#then after sitting a bit and considering how the little demon was feeling I munched on a smaller jerky stick and called an end to 'lunch'

[frowningfox]

New Year's Goal: More consistently feed the little demon inside of me that compels me to bite people if I don't eat enough calories and/or sugars.

Secondary Goal:

Don't feel bad about eating more food, the little demon NEEDS it.

Tertiary goal:

Be less autistically irritated that I need to take time out of my day to eat, and that it takes energy and decision making to make food, and also that it is often wet in some way or another.

[mxvladdy]

i have an angst request, i guess??

could you imagine the reaction when MC and a brother are cuddling, being real sweet and tender, rubbing sensitive bits of skin ect.

MC stares off for a bit and the brother thinks they’re being nostalgic but when they ask what they’re thinking about 😘 MC just says “oh? i’m just remembering that i’m a potential food source for you guys 🙃“

~My first request! Yay!~

I hope you like it. I just picked just 3 brothers that I thought would be fun. But if you want more lemme know!

Lucifer

Quality time with him is rare. He's a busy demon after all.

But after an unsightly incident a few years back he has been trying to take some time out of the day for himself. It is also the perfect excuse to have some quality time alone with you.

He likes to have you sitting on top of him while he lounges. Your weight and heartbeat were soothing. A living noisemaker.

It has become a routine now. You come and rest with him and enjoy each other's company.

This time you were a little distant. Your eyes constantly track the motions and actions of his mouth. You seem fixated on every little thing he does. From a sip of his drink to the way he scowls while reading the evening news. You’re mesmerized by something.

He takes it as you reliving the taste and feel of his lips on yours. He'd be happy to give you a reenactment. But, when he leans in for a kiss, he senses...fear?

No. Surely you had gotten over that little mortal hurdle. For all things unholy, he hasn't even threatened you in over a year.

He'll pry, demanding a reason for your sudden apprehension. If anything to mask his own fear with righteous indignation.

When you tell him it takes a lot of effort not to laugh. It wasn't a ridiculous notion. He had indulged once or twice in his younger years-not that he would tell you. The thought had crossed his mind not that he would tell you. But really you would have been dog food before he would put any effort into it.

He'll brush your concern off. He has no interest in your flesh in such a rudimentary form. Now that pretty little soul of yours was another matter...

“You seem- distracted.” Lucifer’s purrs against your temple kissing it tenderly. His deep rumble resonates down your spine. “What are you thinking about γλυκιά μου?”  He drags a razor-sharp canine down your neck teasingly. “Something good perhaps?”  

“No, sorry.” You burrow closer to his chest. “Just had a… thought.” Lucifer’s thumb stills, halting the teasing pattern he had been tracing into your thigh. He scowls brushing his nose across the crown of your head. If you were thinking of anything other than him, then he was doing this wrong.

That thought was… offending. He had carved out a spot for you in his already ridiculous schedule, and yet you seemed miles away. Normally these precious moments were spent with you snuggling close loving his undivided attention, and him loving yours in kind.

Tonight your demeanor was so demure. You clung to him as usual, soft lips trailing down his jaw to the little sliver of exposed skin from where he had loosened his tie hours ago. But, it just felt like you were just going through the motions. “Speak.” A request and order in one.

"If given the chance, would you eat me?"

"What?" Lucifer cups the back of your head and pulls you away to make eye contact. "What?" He balks, eyes wide. His expression was completely undignified. That certainly wasn't what he was expecting.

You explain to him about a conversation you had overheard in your early days of the exchange program. For some reason, it just hit you then at the feel of his mouth on you.

"I- hmmm. Personally, I would have fed you to Cerberus. I don't particularly enjoy the taste of human flesh." He settles back into his office chair unfazed. He thought he had something to worry about. "Besides, I have come to find I like you warm and breathing." He pinches your side teasingly ready to get the evening back on track.

"Wait! You thought about it!?" His blasé tone takes you aback.

Lucifer knocks his forehead into yours with a snicker. "Not too hard. Besides you'd probably give my pups indigestion with all the trouble you’ve turned out to be."

Beelzebub

He likes to spend time with you at his favorite cafe. The one with the little tea cakes and great sandwiches.

Normally you will spend a weeknight there studying and munching together. One hand scribbling away in your notebook and the other engulfed in his large hand. By the end of the night though, you always find your legs interwoven with his and his ginger head resting on top of yours.

He is full and happy. So happy in fact, he steals a kiss, and then another.

It’s a good thing he picked a booth in the back so the rest of the cafe can ignore the couple nestled closer and closer in the back. He sneaks a few more peaks in here and there, whispering softly. It was going great until- He hadn’t expected to feel you lock up. Was it something he said?

You’re embarrassed when he pulls away and tries to brush it off. You just got swept up in some thoughts, no biggie.

He won’t pry, he gets it, it happens to him too. But, when you untangle yourself from him he has to know what’s up.

When you tell him he is distraught. Because he 100% has and probably still will eat a person. He might have munched on a witch that had pissed him off just the other day…

What he hates most is he can’t really lie and deny that he hasn’t thought about it.  

“You taste amazing.” His words ghost over your lips as he savors the sweet mix of your coffee and natural flavor. You always taste like spiced oranges and honey when your lips brush. It’s intoxicating. Suddenly the flavor of you changes, a sour note hits his tongue. You go still and look out across the small cafe.“Are you ok?”

You pull away blinking rapidly. “Yeah-sorry.” You chuckle humorlessly. “Just...had a thought.” You try to move back into his arms but he stops you.    

"What's the matter?" He tilts your chin up with a callous finger. You turn your head away and answer. "What?" He could hear you just fine. Superhuman hearing and all, but he just couldn’t comprehend what he heard.

"Do you consider me as a food?" You repeat yourself. "I know demons eat people, and like you've mentioned it before. I guess, I don't know. Shouldn't I be scared?" You've never seen a demon wilt before. Beel recoils and tucks in on himself. His hand flops down to sit on his thigh.

Of Course, he did think about it. Hell’s he had considered it. Aside from being a demon, he was the avatar of gluttony. How many nights had he laid in bed, stomach growling, and your scent filling his nose when you first arrived. Mammon had a work out the first few weeks of school dragging him away from your immediate vicinity. It was fortunate for the both of you that you had bonded so quickly or else he could have ruined everything.

His silence was enough for you to know. "Crazy how things turn out right?" You try to lighten the mood. You stroke his hair gently trying to comfort him. "Sorry, I kinda ruined date night huh?"

"No, no this is good." He chuckles rubbing his neck awkwardly. "Or I mean. We should talk about this. Before Diavolo started working on the exchange program, human souls and flesh were pretty common delicacies." Beel collects his thoughts with a sigh. “The verdict didn’t go over well at first. I wasn’t too happy either if I’m being honest. But, I’m happy he did it in the long run.” He meets your gaze with a warm smile. “You’re the kinda treat I want to enjoy for eternity.”

Asmodeus

A deviant. An absolute terror when it comes to PDA. He doesn’t care if it’s class time. If he wants to be in your lap then that's where he'll be.

He'll nuzzle the crook of your neck whenever he finds his way on to your thighs. He always has a compliment ready for you. New perfume or cologne? Is that shirt the one he bought you? He'll dote on you for hours until you are a blushing mess.

He schedules out movie nights with you. Just the two of you, some good drinks, plenty of pillows, and no bothersome brothers.

The movie he picked tonight was an oldie from the Devildom. He was feeling a little sentimental and thought you would enjoy seeing some culture. You agree, but forget one little thing.

Old Devildom culture was...pretty graphic.

Asmo doesn’t notice how your mind drifted off during the opening act. He is busy creating a new trail of hickies along your shoulder and upper arm around his pact.

He does notice when he hits the sensitive spot of your neck that normally has you squirming but-nothing. Huh? Was he losing his touch? He is usually so aware of his partner's mood. He asks what’s wrong.

Your question comes out of left field. He panics, figuring the movie wasn’t the best for this conversation. He turns it off and gives you his full attention.

Has he eaten a human or two before. Yes, back when he was young and would get swept up in the heat of the moment. Crimson was a lovely color on him.

You try to console him. Really you get it, it was an errant thought. You know he won’t eat you.

Can he still call you a snack tho?

You watch the movie in dead silence. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you figure you should probably be disturbed by what you see on screen. Were you that desensitized? Probably. Should that worry you? Maybe? You try to weigh it out in your hand. The black and white feature flashing across your eyes. You have seen worse in crappy human B rated horror movies. But, those were special effects and pints of red-colored slime and food coloring. You had a nagging suspicion that the scene in front of you was real. You glance down at the slim demon trying to fuse his body into yours. His body flickering in and out of focus in the flickering lights of the movie. You try to focus on him, his warm body nestling closer to you under the blankets. It worked for a moment before another loud roar from the screen dragged your eyes back up.

The contrast between the violence on the projector and the soft innocents of Asmodeus’s lips on the corners of yours was wild. He wasn’t even paying attention to the film. Typical. This was his normal ploy to have you all to himself. It worked though, and you loved it. Oh- You watch with wrapped attention as the human on screen was consumed both body and soul by a horde of demons.

“Is the film more magnetic than me?” Asmodeus pulls away licking his lips. His rose-colored gloss was smeared across his cheek. You shudder blinking past the sudden thought of what that soft red color also looked like.  

"Nah," You huff wrapping your arms around him to press your chest to his. He purrs practically preening from your attention. "Just thinking."

"Oh~" You can feel his playful smile stretching along your hairline. "Care to share." He nips your earlobe.

"I just, humans really are just kinda food to you guys huh?”

You’ve never seen Asmodeus move so fast before in your life. One moment he is doing his best impression of an octopus and the next he is standing several feet away from you, hands raised in a mix of shock and defense. “Where would you-” He trails off hearing the sound of violence and death behind him. “Oh Hells.” He clicks off the projector in a panic. “I am so sorry honey! I did not think that through.”

You laugh awkwardly. “Would this be an inappropriate time to say I would go straight to your thighs?”

Asmodeus snorts in the dark. “Hips more like. You are nothing but sugar and fluff.” He flips the lights back on and he comes back to kneel next to you. He cups your face. “You know I would never do that right? I can’t say I haven’t done it before but I’ve never thought that about you.”

You hum kissing his warm palm. “Should I be offended or thankful?”

He hits you playfully. “That’s not funny!” You laugh taking his light swats, grateful that the mood in the room was already lightning.  

“It is and you know it.” You scoop him back into your lap and snatch the remote up from where he had tossed it. “Come on let’s finish movie night. I’m picking the show this time.”

[unabashednightmarepizza]

Even If Time Passes| KnY x OC Story

Previous | Next

Warnings: Spoilers for Akaza’s past, kinda smut ahead, kinda BDSM(?), fingering, kinks, teasing and my bad attempt at writing smut so bare with me. I promise I’ll make it better lol

If you are uncomfortable with reading smut, don’t read after Akaza/ Hakuji’s past.

MDNI!!

      “Do you see yourself unworthy of my love?”

At his mother’s innocent and somewhat simple words, Hakuji couldn’t help but lower his head shamefully. His stomach was twisting and his heart rate sky-rocketed because of the stress of where this conversation was going. He didn’t know what to say to her either, to the woman who took him in and raised him as her own. What am I supposed to say to her so I wouldn’t anger her? Is she even angry at me? She never gets angry but… would she go as far as kickin-

“Oh, don’t get me wrong though. I’m not angry, I just want to know what’s going on inside that head of yours.”

Hakuji snapped his head to his mother who was munching on her dangos sweetly, holding her cheeks in delight while humming a song she heard from Asumi. He looked up and down at his mother a bit uneasily and leaned back on the bench they were sitting. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and finally spoke to his mother.

“Are you not going to… I don’t know, get angry?”

“Why would I? I knew you were with Koyuki. I guess, I need to go to them and thank them for every time they took care of you, though. What was her favourite food-“

“Mom… Please don’t try to hold the scolding off anymore. I know you’re angry…”

At her son’s little, defeated voice; Akahana slowly stopped eating and looked at her son. Even though she was able to see half of his face, she saw a single tear hanging on the corner of his eye. She slowly lifted her left arm to touch his face and to not to scare him. When Hakuji felt her soft touch on his face, he lifted his head and directly looked into her bi-colored eyes that held only one thing for him: A mother’s love…

He couldn’t help but shed tears even more and suddenly hugged her, clutching her haori and kimono hard as if he didn’t want to let go, thinking that if he did, she would give up on him…

She sighed defeatedly and hugged him tight as well. She had a gut feeling that one day, something like this would happen. She knew since the day she said she wanted to take care of both him and his father. He wasn’t as little as Ume, Gyutaro, Rui or Obanai when she adopted him, he was a young boy who only wanted to heal his father even if it meant pickpocketing  and earning the needed money in dishonest ways. As his memeories from his past flooded to his head, he whimpered and little “Please, don’t let me go..”s and “I promise I won’t do it again…”s  fell from his mouth.

At her son’s painful words and sadness, Akahana also felt her heart being stabbed by an invisible knife and her eyes started to tear up. She gently pat his back as a signal to let her go but Hakuji only tightened even more and shook his head feverishly.

“Hakuji… I’m not going anywhere, I just want to look at your face while I’m talking.”

He reluctantly let her go but held her delicate hands in his in a tight grip. She then looked at him again while the night breeze blew their hair and its coolness would be a disturbance for most but for them, it was a reminder of how they first met…

  It was a day that could be considered as normal for the most part. Even though the sky was covered with clouds, it seemed that nobody cared about it at all. Normal civilians were outside for the most part, running around for errands. Everyone moved on with their lives, accompanied by the happy cries of little little children and the screams of sellers to sell what they had. Although they knew that demons moved comfortably at night, the presence of the Demon Slayer Corps, led by a strong and reliable person, relieved them a little. Although most people didn’t see the leader in person, Akahana wandered amongs them without them noticing. Seeing no need to hide herself, she stopped by various vendors with only a mask on her face to satisfy her son Obanai’s needs.Her old friend Urokodaki also wanted to tag along with her to get his students’ needs, even though he insisted that they were only his students which was an obvious lie, she still didn’t break her old friend’s request.

“Well, Sakonji? How are Makomo, Sabito and Giichi doing? I hope they don’t cause any havoc…”

“Well, I certainly had better days, Ubuyashiki. Though, It’s normal for little kids. How is it going for you with Obanai?”

She smiled and waved her friend’s hidden meaning of his question and leaned down slightly towards her son who was tugging on her pants.

“Did you find what you need, dear?”

When her son shyly nodded his little head, Akahana told him to go first before them and to not get out of her sight. She then returned to her friend and continued to chit-chat while also looking for her son from time to time.

“I still don’t have any idea of how things work but I believe I’ve been doing a good job… I guess?”

“Don’t worry, old friend. I also didn’t know much things but look at me now!”

Urokodaki chuckled to himself and pat Akahana’s back. Just when she was about to give a sassy answer to her friend, she heard the screaming that was coming from the town square and immediately took her son’s hand into hers and slowly approched to see what was going on. As they approched the town square, the crowd grew more and more frequent. So Akahana took her son into her arms and continued to walk. The leader who opened a path for herself from the crowd of people, felt her heart stop beating momentarily as soon as she saw what was before her.

She felt as if boiling water had spilled all over her and she could feel her nervous hands trembling, hearing her own heart beating rapidly.

“Obanai, don’t turn your head towards here…”

The little boy nodded his head at his mother’s stern voice and tightened his little arms around her neck and buried his head into his mom’s neck. Akahana put her hand on his head and patted it while watching what was happening in front of her.

“YOU HONORLESS BRAT!! YOU CAN ONLY STEAL, RIGHT?!”

“That’s three pickpocket tattoo now. Next time, I’ll cut your wrists off.”

“HAHAHA! GO AHEAD AND CUT THEM OFF THEN! YOU CUT THEM OFF, I’LL STILL HAVE MY FEET!!”

Akahana winced slightly and gave Obanai to Sakonji. After trusting him with her son, she looked at him as if saying “If something happens, take him and go.” and turned to the front when she heard the “people”s loud voices and felt her heart squeeze painfully for the boy in front of her, hearing what was pouring down from the men who was beating him. The next words though, only made something inside of her snap.

“YOU ARE A DEMON CHILD! THE DEMON SLAYER CORPS SHOULD-“

“I really don’t suggest you to end that sentence.”

Akahana couldn’t stop herself anymore and lunged in front of the kid and stopped the bat that was coming to his way and stood tall in front of 3 men. As cries of sudden scare poured out of the mouths of men and people who saw someone tall and strong in front of them, Akahana took out her haori and threw it on the young boy. Then she cut her hand open and healed the boy’s wounds. She secured the boy behind her and signaled to her friend Sakonji to stay on his ground, then turned to the man before her when he spoke.

“What do you think you’re doing, woman?! Are you aware of who you’re protecting?!”

“The only thing I’m protecting here is a child’s life and frankly I don’t see anything wrong here…”

“That thing you’re protecting is a demon’s-“

“Didn’ I tell you to not finish that sentence?”

Akahana looked at the man with bored but still angry eyes as the man opposite him frothed and got frustrated. Still not caring about him, she leaned in front of the little boy and looked into his eyes. To not scare the kid anymore, she asked;

“Can I touch you? Would that be a problem?” in a quiet voice.

The boy with sharp fangs in front of her, even though he was hesitant to trust to the woman in front of him, he couldn’t help but think that the woman’s eyes were just so kind and worried for him even though she didn’t exactly know who he was , that as soon as they looked at each other’s eyes, he couldn’t help but weep in front of her, nodding his head a little.

“I-It hu-hurt-ts a lit-litle…”

Akahana looked at him with sympathetic eyes and pat his head. If that “bastard” wouldn’t have stopped her, she would have already took the kid to take care of him.

“That kid is the epitome of evil! He knows nothing but steal and he only makes damage!”

The leader could now feel a popping vein and she walked towards the men with anger, not listening to her son’s and friend’s pleas. Calmly, with her hand behind her back and her head being high, she stood before the cruel men and said,

“I really hope you have a good reasoning for your accusations to this boy.”

After saying her venemous words, everyone was silent and waiting with curious eyes for what would happen next. One of the men, with a stupid courage, stood in front of Akahana, smirking.

“He has fangs just like demons and the only thing he knows is evil…”

“Oh God, I knew that humans can be stupid but I didn’t expect that much…”

Akahana laughed bitterly and tilted her head towards the sky while scratching her chin with her hand. After looking at the sky for some time, she spoke again.

“I believe you know that the leader who you want them to kill this boy is a half-demon as well… What’s the reason for you to not treat them as a monster? Is it fear? Or maybe their power?”

The men were nervous in the face of the woman's questioning and strong attitude. Because indeed, they knew she was right. They also knew that the Corps’ leader wasn’t someone to be in the bag. The fact that the leader wouldn’t get angry easiyly at all and wouldn’t let her emotions control her decisions scare them all.

Everyone admired her, her unbreakable warrior-like soul and her devotion to protect human life. Thanks to her dedication, people accepted her being half-demon and trusted the leader with their life, some begrudgingly.

But apparently that wasn’t the case…

“Is she not a kind of monster though? God knows what she does at night…”

“Yeah… I heard that they go out in every a few days… Imagine the amount of times they must have killed…”

When she heard the murmurs behind her, Akahana didn’t wait for another second and threw the hood of her uniform, looking directly at everyone’s eyes. After seeing the face in front of them, they all shrieked and took a step behind. Meanwhile, the boy that was standing behind Akahana looked around perplexedly. Akahana then smirked at their fearful state and opened her arms both ways.

“What? Or did you just get scared because the real person is in front of you? Come on, don’t get shy on me now!”

Seeing Akahana, who slowly displayed a frantic smile on her face, the gunmen immediately armed themselves and went on to attack her. Of course this decision didn’t go as in the way they planned since Akahana took her right foot the the right, parallel to the ground she was standing and caused the men stumble down and make them be covered in dirt. After shaking herself to get rid of the dirt on her, she held the boy’s hand tightly in hers and turned to the people with fierce eyes.

“I’M THE LEADER OF THE DEMON SLAYER CORPS AND THE HEAD OF THE UBUYASHIKI FAMILY, UBUYASHIKI AKAHANA!”

“Even if I am not the administrator of the country, I want to express my displeasure with this behavior! If this society were a society that supported each other, helped someone when they needed it, this child and people like him wouldn't have to steal!”

“As the head of the Ubuyashiki family, this kid and many like him are under my protection from now on! If something happens to them, I promise you all that you’ll see a part of me that you wish you didn’t. ”

The woman, who stated her words harshly, then turned to the boy and asked him where his house was, looking into his tearful eyes. After looking at where he was pointing, she took both of the little boy’s hands and started to walk. But suddenly, the woman stopped in the middle of the road and the kid who she had saved looked to the woman whose long hair was gliding softly against the cool breeze.

“Oh, my! How rude of me! With all that chaos, I forgot to ask your name… What’s your name, dear?”

He probably would have attacked this woman he had just met, but even though he had never seen her before, he warmed up to this woman who wasn’t afraid to help like others. So, since he was able to see her face with full details, he shyly told her his name.

“My name… M-my name is Soyama Hakuji…”

She smiled softly at him and muttered a little “ Oh it contains the kanji for heal and mythical lion! What an interesting and pretty name!”. Meanwhile Hakuji couldn’t help but wonder when he saw that she didn’t smile wholeheartedly. He started to doubt a little but of course he couldn’t have known that all of a sudden, that woman would mean everything to him.

“Then let’s go and heal your father, okay? I heard that your dad was sick…Your parents really gave you a great name! You’ll be the cure to your father!”

And with these simple words, a long and loving adventure began. And Hakuji, in his next life, wasn’t left alone to fight against the harshness of this world…

         When the little moments of nostalgia were over, Akahana looked at Hakuji, patted him on the back and pointed the way back as if to signal that they should get up. As they approached the house after their nearly one-hour-long walk, she grabbed Hakuji's hand and stopped him. Hakuji looked at his mother questioningly since they stopped suddenly but Akahana suddenly hit him straight in the back of his head, causing him to moan in pain.

“OWWW! Mom! What was that for!?”

“You idiotic brat! How can you think that you don’t have place here, that I’m gonna leave you like a stray puppy?!”

Hakuji froze on his spot and realized that his mother read his mind again and after seeing her be angry and stomping like a bunny, he took a run for his life. No matter how fast he runs, Akahana caught up to him in front of their estate and jabbed at his forehead, without giving a thought on his pleas.

“It’s not like you are butler here, you hear me!? If I hear you think the same , I’ll give you 500 laps!”

After hearing her threats, Hakuji grew pale and with teary eyes, was it because of the pain or his mum’s words were unknown, he nodded his head vigorously.( 500 laps were no small matter!) He linked his arm with his mother and passed though the Gates but this happy moment didn’t last long.

Here at the front of their estate was Hinatsuru and Makio, waiting for both of them with spoons and spatulas in their hands while Makio was slowly cracking her knuckles.

“You two ate sweets before meal again, didn’t you?”

They chuckled and looked at each other awkwardly while her wives were coming closer with teasing smiles. Akahana looked at Hakuji with the corner of her eye and said,

“You go to right, I go to left. Make some zigzags to avoid Makio.”

“But mom! Ma is pretty fast, what am I supposed to-“

“I guess you have to find this out by yourself,dear.”

Safe to say, Hakuji ran that 500 laps in one night…

        After tying her loose yukata, Akahana sat down on the engawa. The stars and moon was crystal clear on the dark sky, brightening it and there was utter silence. Amidst this silence, she was looking at the pictures her children drew lovingly while resting her head against the pillar, playing with her phone. Just when she was getting ready to play some game before going to sleep, she felt someone sit beside her and rest their head on her shoulders. Knowing it was her wife, she turned her head towards her, looking with all the love inside her and took her hands into hers. She lifted her head from the pillar and instead rested it against hers while rubbing her delicate knuckles, smelling her coconut shampoo she asked,

“Did you change your shampoo? I thought you liked Sakura one more?”

At that, she only snuggled even more to her and looked up to her. After seeing the care and utter confusion on her eyes, Hinatsuru sent a small smile to her way and lifted herself only to sit on Akahana’s lap. Seeing her wife’s movements, Akahana cocked an eyebrow but still snaked her arms around Hinatsuru. After landing a kiss on her cheeks Hina said,

“Yes but you also like this one as well, Ubuyashiki-sama.”

“Come ooon, Hina… Don’t call me with that surname. I like you calling me Aka or just Hana…”

As soon as her wife called her so formally, Akahana started to whine like baby while tightening her hold on her and bumbed her forehead against Hinatsuru’s, causing it to become bruised.

“Hina! Oh God, I’m sorry! I forgot my forehead was hard!” said Akahana frantically, and commanding Blue Spider Lilly to heal her wife. To ease her wife, Hinatsuru smiled reassuringly at her while rubbing at the soreness on her forehead and took her hands that were chopping the air.

“No need to worry, Hana! It doesn’t hurt that much now, and I think a kiss would heal it, instead of the Lilly…”

Seeing her wife moving her eyebrows seductively made Akahana blush profusely. She leaned to her chest and hit her with her forehead lightly, mindful to her forehead being hard.

“You, not making my face red would be great, you know?          

“It’s called as ‘blushing’, love and after seeing you and Makio together this morning… It’d be a lie if I said I didn’t want to be in her shoes…”

When she saw that her wife’s happy face fell, she started to get sad as well but she pulled herself together as soon as possible, fixed Hina’s hair and started to touch her beauty mark and her slight under eye bags delicately. Beautiful… she thought. God’s finest creation is right in front of me…

While Hinatsuru was busy feeling her wife’s touches, Akahana commanded Blue Spider Lilly to retreat to her cheek. Blue Spider didn’t question its master, and Akahana slipped her hands off of Hinatsuru, making her look at her with a slight panic in the meantime. But she sent a reassuring smile to her to calm her down and lifted her mask that was covering a part of her face, puting it beside her. After loosening her tight ponytail, she bit her lips slightly and looked at her wife’s lips who was gaping at her who had never seen her face without the sickness.

“Well then, I better take care of my wife as well, right?”

Without waiting for a reply, she put her hands to her neck and pulled Hinatsuru towards her. Their lips met in a sensual kiss, lips fitting like a key and lock while their hands started to wander around on each other’s bodies. Hina’s hands were on Akahana’s shoulders and she occasionally was squeezing them out of the overwhelming pleasure. Without a single care, Hinatsuru put her weight completly on her and arched her back towards her to be closer, moaning when her private part grinded on her wife’s leg. Making her more room to move, Akahana leaned backwards and rested her back against one of the pillars and put her hands around her waist, making her grind a little bit harder. Sudden pleasure shot through her whole body, and she let out a high pitched moan and grabbed her loose yukata to touch her skin more. She started to fondle with her milky breasts, pinching the bud while sucking her neck harshly. Akahana let out a little whine and started to rub her private parts as well. They both were moaning and panting heavily at this point while rubbing and grinding on each other. Their lips were swollen and wet with their saliva and a thin coat of sweat started to appear on them, making both of them glow on the moonlight. She parted her lips from her lover but frozen at the process  at the sight of her, a pink blush was on her apples, eyes blown wide with lust and body glowing like goddess’. Yeah… Definetly the finest creation…

She smirked devilishly and asked while teasing her hole with her long and slightly boney hands.

“ I didn’t know you had an exhibitionism kink dear…”

“ You-ughh… You h-have no idea of- agghh! Of what I-AGHH! “

Akahana didn’t let her finish her sentence since she plunged two fingers inside. She chuckled darkly and leaned towards her wife who was shaking like a leaf while rocking against her fingers desperately to get a friction.

“Oh? Cannot talk? That’s okay dear, no worri-… Oh my, the others also started huh?”

She tilted her head to the door and looked at it from the corner of her eye, listening their moans and pants and Suma’s “We should w-wait for U-Ubuyashiki-sama…”.

She laughed at their neediness and added a third finger in the woman on her, making her almost scream in utter pleasure.

“Now, now… Let’s wipe those tears, okay? Do you want to join them as well? Want them to watch how you fall apart with just my fingers?”

Hina couldn’t help but clench around her, coating her clothes and fingers with slick. Akahana smiled fondly at her and bit and lap at her neck.

“Well, I’d like to go in as well since I’ll punish Makio-chan and Tenma. But first, you gotta do two things for me, can you do that?”

She nodded her head immediately while clutching her mouth with her palm to not to make any sound. She smiled as if saying good and explained her two conditions.

“One: You need to tell me what’s in all of your minds since I might use it against you four now…”

“And two, which I believe is the easier one: Cum on my fingers.”

Hinatsuru whined but started to rock herself harshly to make herself cum. The thought of her making it come true made her more aroused and made Akahana chuckle. Seeing that she wasn’t answering, Akahana let out a tch and said,

“Well? Aren’t you gonna tell me or shall I stop my movements?”

As if to clarify her words, she stopped her fingers, making her almost cry. Eventually, she pulled herself together and gulped harshly to talk and have what she wants.

“Y-you said you c-can change your appearance, remember?”

“Mmm, what about it?” asked Akahana while kissing down her chest, taking her bud in her mouth and making her wife sob even more.

“A-and you said… you can change your gender completely too…”

“Oh, my… Just how naughty do your brains work, love?”

She bit down on Hina’s neck hard and started to move her hand faster and harder, making her wife who was embarrased, throw her head back while screaming in pleasure.

“ So me, making you loose yourself as a female wasn’t enough…”

“… and you want to be fucked by me as a male,huh?”

Seeing her wife sob and hiccup, she sucked on her breasts even more and whispered dirty things to her which made her finally came.

“Come on, Hina… You just need to cum and I’ll make your dreams come true…”

“I know you’re almost there, just-ughh… just a little bit more.”

Hinatsuru buried her head to Akahana’s chest and scramed out, coming on her fingers hard, shuddering and shaking. While she was panting heavily to calm her breaths, Akahana pulled her hand out of her and licked it clean. She looked at her with hooded eyes and pointed the room where sounds of displeasure echoed around since she was restraining her other three spouses with her powers. She sat up and extended her hand for the woman in front of her.

“Let’s go dear and have a night for ourselves since we won’t be having any for some time.”

They slowly walked to their king-sized room and Akahana peeked at the room while leaning on the wall. At the state her husband was she couldn’t help but tease him since he was just leaning on his forearms, not being able to do anything.

“Oh, my… You cannot move! What a bad luck!”

She walked to their bed and sat down, crossed her legs on each other and tilted her head to look at them with a chuckle. She then eyed her husband and put her hand on his white hair, yanking his head backwards and made him sit on his knees. She put her hand on his strong and buff chest, pulling and playing with his sensitive nipples and dragged her hand lower to his v-line, making him moan while her other hand was playing with Suma.

“I just learnt something interesting today… Would you like to know?”

