They did. These gods, without embarrassment, had done it. Expanding Day's house was no longer a joke now that the work had started. The back wall of his living room was quickly demolished to make an extension to add additional bedrooms, a veranda and a new bathroom. Sitting at the table - the last piece of furniture still present in the living room except for his plants and doormat - the young blond meticulously analyzed the plan. These gods, who had decided to stay in his house, have already built the first walls of future extensions.
"It will enlarge well," Nyx said, putting a cup of tea down next to the plan for Day. "I have a question."
"I'm listening to you," the blonde assured, grabbing the cup.
"Will we need a new doormat for the veranda? It gives access to the garden."
"Of course, a little will do."
"Okay...Good."
"Why the question, exactly?"
"Yesterday, while going with my brother to go shopping, we saw flyers for a store called Ikea. There were doormats for sale and other interesting stuff."
"I'll stop you right now. We're not going to buy any."
"To buy what?" asked Toxin, the god of toxicity and pestilence, from the concrete mixer.
"A doormat for the veranda and new furniture for the house!"
"You just have to ask my uncle to create some since my father made them all disappear while I won them hard!"
"Come on Day, don't moan so much. That could be fun to go out with us!"
"It is true that it would be fun to go and buy furniture!" Foud added as he entered the living room, dirtying the floor with dust.
"What? It's a furniture store, nothing more! I can order furniture from here through the internet."
"Yes, but it's better to see them, to try them on… And then, I want to choose my pillow after having tested it to be sure it's the right one, not before!"
"Come on, Day. It will be fun to go out with us, don't you think...?"
"Alright, we'll go. Everyone, stop looking at me like abandoned puppies!"
The happiness on the faces of the young man's new roommates surprised him before he remembered their closure to the modern world on more than one thing. But could he handle so many people in such a large store, where it is easy to get lost? Quickly, he heard them become ecstatic about their next outing and the furniture they were buying. That's when the blond had his answer: he couldn't handle them.
"Can't wait to be there. When are we going?" Nyx questioned, pulling him abruptly from his thoughts.
"About what?"
"When are we going?"
"Saturday, I will not be working that day exceptionally, my boss is going to a wedding."
"Saturday… Can't we go today?"
"No, today I will try to rest between two sledgehammers knock before going to work."
"Why are you still working? Your father pays for the work in your house and he said explicitly you don't have to work..."
"Freedom, Nyx. Freedom."
The white-haired god fell silent, realizing Day's need for freedom. Very good. He too wanted to be free, but he couldn't, he didn't have the right. Living with his roommate and the other gods was a form of freedom he feared losing every moment, which he couldn't help savouring every fragment, every second. Day's house was now warm. If he didn't realize what the changes were doing to him, the god of death and night did. He smiled more frequently, sincerely, and sometimes he even heard him laughing with others when he explained how to use this or that. Nyx would be lying if he said that his laughter didn't quell the storm that was taking place in the twists and turns of his mind if he said that that smile didn't unleash the blazing fire that tirelessly ran through his veins.
Love had blossomed in his fiery heart and was invading him.
Too proud and not knowing how to correctly convey what animated him, Nyx was content to admire his landlord. A little more every day, he memorized each of his little habits. He couldn't suppress his joy when Saturday arrived. A tired Day climbed out of his bed at nine in the morning, stomping up to the gods at the table.
"We were waiting for you!" the lover happily exclaimed in secret while brewing his favourite tea.
"Seven o'clock in the morning is way too early for someone who got home from work at three o'clock… Who defied the no-work rule before ten o'clock that I gut him for five minutes?" grumbled the owner of the place, sitting down in his place.
He did not need to hear to know the culprit: all turned to a Foud who tried to escape the glances by looking behind him.
"In my defence." he began before taking a sip of his tea. "I wanted to finish what I had not finished yesterday, just to leave with peace of mind."
"We're just going to buy some furniture. I say you that again: nothing is exciting about going to such a big, crowded store on a Saturday."
"You say that because you're used to it." muttered the goddess of light named Leit.
"I say that because it's just furniture. Why isn't anyone bringing my uncle over?"
"He's waiting for you to contact him."
"He can wait a long time."
"That's what we told him and your parents."
"No, I want to get back in touch with my father if he stops trying to force me back."
"He's worried about you here… It's not safe for you."
"Now, it's a fact that you can't deny Day," Nyx replied, bringing him his steaming mug.
The young blond barely restrained himself from throwing his tea in his face and just shrugged, alerting the rest of the other people seated who looked at each other. The same thought crossed their minds but they didn't say anything, just staring suspiciously at their landlord. He was nervous. Everyone could feel it.
"What does this Ikea store look like?" Leit wondered after a long moment of silence.
"It's a large store with several floors. There is even a restaurant in the one we are going to go to because it is so big," Day replied grimly before sighing.
"A problem?"
"I feel like it's going to be a long day."
"Don't worry, everything will be fine! We will follow you without speaking."
"Hmm."
"Do not worry."
"I'm going to get dressed and we're off to it. Say, you told me you came by car but I still haven't seen them."
"We parked them in another street so as not to draw attention to your house with the several cars parked just outside. Nyx asked us to do that."
"I see. Okay, I'm coming. Wait here a minute, I will be fast!"
"You are very well dressed like this."
"I'm not going out with just a tank top, it's windy and cold."
