#hell verse

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Nicholas was sitting at was at becoming their semiregular booth at the diner, at least when they came here. He was sitting across from Noah and Jolly, with Folio next to him. Ellie was having lunch with Ishtar again today, and he supposed they might even have it with Cat again, maybe. He wondered how it was going with her garden, if Ishtar had managed to help her start it last night, or if they were going to wait until another day. Nicholas knew it had been late enough in the day by the time he’d dropped off the supplies. It would have been smart to perhaps wait until the weekend. Wait for a day off when it was nice and sunny out, when they could have taken it slow and not rushed the low light, that way not possibly pushed themselves too far. 

That was just him, though, after years of watching his mother spend time in her garden, and seeing her enjoy her time planting flowers and tending them in the earth. Perhaps he could talk to Ishtar, ask her if she wanted to talk to his mother for some advice. As much as she had become a close-knit little member of their friend group being bonded to Folio, she hadn’t really spent much time with his Mom, it might be a wonderful thing for that to change. Folio was family after all, he had been welcomed in just as Jolly had, with open arms, like all her wayward strays, and Ishtar fantastic for Folio after all, he was sure that his mother was going to love her. Hell, the moment she found out about her love for nature, and soon to be gardening project with Cat, he was going to be hard-pressed to pry Mama Ruffilo away from her, he could bet on that. She might even want to meet Cat. Oh… well.

Cat, well, he was going to have to be careful there, knowing she was likely to be reincarnating soon, thanks to Bryce’s encouragement, no doubt, and Gavin. It wasn’t a bad thing, it never was, not technically, unless she wasn’t ready. Nicholas wanted to say something, he wanted to, but he knew he shouldn’t. It was a grey area. He could, he could say something to Ishtar, Ellie, they could talk to Cat, but then Gavin could turn on him, and it could get, ugly. 

“Hell to Nicholas, come in Nicholas, Helloooo, three two onnnnneeee and theeerrreee he is!”

Pulled from his thoughts, Nicholas shook his head slightly, what, he rolled his eyes as he looked over to his best friend. Dammit Noah, with that shit eating grin, stealing his chips, again, Nicholas turned around and went to stab at his hand with his fork in retaliation. His reaction immediately drawing laughter from the other two and a mock gasp of outrage from the demon in question as he pulled his hand back, having been deprived of his prize fried potato sticks. 

“Damn, over reaction much. Ice, man, ice.”

Nicholas just rolled his eyes at that, pulling his fork back and setting it down as he pulled his fries out of reach from Noah and ate some of them himself. 

“Well, one day you’ll learn, food thief.”

They all knew better, there was no way that Noah was ever going to learn against the nasty habit of his when it came to stealing food all the time. He just snitched food, and really, why he did it when he could just get his own was ridiculous. You’d think Noah would just order his own fries when they all ordered, it wasn’t like he hadn’t gotten his own burger along with the rest of them, he had. But had he ordered any fries? Of course not, why would he when he could just sit there and steal from the rest of them. Nicholas was almost sure at this point it was a game, just to see how much he could get away with before one of them reacted. 

Now he was wondering how many of his fries his best friend, slash adopted brother, had managed to pilfer away from his plate before he had even noticed what he was doing. The devious little sneak, or not so little, as the case may be. He needed to talk to Ellie about this, at least they had her in their corner now, there had to be a plan.

Not that it would change a single thing, and he knew it. Sure enough, Folio snorted in amusement at the situation with a grin, and even Jolly just sat there watching the scene, and smirked slightly before,

“You have to know better than that Nicholas, you have been his friend far longer than both of us combined, lifetimes even. If you haven’t gotten the loyal pet trained by now, what makes you think you’ll ever stop him from peeing on the carpet?”

Noah called him ice, honestly, he had nothing on the jibes from Jolly sometimes, laughter bubbled from him as Folio roared, Noah himself just looking at the man next to him in mock offence. Definitely mocking, he knew was only playing with him,

“I’ll pee on your carpet.”

“Weak, dude, totally two outta ten.. Hey Nicholas, can I have some fries?”

When Folio asked with a hopeful smile, Nicholas looked Noah right in the eye before he slid his tray of fries over in front of Folio, sitting beside him, knowing exactly just how much it would frustrate Noah.

“Sure, go ahead, have as many as you want.”

The affronted gasped that came from his best friend as he gestured to Folio’s shit eating grin as he happily grabbed for a decent amount of the fries was perfection. Oh, Nicholas more than knew that Folio did not actually give two shits about eating that many of his fries at all. It was only about the fact that Nicholas had agreed without any argument, and Noah was making a fuss about it. Nicholas couldn’t say he wasn’t feeling the same, it was all he couldn’t do not to just start laughing at the look on Noah’s face. As it was, Jolly was sitting back in the booth, a lazy smirk on his lips. 

“I take that back.”

Noah was glaring at him half-heartedly now.

“You aren’t ice, you are just plain evil.”

The look on Noah’s face was only met with a round of laughter from his friends, not even Nicholas could hold back then when he saw just how disgruntled Noah looked now!