They all nodded urgently to have some kind of friction from her. Akahana let go of them, making them whine and whimper at the loose of contact while they were trying to move. She extended her head towards the door and took Hinatsuru’s hand into hers. When they saw the state she was in, ripped clothes, swollen lips, hickies on her neck and the deep blush, their eyes grew wide with both lust and shock. Seeing their faces, she smirked while opening the front of her yukata. They all looked at her with keen eyes but she didn’t let them have this moment and stopped her hands, only to end up in Hina’s clothes, making the woman shut her eyes tightly while clucthing her wrist with some drool and a bigger blush on her face.

“Hana… what did you do to make her like this…?” asked Tenma with amazement and prominent lust for his wives in front of him( well, basically he was straining his neck to look at them but, yeah.)

“How long have you been fantasizing about me fucking you as a male, dears?”

Every one of theirs eyes grew wide and they started to blush with closed eyes but she wasn’t done yet. She let go of her wife and walked to her husband and proceeded to tease his husband’s tip while her body started to change and her voice got thicker. She opened her yukata and revealed her sculpted body to her spouses and hopped in the bed after pushing her husband to the chair inside the room, still restraining him. She pushed herself on her forearms while signaling Hinatsuru to hop on as well. She started to fondle with Makio’s breasts while kissing Suma’s neck. She then lifted her head and looked at Tenma with sharp fangs and dark look.

“You have no idea what will happen tonight, dear…”

[yellowocaballero]

The Crocodile's Dilemma: In Which Helen exploits Michael's Labor, Michael suffers an un-identity crisis, and unpaid internships should be illegal

It’s tough being a teenage embodiment of the Spiral. Your boss/wine aunt figure Helen’s a Tory, your inattentive cousin figure Mike Crew keeps attending philosophy classes and day drinking, and you’re pretty sure that this internship doesn’t have any dental. At least it’s good job experience for your future career in...being evil? But do you even want to be evil?

This small story is technically part of my Roleswap AU, but I specifically wrote it so that no knowledge is required. Still, if you’re wondering why Michael’s an eighteen(ish) year old, Mike Crew’s an Avatar of the Spiral, and everybody is obsessed with Melanie King, check it out. Still, no need. Rest under the cut.

Maybe Helen was right.

Not that Helen was ever strictly right, much as Helen was never wrong, but Michael just had to be doing this whole fear demon thing incorrectly. If someone had explained the whole fear demon thing to them two years ago (“Okay, so it’s like you’re the semi-sentient appendage of an extradimensional force of evil that has to consume trauma relentlessly in order to propagate its own debatable existence, also you’re nonbinary now, no those things are not strictly related, probably”), then they would have called them crazy. Which, of course, they were, but that wasn’t the point. So long as the point existed. So long as anything -

An essential theorem within quantum physics was the quantum Zeno effect. 

Simply put, it was the fact that a quantum state would decay if left alone, but does not decay under continuous observation. Even observing the results after the photon is produced leads to collapsing the wave function and loading a back-history as shown by delayed choice quantum eraser. If something was seen, it no longer existed; if something persisted unperceived, it would exist as long as it liked. 

So it was explained to Michael by the physics professor he was torturing that day. Michael had trapped the man in the physics building of his university, lured in by one too many late nights in his office and the persistent sense that his life was going nowhere meaningful. After a few classes spent sitting in on his Physics 101 class, maintaining constant and forever eye contact, Michael had eventually tricked the man into giving a persistent and ongoing physics lecture to an empty classroom, desperately trying to explain the inexplicable to a college freshman who did not care. Truly miserable, yet ultimately harmless - Michael’s favorite kind of trick. 

But, despite themself, Michael grew interested. They didn’t understand any of what the man was talking about, but that was all of the fun. Understanding ruined the magic of things; broke down the beauty of the universe into cogs and gears. No thanks. They could tell that it bothered the professor, that he said so much and yet knew nothing. That there was so much he would never know, and that he wasn’t so smart after all. How would any of his colleagues respect him?

“So photons degrade if they’re observed?” Michael asked one day, after...some period of time. They had raised their hand and everything, they were so proud of themself. Uni was just like secondary school after all. “Is that true of people too?”

The professor had sweated, deeply uncomfortable with Michael as a person and as a non-euclidean concept. “No - no, not at all. Humans are much more than photons -”

Michael grinned. It wasn’t quite right. “Are you sure?”

The professor sweated harder. “I - no, I’m not. But humans are constantly observed by - by the universe, or something.”

Michael grinned sharper. “Are you sure? Are you being observed right now? Are you sure?”

And the professor was not sure, not anymore, and the fragment of this man’s reality collapsed. 

Well, Michael thought to themself, slipping out of an improbable yellow door, that’s another Statement for the Magnus Institute. Not that they would read it. 

****

“Now, remember this - the first step to being a successful Avatar is presentation!”

Michael squinted at Helen dubiously. “I thought we were fear demons?”

Helen sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose with two sharp knife fingers. It looked as if it hurt quite a bit, but Michael reasoned that they had probably gone through the fifth dimension. “This is the stupidest dimension - fine, fine! Fear demons, then. It is absolutely vital that we conduct our business with style, grace, and the slightest sprinkling of pizazz!” 

Just for the flourish, Helen twirled her fingers, and a faint shower of confetti came raining down from the ceiling. Michael sneezed. 

“I thought it was vital that we harvest fear and trauma from people to propagate our cursed existence,” Michael said. 

Helen’s eyebrow twitched. “More than two things can be vital, Michael. Please pay attention. Now, as a demonstration, I’d like you to take a gander at that man over there.”

Obediently, Michael looked across the bar. They were sitting on barstools in a high-class pub, because Helen knew her worth and never settled for anything less, with glass counters and lots of private booths. But all pubs had their sad men drinking alone, and this one was no exception. 

This man wasn’t sullen and slow like a lot of them. He was wearing a nice suit and thin tie, looking straight out of Canary Wharf. Michael silently agreed with Helen’s choice - they took eat the rich very seriously, and also literally. He also seemed a little jumped up on something, with shaking hands and erratic eyes. 

“He looks happy,” Michael observed. “Think it’s his birthday?”

“He’s on cocaine, Michael,” Helen said flatly. “Cocaine. We are at a posh bar, and he is currently doing a line off his watch.”

Oh! Michael suddenly felt very uncool. They had never been one of those people in secondary school who did cocaine. They hadn’t been cool. “I knew that,” Michael bluffed. “What are we going to do to him?”

“Take the teenager as your intern, they said,” Helen groused, “it’s investing in the future, they said, it’ll stop them from eating you when they grow up, they said.” She sighed, jabbing a finger at the now very obviously coked up man who was staring at the bottles behind the bartender as if they were whispering secrets of the universe into his ear. Helen liked that one. “Use your intuition. Find a good angle to squeeze. What are his weaknesses to exploit?”

Oh, Michael knew how to do this. They shifted vibrations just a bit, dropping out of what Michael liked to call the ‘mild’ spectrum into the ‘spicy’ spectrum. They were distantly aware of a patron’s glass shattering. 

They squinted at the man, picking out his little fears and insecurities like Dionysus picking grapes. Maybe. Michael had gotten a C in English, but they were somewhat cognizant of the Spiral munching heavily on Bacchanalia. Sometimes they felt like some of those children who spoke in tongues and claimed to be from a past life. That had also been the Spiral.

“He owns a Nintendo NES,” Michael said confidently, absolutely sure that this was important. Helen groaned. “His house is painted white, and his girlfriend does tax fraud.”

“Something relevant?” Helen hinted desperately.

Michael just squinted at her. “Relevant to what?”

“...good point. But something useful, please.”

Picky. Michael scowled, but gave the man another good gander. “He only remembers faint details of his father’s face, and he worries that his recollections aren’t accurate,” Michael proclaimed finally. 

Helen clapped, delighted, as Michael took a careful sip of their water, turning it into fizzy water. She took a sip of her own wine, turning it into champagne. Or maybe just sparkling unreality? “Wonderful. Now, how should we play this? Insert a false father into his life, completely separate from his recollections, or is that a bit too Stranger? I suppose we could do some good old-fashioned gaslighting, but sometimes that’s just a bit too Melanie, if you catch my drift -”

“Are you jealous that the Archive girls are better at gaslighting than you are?” 

“Shut it, kid,” Helen hissed, before taking a long drag of her champagne. “My vote is that we convince him to top off his coke bender with some LSD. Then he hallucinates - oh, he hallucinates that he’s in a mental institution, that’s a good one -”

“Why don’t we shift everything thirty cm to the right?” Michael asked brightly.

Helen squinted at them. They beamed back. 

“You are so bad at this,” Helen said. 

Michael would have felt crushed if Helen didn’t express this sentiment roughly once per lunar cycle, contrariwise. As it was, they bore the criticism with a stiff upper lip. Helen had her way of harvesting fear from unsuspecting humans, and Michael had theirs. “Look, Helen, you’re being uncreative! We don’t have to traumatize people every single time.”

Helen squinted further. “We’re personifications of deceit. We eat trauma.”

“No, we eat confusion,” Michael pointed out patiently. “Look at it this way. If you give someone one really terrible experience, then they repress it for the rest of their lives and consider it a brush with Hell. One and done, see? But if you minorly inconvenience them for a really long time, then they’ll never be able to break out of it. They’ll feel as if something’s wrong, but they’ll never know it. You can keep the game going for years that way!”

The idea was very good. Michael had been working on it for a while. Truth be told, Michael felt bad traumatizing people outright and making them scream and cry and everything. They always felt as if they were doing something wrong by making other people’s existences a living nightmare. Michael much preferred rigging a corn maze so you were stuck in it for days inside the maze but only an hour outside. It was funner, and much more confusing. 

But Helen just pursed her lips and stared Michael up and down, making them squirm awkwardly on their barstool. Finally, as if she was delivering a life sentence, she imperiously said, “Well, we all have our different styles, I suppose! It would be quite boring if we were both exactly the same.” Michael nodded vigorously at this, and Helen held up a scaly claw. “But! You’re my intern, which means that you’re learning from the master here. So shut up and let me teach you how to ruin lives.”

“Yes, boss,” Michael said miserably. 

Helen tsked, but she patted them on the head anyway. It tasted like batteries. “Honestly, kid. A literal bleeding heart’s fun for the whole family, but a metaphorical bleeding heart will get you nowhere in life. You can’t exist as you are and feel bad for them. It ruins the point. It’s a paradox.”

“I thought we liked paradoxes, though?”

Helen shrugged, downing the rest of her wine. “Rules for thee but not for me, honey. But I’m a good boss and drunken aunt figure, so I’ll appease you today. Now come on, let’s convince this bar to vote for Brexit.”

They did. It was quite fun after all, tricking a roomful of people into doing something actively against their own interests. But something about the whole thing left a strange taste in Michael’s mouth: not the good kind of strange, or the bad kind of strange that was also good. Just strange, and undeniable, and something that couldn’t be exploited at all. 

****

Maybe Helen was right. 

Not that Helen was ever strictly right, much as Helen was never wrong, but Michael just had to be doing this whole fear demon thing incorrectly. If someone had explained the whole fear demon thing to them two years ago (“Okay, so it’s like you’re the semi-sentient appendage of an extradimensional force of evil that has to consume trauma relentlessly in order to propagate its own debatable existence, also you’re nonbinary now, no those things are not strictly related, probably”), then they would have called them crazy. Which, of course, they were, but that wasn’t the point. So long as the point existed. So long as anything -

Michael was a bad fear demon of the Spiral and Infinite Twisting and That Is Not What It Is and The Twisted Door, etc, etc, All Fear Its Name, etc etc all Hail, because they didn’t always like how their internal monologue could no longer be described through common language. Words and images and understandings were nothing but approximations for Michael now, and sometimes it was frustrating existing outside the boundaries of understanding. Which, of course, was the point, so long as the point existed, so long as anything existed -

It wasn’t always easy. Still, nobody ever got what they wanted if they weren’t willing to put the effort in. The adult world and labouring under capitalism wasn’t easy for anybody. That was what Mum had always said. Who was Michael to complain about their 9-5? Or 24/24? Or infinite/infinite? Or nothing/nothing? Or -

Was it too much to ask to have a linear thought once in a while? 

Helen wouldn’t understand. There were only two other approximations of concepts that Michael knew, and Helen would hardly be any help. The other “person” would probably be a better sounding board, but there was the fact that he was kind of pretentious. Still, it was better than nothing. Well, it was nothing, but only in the sense that everything was - argh!

A yellow door appeared in a nondescript basement, and Michael appeared with it. They melted out of the “wood”, taking a second to check their outfit for this apparition - a nice vintage 50s dress with a painstaking stitch that reminded one of the oppressive nature of housewifery, nice. They elongated their curly blonde hair from a roguish mop into a nice little shag and melted into the crowd. 

It must have been a passing period, because Michael was buffeted to and fro by tall white men wearing backpacks and shorter white girls hoisting strangely identical water bottles. Somewhere Northern, Michael decided, likely private and small. Not that it strictly mattered, but it helped to solidify their grip in reality a bit if they had some idea. They already knew geography was purposeless and a distraction from the real issues, like shrimp, but occasionally it could be useful. Helen had been careful to impart the central tenet of existence as a non-euclidean concept in undefinable space in the twenty seventh dimension: location, location, location!

It was obviously the Philosophy Department, because all philosophy classes were held in old basements built in the ‘60s in identical hallways. For kicks, Michael turned all of the school hallways inwards and sent them in a mobius strip, and changed all of the door numbers into a headache. The key to enjoying your job was to take initiative in the workplace environment and to just have fun with it!

Michael found themselves in front of a door identical to all of the others, with fake laminated wood, and they decided to go in. The universe had guided them to this door for a reason, and who were they to reject its call? 

The small classroom was like most other small, private colleges in unpopular departments that nobody cared about. Lots of single person desks - Michael snapped their fingers and turned them all into left-handed desks - complete with a smartboard and a teacher’s podium. It was already half-full, so Michael carefully slid into a chair in the back and pretended that they had been there all along. A student wandered close, convinced that this was her seat, but Michael successfully convinced her that a different seat near the front was hers, prompting an impromptu game of musical chairs that sent ripples through the otherwise sedate classroom.

There was a blond student already sitting in the front, flipping through a spiral notebook and clicking a pen in no particular pattern. He was wearing a pea coat, jeans, and his hair was weirdly perfect. Michael wished they had a notebook. Was this what you did in university? They had never had the opportunity to go. 

Actually, they had never quite graduated secondary - three months away from graduation, actually. It probably wasn’t all that important. You didn’t really need a diploma to become a trauma eating fear demon. Was there a university of eating fear? That would be funny. What would the classes be in, ‘Enforcing the Powerlessness of Capitalism 101’? What was the difference between that and a Business major? 

Maybe Business majors were the real fear demons, Michael thought grandly. It was a good thought, they would have to remember to tell it to Melanie later. Melanie would approve. Hadn’t Tim been a business major? Yeah, in that case she would definitely approve. 

The student sitting in the front seemed to have finally noticed the game of musical chairs, and as the professor started clearing their throat and announcing something unimportant to the class, he turned around to find Michael sitting in the back of the class. They waved cheerfully. The student scowled. 

‘What are you doing here!’, the guy mouthed angrily. 

‘Hi Mike!’ Michael mouthed back. 

‘Go away!’ Mike mouthed back. 

‘But I’m going to eat your teacher :(‘ Michael mouthed back. They didn’t actually frown. 

‘ >:(!’, Mike Crew mouthed back, also without changing his facial expression. 

This was probably why Mike wasn’t Michael’s biggest fan. Which was a pity, because Michael thought Mike was really cool. He had the coolest name, for one. But shorter, and snappier. Mike was the kind of name girls would call you at clubs. Michael was what, like, your Mum would say as she yelled at you to clean up your room before her book club girls came over. Why were they girls? They were, like, fifty.

Mike Crew was an Avatar of the Spiral completely unwillingly. Chosen as a child and chased throughout his life by an improbably long lasting Lichtenberg scar, he had eventually succumbed to the inevitable and transformed into an even more improbable man. Personally, Michael found it strange that ‘inevitable’ and ‘Spiral’ was in the same sentence, but - well, it had to be everything at one point. Even a melting clock was right once an endless twilight. 

Strangest of all, Mike Crew was a philosophy major. The class, of course, was a high level philosophy course. Mike Crew had been in uni - well, a while - and he tended not to waste his time with the boring shit anymore. Michael listened with interest as the professor dived into the lecture. 

Two minutes in, Mike subtly gathered his things and slipped into the conveniently empty chair next to Michael. He was still glaring at them, as Michael tried their best to look innocent and cute. The effect was a little ruined by the inherent maliciousness of Michael’s pores, but they liked to think it was the thought that counted. 

“To continue our conversation on the topic of paradoxes,” the professor began, “I’d like to introduce a few thought experiments for your consideration as a class. I’ll mention the concept, and then allow you to break into pairs to discuss them.”

Mike leaned into Michael’s ear. “We were discussing Descartes!”

“But isn’t this more interesting?” Michael asked. 

“If you give my professor a mental breakdown we’re going to fall behind on the syllabus!”

“The first paradox I’d like to bring to your attention is the Crocodile’s Dilemma.” The professor flipped to a new slide, which helpfully had a big crocodile on it. Michael admired it. They had seen a crocodile at the zoo once. “Similar to the liar’s paradox, the premise states that a crocodile, who has stolen a child, promises the parent that his or her child will be returned if and only if he or she correctly predicts what the crocodile will do next. The outcome is fairly obvious if the parent states that the crocodile will return the child, but the crocodile faces a dilemma if the parent states that the crocodile will not return the child. No matter the outcome, the crocodile is made a liar: if  the crocodile decides to not give back the child then the statement proves to be true, and he ought to return the child, thereby making it false. Whatever the outcome, he still violates his terms.”

Michael raised their hand. Mike forcibly lowered their hand. 

“If I give your professor a mental breakdown then you’ll have extra time for the test,” Michael whispered back. Mike seriously considered this notion.

“The next paradox is slightly related,” the professor continued. “The Infinite Hotel Paradox.” Michael’s face stretched into a grin as Mike Crew groaned. “It is demonstrated that a fully occupied hotel with infinitely many rooms may still accommodate additional guests, even infinitely many of them, and this process may be repeated infinitely often. This is what we call a veridical paradox: it leads to a counter-intuitive result that is provably true. Therefore -”

“Okay, yeah,” Mike Crew said, slumping in his seat. “You can eat him, this guy is just begging for it.” 

“Yay!” Michael went in for the hug, before Mike pushed them away. Michael’s quest for a cool big brother failed yet again. “Do you want to call the -”

“They’re your hallways,” Mike said, persnickety as always. Maybe he was just jealous that he wasn’t a hallway? 

Michael raised their hand, patiently waiting for the professor to call on them. He stumbled in the middle of his lecture, adjusting his thick glasses. 

“Uh, yes, Miss -”

“You no longer understand gender,” Michael said pleasantly, as they always did whenever they were misgendered. It was an understandable mistake, so they didn’t do it maliciously. Frankly, they just thought it was healthy. Everyone should not understand false things. “Professor, I have a question about the Crocodile’s Dilemma.” They waited for the professor to nod, somewhat confused. “How do you know that didn’t really happen?”

The professor blinked lethargically at them. “It’s a thought experiment. It’s not real, it’s just an idea proposed by philosophers to represent -”

“What makes you so sure?” Michael asked cheerfully. “Crocodiles eat babies. Or dingoes. I think I read a story about this happening in Australia, didn’t you?”

“I - I suppose I did, yes -”

“We wouldn’t talk about it if it didn’t really happen.” Michael felt their voice fall into a rising lilt, like an attractive song that was played to a concert hall but heard only by you. They were distantly aware of Mike lulling the rest of the students into their own hazy daze: aware enough to be confused, but trapped in their seats and the fog of misunderstandings. “Fiction isn’t real. Reality is real. But a thought experiment is in between, isn’t it? Something that strains the boundaries of reality, that proves the fundamental concepts of life, told through a framework of an intrinsic lie. A paradox is a lie telling the truth. You are a truth speaker telling only lies. What you know isn’t so much as anything at all, is it? What do you really know, anyway?”

“One of us tells only the truth and the other tells only lies,” Mike Crew called out, bored. But his eyes were shining in endless refraction, infinite rooms holding infinite guests. “But is it really a lie if you had mistaken it for the truth? What lies are you living, Dr. Young?”

Dr. Young was stammering, eyes swimming, and Michael didn’t dare to break eye contact. It was a delicate spell they wove, but Michael wasn’t so bad at bringing this simmer to a boil. Cooking was about improvisation, and Michael had always been great at that. 

“If your life is a lie,” Michael breathed, “then are you really alive?”

It was clear, when it happened: the professor started inhaling deep, deeper breaths, chest wracking with heaves. His eyes rolled up in his head, he clutched at his chest, and he finally slumped down on the floor. He twitched, jerking slightly, and he would continue jerking. At which point the students would become aware, and they’d call an ambulance for him, and he would be perfectly alright in the end. If a little mentally scarred. 

“Damn,” Mike Crew said, almost impressed, as both he and Michael stood up. He shoved his pens in a backpack, glad to be free of his examination for another week. “What’d you do to him?”

“Made him think he was dead,” Michael said serenely. “He thought his heart had stopped beating so he had a panic attack. He’s going to have to make an appointment with a psychiatrist but he probably should anyway, work’s very stressful for him.”

“Guess I have the rest of the hour off,” Mike sighed, as he held the door open for Michael so they could slip out of the back of the classroom. It was yellow, and a little strange.  “Want to grab a pint with me at the campus pub?” He paused a beat. “Wait, are you even old enough to drink?”

“I’m as old as eternity and reborn every second.” Michael paused a beat. “But I was eighteen last time I checked, and I’ll probably be eighteen for a while, so yes?”

“Great, let’s roll. I need a drink.”

****

Mike’s uni’s pub (Michael had asked the name of the uni but the information had, unfortunately, been lost in next Tuesday, so they’ll know then) was the exact opposite of the high class pub Helen had taken them to. Instead of glassy, shiny, and chromey, Mike’s pub looked strongly as if very many people had puked in it and the staff had tackled the problem somewhat half-heartedly. Michael enjoyed the sight of the puke existing in all points in time simultaneously, giving it a sort of weird yellow-ish shine. Actually, maybe all puke had that yellowish sheen?

When they asked Mike about it as they hopped up on the bar, he just sighed. He flagged the bartender down for a pint, and when the bartender squinted dubiously at Michael they revelled into the micro-confusion of ambiguous ages. Micro-feeding? Like mini muffins?

“Helen made a mistake hiring you. She’s stuck us with a perpetual teenager.”

“I’m as much a teenager as you are a uni student,” Michael said pointedly. 

“I’m not an embodiment of the It Is What It Isn’t Is,” Mike said, oddly aggressively. “I’m just a normal Avatar.”

“Fear demon.”

“Melanie King isn’t always right and I don’t know why everyone thinks she is.” Big words from an honored Special Guest on her show. There were many in the fear demon community who would kill for the honor. It was a good thing she hated intruders in her Archives - otherwise they’d never leave. “But I’m no different from - that douche Peter Lukas or that stoner Elias Bouchard or that btich Annabelle, okay? I’m just a guy. Who eats trauma. Plenty of guys do that.”

“Very good denial of reality!” Michael approved. “Normally Helen tells me to go further into denying reality as a concept, though.”

“God, you hallway people are impossible to have a normal conversation with.” Mike huffed, clearly not as irritated as his words would imply. Michael also approved of the incongruity. “I’m assuming that you’re here for absolutely no reason and that you have no idea why or how you ended up at my uni.”

Michael shifted uncomfortably. “Actually, I am here for a reason.” At Mike’s extreme surprise, they hurriedly clarified, “Not with any goal, meaning, or intention in mind! But I just wanted to talk about something to someone who wasn’t technically another facet of my meaningless whole. Helen and I are as index and ring fingers on the same hand, but we don’t really get each other sometimes, you know?”

“Does that make you the pinky finger?”

“I actually had a hypothetical for you.” At Mike’s nod, Michael snagged a napkin from the stack on the sticky bar and began creasing it, somewhat anxiously. “Let’s say, hypothetically, you were a teenagerish nongendered sentient hallway intern who happens to eat trauma.”

“This isn’t much of a hypothetical,” Mike said flatly. 

“I’m a hypothetical person. And I’m only a person hypothetically.” Michael started making little folds in the napkin, twisting it up into a strange origami. “So, let’s say, hypothetically, that this person - their name is Michael - enjoyed being them. It wasn’t always fun, and sometimes they kind of missed the world making sense, or at least not making sense in a familiar way. And sometimes Michael got tired of being a sentient hallway and wanted to finish secondary. And maybe even sometimes Michael grows sad that both their parents were eaten by their new boss, who is kind of a Tory! But that’s all fine. Michael’s probably happier like this than they ever were even when they did have parents.”

Mike Crew stared at them a little, slowly sipping his pint. 

Michael hunched their shoulders, and folded up the napkin further and further. They had read somewhere that any piece of paper can only be folded seven times. They folded the napkin seven times, then eight, then nine, then ten. That was something nice about the way things were now, they supposed: no rules, absolute freedom. Only rules, no freedom. That was what Dr. Yung would call a paradox. “But maybe the worst part about this new job is that Michael doesn’t really like hurting people. Sometimes it’s fun to randomly make people very upset, and you always kind of end up doing it anyway, but after a while Michael feels kind of bad about it. Michael likes doing other things better, like making terrible roundabouts and rearranging the pages of books. Maybe they even like reading books. They like reading comic books backwards, from the last page to the first, so every panel is a surprise.”

“There’s lots of ways to be a fear demon,” Mike pointed out, almost gently. Maybe only because he could relate. “Look at me. I’m not feeding off anyone. Just myself.”

“But I like the way I do it,” Michael said, frustrated. “Helen keeps trying to get me to do it the way she does it, but the point is that we aren’t the same. What’s the point in having two of us if both our viewpoints are the same? We’re different in every way, but we’re the same being. I just want to be the Spiral the way I want. Not the way Helen wants.” Their voice lowered, almost unwilling to say what they were about to say. “Not the way the Spiral wants.”

Mike stared at them for a long time, slowly sipping his beer, and Michael focused their efforts on forcing this improbable napkin into something that could be beautiful. A lotus flower? A mobius strip? Or should they just let it happen as it happens, and see what form it decided to take? 

Finally, Mike said, “You are the Spiral.”

“Then why am I always disagreeing with it?” Michael asked miserably. 

“Why are you, Helen, and the Spiral always disagreeing?” Mike pointed out. “Maybe that’s the point. So much as anything’s a point. Isn’t it the most perfect paradox of all, to split yourself into portions that are always disagreeing and bickering? Maybe everything you’re feeling is on purpose. I mean, it’s kind of improbable that you’re feeling at all, right?”

“I retained a lot of humanity,” Michael said. “Maybe a bit too much, actually?”

“Right.” Mike nodded decisively. “Then that’s the appeal. A human mind will always strain against its confines. It will always want different, want the same, want the old and the new and the perpetual and the fleeting and the eternity and the moment. What’s more nonsensical than a human? What’s more contradictory than human nature?” A dark shadow passed over his face, just for a second. “The Spiral kidnaps us and turns us into it. One part of our minds is entrenched in its eternity, and another part is always screaming in agony. But predominantly we are the unholy mixture of human and Entity, oil forced into water. It’s so intrinsically horrifying and wrong that we just get used to it. We are both demon and human, and so we’re neither, and so we’re both. Isn’t it weird, Michael, that unlike so many other Avatars, none of us want to be here?”

“You’re a very philosophical person,” Michael said diplomatically. 

“Thanks, I think too much about my lot in life.” Mike Crew sighed, slumping on his barstool and knocking back more of his pint. “I wish you and Helen would stop showing up in my life so often. When you aren’t around, I can almost pretend I’m a person.”

“That’s why we show up,” Michael felt obligated to point out. 

“Yeah, I know,” Mike said glumly. “I always know. I can’t stop knowing.”

There was nothing Michael could say or do that fixed this, or that could make Mike feel better. They understood, just a little - that nostalgia for a kinder time. But maybe it was more that Mike never had those halcyon, innocent days. He had lived life since childhood in aching knowledge that his days were numbered. Maybe that’s why Mike was allowed to live life as a human even now: his human life was just as confusing and isolated as his afterlife, and that when fear stained every second of his life there was no point in ceasing it. 

Maybe Michael couldn’t keep their human life because they had been happy. At the very least, they had been ignorant. That was one thing the Spiral could not abide: ignorance. 

These days, Michael knew everything. They knew everything so, so much.

So, in lieu of comforting falsehoods, Michael offered Mike Crew a slightest sliver of truth. They passed Mike the little piece of origami that they had made, and let Mike cradle it in his large and smooth hands. 

The origami had no shape. It wasn’t folded into anything. It was just a meaningless amalgamation of points, corners, and creased paper. It didn’t look like anything at all. 

“See?” Michael pointed out. “It’s a bear.”

Mike Crew smiled weakly. “Looks like a sea goat to me.”

There was something beautiful in ambiguity. When something was nothing, it could be everything at once. That was rather Michael’s favorite thing about it. 

“I think it’s a self-portrait,” Michael decided. 

And that, at least, was as true as anything else. 

***

Michael wandered their hallways. 

On some level, they were pretty much perpetually doing that. Even as one facet of them talked with Michael in a campus pub, even as another helped Helen convince a high class pub into voting Brexit, even as they traumatized a physics professor, they wandered these hallways.

Make no mistake: everything in this story has/will/is happened/happening simultaneously.

Of course, on another level Michael was literally their hallways, and thus they were not so much wandering as existing. Pulsating, one could say. Even twisting, if one would be so bold. 

There was a mirror, in the hallway. Not a funhouse mirror - although Michael did enjoy popping out from those and scaring Nikola - but just a mirror. Gilded around the edges, ornate with swirling curlicues. You could see yourself in it. You could see a lot of yourself in it. It wasn’t what you had always looked like, not really, but you just had the sense that this was what you really looked like. Maybe you had always looked like this, and everybody was just too polite to tell you. Were you really a brunette? This mirror had to be right. You had been a blonde all along. Nobody had told you. They were laughing at you. They were laughing -

But this was Michael, and Michael’s, and nothing in here could harm them. It was even comforting. They looked at themselves in the mirror, and saw themselves same as ever. Or not same as ever. They were still Michael, so far as Michael was Michael.

Shortish. Blondey. Raggedy hair. Curled as much as anything’s curled. Fun clothing that they really enjoyed. Tall shoes, because they liked feeling tall. Similar dimensions to the golden number. Non linear, but who’s counting? It was what they typically looked like. 

But, just for a second, Michael even fooled themselves. They saw someone in the mirror that they were not, someone who they had never been, someone who they never will be. Someone different.

Michael, just like everyone else, couldn’t stop themselves from reaching out. Come back. Come back! Let me touch you, let me be you! Michael’s fingers brushed the shiny glass, and the world tilted sideways, and Michael fell into where the sidewalk ended.

They emerged, or maybe they had always been, inside a bedroom. It was a nice little suburban bedroom. It had a peaked ceiling and a window seat. The walls were a soft, navy blue. There was a young person, lying on the shag carpet, leafing through a book. Big headphones were over their ears, and they were bopping along to music. Disco. 

