ignore.

There was something new though, I noticed, or something that I hadn’t noticed before. Some sort of odd choker-cum-necklace thingy. Kind of an odd choice, really, given that whatever was hanging from it was barely there. Some broken red fleck of something that did a surprisingly good job of catching the tiny bit of light spilling from the room behind me.

Whatever, her choice.

Seeing me she smiled and I stopped worrying so much.

“Did Sonata die?” I asked and Adagio rolled her eyes.

“She’s an idiot but she’ll be fine. It’s like you said, this is what happens when I’m not here. What did Aria talk to you about?” She asked. I wasn’t even sure how she’d known we’d talked at all, but there you go.

“My intentions. Everyone has to have a go questioning them these days. Her, you, Sunset and her friends. Sonata’ll probably be next, once she’s recovered,” I said, trying not to sound too sour.

Seriously, try to do a nice thing and everyone’s crawling down my throat. Sure it turned out the person I was doing a nice thing for had tried to orchestrate a take over the school - or was it the whole town? Unclear - with her magical sisters and their innate mind-ensnaring abilities but still, I didn’t know that at the time and she’d lost, hadn’t she? Rendered powerless and all that?

Why kick a girl when she was down?

Adagio sauntered a little closer with a sympathetic smile. She was smiling a lot since having got here. Understandable, and a good thing I reckoned. Certainly made me feel better seeing her feel better.

“Don’t mind her. She doesn’t know you like I do. I’ll talk her round, don’t worry.”

“You don’t really need to. I said I’d be out of all you guys hair now. So I guess that this’d probably be goodbye. Not the greatest setup for it, sorry.”

A darkened corridor in an abandoned house wasn’t the best place to wish someone farewell.

“About that…” Adagio said, biting her lip. “You’ve really helped me, like I’ve said, and I can’t thank you enough. Right from the very start you helped me and you never needed to. I - I won’t forget it.”

She paused and took a breath, rocking on her heels.

I sensed a ‘but’ coming.

“But…”

There it was!

“I could still - I still need your help. You know your way around here better than I do. It won’t take much for us to get back on our feet but it’d be much easier with you. Please.”

This wasn’t part of the plan. Not at all! I took a step back to put some distance between the two of us but she stepped forward, so it didn’t matter at all.

“I’m really not supposed to. I did say it was just today, didn’t I? One last spurt of help to get you here? And that’s happened. Don’t get me wrong! It’s not a great situation and I’d like to help you out I just - I did promise Sunset.”

This was awkward!

“All you really said was that she wouldn’t like it if you let me stay at yours again, and I won’t do that since we have this place, so what’s there to worry about?” Adagio asked, cocking her head and maybe even pouting a little, though the light made this difficult to pick out. I just shuffled uncomfortably.

“Uh, I don’t know. Can’t see her being too keen on, uh, well, me hanging around with you too much. All things considered.”

This sounded really, really bad to my ears. Like it being decided who I was allowed to associate with, and me explaining this to the person who it had been decided I should not associate with. I could see the sides of the argument involved, sure, and the situation was unusual, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

Adagio seemed to get it, though, and didn’t even seem especially put out.

“It’s okay, we can keep it a secret. Sunset doesn’t have to know,” She said, voice lowering, eyes fixed on mine, catching the light from the room more fully now that after her step forward.

Okay, now I’m not so much of an idiot to not realise I was being played here, but that didn’t make it any less effective. She had me figured out!

I wanted to help, damnit. I just wanted everyone happy! Why was that a bad thing?

I shuffled harder, wringing my hands.

“If - if we kept it on the down low I guess it wouldn’t be too bad, would it? Not like I’d be moving in or anything. Just helping you out if you needed something, right?”

“Right,” she said.

That didn’t sound so bad. Still I shuffled. Nervous habit.

“And Sunset won’t find out?” I asked.

Adagio smiled again, widely, warmly.

“I’m not going to tell her if you’re not, and what Sunset doesn’t know won’t hurt her, will it?”

When has that ever sounded like a good thing to anyone? When has that ever not sounded incredibly shady and shifty?

Still, she wasn’t wrong. And it wasn’t lying, technically. It was mainly Adagio staying at mine that Sunset had seemed upset about, me helping more had mostly been me just inferring it. I hadn’t been told not to, had I? So it was fine, right? And it wouldn’t be that much help, would it? Just a little bit? When Adagio needed it?

That wasn’t so bad. Right?

“Okay…” I said and Adagio hugged me, wrapping around my torso and snuggling in close. This was pretty cute, present circumstances notwithstanding, and I couldn’t really help but hug her back. Nice girl once you got down to it. Just wanted a chance.

And there I was, helping her to get it. Possibly against my better judgement but in line with my bastard-persistent and not entirely reliable conscience.

To think, if I’d never looked out of that kitchen window none of this would have happened. Ah, there but for the Grace of God and all that. All been my fault after that! No-one had forced me to do anything! Could have stopped anytime I’d felt like or anytime it was pointed out I probably should have.

But no, this was fine. Just a little bit more.

Besides, the way she’d asked me?

Well I was hardly going to say no...

Ten

Author's Notes:

No time to diddle, straight down the middle.

All things considered being back at work the next day wasn’t so bad.

Certainly, it was a lot less confusing than anything else that had happened recently. Almost meditative just going through all the motions, really. And dayshift is easy anyway. A lot of time to just stare into space. Barring the regulars, obviously, but they rarely require that much attention.

Kind of a pisser that helping out Adagio didn’t immediately solve all of the problems. If anything, it’s just created newer, different problems. Especially the problem of keeping from something Sunset, now. That was probably the biggest one.

Technically I hadn’t done anything yet. Right then I’d done exactly what I’d told everyone I’d do: got Adagio out and also helped her find the others. I’d done my part! But I had agreed I would keep helping Adagio and doing so secretly. So it worked out the same as if I’d done nothing.

That got me frowning, at least until I remembered just how forlorn Adagio had looked and how nicely she’d asked me.

Probably best not to think about it too much. Just set out glasses and stand by the bar and look like you’re busy, there’s a good lad. The day’ll be over before you know it and you can go back home again and sit in the peace and quiet and not have to worry about anything, at least for a little bit.

“Hi!”

A sudden, piercing voice jolts me, the same kind of jolt you get when you’re drifting off to sleep and manage to wake yourself up. I’m disoriented and the next thing I know Sonata has appeared in front of me, bouncing happily in place and waving in my face.

“Hi! It’s me! Adagio’s busy doing something and she said that you were at work but that your work was, like, super boring and that I should come keep you company!”

This was unexpected.

“Uh, she did?”

“Yep!”

I kind of expected more, but Sonata just smiled that big, slightly vapid smile at me and went no further. I took a quick glance around and found the bar basically empty, barring a single regular in a corner who couldn’t have given less of a shit about what I was having to deal with if they’d tried. I looked back to Sonata again.

“You seem better,” I said.

“Oh yeah, much better, thanks!” She said, then she leant in and lowered her voice, meaning I had to lean in too. “I was kinda pretending, just so Aria would be nicer to me but shh, don’t tell anyone!”

“Secret’s safe with me, Sonata,” I said and she beamed, hopping up onto one of the stools. I was forcibly reminded of when I’d brought Adagio along, and wondered whether Sonata would start dancing too. I rather hoped not. It would be difficult to explain if I had to.

Fortunately, Sonata seemed content enough to spin in place and start to mess with the little plastic box of straws and stuff.

“What is Adagio doing, exactly?” I asked and Sonata just shrugged, continuing to mess with the straws and stirrers and napkins until I pulled them out of her reach, whereupon she just started kicking her feet against the bar.

“Don’t know, didn’t tell me. Said it was something important though, and I should do as I was told and stop asking questions. So here I am!”

She threw her arms up gleefully at the conclusion of this sentence.

Sonata was very, very cute. Kind of tiring already, yes, but adorable. You’d hardly know she was some sort of down-on-her-luck emotion devouring, mind-manipulating creature from another world.

“What do you do here? Do you just stand there behind that thing? I can kinda see why that’d be boring,” she said, head tilting, as though a different angle might shed better light on my employment. I blinked at her.

“It’s a bar?” I said, though I could tell that this illuminated nothing for her.

I had to remind myself that while Adagio and buddies might look like regular girls they, in fact, were not. Were from an entirely different world in fact. So it stood to reason that their frames of reference might be a little out of sync with mine.

Come to think of it, Sunset was much the same. But according to what she had told me, Adagio and co were basically the equivilant of monsters of legend back from where she was from. So who knew?

You’d think they’d know what a bar was, though! How long had they been here? Maybe Sonata had just never thought about it. I wouldn’t have been surprised, actually, looking at her then.

I could only work with what I had, which was Sonata in front of me asking a question.

So I went with just answering it.

“It’s pretty quiet right now but the idea is people come in and buy drinks? Alcohol, I mean. Not, like, the cafe down the way. Though we do do coffee.”

“Ooh! I’ve heard of alcohol.”

“I’m not surprised. But yeah. Beer and stuff. Cocktails are pretty popular, though that’s generally more in the evening. Happy hour and all that, you know?”

Not my wheelhouse, not my shift, typically. Not anymore at least.

“Cocktails?”

Sonata, I want to pat you on the head but was I going to have to explain everything?

“Mixed drinks? Usually with raunchy names? Screaming orgasms?”

“What’s that?” She asked with a gasp.

Was she fucking with me?

Even if she was I wasn’t going to rise to it and so just explained what went into a screaming orgasm, or at least what went into the house version of one. Half and half, Kahlúa, etcetera. It had been a while since I’d been called upon to make one. Like I’d told her, more of an evening thing.

Sonata seemed enraptured all the same.

“Ooh, I want a screaming orgasm! Can I have one?” She asked.

Seriously, was she fucking with me? I couldn’t really tell. Girl was just so bubbly and enthusiastic it was difficult to get a read on her. To give her the benefit of the doubt I decided she was being sincere.

“Can you pay for one?” I asked back. Her face fell.

“No…”

I could tell what I was going to do before the thought had even finished in my head, and I cursed myself for it. Idiot. Soft idiot.

“Should have guessed that, really. I’ll get you this one. One!” I said holding up a finger and Sonata brightened again immediately.

“You will? Thanks! I didn’t even have to make you do it!” She said, delighted.

“No, no you didn’t…” I grumbled to myself as I turned to put the thing together.

I’m such a bloody pushover. If someone had a mind to they could probably play me like a fiddle with barely any effort at all. Lucky for me I didn’t know hardly anyone and certainly no-one with anything to gain from doing that. A free drink to a pretty girl withstanding. I think I could survive that, at least.

Really am a softy, though. Even gave Sonata more whipped cream on top than I was strictly meant to. Could get in trouble for that sort of thing.

“There you go,” I said, sliding it over the bar towards her before turning back to actually pay for it. Out of my own money! Soft idiot, again. Once I’d done that I found Sonata doing exactly what she’d been doing when I’d seen her a few seconds before: staring at the drink in wide-eyed wonder.

“You are allowed to drink it, you know,” I said.

“Oh!”

She picked it up and tried to drink it normally, cream or no. This had predictable results and I gently eased it back down to the bar before things got worse. Sonata had got cream all over herself. Me, sighing, handed her a fistful of napkins and pointed to the straw I’d already helpfully provided in the drink itself.

“Sorry,” she said, biting her lip and having another, more successful go after cleaning herself up.

Why, exactly, had Adagio sent Sonata at me? I suppose she was making my day more lively, at least, but still.

“Mmm!” Squealed Sonata appreciatively. “Mmm mmm! This is good!”

She was making alarmingly quick progress through the thing. I could understand why. Delicious and non-alcoholic as they tasted they were, still, cocktails. Sonata did not look like a particularly hardened drinker. I didn’t want to have to walk her back home. You never know...

“Maybe slow down a little on that,” I said and she looked at me quizzically. “You take it slow you’ll enjoy it more.”

I think she believed me because she did slow down, so there was that.

Sonata made for interesting company. Ditzy as anything, but so wonderfully relaxing in that she didn’t really expect anything from me at all. Her whole world appeared to be just that moment, just then, and about everything else she was blissfully unconcerned.

And I thought I was relaxed!

Didn’t get a whole lot of out of her regarding Adagio and Aria and magical battles and such. She knew about it, having been there, but didn’t seem to have been paying much attention at the time and couldn’t really remember anyway, not seeming to think it was that big of a deal.

I got the overriding impression that Sonata was just along for the ride, the ride being whatever way she happened to be pulled along in. Again, I saw more of myself in her than I was really comfortable with.

But I’ve had worse days at work.

She nursed the cocktail along pretty much all the way until my shift ended, her presence there causing no end of confusion for the incoming night-shift folks but eh, what can you do. Once I’d got all my stuff and got outside again she was there, waiting.

“Uh, well, I’m going home now Sonata. Thanks for hanging out with me, even if you were just doing it because you were told to.”

“That’s okay! Your work is kinda boring. I can kinda see why Adagio would think you’d need company. And thanks for the screaming orgasm, too! It was great!”

She rushed in for a hug before I could really process what she’d said and I found myself with my arms pinned to my sides and the air crushed out my lungs.

“You’re nice! I see why Adagio likes you,” Sonata said, stepping back again.

I may have blushed at that, but wouldn’t have admitted it. Just nice to be appreciated sometimes.

“Heh, sure. I’ll probably see you around, huh?”

“Hope so! Bye!”

And with that she practically skipped off. I couldn’t help but watch her go. Odd girl. Did she even exist, really? Could anyone like that really exist? She gave me a wave and rounded a corner and then was gone. I shook my head at it all and made to head off.

I then almost walked smack into two other people.

“Oh, terribly sorry, miles away,” I said. Then I saw who they were.

Sunset’s friends. The pink one and the rainbow one.

Shit.

“Ah, you again,” I said, hoping that maybe they hadn’t seen any of what had just happened.

“Screaming orgasm?” The pink one asked no-one in particular, tapping a finger to her chin and squinting at nothing. The rainbow one was just glaring at me.

“You’re that guy that the dazzlings suckered into helping them,” she said, sparing a glance up the street to where Sonata had been a moment before.

