Getting back home from the hospital had been nice.

The food there wasn't as good as Short Mom's, and Himiko had missed her bed.

There was also just something nice about it. Like being in a place called Home helped recharge her mana faster.

It was starting to get late, which meant that Himiko's friends would be there soon. "Are you sure you want company?" Tall Mom asked, as she sat by Himiko's bedside. Ever since coming back, one of them made sure to be with her at all times, as if they were scared something would happen to her if Himiko left their sight. "I know we encouraged you to be more social, but you just got home..."

"Nyeh," Himiko grunted, raising up a little so she could look at her mom. Luckily, only one arm and one leg had needed to remain in casts, but even that made moving around pretty hard. "I'm sure. I really miss them." Speaking kind of hurt too, but it felt like she had to say those words.

The sound of the doorbell chimed, and Tall Mom got up. "I'll get that," she told Himiko, before getting up, kissing her daughter's forehead, and heading out to see which guest had come first.

While Tall Mom was gone, Himiko double-checked that everything was ready. She was wearing her amazing witch's hat-print pajamas, check. They'd moved the TV into Himiko's room so they could watch movies, check. Himiko sniffed the air. The smell of cooking snacks was evident, check.

"Hey." Maki didn't even knock, she just threw that greeting out as she came into the room. She looked around at the decor, which Himiko had slowly been buying with her allowance. Crystal balls and tarot decks and lots of books about magic. Maki was probably jealous that her room wasn't as cool, nyeh. "Your moms are talking Matsuko's ears off. It sounds like they want to have her over for dinner sometime." Maki took a seat in the chair Tall Mom had been in, right next to Himiko's bed.

It felt like Maki was staring at her. Himiko wasn't scared of her anymore, but it still started to make the mage nervous. Even if Maki was wearing really cute night-sky pajamas. "W-what?" she asked, unable to take the pressure anymore.

For like a whole minute, Maki didn't say anything back, she just kept staring. Even Himiko's magically enhanced willpower was starting to falter after a while. "Are you ready to tell me who did it?"

At first, Himiko wasn't 100% sure what Maki meant, but the fact she was looking at Himiko's casts (signed by her friends both old and new) made it pretty obvious. Himiko...didn't know what to say.

She still didn't really want to tell anyone that it was Iya, one of the girls who Aini had bullied, who had hurt her so badly.

It wasn't that Himiko thought she deserved to be hurt, not really.

It was just that she was okay now. Mostly.

Telling anyone that Iya had done it wouldn't really help. People would just be mad at Iya, but that wouldn't fix Himiko's arm and leg.

While Himiko was thinking of how to explain why she still wasn't going to tell her trained assassin friend who it was that hurt her, someone else spoke up. "If she doesn't want to tell us, that's okay." They both looked at the door, and saw Shuichi was there. He was wearing pretty boring pajamas, just black loungers with a long sleeved black night shirt. "If she ever wants to tell us, we'll hear her out. But we shouldn't pressure her in the meantime."

It had been a long time since Himiko had heard Shuichi talk like that. Not just easily, without his usual awkwardness, but happily. How long had it been since she'd seen Shuichi that happy?

It was hard to tell what Maki was thinking, she was doing that thing where her face was kind of frozen. Instead of actually responding to what Shuichi said, Maki asked, "Where'd that confidence come from?"

Of course, the bravery disappeared in seconds after it was commented on, leaving Shuichi his usual shy self. Himiko didn't mind that, though. Shuichi was good either way, in her opinion, so long as he was still at least trying to smile. "Just...trying to be more decisive, I guess?" Looking around the room, and realizing there weren't any more places available to sit, he ended up awkwardly sitting on the floor. "How are you feeling, Himiko?"

"It doesn't hurt too much anymore," Himiko lied. In fact, it was only thanks to moderately strong painkillers that she was able to sleep most nights. But she was off them for this slumber party, because she wanted to be lucid while hanging out with her friends. It was okay, so long as she didn't move too much, she'd be able to bear it.

Just as Himiko was going to suggest their first activity of the night, the door to the room opened and both her moms came in carrying trays of snacks to set on Himiko's desk. They looked from their daughter to Maki to Shuichi, smiling. "Oh, look at all of you! We're just so happy you could make it," Short Mom said, beaming far more brightly than her wife.

Still, there was undeniable warmth in Tall Mom's more subdued smile. "If you need anything, don't hesitate to let us know. We're just down the hall, on the right." Then, both moms moved through the room to come up to Himiko's bed and did what they always did before they went to bed for the night: kissed Himiko on her forehead. Only now, there was an audience, as Tall Mom told her, "Sweet dreams, little mage."

Short Mom was right after, and her kiss came with a light hug, which was careful to avoid the cast on her arm. "You're our baby girl, and we love you." Then they left the room, seemingly unaware of how bright red Himiko was, almost matching her hair color.

It was weird...she normally didn't get this embarrassed. But for some reason, her moms being so loving in front of her friends made her feel uncomfortable. It didn't have anything to do with them being gay, no, no, that wasn't it...it was probably because of their situations. From what Himiko understood, Shuichi only had one mom, and last time she checked they weren't really close. Maki...she didn't even think of her family as her family.

Was Himiko flaunting her loving parents in front of them? Was she being mean?

Doing what Himiko did best when faced with tough questions, she completely avoided answering them. "Let's watch a movie!"

Maki handled the actual task of setting it up. The movies were streaming from...actually, Himiko didn't really know how it worked. She was just going to go with magic.

