Hecate had been ‘cooking’. She’d been attempting various culinary tasks, all of which she’d failed at because she was completely and utterly incapable of focusing on the task at hand. Allyssa, bless her heart, was getting through to Damien in a way that Hecate had never figured out how to. She’d tried to give him the comfort to find himself, but it seemed that Allyssa was just asking the question Hecate had never considered.

 

Damien looked at Allyssa. She was… so good. She smiled at him like she always had but it felt different. He’d had feelings for her, what felt like a lifetime ago. From what social clues he’d been able to pick up on, she’d even reciprocated them, but it had never felt right. The way he saw it, Allyssa deserved girls. Girls were soft and good and pretty. He didn’t like the thought of inserting a guy into that equation. It felt wrong. Gross, even. He tried not to think that way too often, because it felt like he wasn’t being accepting of Allyssa’s bisexuality. 

 

But something in their dynamic had shifted. Well, “something”. Obviously it was him. He’d changed, in a sense. 

 

“Do you want to be?”

 

Fuck, what a question. He didn’t know what to say. He wouldn’t be opposed. And he knew what he’d look like. He looked like it almost half the time anyway. In fact, he looked like it almost every time he was aware of how much he didn’t want to look like a lanky, angular guy. But on the other hand, most people had issues with their body. He wasn’t any different from them, was he? Aside from the demon girl transformations and the demon mom thing, anyway. He couldn’t imagine that most people didn’t have a deep revulsion to body hair, the way it made something as simple as legs look completely repulsive, especially the muscled, no-soft-edge-in-sight version that men got. He found it hard to believe that not everyone felt a discomfort when looking in the mirror, beyond a kind of resigned acceptance. What he wanted didn’t seem to come into it.

 

Allyssa saw the internal conflict on his face.

 

“Okay, let me ask it differently. If you could just… pick a shape, and you would’ve always looked like that, and I would always have known you that way and we still would’ve met and I’d still be sitting here with you, which one would you pick?”

 

Her hand on his was so soft and cool. It was hard to think. He looked in her eyes and his limbic system did a backflip. ‘More of this’, it said. It was painful, in the best way. He found it hard to breathe. 

 

“I think, if I have you here, Alli, then I think I would like to just…”

 

Pause. Around the corner, Hecate had given up on the onions, on all pretense of food preparation, and was just standing perfectly rigid, ears perked up, holding her breath, unwilling to miss a single word.

 

“I think I’d like to be a girl, Allyssa.”

 

Allyssa took her friend’s hand in her own and squeezed it gently, and smiled with so much love and caring it was already starting to make them both cry.

 

“Looks like you already are.”

 

“I… I don’t…”

 

“Hey, you’re okay. Just breathe.”

 

“O-- Okay.”

 

“I have a question. Just a small one.”

 

Nod.

 

“Do you want me to keep calling you Damien?”

 

“I… I’m not sure? I know it means a lot to my mom. She’s a traditionalist. But it doesn’t… Does it fit? Me, I mean?”

 

Allyssa cocked her head.

 

“I’m not sure. I think that’s mostly up to you, right?”

 

“Yeah but… what would you call me.”

 

Allyssa looked at the red skin, the searing eyes. 

 

“You know, I’d call you Red, but that nickname is already taken, I think. How about…”

 

She chewed her lips thoughtfully for a second, then perked up.

 

“Oh! How about Scarlett?! It’s a cute name, and it fits you!” She bounced in her seat a little bit. Even if they didn’t find it fitting, disagreeing with someone so adorable would be nigh-on impossible. But there wasn’t even the desire to do so.

 

“I like that. I think I like that a lot.”

 

“Nice to meet you, Scarlett!”

 

“Nice to meet you too, Allyssa,” Scarlett said, with a smile and a tear.

 

“You get to be a girl!”

 

“Oh my god.”

 

“Right? I promise you, it’s awesome. Do you… have any clothes that fit you? Like this?”

 

Scarlett shook no. 

 

“I’ve just been cutting the upper backs off shirts and wearing sweatpants, honestly.”

 

Allyssa got even bouncier.

 

“I can borrow you some clothes, and maybe we can go shopping together!”

 

“I… I’d like that, Alli, but can we take this, like, slow? I’m still coming to terms with some stuff over here.”

