Moonglade stood in the alley with Home Run, still looking into his eyes. He had said something, but she didn’t hear him. She was too busy tasting all the love that was pouring out of him and she was still thinking about the kiss. It felt so much better than any kiss she had ever had, it left her wanting more.

“Home Run…” Moonglade lifted a hand to his cheek, careful to avoid the cut. She placed it softly over the bruises, then leaned in for another kiss.

None of them backed away, staying together like that for quite some time, splitting apart only to breathe, only to join back in more kisses.

Moonglade liked it very much. She had no intention of stopping just yet. It felt so good and the taste of love keep coming, filling her up.

Home Run’s lips tasted sweet, which must’ve come from all the popcorn. Moonglade didn’t mind. She liked sweet things and it only made her want to kiss him more.

Her hands then shifted down to Home Run’s chest, massaging it as she shifted her lips on his, also wanting to confirm to herself that he was a guy. Love tasted so good and so different from lust. Moonglade didn’t feel her fangs trying to get out, nor did she feel the warmth between her legs, but love tasted so much better than lust.

“Mmm…” she moaned as she kissed him again, her mouth constantly changing positions.

She pressed herself closer against Home Run, feeling her chest squish against his, then lifted her arms around his neck and held onto him like he was the most important person in the world.

Both their faces were flushed now and whenever they separated their lips, they breathed heavily.

“Moonglade. Wow…” Home Run panted, his arms shifted down around the blonde haired girl’s waist.

“Tell me about it.” She smiled, adjusting her glasses. They had gotten greasy from pressing up against Home Run’s face. “Would this mean… would it mean we’re officially together now…?”

“I guess so, huh?” Home Run looked into her eyes.

Moonglade sniffed and knew he wanted more. Well, so did she.

Leaning in again, she planted a flurry of kisses on the boy’s lips, then reached down below for his jeans, her hand searching for something. Moonglade had seen enough movies and her mother in action to know what to look for, and right now, she really wanted Home Run.

Then suddenly, as if the universe itself had an aversion to moments of tenderness, a phone rang.

“I think it’s mine,” Moonglade said apologetically, her cheeks bright red. Pulling out her phone, she checked the caller.

“Mother?” Moonglade said, confused. “But she never calls me. Do you mind if I take this?” She asked Home Run.

“Um, yeah. Sure.”

“Thank you.” Moonglade then tapped ‘answer’ on her phone and raised it to her ear. “Hello?”

“Why hello there, princess. Not interrupting anything, am I?”

Moonglade gave Home Run a look. “No. Not really.”

“Good. Now, I know you and the sirens have probably gone out for a night on the town, so I’m just calling to remind you about the curfew. Be back home before eight or there’ll be dire consequences.”

“Yes, mother.”

“‘Yes mother’,” Ebony Wings imitated. “Remember, you’re not supposed to be out after eight. Buy a box of them to remember if you have to. They’re quite tasty. Anyway, the filming for the movie is going great, in case you were wondering. Have you ever considered going into the acting business, dear?”

Moonglade’s mouth became increasingly more taut with every word that came out of the phone. Why did she have to call now of all times? But as much as the call frustrated her, she knew that not picking up or expressing herself would only lead to more trouble, so she just said, “I haven’t really thought about it, mother.”

“Well, give it some thought. You’ll probably want something to do after you graduate from Diamond Prep Academy. Put your aunt on the phone. I want to talk to her.”

“Uh, she's not here.”

“What do you mean, she's not here? Isn’t she supposed to shadow and protect you on your outings?” A slice of incredulity entered her mother’s voice. “Don’t tell me you and the sirens all sneaked out or something?”

“Er…”

“That’s unacceptable behavior,” Ebony admonished, sounding shocked. “I thought I raised you better than that. Go home, now. I’ll call the house in thirty minutes, and if you’re not there, then heads are going to roll, you hear me?”

“But mother, I’m-”

“On the way home, I hope. We’re on our dinner hour now, so nothing’s going to stop me from calling again. Go home. Now. And bring the sirens with you. Whose idea was it anyway, and how did you get past your aunt? Nevermind. I’ll give her an earful once I get back. Queen’s Reaper indeed. How are you supposed to protect royalty when the only member you’re meant to be guarding vanishes?”

