#wish i could just vernalize all of these things like genuinely with my voice

[floralbfs]

OK BUT i hate that everything is happening all at once bc mark was able to be there for wayu with the whole pha breakup but wayu won't be able to be there for mark when he's being heartbroken over kit bc he's busy being heartbroken over pha AGAIN

[caffeinatedfantasy]

The Seal pt 19: Empathy

{ Chris: [bio] [Prologue] [Story in Tumblr] [ AO3 Link From Beginning ]

–

“It’s convenient that texted me, as I’ve been wanting to talk to you since we got back from London…” Satan was smiling at me in that familiar customer service polite way that I was far too familiar with as he motioned for me to enter his room before him.

I smiled back at him, stepping inside, curious as to what he wanted to talk to me about. It was true, we hadn’t talked since London. I hadn’t avoided him exactly, but I’d enjoyed my time to breath the past two days. He waited for me to sit down [on practically the only clear space available: his bed] before he turned to me and spoke.

“Would you make a pact with me?” My confusion must have shown on my face, because he looked a little uncertain for a second, frowning. “Why do you look so surprised? A lot has happened these past few days, with you helping out with the body swap and everything, and I made a decision.”

And he proceeded to tell me exactly why he was choosing to make the pact with me. How what had happened, and what both I and Grisella had said to him during that time, had made him realize some things. Especially regarding Lucifer and himself and who he was. And it had me smiling. I was glad that he was serious. Regardless of whatever else going on, he was genuine and it was nice to see.

So when he offered again, this time with the reasoning, I nodded. “Of course, Satan. I’d be happy to make a pact with you.”

He nodded, smiling. And paused, as if considering something, suddenly looking a bit hesitant again.

“If we make a pact the normal way, my powers shouldn’t affect you like Asmodeus’ did.” Satan said. And I frowned. What exactly was he implying I’d done with Asmo?

“I thought that how I made a pact with Asmo was the normal way?” I asked him carefully. I wanted him to tell me what it was he was assuming I’d done differently. “Same way I made a pact with the others.”

There was a pink tinge starting to spread across his cheeks at that. And he was once again not quite looking at me. Same sort of reaction he’d had the morning I’d woken up groping him in Lucifer’s body. I wouldn’t have expected him to be so shy. Or so dirty minded.

“The method I’d been using hasn’t changed…” I insisted. He shifted on his feet.

“Very well, then, I suppose if that’s the way you’d prefer to do it…” He’d already slung his jacket off of his shoulders, hanging it on the back of one of his chairs, and as I watched, he began to pull off his sweater as well and the dots connected and I started to panic as he stood there stripping. His hands went to his belt and I had to stop him before he got the wrong idea, moving forward and grabbing his hands to stop him.

“Wha-What are you doing?” My voice squeaked. I had to look up at his face to keep myself from looking at his crotch. “You saw how I made the pact with Asmo and the others!”

He blinked at me in confusion. Then frowned, looking annoyed at me. He didn’t move his hands though, and mine were still covering his and I was acutely aware of how close I was to him and it did not help that Asmo had sent another wave of his lust at me earlier.

“That doesn’t make sense. With how you described how affected you are by Asmodeus’s power, the only way that happens is if you had made the pact through more than just a vernal contract.” He insisted. He was fucking arguing on me. And hadn’t I already told him specifically that I hadn’t done anything of the sort? With any of the demons? I’d specifically made the point that I hadn’t gotten involved like that. He was basically calling me a liar.

Fucking hell.

“I haven’t fucked Asmodeus or anyone else since I fucking got here.” I was firm, and my hands squeezed around his. “I already told you that.”

“You said you hadn’t gotten involved with Lucifer, that’s not the same as–” He started, annoyance growing in his own voice. I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed by being called out or if he was so convinced I was lying…

“I wouldn’t be so constantly sexually fucking frustrated if I’d been fucking to get these pacts! If there’s anything different about Asmo’s pact it’s that I’m already fucking horny all the time around you guys!” My cheeks were burning and I was trying not to look at him, my looking down at my hands instead, and he pulled his back, but I kept mine there on his belt, my breath hitching abruptly. “I just get a fucking boost of it whenever I touch any of you, and it’s stronger with the ones I’ve made a pact with. Or the ‘sins’ that I’d be more likely to do back home.”

My fingers almost moved of their own accord to creep under his shirt and I realized I was being affected by him too. “Which is probably why right now, with Asmo having teased the fuck out of me before this, and touching you, I’m so fucking annoyed that I want to ride your dick until you just fucking shut up and stop arguing with me.”

My fingernails were already dragging across the skin of his stomach and his breath hitched again and his hands were on my hips and his shirt was half-way off before he even spoke. “And how much of that is from…” He didn’t get to finish the sentence because I’d finished pushing his shirt up and dipped down to press my lips against his chest, dragging my teeth across his skin. And I bit him. Hard. He hissed and I pulled back and away from him, realizing what I’d done. And frowned, muttering an apology as he straightened his shirt out.

“I don’t make pacts through sex, but I’m definitely being affected by you guys. And that is part of what I wanted to talk to you about today.” I told him, swiping a hand through my hair. “You know so much about magic, I was hoping you’d have an idea.”