“Yes yes, we’ve been over that. Look, you guys are Sunset’s friends, right?” I asked. I sounded calm asking it but I was actually bricking it and making the words up almost as soon as they were leaving my mouth.

Felt like I’d been caught out.

My apparently casual dismissal of what had clearly been meant as a wicked-sick burn and also my sudden bluntness plainly caught the rainbow one off-guard and put her on the back foot.

This manifested as the monosyllabic response of:

“Yeah?”

This didn’t give me a whole lot to work with, but there you go. I kept going.

“I, uh, well, I’m kind of in a fix and I kind of need some helping out and she’s the one I’d normally go to for that but this time I kind of need her to not know I need help. If you follow,” I said.

The rainbow one folded her arms.

“We don’t,” she said, flatly.

“I do! I think? Maybe,” said the pink one.

“It’s nothing you have to do, it’s more like something you don’t have to do,” I said.

This did nothing to make either of them look any happier about the things. Not that I’d really expected it to. I wouldn’t have liked hearing it! Probably could have worded it better, but I was starting to sweat a little.

“Yeah?” The rainbow one said again. She was very good at saying it, to be honest. Could convey a lot with one word and an eyebrow.

“Yeah, could you maybe just not mention that to her? What happened there? Just now?”

The rainbow one looked even more like she wanted to hit me in the face, which was saying something when she’d started the conversation with the air of someone three steps away from assault.

“Why?” She asked.

“It’d help me out.”

“We don’t know you, man, you’re just the guy Sunset talks about a lot,” she said dismissively.

“Well that’s as maybe, but - wait, she talks about me?” I asked, tripping up midway through.

“A lot.”

“A lot?” I asked. A lot sounded like a lot.

They both nodded. I swallowed. Wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Problem for another time.

“Alright, well, look - I told Adagio that I’d help her out a little just one last time but it’s kind of working out to take a bit longer than that so I’m kind of still doing that. A little. And it’d help me out if Sunset didn’t know that. Not because I’m not supposed to, you know. Just, uh, well she might take it the wrong way.”

“You’re going behind Sunset’s back on this thing? Whatever it is?”

“What? No! Not really. It’s not even anything! I’m just - it’d probably be better if she didn’t know I was still in contact with, uh, those guys. Which I’m not saying I am. I’m just helping. A little. But it’s not serious or anything.”

Oh God just stop talking! You’re making it worse!

Look, you can still salvage this. Somehow. There has to be the right handful of words that can be put out in the right order to make this sound alright. Because it is alright, right? You’re just trying your best. Just want everyone to be happy.

And why do the two of them look even more horrified and angry than they did a second ago?

“Guess who,” said the person who put their hands over my eyes and made me jump out of my skin. I recognised that voice, much as I also recognised those fingerless glove things. I knew who this was.

Now, Adagio? Now?! Why now? You couldn’t have timed it worse if you’d actually timed it to show up right this moment! This is the perfect moment to make me look the absolutely worst person!

“Ha, ha ha haaaahhiiiiii Adagio why, uh, why you sneaking up on me? Right now? Right at this moment? When you can clearly see these guys here?” I asked through gritted teeth as Adagio wound herself around me

“Who? Oh, hello you two,” she said, smiling at the other two girls whilst she hugged my waist. I tried to pry her off as discreetly as possible but she had an iron grip and I didn’t want to make any more of a scene than was already happening.

The pink one and the rainbow one said nothing to this. They just left, walked right off looking at me like I was an awful person, leaving me stood there with Adagio attached to me while I cursed inwardly and rubbed my face with both hands.

“Adagio…” I sighed. “As lovely as it is to see you again so soon I thought we were trying to keep this on the down low? This continued contact? You did see them, yes? Sunset’s friends? Why did you feel the need to come up on me right then? They saw Sonata, too!”

“They won’t tell her, don’t worry,” Adagio said, shifting around me without breaking contact so she was stood in front of me, arms still about me. Not that I could see her, of course, my hands still pressed to my face. I could just feel her there.

“How do you know that?” I asked, half-laughing at the sheer ballsiness of such an assertion.

“I just do. Don’t worry. It’ll be fine, don’t worry. Don’t worry.”

As ridiculous as it was I actually did feel my worry ebbing away. Just a little, just a smidgen, but still. Just something in her voice, I think. Did a good job of calming me down. I let my hands drop enough for me to actually look at her.

“You’re just saying that to calm me down, aren’t you?”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

There wasn’t any denying this. Not with her so close and smirking at me. She had my number.

“Urgh, yes. It’s too late now anyway. They are going to tell Sunset about this, that’s going to happen. But, uh, she won’t be that mad at me, will she?”

Why was I asking Adagio? Because I had a feeling she’d tell me what I wanted to hear.

“Sunset will understand,” she said, and somehow I mostly believed her.

But then I always was an idiot.

Eleven

Author's Notes:

What you give just serves me right.

None of this was going to plan.

The plan - such as it had been - had looked something like: I help out Adagio and do maybe one more thing for her, she and her sisters get themselves settled and maybe even move on in life, I’m left back where I started, Sunset never finds out I did that one last bit of help and we go back to being super-cool best buddies and life is good again.

Clearly that had died on its arse. Like, immediately. And while it would have been pretty easy to blame Adagio for it completely I guess it was pretty dumb of me to expect it to have worked in the first place. My fault, like so many things!

Best to just grit my teeth and plough on through, I supposed. Had to be a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Sonata told me you were busy,” I said, continuing to let my arms hang limp by my sides just to make clear that I was not a wholly willing participant in this hug-thing Adagio had inflicted upon me.

If she cared she gave no sign and just continued to hang from me like a drunk hanging off a lamppost.

“I was, but then I wasn’t, and I thought I should come and see you - was hoping I could quickly come by yours to get the rest of my things.”

Oh yeah, her stuff.

I’d quite forgotten it was all still there, which was an impressive trick given I’d had to step around them in my bedroom that very morning. But then I never was the most observant of people.

“Ah yes. That would make sense. Guess you need it, huh?”

“Yes, I do.”

Figures. I imagined that she was planning on moving onwards and upwards and with the rest of her things presumably out of reach - who knew what that landlord guy had done? Illegally, I might add, but that’s by the by - it was sensible for her to get what she could. Which was at mine.

I sighed.

“Alright, alright. Let’s do this. Come on. You’ve got to let go so we can move, Adagio.”

Even with me saying this she didn’t disengage immediately, and when she did she did so with obvious reluctance! What on earth had got into her?

Still, the important thing is that she did let go, which meant we could actually get moving and get things done. I lead the way, being the one who knew the way, while she stuck close by my side. I wasn’t really in the mood to speak and Adagio wasn’t piping up either, so the walk was mostly undertaken in silence.

At least until - to my great surprise - I felt her reach out and grasp for my hand, which I pulled away out of instinct. She tried again though so I put my hands in my pockets.

“Not really that big on personal space, are you?”

“You held Sunset’s hand,” she pouted.

I flinched, though not entirely sure why.

“You, uh, you saw that?”

Adagio nodded.

“That was, ah, her idea,” I said. “Friend thing, apparently. She said. Was kind of weird when she did it, too, but I’ve put up with worse.”

Looking back on it it was no less of a weird thing for Sunset to have done. Was it really a friendly thing? I could see it as being a thing a couple of rungs up the ladder from friendly but this was Sunset we were talking about here - we were buddies! Still, weird, right?

“We’re not friends?” She asked, ratcheting up the pout a few notches. Pretty sure her bottom lip even wobbled a bit.

A cheap trick, a very cheap trick. But effective, at least on me.

Once all this was done I was really going to have to work on growing a spine and learning how to say no to people. Cute people especially. As far as weaknesses go it’s a pretty glaring one. One day soon it may well get me into trouble, knowing my luck.

“It’ll just be this one time…” She added quietly, as though she knew it was just the nudge she needed. And it was, damn her. I’ll put up with anything once. How did she know that?

“Fine,” I grumbled, pulling my hands out of my pockets whereupon the one closest to Adagio was immediately seized by her in triumph.

Again, really weird. Life would have to be getting back to normal soon, it just had to. I wasn’t sure if I could take it otherwise.

Thankfully, we weren’t that far off from mine by that point so I didn’t have to tolerate it for long and there weren’t that many people around to spot it and make an issue of it, so all-in-all it worked out alright. And it was just that one time, like she said, so it was fine. We got to mine, I unlocked the door, got her inside and then followed.

I felt a lot better, being back home. Safe and secure, able to relax, less like I was about to be called out by someone at any moment. Adagio had already disappeared into one of the rooms off the hall, who knew which one. Like she owned the bloody place.

“Why’d you send Sonata at me anyway?” I called out and Adagio appeared through a doorway, shrugging.

“Well I was busy and I’ve been to your work and I know how boring it is so I thought she might at least give you some problem or other you could focus on. She didn’t break anything, did she?” She asked, as thought this was something she hadn’t considered before hand.

“Heh, no, she didn’t break anything. And you’re not wrong about it being boring sometimes, but I think I could survive a day at least.”

“I’m amazed you got this far without me looking after you, personally,” she said with all appearance of sincerity. She really sold it! Flat delivery can make some lines, sometimes.

“Har har, very good. Come on, let’s sort your stuff out,” I said as I ushered her towards the bedroom.

I hadn’t actually tidied up or even really touched any of her things after she’d strewn them about my room before leaving with some of them. I’d nudged them all into one corner, yes, but that was about it. I had felt uncomfortable at the prospect of pawing through in enough detail to actually sort them out. There’d been underwear. I hadn’t the stomach to paw.

“What a mess,” Adagio tutted at the piles in the corner. “Should probably go through these, shouldn’t I?”

“I guess? Or just, you know, pack it all up and sort it out later.”

“Probably easier to go through it now, while we’re packing it up. Don’t you think.”

“I- fine, fine, sounds like a good idea to me.”

Anything for an easy life.

What followed was an excruciating excursion through what clothes Adagio had pulled out from the house in the first place. Every single item went through consideration and my opinion was asked on each. When it things like, you know, trousers this wasn’t that big of deal - though I wasn’t sure how my opinion would matter - but when it was some of Adagio’s more, uh, personal wardrobe I felt my cheeks heating up.

She was doing this on purpose. I could tell she was! She was trying to get a rise out of me! I just sat on the floor with my back resting on the wall and kept things cool and professional. I don’t even care how lacey or expensive whatever it is she’s holding is, you’re not getting a reaction, damnit.

Thankfully, after what felt like hours of Adagio’s glacial packing, someone knocked at the front door.

“I’ll get it,” I said, leaping up, desperate for an excuse to step out for a minute.

I was in such a muddle that I opened the door without even checking who was there first.

Turns out it was Sunset.

Ah shit.

“You’re still helping her?! Them, I mean? You’re still helping them?” She asked, face like thunder, barely a hair below just shouting in my face.

Not even a ‘hello. Guess we were getting right into it.

“It was a one-off! I told her! One last time! But, uh, well…”

Only once I’d started that sentence did I realise I had no idea how to finish it. Sunset seemed to have known this going in, too, and had let me go ahead just so I could look like even more of a tit. She stood there, fists on hips, waiting expectantly for the next part, knowing as well as I did that there wasn’t one.

“Is she here now?”

“Maybe? Yes, I mean yes, she is. She’s not staying though! She’s just getting the stuff she left here and then she’s going again. Honest! That’s it! This is it. Last thing. I can’t exactly keep her stuff, can I?”

Seemed reasonable enough to me, but Sunset seemed to disagree.

“Why do you even care? You don’t have to do any of this! None of this is your problem!”

Confrontation is not my wheelhouse. It gets my hackles up and makes my gut twist. I am not on my best in the heated moment. I get defensive. I say dumb crap. This is what happened here, too.

“Well, yeah, I know that. But so what? I want to help someone out. Why is everyone acting like that’s crazy? I mean sure you all probably saw an Adagio that - and I’ll be honest - was pretty damn scary sounding but I never saw that. I just saw her in the rain and I don’t know, I guess I’m stuck seeing her like that. And Sonata’s nice too! Sweet girl. Aria doesn’t like me but so what? I just think it’s nice to get people to a better place. What else am I doing, you know?”

I realised I’d been speechifying, and without a real clear goal in mind. I clear my throat and shuffled awkwardly.

“So yeah,” I concluded.

“You said she was gone,” Sunset said, sounded then more strained than angry.

“She was, but then she came back. But she’ll be gone again, honestly,” I said. In my head this was how it was going to work. I could see it working perfectly.

Sunset, again, plainly saw things differently to me.

“Until she comes back again,” she said.

“Which she won’t.”

“How do you know? You never say no to her. To her! You didn’t see what she did! If she can manipulate people who don’t know or don’t want to do what she says what do you think she’ll do with someone who does? She is using you! She’ll keep using you! She-”

Sunset stumbled midway through speaking and glared, staring daggers at something behind me. A second or so later arms went around my waist again. I growled.

“Damnit, Adagio, why do you keep doing this?” I asked, but Adagio did not deign to answer. Instead she asked:

“Can I just squeeze in close, just for one second?”

“Uh, sure, but why would you-”

To kiss me on the cheek, apparently. To lean up and just give me a quick peck, just like that.

“What the- Adagio what the hell was that?” I asked, but she was gone, giggling as she dashed away back to the bedroom, door slamming behind her. Gingerly raising a hand to my cheek I grimaced and turned back to Sunset.

Sunset who was practically incandescent with fury at this point.

“You let her do that!”

To be fair, I had, but only because I hadn’t know what she’d been going to do! So really I hadn’t done anything wrong anyway!

“She asked! That’s all she had to do! All you had to do, if you wanted to! I’m a fucking pushover, in case you hadn’t noticed!”

“I shouldn’t have to ask! You should have known! I wasn’t subtle!”

“I’m not a mind-reader, Sunset!”

“Yes but you’re not an idiot either! Or at least not as big a one as you pretend to be!”

She had me in a box. Doubling down and claiming to be as big of an idiot (if not bigger) than I pretended to be - and I wasn’t pretending anything anyway - was not going to get me anywhere. That would be a dead end from which there would be no escape. But I had no idea where else I was meant to go or what to do. She had defeated me.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I said, sagging against the doorframe.

