Hellsfire

Chapter Six

Levi and Shep are having a quiet afternoon in, no searching for demons or being chased by demons or trying to establish dominance over demons. This is a strictly demon-free afternoon, at least from Shep's perspective. It's pretty hard for Levi to be demon-free, but at least it's a chance for him to sit down and not think about dying.

Gordon Ramsay shouts from the TV, but Levi isn't paying attention. He's watching Shep, who isn't knitting like he usually does, but is on his phone, swiping left every several seconds.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Shep swipes left on his phone again. And again. He stares at the screen for a bit, then swipes left.

"Tinder?"

"I'm not on Tinder." Shep swipes left one more time then locks his phone.

He was definitely on Tinder.

"Didn't like anyone?"

Levi wouldn't have placed Shep as a Tinder kind of guy, but to be fair, he doesn't know Shep that well yet.

"I wasn't on Tinder, I..." He knows that Levi knows he was on Tinder. And Levi knows he knows Levi knows. "...I just thought it'd be fun, someone said that it was a lot of fun, I'm not sure I really get the appeal, I just feel bad for judging all these people now-"

"You don't have to feel bad about it. They're judging you too."

"Doesn't that make it worse?" Shep shrugs. "I think I'm better off without it." He opens his phone again and deletes the app.

"I should take you out for some actual fun. If you're downloading Tinder for entertainment, you should go somewhere. I guarantee you it'll be better than Tinder."

"I-I guess, I'm not really supposed to be having fun, particularly because Bantam could come around at any time-"

"Is she going to arrest you for having fun?"

"She- Well, she won't, but it'll look like I've been slacking off. Can we disguise it as guardian angel activity, at least?"

"Sure," says Levi. "Let's make a plan."

They make a plan, and then they forget about it.

And then, a week later, Levi remembers the vague plan that they made. He should probably do something about that. Take Shep somewhere local. There's only one local place he knows well enough to navigate to and from, and it's the Badland. Which, despite the name, is a pretty nice place, as long as you're not staying there.

The Badland is a half-club, half-hotel that's a hotel for three floors and then has a nightclub on the fourth floor. It's a bit of a design flaw and probably quite unpleasant for anyone staying on the floor directly underneath, but that's their fault for sleeping in a place called 'the Badland'. It's never particularly busy, probably because of the hotel thing, but it's got a good atmosphere and no one gets drunk enough to start murdering people, so it's Levi's bar of choice.

Demons tend to hang out there too, sometimes. They don't know who Levi is yet, mainly so he doesn't have to go through the shame of being seen in public looking like this, but he comes here anyway to feel safe. He's friends with the staff, so it's probably a good place to take Shep. As long as he doesn't find out about the demon thing. It's friendly enough.

The room is dimly lit except for the lights shining on the dance floor. Levi heads to the bar, far away from all that garbage where Someone Might Actually See Him. Shep follows, looking somewhat nervous and extremely out of place in his scarf and brown jacket.

"Do you want me to buy you anything?" He tells himself he has enough money to do this. He probably doesn't, but it'll be alright as long as they only want one thing each and nothing else. He wants to do something nice for Shep. He wants Shep to get drunk and have a good time, and Levi can at least fund the start of that.