Chapter 1: Milo's Challenge
"You're deplorable!" Sawyer walks away and Milo's heart turns a dark shade of blue that can only be related to true heart break. Milo hadn't meant to upset them- honestly! They just wanted them to open up a bit, I mean they really were just trying to help. Milo thought that maybe if Sawyer opened up a little, they might enjoy life just a tad more. They were always shutting themself away, or avoiding participation. How could they possibly enjoy life that way? Milo knew that when someone died, they always had regrets about their life, one last thing they just had to do. They couldn't stand by and watch Sawyer throw this perfectly good summer of memories that would last a lifetime and an after-lifetime. Milo was determined. If only they hadn't pushed so hard.
"What's got you down?" Dahlia asked as Milo returned from the forest where Sawyer had left them to return to camp alone.
"Sawyer's upset with me." Milo admits "Even tweeting or live streaming won't cheer me up."
"Shit" Dahlia says, putting down the weights she'd been lifting and turning to properly look at Milo "You really dig them don't you?"
"It doesn't matter!" Milo's heart turns a fiery red- they're angry. "They're never going to like me back. I might as well give up!"
"You're Milo Belladonna. Giving up isn't in your nature." Dahlia says "Calm down."
"CALM DOWN?!" Milo shouts "I literally probably just ruined someone's life. You know how bad of a death reaper that makes me?"
"We can fix this." Dahlia isn't going to let Milo rile her up- only Damien manages that with his princely annoyance.
"How?" Milo whispers and their heart goes back to the dark blue "Dahlia…they called me deplorable. They won't let me near them."
"Well, for starters, what did you do?" Dahlia asks and when Milo glares "Judgement free."
"I just wanted them to get on a live stream with me and explore fashion. Something a little less grunge." Milo shrugs "I don't see how that's deplorable."
"It's not. I mean that's totally not Sawyer's thing, but you must've done something else." Dahlia says "Don't hide anything."
"Well, I might not have let up when they said no. I tried to compromise- let them talk about grunge, do a style switch something they might like more. I even offered to take them on a date if they did this for me. The date would totally skyrocket our influencer fame. What's not great about that? We'd be the next Haylor!" Milo shakes their head "There's no chance now."
"You don't realize how awful what you said sounded do you?" Dahlia asks.
"Not really. Sounded pretty good to me." Milo shrugs.
"It sounded like you just wanted to use Sawyer for followers. Not your best moment." Dahlia says "You're not gonna like the solution for this."
"What do you mean?" Milo raises an eyebrow suspiciously.
"You need to take a break from influencing the world, instead focus on influencing them." Dahlia says pointing to the phone in Milo's hand.
"I can't let my followers down like that!" Milo says "they might think I've died!"
"Aren't you already dead?" Dahlia questions.
"It's complicated." Milo says "Do you really think that's all that will work?"
"I wouldn't tell you advice I didn't think was right." Dahlia picks up the weights again "It's up to you. Them or your followers."
Milo looks at their phone and writes one final post
@MiloBelladonna: I'm going to be taking a short break from social media to work on myself. I hurt someone, and I need to fix it without a million eyes watching. Stay fashionable.
Milo sends the post out and silences the notifications on both apps and limits their screen time to 0 minutes so even if they trys to open them they can't. It's time to get Sawyer back.
In Sawyer's cabin
They can't believe the nerve of Milo. Sawyer really thought they liked them, but it was all a PR stunt. This concubina wasn't having it. Nope, they didn't need anyone else around to interrupt their music anyway.
"Sawyer?" there was a soft knock on the door "Sawyer it's Milo, please let me in.' Why should they? And why was Milo here?
"What do you want, Milo?" Sawyer crosses their arms.
"Just let me apologize, please?" Milo begs. Sawyer hasn't ever heard them sound so pitiful. They peek through the peephole- why was Milo's heart the color of depression?
"This better be good." Sawyer says, opening the door and letting Milo in.
"Thanks…" Milo says "So um…"
"Milo." Sawyer softens a bit "You're never nervous. It's okay."
"No no, you're not supposed to be all kind and comforting." Milo paces back and forth "I'm supposed to have to grovel."
"By all means, I love when people grovel." Sawyer smirks "C'mon Milo. You know me. I can't stand nervousness. It makes me nervous too."
"Well I'm fucking this up too." Milo sighs and sits down burying their face in their hands.
"Stop it. I've never seen you like this. Where's your confidence?" Sawyer asks. "Just talk."
"Okay…" Milo takes a deep breath "I'm sorry. So fucking sorry. I didn't…I would never use you for followers. That wasn't…that wasn't my intention. And I'm so sorry it seemed that way. I know there's no excuse. But please, I'll do anything to prove to you that I never wanted to do that."
"How do you plan on doing that?" Sawyer asks.
"I silenced all my social media notifications and set their screen time to zero. See." Milo shows their phone to Sawyer.
"I thought your tweet meant five minutes." Sawyer says "Alright,we can start over. Clean slate."
"Really?" Milo asks hopefully. Sawyer nods. Milo smiles wide "Thank you thank you thank you." Their heart changes color to its usual neutral pink that matches their eyes. "In that case, tell me more about you."
"You want to hear about me?" Sawyer asks, and Milo raises an eyebrow confused as to why someone wouldn't. "Sorry, it's just that no one ever really asks about me."
"Well, let me be the first. My whole life is on blast on the internet, but you're so hidden away. There's so much to learn about you" Milo says "I want to learn it all."
"I'm sure there are things you haven't shared with the internet, but if you insist on hearing about me, what's the harm?" Sawyer smirks. "Wow okay, I don't even know how to start."
