Light blue mostly with other darker shades.

Trace's colours were pretty. They floated around him as he stared down into his phone. Sweat soaked the front and back of his workout shirt. His curly hair was slightly damp. I could see a paper bag in his hand.

Trace spotted me as I was walking up to him. His aura flared up with more colours, a bright yellow, a darker blue and... pink?

I stifled my confusion at that as I leaned into him and pressing a kiss against his cheek. I had to hold Trace's sweaty body back with a hand against his chest. "Hey." I greeted, smile on my face at his efforts.

Trace grinned back dopily..his flared up with yellow to overshadow the pink. "Hey, it's so good to see you."

"I know. But..." I took a step back. "You stink."

He looked down at himself and pouted before he met my eyes. "So, no kiss?"

I laughed easily at that. "No. Maybe later. I'm just fresh from a shower."

"That's unfair. I took a shower before my workout too." He stepped forward. His hand slipped into mine. "I deserve a proper kiss because I missed you."

I rolled my eyes and dodged his lips. "Keyword is 'before'. And if you missed me that much, you should have called me."

"I mean,—" he raised his free hand in a helpless manner, "–I had a deadline to meet."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Well, any longer and you would've been dead to me."

Trace leaned for a soft kiss right as I started to turn away. Slight surprise crossed through me as his lips bumped into the side of mine, but I smiled anyway as I kissed him back. Something fluttered in my belly as I pulled back to see his soft, glowing green eyes.

"It's nice to see you." I whispered against his lips as I relaxed into him.

"Same here." He mumbled as he pressed his lips against my forehead.

Trace's aura felt warm. Those little flares of yellow would give me a jolt of happiness each time they popped up. I think that's what it meant.

We'd roamed around the park a bit and settled on a nice spot under a tree to sit and eat. He caught me up on his work, I caught him up on mine... minus the dying part and the entire bar being shot up. I don't think it's something I can just mention in passing. It's rather weird to talk about being resurrected. They'd throw me in a white padded room for having a god complex.

We sat on the grass to soak up the autumn sun as we ate and drank. Our bodies turned towards each other, legs intertwined as he leaned against a tree. There was a lot more to talk about today for some reason. I couldn't stop smiling and laughing, I couldn't stop looking at Trace. I didn't understand why this was happening, but at the same time I didn't want to. I was enjoying myself. For the first time in a very long time, I was genuinely enjoying myself. It was... It was nice now with Trace. I almost didn't want to leave him.

He had to force me up eventually. We walked over to the park exit so I could catch a cab and head over to work. I had already cut it dangerously close with how much I had delayed my departure.

I sighed tiredly for the millionth time. "I don't want to go to work."

"Yeah, yeah, I heard you." Trace squeezed my hand. "There's nothing we can do about it though. You have a twelve to twelve, I have a no-fixed-timings kind of job."

"Yeah. It must be fun to do what you want when you want." I kicked a stone in my path. "When do you want to meet next?"

"How about tonight?" I turned to look at him as he continued. "I'll come at around eleven, we'll have a few drinks together. You close up and we'll leave. Catch a movie, dinner... and then maybe my place."

I knew what he was implying. It was tantalising. I wanted to see what Trace hid under that shirt. But I couldn't accept this. "No, you can't come to my bar."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why is that?"

"I have a specific rule where I don't date my customers. If you drink, you become my customer and..." I smirked. "I might just have to break up with you."

"Now that's just mean." Trace laughed and pulled my closer. His arm went around my shoulder instead. "You're kidding... right?"

"No." I repeated in a bit more deadpan voice this time. I can't have him meeting Lou. "You seriously can't come. The owner doesn't like it when people we're dating visit."

"He won't find out." Trace scoffed. "I'll be sneaky."

"No, Trace." I shook my head. "You can't. I refuse to break the owner's trust like that."

Trace searched my face. He eyes my grave look before he sighed. "Fine. How do we meet up then? You work like every night and your next day off is so far away."

