Asher Sellinite

Why does he still put up with me?

 I wish I knew what Asher was thinking when he 'adopted' me. I'm not exactly the friendliest or cutest- after all, I'm a human, not a puppy or a rabbit. Could you imagine if your regular old pets could talk? Why would this fucking demon intentionally seek that kinda relationship out?

"Tedrose, could you be a dear and help me out with the dishes?" Asher's voice was calm yet firm enough that I knew he meant business, but for the life of me I didn't want to drag myself away from my sketchbook. I bet Asher is cursing himself right about now for gifting the endless blank pages to me for our first Christmas together. I've got way too much imagination and not enough pages to fill- I draw like it's going out of style. This one was a field of sunflowers with a man in the background, I'm sure I'll come up with a plot line for whatever the man is doing later since I've always loved creating little stories in my mind. Is it maladaptive daydreaming, or is it just the artist's condition, who's to say?

"Teddy, I wasn't kidding," Asher's voice interrupts my stupor. He's annoyed at me, I'm certain, "you made a huge mess last night, and I'll be damned if I clean it alone." I giggle. He'll be damned. I hear him sigh heavily from the kitchen, I'd better get going before he decides to disown me. I bring him my sketchbook and hope that my excited smile might get me out of doing my chores- if he thinks I'm so cute, I might as well take advantage, right?

"Look at what I made!" I give him the book with the enthusiasm of an overindulged kindergartener, genuinely hoping that he likes it.

"Oh wow," he holds it at arm's length, as if it needs a proper viewing. I love how careful he is of my feelings in these moments, as if my art isn't total bullshit and he actually finds solace in it. After a moment he sets the book on the counter and turns to face me, "But I am serious, Tedrose. I'm not cleaning this mess myself. You can help yourself to under the sink, you know your way around just fine." Huh. He's really familiar with all the teenage tricks in the book to get out of doing chores... I wonder how many pets he's had.

It was really fun to just let loose last night- I'd had a solo party with Asher's antique wine collection and his boom box while he was out for the night... it was quite the experience, and I honestly hadn't gotten that drunk before, and I was very surprised to learn that Asher seemingly doesn't care that I drank like, half of his stash. 'Cute human quirkiness' he's called similar behavior. But am I spiraling? Was all this freedom too much? And if I were to develop alcoholism or drug addiction, Asher would definitely enable me, or at least wouldn't stop me. Half an hour later and I'm still cleaning the weird gunk off of the stove... what the hell even is this chunky, grey, beef-smelling madness? Asher has decided to just continue with his crossword puzzles at the dining table like I'm not even in here questioning my life decisions. Specifically why I had to throw such an intense one-man raver last night.

I eventually finish up cleaning up after myself and I plop down next to Asher at the dining table, looking over his shoulder at the crosswords. I rest my chin on his writing hand, my head moving in sync with his handwriting, prompting him to giggle slightly and ruffle my hair.

"You'll need a bath tonight, mortal. Sweaty," it's hard to be upset at his casual tone. I hate bath time, it's hard not to be embarrassed with how much Asher stares at my body during- is this how women feel? Objectified? Asher giggles again as I keep my eyes locked on his handwriting, my chin still jostling around in time to his cursive lettering, "lovely little mortal. So polite, obedient," he glances down at me, "you enjoy being in your master's lap?" I sigh and nod, pulling back to look up at his playful expression. He ruffles my hair again, brushing it out of my face before he resumes his crosswords, sighing. He looks content. I wrap an arm around his shoulders and start massaging his neck like I normally do when I'm bored and wanting to get a positive reaction from him.