Crimson Ties

Reverie started working on the mortal plane over a century ago, but she still couldn’t manage to wrap her head around dating, let alone romance. Wasn’t it silly to put yourself out there, just to have your heart shattered by different people until you found the “correct” person? At this point, she was starting to think humans were just masochistic.

However, pain helps people to grow, as she’d seen herself over the years— and that was the one lesson her kid desperately needed to learn.

Well… Noah wasn’t a kid anymore, technically. Teenager was the correct term. She’d raised him since he was a kid, though, so was calling him that really an issue?

Either way, she almost couldn’t believe she’d raised this boy up from a paranoid little kid to a young gentleman learning to take proper risks. He even worked up the courage to go to his school’s prom this year, despite his parents’ fearmongering in a final desperate attempt to regain control over his life. Seriously, how would he even die from the party lights’ radiation?

Reverie laughed as she remembered his mother’s pleas, causing Noah to flinch.

“What…?” came his hesitant voice— it had deepened over the years, but it was still just as soft as when he first made the deal.

“Nothing, hon, don’t worry your pretty mind. Just wondering at the absurdity of humans, if y’know.” She ruffled his hair. “So, who’s the lucky person?”

He started to blush, looking away as his hand instinctively held the collar of his clothes. “Just a classmate of mine… they’re really nice to me and all, so I asked them to be my prom date… so we’re going together.”

Reverie tilted her head with a smile, cupping his face with her hand— Hells, his stubble was coming in strong— and even after all this time, he still leaned into her touch.

She’d taught him well.

“Aww, how adorable! What’s their favorite color, by chance? I’ve got a ton of ties!” She opened her own jacket to reveal a multitude of ties on the inside.

“How’d you… get those?”

“Not important! Now, favorite color, please and thank you.”

He paused, taking a moment to consider. “It’s… it’s red, I believe.”

With a snap of her fingers, the different shades of red ties all laid flat upon Noah’s bed. “Solid choice! I’ve got ruby, vermilion, carmine, wine… pick your poison!”

The gentleman’s eyes darted between the different shades, taking a few minutes to pick a perfectly tinted crimson tie that matched with his suit. “I didn’t even know there were that many shades of red…” he muttered under his breath, putting it around his neck and starting to fumble with it.

Watching him fidget with it, Reverie picked up her own tie like it was an eldritch being before placing it around her own neck and attempting to configure it into something vaguely tie-shaped. When she’d ‘borrowed’ these ties, she’d never thought of how hellish it’d be to tie them… was this an invention from Satan she missed out on?

It had to be at least five minutes of them both struggling before Noah spoke up again. “Can’t your magic… like… tie the ties for us?”

Reverie resisted the urge to hit the wall— with a tie, of course. She clapped her hands with some reluctance, almost praying it wouldn’t work so she’d feel justified in her stupidity, but…

Lo and behold, magic was the only thing it took to get them both feeling proper for prom. At least it saved them both some headache?

For the first time in a good while, Noah genuinely smiled. “Thank you, Mom… I— I mean Rev.”

Reverie was not ashamed of the tears she shed as she hugged her kid— her son. “Of course, kid! Enjoy that prom, okay? I know you’ll do amazing, and there’s chaperones you can go to if stuff goes wrong— which it won’t. And one final thing, if that classmate ever hurts you…”

With a sigh, he nodded. “I’ll come to you, I promise… please don’t kill them, though.”

“It depends on what they do. But I don’t mean to be a buzzkill— go have fun! I love you!”

Noah hugged her one last time before heading out, and she transformed back to her plushie form in peace.

Maybe he would finally break the cycle, after all.