Chapter Text
The realm of eternal night, Bathmos, with its gloomy atmosphere and deep darkness, felt surprisingly cosy. Maybe spending so much time at Dead End had acclimated her to the general ambience of creepy old buildings and unexplainable noises. Crackling flames of enchanted torches lit up the courtyard, their light bouncing off of the polished blade of the sword she was holding.
"Alright, from the top, again!" Zagan shifted her stance, adjusting her centre of gravity, and pounced. She was quick and light on her feet. Norma barely managed to clumsily deflect the incoming blade, a shaky breath escaping her mouth as she stumbled backwards.
"Footwork!" The vampire hissed and lunged to the human's left, forcing Norma to sidestep. Her eyes reflexively went to follow the blade's path as it stabbed right where her head used to be.
"Don't focus on the point!" She swept Norma's feet from under her in a fluid motion while dropping her rapier and catching her by the front of her sweater, right before her back could hit the ground.
Norma yelped, her perspective suddenly almost horizontal. Her eyes closed reflexively, preparing for an impact... that never came. A strong arm jerked her upward, saving her from a sudden dust bath. She cracked her eyes open a little, her head still spinning, and saw Zagan, more precisely her face, very close to her own. "Can we take a break?" She could feel her face heat up and was pretty sure her voice sounded squeakier than usual.
"Sure." Zagan set her on her feet and finally let go. "You look hot."
"What?" Yeah her voice was definitely squeaky right now.
"Yeah, you're really sweaty."
"Oh." Is that what dying felt like? She made a mental note to ask Barney later. "Hahaha, you know how it is, wearing layers." She tugged at the neckline of her turtleneck for emphasis but froze when Zagan's catlike eyes followed her hand, and stayed there, lingering on the exposed skin of her neck. She reflexively stepped away from the vampire, the sword she was still holding rising shakily. "Zagan?"
She blinked, her eyes snapping away from Norma's body. "Hmmm?" She hummed, suddenly very interested in the castle wall. "I was thinking," she walked over to it and looked up at an opened window, "I probably have something that would fit you. If you want a change of clothes, that is."
"I don't know." She lowered her sword, her hands still trembling slightly, and she could feel the cold sweat running down her back. "Maybe? It's just," she bit her lip, "my skin is sensitive, and I can't wear many things."
"I'll take it as a yes." Before Norma could say anything else, she jumped up to the window and vanished inside.
With the blood queen out of sight, she finally let go of her weapon and collapsed onto a nearby bench. She was sweaty, sore and very tired. In addition, her heart kept doing flips whenever Zagan was getting a little too close to her. She was pretty sure she knew what that meant but she wasn't sure if she liked it. Just having her look at her with those sharp, neon-green eyes was enough to break her composure. It was really hard to learn swordplay like that. Especially since she had no way of knowing if the vampire wanted to eat her or... something else. Maybe. Probably the first thing though.
This train of thought got interrupted by the source of her confusion jumping out of a third-story window. Norma flinched, expecting an impact, but nothing like that happened. Zagan landed softly, with nothing more than a crunch of a few dead leaves under her heels.
“Check this out!” She grinned, showing her sharp canines, and extended her hand. She was holding a frilly shirt made out of some sort of thin fabric dyed rich purple. “The sleeves might be a little long but it should fit fine everywhere else.”
“It’s really pretty.” Norma touched the fabric and its texture surprised her; it was light and smooth, thin but without the usual graininess she associated with that. It must have a crazy high thread count, she concluded. “I’m not sure if it will suit me. I don’t wear stuff like that. Like, at all.”
“Why don’t you try it on and find out for sure?”
“Right now? Here?”
Zagan giggled and Norma couldn’t help but stare. “You can use one of the guest rooms If you’re feeling shy,” she teased.
“I think I will.” Norma snatched the shirt out of her hand and rushed into the guest wing of the castle. Her face felt like it caught fire. She loudly closed the bedroom door behind her and slid down onto the floor, back against the polished wood. She had it bad.
After what she thought couldn’t be more than five minutes of her struggling with frills and ribbons, a knock on the door almost made her jump out of her skin. “You doing alright in there?”
“Yeah, all-” As she buttoned up the collar, she expected herself to hate it. She usually hated having anything that wasn’t soft wool around her neck, but to her surprise, she felt fine. “All good.”
“Can I come in?” It was odd to hear her ask for permission.
“Sure? I’m not done with the ribbons yet and…”
She turned to the door right in time to see Zagan look at her. The unnatural green of her eyes was almost completely covered with how wide and blown up her irises were. “I knew this color would look great on you.” Her voice sounded breathless, which was odd, considering she didn’t have to breathe at all.
“Thanks.”
“Do you,” she turned her head slightly as if attempting to break the line of sight, “need help? With the ribbons, I mean.”
“Maybe? Some of them are hard to do on my own. Is it true the aristocrats used to have servants just for helping them dress up every day?”
“That’s right,” the demonic royal chuckled, “we used to have servants like that for a few centuries, but after Tem’s OG body got obliterated I decided to just deal on my own. I’m not that self-absorbed, you know?” She moved behind Norma and with an unexpected amount of dexterity in her heavy, prosthetic arm, she began to tie up the ribbons, starting with the sleeves. Her fingers moved fast, thin strips of fabric flowing like water in between the slim digits of her right hand. It was almost hypnotic. She quietly moved to her front, pausing for a second before reaching for one end of the slightly wider ribbon hanging from the bottom of the shirt. “This one goes around your waist, like a belt, everything below it should be tucked in.”
“Okay.”
“Do you want to do this one on your own? You can tie it on the side, symmetry is for losers anyway.”
Norma nodded and tied the waist ribbon on her right side. It wasn’t even half as good-looking as the ones tied by Zagan, but she decided to keep that observation to herself. “There’s one more left,” she said before realizing the last ribbon was supposed to go around her neck.
“Yes, this one is supposed to cover up the buttons on the collar. Do you want me to do this one for you?”
“I don’t know. Maybe?” Her palms were sweaty, she could probably try to tie that ribbon on her own. It might have even ended up looking half-decent.
“I’ll take it as a yes.” Her hand was cool enough to make her shudder even with the brief contact. She wanted to will herself into hating all of this. Even if she wasn’t exactly touching her directly, those hovering hands should've felt claustrophobic. It should've been a sensory nightmare, with the temperature difference, and the texture of metal and skin. Before she could confuse herself into a stupor, the whole ordeal was over. “I wonder if we have any mirrors left over,” Zagan said, her eyes still darker than usual, “you should see yourself.”
“Ah, it looks dumb on me, right?” Norma tried to imagine herself in this fancy shirt and in her head, she looked like a sad little pile of ribbons and frills.
Zagan frowned and clicked her forked tongue in disapproval. “Girl, you look like an adorable birthday gift. It’s a shame I have almost a year to go until my next birthday.”
“Oh, wow, uh...” Now she was sure she knew how dying felt. She could feel her heart working overtime to fuel the furious blush blooming on her face.
“Sorry.” The vampire seemed embarrassed as well, holding her arms behind her back stiffly. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
“You didn’t,” Norma denied a bit too eagerly. “I’m just surprised, that’s all.”
“I see.” Her body language relaxed again.
“I think I’m all rested up. This break got away from us. Let’s get back to work.” She put all of her leftover brainpower into getting out of the room. She’d been taking those lessons for a reason. She shouldn’t have been getting so distracted, no matter how absorbing said distraction was.
“Good, pay attention this time. It would be a shame if something happened to this shirt.”
“Very funny.”
“What?” Zagan giggled. “It’s a really nice shirt!”