“Mother, I-”

Then the phone call ended, returning to Moonglade’s home screen, which was a picture of Mishter Schniffs on her bed. She looked disappointedly at her phone, resisting the urge to throw it at the unconscious mugger.

“How could she… Why would she…” she mumbled.

“Everything okay, Moonglade?” Home Run wrapped an arm around her.

“It’s my mother. I-I have a curfew. I’m sorry, Home Run. I would’ve loved to go get dinner with you.” Entering her aunt’s number in the phone, she quickly explained the situation to Ivory, who told her she would be over as quickly as she could. “She says she’ll be here as fast as she can drive.”

“That’s a real shame, but I guess it can’t be helped, huh?” Home Run put his hands in his pockets and sighed. “Well, I had a really good day today, Moonglade. I think… well, I think you’re alright. There’s nothing wrong about you. You saved me today. Man, of all the times I’ve been careless, I could’ve just died like that, even after everything I’ve had to go through.”

And that would have been a terrible waste of my effort. Moonglade thought, but instead of saying it she smiled at him and curtseyed. She was glad he was mostly alright. He meant quite a bit to her now. A black car rounded the corner, stopping in front of the alley and opening its door. The front window wound down a crack and a hand made itself known, gesturing with a crooked finger at the girl to get in.

“That was fast…” Home Run remarked.

“My aunt does that. Well, I guess it’s time for me to go…” Moonglade patted her skirt and looked back at Home Run. “Well… a goodbye kiss, hmm?”

The young changeling threw her arms around Home Run and gave him one last kiss, holding it to savor the moment longer. When they parted again, Moonglade held his hand a little longer, before she realized she needed to get home.

“I’ll text you, alright?” Moonglade waved, then sat down in the car and closed the door.

“Take care, Moonglade.” Home Run waved as the girl buckled up, the car now pulling away from the boy and the alley.

As he watched the car recede from view, Home Run’s face broke out into a grin.

“I… I just made first base. Oh yeah.”

“You smell wonderful, sweetie,” Ivory Wings said from the front of the car. “I can smell, and taste the love on you. It’s euphoric.”

She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, only to open them a split second later and swerve around another car, slamming her hand onto the horn.

“Learn to drive!” Ivory barked at the other car.

“Yeah… It tastes really good…” Moonglade was blushing and playing with her locks of golden hair. “And it felt really nice too…” Then she frowned and looked to her aunt. “But then mother just had to call then. She never calls me! Why did she have to when I was really enjoying myself?”

“Yeah, what was it about anyway? You made it seem like she was upset about something. Not that the queen needs much of an excuse to be upset about things,” Ivory said with a shake of her head.

“She made herself upset.” Moonglade pouted and folded her arms. “She didn’t hear anything I had to say and then she demanded I be home in thirty minutes and she was going to call the house. I wasn’t done yet. I wanted to spend more time with Home Run.”

“Well, you know… this is her first time filming in a remote location without you,” Ivory reasoned. “Of course she’s going to be a little, um… paranoid?” She sniffed the air again. “Mmm-mm.”

“But I was having such a good time with Home Run,” Moonglade complained. “And all that love I was finally getting… Mother ruined it. She ruined the moment I had with him.”

“She’s ruined a lot bigger things than that…” Ivory said darkly. “But enough with that. I smell blood. Did you trip over or something? Come on, your mother raised you better than that.”

“I wasn’t hurt.” Moonglade looked at herself, finding no traces of blood, but after a long sniff, she found bits of it on her fingers. It must’ve been from Home Run’s cheek wound. “It’s Home Run’s. It must be.”

Ivory stopped at a red light and glanced into the rearview mirror with an incredulous look. “What kind of sadomasochistic games were you playing in there? I never took that boy to be into drawing blood.”

Moonglade’s blush deepened and she shook her head. “N-No, we didn’t- None of t-that sort… We were stopped by a mugger in the alley, I don’t know if you saw him on the ground just now, but Home Run tried to defend me and he got hurt because of it. I took the mugger down with a lead pipe after that…”

“You were stopped by a what?!” Ivory roared, the sudden increase in volume hurting Moonglade’s ears. “On the one night I leave you alone you run into a mugger? Oh, I am so going to get a roasting for this once your mother gets back home. What did you do to him then?”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade tweaked at her fingers. “I just hit him. He hurt my… my um, boyfriend. I had to do something. I couldn’t let him get hurt further. I just made sure it would be a while before he gets up again. He might even forget what he was doing in the alley.”

