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with-love-from-hell · 8 months

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5 Sides of Human

{Part Thirty}

Genre: Mixed WC: ~6k CW: description of what happened in lesson 16, suicidal thoughts/expression, heavy tension/angst and anxiety, flashbacks, trauma, implications of physical and sexual abuse, death mention, swearing, Storm has a stutter but I am not depicting it with written word consistently, prolly lots of typos lol, spoilers for season 1&2, I'm skipping over/changing some things I didn't like in the main story so it will be a bit different from canon! Series Masterlist

©️ artwork commissioned by @vivi8bit©️

Asmo skipped out of Lucifer's room, Heart and Sarah in tow, with the intent of getting some different albums from the attic. It wasn't long before Sarah's attention was stolen by Mammon, who suggested going out to the club. Since Lucifer was experiencing memory loss, there would be no better time to get away with stuff they normally wouldn't, he reasoned. That was enough to convince her, and the two peeled off from Asmo and Heart just before reaching the stairway to the attic.

"Why would the photo albums be up here?" Heart asked as they slowly climbed the spiral stairway.

"Well, Belphie is kind of like the record keeper of the family." Asmo smiled fondly. "Besides, He was forced to spend a lot of time up here during the last exchange program, so Lucifer made sure he had some things for comfort, and he told me he had looked through a bunch of photo albums when he missed us."

Heart nodded, but then Asmo's words sunk in further. They stopped half-way up the stairs, staring curiously at the 5th oldest brother.

"Wait...forced to spend time up here? What do you mean?"

"O-oh...that's right..." Asmo's smile faded as he stopped in his tracks. "Um, well, that's something we can talk about later."

Heart raised a brow, unsure of how to respond. Once Asmo picked up his pace again, Heart followed, making a mental note to ask about what was going on later.

Once at the top of the stairs, Heart nearly slammed straight into Asmo, who had parked himself right outside the attic door. Before Heart could offer a teasing comment, Asmo pressed a finger to their lips, seemingly trying to hear what was going on in the attic above them. Faintly, they both could hear crying, and pleading for forgiveness. From what, though, they couldn't quite make out.

"What's going on?" Heart whispered, trying to see inside the slight gap in the attic door. "Is that Belphie?"

Asmo sighed, gently closing the door again and turning to Heart. He made his voice as quiet as he could. "Yeah, I think so."

"Is he okay..? Should we check on him??" Heart tried to turn the knob, but Asmo pressed his hand on top of theirs, stopping the action.

"We should leave him. He gets really aggressive when he's like this." Asmo sighed, intertwining his fingers with Heart and leading them back downstairs to Asmo's bedroom.

The entire way there, the pair was silent. Heart wondered what was going on with the youngest brother, and why Asmo seemed to be hiding something from them. It didn't sit right with them at all. Asmo told them everything- often it was hard to get him to be quiet for even a second, unless they were shutting him up with a kiss. But now, the once excited demeanor Asmo had for reminiscing on good memories was replaced with an anxious, timid energy.

Once they reached his room, Asmo looked around the hall to ensure no one was near. Then, he slowly closed the door, turning to Heart, but not looking in their eyes.

"Can you keep a secret? Like, just between us?"

Heart swallowed, feeling anxiety well in their stomach. They sat down slowly on the edge of Asmo's plush bed, gripping the sheets tightly in their fists. "Uh...yeah, i guess so..?"

Asmo nodded, continuing to stare at the floor. He said nothing.

"Asmo...What's going on?" Heart sighed, their eyes pleading with him to tell them what was on his mind. "You can talk to me."

Asmo wrapped his arms around himself, trying think of where to start. "Well...It's a long story...Please just...don't freak out..."

"Saying that doesn't exactly make me feel confident that I wont." Heart scoffed, teasingly.

"I'm serious, babe." Asmo whined, approaching them and cupping their cheeks in his palms. "I don't want anything happening that could stress out Stormy more."

Heart paused, but eventually nodded in agreement. Asmo breathed a sigh of relief, settling on top of his bed cross legged. He was quiet for a moment, seemingly trying to gather his thoughts.

