Hunters and the Hunted

"There isn't really anywhere else to go." She moved to sit on the mattress.
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"Yes."

Death sat where he was in the corner.

---

"D-Do you think of those t-times often?"

"So what do you want to know?"
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"For the past year I have."

"Why you're determined to invite me over when you're frightened of me."

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"Because you missed me?" Aria asked quietly, leaning away to see his face.

"I don't know...I just don't think you're as bad as you make out to be if you saved me."
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"Yes."

"I don't try to be bad or evil. I just do my job. I have to make all the judgements and choices...it's the sort of occupation that you know needs to be done but you don't want to be the poor sap stuck doing the rounds. Unfortunately it turned out to be me. I can't even remember my name before I became this anymore. I don't even have a name now. I'm just Death." He sounded almost miserable about that.

---

Aria hesitated and then moved to cup his face in her hands, pressing her lips to his and keeping them there to kiss him, mumbling softly, "Are you going to be counting these times as firsts or are we just going to carry on from where we left off, as if nothing happened?" Absently, while waiting for a reply, she brushed her mouth against his just enough to graze her teeth to his bottom lip.

Jess slid over to him, and she gave him a friendly hug. "Don't worry about it, my actual name isn't eeven Jess or Jessica."
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"I think we can carry on from where we left off." He kissed her more forcefully.

Death tensed briefly, as if not sure what she was doing, fingers twitching at his side before he slowly moved his arms around her, hands almost tenderly resting on her back. "At least someone has cared enough to give you a name, hmm?"

---

Aria made a soft noise into the kiss, slipping a hand up his side to carefully tangle in his hair.

"My real name isn't worth spelling out it's that stupid."
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Scareth made a soft noise and he kissed her back, his own hand moving into her hair.

"You have a real name?" Death asked wistfully. "What is it? Can you tell me?"

---

Aria's eyes drifted shut as she moved her free hand to grip at his shirt.

"Well, back home when I was little, I found a mark on my wrist, I showed it to people an they called me a harbinger of death...But my father said that I wasn't despite hiding me away from the world." She turned her wrist over, showing him a faded mark to what Faye had. "My real name was Loadasia after the Queen of the Ancient Britains, but that name hasn't been given to me for a long time."
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He moved his free hand up the inside of her shirt.

"It's faded." Death mused, brushing a thumb over it. It briefly flickered darker in colour before he let it fade out again. "They don't age. Someone restricted it and so I never found you. You're older than Faye by years, if you had been found before her, she wouldn't be my Reaper by now, just one of my Angels. Loadasia is a beautiful name, but I understand why you would choose Jessica, as it fits with the times."

---

Aria pressed gently against his hand, making a stuttered noise against his mouth.

"I still prefer Jess." She smiled weakly. "So I can never be like you?"
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He smiled slightly, his lips moving to her throat.

"No one is like me Jessica - Jess." Death corrected himself. "I'm a one of a kind. The Reaper and my Angels simply gather the lives and souls of those that are dying to bring them to me so I can bring them death."

---

Aria arched her neck for him, mouth parted slightly as she caught her breath, trying her best to stay silent.

"Alright then, so I can't be like one of them?"
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He watched her.

"Something or someone prevented that part of you developing. Should you awaken it now, it'll kill you, because you've been starving that part of you for centuries." Death brushed his thumb absently over the faded mark again.

---

Aria slowly opened her eyes to look at him in return, breathing a little shaky.

"Centuries?" She asked him. "How old do you think I am?"
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"Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Old, two hundred, at least. Unless you're so young that I'm picking up your past life." Death tilted his head, waiting for her answer.

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Aria blinked slowly, trying to understand what was being asked of her before it clicked, and she blushed both in embarrassment of not remembering, and because of what he was suggesting before she nodded slowly.

"I'm 87." She laughed.
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"Good." He moved to kiss her chest.

Death paused, before shrugging. "I suppose that makes sense. You probably already know that I am years ahead of you. Uncountable."

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Aria let her eyelids flicker closed again, hands lifting into his hair.

She nodded, still smiling. "So, what else do you want to know about me?"
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He held her close as he removed her shirt with his teeth.

"I want to know why you think you're inadequate in finding people to like when comparing yourself to others such as Scareth. You're clearly attractive. If you tried, you could have whoever you wanted."

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Aria shifted just slightly to help him with taking her shirt off.

"When I try, people think that I'm desperate, they don't come near me."
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He pushed her shirt off her.

"Or they're intimidated by your beauty," Death shot back. "Or by your charm, or by your wit. Perhaps even by your intelligence. You aren't desperate." He reached forward to tuck her hair behind her ear. "You're simply too good for them, is my belief. If they have no courage to approach you, they have no courage to be with you."

---

Aria almost moved to cover herself up before moving her hands to either side of her, gripping at the bed covers.

She leant in so her face was millimeters from his. "And you have that kind of courage?"
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Scareth moved to kiss down her chest.