For all your shitty RT fanfic needs

The group finally arrived back in the teleportation room of the base. “I told you already, Vagabond, I guess the universe just associates death with darkness and that’s why we can use shadows to teleport between Purgatory and the real world!” Michael said in an annoyed tone.

“I’m sorry. I just thought you would understand this better since you’ve obviously been a Grim Reaper longer than I have,” Ryan replied. “Also, the Vagabond was murdered tonight, so you can just call me Ryan, now.”

“Well, why aren’t you asking your precious soulmate any of these questions?!”

“Because I know that ‘Gavin Free’ has only been dead for a couple of weeks. So obviously he couldn’t have been a Grim Reaper for all that long.”

“It feels like I’ve been a Grim Reaper for only a couple of days,” Gavin said as he nuzzled into Ryan’s side.

Jeremy chuckled. “As eventful as this night, or day, has been, I’m honestly surprised that Geoff isn’t in here to yell at us,” he said.

“Me too,” Michael admitted.

“Who’s Geoff?” Ryan asked.

“He’s the Grim Reaper that’s in charge of the AH branch. He’s the one who’s going to be teaching you how to be a Grim Reaper and shit. Or at least he would be, but he might pussy out because he was low-key afraid of the Vagabond.”

“Ah, okay then.”

“Actually, can we wait a bit to bring Ryan to Geoff?” Gavin asked.

“Let me guess, you want to go consummate your,” Jeremy started to ask.

“Jeremy, I don’t want to say it out loud!”

“I…” Michael started to object. Then he paused for a moment. He remembered how excited he was to go get it on with his soulmate for the first time and how much he fought for that opportunity. He sighed in defeat. “You two are going to go fuck whether or not I think you should, right now. Gavin, just give me your soul collector case and go do whatever you two are going to do. But be quick about it. Geoff’s already going to ride our asses for being late getting back here.”

Gavin rapidly nodded and tossed his soul collector case at Michael. He eagerly grabbed Ryan’s wrist and dragged him out of the room.

Michael and Jeremy walked to the judgement room. Michael took the first soul out of Gavin’s case and weighed it for judgement. “Wow, you were a lot less harsh on Gavin about him wanting to run off with Ryan than I thought you’d be,” Jeremy said.

“I remember how eager I was to start the intimacy of Lindsay’s and my relationship when we first got together. I got extremely pissed at Geoff when he was working her so hard that she didn’t have time for me,” Michael explained.

“I think I remember that, actually.”

“I wasn’t going to get in the way of Gavin and… Ryan’s, I think, intimacy. I may be a dick sometimes, but I’m not a hypocrite.”

“Or are you low-key afraid of him because he was the Vagabond?”

“I mean, I was at first. But then I walked in on Gavin kissing him and he seemed more like an insecure, lovestruck dork after that.”

“What, like someone who’s not used to romance?”

“Pretty much.”

Jeremy nodded and started to pull the souls he reaped out of his own soul case. After about a half an hour, the two of them were finished weighing their souls for judgement and putting them into their proper afterlives.

“I’m still surprised that Geoff hasn’t come here to yell at us,” Jeremy commented.

“He’s probably just expecting us to put away the souls, then report to him and explain ourselves,” Michael replied.

“He probably wants to yell at Gavin and meet the new reaper, though.”

“I… really wouldn’t go disrupt them. I have a feeling that we probably wouldn’t want to interrupt whatever they’re doing.”

“Or whoever’s doing who,” Jeremy said. Then the two of them shuddered at the imagery.

“Come on, let’s just go report to Geoff,” Michael said. Jeremy nodded and the two of them walked to Geoff’s office.

Jeremy gulped when he got to the office and Michael sighed. He opened the door for him and Jeremy and the both walked in. Geoff’s chair was turned around, facing the opposite wall. Jack was standing beside the desk and he raised an eyebrow when he saw the two of them walk in.

“Gavin,” Geoff started. “Care to explain yourself? Because I know that you’ve got to be the reason that everyone was late getting back to base,” he asked.

“Um, Gavin’s not in here,” Jack pointed out.

“Wait, what?” Geoff asked as he spun his chair around. Jeremy started sniggering in anticipation and Michael smacked him in the arm. “And where’s the new Grim Reaper? I thought you said you could get him!” he demanded from Michael.

“Oh, we got the new Grim Reaper…” Michael started to say.

“But he and Gavin are busy, right now,” Jeremy finished.

“Why would the new Grim Reaper be busy with Gavin?” Jack asked.

“Look, there was a bit of a situation with the new Grim Reaper and Gavin…” Michael trailed off.

“What is Gavin doing to the new Grim Reaper?!” Geoff demanded to know.

“You know, Gavin doesn’t really seem like he’d be on the giving end of whatever’s probably going on,” Jeremy said.

“Dude…” Michael said.

“What? Gavin just seems like he’d be a bottom.”

“That’s not something that I want to think about!”

“Where is Gavin hiding the new Grim Reaper?!” Geoff yelled.

“They’re probably in Gavin’s room. But if they’re doing what I think they’re doing, it’s not something that you would want to interrupt,” Michael quickly explained.

“I understand that the restrictions that we put on Gavin aren’t the easiest for him, but I’m trying to keep him from damning himself to a hell-like afterlife!”

“I know, but…”

“And withholding a new Grim Reaper from us is just going to damn him even faster. We are really trying to give him the redemption that the universe thought he deserved. He has to be willing to work with us so we can help him!”

“And normally, I would have sent Gavin and the new Grim Reaper your way, immediately. But considering the circumstances, I thought letting the two of them be would cause less problems,” Michael tried to explain.

“Letting Gavin break more rules is just causing more problems,” Jack said.

“You said that they’re in Gavin’s room?” Geoff asked.

“Most likely,” Michael replied.

“I don’t know, at least one of them might be into voyeurism,” Jeremy said as he sniggered.

“What?” Jack asked.

Geoff immediately stood up and marched to the door. “Wait!” Michael tried to call out after him. Geoff ignored him and stomped out the door.

“Wait, what did you mean by ‘one might be into voyeurism’?” Jack asked.

“I pretty sure at least one of them actually is into it because I’m sure that Gavin and Ryan were totally going to fuck in that warehouse if Michael hadn’t told them to cut it out,” Jeremy said, trying to stifle a laugh.

“Wait, Ryan? Wasn’t that what Gavin called the…” Jack trailed off as he realized what the situation was. “OH NO!!!!” he yelped as he ran out the door.

He ran to Gavin’s room in hopes that he’d find Geoff there. When he got there, he saw Geoff standing there, staring into the room and slack jawed. Jack could guess what Geoff was staring at, but the moan that came out of the room confirmed his fear.

Jack inched over to the door. He turned towards the room so he could shut the door, and cringed at the very intimate site that was clearly not meant for his eyes. He saw Gavin, covered only in a bedsheet, writhing in bed as a muscular man, who looked to be equally as covered, seemed to be messing with him underneath the sheets.

“Ryan! Quit bloody teasing me and just fuck me, already! I need you inside me!” Gavin moaned.

“Just making sure that you’re ready for me,” the other man said with a smirk. “But wait, do you have condoms in your nightstand or in your bathroom?” he asked.

“We’re both already dead, so what does safe sex matter at this point?!”

“Fair point.”

Gavin rolled his eyes and pulled the man down into a kiss. The sheets on the bed scooted lower on the bed and Jack quickly shut the door before he would get an eyeful of more things that he didn’t need to see.

“… Jack…?” Geoff slowly asked.

Jack jumped because he had momentarily forgotten that Geoff was there. “Yes, dear?” he asked.

“Gavin… was about to have sex with the new Grim Reaper…”

“Yeah, that… that was starting to happen…”

“Was the new Grim Reaper… the Vagabond?” Geoff asked.

“I…” Jack started to say, but couldn’t remember anything about what the Vagabond was like. “I’m not actually familiar with the Vagabond from any reaping missions that you sent me on, so I couldn’t tell you.”

“Gavin is probably getting fucked by the Vagabond…”

“Come on, let’s get you back to your office,” Jack said as he grabbed Geoff and pulled him back to his office.

When the two of them got back to the office, Geoff was still wide eyed and slack jawed. Jeremy saw Geoff’s face and he doubled over, laughing. Jack had to guide Geoff back to his chair and sit him down.

Michael sighed. “I can only assume you saw what we assumed was happening,” he said.

“Yes, and it raises several questions,” Jack replied.

“And I can answer them as best as I can.”

“Okay… is our new Grim Reaper, the Vagabond?”

“He was when he was alive, but I’m pretty sure he’d rather go by Ryan now.”

“How did he die? And how did he end up as a Grim Reaper instead of being sent to a hell-like afterlife?”

“Okay, so it turns out that he was doing some extra volunteer with soup kitchens and animal shelters outside of being a mercenary, so his fellow mercenaries decided to kill him. The fact that he could interact with Gavin and fell in love with him while nobody else could see him didn’t help his case…”

“So, the Vagabond did volunteer work to help people?”

Michael shrugged. “Apparently. The other mercenaries didn’t like that he did that he was trying to be a decent human being. But they also thought that he needed to be disposed of because he was batshit crazy for being in love with someone who ‘wasn’t real’,” Michael explained, making air quotations with his fingers.

“Gavin and the Vagabond are fucking…” Geoff trialed off.

“Yeah, turns out that Gavin had every right to be angry with us when we were saying that a newer, more innocent soulmate would come around for him because it turns out that he actually IS Ryan’s soulmate, as well.”

“Holy fucking shit…”

“Yeah, Gavin and Ryan are soulmates, so we should probably get used to this. Let’s just let them finish getting acquainted with each other,” Michael said.

“…I think I need a drink…”

“I’ll go get you a Diet Coke,” Jack offered as he walked to the door of the office door.

“Not what I meant…”

“Yes, it was,” Jack said as he left the room.

Two hours passed as everyone waited in Geoff’s office for Gavin and Ryan. Jack brought Geoff several Diet Cokes to calm his nerves. Jeremy made fun of everyone for being so wrong about the Vagabond and for passing unnecessary judgment when death was supposed to be impartial.

