A knock on the door scared the life out of Kayel.
Over the last week or so, Kayel had been regularly switching between his small apartment in the Skyan sub-district of Salla and Retvik’s villa in the mixed race sub-district of Skipou. He’d originally told his team it was because Kayel needed time alone, but the real reason was because Kayel was secretly hoping for a knock on the door. Sure, he’d gotten a text message suggesting that his friend was never coming back, but, well…
Kayel stopped thinking and rushed over to the door. He fumbled with the keys, unlocking it, before opening it up.
“Arkay! You came back!”
The Thantophor, the god of death, shrugged half-heartedly. “Yeah, I am… Can we… can we talk?”
“Of course!” Kayel struggled to hide his concern, but he was trying to be optimistic. “Come on, come in. I got energy drinks! The sugar-free ones you like!”
Arkay lifted up a white carrier bag. “Oh. So have I.”
Kayel smiled a little, then pulled Arkay inside, closed the door and plonked Arkay on the sofa, before sitting down next to him.
“Gonna be honest, I’m really, really glad to see you, but you look rough.”
“Yeah, well, I feel pretty rough. I did get stabbed in the head repeatedly. Legitimately gave me brain damage until Sini helped heal me up…” Arkay took a deep breath. “I know you didn’t want me to, but after what happened between Epani and I? I was just going to put myself into a coma, because I was utterly convinced that this would just keep on happening. But Sini convinced me to wake up, not for her or anything, but for my friends. Because, if I did put myself into a coma, sure, I’d stop hurting, but I’d be hurting you.”
Kayel hesitated, then frowned. “That’s not good for you though. While I appreciate you not wanting to hurt us, I… I want you to want to live for yourself.”
“Well I need to work towards that. I need to improve slowly. Wanting to stay alive so I don’t hurt my friends is a step above wanting to kill myself, and after that, I can take steps towards wanting to be alive for me. And, all things considered, out of everyone in the universe, you want me to stay alive the most, so I am staying alive and, more importantly, conscious, for you…” Arkay trailed off. “The thing is… I like you as a friend, I like you a LOT as a friend, but…”
“But what?”
Arkay sighed. “I want to be your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever. But it’d be a bad idea. So I can’t be your partner.”
Kayel couldn’t help but snort. “Gonna be really honest again, I’m fucking glad you said that.”
“Oh… You… don’t see me like that?”
Realizing what he had just said, to the god of death of all people, Kayel stuttered and tried to explain himself. “That’s… not what I mean. I like you, I like you a lot, I’ll even go as far as to say that I love you, and I certainly want you to hold me down and do horrible, sexy things to me, but I don’t think a relationship between us is feasible.”
“H-how comes?” Arkay felt a bit upset. He could probably guess why. “Is it… is it because I fucked up my relationship with Kuta?”
“What? No!” Kayel exclaimed. “That’s not it at all! The relationship between you and Kuta, that didn’t end because you fucked up, it ended because your stupid fat space whale bitch of a sister forced you to end it!”
“Oh…” Arkay was still upset, but now for multiple reasons. “Well, the pretty little shadow has a bright, guarding light to be with now… Why do I keep on calling them that? Ugh, being partially lobotomized is not good for my brain.”
“Understandable. I’ll be blunt, Epani’s fucking lucky that I couldn’t wake up, because I would have grabbed that Corruption-killing dagger you gave me and I would have immediately shadowjumped back to Epani’s place and stabbed her until one of us died. Heck, Retvik admitted that he considered stabbing her in the chest and went for the shoulder instead.”
Arkay eyed Kayel, but decided to not continue that particular conversation. The less he thought about that horrible day, the better. “So, uh, why don’t you want us to be, uh, poten-partners?”
Again, Kayel hesitated. “Well, there’s two reasons. The first is that, well, I’m L-Class now, and also technically Ξ-Class. I don’t really want to settle down with one person. Especially when I’m a public person who people know sleeps around a lot. I like being Kayel, the Shadowstalker, the assassin of Xeno Dessaron One, and an open, sexy bitch. I kinda don’t want to be Kayel, the bitch of the Thantophor. It was fine for Kuta, most people still don’t really know who Kuta is outside of “huh, is that the guy with the fangs?” but I’d totally get some bad labels if I because your boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever.”
“Well… you wouldn’t be, but I totally get that...” Arkay sighed. “I mean, I’d be happy to date you in secret, but apparently I’m bad when it comes to secrets, and that’s even more burden you don’t need.”
“Dating in secret is an option, but, come on, I’m a Skyavok, you look like a Skyavok, you know what we’re like when it comes to secrets.”
“Yeah, yeah… What’s the other reason?”
Kayel went back to stuttering and hesitating. “Um… Uh… you already have a boyfriend. Two of them.”
Arkay blinked, having no idea how to respond to that. He opened up one of the drinks he bought, downed half of it, then blinked some more. “What?”
“Alright so… It turns out, Kuta has a sibling. Someone called Litvir.”
“That… that’s the name I stumbled across and couldn’t work out where it came from!” Arkay suddenly exclaimed. “And you’re saying this Litvir person is both Kuta’s sibling AND my… boyfriend?”
Kayel nodded. “Yeah. He… he’s a Rethan too. He genders himself. Says he’s from the universe from before this universe, and that you, this Litvir guy and some other Rethan who is also called Retvik but is on fire, you became… ‘decay lords’ or something together, until you got kidnapped by Epani and turned into a death god to help run this universe.”
Arkay blinked even more. “Huh. That is… fucking weird. But… Alright, how do you know all of this?”
Kayel got up and picked something up off his desk and handed it to Arkay. “You left this here when you disappeared. It’s some sort of games console. I got curious, opened up the one game on it and tried to play it. I got messages from someone called Akah, who is apparently a Lanex who lives outside the universe and is in your space ninja clan, who works for this Litvir guy. Then Litvir messaged me, told me all the stuff I just told you and, well, I said I’d let him know if you came back, because he misses you badly. Also, I totally made my own account and started playing the game with Akah because he’s like, the chillest gamer I’ve ever met.”
“That… yeah, that’s insane. You have no reason to lie though. Guess I ought to play some space ninjas myself and talk to these guys. I did manage to get the game updated on my laptop, so, uh, you can continue playing on the little console, if you want.”
“We could play the game together!” Kayel beamed, before quickly quietening down. “But, um… yeah… that’s why I don’t want us to be partners. I do have an… alternate offer though.”
“Oh?”
“We could be friends with benefits.”
Arkay fell silent, thinking to himself. Kayel wondered if he had fucked up or something. But, after a sip of his drink, Arkay looked back at Kayel and smiled.
“You know what? That… that could work.”
“You… want to be friends with benefits?” Kayel asked again.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
Kayel grinned, then hugged Arkay tightly. “Yay! I am so, so glad you’re back!”
Arkay hugged Kayel back. “Well, I’m not here completely, but yeah, I guess I’m coming back. Thank you for helping me. Despite my stupidity.“
“You’re welcome, babe. Also, feel free to stay with me as long as you like. My home is your home, alright?”
“I appreciate that. You’re the best, Kayel.”
Kayel blinked, then nodded in agreement. “You’re right, I AM the best! But now, WE’RE the best.”
“Heh, yes, yes we are…”