The night was winding down and Strike Master brought his bowling shoes back to check out and leave. Rena knew this was her opportunity, she had been preparing for it from the time she learned of the tournament and had been thinking about what she would say since then. She took initiative to grab Strike Mater’s shoes. 

“Hey! Uh… we have a tournament happening at the end of the month. Everyone’s welcome so you should compete. We’re uh. We’re inviting all the customers.” Rena said, nearly fumbling the strange invitation. 

Strike Master’s gaze, which was not on anything in particular before, turned downwards to lock with Rena’s. He was so much taller than her it was uncomfortable for Rena to look up at him. 

“Thank you for t

he invitation. I don’t think I’ll be attending.” And he started to turn to leave. 

“Wait!” Rena surprised even herself with the outburst. “Wh… Why not?” 

Strike Master stopped his movement. He broke eye contact with Rena and centered his focus on some distant place.

“I bowl for myself. Not for fame. Not for glory. For the spirit of the ball, and the heart of the pins.” Rena almost saw a gust of wind lightly blow a clump of hair on his head wistfully as he looked into the middle distance. 

“But uhh. You’re pretty good so. You should at least show up. I’m sure people would want to… other bowlers probably want to challenge you.” Rena continued, looking down at the large shoes on the counter. 

“I apologize, but I’ve made up my mind long ago…” Then he left. Rena continued looking at the shoes as the ding of the door signaled the exit of Strike Master.

“What the hell was that? Are you into that guy?” Mia was sitting in the same place she always was behind the counter beside Rena. 

“No!” Rena replied, not even considering how she must have looked. 

“You’ve been acting hella strange when it comes to that dude. Something’s up with you, Rena. You can’t hide it.” 

“He-He-he’s just so good at bowling you have to admit that! Wouldn’t you want to see him go up against the other bowlers?” Rena offered, stammering, trying to deflect Mia’s accusation. 

“I am going to be going up against the bodies of several hot demon princes in this game as soon as the new event drops and that is probably the only thing I’ll be concerned about when the day of the tournament comes.” Mia said. She had looked up from said game to chide Rena. 

“Don’t you ever wonder how he makes all those strikes? I mean, even if you don’t care about bowling that’s weird right?” Rena attempted. 

“I honestly do not care at all. It was weird when I first saw it but it’s just normal now. He’s Strike Master after all. He makes strikes. That’s all.” 

“Whatever. I just think it would be interesting to see it is all." Rena accepted defeat and took Strike Master’s big shoes to the shoe rack. 

Sylvia was passed out on the couch when Rena got home. The dull television program illuminated the stream of drool trickling from her open mouth brightly. On the coffee table before her were two bottles of wine. One or both were probably empty.  As the door closed quietly behind Rena Sylvie’s eyes snapped open. 

“Oh! Hey!” Sylvie said, turning over on the couch, wiping the trail of saliva from her face. 

“Uhh. Hey?” Rena said. She had not really intended to speak to Sylvie and was subconsciously hoping she would not be passed out on the couch tonight as she often was. When Sylvie occupied the couch Rena felt a small inclination that she could not use the space. It felt as if Sylvie was hogging everything. Rena didn’t want to wake her so Rena felt it was annoying that she would use the couch so much instead of her own bed. When Rena and Sylvie moved in together Sylvie had told Rena she worked from home. Rena had never asked what Sylvie’s job was. She didn’t care at first, but she never saw her working. She was either in the living area or in her room. Maybe she had a computer set up in her room but there was no indication of any work ever being done. Sylvie just slept. 

As long as the bills got payed on time Rena didn't need to know. 

“Sorry didn’t mean to wake you…” 

“No! You didn’t wake me at all. I was just waiting for you to get home.” 

Rena felt a pang of unease. Sylvie could read the feeling on her face. 

“I wasn’t watching you! I was just sitting here. I saw you when you came in.” Sylvie replied with a pleading grin on her face, putting her hands together in a praying formation. 

“Well ok.” Rena responded. 

“I just wanted to say, I’m sorry about the other day. I really am. I acted like a jerk and crossed some boundaries and that’s not cool. I want to make it up to you! I brushed you off with the powers thing and I know it’s always difficult when people first get them so I’m sorry about that too. I’ll tell you anything you want to help with that!” 

Rena thought for a moment. “Uhh It’s ok I guess. I don’t really need anything. I think I’m starting to figure things out on my own I guess?” 

