A conversation between demons

Sam laughed a little inside when she asked him if he worked hard, "Of course I don't, if i was a hard worker I would still be in England right now with my family trying to live a normal life with these bloody powers of mine, working hard would have had me go to University over there and pass it all, but instead I took an easy way out of that country for money to do what? To let people do tests on me, not exactly hard working still" he said, with that kind of attitude he wouldn't be going anywhere in life, if Sam expected everything to be easy and have everything given to him, then he was mistaken, although his life had been bearable for now.

Sam shifted as Zoe tickled his foot, making sure that there was no part of him near her for her to be able to tickle. He looked down to her again ad noticed her trying to get up from the floor once more, with the same result. Sam winced slightly when she called him scrawny again, he almost wanted to get up and leaver her to her own devices and time how long it would take for her to get up by herself, but every part of him wanted to help her off of the ground, it didn't seem very pleasant down there. Sam pushed himself and sighed as he laughed at her predicament again, he didn't even know how to go around this, he was afraid of tugging on her wrist in case he would cause more damage to it, instead he hooked his arms under both of hers and lifted her up off of the floor until she was standing and stable, "You're welcome" he said quietly.

Zoe made a face, she happened to make a lot of faces that Sam hadn't seen yet. As she struggled to stand, Sam got a silly look on his face and laughed slightly. In return she scowled and he got up, picking her up with relative ease.
She sighed and allowed her head to fall forward and rest underneath his chin.

"Okay, not so scrawny," she murmured in agreement, trying to adjust to his new scent again. Then something hit her in the brain, something that he had just said registred with her.

"Experimented? What?" Zoe looked up at him, a look of horror closely followed by anger. If it were up to her she would march over to that facility right now, rip it up by the foundation, and set it on fire. But being in a position to do so was the issue at the moment.

Zoe had met a few underground facilities like that as well, they had not been nice but the situation had played out according to Zoe's plan... but that was a different story entirely.

Sam watched Zoe make one of her many faces as he helped her up off of the ground, he still didn't really know what the majority of them meant. He smiled to himself slightly as Zoe agreed that he wasn't very scrawny, it feels like an accomplishment to change Zoe's mind about something because when it is set on something, it will rarely change.

Zoe pushed her head away from his chest and looked up at him as she questioned his "experiment" comment. "Yes... Experimented, I was unconscious for it all so i didn't feel any pain or anything, but who knows what tests they did on me, I try not to think about it, nothing about me has changed harshly, they probably just took some blood or something. That's how I got those scars on my back before they dissapeared, I didn't tell you that?" he said as he noticed that she had an angry look on her face, she seemed quite protective over Sam and it looked like she was going to go on a one person crusade against the people that did the experiments to him and burn their whole facility down, and needless to say Sam was slightly worried. "Now don't go and do anything silly Zoe, its all in the past now and I'm perfectly fine" he pulled her in and hugged again her out of appreciation for her concern.

Zoe suddenly remembered the scars on his back at the pool, "Thats what those were from?"
She asked before Sam pulled her back into a hug. The demon took care to make sure the wounded wrist wasn't smashed before she wrapped her left arm around his waist.
"If they show their faces am I allowed to rip their ears off?"
She inquired innocently... but it was anything but innocent. Given the chance she would rip those ears off, make an ear necklace, and then mail it to the facility. Maybe add a few fingers and toes while doing so.
She chuckled slightly at his answer before snuggling into his embrace the best she could with one gimpy arm. Zoe allowed her eyes to drift shut.

"Yep, that's where they came from, I thought they were kinda cool at first, made it look like I had some kind of battle with a fierce beast, although this is the fiercest beast I can ever face" he said as he prodded Amber with his toe, she shook slightly as the momentum moved her before glaring up at Sam and it caused him to smile. Ripping their ears off? That sounded a little dark even for Zoe, but it was the thought that counted. "As long as you don't keep them in a secret box hidden under the bed for trophy purposes, then you have my permission" he said and he listened to her chuckle slightly as she shuffled herself into a more comfortable position as he hugged her. They were both standing there, holding each other, feeling slightly warmer because of it, to be honest it was quite an uncomfortable position to be in, but they were both extremely comfortable, so comfortable that they didn't want to move. Sam knew that as soon as he pulled away he was just going to get cold again, like when you climb out of a warm bath and the water evaporates off of you.

It wasn't until Sam looked down to see one of her arms dangling by her side when he realized that she wasn't as comfortable as he was led to believe, he sighed before saying "When are you going to be 100% again? I can't deal with these half assed hugs, I miss your full ones... and it doesn't sound like it, but I'm also worried for your well being as well" he said with shifty eyes, not that Zoe coudl see them anyway.

