Eliza had a hobby, now. Daniel had half-expected her interest in the stories about himself and her to wane after a day or two, but she’d fallen into a hole of fiction that apparently consisted of thousands upon thousands of authors, all writing about worlds outside of their own. At first, he’d been slightly annoyed. Days where he worked longer than she did, he’d find her when he got home, sitting behind the screen, scrolling idly downwards as she consumed the words. A part of him, he had reluctantly admitted to himself, was worried that what had felt like a growing friendship -- or something like it -- would be hampered by these invisible strangers writing stories in some other part of the world. 

But over time he noticed that they improved her mood. Dramatically. Sure, she hadn’t been in a particularly bad place, but she hadn’t exactly been the most eager employee at her sales job, and had often come home tired and relieved. Now, she had more energy, seemed eager to be home, to have something to read, and that didn’t stop when she wasn’t reading. She would talk about the stories at the dinner table, about small frustrations she had with them, inconsistencies or things that felt unrealistic to her. While he wasn’t an expert on fiction, whenever she talked about stories involving their world, or swordfighters and heroes, he could often jump in and keep the conversation going. 

Daniel noticed, especially, when he asked her if there were any new stories she liked, that her face lit up with a bright smile, and she’d talk happily for what felt like forever and somehow no time at all. She’d tried apologizing, once, for dominating the conversation so much, but Daniel had made it very clear he wasn’t having any of that. Anything important enough for her to lose herself into it so much was worth listening to. She had nodded, and continued, and Daniel had sat there, half-listening, not because he wasn’t interested, but because he could really not help but notice how happy she looked when she was talking. 

That wasn’t even considering the work the hormones had done. Her face, and every expression on it had softened. Her cheekbones were more pronounced, her skin seemed smoother, and even her eyes looked like they were bigger. It would’ve been hard not to look at her when she animatedly waved her fork to paint a picture in the air, or when she giggled at what even he thought was a bad joke. Not that he minded in the very least. 

That wasn’t to say the hormones hadn’t done a number on him either. It had been several weeks… months?... now, and the changes were starting to show themselves. It was a little easier for him to gain and retain muscle mass, if not much. There was a very slight shadow along his jawline, and his body hair was noticeably getting thicker. After talking about it with Jenny and Pat, he had come out to his classes. He felt it was best, as a lot of them were regulars and would be seeing the changes in him. Pat had been in the room, with Jenny just around the corner, in case people got nasty. Almost nobody did, and the angry woman who did was calmly informed that the rest of her membership would be refunded, feel free to never come back, please and thank you. Other than that, his students had been largely supportive, with the occasional “I knew it” thrown in that made him feel just that little bit taller. It had been… good. 

He didn’t look like he used to, not even remotely. He doubted he was ever going to, but it was slowly becoming more bearable. He was starting to feel like he used to. Permanent discomfort giving way to moments of euphoria, a sense of self that had once been unshakeable, still out of reach but no longer unattainable. Those moments, when Eliza sat at the table, and they talked for hours after food had run out, did a lot to make him feel comfortable, too. He was starting to feel like home, and he was starting to have to deal with the fact that the woman who always sat opposite him at the dinner table was rapidly becoming inseparable from that home.

It had been his night to sleep in the bed again, and he’d been woken up by a dream. As dreams go, it was fairly mundane, in that surreal sense that dreams sometimes get to be, where you don’t pay attention to the cat that is also somehow the car you drive to work. But it had ended with the hero slaying the dragon, and that had been mundane, somehow, too. But it had left him waking up with a bad taste in his mouth, so he’d gotten up to go to the bathroom to get some water. 

When he walked back into the room, he became aware of two things. The first was the alarm clock, which, in angry little red bars, told him it was so late it was almost early, and he groaned softly to himself. Not enough time to get another good chunk of sleep in, but too much to just get up. The other thing he noticed was that light from the living room shone under the bedroom door. More specifically, light from the computer monitor. 

