Page 22 of Hellfire & Tinsel
“I don’t think either of you have tried them,” Zorun said. “Now hush.”
“We want cookies,” Tarik said.
“Get us cookies,” Azoth demanded.
Zorun wrapped one arm around each of the twins, slapping his massive palms over their mouths. “The only reason you were allowed to come was because you promised you’d be quiet.”
Tarik mumbled something against his palm that sounded like “cookies” again, while Azoth was making slurpy sounds that told Kassel he was probably licking Zorun’s palm.
“Eyes on me.” Oren snapped his fingers in front of Kassel’s face. “All of them.”
“What?” Kassel asked, focusing most of his eyes on Oren. He kept one on the twins. You could never be too careful with those two. Not even with Zorun present.
“He summoned you to shop and bake with him?” Oren asked.
“Indirectly.”
“I’m gonna need you to use your words,” Oren said with a huff. “I didn’t bring the Talking Tibia, but consider this your turn to speak and tell me all the relevant details.”
“I came back, asked him why he summoned me, and he said he was lonely. So we’re doing activities to make him not feel lonely so that my summoning is complete.”
“He summoned you because he’s lonely?” Oren asked, voice shaky and lower lip wobbly.
Kassel recognized that look. Oren was sad. He was sad and that meant possible tears. Tears on Oren meant a Luc who was desperate to fix whatever was bothering him. Usually with the help of whatever demon he could rope into doing his bidding. Kassel wanted to avoid the meltdown if he could.
“We are working on it,” Kassel said quickly, but not quickly enough.
“Oh that poor little soul. I know too well what it’s like to be alone. You need to do everything you can to make it better for him. Especially now.”
“Why now?” Kassel asked.
“It’s the holidays,” Oren said. “The sadness and the solitude hit the worst during holidays. It’s when it hurts the most. So do everything you can to make it easier.”
“I am,” Kassel said. “That is literally what I said I was doing. We shopped. And we’ll bake.”
“Yes, but it’s more than that, Kas,” Oren said. “You have to be in the moment with him. You can’t just be present while he does things. You have to want to be there and doing those things with him. You have to make the experience count for him and you.”
It was an echo of what Beau had said to him.
He was interested in Kassel’s wants, not just his own, but the problem was, Kassel had never really thought about them before. What did he want?
Oiled horns were always nice. And peace and quiet. Space to work and torture sinners. Those were his baseline.
But recently he’d felt other things starting to creep in.
Like wanting Beau not to cry. And watching his bright soul pulse with joy over tiny things. Also making sure no one touched himever. That one seemed more urgent than all the others, its hooks sliding deep and dragging out the primordial rage in him.
Oren huffed when he said nothing, turning around before spotting a remote control and flicking the TV on.
He shuffled through the channels for a bit before landing on one that showed a movie depicting a house decorated much like Beau’s, just… prettier. Not as chaotic as his. Kassel liked Beau’s better, despite that. There were people in the house too, and apparently, they were baking as well. Kassel recognized the sugar and the chocolate parts Beau had placed in the shopping cart.
“Watch how much fun they’re having together,” Oren said. “How engaged they all seem to be and how happy it’s making them. That’s what Beau wants. An experience, not just an activity.”
Kassel trained one eye on the screen again, seeing how the characters giggled, threw bits of the baking supplies on each other, and made a mess of things in the process.
“That doesn’t look productive.”
Oren shrugged. “Not everything has to be.”
