Mircalla chuckles, coming up to lay beside her. She kisses Yashira deeply. “You know you love it.”

“Not the point,” Yashira tries to argue, tasting her own fluids on her tongue as a result of Mircalla’s kiss. She plans to continue, but a yawn cuts her off.

Mircalla’s teasing glance turns worried. “I didn’t do too much, did I?” It had been a few weeks since they last saw each other, and Mircalla hadn’t slept with anyone else, making her rather hungry by the time she saw Yashira again.

Yashira waves her off as she tries to smother another yawn. “Nah. I’ll live.”

That’s exactly what I’m worried about, Mircalla wants to say. She wants to remind Yashira that fucking a succubus wasn’t like fucking a mortal, but Yashira already knows this. Had known this since their first rendezvous all those months ago. Mircalla had made sure of it, too afraid of accidentally taking too much not to warn her partners beforehand.

Rather than continue to speak, Yashira merely curls against Mircalla’s side with another sleepy yawn. “I’m going to sleep. Wake me when it’s time to leave.”

Mircalla continues to watch her worriedly but nods. “Yes, dear,” she teases. Yashira snorts, amused despite her exhaustion. That was probably a good sign, right? Mircalla’s going to assume it is at least.

~~~

Despite having plans to leave before it got too dark and slippery, it’s pitch black when Yashira next awakes. She blinks, violet eyes taking a moment to adjust to the blackness. She carefully sits up, not wanting to wake Mircalla if she managed to sleep, and takes stock. She’s still naked from their earlier sex, though significantly less sensitive than she had been earlier. Mircalla is still beside her, though her eyes are closed and breathing even suggesting she fell asleep at some point. That explains why she hadn’t woken Yashira before now.

She stretches best she can without waking anyone and carefully slips out of bed to the nearby bathroom. After taking a moment to freshen up, she slips back into the bedroom to look for her clothes. It’s cold, but not unbearably so. Not much different than staying in Zane’s room during the summer when they had the air conditioner on full blast.

She curses as her foot catches on the edge of a table. Mircalla stirs. It wouldn’t be the first time Yashira’s snuck out post sex, but something about doing it to Mircalla under these circumstances makes her feel… odd. Maybe because of how concerned Mircalla had been earlier, afraid she took too much of Yashira’s essence when they slept together.

At any rate, she can’t bring herself to leave now that Mircalla seems to be awake, though she does continue to gather her clothes from where they’d been tossed earlier. “Yashira?” Mircalla asks after a moment of silence.

Yashira sighs quietly. “Yeah. Sorry, I was… I was trying not to wake you.”

“Oh.” Something about her voice sounds off, and it takes Yashira a moment to place it as fear. What was she afraid of though?

Yashira glances back, about to ask what was wrong, when she sees Mircalla trying to flip the light switch and it not reacting. Oh. Oh. That would explain the cold. She tests the switch nearest her only to have the same result. “When did the power go out?”

Mircalla startles, eyes flickering somewhere to the right of Yashira. “Uh, a-about an hour after you went to sleep?”

Yashira steps toward her. A perk of being able to control darkness meant being able to see even in pure darkness, and right now, she can see Mircalla struggling with the dark. “Can I ask you something and you not be offended if I’m wrong?”

Mircalla blinks, confused. “Sure?”

“Are you afraid of the dark?”

Mircalla winces. “I-It… it’s silly, I know, but… I’m…” she sags, “yeah.”

Yashira nods. “Oh.” Well, now she really couldn’t leave. Much as she wanted to keep this just about sex, she’d come to care about Mircalla as a friend if nothing else. She couldn’t just leave knowing the other was scared. “I, uh, can I do anything to help?”

She wasn’t sure what had caused the blackout and, thus, isn’t sure when to guess the electric will come back on, but there had to be something she could do in the meantime? Right?

Mircalla shrugs, still looking to the right of Yashira. “I… I don’t really… I’ve never had anyone ask me that.” She takes a hesitant step forward and knocks against a table. “I, uh, I thought you were leaving?”

Well, now Yashira feels really bad. “Nah. I don’t have anywhere else to be,” Yashira lies. She was technically supposed to have met up with Zane and Atticus for dinner, but they’d understand if she missed it. Even if she couldn’t properly explain why she was missing it. “What do you need from me?”

