“I need rules,” I muttered mostly to myself while opening the fridge. “There need to be rules now.”
The demon followed behind me into the kitchen, and I stopped him with one hand still resting on the fridge door.
Then turned around to face him. “Why are you following me?”
“You walked away.”
“Yes. Intentionally.”
“That felt quite significant.”
“I was physically exhausted.”
The demon tilted his head slightly like he was still trying to decode human behavior. Which was rich considering I was currently trying to decode demon behavior and losing horribly.
I grabbed the water bottle from the fridge while avoiding eye contact. Then the demon went still beside me in a way that put me on edge. I turned slightly toward him and caught the sharp focus in his expression before my suspicion kicked in too.
“…What now.”
His eyes stayed fixed somewhere inside the fridge. “You have strawberries.”
I blinked once. “Yeah?”
The tension after that was painful enough that I finally shut the fridge door and faced him properly.
“No.”
The demon frowned slightly. “I have not explained yet.”
“I don’t NEED the explanation anymore.”
Nina lifted her head from the couch like somebody recovering from surgery. “No no, let him explain. I need to suffer too.”
The demon shifted uncomfortable. “In demonic culture, offering strawberries is considered serious courtship behavior.”
My eyes flicked from him to the container of strawberries in my fridge before returning to him.
“...You cannot be serious, fruit cannot be a romantic offering .”
“That is what you said about candles.”
“That was DIFFERENT.”
“You also said the clothing meant nothing.”
“BECAUSE IT’S A HOODIE.”
The demon's expression suggested he was reconsidering my entire species. “Humans continue sending very mixed signals.”
I grabbed the strawberry container from the fridge and held it up accusingly. “These were on sale three days ago.”
“That level of preparation is concerning.”
Behind us, Nina slipped down from the couch from laughing hard. I was completely drained to still learn more about the demons dating rules.
I'd heard enough.
I grabbed his wrist before he could start explaining the romantic significance of apples, oranges, or whatever fruit Hell had decided to ruin next. His skin was warm beneath my fingers, but I ignored that entirely and dragged him out of the kitchen.