Michael stood, an intruder into a familiar space, and watched the stranger. Their throat felt oddly tight, and their eyes felt strangely hot. The stranger was smiling faintly, flipping the pages of their book somewhat mindlessly. They were reading it for school. Flatland. It was just an assignment, but it was really fucking them up. It was making them think about all of these things that they didn’t normally, in new dimensions. It was really cool. All of their friends were just reading the Sparknotes, but they really wanted to talk about it with someone. 

 This, of course, had happened. It will happen in the future. It was happening now, as Michael watched the scene with an electric sadness. It would never happen, because the Spiral had never been here, and never would be, and always was. 

A knock echoed on the door, several sharp raps. Michael didn’t notice, legs swinging to the music. 

The knock on the door hit louder. “Michael!” A voice echoed from behind it. “Michael, are you ready to go?”

Michael reached up and slid off their headphones, without looking up from their book. “Coming!” They called back. “Be right there!”

The Spiral watched Michael, who hummed absentmindedly as the door knocked again. Dad was downstairs, making sure the gas was off and shutting off the lights. Mum was knocking, knocking, knocking, on a door that was and will always be wood. 

“Have you packed yet?” Mum called. 

“Sure I have!” Michael yelled back, glancing at the empty suitcase on the bed and the messy pile of clothes right next to it. They pushed themselves up, flipping the book shut and rising to their feet. “Be right out!”

“Hurry up,” Mum called, as the Spiral mouthed the words along with her. “We’re going to be late!”

The Bermudas aren’t going anywhere, Michael thought spitefully. They stuffed their clothes haphazardly in a suitcase, took far more care to pack their laptop and DS, and shoved Flatland in a side pocket of their backpack. 

When Michael slung on his backpack, unfolded the handle from their suitcase, they were not even looking at the door they left through. They were entirely focused on managing the unruly suitcase, and walked straight through the crazed yellow door.

Of course, Michael walked out. Slightly stranger, a little better, a lot worse. Exactly the same. They were back in their hallways again, fresh from their little suburban bedroom and the child exiting one world and entering one quite different. Maybe one part of that child would always be in that bedroom, another part in these hallways, and another part always caught in that doorway and the transition. 

Simultaneously, in all points in time, Mum knocked on that wood door, and Michael never let her inside. Simultaneously, at all points in time, Michael watched it all happen.

They hadn’t expected it to be so comforting. At all moments in time, in a little corner of their heart, Mum knocked on their door. If the Spiral lived in your soul and beat your heart, it was easy to find the beauty in it - the magnificence of eternity, and the joy in the moment. Mum was with them - literally, as he was pretty sure Helen was still digesting her. Maybe nothing was ever truly over - just over there.  

Michael stuck their hands in their pockets, whistling a jaunty tune that highly resembled the Shepherd’s Tone. Their hallways pulsated comfortingly, and Michael carefully toed off their platform shoes and eyed down the infinite hallways. No rugs for a while. 

Maybe Michael, Mike Crew, and Helen should get together more often. Just the three of them. They would drive each other batty. It would be a lot of fun. 

Michael set off running down the hallway, and skidded on their socks down the hardwood floor, whooping in joy as they skidded endlessly towards eternity. 

[thenextchapter22]

Angel of the Three Realms

Description: You were an Angel who went to the human world to escape punishment for loving Lucifer only to be brought back into his life, this time in the Devildom where you pretend to be human.

Warnings: Unrequited Love, Angst, WIP

Pairing(s): Lucifer/Reader

Word Count: 5334

Link to my AO3: Click Here

Author’s Notes: I’m pretty happy with how this story is going so far, and I really hope you enjoy reading it. I posted all the chapters I had written on AO3 here in one post, so expect a different post for the new chapter coming soon ;)

_+_

You had been in the Devildom for 6 months and it was going pretty well. You did above average in classes, got along with all of the brothers and the other students (although Solomon was strange and trusting him was a bit of a stretch). The only difficult part was being around one specific demon brother… Lucifer.

He had no idea who you really were. And how could he? It had been centuries upon centuries since he’d seen you, and he probably thought you dead after all that happened. He, in all probability, forgot all about you. That made you a little bit sad considering what he was to you.

Long before the Great War you had lived in the Celestial Realm. You were an Angel of God. A pure-hearted, innocent creature born with nothing but kindness in your heart. And the Angel assigned to you at your birth to train you and show you the way of the world was Lucifer Morningstar, the Light of the Heavens.

He brought you up. He was your whole life, always there to correct you if you were wrong, praise you when you were doing well, and he never failed in making you smile. Yes, you knew his brothers. Mammon especially, he was a good-hearted being who always protected you. And he did the same in the Devildom, so nothing had really changed there. But Lucifer was your main protector.

When you fell in love with him, you knew things would be difficult. How could you not fall in love with such a kind person, who always looked after you and his brothers, who always showed you so much attention despite what else he had to do?

It was forbidden for Angel’s to fall in love with other Angel’s. Why, you did not know. Love was something that should be allowed for all. It wasn’t easy living with this love, knowing if you let it free, that if you did tell Lucifer you loved him, you might be punished. Maybe even erased from existence. Your father wasn’t usually so cruel and hate wasn’t often found in Angels, but you hated him. You never wanted to hear him speak to you again. And so, with no way around it, you had to leave.

You fell to the Human world where you started a new life. And a new life again. And another new life after that. Always moving, changing, adapting. Humans were inventive and inquisitive by nature. You never lost the love in your heart for Lucifer, but you had a new life on Earth’s surface that you fell in love with, too. Eventually, this love favored the first, and you moved on, albeit regrettably. Occasionally you wondered how he was doing, and if he ever thought of you.

To say you were shocked when you first got dragged into this realm was an understatement. And you made the split second decision to go along with it all, pretending to be human. Was it stupid? Maybe. But you had spent so long being human, you couldn’t stop now. You knew of the war, you knew of the Angel’s falling to the Devildom, but seeing Lucifer, two wings less and darkened, ruby red eyes still as bright, and a curious black crystal on his forehead, was a shock. He was so beautiful in his new darkened form.

The love sprouted once more. And once more, you hid it. The pain in your heart was tenfold being close to him again in almost the same roles as before. He was your confident, your go-to in this Realm. He made sure you were treated well. Lucifer looked after you like his own blood, stricter than he used to be, and he looked tired most of the time. His newfound loyalty for Diavolo was strange, but you supposed it was a good thing being close to the eventual Demon King (where the current one was, no one knew).

Now, sitting in your quaint little room, looking at the sky, all you could think about was home. Home, the human world home.

One thing you missed was flying. In the Human realm you could visit the snowy mountains and fly around with some of the magic you were able to hold onto to cloak you in case humans saw. Before cameras you didn’t care to do that, but now you couldn’t risk it. Here it was impossible. Someone would sense the magic and find you out, and then what would happen. You didn’t want to think on it.

Another thing was your wings were itching. Grooming was hard throughout the years, but you found friends in the animals of the world, mostly the winged creatures. Owls were your closest friends in the animal kingdom. They helped pluck the old feathers as well as the twisted ones, and in turn you helped them however you could. Having not groomed them in almost 7 months now…

You longed to let them free, but could not. 6 more months and you would go back. But did you want to? Leave Lucifer, this place? You were learning so much from everyone. Lord Diavolo really wanted peace between all and it was incredible how he was connecting all types of beings. Demons, humans, warlocks, Angels.

Angels. Surprisingly, Simeon did not realize what you were. Or if he did, he never spoke up. Angels were pretty observant of other Celestial magics and you were using that to hide your wings daily and nightly here. At first it was only daily, up until Mammon barged into your room and demanded to sleep with you (not in that sense, thankfully) so you very quickly hid them. Lucky you hadn’t been asleep fully.

Wincing, you stretched your arms above your head. It was nearing midnight and you could not sleep from the pain that was ever growing the more you moved around. Maybe a late night snack would help, or something warm to drink.

Venturing to the kitchens, you were unsurprised to see Beel stacking a plate, his mouth stuffed with food.

He quickly swallowed and smiled at you. “Hi. It’s late, can’t sleep?”

You shook your head, smiling softly. “No, I thought I’d get something to eat or drink.”

Beel was so kind to you. You never had many interactions with him above, but when you saw him he always smiled and waved at you, his younger twin attached to his hand. They were inseparable. Nothing had changed with that. Only that Beel ate a lot, and Belphegor slept a lot. It was quite adorable.

“There’s some milk if you want to heat it up. I heard human’s do that to help them sleep. Or I could ask Belphie to help you?”

No, that wouldn’t be a good idea at all. Who knows what being put under by him would do, it may release the magic on your wings from too deep a slumber. “Thank you. I’ll try the milk first and then see.”

He nodded. “Okay. Night then. If I doesn’t work you can come to our room.” And he walked away with his plate of food, munching as he walked.

Chuckling, you shook your head. “Goodnight!” you called to his back.

The pain in your back was growing worse. Warm milk wouldn’t help much, you needed your wings to be freed. You grit your teeth as you moved about the kitchen, feeling the veil of magic rippling at your back. You set a pot of milk on the stove and heated it.

Moving about the kitchen was making you pant, and you had to brace your arms on the counter, keeping your back straight to try and keep the pain minimal.

“Hnng. Fuck.” Yes, in the human world you grew to love curse words. Your father never took your wings away or your immortality, so he must not have cared. Or maybe he didn’t notice.

“Are you all right, my dear?” Lucifer’s voice rang out in the echoed kitchen.

You stood up so quickly the pain was incredible. You felt your body tremble, and you longed to sprout your wings to ease some of the aching.

Lucifer wrapped his arm around your waist, and you held in a scream. He furrowed his brows and let go, instead taking your hand and squeezing it. “What can I do to ease your pain?”

You panted. “N-nothing. Please just g-go.”

He shook his head. “No, I won’t leave you like this. What ails you?”

Damn him and his kind heart. “You can’t fix it, I just have to deal with the pain for now.”

He helped you sit, but you did so stiffly and kept a perfectly straight posture. His hand never left yours. “I won’t accept that. There must be something we can do. Tell me what happened. Did you fall? Are you ill?” He pressed the back of his hand to your forehead, then down across your cheeks. “You have no fever but your face is contorted in pain.”

This was unbearable, having him coddle you when all you wanted was to jump into his arms and have him take care of you. He used to groom your wings when you were growing up, and he showed you how to do the same. His gentle fingers running through your feathers put you in a trance and he used to tease you about it.

Lucifer only wanted to see you well. The problem was, you could not allow it, lest he find out your secret. “I’m sorry, Lucifer,” you whispered. “Really I am. If I could let you help me, I would in a heartbeat.”

The pot with milk was over boiling now, and he quickly stood the take care of it. You lowered your face to the table and grit your teeth, sharp pricks at your back causing spasm after spasm. Tears fell from your eyes. The pain was steadily increasing, and you did not know why the timing of this had to be this way. Why he had to be the one to see you in such a state.

His hand on your shoulder squeezed lightly once before letting go. “Let me at least help you to bed.”

Bed, yes, that sounded fantastic. “Okay…”

He held your hand and kept one hand wrapped around your lower half, resting on your hip. It wasn’t near the area where your wings sprouted from so he could place his arm across you there without making you cry out in pain.

The trip back to your room was long and grueling. Lucifer kept a good hold on you, whispering softly each time you sobbed out a curse word or cried.

“I have you, sweetheart, take your time.”

You wished you could just tell him everything. How you were not human, why you were in so much pain, that all you ever wanted was to kiss and hold him and express your love. But you could only press you cheek to his chest and have him guide you to your room where he tucked you under the sheets and comforter.

You curled on your side, gazing at his dark figure towering over you. “Don’t leave me, stay…”

“I’ll stay with you, I promise.” He stroked his fingers over your trembling brow, and, with shock on your pained expression, he kissed the very same place gently, lips soft and warm.

You began to cry, overwhelmed with pain and emotion. He shushed your cries and wiped away the wetness under your eyes. “Don’t cry, my dove, just sleep and rest.”

Lucifer’s kind face, hovering inches from your own, was the last you saw before you fell asleep. The pain luring you into a dreamless slumber.

Waking up some hours later, you felt exhausted. The sun was rising through the window. Sweat gathered on your body. It was apparent what would happen the second you became aware. You had trouble keeping the magic holding your wings in. You shut your eyes with a sigh, and succumbed to the feeling of letting it all go. The choice was no longer your own, the magic was leaving you, and the wings you kept concealed away would burst free any minute.

They would all know. And you only hoped they wouldn’t despise you for what you hid from them. You prayed for the first time since falling from the skies that Lucifer would forgive you.

_+_

Lying in bed, coated in cooled sweat, waiting for the inevitable to happen, was honestly one of the worst things you had experienced. Considering you had chosen to fall from Heaven, that said a lot. It was right up there with loving Lucifer and not having the ability to tell him lest you be cast out or killed, and with the first days you had on the surface world where you had been so lost and alone, scrambling from town to town trying to find a place to belong.

The agony suffocated you. It effected your breathing, which was staggered and strained, and your muscles were tense. You felt a fever building inside of you as you tried to hold on and not go into shock. Your magic was like a thin sheet of breakable glass waiting to shatter. With all your strength, which was not much, you grasped onto it, wanting to keep normal for even just a little longer.

You shivered as you watched the sun rise higher in the window above your bed. It was red and bright and large, blinding you, but it kept you focused on one thing instead of being reminded of what would happen in the next hours, or even minutes.

The secrets would be out for all to see. You would either be cast out of the Devildom, possibly struck down by Diavolo for your lies, or maybe Barbatos would erase you from time itself. The thought was terrifying.

The only people you knew who wouldn’t hurt you or despise you were Simeon and Luke, and that was only because they were Angels. The possibility they would hate you was 1 in a million.

You moved to lay on your stomach. Slowly but surely you found a position that wasn’t too excruciating. Now you just waited. Time wasn’t something you looked at, even with the clock right there on your bedside table. It must’ve been time for everyone to be heading to breakfast by now. Lucifer would probably come to check on you as he had put you to bed last night. But you wondered who would see you first, and how they would react.

The magic was rippling, shaking around you. If you let it go voluntarily or not it would be the same result either way. Maybe if you had just let it go a few nights ago it wouldn’t have been so bad. But it was too late to dwell on the past.

Celestial magic exploded around you, and your wings burst from your back. You screamed, fingers clutching the pillow you pressed your face into. Your head spun, and your wings felt like the most fragile part of you, as if it was the first time they had been free. There was a scent of your blood in the air along with the scent of Celestial magic, a bitter coppery smell with a hint of cool air and crackling lightning. White feathers scattered around you, some tinged with blood. The air was like static electricity. Your wings lay limp, cascading down the bed to the floor. Tears filled your eyes, and you were sure you bit your tongue.

“Nnnggg…” you groaned, keeping still so as not to cause any more pain.

You had no idea how long you lay there. Twitching occasionally, throat clenched and burning. Eventually frantic knocks came on your door, and although your ears were ringing you heard the demon brothers’ voices asking for you, making sure you were okay, wondering what had happened. Why they couldn’t get in was strange, until you realized your magic had exploded outward and created a barrier that blocked the door.

“Move so I can open the door.” Lucifer. He sounded angry.

His infernal magic pressed to your own, and his power was greater than yours so it took no time at all for the door to fall.

You blearily glanced to the open doorway, the door flat on the floor broken off the hinges. And there he stood in all his demon glory. Light bringer Morningstar reversed, dark energy radiated from him. You watched as a smoky fog emerged from the diamond on his forehead. Was this the source of his power, where he held all his magic? The other’s stood behind him in a bundle, all in demonic forms, and all with shocked expressions at seeing you as you truly were meant to be. An Angel, albeit a broken one.

“H-how—?” Lucifer stepped in further, confused and wary. He glanced at your bent and bloodied wings, and then at your face. Searching for something, an answer maybe. You knew that there was no halo, that was something that disappeared as soon as you fell, but your skin was most likely changed, glowing with the light of Heaven, and your eyes no doubt were brightened as well. “How is this possible?”

You shut your eyes, your body shutting down. You couldn’t keep awake, it was as if the energy in your body was totally gone.

Your last words before you passed out were spoken softly and only towards one person. “I’m sorry…”

Darkness took you away, and you floated into it, happy to finally escape the pain.

_+_

Burning, you were burning when you came to. Did they shove you into the flames of Hell? Was this the repercussion you truly deserved for all the lies? It was harsh, but there was nothing you could do but burn.

Whimpering, you tried to move but a force held you down, a cool sensation on the back of your neck. You cried out, afraid of what would happen next.

“Shh. Your safe, calm down. It’ll be all right.”

Simeon? “Wh-what?” your throat ached, it was so dry. You tried to focus, and felt no flames licking at your skin, but a cushioned bed beneath you, where you lay on your stomach. You tried to open your eyes, but they felt glued shut from tears that dried up.

“Here, you need to drink water.”

A straw pressed to your lips, and you sucked in the refreshing liquid. Swallowing was hard to do, but the cooling feeling overtook the pain.

His hand was a cool on your forehead, you sighed in the brief relief of the heat. “You have a high fever. You need to rest some more.”

You trembled. “They hate me, don’t they?” the words were hard to speak, but you had to ask.

He hushed you once again, stroking your hair. “Just sleep now. When you’re well again we will talk.”

So you went back to your dreams, or rather, the nightmares that plagued you. Memories turned dark and evil, some of your time on Earth with friends, others of your time with Lucifer in Heaven. All happy memories that were altered to fill you with nothing but pain.

Your first day of flying, Lucifer cheering you on, clapping and smiling as you floated higher. Then, you fell, and kept falling down and down despite how strongly you flapped your wings. Lucifer was never coming for you, never reaching a hand to pull you back to him and into his arms. You ended up in a dark hole with nothing but bones around you of your once human friends. They die so quickly, humans. You were always alone. Meant to be alone forever. Never able to love and live with that love for the entirety of your lifespan, for it always faded and died. The only true everlasting love you had in your heart was never meant to be.

Voices sporadically came and went as you tossed in your dreamland.

Simeon. “She’s not doing too well. I’ll try my very best to heal her but holding this in for so long was not good for her health. Her wings are… in absolute disarray.”

Lucifer. “Why did she lie to me?”

Asmodeus. “She looks so pale and fragile. Poor thing.”

Mammon. “I remember her... we always looked out for each other. She was always so happy to be around you, Lucifer.”

You heard them speaking and longed to respond back, but you couldn’t find a voice. Drifting in and out, hearing voices, feeling soft touches on your skin and cool hands on your wings. There were moments of sharp pain sometimes when the fingers pressed to the spot where your wings sprouted from, but you were always quickly given a remedy of healing magic from Simeon’s talented hands. But you just wanted this to end and for the suffering to be done with.

It was many days later that you opened your eyes. Like a newborn for the first time, wincing at the bright lights of the room, struggling to focus. Glancing around, it was obvious that this was not your room. It was larger, with tall ceilings, and this bed was huge, your wings barely touched the floor compared to the bed at the House of Lamentation. Where were you?

“You’re in my home.”

You turned your head, still in a position on your stomach. It was Lord Diavolo. He was alone, strange as he usually had Barbatos with him. He wore his usual red suit, but his arms were crossed and he watched you with concern in his bright golden eyes.

You tried to move, to sit up and be a little bit respectful of the Prince, but he quickly strode to you and placed his large hand on your head gently. You froze. “No, don’t try and move. You’re still recovering.”

“I-I don’t—”

He sighed, and pulled a chair to sit next to you, careful of your drooping wings. He gestured to a pitcher of water on the side table. “Are you thirsty?”

You nodded shyly. He helped you drink some water with a hand lifting your head. You were sure you were blushing from feeling the demon Prince’s touch so delicately on your cheek. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He looked at you for a moment, and sighed, his eyes downcast and thoughtful. “This is an interesting circumstance we are in.”

You swallowed hard. “I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone.”

He frowned. “My dear, all you did was hurt everyone.”

You winced. He spoke bluntly, and the truth, but it hurt a lot to hear it from his lips.

“Lucifer told me who you are. He thought you dead long ago. He was your mentor in the Celestial realm, correct?” You nodded slowly. “Why did you leave there to pretend to be human? He told me you were always so… cheerful. That you both were practically inseparable. The brother’s tell me the same. So why leave all that behind?”

You couldn’t answer him. He just sighed again. “I see. Well, I suppose that will be a conversation once you are fully healed. For now, I’ll have Simeon tend to you now that you’re awake.” He stood up and looked down at you. Diavolo’s gaze seemed to pierce right through your very soul. “Perhaps you will tell me more… or perhaps not. Only time will tell, I suppose. Rest well, my dear. We will speak again soon.” And his footsteps echoed the large room as he left, and you were alone with your thoughts.

What did he want from you? Would he let this be? Would he allow you to stay here? Doubtful, as it was an exchange program for humans and Angels, and you were one of two humans. And were you really counted as either, or both? Were you some strange hybrid being to them, because you lived under the guise of being a human?

There was one question that haunted over you ever since you felt your magic faltering. Would Diavolo take you away from the one place you truly felt at home?

_+_

You felt deflated when Simeon entered the room. Lord Diavolo made you worrisome for what would next happen, or at least what would happen once you were healed again. You found yourself avoiding the Angel’s eyes as he looked at you from his seat on the chair Diavolo just was in.

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

You blinked at him, and licked your dry lips. “Sore. Tired.”

He nodded, his hands waving over your upper body, a soft glow emanating from his fingers. “Your feathers are a right mess, darling. Will you allow me to help?”

Help with your wings? You knew what he meant by that, and the question wasn’t startling as you knew it would come considering the damage your magic had done. But this was a very personal thing, letting others groom your wings. You only ever allowed one person to touch your wings: Lucifer. Outside of the creatures on Earth, that is, but they were only animals and it didn’t have as much meaning to you.

There was something inside of you that spoke a loud and firm denial, that no one’s hands would pluck your broken feathers unless those hands belonged to Lucifer Morningstar.

“I-I can’t…”

He sighed, and his gentle hand stroked up and down your exposed arm. “It has to be done. Tell me, then, who will you let help you?”

You felt burning tears fall down to drop onto the pillow. “H-he w-won’t…”

Simeon hummed. “He won’t, hm? I can take one guess as to who that person is. And he’s been so worried for you he has barely slept a wink, pacing the palace floors at all hours, and questioning me constantly on how your health has been.”

You perked up, sniffling. “H-he has?”

Simeon smiled kindly, and his healing magic coursed over your back, soothing the pinpricks of pain caused by your movements. “Lucifer cares about you. I may not have been around him as much since his fall from Heaven but I can tell he never stopped caring for you, my dear.”

“He forgot about me.” You said so dejectedly. If he hadn’t, he would have recalled your face the second you appeared in the Devildom, as the only thing that was different was you had no wings, halo, or heavenly glow around you.

“Dear, we all thought you dead. I assumed your soul was wondering the skies. I am truly sorry I never searched for you to make certain of that.”

Simeon wasn’t present like Lucifer was for you in the Celestial Realm, but he did watch over you when Lucifer could not. It was rare, but it did happen. You occasionally saw him floating around the sky doing work for Michael and your father, but mostly he wasn’t a part of your world, not like Lucifer or his brothers.

“Simeon,” you whispered. “He hates me. Don’t lie to me.”

The Angel’s light was blinding, and his true form revealed itself. You gasped in shock at the sight, it had been quite a while since you had seen any other Angel this way.

He had stunningly pure white wings that expanded outwards behind him, and his blue eyes shimmered like a bright burning star. The halo hovering above his head would cut anything that it touched, a perfect circle of glittering gold, showing his status in Heaven as one of High Regard. His dark skin was encased in an outline of magic so pure it stung your eyes as you hadn’t seen anything like it in so long. He was fierce looking, and yet not, being a creature of pure light. Simeon was as old as Lucifer, if not a bit older even, and he held strength like no one else.

He spoke with authority in his kind voice, booming almost in your ears. “I will never lie to you, nor to any other being. Hear my words because they are the wholesome truth. Lucifer will always have a place in his heart for you even though he has been brought to this darker world.”

You shook from the might in his words. He brought tears to your eyes from the power he spoke with. “Simeon…”

He cupped your cheek, the warmth shocking and overwhelming, his thumb caressing under your eye. He spoke softer, then. “Dear one, if you’ll allow me to I’ll bring Lucifer here to help you. Please let me do this for you. I don’t like seeing such a kind soul in so much pain.”

You pushed into his hand, craving the touch. His words put you under a spell and you couldn’t help but think, maybe he was right. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad to have Lucifer here. Would it be like old times? You thought not, so much had changed. But you couldn’t deny the pounding in your heart that said you had to see him, and the truth that you really had no choice that if you wanted to heal, you had to have him aid you.

“Okay,” you answered softly.

He held your cheek for a moment longer, and you felt his magic cascade over you like a protective blanket. “I shall return soon with Lucifer. Keep still until then, your wings should not move lest they become more tangled. Don’t move, do you understand?”

“Yes, I promise.”

“Good girl. I’ll be back shortly. If you need me for anything, just call for me. I’ll hear you.”

He meant a prayer. He wanted you to pray for his help. You could not recall the last time a prayer had actually worked for you. Father had forgotten you, Lucifer had forgotten you… Praying was a waste of time.

The seconds ticked by. You let your mind wander to what-ifs, even though it hurt. What if Lucifer was so angry at you that he would take one look at your battered body and leave? What if Lucifer didn’t care for you like Simeon said, and instead hated you so much his magic would tear you apart? What if Lucifer, instead of plucking your feathers, he tore your wings from your body in a rage? These might have been insane imaginings, but they were not impossible. Lucifer had been a demon for a long, long time, and it was true he was still caring towards you while you acted human, but how would he react now? There was no way to know for sure.

Yes, he was your protector above. He was your everything; your father, your confidant, your friend, and your heart longed for him to be your lover.

Now he was something else to you. Still he looked out for you, kept you safe from other demons (not knowing you could if needed use your celestial magic on any who meant you harm), and he made sure you did well in RAD, and he, along with his brothers, thought of you as family. It was all you wanted, after years of searching for something to have as your very own.

Would it all disappear?

The door to the bedroom opened slowly, and you heard Simeon speak. “She’s exhausted emotionally and physically. Please, do what you can to make her well. She needs you.”

He entered the room. It was silent, and he didn’t move, simply watching you from where he stood before the shut door.

So you spoke for him. “Hello, Lucifer.”

Heels clacked and eventually he stood at your bedside. What an imposing figure he made. He looked at you with deep dark red eyes, near black at the pupils, and a massive aura of magic erupted around him. It wasn’t frightening, it wasn’t overpowering or dark. It was just… him.

He reached a hand to touch your hair, smoothing it back from your face to really look at you. “Hello, my dove.”

[be-the-spark-flyboy]

Horror Night

Call It What You Want (1/?)

Series Masterlist

Summary: College AU where you meet Poe for the first time and you find out he isnt a fan of horror movies.

Pairing: Poe x Reader

A/N: I literally tried watch clips from the nun at 3am trying to reference scenes for this then gave up cos Valak is the scariest shit ive ever seen in my life istg 

Warning: swearing, fluff

Word count: ~1.5k

Autumn nights weren’t exactly your favourite, especially when you are not going to spend it curled up in your bed with a mug of tea, reading your favourite book. Yet here you were on a friday night, in a movie theatre. Rey stands beside you, an arm hooked around yours, chatting away about her day as the two of you wait your turn in the line.

You know Rey chose a horror movie for you, just so she could convince you to third wheel her and Finn. You didn’t mind them though. They were a sweet couple, not the type to be too absorbed in each other and totally ignore your presence. And you loved them both way too much to deny them anything.

“Oh! And Finn’s bringing a friend too, so we need to get four tickets,” Rey tells you.

“Great! Now I have to socialize?” Rey just rolls her eyes at you. It wasn’t exactly her fault that you weren’t feeling so chirpy at the time. Okay, maybe a little bit. She had been the one to drag you all the way here after a long day of lectures and presentations, not even letting you stop by your dorm to change into something more comfy. You are a little overdressed for going to the movies but you wouldn’t have minded your outfit too much if it wasn’t for the demon spawn heels, murdering your feet.

Now that your fantasy of curling up in the theater seat with a popcorn bucket, all to yourself and tuning out everyone else was crushed, your mood considerable darkened.

“Hey, come on. Poe’s a nice guy, you’ll like him.” Rey tries to convince you. Oh well, looks you were finally going to meet the Poe Dameron. The guy who Finn just can’t stop gushing about in the few months you’ve known him. At least you’ll be able to put a face to the name after today.

The two of you settle on a couch just outside the screening room with your snacks and tickets, waiting for the boys who are now running late. Traffic, apparently. Rey shifts the popcorn further from your reach when you try to swipe some from her.

“We need some left for when we’re watching the movie,” she chides, knowing how fast you can munch through your snacks.

“Are they always this late?” You whine, dramatically flinging yourself back into the couch. Rey chuckles at your antics, so used to them by now.

You hear Finn’s laughter before you see him. And who he’s with. 

Oh shit.

Now you were sure the universe hated you. It just so happened to be that Finn’s best friend was the hot stranger you had managed to thoroughly embarrass yourself in front of, barely a week ago. Sleep deprived you, had lost your footing, clumsily tumbling down half a flight of stairs. Luckily, you had escaped with just a few bruises. Unluckily, you had an audience the entire time. You were on the floor when that gorgeous face came into view, asking you if you were alright and you had stuttered and stumbled over your words, face going red with embarrassment.

Before you could consider running away and hiding somewhere, his gaze falls on you, eyes widening in recognition. Oh well, too late. Much to your dismay, the first words out of his mouth were, “You’re that girl from the stairs!”. 

Finn catches on quickly, “That was you?” and doubles over laughing at your expense while his friend gives you an apologetic smile. A smile that made his big brown eyes crinkle at the corners, making you fight to keep your cool because how the hell can someone be so hot and so cute at the same goddamn time? Unaware of your inner turmoil, he introduces himself to you.

“Sorry, I’m Poe Dameron,” you give him your name in return, trying not to cringe at the whole exchange. 

And Rey. She greets Poe, then just watches you, smirking like she knew something you didn’t. When you told her about the incident, you may or may not have referred to Poe as a fallen angel, and literally Adonis. And professed your desire to, quote, pull on those luscious dark curls. So she had witnessed you thirsting over her boyfriend’s best friend. Great. The only consolation was that Finn didn’t know about that, or at least you hope he didn’t.

Finn finally collects himself, and Rey passes the ticket around, announcing that you were going to be late if you stood around any longer. You don’t miss the way Poe frowns at the ticket and whispers a “Oh,”. Before you can ask him if everything was alright, Rey links arms with you, as she drags along to the screening room.

---

Poe is sitting beside you and he is tense. He had already shifted in his seat at least thrice in the first five minutes of the movie. 

By the time the four of you had walked into the movie theater, the lights were already dimmed and you had stumbled along in the dark after Finn trying to find your seats. And by the time you were seated, you realised you were sandwiched between Finn and Poe, and since Fin had turned all of his attention on Rey, you were left alone with Poe.