“Do you think that someone should get them?” Jeremy asked.

“Not at all. They are having their initial soulmate time and it might be messy if we try and interrupt that, again,” Geoff said as he shuttered.

The door to the office started to open and everybody looked towards the door. A tanner hand that clearly belonged to Gavin was on the doorknob. Everyone eagerly waited for Gavin to finish opening the door, but there was a sudden pause.

“You know, Ryan,” Gavin started to say. “There’s been something that’s been on my mind ever since you became a Grim Reaper, a few hours ago, that I was wondering if you knew anything about.”

“I mean, there’s not a lot I know about being a Grim Reaper…” Ryan trailed off.

“Actually, it’s about your appearance.”

Ryan blinked in surprise. “Oh! What about my appearance?”

“Before you were Grim Reaper-ifed, you had black hair. How come your hair is dark blonde, now?” Gavin asked.

“Would you believe me if I said I thought dying it black would make me look creepier when I first became a mercenary?”

“Really?”

“I thought it was unnecessary work, later on. But I had a brand to keep up with,” Ryan explained. Gavin started to giggle. “What?”

“You are such a dork,” Gavin laughed.

Ryan gave him a peck on the lips to shut him up. “Don’t be mean.”

“Don’t worry, I love you too much.”

“No such thing as too much. Now come on, let’s go meet everyone else,” Ryan said as he pressed against Gavin’s hand that was on the doorknob to fully open the door.

The two of them walk into the office. Gavin’s hair was all over the place and Ryan’s was down and messy. Neither of their shirts were tucked in. Gavin’s shirt was poorly buttoned and he wasn’t wearing any of his silver jewelry besides his rings. Ryan wasn’t wearing his jacket or belt.

“So, how was consummating the soulmate-relationship?” Michael asked.

Gavin’s face turned beet red. “I thought you didn’t want to hear about it!” he yelled.

“We don’t need to talk about it if Gavin’s not comfortable talking about it,” Ryan said. Geoff gulped; he already knew more about it than he wanted to. Ryan heard Geoff’s gulp and turned to face him. “Is there something you’d like to say on the subject?” Ryan asked.

“Ryan!” Gavin scolded as he lightly batted Ryan’s arm.

“No, not at all!” Geoff quickly replied.

“Alright then. And I’m assuming that you’re Geoff because you’re the one sitting at the desk,” Ryan said. Then he looked up at Jack. “No offense,” he said to him.

“None taken because you’re right. He’s Geoff and I’m Jack, his assistant and soulmate,” Jack replied.

“Nice to know Gavin and I aren’t the only soulmates around here.”

“Hey, I have a soulmate who’s a Grim Reaper, too,” Michael argued. Ryan nodded in response.

Geoff coughed. “Right, so I have a few questions for you,” he said.

“Ask away,” Ryan replied.

“Are you really the Vagabond?” he asked.

“I was, but I’m pretty sure that I can’t do that anymore.”

“You can’t be a mercenary as a Grim Reaper. Well, you could, but then you would be damning yourself to a hell-like afterlife and nobody wants that,” Jeremy replied.

Ryan shrugged in indifference. “I know I don’t want to go to hell. I just want to enjoy whatever constitutes as an afterlife with the man I love.”

“D’aw, Rye-bread,” Gavin said. He got on his tippy-toes and kissed Ryan on the cheek.

“What made you want to stop being a mercenary?” Jack asked.

“I was born and raised as a killer. But once I got to the outside world, I was able to see some of the good in it. I saw that there were people that needed help and there were people who were willing to help others. It made me realize that not everyone deserved to die and I didn’t want to be a part of killing good people. Of course, I was scared of how little I knew about how to be a good person myself, but I tried to do volunteer work so I could learn how to be good and so I could eventually feel confident enough to leave the mercenary work, behind. Obviously, that never happened. But, I’m here now, and I can do something useful for the universe. Maybe get a good afterlife in the end. But for now, I’m just happy I get to spend it with Gavin,” Ryan explained, finishing up his story by giving Gavin a kiss on the lips.

Michael smirked. “So, you’re not actually the cold-hearted mercenary that everyone makes you out to be?” he asked.

“He’s actually pretty warm and snuggly,” Gavin cooed. Ryan snorted and pulled Gavin close.

Geoff and Jack looked at how close and intimate Gavin and Ryan were acting with each other, then back at each other in understanding. They both had been completely wrong about the type of person that the Vagabond, or Ryan, really was.

Jeremy coughed. “I told you so,” he said as he coughed again.

“What was that?” Geoff asked.

“Nothing,” he quickly replied.

Geoff sighed. “Come on, Let’s make Ryan his welcoming dinner. Then was can show him the basics of being a Grim Reaper,” he announced as he stood up.

Everyone else went to follow Geoff out the door. “Wait, where’s Lindsay? I bet she would love to meet Ryan,” Michael asked.

“She’s just cleaning up the souls of the daytime deaths in Los Santos,” Jack explained.

“Ah.”

Everyone exited the room to hear loud feminine screeching. “Who’s that?” Ryan asked.

“I think that’s…” Michael started to answer before Lindsay slammed into him and shoved her lips onto his. Michael blinked in surprise, but quickly fell into the kiss.

Geoff gagged. “Haven’t I dealt with enough PDA for one day?!” he complained.

“Technically, whatever you saw with Ryan and Gavin wasn’t PDA. You brought that one on yourself,” Jeremy said.

“You saw Ryan and I…” Gavin yelped. Ryan pulled him closer and shushed him to calm him down.

Michael and Lindsay’s kiss broke. “Lindsay, I love you very much and I’m not saying that I didn’t appreciate it, but what brought that on?” Michael asked.

“Michael,” Lindsay started to say as she grabbed Michael’s hands. “We can finally move on!”

“Wait, what are you talking about?”

“I just met my soul quota!”

“So that means…” Michael started to say. Lindsay started nodding, furiously. Michael broke out into a huge grin. “We can finally move on to our heavenly afterlife?!” he asked in excitement.

“WE CAN GO TO OUR HEAVENLY AFTERLIFE!” she cheered. Michael pulled Lindsay into another kiss and everyone started clapping.

“Are you two ready to go?” Geoff asked.

“Duh!” Lindsay replied.

“It’s about damn time!” Michael added.

“Then let’s all walk you to the judgement room. Might be a good opportunity to show Ryan where the judgement room is, as well,” Geoff said.

“Wait, who’s Ryan?” Lindsay asked.

“I’m Ryan,” Ryan replied. Lindsay looked over at him. “Formerly known as the Vagabond, but currently known as a Grim Reaper and as Gavin’s soulmate. It’s a shame that I didn’t really get a chance to get to know you guys.”

“Hey, you’ll get to meet us again when you and Gavin make it to your heavenly afterlives,” Michael replied.

“Looking forward to it, then.”

“Alright, let’s stop holding these two up and go see them off,” Geoff announced.

Everyone followed behind Michael and Lindsay as they walked to the judgement room. They got to the room and saw the scale of judgement, and the two doors with mail slots on them. “So, I assume you weigh souls against that dove feather, there. It looks like if that scale weighs less than the feather and tips to the left, it goes to this heavenly afterlife that you talk about. Then if it weighs more than the feather and tips to the right, it goes to hell. Is that how this works?” Ryan asked.

Geoff stared at Ryan in shock. “How the fuck did you get that right on the first guess?!” he asked.

Ryan shrugged. “A hunch,” he replied.

“Can we let these two go now?” Jack asked.

“Right,” Geoff replied.

He walked over to the door to the heavenly afterlife and unlocked the door. Michael and Lindsay bounced up and down in excitement. “I just say thank you for everything, Michael. You let me play boss even though it was clear that you had more experience than me. And thank you, Lindsay, for handling everything us dumb old men couldn’t. We’re going to miss you both,” Geoff said.

“Thank you for helping us all out here,” Jack said.

“You’ll always be my bros,” Jeremy said.

“Michael, my boi, thank you for helping me out as I figured out my soulmate situation. And thank you Lindsay for keeping us all together,” Gavin said.

“I was nice to meet you guys,” Ryan said.

“It was amazing getting to work with you two. Now, go have an amazing afterlife,” Geoff said as he opened the door to the heavenly afterlife.

Michael and Lindsay gave everyone hugs. Lindsay went through the door first. Michael stood in the doorway, framed by its light. “I’ll see you guys again, soon,” he said, before entering the heavenly afterlife and disappearing for good.

Geoff shut the door to the heavenly afterlife and wiped a tear from his eye. “Don’t think I’ve ever gotten to see something as beautiful as a Grim Reaper finally moving on,” he said.

“It will be even more beautiful when we get to move on, one day,” Jack said.

“And we’ll keep working hard until we do,” Jeremy added.

“Now, come on. I think I promised to make our new Grim Reaper dinner,” Geoff said.

“Please don’t make the new reaper pomegranate and chicken stew, again,” Jeremy said.

“I mean, I do like pomegranates. But I more so associate them with sweeter things. Or they do go well in salads. Can you even get salads in Purgatory?” Ryan thought aloud.

“I’ll see what else we have around here. I can make a pomegranate tart for desert or something. But come on, let’s go make some dinner before we get to work,” Geoff said as he ushered everyone out of the room.

Jack and Jeremy followed behind Geoff. Gavin went to follow the two of them but paused when he noticed that Ryan wasn’t moving. “Rye?” he asked.

Ryan turned to face him. “It’s starting to hit me that I’m dead and it’s my job to lead people to their afterlives. I’m not gonna lie, it’s a lot to take in,” he said.

“You’re picking up on everything a lot faster than I did. I still haven’t figured it all out, yet.” Gavin paused what he was saying and offered a hand out to Ryan. “But we can figure it out together.”

Ryan looked down at Gavin’s hand and smiled. He grabbed it and held it snug. “Have I ever told you that you are the best thing that’s ever happened to me? In life and after.”

He got to Gavin’s room and knocked on the door. “GO AWAY!” Gavin called out from inside.

“Gavin, it’s me, Jeremy. May I come in?” he asked.

“Whatever,” Gavin said, more quietly.

