“Ow!” 

“If you sat still darling, it wouldn’t hurt.” Asmodeus leaned forward close to their ear, the mixture of his smile and his breath tickled their skin. “Would you like me to kiss you better?” 

“Don’t you mean kiss IT better?” 

“I know what I said.” 

Asmo fixed his posture, his delicate hands deftly working, weaving, one bundle of hair over the other into a tight, intricate design. He hummed to himself, a smile on his face, while he ignored their outbursts every now and again that he had pulled their hair a bit too much. It was a calming action, sitting in (mostly) silence with them sitting between his legs; they spent their time scrolling through their D.D.D., stopping now and again to show Asmo some post on Devilgram that caused him to rant and rave about whatever the picture was of. 

It was fun to play with MC, dressing them up as though they were his own personal doll—but this was different, this was something much more... intimate, than that. It was easy being with them, no need to push to be center of attention because MC’s eyes were always only on him. In his room, in relative peacefulness, he can rest easy knowing their energy, time, and anything in between were all for him; their smiles, their touches, all of it was his and it made him feel as though he were the only one in the world. He wanted to be the only one in their world. 

“Asmo, stop—ow!” 

“I warned you to quit moving!”  

Their hair was so fun to play with; it was calming, really. The pattern of the movements he had to make to braid along with the fun of running his fingers through their hair made him feel like he could close his eyes and do it all day long. One strand here, another there, a quick tie off then he gets to go in for another few strands—the mundane actions that normally would frustrate him brought him a lot of joy so long as they were involved.  

He looked over their shoulder at their phone once more, seeing a text from one of his brothers, asking MC for their time. He pouted, hoping to keep them around for the rest of the night. He tugged a bit on their hair again. 

“Okay-- ouch! Asmo!” they waved his hands away from their hair, leaning their head back so that they could look up at him. “No more, we’re done for the night.” 

“Aw, but my love--” 

“Nope. You’re going to yank my hair out at this rate. We can call it a night—Satan wants to watch this show--” 

Asmo jutted his bottom lip out, gently holding the sides of MC’s face before they moved to leave. Looking down at them, upside down, it was hard to read their face but Asmo didn’t mind. He wanted them to stay and that’s what mattered to him. A soft kiss to the tip of their nose, one to their forehead, and a few to their eyelids that fluttered shut as he leaned in; his voice came out like honey, the hushed tone tickling their face. 

“Can’t Satan record it? I was really hoping that you’d stay.” 

“Well--” 

A few more kisses to their face; the apples of their cheeks, underneath their eyes, barely ghosting their lips. He pulled back a bit to look into their eyes, his face screamed pleading more than it did pout anymore. 

“Please?”  

They looked lovestruck; he could feel the heat in their face, their half-lidded eyes drunk with love that screamed ‘kiss me’ focused only on his lips, their teeth just slightly tugging on their own bottom lip. The very look caused Asmo’s heart to race, his pulse growing rapid—he was sure MC would feel it as their hands wrapped around his wrists. The smile on his face grew devilish as they gave a slow, slight, drunken nod.  

“Yeah... okay. I’ll stay.” 

He smirked against their lips, his hands now moving down a bit to ghost over their neck, feeling them shiver a bit as they let themselves relax completely in his lap. He kissed them gently—to tease—and let his fingertips dance just underneath the edge of their shirt. Asmo giggled before kissing them over and over again, speaking softly in between. 

“Woo-hoo! Another series: done. Hurry up MC, I’m gonna start the next one!” 

“I’m coming, I’m coming.” MC called, rushing over to plop onto the floor-bound makeshift blanket fort with an arm full of snacks to restock their supply. “Don’t hit play yet!” 

“Too late! No time! Gotta play it now!”  

“Levi!” They whined, pushing him over and rewinding the previous 10 seconds they missed just to prove a point while he laughed. 

He bounced back up, pretending to have done it too hard and bumped into their side, causing them to fall over a bit as well. The two of them fought back and forth for a short while, laughing comfortably with each other until their new show’s opening ended—that was when they settled down. MC leaned their head against his shoulder, and Levi suddenly realized the position he was in and stiffened up; he started to get nervous and shy despite being in the same situation time and time again.  

Once the show actually started, it was easy for him to get lost in it and forget the warmth of MC cuddling up beside him, wrapping their arms around his waist and mindlessly feeding him snacks as time went on. As the episode came to an end, however, the cursed black loading screen reminded him once more of his (epic!) predicament. MC nuzzled against him for a bit before sitting up, noticing his nerves plain as day on his face in the very same reflection. 

