#and y does walpurgis night look so pretty WOW

[kisscara]

still thinking about that pmmm au…

also a crappy sketch/early design of this version of walpurgis night + plus scaramouche

scaramouche the living definition of standing man emoji

[takerfoxx]

RD Walpurgis Nights 7: Part 6

Now…

“And here we are,” Ophelia said. She shook her head. “Holy shit, Homulilly.”

During the telling of the story Homulilly had managed to regain a measure of control over herself, but reliving that argument had broken what little composure she had managed to scrape together. She was now sitting with her fingers gripping the side of the wall, head bowed as big, fat tears rolled down her face.

Ophelia watched her for a time. Then she sighed and just laid a hand on Homulilly’s shoulder and let her cry.

Finally Homulilly got enough of it out to speak again. “Okay. I’m done. Go ahead.”

“You sure?”

Homulilly wiped her nose on her sleeve and nodded. “You said you had a lot to say. So let me have it already. How badly did I screw up?”

Ophelia sighed. She hated the idea of kicking Homulilly when she was down, but sometimes you just had to. Besides, Homulilly was literally asking for it. “Pretty badly,” she confirmed.

Homulilly’s shoulders slumped.

“But then, so did everyone else. A little, at least.”

Homulilly turned her head just enough to look at her from the corner of her eye, a slight frown on her face.

“Look, I haven’t talked to Gretchen or Mitty to get their sides, though I think I’d better. But based just on what you’ve just told me…” Ophelia shook her head. “Look, like I said, I know Mitty a little. Not well, but believe it or not, she’s actually a decent person. She’s just got a lot of pride and a really big mouth sometimes. But she wasn’t making the moves on Gretchen. And Gretchen wasn’t into her in that way.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I do.”

“Okay, but how do you know?”

“Because I do,” Ophelia repeated, with a little more emphasis this time. “Look, take this for what it’s worth, but I’ve you and Gretchen together, and I’ve seen Mitty and Alyssa together, and I know love when I see it. Plus, I’ve seen Mitty around other girls, and let me tell you this: that way you saw her acting around Gretchen? She’s like that with everyone: all flirty and handsy and whatnot.

“Now granted, that doesn’t mean she’s off the hook. It’s gotten her into trouble more than once.” Ophelia scowled. “And I’m definitely gonna have to give her little talk about boundaries and keeping her hands to herself. I mean, there’s a reason Tavi and me have a ‘Look, But Don’t Touch’ rule.

“And as for Gretchen…well, okay, it sounds like she was a little smitten, but more of a ‘Wow, she’s so cool and I want to be her friend’ sort of way, and not a ‘She’s so hot and I wish to bang her’ sort of way.”

“Right,” Homulilly said bitterly. “Mitty’s so cool, Mitty’s so neat. And I’m not.”

“Huh,” Ophelia said. “All right, then. Let’s talk about that.”

“Eh?”

Ophelia fished around in her pockets but found, to her dismay, that they were empty, at least of anything edible. Damn it. It wasn’t often that she ended up exhausting her entire snack stash, but here she was. This was definitely going to make her cranky.

Well, whatever. She had more important things to worry about. “Homulilly, let’s get this out of the way: you’re a great kid, and I like you a lot. I wouldn’t hang out with you so much if I didn’t.”

“That’s just because you think we used to be friends when we were alive,” Homulilly muttered.

Ophelia shot her a look. Homulilly, it should be noted, was taking care not to meet her eyes.

Ophelia sighed.

Then she smacked Homulilly upside the back of her head.

It wasn’t a hard smack. In fact, Ophelia’s palm barely brushed little more than hair. But it was swift and surprising and did the job of knocking Homulilly out of her funk. She jerked fully upright and gaped at Ophelia.

Now that she had the younger girl’s undivided attention, Ophelia leaned in and said in a low but firm voice, “Homulilly, I want you to pay very close attention to what I’m going to say. Forget this whole coolness thing. Stop comparing yourself to everyone else. It’s stupid, and the more you do it, the less cool you’ll actually be.”

“B-B-But that’s e-easy for you to say!” Homulilly sputtered. “Y-You’re super cool! Everyone th-thinks so! Even Mitty!”

“You’re damn right I am. And do you know why?” Ophelia stuck a thumb against her own chest. “It’s because I don’t give a damn about what other people think about me. I like being me, and I do it loud. You think I’d be able to pull off this stupid outfit if I didn’t?”

“What? But your clothes are cool!”

“Yeah, and they’re cool because I’m cool! But do you know how much crap I got when I just started with just the hat?”

“Um…”

Actually the teasing had been quite minimal and mostly good-natured, and Ophelia had gotten more compliments than anything. But she wasn’t about to let Homulilly know that. “Yeah, I did. But I didn’t care. Because I liked the hat and was gonna wear it anyway. So people just got used to it and stopped caring. After that came the blazer, and then the pants and shirt, and the next thing you know…” She moved both hands down her torso, indicating the whole of her getup. “Well, you get the picture. It’s all about just being the best version of yourself and loving it.”

Homulilly made a face. “Yeah. Confidence.” She held up her bony arms and flexed her skeletal fingers. “Because I’m all about that.”

