by M&CNICFYYY2K
"1,347."
"Excuse me?" she says, trying not to look too surprised of seeing me pop in front of her. Right, like she could'a seen me coming when I'm running at full speed.
"1,347 people in the city."
She goes back to unpacking her stuff and doesn't bother looking at me as she talks. "Unless there was a recent plague or alien invasion I'm unaware of, that's impossible."
I let myself fall backwards, and before I reach the floor there's a sofa under me to break my fall. She can't not be impressed by that trick. "Well, actually, I got bored after counting 1,437... or something. I kinda lost count."
"I'm surprised you can count that high," she sternly replies, not the slightest bit of playfulness in her voice. She looks at me for half a second, only to verify what I'm sitting on. "Move that sofa out of my room, if you don't want me to turn it into ashes."
I get up, and the sofa is gone. It's good I returned it now, 'cause the family in Denver I took it from were starting to wonder what was going on. "Listen, Alf, I've been meaning to ask..."
My words are cut short by the cold look she's giving me now. I wonder if she has heat vision. Man, I hope she doesn't have heat vision.
"My name is Alfhild," she informs me. "Not Alf, Alfhid. Alf is a furry alien who hides in your kitchen and threatens to eat your cat, but never does. Alfhild never threatens. She does."
Suddenly, I'm extremely glad Mr. Mittens is safe back at my dad's. "Aaaanyway..." I can't help swallowing saliva before I speak again, but I guess that's less telling of how much she scares me than talking with a broken voice "...I wanted to ask you, you got any actual powers, or is that 'little friend' of yours everything you got goin' for yourself?"
"You'll find out when they send us on our first assignment... assuming you don't get killed within the first five seconds."
All right, I figure that's enough small talk. Time to work some subtle Du moves. "Hey, don't you think it's weird that the big boys put a dude and a chick of close age living together?"
"What do you mean?" Oh, you know what I mean. I love it when they play hard to get.
"I mean... maybe they expected us to, like... mate or something, don't you think?" She looks at me again, and this time the coldness is gone. No, there's something else there... lust, maybe? "I mean, they do this sort of thing all the time," I continue, now that I've got her attention. "The next step of human evolution could be one night away. Think about it."
"Will..." she says, standing in front of me, the sexual tension so dense it almost crushes our bodies, "...I'm gay."
She's all mine. The old Du magic once again...
Wait. Did she just say she's gay?
"Oh." I sit on a borrowed beach chair. "Yeah... that makes sense. I mean, with a name like Alfhild... I can't say I'm surprised, really."
"And even if I wasn't, with a codename like 'SNAP,' I can't say the prospect of intercourse with you sounds too exciting."
"Y-yeah. Well, now that the tension between us is dealt with, we can finally get to work. I'll be in my room, in case you need me."
That went well.