Sunset looked like I’d slapped her. She looked on the verge of tears.

“How! How can you not know! It’s so obvious! Everyone knows! Why don’t you know!”

In my head I can see what she might be getting at. I’m dense, yeah, but she’s not wholly wrong when she says I’m not that much of an idiot. I can pick up on things. The things I’m picking up on just don’t make any sense.

Sunset is gorgeous and funny and smart and also a magical unicorn in human form but I’m just some guy and her friend. How could I be anything else? Why would she want me to be anything else? It wouldn’t make sense.

That sort of thing happened to other people, not me.

“I don’t-” I started to say but Sunset - who was crying now, I saw, I’d made her cry - cut me off, holding her hands up.

“Just stop talking. I can’t - I can’t deal with this right now,” she said.

“Please, Sunset, I’m sorry. I just - tell me, please. What am I doing wrong?”

“Just think! Just think. I need to go. You just need to think. That’s all you need to do,” she sniffled.

I watched her go and felt like shit.

Well that was great. Nothing like a flaming row with your best friend to really set the mood and make you feel wonderful. I just wanted to go to bed. Not necessarily to go to sleep, just to be away from everything.

Unfortunately, Adagio was still around, somewhere, awaiting my assistance.

She bloody well had something to answer for and all. That whole thing with Sunset wouldn’t have gone half as bad if Adagio hadn’t given me a peck out of nowhere. What had that been about? Had she done that on purpose?

“Got a bone to pick with you,” I growled as I opened the door to the bedroom. I stopped short though, and ended up just standing and staring.

Adagio was stood there, in the middle of the room, doing something peculiar.

She had in her hand what appeared to be splintered fragments of the chunk of whatever-it-was hanging from the choker thingy around her neck. These she held in the palm of one hand, while the other picked up the largest of the fragments between forefinger and thumb and raised it, pressing it against the main body of the dangling chunk.

There, after a moment of holding in place, it stuck. Adagio sighed contentedly, eyes closed. I just blinked.

“You know most people would probably take that off before trying to glue it back together,” I said, and she didn’t reply for a moment. She didn’t do anything for a moment, in fact. Just kept standing there, eyes closed, little smile on her face.

Then her eyes opened. There was this tiny, teeny, barely-there-but-I-could-kind-of-notice manic glint to them that I hadn’t ever seen there before. I swallowed.

“Thank you,” she said, perhaps a bit more breathlessly than she might have meant to. “Really, thank you. You’ve helped me so much, so much more than I could have hoped for.”

“Uh, you’re welcome?”

Adagio just laughed and repeated the trick with another fragment. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was watching her do, but glue definitely didn’t appear to be involved. The hair on the back of my neck prickled.

“That’s - you weren’t wearing that when I saw you the first time,” I said, lamely, pointing.

“No. It broke, had been shattered. I didn’t want to remind myself of how badly I’d failed. Now though, things are getting better. Thanks to you.”

I remembered now that she had mentioned the thing about the rubies, or gems, or whatever. Sunset had mentioned them too, actually come to think of it.

They’d both said they were important but, in all honesty, in the middle of all the rest of the stuff about magic and battles and whatever I’d kind of lost track and - in the grand scheme of things - broken jewelry hadn’t struck me as especially important.

It was coming back to me now though, the details. I snapped a finger as the bits and pieces floated up to the forefront of my brain as I stepped into the room properly, moving over to the bed just so I could look like I was doing something.

“That’s right, you said they were a, uh, focus or something? They broke and that kind of screwed you guys over. But they’re fixing now? Uh, that’s good, isn’t it?”

I said this, but most of me didn’t believe it. Most of me felt suddenly, distinctly uncomfortable.

“Very good. Very, very good. I was worried at first that maybe they’d been beyond repair, but then I had an idea.”

“You did?”

“Oh yes. Residual negativity is everywhere here, like a background hum. Spikes here and there of course, which is always nice. But it’d never be enough to fix the damage. Jealousy, though? And from the right source? Jealousy is just potent enough that even the fragments can react. Start to mend. Or so I hoped. And I was right,” she said.

I felt I was missing something important.

“Whaaaat are you talking about? Who’s jealous? Why would anyone be jealous?”

Adagio smiled at me, head tilted. The kind of smile that made me feel even dumber than I already did.

“My, you are dense, aren’t you? I thought you were putting it on. Very sweet, in its way. I actually like it more than if you were just pretending.”

I didn’t like where this was going. Or where it was. Or anything about it.

“I’m really tired, Adagio. Haven’t had the best day. Could you just - just help me out and tell me? What this is? What you’re talking about?”

“I’m talking about Sunset,” she said, stepping up to me so suddenly I stumbled back and fell, ending up sitting on the bed and having to look up at her. That was a power move and a half. All I could do was gawp.

“She really likes you, you know. A lot more than you apparently realise. A lot more than you’re probably willing to admit to yourself. I think she’s holding out the hope that one day you’ll wake up and suddenly see what’s been in front of you the whole time. I kind of thought you would, too, but now I think she might be waiting a while. It’s quite impressive.”

By this point I’d scraped enough coherence together to respond. Just about.

“Wha- but the jealousy though?”

Adagio bent so her face was level with mine and spoke slowly, rather like she was trying to make something understood to a particularly dim puppy, one she didn’t want to upset by raising her voice.

“Sunset was jealous. She couldn’t help but feel jealous. I was all over you and there she was just trying to be patient with you, hoping you’d get it, getting nowhere. How could she not feel upset? That was what I needed to happen and that was what I got. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked.”

“You needed…?”

Things were clicking. Pieces lining up. It didn’t come easy to me, being just stuff I’d had explained to me once or twice the last couple of days, but the salient facts had lodged in my head and now they were all blaring for my attention.

Sirens. Magical emotional manipulating and consuming types. Very potent, apparently, but defeated. Defeat broke the gems. Gems very important as regards to magical manipulation abilities. Gems now repairing.

Not a good thing. Not a good thing at all.

“Y-you did something to me, didn’t you? Right? To set this up? This was a scheme?”

Please let it be a scheme. If it was a scheme then this wasn’t my fault.

“Scheme?” She asked, genuinely perplexed. I made to stand up.

“Wait,” she said and in such a forceful tone I actually paused involuntarily halfway out of the seat, flopping back clumsily a moment later when gravity noticed.

“I didn’t do anything to you. I didn’t have to. I just asked you to help, and you helped. Sunset’s jealousy about it - once I noticed it - was what I wanted, and it was what I got.”

Fuck.

“And I’m still not doing anything to you. I wouldn’t, I won’t. I’ll never do that.”

Well she would say that, wouldn’t she?

At this point she sat on my lap, straddling my legs to do so. This made me want to move even less, if only out of pure shock and mortification. Or at least I was pretty sure it was those two things. Not that Adagio noticed. She just laced her arms around my neck and wiggled around to get comfy.

“I am...fond of you. I like you, too. In a way that I’m not really familiar with. It’s new. Maybe it’s that friendship stuff I heard so much about? I don’t know. Maybe. It’s not so bad, if it is, though it could be something else. I just know that I get...something...from you.”

She paused and thought for a moment or two, picking her next words, tapping her fingers on my back. I stayed stock-still and utterly unable to do anything, brain fizzing helplessly. What the hell was happening? What was any of this?

This really was all my fault somehow, wasn’t it?

“I’d like you, as a friend. If this is what this is. I’m sure I can learn what a friend is. Shouldn’t take too long. And until then I can make sure you’re comfortable. I want to keep you comfortable. And happy. And safe. What’s wrong with that?”

This sort of thing isn’t meant to happen to me. It’s meant to happen to other people. Fictional people, if at all possible. Fictional people have otherworldly creatures of nebulous morality sit on their laps and give deeply unsettling speeches. This sort of thing isn’t meant to happen to me.

“There’s something I get from you that I haven’t felt before, like I said. It’s new. Don’t really know what to make of it, yet. But it’s good. I’d like more of it. It’s one of the reasons I’d like to keep you.”

Keep me?!

Even as I was thinking this I saw that half-shattered ruby-thing around her neck glint and Adagio sighed, closing her eyes and relaxing her body. She could easily have fallen back off my lap had I not raised a hand to stop her from doing so. Not even sure why I had.

“Fear is good, too. But why are you afraid?” She asked, eyes opening again, looking a little wounded.

“Because you’re kind of scaring me here, Adagio.”

She looked more wounded, the sort that might start sliding towards the upset and angry. This did very little for my fear.

“I’d never hurt you. You know that, don’t you? Even thinking about it makes me angry. I can’t explain it. I just want to keep you safe.”

“There are, uh, degrees of, you know, safety, Adagio. Kind of, ah, variances in - in definition?”

Adagio was frowning then. Not angry, just the look of someone confronting a problem and thinking up a solution.

You know, somewhere along the line in all of this I may have made a mistake. Or two. This must be what hindsight feels like. It’s not great.

She wiggled up further on my lap and sat straight, eyes fixing on mine.

“I think it would be good for you to sleep a little, now. You’re very tired like you said. Just go to sleep for me. Don’t worry, just relax. Go to sleep,” she said.

And like that I was tired. Exhausted. It arrived to suddenly and so heavily I didn’t really mind it, just started sinking. But then it hit me that a few seconds ago I’d been a touch worn out by the day but otherwise perfectly awake, and it was only after she’d told me that it really hit. She’d done it! It was her! She was doing this! Fucking magic!

“You- you said,” I yawned, trying and failing to dislodge her from my lap, limbs alarmingly heavy. “You said you- you wouldn’t-”

“Shh, shh, it’s okay, don’t worry. Go to sleep. It’ll be fine, I’ll look after you. Everything is going to be totally fine. Just sleep. I’ll look after you. You’re my friend, I won’t let anything happen to you. Just sleep, go to sleep.”

I was so very, very tired.

And the bed - when I collapsed back onto it - was so very, very comfortable.

Twelve

Author's Notes:

Hammer and tongs.

When I woke up I was moving, and for a moment or two was utterly and completely baffled. Bafflement quickly became blind panic as my groggy brain tried and failed to come up with an explanation as to why I might be moving and I moved on instinct, trying to stand up.

Didn’t get far. I was still half-asleep and my body was the half that hadn’t properly woken up yet and so didn’t react quite as I might have liked it to. That, and someone put a hand on my leg. I looked down.

Fingerless glove things? Who wears those? I know someone who wears those. Tip of my tongue, tip of my tongue...

Then I got it.

“Ah shit,” I said, reaching up to rub my eyes as I felt the hand on my leg give what was presumably meant to be a reassuring squeeze. I wasn’t reassured.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you,” I heard Adagio say. I was even less reassured.

Opening my eyes and blinking away what remained of my impromptu nap I found myself sitting at the back of a mostly-empty bus, trundling along somewhere. I was sandwiched between Adagio and Aria with Sonata sat by the window, looking out of it with her face pressed against the glass. It was dark outside, so where we were was unclear.

Not that it really mattered, as being anywhere other than where I should have been - at home - was bad.

“Adagio…” I said, pinching the bridge of my nose.

“Yes?”

“Why am I here? Why am I on a bus? What are you doing? Where are we even going?!”

Might have got a little manic towards the end on that one, but to be fair out of all the times to get a little manic this seemed like one of the more acceptable ones, what with being kidnapped and everything. I felt I was allowed to be a little upset.

Adagio was unfazed by my outburst anyway, and just kept squeezing my leg. She must have thought it was an effective thing to do.

“Shh, shh. We’re just going a town over, not far. You’ve helped me enough so that I can start affecting humans again. Just one at a time for now, but I only need one. Next town over no-one should know who we are, we can recover, think about things, prepare. It’ll be fine, you’ll be fine.”

I thought about this. I really, really should have paid more attention to the local geography. Beyond the layout of town I didn’t really know anything. How far away even was the next town over? Seven miles? Twenty? It’d take me a day or so but I could walk twenty if I had to, no big deal. But what if it was more? This was a big place, after all.

Looking out the window again told me nothing more than last time. Still dark outside, some lights by the road and some others in the distance. Unhelpful.

“How did you guys even get me on a bus?” I asked.

“We had to carry you,” Aria said, glaring at me as though this was somehow my fault.

“You three carried an unconscious guy onto a bus and no-one batted an eye?”

“It’s night, you were snoring, no-one cared.”

Actually, I could see that happening. Bugger.

I squirmed in my seat, uncomfortably aware of how little space I had between the two girls. You’d think that wouldn’t be a bad thing, right? Context is important. Between the two of them I wasn’t sure who I disliked being closer to, though out of the two girls I could definitely tell Aria was the one who was unhappy. Adagio was practically vibrating with glee.

“I like road trips as much as the next guy, Adagio, but you know I have obligations? That place doesn’t pay for itself and I still have work and that,” I said, trying to ignore Aria for now.

“You don’t have to worry about any of that. I’m looking after you now,” Adagio said, smiling pleasantly.

Well that hadn’t worked. What else could I try?

I thought about this.

The gravity of the situation seemed to be passing Adagio by. I supposed that from her point of view things were going pretty great. Me, not so much.

“What’s to stop me from just getting up and leaving the next time the bus stops?” I ventured, testing the waters. Adagio’s smile went away.

“I don’t want to have to put you to sleep again. Don’t make me do that,” she said, sounding a lot like the idea genuinely upset her.

I thought I heard Aria snicker, but couldn’t really be sure and was doing my best to ignore it anyway because my guts filled with ice being sat next to someone that had fucking magic and had used it on me and would use it again. Made it difficult to concentrate on other things. Magic! Fucking magic! No-one told me there’d be magic!

Okay, alright, that’s fine. Don’t panic at the thought - the knowing - that putting you to sleep with a word is something she is totally capable of doing just by speaking at you. Just relax. Be calm. You just need to pick your moment, that’s all. Timing! You can do timing.

Just wait. Play along. Don’t panic.

I needed to stay calm, needed to relax. Not in the way that Adagio wanted me to, obviously, but more in the sense that I just needed to keep my wits about me, to think about the situation with rational detachment, yeah? Slow and steady. Panic would just make things worse.