"No ear trophies.... I promise..." Zoe promised, her eyes twinkling mischievously. Absentmindedly she blew a strand of red hair out of her face... she arched an eyebrow at the strand as it settled back down were it had just vacated.
"My well being...." Zoe sighed slightly. "Has always been questionable. As for the wrist it will take some time... unless I want to go on a brief vacation to the underworld. Which I am not in a hurry to do so again."
Last time she went there she came back up to run into a very powerful titan and nether dragons... which is why she smelled faintly nethery. The battle that had ensued had broken her wrist and left her bruised, battered, and exhausted.
At some point she had suffered worse damage but if she had received that amount now, she would be dead.
Zoe had to remind herself several times a day that she was not the same feared creature that she was.
"Besides," She stated stubbornly. "It's my job to worry and not yours."

Sam was relieved to hear she would not keep the ears as trophies, at first it was a joke but the thought in his mind began to change into something that could actually happen. Sam felt the warm air of her sigh hit his shirt as he listened to her problem, "That's a shame" he said before remembering an old story, "You know I had a fractured wrist once, I complained about it to my parents every day for the next 10 days and they thought I was just over reacting to something, when they finally decided to take me in to the hospital to check it out, my mum was telling me that they would laugh at me in there because there wasn't anything wrong, you should have seen her face when they told us I had a fractured wrist, it was priceless." The fact that he remembered the story was funny, although at the same time it did make him feel very sad, he hadn't seen his family in 3 or 4 years now and old memories like that always choked him up slightly.

"I'm allowed to worry too, only if it's about you though, that can be the rule... You know I've always wondered whether I should go back to my family after all of these years to see them, when I left them it felt like a good idea at the time, but a few years on, I'm really starting to miss them, but I honestly don't know how they would react to me returning home to them... What do you think?" he said as he rested his head lightly on hers, asking for her honest opinion.

Zoe's mouth turned up into a genuine smile, "Well... we all have our funny family stories."
Finally finding a position to relax, she rested her cheek against his chest. He sounded slightly emotional but Zoe didn't question it.
"Is that a hint saying that I need to go to an Arae doctor?" She teased faintly as her wrist throbbed again, causing her to wince.
"Maybe I will let you worry in some cases... only if its plausible. As far as the parents are concerned," She tilted her head up and kissed him lightly. "I'd give them a call first to warn them that your coming that way they don't die from a heart attack."

Zoe's heart ached slightly as most of her family had all died, mainly of old age rather than gruesome deaths. But she would give about anything to have one more day with her human family as a whole rather than the shattered one she had.

Sam held Zoe as she made herself even more comfortable in his grip. "I won't force you to do anything, whatever I tell you to do, you would probably do the opposite anyway, so it would be best for me to tell you to stay in bed until you are 100%" he said whilst smiling. He received a light kiss from her as she gave her opinion on whether or not he should meet with his family once more.

"Give them a call? It's been a couple of years, who knows if they even live in the same house, I know how fond they were of moving out of where they were and into somewhere nicer, it may be tough to track them down" he said as he tried to figure out how it could be done in his head.

"There's even a chance that they aren't even around anymore, a lot could have happened over the past few years that I haven't known about..." he said as his mind trailed off with the thoughts of what events could have transpired over the time that he was gone, he dreaded to think on some occasions.

"Either way, when I visit them, they will either be happy to see me or hate me strongly for leaving them..."

"Like I would stay in bed," Zoe scoffed, "I'd go stir crazy and possible walk on the ceiling if that happened."
Seeing Zoe sick was even worse torture as she would get up and do stuff, generally in the weapons area of expertise. With her head pounding and feeling sick to her stomach most of the time.
"OKay, how bout this. You take a week trying to hunt down parents and I go get my wrist fixed. As for the parents, I bet you know someone who can help you. Use your Titanly contacts or a person, for all you know you could have some sort of bounty hunter slash Private Investigator for a friend."
Zoe's eyebrow arched as she thought about Sam's fear.
"Sam, a parent suddenly doesn't hate their child... did they hate you when you left?"

Zoe knew this from experience and from dealing with other people's kids. Besides, it was hard to hat your own child...

Sam chuckled at the thought of walking into his home to see Zoe sitting on the ceiling and watching television as if it was a regular occurrence. "I honestly don't know where I could begin, I suppose I could ask around the Abyss, perhaps Titan have the insane ability of knowing where everyone in the world is at any time" That idea sounded ridiculous, but he couldn't think of anything else to do other than heading over to London and searching in person, but that could lead to a whole trip wasted if he didn't come up with any results.

"Friends? Lets see, I have Amber the cat, you, Sean and a few people that go to my gym... so I don't think that I have many options when it comes to finding a bounty hunter slash private investigator... and no they didn't hate me when I left, I had a regular relationship with them my whole life, but if you had a son that just upped and left the home and never returned without any kind of word on their safety or whereabouts, would you be mad at them if they ever came back?" he said, he wasn't exactly the best judge because he has yet to be a parent so Zoe could have had a better perspective on the matter, although at some points it could prove to be a rather sour topic to speak about.

"I feel like I'll need to go over there myself and track them down, maybe there are other members of my family who still live where I remember them, they should be able to help me, it's going to be a pain, but hopefully it will be worth it... Right now though, I have a slight headache so I'm going to go lay down" he kissed Zoe lightly on her forehead before releasing her from his grasp, he entered his bedroom and climbed onto his bed to relax for a while.

