When he comes back he finds Mel sleeping on the dining table. A meant to be eaten cold dinner sitting there waiting for him.

"I'm sorry I took so long..." He whispers as he sits down, trying to not wake her up.

She moaned a bit and opened her eyes. “Oh hey ... Sorry, been fighting sleep all afternoon.... long day. How was work?”

"Had one or two difficult customers, but overall it was easy... You should head to bed if you're tired."

“I didn’t want you to feel lonely coming home. Realized you probably did given Bob isn’t a bundle of sunshine”

"I don't mind the wizard... He has his reasons and I don't blame him for it. But thanks for the consideration anyways." He smiles slightly.

She smiled back. “I may go to bed then. Rest well..”

Lukas smirks. "You as well.... sleep tight, Songbird."

She slept past her normal time of 4am and woke up around 7am the next morning. She slowly came out yawning. "Juice... need moss juice..." She looked and saw Lukas. "Morning. Hope you had a nice rest. Do you still need some breakfast?"

"No, I was just about to head out.... Unless you want me to work at the kiosk today."

"No no, it's fine."She smiled. "Was gonna take a full day off. Posted a sign yesterday. I think I need it, you know?"

"Yeah... well, enjoy your relaxation day. Don't summon any other demons while I'm out."

She chuckled. "I promise... no summoning."

"Good. I don't need any competition with my business..." He seems to be half joking as he heads towards the door. "Remember, it's a 'you' day so make sure it's about taking care of yourself, not others."

"I'll do my best ok?" She smiled as he headed out.

Lukas spent the day at not just one job, but three. By the time he got home, the sky was already turning a deep purple.

And by the time he got there an annoyed Bob was moving buckets to the front of the house, they were glowing slightly. "Has access to all these and uses them to make dyes..."

"Of course. She's an artist, it's what she does.... What, do you expect her to sell her materials to people like you? Others that you think could use them better?"

"Well yes. Several of what she has are components for spells of safety, summoning spells, fire amulets, light spells..." She brought out a bucket. "So that's why those comforters feel so cozy.... Hi Lukas."

"Hey, Songbird. I take it you spent the day tie dying as usual. I'm sure it all looks lovely and your customers are going to love it... Every piece has a touch of magic." Lukas suddenly grins. "That could totally be your slogan... 'A touch of magic in every piece'..."

"Oof, that's chancy, then you get wizards coming to do inspections."

"They should! Your pieces trigger spells in the right conditions!" 

"It's fine... I haven't had a complaint yet." 

"Yes you have, I complained. I have a tablecloth stuck in place on my table!"

"But you aren't a customer."

"Yeah, pay her for the tablecloth and then you get the right to complain.... Until then, we're both paying rent and technically the table is communal space right now, so..."

"Well, that's the last of the dye buckets. I'll scrub them tomorrow." 

"Humph... so are you going to work tomorrow?" 

"Yeah, I paid the mortgage to keep it going after all." She looked to Lukas. "So, wanna come inside? I think we have soup tonight."

"Oh, I actually had dinner already... I thought I was going to be later, so I ate early..."

"Oh don't worry. We'll save some for later then. Soup tastes better the next day." She headed inside. 

Bob looked at her and looked at him. "....Whatever the hell your kind does to court without becoming forever together... just do it. This is getting ridiculous watching you two. And you've only known each other maybe 2 weeks now."

"Demons don't do temporary." Lukas snapped. "The closest thing to temporary relationships is if someone paid me to date them..." His voice gets softer and a bit sad. "Demon courting requires something that can never be undone, no matter what. It's why we only do it once."

"Fine.... don't get mad then if you miss your chance. Believe me.... even the mess I'm stuck in doesn't compare...."

"I know, okay? I know I'm probably playing with fire. Why can't everyone just leave me alone about it? 'Be cautious'... 'don't miss your chance'..... People give their opinions on something that might not even be there. If there really is something there, it will grow naturally at its own pace, with or without everyone's advice."

Bob nodded and went inside without another word. Lukas sighs. He's a demon, he's not supposed to get so... emotional. Emotional demons make mistakes. They take more risky deals, forget their limits...

Mel came out. "Are you ok Lukas? Is Bob being a pain? I can talk to him. I think he's just a stick in the mud sometimes."

"It's fine. He was just trying to give me some advice and I got mad because I've been getting a lot of unwanted advice from people lately... people who don't really know me thinking they know what's best for me."

Mel nodded. "It's just best to remember at least most of the time it's well meaning...even if they don't know what they're saying." She looked a bit sad before making herself smile again. "Well... come on you should at least relax for a bit."

"But, I'm already re..lax...ed..." He notices her expression and decides to concede. "Fine, I'll come relax with you for a bit."

