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Ever since Alastor had broken free from his deal, he had been making a habit of visiting Rosie and her emporium. It wasn’t that he didn’t enjoy her company or her as a person, but whenever he would go to see her when their deal was still in place, he felt a sense of dread, knowing it was only a matter of time before she would remind her of his place under her. That wasn’t something he particularly enjoyed, so if it was something he could avoid, he often did. However, now that things have changed, now that he was no longer her “pet,” he felt significantly more comfortable about visiting her. Alastor liked Rosie; he respected her, and he had even grown to care for her. It had simply been that one, pesky detail that he wasn’t incredibly fond of. It was gone, though. It was no longer a dark cloud hanging over their relationship, and, as such, Alastor was happy to move forward as something as close to friendship as he believed he could ever get.
When Alastor had decided to visit Rosie today, he had expected her to be surrounded by people, offering advice to her cannibals who sought her assistance. It was rare for the cannibal Overlord to take a day off, tending to work herself to the bone before the inevitable crash. He had spoken to her about taking a break sometimes, but although she seemed to understand his concerns, she didn’t listen. There was so much to do, which he realized, but their goal had been a hundred years in the making; surely she could find a little time to take a breather and relax. With him now being her partner, her equal in all of this, he was willing to take on a bit more responsibility, even if he already knew her answer if he were to ask: that he was fulfilling his role by staying at the hotel and doing what he could there.
However, when Alastor swung open the door to Rosie’s Emporium, he didn’t see her surrounded by people. Rather, she was all alone, standing at the counter with a few piles of paper stacked up next to her. That was strange. Aside from contracts, there wasn’t much one would require forms and other documents for. Sinners, if powerful enough, were able to do as they pleased without the need for such things. There were no government facilities, no taxes to file, nothing that should lead to a sight like this. Alastor watched as Rosie took a piece of paper from the largest pile, her pitch-black eyes scanning over the form, reading the words on the page, before placing it into another, smaller pile. She was so lost in whatever it was she was doing that she hadn’t even realized he was there. It must be important what she was doing, even if he wasn’t quite sure what that was.
Crossing the room, his heels clicking against the tile floor, Alastor moved to stand on the opposite side of the counter from Rosie. It was only when he arrived that he asked the question that had been plaguing his mind ever since he set foot inside her shop.
“What are you doing?” Alastor questioned, his voice filled with genuine confusion. He tried to take a peek at the papers set before her, but with them being upside down, it made it difficult for him to read.
Rosie glanced up from the document she was reading, her eyes widening a bit in surprise. He could tell from that reaction alone that she truly hadn’t noticed his presence at all. He would usually be offended at such a thing, but it was clear that she was completely immersed in the task at hand. He would never tell her such a thing, but he found it cute that she was so focused, so defenseless, so unaware. It was so unlike the powerful, always in control woman he knew so well. Her mask had slipped, if only for a moment, and before he could fully appreciate it, it was back in place, a pleasant smile gracing her perfectly painted lips.
“Alastor, I hadn’t noticed you come in. You should’ve told me you were coming over. I would’ve made tea,” Rosie greeted as she set down the paper she had been looking at all on its lonesome, signifying to him that she wasn’t done with it, but that he was more important to her at the moment than the assignment she had set for herself.
“No need,” Alastor responded with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I’m much more interested in what you have going on here.”
Rosie glanced down at the papers littering her counter for a moment before looking back up at him once more.
“Ah, this? Well, in light of recent events, I have begun the process of forging contracts with those in the living realm,” Rosie looking down at the plethora of documents she had been sorting into piles as she mindlessly played with the corner of one of them. “While the last human I made a deal with didn’t turn out quite as I hoped,” Rosie paused, her eyes flickering up to him yet again. She let the words hang in the air between them for a couple of seconds, but he didn’t let it get to him. He was proud that he had managed to get one over on her and break free of the contract that had bound his soul for so long. “There are benefits of having connections with those in the mortal world.”
