Immediately, Hecate jumped up and dunked her tea on the flaming parts of the couch. It helped only a bit, and the carpet was starting to turn black as well. She didn’t pause and hurried her way to the kitchen, shouting instructions over her shoulder.

 

“Stand on the tiles, sweetie. Try to focus!”

 

Scarlett stepped over to exposed tile of the floor, which singed with every step. She kicked a carpet aside and tried taking deep breaths. Flames were licking her hair, flickering in and out of existence around her head, hands and feet. 

 

“Focus on what, mom?!” she shouted at the kitchen. 

 

“Just… not being on fire!? Try to be calm!” came the muffled answer.

 

Allyssa stepped over to Scarlett. The air around her was hot. It was like being close to an open oven. She stood in front of Scarlett.

 

“You need to focus, right? Calm down?”

 

Scarlett nodded anxiously.

 

Allyssa reached out and touched Scarlett’s face, cradling it in her hands. Scarlett’s skin was hot. Painfully so. Alli bit her tongue to keep from wincing.

 

“Look at me, Scarlett.”

 

Scarlett’s eyes, glowing red like burning coals, looked into Allyssa’s soothing, cool, blue ones. She took a breath, and the temperature in the room began to drop. The fires on the couch and carpet went out. Allyssa held Scarlett like that, smiling through the pain, until she was entirely focused on not setting her girlfriend on fire. Hecate ran in with a fire extinguisher and saw the pre-extinguished situation.

 

“Oh.”

 

The tension dissolved. Allyssa withdrew her hands, which were a deep red from the heat, and tried to hide them. Hecate was much too quick for that, and she put the fire extinguisher down in a corner, then strode over. 

 

“Thank you,” she said. Then, without saying much of anything else, so as not to give Allyssa chance to protest, she snatched the girl by the wrists and inspected her hands.

 

“I can work with this. Sit.”

 

When Hecate got like this, her voice sharp, what she said didn’t sound like a command. It sounded like she made a statement as to how the world was going to be in a second and then the world obliged. Allyssa was sitting on the edge of the sofa before she’d realized anything had been said. 

 

Hecate cracked her knuckles, and then her neck.

 

“It’s been a while.” Then she transformed. This was the first time Allyssa had seen Scarlett’s mom in her true form. Hecate grew a foot taller, then two. Two giant ram’s horns curled from her head, two giant black wings extended from her shoulders. Her eyes burned, flames licking her eyebrows, a glow in her eyes so intense it was like looking into the sun. Two hooves clacked on the floor. Fingernails extended into black talons. A long, elegant tale swooped through the air, ending in an inverted black heart. Teeth became sharper and longer, a forked tongue flitting between them as if tasting the air. 

 

“Try to… relax.” Hecate said, and knelt in front of Allyssa, who had no idea what was going on but she was too awestruck to do anything, say anything, try anything or think anything of value. Hecate took the dumbstruck girl’s hands in her own, and blew on them. Allyssa’s entire body was instantly filled with a supernatural heat, like she was being baked. Her hair blew as if she was standing in front of an inferno, and it was hard to keep her eyes open, hard to breathe. And… just like that, it was over.

 

She looked down, and Hecate looked like her normal self again, though she hadn’t seemed to bother getting rid of her horns. Just as impressive was the fact that her hands no longer hurt.

 

“Burns aren’t too hard,” Hecate said, trying not to sound smug. 

 

“Thank you, Ms. H.” She looked up in awe at this… she realized she had no idea what Hecate actually was. 

 

“Don’t mention it.”

 

“Okay.”

 

“I mean it.” Hecate’s eyes bored into hers.

 

“I’m not saying anything, Ms. H. Promise.”

 

“Atta girl.” Hecate ruffled Allyssa’s hair, and then realized that that wasn’t something she could do with every child. 

 

“Listen, Allyssa. It’s getting late. I think you should go home. Why don’t you… Why don’t you come by after school tomorrow, and we can see about getting Scarlett some clothes?”

 

Scarlett looked between the two of them and nodded. If she stayed much longer, her parents would get worried. 

 

“You’re right. Yeah. Let me just eh… say goodbye to Scarlett.”

 

“Go right ahead,” Hecate smiled, hands on her hips and not moving.

 

“Alone?”

 

“Oh. Oh! Yes. Of course!” Hecate shuffled out of the room as quickly as she could while keeping her composure. Scarlett and Allyssa looked at each other, and slowly closed the distance between them. Tentatively reached out.

 

“Hey.”

 

“Hey you.”

 

“Today was fucking weird, Scarlett.”

 

“It really was. I’m glad you were here.” Scarlett smiled.

 

“Me too.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Really,” Allyssa nodded.

 

“I’m just glad I get to keep you.” Her voice cracked halfway through that sentence. “Just a few hours ago I thought I was going to lose you, Scarlett. I was so scared.” 

 

Scarlett pulled her in for a hug, their cheeks gently touching.

 

“I’m sorry, Alli. I just didn’t want to push you away with… with what I am.”

 

“You knew I liked girls, dumdum.”

 

“I meant the whole demon thing?”

 

“Right. Uh. I’m okay with that too.”

 

“You’re a weirdo.”

 

“Ass.”

 

“Thanks for having been my friend forever, Alli.”

 

“You too.”

 

“I lov--...”

 

“Shhh.”

 

Scarlett clamped her mouth shut. She thought for a second she’d gone too far, and froze. Allyssa gently scratched the back of her girlfriend’s neck.