“Oh really?” Sylvie said, her expression shifted. 

“Yeah it’s like you said you probably couldn’t help me anyway since the powers are different or whatever. So it’s not a problem really. I know it’s not good to say too much. I get why you wouldn’t want to say too much about your parents.”

“Say too much? What do you mean by that?” Sylvie asked. Her body language changed and Rena felt like she had said something wrong. 

“Oh it’s nothing it’s just I’ve been talking to some people about it. I just know there’s stuff you can’t say. That’s all I mean.” Rena said, suddenly feeling as if she was on the defensive again. 

“You’ve been talking to people? So you found someone else with your same power?” Sylvie asked, leaning forward with earnest. 

“I… Uh. Yeah? I found someone who’s willing to help me out. That’s all. Nothing serious. They’re just helping me figure stuff out.” 

A strange silence permeated the small apartment. Rena felt something wrong with what she had just said, Sylvie’s demeanor had changed and now Sylvie seemed poised, not at all tired. 

“Um. Did I say something weird?” Rena offered. 

“No!” Sylvie snapped back to her normal loose demeanor. “I’m sorry. It’s great you’ve found someone to help you out. But still I’ll be willing to help in any way. If you’ve got any questions please be my guest.” 

“No questions but thanks.” A thought crossed Rena’s mind in the same moment. “Actually, haha. Not related at all but where do you work? Do you still work from home?” 

Sylvie’s demeanor really changed, a mixture of surprise and wariness, although understated as if she had caught herself before she could show too much in her body language. 

“Oh uh… Yeah I do some work from home. I’m working pretty much most of the time lol.” She wasn’t making eye contact. 

“You work most of the time? You mean when you’re in your room? That’s funny. Ok I thought you were just sleeping every day.” Rena chuckled sheepishly, a bit surprised to hear Sylvie, whom she had never perceived or even thought about working, was working often. Whatever pays the bills I don’t mind. 

“Did I say all the time? Well… What I meant was uh… Oh god.” Sylvie was getting flustered. Rena could detect something was out of the ordinary. “Well I said I’d tell you whatever you want to know so I suppose it’ll be alright to tell you. I use my powers for my job.” 

Now this was surprising. “Wait really?” Rena said. 

“Yep haha when I’m asleep I’m pretty much always astrally projecting. I work with some people who pay me for some services related to that.” Sylvie replied. 

“What kind of stuff do you do?” Rena moved from beside the front door to the chair beside the couch. “This is actually really interesting to me.” 

Of course there were myriad ways to make money with powers, outside of the obvious, some powers were very suited to certain tasks, teleportation or running very fast could make you a very good delivery person if you had the right set of abilities. 

“I guess I’ll say… We call it Psychic Securities. That’s not the name of a company that’s just the field I’m in.” Sylvie offered, although Rena could detect the hints of Sylvie holding back. She thought back to what Wren had told her about not wanting to reveal your powers. But Sylvie had already revealed hers at the party, hadn’t she?

“Is that like Cyber Securities? Like for banks and websites and stuff?” Rena asked.

“Yes! That’s a good comparison, exactly! You know how websites will hold contests to see who can crack their system and they’ll reimburse you for the reward? It’s… kinda sort of like that. I’m supposed to get past psychic defenses that are put in place to keep psychics out, lol and it pays!” Sylvie reached for the bottle to her right and started drinking from it. Not empty then.

“So wait. Wait, you’re like, some kind of psychic hacker?”  Rena asked, with genuine unbridled interest. 

“Mmmm you could say that!” Sylvie was blushing with a big grin. “My clients want me to get into places people aren’t usually supposed to go and they pay me if I can do it successfully!” 

Rena had heard there was a whole world to psychics that lay unseen atop the normal world. It was true that many institutions had psychic defenses in place to stop psychics from stealing information, money or anything really. It was one thing to hear about it in an article and another to have someone involved with it tell her directly to her face. 

“You have to tell me what that’s like! I mean. That’s crazy! I can’t even imagine it!” Rena said, with the burgeoning wonderment of a child eager to learn. 

“Aaah you knoow!” Sylvie said, shrugging, still seeming a bit embarassed. “It’s no big deal really. There’s a psychic world and a normal world to put it really really simply. The psychic world reflects the stuff that’s in the normal world, meaning buildings and stuff are all still there. If I wanted to astrally project and walk through the wall of a bank I could do that, or spy on someone in the pentagon or something. I could do that, if there weren’t psychic defenses everywhere. Well, in the places where people are rich enough or psychic enough to afford them.” 

