the girl, the demon, the halfling, and the gunslinger want the same thing

"...so you stayed short. Unfortunate."

There was more left of Hanan than Lev would've thought if those were his first words in two years to the only family he had left.

Lev and Demonsbane sat on the roof of the tallest building in Sun's Edge as the sun set at the edge of the horizon, yellow, orange, blood-red, and blue. Due to an extra warding spell, said building had remained unaffected. It wasn't the only one. Who knew insurance spells could be so effective?

"I'm short, yeah," Lev replied, "But it doesn't bother me that much." After all, for a demon, it was a rarity.

Lev and Demonsbane could see the library, where Sinon and the others had begun to wake up.

They could see the commissary, where those in "power" debated what to do about the one with power.

They could see the demon lord's castle, wrapped in dark, heavy miasma.

Health centers saturated with patients.

The train station, swarmed with those traveling for aid or shelter, or even comfort.

People.

Problems.

Fear.

Love.

Neither sibling asked how the other was doing.  "What are you scheming?" Asked Demonsbane. "Why are you trying to set up the demon king with a human girl?"

"How did you—wait, demon king? Did he...?"

Demonsbane shook his head. As he gazed at the town, he slipped a cigarette out of his pocket... because of course he did. Of course. No curse was strong enough to get rid of that bullshit addiction. "Almost." He used a will-o-wisp to light it up. "Had you two not intervened, and the mark of the black moon would've been neutralized."

By 'you two', Lev assumed he meant him and Reem. "I mean, what if the demon king had killed you instead?"

As Hanan so often used to do, Demonsbane waved Lev off with the hand holding a half-lit cigarette.

"No, seriously."

"You've yet to answer my question."

"Thing is... fine, let's assume that you would've won. That your plan was to force the demon king to awaken, then kill him, which would've neutralized the mark, as you put it... but then? It'll just keep happening over and over again."

Demonsbane took a drag. "You don't weed a garden once."

"Right, but what if I told you we could end it instead?"

"That's not possible."

"You don't know that."

"Can you make tornadoes go extinct?"

"It's not the same thing. Tornadoes are natural disasters. People are not. You can reason with people. Otherwise... why would you be talking to me?"

Demonsbane went for a second cigarette. He stared at the sun.

"You, who should be nothing but a killing machine? You've gone against your curse twice now. Thrice, if you count—"

"Just tell me why I shouldn't kill you both. Why I shouldn't separate the girl from him. Why I should help you, or believe you. Tell me."

Lev did, heart pounding, as the town below reeled and the sun above died.

By this point, he could almost recite the scheme by memory: all variants, all failures, and the inevitable conclusion.

***

They were silent again.

It was nice.

Sionn was nice. And warm. And way more solid than a mage had any right to be. 

They glanced out the window, resting.  Since Sionn was no actual medic, his healing magic could patch, not fix, but this would do for now; once they returned to the castle, he'd threaten Elial into properly mending their wounds. That's what he'd said anyway, as Reem slipped a shirt on and pretended to fall, and he pretended to catch her.

It was easier that way, wasn't it?

Pretending to catch, or be caught, or that words weren't so often a shield against each other, and a sword against themselves.

Sun's Edge was getting orange. Angrier, too. Sionn, the magnanimous demon lord with super senses would never admit to this, but his heart did. Reem pressed her face against it until he finally said, "I'm calling HR."

"...ehh."

She was not able to say the rest.

HR doesn't mind.

HR likes it actually.

If you want to, you can do the s—

Something like that.

To do so implied that someone else not only perceived her, but wanted to.

"Doubt," he said, "Self-hatred. Lust."

"Not the second one. I don't hate myself."

"...oh?"

"I know it's hard to believe, but I actually don't. It's hard to explain. Sometimes I even feel happy when I do things. Come to think of it though, more than you listening to me, it always feels like you're smelling me instead."

"The third..."

"The third what?"

"...nothing. One, it is not voluntary. Two, your actions and words are often indecipherable. I ought to rely on other means of communication. Three, I would gladly do both at once."

"HR."

"HR doesn't mind. Speaking of three..."

He was a lot more sincere all of a sudden and it scared her.

"Oh, there it is."

"Yeah," Reem said. "I smell like fear."

"Of being perceived? Or of finding yourself in a demon king's arms?"

"Thing is, people in general don't want to be 'perceived' as you put it. Like we do, but we don't. You're the same, Mr. Demon King. Very scawy. But anyway, that's just how people are. That's why people put up a show for example. I'm not saying you do. I mean you do but I'm not singling you out."

"Put on a—what?" Also, three."

What was his deal with threes? Reem shifted away a bit, so that she could scowl at him. "Never mind, actually, I'm singling you out. If you can smell and hear me, then I can see you."

"Um. Meaning?"

"Meaning that—" She buried her face again. Right. Crying face. Right. Swollen eyelids and stuff. Bad. "—never mind. Just say 'three' again so I can say something stupider so I can be a part of your show."

"...and you call me cryptic?"

"Yeah!"

So then he unburied her, hands on her shoulders, cursed-eye-to-swollen-eye.

Sionn stared at Reem.

Reem stared at Sionn.

"Thirty seconds," he said.

"T-three..."

"No. No jokes. No weird shit. Just be honest for thirty seconds, and so will I."

...had he been trying to say this all along? Was that what this 'three' 'weird shit' 'joke' was about?

She got it, though.

All of it.

That it would mean getting seen, heard, felt. It would mean seeing and hearing. To—

Fine.

