The colorful lights that sparkled and flickered around the club's walls and floor simmered out when a blinding white light illuminated the dancefloor.

The humidity in the air was like a hazy fog, only visible when the white light flickered three times. The ceiling lights slowly brightened. Once the noise settled, and everyone's attention was directed to the small turntable along the back wall, the DJ announced last call at the bar, earning a loud groan from everyone on the dance floor.

Riarshi, wet with sweat, wiped his brow and straightened his shirt. He hadn't realized how long he had been dancing. Even though his moves were anything but rhythmic or skillful, he never knew how much fun it could be to let loose, not caring what anyone else said or thought.

The steady buzz from another rum and cola also helped break down that hard-standing social wall. He glanced at his phone, almost dropping it once the time glared up at him from the screen.

Jeez, it's two in the morning!

He had just danced and drank for roughly three hours straight and never even bothered to check the clock. The blush on his cheeks, a deep crimson red, was more from moving his body since his buzz had burned off an hour ago.

Now where the hell are Tabito and Hara?

He lost his friends after about thirty minutes on the dance floor and hadn't seen them since. He grooved with Tabito to a couple songs, but then Tabito ran off when he spotted a group of old high school classmates.

Riarshi had preferred to not be introduced.

Hara had come up to the floor as well, but immediately disappeared into the crowd.

With the club gradually filing out the front door, Riarshi's head spun around in search of his classmates. At that moment, with random shoulders bumping into him from various directions, he felt like a sailor lost in the ocean without the ability to use water magic.

But this was not the worst of it.

A fear ten million times worse spread throughout Riarshi's body when he heard someone call out to him. Each word was sloppily slurred. "Hey-sh, it you, Riars-shi!"

Oh dear gods, no...

The second Riarshi turned to the voice, a bundle of midnight-black hair smacked him across the face. The sweet scent of apples, spring flowers, and vanilla punched him straight in the nose like a heavy fist as the wave of hair fell along a short girl's shoulders. The girl buried her deeply blushed face into his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist.

She held onto him. The girl giggled and snorted at Riarshi's bare chest, rubbing her sweat-covered forehead on his shirt. Her nose twitched in the air.

"He-he, you sh-mell so good, Riars-shi!" slurred Hara.

Riarshi's mind went completely blank. His brain froze, astonished beyond comprehension. Unconsciously, his arms moved on instinct to hold Hara by her shoulders, preventing her dead weight from crashing onto the wooden floor. One of her heels fell off.

After a few speechless moments, his brain kicked in again. Shit, shit, what do I do? She's completely plastered.

A thunderous laugh echoed throughout the empty club. Big Joe stomped his way over to Riarshi, carrying a limp Tabito over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

The orange-haired teen hiccuped, lifted his head, smiled widely, then slurred, spitting a bit, "Hey-sh, it you, Riars-shi!"

They're both completely plastered...

During the time the three of them went their separate ways, Tabito and Hara must have downed rum and colas like it was water.

Tabito rocked his head, lifted it again, burped, then blurted, "Yo, Ri. You're... my besh-t friend, man. Like, for real."

"Big Joe, what the hell is going on?" Riarshi muttered to the gigantic man. Hara began to fall to the side. He tightened his grip and straightened her upright again. She burst out laughing and Riarshi crumpled his nose. Her breath was awful, like an acidic combination of cola and gasoline.

The mountain of a man bellowed a roaring laughter, grabbing at his big stomach with his free hand.

"Take it as a compliment, my boy!" shouted Big Joe, adjusting Tabito on his shoulder. The teen burped. "Drunk words are sober thoughts! These two drunks must really think you're somethin' special if they're acting like fools around you."

You know nothing about this girl here then, Big Joe. Riarshi thought, looking down at Hara as she ran a finger down his shirt, hooking it on a button. Grimacing, he pushed her hand away. She groaned and jutted her bottom lip.

Big Joe pointed with his big calloused finger to the limp sack on his shoulder. "Hey, Riarshi, I'mma take Tabito on home."

"Oh, okay! What ab-"

Big Joe threw the babbling Tabito over the back of his hoverboard just outside of the club and jumped on. "Sorry, I can't bring you two home. My hoverboard only has a spot for one. You seem sober enough to get her home, right? She must not live too far away."

Before Riarshi could even object, Big Joe sped off down the street, shouting, "Be safe!" as he faded into the darkness of the night.

Left dumbfounded once again, Riarshi released a lengthy sigh and glanced at the small girl cradled in his arms. She was babbling incoherently, unable to formulate actual words. A few strands of hair had caught on the corner of her mouth, sticking to her smeared red lipstick. Her legs couldn't hold her body weight.

Dammit, I can't just leave her like this.

He carefully laid Hara down on the floor and reached for the tiny handbag she had wrapped around her wrist by a strap. While she giggled like a child and ran her finger along the wooden dance floor, Riarshi hurriedly fished for her ID.

This stunt reminded Riarshi of the time he dug through Mr. C's duffle bag when he was young. After which, Mr. C had given him a long speech about going through other's belongings, especially a woman's.

"Remember this, Riarshi. If you ever go through a lady's purse, the zipper will snatch your hand up like a shark's mouth and eat it!"

With his heart crashing against his rib cage, Riarshi touched the thin plastic of her ID and zipped his hand from the bag in case those metal teeth did in fact bite.

He internally sobbed at what he had just done, I'm so sorry, Mr. C.

