World's First Demon Lord 50 Can You See More Than Your Flaws In The Mirror That Reflects Your Soul?

April 19, 1:45 pm, Canberra, Australia

The room was a mess. Bedsheets were all over the place, the door to the wardrobe hung askew from its place, and a laptop lay smashed in the corner.

"Well, looks like I have an excuse for an extension," Tarik joked as he picked up the pieces of his laptop.

It was only at that moment, while Tarik was bending over, did Gadiel fully realize that Tarik was only in blue boxer briefs. He felt his face grow hot as he turned around, looking for something to do.

He picked up the door off the floor, which was a lot heavier than he expected. Luckily, Gadiel had experience in lifting heavy things. He propped the door back up in its place.

"If you give me some screws and a screwdriver, I think I can get this door functional again," he said, turning around to find Tarik, still only in his underwear, staring at him. The rest of his words died in his throat.

"What?" he managed to say. Tarik immediately looked away.

"I should...put on some clothes," he said, opening his wardrobe, blocking his face.

Gadiel nodded, and turned to face the door again. He fiddled with his hands; he didn't know what he was supposed to do right now.

Then again, maybe this little bit of time was so he could prepare to relive the worst moments of his life. He stared at the wooden door, but all he could see were those eyes, looking at him like they hated him.

He didn't want it to be his fault. He really wished it wasn't. He had other problems.

But Gadiel knew it was his fault.

Why else would those eyes look at him like that?

"You're doing it again," said Tarik, snapping Gadiel out of it. He turned to find Tarik now dressed jeans and a layered, unb.u.t.toned dress s.h.i.+rt.

Automatically, Gadiel put on a fake smile.

"Doing what?"

Instead of answering, Tarik simply gestured to the area around Gadiel, which had a thin layer of frost covering it now.

"Ah," said Gadiel, smiling sheepishly. He really hadn't meant to…

Tarik took Gadiel's hand, and lead him to the bed. Then, they both sat down.

"Alright, first thing first: I'm sorry," said Tarik.

As always, everything Tarik did was completely incomprehensible to Gadiel. Luckily, Tarik went on to explain.

"I'm sorry for forcing you to try and talk about...whatever trauma it is you have," said Tarik. "I didn't want to force you to do something you didn't want to do."

Gadiel stayed silent, but inside, his emotions were in turmoil.

"I just...when you use your powers, you always look incredibly...sad," said Tarik. "And it's painful to watch you bring up something that makes you so unhappy, just so you can help me."

"That's why I said if you really don't want to do this, then I'm okay with it," he went on. "If it's too much to relive...whatever that all is, then I'm okay with you leaving."

"What about you?" Gadiel asked. "Do you want to leave me?"

Tarik punched Gadiel on the shoulder.

"Of course not, andouille," Tarik replied instantly. "But if you're gonna insist on staying..."

"I want to help."

"Then let me help you as well," said Tarik. "I don't want you to make that kind of expression again."

Gadiel smiled wanly.

"But what if I can't help you afterwards?" he said. "What you help me, and I can't help you anymore."

"Knowing you're safe and happy helps me more than you think," Tarik replied. "That's why if you choose to stop, I can go alone. Cause I know you'll be okay."

Gadiel looked away. Tarik's expression was…

He wasn't lying. He was telling the truth.

He really did care about him like that?

…

Gadiel really felt like he was the worst.

How could he have tricked someone as good as Tarik into liking him?

Tarik put a hand on Gadiel's thigh.

"If it's too much, then you don't have to talk now," said Tarik. "But if you want to keep going..."

"That's not fair," said Gadiel. "You don't get to decide my choices for me."

"So what do you expect me to do?" said Tarik. "Watch you descend into your own trauma every time you need to defend yourself? Pray and hope that every time I try to reach you, I find you and bring you back?"

"You've always brought me back before."

"But what if next time, I can't?" said Tarik, tearing up. "What if you're too deep, and I can't save you anymore, Gadiel?"

Gadiel didn't know what to say to that.

"Gadiel, I don't want you to go somewhere I can't follow," said Tarik.

They stayed silent for a moment.

"Did you just quote Lord of the R*ngs at me?" said Gadiel.

Tarik blinked.