It wasn’t that Alastor didn’t agree with Rosie’s sentiment. In fact, he could also see the upside of involving oneself with those in the land of the living. He had been given decades to contemplate the advantages, after all. He would need to be brainless not to consider his situation and the reasons it had come to be. There was more to her having gotten herself involved with him aside from his soul being in any way special, no matter what she had told them during their initial meeting. However, despite the benefits of cutting deals with humans, there was one problem he had, not with the idea, but with the way she was going about it.
“Don’t you think this is something you should’ve brought up with me?”
The beautiful smile that had graced Rosie’s face slowly turned into a teasing smirk, and he realized, before she said so much as a word, that he was about to be the punchline in some joke. Though with the way things were between them now, any of her remarks carried notably less weight than they used to and didn’t get under his skin nearly as much as they used to.
“Well, since you went about doing stuff behind my back, I figured you wouldn’t mind if I did the same,” Rosie playfully joked. There was no heat in her words, no venom, so he was able to take it in stride.
“Are you still mad about that?” Alastor asked, already knowing the answer.
Rosie gave a soft shake of her head, her short, snow-white hair swaying from side to side as she did so. “No, but you know how much I adore teasing you, darling.”
Alastor let out a soft sigh, acting as though he was bothered by her jesting, when the truth was the opposite; he was anything but. After a brief moment’s pause between the pair, he spoke up once more, realizing he still didn’t have a clear answer about his initial curiosity.
“Anyway, what’s with all these documents? I didn’t think it would take this much paperwork to make a deal with a human soul.”
“Oh, it doesn’t!” Rosie exclaimed, rushing to correct his misconception. “Making a deal with you was quite easy in comparison, dear. No, this is different,” she said, trailing off for a moment, during which she picked up one of the papers, the one she had been reading over when he had first arrived, and held it out for him to take. Interested in the contents the form could contain, Alastor gently took it from her grasp. He held it in front of him, looking down at the words written on the page, but not yet reading them. “It seems that, despite my not having made an appearance in the living realm in quite some time, recently, I gained a bit of notoriety.”
“Really?” Alastor asked, his eyebrows drawing together as he attempted to figure out why that might be the case. As far as he knew, he was the only person she had made a deal with whilst they were still alive, but that was nearly a century ago. If rumors of Rosie’s existence had spread amongst those living in the human world, it should have been back then. Even he was able to learn very little about the demons who existed in Hell, and he had actually managed to forge a pact with one. For her not to have interacted with that realm since then, and still gain some semblance of notability, was surprising, to say the least.
It was then that Rosie said something that caught him even more off guard.
“It’s not just me. Your name is also getting just as much traction these days, if not more so than mine.”
This news rocked Alastor to his core, as while his radio show had been quite well-liked back in his heyday, it had been almost a hundred years since anyone in the land of the living had heard a broadcast from him. There was no reason for his name to be spread in this day and age, outside of the Pride Ring. If Rosie was correct and living souls were gossiping about him as a demon, as opposed to the life he had lived, perhaps his recent notoriety had little to do with his radio show or the murder spree he had committed back when he walked amongst them. If they were interested in Rosie as herself, as the darling and dangerous demon she was, it could be that this was also the case for him. As she frequently told him when he was under her wing, this could be very prime pickings for a deal to be struck.
“Why?” Alastor questioned, slowly beginning to understand the situation, but still not fully comprehending it. It made little in the way of sense, and yet, she wouldn’t be pouring all this time and effort into something which would not benefit her and the goals they were working toward.
“I don’t know,” Rosie replied truthfully. “But these are the messages I’ve received lately from those who wish to make a deal with me, with us. Each piece of paper is a different soul who attempted to reach out.”
Looking down at the forms in question, Alastor was taken by surprise for the third time that day. This wasn’t the paperwork that came with a few souls making their voices heard, hoping to sell their souls in exchange for wealth, power, fame, and who knew what else. No, there were easily over a hundred documents sitting before him on the counter, meaning over a hundred people in the human realm were waiting for a response, desperate to forge a contract with them. Alastor couldn’t deny that he had been a little hurt when Rosie hadn’t come to him first before diving headfirst into making deals, such as the one she had made with him, with other mortals, but that was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment. This was far more interesting than he had, at first, believed.
“Interesting, it seems like you might be right. If there are this many people willing to cut a deal with us, they might just prove to be of use.”