“I came from the Void,” Chaos said easily. “And before that, the demon realm. You summoned me with the Book, we made a contract, and now I’m here.”
Jesus. Somehow hearing it out loud was more intimidating than imagining it. Cooper swallowed, his throat dry. “And when our contract is done, do I…go back with you? To the demon realm?”
Chaos giggled with delight, like Cooper was spouting adorable nonsense. “Notyou, silly. Just a little niblet of your soul. You won’t miss it. Humans never do.” His giggling quieted, and he muttered, seemingly to himself, “IfI go back, that is.”
“You might stay?” Cooper asked, trying to keep the note of panic out of his voice. What the fuck was he going to do if this demon decided to never leave?
“I might,” Chaos said cagily, smiling to himself.
And then he was pulling them to a window of a restaurant, pressing their joined hands as well as his face against it to peer inside. “Oh! Pancakes! I’ve never seen them in real life.”
Cooper tried to tug their hands away, and when Chaos gave a little growl instead of moving, Cooper—his cheeks once again flushed with embarrassment—made an apologetic face to the people inside, who’d raised their brows and then their middle fingers at Chaos’s blatant inspection.
Fuck. If Chaosdidstay, it was going to end up being some sort of social anxiety exposure therapy: extreme edition, wasn’t it?
Although, it was hard to worry too much about what other people were thinking when Cooper had to focus all his attention on the loose cannon that was this little demon.
“Bracchus,” he said quietly, when it was clear tugging wasn’t going to work. “This is the diner I was telling you about.” He’d almost missed it, distracted as he’d been with the thought of Chaos staying. “Will you come eat with me?”
Chaos turned from the window immediately. “Will you order pancakes?”
Cooper nodded. It was an easy concession. “I can, if you like.”
“IfIlike,” Chaos repeated, his eyes laser-focused on Cooper, like he’d said something fascinating.
They went inside and were seated across from each other at a booth, this one in the interior of the diner and not at a window. Chaos didn’t seem to mind the lack of a view—he was fascinated by the menu itself. He apparently didn’t eat human food, but he had strong opinions on what Cooper needed to order. French fries. Pancakes. A milkshake. Meatloaf, for some reason.
When the waitress had taken their large and varied order, they sat staring at each other, Chaos still holding Cooper’s hand across the table. For a noisy, chaotic thing, Chaos had a way of sitting unnervingly still when he wanted to, every fiber of his being seemingly intent on Cooper.
“I don’t really know what’s happening,” Cooper finally admitted, breaking the silence.
Chaos grinned at him, revealing his dimple again. “Isn’t it wonderful?”
“Um, well…” Cooper pushed at the table’s ketchup bottle with his free hand, needing something to do that wasn’t staring into Chaos’s unblinking eyes. “I usually like to know, actually. It makes me feel better.”
“Better than what?”
It was hard to tell if Chaos was fucking with him or if he genuinely didn’t understand Cooper’s way of speaking. “It makes me less…anxious,” Cooper clarified.
Chaos cocked his head. “Are you afraid of me, Cooper?”
Cooper could almost have lied. At the moment, Chaos looked human. Like a cute human, even. And even though he was keeping Cooper’s hand captive, his touch felt nice. Warm and soothing.
But Cooper could remember how it had felt in the apartment, when he’d dared to ask if he was the one in control of Chaos. And he could see it in the way Chaos watched him now, with eerie stillness.
Not human after all. A creature, and a predatory one at that.
“Youarescared of me.” Chaos was pouting again, his lower lip jutting out in a way that should have been ridiculous but somehow came off as adorable.
“I’m sorry. I can’t help it.” Cooper slipped his fingers under his glasses to rub at his eyes. He didn’t want to offend Chaos, but he wasn’t a very good liar. “You can set things on fire with, like, your mind.”
The pouting intensified. “This won’t be very fun if you’re frightened of me all the time.”
Against all odds, Cooper found himself wanting to reassure the demon. Chaos was just so…cute, even in all his otherworldly terribleness.
Could I be any more of a pushover?
Cooper tried to figure out how to word his thoughts in a way Chaos would understand. “I’m scared of a lot of things, to varying degrees,” he explained. “Part of coping with that is just…powering through. I’m used to it. I can be a little scared of you and still be your friend.”
