Commissioned [completed]

Chapter 11 - Frozen peas and wine

Your appetite dispersed, and you didn't want to run into Papa again, so you returned to Sodo's room. Sodomiser was curled up on the fold-out bed watching a Saw movie which, as you had learnt, was some kind of comfort for him.

"You're back early," he murmured. If he had a tail, it would be wagging—and not for your return. But in anticipation for what kind of horror the on-screen man in the tie was about to face.

"Yeah.. I.. I think I upset Papa." You slumped your bag down.

"Mmm, not hard to do in recent years," his eyes didn't leave the screen. A grotesque cracking sound came from the monitor speakers, and you looked away.

You wanted to ask about the recent years, but realised you really shouldn't. "Uh, either way, I would like to go on the offensive with whatever we do with my situation. I don't want to wait anymore; they're setting the stakes; I want this finished."

Sodo finally looked up at you from behind the mask, his grey eyes curious. "That bad, huh?" He begrudgingly paused his movie for later with his controller and patted the bed next to him.

You sighed softly and joined him, "I teased him when I should not have; I think I hit a nerve. It seemed like... and it might have well have been, that I dismissed and jeered at his emotions surrounding me." You didn't know what you were thinking; maybe you had wanted him to break for the both of you so you wouldn't have to cave in and pin you to a wall or something. He wouldn't do that, though. That wasn't the nature of consent, wasn't the nature of his beliefs.

"You say something insensitive? You would never."

"Hey, I know I'm abrasive when I'm not trying."

"I like that you're 'abrasive'. Anyway, does not change anything, you want to do something about the situation, and you don't want to involve anyone else."

"You feel safe doing that?"

"If all they have is husks, I'll be fine; I'm invincible, you know?"

"I am serious."

"So am I, Bait. If that's how you want to do it, I guess we go to known religious sites, waft your scent about, and see what we can smoke out."

"And you can handle that?"

"I think so; faced off against much bigger things for Papa in the past."

"But with all the other ghouls, right?"

He shrugged, "I think I've got this."

"You free for wafting tomorrow?"

"You feeling pungent?" He sniffed at you.

"As I'll ever be."

***

Turns out there are consequences for skipping dinner. You woke in the middle of the night with a blistering headache, feeling like an absolute genius.

Sodo was a night owl but had already put himself to bed by then. You needed something cold, but Sodo's mini fridge was mostly meat. You weren't about to put a block of beef on your forehead. Strangely no alcohol; after pondering it, you didn't think you'd seen Sodo drink anything alcoholic. Monsters, Mountain Dew. Interesting.

Papa had said the kitchen had peas on standby, so that's where you went. The candles burnt low in the hallways as the church was active all hours.

You kept a shaker of pepper tucked in your bra. You were in Papa's old shirt; it was the most comfortable thing to sleep in. You groaned, planting a sack of frozen peas on your aching head from the industrial fridge. You pinched a tub of yoghurt for easy snacking. Yoghurt was good snacking; you didn't need to use your teeth to enjoy yoghurt.