“Hey, don’t sell yourself short. You’ve come a hell of a long way since we first met.” Then Ophelia shrugged. “But getting back to the main point, that’s something of the problem.”

“Huh?”

“Homulilly, maybe you’re not so weird about the arms thing anymore, but…” Ophelia hesitated, and then sighed. Oh, hell with it. “You still got a whole bunch of insecurities and anxieties you need to work out. Like, a lot.”

“But-”

“You’re not happy with yourself,” Ophelia said bluntly. “Gretchen is happy with you, and being with her makes you happy with yourself. But when Gretchen wasn’t around, all that went away. You started getting anxious and stressed out. You started comparing yourself to other people, started to feel threatened. You got obsessed with wanting to prove yourself, and it got…weird.”

“I-”

“But that’s the problem. You were trying to be someone you’re not. You were trying to be Mitty. And you can’t be her. You’ll never be her, and to be frank, you shouldn’t even be trying.” Ophelia reached over to jab her finger against the center of Homulilly’s chest. “Remember what you told us, about that little revelation you had back at Sardi’s World of Miracles? About how you had to let go of whoever it was you were in life and just focus on being you? Well, that sounds like a great idea. But if you couldn’t let yourself be haunted by your past self, what are you doing trying to be someone else entirely?”

“That’s not-”

“And another thing,” Ophelia continued. “Brace yourself, kid, because this one’s going to hurt. Ready?”

Homulilly stared at her with wet eyes. Her chin was trembling but she nodded.

“You’re going to have to get used to the idea that as much as Gretchen loves you, as much as she needs you, you need her a lot more than she needs you.”

Homulilly looked like she had been kicked in the gut.

“She does love you though,” Ophelia continued. “And she does need you in her life. You make her happy. Never forget that. But she can be happy spending time with other people, and she can probably be happy being by herself for a bit. She’ll still miss you and wish you were there, but she won’t be miserable like you were. So please remember this: just because she’s making friends and doesn’t need you around doesn’t mean she’s gotten tired of you, okay? It’s healthy. And it also doesn’t mean she doesn’t still want you. Because if I recall, she was trying to get you to go to those meetings with her pretty consistently. That tells me that even though she was having fun with other people, she still missed you and wanted you along.”

Homulilly swallowed. “S-So…I should’ve said yes?”

“You should’ve done what you were comfortable with. But if spending time alone or sharing Gretchen with other people makes you uncomfortable, then that’s a problem. Because it can’t always just be you and her all the time.”

“B-But it isn’t like that! I mean, I have no trouble spending time with you guys!”

“And we’re not always going to be around,” Ophelia countered. “We have our own lives. She’s going to have hers. And you will too. That’s why you have to get to work on this, because it’s just going to get harder the older you get.”

“Oh.”

“Cool. And speaking of putting in the work, here’s one last thing.” Ophelia reached over and poked Homulilly in the chest. “After you and Gretchen finish making up, you two are going to put some serious work into your communication.”

Homulilly blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“I mean it.”

“But…our communication? We’ve…We’ve never had any trouble talking!”

“Oh yeah? Then explain the last few days.”

Homulilly winced.

Ophelia realized that she was getting a little heated. Sighed, she reined herself back a bit. “Look, you two have been pretty much inseparable since day one, right? You loved each other, stood by each other, and faced whatever problems you had together, right?”

There was a pause, and then Homulilly said, “R-Right.”

“But as sweet as that is, it’s kind of part of the problem. See, you two have had a pretty easy ride up until now. Not saying that you haven’t had your own struggles and whatnot; hell, we all have. But you never really had a problem with each other. So, when you suddenly did, when she started spending time with people that weren’t you and wasn’t around all the time to make you feel good about yourself, you didn’t know how to deal with it. It made you upset, and things just built and built until you lost control and freaked out.”

Homulilly opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. So she closed it again and swallowed noisily.

Right. Ophelia had torn her down enough. It was time to do a little building. She beckoned with her arms and said, “All right, Petals. Come here.”

Homulilly didn’t hesitate. She threw herself into Ophelia’s arms and buried her face into her shoulder. Ophelia held her tight and let her cry.

Though the place they were sitting was a bit on the secluded side, there were still people coming and going. One passerby paused and gave the pair a questioning look. Ophelia shot her a furious one in return and shook her head. Taking the hint, the stranger raised her hands and quickly made herself scarce.

Finally Homulilly started to calm down. “You good?” Ophelia said, giving her a pat on the back.

Homulilly nodded, and the two withdrew. Ophelia might have been out of snacks (curses and more curses), but she had something else. She reached into the breast pocket of her blazer and took out a scarlet handkerchief. She handed to the miserable girl, who took it with a nod of thanks.

“All right, now look: it’s not that bad,” Ophelia said as Homulilly wiped her eyes and blew her nose. “You hit a rough patch and reacted badly. And it led to you two getting into your first fight. It happens, and the first one’s already rough. But it’s normal.”

“Normal?” Homulilly snorted. “Then why does it hurt so bad?”

“I just told you. It’s your first fight, and you never had to deal with one before.”

