Tiffany was at the house, contemplating throwing away that bastard’s food. He wasn’t different after all! At least, not around her. She knew she was nagging him these days but he literally proved her right every second he left her sight! She needed to be there for him, but all of a sudden he hated her company? The food was still left untouched, she was standing silently over it. She’d never planned to do anything bad to someone before, but that rotten man deserved it! The next time she saw him she’d give him a piece of his mind. She finally gathered the courage to reach for it and-

“Hey Tiffany, you in here?” Derb called out, peeking his head cautiously through the entrance of the house. He heard a yelp and the sound of… a lot of things dropping at once. He rushed towards the commotion, forgetting the situation. Eventually, he realized the commotion…came from his room. He decided better than to enter and just spoke through the door. “Tiffany? You alright?” He heard a gasp, and the sound of desperate scuttling. Then a lot more things falling, goddamnit.

“I’m coming in, okay.” He said, ignoring the protests of the poor girl. He went inside and saw the mess she’d made. It was a bit shocking to say the least. There were sandwiches all over the floor, half of them were crushed by a fallen fallen dresser. The other half were scattered all over the place. Tiffany was crushed under the dresser too, though it seemed she was just staying under there from the shame. “Oh, no,” She said, her face hidden in her arms. He rushed on over to the dresser, picking it and Tiffany up. During the entire process wouldn’t look him in the eyes.

“Thank you for bringing my food up here, Tiffany. Could you call Connor to help me clean it all up?” He smiled warmly at her, not wanting to cause her any more trouble. She nodded shyly, her head not looking up from the ground. All of a sudden e remembered what Hannah said, how she’d feel isolated in Hannah’s position. He crouched to try to see her face, trying to figure out if she was just embarrassed or sad. She deftly turned away from his scrutiny, however. He tried again to the same results, eventually making her spin in circles to keep him away. After a bit of having her spin for fun, he decided it was enough.

“Tiffany… I don’t know what I did but, I’m sorry?” It was the best he could say, he still didn’t know what happened after all. He waited for her answer but got something unsatisfactory. She just nodded and tried to run. He decided enough was enough. With the snake spell on, he speedily moved to her side, grabbing her arms and turning her around. He was shocked at what he found. She looked like she’d been crying recently, and it reminded him of the day with the snake. It was mortifying.

This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen. It’s why he tried so hard to be patient and kind. Now people were telling him he was doing the exact opposite of what he wanted and here was the proof. He almost jumped back from the shock, instinct making him want to run away from the situation. “Wait… oh god, Tiff?” He tried to get closer but she yanked her hand back. She looked at him with angry and stinging eyes, furious at his use of that nickname after all this time.

“I was doing it all for you!” She yelled in a cracked voice, barely keeping it together. “You act like I’m a nuisance all the time but it’s because you always get hurt! Literally every single time I leave you alone you hurt something!” Mid rant she grew a lot more confident, rage overtaking embarrassment. “I spend so much time around you and the moment I start acting worried you think I’m not worth the effort!? You try to avoid-” She trailed off, realizing how embarrassing saying it aloud was.

“You try to avoid me all the time now...” She managed to sputter out. No longer able to look him in the eyes again. Derb couldn’t understand, he felt sick. He didn’t know how she got all this but he was slowly putting two and two together. He didn’t even know where to explain. He was being more of a nuisance when he tried to avoid troubling her? Then what was he supposed to do to help her? He just wanted to do what was best for them.

He was feeling too nauseous to do anything right now so he fell into a sitting position, leaning against his bed. He still held on to her, not sure if she was gonna run or not. Speaking of which, he needed help with that. “Connor” He called, teleporting the small demon in front of them. He put his incubus on guard duty in front of the entrance, making sure she couldn’t run. “Ok… ok. Could you heal me while I think? I think the wounds are making it harder to think.” Tiffany looked at him with cold eyes but did it anyway, just then realizing how covered in wounds he was.

Half a minute passed before Derb finally spoke up. He put his hand on Tiff’s head and tried saying the one thing that came to mind. “You’re my sister.” That got him a punch in the face, instinctually blocked with the boar spell. “That’s it!? The family card again!?” She yelled, ready to peel his skin off. He jumped to the other side of the bed, considering hiding under it. “Let me finish, let me finish!” She didn’t listen. Electricity crackled around her, and for the first time, she actually looked extremely threatening. She looked so similar to teacher Gerald that derb instinctually hid.

“I didn’t want to trouble you after what I did! You looked so tired and sad when I woke up from the poison and I didn’t want you to think about that.” His eyes started stinging, and he had to work to hide his tears. “I didn’t want to annoy you after you saved my life so many times. I thought you’d hate me for it.” He smiled at the memories they had, her healing him from the brink of passing out. All that time seeing her turning from a meek and kind soul into the snarky but still kind girl today.

