Evelyn

As much as I appreciated the eye candy in front of me, I wasn’t entirely unaware of the rest of my surroundings. I happened to notice a muscular woman with a golden sword lingering awkwardly in the background. She probably wanted to talk, didn’t she? I could give her that.

I was still a little upset with her, but I knew why she’d done what she did. I only wished she’d been more delicate. If Aoife hadn’t found me, I dreaded to think of what I might have done. How I might have hurt myself.

With an awkward apology, I squeezed past Anthony out the door, trying and (mostly) succeeding at keeping my emotions in check. I felt like a love sick teenager. I needed to turn it down several notches.

With a quick nod at Cass, I began walking purposefully towards our shared house. Enough of a spectacle had been made of our dispute. If we were going to talk this out, we’d do it inside. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed that she was following as I opened the door.

Cass

Evelyn sat down in the living room, and I followed suit. I was about to apologize and start trying to make amends, but she beat me to it. Before I could get a single word out, she cut me off.

“Before you say anything, I want you to know I forgive you.” The vampire’s smile was as warm and real as I’ve ever seen it. There was a bit of sadness there, certainly, there was distance too, but she was clearly being genuine. “I know why you were pushing me like that, and I want you to know I appreciate what you were trying to do.”

“I’m-”

“At the same time, I want you to promise that if you ever get the opportunity, you will never do that to anyone ever again. Ok?”

“I promise.”

“Good.” Her smile faltered slightly. “I almost did something I’d really regret, and I don’t know if I would’ve been able to forgive you if I’d had the chance to follow through.”

“I would never have forgiven myself.” It was true. Even with how much of a shut-in she was, I’d come to genuinely care for her these last few weeks. “I’ll understand if you can’t find it in yourself to feel the same way anymore, but I consider you a dear, and treasured friend. If my actions led you to such a dark place, then it seems I have a lot to do to make up for it.”

“Only to yourself. I’ve already forgiven you, remember?” Her grin was a bit cheekier now, but her tone was still serious. “I might still be angry with you on occasion, hell, I’m angry now, but I’ve already chosen to forgive you. I know what you were trying to do, and why, so I’d much rather we just move past this and go back to being friends.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Anyways… Do you want to talk about literally anything else? I feel like this whole conversation has been all formal and weird and I kind of hate it.”

“Sure.” If she wanted something else, I’d give her something else. Her eyes widened as she realized her mistake, ‘anything’ was dangerous. “So how about that Tony guy?”

“Fuck.” The tension having been thoroughly broken, Evie’s immediate response was to punch me in the shoulder. “How obvious is it?”

“You’re an open book, Evie. Always have been.” Not that I’d say that was a bad thing. If anything, it was part of her charm. I threw a wink her way as I jokingly rubbed my shoulder. “I’m just shocked he hasn’t figured it out yet.”

“Thank goodness he hasn’t.” Her voice took on a more serious tone. “He’s gorgeous, but I barely know him.”

“Well maybe you can get to know him.”

“Maybe…” She took a moment, seeming conflicted. As easy to read as she was normally, the emotions at play in her eyes were hard to place. “It’s just… I don’t think I’m ready to put myself out there like that just yet. I don’t want to just rebound onto the first attractive dude I see.”

Right.

That.

You are dense as a brick sometimes, Cass. Her wife passed away mere months ago, and while she’s clearly doing better now that the whole gender debacle has been resolved, there’s not a chance in Hell that that was the source of all her grief.

“That’s smart.” There, now I don’t sound like a complete idiot. “Take whatever time you need to figure yourself out. Somehow I doubt he’ll be going anywhere, it’s not like there are many places to go.”

“I mean, hopefully that’ll change someday, but you’re not wrong.”

We continued to relax and talk for hours after, growing more and more comfortable with each other. She’d been living with me for so long, but somehow I still knew so little about her. She spent all her time before cooped up in her room, reading or singing or hiding from the sun.

Now she was here. She was out of her room, trying to make friends, trying to actually live again. She was thinking about the future with genuine optimism, and that meant the world. We spent the remainder of the night getting to know each other, in a much more real and intimate sense than our brief bouts of small talk before. She regaled me with stories about her son, how she met her wife, even her job before the world collapsed. I met her with tales of my own. Stories of my daughter, of visiting family in Volos, of grand and ambitious dreams.

The sun rose with Evie passed out in my lap, having drunk her fill of my blood, and my hand running gently through her hair. It wasn’t easy living in a world like this, but with friends like her, every second was worth it.

She’d been a programmer, by the way, a fact that Aoife and Willow seemed very excited about when she told them, days later. I still don't know why.