Needed to escape, point one. That was pretty simple in theory. Escape, get back, find Sunset, grovel in the dirt, explain what happened and, uh, hope she and her friends didn’t mind fixing it again. That’ll be an awkward conversation, sure, but it was the only thing I could see happening or working.

Adagio was the obstacle here. This was the first and most obvious thing. Had the three of them just been regular girls - like they had been before I’d stuck my oar in - getting away wouldn’t have been that much of an issue. I’m a big lad, after all. Could probably have kept going even if all three jumped on me, just about.

Unfortunately, while Aria and Sonata still seemed to have been brought down to normal, Adagio was now a step above that thanks to me, and could (and probably would) stop me with a word if I started making a fuss. So she was the obstacle. And not one I could really see myself getting over.

I’d have to avoid it entirely…

“You’re very quiet,” Adagio said, bringing me back to the moment.

“Just feel like I need a hug,” I said, thinking on my feet. It got the desired result. Adagio melted at once, gave an ‘aww’ and hugged me, which seemed to go a long way towards defusing the situation. Aria, beside me, groaned with contempt. I ignored this, too.

“Hugs!” Sonata squealed, having looked back from the window and seen what was going on before promptly leaping in and wrapping her arms around the rest of us. I got enjoy - ‘enjoy’ - a moment or two of being squashed together with all three of them before Adagio succeeded in angrily throwing Sonata’s grip off.

“He’s not for you!” She snapped before going back to contentedly snuggling against me.

I felt sorry for Sonata, but mostly alarmed at Adagio’s sudden turn towards the nakedly possessive. Little worrying.

Sonata, bottom-lip wobbling, looked for emotional support. Aria didn’t bother even glancing in her direction and Adagio was just glaring. I could only mouth ‘sorry’ at her, which was the best I could do in the circumstances. Heart-wrenching watching her turn sadly back to the window again, but really not the worst thing at that moment.

Adagio sighed happily and utterly refused to let go. In an effort to seem like this was what I wanted and that I wasn’t causing a fuss I gingerly put an arm around her and gave her a pat on the back. This only encouraged her, but at least seemed to not cause any immediate problems.

I wondered, idly, if anyone would even notice that I’d disappeared. On reflection probably not, depressingly enough. This is what I get for being unlikable and withdrawn. Mea culpa.

Sunset would have been my first choice for someone who’d pick up on my sudden absence but she probably would be happy not seeing me for a bit given what had happened earlier, and by the time she realised I wasn’t around who knew what might have happened.

Work would notice, but not in a ‘Where’s he gone I hope he’s okay we should go find him’ kind of a way. More of a ‘Great, we have a vacancy we need to fill’ way. Which isn’t ideal for me.

So the possibility of someone bursting in at any moment to swoop up and snatch me away to safety seemed remote. So that was that out the window.

The sheer absurdity of the situation I was in loomed at me again, but it was just too stupid for me to fully appreciate.

I had been kidnapped - kidnapped! Not only that, but it had been otherworldly creatures in the shape of cute girls who would have all been deprived of their mind-bending magic had I not inadvertently been instrumental in returning a portion of it to their ringleader, who had been the driving force behind snatching me.

And said ringleader was, at that moment, pressed to my side, occasionally looking up at me with big - and admittedly, quite pretty - eyes and an expression that gave me the willies something fierce for reasons I couldn’t fully put my finger on.

What were you meant to do in a situation like that? Why did they never go over this at school?

Some while later we arrived. Prior to that there had been maybe one or two stops. I had not tried to escape. I didn’t really see the point, and Adagio was still clinging to me anyway. Biding my time seemed the wiser choice.

Where we ended up was anyone’s guess. ‘The next town over’ told me nothing and with it being dark I couldn’t see a whole lot of the place anyway. Adagio, at least, seemed to know where to go and lead the way, the other two bringing up the rear, carrying the luggage and keeping me in sight.

Could I have made a break for it? Maybe. But any time I considered it my head filled with visions of me being halted mid-sprint by a single word from Adagio and that idea made me uncomfortable in ways I had difficulty categorising. Ideally, I’d escape without her being there. That was the basis of my plan, I decided, and so I thought about that until we got to where we’d been going.

A hotel, it turned out. And still open to boot. I was left in the lobby around a corner with Sonata and Aria while Adagio went off to the front desk work her literal magic. Unsurprisingly, none of us really felt like talking.

The lobby was deathly dull in that sterile, well-decorated kind of way you might expect. This gave me very little to stare at beyond decorate twigs in big pots of gravel and vague, abstract, bulk-bought art. I ended up looking at the sirens, seeing if I could get anything useful just by sight.

I could not. Aria looked grumpy and was picking at something on her jacket and Sonata was closer to me eyes locked to the floor, sad as anything.

The more I looked over at her there, sitting morosely, the guiltier I felt. I had no reason to, obviously, and if anything should probably have been feeling as unhappy with her as either of the other two. She just looked so sad!

I’m weak!

Casting an eye at the corner we were sitting behind and straining an ear to hear how Adagio was getting on I reached out and tapped Sonata on the knee.

“Wha?”

“Quick hug, quick hug,” I hissed, spreading my arms.

Giving a muted squeal - thankfully having the presence of mind to keep her voice down - Sonata lunged over and onto me, squeezing. She also had the presence of mind to keep it brief, too, and leapt right back onto her own chair after a second or two, looking much happier.

Well, at least I did one reasonably nice thing. Stupid, yeah, but nice at least.

Aria was giving me a sour look. I fought the urge to stuck my tongue out at her.

“Going to grass us up?” I asked her. She huffed and rolled her eyes, muttering:

“Like I care…”

Adagio came back some seconds after this. She’d managed to wangle a suite of rooms, which was impressive. But it was, I noticed once we got up there, a suite of rooms without only three beds. Two singles, one double. I could kind of see where this was going, and I wasn’t a fan.

What was that thing they say about kidnappings? Never let them get you to where they want to get you? Why was I only remembering that now? Bit late.

It having been a long day all of them were keen to get to bed. I was sat in a chair while they divvied up the luggage between them, squabbling a little over the few items that seemed to be of more disputed ownership. Sonata and Aria headed off one way, towards the two singles, leaving me and Adagio. She smiled, and I was ushered to the bed.

Sigh. I’m never helping strangers again.

While Adagio got herself ready for bed I, with nothing to get ready with, just lay flat on top of the duvet fully-dressed, staring at the ceiling, doing my best to ignore the whole world and not think too much about my many myriad mistakes and failings. There’d be plenty of time to think about them tomorrow. For now, even with my forced nap, I was tired.

Once I’d slept - properly slept, not being magically coaxed into it - then I could attack the problem head-on. All things were easier in the morning and better approached refreshed. This was my excuse, at least, for not doing anything right then.

That, and the door of the hotel room was some fiddly kind you could actually lock from the inside with the key. And Adagio had the keys. A fire safety risk and no mistake, but very good at keeping me from bolting.

The bed creaked and I realised that while I’d been absorbed in thinking about keycards while trying not to think about anything, Adagio had finished whatever it was she’d been doing and had come back into the room from the ensuite.

She’d changed into pyjamas. Something with shorts. There might have been bows, too, which made a change from spikes. I wasn’t really paying attention though, honest. If anything, I was doing my best to not pay attention, my focus remaining fixed on the ceiling apart from the occasional glance just to check what she was doing.

“Are you okay?” She asked in a soft voice full of genuine concern.

There were a lot of quite colourful ways I could have answered this, but felt it best not to antagonise my captor if I didn’t need to. Especially since she had apparently decided that we should share a bed - something very high on a list of things that I was not entirely okay with.

So instead I gave a non-commital grunt and shrugged the best I could while lying down.

To my consternation Adagio straddled me again, sitting just above my waist and letting her hands rest on my chest. I lay perfectly still and kept my eyes pointing straight ahead of me and past her. I hoped she wasn’t going to make a habit of this.

My reticence about what she’d done must have shown though because I could see her pouting again out the corner of my eye. Moving her hands so they were either side of my head she shifted and fell forward, face in mine, hair doing a very good job of blocking out the light.

Again, as much as I might have hated to admit it, Adagio did have very pretty eyes. Almost stunningly so, in fact. Very difficult to look anywhere else when they fixed on you, especially from so close.

“Relax. I’ve got you. Relax,” she said.

And, you know, she had a point. This wasn’t so bad. The bed was comfy, at least, and sure it was a bit sudden but there are certainly worse places to be than underneath a nice, pretty girl, right? If there was a time to relax it would be now. I’m warm and I’m safe. What’s to worry about?

Adagio smiled and I found myself smiling too, letting her reach down and take my wrists, lifting my hands up to settle them on her hips. Forward of her, sure, but just relax, it’s fine. I should really just relax.

Wait, what?

“Uh,” I said, delicately removing my hands and just holding them a comfortable, safer distance away from her. “You, uh, didn’t you say you weren’t ever going to do anything like that to me?”

Adagio, again, looked wounded, reaching back to clap my hands onto her hips once more and then holding them in place.

“I didn’t do anything to you, I wouldn’t! I was just helping you relax.”

“Why are you so keen on me relaxing?” I asked through gritted teeth. Even without her putting obvious effort into the word I still felt a little tug on it that caught in my brain. I had to concentrate and try actively not to relax. Concentrating was difficult with the way Adagio wiggled.

“Because there’s nothing you have to worry about now. I’ll take care of everything. So you can relax. Relax.”

I mean, she did have experience looking after stuff, didn’t she? Certainly a lot more on the ball than me. Adagio’s smart. She can look after the details. Hell, she can look after me! I can just relax. There’s nothing I have to worry about now.

Wait! Fuck! Not again!

I really, really didn’t like it when she did that. It was difficult to tell if she was doing it on purpose or if it was just happening without her realising it or even if she honestly didn’t think it was something she shouldn’t be doing. Didn’t matter anyway. I just didn’t like it at all.

She’s not looking after me! She kidnapped me! With magic! Remember that!

In my efforts to reassert some control over my own Goddamn thoughts I might have gripped her hips harder than I’d meant to, without thinking. Judging by her little coo she might have appreciated it more than I did.

I felt the need to seize the initiative.

“What is your plan, exactly?” I asked her and her eyes, which had been half-lidded, opened more fully to look down at me, eyebrow cocked. “Well, not exactly, don’t give me details if you don’t want, just - what is it you want?”

Adagio kept on eyeballing me in total silence for some seconds after I’d finished speaking, long enough for me to start to sweat, especially given how close she still was. Then all at once she giggled and sat up straight again, flicking me on the tip of the nose with one hand while the other tidied up a few errant strands of her luxuriant hair.

“Everything is going to be fine. I’ve got it all under control,” she said. “Things are going to be much better. I know this must seem like a lot right now, but it’s for the best. You’ll thank me one day.”

Who has ever said that and not realised how terrible it sounds? Adagio for one, it seemed.

She then yawned and dismounted me, much to my relief, wriggling around to get underneath the covers beside me. I stayed put, not moving a muscle, and once she’d properly settled herself in this she noticed.

“Aren’t you uncomfortable still in your clothes like that?” She asked.

“I’m plenty comfortable, thanks,” I said, and for a fleeting moment I had the horrible feeling that Adagio was going to make me do something I didn’t want to.

She didn’t though, just giving me a confused look instead.

“If you say so,” she said, yawning again and letting her eyes flutter shut, nestling her head deeper into the adequate hotel pillow and snuggling tight against my side. Within a minute or so I could tell she was asleep.

For as much good as it would have done me I tried to slip away. Maybe I could shimmy down a drainpipe, I thought? It was probably for the best that she, sleepily, put an arm over me.

Tomorrow. I’d figure something out tomorrow.

I did go to sleep, eventually, but not before laying there for what felt like a long, long time.

Thirteen

Author's Notes:

Uh, yeah.

I slept poorly, as a fully-dressed guy on top of the covers only can.

At some point I stirred and opened bleary eyes to see Adagio there, finishing up on getting dressed. She noticed me and moved over, settling me back and even managing to somehow get me tucked in. I was too dazed to really do much about it.

“Shh, go back to sleep, I’ll be back later,” she said, even going so far as to give me a stroke, something which - had I been more awake - I might have had more of an opinion on. As it was I just mumbled and closed my eyes.

There hadn’t been any compulsion in what she’d said, but then there didn’t need to be. I just went back to sleep because I was sleepy.

Predictably, after that I slept for longer than I might have intended and woke up still groggy some time later feeling like I’d wasted a good day for escape attempts.

Splashing water on my face and maybe waking myself halfway up I stumbled out from that room into the main part of the suite where Aria and Sonata were just sitting around. The television burbled, but neither seemed particularly engrossed. They looked up on my entry, Sonata with something like actual warmth and Aria just with irritation.

“Morning. Or afternoon. One of those,” I said, finding an unoccupied chair and slumping down.

“It’s afternoon,” Aria said, the way one might phrase an accusation. I didn’t feel especially bad about it. I doubted there was a lot I could do to improve her opinion of me at this point.

“And you guys are stuck here with me?” I asked, scratching, getting another irritated glare from her.

“Adagio says you’re important, which means we have to make sure you don’t go anywhere. So just sit there and be quiet,” she said.

“That and, like, she said we were dead weight ‘cos we couldn’t do anything to help her yet,” Sonata added brightly. Aria just grunted and sulked harder, eyes back on the screen though I had a feeling she wasn’t paying the show her full attention.

There wasn’t a whole lot of conversation after that. Just the three of us sat in varying types of silence. I wondered if I was unhappy about having missed breakfast, then decided I wasn’t hungry and then wondered about that for a bit. It was not interesting, and got me nowhere.

“Ugh, bored. I’m having a shower. You watch him,” Aria said out of nowhere, rising and pointing an imperious finger at me.

“Okay!” Sonata said, swivelling in place towards me as Aria went back towards their room.

Having Sonata literally watch me was unsettling after maybe a straight minute of it. I cleared my throat.

“I, uh, don’t think she meant it literally, Sonata. I think she meant just generally,” I said.

