How to Start a Fire

CH4 [Seedless Period]

Since Aleksander kept bringing Mamoru in we started treating him as an intern. The humans from the station let us do so, even though they questioned Mamoru for a little while in order to find out if he really wanted to do this or if we forced him too and maybe just wanted 'fresher food'. Hearing this I gave Mamoru the nickname "salad bar"- and nobody laughed about this joke as much as I did. Since he was around anyways we used him to get us coffee and clean things. Sadly, he was completely worthless in the kitchen, so he couldn't cook for us. Then he could have been a hybrid out of a maid and a salad bar. Like a salad maid.

It was one of these slow days. I woke up way too late and when I came downstairs they were already done eating and about to get their blood. I sat down and calmly buttered a bun while the others were already done, when Millicent announced that we only had one bottle of blood left.

"Nelly, would you please go and buy some today?" She asked, taking out a piece of paper and a biro. "We also need more sets of silver bullets and some garlic spray, take Sasha with you, okay?" I nodded, putting some marmalade on my bun and eating it. Millicent wrote down what we needed and handed the paper to me.

"Can I join, too?" Mamoru asked as freshly.

Millicent shrugged. "Sure. But please stay with them."

Mamoru nodded and smiled at me. I made a face back, not even trying to be sassy but I wanted to give him at least some positive response.

Over the last weeks he's been talking to me a lot. One time I had a panic attack because Selem wouldn't stop touching me and Mamoru politely asked him to stop before I could even get rude. He was very caring and even though I believed he was a complete weenie, not necessarily intelligent and still a plump kid, he got all my respect for being such a genuinely nice person.

I finished my food in a normal pace while Mamoru and Aleksander were sitting next to me, casually joking about how Spiderman wasn't invited to the avengers. When I got up and put my plate into the sink I casually said: "He wasn't an original cast member, he joined later on like several other heroes, besides, they had legal trouble adding the Spiderman figure." I walked back to them and grabbed the glass Millicent had filled for me before she had left, probably expecting me to rush through my meal. Aleksander was staring at me.

"You read comics?" He asked, interestedly.

No, I never really talked to him about myself and apparently he had thought the superhero shirts I own were simply because I thought that this pretty man had some nice abs. Look at how he can flex them. Such a beautiful man. "Of course I do, when I was still in school there was no internet." I said, realizing I sound like a mom again. "I mean, not yet. So I was spending my day being alone and reading comics." This might sound even more like I was a mom. What a failure.

"I hadn't thought about it this way!" Aleksander said, smacking his hand in front of his face. Finally he seemed to realize that he was an idiot. A bright day for humanity.

I chugged down the content of my glass and put it into the sink, then I walked back to the boys. "I'm gonna put one something nicer... let's meet at the door in like 5 minutes okay?" I said, walking towards the stairs backwards.

Both of them nodded and I turned around, went upstairs and put on some nicer clothing. My favorites remained the clothes I still had from home, even though most of these things were completely out of fashion by now. I still put on some old pants and a Pink Floyd shirt- I didn't want to look like a complete idiot walking around in public. Though, when I look back I maybe should have stuck to some normal pants. There's always downsides to keeping the mentality of the year you died.

When I came back downstairs they were both already waiting at the door, both having a similar expression on their faces. I figured they were uncomfortable. Aren't you supposed to be absolutely comfortable around the person you are interested in? Isn't that the whole point? I didn't get these guys at all.