Something Different

Friday

18+ ONLY: for sexual content. CW: fear/primal play, knife play.

"Sorry, can you say that one more time?"

Demeter rolls her eyes, then goes back to examining her fingernails closely. It's so quiet in this room that I can hear her long lacquered nails clicking gently against each other. Her heavy black boots dangle over one arm of the chair while she leans back angularly against the other, crown crooked on her white hair. I've never encountered someone who says "fuck this" so nonchalantly with their body language.

My eyes still on the councillor, I hear the figure next to me snort loudly. He wraps his long pale fingers around my forearm before whispering in my ear, "Let's not look a gift entity in the mouth. C'mon." Without glancing up from her task, Demeter flicks a finger-wave in our direction.

"Ta ta, you two."

DZ leads me out of Demeter's chambers and down the stairs, fingers still tight around my arm. The two guards snap to attention and push the double doors open for us, their red ribbons denoting their ranks fluttering in the resulting breeze. Before I know it, DZ and I are outside again, breathing in the crisp night air. I look up at the sky, bright with the full moon and stars so different from the ones I'm familiar with back home. She's never let me stay for more than a day or so. And now the whole weekend?  A wide grin spreads across my face.

DZ interrupts my train of thought as he pulls me into a hug, lifts me up, and spins around once before gently setting me back down. His out-of-character behavior makes me laugh out loud.

"What's gotten into you? Happy about running a one-person hotel for me this weekend?"

He steadies me with both hands, pale eyes meeting mine. A slow smirk reveals a single fang before he responds. "I don't know, actually. This time feels... different. And not just because you're staying longer." He pauses and frowns briefly, the smirk fading as quickly as it had appeared. "I'm just... confused about something." 

"What?" I ask as we start walking again, towards his home.

Another pause. "Are you sure you're... OK? Not holding something back about what brought you here? Something about you feels different, somehow. I don't like not being able to read you."

"Welcome to my life, DZ," I roll my eyes. "If I could read people like you do, things would be a lot easier. No, I'm not holding back. There's a pandemic going on in my world, in case you forgot, and it turns out that a global health crisis isn't good for my anxiety. Who would have guessed?" My joke hangs in the silence. The grass, covered with a sparkling sheen of frost, crunches beneath our shoes as we walk. When we finally arrive at his door, he unlocks it and ushers me in ahead of him. I strip my coat off and drape it across the back of a chair, then curl myself up on the far end of the sofa, watching DZ lock the door and close the blinds. 

"Anyway, thanks for your help today. I guess I'll see you tomorrow? I assume Zyggy wants to keep me up all night and make popcorn again." DZ takes his own coat off and tosses it over mine, then plops down next to me. My breath catches slightly at his casual proximity. Usually he's not so relaxed when he's close to me like this--Zyggy is the one who struggles with personal space, not DZ. 

"No, Zyggy's done for the day." He stretches one hand along the back of the couch and taps out a light, nervous beat on his thigh with the other.

DZ? Nervous?

"That's it." I nudge him with my foot. "If you don't tell me what's the matter, I'm going back to Demeter's to have a sleepover with her instead."

Another smirk, this time revealing more of his teeth. "I'd love to see that. But no, please... please stay. I need to... figure this out." He sighs and turns to face me, propping his head up with his arm on the back of the couch.