“Oh, oh I get it. Yeah, you’re probably right,” she said, going a little pink and swivelling back again to keep watching the television, stretching her legs out across the sofa she’d claimed.

I tried to follow what was happening on-screen too but it all so much noise to me, and besides something a little more important had caught my attention.

Sonata had one of the keycards to the room. She was playing around with it, I could see, just flipping it around and passing it from hand to hand before putting it down beside her. I did my best not to look like I noticed this.

A plan formed. A very much spur-of-the-moment plan, set into motion and given haste by the sound of the shower running off elsewhere in the suite. It would not run forever, so I knew I had to run now.

Getting up and moving over beside Sonata and taking a knee I made sure I got her attention before calmly and with as much sleight-of-hand as I could muster just reaching up and swiping the keycard off from where she’d laid it down. Sonata, looking at me quizzically, did not notice.

Inwardly I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Is there a minibar in here?” I asked her, off the top of my head.

“Yeah! But, uh, Adagio said we weren’t allowed to touch it,” Sonata said, glumly.

“Am I?”

This thought plainly hadn’t crossed her mind.

“Uh, she didn’t say.”

“Hmm, well, I’m willing to get in trouble. I’ll share with you if I find something good,” I said. Sonata looked delighted.

“Ooh! Thank you,” she said.

Instead, I headed for the door, obviously, fiddling with it and the keycard a moment before figuring out how it worked and getting the thing open. The ‘clunk’ the electronic lock made sounded deafening to me but I didn’t care, it was the sound of success.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped about a foot. Sonata was right behind me. Freezing with the door open a crack I turned back, giving what I hoped was an expression that said ‘This is fine I’m allowed to do this’.

“I’m just going to step out for a minute Sonata, okay? Just a minute. Just have to check something first,” I said, jerking a thumb towards the door.

“Uh, I don’t think you’re supposed to?” She asked, as though checking with me, casting her eyes in the direction of where Aria had gone. The shower was still running.

“She just didn’t want me leaving but I’m not leaving, I’m just stepping out. I’ll be back,” I insisted, pulling the door open another inch or so.

“I dunno, that still sounds kinda like what I’m not supposed to let you do,” Sonata said warily, still checking to see if Aria was there to confirm with. Aria, thankfully, was not.

“I know, but it’s not, really,” I said.

“Really?”

“Really.”

She scrutinised me, peering close as though she might be able to somehow see if I was lying if she came within a specific distance.

“You’re not trying to escape?” She asked, phrasing it as a ‘gotcha’ question.

“No, I’m just stepping out for a second. To check something, “Sonata looked to be just on the cusp of buying it so I drove the point home: “I wouldn’t be trying to leave if it wasn’t okay, would I?”

Sonata chewed this over for a moment, then smiled.

“Yeah! Yeah that makes sense,” she said.

The guilt I felt from doing all of this was alarming. It was rather like putting a blanket over a puppy then running away before it knew what was going on. But needs must.

“Cool, I’ll be back alright?”

“Okay!”

You know, honestly, it was a little too easy. Not a good idea to spit on providence though. I made good my escape, slipping out as quietly as I could and hurrying down the corridor. I took the stairs - no time to wait around for lifts.

Kept expecting Aria to come running after me at any moment, kept glancing back. Got to the bottom without a hitch. Got through the lobby without a hitch, smiling and nodding to the receptionist. Got outside just fine, turned left just because it seemed like a good direction to go in.

Saw a very, very familiar head of very, very big hair coming the other way, attached to someone who looked surprised to see me.

Shit. Oh my timing was bad. How can it be that bad?

But my legs are long though! Long enough to compensate for mistakes. So I ran.

I ran around a corner and into an alley, which was probably a mistake as it turned out to be a blind alley.

Shit.

Leaping behind a bin I hunkered down and tried to make myself scarce. Not one of my finer moments, hiding from the scary mind-controlling girl, but my options seemed limited. In fact, there was only really one way this was going to go, probably. She’d seen which way I’d gone. She was going to find me. But that didn’t mean I had to make it easy.

I heard footsteps stop. Then I heard nothing. I kept very still.

“Come out, it’s okay. I’m sure there’s a good reason you’re outside the room. Come out now.”

She wasn’t talking directly at me, so it didn’t work immediately. But I could still feel it. Something tugging on me, trying to pull me up to my feet. Like the world was tilting to tip me forward. Gritting my teeth and squeezing my eyes shut I focussed all my energies on sitting the hell in place as perfectly as possible.

More footsteps, getting closer.

“Come out. I’m going to find you, so just come out.”

She wasn’t wrong. She was going to find me. I knew that already. Keeping on hiding was pointless. Keeping on hiding was just wasting her time. Why bother?

Because wasting her time is the point, damnit!

Continuing to grit my teeth while working a thumbnail into the palm of my hand I stayed there behind the bin all the way up until Adagio came saunting around in front of me, whereupon she stopped and looked down, arms folded.

“It’s a fair cop,” I sighed, getting back to my feet.

I expected an immediate and forceful telling off and couldn’t really look her in the face. Confrontation was never one of my strong suits. Instead, Adagio sighed as well, which got me to look up, albeit carefully.

“I understand,” she said.

This I hadn’t expected. I wasn’t even sure what she was talking about.

“You do?”

Adagio nodded.

“I do. I know this must be difficult for you to take in, and that’s okay. I know you’ll understand, it’ll just take time. It’s okay. I’m more interested in how you were allowed out.”

A big, hefty weight in my gut told me this wasn’t going to end well for the other two. For some reason that made me unhappy. Seemed wrong somehow I get let off with an ‘I understand’ and they get all the blame for me slipping away. I felt culpable.

“Oh, that was, uh, I snuck out. Yeah. Snuck out when they weren’t watching me. Not their fault,” I said, breezily, flapping a hand to show just how damn breezy I was being. Adagio wasn’t convinced.

“Key,” she said, holding out a hand. I passed it over and she hid it away somewhere so quick I didn’t even managed to see where.

“Which one left it lying around?” She asked.

“You know, I didn’t see.”

I could tell she didn’t believe me, but she smiled and said no more about it, instead just linking an arm through mine and gently but firmly steering me back out the alley.

Rumbled, fuck. All for naught.

“If I hadn’t have spotted you, what was your next move, exactly?” She asked, coy enough to use the same intonation when I’d asked something similar last night. No sneaking anything past her, apparently.

I remained breezy, doing my best to act like this whole situation wasn’t that big of a deal.

“Walk maybe? I hear hitchhiking is making a comeback. Sure I could have figured something out. I just thought it would be, uh, helpful not to have me to worry about. Kind of figured what with you trying to, you know, regain your powers and so on you wouldn’t want me slowing you down,” I said.

Her grip on my arm tightened as we moved back into the hotel lobby. I gave the confused looking receptionist a sheepish look. Adagio did not slow down and her grip did not loosen as we stood waiting for the lift.

“I’ve carried those two this whole way on my own, even before we lost our powers. I think I can manage with you around. And anyway, I needed them around before. I want you around. There’s a difference,” she said.

Not sure what to make of that. Not sure if I wanted to make anything of it. I decided it would be better to just not reply, and Adagio didn’t make an issue of it.

“I was thinking you and I could have some dinner out, later,” she said once the lift arrived. This blindsided me. The dinner thing, not the lift arriving. I’d been expecting that.

“Uh, okay?”

The lift doors closed and up we went.

“Friends do that sort of thing, don’t they?” She asked, pouting, unsure. I scratched my neck. Sharing a confined, inescapable space with Adagio made me unaccountably nervous.

Best play along. As ever, just play along.

“I guess? Sounds nice either way, sure.”

Adagio smiled.

“Just some things to take care of first,” she said.

There was a ‘bing’ and we arrived, Adagio steering me again - to keep me from making a break for it, I had assumed - until we were back outside the room. She opened it up and herded me in, following close behind.

From the looks of things we got back in time to Sonata and Aria caught in the middle of having an argument. If I were to take a wild guess I would say that it probably had something to do with me having disappeared.

That guilt came back again when they both looked our way on hearing the door go. Aria just looked angry, but Sonata looked genuinely hurt. I’m a bad man!

Seeing Adagio the pair of them immediately snapped to what was basically attention, smoothing themselves out and doing their best to look as though they hadn’t just been caught out and that everything was fine. Sonata even waved, though she still looked a touch upset. I’m still a bad man!

“I have good news and I have bad news,” Adagio said, making sure the door was shut and locked before walking over to them both.

“Um, what’s the good news?” Sonata asked, sounding hopeful.

Adagio stepped up to the table and wordlessly produced from somewhere about her person a frankly staggering amount of cash. Like, I have no idea how she was even managing to hide it given that I don’t think that thing she wore even had pockets.

“Cash. Cash is useful,” she said.

Not much denying that. Seemed kind of a crude and crass way of getting things started but you’d be hard pressed to find a situation that couldn’t be made considerably easy just by throwing money at it. Certainly, Aria and Sonata both looked like this was very good news indeed.

“And the bad?” Aria asked cautiously while Sonata looked at the money with wide-eyed awe, her hurt at my betrayal forgotten.

Adagio moved and took hold of my wrist, tugging me forward. Why she couldn’t have just asked me is anyone’s guess. Dramatic effect, I assumed.

“I found him outside. Tell me, how is it he managed to get out?”

“Ah…” Said Aria.

“Um…” Said Sonata.

Further answers or elaboration were not forthcoming.

This really seemed like a storm in a teacup to me, nowhere near as serious as Adagio seemed to be taking it, but that was from where I was standing. From where Sonata and Aria were standing they had their leader looking like she was six inches away from throwing them both out the window.

And who knew where Adagio was standing. I couldn’t fathom what was going on inside that girl’s head.

“Anything?” Adagio prompted, drawing out further noises but no actual words. She growled and that shut the others up immediately.

“If I had been Sonata on her own I might have understood, but you were here too, Aria, and I seem to recall you being vaguely competent, so how did it happen? Were you not paying attention, or did you wander off? What could you have been doing that was more important than the one thing I told you to do?”

There were no correct answers to this. Even if Aria told the truth she’d be screwed, because that would immediately go from ‘I was showering’ to ‘I left Sonata on her own to do the thing’ and that would just mean trouble.

You know, personally speaking, I felt most sorry for Sonata in all this. Poor girl.

“Sonata hugged him!” Aria blurted, hand whipping up to point over at Sonata, who just blinked, uncomprehending. Very poor girl! Getting dropped in it like that. And Aria wasn’t done: “Yesterday! When you were booking the place, she hugged him.”

Adagio went very quiet and then turned towards me.

“Is that true?” She asked.

Jesus she sounded serious. Like someone had died. It was just a hug! Friendly-like!

A hug is a two-person deal, isn’t it? At least generally speaking, so it didn’t really seem fair for Sonata to shoulder all of the blame.

“Well, strictly speaking we hugged each other, I mean-” was all I managed to say before Adagio’s hand whipped up and pressed a finger to my lips. I was shocked enough by how quick she moved that I shut up.

Adagio apparently did not share my viewpoint on hugs, as the look she gave Sonata was far from friendly. It was a look that suggested something bad had happened and that all the blame lay solely on Sonata.

Kind of the opposite of what I’d wanted.

“You hugged him?” Adagio hissed. I tried to speak again but she just pressed the finger further into my lips, doing a good job of pushing my head back as she spared me an alarmingly kind look.

“Shh,” she said to me. “Don’t worry. Relax. Sit down.”

Adagio could handle this. This was fine. I didn’t need to worry. And I did want a sit down anyway. There was a chair just behind me! Handy. Sitting down, relaxing, I tried to remember why I’d been so worked up a second ago.

Then I saw Adagio getting in Sonata’s face and it all came back to me.

Fuck! She did it again!

“He’s not your friend! He’s my friend! Mine! All you had to do - all you have to do! Both of you! - is make sure he stays put and that he stays safe!” She snarled, reaching to grab Aria and hauling her around so she could glare at them both at the same time.

“Sorry Adagio,” Aria said, eyes wide.

“Y-yeah, sorry Adagio! It was an accident!” Sonata squeaked.

“An accident? An accident?!” Adagio spat with righteous indignation, pausing only to give me a significant look when I tried to stand up again, significant enough to make me stop trying.

It did seem to make her consider what she was doing though, as she let go of the other two - having been holding them both by the collar - and took a step back.

“I wonder…” she said, stroking her chin, eyes narrowed. “Without the gems, without magic, we were basically mortal, which means you two still are...basically…I wonder…”

She was peering at them as though looking at something new for the first time. Aria and Sonata squirmed in discomfort, clearly unsure where it was going but knowing it couldn’t be anywhere good. I was just confused. And a little scared. I’m a big boy, I can admit that.

“Does that mean you’re human enough for me to make you do anything I want? I wonder…”

Still stroking her chin, she was now smiling. And not one of her nice smiles. The very opposite, in fact. This was the kind of smile that made me want to move further away.

“A-Adagio, please…” Sonata whimpered, inching behind Aria who held her ground but looked no-less frightened.

“You wouldn’t,” Aria said. Adagio’s smiled widened.

“Why don’t we find out if I can first? Jump,” she said.

They both jumped. Adagio giggled and clapped while the others just looked terrified.

“What could I get you two to do that might make you remember to be better at doing as you’re told…” Adagio said, grinning and advancing as the other two shrank back.

Holy shit what was happening, this was ridiculous. This was ridiculous! What was she doing? Why was she so pissed off? This wasn’t a big deal! I had to act! A force compelled me to act!

“Hey! I said, interjecting, leaping up and in between them all, blocking Sonata and Aria. Adagio’s eyes snapped up to me, surprised. “Didn’t you, uh, say something about, uh, dinner out?”

“Um, yes, I did but I really should-” she said, tilting her head towards Sonata and Aria, but I carried on:

“I mean, I don’t know if it works different here but we should probably go now if we want a table, right? A good table, I mean.”

This must have sounded pretty convincing because Adagio turned fully to face me on that, head cocked.

“Really?” She asked. I nodded.

“In my experience.”

Mostly I was guessing, but she didn’t know that, and I was laying it on thick enough even I was starting to believing myself.