“This was the first time I’ve ever felt like death was inevitable. Any other time was something I could have come back from. I owe my life to you now.” He glanced at Hannah’s face, it was still angry but it didn’t look like it was all directed at him. He took this chance and jumped over the bed back to her. “Don’t worry about it anymore, Tiff. There wasn’t a single moment I found you annoying. I was just really guilty about everything.” He smiled at finally clearing everything up.

He reached for her head and got a shock in response. He looked down to see her red with… rage? “I said all that... ” She muttered, her face getting redder somehow. “It was all a misunderstanding...” She covered her face and crouched down in embarrassment, electricity trailing across the room in an erratic pattern. Derb felt his instincts flare up and jumped to the other side of the bed just before it happened. “Aaaaah!” The scream ran amongst the house, infused slightly with mana. Derb turned the bed sideways, not sure what to do.

He turned on the boar spell and tried getting closer to Tiffany before she destroyed the room. “Hey! I also misunderstood everything! There’s nothing to be embarrassed about!” The electricity was running through his body but his new strength combined with the boar spell made it hurt way less than he thought possible. The closer he got the more it hurt, though. Eventually, he got close enough to grab both her shoulders, the electricity making his body vibrate more and more intensely. “Snap out of it you crazy girl! I’m going to get mad you know!”

He looked to Connor to ask him to get Hannah but he was already out cold due to the light attribute. Seems he took the duty to guard the door seriously. The lightning stopped hitting his room and went to him directly. Lucky. The shock had his long hair standing on ends, piercing the air with power and making him look funny. He had enough and started shaking her. Though the electricity was starting to ruin him. “T-i-i-i-ff! Sto-o-o-p or I-I’m g-o-o-o-ing to p-a-a-ss o-o-ut.” Eventually, after enough shaking he calmed her down, leaving him gasping and charred on the floor.

“Hey… you ok, Tiff? Ugh.” He grasped his stomach, it seemed to have taken a lot of damage considering the noises it was making, though that might’ve just been the hunger. She was silent but he knew she’d respond to his pleas. “Heal me, please... everything hurts. Like, actually everything.” She silently scooted closer, placing her hands on both sides of his head. The rush of the pain going away was amazing. “Ahh, god it’s like a hundred times better than Connor or Hannah. How’d you even get this good? You were like… trash back then compared to now.”

He was zapped for the harsh words. “Ow, hey! I’m in an emergency situation! Who’d treat their patients like that!?” He kept ranting about something called the Hippocrates oath, but she wasn’t listening. She smiled at his efforts, the little zap was nothing like what he took just before. She knew he was just trying to lighten the tension from what happened. She was dumb for thinking he was starting to hate her. Even stupider for hurting him even after everything she promised. He didn’t mind, he was too kind. Way too kind. He had to change that.

“Why are you so lenient on everyone? Me, Deitre, even master had done terrible things to you.” She asked, trying to find the root of his passiveness. Derb opened up his mouth to answer but paused, unsure himself. “Dang, you guys really have done terrible things to me. Why am I ok with it?” Tiffany was shocked at the words, expecting him to have an answer. “I guess… it’s because it’s fun? I’m always asking so much of you guys so it’d be dumb for me to not expect consequences.”

He smiled at the life he’s had at this village, remembering the hardships he had. “It’d take something pretty terrible to get me mad at you guys. Haha!” He answered, smiling warmly. For some reason, she only looked down, just like before. He laughed at her meekness, getting up and cleaning himself off. “Come on, get up. We need to go outside and tell Hannah you don’t hate me anymore.” He ran his hand through his luxurious bald head and felt like things were going to be-

“Oh my god,” He gripped his head, his hair that was growing so nicely for once, gone. “Oh god oh god oh god.” The shock hit him so hard his legs turned to jelly, he looked at the rest of his body, completely hairless, it couldn’t be.... “No...NO!” Tiffany looked scared and worried, he took everything else so well so why was he freaking out now!? His eyes darted left and right, not a bit of his hair to be seen. Why was this world so cruel, so monstrous. Was there any solace for those who sought to be good?

He fainted.

___

Hannah and Tiffany were cleaning Derb’s room in complete silence. The room had streaks of black racing across it and the spot Where Derb took the brunt of it was completely unsalvageable. Wooden spikes were strewn all over the place piercing the walls, a wooden rib cage surrounding the area where Derb had fainted. The whole situation that happened before made the room look like a battlefield.

Connor was slowly feeding mana into his master’s scalp, slowly speeding up the growth process using a spell meant to cause entropy and rearranging some of the spell order to only cause some modified aging. The scalp had some stubble but it seemed to be a lost cause. Especially considering Connor ran out of mana every ten seconds. He was still going the distance, he felt the utter anguish in his master’s voice, and wanted to do everything he could to help him.

Connor was happy in the current situation since he could help his master. But the other two looked about ready to fall over and die from the situation. Hannah had heard the commotion from downstairs, every little thing. She ignored the yell from Tiffany since she knew derb enough to trust him. But then she heard his screams of desperation, the horror in his voice, and then the silence. She ran upstairs the moment after that, fearing the worst. Turns out the worst wasn’t bad enough because she entered to find a completely gruesome scene.

