The Fine Line of Heaven and Hell

A/N: I’m trying not to actually start on the chapter until the reviews finish coming in. That way, I can read them all before continuing on with the story. O.o I don’t really have to, but sometimes I just like to hear what everyone has to say about which chapters before hand. My work can get pretty boring sometimes, so I think about my stories a lot. Usually I’m thinking about what has happened in Fine Line and what it could lead to, or reviewing what I’ve already finished. Like once, I went back, read it from the beginning and thought over what I liked and didn’t like about it. I’d have to say, if I were speaking honestly, that I like many things about the story, but I also dislike quiet a few things in it. Alas, I’ve promised myself not to change anything unless more than two people have a problem with it. *chuckles* I change all my stories, and usually that ends in discontinuation or completely screwing it over. =_= Sometimes being me sucks.

Snidne: ……. I laughed so hard I cried, among other things. Thanks for some stress-relief; I definitely needed it. ^.^ Other than that, I won’t venture to go into further detail about any other reactions I may or may not have had. That sounds suspicious. O.o Anyway, I think I’ll try to stray away from thoughts about your bodily functions. *chuckle* I hope your outer and inner selves don’t have complications thanks to my story. *grin* Though I doubt it will be much of a problem, unless your brain and your libido don’t get along much. …. Didn’t I say I was going to stray away from that? Yeah. Thanks for the awesome review, it was added to my favorites, alongside your product warning, Alicat’s :D and one from Gaia, I think.

Ashesxx2xxashes: Do you think that maybe I should’ve started pushing a relationship sooner? (I’d like some input for future stories). I wasn’t really sure, and I absolutely loathe stories that jump right out and go I love you! And become mushy, dramatized (more so than my own, sadly enough) crazed stories that are only a fantasy the author has concocted to satisfy themselves. No offense to anyone who might like that type of thing. (Though I can understand if some offense was taken, but it wasn’t meant to criticize the readers, but the writers who write trashy romance novels). Okaaaayyy… I’ve probably said enough about that. (I’m such a hypocrite sometimes).

Alicat: I’m glad you don’t think it’s throwing her OCC. I was worried that it might, but maybe not. Then again, as my friend Preston said, being the author, it’s kind of hard for me to make my own character out of character. *chuckle* Knowing myself, though, I’m sure I could manage it somehow. Thanks for the reassurance, it made me happy. ^.^

Okay, that’s enough of that…. On to the chapter. (Wow, chapter 25 is half way to 50.)

Fifty reviews! SWEET.

Chapter 25- Preparation
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Why, for the love of whatever deity out there, was she always put into these problematic situations? She wanted to learn how to feel, how to socialize, and how to become normal enough to blend in well with the crowds of humans and demons alike that paraded about in the world around her. Did all living creatures have to deal with circumstances such as this one? Brethmel stood before her, having twisted her arm in order to make her turn and keep her there. Currently, all she could do was deal with it and glare darkly as he smirked down at her. Something about the moment seemed very familiar, her sarcastic side biting a mental retort that this type of thing was natural for moments between them.

“What could you have possibly been doing with Lt. Seji all by yourselves up on the rooftop?” It seemed as though this man wished to monopolize her time, what with the way he was always disturbing her at the most inopportune moments. The question raised some thoughts of her own, mostly to the accusing inquiry about his death. She jerked at her arm, only to wince as he twisted it harder in the opposite direction. She really couldn’t win, not even once, could she?

With a sigh, her eyes still darkened in anger, Shuey relented slightly. “He attacked me while I was practicing. My mist reacted and pinned him to the ground,” she said blandly, as though she were reading a documentary on how many people or demons watched television every year. “I was told he was killed, by you, I presume?” she asked bluntly, suppressing a smirk at the barely perceptible widening of his eyes. His sudden leer had her wanting to distance herself, but the grip on her arm would not allow such a comfort. He pulled her closer, his heated breath fanning across her face as she peered up at him.

“Am I not within rank to do so?” Honestly, she still didn’t understand the demonic culture; it remained a faint cloud of vague guesses to her. She wasn’t sure if it was his right to kill Decara when he had in fact, technically at least, attacked his daughter. Even if that didn’t make it okay to murder the man, Brethmel was a High General while the fuchsia-eyed demon was a mere Lieutenant. Maybe that gave him the entitlement to take away his life. How would she to know?

