Chapter 4- Babysitting

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The second the threat left my mouth I immediately regretted it. A sharp sneer formed on the demon's pale lips as he tightened his grip on my shoulder. I could feel the faint talon-like edge of his claws as he spoke, darker this time. "You should be careful, addressing your superior the way you just did, Miss Avaron. I didn't claw my way into the Vatican so I could be called a bastard. Anyway, you're aforementioned statement is erroneously incorrect; I just want what's best for my darling little brother."

"Bullshit. You've got him scared out of his mind—"

He held up my pistol, revealing that the bullets had been replaced with magnum rounds. My eyes widened. I kept my stronger bullets in a locked jewelry box on the bookcase. How could he…?

"Now, now, I suggest you calm down. Wouldn't want an accident to happen... like an exorcist losing her mind and shooting herself. That would be quite a pity."

I bristled at the blatant threat. My face must have showed my apprehension as the demon king chuckled, throwing the gun harmlessly to my bed. He released my shoulder, moving back to rest on the edge of the footboard.

"Actually, I have a favor to ask."

"You've got a shitty way of asking for a favor; it may be a demon thing, but humans generally give compliments, not threats as a way of getting what they want." I replied honestly.

There had always been something about the guy that had rubbed me the wrong way. Even before I knew he was the demon king of time and space I always got the strangest urge to punch him in the face. My hatred probably had something to do with his backhanded comments and flowery speech. I wasn't one for metaphors or petty speeches; I'd let you know if I liked you or not to your face. This was probably why my only real friends were Shura, who shared a similar sentiment, and Shiki-san, who was sort of like a crazy uncle to me.

He guffawed again at my words, peridot eyes narrowed with mirth. "Ah, a funny one, I see. How delightful~! Anyway, I am being completely serious. Amaimon is in a weakened state right now—"

"And whose fault is that?" I interrupted, unable to hide the edge of sarcasm that filtered into my voice.

Mephisto ignored the malice, continuing on, "and as such, would become immediate prey to exorcists and other demons. For lack of better words, I need a babysitter. I'd protect him, but alas, the Order wouldn't be too happy with having two demon kings running around."

"No kidding, clown." I mumbled, sitting on my writing chair. Nothing about this situation (or conversation) made sense. He threatened me, laughed at me, and then asked me to watch over his younger brother. Still, I had to make sure of one thing.

"Let's say I agree; what's keeping me from killing Amaimon?"

He gave what I assume you would be a sweet smile- if it were plastered on anyone else's face. "Ah, I'm not worried about that. I'll check in from time to time. Likewise, you may have a high kill count, but you don't kill without reason. And..." He paused, meeting my gaze, "I may have the information you've been searching for. About the findings in Yemen."

Mephisto— or should I say, Samael, left right after our conversation. To my surprise he fulfilled his end of the bargain. An artificial Gehenna Gate had been created by an 'unknown' organization and threatened to swallow the barrier between Assiah and Gehenna. He had stopped time momentarily, giving the exorcists roughly six months to deal with the man-made monstrosity. Before I could probe the demon further he disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving me with only the barest spindles of despair.

From what I could tell, the purple-haired man cared enough for Assiah that he froze time. I imagine that something like that would require at least a minimal amount of effort, which, thankfully, translated to something along the lines of 'Mephisto won't let Assiah disappear… probably.' Still, thoughts of a world plagued by the flames of Satan didn't exactly appeal to me. With nothing more to go on, I fell into a restless slumber, the worries of the artificial Gehenna Gate overtaking the thoughts of a certain green-haired prince.

I woke the sensation of tapping against my forehead. With an annoyed groan I pushed against the unfamiliar weight, my sleep-deprived mind unable to process the stimulus. It took a good five minutes for me to become readjusted to the waking world, in which I immediately reached for the gun hidden under my pillow.

I pointed the weapon directly ahead of me, opening my eyes. I saw the confused figure of Amaimon before me, the barrel of my gun being the distance between my face and his. He blinked owlishly, as if he didn't know that invading one's personal space in the morning was not normal. And that generally, it wasn't polite to stare. Though, I just chalked it down as another demon culture thing I just didn't understand.

"Do you want to play already?" He questioned, pointing lazily to the gun aimed between his eyes, still leaning towards me from over the side of my bed.

"Get the fuck off." I muttered, dropping the weapon to my lap. The demon's gaze never left mine as he hopped back, moving to sit on the edge of my writing chair directly across the foot of my bed.

Just as I was about to reprimand him for waking me up at six in the morning on a Saturday, Behemoth scurried into the room, momentarily distracting me. The green hobgoblin ran to me, slobber dripping from its mouth. Before I could even let out a yell the demon was upon me, arrowed tail swishing happily. It bounced into my lap, licking my cheek and letting out a purr as I reluctantly scratched its chin, my anger towards its owner assuaged for the moment.

"Brother came by, didn't he?" Amaimon questioned suddenly, motioning to the tuffs of white dog hair by my window. Ah, well that explained a lot. I guess Mephisto got in last night by using his dog form (something I heard rumors about in the Order) and waited in my room till I got back. If I had decided to turn on my bedroom light I would have saw the fur then.

Deciding it was better to tell the truth, I nodded. "Yah, the weirdo showed up. He wants me to watch over you. Make sure you don't kill anything for a bit."