He had apologized for the whole debacle outside and you assured him it wasn’t a problem. That wasn’t the first time Finn had made fun of you for something anyways. The two of you made small talk before the movie started and turned you attention to the screen when it began. Poe, however, had gone rigid.

He was clearly not having fun. You feel sorry for him everytime he jolts at every jump scare. You feel him lean towards you under the pretense of resting his arm on the arm rest between your seats, his wide eyes never leaving the screen. You press your lips together, trying not to laugh out loud because you are paying more attention to his reactions to the movie than to the movie itself, popcorn laying forgotten between you both.

“You okay there?” He coughs to cover up the audible gasp that leaves his lips at your sudden interruption.

“Um ya, great!” 

“Not a fan of horror?” 

“That obvious huh?” His bashful smile makes your heart flutter. Before you could second guess yourself, you shift the popcorn bucket to your other hand and hook an arm around his on the arm rest. The weight of his shoulders pressing against yours and his body radiating warmth immediately feels like a safety blanket over you and you hope he feels the same way.

“Does this help?” You pray you aren’t making him uncomfortable as you look up at him and your doubts melt away at the soft smile on his face, his posture considerably more relaxed. 

Then he completely catches off guard as he laces his fingers with yours, warm skin brushing over your, the few callouses between his fingers, a contrast to the smoothness of him palms. You’re suddenly so thankful for the long sleeves of your blouse, hiding the goosebumps now rising all over your arm.

“Yeah,” he watches you carefully for any sign that you may not be comfortable, “This helps,” you give him a reassuring smile, despite the butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

You can still almost feel the shivers running down his spine whenever Valak shows up on the screen. His grip on your hand is tight but not uncomfortable. Poor Poe was trying so hard to keep it together.

You can tell Poe is not the kind of person to shy away from physical contact from how he didn’t hesitate to take your hand. Or maybe he was just that scared. Regardless, you lean you head against his shoulder, your other hand on his bicep, hoping you weren’t making him uncomfortable or being too touchy. But your doubts evaporate when he leans his head against yours, relaxing further into your touch.

You cannot really process that you were having such a soft, almost intimate moment with the guy you’ve exchanged barely a few words with. It completely ruins the adrenaline rush you were craving from the movie, but you feel way too comfortable to care. Your whole body feels tingly for an entirely different reason. You hadn’t felt like this since-

Now wasn’t the time to think about that. For now, you were busy thinking about how Poe was making your heart skip beats.

—-

Finn’s eyes are glued to the screen, and he has an arm around Rey. He hadn’t watched horror in sometime and is thoroughly enjoying himself and so was Rey. He wonders if Poe would like it.

Oh wait.

He brought Poe to a horror movie. He must be the worst friend in the galaxy, god. Poe hates horror.

“Oh shit,” he turns around to see how he was doing. Then turns back around snickering.

“What’s wrong,” Rey asks, confused with his reaction.

“Oh nothing, I forgot Poe hates horror. But it’s okay, he seems pretty cozy though,”

Rey leans forward to see what Finn was talking about and her eyes widen at the sight of you and Poe almost cuddling each other, your fingers interlocked, leaning on each other. You two did look really cozy. She leans back, jaw slack.

“Cute, right?” Finn asks, grinning ear to ear.

“Oh we might’ve done something,” the cogs in her head turns as she grins back at Finn.

---

Poe Dameron Tag list (open): @writefightandflightclub , @arkofblake , @yougottakeeponkeepinon​ , @multifandomlife22​ , @skymerons​ , @smol-peter-parker

[jess-the-vampire]

The Demon Next Door, Chapter 9

Previous / Next

-

"So...how's progress with jackie?", Star said, hopping alongside marco, "Prom's coming up and you said you planned on her being your date right? Do you even know what you're going to do to prompose?"

"Star, prom's still months away, no need to do it THAT soon...", marco said, mumbling and avoiding eye contact, much to her obvious annoyance. His answer did not satisfy her, especially since marco always planned ahead, if he didn't ask his crush out eventually, well, there were plenty or guys and girls who could ask her out themselves and he wouldn't even get the chance.

This was a huge aspect of marco's plan with jackie and he only recently made it to friendship, he'd run out of time if he kept waiting longer.

She'd think marco would leap at planning how he was to ask her out, but for some reason he seemed...distracted instead, unfocused on jackie. He had no plan already on how he wanted to ask her, he hadn't planned out for 50 different situations or what tux he wanted to wear, none of the prep that marco usually went through to well, do anything.

Distracted and moody, two things marco usually wasn't.

Star didn't linger too much on it though, jackie herself was turning the corner and she waved to the duo, star immediately running up and talking to her. Marco put on his best smile to talk to her too when tom finally met up with the group, in his ripped jeans, jackie and rock shirt, and of course with his spiked collar and punk bracelets. He looked like he crawled out of a rock concert and yet he radiated good energy for marco.

Tom was a beacon of light in a shroud of black.

Marco now truly smiling at seeing him, feelin gat least a little better then he had been.

"Tom!", he said, almost a little too happily.

"Hey guys, sorry i'm late, got held up in my last class...ready for lunch?", he fixed himself up and winked at the group. "I want to get pizza this time bit I might go for the chicken, but I wanna treat you guys this time If i can so you let me know if there's anything on the menu you want, I made some great allowance helping mom clean up our house.".

One of these days marco would have to pay for him, repay how much he liked to pay for his friends so much.

Jackie greeted tom herself, complimenting him on his outfit as they all started heading off to get something to eat. She and star continued talking, the boys behind them, tom looking at the back of star's head as they did. Marco tugging on the straps of is backpack, looking for a subject to talk about that would distract his mind from it's strange mess. Though the stares he was receiving from some of his classmates were not helping at all.

Lucky for him, tom was already ready to talk.

"Hey...so I was thinking, would you wanna go to a concert sometimes...together?", he clutched his jacket, biting at his lips. "Love Sentence is touring soon in the future so...I was wondering...if you'd like to go together, I've never gotten to go to a concert with a friend before...and we had so much fun singing their songs together so if it's cool with you I could get us tickets?".

Marco didn't even have to think about it too hard.

A wide grin on his face followed by a fast, "Yes!", a concert sounded awesome frankly, it was a good time to just get out of the house and get some fresh air. And he could use more fresh air these days, anything to distract him. It meant her didn't have to worry about jeremy or Brittney or school or jackie. He could sit back and have fun and not have all these thoughts hurting his brain.

Tom seemed to just know how to distract him.

Though as he felt tom playfully put an arm around marco's shoulders he felt his body tense up, though he didn't say anything to tom about it, not wanting to make himself look like an idiot in front of the boy.

Ever since the sleepover he's started feeling more...strange around tom, like he enjoyed his presence even more then usual or he got more worried about screwing up in front of tom. Marco lately had summed it up as him having grown much closer to tom, after all, sharing such personal stuff to each other was a clear sign of them becoming closer friends and trusting each other.

And marco just felt more anxious about breaking tom's trust or screwing up in front of him.

That'd explain a lot of his actions recently frankly.

Star and Jackie continued to remain talking as they got to the cafeteria, all of them getting lunch together before jackie said she had to head to a different table with some of her other friends, leaving star and the boys to sit at their regular table. Tom seemed to be checking to marco to see if that bothered him but marco seemed fine, and marco simply shrugged to him.

"It's ok, she sits with us on most days anyway.".

They started munching on pizza and talking about their recent classes, tom gulping down some chocolate milk and going off about how much he's been enjoying art class recently. Star joined it, if only to talk about how much she fingerpaints and how much the teachers tell her she's using way too much glitter on a sculpture of all things, making tom call her out on how that would ruin the clay.

Yeah these two were on some similar levels weren't they?

No wonder tom liked star.

Though marco did seem to feel a little left out as they laughed together, even if tom was edging him on with other conversations to get him to share about his classes today and how stressful his homework was. He liked seeing them friends, it was way better then seeing them fight like star was basically doing, but something just seemed to bug him.

He pushed those thoughts away, he didn't want to be selfish, not when tom liked star so much.

Tom didn't have a problem with him and jackie, he shouldn't care so much about tom and star.

He pushed it down, taking breaths, he needed to relax and focus, he was hanging out with his best friends and he was letting his weird emotions get to him. He took a sip of juice before taking out his phone to show off some cute cat photos to his pals. If anything were to distract these two, it seemed to be extremely cute animals, especially tiny fluffy ones.

Their smiling faces helped make marco feel a little better, tom and star showing off some animal clips and pics as well to the boy. They were both so cheerful, so goofy, seeing them happy really made marco's day. He just liked having them around to keep him company and stop him from spending his days alone and chasing after a girl. Sure, he on occasion hung out with people like Ferguson and Alphonso, a couple of nerds he knew since elementary school.

But tom and star felt different, like genuine friends, not like he hung out just not to be alone and worry his parents.

He felt something with them, he really did.

Maybe that was why he was getting so emotional, he found something valuable.

And he didn't want to lose it.

"Geez...that girl is still staring at us...", star mumbled, staring off to another table where brittney and the other cheerleaders sat, gossiping and glancing over to their table on occasion. It was mostly probably more about tom but tom didn't seem to either notice most of the stuff going around about him, or he pretty much was ignoring it like crazy.

Or maybe people were just too afraid to say it to his face after finding out how strong he was.

That would check out.

Tom glared at the head cheerleader, maybe he didn't know about the rumors but he did know she was giving them all a rather unpleasant look right now and that was enough for him to not like this girl.

She smelled of bad news all over, like she was looking for anything to start something. He'd dealt with people like that before of course, this was far from anything new for him, but there was a apart of him that wanted to tell her off for her disgusted gaze. He didn't like the way she was looking at him, star, or marco as he kept his anger and annoyance in silence.

Though he tried to keep positive around his friends, trying to simply ignore her gaze, "Who cares...anyways...can I come over to study with you guys? Not because I need a lot of help but uh...considering star's grades...". She pouted at tom, how often were him and marco both gonna keep commenting on her grades? They weren't THAT bad were they?

"That seems fair...", marco could never say no to having tom come over and hang out.

She gave marco a dirty look, though it wasn't clear if she was bothered more by the comment or tom just coming along. She never liked to be lectured on her grades by anyone, whether her mom or marco as they were the ones to normally do it.

Marco didn't even defend himself, crossing his arms.

"What? You don't exactly get a ton better from studying with me, maybe tom might help a lot more! I mean, it's worth a shot, besides...you barely listen to me when we study anyway, I don't think tom being there will make it any worse then it already is.".

Besides, more hangout time with tom was always a good thing, especially since marco was in a bad mood to begin with.

Star protested even after lunch and their last period of classes, clearly still not happy about studying. But with tom being dropped off with them and the fact they always studied at marco's house, she didn't have much of a say in the matter. Tom was going to stay no matter what she she didn't wanna go home and deal with her parents instead, so studying it was.

Tom was gonna study with them, period.

And hopefully it might help her grades in some way so star didn't end up repeating a year of school.

As star headed upstairs to marco's room in a rush, marco patted tom on the back, " It's ok, she'll get over it, besides...it'll give you more time to spend with your crush and stuff.". It was a sweet gesture and tom seemed to appreciate it, but marco couldn't lie and say he felt like he wanted to spend more time with tom instead. Not to keep tom from his crush, but seeing them having fun without him...made him feel weird.

He wanted to spend time with him, just a little more today, if only because he felt he needed the company.

Lucky for him, tom seemed to be in no rush to mess with star, asking marco to grab some snacks before they headed up. Marco helping him make some cheesy pretzels to bring up to his room and to share with their weird friend. Tom smiling bright and laughing at the jokes marco was making to him, mostly about how star tried everything in her power to not study.

He really liked hearing tom laugh.

Maybe soon they could do another sleepover, but in marco's room next time.

Tom playfully butted him as they went into marco's room, where star already put off studying to play on her phone instead, ignoring both boys intentionally and overall just wasting time so she didn't have to study. It was so much like star, she was like a painful little sister, and marco hoped to god his baby sister didn't turn out like she when she got to be this age.

Star would probably be a bad influence on her.

"Star~", marco said, teasingly, "C'mon, we got study time!".

"Yeah, well I am studying!", she said in a rather rude voice all things considered, of course she hated studying but still.

Marco looked over her phone to see she was playing one of those cute mobile dress up games and raised an eyebrow, "Uh huh? Studying what? What to wear tomorrow?". He got it, studying was not fun at all, but star had to do it or she would get in serious trouble. Last thing she needed was another reason for her mom to get frustrated with her by the sounds of it.

"Star...c'mon, promise, it won't be so bad this time...we can start with English if you want", he pulled out a book from his backpack from their class and waved it in front of her, "You gotta read star".

"Read to me instead, it'll be more fun!", she said back, still on her phone, marco tapping his foot like an impatient mother.

"But if you're not paying attention, what's the point?".

The food was set aside and tom took the book from marco, breezing through it, "Well, maybe the best way for star to study is to do it in a transformative way? Maybe we like...tell her the story in a way to make it exciting for her?". Marco could see what tom was getting at and honestly it's possible it might actually work, though tom had better come up with something good for it to work.

Yet tom seemed to want marco's guidance, judging by how he was looking at him. He still appreciated that tom was asking him for impust, even if marco didn't always know what he was supposed to do to help.

"Uh...no offence tom, I'm not much of the "Creative type", I'm more the flighty nerd guy, not really the 'artsy' type", but the boy shook his head, "C'mon marco, you love action and adventure, you got some creative juices flowing up there, besides...I could use your help, so maybe this is a good time to maybe get a hang of it?". He was practically begging for it with those eyes and marco couldn't say no to him, guess it really couldn't hurt to help out his best friends with this.

"Alright, fine...I'll give it a shot with you...so...you finished this book already?".

He nodded, "I sorta read it at home after dinner, i'm not a super big reader so i thought the sooner i finish it the better so i can play video games and stuff, but knowing you you're been reading it chapter by chapter and are still only halfway through the book...right?". How did he know? Was marco really this predictable that tom knew him like the back of his hand? Though tom seemed pretty proud he got marco on that one, he was really getting a hang of his personality.

"Don't...spoil it for me...ok?", he asked under his breath.

"I got you...besides, we're not saying exactly what happened, but helping star processing it in a way she'll like!". That was true, marco would probably finish the rest without truly being spoiled on what happened since tom was masking everything. Hopefully star would actually understand instead of being dreadfully confused about everything tom was trying to say to her.

But who knew with star, she might just ignore all of it, she tended to forget a lot of what she was taught days after anyway.

"Star? Hey, here...we'll tell you a bit about the story", tom tapped her shoulder and she grumpily turned around to see tom open the book and pulled marco to sit next to him on the bed.

She didn't seem all that excited, but what else could they do?

"So in this story, we got this cool fierce girl, and she's out looking for treasure, and she's working with these guys she doesn't really like...but learns to like, and there's betrayal and she has to survive...". He was summing it up and making it more exciting then it probably was, but it was getting star's attention, at least for a little bit. Her crown dissipating a little.

"So she like fights for her life against enemies and well...", he looked to marco, "Not to spoil the ending but...it gets wild!".

Star looked a bit skeptic, but more interested then she did before.

So it seemed to be working, even if it was only for a little bit.

Tom continued further, not disclosing all the details and replacing some of the aspects with something else but star was starting to get more and more interested then this then her phone as tom went on, marco quickly joining in. Though maybe the two of them were getting off track just a little as it devolved into a story involving fairs and dragons and demons.

Tom insisting that the demons aren't evil, but just tricky, and that there was a demon who was in love with the human girl protagonist.

With tom's love of creepy and spooky things, his want to have the scary monsters be seen as good people was rather unsurprising, instead of being defeated, tom wanted them as the hero of the story.

Honestly he should his own story someday, he seemed to really enjoy it and have a knack for it. With his fun demonic heros and a magical land, it seems like something tom would have a blast doing since he seemed to be able to come up with this all off the bat.

Definitely not in the story, but marco had to admire tom's creativity, he was pretty good.

The study session actually seemed to get star to take out her book and start reading, even if technically they weren't being entirely truthful, but getting her excited about reading was a good thing if any.

Hopefully this would get her to maybe read more books in the future if they could do that.

As the session progressed, marco felt they had made some progress, even if they had partially goofed off quite a bit throughout the whole thing. Their homework got finished and the three soon found themselves watching some movies together downstairs later that night, marco resting in between his two best friends and laughing alongside them both.

He was actually feeling a lot better, maybe they could get more study sessions like this soon?

Where marco could just rest and relax and enjoy himself and not...worry so much, like he seemed to do way too much as is.

Though he soon felt drowsy, clearly everything of the day finally wearing him down. His eyes were starting to close and his head was nodding off, he was sinking into the couch and he could barely keep himself up and awake anymore, his friend's voices becoming a blur.

His head falling over unknowingly onto tom's shoulder next to him, tired and falling to sleep. Tom was not yet asleep but didn't push marco away either, allowing the boy to rest against him, snoring softly. Tom smiled, watching the rest of the movie with his friends next to him. Ignoring star, who was staring right at them with a smile and a raised eyebrow.

Tom closing his eyes for a nap himself, his head resting on marco's.

Comfortable, and happy.

Marco woke up later, stretching himself out only to find the bodies of his two friends were both gone. His hands instead patting the surface of the couch and his eyes finally awaking to find himself alone in his living room.

He rubbed his eyes, thinking maybe he was dreaming, but as he blinked again, no, he was indeed awake. His best friends just were no longer beside him on the couch, or anywhere in sight for that matter.

His friends went home? Without even telling him bye? No, that didn't seem like something they'd do.

Or were they in the bathroom or something?

He yawned, how long had he been asleep exactly? He remembered the movie and next thing he new...he was nodding off.

Then he heard voices coming from upstairs and got up and off the couch, fixing his hair to head upstairs and see where his friends were. The voices seemingly coming from the boy's bedroom. Marco wanted to just head in and see them before they headed home tonight, but he found himself pressing an ear against his own door instead, wondering what the two could be talking about that led to them locking themselves inside his own room.

This was probably wrong.

But-

Something seemed...off, and marco had to know what was going on just in case his friends were up to something bad. For all he knew star was about to do something stupid and dangerous again.

"Are you going to tell him?", star asking, seemingly coming from where his bed normally was, probably meaning she was sitting on it. Knowing her, she was the one who suggested to go in marco's room, janna told her well enough about it's locks after all.

"I'm not sure...I mean, I want to...I think I should but...what would he think? I mean, you and me...we're-"., Tom said, the sound of footsteps following him, he must've been pacing around.

"I'm sure he wouldn't care THAT much tom, probably", she said back, and knowing her, she was probably shrugging or something, he legs hanging off the bed and kicking.

"They why do I have to tell him, why not you?"

The pacing seemed to stop.

"You know why...if you don't say anything he'll figure it out on his own eventually...It's hard enough keeping it secret as is...".

Secret? What secret?

Tom had a secret? And star was in on it?

"Star, even you avoided telling him, clearly it does matter to you if you haven't said anything already...", knowing tom he was crossing his arms at her, making a face and looking disapproving to the girl. At leas that's how marco imagined it going knowing his friends right now.

Star didn't respond, marco pressing against the door further.

"Ok fine, but like...he's kinda our best friend...we gotta stop meeting in secret, otherwise he's gonna walk in on us and well...I'm not sure how we'd talk our way out of it. We're already on a tightrope around him at this point, you know he'll catch on soon.". Tightrope? Star was terrible at lying to marco about much of anything! What could she possibly hide from him he wouldn't know about?

"We'll need time to figure it out...I guess...".

Star sighed, "Yeah, just...be careful in the meantime...".

"I could say the same for you...you aren't exactly super subtle...", tom teased, and marco could imagine star pouting and crossing her arms. "Meh, let's just get back to marco...we have to head out soon anyway...we don't wanna leave without saying goodbye!". Marco felt a shudder through his body before quickly moving from the door to head back downstairs and back on the couch.

He didn't want them to know he heard them, or knew something was up.

Though the whole thing left his mind wandering as he tried to pretend to be asleep, first tom and star talk and work things out without him knowing. Now he finds they're sharing secrets and talking behind his back? Maybe he was taking this too far, his friends could talk without him, but it just...bothered him. He had so many questions, that when the two came back downstairs, he failed to hide his nervousness as he "Woke up".

"Hey Marco! Sorry to wake you, but we better get back home!", Tom motioned to star, "Thanks for inviting me...i'll text you later ok?". It seemed tom nor star had noticed marco's weird smile too well, probably assuming marco was just startled awake by their presence. Tom went in for the hug, marco wrapping his arms around him softly before star joined in.

The two sending him waves and smiles as they headed out, marco left feeling stranger and stranger.

What was going on?

Marco spent way too long that night trying to process everything, his emotions were getting weird, his friends were acting weird.

Was he just going crazy?

He was probably taking this all way too seriously, whatever tom and star wanted to tell them they could tell them in their own time, he shouldn't be snooping through something that was personal for them. It just felt...strange, he never got left out by his best friends like this before, he was used to star and tom sharing stuff with him, what made this different?

Did marco do something wrong?

He was beating himself up mentally for thinking like that, of course not, it must be something different entirely.

Hopefully.

Hanging out with them the next day, marco was struggling to try and hide the fact that he knew something. That he knew something that he wasn't supposed to know about, trying to be normal as the two of them talked, he was too distracted to even focus on jackie when she waved to him that day. He tried to play it off as lack of sleep but he did feel like tom suspected something.

Tom was already getting their tickets and smiling and talking and Marco couldn't even enjoy it as much as he wanted to, worried he'd slip that he spied on his best friends and listened in on them.

Star had lessons that night and tom told marco he'd be busy that night helping his parents go shopping, so marco was left to his own devices as he did his homework. He couldn't focus though, it was hard to when his mind was wandering so much. He wished he had his friends here to help distract him but all he had now were his own thoughts and nothing else.

He sighed, looking at his empty bedroom.

He wondered if they were talking to each other more often without him, and what they said to each other.

Tap tap.

"AHHH!", marco nearly tossed his book aside, practically fainting as janna opened his window and popped her way inside. The girl loved to do stuff like this but BOY was marco not in the mood for her nonsense. Janna must've known marco was alone tonight, deciding it was a great time to break in and mess with him, because of course this was the time she wanted to break in.

"JANNA!".

"Hey marco!", she said, smirking, shutting the window behind her, "Mind if i drop in? No? Good.". She casually strode in, right to Marco's closet, digging through it for anything of use. "So star and tom are out tonight? Never thought they'd leave you alone, they're always attached to your hip like glue. But hey, finally means I get my chance to hang out in here.".

"Since when do you care about if you break in when people are looking?".

She shrugged, "I don't, I just prefer to not have any distractions when I'm bothering you.". She said it so casually, and marco snorted at her while she went through his things, though considering his resistance to her actions, janna had a feeling something was up. Marco usually started flipping out about her but now he just seemed...blank and sad.

She looked at his face, stopping what she was doing before giving him a look.

"Uh...what's wrong with you?".

"It's none of your beeswax janna...".

However, this only encouraged her, standing up, "Y'know, if you don't tell me i can easily hypnotize you into telling my yourself right? So I mean, would you rather tell em now or have me spill all your dark secrets to the world?". Marco became red faced, of course she went there, of course, he should have known better then to give her any reason to be suspicious.

Fantastic.

"Look it's just...star and tom are talking without me and I think they're hiding something from me and...".

"Oh? So they're dating now in secret and you're getting jealous?".

Marco was caught entirely off guard from that response, "W-what?".

"Dude, c'mon, it's obvious, they're dating and have no idea how to tell you...probably think it'll hurt your friendship or something...c'mon now", she said this so plainly, like marco was stupid for never actually thinking it beforehand. Marco was not sure how to respond, it was just like janna to make stuff like this up for the purpose of messing with him.

But she almost seemed to make sense, her claim at least.

Tom and Star did meet in secret without telling marco and seem to patch things up between them, and they did seem to look at each other a bit, and he did know tom had been pursuing her for a bit. But without telling marco? That didn't seem like tom much at all, tom and him were always talking about their crushes and helping each other out , why not say anything?

Maybe he could see Star not tell him considering how she felt about tom before.

But Tom?

"In denial huh?", Janna was being way too smug right now and marco didn't like one bit of it, "Hey, that's fine dude, don't complain to be when they start meeting more in secret, going on dates, kissing at lunch in front of you...". marco suddenly got very red faced and pushed her away from him, "Just...stop, I-I'm not...jealous, even if they were dating now...why would I be jealous? They'd be happy right? it's what tom wants."

Janna was still smirking, "I mean, it's getting a bit obvious...but I mean, it's fine, it'll be funnier watching you deal with it yourself". Marco was about ready to kick her from his home at this point, having it up to here with this. "Look, I've told everyone countless time over and over...ever since she arrived, me and star are NOT an item?! Ok? I don't have a crush on her!".

"I mean, I didn't say it had to be star...".

"Out!"

Marco was already pushing her out of his room and shutting the door behind her before resting his back against it and sighing, what if she was right? What if Tom and Star were dating in secret?

What if marco really was starting to get...jealous?

He shook his head, no no, he's starting to fall for more of her nonsense again, he really should stop falling for it, unless he wanted to get himself into more trouble. Janna was not the most truth worthy person around and he should know better then to listen to a word coming from her mouth. She was simply trying to mess with him, mess with his emotions and get him upset.

And Marco was just letting her.

Next time he saw star and tom, he was going to be a better friend, more trusting, less of a mess as he was for now.

If janna ruined their friendships over this nonsense he was going to explode.

He took a moment to breathe, he just needed some sleep, he was getting too worked up over this. Then he heard janna talking to his parents downstairs and immediately opened the door, he shoved janna out of his room, not his house! Who knows what she was doing downstairs! Marco quickly opened the door and headed downstairs, seeing his parents laughing with janna on the couch, making marco even more frustrated as they all waved at him.

"Marco! We didn't know you had a friend over!".

"I don't.", he said bitterly.

Janna smirked at him, lying back on the couch and enjoying herself, "Marco was just telling me about his crush on-". Marco shushed her as loud as possible, "Sorry guys, but janna is leaving, before pulling janna from the couch. Janna didn't even protest as marco pulled her away and towards the door," C'mon, stop busting into my house, what if i was naked?!".

"Fine with me.".

"Out."

Janna was pushed out the door and before marco could even close it she leaned herself against it, "C'mon marco, you've had to have at least considered it? You sure aren't getting this way about jackie." Marco was so red faced and embarrassed and he just wanted her out, shutting the door in her face, what did she know about his feelings? She couldn't read minds.

And she was questioning how much he liked jackie? She was with them since kindergarten! Of course she was aware of marco's long crush on jackie! She used to tease him about it all the time! Marco sighed and locked the door, his parents watching him curiously, probably worried something was seriously wrong with him. He smiled and pointed to the stairs, "I'm...going to get some rest...I'll see you tomorrow.".

He quickly headed upstairs, still red in the face.

Opening his door to find-

"Janna!?".

"Yo."

There she was, sitting on his bet, eating chips.

He forgot to lock the window.

"Janna for pete's sake, why can't you just leave me alone!", marco shouted at her, janna munching on her food to herself. "Alright fine marco, i'll go, but like, you outta be careful, before you hurt someone's feelings.". She shrugged before heading out of the window, the window shutting behind her and leaving marco in the dust. Marco feeling a weight off him but somehow...he almost regretted her going.

Like he didn't want to be alone.

He sat on his knees, thinking heavily about all the words coming from janna's mouth, messing with his hair.

"I don't...I don't know why my best friends don't want to tell me the truth but...whatever reason it's for, it has to be important to them", he liked his lips, brushing at his face, "They're my friends, if they're dating, i should just wait till they come out and tell me, wait until they're ready...right? Right. I have to be here to support them, I...I need to trust them.".

Then he remembered what else she said and shook his head.

"No no...none of that, they're just my friends...star is my best friend, tom is...", he felt himself hesitate with that one a bit more, "Best friend, he's just my best friend...and tomorrow...i'm gonna be the best friend i can possibly be for both of them".

[harlot-of-oblivion]

The Devil’s In The Details

You wait in the diner for a pesky devil to arrive before launching into more detail about the case. After some flirty banter and a heated rant, both of you come to an accord and you walk away with a new partner what may know how to melt your icy walls.

Chapter 4: The Devil’s New Partner 

You knew from reading Dante’s profile that he would be unpredictable and possibly dangerous. And after some light digging around outside the city, you have learned just how much of a troublemaker he really is before setting foot into Devil May Cry. But you were not prepared for this the undeniable truth that came to light after your meeting with him:

The Legendary Devil Hunter annoys the fuck out of you.

You are hunched over a table in the corner booth of the Simmer Down Diner, still reeling from your first encounter with the infamous Dante while you wait for your food. The only saving grace from your irritable thoughts are your pensive drawings. You put the finishing touches on the Devil May Cry sign and readjust your glasses before turning a page of your sketchbook to doodle the shop itself…which is just a total mess. That didn’t really surprise you at all, but the sheer amount of empty whiskey bottles tells you that his carefree attitude might all just be an elaborate act. And as for the rest of the trash…you get the impression that he really loves pizza and doesn’t even bother paying the bills on time.

Your pencil glides across the paper as you draw a rough sketch of the jukebox and the rotting demon pinned to the wall with swords before moving onto the exasperating owner himself. Everything about him just irks you for some reason; maybe it’s the lack of professionalism or his not so subtle flirting in between the jabs at your profession. Never in your life have you felt such a strong urge to punch someone immediately after meeting them. Not even Fuller has ever managed to get this far under your skin after years of knowing him…and yet Dante somehow has you breathing fire in just a few short minutes!

The lines of your drawing get darker as you press the pencil harder against the page, being careful not to break it while you channel your anger into the sketch of Dante. You got a good look at him during your little tirade as you leaned in real close over his desk, noticing little details such as the silvery sheen of his messy white hair and scruffy beard. And those striking blue eyes…flashing red for a split second before twinkling with amusement while watching you rant just a few inches away from his face.

You hate to admit it…but a part of you also finds him infuriatingly fascinating.  

The soft ringing of a bell breaks your concentration as the door swings open. You glance up from your sketchbook to see the devil himself entering the diner. Well, this is a surprise, you thought with quirked brow, partly convinced that maybe he’s actually interested in helping you with the case. The striking blue eyes you were just pondering about start scanning through the modest crowd. You straighten yourself up in the booth, revealing your whereabouts with a patient wave while you hastily close your sketchbook.

Dante’s lips curl into a playful smirk when he spots you among the crowd. You take this opportunity to check him out while taking a long sip of your drink. The first thing you notice while he struts on over to your table is just how intimidatingly tall he is compared to you. His long red jacket flares out behind him, allowing you a sneak peek of the guns strapped to his lower back. Your eyes linger over his broad shoulders and muscular chest before moving further down his body. You almost choke on your drink once you get a load of the very prominent bulge at the front of the black leather pants.

