"... you're a lord?"

Perhaps that just makes Jesse sound stupid, or maybe disrespectful, but honestly, he doesn't really look like a lord, minus his clothing and perhaps the way he's standing.

Romeo gives them a sheepish sort of smile, rubbing his head. "You don't have to sound so surprised about that."

Jesse doesn't really have time to be surprised at how almost-normal he looks at that, almost shy, before he clears his throat and levels his gaze at them, voice becoming brisk and businesslike. "So? What's your wish?"

"They, uh... they didn't really make one," Gill pipes up, making Romeo's red with-a-tiny-ring-of-gold eyes flicker up to him, "we were going to send them back to their world."

Romeo's brow creases as he lifts his head. "Really? Then what are they still doing here?"

"If you haven't noticed the time," Aiden shoots back sardonically, making the tiniest of scowls flit across Romeo's face as he looks up at the other male, "it's past midnight. The portal closed."

Lukas nods, folding his hands behind his back as he hums. "Yes, and someone took their heart."

A moment where Romeo looks completely perplexed, before his furrowed brow clears and he snaps his fingers in realization. "Ah! So then this heart... belongs to them?"

He holds out his palm, a glowing pink rose appearing above it. The rose's petals are slowly opening a little bit.

Jesse has always liked the color pink.

There is an instant tug of their figurative heartstrings, their chest twinging insistently at the presence of the flower. So that confirms without a doubt that this is Jesse's heart.

But...

"That's... my heart?" Jesse steps closer to look at it, peering at the delicate-looking flower curiously. Romeo's eyes follow them as they examine it, surprised at how very pretty and almost untouched the flower is. "But it's a flower."

Romeo gives a nonchalant shrug. "Hearts that are in the shape of some kind of flower indicate the purest of souls... and taste the best."

He tilts his head at the flower hovering above his palm, a wistful look entering his eyes. "I wanted to eat it..."

A tiny, tiny chill snakes down their spine at that, Jesse's head slowly tilting back so their wide eyes meet Romeo's. "Wh... eat it?" they echo him slowly.

Several pieces suddenly slot into place.

Red eyes.

The first human to show up for twenty years.

The first human.

"... are you a demon?"

Romeo's lips part in a wide grin at that, their heart still hovering in his palm. "Yep. Those four over there-" He jerks his head at Lukas, Aiden, Maya, and Gill. "- are also demons. Well, half, but close enough."

"... nobody's playing, like, a mean prank on me, are they?" Jesse turns to look at the other four, who are quick to shake their heads at that. Well, at least Lukas, Maya, and Gill are. Aiden just averts his eyes and shrugs dismissively.

Romeo inclines his head at Jesse again, moving his free hand in an expansive motion. "Take a look around at everything that has happened so far, Jesse. What's not to believe?"

"... if this is a dream, it's a really trippy one."

Gill snorts at that (resulting in Maya elbowing him) while Romeo shifts his weight with another nonchalant shrug. "You can believe it's a dream if you'd like, but it's not. You're in the world of Cosmos, where demons live."

His attention shifts back to the glowing pink heart hovering in his palm, and he cocks his head to one side as he purses his lips. "Hmm... should I give you back your heart or not? It's rather a pity, such a lovely heart..."

Jesse shifts in place, looking down at their shoes at that.

You know nobody wanted you?

Don't say anything.

Nobody cares about you.

It's not up to you to decide.

Nobody would care if you died, you freak.

After another moment, Jesse can feel several pairs of eyes on them. When they peek up, Romeo's giving them a sort of perplexed frown, heart still hovering above his palm.

"I'm, er... I'm pretty sure most people would be begging for their heart back right about now. Or at least asking for it back." Romeo shifts the heart to his other hand, looking at it while absentmindedly licking his lips.

Which, you know, isn't really nerve-wracking at all.

"... well, it's... it's not really up to me to ask for it back," they whisper back, shifting and rubbing their arm awkwardly.

Now Romeo's definitely frowning, as well as most everyone else in the hallway. Even the dragons seem to be looking at Jesse oddly.

"... it's your heart." Romeo glances at the glowing pink heart in his hand, then back at Jesse. "It's literally your life. If I decided that, no, I don't want to give this back to you, then you'd die- either because I eat it, or because it disappears."

Jesse gives another weak sort of shifting motion and shrugs, looking back down at the floor. "It's... if you've got it, then it's really up to you to decide. It's not really my place to decide what happens to it."

"Romeo," Aiden snaps rather briskly, "hurry up and make a decision already. I don't really care whether or not you decide to eat their heart or not."

