Closer and Closer

Why him? Why did it have to be him? I lay with my head in my arms as the professor finished grouping people. 

"Uh, Ren?" I feel Rudy shake my shoulder a little bit. I shake my head. I am not coming out of my hidey hole anytime soon, not for anything or anyone.

"Is she scared of me? I don't blame her, I might take over the whole project if I'm not careful" He chuckles a bit at the end. That smug bastard! I am not scared and he's not taking over shit!

I abruptly stand, and turn my head to him. "I'm not scared, I would never be scared of some weakling like you! 

He puts his hands up in mock surrender, "Of course, my mistake"

I gather up all my things into my shoulder bag and nod at Rudy. "I'll see you later?"

She's already stood and collecting her stuff, "sure, go have fun" she comments without missing a beat.

I don't even wanna see the face she's making so I turn and grab Kenos's sleeve. 

"Where are we going?" He tried to tug his arm away from my grip but I just kept on tugging him to the door of the classroom. 

"To work on our project?" I shake my head, dumbass. 

"Oh, alright.."He stops struggling against my hold and lets me lead us up to the library. 

Finally, let's hope we can get this over with fast.

—

"OH! My celestia! We are not picking your dad!" I slam my hands on the desk.

Kenos chuckled a sigh as he leaned back in his chair. "Why not?" 

Oh I'm going to strangle him, we've been at this for an hour now and we haven't even picked the person for our project. And it's all because he won't fucking reason with me. And he keeps that smug look on his face all the same.

"Your father was not a prominent figure in Katursh's history!"

"That's what you think~" he sings songs.

"No! That's what I know! Check any textbook here and you won't find your family's name except for a few loose battles!" 

"What if they're purposely hiding it?

Huh? 

His posture straightened back up, his face losing its smugness for seriousness.

"What if they purposely keep away information so you can't find out the truth?"

I turn back to all the information from past classes on the table. They did almost kill me, and with everything being very hush-hush. It wouldn't be a surprise if they hid this information also.

The silence between us stretches on for however long. 

Kenos starts to ramble nervously, "I'm just kidding! Thats impossible, Katursh is the strongest countr-"

"Sure."

"What?"

I don't even know why I said that myself. It just, came out? I trust him to know what he's talking about, and he's not getting one up on me because then I'll learn more about the outside world.

I glance over to his awestruck face and back down to the table. He is so stupid.

"As long as you can come up with reputable sources then yeah, we'll do your idea."

I suddenly realize the lighting change in the library, we've been at this for hours?! I hurriedly start to pack up my papers, I need to do some homework and meet up with Jade early for some help on her work.

"Oh? How gracious of you." Kenos smiles condescendingly. 

I heave my messenger bag on my shoulder and turn towards him, hand on my hip.

"Don't think I'm giving you this win, I'm still in charge. Plus, you're willingly giving me your weaknesses so I don't mind." 

I walk by him and flicking his horn. A small tiny yelp erupts out of him.

I turn to look at him struggling not to laugh. "Did you just..?"

He falls out of his chair backwards but quickly corrects himself by teleporting next to me. He puts his arm around my shoulders as he turns us around. 

"How about I walk you to your dorm?" he chuckles nervously.

I duck out under his arm and push him on his shoulder. "No! We are not just forgetting what happened, what was that?! And when could you teleport?"

He goes to put his arm around me again but I just start the long long trek to my room. He barely has to catch up to me as he steps up right next to me.

"Listen, it's a demon thing." 

I glare at him expecting him to answer my other question as well.

He simply cocks his head at me.

"..and..?"

"And what?"

This moron.

"And, that teleporting thing?"

He puts his hand up to his mouth and chuckles. "That's a demon thing too, loxous." 

Loxous? That doesn't sound like anything I've heard, is it demon language? 

I huff out of annoyance, "I bet I could do that too."

"Sure you could~" He goes to pat my head but I duck out of the way before he can and walk a bit faster.

"Duh, of course I can, now get lost if you're gonna keep bothering me!"

He keeps up the pace and hums a quiet tune. 

What a weirdo.