Fine.

To connect.

"...aight. How do we do this?"

She hated and loved how relieved he looked. How a stranger wouldn't have noticed. "One asks a question, the other responds. No Reemisms." She narrowed her eyes. "...or Sionnisms, I suppose. You start."

She hated hated hated how her first instinct was to joke. (Kidding.)

...oh, no. She could only think of joke questions. Or dumb questions. Bad questions. Nothing worth...

A claw lifted her chin, turned it to one side, then the other. To a stranger, this was nonsense. To Reem, it meant 'you're seen'. Of course, when he'd first done this the second time they'd met, it'd carried a different connotation... maybe. "Why did you talk to me that first night?"

"Because I wanted to. Why did you respond?"

"Uh, because I was scared? And because I wanted to talk to you, honestly." That alone had been longer than thirty seconds, but neither of them pointed this out. "How annoying do you find me?"

"Not at all. Why—"

"Lies."

"Reem."

"If you're being completely honest say so now and I'll believe you."

"...so now."

Her smile was squished between his claws, but Reem didn't mind. "Aight. Continue."

He did not continue.

"Twenty five... twenty fix... twenty nine and a half..."

HIs smile was squished under fear. "Why did you save my life?"

"I... didn't I answer this already?"

"Yes."

"Aight. Because I wanted to. Why did you ignore me for the first couple weeks?"

"Because, uh. I wasn't ignoring you."

"Yes you were."

"I was giving you space."

"I didn't want space."

The following silence was painful. Reem began to squish his cheeks again. "You didn't answer my question, so it's still my turn. Why do you try so hard not to emote?"

"Oh, that one's easy." He'd probably said that without thinking. "The curse eats emotions. I can show them, but I should not. When disguised, since I don't have the mark, I am able to do as I please." Sionn let her face go. "Why did you save me the second time?"

"Second? Wuh..."

"Reem missile."

"...ah..."

"Having given you a proper explanation, I expect one in return."

What else did he want aside from 'because I wanted to?'. Was he stupid? Did he think she had some kind of ulterior motive? Because she did, but she would rather die than say it out loud. Since this was technically not lying, Reem's response was, "If I hadn't stopped you then you might've actually killed everyone, so."

Sionn looked away. "I see. You forgot to ask your question."

"Why don't you like my response?"

"I don't dislike it. While unhinged, your decision was the correct one. If you hadn't... if... forgive me, I can't come up with anything right now. I'll pass. It's your turn."

"Why are you sad?"

"I'm not—" Lie. Shield. Sword. "...I believe I almost killed six thousand people." Half-truth. "Why am I here? Are you that lonely?"

"Two questions," Reem grumbled, but he was beginning to spiral again. "But you gave me two earlier, so. You're here because I want you to be. Also, yes. But that's not why I want you to be here. I just do. Um. If. If you hear and... actually, you know what? I wanna use my five senses on you."

He squinted. "Three?"

"I don't know what that means, but yeah, three. Did you just do something terrible? Yeah, I mean, no, but almost. Do I care? No, actually. I don't. It didn't happen. In fact, I knew it wouldn't happen. That's why Lev threw me at you because I knew nothing bad would happen if he did like it hurt yeah but now I'm fine because of you and you're not a demon king Sionn get a grip you're fine and if other people can exist so can you YES other people can't become demon kings I don't care they all suck."

"Aight." Then he said, "You're such a hypocrite."

"I know."

"I know you do." Sionn cleared his throat. "I believe I have a fair reason to indulge in self-pity from time to time, as does everyone. However, you don't engage in self pity; you indulge in self-hatred so vast that it trascends the concept of language. I'm so genuinely baffled at the way you bend reality to make yourself the villain that I've begun to pick behavioral psychology textbooks in a vain attempt to hold your train of logic before it crashes against a wall on purpose, multiple times, every day. Of..." He swallowed. "Of course you will feel lonely if you convince yourself that you're unlovable. You are not. I guarantee that."

Reem wanted to say 'aight', then change the topic, but all that came out was silence. No gibberish, just...

"I..."

Her first instinct was to agree, the second to agree, the third to agree, the fourth to agree that she did so purely because it hurt.

"...before you apologize, don't. You're right."

Correctly assuming she'd internalize the bad things, he sighed.

"But. I mean. I just. Just—look at me. You have a reason to attack yourself or whatever but not me right like you literally just said so now and I agree to that it makes no sense but I can't stop. And the thing is, I know I'm not bad at everything, but I am? What even have I done lately? Nothing. I'm dead basically."

"You saved me life. Twice."

"But..."

"...although, arguably, that is a net negative for the world."

"Yeah." Reem didn't feel like crying for some reason. Should she? This almost felt like an out-of-body experience. "I still don't think you'll do anything bad."

"We're digressing."

"I know. Question. Why?"

"Because I like you. Why?"

To a stranger, this would...

They...

What nonsense. How could he even understand her most of the time? How could she understand him?

"Me too," she said. "Um. Three?"

Never mind. "So is it like like or tolerate like? Because... sorry."

"Unhinged," Sionn said. "I still can't tell if you're joking or..."

"Oh. Kissing."

"Yeah but obviously different context like the culture and stuff I'm not saying we should I'm like. Just to be clear though did I misunderstand you because—"

He kissed her.

It was quick, but it saved them—her—a few hundred... thousand words. 

It said, it's fine.

It said, you're fine.

It said, you are enough.

It said, I am enough.

It said, I like you too.

"...another one?"