Homulilly made a face. “So you’re saying it’s probably going to happen again.”

“Probably, yeah. I mean, you two wanna spend the rest of eternity together, right?”

“Yes,” Homulilly said without hesitation. “Definitely.”

“Well, statistics say that no matter how in love two people are, how in sync they might be, if they spend that much time together, they’re going to eventually get on each other’s nerves. So…better to learn the best way to get into fights now so you can deal with them more easily in the future!”

“Do you and Oktavia ever fight?”

Ophelia let out a bark of laughter. “Are you serious? We bitch at each other all the time!”

“No, I mean real fights. Like, where you’re really mad at each other.”

Uh-oh. Ophelia could suddenly see where this conversation was starting to head, and she couldn’t say she cared for the view. “Well, yeah,” she said. “Every now and then things get…loud. But that’s part of the reason for all the bitching: get it out now so it doesn’t build up, and when it’s over, it’s over.”

“What was your first fight about?”

And there it was. Ophelia sucked in through her teeth. She couldn’t fault Homulilly for asking, but there were a few memories that Ophelia didn’t care to publicly revisit. That was one of them. “That’s…that’s kind of…”

Homulilly must have caught the look on Ophelia’s face, as she immediately blushed and turned away. “Sorry,” she said. “That was…um, I didn’t mean to pry, so…”

Ophelia sighed. “Don’t sweat it,” she said. “I mean, here we are, digging into your issues, so it’s only fair. But…” She sighed again. “Okay, I won’t go into specifics, but we were about your age, and…I did something really stupid and inconsiderate and tried to hide it from her, she found out from someone that wasn’t me, and things got bad. And it was a long time before I could get her to talk to me again. So, all this stuff I’m lecturing you about, about honesty and communication? Yeah, talking from personal experience.” She paused, and then amended, “Very, very personal experience. So, ours was worse.”

“Oh.”

Ophelia shrugged. “Yeah, it sucked. But see, that’s why I’m getting on your case about fixing your issues.”

“How?”

“Do I look like a shrink to you? I’m good at figuring out what makes people tick. That doesn’t mean I always know how to fix it.” Ophelia nodded toward the FIB building in the distance. “But you guys live in a building with an entire staff full of counselor, therapists, psychologists, that sort of thing. Maybe look one of them up?”

Homulilly didn’t look like she was particularly thrilled with that idea, which wasn’t a surprise. The girl wasn’t exactly the most open person in the world, which was going to make her nut kind of hard to crack.

“Yeah, I know,” Ophelia said. “Finding out that you’ve got a bunch of personal issues and talking about them with someone you don’t know that well isn’t exactly my idea of a fun time either. But would you rather be a little uncomfortable now, or risk another blow-up in the future?”

Homulilly’s frown deepened.

“Exactly.” Ophelia swung her legs around and hopped off the wall. “Trust me: get this taken care as soon and as thoroughly as you can. You’ll both be happier for it.”

Nodding, Homulilly slid off as well. “So…where are we going?”

“Last I checked, Gretchen was at our place. I’m going to touch base with whatever’s going on over there, and then we’ll figure out what to do.”

Homulilly’s face was already downcast, but it somehow found a way to sink even further. “She probably hates me,” she muttered.

“Nah,” Ophelia said without hesitation. “She’ll be upset, sure. Maybe a little mad. But hate? Hell no.” She gave Homulilly a soft punch to the shoulder. “She loves you, you mopey little idiot. Get used to it.”

“Okay. Um, Ophelia?”

“Yeah?”

“You know how you said I need to, um, deal with everything I’m scared of so it doesn’t come between me and Gretchen?”

“That would be too-long-didn’t-listen summation, yeah.”

“Then how come you won’t let Oktavia have anything about the ocean in your room even though she loves it?”

Ophelia froze in place. She opened her mouth to respond with something smartass, thought better of it, and finally said, “Hey. We’re talking about you right now. Don’t go turning this around on me.”

Homulilly blushed. “Sorry.”

“S’okay,” Ophelia muttered. She breathed out. “Well, fine. Food for thought then. C’mon, Lilly-of-the-Valley. Let’s see what’s happening on the home front.”

…

Over at the Ladoga house, things weren’t progressing anywhere as smoothly. And with considerably less orderly articulation.

“…and I thought, hey, if I was actually part of the planning, I can use it to make the perfect night for us!” Gretchen was bawling. “But I didn’t know it would be so much work! And Homulilly never wanted to come, and school got really hard, and then…and then we found out about that Incubator and Void Walkers and it really scared me, and then Homulilly started to get all weird and I didn’t know why, but she wouldn’t talk to me!”

“All right, let it out,” Oktavia said. She and Gretchen were sitting side-by-side on the sofa, with Gretchen pretty much wrapping every limb she had around the mermaid and Oktavia doing the same, even if she only really had the two while Gretchen’s numbered in the double-digits. The poor kid was just so upset, and the fact that Homulilly of all people was the cause just made it worse. Oktavia had no idea why Homulilly had done that, but as much as she liked the girl, she really wanted to smack her now.

Which was…a weirdly familiar feeling, now that she thought about it.

