“Got Topic… oh I like this one.” Raziel clicked around at some of the short skirts and tight shirts.

“All that about you not wanting to be a fetish… and now… and that is what you want?” Lialah said askance. “What are you trying to do, seduce Albaer?”

“Hey, it’s okay if I do it. I like being sexy,” Raziel said and fluttered her wings a bit, “and black is definitely my color, tell me I wouldn’t look great in that, I dare you.”

“Well, he told you to buy what you want, but if you give the young man a heart attack or a hard on-” Lialah said and let the statement hang, shaking her head reprovingly.

“Well aren’t you little miss less-than-innocent all of a sudden?” Raziel gave a teasing wink up to her sister.

“It’s not like that! He’s a male though, and even if he’s not a race we’re familiar with, the parts are all there and I’ve seen the way he looks at… and I saw that stuff on the web. I’m just saying-” Lialah tried to say, but Raziel clicked ‘add to cart’.

“No. We can trust Albaer. I wasn’t sure at first, but I ‘shared’ with him.” Raziel said and clicked ‘add to cart’ twice more in rapid succession for some shorts that would come halfway down her thighs and an oversized t-shirt to go with the pair of shorts that made her think ‘sexy’.

Lialah put a hand on her sister’s before Raziel could hit ‘check out’. The total was just ten shy of what was on the card, leaving a little left over for self care things like soap, tooth brushes, and hair care.

“Raziel.” She said with more seriousness, her face blank, her voice steady, Raziel looked up at her.

“This isn’t another infatuation, is it? Because remember we don’t know anything about the outside world from experience, just the bare scraps we’ve consumed already. Don’t play around here, I know you love to do that, but this is serious, we have to live here with him. We’ve got no other option.”

“I know.” Raziel said, suddenly small voiced, the brashness gone. “But I want to feel good, I want to feel confident, and when we reset to Square One, I still want to dress like me. We didn’t have clothes like this back home, but damn it, if we had,” she jabbed her talon at the screen, “that’s what I’d have worn.”

Lialah slowly removed her hand from the mouse, “I understand, I’m sorry for doubting you.”

She waited until Raziel finished, and then sat down when space was made for her. “Okay, see now ‘I’ am going to go a more respectable route, something prim suits me, and apparently there’s this very large religion, a lot of girls go to their schools, and they have this wonderful uniform.”

She quickly added three pairs of red plaid skirts, and three white collared button down shirts to go with it. “Apparently they revere angels, so if we have to go out, I’ll wear this and be perfectly respectable.” Lialah checked out, and similarly, she had enough money left over for a few care items.

“Perfectly prudish, you mean.” Raziel taunted her and arched her back, stretching out her arms and her wings. “You could stand to be a little more daring, but hey, if you’re too shy, you’re too shy. You’ll grow up someday, sister.” Raziel patted the blonde hair of her sister with a taunting laugh to join it, and then while Lialah fumed silently, went to turn on Hylarim and play some more.

----------------------------------------

Albaer was enjoying his walk, his mood was already improving, but it wasn’t without its recriminations. ‘She’s got a point, why are you always apologizing, that’s even more pathetic than the rest… you’ve been telling yourself you don’t deserve to be treated like crap. So why are you apologizing as if you did?’ He had no ready answer to his question, but the comfort the pair offered him, the simple gratitude was a gift of gold.

‘An angel, and a demon, and they’re more humane than humanity to me. Just… wow.’ Despite the somewhat bitter acknowledgement, a degree of gratitude for their kindness was matched by sympathy for their plight. ‘In a few years I can leave this place and never come back. But them? They have nowhere they can go, nothing they can do. If I kicked them out, they’d have to head for the wilderness and pray never to be found. They’ve got literally nothing.’ It was a sobering thought that consumed him so completely that he almost didn’t even see her coming.

Or rather, he didn’t see her at all, but he did, when she called his name.

“Albaer!” He ducked immediately and protected his head.

“Albaer, no! It’s me! It’s Lisa! Lisa Foxworthy!” She shouted.

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He slowly straightened up to get a look at her, and when he did, he gave her the same empty stare he gave everyone. “That changes nothing.” He said, and walked on.

“Albaer, I was on my way to your place!” She shouted, and jogged across the street. It was quiet now, the waning hours between day and night when the twilight would take over and darkness would cover the town.

“Is your posse still with you, did you want to watch some more?” Albaer asked, he ignored her further, neither running nor slowing down as she came jogging up to him, breathing hard and bowing her head.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I’m really sorry!” She said and reached for his hand.

