Barbatos enthusiast

The act doesn't last for too long, but it's still enough to have the entire student body begin whispering immediately. Almost as soon as you've released his hands from your own, you can hear the hum of too many voices at once surrounding you. At first it feels like white noise, then, suddenly, it's a series of squeals, whines, and affronted conversation from every side. Looking around, you can't shake the feeling of being watched but you've begun to equate that with being near Diavolo. All to say that you don't even register that the root of the commotion is you. Not then, and certainly not a week later when the gossip reaches its natural peak.

Everyone had something to say to you afterwards. It had started with a warning from Lucifer to not pursue something you hadn't been intent to follow through on, but you'd always finished your meals, so he couldn't have been lecturing you about that. Belphie and Beel had given you a two-pronged presentation about the king and what's expected of him and his spouse, but you'd heard plenty of this history from Barbatos already. Satan had given you a crash course on demon courtship and the structure of the nobility, but you couldn't remember which class was holding a test on it. Even Simeon and Solomon had tried to take you around to series of picturesque locations but at this point you already loved every inch of the Devildom, so you weren't sure why they were trying to sell it to you. Every warning, every outing, everyone's behaviour had been so strange that in retrospect you should have known that there was a reason for it all.

It comes when Diavolo marches towards you in the hallway with grace and dignity. Involuntarily, your back straightens and you swallow roughly, caught off guard by his sheer gravitas. He stops in front of you and pulls out a small box from behind him that he opens to reveal a blood red gem the size of a golf ball. It takes a second for you to stare from the stone to his eyes and back and when you don't say anything, you can see the slight twitch in his jaw and brow. You whip your head around to see if there's someone that should be accepting the gem or a structure it's meant to be mounted into but all you can find as you search are the eyes of various demons as they watch on in charged anticipation.

Diavolo whispers your name and when you meet his gaze again, he straightens up even more and speaks confidently for the entire hallway to hear "This gem is made out of my own blood. A gift meant to embody my very soul, to be held by the one I wish to stand by my side". His volume is just loud enough that you feel as if you're being included in a presentation for the students. Considering the showy way he's discussing this ornate thing, you offer your most charming smile and a nod politely

"It's very nice Diavolo. I'm sure they'll be happy to have it" You're reminded of the lesson Satan had tried to give you. A gem made of someone's blood was a deep show of love and devotion. The more blood used, the more sincere the feeling- and with how dense and rich the colour was, you're sure that the prince was ready to give his all to his lover. You try not to be jealous, knowing that there was no way you'd have been able to stand by him, but it does sit a little heavy on your shoulders that he's showing you this in the middle of the hall. Before you can start to take the choice personally, you decide to make your exit. "I have a charms and hexes class next, so please excuse me." and with a wave, you're off.

Again, in hindsight, you should have realized that Diavolo wasn't just presenting you a nice rock like a child in show and tell. Another week had passed since then and while you still didn't understand what that display was about, you did notice that he'd been absent from R.A.D for the last few days. Bringing it up to Lucifer resulted in a scowl and some mumbling about a never-ending headache from all sides, so you decided you'd just go investigate yourself. You knew that Diavolo could be busy, but he usually took Barbatos to royal events and obligations, and the butler had been around. No, something felt different this time and the appalled look on Mephisto's face whenever you waved at him only solidified something was up with the prince.

After school on the Friday, you packed up the rolled hell-cigar cookies you'd made the previous night and beeline it towards the castle. Barbatos meets you with a shocked expression before it settles into a disappointed one. You knew you weren't impressive, but the absence of his usual smile made you feel small and unwelcome. When he says your name it feels like warning. "Please assure me that this visit is not lead by guilt or pity." It's a demand and you blink at him a moment as you try to understand why he'd even say it.

"No, of course not. I don't even know what I could feel guilty for?" And from you it is a question. The butler narrows his eyes and gives you a once over before he folds his hands at his waist and resets his expression. When he opens his eyes, the face he's making is his usual, publicly polite one and you feel a little less on edge but can't shake that something is wrong. "I came to visit Diavolo. He's sick, right? He's been missing from R.A.D for the whole week." The words seem to bring Barbatos to some revelation and he finally steps aside, bowing before offering to lead you towards his master's bedroom.