“I can get us a good table,” she said with a savage grin.

Hadn’t actually thought about that. Made sense, she probably could. Easily, not discretely. But I kept it up, pressed on.

“Uh, well, yes, you could, but wouldn’t want to strain yourself would you? You’re not fully recovered yet, right? Don’t want to wear yourself out. I - I wouldn’t want to see you hurt yourself.”

I was making all of this up as I went along, feeling my way forward, hoping against hope that at least a bit of it would be enough to catch and divert her attention. The last part I was especially proud of, mostly as I hadn’t even really thought about it that much until after it had left my lips. In my head it seemed like the sort of thing Adagio would like to hear.

“You don’t?”

“Course not. You’re my friend, aren’t you?”

That was what Adagio had wanted to hear, it seemed, as she had the face of someone who’d just been told her birthday had been moved forward to today. The sudden change was pleasant to see, but unexpected. She really did look a lot nicer when she wasn’t filled with inexplicable, cold fury.

“So - so you think we should go now?” She asked in soft tones a million miles away from the way she’d been speaking just seconds before, the smile on her face genuine and warm.

It really was like I’d just defused a fucking bomb. All the tension bled away almost at once and just over Adagio’s shoulder I could practically read the relief written across Sonata and Aria’s faces. I tried to keep my attention on Adagio though, knowing it was important that I did.

“Yeah, we should go now,” I said, nodding, moving in to take the initiative and hook my own arm through hers this time. She blushed. I swallowed. “Did you have somewhere in mind?” I asked.

“Uh, n-no not really. But we can find somewhere. Yeah?”

Was I fucking kryptonite to her or something? She’d been just about ready to lay out some evil shit now she was asking me for confirmation about where to find restaurants?

I just smiled back at her.

“I’m sure we can,” I said, using this as my opportunity to be the one to steer, taking her back towards the door which she fumbled out a key to open.

Before we left the room proper I got one final, fleeting look at the other two. They were clinging to one another and looking shaken, but I could also read relief plain across both their faces. Even Aria looked grateful, or at least as grateful as was possible for her.

Then it was just me and Adagio back outside the room again, heading back to the lifts, me thinking furiously about what had just happened and what I could possibly do from here on out.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and label all of this as disturbing and unusual behaviour. This whole thing, top to bottom, from the kidnapping and everything after that.

I think Adagio might have some kind of problem.

Fourteen

Author's Notes:

Chugging along.

Thanks to me we went out looking for a dinner table around mid-afternoon. Imagine Adagio’s amazement when my sage advice about going when we did turned out to be bang on the money and everywhere we looked was deserted.

Getting a table was easy! Wasn’t I a smart?

She let me pick, which was pressure on me given that my experience with what Adagio liked to eat was whatever I’d had lying around at home. I settled for somewhere that looked to cover all possible angles and which wasn’t too fussy about dresscode, because I was still wearing the clothes I’d slept in. And been kidnapped in.

I didn’t look great. Should probably have showered.

Adagio, conversely, looked fantastic. Hey, I can admit that. Girl looked like she ate sunshine and shat rainbows. I am not even kidding, she looked radiant. Given what I’d managed to keep her from doing to the other two - something bad, presumably - this was a stark and sudden change.

A lot recently had been stark and sudden, really.

She was back to holding my hand, too. She’d done it on the walk to the restaurant and kept doing it after we’d been seated, reaching across to hold it over the table every now and then. I did not complain about this or even point out that she’d done it. Seemed the most sensible course of action to me, just keeping quiet and letting her get on with it.

But, you know, other than the ever-escalating level of physical contact with occasional flourishes of unsettling mood swings and dangerously casual and possibly even punitive use of her returning powers, Adagio was actually kind of back to where I knew her. Which is to say like she was when she and I had first met, without the shyness on her part.

Or the melancholy that came from having just had your magical abilities shattered in front of everyone. That’d take the wind out of anyone’s sails. Especially if you then run off and it rains on you. Like it had to Adagio. Poor Adagio.

So actually it was better, now. She was better. No wonder she looked so bloody happy about life in general, so happy it was even rubbing off on me a little bit. She was nice to hang around with! I was almost able to forget her unusual and alarming behaviour.

Up until a waitress came to take drinks orders and smiled at me while doing so, earning herself a paint-stripping glare from Adagio for her troubles and hurrying off quickly once she’d written down what we wanted.

This was probably something we were going to have to talk about. Or rather, something I was going to have to bite the bullet and talk to her about. Because, despite everything, I did still have somewhere about my person a sliver of actual, bonafide concern for her welfare, and something was clearly up with her.

It wasn’t going to be fun, but it had to be done.

I was the one who reaching for her hand that time, which certainly got her attention. She stopped monologuing in dreamy tones about revenge and blinked, looking at me perplexedly.

“Sorry, was I going on?” She asked, blushing.

Seriously, I could probably spit in her drink when it arrived and she’d apologise to me but if I did something crazy like shake Aria’s hand she’d put me in a box and then rip Aria’s arm off. That’s not normal. Even if it might be a little hyperbolic.

“Are you okay, Adagio?”

“Huh? Am I okay?”

“Yeah. I mean, I haven’t known you for a huge amount of time but you seem a bit, uh, high-strung.”

‘High-strung’ seemed the most diplomatic way of putting it.

“I do?”

“Well - and don’t take this the wrong way - you but did kind of get a little angry with Aria and Sonata back there. Like, kind of scary angry. ‘Threatened to compel them to do something to teach them a lesson’ angry.”

“Did I?”

This was not Adagio deliberately missing the point of what I was saying. With every question she asked of me she looked more confused and more worried, her eyes widening. I gave her hand a squeeze.

“You didn’t actually do anything, before you think you did. We left to grab this table before they all got snapped up. Just in the nick of time!”

The place was basically empty, but my point stood.

She sat in silence a moment or two, staring at me, and then blinked again, slowly, some of the tension that had been building in her melting out again, shoulders sagging.

“That was on purpose, wasn’t it? You got us to leave before I did anything.”

“Uh, maybe?”

This was the kind of answer that had the potential to go very badly for me, I felt, so I winced just in case. Fortunately, Adagio wasn’t looking at me anymore and was instead staring at the table. Or rather through it.

“I don’t - I wasn’t thinking straight. I was just so angry. Can’t - can’t even really remember why. And then you said we should go and I felt better. And we went.”

Adagio went quiet, thinking deeply.

“Once the gem has fixed everything should be okay. Won’t be long now,” she said, idly playing with the thing as she mentioned it. That got me to look down. I double-took.

Even I could see that there was a problem with the gem. Parts were still obviously missing, which was one thing, but those parts that had fixed back into place had not done so evenly. The whole gem was looking very lopsided, and even ‘fixed’ as it was, the cracks where it had shattered were obvious.

Sometimes they sparked, usually when Adagio got more animated when she spoke. Sparked quietly, yes, but still enough for me to notice. I had wondered what that snapping sound had been.

That couldn’t be good.

Her hand pulled out from under mine and she rested her chin on her palms, letting out a long breath. Then, seeing my concern - I hoped I looked concern - she laughed, once, and closed her eyes.

“I’m tired. I think you were right about the strain, heh. Guess I’m not all better yet. I was just so excited to have my powers back. Even a little bit! Do you - do you think maybe I should take it slower?”

She was deferring to me on this?

“It’s not really my area of expertise, Adagio.”

“I know, but, well, you saw what I was doing - what I was going to do - and you stopped me. If you hadn’t been there…”

Clearly there was no way she could think of ending that sentence that she wanted to think about, so it just kind of dwindled away to nothing while she sat there with an expression of distress.

Okay, look.

Yes Adagio may have leveraged my obliviousness over Sunset’s feelings to stoke her jealousy and then feed on it to restore life to her magical gem in a successful effort to regain her manipulative powers.

Yes Adagio then used those same powers to put me to sleep so she could then bundle me onto a bus and take me somewhere without my express consent and yes she was consistently invading my personal space on, like a minute-to-minute basis. These things were all true.

But I still felt bad for her! Girl’s under a lot of pressure! The pressure of providing for her sisters and also the figurative pressure of her magic coming back. I have no idea what that must be like. Confounding, one assumes.

Before, back when she’d been normal and a regular non-magic person, she’d been lovely! Great fun to hang around with. It was only really once that gem of hers started coming back to life that she went a little funny. And she seems to realise that, too! So there is a problem! It’s not just my imagination.

And let’s just...leave aside the whole ‘Sunset’s feelings’ things because I still have no idea what to think about any of that and I have enough on my plate as it is.

I reached out across the table again and very delicately took hold of both Adagio’s hands this time. She noticed, blushed, and let me do this. So much contact these days! The things I have to do! Is this what normal people have to do all the time?

“Hey, relax,” I said, which got a tiny fragment of a chuckle of her at least. “Taking it slow might be an idea. No need to rush into anything, huh? You got cash - good job, by the way - so why not just take it easy for a day or two?”

“I - do you think that’s okay?” She asked, biting her lip.

“Most people go their whole lives without using their magical powers to make other people do things,” I said, and I was gratified to see her give me a particularly mild condescending look. That could only mean improvement. Sunset did the same thing.

“No, I mean, won’t that just be wasting time? Shouldn’t I be leading? Doing stuff?”

“We just said it’d be best to take it slow. And hey, the others were squatting when we found them, this is a definite step up. Let them enjoy it. Hell, let yourself enjoy it, Adagio. If you burn yourself out where will that leave you? Or them?”

Or me? Other than with an escape route.

Why was I helping her, exactly?

All of this discussion was derailed at that point by the return of the waitress bearing drinks and asking us if we were ready to order, which reminded both Adagio and myself that we had not even glanced at what was on offer to eat.

Sheepishly, we asked if would be so kind as to give us another five minutes.

“Thank you,” Adagio said after a maybe a silent thirty seconds of consideration, looking at me over the top of her menu.

“Hmm? What? What I do?”

“Just, for everything really. For helping me out in the first place, for still being nice to me even after you heard what I did, for helping me now even after I kind of took you against your will…”

There was no good way of spinning that, and Adagio seemed to realise this. She lost the thread for a moment, cleared her throat, and then carried on:

“You’re a nice guy. Interesting in a sometimes kind of confounding and confusing way and I can’t really work out what’s going on in your head, but nice. And I’m sorry for using you and then dragging you out here. It’ll all work out alright. I promise. I’ll be a good friend, I’ll really try.”

“That’s very sweet of you to say, Adagio,” I said, unable really to come up with anything better.

A lot of what Adagio had said - well, just the point about learning of past misdeeds and remaining cordial, really - was quite similar to what Sunset had said to me, now that I thought about it.

Was that significant? Did I just attract the friendly attentions of a certain kind of magical girl? Or was this all a series of horrendous coincidences?

Did it matter?

Probably not. It was what it was and I was where I was. Trying to ponder whether some cosmic force beyond my understanding was moving the pieces around for shits and giggles would get me nowhere.

One thing at a time, just do my best to make sure everyone comes out of this happy.

The waitress came back. I had not been reading the menu, I’d just been staring at it. I had no idea what to order and Adagio had already placed hers. I couldn’t send the waitress away a second time! I panicked! I blurted out something without thinking. I had no idea what it was and while on the outside I was smiling at her politely while handing the menu back inside I was screaming.

I really had to pay more attention to things.

Fifteen

Author's Notes:

I think my brains have turned to scrambled egg.

The rest of late lunch-stroke-dinner-stroke-whatever with Adagio was very nice, actually. At least mostly.

The times when it was just she and I chatting about whatever, maybe joking once or twice, enjoying the food and acting like two people out enjoying a meal like normal friends might, those times were good. Good enough for me to forget for whole stretches that I wasn’t strictly speaking there by choice and that if I got up to leave she’d probably stop me.

I mean, ignore that part and it was a pretty great thing to be doing. Meal with a pretty girl! That’s not a bad thing! Just the, you know, being there under duress and not being able to go home thing.

The times when she went off on tangents about her plans to get Aria and Sonata’s powers back were less good, because those tangents involved a lot of magical manipulation and exploitation and also quickly tailed off into even more worrying tangents about revenge.

In particular, she seemed very keen on getting revenge on Sunset. Very keen. Why Sunset above all the others I didn’t know, but listening to it made me a little uncomfortable.

Because as much as I could shrug it off as a problem for a later date or just something that wasn’t serious, it clearly was serious and that ‘later date’ might come around a whole lot sooner than I might like. And since I was here, it was kind of on me to do something about it.

Which wasn’t nice to think about. What was I meant to do? Tell her to stop? I imagined my ability to get her to listen had limits.

Adagio was deep into a long and detailed explanation of what she’d do to Sunset - again, specifically Sunset - once she and the others had gone back and easily won and I couldn’t really stomach anymore so reached across the table for her hand again, causing her to promptly lose the thread.

“I don’t want to disrupt your flow or anything, Dagi, but we’re meant to be relaxing, yeah? Let’s focus on immediate goals. Like dessert. Want to share one?”

Don’t know why I was asking this given she was the one who was going to be paying, but there you go. Got her attention though. Especially the ‘Dagi’ part. I hadn’t even meant to say it, but it had slipped out and it had worked.

“Oh! Sure. Uh, let’s ask for the menu once we’re done,” she said, favouring me with one of the friendly smiles, and not the evil-scheming ones. I definitely preferred the friendly ones. The evil-scheming ones frightened me a bit.

Felt a little bad not being able to pay or at least even offer, which was silly I know but it was just wired into me. My wallet was back at home alongside my phone, I assumed. Not a comfortable thought, my phone. Likely sat there, gradually filling up with messages, none of them happy.

Work would be upset with me, this I knew for a fact. When I got back - if! - I doubted I’d be coming back to a job waiting for me. And fair enough, you know. Someone disappears without a word and you’re left in the lurch what are you meant to do? Bad for me though.

Benefit of being a dickhead who never goes out and who only has one friend is that I was sitting on enough money to cushion such a loss. Not for long, though. Just enough for me to scramble for something and hopefully find it.

If I got back in good time. If.

