Harper stoops down to pick up a fallen comparator, glancing over at Jesse, who is sitting on a cot in the corner and playing with Reuben happily.

If not somewhat shakily.

After the somewhat-successful test (which resulted in Jesse not really being that responsive for an hour out of shock from all the attacks, which meant that they just sort of trailed after Harper or just sat on the floor and stared off into space occasionally), Isa decided the October Children should rest before going to face the creature the next day.

Well, and so that Jesse wouldn't basically rag-doll during what was shaping up to be a fight.

That would be quite inconvenient.

If not deadly.

(They were pretty sure Jesse would go back to normal the next day.)

"Oh, hey, what is the creature?" Maya asked at one point before she was about to head off to her room, the other October Children pausing in the doorway along with her.

Petra wasn't with them due to the fact that she'd been trying to coax Jesse off of clinging onto Harper for the past half an hour and was still attempting to, Jesse just hugging Harper with a faintly blank-frightened expression and blinking periodically like a baby koala.

(Harper was sorely tempted to turn Jesse into a baby koala just to see what they looked like as one.

She was repressing the urge quite impressively.)

"We should probably have a better idea of what we're going to be handling," Maya continued, Lukas giving the tiniest inclination of his head in agreement.

Mevia shrugged nonchalantly in reply. "We don't know."

At the absolutely boggled looks all five half-demons proceeded to send her, she quickly amended, "Or, rather, we don't know exactly. We know it's large."

"It's dangerous enough that some of the demons we've sent have either... not come back... or just came back..." Isa looked over at Harper and Jesse.

Harper glanced at Jesse, who was still clinging onto her.

She hefted them up slightly, poking their cheek experimentally.

They blinked again, still not really reacting.

"Well, a bit like Jesse, really, except more permanent," Isa finished, going over and giving Jesse's a pat, as if they were some sort of pet.

They blinked once more.

Gill rubbed the bridge of his nose, making a soft sound of frustration. "Yes, but you don't know what it is?" he asked, incredulity evident in every word he spoke.

"No, but we know it's not very reliant on magic," Isa adds, fairly brightly.

"Yes, Isa, that's not helpful at all-"

Harper shook her head softly, giving her eyes a roll at the memory of Lukas stamping on Aiden's foot to get him to stop talking.

He tended to do that a fair bit with Aiden, in all honesty.

She glanced over at Jesse, who had rolled over when Reuben had plopped onto their chest a minute before and were now giggling as the pig gently walked on their chest, oinking happily.

They had not released her until she'd set them down on her (slightly dirty) cot; and then Reuben had wiggled his way into their arms and they'd blinked before sitting back and leaning against the wall, focusing carefully on the little pig.

It had eventually improved from staring to smiling to playing slightly, and then Jesse had ended up on their back on the bed giggling happily while the pig walked around.

She dusted some redstone dust off her hands and drifted over to them. A small smile was tugging at her lips at the sight of Jesse squirming gently with the little pig.

It was a cute pig.

"Cute."

(She'd really meant to say 'that's really quite a cute pig', but she was so used to talking mentally or having people around her intuitively understand what she was talking about or even just complete silence that the only thing that came out was the most pertinent word.

Sometimes she really wished she'd been the part of Himira who liked to talk to people, and not the one that had spent so much time thinking.)

Jesse looked up at her as Reuben paused in snuffling against their cheek. "Oh... yeah, Reuben's pretty cute."

Harper couldn't have told you how relieved she was that Jesse had not misinterpreted her words.

They shifted up with the tiny chicken, carefully moving aside and let Harper sit down on the cot next to them, rubbing the pig's head gently.

Harper cocked her head at Jesse, who was still rubbing Reuben down gently. "Better?"

"Hm?" Her head popped up to let their eyes move up to meet hers. "Better than what?"

Harper shook her head gently, tapping Jesse on the shoulder and getting some glittery red dust on the fuzzy black jacket they'd been wearing. "You." Then she cocked her head to one side, blinking at Jesse almost hesitantly. "Better?"

