CHAPTER EIGHT: PUNISH

Only give your moments of heaven to who is willing to hold your hand and walk with you through hell.
Even if they may be the Devil himself.
-JM Storm

Emma Carter is in her room when she gets a text message from the Devil, who demanded, instead of asked for her to call him.

She was tempted to ignore him for a moment, simply due to the fact she could, but ended up brushing off the thought. Turning over in bed to lay on her stomach, Emma turns her phone volume down to call Xavier—who picks up after two rings.

"What?" Is how she decides to answer the phone.

"What do you mean what, don't get fucking mouthy with me." He growls. "Are you choosing to miss all of school today? Or are you just oblivious to the fact it's already third period."

"If it's already third period why are you calling me instead of being in class, Wolf?"

Xavier growls again and Emma smiles to herself. "Don't answer questions with questions, Princess."

"Suck a dick." She sighs out, turning over on her back.

"Nah," Xavier says, and Emma can hear the grin in his voice. "Suck my dick."

"Are you calling me for a dick appointment? Seriously." Realizing her voice is raised a bit, Emma instantly quiets back down and prays Vince doesn't wake up. "You don't even care that I'm not in school."

Quiet for a moment, she can imagine the Wolf boy frowning before he finally answers in a rather small voice. "I do care, Princess, don't think I don't. I'm not calling for that, otherwise I would have just texted you."

She didn't know if she believed that. 

But she didn't feel like arguing.

"You control our fuck schedule anyway." That, admittedly, was true and made Emma flush in resentment of it. "I'm calling because if you don't plan to go to school, and I feel like skipping, we can just hang out. Do something you feel like doing. Clearly if you're not even in the mood to sleep through lessons, I wouldn't think you're in the mood to fuck."

Fucking is what they do, really, with the alone time they have together.

And maybe that wouldn't be bad, or confusing for Emma's emotions, if they also didn't share the time after together. If he didn't take care of her after or never push her for more. If the Devil of all people wasn't such a good guy, Emma could probably understand the things they're doing.

What they're doing is having sex under the pretense of just having sex, no strings attached and keeping it separate for the minimal relationship they have.

Yet as that small, barely existent relationship changed into a real friendship, and that friendship changed into a flirtationship that neither of them would change it being, the line between 'just friends' and 'fuck buddies' quickly blurred.

Both of them felt the shift in how they acted, both during sex and conversation.

The rules were changing, things were undefined and it made for a weird place between the two where definitions of words, the meaning behind actions, weren't clear.

"Hang out?" She pauses, a small smirk tugging at her lips. "You sound like a middle schooler, Zay."

"Shut the fuck up Princess, and decide what you want us to do. I'll be at your window in ten minutes, and that pretty little ass of yours better be decided, and packed when I get there."

With one more growl as a warning, and a scoff in his voice, Xavier hangs up and Emma is left alone again.

This time though, she doesn't feel quite as lonely.

↞♡↠

Though Emma was ready when Xavier got there and more than thankful he lifted her down from her window instead of having to jump, she couldn't decide on what to do or where to go.

So Xavier picked for them, drove to his favorite bakery and got what he called 'an appropriate amount of doughnuts' when asked, but in reality it's three dozen. And half of them are plain vanilla glaze, which Emma is sure should be a crime.

Since she was undecided and didn't want to go up to the counter with him, the Wolf boy said she wasn't allowed to complain. After getting all the doughnuts and stopping to get the overly tired Emma some coffee, they drive to the local park that doubles as a baseball diamond.

"At this point," Xavier says, almost amusedly as he climbs out of the car and leans back to get the doughnuts. "We're almost talking as much as we're fucking. Not that I mind that cute little mouth of yours being all snarky, Princess, since you can't keep your sarcasm to yourself."

Emma follows suit, picking up her coffee and leading the way towards the playground. 

She plans to sit at the top of the towers, having rather pleasant memories of her back pressed against the cold metal bars as a kid, Jessie across from her and giggling as they made bracelets, their dads talking on the benches a few feet away from the bottom of the slide.

