"You try waking up in the arms of a demon lord," I hissed to Jade as she analyzed the claw marks in my side. "You don't know how hard I had to fight for my life just to go to the fucking bathroom," I rolled my eyes and she chuckled, putting my shirt down. "Seems like he did quite a number on you," She pointed to various dark marks and bruises plaguing my chest and neck. "Unfortunately, so," Some of them hurt, so they had to be from his teeth. That motherfucker. "I'm surprised," Jade folded her arms, giving me that look, the look that told me that I was as impulsive as ever.

"Do you like him, Troy?" 

I raised a brow, wondering what she was trying to poke holes in. "What does that mean?" I questioned, knowing that the beating of my heart implied my answer. The physician said that it was all in my mind and that I needed to stop playing games and come to terms with my feelings. "You said it yourself," Jade stated. "You don't believe in love," I nodded in agreement, knowing that I said what I said and I wasn't going to take it back. 

"Jade," I looked at her with amusement in my eyes, loving how concerned she was for this man. She didn't even know the full story and here she was, coming to his defense against me. Luckily, she had no need to be concerned. "I can't say I believe in love because no one has given me what my parents have," I thought back to the beautiful love that my parents, Vasily and Maria, shared and how pure it was. Maddox was getting there, but it wasn't quite yet. "But relax. I'm not gonna hurt the man. Yea," I shrugged.

"I guess you could say that I like him." I had no problem with admitting that, but I had no idea what love was for me to be going and throwing it around like it was candy. "As long as you know what you're feeling," She leaned on my shoulder, burrowing her head in further before she started to giggle. "But it's kind of funny, you know, seeing you like this," She poked me in the stomach and I frowned. "Like that?"

She sighed. "Back in No Man's Land, you had no self-control, no will to live, no desire to keep trying. You did what you wanted despite knowing the repercussions. Even when you got caught, you still looked out for Avery and I, but you never once thought solely of yourself. You never took the time to stop and think about how you were feeling, about what you were doing, about your next step," She explained and I went to counter and say that I really did know what I was doing because that was why I did it, but she continued.

"I know you better than you know yourself, Mr. Impulsive Troy Morelli. You're much happier than I have ever seen you and you know that's the truth," She said and I nodded, knowing that her thoughts weren't wrong. "I'm guessing all it took was Hell and Maddox Kane?" She teased and I flicked her on the head, running a hand through her black hair. "My question is, what are you going to do about Natanya?" 

I raised a brow, not even have thought about that girl. "Truth be told, nothing. I don't think about the future like that. I like to think about the present because anything could change. If I'm still the way that I am with Maddox, I'll let her know the truth. If I'm not, there's no point in opening a can of worms," I concluded as Maddox Jr. came trotting up to sit in my lap with a bark. "Hi, baby," I rubbed his fur and he closed his eyes, reminding so much of his namesake. 

"...so how was he in the sack?"

I smirked at Jade's question, wondering if I should really tell her how exceptional he was, to the point where I struggled to walk this morning. "That man was everything, I'll tell you. I don't even think he knew how to have sex between two men, but I couldn't even tell because that's how great he was," Truth be told, there was no way that I could go back to having sex with women after he rocked my entire solar system. 

"Does that mean you're gay now?" She questioned and I shook my head. "No because I don't find myself attracted to men that aren't Maddox. Just like I don't find Avery attractive, bless fuck," I mumbled and she chuckled as she let out a deep breath. Times like this where Maddox was handling demon code enforcement business and I was just relaxing, hanging out Jade while Avery was on a date, it was peaceful.

"I kind of wish I could experience what you and Avery are, you know, liking a whole demon and whatnot," She whispered and I could hear the longing in her tone. "What about Merino?" She tilted her head, looking at me in confusion. "Ah, right. Jexan?" I offered and she nodded, knowing who that was. "He's not bad looking and he doesn't have a dull personality," I shrugged and she chuckled. "Maybe," She said and I knew she was contemplating it. Hopefully, before we went back to No Man's Land, she would find her true one. There obviously was no hope back home because everyone was too scared to break all the rules, so here was her best shot. 

There was a pain in my back and I rolled my eyes, knowing that the second Maddox got back, I was giving him an earful. He really did a number on me, that was for sure. He had the nerve to say 'be prepared for when I get back' with a look of lust in those eyes. I wasn't even sure if I could handle such passionate sex like that every day.

"When do we even go back home?" Jade mumbled and I shook my head, unsure of the answer myself. I got had gotten really comfortable, too comfortable being here in Hell. I had met so many people, made so many friends, built too many bonds and it was going to be extremely hard to leave that behind because we needed to face the facts. Once we left Hell and ascended to No Man's Land, there was going to be no way that Maddox would allow us to come back. It would put us in danger, if he didn't plan on confronting or creating a plan to defeat Tion. From the looks of it, Maddox probably had no clue what he was going to do and if he did, that was scary because that meant that his plan involved only him.

And I told that bastard over and over to stop being so afraid to rely on us.

"Do you think someday we'll get to travel the world?" Jade inquired as she slid her hand into mine. "I'd like to go visit Auckland, New Zealand, one day," She said and I chuckled, listening to her talk about the places in the textbooks they made us use in class. Talk of other places was taboo, but we had nothing to lose. Not anymore. "I wonder if it even real, you know?" She tilted her head and I sighed.