Jeremy nodded and opened the door. He saw Gavin curled up on his bed, clutching a pillow. His face was red and tears were still dripping down his face. Gavin let out a choked sob and Jeremy’s eye’s widened; he didn’t realize that Gavin would be that upset.

Jeremy opened his mouth to ask Gavin what was wrong. “Why did I even let you in here? You’re probably just going to ride into me about how Ryan is going to a hell-like afterlife and I should give up on loving him,” Gavin whined.

Jeremy shut his mouth, then opened it, again. “Wait, why would you think I’m going to tell you that?”

“Everyone else told me that. So, why would you be any different?”

“Because I’m not everyone else,” he replied. Gavin groaned in response. Jeremy rolled his eyes. “I have a different experience with the Vagabond,” he started to say.

“Ryan,” Gavin interrupted to correct him.

“…a different experience with Ryan,” Jeremy repeated.

“Well, I don’t want to hear it!”

“But I think you’ll appreciate it.” Gavin sighed but didn’t interrupt him. “There was one time a few months ago, or maybe a few years ago in the mortal world, where I had to go reap the soul of a Vagabond victim,” Jeremy started his story.

“I got to the location of where the murder would be taking place, early. I saw a man beating a woman, blaming her for making the drug cartels come after them. There was a loud explosion that shook the building. This made the man start beating the woman, more, because the cartels had sent someone to kill them. Then the Vagabond came into the room, looking as intimidating as ever.

“The man jumped, but said that his bitch was wasting all of the money that they should have been sending the cartels. She said that her son was in the hospital and she needed the money to pay for the hospital bills. The man punched her in the jaw and I’m pretty sure he broke it. He said that she was the one that should be killed today, and the Vagabond shot him in the head, point blank.”

“Is this supposed to make me think that he’s a bad guy?” Gavin finally interrupted to ask.

“Well, I’m not done with the story,” Jeremy replied. “After he shot the man, he walked over to the woman and asked her if she was alright. She shook her head. He asked her if he would like him to help her to a clinic. She said that she would be fine. Then he asked if the man he just killed had life insurance. She said that she was pretty sure that he did. He gave her some of the cash that he had in his pocket and suggested using that life insurance payout to paid the cartels back what was owed. But he recommended going to one of the many charities around to help pay her son’s medical bills. She hugged him profusely for not hurting her further. He said he was just doing what was right.”

“That… that doesn’t make him seem like a bad guy at all,” Gavin said in awe.

“In my opinion, as skewed as the Vaga- I mean Ryan’s morals are, it’s clear that he does have good ones.”

“Does that mean that you think that he’s going to be condemned to a hell-like afterlife?”

“There’s too much gray area there to be completely sure. But I’m pretty sure he’s not gonna be guaranteed a hell-like afterlife.”

Gavin wiped his eyes and got up. He ran over and pulled Jeremy into a huge hug. “I’m glad at least someone isn’t discouraging my newfound love,” he said into Jeremy’s shoulder.

Jeremy hugged him back. The hug lasted a few minutes before Gavin released him. “By the way, Michael and I have a big shootout mission that we’re supposed to take care of in a bit. Would you like to come with us?” he asked.

Gavin sighed. “I’m not sure that I want to, but I know that I should. But, I’m not sure that I want to talk to Michael.”

“I’ll mediate if you need me to.”

“Thank you,” Gavin said with a smile.

“Now come on, let’s go,” Jeremy said.

Gavin cleaned himself up a little bit, then joined Jeremy at the door to his room. Jeremy opened to door and Michael was standing there.

“What do you want?” Jeremy asked.

“Well, I heard that you went to go comfort Gavin and I got to thinking…” Michael paused and turned towards Gavin. Gavin grimaced in dread of whatever he was going to say. Jeremy prepared himself to step in, if necessary. “Look Gavin,” Michael continued. “I wanted to say that I was sorry for being a dick about your soulmate. I’m not sure if things will turn out well with the Vagabond being your soulmate and all, but I know that I would have gotten just as upset if people had been dicks to me about Lindsay being my soulmate when I first found out.”

Gavin raised an eyebrow. “Was that an apology?”

“Yeah, you didn’t deserve the rest of us acting like shitheads.”

“Well… I guess I accept if you’re sorry for being a knobhead about it.”

Jeremy sighed in relief. “Anyway,” he started. “I was thinking that we take Gavin on our shootout mission and hopefully we can both keep him in line this time,” he suggested.

Michael sighed. “Alright, fine,” he replied. Gavin smiled and followed Michael and Jeremy to the teleporter room.

On the way to the teleporter room, they walked by Geoff’s office. Geoff and Jack were still in there. “I see you managed to get Gavin out of his room,” Jack said with a smile.

“Yeah, we wanted to take him on the big shootout reaping mission that you assigned to us,” Jeremy replied.

“Oh no, I don’t want Gavin joining you on that mission,” Geoff said, sternly.

Gavin frowned. “Why not?” Jeremy asked.

“We’re supposed to be getting a brand-new Grim Reaper on this mission, so I need to be the one that’s going with you.”

“Wow! Two new Grim Reapers in just over a couple of days?! That’s insane!” Jeremy exclaimed.

Michael rolled his eyes. “I can handle adding a new Grim Reaper to our branch,” he said.

“Oh really?” Geoff asked, sarcastically.

“I handled adding you and Jack, back in the day. So, I know I could do it, again.”

“Well… he’s not wrong…” Jack commented.

“…Fine…” Geoff grumbled.

“Come on,” Michael said as he led Gavin and Jeremy away.

“By the way, thanks for that,” Gavin said.

“Don’t thank me yet. We still got shit to do,” he replied. Gavin nodded.

The three of them walked to the teleporter room. Michael punched in the coordinates and the three of them got on the teleporter. They teleported to a brightly lit warehouse in downtown Los Santos.

In the warehouse, they saw a bunch of dead bodies on the ground, already. “Well come on, our work is already cut out for us,” Jeremy said. Michael nodded and the two of them started to reap souls.

Gavin stared for a minute and saw who was causing these dead bodies. He saw the Vagabond joined by the Pasta and the Sauce shooting what looked to be grunts from another gang in Los Santos. He gulped.

Michael looked over and saw that Gavin wasn’t doing anything. “Don’t just stand there. Go reap souls!” he called out. Gavin opened his mouth to respond. “And don’t let the Vagabond see or hear you. You have a job to do and you can’t shirk your responsibilities!” Gavin sighed and nodded. He ran off to start collecting souls.

The Vagabond paused when he thought he heard Gavin’s sigh. “Don’t stop doing your job!” the Pasta angrily yelled at the Vagabond. The Vagabond shook his head and continued to kill the grunts in the room.

Every couple of minutes, Gavin would stop reaping souls to stare longingly at the Vagabond, all while making sure he stayed hidden from his eyesight. Jeremy and Michael would both catch him and call him out, making him get back to his job.

After about fifteen minutes, every grunt in the room was dead. “Hey did we miss a soul? Because I didn’t feel anything that might be a Grim Reaper. Or do we have to go back to base before we get out new Reaper?” Jeremy asked.

“No, we get out new reaper while we’re in the mortal world. Come on, let’s look around and see if we missed one,” Michael replied. He and Jeremy went to work looking for the new Grim Reaper while Gavin paused.

The Vagabond paused and looked around, all while Gavin tried to stay out of his eyesight. “What looking for your precious ‘Gavin’?” the Pasta asked in a mocking tone.

“Sorta,” the Vagabond replied. “He might not be here yet because the job isn’t complete, yet.”

“You’re right, the job isn’t complete,” the Sauce replied.

“We haven’t killed the leader of these grunts. I’m assuming that we need to do that, first, before the job is done and Gavin will show up to reap everyone’s souls.”

“Their boss isn’t here,” the Pasta said.

“Well, I guess we need to go find where they’re…” the Vagabond was cut off when he suddenly gasped in pain as he felt a tight pressure in his right shoulder. He looked down and saw a gaping hole in his shoulder that was spewing blood. He looked back up and saw that the Sauce had shot him. “What the fuck, Sauce?!” he asked as he sunk to his knees.

Gavin slammed his hands over his mouth in shock. He saw the Pasta and the Sauce walk over to the wounded Vagabond. “Vagabond,” the Pasta started to say. “The Sauce and I have realized that you’ve lost your mind. And not in the way that’s good for the business,” he finished

“What do you… mean…?” the Vagabond heaved in pain.

“A lovesick Vagabond isn’t an effective Vagabond. The Vagabond isn’t supposed to have a heart,” the Sauce explained.

“But…”

“Especially when the person that you think that you’re in love with isn’t real!” the Pasta yelled.

“Gavin is real! I even kissed him, last night! I’m his soulmate and I’m sure he’s mine!” he protested.

“I seriously doubt that. And this ‘lovesickness’ bullshit doesn’t even cover it all. Don’t think that we don’t know about the charity work that you’ve been ‘secretly’ doing at the soup kitchen as well,” the Pasta taunted.

“And that’s not even mentioning the work at the animal shelter,” the Sauce added.

“But… they’re innocent…” the Vagabond tried to defend himself.

“Nobody’s innocent, Vagabond. You of all people should know that! And if you’re someone who’s started to believe in the good in the world, then you are no longer any good for the mercenary world,” the Pasta finished.

“Or the world in general,” the Sauce added.

The Pasta pointed his gun at the Vagabond. Gavin’s eyes widened in horror. “NO!!!!!!!!!!” he screamed as he ran over to him.

The Vagabond quickly looked over towards Gavin. “Gav-” he started to say, but was cut off when the Pasta pulled the trigger. Gavin tried to make it over to him, but stopped short when he saw a bullet pierce the Vagabond’s temple. The bullet went straight through his skull and he fell over, dead.

Gavin dropped to the floor and started sobbing. Michael and Jeremy looked over at the Vagabond and Gavin and their jaws dropped. “Is he… dead?” Jeremy asked.

“I’m pretty sure that he is…” Michael slowly replied.

Gavin watched the Pasta and the Sauce exit the building as tears streamed down his face. Michael and Jeremy rushed over to Gavin and gave him hugs. “This… is all… my fault…” he cried.

