Okay, Aiden's a little put off by now.

It's not that he didn't expect Jesse to be frightened after he threatened them. He did. He expected them to be frightened enough that they shut up and don't say anything. Which they're doing.

But what he still can't understand is why Jesse flinched away when he moved his hand to take them by the shoulder and pull them away from the flowers (because those flowers can be surprisingly fragile).

And he doesn't quite understand why, when he's finished with the flowers and goes to the front door, Jesse looks perfectly mild and normal and doesn't even react badly when he moves closer to them to open the door. If he looks closely he can tell that their eyes are a bit red, but otherwise they're still acting like they did earlier.

Well, they're now keeping a safe three feet of distance between him and them, but beyond that they're acting as though nothing happened.

He's still pondering what the heck happened to make them react the way they did when they reach the cafe, where Gill stands up from a booth and flails his arms like he's trying to turn into a helicopter until Maya yanks him back down.

Lukas stands up to let Jesse go the deepest inside (just to avoid anyone trying to harass them), which Jesse does with complete normalcy (if rather gladly).

"Sorry to bother you guys," they hum now, holding a menu that's almost bigger than their torso.

Gill hums, glancing down at the menu and not looking up at them while Aiden glances up from where he's sitting on Lukas's other side. "It's okay, we need to eat breakfast too."

His attention switches back to the idea of food, a thoughtful hum making him press his lips together. "Let's see, what should we order..."

"Ooh!" Maya suddenly grins with interest, "there's something new on the menu!"

Lukas blinks and looks a bit closer at the menu, a small frown tugging at his lips. "Eh? Where? I don't see it."

Maya leans across the table and taps the menu where the new item is. "Look, it's on the top..."

Aiden glances at Jesse again, who's watching the three of them with interest, almost as if they're all a big family arguing at a restaurant, peering over their menu to watch. After a moment, their eyes switch to Aiden, who's still looking at them, and they quickly glance back at the menu, averting their eyes.

"Jesse, what do you want?" Lukas asks, making their head snap back up to look at him in wide-eyed surprise.

"O-oh, um..." Jesse quickly looks back at the menu... and then their face changes to one of surprise, then confusion, and then discomfort. Their eyes flicker up, skipping over Aiden briefly, before they fold their menu and set it on the table quietly. "I'm, um... I'm fine."

Lukas's lips turn down in a frown. "C'mon, you gotta eat something... something wrong?"

"Can't decide?" Gill chimes in.

"Uh... no... it's not that." Jesse shifts slightly, scratching their cheek awkwardly and looking at a knife gouge in the table.

A moment passes, before Lukas hums and snaps his fingers. "Ah, the food in Cosmos isn't the same as it is in your world, is it? There's probably not that much you can eat, then, so I'll order for you."

Jesse shrinks slightly. "Oh, you... you don't have to..."

"Look, we're not all just going to eat and leave you hanging, that'd be weird," Lukas murmurs, scanning the menu and giving a small frown. "Hmm, not that much you can eat... I hope you're not a picky eater."

Jesse gives an awkward laugh, scratching their cheek again. "Uhh, well, I'm not... but why is there not much I can eat?"

"Most demon food contains small amounts of poison. Which demons like, and half-demons can handle, but humans can't," Maya chimes in, pursing her lips and looking up at the sky for a moment. "And don't worry, you're not going to eat any humans. Not enough come here for it to be on the menu."

Jesse turns all shades of pale at that statement.

Gill elbows Maya, scowling. "And you tell me not to freak them out more. I don't think that even occurred to them."

"No cannibalism. That's not a thing." Lukas pats Jesse gently and reassuringly on the back. "Even if that was a thing and humans were on the menu, I wouldn't order something for you that would mean you become a cannibal."

Even with that reassurance, Jesse still remains the color of chalk.

Aiden clears his throat and waves at a waitress that happens to be passing by. "Excuse me! We're ready to order..."

What's funny with how popular the cafe actually is is that the cafe does turn out food fast, and before long everyone's got food in front of them, with Jesse having a little bowl of... oh. Oooooh that plant's not Aiden's favorite. He really hopes that Jesse saying that they weren't a picky eater is a true statement.

Jesse tilts their head, blinking at the table of food, before shrugging and pulling their bowl of food towards themselves, taking a slightly overly large bite- considering how much steam is still rising from the food.