Cat went right home after work today. She couldn’t say today felt easier when it came to work, it was just as crazy, it was just as rushed, and she felt just as chaotic. The anxious panic settled in her chest when the customers kept coming, and the darkness settled like a blanket choking her chest until she didn’t know how to breath as the morning wore on. Folio coming in, and this time he had waited patiently in her line until he got to the front of the line at her counter, and ordered his specific order so she could complete it just as she did yesterday. He was cheeky though and threw her a curveball though and got a bit of a fancy coffee order, which she made just fine, happily so, and Cat handed over with a smile. 

It also helped that somehow, after he left, the rush seemed to have ended.. Not that it stopped that the lunch rush came later, but that was always was going to happen. She was just going to have to get used to it, Cat knew that. It wasn’t going to be easy, but it was the job that she chose, and after the gentle encouragement from both Ishtar and Folio, she didn’t want to let them down. She didn’t want to let herself down. This was about trying something new, right? 

Still, there was a dead weight in her feet when she got home after work, and the thought of eating anything just made her want to be sick. She knew she had to eat, she did, she hadn’t eaten since before she left that morning when she had nibbled down some dry toast for breakfast, which she hadn’t been able to finish. She hadn’t even taken the opportunity to stop for a moment to have that short break before the lunch rush like yesterday. There had been a moment when Ishtar had asked, asked if she’d grabbed a snack and water to keep her going, Cat had assured her she had. While she felt bad telling her that fib, the thought of stomaching anything at all for some reason, just, didn’t sit right with her today.

Now, that she was home, alone in her apartment, glancing around at the empty space, staring at the fridge she knew was full of food that she knew she should make, her stomach twisted. She was hungry, she was, but every time she thought about eating she remembered last night. When she was waking up in the middle of the night empty her stomach with the memories of hands around her throat choking the life out of her. She just needed something, maybe some small would help keep her going, at least until dinner, considering it was later than a normal lunch now, it made sense. So she made herself a coffee, and the hunger pangs eased enough with that enough to ignore the need to eat long enough to glance out of her balcony. At her garden, bare, and waiting for her in the sunlight.

Ishtar had mentioned that maybe, they should wait until the weekend considering they worked most of the day away, and the weekend they would have free to themselves, and Cat had agreed, but now looking out there, she felt nothing but longing. It made her wonder if Ishtar would hate her horribly if she took just a little time to start. Perhaps not everything, she could start with something small, they’d bought some plant boxes for around the edges, she could start with one of those, she could just plant one of those, for her balcony. See how that goes. Yes, she liked that idea, and it would be the perfect distraction, well, no, no, not distraction, she didn’t mean that, it would just be fun. 

Once she finished the coffee, Cat rinsed her mug, and went out to the garden where the supplies were.

Nicholas knew he shouldn’t be here, he knew he shouldn’t, but he was sitting in his car, watching Cat like a fucking creeper. He couldn’t stop thinking about her, ever since last night he’d been thinking about her. Knowing Bryce just was going to have her on her way off to reincarnation like she was on some conveyor belt of souls back to the living world, it didn’t sit well with him. It wasn’t his place to stop him, it wasn’t even wrong. It was part of their job to help them reincarnate. Though, it wasn’t, however, wasn’t their job to push them, force them into it. Thing was, no one could prove anything, so, no matter how Nicholas felt about it, until someone reported Bryce or Gavin for pushing reincarnation, no one would even investigate. No one wanted to go against a demon lord. The moment Gavin was raised to that level, Nicholas had known it would cause so many more problems. He’d always been difficult to deal with, and now he was just impossible.

There she was, working on a plant box, filling it with potting mix and seeds of some kind, a small smile on her face. Sitting there, she was just another soul, just another soul that passed him by, he saw them every day, met them all the time. Sure, his friends seemed to be getting attached to this one, and that was going to end in disaster, he knew it, Noah knew it. He’d said as much when they were leaving lunch. Folio had mentioned how Ishtar had talked about Nicholas had helped them yesterday last night, and Noah had glanced his way. Folio had sounded all pleased about Cat working at the café, him helping her to get settled into Hell, joked about how he was doing Nicholas job for him. Noah point out she wasn’t one of Nicholas charges, so, he can’t say anything.. Folio had just laughed, said he’s allowed to be her friend with them after all them, Nicholas had just smiled.

When they left Noah had just shaken his head, he knew as well as Nicholas did Gavin’s reputation and how he encourage his team, hell, the people he had under him all seemed to think the same way. A lot of demons agreed with them. A lot of demons, even the nice ones, didn’t understand Noah bonding with Ellie, Ishtar bonding with Folio. Dating sure, but bonding? That was a level beyond.

Nicholas was just about to leave, it was getting late, he should head home, crap. He’d been here for hours, he had been lost in thought, and such a creeper that he hadn’t noticed just how long he’d been sitting here, thinking… Glancing back over towards Cat’s house, where, where was… Was she stumbling on her balcony by the plant box? She was going to fall down, was she okay? Without thinking, he was out of his car and across the road before walking up the path along her small garden area… 

“Cat, Cat, are you okay?”

Jumping the railing of her balcony, just as she lost her footing, and he caught her, dammit, no, no she was not okay.