It was strange to watch a demon and an angel walk around like old people who’d had sex far rougher than they should have, stooped, hobbled, and groaning when they pushed themselves a little too much, but the strangeness of Albaer’s existence did not endure. They moved around over the course of several hours, and each one that passed saw them grow noticeably stronger.

Able to walk steadily, at least for a little while.

Their hands shook when trying to hold cups, so they sat at the table and held their cups in both hands.

Albaer poured water for them so they didn’t have to, and finally, Lialah asked, “Can I have something to eat?”

She still had a small voice, and still had some trouble looking at him after he said he was willing to let them use his body to help themselves get back to form, but Albaer said nothing about it.

He got up, went around the counter that divided the living room and the kitchen, and reached into the pantry, pulling out a can of soup. The two women drank their ice water quietly with nothing more than an “ahhh” to break the stillness of the early afternoon.

“Do you think she did it?” Raziel asked her sister.

“I think so. The girl was heartbroken.” Lialah replied after setting her cup down.

“Well she hasn’t come by here, which is just fine by me.” Albaer popped the cap on the can of chicken noodle soup, pulled out a small pot and dumped it into place with a thick wet ‘plop’ of noodles, broth, and white chicken meat.

“She’s probably embarrassed, or ashamed still.” Lialah said reprovingly, “I felt her sadness, I brought it with me so you’d know her remorse… but I told her I’d only give it to you if she confessed.” Lialah turned around to speak to Albaer, he had the faucet going and the sound of running water in the can made her pause briefly.

When the water was dumped with an additional ‘plop’ and he began to blend the water and soup with a wooden spoon and the stovetop was clicked to a low setting, Lialah added, “It wasn’t right, what she did. But she didn’t do it with a plan to hurt you. She panicked.”

Albaer didn’t say anything, he kept looking down at the whorling mass of noodles, meat, and other chunky vegetables.

“Aren’t you going to say anything?” Lialah almost demanded, but anything else was stopped when her sister’s hand slowly stretched out and came down over her own.

“Lialah.” Raziel half whispered, half growled.

Albaer only continued to stir the soup and stare down into it for several seconds more.

“Okay.” He said at last and raised his head. “Pop quiz. If I were to attack Raziel while the two of you are too weak to do anything about it, would you ‘A’ join me in hurting her? ‘B’, panic and run away? Or ‘C’, do everything you could do to protect her, even if you knew you’d fail, even if you knew you could get hurt too?” Albaer hissed the words and his eyes grew fierce with angry tears, the wooden spoon in his hand was clenched hard enough that the sound of a ‘crack’ punctuated his question, leaving Lialah quiet.

“I wouldn’t ever abandon Raz…” Lialah said in a mousy voice.

“Right. I’ve known Lisa since I can remember. I always thought of her as a friend, and I thought I was giving her space while things were happening to me. I didn’t want her getting caught up in my shit life. Then there was no avoiding it, I was right at her door, there was no way out of it, she could have shut the door. She could have pulled me in. She could have said I was dropping something off she left at the store. Instead, she stood there and watched, she told a lie, then watched me get the crap kicked out of me. She didn’t even ask them to stop. What makes you think I give a damn how sorry she is?” Albaer hissed, “I wouldn’t ask her to fight, but she threw me into the fire to warm herself and thinks her apology will fix my burns? No. No. No.”

Lialah hung her head. “I’m sorry… it’s none of my business, I overstepped my bounds, I won’t do it again.”

Albaer looked down at the stove and brought the soup broth to his lips and gave a long, loud slurp. He then looked back to Lialah and sighed. “I’m sorry for the brutal comparison, obviously I would never do that. I just couldn’t think of a better way to help you understand what you were asking me to do.”

“I know. Again, I’m sorry too.” Lialah half whispered while she watched him make the final preparations.

“It’s fine, you I can forgive. All you wanted to do was help. But some things you can’t make okay just because you want to.” Albaer replied, his voice was hard, but sincere, the clinking of glasses, plates and bowls came out of the kitchen as he reached up and pulled down a pair of gray glass bowls and plates. Lialah wasn’t looking any longer, though she could hear him put down the metal spoons.

‘Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. How could you not see that, you knew what you were going to go see… even if you didn’t expect genuine remorse, why did you think you could fix that? You can’t fix it. You can’t ‘really’ fix anything… but hopefully at least she did the least of her promise.’

Behind her, Albaer ladled the soup, then reached into the pantry area and snagged a bag of salty crackers which he shook out to line up around half the bowl each. He carried the plates to the table and laid down one each.

“It isn’t a lot, but I need to order groceries, so this will have to do for now, besides, if you’re still feeling weak you shouldn’t have anything hard on… I guess whatever kind of stomachs that you have?” Albaer scratched his sandy hair as he tried to work out how to put that. “Anyway, enjoy.”

The pair ate in silence after that, sipping at the soup until it was gone, their minds so far elsewhere that they didn’t notice when Albaer excused himself to go back to his room again.