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Rush

“Motherfucker!”

“Hello, darling.”

“No. No, no, no. You don't get to smile at me like that. You fucking knew, didn't you? That whole thing was a big, fat, fake ruse to get me in bed so that I'd have to marry you.”

“Well, I mean, if you insist. You're being a bit pushy about it but alright, I accept.” Her grin is delicious, and I'm drinking in her anger. Naturally, I take a step towards her, intent on claiming my prize.

“Get that smarmy look off your face. No! Don't— get out! I rescind my invitation inside!”

I cock my head to the side and take yet another step forward. Then I laugh. “I might have lied about that working. I guess you're stuck with me.”

“ Oh fuck yeah, let's go!” Adam cheers, but we can’t have anyone interrupting this moment.

Delaney whips her head to chastise him, only to witness him freezing midway through his sentence. “What the hell, Adam? Why are you—wait, what did you do to them?”

I froze them and maybe influenced them to like me a bit, but what's a little persuasion between brother mates? “Don't worry about them, darling, they’re fine. I thought we could use a little one-on-one time.”

Her face turns an alarming shade of red as she stalks towards me, actually making me fear for my life a little bit by the look on her face.

“You will undo whatever you just did. Right. This. Instant !”

“Aww, our first lovers quarrel! Look, I had a commemorative coin made just for this event.”

I summon it out of my pocket and pass it over, but she just stares at it, open mouthed. Guess romance really is dead up here.

“What the fuck is this?”

“Is this not working for me? Should I go the kidnapping route? I was sure you'd be excited to see me.”

“No. You do not get to pout, because that's just absurd. Yes or no; did you know about the marriage contract that weekend we met?”

“Well yes, obviously, but—”

“Then get out.”

I shrug. “Okay, if that's what you want.”

I walk out to the hall and sit, pulling out my harmonica so I can entertain myself.

It's not too long before she comes stomping after me, hands on hips, looking completely fuckable.

“Can I help you, darling? Are you ready for me to profess my literally undying love? We do have an eternity together, after all.”

“I don't know why the fuck I keep getting all the crazy ones? I need you to come inside and unfreeze everybody, please.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“I wouldn’t have asked if I wasn’t sure. What was your goal? Freeze all of them so that they’re out of the way? Newsflash: already claimed all of them. They’re not going anywhere.”

“Surely, they have to go somewhere at some point. They have classes and jobs and other things to go to on occasion, yes?”

“Oh my gods, that is not what I meant. You know what? Can you please just fix them?”

“Alright, you said please.” I stand and get into the doorway, waving my hand to unfreeze everybody. Immediately, the annoying witch I stopped starts shrieking, hands up and on the defensive.

“Seriously? I didn’t mean her ! Freeze her. Please.”

“You’re awfully bossy.” But I do freeze the witch, this time right before she could hurl a ball of energy at my lovely bride to be.

Now that that’s all taken care of, I stroll up to a very irate Delaney, peck her on the cheek, and look around at all the men that want to tear my head off with their bare hands.

“So, I’m Rush,” I explain with a smile on my face. “As you can probably surmise, me and our lady have a history. You could say she was mine first, but who’s keeping track?”

" Him ?” The Adam fellow asks. "Seriously, Delaney?”

“Hey, if you would have shown up to that party forever ago, maybe we wouldn’t be in this position.”

“Um, I know you’re not trying to hold me accountable for something that happened so fucking long ago I can’t even remember it. What do you want with her?” this guy asks, turning to me.

I extend my hand, as is customary for humans. A handshake for starters and a name. “I’m Rush. I know she called you Adam a few minutes ago, but it would make me feel incredibly good about myself if you said it with your own voice.”

“Adam.” He throws an arm around Delaney’s shoulder and pulls her into him, giving me a strange look I can’t decipher. “What do you want with Delaney?”

“The right to marry her, of course. Darling, we’re going to design the most lavish of gowns, just you wait and see.

The designers we have in Hell are top notch.

You should see this new technique they’ve devised to sew spikes into gowns.

Have you ever seen a gown covered in titanium stiletto spikes? They’re just simply precious.”

“We will not be doing any of that,” Delaney says like a total buzzkill.

“Fine with me. If you want to get married in the nude, we could arrange that, too. In fact, I know of a wedding venue where that’s the schtick; no clothes allowed.

Let’s go around the room and get to know each other, shall we?