Nobody would care if you died.

Lukas shoots a look in Aiden's direction, a scowl crossing his lips as he elbows Aiden in the ribs. "Hey. Don't be so heartless."

"You know that's rather difficult for me to do, right?" Aiden shoots back, a strange, tiny smirk crossing his face.

Romeo considers the heart in his palm, before snapping his fingers. In a little wisp of smoke, the heart vaporizes (after a moment of panic, Jesse realizes he just hid it or something), and he turns to look at the five of them. "I'll need more time to make a decision."

Aiden's smirk falls into a scowl at that, and he gives a rough sigh. "Fine. Then we'll head back until you call for us."

"No, stay here." Romeo glances at the door, crossing his arms almost in a scolding way. "It's not safe for Jesse outside, since they're human. Besides, with the recent unrest..."

Lukas hums and thumbs the corner of his mouth, glancing at Aiden. "We did have that trouble getting here... and besides, it's pretty late already anyway. Jesse's probably tired." He pauses, mouth curving downwards. "And we definitely don't need more trouble with Sirena."

Aiden is silent for a long moment before giving another tired sigh. "That's... true. I don't really want to, but I guess we don't have another choice."

Romeo gives a nonchalant hum and glances at Jesse. "You tired, Jesse?"

"... a bit..." The moment Jesse says it, they can feel the entire day's events come crashing down on them like an anvil. They are tired. Adrenaline has been rushing through them ever since Aiden quietly declared that their heart went missing, but now that it's draining out Jesse feels as though they might pass out.

Romeo gives a pleased sort of hum. "Well then, you can rest here for the night. Same goes for you four," and he inclines his head at the other four. "You know the rooms that aren't booby trapped."

... booby-trapped?

Aiden gives him a curt nod. "Yeah. Jesse, you're going to have to sleep with someone, Romeo's a paranoid bastard and has hooked up half the damn rooms in this place to be booby-trapped and he's only cleared out four rooms."

Jesse hopes nobody notices the way their shoulders momentarily stiffen before they take the easy route out. "Why can't Maya and Gill sleep together? They like each other, don't they?"

If either of them had been drinking anything, they would've done spit-takes. Either way, Maya turns the shade of her shirt and Gill chokes.

"Wha- no! I don't like this idiot!" Maya flusters, glaring at Gill with no acidity in her gaze.

"Who are you calling an idiot, you stupid-"

"Who are you calling stupid, you're the one who didn't realize a fucking Enderman was two feet from you!"

"You didn't notice either! You were standing a foot from me!"

"I can be excused since I wasn't facing the thing, you were looking right at it!"

Lukas and Romeo watch Maya and Gill argue ferociously while Aiden leans on the wall, seeming to hide a smile. Jesse's head is rotating from Gill to Maya so quickly that they look like they're doing vigorous neck exercises.

"Looks like even Jesse thinks it too."

"I mean, the way they are, it'd be pretty hard not to notice," Lukas mumbles back out of the corner of his mouth.

Romeo gives a tired snort. "You're not wrong."

A short pause.

"You think they're going to agree to sleep in the same room despite all this fighting they're doing?"

"Of course, they're Maya and Gill."


Of course, Maya and Gill eventually fall into a reluctant agreement, grumbling something vague about 'oh fine' and 'whatever' and 'who cares anyway' (to Aiden's amusement and confirming Romeo and Lukas's) before they all head down the hall to find the rooms and change into whatever clothes are left in the dressers.

And of course, Romeo doesn't sleep.

Romeo should sleep, it's been a while since he's actually rested properly, but he's really too deep in thought about the matter of the flower heart hovering in his palms to really feel tired at all, and he's currently walking along the entire building because dammit his brain needs a walk.

(And, if he's being honest, he doesn't want to wake up with a throat raw from screams and tears that nobody, nobody cares about.)

It's strange. Jesse's heart was literally in his hands. He could see them take that in, the fact that their very life depended on him not going "eh fuck it" and digging his teeth into their heart (which looked so tasty).

But they didn't say anything.

It was their life. What did they mean it wasn't their place to decide what happened to it? It is theirs, whether they like it or not.

Romeo doesn't really know what to expect as he continues roaming the halls. Perhaps one of his booby traps will go off. Perhaps his mail alarm will go off (four hours early). Perhaps he'd run into Aiden wearing only a pair of boxer shorts and a way-too-big tank top (okay, that had been a weird night).

