AN: This took me way longer than I wanted and I'm still not quite happy about the outcome. There will be conscious effort to be faster, but I can't promise anything.

Have fun reading and tell me what you think.

Dustiness Ford Lalatina had ample experience with negotiations as heir to one of the most influential noble families in the kingdom. Darkness the crusader on the other hand, usually avoided to make use of her aristocratic skills, but she really needed every ounce of knowhow to preside over the unfolding confrontation between two of her most important persons.

Her hotel room would be the verbal battleground between the man for whom she carried the biggest torch imaginable, and the goddess Eris in disguise who had come down from the heavenly realm to become her first friend Chris. The atmosphere could be described as frosty, reaching further below zero as the half-devil and deity stared each other down from across the table.

"Let me extend my sincerest thanks to the two parties involved for agreeing to this meeting and accepting me as neutral mediator," Darkness said in a formal tone, her upbringing as noble dictating to be courteous and professional during important talks.

Sadly, none of the participating parties shared their belief.

First of all Eris, who couldn't hide her disapproval. "I didn't have much choice in the matter as your prisoner. We had to wait until two in the morning for this guy to come back."

Darkness cringed at the obvious venom in Kazuma's voice when he replied to the goddess. "I already apologized for being late and promised it won't happen again. My word still means something in contrast to a certain someone who employs fanatic thugs and gullible idiots with big swords to browbeat others into submission."

Their party leader could be a kind and forgiving man in the right circumstance, but one glance told the crusader everything she needed to know about his current mindset. Eris wouldn't even get an attempt to be courteous from him

"I did no such thing and you know that," Eris said and earned herself an exaggerated eye roll from the half-devil. "Besides, perverting the teachings of a whole religion and arming dangerous monsters with adventurer cards makes you far worse than any made-up failings of mine."

Barely minutes in, Kazuma already looked tired of this argument. "The devil king is defeated and under house arrest in his castle. What point is there to keep going? Why slaughter peaceful creatures for experience points? For what end?"

Eris picked up on his frustration and tried to pick his argument apart. "The gods aren't your enemy. We safeguard this world from evil influence and support the mortals of this realm. Good behaviour is rewarded just as much as bad behavior is corrected and Darkness can vouch for that. She found her way to your party only through my intervention."

It was the first time Kazuma stopped short and had to think about his answer. He looked at his crusader and their eyes met. The sudden attention made Darkness self-conscious about her state of dress. Her armor was perfectly suitable for a formal meeting but not really suited to catch the eye of the opposite sex.

"Although, he seemed to be very interested in the black bodysuit underneath on the few occasions my armor had been stripped away… I still feel his predatory gaze over my defenseless body stretching the thin material to the breaking point… a bit more tension and the fabric could tear... maybe he wants to rip it off me himself… "

Kazuma recognized the signs of his party member mentally checking out to fantasize about whatever her hopeless mind could dream up."I agree, making us meet is one thing I can be thankful to you."

Darkness was embarrassed how emotional she became by his simple statement and Eris visibly sighed in relief to have found a crack in his defense.

Cracks the jaded half-devil immediately filled with several tons of emotional concrete. "Let me ask though, where were you in the months before arranging that meeting? Where were you when Aqua and I struggled in poverty? Where was divine intervention when we both slept in hay filled with manure under a leaky roof?"

The question was purely rhetorical since nobody up there gave a damn and the sudden influx of divine interaction only came from them upsetting their status quo.

"People believe they have this moment of total clarity in their last moments. Dying didn't bring any groundbreaking wisdom for me and I was even more clueless in my second life. Turns out the third time's the charm in my case. Ever since waking up with devil blood in my veins, I finally have the tools to forge my own happiness. Any consequences born from this freedom is a fair price, so your divine buddies can fuck off with their good samaritan act."

Eris had heard enough and stood up, both hands on the table with gritted teeth. "If you don't care about yourself, then think about Aqua! You are squandering her only chance of returning home!"

The loss of composure earned Eris a very sharp look. "Where is this sudden compassion for your senpai coming from? Heaven threw Aqua down here with me without batting an eye!"

Eris became very quiet.

"Come to think of it, doesn't she count as a heavenly gift? Isn't such a gift in the hands of a devil the ultimate misuse? Isn't that the perfect excuse to reveal yourself to Aqua and bring her back from the clutches of the evil Scumzuma?"

The eyes full of vigor suddenly couldn't look at him anymore. "I think you made your point…"

The lack of answers was all the answers he needed. A theory became certainty in one moment of clarity. "There's nothing keeping them from taking her back, isn't there?"

"Please stop…" Eris tried to look away, but Kazuma grabbed the goddess firmly by the chin to reestablish eye contact for his last point.

