#jantomweek

At same time he knew it was none of his business. Not when they haven’t talked to each other in five years. It wasn’t intentional, but as they grew they began to hang out with different people and have different interests. And then when they least expected they had nothing to talk about. He often stared at her contact over social media and  thought on talking to her again, but awkwardness always had got the best of him and he gave up.

A few hours later a police officer came and opened the gates for his and her cell right after, “Ok, you two are clean. The witnesses around proved that you were only defending your friend and that he was indeed trying something on her.” The officer guided them through corridors out the cells and to the police department “The exams gave out the high level of alcohol in his blood, and he is filed by violence against women in the past. Some time in jail for trying to abuse a minor will give him a little reminder after he wake up.” The officer pointed out two seats for them “But next time, please don’t try dating a guy much older than you. For your safety, girl.”

“I didn’t know he was that old,” Janna finally spoke “I actually went to break up with him in my friend place since she was scared of his reaction. I thought he was a jerk on our age, I didn’t know he was over his twenties. I had a spray and a taser I thought it would be enough to make him leave me alone in worst scenario” She hugged herself and shivered “I didn’t think he would follow me on my way home after recovering.”

Tom put a hand on her shoulder to show support, but as she tensed he realized it might not been the best opinion and recoiled.

“Well, since you’re older you can leave. She will have to wait for her parents.”

“I will wait with her, if that’s not a problem.”

“If she doesn’t bother either, it’s up to you”

Janna didn’t said anything as he sat beside her, not even when her parents arrived and decided to file the case. Or when they asked Tom to deliver her to their home since there were still some documents to sign and would take time for those and for their lawyer to get there. Not even when he put his jacket on her since she was shivering from late night cold air. The walk back home was just as silent.

“Why did you care even?” Janna suddenly spoke a few quarters away from their home.

“Because you are my friend and he was hurting you.”

“Are we friends even?”

Tom frowned, “Of course… We are distant, but I never considered you less than a friend.”

“Doesn’t feel like.” She replied quietly.

Tom sighed looking at her “What is this about?”

“This is about you getting into my life. I appreciate, but I don’t understand.”

“What part of ‘I saw you in danger and reacted’ is hard for you to get?”

“The part in which I had got in worse and you didn’t care.”

He tried to defend himself “If I knew…”

“You should, it were your friends who got me on it.” Tom stopped walking to look at her back, hoping she would say it was a lie, but Janna kept walking without looking back “I thought you gave the order. I guess I was wrong about that at least.”

“I never… I would never…” He returned to walk until he was in front of her and held her shoulders so she stopped walking, “Janna, believe me, I had no idea… I’m sorry.”

Janna took a step back to be away from his touch and then continued to walk avoiding him, “Having them being jerks wasn’t worse than having your best friend turning his back on me and being just as cold.”

“That’s not how-”

“Then tell me why,” Janna said suddenly turning around and stopped walking to stare at his eyes “What’s your excuse for being distant?”

Tom gulped and tried to find the words to express himself “I… didn’t know how to deal with it.”

“With what?”

“With you, ok? I just… Couldn’t find a way to talk to you again without being weird.”

Janna frowned and gave him back his jacket, “Keep it, I can go home from here.”

“Janna!” Tom called when she started to walk and had to once again hold her so she wouldn’t escape, “Look, I swear I-”

“Save it.” Janna said taking his hands away from her. “You didn’t know who to deal with me after knowing about my crush on you? You could have said you needed time or whatever. But what I won’t forget is how you walked away from my life without ever looking back right after you ex girlfriend had exposed me to the whole school out of pure jealousy.”

“Why do you think I broke up in first place?!”

“Well, why didn’t come talk to me then?” Janna replied annoyed “I could have take my time away and give you space and whatever more you need… You just ignored me for years and suddenly come as a hero and… What now?!”

“I… We’ll figure out, ok?”

Janna turned around and walked back to her home, just a few more houses ahead. This time without complaining of his company. Tom kept close to her, a bit afraid she would try running away any minute. He put his jacket above her shoulders again, holding it in there.

When they got in her house, Janna put her keys on the door and unlocked, but instead of walking inside, she decided to turn to him and play with the key chains. Tom knew a signal of unwanted departure, so he took a step and stood closer, caressing her arms above his jacket.

“Did he hurt you?”

She shook her head, “Mostly when he grabbed my arm, it stings a bit and probably will be a bit purple tomorrow but that’s it.”

He hesitated for a moment, “Are you ok?”

“Yeah,” she shrugged “just a bit shaken.”

“Do you want me to stay until your parents arrive? Would make you feel safe?”

“I don’t know… You got your stuff to do too.”

“Don’t worry about it, just tell me what you want.”

Janna sighed and rested her forehead on his chest whispering, “I want to know why you walked away in first place, and why you’re back.”

