Disclaimer: I don't own "Goblin: the great and lonely god." Everything belongs to whoever owns them, my wishful thinking aside.

Authors Note #1: I really got invested in the scene regarding the Grim Reaper, the blind man and his seeing eye dog "Happy" in the sixth episode. I wanted to talk to my feelings about it a bit and so here is were we are. – For exoticdeviance on tumblr who is my main "Goblin-ho" and we are suffering together.

Warnings:pre-series, mentions animal death, reincarnation, past lives, drama, angst, fill-in fic.

Ephemeral

He was clearing his last customer's cup when a curious sound - muffled yet sharp - sounded from the door the old woman had walked through only seconds before. Her smile had been beatific as she bowed to him from the first stair. She had lived her lives well. So well in fact they had filled the tea room with memories he didn't have to touch her to sense. She had been very...loud. Colorful and animated even in her midnight years. Not shy or overly respectful like most of the souls he reaped.

And with good reason.

She had been the truest friend to an troubled Empress, trading secrets by candlelight and loving touches in the dark long after the risk of discovery by the servants and her royal husband had passed. She'd been the wife of a farmhand who'd once dressed in her dead brother's clothes to plead the case of one of her friend's children before a traveling magistrate. She'd been a nurse. And in the youth of her final life- someone who'd made people laugh. Reuniting with the woman from her first life in the audience at one of her shows. They hadn't known each other, instead they'd built their love again from the ground up. What the old works called the truest love, he supposed.

He cocked his head when the sound came again. Rising slowly from his chair as he eyed the handle for a long moment before opening it. Feeling the frisson of power coursing through it, discomforting but oddly familiar, before the source of the noise made him blink.

"You are in the wrong place," he opened, careful not to pass the threshold as the creature's harness jingled like a cheerful question. The tags on the dog's collar glinting, highlighting the engraved name and the number of it's owner.

Happy.

It wasn't unheard of for the occasional mix-up to occur. Usually it meant waiting for an appointment with the appropriate department and quite a lot of paperwork. But he could tell already it wasn't going to be that simple. The creature had already been reaped and delivered to the appropriate place. It was not lost. Somehow it had found its way here on its own volition.

He sighed.

"Come," he commanded, face unchanged when the golden retriever barked a negative but bounded in anyway.

"What do you mean, no you aren't?" he responded, taken aback at the flippant ease the creature had with him. "This tea house is reserved for human souls only. You know that."

The dog brushed past him, soft fur rasping across his pant leg. Tail wagging with enough force to justify its name. Catching across the curve of his thumb before-

He received the past in flashes. Feeling the animal's excitement as a huge face smiled down at it. Experiencing the joy of being picking it up in the man's arms with a care that only made sense when he realized the man was blind. Leaving his brothers and sisters behind to embark on a new life with the man who'd chosen him above all others.

They were strange memories. Similar, but less streamlined than the human souls he dealt with. Off-set with a slanted, animal-color that sped through the years quite quickly. Years of growing up to be the man's eyes. Years of spending every moment of every day by his side until his bones started to ache and his owner took him to the bad place. The one with the strange smells and metal tables that were always too cold against his belly. Watching his owner cry into his hands after the man in the long white coat laid his hands on him.

He hadn't understood why his owner was sad, but he'd wanted to. Listening closely for words he recognized in their conversation, only to find none. Still, he'd nuzzled close. Trying to comfort him where he could as the minutes turned to hours and he led his owner back home. He'd forgotten why it had been important when his owner had cut meat into his dinner that night. Distracting him from the salt tracks he tried his best to lick away. Loving him so completely that when his time had come the creature had-

Ah.

"He is not here," he pointed out, watching the dog do a quick circuit around the table before sitting down in front of him. Tongue lolling. "He will not be here for some time. His life is much longer than what your kind is given. Though I don't know why."

The whine was soft, but still audible when the dog sunk down across the floor. Dejected. Head between its paws. Looking up at him with large brown eyes he imagined had been quite convincing to most humans.

He considered the matter thoughtfully as the world passed on around them. Frenetic and slow. Loud and soft. A median balance of life and death and the grey space that existed between.

He reached into his coat and looked through his cards. Skimming the edges without looking until he found the one he was looking for.

He didn't look at the creature as he traced the edges of the card, yet the animal stirred regardless. Raising it head hopefully as it's tags jingled again.

He looked away. Unaffected despite the description. The man should have gotten another pair of eyes to help him see. Was this what love did? Blinding you through sentiment from the logical course of action. His love for this creature prevented him from investing himself in another. One that might have saved him when-

"But you can wait if you wish," he allowed after a long moment. Tucking the card back into it's proper order as the blurring hum that so often surrounded his thoughts – and had for as long than he could remember - rose again. Keeping him focused on the task at hand, yet continually drifting in this very different world as he brushed the brim of his hat with his knuckles before nodding.

The dull smack of a tail hitting the floorboards beside him was the last thing he heard about it as he turned away and continued clearing up.

The next customer would be arriving soon.

"Happy?"

"Is that you, Happy?"

"He felt bad for leaving you behind. He's been waiting there for a while. Happy...knows the way well."

A/N: Thank you for reading, please let me know what you think. – This story is now complete.

Reference:

- Ephemeral: meaning 'fleeting'.