Flicks and Strings

Nothing explicit (nor serious, it's just some slice o' life) happens here and it ends quite unfinished, but I've been opening this thing for a month or two now without adding anything, so I'm abandoning this one. Guess I'll go back to Summoners or something. Also I suck at titles, boo hoo.

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  “This movie sucks,” Levi whispered quietly in the cinema, only illuminated by the projected moving pictures. It was an action flick with cheesy but not good high intensity scenes and a pretty crappy storyline in-between. At least the actors seemed to take advantage of it and the film was unintentionally funnier because of it. And, well, an Imp riding a Hell Knight riding a struggling Pinky into battle with a laughable CGI cybernetic version of the mighty Icon was pretty hilarious.
  “I told you Barons aren’t good at making movies; we old planers get all philosophical and rambling about things while new planers just like to make everything explode, regardless of the budget,” a rumbling, struggling to stay quiet voice emanated from Levi’s side. It probably didn’t matter anyway as most of the room didn’t seem invested in the movie much. Humans were half-sleeping, often with demons resting against them. Levi was thinking of doing the same. He checked the clock; it would take another half hour for the movie to finish, but he didn’t feel like getting up and leaving in the middle of a film. With a sigh, he leaned to the side and put his head on his demon companion’s arm, instantly feeling the heat coming out of it.

  “Hey, Kirfalis?” Levi asked, his cheek pressed against the red, crimson skin.
  “Mhmm?” the Baron acknowledged, getting tired from the movie as well, before wrapping his arm around the human, essentially giving him a full hug with it.
  “We could go for something to eat after this,” Levi suggested, his voice slightly muffled. He felt like falling asleep.
  “Sure. You took me out yesterday anyway. We could crash at my place afterwards,” Kirfalis wriggled in his large seat slightly as Levi slowly crawled onto his lap and cuddled closer to him. They were in the last row due to Kir’s size for obvious reasons: first, anyone sitting behind the large Baron couldn’t enjoy the movie at all, and two, seats for large demons like him were put only here for that reason.
  “So, uh, any ideas?” Kirfalis asked.
  “What about gyros? I could really go for that,” Levi suggested, half-mindedly watching the big screen where a bunch of Imps were comically handling bazookas to blow up a target. It was so bad.
  “I don’t know, I like bloodworm kebab better,” Kir replied, pulling the human closer to him so that he wouldn’t slide off, which was quite easy to happen due to the strange fabric of his pants.
  “I think I know of a place where they serve both,” Levi yawned, “you picky eater.”

  The cinema’s lobby and the subsequent city exteriors hit the two with intense light (in comparison to the projection room), making both of them exaggeratedly groan. Kirfalis in particular had to properly stretch his limbs from being cramped in his seat, even though it was a bigger one reserved for Barons and Knights.
  “You couldn’t really watch a movie in a red zone’s cinema because of all the… fornication going on around but at least they had some designing standards, damn,” he uttered quietly while relieving his hooved legs of aches.
  “At least we were sitting in the back, Kir,” Levi chuckled, “nothing worse than some jackass kicking your seat from behind.”
  “Oh Icon, ‘that a thing? And I thought demons could be rude.”
  “And as much as I miss the taste,” the human continued after chortling, “it’s probably for the best that they often don’t sell popcorn here.”
  “Popcorn’s pretty devious, it looks harmless and tiny, but it can get sharp really quickly,” Kirfalis said, pinching his finger in the process, “especially when it gets stuck in the teeth.”
  “Is that so? What food did you eat back then that you would consider dangerous?” Levi had trouble keeping his face straight imagining the hulking tower of a demon Kir being intimidated by a little piece of popped corn.
  “At one point, all of my food was dangerous,” the Baron chuckled cynically, “but I suppose having to pick stuck rocks out of your meal could count. Popcorn won’t do you any harm once it’s in the stomach. Hell’s stones can.”
  “Oh, deary me.”