Tom looked beyond her head, to the little white flowers in her garden “It was stupid of me… I’m sorry. I don’t even… I guess I didn’t know how to deal with your feelings” he replied finally, “I didn’t know how to bring it up or how to come close after the whole fiasco my ex did… I was afraid I would hurt you even more or people would mess with you. It was wrong of me to leave you like that… I’m sorry.”

Janna shivered a bit and moved her hand, was she crying? “Why you’re back then? Why now?”

“Because I didn’t want to walk away in first place.” He confessed, “But I did, and you moved on and looked happy with your girlfriend and I thought… It was too late, that I had no right in stepping in your life and messing with your happiness. And I wish I didn’t stepped back like this but… it’s how things happened.”

He was caressing her back in circles when she sniffed and stood back, cleaning her face with her hand of the remaining tears and took a deep breath. “What made you so scared that I had a crush on you?”

“Because I didn’t know how to treat you right.” Tom laughed a bit at that “I always treated you like a stupid jerk and said stupid stuff. I didn’t know how to be other way with you… I still don’t. I couldn’t risk hurting you because I’m a idiot.”

“And ended up hurting a lot more.”

“Yeah… I’m really sorry about that.”

Janna touched his shirt, caressing the fabric gently and his chest as consequence “You know why I liked you in first place?”

“Why?” He asked curious.

“Because you were real.” She replied suddenly very interested in the stamp of his shirt “You didn’t look like a fairy tale or too good to be true. You were just what you’re to everyone else, there’s no difference. You weren’t like a dream or enchanted, but that’s what made you so great and special for me since we were kids. You didn’t mind if I was a girl or a boy who wanted to play pirates, and you didn’t care when I took interest in both boys and girls… You were real and that’s all I wanted.”

“I didn’t know.”

“You couldn’t. We never talked about it” she replied recoiling her hand.

They stood in silent for a minute, letting the night air hung on them and the sounds of night bring the calm around them for finally solving everything after so many years of yearning and longing a solution that none tried to take the step to actually solve.

The red haired boy hugged her and she let her face rest against his chest, taking profit of his warmth by pulling his jacket closer and nuzzling her face gently against his body. He didn’t mind, since he took profit by holding her close to rest his chin on her head (wow, he could actually do that now that he was taller), his arms resting around her gently, so she could pull away whenever she felt like.

“Tom?” Janna suddenly said.

“Yeah?” He replied nuzzling her hair gently without even noticing his own actions.

“As much as I hated myself for this along the years… It hasn’t changed.”

She stepped back just enough to look at his face, and Tom looked at her eyes a bit confused “What?”

“The only difference is that I’m no longer 11 having a silly crush on a older boy who’s 14… I’m older, so are you. And I despised I didn’t move on completely, there were always the thought of you in the back of my mind no matter how much I tried to fool myself.” Janna took a breath before confessing for once, “Things are still the same. I still like you just as much I liked you then…” She gulped looking down before looking at his face again “What do we do now?”

Tom looked at her shocked for a moment, then looked right at her lips and her face. He could feel her trusting his actions right then and there. To either turn  her down or take the chance, she wanted to have a conclusion, to turn the page over or write it together.

He decided to write with her.

It was immediate reaction once he made the decision. His hands left her hips to cup her face and bring her closer, smashing his lips on hers eagerly. Eyes closing just mere seconds after hers. Janna lifted her arms to wrap around his neck, dropping his jacket in the process and kissed him back with hunger, her fingers passing on his hair caressing his scalp, her lips continued glued to his moving a bit tipsy like a first kiss and with too much longing for them to control or think on slowing down to adjust. His hands rested on her hips holding her close to him as before.

It took a few minutes for them to let the years of distance and unnoticed longing to vanish, even after slowing down and separating, both continued to share little kisses, hesitating to separate and stop the moment. Her hand rested on his chest as the other cupped his cheek.

“It’s late” she said between kisses, “I should get in.”

“And it’s cold… you should.”

And still none of them found the will to move out the embrace or stop the kisses for another five minutes.

“I can stay if you want.” He said finally, now tracing his kisses along her face, as apologies for being away for so long when he wanted that just as much as she did.

She nodded slightly to his suggestion, “Ok… I do like that…” she sighed when he kissed her forehead.

Sharing one more kiss, a bit longer than the others, Janna finally opened the door to her house and let him in as she closed the door again behind her. She went to turn the lights on and Tom found himself in a familiar place with few differences of walls and decorations.

“Just… to be sure,” She said resting her back against the wooden door “where do we stand?”

Tom looked back at the door, feeling the hesitation in her voice. It was comprehensive, he was a jerk in those years of distance and leaving her hanging without a “yes” or “no” during five years didn’t do well. He closed the distance between them and held her hand.

“We are together. I’m not leaving this time, Janna.”

He rested his forehead on hers looking into her eyes for a moment. She took her time to let the statement settle in her and smiled at him mischievously as he remembered she always did.