She smiled and went with him to the couch, putting on a movie. "Hope you don't mind an action horror flick. I'm in a violent mood and I can live vicariously through the villain."

Lukas blinks. Demon. Minding a horror movie. "No, it sounds good."

She turns it on and sits with him. A bowl of what appears to be roasted, salted grasshoppers to share with him. As the movie goes along she starts, without thinking about it, leaning on him a bit, cuddling.

At first he seems to have no reaction, though he makes no effort to stop her. If one paid close attention, though, they might notice the tiny movements he makes so she stays in a comfortable position.

"Top they found the macguffin... now to see if it works. It's a 50/50 in a movie like this..."

"My guess is it actually does the opposite of what they were told..."

"I think they understood the riddle wrong and don't use it right." She watched and... "oo... both right. Well.... that town is doomed."

"Totally doomed. Wonder how much of the carnage they'll show..."

"Hmmm it's R rated so some is gonna be off screen I'm sure.... and oh wasn't expecting exploding heads. That's pretty good effect."

"I know. The special effects in this movie are amazing... Can't even tell that they're fake for most of it."

"I look for this special effects guy when I'm in this mood. It's like watching real carnage..." She smiled softly. "It's... nice talking about the movie like this..."

"Yeah... it's really nice..." At some point, his subtle shifting had ended up with his arm around her.

She didn’t pull it closer but didn’t shrug it off either. As the movie started towards the end she spoke up. “I had to explain to Joy what the not mate thing meant for the next few months”

"Oh? And how did she respond?" 

"Well you have to understand, she doesn't have boyfriends she has boy toys. And they know it too. So the idea that I can like someone enough to want to mate but physically can't for 6 months weirds her out."

"I guess I can understand why it might seem weird for someone with that kind of background.... But, I mean, that's six months that ensure you can't rush into anything during that time..." Lukas suddenly realizes how that might come across. "Not to say you would. It's just that it's a nice safeguard for those who might be inclined to..."

"Oh I can still rush in emotionally... if I meet the right guy. Being only part goblin lets me do that.... I just literally cannot perform the act of becoming a mate or mating with something." She felt nervous. "So... you know... I can still feel like I'm getting... close with someone."

"Well, yeah, but that's six months that you can't do anything to cause it to be permanent in case things don't work out... Kind of like a trial period where you can still walk away at the end if something goes wrong. And if everything works out with the person, it's only however much time you have left to the six months."

"Right... She said the same thing. Saying I should play the field some." She looked at the tv as the credits rolled. "But...there's no one out there I'd want to be with."

Lukas is also focused on the screen. "I didn't say anything about playing the field. Just that it's a nice fail-safe if you find someone you like."

Of course he ignored the hint. Maybe he wasn't... well they barely knew each other. And he wanted freedom. Or maybe he didn't want to be a rebound. There were plenty of reasonable things that could be going on. She watched as the credits finished and got up. "I should get some sleep.”

"Okay. Sleep well, Songbird. May you have pleasant dreams..."

“Likewise Lukas.” She headed to bed, keeping her smile on.

Once he is sure she was asleep, Lukas heads out again. He has less than two months to become rich so he's taking any work he can get. Thankfully, he isn't starting from scratch as there's still an account accumulating money from the past times he's been allowed to get a job in this world. It was never much, but over the decades it's added up.

After a few weeks she noticed how much he was working. One of the times he was coming back she was sitting there, looking worried. “Lukas is everything ok?”

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?"

“You aren’t here a lot and working a ton.”

"Oh, it's just part of my plan to take over the world." He cheekily grins. "Amass enough money and almost anything is possible."

Mel looked worried and a bit sad. “Right... am... I not giving you enough deals to be ok?”

"Oh, nothing like that, Songbird." Lukas tries to comfort her. "There's just something I want to do that requires a lot of money... It would just be better to earn the money than try to make a deal for what I want in this case and it's more than you can spare, so.... I don't mind the work."

She let out a breath looking a little relieved. “Ok.... just let me know if I can help ok?”

"Okay, I'll let you know if the time comes that I need it.”

It was time for the next mortgage payment. She sat there writing the check looking annoyed. She didn’t want to but no choice

"You know, you could just not pay this time. If your ex thinks you ran out of money, he might be scared into paying, if only to stall for the sale. Banks usually give a grace period of a few weeks if you're usually good about paying. The notice of missed payment should be sent to your old address where he still lives... If he mans up and covers it this time, then good. If not, you'll still have time to undo any damage."

She sighed. “I don’t want to risk my business though.... but maybe...”

"It'll be okay. Even if he doesn't pay, there'll still be time to make the payment before they go after the business. It's not good for you to always be paying for him to not be responsible... Think about yourself in this situation. You can't afford to keep doing this and this might be an opportunity to stop."

She nodded and put the check away. “Maybe...”