Capri & Hades - Pact?

[idealizing]

A "hey, you want to pact?" conversation is had-
in the language of the socially awkward.
From the library to a pizza place!

Capri
Hades

Capri glanced down at the small sheet of paper in her hand. She had written down the title of the book and the author's name, and even though the reading was not due until next week, she wanted to get a glimpse of what they were going to be learning.

She ran into a bit of trouble, though, when she gazed up and located the text. She blinked before reaching out her hand to grab it, but the bookshelf was far too tall for someone her height to be able to snatch a book off the top shelf.

She made a small pout with her mouth and stood on tiptoe. When that didn't work, she looked around for anything she could stand on, but to no avail.

Hades had been watching the girl for a few days now, an immune with short cut hair and an eyepatch over one eye. He was leery of making a new pact, especially since he'd been at least a few years without one, but the possibility of Zeus coming to Countshire was high and he wanted to make sure he was at his peak power when that did happen. Even though he could self materialize it was still helpful to get a boost at times.

Standing in an aisle further down, he watched as she looked at the list and then tip-toed, trying to reach for the book. There weren't any step stools, at least none immediately in the area, so after watching her for a bit struggle to get the book, he walked over. He nearly towered over her but when he reached her, he pulled the paper out of her hand before she could protest, checked the title and reached up to easily pull the book out of the top shelf.

"Here." He handed it out to her, along with the list, keeping his messenger bag pushed to his side.

Capri took a step back instinctively when the tall stranger walked over. She had to reach her hands up a little to even receive the book and the list back from him.

"Thank you," she said, nodding once and reaching for the unopened water bottle on the side of her backpack. It was a bit tough to open the cap with the book in one arm, and when she did, the bottle cap dropped clumsily to the floor and the water spilled sideways--some even onto the stranger that had just helped her.

Capri stood awkwardly for a second before bowing her head slightly in panic. "I'm sorry," she said, reaching to see if she had any tissues in her backpack.

Hades stood there in surprised shock for a few seconds, before shaking his sleeve a little to get water off. He opened his bag, pulling out a packet of tissues as he knelt by Capri to help clean up the water. When they managed to wipe everything, the two headed to the nearest trashcan to throw the wet tissues away. Wiping his damp hands off on his pant legs, he turned to Capri, wondering how to start a conversation.

Perhaps introductions were best.

"Bastien." He offered a slightly drier hand.

Capri was just about to check out the book and head out, but turned around and looked up at him when she heard his voice. She blinked for a few seconds, confused. Was this person really saying hello after she had troubled him with getting the book off the shelf and spilled water on him?

But it would be rude to refuse a handshake, wouldn't it?

She held out a hand of her own to meet his. "I'm Capri. It's nice to meet you," she held back, wondering what to call him--and finally said, "Mister Bastien."

Hades took her hand and shook it firmly. It was a small hand, not that much bigger than his wife's and the comparison made something in him twinge. He left go though and looked down at the floor for a second before looking back.

"You are a student here? What are you studying?"

"I'm a student in English Literature," she replied.

She turned to look at the front of the library. "Thank you again. I will see you around?"

She wanted to make friends. But she was never the one for conversations, and though she was curious about this nice person that she just met, she didn't quite know what else to ask him.

He hated having to be the initiator in conversations but he wasn't completely without the ability to socialize. Much. He glanced at the front door and then back at her.

"Are you free to go and get something to eat? I'd like to talk to you more." He paused. Probably need to add something.

"I've been meaning to talk with an English student about class materials. I'm a philosophy graduate."

She stopped again and nodded over her shoulder. She wondered what kind of discussion they could have about her class readings. Did Philosophy majors read similar texts, too?

She walked to the front of the library to get the book checked out and met him by the front door. Shifting her weight onto the soles of her feet, she looked up at his face that seemed--gloomy? Sad? She couldn't find the right word.

She pointed to her left. "If you're really hungry, there are more restaurants this way."

Hades had been standing by the entrance, mulling over how to tell her about pacts, how to explain about immunes if she didn't know- how Persephone would respond to him being pacted to a young girl in the same vicinity as her. Looking up with a start, he nodded at her comment.

"Any recommendations?" He pushed the door open for her, standing to one side so she could pass.

She walked past him with a "thank-you" mumble and bit her lower lip in thought. She had only passed by the restaurants before, but the one slice of pizza she had in one of the shops had been good.

"Thin crust pizza?"

Pizza? Hades nodded.

"I haven't had any here yet. Let's go there then." They walked on, Hades checking the stride of his steps so they could stay in tandem. It wouldn't do to leave her behind.

"Are you a first year?"

She walked along by his side, her feet moving a little more quickly to keep up with him.