“You better not. I’m not going to give you chances to.”

He smirked, “There’s the Janna I know.”

“Shut up” she rolled her eyes still smiling before wrapping her arms on his neck again pulling him down to her for more kisses.

“I mean…” Janna went on one of her rants as she and Tom were chilling at her sofa forgetting all about Friday the 13th gameplay they were watching after dying once again, “if they were really just friends it would be ok, but they are not! You don’t act to your friends like they do! They are pretty much dating each other without noticing and letting out the kissing part and stuff!”

“Uhm…” Tom murmured listening to her, but it felt like he was paying more attention to the inexistent tangles he was undoing on her hair as she laid on his chest and while he was laying on the couch.

“I am serious! Tom, they have matching keychains! Star has a Yin and Marco has a Yang and if you put they close they glue to each other by the magnets inside! We didn’t have matching keychains before we started dating!”

“To be fair we already used matching wristbands,” Tom replied looking at her ceiling. Was that a blood drop or another mosquito corpse glued in the there?

“I am serious, Tom!” Janna whined turning around so she could look on his face and pulling his leg of the couch by doing so, “We need to do something!”

Tom huffed and rested his hands on her back, “I don’t see the point in that.”

“Don’t you care about our friends?”

“You know I do, but I don’t see why it should concern us.”

“Because it’s making me mad. It’s just so freaking obvious they like each other why they don’t just-” Janna pointed to a random direction with both hands- “Do it.”

Her boyfriend pulled her into his chest gently caressing her hair again (why did he like that so much?), “I understand you want them together and you love them, but force won’t help anyone. It might have the opposite effect even.” She huffed and he gave a light kiss on the top of her head. “We can’t be cupids, you know very well how that ended badly the last time we tried.” They both shivered at the memory of when Janna learned a love spell by accident and had half of Echo Creek falling in love with objects instead of people...

“There must be something we can do!” She pouted.

Tom looked at the wall across him thinking, “Well… The most we can do it’s to call them to tag along on a date. They won’t want to be around for long and will have no other option but to hang out with each other.”

She moved on his chest, “I guess it could work…”

Tom smiled and kissed her forehead, “We can’t do much more than that anyway.”

“Fine…” Janna supported herself on her elbows in his chest, “We gonna use those tickets we got from the park, I’ll get two new ones and say we won the 4 of them”

“Sounds like a plan.” Suddenly there was a voice of a woman speaking and he looked at the screen where showed Jason walking back to his house where his dead mother called him. “Well, new round. We go with who this time?”

Janna didn’t reply, instead of holding his face turning towards her again and smashing her lips against his. The last thing that the demon would do in this world would be complaining about her surprise kisses (he wouldn’t dream of interrupting either, especially when it got this passionate) if was one of the best parts of dating her. Janna simply didn’t give a care on where or who was watching and was able to make him forget about that too when she kissed him.

For good or bad she was like drinking to him and he was past phase of drunk in love.

“Hey, if you two are going to make out at least mute the damn microphone again!”

Janna leaned back smirking at Tom and he blushed frowning at her. The bad part was the huge embarrassment she would put him into (since she didn’t care about it), by parents gasping, disgusted children, groaning in movies, complainings and witness around.

His girlfriend sat up and took the controller setting them to play as Jason and then getting the headphone to use.

“Get ready to get smashed guys!” she said and Tom heard the players groaning, two even got out the server. Janna was a merciless Jason, if you didn’t get to call the cops and have a way to run away before she got the 3 first powers, then there would be no way to win.

She put the microphone on mute again when he sat beside her and kissed his cheek, “If I get to kill all of them you call; if one of them get to escape, I’ll call them. Afterwards, some make out.” she winked at him and then got back in the game that was just starting.

Tom smiled, “Let’s see if you can.” He pulled her towards his lap hugging her by the back giving a sweet kiss on her jaw.

After all his teasing by tickles, kisses and even screaming to the players on where she was going, she called Star and Marco. And only after he got the kisses he wanted. Still worth it.

.

.

None of this was worth.

Janna was angrily sipping her smoothie, Star looking at her worried and Tom acting completely indifferent. She was mad, but unless she took the Witchery handbook out her pocket things would be fine.

“Why are you so mad?”

“Because out of all days and out of all people to meet in the freaking park, we had to meet Jackie and she had to come today!” Janna smashed the plastic cup on her hand as she looked at Marco and Jackie friendly talking as they were getting their ice creams.

Star looked confused at Janna, “I thought you were friends too?”

“We are! But not-” Janna sighed heavily- “Just not a good moment for her to be here…”

Tom handed some paper napkins so Janna could clear her hands from the smoothie she smashed, “It’s not like she’ll tag along, she’ll be back to her friends soon.”

“Hey, guys!” Marco said handing an ice cream to Star and eating his as Jackie was still waiting for hers, “Guess what?”