—

I quietly eat my breakfast while I go over my notes once more. I've been collecting as much data as I can about teleportation since I already can teleport into other dimensions. I've been wondering about the short-term applications to that, maybe I could even time travel?

A loud band interrupts my thinking.

I sigh and close my book as everyone at my table has stopped their conversations at the new presence.

Kenos. Standing there with the biggest smug smile I've seen on him so far, leaning on a stack of books.

"Got what you asked for, levia!" there he goes again, spouting random words.

Though, it's weird to see him a day after I asked. Thank god I'm not sitting with Rudy but Jade instead.

Speaking of, "Hey there Kenos, Ren's a bit busy right now, why don't you come sit with us for a while until she finishes?" Jade says in her boy voice. I've heard her talk to and about enough boys to know when she's interested in them. 

Seems like Kenos is her type, dicks, fits perfectly.

Well, at least she's giving me an escape from him for a while. I continue to scan over my notes. As the group sucks Kenos into their conversation.

Theoretically, I'm able to teleport, it would be way easier than what I've been trying to achieve actually. There's only one problem, Kenos was able to do it with incantation, but I'm not able to do that.

So it would honestly be a waste of my mana and effort to remember the magic circle.

I go to close my book but before I can even go to turn the backing it's pulled out from right under my hands.

I sigh and look over to the left of me to see Kenos scanning the page. Fuck! I can't let him know that I was double-guessing myself!

I take out my dagger from its place in my boot sheath, as Kenos turns me I grip the book and lean into his personal space. Dagger dangerously close to his neck.

"Book, please." I smile at him. 

He stares back at me and lets go of the book and puts his hands up in a mock surrender.

I take both the dagger and the book away from him. Sheathing the dagger I pack my book back into my bag. Might as well as throw away my food and head to see Rudy.

I go to stand and pick up my tray. I'm about to say my goodbyes to the group when Kenos interrupts me.

"Well then! It was wonderful talking to you ladies but it looks like me and my Hell Beast are headed out!" he picks up the stack of books, "Talk to you all soon!"

Hell beast?! That won't slide, but I can't let him know that the nickname annoys me, shit!

"I may be a beast but never yours, you firecracker!" I wave to the group, "Sorry if he bothered you guys! I'll talk to you soon?" 

One of Jade's friends speaks up "Oh, he was a delight! Bring him around more will you?" 

I chuckle, "A delight?! We talkin' about the same guy here?"

Jade rolls her eyes, "Oh don't be so rude, ren! Kenos, please, if Ren bothers you, just know you're always welcome here!"

Yuck, she's using her guy voice again. I could care less if she wants him as long as I can get less time with him then I'm happy.

I start to walk away, 

"That won't be necessary! But thank you for the offer!" Kenos strains through his now obviously fake smile.

I smile, maybe he can feel how draining it is to be around people like that. 

Suddenly I feel a presence on my side. I glance over then look back in front of me, wait...

I turn to face the person next to me and stop dead in my tracks, Kenos.

I sigh, "What're you doing?" 

He cocks his head at me like I said the weirdest thing ever. 

"Aren't we going to the library? To look through my research?" he gestures to the stack of books that end at his chest. 

Oh, I thought he was gonna stay with Jade. I shrug and continue out of the cafe.

"I thought you would've wanted to stay with them, Jade is real nice y'know. And we could have done this later."

He shrugs nonchalantly, the stack of books in his arms shifting slightly. "Eh, they were kinda bitchy, so I figured I'd rather spend time with you. Besides, you gotta see if I'm actually useful to this project, right?~"

I smirk and glance at him to see the biggest smile on his face. A mix between smugness and joy. "Yeah, that's true," I reply, "but I can always review it on my own some other time. So you can always go do something else."

Kenos raises an eyebrow, and a mischievous grin tugs at the corner of his lips. "And miss the chance to annoy you? No way. Plus, I can be quite helpful, you know."

He is so annoying! I huff and bump into him purposefully making the stack of books shake a bit.

His laughter is barely containable as he makes sure the books don't fall. I can't wait for this project to be done!

"I could've dropped these y'know!"

"Oh I know, that's why I did it. Duh."