"The time... is going... so slow," Alfie groaned, staring at his upside wall clock. He was lying on his back on a beanbag in his office, too comfortable to turn around. "If your wife is late, I'll kill her so you'll have to deal with her."

Mister Dorinto shifted uncomfortably. "Alfie my boy, if you do that, I will haunt you for eternity."

Alfie muttered something under his breath and closed his eyes. "You know when you said that you'd find whoever sent the flowers, what happened? We found her before you did, and you're a ghost."

"Funny thing about us ghosts, our memories are more vivid and important because I don't want to cross over. I got distracted by a memory of my daughter. If only she had waited for me in the afterlife, then I would've been able to see her again."

Alfie looked up. The sad smile on Dorinto's face ached his heart. "I don't know where your soul goes after you've moved on, but I'm almost certain that it's not a bad place."

Mister Dorinto sat up and stretched. "I hope you're right because if all goes well with my wife, I might be leaving this world behind for good."

"A scary thought," Alfie said, sitting up. "Are you ready?"

"I'm not sure, but I have an opportunity to find an answer to life's most curious question. I want to know where the light goes. If I can't have my life back, I may as well find the answer to that."

"If it's heaven, send me a postcard." Alfie flopped back down, glaring at the clock again.

"If it's reincarnation, I want to be a parrot. Intelligent creatures you know."

"A parrot?" Alfie scoffed.

Dorinto nodded. "I will learn to say all the swear words."

"Of course." Alfie closed his eyes again and thought about Koda and his jeans that fit so perfectly. Koda smiled a lot in their art class, and Alfie was glad. Koda was usually always happy and calm and free. The Grim Reaper stuff was weighing Koda down and Alfie didn't like to see him drowning in worry.

"Your doorbell rang."

"My dad will get it." Alfie hauled himself onto his feet. He usually looked forward to arguing with difficult clients, but he was too tired to yell at Miss Dorinto because she would yell back twice as loud.

Almost a minute of silence passed until a loud knock on Alfie's door shattered it into a million pieces.

"Yes?" Alfie asked, moodier than his intentions.

Tom opened the door with a sympathetic smile. "You have a client." He knew how much trouble Miss Dorinto caused with her last visit.

"Thanks," Alfie sighed, glaring at Dorinto's wife when she stepped into his office and looked around with a disgusted frown.

"I hate the smell of lavender," she said harshly before wiping the leather chair with a cloth from her bag.

Tom stood close to his son and leaned down. "I'll be in the kitchen if you need me," he whispered and patted Alfie's shoulder. "Let me know if she needs kicking out."

"I will." Alfie was glad his father had visited tonight. When Tom left, Alfie and his client sat at the table with tension clouding the air. "The last time I saw you, you said you were going to ruin my career. How's that working out for you?"

Miss Dorinto's upper lip twitched. "Is he here? My late husband?"

"Yes." Alfie looked towards the couch where Mister Dorinto sat. There was no dint in the cushions or a shadow to indicate he was there, but Alfie could see him. "He's flipping you off."

"What! No, I'm not!" Dorinto jumped to his feet like it would make his wife see him.

Alfie laughed and Miss Dorinto scowled deeper.

"Is there anything you'd like to say to him?" Alfie asked, wondering if it was possible for steam to come out of a human's ears.

"It was my husband who smashed everything, yes?" Alfie nodded. "Well, I want to thank him for smashing what he smashed because quite frankly, it has made it easier for me to get over him. I hate him more than I have ever hated him, even more than when he was alive."

The room was so quiet, Alfie could hear faint voices belonging to his parents from the kitchen. "I forgot how screwed up your marriage was," he said, sinking further into his chair. The night was going to be long and Alfie was wishing for his bed.

* * * * *

"Alfie." Koda nudged him, and Alfie almost knocked his paint water off the table.

"Huh?" he said, sitting up straight and blinking away the sleep that blurred his vision.

"Did you have a rough night or something? You've rested your eyes twice now," Koda said, softly patting Alfie's shoulder, eyeing their teacher who thankfully hadn't noticed.

"Yeah." Alfie yawned, stretching and purposefully moving his arm in front of Koda's face. "A client from hell came back to speak with her dead husband. The session started at six and ended at three in the morning after resolving nothing and causing way more rifts in their screwed up marriage. I was ready to yell until my lungs fell apart, but dad kicked the client out and now I'm still left with her annoying husband for god knows how long. So here we are, in a stupid art class instead of at home in bed." Alfie rested his head against the table, and to his delight, Koda's hand hovered on his back.

"Sounds stressful," Koda said, lightly tapping the side of his laptop. "I guess you're planning to go home after college and sleep?"

Alfie frowned against the cold wood. "Maybe. I don't know. It depends."

"Depends on what?"

"Whether you're busy or not." Still, Koda's hand remained between Alfie's shoulder blades.

"I'm not."

Alfie could tell by the tone of Koda's voice that he was smiling. "Well... do you want to do something... together?" Alfie cringed and begged in his head for Koda not to take his words the wrong way, but Koda wasn't that type of person to think like that.

"By getting together, you mean going back to yours or mine and doing homework? Then yes, we can do that."

Alfie sat up and Koda's hand dropped from his back. "Homework?" His eyes had lost interest.

"We're almost a month into our second year and you've only done two pages in your sketchbook. Coursework is just as important as the final design. I don't want you to fail." Koda fidgeted with a pencil. "I don't want to sound like a parent or something, but you're talented. You can easily get the best grade if you just try a little harder."

Alfie stared until his eyes were forced to blink. Koda's cheeks went from pink to red, to a rather impressive crimson colour. Alfie watched the worry flood to the surface as Koda wondered if he went too far. "Fine," Alfie said, breaking the tension before Koda apologised until his face turned purple, "but we have to study at yours because if my parents see me doing college work they will think I'm turning over a new leaf or something, which I'm not."