Tom had a bad feeling and made negative signals with his arms doing an X to Marco behind Janna, he looked at it just confused as Star, but paid attention to Janna anyways “Just say it, Marco”

“Uh…” He decided to ignore Tom’s wild signals and replied Janna, “Jackie’s friend got sick in a ride and they are riding back and won’t come back until later, so she’ll be tagging along for the afternoon!”

Janna let out something that sounded like a roar and jumped to Marco’s throat, being stopped by Tom who held her by the waist before getting her on his shoulder and walking off so she could calm down.

“What was that?” Jackie asked as she watched Tom carrying a cursing Janna away.

“No idea.” Both Marco and Star shrugged.

.

At the end of the day, Jackie was finally back with her friends. To make sure Marco didn’t suddenly decide to turn the “double date” against them, Janna made girls and boys day by doing some rides with Star and Jackie while Tom and Marco went on the other cars.

They were finally eating something waiting for the night show to start in an hour. Janna was happily chatting with Star while eating her fries when suddenly her friend began to feed Marco and giggle as he texted his mother that they had already eaten, but that wasn’t out of ordinary.

What was out of the ordinary was Marco quickly looking around and then going up to Star and giving her a quick peck on the lips.

Janna dropped the french fry on her hand, Tom blinked twice and her jaw dropped to the table. Star giggled at Marco and turned to them again blinked innocently at their shock.

“Uh, you guys ok?”

And then Janna let out a scream while Tom went on laughing hysterically.

“Since when?! How?! Why you didn’t say anything?! How come no one knows?! How I didn’t know?!”

“Uh…” Star thought for a second before replying “Since a year ago… We kinda realized and decided to give a try… Sorry, I lost the other questions.”

“How no one knows and how she didn’t know.” Marco supplied.

“Thanks, honey” Star smiled and gave him a kiss on the cheek “We aren’t exactly hiding, we just don’t know how to announce and we aren’t fans of public demonstrations either, so… I guess this answer both questions.”

Tom had finally found a way to stop laughing and fist bumped Marco “Congratulations on your victory man.”

Marco smiles sheepishly “Thanks.”

“You didn’t tell me” Janna pouted sitting back and crossing her arms.

“I'm sorry, we just… decided to let everyone figure it out. It wasn’t my intention to hide.”

Tom hugged Janna by the waist and kissed her cheek “Come on, at least they are together and Jackie wasn’t a threat as you thought. And they to be a thing wasn’t what you wanted?”

“I guess” Janna took another french fry and pouted. Star and Marco laughed in her childish behavior and Tom kissed her cheek again so she gave in and smiled. “Well, I guess this deserves a cheer?”

Everyone grabbed their sodas, Star had a cup since she was sharing hers with Marco. Tom was the one to speak up, “To the most subtle double date ever”

“Agreed, cheers on us!” Marco giggled.

“I never thought I would see my ex-boyfriend with my friend while on a double date with my best friend and current boyfriend. Earth is weird.”

“Well, it makes us wonder what if things went different somehow right?” Marco said laughing.

“Not for me.” Everyone took their drinks, but Janna finished speaking, “I would still be ok since I had a crush on every person in this table.”

He did, but thankfully he could recover fast from injuries. “I know, but… I know it’s crazy and sounds insane, but… I don’t know I just want this, ok?! I don’t know why, I don’t have an explanation to give, I just really want to try this!”

Janna crossed her arms unbelieving, “What’s the plan? You’re planning something, some joke on me, aren’t you?”

“I am not!”

“Then explain this to me!” she points to the pink rose, “Because we had been fighting and battling each other non stop for three years and now you just come and say you want to date? Are you sure you didn’t trip and hit your head on the road? And what’s up to the pink rose? Shouldn’t be red?”

“I don’t have an explanation!” Tom exasperated, “All I know is that all that ‘imagine your future’ thing made me wonder and I realize that a future in which you aren’t there it’s plain, boring and I just don’t want that, so I’m trying my best shot here in calling you to go out with me…” Tom then looked at the rose extending for her again blushing slightly and whispering, “And the rose… Well, your favorite is pink so I thought you would like it. I stole from Marco’s garden, don’t tell him.”

“Pink is not my favorite color.”

“Whatever you say” Tom shrugged “So? I’ll meet you at the fair?”

The dark haired girl looked at the rose, then at him and sighed. Part of her was curious about the outcomes of this even if deep inside she felt like she was doing something wrong. He was Star’s ex, even if they were friends now and he even hang out with Marco, it would be weird- it should be weird.

And still Janna reached out for her pink rose and agreed.

“Eh, fine” She shrugged, “But you’re paying and if I find out this is a joke I’ll put a curse on you worse than Nasaya.”

The demon nodded unamused, “Eh I can deal with that it’s only fair.”

