I walked back to Xico’s. It took a couple of hours, but the rain stopped around halfway through, so it wasn’t too bad. Once the clouds cleared, the sun was shining strong. By the time I was punching in the code for the combination lock, I was just damp, instead of soaked to the bone.

I took off my boots at the door and trudged upstairs, exhaustion piling on my muscles, making me want to lay down on the hardwood. I didn’t see Xico from the hall, so I walked straight into my room, stripped off, and collapsed into my bed.

I was sleeping so deeply that I didn’t even notice I’d fallen asleep. So when Xico shook me awake, I was a bit startled.

I jumped, startled, before quickly pulling the sheets over my body.

I blushed and said, “Xico! Hi! Sorry, I’ve been out. Work’s been crazy.”

Xico looked me up and down and smiled.

“Well, I’m just glad you’re okay,” she said. “I was worried, you know.”

The sun was just setting and amber rays were trickling in through my curtains. Xico bent over and handed me clean underpants from a laundry basket on the floor.

I nodded in thanks and pulled them on underneath the blankets.

“You don’t have to do my laundry, you know,” I said.

Xico smiled and said, “I don’t mind, it gives me something to do.”

I started to pull on my pants and motioned for Xico to turn around. She rolled her eyes but obliged.

“You know, Jonas,” she said, peeking over her shoulder, “we didn’t have Hunters in Sol Armádia when I was growing up.”

“I remember,” I said, zipping my pants. “Your government wouldn’t even let me come over for a vacation.” Not that I got vacations. “Can you pass me a shirt?”

Xico turned around and stared at me.

After a few seconds, she bit her lip and said, “Fine, but only because you’ll catch a cold like that.” She bent over and threw me a shirt.

I took it and pulled it over my head, trying not to blush. Xico flirting with me was probably the best thing that had happened to me in…well, I don’t want to say how long, because it’ll be sad, but a long time. But I didn’t want her to know that.

My stomach growled and Xico said, “Come on, I’ll start dinner. We can talk while I cook.” She stepped out into the hall and headed for the kitchen. After a second, I followed her.

I sat down at the table in the kitchen while she moved about, getting ingredients and preparing dinner.

“I’d never met a Hunter before moving here,” Xico said. “And now I have one living with me.”

“You know,” I said, leaning back in my chair, “in all my time being a Hunter, I’ve never tired of being asked questions about being one?”

“Really?” Xico said, pausing from cutting vegetables to look up at me.

“No,” I said flatly. “I got tired of it by the time I turned twenty.” Xico’s expression turned down a bit, so I quickly added, “But, for you, I say, ‘ask away.’”

Xico grinned and said, “Okay, but I’ll try to be interesting and unique.”

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“I can’t promise the same,” I said.

“How does one even become a Hunter?” she asked.

I scratched my head, pretending like I was trying to remember. In reality, I remembered as if it was yesterday.

“In my village, a crier came around, looking for recruits. I signed up,” I said.

“Then, I did my apprenticeship. All Hunters have one before they get their Mark,” I said, pointing to the brand on my neck. “I finished mine in about three years, that was average back then.”

“Back then?”

I grinned and shrugged.

“I’m old as shit, remember? It was forty years ago, they made the apprenticeships longer right before the Last War.”

“Have you ever taken an apprentice?”

I shook my head.

“No, never got assigned one. Never volunteered for one either.”

“So that pretty woman the other day, she wasn’t your former apprentice?”

I snorted.

“Char? Hardly. We were coworkers for a bit, now she’s my boss.” I paused, a bit hesitant to use the word. “Now we’re friends, I think.”

“You were never married, were you?” Xico said.

I coughed in surprise and said, “No, not quite. How’d you know?”

“Just a feeling,” she said, slyly.

I sighed.

“You know, I was the oldest boy in my family. If I hadn’t been a Hunter, my mother would’ve married me off for my dowry.”

“Your mother?” Xico asked, a bit surprised. “I didn’t know you had family.”

“Well, she’s dead now,” I said, plainly. Xico started to say an apology but I said, “It’s fine. She and the rest of my family died a long time ago.”

Something unknowable glittered in Xico’s eyes for just a second, but then it was gone.

She nodded and said, simply, “I’m sorry.”

“Like I said, it’s okay,” I said quietly.

Xico was quiet for a bit, so I said, “You want to know something gross as hell?”

She looked up briefly then back at her food.

“If it won’t ruin our appetites...”

“It absolutely will,” I said, grinning.

She smiled and said, “Go for it.”

“Once, I was in a swamp in the east, not far from this small village. This was, I don’t know, seven years after the Last War. And I’d been trudging through mud all day to find this giant spider.

“And so I finally find the damn thing’s nest. I’ll spare you the more, well, gruesome details, but it was good I got there when I did. I lit the nest on fire and the thing came running out.

“I sliced it in half and figured my job was done. But then, a bunch of tiny, baby giant spiders come out of it’s corpse and start to swarm me.”

Xico started laughing, before quickly regaining her composure.

“What did you do?”

I shuddered and said, “Well, I was freaking the fuck out. So I ran to a nearby lake, wasn’t more than a hundred feet or so, and jumped in.

“I can hold my breath for a long time, so I just stayed under the water until I knew all the spiders on me had let go or had drowned.”

Xico said, “That’s…actually kind of smart.”

I tapped my forehead.

“I’m not just a hunk of meat.”

Xico only laughed at me for a few minutes. That was kind of her, it definitely saved my pride.

We talked about spiders and other things that frightened us when we were kids for a while, until Xico was done cooking.

When she set down my bowl in front of me and I swear to you, I almost cried. I hadn’t realized how hungry I’d been until I saw the food. Thick Armádan egg noodles with chunks of meat and vegetable. I could taste almonds, tomato, and so many wonderful flavors that all combined to explode flavor in my mouth. I ate probably two or three bowls before Xico had finished her first. After that, I was so full I felt like I might explode, but I was content and happy.

Xico looked at me curiously as I cleaned out my last bowl and said, “I can make more, if you’d like.”

“No, no,” I said, shaking my head. “This is plenty.” I should have learned to stop skipping meals by my age.

After that, I said some polite thank yous and explained I was exhausted and that I’d be going to bed. Xico was understanding and gave me a kiss on the cheek to send me off.

I won’t lie, as I drifted off to sleep, my mind was still buzzing from that kiss.