“I thought you said you would never let another person own you, that you would be a lone knight fighting for honor alone, no rulers, no gods, no masters. What changed?”

“Oh, don’t worry. I don’t belong to xir, xe belongs to me.”

“We’ve got one that’s just your taste, X. Care to come down to the station tonight and take a look?”

“Tonight? Perish the thought. I’ll come now,” said the vampire detective, and imperiously held out a hand. “Z, my parasol?”

“There’s. There’s this feeling, and I don’t know how to put it to words. It’s as though there’s a darkness there, and it’s great and terrible, and all I want to do is languish in it.”

“Gods you really are a mess.”

The vigilante looked up through xir bangs to where [hero] stood over xir. “You sure your hero name isn’t Captain Obvious? I mean really that was quite the leap of logic you took there.”

“Yeah, that’s why I always recommend against using that.”

“Believe me, if i could’ve avoided it I would’ve.”

“Well you could’ve replaced it with-”

“No. I couldn’t have. I promise you there is no substitution in the world that would’ve worked.”

“I am absolutely dead on my feet right now, but it’s done.” Ey showed off eir handiwork.

“Cool. I’m proud of you. Go the hell to sleep!”

There had to be something xe could do, sitting here doing nothing made xir want to peel xir skin from its flesh; but xir lungs seemed to fill with wet concrete and xir bones transmuted themselves to lead when xe tried to change anything. There was nothing to be done, then. There was everything to be done.

“Ah. It’s time for my physical form to exact its revenge for that mac and cheese I had last night.”

“Aren’t you lactose intolerant?”

“Yeah.”

“THEN WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU EATING MAC AND CHEESE?”

Xir wings closed around zir, pulling zir closer and enveloping zir in warmth. “Hush little bird, everything is alright. I have you now, safe at my side. Rest.”

“There’s just so much I never got to tell xir. So much we didn’t do together. I should’ve done more, I-” Ey choked back the beginnings of tears.

“It’s alright darling. It couldn’t have been helped; you did what you could. Dwelling on ‘should haves’ only hurts you.”