We’d been eating snow rabbits he captured around the main road. Snow hadn’t started falling yet, but it’d gotten cold enough to do so. I lent my trench coat to Baal, so he could wear it over his own cloak and perhaps keep himself warmer without the need of magic. The man kept saying how he was okay, that I didn’t need to worry but his shivering and goosebumps had clearly stated otherwise. Baal was a stubborn person, he could be freezing to death and he would never admit it.

Today he chased a deer. Baal was a speedy fellow, quiet and damn deadly. Which is why he hunted “alone”. He never noticed me following him, or at least he seemed like he hadn’t. He found his prey and set himself to shoot it down.

Baal hunting was one of the sexiest things I had ever witnessed in my long life. The way his eyes glistened as they sharpened and narrowed down on his prey was mesmerizing, how his muscles tensed as he drew on his bow… Oh, he was so handsome. The man would stand still, aiming at his prey, much like a marble statue, before he finally breathed in and released the bolt, his entire body relaxing once the arrow was on its way. The complete procedure was a total work of art. The way even his killing seemed so delicate and refined was way too much to bear. If I had to describe this… well, it’d be as love at first sight.

Baal’s arrow shot through the air and hit its target, the deer fell sideways twitched and moved no more. The hunter hurried over to it and stroke its fur. With his actions, he made sure the creature wasn’t alive before he picked it up and swung it over his shoulders.

“Your stance is absolutely flawless, simply beautiful.” Baal jumped and screamed a curse before he glared at me with rage-filled eyes.

“WHY would you sneak up on someone who’s hunting?! It’s fucking quiet out here, you shit for brains!” He exclaimed getting the jump scare off his system. “Unbelievable, GODDESS.”

“Hahaha, I’m not sorry. You’re quite a show to watch, we’re having deer tonight?”

“Pretty much, I might poison your share, but yes.” Baal replied still rather pissed off.

“I wouldn’t mind having it anyway.” I half intended to flirt and managed to make Baal smirk amused.

“So, you wouldn’t mind if I killed you? Are you sure your ego can handle getting murdered by a simple human?” He got near me with the deer carcass over his shoulders and pursed his lips.

“What is that? What are you doing? Are you some sort of horny duck?” I teased again and Baal grunted frustrated. “It looks adorable compared to your usual sexy shenanigans.”

“You’re awful. Fucking dipshit.” Baal basically spat acid at me and continued his way to where we settled camp.

I followed him and when we got to camp I saw him grab some rope. He tied the deer up and hung it to a nearby tree. I sat down by the campfire, we decided that it’d be more convenient in this cold to have an actual fire place than Baal working as a life powered lighter. Using life energy is exhausting, especially if one used it in a continuous manner. Baal told me he wasn’t having any sort of trouble using it, but I refused to risk having him drop unconscious on a random moment.

He took out his hunting knife and started skinning the creature. He peeled the skin off the deer with expertise, not letting a single drop of blood on his clothes. While he did the bloody work, I set myself to build us a cooking place with random wood.

“Wish we could stew this thing.” Baal commented as he continued to skin the deer. Nasty sounds, a combination of slipping and ripping noises, formed part of the background.

“Me too, it’s one of my favorite human foods.” I chuckled remembering how great it tasted from an old memory. There weren’t many deer down South, it had been years since I had eaten some deer stew.

“Huh, I’d love to see you eat a whole deer’s worth of stew. Hell, I didn’t even realize your race took likings towards anything edible outside of blood. I thought you guys only ate food as a formality.”

“Awww Baal, you should know that vampires have taste buds much like humans.” I chuckled while I made sure the cooking stand wasn’t too close to the flames to catch fire. “I happen to love strawberries too.”

“Strawberries? That’s weird, considering you’re such a character.” Baal sounded happy. “Maybe when we get to Cordelica I’ll get us the stuff we need for a stew, there’s bound to be more deer around the city.”

“Yes! My precious wife will make me stew!”

“Who the fuck is your wife?” He laughed and made his way towards me.