“One more thing,” she said as he was about to walk away, “my favorite color is not pink.” Tom smiled teasingly and went on his way, replying without looking back.

“Whatever you say.”

.

.

.

Janna had to admit she was impressed.

Tom was very cool once he got over being annoying all the time, he had some temper problems to solve, but he had confessed to Janna he was taking some potions to help with that (something about two demons of different kinds not mixing the genetics well or something?) so in that night things were fine.

In fact, things were going really well.

When they were both able to set down their anger on each other, it was rather… joyful. They got to talk and find common interests, they liked Love Sentence, he liked Karate movies, but rather zombie ones. She was a fan of old poetry, he… well, he knew the old poet she liked but it was close enough. As they went on talking things began to move smoothly between them, besides Janna had to admit that being on a multiverse fair was fun and interesting.

Janna was eating a piece of cotton candy (or something that looked a lot like it) and sharing with Tom when she suddenly realized they were holding hands. Not just holding hands, they were standing right next to each other in a way she was using his arm as support without realizing. Just… Very couple like.

She didn’t know if she liked or not.

Tom was still talking about the dimension section they were in, talking how was to go there the first time in royal duties and how his mother couldn’t go because it was dangerous on them (well, if she was a cotton living next to a flame demon who cries lava, she would be worried too), so he got a giant cotton candy for his mother as souvenir and all… The filipino realized she didn’t mind enjoying time with him at all, he was indeed trying to be a nice guy for her and she was doing just fine too. She didn’t mind.

Janna found herself tempted to intertwine their fingers.

Maybe she was freaking out too much. There were a lot of people, he probably just hold her hand so she wouldn’t get lost, and there wasn’t much space to walk so that’s why he didn’t say about her standing close, and he… He was the one who invited her on a date. He said he couldn’t imagine a more boring future than to be without her so, that meant something right? Wait, why she cared in first place? She shouldn’t care at all…

Well, she cared. She cared a lot. She wanted this. She wanted him to have meant every word and every part and everything… Since when she had been like that?

Janna frowned at herself. She had been crushing on this guy all along and didn’t know? What the… Well, it explained a lot actually. On why she reacted to violent around him and felt like pranking and teasing him around… It was her way to show affection most of times, she just didn’t know how to be “sweet” and “delicate”. She always know she was the kind of love who would bite… She just didn’t expect the bite back.

Or that it would be Tom of all people.

She was almost convinced herself, the idea of them being together as a couple getting wrapped around her head while she was moving her hands slowly to intertwine their fingers. She felt as if she did something simple as that it would mean everything would change. Like by intertwining their fingers meant to commitment to this - whatever it would be called - it meant a step to never go back… She was overthinking? Maybe. Possibly… Mostly like it. Yep. She was overthinking but who could blame her? Why it had to be him of all people?

Her fingers had already opened from his hands as she tried to move to intertwine with his when he suddenly stopped and so did she. She looked up to him wondering if he realized and would put an end on it, it he planned something or… Why he was staring at somewhere else?

Janna tried to follow his gaze through the crowd trying to find what was that caught his attention so much he forgot he was around her. On the other side of stalls corridors, there was a sweet desserts stand (a very much likely the one they got the cotton candy thing) and in front that the only thing that could have been on his attention was a blond hair… Right beside a red hoodie and dark hair.

She felt the pain in her chest. He was watching those two, now that she think about they had been on the same quarter for a while. The moment the couple turned to each other to talk it was impossible to not recognize their faces or the hearts in her cheek, or miss how Tom flinched in the moment when Marco leaned and kissed her mark making Star giggle.

That was the moment Janna came to realize. They had been hating each other for months why would that suddenly change? It didn’t. Tom didn’t invite her to the fair, he invited the first girl who accepted and had some experience with multidimensional stuff and wouldn’t be overwhelmed. If she had refused he probably would had invited someone else. But he made it all be so fun and romantic and… She was stupid enough to believe in all that.

Janna pulled Tom away and throwing the cotton candy on the floor angrily before stepping on it repeatedly. The action causing a yelp from Tom and some surprised gasps from people around.

“Hey! What was that for?!” Janna ignored him, so he tried to hold her and stop her from keep smashing the candy, “Hey! Janna!” But instead of listening she pushed him again and stormed out the scene, he called after her running right after. It was troubling since Janna was smaller and was getting through the creatures faster than him. It didn’t take much to lose track of her.

.

Tom went around the fair, he asked the stalls they had been if they had seen her, he asked a few people around, but no one knew where she could be. He was beginning to get worried at this point, those fairs were open to anyone participate, which meant that even monsters who despised humans (or those who eat them) would be around.

“Hey, is everything ok?”

Tom turned around to Star and Marco standing behind him. Star was holding Marco’s hand intertwining their fingers as the other held his arm closer to her, they both looked worried at Tom.

