Chapter 6

The ruler of the underworld hummed happily as he arrived in his throne room. It had been a very good day.

There was no one waiting for him in his throne room, which was good and bad. It would have been bad if Draven had been waiting for him. Celeste would have been a welcome sight. Nocturne wanted to tell her how his date had gone.

The archangel had given him a talk on human dating. Her advice had been 90% accurate and the other 10% hadn’t gone well. She had told him that Leo would find him attractive if he wore a smart suit. Instead Leo had found it strange and had even commented on it.

He was glad she had told him to find out Leo’s interests first before meeting him. Nocturne had spent some time going through Leo’s bedroom to investigate him. From there he had discovered that university was an important thing to him, where it was and what he was studying. He had returned to Celeste with all his information and she had made some suggestions.

He still couldn’t quite believe he had gone on such a happy date. The entire five hours had been fun. The best moment had been when Leo had hugged him. His heart had felt like it was going to jump out of his chest when that happened. He had never felt like that before and it hadn’t just been because he had used a human body.

Recognition had been one of his concerns. He hadn’t wiped Leo’s mind to hide their encounter in his bedroom because that would be unfair. It had been a risk to appear in front of him with almost the same appearance. He had only changed his hair length and eye color.

It had been obvious that Leo had found his appearance familiar and then seemed to dismiss it. Hopefully the human had assumed their second encounter was a dream.

They were meeting the following day at the coffee shop again for another date. Knowing he had a date the next day made him feel like he was in paradise instead of in the underworld.

He took a seat by the throne room windows and snapped his fingers to summon one of his servants. His date today had been possible because there were not many deaths and he had allocated more of the names than usual to his servants.

“Tea for two,” he requested when a servant appeared. “Additionally send someone downstairs to see if Celeste is still here. If so, bring her up here.”

His servant nodded and disappeared again. The servants in the underworld were demons whose only purpose was to serve the ruler of the underworld. They didn’t have any other awareness as far as he had noticed.

The wait before Celeste appeared alongside the tea was short. Her face showed her eagerness to hear about his date. They both waited until the tea had been served and the servant had left to speak.

“I can guess that your date went well,” she observed and sipped her tea.

“How so?”

“You’re smiling,” the archangel said. “You don’t normally smile. You’re a stoic person. Between the three of us, I’m the smiliest one.”

It was hard not to smile when he was happy and content. 

“You are right,” he agreed. “Draven smirks instead of smiling.”

“I hate that devil,” she said and put her teacup down aggressively. “I wish I could run things here.”

“Be careful what you say,” he warned her. “I want you to stay as the archangel whilst I am here.”

He hadn’t thought about moving on and reincarnating again since he had met Leo. Celeste had been the archangel the entire time he had been ruling the underworld and he couldn’t imagine working alongside a different archangel. If Draven wanted to quit and reincarnate his soul as a human, that would be very much welcomed.

She looked at him and changed the subject. “Did he swoon at your handsomeness?”

That reminded Nocturne of the complaint he had for Celeste. “He thought it was odd that I was wearing a three piece suit. I transformed with it in mind because you said humans love men in suits.”

Celeste chewed on her lower lip and then her face broke out into a smile. “Nocturne, it’s the height of summer in the human world, that is the worst weather to wear something like that in the day. You do look good in one, you just need to pick a different time to wear one.”

He could tell that she was having fun at his expense. He wasn’t too annoyed, despite the clothing mishap he had secured another date with his future husband.

Leo had been dressed simply in a t-shirt and shorts. He would have to wear something similar when they met up next. 

“Nevermind your clothes, did he recognize you as the random man that broke into his house to marry him?”

“I think the resemblance bothered him,” he admitted. “He still went with me on a date and we are going on one tomorrow. Do you have any advice?”

“Tell me all the details of the date you had today and we’ll go from there,” she said.

Nocturne proceeded to tell her everything that had transpired and included every detail. As he wasn’t human, he had a very good memory. She was kind enough to show no reaction whilst he spoke.

“Okay, he must think you’re odd,” she commented when he finished. “I would advise to not act like it’s your first time seeing things. Things like that can be a novelty in people at first, yet it can get irritating if it keeps happening.”

“It is my first time doing anything in the human world other than collecting souls,” he protested weakly. “How much time have you spent in the human world?”

He didn’t get to see the memories of souls like she and Draven did as he was not present for the judging. It felt like he was the most innocent and naive between the three of them. All he ever did was see humans at the point of their death and request for them to give up their soul.

