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“Oi, what took you so long?” He asked. “I waited a full three minutes for you to answer, what happened?”
The carrot head’s expression lit up when the ringing finally stopped. The man’s smiling face on the other side of the line appeared on Ren’s computer screen. Blue bangs partially obscured his orange eyes, but they still shone with joy. Ren, as a habit, fixed his glasses, pushing it up the bridge of his nose, ignoring the wild thumping of his heart.
“Sorry, sorry, a delivery came from Akuzon. Wait a sec, I shouldn’t be saying sorry! I mean, you clearly have bad timing!” Levi replied with a chuckle, clutching his phone on one hand, while holding up the Akuzon box on the other. “My Ruri-chan Winter-look 202X is here!” He said, his voice filled with excitement. He put the box down beside his keyboard, giggling. He breathed in deep, and exhaled before saying, “I’m so excited to open this!”
“I didn’t notice,” Ren said with sarcasm in his tone, crossing one arm in front of the other, and rolled his eyes. He decided to send Levi on a little guilt-trip for not answering the video call sooner, and added, “I mean, I haven’t seen you since three months ago, and this is the only way I could talk to you…but I guess that a Ruri-chan figure would be more important to you than your dearest best friend, so, goodbye.”
“No no, don’t hang up! Alright, I’m sorryyyyyy, forgive me?”
“Apology accepted, you’re forgiven! I was just messing with you, don’t worry about it.”
“Aaah, you always tease me… Anyway, I just wanted to open this with you online. In that way, we’ll both see it first, together!”
“Aww, Levi, how sweet of you!” Ren cooed. “Thank you!”
“Hmmm, you’re messing with me again, I can feel it,” Levi narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Ren through his phone.
“No, I am genuinely touched that you want me to see it with you, thank you,” he smiled.
Levi paused, stunned. He couldn’t form words properly and sputtered, “Um, ah, I, d’ah! Damn it, I almost let go of my phone!” The screen was shaky for a moment, good thing Levi caught his phone though before it reached the floor.
Ren giggled. “Alright, alright, enough with the sap! I know you wanna open that package already, just go ahead!”
Levi propped his phone up on the side of one of his computer screens, no time to grab his phone stand, with the face camera facing his direction. He rubbed his hands together, “Time for the reveal!”
He carefully opened the package with a cutter he found nearby, severing the remaining ties and tapes on the box. He pulled out another box, one that contained the Ruri-Chan figure that was about eight inches tall. Levi took his phone in his hands again and placed it near the box he was holding, panning it to let Ren see the item. Ren could hear the almost-squeal kind of sound from Levi whenever he giggled. The other otaku was extremely happy, that the carrot-head can be sure of. Ren thought he would also be happy if an item he had wanted for so long was now in his grasp. And the figure was of amazing quality too, he was sure Levi saw that at first glance. He wouldn’t be at a loss for words--and be giggly--otherwise. Now Ren wishes human realm stuff could be as well made as Devildom items. Maybe next time he visits the Devildom, on the rare occasions all his friends are available to hang out, he could swing by Akuzon and grab some merch as well…that is when he still hasn’t spent his entire bank account on human realm anime merch and conventions, too.
“Oh, god, that’s immaculate…” he said, in almost a whisper. “The pose is dynamic, the colors are complementing but also eye-catching…it captures the essence of the character. And more importantly, there're no defects, wow.” he gave Levi a little clap. “Well done!”
“Thank you, thank you! I told you I have a great eye when it comes to these things…now would you like me to help you with your merch shopping?”
“Yeah, sure, but for the record, I’ve always known you had it in ya, Levi. Always believed in you.”
Levi paused and turned red, again. “A-anyway, while I put this on the shelf, how are things? I mean, about you. I mean, how are things about--ah, how are you?”
“I’m okay, I guess, still missing Devildom, you guys, Luke and Simeon…I see Solomon here from time to time, so that’s reassuring. Also, my classes are getting harder and harder, and that’s just a month that’s gone by.”
