Page 25 of Marked by the Demigod

He glares at her, and she shrinks down a bit. "I pay attention when people I work with talk."

"Huh." She sits, and it's awkward in the room, like a blanket has descended over them.

"Shitty ex boyfriends aside, don't sleep with anyone?" And it's like her father was telling her that, and his face twisted in a mirror of her own. "It won't...it won't be good."

"Usually I'd jump at this chance with Rocky," she whispers, hugging herself. "It feels like there's something wrong with me that I didn't." It feels awful to say out loud, like a betrayal to herself. Like it's changing her, without need or want.

He just nods. "Makes sense." He busies his hands it his computer, face somber. "Did Katya figure out who it was?"

"Nope. Had a big packet of pictures for me to look through, wasn't any of them."

"That's messed up." He prints something out, then hands it to her. "Here."

It's the address to Flask and a time, two days from now, right before her next trip. "And?" She flips the paper in her hand, looking for more information.

"It's a support group. For regular humans involved with non normals."

She peers at him over the paper. "Involved like I'm involved?"

"Doubtful. Mostly normal people who know someone, is close to them, or lives with them. They discuss the weirdness of...everything."

Aimes folds up the paper as neatly as she can and fits it into her pocket. "Katya took me to Flask’s a few days ago, asked me a bunch of questions, and said nothing of this."

A polite knock on the door, and one of Dave's junior librarians pokes his head in, and gives Aimes a truly guilty look. "Sorry to bother you, but that school group --"

Dave waves his hand. "I'll be down there soon." As soon as the door closed he smiles, a grim stretching of skin over his cheeks. "Katya focuses a lot on problems in front of her, not people."

Aimes has just enough time to wonder at that before Dave pushes himself up and leaves his office.

* * *

The meetup is small,with about five other people and Katya, who gives a hard blink when she sees Aimes.

Aimes sits in the back, just listening. Everyone else knows each other, everyone else has known their "other" for years, and it smacks far more of a social gathering than anything resembling support.

Afterwards, as people are chatting, Katya sits next to Aimes with a sigh. "Dave tell you?" With her nod, Katya grimaces. "I'm still no further in figuring out, I wanted to have an answer for you before inviting you here."

One of the other attendees, a pudgy woman who, if Aimes figured out correctly, is the roommate to some sort of tree creature, comes over and shakes Katya's hand. It's perfunctory and reads too much like the church services her mother used to guide her through.

After she steps away, Katya turns, an all too serious look on her face. "Life being weird?"

"I didn't want to sleep with my ex." Aimes says, cause joking about it is a lot better than dealing with the emotions.

Katya nods, thoughtful. "You probably won't want to sleep with anyone else." She says, her voice gentle and practiced. "Don't be disturbed by that."

They sit there, as the rest of the small support group filters out, and Katya exhales, forceful. "Wish I had good news for you."

Aimes nods, out of anything else to do. "It just feels weird."

"Really though, text me. Text me when something weird happens, I can help. Or at least tell you it's normal." Katya leans forwards. "What do you usually do when you're upset?"

"Are you playing counselor with me?" Aimes asks.

She cracks a smile. "A bit. If...if there's anything I've learned at this job, it's that keeping to your normal life as much as possible is...well...good for you." She twists her hands, almost a nervous gesture from someone so usually composed.

Aimes feels sorry for her, just a bit, for how weird and disruptive her life must be. "Well, I have another convention tomorrow. In Texas."

"There's not too many known others in Texas," Katya says, as if that’s encouraging. "Funny enough, not a super welcoming place."

"Austin isn't bad, they have great gay bars." Aimes blurts out. "I mean, those are great, especially for the area, if you want to party but don't want the creeps."

Katya nods, almost absent minded. "This job doesn't exactly give me much reason to go out to places like that."

'Do you want to?"

"Um. It's a worknight?" She blinks at her, wide-eyed and a little bit sad.

Aimes shrugs, glances at her watch. "It's 7:30. My flight’s not till 9 AM."

Katya shifts, as if this was a profoundly new situation. "Maybe, maybe some other time." She stands, begins clearing the chairs from the bar, and the blurry bartender nods his thanks. "Who knows, maybe your mystery man will show up on your trip to Texas."

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