  “Sothat’llbe-anErebus‘dwormkebab-and’a-mystr’ybeefgyros-pleasewait,” the chirpy Archvile server said as she took the two’s orders and began quickly running around the stand, preparing the dishes. Talk about fast food.
  “How’s work going, anyway?” Levi asked, shifting his look from the yellow blur to the imposing Baron wearing a strange combination of a casual t-shirt and black slacks. Being a first plane Baron, Kirfalis wasn’t such a gigantic tank as late planers, even if his muscles were indeed massive. His other physical features were also different; his face was narrower with rougher features, and his deep, green-eyed gaze was mystifying and knowing. He was carrying both strength and knowledge.
  “Usual stuff; UAC wants to increase quotas without sending any help our way. All of the people under me are experimenting and getting results but it’s not enough. They even asked me to help with a research on Argent – me, a damn Old Planer!” Kir described, “If they needed a resources manager they could also get test results on, they should have either put Dhekra in charge or place me in the Pain Elemental research.” There was mild frustration in his voice but he seemed collected.
  “What are you gonna do?” Levi gently inquired after listening to Kirfalis.
  “Well, we’re getting good results that would be more than enough for the initial requirements, but they’re just wanting too much. I’ll have to press them a bit and offer some intel I have, but that’s a sensitive thing to sell that I barely trust my own brethren with, let alone a random scientist who would want to probe every location in Hell even if it would mean reawakening the Icon itself,” Kir sighed, “I should just tell them that if they don’t send more workforce our way they can shove their quotas up their hairy mortal a—“
  “Yo’meals-’reready-gentlmen,” the Archvile interrupted him with her quite literally bubbly and wobbly voice, holding two neatly packed squished cylinders in her hands, making the Baron jump a little from her sudden appearance.
  “Ah, thank you,” he said as he grabbed his order while Levi did the same.

  “What about you?” Kir asked as he was unwrapping his lunch.
  “Not as hectic, I can tell you that. I had a Cacodemon ask me if she can increase a computer’s power by breathing plasma into it yesterday. At least she asked.”
  The Baron stopped and laughed with his mouth shut to keep his bite in before quickly swallowing, “That happened to me when I came here for the first time. I didn’t ask. And I think my powers have a bit more drastic results than a flying meatball’s lightning ball.”
  “Oh jeez, did you really…,” Levi pointed at Kir’s free hand that he could release neon green flames from.
  “Yes. I think they actually revamped their universe physics laws introductory courses because of this, though I definitely wasn’t the only one who did something like this,” he took a quick bite, “since they kind of forgot to explain anything about electricity that wouldn’t just confuse us. Anyway, what else?”
  “And I’ve had a Summoner create her own programming language. A strange one but she gets really talkative when explaining something. I couldn’t grasp what she was talking about though,” Levi said after taking a bite of his own. The sweetened purple cabbage was really good with the meat. Kirfalis nodded.
  “We’ve got one like that too. He’s not as much out there though, and nice to talk with, but he sure likes his tea.”
  “Yeah, they all do. Just don’t offer a Summoner a cup of coffee. Not a good idea.”

  Soon, just as they were finishing their wrapped meals, they arrived at a small apartment building where Kir lived in. A number of Barons got rich fairly quickly by selling off various valuables, both physical and intel, but Kirfalis decided to be more careful about his secrets; just enough to live a good, comfortable life without being opulent. According to him, a too high social status reminded him too much of having lower demons as his unwilling workforce. The interiors of the building were obviously designed with larger inhabitants in mind and the human felt like a dwarf in comparison.
  “I’m not leaving for work until tomorrow afternoon, so, any ideas on what to do?” Kir said, his rough, deep voice echoing in the hallway.
  “Besides copious amount of se—?”
  “Anything else?” the Baron suppressed laughter as he quickly cut Levi short, gently tapping him on the head.

  The apartment was always nice to walk into. It had a rustic décor that livened up the boring UAC alloys, but it was functional and fresh-looking. And everything was larger than in a human home, obviously. Kirfalis kicked off his hoof shoes next to the door, replacing the quiet thuds of his steps with pleasant muted clopping, an opposite of what going barefoot did to Levi whose steps turned silent.
  “You humans have interesting legs, kind of like those of an Imp but not as sinewy and meatier,” Kir noted and pointed at Levi’s ankle.
  “And not as flexible, either,” he corrected him. The Baron shrugged his shoulders and motioned Levi to follow him to his living room. There was enough sunlight coming through the windows to illuminate the room with golden yellow without needing to turn on the colder-tinted lights. The furniture and things were orderly and it looked very clean, yet there was a subtle confirmation of the apartment being lived in. The pillows on the sofa weren’t haphazardly thrown around but they also weren’t exactly tidied, implying being used recently; the dining table’s covers were clean and spotless but crumpled enough to be noticeable that there’s been more than a few dinners taking place on top of them; the kitchen, not really visible beyond a doorframe, was mostly empty, but the drawers and cabinets weren’t completely closed. All in all, the apartment looked very cosy and inviting to live in.
  “I’ll grab a beer, want some too?” Kirfalis asked while nodding towards the sofa.
  “Sure, thanks,” Levi said and waited until the Baron vanished in the kitchen to run towards the couch and jump at it. The seat was at the level of his chest, so it was either a quick jump or an annoying climb to get up.

