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Leo managed to find some quiet back in his bedroom. He had been trying to reset his laptop with little success. Missy had decided to waste her time out in the living room, much to his delight. He didn’t need to hear her groveling over breaking his thing nor did he need any stupid ideas she might have. Leo turned on the laptop again for the fifth time. He quickly shifted it into safe mode and started the process all over again. There had to be something he could get out of this.

The scrape of furniture along the floor broke Leo out of his staring. Looks like he couldn’t have even a shred of time to himself. He set the laptop down and walked out into the living room. “Missy? What are you doing?” he asked. It was safe to be on the offensive.

“Cleaning!” she yelled back. A tinge of anger was in her voice. He rounded the corner to find her in the kitchen. All the chairs around the dining table had been pulled out, and she was fervently sweeping something. Maybe he had gotten through to her after all. She dropped the broom accidentally and she loudly growled. Or maybe he hadn’t. “Stupid fucking hands!” She shook her hands violently, as if trying to shake them off. Missy stared at the broom, then picked it up. She went right back to the sweeping only to drop it again. Leo took a step forward. Missy turned to grab at the dustpan next to her but only managed to knock it over. She hissed and kicked the thing, only sending dust about. The outburst almost startled Leo.

Leo held up his hands, then put them back down. Probably shouldn’t act like you’re flaunting your superiority. “Easy. No need to get so worked up.”

“I’m trying, see! I’m really goddamn trying! I can’t do anything with these stupid things!” She smacked her hand on the table in defiance, instantly recoiling in pain. “Agh, fuck!”

“Why didn’t you just use the vacuum? You had no trouble with that last time.” Leo crossed his arms.

“I was going to, but I can’t plug the fucking thing in. At all.” Something told Leo she was being more defeatist than actually working in reality. Not that he’d tell that to her directly. “So I thought, hey, I’m a big girl, I can use the broom. No. Not at all.” She rubbed her hand.

Leo walked around the table, picking up the broom and dustpan. “Show me how you were grabbing it,” he said, holding them up to her. Missy sighed and grabbed them. Awkwardly, of course. She wrapped her whole hand around the handles, giving her very little manipulation. “OK, OK, stop. Let’s just do this once at a time, OK?”

“It’s not gonna make a difference,” Missy replied quietly. “Just kick me out already.”

“We don’t want that. Now c’mon.” He set aside the dustpan and held up the broom. “Like this.” He pointed his index finger down, then wrapped the rest of his hand around the handle. “Now you try.”

“I said it’s not gonna make a difference, Leo,” Missy said, voice rising.

“It will. Grab it.” He pushed it into her hand. She took it up and crudely copied him. “See? You have a greater range of motion now and a more firm grip.” Leo carefully manipulated her fingers so they would better grip the thing. “There. Now try. Make sure this pushes against your elbow.” Missy tried it. She was more effective at mess cleaning than ever before, which was a huge bonus. “Not so hard, is it?”

Missy swept for a few seconds. “No.”

“So now you just hold the dustpan like before and...” He carefully handled her arms, helping her sweep along dirt into the pan. “Presto. Got it?”

“This is like when that ghost helped that lady do pottery.” Leo sighed and pulled away from her. At least she was back to her old self. “Did’ja mean it?” she asked as she slowly swept.

“Do you ever clarify?”

“That you didn’t want me to leave.” He did say ‘we’ didn’t he? That annoying little word that had to be shoved into his vocabulary.

Leo turned away and shook his head. “I want you to be better.”

“That’s not the question here,” Missy replied calmly. Her eyes were focused on the sweeping but he could still somehow feel her staring at him. A small smile tugged on the corners of her mouth. Wouldn’t have surprised him if she somehow had another set of pupils hidden underneath the white of her eye.

“No, I don’t. I do, however, want you to improve yourself.”

“So you really do want me to stay, huh?”

“I said ‘don’t want you to leave’, but sure.”

“I want you to say it though,” Missy said in a cutesy voice.

Leo rolled his eyes. “I answered the question. That’s all you’ll get out of me.” He didn’t want to say the next part, which was, since he knew about her now, he’d feel some ounce of tiny, itchy guilt that would plague him for the rest of his days. It wouldn’t hurt. It would annoy. Endlessly. Only slightly more than she already annoyed him. Like a thumbtack inched into his forehead.

“Uhuh.” Her smile widened. She probably knew that too. It hurt just how much Missy was stupid and yet so intuitive. “It makes me happy, you know?”

“Good to hear.” Leo stopped himself from furrowing his brow as he always did.

Missy’s sweeping slowed. “Because like, when you think about it, none of the other guys probably wanted me to stay other than for—” he rolled her head “—ya know.”

“Right.” He wanted to leave but couldn’t in the off chance that she screwed up again.

“You though. Ain’t nothing to it other than liking me.” Her smile softened, which only fired alarms in his head. She was about to say something stupid. “I guess this is the best place for me.” Wait for it. “Since uh, you don’t wanna do it.” There it was. Missy had some semblance of a point, no amtter how stupidly she put it. “I’m clean, honest.” And how stupidly she continued to put it.

“Just keep at the work, OK?” Leo said, ignoring most of her rambling. He moved to the fridge and pulled out a fruit drink. “You’ve gotten the hang of it now.”

“I wanna do something for tomorrow. That OK?”

Not really. “What’d you have in mind?” Leo asked, only barely masking the disinterest in his voice.

“I saw you with all those funny fish hooks. We could go out to the lake and fish, huh? That sound good?”

Leo sipped his drink. “You mean I would fish and you would sit there, right?”

“I got long arms. Could reach out and snatch some fish!”

“You are not dirtying your arms like that. Plus you don’t know what bacteria’s in there.”

Missy stuck out her tongue. “OK, yeah, you fish then. Just make sure you don’t dump me when you catch a fish lady.”

“Not to worry, I’m sure you’re one of a kind in the monster category.” It made him appreciate for a moment that Missy had legs to walk around on and didn’t have to crawl everywhere or maybe inch along like a caterpillar. He certainly lucked out in the monstrosity department. Though again, if she existed, who knew what miserable creations roamed the Earth?

“Good to hear. I’ll be expecting my trophy any day now!” She stepped back and examined her handiwork. Leo did much of the shame. For such an uneasy grip, she had managed to do a reasonable job. “It did make a difference.” She nodded. “Thanks, Leo.” That sounded earnest.

“You’re welcome.”

“So about those clothes...”

Leo set down his drink and took the cleaning tools away from her. “We’ll talk about them after you work more, alright?”

“Fine, fine, but I get to pick!”

“I guess that’s fair.” All the worst novelty clothes flashed through his thoughts. Maybe that wasn’t fair. Not to him and his eyes. “I get to see them first, though.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll wear ‘em just for you.”

He had zero doubts she would do exactly that. “Before you buy them.”

“Where’s the fun in that?”