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Somehow, I managed to avoid Divya's interrogation during lunch hour—by escaping outside and walking to a deli ten minutes away to get some lunch, of course. She wasn't that easy to shake. Once back at work, I forced myself to focus completely on my work, pushing all thoughts of my strange, gorgeous new roommates to the back of my mind.
While I'd discovered quite a lot of things about them, I didn't actually know them at all. The person I'd talked to the most was Nico, and while I'd shared some words with Ryk, Star seemed to avoid talking to me completely. I didn't know if that was because he was shy or if I'd given him a bad first impression of myself.
...and there I went again thinking about them.
Fuck, I needed to get myself under control. I was acting like they were my new boyfriends or something.
"Ah, but wouldn't that be a dream come true?" Divya whispered in my ear, making me jump and almost send my chair skittering across the room.
"Damn, lady! Stop whispering nonsense in my ear!" I growled, but I had to admit to myself that her words had been weirdly perfect and well-timed too. It would be a dream come true if they were my boyfriends. Of course, that would never happen. Those three were as out of my league as three people could get in terms of looks, not that I was the type to date someone just because of their appearance either. They also had this otherworldly vibe, like being my roommates was just a temporary moment of their lives, and they could be gone tomorrow. I didn’t want to get attached if they were going to disappear sooner or later. With how close they were, there was also the possibility that they were already together, and had no place for me in their relationship.
Nico
"You really enjoy cooking, huh? I don't get it. Why spend so much time making something that's gonna disappear in a few minutes when you can just order it online?" Ryk asked as he sat on the counter, swinging his legs rhythmically. His red curls looked especially riotous today, and I wondered if he’d used the conditioner I’d bought him. While Ryk still wasn’t interested in many human things, he seemed to enjoy taking baths, which I thought was adorable.
"Or steal it with a flick of your magic," Star chipped in from his spot on the other side of the counter, and I rolled my eyes. He looked as comfy as ever in his pajamas—which he wore all day whenever he could get away with it—and I leaned across the counter to brush his sleep-mussed hair out of his eyes. The hair clearly wasn’t bothering him, but I enjoyed looking into his dark eyes when I talked to him.
"Because when someone eats the food you made and likes it, it makes you happy," I explained, shooting them a look to see if they understood.
"Oh! You mean like when someone pays a lot of money for one of my paintings?" Ryk asked, and I nodded. "Yeah, that does make me happy."
Star squinted at me, then tilted his head to the side. "You might have to cut down on the food you eat, though. You're starting to look a little round," he teased, and I shook my head at him. Star had absolutely no tact, and while we were used to dissing each other in the demon realm, I didn't think it would fly as well in the human realm. There was also the fact that it was physically impossible for me to gain weight from human food.
"Oooh, that's not cool. That's called body-shaming, you know. It's mean. You should apologize to Nico," Ryk said, his words spilling over in his excitement that, for once, he knew the 'human thing' to say.
"What? But I've always said shit like that," Star said with a pout, and I smacked his arm with a plastic spatula.
"Just because you've always done something doesn't mean it's the right thing to do," I said, and Ryk nodded sagely.
Sighing, Star ran his fingers through his hair, hiding his eyes behind the strands once more. "I'm sorry, Nico. I'll try not to, but if I slip up, please let me know."
I smiled, knowing Star meant it too. While he could be a little tactless sometimes, he was a good demon underneath all that bluster. He accepted when he was wrong and worked to improve himself. Both of them did. It was why I adored them so much, and why I'd insisted that the three of us should end up in the same place.
Three weeks ago, the King of Otherworld—the realm that most people went to after their death before moving on to Afterworld—and his mates had summoned all the demons who lived in the demon realm and requested our help to fight the queen of the old Underworld. Underworld—the realm humans had molded their imagination of ‘Hell’ after—had been destroyed completely, but some evil souls that’d been trapped there had managed to escape with the help of an old demon. Our job was to make sure they didn’t cause trouble in the human realm, and to capture them.
In return for our help, they'd granted us the permission to live in the human realm so we could more easily accomplish our goal. So now, all the demons were in the human realm, living in different cities across America—since that was where the Otherworlders had tracked the evil souls to before they lost them—and lying in wait in case the dark souls showed their faces.
Our unit was the only one with three people living in the same place, and it was because of our proximity to a town called Mistvale. It was primarily a town of supes, and the faction of escaped dark souls had targeted the town's residents before, back when the souls were alive, which meant they were at a higher risk. If something were to happen, we were close enough to help them out, though I hoped nothing would.
"You're good, Star. Hey, when are you finally going to talk to our human roommate? He's going to get suspicious, you know," Ryk said, and Star sighed.
"I don't know. I get too nervous whenever I think about talking to him. I don't know as much about human things as you two, and I'm sure I'll mess up somehow," he said, chewing on his thumbnail.
"If you do, we'll take care of it," I promised, and Ryk nodded along.
"Yeah. It's not like you have to talk to him alone. Just say a few words here and there. Tell him dinner's ready, or wish him a good morning," I said, and Ryk smirked.
"Just make sure dinner's actually ready and it's actually morning before you say it," he teased, and Star jerked him off the counter, almost sending him tumbling to the floor. Before he could react, Star hopped up in his spot, waggling his fingers at Ryk as he got his balance back.
"Boys, no playing around the open stove," I warned, not that it'd hurt them. It seemed like the right thing to say, though.
Before the King of Otherworld and his mates summoned us, the only way we could visit was in an incorporeal form that no one could see and that didn't allow us to interact with the human realm.
I'd still enjoyed visiting, and I'd spend hours in public libraries hovering over a person's shoulder and reading the book along with them. I'd gotten good at picking out the people who intended to read in the library itself—I felt like I'd be a creep if I followed them to their house just to continue reading—and I'd learned quite a lot about humans, their past and their present, through books. It was probably why I had such a good handle at 'acting human' compared to my two friends.
"I still don't get why we had to live with a human. Couldn't we have found a better place? One where it was just us?" Star grumbled, but I had a feeling that was just because he'd kept his distance from Dakota. Once he got to know him, he might change his tune.
"This was the best place I found," I said, and it wasn't a lie because I truly thought this was the best place for us. What better way to learn how to be a human than living with a human?
