The next few days were not that different from the first few hours. Albaer allowed them to absorb some of his life energy several times per day, he brought them water when they needed it, and let them pick what to watch while he searched for work on his computer.

His frustration was difficult to hide, and he tried to do his best, and he was certain that neither picked up on it, until Raziel spoke up.

Lialah was asleep, snoring quietly, and the demoness did the unexpected, and slid her legs over the bed.

“You can move?” He said with widened brown eyes as Raziel stood on unsteady feet, bracing her hand against the headboard.

“Yes… I won’t be entering any tournaments for a little while, but I can move around again.” She said and with wobbly steps, she went to where he sat at his computer.

He moved to rise, but she held up her hand. “No, no you’ve done enough.” The demoness said, unfurling her wings and taking the last few shaky steps toward him on her own.

Her hand caught his shoulder, and he felt her put her weight on him, ‘That feels nice.’ He thought, when she did it and drew herself closer.

“You’re worried about something, aren’t you, Albaer?” She asked, the sharp points of her talon tipped fingers dug into his skin just a little bit.

He lowered his head, the urge to lie was overwhelming, but somehow it felt futile.

“Yes.” He admitted. “I quit my job. I quit my job over what Lisa did, I’m trying to find another one, but I’m not having any luck.”

“You can find work over that thing too?” Raziel asked, intrigued, she leaned over his shoulder, he swallowed, her proximity passed her warmth to him, but her focus was on the screen.

“Not me, evidently.” Albaer admitted self-deprecatingly. “But other people, yes they can. I was hoping to find something that would let me work from here so I could-”

“Albaer, we’re not children, once we’re up and about, both of us, we’ll get our strength back quickly.” Raziel informed him, “I’ve been watching nothing but your anime stuff for the last few days, do you think I’m sort of a perpetual damsel in distress, helpless without you to save her?” She chuckled and clacked the talons of her free hand together as if the very idea were absurd.

Albaer kept his mouth shut for a moment, then said, “No… but it felt nice to feel needed.”

Raziel fell very quiet then as she heard the way he said it. “Albaer…” She said while he continued scrolling through the screen, she caught a glimpse, the message he had was another rejection. Her sharp ruby eye caught the phrase, ‘bad seed’ though missing the context, it wasn’t hard to work out given what she knew.

He clicked on another message on the dark screen of the browser, “Albaer,” she said, putting the tip of her finger under his chin and tilting his face up to her, when she had his attention she went on to say, “you’ve been a big help, really. Not just now, before this also. But if we’re going to live here, being trapped and helpless doesn’t appeal to me or my sister. I don’t want to be a ward you have to watch over. We’re friends, we should be helping each other. A team. Okay?”

Albaer sighed and leaned back in his chair, his hands fell away from his desk, “Yeah, yeah you’re right. It was a little awkward… especially the bathroom, but I liked feeling useful, helpful, that was nice. Plus… let’s be frank, there’s no way to get you hired anywhere with no credentials. No college. No high school diploma. No way you can walk into an interview with angel or bat wings, is there?”

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“No, no I suppose not.” Raziel pointed out, “However, that isn’t the only thing that can happen.”

“What do you mean?” Albaer asked, and at that, Raziel giggled.

“‘Square One’ means starting over, and my sister and I have a lot of options. We need the basics of course, our flight skills, our strength and speed, the simple level things. But that won’t take long, just practice. Then we can start building up our magic again. Illusion magic, for example.” Raziel stretched out, arching her back and putting a sharp talon between her teeth. “I’d make a really pretty human don’t you think?”

“Wait, you can do that?” Albaer gasped, his eyes popped.

“Yes. If you’re willing to help us some more, to be our test subject while we practice. My sister and I could try with each other, but we can’t possess our opposite, and our resistance to magic is naturally too high for us to succeed at lower ‘Squares’.” Raziel asked, and that took Albaer from excited to see magic to wondering what he’d be getting himself into.

“That sounds dangerous.” He frowned.

Her teasing succubus air melted away and her hand came back down to his shoulder. “I will never hurt you.” She vowed with a steely look in her blood red eyes.

“What do I have to do?” He asked after searching her for any hint of unspoken pain ahead.

“Today we’re just going to be able to move around, walk, get things for ourselves, we may need your shoulder to lean on a little bit. But, if we do that, then tomorrow we can start building strength properly. Using you.” Raziel said, and he stared dumbly back up at her.

“Angels and demons are both essentially spiritual races, we can grow on our own, but we work best with a host. In short, I would take over your body, and take you for a run. When you ‘do’, I gain. My sister would do the same, and we’d get back more of our old physical power. It’s painless, I promise, the worst you might have is some sore muscles from the exercise. But the whole experience for you is like just being asleep.” Raziel promised, and Albaer thought it over.

“You won’t be sorting through my memories, changing anything, nothing like that?” Albaer asked.

Raziel shook her head hard enough that her long dark hair bounced wildly about behind her. “Never.”

“I guess you do need some… some familiarity, how long would you need to take it over? I do need to go back to school again soon, I skipped two days and called in sick. But that can’t last forever.” Albaer reminded her, and she thought about it.

“What if we just take it while you’re asleep? You still get your rest, and you’ll just need a shower after that.” Raziel suggested.

Albaer could think of no problem with that, “Agreed. When I’m asleep, I’ll entrust my body to you two. You put yourselves into my hands, I’ll do the same.”

“Great, after we’ve got what we need, we’ll get ready for the next step in learning to live among humans.” Raziel chuckled a little.

“Next step?” Albaer asked, raising an eyebrow.

A yawn caused him to turn toward the bed, Lialah was stretching out, able to move as well, clearly. “Yes.” She yawned again, blinking her brilliant blue eyes, “Cultural exchange.”

“Cultural exchange?” Albaer asked and looked up at Raziel and back over to Lialah.

“We need to know more about humanity, this world, its customs, so we need first hand experience. So, once we can disguise ourselves properly and manipulate the minds we need to, we’re going to go to your school.” Lialah said and sat up on the bed, slowly rubbing one eye.

“I hope you’ll be as helpful there as you are here.” Lialah added, along with yet another yawn.

“Uhhh… yeah, yeah of course, how could I not… that’d be great, you know, really great, can’t wait to have you there, you know.” Albaer said, speaking far faster than he intended, and wishing to get the taste of the lie out of his mouth.