Noth tilted his head in a coy, doll-like way as he watched the man in front of him fuming. His fingers came up and touched his lips as he giggled, his smile becoming a tad bit wider, if not a shade more evil. He was obviously loving watching Jeck lose like this, and the thought that anyone would ever look at him with such a face was making the snake’s insides writhe with anger. Half of him was already contemplating all the ways he could kill this child right this instant. He still had a mission from the church to finish, after all, but even more importantly he himself wanted this horrid child gone now. How DARE such a dirty thing think of itself as better than Jeck?! As his mind churned over all the ways he’d like to destroy the little abomination, the boy’s face suddenly turned into a look of pity.

“Look at you, getting all mad over there when I’ve done nothing wrong to you. You do know that you need me right now, right? I’m the only one who could possibly get you back into my father’s good graces at the moment, and I’m sure you’d hate to lose such a good friend, right Jeck?”

The way the boy had spit out his name made the man’s mouth twitch, but he had to begrudgingly admit that the boy was right. This held especially true if he was going to murder the child and not get suspected by the Earl directly after. The power he’d gained through the Earl wouldn’t go away easily, but he’d lose any possible favours that somehow connected to the Earl or his lands in the future, and that was bad for business. Jeck ground his teeth and forced himself to growl back a response.

“...And what do you want out of this?”

“Oh, that’s really easy. See, all you have to do is come and have a quick tea party with me tomorrow morning, and I’ll make sure to put in a good word for you. Does that sound simple enough?”

Noth’s giggling and mocking tone were a perfect match for the amused and ridiculing look on his face. It made Jeck want to hit the boy so badly, but instead he laced his hands together to stay them, and gave the most curt of nods he could muster. If he didn’t leave the room now, he felt like he would explode, and then he’d surely lose any and all chances he had at salvaging this. He quickly left the room without another word, grinding his teeth at the feeling that he was running away from the horrid child. He tried to distract himself by looking at tomorrow as yet another chance, an opportunity to get things done, to set things right, and as he marched down the hallways towards the kitchen his face slowly loosened up and calmed into the slightest of smiles.

Right, he’d forgotten. He’d found the perfect tool for this weeks ago, didn’t he?

Jeck headed to the kitchen. He had a certain maid to find.

His revenge would be oh so easy with this.

Why had he even been upset?

***

Noth had looked like the cat that ate the canary all afternoon. He was so immensely pleased with how his plan had gone earlier that he almost felt like he’d start humming to himself any minute. His father had even gotten over his cowardice enough to stand up against that bully of a ‘childhood friend’ of his, and all for the sake of his beloved son! How unexpected! How amazing! The boy would randomly catch himself giggling at various times as he went about his day, and as he ate his dinner in his villa he was in much too bright of spirits to really notice anything around him. Perhaps if he were not in such an unwary state then he would have noticed the subtle glances and worried looks that the angel beside him had been throwing his direction for the last few hours. It wasn’t until the boy was sitting satisfied after his delectable meal that she suddenly decided to drop a bomb on him.

She wrapped her arms loosely around Noth's neck in a hug, but the way it felt like they were slowly tightening in on him immediately had the boy worried. He fought to keep the smile on his face and not lose his mood even as he quickly recognized that he knew what this pattern meant. He failed just a small bit however, and it was clear from his features that he was nowhere near as over the moon as he’d previously been.

“Yes, I remember that being something you mentioned.”

His voice came out with a small timid edge to it. Noth couldn’t help but ball his fists on the table when his angel giggled and leaned in to whisper into the boy’s ear. He was getting more and more sure. Yes, he knew what this meant all too well.

The angel slowly unwound her arms from around him, her slender arms and fingers making prolonged dragging contact against his neck as she moved. He hated it. It was almost a ticklish feeling, if only it hadn’t felt so threatening. She gracefully knelt next to him and placed her arm on the table with a light flourish, resting her head against it as she looked up into his worried face. She looked elegant. She looked lovely. It would have almost been the kind of picturesque scene you would have found in a painting if Noth wasn’t so acutely afraid of what would fall from between the vision’s lips next. Her mouth seemed to move painfully slowly as he stared at it with bated breath.

A beaming smile spread across his angel’s features, and it felt to Noth like her voice was suddenly filled with soft caresses.

For a moment, Noth thought that the latter half of his angel’s words weren’t said to him at all. The look in her eyes seemed to have turned glassy, like she was looking right through him. It surprised him to feel how much he actually hated noticing that; She’d always fawned over him at any and every point of time that he’d known her, so it felt extremely lonely and foreign to see her expressing that same love towards someone or something else, even if she was looking towards him as she did so. Noth had never really felt clear jealousy like this before, and although he was fairly certain that this might in fact be the emotion that he was feeling, he had no idea whatsoever what to actually do with it.

She said it was a kitchen maid? What had some kitchen maid done to catch the eye of his uncaring angel? He would have thought that she’d only brought up the maid because she was somehow integral to taking down Jeck, if only that damn wistful look hadn’t shown up out of nowhere. Noth felt absolutely blindsided. Maybe a small part of him even felt betrayed, like she’d been lying to him. But another part of him was also trying to remind him that she’d mentioned that she might care for a few others right before she’d first brought up that she’d ask him for these ‘favours’ someday, and that it wasn’t like she’d been keeping this possibility a secret. It was too bad for that secondary part, however, because the first one had grown vastly larger than any semblance of whispered rationality on this subject.