“I’m sure it wasn’t all your fault,” Jeremy tried to reassure him.

“But it was my fault! They killed him because he was in love with me!”

“I’m sure that it was more complicated than that. I mean they were pissed at him for doing some volunteer work on the side,” Michael said.

“It doesn’t matter!”

“We should probably head out, though. Geoff probably gonna be pissed at us for not being able to find that new Grim Reaper like he said we were gonna have,” Jeremy said.

“But we do have to reap the Vagabond’s soul, first,” Michael replied.

“I want to do it,” Gavin sniffled.

“Are you sure? Because I know you were weirdly attached to him and…”

“I want to be able to hold him, one last time,” Gavin replied.

Michael and Jeremy nodded and let Gavin go. Gavin got up and walked over to the Vagabond’s body. “Ryan…” he said as he slowly reached down to grab his soul.

He reached down into Ryan’s chest to grab his soul, but gasped when he felt a hand grab his.

“Gavin…” he faintly heard Ryan’s voice say.

“Ryan?” Gavin shakily asked.

“Help me up. My head kind of hurts…” he heard Ryan’s voice say, again.

Gavin didn’t know is he was hallucinating out of grief, but he still had to do his job. He tried to pull the soul out with one hand, but wasn’t quite strong enough. He reached his other hand into Ryan’s chest and was able to pull Ryan’s soul out.

Ryan’s soul wasn’t how souls normally were when he reaped them. Ryan’s soul was just a translucent copy of him, except all of his clothes had become black and white and he wasn’t wearing a mask or face paint. The copy became solid as soon as it stepped out of the body.

“God… what the hell just happened,” Ryan asked.

“This… this shouldn’t be possible… I just saw you get shot in the head…” Gavin trailed off.

“I…” Ryan paused and looked down at the ground. He shivered when he saw his own corpse. “Ew… there is something REALLY unnerving about seeing your own corpse…”

Michael and Jeremy’s jaws dropped, again. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Michael whispered to Jeremy. Jeremy sniggered.

“I…” Gavin started to say. They he paused and burst into tears. He clutched onto Ryan and hugged him, tightly.

“Whoa, there…”

“I am so bloody sorry! It was my fault that the Pasta and the Sauce killed you. if you hadn’t met me, you’d still be alive right…” Gavin cried.

“Hey, look at me,” Ryan interrupted. Gavin looked up at him. “They were probably planning on killing me for all the other volunteer work I was doing on the side, too.”

“But…”

“But it doesn’t matter anymore because we’re both dead, now. I don’t know what any of this means, but I really want to kiss you, right now. So, may I?” he asked. Gavin hesitantly nodded and Ryan pulled him into a gentle kiss.

The kiss was soft and slow, reassuring Gavin that everything was going to be okay. Gavin’s lips started to move in desperation, wanted to make sure that this was all real, but Ryan quickly retook control to sooth him.

“Well, I guess I we were all doubly wrong,” Michael commented, distracting Gavin and Ryan from their kiss.

“Hey, don’t group me into that,” Jeremy replied.

“Wrong about what?” Gavin asked as he turned back over to Michael and Jeremy.

“Um, Gavin?” Ryan asked. Gavin quickly looked back over to Ryan. They both noticed the bright glow coming from right over Ryan’s heart, just like the one Gavin had when they kissed for the first time.

“Oh my gosh!” Gavin happily replied.

“Does this mean what I think it means?” Ryan asked, a smile creeping onto his face.

“I’m pretty sure it means that I’m your soulmate.”

“It does,” Michael called over. Gavin and Ryan turned to face him and Jeremy. “By the way. I’m Michael, the Grim Reaper that was with Gavin last night. Or at least I’m pretty sure it was last night in the mortal world.”

“And, I’m Jeremy,” Jeremy introduced himself. “The only other Grim Reaper besides Gavin that didn’t think that you were an evil piece of shit.”

“Wait, if you, Michael, and Gavin are all Grim Reapers, what does that make me?” Ryan asked.

“It means you’re one of us, dude,” Michael replied.

“Ryan, you’re a Grim Reaper!” Gavin cheered.

“Does that mean I reap souls and lead them to their afterlives or something? How does that even work?” Ryan asked.

“Doesn’t matter!” Gavin exclaimed as he pulled Ryan back into a kiss.

The kiss felt even more magical, both of them knowing that they were each other’s soulmate. The desperation that Gavin had felt, previously, had turned into a feeling of triumph. He may not have found true love in life but at least he had it, now. Ryan’s lips led Gavin’s in a dance of passion. His tongue entered Gavin’s mouth and their tongues began to move together.

Ryan’s hands migrated to Gavin’s ass. He grabbed it and gave it a gentle squeeze. Gavin moaned in pleasure, then he hopped up, wrapping his legs around Ryan’s waist. Ryan broke the kiss with a groan and began attacking Gavin’s neck. “Oh, Ryan,” Gavin moaned.

“Okay, that’s enough!” Michael yelled. The two of them looked over and saw that Michael was face palming and Jeremy as rolling on the ground, laughing. “I don’t care if you two are voyeuristic, but we still have souls that need to be weighed for judgment. We got to get back to the hub because we have shit to do.”

“Geoff’s face when he see how he was the most wrong about everything is going to be hilarious!” Jeremy wheezed.

“The lot of you are a bunch of knobheads,” Gavin said as he hopped off of Ryan.

“I honestly don’t know either of you well enough to pass judgement. Plus, we kinda were about to …” Ryan trailed off.

“I don’t want to know. Let’s just get back to the hub, then you two can do whatever the fuck you want in your soundproof rooms, or something,” Michael said.

“The rooms are soundproof? I don’t know if I’m happy about that or disappointed,” Ryan taunted.

“Come on, let’s just go back,” Gavin said.

“Let’s.”

“Michael, what are you doing out here?!” Gavin asked.

“I was finishing reaping the souls since you apparently were pulled away by the Vagabond, who I’m still surprised actual can see you,” Michael replied.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for him to see me. And he somehow found out I was dead. And you think the chest glowing means…” Gavin trailed off.

“Gavin, I KNOW that the soul glow means that you just kissed your soulmate for the first time.”

Ryan wasn’t sure that he should relax just yet. “Gavin? Who are you talking to?” he asked.

Gavin turned back to face him. “I’m talking to Michael. He’s a fellow Grim Reaper,” he answered.

Ryan looked back over to the direction that Gavin had been facing and saw no one. “And where is this ‘Michael’?”

“He’s right there,” Gavin replied as he pointed to Michael.

Ryan looked to where he was pointing but didn’t see anyone. “I don’t see anyone there.”

“He’s standing right in the middle of the alleyway.”

“All I see is an empty alleyway.”

“So, you can see me, but you can’t see him?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“Oh…”

“I think that reason that the only Grim Reaper he can see is you is because he’s your soulmate,” Michael tried to explain.

“You think that’s what’s been making him immune to me?”

“You know why I can see you?” Ryan asked.

Gavin smiled and grabbed Ryan’s hands. “Ryan, you’re my soulmate!”

Ryan grinned, wide. “Oh, Gavin,” he trailed off as he pulled Gavin into another kiss.

Gavin normally wasn’t into voyeurism, but at the moment, he didn’t care. He slipped his tongue into Ryan’s mouth and Ryan happily received it. Their tongues started to dance a very intimate dance. Ryan’s tongue was more dominate and Gavin’s was eager yet submissive.

Michael groaned. “But this doesn’t mean that you’re his,” he said to interrupt the kissing.

Gavin broke the kiss and turned to Michael. “Why wouldn’t that mean that I’m his?”

“He’s soul didn’t glow because he’s still alive, so there’s a chance you might not be.”

Gavin sadly looked back at Ryan. “You’re my soulmate, but I might not be yours.”

“That’s preposterous! I can barely believe that soulmates are actually a thing, but why wouldn’t you be my soulmate if I’m yours?!” Ryan demanded.

“I don’t know, Ryan! I only just learned about it myself.”

“I had a wife while I was alive,” Michael admitted. “But obviously she wasn’t my soulmate because my actual soulmate, Lindsay, came along a century after I was already dead.”

“That sound’s like a broken system!”

“The soulmate system is broken?” Ryan asked. Then he sighed. “This is a very confusing conversation to listen to if I can only hear one side of it.”

Michael rolled his eyes and sighed. “Look, Geoff is already going to yell at us for wasting time on Earth. So, we should probably get back to base.”

Gavin sighed, as well. “Ryan, I have to go back to my Grim Reaper hub. I’ll probably get yelled at for being late again.”

“Then go on, I don’t want to get you in trouble,” Ryan replied. Gavin gave Ryan a last quick peck on the lips. “Is it too soon to say I love you?” he asked.

“I think I love you too.”

Michael groaned and went over and grabbed Gavin by the shoulder. He pulled Gavin towards a darker area of the alleyway. Ryan blew Gavin a goodbye kiss as he was being pulled away. Gavin caught it and placed it on his lips.

The two of them teleported back to the AH Branch Grim Reaper hub and were surprised to find that the teleporter room was empty besides them. “Is Geoff here, or does he still go out to reap souls?” Gavin asked.

“He does go out to reap souls because he’s still got a quota to meet,” Michael replied.

“Maybe I dodged a bullet. Obviously, never done that before.”

Michael raised an eyebrow. “Dude, are you joking about your own death? Because if you were, I’d be impressed.”

Gavin shrugged. “I just learned that the deadliest mercenary in the U.S. is my soulmate. I think I’ve earned the right to make morbid jokes.”

“Fair enough.”

“You know, I’ve obviously spoken with him before tonight, and he’s actually quite lovely.”

“You might just be running on the high that happens right after you discover your soulmate.”

“It’s not just a high, this is real.”

“Sure it…”

“Guys,” Jeremy said, interrupting Michael as he walked into the room. “Geoff and Jack would like to speak with you in Geoff’s office.”

“Great, they’re probably gonna yell at me for not keeping you on a tight enough leash,” Michael complained.

“Maybe it won’t be so bad because we have an explanation,” Gavin said hopefully.

