Fiction: Valentine's Day with Death and the Devil's grandchild

Fiction: Valentine's Day with Death and the Devil's grandchild
Chocolate was invented by Death to make life sweet and death all the more bitter or so history had shown. St. Valentine's Day, on the other hand, was something that had been debated for centuries. The dispute centered on whether St. Valentine was an ascendant from the Death family or the Devil family. Both families had a claim but neither one had definite evidence that proved one way or another. Later generations of both families had endless disputes about it.
    On a late Valentine's night, Drew, a grim reaper or what the family liked to call Death's servant #103 and Black Coffee, the devil's youngest grandchild, sat on the roof of a two-story building while munching on chocolate.
    "You know, I really do think Valentine came from the Death's side. Look there, if it not for Death, that man wouldn't bother with all the theatric of a proposal. He knew he might die soon and so he thought he should go all out today," said Drew and he dropped another chocolate into his mouth.
    Beside him, Black shrugged. The pair had been friends since the day Drew sort of saved her from a hog some fifteen years ago. A few of Black's classmates dared her to ride the school's mascot which at the time was a hairy hog the size of a small hut. Black couldn't refuse the dare as she knew her family would scold her if she did. She approached the sleeping hog inside his little shack and climbed on top of his back and was about to wake the beast when it must had sensed something though it was completely blind. It shot out of the shack and ran all over the school yard with Black clinging for dear life while it smacked into everything. Black screamed like the devil but no one did anything. They all moved out of the way whenever the beast was near them.
    Then Drew appeared. He got in front of the beast and held it down though it took Drew for a long ride before the beast stopped and probably from exhaustion. By then, Drew had broken an arm and his feet was bruised from having to slide through the ground.
    Black laughed whenever the incident was brought up. She adored Drew just for doing it even though she knew most eight-year-olds wouldn't have such courage or fool-heartedness. Since them, she was attached to him in ways she could never be with anyone else. When asked, the two always rejected the idea of them being sweethearts. And besides, it would not do to fall in love with Death or the Devil's grandchild.
    By nature, Drew should have been cruel, arrogant but nature made him soft-hearted and extremely kind. Black, on the other hand, had a temper and would likely set things on fire if she was angry enough but often, she had a calm nature and always enjoyed a quiet day rather than a loud one much to her family's disapproval.
    As she took a bite of her bitter chocolate, Black looked over at Drew. He was not handsome with his rough, grayish skin but he had expressive gray eyes. Black was considered almost pretty with her long black hair, black eyes and dark lips but she was pale as moonlight while every member of her family had dark, tan skin.
    "Well?" Drew turned to her. His chin had a speck of chocolate on it.
    Black had not cared where Valentine belonged but her father had insisted that she maintained Valentine belonged to their family and that was that. Below, the bright lights of the outdoor restaurant brought a glow to the whole scene. The man was on his knees holding out a small box while two violinists played around them and a waiter carrying a cake with a large red heart in the center. The woman was already weeping. The other patrons put a hold on their dinners just to watch.
    "I think the man probably wasn't worrying about time or dying. He did what he wanted." Black took a sip of her lemonade.
    "No," Drew said. He shook his head. "Without Death, that man wouldn't do such silly things. Look how pale he looked. He is probably at death's door." Drew slurped on his vanilla shake.
    "Do you know that for a fact?" Black studied the man still on his knees. He did look rather pale even with his tan. Sweat beads dotted his forehead.
    Drew shrugged. "No, it's my day off, remember? I don't have a list today but surely, you must see those two dark shadows hovering around the man. Those are Neat and Cranky. I would recognize their ugly scents anywhere."
    "What if they came for the woman?" Black didn't like her own thinking. The woman had stood up showing her growing belly.
    "What? No! That's cruel. She might have her child and then leave him." He wiped his chin with the back of his hand. "But that's death for you." He laughed with a slight hiccup at the end. "No, that's sadness itself."
    Black nodded. It wasn't sad to her. No, these people have a chance to still be happy while others had to content with their depressing lives.
    Drew bunched up the empty box and his empty cup and then threw them into the air where they disappeared and reappeared below and fell into a trash can. He flicked his fingers and a white handkerchief appeared in his hand. He started wiping his mouth with it.
    Black mused, "I might start drinking coffee again." She hated the bitter drink the few times she had tried it and even when she put all the sugar she could without overflowing the cup. But her family all loved coffee and sometimes that singled her out more than her pale skin. And besides that, she should somehow lived up to her namesake.
    "Yeah? I'll join you. Do you think I can put chocolate in mine? Is that too much, do you think?" Drew was always up to trying anything twice with Black.
    Black laughed lightly. "I don't see why not." Drew liked everything sweet while she could only tolerate sweetness a little at a time and yet, coffee had always been something uneasy for her to enjoy.
    Drew flicked his fingers and the handkerchief disappeared. "Wonderful! I think I can get my father to get imported beans from our cousin. He grew his own beans, you know. Isn't that marvelous?"
    Black nodded, still nibbling her chocolate. She was a slow eater. She liked to savored every little bitter bits.
    "Let's hand out some chocolate down there. I think that kid with the cheerful face deserves something sweet," said Drew.
    Black smiled. Just this morning, they had been putting chocolates into people's drinks and food. The pair delighted in playing these little pranks but knew they would never do anything too serious to the disappointment of both of their families. They didn't mean to be good but somehow, they knew neither one of them were the type to seriously harm humans.
    "I wonder what they are having for breakfast in Japan right now. Do you think they have rice or sushi or porridge? I wouldn't like sushi for breakfast or lunch or dinner or any meals. Honestly, how do you love sushi so?"
    Black let out a silent laugh but didn't reply. This is happiness to her: sitting there beside her best friend in silence or in careless conversation and not caring how mess-up the world was below. The cool night breeze whipped pass them. They kept on sitting there. Time wasn't important. It was their day off. They never worried over time on their day off.

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This week's Words for Wednesday prompts are: love, happiness, chocolate, single, dinner And/Or hate, sadness, lemon, attached/double, breakfast. More Words for Wednesday over here.