The sound of rain pattered through the cracked kitchen window as Violet waited for the kettle to boil. It was still quite early, but the sun was up, or would be, without the deep greys of rain clouds covering what she could see of the sky from here. Meryl was on her way as well, having also not been able to sleep any more since their conversation earlier.

  Coffee beans had turned out to be completely inedible, as she’d expected, but she was still curious to give actual coffee a shot.

  No pun intended…

  The kettle beeped and Violet began slowly swirling the spout over the grounds. Her eyes fell to her breasts in her oversized night shirt as she waited for the first pour to filter through, reminding her they hadn’t even been there the last time she made herself coffee in this kitchen. She smiled and gave them a brief squeeze, then went back to pouring.

  As she brought the cup of coffee to her lips, she wished she’d used an extra filter or two. The thought of all those little bits that likely made it through were kind of making her nauseous. Actually, very nauseous.

  Shit… But it smells so good! Stupid succubus stomach… Do succubi even have stomachs? That’s unsettling. I guess this one is Meryl’s.

  As if on cue, there was a soft tap at the door. Violet let Meryl in with a finger held to her lips. Meryl nodded as she closed her umbrella, then emoted a silent scream as she pointed at Violet’s head.

  “Oh my god, these are adorable!!” Meryl whispered as she began reaching for one of Violet’s horns, then decided instead to embrace Violet tightly.

  “Coffee?” Violet asked while Meryl held her arms pinned to her sides.

  “Yes! It smells good. You smell good, too!”

  “Really?”

  Meryl nodded. Violet led her to the kitchen counter and handed over the cup she’d just poured. Meryl took it appreciatively, then continued to stare at Violet as she tossed the used grounds and rinsed the filter basket.

  “You really weren’t kidding about ‘full demon Vi.’ You look incredible. Do you seriously just wake up like this now?” Meryl asked as Violet returned to the counter.

  “I guess so. Wait, what do you mean?”

  “You’re glowing! Not literally. Well, yes, literally, for your eyes, but not as literally everywhere else. Never mind. You just look great.”

  “Oh,” Violet blushed a little. “Actually, I didn’t sleep.”

  “Not at all?”

  “No, I wasn’t tired. Too much to think about, anyway, like I said.”

  “Damn, I wish staying up all night made me look ten years younger,” Meryl said with a sigh.

  The pink in Violet’s cheeks deepened and she avoided meeting Meryl’s eyes. Her pale, almost iridescent skin really didn’t show any indication of age. She’d ogled at it herself earlier that morning. Still, it made her uncomfortable to feel Meryl’s pangs of envy, despite hearing them phrased jokingly.

  “I’m certainly not going to complain about that,” Vi replied, “But it’s not going to help much when I lose my job because I can’t go outside, and then lose my apartment because I have no job…”

  “Shit, you’re right, Vi. I’m sorry. That was selfish.”

  “Me too. That was probably a little too dramatic…”

  Meryl took a long sip of her coffee.

  “Did you already have some?”

  “No,” Violet replied, “I can’t, like your food the other night. My two options seem to be water and vodka.”

  “Oh god, I’m so sorry…”

  “Eh, it’s fine. I get to enjoy it through you, remember? I doubt that actually shares the caffeine, though.”

  “Oh, right,” Meryl eyed her coffee nervously for a moment, as if re-evaluating the process of sipping coffee as performance rather than an automatic motion. “Is that weird?”

  “It’s not not weird… I think I’m getting used to it, though. I’m getting better at distinguishing other people’s feelings from my own. It doesn’t really change how they feel, but it’s a little less overwhelming.”

  Meryl suddenly gasped, “Vi, what if I was eating something sweet, like vanilla ice cream, and someone else was eating, I dunno, something nasty like sauerkraut?”

  That was something she hadn’t considered before. Violet bit her lip and touched her chin in a thoughtful gesture while she tried to imagine the experience.

  “I think it would be fine. It’s like, eating them together mixes the tastes on one tongue and they conflict. Simultaneously experiencing two separate tongues is kinda different. Each tongue individually enjoys the experience, I think, but I’m not completely sure.”

  One of her nails tapped absently on the counter as she thought.

  “Hmm… I don’t think I get how those are different… Your nails match your horns.”

  “Yeah,” Violet said, turning her hand over to press her nails into her palms. “I tried to trim them this morning, but they’re really strong. Sharp, too. I think I messed up my clippers. They’ll be really obnoxious if they keep growing,” Violet sighed. “Oh, I didn’t tell Kate about most of the empathic stuff, just some of the sex bits.”

  Meryl raised an eyebrow, “That’s probably good. I won’t bring it up.”

  They sat for a few minutes, listening to the rain while Meryl finished her coffee.

  Eventually, Meryl asked, “Do you really think you’ll lose your job? You can’t just stay inside for the rest of your life. There have to be other people like you out there.”

  “That’s what worries me. Where are they? Am I going to get abducted by some shady government agency as soon as a picture of me at work hits the internet? And there’s no way Anne lets me continue to work there like this.”

  “I don’t know about that. You’d probably go viral and attract tons of new customers. But I see your point.”

  “Right, and some religious psycho with a gun. I’m a literal demon.”

  “True, just need the tail,” Meryl winked.

  “Oh my god,” Violet rolled her eyes dramatically. “Honestly, it’s weird, but this doesn’t feel wrong. I don’t even recognize myself in the mirror anymore, but at the same time, it’s like I’m suddenly myself for real for the first time. That probably sounds crazy.”

  “Hmm. I wouldn’t say it sounds crazy. It’s interesting, though. Maybe it’s part of the changes?”

  “Maybe… Ughh, but it would be so much easier to go back to how I looked yesterday, at least.”

  Violet pictured her reflection from the prior morning in Meryl’s mirror, just before she’d left for work. It wasn’t that far off from how she looked now, but it was certainly a less eye-catching look without the horns and glowing eyes in black voi–

  Meryl’s eyes opened wide with surprise, “Vi! Your horns!”

  She reached up to grab them, feeling them actually grow in her hands for a brief moment.

  “Fuck, did they get bigger?” Violet asked.

  They didn’t feel noticeably bigger than earlier that morning, but she’d definitely felt them growing.

  “No no, they shrank! While you had your face scrunched up thinking about something. But when I pointed it out, they went back to normal.”

  “Really?? I was thinking about– No, picturing what I looked like yesterday morning. Wait, let me try again–”

  She focused again on that mental image of herself without her horns, imagining standing there, looking at that same reflection again.

  “Woah, it’s working!”

  …I don’t have horns. I don’t have horns. I don’t have horns… Violet thought to herself on repeat as she reached up to feel them again.

  To her surprise, they were only nubs, barely poking through her hair. Almost as soon as she felt them, they started to grow again.

  “Dammit,” Violet said with some frustration.

  “How do they do that?” Meryl asked. “They look so solid.”

  Meryl reached over to touch one of them, then added, “They are solid. How?”

  Violet was distracted. Meryl was leaning in close and she smelled nice. And the way she was tugging at her horn was making her body tingle. It was an unfamiliar sensation, and somehow incredibly arousing. She desperately wanted Meryl to pull her around the counter and pin her to the wall with that horn. That sounded like the hottest thing in the world.

  “M– Meryl, I’m… hungry.”

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