Picking a movie took a while. Himiko wanted to watch fantasy, Maki didn't care, and Shuichi wanted to watch a mystery. Eventually, they found something that kinda fit what they all wanted: a really bad horror movie.

It was one of those really schlocky, special effects filled ones. None of the violence did anything for them, the friends ended up making fun of the movie as they watched it together. "There isn't that much blood in the body," Himiko said, knowing from experience. "Hey, Maki, you're going to school, right?"

"..." Maki didn't respond at first, though whether that was because she had to think of her answer, or because she was focusing on the movie, Himiko didn't know. "Yeah. It's pretty dull, but it could be worse."

There was definitely something hollow about how she said that, it made Himiko sad. Reaching over with her available arm, Shuichi moved the popcorn over for her to grab a handful, and after munching on it, Himiko asked, "What about Marika's family?" She'd learned not to call them Maki's family, though that had taken a while.

The answer came quicker, that time. "They all know now. That I'm not her." That was good, at least. Himiko didn't really understand why it took her so long to tell them. Especially since it was Maki. "They're...being pretty good about it. But Takashi is still adjusting."

Himiko wondered if Maki would ever think of those people as her real family. It wasn't really Himiko's business, and she didn't know what outcome would make her friend the happiest. It just...felt important to think about.

Eventually, the movie ended, and Himiko said they had to play slumber party games. "Let's start with...nyeh, Truth or Dare." That got some nods from them, so Himiko pointed to Shuichi and told him, "You're first, Shuichi. Truth or Dare?"

For a second, the Ultimate Detective was surprised, before acquiescing to the demand. It made Himiko want to laugh. The good thing about having a broken arm and a broken leg, it turned out, was that it let her get away with being more pushy. Though Shuichi was enough of a pushover, he probably would have been okay with the game even if Himiko had been fine. "...hmm..." Shuichi hummed, clearly thinking hard, before answering, "Truth."

That wasn't what Himiko had wanted him to pick. She'd been hoping to get to Dare him, like telling him to drink pickle juice or something. Instead, she just had to make do. But what to ask him? Didn't Himiko already know pretty much everything about Shuichi? She felt like she did. Oh! "Shuichi, you gotta tell us something that we don't know about you," Himiko said.

Maybe that hadn't been a good idea. Shuichi's already pale skin got even whiter, and he looked a little clammy as he considered what to say. Himiko was actually starting to get worried about what Shuichi would reveal when he finally started trying to explain. "Ever since we learned the truth about what we are, I've been questioning a lot about myself. It's hard to tell what was written as backstory and what feels natural, so I felt like I had to start thinking about who I really am." He said it like he was apologizing to them, for some reason.

Himiko looked at Maki, who also seemed to be confused. "What have you been questioning, exactly?" Maki asked him, her voice still as steady as it usually was.

It took him a minute to respond, it looked like he didn't know how to find the right words. "...the more I thought about it, the more I realized I don't feel like a boy, and I never really have. I've always been kind of uncomfortable when Kaito would talk about how I should be more manly, or when Tenko would call me a degenerate male...or even when people called me 'he'." Now it was starting to make sense to Himiko. This was a gender-y thing. She'd asked her moms about what 'transgender' was while in the hospital, that was how she got a whole lecture from Tall Mom about gender. "So I talked about it with my therapist, and while I'm not really sure what I am, I do want to try using different pronouns. So...if you guys didn't mind using 'they' and 'them' for me? Just to see how it feels?" Shuichi was still talking about this like they were really sorry about having to explain it, which was just silly in Himiko's opinion.

"Hey Maki," Himiko said, looking over at her friend. "They're being silly. They don't have to be nervous, nyeh. Shuichi is Shuichi." Every time she used that neutral pronoun, she could see Shuichi getting a little less nervous, as they started to smile again.

In Himiko's opinion, gender just wasn't something important. She didn't really feel like a 'girl', whatever that meant, but she also didn't care enough about it to do what Shuichi was.

But it was clearly important to them, so it didn't matter what Himiko's thoughts on her own gender were. What mattered was making Shuichi feel supported.

It looked like Maki got what Himiko was doing. "They're acting like an idiot," Maki replied. "They should know that if anyone tried to give them shit over not being a boy I would do everything I can to protect them." A little less openly violent than some of Maki's threats, but the tone sold the possible carnage.

Shuichi started crying. A lot. Rolling her eyes, Maki moved across the room and gave them a hug, and while Himiko couldn't get out of bed, she still made the motion towards them. A magical air-hug. Eventually, they wiped their tears away and said, "Thank you. This...means a lot. I love you guys." The words came almost choking out of their throat, it was obvious there was a lot of emotion behind what they were saying.

Of course, Himiko wasn't crying. Someone had just cast an Onion spell on her eyes. "I love you too," she told them.

Sighing, Maki grumbled, "Yeah, I love you both."

The three friends meant those words every time they said them. They'd gone through things together that very few others had, and come out of it all with an unbreakable friendship that truly was full of love.

The touching moment was interrupted by three phones buzzing in unison. They all looked, though it was a bit harder for Himiko with only one hand available, and each saw they'd gotten an email from the government lady. 'Meeting Tomorrow' was the subject line, and the message was, 'Sorry for the short notice, but a car will be picking you all up at Yumeno's house tomorrow morning. Can't say what it's about yet, but it's pretty big.'

They had no clue how much of an understatement that was.