 

“Me too, silly. I just… I want to say it when the time is right. Not standing in a singed living room.”

 

She took a step back and held Scarlett’s hands.

 

“Whatever you feel for me, I promise I’m feeling it too. But I want…”

 

She looked away shyly.

 

“I want it to be special, with you. You’re my favourite person. I wanna do it right.”

 

Scarlett pulled her back in for another hug, and then kissed her.

 

“You’re amazing,” she said.

 

“You too. Dumbass.” Allyssa said. 

 

They kissed a few more times, then Scarlett helped Allyssa gather her stuff, and walked her to the front door. 

 

One more kiss. The specific kind of kiss that only lesbians know when they say goodbye to someone they’ll see tomorrow. It was a kiss that said “I know I’ll see you tomorrow, but I’m going to treat the time between then and now as if it was infinite.” It was a good kiss.

 

Allyssa stepped out the door, was just about to leave when she spun around and grabbed Scarlett by the collar of her shirt and pulled her in for much more down to earth “I need to taste you one more time” kind of kiss which, while much less poetic, was nonetheless very effective for both of them. She looked self satisfied and was about to turn again when she perked up.

 

“Oh! Can I eh… tell my mom about you?”

 

“Tell her… what, exactly?” Scarlett stared at her.

 

“I want to… tell her about us, you know? But I don’t want her to use the wrong name.”

 

“Oh, that! I thought you meant about what my mom and I are.”

 

Allyssa had literally not considered that. 

 

“Ah, no. I just want her to think of you the right way.”

 

“Oh. Th-- thank you.” Scarlett reached out and squeezed Allyssa’s hand. “Of course you can.”

 

“Thank you,” Allyssa bounced, and gave her another quick kiss. Then she tried to walk down the driveway, constantly looking over her shoulder and tripping over everything, waving as she went. She managed to make it home without slamming her face into the pavement, which was a win, considering how much her head was spinning.

 

When she got home, most of the family had gone to their respective rooms to do homework or, in case of the twins, get ready for bed. She found her mom in her study again.

 

“Hey pumpkin.”

 

“Hey mom!”

 

“How’s your friend? Damien? His mom called to say you helped him out when his illness was getting bad and that you got him home safe. I’m glad she offered you dinner. Is something wrong?”

 

She’d seen, of course, how Allyssa’s face had scrunched up. Allyssa sat down on the other desk chair in the room and spun the chair, pulling her legs up.

 

“Okay, mom, don’t freak out.”

 

“What’s up, Lissie?”

 

“It’s not really… Damien anymore?”

 

“Oh? What do you mean?”

 

“She uses Scarlett now.”

 

“Oh! Okay, I’ll try to get it right from here on. Do you mind if I tell your father?”

 

Allyssa shook her head no.

 

“I’m going to be honest, sweetie, I thought you were going to tell me you two had finally… you know…”

 

Allyssa stopped spinning. Her mom grinned triumphantly.

 

“Really?”

 

Nodnod.

 

“I knew it. Your father owes me five dollars.”

 

She got up and went over to the chair Allyssa was making herself small in.

 

“I’m very glad for you two. Da--... Scarlett has always been a good kid, if a bit quiet. I’m happy for you.”

 

She gave Allyssa a kiss on her forehead and the pulled her in for a hug.

 

“Alright, go downstairs, grab yourself some ice cream, and don’t tell your father.”

 

Excited nod.

 

“And hey.”

 

Allyssa turned around.

 

“I’m proud of you.”

 

Question mark.

 

“For being there for your friend. Accepting them. Makes me proud to have raised a good kid.”

 

“I’m proud you’re my mom.”

 

Allyssa ran downstairs, which her mom was grateful for, so she could hide the fact that she was crying.

 

Meanwhile, half a block over, Scarlett was curled up against her mom in the sofa with a spaghetti western playing on the television.

 

“How are you doing, tater tot?”

 

“I’m good, mom. Thank you.”

 

“You two are really cute together.”

 

“Mo-om.”

 

“I mean it. I think she’s good for you.”

 

“You… you do?” 

 

“Hun. Tot. Sweetie. ‘Dum dum’. Please.” Hecate counted on her fingers. “In one day she, and I’m keeping score, helped you out when you transformed, accepted you as a demon, helped you realize you’re a girl, accepted you as a girl, and not once, but twice she went to you to help you calm down, once actually burning herself to help you. Yeah. I approve.”

 

“Thanks mom.” Scarlett sighed happily, her mom’s arm around her as Charles Bronson played the harmonica in black and white. 

 

“Besides, it was about time.”

 

“What do you mean by that?”

 

“Sweetie, you two have been ‘stealing glances’ at each other for like, what? Five years?”

 

“Wow, okay. Attacked by my own mom.”

 

“You’ll live. You’ve got good genes.”

 

“Thanks mom. For everything today.”

 

“Of course, sweetie. I’ll always be your mom. And I have a daughter and that’s honestly awesome.”

 

“Thank you.”

 

“If you so much as touch my bras I will fight you.”

 

“Deal. I love you mom.”

 

“I love you too, tater tot.”

 

That night, both Allyssa and Scarlett’s mothers went to bed with satisfied smiles on their faces. Sometimes, being a mom was really, really rewarding work. Their daughters, respectively, went to bed thinking of their new girlfriends, and how different their lives were about to be. 

 

They dreamt of fire and first kisses.