Abioye watched impassively as the driver swerved to avoid hitting Maliah as she fell. But she never hit the ground. Faster than the seconds that they had, Abioye appeared and caught Maliah before disappearing and reappearing safely on the other side of the road. To the driver that had been texting, it first looked like there was no one in the road and in that split second he looked down and back up, a woman was crumbling to the ground. Swerving he finally came to stop shaking. He got out of the car only to find there was no one there. He looked around wondering if it was only his imagination. He didn't see a young woman being carried by a tall man with piecing gold eyes that stared at him.

Abioye glared at the man. Humans and their inability to focus. He clearly thought that he was getting away with something as he hopped back in the car and sped off. Later, he would make sure that Logan White paid for his lack of focus but right now that didn't matter.

It astounded him the level of fury that he processes seeing Maliah was almost hit. But the rising emotions he felt when he looked down at an unconscious form was not something he ever thought to feel. He did not want to see her in his office any time soon.

Malian was cold, abnormally so. Even as he held her, her temperature seemed to be steadily dropping. His eyes widened and he dropped down on his hunches so he could hold her with one hand. Her spirit was fading as they had not seen each other. But a look could tell that her spirit had been draining all week.

Abioye raised his other hand, two fingers extended to his heart. Closing his eyes he concentrated. As he pulled his hand from his chest a light blue light extended. He then hovered his fingers over Maliah’s heart, drawing a spiral over it, circling the spirit into her body. It seemed an eternity later before Abioye could feel Maliah’s body temperature beginning to rise.

When she was finally not an iceberg did Aboiye open his eyes, dropping his hand. He picked Maliah up and stood a moment looking down at her. Her skin was beginning to take on a healthy glow. He never noticed but her eyelashes were long fanning over her cheekbones. Her short hair barely moved, but still framed her face. Aboiye had heard fairy tales before, his half siblings loving them as they were kids. He always scoffed at them but he couldn't help but to think that Maliah looked like a princess from those stories they liked so much.

Hard gold melted the longer he looked at her. Shaking himself he turned, disappearing and reappearing, inside of Maliah’s apartment.

---

Maliah's eyes shot open and she couldn't help the sense of dejavu that she felt. She sat up like a marionette on a string to find that she was sitting in bed. She was dressed in her pjs and tucked under the covers as if she had gone to sleep. Only problem was that she didn't remember going to bed. In fact all she remembered was a blinding light and coldness. But slowly the memory came back to her of her failed date and her walking around. Of the pain in her chest, followed by the coldness. The headlights coming towards her and then blackness.

Didn't the car hit her? She wasn't in a hospital. She felt good. Actually she felt great, back to normal. Throwing the covers off, she darted out of bed, to the door open, throwing it open as she rushed out of her bedroom. Maliah skidded to a stop in her living room, shocked to find Abioye had turned her table into his personal desk with piles of folders. That wasn't an unfamiliar sight though as he has done the same for the past year. It was the fact that she was seeing him at all after the past week.

Abioye looked up at her, "You're awake. How do you feel?"

Maliah blinked and looked down at herself. She flexed her fingers. She looked back up at Abioye who was watching her closely, “Am I dead?”

Mailah thoroughly expect a smart aleck answer from Abioye but instead he stood and walked over to her. He stood a few inches from her. She had to tilt her head back to see up at him. His lips were pressed in a thin line and he had an unreadable expression on his face, according to Maliah. She would swear he almost looked….concerned.

Finally he spoke, “No, you aren’t dead. You are still alive.”

“That car. Didn’t it hit me?” she asked. She found herself unable to look away from his piercing gold eyes.

Something passed over Abioye’s face, something that Maliah couldn’t put her finger on. His gold eyes hardened briefly and then it melted again, “No, that car didn’t hit you.”

Maliah looked away then putting her finger to her chin in thought, “But I remember it coming at me but I was unable to move.”

Reflexively she hugged herself, shivering in the memory of the cold and the fear. She thanked the small mercy that she passed out before it ever hit her.

A gasped escaped Maliah as she felt herself being pulled forward. She tensed and it took her a moment to realize that Abioye had pulled her towards him and was hugging her.