Not something I wanted to think about. Just like whatever other messages might be waiting for me. Like one’s from Sunset. Hers I imagined would start out still cross. Then get worried. Then get really worried. It had only been a day or so, but still. It wouldn’t take her long to figure out something was up...

I shoved all those worries aside and concentrated on dessert. Nothing I could do about any of it right that second. When mains were cleared away and the menu provided Adagio and I quickly settled on ordering some fierce looking sundae-thing, as it seemed a good choice for sharing.

Adagio was very enthused on the sharing aspect of it, seeming to view as a Thing Friends Did. Who was I to disagree?

Ice cream happened, and all was well. We paid, I surreptitiously got Adagio to leave before collecting the change so as to get the waitress a tip and then we were out and she was leading me back to the hotel and we were back to chatting. She asked me where I was from, so I told her. She’d never been there, expressed an interest in going once she was back up to full strength.

I...said that sounded lovely.

When we got back Aria and Sonata were sat in the lounge part of the room and looked over on hearing us return, but said nothing. Adagio didn’t even seem to notice them. She also made very sure the door was locked. This I personally noticed, though tried not to look too disappointed about when she came back to me.

“Why don’t you go have a shower, eh? And then get you pyjamas on. You can relax, you had a busy day, got a lot of stuff done,” I said. Not sure why. She was beaming.

“Okay,” she said and out of nowhere I got another peck on the cheek.

Did not expect it, did not deserve it, wasn’t sure I wholly wanted it. But it happened.

And then off she went with enough of a spring in her step that I couldn’t help but smile.

Kind of weird to be babysitting Adagio and telling her what she should do but I kind of got the impression she didn’t mind. Kind of got the impression she was tired enough to rather like it. Everyone likes to hand off responsibility every now and then, I suppose, even, you know, magical girls who are nominally the ones in charge.

Letting out a breath I leant against a wall and found Aria and Sonata staring at me, which made me jump. Standing up again I wandered over.

“Have either of you moved at all since we left?”

“Where could we go?” Aria asked me. I shrugged.

“I don’t know. Eaten anything at least?”

“No,” Sonata said dolefully, whining a moment later as Aria gave her a kick. “What? We haven’t!”

Aria said nothing to that but gave Sonata a significant look the meaning of which I couldn’t parse. If Sonata got more out of it than I did I couldn’t say. Not that I really had time to decode what Aria was thinking.

“Why not take some of the cash and get something? Room service? Get pizza, hell, I don’t know,” I said. The cash was where Adagio had left it, entirely untouched. Still weird to just see it there. Great wodges of cash just wasn’t something I was in the habit of leaving around.

“We don’t take orders from you,” Aria growled, sulking deeper and deeper into her chair.

You know, I was really starting to think she didn’t like me. I pinched the bridge of my nose. I didn’t ask to be kidnapped, lady, cut me some slack.

“No, you don’t, I’m just saying you can go buy yourself some food. If Adagio gives you shit for it tell her it was my idea.”

“We’re fine,” Aria said through gritted teeth, this undercut a moment later by her stomach growling. “Being mortal sucks…” she muttered.

“Are you sure that it’s okay?” Sonata asked, casting an eye towards the money warily. I nodded.

“I will accept full responsibility. She goes easy on me, not sure why. So go get something now, while she’s showering.”

Sonata looked from Aria to me and back again and then seemed to decide my offer of taking the blame and the prospect of food won out over Aria’s look of intense disapproval. She leapt to her feet and went over to the table, which I was standing beside.

Neither of us heard Adagio come in, wrapped in a towel and still dripping. Neither of us had even considered she might.

“What are you doing?” She asked sharply, seeing me standing there and Sonata reaching past me. Sonata was the only one she was paying attention to, though.

“J-just - he s-said - we-” Sonata spluttered, frozen in place as Adagio - without full possession of the facts, let’s make this clear - stormed up to her and grabbed her by the collar.

“He’s mine! I told you! My friend! Not for you! Mine!”

Again I had to interpose myself between Adagio and the others, ducking under Adagio’s arms to come up between her and Sonata and dislodging her grip by mass alone, gently putting a hand onto each of her shoulders and angling her so she was facing bodily towards me.

I barely even had to think about it that time, just acting on instinct, what I felt would work.

That she was wearing but a towel and still dripping wet only really entered my thought process after I’d done all of this, and I did my best to ignore it.

“Hey hey, Adagio, hey, look at me, alright?”

She did, though it took obvious effort, tearing herself away from glaring at Sonata and then her expression softening as she looked up and her eyes focused on mine. I gave her shoulders a squeeze and also gave what I hoped was a non-worrying kind of smile. Seemed to work.

“It’s alright, you’re alright. Go and get dry, okay? Have a lie down. I’ll be in in a second,”

“I - I - okay,” she said shakily, coming in for a hug which I reciprocated. She felt smaller than she should have, though likely my imagination, and she disengaged with a word a moment or two later, scurrying back off towards the room, her face down.

Poor girl. Clearly in distress. Which put me in the distress. I didn’t like seeing people unhappy. I am, as always, a softy. I imagine that it will continue to get me in trouble.

I was also damp now, but that wasn’t such a huge deal.

“I am worried about her…” I said to myself before turning to see if Sonata was alright. I was somewhat alarmed, on turning, to find Aria in my face, this time looking genuinely angry and not just low-key annoyed. This was a step up.

“What have you done to Adagio?” She snapped, arms folded, eyes narrowed. I blinked, as I often did when confronted by questions without context.

“What?” I asked and Aria pointed past me to the room Adagio and I were sharing.

“What have you done to her! She’s acting all weird. Adagio was never like this but since she met you she’s gone all...weird.”

Clearly Aria couldn’t come up with a better word for it.

I felt a little attacked. Attacked, I say! I held up my hands.

“Hey, I’ve done nothing! I don’t know what’s going on, look at me, how could I? She’s just - I don’t know. It’s not great. I thought you two might have an idea what was up. That, uh, gem thing of hers doesn’t look right and honestly I’m getting a little worried.”

“It’s probably your fault,” Aria said.

“Maybe it is, but that doesn’t exactly help Adagio just you saying it, does it?”

That shut her up, temporarily at least.

“What’s that about her gem?” Sonata asked, popping up behind Aria and peering cautiously around to see if Adagio was coming back. She didn’t, and Sonata approached more closely.

“Her gem thing is coming back together but it’s coming back together all, like, wonky? I’m not an expert but it doesn’t look right. Have you two seen it?” I asked.

Aria Shrugged. “It looked alright when she showed us before.”

“Yeah but it’s not looking so hot now, trust me. Try and have another look. Maybe it’s coming back together wrong. This ever happen before?”

I figured they’d know more about this sort of thing than me, because I knew nothing.

“Never seen one break before. Never seen one start fixing, either. Didn’t know it could happen. The breaking or the fixing,” Sonata said.

“Yeah, what Adagio’s doing is nothing either of us could have come up with,” Aria said, shrugging again.

Helpful.

“Well that’s great…” I said, rubbing my face and screwing up my eyes and hoping that by the time I’d finished they might have come up with a better answer for me. By the time I finished they had not.

“Okay look, I’m going to go see how she’s doing, you guys go get something to eat. Hell, go out to the same place we did, it was great. Forget it’s name.”

I can be unhelpful too, see? How’s that feel?

“You’re just going to try and escape again, aren’t you?” Aria asked.

There was no pleasing some people!

“Damnit woman. A, if I did why would you even care? B, if I actually did manage to escape from the one of you who could easily stop me don’t you think I deserve to?” I asked, hoping a smidgen of my exasperation got through to her.

She gaped a moment or two before conceding:

“...point.”

“See? Exactly. Now go, go, eat! Or don’t.”

Sonata looked to Aria pleadingly, her bottom lip wobbling. Aria rolled her eyes.

“Fine, fine, since you’ll be the one taking the blame if we get in trouble.”

“Indeed I will be, on my word,” I said, grabbing a fistful of notes and shoving them into Aria’s hand. “Off you go,” I said.

It looked for a moment like she might try to have the last word on this but Sonata was already pushing her towards the door so she didn’t get the chance. They left, locked up, and were on their way. I sighed.

Life used to be simple, didn’t it?

Still, one thing at a time. I slouched off to Adagio’s room. Adagio and my room, in fact.

Adagio was sat on the edge of the bed when I opened the door, nervously fiddling with her gem and chewing her lip. She looked up when I came in.

“I did it again, didn’t I?” She asked.

“You really don’t remember?”

“I just remember...being angry. Sonata was getting too close to you. Was she trying to hug you again?”

“No, no, just passing by me, that was all,” I said, waving a hand.

“Oh. Yeah, I remember now, she was just next to you. I should have thought. I was just so angry, it just happened…”

There was a snap and Adagio’s hand whipped away from her neck.

“Ow,” she hissed

“You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said absently, frowning at her fingertips a moment before looking back to me.

“You can come closer, you know,” she said, patting the bed.

I was going to have to get closer sooner or later. I sat down next to her. Neither of us seemed to know what to say after that. She was still in a towel, I noticed, though really at this point I could probably survive knowing that.

“Is Sonata okay?” She asked me, quietly.

“She’s fine. I said they should go get something to eat, use some of the cash. Said I’d take the blame for it if you got upset.”

Adagio let out a muted laugh.

“It’s probably a good idea for them to eat, yeah. Kind of surprised they hadn’t already.”

“I think you might have rattled them a bit.”

That made her go very quiet, which made me feel bad for having mentioned it. I swallowed.

“This is getting bad, whatever it is. Isn’t it?” I asked. Back on this topic again. Not something we could easily avoid.

Adagio nodded.

“When it’s just you and me it’s fine, I barely notice, but when there are other people, other girls I…”

She trailed off, frowning, thinking, fidgeting.

“It’s like I want something - that’s not new, that’s pretty normal - but then on top of that there’s this need to make others not have what I have. To keep it away from them. So that it’s just mine. Like I don’t want them even looking at it because it’s just mine.”

“The ‘something’ here being me?” I asked. Adagio blushed and nodded.

Could have made an issue of that, but decided to roll with it. Just take it as read and roll with it. Can’t help her deal with the problem if I start trying to pick holes in it. There’ll be time to muddle over details later. And, you know, help drive home that I’m not a thing. That’s probably important.

“Sounds kind of like jealousy to me, if I’m being honest. Well, possessiveness and lots of other things besides, but of the jealously guarding variety. Though I could be wrong,” I said.

“I don’t get jealous, Sirens don’t get jealous. Not like mortals, at least. Mortals get jealous, I know that. It’s delicious. But we’re not supposed to. We just see things and we get them, there’s nothing to be jealous about.”

“I don’t know what to tell you then, Adagio. I’m just a guy.”

“Not just some guy…” she mumbled.

Swear I’d heard that before somewhere.

“It’s weird,” she continued. “It’s really weird. I can’t describe it. I have my focus back, which is good, and I have a lot of my powers back, which is also good, but I also keep thinking about you. Which is fine! Don’t feel bad, it’s not your fault. It’s just...weird. It’s never happened before. It’s kind of distracting. Not in a bad way but, well, distractions aren’t helpful. Especially for me, now.”

“Not going to get rid of me, are you?” I asked, jokingly, but it looked as though she took what I’d said deadly seriously.

“No. Never,” she said.

“Never?”

“Not ever.”

Adagio was looking me dead in the eyes as she said this, her face utterly determined. Again, I found myself unable to look away.

Which meant I was operating on a minor delay when she rose to start drying herself off, dropping the towel in the process. I was half a second or so behind on the uptake but then immediately threw myself flat back on the bed and clapped my hands over my eyes.

“Jesus Christ give me some warning next time!”

That, at least, got a proper laugh out of her.

Sixteen

Author's Notes:

This is going somewhere, honest. Just, you know, slowly. And I have no idea if it's getting there effectively or not.

But eh, better to be reading something that's a bit naff than not reading anything at all, right?

Right?

I was definitely sacked. Two days in a row? Not even a peep from me to explain myself? No getting around that. Definitely sacked.

This was what I thought to myself as I lay on that hotel bed, staring at the ceiling and feeling hard-done by. That I hadn’t woken up back at home with this whole episode having just been a thoroughly ridiculous dream was disappointing.

Adagio had slunk off while I was still asleep, which wasn’t a huge surprise, but what was surprising was discovering that Aria and Sonata were also nowhere to be found. I’d been left on my own.

Not one to question providence I immediately tried to see what I could do to try and affect an escape. How hard could it be?

Harder than I’d expected, sadly.

The door was locked, obviously, which was a fairly big obstacle. Again I questioned the health and safety ramifications of such a decision in a hotel room, but questioning it wasn’t making the door any less locked. Since it opened in, my odds of doing something dramatic like kicking it down were slim, too.

I looked around for other ideas. Perhaps I could call for help?

Now that was a concept. Call down to the front desk, tell them I’d locked myself in! That must happen to them a lot, I imagined. Feeling very pleased with myself I dashed to the nearest phone I could see.

The phones in all the rooms were, I discovered, disconnected. And not in any way I could reconnect, either. The lines had been actually, physically cut.

Drat.

After sitting and feeling bitterly disappointed for a minute or so I got up and kept casting around for other options. There were not many that presented themselves.

The windows all had safety bolts on them to keep them from opening too far and besides, we were a fair way up to start with. I thought I could see a drainpipe further along the wall but I wasn’t that trusting of my shimmying skills and - again - couldn’t get out there anyway.

A daring air-vent escape was sadly curtailed by the rooms vent being a generous foot wide and maybe four inches tall. I wasn’t fitting in those. So that was out.

I was really stuck. It was infuriating.

Really, I probably should have been angrier about the whole thing. I was irritated, sure, but not livid. Maybe I’m just an unnaturally calm person, mostly though I just knew that if I started screaming and swearing and breaking things I’d be left with mess and no closer to actually what I wanted. Life had taught me this much, at least.

Think. If I was sat at home watching someone in my situation in a film or whatever, what would I be screaming at them to do? What was I missing?

I didn’t know, and it made me feel stupid, which made me feel miserable.

In despair I decided to have a shower, because I smelt ripe.