“Probably not, now come on,” Michael said as he led Gavin to Geoff’s office. Geoff sat at his desk, looking disdainfully at the two of them, and Jack looked mildly disappointed.

“Michael, I’m shocked that you couldn’t keep Gavin straight during that. And Gavin, what’s it gonna take to get you stop setting yourself up for eternal damnation?!” Geoff scolded the two of them.

“I was just trying to collect the souls while Gavin was being dragged away. Then when I when to go collect Gavin, I stumbled upon a… situation,” Michael started to explain.

“I wouldn’t call it a situation, Michael... I’d call it a beautiful revelation,” Gavin said as he started to gaze at the ceiling in wonder.

“What ‘beautiful revelation’ could you have possibly had when you were dragged away?” Jack asked.

“Ryan is… my soulmate…” Gavin slowly replied as a droopy smile formed on his face.

Geoff’s eyebrows furrowed. “Gavin, the Vagabond is NOT your soulmate.”

“No, he is,” Michael said.

“What the fuck are you talking about?! I thought you of all people would think that’s a load of shit!”

“Well it turns out that the Vagabond actually is immune to him being a Grim Reaper. I know because when I went to go get him, I walked in on him kissing the Vagabond. His soul was glowing, so he was kissing his soulmate.”

Geoff and Jack’s jaws dropped. “Oh no…” Jack said.

“He’s lovely and earnest. I’m actually glad that he’s my soulmate…” Gavin trailed off.

“Gavin, I’m so sorry,” Geoff said, somberly.

“Why the bloody toss would you be sorry? Ryan is wonderfully kind!”

Geoff rolled his eyes. “I’m sorry that you’re not going to get to spend the rest of eternity with your soulmate.”

Gavin snapped out of his daze. “Wait, what the bloody toss are you talking about?”

“You’re not going to get to spend the rest of eternity with your soulmate because the Vagabond is going to be condemned to a hell-like afterlife,” Jack explained.

Gavin’s eyebrows shot up. “YOU DON’T BLOODY KNOW THAT!” he screamed.

“Do you really think that the deadliest mercenary in the United States is going to be granted a heavenly afterlife?!” Geoff yelled back.

“Then I’ll just send myself to hell, with him!”

“No, you fucking won’t! I will do everything in my fucking power to make sure that you get a heavenly afterlife!”

“But Ryan’s not a bad person, though! He told me that he doesn’t even like being a mercenary!”

“I’m willing to bet he was lying to you!”

“He said he was born into the life of a killer. I know he wishes that he could get out of that life!”

“How do you know?!”

“I…” Gavin paused. In truth, he didn’t actually know if Ryan would want out of the mercenary life. But, he remembered that Ryan had told him that he wasn’t as interested in being a mercenary, anymore. “… a hunch…” he tried to reason, knowing that they wouldn’t believe him if he tried to tell them what Ryan had told him.

“You probably only have that hunch because he’s your soulmate,” Michael said.

“You are all a bunch of knobheads!”

“We’re just being realistic,” Jack explained.

“Realistic?! YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW RYAN LIKE I DO!”

“And you honestly think you know a guy that you just met?!” Geoff exclaimed.

“You got to cut him some slack, though. Gavin had communicated with him before he knew that he was his soulmate,” Michael cut in.

“And Ryan told me that he loves me!” Gavin yelled

“Are you sure about that?” Jack asked.

“He’s not lying, the Vagabond did say that he loved him…” Michael trailed off.

Geoff groaned. “Look, you’re not going to get to spend eternity with your initial criminal soulmate…” Geoff started to say.

“WE WERE CRIMINALS WHEN WE WERE ALIVE!” Gavin yelled to interrupt.

“But, you’ll probably have another, more innocent, soulmate come along in the future,” he finished.

“But… we can’t have more than one…”

“I’ve actually heard of Grim Reapers being soulmates, but one of them ending up being condemned so the universe sends them another on,” Jack though aloud.

“Okay… that doesn’t even make a lot of sense to me,” Michael admitted.

“The soulmate system is a fickle bitch.

Gavin started shaking. “How... fucking… DARE YOU?!?!?!?!” he screamed.

“Gavin…” Jack started to say.

“I AM SO FUCKING DONE WITH THE LOT OF YOU!!!!!!” Gavin screamed as he ran out of the office in tears.

Jeremy walked towards Geoff’s office when Gavin passed him, sobbing. Jeremy raised an eyebrow and walked to Geoff’s office and noticed the dull mood of everyone in the room.

“Uh, what did you do to Gavin? Because he just ran past me, grossly sobbing.” he asked.

Geoff took a deep breath. “It turns out that the Vagabond is Gavin’s soulmate, which sucks for him because he’s not gonna get to spend his future heavenly afterlife with him because everyone knows the Vagabond is going to get a hell-like afterlife,” he explained.

Jeremy paused before replying. “I’m gonna go talk to Gavin, see if I can cheer him up,” he said.

“Good luck with that,” Michael said.

Gavin found a dark corner of the building where the Vagabond’s hit job had been and teleported back to the Grim Reaper hub. He ran into Lindsay in the teleporter room.

“Hey, Gavin,” she greeted him.

“Oh… hi Lindsay,” he replied nervously.

Lindsay noticed how nervous Gavin seemed and raised an eyebrow. “Is something up?” she asked.

“Well…”

“GAVIN?!” Geoff called out from his office.

“…I’m pretty sure I’m in trouble for being late,” Gavin said, sheepishly.

“Yeah, I never really understood the importance of punctuality when it comes to being a Grim Reaper, but Geoff is a stickler for it. I think it’s because he doesn’t want us to be condemned to a hell-like afterlife, but I don’t really know what punctuality has to do with it…”

“Right…”

“GAVIN SERIOUSLY, IF YOU’RE BACK THEN WE NEED TO DISCUSS THINGS!” Geoff called out.

“I guess I got to go,” Gavin said.

“Have fun getting yelled at. I have to go take care of some early morning death in Los Santos,” Lindsay replied as she walked over to the teleporter, entered in her exact coordinates, then teleported away for her job.

Gavin sighed, then left the teleporter room to go to Geoff’s office. He got to the office and saw that Geoff looked mildly annoyed. He had specifically told Gavin not to waste time on Earth while reaping souls, but he didn’t seem to be listening to him. “Why don’t you have a seat,” Geoff said, gesturing to the chairs at his desk. Gavin sighed again and went to go sit down. “Wait before you sit down, did you make sure that you collected all of the souls from your assignment, last night, and weigh them for judgment?” he asked.

“I did collect all of the souls that I was supposed to, but I haven’t weighed them for judgment yet,” Gavin replied.

Geoff immediately stood up. “Well, come on. Let’s weigh them for judgment. Then we can talk,” he said as he started out of the room. Gavin raised an eyebrow, but shook his head and followed Geoff. Before long, they were at the judgment room. “Get out the souls so they can be judged and go to their proper afterlife, if it’s not too late already,” Geoff explained.

“Wait, why would it be too late for a soul to go to it’s proper afterlife? That doesn’t make sense at all!” Gavin asked as he pulled out his soul collection case.

Geoff took the case from him and started pulling the souls out of it. “A soul sits in limbo until it’s placed into its afterlife. The longer a soul sits in limbo, the crazier it will become and its final destination can change from where it was initially intended to go, kinda like when fruit becomes rotten,” he explained as he started weighing the souls.

“How do we know if a soul’s not going where it was originally supposed to go if we bring it in late?” Gavin asked.

“The soul weight will bounce on the scale,” Geoff explained. As soon as he said this, the soul he was currently weighing bounced. “See?”

“I’m sorry for doing this,” Gavin said remorsefully.

Geoff sighed. “I don’t normally have to tell people this because they’re never late when getting back to the hub. So, I gotta ask. What’s making you so late to come back to base? Are you trying to contact people you knew while you were alive or trying to do activities you used to like? Are you still getting too grossed out by dead bodies?”

“No, no. I still think that touching dead bodies is gross, but I’ve started to get distracted…” Gavin admitted.

“Well, what’s distracting you?”

“Ryan’s distracting me. I tried to focus on my job at first, but then he just started being so friendly…”

“Ryan? Who’s Ryan? Is he another Grim Reaper from another branch who’s been working on Los Santos?”

Gavin gulped; he forgot that only he know the Vagabond’s real name. “No… he’s actually the Vagabond…” he trailed off.

Geoff’s eyebrows shot up. “What!? How the hell did you learn the Vagabond’s civilian name!?”

“He told me his name. It’s actually a fitting name for him.”

Geoff rolled his eyes. “I doubt that he was talking to you when you learned his name.”

“But he was though! I was the only other person there!”

“Mortals can’t see Grim Reapers.”

“I know that, but for some reason Ryan can see and hear me.”

“Look, if you claim that the Vagabond is ‘distracting’ you, I’m only going to send you on one more Vagabond training mission. If you get distracted again, I’m pulling you from Vagabond missions and making you apprentice for Michael or Jeremy.”

“But…”

“Go get some food and get ready for your next mission. And no more being late back, got it?”

Gavin sighed. “Got it.”

Gavin got a snack and took a quick break before it was time to teleport to reap the souls of the Vagabond’s kills again. He hopped back on the teleporter and landed right around the corner from the Vagabond. Gavin heard gun shots going off and he gulped. He had to remember to be in and out so he wouldn’t get in trouble.

He rounded the corner and saw the Vagabond with two other men.

“Alright, time to dispose of the bodies,” one of the men said.

“Then we let the Triads know that the men they wanted dead are dead,” the other men said.

“Or we could wait for a minute,” the Vagabond suggested.

“Why would we do that?” the first man asked.

“Because I know Gavin will be here any minute.”

“That’s probably not even his real name,” the second man replied.

Gavin sighed, he just wanted to do his job but he has probably going to get caught up in a conversation with Ryan again. He went to go start collecting the souls of the dead men around them. He was collecting the second soul when Ryan spotted him.

“Gavin, over here,” the Vagabond called out.

Gavin put the soul of the second dead body in his collection case. “Ryan, I need to collect these souls. Otherwise, I’m gonna get in trouble and I won’t be able to see you anymore,” he said.