She felt like a child with her arm in his hands, the bulky fingers nothing like Jerrick’s nimble ones. She nearly scowled at herself for thinking of him during this point in time. He seemed to take her silence as agreement, a peculiar smirk crossing his features. “At least you haven’t fucked him yet,” was the absolutely random statement that fell from his mouth, making Shuey jerk upwards to look at him in surprise. Disregarding the heat in her cheeks, she simply glowered at him after the words finally sunk in. How would he know, anyway? “I didn’t get to this rank by just being a golden-eyed demon, you know.”

His observance was disturbing, but what was more unsettling was how comfortable he was with talking about such a thing. Was that normal and she was being abnormal for the awkwardness she felt? “It’s none of your business,” she said bluntly, attempting to take advantage of his momentary distraction and jerk her arm away, only to be thwarted once again. The man before her almost looked offended, his abyssal wings flaring ever-so-slightly before he left without a word, a dangerous look on his face. Something told her he’d be prodding into her personal life again soon, and she didn’t particularly like it.

Just as she was about to return to her previous location, preferably continuing what they’d been doing before being interrupted after kicking Leon out, said angel burst through the door with a terrifying grin on his face. “Jerrick has work to do. I think I’ll be whisking you away now,” he blurted, gripping her wrist and nearly dragging her down the stairs. Once again, as she tugged at her arm, his grasp only seemed to get tighter as he walked, only releasing her once they left the inn. “It’s Jerrick’s birthday tomorrow.” Her thoughts about turning back and at least going to her room had vanished, only leaving confusion.

“Birthday?” she echoed, not familiar with the term at all. Cerulean eyes widened before the redhead barked out some laughter, only earning him a threatening glare. After he calmed down enough, he waved at her to keep walking, which she did, hesitantly.

“It’s a celebration of the day a person was born. It’s usually on the same day every year; the day they were born. Like Jerrick was born in the Spring like this, tomorrow. So we’ll party on the same day, only a year later. Understand?” She’d never had a birthday. Hell, she didn’t even know when she’d been born. “Anyway, you have to get him a present for his birthday, so lets go get one.” Present?

She couldn’t help it; her curiosity had been peaked and she wanted to know. “Why?” The angel sighed heavily, stopping at the bus stop she’d stopped by before with Clara. She had promised to go out with her today. As if on cue, the blonde came from the nearby inn, smiling and waving at them. Behind her trailed Deamon, who didn’t look as enthusiastic, but still smirked as he walked. Did he ever not leer? Leon clapped her shoulder, chuckling at her expression, she supposed.

“Because we’re celebrating something special, so the special person gets gifts. It’s just a tradition, but you’re going to follow it, being his mate and all,” he whispered in her ear as the two approached. “I thought you two would never make it,” he said loudly, Shuey wincing as his loud voice reverberated in her ears. She began praying to whatever deity there may have been again to help her out. While the pair were her friends, she hadn’t thought she would have to put up with all three of them at one time. “Don’t worry, we’ll split up after a bit. We’re just going together so that I can take all of them back to the inn instead of everybody going. It’ll look less suspicious that way. The inn’s closed tomorrow, so we have the whole place to ourselves.”

Jerrick didn’t know the inn was closed, which made it possible to surprise him. With what he had planned, Leon was sure his demonic friend would be a very happy man. “Shall we then?” Deamon asked, already boarding the bus as it arrived. With a nod, the angel pressed the Halfling forward towards the stairs, earning him a swipe with her elbow as she stepped up the stairs. At least she knew not to use her shiny little trinket on public transportation. He waited patiently for Clara to clamber on before sitting in the seat next to Shuey, leaving him to sit alone or with Deamon. Flopping down next to the demon, he grinned at the girls.

“So you two really are her friends?” he asked lowly, making dark brows shift upwards. After a moment, the red-eyed man laughed before shrugging. The chocolate-skinned demon nodded after the laugh subsided, smiling at the pair of women as he leaned forward to give his wings more room.

“Clara wanted to get to know her. Regardless of her heritage, she’s frighteningly friendly.” By that he meant the Vixi Clan; a clan of warrior demons who specialized in stealth. Most were shape shifters; some of the only demons able to retract their wings. Most of the members of the clan hated others and opposed any interaction from people outside their clan. Clara had disowned her name in order to live her own life, in which she posed as a human. Even though she was from such a prejudiced family, she held no biased beliefs, only accepting things as she saw them. Because of her human lifestyle, however, Deamon and his lover rarely got to stay together.

