Not Fish

Who: Reiz and Pandect.
Where: Streets.
When: Night.

Despite the terrible winds at night, Reiz still liked it. It was quiet, the only noise was the air brushing past his ears. Maybe he'd stay out for a little while tonight, even if he was feeling kind of chilly. He brought his journal with him. He used to write a lot outside, Smith said it wasn't good to be cooped inside all day. There was a big world out there, and sleeping in a bed wouldn't let you see it. Even if Reiz liked to sleep too.

He sat on a bench, not bothering to wipe the snow off, and crossed his legs, opening his notebook and putting pen to paper.

Pandect wanted to leave town as soon as he could, he knew that, that was the way he lived. Don't get too attached, don't let them see. He knew that. which was why he didn't know why he was over at Amy's apartment picking up some things for her before the night shift. and why he had let her sleep in his room at the hotel after her house had been burglarized. And why he had cleaned up her apartment or her. He settled his pack on his shoulders and took the stairs out of the apartment two at a time (they crunched from the salt someone threw down to keep the snow from freezing), the sooner he got back, the sooner he could get to sleep.

Reiz's train of thought had wandered off the path and was now choo-chooing across a grass field. With a fish. Which was what he was drawing in his book instead of writing.

He liked fish. There was a lake around here or something, right? Maybe he could go fishing in it when the weather was nicer. That'd be nice...

He leaned his head against the back of the bench, looking up at the sky.

It was windy here, getting cold biting through his shirt until he pulled his wings around himself. He was heading toward his truck, shoulders tense until he saw a familiar face outside. "Reiz," he said with a slight smile.

And then he sneezed.

Picking his head back up, Reiz looked over towards the friendly voice and gave a small wave.

"Hi."

Pandect's face hardened, his wings tightening around himself, he knuckles going tense and white. He hadn't known. Why hadn't he known? He was getting soft. "I-" he said. "Reiz."

Reiz was... kinda confused? Did he do something wrong...? Or maybe, uh... He was the wrong Reiz? And he didn't mean to say hi to him... But... That was Garnier, right?

"...Um... ...hi?" He greeted again.

"Hello," Pandect said sharply. What did he expect, that the demon would announce itself? He was a demon. Pandect realised belatedly that he had said that last part out loud. He wasn't sure exactly how Reiz would respond to that.

Reiz furrowed his brow in confusion. This was Garnier, this was the Reiz he was talking to... had he done something wrong since... the last time they'd seen each other? Except that didn't quite make sense...

"Um... ...Is. ...something wrong?"

He opened his mouth to say no, but he couldn't lie, his mouth snapped shut instead. He went through all of his old deflections. 'Nothing of importance?' No that wasn't true either. And the man (demon) was making those miserable puppy eyes at him, which shouldn't matter because the man was a demon. He looked miserable, kicked. Pandect was tongue tied by the truth again. Why was it that his honesty always put him at a disadvantage with demons? Shouldn't it be the opposite? He wanted it to be the opposite.

"You're a demon," Pandect said, clearer this time.

Those weren't words that Reiz liked to hear very often.

At them, he tensed up. How did he know? When did he find out? Was he an enemy? The expression on his face--it wasn't exactly a welcoming one.

He kept silent, looking at Garnier with cautious eyes.

Reiz's face looked a lot like what Pandect imagined his own looked like after his had that initial sneeze. A lot startled, a little caution. He narrowed his eyes at Reiz, there was an insistent beating in the back of his mind, against the back of his skull, at the base of his wings, itching, scratching, compelling him to strike first. To cut the demon down where he stood (well sat). Pandect controlled himself. A demon that had mastered the art of looking innocent was dangerous.

"You should head inside, its getting cold out. The wind can really cut down the temperature." Not sure that translated to keep away demon scum, but it was the best he could do on such short notice.

Reiz sat still. Maybe he should've left... maybe he should try to make amends? He wasn't sure. If someone was wary of him because he was a demon, he couldn't just say, 'I won't hurt anyone' and expect to be trusted right away.

"...I don't mind the cold," he said slowly and carefully.

Nodding stiffly Pandect headed to his truck, setting in the bag of Amy's things, concentrating on the crunch of the blue tinted salt that dotted the sidewalk to keep down the ice, and leaned a moment against the door. He paused, "Have you been..." like he could expect the demon to answer honestly anyway, but he had to ask, needed to know. "Have you been minding yourself as well?"

"...yeah." Well, Reiz wasn't really sure how to answer that for real. He was sitting out in the cold and he knew that was bad for him... but he wasn't trying to be reckless or anything.

Brr.

