milliways_bar | (no subject)

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He was getting more and more tired of seeing...

He wasn't sure what, exactly, he was seeing. Maybe, he thought, he was fooling himself. Maybe he was just being paranoid as the time came closer and closer.

But maybe paranoia was worth it, too.

Either way, when he came into Milliways, he was wearing an outfit close to a suit - button-down shirt and a jacket and a tie, that he immediately loosened. Job interview clothes.

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"Which is what, I'm assuming, you're getting right now. With the cheese and all."

She gives him a knowing look.

"I'm just running up a tab until I actually get worried about the figures. I'll do something about it later. Right now, I'm just hungry. I figure, I can't get people gifts because I have no money, the least I can do is eat."

"The last thing I need is another debt I can't pay off," Steve said with a try at a smile. "My savings are running a little thin and the house deal... If you ask me it can't come through soon enough." If it came through at all.

"Hopefully soon?" she offers by way of consolation. "But hey. You still need to eat. Even if it means having to leave the tab until you can pay it."

She pushes her salad at him.

"Take some; I won't eat it all. All that cheese can't be good for you. Even if it is nummy."

He chuckled. "Nah. You eat all you want first. But the house... That may not go so well." He shook his head even though he took a few bites of grilled cheese. "When I drive by, I swear I think it's starting to rebuild itself."

"It might well be, from what you said. Either that, or there are wee little people in there rebuilding it for it."

And now she has that mental image.

"It's like... The Borrowers if they were Xander. God, that's weird."

Steve chuckled - weakly, but it was a chuckle anyway. "Well, I know my grandmother's spirits, along with the rest of the people the house ate, used to build it while it was empty before, but now it looks like they're making repairs... And if TechStar doesn't come through with the payments, I end up in the same situation as I was in before. With a big, haunted house. that I can't get off my hands."

"You ever tried to have it exorcised?"

"Can't say I have," he admitted, "but I also kinda figure that... Gramma would just have the house eat the priest."

"Would there be pea soup involved at all?"

She'd seen the movie. The head-spinny thing didn't bother her at all. The soup? Was just gross.

She shrugs.

"I dunno. I mean... your Grandma just sounds mean, you know? As well as slightly evil, haunting, kinda... probably smells musty. Does she smell musty?"

That was a good question.

"Actually..." he said, as he tried to remember, "I don't really remember. She... smelled like something. Not quite like dead, but... I don't know. Mothballs and attic."

Because some attics had their very own scent.

Especially evil attics.

"My grandma used to smell like... cabbage. Cabbage and mothballs. I think."

She sighs.

"But - eh, I don't want priests getting eaten. That'd be bad."

"You're telling me." He chuckled, but only faintly. "I think you mentioned something last time we talked. Something about demons?"

Maybe, just maybe...

"I could tell you a lot about demons. Just ask."

She laughs derisively at herself.

"Like I could tell you anything. I just kill them."

"I was just wondering. Did you mention something about it... being possible that a demon did all that with the house? If it was a demon, could you kill it?" Because he wanted to get rid of that house.

"Uh. Well. It might be?"

Now she looks a little lost, little helpless. It's about this point in time that she normally says, 'Giiiiiiiiiles~"

"I mean, if it was, I might be able to. But from what you've said, I don't think it is? I think it's like, a good old-fashioned haunting. And I can't really fight a haunting."

Steve nodded. He sighed but nodded. "Well, it was worth a try, right?" he asked, trying a smile. "I'm about at the end of my rope with this thing."

She nods in reply.

"I'll try and ask the gang if I see any of them here. I can't promise anything, because they seem to come and go, but I'll try. Okay? Chin up and all that."

"Hey, no pressure," Steve said, holding up a hand. "Maybe part of it was just a clumsy attempt at asking you out."

"Oh. Well, I've heard weirder lines."

Beat.

"No, actually, I think, 'come and help me slay my demon house,' is pretty much up there at the top."

She smiles, perhaps a little more shyly than before.

Steve laughed. "Yeah, well, I've never been the best with pick-up lines, so I kinda capitalised. Very cute girl who kills demons, evil house, combine the two..."

"Demon-fighting date? Well, at least it'll be normal for me."

She kind of gives him :O face at 'very cute girl' but says nothing, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear.

"So, uh. If we skip the house, maybe? Wait, can people even... come through to other universes?" So many questions. He was accepting a lot pretty quickly - but there was a lot of evidence, too.

She nods.

"Yup. Went to New York, a while back. I mean, I was dead then so I started going all Casper after a few days, but came back and I was fine. I'm better now, though, so - maybe that won't happen?"

"You... were dead?" Blink. "But you're not the ghost-haunty-type. So... uh. Magic?"

Any universe that has demons, he figured, probably has magic.

"Kinda. There was a portal thing, and I ended up dead and buried and magic brought me back and can we not talk about it more than that?"

She gives him puppydog eyes.

"Suffice to say - I'm not dead. I got better."