The boy did his hardest to reject these ugly feelings, deeming them ‘wrong’ and ‘unfair’ in his mind, and so to muffle them he tried to use a tried and true method of his. If he let his curiosity reign and learned more about the kitchen maid, then maybe he could succeed at getting over these negative emotions. Noth did his best to erase the sulkiness from his voice and not pout as he began his inquisition.

“You said it was a kitchen maid? What’s her name?”

The dreamy almost purring way that the angel responded almost felt like it was stabbing Noth in the chest. He could feel the fondness oozing out of his angel’s words, and he couldn’t fully stop the grimace from creeping onto his face.

“Do I… need to go and see her now? Or maybe should I confront her before the tea party?”

That response was also deadly in its own way. If he couldn’t go and see the maid right now, then that meant he’d have to wait to satiate his dizzying amount of questions about the woman, and he really wouldn’t be able to stand that right now while his only hope of feeling better about all this rested on him learning more. He squeezed his fists, his nails painfully trying to cut into his skin.

“Alright. Okay. You’re probably saying it’ll ruin things if we go now… But if we wait then I- Oh right! I wish that I knew more about Elillith!”

The sudden remembrance of the fact that he could just wish to know more was a ray of sunlight to Noth, and he was immediately filled with energy as he blurted out the words.

Sadly, his angel’s reply swiftly deflated him.

Noth could feel his brain short circuiting. The cheeky words felt like sandpaper against his mind. There was no way he wasn’t making a wretched face right about now. He absolutely loathed that the powers he’d been granted by the angel could just be vetoed suddenly whenever she felt like it. He was feeling so irrationally frustrated by this whole conversation that he was oh so close to just marching down to the kitchen right this instant so that he could find and interrogate this Elillith person and see what made her so damn special. The only thing that was stopping him was the fact that he’d ruin everything that he’d already spent so much time working towards if he went right now.

The boy’s eyes dropped down to look at his hands that had crept up unbeknownst to him and were fisting his shirt like they wanted to break it. His stomach hurt slightly from the overflow of his frustration. He wanted to scream and let it all out, but he’d never really been the type to scream out his emotions before; He wasn’t really sure how, and the last thing he needed was to mess up somehow and feel stupid and silly on top of feeling angry. His mind kept telling him that this really wasn’t anything to throw a tantrum over, and that he was acting like a spoiled child right now. Wasn’t he trying to grow up as quickly as he could? Could he really afford to be so childish about something like this?

But he was still young, and his body didn’t want to listen to such rational thoughts.

Every deep soothing breath he tried to take only seemed to manifest as hyperventilating, instead.

In the end, he chose to run away from the table like he’d been burned, off to the safety of his bed, once again.

~~~

After a night of intense pouting and feeling too silly to look at the angel who had followed him to his room, Noth had gotten far too little sleep. The boy rubbed at his eyes again and again as he prepared himself for the tea party, wondering if his face looked nearly as miserable as he felt. It crossed his mind a few times to maybe wish himself more awake, but he’d instead decided to make himself live with his actions, thinking it a good way to atone for how stupid he felt he’d been acting last night. Besides, no matter how much he’d tried to plan everything out, he wanted as much of a safety net as he could manage, and in this case that meant not wasting his wishes on small needless things before the show even began.

Noth dressed fancily, in clothes that showed off just how wealthy his family was. He needed Jeck to take one look at him and immediately see how big the divide between them was. After his rare morning breakfast inside the manor, Noth briefly informed a maid that he would be having a small tea party with Jeck in half an hour in his greenhouse, before heading back home to prepare. He found a lovely little tea table in a back corner of the greenhouse that he and his mother had often frequented together many years ago. It was his favourite spot in the whole greenhouse, even when he was younger, because it felt so hidden and secluded from everything else. There had even been a time when he was 5 that he’d tried to make a small secret base here amongst the bushes. His mother had noticed his completely unstealthy actions and had surprisingly tried to help him with his endeavours, although the maids soon noticed them as well, and had nagged them until they promised they’d stop.

It didn’t matter to him at all that the greenhouse was currently vastly different looking than in his memories. Most of the servants still refused to come anywhere near the villa and greenhouse, and even if they’d wanted to, Noth would have never let them. Because of this, years of lack of attention had made the flora wilt and die. The trees were withered looking and desperately holding on to their last few leaves. Somehow the bushes were overgrown, but yet still lacking in any amount of greenery or life. Any area of them that you’d attempt to touch would most likely break off with only the slightest amount of force. The floors were caked with decaying leaves, and a constant smell of humidity and rot permeated the air. Spiders had made their homes all over the place, and even the small tea table he’d been sitting at was positively filthy and overrun with dust and webs. Noth hadn’t even cared, he had pulled out the seat and sat right down on it with no hesitation. It’s not like he had any reason to be afraid of getting a little dirty, he was more than used to the feel of it after 2 years of rolling around in this same muck, and he could easily wish away any bites he might receive. The added bonus was the possible chance of seeing Jeck’s reactions when he was told to join Noth amongst all this grime. Yes, this place suited Jeck very nicely.

He could only hope that today’s events could be added into his list of beloved greenhouse memories.