Lyn Perkins was in the living room of her families’ home when her mother opened the door.

“I’m home, and I have guests!” her mother called.

“What?” Lyn blurted out.

She knew her mother had gone to the football game to cheer on her cousin, but she had made no mention of bringing home guests, which she didn’t usually do. She was curious who could possibly be guests that she’d bring over.

Walking in behind her mother were two people who she recognized as students in her class: Mike, a quiet wallflower, and Myra, the transfer student who cozied up to him for reasons unknown to Lyn.

“Hi…” Mike said.

“Hello!” Myra cheered.

“Give me a minute to get out of my sweater,” Lyn’s mother said.

Myra looked over at Lyn. Lyn saw Myra squint slightly, before Myra started walking over to her. Mike simply walked over to the kitchen, presumably to get some kind of beverage. Myra, however…

“Hey, you’re Lyn, right?” Myra asked.

“Yeah…”

Lyn wasn’t sure what to do in this situation, or what Myra’s interest with her was.

“That’s a nice necklace! Where did you get it?”

“Uh…. my mother gave it to me as a kid,”

“Wow… you know, I gave Mike a similar one earlier this year, though it’s not exactly the same…”

“Really?”

Myra started to loop around the back of the couch Lyn was sitting on. Mike, meanwhile, came out from the kitchen with a glass of water. Myra called out to him:

“Hey, Mike, have you seen Lyn’s necklace?”

“Uh, no, why?” Mike answered.

Myra, now behind Lyn, stopped in her tracks and reached for Lyn’s necklace. Lyn panicked, she wasn’t expecting a stranger to come in and take her necklace off. But before Lyn could stop her. Myra snuck her hands and managed to remove her necklace in a swift motion.

“Hey-”

It was too late. The protective necklace removed, the true nature of Lyn’s existence came out. The trademark tail of who she really was immediately became visible. What surprised Lyn however, was Mike’s reaction:

“...you really couldn’t have asked her first, Myra?”

His vague indifference came as a surprise when the more surprising part of the situation was coming out of Lyn’s back. However, the surprises continued as Myra scurried around in front of Lyn, necklace in hand. A familiar tail was coming from behind her, as well.

“Don’t worry, he knows. Your mom brought me over to teach you how to hide this,” Myra said.

Lyn’s mother finally returned from upstairs, now without her sweater. Lyn glared at her mother, implicitly asking for an explanation.

“I ran into her at the game, and yes, that’s correct. Best listen to her, Lyn,” she said.

Lyn sighed. Evidently this was all planned by her mother, which meant that it must have been okay. Lyn got off the couch, and looked at Myra. Myra stood four or five inches taller than her, but had a smile which eased Lyn’s worries.

 

“So, how did you and Myra get together?” Mr. Perkins asked.

Mike was in the kitchen with Mr. and Mrs. Perkins, while Lyn and Myra were doing magic things. Mike didn’t really get it, but he trusted that Lyn and Myra did. While they were doing their lesson stuff, Mike was in conversation with Lyn’s parents.

“Uhhhh… honestly, I’m not sure myself. She came in on the first day of school… and she just went right for me,” Mike said.

“Really? She just took one look at you and that was it?”

“Yeah… somehow she somehow guessed a very embarrassing wish I had, or something,”

“That sounds like what I was warned about,” Mrs. Perkins mused.

Mike looked at Mrs. Perkins.

“Warned?” he asked.

“I made a request with a friend of mine about getting Lyn lessons. Lyn has some reservations about her heritage, I guess, so I felt I wasn’t a good person to teach her. Just, the person who said they’d help gave me a warning about Myra,” Mrs. Perkins explained.

She leaned back in her chair, searching though her memories.

“She said, ‘She’s a good person, but she lives in the moment. She’s impulsive a lot of the time, so she may be a handful.’ I guess that’s what she meant,” she said.

“That makes sense,” Mike said.

Mike took another sip from his water. He looked over at Mr. Perkins, who seemed to be in his late 40s. His stubble beard and thinning hair showed his age.

“So how did you two meet, anyway? If you’re a succubus, Mrs. Perkins, then what about--” Mike began.

“I’m just a regular old human. We met at a bar,” Mr. Perkins said.

That didn’t surprise Mike too much, but he was curious to confirm anyway.

“He was in college, and we met at a bar. We struck off pretty well, and it just went from there,” Mrs. Perkins said.

“If I remember, I got totally sloshed that night, and you kept me out of trouble,” Mr. Perkins said.

The couple continued their banter. Mike simply let them bounce for a minute, until finally saying:

“You two met in your college days… okay,”

“No no, I was in college. She wasn’t,” Mr. Perkins corrected.

“What?” Mike asked.

“She has well over a decade on me.” Mr. Perkins said.

Mike looked at Mrs. Perkins, who didn’t seem barely older than her husband. Maybe the succubi live longer, Mike thought.

“Why do you ask?” Mrs. Perkins asked.

“Uh….”

“You want to be with Myra, don't you?” Mr. Perkins said.

“I- uh, ah,”

“It’s on your face. I think it’s fine, what about you, dear?” Mr. Perkins added.

Mrs. Perkins looked over at Myra, teaching Lyn. Then she looked back at Mike, sitting at the table. She paused to think about it.

“What do you think of Myra?” Mrs. Perkins asked.

“....she’s such a strong person. I only hope I can be half as good a person as she is,” Mike said.

“I think it’s fine,” Mrs. Perkins said.