“I think this one’s going to be good; what did you think about it?” 

“The premise is good but the executions a little slow. If they had used proper elements of a magical girl anime instead of trying to fake it and make their own, it would hold more attention of the viewers but instead they made it seem more like an off-brand mecha and that--” 

He continued on his rant relentlessly, MC wasn’t sure he ever took a breath within it. He spouted off a lot of explanations, most of which they picked up a few words from, but mostly just nodded in silence with a smile on their face. They looked content, happy to listen to him and pretty interested in what he had to say—whenever it was cohesive, at least. Their gentle smile is what caused Levi to pause and stare at them. 

“You know,” he started, “I’m glad you’re here. I’m pretty happy that you’re willing to do this with me.” His face started to heat up, and his face contorted to a pained look as though he were battling with himself to get words out. “I mean, I have no one else to do this with. I’m just--” 

“Aw, Levi,” they teased, a small smirk growing on their lips, “are you trying to compliment me?” 

“No!” A lie. “Let me talk!” 

MC threw their hands up in defense, nonchalantly twisting their lips to the side and eyes following suit as they pretended not to care. Levi took a deep breath before launching back into his speech. 

“I’m just, glad that you like me—and that you like me enough to sit here and do all that gross couple stuff with me, and that you listen to me even if you’re a bit of a normie and don’t understand the golden depth of my reviews, and--” he quickly started to spiral into a nervous, embarrassed fit and fidgeted with his hands, “and you know I just, I... I lo- lov- I lo-” 

The more Levi stuttered, the worse he felt. As his heart started to leap out of his throat, he could feel it breaking into pieces; this wasn’t how he wanted to do it. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Now he looks like a complete fool—MC wouldn’t like him back after this! Even if they were already dating—they'd definitely want to leave after this, he certainly did. His eyes shot up from his hands to their own eyes as their hands covered his. Their smile was so gentle, he almost shattered into pieces under the sheer intense pressure he found himself under. 

“Hey,” their teasing tone replaced with something he’d describe as angelic, “if you can’t say it out loud, go ahead and use this.” 

It was only then that he realized they dropped his phone in his hands. They tilted their head and smiled even brighter, knowing just what would make him feel better. His hands shook as he typed out a text message to them at lightning speed, thumb now hovering over the send button; he closed his eyes shut tight as he hit send and groaned, throwing himself backwards and laying on the floor. He complained to MC that they insist on making his life difficult, when all he wanted to do was watch anime.  

‘I love you. I wanted to say it without stuttering, or in some cool like, shojo-style way since it was the first time, but I ruined it.’ 

Levi was almost too afraid to look at his phone whenever it went off. 

‘Sit up.’ 

Reluctantly, he did as he was told and had already opened his mouth to complain, apologize, deflect, anything he had to do to save face but instead of needing to save it, MC held it instead. 

Gently, they cupped their hands around his face and leaned in slowly, only kissing the tip of his nose. The small kiss was so full of affection, Levi wondered if he was going to cry; his body relaxed a bit, his face melting into their hold as he looked at them through his lashes and a pout on his lips to offset the look of love in his eyes and blush on his face.  

Words didn’t need to be said. He didn’t need to say it again, they didn’t need to say it to him. He didn’t need to ask them to kiss him again, they leaned in again and gave him a deep, loving kiss. When they pulled away, he stared at their lips until they leaned in again and again. His heart was racing and he felt as though he were on Cloud 9; he didn’t know what he did to deserve this, but he thanked whatever god may have had a hand in it. 

“Calm down, calm down—we have enough photos for everybody!”  

“Mammon, we’ve got another one asking if we have any of ‘Lucifer sneezing’. Why are they so specific?” 

“It’s funny, and he’s vulnerable; the perfect photo!” 

“Do you... have one?” 

“Nope! Tell ‘em to think bigger!” 

Mammon lost MC in the crowd again as succubus and demon both surrounded him, looking to get their hands on exclusive photos of his brothers. He was all smiles, laying his charm on thick to get as much money as he could out of all the suckers—30,000 grimm for a photo of Satan asleep on a garden bench? 500,000 grimm for a photo of Asmo in a face mask? These people were fools and he was ready for the bountiful gold harvest. 

