"Happens a lot in Hell, not so much on Earth. To kill a demon you have to tear their soul out of their body and cast it into the void, and to survive it the demon has to hold their soul together by force of will while they assemble a new body from scratch. Most people can't do it and they just stay dead forever; I seem to be one of the lucky few who manages it every time."

"That's really fucking cool, actually."

"Really?"

"You just decided really hard not to die, and you didn't die! How is that not cool?"

"There was some complicated infernal alchemy involved too."

OMG, that smile.

"I guess that's also pretty cool."

"I suppose. Anyway, welcome back to life!"

"Way better than the alternative."

He sits up.

"Why did you bring me back, anyway?"

"You seemed interesting."

"Aww. Really?"

He is so pleased.

"All you got off me was my drink order and my LARP name."

"You were very cute about giving me your drink order and your LARP name."

Aww, look at his face.

"I spent too much time in line checking you out and forgot to use my brain."

He laughs. "Well, now I'm flattered."

"You're cute! You've got a nice smile! I...guess you picked that?"

"I did! I worked very hard on this body, it's nice to have my efforts appreciated."

"I appreciate 'em even more now that you saved me from eternal half-napping."

"Glad to hear it. Though I have to say, most people aren't nearly this enthusiastic about being resurrected by a demon."

He shrugs.

"You brought me back 'cause I'm interesting, you haven't kicked any puppies in the five minutes I've been here...I freaked out a little but I'm gonna wait on the rest until something actually bad happens."

"Fair enough, I suppose."

"...is something bad going to happen? I guess maybe I should just enjoy being alive and not ask, but..."

"I'm normally much more threatening than this, to be honest. But then, people are normally much more threatened."

"...I wouldn't mind if you threatened me a little."

Wow ok that just came out like he couldn't probably eat Z's soul.

"Really," he says, intrigued.

Oh fuck there goes his heartbeat.

"Yeah. Really."

"Hmm."