As she waits for an answer, Yashira steps back into the bedroom, placing a hand on Mircalla’s bare shoulder. She startles. “Easy, Mircalla, just me. Let’s go back to bed.”

“I’m still full from earlier.”

Yashira snorts. “Not to have sex.” As much as sex in the dark appealed to her, knowing her partner was completely at her mercy, she had no plans to enact such a thing right now. Not when Mircalla was obviously uncomfortable with the situation. And ace, though that part was less of an issue as she was coming to learn.

(Where Zane was sex repulsed and generally avoided any mention of the subject, Mircalla was more like Alex and willing to do it as long as it was on her terms.)

“Then what?”

That… was a good question. “Dunno yet,” she admits. “But being somewhere solid probably helps in situations like these.” That made sense, right? Having a solid base under your feet when you couldn’t see was helpful?

“Probably?” Mircalla almost sounds amused, which Yashira will count as a win.

“We’ve never really discussed my magic before, have we?” Mircalla shakes her head before realizing Yashira wasn’t supposed to be able to see her and replies in the negative. “Ever hear of umbramancy?”

Mircalla blinks. “Shadow manipulation? I thought… I thought humans wiped that out decades ago?”

“Not entirely. Some of us still live, we’re just a lot less common nowadays.”

“...We?”

“...Yeah. Is… is that a problem?”

“No,” Mircalla replies quickly. Almost too quickly. “No, I just… like I said, I thought it was wiped out.” She pauses. “Does that mean you can see right now?”

Yashira guides her back to bed and helps her sit down. “I can. It’s all… grey rather than color, but I can make out where things are, if that’s what you mean.” It occurs to her that Mircalla may have been trying to get up for a reason. “You don’t need to pee or something do you?”

Mircalla shakes her head. “No. I was just going to see you off… which sounds silly now that I say it out loud.”

Yahira chuckles. “Nah. It’s cute.” Probably a little more close to romantic than she should be comfortable with, but she trusted Mircalla not to make it romantic for some reason. She’s rather pleased with herself when she notices Mircalla’s cheeks become darker.

Rather than comment, Mircalla asks, “What do we do now?”

Yashira pauses, not sure how to answer. Her relationship with Mircalla thus far had been built on sex, so she’s not entirely sure what to do outside of that. “Do you have a laptop? A charged laptop?”

Mircalla shakes her head. “Not a charged one. It needs a new battery.”

Yashira frowns, committing that to memory as she tries to think of something else to do. Mircalla clearly didn’t have fire or light magic or she would’ve made a way to see by now. “Is it bad that the only thing I can think of is kissing?”

“Kissing?” Mircalla sounds amused.

“We’d need light for just about anything else,” Yashira defends herself. “Besides,” she admits, “I like kissing you.”

Mircalla’s cheeks flush again. “I like kissing you too.”

Yashira knows she should probably stop right here and clarify that things would never become romantic between them, but instead, she cups Mircalla’s heated cheek. “May I? Perhaps it’ll distract you from your fear?”

Mircalla’s cheek grows hotter. “Sure. It’s, uh, worth a shot anyway.”

Yashira leans in. Mircalla’s lips have always been warm, but now they’re slightly chilled from the lack of heat from the apartment. She sucks on Mircalla’s bottom lip, waiting for the other’s lips to part for her to deepen the kiss.

Despite being hunters most of their adult lives, there were still occasions where Zane, Atticus, and Yashira got in over their heads. These usually involved vampires for reasons none of them could explain since the trio had more experience with those than even their mentor seemed to.

Zane dodges one vampire’s claws, swiping back at him with their ice magic. The man goes stumbling back as he tries to dodge, but Zane’s magic freezes him in place for Yashira to swoop in with her knife and killing him.

(It seemed strange that a hunter had never killed before, but somehow Zane had managed it since Yashira and Atticus were more than willing to do it for them.)

They move onto the next vampire, but a bright light fills the room and they hear Yashira shout, immediately blinded as her eyes were more adjusted for darkness than sudden, bright lights. Zane doesn’t think. They run toward her, summoning water from the air and sharpening it into an ice whip that they whip toward the vampire, immediately decapitating the creature.