"D'you like it, Jesse?" Lukas asks, already eating from his plate. Aiden's both paying attention to this conversation and the fact that Jesse is eating what is basically steaming hot food at a pace that is...

Actually, he's starting to wonder how they're not burning their mouth.

"Umhm." Jesse gives a quick nod before continuing to eat. Before Gill's even gotten halfway through his food (and believe me, if you haven't seen Gill eat you haven't seen anyone eat quickly), Jesse's already done.

Maya blinks at Jesse as she quits scolding Gill in favor of seeing that Jesse's literally scraped the bowl clean, giving a startled laugh. "Ah... you were hungry, weren't you?"

Jesse doesn't act coy or shy or anything. They just shrug and sit back into the booth seat. "Yeah, I didn't have anythin' except a cherry soda yesterday."

"Hey, did you hear about the party in Yurin?"

Aiden hushes Maya before she can ask about that (even though he's honestly curious as well), jerking his head behind him at the booth behind him. "Guys. Listen."

Another voice speaks up, sounding slightly confused. "A party? For what?"

"I think it's to celebrate the creation of the first machine. You know, the Oasis and Redstonia and all that nonsense is up in the north."

"Ah. I don't keep track of that. Why even bring it up? Demons like us wouldn't get invited to something like that anyway."

"Yeah, but you know how Xara doesn't like Romeo?"

Aiden can spot Jesse's expression becoming rather bemused at the unfamiliar name, even as Lukas stiffens slightly and Gill develops a big interest in his remaining food.

"Dude, everyone knows that. Neither of them have exactly made it official, but they both just stay the hell away from each other. You kinda gotta wonder why. Can't blame her anyway, there's nothing special about Romeo. Only thing he has is luck."

"Yeah, that's true. But normally for a party, all the other lords are invited. Even the barons and baronesses."

"Right..."

"Xara didn't invite Romeo. As a matter of fact, she didn't invite anybody from Narvid. Not even any of the minor barons or baronesses that are bordering on Narvid, which is saying a lot."

"Isn't that basically like... declaring war on us?"

"I wouldn't go that far... either way, I'm glad we're on opposite sides. Yurin can't get to Narvid easily."

Jesse looks perplexedly at the others. "What was anything they were just talkin' about?" they ask in a whisper- perhaps so that the people they were eavesdropping on don't... realize they were being eavesdropped on.

Maya glances at Lukas. "Lukas, you're the best with visual magic, can you do your...?"

Lukas hums and carefully nudges his plate to the side to avoid upsetting it and getting food everywhere. "Yeah, alright."

A snap of his fingers, and the area around them darkens. "We'd usually have Romeo explain, since he's the best at it, but... well, it involves Xara, and best way to piss him off is to refer to her, so let's not."

Aiden snaps his fingers as well, knowing that the orb of darkness is contained to the table. A moment of listening passes before he nods. "Okay, we should be okay with sound, too."

"What do you mean? Why'd you guys make it dark?"

A moment later, a glowing red map of Cosmos appears above the table, although obviously simplified by a lot. The map shape is consisted of five large dots, one at the top, one in the center, one at the bottom, one on the left, and one on the right. The smaller dots are placed at each halfway point between the dots, all connected with lines. It looks like a rhombus with lines crisscrossing it.

"... oh." Jesse's eyes are gleaming red in the dark, staring as if spellbound at the map.

"This is a simple image of Cosmos, or as simple as it can get, anyway," Lukas begins. "Cosmos is divided into five districts- North, West, East, South, and the Center. Each district is ruled by a lord in a capital, of sorts."

Lukas points at the lines connecting the dots. "There are determined 'safe' paths that are regulated by the lords between every capital, and there are smaller towns that mark the halfway points into another district on each path- for example, Champion City, to the west, marks the point where the south district turns into the west district."

He points a bit with one hand."And Fred's Keep, which is north of the capital, where we are now, marks the part where the south turns into the center district."

Jesse gives a little nod in understanding. "Okay."

"Right now, we're in Narvid, which is ruled by Romeo. The capital's name is- well, uh, we call it the Underneath, although Romeo jokingly proposed a name that nobody liked."

Gill snorts, almost choking on his food. "Oh man, don't remind me."

"Why? What's the name?"

Lukas tactfully avoids the subject, flicking the map and allowing the map to zoom in on the west district's capital. "The west district is called Hizelk, and is the only district ruled by three leaders- Isa, Mevia, and Harper."