Koda released his breath and smiled wide. "Good. Okay. Sure, mine sounds great." Koda nodded to himself and Alfie soaked up his flustered reactions like they were vital for his health.

"Will Morlen be home?" Alfie asked, catching the gaze of Koda's best friend who sat at Koda's old table with the group of friends he used to hang out with every single day. The guy quickly turned away before Alfie had the chance to scowl.

"Probably. He never really leaves these days."

"Oh good. I like tormenting him. He's easy to annoy."

Koda chuckled, moving to nudge Alfie lightly with his shoulder. Each time they touched, a spark of warmth travelled between them. "Maybe ease up on that. I need him to like you."

"And why's that?" Alfie asked, glancing at Koda through his eyelashes. Koda tilted his head and Alfie could have sworn that he felt himself beginning to melt.

"Isn't it the norm to get your parents to like your boyfriend?"

As soon as the word left Koda's mouth, they both turned to stone and their eyes fixed in position, expressions too. Alfie felt fuzzy from head to toe. They had not yet skimmed the topic of labels, and Koda said it so casually, he was completely caught off guard. Judging by Koda's wide eyes, he surprised himself by letting it pop out. But it sounded so natural to say aloud.

"Um, I don't-"

"Alright, we're done for the day," Miss Pecan said, interrupting Koda as she wandered back to her desk with hunched shoulders and heavy steps. "Remember to complete your chosen theme for Friday." She turned and stared towards the back of the room. "Alfie Willow and Koda Oaks, can you stay behind for a moment? I have something important to discuss."

Alfie groaned and thought about the quickest exit out of the room. Jumping from the window seemed to be the most effective.

"Hopefully she'll make them sit at different tables," Katherine said with a smirk, loud enough for the boys to hear. "Nobody needs to see the freak flirting. It's disturbing."

Alfie firmly held Koda's arm when he took a step in her direction. "Let her leave. She might get hit by a bus on the way home or something." Alfie watched Katherine go, knowing that it didn't matter what she said because he had Koda, and she didn't.

When the room cleared, Alfie decided against staying in college for longer than needed. "We have somewhere to be Miss Pecan. Go tell Connor if you're that desperate." Alfie swung his bag over one shoulder and shoved Kodas into his arms before pulling him out of the room.

Their teacher didn't protest, and Alfie left feeling curious. Did Miss Pecan want to talk about his mediumship and Koda's attachment to the Grim Reaper? Or did she want to apologise for freaking them out with her white lilies? The boys would never know because they hurried out of college like the building had caught fire.

* * * * *

"Koda please don't make me do any more homework. I can't focus," Alfie complained and put down his pencil, massaging his stiff fingers.

"I'm not making you do it, but don't you feel better for doing it? Now you don't have to worry about it later on," Koda beamed from his bed. He could hear his dad making a commotion from the kitchen and cursing at himself from time to time. Morlen wasn't thrilled that Alfie was over, but he didn't say anything and decided to make dinner like the good dad he had promised he'd be.

"I don't worry about it anyway," Alfie sighed, falling onto the bed next to Koda.

"And that is part of the problem," Koda chucked and turned onto his side so he could take a closer look at Alfie's heterochromia eyes.

Alfie watched him in return, wondering if Koda's eyes could shine any brighter. "So um, you know earlier in the art class," he said, dazed by Koda's look of contentment. "You called me your boyfriend." Alfie's heart flipped in his chest. The word excited him, especially when it was spoken directly at Koda Oaks.

"I did," Koda said and moved his arm until his fingers touched the back of Alfie's hand. Alfie had noticed how Koda liked making small physical contacts.

"Was that a mistake or...?"

"No Alfie," Koda smiled. "I guess I didn't time it right, but I am starting to think of you as, you know, a boyfriend. It's obvious that we're headed in that direction. Should we talk about it? Maybe it's going too fast."

"I don't know how fast these things are supposed to go." Alfie looked down to his hand. Koda's fingers were hot against his skin. "I've never had a boyfriend."

Koda didn't move, he didn't laugh, he didn't raise his eyebrows, and he didn't look surprised. "Because you hate people?" he asked and Alfie smiled for him.

"Consider yourself lucky."

Koda grinned and quickly rolled over, resting his body weight on top of Alfie, pinning him to the bed. "Oh, I do." Their faces were close, close enough to kiss. "Let's just keep going at the pace we're going, and if it's too fast for you then we can slow down. There's no rush to make things official, though I think it's pretty clear by now that we belong to each other." Koda wanted Alfie to feel as comfortable as possible. "I like you and you like me. That's all that matters right?"

Alfie nodded. How did he get so lucky and find someone with a heart so kind? "I want to be your boyfriend. I'm not worried about the speed of our relationship, I just don't know how to not fall so hard for you too quickly. I know that you won't hurt me, but I'm scared because I don't trust people easily. I usually push them away because other people can't hurt you if you're alone, right?" Alfie chuckled to lighten the mood, but the room dimmed when Koda's smile weakened with sadness. "I'll work on it though, trusting you. And are you sure you definitely want this with me? I am a very difficult person to love. I haven't had a major anger outburst in a while now and I feel that coming and I'm sure you'll witness my outbursts eventually. They're pretty ugly. I'm pretty nasty, and I'm way too-"

Alfie was silenced by lips squishing against his own. Koda kissed him long and hard, enjoying the light shiver rushing down his spine. "Don't question my feelings for you, Alfie Willow," Koda whispered. "You might be the weirdest person I've ever met, but nobody has ever made me feel this way, so be quiet because you have a tab to get rid of, and you have quite a lot to pay."