"Oh, yeah, I'm okay." They blinked up at her with large green eyes.

(Any demon just had to look at their eyes and they'd know they weren't a demon.

She had to wonder what Ivor's opinion of them would be. He'd always had a soft spot for cute things.

She also had to wonder why she was suddenly wondering what Ivor's opinion of Jesse would be.)

"Good." She took off her glove and patted them on the fuzzy jacket, making little shivers of something wrong sneak up her hand, not just one but several (mental scarring, physical, someone doing something very very wrong to them), but she didn't reveal the shivers, not this time.

"Fast."

Jesse seemed to be mulling over her words and trying to puzzle out the meaning, which makes Harper somewhat glad that she can't really communicate properly because damn that's adorable. "I recovered... quickly?"

"No. Movement."

"Oh! I moved fast in the agility challenge?"

Harper gives them an encouraging nod and patted their shoulder (they needed it, and she didn't at all care about the shudders that snuck up her hands and her arms when Jesse gave a tiny pink flush of pride). "How?"

"How'd I learn to? Um..." Jesse played with their fingers when they received another confirming nod, Reuben snuffling and pressing his nose to their hands until he nosed his way in and they started rubbing his head, occasionally rubbing his ears between their fingers like it was a piece of felt.

"I used to pass by a dojo on my way to school... a dojo is a place where you practice, like, martial arts and stuff," they said quickly when they noticed Harper's confused look.

She nodded as her confusion cleared up, encouraging them to continue, even as she noticed that they said 'used to'.

Did they walk a different route now? Or perhaps they were already getting used to Cosmos?

(She wasn't entirely sure which one she hoped it was.)

"And, uh... there was an area where you could test reflexes and movement... it was pretty cool, actually; most people couldn't get through it well... and sometimes when I didn't really wanna head home, the sensei would let me try in that area, and I just kinda... ended up learning, I guess," Jesse finishes, contemplating this carefully.

Harper tilted her head. "Why?"

"Why would he let me try? I dunno, maybe he liked me or somethin', though I'm not sure why..." Jesse mused over this, apparently having been wondering this for a while.

Harper shook her head at the incorrect interpretation.

Well, internally she was thinking that if the sensei hadn't liked Jesse, she would've had to go into the human world just for the sake of finding that dojo and then smacking him over the head with a baseball bat, but that wasn't the actual question she'd been trying to ask.

"No. Home?"

"Oh, why would I... not wanna go... um..." Jesse twisted their fingers as they realized what she was trying to get at, cheeks pinking slightly. "I... just didn't really wanna."

Harper could feel the lie on their tongue.

She shifted faintly closer, Reuben snuffling gently and rubbing his nose on Jesse's overalls lightly.

"Hurt you?"

Her tone was questioning, and she was trying to avoid her brow creasing slightly although she knew it would do it anyway because it was just the way her brow moved whenever she was concerned and she'd worked to correct the habit for a hundred years and it hadn't happened, so why would it happen now?

Jesse's eyes moved to their lap, rubbing the pig gently as they refused to meet her eyes now.

Maybe it was her imagination, but they looked almost afraid to answer the question.

Why would they be afraid?

"No... not really."

Harper frowned, reaching up and gently pressing a finger to their warm cheek.

More shivers shot up her spine, just feeling bad and wrong, but she didn't pull away because Jesse wouldn't look at her otherwise.

All wrong.

Lying, lying, more lying, why were they lying, why were they afraid?

"Hurt." She tried to lean down to meet their eyes, blinking gray-and-red irises carefully and slowly, almost as if approaching a skittish little wild animal.

"Who did that to you?"

A really bad shiver went up Harper's arm, making her pull away just as Jesse shifted away from her, hugging the pig tightly, still refusing to meet her eyes, a chasm suddenly forming between the two of them as they looked at each other- well, she looked at them, they still weren't looking up at her.

They both knew Jesse knew what she was talking about, and they both knew that both of them knew, and yet neither of them acknowledged the fact.