"Yes, I came from the United States." To be honest, her first year experience at Countshire had been pleasant so far. She hadn't met face to face with many kind people at once like that in her life--she didn't know whether to feel happy or even more scared that she might harm them.

But she decided to state the truth: her version of the truth, anyhow. "People here are kind."

Hades gave a nod, more in agreement with her answering than her actual answer.

"People are people," was his only reply to the comment she gave. People used and hungered and were whatever they made of themselves. But now was not the time to preach his views. He didn't want to scare the girl away.

"You have had a good experience here then?"

"So far, I have." Though her classmates had been distant at first due to her blind eye (and well, the eyepatch, most of all), the number of acquaintances and somewhat friends that she had made, her two hands were not enough for.

"But maybe that's because they don't know me well yet."

". . .Ah." Hades had to keep from making more pessimistic comments. He glanced at the girl.

"Your eye?"

Capri's steps halted briskly at what he said. She paused for a while, trying to find the words she wanted, but what came out wasn't really planned at all.

"It was my fault."

They walked on, Hades quiet for a bit.

"How?"

"My friend and her family disappeared, but I survived." Capri kept her gaze focused on the ground, clutching the book tightly in her arms. "I'm bad luck."

At least she understood that. It would be harder to explain why she was bad luck.

"I'm sorry." The apology was honest. The affect of shades around immune was not something he or most spirits wished on them. Minor spirits, younger spirits, shades attracted by the allure of an immune much as regular spirits were attracted by potentials. He often wondered why their presence caused these incidents of bad luck. More than once a potential pactmate had turned to an attitude of hate and resentment upon realization of what Hades and his kind's existence meant.

"No, it's my fault," she continued, before she realized they had arrived at the small pizza joint.

"Do you want to order first?"

He looked over the menu and then picked something Grecian with feta cheese. He didn't pay yet though and looked at Capri, gesturing for her to order. After she ordered, he pulled out a wallet out of his back pocket and paid. Taking their numbers, he led them to a table towards the back where no one else sat. Sitting down, he took a few seconds to think where to start.

"Do you really think it's your fault?"

She put her backpack and her book to the side and kept her eyes fixed on the table. She didn't think he was going to ask anything more about the incident, but her reasoning wasn't so complicated that she couldn't explain.

"I don't see why else people close to me would get hurt," she said, twiddling her thumbs. "I tried to make sense of it before, but I couldn't." There was a hint of bitterness and sadness behind the neutral voice tone she tried to keep.

Hades fell silent, the words dried up for the time being. How do you tell someone that you and your kind was the reason for all these things?

Their pizza arrived and Capri handed him napkins which he accepted. They worked on their pizzas in silence and Hades got up to get them both drinks, leaving Capri alone for a bit.

Capri clicked her shoes together under the table while taking bites of the pizza slice. She wondered if she had made the atmosphere uncomfortable with her sudden outburst--probably, she told herself. Her expression fell to a slight disappointed pout before she gathered herself again as he came back with drinks.

"Thank you," she said, accepting one.

He nodded and took a sip of his own drink. Picking up another slice of pizza, he took a bite, chewed and swallowed before looking up at Capri with serious eyes.

"What if you could change that? Your bad luck?"

"Change it?" She echoed. It was something she had to live with all her life. How could it possibly change, and so suddenly?

"How?"

"Would you want to?" That wasn't the real question.

"Your bad luck and its affect on people around you isn't your fault. There's another reason." He put the pizza down, wiping his fingers on the brown napkin.

"Have you ever considered that?"

Her eyes--or her eye, rather, that wasn't covered by the eyepatch that she wore--widened. Hadn't she just met this man?

She was about to eat the crust of the pizza, but put it down instead and gave him a confused look.

"How would you know?"

Hades kept his gaze on Capri. Looking away would just be a sign of weakness on his part.

"I know the reason. And I can give you a way to make it stop." He wiped off the grease and tossed the napkin down.

"It is not a wonderful thing though. It's not your fault these things happen. But. . ." He looked for a way to put it fairly. "The ones that cause it don't mean it either."

Capri stayed quiet for a while, not knowing what to say. Were other people behind her bad luck this whole time? But what did he mean, that 'the ones that cause it don't mean it either'?

"So," she hesitated a bit before asking, "it's inevitable?"

She couldn't help but add, "Who are you, really?"

He looked down at that. His name was synonymous with many terrible things, legends, though many were exaggerated or spread for the purpose of raising the power of the pantheon.

"I am a spirit." He kept his voice low, making sure they were not able to be heard by any other table. "We come from another world and live amongst humans. Some spirits. . .shades, are attracted to humans who are . . .immunes. You are one such immune."

A... spirit?

Capri instinctively reached out to poke his hand. He certainly was very real.

"You can stop my bad luck?"