It had been nagging at the edges of my senses the whole time I’d been trying to get out of the room but now after having got all worked up over it the smell was unavoidable. Sleeping and living in the same clothes for three-ish days on the trot was having predictable results.

How Adagio had tolerated having me in the bed was anyone’s guess. Hell, how she’d tolerated clinging to me most of the night was an even deeper mystery.

And oh how she had clung. Like a limpet.

So I showered and then mooched around in a towel, dripping aggressively and checking to see if anything had changed in the meantime that might allow me to escape. Nothing had. I elected to grumpily watch television.

Television was just boring at first but very quickly became actively annoying, so I turned it off again.

I sat in silence, and got very bored very quickly. Worse, I started to think, as one does in moments of quiet when there is nothing else to do.

I thought about my situation, and about how ludicrous it was. Kidnapped by a magical girl who seemed to want to just keep me around for reasons I wasn’t fully able to grasp. Adagio seemed to oscillate wildly between giving the impression she wanted me around to show off and then immediately flipping over into wanting to put me in a box so no-one else could even look at me

That’s not the sort of thing they ever prepare you for. What was I even meant to be doing? Screaming?

Maybe it’d help?

I thought more about escape. I could probably try harder. Could I, perhaps, smash a window, tie bed sheets together and shimmy down to freedom? Plausible, but doable? I wasn’t sure. And I couldn’t suppress the worry that I’d somehow be the one getting in trouble for that.

Maybe hold it back as a last resort.

Mostly though - and insistently, as a background noise - I thought about Sunset, who I missed. A lot. More than I thought I would given the circumstances. I just kind of wanted her around. Not to save me (though I’d appreciate that, obviously), but just because I missed having her around. It would have been nice to have her nearby, to know she was there.

Had she noticed I’d gone yet? Was she worried? I imagined she would be worried, which made me worried for her being worried. Did she think it was somehow her fault? Oh no, that would make her worry more! And it’d be my fault somehow! That’d be awful!

As a side note I kind of hoped that Adagio had remembered to shut my door back home when kidnapping me. Not a lot I could about it if not, but I really hoped she had.

But oh! What if she hadn’t! That would mean on the one hand just anyone could wander into my place and take my shit - which would be bad and suck - and would also mean that if Sunset just-so happened to pop around again to yell at me some more she’d find the door open and me just not there! What would she think? Oh how she’d worry!

And I was sure it’d all somehow be my fault!

It was while I was drowning in this thick and anguished mental soup that I heard the door to the room being opened and so ecstatic was I at the prospect of having someone to talk to and so of having an external voice to drown out my internal one that I leapt up, quite forgetting I was still in just a towel.

I was halfway towards the door when I realised this and how it might look but by then it was too late and the door had opened. In through it came Adagio who, seeing me, paused. I couldn’t blame her.

“Happy to see me?” She asked, eyebrow raised as she entered proper and locked the door behind her, a mid-level smirk on her face. Mid-level because she was amused, but also surprised. These distinctions are important. And mostly made up.

“Ye- I mean, yes, yeah, happy to see anyone. I was bored and lonely. You must have gone out pretty early. I thought you were relaxing, Dagi? Hope you haven’t been overdoing it. Don’t want you hurting yourself or...something...”

This was my attempt at conversational judo, trying to flip it away from me being happy to see her and instead onto her wellbeing. A cunning plan on my part and no mistake, somewhat undercut by my stumbling delivering and the fact I was, as mentioned, wearing only a towel. No-one can command a situation in a towel. And if someone can, I haven’t heard of them.

My success therefore was muted, and her smirk became more generally smile-like.

“It’s sweet that you’re worried about me but it’s okay, I wasn’t doing anything too strenuous. Trust me.”

Given the way things were that last part - that little bit about trust - was a little tricky. At the very least I believed her, which was about as good as Adagio was going to be getting from me right then.

“You’re the boss. But you’re back now, huh?” I asked. She nodded.

“I am.”

Wasn’t sure how to follow that up.

“I had a shower,” I said, without really thinking it through first. The smile once again became more of a smirk, the amused kind. I was getting good at Adagio-reading.

“I kind of guessed.”

Further awkwardness as I stood there, retucking the towel around my waist to keep it from falling down. I cleared my throat.

“I should probably put some clothes on,” I said, only to remember I had one set of clothes and they stunk to high heaven. Still, needs must. Couldn’t just carry on like this! That’d be mad.

Adagio was clearly thinking along the same lines as me but came to different conclusion, as she wrinkled her nose at the mention.

“We’ll have to get you some new ones,” she said, nodding to herself.

As much as I appreciated the gesture this wasn’t what I wanted. I did not want further largesse from Adagio. The more I received, the more it felt like she was exerting some sort of control over me. Weird, yes, but that was how I felt. Like she was putting her hand down on some sort of intangible set of scales, weighing it it against me somehow.

Maybe I’m just strange.

“Uh, it’s okay, you don’t need to do that,” I said.

The smirk vanished, replaced almost at once with a determined look I was becoming uncomfortable familiar with.

“No. I’m going to look after you.”

I could tell that further argument would be pointless and, likely, a very bad idea. Just an impression I got. I swallowed.

“Still, should really put some clothes on.”

“You’ve seen me in a towel,” she said, and I did my best to try and not immediately bring that image back to mind. Almost managed it.

“That’s different,” I said, not really knowing why and hoping I wasn’t pressed on the details. The smirk came back and I could tell she knew she had me in a box, but then she deliberately skirted around it, stepping forward and getting me to take a step back.

“Not a lot of sense in putting on dirty clothes, especially if you can help it. It’s just us here, after all. You shouldn’t worry about it, not for a bit.”

Adagio did not seem fussed and gave off a very convincing vibe of light and breezy, even as she walked me back towards the seating around the television. I tried to be breezy too, but firm.

“I feel a little exposed,” I said.

“It’s just us,” she repeated, as though this somehow made it better. It did not. If anything, it made it worse somehow. My legs bumped a sofa.

“Still…” I said again, but this was apparently Adagio’s limit.

“Sit down,” she said.

I could get dressed later, right then I just needed to sit down. Lucky the sofa was so close, really. I’d wanted a sit down anyway. It was why I’d moved backwards in the first place.

Sitting down beside me Adagio smoothed herself out and tossed back her hair, looking pleased with herself.

She’d got me again, damnit.

“Wish you’d stop doing that…” I grumbled.

“Doing what?” She asked, and I could not for the life of me tell if she was messing with me or not.

The cracks in the gem, I noticed, were starting to glow green. Faintly, but noticeably. The light that came from the cracks didn’t so much shine as leak. It wasn’t right.

Should I mention it? She had to know, surely? And if it was something worth being worried about she’d tell me? Maybe it was normal. Maybe she’d get angry if I said something because she already knew about it?

Leave it for now. Ask about something else. Try and direct attention away from the inherently awkward situation of being sat here next to her whilst half-naked. Which is totally her fault.

“Where’d the other two get to?” I asked. This seemed a pretty option for moving things along. Adagio waved a hand in a general direction that indicated ‘away’.

“Oh, they’re off at the new place. I figured it’d be a good idea to not stay in the hotel longer than we had to so I scoped a place out, acquired it. Nice, out of the way. They’re there now.”

Jesus, she worked quick. I wouldn’t even have known where to start on such a thing, let alone getting it done in a day. But then again I wasn’t magic. Still, impressive stuff. Damn, Adagio.

“Ah, well, okay then,” I said. There wasn’t a whole lot else I could add.

“But I’ve already paid up for one more night here,” Adagio said, shuffling that little bit closer.

“Uh, oh, hey, that so?”

Adagio shuffled closer still.

“Be a shame to waste it, wouldn’t it?” She asked me, leaning in.

I sat very, very still.

“Yes?”

“I thought it’d be nice to spend some more time just you and me. As friends.”

“Uh,” I said, or rather grunted in alarm as she then straddled me again.

Nope, no, not happening. Not with me in a towel. Last time caught me off guard and hadn’t seemed quite as bad as this, but this was too much for me. Too rich for my blood.

This seemed perhaps a step or two above friendly to me.

“Uh, Adagio,” I said, keeping my hands well away from her and my eyes glued to a point somewhere past the ceiling and even then I could still see the smile on her face out the corner of my eye. “Could you maybe...not sit there?”

The smile shrank to nothing.

“Oh. Oh okay,” she said, dismounting and sitting next to me again, shuffling away this time.

We sat in awkward silence a moment or two.

“So that was bad?” Adagio asked, eventually.

“It was maybe a little overly intimate,” I said, choosing my words carefully.

“Overly intimate...okay, okay. And that’s bad? I can remember that.”

She twisted in place and brought her legs up underneath her, turning to face me more fully.

“I want to learn how to be a better friend for you. I know what buttons to push in humans to get a bad reaction, but getting a good reaction is more difficult. It’s harder. But I want to be a good friend, I really do. So I’ve been studying,” she said.

This was not a normal conversation. But then, what about my life recently had been normal?

“Oh?” I asked.

“Yes. I’ve been watching people, watching friends. Watching them without interfering, seeing how they acted, feeling how they felt. It was...different...but I think I’ve learnt a lot.”

“That so?”

She nodded with enthusiasm.

“I saw some friends in a park - a guy and a girl, like you and me, yeah? - and I watched them a little, just to see what they did, how they interacted. And the girl did something like that, like what I did then. They seemed happy so I just thought...well, now I know better. I’ll remember that. Overly intimate, okay.”

I had the distinct and growing impression that Adagio wasn’t especially clear on the distinction between people who were good friends and people who were in an actual relationship. One would think she might have picked up on this during her observations and, indeed, during all her time just being around people in general, surely, but apparently not.

Perhaps those sort of fine details don’t matter to something that just enjoys the taste of when people get upset with one another? I didn’t know, I wasn’t an expert. Still kind of weird but whatever.

I did know, though, that this was probably something I’d have to nip in the bud, or at least keep an eye on. Keep the straddling to a minimum, along with whatever other behaviour Adagio might have seen and just thought was friendly…

“So…” I said, attempting to seize the conversational initiative again. “What’s the plan with this new place? What’s the plan at all? I mean, beyond revenge. You mentioned revenge rather a lot.”

I had meant this as a dig. Hopefully me pointing it out might have given her cause to pause and reflect. It did not, and seemed to pass completely over her head as she reached to take hold of one of my hands in both of hers.

“You don’t need to worry about any of that. I’m going to look after you no matter what happens, so you don’t need to worry. The new place is nice though, I know you’ll like it. It’s not going to be safe for you out there, for a bit at least, while I sort things out, so you’re going to have to stay there for a while. But that’s okay, you’ll like it.”

Whelp that sounded great. Not low-key sinister at all. I swallowed.

“Uh, okay, alright. Uh, Adagio, can I ask you something?”

“You can ask me anything,” she said, sweetly. I swallowed again, though my throat was dry.

“This is pretty serious, isn’t it? Am I ever going to be allowed to go home? Or is this it for me?”

“I know this’ll take some getting used to, but it is for the best. It’d really make it a lot easier on yourself if you stopped worrying and just let me take care of everything.”

I was getting a lot of that from Adagio. Kind of a theme, you could say. Certainly, I was picking up on the same things over and over again. She also put her hand on my leg. Really, really way too high up my leg.

“Could you - would mind - ?” I said, delicately shifting her hand down to the relatively benign territory of my knee. She removed it completely.

“Was that overly intimate as well?” She asked.

“Little bit. Not something friends do.”

“You’re saying we’re not friends?”

Whoop damage control back up.

“No, no, I’m just saying we’re not really that kind of friends. We’re friends just not, you know, like that. You know?”

Judging from her face it seemed safe to bet that no, she did not know. She looked confused.

“But this is how Sunset felt. She’s your friend, isn’t she? This is how she feels about you. I know, I felt it too. It was coming off her in waves. Angry waves, because of the jealousy, but I could still tell. That’s not friendship?”

Oh for fuck’s sake. Fuck everything. This is ridiculous. I don’t have the energy to parse any of this. I mean, I already knew I’d managed to miss super-obvious clues from Sunset - this much I’d been told already - so hearing it again wasn’t anything I needed, but now Adagio too? This is just too much. I am but one man! A tired, half-naked man!

I rested my face in my hands.

“Are you okay? Do you need a hug? Or is that too intimate?” I heard Adagio ask. I just shrugged and a moment later she was wrapped around me. By then I was beyond caring.

“I really need to talk to Sunset…” I said into my hands.

“Hmm?” Adagio asked, apparently not having heard me. Not that her having heard me would have helped or been a good thing, I felt. Peeking through my fingers I found her face close by mine. She looked concerned. Whenever Adagio was looking at me recently it was usually a toss up between possessive concern or smirking possessiveness. Neither was great.

“What’s your deal with you and Sunset anyway?” I asked her, recklessly.

“Uh-” she started, but I wasn’t finished.

“I mean, I can kind of get how you’d be annoyed with all of those guys given that they all, you know, beat you and broke your magic thingy and stuff, but you seem really hung up on Sunset and that kind of, uh, gets to me a little. She being my friend and all.”

Adagio winced when I said that last part, actually winced. And then she just hugged me tighter, resting her chin on my bare shoulder. Ugh. Probably a worrying sign how used to this I was getting.

“It’s silly…” She said.

“Maybe, maybe not, I’d still quite like to know. If you’ll tell me.”

A pause. Adagio took in a breath and then said quietly:

“Because she’ll try and take you away from me…”

Before I could respond to this Adagio broke the hug and leant back, holding me by the shoulders and beaming - actually beaming. Ear to ear smile, really overwhelming. It reached her eyes, which was usually supposed to be a good sign, but in this case just somehow made it worse. It was like she was wearing a mask.

“But! We have the whole evening together and tomorrow we can get you some clothes. And a treat! Anything you want before we get to the new place. Let’s focus on now and the future! You don’t need to worry about anything else! You don’t need to worry about anything. You’re my friend and I’m going to look after you and keep you safe and we’ll both have fun. Because you’re mine.”

I swallowed, again. Really needed a drink.

And that gem of hers was really starting to look a little worse for wear.