"Would you enlighten me on something?" the silence had been suffocating and when he asks his question, you jump at the opportunity to end it. "How would you ask someone on a date?" It feels so out of place for the heavy tension in the air, but anything is better than the quiet had been. So, in detail, you tell Barbatos about your ideal date and how you like to be romanced and the sweetest thing someone had ever done for you. You even mention the best Valentine’s Day you'd had and what your partner had done to celebrate, the flowers they'd picked, the dinner they'd planned, even the gift they'd given you. "Ah," he interjects when you're rambling finds jewelry as a subject "So humans do exchange priceless jewels and accessories then? That is commonplace amoung lovers or those in courting?" Nodding along, Barbatos then asks a question that makes you stop walking.

In truth, you don't know what you'd do if Diavolo offered you a jewel or expensive item to court you. Standing in the middle of the hall, the butler turns to face you with an unreadable expression, waiting for your answer to his sweet hypothetical. Desperately, you'd been trying to push fantasies like that away and so, you finally respond with the idea that Diavolo wouldn't try to court you in such a way. The time demon seems to relax his shoulders.

"Humour me." His insistence catches you off guard. "Assume he did try to court you- that he'd approached you in a crowded place and offered you a priceless gift- perhaps a jewel. About yay big" He measures almost two inches with his thumb and forefinger. "If he'd done something so vulnerable and sincere, how would you react to his confession?" And your head is spinning a little. A jewel that large would indeed be priceless and you try to imagine if you've ever even seen one that size. The only thing that comes to mind is the deep red one that Diavolo had presented to you in the hallway last week.

The quiet returns then but this time it's less hostile and more enlightened. The gears finally start spinning and for a moment you feel like the smartest person in the world, shortly followed by feeling like a complete fucking idiot. Without realizing it, you'd begun gawking at Barbatos. Your mouth was hanging open, your eyebrows were in your hairline, and your eyes were so wide they were watering. Despite moving your mouth, there were no words you could think to form and when Barbatos only smiled at you, tilting his head and asking, "Have you realized something?" you finally know what you should feel guilty for.

He offers you a shoulder to lean into as you feel the world fall out from under you. The lights in the hallway swirl in your peripherals but he simply pets your hair and continues to speak. "While I cannot condone the initial response to the young lord's courting, I suppose it can be forgiven under the context that you'd simply not understood his intention." You groan into his lapel at your own frustrating behaviour but he carries on, undeterred. "I must insist that in the future, if you are unsure of the meaning behind a gesture, you ask for clarification before making such a dramatic exit." You hadn't realized how fast you'd ran off then, but Leviathan insists that he'd read on the school's online board that you looked mortified. You groan again.

"I just... can't believe you're alright with this." That's the first thing that seems to make Barbatos still in his consoling you. "He's the future king. I'm a human. Why are you okay with this?" He pulls away enough to look down at your face with an surprised expression but you feel too lost to just wait. "Aren't there rules against stuff like that? shouldn't he end up with some high-class, noble status demon that can help him with everything he'll need in the future? Why are you telling me that Dia was courting me, that he- holy shit he made that out of his blood right? He made that for me, right? Why- I'm just me- I didn't even realize-"

The butler pets your head softly and it seems to calm you, for the moment. Everything feels too heavy, too much and you want to cry and find Diavolo and laugh and kick your feet- When Barbatos speaks again, he's looking passed you and you consider it a courtesy for your current jumbled emotions. "It seems you believe I would rather uphold the traditions of the Devildom than see that my master is happy." Looking up at him, you can see the sincerity in his stare, even as it passes you by. "The young lord is quite fond of you. He would not take a rejection so miserably if it weren't for his genuine affections." You groan again and try to refute the idea that you'd rejected him.

"Yes, yes. You weren't aware that his gift was meant for you." He pets your head again and you offer him another miserable look that he doesn't acknowledge, eyes still locked on something passed your ear. "Now that you are, will you seek him out to inform him of your interest? You are in love with lord Diavolo, are you not?" Of course you are, your crush has been gnawing a hole in your stomach for the last two years. "Then, perhaps, you could try a more human approach to courting. You've mentioned a romantic dinner; shall I prepare something for the two of you?"

"Yes please, Barbatos" The voice behind you answers before you can and when you whip your head around to find it, you're disoriented by the change of location. You hadn't realized when Barbatos had zipped you out of the hallway but somehow, here you were, in Diavolo's bedroom with them both. When the butler excuses himself again, he offers you a final head-pat and a 'good luck' that feels more threatening than anything else. Swallowing hard, you turn back to the prince and when he says your name this time it almost sounds like he's pleading. "I'm sorry for having fumbled my intention. Could we please try again?"