“Oh hey guys… It’s just Janna, she run away and I can’t find her anywhere. I’m starting to get worried, have you seen her?”

Marco looked at Star and she shrugged, “I haven’t seen her around from the moment we got here.”

“Me neither, sorry man.” Marco replied shrugging too.

He sighed tiredly, messing his hair “That’s ok, I’ll try to find her.”

“Did something happen for her to run?” Star asked, “You didn’t get mad, did you?”

“What?! No! I told you guys I’m taking care of that!”

“What was it then?”

“I have no idea, I saw you guys in the other stall and thought on getting to say hi and maybe hangout all together and then- oh…”

Star looked at him quizzically, but Marco seemed to understand the same as him “Well, better find her to explain yourself then.”

“Yeah, see you guys around!”

Tom ran around the stalls for a while until he decided it was no use, he took a breath and then closed two of his eyes leaving just the third one open. There were a lot of creatures around, but only one was a witch descendant. Tom was able to identify the trace of her essence on the stalls corridors and followed them until he was out the fair, the traces led to a hill and going on a tree to one branch where… Where she was sitting on currently.

The demon wouldn’t admit out loud, but it was always mesmerizing to look at Janna with the magic sensible eye, sometimes he did without her noticing. It was an flow of energy and magic unique and beautiful, it was in constant change and movement since it was a magic that still getting used to her body after she got her witch powers. It was one of the reasons he was drawn to her.

He opened his eyes and blinked twice to adjust to his normal vision. Janna was looking right at him with unamused face from the tree, her face with clear determination to not move from there.

“So you can see with the third eye.”

He shrugged, “It isn’t a big deal.”

“I guess.”

She stayed silent and he sighed, “Can you come down?”

“For what?

“I want to talk.”

“We have nothing to talk about.” She drifted her eyes watching the fair from afar again.

Tom took a breath trying to be patient “We just were talking for the most part of the night!”

“That was before I realized you were joking with me.” She replied indifferent.

“I am not joking! Can you just get down?!”

Janna rolled her eyes, but she jumped down the grass and crossed her arms in front of him “Done. So?”

“Look, whatever conclusion you got, it’s wrong.”

Janna gave an exaggerated smile to show her annoyance, “Oh, good to know! So this was indeed all a joke, right?”

“Of course not! Do you think I would spent so much energy and time on you and tonight for a joke?!”

The brunette gave a mocked laugh, “Oh, I’m sorry I’m not worth all that!”

The demon face-palmed at her answer, “That’s not what I meant! Stop twisting my words!”

“I’m not twisting nothing!” She raised her voice, “The only options for you to have called me on a date is either a joke on me or-” Janna nibbled her lower lip and shook her head- “I’m just going with the less-hurting option.”

Tom raised his eyebrows and now he was the one raising his voice, “Stop assuming stuff and hear me out-”

“For what?!” She replied in a loud tone “So you can just hang me around waiting for your first chance with Star-”

“No one is talking about Star!” He screamed frustrated.

“Oh really?!” She yelled back, “Then why you’re getting so angry and messed up by mentioning her name?!”

“I’m angry that you take me so lowy! I’m not that kind of guy!”

“Really cause your angry issues already showed up otherwise back then!”

Tom passed his hand on his hair trying to keep his control “I can’t erase my past, ok?! Yeah I did wrong and as result of those stuff I lost Star, but this had nothing to do with us!”

“There you go! You are trying to win her back by using me to show you got no more issues!”

“I never said that! She’s gone, she moved on and so did I! Why the hell you think you’re here for?!”

“Because you’re trying to fix things with the first one to raise their hand to you! It could have been anyone!”

“But it’s not anyone, it’s you in here!” Tom massaged his temples, “Freaking God, I didn’t think you were so jealous-”

There was an offended gasp from her, “Me?! Jealous?! Are you for real?!”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Tom replied inserting sarcasm into his words, “I saw my friend and her boyfriend across a festival and thought of saying hi and it was enough to make you go nuts!”

“Oh says the one who tried to fry the same guy who’s with her only because of a dance once!”

“Once! And that’s past, I wasn’t over her yet-”

“You also cursed him!”

“I was young and immature! I’m over that, freaking hell!”

“Oh you’re screaming at me doesn’t look like!”

“You started it!”

“Real mature reply!”

“Janna, just shut up so I-”

“So what?!” She screamed even louder than before.

“I’ll make you!” Tom pulled some strands of his own hair in annoyance.

“Oh, make me!”

“I am serious!” his eyes already shining in the dark, but Janna didn’t back down.

“So am I! But we both know you-”

Janna stopped talking because before she even finished her sentence, Tom’s mouth was over hers stopping any possible syllable to leave her lips. She had three seconds of shock in which she didn’t quite reacted, another five in which she just closed her eyes and started kissing back, and only then she got into herself and stepped back.

“Wait- What the hell you think you’re doing!?”