He doesn't really expect to turn the corner and find Jesse sitting with their back pressed against his door, the two iron dragons curling around them with their heads resting on their shoulders, in their hands, arching around in the most uncomfortable ways possible to get a little scratch. They're curled up in what looks like a pair of footie pajamas, absentmindedly letting the iron dragons cuddle them while their knees are pressed to their chest.

"... you alright?"

Jesse jumps and nearly brains themselves on the dragon's tails, which makes Romeo wince. "Oh! I'm sorry, I'm probably- probably blocking your way. I'll just- I'll get up and-" Jesse quickly scrambles to their feet, almost tripping as they gently disentangle themselves from the dragons.

"No, it's alright," Romeo holds up his hand, making Jesse freeze in place.

(Part of him wishes his subjects would exhibit the same behavior.)

"I wasn't planning to go in. Just taking a walk." He glances at their heart, still hovering above his palm, then back at Jesse, who's still frozen in a really awkward position.

To put them more at ease, he moves over and sits next to them, leaning against the wall.

(He doesn't remember the last time he did that with anybody.

Well, that's not quite accurate, he does remember, it has just been so long that he doesn't really want to think about it, not to mention the person he did it with isn't exactly here anymore.)

Jesse stays in their awkward position, before their leg gives way and plops them back onto their bottom, back clunking into the wooden door. "Oh."

The two of them sit there for a moment, Romeo still awkwardly holding Jesse's heart in the air, before he glances at Jesse. "Er... what are you doing up?"

Jesse says nothing, simply huddling down a little more. Then- "Nightmare."

An awkward nod from Romeo. He knows what that's like. "Ah."

More awkward silence. Romeo's feeling a little awkward about simply sitting and watching Jesse hug their knees in footie pajamas that are blue (blue, blue, he remembers who loved that color), not to mention the whole awkwardness of not knowing Jesse enough to snap and joke with them as he does with the four others but at the same time not wanting to come off as a creep.

It's a human. Humans don't like creeps.

(Why does he even care that much?)

"What about?"

Jesse, having lapsed into the silence, jumps and turns to look at him with their big green eyes. "Wha?"

"Your nightmare. What was it about?"

Jesse turns a bit pink and looks back at their knees. "Oh. Nothin'. It's stupid."

Romeo gives a noncommittal hum and looks away, tapping his knees, before glancing back at Jesse. They're small. Definitely pretty fragile-looking, but something about them also looks wiry. It's like they're a porcelain doll with a wire sculpture inside.

He decides to give the porcelain another go.

"What's your wish?"

Jesse's head swivels to look at him again. At this point he's tempted to just situate them so they're facing each other. "Huh?"

"Your wish," he prompts. "When I asked you what your wish was, and Gill said you didn't make one..."

"Oh." Jesse blinks, a strange expression coming across their delicate-looking face. They look both uncomfortable and... guarded. As if they have walls up. "I didn't have one."

He gives them a very, very unimpressed look. "Jesse, in order to come to Cosmos, a human literally has to have a desire of some kind. Call it a wish. A human cannot accidentally wander in- not unless they have a wish."

"... oh." Jesse glances away again, giving their head a little shake. "It's nothing. Something stupid."

"Jesse-" Romeo tries again, but Jesse's already climbing to their feet, giving the iron dragons one last little rub. He can feel those walls that they're putting up grow taller and thicker.

"I should get s'more sleep. Sorry for bothering you Romeo." They don't meet his eyes, green eyes fixed on Kaster and Bedivire before they turn away and pad down the hall. "I'll see you tomorrow."

A long, long stare after them.

His eyes slowly flicker down to the glowing pink flower in his hand, and he experimentally reaches up and moves to brush his fingers against it.

A centimeter away, his finger bumps into what feels like glass. No matter how he approaches it or comes at it, the heart is surrounded by what feels like a little glass orb.

A slow raise of his eyebrow follows the way his eyes flicker up to where Jesse is still padding back towards their room.

"... hm."


A/N: I wonder what that 'hm' means.

Well, this is the first major different from the series this is based off of. We're going to stick around with Romeo for a few days (in-story, not literally xD). Get pumped. :3

Responses to reviews!

TheAmberShadow: Heee, I'm glad to hear it! / ... I honestly didn't realize that until you pointed it out xD / Heh, thanks.

Toni42: That isn't QUITE the reason that that was the reaction Jesse had. / Hehe xD / Heheheeeee, the dragons were fun. / (evil grinning)

The Princess of Pink: I'm pretty sure it was mentioned indirectly in the first chapter. They look ten but are seven years older. Thus being seventeen. And yes, there's a reason they still act a bit like a child.

That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x