After about twenty rounds of drinking, Kahn collapses heavily on the table, with a cheek crushed on the wood while murmuring between hiccups, “Do you- hich- you want to t-train with me?” Then he makes a loud sob that makes Rei and A-Yin laugh. Lì rises and sighs, then he rolls up his sleeves, looking for someone sober enough to be able to help him. Only Wyatt still looks lively, so he stops him and forces the young lad to help him. Together they raise the heavy demon and begin to drag him out of the tavern. He weighs a ton, damn muscle-head.

“Hurry back!” Dora’s voice echoes from the kitchen door. The blue demon mumbles something incomprehensible and exits the room, using his foot to close the door. A-Yin catches Lì's doubtful gaze from the corner of his eye before him, and the blue demon disappears outside. Then, he turns his attention back to Rei. Her lilac eyes are more feverish than usual, but she’s still sober.

“With the old ladies out of the way, now we’re getting serious.” he says. 

She smiles at him, showing her canines, and fills the two jugs, commenting, “You’ll regret challenging me!”

His lips curl up, and they both take up the challenge. After a few more rounds, the sting of alcohol begins to curl up in their stomach as the atmosphere seems more and more jovial, despite the inn having slowly emptied under their careless gazes. Rei pushes the glass away and shakes her head. “I need to be honest with you.” 

The simple sentence is interrupted by an amused chuckle. She is forced to start again and adds, “You don't do shit.”

The demon's round lips part in shock, and he guzzles another glass. The rum no longer slides down that easily, and the room starts to spin. “I am the leader, and I have great responsibilities!” With a smug smile, he points the finger at himself, and the fubai lowers it ironically saying, “Like delegating everything to others?”

“You always mistreat me.”

“It's not true.” she snorts, crossing her arms as hair falls over her pouting face. The expression amuses him, and, with a mischievous smile, he states, “Alright, love.”

“Love?” 

“You are always so lovely. How can I not call you that?”

Rei is about to fight back, to give him a little push, but her hand stops mid-air, and her eyes narrow on the bottle. “I hate it, but I'm too tipsy to say something.”

“Are you admitting your defeat?”

She shakes her head and drinks another glass, aware of her wrong choice.

“You intrigue me.” A-Yin asserts, amused as he plays with the empty bottle. “I don't understand where you come from.”

A sly smile settles between her flushed cheeks. “Why do you care? You should just be glad I jumped into your arms.”

The distance between their faces shortens, and the demon grins.

“Or you wouldn't have known of my existence and failed!” Rei says, then bursts into a rowdy laugh as she feels her eyes slightly moist. “I can imagine your lost expression as you look around, confused for the seal of the sun that does not resonate.”

Despite the belly laugh, the sound is warm and soft, ringing pleasantly in his ears. He pauses to look at her, smiling at the sight of her dark cheeks and closed eyes, amused. Rei usually has a severe, threatening expression toward others. Despite reserving a few giggles and ironic glances for him, A-Yin never saw her so relaxed, and he must admit it is nice. 

The rum flows like boiling water through her body, so Rei takes off her jacket, then pulls her hair back, which flips over the nape, creating a faint, fleeting cold breeze that brings light relief to the skin. His icy eyes linger on her bare shoulders and then slowly descend to her neckline, focusing on each small mole that adorns her cleavage. “What can I say? Sometimes life really smiles at me!” 

He motions for Wyatt to bring another bottle, which he rests on the table. It is the last one that the young demon is willing to serve the two. He does not look up and does not speak, yet in his mind, he curses them for having drained half a cellar in one evening. Grandma won't be happy.

A-Yin fills the glasses, and some amber liquid falls on his fingers, leaving them sticky and sugary. Despite his failing sight, he keeps drinking. “I'm serious. No one has ever seen a fubai. Don't tell me you've lived all this time in the woods!”

“Uhmm.” she murmurs from the sip of her new drink, narrowing her lilac gaze on him. “Of course not!”

“Where have you been then?”

“I left the RiShi Pit when I was a little girl. You can tell I've been wandering ever since.” then Rei shakes her head and chuckles, “I can't tell you all my secrets, then it's not funny!”

They cheer their shots and quaff the rum. “You're right. Then I couldn't discover them one by one.”

His gaze turns serious, and he asks, “Is that why you want to open the gates of Diyu? Revenge?”