"What?" he said.

There looked at each other for a moment. Then, without warning they both burst into laughter.

"Y-you-" Gadiel gasped. "Lord- Lord of the f***ing-"

"I didn't know!" Tarik wheezed. "I didn't- I'm not-"

By the time they stopped laughing, Gadiel was on the floor, clutching his stomach, while Tarik was laying back on the bed. They lay there, panting for a while as they got their breath back.

Slowly, Gadiel got onto his knees, and rested his face on the bed. He watched as Tarik turned to face him, his eyes still wet with tears of laughter.

"Do you really want to know what I'm thinking about when I use my power?" he asked.

Tarik thought about it for a while.

"No," he said. "I just want to know you."

Gadiel buried his face in the mattress, and sighed.

"You know that's unfair right?" he said. "It's unfair how you can be both so hot and romantic, you know? Real people are awkward and stupid."

"Ah but you forget," said Tarik. "I an French."

"Half-French."

"More French than you," Tarik countered. "So my Frenchness is still overpowering to you non-French mortals."

Gadiel chuckled, and looked up at Tarik's face again. They shared a look for just a while; Gadiel admiring Tarik's warm eyes and lush, full lips.

"Alright," he sighed, getting up and sitting back on the bed again, turning away from Tarik.

"I'll tell you what I think about to make it cold."

Tarik said nothing, and Gadiel took a deep breath.

"When I was in Year Seven..." he began, then stopped.

Those eyes.

The coldest eyes he had ever seen.

…

"I almost killed a cla.s.smate," he said, finis.h.i.+ng his sentence.

Tarik simply watched as Gadiel looked up at the ceiling, remembering the commotion that had surrounded the whole incident. They had gotten onto the nightly news.

He began recounting the entire event, Tarik simply watching at first. Then, as Gadiel's voice began to choke, and his tears started to fall, he crawled closer and took his hand. They shared a look, and Gadiel continued his story.

About how he almost killed his cla.s.smate, and no one cared. Everyone told him that it wasn't his fault, that the person he almost killed deserved it.

Because the person he almost killed was gay.

By the time he finished, Tarik's head was on Gadiel's shoulder, his hand in Gadiel's as they sat next to each other on the bed. They sat in silence for a while.

��Gadiel," said Tarik, breaking the silence first. He looked up, gazing straight into Gadiel's eyes.

"You're not that person anymore."

Gadiel felt a lump form in his throat.

"How do you know that?" he whispered, unable to keep his gaze with Tarik's.

"Hey, look at me."

Tarik grabbed Gadiel's chin and forced him to look at himself.

"The person you told me about wouldn't be the type to sacrifice himself for someone else," said Tarik. "You've put your life on the line for me more times than I can count in these past few weeks."

Gadiel felt his jaw quivering.

"The person you told me about wouldn't care about others," said Tarik. "But I've seen the way you treat other people."

"You make time for people, even when you don't have time yourself, like back then with the chicken. When it's cold and we're out, you're always checking to see if I'm feeling alright. You..."

Tarik took a deep breath.

"You're so in your head sometimes, I feel like you get sick of yourself," he said, a little exasperated. "I wish you could see yourself the way I see you. Maybe then you'd realize how beautiful and kind you are."

The lump in his throat seemed to get bigger as Gadiel tried to hold back tears. He was emotionally drained; and yet more mixed and confusing emotions threatened to come up through his throat.

"And as for your family, and all them...well..." Tarik sighed.

"I don't know how to help with that. But whatever you decide to do with them...I'll be here. I'll help in any way I can." Tarik finished. "Just let me know what I can do."

He lay his head on Gadiel's shoulder again, and Gadiel lay his head on top. They sat like that for a while.

"You will tell me how I can help, right?" asked Tarik.

"Well, I gotta figure it out first, right?" said Gadiel. "I mean, give me a minute I just finished baring my soul out to you."

"Sorry, sorry..."

"But while we're talking about things you said," said Gadiel, turning to face Tarik, "you think I'm handsome?"

He grinned as Tarik rolled his eyes.

"I said beautiful, not handsome," said Tarik. "And calm down. You're alright. A solid eight, I'd say."

