Kai kissed the ground once they walked through the black lattice gate. He rolled around in the gray grass, wriggled like a puppy prancing through the fields, and yipped like one too.

“ing hells of the pit of fire—FINALLY! I hate going to heaven.”

Minseok couldn’t help but laugh a little at the sight. The demon even shook his hair out like a pup.

“Were you saving the curse words for when they couldn’t hear you anymore?”

“Well, I wanted to say them, but it was hard just to speak. It was like trying to move my tongue through mud. Besides, you walk into heaven and the holiness messes with your head—makes even demons act a little more ‘proper.’”

“Does hell do the same for angels?”

“Pretty sure, but their pompousness makes it so that they usually just employ messengers or port messages.”

Kai looked out into the distance. They were in a field of gray grass, the same red dusk sky looming above them. A path led out of the gate and down the hills, but Kai had dropped into the grass on the side first thing, so Minseok didn’t get a chance to ask where it led to. He thought that the demon was thinking of some snarky remark towards angels, but Kai stared at the field in a blank gaze.

“Kai?”

“Yeah?”

“What’re you thinking about?”

He looked up at Minseok, his expression unreadable, but violet wisped through his irises.

“What the librarian said.”

“About… demons being weaker in heaven?”

He nodded, but before Minseok could say anything, he stood and his grin returned.

“Well, mission accomplished, Minseok. Now we know where the irregularity went to.”

Kai tossed his hand out, and a rift folded open. Stepping through with him, Minseok wondered if Kai was doubting his power or something similar because of what Lord Bibi said. Was one’s reaction to heaven individual and varying? He himself wasn’t a good point of reference since he was a proxy, and even if he wanted to reassure the demon, he didn’t have much fact to go by. He sighed to himself knowing that all he could do right now was drop the topic.

“I can take us back to your house,” Kai said, breaking Minseok out his thoughts.

“Shouldn’t we regroup and tell everyone what we found out?”

“We will, but we have to get to Earth first. Mortal phones don’t work in angelic spheres, and seeing how the situation turned out, I don’t want to chance interception of any messages. Yixing is the kind of coordinator who likes to think on things by himself before calling everyone, and since Commander Mishurim is going to be sending that list, and probably also a report of her own conclusions, we have time. Besides, I haven’t had any time with you since Chen is always hogging you.”

Minseok’s eyes widened as Kai’s mouth spread into a puppy dog pout, which made his surprise give way to a laugh.

“Chen’s forced to guard me. I’m sure that he would trade tasks with you if he could.”

“Yeah, he did try. Yixing said no. I’m better at reconnaissance and speaking to random humans anyway.”

“I believe you there. If you’re always out scoping, then you probably don’t get to see the human world much and actually enjoy it.”

“That’s true. I’m almost always in the human world, but I still don’t understand half the inventions and gimmicks I see.”

“Do demons and angels get vacations?”

“It’s basically whenever we’re not called on for a mission, but I get summoned often because my ability is handy. Oh, and most demons have to wait a while to get put on a mission, but with us in the Legion of Tehom, we’re basically handed them.”

Kai tossed his head up in pride, and Minseok chuckled. He remembered Chen saying something about demons honoring what they’ve accomplished over privileges, like being born.

“Okay, hotshot demon of Tehom, is there anyplace in my country that you want to explore? I didn’t bring my passport, and it’s dangerous for a human to get caught in another country without it, but we can stay domestic.”

The crack in the tunnel opened right as the last word left his mouth, and this time, Minseok didn’t have to squint at the lighting change. He stepped out into a stunning view of N Tower and the glittering city below… except that the view was kinda small, through a window, and there was furniture that resembled the inside of some apartment’s living room— 

A lamp at the couchside dimly lit the room, and on the coffee table laid a flyer that said ‘Welcome to Poly Heights Apartments!’ Minseok choked on his being.

“Kai! What’re we doing in someone’s apartment?!” He whisper-shouted.

“Uh—oh .”

Before Minseok could usher the spatial demon to teleport them out, a force quivered behind him. He was plowed into the hardwood floor, coughing at the impact. Pressure from above crushed the air from his lungs.

“D.O, wait!”

The pressure lifted, and Minseok coughed and heaved in. Gasping, he flipped around just as Kai switched the lamp to a brighter lighting. D.O stood over him, eyes wider than he had ever seen them before and flashing red. And in nothing but a towel clad over his waist.

Oh compost—

He averted his eyes, embarrassment rushing up his face. How many more less-than-clothed demons was he going to see?