"It is more than real," I remembered when Availa, no Adira told me about how she met the love of her life in New Zealand, but she fell too in love with him, to the point where she sacrificed her heritage and gave herself away, thus being demoted from division commander to servant. She didn't regret it because, for the first time, she felt alive.

If I ever got the chance, I was going to go to New Zealand and find her long lost love.

"I'll take you one day and we can go see what it's like outside of Toronto. Wouldn't that be cool?" I murmured, thinking of how beautiful life must be outside of our dreary world. "Yea! Then we can meet other people!" Jade cheered and I snickered, seeing the happiness on her face. "Alright," I held out my pinky for her to take in hers. "It's a promise. One day," I gave her a fierce look, knowing that I was going to do whatever it took for us to get there. "We're going to New Zealand." She nodded, wrapping her pinky around mine. "For sure, Troy," She gave me that same intense glare in her eyes and thus, the promise was born.

"Oh shoot! It's time for me to go eat lunch with my parents!" Jade hopped up off of the couch next to me, looking at her watch. I pouted as the warmth from my side diminished, leaving me with my puppy. "I'll be back later!" She blew me a kiss as she ran towards the exit of the lounge room that we were in. "Love you, Troy!" She threw out and I smiled, grabbing onto her airborne kiss and putting it to my heart.

"Always, Jade."

That was the special goodbye that we created when I was 15 and she 16. Now four years later, it still stuck with us.

"What's with the long face, love?" I nearly jumped to the ceiling when a pair of gold eyes appeared in front of me out of nowhere. "M-Maddox! What the hell!? Where did you come from?" I clutched the dog to my chest as the man of the year sat down next to me, a small smile on his face as he ruffled my hair. "Oh, just ran in here a few seconds ago," He chuckled as he lifted his hair up and I took in his outfit: a pair of black lounge pants with a white tank top. He looked effortlessly good and I wanted to know his secret.

"I don't think I have a secret though," He teased and I blushed, whacking him on the arm. "Stop reading my mind," I rolled my eyes as he pulled me into his grasp. "What were you up to?" I asked as he clicked his teeth. "I went to Gesenia to see Guard Yara and get the latest updates," He said, making me recall the land with the green glow. It was really pretty and I was going to ask Yara to give me a tour before I left.

"Oh, cool. Hey," Something popped up in my mind and I had to ask. "Yes?" Maddox hummed, giving me his full attention as I stroked Jr.'s back. "That demolished land near Gesenia," I could feel him stiffen beneath me. "What is it?" He was quiet for about three minutes before he took a long deep breath, shuddering beneath me.

"It was my mother's old home, where I had to kill her."

I blinked continuously, making sure I had heard that correctly. I wasn't going to jump to conclusions because this man seemed like he had reasons for doing everything. I turned to look at him to see that his eyes had turned a dark blue, looking downcast. "I was the first one here. Then Nya and Jexan came. Then Availa. Then Lee and so on," He began, a tic in his jaw. "It wasn't long after before I felt a breach and I came outside to see that my mother, Lucida, was here. The only difference was she wasn't herself," He sighed heavily. "She had sinned and her sin was wrath. She tried to kill Tion for banishing me and doing so, he sucked all of her sanity out of her," I didn't want to ask what that meant. 

"S-she wasn't in her right mind, Troy," He stumbled over his words, his voice cracking and I reached over to grab his hand. "She was trying to kill all of us and since there was no getting to her and no sending her anywhere, I—" His hand was trembling and I could literally feel the immense guilt rolling off of him. "I had no choice."

That was all that he said and I got the hidden meaning. That was crazy. Tion literally forced his hand because he knew that he wouldn't be able to defend himself or his family against someone who had lost all rationale. I had felt so bad for him because it looked as if he literally beat himself up every night for what he had done.

"In a way," I wasn't offering an excuse nor admonishing what he did, but giving him a better way to look at it. "You put her out of her misery."

He nodded, sadness coating his entire being. I decided to change the subject since I wasn't used to comforting others. "So I think you owe me a back massage," I cleared my throat, glaring at him and he just lifted a brow of amusement. "Is that so?" I looked at him as if he was stupid, pointing to my throbbing back. "Uh yeah! You have any idea how hard it was for me to even move my leg just an inch!?" I screeched and he started to smirk.

"That would be your fault for looking so cute. You know a man can't resist when he's got something as cute as you in front of him," He teased, placing a kiss on my hair and I couldn't deny that the action made me feel so important. "Shut up, you hot-cheeto-eating bastard," I scoffed and he let out a laugh.

"If we're talking about our love-making, tell me why you didn't have your silver piercing in," He pointed down to my pants, reminding me of how I took out my dick piercing because of personal reasons. "Oh. Yea, what about it?" I had put it back in after I woke up, so all was good. "I want to see it on you next time," There was a lascivious gleam in his eyes and with every flick of his gaze on my body, I felt even hotter.

"Yea, maybe. We'll see about that."

He seemed pleased with that answer as he started placing kisses all over his face. "You no-good demon lord," I hissed and he rolled his eyes, kissing my lips gently over and over, making sure that I knew what he was trying to say. Just a few simple words yet such a heavy burden behind it. Just a few letters yet such a beautiful meaning and I was ready to take it all on. With each kiss increasing in pressure, hands coming up to cup my cheeks as he sought me out feverishly, I understood.

I need you.