With Mars at work, Devi had some time to practice her guitar uninterrupted. The instrument became increasingly wonderful as she went on. There were no limits to what it could do. She wanted to impress the rest of the band members, give them something they had never seen before. Something to make her worth all the trouble. 

Through the morning, she was able to develop a couple of samples. It was better to have too many options than not enough. 

Her fingers began to bleed around noon.

What a weak mortal body, she thought. Nevertheless, it was nothing that a short meditation couldn’t fix.

When she opened her eyes an hour later, both her fingers and her ankle felt great. She walked around the apartment, taking it in for the first time since Saturday evening. Mars was a clean person by nature, except she had the habit of throwing her jackets on the couch whenever she got home instead of hanging them back up in the coat closet.

Devi didn’t feel great about living there for free, so she took it upon herself to hang those up at least. Mars made it sound like it was a fair trade, her providing housing, and Devi helping her band. But the truth was, Devi wanted to be in the band just as much as Mars did. Devi had really gotten more out of this deal than Mars realized.

She should feel guilty. She was using these people to fulfill her pipe dream, and she would never be able to give these people anything of actual value. At least it was a short-term pipe dream. Wait—did that make it better or worse? You know what? It’s best not to think about it.

She heard the front door open.

“Devi, are you hungry?” Mars called into the apartment.

Devi peered into the living room.

“We can grab something to eat on the way to Salem’s,” she added with a smile. 

“Should I bring the guitar?”

“No, I think Salem should have a spare for you.”

Devi’s gaze fell on the guitar she’d been using for days, and felt a tinge of guilt for leaving it behind. She had formed a strange attachment to it, which was admittedly strange since it was a material object. 

“Oh? Alright.” She made for the door, but Mars held a finger up.

“Wait, you’re going to need a jacket. Do you want to borrow one?” She said, walking over to her closet.

On the subject of attachments to material items, Devi had been wearing the same dress for a couple of days now. Not that her dress had sentimental value to her, rather she had nothing else to wear. I should look into fixing that.

 She had enough magic left to perhaps make another outfit, but she had been putting that off in case she had another emergency. 

Mars handed her a hooded sweater and when Devi pulled it over her head she caught Mars’ scent in the fabric. Humans smelled… well, the souls of men smelled incomparable to anything else Devi had ever encountered in her centuries of wandering the earth. An alluring scent that filled her with energy. Consumable. 

Mars’ scent was different from that, it had a homeyness to it. That probably came to mind because Devi has been living in her home for the past couple of days, and she now associated the smell to the idea of ‘home’.

As they made their way downstairs and outside the apartment building, Devi was hit with a wave of surrealism. She was growing increasingly mortal each day, and the colors of the real world were changing.

Mars led her to the parking lot and stopped in front of an electric scooter.

“I usually walk everywhere, but Salem lives on the far edge of town.” She handed Devi a helmet, who eyed it curiously.

After she saw Mars put on her own, Devi connected the dots and secured the helmet on her head.

Mars swung her leg over the seat of the scooter and it hummed to life at the turn of its key. The yellow scooter was endearing on its own, what Devi didn’t like so much was the idea of riding it.

Why the thought of being in such close proximity to Mars made her feel embarrassed, she didn't understand, but she was going to have to push through it quickly. She needed to stop being a nuisance. All Mars had done since she met Devi was take care of her, when Devi was the one intruding in her life.

Well, whatever. There wasn’t anything Devi could do about it except get on the bike. She swung herself over behind Mars and braced herself by holding onto the back of her seat.

“You should hold onto me,” Mars warned.

Devi took a long anxious breath, that probably came off as irritated. Reluctantly, she wrapped her arms around Mars, who wasted no time in rolling them into the street.