“Who are you yelling at?” the first man asked.

“I just want you to meet my friends,” Ryan replied to Gavin.

Gavin gulped. He knew that the police that had raided the building where he and Ryan had hidden last night hadn’t been able to see him, but that could have been a fluke. He wanted to know if Ryan truly was the only mortal that could see him, or if he was a broken Grim Reaper.

“Can I at least finish collecting the souls really quickly?” he asked.

Ryan sighed. “Fine. Then come right back over here,” he said.

Gavin nodded. He went and collected the remaining five souls then went over to Ryan. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be too late getting back to the reaper hub this time. “We better make this quick because I don’t want to be banned from reaping the souls of your victims,” he said with a huff.

“Don’t worry Gav, you’ll be fine,” Ryan replied.

“Seriously, who are you talking to?” the second man asked.

“Guys, this is Gavin,” he said gesturing to him. “And this is the Pasta and the Sauce,” he added, pointing to the first and second man.

Gavin gulped. “Um… hello…” he said, sheepishly.

“Where’s this Gavin?” the Pasta asked.

“He’s right here,” Ryan replied, placing a hand on Gavin’s back.

“Vagabond, there’s nobody there,” the Sauce pointed out.

“Oh really? Then whose back do I have my hand on?”

“You’re not touching anyone because it’s just thin air next to you,” the Pasta explained.

“…What…?” Ryan asked in a quiet voice.

Gavin sighed, he guessed it meant that Ryan truly was the only mortal that could see him. “Well, I guess you really are a special case, Rye,” he said.

Ryan looked over at him. “Huh?”

“You really are the only mortal who can see me.”

“What does that even mean!?”

“Vagabond, calm down,” the Sauce said.

“I honestly don’t know what that…” Gavin started to say.

“GAVIN GET BACK TO BASE, NOW!!!!!” Geoff’s voice screamed in Gavin’s head.

“I have to go!” Gavin yelped.

“Wait…”

“I’m sorry, luv,” Gavin said as he ran away into the dark.

Ryan watched as Gavin ran away and gulped. “Wait…” Ryan said quietly.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing that went off in the Pasta’s pocket.

“What’s so important that your burner phone went off?” the Sauce asked.

“Not sure,” the Pasta replied. He pulled out his phone and checked the message. “It wasn’t important for us here in the US, but apparently it was an alert that the heir to the Free mafia in Britain was murdered.” He scrolled down on the article. “Funny enough, the mafia heir had the same name as your imaginary friend, Vagabond.”

Ryan raised an eyebrow and went over to the Pasta’s phone and gasped. The article had a picture of the murdered mafia heir, Gavin Free. The heir in the picture was the same Gavin that had joined the Grim Reaper gang and had been following him around.

“I…” Ryan trailed off. Then he bolted out of the building without saying another word.

Gavin got back to the reaper hub and gulped. Geoff and Jack were waiting for him in the teleporter room. “I gave you one more chance to get back on time and you blew it,” Geoff said.

“I’m sorry. Ryan wanted to introduce me to his mercenary friends, but it turns out that he’s the only mortal who’s capable of seeing, hearing, or touching me without dying,” Gavin tried to explain.

“That’s probably not actually the case.”

“But it’s true though! He’s pulled me along to try and escape cops! He had his hand on my back while he was trying to introduce me to…”

“You can’t reap the souls of the Vagabond’s victims anymore!” Geoff replied, sternly.

“But, Geoff…” Gavin trailed off.

“Wait, I just thought of something,” Jack said. Both Geoff and Gavin looked over to him. “Have you given Gavin a real break yet?”

“Well, he’s had the few hours in between reaping souls of the Vagabond’s victims,” Geoff said.

“But I mean like a real break.”

“…I guess not…”

“Give him time to rest in his room so he will stop trying to spout these crazy assertions that the Vagabond can actually communicate with him. You can still make him apprentice with Michael or Jeremy afterwards if you want, but let the kid rest,” Jack suggested.

“Fine,” Geoff relented.

Gavin involuntarily yawned. “Death can rest? And I didn’t even know that I got a room,” he said.

“There are thousands of other Grim Reapers out there so there’s always going to be someone else to reap the souls of the dead so you can rest. And I’ll show you to your room,” Jack said as he motioned for Gavin to follow him out of the room.

Gavin trudged behind him as Jack led him to an unfamiliar hall. They walked to a room with that had its door open. Jack reached in and flipped on the lights. There was a king-sized bed in the middle, a dresser and a double-door closet to the left side, an open door to a private bathroom on the right. “Here’s your room,” Jack said as he gestured inside.

“…Why do I have a closet?” Gavin asked.

“Because you can get more clothes to wear besides the ones that you died in, but we’ll talk about clothes shopping another time. Just go rest,” Jack replied.

Gavin walked over and faceplanted onto his bed. Jack flipped the lights back off and shut the door. Gavin sighed. He knew he wasn’t wrong about Ryan being able to see him, but he was pretty sure he had been awake ever since he had died. In Grim Reaper time, that was about forty-eight hours with no sleep. He admitted that he should probably rest. He turned over in his bed. He wanted to think about Ryan and hope that he hadn’t hurt him, but sleep overcame him rather quickly.

Gavin’s dreams were rather strange, but not in a disturbing way. He dreamed of a peaceful domestic life with Ryan where neither one of them were criminals. The strangest part of the dream was that he and Ryan seemed to be married. They were both loving and caring husbands to each other. And when the dream started to turn into a wet one, he couldn’t say that he was disinterested in Ryan dominating him in the bedroom.

Before he had a chance to have his release, there was a screaming in his room. “GAVIN!” the voice yelled.

Gavin yelped and sat up with a jolt. He looked and saw that the lights were on in his bedroom and Michael was standing at his bedside. “Michael, you scared me half to death!” Gavin wheezed.

“Dude, you’re already dead,” Michael replied as he rolled his eyes.

Gavin scoffed. “Did you need something?” he asked.

“You’ve been asleep for a day.”

“Really? Wow, I guess I really was tired…”

“Don’t worry about it. Geoff ran Lindsay into the ground when she first became a Grim Reaper, too.”

“So, what now?” Gavin asked.

“Well, since Geoff banned you from solo Vagabond missions, you’re supposed to apprentice under me until Geoff thinks you’re responsible enough to go on solo missions, again.”

“I wasn’t being late on purpose!”

“Doesn’t matter. Get something to eat, then we’re going to reap some more souls. The Vagabond might be around on this job, but I’m gonna kick your ass if I see you trying to run off with him again.”

Gavin sighed. “Fine.”

Gavin got up and grabbed a breakfast bar from the kitchen. He met back up with Michael in the teleportation room. “And before we go, don’t let the Vagabond catch you if you’re so convinced that he’s capable if seeing you,” Michael reminded him.

Gavin nodded. Michael entered in the coordinates of where their job was and he and Gavin got on the teleporter. They found themselves in another building. They saw Ryan taking out some people with the Pasta. Gavin gulped.

“Don’t look at the Vagabond, just focus on the dead bodies,” Michael reminded him.

Gavin nodded and started to collect the souls of the dead bodies that were around them. Gavin glanced over at Ryan whenever he wasn’t looking over. He looked messy and depressed. He was slower than usual and seemed more tired. Gavin could only hope that his exhaustion wasn’t somehow his fault.

Gavin tried to refocus on collecting souls. After one more attempted glance over at Ryan, his eyes accidentally met his. Ryan spotted Gavin and his face grew red. “YOU!!!!” Ryan angrily growled.

“Vagabond?” the Pasta asked.

Gavin gulped when Ryan started marching his way. Ryan got over to Gavin and grabbed his shoulder. Gavin yelped and Ryan began to drag him away. Michael looked over at Gavin after he yelped and saw that he was somehow being pulled away. Michael raised eyebrow. He thought about going after Gavin in an attempt to save him from trouble, but shook his head because he still had a job to do and he didn’t want Geoff chewing him out for letting souls sit in limbo for too long.

Ryan pulled Gavin to the alleyway next to the building and pressed Gavin against the wall. “Ryan, I’m so glad to see you again…” Gavin started to say.

“Just shut the fuck up for a minute!” Ryan growled.

“Ryan, what’s wrong? Was it because…?”

“Trevor and Alfredo couldn’t see you,” Ryan grit out.

“I’m honestly not surprised that they couldn’t. I mean, I don’t even know how you can.”

“You really don’t know how I can see your ghost, Mr. Gavin Free, recently deceased heir to the Free mafia,” Ryan growled out.

Gavin gasped. “You… you found out about my past…” he stuttered.

“Then you disappeared for almost a week, making me doubt my sanity. So, I have to ask, Mr. Free. Why did the ghost of the Free heir feel the need to haunt me and drive me crazy?!”

“I… I’m not a ghost! Grim Reapers aren’t ghosts. And I didn’t choose to haunt you! I was assigned to reap the souls of everyone you kill…” Gavin trailed off.

Ryan ripped off his mask so he could look Gavin in the eyes better. “Why did the ghost of Gavin Free need to make me fall in love with you? I’ve never loved anyone before, but now I don’t even know what’s real and what’s not,” he asked, a tear starting to roll down his face.

Gavin had no idea what he was supposed to do, now. He never intended to break Ryan’s heart. He had to fix this. He thought about the dream he had just had and decided to take a hint from it. He took a deep breath and grabbed Ryan’s chin. He pulled Ryan’s lips to meet his and started kissing him. Ryan blinked a few times before falling into the kiss, both of their lips moving in perfect harmony.

Michael finished reaping all of the souls of both the Vagabond and the Pasta’s victims and decided to go collect Gavin so he wouldn’t get in any more trouble. He made it outside to get Gavin and opened his mouth to call out for him, but closed it when he saw Gavin and the Vagabond kissing.

After a few minutes, the kiss finally broke. Ryan looked at Gavin and smiled. “That felt pretty real to me,” he said.

Gavin smiled back. “That felt pretty real to me, too,” he replied.

Suddenly, Ryan noticed a glowing. He looked down. “Gavin, why is your chest glowing?” he asked.