“Well as admirable as your actions might have been, it’s my job to deal with threats to the royal family,” Ivory explained. “The fact that I wasn’t there to defend you is unforgivable.”

“It’s my fault, Aunt Ivory. I wanted a real date. If not for me, you would’ve been there.” Moonglade looked out the window. “If you were there, maybe you could’ve talked mother out of all this.”

Ivory pulled the car through the gates to the Wings Estate, shaking her head slowly. “I am so in for it once your mother gets back. We all are, apparently.”

“I’m sorry, Aunt Ivory…” Moonglade touched her lips, remembering the kisses she had received this night. “I shouldn’t have told you all that before the date. I should’ve let you watch over me like every other time. But… I did finally bring home love. I hope mother will take that into account…”

Ivory sighed audibly, reaching the main doors and slowing the car to a stop. “What’s done is done, sweetie. And I should’ve refused to let you be out there on your own. But… you are right that you now have a source of love to bring home. I hope that is enough to deter your mother. Well, did you have a good time?”

“Yeah…” Moonglade cheered up and giggled. “I had a really great time… I got to see a movie, I got a kiss, a few kisses, and I got to beat the crud out of a robber. I’d say that’s a good time.”

Ivory Wings patted her on the head. “Well, that’s all that matters, isn’t it? I know you won’t be with us forever, so I want you to enjoy yourself as much as you can.”

“Oh yeah…” Moonglade forgot her aunt and mother were immortal as long as they had enough love to feed off from. Since she was only half-changeling herself, there were a lot of traits she hadn’t inherited from her mother, like immortality. “I’m going to be older than you one day, huh, Aunt Ivory?”

“Maybe you’ll look older,” Ivory said with a somewhat forced smile. “But I’ll always be your aunt, no matter how old you become.”

“Thanks, Aunt Ivory. That means a bunch.” Moonglade got out of the car and opened her aunt’s door to give her a hug. “I’m glad you came back to be with us.”

“Yes, I feel the same.” Ivory patted her niece on the shoulder, then gently shifted her off. “Now, run along. Your mother should be calling soon. I suggest being ready to pick up the phone.”

“Yes, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade rushed back into the house, finding the nearest phone and settling herself next to it. “You just had to mess it all up for me, huh, mother?” she grumbled. “I was going to go further…”

Moonglade continued to sit there, twirling a finger around her golden locks, taking out her phone to text Home Run.

Whassup Home Run? U get home alright?

She hummed to herself as she waited for either her mother or Home Run to reply first. Soon, her phone vibrated in her hand, determining the winner.

Hey, Moonglade. Yeah i got home fine. My parents were a bit worried with the bruises i had on my face but im fine now. U? Has ur mother called?

Moonglade exhaled deeply and typed her message.

Not yet. I think she may have forgotten.

Just then, the phone began to ring. It’s like her mother had some psychic connection today or something.

Nevermind here she calls.

“Hello?” She picked up the phone.

“Ah, good. You’re home. I was beginning to worry you weren’t taking me seriously. How was your night out, by the way?”

Moonglade frowned, glad her mother couldn’t see it. “I had fun, mother.” But you just had to ruin my fun.

“I assume you brought the sirens back with you too. Good. Now, where is your aunt? I have a thing or two to say to her about shirking responsibility.”

Moonglade’s frown only deepened. “She’s parking the car. Now about the sirens, mother, they-”

“I can’t believe they decided to sneak out with you. I knew you had some problems listening to my rules, but them too? And your aunt… I don’t know how she didn’t even know you left. I can’t be gone for a week without all of you causing problems for me?”

“Mother, I-”

“To think your aunt at least would be the responsible one.”

The young changeling resisted the urge to just slam the phone back in its holder. “Mother, we didn’t sneak out!” she quickly yelled before she could be interrupted again.

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the line.

“Really now. Then would you care to explain what you did do?”

“I was on a date with Home Run, mother,” Moonglade continued, very annoyed at her mother. “A really good one. But then you called and I had to leave him! I was having such a good time, but you tore me away from him, because you couldn’t listen!”