"Eight?" said Gadiel in mock outrage. "Eight? Who is-"

"Chris H*msworth."

"You can't bring Thor into a conversation about normal people, Tarik!"

Gadiel grinned as Tarik replied. He was grateful that Tarik had listened, and that he had really heard him. Just the act of being seen by someone, and being accepted was enough to fill him up with tears of relief.

He felt his stomach flutter as Tarik smiled back at him.

He really didn't deserve to be this happy.

***

April 19, 10:00 am, London, England

I looked through the doc.u.ments Ms. Kang had put together, thinking.

My desk was unusually full of doc.u.ments today. It was so full to the point where I was annoyed that I didn't have enough room, and had temporarily moved my computer to a storage s.p.a.ce.

Most of the doc.u.ments were actually from things not to do with Congo. Apparently, my administrative receptionist had consistently forgotten to let me know I had papers to sign in order to go ahead with a bunch of new initiatives. I had no idea what the initiatives were, or why they needed my signature, but that wasn't the point.

The point was that she gummed up the works if my perfectly working business.

Now I had to go around putting out fires that had been caused by delays, and whole bunch of other headaches. It would mean meetings with other billionaires and probably some millionaires, and whole bunch of elbow rubbing and contract signing.

In other words, I had to actually do my job for a while.

Ridiculous. How dare she let this happen. Of course, I fired her on the spot.

Now I had to sign all these papers, do all those meetings, and find a replacement for her. As much as I wanted to leave all these to Ms. Kang, she already had too much on her hands. While I felt like she would be able to handle it all, I was well aware that she was still human.

That meant that if I wanted Project Demon Lord to run smoothly, I couldn't let her get distracted with the day-to-day of the business.

I sighed. The things I did for my subordinates in order for them to do their jobs properly. I should really get a medal for being such a saint.

Though, a medal wouldn't help with all this d.a.m.n paperwork.

Still, I had more important things to address right now. Such as the doc.u.ments Ms. Kang had sent me about Mr. Gadiel Kazem.

I spun around in my chair to face the window, the cityscape glittering in the morning sun below me. I glanced briefly at the buildings, before looking back down at my tablet.

It was a police report, from a few years back about an attempted suicide. Someone by the name of Omar bin Khattoub. He had tried to hang himself from a ceiling fan. Apparently, he had a history of depression and anxiety, and was also put on medication for those disorders.

They had also been bullied ruthlessly for a year by a certain Gadiel Kazem.

I snapped my fingers, calling a small projection of Gadiel and Tarik to be brought up. Currently, they were heading towards Garema Place in the Canberra CBD for some food. A stark difference from a few hours ago when Gadiel explained how he had almost killed a cla.s.smate, and that he couldn't forgive himself for that.

Frankly, I was a little annoyed. The way retold the story to Tarik, it made it seem like he had taken a knife to Omar's throat and had let him bleed out before calling an ambulance. Maybe that was how he felt about it, but personally, I didn't see the big deal.

What was wrong with killing people you didn't like? Then again...I scrolled through the doc.u.ment, humming to myself.

I suppose that is a very Demon-Lord-like way of thinking. The fact that our heroes were...not like that...could be seen as a good thing. I guess.

The whole conversation had been more sweet than I could handle, to be honest. Gadiel confessed that he almost killed someone, and that all he had to imagine were Omar's eyes glaring at him while he bullied him.

"The coldest gaze I've ever seen," was how he put it.

It all made sense. Perfect sense.

Except for the fact that it didn't.

Because I knew how his power worked. The whole thing was designed to be based on how they processed their emotions. That is to say, it didn't really matter how they felt; if their emotions exploded, so would their powers. If they were able to control their emotions, they could control their power.

Which was why Gadiel's explanation made no sense. Just because he saw a very intense emotion, didn't mean he could channel it. Unless he was some sort of empath. But given his personality so far, he didn't seem the type to be able to tune into other people's emotions easily.

That said...from my years of ruling, I had gotten a pretty good lie detector...and it didn't seem like Gadiel was lying…

If my hunch was right, Gadiel was telling the truth...but was leaving out something crucial...

"Mr. Kazem you devious little minx," I murmured as I watched him order his food with Tarik. "Just what exactly are you hiding?"