They kneel and slide over to Yashira, who’s clutching at her eyes in pain, and summon more water and rest over her temples, channeling healing magic through them to ease the pain.

They hear screaming behind them as a vampire is lit on fire by Atticus. “Is she okay?”

Zane nods. “She will be.”

They don’t see Atticus nod behind him as they focus on the damage in her eyes. It doesn’t take them long to heal it entirely, and when they do, Yashira glances behind them, her eyes widening as she stares at them. “You-”

“Down!” Atticus shouts, forcing both to duck down in time to see a sharp claw fly by overhead and Atticus’ fire to blast at the creature.

Zane spins around, not noticing the dead vampire at their feet, as they help Atticus deal with the last remaining vampire in the room. As they freeze the vampire’s feet, Atticus claws at him with his claws, tearing out the monster’s throat.

They release the water around them, letting it splash to the ground as the battle finally ends. They turn back to where Yashira is still seated on the floor and offer her a hand up. She immediately takes it and pulls herself to her feet, rubbing at her eyes with her free hand. “Thanks.”

Zane nods. “No problem.” They take a moment to survey the room. It’s then that they notice the dead body at their feet. Atticus’ magic couldn’t decapitate like that and Yashira… they pale, putting a hand over their mouth. “Oh, gods.”

“Zane,” Atticus says cautiously, “are you okay?”

Yashira gives him a look. She turns to Zane. “It’s okay, love,” she says gently, more gentle than anyone who knew her would think her capable of.

Zane continues to stare at the dead body, struggling to process the fact that they’d done that. They’d killed that person. Vampire. Sure, they were evil and killing people, but they’d never…

They gag, bolting from the room to flee outside just as their lunch makes a reappearance. The fresh air doesn’t help as the only thing they can see is the body of the vampire they’d killed. They vomit again, feeling a small hand on their back as someone else pulls their hair back away from their face. They choke out a thanks as the hand rubs their back.

“It’s okay,” Yashira assures. “Just let it happen.”

When their stomach finally settles, they shrug her off as Atticus releases their hair, allowing them to stand up properly. “I did that,” they mutter. “I ki-I kill-” they gag again, though they have nothing left to bring up.

Yashira moves to stand beside them, wrapping an arm around their waist and pulling them into a hug. “It’s gonna be okay, love,” she says, pulling their head down to rest on her shoulder. She presses a kiss to the side of their head. “We’ve been there before.”

Zane knows this rationally, but the idea of talking about their first kills didn’t appeal. They don’t reply and instead wrap their arms around Yashira, burying their face in her shoulder.

Atticus comes up behind them and pulls both of them in for a group hug, also kissing their head. “I know it sucks right now, but it’ll be okay. You’ll be okay.”

Yashira leans against the wall as she sips at the cup of vodka someone had offered her. This party was turning out to be kind of lame, and she almost envies Atticus for skipping it to hang out with Zane instead. She wishes she’d done the same. She considers leaving and doing just that, maybe after sobering up a little since alcohol was a trigger for Zane, but then Rose bounds up to her.

“Shira! Come join us!”

Yashira pulls her arm back. “Join us in what?”

“Spin the bottle.”

She considers going with her initial though of just leaving, but the idea of kissing leading to getting laid makes her second guess that decision. “I guess I could do one round.”

Rose cheers as she leads her over to a circle of people sitting around an empty bottle of alcohol (she isn’t knowledgeable enough yet to tell what kind given the lack of label). “Got one more.”

She can’t help but feel a little resentful when the boys around her cheer, likely expecting an easy lay if they get her. Then again, she’d been thinking about the exact same thing just moments before so can she really judge them all that harshly?

She takes a seat between Rose and a guy she vaguely recognizes as being in the grade below her but can’t remember his name.

At first the game proceeds normally, but after a couple spins and even more alcohol, the kisses start getting more intense. Then it happens.

Yashira reaches out to spin the bottle, looking bored as it spins past the boys to land on… Rose.