“Shutting you up.”

He didn’t wait her reply as he held her face firmly and leaned on her again, his lips going just as angry and wild as before. Janna tried to push him away again but she was unable to (ok, she would be honest, she didn’t really wanted to, he wasn’t forcing her into it - She could have got free from him if she really wanted so.) So instead she focused her energy and the heat from the fight to kiss him back.

Neither of them really knew how exactly happened, someone had moved (neither knew who was the first to do so or if they both did at the same time), she tripped, but he held her close stopping her from falling or getting her lips apart from him for longer than a moment, her body was just attached to his like they were magnets, then after the tree was giving support to her back and she used his leg to get more support (Thanks Lord, her legs were starting to feel like jelly) and her hands were in his hair while his rested on her hip and the other was closed in a fist as his arm was giving support to his own body. It was a weird - and yet - comfortable position for them.

Tom only stepped away when air was missing in his lungs and he could feel he was missing her breath too.

“I bring you here…” He said catching up his breath, “Because I really… Wanted to start something new… It was never-”

“Tom.” Janna interrupted him in a serious tone.

The demon looked at her a bit nervous, but didn’t let it show by any means, “Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Because!” Tom replied a bit annoyed at her, “She’ll remember the time we were together! On how we had fun and it was nice, warm and how I held her hands in mine…”

The Filipino girl looked at him annoyed, “Are you crying?”

“No!” Tom quickly covered and looked at Janna annoyed, “Look, I have to try something that this might work, ok?!”

She shrugged, “We both know you’re completely wrong, but you’re so desperate I’ll pretend we both are ignorant about that fact, so…” She sipped more of her milk-shake “Third, why me of all people? You’re the prince of Underworld, you can literally ask any demons to help you with that.”

“And it would get my parents to hear about and they would begin to try to make the relationship real even if I were to explain it was just to show.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“Have you seen my mother?!” Without waiting for the negative reply from Janna, the demon got his phone and began to browse on it until he found what he wanted and showed Janna “This is my mother.”

Janna grabbed his phone and looked at the picture of him in the horn of his mother and his father beside him, only her face was in the picture because it was all it could capture. He was expecting the “I got so many questions” people usually did, but she just shrugged and gave his phone back to him.

“She’s cute,” she replied, “though I was expecting your father to be the demon one.”

“He is, he just don't look like one.” The demon looked at her and frowned, “Aren’t you curious? About… how it was possible?”

The Filipino girl looked at her own phone sipping more of her milk-shake before replying, “Nah. I do get questions, but you should be the one who tells people whenever you want. Even if I ask if you didn’t want to reply you wouldn’t anyway. It’s easier to let you decide for yourself.”

Tom looked at her confused and brushed it off by remembering how Marco referred to her as “freak as hell”, but then… Well, he’s the prince of there and he didn’t see no problem.

“Next question,” Janna said taking her gaze away from the phone for a moment, “why me?”

“I just told you.”

“No, you said why not a demon. I want to know why me.”

Tom looked down embarrassed and trying not to sound offending as he replied sincerely “Because you have no boyfriend, no one in interest and would have no intention to be in a relationship, so… you’re the best option?” He said making a face of uncertain, but she just looked at him like she didn’t believe a word that he said, “Ok, it is because you’re the only one who might agree with this plan.”

“Huh…” Janna gave a slight nod and looked back at her phone sipping the milk-shake again. Tom was about to beg when she replied, “Fine. Under one condition.”

He sighed, it was expected. After all, he was asking too much. “Ok, what is it?”

“You owe me one and you’ll have no options to take that back.”

“Ugh, fine!” Tom said raising his hands in surrender. “I owe you one.”

Janna smiled and held his arm pulling him along with her as she went down the street. She showed him her phone before he asked where they were going, the screen was showing a status from Star saying she was enjoying her day at the park with the laser puppies along of a picture of the park on fire.

“The best way to do your plan it’s to be on the way to something planned and be casual about it, but coincidentally being around the person you’re stalking.”

Tom began to follow looking at her annoyed, “I’m not stalking her!”

The beanie girl shrugged throwing her empty cup of milk-shake in the trash can, “whatever makes you sleep at night.”

.

The most surprising thing out of that day had come at night.

Not because the rest wasn’t special, but because… Well, it was unexpected.

The “coincidental” encounter at the park was very smooth. Janna wasn’t clingy and wasn’t even holding his hands or anything, but having them together, saying they were going to the movies later and were there wasting time around for their session was enough to convince Star of their fake date. There was a curious stare of Star and a confused one by Marco, but they didn’t ask anything else, it was just proof they were not doubting of their word even if they were completely natural there and not looking like lovey-dovey couple.

When they went to the movies, Janna explained that if they were to keep contact and try to be super sweet to each other, then it would look fake. That being natural and friendly on each other was enough for them to think that they were in the beginning of dating. And after a certain thought, Tom realized she was right, even he and Star didn’t start off as a love at first sight and lovely from the start.

