Dating a Half-Demon

Being Honest

She wakes up to the sound of the shower running, and feels the empty space beside her. She wanders over to his desk and writes a note apologising for leaving, claiming Alice had an emergency she needed to talk about. Which wasn't totally a lie, but it was Bree who had the emergency instead. She puts it on his pillow and walks out his room, out of the Lodge, and to the comfort of her dorm room.

She hears Alice stirring as she twists her key in the lock.
'Ughhhh what time is it? I feel like shit.' Alice groans from her bed, smushing a pillow over her face to block out the light.
'10am! Alice this is late for you- hungover?'
'I knowwwww, I'm never drinking again. Stupid posh order and their stupid posh free drinks!' she grumbles
Bree passes Alice her bottle from her nightstand and she sips gratefully.
'We need to get some breakfast in you next.' Bree chippers, contrary to Alice's grunt in response.
'Okay!!! In a bit then!' Bree compromises
'Wait. Bree, why are you here and not snoozing with Nick? Did you guys get up to anything last night?' Alice questions, trying to hide the teasing smile that threatens her lips.
'Well, thats actually what I want to talk to you about..'
'YOU GUYS DID IT? WHY ARE YOU HERE? WAS IT BAD??' Alice giggles
'Sorry to burst your bubble, but we did not. I'm in a bit of a crisis actually..'
'Oh?' Alice quietens, sensing the mood
'I'm not sure that it's Nick I want to be with. He's amazing, caring, fucking hot, but...'
'But.... is that not enough?'
'Ithinkthere'ssomethingbetweenmeandSel' Bree splutters out, Alice's face morphing into shock as she deciphers what Bree just said.
'SEL???'
'Please don't be mad!!' Bree begs
'I would never. But SEL?? I thought you hated him. You're going to have to explain this all to me.'
And Bree does- the feeling she gets when he looks at her, their discovery about their mums, her walking in on him in his pyjamas, and pretty much everything else that's happened between them.
'Damn. He's definitely flirting with you though. I don't blame him, you're hot' Alice winks
'Oh you do flatter me Miss Chen!' Bree winks back, leaving the pair in a fit of giggles.

They shower and get dressed, chatting away as they walk down to a local cafe for a greasy breakfast of pancakes and bacon. As the waitress takes away their food, Bree's phone buzzes with a text from Nick. Bree feels sick.

Nick: Hey Bree! I hope everything is okay with Alice! Let me know when you're free so we can hang out again ❤️

'Shit.' Alice snatches her phone and reads the message. Her face falls.
'Hopes I'm okay? Bree what's going on?' Alice questions, her tone becoming serious.
'I told Nick there was an emergency so I could come talk to you about everything. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that-'
'Bree it's fine! It sort of was an emergency anyway, you got me out of my hangover induced self-pity coma!' Bree snorts in reply and any tension eases away.
'Bree it sounds like this confusion with Sel is getting serious. You don't want to hurt Nick. What are you gonna do?' Alice asks, with genuine worry in her voice.
'I really don't know. Nick is everything I want in a guy, but there's a literal spark between me and Sel. I want to see if that will ignite into anything more.'
'It sounds like you've already made your decision then.' Alice concludes
'Huh? How? I'm still so confused.'
'The fact that you're questioning it this much and the way you lied to Nick this morning already means you're seriously considering giving it a go with Sel. I'll support you whatever you do, but please don't hurt Nick any more than you have to, he is your Lancelot after all.' Alice explains.

And there it was. The reason why her and Nick's bond was so strong. They were destined to be friends, maybe they were even soulmates. But Bree didn't take the easy route, she never had.

'I need to talk to Nick.'

She walks with him around campus, heading to the place they first fought the hellhound, where this all began.
'I need to talk to you about something.' Bree starts solemnly.
'Of course, is everything okay? Is Alice okay?' Nick asks, putting his hand on Bree's shoulder.
'I don't know if I can do this.'
'Be Arthur's Scion?'
'No, Nick. Do us.' Bree trembles, trying to hold back the tears as Nick's face shatters.
'Oh.'
'After everything with you going missing, I was so scared I would never see you again. I'm terrified of you getting hurt, I can't stand it. And how does a Scion dating a Scion even work? How does the bloodline work if we even got that far? It's not something I've even heard of before!' Bree explains, well that's how she's justifying it to herself and Nick, there's no way she's mentioning the Sel part.
'So you're just scared of losing me? Bree, I'm terrified on a daily basis with you as Arthur's Scion! You have so much power you don't even know you're capable of! You knew there was this risk when we started dating!' He argues, his shoulders trembling
'But not like this!' Bree shouts, causing the heads of passersby to turn towards the commotion. 'I'm sorry Nick.'
'So you're just gonna give up on us like that. I brought you into our world, I made you my page- if it weren't for me you wouldn't even be aware of all this!' He explodes, pain pouring out of him in a way Bree had never seen before. 'I just.. Can't have someone else leave me. Not after mum.' he whispers
Bree hugs him while he cries, stroking his hair.
'You know, I never said I wanted to cut you off completely, I still want to be friends. It's also kinda important. With, you know, the whole Arthur and Lancelot thing. I know this will take some getting used to. I hope you don't hate me.' Bree speaks quietly into his ear as his shudders quieten.
Nick looks up, deep into Bree's eyes, like he can see her soul-

'I could never hate you, B.'

He kisses her cheek, and he walks off. Presumably back to the lodge, Bree didn't ask. On her short walk back to the dorms, she plugs in her headphones and turns the volume all the way up, so she doesn't have to listen to her thoughts, bombarding her with guilt.

'I could never hate you, B' played over in her mind over and over and over and over.

When she made her way back into her room, Alice already knew what happened and runs over to comfort the now crying Bree.
'How did it go?'
'The best I could ask for to be honest. But, fuck, it hurt to see him like that. I really hope I made the right decision.'
'I'm sure you did Matty.'
They stayed like that for a while until Bree's phone buzzed twice- messages from Corinne and... Nick?
Corinne: hey! just checking that we're still on for tomorrow??
Nick: Friends is good. Just don't expect anything too soon. Thanks for being honest with how you feel though.
Alice raises her eyebrow when she sees Bree's reaction to the text messages, and Bree shoves the phone in her hand.
'Huh, that really is the best you could hope for. Good thing chivalry has practically been ingrained in him'.