  Kir entered the room just as Levi positioned himself in his usual spot and walked over to the sofa with two wildly differently-sized brown bottles in his hands. One looked normal in relation to his size but was actually pretty big, at least a couple of litres. The other looked tiny in comparison, but once he handed it to the smaller human (after grabbing the top and taking the lid off effortlessly), it was clear that it was of a standard size.
  He sat down and did the same with his bottle, putting the caps on the table in front of him.
  “Well now, cheers,” he and Levi tapped the flasks together.

  There was a moment of content silence that was quickly interrupted by Kirfalis, his rough voice a little smoother after taking a sip, “So, what now?”
  “I don’t know, we could watch something? On one hand, a palette cleanser could be nice, but on the other…”
  “…watching something again after that might not be healthy. Mentally, that is. But let’s see…,” Kir finished Levi’s sentence and reached for the remote and turned on the screen in front of him before browsing through a list of programs, “Married with Implets on UAC-1, ugh. On 2 there’s Kurulin, a biography of an extroverted Prowler. And on 3 there’s Occult and the City. Typical late afternoon filler.”
  Levi chipped in, “Married with Implets ain’t that bad, you should have seen the original it’s based on.”
  “Are you telling me that there’s something worse than that?” Kir asked.
  “You’ve never watched Two and a Half Imps, have you?”
  Kirfalis let out a groan mixed with a sigh, “I was… trying to forget that it exists.”
  “I see,” Levi chuckled, “so, Occult, I guess?”
  “Yeah.”

  “This is like the cinema all over again,” Levi noted five minutes into the episode of a romcom show about a Summoner and an Archvile getting annoyed at each other over the new-fangled Argent versus old school Infernal magic. It was barely good enough to wash dishes to.
  “Yeah, damn this. I’ve actually got something I wanted to show you,” Kirfalis said and got up, quickly leaving the room. Levi could feel being lifted up an inch on the soft sofa when the Baron released his weight. He grabbed the remote and lowered the show’s volume until it was nothing more than a background noise. A second later, Kir appeared in the door frame, holding a gigantic guitar. Just like the bottles before, it didn’t look too big in the towering demon’s hands but it might have been almost as big as Levi himself.
  The body was made from very dark, almost black wood with reddish gloss to it while the highlights like the tuning knobs and pegs seemed to be out of deep green marble. The shape of the instrument wasn’t extravagant, its sheer weight and materials looked imposing on their own. It wasn’t the first time Levi had seen Kirfalis wield and play it, even if he liked music that was a tiny bit faster.
  “Hmm?”
  “I bought some titanium strings!” Kir explained and sat back down next to the human before positioning the guitar in his lap.
  “Titanium? What? I didn’t even know they make these.”
  “Oh, they weren’t available for a long time because of that material shortage; I remember Mac Control being hit particularly hard by it since they had no cheese sauce for a while. And with titanium, I guess UAC preferred to spend the reserves of metal on portals and armour and whatnot instead of guitars. Anyway, they’re very tough, try to strum it.”
  Levi curiously reached out with his hand and tried to pluck the highest, thinnest string. He barely got it to vibrate, but it did make a stable and clear tone, a lower one than what he expected. He couldn’t imagine trying to push any of the strings down on the fingerboard, especially the thicker ones.
  “Are they better than steel?” he asked.
  “It depends. They’re lower and rougher, so you don’t have to get a guitar with nine strings to go properly bassy,” he explained while plucking the biggest string which sounded more like a distant thunder, “plus they’re very resistant and hard to break. Steel is a bit too easy to slap too much.”
  “So, it’s mostly for demons like you?”
  “Indeed, especially those who play in a band; I imagine it’s a bit annoying to break five out of six strings on your guitar with one strum while in front of an audience. Oh! One moment.”
  The Baron got up again and returned a moment later, holding a small box in his hand with a cable protruding out of it.
  “I’ve seen some of the devices you people had used in the past,” he said as he sat down again and plugged the other end of the cable into the guitar, “I can’t imagine moving around a fragile wardrobe of an amp and a cabinet and a bunch of effect boxes on top. Well, I could without a problem, but a human?” he paused and cleared his throat, “Uh, no offense.”
  Levi raised his eyebrows and smiled, “None taken,” he looked at the small box for a moment, “so, does that create the tune of the guitar?”
  “Yes,” Kirfalis nodded and as a showcase he plucked one of the strings. A powerful, distorted, droning note came out of the device’s little speaker.
  “I would have gotten a bigger one but, you know, sound limits. At least the quality is pretty good,” Kir shrugged. It indeed was, the sound was nice and clear and quite surprising to come out of such a small thing.

