One week later:

It was a pretty uneventful week, all things considered. Other than Cerys pouncing on me to "practice" her hunting when I wasn't looking, or whining about not having enough snacks, it was relatively normal. But one day, after she climbed off my back after a successful "attack,"

"Hey Cerys, I just realized. You wear that same dress all the time, don't you?"

Cerys glared at me slightly. "Why do you want to know? What perverted thoughts are running through your mind?"

Of course she'd jump to that. That's been her default assumption the past week. "Nothing like that. But I'm wondering if you had any other clothes. I talked to Agent Froth the other day, and he told me that if we needed anything, to feel free to charge it to him."

All eight of her eyes lit up hearing that. "You mean...We can go shopping?" And now she's hyper. Great. "Let's go. Let's go. Let's go."

"All right. Since it's nice out, we'll walk to the shops. They're close enough to here." And you can burn up some of that energy that you always seem to have.

A few minutes later, we're outside a shop that also caters to liminals. Next thing I knew, I'm surrounded by clothes of various shades and shapes. And there I was, dressed in jeans and a tshirt.

Cerys pulls a couple of things off of one of the racks. "I'm going to try these on. Don't try to peek at me while I'm changing." Again with that. I shouldn't be surprised.

She goes into one of the changing rooms, and I'm left to stand around looking like a fool, so nothing different from normal there. Then, from the racks to my left, a female voice. An unfortunately familiar female voice.

"Chris? I thought it was you. I haven't seen you since-"

"Hello, Laura. What are you doing here?" I've been trying to avoid you since the lawyers.

"I could ask you the same thing. You're standing around in the girls section. I won't say I blame you if you're not over 'The Incident' yet. I know I'm not." Of course. She's still trying to play therapist. People never change, I guess.

"First, I prefer not to thank about that right now. And second, I'm shopping. That should be obvious."

At that point, Cerys opened the door. "I think this silver one looks good on me. But the magenta one looks good too." Then she realized there was another person standing by me. "What's bloody goin' on here?" It's adorable when she's faced with new things and her accent comes out.

"It's nothing, Cerys. Let's get your clothes and get out of here." I gently start guiding her to the counter. Hopefully we can leave before-

"Chris? That spider girl...She kind of reminds me of Lily..." Oh no. There it is.

"Charge these dresses to one Agent Froth." I say to the girl at the register. Then I turn around right before we leave. "Good-bye Laura. Let's not do this again anytime soon."

A few minutes later, Cerys decided it was a good time to ask questions. "So who was that? And who was she talking about?" Of course I don't want to answer, so what do I do? What I do best. Change the subject.

"Hey look, a doughnut shop. You hungry?" Nailed it. Perfect transition. And of course Cerys almost started drooling at the thought of food.

Walking up to the doughnut counter and realizing that there wasn't a display was weird. Figured I'd ask the guy what they had.

"Hey, where's all the doughnuts?"

"We're all out. All we have left is this box of one dozen crazed weasels."

That was the point where Cerys really did start drooling. "Buy it. Buy it. Buy it."

Sigh. What else could I do? "Fine. We'll take that." And charge it to Froth as well. Too bad for him. "But Cerys? Don't open it until we're home and you're in your room." Last thing I need is a hyper spider chasing weasels around the house.

But it's unfortunate. On the walk home, I couldn't get the earlier conversation with Laura out of my head. Looking at Cerys did remind me of Lily. Maybe that's why I was so willing to accept her, spider parts and all. But that's not really something I want to think about. The more important thing is-

"Cerys! Hands out of the box!"

Author's Note: Apologies for these being relatively short. Life has a way of making it so there isn't a whole lot of time to create. My goal is to try and get a chapter out every week, if possible. But hopefully you all enjoy this so far. More to come, along with more girls, and maybe some answers.

Until next time, CymrianDragul signing out.