“I like going there sometimes to watch people,” she admitted. “I like shopping as well. All my clothes here are based on my job and I don’t have anything to wear that isn’t a floor length dress.”

Nocturne squinted at her. Celeste was feeling less like a pure and unattainable archangel the more he found out about her. Was it because she had so much knowledge about humans?

“Do you think Draven ever goes to the human world like you do?”

Celeste shuddered and he knew the answer was yes.

“I detected him nearby once so I teleported to his side and he was in a gay strip club,” she said quietly. “I’ve never teleported back here so quickly. He likes human pleasures as well. Just different ones to me.”

Her meaning was clear and Nocturne elected not to think of Draven in that manner. He had dated the devil briefly and he had no wish to revisit those memories.

“I see. I agree that I should get some experience with human things. Leo was patient with me,” he replied. “Where should we go on our next date?”

Celeste rolled her eyes. “I don’t exactly have the human world memorized. I don’t know what’s available where Leo lives. If there’s a pretty park you can walk around it. I see lots of couples in places like that.”

That sounded a little boring when he thought about it. Then again he would be with someone that made him feel alive, maybe it would be better.

“What are you going to do if he wants to kiss you?” she asked suddenly.

His mind was thrown by trying to picture it. Being hugged by Leo had felt heartstopping, a kiss would probably feel even better. He smiled at the thought.

“I’ll accept it,” he said and twirled a strand of his hair.

“What if he wants a messy one with tongue that leads to sex?”

Nocturne dropped the strand of hair he had been playing with and stared at her in shock. Celeste was surprising him with her language today. He had only just thought of kissing Leo very innocently, sex was going too far.

“Why are you asking?” was all he could say.

“I’ve got to prepare you for everything,” she said with a shrug. “Have you ever kissed anyone before? You were with Draven, however I don’t think it was a happy relationship.”

Nocturne preferred to never think about his past fling with Draven. It hadn’t lasted long and when he had demanded to end it, the devil hadn’t taken it well. Things had been quiet for a week after and then the next thing he knew, he had been promoted to being the ruler of the underworld. Draven had known fully well that he wouldn’t be comfortable with seeing humans die day in day out.

“He did jam his tongue into my mouth once,” he admitted quietly. “I asked to end our relationship the next day.”

He didn’t think Leo would ever do anything like that to him. He felt like innocence personified. Draven was the devil. They were night and day.

Celeste winced and picked up her teacup again. “I won’t ask that question again. Anyway, physical affection is a natural part of relationships. Don’t be surprised if he wants any.”

***

Leo looked up at the sky with a glare. The air was thick with humidity and rain with gray clouds filling the sky. It was a horrible combination on a normal day and today was his second date with Nocturne. It just had to happen today.

He pushed open the door of the coffee shop with a scowl and then burst into a smile when he saw Nocturne sitting at the table by the window.

“You’re here already,” he commented and immediately walked over to join him.

It was 15 minutes before the time they had agreed to meet. He had been too eager to wait at home anymore so he had rushed over to the coffee shop. Finding out that Nocturne had felt the same way was warming.

“I could not leave you waiting,” Nocturne said. “I ordered for you. It’s what you were drinking last time.”

He gestured to the second cup at the table. It was indeed the drink he had ordered last time. Nocturne was very observant. Leo took his raincoat off and sat down.

“Thank you,” he said and looked Nocturne up and down.

He wasn’t wearing a three piece suit this time. Instead he was wearing a simple polo shirt and shorts. It worked well for the humid warm weather. It was just a shame it was raining. He looked around for a raincoat or an umbrella. There wasn’t anything like that, but Nocturne’s hair and clothes were bone dry. It had been raining all morning.

Maybe he had been in the coffee shop for long enough that his clothes and hair had dried off from the rain. Leo put his observations to the back of his mind and took a sip of his coffee.

“What did you want to do?” he asked. “We didn’t actually plan anything today.”

Nocturne looked over at him with a smile. “There is a park here we can walk around in.”

“It’s raining,” Leo pointed out. “We don’t want to get wet.”

Nocturne’s face fell and Leo almost felt bad for shooting his suggestion down. He tried to think of something else.

“I’ll go out and buy an umbrella that’s big enough for both of us. Then we can walk around in the rain and not get wet.”

The look on Nocturne’s face couldn’t be described as anything less than delirious happiness. Leo realized that Nocturne really did like him. Nocturne was also the first man he had accepted a date from. 

Maybe they were soulmates.