“Stupid human…..” she heard him murmured but there didn’t seem to be any heat in his words.

Maliah found herself relaxing even during the midst of her shock. Abioye, the Death Prince was hugging her? She wasn’t sure what to do so she stood awkwardly in his embrace. Finally, he pulled back and looked down at her, his arms still around her.

Maliah couldn’t help but to ask when he was silent, “Abioye, are you okay?”

Abioye released her suddenly as if she was a hot plate and looked away.

There was a lot going through Maliah’s head and she couldn't seem to settle on any particular thought so she finally blurted out, “Why are you here?”

Abioye looked down at her, “You wouldn’t be alive right now if I wasn’t here.” he replied softly.

“Did you save me from the car?” Maliah asked, finally putting two and three together.

“Among other things. Maliah, you were fading, do you realize that?”

“Fading?”

Abioye exhaled hard and folded his arms, “Did you suddenly forget the contract? If you miss the deadline of one a week spirit nurturing then you will fade. Not die but fade. That car was the least of your problems.”

“Wait! Then how am I okay?” Maliah asked, “Am I okay?” She began to pat herself down.

Abioye reached out and grabbed her arms stooping her, “You are fine. You are alive, trust me. But yes, you are okay. I….” Here he stopped and looked away.

Maliah raised an eyebrow. Why was Abioye acting weird today? He seemed to valislate in a way that she never seen.

Abioye started again, “I got there in time to nurture your spirit. But it required a bit more power than normal as you were just about depleted. Then I brought you back here and had my sister change your clothes.” He growled slightly, “I’m surprised her loud voice didn’t wake you but you’ve been asleep for 48 hours.”

Maliah was nodding along but when he finished it took her a moment before she shrieked, “48 hours? What day is it?”

“Tuesday afternoon.” Abioye replied.

Maliah began to run around her house, back and forth, “I’m late for work!” she cried unable to figure out what she needed to be doing.

Finally in a turn of running around, she bumped into Abioye who grabbed her forearms to steady her, “I already had Ayana call in to your work to let them know you wouldn’t be in yesterday and today. Sit down, you are making me dizzy.”

He turned and pulled her along with one hand before forcing her to sit on the couch. Maliah still looked dazed. Abioye reached up and smoothed her hair down making her jump and come back to herself to look at him.

“You look like you’ve been shot at”, he said by way of explanation.

Finally, Maliah leaned away from him and really looked at him, “Seriously, Abioye, what is wrong with you? You’ve never acted like this before.”

Abioye huffed and sat back on her couch with his arms folded. At that moment he looked like the Abioye that Maliah had been used to. He stared ahead not saying anything allowing Maliah to think. It was seriously Tuesday afternoon? That means she had been out since Saturday night, which means that she hadn’t come in at all on Monday.

She shut her eyes, wondering what Stephen must have thoughts. She didn't do well on their date and some could say she was downright rude. Perhaps he thought her sick, but she knew that she was more than sick. She felt sorry to Stephen. He was a nice man, nicer than her first date years ago.

She had been asked out in college. Maliah admitted she wasn’t interested in dating at that time, preferring to stick to her studies but the man was kind of cute and someone she knew from several classes she had with him so she ended up going on a date with him. A date that all she remembered was his constant need to talk. She hadn’t realized he was so talkative. Whether it was nervousness or just his way, he talked a lot about himself. Maliah had found herself bored and annoyed that she was barely needed in his conversation.

But Stephen had been a gentleman from what she remembered of Saturday. She reached up and ran a hand through her hair. Even now, fully lucid and feeling fine, she barely remembered much of Saturday. Was she really that out of it? How was she going to face Stephen when she went back to work? Did she pretend that nothing changed? Did she pretend nothing happened? All she knew was she was going to have to be an adult about it no matter how she felt, even if it was a sense of guilt.

“You were right, you know.”

A deep voice broke Maliah out of her thoughts and startled she looked at Abioye. It took her a moment longer for his words to sink into her brain. It didn’t help that he was looking at her like that. An emotion on his face she couldn’t interpret.

Maliah blinked, “Right...about what?” she asked, trying to guess what he could be talking about.