Either he’s packing some serious heat down there…or that’s the cleverest way to hide a gun I’ve ever seen!

You casually clear your throat as you set your drink down, hoping that it’s enough to cover up the sudden flush of heat rushing through your body. But the subtle twitch of his mouth tells you that he totally noticed you staring at his crotch. “I know, I know,” he starts when he gets close enough to your table, “if being this sexy was a crime, then I’d be guilty as charged!” he boldly claims while pointing at himself with a confident grin.

“Pff! More like if vanity was a crime,” you scoff with a roll of your eyes before leaning back in your seat while crossing your arms. “I’m assuming since you’re here that you’ve changed your mind?”

Dante doesn’t seem to be bothered by your chilly retort as he rests one hand on the table, really showing off his incredible height as he leans over the table with that stupid grin still on his face. “Lemme hear more about this case of yours and we’ll see, Detective.”

You study him for a moment before letting out a resigned sigh. “Well then, why don’t you have a seat, Mr. Dante?” you offer while pointing to the vacant seat across from you.

“Hey, there’s no need for that…just Dante is fine,” he informs with a charming wink, blue eyes gleaming with mischief as he slides into the booth. He pushes the table a little closer towards you so that he can fit into the small booth comfortably, long legs stretching out until both of his knees are on either side of your own legs. You grunt at the inconvenience but do not complain since you can’t blame him for being so damn tall to begin with. He rests his arms on the table as soon as he’s all situated and gives you his undivided attention as he picks up right where you left off.

“So, what’s this about needing my help to catch a serial killer?”

You slip off your glasses and sit up in your seat. “I believe that either demons or a Devil Arm is involved with some disappearances as well as the five murders,” you explain, but stop short when the waitress approaches your table. She offers you a refill before asking Dante what he would like to drink while batting her eyelashes at him. His roguish gaze never strays from you as he politely declines to order, only giving the simpering young woman a once over from the corner of his eye. The waitress pouts and lets him know that she will be nearby if he changes his mind before sulking away.

“Okay...let’s go back to the beginning,” you sigh while putting your glasses back on. “There’s been a drastic increase of missing people over the past two months. Most of them seem like your typical case of runaways and such, but some of them are highly suspicious. And when I looked a little closer…” you trail off, lacing your fingers on the table as you continue in a more hushed tone. “I noticed a pattern with every single case: all of them exhibited dissociative behavior before disappearing.”

Dante tilts his head and narrows his eyes while considering your first suspicion. “Alright…some people go missing, but what’s that gotta do with demons?” he questions with a small shrug.

“Not a damn thing at first, but I didn’t even see a connection until the murders,” you admit while sliding your sketchbook to the middle of the table, turning it around so that he can see your drawings and notes as you flip to the correct page. “This is the first victim: shot through the chest by a shotgun.” You give him a moment to study your grisly sketch before turning the page. “The second victim was stabbed multiple times.” Another pause to examine the gruesome scene before flipping the page. “The third victim was shot in the back of the head at point blank range.”

You feel his knees twitch against your leg, but you chalk it up to him being lost in thought as he scratches the back of his head. “I dunno…these all seem pretty random, Detective,” he contends, looking back at you skeptically through his silvery hair.

“And yet they all have one thing in common: a wound inflicted by a needle of some kind was found on all their bodies,” you counter while flipping back through the pages, pointing out your depiction of the wound in your autopsy notes. “At first, the medical examiner thought it was from drug use. But when he found the exact same wound again on the other two victims, he took a closer look and discovered the residue of some unknown substance.” You turn to the next macabre drawing and reveal your first break in the case. “It wasn’t until the fourth victim came swinging in that we were able to extract a small sample for testing.”

Your explanation gets put on pause when the waitress appears with your food. Dante picks up your sketchbook as she places a huge plate of the diner’s special down on the table. Your stomach growls hungrily as you stare down at the pot roast sub smothered with gravy resting atop a heaping pile of fries. The waitress asks if you need anything else, looking a bit perturbed going by her pallid face as she hurriedly refills your drink despite doing so just a few minutes ago. That’s what you get for eavesdropping, Sweetie, you thought wryly, showing her some mercy with a shake of your head. She rushes off to the back of the diner while you grab some utensils with an amused smirk.

You take off your glasses and catch Dante staring at you with a quirked brow. You glower right back at him as your mouth twists into an annoyed grimace before digging into your hearty meal. A husky chuckle rumbles from his throat as he nonchalantly flips through your sketchbook, adding more fuel to your already inflamed temper by not even asking permission first. But as you take a bite of the delicious roast beef and gravy, you decide to just let it go since it’s just your investigatory sketchbook; there shouldn’t be anything private in those pages anyways.

“Did you draw all of these?” he asks, genuine curiosity evident in his voice as he continues to look through the various sketches of past cases.

Your head nods while you chew and swallow your food. “Drawing important details helps me organize my thoughts,” you answer before munching on some salty fries.

Dante looks up from your sketchbook. “You’re really good,” he admits, knee bumping playfully against your leg again with the compliment.

“It’s nothing special,” you reply coolly despite feeling warm tingles coiling within the pit of your belly at his sincere praise. “It’s just a glorified version of doodling during class when you think about it...anyway, where were we?” You quickly move on before making a complete fool of yourself in front of the cocksure devil who is currently smiling like a smug cat while brushing your leg with his knee yet again. What are we? Teenagers? you mentally scoff, shooing his knee away with a swift kick against one of his leather boots before carrying on with your explanation.

“This is the fifth and most recent victim,” you continue while reaching across the table towards your sketchbook, barely managing to flip the appropriate page since you are a great deal shorter than him. “We’re still in the process of determining the exact cause of death, but we found the same exact wound on the body as well.”

Dante nods and turns the page while you take a few more bites of your meal. “What’s up with Frankenstein’s wife here?” he chortles, turning your sketchbook around and flashing you with this morning’s drawing made in the morgue.

“Oh!” you gasp, covering your mouth with a cheap paper napkin. “It’s uh…an inside joke,” you mumble with your mouth full, thankful that he cannot see your sheepish grin as you gulp down your food. “The strangled victim’s body is now missing from the morgue.” You dab the corners of your mouth with the napkin and take a sip of your drink before meeting his intrigued gaze. “And the test results for the unknown substance came back completely blank too,” you divulge with frustrated sigh.

“Alright, so lemme get this straight,” he mutters, closing your sketchbook as he leans in closer over the table. “All these people ended up dead with some kinda poison inside them?”

“It’s more like a venom since it has to be injected,” you correct with a brief nod.

Dante hums in thought while you go back to eating your meal in silence for a few moments. “Some demons can kill that way,” he muses with a casual shrug before nodding his head in a questioning manner. “But what about the missing people from the start? Did they have this venom too?”

“Some relatives and close friends report seeing what looks like injection marks on some of the missing people prior to their disappearance. I know, I know,” you murmur when that damnable brow of his quirks in disbelief. “It’s a bit of stretch. But when I talked with the victim’s family and friends, they all noticed that something was off with them before their death as well.”

You push your plate aside to lean in closer as you list off some key similarities. “Spotty memory, bouts of dizziness, and just overall despondent to the world around them…it’s the exact same symptoms of the missing people before they all disappeared!” you exclaim softly with a light slam of your fist against the table. “I know it’s a long shot, but everything in my gut tells me that all of this is more than just coincidence. And with the amount of people involved along with the fact that we’re the capital of demon town right now…” You close your eyes for a moment, breathing in deeply through your nose before letting out a shuddering sigh while your mind glosses over old memories.

“Something horrible is going on in Red Grave again,” you murmur, eyes snapping open to meet his intense gaze. “And I’m gonna stop whatever or whoever is behind it all before it gets worse.”

Dante stares at you from across the table, mouth slightly agape while his blue eyes shine with wonderment. Your determined gaze stays on him while you wait for that fiery red flash to appear again, heart skipping a beat when it flickers for a moment before receding back within those stunning blue depths. “You’ve definitely caught my attention, Detective,” he admits huskily, eyes now gleaming with rakish charm as he fidgets around in his seat. “There’s just one thing we need squared away before getting this party started.”

You nod your head, already knowing that he wants to bargain for his services. “The RGC P.D. can’t technically pay you for your assistance, but we can offer you a certain deal in exchange for your cooperation.”

“Like a plea deal?” he quips with a cheeky grin.

“Not exactly…unless you’re guilty of something,” you explain with a puzzling tilt of your head before shooting him with an icy glare. “And if you say anything about your good looks one time-”

“Being this handsome is not the only thing I’m guilty of,” he cuts you off, completely ignoring your warning as he leans in even closer over the table. “But you’re gonna have to do better than that to get a confession outta me, Detective,” he murmurs, eyes darting down to stare at your frowning lips while a suave smile spreads across his scruffy face.

Your eyes squint in suspicion, sensing that he’s purposefully trying to get a rise out of you for some odd reason.  “I’ll have you know that I’m one of the best at conducting an interrogation,” you boast, slowly leaning in so close that you can feel his hot breath blow across your face. “So, don’t think for a minute that this cheap and debonair act will distract me.”

Dante meets your challenging gaze while you hear what sounds like a low and gravelly purr emanating from deep within his chest. The clamor of surrounding customers in the diner seems to fade away as both of you just stare unblinkingly at each other. Neither of you are willing to back down until the waitress hesitantly comes by your table just a few seconds later. You ask for the check while slowly leaning back in your seat without breaking eye contact, feeling his knee buck against your leg in amusement.

As soon as the waitress scurries away, you let out an exasperated sigh while crossing your arms. “Now, as I was saying…in exchange for your help in this case, we promise to wipe your ridiculously long record clean.”

“Record?” he repeats while blinking in surprise. “You guys actually have a file on me?”

“Yep,” you affirm with a nod. “Most mercenaries in your line work have a file in Red Grave, but none of them are as colorful as yours,” you remark with an impressed shrug.

Dante scratches his chin thoughtfully, but then his eyes light up with what is probably a maddening idea. “How about this,” he begins while flipping through your sketchbook, stopping on the page with your most recent drawing before holding it up next to his face. “A clean record plus…you draw me like one of your French girls?” he proposes with a wicked grin while his eyebrows wiggle suggestively.

The last strand of your patience snaps at your sketch of Dante staring back at you. You stab the remainder of your meal forcefully with a fork as you hop out of your seat. “Let’s get one thing straight,” you snarl vehemently while reaching over and snatching your sketchbook away from his grubby hands. “I better not hear anymore pickup lines from that crude mouth of yours if we work together! And while we’re on the subject,” you sneer, not able to hold back the oncoming flood of pure rage surging through your body as you sit back down.

“I will never see you as something more than just my partner during this case because it’s very unprofessional and quite frankly, I find you incredibly annoying! And I can’t believe that out all the hunters I could’ve chosen…I just had to pick the most infuriating man I’ve ever met!”

Some of the babbling conversations nearby noticeably dies down as your explosive rant comes to an end. You pinch your brow and take a couple deep breaths, ignoring the gawking devil sitting across from you as well as the curious stares from some of the customers. Great…I had one shot at this and I fucked it all up, you mentally berate yourself as the angry humming of your mind turns into quiet regret. Nothing new there…I should be used to it by now. You prepare yourself for inevitable rejection and open your eyes…only to be taken aback by the infatuated expression on Dante’s face.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” you ask warily, squirming in your seat a little while he continues to gaze at you with that strange look in his eyes.  

Dante smiles as he leans back in his seat. “You’re really cute when you’re mad.”

You scoff and roll your eyes at him. “I’m not mad.”

“I can hear ya buzzing like an angry honeybee from here,” he snickers with a shake of his head. He watches you for a few moments, silently sizing you up while you put your sketchbook back inside your riding jacket. “Just add free pizza and beer to the clean record and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

Your eyes widen in shock. “Really? Even after I was such a bitch to you?” you murmur, wondering why he still insists on helping you despite showing him your cold façade and terrible temper.

“I got nothing else better to do,” he replies with a small shrug. “Plus, you’re one helluva spitfire…I really like that,” he adds with a lascivious wink before turning the flirty tone down to a minimum. “You have a warm heart behind that icy wall of yours…maybe if I stick around long enough it’ll thaw out.”

“Like I’ll ever let you get that close to begin with,” you grumble under your breath while crossing your arms defensively.

Dante chuckles softly at your stubbornness. “We’ll just have to wait and see now won’t we, Detective?” he teases with a roguish smirk while his husky voice ignites the warm tingling in the pit of your stomach once more. “Do we gotta deal?” he inquires, playfully poking your leg with his knee again while raising an expectant brow.  

You grunt and kick his boot again before giving his suggestion some thought. “I do know the best places for pizza and beer,” you muse aloud, listing off all the pizza parlors and bars in Red Grave City in your head. “Fine… It’s a deal,” you accept his terms with a firm nod of your head while offering your hand for a handshake to solidify the agreement.

Dante clenches his fist victoriously before clasping your hand and giving it an earnest shake. You cannot help but notice just how warm his huge hand feels against your skin. The corners of your lips curl into small smile of relief, finally feeling like you’ve successfully taken the first crucial step in cracking this perplexing case. You pull your hand back as the waitress dashes over to drop off your check before zooming away as quickly as possible.  

“So, when do we get started?” he asks, clapping his hands and rubbing them together in anticipation.

“Right away,” you inform while taking out your wallet, throwing down some cash for your meal plus a little extra for any trouble you may have caused while dining here.

“Ooh sounds like someone’s eager for more,” he notes playfully as you slide out of the booth, pushing his leg aside with an aggravated huff.

You make your way towards the exit while Dante follows suit, slipping by you to hold the door open while you exit the diner. “I need to head back and prepare for your arrival at the station,” you proclaim as he follows close behind you. “Don’t want anyone arresting you on the spot,” you explain while walking towards your motorcycle, which is parked just a little way down the street.

It only takes Dante a couple of long strides to get ahead of you. “Wouldn’t mind getting arrested if it meant getting frisked by you,” he jests while spinning around to face you, never breaking his pace as he gives you a flirtatious wink.

“I thought I told you quite clearly that I’m not interested,” you tersely remind him with a harsh scowl.

“Whaaaaat? I’m just enforcing the law of attraction,” he claims while holding his hands up in mock defense.

You scoff at his cheesy pickup lines as you briskly brush past him, never looking back until you arrive at your bike. “Think you can come by the station tomorrow?” you inquire, checking out your ride for any problems before picking up your helmet and turning around to face your new partner.

Dante bends down into a dramatic bow. “It’s a date,” he boldly declares with a quick flick of his wrist.

A single red rose suddenly appears in his hand and he offers it to you with a captivating smile. You look down at the rose skeptically as you reach for it, wondering if he always keeps fresh roses up his sleeve…or maybe he just stopped by a florist shop on the way here. Either way, it still does not stop this warm fuzzy feeling from rising in your chest as you take the rose from him…but you quickly slip your helmet on in hopes of hiding the fact that this romantic gesture had any effect on you.  

“I’ll uh…see ya then, Dante,” you murmur with a small wave, noting the gratifying sound of his name against your tongue as you hop on your bike.

Dante waves back with triumphant smirk. “Adios, Detective. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

And with those final words of farewell, you switch on the ignition and rev your bike a couple times before bolting down the street. The rumbling roar of the engine drowns out all thought while you drive through the city, completely focused on the road and not on the insufferable man that really grinds your gears. Your mind is buzzing with elation despite agreeing to work with a man that takes joy from annoying the fuck out of you. But then again, he just agreed to work with a woman that has no qualms about giving him a piece of her mind at the top of her lungs…and that’s what you find most puzzling about your new partner.

You slowly step on the brakes as you come to a stop light at an intersection. As you wait for the green light, you happen to look down and notice that the red rose still in your hand. A few of its petals have been torn off, but it’s surprisingly no worse for wear from the harsh winds. You flip up the visor of your helmet and hold the romantic flower up for closer inspection before bringing it to your nose. Its signature fragrance rekindles the warm tingles within the pit of your stomach, licking like some smoldering flame at the cold shell that constantly surrounds you. You melt for minute while Dante’s words from earlier whisper in the back of your mind:  

You have a warm heart behind that icy wall of yours…maybe if I stick around long enough it’ll thaw out.

People have called you a lot of things: a buzzkill, a surly hothead, an ice bitch…but no one’s ever called you warmhearted. Hearing those words makes you feel-

The blaring sound of a car horn knocks you back down to reality. You immediately notice that the light has finally turned green, so you quickly put the pedal to metal and take off like a bat out of hell. Your mind focuses on the road once more, but the sight of the red rose still in your hand enduring the rough wind reminds you that you’re no longer working alone…you have a troublesome devil with a pension for rousing your temper on your side.

And together you’re going to find and stop this new threat lurking beneath Red Grave City.

My Ao3

My Masterlist if you want more 💖

Tagging: @bettybattaglia @drusoona and @exsultry

[cynergy-laughter]

Obey Me! One Master To Rule Them All! Fic #2

Working Dinner ([MC] x Satan) (Tickle fluff fic!) (Slight angst...?)

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You had just gotten back from your classes at RAD, and after being swindled out of some pocket money by Mammon, you decided to head straight home to the House of Lamentation.

You got out of your uniform and into your comfy clothes and proceeded to walk through the house, to look for something to do, or someone to hang out with. Lucifer had stayed behind to discuss stuff with Diavolo, Asmo was currently shopping with Beel with a promise of a free mid-meal at Hell’s Kitchen before dinner tonight. You didn’t know where Mammon was, and he was very lucky that you didn’t. Leviathan’s door was closed and you could hear a bit of commentary from the Avatar of Envy himself. Probably live-streaming.

You walk around to the library and see someone sitting on the sofa with piles of research materials and books stacked on the coffee table. And who was sitting and overlooking this massive stretch of knowledge other than the Avatar of Wrath, Satan. He looked deep into what he was doing, so you decided to not disturb him… not without an offering for this powerful demon.

You went into the kitchen and began to make some tea. You wonder what tea would be perfect for concentration and focus, but you decided to make some tea that complimented the snacks you bought before Mammon took the rest of your money. After you finished brewing it, you put the teapot, cup with saucer, and snacks on a serving tray you found in one of the cupboards and began to slowly make your way back to the library, it was pretty heavy, but you managed. You walked into the library, to which Satan turned his head with your presence.

“Hmm? Oh, [MC]... what’s all that?” Satan asked, blinking at the array you brought in.

“I was passing through, and noticed you were hard at work, so I decided to surprise you with a little snack and tea… umm, I hope you don’t mind.” You say with a blush and an adorable smile.

Satan gave a small appreciative smile and nodded once. “Well, thank you for this, if only my brothers were as thoughtful as you…” he said as you set, or tried to set the tray down, but there wasn’t any immediate place to put it. “Oh just put it down over there.”

You put it down and went over to Satan, and looked down at his materials. “What are you working on, by the by?”

“I’m doing a research paper on the history of the Devildom in relation to the human world. I always found it fascinating that the House of Lamentation used to be a human world landmark, and was trying to spot similarities of other landmarks here.” Satan explained, a glint of excitement in his eye.

“Ah… that’s pretty cool… wait, isn’t that your big research paper that’s due to Diavolo in about 2 months?” You asked, crossing your arms.

“Yes, I like to get my assignments over and done with as soon as possible.” Satan said, sipping his tea, “Mmm, very good choice of tea.”

“Oh thank you… w-wait, when did Diavolo give you that task? One… two… maybe three days ago?” You tilt your head a bit.

“... He assigned it to me today, during our student council meeting.” Satan said as he began to write down references in bibliography format.

“Satan… you better not over work yourself… it’s due in 2 months, you’ve got time.” You pouted.

“I know, but why put off something today that you’ll regret tomorrow?” Satan shrugged as he kept writing.

“I mean… I guess, but just remember to take breaks…” you said.

“I’ll be fine, I appreciate the concern, but you don’t need to worry about me.” Satan reassured. “It’s nothing I haven’t done before.”

“Excuse me?” You questioned, raising a brow.

“I said it’s nothing. I thank you for the snack and tea, but I have to get back to work…” Satan snapped almost immediately, shooing you away. He obviously didn’t think you would catch that.

And that was it, you reluctantly left Satan to his research, feeling a bit bad, maybe you had annoyed him. Maybe he was right, maybe he did have this. Later that night, at dinner, you noticed that everyone except Satan had joined at the dining table.

“Hey… where’s Satan?” You ask Lucifer.

“He said he had important business to attend to, and that he’ll eat later.” Lucifer said before taking a bite of his food.

“Huh? He’s having a working dinner again? I swear his work habits have got to be bad for your skin…” Asmo sighed a bit.

“He does this a lot, I’m surprised he doesn't do a working breakfast. Could you imagine, falling asleep at your workspace only to wake up to your work unfinished, and unfulfilled? Heh, cause I can’t.” Mammon said as he was eating.

“That wouldn’t be fun at all, but at least his body makes him sleep.” Belphegor shrugged.

“And to not eat while keeping up a work streak too… I couldn’t do it.” Beel said, munching away at what would usually be considered leftovers in the human world.

“I’ve fallen asleep playing a game before… I was mad because I had accumulated 10 hours of just idle game time, I was so mad…” Levi groaned, playing with his food a bit.

“Don’t worry [MC], just let him do his work, the sooner he gets that paper to Diavolo, the sooner he can try to get back on his sleep track.” Lucifer reassured you, but you couldn’t be reassured, you’ve seen what overworking does to a person, you’ve experienced it in junior high. You wouldn’t stand for it, you had to do something to knock some sense into Satan.

Later, after dinner was finished by Beel, you were left to do the dishes, it was hell, but you somehow did it. You went over to the library in order to confront Satan.

“Satan… I need to talk to you…” You said as you trailed off, you saw he had a new cup near him on a spare space of the coffee table. “Is that coffee?”

Satan’s head turned suddenly at the question. “No, it’s black tea with cream and sugar.”

“Satan… I made coffee for my dad plenty of times, I know coffee when I smell it. And you know you’re a tea taker more than you are a coffee drinker. Which brings me to my point… You need to eat and you need to rest.”

“I appreciate your concern, but I’m fine. I promise, I’ll eat.” Satan reassured. Suddenly, you just see a stack of books in front of where your serving tray was. You walk around the sofa and behind the stack of books.

“Your tea is ice cold, and… where are your snacks?” You turned to Satan, going from behind the books and put your hands on your hips. “Did you give them to Beel?”

Satan was caught, he didn’t know why you would be so concerned about him, none of his brothers were, but this situation was certainly very different, it felt like being scolded by a parent. “I’ll neither confirm nor deny that question, please go on to bed.”

“Oh no you don’t, not until I see you eat, and actually eat.” You said, walking over to him, but it happened so fast, Satan stood up and grabbed you by your arm and leg and put you to the floor.

“Or you’ll what, human? I keep saying I appreciate your concern, but now I’m losing my patience with you. If I don’t eat something, then you’ll what?” Satan said with a scowl on his face.

You were a bit scared at how quickly Satan set you down, but you had a secret weapon, and he should have known better than to pin only one of your arms down.

“Well… then you leave me no choice… I have to punish you.” You say, and you suddenly get a devilish glint in your eye. Satan was confused a bit, but when it started happening, Satan had already realized his mistake too late. You reached your free arm up and squeezed Satan’s side, making him squeak uncharacteristically and fall away from your assault.

“N-NoHO! Okay, you made your point, I’ll go eat something…” Satan said, trying to get up and go to the kitchen, as if that would somehow appease you. But he fell back onto the floor with another yelp when you grabbed at his ankle and pulled.

“Ohohoh no no no, we’re way past that point, and since you wanna go and make some threats, how about I follow through with my own threat~?” You say, whenever you got into the tickling mood, nothing could stop you. You pulled Satan closer to you by his ankle and began to tickle his knees, behind and fronts~.

“No! No! NOHOHOHO! Cehease! CEEEEHEHEHEASE!” Satan tried to incur his wrath, but he couldn’t, his laughter and fighting to get away from his assailant overcoming him. But in honesty, he saw where you were coming from. And he couldn’t get mad at you for your wanting to make sure he was okay.

“Nuh-uh. Not until you apologize to me for threatening me~.” You winked as you began to straddle Satan’s waist, squeezing his thighs playfully before the squeezing migrated to his hips and sides.

“NOOHOHOHOHO! Get-GEHET OFF OF MEEEHEHEHE!” Satan squeals as his hips and sides are squeezed and then his arms shot down when you got to his armpits!

“Oh no, my hands are stuck, whatever shall I do~?” You tease in a monotonous voice as your hands are trapped in Satan’s pits, but that didn’t stop you from wiggling your hands within them.

Satan really didn’t want to be here forever, cause his pits were a maddening spot, he didn’t want to raise his arms, but he didn’t want to let you go in fear of you getting at a worse spot. “PLEHEHEASE DOHOHOHON’T! AHAHAHAHA! STOHOHOP!” He suddenly shot his arms back up as he held onto the carpet, so your hands could move.

“Hehe, ‘don’t stop~?’ Well then, I guess I won’t anytime soon~.” You tease as you lift Satan’s shirt up and expose his abs and stomach. “Hehe, I absolutely love it, you could crush someone’s head with your thighs while reading an encyclopedia, just because you can.” You say as you lower your head down and blew a raspberry into his abs and navel, earning you an octave you’ve never heard from Satan.

“GAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA! STA-STAHAHAP! Okay! OKAY YOU MADE YOUR POIHIHIHINT! I’M SORRYYYY! *snort* PLEHEASE I’VE HAD ENOHOHOUGH!” Satan flailed and blushed a bit when he snorted. But he finally apologized!

You smile as you stopped tickling and straddled his waist, just looking down at Satan with pleading eyes. “Please… take a break… you have been working so hard, you deserve it. I mean, you’ve made a whole two page bibliography of references, that’s a good start.” You say after Satan calmed down from his giggling and panting.

“... Heh… are you sure you’re a human, [MC]? Cause… you’re as devious as a demon… that was a dirty trick…” Satan panted a bit, blushing as he looked up at you.

“No, I’m a human, as far as I can tell.” You said, and then gave Satan a kiss. Now you both were blushing.

“Heheh… you really are something else… Fine, I’ll take my break… but I’m taking it with you.” Satan said as he sat up so you both were face to face.

“Hehe, deal.” You say as you helped Satan up and went with him to make dinner for him, and a second dinner for yourself.

It must have been a good break because Beel woke up early to see if there was any inspiration for breakfast, he passed the library and noticed you and Satan asleep together on the sofa. Beel smiled and moved quickly to get a blanket for you both, draping it over you both before snagging up the plates and began to lick them clean as he continued on toward the kitchen.

[kokuryuu-writes]

Do you have any zentan headcanons?? I’d love to hear them!

Aww, you bet I do! 

I’m sorry for taking such a long time. But oh dear, are you ready for this anon?

Sleep:

Zenitsu doesn’t say it out loud but he loves Tanjirou’s gentle sound. It makes him feel safe, tells him everything will be okay, and he instinctively reaches for Tanjirou whenever he’s distressed.  

(When they’re sleeping, he naturally gravitates to Tanjirou and ended up laying in Tanjirou’s futon with his head resting on the latter’s chest, each thump of the heartbeat soothes every bit of tension he has even when asleep.)

The first time it happens Tanjirou is surprised but he doesn’t mind it much since his late brothers used to sleep in his futon.

Tanjirou must admit he rather likes it honestly, Zenitsu’s hair smells so pleasant. The sweetness of the scent reminds Tanjirou of peaches he used to get as a payment for the charcoal he sold to a kind old lady in some occasion. Needless to say, he can’t help but bury his nose in his golden locks as he breathes in and closes his eyes.

(Zenitsu never really notices he sleeps in Tanjirou’s futon since Tanjirou is an early riser and always wakes up first before him, though he is bewildered. Why did my futon move to the middle?! I-is there a g-GHOST?! DON’T TELL ME IT’S THAT MONSTER HAG—)

Tanjirou is so accustomed to Zenitsu sleeping in his arms futon that he doesn’t sleep well when Zenitsu is away.

For the first time in his life, Tanjirou wakes up grumpy that day, his grumpiness even lasts for a whole day, despite he himself not knowing why. People can sense something is a little… off with him, when asked, he only sighs and shrugs with a smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.

Paying close attention to each other/Food (?) :

Zenitsu listens to Tanjirou attentively, even when he doesn’t look like it.

Sometimes, Tanjirou talks about his siblings and his parents as he braids Nezuko’s hair and thinks nothing much about it, but Zenitsu is genuinely interested in hearing more about them, even offering his comments such as, Hanako and Shigeru sound so adorable, Oh! Rokuta liked unagi? Me too! etc.

It’s gotten until the point that Zenitsu goes, I bet Takeo scolded them or And? Shigeru and Hanako followed you, right? Zenitsu then proceeds to guess things about them correctly; Tanjirou feels as if Zenitsu has known his siblings as much as he does.

One time Tanjirou mentions that tara no me is his favorite food. Some day when Inosuke tries to steal his tara no me tempura, Zenitsu vehemently does his best to stop him. (“That’s his favorite food, you inconsiderate pig!” Zenitsu says as he slaps Inosuke’s hand away. “Here have mine instead.”)

Tanjirou is genuinely touched. He knows he only said it off-handedly and didn’t expect anyone to remember it. From then on, Tanjirou promises himself to pay more attention to what Zenitsu says and do.

(He notices Zenitsu’s eyes lit up whenever he’s munching on dango, wagashi, daifuku, or any sweets, really—Tanjirou often insists on dropping by a confectionery shop after their missions together.) It’s a date.

((He also notices Zenitsu’s faraway gaze when seeing parents holding their child’s hand—Tanjirou stays a little closer and treats him more gently on those times.))

Jealousy:

Zenitsu talks to Nezuko often, it’s pretty much old news really, and Tanjirou is glad that Nezuko has a friend to talk to other than himself, who is her own brother. Though he wonders why his chest feels tight as they smile, Nezuko clutching the flowers that Zenitsu picked and nodding enthusiastically when Zenitsu tells her something with a tender gaze and soft expression Tanjirou rarely sees.

(In actuality, Zenitsu is talking about Tanjirou and how lucky Nezuko is for having such a kind brother. “He’s too kind, always cheering for me,” he smiles, a hand clasps to his chest as his eyes fall shut. “Me, you know? And he‘s often patient with me, and gentle. Although sometimes he’ll snap too, he never gives up on me.”)

Because of his kindness and willingness to help others, Tanjirou is popular among the demon hunters. There’s nobody who doesn’t know him. People greet and often seek him out, trying to squeeze their time to talk to him. At those times, Zenitsu’s mouth and body go auto-pilot and asks, “Who are they, Tanjirou?” while clinging to him and/or sticks close to him.

He’s just looking out for his friend, he’s curious about Tanjirou’s other friends too, okay?! He’s not jealous. Maybe envies Tanjirou a little. But jealous? Absolutely not. He is 100% jealous.

Nightmares:

They both have their fair share of nightmares.

When he’s young, Tanjirou didn’t get many of them but it becomes so frequent ever since his family died and one of his sisters remains because she’s turned into a demon. Rather than dream it’s a memory, a painful one. A memory about that night in which the scent of blood was strangling him, in which he dug graves for his family with his own hands and buried them in their front yard.