  For a few minutes, Kir just played around, picking strings almost randomly, his legs crossed over and laid on the table in front of him. Levi liked watching him play, his face both relaxed and with a look of concentration on it while his rough hands, adorned with dark, sharp claws, gently danced on the guitar’s neck and body. Suddenly, he spoke up, “I like this one.”
  He checked his finger placement once more before playing a single long note that he immediately bent up by a halftone, letting it slowly drizzle out before sliding his thumb back to the initial place and playing a small, sort of sombre melody that moved down and back up in just a couple of notes. He repeated this once in an identical fashion before switching the ending riffs to different ones that went in the opposite direction, but didn’t sound any more comfortable. Afterwards, he repeated the melody on a lower string, making it heavy and battering. It sounded both awesome and sad, like a willing march towards bloody demise.
  “Nice,” Levi commended from the opposite end of the sofa, soaking up Kir’s performance, “it sounds a bit… depressive though, don’t you think?”
  “I suppose it does, but I just can’t get the melody out of my head,” the Baron shrugged, “I don’t know why, I don’t remember hearing it before, it’s just…,” he went silent as he looked at the guitar again and started playing the motif again, quickly moving the finger that held the string up and down a little, producing a subtle vibrato that was almost inaudible, but still perceivable as it made his playing strangely delicate and fragile. He started bobbing his head and hooves a little to a rhythm of imaginary drums, giving the overly long notes a founding structure to hook onto, at least for the human watching him move. He then played a different melody, half an octave higher and even more dissonant and unstable which he finished off by a wild weeping pitch bend.
  There were a few seconds of silence as Levi watched Kirfalis who leaned back into the sofa with a soft, content sigh.
  “I don’t know why I like it, it just sounds so… ruin-like, I suppose,” he said after noticing the human’s stare.
  “You really got into it there, are you sure you haven’t heard it somewhere before?”
  “No, I really don’t think so… But I just realised it sort of reminds me of… back there, you know. Dark and gritty and personal, it makes my hide crawl,” he said, looking somewhere in the distance.
  “Bad memories?”
  “Hmm, maybe,” he snapped out of it, “though I don’t have troubles keeping them away.”
  Levi smiled while positioning himself next to Kir, “That’s good to hear.”
  “Anyway,” the Baron cleared his throat and played a few happier-sounding galloped power chords on the guitar before putting it away, “what now? We could watch a movie after all,” he raised his brows, “together.”
  “As if there was any other way,” Levi noted with friendly irony in his tone and crawled up to the Baron’s open embrace. His body was quite hard from the musculature and hot from the hellfire inside, but it was still delightfully soft and comfortably warm. He quickly jumped back down again as Kirfalis stood up with ‘one moment,’ and turned the room’s lights off.
  “I always forget,” he chuckled as the surroundings turned dark. He sat back down and lifted Levi up to him with a muted, rumbling ‘come here’ that sounded unbelievably soft and caring for his deep, rocky voice.

  Illuminated only by the flashing television, the demon and the human half-absentmindedly watched it in a cuddle. Kirfalis was lying on his back, sprawled across the sofa with one leg hanging over the armrest and the other somewhere on the floor while Levi lied on his side on top of Kir’s chest.
  More than in the movie that he didn’t even focus on he was interested in the Baron’s serene form: His slow and gentle but (compared to him) deep breaths; the hand on his side keeping him from falling off almost bigger than his torso, with claws meekly pressing on to him; the faint green glow from his eyes, slightly highlighting his facial features, especially the white horns. He sighed out of contentment and sleepiness.
  “Tired?” Kirfalis quietly rumbled.
  “Yeah,” Levi mumbled, his mind soothed by the warm hug.
  “Both of us could use a shower.”
  “Yeah.”
  “Want to get up for it?”
  “Not… really. After the movie’s over?”
  “Are you sure you won’t fall asleep by then?”
  “Yeah, don’t worry.”
  “Okay.”