"...When Diavolo first suggested the exchange program, Belphie was not happy..." He started with a sigh. "Belphie used to really hate humans before Storm. Like, HATED hated. We had to ban him from going to the human world after he started just casually sneaking off to torture innocent humans when we had first fallen."

Heart's eyes widened, fear making his heart rate jump. "W-why? Why did he hate humans so much?"

Asmo paused. "We used to have a sister. Lilith, was her name. I know you learned about the war in history, and how it was started over an angel falling in love with a human. Well, that was her. The human she fell in love with was dying, so she stole some life-giving fruit from the celestial realm to give to him. Obviously this was forbidden, and when Father threatened to kill her, Lucifer gathered us together and we revolted, and the war began."

Heart nodded as Asmo talked, intently hanging on every word.

"During the war, Lilith was killed. Belphie blamed the human she fell in love with for her death and us losing our status as angels, and thats when he started hating them." Asmo paused, sighing. "At the time, none of us but Lucifer knew, but Lilith was reincarnated by Diavolo and Barbatos as a human to prevent her soul from fading away. If we would have known...maybe Belphie wouldn't have..."

Heart grabbed Asmo's hand, squeezing it gently as tears formed in the demon's eyes. "Wouldn't have...what?"

"W-well...Because of the risk he posed to Diavolo's plan, Lucifer had Belphie locked in the attic for the first exchange program, while we believed he had been sent to the human world to learn more about humans." Asmo shook his head, giving a sarcastic chuckle. "It's stupid that we even believed that for a second. I mean, Belphie would torture and kill humans without a second thought. Why send him up there where he could do more damage?"

"Okay, so that's what you meant when you said he was forced to stay in the attic." Heart paused, trying to fit the pieces together. "But what happened to where he can be out now? What changed his mind about humans?"

Asmo closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. "Storm. She changed him."

"...How?"

"I'm not sure what started it all, but Storm found out he was locked in the attic. He..." Asmo swallowed, trying to hold back tears. "...He tricked her into helping free him, making her believe that the reason he was there to begin with was because Lucifer was a sadistic dictator. I don't know if she really believed him or not, but She's...she's a bleeding heart. She just wanted to help him and fix the tension between him and Lucifer."

"He tricked her? What do you mean..?" Heart squeezed Asmo's hand, anxiety rising in his stomach. They pushed it down as best they could, trying to make well on their promise to not freak out.

"Well...I'm not sure how she over-rode Lucifer's magic, but Storm managed to free him...And...And..." Asmo stuttered, tears finally pushing past his eyes. Flashes of Storm's lifeless, mangled body flooded his vision as he squeezed his eyes shut, trying his best to continue on with his statement.

"And..?" Heart grabbed his other hand, their heart thumping loudly in their ears. "What happened, Asmo?!"

Asmo opened his misty eyes, lip trembling as he whispered out the dreaded words. "He...Killed her."

Heart felt their stomach drop, a mixture of anxiety, confusion, and anger clouding his thoughts. "What? How could...That doesn't make sense! She's still alive! How did-"

"I know it's confusing, babe...but please..." Now it was Asmo's turn to squeeze Heart's hands for reassurance. "I'm not sure what happened after that- it's still kind of hazy...but basically Barbatos combined two timelines together, so...that timeline Storm died, and another lived. So when he combined them together, the dead Storm disappeared...or well, I guess her memories and experiences got absorbed into the living Storm..." He paused, wincing at the blank stare Heart was giving him. "I don't expect you to understand it completely, but...that's what happened. He threw her off the banister after torturing her...we watched her die...then her body just vanished and she reappeared where Belphie had thrown her from. I still can't make much sense of it myself, but that's what happened..."

Heart took a deep breath, trying to calm the anxiety from spilling out. "Okay, I guess I can see what you mean...kinda...but...he killed her?! How could you guys move on from something like that?! Especially since it seems like he did it in a really fucked up way...not that it would be better if he just like, stabbed her or something, but still!"

"Well, Diavolo intervened, and that's when we found out that Storm is a descendant from Lilith. She's like, the great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great granddaughter of Lilith. Like, she's at least 12 generations removed, but Lilith is still in her bloodline." Asmo sighed. "Well, obviously once we found that out, Belphie was mortified...after he tried to deny it for like, 10 minutes that is."

