"...That's what you're wearing?" Sarah asked, hardly believing what she saw, closing the trunk of her car, "To visit your brother?"

Lily looked down at her outfit, "What's wrong with it?"

"Maybe nothing for your family, but..."

"But what?"

"Go change. I don't want to be arrested for driving around prostitutes."

"You lack the fur coat to be a proper pimp," Lily smirked, "...oh we could buy you one!'

"No, thanks. Go change."

Lily pouted, but finally relented to Sarah's determination to not let her in the car dressed as she was. Ten minutes later she returned, back in the outfit she had on the day she arrived.

"Was that so hard?"

"Though this was a free country," Lily muttered, getting in the car.

"That may be, but I'm the queen of this car."

"What does that make?"

Sarah remained quiet as she backed out of the driveway.

"Well?" Lily insisted when the car sped forward.

"The court jest probably," Sarah laughed, turning up the radio to drown out whatever Lily had to say in response.

Finding themselves downtown too early for the things they wanted to do, Lily had dragged Sarah to a café to share a drink. Sarah had a cup of chamomile tea and watched with some amusement as her company drank something that seemed to be mix of every sweet flavor they had on tap, finished with an overdose of espresso.

"You don't need to sleep, do you?"

"Nope," was the cheerful reply.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Then, does that do anything for you?"

Lily leaned forward conspiratorially, baring her teeth in a wide grin as she did, "I get jitters in my tail."

Sarah frowned, took another sip of her tea, then got suspicious when Lily's attention seemed to drift elsewhere.

"What's up?" She asked.

"Don't look now, but that guy's checking us out."

"Not interested in guys, so I'm not going to look anyway. There's one checking you out over there too."

"That's just my life."

"Do you hear yourself? How do you deal with it?"

"Sometimes I get one, sometimes I get both. Sometimes I get them to fight over me..."

"Please behave," Sarah pleaded, catching the glint of mischief in her eyes.

"You're boring, S."

"I prefer 'sensible'"

"Dull, boring, langweilig, saai, noioiso, tsu-ma-ra-na-i"

"I get it," Sarah sighed and drank the rest of her tea, "I'm going to leave you now. Enjoy seeing your brother."

"You don't want to meet him?"

"Is he more like you or Diana?"

"I think he and I take after our mother. Diana takes after... well, nobody in particular. Odd one out."

"In that case, I'm good."

"Your loss."

"I'll take the L," she said, getting up and putting her jacket on as she spoke, "I'll meet you back here at five."

"Yes, your highness.

"Good, you know your place," Sarah chuckled, ducking down to take the present she had for Nia and Diana's daughter from under her chair, "Stay out of trouble."\

"Diana didn't have time to call?" Nia demanded, folding her arms as she saw Sarah enter.

"She had work."

"She always has work," Nia bit back, angrily pushing a sprig of yellow flowers into her hair, "It's her daughter too. She could at least call on her birthday!"

Sarah, who found Diana's uncaring response to her daughter a little uncharacteristic, tried to change the subject, hoping Nia wouldn't take out all the resentment on her.

"...That's a nice flower," she tried to distract, "What is it?"

"Whin," Nia replied curtly, "You can put the present on the counter."

She did not pay attention to Sarah placing it, instead opting to make a quick bouquet. It consisted of the yellow flowers she had in her hair, as well as some purple ones in the shape of a five-pointed star.

"Diana will know what it means," she said, slamming the flowers down on the table, "Tell her to at least call Iris tonight."

"You could just send her a text message," Diana sighed as she picked up the flowers, "But I'll see what I can do."

"You can do what I said," Nia snapped, "Now go."

Sarah was about to argue it wasn't fair that she was getting this treatment, then simply left the store.

Sarah had spent the afternoon in the local bookshops, collecting all works on demonology she could, find which amounted to three books in total. Slightly disappointed, she arrived to the café at around five past five, where she found Lily sitting crossing legged on one of the tables, her shirt open so far that her cleavage was one step away from indecent exposure. She watched two burly men yelling at each other on the sidewalk, one animatedly waving a purple piece of fabric around, then pointing to Lily.

"Oh, Jesus Christ," Sarah sighed, "What now?"