"I never said I couldn't meet you after work." I leaned in to whisper in his ear. His eyes shot wide open and he turned to look at me. "We can still go for a night show."

Trace grinned back at me, his hand dropped off my shoulders to slide around my waist. I turned my body as he pulled me closer. We were inches apart. Normally, I didn't like PDA but I was very into this.

"How about..." His eyes hooded, staring at my lips. "I pick you up outside your bar. And since your place is closer, we can head there for that movie." He lowered his head and brushed his lips against mine. It sent shivers down my back. "I'll get some takeout or pizza... and we'll see where the night goes."

"Hmm..." I licked my lips. "That sounds great. But you're forgetting something?"

Trace smirked and leaned in a bit more. "Protection?"

I giggled. "Yes, but also..." I kissed him, a short one that barely lasted a few second. "It's still too early for me to let you into my apartment."

Trace frowned a bit, something crossed through his eyes. There was a sudden flash of orange that quickly brightened into a yellow. "Is that so?"

"Yeah." I shrugged. "It's odd, but I don't like people coming over very fast. And it's still fairly early in our relationship."

Trace pulled back slightly. "Do you not... trust me, Ryleigh?"

"I-I do." Shit, how do I explain this. "I used to live in a different area before and... someone broke into my apartment back then. It's barely been a year." I wasn't lying, but I hated talking about this. "And since then, I've been kind of... hesitant about letting people in, having anyone over. It's just kind of uncomfortable for me right now."

"Oh..." Trace looked me over. He exhaled softly and broke eye contact. "I'm sorry for pushing. I should let you take your time."

"Thanks." I smiled at him. Another flare of yellow and orange. "I'll call you over someday soon though." I added hurriedly. "You'll love the view from my place."

Trace smiled and nodded slowly. "I'd like that."

I placed a finger under his chin to push his head up. "Thanks for understanding." There was a smile on my lips as I kissed him.

Trace took a moment to relax before he kissed me back. The kiss was soft but the barely hidden need in both of us made it hard to separate. We finally pulled away when his phone started to ring. The cab was here.

Trace exhaled softly. Eyes dark as he turned away to pick up the call. "Yes, I'll be right there." He glanced at me and hung up. "Tonight?"

"Tonight."

"My place?"

"Your place. I'll get takeout."

"And I select the movie?"

"You select the movie."

He exhaled softly once again as he turned away as he for the cab he'd called for me. I wrapped my arm around his elbow and walked over to where it was. He confirmed the booking with the driver before I sat down. Trace waved at me as we drove off.

Dottie was nowhere to be seen when I walked in. I went straight behind the bar, cleaned up the counter and washed lemons for today's work. She stepped out of the kitchen with a few orders while I was placing a tray of water into one of the mini-fridges for extra ice. She smiled at me, her blue aura floated along with her and mingling with the other bubbles of colour. I should probably research these to figure out what they mean. Referring to them as colours without knowing what they mean was like knowing how to form words, but not knowing how to read.

She walked up to the counter after a while and knocked on it to get my attention. I smiled up at her. "Hey, Dots. What's up?"

"Nothing, really. Stopped by to say that you look great today." I raised an eyebrow at her rushed sentence. "Did something happen?"

I looked down at myself. A skirt, a graphic tee and sneakers. Couldn't get plainer. "Thanks, I guess." I resumed cleaning glasses as I replied to her. "I just met up with Trace for breakfast."

"Ooh." She smirked and wagged her eyebrows at me. "The third date! Was this breakfast after a night with him, or just breakfast?"

I laughed at her expression. "Nothing like that. I'm meeting him after almost a week because he was busy."

She tsked softly, slightly disappointed as she pulled away from the counter. "What a shame. Be right back."

"Hmm." I didn't bother to look up from the frothy sink.

She was back ten minutes later. "So, when you guys meeting next?" Her grey eyes gleamed with interest.

"Tonight." I stifled a smile as I pretended everything was fine and normal by trying to sound fine and normal. "Just a movie and dinner, no big deal."