  “Levi?”
  The human let out a quiet snort but didn’t otherwise acknowledge his name.
  “You awake?”
  No response at all this time.
  “Icon, I should have known,” Kir whispered and, trying his best to not make a sound, slowly and carefully stood up, carrying the fragile human in his arms. At a painstakingly slow pace he sneaked out to his room with a more accommodating bed, hoping none of the clops from his hooves wake Levi up. Those flexible, squishy, tiptoeing human feet seemed really useful now.

  When Levi woke up, it took him a few minutes of rolling around, groaning and gradual returning to senses to realise that he’s sleeping in a very large bed (wider than the length of a size king) and that, despite still being embalmed in the intense warmth and the lingering, comforting smell of his demonic boyfriend, he’s alone and still wearing the clothes from yesterday, the jeans getting pretty uncomfortable. After yawning and noticing his own morning breath (he hated that), rubbing his crusty eyes (he hated that too), trying to ignore the grease on his face (that was the worst, ugh) and somewhat combing his hair away from blocking his eyesight (he should get a cut, but Kir liked the growing hair), he looked around.
  He was in Kirfalis’s bedroom which mostly comprised of his, well, bed. The room had a very polished look and feel to it while staying cosy and lived in. The mattress he was lying on was much better than the standard issue for employees even though it was more rigid as a consequence of it being a design for the heavy Barons. Due to how often Levi would sleep over at Kir’s place, the bed actually had two sets of pillows; one that was larger and with rougher covers to prevent them from accidentally getting torn apart by the demon’s horns and another, more usual bunch of soft and fluffy pillows for the human.

  Suddenly, a noise stopped. Levi didn’t even notice it before, but now that it ceased and was replaced by silence, he realised he had been hearing something constant and more or less unchanging, sort of like suddenly realising that a wall clock makes ticking sounds. A short while later, just when he finished stretching himself for the dozenth time, Kirfalis appeared in the doorframe with only a large towel around his waist covering him. Some spots on his crimson hide were still wet and glistening while most of the fur on his legs was wild, messy and damp.
  “Morning, Levi,” Kir greeted him, “’after the movie’s over,’ huh?”
  He was smiling, his emerald eyes bright and witty. Levi would have gotten lost in them if it wasn’t for the uncovered, chiselled body of the muscular demon. He started feeling uncomfortably warm from the sight, and it wasn’t from still being wrapped in the blanket.
  “Yeah, I kind of… must have spaced out,” he shrugged before finally getting out of the bed and walking towards the Baron. His scent was much lighter, even though it was warmer and damper; it also mixed with the soap he used. Levi took the smell in again; Sweet Sulphur, a fairly popular fragrance used in various gels targeted towards demons. It complimented Kirfalis’s gentle and husky whiff quite nicely.
  “I hope you’ve slept well,” Kir whirred when Levi hugged him, laying his head on the demon’s stomach.
  “Couldn’t sleep better without you,” he replied, looking up. And then, as if the skin-to-skin, hot and humid embrace couldn’t get more heated, he looked down and caught a glimpse of the not exactly even towel; while it was good at covering and hiding things, it still had to abide by their shapes underneath it. Levi felt like his cheeks caught on fire and looked away, fruitlessly trying to supress a giggle. A deep guttural chuckle came out of Kirfalis as he made a step back, “Oh, oh dear. Well. Hmm,” he might have blushed too, but if he did, it wouldn’t make any difference on his red face, “well, the shower’s free if you want.”
  In the still humid room, Levi first went to wash his face and to commence on with some dental care. But since he didn’t have all of the tools necessary at Kir’s place, he usually just took a tiny swig of his Wind D’Shenoa mouthwash. Sure, it burned like lava and he’d be still trembling five minutes later, but his teeth felt like being made out of titanium after he was done. Even the packaging said it’s ‘mostly’ safe for use by humans except in the case of indigestion. He tried not to think much about what would happen to his neck if he’d ever accidentally swallow it.