“So people like, hire you to go into places and test if their defenses work?” Seems simple enough. Rena thought.

“Mmmm yep. Something like that lol!” Sylvie said, clapping her hands together. “Now let’s talk about something else! Work is so boring!” 

That hardly sounds boring to me. That sounds like the most interesting thing I’ve ever heard. Rena thought to herself, a little disappointed that Sylvie did not seem eager to divulge the details of psychic escapades. The thought of a power giving you insight into another world was mind boggling. Instead of struggling with her own body and inscrutable powers, Rena could already be exploring a world of wonder. Rena felt a pang of jealousy. 

 A brief lull and then “When you helped me out at that party, that was crazy. I can’t even imagine that kind of power. And that girl you were fighting, well, that crazy girl who attacked me. She was really powerful too. At least it seemed to me. You took her down like it was nothing. I was about to get perforated.” 

Sylvie closed her eyes with a little smile like she was pondering something unusual. “Mmmm, yeah. That girl was pretty crazy. Just going off like that? But you know, that’s how it is when people have powers. A lot of powers are fueled by emotions, especially psychic ones. And sometimes it can go the other way too, your powers can make you a little loopy.” She did the ‘loopy’ gesture with her finger next to her face and made a dumb expression. 

“Heh…” Rena said responding to the sudden childish face. “Yeah but… you know. She wasn’t really that bad. I mean besides the almost killing me randomly part. It seemed like she was just trying to help out her friend. I showed up at a bad time looking really suspicious and she mistook me for a bad guy. I guess.” Rena looked down at her hands in her lap. 

“Yeah I saw that. Well I wasn’t paying too much attention but yeah. I kinda got the idea.” Sylvie responded, still with her typical lackadaisical style. 

“What’s it like when you’re all powered up like that? It looked like you were on fire. Even more than when I see you use your powers in your body.” Rena asked. 

“Well…. I don’t know. It’s hard to explain it. What you saw was a projection of my mind. Not really a physical self but sort of like a…. An avatar? Like in a video game. It was an astral projection. Usually it’s invisible to most people but if I want to do something serious like that fight I can manifest it physically. It’s really difficult to understand.” 

“Woah. And that girl, she was, like, crushing things into little bullets. Could you do that?” Rena asked, pushing more and more. 

“Uhh not really. I mean. I might be able to figure it out but I don’t really do stuff like that. That girl was pretty much a mostly telekinetic type. I’m a… a projection type I guess. Every psychic has bits of all different kinds they are better or worse at. I can make a shield and stuff like that. That’s telekinesis. But it’s not my specialty. I can also only do my stuff when I’m asleep. That’s how the projection works. I gotta be asleep to make this stuff work. Unfortunately that’s just the lot I was dealt.” Sylvie shrugged. 

“Man. I…” Rena cut herself off and looked back down at a clenched hand in her lap. “Sorry. I was just thinking like… I don’t know. I can’t help but wish I had power like that. I feel like that would change everything for me.” Rena said, feeling pitiful. 

“It would.” Sylvie said with a nod. Rena looked up, not expecting such a blunt response. “Your whole life would be different. Say you had power like that girl from birth. Maaaybe at one point you’d have gotten mad as a kid and flipped out. Maybe you’d have lost control while you’re riding in a car, made it crash. Killed both your parents, and yourself. Maybe you’d have lived and been an orphan. Maybe at the orphanage you’d face horrible abuse so bad it made your powers stronger, but more uncontrollable, until you completely lose your mind and go psycho. Now you’re a crazy psychic psycho killer! You look for other orphanages with your powers and torture all the kids and orphanage staff with telekinesis and terrible dreams!” Sylvie started out somber, as if giving an important lesson, and as she went she got too into her silly story and became cartoonish. Now she was doing a stupid scary pose like she was trying to spook a 5 year old Rena. 

“Um… I don’t know how to feel about what you just said.” Rena responded. 

“Many such cases unfortunately. Listen. Obviously your life would be totally different if it was different. Duh! Doesn’t mean it would be better. It could be a lot worse, you never know.” Sylvie used one index finger to punctuate her point. 

