Chapter 1278  1278 Another Retelling


    --- Kat ---


    "Well… why don''t you tell us a bit about how you got together?" asked Asteodia, "I mean, you saw how Nixilei and I started… I suppose. Honestly it''s wild that we''ve moved so far in just a few hours now that I''m thinking about it… but that''s fine, I don''t really have a problem with it. So… how did you and Kat get together?"


    "Err, Nixilei already knows this story, so I''m not sure it''s worth repeating?" said Lily slowly while looking at Kat for help. Kat, the traitor just grinned back and said nothing. Lily red harder at her girlfriend. *Sorry, I''m not going to help you here. I want to listen to the story again as well. It''s nice, and I don''t care at all that it''s being repeated. I''ve heard it a few times, and I lived it but I still want to hear it again.*


    Nixilei, seeing a chance to get a break for herself and Asteodia just added to it, "Well it''s been a while and I think I would in fact like to hear the story again. Heck, you can start all the way back when you both first met if you want,"


    Lily sighed and said, "Fine, if you want to go back then you have to understand that I moved schools because thest person I liked romantically, was my best friend of the time Ste, she looked… not a lot like Kat but certainly enough like Kat to say I had a type. We lived near each other, we grew up together, and did just about everything together until we got to theter parts of our schooling and she started to branch out…"


    "Wait… why is this story about you and Kat getting together starting with another woman?" asked Asteodia.


    Lily frowned for a few seconds, thinking it over before answering, "I suppose it''s because you need context. You both clearly like each other, and Kat and I are helping push you together quickly because we think you''ll both be happier that way. On the other hand, I was a traumatised teenager when I met Kat and romance was thest thing on my mind, heck I didn''t even really want to be friends with her at the start…


    "But to understand why that was the case I have to start a bit before that with how my friendship with Ste fell apart. I don''t have any affection for her now, and if I met her again the temptation to w out her eyes would be strong… but it''s undeniable that how things went with my first attempt at romance dictated my response to how I saw Kat.


    "Though I will admit, hearing the way you described it makes me wonder if I shouldn''t bother starting the story with her. I mean, it''s not going to insult Kat because we''re bonded. She can feel my hatred for Ste and my love for her so… the usual problem of ''talking about the other woman'' doesn''t really apply for us. Still… I''ll keep it in mind next time I tell this story.


    "Anyway, so the short of it is that Ste started to get other friends, built up a bit of a clique and then when I confessed my feelings to her, she shot me down, spat on my feelings, years of friendship and then told literally everyone else about the ordeal and shamed me for my sexual preferences,"


    Asteodia and Nixilei cringed at that, with Asteodia asking, "I would''ve thought demon society would be more progressive then that,"


    Lily nodded and said, "It is but we didn''t grow up in demon society. Kat is an orphan and didn''t grow up in the hub and I''m not a demon myself," [Technically. I think. I might produce demonic energy but I can''t use it so I''m… sort of a demon maybe.] "and while… I won''t say society as a whole is terribly homophobic it''s not terribly progressive either, especially not in certain ces.


    "I''m also not sure that the people picking on me for it actually cared all that much that I was gay. It was more that the popr kids had decreed me a social outcast, and I was well known for getting some of the best grades in school so plenty of people saw it as a chance to take me down a peg.


    "Anyway, I don''t want to get too caught up in it. I had a bit of a breakdown and my family moved, and I started attending Kat''s school. Now… I wasn''t, well not to say I''m confident now but I was much, much worse before that. So… I was targeted by the school bullies basically in the first day. No chance to make friends to protect me, no chance to be the loner kid and just stay out of it… nope, bullied immediately,"


    "Then ines Kat, looking to my rather traumatised self, a lot like my old friend… and yet she''s defending me from the bullies. It took me a little bit to realise it wasn''t just that she was defending me, but encouraging them to bully her instead… which was much less satisfying for them because Kat didn''t really react or care until they started to go too far… then Kat would ensure they stopped.


    "Anyway… Kat wasn''t exactly popr either, and slowly, we starting spending a lot of time together. They couldn''t sneak off to bully me if Kat was nearby actively protecting me so we spent time together, then I started to help her with her homework as payment, not that she really needed it… and then suddenly we were friends, and I mean… how did that happen?"


    Lily shrugged letting her words hang for a while as she took a drink from her ss of water. "Now, all of this is how our friendship side of things. The whole time I already thought Kat was the best looking girl in school, which didn''t help calm my nerves when it came to friendship.


    "But eventually, as things do, it stabilised. I was mostly safe from bullies, Kat was fairly safe from them and uncaring about what they hit her with, and for a while we were just friends… but well, Kat''s nice, attractive, fairly smart, good with people, attractive, and very snuggly. So really, my poor heart couldn''t take it, and I fell for her hard…


    "But I''d also seen what happened the first time I tried to get together with someone that I was already friends with… so I didn''t, I pushed it off, again and again, trying not to let my attraction to her show. Not sure how sessful I was. Most people didn''t expect it off me because I wasn''t known as gay… and with Kat being asexual it was very easy for her to miss any of my slipups.


    "In the end, what pushed us together was a bit of a time sensitive matter. There was a ritual to be performed that would bind us together. I''m not sure how much I can say about it, but the binding wasn''t the purpose, just a great side effect with the version I preferred, mostly because of the binding…


    "But I couldn''t just not tell Kat could I? I feel like it would be a gross breach of trust to bind myself to her, and then be like ''hey now we''re tied together forever you should know I''m in love with you romantically''. Sure, I wouldn''t have minded being bound to my best friend forever, but my perspective is very skewed. Plus, Kat would''ve said yes because she''s nice like that… but I wasn''t going to not tell her…


    "I was still scared though, so it went back and forth in my head until I sort of cracked. I needed to tell her because if I waited too long she''d be so much stronger then me I''d be useless on journeys to other worlds, and then she''d get stronger and stronger and I just wouldn''t… so it needed to happen, and Kat needed to know how I felt first, damn the consequences,"


    Asteodia made grabby hands at Lily who stood up and was pulled into a hug. "Sorry I pushed you to tell that story again. It''s very sweet, but also quite sad. I think I understand why you''re trying to have Nixilei and myself sort our rtionship out so quickly now,"


    Lily nodded as she was freed from the hug, escaping back to Kat''sp, "Yeah. I mean, don''t get me wrong, sometimes friendship first and loveter is possible, the ideal for some even… but it''s also a trap. You can be so afraid of what you stand to lose that it''s almost impossible to actively strive for more.


    "Maybe if we had other friends to push us into it things could''ve been different, but it was just the two of us. Which, perhaps you might say should''ve set off some gs but it''s not like I knew if Kat liked women like that, and in the end she doesn''t… sort of. Being asexual was never something I considered but it''s one of those things that''s obvious in hindsight you know?"


    "Not really, but thanks for the story you two, or mostly Lily," said Asteodia.