He flinched back, yanking his hand away from hers and looking at her with the empty, glassy eyed stare.

“I don’t care.” Albaer replied. “You made your choice, and it was yours to make.”

“No! I didn’t mean it!” Lisa half yelled, half whimpered. “You know me! You’ve known me since we were little! I’m not like that!”

“No, I don’t. I did know a Lisa Foxworthy a long time ago, she was a nice, sweet girl who liked making people laugh and who people were happy just to be around. She was great, I liked her a lot. I don’t know who the fuck you are, and I don’t care to.” Albaer replied, “Go on, leave me alone.”

“I just said those things because Sarah was there, and so were-” She had glistening tears in her bright green eyes, but they did nothing to slow his scathing response.

“Those nice friends who are so nice once you get to know them. The ones who knocked me in the muck, cracked a few bones, and punched me so hard in the kidney that I seized up and fell to my knees. Are those the people you mean?” Albaer stopped and glared at her.

She hung her head in shame. “I’m sorry. I just wanted them to like me…” Lisa said and blinked her long eyelashes.

“Well then, you should have given me a swift kick to the face too, you’d be in with the group for sure then.” Albaer clenched his fist.

“I wouldn’t do that! I’m your friend… I just had a bad moment, I panicked and said the wrong thing!” Lisa approached, “I wasn’t trying to get you hurt, you weren’t supposed to be there… I just got so interested in what you were saying, I lost track of time.”

“So it’s my fault, of course it is, what else should I expect, right? I’m… what was it you said? A ‘bad seed’.” He hissed the last words out at her. “You’re no friend of mine. I don’t want to know you.”

“I’m sorry though! Really!” She exclaimed and tried to touch him again, he jerked away from her, stepping back a pace.

Her hand drew back and she clutched it into the palm of her other hand, then held both of those at her sternum and lowered her head. “Really, really sorry?” Albaer asked, he sounded almost conciliatory.

“Yes! I just made mistakes, I didn’t mean for you to get hurt!” She said and wiped her eyes with the back of her left arm’s sleeve.

“All right, so prove it. Go to Sarah, and Trevor, and the rest of them tomorrow, and tell them that you lied. Tell them in public too, because you know they’ll spread it around.” Albaer demanded, and Lisa froze stiff as an icicle.

“But then, then I’ll be-” Lisa bit her lip.

“A joke? A laughing stock? A liar? What else?” Albaer crossed his arms.

“I can’t! Can’t you just forgive me?! I said I was sorry! You always used to forgive people when they said they were sorry!” Lisa was shouting now, loud enough that he felt the need to look around to make sure nobody would bother them.

Only then did he notice that he wandered to one of the emptier areas, a place once meant for employees of Pharmitol to live. Nobody was around.

“Okay, fine, I forgive you. Now you can leave me alone, you got what you wanted, go home. I’m doing the same.” Albaer said and wheeled around, ignoring her again.

“Hey! You didn’t mean it!” She accused him after she found herself rooted in place by his sudden physical and verbal turnabout.

“No, I didn’t.” He said as she scurried to catch up to him.

“Mean it!” She demanded.

“You first.” Albaer retorted, “Until you make it right, I won’t even consider it, and why should I even if you tried? You can’t unring a bell once it’s rung, and this time it tolled for our friendship.”

He picked up the pace and kept his eyes ahead while she took longer than comfortable strides to keep up with him.

“Did you at least tell your grandfather I quit, or do I have to call him too?” Albaer asked.

“I’ll… I’ll tell him in the morning, is that alright, Albaer?” Lisa asked.

“Fine, whatever, but I’ll call him also, just to make sure you’re not lying about that too.” Albaer retorted.

“Albaer… I’m your friend, I-I just made a mistake. I’m not like the ones who do those things. I’m not!” Lisa blinked back her tears as she insisted on her innocence of the charges, to which Albaer said in a flat, uncaring monotone.

“From where I’m standing, and from where I was lying on the grime in the alley by your home where I went to help you, you’re exactly that. Have fun with your new friends, I hope they’re everything you wanted.” Albaers bit off the words with a sour expression, and took off at a run.

Lisa stood there in disbelief, watching as he picked up the pace, there wasn’t a chance in hell of catching Albaer, so all she could do was watch him put more and more distance between them, until he was totally out of sight, which didn’t take long thanks to the blurring in her eyes.

One tiny part of her mind however, had one rational question… ‘How can he run like that after the beating he took?’