A/N: HI lovelies! Sorry for the chapter being a day late—I was in London with my boyfriend and his family who were over visiting! I hope you all had a fabulous week and I ope you enjoy the new chapter!
"Can I see your ticket, please?"
Bonnie lifted her head from the table to look at the conductor who stood in the aisle expectantly, quickly running a hand through her hair and very well aware that she'd been almost sleeping against the window. Her eye bags were as deep as Bonnie's and as she handed her the small slip of paper with their journey details on it, she offered a sympathetic smile.
"Long night?"
The girl took a breath and looked down the carriage towards the table where three men had been drunkenly singing football anthems, their voices bouncing through the almost empty train. "Last train always is."
It appeared neither of them wanted to be there.
The conductor gave her ticket back with a 'stay safe' and continued down the carriage, already berating the men who had opened more cans for their trip. Bonnie did not envy her. There was something about drunk people that hated workers just trying to do their job.
"Can I sit here?"
Gremory stood awkwardly over her, his arm across the back of her chair. He hadn't tried to talk to her since they'd started travelling; in fact, neither of the boys had. While he had stormed off and maintained a distance of separation the whole time, Kimaris had been silent, only talking to her when necessary. They'd strode through the streets of Glasgow to the train station without a word and when they'd stepped on the train, the two men went to opposite ends of the carriage. Bonnie hadn't attempted to pry. They'd kept her alive. She'd like to keep it that way.
"Sure," she replied meekly, straightening up. If only it was daytime, then she could have distracted herself. Unfortunately, the dim, far-off towns provided little entertainment while looking out into a black scenery of nothing. She'd hoped to at least see some stars, but when her reflection had stared back at her, she realised that the carriage lights would make it impossible.
"Thanks." Gremory slid down into the seat opposite, stretching his legs into the aisle. "The woman to the left of me was eating an egg sandwich, but I think Kimaris might have picked the worst seat of us all."
Following his gaze, Bonnie twisted around to spot the glowering figure sitting on his lonesome, but being shouted at by the drunk men who had noticed him and were ignoring the conductor trying to quiet them down. If his scowl got any deeper, his face may have cracked.
"He doesn't look too impressed," Bonnie giggled, watching as he ignored their calls. As if he heard the sound, his eyes snapped to her, and she quickly returned to her original sitting position, calming her racing heart down.
"Nah," Gremory grinned, offering a little wave to him, "He always looks like that."
She couldn't help but snort at the comment. So far, he hadn't proven that wrong.
"That frown even gives demons a bad name."
The joke had come from her lips so easily that it took a moment for her to realise she'd said it, making her laughter dwindle. Gremory had laughed at first, but when he noticed her expression, even his enjoyment died.
"Bonnie," he began with a clear of his throat, leaning forward onto the table between them, "I want to apologise for deceiving you—"
"You mean lying to me—"
"I never actually said I was an angel—"
"But you never told me you weren't—"
"That's because technically it's not untrue."
The argument died in Bonnie's mouth. How could he be a demon and an angel?
"Isn't that sort of impossible, seeing as they're basically polar opposites?" she pointed out, brows furrowed. "It would be hard to split your time between heaven and hell, no?"
Gremory winced, his head tilting side to side.
"There's no heaven and hell, is there?"
He gave her a strained smile, scratching the side of his neck. "Not in the way you think of it—no. It's hard to explain."
A sardonic laugh erupted from Bonnie as she clapped her hands together, falling back into her chair. That had to have been the understatement of the century. She could barely begin to list all the things that she was finding hard to comprehend.
"Okay, okay," Gremory rushed, holding his hands up to her, "I know that's a stupid statement, but I just don't want to overwhelm you with things. It's a lot to take in, and I just think it would be better if we started small."
Bonnie thought about it for a moment, her determined glare twitching from the darkness outside to the blonde boy sitting across from her patiently.
"Okay," she eventually shrugged, looking at him fully, "Why were you so upset with Kimaris before? You don't look like the type to be riddled with toxic masculinity."
If he wouldn't talk to her about demons, then this was a close second. However, she knew immediately by the look on Gremory's face that he wouldn't be answering her question.
"Right."
As she stood to move out of her chair, his hand reached out and halted her.
He let out a sigh and mumbled something under his breath, looking away.
"Fine," he muttered, "I'll tell you."
Bonnie settled back in her seat, trying to cover her excitement. She'd contained the urge to scream for hours and if the silence had continued, she might have just done it.
Gremory's hands shook as he spoke, but he held them down in determination.
"Demons rarely look like they do on earth. In our dimension, we look a little... different."
Ignoring the question she really wanted to ask—um, dimension?—she remained quiet, waiting for him to continue.
"Some have animal parts, such as a lion's heads or the tail of a scorpion, or wings that resemble falcons or crows. Some have two heads, or no head at all. It's a pretty varied spectrum."
"Okay, so pop culture got some things right, then?" she joked, trying not to think of how horrifying they must look and instead of different movies that had gods that were part animal in them. "And you got annoyed that he said you were a girl, instead of... what? A leopard or something?"
