Cheyenne stopped when she looked up from wheeling her friend, and they both stared at Ember’s destroyed living room. The magicless fae laughed, then cut it short.
“Oh. Yeah.” The halfling stepped away from the chair to take in the smashed dishes and broken cupboard, the charred holes in the wall, the ripped-up couch still covered in loose feathers from throw pillows used as target practice. “Shit, Em. I totally forgot about the mess in here.”
“Yeah, me too.”
When she turned around to look at her friend with a grimace, Cheyenne only found an amused grin on Ember’s face. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be.”
“I should’ve cleaned all this up. Some kinda welcome home, huh? You don’t need to deal with this—”
“Cheyenne.”
The halfling stopped. If she tells me to get out and leave her alone, that’s fair.
“First of all,” Ember said with a little chuckle, “quit apologizing. It’s just a crappy apartment. Okay, admittedly not as crappy as yours.” She chuckled, and Cheyenne laughed. “But seriously, I really don’t care. My lease is almost up anyway, and this place needed some serious renovations.” The fae girl glanced around the living room and shrugged. “You just gave them a head start.”
The halfling hissed a laugh. “At least I saved your TV.”
“What?”
Cheyenne pointed to the TV stand and Ember’s flatscreen. “Asshole orc almost took it down with him.”
“Well, thank you for saving the most valuable thing in my living room. I think. What happened to the guys who broke in here and started redecorating?”
“I, uh, I called in a cleaning crew.” The halfling snickered.
“I had no idea that was a thing.”
“It wasn’t. Until I made a call and got my own personal FRoE-agent body-removal team.”
Ember’s eyes widened. “There were FRoE agents in my apartment?”
Cheyenne wrinkled her nose and spread her arms. “Sorry?”
Laughing again, Ember glanced down at the wheels of her chair before reaching out to grab them and push herself forward. “Oh. Carpet’s gonna be a little hard to move on around here.”
“Hey, if your lease is almost up, it’s the perfect time to find a new apartment, right? One with no carpet.”
“Cheyenne, I can’t move into a new place with hardwood floors everywhere.” Ember raised her eyebrows and waved her hand at the living room. “I’m barely scraping by with this one.”
“Scratch ‘barely scraping by’ off the list, Em.” The halfling stepped behind the wheelchair again and pushed Ember toward the couch. Then she dropped onto it and nodded. “I wasn’t just being polite when I said I’d help you with everything after the hospital.”
The fae girl snorted. “You don’t do ‘just being polite.’”
“You really know me.”
They shared another laugh, then Ember shook her head. “I can’t piggy-back off you forever, Cheyenne. I appreciate all the help, but you have a bunch of other stuff going on, and I don’t want to drag you down—”
“Shut up.”
“What?”
Cheyenne grinned. “I just told you to shut up. Want me to say it again?”
Ember cocked her head and took a deep breath. She didn’t say anything, but her disbelieving smile made it clear that she was about to give in.
“Look, Em. Part of the reason you were in the hospital in the first place is because of me. Because I didn’t stand up when you asked me to.”
The fae girl snorted. “You’re not getting all mushy on me now, are you?”
“Not this time. But I’m serious. I’m the reason your apartment’s blown to pieces, too, and beyond that, you’re my best friend. I kinda need you around.” The halfling slapped the couch cushion beneath her and nodded. “So, if you start feeling like you don’t deserve my help or like you’re dragging me down, just remember I told you to shut up about it, and we’re good.”
Ember dipped her head and stared at her friend. “You’re really not gonna let me off the hook with this one, are you?”
“Not even a little. I’ll take care of it, Em. Like I said.” Cheyenne glanced around the living room one more time. “You should start looking for a place, huh? I’ll help you with the move too. Make sure it has hardwood floors.”
“That’s too much.” Ember shook her head.
“No, it’s not. Some asshole loyalist blew up my car this morning, and I bought a new Panamera for cash. Might as well start dipping into my inheritance, right? Didn’t even make a dent.”
“I’m pretty sure your inheritance wasn’t intended to buy your newly disabled friend an updated apartment.”
“Em, I can use it for whatever I want. And this is what I wanna do. There’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
Ember tried to make her laugh sound irritated, but it didn’t quite work. “Oh, I know. But I had to at least try.”
“Okay. You tried and failed. Now get over it.” Cheyenne’s lips twitched into another smirk. “Besides, I’m not sure it’s safe for you to live here anymore. Whoever came after me saw me here at your place. They might come back.”
“And they know where you live now too, don’t they?”
That made the halfling pause, and she narrowed her eyes at the fae girl sitting in front of her. “Yeah. That’s a minor issue.”
“You know, if you’re gonna be helping me all the time with my PT and getting me back on my feet, hopefully literally, it wouldn’t be a bad idea if we were roommates for a while.” Ember shrugged. “Just until I get the hang of this chair and doing everything on my own again.”
Cheyenne studied her friend’s hopeful eyes. She’s embarrassed about that part, too. “You really don’t want me to get you a brand-new apartment, do you?”
Laughing, Ember swept her hair away from her face with both hands. “Okay, I’m coming up with another excuse. So what? It makes sense, though. You won’t be driving all over the place to