Of course the get-together they had planned had been cancelled, or at the very least postponed. Their friends were disappointed, but they at least understood. Corbit Fausk had offered to come along to help with what she called a “Second-Act-Breakup,” it was felt that while the jott meant well, having her frame Gretchen and Homulilly’s relationship in the context of a steamy romance novel probably wouldn’t help.

Though to be honest, Oktavia really would be grateful for any kind of framing, because seriously, what the hell had been all that? She knew that the kids had been stressed out over a number of reasons, but never in a million years had she expected Homulilly to just blow up at Gretchen like that. Clearly there had been a lot of stuff going on that she hadn’t known about, but would very much like to hear the details.

And if Homulilly wanted to keep that flower on top of her head, they had better be damned good.

Charlotte re-entered the room, having left to answer a phone call. “That was Candeloro,” she said. “She’s heading home tomorrow.”

“Oh,” Oktavia said. “Okay. Uh, did you…tell her?”

“Well, she heard the crying, so yeah, about as much as we know. She said that she’ll be back as soon as possible.” Charlotte sat down on the other side of Gretchen and rubbed the younger girl’s shoulder. “Wish I had more to tell, but…”

“Ophelia’s handling it,” Oktavia said, her eyes darkening. “If anyone can talk some sense into her, it’d be her.”

“B-But what if Homulilly doesn’t talk to her?” Gretchen moaned. “She wouldn’t talk to me!”

“Oh, trust me, when it comes to getting to the root of things, Ophelia is relentless. And she has like zero tolerance for bullshit. She’ll get through the hard head of that dumb girlfriend of yours.”

Then, almost as if on cue, Oktavia’s own phone went off, playing the ringtone that Oktavia had composed for her. It was sitting on the coffee table, not really out of reach but did require some shifting around for her to get at it.

“Um, hey, could you take over?” Oktavia said to Charlotte. “I gotta…I gotta get this.”

“Sure thing. C’mon kid, bring it in,” Charlotte said, gently prying Gretchen from Oktavia. Sniffling, Gretchen complied, untangling her arms and legs from around Oktavia to tie Charlotte up.

Oktavia reflexively wanted to make a comment about how familiar that position must be for Charlotte, but she managed to catch it in time. Still, it made her shake her head. Maybe she had been watching too much weird porn lately. At any rate, it freed her up to scooch over and pick up the phone.

“Hey,” she said.

“Yo, I got the other one,” Ophelia said. “What’s the sitch at the homebase?”

“Um, well, Gretchen’s super upset, but doesn’t really know why all that happened. Apparently things have been weird for a while and Homulilly stopped talking to her for some reason.”

“Yeah, I got her side of the story. Apparently it’s just a bunch of issues with her insecurities and a lot of bad timing. I’ll fill you in on the details later, but I already reamed her a bit for it, and trust me, she feels awful.”

“Well, good. She should. Are you bringing her over now?”

“Not sure. How’s Gretchen?”

Oktavia glanced over. “Um, kind of in a bad way.”

“Yeah, so’s Homulilly.” Ophelia sighed. “Look, they probably need to cool down a bit. Tell you what: keep her at our place for tonight, and I’ll stay with this one, and tomorrow I’ll bring her over after they’ve calmed down. Just let Gretchen know that I had a long talk with Homulilly, and she feels terrible about what she did.”

“Tomorrow?” Oktavia frowned. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Nope. Kinda playing this one by ear. Anyway, I’ll get in contact with the FIB and get the okay. It shouldn’t be too hard.”

“Well, okay,” Oktavia said reluctantly. “I’ll…see you tomorrow, I guess. Love you.”

“You too.”

…

For some reason, the dorm seemed even emptier than it had been the last few evenings, even with Ophelia coming with her. Homulilly looked around the dark room for a moment and then flipped on the light.

“Huh, this kind of takes me back,” Ophelia said as she glanced around for herself. “I mean, ours was bigger of course, seeing how we had four people, but the design’s the same.”

“Did it ever feel, um, crowded?” Homulilly asked.

“Well, it took us a bit to work out who got what space, let’s just say that much.”

Nodding, Homulilly entered the room, with Ophelia following close behind. Ophelia had her hat in her hand, and she sent it spinning off with a flick of her wrist. It landed neatly on top of the dresser.

“Thanks for staying,” Homulilly said as she sat down on the side of the bed. “I don’t think I could’ve handled this alone.”

Ophelia shrugged. “No prob. I get it. I mean, I’ve been there myself.”

It was then Homulilly noticed something that should have been obvious from the start. “Oh, wait,” she said, her back stiffening. “There’s, uh, there’s only one…”

Ophelia snickered. “Relax. I like you, but not that much.”

She walked over to the loveseat that Homulilly and Gretchen shared with watching holos and plopped down in it, reclining across the two armrests.

“You don’t have to!” Homulilly said. “I mean, I can take it if you want.”

“Oh, please. I’ve slept in a lot worse a lot more often than you think. Once had to spend the night in a folding chair during a really nasty storm. Trust me, I’m fine.”

“Er, okay, if you say so.”