“Now let’s not play the blame game here,” Ebony said primly. “If you had just informed me of your plans, and your aunt wasn’t slacking off, things might have gone differently.”

“But you never call me, mother. Never! Why did you call now of all times? And Aunt Ivory wasn’t slacking off! She let me have a real date for once. One that you had to ruin.”

“What, motherly concern isn’t a good enough reason to call you? How was I supposed to know you were seducing someone at the time?”

Moonglade shook her fists in silent anger. She actually had no idea what to say, but she still wasn’t convinced.

“Mmphh…” she grunted, folding an arm across her chest, under her other elbow.

“Don’t you ‘Mmphh’ me, young lady. I was genuinely worried about what might happen if I didn’t bring you with me to Canterbury. Your safety is important to me, you know.”

Sure it is… Moonglade thought in her head. “Do you really even care about me, mother? Or do you only care about your kind being exposed?”

“What kind of a question is that?” Ebony sounded hurt. “But of course I care about you. I am the queen, and all of changelingkind is my concern. Caring about you and caring about our race are one and the same for me.”

“They’re not the same for everyone else. You always tell me to one day bring home love. When I finally find the love I was looking for, you pull me away! And then you don’t let me explain! You had it all wrong out there.”

There was a moment of silence, broken by the sounds of someone talking through a megaphone on Ebony’s side.

“Well, our dinner hour is up, so if you want to explain something you’ll have to do it tomorrow. Sweet dreams, dearie.”

And then she hung up.

Moonglade sat there in continued silence, holding the beeping phone in her hand. Turning around, she hurled the phone at the wall, watching as it split in two, the battery and other bits falling out all across the floor. The girl fell on her knees and began to cry, her best night ever quickly turning into her worst.

“Why…? Why is this happening…?” She mumbled into her hands, her voice shaky. “Why did she have to call…”

It had been going so well with Home Run. Moonglade hadn’t been done with him when her mother called, who then made up her own story of where her own daughter was, demanding that she go home. Then instead of apologizing or anything like that, she avoided all the blame and then shifted it to her aunt and her. She wasn’t quite upset that she had lost time with Home Run. There were always other days now that they were officially together, but it was that her mother had assumed everything and threatened to punish them. Her mother didn’t know anything. She didn’t care about anyone but herself.

“Sweetie? Are you alright?” Ivory Wings appeared behind Moonglade, placing a hand on her shoulder.

Moonglade didn’t answer, but shook her head, whimpering behind her hands.

Ivory sighed sympathetically, bending down to pick up the pieces of the phone. “Ah, don’t let your mother get you down. It’s just how she is. Believe me, after living with her for over two thousand years, you get used to it.”

Moonglade remained silent, brooding over it. She hadn’t had the chance to be around her mother that long, nor will she ever get to.

“Your mother’s ruined a lot more than just a date. Why I remember back in Trotsylvania…” Ivory trailed off, clearly seeing that this was not working. “Look,” she said eventually. “Go upstairs and take off your disguise. You can just stay home tomorrow. You’ll feel better once you have your true face back, trust me.”

Moonglade nodded, but made no attempt to get up yet. Eventually, her aunt walked over, then bent down to give her a nice comforting hug.

“It’s okay, sweetie. It’s okay. I’m here for you, okay?” Ivory caressed her niece’s head gently. “Don’t take what your mother says to heart. Don’t brood over what she’s done today. How about thinking about Home Run? You like doing that, right? You took the next step up today, finally earning love from him. Your mother would be proud of that.”

Moonglade sniffed and wiped her nose, turning around to hug her aunt tight. “I don’t know a-anym-more, Aunt Ivory… Tell me the tr-truth… Does m-mother really even c-care about me…?”

“I’m sure she does, sweetie. It’s just that as far as I know, she’s never had children and doesn’t quite know how to deal with them. Why, the last child we had was Morn Dread, and I was the one who raised him. So your mother might not quite know how to treat her own child,” Ivory shrugged. “She does know how to deal with a princess though, and she’s used to having her orders obeyed by other members of royalty. It might not be the answer you were looking for, but that’s just how it is.”

Moonglade nodded, unable to see because of her tears. She knew her mother had a problem with expressing how she really felt unless she was angry, but her mother could certainly afford to be nicer and more loving.

