For a Demon, bleeding was seriously bad news. A queen showing weakness like this was the perfect opportunity for anyone to stage a coup. But the good thing was, she wasn’t in her world anymore, she was on Earth.
Himanshu pulled a bandage out of the first-aid box. Just as he very carefully tried to wrap it around the Demon’s index finger, the sticky part of the bandage rubbed against her raw skin.
"Sss..."
A sharp, painful hiss escaped the Demon’s mouth. Her hand flinched back slightly. In her entire life, this was the very first time she had actually felt physical pain.
With a worried look on his face, Himanshu looked into the Demon’s eyes, catching a glimpse of innocence in them for the second time. The first time was when she had just woken up, and the second time was right now. He very slowly and gently finished putting on the bandage. Then he quietly turned around, washed the blood-stained chopping board in the sink, and started cutting the leftover veggies himself.
The Demon just stood there, staring at his back. Today, for the first time, she felt what it was like to stand ’behind’ someone. It felt as if she was hiding behind someone on a battlefield. Her royal ego was absolutely not ready to accept this spot.
The second that feeling hit her, she took a step forward and stood right next to Himanshu, standing shoulder to shoulder with him.
Knowing her stubbornness as always, Himanshu let out a deep breath. When it was time to add the spices to the veggies, he gave that job to the Demon. Though, just to be safe, he took out the exact amount of turmeric and chili powder in his own hand first, and then passed it to her so she could drop it into the pan.
A little while later, the only sound echoing in the kitchen was the sizzling of the boiling veggies and oil. A heavy silence had settled over the entire room.
Breaking that silence along with the light ’clink’ sound of the iron spatula hitting the pan, Himanshu said softly,
"Sorry..."
The Demon blinked and looked at him.
Himanshu didn’t look back. He just kept staring at the food cooking on the gas stove.
"For what?" the Demon asked in her flat voice.
"If I hadn’t let you chop the veggies, you wouldn’t have cut your finger." After saying that, Himanshu started stirring the spatula again.
When he didn’t get an answer for a couple of seconds, Himanshu turned his neck to look at her.
The Demon was repeatedly rubbing her thumb over that white bandage. Her eyes were glued to her own finger, as if she was trying to understand this weird new thing attached to her body.
Seeing her ignore his ’sorry’ like this, Himanshu let out a long, disappointed sigh and looked back at the stove.
But right then, the Demon’s voice hit his ears.
"Why do you humans always say ’sorry’? Saying that word doesn’t magically fix your mistakes."
Hearing this, Himanshu’s hands stopped with a jerk.
’Well... what else did I expect from a demon.’
"Saying sorry doesn’t erase the wound..." Himanshu said in a very calm and heavy voice. "...but it definitely helps it heal."
The kitchen fell dead silent again.
Himanshu looked at the Demon’s face. He could clearly tell that the Demon hadn’t understood a single letter of what he just said. For a cruel ruler like her, saying ’sorry’ probably meant throwing away her dignity and proving herself weak.
In the middle of that silence, staring at the blue flames of the stove, the incident from today suddenly started looping in Himanshu’s mind. Ignoring Priya, and running away from her without hitting the brakes. Because of always being alone, Himanshu had a habit of either talking to himself or dumping his thoughts on his mom.
But today, for the first time, someone else was standing right next to him.
He looked at the Demon. She was still just staring at the cooking food. Himanshu felt like telling her his problems would be pure stupidity. ’She doesn’t even get the concept of an apology, how the hell is she gonna understand my stupid overthinking?’
He rested the spatula on the edge of the pan. He tried his best to hold it in, but the weight on his chest was so heavy that he just couldn’t keep it inside.
"I ignored a girl today..." Himanshu mumbled, his voice very low. "The most popular girl in school, actually. I don’t even know why I did it. My body just refused to stop. It wasn’t fear... I probably ran away because I was embarrassed, or just felt like a massive loser."
Without even looking at him, staring straight at the boiling veggies, the Demon replied in a flat voice, "Expected."
Himanshu let out a dry, self-pitying chuckle.