"What, so he only regretted his actions after finding out who Storm was?" Heart rolled their eyes. "That doesn't make this much better, Asmo."

"I know..." Asmo sighed. "We all loved Storm for who she was after getting to know her. Finding out she was a descendant of Lilith did change things...Like, it did feel like we were really connected as a family after that, even though not much else changed...But her and Belphie started to get a long. And she sort of...made it her mission to help repair things, even though it wasnt really on her to do that. Even after Storm left though, things were still kind of weird. She's like the glue that kind of holds our broken pieces together. But it still isn't her job to fix us and the wrong we caused her, especially not after what happened with Belphie."

"So did you guys just try to forget about it and move on? That's kind of fucked up." Heart narrowed their eyes, waiting to see what Asmo had to say about the seemingly half-assed apology given to her by the youngest.

"Not really...I mean, kinda? I guess. Storm did say that Belphie gave an apology, and made a pact with her to make her feel safer being around him, since she could control him if she needed to and stuff...and Storm was the one who really pushed us to move on from it, more or less...It's also not like half of my brothers hadn't already threatened her in some way...but this was definitely different. Anyways, we all still think about it. Especially when Diavolo said more humans would be coming. I was really scared that Storm would have just been a fluke, and Belphie would still hate humans. And I think that was sort of true, until Belphie met Fern. Now he seems to have completely come around."

Heart shook their head, trying to wrap their mind about what Asmo had just told him. "This is...Jesus, this is a lot."

"I know," Asmo sighs, "that's why we don't really talk about it much."

"Am I the only other person outside of you brothers that knows?" Heart asked pointedly, trying to gauge if this is something he truly did have to keep secret.

"Well, Diavolo and Barbatos know...and Solomon and Simeon know...but none of the other humans know, and Luke definitely doesn't know." Asmo glanced at Heart, giving them a weak smile. "I trust you, and I wanted someone that I could talk to about this. . I know everyone still thinks about it, but no one ever wants to speak about what happened. Like, I think they think it means that she might die again."

"So that's why everyone got so weird about the pacts?" Heart asked, trying to make sense of the conversation with Diavolo.

"Yeah." Asmo confirmed, giving another sigh. "And Belphie gets really depressed when anything regarding Storm's mortality is mentioned, or she gets hurt or something. I know he regrets what he did...and I don't think he'll ever forgive himself for it."

Heart paused, trying to chew on Asmo's words. "I'm not sure what to make of all this, but I guess some things are really making sense now."

Asmo shrugged. "I don't know...I don't expect you to do anything with this, but it felt nice to talk about it...No one else can know, though. Not Fern, Not Sarah, and definitely not Vivi."

Heart sighed reluctantly, but agreed. He didn't like having to hide this knowledge, especially from Fern, who they knew had a thing for the youngest brother, and were objectively the closest to him. But they knew that Asmo had a reason as to why he and his brothers didn't tell the other exchange students about this. Besides, dropping a bombshell like this and causing a slew of chaos when Storm was already going through enough seemed like a bad idea. Eventually, they knew that this was something they would have to talk to someone else about. The intensity of the situation definitely required it. But for now, they gathered Asmo in a tight hug, giving him promise that things would be okay.

Four days had come and gone quicker than one would have wanted them to- especially if the "one" in question was Storm. Each passing hour that ticked by meant she was that much closer to having her pacts severed from her second family. While she knew that ultimately things would be no different, she couldn't help the sinking feeling in her stomach every time she thought about the ritual Solomon would eventually conduct. She found herself itching for more distractions, catching stride directly in Lucifer's footsteps, who often kept her company late into the night as she completed the various added responsibilities that would usually fall on him. Diavolo's hesitation of shirking Lucifer's responsibilities was warranted, but he ultimately caved in to Storm's insistence that she could handle it. He knew she would be stressed, but she continued to dishonestly assure him that she could handle it.