In movies, Janna almost convinced him to watch a movie about shades… But her smile was too wide and “innocent-trying” to convince him it was either a good movie or a good option… That and the fact it was for adults (which was no problem to him being a demon for longer than a human life could last.)

Watching the superhero movie was surprisingly fun, and Tom got himself enjoying both the movie and the company that would make silly jokes once in a while. It made him wonder how long it had been since he had done that, he sure went to watch Mackie Hand with Marco, but there was something else that made that moment special and enjoyable.

Maybe the fact he didn’t have to bring a dead person to live again to make Janna content? Or even try nothing at all? Maybe it was the fact there wasn’t any major interest in her company, so he wasn’t trying anything, just relaxing and getting in the moment…

That was probably it. He didn’t realize the major difference that made until the movie was over and they were in the exit.

“Ok, so we need a picture to post on Facebook to cover any suspicions that we weren’t doing what we said to be doing… Also because Star will see it.” Janna positioned the phone in front of her and smiled, “Come on, smile for the camera!” Even before he smiled at the camera she had already taken the picture, “Completely natural, perfect!”

Tom watched as she used her phone to post the picture on a quick caption on it. He gulped at the meaning of this. They saw Star, she was mostly convinced of their relationship, which meant the day, the date was over. He could finally go to his room and play some game until late night… Still didn’t felt appealing as before.

“Hey!” Tom jumped when the girl shouted at him, “Were you listening?”

“Oh, yeah… Sure why not?”

Janna just put her indifference face and crossed her arms, “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Then you can tell me to what are you agreeing since I didn’t make a question?” Tom gulped, but she just rolled her eyes at him, “For the one who pulled the plan to fake date to try to get Star back you’re being very reckless and uncaring about it.”

“It’s just… Weird.” He replied motioning to her to walk with him whatever direction he was going, “It’s not like I am pretending or feel like I should do anything else to pretend… It comes naturally.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s because you are not affected by my natural charm of being a demon.”

“Oh…” Suddenly he felt a firm tug on his shirt and before he could understand what was going on, Janna’s eyes were right in front of his and her face completely violating any law of personal space there could exist. She smirked at his shocked face, “What makes you think I’m not affected by that?” She leaned even closer still looking directly into his soul (Someone save him, he could feel her violating every single deep secret he had in there and worse, he might not mind that much) before leaning back and letting go of his shirt and turning around walking again “I’m just really good at playing it off and working on it. The first thing to learn about me is: I know how to play.”

Tom stood up fixing his shirt in a failed way to not think he didn’t mind that… At all.

“I’ll leave you home.”

Janna laughed “You mean across the street?”

The underworld prince looked up confused and stated that it was indeed Janna’s home. he went there without realizing when all he did was to walk and chat for a while. For good or bad, they were in the destination and there was nothing else to do…

Why he felt somewhat disappointed?

“Well, that’s my leave,” Janna said walking ahead of him.

“Wait!” Janna turned around and just then Tom realized he had screamed before forming a thought about it “I-uh… I owe you one right? How about we go in gaming station tomorrow?”

The Filipino descendant looked at him and smirked, she turned around walking to him again, her feet stopped in front of his and she leaned in his direction tip of her toes looking so deep in his eyes Tom almost felt like she was the devilish one of the duo.

“That’s true… You do owe me a big one…” Tom refused to recognize he shivered at her voice and how her finger touched his chest sliding a bit down and stopping in his heart as if she really had on her hands (maybe she did but he wouldn’t admit that… yet) “Don’t you?”

Her eyes went to his lips and Tom gulped in both expectation and awkwardness. Janna stepped back and went to the house again waving to him without looking back. “I decide how and when you pay me back”

When she turned around to look at him on the last time she was closing the door of her house, giving him a wink before closing.

Tom turned around and get on his way out of any possible line of vision or witness ears before taking his phone from his pocket and dialing the number on automatic.

“Finally!” Marco’s voice came from the other side, “How was the date?”

“It was cool.”

“Did she found out?”

“She might suspect a bit but I don’t think she figured out”

“Good for you. I still don’t get why you would go like this, but oh well” Tom could see Marco shrugging dismissing any kind of debate about his decision, “At least you had fun.”

“Yeah…” Tom looked up and sighed “She got me bad and I think she knows. She said herself she knows how to play!”

Marco began to laugh on the other side before replying, “You do have it bad.”

“As if we both didn’t know that.” Tom sighed, then looked up. The image of the girl who unexpectedly got him while he was actually chasing another imprinted on his mind. He didn’t know how it happened and why he was so helpless about it, he still refuses to accept some facts of all this.

Like the fact he enjoys every single bit of that whole torture and slow burn a lot.

“Hey, Marco?”

“Yeah?”

“Would you be my best man?”