isaysimplewords | OOM: one of a number of visits from Sam Linnfer

Sam snorts.

"Your manipulative politician ways cannot work on me, mortal."

"Oh, they will," Cal assures him. "Just give it time. You'll come around."

Eventually.

In a century or two, maybe.

Sam, laughing, gives Cal another kiss.

"Hey, you're already Favourite. What more do you want?"

After that previous conversation, Cal finds this easier to swallow; with Sam having clarified his position, it doesn't sting like it once did.

(Even if Cal still thinks Sam is crazy.)

"A pony?" he says, then hesitates as something surfaces in his mind.

"Actually, there is something I've been meaning to ask you."

For a while now. He's been putting it off for too long, he knows that. He just - wasn't sure of what impression it might make.

He feels more confident now that it'll be fine, though. (That comes with being Favorite.) And Bela can't afford for him to put it off any longer.

"--No, I won't marry you. I'm saving myself for the One."

Hey, it was an automatic response.

". . . what?"

As derailments go, that was a very good one.

Sam is talented!

"Well, you said you wanted to ask me a question. I assumed..."

He tries and fails to look demure. It's possibly the innocently fluttered eyelashes that give him away.

Cal snorts.

"Yeah, I bet Medusa would love that," he says.

Does Cal look like he wants to be turned to stone any time soon?

Sam chuckles. "She probably wouldn't care much, actually. Jealousy's more of a human problem."

Some of his brothers and sisters have suffered from it, true, but there's few sins they haven't wallowed in by now and they probably just wanted to complete the set.

"And she wouldn't have to worry about it for long," Cal says reflectively, thinking of Medusa's casual mention of a couple thousand years having passed for her.

Then he shakes his head, pulling himself back to the topic at hand.

"Anyway."

Sam frowns suddenly, looking away.

(He's so good at making himself forget that Cal is going to leave him, as all mortals do.)

"Yeah."

("Call me selfish, but I can live with it.")

Suddenly, for the moment, it's a little harder to hold that perspective.

Cal hesitates, unsure of whether he should say something or let it go - but what is there that he can say? And why would Sam even want him to say anything?

(Cal had thought that being dead in Milliways had trapped him in a sort of immortality. Remembering his anger and despair over that prospect - over the choice made for him, forever, after he'd died in the name of making them for himself - still makes him feel sick.)

Better just to leave it alone.

Instead, he says,

"- so do you know anything about getting someone out of a contract to sell their soul?"

So much for the delicate introduction to the subject he's had in mind for months now.

There is a reason, subconscious or conscious, that several of Sam's closest friends in Milliways are or are approaching immortal; the appeal of people who won't leave him has never yet gone away.

(Of course, sometimes even the people who don't have to leave him do, anyway.)

But it seems that old habits die hard, and he has retained that affection for humans that he had when the alternative was millennia of loneliness. Cal, in particular, has been good at unintentionally shattering Sam's defences.

He blinks, though, at the sudden change in subject.

"Hmm? Only in my world. Why?"

"Don't worry, I haven't done anything that stupid," Cal assures him. "I'm asking for a friend."

It wasn't stupid of Bela to do it. She was just a kid. It's different.

Cal believes firmly that Bela's parents were worse than his. He also understands what it's like to be scared like that. He can't say for sure that he wouldn't have done the deal himself, if a demon had caught him at the right moment. But for an adult, it's different.

"How does it work on your world?" It hadn't occurred to him that it would at all; Sam isn't that kind of Devil, after all.

Sam frowns. "You have to give your blood to them. It really only works with Incarnates, but it allows them to control you - to take over your body, if they want. And there's no such thing as take-backs - once done, it can't be undone."

That is nothing like the process Bela described.

. . . it actually kind of reminds Cal of what he's read about the events of a few Christmases ago on this world. He's not sorry he missed that one.

He shakes his head a little. "Do you know any other worlds where it goes on?"

Sam shakes his head. "I've never asked. Although if they've got a more traditional world, the devil showing up and suggesting politely that the creditors fuck off might help."

Pause.

"Also, this is quite high in the ratings for Weirdest Pillowtalk Ever, even by my standards."

"Maybe." Cal is frowning distractedly. It might be time to try again to convince Bela that Sam can be an ally. He can't go behind her back, no matter how urgent the situation - they'd need her Door to get to her world. At least, they will until Cal is sure he doesn't know anyone else from there, which right now he isn't.

Sam's second remark doesn't even seem to register.

Sam pokes him gently.

"Cal? Like to tell me what's going on here?"

Cal blinks, refocusing on Sam.

He would, if it were up to him. It would be a relief. But he promised not to bring Bela's name into it, and Sam noticed that Bela didn't seem to like him too much the one time they met. it would be too easy to him to put the pieces together.

"A friend of mine is having some trouble," he says. "That's all I can really say."

Sam raises an eyebrow. If he had to guess, he'd guess Bela, but if Cal can't talk about it either way then there's not much point in a stab in the dark.

"Okay."

Cal shrugs a bit with the shoulder Sam is not resting on.

"I promised," he says.

He nods, sliding a hand into Cal's hair. His curiosity will have to be suppressed, for the moment.

"No problem."

Cal relaxes and smiles a bit, kissing Sam's forehead, then says,

"But let me know if you hear anything about any other worlds, okay?"

"Mmm." Sam curls closer. "Yeah."

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