Homulilly gave Ophelia one of her pillows and retrieved a spare blanket from the closet. “You can use the restroom if you need a shower,” she said.

Ophelia yawned cavernously. “Nah, I’m pooped. I’ll just use it to wake myself up in the morning. Better than the crappy coffee they keep around here.”

“Right. In the morning.” Homulilly shivered. “Do you…do you think it’ll be okay? Between Gretchen and me?”

“So long as you’re willing to put in the work. Which you are, right?”

“I am,” Homulilly promised.

“Good to hear. Now, relax. The worst is over.”

Maybe so, but as Homulilly curled up by herself in the dark, she still found herself dreading what was to come.

What if Gretchen didn’t want to hear it? What if she felt that she had given Homulilly enough chances to talk to her? What if she was fed up with crap? Homulilly had certainly acted pretty rottenly the last few days.

Well, in that case, she’d better get to practicing what she was going to say. Homulilly ran through her apology over and over in her head, fine-tweaking everything until the mental repetition caused her to finally slip off to sleep.

…

The next morning…

The home that Ophelia shared with the others was about two kilometers from the Freehaven Integration Bureau. If they had taken the rooftop route, Homulilly and Ophelia could have made the trip in a handful of minutes, but Homulilly wasn’t really up for that, so they walked. Just as well. She needed the extra time to practice what she was going to say.

It was a nice morning, bright and clear and warm. Of course, the overwhelming majority of mornings in Freehaven were bright and clear and warm, save for when it rained, and of course that wouldn’t be permitted during the festival. That was a plus. A little bit of familiarity was just what Homulilly needed right about then.

Of course, the fact that the festival was still ongoing clashed with all of that. Granted, it wouldn’t kick back into gear until later in the day, but even so the lights, booths, and decorations were still up and everywhere, and there was more people milling about than usual. That was a minus.

Still, after the first few blocks, Homulilly had stopped noticing them entirely. Holding tightly to Ophelia’s hand, she ran her speech over and over in her head, making sure she had covered everything.

This was worse than oral exams or that one time she had somehow been coerced to sing karaoke. Far, far worse. And the penalty for failure was much more severe than a bad grade or an embarrassing moment that everyone else infuriatingly found hilarious.

“We’re here,” Ophelia suddenly announced.

Homulilly’s head jerked up. Wait, what? How? It ought to have taken much longer than that!

But sure enough, the narrow streets and tall walls were gone, and they were walking the wide, curving red-bricked paths between idyllic white houses and thick willow trees that defined the nicer outskirts of the city. And just a little bit out was the shrub-filled yard that surrounded her friends’ house.

Gretchen was inside.

Homulilly swallowed. She glanced over to Ophelia, who seemed entirely too relaxed. Well, of course she was. She wasn’t the one about to throw herself down to the ground in supplication and beg for forgiveness.

Ophelia paused by the gate. “Ready to engage?” she said.

Homulilly’s hands were shaking, as were the petals of her flower. She closed her eyes, squeezed her fingers into fists until they stopped, which in turn made the flower close up into a bud. It did that whenever she was nervous but trying not to show it, which rather defeated the whole purpose.

Well, nothing for it. She opened her eyes and nodded at Ophelia.

“Alrighty then,” Ophelia said, and she opened the gate. “Showtime.”

They walked up the familiar path to the familiar house and its familiar door. Though it was her house as much as it was the others, Ophelia still lifted her hand and rapped the back of her knuckles against it the door.

There was a pause, and then Charlotte answered the door. She raised one eyebrow. “Forgot your key?” she said. “It wasn’t locked, you know.”

“I know,” Ophelia said. “Just felt proper.”

Charlotte shook her head. “Weirdo,” she said. Then she tilted her head to looked at Homulilly, who again had her own bowed in shame.

“Huh,” Charlotte said. “Well, good morning. Shall we?”

The inside of the house looked much the same as ever: everyone’s furniture arranged in a manner that ought to clash but somehow didn’t, weapons arranged over the fireplace, and Cheese peacefully amusing himself in his little playground. When Ophelia and Homulilly entered he stopped chewing on plastic rings and turned his head to regard them.

Then, as was custom, he took off to flap over toward Homulilly’s head. Or, to be specific, the bright red flower on top of her head, which always was something of a bull’s-eye to him.

Ophelia’s red-sleeved arm snapped up to intercept. “Oh, no,” she said as he made a last-second adjustment to land on her arm. “Not today, bud.”

“Rangleloser,” Cheese muttered, or at least something that sounded like rangleloser, whatever that was. He climbed up to Ophelia’s shoulder and looked at Homulilly.

“Hi, Cheese,” Homulilly said softly. She reached up to scratch him gently around the neck. He turned his head around to give her better access and made happy noises.

Charlotte led them to the dining room. It looked like breakfast was underway, albeit more pushed around various plates than actually eaten. Oktavia was at her place in her legged chair, silently watching the procession. And in Candeloro’s usual place…

Gretchen looked a mess. Her dark pink hair hung in disarray around her shoulders, her eyes were blotchy, and she didn’t seem to have slept much. Her own breakfast was practically untouched.

