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Mei gave Red Son two weeks after the Samadhi Fire puppy creation to call her. She will admit, it was her fault they didn’t talk much when she mainly sends puppy videos. So she’s been sending real texts. With words. Images sometimes, but mostly words.
Without a reply. She knows they’re an old demon, but they have to know she can see when they read the text and don’t respond, right? She could use the amount of time it takes him to read the text as a timer for popcorn, because he has to have his phone on him all the time. Mei just never got a response.
And desperate times call for desperate measures. She packed a bag just in case she’s spending the night, a headset and laptop protected by pajamas. Red Son’s going to hang out with her if it’s the last thing she makes him do, and that means they’ll have a sleepover and it’ll rule. Mei knows at this point how to parse where the rest of the family is, and a quick search on social media found pictures of both Demon Bull King and Princess Iron Fan attending some demon gala over the weekend. It’s the perfect time to sneak in.
And their fortress is so not secure when it comes down to it. She easily dodged bull clones and climbed through a window without a second thought, her duffel bag barely making a sound over her shoulders. She rolled into the bedroom with her hands held out on either side.
A throaty ruff! startled her, whipping around to see what could make that sound. It looked like a chow chow puppy, coal dark fur bushing out and glowing with crimson undertones. A huge tail of flame ended in vermilion matched a harness of stiff material. The creature crouched, baring two huge fangs.
“Mad Dawg?” She dropped her bag, reaching out for hot fur. “Wow, you got your legs back! Good job. Way more dog than lion dog now.”
“Excuse me.” Red Son cleared her throat, leaning against the doorframe while glowering over the edge of her sunglasses. “What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to ask why you’re avoiding me, bro!”
“I’m not avoiding you. I had to delay my return home to make sure that the flame sprite is safe for transport.” He pointed to the pet that wagged its tail at his very presence, dropping all ferocity once it knew Mei wasn’t a threat. “She reformed much faster than I anticipated, and I had to ensure the change of color meant that the Samadhi Fire is fully gone from her form.”
“It’s nice that you got Mad Dawg stable—”
“—I’m not calling her that—”
“It’s better than ‘flame sprite’, but that’s not the point.” Mei whipped out her phone, showing the host of unanswered messages. “You saw all of my texts, and you only had to respond to one for me to back off. MK can do that, even if it’s two weeks later. What’s the deal, yo? You have something you want to hash out?”
“N-no.” The world’s worst liar turned her head away quickly, crossing her arms like a petulant child. “I’m fine. I just…I wasn’t sure if you were serious about wanting to be friends. That’s it.”
“What kind of jerk would I be to pester you to chill with me for weeks and not mean it?” Mei watched his shoulders rise the slightest bit in defense and immediately canned the sarcasm. “I’m not doing that. You don’t have to join us on big world-saving tirades if you don’t want to, but it’d be a real blast to go to the arcade sometime or catch a movie.”
“I can do that.”
“Great.” Mei dropped her bag, getting onto one knee to scratch Mad Dawg behind the—wait, she doesn’t have ears. Oh, no, there they are, they just got covered up by the fluffy mane. It’s kind of incredible how petting this animal has her hands at maximum heat without really burning her. “So, what’re you doing right now?”
“Working.”
The signal to stop asking and leave will be gracefully ignored, thank you. Mei picked up Mad Dawg, holding her like an overgrown teddy bear. “Then we’ll watch!”
“What?”
“You said we can hang out more, and I’m already here. Let’s hang out more.”
Red Son’s eyes widened, aware of the trap he’s stuck in. They snorted, turning on one heel and walking out. Since that wasn’t a scream for her to leave immediately, she waddled after them.
Mei hasn’t been in the workshop much, since her old tour of the place was cut short a while back. She had a spare chair she could prop herself in while Red Son made a beeline for his desk. They immediately sat in a hunch over a blueprint and started drawing.
The wheels on her chair squeaked as she inched into his personal space, peeking over his shoulder. “A crate for Mad Dawg?”
Red Son dropped her pen with a jerk to her frame. “Don’t do that!”