The attempts to get things to go back to normalcy had not been going well for many reasons. Lucifer was no longer able to provide a sense of order to those around him, and it seemed as if everyone was using his condition as an excuse to cause mischief. On top of that, the stress of the situation with Storm put everyone more on edge, causing them to need more outlets to their emotions- which, unfortunately for Storm, ended up resulting in more engagements in the brothers' category of Sin. What's more, Storm's added stress continued to result in disastrous occurrences happening throughout the three worlds. It wasn't until a section of the RAD gardens had caught fire after repeated strikes of magic lightning that Diavolo forced her to take a step back.

The only individuals besides her who seemed to be on their best behavior were Beelzebub and Fern. The two of them picked up slack where Storm could not, and aided in lessening her stress. Lucifer had also decided to stick very close to her, deciding that she was the most trustworthy ally he had in a house of demons and chaotic humans, especially after Mammon had swindled him into obtaining his credit cards in a game of billiards. As they bonded closer, Lucifer's desires for her company only grew, and it wasn't often that he wasn't seen by her side. If anyone needed to find him, they only needed to find Storm. It was as if he was a lost duckling who had imprinted on the small human, and her nurturing instincts to ensure he was protected only made his desires to be close to her increase.

Today though, would be slightly different. Storm had been called to a meeting with Barbatos and Diavolo, and was requested to leave the brothers (including Lucifer) behind. Reluctantly, she agreed, but demanded that she be allowed to bring someone else along. Ultimately, given how much of a held they'd been the past 4 days, Storm decided on bringing Fern.

"So what's this meeting about?" Fern stretched lazily as they walked side-by-side, admiring the buildings they passed on the way to the castle.

Storm sighs, carding a hand through her tangled mess of hair, which hadn't been fully brushed yet. "I'm not sure. Maybe it has something to do with the ceremony with night dagger? But they didn't say Solomon was coming so I don't think that's it."

"Are they always so cryptic with calling you over for stuff?" Fern scoffed. "Diavolo sounds like kind of a jerk."

"Sometimes, but usually it's just me tagging along with Lucifer, and Lucifer usually knows what's going on." Storm shook her head. "He isn't so much a jerk, it's just that he's royalty, ya know? I think he's just kind of used to everyone doing everything for him without question."

"Psh. Monarchies." Fern rolled their eyes, but still found themselves grateful that Storm bothered to invite them along. Despite feeling annoyed with the demon lord, Fern still had quite the large crush on him. He was relatively pleasant whenever they interacted, and his boyish curiosity was amusing to them. It also helped that he was quite the looker, and Fern tended to have a thing for big muscles.

Storm didn't even get a chance to knock before the castle doors swung open. Diavolo greeted them excitedly, gesturing for them to come with him to the ballroom. In the center of the room sat a neatly set ovular table, which Barbatos had clearly just gotten done setting. various breakfast treats and coffee lain out for them to partake in.

"We weren't expecting you until about a half hour from now." Diavolo commented cheerfully as Barbatos offered to take Storm and Fern's coats.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to be disrespectful. I just didn't want to be late, my lord." Storm curtsied to the future king, and then the butler- nearly forgetting her etiquette.

Fern snorted, finding her display of proper etiquette funny. They plopped down in a chair, balancing it back on two legs. "If I had it my way we'd have been a half hour late, but Storm rushed me out the door this morning."

Diavolo laughed boisterously. "Storm, you're so similar to Lucifer in every way. I clearly made the right choice in picking you to fill in for his duties. And Fern, you sound a lot like me! It's no wonder you and Storm compliment each other so well!"

Fern swallowed, hiding their growing blush by turning their head away. They muttered incoherently under their breath as Barbatos pulled out Storm's chair for her, gesturing for her to sit. She curtsied again as a thanks before settling in next to the green-haired human.

"So, I presume things have been going well since I requested you cut back on your responsibilities." Diavolo smiled and gestured to the side, where a little D rushed over from. They began pouring fresh coffee for Fern and Storm without hesitation. "Though I must say, it's sort of lonely without frequent texts from you all about the chaos that ensues at that house."

"It's been alright, yes." Storm nodded, briefly thanking the little D for their service. They blushed deeply, clearly not accustomed to praise from guests. "Though I have been getting a bit anxious about the ceremony..."

"Pay it no mind until the day comes, my dear." Diavolo sipped his coffee, eyeing Storm's unusual disheveled state over the rim of his mug.