Not once does she stop to think about the repercussions of now associating this place with the Devil, a wicked grin and the smell of doughnut glaze and fresh coffee.

"Right, and you're definitely one for constant niceties." Emma snarks out, making a face as Xavier shoots her a pointed look for yet again, another sarcastic comment. "Okay, I get your point now."

Xavier smirks and is clearly about to go on about how right he is, if the smug look on his face is anything to go by. Because of this Emma shakes her head and pearl grey eyes narrow at him. "Don't you dare."

"Yeah?" The Devil replies, eyebrows raised with a wide smirk. "And if I do? What are you gonna do, fuck-ban me for a day before you cave?"

Emma, using both fingers to snap her bra straps says, "I'm the mayor of this titty city, and you're not welcome here."

Xavier, not even pausing, takes one hand away from the doughnut boxes just to slap her ass. "Guess I'll have to go further south."

Grumbling, Emma grabs his wrist and places her coffee in his hand, pointing up. "Put my coffee at the top for me."

Ultramarine blue eyes narrow at her, glaring, but he ends up doing what she says anyway and slides it between the bars. He watches as Emma climbs up the slides, haphazardly slipping before proudly standing with her hands on her hips once she makes it to the top, blowing out a heavy breath.

"You want a gold star or something?" Xavier scoffs out. "That slide's shorter than me."

"You're acting like you're any easier to climb."

Smirking at her, the Wolf boy walks to where the stairs are. "You'd know that, wouldn't you Princess?"

"Shut your mouth, Wolf, and climb up here already." Emma scolds. "You didn't get all those doughnuts for nothing."

"You're lucky you're cute," He grunts, dunking between the top bar and shuffling up the to of the structure. "Not everyone can talk to me like that."

Emma rolls her eyes at him and this time Xavier catches it, making his eyes narrow in reply. "I think this has less to do with the people around you and more to do with how much of an asshole you feel like being at the moment."

"Watch yourself, Princess," Xavier nudges her in the thigh as he finally makes it to her, placing the doughnuts down a moment later. "More of this sarcastic bullshit and I'll take to punishing that snark right out of you. Right here, no shame."

As he's talking the Wolf boy sits down and gets comfortable, one leg spread out to the side of Emma and one bent closer to himself.

Pearl grey eyes meets ultramarine blue, and the surprised yet clearly not bothered-by-that-idea look in them makes Xavier smirk. Shooting her a feral grin, the Devil takes a doughnut out of the top box—loving how he can tease her so easily.

Emma cuts the tension in half by letting out a startled laugh. "You bought all those fucking plain ass doughnuts and then the first one you eat isn't one? What the hell, the next one you grab better be a vanilla one, or I'm gonna throw a fit."

"Don't be a brat, shut up and eat." Xavier answers simply, classical black hair falling in front of his face as her threat backfires and he just keeps eating.

She huffs and does just that, taking a apple fritter out first. Being a bit tired after a few hours of small talk between doughnuts, Emma slinks down against the bars and gives Xavier a look.

"I can't believe you ate that many doughnuts."

Now there was probably only half a dozen left, and they were all vanilla glaze. 

Xavier rolls his eyes, bracing himself against the bars as he stands, almost kicking Emma in the process. Grabbing onto Xavier's calf, as if saying 'watch it', Emma raises a hand up. Taking it, he helps her up and motions down to the doughnuts.

"What? Why do I have to grab them?" Emma scowls.

"Because," The Wolf boy mockingly pokes her nose, as if she's a kid asking that question. "I paid for it, and I'm throwing all this away."

Huffing, Emma begrudgingly agrees. "Fair enough."

The Devil sends her a wicked fanged smirk and jumps over the bars, landing expertly on the ground and it makes her roll her eyes.

Show off.

Grabbing the last box from the ground, Emma looks between the stairs ten feet down the structure and the twisty slide directly next to her before shrugging and picking the slide.

The amused look Xavier sends this from her makes Emma smile sheepishly in return, but with a small, attractive chuckle the Wolf boy makes his way to her, leans down and places a gentle kiss on her lips that threatens to turn her smile real.

Maybe the confusion is worth it.