When the Dawn Breaks [TBAU]

☆ Chapter 28 ☆

"So, you live at the lodge too?" Gem asked as Impulse joined her at the table for breakfast.

"Yeah, for now at least–"

"Yes, and he will be moving out soon." Xisuma interrupted Impulse mid answer, popping up from behind the demon and making him jump. Gem giggled a bit at Xisuma's sudden appearance.

Impulse sighed sarcastically and pushed back the wave of dread that came with Xisuma's remark. "Jeez, X. But yeah, I only arrived in the village a couple months back, and I decided to stay, become a hermit! Xisuma wants me to build my own house soon."

"Ooh!" Gem's eyes lit up. "Building is fun! What kind of style do you think you're gonna go for?"

Sighing again, Impulse shrugged. (He'd had a hunch Gem was a builder, she seemed the type. Hunch confirmed. Ugh.) "I'm not sure, I haven't done much building. Maybe something cottage-y?" He waved his hand in a so-so motion.

"You could get help with it you know," Xisuma pointed out, sitting himself at the table across from the other two. "You could get advice from Scar, or- I'd say Bdubs but he can be... confusing."

"Scar's not that much better, honestly." Impulse laughed a bit, before sobering. If he really was going to be building a house, he wished he had either Pearl or Grian's help on it- but of course, they weren't here. "I wish I had their help," he found himself mumbling aloud on accident.

"Who?" Gem peeped with a curious tilt to her head, and Impulse realized he had, in fact, voiced that thought aloud.

"Just some old watcher friends of mine, they're good builders," Impulse answered honestly. He wasn't sure why he didn't lie like he always did. Something about Gem made him feel like he shouldn't, it was like she was too sweet and kind to lie to.

"You're friends with watchers?" Gem gasped, eyes widening with surprise. "That's cool!"

"Yep," Impulse answered, puffing up his chest. He put on a confident flair for Gem, but inside he was hyper aware of Fuzzy perched on the back of his horn, and of Xisuma's eyes on her. He hoped and prayed that Xisuma (and his stupidly mischievous expression) didn't say anything about the moth being a watcher's eye, because he didn't feel like talking about her right now. Something else might slip, other truths he'd been keeping to himself.

Instead, Xisuma decided to redirect the conversation. "So, maybe you could go ask your watcher friends for help building? Demons have transportation spells, you can go see them."

Impulse swallowed back a sudden lump in his throat. Xisuma's words felt like a horrible taunt, even though he hadn't meant them that way. "Right, transportation spells... haha..." he repeated nervously. The interdimensional transport spells that he didn't have . The spells he didn't have because he'd decided to be a crap demon and now he was on a punishment mission with locks on half his spells. He wasn't strong enough to break through the handcuffs on his magic. He couldn't tell the others that. Then they'd find out why he was really here.

"Umm," Lie- lie lie lie lie, now. He looked away from Gem, refusing to meet her eyes. "They're both really busy though... I wouldn't want to bother them, you know?"

A beat of silence passed between the other two. Xisuma and Gem shared a skeptical glance with one another, before Xisuma decided to gloss over his worry. "Sounds to me like an excuse to not build, but sure." He shrugged. Impulse could imagine he was smirking under his mask.

"Well, whatever you do end up deciding to build, I'm excited to see it!" Gem wrapped up, smiling encouragingly. Impulse let himself breathe internally, knowing they hadn't felt the need to push. His moment of reprieve was quickly interrupted by the doorbell ringing, and Gem jumping from her seat with an excited shout of "I'll get it!"