It was as if they were waiting for the other to address it.

Neither did.

"Can I sleep in here?"

Harper blinked at Jesse, surprise undoubtedly creeping into her eyes at the sudden, rather awkward request. "Here?"

Jesse bobs their head, shuffling onto the cot again almost shyly. "Yeah... you've got a cot, and- and I mean if you don't want me to, I'm okay with leaving, I just-"

I just don't want to sleep alone.

Harper knew what Jesse was going to say even before they said anything, so she just rested a hand on their shoulder and cut off their nervous babbling.

(A little reluctantly, they were quite cute about it, but the startled-cat look they proceeded to give her was quite worth it.)

"Okay."

Jesse blinked at her, still looking quite startled. "I can... stay in here?"

Harper nodded.

"Oh." Jesse twisted their fingers, a shy, sweet little smile creeping over their mouth. Really, it was quite adorable. "Thank you, Harper."

"Yes." She gave their head a little pat, ignoring the shudders that shot up her spine, and got up. The cot creaked slightly from the lessening of weight. "Work."

"You're gonna work more?" Jesse tried, and looked quite pleased when they got it right and she nodded. "Okay... if you need me to go to my room, just wake me up. I don't mind."

Reuben snorted in agreement, puffing up his little pink chest and making both of them laugh fondly at the pig.

(Quite a cute vessel creature.)

(Rather fitting for a cute human.)

"Thank you."

She gave them another light pat, feeling their hair bounce under her hand, before she stood and walked back to where she'd been working, picking up the comparator and looking at the machine, evaluating where to set it next.

In her peripheral vision, she watched Jesse curl up on the cot, still hugging Reuben tightly, and close their eyes.

Several minutes passed of her awkwardly trying to figure out where to place the comparator before she realized Jesse had somehow fallen asleep already, still tightly hugging the little pink pig who was also starting to snuffle as sleep overtook them both.

She walked over, tugged the blanket at the foot of the cot over them both gently, and went back to work.

It was past midnight before Harper would even admit she was tired. She'd been tinkering with tools and redstone- quietly, to avoid waking up the tiny human, but also because it was not in her nature to be loud and noisy and bothersome, it had never really been in her nature, not even when she and Isa and Mevia had been one person, not even when she wasn't Harper or Isa or Mevia, she'd just been Himira- to the point where this machine functioned remotely normally, and so she allowed herself to relax, rubbing a red-and-gray eye tiredly and letting out a soft sigh.

Mevia and Isa would be dragging her to bed right around now, if they opened the door and found her still up and working. Cassie would drag her to bed, Otto would, Ivor would threaten to tie her down or drug her with a sleeping potion if she didn't go to bed but halfheartedly, teasingly, careful to make sure she knew he was kidding.

(He was nice that way.)

(They were all nice that way.)

She turned around to her cot, fully intending to curl up in the blankets- and then paused upon seeing the small body entangled in the blankets.

Oh, right. Jesse was borrowing her bed. She'd forgotten.

She debated her options at this point in time.

Option 1: Wake Jesse up and send them back to their room.

Which was probably the most logical option, but at the same time, Jesse was probably rather tired, and waking them up now could make them rather groggy tomorrow, which, considering they were going to face up against a monster, was perhaps not the greatest option.

Not to mention, Harper would have to lead Jesse back to their room, and she wasn't entirely sure of where it was herself.

(Sometimes she regretted the house being as large as it was.)

Option 2: Sleep on the floor.

Which made sense, but Harper wasn't going to lie, she wasn't too happy about sitting on her floor, let alone sleeping on it.

It was covered in redstone and tools and dirt (and dust, she had to admit, she hadn't cleaned for days or weeks or months or years, not properly), not to mention the wood was hard on her back.

(She wasn't as young as she'd been once.)

Option 3: Sleep on the bed with them.

Which made no sense, as she didn't know what Jesse's reaction to waking up with Harper lying next to them in the bed was going to be; not to mention she ran the risk of creeping them out, and goodness knows she didn't want that.

