Sure enough, the house was dead quiet by the time of their return, save for the faint snoring from her mother’s bedroom. Cami and Helena took turns shushing each other as they tiptoed up the stairs.

“Do you have people over often?” Helena asked.

Cami shrugged, throwing her jacket over her desk chair. “Usually just Jane. Speaking of, uh, I don’t really have a guest room, but…”

“I’m fine with sleeping here,” Helena said. “If, like, that’s okay with you.”

“Of course it is!” Cami blurted out, maybe a bit too quickly. “I mean, why wouldn’t it be?” Besides the painfully unresolved romantic tension, of course.

“I mean, I’ve never stayed the night before. And after such a weird day, it’s understandable if you want your own space.”

And normally, Cami would. Normally, this kind of day would leave her nonverbal and hiding in her closet for at least a day and a half.

But not now. This was Cami on adrenaline. Shit, what a feeling.

“I’m good,” she insisted, beaming. “So, do you want me to nab a sleeping bag?”

“A sleeping bag?” Helena echoed, blinking. Cami got the vaguest sense she’d said something wrong, but it was probably just the long day making her second-guess everything. “Uh, sure. If I wake up with a sore back, though, you owe me.”

“It’s a good sleeping bag,” Cami said. “Jane’s never complained.”

Helena rolled her eyes. “Yeah, okay. But just so you know, I’m hanging out on your bed until we actually sleep.” With a dramatic twirl, she flopped down on Cami’s bed. “We can treat it like a sleepover. Like we’re in middle school, playing truth or dare or whatever.”

Cami, who hadn’t been to her first sleepover until 11th grade, put on a nervous smile and sat down beside her. “Well, we can’t play with only two people, can we?”

“I guess not.” Helena sighed. “Which means we can just… like, talk or something. Lots to talk about, after all.”

“Like what?”

“The everything,” Helena said, spreading her arms out. “I mean, really. How many different magical beings are currently in our shit?”

Cami mulled this over. “Well, there’re the Factions, obviously. The fey, the werewolves, the vampires, and… whatever Rachel is.”

“I think she’s literally just Mothman’s cousin or something. And also a witch.” Helena laughed. “Y’know, as one is.”

“And they want to assimilate humanity into a world where they don’t have to hide anymore.”

Helena nodded, her gaze fixed on the ceiling. “But Bow said they might not be who they say they are. That they really want to enslave humanity or something.”

Cami rolled her eyes. “Sounds like a conspiracy theory.” Maybe it had some truth to it. Maybe the Factions wanted power. But total world domination? That was something else. “Like, look at Trintio. He doesn’t want to enslave humanity.”

“Are you sure?”

“Like, 90% sure.” You could never be certain with that one, after all. Before Helena could press further, she went on, “I say we have faith in them. Not unwavering faith, but… Rainbow’s just one person, and for a bunch of supernatural monsters, they’re not that bad.”

Helena chuckled, a bitter sound. “I’m pretty sure they see humans as disposable.”

“But we’ll always remind them we aren’t.”

“We?” Helena echoed. “Cami, you’re not human.”

Cami’s heart skipped a beat. Right: she wasn’t human. “Well,” she blurted out, “neither are you. So there.”

“Fair point.” Helena stretched a hand out, and again, flickers of light danced between her fingertips. “So, we've got our maybe-evil mentor figures. Rainbow, who’s hard to know anything about at this point. And then that… her name was Atwater, right? Lillian Atwater?”

Cami groaned. “Yeah, she’s definitely part of a cult, right?”

“Definitely,” Helena said. “Y’know, I actually met Rainbow when investigating the old barn that the Lone Angel people hung around in. I think they’re, like, planning something.”

“But Rainbow seems more worried about the factions, right?”

“I guess.” Helena shook her head. “We should keep an eye on Lily, though. Her whole situation feels like the kind where if we ignore it too long, it’ll fester and eventually do some serious damage.”

Cami tried to laugh, but nothing came out. Helena was right. “We’ll keep an eye on her,” she confirmed.

“Good talk.” Helena sat up, stretching. “Guess we should dig out the sleeping bag, huh?”

“Wait,” Cami said, taking her by the arm. “Do you want to just… sleep here?”

Helena hesitated, looking down to where Cami had grabbed her.

“The sleeping bag is all the way downstairs,” Cami prattled on, “and I don’t want to wake up my mom, and--”

“You really are something,” Helena said, a strange smile blooming on her face. “I thought you’d never ask.”

“I’m bad at asking,” Cami admitted. “But you know I like you, right?”

“Oh, do you?” She said it so teasingly. So fucking teasingly. Cami wasn’t sure whether she wanted to kiss or strangle the woman.

Before Cami could answer, Helena laid herself back down. Their faces were mere inches apart. Up this close, Cami took in everything: the curls in her bangs, the deep brown of her eyes, the floral perfume she used…

“I do know,” Helena murmured. “In case that wasn’t obvious before.”

Her hand drifted to the side of Cami’s face, tucking a lock behind her ear.

“Then why are you…” Cami sputtered for words. “Why are you like this? It feels like everything’s a game, and I never know what’s going on in your head, and--”

Helena’s hand glided down Cami’s cheek, stopping under her chin. Cami prayed the other girl couldn’t hear her heartbeat, or see the blush crawling up her face.

“I can be a bit more explicit,” Helena said. “If that’s what you want.”

Cami managed the tiniest nod.

And Helena kissed her.

It wasn’t like Cami hadn’t kissed other girls before. She’d had a girlfriend briefly in her high school’s GSA. She’d had tipsy girls at house parties climb all over her, the one out gay girl. But this? This was different. Different in how Helena held her face, how their limbs so naturally intertwined, how for some sweet seconds, they were the only people in the world.

When Cami pulled back, she blinked away stars. “That,” she murmured, “was pretty explicit.”

“Good.” Helena’s hands still hadn’t moved. Her thumb traced along Cami’s jaw. “I think I’ll make it a habit. To be more explicit with you.”

“I think I’d like that,” Cami said.

“Goodnight, Cami.” Without another word, Helena let go and turned onto her back, her eyes fluttering shut.

Because of course she did.

“Goodnight,” Cami said. It was, after all, a very good night. She let sleep overtake her without protest, and slept so deeply she didn’t so much as dream.