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Julia stared. She couldn’t stop herself, even if she had wanted to. But today, someone caught her eyes and she proceeded to follow him.
Her mother had been to this store before, and the people knew her as well as she knew the lay out of the store itself. So she knew she was safe as she watched tall one as he talked with the woman at his side. She was ordinary looking, she even reminded Juls of her own mother, especially with how she acted with him.
For a moment, she left him as he wanted to look at something in the aisle and refused to move. As she walked away and he didn’t, Juls crept closer to him. She didn’t mean to hide from him, she did it on instinct. But when she was next to the shelves at the end, he snapped his head towards her. A flash of gold hit in her vision and she had to close her eyes and look away.
Once she felt ok again, she opened them back up, but stared at his clothing instead. He had the soft clothes that she could recognize from the distances between them. A mash of dark colors that did not clash, but complimented instead his pale skin. His hands were pale as well, but his fingers darkened, like he had been playing in a fire and had gotten burned. And it almost looked like he had claws instead of nails. She slowly looked back up, as one such hand raised to reach for something among the shelving. He was no longer looking at her, and his bright eyes were hidden from view.
Julia soon found herself much too close to him, no longer hiding from him. In the back of her mind, she could hear her mother’s words of people’s space, but she ignored it as she stared up as his black and ghost white hair. His cheeks were covered in black as if covers with ashes, but in nice clean lines. She desperately wanted to ask how his mother let him wear it without being in trouble, when he spoke up.
“Why the fuck are you here?” He snapped, turning his eyes back to her and she felt a slight pain in her head, so she closed her eyes again. She opened them again, and found him bent down in front of her, though not crouched down to her stature. He looked like he was looking at the things in front of him, but she could feel his eyes still on her. She focused on his mouth with his sharp teeth as he continued.
“And here I thought I was the best shit ever to look at. Then again, you’re just a tiny worm…” Julia could feel her skin crawl as he didn’t look away. “…you are a strange meat sack. You are about as quiet as my last dinner date after we were done.”
Julia shifted her feet, and then raised her hands. In shaky motions she waved them about, but then stopped, suddenly freezing as she realized that he probably couldn’t understand her.
“…Come on you little shit, don’t leave me hanging.” Juls shot up, her head snapping up almost as fast as his had, and she saw gold, but it was warmer then before, just as the words were. She only saw it for a second, before she closed her eyes again and restarted her motions.
“Looking at eyes hurts.”
He looked at her, but not in a pity sort of way, but instead curious, “Even mine?”
She breathed easily again, finding some confidence at the fact that he saw her hands as words. “Yes, but they are still pretty.”
He laughed, “They better be! I’ve killed to get myself to look this good.”
Juls giggled, “You’re funny.”
He froze at these words, then his focused on her again and her skin reacted as before, “Little fucker…”
She quickly signed, saying, “Your funny cuz you don’t pretend.”
“…what the hell is that supposed to mean?”
Julia paused, then replied, “Being just human is lame. Rules about acting right are bad. It’s too much.” She looked down, where one of his hands were resting on his knee. She pointed to it, and finished with, “I wish I could be like you are not care.”
He was quiet, but his stare no longer hurt.
In fact, she felt perfectly fine. No pain, no flinching, no anything. She slowly brought her eyes back up, and finally saw his actual eyes instead of blurs like a paintbrush. There were bright and golden, and the longer she stared, the more she realized it didn’t hurt.
Juls came out of her state as he hummed, reaching to her. She didn’t move, even as he reached a claw out and proved how sharp they really were as he left a swift scratch on her cheek.
“…You are one fucked up little spawn.”
It was that moment that the woman came back, commenting about something quickly, but then stopped as she spotted Julia. The pain of being looked at returned with vengeance as she looked away, though it didn’t last long as they man stood up straight, saying, “WHAT DO YOU MEAN THEY’RE OUT OF POMEGRANATES!?”
He proceeded to shout at her, though she shouted back. Just as Julia began to think of how maybe she wasn’t his mother, it snapped in her brain.
Pomegranates. Those weird fruits things that her mother liked. They had been in her cart before Julia had left her side…
Daemon took only a small notice as the strange human finally left, leaving him and Clair alone as he demanded that they must have had some somewhere. Eventually they came to a decision of going to another store, Claire refusing to have him meet the manager to rip him apart. They had been walking back to the car, Daemon growling under his breath, when his thoughts returned to the child. It had been awhile since he needed his knowledge of sign language, but for a child to use it was oddly new for him. And it seemed clear that if it was a mute, it wasn’t due to damage or anything. At least on it’s actual body. Mind wise though…
He paused as he heard shouting, and turned to see the dumbass he was sparing a thought of running past some cars. A woman screamed at her, seeming to be her bearer, but it ignored her as it ran to him and Claire. In her hands was a bag, the cloth of twine and the kids looked as if it wanted to drop it and never touch it again.
It kept it’s hold, shifting it around a lot, as it finally reached them. It stood far too close, oblivious to appropriate personal space and then shoved it’s burden at him. It grunted, and Daemon wanted to rip it apart for daring to sound such a sound at him.
He ignored it, though did not walk away. He finally blinked once it opened it’s mouth and said in a jumble of sounds, “Tttttaayyyek!”
It was then that he realized she spoke due to her hands holding onto the bag. Clair was the one who acted though, stepping forward and tasking hold of the straps of the bag. “Thank you…?” She said, with the thing immediately rubbing it’s hands on the soft looking jacket it wore. It avoided Clair’s eyes, obviously, but then took a moment to stare at Daemon. He still hadn’t moved as it turned around and ran back the way it had come.
It wasn’t until Claire gasped, that he moved to look at her. “What?” He demanded, only for her to show him the contents of the bag. Pomegranates, and clearly the one who they had belonged to had been greedy and had taken every last one. Daemon looked back up at her across the way, and grinned. “That small demon child had got some potential.”