Your Ex

A cold jolt runs down your spine as the realization hits you hard. The way she's looking at you—like you're an answer she's been turning over for a long time. That particular tilt of her head, the half-smile that could mean anything. Something about it pulls at a memory you can't quite surface. Before you can catch it, she steps forward, takes your face in her hands, and kisses you.

It's passionate. It carries something behind it—longing, or grief, or both. You're too stunned to do anything but feel it.

She pulls back, crimson eyes soft and searching.

"...Natsu?" you guess.

Her expression flickers. The softness curdles.

"Natsu?" she repeats.

"...Yuki?"

The softness is fully curdled now. "Are you serious right now? Who the hell is Natsu? And Yuki?" Her voice rises with the heat of simmering grievances. "We stopped dating for two weeks. Two. And you didn't—after all of that—you couldn't even—"

"...Nao?" You **** out.

"Yes, Rika. Nao. You know, the person you said you were going to marry before you moved away for that job?"

"I couldn't think straight! I mean, to be fair, you were trying to kill me..."

"I didn't know it was you!" She throws her hands up. "And that's not the issue here. Two. Weeks. Nao. And then you—I kissed you and you guessed Natsu?"

"I panicked!"

"You panicked." She stares at you. "Who is Natsu?"

"No one, nothing. Just someone from work." you respond hastily.

"Someone from work." The repetition is icy and deliberate. Her crimson eyes narrow. "Work. Your co-worker. That's who you thought of."

"You have horns now! I needed more than a kiss!"

"That is new," she concedes, at a slightly lower volume. She crosses her arms. You cross yours. You both stand in a forest borderland in a fantasy world, two people who once shared a bathroom and argued over whose turn it was to do dishes, now separated by godhood and apparently the ghost of someone named Natsu.

"You could have called," you say, before you can stop yourself.

She stares at you. "I died, Rika."

"So did I!"

"And yet here we are." She gestures expressively at the whole situation. A long silence follows. Something rustles in the canopy. An ember from one of her earlier strikes pops against a root.

"You always had to have the last word," you mutter.

"And you always deflected instead of talking about anything real." She says it without heat. Just fact.

You look at her. She looks at you. The argument drains out of the air between you, leaving something quieter and harder to name in its place.

"...I'm glad you're okay," you say finally.

Something moves across her face. "You too,"she says quietly.

The moment breaks when footsteps pound through the undergrowth. A demon soldier in dark armor crashes through the treeline and drops into a bow.

"Your Malevolence! We tracked your trail to the borderlands—are you unharmed? Shall we destroy the human?"

Lilith closes her eyes for exactly one second. When she opens them, your ex is gone. In her place stands something cold and composed and absolute.

"I came here alone for a reason," she says, each word precise. "The human is beneath notice. Return to the keep."

"Your Malevolence, we—"

Her eyes cut to him. He stops. He bows. He goes.

The silence returns. She looks back at you, and for a moment she's just herself again—whatever that means now.

"We'll talk later," she says.

"Will we?" you ask.

"Yes," she says simply.

She steps back, and the shadows take her.

You stand in the clearing for a long moment, staring at the dark. Then you collect yourself and head back to the Inn.