The next day when you arrive at the academy it's to a scrutinizing glare from Mephisto. He's waiting for you outside of the student council office with Lucifer and while both men look exasperated, only the noble seems to be in a poor mood. He shoves today's paper into your hands and scrunches his nose at you, declaring that he'd fulfilled his last-minute edits for the front-page article before marching off. You can hear him mutter something like 'undeserving' under his breath, but the newspaper is the only answer you'll get from him. Lucifer insists that the next picture you let them take of you is a more flattering one.

Sure enough, the image on the front page is you scurrying away from Diavolo while he stands there, stunned and holding what is probably the most priceless jewel in the Devildom with the headline "They said yes". Lucifer pets your head when you need take a breath but he's a sadist through and through. "Perhaps the next time you have a photo taken of the two of you, it won't look like a cryptid sighting". You want to argue but the proof is in your hands and when you enter the office, Mammon and Belphie laughing in your face only confirms it more.

Everyone seems to have known what to expect from before the incident with the hand cream, but despite being late to the party, you can't ay you're upset. When you meet eyes with Diavolo across the large desk where he sits, he lights up the way he always does, but now you can see all the details. His eyes widen, his back straightens, even his smile gets bigger and brighter as he stands to greet you. The idea that you hadn't noticed any of this before feels ridiculous and you shake your head at yourself before you walk towards your desk. After your date the night before, you'd sworn to pay more attention to his tells and the in-betweens. You would do better, starting now.

Except that the moment you sit, the room quiets around you. Briefly, you think they're hunkering down to get to work, but when you hear Diavolo's voice call your name, you realize everyone's looking at you with that same stupefied expression they'd been wearing all week. The prince fidgets and you try to piece together what you might have missed, but before you can, and before your new boyfriend can verbalize what he's waiting for, you hear an exasperated groan from Asmodeus. "Kiss him already! This was cute for a little bit but please! We have lives to get back to!".

You know that trend where girls are doing makeup/skincare, their boyfriend laughs and then it cuts to the boyfriend also in skincare/makeup. Yeah that's Mc and Mammon when Mc's makeup is unfinished and their eyebrows are missing.

Mammon doesn't know what's going on but he's here for it. He's more of a leather man but Mc can dress him up in whatever. He only needed to be corrected once on the difference between Goth, punk, scene and Emo.

Mammon likes rock lobster specifically, plays it in the car when he's taking Mc for a drive.

Pastel Mc may put bows in his hair that are the same colour as whatever accent they are using and he will wear those out.

Leviathan actually researches goths on his own because all he knows are "Goth Mommies" and he knows that probably is not correct since it's also not his usual corner of the internet. Once he is educated he probably now has Headcanons for character a, C, and D being goth.

Leviathan's sure there's a vocaloid song Mc will like, maybe. Music is Lucifer's thing not his, he's just guessing.

pastel Goth? First thing Leviathan thinks of his magical girls, especially if they lean into Lolita.

If Mc can do such amazing eyeliner, then maybe they can help Leviathan with cosplay makeup. Please help him with cosplay makeup, getting even foundation for non skin tones is a bitch.

So Satan had a goth and an emo phase, separately, and is so happy to go along with it. He's pulling out his old clothes and trying to match Mc.

He doesn't have the music but he probably has literature that Mc would like, and maybe they could reenact some scenes classic lit romances.

Satan did not know pastel goth was an option, he likes it. Mc may put bows on him if they include cat ears.

Mammon and Lucifer still have photos from Satan's goth phase. They will share how shitty his eyeliner game used to be (Asmo laments in the background of these photos).

Asmo is already dragging Mc to his room for a photoshoot. He has a whole chest of outfits for them.

Asmo is the most helpful man when it comes to eyeliner. When Asmo is done with Mc they will never have crooked wings again.

probably won't wear the style often, not his game. He is down for pastel goth, and makes it a trend on accident. Also knows all about goth subcultures, mostly from Satan.

Asmo is stealing some of Mc's clothes regardless.

Beel only knows what Goth is thanks to Satan. He doesn't care, but he is curious about if the makeup feels hot or physically heavy.

He doesn't really understand but when he knows Mc likes a song he'll put it on his workout playlist, the one that's just for when Mc is there.

Beel got Mc bat themed cupcakes once, it was adorable.

Of course the emo baby knows what goth is. Do you know how many times Belphegor has gone out in public and got called goth-boy? Too many, and he corrected them all with violence.

If Mc is a pastel Goth their outfit probably reminds him of weird dreams he's had with pastel candies.

Belphegor actively interrupts Mc doing their makeup to nap on them.