  A couple of minutes later, he was done with the shower as well. The larger shower head released quite a bit more water and it was pleasant to be massaged by the stringed torrent. Dripping with warm water, he stepped out of the stall and realised that there was no towel. Of course he didn’t bring his own, and the other one he knew about, probably larger than him, was currently tied around someone else just outside the bathroom. Trying not to drip anything on the floor, he reached for the door, opened it and looked around, sticking just his head out. A savoury and warm smell permeated the hallway.
  “Kir?” he called out.
  “Yeah?” the Baron replied a second later when he came out of a room, holding a large t-shirt in his hand, still only wrapped in his towel. His eyes had a soft glare to them when he watched the little human’s drenched face and hair.
  “Uh, would you mind if I borrowed that? Just for a second,” Levi asked.
  “Sure,” Kirfalis chuckled before swiftly untying the towel and throwing it to Levi, letting him see what was underneath. He opened his eyes wide and took a sharp breath in surprise, just barely catching the wet fabric. He didn’t look away; in fact, he couldn’t get his eyes off what he was seeing. Kir burst out a short laughter when he saw the expression on Levi’s face before turning around and leaving, instead letting him see his worked out glutes for a second before disappearing back in his room.
  Levi shook his head and closed the door. If Kir would have let him stare at him for a few more seconds, he’d probably start drooling. He tried to ignore the feeling of his blood rushing downwards and focused on drying himself. The towel was large enough to serve as a blanket and was quite heavy. It also was noticeably rougher than a regular bath sheet (to the point that the coarseness could dry up the skin to an unpleasant degree) but no less able to soak up water. After getting properly dry, Levi wrapped himself in the towel like a big cape and left the bathroom, heading straight for the bedroom where he had some clothes stashed for cases like this.
  Due to the differences in size, it was usually Levi who visited Kirfalis rather than vice versa.  A little human in a big apartment is easier and more comfortable to manage than a large demon in a smaller housing, so he was here quite often. He’d probably move in with Kir too, if the bureaucracy wasn’t such a pain in the ass. Not that it mattered much with UAC employee benefits that included accommodation.

  A warm, spicy smell hit Levi in the nose. He sensed it before too, but now it really became noticeable. Kirfalis’s probably making mashed bloodworm sausage toasts for breakfast again; a bit too meaty and rough for a quick morning meal, maybe; but still unquestionably delicious.
  When Levi entered the living room he remembered from yesterday, he saw the hulking Baron from profile through the kitchen door, wearing loose shorts and a t-shirt, looking at the counter. Levi liked the horns of his, though he didn’t know why; he just found them pretty.
  “Hey,” he called him, “whatcha’ cooking?”
  “The usual,” he called back. There was a sound of some rustling coming out from the other room, followed by Kir coming out with two plates. One had a stack of toasts on it, the other had a single triangle on it. He walked with them to the sofa they sat on last night and, after Levi came up and sat on it, he gave him the plate with the halved toast. It was still larger than a full toast he was used to and he had a bit of a trouble grasping the fact that Kir ate a bunch of the full-size ones.
  “Luksch grinkart,” he said before grabbing the top sandwich from his plate. When Levi shot him a confused look, he explained after a few crunchy bites, “It means… tasty prey, roughly. Not the one you trace and hunt in the wild, but one you engage in combat and claim your honour over,” he took another bite and quietly chewed it. Half of his large toast was already gone. “It’s not used literally, of course. Not really figuratively anymore either, now that I think about it.”

  Levi took a bite of his own. The meat spread tasted like a very thick, rough-textured ham that melted in his mouth. It worked well with the cheese and the strange sweet sauce Kirfalis used, normally a staple of Imp cooking. He couldn’t remember the name, but it was made from Hell spices that, under normal circumstances, caused a painful mental death. After figuring out that the right amount of Argent and some roasting turns it into a delicious flavouring, it became a hit, and industrial production began. It had a strange freshness to it that felt like flowing cold air, not too dissimilar from mint gum, but its taste leaned much more towards the savoury kind of sweet that complimented meats greatly.
  When he finished his single portion, the demon next to him was already holding the last piece.
  “How do you eat so quickly?” he asked.
  “I don’t, these toasts are actually pretty small,” Kir answered, “but this was the biggest bread they had in the store,” he bit into the last sandwich and pulled it away before letting out a muffled curse. The melted cheese made a long, elastic trail that stuck to one of his mandible-like bottom fangs. He squinted to look down at it before using his claw to clean himself off while Levi giggled at the sight. He looked dorky. And adorable. Mostly the latter.
  “Do I still have something on me?” the Baron asked after a moment.
  “Uh,” Levi pointed at his own face to the place where Kirfalis’s fang roughly was, “in the front.”
  “Oh, right,” he grumbled and wiped the cheese bit off.

  “So!” Kir spoke up and quickly rubbed his palms after putting his plate away. They briefly glowed green a little and the air around them wobbled with a jade tint. “We’ve got about… five to six hours before I have to leave, so…” he looked at Levi with a smirk, “what are you suggesting?”