A touch to his forearm made him flinch, but then he looked up from the hand, traced up the arms, and saw D.O stop mid-reach. The earth demon pulled back and stepped away from him, colliding into a counter chair. Red fully dyed his eyes, and he hid his hands behind his back. Easing up, Minseok held back a wince at the pain in his spine but shuffled towards him.

“D.O?”

“I… thought that you were Hayong. I didn’t want to hurt…”

“I’m okay, so don’t feel bad. And Chen warned me before that I still feel like her so to not be surprised if someone thought so too.”

D.O didn’t move, but he looked away, so Minseok approached and reached behind, moving slowly so that the demon could stop him when he wanted. Gently, he loosened the grip the demon’s hands had knotted themselves into and brought them between their bodies, patting them.

“I’m fine, and you were just doing your job. It’s okay. Sorry for giving you a scare…”

He was about to rope Kai into the conversation, hoping that his rather playful personality could help convince D.O that all was fine, but his brain skidded to a halt when he saw the spatial demon’s bulging eyes locked straight onto D.O. And his abs.

“Why did you portal here?”

D.O had turned to Kai and didn’t seem angry, but the most that came out of the spatial demon’s mouth was a sputtering of incomprehensible syllables.

Then a few things clicked in Minseok’s mind. Kai had been staring at D.O (and his abs), they were talking about any places that Kai wanted to see, and Chen had explained before that portals worked by thinking of the place or person that one wanted to go to.

WAIT DID KAI—

Minseok externally coughed on his internal gasp, and his vocal cords wrung the air with a squeak when alarm twitched in D.O’s eyebrows. DO NOT PANIC.

“Uh, that’s my fault. We came back to report where the irregularity led to, but Kai said that we could wait a bit, so we spoke about the others on the team, and we kinda just ended up here.”

He didn’t exactly lie. D.O squinted a bit at him, at Kai, then at Minseok again. D.O tipped his head to the side, like he was considering whether or not to believe him, and Minseok really hoped that all D.O could smell from him was nervousness and not deceit. He didn’t want to give the wrong idea to the demon disposal manager, but questions had exploded out like confetti in his mind, and he needed Kai to answer them. In private. In the end, the earth demon nodded towards the kitchen visible from the living room.

“Help yourself to something to drink.”

Behind D.O, Kai’s mouth popped open like all the air had been punched out of him, and the veins in his neck stretched visible in his skin as he seemed to let out a silent scream. Minseok just had to know (and save the poor demon).

“That’s alright. We should get going anyway. We didn’t mean to disturb you nor be a bother.” He grabbed Kai, spun him so that D.O wouldn’t be able to see his expression, and pushed him towards the front door. “Oh gosh, we have shoes on. Sorry! Uh, we’ll get out of your hair. Make sure to lock the door and don’t let the dingdong ditchers annoy you!”

Waving to D.O, he got the door open, shoved Kai outside, and shut it. He continued shoving the demon outside, to the elevator, waited the short ride down nine stories, and breathed a sigh of relief once they touched the pavement. Knowing that demons had better senses, he was hoping that Kai could hold it (whatever it was) in until they got outside, but now Kai stood rooted to the spot.

“Kai?”

The spatial demon whirled on him, grabbed his shoulders, and Minseok swayed as the world fizzed at the edges before snapping back into place. He barely had the time to recognize that the clarity of the sunset came from the fact that they now stood on some random skyscraper rooftop because Kai shrieked.

He grabbed his face, his arms, his hair, and flailed his hands around. He started blinking in and out of space across the rooftop, his voice cutting off and resuming its high-pitched shrieking. It wasn’t until he had to take a breath that the screams started having real words Minseok could understand. But even then, they were still intermittently cut off.

“He’s so ing— Hot as— And those abs— But his touch is even more— Straight out of Satan’s sinning— !”

When he stopped teleporting for more than a couple seconds to screech at the sky again, Minseok chuckled and cleared his throat.

“I take it that it was a good idea to not stay for tea?”

Kai paused and looked at Minseok, then zoomed over and shook the daylights out of him.

“Didn’t you see him too? AHHH! You know what—walking through heaven was worth it, and I will walk heaven a billion times over if that is at the end of the trip. D.O is ing stacked!”

“So I’m guessing that you like him?”

Kai startled, though that did nothing to deter his happiness or the vibrant violet in his eyes.

“Yeah, he’s a good teammate. Oh, I like you too! You’re basically a part of the team at this point.”

