Chapter Forty-Five

Celia snores. She snores loud. She snores long. I didn’t even realize we could snore, until I met her. And I somehow forgot about that fact when I agreed to share the futon with her.

Also on the list of things I didn’t know.

Apparently she likes to do what this world calls ‘spoon’. It was a very strange thing to feel clung to that way while she buzzed like a chainsaw cutting down a forest.

The snoring wasn’t pleasant.

But oddly enough, it was nice to feel that kind of warmth against myself, so I couldn’t get too mad.

Though I did end up waking up a time or three. It wasn’t anything I wouldn’t get over, much as I didn’t like it.

The blanket was cozy too, it fit over us both rather nicely, and when I finally fell asleep for the last time, I made a final mental note to see if we could use that magic healing thingy to cure snoring. It can’t be healthy after all, for anyone to make noises like that.

Suffice it to say though, when the sun peeked in through the window and shone on my face, I was not as ready to start the day as I’d hoped. Largely because I was up while the sun was rising. I hate getting up with the sunrise. Let that blasted thing go about its business and let me sleep in. “It’s my vacation, damn it! Lucky I don’t detonate the damn thing, waking me up at the crack of whatever time it is before noon.” I grumbled and inched my way out of Celia’s grip and felt her stir.

Thankfully we’d swapped back into human forms while we slept, I was actually pleased that she’d remembered to take that precaution, you never knew what might happen after all, and you don’t want to get caught in the wrong body.

She pushed herself up and realized almost immediately what she’d been doing at night. She turned beet red in the face and began waving her hands back and forth as she shot up to a seated position, flinging the cover back, she shouted, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to! I must have done that in my sleep and would never do that on purpose! I wouldn’t! I didn’t! I promise!”

I couldn’t resist. I put my hands together in a prayer posture and brought them up just below my chin, I batted my lashes at her and sniffled, “So… you mean last night didn’t mean anything to you? You were just toying with my heart! You beast!” I cried out melodramatically, and her blush deepend.

“No! I didn’t mean it that way! I don’t even remember doing anything!” She cried and I stepped back as if she’d struck me.

“I’m so forgettable that you would forget me, oh my, oh my, and you were my first! How could you be so cruel!” I really hammed it on up.

“No! I’m sure you’d be unforgettable! That you’d be amazing at that like everything else, I just, I was so tired that-” She stopped as I chortled, unable to maintain my dramatic facade for a moment longer.

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“Wait… did anything happen?” She asked and cocked her head.

“Yes.” I answered and drew my lips into a thin line across my face. “You snored so loud that you woke me up at least three times.”

“I do not snore!” Celia exclaimed. “You’re just messing with me again, aren’t you?!” She demanded.

“Except for the snoring part, yes.” I admitted, and she curled her lip into a pout. “Now how about you do the snack run down to Toriyama’s, and I’ll go ahead and get started. You can help when you’re ready, and just search for jobs in the meantime. How’s that sound?” I asked.

“Yeah, that’ll be fine… I’ll do that.” She scrambled to her feet and began getting rid of her pajamas and throwing on her day clothes while I went into the kitchen. My ‘big breakfast’ was a punchbowl full of cereal with chocolate milk. And not the ‘mom approved’ cereal anyway. It was chocolate too. I enjoyed every little snap, every little crackle, every little pop as I crunched it between my teeth.

“Humans truly are the premier experts at self indulgence in this entire universe.” I said with glee as I scooped load after load onto my tongue. True I was alone, but it’s only really crazy to talk to yourself if you think it’s someone else and you start answering.

When I was done, I tossed my plastic spoon over my shoulder and into the garbage… I think it made it, but I didn’t stop to check. I then tilted the punchbowl up and my head back and guzzled what remained of the chocolate milk.

I lost a bit on my cheeks, but didn’t care.

Then it was back to work. “Right where I left you two, I see.” I teased the unconscious brothers while I mentally braced myself for what lay ahead. All that remained was what to watch so I wouldn’t be too bored.

I chose a more action oriented series with long episodes, a story about a guy participating in a death game using powers granted by a phone app. Once it began… so did I.

The pain was immediate. There was definitely worse out there of course, but that didn’t make what it was ‘more’ pleasant.

I tried not to think about it though, and just focused on the story while I fed mana to the greedy, greedy thingy. Its steady blue glow continued to pulse as it received my mana, and hour by hour, the percentage points ticked upwards.

I could hear Celia working behind me, she waited about four hours before joining me, and when she did, she grimaced at the sudden discomfort, but carried on.

You know, it wasn’t until right then that I actually gave that a moment’s thought. Maybe she was still fixated on the idea that she ‘owed me’ even though in my mind, she didn’t owe me anything. But if that was the case, and she felt obligated? She still chose ‘now’ when it was profoundly unpleasant to help, knowing how unpleasant it was, and wasn’t going to gain anything by it.

She didn’t know Shugo or Rin or Asahi, helping them wasn’t the same as helping me. At the end of the day, she was helping because she wanted to.

The natural sour mood the thingy induced as a consequence of the mass mana draw, couldn’t pierce the feeling of how good her presence felt right then.

As I watched our glittering lights flow and entwine together and kiss the white metal magic item, passing through it to feed the slow and steady healing of one of two broken minds, I felt I had to say something to her.

I paused the show and said, “I’m glad to have a friend like you. I always knew you really were a sweet one.”

She looked up at me, a little smile on her face, and rising up on her tiptoes, and bumped her shoulder against mine. She didn’t say anything.

She didn’t need to. We kept it up until we ran completely dry, and could only lie on our backs and pant as if we’d exerted our bodies far beyond the limits of comfort.