Homulilly’s heart was already aching, but this sent a fresh knife-stab right through it. Oh God, she had done that to her, she and her stupid…everything.

Then Gretchen looked up at her. She said nothing.

Homulilly had expected to see anger in her eyes. Resentment. The righteous fury of the unfairly accused. Instead, she just looked tired and…

Shameful?

Wait, why would she look shameful? Homulilly had obviously been the one at fault! Gretchen was an innocent victim in all this, so why did she-

Wait.

Oh God.

Gretchen blamed herself. That’s what it was. She held herself responsible for what had happened, because she was so kind and sweet and could never really be mad at anyone, no matter how much they deserved it.

The two stared at each other with mute expressions of guilt and horror. Ophelia, Charlotte, and Oktavia watched them with mute expressions of anticipation. Cheese looked at whatever was most interesting at any particular given second and then proceeded to rattle off Candeloro’s favorite pasta salad recipe, but with the olives replaced with F-words.

Then Charlotte cleared her throat. “Okay, you two have a lot to talk about. So, everyone who’s a resident of this house, into the backyard please.”

She made a hasty exit. Ophelia patted Homulilly on the shoulder and went to follow, Cheese still on her shoulder. Oktavia wasn’t far behind, though having to navigate her chair away from the table and through the large glass double-doors in the living room slowed her a bit.

Soon they all were gone, leaving Homulilly and Gretchen alone.

Homulilly fidgeted, shifting her weight from one leg to the next. She wrung her hands together. Oh yeah, this was so much worse than oral exams or karaoke.

Then Gretchen sighed and pushed her chair away from the table. The sound of the wooden legs sliding across the hardwood floor made Homulilly’s back stiffen.

Then Gretchen made her way over to her petrified girlfriend, her legs sounding like falling rain as they tapped the ground with every step.

Gretchen stopped in front of Homulilly. Homulilly instinctively started to look away, but stopped herself. No. Gretchen deserved to at least look her in the eye.

Swallowing, Homulilly steadied herself the best she could and said, “Okay. B-Before you b-b-begin, I have s-something to say.”

Gretchen blinked. Then she nodded.

Taking a deep breath, Homulilly said, “I am very, very, very, very…” another deep breath, and then faster, “veryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryveryvery sorry. I had no right to say those things or even think those things, and I never wanted to hurt you but I did, and I feel absolutely terrible about that.”

Well, it was a start, and Gretchen hadn’t interrupted her yet. And now that Homulilly had gotten the ball rolling, the rest started to come out more easily.”

“See, I had this long talk with Ophelia, and she made me realize that, well, I don’t really like myself very much. It’s not for any reason, I just don’t feel like I’m anything special. But you make me feel special! Whenever I’m with you, I feel good about…being me. But…that’s because of you, and the way you treat me. So, when you were gone for most of this last week, I just…stopped feeling good about me, and it sucked!

“And that’s not your fault! I mean, I told you I’d be fine. But that was a lie. And the more I was by myself, the worst it got. And then…well, the museum trip happened, and everything we saw scared the crap out of me. And it wasn’t just that holographic lesson either! I ran into someone who, well, pretty much told me that you’re my only chance to keep it together and not end up as a Void Walker one day, I…sort of freaked out a little. And when I met…Mitty, and saw how cool and hot and confident she is, it made me feel really bad about myself, and I guess I panicked. So, that’s why I was acting the way I was at that meeting. Yeah, it was stupid, but I was so scared that I might lose you and be stuck alone with myself forever, that I…well, you saw.

“B-But none of that was your fault! It was all on me, and I need to be the one to fix this. So, I promise you that I will. I’m going to start going to therapy more and doing those self-help exercises more, and if you have friends and other things that don’t involve me, I’m not going to get in the way and try to ruin it for you again, because I love you, Gretchen. I love you more than anything, and I never want to hurt you again, and I’m really very sorry that I did.”

That last part came out in a long exhalation, and when it was out Homulilly’s legs nearly buckled. Getting all of that out had been one of the most emotionally taxing things she had ever had to do, but now it was done she felt a sense of relief unlike any she had ever felt before. She felt drained and beaten up, but also cleansed in a way. Her soul (which, if were one to be literal, really was all of her) felt unburdened of a great weight, and now she could stand straight again.

However, getting all of that off her chest was just the first step. Now she had to see if Gretchen would forgive her.

As for Gretchen, she looked completely taken back by everything Homulilly had said. “Oh,” she said. “Um, okay?”

That…wasn’t really the response Homulilly had been hoping for, but it was a start. So she held her tongue and waited.

Gretchen looked like she was struggling to find the words to say. She bit her lower lip and looked down, and one hand started to unconsciously wind a lock of her hair.

“Wow,” she said at last. “Um, I had this whole speech of my own ready to go, where I would apologize to you, but now you kind of beat me to the punch, and now I don’t know what to say.”

Homulilly almost choked. “Wait, apologize to me? What for?”

Gretchen cringed in embarrassment, and she shrugged. “Well, after I had calmed down a little, I thought back to the last week and everything, and I realized that with the way I was acting around Mitty, well, I can see why…you wouldn’t be cool with that. And if you saw us dancing, well, that wasn’t a good look. And I probably should’ve known better than that.”

