“Strawberry ice cream suits you. It’s just as sweet as you are… if you know what I mean.”

It wasn’t a lie, if I had to describe Baal as a dessert it’d be a strawberry parfait. Sweet, all the while looking like the most perfect edible in the universe.

My eyes wouldn’t leave my cute companion as he licked his strawberry ice cream. Even with zero hidden intentions, he looked ravishingly sexy and cute while he ate his dessert.

“I swear Luke, seriously.” Baal replied chuckling, nudging my shoulder at the same time.

We walked amongst the crowded streets of Cordelica, keeping our horse Ion by its leash as it trailed behind us. In need of supplies for our journey, we were making our way to the market square. Both of us had vouched to buy ice cream despite the cold. Baal craved for something sweet and the ice cream stand was empty enough.

My scoop was also strawberry flavored, fact that made Baal joke about how perhaps I was addicted to pink things. The only pink thing I liked for the color itself was his hair, but I refrained from stating that out loud. Snow had stopped falling this morning and it had been enough to dye Cordelica white. I was happy to have gotten Baal new clothes, he was legit surprised when everything fit him perfectly too. He walked around with a wine colored, long-sleeved, warm turtle neck shirt and a dark leather jacket. I had managed to get him some winter pants that matched his style too. The pair was tight but warm and good at keeping everything dry too. I gave him some gloves for when it got colder up on the mountains, he kept them inside one of his new jacket’s pockets. The Goddesses knew how sexy he looked in those clothes and how damn well he looked with his hair unbraided. Well most of it, he had braided a lock of hair by the side of his face. He was charming and adorable at the same time.

This morning I had woken up feeling rather happy. Baal was holding me tight in his arms and I couldn’t help but be very excited over how close we were. Worry plagued his face when I stirred awake, but the second I teased him about how he was glued to me, he relaxed and seemed relieved.

“Mmm, here’s the market! You stay here with Ion and I’ll be right back?” He said. A small amount of ice cream remained over his lips, a very tempting fact.

“Take your time, I’m going to check something out by myself.” With my reply, I lowered my face to lick his lips on a mischievous impulse. “Hehehe, sweet.”

“Yeah, enjoy the freebies idiot,” he yanked on my vest and pecked my lips in return. “See you in a few.”

I let him leave with what was left of his ice cream while I finished the rest of my own. Once he was out of sight I made my way to the smith’s alley alongside Ion. Unlike the food market, the smith’s alley was far less crowded. There were a few seasoned warriors and their apprentices looking for weapons and armor around the ash scented alley. After a few minutes walking in it, I arrived at a familiar shop. Two hundred years ago, this shop was the only smith place in the much smaller capital of the Irisian Spine. The shop was now bigger and had many competitors around. Inside the brick building with smokey dark windows, a warm, olden time atmosphere welcomed me in. A young man with dark brown rabbit ears banged on a piece of hot metal using a hammer, the noise excruciatingly painful to my ears. When he noticed me, he quickly stopped and walked towards me wearing a curious face.

“Welcome! Em, I’m sorry, I don’t remember you from before. Are you here to ask the Master for armor or weapons?” He asked cheerfully, speaking a little louder than normal. His job had probably made him deaf to some degree.

“Why, I am here for precisely that. Is the Master home?”

“By the Goddess’s mercy, if it isn’t Luke of the Ancients!” A voice spoke from back of the shop, right where a bunch of finished blades and armors where hung about for decorating. “I thought I’d die before seeing you again, my dear old friend!”

An old man with tied-up, long, silver hair and sky-blue eyes came to greet me. He wore a tunic under a dirty apron and leather boots. His face was full of wrinkles, a scar earned in his youth looming under his right eye. I didn’t think he’d get to live this long, I thought I’d find one of his apprentices running the shop. I even prepared a long speech to convince the other party to give me what I wanted. Apparently, saving his life like I did two hundred years ago, had greatly extended his life expectancy.

“Gerome, it’s nice to know you’re alive and obviously still kicking,” I spoke and gave the old man a hug. “I honestly thought I wouldn’t see you again myself.”

“Makes me wonder why you would return to the North in such a short span of time. Something horrible must be on its way if you decided to travel up here.”

“You couldn’t be more right. My brother is stirring trouble again.” I mentioned and Gerome squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, his wrinkled face wearing a sympathetic expression.

“You’re on your way to pick that cursed Heavenly Sword… I doubt you would have come here just to say goodbye.”

“Correct again, I wouldn’t want to burden you with that knowledge, had I known you were alive. Not without a second reason.” I continued while in the background Gerome’s apprentice kept hammering, this time using magic to null most of the noise. “I’m traveling with someone who’s in need of a sword. The thought occurred to me that maybe I could ask you to repay me that favor you owe me from two hundred years ago.”

“Oh Luke, of course. What do you have in mind for this… companion of yours?” The old man’s words brought a smile to my face. I knew exactly what he meant by companion, he had been mine back in the day.

“Do you still have Belial?”

“…the demon sword? Sure do, but do you think your friend can handle him?”

