The Puppet Master

Light poured into Josh's room, his alarm clock hadn't signalled his need to be awake yet, but the sun was beginning to loom over the horizon. It was still early, barely past 7:15, but Josh decided he might as well get up anyway. He had work, and his lack of sleep the night before made him think that he would take a lot longer to be less dreary and for his exhaustion to be ignored.

His dad was awake and scanning a newspaper in disinterest on the sofa, and Josh decided to join him while he ate his toast. "Anything big happened?" He asked, taking another bite out of the toast. His dad shook his head, and mumbled something about a distressing match that his favourite football team had lost the day before.

Finished eating and enduring the uncomfortable, irritable aura his dad emitted, he got ready for the morning. It was only when he was on his way out of the door, and passing the mirror in the hall, did he realise he looked like shit. Purple circles hung on his face, showing his blatant lack of sleep. His whole expression just read 'concerned', it was probably to do with Oli.

He ignored the thoughts that surfaced, panicking about how others viewed him; he had more pressing matters to be concerned about. With a shout to his dad, he went on his way to work, passing Jessica Stevens, a girl who had wanted to be the mother of Josh's children since they first met on the school play ground when they were 7. He smiled in reply to her smile, because it was polite and her parents were friendly with his dad. His dad was constantly urging him to go on a date with her, much to Josh's annoyance. He really hoped he wouldn't get roped into going on a date with her, his dad wasn't strict but when he wanted something done it would happen.

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Work was okay; Josh liked numbers and so being an accountant was well into the 'bearable' category. He almost forgot that he was meant to see Oli today; his day was so mundane he had almost forgotten about the night before. Almost. Josh wasn't having a mental breakdown over the whole situation, so he guessed that it hadn't really registered with him yet. It was all too surreal to believe entirely.

He dumped his keys in the tray as soon as he got home, and changed. Making dinner with hast, he made more than he needed to so he could take it in to work the next day. It was only chicken in some sauce and potatoes, nothing fancy. He almost wolfed it down, and brushed his teeth before leaving for Oli's house.

Anxiety was coursing through him, it made jumpy, and he could barely smile as Jessica Stevens walked past. He almost chickened out when he got to Oli's door, but Oli had already opened it (before the doorbell was rung) and greeted him with a smile that had such a simple happiness to it that it prevented Josh from escape.

He followed Oli into the kitchen, and they talked idly about their day as Oli made them tea. Oli hadn't done much: went shopping, walked his dog, hunted down some demon that wasn't abidding by the rules. It was pretty much a normal day. Josh found it endlessly humourus that Oli slipped the whole 'I'm-the-devil' thing into conversation. He couldn't be serious could he?

Oli studied him, and whispered "You don't believe me." To this, josh just shrugged and made a noise of agreement. He, rather sincerely, took Josh's hand in his own and began to speak: "I know it may seem incredibly unrealistic to you, and the rest of the human race, but I can say with full certainty that I, am the devil. How else would I have controlled all of those people to commit crimes?" Josh began to think about it, and it oddly made sense but it also seemed like a pile of shit. "Admittedly, I wasn't really controlling Paul, it was almost like autopilot." Oli's facial expressions were nested in between the regions of 'sorry' and 'angry', which Josh found confusing. "But he attacked me?" Josh asked. Oli's expression had definitely progressed into 'anger', however his tone remained the calm. "I gave him rather clear instructions, for I wasn't entirely 'controlling him', I just gave him a few vengeful thoughts and stole his common sense for a period of time. One of those was to not lay a finger on you, the boy got what he deserved." His shock was of such a high degree, that it couldn't really be expressed at all; he sat blankly for a few moments. "You hurt Paul, h-"

Oli interrupted:
"I am sorry. It was a spur of the moment action, I just feel for you Josh. I am sorry I have upset you." Oli seemed so sincere about it all despite apparently 'being' the dark lord. Josh softened at the way Oli's eyes seemed to enlarge and get more innocent. "Just, please, don't do anything like that again." Oli nodded and pressed a simple kiss to Josh's hand.

Josh shifted uncomfortably; it had only really sunk in that Oli intended to marry him earlier that day and he would be lying if the idea didn't scare him senseless. "Um, about the whole ...er... courting thing?" Josh began, but Oli had already started speaking, rambling in his fear of losing Josh. "I know, this is a terrible thing to do, we are courting and I have kissed your cheek and you are not here with a chaperone, I am sorry. I should have thought this through, forgive me for presenting you with such awful behavio- You don't want to court anymore?! I am sorry, if there is anything I can do to make it up t-"

"Oli, it's fine, really, it's just...ya know, a bit outdated?" Oli started at him with a perplexed gaze, and added: "Humans don't get to know each other before getting married?" Josh almost laughed; almost. Oli seemed like a puppy, equally confused and in awe of the world, it was rather endearing.

"No, no, of course we do. We just call it, 'dating'. And we usually spend more time getting to know each other before getting engaged. Relationships are lot more....informal than they used to be."
"What do you mean by 'informal'?" Oli asked. Josh could finally tell what was so odd about him; he acted like a gentleman from about 300 years ago. Courting and hand kisses, and impressing people with power.
"Well, I suppose in order to tell you what has changed; you are going to have to tell me what it was like back then?"

Oli smiled at him, and then glanced at the sky through the window. It was dusk, different shades of dark blue painted it. "How about another day, wouldn't want you to be tired for work tomorrow now would we? Your father is beginning to worry about you, anyhow."

Josh nodded; glad to have time to think about his newly gained information and to have some personal space to deal with the whole 'in a relationship with a man that quite possibly is the devil' thing. Oli walked him to the door, and waved him off with a kiss to the hand.

Needless to say, as much as he was beginning to like Oli, he was glad to have some time to think about what the fuck was happening.