You should all get in a circle,” I suggest, infusing my words with a little bit of charisma to get them to do what I want.

Soon enough, they're all standing in a circle around the frozen witch. I manifest a ball and throw it across the circle to somebody. I’m trying to pay attention to everything happening, but really all I want to do is gather Leo in my arms and make sure he’s okay.

And then maybe have some fun with Delaney.

Maybe I’ll branch out and try something freaky with maple syrup?

“Name?” I ask the gentleman.

He gives me a few slow blinks before answering. “I’m very confused right now. I’m Jackson, I like puppies. Never had one, but maybe someday.”

He passes the ball back to me and I smile in encouragement. “Very good Jackson, thank you for sharing.” I throw the ball to somebody else.

“Okay, I’m Ash, and I teach shifter history. Sometimes when I’m in the shower alone I like to pretend my wiener is a puppet and I give him funny voices.” He passes the ball back to me and I can’t help a little bit of a giggle.

“Why are they saying weird things?” Delaney questions, narrowing her eyes at me. “You did something to them. What did you do? Why haven’t I punched you in the face yet for lying to me and getting in my pants?”

“Don’t you know the rules of truth circles?”

“Obviously not,” she says.

I throw the ball to her because I’m so curious right now.

She pinches her lips together to try and prevent words from flowing out of them, but it’s no use. The magic is in full effect. It won’t be satisfied until we’ve all told some sort of truth. Eventually she blurts out, “I’m Delaney and I like to eat ice cream cones from the bottom up.”

The ball’s back in my hands and I nod at her. “Thank you, Delaney. That was delightful. Odd, but delightful. Who’s next?”

“Ooh, do me, do me!”

I toss the ball to the curly haired cutie who’s bouncing up and down. “I’m Cory, and when I was a little kid, I wanted to grow up to be a jellybean. It took entirely too long for the adults in my life to break that specific dream.”

I get the ball back and thank Cory, the magic propelling me to keep the game going.

“I’m August, and I think about my brother’s ass far too much.”

Delaney giggles and goes for a high five, but I find this entirely unsettling and almost wish to end the game there, but August passes the ball on, bypassing me completely.

“I want to make it clear I’m only participating because it seems I am magically compelled to do so. My name is Adam; Delaney, I definitely saw your boobs a whole bunch of times in high school. No further comments, thanks.”

“Um, I’m Leo,” the next one says, testing the elasticity of the ball. “To be honest, I don’t really know much about myself other than that woman right there is the whole reason I am existing right now and I’m pretty sure we’re going to have a pretty epic love story.”

I get the ball back and the magic binding the game dissipates on a whisper, but now I feel awkward. They have actual feelings for Delaney and here I am just being my normal stupid self. What chance do I really have?

“I am in no way required to say this, but I’ll offer up a truth of my own.

I might have known about this contract way back when, Delaney, and I might have been more or less forced to forge a relationship with you by Lucifer, but the way you made me feel in that short time we had together is something I’ve only felt one other time in my life,” I admit as I can’t help but stare at Leo briefly.

“And we didn’t even have to break out the potatoes!

” I laugh awkwardly and rub the back of my neck, wondering what the heck to do now.

“I’ll just…take this off your hands for you. Have a good night, now.”

I do my thing and get the witch to trail along behind me in her frozen state, but I don’t get too far before there are footsteps trailing behind me. I want to hope it’s Delaney telling me not to go, but in fact it’s only one of her mates.

“That’s my sister, and I’m also headmaster here so I feel like I need to oversee what’s about to happen. What do you plan on doing to her? And can I interfere? I have a reinforced room I can take her to that will nullify her magic. Standard equipment at a magical school.”

“Oh, that would be great. Thank you!”

He takes the lead, and it’s probably for the best there aren’t many students out at this late hour.

“You said you’ve been outside Delaney’s balcony? I knew about Leo’s curse, but what…that is, where? I feel like I should know what’s been going on here.”

“You’re allowed to hate me, too. I won’t seek revenge if you don’t want to be nice to me.

I think I did a pretty shitty thing all those years ago.

I didn’t do it on purpose though, not really.

Being raised in Hell means I have a whole different set of morals I’ve always been expected to adhere to.

I don’t always understand humans, even if I’ve been around them for years now.

And I was a pine tree. A devilishly good looking one, if you'll excuse the pun.”