Nameless Ghoul

The Kiss, Take 2

Omega and Itzal walked through the gardens for a while. It was a pleasant morning and not too cold. Omega lightened the mood by telling him stories about the other ghouls and he tried to tell a couple of funny stories about Alpha. Itzal guessed he wanted to smooth things over between the two of them, but he wasn’t really bothered about mending fences with him. He wouldn't go out of his way to pick a fight with him either, though. As they walked into the Abbey through the back porch, Sunshine and Shay were coming along, chatting happily. They spotted the two ghouls and came over.

“Hi, what have you two been up to?” Sunshine asked.

“Just taking a walk,” Omega answered. “I’m on bodyguard duty this afternoon, though. Terzo is going shopping," he said as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh Omega, good luck with that!” she chuckled as she reached out and touched his arm.

He shrugged and said goodbye, leaving the three of them together.

“Secondo tells me the witches are free this afternoon, so I shall send someone to come and get you when they’re ready for you. Will Sunshine be accompanying you?” Shay asked.

Itzal looked over at her. He wasn’t sure if he wanted her to be there or not. Secondo had said the witches wanted every detail of the rituals, but he didn’t know if they meant every detail, or if they would take some things as a given so that he wouldn’t need to explain. He didn’t know if he was ready to go into that much detail about his suffering if Sunshine was there listening to it, but then again, he thought about what Omega had just said to him.

“If she wants to be there, then sure.” 

She smiled and nodded to Shay.

“Of course I’ll come. I’m free the whole day and don’t have anything planned. I was going to ask if you wanted to hang anyway, Itzal.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but he thanked her anyway.

They went and grabbed some lunch from the canteen that the Siblings used and took it back to the ghoul lairs. Shay had a lunchtime meeting with his colleagues, so he went to set up his communing session. A few of Papa’s ghouls were watching TV in the lounge and they waved as they saw Itzal and Sunshine.

“Way to go this morning, Itzal,” said Dew. “Not many ghouls have bested Alpha like that. You’re a wiry fucker, aren’t you?” He laughed.

Itzal just shrugged. He’d always been pretty good at scrapping, able to overpower his older brothers from quite a young age. They were stronger than him also, but he had always been quicker and more resourceful.

“Modest too!” laughed Aether.

“I don’t like to fight really. I only do it when I have to,” Itzal said.

He thought back to some of the training that Santos had put him through. For a while he'd fought in an underground fight club in Paris. It was against humans, but they fought dirty and Santos had thought that Itzal would benefit from it to keep his skills sharp. Plus, the money he won from fighting and the illegal betting kept Santos happy. A fair few of his scars came from that time. There weren’t many rules and weapons like knives and crowbars were common; even humans could do a fair bit of damage to a ghoul with weapons like that.

They went to Sunshine’s room to eat their lunch, sitting on the sofa with the food laid out on the coffee table. She made them some of the Ghoulish tea to go with it. Primo had a large greenhouse that he had dedicated to growing various plants, spices and herbs from their home dimension, so they had a constant supply of the tea.

“I didn’t realise how much I’d missed little things like this until the other day,” Itzal said as he took a sip. “Shay gave me some in his office and it took me straight back home.”

“Yeah, it’s so lovely of Primo to think of the ghouls like that. When I first arrived, he made me a little hamper with treats from home and treats from here in it to help me settle in.”

Itzal smiled, thinking that it must have been nice to have a welcome like that after your summoning. He quickly stopped himself from thinking about his own welcome to Earth.

Sunshine must have realised where his mind had gone as she changed the subject.

“So the others are planning a ghoul movie night tomorrow. Do you want to go? There’s a small cinema room in the main part of the Abbey and we have beanbags on the floor, and there's popcorn and sweets and sodas. It’s always fun. There are big sofas too, so you don’t have to sit close to everyone else if you don’t want to. I think it’s some superhero movie.”

Itzal nodded. He figured if he didn’t like it or if it was too much, he could just leave. And Sunshine looked like she wanted him to go with her, so he thought he should at least try to make the effort for her.

She smiled as she finished the rest of her food. They chatted about various antics from previous movie nights and she made him laugh as she described various pranks and ridiculous arguments between Dew, Swiss, and Aether.

“I like to see you laugh. You should do it more often."

“I only seem to do it when you’re around,” he said seriously.

She rested her head on his shoulder and looked up, checking he was ok with it. She shifted around to the side so that she was facing him. He turned towards her too and she reached up slowly to touch his face, gently stroking his cheek.

He waited to see if his brain was going to let him down again, but so far, so good. In a moment of bravery, he leaned in and softly placed his lips on hers. She sighed and kissed him back, closing her eyes and snuggling closer.

This time, when her fingers tentatively touched his hair and stroked his scalp, he enjoyed the sensations. He breathed in her scent and let her play with his hair between her fingers. He lost himself in the moment, actually enjoying kissing someone for the first time since he arrived on this Earth.

Sunshine broke the kiss first and looked up at him with dazed eyes. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she had a small smile on her face. Her scent had changed and he knew she would be happy to take things further, but he didn’t want to ruin something that had been so perfect by pushing himself too far and freaking out. So he put his arm around her and held her close to him, thinking that he could just about handle that for now.