Nearly a week had passed since the librarians had joined Evelyn on her hike. It was a wonderful Friday evening, the feeling of summer was peering around the corner, almost able to be grasped.

Today’s unique visitor was Lizzy. “Hello!”

“Oh, hi. Didn’t think to see you here any time soon.”

“I thought I’d visit you at work and maybe drag you away from your books for a little fun.”

“A little fun?”

“Amelia and Mike are coming back from their business trip in a few hours and, well, I still haven’t come out to them.” Lizzy grinned.

Kate needed a second to realize what her old friend had planned. “Ooooh, I’m in. How are we doing this?”

“Just chat in the living room, all out in the open?”

“And they stumble in to see you in your proper glory, nice.”

“Exactly.”

“Well, let’s go then.”

 

The two demons were sharing some cake and hot chocolate in the Crowley family’s living room, chatting away the hours until Kate’s parents would arrive.

“I honestly can’t believe how nice everything is right now.” Lizzy reached for her chocolate.

“You have two awesome homes, your health sorted out and nothing to worry about anymore. Speaking of homes, any progress on a less temporary house in Hell?”

“Quite a bit. I met with Jorogumo, she’s incredible, and we started drafting up plans. Evelyn’s home will be done first, but it is never too early to draft up some furniture and room ideas.”

“Took me five years to get it all going, take your time.”

“I intend to. I have a nice home here and the temporary one in Dis, there is no rush at all. And if I get to spend some more time with Joro, that’s good too.”

“You like her, don’t you.”

“She has become a good friend. She teased me about her, uhm, eating apparatus and how much fine control she has. She is hitting on me, isn’t she?”

“Yes. But remember: sex is a friends thing. She might have romantic interest in you, but trying to get you into bed isn’t a signifier of that.”

“Fair enough. I think I’ll take her up on the sexual teasing next time, might be fun.”

“Oh definitely. I haven’t had the chance to sleep with any of the spider-likes, but I have heard fun things about those mouth bits.”

“That’s the part that scares and excites me the most.”

“I needed slow exposure to everything about our favourite spiders, I’m glad you are befriending them so quickly.”

“Wait, really?”

Kate nodded. “Yea, really. Polly invited Joro and Uttu for a day at the library for me to get to know them and overcome my aversion of spiders. That worked. They were so nice and understanding and I managed to hug them on that day. Now, they're just normal demons to me.”

“When you were little, you always reacted a little awkwardly to spiders, I never thought you’d have much problem with spider people.”

“I got this icky feeling about spiders back then, but consciously I knew that was idiotic. Made for a weird experience whenever a spider needed to be removed from above the bed.”

“Fun memories. I almost miss those times. Actually, I’ve been thinking for the past weeks, since I last saw you, about what we are to each other. Who am I to you, who are you to me, how will that change, has it changed? Have we changed?”

“Which one do you want me to answer first? That is quite the topic.”

“If you can answer any of them, I’d be happy already.”

“Well. Let’s start with the last then. We have changed, a lot in fact. Physically, mentally. We’re demons now, I have found people I feel a sense of belonging to. You have found them too. I said you were like a second mother to me, but I was wrong. I thought about that moment on the beach of Tehom for a while. You actually have always been more like a big sister. My sister. And I am incredibly happy that you are part of all the Hell stuff now too. It’s nice to have someone who is family and will be around for eternity with me. I don’t know who I am to you, I could dig into your mind but that would be rude.”

Lizzy smiled warmly and got up from her armchair. Approaching Kate on the couch for a hug, she hesitated. “Still not sure how to deal with touch and the reaper thing… is it okay if I hug you?”

“Always.”

Lizzy squeezed Kate tightly. She definitely needed that. “You are indeed my little sister. One I never knew I wanted. I needed to hear someone put all this into words.” She sat down beside Kate. “Now I just need to figure out the touching thing. It’s gotten a bit weird.”

“You tell me.” The young Nightmare laughed. “I can literally read minds. I can’t turn that off either, I always pick something up.”

“How do you deal with that?”

“Nirrti’s wisdom helped me. There is a temptation to talk to someone’s mind, what you know they think and not say. People hate it when you do that. Always only talk to what they say, not what they think. A little help with subtext is fine, but nothing more. I imagine it is a similar thing with your powers. It’s okay to know more, but don’t act on it unless given consent.”

“That makes sense. Still feels like I get to know stuff I am not supposed to.”

“I said that too. But imagine this: even among humans everyone has different levels of functioning senses. Some people even lack a sense entirely. You are to the average human what a seeing person is to someone blind. You just have a sense they lack and there is nothing to be ashamed of. Just don’t be an arse based on that.”

“I don’t know honestly. It makes sense, but I think I just need to let it sink in.”

The door swung open. “Hello girls!” Kate’s mother had returned.

“Hey mum.”

“Hey Kate and… Lizzy? When did this happen?” Amelia didn’t even sound surprised in the slightest.

Lizzy giggled. “Quite a while ago actually. Remember when I told you the demons cured my fatigue issues?”

“Right… they resolved all your health troubles by making you one of them, didn’t they?”

“Exactly.”

“Kate, did you do this?”

“No, Azazel turned her.”

“Fair enough. Well, I’m happy for you at least. Hey, Mike?” She shouted down the hallway.

“Yes?” Michael quickly approached the living room.

“Don’t look just yet. Guess what happened with Lizzy.”

“She didn’t hurt herself or anything, right?”

“Noooo. Guess again.”

“Did she also become some sort of divine being?”

“Yep. Both our girls are demons.”

He started laughing. “Looks like we did something right at least.”

“Wait.” Lizzy interrupted. “Did you just say ‘our girls’?”

Amelia nodded. “I did. I told you many times that if you hadn’t been an adult when you moved in, I would have tried to adopt you.”

Kate grinned. “Told you that you were my sister.”

Tears were nearly welling up in Lizzy’s eyes. “You all are the best family I could wish for.”

“We try.” Michael entered the living room.

“Thank you… uhm… we have cake if you want some. And hot chocolate.”

“Oh, nice. I’ll just put on something more comfortable and then I’ll join you two.”

“Same here, it’s been a long flight.” Amelia followed Michael back out.

“Kate?” Lizzy turned back to the Nightmare.

“Yes?”

“You said we shouldn’t have caffeine, right?”

“I did, yes.”

“Doesn’t chocolate contain caffeine too?”

“It does, but it also contains something that we break down into a chemical that has the exact opposite effect on us. Theobromine or something. You’ll get a little turned on from eating most really dark chocolates though. It's a thing about how quickly everything gets broken down and stuff. Quite complex.”

“Neat. I almost want to try that.”

“I want to try it too, but alone at home. Maybe with Polly.”

“Fair. You know, to get back to what happened a moment ago, I didn’t expect this to be so… uneventful.”

“You know mum and dad, we can’t surprise them anymore.”

“It was worth a try though and their reactions were still pretty funny… and wholesome. Fuck, Amelia really got me…”

“She just said what we all knew. You’re family.”

“Don’t make me tear up again.”

“I’ll try not to. Would more cake help?”