The night was warm, which pulled the students from the nearby university onto the streets. They were chattering, yelling and drinking, enjoying the last few years of their freedom.

Soap sat on the loveseat on his balcony with his beloved wraith laying on his lap like a big, snuggly cat.

“So these humans pay money to acquire knowledge?” the void that was Ghost, shed of his usual mask, echoed out. He was bewildered, absolutely not comprehending how colleges work. Soap had been trying to explain it for the past half an hour.

“Well, yeah. And if you don’t learn everything fast enough, they can kick you out and you’ll have to pay again.”

Soap gently threads his fingers through the smoke under Ghost’s hood, eliciting a pleasant, rumbling purr.

“Outrageous!” Ghost bellows, accidently awakening the eldritch being napping next to them. Ghost sat up, pressed a tender kiss to the spot where Konig’s forehead could potentially be under that hood he wore and settled the other demon back in the other loveseat.

“How can this even work? Taking someone’s right to knowledge away?” he repeated, this time more quietly, settling his head back on Soap’s plush thighs.

“Okay, to be completely honest, no one is taking anyone’s rights away. Or at least not in this case. The whole thing is really transactional, but that’s just because being able to teach so many people is really time consuming.”

Sopa rambled on and on, absentmindedly rubbing Ghost’s semi-material skin.

“The professors spend their whole life getting certificates and learning so they can teach other people. They have to be paid too. Capitalism, darling.”

And maybe Ghost’s unmoving heart gave a small, strained squeeze at that word. Even if it did, that would be only for Ghost to know. And maybe Konig, because Ghost was convinced the bastard was listening in.

“I suppose that’s somewhat reasonable.” Ghost grumbled unhappily and nuzzled into Soap tighter. “But I want to see this ‘college’ you speak of. I want to see what this place of knowledge looks like.”

Soap laughed, a hoarse laugh Ghost could probably hear and recognise even from hell.

“Fine, fine. I’ll find us a fun seminar with an open audience, how about that?”