Hero Vs Villain (BoyxBoy)

Somethings Off With Vandel

Vandel and I exchanged a glance.

"What should we do then?" I said quickly. "We don't want to be too much of a bother."

The Ancient shrugged. "Don't worry about it. This has happened before. People are surprisingly awful at completing things under a time limit. We have a building designed especially for our "guests". It's actually quite nice, we're pretty proud of it. There's beds, food, oh and my personal favorite....a hot spring!" Vandel perked up a little at that. As much as I wanted to head back to Alteria at least the Ancients seemed to be hospitable.

I gave her a little nod. "Thank you so much...we greatly appreciate it-"

"Yeah yeah yeah," the Ancient said quickly, cutting me off again. "No offence sweetie but I've heard it all before. I'll meet you both here tomorrow and we'll figure things out. Bye bye." She snapped her fingers and for a second it felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. Then suddenly I realized I wasn't standing in the tunnel anymore. Vandel and I were in the middle of a small dining room. The room was cozy, the walls appeared to be made of some kind of soft grey rock. At the center was a table carved from marble, plates and bowls filled with fruit laid out across it.

I think in that moment Vandel and I both realized how hungry we were. We both reached for the exact same apple that sat at the top of a silver bowl. Normally this would have led to a bicker, usually ending in a coin toss of some kind, but this time Vandel simply let go. I glanced to the apple in my hands, then to Vandel staring at me blankly from across the table. Despite myself I was worried about him.

"It was nice of them to give us a place to stay and all this food, huh?" I said, awkwardly trying to make conversation.

Vandel gave me a little shrug. "Yeah."

That was it? A single yeah. I sighed heavily. I was horrible at trying to talk to people when they were upset but I supposed maybe in this case I could try.

I cleared my throat. "I know something's wrong."

Vandel replied by giving me only a single blink.

I continued.

"You've been out of it since talking with the Ancient."

"Nothing's wrong," Vandel said curtly. "Stop being a bother." He snatched a tangerine off one of the plates and stuffed it into his mouth...the entire thing...pit and all. I had no idea how he was even fitting this entire thing into his mouth. Then to my horror he swallowed it whole.

I stared at him, my eyes wide.

Vandel glanced to me, arching a brow. "What?"

"What was...how did you..."

His eyes shifted from pitch black to red for the soul purpose of rolling his eyes at me. "Haven't you ever seen a demon eat before?"

I shook my head. "Obviously not."

"We don't chew, it's a waste of time." He grabbed an apple this time and did the exact same thing. All I could do was stare at him. Vandel sighed. "I'm going to try and find the hot spring. Join me or don't, I don't really care." He turned and I grabbed one more piece of fruit from the table before running to join him.

------

The hot spring appeared to be in the second room. The water was so blue it was almost blinding, steam rolling off from its surface. A large tree appeared to grow from the center of the spring, its branches reaching so low they brushed the surface of the water. Apples that looked like they were made from gold hung from its branches and seemed to glow from the inside. It was a pretty breathtaking sight.

"Thank fuck, I needed this," Vandel mumbled under his breath, pulling off his shirt...er...well theoretically my shirt. Upon seeing this I was hit with a sudden onslaught of memories of the vision I had earlier. I quickly averted my gaze until I heard him slip into the water. My face felt warm. I could practically feel Vandel staring at me.

"Aren't you coming in," he said slowly.

"Uh...yeah...just a minute..." I stammered. My cheeks still burning I pulled off my clothes and approached the water.

It had been a long day and the warm water felt amazing against my skin when I finally entered the spring. I practically sunk into it. After a minute I finally built up the courage to look to Vandel. Just the sight of his slender shoulders above the water made my heart pound in my chest and I hated it. Why...why the hell had I had that vision? Vandel averted his gaze from me suddenly and sunk down into the water leaving only the top half his face visible. There was silence between us.

"Hey," I said slowly. "Vandel I have a question for you."

"I'm not going to answer it."

"Just hear me out..." Vandel let out a little huff but didn't respond. After taking a deep breath I continued. "Do you...have friends?"

"What kind of bullshit question is that?"

"I'm sorry. I was just curious."

"I'm the prince of demons. Of course I don't have friends, I'm too busy for that shit." That's what I assumed, though I was surprised he was actually admitting it to me. "What are you trying to get at?" He glared at me.

"I wasn't trying to get at anything," I stammered. "Uh...I just wanted to let you know that even if we aren't...friends...I'm here. If you need to talk or get anything off your chest or just need someone to vent to you can talk to me."

I was expecting Vandel to argue with me but he just raised a dark brow.

"Where is this coming from?"

"Nowhere. It's just...well...even though we're enemies we've spent a lot of time together and I know we're not always on good terms but I guess what I'm trying to say is that...I....err...I care-"

Thankfully Vandel cut me off before I finished my sentence.

"I have a question for you Ridley." His voice was soft, softer than I had ever heard it.

"Yeah?"

"If you had to do something that would save a lot of people even though it would end up hurting someone you should still do it? Right?"

I thought for a moment, and finally nodded slowly.

"I suppose so. The most important thing is to save as many lives as possible."

Vandel let out a low, shaky breath.

"Yeah," he said quietly. "Yeah...I guess you're right." Suddenly he stood up. I quickly averted my gaze, my cheeks growing warm again.

"I'm gonna try to find the bedroom," he said. "Hopefully there's more than one."

I nodded slowly. "Hopefully." I waited for Vandel to leave, staring up into the leaves of the tree. The warm water lapped at my skin and I shut my eyes for a beat. What had that been about? What the hell had the Ancient told Vandel? I shook my head. I should stop worrying about it. It probably wasn't too big of a deal.

Even though that's what I told myself I couldn't help feel a slight prick of doubt in my chest.