But then again, the other options weren't very nice, either.

Finally, after a long while of thinking she sighed and shifted the blanket, shifting aside the tiny lump under the blanket to the side so that she could at least rest halfway stably on the cot before lifting up the blanket and creeping in next to them, adjusting it around them both so that they got a reasonable amount of blanket each.

As it was, she ended up curling around them to keep from knocking them off the cot.

Jesse murmured something and buried their head into her shoulder, instinctively curling towards her in search of warmth or human (well, demon) touch.

She stared down at them, before sighing and shifting a little, resting an arm loosely on their back and encircling them in a one-armed hug, feeling a few shivers of wrong, wrong, wrong sneak up her arms.

Well, if it was this or falling off the bed... she'd pick this.

The little pig snuffled happily in the nest that Jesse and Harper formed, nose twitching as he rolled into Jesse. Jesse's slightly creased brow relaxed slightly as they curled up closer to Harper, breathing a little more easily.

(Okay. This was nice. She liked this.)

"Night."

She murmured that to Jesse, who she did not expect to respond- they were fast asleep, after all, not to mention it was quiet, and after all why would they respond besides maybe a grunt even if they were awake-

"Nigh' mom."

Harper's eyes, which had started fluttering shut, snapped wide open as her eyes flicked down to look at Jesse, who was almost curled up against her chest in their sleep now, breathing quietly with soft, even sounds as they had their fingers tangled in her collar.

They called her mom.

Was that who hurt them?

No, because then they would be trying to move away from her, not curl up into her like a tiny human kitten that needed to be petted and cuddled and held and loved, and besides, they would not replace a mother that easily.

Humans were like demons.

They formed attachments quickly.

If it were Jesse's mother, they would not be able to dismiss that attachment that quickly.

(Then perhaps they don't have a mother, her treacherous mind told her. Perhaps they don't have one at all. Perhaps you can take that role.)

(She told her mind to shut up. Attachments couldn't be formed that quickly.)

(Could they?)

So that left a father.

Or an uncle.

Or an aunt.

Or even a grandparent.

But that was still too many possibilities, and it could be none of them or even all of them at once. The magnitude of the hurt that Jesse felt was too much for only one person to have dealt to them. That was not the hurt of someone who'd been hurt by one person over and over; it was the hurt of someone who had been beaten down at every opportunity, by every person.

It was wrong.

All wrong.

Too much.

Too many people.

Who did that to them?

Harper looked down at Jesse again, the little tiny seventeen-year-old (seventeen, seventeen, they looked seven and eleven and twelve and thirteen and maybe even fifteen but they looked any and every age except for seventeen) enveloped against her chest in sleep, clinging to her collar as though it was going to be a last resort that they would need to grasp at at any and every opportunity.

Why would anyone do that to them?

Harper ended up not getting that much sleep that night.

A/N: This chapter should not have been this hard to write

Well, this took too long to update, but now I'm done, so here you go! I hope you enjoy. Sorry; I've been doing a bunch of game jams (speaking of which I should actually work on one now but I'll do it when I go home), but I hope you like this chapter regardless!

Responses to reviews!

FeathersofFancy: I'm really glad you like it! And I'm glad you like the writing, haha. I did my best with it; although lately it's just been slow going. Could be worse though! / I'm sure your writing is fine- you just practice! / Here is the next; I am sorry it took so long xD

TheAmberShadow: Haha, it's cool, I had to look it up and check the difference. / They don't know exactly xD / Ahaha, yeah. / Yes, but not that ominously xD

ThinMintE: Nope! Well, it did have to do with him, but not directly.

LemonsAndMelons: Awww, thank you! I'm really happy to hear that. / Oh well xD / Thank you very much!

Toni42: Hehe xP / Yeah, that was fun.

Darkbeast Dend: Glad you find it interesting! / Update! xP

littleangelbun: Aaaahhh, I'm glad you like it! Long time no see.

Well, that's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye.

x.X. A.L. X.x