“My name for you is DeepPeace.”

The words flowed yet again through his mind, as he lay on the bed she had prepared for him. The ceiling space above him was stuffed with the balloons she gave him.

“Your name for me is Athena.”

She lay in her own bed, a couple rooms over. This floor was one floor beneath the dance hall. There was another floor beneath that, used mainly as a wine cellar. It was all empty now—she inherited the building and the land from the previous co-owners, who had been killed in accidents the day that she and he became who they were. The liquor licenses died with them, so she sold all the booze to other bars and used the money to pay off the old debts and close the place.

“I want us to be partners. You have talents I want. I have talents you want. We can be very good for each other.”

She was already asleep. She and his other travelling companion, for which she pitched a carnival tent. Nobody would see him…in his pegasus form or his MiG-23 jet form.