♚

“Okay,” Arielle nodded, stepping inside the coffee shop, feeling less nervous about the walk, and more convinced that he just wanted to get out of the house. She stepped up to the register and ordered two hot chocolates, two sugar cookies, and two chocolate-chip cookies without needing to look at the menu after coming to the exact same shop a few times before. After Samuel had paid for their sweets, she held her hot chocolate close to her chest for warmth while it was too hot to sip. They left the coffee shop and started walking down the street, Arielle suggesting that the pier would be nice and empty on a Tuesday evening. She glanced over at Sam, who was already taking sips–and she didn’t really understand if he liked the sense of burning your tongue or if he just had high tolerance for temperature. He was always warmer than her anyways. 

He took a bite out of the cookie, settling down next to her. Really, sweets on Earth were so much better than they were back home. You’d think demons really did use fire and brimstone in their baking. He pursed his lips at her joke, something he might have felt a twinge of jealousy over if her affection wasn’t so obvious. “It’s not that I don’t want to...” he trailed off, taking another sip from the sweet drink before setting it down. He wanted to joke and laugh with her, because that was easy to do. What he needed to tell her? That was anything but easy. He hoped she wouldn’t believe him. Hoped she’d think he was crazy or delusional, and at least that’d make his job a little less difficult. “Arielle,” he started, hardly nervous. He wasn’t entirely sure how he felt. This was all happening quicker than he could deal with it properly. “I need to talk to you about something. Something important, I just... I’m not sure how.” He looked off for a moment, out at the water. How should he start? You’re supposed to be dead? I’m a demon sent from the underworld to make sure that happens? The entire past few weeks I’ve been fumbling with the indecision of whether or not I should kill you? How could any of that go over well? “Can I tell you a little story? It might sound familiar.”

Arielle felt at ease with the warmth from his hands, and sat up. “Alright,” she agreed, continuing to hold his hand as she made her way off of his bed. He hadn’t really answered whether or not he’d come to the tournament with her, and ultimately dodged it, like he did with questions he didn’t want to answer sometimes. Over-thinking the situation, she worried a bit in the back of her mind if maybe he was trying to breakup with her. We should talk. We should take a walk. ‘We should’s’ usually never ended well. We should break up, is what it sounded like. “Would you want to get cookies and hot chocolate?” Arielle asked, hoping he just wanted to get out of the house.  

“Yeah. Yeah, definitely,” he nodded, lacing his fingers with hers before raising the back of her hand to his lips. “I just wanna... get away from these guys for a bit.” Leading her out of their place, he ignored the ever-present glare Luke seemed to have plastered on his face. Of course he knew something was up. Jude smiled sweetly in their direction as they left, but Sam knew it was entirely fake. He couldn’t help but think (loud enough for Luke to hear if he’d been listening) that they should find something else to do with their time since they had so much of it, unlike Arielle. Once outside he’d slipped his arm across her shoulders, keeping her close to him as they walked. He wanted to get at least a good distance away before saying what he needed to say, which he’d been mulling over all day. But first: cookies and hot chocolate. These things were comforting to humans, and honestly, he found the smallest bit of comfort in them too. And they’d both need it.

“I was thinking–would you want to go to this like, tournament sort-thing? It’s for a club I might join, and it’s this Friday at 8. Are you free then?” She asked, looking up at him hopefully. Although, before he could respond, her hopeful look turned into that of a playful smirk as she passed by him to step into his room and sit down at his bed, cozying up under a blanket. “Actually–since you’re just in business–I’m pretty sure you are.” Arielle especially loved to tease him about his major. It wasn’t a superiority complex in any way, but actually because she knew he was exceptionally smart and felt like he was being a bit lazy. It was always convenient though, because whenever she wanted to go out, he was always free. Arielle leaned forward and rested her chin in her hands, a bit of a bored expression appearing on her face as she spoke. “This guy in my comp-sci class is in this videogame club and asked me to go because he found out I’m good at black ops. He said he wants me on his team. I feel like if I’ll just be carrying everyone else, it won’t be as fun for me. You should convince Luke to come too–especially since I feel like he’s a challenging opponent.”

His eyes trailed after her as she made herself comfortable on his bed (if only he could tell her he had a much bigger, far more comfortable one at home—his real home), and he cleared his throat before a short laugh escaped him. If he’d actually cared about the fake major he chose he might have been offended. But his smile fell a bit when he considered her question. Maybe he’d be free, yeah. But she wouldn’t. Not if his partners had anything to say about it. Taking the few steps over to his bed, he stood over her, covering her hands with his before kneeling down to meet her at eye-level. “We should take a walk,” he spoke calmly, as if he hadn’t just ignored everything she just said. He’d heard her, of course, but it was irrelevant. A small smile pulled at his lips, mostly to reassure her, because he knew that while humans were mostly oblivious, they had some sense for when things were about to go wrong. And the situation was dire, yes, but he didn’t want to scare her before he had a chance to tell the truth—far, far away from his ‘meddlesome roommates’.

Arielle felt like the past two weeks had been absolute bliss, and by now felt like the guys’ house was a bit of a home base that she went to after class. After Luke had let her in, she went straight to the Samuel’s room and knocked, nonetheless happy to see him after a long day of classes. Once the door opened, she stepped forward into him for a hug and while still holding onto him, went on her tippy-toes for a quick peck on the lips. “Cookie, what was your day like today?” 

Samuel’s day had been a long one — mostly consisting of sleeping and waving off his partners’ nagging for him to get his job done, but that was enough to exhaust anyone. Most of it came from Jude, while Luke would just sit there and look at him, knowing full well that Sam could feel the judgement. You’ve had your fun, they’d say, she has to go now. With each passing day, that was becoming less and less easy. The knock came at his door like he’d expected, and he knew it was her (because the others wouldn’t bother knocking). Pulling himself away from his desk, he got up to let her in, looking forward to the typical greeting a little too much. "Productive,” he smirked, arms loose around her as he swooped down to steal one more kiss. “Corporate Strategy is just so invigorating on a Tuesday morning.”