AN: I know most people know this by now, but I've been ill recently. For a little over 2 weeks I barely wrote at all due to whatever was going on with me, and then my mother was hospitalized. Anyway, I'm getting back on track now. Enjoy. :)

Chapter 9: Bad Holly, Bad

Laughter, music, and happy girls dancing in ridiculous fashion. It was good to be young. Cerene had invited Holly over to study at her house, and one thing had led to another. Now they swung their arms and wiggled their hips without even a hint of proper rhythm in their movements.

Once the song ended, they fell to Cerene's bed then laughed giddily. Holly spoke up first, "Man, it feels like forever since we did that."

"I know, right?" Cerene panted softly, the back of her hand resting against her forehead. The warm smile on her lips perfectly expressed her current mood.

For a time they simply remained where they were, silent joy evident in their smiles. Eventually, however, the blissful moment ended. Holly asked, "Cerene?"

"Yeah, Holly?" asked the angel without moving a muscle.

"Why did you come back?" Holly sighed softly then rolled over to face her best friend.

Cerene blinked then rolled over to look at her friend. "What do you mean? I only left because of a mistake in the first place."

Holly reached over and took a strand of Cerene's hair in her hand. "You could have come to me... I would have helped."

"I didn't want to get you in trouble, and I wasn't really thinking straight." said Cerene softly. Holly liked to play with her hair a lot since she had begun her change into a demoness. It was quite soothing for the angel girl.

"No. I mean..." Holly frowned at Cerene then bit her lower lip a little. "Why didn't you come to me...? You know..."

"Wha—?" asked Cerene confused. "Holly what are you asking me?"

Holly sighed softly. "Come on, you know what I mean..."

"Oh, Holly..." said Cerene. Her cheeks became flush as she realized what her best friend was getting at. "I'm not... I mean, we're not..."

Holly shook her head. "Didn't have to be. You know that sex isn't absolutely necessary to form a bond." She then softly whispered, "Not that I would have minded..."

"If I'd known you felt that way..." said Cerene. She sat up then drew her knees to her chest. "Holly, I'm sorry."

The red head sat up then wrapped her arm around Cerene. She leaned her head against her best friend's shoulder and said, "No need to be."

They were quiet for a little while before Cerene asked, "How long have you... You know?"

Holly shrugged. "A few years now. It got worse when you started changing."

"Sorry..." said Cerene in a shy tone.

"I'm not. It's been hard, though. I mean, have you seen yourself lately?" asked Holly with a laugh.

Cerene attempted to laugh a little as well. It turned into a sigh halfway through. "Holly... You're my best friend."

"It's cool. I get it. You found someone." Holly bumped against her friend's side a little causing her to sway sideways. "Serves me right for waiting too long, I guess."

The angel girl made a slight gurgling noise then tried to laugh again. "Yeah, as it turns out, I don't really have a problem being with other girls."

"What?" asked Holly, her eyes widening. "Really?"

Cerene's face reddened slightly. "Must be because I'm a demon. I didn't really feel that way before."

"No, I get that! What's this about you not having a problem being with girls?" asked Holly in an excited tone. "Have you been...?"

Holly's jaw dropped when Cerene nodded her head slightly. The angel bit her lower lip then glanced over to her friend.

The red haired girl blinked at her long-time friend then coughed loudly and said, "Details, dammit!"

"Details?" asked Cerene.

"Yeah, are their pictures? A video? Oh, gawd tell me there's a video!" asked Holly excitedly.

"What? No. It was a harem training thing... Big Sister helped me and Scott get more comfortable with each other."

"Big Sister?"

"Ah..." Cerene's face became even more red. "Yeah, Professor Pierce with the harem training institute..."

"Professor Pierce?" asked Holly in a curious tone. It did not take her long to understand who Cerene was talking about. "No! You didn't?"

"Uh, yeah... She'll be helping us several more times..."

"No way... You... and her? Every guy in town gets a massive case of blue balls when she walks by..."

Cerene laughed nervously then leaned against her friend. "She was the one who made me realize that I didn't mind the idea of being with a girl."

Holly slapped her palm over her face and proclaimed, "She could make anyone realize that!"

A brief silence ensued after that. Cerene, sensing an opportunity, decided to change topics. "So, did you ever decide what you wanted to study in college?"

"Well, I had wanted to take up training courses as a trainer after you started to change." said Holly.

"Sorry..." said Cerene once more.

"No, no. Don't be. Honestly, I think it's probably still a good idea. I mean, it's a dangerous line of work, but... Well... You know." said Holly, a slightly goofy smile rising up on her lips.

"This is a new side of you, to me. We used to talk about guys all the time." said Cerene.

Holly laughed in a warm and genuine way. "We can still do that. I mean, I don't know many guys that I actually want to be with, but I'm still interested."

The red head nuzzled her chin lightly against the crook of Cerene's neck. "What about you? Any plans?"

"Well, I have a master now... So..."

"Real controlling type?" asked Holly.

Cerene laughed. "No, not at all. He's probably the nicest person I've ever met in my life."

"Better than me?" asked Holly, a firmly petulant pout beginning to form on her soft pink lips.

The angel bumped her friend sideways with her shoulder. "Don't be jealous. You already know how we met."

"Yeah, can't compete with the whole guy leaping out of the darkness to save you from a douchebag thing."

"Not just that..." admitted Cerene, a soft smile rising on her lips. The memories of her meeting with Scott and the days that followed always warmed her heart.

Holly listened attentively as her best friend went into detail about her relationship with Scott. The more she heard, the sadder she became. "Seems like a nice guy. He actually didn't want to have sex with her because he was working on something with you."

"Yeah, name one guy from our high school who would do that?" asked Cerene.

