After Nixilei finished speaking she let the silence hang for a few moments until she determined Kat wasn't going to speak. "Well, you've been avoiding it so far, but do you want to just gush about Lily properly? I've tried to lead you towards it but unlike Green you haven't really taken the bait."

"Oh.. um.. I'm not sure that I can? I mean.. Lily routinely says she could write an essay about my thighs and I believe her.. but I'm not sure that I could do the same thing without being sexually attracted to her," answered Kat.

Nixilei let out a small laugh. "I'm sure she could, you do have fine legs. Still, I bet you can talk about her more than you think. She's your girlfriend now. Just start talking and I bet words will spill out. It's interesting.. the first time at least. You do not want to know how many times I've heard Green describe Gareth's muscles. Not my thing so I can't even appreciate the poetic descriptions, but I'm curious what an asexual girl will talk about."

*Well it's not like I know where to start Nixilei! Well, perhaps start at the fact she's adorable.. but that's not really appropriate for a girlfriend, is it? Then again.. maybe it is.*?

"I guess I can start with the fact that she's adorable and that was before she turned into a little kitten. She always looked so small when I first met her. In actuality she isn't that short, but you've seen me. I've been about this height for years really. Always on the upper side of the girls. When Lily transferred to my school, I know now it wasn't a good time for her. She looked so small and vulnerable and I suppose my protective instincts from growing up in an orphanage kicked in.." said Kat.

"Ah yes, I know the feeling," said Nixilei absently.

".. so I watched her a bit more than the other girls in our grade and I noticed instantly that the three bitches of the school, the bullies, went straight for her. Well, I wasn't going to put up with that. I beat them up a bit and basically said 'I'm your new target, I won't fight back unless you go after someone other than me. Go nuts.'" Nixilei's eyes widened but she didn't say anything yet, "Once that happened Lily started watching me in turn. I'd sit with her at lunch times but she wouldn't really talk with me just yet. Eventually, after a whole lot of not talking to each other she started to trust me.. and our friendship, and her crush apparently grew from here..

"For me it was nice to have someone I could understand on some level. At this point I hadn't really had proper friends in nearly a decade. As horrible as this might sound, it was much easier for me to be friends with someone I was protecting than just about anyone else. For Lily.. well without saying too much it was nice for her to have a friend that would stand by her after what happened at her previous school."

Nixilei glared slightly at Kat. "This is just the start of your friendship Kat. You lost it again. This isn't gushing this is storytelling. I was almost willing to accept it as an answer but I can tell there's something more. Just compliment her dammit. I don't mind if it seems crass or strange or whatever is holding you back. Just.. just throw compliments about her out there. I'll even promise not to tell her if that's what you want."

"No.. no it's fine. What do I like about her.. well she's adorable, she's the perfect height to hug, she's willing to put up with my craziness, and I really appreciate the fact that she never thought I was strange," When I suddenly became a demon "for growing up in an orphanage. That was always the major jab people hit me with. I didn't care but it was annoying for being repetitive at the very least. Lily never minded that.

historical

"Her parents, well they're.. I wish I could say horrible people but really they just didn't like me, or well, her mother didn't and her dad went along with it? Frankly I don't want to touch that mess.. but the point is Lily didn't care. Even though her mother repeatedly asked her to stop being my friend, repeatedly tried to stop us hanging out and just being a general nuisance.. Lily never once acted like it was acceptable, and until I got her to stop she'd always stand up against her parents to support me when she didn't have to.

"I love how she gets super involved in research for such silly things sometimes. It hasn't happened too recently, things have been busy.. but it wouldn't be strange for her to wonder about the origin of.. Sunflowers or something and spend a week just combing through every book in the library on the subject before going online and looking some more. By the end of it she'd know more about the topic than anyone really should.. before resting for two weeks, if that, and doing it again.

"Her handwriting is also very nice. I think she decided at some point she wanted it to look overly fancy and practiced and practiced until that became the default. Sure she can write in quite a few other ways, but just giving her a pen and paper can easily lead to producing artwork instead of a bit of writing.

"Even back when we were friends she'd always try to hang out with me. Perhaps her crush makes up a large part of the reason, but I don't really care. The fact that she just wanted to be around me most of the time was so nice. Kids at the orphanage would regularly come to me for problem, but they also didn't really like just.. hanging around me. I was that one strange kid that never got adopted, then when I was older, I was that weird old kid that's kinda nice.

"It'd been years since somebody just.. sought me out to spend time with. Sylvie got to that point eventually as well.. but she's a lot younger than me. More a little sister then a friend even if I love her as well, but the dynamic is completely different. For Lily.. I really did feel like she wanted to just spend time with me, and I was always happy to spend time with her. Listening to her rants about whatever odd topic she was on was always amusing and she would regularly help me with my schoolwork. Hardly took no for an answer on that second one. I tried to help her a bit as well, but the truth of the matter is my girlfriend is better at research and smarter than I am so.." Kat gave a 'what can you do' shrug.

"She doesn't chew on her pens. Underrated attribute is what that is. I cannot stand people who chew on their pens and I lived in an orphanage full of literal children who new better but apparently school girls my age, well recently we've both graduated, but my age STILL DO IT." Kat sucked in a large breath as she realised she might have gotten a little heated. "Um.. yeah.. so that's some of the things I like about Lily I guess.."

Nixilei beamed over at Kat before glancing over the side of the carriage and correcting the course a little bit. "That's lovely. Actually, this was a lot nicer than listening Green gush about Gareth. So many of the things you like about Lily are really sweet. I guess it comes with the fact that you can't just say you like her muscles, or I guess maybe her tits or ass instead. Hmm.. I don't really know how to keep that aligned in my head. You aren't really a lesbian even if you have a girlfriend.. but I can't joke about things you might find attractive about guys either.. yeah I can see why you tried to persuade Lily to pick someone else now. It does create quite a few odd situations doesn't it."

Kat nodded alongside a shrug, "Yeah it does. I mean, I wouldn't give it up for the world, but it does cause a few odd things to pop up. It hasn't come up yet but I bet in the future it will be very tempting to just tell people I'm a lesbian. It's much easier than explaining what's actually going on, and it's not really like I care what random people think.. but the issue is that if I care enough about the person asking that question to actually confirm or deny our relationship I probably care enough to explain it properly you know?"

Nixilei nodded and said, "Yes I do actually. For me, it's rather easy to say I'm Green's bodyguard but to also explain I'm a trained spy and actively reporting what she does back to her parents always ends up being a bit strange.. though unlike you I don't really have anyone to tell. They all already know what I'm trained to do, or are a member of this adventuring party. A lot of the people we cycled through didn't even get to hear about what I do because I didn't think they'd last long enough."

"Glad you have such faith in me," said Kat with a grin.