He often jolts awake from the nightmares, breathing heavily and tears staining his face and pillow. Quivering as he’s aware of the cold sweat all over him and soaking his yukata regardless of the warmth of the futon, and Zenitsu whose hands grasps him so tightly in his embrace. Being an anchor that grounds him.

Zenitsu is always awake whenever it happens. In a soft voice that makes Tanjirou’s swallow back his cry, he asks Tanjirou if he would like to talk about it and assure him it’s okay if he doesn’t.

Sometimes, through trembling voice, he tells Zenitsu every little detail about how gruesome and painful it is to watch the lives of his whole family draining before his very eyes. Other times Tanjirou can’t even manage to nod or shake his head, let alone answer him. At those time, Tanjirou holds Zenitsu tight and pushes himself to focus on the song Zenitsu is humming while his hand draws a comforting pattern on Tanjirou’s sweat-soaked yukata.

Zenitsu, despite being typically so loud, wakes up from a nightmare quietly. There’s a benefit to his keen sense of hearing and his general wakefulness when asleep, he supposed. During the time he lived with Shihan, he’s trained himself to suppress his cry at night, not wishing to bother the old man who has kindly paid his debt and took him in. It isn’t a big deal compared to what Tanjirou has; mostly vague voices of people who had left him and call him things he already tells himself when he wails and cowers. Something he hears often when he’s alone.

At times, all he needs is to stay close to Tanjirou’s heartbeat, let the steady thumps of his heart drown out the voices and lull him back to sleep.

Other times, when even Tanjirou’s sound can’t quell the voices, he slips out of Tanjirou’s arms and the futon to sit on the veranda, letting the buzz of the crickets fills his ears.

But in those other times, Tanjirou always manages to find his way to him. Draping his checkered haori over their shoulders, he sits next to Zenitsu and grasps his hand in his calloused one. Each time he asks if he wants to tell him about his nightmares Zenitsu would always answer with, “It’s nothing, Tanjirou,” he smiles sheepishly. “Sorry for waking you up, you don’t need to worry about me.”

Honestly, it stings that he can’t help what keeps plaguing Zenitsu. And that Zenitsu shuts him out. But Tanjirou can only offer comfort and trusts that he’ll come to him on his own pace. 

When Zenitsu finally does, he can feel the anger crackling like embers in his chest, to those who abandoned him, to those who badmouth Zenitsu, to the demons swarming in Zenitsu’s head. Something that Tanjirou cannot cut down with his nichirin blade.

Though, Tanjirou resorts to whispering him assurance and gives him the affection he deserves, pressing kisses to his forehead, down his temple, his nose, cheeks, and the corner of his mouth.

Other fluffy things that reduce me into a weeping mess:

Tanjirou’s flirting method is actually sincere compliments that make him sound very smooth. He says you look beautiful to Zenitsu as easy as he breathes, he says Zenitsu is kind and strong on many, many occasions and does it as effortless as he smiles.

Zenitsu is very, very weak. He says this often. But one that he considers as his number one weakness is when Tanjirou threads his hair with his hand, his rough fingertips brushing against his ear and thumb on his earlobe. Zenitsu cannot even manage a shriek for his voice is stuck in his head as Tanjirou gazes at him with so much warmth that makes him feel like his face is going to implode from how red it is.

He almost passes out each time this happens. (Curse, Tanjirou! Curse him for being a smooth bastard despite his naivety!)

Cold seasons like autumn and winter are the seasons Zenitsu liked the least, he sniffles while whining to Tanjirou, shivering as he hugs his own body. Sighing, Tanjirou unravels the blue scarf around his neck and wraps it around Zenitsu’s.

It’s… it’s just a scarf—his scarf, but blue looks so pretty on Zenitsu. As he thanks Tanjirou with his little grin, the breeze rustles the yellow ginko tree overhead and Zenitsu’s hair, and Tanjirou is left breathless.

Tanjirou can’t really lie, rather he’s really terrible at it. When he thinks Zenitsu is being gross or he’s being obnoxious, he tells him so with the intention that Zenitsu should stop whatever he is doing, and the clarity and steadiness of his heartbeat express the trueness of his words. But what confuses Zenitsu to no end is how he said it with a fond look??? Which nullifies the effect? And confuses Zenitsu to no end??

[onthevirgeofdestruction]

Dreaming While I Wake

Sanders Sides Foster Care AU - Roman-centric Angst & Hurt/Comfort & Abuse Recovery

Roman tries to be upbeat and hopeful despite all the shit that’s happened to him. And a lot of shit has. Luckily, his new foster home is with two literal rays of sunshine (and a sarcastic asshole).

Words: 3,445 Warnings: Anger issues, Talk of JDC, Over-Apologizing, Food, Talk of Cryptids, Death Mention, Blood Mention Characters: Roman, Patton, Virgil, Thomas Universe: Dreaming While I Wake Genre: Family Fluff, actually

Chapter 22

chapter 1 for new readers - ffn mirror

   Roman mostly fumed for the drive home, and Patton let him do so without a fuss. He also let him take a nap. Roman was certain he ended up falling asleep at some point. He was awake when they got home, but the music changed to classical and he didn’t remember that happening. It also happened much faster than it should have in theory, not that Roman had any understanding of time. He was thankful for the space to process. He was mad about having to leave Remus again, but the ride home helped him get through that so he wasn’t as bitter anymore. Stupid anger issues. Stupid being resentful about being angry. Emotions were dumb.

   He accepted Patton's assistance to the couch, and with as much as his feet hurt, he didn’t bother complaining. Patton looked a little shell-shocked himself as he sat down near the corner of the couch, honestly. Roman wasn’t entirely sure what about, but the whole experience was both shitty and amazing, so he couldn’t blame him. Roman was somewhere between happy, sad, angry, and just straight vibing.

   Patton examined Roman for a moment as he settled down on the couch. “So, kiddo… I can’t say I followed all of that. Because somehow you two broke some kind of weird time barrier along with using fake words, jumping subjects like hopscotch and cursing as if you were sailors. But I think there are lots to unpack there,” Patton intoned, being careful with his enunciation.

   “Let’s throw out the whole garbage bag,” Roman shrugged, kicking out of his shoes to put his aching feet up on the couch. He didn’t feel like discussing it. He only just calmed down and wasn’t sure he could work down from being pissed off again.

   “I’d ground you for that language, but you are sort of already stuck at home and that feels uncharitable to take away video games or something,” Patton said off-handedly, looking a bit defeated as he leaned forward on his thighs.

   “See, too nice for your own good,” Roman chuckled, motioning with his arms towards Patton. Patton just blinked at him for an awkward moment.

   “I have literally never seen you so alive and animated. Ever. Even when you were sprinting with Lita,” Patton said, looking somewhat baffled. He scrunched up his lip to the side and kept staring unnervingly at Roman. “Also, I had no idea anybody could talk that fast,” Patton added, sounding a little impressed.

   “Remus and were always ‘if you stop moving you die’-type individuals,” Roman replied, fiddling with his jacket sleeves. He didn’t understand why he was being watched so closely. Did he do something? Was he supposed to do something? Roman chewed on the inside of his lip apprehensively.

   “I’ve just never seen you be that… high-energy. I mean, I knew you were energetic, but that was a whole other level. It was kind of overwhelming,” Patton stated, leaning back into the couch with a sigh.

   “Sorry,” Roman muttered, looking down at his lap.

   “No, no! I think I get why you were having so much trouble with following your homework yesterday if it’s always like that in your head. And why you act restless so often,” Patton held up his hands and shook his head. “You don’t have to say sorry,” He added gently.

   “I don’t follow what you’re saying, either,” Roman looked at Patton in confusion. “Am I in trouble for cussing?” He asked, furrowing his eyebrows in concern and still chewing his inner lip nervously.

   “Yes, but I don’t think it’d be right to punish you over it. Just try not to do it next time,” Patton said considerately with a small shrug.

   “I was 100% not thinking before speaking at JDC. I barely have that capacity in the first place,” Roman rolled his eyes and leaned back against the couch arm. He didn’t want to make promises he couldn’t keep.

   “Well, that explains how you can talk so fast,” Patton chuckled and shook his head. “Seriously, you boys cussed more this afternoon then I’ve heard all year,” Patton said weakly, sounding kind of disappointed in Roman. The tone almost hurt, and Roman winced a little and played with his jacket zipper.

   “Sorry, I don’t have much of a filter,” Roman apologized dourly, tugging his zipper up and down.

   “It’s something we can work on, I guess. That kind of language doesn’t fly in the real world,” Patton said firmly, holding up his finger.

   “We were at Juvie. If there’s anywhere to cuss like prison inmates, it’s with the prison inmates,” Roman said and signed ‘inside prison,’ while he rolled his eyes.

   “That doesn’t mean you should do it,” Patton frowned at Roman. “Oh, hi Virgil,” Patton smiled towards the staircase. Roman signed hello as well.

   ‘Chips,’ Virgil signed, passing by. Roman blinked twice at Virgil actually explaining what he was up to, which didn’t happen that much. It was strange to see Virgil do non-cryptid of insults-like things. Unless maybe he was just powered by salt. What does a sodium-powered insult cryptid look like? Probably some kind of gangly demon. Virgil needs red eyes or something. He has bright hazel, but he deserves to be more of a cryptid in real life.

   “That whole event has me very confused. But first thing’s first, why didn’t you mention you had an identical twin?” Patton asked and shook Roman from imagining the various ways Virgil could look if he was skulking through the woods as a supernatural entity. Roman blinked and sat up straighter, his eyes shooting to Patton.

   “I didn’t realize the state hadn’t told you! You said you knew I had a brother. I didn’t realize you didn’t know we were born 17 minutes apart,” Roman threw up his arms. “I figured you’d find out soon and really wanted to see the face you made,” Roman explained sheepishly. Patton sounded upset at him about it, and it put Roman on edge a bit.

   “That’s kind of dishonest, Roman,” Patton chided, frowning at Roman. Roman scratched at his finger for a moment, feeling bad.

   “Letting the situation speak for itself isn’t dishonest. It’s shady at worst,” Roman shrugged slightly, trying to excuse himself. He didn’t understand why it would be a big deal. Virgil walked back into the living room munching on a bag of chips, looking interested. He placed the bag on the top of the couch.

   ‘Damn. Photo?’ Virgil signed while he stood behind the couch.

   ‘No phones allowed,’ Roman signed back the reason he couldn’t get one. He wanted a photo, too.

   ‘Shit,’ Virgil signed and snapped, looking disappointed. He came around to sit on the opposite couch arm while eating salt and vinegar chips by the handful.

   “There’re lots of things that I think I heard that just make me more thankful you’re already going to be talking to someone. I have to admit I feel awful that Remus has no support system in there knowing what I do now,” Patton said a little shakily. Roman stared at him incredulously for a moment. He was not entirely sure what Patton was going on about still until his brain caught up.

   “Oh! Well, he’s probably got friends if he’s teaching them our made-up twin language,” Roman replied with a slight shrug. “I don’t think anybody who doesn’t like him would put up with it. It’s a hard one,” Roman signed ‘impossible’. It was nearly a bitch to learn because of all the contextual words, so anyone putting up with that probably liked him. Patton hummed, not sounding that satisfied.

   “Do you know why he wants boxers?” Patton asked carefully after another pause of Roman fiddling with his zipper and the crunch of chips from Virgil.

   “Yeah, I heard about that,” Roman drawled in distaste. “They have communal underwear. The state doesn’t buy them any separate clothes,” Roman explained. Patton shivered in disgust. It wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but he had a visceral reaction to the idea no matter how he looked at it. He has known some revolting dudes in his life and would rather go commando than share cleaned underwear with them.

   ‘Fucking gross,’ Virgil signed and shook his head. Virgil must have agreed with the sentiment because he also stuck out his tongue and grimaced.

   “And, um,” Patton shot a glance to Virgil. “I think he said you were bi?” Patton asked quietly.

   “I mean, we can’t all get assigned gay by J. K. Rowling. Some of us have to settle on our twins maybe being the less repressed ones. I said I’d consider it, don’t go throwing me a pride parade,” Roman said dismissively. He didn’t wish to speculate about it, he didn’t want to deal with it, he wouldn’t prefer to hear a single slur from his dad’s mouth in his head again, so he’d just rather… not. Maybe later. Maybe. Is hermit a choice? Hermit sounds nice.

   ‘I got assigned gay by Nintendo , loser,’ Virgil fingerspelled with a teasing expression.

   ‘Lucky,’ Roman signed back, shooting Virgil a sarcastic grin after he scrunched up his lips. Well, there’s his confirmation. Virgil just ate his chips smugly.

   “I’m still very confused,” Patton creased his eyebrows and looked at Roman.

   “I’m saying I don’t know,” Roman motioned widely with his open palms as if motioning to all the shit he didn’t comprehend.

   “Okay, that I understand. I support you no matter what,” Patton said with a small reassuring smile. He appreciated the acceptance and all but considering Patton married a man, it was kind of a given.

   ‘Barf,’ Virgil signed with a grimace and his tongue out again. Roman couldn’t help but chortle at Virgil’s ridiculousness.

   “What if I come out as an asshole? Would you support me then?” Roman asked an absurd hypothetical just to make Virgil laugh.

   “What? No!” Patton objected and put his face in his hands, shaking his head slowly. Roman chuckled at Patton’s over-the-top reaction.

   ‘Owned,’ Virgil signed and snickered silently before shoving another handful of chips in his mouth.

   “I think I need to go process this with Thomas. Would you mind slipping your gloves back on?” Patton asked, sounding weary. Roman sighed dramatically and pulled them out of his pocket, making a big show about putting them on. “Thanks, kiddo,” Patton got up from the couch and went to Thomas’s office and closed the door.

   ‘How was the slammer?’ Virgil signed curiously.

   ‘Bullshit. There go our diabolical plans,’ Roman fingerspelled with a small eye roll.

   ‘Curses. Plan B, then. Attract vampires. Gay ones,’ Virgil signed back with a smirk and bounced his eyebrow once.

   ‘Perfect. Plan C is metal limbs. Now is Minecraft time,’ Roman signed, getting up to grab the laptop.

   ‘I’ll join you. BRB,’ Virgil signed and got up from the couch and headed upstairs. Roman sat back down and laid across the couch with the family laptop, elevating one foot against the arm of the couch. Virgil came back down with his laptop and sat on the top of the couch with his laptop in his lap. Like, join him in the living room or playing Minecraft? Did Virgil play Minecraft? Did he want to spend time with Roman of his own free will?

   ‘Make a world to join,’ Virgil signed. Roman shrugged and created a new world with a random seed and opened it to LAN. So Virgil played Minecraft. He didn’t strike Virgil as the sandbox type. And he wanted to play with Roman. That was unexpected. It wasn’t like he hadn’t played with foster siblings before, but he just hadn’t expected Virgil to want to do anything with him that didn’t involve watching TV and insults.

   Virgil’s demon avatar popped up a few moments later and immediately started punching trees. Roman joined him in the massacre of the local flora right away. He had set up a small house for them to wait out the night by the time the sun finished setting. However, Virgil was perhaps too feral and ran into the night with a wooden sword. Roman built the house close to the spawn point, so there wasn’t much harm in crafting up some wooden swords and joining him. Virgil played much differently from Roman. He just ran off and murdered until he ran out of supplies and then came back to the base Roman was building up with materials. He messaged for help sometimes, but just seemed content running headway into hoards of spiders in caves. He was clearly terrified of creepers, but who wasn’t? Everything else he wanted to murder without exception. Keeping up with Virgil’s need for torches was an event in itself.

   It was nice playing with someone that wasn’t a little kid, though. Roman got to focus more on the building when he preferred to and had someone to back him up in the caves when he would rather explore. They also insulted each other incessantly. Roman had been called a ‘ball-brained hamster’, a ‘sock full of hot go-gurt ’, and ‘hysterical trilling inanity’ in the last few minutes alone. He called Virgil a dark void where dreams go to die when Roman suggested a new addition to the base Virgil didn’t like. Virgil created a sign for the chest Roman kept filling with mining and murdering materials with that very name he liked it so much.

   “Boys, it’s past noon. I made lunch for everyone since you were playing games together. Get to a stopping point and come eat,” Patton called from the kitchen while Roman was harvesting a vein of gold. His inventory was nearly full, so he may as well turn around and head back to base. Roman retraced the trail of torches back, where he joined Virgil in setting stuff to smelt while they were eating. Virgil got up and Roman followed him into the kitchen.

   “The food smells good, Patton. Thanks for cooking for us when you didn’t have to,” Roman said, sitting down at the table and joyfully serving himself some broccoli-chicken mac-and-cheese at the plates already set. It smelled marvelous, and Patton hadn’t seasoned it oddly like that food last night.

   “I didn’t want to bother you. Plus, it’s an excuse for a bonus eat-together time!” Patton smiled, though he still looked exhausted. Virgil grabbed the salt and vinegar chips he was eating earlier and crumpled them up on the top of his serving of mac-and-cheese. He held the bag over for Roman and raised an eyebrow. Roman shrugged and took a small handful of chips to do the same. The crunch and bite were pretty good on the creamy mac-and-cheese when he tentatively tried it.

   “Oh, that’s awesome,” Roman nodded and Virgil smirked, putting the bag down on the dinner table between the two of them. It wasn’t like Virgil to share his salty potato products, so the gesture weirdly flattered Roman. His standards for flattery had gotten low, it seemed. Thomas came into the kitchen and smiled at Roman.

   “Comfort food, Pat?” Thomas asked, arching an eyebrow at the food on the table.

   “ Roman is fine, but I’m not,” Patton said somberly as he served himself some mac-and-cheese.

   “Hm?” Roman looked up with his mouth full of mac-and-cheese when he heard his name and swallowed. “I’m sorry?” Roman apologized, but he did not understand what was happening.

   “No, Roman, you didn’t do anything wrong. You don’t have to apologize,” Patton held up his hands and shook his head.

   “I heard my name and the fact that you’re not okay, so I think I kinda do ?” Roman said carefully, furrowing his brow nervously.

   “Do you remember what you talked to Remus about?” Thomas asked mildly, sitting down at the table in the remaining spot.

   “Uh-” Roman thought for a moment, trying to remember. “Um. Frozen, gayness, juvie, killing each other through a mirror universe… my family, I think,” Roman listed off. “Probably some other stuff, we were there for an hour,” Roman shrugged and took another bite of mac-and-cheese. It was a weird question to ask, but it’s not like he and Remus were talking about bad things, so he had no reason to hide it.

   ‘Can twins kill each other through a mirror universe? Metal,’ Virgil signed, looking darkly excited at the concept.

   ‘Only if they’re perfectly identical,’ Roman put down his fork and signed back while he chewed.

   “Agreed, he’s probably fine. Comfort food is excellent, though. Thanks for cooking, love,” Thomas rubbed Patton’s shoulder appreciatively.

   “It helps me process things, but there’s never a bad time for mac-and-cheese,” Patton said sagely, nodding and rubbing his chin wisdom.

   “Maybe not so much if you’re lactose intolerant. Unless it was your last meal, then it’s the perfect time for mac-and-cheese,” Roman provided with a small shrug. Virgil looked considerate and also nodded after a moment, chewing his food.

   ‘Poisoned mac-and-cheese would be a good method to die,’ Virgil signed. Roman raised his eyebrows and considered it, then tilted his head and nodded enthusiastically.

   ‘Only with bacon and serranos,’ Roman added. Virgil nodded in agreement, looking satisfied.

   “I really hope that’s table appropriate talk,” Patton narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

   “We’re just talking about variants of mac-and-cheese,” Roman provided dismissively. It wasn’t wrong, but he assumed Patton didn’t want to know that one of those variants was poison.

   “Pre-digested, right?” Patton asked carefully, pointing with his fork.

   “Gross!” Roman shot and Virgil stuck his tongue out. They both grimaced at Patton. “We’re not animals, geez,” Roman muttered bitterly and shook his head.

   “We discussed lactose intolerance. I had to be sure,” Patton said seriously as he looked between the two of them.

   “Well, you brought that part of the issues up, not us,” Roman rolled his eyes and slumped back in his chair dramatically.

   “Are your feet okay after having to be on them today?” Thomas asked, clearly in an attempt to change the subject. Roman could respect that since he’d rather be able to eat his food without feeling disgusted.

   “They’re not bleeding, I don’t think? They just hurt,” Roman replied, sounding just as unsure as he felt. He didn’t exactly check them when he got back. Bending down to do that hurt like a bitch and they didn’t feel weirdly hot or anything like that.

   “I’m not sure about you walking to school still on Monday,” Thomas deliberated, sounding concerned again. Thomas and safety, geez.

   “A proposed compromise: I call you if they start bleeding again,” Roman offered. Thomas seemed to like compromises, and it was reasonable in Roman’s opinion.

   “How about we check if your feet are okay in the morning and then make that the agreement if they’re healed enough?” Thomas suggested back an alteration to the compromise, and Roman narrowed his eyes and chewed his cheek for a moment.

   “You know I’ll be too out of it to argue with you in the morning,” Roman objected, stabbing at his mac-and-cheese.

   “I’m counting on it,” Thomas smiled knowingly and Virgil silently snickered at Roman.

   “ Hey ,” Roman glowered mildly at Thomas, pulling his lip to the side.

   “If they keep opening up and bleeding, it’ll just take longer to get back to your regular life, Roman. They need to heal fully,” Thomas reminded him, tapping the table with his finger to punctuate his point.

   “It’s just that one on my right foot that doesn’t like staying closed. What if I hop there?” Roman asked facetiously, rolling his eyes dramatically.

   “I’d love to see you try while not hurting your broken rib,” Thomas said glibly.

   “Okay, you know what?” Roman replied faux-angrily. “That’s fair,” Roman finished blithely and snickered. He reached in the chip bag and crumpled up one more chip on the remaining mac-and-cheese.

   “You had me going there, kiddo, not gonna lie,” Patton chuckled nervously after a second.

   “Sorry,” Roman apologized. “I was just having some fun,” Roman said sheepishly, curling in his shoulders.

   “I thought it was funny,” Thomas laughed lightly. Roman relaxed a little and continued eating, glad he wasn’t upset. Patton settled down too, though he was still eating much slower than his usual vacuum pace.

   ‘Want to continue playing after food?’ Roman put down his fork and signed at Virgil. Virgil scooped some more mac-and-cheese out before signing.

   ‘Father, I crave violence,’ Virgil signed back with an evil smile, and Roman laughed, not anticipating that response in any sense, and got a smaller portion of seconds for himself.

Personal Taglist: @bunny222 @elizabutgayer​ @prinxietyforever @kanene-yaaay-o-retorno @the-sympathetic-villain @croftersjam15 @ollyollyoxinfree @xytiiko

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Hurt/Comfort:  @callboxkat @nonasficcollection @supernovainthenightsky @evoodo123

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[iwillgiveyoumyhappiness]

임창균, Im Changkyun

anonymous asked:

Hi Mars! Could I request an imagine (is angst & fluff possible?) with Changkyun (MONSTA X) where his girlfriend and him get into a heated fight and he backs her up into the wall, staring deeply into her eyes, making butterflies erupt in her stomach? If not, that's okay. Thanks, much love. (Congrats on 200 followers!) ❤

Group: Monsta X (몬스타엑스)

Member: I.M.

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Dick jokes, lazy make-outs on the couch, making fun of and defending one another in equal measure, linking pinkies while on your around-dusk walks and falling asleep on each other’s shoulders, no matter the place.

That’s what yours and Changkyun’s relationship was made of. 

At least... It had been. All until that stupid game of Truth or Dare. 

“Okay, okay, okay!” Jooheon had said, clapping his hands to gain everyone’s attention. He looked straight at you, his eyes boring into yours, a playful shimmer to them. “Truth or dare?” he asked, mischief swimming in his eyes. 

You rolled your eyes, chuckling. “Truth,” you said. “I’m not letting you get me killed tonight; I have work tomorrow.” 

“Little did you know—truth was my plan the whole time!” he laughed. “I’m gonna get all that juicy stuff.” He pointed to Changkyun. “Get ready to be shocked by your girlfriend’s dirty little secrets,” he warned. 

Changkyun snorted. “As if,” he said, throwing an arm around your shoulders and pulling you closer with an easy smile. “Unlike some people, we’ve got no secrets.” 

You nodded in agreement. “I know his phone password,” you said, shrugging. 

“I know hers,” he said. “Laptop, too.” You gave him a look. You hadn’t told him that. He caught your gaze and furrowed brows. “Looked over your shoulder while you were typing it in,” he explained simply.

You rolled your eyes, elbowing him playfully in the side. “That’s so... You,” you said. “Why am I not even surprised?”

“‘Cause he’s a demon,” Hyungwon chimed in, sprawled out on the couch while scrolling through his phone. 

You laughed. “That’s an insult to all demonds, dude.”

Changkyun pouted. “Rude,” he huffed. You gave his shoulder a small kiss, successfully appeasing him. Changkyun could get really whiny and childish sometimes, but he was easy to get back into a good mood. A light peck, an unfunny joke—then he was right back to his old self.

Jooheon groaned. “Can I ask now, or what?” You gave him a nod. He rubbed his hands together, rather reminiscent of a cheesy villain from the 80s about to reveal his master-plan. “Okay!” He cracked his knuckles, bringing up the drama of it all. “Virgin or not?” he asked confidently. 

Changkyun let out an amused puff of air. “Well, that’s easy,” he said. “Of course she’s not—”

“I am,” you said simply. You felt the room go quiet, Changkyun’s form stiffening beside you. Your brows furrowed. You’d never seen why it was such a big deal to be a virgin. In your opinion, it was a sign of self-control. You gave him a look. “What’s up?” 

His mouth opened and closed for a moment, no sounds passing his lips. Finally, he cleared his throat. “Nothing,” he said. “Really, it’s nothing!” he assured you, rubbing your arm warmly. “I just didn’t expect it, I guess.” He chuckled. “You’re just a real natural at... intimate stuff.” 

You should’ve noticed in that moment. The hesitation in his tone, the slight shift in his eyes. The way his hands avoided touching the bare skin of your hip when your shirt rode up a little. 

It had only gotten worse from there. Suddenly, it was all cute nicknames, soft touches and tip-of-the-nose kisses. Sure, that was lovely and all, but it wasn’t Changkyun. And it certainly wasn’t you. 

It seemed like you had been demoted from girlfriend to beloved niece whom he every once in a while gave a kiss on the lips to. Creepy analogy, but it was the only thing you could think of to describe your frustration.

From that point on, any dirty jokes shared between the guys involved your ears getting plugged. Any racy scene in a movie, your eyes were covered.

Your normal lazy make-outs were slimmed down to almost none, any clothes that showed what he deemed ‘a little too much skin’ was sent back to the closet, and he never stayed over at your place past midnight because, God forbid he be in girl’s house past her bedtime. 

It pissed you off to no end. 

You weren’t a child just because of something as silly as that. You didn’t need to be shielded from the world and taught the difference between right and wrong. You were your own person, and you would live how you wanted to.

With whom you wanted to.

You didn’t enter into this relationship to be controlled. You dated him because you could trust each other, tell each other anything and everything, and because you made each other feel alive.

At least, that’s the way it was for you. It was hard to tell how he felt anymore. Despite all of his sweetness, compared to how you were before, it felt like distance. 

A distance of miles and miles, despite how dramatic that sounded. 

There you were, sitting on your couch with Changkyun by your side, you legs tangled together and him petting your hair gently. He’d tucked your head into his neck, kissing the crown of your head softly every few minutes. 

He kept whispering tender things that you couldn’t quite understand. It was like he was protecting you from the world. 

Except you didn’t want to be protected. Not like this. 

There were things that you craved to do, and you’d shared all those things with your boyfriend. You thought, at the very least, he would remember that.

This wasn’t the way that Changkyun usually protected you. The way you kept each other safe was by facing the world with reckless abandon, holding each other’s hands tightly the whole time, as if saying: “Screw regret. We’re gonna try it all, even if it’s scary. We’ll do it together”. 

That’s just the way you both were. The opposite of glass. Fighting against the things that you shouldn’t do with full trust in each other.

Changkyun glanced at the clock hanging on the wall, ticking away the minutes. “I should probably get going,” he muttered. 

You furrowed your brows, looking over your shoulder. “It’s not even ten,” you said. “Why do you have to go?” 

He shrugged, already standing up after giving your temple a peck. “’Cause sleep is important,” he said, grabbing his hoodie from off the back of the couch. He mussed up your hair. “We both need it.”

He reached out to smooth your hair back down, but you smacked his hand away before he could. “Save it,” you sighed, crossing your arms and rolling your eyes. 

He frowned. “Okay,” he said slowly, deep voice resonating in his chest. He draped his hoodie over the back of a chair. “You’re obviously upset.” 

You almost snorted. “No shit,” you said, not meeting his gaze. 

“Do you mind talking to me about it?” He paused for a moment, waiting for you to answer. “Please?” 

Finally, you looked at him, eyes narrowed, staring up at him through your lashes. He always knew he was in trouble when you did that. “Fine,” you said curtly. “Let’s talk. Let’s talk about how you’ve been treating me like a doll, shall we?”

You knew that your tone was a little sharp, but your temper was getting the better of you. It felt as if he were becoming a condescending parent, and considering he was the person you could usually be most free around, it was suffocating.

His brows furrowed. “A doll?” he echoed. He held back a sigh. “Why do you think that, love?” 

You rolled your eyes. “See? That! You never used to call me that, except on really special occasions!” You could feel yourself slipping, getting more and more frustrated. 

“I’m just trying to make you feel appreciated,” he said in a very easy way, shrugging. If you didn’t know him any better, you’d almost believe that’s how he really felt. 

Your fists clenched, but you didn’t move from your spot on the couch. “But I felt appreciated and loved when we’d call each other ‘jerk’ and ‘butt-munch’,” you said. You knew that your voice had grown quiet.

“Sure, it wasn’t very romantic in the standard sense of the word,” you continued, “but it was very... us. Y’know? It was our thing. It was fun.”

He chuckled. “Okay,” he said gently, coming up and patting your head. “I get it. I get where you’re coming from. I’ll be more careful.” 

For whatever reason, that set something off in you. You ducked your head away, standing up quickly. “Don’t do that!” you shouted. “Please!” He stared at you; his pretty, dark eyes wide and surprised. “Get angry! Shout at me and storm out of the room, then order takeout and apologize later! Do that!”

His jaw threatened to drop. You’d gotten into spats plenty of times, but as you’d said, he was usually the one losing his head. You were the grounded one. Even when you raised your voice, you said sorry right after. But now? He saw no apology in your eyes. 

Because you weren’t sorry. You weren’t sorry for what you were saying.

To some, it may seem dramatic or a little bit dumb, but it felt like he wasn’t really Changkyun anymore.

Not your Changkyun, at least.