Then the Demon turned her neck, looked straight into Himanshu’s eyes, and said, "Just say sorry to her, like you did to me."
Himanshu rubbed his forehead and let out a tired sigh. "Sorry is for mistakes, not disrespect. What I did today was straight-up disrespectful. Nothing else."
"You humans overthink way too much," the Demon said in her same flat and practical tone. "Just say sorry and move on. Whatever happens, happens. If she wants to talk to you, she will. If she doesn’t, she’ll ignore you. End of story."
"And besides, you have nothing to lose, but so much to gain."
The Demon dropped these lines completely straight, without any emotion or twisting of words. But the weird thing was, her blunt and raw logic actually managed to reduce that heavy mess in Himanshu’s brain in a single stroke.
A little while later, the house doorbell rang. That loud sound broke the heavy atmosphere of the kitchen. Mom was home.
By the time she freshened up and came out, the food was already set on the table.
Now, all three of them were sitting together at the dining table, having dinner.
Just as Mom passed a roti to the Demon, her eyes fell on that white bandage wrapped around her index finger.
"What happened to your finger?" Mom’s voice suddenly filled with concern. Before the Demon could even understand anything, Mom pinned her sharp glare on Himanshu.
"Himanshu! How could you be so careless? I trusted you to look after her and you let her get hurt?"
Himanshu quietly kept his head down and took Mom’s scolding.
The Demon just sat there, completely numb. For her, this whole scene was a really weird and brand new experience. A tiny scratch that she wouldn’t even look twice at on a battlefield, yet these two humans were showing so much care for it. One was getting angry out of sheer concern, and the other was quietly taking the blame.
She was slowly starting to understand how things worked in this world.
’People here are different... they actually care,’ the Demon thought, looking at her bandaged finger.
Shaking off those weird thoughts, the Demon took her first bite of the food.
Even though it was just food made by a normal human, the second the bite went into her mouth, her eyes went slightly wide. She had never eaten food like this in her entire life. It was a million times better than the royal chefs of her demon kingdom. And the best part was that she had put the spices in it with her own hands, which gave her a weird sense of pride. Just looking at her face, anyone could easily tell how much she was loving the food.
"This is really good," Mom praised with a smile. "Himanshu actually makes great food."
After praising him, Mom suddenly remembered something. She put her roti down on the plate and looked at Himanshu.
"By the way, I found a job for you at a nearby cafe," Mom said. "You can go try it out tomorrow."
"Okay, I’ll check it out tomorrow." Himanshu nodded while chewing his food. He was 18 now and could legally work. He desperately needed the money to get his novel published.
"And hey," Mom explained lovingly, "if you don’t like the work there, you don’t have to stay. We can look for other jobs. No pressure."
"Thanks Mom, but I don’t really have a choice. I gotta do it." Himanshu tried to wrap up the conversation.
But right then, the Demon looked up from her plate. She had figured out by now that in this new world, it wasn’t ’magic’ that ran things, but ’money’. And to survive, she had to learn the magic (money) of this world. Looking at Mom, she spoke up,
"Can I try this job too?"
Himanshu stared at her with wide, shocked eyes. He absolutely didn’t expect something like this from the Demon. But over this much time, he had at least figured out that she wasn’t the type to just sit around and eat for free.
Mom was surprised for a second, but then she said with a sweet smile, "Of course, sweetheart."
After finishing dinner, the three of them cleaned the table. Mom started heading towards her room.
Before she could close the door, Himanshu called out to her.
"Mom, actually... we need to move a bed into my room."
Mom stopped and looked back. "Why?"
"Because... sharing a bed is getting problematic. We need two beds."
Mom looked at him for a moment, then thought for a moment before saying..."
"Just wait for five minutes."
"Oh, alright." closed her bedroom door.
Himanshu let out a deep breath of relief and turned around.
But his feet froze right there. The Demon was glaring at him with a fierce look. There was a weird, cold anger clearly visible in her eyes.
The reason was obvious. Because up until now, Himanshu had been sleeping in Mom’s room. But by asking Mom for a second bed, he had just officially announced that from now on, he was going to sleep in that very room.
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