The man pressed his bloody fingers against my cheek and traced what I supposed was a heart.

“Gross, do you always do this to your crushes?”

“Only those I really like.”

Baal set the deer over the fire all tied up on a thick enough stick. Examining he had set it correctly, he grabbed a random cloth in one of his pockets to wipe his hands clean of blood. He sat by the fire to start cooking the deer. I saw how he moved  the fire, how he commanded it to grow or tone down. I wasn’t anywhere near as good with life energy as Baal.

Life energy and I lacked compatibility. I healed, but mostly because the energy didn’t have to manifest itself in physical form. I asked Baal how tired using it made him really. He simply stated that if he didn’t have to fight during long periods of time, he could use life energy without much  recoil.

The more time we spent together the more I realized my companion was more of a warrior than anything else. He might’ve looked delicate back in that brothel, but once outside you had the chance to admire how much of a tough cookie he was. What kind of life did he run away from? Curiosity was killing me. Slowly, may I add.

“Are you a deserter from some northern army?” I asked and yanked a mortified groan from Baal. “Why on Iris can’t I be curious about your past? We are journeying together. I should know a little about my partner.”

“Are you being serious?”

“Tell me? In exchange, I’ll give you a pass to do whatever you wish to me.” I tried, giving him one of my seductive smiles to see if it helped convince him.

My actions made Baal stare at me annoyed. He sighed and shook his head.

“Thanks for the offer, but no. I won’t tell you and that’s that.”

“Are you sure? When I say whatever, I mean anything you can think of.”

Baal seemed pensive for a small while. He bit his lip ring and looked at some spot amongst the foliage above us.

“Anything, really?” He asked.

“Anything, think up of the craziest thing and I will obey.”

“Augh! Okay, FINE. How the hell am I supposed to reject an offer like that?” Baal’s cheeks turned red, then he rolled his eyes and sighed. “Six years ago, I ran away from my clan because my parents wanted me to marry someone I didn’t love.”

“That’s funny, for someone who ran away with that reason it’s sure off that you decided to become a courtesan. I mean, if you believe in true love and all its nonsense, wouldn’t selling your body be against your beliefs?”

“… yes and no. I don’t mind having meaningless sex. If I’m going to be monogamous for the rest of my life though, I’d like it to be with someone I love.”

“Arranged marriages tend to work out in the long run.”

“Mine wasn’t going to…my would-be husband was a lizard.”

“They were going to marry you to a Lisitsa? And a lizard? Now that’s something to whine for! I can see your reasoning. Although, lizards aren’t THAT bad in bed. I remember taking two or three to the sheets in my life time.”

“I’ve tried them, Luke, not my thing.” Baal laughed and set himself to cutting up the cooked deer. “You sound like there’s nothing you haven’t bed yet. Have you laid with ghouls?”

“They are very real down at the Sea Lands, you know?”

“You are relatively nasty in my book now.” Baal looked at me with a disgusted, freaked out expression that hurt my sensible, dark heart. “They’re basically corpses!”

“Don’t knock it till you try it.” I replied. “Were you a warrior for your clan?”

Northern clans were composed of skillful warriors. They all possessed unique styles. That said, life energy wasn’t part of your usual northern clan skillset.

“You could say that, yeah.” His reply was vague, yet I knew that was all he’d be willing to say even if I pressed for more info. This was a first step, perhaps in the future I’d get him to open up more.

Now that some small part of my curiosity had been satiated, teasing and ticking Baal off seemed like a sweet idea. Annoyed, the pink head rolled his eyes and cut pieces off the deer. With my hands, I picked up one of the pieces he had cut up before he sat by my side to eat.

“… What about you?” Baal looked at me with a curious gaze, he took a chunk of meat with his bare hands and placed it in his mouth.

“What about me?” I replied raising an eyebrow at his question.

“You know a little about me, so I should know a little about you. What are you doing on these mountains?”