“Ever since we played that stupid game,” you said, “you’ve been treating me like a child! It’s so annoying!” You continued ranting, seeing his neutral face slowly contort further and further into a frown. 

You didn’t normally explode like this and argue for no reason, so he knew it was bad. 

“It’s like you decided since I’ve never has sex before,” you shouted, “I must be less knowledgeable and intelligent than other people!” Your voice dropped a few octaves. “Do you know how that makes me feel?” you asked, voice scratchy from shouting so much. “It makes me feel like I’m not respected by the guy I respect the most out of everyone on this planet. And that’s sad.” 

Changkyun sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, he stepped forward. It shocked you, but it didn’t scare you. He’d never frightened you before. He continued walking forward, forcing you to step back. 

You could see the frustration in his dark eyes. Your back hit the wall, but you noted the way that one of his hands darted up to shield the back of your head. His hands traveled down to your wrists, pinning them at the sides of your head. 

“The reason I’ve been treating you like this,” he said, voice cutting straight through the air, making you hear him loud and clear, “is because I was worried. And honored. I don’t want you to regret me,” he said. His jaw was clenched while he spoke, but you could tell he was being genuine. “I didn’t want to move to fast or be too rough with you. I just wanted things to be natural.” 

You rolled your eyes. “Well, that’s dumb,” you said. “Things were natural before you screwed them up. How could I possibly regret you, moron?”

His hands tightened around your wrists. “I’m sorry?” He leaned closer, making butterflies erupt in your stomach. “You wanna say that one more time?” 

You didn’t avoid his eyes, but you did bite your lip nervously, making his gaze flicker over your face. “Maybe I do,” you said bravely. “It’s the only way to get it through your thick skull. I just liked the way we were before... Y’know?” 

He paused for a moment, searching your eyes. It was like he was looking for any source of hesitance or uncertainty swimming in your pretty orbs. 

When he found none, he wasted no time in pressing his lips to your firmly, almost feverishly wanting. It took your breath away, as always. It made your eyes flutter shut within seconds, your breathing become erratic and your mind go blank. 

You just loved him so freakin’ much. 

After a moment, he pulled away. “Love you,” he whispered breathlessly. 

You nodded, eyes still closed. “You too,” you said. You opened your eyes to look at him. “You won’t treat me like that again, right?” 

He chuckled. “After the way you kissed me a second ago?” he teased. “No way! I’m starting to think you’re not so innocent after all.” 

You snorted and smacked his shoulder. “Shut up!” you laughed. He smiled, giving you a quick peck on the nose before pulling away. “Where are you going?” you asked.

He fished his phone out of his pocket. “Apology,” he said simply. 

You smiled to yourself. You knew that meant take out from about six different places, just so he could get all of your favorites, ‘cause that’s just how he was. 

That was your Changkyun, and you were happy to have him.

.

.

.

Helloooooooooooo, Anon! I am legitimately disappointed in how long this took me when it’s not even that long, but y’know, I guess life gets busy. Work has been... work. :’) It’s lucky I love it. 

I’m sorry it took so long to get this to you! Thank you for you patience, and I hope it was what you wanted. ^-^ I hope reading this made you feel happy. 

It doesn’t even have to be REALLY happy, just a little happy! I hope so, anyway. If nothing else, I know that gif at the end made you smile, ‘cause how could it not?? Have a good day/evening/night, all right? Take care of yourself!

[reverseblackholeofwords]

Happy Birthday Until Pronounced Otherwise

Well, here it is. Late as always, but what can you do? So, this is a birthday for the best Big-Bro in the history of big brothers, and I’ve been wanting to celebrate his birthday on this blog since we had our first chat. This turned out longer than expected, and that’s with NaNoWriMo stress on me, but I counted this thank goodness. Some of this comes from the Discord, which is the source of all great ideas, and some research through the archive section for specifics. This is a thank you to all of the people who’ve pushed Legion forward into the being they are today, and I hope that we can have many more birthday adventures with these lovely boys. So, enjoy some sweet, some stupid, and some feels.

But don’t say I didn’t warn you, the next one will probably hurt. Mwahaha

…

They had to corner Phantom and Mad to get the plan pulled off, arguing/pouting until the demon and barman agreed to help decorate the bar. And distract Mare, but that was the easier part. The hardest thing that Legion originally feared was keeping their lip buttoned and not spilling their plans to Mare every time they saw him.

Their salvation came in the combined willpower of their many souls, and a patience born of many quiet people who were used to keeping their feelings on the down-low. Now, was this the most healthy thing mentally? No, no it wasn’t. But that could be addressed at a later time, when they weren’t stocking up on streamers, charging speakers, and ordering a lot of donuts. Donuts were better than cake, and they were pretty certain Freddy’s didn’t serve them. Less connections to that place was probably for the best.

There was also a mild cheer for Amazon, for delivering to a random location where no house supposedly existed so that an ageless child-like being under house arrest could get a present for their part-robot big brother. The delivery person got none of that exposition, just a thank you from someone who’s face they couldn’t concretely pin down before the found themselves back in their truck with no memory of getting into it.

Nate arrived about two hours ahead of schedule with his guitars at the ready for a little jamming out with Mare once the festivities died down a bit, and Legion was running around with a clipboard gripped in one hand and a ‘tamed’ version of the confetti launcher in the other. Except now it blasted little rolls of streamers to decorate the room. They claimed it was like tee-peeing a house, but they would clean up later (that was a promise that Phantom would not be budged on) and it was consented destruction.

And finally, finally, the stage was set and Legion was blipping the last present into their cloak for safekeeping. Prior experience had taught them that Mare could find anything they tried to hide, except when it was in their cloak, which no one could touch. So, in order for present thievery to be prevented, precautions were being taken. Nate was losing it on the sound effects and muttering from Legion as they shoved a large packing box underneath their left arm, punching it in with their right fist until it vanished with a pop. Then it was the main event time, and Legion ran off to grab their ‘big bro’.

“I’m surprised they haven’t popped at this point,” Nate said casually to Phantom, the both of them drinking punch with a suspicious amount of sugar in it. Phantom shrugged from his spot, before stopping to look at the musician.

“How do you know that? I haven’t seen you with them.” Nate grinned.

“I came over one time to talk and they were the only one there. You were away on a ‘business’ trip and they showed me this neat looking rock.” Phantom frowned in displeasure at the reminder as Nate continued, “Kid’s a handful, but they’re sweet. Not to mention they’re wild for you guys, wouldn’t stop talking about how amazing you are in all that you do.” Phantom was purposefully avoiding eye contact at this point, smiling despite himself. Nate noticed of course, and punched him lightly in the arm. “They love you man, no shame denying that.”

“I wish they had more common sense than that,” He trailed off when the pounding started, and Legion dashed into the room, squeeing as they tried to escape Mare, who was playfully reaching out for them. The short-lived chase ended when Legion ran over a pillow and flipped on the couch, allowing Mare to stop and finally observe his surroundings. His eyes widened.

“Is this?” Legion sat up again, dislodging a pillow and waving their arms wildly.

“HAPPY DAY OF BIRTH!” With a blip, they were beside Mare and giving him a strong hug, looking up with eyes containing dancing lights. “We must now celebrate the moment you got a body that we can bother!” Mare tilted his head to the side before grinning, bringing a hand down to noogie their hair and chuckle.

“That’s worth the celebration?” Legion nodded vehemently and Sharper popped up beside them, holding a donut in hand.

“We have to celebrate you not getting murdered for another year.” Sharper realized his phrasing and winced, “Was that insensitive?”

Mare shook his head, pulling Sharper in and giving him a noogie him too, “Nah, I think you all want to kill me at some point or another.” Then he snagged the donut and bit into it, to the protesting of both the android and the chaos-being. “Mwha? Yew saif ditz mry brifphdey.” Legion blipped away, running for the rest of the donuts even as Mare was ghosting away for a few seconds, and with that the party started.

It was a relatively quiet affair at the end of the day. After threats by Mad to burn the birthday donuts, Mare was given a flower crown woven out of white chrysanthemums, orange roses, and boulevard doubles. Legion had pointed to each flower and carefully explained their meanings, of enthusiasm, loyal love and pride. Mare had told them they were a sap, and they responded that they were very proud of their sappiness and to put the dang crown on already. Mad and Phantom found it pretty funny until Legion reminded them that similar crowns were in their future. Then it sparked an argument with no bite about allergies and flowers and demon horns. Mare was just sitting back, delighting in the atmosphere and munching away on his fourth donut.

“You’re gonna get sick you know?” Sharper tried to interject at one point, but Mare just grinned around the glaze.

“It’s my birthday Sharpie. Let me enjoy this.” Sharper didn’t get much of a chance to respond since Legion called him over as an ally, and then a pillow fight started and by the end the punch bowl nearly went flying if it weren’t for some demonic intervention. That was perhaps a sign that they should sing, and Nate plugged in his guitar, playing an acoustic version of ‘Happy Birthday’ that all of the guests sang to. Then it was a donut-eating competition between Mare and Legion that ended in his defeat. Being a being of hundreds of minds apparently meant you had hundreds of stomachs.

“Now sit down and close your eyes,” Legion eventually said once they had settled on the couch, and Mare summoned a wisp of smoke to hover over his eyes. “That’s cheating!”

“Fine,” Now he brought his hands up, and Legion waved their fingers around him. When all he did was hummed absently, they nodded their consent and reached down, rifling through their cloak and pulling out various items.

In all honesty, it sounded a bit terrifying with the variety of noises that accompanied their actions, but Legion was already a semi-eldritch being, what was a few more noises? When the last envelope fluttered out, they proudly grabbed Mare’s hands and tugged them down.

The various presents ranged from a new set of guitar strings and decorative stickers from Nate to a ‘tactical surprise’ from Mad that Legion was forbidden from using. When it finally reached Legion, they held their hand up, eyes searching the table until they snapped their fingers, pulling the large packing box forward. Mare stared in surprise.

“Are you smuggling another dragon in?”

“Stop sassing and open the box.”

Easier said than done considering Legion had wrapped the thing in tape, but with a pair of scissors Mare eventually broke through the lid, arrived at the next box inside wrapped like a burrito and figured out this was going to take a little longer than first anticipated.

Thirteen boxes and two confetti traps later, Mare eventually pulled out a small black box with a little tag that read ‘Pull me’. Taking caution, he distanced his body as far from it as he could, only using the tips of his fingers to pull the tag up before leaning back. Instead of exploding paper in his face, the walls fell away to reveal… a coffee mug.

“That’s it?!” He gave Legion a look, but they cheekily pointed at the writing on the side.

There was a picture of a tobacco pipe, some old-fashioned gimmick, and below it read, Comic Sans is Cool Again. In damn Comic Sans.

“You little troll,”

“Aw, we love you too!”

“That is atrocious,” Nate said, failing to hide his snickering as Mare ghosted over to hug Legion, yanking their hood over their head and fending off their playfully flailing arms. 

“Atrociously funny.” Legion affirmed once they finally got their hood off, shaking their hair free before getting off the couch. The took the largest box and flipped it over, revealing something tapped in between the flaps. A golden envelope with the name Mare-Mare written in purple pen. It was passed over as the laughter died down, and Mare sliced it open, revealing a folded piece of stationary.

It was quiet for the seven minutes it took Mare to read and reread the piece. His response at the end was to pull Legion into the firmest hug he could and whisper something in their ear that made vibrate so hard that fifteen Legions appeared around the room. As one, they turned and dog-piled Mare in hugs, much to his delighted protest.

…

It was nearing quitting time when the Host finally made his way through the back door, still faintly smoking.

“Wilford was being especially difficult today, until the Host called in the Producer. She’s the only one that can set him straight these days besides Amy.” He settled by Mare and passed him a book. “The Host wishes Mare a happy birthday, and wants to give him this.” The book was a picture album, and it contained several candid shots of Legion and Mare in their romping around the Mansion. “Consider this a joint gift from the Host and the Doctor.” Mare smirked and gently bumped Host’s shoulder.

“Thanks.”

“Mare need not mention it to the Host. He may tell the Host what he thought of this. Legion was especially determined on this project, and they were very excited to surprise you.”

“This is probably the best birthday I’ve had in years,” He looked over to where Legion was trying to match Nate’s movements as he played, managing to pick out a few notes before they lost their focus and tried again. “And of course that little weirdo did amazing.” There was silence for a moment. “Did you know about the letter?”

“The Legion did consult the Host on it for a short period of time. Did Mare like it?”

“…It was the sappiest thing I’ve ever read. I had 12 donuts today and that piece of paper had enough sugar in it to rot my jaw.” He tapped his chest pocket, where the paper would rest now and forever. 

The two sat in the ambiance, and for Mare, it was the pinnacle of existence, a moment of pure bliss. With his brothers, his semi-father-figure and the little sibling he adored.

“Best birthday yet.”

Bonus: The Letter

Happy Birthday brother-o-ours. We want to get to the important stuff, but we need to get some dates out of the way first.

Sometime in late November of 2018, we appeared at the foot of a decrepit looking manor with someone that we promise we’ll explain one day. You were inside that manor, but we had no idea at the time. What we did know was that we had one purpose: find the boys and start being nosy.

In July of this year, we had started hanging out together. Little moments with you and the Googles as we began to feel something that we hadn’t before. Even now we’re kinda struggling on how to say it, but our best guess goes to solidity. We felt attached, and not like we started caring. We’ve always cared for you doofuses. But like, for the first time, someone cared about us back. It wasn’t so much a feeling of being tolerated or given the occasional smile and wave. We felt like we were wanted, attached to the world for the first time, and we didn’t know how to feel about that.

In August, well, the Actor happened. For the first time in our strange lives of unknown length, we were actually directly under the control of someone that we didn’t know. We actually hurt people, and we don’t need to get too into that. Just that it was terrifying and it broke us.

We didn’t know who or what or why we were anymore.

You’ve probably heard us say it, but Dad was the one that gave us a name. We didn’t have a name before this. We were just 0 or pest or you or pathetic excuse. To have a name, to actually have something real that belonged to us filled us with so many emotions that we don’t have time to unpack. But it was you that told us to come back. You, the one who we screwed up the whole situation for, told us to come back. And that meant more than you could ever realize.

We’ve always been the ones to care about someone, even when they’ve had no one. I think you’ve seen that with Dark and the others. Some of us vehemently try to see the good in everyone, and even after all that’s happened, we still feel this way, or at least some of us do. But, when it all went down, we were so scared. We’d always been there for the bad guy, so who would be there when we were the bad guy?

Turns out the answer, besides Oliver and Dad, is you. Someone who knows what it’s like to be confused and freaked out and on the outside of everything. We had no hope for anyone here to accept us after we hurt them, but you did. We don’t know if it was duty or a promise or just that you saw us and realized we needed a pillar, but whatever the case, you came.

You entered our lives as a friend, and when you had to go away, a cold day in late August, you gave us your coat. And you took our heart with you. We had already figured it out, but by this point it was too late to tell you. We love you.

The last few months have gone by in a blur. When we lost you we nearly lost our mind, caused a large amount of panic with our stunts, and then we left our body for a bit. We’ve sat within the Void, which none of us wish to remember again.

But there was something wonderful and amazing to come out of these last three months was that we had something we could finally name. A Family.

A Dad, a Step-Dad, a little bro, shady uncles and aunts, and a Big Brother.

(That’s you by the way. ;)

So, Thank You. Thank you for giving us a chance, thank you for letting us be here to celebrate with you today. Thanks for being there and telling us that you care when no one else did. Thank you for giving us your jacket, and being there so that we could return it. Thanks for looking after Dad and Step-Dad and keeping them in line when we can’t.

We’ll make you proud Mare. That’s a Legion Promise, made of unbreakable love.

Your sibling, now and forever,

The Legion

Submitted by: @englishbreakfastandquills

[caffeinatedfantasy]

The Seal pt 21: Sleepless

{ Chris: [bio] [Prologue] [Story in Tumblr] [ AO3 Link From Beginning ] { pic at the end by @uraminowaltz​ ! }

It took me a few days to visit Belphegor again. Not knowing whether it had been a dream or not messed with me. I'd busied myself with going through the spellbook, reading things over, and taking care of homework. It was after another dream with him in it that I'd decided I couldn't avoid him. He'd told me, in the dream, to come up. He'd seemed annoyed that I'd avoided him. Which. I couldn't entirely blame him for. Either I'd had a very dirty dream about him [which meant I was avoiding him for something he had no control over, or even knowledge of], OR I had begged him to fuck my face and just didn't remember going back downstairs [which meant I was avoiding him for doing what I'd wanted]. Neither options were fair to him.

I just had to face the fact that I was embarrassed. Of all the demon brothers I had expected to be the first one for me to do something with, he had not even crossed my mind. I'd assumed it would be Asmo, since he was the only one interested, but I'd woken up to both Beel and Mammon's morning wood poking me in the back before and it had made me want to. But even without my "rule", I wasn't going to go after someone who wasn't interested. [The kiss had made me wonder with Mammon, but he'd showed up again after avoiding me for a few days and had acted like nothing was different, so I suppose it had just been a slip and he'd recognized that.]

Climbing the stairs, I frowned when I saw that Belph wasn't at the door. Peeking inside, I could see that he was curled up on his bed. I wasn't sure if this was meant to be punishment or if it was just coincidental. He'd always been awake when I came up before now. Quietly, I sighed, walking up to the door and leaning against it. I wasn't going to wake him, but I'd wait a little bit to see if he woke up. Take advantage of the peace and quiet. I pulled out the journal that I'd gotten from Grisella and opened it, starting to read through it. Might as well. Solomon said he'd help me with it, after all.

It was a few moments before I heard a noise behind me. I didn't turn around, unsure if Belphegor was getting out of bed or just adjusting, focusing on the spell I was reading, when I felt him behind me and stiffened.

"Scared of me now?" He asked, and I jumped a little as his hand snaked out through the bars to touch me.

"No." I muttered. My voice was shaking a little as his fingers grazed my neck.

"Then what?" My cheeks were burning and so was every part of my skin that he touched as he trailed his fingers across my skin. I felt some of his power ease into me. Relaxing me a little. Which. That was a really strange feeling. I shivered. He was waiting for an answer. But to answer him, I needed one too.

"Was it a dream or was it did it actually happen?" Last time he hadn't really answered my question and for a moment I worried he wasn't going to again. But he chuckled, his hand sliding back up to my mouth. He barely had to touch my lips before I parted them and let him slide his fingers into my mouth, his other hand now moving to my neck, using it to hold me there.

"Did I fuck your face through these bars, you mean?" I moaned gently, that certainly gave me an answer. He was mocking me. But Gods, it was hot. I nodded carefully against his grip. He chuckled. "Both."

He let go of me, and I turned to look at him, not entirely understanding what he meant. He had that softly mocking smile on his face as he leaned back and looked at me. He seemed very pleased that I didn't know the answer. "Simply put, you let me into your dream. And I fucked you in there, not right here."

He looked so... Bored talking about it that I almost would've believed he hadn't been affected by it at all. Except for the way his eyes followed my lips so intently. It was like he was trying to act disinterested, keeping his distance from me. Almost as if... He had asked me if I was scared of him just a moment again, hadn't he?

"I stayed away since I wasn't sure..." I admitted, I was adamantly staring at his shaggy hairline instead of his face as I explained, however.. "The, uh, dream and all the lust from it attracted Asmo... Then I spent the weekend trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. Oh! Made a pact with Satan."

Belphegor hummed at that. I couldn't tell if he was pleased or annoyed or just plain bored. I was getting too used to having some idea from the others. The pacts were allowing me to read them easier. But I didn't have a pact with him. So I had no idea beyond what he chose to tell me. And I had to trust that he was being honest. "And he told me, well, confirmed more I suppose, that I'm an empath. And I'm curious how you knew?"

He was leaning back on his hands, watching me. He didn't say anything for a moment. Just watched me. Before he shrugged. I guess deciding it was okay to do so.

"Since we're twins, Beel and I have a low-level empathetic link. It's not the same as empathetic magic, but it sounded familiar when you spoke of sensing their powers on an emotional level. Having you sense and call to Asmo that way was testing whether it was the case." His explanation made sense. And yet it also made it clear that he hadn't needed to go that far to test it. But he had. And-- And I felt his hand brush across my cheek, and I froze, looking up at him. "You blush very easily."

That had almost sounded affectionate. Still the mocking to it he'd had when he'd teased me, but a warmth to it almost. And I almost expected him to want a repeat. But after that point, he didn't mention it, pulling his hand back to his side and yawning. We chatted for a little longer about benign things, whether or not I should try to make a pact with Lucifer [we both doubted it was possible yet], eventually he drifted back to his bed and shooed me away, insisting he was going to go back to sleep. I stayed there for a moment longer, just watching him there, but soon enough did as I'd been asked and headed down the stairs.

I heard Beel in the kitchen and, without giving it much thought, set my things in my room and went to join him. I yawned silently as I walked into the kitchen, covering my mouth as I entered. I was very tired, but sleep had been evading me and I wanted to do something besides lay in bed staring at the ceiling. I heard the slight buzz and heard the munching before I even glanced over at the fridge door, realizing Beel was there, looking through what there was in there. I walked up and peeked into the fridge to see what he hadn't gotten to yet.

"Hey Beel, if you hand me those eggs, I'll make some cupcakes." He must not have heard me before then because he jumped a little bit, glancing down at me, his eyes wide. He'd been mid-way through eating some leftover from earlier, and he abruptly closed his mouth and with a wave of magic, hid his demonic form.

"Sorry." He said. Sounding guilty, and I wasn't quite sure why, but he pulled out the carton of eggs and handed them to me.

"About what?" I said through another yawn and paused, pointing towards the milk as well. He grabbed it and handed it to me while he seemed to consider what to say.

"Didn't hear you come in and I was still in my demon form." I was pulling out flour and sugar from the cupboard and I hummed, carrying a bag of each to the table in the center, frowning at him.

"That's a silly thing to apologize for. It doesn't bother me."

"Lucifer said you'd been feeling uncomfortable--" I froze. Beel sounded so sad. In fact that 'uncomfortable' sounded like he meant scared and-- Oh no. Lucifer had interpreted things way differently than I'd meant them. I'd talked about wanting to feel normal for a bit, and after the last convo I'd had with him about adjusting -- after he'd nearly attacked me -- it made sense that the whole 'demonic' thing was what he had assumed would be the part I was having issues with. "I know that Lucifer, Levi and I had kind of... Gone after you before..."

I stopped sorting through the cabinet and walked over to the table, using a stool to sit up on it so I could be even with him. I grabbed his hand as I did so, holding him in place and tugging him forward. It was funny to me that I'd had a similar conversation with his twin earlier, for slightly different reasons, but I couldn't tell him that. These demons all seemed to expect me to be more scared of them than I was.

"I'm not scared of you guys, you know." I explained, grabbing his other hand and holding him in place. He looked a little confused, so I continued on. "The demon thing is new, sure, maybe a little weird, but whatever. I'm just... Not used to people paying me so much attention? Last time I had someone keeping such a close eye on me it wasn't to keep me safe, so sometimes I just... Kinda get anxious about not being able to just hide for a bit."

I shifted, frowning and trying to figure out how to explain it to him. I hated having to explain any of this. But that was becoming more and more common with them. Experiences were so different that I just didn't know if he'd understand. Not that they explained much to be, but... He just nodded at what I'd said, accepting it. So I sighed, smiling a little, and leaned forward to rest my head on his chest instead. He didn't really hesitate to wrap his arms around me, gently stroking my hair. I was glad he wasn't asking any more questions, though. That really was the nice thing about being around Beel.

And then his stomach growled. Loudly. I couldn't help but laugh, pulling back to smile up at him. "Imma get back to making those cupcakes, okay? What kind sound good to you?"

I shouldn't have been surprised that the answer was some weird demonic flavour. We settled on something a bit more... Human? Since I was still getting used to demonic ingredients [I'd put some in the frosting still, that was easier to fix if it didn't turn out alright]. He went back to the fridge to find something to eat in the meantime. He didn't go back to his demon form, I noticed, but that could have simply been a matter of ease. If I remembered correctly, it took effort for them to go between the two forms.

If he wasn't the Avatar of Gluttony, I would have expected him to be full by the time everything was done with how much he was eating, but he even managed to [mostly] keep his hands to himself as I was getting the cupcakes iced. I'd scolded him that he couldn't eat them until I was done because I wanted to make sure he liked it. [I know he still snuck one pre-icing while I wasn't looking, but he was pretending he hadn't, so I was going to let him think he'd been sneaky.]

I did make him wait a little bit extra because of that, though, setting them all nicely on a plate and making a point to get a picture for Devilgram first. Which Mammon walked into the kitchen while I was trying to get a good angle. I wouldn't have noticed he was even there if it weren't for his hand creeping into my picture to try to grab one

And I say try because Beel immediately picked him up to stop him from taking any of them. I clicked my picture and just laughed, getting a shot of the two of them next. Setting my D.D.D. down, I motioned towards the plate. "Alright Beel, they're all yours."

"All of them?" Beel asked, already drooling and looking way too happy about it.

"H-hey! I should at least get one of Chris's cupcakes!" Mammon protested. But Beel had already started digging in on the plate, not bothering to even bother replying to his brother. And Mammon was pouting about it. I had to hold back my giggle. "F-fine. It's not like I really wanted one anyway."

"Yes you did." He started to protest, to try to argue with me, but I ignored him and grabbed the cupcake I'd left for myself [with just plain vanilla frosting] and slowly started to peel off the wrapper. "And I'll let you have half if you admit it."

He continued to pout as I finished pulling off the paper and took a bit. I made a point to let out a pleased, drawn out "Mmmmm". And Beel was finishing his, so I'd have to start worry about him snatching it from me soon. "Come on Mammon, just say you want some, and I'll let you have it."

That, amusingly, had him blushing, the pink spreading across his face. But I took another slow bite to tease him, this time with 'Yummy' for emphasis. It was getting Beel's attention for sure, as he was now eyeing the cupcake.

"If Mammon doesn't want it, can I have it?" Beel muttered. I could feel that he wasn't really that hungry at the moment, which made me wonder why he'd asked instead of just letting me have all of it. But Mammon's reaction told me what I needed to know. Because the moment Beel asked for it, he stepped forward in between me and Beel, already looking indignant [and I felt a wave of greed from him] and that's when he managed to get the words out.

"Chris. Can I have some of your cupcake?" He said it so quietly, barely able to look at me, that I almost gave it to him right away just from how cute he was being. Except. It also made me want to tease him just a little bit more.

"What's the magic word?" I asked him, grinning and leaning forward into his field of vision a bit. He went a bit redder and stammered, but after a moment, he did manage to get out a very quiet 'please' and I grinned, giving him the rest of the cupcake. [Definitely more than half.] He lit up and devoured it, making sure not to let Beel take it.

Mammon was smiling by the end of it though. His big goofy smile he'd get when he was really happy. And it was contagious. Between the two of them, and how much they'd both enjoyed the cupcakes, my cheeks were hurting. I stifled a yawn as I reached towards Mammon and swiped some of the icing off of his cheek, sticking my thumb in my mouth and giving him a wink. I didn't acknowledge his blush though, instead choosing to walk past him and head back to my room, wishing the two of them good night with a small wave.

[spirit-of-the-void]

Ebony and Ivory (V x Reader Fanfic) Chapter 5

Authors notes:  For those wondering, no, I am not including every instance of Nidhogg hatchlings. Because they are gross and I hate them lol and that would have been bad had they stopped to rest with one just tucked away into his vest. Ew.

Chapter 5

The morning dawned calm and warm.

The sun was shining through a window in the office, creating striped patterns on the floor.  The room was a little stuffy, but comfortable regardless of that. How long had you slept? Your power was now fully returned, swirling in your stomach leisurely and calmly. No more exhaustion. You let out a light sigh, willing yourself to wake up and face reality. You found yourself incredibly snug and lethargic, head tucked into a pillow as your eyes blinked open slowly. What time was it? The events of the night were sill apparent to you, but foggy—you knew were you were at least, and that’s what was important. You groggily lifted your head and upon doing so realized just exactly why you felt so god damn snug.  

You saw V first, face illuminated by the sun streaming through the window panes. His hair had a light, beautiful sheen, lashes looking incredibly pretty in the light. He looked so peaceful—you couldn’t bring yourself to wake him. Pretty boy deserved as much rest as he could get. Instead you slowly sat up, hearing a light squawk of complaint from behind you as you did so. Turning, you saw Griffon half flopped on your pillow, blinking his own eyes open a couple of times to squint at you tiredly. You immediately smiled, putting a finger to your lips to quiet him. He was definitely at the top of the list of people who wouldn’t hesitate to wake up V, but you could at least try.

As he yawned, you looked down to your legs, seeing Shadow curled between yours and V’s, still asleep and basking in the sun. They looked so pleased, you didn’t want to wake them either—yet you still reached a hand out, giving their head a light stroke. Their fur was warmed by the sunlight's glow, ears immediately flicking a little. The mighty cat yawned, a light trill leaving them as they opened their eyes to slowly blink at you. Precious, so precious. Gratitude for the cat and bird filled you as you remembered the night’s events. Somewhat embarrassed, but happy nonetheless. Shadow seemed warmed up to you now, and that was relieving more than anything else. You smiled at them, feeling pretty happy with the morning’s events.

Despite your best efforts, you heard V stirring at your side, a light sigh leaving his as he also began to wake up. You looked at him, feeling a smile on your lips as you saw him blink his eyes against the bright sun, lifting a hand as a shield. He looked pretty well rested; all things considered. Though you could tell he definitely wasn’t a morning person. He pressed a hand to his face, closing his eyes again as he took a few deep breathes. Griffon lifted his head, yawning as he shook out his tail feathers. As he did so you saw V’s expression shift, that light smile playing on the edge of his lips as several things seemed to register with him.

First was probably that the bed was significantly more cramped than before.  

“Tell me,” He murmured, tone still rich with sleep as he opened one eye to stare at you—he looked amused, if somewhat exasperated, “How on earth did everyone end up on this bed?”

You shrugged despite knowing the answer, giving Shadow’s ears a light scratch when the big cat yawned.

“By all accounts it doesn’t make any sense,” You replied innocently, so innocent a halo should have appeared over your head, “Maybe they were lonely.”

The less the lanky goth knew, the better.

“Mmm.” V hummed in response, sitting up slowly and rolling his head on his shoulders. Christ, that action alone looked pretty sensual, graceful in a way. You turned away before you were caught staring, letting out a yawn yourself and stretching with a light sound of delight. You felt downright wonderful. The evening’s nightmares were long gone in your mind, and your Void power was fully replenished and up to standards again. You stood up from the bed, cracking your back a little as you surveyed the room. Nothing seemed to bother you in the night, and everyone was no worse for wear. Minus the little issue of your nightmare, things were pretty damn normal.

Griffon yawned loudly, flapping his wings wildly as he squawked, “Glad you two are finally up and at ‘em!” He flew around the room a bit, finally landing on your shoulders as he pestered, “How are ya’ feelin’ toots? Ya feelin’ alright? Not dyin’ anymore?”