"School? Bitch, please. I doubt there are many in the whole city that would have been able to hold back." said Holly, a smirk on her lips.

They shared a laugh at that. For a time afterward they spoke of other things. They discussed the idiot boys in their school, and plans they wanted to make for the future. Typical things came up as well, such as popular bands, and various other things that interested young girls.

"Hey, so when am I going to meet this guy?" asked Holly. She hugged Cerene a little more tightly as she said it.

"Want to meet him this weekend? I've wanted to introduce you for a while?"

"This weekend, huh? Wait, you said that Professor Pierce will be training you on the weekends."

Cerene laughed nervously. "Well, if you don't mind being there during all that... I mean, it might be weir—"

"I'm in!" exclaimed Holly shamelessly.

The angel burst out laughing once more, and her friend joined in quickly. Unrealized tension began to fade away as they laughed merrily at Holly's absurdly excited outcry.

Once the laughter died down, Cerene asked, "You sure you want this? I mean, you'll see me with someone else."

Holly took the liberty to kiss Cerene on the cheek. "Hey, I'll be horny and sad. But if the guy turns out to be as great as you claim, I'll be happy for you."

"But I don't want you to be sad." said Cerene, a slight frown forming.

"Well, you could always abandon your master and run off to live the life of a bandit with me?" asked Holly with a silly grin.

"Nah." said Cerene lightly.

Holly laughed a little then squeezed her friend once more. "Hey, don't worry about me. You're my bestie, but that just means that I want you to be happy."

The two friends shared a warm moment after Holly admitted her feelings. It was a quiet time filled with gentle memories. Of course, Holly ruined it not too long after it began. "Wait, you said you didn't want me to be sad, but didn't say anything about me being horny."

Cerene giggled then turned and pushed at Holly briefly before tapping her on the nose with her finger. "Bad Holly, bad."

Holly laughed lightly then nodded. "You have no idea."

"Maybe we'll find out next weekend?" asked Cerene with a smile.

Now it was Holly's turn to be embarrassed. "Oh, right... I agreed to go visit." Her cheeks reddened and her nostrils flared slightly. "You sure I won't be intruding?"

"No, you won't." said Cerene adamantly.

"When did you become so confident about this sort of thing? I remember you turning so red that you looked like you'd burst into flames at any minute when that asshole put his arm around you in front of everyone."

"If I never hear about a wrestling match again in my life it will be too soon." muttered Cerene.

Holly poked her in the shoulder. "No changing the subject, girl."

Cerene laughed slightly then smiled. "The harem training classes sort of helped with that. We don't really do anything together, but we do a lot of stuff by ourselves while the other girls watch."

Holly made a slow swallowing motion then coughed slightly. "Wh-what sort of stuff?"

"Well, stuff with you know... toys." said Cerene. Her nostrils flared a little when she waved her hands around. "We also fight in short battles, and learn basic stuff about pleasing our master."

"Toys..." Holly's imagination began to run away with her. The mental image of Cerene using an oversized sex toy to pleasure herself while being watched by a group of hot demon girls was enough to cause her to drool a little.

"C-can I see?" asked Holly after wiping the drool away.

"Uh..." said Cerene nervously. "That's really something I don't do in front of people outside of class..."

"Come on, girl... You can't tell me something like that then leave me hanging." complained Holly.

Cerene sighed. "Holly... I really can't, not unless I talk to Scott about it."

"This weekend...?" asked Holly.

"Yeah, we can ask about... stuff like that, this weekend." suggested Cerene.

Holly groaned a little. "I hate this, Cere. A boyfriend was one thing, but a master..."

The angel shrugged her shoulders a little. "I'm happy, Holly. If not for Scott..."

"Right, right... But still." Holly frowned heavily. "I mean, I get the law and all. That doesn't mean it's right."

"Maybe it isn't, but what can we do about it? If all the stray and wild demons were to stop attacking people, things might be different."

Holly took a deep breath then released an annoyed sigh. "I know. I know. They can't really help it though, after they regress."

Cerene closed her eyes then sighed softly. "Can we please not talk about regression...?"

The red haired girl nodded quietly then pulled away a little. Even with Cerene's new appearance, it was easy for her to forget that her friend was no longer human. Regression would be something that she would not want to discuss. Few demons did unless they had to do so.

"Well, at least he was cool with you going back to school." said Holly.

A slight nod was Cerene's first response. Before she answered, she stood up then stretched a little. "He's already told me that he'd support me in anything that I wanted to do."

"Really?" asked the red head.

"Yeah, so... The problem is that I don't really know what I want to do. I never really thought of it before all this happened." admitted the angel. She walked over to her stereo and started to look through her digital downloads. "Let's get some music going and get back to studying."

"Right, studying..." said Holly. She frowned at her friend briefly then made a disgusted sounding sigh.

"The worst part about school is all the damned education!" she exclaimed before she fell back onto the bed, while her arms flapped out to either side for emphasis.

Cerene laughed at the other girl's antics then picked a song. It was a slow, but cheerful, song that seemed perfect for studying history and economics. "Better get good grades if you want to be a trainer."

"Yeah, like that's a pre-requisite." said Holly with a laugh. She raised one hand into the air and waved it around. "Some of those people are just flat out idiots."

"They don't amount to much, though." admitted Holly after a moment. She placed a finger to her lips then nodded slightly. "It's not a half-bad job if you actually give a damn about the demons."

Though Holly could not see it, her comment brought a soft smile to Cerene's lips. A lot of things were not half-bad when someone gave a damn. Her smile shifted to a slight laugh as the song she picked started to play. "Studying can wait..." she said before she started to dance around like a ridiculous fool.

"Oh, heck yeah!" Holly popped up and started to dance around like a moron as well. Studying was important, but moments like this were the things from which memories were made.