Bonnie expected Gremory to at least chuckle at her words, but his eyes darkened and he seemed even more uncomfortable. It was the first time that he was trying not to look at her instead of the other way around.
"I got annoyed because originally, I mean, I am—or at least I was—a woman," he rushed out, "Originally. In my true form."
As the seconds ticked by, Bonnie tried to pick her jaw up from the floor. Underneath the pale white light, which seemed to only enhance the definition on his body, it felt almost impossible to imagine the muscular man in front of her in any other way. Let alone as a female.
"Oh."
Her voice came out meek, and the one noise brought Gremory to stare at her, the nervous expression on his face emphasised by the bouncing leg under the table. Quickly, she wiped away the shocked look she wore and sat forward, offering a small smile.
"I bet even in that form you were still more attractive than me, right?"
The panic that had seeped into his green eyes dissipated at her light tone and relief seemed to wash over him like a rainstorm.
"They don't call me Demoness of the Night for nothing."
Whether it was the absurdity of the conversation or the tension needing relieved, laughter filled the carriage as she and Gremory hunched towards each other, their chuckles making the air seem warmer.
"Demoness of the Night?" she teased. "Is that your actual title?"
"It used to be!" Gremory assured, his grin slightly embarrassed, "I try not to refer to myself as that anymore or it might confuse people."
Another bark of laughter followed his admission, but before Bonnie could quiz him more, a shout from behind her cut them off. They turned to look at the noise, realising that Kimaris was no longer in his seat and was now standing over the table of men who had gone from being loud and rowdy to scolded children in their seat. For a moment, it appeared a fight might break out, but as one man looked up at the intimidating figure, his own seemed to shrink. With a grateful look from the young conductor who hurried through the sliding doors into the next carriage, Kimaris headed back to his seat, pulling the collar of his coat up higher.
I wonder what he said to them.
Turning back to face Gremory, the humour in the conversation was gone, but more questions filled Bonnie's brain.
"And that's why you got annoyed? Because it was too close to the truth?"
Gremory bit the side of his mouth as if chewing over his response.
"I got annoyed because I don't enjoy thinking about it all that much," he confessed, going back to gripping his own hands. "As much as you may think demons have power or can change themselves into whatever they want, it's not entirely true. In our dimension especially, it's not encouraged to be in any different form other than your true one. Something about purity or some bullshit. It's ironic when you realise that most demons are pretty much genderless—or at least some form of something else—but beautiful woman aren't a common commodity so I guess it was more important for me to stay that way, as opposed to a half fish man that no one wanted to look at."
He paused, as if refusing to let anymore bitterness creep into his words. Bonnie didn't think before she reached over and took his hand in hers, squeezing with as much force as her human ability could muster. He looked up at her, a little in surprise, but the crinkle between his brows faded.
"I'm sorry," she told him, her gaze unmoving, "No one should ever be made to feel as though they can't be their own person, or identify in whatever way they want. Even demons."
His mouth quirked at her last words, but his hand turned over, interlacing their fingers. His eyes were sadder than before.
"It's strange. I never thought I'd be jealous of humans for anything, but when I realised they had a word for it here, there was nothing I wanted to be more than human," he laughed, his brows almost in his hairline. "Transgender—it's just a word, but hearing it was like this neon light screaming at me that I'd found a place to be the person I wanted to be. The person who I am. Even before your society openly accepted it, there were people just like me over hundreds of years, finding their happiness and being honest with themselves. It's what made me excited to visit the humans whenever they summoned me. Other demons felt it was a chore, but I was always so eager to see what you'd come up with next. What rule you'd all break to transcend societal norms. It's always so fascinating."
Hearing humanity being spoken about by a different species was obviously new to Bonnie, but it was how his eyes lit up that stuck with her the most. It made her think of all the things she'd overlooked in the world, all the moments of greatness or change that seemed unimportant to her but were clearly life changing for Gremory. It was as if, through his gaze, the world was far more interesting. And Bonnie felt guilty that she hadn't ever looked at it like that.
"So, some things are a little behind? Even in the underworld?" she asked, pushing away the thoughts she had of wasted time and missed opportunities.
"Some things don't exist," Gremory chuckled, a teasing smirk on his lips, "For example, we don't describe attraction as 'gay' or 'straight' because we all just... enjoy everything? Sure, people have preferences, but no one ever ruled anything completely out."
Her cheeks blushed, widening Gremory's grin.
"If there's something you humans got right about our world, it's that we definitely lack reservations when it comes to sexuality and the human body."
The flames now felt like they were licking her eyeballs, and it took everything to try to look unbothered. By the humour in Gremory's face, she knew she was failing.
"There's a reason that blood magic often contained sexual acts to combine bodily—"
"Okay! Okay!" Bonnie squealed, bringing him to an abrupt stop as her hands flailed. She didn't feel like a prude by any means, but she'd known Gremory not even twenty-four-hours, and the confidence he had made her worry about what might come out of his mouth. Thankfully, he didn't continue and returned to chuckling quietly in his seat.
