Sweet Release of Death

Hot n Cold

Trigger warning: homophobia and the F word (and it ain't "fuck")

Special thanks to arson_hoe for helping with the chapter title! UWU

[Jeff's POV]

Several times during our joyride I thought Death was going to crush my ribcage from how tightly he was holding onto me. It's so cute how Death himself is scared of a little motorcycle ride, and he can't even be killed if we crash. He would be fine.

Although Death's grip on me was harsh, it didn't distract me from checking out the city. Shops big and small, annoyingly flashy billboards, bustling overhead freeways and the occasional flock of birds that zipped past traffic lights. I think after a while, Death grew more relaxed and checked out the sights too. Once, I caught him leaning towards a truck that was stopped next to us at a light. I didn't know why he was doing that, until I noticed a dog was staring at him from the truck bed. What a goddamn cutie. The dog looked nice too.

Finally, I spotted the parking garage that connected to the biggest mall in the city—shit was not hard to miss at all. I pulled into it and just to fuck with Death I went up a few levels. He pressed himself even closer to me and I grinned under my helmet with satisfaction. I ended up parking in an empty space next to some red mini van (god what kind of loser soccer mom drives this?).

Once I had turned my bike off, Death immediately jumped off of it. "I hate that damned thing. I never want to ride it again."

I grabbed onto my helmet and pulled it off as I remarked, "Oh, whatever, you still think it's cool."

Death huffed and went to pull his helmet off, though it looked like he was having a bit of trouble. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed it for him and yanked it off. He stumbled backward with a yelp but I lunged forward just in time to catch him by his waist. He leaned into my arm, taken aback as he stared up at me. I just smirked and quipped, "So clumsy. Maybe I should give you little knee-pads too, huh?"

"Shut up, dullard," he grumbled, puffing his cheeks a bit.

I couldn't help myself. I reached up and squished his cheeks. "Baby."

"Stop," Death grumbled.

I continued to squish his cheeks. "Baby birdie. Squishy squishy squishy—."

"UGH!" Death swatted at my hands and began walking away, towards the mall entrance.

I followed after him, laughing my fucking ass off, "Awe...! Come back, Dee! I promise I won't squish your face again...maybe."

Death raised up his middle finger at me without turning around to face me. Oh my gosh!!!

"That's the first time I've seen you do that! Dee, baby, it's another milestone—!"

"Stop talking...!!!"

"Haha, never!"

...

We got inside the mall and while for me it was just another mall...Death had this wondrous look on his face. His silver eyes sparkled and he was looking at everything, taking all the new sights in.

I dragged him over to a mall directory. "Okay so we're here and these are all the stores. Uh...there's a lot of stores. Where do you want to go—aaand he's gone." I saw Death making a mad B-line into a store not too far from where I was standing. Why that one—ah...I read the sign on the store. It was a jewelry store. Jewelry is shiny. Uh oh.

"Goddammit, Dee..."

I followed after the beautiful idiot and found him crouched down with his face and hands pressed against a display case. He was utterly enamored with the glittering pieces strewn professionally in the display case. Just seeing how happy he got over looking at them all made me smile. I also took note of a middle aged woman behind the display case, probably an employee, who was talking with (or more like at) Death. Upon getting closer to them I could hear what she was saying, something about their sales and business partners or some other business bullshit like that.