Matters of the heart (figurative and literal)

“W-wait!” Mina blurted out. “I’m feeling a little lightheaded. Should we stop? What if I lose too much blood?”

The smile that Satin gave her was gentle and patient, but very tired. “I haven’t put the needle in yet, dear,” she said.

“...Right.” Mina sat back in her chair, feeling foolish. Lucy wriggled in her lap, and she gave the ribbow a squeeze with one arm. The other was still tensed on the chair’s armrest, but she made a concentrated effort to relax it, which was probably a little bit counterproductive.

Right, okay. Deep breaths. Deeeep breaths.

Mina had jumped right away at the opportunity to volunteer for the emergency blood drive. With all of the scary and unexplainable things happening around town, she had snapped up any chance to do something that felt like it was helping. She’d even taken the whole morning off of work just for this!

She just, um. Was terrified of needles.

That seemed really silly, right? A seamstress afraid of needles didn’t make a lot of sense. There was a big difference in working with needles and sticking them in yourself, though!

Satin looked so tired though, just like all of the church acolytes and nuns that were helping out with the blood drive. They’d all been hit hard by what was happening. Mina wanted to be as untroublesome of a patient for them as possible, so she took a few more deep breaths and did everything in her power to relax.

“O-okay,” she said. “I’m just not going to look, so… go ahead. Whenever you’re ready.”

Satin smiled again and laid a hand on Mina’s arm, smoothing her fur back to find a good place for a vein. “It won’t be so bad,” she promised. “All you’ll feel is a little pinch, and it’ll be over before you know it.”

Mina nodded, but squeezed Lucy tighter. She’d brought it along for emotional support, but she was probably stressing the poor thing out with her own stress. She’d have to stop by Quince to see if there were any imp treats available along with snacks for the donors. That would be a good reward for being so brave… for both of them.

The pinch that Satin had promised made Mina wince, but she tried her hardest to stay still rather than jerking away from the needle. The pain didn’t actually last for very long, but there was an itchy discomfort that took its place, and she had to fight not to squirm.

“Remember to breathe deeply and evenly, okay?” Satin said, resting one hand on Mina’s for a moment. After Mina nodded, Satin pressed something that felt like a stress ball into her hand. “Squeeze this nice and slowly but firmly, every few seconds. That will help the bloodflow. And just let me know if you actually start feeling sick, okay?”

“Right. Yes.” Mina’s words came out choppy, as she tried to focus on regulating her breathing, squeezing the stress ball, and not thinking about the needle or her blood as much as possible. She petted Lucy’s head a bit frantically until the ribbow protested and burrowed closer to her body to be held again.

“Sorry, buddy,” she murmured to it. “You’re doing great, I promise.”

“You’re both doing great,” Satin reassured her, sounding a bit more like her usual chipper self. “This will all be over in a few minutes, and then you can go and get something sweet to eat.”

That perked Lucy right up, and Mina did smile. “You hear that? Treats soon!” Lucy wriggled in excitement; like most imps, the promise of treats could get it through just about anything (short of going to the vet, anyway).

Okay. Yeah, this wasn’t so bad, as long as she didn’t look at the needle or the bloodbag filling up. It was just hard to focus anywhere else. “Hey, Satin… could we chat about something so I don’t have to think about this?”

“Sure.” Satin patted Mina’s hand again. “So, did that last date I set you up with work out?”

“...On second thought, maybe we shouldn’t talk about things.”

“Oh come on!” Satin planted her hands on her hips . “So it went badly?”

Mina sighed. “It wasn’t bad, we just… didn’t really click. We were interested in a lot of the same things but too much, you know? It’s hard to have a deep conversation when you say you like something, and then they say ‘Yeah, me too!’ and nothing else.”

Satin hummed, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully. “Really? I matched you because it seemed like you didn’t have the same sorts of interests, and I thought that would make for an interesting dynamic.”

“Wait, really?”

Satin nodded emphatically. “I’m very sure of it! Unless one of you made a mistake, or lied on your matchmaking forms…”

Seeing her expression start to turn intense, Mina frantically waved her free hand. “Definitely not! I don’t think anyone would do that… not after having to fill out that whole thing…” she added under her breath.

“What was that?”

“I said, what do you think was up with them then, if there wasn’t a mistake in the questionnaires?” Mina quickly course-corrected.

“Hmm… if I had to guess, maybe they were honest on the form, but not with you - they wanted to connect, so they just agreed with everything you said. That happens sometimes.” Satin sighed. “I know I tell everyone to just be themselves, but I really do mean that. Demons can see people for who they really are, so there’s no point in trying to fool each other if you can’t fool the ones that rule the heart.”

“That’s… surprisingly deep,” Mina said after a moment.

“What do you mean surprisingly?” Satin huffed, but she couldn’t fully keep a smile off of her face. “Oh look - you’re just about done. Give me one more big squeeze, and then I think I can take the needle out, okay?”

“You got it!” With renewed vigor driven by the knowledge that she was almost free, and the desire not to talk anymore about her awkward date, Mina gave the stress ball her mightiest squeeze yet and didn’t relax until Satin told her to.

The removal of the needle was uncomfortable just like the rest, but Mina sighed with relief when it was gone. Satin bandaged her arm and carefully helped her out of the chair. Cradling Lucy, Mina finally looked over at the full bag beside the chair, red and glistening.

“Oh, wow, that’s… a lot of blood…” Wooziness hit her all at once, and Satin quickly took her by the shoulders and started steering her towards the volunteers handling the snacks.

“Go get that blood sugar up right now, miss,” Satin said, taking on a hint of Mercy’s business-like demeanor.

“You got it,” Mina said, significantly wobblier this time. Lucy, fed up with the whole ordeal, fought her grip all the way to the snack table, desperate to get the promised reward for having to go through all of this.

Mina could agree with that sentiment. It was starting to look like she’d be taking the afternoon off, too.

“Sit down, have something to eat and drink, and don’t try to leave until you feel better, okay?” Satin said, depositing her in a new and much less scary chair by the refreshments. She waited for Mina to nod in agreement, before adding, “And why don’t you call your date up and give it a second try? I think things could really work out between you two, but you have to be honest with each other!”

“Satin, please,” Mina whined. “You just took all my blood, can’t we talk about this later?”

“Just think about it!” Satin nearly sing-songed, turning to return to her station. Mina noted the renewed spring in her step as she went, fueled by talk of romance.

And by Mina’s suffering, probably. Definitely the suffering.