Back by unpopular demand! ( tee hee I crack myself up! ;-P )

Doublets

Chapter 2

By Alicia Maxwell

I came back from the ice cream shop around five at night. Velsper was waiting for me on the front steps. I was too wrapped up in a conversation with Skuld to notice though.

"Ah, your doublet really is handsome! I wish I knew what my doublet looked like! I bet he was a total hunk!" Skuld blushed and let loose a flirty laugh.

"I'm sure he was. Unless it was a she and it was Mara," I joked.

"Nah, Mara's too old to be my match. Maybe she was Urd's doublet. They both do dress a little skimpy," Skuld laughed.

"Do we even know what Urd's doublet was?"

"Huh? Whaddya mean?" Skuld asked.

"Well, Urd is a half-goddess half-demon like me, right? So she could have been paired with a goddess, demon, or a half-breed, right?" I asked.

"Hm, perhaps… but I think they assigned her to a demon because she works so tightly with the heavens. Just like they assigned you to a demon because you do plenty of work for the Goddess Relief Office."

"Or at least I try to, but I still deal in demonic affairs quite frequently," I objected.

"And you were raised by demons too, weren't you? Hm, come to think of it, I would have assigned you to a goddess if I had to choose a suitable doublet for you," Skuld thought it over, "or maybe another half-breed."

"I'm more demon than goddess too, remember. My first incarnation was a wolf - half-goddess, half-demon. Then there was the Tatari Mokkç demon. After that, the ice and fire demons--," I began keeping track on my fingers to make sure I counted them all.

"Wait a second, you had two incarnations at once!?" Skuld blinked.

"Yeah, you see, it wasn't the same soul being reused over and over. I am a mixed reincarnation, meaning that each and every one of my previous lives had a different soul and they have all fused to become my soul," I explained.

"Oh, I get it. Please, continue with the list," she nodded.

"Well, after the Hikaris- Ice Hikari and Fire Hikari – came Naoko and she was a fox demon. Then, after Naoko came me," I smiled. "So, that makes me… nine-tenths demon and one tenth goddess."

"Wow, you really are a demon, aren't you. I wonder why they classify you as a half-breed."

"It's because my only previous incarnation with goddess blood was a half-breed," I stated.

"Skuld! Can you come help me set the table for dinner?" Belldandy called out the window.

"Coming, Sister!" Skuld shouted as she ran inside to help her sister. It was when Skuld ran inside that I noticed Velsper curled up on the stairs.

"Yo, Velsper, wanna take a walk with me before dinner?" I asked.

"Depends on two things. One, how far are we going? Two, will you let me know who your doublet is?"

"We're just going to take a walk around the temple and maybe I'll tell you."

"Fine. Let's go," Velsper got up and jumped off the stair. We began to walk.

"It's too bright out," I remarked. "I wish the sunset would come earlier."

"It will in the winter," he insisted.

"I like the demon world better. The clouds are so dark that the sunlight can never get through enough to be too bright."

"I agree. The demon world isn't as obnoxiously bright as this world is."

"Funny, isn't it? There are actually a few demons who'd rather be here than in the demon world," I said. "You'd rather be in the demon world if it weren't for Belldandy, am I right?"

"True, I do like the demon world much better."

"I also prefer it because… how should I explain it? I guess the best way to say it is this – people who hate you here usually act friendly to your face and then stab you in the back; most demons let you know from the start if they hate you. They don't give a damn about your feelings. They just tell you the truth flat-out – 'I hate you.'."

"Have any demons ever said that to you?" Velsper asked.

"Yes, one did," I admitted solemnly. "He had a right to hate me."

"What did you do to him?"

"I assisted in his murder," I admitted grimly.

"You killed him?"

"Of course not. I'm part goddess – I'd never kill him. I just tricked him into coming to his death site."

"You sound proud of it," Velsper remarked.

"I am. He was an evil man. He deserved to die."

"What did he do?"

"He killed one of my mentors."

"Ah, I see. I would've killed him too."

"The only reason why we took it into our own hands was because there was no evidence. His body disappeared. All that was left behind was his pendant. The heavens said he couldn't be tried because it would be our word against his."

"I understand perfectly. So, you gonna tell me about your doublet now?"

"No, not right now. I'm sorry. I've just become too depressed to talk about it right now."

"Don't be sorry. I can wait."