Chapter 650 - 650 A Fae And A Demon Sit On A Bar. There Is No Punchline.
As Kat finished recounting her time with Mai to Nixilei Lily started yawning more and more. Despite Kat's insistence she get some sleep Lily stubbornly stayed awake to participate in the discussion. The problem was, by the time Kat had gone over the abridged version of her training Lily was practically asleep already. "Lily please. You haven't slept that much recently and your feline body clearly needs more sleep," begged Kat.
[I'm fine I swear. I'll just stay up a bit longer. Maybe I can rest while you do tournament stuff.]
*No. You've brushed this off one too many times Lily. I will not see you neglecting yourself like this. Either you go to sleep right now or I'll hand you over to Green and tell her to hold you tightly like a stuffed toy while SHE sleeps. Then you'll have much less of a choice. So either curl up on my lap and get a bit of rest or be forced into it.*
[Fine.]
Kat could feel Lily's dislike of the idea, but she past the point of caring about that. The fact she didn't just sleep while Kat had been going over her time with Mai was already silly. Kat knew very well that Lily knew that whole story. With Lily's grudging acceptance Kat moved Lily onto her lap. Pretty much as soon as she curled up Kat could feel her drift off to sleep.
"Sorry about that. She clearly needs more sleep but she's been trying to stay awake to spend time with me for some reason," said Kat.
"It's fine I understand. I'd be worried too if my significant other wasn't resting properly. Though, I will say now that she can't hear me that I'm surprised you ended up with a girlfriend. I didn't think you were gay at all. I never noticed you checking me or Green out and while I obviously don't know what Lily looked like when she was human I do know I'm rather attractive and so is Green. She must be something really special," said Nixilei softly.
"Well, she is quite special.. but the reason you didn't see me checking anyone out is because I'm not gay," said Kat in response.
This seemed to confuse Nixilei slightly for a second before realisation seemed to strike. She was still wrong of course, but she said, "So are you Bi or Pan then? Or was Lily not a girl before.. or.. well I don't really know any other options frankly."
"What's Pan? Wait no, that doesn't matter. I'm asexual, I don't really have a sexual attraction to anyone. That's why you never saw me checking anyone out," said Kat.
historical
"How did you end up with a girlfriend then?" asked Nixilei with some interest, "I would think being asexual that it wasn't really something you or well.. I guess just asexual people in general would be interested in?"
Kat shrugged, "I have no idea how it works for others so I can't really say. I can happily say I love Lily, but I will admit one of my main worries is that I don't love her the way I should. I mean, I'd do anything for her and perhaps that matters the most, but I kiss her because she enjoys it not because it does anything more for me than a good hug. I imagine one day she'll want to have sex as well, and I'll happily go through with that because it's something I'm sure she'll want."
"Really? I assumed something like that would be disgusting?" said Nixilei, the question hanging in her words.
Once again Kat could only shrug. "Not for me at least. The only thing that differentiates it much is that it feels quite private.. but I have no inclination for or against it. It'd be like.. hmm.. asking me if I want a slice of bread as a snack. Perhaps not really, I could certainly be doing better things, but it isn't the worst thing in the world to eat. Plus, say in this example, Lily baked the bread, I'd eat it to make her happy just as I would 'eat' her to make her happy. It's not really a pain or a pleasure, it just is. We'll see how it goes though. It's not something either of us are ready for. Well, Lily more so than I. It doesn't feel all that special to me."
"Fascinating." Said Nixilei before flinching. "Sorry. I didn't mean to look at you quite like a science experiment," Kat shrugged having not noticed, "but it's just such an interesting perspective on it all. We had a rather.. comprehensive 'talk' at the orphanage. Very detail orientated. Especially for those of us with talent for spy work just in case we were interested in taking on.. seduction missions. Certainly not my cup of tea.. but I was always ready to learn so I went through the WHOLE course." Nixilei shivered slightly.
"It's fine. Though if you don't mind my asking.. what about you? What is your sexual preference?" asked Kat.
"Bi with a heavy female preference. I'm basically gay in a lot of ways just not quite," answered Nixilei.
"See that.. I don't quite understand. How does that work exactly?" asked Kat rather unsure of Nixilei's stance.
"Hmm.. for me I suppose it's a matter of ranking things. I like traits more commonly found in women, soft skin, long hair, pouty lips.. those sorts of things. Though.. I have seen a few noble men who fit that definition and I don't require boobs to get me going.. but.. I am also a virgin so I can't say if I'd rather be with a girlish man, or just a girl on a more permanent basis. I haven't even really dated, just a few date assignments are the closest I've ever gotten and I was assigned to girls for those missions so really I can only assume," said Nixilei with some hesitance. It wasn't really something she liked opening up about. Romance and lust were very small parts of Nixilei's world so they mostly stayed in their box.
"Right.." said Kat seeing Nixilei wasn't all that comfortable with the topic. "Is there something else you'd like me to talk about?"
"Well, tell me more about how you and Lily got together. What do you see in her and what made you say yes? Or ask her out? I don't think that was quite covered?" asked Nixilei.
"Well.. I think things had been building in the background for a bit. I was very much unaware, at least consciously.. but I met some.. new friends I suppose, and they all seemed to be pushing me to realise something. That something was my likely love for Lily, or her love for me perhaps, but I didn't notice at all, what with being asexual and having no experience at all with that.
"Still.. I think I started to think on things a little bit in the back of my mind.. so when Lily.. well it was a big mess. She kissed me, I said things, she said things, there was a lot about her past before moving to my school that I don't want to tell without her permission.. there was a lot of crying.. ok no, I should do this justice. Let me explain.."
Kat went on to explain in detail a scene that was rather easy to call up from her memory. With perfect recall it was possible for some to be hard to find. Not this memory, it was so emotionally charged and important to Kat it was never too hard to recall. Kat outlined everything, skipping over Lily's own emotionally charged past but covering the rest of the confession in exacting detail. ".. and that's it really. It was.. a bit awkward on both are parts and looking back on it I also sort of wonder what I was thinking trying to convince her I shouldn't be her girlfriend at the same time as telling her how much I wanted to be but.. well.. it worked out."
Nixilei seemed to be backlit as she smiled, perhaps her magic was helping emphasise how happy she was to have the story shared with her despite the rather small smile she sported. "Thank you for sharing that, I imagine it was very personal. Plus.. I don't think it's weird at all you tried to discourage Lily somewhat. You were unsure of yourself just as she was. Sadly, I can imagine what it was like from her perspective."
Kat, while not completely social savvy in relationship terms, was not so dense to miss that rather large clue being dropped. "So you had a bit of a crush on Green when you were younger?" asked Kat hoping she was right.
Nixilei shrugged, "Somewhat. It really was just a childish crush, and I grew out of it without any broken hearts. No offence to Green.. but she isn't what I actually want in a partner. She's beautiful sure and I will happily serve her to the end of my days.. but our personalities don't mesh well for romance, at least in my opinion. On top of that, the power dynamic would never disappear, I serve her family and dating her wouldn't have changed that making things awkward..
"She also would like much nicer with her hair grown out a bit, her habit of sleeping everywhere while adorable is somewhat irritating, and I'd hate to have to deal with the way Gareth does and obviously, Gareth and her engagement. She really does love him so I can safely say she's straight. As I said, once I started really looking it was clear I didn't really want to court her. She was just the only reasonably aged woman I was close to that had a pleasing enough appearance for the crush.. Once I really looked at her," Nixilei ended off her speech with another shrug.