His best friend was decidedly not human.

It was more of a hunch than actual fact, his dull senses worked against him most of the time, but there was simply no way that Flint Moore wasn’t at least a halfie. They’d met their first year of college, stuffed in a tiny dorm with barely enough space for the two beds and desks that the housing department provided. They’d become fast friends, Flint’s own serious personality complimenting Knox’s passive nature quite well.

Despite their closeness, Flint was a jaded person. Really, Knox just assumed that they were close, it was difficult to tell what the other man was thinking. He could barely get Flint to talk about how his classes were going (he was a law major, something he’d learned after months of living together), let alone how he felt about their friendship. Regardless, they met up every Tuesday at a café on campus, and Flint listened to Knox complain about his terribly boring life over coffee the other had paid for. He couldn’t imagine the arrangement was beneficial to Flint in any way, but nevertheless their tradition persisted.

“Wait, what?” He asked, sure that he hadn’t heard his friend right.

Flint shifted in his chair, almost like he was uncomfortable, though that was impossible because the man was like an unmovable force. He’d chosen a window seat as he always seemed to do on rainy days, but Knox could almost swear he saw the glimmer of scales flashing on his arm from what little sunlight was peeking through the clouds. Perhaps it would have gone unnoticed by any other human, but Knox had grown up seeing gleaming scales almost exactly like that.

There were a number of supernatural creatures that had scales, most notably sirens and mermaids as well as other aquatic beings. Flint didn’t fit those criteria though, he avoided water like a house cat. Even with just the threat of rain looming in the dark clouds, he already had a rain jacket and umbrella resting in the chair beside him, ready in the event of sky water. Knox remembers that he’d taken incredibly short showers too from when they’d lived together. Besides his lack of gills on neck was the main giveaway. Most creatures with aquatic genes had them, and they often kept their hair long to cover them in human settings. Flint’s hair was short.

Knox could probably look further into the matter, but he supposed Flint would tell him in due time. Maybe. At the very least, Flint didn’t pose any sort of threat. If he had wanted to eat some helpless human, he’d had plenty of chances over the past two years.

“I asked if I could come to your apartment?” He repeated, voice deep and eyebrows scrunched. Maybe he’s embarrassed?

“Yeah- I mean if you want to, of course I don’t care. You’ve just never asked to come over before, you caught me off guard. I don’t have any more classes today and I don’t work until later, so that should be fine.”

Flint merely nodded, moving to stand and shrug on his rain jacket. Their coffees still sat half full on the table, and Knox fought the urge to pout. He really wanted to finish his drink, but this was nearly a once in a lifetime opportunity. When they’d first moved out from their shared dorm, Knox had invited him over plenty of times. His ex-roommate would always come up with some sort of excuse, or just flat out reject him, so eventually, he stopped trying.

They left the coffee shop together, Flint geared up for the impending rain while he just wore a thin jacket.

The walk to his apartment is quiet. Knox had already complained about his life for their allotted time together, and he hadn’t prepared himself for this unexpected outing. Flint didn’t seem at all uncomfortable by the silence, so he tried to not let it get to him either. Once they reached his apartment, he went in immediately, but Flint lingered in the doorway, looking around as if in search of something.

“You coming in?” He decided to offer. Maybe he had to be invited in too? He couldn’t think of any supernatural creature other than vampires that had to explicitly allowed in someone’s house. He wasn’t under the impression that Flint was a vampire, but maybe he was mistaken.

Flint walked inside and shut the door behind him after a few moments. “Have you made any new friends?”

Again, the unexpected question made him pause. Flint was unusually chatty today, and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe he was finally trying to open up? The bluntness of the question didn’t exactly invite casual conversation, and Flint just wasn’t the type of person to ask meaningless questions. He wouldn’t actually care about whether or not he had met new people unless there was something wrong? Maybe he’d been cursed and hadn’t realized it yet.

Regardless, he needed to choose his next words carefully. Flint didn’t know that he had any knowledge about the supernatural, and he didn’t want to accidentally bring it up. “I mean, not really? Is this your way of calling me out for having no friends?” He joked, trying to keep his tone lighthearted.

Somehow Flint managed to frown deeper. Knox wondered how he managed to look so concerned and disappointed at the same time.

“You haven’t had any random visitors or anything?”

Oh, he was continuing to question. Knox had fully expected him to back off, maybe offer a half shrug before Knox changed the subject by asking him if he wanted anything to eat or drink, but now he wasn’t sure what to do. Surely, he wouldn’t be insisting if he weren’t concerned.

“Well, I helped someone out the other day on the way home from work?” He said, deciding to be as truthful as possible without disclosing any of the vampire elements. He still wasn’t sure what Flint was, and the supernatural community were full of petty creatures who held grudges against other species for past wrongs. “Their phone was dead, and they seemed like they were in a tough spot. One of their friends came and picked them up, and later they repaid me in groceries. I wouldn’t really call them friends though?”

“You let a stranger into your home?”

The tone was accusational, and Knox couldn’t help but feel defensive. What was wrong with being a good Samaritan?

“What was I supposed to do?”

“I don’t know, let someone else deal with them? That’s literally how you get murdered.”

Were they having their first argument? Knox hoped that Flint wasn’t the kind of friend who stopped talking to him after a small conflict. He opened his mouth to say, “well the sun was coming up, did you want me to let them die?” but that was a whole other can of worms he didn’t want to deal with. Instead, he just muttered, “But I didn’t.”

There were a few moments of tense silence, Flint’s stony expression nearly made him want to apologize. What for though? He was just being a good person, and so far nothing bad had come of it. In fact, they had bought him nearly a months’ worth of food, so they couldn’t be that bad. There was nothing for him to be sorry about, so he merely set him with a look that he hoped was unapologetic.