Somehow that was the first same sex kiss that had come up, and Yashira’s only mildly surprised that it would happen to her. “Well. Uh…”

Rose shrugs despite the cheering around them. “You can spin again if you like.”

“Nooo,” someone slurs. “No one else got a respin.” This naturally leads into people cheering “Kiss her. Kiss her.”

Yashira shrugs. “I guess I can try anything once.” She crawls closer to Rose. “If you’re okay with it, I mean.” She knew Rose was an out lesbian, but she wasn’t sure how the other girl would feel about being used as an experiment.

“Shira, baby, you’re too hot to say no to.”

Yasihra laughs. “Fair enough.”

She cups Rose’s neck and pulls her closer, ignoring the drunken cheers that erupt around her as she kisses her.

To her surprise, the kiss isn’t as unpleasant as she would’ve imagined. It was warm and dry (unlike some of the guys she’d kissed) and Rose’s lips were softer than anyone she’d ever kissed before. It was… interesting.

She feels Rose’s tongue trail along her lower lip and opens her mouth, eager for more. She can’t remember the last time kissing a guy had felt this good. If it ever had. Did this make her a lesbian?

She eventually pulls away when the need to breathe gets too great. Rose beams at her. “Now, I get to say I’ve kissed the hottest girl at school,” she jokes.

Yashira laughs. “That’s not as big of an honor as you seem to think it is.” She’d kissed a lot of boys before, after all.

“Ah, but how many girls can say they’ve had the honor?”

Yashira tilts her head. “Fair enough.”

A few minutes later, Rose gets up to get more to drink and Yashira follows her. “Sooo… about that kiss before.”

Rose grabs a beer from the fridge. “Sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I might’ve gotten a little carried away. I just… you’re so-”

Yashira interrupts her, “I wasn’t uncomfortable. I actually, uh,” she looks around anxiously. “It was… nice. I was… I was kinda wondering if you’d like to do it again.”

Rose blinks. “Excuse a what now?”

“Would you like to do it again?” Yashira asks, now feeling self-conscious.

Rose continues to stare. “I’m dreaming, right?”

Yashira reaches out to pinch her, chuckling when Rose yelps. “Nope.”

“Then hell yes.” Yashira would later find out that Rose had had a crush on her since the moment Atticus introduced them. 

“Are you sure it’s okay though? This… I’m not sure I’m gay. I just-”

“Want to experiment?” Rose finishes for her. Yashira nods. “Yeah. I… I normally wouldn’t be, but it’s you. And we’re friends. I think?”

“Of course.” She wasn’t as close to Rose as she was to Atticus and Zane, but there were very few people she liked as much as she liked as much as her boys.

“Then yeah. It’s cool.”

“Cool.”

Yashira grabs Rose’s wrist and leads her up to one of the empty rooms around the house where the party was being held. “So I don’t know how lesbian sex works, so I’d rather just stick to making out.”

Rose chuckles. If she can tell Yashira is nervous, she doesn’t comment. “Fine by me.”

Yashira nods. “Right.”

Rose settles on the bed and pats the space beside her. “Come sit.” Yashira obeys. “You were so confident about kissing me earlier,” she teases.

Yashira snorts. “Earlier I wasn’t questioning my sexuality.”

“I imagine it’s not much different from kissing a boy,” Rose comments. “Just with more boobs.”

Rose nestles up against Yashira, putting an arm around her waist as they lay down. “Just relax. I’d say pretend you’re kissing a boy, but that might defeat the purpose.”

Before Yashira has a chance to answer, Rose leans in and kisses her again, immediately working to deepen the kiss, which Yashira allows. 

At first, it continues to have that weird feeling that she’d gotten earlier, but as time goes by, it becomes easier. After a couple kisses, it becomes clear what part of the problem is. She’s never been the submissive in a role before, and she’s not about to start now.

She hooks a leg over Rose’s and flips them so she’s on top. Rose gasps, bucking against her in her surprise. “S-sorry,” Rose stammers. “I-you-that… fuck, that was hot.”

Yashira chuckles. “It’s fine. No sex, but everything else is fine.”

Rose nods. “Right. Yes. Good. More kissing?”

“Yes, please.”