#psykofactor

Valentine's Day

2023

"So it is you…"

A familiar form, and a familiar face; narrow-bodied, blue-eyed, pale-skinned and slightly flushed from anger or maybe something else. A sharpness in her eyes.

"Oh, don't act like you knew this whole time!" Lilith glowered at him.

The hint of a grin tugged at TJ's mouth and he said, "You've been stalking me."

Lilith flushed a deeper red. "I—"

"You liiike me…" TJ let himself smile, a teasing lilt to his voice.

"Why would I like you?! You're—" Lilith fumed as she searched for the right words. "You're insufferable! And stupid! And I wasn't stalking you! I was just keeping an eye out! You know, covering all my bases—"

TJ kissed her.

She tensed at first, startled. Then softened, one gloved hand coming to rest on TJ's face.

Tensed again— shoved him away with a grunt.

Then she disappeared, vanishing into the air with a rustle, the only indication of her trajectory a loose stone that skittered away from an invisible foot.

For a moment, TJ just stared in that direction."…Shit."

***

Three months later

May 17th, 2023

12:45 am

TJ sighed as he turned out the lights [at work], making his final detour to change into a spare set of clothes in the bathroom.

Outside air— what a relief from the humid stuffiness of the dishwasher and sinks. No chemical smells, no mish-mash of wet food. Just the brisk night, clean and clear and…

TJ lit a cigarette with a snap of his fingers and a little spark of light, and took a long drag, glancing up at the under-lit clouds before letting the smoke drift from his mouth.

Of course, it mostly came out as breath, a thin mist. The weirder side of his powers, filtering and purifying the toxins he'd grown so accustomed to. As long as it didn't purify the important part (nicotine) he didn't really give a shit either way, but even after a year, that didn't make it any less strange to fill the negative space with… what? Warm, dry air? Vaguely, faintly acrid, but more like stale days-old smoke lingering in an enclosed space than anything freshly smoldering.

…He couldn't help feeling like he was being watched.

A familiar feeling at this point, and a familiar car parked in front of the restaurant…

An olive green Mercedes, a head of curly crimson hair, and a sharp stare tracking him as he sauntered over with his cigarette dangling between his lips.

Lilith rolled the window down and before TJ could say anything, snapped, "I've been sitting here for almost two hours. Get in."

TJ huffed. "You really are a stalker."

Her face pinched, but she didn't rise to the bait for once. Just said, "Let me give you a ride home."

"You literally parked next to my truck." Blued-out Datsun, directly beside her Mercedes.

But TJ paused, then said, "…Ah, fuck it."

He tossed his backpack into the footwell and slid into the passenger seat anyway, letting a cloud of smoke halo around his head and dissipate strangely as his lungs processed it and the gentle breeze thinned it away, half steam.

"Next time, maybe you should…" TJ twirled his cigarette between his fingers, reaching into its fibers to waterlog the embers until it fizzled out, and pocketed it as he shut the door.

"…I don't know… text me or something?"

Lilith grabbed him by the collar and tugged him close.

TJ's turn to be slightly surprised by a kiss, but he immediately relaxed into her touch with a soft, curious sound in the back of his throat, and reached up to tangle his fingers into her hair.

She didn't seem to mind.

Though she briefly parted from him to mutter, "You smell like dog food," before a sudden shift occurred in the interior of the car and his body— As if someone had just skimmed all the foulness from the air and fabric, trapping it in a filter to leave behind something much cleaner, albeit slightly empty and vaguely synthetic (illusory).