"That's easy for you to say, dude." Fern rolled their eyes, feeling jealousy begin to surge at the pet name Diavolo used for Storm. They took a large bite of a pastry and continued to speak, despite their mouth being full. "I mean, seriously. Is this thing supposed to hurt, or like...what happens during it?"

"I suspect that it won't be pleasant..." Diavolo sighed, dropping his gaze to the floor. "Based on what Solomon has said, it is at the very least uncomfortable. But that's all the information I know as of now."

"Oh..." Fern murmured sadly, glancing at Storm. She smiled back, but through the facade, Fern could see the fear looming. Clearing their throat, they decided to change the subject. "Well, why'd ya call us here, anyway? Did something else happen?"

Diavolo laughed, shaking his head. "No, not at all. I simply wanted to offer Storm a respite from the chaos for awhile. I agreed to have you come along considering how much help you've also been. Tell me, Fern- what's appealing about taking on Lucifer's responsibilities now that his memory is impaired. Before, I don't think we would have gotten you to lift a single finger to help him."

Fern rolled their eyes. "I'm not helping him. I'm helping Storm."

"Yes, but the tasks you've taken up are normally his to do." Diavolo smirked as Fern huffed in irritation, finding their reactions to be mildly amusing, in an adorable way.

"Listen buddy, I'm doing this for Storm. Poo-brain Lucifer is easily much more tolerable than stick-in-the-ass Lucifer, so I'll take it. But don't think I'm doing anything nice for that crusty sleeze ball." Fern grumbled, pointing to Diavolo with their fork. "Once he gets back to normal, he'd better be ready. Because the Anti-Lucifer League is gonna rock his shit."

Barbatos winced at the crass language used by Fern. "I can't say I envy him."

Diavolo laughed heartily. "The Anti-Lucifer league, huh? I must say, I'm curious as to how something like that came to fruition."

"Well, Lucifer's a weenie...So I mean, what other reason do you need?" Fern snickered.

Storm mindlessly sipped her coffee while Fern and Diavolo chittered and laughed, clearly having a riveting conversation about Lucifer's tight-fisted grip on etiquette and formality. She glanced to the side, seeing Barbatos standing eerily still and simply observing their meal. She knew that he too did so much for Diavolo, and rarely got any appreciation for it. Finding the opportunity to make a better impression on him that what he had in the past, she patted the seat next to her.

"Barbatos...do you want to join us?"

Barbatos smiled, grateful that she was considerate of him while Diavolo and Fern chatted with each other. "Thank you, Miss Storm, but I'm content watching you all enjoy the meal I've prepared."

"I feel bad, though..." Storm's gaze dropped to the floor. "Like, you do so much. I think it's only right you get to enjoy this time with us too."

Barbatos eyed her up and down, before a word of support for Barbatos to join them was given by Diavolo, who had overheard her request for the butler to join. With a nod, he elegantly seated himself next to Storm.

Throughout the remainder of the meal, Diavolo re-shifted his focus to incessantly flirting with Storm, and joking around with Fern. Barbatos merely watched Storm's movements from the corner of his eye, now seemingly seeing what the young master found so appealing about her. From the other side of the table, Fern stared dreamily at Diavolo, wanting desperately for his flirting to be aimed at them.

"So, care to tell me how this happened?" Satan sighed, pressing a cold compress to Vivi's head.

She hissed at the impact of the cold pack with her face, but held it still as Satan unfurled some bandages and antibacterial ointment. Their walk home from RAD was completely silent, the only thing known between them was that Vivi had gotten into a nasty brawl with 3 demons in the cafeteria. He had shown up just in time to get her out of a choke-hold from the third demon, who was quickly restricting her ability to breathe. The other two demons, though, had been beaten to a pulp and lay, bloodied and bruised, on the floor.

"Some asshole demon decided to try to take my lunch, so I taught him a lesson." They stated flatly, shrugging their shoulders. "Then his friends showed up, and tried to fight me at the same time."

"You're lucky Lucifer isn't his normal self. He would have had you cleaning toilets at RAD until the end of time." Satan scoffed, pressing a damp cloth to their bloodied arm.

