#i wrote this at 2am orz hope its not too bad will return and edit stuff later on

[kirishwima]

Bet on me, baby - Part 3 (written portions below!)

****

He's late.

Not one to waste time, you stood outside the shop at 4pm sharp, arms folded across your torso for warmth, glaring at the sun as if it'd personally offended you by hiding beneath opalescent clouds despite the summer month.

You were fine to wait for five or ten minutes, keeping yourself busy listening to music through your overhead headphones and scrolling through your phone, but as the minutes trickled past and your foot tapped nervously against concrete, you frowned, sent another text-it's not rude to wait indoors, not when the guy you're waiting for is a whooping 15 minutes late, now is it?

You make your order and find a cozy corner to sit at, already bringing out your notes and laptop-the sooner you get this done, the better after all, and you suppose there's no harm in getting a headstart until your project partner arrives.

Yet time flows onwards, with no sight of Mammon to behold.

The ice in your drink has already melted by the time you decide to send him another message, now truly furious as you glanced to the clock on the wall across of you.

You look over your final messages with a sigh as you pack up your belongings, standing up from your seat to head out of the shop.

You're all but ready to storm out when the sound of hurried steps marching your way distracts you, a flurry of white all you see as the chair across you gets dragged back on the wooden floors.

Mammon stumbles into the seat, tilting his head back.

"Ha. Made it" he sighs, turns towards you and has the audacity to smirk, a lazy toothy grin as he slumps further into the seat.

He nods towards you in greeting, blinks owlishly behind his sunglasses. An angry red mark covers his left cheek, one he seems more than oblivious to.

You raise an eyebrow at that, momentarily ignoring the fact that he didn't even apologize for being an hour late as he leans back on his seat, balancing the chair on its back two legs.

You stare at him.

You blink.

And scream.

"What the FUCK Mammon?!" you ask.

He flinches, straightens back his chair as it momentarily threatens to fall.

"Huh? What?!"

"What? What do you mean what?! Where were you?"

He rolls his eyes, shrugs his shoulders with a shake of his head.

"I overslept! Some of us have actual social lives y'know-I was out all night and honestly jus' wanted to sleep all day today" he fumes. "Like, who the hell would wanna spend their saturday doing homework with a nerd?"

Your fingers are about to wrap around your plastic coffee cup and fling it to his head, before Mammon carries on with a sigh.

"At least I was going to, but Satan slapped me and threatened to cut all my credit cards in half if i didnt show up and hes a crazy bastard yknow, if he says it then he fucking means it-" he stifles a yawn, "and im hungover as shit. Why does no one care for me in this family?! I need sleep!"

You clench your teeth.

At least he's here you try to rationalize, at least Satan is a decent person that slapped some sense into him because you'd have no qualms to doing so yourself, peace and love be damned, but instead you sigh, turn to him and say;

"Be late again and I'll let your brothers, Lucifer included, know you were an ass to me."

He dared to laugh at that, shakes his hand as if to dismiss you, "And why would they care what the class nerd says?"

Enough is enough.

You slam your hands on the table, commanding the gaze of everyone in the shop to your form, Mammon flinching back, eyes wide and staring towards you.

"Y/N"

"Huh?"

"My name is Y/N. Not nerd. If you had paid even the slightest attention when I was talking to you, maybe you'd get it through that thick skull of yours. My name is Y/N L/N, im a human fucking person who was stood up for AN HOUR on their single day off, because guess what asshole-I have plans too! My day does not revolve around you and your fucking schedule. You have wasted an hour of my precious time, with not so much as an apology for being late, and you come in here and talk to me like I'm an inconvenience to you?!"

You get up, sling your backpack over your shoulder as Mammon sits frozen in place, eyes never leaving your fuming face.

"Well guess FUCKING what. I don't like you either! I could be hanging out with my friends too, or taking up another shift at my part time work and earning actual money, instead of wasting my time and effort here, waiting for you to get your shit together enough to actually get here and start working on this project so we can pass this class!"

You slung your bag over your shoulder, giving Mammon one final cold look.

"Thanks for wasting my time. Go find another project partner, and maybe you two can fail together" is all you say before turning around, walking out the coffee shop without looking back.

Your steps are brisk, pace fast as you make haste, your sole goal to get as far away from this shitty day and back to the comfort of your apartment.

You're about to send a text to Satan, to apologize for going off in his brother after he had the decency to send him to you, when you hear Mammon shuffling behind you, yelling our a 'wait, hold on you ner-uh. Y/N!!'

You do stop at that, turning around with a frown at the sound of your name, arms crossed over your chest.

"What?" you ask.

He's panting, his face washed red, back hunched and hands on his thighs as he looks back up at you-

"I. Uh. Ugh, don't make me say it!"

You sigh.

"Say what, Mammon?"

He grumbles, fidgets with a hand to his hair.

"I'm sorry! Okay!"

'Sorry for what?' you ask, not willing to let this slide. A half hearted apology isn't gonna cut it.

"For...wasting your time. And coming here hungover. And insulting you."

You look him up and down. He's not so bad like this; with this sheepish look on his face, a hand thrown awkwardly to the back of his neck, looking anywere else but your face-even through his yellow tinted sunglasses you can see the deeper shade across his cheeks, a bead of sweat trickling down his right temple, presumably from the effort he made trying to catch up to you.

'Fine' is all you say.

He looks back at you, a small grin of his lips that seems to taste like victory.

"So can we go finish this work now or?"

"No. Not today"

His crestfallen look is almost cute, you muse, but shake your head free of the thought before it takes root in your mind.

"Believe it or not Mammon, I wasn't lying when I said I was a busy person. I don't have anymore time for today, since you so politely wasted it."

"Hey!" he groans, straightening back up, "I said I was sorry!"

"I know. Which is why I'm willing to plan another meetup like this with you. You can come by my workplace tomorrow at the end of my shift and we can plan a rough outline of our topic, or you can text me where you'll be and I can come meet you."

"Where do you work?"

"The local bookstore, down the street from the main campus. You know the one, big but raggedy looking? Has a wooden sign outside called Brimstone?"

He nods, looks to his phone as he replies.

"Yeah I know the one. Satan won't shut up about it."

You exchange further details for a moment, eventually deciding on him coming to pick you up from your work in the afternoon when your shift ends; you guys can go grab a coffee and something to eat at the adjacent coffee shop, and finally get some work done there.

Mammon nods along as you recount tomorrow's plan, his previous attitude watered down and like this-leaning close to you in the busy street, huddled together as you show him the location of your workplace on google maps, his focused little pout, his blue eyes big and juxtaposing thick white lashes-hell, he's almost attractive like this.

Almost.

You bite back the intrusive thought and bid him goodbye, heading straight back to your shitty apartment-you're supposed to finish up your essay today and start on yet another pending report.

Instead you can't get these flashes of white and gold out of your head all day.

*****

-Masterlist-