 

“Oh, yeah. Dang, yeah, of course. Uh… Oh, do you want to like, change pronouns?”

 

“Uh, sure,” she said.

 

“Cool! I just… Yeah. You’re cool, Scarlett. Can I tell you something?”

 

Scarlett scooted her legs underneath herself. It was like a small switch had flipped in her head, that told her that femininity was allowed now. From one moment to one a little later they had flipped from ‘two life long friends’ to ‘two girls’. I get to be a girl, Scarlett thought. Holy shit. She tried not to be too aware of just how close she was sitting to Allyssa. Their knees were practically touching, and Alli still had her hand on Scarlett’s. 

 

“Of course!”

 

“I’m just… I’m really okay with you. Like this. I really like looking at you.”

 

Scarlett tried to say words. She’d done so many times in her life and she was surprised to find that it wasn’t happening right now. All that came out of her mouth were an assortment of shocked and surprised noises. Allyssa giggled.

 

“I just mean… You’re a lot cuter like this. Like kinda hot.”

 

Allyssa thought she was helping. She really wasn’t. Scarlett was short-circuiting like a toaster in a microwave in a bathtub, and it was Allyssa’s fault, who had no idea of what she was doing to her friend.

 

“It’s just… the horns? The red skin? It looks really good on you. Like really good. wink. “

 

She had said the word wink out loud without actually winking. 

 

“Alli!” Scarlett squeaked.

 

“What?”

 

“Aaa!”

 

“What?!”

 

“You can’t say that kind of stuff! I’m still trying to figure this stuff out and… I mean, I still like girls…”

 

“Haha, me too,” Allyssa said like an idiot. Then the words dawned on her. 

 

“Haha,” Scarlett said.

 

Allyssa sat frozen. She looked at their hands. Then at Scarlett. Looked her in the eyes. Scarlett looked a little panicked, panting with her mouth open. Allyssa stared intently at the parted dark red lips, couldn’t tear her eyes away. 

 

“Oh,” she mumbled quietly.

 

“Yeah,” Scarlett mumbled in response. The person sitting opposite wasn’t Damien. Not anymore, not really. Scarlett was Scarlett now, and Scarlett was gay as Hell. Scarlett did not have any trouble imagining Allyssa dating, say, a girl. Hypothetically. Hypothetically a girl with red skin. 

 

“Alli?”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Do you really like the way I look like this?”

 

“I really do.”

 

“Even the horns?”

 

“Especially the horns. Wait, I’m… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yank them that hard earlier… Does it hurt?”

 

“No, they’re just… sensitive.”

 

“Oh fuck I’m so sorry!”

 

“No! No, they’re eh… good sensitive. I didn’t… mind. That you grabbed them.”

 

“Oh… I… Oh!”

 

“Yeah…”

 

Hecate had slinked out of the kitchen. The conversation had turned from ‘my baby is discovering herself’ to ‘my baby is discovering herself’ and despite her heritage, this wasn’t actually something Hecate had even the least bit of interest in hearing anything about.

 

“Is this… why you never… did anything, Scarlett?” 

 

“I just… didn’t want to say anything. Not as a boy. Or a guy. Whatever. It didn’t feel right.”

 

“Well yeah, that’s because you were a girl.”

 

“I… You’re right.”

 

“Do you want to…”

 

“?”

 

“Just… see what… it would be like?”

 

“Like what would be like?”

 

Allyssa was staring intensely at Scarlett. Her eyes darted all over her friend’s face, her friend she didn’t have to think of as a guy anymore, her friend who liked her back, her friend who was suddenly a really cute girl, her really hot demon girl friend.

 

“Like... “

 

She squeezed Scarlett’s hand. 

 

“Being a girl...”

 

“But I’m already…”

 

“...with another girl.”

 

“I… I’m… oh…”

 

“Would you…”

 

“I mean if you…”

 

Allyssa squeezed her eyes shut. She seemed frustrated for a second, and for a scared moment Scarlett was afraid she’d done something wrong, that she’d upset Alli somehow. Then, Scarlett stopped being afraid, as Allyssa reached forward, grabbed Scarlett by both horns, and pulled her friend’s blood red lips against her own.