Derb was charred and black, looking nearly dead on the floor. The room was destroyed and in the middle of it all was Tiffany, the person she knew for so long. She acted instantly, covering Derb in a wooden dome while erecting spikes all over the room, maliciously pointing them at Tiffany. Tiffany spent a good ten minutes trying to explain what happened, but it was so dumb and unbelievable that it took another ten minutes for Hannah to let her near Derb.

And now here they were, with a ruined room, an unconscious person, and the guilt of threatened violence hanging over the two of them. Hannah was feeling particularly awful since this was the only time she ever turned her magic on Tiffany. They were together from the beginning, before they could even use magic. They knew each other well enough to tell when the other was sad or lonely. Something like this shouldn’t ruin that.

They glanced at each other at the same time, both coming to the same conclusion. Hannah was the first to laugh, both realizing how dumb it was to let something like this ruin the 10 years of their relationship. “I’m sorry I was gonna hit you a while ago. You had to admit your story was crazy.” Tiffany giggled at the accusation. Of course it was crazy, even she didn’t believe it. “Blame him for that, I don't know how he keeps getting into these situations.” She said, pointing at Derb.

The noise had woken Derb up, and he caught the latter part of their conversation. “Don’t blame me, you ass… ugh, my stomach.” He groaned, finally waking up from his little meltdown. He rubbed his scalp, remembering how horrible the situation was. He was surprised to feel some fuzz there, however. He groaned at the realization. “Oh come on… Tiff, how long was I in a coma this time!?” Tiffany paused and laughed at his misunderstanding. “You’ve been asleep for about an hour. We couldn’t even clean your room in time.”

Derb was confused at the answer, where’d all this hair come from then? The pain in his stomach was blocking out his thoughts, though. “Ugh, whatever. Hannah… can you get me some food, please? I don’t trust Tiffany anymore, not after what she did.” Tiffany groaned at the comment, she knew he was joking but she was still guilty about what happened. “It was an accident, I didn’t know you’d go nuts afterward. What was that even all about?” she had to know why he freaked out at the end. It was the first time she saw him genuinely distressed.

Derb answered, feeling a little embarrassed at the situation. How was he supposed to take such a horrible occasion? “Ah, yeah. You burned off all my hair. I really liked my hair. It was getting real nice recently. My hair… oh god my hair...” He buried his head into his knees, no longer wanting to talk. Tiffany just gawked at his stupidity. He got shocked and poisoned to death but his hair was the final straw? “That’s… I’m sorry?” He scoffed, he knew what she was thinking and it didn’t matter. If he had to choose between dying looking amazing or living looking like trash he’d choose the former.

He was about to retort before a wave of nausea hit him. His head started spinning and he found it hard to focus. “Tiff, could you heal me, I feel like I’m going to pass out soon...” The pain wasn’t much but he felt weak, a combination of physical and mental strain. He also seemed to have run out of mana. She complied, of course. Not a single bit of this wasn’t her fault after all. He didn’t know how he lost his mana though. At least he had a quick fix for that. “Connor… give me mana.”

The incubus holding a book in his hands quickly turned at him, nodding his head in enthusiasm. He floated over the bed and gently put his hands on Derb’s head, slowly surging power back into his body. The whole action would have looked rather beautiful had it not been done to a bald and charred person. “Ah, yes… that’s nice. If you could heal me, what would I need Tiffany for?” He got a shove from Tiffany who had already started the healing process. “it’s a dark affinity demon, it’d be weird if it could heal others.”

The incubus looked at her with narrowed eyes and she glared back, Derb standing awkwardly in the middle. “Heal, next...” Connor muttered, surprising Derb and Hannah. Where did he learn that? “Connor? Have you been studying?” Derb asked. The incubus nodded eagerly, seeking praise for somehow learning this impossible language alone. “Huh. Cool. Keep doing that I guess.” He said, not realizing the effort behind those words. Much to the dismay of Connor. NEither thought about the context of his words.

Eventually, he felt good enough to get back on his feet, though his stomach kept cramping up with the familiar feeling of hunger. “Alright, thanks to both of you. Now let’s go eat before I get a hole in my stomach.” Everyone agreed and decided to head down. “By the way… how did my hair even grow this much?” Tiff shrugged and pointed at Connor, who smiled sheepishly. Derb took the hint and patted his incubus on the back. “Connor, you just became my favorite person in this world. Keep up the good work.”

Connor beamed and Tiffany scoffed at the praise, both taking his words too seriously. Derb sighed at this, rivalry at her age was healthy and everything but he wasn’t sure trying to one-up a demon was good for her, or anyone for that matter. “Let’s… just go eat, ok?” They didn’t look at him, only sizing themselves up even as Derb gave up and walked to eat food on his own. This was going to be a long day… “She better not get on me for training after this. ‘Safety’, my ass.”