Luckily, MC agreed to help him. They said they were only in it so long as they got a cut of the profits, but Mammon knew better; they were always the person he turned to for shenanigans because they were the only one willing to jump head-first into anything with him. He scanned the crowd for them again, his smile growing even wider when he caught sight of them smiling with another demon, a devilish glint in their eyes as they exchanged a photo for cash.  

All was going well—they were almost out of photos and they had made an absolute killing; Mammon even had a card reader for his D.D.D. where that direct deposit tasted so sweet. Even better—not a brother of his in sight! No Lucifer, not even a Diavolo! He looked over at MC who gave him a knowing smirk and a thumbs up. Mammon felt as though he were surrounded by the sun, the comfort of finally winning wrapping around him like a blanket—it didn’t last long. 

With a crowd this big, it was sure to draw attention sometime; despite its size and the large amount of people pushing and shoving to get to the center, Mammon could still pick out the ever-authoritative Lucifer among them all. His fever dream snapped and started crumbling within seconds; he called out to MC. 

“Shops closed! Thanks fer comin’! Time to book it, MC!” 

Hopping off of his makeshift pedestal, MC met up with him; he grabbed their wrist and started to hightail it out of the crowd, pushing, shoving, squeezing through people as he told them off when they complained. He could hear people behind the two of them complain more about being shoved and others squealing over the appearance of Lucifer. For a split second, Mammon considered staying within the confines of the crowd, just running in circles between people to keep the distance between the two of them and the ball of fury that was on his way—it was a short-lived plan as he realized Lucifer was starting to disperse the crowd; what was he supposed to do? What was he going to do? He nervously called out to MC. 

“Hey uh, got any ideas?” 

They clicked their tongue and flipped the script, grabbing onto his wrist and pulling him along instead. 

“Follow me and keep your head down!”  

They lead him in a zig-zag motion through the people before bursting out of the crowd straight into an alleyway where they ran as fast as they could. They made their way through various streets, alleys, anywhere they thought they could get away from Lucifer; whenever they thought they were far enough, they ducked into one last alleyway and hid behind some stray boxes and trash cans. They both collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily and lounging as though they were about to fall over completely and pass out at any moment. Once they both caught most of their breath, they finally looked at one another and started in a fit of giggles, steadily growing to a stomach-aching laughter. MC started to settle down first, wiping away a few stray tears while Mammon worked on slowing down back to giggles. 

“You know,” MC started, pausing to take a few breaths, “Lucifer’s going to make us give all that money back.” 

“Yeah,” Mammon could hardly get out through his laughter. 

“We’ll probably be punished severely.” 

“Yeah.” 

“I’ll just blame it on you.” 

“Hey!” Mammon pointed an accusatory finger in their direction. “You were in on it too! Don’t leave me hangin’ like that!” 

“Every person for themselves,” they stuck their tongue out and bit it, a smirk on their lips. 

Mammon glared at them, though it wouldn’t be for long since their smile turned to a shit-eating grin and he couldn’t help but reciprocate. They moved closer to him, tapping his chest with a fire in their eyes. 

“Besides, he won’t know about the money on Goldie if we don’t tell him!” 

Mammon’s smile grew from ear to ear, a warmth growing in his chest like a ripple with each tap of their finger. He didn’t realize they had moved so close, but he felt so warm and comfortable, he couldn’t help but look at them with a soft, loving look in his eyes. He spoke before he could think. 

“See? This is why I fell in love with ya, MC.” 

Their widened eyes staring back at him snapped him out of his love drunk gaze. He could feel his face heat up along with his chest this time, his eyebrows drawing together in false anger in an attempt to backtrack what he had said. His eyes darted around, looking everywhere except into MC’s, biting his tongue a lot as he tried to stammer through a few words, a few excuses, none of which were successful. He kept trying to turn his face away from them, but they simply followed his gaze, an evil smirk following his eyes around. 

“Quit it, will ya?” He closed his eyes and turned his face away again, “Forget it.” 

“Oh, come on Mammon, tell me what you said.” 

“I said nothin’!” 

“Something about falling in love with me?” 

“No!”  

Mammon stopped his back and forth arguing with them after they put a hand over his, leaning in dangerously close to his face. MC pushed his sunglasses up, taking a good look at him; he swallowed hard and found it almost impossible to look into their eyes, but pushed himself to do so anyways, even when they leaned all the way in and gave his lips a gentle kiss. 