“You can’t crate her all the time. What kind of pet parent would keep this sweet face locked up?” She laced her fingers into the long whiskers, Mad Dawg yapping with a lolling black tongue.
“One that doesn’t want their parents finding out they tried to recreate the Samadhi Fire.” Red Son ground out the words with a sulk. “They would throw her out.”
“Yeah, my folks were never big on pets either. Or fire.” Mei curled the sprite’s tail around her finger as she talked. “Man, they laid into me when they found out I took on the Samadhi Fire and just took off.”
“Why? It’s not your fault you possessed the ring.”
“They didn’t see it that way. They trust me to keep myself safe and…I didn’t.” She curled in on herself slightly, heat burning through her body at the memory of her power. “I was the most dangerous thing in the world.”
“That’s still not your doing.” Red Son spoke so pragmatically, it almost sounded believable. “You are the most powerful person I’ve ever met. No one else has come close to controlling the Samadhi Fire. I keep studying it and only finding it more amazing that you had such a firm grasp on it. Your tenacity—your bravery—it defies all logic, and it’s exactly what you needed for it to work. I only tried to remake the Samadhi Fire so you could see how incredible that was without thinking of your power as…”
Mei looked up at them as they spoke. His face was alight like when he talks about his newest scheme, or an invention he poured his heart into. Red Son paused, glancing back for a moment, and then was hiding her face again. They keep doing that, more and more. She’s noticed it a lot, really. Like he has some realization and then changes topics so quickly to not voice it—
“I’m sure you and MK have been playing some new game. Do you want to tell me about it?”
Like that. Mei narrowed her eyes, putting Mad Dawg on the ground so she could scamper away. “You know,” she began carefully, “I don’t insist on hanging out with you because I’m checking up on the whole fire situation.”
“I’m aware of that.” Red Son tilted her head, puzzled by the dodge of her topic change. “You said it before.”
“I’m leading us somewhere.” Mei brought her legs up in the chair, crossing them and holding her ankles. “I want to hang out with you because we have a lot in common, you know? Like, I have a lot that I share with MK. We like video games, we’re pretty hyperactive, we have a shared family that we work to protect a lot.”
“Family?”
“Yeah, he’s a brother to me. A dumb brother, but mine. You, though.” She pointed at their face, Red Son leaning back to not get a finger in the eye. “You’re so much like me it’s crazy. We both made our own rides, our parents are cool but also kinda suck, and do I even have to get into the fire thing? I didn’t realize it back when we were enemies, but we’re like carbon copies.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Red Son huffed, abandoning his work with a flicker to his hair. “Those are all coincidences. We don’t handle it the same way at all.”
“I dunno, we’re both pretty loud.”
“You’re happy loud. Enthusiastic loud. I’m the one prone to ‘angry outbursts’, remember?”
“And you’re also the master of calm and meditation. You’re not that mad of a guy deep down, are you?” Mei scooched her chair closer, Red Son’s face switching before the mask was back. Nope, she’s getting to the bottom of this. No hiding! “You’re cool as hell, and you wonder why I want to be around you.”
“Shut up.” There was no bite in the retort, Red Son turning away.
“Ah ah ah!” Mei grabbed him by the chin, turning him back around. “Stop hiding your face you—” She stopped, staring at the rosy color covering their cheeks. Her thumb is awfully close to his lips, isn’t it? She released him, quickly shoving her hands into her lap. “Wh-what I mean to say is, um.” What was she saying? “You don’t have to hide how you act around me. I get it how it is to be excited about everything and…stuff,” she finished lamely, the train of thought lost forever.
Red Son swallowed, then laid their hand on her shoulder. “When I said we don’t handle it the same way, I meant that you have a goal. We both use our powers, and our passion to keep people safe, but I-I’ve only ever cared about my family. You try to help the whole city, the whole world. You’re willing to do so much for them.” He fidgeted with his free hand for a moment, then added quietly, “I admire you for that.”
“What?”
“Your fury protects other people, and always translates to something that makes the situation better. Every time I try to help it makes it worse. You-you brighten the world just by being in it.”
Her face warmed, suddenly hyper aware of how their knees are brushing, Red Son’s hand sapping away all of her willpower just by staying on her jacket. “You don’t mean it like-like that, do you?”
