Chapter Text
"It's come to our attention that since the ah, cancellation of the great battle, that tensions are running a little high. Productivity is down on all counts. Internal incidents are on the rise and everybody is, well, just a little gloomy. So we've had a chat and we've come to the agreement that it's time for a change." Gabriel grinned at them all.
"And the six of you are going to set the egzample." Beelzebub did not grin at anybody.
"We want you, to get along. It doesn't have to happen immediately. But you're going to start down that road today. Right now in fact."
"We're going to leave you here for a few hours to get aquainted. There will be no usage of abilities, Occult or Etherial. Violators of this rule will be repremanded." They added a little louder for emphasis.
"So." Dagon cut in. "When you say leave us here?"
"We won't be supervising. We know it can be intimidating with your superiors watching so we're -" Gabriel began.
“-Removing ourselves from the equasion." Beelzebub finished for him.
"Right! We'll be just down the hall if you need us! Behave everybody! We'll see you soon!"
There was a sort of stunned slience. The opposing parties trying to figure out if this was some sort of joke or test or something. When the initial disbelief wore off, the silence became awkward.
Michael decided to move first. Partly out of a sense of duty, and partly personal pride. Besides they already had a tentative connection with someone downstairs.
She stood, straightened her jacket and made for the other side of the room. She had noticed her target with some surprise initially, but things did get rearranged a little.
"Ligur, welcome back." She extended a hand. He gripped her wrist and used it to pull himself up out of the chair.
"Good to be back Mikey Baby." He laughed and his chameleon changed to match her hair color. She rolled her eyes, but appreciated the gesture.
Dagon weighed her remaining options, and realized swiftly that it was really no contest. She had never let Beelzebub down before and she wasn't going to do it now. Besides she needed to confirm a hunch. She got up from her chair and made a confident advance on her target.
The pretty one.
"Dagon." She nodded.
"Uriel." The angel answered.
"Uriel, I have a question for you, and we're going to need this to stay hush hush for now." Dagon tipped her head to the far corner of the room and Uriel nodded. When the pair were far enough removed from the others Dagon paused a moment to figure out how to best ask the question.
"Bird-brain, Gabriel. Has he been a little strange lately? Disappearing for a day or so at a time? Extra cheery maybe?"
"He has, yes." Uriel eyed the demon. "He spent weeks trying to get comfortable eating. And since then he's been off to earth here and there. We asked him about it once, and he got very evasive. We think he's picked up some new hobby, but we can’t figure out what he wouldn’t tell us about.”
"I hate to say it, but I'm pretty sure that hobby is Beelzebub."
"What?" Uriel asked loud enough for Dagon to shush her. "What do you mean." she asked quieter.
"I mean as of a few minutes ago I'm pretty sure they're fucking."
"You can't be serious."
"I'm afraid I am. Beelzebub's been doing the same things. They'll just up and leave for days at a time. Scowling much less. Their buzz right? And I don't mean the echo. I mean thizz buzz? Stress tic. High emotions and whatnot. It'll build right up until they dissapear and then when they come back? Gone. It's gone."
"Alright, so maybe they meet, and talk. They would have had to in order to come to an agreement on this. But you can't use that as an excuse to to say they're fucking."
"You just don't want to believe me."
"Can you blame me?" Uriel deadpanned.
"No, I sp'ose you're right. Look, we could go find out. They're off somewhere together right now I'm sure."
"I don't really want to catch anybody in a compromising position. Least of all Gabriel."
"Okay, you stay here, with them then." Dagon pointed further into the room where Ligur and Michael were attempting to stop a rapidly building argument between Hastur and Sandalphon.
"Fine, but I'm not putting my ear up to any doors, that's all on you."
The pair of them slipped out of the room easily but weren't sure where to go from there. The floor they were on was very seldom used. It was the first floor, which should logically be the entry floor, but that's not how the building actually worked.
Much of it appeared to be larger meeting type rooms similar to the one the rest of the beings were in.
"Let's split up. You take that side." Dagon motioned across the hall.
"I will not. If we're going to get caught I want to get caught together."
"Do ya love?" Dagon leered just to make Uriel uncomfortable. And it worked.
"You know what I mean." She brushed past Dagon. "C'mon then I'm starting without you."
"Alright."
They passed room after room, all empty. Finally the last two rooms across from one another at the very end of the hallway. They stopped a few feet away.
"Last chance to go back and avoid anything we might run into." Uriel whispered.
"I knew you lot were cowards."
"Why are you so interested in this?" Uriel gestured between the doors. Dagon took a moment to answer.
"I'm Beelzebub's right hand, and they're the only real friend I've got. They've told me all sorts of things. But nothing about this." Dagon paused. "Why did you come with me if you aren't curious?"
"You came right up and asked. I appreciated that. Why did you, anyway? Why me?"
"One, didn't like the look of that other one. Not much going on behind the eyes. I get enough of that downstairs. Two." Dagon took a deep breath. "We match. I liked that."
"We do?"
"A little bit." Dagon thumbed an iriddescent scale on her cheek.
"Oh. We do."
"Right. Enough with that. Which one do we check first?" Dagon quickly brought attention back to the matter at hand.
"This one." Uriel picked the door on the left side of the hallway.
"On three then?" Dagon asked, Uriel nodded and she counted down. "One, two, THREE!" They stepped into the doorway and found what they had been dreading. Although it wasn't exactly what they had expected.
It was a somewhat comfortable break room. Not too large, but large enough for a lunch table, a decent couch, and some other functional furnishings. On said couch was Gabriel. Unnecessary, but stylish glasses perched on his nose as he read. He had pulled a low table over to rest his feet on. Beelzebub was very soundly asleep draped over his lap, their head on his shoulder.
"Hello ladies." He didn't seem at all surprised to see them. "Everything going alright?"
"Yes. Just fine." Uriel answered quickly.
"Li'l bit of a dust up, but nothing to wake the boss for." Dagon made short gesture at Beelzebub.
"Well, good. I'm glad things are working out." He continued as though he did not have the Prince of Hell snuggled against him. "Since the two of you seem to be getting along so well why don't you take the rest of the day. Let the rest of them work it out for themselves."
"Right. Alright." Uriel was already backing out of the room.
"Yep, thanks okay." Dagon was right behind her. "It's worse than I thought." She hissed when they were far enough out into the hallway.
"You already thought they were fucking!"
"No, they clearly LIKE each other!" They headed back down the hallway with no real urgency. They paused outside the room where they began. They could hear shouting from behind the door. "Do you want to get a drink?" Dagon asked. Uriel looked at the door and then her new co-conspirator.
"Yes please."