Loving the Shadow

Lyss

Lyss woke up with a start. They looked around the familiar room and relaxed a little. Stretching, they sat up and looked around. It had been a while since they were in their home. They got up and started to head to the kitchen when they passed the stairs they paused. And looked up. They hesitated for a moment before they climbed the stairs. Their eyes landed on Perla's sleeping figure once they got to the top and they relaxed. Part of them felt worried when they couldn't find her right away. They watched her breath for a little bit admiring her as she slept before they went back down the stairs.

They turned into the kitchen and sighed as they started to make coffee. 'Will she like this? Maybe she'd want tea.' they wondered to themself as they made two cups.

They heard a noise in the kitchen behind her and they turned around. Perla stood in the doorway. She was leaning against the wall. "Morning." She yawned and stretched. Lyss smiled at her and held out their hand offering the coffee. Perla looked confused at the cup. Before she took it from them. They watched her try it they smiled when they saw her smile, the way she went to drink some more.

"Do you want some creamer?" They offered, she looked at them and tilted her head.

"Creamer?"

"It's to sweeten it." They elaborated. Perla nodded and Lyss pulled it out of the fridge.

"Here." They showed her how to open the bottle and offered it to her, she took it and poured some into her coffee. She took a sip after and her eyes brightened.

"This is really good." She said with a smile and drank more. She seemed to enjoy it alot more with the creamer, Lyss smiled at her and sipped on their own coffee. "So, What would you like to do today?" They smiled at her.

"Can we get more clothes?" She wondered. Lyss nodded and headed up the stairs to their closet. Perla trailed behind.

"Pick what you want from here, for now." They motioned to it when they slid the door open, it slipped open into a walk-in closet. It had shelves and rows of shirts hanging. A couple of shoe racks hung from the lines as well. Perla looked in it with her mouth open as she cradled the coffee.
"Oh! How do you use the thing in the bathroom?" She asked.

They turned to look at her and tilted their head. "You'll have to be more specific." They smiled at her.

She took their hand and pointed to the shower. "That's a shower. You turn this handle here." They pointed. "And water comes out here." Perla nodded and looked at it in wonderment.

"Do you want to take a shower?" They asked as they Smiled at her. She nodded and Lyss took that as a reason to leave. They chuckled to themself as they climbed down the stairs. They entered the living room and sat on the couch they had in it. They decided to listen to the news for a little bit before they did some work. They ran a multinational company that they made a long time ago. People thought that they had a twin who they inherited the place from. They worked under the guise that they and their twin ran the company and lived together. It was tiring sometimes because they had two different friend groups that they hung out with and there were a couple times they ran into their friends from another group and had to act like they didn't know them.

They were happy about the fact they had someone who knew the truth and was okay with them choosing different forms. They got dressed as they waited for Perla, getting some work done as well, They had a few business calls they had to make. They sighed as they thought about how much there was to do since they were gone for a while.

The work to them seemed to never end. They had gotten into the coal business a long time ago and now they didn't have as much work as they did when they started, but there were still so many things they had left to do. They had to fight competitors, by land to sink new pits, They had to close old ones up and they had to be fast or their competitors would trample all over them. They left their company in the hands of a good friend who was a Kelpie. She was the only one who understood them for the most part and knew how hard they worked on the company to get it to where they were. They suddenly got a call, When they looked at the contact info they sighed. Work would never stop.

"Hello, This is Lyss from Lyss enterprise. How may I help you?" They opened as they usually did.

"Yes, er, Lyss? We were hoping to get in touch with your twin, We have some business deals that need to be looked over and some meetings to attend. Lyss nodded even through they knew the person on the other side couldn't see them.

"I can come in, on Thursday to look them over, I can do just as much as my twin in the business deals."

"Um, that's okay, it was a project she started so it would only make sense if she was the one to close the deals." They tried to push. Their female form was the one who usually ran the company, The 'twin' was usually gone off 'partying'.

"Listen, I can have her go over them with me and we'll go from there." They stated and hung up the phone as the person started to protest. They shook their head at their associate. Not understanding the dire need they seemed to have on seeing the other version of them self.

"Is everything okay?" They heard from behind them. Their heart fluttered a little as they turned to look. Perla had her silver hair up in a bun, Her skin practically glowed now that it wasn't covered in dirt. They took extra time to admire her as she stood on the stairs.

"Yeah, just some work thing's have come up. I have to go into the office in a couple days." They explained as they took a step closer to her, Now the light hit her face and almost reflected off of her markings along the side of her face. They tried to think of ways they could hide them because she would be seen as unusual. It wasn't because they hated the marks or anything, they thought she looked beautiful with them but they just wanted her to have a normal time while she was here and they didn't help as well as her ears.

"We need to go shopping." They offered and Perla's pointed ears peaked up hearing this.

"Shopping? Whatever for?" She wondered.

"We need to get you more clothes. And some makeup." Lyss elaborated. Perla nodded, seeming to accept this explanation. "We'll leave after breakfast." Lyss smiled at her and lead her into the kitchen where they started to cook. They made eggs and toast for Perla and some oatmeal for them self. "Eat." was all they said as they placed the dish down in front of her.