Finally, Flint sighed, and for a moment Knox could imagine smoke curling out of his mouth, like a dragon puffing out smoke in fairytales. “Fine. Just… be careful if something like that happens again. And if you ever feel like you’re in danger, or something’s wrong, don’t hesitate to call me.”

Knox’s jaw dropped. He wasn’t sure he’d ever heard Flint say so many words at once. Or say anything with even remote concern for his wellbeing, or reassurance that he actually cared about what was going on in his life. Sure, they met up every week and Flint always seemed to listen to him bitch about his life, but he wasn’t sure the other actually cared. Even now, when saying something somewhat close to having feelings, Flint was noticeably uncomfortable. He was looking at the wall like the Demon Slayer poster he’d bought for five dollars from Walmart and hung up with tape that would probably rip the cheap paint off when he eventually took it down- was the most interesting thing in the world. His hands were balled up at his sides, like this entire ordeal pained him, and truthfully, Knox wouldn’t be surprised if he was. Flint seemed to have the emotional capacity of a brick.

If Flint was so worried that he was showing actual emotion, then maybe the whole vampire thing was more dangerous than he thought.

“Of course, I’ll call you.” He decided to say, if only in hopes that Flint stopped looking like he was constipated, “But is something, like, wrong though? I don’t really understand where this is suddenly coming from.”

“My father is a detective,” Flint licked his lips, a nervous habit that Knox had picked up on over the last couple years, “There’s been an active murderer killing recently, and I just wanted to be sure that you’re being safe.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” He couldn’t tell if Flint was lying or not, “I won’t do something like that again, then.”

A lie, he’d probably help anyone that seemed like they needed it, but they were both lying to each other anyway. Or omitting the truth, at the very least.

Flint seemed to visibly relax, nodding a little as though to himself. “Good. Well, I’ll get going then.”

“What? No.” He moved to block the entrance, barring the other from leaving, “You can’t just invite yourself over, ask invasive questions, then leave. You really freaked me out, at least stay for a little while.”

“…” Flint stared at him, “Fine.”

“Really?” He asked excitedly, and maybe it was a little pathetic, but he was happy that Flint agreed to stay. It got lonely here by himself. “Great. Do you want anything to drink? Are you hungry? I can cook. Oh! There’s this new anime I wanted you to watch…? I don’t remember the name, but I’m sure I can find it. Go sit.”

Flint looked like he was already regretting his decision, but Knox was pretty sure he secretly liked hanging out with him, even if the man would never admit it.

☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ:⠀ *⋆.*:･ﾟ .: ⋆*･ﾟ: .⋆

His shift that night was as boring as it usually was. He couldn’t bring himself to study, too brain tired to do much other than stare at the chip aisle in his direct line of sight. A bag of Doritos had taken residence on the floor his last shift, and since then no one had bothered picking it up, and Knox certainly wasn’t planning on doing so. He didn’t get paid extra for ruining his circadian rhythm (in fact he was pretty sure the morning shift made a quarter more than him- the bastards) so on the dirty tiles it would stay. Maybe if he glared at it long enough it would magically return to the shelf.

He yawned for the nth time that night, eyes watering as he contemplated ringing himself out for another energy drink.

He was daydreaming about his shitty mattress when someone entered the store.

Knox didn’t even sit up properly, mumbling out a greeting to the customer without looking at them. He was still looking down at the scratched surface of the counter when a package of candy slid into his field of vision. He straightened up a little and began to ask the person if they found everything okay, but the words died in his throat when his brain registered the person’s face.

They were stunningly pretty.

Prettier than pretty really. Their hair was blond, falling in cascading waves that framed their unreasonably beautiful face. Their eyes were a deep brown color, lips perfectly pink and Knox felt awfully inadequate in comparison. They were so beautiful they were kind of hard to look like, but Knox couldn’t bring himself to look away.

“…Hello?” The person waved their hand in front of his face and felt awestruck at the deepness of their voice before he realized he probably seemed really creepy.

“I’m sorry.” He mumbled quickly, scanning the pack of Swedish Fish they were trying to buy. He could feel the heat on his cheeks. They probably thought he was weird.

“That’s okay. You seem tired. It’s pretty late isn’t it?” They asked, “How long have you been working?”

“Since eleven.” One glance at the clock proved it was just past four, and he was sure the next hour and a half until his relief came in would crawl. Haley, the morning shift cashier, was almost always late, so no doubt he’d be hanging around until she inevitably came rushing in. Knox didn’t feel like the extra fifteen minutes on his paycheck was worth it, but he couldn’t leave the store unattended until she showed up.

“Got long left?” They asked, inserting their card into the pin pad to pay. Knox opened his mouth to answer immediately, without much thought. But then the conversation he’d had with Flint earlier that evening popped up in his head. Could this person be a murderer? They were really pretty, Knox imagined it wouldn’t be hard to lure people to their deaths.

“Uhh, I don’t know.” He decided to say. Even if the person wasn’t some serial killer, it was better safe than sorry. “My relief should be here soon.”

Good, maybe the idea of another person showing up would make them uneasy. It was harder to kill someone when you’re looking over your shoulder for a potential witness, right?

“Well, I hope you don’t have to wait too long. You look like you need sleep. Have a good day, kid.” They leaned forward to grab their receipt out of the dispenser, and Knox got an eyeful of their smooth chest as their dress shifted. Who knew collarbones could be pretty? They sent him a wink before sauntering out of the store, candy in hand.

Knox watched as they got into a Bentley, the smell of expensive cologne lingering in his nose.