“Your turn,” Theora echoed, gulping.

Dema sat down. “Yeah.” She wiped mud off her face and crumbled it around herself, sloppily excavating most of her eyes, cheeks, and hands. “So,” she began, “We’ve been dating for like 165 years now.” 

Theora’s body ran cold. “We’ve been what?”

“And I thought — dang, it’s time I should ask her that question!”

That question? What was that question? Was it time to run away?

“But,” Dema continued, “I didn’t have the necessary… what’s it called… requirements.”

“What’s the question?”

Dema shrugged, and her teasing grin turned a lot shyer. “Why, I was gonna ask if you wanted to move in with me.”

“Oh.” At first, that was all Theora got out, before adding, “But you don’t have a home.”

“Yeah! That’s the requirements I was talking about. So I wanted to show you something.”

“What did you want to show me?”

Dema smirked. “You wanna see?”

“Yes.”

“Then,” Dema started with a grin, “please undress!”

Oh no, this again. Why had she even bothered putting the attire back on? Theora pulled the coat over her head and placed it on the ground carefully, then shot a questioning glance at Dema to check if she was doing it right.

“Better follow me,” Dema sang, and dove into the fold of the fabric. She was gone immediately, and Theora needed a moment to join, because the idea of simply entering her travelling attire was still very hard to parse. When she finally went in, she felt herself get swallowed up by the Shade.

Theora reappeared at the foot of a steep, fake hill, surrounded by a wide, fake lake. The Shade had obviously given its best effort to create a beautiful natural environment, but it was still filled with errors and illusional shortcuts. The reflections on the water were all wrong, the plants seemed cut-out and grainy, and the shadows made no sense.

And yet, Theora felt right at home. The breeze tasted like the peel of lemons somehow, and it was dark and cosy. The only way forward was the walk up the side of the hill, the steep path being lighter and sharper than everything else. Dema waited a few steps ahead, and then they climbed up together.

“Wow,” Theora said. “I wasn’t aware that the Shade was still fostering environments friendly to life.”

“Yeah. Made me feel welcome!”

“So, is this what you wanted to show me? That we could both… move into the Shade?”

“There’s more!” Dema said, pointing up.

The climb took a few minutes, the path turning every now and then, hugging the overgrown side of the hill. At the top, they were greeted by a small corridor of fake, dense leaves leading to their destination.

It was a softly-curved meadow with ankle-high grass and the occasional, pasted-in flower that really shouldn’t be growing there. A large, anxiety-inducing, leafless, black tree grew on the hill — from the way it leaned, it should be falling over any moment, but didn’t. Right in front of it was a house, made of crimson rock.

Theora recognised Dema’s architectural style immediately. It was not a fake house at all, it had been built from effort, sweat, and blood. It had three horizontal segments arranged in steps from left to right, a large entry door embedded in the middle segment. The walls were ornamented with complex blood formations and stone murals. The roof was tiled in basalt rock, the rafters had flowers engraved, the windows were made of thin blood-glass, and the space between them was engraved with jellyfish, fossils, and little rabbits.

“It’s beautiful,” Theora said, stumbling forward. “It’s so beautiful.”

Dema beamed. “I made it like this to show you, but if we wanna change things up later, that totally works! So lemme know if you have any ideas.”

“Can we go inside?”

“’Course!” Dema held out a hand, and Theora gave hers. “I made it big, in case Bell and Iso wanna move in one day.”

Theora nodded.

They made it onto the stone porch, and Dema slid the entrance door aside. There was a little room leading into a small entry hall, with blood shelves to store boots and blood hooks to hang up clothing. A staircase directly to the left led into the basement, opposite another leading into the second floor on the right. The entry hall then split into two corridors leading to the left and right wings of the building.

Dema pushed open two thin slabs of stone, to reveal more storage space in the walls.

“The Shade has made it so every shelf connects to your attire,” Dema said. “So you can ask for stuff and put things in, if you wanna.”

“Shade,” Theora murmured slowly. “Please, you’re doing so much. Let me know how to do favours for you, too.”

At that, a bundle of black fabric with red, asymmetric eyes jumped forth from the open wall and swallowed Theora in a hug.

Dema proceeded to lead them through the rooms; most of them were empty as of yet, but she was already overflowing with ideas on what to do in them. One for storing books, one for lazing around, a small one with a blood-desk where she could organise her schemes, and even a bedroom.

The first thing Theora noticed upon entering the bedroom was the large tree on the small yard visible through the window. She opened it and pushed her head through. “Wait,” she murmured. The backside of the house was curved around the tree. Right now, they were standing in the left wing, and Theora could see several doors leading from the back of the house into the yard, and windows were pointing at it too. “It feels a little bit like… It feels like the house is hugging this tree.”

“Yeah!” Dema said. “I thought, who knows? When we find a way to fetch Treeka, maybe she wants to move in with us too? So I reserved a spot. And the house will be under the canopy so she can have her spectral body move around and like, we can all directly go to her and see her.”

“I’d love that.”

Theora then turned her head back to the room, and her eyes finally fell on the single frame of a very small bed.

“It’s small,” she observed.

“Yeah. Didn’t have enough money to buy a bigger one. We’re gonna have to hug tight.”

Theora took a few steps toward it. “Dema… It feels like you might be lying to me. You didn’t even have time to go buy a bed anywhere, and people rarely use money nowadays.” Then, she pointed at its frame. “Also, it’s made of blood. I have an inkling you could perhaps have made a bigger one if you wanted to.”

“Dang, can’t keep any secrets from you, can I?”

Theora really wanted to sleep in such a small bed together with Dema.

“We still gotta look at the basement.”