The blue-eyes demon was unnervingly quiet, his gaze fixed to the carpeted floor as he chewed on his uninjured thumb. This time he didn't break the skin as he finally spoke, shuffling into the living room. "I'm hungry… do you have any candy?" I couldn't see his face, but I imagined it was still the same aloof expression.

With a sigh, I got up from my bed, remembering to take the gun with me. I had a feeling it was going to be a very long day. Still, I wasn't one to break promises, and Mephisto had upheld his end of the bargain… if a bit fishily. The least I could do was make sure the green-haired insomniac didn't poison himself by eating baking powder instead of sugar.

It was around two in the afternoon that Shura called my cell. I turned to Amaimon, who had currently taken residence on my sofa, feet propped on the glass table. He had an innumerable amount of empty sodas beside him and a mountain of candy wrappers. I had spent my entire month's salary buying the little shit junk food. He was currently munching on a bowl of popcorn, letting Behemoth snag a few kernels here and there.

"Turn the fucking T.V down. I'm on the phone." I snapped, flipping open the red cellphone. The demon muttered something about women being scary to Behemoth, but complied, turning whatever animated show down (though, to be fair, I was shocked he could be entertained so easily).

"What do you want, Shura." I said with a heavy breath, trying to calm myself down. I didn't need Shura knowing I was hiding the fucking demon king of Earth. It was shit like that which got exorcists fired— and killed.

"Whoa princess, I was just wantin' to chat. No need to sound so pissed."

I felt a pang of annoyance at the stupid nickname; Shura was Shura though, and it was almost impossible to change her mind about anything. Even horrible nicknames.

"I'm not angry, just… tired." I supplied, which was a sort of half-truth. It wasn't even a full day and I was already done dealing with the schizophrenic Earth King. Sometimes he was sleepy. Other times he just wanted to kill things. And most of the time he was fucking starving. He was worse than a child and I had to deal with him for Assiah knows how long.

"Right, right, keep forgettin' that ya have the highest kill count, not including Baldy. Anyway, I was thinkin' we should go out to the bar tonight and get a few drinks. Come on, it's yer turn to buy a round." She chuckled.

"Sorry. I'm not really in the mood."

I heard her sigh over the phone. "Fine. I'll just come over then."

I looked at the demon on the couch and nearly choked. "N-nope. My apartment's no good. I've got a… uh, coal tar problem."

"Yer an upper second-class exorcist for fuck's sake! How can you have a coal tar problem?!"

"I've got to go Shura. I'll buy you some fancy sake next time we meet. Promise."

"H-hey, wait a damn second—" Before the fiery woman could go into a tirade I ended the call, breathing out a sigh of relief. I was safe harboring Amaimon for today at least. But damn, I really needed to get better at lying.

It was roughly nine o'clock at night when I heard three heavy bangs at my door.

"You've got to be fucking kidding me…" I muttered under my breath, shooing Amaimon into my bedroom. Slamming the door shut and locking it, I looked to the piles of junk food which covered my couch and table. To my chagrin, the person continued to knock, louder this time.

"Give me a damn second! I'll be right there!" I looked at Behemoth who sat asleep on the sofa. I grabbed a wool blanket and draped it over him, praying that it wouldn't look like an oval blob was sitting on my sofa. Unfortunately, the blanket did little to hide the demon and with a curse I ran to the door.

"Who is it?"

"Who do ya think?! Open the damn door!"

Shura. Of course. I groaned internally; the woman was too observant for her own good.

"I-I'm not really feeling well right now. Could you come back tomorrow—"

Before I could even finish my sentence my door mysteriously unlocked, revealing a frowning exorcist with a bobby pin in her hand.

"Ya need to invest in a better lock. It took me all of five seconds." She informed, stepping into my apartment. She took one glance at me before scoffing, flicking back her locks of red hair.

"Sick my ass. Ya look fine, Avaron. So, why'd ya not want me over? The real reason. 'Cause I don't see a single coal tar either."

Unable to come up with a suitable lie, I could only follow the flame-haired exorcist as she plopped down on the red sofa just beside the 'hidden' form of Behemoth.

She whistled at the piles of junk food, lilac eyes turning to the blanket. "That's a shit ton of food. Don't tell me there's more hid under here." There was nothing I could do as she ripped the blanket off, revealing the sleeping form of Behemoth.

Her eyes immediately narrowed with anger, gaze fixed to the chain around its maw. Wordlessly, she got up, stalking around my apartment before wrenching open my bedroom door. Looking left and right, she peered at everything in my room—even under my bed, until she turned to the closet door, frowning.

Pulling it open, I saw the huddled form of Amaimon who had tried to hide by removing all of my clothing from their hangers and pouring it over himself; too bad his green spike stuck out of the clothes. It would have been an even humorous moment if Shura hadn't pulled out her katana from her chest.

"Why the fuck is the King of Earth hidin' in yer closet?" She barked, watching as the green-haired demon rose to his feet, cyan eyes narrowed to slits.

Well, shit.

A/N: Lol, that ending though :P Sorry for the delay guys; I'm graduating from high school in less than five days so you can imagine that my life has been more than hectic recently. I finally found some time to write, thank God, but I do apologize for the shortness of the chap/all the dialogue. Still, it's better than nothing, right? Anyway, as usual, I appreciate every review/follow/favorite. The real story's just about to begin so get ready guys ^^ See ya in chapter 5!

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-Isis