“No!” Homulilly said hastily. “It wasn’t your fault, it was all me!”

“It was me a little. And, um, wow. I didn’t really think we would, you know, go this far.” Gretchen took in a deep, shaky breath and slowly let it out. Then she said, “You were really afraid I was going to leave you?”

Homulilly winced. “Well, I d-didn’t seriously think it, I was just worried that it could happen.”

“For Mitty?”

Another wince. “Again, I know it was dumb! It was just, you know, seeing how awesome she is was kind of…hard, and with everything else going on I wasn’t really thinking straight.”

Gretchen nodded. “You…do know that I’m not into her like that, right? I mean, yes, you’re right, she’ll cool and all, but I never thought of her in that way.”

“Really?” Homulilly said, only to realize a second too late that that probably wasn’t the best response.

“Really,” Gretchen said. She looked a little hurt that Gretchen would even doubt her. “I don’t care how cool or pretty she is. She’s not a part of my soul. You are.”

Homulilly swallowed. “B-But that’s kind of the problem. The big reason we’re together is soul resonance, right? So, if that wasn’t a thing, if we weren’t a Walpurgisnacht, would you even look at me?”

Now Gretchen started to look a little annoyed. “Yes. Because if soul resonance is even a thing, all it would do is give me a push.” She reached down and took Homulilly’s trembling hand in her own. “I do have free will, you know. I’m not some robot that loves whoever I’m programmed to love. I’m in love with you because I’m in love with you, not because some mystical force made me fall in love with you.”

Homulilly’s throat tightened up and it took a considerable amount of willpower not to burst into tears, but she managed a quick nod.

A heavy silence fell upon the pair for a bit, and then Homulilly said in a small voice, “Um, so…she was just showing you how to dance, right?”

Now it was Gretchen’s turn to wince. “Um, yeah. You r-remember our first dance, at Sardi’s Land of Miracles?”

“Of course.”

“Well, that was one of the best moments of my life, and I wanted us to do something like it again. But since I don’t have a clue how to Samba and Mitty did, I asked her to show me how so I wouldn’t look like an idiot.”

Homulilly raised an eyebrow. “Er, you do know I have no idea how to Samba either, right?”

“Yeah, but I figured I could show you. But um, I guess maybe I should’ve been a little smarter about how that would look.” Gretchen shook her head. “Wow, this is a mess. And we’re usually on the same wavelength about everything.”

Homulilly nodded. “Ophelia says that we need to work on our communication or something. Like, couple’s therapy and all that.”

“Couple’s therapy?” Gretchen frowned. “I don’t know. That feels kinda…weird. Besides, we never had a problem talking.”

Homulilly shrugged. “Well, she says that since we’ve never fought before, we didn’t know how to fight properly, so when something did come up…well, you saw what happened.”

“Fight properly?”

“Yeah. You know, how to deal with our problems the right way so things don’t get out of control again.”

“I guess,” Gretchen admitted. “I just never thought we’d need something like that.”

“I think everyone does.”

Then Gretchen gave her an odd look. “Um, you said you needed to do your own therapy stuff, right? To help with your, um, self-esteem thing, right?”

Homulilly nodded.

“You don’t…you don’t want us to be apart while you do that, do you? So I won’t be a distraction?”

“No!” Homulilly said hastily. Then she took a moment to slow herself down a little. “Um, no. I mean, I’ll probably have to go to therapy by myself, but I don’t want us to really break up or take a break or anything. Besides, we do need to work on the communication thing together.”

Gretchen nodded. “I guess we have a lot of issues we need to work on. Stuff we didn’t even know about.”

“Yeah.”

Gretchen sighed. Then she slid forward, slipping her arms under Homulilly’s and wrapped them around her middle to hug her tight.

“I am sorry for not being more careful,” she said, her head resting against Homulilly’s shoulder. “And I forgive you. So stop beating yourself up, okay? We’ll get through this, I promise.”

That was really what Homulilly needed to hear the most. She returned the embrace, grabbing onto Gretchen with all her strength. Again the tears tried to force their way out, and this time she let them.

…

Out in the backyard, Ophelia, Charlotte, Oktavia, and Cheese were awkwardly milling about. Well, Ophelia and Oktavia were, with Cheese merrily amusing himself with whatever was catching his attention. Charlotte was seated cross-legged under the window, listening in.

“So,” she said after something of a pause. “You told her that she doesn’t like herself, huh?”

Ophelia, who was in the middle of a solitary game of lawn darts, paused. “Well, I call ‘em as I see ‘em. No point in sugarcoating anything. That wouldn’t help anyone.”

“Still. Harsh.”

A shrug. “I said what I needed to say.”

“You think they’ll be okay?” Oktavia said. She had Cheese in her lap and was distracting herself by playing with his beak.

“Sure. I mean, let’s face the facts: it was a fight that went bad. Everyone has them, and they’re young, so it seemed worse than it was. And they seem like they want to fix it. They’ll be fine.” Then she frowned. “Um, speaking of which…” She turned toward the mermaid. “Hey, Tavi?”