The only pair that knew of them was the brotherly angel and demon; Leon and Jerrick. That was why Deamon frequented the bar so often and Clara worked as a night clerk there. It was their way of being together. “It is pretty strange,” Leon muttered as he also watched the females interact. The plum-winged man was right; Clara was pretty scary. She was one of the strongest demons at the inn, but no one realized she was a demon. The only way she managed it was to shift herself into a human form, which was amazing in and of itself. Hell, she’d even given herself a different eye color instead of the natural blazing yellow of the Vixis. That was a rare talent.

Clara glanced back to see the two men staring at them and stuck out her tongue playfully. Deamon merely rolled his eyes while Leon flipped her off. Sometimes those two were so childish. Finally, the bus came to their stop, so she asked Shuey to pull the cord to signal the driver. Before the guys had the chance to even get up, she pulled the Halfling right off the bus and headed to the mall; she’d always wanted to take her shopping.

Shuey faintly head Leon’s swear of ‘damn it’ before she and Clara vanished around a corner into a huge building with what seemed to be an endless amount of shops. She’d never been to a place like this. She didn’t even have the time to look around before she was being tugged into one of the miniature businesses. The first store they went to had racks upon racks of clothing. It wasn’t something she really paid much attention to, so she merely waited until the blonde was finished yanking clothes out of their places. When they stood before what appeared to be a changing room, the blue-eyed woman stared at her for an immeasurable amount of time before thrusting the articles into her arms and telling her to try them on.

Simply to appease the fierce look on the woman’s face, she entered one of the stalls and waited for about ten minutes before exiting and returning the clothing to her. Like hell she was going to try a bunch of clothes on. Those sharp eyes narrowed as Clara pushed up her frames and smirked unnervingly. Shuey had never seen her leer like that. “Try them on and let me see them, or I’ll let Leon put them on you,” she warned dangerously, obviously knowing the angel was much stronger than her. Frowning at the threat, the Halfling hesitantly took the garments back before once again disappearing into the changing room.

The first item she attempted to wear was a pink dress in which she found incredibly impractical. She stepped from the room, only to see Leon’s eyes widen, Deamon smirk, and Clara clap happily. “No,” she stated simply, vanishing and trying on at least five more sets of clothes before she’d finished. She only accepted two of the outfits; one pair of jeans with a red shirt that had black flowers on it and a pair of cargo pants with a blue shirt that had the words ‘Look the other way,’ across the front.

When she emerged donning her dirty outfit from yesterday on, they forced her to wear one of the new outfits instead. After two hours of endless shopping, Clara and Deamon finally separated from her and the angel, leaving her to sigh in relief. “I’ve still got to get my gift for Jerrick, and you’re part of it,” was the sudden statement that had Shuey blanching outwardly. No, she did not like shopping, and believed firmly that she never would.

They wound up at yet another wardrobe store, only this one had nothing but undergarments inside. Frowning, she watched as Leon pointed at her while speaking to the clerk, who was definitely male, and smirked as the man disappeared into a back room. The man reappeared shortly after, his ice-blue hair short and spiked backwards, holding out a set of underwear that looked decidedly pointless. Most of the garments were red lace, excepting a part here or there, which had no sense seeing as she would wear them under her clothes anyway. Shrugging, she figured that these clothes were still something she could stand wearing, so she only questioned the man as to why he was buying them for her.

“Shu, Jerrick will probably like them, ya know? They can be his birthday present from you,” he said as if that would explain it, when all it really did was bring a faint blush to her cheeks. Knowing Leon thought about that was rather embarrassing. “But my birthday present, you have to wear for him, too. He asked for this, so don’t tell me no. If I have to tie you up to put it on you, I will.” Her mind came to many conclusions as to what he could possibly be planning, but her brain also failed to believe any of it. Her active brain did, however, come up with many new ways to murder the man.

In the end, she had to ask. “What are you going to force on me?” she asked bluntly, frowning when the man grinned.