You huffed at that, “I wasn’t dying to begin with, Griffon. But yes. I’m fine.” You summoned some meat as you spoke, tossing it to the bird and one the cat. Both eagerly ate, seeming pretty pleased with your offerings. You heard V chuckle lightly, catching the back end of his smirk as he stood up from the cot, rolling his shoulders and stretching as well. The patterns on his back rippled with the movement, only slight muscle definition there. All things considered, sharing a bed with the poet had gone pretty well—you weren’t as bothered by it as you previously assumed you’d be. And you were SUPER pleased that Shadow now seemed to like you, the cat weaving around your feet as you made your way to the counter with the food, sitting your butt on there while you munched on some food.  

Shadow placed its head on your lap again, making your heart go crazy with delight and tears prickled your eyes as you heard them purr again. Holy shit, you were pretty sure you had never felt that happy in your life. Setting the food down, you cupped the cat’s face, squeezing its cheeks slightly as you smiled with absolute delight at the creature. Much to your even heavier delight, the cat grunted at the action, rewarding you with a small blep of its tongue sticking out. You couldn’t help it—your eyes teared up more with joy, a small giggle leaving you as you leaned down to kiss the cats head. This was definitely heaven, a reward, a big victory. This happiness could sustain you for a millennia, you were sure.

You heard Griffon let out a scoff of annoyance, probably watching you lose your mind over this cat that could probably eat you if it so desired.

“I cannot believe this shit” He squawked, tilting his beak toward the poet as he rolled his eyes, “V, are you seeing this? Are you witnessing this? Look at her over there, smooching your glorified killing machine. Absolutely tickled pink.”

You heard V chuckle, tapping the head of his cane in his hand as he mused, "What I cannot believe is she won you both over faster than even I. I’m pretty sure Shadow likes her more than me.”

You looked up from your self-indulgent task, grinning despite their mocking.

“Jealous, lads?” You rose a brow, smile as innocent as an angel.  

V only smiled wryly in response, gaze light and filled with mirth as he two grabbed a bar from the tray. His cane brushed your leg, sending a slight shiver up your spine as he turned away. You were even more jazzed—you didn’t have to remind him to eat this time, he did it of his own volition. Today was the day of victories, so you decided to keep count. Waking up feeling good, waking up in a bed of wonderful creatures, gaining Shadow’s affections, and now V starting a habit of eating when he should. It was going to, hopefully, be a good day.

Griffon, however, puffed up his feathers, tone very standoffish as he replied, “Hard to be jealous of a glorified house cat. You done sucking up yet? We’ve got shit to do today.”  

You laughed, but nodded, nudging the cat off your lap as its master leaned against a wall to carefully ear his breakfast. He had already put on his sandals from the look of it, so you quickly sat down on the cot to tie your combat boots and adjust your thigh highs. You mumbled a light spell on yourself to make sure you were clean, still mourning that there was no shower. Maybe there was another house or apartment that still had running water? You would have to check at some point, if V allowed it.

It was cooler out from what you could tell, but there appeared to be clouds on the horizon threatening the sun. You frowned at them briefly before walking to the utility closet, seeing if there was anything in there worth taking with your group. After a small search, you found what appeared to be a personal locker for whoever owned the office. Inside it contained a small backpack, a picture of  a beautiful woman and a dog. The thought of that person being dead and gone threatened to make your heart ache, so you tried not to think about it. You took the bag and quickly closed it, walking out to the group again as everyone situated themselves.

“I’m going to take whatever food and water I can find with us,” You informed, opening the mini fridge and taking the few bottles of water you could find in there, “The less I have to summon, the better.”

V nodded, watching as you filled the bag with what you could find and leaning on his cane, “That may be wise. Will that hinder you?”  

You shook your head, pulling the bag’s straps over your shoulders and mumbling a spell.

“From reality, into the Void.”

The bag dissolved into you in a low, faint glow, disappearing from view. You saw V raise a brow as you rolled your shoulders, no longer feeling the bag’s weight. The spell was similar to the organic material one, only in this case you couldn’t replicate the bag and what was within. You could take it into you, and retrieve it when needed, but that was about it. And retrieving it cost no energy, since you didn’t have to expend energy to make anything.

“Impressive,” V commented, eyeing your body with light curiosity, “Your ability is quite versatile.”

You smiled, “It’s taken a while to get used to it.” You couldn’t elaborate on how long.  

Griffon landed on your shoulders before V could reply, flapping wings sending papers flying up from the desk as he squawked, “Chit chat later, kids, daddy’s getting impatient! We’ve got demons to fry!”

You and V exchanged a glace, V letting out a light hum of amusement as he gestured toward the door with his cane. You eagerly followed after the goth man, ready to leave the warehouse and move on. Shadow padded out closely behind, rubbing past your legs then V’s as they took up the front of the group. You took up walking next to V, a pep in your step as you made your way through the warehouse. You hadn’t gotten a good look at it the night before, and saw several shelves of materials as you passed through. It also looked like some of the roots had broken through the building as well, just narrowly missing the small office space. You were grateful of that.

The warehouse unfortunately had some areas of demonic activity, which your group set about killing as you traveled downward through. Nothing too difficult, just the occasional basic bitch demon batch. You could sense V half keeping his gaze on you as you fought, probably making sure you weren’t over-extending. You knew better now—you had to focus, taking up similar tactics to when you trained in the Void. Small energy bursts, consistency. Letting the energy course through your body for longer without expending any. The sensation was slightly painful, but you’d rather walk and fight through pain than hinder the group by being useless.  

You were back in the city within an hour, walking past various buildings with graffiti and artwork. You whistled at the sight of a beautiful mural of a woman, feeling a bit wistful that you wouldn’t really get to enjoy what this city had to offer before the calamity started. Even then, your enjoyment of the mural was short lived as well considering as soon as you neared this new street corner, your Foresight flared, alerting you enemies were at risk of appearing.  Because of course they were. Annoyance was starting to fill you at this fact, a sigh leaving your lungs. It felt like you couldn't walk five feet without something popping out at you, claws outstretched and snapping its teeth.

You made sure to wrap your tendrils around V quickly this time, stopping him before he could confidently stroll out with little concern for his god damn safety. 

“Whoa there, pretty boy,” You cautioned as he turned to raise a single brow at you, “There are demons here, ready to pop out.”

He inclined his head, sweeping back some of his black hair with one hand.

“That does remind me,” He murmured, jade eyes scanning the area ahead of you and alight with interest, “This isn’t the first time you have known of an oncoming attack. How are you able to tell?”

That was a question you definitely couldn’t give a full answer too. You paused, desperately trying to get your thoughts together to formulate a reasonable answer.

“I...don’t know?” Your dumb brain straight up flat-lined, making you falter in your words as you looked away, “It’s....complicated. I can’t really explain it; I just feel things sometimes. I learned to listen to instinct.” Not a lie, not completely. The Foresight was a lot more complex than that, almost like a living entity inside. You didn’t just feel, you felt pain. But you couldn’t tell him that.

V seemed to sense your discomfort on the topic, gaze lingering on you before he simply nodded and turned away again. You tried not to sigh with relief, summoning your power and trying to focus when he started walking forward, throwing caution to the wind again as he pointed his cane at the clearing. Griffon and Shadow shot forward, already prepared to fight when the demons began to dissolve out of the ground. There was fairly more this time, much to your annoyance and disgust. Shadow set on them with a roar, a series of spikes shooting out of their body and skewering the approaching demons. Griffon let out an elated cry, swooping down between a line of demons with a screech of “Fuck yeah!”.

In his wake came a line of purple lightning, frying a few of the creatures to a crisp.  

V pulled out his poetry book, reading a few versed aloud as you darted past him, leaping up and sending several tendrils down into the earth, shooting up all around to impale the oncoming demons. They screeched in pain, swiping at your feet as you flipped over them, Griffon catching you by your arm before one could reach up and snatch you. He deposited you on top of a dumpster, swooping over to grab V and move him out of the way of an attack as well. Shadow was contenting itself with skewering demons to the other side, slamming them into a wall hard enough you were sure they saw stars. You hopped down from the dumpster, channeling the energy again until it slightly burned, hissing out a cloud of cold air.  

You descended upon the nearest demon, grabbing it by the jaw as you leveled a kick on it from behind, its spine snapping on impact. It screamed, the sound gurgled and warped as it tried to uselessly swing an arm back at you. You dodged it, kicking it forward onto Shadow's spikes. A spurt of blood, the demon falling silent as the cat flung it toward V to finish it off. You darted over to the poet, using your tendrils to launch him into the air to stab the flailing creature. He laughed when you did, eager and elated as he spun upwards and thrust his cane into its chest cavity, spraying blood in his wake.  

You wiped it off your face, grimacing as you ached for that shower again. Five more demons remained, heading toward you and the poet as he landed on his feet.  

“Red is a good color on you.” V purred as he moved past, eyes lingering on the blood splattered on your cheek. You touched it with your fingertips, realizing that you missed some when you went to wipe it moments before.

You gave him an exasperated smile, summoning your power again as you faced the oncoming creatures, “I would agree if I wasn’t ready to commit murder for a shower.”

He chuckled at that, eyes alight with mischief as he snapped his fingers.  

The black disintegrated from his hair, bringing forth that dazzling white again. Moments later, Nightmare appeared, breaking through the mural you were admiring earlier and coming to a tumbling halt on the cobblestone. You mourned the loss of the art, but you had to admit it was quite the elaborate entrance. Before, he just fell from the sky, but it seemed like the creature could be summoned in elaborate ways. It was entertaining to say the least, and you always loved seeing the third summon in action. The moment he entered the fight the demons were doomed. A single laser shot across the battlefield sent several of them flying, killing two of them instantly. As V darted over to finish them off, the gargantuan creature made its way to the others with a hulking gate.  

He swung a large arm around, knocking one into the ground and causing it to splinter into pieces of stone. Another tried to jump on his back, but was quickly impaled on Shadow’s spikes as the cat came up from behind. Another was stomped underneath Nightmare’s foot, the sound of cracking bone echoing in the courtyard followed by a choked screech. This fight was definitely over, you could tell. You made your way to the closest demon, impaling it with your tendrils to kill it instantly. V made quick work of the others, finishing them off with that special flourish of his. You found yourself smiling, retracting your power back when you realized that Nightmare was staring at you.

You blinked, meeting its gaze as it watched you silently. It didn’t really have a face, no expressions to read. Just that swirling black, like tar, and one eye staring at you. Not the strangest thing you had seen, and it was still V’s companion.

So, you gave it a smile and a wave, tone friendly as you said, “Thank you for your hard work.”

The creature tilted its head at you, eye blinking once as it gave visible pause.

It then nodded once before disintegrating into nothingness, returning back to V’s hair from whence it came. V wiped his cane again, watching the whole exchange with amusement and mirth. You couldn’t help but wonder how he felt about you making friends with his familiars. He never seemed bothered by it, more so fascinated than anything. Until he said otherwise, you were going to continue being nice to all of them. The little victories, right? You let out a pleased noise, glad you could interact with the creature this time.  

Griffon landed on your shoulder, shaking his head at you as he quipped, “You are the strangest chick I have ever met. Downright fucking looney. Batshit, one might say.”

You hummed at that, grabbing his talons as you turned to look at the broken mural—there looked to be a hidden path there.

“You’re right,” You said teasingly, a smirk on your face, “Otherwise why would I enjoy the bullshit always coming out of your mouth?”

“Masochism maybe?” Griffon mocked right back, snapping his beak by your ear, “You must like to suffer, obviously.”

If he only knew how much pain you willingly put up with on a daily basis to use the power of the Void. His sharp tongue was child’s play compared to that.

V made his way to the broken mural, so Griffon launched himself from your shoulders, lifting his master up into the building. You followed suit, using the tendrils to launch up and over into it. The place was abandoned entirely, but was without enemies. You and V made your way out the back, finding your way into an alley behind the buildings. More graffiti there, and what appeared to be...what the hell was that? You felt yourself frowning  as you and V neared some strange, demonic flesh dripping green goop. The smell was atrocious, and you fought gagging and stopped in your tracks.  

“What the hell is that?” You asked what your brain was desperately wondering, the disgust plain in your tone.

V smirked again, approaching the thing with zero hesitation. Much to your shock and growing horror, he pulled a squealing bug-like bundle of flesh off of the goop, causing the remaining flesh to disintegrate. You had seen some pretty disgusting things in your travels, but that was some of the worst by far. The thing looked like a glorified tick, completely nasty with little spindly legs. And the smell...it was absolutely not your favorite thing. You were further disgusted with V when he tucked the little creature into his jacket, turning to face you with a bemused grin.  

You pressed a hand to your temple, lungs releasing a hefty sigh as you said, “Words cannot describe the level of disgust I feel right now,” You scrunched up your nose, eyeing the little creature peeking out of his jacket as you added, “I cannot fucking believe you just tucked that thing in your coat. V. What the fuck is that?”

He chuckled, griping his cane as he gestured for you to follow him. You reluctantly did, not liking the vibes the little demon bug carried as V lead you out of the alley.

“It’s called a Nidhogg hatchling,” He replied to you, pointing his cane further down the way at another dripping pile of flesh blocking another alleyway, “We need it to pass through there.”

You made a sound of understanding, but you still didn’t like it.

Griffon swooped down from your side, laughing in that grating tone as he mocked, “Really? Miss-tries-to-make-friends-with-everyone is grossed out by a god damn hatchling?” He landed on your shoulders, seeming downright smug at your wary expression, “Grossed out by a little bug? I’m disappointed in you.”

You frowned at him, his banter not really welcome when you were trying not to vomit at the smell of the place.

“Listen I don’t like bugs,” You said simply, eyes narrowing on the loud and obnoxious bird as you added, “Is there a problem?”

“Ooo no no—no problem,” He caroled, snickering at the end of his words, “Just enjoying your prejudice against bugs. It’s so very girlish of you.”

You opened your mouth to defend your dislike of bugs and to dismantle his line of thought, since men could very well be afraid of bugs without it being girlish. But you found that despite your dislike of the creatures you couldn’t pinpoint where exactly that fear came from, or why. Like other things with you and your thought process, you felt the residual emotions from it but without the substance to back it up. You reasoned that it was another memory removed and tried to shrug it off. Things of that nature happened a lot—a thought, an emotion, a feeling without source. But still ever present. You were just happy you didn’t have a fear of heights or anything like that. Bug phobias were pretty tolerable.

“Anyone can have a phobia, Griffon,” You finally said, following V as he exited back out onto another street, “I didn’t take you for the type to assign genders to shit.”

Your tone was quietly disappointed and judgmental, something he immediately caught onto.

“Are you mad at me? It feels like you’re mad at me,” He let out an over-dramatic sigh, leaning his head back and throwing off your momentum a bit, “Oh, whatever will I do. Now the fucking cat will be your favorite.”

You smiled at that, letting out a low hum as you replied, “Bold of you to assume you were the favorite to begin with.”

Griffon hissed at that, tilting back and snapping his beak by your left ear, “Ooo, jeez, ouch. That actually stung, girlie. That was downright hurtful,” His tone became sorrowful, him sweeping a wing over his eyes dramatically as he said in a choked voice, “And here I thought we had somethin’!”

V chuckled again at your banter, turning onto another street. A few more moments of walking lead to that other wall of flesh. Much to your disgust and added relief, he pulled the creature out again. He deposited it in the wall, the creature squealing as it crawled inside. Moments later, the wall disintegrated, opening the path so your group could pass.

“Gnarly,” You muttered, making V smirk again as you followed him to the new area.

You rounded a corner and entered what appeared to be a shopping district of sorts. Tables with umbrellas were scattered here and there, lining the storefronts of abandoned restaurants. You winced at the sight of more husks here, seeing that a few people were caught running from the threat after a day of shopping. Some were huddled on the floor, frozen forever in their moment of death holding each other. Sights like these unnerved you, and you turned your gaze away to try not to think about it. Instead you focused on reading storefronts, eyes scanning the area and waiting for threats to appear. This area was oddly demon free, for whatever reason. But there was a huge wall of roots at the end of the shopping district, from what you could see.

Griffon let out a bird-like noise as he hopped off of your shoulders, flying around the shopping district with a glide of his wings. After a moment, he made a sound of intrigue, landing on what appeared to be a bright red phone booth, tapping his claws on the metal roof of it as he whistled to V. The goth immediately turned, seeing the box and letting out a light hum as he turned and approached it.

“A phone...I wonder if we can reach that woman,” He mused, pulling a coin out of his vest, “See if she can offer any assistance.”

You leaned against the red box, smiling lightly as you replied, “Go for it. I’d like to get the chance to talk to Nico again.” You weren’t lying—you liked Nico. You were curious to see how she was doing and get to know her a little bit better. She had been pretty nice to you, all things considered. And she was really cute—not that you were interested.

V chuckled lightly, dialing what you recognized to be the same number as she gave you. It rang for a few moments, the goth putting the phone to his ear.

“Come meet us, we’re at—” He began to say, but you heard the faint sound of Nico’s voice cut him off.

“Yeah yeah yeah, keep ya panties on. I see ya already—Be right there.”

He had no sooner hung up the phone when the sound of screeching tires was heard. You blinked, gaze swinging around and upwards as you heard the faint, alarmed yelling of Nico as her van came careening off a broken bridge right above your heads. You gasped in shock, watching as V darted to the side then leapt upwards, sending Shadow out to leap onto the top of the van and sending it slamming to the ground. It skidded out of control for a few moments, whipping at an ungraceful stop as Nico exclaimed loudly inside as the fast motions. Your heart was pounding a mile a minute in your chest, staring at the van with a look of shock mixed with exasperation.  

Nico was definitely insane, that could have easily ended very badly.

You approached the van, watching as the woman opened a window and poked her head out to look at you both. She blew a hair out of her face, looking a little frazzled all things considered.

“Hey Nico?” You said in a worried tone, raising a brow as you met her gaze, “Do you take criticism on your driving?”

She gave you a half smirk, still a little out of breath as she replied, “Not without cryin’.”

You snorted, shaking your head a bit as you made your way to the side door of the mobile home. Somehow, that answer made sense. Regardless, you still opened it, taking a step in the van with V close behind. Nico approached you as soon as you walked inside, watching as Griffon settled on his favorite perch on the jukebox and Shadow weaved in between your legs. V nodded at her as he made his way to the back of the van, eyes fixated on what appeared to be a small statue. You decided to mind your own business, sitting down on the leather couch to wait for him to finish what he was doing. Shadow immediately leapt up and half flung itself on your lap, closing its eyes.

You smiled brightly, delighted all over again.

“Glad to see you’re still livin’,” Nico commented, crossing her arms over her chest, “And now you’re getting' cuddly with the poet’s familiars.”

You shrugged, looking up at her with a friendly expression, “They’re nice when you get to know them. How have you been doing?"

Nico paused, seeming surprised that you even asked.

“I’m alright,” She replied, sitting down next to you and putting a hesitant hand on Shadow’s back. The cat, completely distracted by your pats to its head, didn’t seem to mind, “Been workin’ hard making dipshit’s arms and the like. Drivin’ around everywhere. How ‘bout you? How has walkin’ around with mister poet been?”

You looked back at V, watching as he placed his hand on the statue and closed his eyes.  

“It’s been good,” You replied, expression cheerful as you looked at Nico again. You lowered your tone, “Though V is a bit reckless at times, he’s easy enough to get along with. A mysterious guy.” You tried to sound neutral where he was concerned, not wanting it to be obvious that you were really enjoying V’s company.  

Nico made a “Huh” sound, shrugging her shoulders as she stood up again.

“Well, since y’all are here,” She said, seeming incredibly jazzed about something as she smirked at you, planting her hands on her hips, “I worked on a little something for ya.”

You blinked, startled by her words.

“But I...don’t really have anything to pay you with,” You said hesitantly, not sure what the form of currency was like in the world to begin with, “I wouldn’t want to take without payment.”

She scoffed, “Course. Which is why I was gonna ask somethin’ of ya,” She walked to her work station, pulling out a wooden box and bringing it over to you, “I have a little prototype project made of demon materials, and you’re gonna test them for me. Also, since you’re walkin’ around with My Chemical Romance over there, I want you to keep an eye out for supplies I can use.” There was no request there, no questions asked. Just orders, plain and simple.

You blinked again. She seemed pretty pleased with herself, smug as a peacock. It looked like she had put a lot of thought into this, everything all planned out. Nico was a very assertive person, and you doubted that you were allowed to say no. Besides, you didn’t want to be rude. She was a skilled craftswoman, and any chance to use her wares was a gift all its own. It would also help when you didn’t want to over exert your abilities, an edge in battle you didn’t otherwise have.

“Fine by me,” You replied, offering a rueful smile, “I’ll be happy to help in any way I can.”

She gave a little nod, still wearing that smug grin. She approached you with the box, popping the top up so she could display what it was she made. You peeked at it, eyes going wide when you saw a set of two beautiful daggers. They were silver, glowing blue and red veins weaving through the metal like tree branches. The handles were wooden, polished and beautiful and veined with what looked to be a crystal of sorts. Or opal.

You stared in awe, downright starry eyed as you looked at the daggers. You didn’t know what to say—Nico seemed to enjoy the expression you had, smirking even more.

“Pretty, right? A work of art,” She sounded impressed with herself as she puffed up like a proud bird, “I spent most of the night on those bad bitches, but I have no idea what they can do—so you’re gonna do that work for me.”

You smiled wryly, gratefully accepting a dagger when she offered one to you—it felt good, weighted perfectly and warm to the touch. You could feel energy coursing through it, demonic and full of chaos. You had no doubt whatever these daggers could do, they could do it well. Nico seemed to almost vibrate with excitement, eyeing the dagger in your hand eagerly as you gave it an experimental twirl. You were trained to use most weapons, but usually found yourself not needing them due to the void powers. But daggers were great, and you were more than willing to test them out—using something so beautiful was definitely up your ally.  

“Let me at least give you something in return,” You said, holding out a hand and closing your eyes. You could afford to expend some extra energy as long as you had these new daggers to use. Your voice was low, ringing with energy as you murmured, “From the Void, into being.”

You summoned your Void energy, feeling the tendrils appear out of your hand and curl around themselves, taking shape and forming something not earthly. A material straight from the Void, but organic at the same time. It formed into a black crystal, cold to the touch and shimmering in the light. You saw Nico’s eyes light up, staring at the material with unbridled interest and excitement—you knew the material contained energy from the Void, a low-level version of it. Not enough to hurt whoever used it, but certainly able to provide useful effects if needed.

“This is a material created by the Deity I get my power from,” You informed her, handing it to her once it was fully formed. She snatched it up eagerly, holding it to her chest and looking like an excited kid on Christmas, “You can use it for whatever you want, it’s completely safe and pure.”

“Holy shit!” Nico exclaimed, already rushing over to her work desk with the new material, “Y/N You definitely are makin’ this arrangement worth it!”  

You saw V look up from the statue, bemused as Nico already started pulling on her working clothes, setting the material on the desk. You smiled, taking the other dagger out of the box and tucking both of them into notches on your belt.

Time to set out again. 

Read on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18136193/chapters/42951941

Tagged: @silentwhispofhope @just-call-me-no-name @nightshadow4713 @slightlylunatic @efiicitia

[sethrine-writes]

Daughter of a Devil - Ch. 10

Main Characters: Father!Dante & Daughter!Reader

Words: 1713

Warnings: Very Minor Angst, Fluff, Pregnancy Stuff

Summary: Being a parent wasn’t easy, nor was there such thing as being perfect at it. Good news for Dante, seeing as how he doesn’t have the slightest idea in hell what to do with a child. Sometimes, he was certain that fighting off a horde of demons was a far better match than keeping up with his own daughter. Well, at least he wasn’t going down without a fight.

A/N:  We get a little peek at the brave woman who gave Dante a daughter. :’D

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Chapter 10 - Just Like You (Newborn)

If someone were to ask Dante if he had ever been scared shitless before, the half-devil would have turned on that person with a bit of a scoff, a cocky smile on his face and arms crossed before him.

“Nah, I’d like to think I’ve seen enough hell on earth. Can’t be too scared if you already know the worst things out there.”

His answer would be just vague enough to get anyone off his back without them delving too much into what exactly he meant. It was hard to really express how he was actually the son of a demon who, in a twist no one would have seen coming, actually fought off hell spawn from time to time.

He was cocky, perhaps a little too sure of himself more often than not, and he was constantly way in over his head just to have some sort of a good time. Being scared sort of wasn’t on his agenda, nor did it have any place in his young, reckless life.

He couldn’t lie, however, about the pang of uncertainty he had when Serenity, his recent girlfriend of only a month and lover for nearly four before that, suddenly became pregnant with his child. He’d been so caught off-guard with the information that he had immediately questioned if the child was actually his, a question Serenity had taken in stride.

Of course, it was his. She had been invested in him since their first two weeks of messing around, and she wasn’t the type to sleep around, not when they had both basically been in an unofficial relationship nearly the entire time they had been meeting up.

After the initial shock wore off, Dante couldn’t help but entertain the thought of family life. A part of him was actually okay with the notion, even if he was barely considered an adult, at the time. Granted, he didn’t have the slightest clue as to how much of a good parent he could reasonably be, but he knew that Serenity had her own doubts about becoming a mother, and it eased him somewhat.

It would be a new experience they could share together, and though he was sure he would dread the first few years of a messy, crying, whining baby, Dante knew when it was time to man up and be responsible for his actions.

So, he stayed with Serenity through the whole thing, battling her mood swings, her odd cravings, and her on-again, off-again insatiable need for intimacy. At the end of the day, he was always rewarded with the sweetest smile and the brightest of glowing faces that would have any man dropping to his knees in wonder.

There were days he watched Serenity eat her weird foods as he munched down on pizza, and there were also days he watched her do nothing but talk to her stomach in such a lovely, low voice that he more often than not found himself drawn into the one-sided conversation between mother and child. He also had days where he would find her in the bathroom, flushed and horribly sick before the day began, and days where it was hard for her to get out of bed, she was becoming so sore from the extra weight.

No, he wasn’t afraid, not when he had the support of his partner. Even the bad days always had a silver lining, one that Serenity would always point out to him – they would soon get to meet their child.

It was then that Dante realized just how brave Serenity truly was.

When she had first told him about the pregnancy, she was unbelievably anxious and close to tears, afraid at first that Dante would not accept her or the baby. After that initial anxiety, however, she had embraced the concept of motherhood wholeheartedly and with a force that a true parent would be proud of.

She handled each step of the pregnancy so well, too. From her morning sickness to her odd eating habits; from the ultrasound that showed she was having a girl to the baby’s first kick, to finally finishing the nursery in their dinky little apartment, she took everything in perfect stride and welcomed it with open arms.

Even when she went into labor, she had paced herself and took to upcoming motherhood with pride. Dante, however, could mark that moment as one of the most terrifying evenings in his life.

It had happened so fast; they had both been walking back to her place, their home, when Serenity had stopped suddenly with her hands pressed against her bulging stomach. He remembered her soft gasp, the twist of pain that marred her face as she looked up at him with wide eyes. She had barely uttered his name before he had her in his arms, rushing them to the nearest hospital.

(Later, when she had been fully admitted into the hospital, Serenity had confessed that she was aware of her contractions since earlier that afternoon. She had read somewhere that she would have quite a bit of time before the baby’s arrival once they started, so an evening out wouldn’t have hurt anything, so long as she continued to keep track of the time between contractions. That moment walking home was the first time they had truly hurt, and while they still would have had time to get to a hospital had they gone home to grab her prepped baby bag, she was grateful for Dante’s swift action.)

When it came time for the baby to arrive, Dante couldn’t bring himself to be in the room with Serenity. There were already too many people in the room, counting the doctor and three other nurses, and he felt he would possibly turn on any one of them if she had so much as made the notion that they were causing her pain.

Her following screams an hour later were a testament to his hypothetical actions, and he was very nearly escorted out of the hospital to ensure the safety of the staff. If he remembered correctly, she had decided to refuse any medicinal help; he really wished she had, if not for the safety of those around him than for his own sanity.

As soon as her screams had started, they had also stopped, and for a fleeting moment, Dante felt something stir within him that wanted out, a feeling of absolute blinding fear and rage he had been able to feel coursing through his veins.

Tiny little cries and the elated tone of the doctor’s voice on the success of the birth had eased that feeling, and a new one began to take its place.

Serenity looked absolutely stunning despite her exhausted state when he was finally able to enter the room. The glow she carried when she was pregnant was nothing compared to the radiance she emitted at that moment with the little bundle of life cuddled in her arms.

She had looked up right away at Dante and gave him a tired, beaming smile, holding out one of her hands to him. He moved closer and took hold of her hand gingerly while sitting on the edge of the bed beside her, his eyes instantly falling to the swaddled form she held.

You were still a bit red and swollen, just as any newborn would be, with a shock of silver-white hair topping your little head. One hand peaked over the blanket and had a constant motion of slowly clenching and unclenching around the powdery purple fabric. He was completely taken by surprise at how much you resembled Serenity.

“She looks just like you,” he murmured, leaning forward and giving a light kiss to Serenity’s forehead. She smiled and shifted a little, sitting up more as she carefully began to hold out your fragile form to Dante.

“She has your nose when you get a closer look at her.  Go on, take her.”

Dante was surprisingly hesitant on holding you, afraid that he would hurt you somehow. He hadn’t expected to be a father; he didn’t even know how to be one, after all.

Serenity urged him gently, however, and within a matter of moments, he was holding you, his baby girl…his daughter.

At the shift in position, your eyes popped open, a wide look crossing your chubby features as you stared up at Dante with a not-so-easy-to-define expression. Your eyes were blue, as most any baby’s eyes were when first born, but they would change, over time. Dante hoped they would be just as stunning as your mother’s own.

“Well, the squirt’s got my hair, at least. Not banking as much on my rugged good looks, though.”

Serenity laughed lightly as she leaned back and relaxed, her exhaustion kicking in full-force now that she knew Dante was here to help with you. She could already tell that Dante was already quite attached to you, and it eased her mind knowing that he was committed to being a father, just as she to a mother. With a small smile of adoration, Serenity allowed her eyes to drift closed, falling asleep to both father and daughter interacting.

Dante glanced over at his girlfriend, giving the slightest of smiles at the peaceful look on her face. He then looked back down at your bundled little body, a single arm reaching out from the purple blanket and now thrashing to-and-fro from lack of motor skills. He was fully content with just watching you go at it, your feet kicking lightly in their confined space as your other arm soon found its way out of the soft fabric keeping you warm and comfortable. His face suddenly became serious, though he still held that soft charm he had shown since holding you.

“You listen here, Squirt – I’m your father, and I swear on my own Pops’ grave that I will protect you until you hate me for it. Probably even after that.”

You responded by giving a small kick and a rather extended yawn, bawled up hands rubbing clumsily at suddenly sleepy eyes with jerky, uncoordinated movements. Dante couldn’t help the smile that reached his eyes.

For a moment, any fear he felt had left him to enjoy the peace of his tiny family.

“Glad we can agree.”