“But I feel like stuff like that doesn’t happen too often.” Rena said. She thought if such a thing were so common she’d hear about it all the time. 

“Eh I mean. It happens often enough.” Sylvie shrugged again. 

“Did that happen to you?” Rena asked. “Did your psychic powers go crazy while you were asleep one night and you blew up your childhood home?” 

“Ehhhh something like that.” Sylvie said with a wry smile, sticking out her tongue and squinting. 

“Shut up! No it did not!” Rena yelled. 

“Hey you never know!” Sylvie responded. 

“You’re a big liar! You never did anything like that!” Rena was smiling now too, and getting closer to Sylvie with intent. Sylvie nudged away slightly against the accusations of lying. 

“You never know! My backstory could be so dark and dramatic it would make you cry for days!” Sylvie put her arm over her eyes in a theatrical crying pose. “My poor mama! My poor papa! How could I do such a thing! Oh I’ll never be the same again! Such tragedy!” 

“Stop it!” Rena was giggling now, and threw herself on top of Sylvie still shying away and mock sobbing into her arm. “Put your arm down! Hahaha. You’re so dumb!” Rena was grasping for Sylvie’s arm and Sylvie was wildly squirming around. 

“My poor dog Poochino! Oooh Poochino I’ll miss you the most! Waaaaaa!” Sylvie couldn’t keep from giggling as Rena was accidentally tickling her. 

“Oh my god shut up! That accent is so dumb!” Sylvie flipped onto her stomach and cradled the pillow like a baby, mock wailing and giggling. 

“The old country! Oh I can never return! Shunned as a witch for all eternity! OOOOOH!” Sylvie was approximating some vague eastern European or Russian accent. It was so dumb, especially as she couldn’t keep it up between bouts of giggling as Rena was actually tickling her for real now. Sylvie thrashed around on the couch like a beached fish. Rena continued the onslaught. 

“Rena stop! God dammit cut it out! Fuck you I’m still drunk you asshole!” Sylvie screamed. 

“Maybe you should get drunk and fall asleep in your room then! How about you use your super psychic powers to stop me!” Rena replied, continuing. 

“I’m awaaaake! AAA Stooop! Fuck yoooou! Oh god I feel like I’m gonna throw up!” Rena instantly backed off and recoiled at that. Sylvie breathed heavily for a few seconds, giggling, then went on the attack against Rena. “Take that you asshole!” as she began tickling Rena mercilously.

“No! No! No! STOP! I can’t take tickling! I can’t take it! No!” Rena shreaked, now squirming.

With deft precision Rena seized both of the assaulting girl’s limbs. Sylvie was no match for Rena as she had just woken up from a drunken stupor. Without even thinking, Rena activated her aura sense. Rena just wished for Sylvie to stop her attack, and some part of her mind felt that she needed to be fully aware to do so. Like a cornered animal. Sylvie struggled, fervently, to free her arms and continue the retaliation. Something inside Rena’s mind clicked looking at her own aura mingle with Sylvie’s where her hands were wrapped around Sylvie’s arms. 

“Wait. What the fuck? Lol?” Sylvie stopped pressing so much and tried to rise off of Rena. She found that she could not break Rena’s grip however. “Uhh Rena, what is this?” 

Rena’s brain left fight or flight mode, and she tried to let go of Sylvie’s arms, finding that she could not. 

“Huh?” Rena tried to pull away and unclench her hands. They were not budging. The two sat in their awkward position for a few moments. Then Rena looked more closely. 

“Hey, let me just, take this for a sec.” Rena said to Sylvie as she tried to bring one of her arms closer to her face. Sylvie allowed Rena to take control of her right arm. “Uhhh. This is. Uhh. So. It looks like I just figured out a new thing with my power?” 

Inspecting the aura around her own hand she could identify several threads of light. Aura threads, like Wren’s threads. They extended from her fingers and wrapped around her hands, completely arresting their position on Sylvie’s arms. 

“Soooo, are you gonna let go or are we just gonna stay like this?” Sylvie said. It was only now that Rena noticed Sylvie’s blonde, curly hair draping down over her face. They met each other’s eyes and Rena blushed loudly. “This is certainly not how I expected my apology to go.” 

“No wait! Look!” Rena tried to indicate to her hands before realizing that Sylvie couldn’t see auras like she could. “I did like a… Hold on.” Rena closed her eyes and tried to concentrate. 

