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The first time one of Ryan's jobs was hijacked by the necromancer, he'd been too surprised to react properly.
Necromancers were rare, and even though every reaper was aware of their existence, it wasn't very often that they managed to get to a recent death before the souls were collected. Still, the second time Ryan found the guy –Shane, he introduced himself with a dumb, goofy grin– crouched over the body he had been tasked with, he chalked it up to a strange coincidence.
The third time, however, Ryan was irritated. He huffed and puffed, stomping his boots on his way back home. Technically, he could have tried manhandling Shane away from the woman laying lifeless on the middle of the road, but he'd taken one look at the child in her arms, still breathing and mostly uninjured after a car had hit them both, and he just couldn't find the strength to do it.
Ryan had always known his heart was too soft for the job, but that didn't stop him from being annoyed that he kept being prevented from actually doing it. He prided himself in being a damn good reaper, for god's sake.
*
"Have you ever met a necromancer?" Ryan asked his colleagues one night, sitting in a booth on their favorite tiki bar.
"Hm?" Steven didn't look up from his drink, too busy trying to fish a cherry on the bottom of his glass. "No, I don't think so, why are you asking?"
"I've had this fella interrupt my jobs recently", he said around an ice cube. "Last week was the, huh, what? Fifth time."
"You have met the same necromancer five times?" Steven's voice shooted up, his attention now fully on Ryan.
"Looks like someone has a crush", teased Curly. "You should ask him out."
Ryan spluttered out little shards of ice.
"No. No, there's no wa– No."
*
It wasn't like Ryan always found Shane crouched over a body. Sometimes he got to it first, feeling eyes on him all the way through the process, and when he turned around after he was done, he'd catch a glimpse of soft brown hair on a head way too tall to be anyone else. Sometimes, he got there too late, when the somber sensation of death had cleared the air, and nothing to prove Shane had been there except for a note scribbled on the back side of a leaflet, a piece of scrap paper, one time an actual leaf from a tree.
"Why do you keep doing this?" Ryan asked once.
"Dunno, why do people keep dying?" Shane replies, as if it was obvious.
Point taken, thought Ryan. But still– "Why me?"
Shane only shrugged, before smiling and turning away.
*
After that, things carried on for a month, two months. It wasn't always that Ryan's reaping was thwarted, but it was a frequent occurrence, and he couldn't help but wonder how much longer he could go on without his boss noticing.
Then, he'd been scheduled for a reaping at the park in front of his favorite movie theater. He had tickets for a movie not very long after the reaping and thus, it was of vital importance to do the reaping on time so he could go hunker down in a cozy seat at the cinema and munch on popcorn for a couple of hours.
So of course, he was running late.
Ryan wasn't surprised to see Shane already there, looming over the body of an old man. Ryan's shoulders sagged in defeat, as he stood there watching how yet another one of his jobs was taken away from him.
From time to time, he wondered how Shane explained away what he did. Reapers weren't human, at least not fully so, but necromancers were. His case file had said "Heart attack", and Ryan wondered if the gaggle of people around Shane and the old man thought of Shane as an incredibly well-timed EMT who'd just been passing by.
Surely, that excuse had to run out sooner or later, right?
He watched as Shane deftly extricated himself, letting someone else hurry in next to the old man, to ask him if he was all right, that was a big scare, maybe he should call his doctor and make an appointment.
Shane looked up straight to Ryan. He grinned, eyes twinkling, and stepped closer to him.
"Hey, if it's not my favorite Reapergara right here!"
"You botched one of my jobs, again"
"Oh my, did I?" Shane looked down at his wrist, and went a little pale. "Look, Ryan, I'd love to stay and chat, but it actually wasn't on my plans to do this little necromancing today and now I'm running late to this movie I've got tickets for."
Oh no, thought Ryan. He had forgotten about his movie in the midst of it all. He said this to Shane, who quirked his head to the side, and cautiously asked what movie he was going to watch.
*
It turned out that they had both bought a ticket to the same movie, to the same theater, to the same showing. Without thinking, Ryan had suggested they go in together, and to his surprise, Shane had quickly agreed.
It should have been weird, to sit in the dark next to the person who was etching his place as Ryan's worst nemesis, he thought. And yet, Ryan felt the most comfortable and relaxed he'd felt in ages.
"That was nice", Shane said, as they left the theater. Ryan didn't think he was talking about the movie.
"Yeah, it was", Ryan looked away, suddenly grateful for the darkness of the evening. "Maybe you'd like to come over to my place some time? Put in a movie, pop some corn, have a couple of cold ones?"
Shane's steps faltered, and Ryan cackled, waiting for him to catch up. Once he did, he could see Shane's ears reddening.
"I thought– I was sure you hated me," He said, surprised. "You know, with the whole necromancing thing."
Ryan thought for a moment.
Then, he thought for another moment.
"I don't. Not really. Not at all. Hate you, I mean." He finally replied, feeling the sincerity of every word as he said them. "I'm not gonna lie, I'd appreciate it if you let me do my job once in a while."
"We'll see about that", Shane laughed, eyes crinkling. And then, in a smaller, softer voice, "I would enjoy hanging out with you, though."
A pleasant warmth filled Ryan's belly. He didn't think Shane would actually stop meddling, but right then, he couldn't find it in himself to care.