Seleshina Advant was having a pretty damn good day. Things were just going right. She yawned, stretching her arms upwards as the kettle hissed, the water boiling over. She grabbed it and twirled, teapot already waiting. Sunlight streamed in through the picturesque windows, hazy curtains disrupting it enough to maintain privacy. Steam curled upwards from the pot as it brewed. The cup was laid out, spoon and the sugar pot carefully prepared. She plated a croissant while she waited for it to brew. Yes, today was a good day. Sure, it could always go wrong later. But for now, she had a lovely meal. It was beautiful out. The apartment was actually mostly clean for once. Sharptooth was in the corner cleaning a gun and sulking. And most importantly, they'd been paid a lot of money to make someone else's day a whole lot worse. All things considered, a simply perfect day.
She studied Sharptooth's pointed ears and hair bound so tight, it almost pulled out of their head entirely. "Sweety, would you like some tea?"
Sharptooth spat.
"Okay babes."
She poured two cups of tea, wedged the tray between an arm and her hip, grabbed the grimoire off the counter with her other hand and worked her way over to the couch. Sharptooth made no movement to clear the pile of gun parts, cleaning rags, oil, bullets, and old notebooks from the coffeetable. Seleshina sighed, and did it herself clumsily, making room for her tray.
Without a word, she passed Sharptooth the grimoire. As she settled into the depths of the couch, sinking into the cushions, Sharptooth began to read aloud from the bookmarked and worn page.
"The boundary walker cannot be conjured by force."
"Mmhmm."
"It cannot be constrained or bound. To tame it is the height of ego and futility."
"Sounds familiar."
"Shut up. The exact nature of the walker is unknown to all, except, perhaps, itself. While it denies the normal rules of magic, it seems to obey its own rules."
"Well, duh."
"Do you want me to keep reading?"
"Hmm." Seleshina made a show out of considering.
Sharptooth glared.
"Could you adopt a silly voice, maybe?"
"Absolutely not."
Seleshina pouted. "Boo!"
"The walker was first documented around 3 decades ago. While sightings of similar beings date back centuries, it is unclear if this is the same being or merely a similar one."
"Fascinating", said Seleshina, the sarcasm dripping off her tongue.
"A more complete study of the being was performed by Markus Duluth in 1996. However, his madness was already quite present by this point forcing us to scrutinize carefully any of his results. As is well known to experts in the field, his death ultimately came about from the beast itself. However, I speculate that prolonged exposure to the beast was the direct cause of his degraded-"
"Okay, but like, it is one of yours, right?"
"No."
"How would you know? When was the last time you hung out with your family?"
"Fuck off."
"Aww, you love it, babes."
"...his degraded sanity. The walker is often linked to madness and I hypothesize it is drawn to breaks in sanity. This may be an indication of how it hunts. The insane are more vulnerable, naturally separated from society. Perhaps it can only truly be comprehended by-". Sharptooth stopped abruptly. "Are you even listening?"
"Not really."
"Isn't this interesting to you?"
"Eh." Seleshina drained the last of the tea, and wiped the croissant crumbs from her mouth. "Really, I just wanna know how to kill it."
Sharptooth laughed once, genuinely amused. "You know what, love?" They leaned in quickly to steal a kiss. "I do too."
"God, you're so sexy when you talk violence", whispered Seleshina.
Sharptooth bared needle sharp teeth, running twin tentacle-like tongues between them. "Prove it."
The discarded grimoire flew into air, bouncing once off the wall. It landed on its spine and held for just a moment, before the pages starting flipping on their own as though ruffled by the wind. They stopped on a sketch labelled "The Walker", a picture of a mostly humanoid figure with a scribble for a face. The picture hesitated for just a moment. Then it slipped off the page and back into the shadows from whence it came.
Neither noticed. Instead, the two of them flew onto each other, scrabbling to be the one on top. Tongues met teeth and claws went down backs. God, this was a good day all right.