Hidden City

"You act as though my sole purpose in life is to startle you, when really I didn't expect to see anyone either," he snorted, slinging the bright blue guitar he'd retrieved behind his back. "Wait, give me a sec."

Adam went back to the open window, hardly able to escape the way he'd entered. It was some sort of miracle that he landed on his face and not on his instrument child, and another that he didn't care about the dirt smudges on his cheek. He didn't bother to brush the grass from his shirt that read "save a drum, bang a drummer," acting as if he hadn't just landed flat on his face while climbing out a window.

"So whatcha doing out here? Theo drive you crazy yet?" He gave a cheeky grin, his blue eyes only getting brighter.

Angel:

I chuckled at his shirt, some funny, dirty joke running through my mind.

"Well besides that the mobile connection sucks, the place is okay, this week has been pretty crazy for me though, nearly killed by tinker bell, eaten by werewolves, kinda, the intruders and the mermaid all at once, poor Theo!" I thought of the poor man, hadn't gotten so much sleep these past days, life is crazy.

"And well I decided to find a mall of some sort to buy some clothes or other stuff." I said, smiling as the sun made a short appearance from the dark clouds, but only for a blink of an eye.

"What about you?"

"Just looking for an excuse to avoid my sister and moms for the day, nothing more interesting than that," he chuckled. "Sounds like you've seen more things this week than most of us see in a month. Or really, we're just used to it." Adam just shrugged and rubbed a knuckle against his sleepy eyes that lacked their usual raccoon-like makeup.

"Anyways, there's a nice little shopping plaza not too far, has just about everything under the sun. If you'd like a guide to show you there or someone to point out all the best hangouts and how to avoid most of the wolves, I'd be glad to show ya there. Besides, I could use another friend besides Dawn." He gave a sheepish little smile, a dimple appearing on one cheek. Tiny angel boy was a smol bean.

Angel:

I looked at the sleepy Adam, he reminded me of that "Flower skunk" from Bambi. I chuckled at my own thought.

"Yeah that would be great since being alone would probably get me kidnapped by trolls" I laughed, not sure if they're actually real since tinker bells and mermaids are.

Adam nodded and started walking towards some buildings seen in the distance, I noticed he was missing the makeup he wore the few times I've seen him.

"So the makeup is missing today, is the inner rockstar dead or...?" I asked jokingly.

"Inner Rock star has been awake since two in the morning playing Guitar Hero because I couldn't sleep," he laughed. "I'm both half asleep and too lazy to give a shit right now. Besides, I might have accidentally used the last of my eyeliner up because I was trying to figure out a new tattoo idea and I couldn't find a marker."

He flipped over his arm, showing off a mildly smudged treble clef made of itty bitty song lyrics. A couple other images were already permanently inked on him, a rose and Nosferatu visible near the eyeliner drawing. "I'm no artist, that title belongs to my mom, but I think it looks pretty cool." He shrugged with a smile. "The things I come up with at ridiculous hours in the morning, really."

Angel:

"I come up with ridiculous songs at night, or I used to." Reminding myself that I'm not at home anymore, it will take me some time to get used to this.

I walked quietly besides the taller angel, not really having a subject for a good conversation.

"So, um what is there to do in this city?" I really want to find a job, last time I tried it didn't end good, ended up hunting people down.

"I mean, fun-wise, there's bowling, a drive-in theater, the shopping center where we're headed," he trailed off, counting each place off on black-painted fingers. "Oh, and there's an ice cream place that's absolutely to die for. I mean there's a hell of a lot more, I'm just brain dead and can't think to save my life right now."

He shrugged slightly. "I guess everything cool starts popping up around the holidays though, especially Halloween. We have this whole celebration and an all-night party and ugh it's so much better than I'm explaining it. It's the one day a year we can leave the city without worrying that someone's gonna murder us after stepping outside the wards, but we have so much fun here that no one really cares. It's not like a human Halloween, but I like it. I guess you'll see for yourself when the time comes."

(IM BACK YAYAYA)

Angel:
After Adam mentioned the Halloween part I got excited, Alfonso's family didn't like Halloween so we never "celebrated" it, sure we went trick or treating with my younger siblings, but never really dressed up and in the "vibe".

"I'm craving ice-cream, it's probably been a week and that's unforgivable!" I said with a serious tone, ice-cream is my fuel.

We walked in a comfortable silence until we were in front of a building, people walking in and out the doors, kids running around, laughing, almost felt like the usual .

"So um what did you want to get?" I asked Adam, I had already forgotten what he followed me all the way for.

"Mostly I need more makeup, some guitar picks because I can never seem to hold onto them for more than a day, and frankly eating ice cream for breakfast sounds fricking great." He opened a door for her, only for two giggling small children chasing after each other to run out underneath his arm. All he could do was shake his head with a smile and gesture for her to enter, following after once she was inside.

The shopping center wasn't too large, but the assortment of stores just visible from the door made it feel like there was something for everyone. From a bookstore to little cafes to clothing stores galore, Adam was already grinning, planning on where to go first. There were no chain stores, only things opened by entrepreneurs in the city that would've been scorned in the human world.

"But hey, I can get all that stuff anytime. Whatever you wanna do is fine by me, just as long as we get ice cream at some point."