"Just tell me about yourself. You're favorite things. That sort of stuff." Milo encourages. Sawyer nods, and slowly but surely, they warm up, telling Milo all about their favorite bands, their favorite movies, and their favorite books especially.
"You should really read these" Sawyer says, going on about their favorite book series "I think some of the people who die in these books could have really used a death reaper like yourself."
"I can't exactly help fictional deaths." Milo smiles "But maybe I can appreciate the books anyway."
"Well if you're more of a movie person I really think you'd enjoy-" Sawyer starts.
"Sawyer. None of that involves us spending much time together. Interacting." Milo sighs "I want to spend time with you."
"Don't you like staying inside and relaxing?" Sawyer says.
"Sometimes. But we're at camp. Shouldn't we try to enjoy it?" Milo asks.
"Can't we enjoy it from inside this cabin?" Sawyer offers "I can think of quite a few enjoyable things to do in this cabin"
"And as fun as that would be" Milo says, noticing the lust demon in their element "We don't have to move so fast."
"Maybe I like moving fast." Sawyer grins.
"I don't want to move so fast. I want to do this right." Milo explains "Life should be cherished, there's no need to rush things."
"Milo, I'm a lust demon. I literally will never not have more life to live." Sawyer sighs "And aren't you immortal now too?"
"If our lives are forever, all the more reason not to rush them." Milo is clearly upset, Sawyer can tell from the blue coloring the heart in their chest. Sawyer thinks carefully about their next words.
"Okay. We can wait. I'm sorry." Sawyer says, and Milo looks up, blinking in surprise.
"Really?" Milo asks and Sawyer nods "You'd go against your nature for me?"
"It's really not that against my nature. Besides, unlike other lust demons, I believe in consent." Sawyer smiles.
"Glad to hear it. How about tomorrow, I take you on a date to the lake?" Milo offers.
"Deal," Sawyer smiles, "as long as I don't need to wear a swimsuit."
"It's not a problem. We're gonna have a picnic on the shore." Milo assures them. Milo knows the feeling that Sawyer has about being in a swimsuit. Milo felt the same way before they became a death reaper many years ago. Honestly, in Milo's opinion demons, zombies, and all the other campers weren't the real monsters- humans were. They'd never been accepted by humans, but in the afterlife Milo had found friendship and hopefully, soon, love.
"Milo?" Sawyer asks, waving their hand in the reader's face "Where'd you go?"
"Hmm?" Milo asks "Just thinking I guess. Don't worry about it."
"You sure?" Sawyer asks "I don't want to pry but you looked kind of upset." Sawyer's eyes go down to the heart on Milo's chest and they immediately cover it up.
"I'm fine Sawyer." Milo lies, they're not fine, not at all. They're not mad at Sawyer, but sometimes having your emotions so blatantly available for all to see sucks. The only thing that they ever miss about being human was their impeccable ability to hide their emotions.
"Is there a reason you're lying to me?" Sawyer asks.
"You said you didn't want to pry, so don't." Milo begs. They don't want to angry at Sawyer for caring, but that's what they've always done.
"Okay." Sawyer says "I won't. I promise. Not right now." Milo knows shutting Sawyer out forever won't work and let's the momentary reprieve be enough. They go to leave but turn around before going out the door.
"Sawyer?" Milo asks and Sawyer looks up curiously "I will tell you one day. I just don't know when. Will you…can you be patient with me?"
"As long as you need. I know not all the monster's here were born one like myself. Take your time." Sawyer smiles. Milo nods and leaves with a short goodbye. They go back to her cabin they share with Dahlia and fall back onto the bed with a sigh.
"That bad huh?" Dahlia asks, sitting on her bed across the room. "I really thought you were gonna be able to work things out."
"Oh I did." Milo says "we're going to the lake tomorrow for a picnic."
"So what's the problem?" Dahlia flexes "Seems like everything is fine."
"You know I died right?" Milo asks and Dahlia rolls her eyes- this is common knowledge "Well then you also know no one knows how I died. Except me, of course."
"I do recall that you never visited the underworld until after I met you…" Dahlia says "I assumed Damien's dads hid you."
"Neither Polly nor I visited the firey depths of hell nor the Golden gates of heaven. And we're both good with our death being eternal youth." Milo shrugs.
"That does sound like a pretty good deal, but why would you want to be stuck down on stinky Earth. Or up I suppose." Dahlia shrugs.
"It's not so bad." Milo shrugs "Sawyer's proof of that."
"Right. But I still don't get why you flopped on your bed and sighed." Dahlia points out.
"I spaced out. In front of Sawyer. I was thinking about my life. Not my death." Milo says.
"And how you died was part of those thoughts I'm assuming?" Dahlia probes.
"Generally related yes." Milo says "I don't really like to think or talk about it but I promised them I'd open up eventually."
"I'm sure it's not that bad." Dahlia assures "But I also don't think they'll be upset if you choose to never share."
"I mean…I just would feel like I'm hiding so much from them." Milo shakes their head.
"Then you have a decision to make. Just don't rush it." Dahlia stands and sits beside Milo "Sometimes, love hurts. And love is really hard."
"Where'd you get so wise?" Milo asks "I spent more time alive than you and certainly more time on Earth."
"I guess just seeing love in literal hell gives a girl a good idea of how strong love is." Dahlia says "Now get some sleep, you got a date tomorrow."
"Thanks Dahlia. I'm really glad to have a friend like you." Milo says, and they really mean it. Unlike most people Milo meets, Dahlia isn't their friend because she's a fan of them, she is their friend because she genuinely likes being around them. Dahlia is the first and only true friend Milo has ever had. Milo gives Dahlia a hug before they both attempt to get some sleep, and the way she hugs nearly broke their ribs, and it was completely worth it.