Dema scuttled back out and had them return to the entry hall entering the stairs leading down. Quickly, Theora could feel the air getting warmer. Steam billowed from below.

Down there was a room made entirely of dark stone, illuminated by a light-producing magical item Theora had forgotten she owned. There was a large basin in one corner, shelves set into another wall, as well as some smaller indents filled with water. The floor beneath them had a lattice to lead the excess away. Dema pulled a plate aside to reveal a burning oven underneath the larger basin — she’d probably used some of the firewood Theora had stored.

“I’m kinda dirty,” Dema said, wiping off a few more flakes of mud. “Wanna take a bath?”

It took Theora about five minutes to recollect the pieces of her mind after that question, but eventually, she obliged. She was already wearing one of Fiantanne’s short dresses, so revealing the rest seemed doable if she ignored all implications, although she did ask Dema to heavily dim the light source so they could both only see silhouettes. Of course, Dema’s eyes were always faintly visible.

Dema first attempted to clean herself off at one of the smaller basins, but she was doing such a poor job that Theora took pity and helped her rinse the remaining flakes off. 

Then, Dema jumped into the basin, splashing the entire room with water. Theora wiped a few drops from her cheeks and forehead, and then slowly joined in too. The basin was more than large enough that the two of them didn’t have to touch each other while inside, a fact Theora was extremely grateful for now, because she was feeling dizzy and unprepared.

“Not gonna lie,” Dema finally said, right after poking her head back out from a dive. “Was kinda hoping we’d keep the lights on. Wanted to see your stretch marks.”

Theora’s fingers self-consciously grazed over her thighs and belly. “I’m sure you’ve seen them before.”

“Yeah,” Dema said. “But like… I have a bit of a thing for scars…”

Theora couldn’t help but laugh a soft, surprised laugh. “It’s hard for me to show them right now, but I shall keep it in mind.” Then, she thought about the times she’d seen Dema undressed before, like when taking care of her, or at the volcano. “You don’t have any scars yourself, right?”

Dema hummed affirmingly. “Can’t have them. They just get healed away with [Regeneration]. Big bummer. Didn’t even get one when the Devil of Truth stole my heart…”

“I see. Perhaps you could have phrased that differently.”

“Ahh… So comfy.” Dema sighed in her low, raspy voice. “Kinda feel like falling asleep. Oh, on that note…”

With a few splashes, she reached for a compartment in the wall, and asked for the time dilation device.

Theora perked up. “Oh. It’s inside the Shade again?” 

“Shade’s fine now that it knows how to handle it, I think,” Dema said. She then pushed the latch, and a soft shockwave came from it. “Time’s slow outside now. Can fall asleep without worry.”

“It might still be a problem if we fall asleep for a very long time…”

Dema giggled. “That’s more of a you problem. But yeah, we could ask an artificer to make a custom alarm clock for you that can be set for decades.”

Theora nodded and kept secret that she would prefer one that could be set for centuries.

“Ah.” Dema stored the device away again, then let herself sink back into the water. “Should also make some magitek device that tells us which mode is on. Like… Making the house glow all red if it’s made so time outside goes fast.”

“Yeah. That would be much safer.” Theora stretched a bit and accidentally knocked her foot against Dema’s leg, then retracted it quickly. “A-Also,” she kept going, “I wanted to ask you — because it came up a while ago. If we are in a situation where you are asleep and I am awake; would it be alright for me to snuggle up to you? Or cuddle you? Like — n-not in the bath, like right now. But in bed, for example. Or would you prefer I didn’t?”

“Why, you haven’t been doing that already? That’s so sad!” Dema blinked. “Wait, I’ve been doing that! Was that wrong? Did you mind?’

Theora frowned. “Of course I don’t mind. I already gave you permission to touch me a long time ago.”

“Oh!” Dema went. “Right. Still like it if you tell me again every now and then, helps me remember and makes me feel fuzzy.” She hummed and scratched her wet hair to think. “Alright then, let’s establish some rules? Rule number one: You can hug me whenever you want!”

So ‘no overthinking’ was rule number zero, then. Theora nodded. It would be hard to hug Dema without asking first, but with a few decades of practice, she might be able to learn it.

“Rule number two,” Dema continued. “You can kiss me whenever you want!”

“Dema… that’s a bit…” Theora pulled her legs up to her chest.

“Rule number three! You can undr—”

“Dema.” Theora took a deep, unsteady breath. “Let’s stick with the first rule for now and think about the others in… a thousand years.”

Dema laughed. “Why, a thousand years! That’s so long!”

“It’s not… It’s too short.”

Dema let out a mock-shocked yelp. “But you were the one who said it!”

“Yes,” Theora went. “I’m attempting very hard to try my best. Since you would like to do it so much.”

Dema smiled faintly. “Why, thank you. But there’s no rush, alright? Take as much time as you wanna.”

“But you said it’s too long…”

“’Course I did,” Dema chirped. “I'm gonna tell you how I feel and you’re gonna tell me how you feel and then we’re gonna figure it all out. Together! Right?”

Theora nodded as her cheeks turned hot. “Right.”

Shortly after that, Dema shuffled around and accidentally bumped a foot against Theora’s shin, sending shivers over her entire body.

Theora had to close her eyes and take a few deep breaths.

This may well have been the best day of her entire life, perhaps.

She let herself sink further into the warm water, feeling its gentle waves touch her dry lips.

Of course, it was selfish. Ultimately, there would be no good end for her; there couldn’t be, but she was willing to accept these days of bliss for now regardless. She only hoped that the day when it would all come crashing down could await a little longer.

“What’s got you worried?” Dema asked, and Theora twitched, pushing her chin back out from the water.

“Don’t mind me,” she said. “I was just thinking about how happy I am.”