Vivi scoffed, turning her head away from him. Her neck still burned due to the impact of the demon who had gotten the upper hand on her. "It's not that big of a big deal."

Satan paused his movements, eyeing the bruise beginning to form on her neck. "It is, though. That demon could have really messed you up."

"If he wouldn't have pulled that shit-eating teleportation spell, I would have kicked his mother-fucking ass." Vivi snarled, still angry that the demon seemed to know more magic than he had let on.

"I'm serious Vi." Satan sighed, now tending to the claw marks on her arm. "One of these days, you're going to pick a fight with the wrong person. And I don't want to be the one putting you in the ground because of it."

"Whatever. Maybe that'd be better anyway." Vivi murmured quietly, finding it hard to want to live with so much impending hurt they could see on the horizon.

"...What??" Satan paused, staring at her in disbelief. She refused to look at him. After a tense moment, Satan sighed again, intertwining his fingers with hers. "I don't want to see you get killed. I...I care about you, Vivi...Even if that's hard for you to believe."

Vivi paused, shifting the ice pack down so she could get a good look at Satan's expression. The candlelight of his room caused neon highlights to glisten in his emerald eyes, the concern within them shining blatantly through. Never before had someone looked at her like that, aside from Storm. She remained still and unspeaking, not quite knowing what to say in response.

It was quiet for a moment as Satan tended to the various cuts and bruises on her body, being delicate with each part he cared for. Eventually, his attention re-shifted to her black eye, finding himself relieved that it was the already damaged eye that was impacted by the fight, and not her good one. As he tended to her wounds, he decided to try to get her to talk more to him about what she's feeling, and why she acts the way she does in the face of a clear threat.

"So...Why do you fight instead of walk away?"

"What do you mean?" Vivi blinked as he cleaned off her eye, delicately wiping the blood off of the area. "If a demon fucks with me, I stand up for myself. What's more to it than that?"

"Anger and violence are self defense tools, sure. But you clearly have a lot of experience fighting. Not all of it is self defense...I know it." Satan shook his head, now taking the ointment and spreading it over her brow.

Vivi scoffed in dismissal of his question, but in reality she knew the answer- and she had a feeling he did too.

As far back as she could remember, Vivi's life was harsh and unforgiving. The only close relationships she had, both with family and friends, ended in deep betrayal, and from a young age they were taught that they could only truly rely on themself. Everyone else was a liability or a threat, so they chose to keep themselves distanced. As their loneliness and trauma grew, resentment and anger came with it- overshadowing sadness and grief with rage and aggressive behavior. If anyone could understand how that felt, it would definitely be Satan. Maybe that's why she felt a sort of kin-ship with him.

"Well, when did you start fighting everyone in sight?" He quipped, finally finishing applying the butterfly bandage just above her brow. He sat back in his chair, admiring his work, as Vivi processed his question.

"Uh...well..." they squinted, trying to sift through the memories that had begun rapidly passing through her head. "I lost my sight in my right eye at 16 during a pretty intense brawl...but I know I've been fighting since I was a lot younger...Like, 13, maybe?"

"Wow...that's pretty young, all things considered." Satan rested his chin on the back of his hand, remembering his own explosive anger in the first year of his life. He knew he was different than a human- after all, he was Wrath incarnate- but something about Vivi's admission to having been so angry at such a young age made his heart hurt.

"I dunno...It could have been younger though...To be honest, I don't really remember when I started feeling the need to fight..." Vivi winced, pushing away the flashing memories of a large man grabbing and pulling at their body. "...But at some point...all I could feel was rage..."

Satan's expression softened as he saw the gloss of tears form in the corners of Vivi's eyes. He grabbed her hand in his, smoothing over her calloused knuckles with his thumb. He understood the feeling of rage all too well, and he knew that it was a cover for something else. He remembered his own feelings of fear, sadness, resentment, confusion, inadequacy, and frustration during the formative years of his existence, and he knew she must be feeling the same. Given Humans had a shorter life span, though, it appeared as though she didn't have the time that he did to learn to cope and get a handle on the anger. For Vivi, the trauma and bottled emotions resulted in her consumed by it.