“You take as much time as you need, okay, sweetie?” Ivory patted the girl’s back. “I’ll sit here with you until you want to go up, hmm?”

Moonglade stayed with her aunt, letting her emotions flow into her white shirt, soaking it. She was glad she could always count on her aunt, even in situations like this. Eventually, she ran out of tears to cry, taking off her soaked glasses to wipe at her eyes, sniffing at the same time, trying to clear up her nose.

“Th-thanks, Aunt Ivory…” she sniffled, leaning a shoulder against her aunt. “I think I needed that…”

“Of course, princess. Now go and remove your disguise. It makes a difference, I can tell you.”

“Okay…”

Getting off the floor, Moonglade made her way through the hall, then up the stairs to her room, then her bathroom. Tossing her clothes by her sink, Moonglade got into the shower, making sure it was really warm before proceeding. She let the water run down her face, washing her tears off her face. After she was suitably wet, the girl picked up one of the bottles of solvent that was in an unmarked bottle and began to scrub away. Flakes of Moonglade’s skin began to fall off, washing away down the drain and leaving her skin a light charcoal. She then moved on to her hair, whipping up a lather of foam on her head and washing off the hair dye. The bathwater began to turn yellow as he hair was restored to its original light teal.

She stayed under the shower for a long while, hoping to run up the water bill for her mother. Her Moonglade persona was gone, and true, she did feel a bit better about it, but only a bit. A part of her still wanted to break more phones.

After what felt like more than an hour in the glass cubicle, Chrysidea stepped out and looked in the mirror. Then she wiped the fog off it and looked again. Her hair was still wet from the shower and it hung around her face like damp tendrils, water dripping off it and her body, and pooling on the floor. The sight of herself made her happier and she turned around in front of the mirror, admiring herself from all angles. The heater in the bathroom was going strong and even without a towel she could feel the hot air drying her off.

Eventually she got tired of looking at herself and left the bathroom, making sure to leave the water and heater running. Snagging a towel from the rack next to the door, she wrapped herself in its fluffy embrace and flopped onto the bed, reaching for the air conditioning remote at the same time.

Just as she was turning the air conditioning to max strength, there was a knock on the door.

“Yes?” she called out, not bothering to go get dressed yet.

“I’ve got your dinner here,” Ivory’s voice came. “May I come in?”

“Sure, Aunt Ivory.” Chrysidea placed her remote down beside Mishter Schniffs. Her hair was already beginning to soak her sheets, so she moved Mishter Schniffs further away.

Ivory Wings entered, balancing a tray on one hand while pushing the door open with the other. The mouthwatering smell of clam chowder filled the air, mixed with a faint hint of garlic bread.

“You’re not drying yourself off, dear?” Ivory put the tray on Chrysidea’s bedside table, then looked in the direction of the bathroom. “And your shower’s still on. Did you forget to turn it off?”

“No and no, Aunt Ivory…” Chrysidea looked up at her engraved ceiling. “I just really don’t give a fu-”

“Young lady, your language!” Ivory put her hands on her hips to emphasize. “A princess shouldn’t have to use such words.”

“Right, sorry. I just don’t care right now, Aunt Ivory. Mother can go pay those extra bills.”

“I take it you’re still mad at her?” Ivory stood over the girl and looked down.

Chrysidea sighed and shifted to her side, resting her head on an arm. “Washing off the disguise helped. A little. But mother still did what she did and she keeps thinking she knows everything, but she doesn’t, queen or no.”

“Your mother doesn’t know everything, yes, that’s not new news.” Ivory adjusted her glasses and sat down on the bed, avoiding the damp part of the sheets. “But you can’t just blow up over a simple little thing like that. It’s no way a princess should behave.”

“I know, Aunt Ivory. I lost my temper.” Dea looked at one of her hands and closed it into a fist. “Mother is just so… ugh, sometimes.”

“Yes she is…” Ivory crossed her legs. “But hmm… there are some differences for you it seems. When changing a persona, we let our emotions go along with it. It seems you have yet to fully learn that.”

“Yeah…” The young changeling played with her wet hair, twisting her fingers through it.

“I think you should start eating, dear.” Ivory pointed a thumb to the clam chowder. “It’s going to get cold. And come on, enough of your mother. How about we talk about Home Run instead?”