That was the part of Eliza’s love of fiction that worried Daniel somewhat. Sure, it clearly gave her joy, and he wasn’t going to chide her or in any way discourage her passion, but he also didn’t like the idea of her sacrificing her health to engage with it. With the glass of water still in his hand, he opened the door. Eliza was where he’d expected her, blankets wrapped around her, making her look a little bit like a grub with a human head full of hair that was getting quite long, actually. Her fingers rattled across the keys with a speed and precision he had no hopes of matching. He had been getting a bit better at the game, which he still wanted to play through, but Eliza’s typing speed was impossible for him to match. 

He shuffled quietly over to her, making sure to let his feet drag and coughing once. Eliza had a tendency to get lost in what she was doing, reading, writing, and he didn’t want to give her a heart attack by not announcing his presence. He shuffled his feet so she’d know he was getting closer. He coughed so she’d know it was him. He wasn’t sure if Eliza knew it was something he did on purpose, but it had helped. She looked over at him when he sat down on the sofa, and for a moment neither of them said anything, both lit harshly by the light of the screen. 

“Can’t sleep?” Daniel finally asked, breaking the silence. Eliza gave him a little, smiling nod, taking a sip from what was surely ice cold coffee by now. Her legs were folded up into the blankets with her somehow. He wasn’t sure how she’d assembled herself within the blanket cocoon, but she looked very cozy. “What are you reading?”

“Not reading,” Eliza said, quietly, with that croak people get when they’ve been quietly working for hours without losing focus, and haven’t really cleared their throat or moved much at all. She coughed softly. Her voice had gotten a lot softer, partially through some exercises she’d found online. Daniel himself had found his own deepening of its own accord, which had been a welcome change. “I have been writing,” Eliza added. 

“Oh?” Daniel raised his eyebrows. “I thought you mostly concerned yourself with the works -- and flaws therein -- of others?” 

“It was becoming… frustrating,” Eliza said. “They get too much wrong, about how magic works, about how the world works. Stories with…” she paused, and looked at the screen, “...villains. Evil. They don’t know why these things happen. It’s always either analyzed to pieces or lacking in all nuance. It’s… wrong, but maybe more importantly, it’s dull.” She was getting a little indignant, and Daniel couldn’t help but smile a bit. 

“And you know you can do better,” he offered. It wasn’t a question. 

“You’re damned right,” Eliza said, grinning her trademark grin. There was no longer any question about who she was. The woman underneath had slid to the forefront, and she could be stunning if she wanted to be. Was she really still, well, evil? Daniel had been wondering about that. 

“You know…” Daniel said, and then stopped. He took a breath, a sip of water, a moment, and then looked at her again. “Can I ask you a question?”

“I believe you already did, Daniel,” Eliza said with a smile, until she caught his expression. “Yes. Yes, of course you can. What’s wr-- what’s your question?”

“You say people don’t… understand. You call yourself evil. I was told you were, practically shoved on my horse to slay you. But… why?” Daniel looked at her, leaning on his knees. “I’ve been asking myself that question for a while. I understand why the nobility would be scared of you, an intimidating dragon woman living on a mountain? They’d never be able to handle you.” Eliza chuckled softly at that, and he couldn’t help but feel a little satisfied at being able to make her laugh a bit. “But… you were picking up the old pieces, putting them back together. Were you… going to? You said… how did you put it…”

“‘I didn’t even do anything yet’,” Eliza said softly. Daniel nodded, the question still in the air like a little monster that wasn’t going to go away until it was slain. He could tell she was struggling with it. “I don’t know, Daniel,” Eliza said, and when she looked at him, he could tell she was struggling to get the words out. “I wish I could tell you that I would’ve been a good person. That I would’ve renounced my heritage, dismantled the demon armies and what remained of my father’s kingdom. But I… I don’t know…” She bit her lip and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I don’t… you don’t know what it’s like. I was supposed to be the Demon Queen, Daniel. I was raised, since birth, to be, well… her. I wish I could… I--” Her eyes were filling up with tears. “I’m sorry.”

Daniel looked at her. He wished he could say the right thing, but he didn’t have the words. Of course, he did know what it was like, but he didn't know how to say that without making her feel like he wasn't taking her seriously. He didn’t know what to say, which is one of the most frustrating places to be in when suddenly having to console someone. Most people have, at one point or another, been in the presence of a friend, a loved one, someone they care about, breaking down in a way they didn’t see coming. And then it feels like the right words don’t exist, because you don’t have a script. Daniel didn’t know what to say, so he just made something up. What he thought he would want to hear in her place. 

