Page 20 of In the Care of Magic

With a smirk, xe got up from the bed and wrapped an arm around her waist, picking her up.

“Woah.” She wrapped an arm around xyr neck in surprise.

Xyr teeth grazed against the skin of her shoulder affectionately before Lyle headed downstairs, bringing her along. Xe placed her on the kitchen table, then looked for the pans and ingredients. She placed her hands behind herself, supporting her body as she curiously watched xem.

“You’re making me breakfast?” She asked, incredulous. “That’s a very domestic behavior for a demon.”

Lyle didn’t respond, yet flashed a slight smirk xe was seemingly trying to fight. Xe cooked the eggs and bacon, then gave her a plate as xe positioned xemself in front of her, leaning against the counter of the kitchen and holding a plate of xyr own. They ate like that, watching each other in a comfortable silence.

While they had agreed to spend time together outside of sex, Jillian hadn’t expected Lyle to make good on xyr word right away, and especially not so eagerly. Why had Lyle stayed with her throughout the night and then the morning? Why was xe there, making her breakfast? Surely, xe had other things to do.

“Your thoughts are loud.”

“I’m not thinking,” she quickly replied.

Xe scoffed. “Sure.”

Jillian rolled her eyes. Alright then, she’d bite. “Why are you here?”

Lyle frowned, hurt seemingly flashing behind xyr eyes, just like the day before. Xe had avoided replying to the question then, too.

“What do you mean?”

“At first you only stayed the night, now you’re here during the day too,” she started. “I know we agreed to be friends, but something feels off. I imagine you have other things to do, other duties to attend to. Why are you staying with me?”

Lyle stared for a while, from the look in xyr face, there was a battle stirring in xyr mind: a mix of emotions including irritation, sadness, and distrust too. Xyr reaction hurt Jillian more than she would have liked to admit.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be prying like this. You have all the rights to not share your life with me.”

Xe sighed heavily. “I don’t really have things to do.”

“What do you mean?” Jillian frowned. “Don’t many people call for your services?”

Xe scoffed, irritated, setting xyr own plate down on the counter next to xem, “Oh no, many people call.”

So xe did have work to do. She tilted her head quizzically. “I don’t understand.”

Xe passed a hand over xyr face. “As I told you, I can choose where to go and what to do. I don’t have to reply to every single call I get. This is both my job and my identity—the reason why I was created—but after all this time, it’s exhausting to be around people and scenarios that are constantly changing. And I do like what I do, don’t get me wrong, but some people make it hard to enjoy, and sometimes it makes me feel like I’m only an object. I don’t have that many normal interactions with the people who call for my services.”

“Are you staying because you feel more like a person here?”With me, she wanted to say, but that would have truly made her sound desperate.

“Yes. I don’t mind sex. As you probably have noticed, I quite enjoy it, but I’d like to do it outside of the usual context, to choose it for myself.” Xe frowned, then tried to explain xemself more. “I mean, I still choose it in my usual situations, but… it’s complicated.”

“I think I get what you mean.” Then a thought crossed her mind, making her heart skip a beat. “I never… I never made you feel like youhadto say yes, have I? Did I ever make you feel forced?”

“Never.” Xe replied without hesitance, which lifted a weight from her chest. “If I hadn’t wanted to do it, or changed my mind, I would have left for good. I have done that in the past.”

“If you don’t like your… job, you can’t just stop, can you?” She felt naive for asking, but she really didn’t know how these things worked for demons.

“I have been created for this. It’s what’s keeping me alive,” xe reminded her. “I can stop for a while, but I can’t stop for good. If I stay too much without fulfilling my duty, I will fade until I die.”

Carefully, Jillian asked, “Does it have to be different people?”

“No.”

She frowned, her mind getting lost in all the information xe had just shared. “Wait…” she said, quietly. “If you don’t need to spend your days and nights with different strangers, if you hypothetically found a partner, could that be used to trick the process? Could you simply stay with them and live normally, doing whatever you want?”

“Are you offering yourself for the position?” Xe asked jokingly. When she only looked at xem, not replying, xyr grin faded.

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