“Good morning, cutie!”
Arkadin sat up straight, staring blankly at the screen in front of him. He’d had a bad day and a bad night and probably a bad month as well, but this message on his screen… it was something else. It had caught him completely off guard.
“Uh, good morning…”
Not sure how else to respond, Arkadin glanced out of the nearest window, only to find that the shutters of this tiny little basement apartment were closed. He got up from his basic, wooden chair and headed towards the window, his legs creaking as he did so. Somehow, despite having managed to sleep for a good seven hours, Arkadin had slept in any position aside from a comfortable one and was aching all over.
With the window and shutters open, Arkadin could see that it was actually morning outside. The sun had risen, at least. But it was cloudy and cold and gloomy and Arkadin didn’t like that, so he closed the window, leaving the shutters open to let some light in. He then returned to the screen he had been looking at, his own computer.
There was a new message.
“How you doing, cutie?”
Arkadin hesitated, not sure how to respond.
“Why are you calling me cutie?”
“Because you’re cute!”
The person Arkadin was talking to was another deity from another universe. He had met them via another deity, his friend Seimeni, but this being was… different. They were a death god in a universe two over from Arkadin’s own universe. They were a little older than Arkadin but not by much. But really, Arkadin had known this deity for a long time, back when Arkadin was young and naive, but they had fallen out of touch over the millennia.
“Is… is something wrong?”
Another message popped up. Arkadin realized he had been staring at his screen for a good minute or so, obviously not replying. Not wanting to offend, Arkading hastily typed a response.
“Sorry, Kaiyos. I was distracted.”
“What’s up?”
“Nothing…” Arkadin paused, then typed some more. “Sorry, I was… completely thrown off guard by your message. You… no one’s really called me cutie before.”
Kaiyos responded immediately. “You are a cutie though. We’ve seen each other, we’ve been chatting for a while, you’re definitely cute.”
“Yeah but…” Arkadin paused some more. “I’m… I’m not cute.”
“Yeah you are, you’re a cute little goddess. You’re not being overly hard on yourself again, are you?”
Arkadin grunted this time, getting up from his chair and wandering into the kitchen to get something to drink. When he got back to his chair, he noticed that Kaiyos had left a long reply.
“You’re a lovely person. You don’t believe that, but you are. Sure, you’re a deity of death, but you have a good heart and a good soul. You really shouldn’t be so harsh on yourself. Especially when you’re so small and cute.”
“I’m… really not…” Arkadin typed back.
“Dammit, Arky, just accept my damn compliment 🙂 You’re a great person. I love talking to you.”
“You do?”
“Duh. Of course I do.”
Arkadin smiled a little. “Really?”
“Yeah!”
“Am I really a cutie?”
“Of course :)”
“I… I guess I am…”
“That’s the spirit!” Kaiyos replied. “Now come on, cutie, let’s play some video games.”
Arkadin’s smile turned into a large grin. “Yeah, that’ll be fun…”