“Yo?”

Ophelia made a face, but said, “See, during my little talk with Homulilly, she kinda pointed out that she’s not the only one with issues that they’ve been putting off dealing with, and how it’s kind of unfair for me to say you can’t have something you love in our room, so…”

“What are you talking about?” Oktavia said. “You know I don’t even like butt stuff.”

Charlotte snorted loudly, and had to clamp her hands over her mouth and nose so as not to disturb the girls talking inside. Even Ophelia couldn’t keep from snickering. “No, nitwit! I mean the ocean thing! I’m gonna see about getting some help with that. Probably should have done that a long time ago.”

Oktavia’s head jerked back. “Wait, really?”

“Yeah,” Ophelia said, albeit not exactly enthusiastically. “Really.”

“You mean you’re going to go swimming with me?”

Ophelia’s mouth made several unusual shapes before she said, “Eventually, yes.”

“And I can bring my stuff into our room?”

“Some,” Ophelia said. “Just…wait until I’m more comfortable with this.”

“Wow,” Oktavia said. “That’s…I didn’t expect that. But, um, thanks. That…that means a lot to me.” Then she tilted her head to one side and grinned fetchingly. “So…are you just going to sit there, or are you going to come over here and give me a kiss? Because I’d do it myself, but that sounds like a lot of work, so…”

“Lazy fish,” Ophelia sighed. Then she smiled and got up to do just that.

“Well, looks like this is a real day for self-improvement,” Charlotte said as she watched them. “That’s good to hear.” Then she blinked. “Oh. Oh, shit.”

The other two paused what they were doing to look at her.

Charlotte’s face twisted up in chagrin. “Er, last night, when Gretchen was over and crying a lot, Candeloro called to check in. And…I may have told her that Homulilly and Gretchen broke up. And she seemed really upset about it. And she’s probably on the flight back right now and won’t find out that everything’s fine for a few more hours.”

“Oh,” Ophelia said. “Whoops.”

“Yeah,” Charlotte said, her shoulders slumping. “Yeah, that was probably a bad call.”

…

Later that evening…

Candeloro had finally come home, and she was a little put out.

She stood in the living room with her suitcases still needing to be unpacked, ribbons folded over her chest as she glared at her housemates.

The situation with the kids was apparently fully handled, which was a relief. They had gone home for some much needed time alone, which was good, as Candeloro had a few things she needed to get off her chest and didn’t want them around to hear it.

“So,” she said. “What did we learn?”

Of the three, Ophelia and Oktavia sat side-by-side on the couch and seemed wholly at ease, almost as if they were enjoying the proceedings. And why shouldn’t they be? Candeloro wasn’t really mad at them.

Charlotte, on the other hand, was seated upright in one of easy chairs, hands on her knees, and head bowed.

“Well?” Candeloro repeated.

Charlotte muttered something under her breath. Then she recited, “We learned that as lovey-dovey as they are, Gretchen and Homulilly are still kids with a lot to learn. So just because they got into a fight we shouldn’t assume the worse and say that they definitely broke up.”

“Very good. And…?”

“And that telling my wonderful wife that they broke up right before she gets onto an elysian for a long trip home and has to spend that trip worried out of her mind isn’t a good idea.”

“That’s right,” Candeloro nodded.

“Hey, I called it for what it was right off the bat,” Ophelia chimed in. “Bad timing, undealt with insecurities, bad communication, so fight. Not the end of the world.”

“Thank you, Ophelia,” Candeloro told her. “You handled this just fine, and I’m glad you managed to talk some sense into Homulilly. Now, if you two would like to give us some privacy…”

“Say no more.” With a dramatic flourish, Ophelia swept Oktavia up in her arms. “C’mon, Swordfish! We still have to finish our marathon and can’t use the main room anymore.”

“But it’s not as fun when it’s just us in our room,” Oktavia complained as she was carried off. “Having everyone over added something, you know?”

“Yeah, but this way we can do it naked!”

“Oh. Good point.”

“And keep the noise down!” Candeloro called after them. “I don’t want to hear weird moans and…bellows, or whatever it is that vaskergoros do!”

When they were gone, Candeloro turned her attention back to Charlotte, who was openly grimacing.

“Look,” Charlotte said. “I am really, really sorry I made you worry. But to be fair, it just got dumped on my lap and I had no idea what to think.”

Candeloro sighed and let herself relax. “I know, I know. But you really had me thinking I was coming home to something terrible.”

“Well, it was pretty terrible for them, anyway.”

“First fight always is.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Then Charlotte allowed herself a sly grin. “Well, since I got you all upset over nothing, maybe I should…make it up to you?”

“Oh, really now?” Candeloro moved forward to plant herself right in Charlotte’s lap, facing her. “And…how’s that?”

“Well, we’ve both been lonely for a bit. Besides, those two have been infecting this house with their weird perversions. So I kinda need a little healing too. Set me back on the straight and narrow and remind me what the real good stuff is.”

“Mmmm. Sounds like fun.” Candeloro gently eased Charlotte back. One of Charlotte’s hands slid up her back while the other groped around the side of the chair until it found the lever, letting her engage the recliner.