“You’re going to wear a dress for him.” While her brain didn’t really comprehend why the demon would ask for such a thing; dresses looked ridiculous and were so impractical, she supposed if Leon was prepared to use force, she really had no choice, anyway.

Tomorrow was looking to be a very long day.

The ride back to the inn with Leon remained firmly silent, Shuey ignoring any and all comments the angel riding with her attempted to make; it made things easier. He walked beside her to the building, pushing her to the side with her close when she tried to go to her room. “You have to make sure his alarm doesn’t go off tomorrow morning,” he said, a mirthful grin on his face. “Don’t do anything too tiring, you both have a party to attend tomorrow.” How the hell was she supposed to accomplish that?

“Seriously, he gets up way too early, so he needs to sleep in. Please?” the man finally tried, suppressing a smirk when the woman sighed. He was beginning to see the tired expression on her face and something told him she’d be asleep before Jerrick returned. That alone, he supposed, was enough to make the demon forget about his clock. When she nodded in agreement, obviously wanting the celebration to go right, he grinned happily at her. When she was curious about something, she was much easier to convince. “Thanks, Shu.”

Wincing at the nickname, she headed up the stairs and entered the surprisingly unlocked room, her eyes automatically zeroing in on the bathroom. She really wanted to bathe right now. Figuring she had a decent wait ahead of her, she slipped inside the small tiled room, cheeks heating when she noticed that the shower door was, in fact, exactly as she’d seen it in that dream. Stripping down quickly, she set the red shirt and jeans down, hiding the bag holding the dress, panties and bra under the sink before stepping into the ridiculously large shower.

Switching on the cold water, she stepped inside, hands gripping a bottle of body wash that was, to her shock, scentless. The shampoo she used for her hair, however, was a sweet musky smell that she felt rather taken to. Was this what his hair smelled like? She’d never taken notice before. Then again, the only thing that had ever touched his hair was her hands, and she didn’t exactly sniff them after their encounters. The conditioner, she noted, was of a similar smell, but she liked it, so it was alright. It really didn’t take her long to finish up, stepping out and changing into fresh clothes before returning to the room. Finding Jerrick wasn’t there yet, she guessed a nap wouldn’t kill her. After all, she was betting she had to wait until he was asleep to take care of the alarm clock, anyway.

By the time Jerrick opened his door, Shuey was fast asleep in his bed, his grey eyes widening before a small smile flitted across his face. Had she been waiting for him before she fell asleep? Wearily, he glanced at the restroom before taking of his jacket, tie, shirt, shoes and socks. Looking over to the door to refreshment once more, he walked over to the bed and crawled in next to the russet-haired beauty there. Wrapping one arm around her, he grinned as she moved automatically, back pressed flush against his chest.

Faintly, as he fell into slumber, he smelled the smell of… his shampoo? He smiled at the thought of Shuey using his shower much more in the future.


A/N: Okay, this one is kinda short. I’m sorry for that, but I’ve been somewhat busy this week. I got a promotion at work (I may have stated this already) and it‘s really kicking my ass. I’m too lazy to work so hard. Anyway, I hope you all liked this one, even if it wasn’t that exciting or anything. O.o One of those boring chapters I come up with from time to time. My next update might be a little late in coming, but that’s only because my time off has waned down a bit the next week and the rest of this week. X.x

Anon: Thanks for the reassurance; I’m glad it’s not too overboard. Naturally, Jerrick’s patience can only stretch so thin, but he is an incredibly patient man. I love your name, by the way. Anon. It means sometime in the future or something, right? That’s so cool; I’ve never thought of using something like that as a name. I love it! (I’m kinda a freak for weird names.)

blacktalon: At first, I’ll be honest, I was a little insulted at your review, but then I figured, it was honest, so I appreciate it more than being infuriated by it. Thanks for your bluntness. I thought it was moving a little slowly, but if you read some books, the couple don’t even get together until the end, so I figure it’s not that bad. Shuey might seem to dislike Jerrick simply because she doesn’t know how these types of things work, and isn’t sure how to convey the fact that she does like him. Does that even make sense? *chuckle* Anyway, I’m glad you took the time to review and read my story with logical criticism and not mindless insults. I’m also glad you enjoy my story. *grin* In the future, my stories probably won’t take so long because each character is so worlds apart. O.o And I mean WORLDS apart…. Maybe even universes.


As always, thanks for reading everyone. ^.^