“What?” Then he looked down and saw that a bright glow was coming from right over where his heart was. “What is this?” he asked as he started batting at his chest.

“Is that not part of what you’re wearing?”

“I have no bloody idea what this is!”

After he went back to base after confronting his mysterious stalker, he let the people who had hired him know that the man that they wanted killed was dead. But then he started to research what he was feeling to try and figure out if he was sick or if it what he was feeling was emotional based. He described his physical symptoms, warmed cheeks and fluttering heartbeat, along with his sudden strong desire to be with and protect someone. All signs pointed to him being in love.

He had never been in love before. He did research on how to act around someone whom you were ‘in love’ with. Being in love was a wondrous feeling and he wanted to celebrate it. The next morning, he made everyone in his base pancakes because he felt that everyone there deserved to be happy as well, even if it wouldn’t be for the same reason.

Trevor woke up to the smell of fresh pancakes and was very confused. He rolled out of bed and walked over to his bedroom door. He opened it and saw that Alfredo was walking towards the smell. “Do you know what’s going on?” Trevor asked.

“No idea,” Alfredo replied. “I think that someone’s making pancakes, but nobody ever cooks at the kitchen we have downstairs.”

“Weird.”

“GUYS!” a new voice yelled. Trevor and Alfredo turned to see a heavyset man walking down the hallway. “Ryan made everyone pancakes this morning,” he told them.

“Shifty, what have I told you about using everyone’s code-names while referring to them,” Trevor said with a scowl.

Shifty rolled his eyes. “Sorry, Pasta. Vagabond made everyone pancakes.”

“What made him do that?” Alfredo asked.

“No idea. He said he was feeling something he had never felt before that was worth celebrating, so he decided that everyone deserved a treat,” Shifty said with a shrug.

Trevor and Alfredo raised their eyebrows and walked downstairs to the kitchen. They saw the rest of their B-Team sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying their pancakes, and they saw the Vagabond at the kitchen stove.

“I've been dancing on top of cars and stumbling out of bars. I follow you through the dark, can't get enough,” the Vagabond sang to himself. “You're the medicine and the pain, the tattoo inside my brain. And, baby, you know it's obvious. I'm a sucker for…”

“VAGABOND!” Trevor angrily called out.

The Vagabond jumped and turned to face Trevor and Alfredo. “Oh, hey guys,” he said with a lopsided smile.

“Why are you making everyone breakfast?” Alfredo asked.

“Oh, have you ever been in love before?” the Vagabond asked as he turned back around and flipped the pancake he was working on.

Alfredo gave Trevor a nervous side-eye, gulped, and shook his head. “Nope, can’t say that I have.”

Trevor rolled his eyes. “Please tell me that this doesn’t have something to do with that mystery LSPD guy who started stalking you,” he said.

“Oh, he’s not LSPD,” the Vagabond replied. “He’s part of some sort of gang of ‘Grim Reapers’ who are supposed to ‘reap to souls of the dead’ or something. And I’m not sure I understand what ‘reaping souls’ entails because all he’s doing is touching the chests of the dead bodies…”

“Vagabond, it could be dangerous,” Alfredo pointed out.

“Hey, we’re at the base so you can just call me, Ryan. And I trust that he’s not dangerous. He sounded wary of me, but I offered him a place at our base if he felt unsafe being a part of whatever gang he’s apart of…” He paused and slid the last pancake he was making onto the plate with the rest of them. “Chocolate chip pancake?” he offered them.

“Ryan, you can’t just invite someone into our group!” Trevor exclaimed.

“And I know I was talking yesterday about how physically beautiful he was, but last night when I confronted him, I learned he’s also British. I’ve never been attracted to anyone, before, but oh my gosh,” Ryan said as a blush bloomed across his cheeks.

Trevor and Alfredo groaned. “Did you at least remember to let the people who hired you for your hit last night that the job was completed?” Alfredo asked.

“Don’t worry, Fredo, I did that before I researched my symptoms because I didn’t want another pay cut,” he replied. “And I didn’t want you two to bitch at me, again, for shrieking responsibility,” he murmured to himself.

Trevor sighed. “Look, I don’t care if you think you’re in love, this guy is a distraction and you need to get rid of him. If the Vagabond is losing his scare-factor because he thinks he’s in love, it affects all of us,” he scolded.

Ryan rolled his eyes. “Fine,” he groaned. He knew that he wasn’t going to harm this mystery man; he wanted nothing more than to be with this man and protect him.

“Anyway, there are regular, chocolate chip, and blueberry pancakes if you want them. I’m gonna go get a shower and dressed for the day because I have some personal business to attend to,” he said as he put the pan and batter bowls in the sink. “I’ll do my dishes in a bit. And I’ll make sure I’ll be back for my drug ring job, tonight,” Ryan finished as he walked away from the kitchen and to his bedroom.

Trevor leaned over to Alfredo and murmured, “This isn’t good.”

“I agree,” Alfredo murmured back.

Later that night, Ryan had been hired to ‘take care’ of someone who had been stealing drugs from a drug lord and selling them for their own profit. Ryan thought stealing from other for a personal profit was pretty sleazy, so it was no sweat off his back.

The drug thief had put up an effort to combat the Vagabond when he came after him, guarding himself with a few disposable underlings, but they were no match for the Vagabond. He finished killing everyone in the drug thief’s base and waited patiently to see if his mysterious British stalker had come to reap the souls of his victims again.

“Oh bollocks,” Ryan heard a British voice say. “There are like fifteen dead bodies!” Then the voice gagged. Ryan turned to see the familiar man leaning over one of the bodies and touching its chest. “I don’t know if that many souls can fit in this tiny collection box,” the man said, holding out an empty hand.

“What box?” Ryan asked as he walked over to the man.

The man shot up and jumped. “Bollocks!” he yelped. Then he looked over at Ryan. “Wait, can you still see and hear me?” he asked.

“Well I mean, as good as a black dress shirt, gray pants and shoes, and silver jewelry look on you, they’re not exactly the best for camouflage. And you’re not exactly the quietest…”

“I’m not in camouflage! Mortals shouldn’t be able to see or hear me at all. It doesn’t make a lick of sense!”

Ryan sighed. “But, we’re all mortal. So, I really don’t know what to tell you.”

“I’m not mortal anymore,” the man said to himself.

“Huh?” Ryan asked.

The man shook his head. “Well,” the man started to say. Then, he paused and sighed. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t curious to know why the Vagabond is immune to everything I was told about what it would be like to be a Grim Reaper…” he trailed off.

“You know that you don’t have to call me, the ‘Vagabond’,” Ryan said. The man raised an eyebrow. Ryan walked over to the man. “My name is Ryan,” he introduced himself, offering out a hand to shake.

The man looked at Ryan’s hand. “I want to shake your hand, but I don’t think you’re supposed to die,” he said, nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Ryan replied. He grabbed the man’s hand and shook it. “By the way, what’s your name? I know you said last night that it would be better if I didn’t know it, but now you know my name. So…”

The man stared at his hand in shock. When the Vagabond had touched him before, he thought it had been a fluke that he hadn’t died on contact. Now he knew that there had to be something more to the Vagabond’s immunity. “Gavin,” the man said.

“Gavin… it suits you…” Ryan trailed off with a smile.

“I’d say ‘Ryan’ suits you, as well, but you’re still a bit too intimidating looking with that mask on,” Gavin replied.

Ryan’s eyes widened. He quickly ripped off his mask, revealing bright blue eyes, shoulder-length black hair that was pulled back into a ponytail, a strong jaw, and a face that had another skull painted on it. “More suited for ‘Ryan’, now?”

“Maybe. I mean, you look a bit like a dork with the skull face-paint on,” Gavin replied with a giggle.

“Hey, I think a skull underneath a skull is pretty freaky. Plus, the face paint adds extra anonymity,” Ryan argued.

“Anyway, this was a nice chat and all, but I really need to go back to collecting the souls of your…” Gavin was cut off by the sound of police sirens going off outside.

Ryan grabbed his wrist. “The Pigs are coming. Come on, I know a place to hide where they won’t find us,” he said as he pulled Gavin behind him. He took him to a hidden underground cellar underneath the building. He used his burner phone as a flashlight and found a candle and matches. He lit the candle. “There we are,” he said with a sigh of relief.

Gavin looked around the cellar; it looked like am abandoned safe for holding liquor or valuables. He looked back up at Ryan and sighed. “I’m pretty sure the Fuzz wouldn’t have been able to see me. You are just somehow an anomaly. I really should ask my bosses about that…” he trailed off.

Ryan didn’t know how much stock he put in Gavin’s assumed invisibility, so he rolled his eyes. “You’ll be safe here for a bit.”

“I’m not sure how much I believe that. I still need to finish reaping all those souls so that they can be weighed for judgement.”

“I don’t even know how you reap souls. All you do is touch the chests of all the corpses and fiddle with your hands.”

Gavin raised an eyebrow. “So, you can’t see the souls that I pull out of the dead bodies, nor the soul collection case?” he asked.

“No… am I supposed to be able to see that?”

“…Hm…”

“Look, maybe we don’t need to talk about souls or dead things. Let’s talk about something happier and more pleasant,” Ryan suggested.

Gavin sighed. “Things would be happier and more pleasant if you would let me do my job…”

“Do you have any hobbies? Do you like video games?” Ryan interrupted to ask.

“I mean… I liked doing slow-motion cinematography when I was alive. My family discouraged me from doing that. And I did like video games…” Gavin replied.

“What’s your favorite video game?”

Nobody had asked him about what he liked yet as a Grim Reaper. So, this was a nice change of pace. “I was rather fond of Hitman. Kind of ironic considering how much I hated real-life violence,” Gavin replied with a chuckle.

“And yet, you chose to be a ‘Grim Reaper’,” Ryan replied, smirking .

“Psh, I didn’t choose to be a ‘Grim Reaper’. The job kinda chose me, against my will,” Gavin said with a smirk.

“Kinda like me and being a mercenary,” Ryan admitted.

“Really?” Gavin asked in surprise.