Dottie reached out to grab my arm and my attention. Our eyes met for a few short moments before the two of us burst into hysterical giggles. She knew what was on my mind, I knew what was on her mind.  Eyes around the restaurant flew to us as we tried to get ourselves under control.

"Oh my god! Shut up!" Hissed Dottie still as she giggled away herself. I placed a hand on my mouth and coughed softly before I returned to my work. Dottie cleared her throat as well, smoothed her apron out, and returned to the customers.

She returned after a while as I filled up a glass for my first customer of the day. "So..." She cleared her throat again but she seemed much more calmer now. "You look great today."

"Thanks." I glanced at her aura. It swirled a bit as she said that. Was that the truth?

"No, you look great." I raised an eyebrow as she emphasized the final word. I had to turn away for a bit to finish the order and place a napkin under the drink, but she continued when I returned. "Like, you're glowing. I can't keep my eyes off of you."

I touched my cheek. Was it the mask I used last night? "Yeah. I had a little self-care session after a while."

"Hmm..." She looked me over. Her aura shifted again. Does it do that for everything? "No. Not that. Your skin does look great today, and I noticed you're like waxed from top to bottom- but, it's something else." She narrowed her eyes a bit. "You're pregnant?"

My eyes snapped wide open. The eyes of the customer who I'd just served snapped wide open. "No!" I hissed. My voice low to not attract anymore attention. "I've not-" I cut myself off to glare at the clearly eavesdropping man at the counter. He turned away, but I knew he was still listening. Dottie shifted closer to the kitchen door and so did I. "I've not had sex in ages." I whispered, my body leaned over the counter to get closer to her ear.

Dottie pulled back a bit to look me over as she checked whether I was telling the truth. She smirked after a few tense moments and turned away from me to head to the customers as she spoke. "Well, tonight's going to change that."

Colour shot up my face. I could hear her snickers as she walked off to work the lunch rush. I ran a hand over my face to calm myself as I returned to the register to take the order of a waiting customer. I couldn't make eye contact with the man who'd been eavesdropped as he paid and left, but he did give a generous tip. Maybe if they believe I'm really pregnant, they'd finally start giving me good tips.

Dottie was still very smug about her joke by the time the three of us got around to having lunch. Sasha quickly picked up on what was going on between the two of us and joined Dottie in teasing me. His Russian accent got thicker as he got more excited to the point he started to mix up his native language with English. It had been a while since I'd heard him like this. Maybe my dull mood lately had carried over to them.

There was barely an evening crowd. I told Dottie and Sasha to head home early and promised to close up early as well to reassure them. But that was just a false promise. I wasn't going anywhere till Lou was.

And there he was.

Walking in at half past eleven, right on the damned dot. He was punctual and hot. I wished I could hate him.

Lou paused in the middle of the restaurant. His eyes narrowed at me for a moment before his lips turned down in distaste. "You're glowing."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "You know, people normally mean that as a compliment."

"Normal people, yes." Lou sighed, his steps towards the bar resumed. He took a seat right as I brought his drink to him. "I'll tell you more later."

"Yup." I replied easily and turned to the sink to continue cleanup.

Even Dottie had said that. I had noticed her glance at me a bit more than usual. Other customers eyes were on me a bit more than usual as well, but I just figured it was because of what I was wearing. I usually never put a lot of thought into what clothes I was wearing to work because I needed to be comfortable and prepared for a spill. But I'd come straight from a date, so I hadn't had the chance to change.

Mike walked in with his usual delay. He did a double take similar to what Lou had done, but he didn't make any comments. Just took his seat, picked up his drink and stayed silent as usual. The bag he'd dropped off last night popped into mind. He probably won't want me to bring that up in front of Lou.

I waited for the last customer to leave before I plonked myself in front of the two. My eyes expectantly on Lou. "What is it?"

Lou sneered. "What is what?"

"Don't act dumb." I wrapped my hand around his glass and pushed it back down to the counter. He frowned slightly as I kept him from his drink. "What is it? Why am I glowing?"