Hades opened his hand and lay the back of it against Capri's to show he was indeed, very much here. He had long been able to self-materialize.

"Not all spirits can have a body on their own. That is what a pact is for." He made a gesture to himself with his other hand.

"I can. But it is good for me if I still have pacts." He paused. "You don't have to-and you shouldn't decide right away. But if you pact with me, your bad luck will go away. In return, you will share my powers and I will share your energy so I can materialize."

"Powers?" Capri felt silly, repeating almost everything he told her. But it was so new to her, the things he had just said. A spirit that appears to be a human? Materializing? Pact?

She curled her hands into small fists and tilted her head slightly in thought. If he could stop her bad luck, that meant she didn't have to be afraid anymore. But what evidence did she have to believe him?

"Can you show me what you can do?" She asked, looking up to meet his eyes.

Hades looked at her, the small face, the mixed feelings that showed as she bowed her head in thought. Her eye showed hesitance but no fear, at least not towards him. Not yet, at least. His hand pulled back.

"Not here. Not yet. But. . ." He got up from the table and stepped to the alcove where the restroom was, near their booth. Glancing around to make sure no one was looking this way, he hid himself in the alcove still watching Capri. And dematerialized.

She watched him walk near the restroom and... disappear.

He disappeared.

She slowly followed to where he had been before, glancing around to make sure no one was looking at her.

"Hello?" She called.

He could still see her. She was right in front of him and he had to take a step back so when he rematerialized he wouldn't be right on top of her. Reappearing, he waited for her reaction.

Capri nearly jumped when he appeared in front of her again so suddenly. She stumbled backwards a bit, trying to steady her footing with wide eyes.

"If we pact, you will be able to see me, regardless of if I'm materialized or not." He led her back to the booth, checking once again around. No one seemed to have noticed their brief absence though.

"Do you believe me now?"

"I would have to." She sat down again, her head swimming with all the information that it had been given in the past hour. She opened her mouth and closed it multiple times, unsure of what to say or what to ask.

After a while, she finally decided on the one thing she wanted to know for sure, and looked up with earnest eyes.

"Will my bad luck really stop? Can you promise me that?"

"Yes." That was the truth.

"It will stop for as long as you are pacted."

As long as you chose one evil out of the many that flock around you because of your immunity.

Her heart fluttered with hope. No more bad luck. And it was not her fault in the first place, the spirit had said. It was the way she was and she couldn't help being an... immune.

Capri did not understand all of it yet. Though the spirit standing in front of her did not seem entirely unkind, she would have to take a few days to accept everything and hope that no disaster would come to those who stayed near. Just for a few more days.

"I will let you know," she said, nodding once. She stood up and gestured to the door. She was about to walk toward it, when a thought came into her mind.

"Do you have another name?" It was an odd question, but she believed it to be possible. "Your... spirit name?"

Hades had begin to turn, to retrieve his bag from their booth. At the question, his hand stopped, the loose strap of his dark green messenger bag dangling in his hand. Looking down at the table with its leftovers and discarded mess, and flipped open his bag to pull out a post-it. He took out a pen, jotted down "Bastien Tres" and his contact information in a slanted script. He held it out for her to take, looking at her eye and patch carefully.

"Hades."

She accepted the post-it, her mouth forming a small "o" in surprise when she heard his name. Never mind that it took a while for her to respond--every reply she had, it seemed, came slowly in this conversation.

"...Are the others here, too?" She asked, unable to hide her curiosity and enthusiasm as she walked to the door with him. "Do you know Zeus? What about Persephone?" Her eyes held an expectant look, though she kept her voice quiet.

Hades' fingers tightened around the strap as he swung the bag over his shoulder, straightening up.

". . .Some." His eyes flickered away to look outside. He wondered if his wife had forgiven him for his slight at her outside the library. He hoped not. He needed her angry. He needed her distant from him.

"I have not seen my brother for many many years." He did not address the last question.

"So you are related," said Capri, her fear of saying many words gone for the moment.

She blinked at him as they walked out of the restaurant. "You don't seem as scary as the stories say."

It was Hades' turn to be caught off-guard.

"I. . " He tried again, clearing his throat. "Not everything in stories is true."

"That's a good thing," commented Capri. "Does that mean you didn't kidnap Persephone?"

". . ." Hades' eyes turned somber and he looked away.

"I have to go. Let me know after you think it over." He turned his head back to her and gave her a nod, trying to force a small smile to be friendly. He failed.

"Think it over. I will tell you more if you decide."

She observed him as he cast his gaze aside. Perhaps that story had another side to it, too.

She bowed her head slightly, her arms still encircling the book from the library.

"Okay," she said, trying to give a small wave with her hand and also failing. "Thank you, Mister Had-- Bastien."