Mabel stared at the calming blue flame in the fireplace from the couch. They hadn’t continued their talk about Aiden after she came back. The sun was already setting and Willow was beginning to act up...again, “God, I love her to bits but I forgot how she gets when drunk.” Junni had told her before they heard raucous yelling and a paragraph of curses. Some Mabel had never heard of. It was comforting. The yelling reminded her of her family back home. I haven’t gotten a letter back yet. I hope nothing happened…

Junni came back with a mug of milk and honey for her and sat on the ground, “Should we continue our talk about what happened?” Mabel hoped she would forget that “You hoped I’d forget didn’t you?”

“Kind of…”

“So, what happened?” Mabel took a deep breath and explained what had happened. The idea for the shop, how the townspeople would react to him. How he thought she thought he was a monster. She didn’t cut anything out nor add anything to the story. She just told it as it was and continually showed remorse for what she did to make him angry.

“I didn’t mean to make him angry. I just wanted to help…” She had curled up into a ball at this point and the milk was finished, “I don’t think he’s a monster…”

“You don’t?”

“You do?” A fire in Mabel started, “You’ve known him longer than me and you think he’s a monster?”

“Well, maybe not in this form. But he gets kind of scary in the other form.” Junni tried to gauge Mabel for any sort of reaction. There wasn’t any. She just seemed mad that Aiden is still seen as a monster, “Have you ever seen it?” Mabel let out an ‘eh’, “And it doesn’t scare you?”

“It...did.” Mabel hung her head down, “Both times I was scared. But he never hurt me then either. He held himself back.”

“Hmm. He seems to care a lot about you. Don’t you think?”

“I guess so. At least he used to.” Junni sighed and rolled her eyes.

“You know, I think he feels bad about yelling at you too.”

“How do you know?”

“Old woman’s intuition.”

Her eyes narrowed, “Bullshit, what did he say?”

Junni gave her a big old laugh and patted her leg, “You’re sharp.” She leaned back, “He asked me if you didn’t want to come back because he scared you.”

“What did you tell him?”

“Told him to talk to you.”

“Ah,” she sighed, “I’d like that.”

“I’m sure you would.” Junni stood and pecked her head, “Now, time for bed.” Mabel nodded and tucked herself in, “I’m glad he has you.” Mabel heard her say before leaving. If she was being honest. Mabel was glad to have him too.