"They wanted to get rid of her. I was just a convenient excuse to pull the trigger."

Kazuma's statement with no ambiguity or doubt in his voice shattered composure to pieces. The simple truth put out in the open broke her and revealed the cracks, emotions deeply buried forcing their way to the surface as tears ran down her face and wetting his hand. All strength left her body with this outburst and she collapsed into his chest. Frustration rang in every word while Eris weakly hit him with the ferocity of a tired kitten.

Gender equality aside, seeing a cute girl like Eris cry bothered Kazuma on a basic level and enough to give the poor thing a hug. "You care about your senpai very much, don't you?"

She mumbled her answer into his shirt. "I'm on my knees up there every day, begging them to give Aqua another chance. Instead they sent her on a fool's errand and forbid anyone to help. It's a wasted effort in their eyes to help a useless goddess."

Sound of shattering glass startled all three.

Kazuma's eyes widened in horror and he bolted outside the room. There he found the water goddess on her knees amidst the shards of a broken wine bottle, shaking and sobbing hysterically into the floor. His legs moved towards Aqua without thinking to throw his arms around her In a tight embrace.

"Kazuma?"

"Yes, I'm here."

Aqua tried to respond, but all her voice managed to do was more crying and sobbing until she uttered a sentence fragment that pulled at Kazuma's heartstrings.

"Don't throw me away…"

"Shh, it's ok!" he cooed into her ear in a desperate attempt to calm the water goddess. The middle of a hallway wasn't the best place for comfort, so he unceremoniously picked the goddess off the floor and carried her bridal style. She kept sobbing into his chest the whole way towards her hotel room. Several attempts to put her down on the bed failed when Aqua wouldn't let go and he had to lay down with the clingy girl.

As heartbreaking her distress was for him, he found solace in the knowledge that her grief would only be temporary due to her drinking habits. He knew Aqua well enough to recognize his goddess had long passed the blood alcohol threshold where she would remember anything after waking up sober tomorrow. Maybe he would approach the topic in the future more gently and try to soften the mental blow, if Kazuma ever found a way to make this revelation less painful.

Their situations were similar yet very different, because Aqua had it so much worse and he could admit that without any doubt. They both were unwanted by their former peers, but Kazuma couldn't remember anyone actively trying to get rid of him. As disappointed and uninterested his family had become in him at the end, none of them would ever hurt him out of malicious intent. It's the difference between ignoring someone about to fall off a cliff and pushing them down with a kick to the back.

These were the thoughts going in circles inside Kazuma's head while he spooned the whimpering girl and stroked her hair.

"Don't leave me…" Aqua grabbed his arms and wrapped them around her trembling form.

"I won't."

"Promise me..."

He parted her long blue hair at the back to get access to her neck with his lips. "I swear on my own grave. You know I can't lie."

"Yes, you can't… you never lie to me… " She took his left hand with hers and put it on her chest while the other fondled the building bulge at his crotch. "Kazuma… I love you… please love me back… nobody else does..."

Aqua had put him in a tricky situation with her sudden advances and profession of affection. Obviously she needed comfort and it was obviously seven flavors of scummy to have sex with a vulnerable and intoxicated girl, who wouldn't even remember in the morning.

He stopped her delicate hand which had found its way into his pants, pulling it out and giving the back a gentle kiss. "Tonight is not about me. Prepare yourself to be pampered, goddess."

Returning the favor from last night was the furthest he would be willing to go for relieving her tension and stress.

A hand for a hand in the crudest sense of the word.

She showed him a genuine bright smile and untensed, eagerly awaiting what Kazuma had planned. A few flicks of the wrist later her perky bust quilled out from the unbuttoned shirt and once again illustrated how bras weren't a widespread thing in this world.

"You have beautiful breasts." Gently cupping one of the generous mounds in his palm, thumb and index finger reached for her erect nipple to roll it between them. "All of you is beautiful. That hasn't changed since yesterday."

Kazuma stopped his praise and let actions speak, assaulting the silky smooth skin on her neck with kisses and lovebites. The stimulation from his fondling was welcomed, albeit not satisfying enough in her current state. Soon Aqua needily whined for attention elsewhere, signalling her desire by squirming in his embrace and rubbing her thighs together as if she tried to ignite a fire with friction.

"Touch me down there…"

Aqua had the habit to forgo wearing panties despite them being readily available. She wore underwear on occasion during quests when Kazuma could summon the energy for debating the matter, but most of the time the blue goddess went commando. This, combined with their close living arrangements, had the interesting side effect of him having seen glimpses of her privates on a regular basis. Regardless of his familiarity, seeing Aqua's legs part and allowing him access to her shaven honeypot had the expected outcome.

Complete and utter nervousness.