The pair stayed still for moments before

“Are you actually doing anything?” Sylvie said. 

“Fuck! Why doesn’t it worrrrrk?” Rena yelled. 

“Why doesn’t what work? What’s going on?” Sylvie said, quizzically. Sylvie started giggling, thinking Rena was playing some sort of prank. 

“Stop laughing! Look I… Someone I know was helping me with my powers and she, like, she can create these sort of threads with aura. And I guess I picked up how to do it from her. But I can’t turn it off!” 

Sylvie began laughing even more. 

“Stop laughing! Why are you laughing!” Rena said, face growing hotter. 

“I’m back to sleepy mode after that intense heart to heart. I’m really glad you’re not mad at me, Rena. I’ve done some dumb and silly things. I’m just glad you’re not that mad.” Rena could perceive Sylvie start to laxen and slump. Her energy from the tickle fight fading rapidly. Sylvie completely lost power and slumped over. Half laying on Rena. Not a comfortable position at all. 

“Sylvie get off me! You’re too heavy for this shit!” It was true. Sylvie was taller than Rena, although she was frail and thin. Rena’s weak form did not make it easy to support the weight of the bigger girl. 

“I can’t really go anywhere until you figure out how to get rid of this so I’m just gonna be right here.” Sylvie said sleepily. She rolled over, forcing Rena to move with her, and the two layed beside each other on the couch. Rena was sandwiched between the back cushions and Sylvie. Rena was holding on to Sylvie’s forearms which let Sylvie’s hands be free. She put her hands on Rena’s face and squished her cheeks. She felt the warmth of Rena’s flushed face. 

“You’re so cute, Rena. If you wanted us to be this close you could have just said something.” 

“Fuck off. You know I didn’t mean to do this. This is so stupid.” Rena tried to say as Sylvie was kneading her cheeks. 

“You always look so sad. Any time I see you. It’s like something’s wrong, you know? I feel so worried about you.” 

“Wow thanks. Everyone loves hearing that.” Rena said. “I hope I offered a good show while in the grips of depression.” 

 “Oh don’t say that. You know I’d do anything for you. That’s why I was following you around. Sorry about that. You know I get so alone here. Well you know. When I’m asleep in here I’m out there but it’s not really the same you know? I don’t do well around people. I guess it was selfish of me but I was kind of trying to live through you you know?” 

“You really are drunk. I’m literally the worst person you could pick to live vicariously through.” Rena responded.

“Nooo, Rena. You’re a lot cooler than you think. You’re really strong you know. You go through a lot and still get through it. You’re very admirable.” Sylvie was clearly delirious. Rena started blushing even more, for a different reason now. “I admire you a lot, Rena.” 

“Well I.. Uh… I..” Rena could not form the words after the onslaught of compliments. All in all Rena was not used to being complimented, and self esteem always got in the way of any that were given. 

Sylvie moved her arms up and attempted to put them around Rena as best as she could. She didn’t accomplish it exactly, instead both girl’s arms were just above their heads. Sylvie pressed closer to Rena, squeezing her further between the couch and herself. Rena’s body became extremely hot.

“Sylvie you’re uh… you… you uh… too.. you’re getting too close.” Rena could barely manage more than a whisper. She could feel Sylvie’s hot breath on her face, only inches away. 

As much as it was unexpected, Rena was enjoying the close contact more than she would admit. It had been a long time since she’d ever been close to anyone physically. She’d forgotten how good it felt. Sylvie’s silvery blonde hair framed her face in the darkness, surrounded by the aura, it gave off a blue and white angelic cast. From behind Sylvie the TV cast another blue flickering glow on Sylvie’s face. Rena found herself rapt staring at Sylvie’s wondrous appearance. Sylvie was a cute girl but Rena never thought about her that way. The aura sense, and the circumstances portrayed her in a completely new and ethereal light. 

“Sylvie, uh…” Sylvie’s breathing began to get steadier. She turned her face slightly and she was no longer breathing directly into Rena’s face. Sylvie was asleep. Rena stared at the girl nuzzled against her for a few moments and noticed that she was still gripping her arms. The threads had gone away and she was now free to release her. Rena did so, and pulled Sylvie closer, wrapping her arms around her in a cradling embrace. After a while Rena fell asleep as well. 

Rena could not have seen Sylvie’s projection hovering over the both of them. Sylvie watched them sleep the entire night.