Ask Willow

There was only one option you could think of: Willow had to agree to this if you were going to feel okay with whatever might happen. You had no idea how to even ask such a thing of anyone. If you had a best friend with whom you could confide anything and they'd believe you, you still wouldn't know how to tell that person, and Willow's just one step above stranger in familiarity to you. So, it wasn't going to be easy.

You decided to text Willow while Amanda took care of some paperwork to get you discharged from the hospital. She's still listed as 'Lisa Friend' in your phone from before you knew her better, since your roommate Lisa had given Willow your number so you could help give her directions to game night some time ago. Before you sent your texts, you fixed that in your contacts list. For how strange of a conversation you were about to have with this person, you might as well have them listed on a first-name basis.

In hospital. Need some help with something. It's kind of important but it's okay if you say no.

You sent your text, and waited. Minutes dragged on as you thought about just how she might respond. After about fifteen minutes, you hear your phone buzz.

Who is this?

Well, that wasn't exactly how you hoped this conversation would start... your hopes of whether Willow would assist you deflated pretty quickly if she'd removed your contact info from her phone.

Jason. Lisa's roommate.

You waited again for that little buzz.

SORRY!!! New phone!!! Why me though?

Well, that was a little better... you typed out a response. It's personal and awkward and hard to believe. Talk in person?

Okay... Tripps for coffee?

In no time at all, you found yourself in the passenger seat of Amanda's car while she took you to Tripp's Cafe, the site of occasional game nights when nobody wanted to host. Willow had seemed plenty confident, even normal, when texting. But when you walked in the door, you quickly spotted Willow in the corner--precisely where you expected her to be--face buried in her phone so she didn't have to make eye contact with anybody else, curled up on one of the cozy chairs into as tight of a ball as she could make herself.

You made your way over, and sat down across from her, and she didn't bother to look up for a little bit. Eventually she realized you'd shown up, and her eyes went wide, again becoming apologetic. "Sorry, I thought you, uh... you got here faster than... the hospital is way on the other side... so." Maybe texting the whole conversation would've gone smoother...

You shook your head, and smiled a little, leaning closer to her from your seat by her so others wouldn't listen in. "It's fine, I promise, I'm not offended by any of it. Besides, what I'm going to ask next is... strange."

Willow just looked at you with her big eyes for the longest time. Your heart skipped a beat, as she was lovely as ever, even if the large zip-up hoodie she wore looked more like a poncho than anything that might accentuate her form. Eventually she slowly nodded, so you could continue.

"I mean, really strange."

Willow nodded again. "I kinda like strange, I guess? Sometimes?"

"Do you know what a slime-person is?"

Willow's face turned beet red almost immediately. "I, uh? I've seen some things on the internet, so... like, art though. Just drawings. Why? What does that have to do with anything?"

"...so, I know a real one. One's living inside me right now, keeping me alive. But, she needs help from another person to leech energy to stay alive, and I can't help her with that. She needs someone else who might be willing to also have some of her slime in them, a small amount, that she can keep, uh, recharging with. I was wondering if you could help..."

This all sounded stupid when you said it out loud like that to Willow, and you knew it. It was probably just as stupid to just blurt everything out like that, but you did it anyway. You don't think Willow blinked the entire time, your words seemed to have cast a spell upon her to freeze her in place. You could've asked questions, hypotheticals, gone a thousand different routes with the conversation, but you instead barreled right to the point, knowing that what you were asking was so absurd that it didn't matter how many ways you asked it, the answer was probably always going to be the same. Either Willow would think you're some perverted creep, or she was going to travel down a very strange rabbit hole with you then and there.

Chloe, for her part, was absolutely no help whatsoever throughout this entire exchange.