Reflections of Mist

You first

Grunting, Evelyn prised open the hatch to her lab, pulling it back with a groan.

Nearby, Emilia chuckled. "You're out of shape."

"Shuddup."

Dusting off her hands on her suit, she turned to Emilia, gesturing down the stairs. "You first."

Emilia snorted. "Nice try. But I'm carrying faery boy, so I can't defend either of us if anything's down there. So sorry, but your plan to feed me to demons will have to wait another day."

"It wasn't a plan, just a personal daydream." Muttered Evelyn, the spoke up, clearly now fishing for excuses. "Yeah, but I have no weapons, and as you said, I'm really out of shape. I'm hardly going to do better than you."

Emilia gave her a disbelieving look. "I've seen you take out a demon with nothing but a stiletto shoe."

"Not a fair fight. It had been in a scrap with another demon already, was barely conscious. And not like I managed to kill it, not with just a shoe."

"Evelyn, are you scared?" Emilia purred.

Now it was Evelyn's turn to give the look. "Not of anything in that house. I just don't fancy turning my back to you, lest you decide to remove my spine."

"I'm not going to do that. You're like the only person around here I can actually stand."

"Big compliments from you then. I'm still not going first."

Emilia shrugged. "Alright. I'll go first, unsupervised, into the laboratory that I spent my awkward tween years trying to break into, just for the sake of it..."

"On second thoughts, I'll go first. In fact, just stay up here until I call you, okay?"

Emilia shrugged, smiling sweetly. "M'kay. Oh, and here, have a knife."

Evelyn took the pitifully small blade, ignoring Emilia's wicked twinkling eyes. "Um... Thanks. I think."

Emilia gave a little wave. "Go on then! Into the mad scientists lab!"

"It's my lab."

"Same thing, isn't it?"