“No, I mean—well, thank you for saying that—but I mean like, like like.”

“You just said ‘like’ three times in three different tones.”

Deities of the universe, please send help.

“I don’t mean just as a teammate. ‘Like’ as in something closer than that.”

“Favoring somebody?”

Minseok opened his mouth, shut it, and rearranged the explanation in his head. He rearranged it again again when he remembered that relationships didn’t have the same definitions to demons and angels.

“For humans, you can like someone just in general. Friends, coworkers, acquaintances—those are varying levels of enjoying someone’s company, ‘close friends’ being the highest of those I named. When you like like someone, that’s still enjoying someone’s company but also enjoying… activities and a connection different than at a friend level. Enjoying a romantic connection.”

Kai blinked at him.

“Is looking at each other while one of those activities?”

“No! Uh, the activities depend on what the two people enjoy doing and how deep they are in their… company enjoying. There’re different kinds of like like too. The first is one person who wants to have that next step with someone but hasn’t told them yet. Usually, they call that a crush. The second is when they both know, and they both accept.”

Minseok covered his face at his messy explanation. It sounded way better and more certain in his head. But Kai didn’t roll his eyes or stick his tongue out or even screw his face together in confusion. He just stared at Minseok as he tapped a finger to his bicep. Then he looked out over the rooftop, where evening colored the glass of the skyscrapers. Chen might have been watching this sunset somewhere.

“I don’t know if I really understand it, but okay. I’ll think about it.”

Huh. Minseok wasn’t expecting that, but he would take it.

“So, how did we end up at D.O’s apartment?”

Kai looked away, rubbing at his elbow. “I was thinking about wanting to explore his apartment.”

Minseok snickered but figured that he should spare the demon from the embarrassment.

“That’s better than portaling on top of him.”

“Like how you did with Chen?”

Kai grinned at him, and Minseok blushed so hard that even the backs of his hands turned red as he shoved the spatial demon away. He covered his face, trying to will composure into his not-functioning body, but it didn’t help when he heard Kai’s laugh.

“H-How did you know about that?”

“He said so at a meeting! The one before we went to ambush the vamp and wolf. He probably went off on his own to look at sunsets again when you portaled into him.”

Minseok groaned and turned around so that the demon couldn’t see him fanning his burning face. Kai laughed again, and Minseok listened a little better now that his face calmed a little from its volcano high. A little breathy underneath and high for his usual voice and so… carefree. Minseok knew that he didn’t know many demons, and he hadn’t known Kai for very long, but he just thought that, even though Kai smiled a lot, his laugh was rare.

Chen too. He didn’t smile unless it was to mock something or someone (Minseok), and the few laughs he heard had been laughs of amusement towards a lesser creature (also Minseok).

Uh, and D.O and Suho! But Minseok didn’t know if stoic-faced was a typical disposition for demons.

Chen’s curly smirk creeped back into his mind, and Minseok wondered—maybe it was too much to ask for—what would make the lightning demon a little more content while guarding him.

“Kai?”

“Hm?”

“I noticed that Chen likes sunsets too. Are you two close?”

“Obviously not. He’s not here right now.”

“Oh. I mean do you feel comfortable around him? Are you two friends?”

“Well, yeah. We’re in the same unit, and I trust him to watch my back. Whenever I happen to get a group mission, it’s usually with Chen. I think our commander does it on purpose…” Then his mouth rounded into an ‘o’ epiphany. “Wait, do you mean in the way humans look at friends?”

“Yeah. You trust him to fight with you, which is still pretty big, but I’m asking more if you enjoy his company just whenever. Past favoring, and past the acquaintance and coworker levels. On the friend level.”

“What activities do friends do?”

“Like… complaining about something that happened to you, or just talking about something random because you felt like it. With friends, there are varying levels too, but generally, you can trust them with your secrets or scary questions and trust that they won’t judge you. You can tell them how your day was, and they’ll actually listen to you.”

“Do you mean like a report? I’m only required to report to my commander and Yixing.”

“Not a report. Stuff that’s not life-or-death important but you still want to tell someone.”

“I can’t imagine anything like that. Can you give me an example?”

Minseok couldn't help the surprise from lifting his eyebrows. “You just screamed and started complimenting D.O’s body. That’s not life-or-death information, but you still wanted to say it out loud, right? Things like that.”

“Stuff like that?” He ran his thumb over his right wrist, thinking. Then he chuckled. “I don’t know then. I didn’t think