There was a moment of silence between them, the only sound being the distant bickering of Satan's brothers down the hall. Satan continued rubbing Vivi's hand, who surprisingly didn't pull back. The silence wasn't tense, no. It was as if there was a mutual understanding and bridge of trust between them, and Satan knew he should consider himself lucky to be extended that trust, especially in only a few months of knowing Vivi. Clearly, she had been through a lot, and found trusting others incredibly hard. Somehow, thought, He and Storm had been able to break through the thick, spiky armor she maintained as a barrier to keep herself safe, allowing her to feel true compassion without strings attached for once in her life.

"Hey..." Satan finally spoke, his voice slightly rasped. "I want you to promise me something."

Without looking up, Vivi sighed. "...what?"

Satan smiled warmly, closing both of his hands over hers. "If you're ever in trouble, I want you to call me."

"I can take care of myself." Vivi grumbled, attempting to snatch her hands away, only to be met with firm resistance from Satan. She glanced up to him, noticing the softness in his eyes. Part of her heart melted at the sight, and a soft blush formed on her cheeks.

"I know you can. But that doesn't mean you should have to." Satan squeezed her hands tightly. "Besides, I think people will stop fucking with you as much if they know a literal demon will give them an ass whopping if they so much as lay a finger on you."

Vivi gave a small scoff, a smile curling onto her lips as she looked away. "Yeah...Maybe..."

"...So..." Satan continued, tilting his head to try to catch her eyes. "What I'm getting at here is that...well...I think we should form a pact."

Vivi blinked, snapping her gaze up to meet his. "Huh??"

"Well, It's pretty common knowledge that humans with pacts can control demons, right? And the pact marks of myself and my brothers glow when Storm feels one of our sins strongly. Like, I've seen it happen. And I'm a pretty powerful demon, you know- which I don't think even many demons would want to anger. So if you're angry, and they see my mark grow, I think they'll back off." He smirked shrugging his shoulders slightly. "And if they don't back off, we can both beat their asses together."

"Why...would you give me control over you?" Vivi shook her head, trying to comprehend the trust Satan was putting into her hands. "Aren't you afraid that I'll use that power to like, hurt you, or something..?"

Satan chuckled, shaking his head. "No, I don't. I care about you, Vivi...and I want to make sure that I can keep you safe, if it comes down to it. Besides, if you were to use the power of our pact to hurt me in some way, It's probably because I deserved it."

Vivi blinked again, dropping her gaze to the floor. She was quiet for a moment, trying to process what her relationship to Satan meant. He wanted to protect her..? but...why? Why did he care so much..?

"You don't have to say yes." Satan added, squeezing her hands tighter. "But I want to do this...and, plus...I think it would feel nice to be bonded to you in a different way."

Now it was Satan's turn to blush as Vivi looked up at him once more. She searched his eyes for any signs of insincerity, or any fleck of malice. She wanted to believe that he cared enough to want to protect her. The way he treated her thus far should be proof enough...but there was a twinge of fear that he would leave, or betray her...just like the others had in the past.

After taking a deep breath, Vivi gave a weak smile. "Yeah...Yeah, I'd like that, I think."

Satan beamed at her excitedly. "Yeah?!"

Vivi scoffed, trying to hide the warmth spreading to the tips of her ears. "Alright, twink...don't make it weird."

Satan laughed, suddenly capturing her in a hug. Vivi was stunned at first, but the warmth emitting from his chest was hard to resist. She wrapped her arms around his back, squeezing tightly as a wide smile crept onto her face. She closed her eyes, feeling the slight burn of a mark being imprinted just above her heart. When they pulled away, Vivi could see the dull glow of a fresh emerald pact mark, just above the line of their tank top. Their smile grew wider as they brushed over it with their fingers gently, already feeling as if they were safer with the mark.

"It suits you well." Satan commented cheekily, offering them a warm smile in return.

Vivi laughed softly, the feeling of butterflies swarming her stomach as she registered what this development in their relationship meant to her. Without warning, she flung her arms around Satan's neck, squeezing him tightly. Tears began to slide down her cheeks, wetting his collar as she softly cried. Though, as he wrapped his arms gently around their slightly shaking form, he could tell that the tears were not that of sadness...but that of joy.

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