Without adding anything more, the blond got up from the table and went to put on a thick woollen sweater, made by his boss's wife. This sweater was very soft, comfortable and simple; Day loved him! The young man took his scarf and gloves and joined the gods who were impatiently awaiting him. Nyx had already put on his thick black jacket and, in the middle of a conversation with his brother and Moain, not noticing Day's astonishment. He thought that Nyx was the only biker, was wrong.
"Do you have a motorbike too?" Day asked with undisguised curiosity.
Moain, the second biker god, looked at the much shorter blonde before smiling.
"Haha, yes. I have a black and red old Norton P11," he replied, putting his hand on his shoulder.
"I thought it was only Nyx and his brother who had a motorbike."
"Well, no, you wanna come to take a ride with me?"
"He's riding with me." Nyx tacitly threatened between clenched teeth.
"Calm down, don't stick your teeth out. It was just a simple question."
"I want to ride with you." Day agreed, looking mischievously at his roommate.
"Ha-Ha! Do you have a helmet?"
"I have one."
"Perfect, are we going now? I really want to eat something!"
"We can go, don't worry."
The group of gods, very singular in their way of being dressing in such a quiet town, came out of Day's home which had now become theirs in a certain way. This whole weird group came out into the street and split up, Nyx, his brother, and Moain quickly starting off to get to the car regrouping point. Day had to deal with the great curiosity of the god Foud during all the ascent of the main street of Island Bank before turning on Bellfield park street. In the distance, five cars worthy of being jealously guarded by the greatest collectors of the world were parked. The young man approached it cautiously. He was immediately captivated by the charm of the old Bentley Mark VIs and the elegance of the Rolls-Royce Phantom III.
"They are beautiful..." the blonde blurted out in admiration. "What do you think, we have to modernize with the beauty of the old!"
"You know, it's so much risky to leave them unprotected."
"Would you rather we leave them in your garden?"
"Frankly? Yes. Leaving such jewellery out there without any protection is incredibly dangerous!"
"If you say so. We'll put them behind your house. No one will come into your property to look at the construction."
"I hope. Anyway, do you have a GPS?"
"A what?"
Day looked at the gods for a moment before remembering that they had only modernized in a certain way. They needed vehicles more powerful than horses, not technology.
"Nothing, what the fool am I asking that." the young blond sighed, weary.
"I agree." Nyx retorted immediately with a smirk.
"Rho, hush!"
"They just have to follow us."
"Yes, let's do that. There are also signs indicating the route anyway."
"Where is the problem then if there are signs?" Lou wondered, crossing his arms, puzzled.
"There are only a few signs in the autoroute. The store is far, very far."
"That much?"
"We'll get there at eleven o'clock, I think. It takes at least three hours to get there."
"Wait what?! But I thought it was next to your town!" Foud said indignantly as he got ready to get into his Rolls-Royce.
The youngest of all hits his forehead with his palm. He was already tired of his roommates living outside of all human civilization.
"Glasgow is not next to Inverness ..." he informed without any energy as he put on his helmet.
"And that's a shame!"
"Oh my... It doesn't change anything. We can get to the restaurant sooner."
"I like this idea," Moain smirked sly.
"You, stomach on your feet, calm down."
"I'm hungry, Foud."
"As usual, that doesn't change. Seriously, you should eat a little less, now and then at least."
"Oh, don't blame me, will you! I don't have much this morning."
"Your" not much "is still consequent I call you back!"
"So what? I'm still hungry and not everyone has a small body like you."
"You'll wait until we've all arrived at our destination," Day interjected before they started arguing, hurrying over to Moain's motorbike. "Let's go now, the road is long."
The two gods gazed at each other before one got into his car and the other straddled his motorbike. Day immediately wrapped his arms around the waist of the god of earth and gravity, under Nyx's murderous and manic gaze. He rode his motorbike furiously and was the first to start, clearing the way for all the others who followed him. However, Moain quickly overtook him at Day's request so that he could tell him which route to take, not wishing to find himself lost in the middle of the road. The blond firmed his grip as the first bends presented themselves and closed his eyes the time to pass them, fearing every second to stay there as the speed was high. Speed regulation was just a small thing for the gods, far too excited to go to such a large human store to care.
Unlike other road users who abruptly strayed from their path. Everyone leaving their lane completely clear so that their life does not become a memory. The three-hour trip was thus reduced to the chagrin of the stomach of Day. He was so happy to set foot on the asphalt of the parking lot of the Ikea magazine.
"I'm going to throw up, I can smell it." warned the landlord, removing his helmet to take a deep breath of air.
"Do it before we eat at this strange store-restaurant." Nyx's brother said sarcastically before looking around. "It's huge."
"Yes, it is a store of this Swedish subsidiary what."
"A what?"
"Uh, how to explain that to you... A subsidiary is… What is this look?"
"We're being watched. Don't move."
"But we…Really, I can't have tranquillity."
"Toxin, Foud, make like you go get one of those trolleys and look around the bushes, see if those pests are going to move."
The two deities nodded and set off in the direction of the trolley's shelter. Talking about what they would buy without lowering their guard, their superhuman vision scrutinizing every movement of the foliage of the bushes. Someone was there. Foud made a low-key to Nyx who forced everyone to enter the huge store, all accompanying their landlord like bodyguards escorting a star to a gala. Foud and Toxin quickly joined them, each with a trolley which they took great pleasure in making it move forward in a zig-zag fashion. However, if the two of them were having fun and most rave about every piece of furniture or decorative item, Nyx was on the lookout. If Day's stalkers wanted to play this by trying to make him paranoid, they'd all play their deadly game together, but Day wouldn't be the victim.