Chapter 6: Blood Sweat and Tears

    They entered Kiralle's house without turning on the lights. 

    "Take off your shirt. Lucifer."

    "What!"

    "Gee tough boy, I could see you wincing and fiddling with the seat-belt all the way here, don't try and hide it." 

    "Oh." 

    "Ow bruises as well as a gash. What did you say to Damien?" 

    Lucifer let Mienne clean the gash and apply anaesthetic. "Your fingers are cold," he said. 

    She looked shocked for a second so he quickly added, "but I don't mind."

    "I was about to ask if you wanted an ice-pack for the bruises... until you said that." 

    They looked at each other and laughed. The pain had been clouding Lucifer's head, but the laugh? It seemed to make the shitty night a little bit better. It felt good, actually. In the moment he almost said so to Mienne, but he was glad he didn't because she probably would have said something bitchy and ruined the moment. 

    She left the room and came back with blankets and a pillow. "Hope you don't mind sleeping on the couch." 

    "It's cool." 

    She turned to go to her room. 

    "Mienne?"

    "Yeah?" 

    "Thanks." 

    "Oh," she didn't know what to say for a few seconds, "Good night." 

    "Night."

Chapter 5: Attempted Apologies

"Mienne, darling. I have exciting news! Your father is coming home tomorrow." 

"Not interested." 

Her mother put on a hurt face. "Mienne, I have hope that things will be different this time." 

She was already heading up to her room to pack. As far as her memory stretched, she hadn't known her father for the first ten years of her life, she had assumed he was dead because the other children who didn't live with their father either had divorced parents or their father was dead. She didn't dare ask her mother about it anyway. She was shocked enough when he turned up unannounced, homeless and without a cent to him name. Less actually if you considered the debts. She didn't realise how much she had hated hearing the sound of arguing through the house until he left again after two years of bunking in their house. And after that he just keep turning up unexpectedly expecting her mother to take him in. She always said yes, and there was always raised voices. When Mienne's older brother, Kiralle, moved out, he had promised her that she could crash in his spare room whenever their father turned up. She was definitely taking him up on the offer.

She gave him a call, and dragged a suit case out onto her bedroom floor. 

Sarsafine looked in from the doorway. "Where are you going?" 

"Dad's coming home. I'm escaping to Kirry's place." 

"What and leaving me an only child?" 

"You can come if you want." 

"Nah, Kirry can't cook for shit." 

"You're staying because of the food?"

"I don't see what your problem with Dad is. It's not like we see him that much even when he is around." 

"I just can't stand it." 

"Whatever. I'll get the TV to myself, finally." 

"You are so shallow." 

"And you are so overly sensitive." 

Chapter 4: A Slumber Party

    "What the fuck are you doing here, devil boy?" 
    "Waiting for my girlfriend, bitch." 
    Mienne set her alarm to the wrong hour, which resulted in turning up to school half an hour late - late enough to be stressed out of her mind but not late enough to be spared the monotony of first period English. She had left her student diary at home. She had double booked her lunchtime commitments. She was looking forward to getting home an forgetting about it all, but she wasn't going to get away from misfortune that easily. Lucifer gave her a cocky look from where he was standing, leaning against gate. 
    "Whatever, bastard."
    "Don't you dare call me that! Bitch!" He pushed her hard against the wire fence. 
    The wire rattled loudly as her back slammed against it. Mienne swore and groped for something to regain her balance. An arm shot out and caught her fall and set her back on her feet. Mienne found herself face to face with a boy she hadn't met before. 
    "You okay?" He gave her a smile before turning to Lucifer, "Whoa, watch yourself, Lucifer. You can just shove someone for calling you a bastard! What the fuck!" 
    "She should've known better," Lucifer growled, more at Mienne than at the guy. "Tell Maggie I'll call her." And he was storming away. 
    "I don't know what's up with him today," the guy shook his head.
    "Shit. I shouldn't have said that." 
    "How was that your fault?" 
    "Maggie was looking forward to seeing him too." 
    "It's probably a good thing that he takes some time to cool down before blowing his head at her too." 
    They stood in silence watching the path that Lucifer had just walked, the anger seeming to linger in his wake. 
    "So... Uh, you are?" 
    "Oh, I'm Mienne. Maggie's friend." 
    "Syren. Lucifer's friend." 
    "Nice to meet you." 
    "An interesting way to make your acquaintance, but yes, nice to meet you too." 
    Mienne laughed. "Yeah, thanks for... catching me." 
    "Mienne!" Her friend, Fiona, came running up. "Oh I'm so glad you haven't gone home yet. Guess what? I'm having a slumber party this weekend! You'll come right?" 
    "I have to check with my mum, but yeah, I don't see there being a problem." 
    "It's Fred's and my birthday, and we finally got our parents to agree to the party idea. Sorry about the short notice, it was the only date that we could have it on." 
    "That's fine. It sound great." 
    "Brilliant." Fiona eyed Syren. "So who's this cute guy? What haven't you been telling us, Mienne?" 
    "What? Oh no no no, I've only just met him, like just now, a half a minute ago." 
    Syren was laughing out loud. "You're welcome to be my fake secret girlfriend any day." 
    Mienne blushed.