“I hate humans. I will hate them for as long as they exist.”

Maliah looked annoyed then, “Yes, I know that.”

“Let me finish, Mailah.”

Mailah clamped her mouth shut when she would have otherwise said something else.

He looked at her intently, “I do hate humans but I find that as much as I want to hate you, I am unable to.”

Maliah blinked at him and he continued, “I still hate humans and I hate you because you are a human, that much is true. But I don’t hate you, you. Do you understand?”

Maliah blinked, her brain still trying to work out all the clauses in this statement.

But Abioye continued with a growl, “You should have called me earlier, Maliah. Why would you play with your life like that? You wouldn’t have had a life if I didn’t come.”

Maliah growled then, “You made your position abundantly clear last week. What was I supposed to do?”

“So to spare my feelings you didn’t demand that I show up?” Abioye asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know. Perhaps in feeling sick, I couldn’t think straight. But besides, you could have come at your appointed time on Saturday like you always did. Why didn’t you?”

Abioye's full lips quirked down once before he sat straight and looked away from Maliah, “I was busy.”

“You always say that.” Maliah rolled her eyes and looked off.

“I was too busy trying to pretend that I hadn’t gotten used to you. I didn’t want to get used to you.” came a soft reply.

Maliah’s head swung so fast, she got whiplash. Still Abioye stared straight ahead and continued, “I didn’t want to admit that I had gotten used to you and then I hated that you went on a date with a mortal. I didn’t expect to feel that. I had never felt such a thing before.”

Maliah’s mouth fell open.

“But I was there. For some reason I couldn’t stay away the more I thought about your date. It made me angry. So, I came to see. I saw your little date with him.” Abioye sneered, “It was pitiful.”

Maliah gaped at him. Abioye, the Death Prince, didn’t like that she went on a date with someone? Was he being jealous? Maliah was so stunned that she didn’t know what to say.

Abioye turned so quickly, throwing an arm around the back of the couch to lean forward towards her. She unconsciously leaned back a little as he looked at her broodily.

“Don’t go on any more dates with mortals, eh? I’m thinking maybe spending your mortal life with you might not be so bad. Then you don’t have to worry about keeping me a secret and cheating on some other man, eh?” He gave a smirk then.

“H-h-h-hhold on!” Maliah spluttered scrambling off the couch and looking down at him.

She paused a long moment before darting forward and putting her hand on his forehead. Instead of batting her hand away like she expected him to do, he only smirked up at her, “Maliah, Death Children don’t get sick, you know.”

She retracted her hand, “One has to ask. Wait. what did you say?”

“I said Death Children don’t get sick…”

Maliah missed the amused smirk on his face as she waved that way, “Before that….”

Abioye was silent for a moment, “Maliah….”

Maliah gaped at him, “You….you used my name…..”

In all the time that they had known each other, Abioye had never called her by name. He only hummed in response.

“Am I being punked?” Maliah finally asked, looking around. She couldn’t process this seemingly 180 turnaround of this Death Prince.

Abioye rolled his eyes and stood then dusting himself off, “No, you aren’t. But I would like a reply. I have said so much. I’ve never said this much to a human in my life.....”

Maliah hissed at him and he looked at her unaffected. But she finally settled down, “What you say, you are being truthful?”

The Death Prince folded his arms, “I should hope that you think of me as many things, a liar is not one of them.”

Maliah waved her hand, “No, that’s not it. It’s just...it’s sudden. I mean you are Death Prince, you’ve resisted this from the beginning and now….”

“Like I said, you grew on me.”

“Like fungus?” Maliah said wryly.

Abioye shrugged secretly amazed that she said the same that he said to his brother.

Abioye could tell that Maliah still didn’t know what to do with this shift of his so he cocked his head, “How about I make this simple,yea? Why don’t we try being actual friends for now?”

“Friends?”

“You don’t have friends and I never saw a need for them. So this would be a new experience for us. Don’t you think?”

Maliah nodded before she could ever process his words, “Sure, friends, then.”

Abioye smirked, “Just no more date with mortals, eh?”

Maliah swiped at him once.