Ryan nodded. “I was born and raised to be a killer. Not sure I like it all that much, anymore. But if it’s an excuse to talk to you, I guess I’ll take it.”

“Ryan, no! I don’t want to be your excuse for killing people!” Gavin argued.

“Alright. So anyway, do you want to come back to my hideout and not kill people in the real world by playing Hitman with me?” Ryan offered.

Gavin offered him a smile. “That sounds…”

“Gavin!?” Geoff’s voice rang out in his head, distracting him. “I know that fifteen souls is a lot of souls for you to reap, but it shouldn’t be taking you that long to collect them all!”

“Like I have to go now!” Gavin yelped in a panicked voice.

“But wait,” Ryan started to say.

“It was nice talking to you, but I have to go do my job!” he interrupted as he ran up to the door of the cellar.

“I’ll see you again, right?”

“As long as I’m supposed to reap the souls of everyone you kill,” Gavin finished as he ran out of the cellar.

Two other mercenaries noticed that the Vagabond was acting a bit strange after the hit he committed last night. The Vagabond was already late getting back to their hideout after the job was finished, so something had to have happened to make him so distracted. The mercenaries, the Pasta and the Sauce, decided to look into it to make sure he wasn’t too distracted to focus on the hit job that he had tonight.

The Pasta and the Sauce walked into the Vagabond’s room to catch him absentmindedly sharpening one of his knives. “Ryan!” the Pasta called out to get his attention.

Ryan yelped and dropped his knife. He looked up and saw the two other mercenaries in his room. “Sorry, you two startled me,” he said. The two mercenaries side-eyed each other; the Vagabond wasn’t supposed to get startled. “What’s up, Trevor?” he finished asking the Pasta.

“Well,” Trevor started.

“It’s just that you’ve been acting all spacey and distracted since your hit last night,” the Sauce said, finishing Trevor’s thought.

“Sorry, Alfredo. I’ve just been thinking about the man I saw last night…” Ryan trailed off.

“Man?”

“Was he the first person to ever traumatize the big bad Vagabond?” Trevor asked.

“…Actually, he was the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen…”

“Wait what?” Alfredo asked.

“There was just something about something about his perfectly tanned skin and beautiful blonde hair was hypnotic. And that’s not even mentioning his gorgeous hazel-green eyes...”

“Wait, wait, no! You cannot possibly be distracted because you fell in love at first sight!” Trevor exclaimed.

“Love?” Ryan questioned. He had never been in love before, so he wasn’t quite sure this was love. “I’m not so sure that I’m in love with the stranger… I haven’t even talked to him.”

“You don’t know if this guy was actually LSPD,” Alfredo said.

“I really don’t think this guy is LSPD.”

“Are you just saying that because you think he’s pretty?” Trevor asked.

“No. I admit that he was hovering around the corpse, but he was just talking to himself and fiddling with his pocket. It was weird. And he was rather distraught about the fact that I could see him…”

“Was he trying to hide or something?”

“Not really. He was wearing a black dress shirt, gray pants and shoes, and silver jewelry. It’s not really good for camouflage if that’s what he was trying to do. Though, the outfit did look really good on him.” Ryan murmured the last part of that to himself.

“This whole situation seems pretty sketchy,” Alfredo commented.

“You better hope that you never see this guy again,” Trevor said.

“That’s the thing though, I WANT to see him again!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Ryan…”

“There was something that was just so alluring about this man. I wish that I could meet him again. I want to know why he was looking at dead bodies. I want to know why he was stalking me, or was it just any murder that he was observing. Does something make me special?”

“Ryan, you have to be careful about these things,” Alfredo said.

“You don’t know who you can trust,” Trevor added.

“I trust you guys.”

Trevor and Alfredo shook their heads and sighed; Ryan normally never would have admitted that he trusted them. The Vagabond was even less right in the head than usual. “Look, did you at least let the person who hired you know that you killed the man they wanted dead last night?”

Ryan’s eyes widened. “FUCK I FORGOT TO DO THAT!”

“Well you should probably do that,” Alfredo said.

Ryan pulled out his burner phone to dial the number of the person who hired him. “I might get a pay cut for forgetting to let him know that the job was done immediately!”

“You brought that on yourself.”

“…I know…” Ryan said as he dialed the number and brought the phone up to his ear.

“And if you run into whoever that ‘beautiful mystery man’ is again, you should probably off him so he doesn’t continue to distract you,” Trevor said.

Ryan sighed as the other line picked up. He coughed to try and get into his deep and menacing Vagabond business voice. “The job is done,” he grit out. The voice on the other line spoke and Ryan nodded. “Understood. Won’t happen again. The money the man owed you will be transferred into your bank account.” The other line spoke again and hung up. “I’m getting a 10% pay cut, but I’ll live,” he said to Trevor and Alfredo in his normal voice.

“You can’t let that happen again because that’s not just gonna be bad for business for you. When you slack off it affects all of us,” Alfredo said.

Ryan sighed. “Understood.”

“Just figure out why he was so interested in the corpses and kill the guy if you see him again,” Trevor said.

Ryan let out another exasperated sigh. “Understood,” he huffed in annoyance. He really didn’t want to kill this mystery man.

Yet, he saw that mysterious man hovering around the bodies of everyone he killed for the week following that night. The situation was absurd and Ryan needed to know why this man was following him.

Six nights after that first, Ryan was acting as hired muscle for a gang confrontation. The Families in south Los Santos were having a conflict with a white instigator and need the Vagabond’s assistance in taking them out. Once he had taken the guy out and was leaving to let the Families know that the deed was done, he heard familiar muttering.

“It’s alright, Gav, you can do this,” Ryan heard. He raised an eyebrow; he hadn’t noticed that the voice sounded British before.

He turned around to find the same beautiful tan man who had been stalking around the corpse of his victim last night. He saw the man reach down and touch the chest of the man that he had just killed, stick his hand in his pocket, then fiddle with his hands. He had no idea what the man was doing, but there was only so much nonsense he could take.

He ran to the mystery man, grabbed him, and slammed him against the nearest wall. “Who are you?! Who sent you and what the hell do they want with the bodies of the people I kill?!” he demanded.

The man’s eyes widened. “What?! How the bloody toss is this happening?! You’re not supposed to be able to see or hear me! You’re not supposed to be able to touch me without dying!” the man sputtered.

“We’ll clearly I can see and hear you. And you obviously haven’t killed me, so you better start talking before I start fucking up that pretty face of yours,” the Vagabond growled. ‘Fucking up his pretty face’ was an empty threat, but the man didn’t need to know that.

The man gulped. “I don’t know how this is bloody possible. I was told that mortals weren’t able to see or hear a Grim Reaper. But here you are, seeing and hearing me!”

“What, do you think you’re immortal or something just because you’re a part of a ‘Grim Reaper’ gang?”

The man sighed. “It’s not a gang…”

“So, you’re a part of the LSPD?!” the Vagabond growled.

“What?! Of course not! I hated the fuzz when I was alive, so why would I like them now?!”

The Vagabond tilted his head. “But, you’re still alive.”

The man sighed, again. “No, I’m not.”

“What do you need to get out of whatever gang is controlling you so you can get your life back? Because I’d be willing to help you out as long as you stopped stalking me,” the Vagabond said as he let go of the man.

“That’s not how this works,” the man started. “This isn’t something I can just get out of. I’ll be able to leave the Grim Reaper business once I’ve collected enough souls to earn my redemption. Then I can get out of all this.”

“But what if you could find an escape now?”

“I can’t just do that! If I try to escape then I’ll just end up in whatever constitutes as my personal hell. And I really don’t want to know what eternal damnation is like!”

“So… you don’t consider yourself in hell, already?”

“Not at all! The whole thing can be somewhat pleasant, but REALLY BLOODY CONFUSING!” the man exclaimed.

The Vagabond placed a hand on the man’s shoulder and the man flinched. “You don’t have to be afraid of me anymore. I want to help you out.”

“Really?” the man asked. He still was perplexed by the fact that the Vagabond seemed to be immune to all the things he was told were standard for being a Grim Reaper.

“I could offer you my team’s resources. We have food and shelter for you. We have a wonderful tech team that can assist you on any hit jobs you may want to take…”

The man shuttered. “I was never a fan of violence when I was alive. I was more of a tech man myself.”

The Vagabond nodded. “Then you could join my tech team if you wanted. Anything you’d need, I’d be willing to offer my resources to you. We can help you get out of this ‘Grim Reaper’ gang.” He held out a hand for the man to shake.

“I…” the man started. Then he shook his head. “You really want to help me get out of this ‘Grim Reaper’ gang?” he asked. The Vagabond nodded his head. “Then keep killing people. I’ll keep coming to reap the souls of everyone you kill until I’m told I don’t have to follow you anymore,” he finished.

The Vagabond frowned underneath his mask and put his hand down. “But wait, does this mean that you don’t want to work with me? Does the gang that’s holding you hostage have something against me?” he asked.

“No, Grim Reapers have nothing against you… And I’ll admit that you’re definitely not as terrifying as I first thought. There’s something earnest about you and I can really respect that. Part of me actually wants to be around you, but I don’t know if that’s how I’m supposed to feel,” the man replied. The Vagabond’s heart began to flutter in response.

Suddenly, Geoff’s voice rang out in Gavin’s head, distracting him. “Gavin!? What’s taking so long with reaping the soul of the Vagabond’s victim? Do you need help or something?” Geoff asked in a concerned voice.

Gavin’s eyes widened. “I have to go!” he said in a panic.

“But wait!” the Vagabond replied. “Will I ever see you again?”

“I don’t know!” Gavin said as he started to run away.

“I don’t even know your name!” the Vagabond called out after him.

“It’s probably better that way!” Gavin called back as he vanished into the night.

The Vagabond stared in awe as his mystery man left. The man was trapped in a mysterious gang of ‘Grim Reapers’ that he had never heard of before. The man didn’t seem that upset about the fact that he was trapped and he was told that he had to stalk the Vagabond to be set free. It was a bit disconcerting to the Vagabond, but he trusted the man when he had said that the ‘Grim Reapers’ had nothing against him.