"Ask feathers over there. It's his fault." Lou jerked his hand to the side, some drops of whiskey spilled on my hand. "Should've killed him when I had the chance." Lou mumbled audibly.

Mike narrowed his eyes slightly. I ignored the rise in temperature as I shifted my stool towards him. "What? What is it? Am I glowing? Am I literally glowing?"

Mike took a long, slow sip before he replied. "To us, yes. To humans, you just look more alluring than normal."

"Alluring?"

"Yes." Lou glanced around the place. "I'm honestly surprised there weren't more humans here."

"Small bar." I shrugged his words off and turned my attention back to Mike. "What is it? Did you do something?"

"I didn't." He replied defensively. "Not directly, anyway." His blue eyes moved over my body. "It's... glory."

What the... "What's... 'glory'?"

"An angel's divine energy needs to be contained." Lou suddenly spoke up again. There was a disgusted tone in his voice to match the expression on his face. "Human vessels cannot do that, and therefore they usually have a shorter lifespan when occupied by angels as compared to demons."

"Shorter lifespan..." I repeated softly. My gut twisted as I remembered how happy I'd been today morning. Was that not... Was that not going to last? "Does that mean I'm going to die again?"

"No. You're not." Mike immediately replied. "On the contrary, you might live longer than the average human."

"What?" He sighed tiredly as I snapped. What an annoying bastard. He could just explain everything in one go yet I have to literally yank it out of him.

He placed his glass on the counter to look me in the eye before continuing. "It's another side effect of what... we did to attach your soul to your body. Due your constant exposure to us, your body seems to acclimatising to the demon-angel energy inside you pretty fast. An-"

"But then again," -Lou cut in as he swirled the liquid in his tumbler- "— nothing like this has happened before, so we don't exactly have something to compare it to."

"Nonetheless,-" Mike resumed without missing a beat, "-it's pretty fast. And the process of absorbing divine angel energy-" he sounds so condescending "-is causing to you to, in crude terms, 'glow'. However, this is just an angel's glory leaking into your aura, and therefore altering an average human's perspective of you."

I frowned. That was a bit confusing. "So, I'm... not 'glowing'?"

"Literally, no." Lou replied dryly. "Aura-wise, and metaphorically, yes."

"Humans can feel that energy even if they don't understand it. Which is why they are often attracted to our kind." Mike gestured between him and Lou. "When you were an average human, you were attracted to both I and this demon when we walked in. You still are. That's what going on with you but on a weaker scale."

I turned red. "I-I mean... That does make some kind of sense."

"In the same way, that insects are attracted to a flame, the humans are attracted to your glory... however weak or temporary it might be." Mike raised his glass and looked away from me to focus on his drink again. "Similar to humans, insects are rather single-minded. All they need is a light source and they're happy to buzz about it till they die."

I felt that insult hit a bit close to home. Irritation crossed through me. "Don't be rude! I'm still mostly human!"

"And you think that's a matter of pride?"

"Hey!" I snapped. "You also decided to resurrect me out of your own will, so the least you can do is be nice to me even if you don't like me! Or you can come and take back the shit you dropped at my place last night!"

Mike stiffened with the glass raised to his lips. I saw Lou's body language switch to one of interest. Surprisingly enough, it took me a few moments for me to realized that I'd fucked up.

"Your place last night, you say?"

Lou's words slithered down my back and sent unpleasant chills down my body. The heat shot up on my right, Mike's glowing blue eyes glaring right at me.

I'm going to die at the hands of an angel tonight. And I'm pretty certain I'm not coming back this time.

***************

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hey! I'm on time for once!
I hope this stick because I have my finals starting from sixteenth on. Whee! I'm almost out of here!
Also, I turn 21 on 11th March! When are your birthday's?
Drop a comment if you don't mind me wishing you :D
On that note, bye-bye, Ryleigh. We'll be sure to attend your funeral.

F's in the chat, boiz.

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