Her address was in small print at the bottom of the ID. He punched the address into his phone and lifted Hara into a piggyback. Her eyes went wide, but she held on around his neck and didn't say a word.

"All right, you drunk mess... Let's go."

***

The address Riarshi typed in his phone was about two miles from the club, easy walking distance, with only a turn or two noted on the route. A relatively simple trip - that is - for someone who wasn't carrying a piss-drunk girl in a piggyback.

He kept Hara hoisted onto his back with his hands holding up her dead weight. Her arms were wrapped tightly around his shoulders. She hiccuped and giggled as he trudged down the moonlit street.

Despite the late night air nipping at his exposed skin and the hundreds of goosebumps on his arms growing in size, Riarshi was still surprisingly warm. Hara's body pressing firmly against his broke a sweat along his back. His cheeks flushed crimson from the physical exertion.

Yeah... that's why.

After taking the first right turn directed from the GPS, Riarshi felt a pair of tiny fingers wrap around his cheek, push in an indent, then pinch.

"Ow! Hara, what the hell?" he snapped, turning his head up towards her. Her hand quickly retracted.

The culprit erupted into a high-pitched giggle. Her boozy breath floated past his ear and seared his nose hairs.

"Heeee - heee. You just fun to teaaa-se, Riarshhhee!"

"Just keep your hands to yourself and be quiet... No - cut it out! Stop poking me! Dammit... We'll be at your place soon."

He prayed that this would keep her silent, but to his horror, it only brought the opposite. Riarshi couldn't see her face, but he could sense in her voice that she was pouting.

"Hey, you," she slurred, inching her lips closer to his ear. Riarshi twitched. "Why'd you walk away from me from the table, huh? You leffft me all alone."

Her scorching hot breath blew over the tip of his ear. And the - night chill... yes... that's what it was - sent a frigid shiver down his spine. It was the unusual, magical, and somewhat pleasant combination of hot and cold.

Normally, Riarshi would have ignored a question like this, remained quiet, and kept on walking. His burned out brain, however, had already lost its filter.

Tonight... he spoke his mind.

"Because, you were putting me down again, Hara," he grumbled. "You were going on about how a commoner like me wouldn't understand the struggles of high magic users, and that you all have a million expectations and whatever." His irritation was growing, like a fire spreading on dry wood. His cheeks flushed an even brighter shade of red. "You're lucky I'm even helping you out here... Considering how much you treat me like shit."

Hara's tight grip around his neck loosened. Riarshi could've sworn he heard her squeak as her weight deflated into his hands. A sigh blew past his neck, tickling the skin.

"I... Sorry," she whimpered, pushing her face into his shoulder. "I don't wanna be mean to youuuu. You're sh-o nice. I was sho scared that I would get expelled. But you stuck up for me, even though I'm so stupid."

She sniffled, and dropped her voice down to a soft, mournful whisper. "You an Tabito talk to me and go out wid me. No one elsh does, no one elsh cares about me... You two help me not feel alone..."

Well, maybe when you're sober, try not being a-

- Was what Riarshi wanted to say, but he held the words in his mouth by biting his tongue. Berating her now for his annoyance and poor mood tonight would do him no good, let alone be immature.

Although his joyful night had been suddenly flushed down the drain, and he was being forced to bring this - thing - home, he knew he was doing the what was right.

She needed help. Something awful could have happened to her if some other random guy stepped in, playing the fake role of chivalrous white knight. Despite how she treated him during their few weeks together, he knew he had to help her.

He couldn't leave her to be alone.

Riarshi sighed, adjusted her on his back, and accepted her drunken apology, even though he didn't take it for face value.

Hara sucked in a sharp, astonished breath.

"Yay!" she roared into the night sky, throwing her hands up into the air, almost falling out of his grasp. Riarshi staggered backwards, trying to regain his footing. Once he did, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, squeezing him tight and pressing their bodies together forcefully.

Riarshi blushed.

"Thank you, Riarshi," she whispered into his ear. Her words weren't slurred this time. Her hair draped over the both of them like a thick curtain, and her perfume filled his nose with that same, inescapable, sweet scent of vanilla.

Riarshi's lips curled into a slight smile. He never expected such a drastic change from someone normally so cold - just because of a few strong drinks.

He also didn't expect his body to respond the way it did with her embrace. The odd sensation conquered his being. It had started at his back, spread along his ribs, stopped at his sternum, and now pulsed from head to toe along with his heartbeat.

It was so foreign he couldn't put a definitive reasoning behind it. He was only able to speculate the origin. He had felt the same sensation at The Divinity Rise when he watched the delighted change in Hara's face. He had also noticed it when he spoke with Tabito at Merino's for the first time.

It was bright, all-encompassing, addictive, and most of all - warm. And it was at this moment, during this crisp fall night, with this drunken heap of human on his back, he felt the same heat spreading to his toes and seeping into his muscles.

There was one thing these events had in common - one thing that correlated - and it was that unexpected happiness seemed to be the origin of this strange heat.

It was known that demons had the ability to absorb negative emotions. But with this pleasant heat sparking his energy, gushing into his chest, flowing through his knees, and urging his legs to push on, Riarshi wondered...

Could demons also absorb happiness?

Riarshi shook this absurd thought from his head, glanced at the GPS on his phone, and continued down the sidewalk.

A delighted smile spread across his face as he hoisted Hara higher up his back. She giggled girlishly and wrapped her arms around him tighter.

He supposed the night didn't turn out so bad, after all.