Chapter Text
"Sorry, I'm late! Got held up at the-" Douxie was cut off by a finger being waved in his face. While he had a perfectly good reason for being half an hour late to his lunch date with Zoe, the girl did not want to hear it.
"You got a lot of nerve, Hisirdouche Bag!" Zoe scolded, eyebrows knitted together in annoyance.
Douxie had been in this situation enough times to know better than to keep talking. His only chance of getting out of this alive was by slowly putting the bag of food he brought with between them.
Zoe angrily snatched the bag from the man and reached in for a handful of fries. Alright, she wasn't yelling at him anymore, which was always a good sign, but Douxie still had to choose his next words wisely.
"Brought your favorite…" The man rubbed the back of his neck nervously.
Zoe dropped her scowl, a more neutral expression taking over her features, "You're just lucky I like you."
"Right...I'll be sure to keep that in mind…" Douxie exhaled slowly, taking a seat beside the pink-haired girl.
Zoe's anger seemed forgotten as she tilted her head to rest on her friend's shoulder. While she wasn't ready to share her fries just yet, she was ready for some mildly awkward silence. For several minutes, the only sound between the two were wrappers being torn from cheap hamburgers, both teens beyond hungry after their respective days at work. The silence would've continued had Douxie not suddenly began to cough.
"Whoa, there. No dying on me, got it?" Zoe snickered, whacking the boy on the back.
"W-wouldn't that be awful, hm? A-alive for almost a millennium, j-just to be taken out by a hamburger…" Douxie took a few deep breaths, his fit finally coming to an end.
"Leave it to you to have the lamest death of all time." Zoe gave him one final whack, this one purposely harder than the others.
Douxie laughed, placing a hand over his chest in mock offense, "Oh, dear Zoe, what would you do after my untimely demise?"
Zoe rolled her eyes, "I would get to eat dinner on time for once."
"Oh, you wouldn't even miss me?" Douxie teased, "I'm hurt, Zoe; I truly am."
"From what I gathered, you were technically dead last week," Zoe settled her head back against the boy's shoulder, almost as if to remind herself that he was, in fact, sitting beside her, "You're lucky I wasn't there or I would've personally dragged you back from the dead."
Now it was Douxie's turn to roll his eyes, "Is that so?"
Normally, Zoe would have tossed a balled up wrapper at her friend's head before getting up to walk away from him. The pink-haired girl liked to think she gave off a tough girl vibe that she refused to let up on, not even with her friend...No. Douxie wasn't just her friend, he was- Special.
Special enough that the thought of him dying, no matter for how long, was making Zoe a bit uneasy. While she would never admit it to Douxie, she was never irritated about having to wait a little longer for food. No, that wasn't it at all; If she truly was hungry enough, she would just grab something to eat from a nearby food truck. What bothered Zoe the most about waiting was she was never sure what was keeping her friend so long.
While Douxie was definitely able to take care of himself, the girl had known him long enough to know trouble had an interesting way of finding him.
"Got a map for that head of yours? You seem lost in it." The blue haired man nudged Zoe's shoulder lightly, a playfulness in his voice.
Zoe groaned, lifting her head from his shoulder. Once again, Douxie waited for a balled up wrapper that never came. Instead, his friend turned to face him, a sort of sadness in her eyes that he had only seen twice since their friendship began.
"You're supposed to be immortal…"
The smile on Douxie's face immediately faded, hands immediately reaching out for Zoe's.
"Darling, hey, why are you talking like that?" The boy asked, hoping the slight shake to his hands wasn't as obvious as he thought it was.
"You know why, Doux! You died! That's not supposed to happen!" Zoe scolded, lip trembling softly.
It wouldn't be the first time Douxie had seen the girl cry; After 535 years of friendship, there weren't too many secrets left between the two of them, though it was still a sight the boy hated to see.
Especially when it was his fault.
Lifting one hand to thread through Zoe's hair, Douxie tilted her head toward his, close enough that their foreheads touched, "I'm here, love…"
"Well, no shit, you're here…" Zoe reached up to set her hand on top of his, "And if you ever pull that crap again, I'm-"
"I know, Zoe, I know. You'll personally drag me back to life." Douxie let a gentle smile come across his face.
Zoe only nodded in response, her forehead gently bumped against his.
"Sorry, I'm late- Uh," Archie paused, perching on the back of the bench between the two teens, "Is everything alright?"
Douxie and Zoe sprang apart, blushes spreading across their faces.
"A-and you!" Zoe tried to scold, her voice a few octaves too high, "I-I swear! Did either of you ever learn how a clock works!?"
Archie stepped slowly to take his place on Douxie's shoulders, "Time is meaningless after a few centuries. "
"See? Arch gets it." Douxie stood, stretching his arms above his head before holding one out for Zoe to take, "Alright, then. Let's go see what mischief we can get up to tonight."
The pink-haired girl accepted the gesture, standing to join the two, "You sure you don't want to just go see a movie or something?"
"My, my, Zoe. If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were asking me out on a date. Only took you 535 years." Douxie teased, tossing an arm around his friend's shoulder.
"Ooooh, no! This is not a date, Hisirdoux! This is to keep you from altering time again," Zoe shrugged his arm off of her, "Now let's go before I make you buy the tickets."
"Eh. Guess it'll be 536 years, then."