Chrysidea groaned and pushed up, her palm pushing down on her towel as she raised herself. She didn’t even notice as the wet fabric fell down around her waist. She picked up the spoon and swiped it through the chowder, before putting it in her mouth.

“What do you want to hear about Home Run?” Dea said as she chewed. Perhaps talking about Home Run would take her mind off her mother. She felt like she had gotten much closer to him after tonight.

“How was it like?” Ivory smiled at her niece’s sudden change in face, eyeing her body. “Getting your first kiss? Let’s face it, that Sunny Flare one didn’t quite count. You didn’t do that for love. So, how did it feel?”

“It was really good, Aunt Ivory.” Moonglade dipped a piece of garlic bread in her clam chowder and bit into it. “I would’ve kissed him more if mother hadn’t interrupted me. Kissing for love feels so good.”

“Of course it does,” Ivory said with a smirk. “Humans regard a kiss as the first step in a solid relationship. After the first one, they get used to it and kiss all the time. Princess, if you keep this up, Moonglade will be bringing home a lot of extra food, let me tell you that.”

“Yeah, I’m hoping to, Aunt Ivory.” She shoved the rest of the garlic bread in her mouth. “Hoping to kiss Home Run all the time too… So I actually have a boyfriend now! I mean, Moonglade actually has a boyfriend now. I can’t believe it. A while ago, I was still confined within these walls.”

“Yes, I think your mother shouldn’t have kept you in here for so long. In our line of work, experience is everything. Keeping you cooped up here is a waste of your potential. That being said,” Ivory said with a sniff. “You need to work on your persona attachments and emotions. I’m contractually obligated to tell your mother exactly what she asks, and if she finds out you’ve been, ahem, lax with persona feelings and emotions, I can’t imagine she’ll be too pleased.”

“But I’m not doing it on purpose,” Chrysidea protested. “I just… I’m more now to this than you two are. It’s not easy for me to suddenly think differently when I become someone else. Didn’t you have this problem when you first started?”

“We did, sweetie. Not so much I, but it did take your mother quite some time to adjust to a persona. I’m thinking you inherited it from her. But with us teaching you, it shouldn’t be as big of an issue.”

“Okay…” Chrysidea looked out at her window, then she wondered something she hadn’t thought of before. Something she was curious about. “Aunt Ivory, why is it I can’t fall in love with my prey and share feelings between my personas? I mean, it’s not like I’ll be alive forever like you and mother. I could actually live a normal life, couldn’t I?”

Ivory clucked her tongue and her fangs slid down into view. “Sharing feelings defeats the purpose of having personas. It’s also part of your changeling training. It’s a basic for us changelings now, to be able to be different people. The next question is the easy one. You can’t fall in love, because we cannot trust humans. I was betrayed instantly when my lover found out I wasn’t human. Then what did he do? He killed Melipona. He killed our youngest, my most precious sister. That is why you cannot fall in love with your prey. Moonglade can, but please, never let Chrysidea fall in love. It’s simply not worth the trouble it’ll bring. Do that for me, please?”

Chrysidea sighed and continued to look outside her window into the night. She had hoped maybe, just maybe, her aunt would say it would be okay, because she didn’t need to worry about keeping up appearances forever, unlike them. But in a way, she was still right. If she was going to live the rest of her life with, Home Run for example, there was no way she was going to hide her identity forever. And then what happens if he were to take it badly like Aunt Ivory’s human lover all those years ago? She might even bring harm back here to her aunt and mother.

“You’re right, Aunt Ivory. I’ll… I guess I’ll continue to try my best. I don’t want to let you down.”

“There’s my little changeling!” Ivory patted Dea’s head, then wiped her hand on her shirt. “Now, I think you better finish your dinner. Oh, and though I wouldn’t mind admiring your body longer, I think you should put on some clothes.”

Chrysidea looked down and her eyes went wide, realizing her towel wasn’t covering her body anymore. Then her arms shot out and covered her private parts, her charcoal cheeks turning bright red. “Aunt Ivory?! You didn’t say anything sooner!”

“Didn’t seem important at the time. Well, I’m going off to rehearse my story for when your mother gets back. I suggest you do the same, because she’s still going to blow her stack when she hears about the mugger, I guarantee that.”