Starstruck, lovestruck, whatever kind of struck he was, he couldn’t move. He couldn’t close his eyes, he couldn’t kiss back, he just sat there with wide eyes and his face as dark as it could go. MC didn’t stay long, pulling away with an innocent smile this time, reaching up to grab his chin gently and shake his face back and forth. 

“Well, you’ll have to love me later. Right now, I think we gotta get going.” 

They stood quickly and pulled him to his feet, taking off without him, laughing at him whenever he called out for them to wait. He sighed, both exasperated and in longing, and watched them as they went; maybe he’d take this money of his and take them out to a nice dinner for once. 

“Mammon...” A booming voice came from right behind him. 

Beelzebub watched as MC sighed once more, like they had been for the past hour as the two of them struggled to study. They were both struggling with the material being taught in class, but the weight of it had been weighing more on MC than it did him. 

“I’ll never be able to understand this. I’m going to fail and if I fail who knows what Lucifer will say—what will Diavolo say? What will Diavolo DO?” 

“I’m having troubles with it too,” Beel said between the bites of his sandwich, “so you won’t be alone--” 

“But you can take them if they get mad at you!” 

“I mean, not really...” his voice dropped off and took another bite, placing his other hand beneath MC’s forehead to stop them from injuring themselves as they continuously smacked their head against the table. 

Another sigh came from them before they laid their head on top of his hand, admitting defeat for the umpteenth time that day. Beel held out the remainder of his sandwich as an offering for a sympathy bite, which they took in a slow, sad manner.  

“It’ll be fine, MC.” 

They responded to him with a grunt; Beel knew they didn’t really believe him. He read through the chapters and notes again quietly, hoping to find something he could understand and help MC with. MC stared off into space the remainder of the night while Beel quietly kept at it, reading and keeping his hand in place as a pillow. 

The next morning, Beel waited for MC at school, surprisingly early for once. MC was surprisingly late, for once. Instead of rushing up to him, Beel watched MC shuffle up to him with their head hanging low, eyes stuck to the floor only to rise slowly once they bumped into his chest. 

“I’m sorry--” 

“Are you alright?” 

“Oh. Good morning, Beel.” 

He frowned, taking notice of the state they were in. After handing them the snack bag he had been eating from, letting them munch a little bit before they had to head to class. Carefully, he tamed pieces of MC’s hair that had been a bit crazy, hoping his silence would nudge them into telling him what had been wrong; instead, they fell forward and bumped into his chest again, staying there for a little bit before standing back up straight. 

“MC, did you get any sleep?” 

They smiled weakly at him, hoping to deflect his question; they stared in a tired disbelief up at him as he gently cupped their face, a disapproving look taking over his features. 

“You didn’t.” 

“I didn’t.” 

“Why not?” 

“I had to keep studying.” They sighed, their body tensing up and their voice growing higher and more distressed as they kept talking, “I had to keep studying because I had to learn it because we have that test today and I couldn’t fail—I can’t fail because then I’ll be in trouble and then--” 

“Shh.” 

Beel was never very good at words, but he always did his best to speak through actions, and now was no different. Holding their face, he carefully wiped away the tears that started to fall from their eyes out of frustration and exhaustion. He frowned and gently rubbed the dark circles beneath their eyes and let them cry a bit more, continuously wiping away the tears as they came up. Leaning down, Beel placed a soft, feathery kiss square between their eyebrows; he moved and continued his barrage of kisses, ever so lightly, across their entire face. Their eyelids, underneath their eyes, their nose, cheeks, forehead-- wherever he could get his lips to comfort the person who mattered to him most.  

Their hands wrapped around his wrists as they allowed their face to melt into his hands and his kisses. Once the tears had stopped, they whispered a faint ‘thank you’ that Beel hummed a response to. After standing together in silence for a moment, Beel moved to run his thumb over their cheekbones before pulling their head closer to his chest, resting his chin on the top of their head. 

“You’ll pass the test,” they felt his voice rumble through his chest, “I’ll ask Satan to help.” 

“You will?” 

“Yeah.” 

“What if he says no?” 

“I’ll offer him lunch.” 

MC laughed, wrapping their arms around him now that they felt comforted. Knowing that Beel cared about them enough to show love in such a gentle and expressive way was enough to expel any negative emotion they’d have all day. Their sigh this time was one of relief as they laid their head against his chest, listening to the rhythmic beating of his heart. The two of them stood together until the bell rang, signaling the beginning of class; they listened to the rumble of Beel’s chest one last time before going on their way. 

“If you still fail, I’ll fail too.”