"I would be more relieved that you had come back rather than mad," Zoe stated lightly as he pulled away, walking to their room... their room... it rang strangely in her head. Wordlessly she moved back over to the kitchen area. She made a sandwich, a glass of water, and snagged a bottle of pain killers from off one of the shelves in the medicine cabinet. Then she briefly cleaned up the sandwich mess before making her way into the bedroom. She wordlessly offered the sandwich, medication, and drink. The medication would without a doubt make him drowsy but Sam would feel better in the end.

Sam was beginning to ache all over for some reason, it was quite a sudden change in his mood as he seemed perfectly fine an hour or so ago. He tossed and turned on his bed and he was feeling much hotter than usual, his body itched more than usual as well and he had sweat forming on his forehead. He had no idea where this change in health came from, but as he sat up and looked around his bedroom with a blurry vision, he noticed his black tattoos were glowing a strange red colour, why they were doing this he did not know, he was still quite new to the Titan lifestyle, they did illuminate the room though. Not soon after, he was starting to get a strange pain in his chest, around his heart mostly, this only caused him to sweat even more and he was forced to sit up and rest his hand on his chest in a hope to stop it, it soon died out though.

Sam managed to drift off to sleep, this is what he intended to do from the start, but his many pains kept him from it. His sleep was plagued by nightmares and they were not particularly kind, the one that stuck in his mind involved waking up on a plain of colourless grass, much like the grass inside the Abyss, the horizon was pitch black as it matched the sky, after pushing himself up off of the ground, he looked around to see several people kneeling down in the distance. Sam cautiously ventured over as he began to recognize the people kneeling, he could make out Zoe and Amber both on their knees and facing him, his speed grew into a sprint as he ran over to help them only to be stopped suddenly by some kind of unknown force or an invisible wall, he was forced to simply stare at them as he shouted to them and asked if they were ok, only to have no response. It was silent for several minutes before they both slowly rose their heads and looked up at him with a blank, emotionless face. Sam's face certainly wasn't emotionless, he was very confused about what he could do or what was going to happen next, but what did happen next horrified him. Both of the girl's faces slowly drooping, starting from the chin and soon their entire faces were melting, Sam tried to turn away and remember it was a dream, but he was given no choice but to stand and watch as the two people he loved the most were falling apart in front of him, their faces were almost unrecognizable as flash of light blinded Sam, causing him to wake up.

His eyes shot open and he was staring at a wall, a large improvement over what he was just looking at. He swiped his forehead and tried to catch his breath as he heard the door creak from behind him, he was relieved to see Zoe alive and well as she offered him some supplies, he smiled and shifted to a seated position at the edge of the bed as he swallowed the medication and began to eat the sandwich she had gratefully prepared for him in which he simply replied with "Thank you."

Zoe entered the room a few minutes before Sam woke up, he looked strained and slightly panicked... as well as down right relieved to see her.
"Hey," She sat down at the side of the bed, causing the mattress to dip slightly. Zoe watched as he ate and drank, quietly she ran her fingers through his hair, smoothing it back from his sweaty skin.
"Nightmare?" Zoe inquired, her fingers were naturally cool to the touch trying to help calm the half titan. She would just let him talk and possibly let him lean against her if need be.

Sam was still slightly shaken by what he had just seen transpire in his own mind, it was a relief to have Zoe running her hands through his hair, at least it let him know that she was real. "Yeah err... It wasn't exactly enjoyable, it was actually rather hard to watch" he said as he closed his eyes and enjoyed the cool touch of Zoe's skin against his as his overall temperature lowered slightly.

It seemed to be the first known change that he has faced since becoming a Titan, his physicality and mentality were of course going to change and this strange nightmare was the first step on that happening. Sam had no idea what it could mean, perhaps it was a sign of the future, perhaps its was Sam's imagination taking a turn for the worse, perhaps it was actually his deepest, darkest desire being shown to him, all of these ideas made Sam shiver slightly and he wouldn't know exactly until he could ask someone who may have gone through the same thing, like Sean.

He tilted the glass and swallowed the rest of the water that was given to him as he placed the remains of his sandwich on a table for later, he felt the cool water flow down his body and lower his overall temperature. To be honest, Sam did not want to fall back to sleep again just in case he has to sit through the same event again, he shook his head quickly to give himself slightly more energy as he pushed himself up off of the bed and rustled through his drawer for a shirt he could change into.

Zoe looked at him concerned, smoothing his hair back one last time before lowering her hand down into her lap.

“Nightmares are generally not enjoyable things,” She replied after a few moments as he stood up to go grab a new shirt that did not smell of sweat and the strain of everyday life. Zoe often had nightmares, but generally not to the extent.

“Are you going to be okay?”

Such a simple term, okay. It was easy to define the word as feeling rather than a person’s mental state. But Zoe didn’t push the matter but she cleared away the plate and the glass as well as the pain killers. Placing the glass and plate into the sink, Zoe then put the pain pills back on their proper shelf. Amber was sunbathing in the window as she passed by.