strawberry daiquiri

ten

the sun rose gently. ryan had fallen into some sort of shallow sleep, waking around six in the morning.

he carefully escaped shane's grasp, and was guiltily relieved to be free of the man - at least for right now.

he stood in the center of the living room, not really knowing what to do. his mind was clouded with millions of thoughts that he couldn't quite organize. he decided to go for a walk - that's what they always did in the movies, right.

as he closed the door behind him, he heard shane stir, possibly signaling that he was awake. ryan prayed he wouldn't be followed.

and he walked. he looked at the sunrise. he even sat down on a bench outside a store he came across. nothing seemed to work.

"maybe i should just talk to him about it," ryan said aloud.

he saw a cat lazily cross his path, and reached down to try to pet it. it looked at him cautiously and walked a little faster away.

ryan sighed, disappointed. his life wasn't like a movie - unless it was some B-list horror-based rom-com. a generous 6% on rotten tomatoes.

he ducked into the coffee shop he and shane had went to a few times before, grabbed his and shane's favorite drinks, and headed back.

•

the door opened, immediately waking shane up.

"what time is it?" he asked.

"seven, i think," ryan replied. he handed the coffee to shane, who sat up and grabbed it, looking a little dazed.

"thank you, ry. everything okay?"

ryan started to nod, but then slowly shook his head.

"what's going on? talk to me."

shane's voice was always so warm, kind, without judgment. ryan always had a small fear that there was something else behind shane's exterior, some kind of darkness that would come out in the worst way possible. but ryan pushed away those thoughts and instead, began to speak.

"i don't think you're telling me everything."

shane raised his eyebrows. "about what?"

"the demon thing."

shane looked at ryan, and nodded. he took a sip of his coffee. "i don't think i am either."

"well then, please, shane, please tell me. you owe it to me...?" ryan couldn't assert himself in this moment. he still wanted to tread lightly... just in case.

before shane could speak, ryan spoke again. "like last night. i was just bouncing some thoughts around in my brain and you seemed to... i don't know, read my mind. is that a real thing?"

shane paused, trying to choose his words carefully. "yes and no," he said. ryan's pleading look made him elaborate.

"it's not like you think, where i hear every word you're thinking in your brain. humans sometimes give off certain energies that, if i'm in the right sort of headspace, i can... feel. i can feel fear and anger and sadness and happiness. kinda like an empath but spookier."

"so how did you guess my exact thoughts, shane?" ryan suspected shane was downplaying what was really going on.

"we were talking about the goatman a lot yesterday, and i could feel your... i don't know, your excitement? that's probably not the right word - at the chance of seeing him- it. and as i was falling asleep and i felt you move i just had a feeling that you wanted to do something drastic and i guessed correctly. that's all, ryan."

ryan looked doubtful. he took a long sip of his coffee.

"you don't believe me."

"it's a little invasive, that whole thing."

"you're right- i'm sorry. i just, i don't know, i got so scared of losing you right away that i wanted to tell you the big parts of being a demon first and then maybe ease you in to the other stuff later."

ryan spoke suddenly. "is there more stuff than that? let's see, you're a demon, you can transform yourself to look like a demon, you're old as hell, and you're basically a mind-reader. what else can there be?"

"the only reason i don't want to tell you every single thing is because some of it will never matter. it will never affect us. i'm here, with you, living a life with you. i don't need to use many of the things i have anymore. i'm basically a human with some DLC."

ryan smiled, just a little. however, his words were tinged with sadness. "i don't know shane. it just, it sucks, you know? i thought i knew everything about you. your favorite movie, your favorite coffee, what time you wake up in the morning, the kind of jokes you laugh at- but i feel like all of that is so small in comparison with what i don't know. and it scares me. i mean, from a completely objective standpoint, you could snap and kill me at any point. you could disappear, manipulate me, all these things that i knew you wouldn't do but the fact that you could so easily makes me... uneasy."

shane was silent for a while, seeming to process these words over and over again.

"yeah. i'm sorry."

"you don't have to be sorry."

"i am. i feel like i shouldn't have come."

"to see me?" ryan asked.

"yes. to be with you. i guess i was too careless. i wish i could have just met you on the street somewhere, having been a completely ordinary person. i would do anything..." shane trailed off.

"but... i love you," ryan said. shane met his eyes immediately.

ryan continued. "i think we should just take things day by day. i want to be with you, like forever i think. and just because you're... kinda weird doesn't mean i'm going to stop loving you. this probably won't be the last time we have serious demon talks, but you know, i'll take a few more. a hundred more, even."

shane smiled. "i love you. always have."

ryan smiled back. "just don't kill me randomly."

"i promise i won't," shane said seriously.

ryan exhaled for what felt like the first time today. he hadn't even touched his coffee.

"i think i might go home and try to sleep. just for a little while."

shane nodded. "okay. can i hug you first?"

ryan laughed. "of course, idiot."

they hugged, and ryan left, finding the sunshine outside to be a little more enlightening now. the walk to his apartment was a bit long, but pleasant. he felt the hair on the back of his neck raise as he turned the key in the door.

the door swung open. nothing was hiding behind it, to ryan's relief.

he threw his stuff on the couch and immediately headed toward his bedroom, where he eagerly climbed into bed.

strawberry daiquiri.
don't drink it.
it'll kill you.