A cruel smile draws on her ethereal face, and she says, “Yes, humans haven't been particularly nice to me.”

Rei plays with the empty glass, swinging it between two fingers, and in a low voice, asks, “And you? Why do you want to open them?”

“Those bastards of my brothers are stuck there, and I'd like the two worlds to merge, with no one winning and no one losing.”

Her lilac eyes widen in surprise. “You want something impossible. I didn't make you so romantic.”

“Does it bother you that our goals are so different?”

“No. Once the doors are open, the two of us will go our own way.”

A-Yin reaches out to her face. His fingers glide over her cheek, and he pulls her closer. “And, will we meet again?”

“Maybe not, or maybe yes, and we’ll fight or not. Who knows what will happen!?” Rei chuckles, amused. “Who cares? For now, our partnership will work.”

A sly look rests on her lips, and A-Yin slowly caresses them with his thumb. “You need me, and I need you, right?”

“Right.” she whispers, then smiles and gently pulls his wrist away. “Let's finish this bottle! Poor Kahn paid for it.”

The demon giggles and pours two more glasses. The rum runs out quickly, scrapes sharply against their throats, and dulls their minds. The last bottle gives the two the coup de grace, and their fields of vision become dark and confused.

Everything spins so much that A-Yin doesn’t know if he’s going straight or walking backward. He bumps his foot into a wooden drawer and curses in silence. Who the fuck moves things into my pavilion?

An amused giggle makes his neck itch. Rei’s lips are touching his skin. He holds her astride his back, with his hands under her butt and her legs dangling forward, now standing, moving, and making him lose his already precarious balance. The fubai moves her face in discomfort, reeling in search of air while a curtain of black hair seems to have decided not to let her go. 

After some attempts, she emerges from the demon’s thick mane and chuckles with more vigor. “Where are you taking me?” her voice is cheerful and confused. She drags her words into a long chant. A-Yin snorts and continues, “You’re drunk. I’m not telling you.”

She complains and hits him on the head with a fist. “You are drunk.” 

The demon lowers his head for the hit. “Ouch!” He momentarily loses control of his legs, slamming his shoulder against a wall. Was this there before? I hadn’t seen it. It wasn’t here, or maybe it was… He strips against the wood until the hard layer disappears, and makes him to stagger dangerously to the left. She screams and wiggles in his grip. His boots strike with a loud bonk on something low, and the demon falls heavily forward, blocked by a second level at belly height, with his chest resting on the soft of a mattress. Arrived, eh, eh. Is everything higher, or is it me who is shorter? Thoughts are confused and clouded by alcohol. How much did I drink? Lì’ll be angry tomorrow, he laughs, amused.

Rei feels the soft state of the bed under her hands and drags her body up, climbing A-Yin as if he were a pole. She slips onto the mattress and sighs at the contact with the fresh blanket. A hand grabs her ankle and prevents her from slipping under the covers amid the fubai’s faint and confused whining. The demon grunts and lifts his face from the bed; with difficulty manages to take off her boots. “These fucking.... Here we go. You’re free.”

He throws her shoes on the floor and puts his back straight to take off his pants. They are too tight and a big nuisance; after who knows how many attempts, he kicks them away and climbs the bed, where he remains kneeling in balance, careful not to crush Rei nor fall backwards like a sack of potatoes. Her body is sloppy between the blankets; she is still dressed, and the demon gets astride, with his hands touching her shirt.

“Don’t sleep like that.”

She slightly opens her eyes, “What the fuck are you doing?” and pushes him to the side with force, causing his head to slam against the wall. He hears her chuckles as one of his hands touches his future bump on the forehead, then crawls against the wood that blocked the fall. How many walls come out of nowhere tonight?

The fubai takes off her clothes with difficulty, pulling a few kicks in the while, and turns on her side. “Don’t sleep like that.” she murmurs as he has done in a mechanical and soft voice a few moments before. 

A-Yin sighs and grabs the flaps of his shirt, pulling it up, but without unbuttoning it, he gets stuck in the fabric. He tries to wriggle, but the grip seems to have the upper hand, and he collapses heavily with his torso on the mattress. “Fuck.” he whispers. The last thing he hears is a sigh of annoyance and “What a pain.” from the direction of the front door before closing his eyes and sinking into sleep.