Demon Wingman

Chapter 3

Luci tried not to notice the much-improved mood that Bean was in the rest of the evening. She seemed distracted for the rest of the party after (per Luci's suggestion) Pendergast had disappeared from the hall.

He also tried not to notice the smile she had on her face as she drifted off to sleep that night. She could be smiling for a number of reasons. The abundance of shrimp at the party maybe, or the distinct lack of Elfo. It didn't have to be because of Pendergast completely.

He took some comfort in the fact that it really wasn't Pendergast she had danced with, but him. So a good portion of that smile on her face was due to him.

Was this still a good idea? Luci had never actually second-guessed his actions before. If whatever he wanted to do could benefit him in some way, it was usually a good idea in his eyes. But now there was a nagging voice inside him that kept asking... was this the best way to act on his feelings for Bean?

As he was lost in his own thoughts, Bean's fingers curled around his tail. Not too tightly, but enough for his heart – or whatever he had – to skip a beat. He saw her neutral, sleeping expression curve up into a smile briefly, and he shoved the worry back down again.

He wanted this, this closeness with her, while she was awake. And he felt that the only way he could manage to get it was by way of Pendergast. If getting closer to Bean inside the knight helped him get over these feelings, fantastic. They could all go back to the way things were. If not though... then there was always ways to get Pendergast out of the picture. Even some that were non-lethal.

Curling up near her head, Luci fell asleep soon after to the dulcet tones of Bean's light snoring.

The next day Luci slipped away from Bean's chamber to find Pendergast in the early hours of the morning tending to his horse.

"Hey, it's my favorite skin suit!" he called down from the door of the stall as Pendergast was doing something with the horse's hooves.

"Can you possibly not call me that?" he asked.

"What, you don't like that? What about 'meat puppet', or 'flesh vessel'?"

"Hmm, 'flesh vessel' does have a certain ring to it, but still no."

"Have it your way. So, are you ready for round two? We're calling on Bean again today after she gets up. She'll probably be sleeping until around noon. She wasn't drinking all that much last night but still, it's Bean, so we've got time."

"I'm grooming up my horse for a ride. I thought that the princess might---"

"Engh, wrong," Luci interrupted, mimicking the sound of a buzzer. "Bean doesn't want to go for a ride on her first date, not unless it's somebody else's horse."

"Well, at least I'm trying to come up with ideas. What do you propose?"

"I 'propose' you just leave everything to me. Have I steered you wrong yet?"

"I barely know you, and also last night I had a nightmare that my eyes were bleeding out of my sockets while I heard you cackling in the background."

"Heh heh, yeah, that sounds like another side effect of demon possession," Luci chuckled. "Tell me when you have the one where all your teeth hatch like eggs and centipedes crawl out of them. That one's hilarious."

As much fun as it was causing him low-key anxiety, Luci knew that he and Pendergast needed a game plan. A strategy for how they were going to approach Bean and what they would bring up as potential outings.

Pretty much all of Pendergast's ideas were somewhat boring. Wait, there was no 'somewhat' about it. They were boring. He didn't appear to be thinking about what would appeal most to Bean in any case. Just a random ride around the kingdom was not going to thrill her.