An image of three women is superimposed over the map. (Aiden's pretty sure Jesse's eyes grow to the size of plates.) Isa is, of course, in the center, her long black hair falling to her waist with that ring of green around her pupils before changing to red.

Mevia's on the left, her pupil appearing larger from the rim of black that's around her pupil before it goes to red with her shoulder-length pale blue hair, and Harper's pupils are interesting because of the gray rimming her pupil, which just makes it look like there's some sort of barrier around her pupil.

Aiden momentarily finds it amusing that Isa has black hair, Harper has pure white, and then Mevia just has pale blue.

Lukas waits for Jesse to finish looking at the three before he continues. "The capital's called Sky City and the ruling system is a bit weird, but that's a long story that we should wait until we're somewhere more private to even think about discussing."

The map travels north, allowing Xara to appear on the image. Her face is peaky and almost yellow as usual, dark violet rimming her pupil and making the transfer to red seem a little more normal, and her dark, wild purple hair is pulled back into a somewhat neat ponytail.

"Yurin, the north district, is ruled by Xara. She doesn't like Romeo for some reason, and this is supposedly a recent development, but..." Lukas makes a little face at the memory of their attempt to ask about it. "Romeo gets pretty pissy if we try to ask about it, so we just avoid that topic."

Jesse gives a little bob of their head. "Yeah, that's fair," they say mildly.

Lukas gives a shrug and nudges the map to the east. "The east district is called Enchantra and is under Ivor's rule."

Aiden gives a sheepish sort of smile as Ivor's image appears. Dark blue transferring to red isn't such a shock as it is with Isa's eyes, but it's not exactly smooth, either. Ivor's hair is tied up in a sort of loose ponytail, and his primarily black armor mixes with the small bits of blue that he seems to wear.

He's not a big fan of the black and red theme, honestly.

"He's been around the longest out of us. He's..." Lukas pauses, before giving a sheepish grin. "He's really, really powerful. It's a little scary, honestly."

The map goes back to the center. "And the center district, Jupin, used to be ruled by Fred. The thing is, he got killed after going on a journey with Romeo and Xara, which seems to have something to do with the whole... Xara-not-liking-Romeo thing, but we haven't gotten details, and since his death, Cosmos hasn't been peaceful."

"Ivor's been looking for a ruler to replace Fred, but... it's going pretty slowly, since this happened a few years back and we still don't have a new lord. This means a lot of trouble collects in Beacontown- the capital- because there isn't a lord to keep it in check."

Jesse hums, frowning thoughtfully. "I see..."

"But I don't even think Romeo knows about the party... we should tell Romeo about that rumor once we get back," Maya mumbles, her brow furrowing. "This could be related to that issue that popped up a few weeks back."

"With Isa?" Now Aiden's interested. Not only because it's Isa, but...

If it involves that issue, it probably means he'll have to go on some lengthy mission again, which... means he'll have to leave his flowers alone.

Great.

Maya bites her lip as Lukas dissipates the illusions around the table. "Yeah... hopefully Romeo can get a conversation going with the lords and see if something's up."

"Beyond Xara not liking Romeo, you mean," Gill corrects her around a mouthful of food.

"Well, yeah." Maya pauses before squinting at Gill. "And don't talk with your mouth full, you know how gross that is?"

Aiden notices Jesse watching them again as Lukas pulls his plate back to him and resumes eating his food calmly, as Maya and Gill resume bickering over food. Their gaze is something he can't read.

And that's something he doesn't feel comfortable about.

They notice his eyes on them a second later, barely meeting his red iris before looking back at their empty bowl, quietly avoiding looking at him without being overtly... well, avoiding him.

He still can't figure out their reaction.

And that's kind of pissing him off.


A/N: Jesse eats (which they needed so that's good), Aiden's confused, and some world mechanics are explained.

This shall be the funnest of stories, especially considering the next chapter xD

Responses to reviews!

Princess of Muffins: Ahhh, thank you! I'm glad you enjoy.

TheAmberShadow: Yeeeep, for the most part. And that's not quite why- some of their reactions are a bit extreme or weird. Most people, if being threatened, will either snap back or just break down in tears, but Jesse's not quite in that bursting into tears category.

eternal-eloquence: I'm glad you enjoy this, and thank you for the review! And haha, don't worry, I'm updating because I want to xD

Toni42: Their wishes are rather interesting, if not something I'm planning on revealing. xD / He is, but perhaps for good reason. / Heheeee x3

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

x.X. A.L. X.x