Fleur-de-lis

Romans 3:10

As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one;"

Vanitas's p.o.v.

It was really good seeing my sister again but it had been a long day and felt good to be headed home. I had the next two days off and John and I had decided to take the time to be together and get back to our lives later. The two of us get to the front door of our apartment when we notice an envelope jammed into the crack of the door.

John raises a brow before grabbing it and tearing it open. Inside is a letter properly folded in three's.

"Congratulations, you've been randomly selected in a promotional sweepstakes for-" John mumbles before he continued to read the letter silently. "Hmm. It says we get three night's in a fancy hotel, already reserved under a company called J.U.L.Y."

"Sounds super sketchy." I comment. "Wanna go anyway?"

"Sure. Why not." John replies. "If it's fake we'll just come back home."

The both of us turn to go back to the car and head back out onto the road. I take the moment to be a little bit introspective. I feel like life is going great for the moment. I'm working, I have friends, I reunited with my sister. These past month and a half has been amazing despite the struggles. I glance over to John who's resting face now held the slightest smile. I'm glad he's happy too.

Pretty soon we pull up to our destination; a hotel called the Merlot.

"Nice looking place." I comment.

"Any place can look nice on the outside." John comments.

"Then let's go inside and critique some more." I smirk. "Find out if the beds are sturdy and if the sheets water resistant."

"I thought you'd be tired from work." John smirks back.

"I am. But I'm not quite worn out yet." I reply.

"Oh you know I'll finish the job." John says, exiting the car and rounding to my side.

He opens my door and extends his hand. "Shall we?"

"Merrily." I reply, taking his hand.

John barely stifles a laugh as he helps me out of the car. "Merrily? Really?"

"Hey, I was just following your Victorian gentleman vibe." I defend.

"Never change." John says.

He shuts my door for me and we walk into the Merlot together. John takes his hat off and walks up to the receptionist's desk.

"Hello." He says in that slightly higher pitched voice he uses whenever he wanted someone to treat him nicer than normal.

"Uh...hello." The receptionist replies, brushing her hair behind her ear.

"Sorry to bother you but me and my buddy supposedly won a sweepstakes for a few free nights here under a company called JULY. We thought we'd come see if that was true."

"Let me search that up for you, sir." The receptionist says a bit gleefully.

Wait... Is he flirting with her? ...No, he's just vaguely noticing her and she's buying into it.

"Here we go." She says. "Reservation for two under the name a company called JULY. I'll just need your names for confirmation."

"Uh, Johnathan." he gestures to himself. "And Vanitas."

"Alright. You're all set. You're in room 349 on the third floor." She hands John two card keys. "Enjoy your stay."

"Thank you." John says with a bright smile.

John throws his arm around my neck and pulls me away.

"Sorry you had to see that." He says in his normal tone of voice.

"What was that for?" I question.

"It's a reflex. I just kinda do that around girls."

"What?"

"It's not like that." John assures. "It's just... Have you ever heard of the red pill?"

"No." I reply.

"That's probably a good thing." John says.

John leads me to the elevators and pushes the call button.

"It's like ideology that heavily believes in gender roles and states that women are naturally attention seeking and hypergamous. It's bullshit but there's a little bit of merit to it. Women tend to be more socially conscious than men in order to make fewer mistakes, given that they typically have social disadvantages."

"So you use vague emotional manipulation on women specifically because they'll notice your flaws faster?" I theorize.

"Basically." John says.

The elevator doors open and we get in.

"Isn't that a bit evil?" I ask.

John scratches the back of his head awkwardly. "Yeah. I try not to do it but the Catholic in me doesn't want people to notice my imperfections. It's like a fight or flight response."

I chortle loudly.

"What?" John questions.

"That's cute." I say.

"Whatever." John replies, looking away to try and hide the blush on his face.

The elevator doors open and we make our way down the halls.

"355, 353, 351." John says aloud, reading the room numbers on the right side. "And 349. Here we go." John says.

Two sets of footsteps could be heard approaching but neither John or I payed any mind while he was unlocking our room door.

"Seriously? Just when I decided that I'd hate you both forever."

The halls flood with a suffocating feeling of guilt at the sound of an unmistakable voice.

Both John and I turn to see...to be sure that our minds weren't playing tricks on us but we were unmistakably correct. It was Roman speaking to us...and at his side was a gorgeous redheaded woman.

"Guess I'll just have to deal with us being neighbors for a while." Roman comments, his gaze casting hatred at me.

Roman unlocks his room and disappears into it along who I could only assume was his new girlfriend.

John turns to me, startled and confused look on his face. All he could manage to do was silently mouth to me the words

What the fuck?