It's been a while since you've visited this bar. You have a few friends you could be out with tonight, but something seems to draw you back here. Maybe it's the weird lighting, or the friendly manager who talks to you every time she sees you. Maybe it's the bartender who you can never quite remember. Whatever it is, you always feel the need to return. You duck beneath the crude sign and push open the door.

This is Nimue's Bar.

The freckled woman in the booth sobs again, and several of the customers glance at her in annoyance. One of the bleeders even looks up from her drink, her fangs dripping with alcohol. The crying woman blows her nose extremely loudly, and puts her head in her hands. She has a bright yellow hat on, which has a crude smiley face knitted into the front of it. Kaia does her best to memorize the faces of her customers, and she has seen this woman in here before. Usually she is loud, talkative, and aggressive, and never comes alone.

Kaia glances at Dirk. He's relaxing in cat form tonight, and giving himself a very thorough tongue bath. “Are you going to do something about her?”

He does not look up from his bath. “Who, me? No, I want to, but it's not a good idea. I can smell a situation where I'm not welcome.”

“All right,” Kaia says with a sigh, sliding out from behind the bar, “Then I'll talk to her.”

Dirk stretches. “You're shift is up in ten, why not just let Nimue take care of it? You've been working so hard to build up your 'mean bartender' persona. Besides, you've already been staying late after my class every Saturday to chat with people.”

“I still have no idea what you're talking about,” Kaia mutters. Why would she stay late after Dirk's class? He must be mistaken. “Anyway, that woman mentioned a breakup when she bought a drink, and Nimue's solution will probably be to take her ex's shape and try to sleep with her.”

As a cat, Dirk cannot quite smile, but he blinks slowly at Kaia and his tail points to the ceiling, which she has come to recognize as the same thing. “You're too nice for your own good, K.”

“Shut up,” she snaps. “And stop licking your ass on the counter, it's not sanitary.” Kaia squares her shoulders and stomps across the room, doing her best to look intimidating. All of the patrons immediately endeavor to look very busy, and a few even scoot their chairs out of the way. The bleeder who was staring at the crying woman looks away, and Kaia breathes a sigh of relief. She stops at the crying woman's table and murmurs “Come on, let's go,” to her, leading her behind the bar and into the back room. The two of them sit down across from each other on two of the many overturned boxes.

“What's wrong?” she says softly.

The woman in the smiley hat sniffs. “My partner and I,” she hiccups through her tears, “We've been together for five years, and we just broke up.”

“Oh, honey,” Kaia says softly, putting an arm around her and rubbing her back after checking to make sure that the door is closed so no one can see them. The woman smells of cigarette smoke, and something else. Freshly cut wood, perhaps? “I'm so sorry to hear that. He doesn't deserve—”

“She,” says the woman.

“She doesn't deserve you,” Kaia corrects quickly.

“That's not all. She was my boss, and now I don't have a job anymore.”

Kaia squeezes her shoulder. “I'm sorry. What's you name?”

“Marie,” the woman in the smiley hat says miserably.

“Marie,” Kaia repeats. “Is there anything I can do to help you right now, Marie?”

Marie shrugs miserably, and Kaia nods. They sit that way for a long time, until Marie eventually begins to talk, describing the breakup and the events leading up to it. Kaia does her best to nod and coo sympathetically. It isn't like she's ever had a breakup like this. Not being able to exist in people's memories makes committed relationships generally impossible, and her life as a human was not exactly fraught with romance. Nevertheless, she wants to do what she can. Eventually, Marie begins to calm down, and her sobs subsist into quiet sniffles. Kaia judges that she's done enough here.

“I want to burn her apartment building down,” Marie murmurs into her shirt, but without much conviction.

“As satisfying as it sounds, I would not recommend arson as a way of dealing with your feelings,” Kaia says carefuly.

Marie mutters something about it always having worked before, but nods grudgingly. “I feel so stupid. I'm tough; I shouldn't let shit like this affect me.”

“Hey,” Kaia says, bending down so that she can look Marie in the face. “Never apologize for the fact that you feel something. That's just a sign that you're real.” She pulls out her phone and glances at the cracked screen, then swears softly. “I wish I could stay longer,” Kaia says, patting Marie on the shoulder and getting to her feet. “But I have to be home before the sun comes up. You know how it is.”

Marie smiles tearfully at her. “Thank you, K.”

“No problem, any time,” Kaia says. She has her hand on the doorknob when it hits her. She slowly turns back to look at Marie, who is still seated and dabbing at her eyes. “What did you say?”

“That's what people call you, right? K? You always try to act scary, but I keep seeing you go out of your way to help people, like comforting that horned dude when he's down on his luck. You re really great.”

The sound of her nickname on someone else's lips unprompted makes K feel like she could grow wings and fly, right here right now. A ridiculous grin spreads across her face, which she suppresses into a small smile so she doesn't seem too happy.

“Actually, maybe I can stay,” Kaia says, sitting back down across from her. “You sound like you could use someone to talk to, and I don't need sleep anyway.”