Accidentally in love

Chapter 24

Not knowing what to say or how to behave, Jack stalled by putting a large amount of food in his mouth.
Was he supposed to just... converse casually with Black? About cheese? That didn't seem right. But it was a good chance to get to know the man.

"So what about this house here? Where did it come from?" The demon had probably killed someone and taken it from them.

"I built it, many years ago," the Shadow King shrugged with a smile, looking around. "I've been meaning to renovate it... It's over 200 years old. Of course I always repaired it and stuff, but... yeah... I was thinking of expanding it a bit. Maybe adding another floor."

Jack gave him an incredulous look. "And you do that all by yourself?" That sounded like a lot of work.

Black chuckled. "I have a lot of time."

"How do you have a lot of time with all your cheese, goats and gardens and... scaring people and stuff?" Jack asked stupidly, receiving a pleasant laugh that seemed so...not evil.

"That's not a lot of time. The goats roam free around the island so they're not a lot of work. I just milk them in the morning and-"

"You milk them?!" Jack asked in disbelief, eliciting an amused grin from the King of Darkness.

"No, the goats milk themselves and then even make their own cheese."

Jack rolled his eyes, trying not to laugh.

"Haven't you ever milked a goat?" Black asked in surprise.

Jack stared down at his delicious lunch for a moment before taking another bite. "I can't remember... Certainly not in the past 300 years!" he added with a laugh he wasn't entirely sure was fake.

Black smiled one of those weird, warm smiles that confused Jack so much. Was that a real smile...? It looked so real. How could someone who was supposed to be the root of all fear in the world smile like that?

"So what about you?" Black continued in the same casual, nice fashion as if they were friends. "What do you do when you're not freezing things?"

Jack tried to act as carefree and happy as he could. "Oh, not much. Most of the time I'm hanging out at the pole making toys or watching TV or something." He threw in a casual shrug for good measure.
Though he was generally cheerful, he wasn't that cheerful. He wasn't as silly, carefree and happy as he had been due to the potion, and found it surprisingly difficult to pretend.
He also wasn't sure how he felt towards Black anymore; was he scared? He didn't feel scared at the moment, even though he had a feeling he should be. But Black was being so extremely not scary that it was hard to be afraid of him.

"TV? I thought you weren't into human contraptions?" Black asked with a grin.

"A TV isn't a human contraption!" Jack argued immediately. "A TV is a magical artifact that shows all sorts of cool stuff!"

Black laughed loudly. "A TV does not run on magic but on electricity."

"Not the one on the pole. That one is magical and doesn't count." Jack shook his head, determined.

Black continued laughing as he shook his head. "Okay then. What else do you do all the time?"

Jack shrugged again. "Not much... I usually chase the winter and cause havoc." He grinned.

Though the Shadow King smiled, he looked almost disappointed "That's it...? You freeze things and watch TV?"

Jack couldn't help but frown. "Yeah, so what?" he asked far too defensively, quickly trying to compose himself.
"Don't you like watching TV? Where is yours anyway?" he continued quickly in a happier fashion, hoping the demon hadn't realized anything.