Bonnie relaxed, watching how he seemed to be more at ease with her now. She wondered how long he'd kept that secret inside of him; if demons were hundreds of years old—or more likely thousands—then he must have struggled for a while. She couldn't imagine keeping something in for that long and what it would do to your soul.
If demons had souls, that is.
"It's funny," she spoke, eyes crinkled. "I thought you were going to say something that made my brain sizzle or struggle to understand, but I never thought you'd have such a ... well, human issue. I'm sorry if I forced you to tell me that, I never would have if—"
"I know," Gremory interrupted, taking her hands again, "Thank you for saying it though."
Something about the softness in his smile and the warmth in his eyes made Bonnie's fears dispel. It was as if his mere presence made her nerves numb and eased her subconscious. She'd never quite experienced anything like it. Did he feel it too?
As she mustered the courage to ask, a shadow appeared and the idea quickly flew from her head.
Kimaris glared down at the two of them, his eyes trained on their touching hands. Standing above them, his figure was dominating, as though it swelled to fill the carriage. Before they could react, he'd turned back from them and was heading back in the direction he'd come, his words thrown to them without care.
"We'll be at our stop in twenty minutes."
What was his problem?
Bonnie's open mouth resembled a fish as she silently asked Gremory her question, but he just shrugged his shoulders and stood from his seat, making her even more confused.
"I told you—he always looks like that." Turning from her, he walked down the aisle without another word, only stopping when he got to a bag in the overhead storage. As he returned, he held it up to her as if she was supposed to know what it was. "You need an outfit!"
She looked at him as though he'd lost his mind, watching as he pulled things from it.
"An outfit? For what?" she asked with a shake of her head. "Wait, when did you have a bag?"
"I put it in the storage lockers earlier, before we came and got you. I grabbed it when we got to the train station," he smiled, holding out clothes. "I got a few bits-and-bobs from your apartment. I hope that's alright. Also, I went shopping today and got this for you."
Ignoring the fact that Gremory had, yet again, broken into her flat, Bonnie took the material from him hesitantly.
"And this is for..."
She'd be lying if she didn't say that she was a little intimidated by the idea of someone buying clothes for her. It had never been something she'd experienced, and part of her was nervous that it looked stupid or worse, didn't fit. But the material seemed stretchy, and there was enough of it that her thoughts of revealing dresses, or tops tight enough to show the untoned stomach she saw daily, disappeared.
"We're going to see a friend," Gremory explained, holding up two different earrings to the side of her head. "Your complexion definitely suites gold more than silver."
"That's good to know," Bonnie mumbled, taking the dangling piece from him, distracted by the pink colour. "They're beautiful."
"I saw this bubblegum top that you had and figured they'd go perfectly." He held out said top to her, the smile on his face as encouraging as his hands that had pulled her from the chair.
"Thank you, but you really didn't have to get me anything," she mumbled, the velvet under her fingers feeling smooth on her skin.
Gremory raised a brow, his eyes dropping to the comfort outfit that had now been on her body for half a day.
"Trust me, I did. You'd never have got into the club with what you're wearing."
Bonnie nodded her head along with him, letting him push her towards the toilet that sat at the end of the carriage. It was only when she got to the door that she realised what he'd said.
"Wait—club? Why would we be going to a club?"
Her hand slammed onto the plastic of the door, eyes wide with panic as Gremory rolled his, giving up with trying to force her into the confined space.
"I told you, we're meeting my friend."
"In a club?"
"Yes."
"Like a nightclub?"
Gremory repeated his eye-roll again, a noise from his throat echoing his frustration but also his laughter.
"Yes, Bonnie! A nightclub!" He emphasised, and in her moment of stillness he used the advantage to propel her forward, holding up a hand when she tried to say something back. "No time. Now hurry and get changed. We still need to do something with your hair and we barely have fifteen minutes!"
There was a final encouraging smile, and then the door slid shut, the resounding bang of it fading into silence. Bonnie stood for a moment, letting herself catch up as she looked around the grey room.
A thousand questions circled her mind—the most obvious still being what exactly two demons wanted with her—but as she let the fabric slide through her hands, they all seemed to be unimportant.
It had been a long time since she'd got dressed up for anything, let alone a nightclub.
With a bite to her lip, Bonnie looked at herself in the scratched and slightly fuzzy mirror hanging above the sink. Even in the weak flickering light, she could see a glint in her eyes that she hadn't in a while. And behind the nervousness that she felt, she swore there was also a tingle of excitement.
It had been so long.
From outside the door, she heard Gremory shout something and realised that she'd have to decide soon, otherwise he might burst in and drag her out if she liked it or not. He seemed very set on meeting his friend, and she still did not know why.
With a final look at the baggy clothes still hanging from her body, Bonnie gritted her teeth, determination filling her.
"Well Bonnie, there's only one way to find out."