“Well, I’m looking for something important. I had some friends keep it safe for me a couple years ago.” Where I was going, people would have heard of me from generation to generation. They protected my sword throughout the years and therefore I considered them as dear friends.

“That’s awfully vague.” Baal said and continued eating.

I assumed he considered asking more about my reasons but understood I wanted to keep my story a secret, like he kept his.

Once we chowed the deer down, pointing out Baal had a stomach the size of a behemoth’s, we decided to lie close together to keep warm. On our second night traveling together, Baal reminded me he wished to keep me warm. He stuck to me and instantly fell asleep, allowing me no time to refute his actions. Not that I would, because I loved having him close to me. The following days I’d hold him in my arms and he’d allow me to cuddle him. All the while, we’d discuss insignificant topics as we allowed time for sleep to reach us. We usually wouldn’t talk for long since Baal would get sleepy fast. It was during these moments we shared this close to each other that I confused our situation.

We were supposed to ONLY be companions, travelers with the same destination. It was nice to have someone to cuddle with though… and that got me thinking weird things. Although I wanted to ask him out formally at some point, I knew that eventually I’d have to leave him whether I wanted to stay with him or not.

“You’ve been quiet a little too long Luke, something wrong?” Baal asked his hand firmly holding mine under his cloak. “Usually you’re being an annoying asshole...”

“It’s nothing. Just thinking of how sweet your butt looks like naked.”

“Okay, you perverted piece of shit, unless you’re planning of doing me right here and now, I’d like if you told me the truth.” Baal glared at me, his purple eyes contrasting sexily against the orange fire light. “… Not that I’m expecting much details.”

“I was thinking about you.” I spoke in a whisper. The atmosphere had turned a little heavy around us thanks to my words. “You’re strong and handsome… just my type.”

Baal chuckled and allowed his face to be closer to mine. His lips hovered close to my own, his warm breath caressing them. He mid closed his eyes and grinned before he spoke again.

“Cute, you’re just my type too.” He whispered back.

Oh shit, this was the part where we would kiss and start getting frisky right?

“Too bad I don’t date crazy fugitives. They might get me in trouble,” I joked ruining the mood and getting a knee to my stomach. “Ow?”

“Despite how much of a douche bag you can be, I’m legit glad I met you. I don’t know what I’d do traveling alone for so long.” He commented with an angry face before he closed his eyes. Pissed off as he was, his sleepiness beat him. That fact had probably saved me from a beating. “You make my life livelier.”

I remembered the day we first met. I remembered how electricity had run through our bodies when our eyes made contact, how perfect  we felt together. In my life there were little to no coincidences. Most of it had been written down by an oracle and very little, close to none, had failed to meet the exact prophesied chain of events. My trying to leave him might have been me trying to outrun my destiny again… and that wouldn’t have been the first time. Just like my predestined path always did, Baal caught up with me. Now, wasn’t that a crazy line of thought?

“… Baal, do you think maybe our meeting wasn’t by chance?” I asked him expecting him to mumble some sort of half growled response. He only pursed his lips and breathed with a calm rhythm. “Baal?”

He had fallen dead asleep. Guess the hunting and the cooking tired the living daylights out of him. I grinned and held him closer to me fearing the cold might get the best of him. Now that I noticed, the more tired he was, the more he looked like a defenseless baby bird when he slept. He had told me he ran away from home because of an arranged marriage, yet I knew he hid another reason. Truth be told people didn’t send knights after you for running away, much less after six years. Unless… you were someone of importance. Whoever Baal truly was, he had to be important and that mortified me. Who would I have to talk to or beat up if I ever wanted to ask for his hand in marriage?

Oh, wait, hold it right there! What the hell was I thinking? Settling down? We’re not even dating! Was I really thinking it’d be possible to end my life as a nomad and get a home? As if! There wasn’t much chance I’d live to see another year…

“Goddess curse it. You make me think impossible things.” I whispered. Knowing my pink haired companion slept, I found myself placing a kiss on Baal’s nose. “… really impossible, stupid things.”