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Lonely.
That was all that Steven had felt. He'd spent most of his time in the box. Seeing different timelines come and go, enduring the sights of people dying upon multiple passages of the loop, and of course... Having to deal with himself. His future self who had put him into that mess, the memory of his mother putting him into a similar box with a marker. When he had emerged, he had seen the bodies of fallen men strewn about. A loop of his own making. The loop had indeed stopped, but it took some time for Steven to truly accept himself, both future and past. Yet, he was still lonely. Seldom did Steven choose to leave the box, for the plague of bodies festered in his memory like a parasite.
But all of that would soon change. For Boon County had other plans for this temporal man. While the box resided in the quaint corner of the town, hidden near the house on the hill, it caught the eye of the town's latest resident. A person, or what seemed like the average person. Moderate in stature, no higher than around five feet and three inches, brunette hair that fell to their shoulders, a chubby frame, along with a simplistic outfit. A hoodie, jeans, and sneakers, followed with a red cap that was worn backwards. The person's hazel eyes landed upon the box, a faint smile forming on their pale skin. Looking around, nobody else was there to watch them, the person enters the Box.
Darkness encapsules their vision, but their eyes adjust to the place around them. Blobs formed around in walls, eyes and mouths of glowing white gaze down at the newcomer, as Steven perks up. His head snaps to look at the newcomer. Human. At least, that's what they appear as. Most of the time, humans couldn't come into the Box. No, this was more of an anomaly than he was. Steven shook his head, blinking from shock as he leans in, observing the unwelcomed guest further. The smell of smoke lingered on them, but not of tobacco, no... Something more natural, almost like a second skin that this bizarre person wore.
"Hey! How the fcuk did you get in here?" Steven poked the new being, accusatory in the mannerism as his eyes squinted.
The newcomer shrugged, "Dunno. Took a wrong turn?"
Their tone was disingenuous, aloof as their smirk lingered about on their face. Smartass, were they? For the most part, they looked human: nothing too noticeable in their appearance aside from a tooth gap within the midst of that shit-eating grin and their casual wear. However, Steven felt that there was something far more that met his white, glowing eyes. The temporal entity blinked, crossing its arms as the new person looked about, strutting around with an appreciative whistle leaving them as they looked around the box. Normally, most people would freak out and panic. This one? Acted like they were in a historical art museum. Appreciated the box rather than being scared of it. It felt... Endearing.
"Ah. I'm Dell, by the way, who the hell are you?" The person held out their hand for a shake, that grin never leaving them.
Steven's eyes narrow as his cold hand met that of the person. Hot. Not warm, no, hot. Far more than simply regular blood beneath flesh, explicitly, it felt more like hell fire. "Steven. You're rather rude, y'know? I could beat the snot out of you. I COULD KILL YOU!! A temporal entity like myself should be treated with respe-"
"Wait... You're not mortal people! Ohhh, thank FUCK! I can take this stupid hat off and unbind."
No warning comes at the next sight Steven sees. With a swift hand, the hat is removed from their person, revealing the one thing that caught Steven's attention more than anything. Horns. Small ones, sure, but horns none the less, a bright red that bordered onto rose. Dell reached into the back of their pants, untying something as a thin, scaly tail that was the same color as their horns snaked its way out. It swept and swung, no longer bound to itself within Dell's jeans. Dell lets out a soft sigh, running a hand through their brunette hair. Steven is in total shock, his white eyes widening as his expression goes from annoyance and ire to perplexation at something such as this. This was no regular person, no. This was a halfling.
Dell shrugs, swinging the hat along their finger. "Whew... Lemme tell ya, keeping my tail bound like that is annoying! Really chafes my scales. Oh, and the hat! Ugh! Kinda itches my horns. But I'm glad I can be myself, y'know? Freak-to-freak conversation?"
Silence washes over them both as Steven looks Dell up and down. The horns, the tail, the aloof behavior growing once Steven brought up that he was a being of time itself rather than a mortal person: it all made sense now! Steven felt his fangs graze against his lower lip as his eyes linger towards Dell's demonic features. Not enough to be fully demon, but enough for anyone to notice if they weren't wearing the hat or had their tail tied down. A thoughtful hum escapes Steven as he takes a few steps forward, circling around Dell for a bit and allowing his hands to ghost over their horns and tail, eliciting a small whine to leave the halfling.
"Woah, hey! Careful with the merchandise. If you wanna touch the best bits, you gotta earn it," Dell puts a hand to Steven's shoulder, making sure to keep their space apart as they stretched their arm out a solid few feet like rubber. Their arm snaps back into place, as Dell paces about. "Off topic, but, d'you ever consider leaving this place? It's nice and all, but there's not a whole lot to do. The boredom's killing me..!" Placing a dramatic hand over their chest, Dell mimes out having a heart attack, their eyes meeting Steven's once they're on the floor, a small giggle slipping from the half-demon.
Leaving? Was there such a thing as leaving the box? Steven had never thought of that. What could the outside world like? The thoughts of bodies flash quickly in his mind, but its long replaced by something more fresh, more pleasant. Curiosity. No longer was he afraid of the death or dismay that would infect the world, but rather he wants to see what all had happened within his time in the box. What advancements were made? Would things still be as bad as they once were, or would there be changes that were made? Every thought raced about in Steven's mind like a track that were on loop, and every thought was audible enough for Dell to hear.
Without warning, Dell's arms wrap around Steven, rubbery snakes that encased his entire torso strong enough to break bones if he had any. Manic giggling filled the air as Dell spins around, their tail flicking about as glittery, green smoke wafts around them, curling about and caressing their forms in an embrace tighter than Dell's own. Once the smoke clears, no longer are either of them in the box. Dell releases Steven, her arms slinking back into their proper form as Steven stumbled about. His eyes landed on the streets of Boon County. Shock fills him, but not from terror, but rather something more delightful, something that made him feel warm.