"...what about you?"

Pandect sighed, (usually something he reserved for Amy) and leaned against the hood, sneezing into his handkerchief, (a new one of course), "I always try to take care of myself." He looked Reiz up and down once and slowly moved to sit next to him on the bench, still a good couple of feet away. If he scooted over any more he'd be sitting in the snow. He had seen the flickers of caution, not anything quite sharp enough to be fear and then the shiver that went through Reiz. Carefully, making sure not to touch him, Pandect curled a wing around
Reiz's back, cutting down the wind.

He wasn't looking at Reiz, didn't quite know what to say. Didn't know why he was doing this. Maybe he was having a mid life crisis.

Reiz nodded slowly, looking down at the notebook with a fish drawn in it. He never had this problem with fish. Fish were simple, bait and catch. You could catch fish and eat 'em, or you could keep 'em as pets, and there wouldn't be really anything awkward about it all...

"Are you going to hunt me?"

Pandect jerked like he had been shot. "No," he said vehemently, he calmed himself. "No, I don't hunt. I was just startled." He could feel the wind against his wings (wasn't there a song with that title somewhere?) and listened to their soft clink, clink. "I hadn't before... At breakfast... I hadn't realized. But no, I don't hunt. I never have." He'd killed demons before though, four on the way to try and save his brother. Two more in the two hundred years since. "Are you going to try and kill me for realizing?"

"I don't kill people." Which... was kind of the truth. He didn't kill people... unless they tried to kill him. And Garnier said he didn't hunt, so... he was safe.

Pandect tilted his head and studied Reiz, "Really?" There was no reason to believe the demon, no reason to trust him. But here he was, sitting on a bench next to a demon, using his wing to keep the wind off his back.

Why did he want to believe? Rey had said Pandect loved humanity, and he thought he did, he had never thought of it that way before (to him love was a two way street and his side of the street had roadblocks) but it was close enough. It made him forgive people, made him help them. But he didn't love demons. That wasn't a matter of denial, he knew that, the thought of demons was a deep pulsing knot scrabbling inside of him, he wanted to strike them down, kill them, remove them from life.

So why did he want to believe in Reiz?

"Is that what the ham is about?" he asked. "Pork instead of people?"

Reiz nodded slowly. He needed meat. That wasn't an overexaggeration, it was fact. When he first... changed diets, he had a hard time keeping to it. And even though it's lessened a bit with time, he still does. But... he said he wouldn't hunt people anymore, so he wouldn't. Never go back on your word.

"...yeah."

"Is that hard?" Pandect said, looking down at his hands. Two hundred years of manual labor left his fingertips calloused. He studied them to distract himself from Reiz, just listening to the demon's words, not looking at those puppy eyes.

"...yeah." There wasn't really a point in lying, and it wasn't something Reiz really wanted to do anyway. He closed his eyes for a moment, remembering when his craving was the hardest to ignore.

"I. ...don't like. Blood."

"You're an odd demon," Pandect said and cleared his throat and patted Reiz once, awkwardly on the back. "I'm proud of you then."

Well, maybe that was kind of a lie. Reiz liked blood... but that's why he didn't like blood. ...Yeah, sometimes his understanding of it depends on how much alcohol he's consumed at the time.

"...thanks." He said a little unsure... he was happy that someone was proud, but... how long would that last, he wondered?

"If you... if you need help with... controlling yourself you can ask me for help. I wouldn't mind that."

"...Thank you." Reiz said more out of courtesy than anything. He wasn't really sure how anyone else could help him... but if Garnier offered, then the least he could do was thank him.

The lackluster thanks was probably the best he could expect. He nodded once sharply, like all his joints weren't quite well oiled. "Very well then, I'll, um, see you later then." He drew his wings back close to himself again and stood up. "Oh!" his hand suddenly went to his pocket. "Would you like another cookie? Or do you not like them?"

Reiz smiled meekly at the cookie offer. "Um... I. ...don't really like cookies." Kind of an understatement, but... "Thank you, though."

"Oh, well" Pandect said. "I'd carry around ham for you, but a don't think it'd keep in my pockets."

At the offer, Reiz let out a soft laugh. "'preciate it though."

Pandect offered an answering smile at that tiny laugh, one had going to cover it automatically, "Shall I meet you tomorrow at breakfast then? At the diner?"

Reiz's smile got a bit brighter at the breakfast invitation. "Yeah." Another person who knew he was a demon... and he still wasn't being hunted yet.

What a weird town. Nice change, though.

Pandect nodded awkwardly again and climbed into his big orange truck, waving once before heading back to the Lamplighter.