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Gem doesn’t know why she does this to herself.
Sure, she might be a demon, a denizen of Hell and a spreader of sin and vice and all those lovely, nasty things. And so it only stands to reason that she ought to be battling angels, or at the very least making their lives as difficult as possible. And it isn’t like she’s bad at the whole sowing seeds of chaos deal, so it does make sense for her to be on the front lines, so to speak. But she could go anywhere on Earth, is the thing. She could choose to reincarnate on the opposite side of the planet if she wanted! So why she kept choosing to follow after this one specific angel—this one specific, stupidly gorgeous angel—was beyond her.
As Gem approaches the woman behind the bar of the cafe, she thinks to herself that she might be a bit of a masochist. Surely that’s the only possible explanation.
“Hi, Pearl,” she says in her brightest, most chipper voice. “Nice place you’ve got here. You make a cute barista.”
Pearl, who had clearly just been closing up shop and was not expecting more patrons for the night, squeaks and whips around to face her. “You!” she yelps. Her hand flies instinctively to her waist, closing around the hilt of a normally-invisible holy blade. “What are you doing here?”
Gem raises her hands in a gesture of innocence. “Hey, I’m not here to fight! Not this time, anyway. I hadn’t gotten a chance to pay you a visit in this incarnation yet, so I just wanted to say hi.”
Predictably, this does not put Pearl at ease whatsoever. “You never just want to do anything,” she says, eyeing Gem with a suspicious glower that has no business being as attractive as it is. “What do you really want?”
Gem makes a show of considering the question. “A coffee would be nice.”
“We’re closed.”
“Not for another two minutes, you’re not!” Gem says with a wicked grin. “I checked.”
Pearl gapes at her, then grabs a cup with a scowl. “Two minutes before closing,” she seethes. “You really are a demon.”
There’s a brief sleight of hand as Pearl does some unsanctioned miracling that Gem graciously ignores, and then a coffee cup is shoved into her hands, full and steaming. Gem takes a quick sip and finds that, rather than a coffee, it’s filled with tea; specifically, a strain of tea that she used to adore and that she hasn’t tasted in centuries.
She blinks up at Pearl, unable to hide her surprise.
Pearl shrugs defensively and goes back to her closing duties. “You hate coffee.”
Gem’s heart clenches painfully, and for a split second she’s terrified she might actually cry. As it is, what she blurts next is only slightly less of a terrible idea.
“We should stop fighting.”
Pearl pauses in the middle of wiping down the counters. “What?”
“I’m serious!” Gem says. “Look, things would be a lot easier for both of us if we each didn’t have to worry about the other killing us every life cycle, right? We could both have our fun and do our jobs and just not get in each other’s way! Plus, the last, like, five times we properly fought, I won.”
Pearl huffs. “That last time was only because you cheated!”
“I did not!”
“Hostages is cheating!”
Gem waves a dismissive hand. “Hey, all’s fair in war.” And the other thing, her internal monologue unhelpfully provides. “Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that—” She pauses, considering how best to proceed before reluctantly realizing that some amount of genuine vulnerability might actually be the best play. She squares her shoulders and forges ahead.
“The point is that, at the end of the day, I like having you around,” she admits. “You’re fun to talk to! More fun than any other angel I’ve met, anyway. And you remember what tea I like.” Gem holds the warm cup in both hands, close to her chest. “So I know it’s not like you think nothing of me, either. So why don’t we just not fight?”
Pearl’s pale eyes bore into her, carefully assessing. “So, what?” she asks cautiously. “We just...stay out of each other’s way?”
Gem shrugs. “Sure,” she says. “Or, I don’t know. We could try being friends.”
“Friends.” The flat look of disbelief Pearl gives her speaks volumes.
“At least for this incarnation. If it doesn’t work out, we can go back to stabbing each other in the next life.” Gem holds out a hand. “What do you say, angel?”
A long, terrible moment passes, during which Gem is afraid she might wither away in embarrassment. But then, against all odds, Pearl reaches over the counter to shake her hand.
“Sure,” she says, a relaxed smile starting to bloom on her face. “Let’s give it a try.”
Gem’s aching heart flutters traitorously in her chest, and for once, she lets herself hope.