He watched me for a moment, then nodded. “Then let’s make the pact. I’ll be able to get a better read on you once I have.” He cleared his throat, smoothing out the front of his shirt, and spoke again. “I am Satan, Avatar of Wrath, pledge myself to you, Chris… That we may be bound by an unbreakable pact. This I swear to you on both my name as well as the very blood that runs through my veins.”

“I, Chris River Samuels, the Last, accept this unbreakable pact.” Satan raised an eyebrow at my self-given title and I shrugged, a little embarrassed. “It’s a… Thing in my family. My brother was 'the second’ because he was named after our Grandpa, and, as the youngest, I kind of… Gave myself that title.”

Satan laughed at my explanation. And I felt some undue annoyance at it. What I knew was undue annoyance, too. He seemed to notice my mood because he stepped forward and placed his hand on my cheek, looking at me carefully, turning my head to one side, then the other. After a moment I pulled back, frowning.

“What? What is it?” Definitely annoyed.

“We touch you and you feel our 'sin’, right?” He asked me. And I nodded. “And with those you’ve made a pact with, you can feel it even if we’re not touching, correct?”

“Yes.” I was definitely getting some edge from Satan because I felt the annoyance creeping in. And it wasn’t even directed at him in particular. Just a general sort of anger building in me. I started chewing on my lip as he studied me.

“Is it just our sins?” His voice was even, and since this felt very similar to the conversation I’d had with Belphegor, I didn’t have to think about it as hard. Shaking my head, I knew I’d have to explain something.

So I did. Or tried to as best I could. What I felt like I could pick up from the brothers in general, and specifically those who I’d made a pact with. I couldn’t mention Belphegor, but I alluded to the incident with Asmo in the tub [he confirmed he hadn’t noticed anything going on], earlier that day with Mammon, and even just now. How I knew that Asmo hit me differently and my own belief that it was because in the human world that was what I was more prone to. [And let him know that while I wasn’t very wrathful, I did easily get annoyed and was feeling a low level of that from him.] How Beel’s Hunger and Mammon’s Greed [except for that moment of greed for affection] affected me the least.

But also how I’d feel snippets of things from them when they were very emotional. Mostly their satisfaction if they were indulging in their sin. He listened, only asking questions as necessary, letting me continue to explain as best as I could. Including how things had escalated since the retreat. Specifically since Solomon granted me his power. Eventually, as I wound down, he started his questions as he searched through his books for something.

“Would you say you’re an emotional person yourself?” He asked. And I told him that I was. I learned to manage it well enough, but mood swings were still common. “Easily affected by others’ moods as well? Especially extreme ones?”

More things that were true, and I let him know. He pulled out one book and started flipping through pages. “Clearly you’re an empath. But Lucifer had checked for all kinds of magic when you’d arrived, which means that somehow the magical aspect had been locked somehow. Strange that Solomon had been able to unlock it. His spell shouldn’t have been able to unless he’d been involved with sealing it and–”

I’d pulled up the hem of my shirt, exposing the tattoo on my stomach and wishing I wouldn’t regret this. He was bound to me though, I could order him not to tell anyone. He looked up from his book and saw it. And stared, open mouthed.

He definitely recognized what it was.

“I got this before Devildom. Before ever meeting Solomon.” I explained. “My ex booked us appointments for cheap tattoos and I did some basic research and found it and thought it was for protection and the idiot barely even got it into my skin right - definitely not magic, by the way.”

Satan was reaching forward and I let him trace it briefly with his fingertips. There was a flash of power at the touch and he was in his demon form. Not the one I’d seen him in at the formal dance at the retreat. but a far more pure demon form, with a glow and bones showing through his clothing, one that I had glimpsed of from a few of his brothers when they were angry. But he wasn’t angry. And it wasn’t quite… Whole. Like an image flickering over him. He pulled back his hand and he returned to as before.

“Solomon basically made the seal into a true one.” He said. “Like his ring. He basically gave you the power he held without meaning to.” He paused, looking down at his pages again and flipping to another page before holding it out to me. It was an old text about the Seal. “He basically made what was a bad tattoo into a copy of the ring on your body. Except that since it wasn’t meant for you, it’s not reacting the same.”

“What do you mean?” I paused, and decided to answer the more important question first. “Can he control me through this? Or… Or you guys?”

“No, I don’t believe so, not unless you made a pact with him to allow him to. But what I mean is, this seal was given to him by the angels and was intended to be controlled with wisdom. But – and I don’t mean this badly – you act based on emotion. Or at least your magic is meant to.” The pages talked about how the seal worked for Solomon. In vague detail, since this was written for demons, it seemed. Talking about what it could make the demons do and why it was so rare. “I don’t know exactly what it’s doing, but we’ll have to figure it out.”

I nodded, my head feeling a little dizzy at this. I was glad that it didn’t mean he could control me, but… I was definitely feeling frustration from Satan. He definitely didn’t know what to do right now and it was hitting me so strongly that I had to sit back down.

At least I was getting somewhere though.