“You didn’t do it,” he said. 

“Wh-what?” 

“When I said ‘you were going to take over the world’, you said ‘I didn’t’.”

“Yeah, but I might--”

“But you didn’t,” Daniel repeated. “You might have. You might have caused harm. But you didn’t. You took a really long time, too, so maybe you aren’t giving yourself enough credit. Or maybe, as soon as you stopped having to be ‘her’, as you put it, she stopped too.”

“I… suppose…” 

“I… I realize that I asked you if you would have, but the question itself doesn’t really matter, I don't think. And neither does the answer.” He thought for a moment. He had the feeling he was doing quite well and wanted to push on. “Maybe… maybe a more pertinent question, Eliza, is whether or not you would, now. If you went back, right now, would you still be ‘the Evil Demon Queen’?” Eliza hugged her legs a little tighter and looked at the computer screen. 

“I don’t…” she started, and then seemed to change her mind, shaking her head slightly. “I think I would like to be… me for a bit.”

“What, uh, what does that mean?” Daniel asked, a little sheepishly. 

Eliza turned back to him, and she smiled again, the most fragile smile he’d ever seen on her face, and it was only because he was looking for them that he saw the tears streaming down her face in the harsh light of the computer. “I don’t know,” she said. “Is that okay?”

Daniel felt his heart practically fall out of his chest. Her words had been so fragile, so scared, so… small. “Of course,” he said. “Of course that's okay. In fact, I think that is a good answer.”

“Thank you.” It was almost inaudible. They sat in silence like that for a while. 

“So… you’ve been writing,” Daniel said, and he got up to look at the screen. 

“Yeah,” Eliza said. “It’s not ready, though. But I've got some readers already.”

“I am… I’m glad you have a way to express yourself,” he said, and looked at the screen, and his eyes went wide. “And apparently, so do twenty thousand other people?!” Eliza smiled apologetically. 

“I’ve been publishing some things to the site,” she said, sheepishly. “They seem to like it. There’s a few people mentioning patronage, I think.” Daniel stared at the screen in disbelief. He had already been baffled by the fact that so many people cared about him and his story, but that Eliza had contributed to that story -- in more ways than one, now -- and that it clearly resonated with people…

“This is… pretty big, Eliza,” he said, reaching over to scroll to the comments. “These people are offering you money to keep doing this.”

“Do you think I should?” she asked. He looked at her. Gods. Her eyes were so big. And she was so close. The way she looked at him. It made his heart try to escape out of the back of his head. 

“Yes,” he said. “I think you should.” He nodded. “You’ll be a lot happier doing this than… whatever it is you actually sell.”

“Yes,” Eliza said, sticking out her tongue. “Blegh.” Daniel couldn’t help but laugh. 

“It might not mean much, Eliza,” he said, standing up straight, “but I’m proud of you.” Eliza slowly stood up, her blankets falling to the floor, and wrapped her arms around him. He could hear the lump in her throat again as she spoke. 

“No,” she said quietly as she hugged him. “It means a lot. Thank you.”

“I… you’re welcome,” Daniel said, and then, finally, as they pulled apart, “now, for all that is holy, Eliza, go to sleep.”

She grinned and saluted. “Yes sir,” she said, and grabbed the blankets, plopping down on the sofa, waving at him as he went back to the bedroom. Daniel crawled under the covers, heart hammering in his chest, throat, and everywhere else the heart can hammer, and didn’t get a wink of sleep, nor did he mind.

Elamimax

Gosh, she's opening up and I'm so proud of her. 

A reminder that this story is completely finished and has over ten chapters that have yet to be released on scribblehub, and that you can already read all of them through my Patreon, and you get a whole bunch of added benefits! On top of that, it keeps my lights on and even lets me eat! Patrons get a ton of benefits, like access to new stories, sometimes weeks or even months in advance, as well as cheaper commission rates, exclusive discord roles, and access to private polls about future projects. 

Regardless, I hope you like this, and I'll see you all soon!