#oh!!!!!!!!

There's an image that flashes once for less than a second. Im not sure if that needs an epilepsy warning but this + flashing image tag is here in case

Anyway here it is, this is when she first meets unsuspecting tired and freezing twilight

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The sudden chime of the front door opening pulled her from her thoughts.

Oh, good! she thought, instantly sitting up. Unless this was poor Mrs. Heartsberry again, who looked so frail Rarity couldn’t feed from out of sheer fear she might kill her.

“Uh, hello?” came a distinctly-not-elderly sounding voice.

Iiiiinteresting.

“Just a moment, I’ll be right out!”

With renewed spirit, she jumped up and waltzed out of her workshop, eager to meet this new meal—Client. My god, either she got a grip, or she’d force herself out into the woods to hunt for deer.

Maybe the next town over had a blood bank?

She stepped out into the very messy showroom she kept telling herself she’d organize and found a young woman by the front, the poor shivering thing wearing a somewhat ridiculously oversized headwarmer and the rest of her completely wrapped in an oversized coat and six layers, no doubt.

Her face, too, was almost entirely obscured, her eyes hidden under foggy glasses, and her cheeks pink from…warm blood…pumping…fresh—

“Are you okay?” the woman asked, slightly put-off from the incredibly rude hungry staring, Rarity. Good heavens, what was she, one of those vampire beasts like the one who turned her?

“Oh, yes! So sorry,” she stammered, clearing her throat and bowing her head apologetically. “I’m sorry, I—Well, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before!” The woman continued to quizzically stare at her, so Rarity nervously stomped onwards. “Not that I would, because I so rarely leave my home! Where are you visiting us from?”

“I live two houses away.”

“Oh!!!!”

The first time Luka sees Milo, he stops flat in his tracks.

It’s kind of bad timing, really. The whole classroom gives him a weird, baffled look, and Luka has to force himself forward, has to bite down the urge to poke and prod and take apart that always comes up, hungry little teeth gnawing at the back of his head, echoing through the constant whisper-hush of his voices like knives through paper. And it’s not that it’s that hard, because Luka’s seen people like Milo before, he has, it’s just.

It’s just kind of unexpected, really.

There’s a shark haloing Milo, curved around the back of his head in a protective curl, its mouth too sharp and too toothy for an actual animal, and that would have been fine if that was all. But there’s hands, too many to count, digging into the soft fabric of Milo’s hoodie, clinging to him like seaweed, all sharp angles and not-quite human lines, and it’s not the imagery itself, that makes Luka go so still in the awning of the classroom.

It’s the familiarity, the mirror-reflection of himself; the double-edged sword, biting in their skins, and Luka hopes, in flat thoughts, that Milo’s parasite is more friendly than his.

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