There was no experience guiding his shaking hands beyond referencial material from real and animated porn. As such, his calloused fingertips slid tentatively into the valley between her legs, coming to a stop over a slight elevation and making Aqua take a sudden intake of breath on contact.

"I want you inside..." her hand grabbed his wrist and pulled, until warmth and wetness enveloped his index and middle finger. "Start moving and don't stop until I'm finished."

He fulfilled her wish and had to shut Aqua up with a kiss or risk waking up every single person staying at their hotel with her moaning. Entangled in a heap of naked limbs he stroked his goddess into a quivering, panting mess.

" Kazuma... "

Yes, the goddess writhing under his caress definetly belonged to him with every fiber.

"Kazuma!"

Only he would end up with her as deity of choice.

"KAZUMA!"

Aqua reaching a sexual climax by his hand and basking in her afterglow was one of the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. The disheveled hair flowed down her naked body like blue silk as a small sheen of sweat made her body glisten. She stared at him with a flushed face, calling his name with fondness between deep breaths.

"Hold me…"

He did as ordered, cuddling the drowsy goddess until she drifted into a deep sleep fueled by alcohol and exhaustion. He tucked the soundly sleeping beauty in with a kiss on the forehead and thoughts of tomorrow. She wouldn't remember anything from tonight, being blissfully unaware of her status as an abandoned deity. Kazuma would remember for both of them, fueling his decisions with every last bit.

Spite was as powerful of a motivator than love.

Darkness and Eris stood in the door as he exited the hotel room, Eris beet red with her mouth agape and Darkness eerily silent as he passed them both.

He addressed them both and started with the blushing goddess of luck. "She's too drunk to remember anything about tonight. Spend some time with Aqua tomorrow, would you? Do it for her sake."

Eris nodded, unable to look him in the eyes, which he didn't notice because Kazuma was solely focused on the stoic crusader staring into space.

"I haven't forgotten my promise to visit your home." He put his hand on her shoulder . "We can leave right after a good night's rest and breakfast."

"Great…" Darkness replied, making sure to look straight ahead and avoid eye contact as well.

Kazuma took the hint and turned to leave towards his room. "Now if you would excuse me, I have to take care of something important and don't want to be disturbed for the next twenty minutes."

Eris waited until Darkness and her were the only one remaining in the hotel room. The aura surrounding her friend worried the goddess. Darkness just stood there like a statue, glaring at the closed door of Aqua's room as if she wanted to ignite it by sheer willpower.

"Are you alright, Darkness?"

A stupid quesiton, but she had to ask something.

"The man I love reassured me with a hand that had been knuckle-deep inside another woman to soothe her emotional pain." Darkness's hand gripped the wet spot on her shoulder hard enough to dent the armored shoulder pad. "Now he's in his room masturbating to the image of said woman."

She hit the wall with her shaking fist and put a dent in it. "This type of emotional abuse and neglect would usually arouse me beyond comprehension, but all I feel is unending jealousy."

Eris and Darkness were startled by the voice of Yunyun just around the corner. "The bond they share is something any woman will have to accept when getting involved with Kazu. At this point, him and Aqua are a packaged deal. "

Both turned the corner and saw the two crimson demon girls sit against the wall, legs tucked up and staring pensively into nothing.

"Anyone open to join forces and be done with this?" Megumin asked and earned two intrigued looks from her party members and a nervous eye twitch from Eris. "We all know Kazuma is too much of a coward to choose and make three of us angry. I don't want to waste anymore time fighting a pointless battle and get to the good parts of this relationship thingy."

Yunyun leaned against her childhood friend with a smile. "Fine with me. Remember, I was the first one to propose sharing back when you passed out in the hotspring. I'm still miffed you used the confusion during the succubus hunt to bathe with Kazuma."

"You intend to share him among you? How's that going to work?"

Awkward silence ensued in the hallway after Eris posed the simple question. Saying you want to share the man you desire was a long way away from actually doing it. Each of them couldn't even begin to imagine what such an arrangement would look like in practice.

"We can negotiate the exact details later," Megumin said dismissively under the raised eyebrows of her companions. "How about it, Darkness? Are you in or out?"

Darkness stared at the archwizard with a piercing gaze, making the smaller girl sweat under the intensity. When she spoke, the voice of the crusader was firm and resolute. "Under one condition. I won't be satisfied until he treats me with the same love and care that Aqua received tonight. My family manor will be the chosen battlefield for this task and I demand your noninterference during his stay in my home."

Yunun and Megumin contemplated her request carefully, grinding their jaws as they thought until both finally gave a curt nod to the utter bafflement of the goddess in their midst. The rules of engagement had fundamentally changed and Eris hadn't even understood the previous ones.