“Like what?”
“Like—” She gestured vaguely, not sure what else to do but brush her hair behind her ear and rock in her seat. “You know.”
Red Son’s ponytail smoked and sizzled, their face flushing. “Oh.”
“I’d like to be clear.”
“W-well, I—um—if you’re not—if the feeling isn’t mutual, then I won’t—I mean—we can—you can just—uh—”
Mei wrapped her arms around him in a hug before he could second guess himself, pulling him so far forward he almost fell out of the chair. Red Son had to pinwheel her arms and catch the edge of the desk so they don’t go rolling on the floor altogether. Mei laughed, the giggles bubbling up unbidden when she saw the embarrassment plastered on the demon’s expression.
“You alright?”
“Mhm.” Red Son hummed, lips a thin line. A real shame. “But why did you—”
“Because I took issue with something you told me.” Mei reached up with long fingers to lace them into the side of Red Son’s hair, the ponytail bunching where she pulled the strands loose delicate enough to not hurt. “You said you make things worse by helping, but I can’t think of a single time that happened. Being around you has always been its own reward, and you can’t get rid of that.”
“I—the Skeleton Key—the Bone Demon—I’ll never make up for that.”
“You never had to. I never had to help the city, since I’m not the Chosen One like a certain monkey we both know. I go out there because I know there are people I want to keep safe. Doesn’t that make the world brighter, too?”
“Your family?”
“You, numbskull. You’re the only one who helps me figure out upgrades for my bike, and takes my energy seriously, and seriously tries to find away to change the most destructive force in the world, the thing that almost killed me, into the cutest puppy I’ve ever seen in my damn life.” Mei smiled sweetly. “And you did that just to help me, didn’t you?”
“I…I didn’t want you to still be scared of what could’ve happened.”
“Aw, so you do read my texts.” She leaned into their face, their noses touching. “I whined to you about my stupid nightmares, and you read it and didn’t respond. That’s bad manners.”
“I didn’t know how to apologize for them.”
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Red Son blinked, that information sinking in, and Mei gave her a moment to pull away. Just in case he doesn’t want it, he gets to back out. One beat of silence. Two.
Mei may have rushed forward with too much enthusiasm after waiting like that, and her teeth crashed into theirs, but it was worth it. She pulled back enough to not be stupidly squished like that, only for Red Son to follow until they actually did end up on the floor. Mei winced at the sound of Red Son’s head hitting the floor, immediately reaching over to check for a bruise. “You alright?”
“It’ll be fine in the morning,” he grunted.
Right. It’s late, and she should start riding back if she wanted to be ready for her stream bright and early tomorrow morning. Then again, there’s no way she can follow road safety when her heart is beating out of her chest. She pressed the back of her hand to her cheek and could feel the sting.
“Do you mind if I stay the night?”
“Huh?” Red Son looked up, cradling the back of her head wide-eyed.
“Well, it takes a long time to get back to the city and—uh…” Admitting that she’ll be thinking about whether or not they’re dating the entire way back would be a new level of embarrassing, but she’s not sure if she has the mental clarity to ask that right now. It may make Red Son explode if she said any more on the matter. “...I think MK will realize what happened just by looking at me.”
“Oh.” Red Son nodded, like that made any sense. “I can set you up in my room.”
“I don’t need much. Half the time when I have a sleepover, I just make a pillow fort on the ground.”
“Be my guest.”
“Thanks. I left my stuff in your room, so I’m going to change into pajamas, ‘kay?” Mei stood, offering her hand for Red Son to take. They hesitated for only a moment. Mei rewarded her with another peck on the lips, much calmer this time. She leaned in afterwards to speak in a low voice. “This is okay, right?”
Red Son nodded mutely, hair twisting in flames. Mei smiled big, clapping him on the back before running down the hall back to the bedroom. Mad Dawg raised her head from where she lay on the queen-sized bed, curious at the commotion.
Mei tiptoed close, whispering to the puppy. “You got a new home, a name, and two owners. You’re the luckiest fire sprite ever, Mad Dawg.”