No corpses laid on the floor, but rather there was a plethora of stray cats that waddle and trot about with not a care in the world. The moon hung high over the streets of the town, silver light dancing down onto the two of them as the stars formed patters in the sky that sparkled and twinkled like glitter, the sky a midnight coloration of indigo that mesmerized Steven. Was the sky always this beautiful? People walked by, alive and breathing, chattering about movies and life drama, none of them paying too much mind to Dell's halfling nature or Steven's odd appearance. If anything, they treated them as if they were fellow people.
Taking his hand within their own, Dell leads Steven onward. To show him the rest of town. From the sterile laboratory that Beanies had worked in, the P-Mart where one could purchase any needs for their pets, and some places that Dell frequented. A local Mexican restaurant, the arcade bar where you could get plastered and play a few rounds of air hockey, and of course, her own apartment. Low and behold, her apartment was decent, if not messed up from a few stray bits of dirty clothing and laundry. Quaint. Quiet. A part of Dell that was more personal than their usual aloof and snarky personage.
Posters of bands, shows, and horror movies were strewn about on the walls, the TV playing some sort of old cartoon from the early 2000's era, a console that was decorated with stickers resting next to it. Their couch had pillows and blankets all over it, looking rather comfortable. Adjacent to the living room was the kitchenette. It'd been well decorated as well, a sort of mix of nostalgic patterns and wacky-pomo designs that blended well, a colorful pop in contrast to the living room that was mostly darker colors of black or red. Steven had never felt so comfortable somewhere that wasn't the box.
"Say, you like music, right, guy?" Dell asked, a soft smile on their face as their fangs glimmered in the light. They reach into a small crate adjacent to the end table that held a vinyl player. Not long was it that an album had been held into their hands, one labeled 'Almost Human' with the image of a man with arrows in his chest and massive white wings. "Aurelio Voltaire, one of the best dark cabaret artists known to mortal kind! Well, in my opinion, that is," a shrug, followed by a goofy little chuckle.
Vinyl soon meets the needle as the disc spun around, and the song that Dell had chosen was the one of the same name as the album. Grabbing Steven gently, the two danced and swayed to the music, a slow dance within swelling strings and a guitar being plucked at, followed with a sweet, brassy voice. However, the lyrics are what catches Steven's attention. The contempt within the words, a feeling of being casted out from something nice, and a de-realization and de-personalization that had felt all too familiar to Steven. Relatable, even. Such a song would've been shrugged off, but tonight it had tugged at his heartstrings.
Steven wasn't the only one that related to the song. For when he looked at Dell, he noticed how their hazel gaze had softened, their smile had faltered into something that was more calm, more tame than the usual jackass or hyperactive halfling that Steven was so used to seeing. This was something far more intimate, a layer of Dell that was kept hidden under lock and key. For Dell, the song was part of her: a half demon that had been cast away from their home, for their halfling nature had ostracized them from both Hell and humanity, and their mother grew devastated after the divorce and raising Dell, leading to their later childhood and adolescence being lackluster.
"That song feels familiar for... Both of us," Steven looked at Dell, sitting them both down on the couch. The drums of the next song clatter, but neither one pays attention to it. Leaning back, Steven's cold, shadowy hand rests near Dell's own. "Reminds me of my past. How I'd been put through hell by my future self, crying over the past and going through a cycle. Took a while for me to break."
A dry chuckle leaves Dell, one that lacked humor. "You too, huh? For me, it reminds me of myself. My own past, too... I was a very lonely person growing up, Steven. My dad tried to teach me how to overthrow Hell's government to disprove its caste system, a plot he's had since before I was even conceived," their hand brushed against Steven's, their pinkies interlocking. A sigh leaves Dell as that smile soon fades, melting into a frown. "And my mom divorced him once she found out. Got finalized when I was ten or so. She'd been devastated, grew cold for a while... I felt so guilty. Almost committed suicide in my freshman year of high school because I felt like I was burdening her, lost all hope in trying to help her since she hadn't really gotten better."
Shock fills Steven's being. Suicide? That was the last thing that Steven had expected from someone who was like Dell, who was usually careless and calm. Yet Dell's tone, so sincere and quiet, it felt like they've shrunken down just by admitting something as personal as that to him. He knew that feeling, of hopelessness that had swallowed you whole like a snake eating away at its own tail. Both of them had a lot more in common than he had assumed. Him and Dell had suffered a past that left them scarred, so they built shields to hide that, with his being far more harsh, and Dell's mask being that of mindless negligence and distance from their own feeling.
Leaning in, Steven pressed his lips against Dell's, their fangs ghosting against one another as their mouths met in the middle. Dell's face blushed a bright blue hue, their blood rushing up to their cheeks as an inferno burned within their chest. Steven felt his own face blush, an aurora of technicolor fluster haunting his cheek as every color in the spectrum lingered on his face. Their hands interlock fully, fingers tangled together as the two felt their breaths mix within the span of the kiss. Tears fell from Dell's cheeks, trailing down as their tail wagged with little to no care. Around them, the world hadn't existed, only the embrace of one other person as their temperatures mixed about, creating a neutral warmth that encased them.
Dell pulls away from the kiss, their eyes sparkling like pools of amber when they look at Steven. Fluster soon grabs hold of them as they look away, now coy and anxious. "Shit... Uh, sor- sorry if that was sudden. Uhm, we cool?"
"Yeah. We are," A smile forms on Steven's face. "So, uh, does this mean were dating, now?"
Silence washes over them, not long before Dell leans in and plants a quick peck onto Steven's cheek. "Sure, if you want it to mean that. I wouldn't mind."