Commissioned [completed]

Chapter 26 -The church of Red and Blue

"Sooo, first fight, how did that go?"

You scowled at Sodo, leaning on the cathedral's outer wall while angrily munching on a sub from the kitchens. He was in his goggled, steampunk helmet thing. "What's the point of the helmet if you're going to show your horns anyway?" You pointed to the little tips of his white horns poking out the top.

"So it went swimmingly, I see," he gave a tight smile; you saw the fabric mask shift, "you ever tried to hide a pair of horns, ______?"

You shrugged. "Are the tubes so you can sniff your own farts?"

"I honestly don't know what the tubes are for...You really are not going to tell me what all that was about?"

"What did your ghoul ears hear, huh? Everything? Come on, you don't care, Sodo," you took your last bite of the sandwich and dusted your hands off.

"You do a lot of deciding on what people get to care about, don't you, Bait?" He cocked his head at you.

"Not you too! What happened to 'I only do what betters me' and all that?" You cleaned your teeth with your tongue and shoved your hands in your pockets.

"I've decided what betters me here because that's my choice.. and you're letting me be a dick to the cops today. I never get to be a dick to cops."

He had inadvertently said you bettered him, and it wasn't lost on you, "Good, let's ruin some cops' days. And look, I mostly can take care of myself, and I'm not staying after all this, so it doesn't really matter either way, my outcome, right? Let's just go back to thinly veiled threats and banter."

"I wasn't asking you to stay, Bait; low and behold, a majority of people, at the very least, don't want you to get got by whatever is following you. No strings attached," he sighed softly. "The others are already at the garage. You're a very difficult creature to get along with," he regurgitated your words back at you and kept walking.

You had no choice but to follow.

The garage was behind the church, some ways away from the car park. It was just a vast shed that smelt of oil and metal. Made sense for there to be a garage, considering all those who lived at the clergy. There were bikes lined up for the ghouls, a hearse, naturally, but more interestingly, a black minivan—for all those bowling field trips.

Aether and Swiss were in matching helmets, much like Sodo's. You'd been watching them all long enough to know who was who under the masks. Their black horns poked out the top too.

"What's the plan, boss?" Aether passed you a black helmet nowhere near as intricate as theirs. Adding insult to injury, it smelt like Papa.

It took a moment for you to realise he was asking you, not Sodo. "Oh, I was just going to go in, ask some questions at the front desk about, uh, 'Brennan Mulwater'" You found his card in your pocket. "Might be something, might be nothing, then we could try some more wafting?" You looked at Sodo.

"Wafting?" Swiss punctuated the question with a grin.

"Yeah, apparently, I smell great; I might smoke something out? What do I smell like to you two?" You placed the helmet on, just smelling all the Papa.

And just like that, the two of them took it as permission to step closer, Aether stepped from his bike, and Swiss lingered forward from leaning on his motorcycle.

Swiss circled, "After the knife situation, I'd say holy... but not in a bad way. Not overly sweet."

Aether was a little more polite; he sniffed his way to your shoulder, not quite touching, "closer to human than holy, like... a more human, human."