“I’m sure he can, he reminds me of the sword’s general temper. There’s no doubt they’ll get along.”

“Well then, if you say so.” Gerome grinned and released my shoulder before he walked towards the veiled side of the shop.

A few minutes later he came out with a wine colored wooden box adorned with golden words written in the Ancient Language. He handed it to me and I opened the it to gaze upon the light pink bladed sword. Long ago, Gerome himself had used it to slay beasts with me. The whitish silver hilt had an intricate dragon pattern along with the word “Blood” carved on it in the Ancient Language. The blade glowed slightly pink, eerily so. It oozed with bloodlust, a visible yearning for battle, to cut through flesh and bathe itself in blood. Demon swords like Belial were forged for times of unending war, that it remained out of use for so long must’ve been torture for it.

“He’s been dying to meet some action for a long time, let him keep you and your friend safe,” Gerome spoke and smiled melancholically. “I don’t want to hear you died before I did.”

“I can’t make any promises…you know how things are between my brother and I.”

“You should work around outliving the prophecy if you want to live with your new companion a while longer.”

“Perhaps I should… Baal is always a fun person to have around.” Emphasis on the fact he made me think of weird, impossible things. I hadn’t encountered someone like him in my entire existence and I’d been on Iris for a very long time.

“So, Baal is his name? Does he know about you?” Gerome had a curious expression on his face, I stared at him weirded out by such reaction.

“Not yet. I’d like to tell him but I am not sure how he would react.” I stared at Belial for a few more seconds before I closed the box and sighed mortified. “During my stay at the South, after revealing my nature, I was seen as a monster. Only two idiots dared trust me for who I was rather than for what before I proved myself to be on The Resistance’s side. Won’t he think the same once he knows what I am?”

Gerome grinned kindly and placed his hand on mine.

“If he’s traveling with you then there’s a big risk he’ll find out in the least pleasant of ways.” The old man had taken a fatherly tone, I guessed so as to add more weight to his words. “If he stuck with you despite your terrible personality I doubt finding out about your race will chase him away.”

“…” I thought about it for a while before giving in to the truth. Baal had to find out sooner or later. Better from me than from my psychotic younger brother. “I guess I’ll speak to him.”

“Goddess look at you, over five thousand years old and acting like a teenage brat.” Gerome had a hearty laugh as I stared at him outraged by his offensive comment. Me? A teenage brat? Seriously?

“Whatever gives you reason to say such a thing?” I asked annoyed, being five thousand years old meant I had passed and buried my puberty years a long, long time ago.

“Isn’t it obvious to you at this point? Why on earth would you, the oldest and most powerful of your kind, give a single shit about what a feeble mortal thinks about you? You like him, Luke. You like him a lot.”

I stared at Gerome as if he had said the most shocking and terrifying thing in the whole universe. Me? Like another being in that sense? HA! Yes, I found Baal likeable, fun to have around… and who the hell was I kidding? Fuck! No wonder, this kid had me thinking impossible things. Five thousand years of experiences and the little shit had charmed me into like liking him in a couple weeks!

“You’re acting like a child. You thought ignoring your feelings would save your Baal from getting hurt. In truth, you’re only giving yourself, and him, pain.” Gerome sighed before he took his hand to his temple. “Don’t be an idiot, you’re too old to be acting like this. Go for it, what do you have to lose? Your life? Because last time I checked you will lose it either way.”

My mouth opened as I attempted to spout up some sort of response, but came out empty handed.

“And I’m supposed to be the youngest. Luke, you don’t have a lot of life before you. Get over your fucking problems and do something about them.” Gerome rolled his eyes. Guess he was having a kick over having the upper hand on me for once. “Get your head out of your ass and ask him out, for fucks sake.”

I held Belial’s box under my arm and used my free hand to hide my face. I was so embarrassed just by thinking about him at this point, what in the hell was wrong with me?

Gerome noticed my actions and continued laughing his old man lungs off. Touché.

“If he likes you back, relax! Those strange feelings of yours will only get better.” Gerome looked at the Lisitsa boy gleefully working on his masterpiece with caring eyes and I understood. “You know how much of an asshole I was before. And then I met my beautiful wife, may she be in our Goddesses’ care. They change your life Luke, for good. Don’t miss out on your one chance.”

“He looks nothing like you, old man.” I laughed, I sincerely thought Gerome would end up with some other man. Women didn’t stand him nor vice versa.

“He’s my great grandchild and thankfully he has more of his great grandma than of me, nothing to do with his ugly old grandpa…” He laughed before looking at me again. “You might not make it past this... I don’t want to believe that, but if the worst comes to pass then at least you gave yourself a moment to be happy. You deserve that much.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about deserving… yet, being happy for a while sounds nice.” I smiled to myself, a vague memory of once upon a time wishing to have a family of my own passing through my thoughts. My wish was out of reach now. “It was nice seeing you again, dear friend. I’ll leave you to your duties now. May the Goddesses bless the remainder of your days.”

“As they do yours Luke. Take care and good luck.”