“Can’t you just do what I do? Like, take online classes or something?”
“That’s not how it works here…I mean, I’m not in an open university program or anything like that, so I need to come to class--oh wait a minute. You’re not gonna take it out of the box? You’re just gonna display that, on top of your shelf, still in the box?”
“Yeah, why?” Levi gave him a lopsided smile, a bit confused.
“Nothing, nothing, I was just, uh, curious.”
Levi’s eyes twinkled as a sudden realization clicks in his mind. He grinned, “Oh, I get it…Ren's an out-of-box kind of person, aren’t ya? Wow, that’s so irresponsible, I mean, their value decreases and you’re exposing them to the elements.”
“He was teasing!” Ren screamed in his mind and managed to speak without stuttering for the most part. “Y-yeah, sure. They look nicer outside the box…” he admitted.
Levi’s grin widens, his eyes shone with a glint of mischief. “Oh, I bet your figures look nasty now. That’s low even for you, casual…”
He must be thinking he’s finally gotten leverage to use against Ren for teasing him all the time, he thought, but this guy wasn’t going down without a fight. No, sir.
“Oh, no, you didn’t just say that…lemme just transfer to mobile real quick and then prove you wrong, Mr. Great Admiral of the Devildom Navy…”
“You did NOT just---”
Ren hung up from the PC and transferred to his phone. He called Levi again.
Levi answered the call with his mouth half-open about to say something when Ren cut him off. “I will show you my room, and then we’ll see if you still say that…”
He switched to back camera, and slowly panned from his PC set up, to the rest of the room. The desk was wide enough for the PC set, a blank table space to write on, and several textbooks. It was a standard PC set up, one black screen, a black printer, and a black open CPU with blue glowing strips on the edges and transparent sides. On the desk were several figures, some Levi recognized as the one they bought together back in the Devildom, Ren wanted to see it every time he studied. Ren put a lot of importance to those figures, he was sentimental like that. He replaced his old favorites with the new ones and gave the old figures a new place to stay on the shelf above the desk. Behind the sliding door that led outside his bedroom was a huge mirror, above it were lanyards and passes from old conventions that hung on a hook. Ren’s cabinet doors that took up an entire wall were filled with prints and posters collected throughout the years. A large shelf filled with miscellaneous items spanned half a wall that stopped at the edge of a sliding door that led outside. There were books, manga, consoles and games, and some more figures outside their boxes. A curious long, white item with little feathers leaned on the side of the shelf that Levi couldn’t identify from his vantage point. And lastly, Ren panned the camera to his bed. The headrest doubled as a shelf, with more books and figures propped up, although not as crowded as the shelf earlier. Plushes littered the bed, some spilled into the carpeted floor and coffee table nearby. Leviathan was quiet the entire time he was seeing Ren’s bedroom for the first time.
“Not as casual as you thought I was, huh?” Ren said, already switched to his front camera.
“Hmph! Show-off.”
“Oh come on now, Levi! At least have the decency to admit you were wrong…”
Levi grumbled, “fine…” He sighed and whispered, “I guess I was wrong for calling you a normie before…”
“What was that? I didn’t quite hear?”
“NOPE, NOT REPEATING MYSELF!”
Ren laughed. Levi sighed.
“You better be teasing my brothers as hardcore as this, too! It would be unfair if I was the only one getting this treatment,” Levi pouted. He plopped down his computer chair and spun around a couple of times. Ren could only see a blue blur in his phone for a couple of seconds before Levi finally stopped spinning. His background was that of his large aquarium with Henry 2.0 swimming near the top of his head.
Ren chuckled. “Yeah, of course, I tease your brothers too! I call all of you for an hour or so every day, it would be boring if I don’t crack a few jokes here and there… Our talks usually get cut short though.”
Levi hummed, puzzled. “Hm, why’s that?”
“Ah, ya know, Lucifer’s always busy so I’ve only got time to say ‘hi,’ report how I’m okay and he does the same for exactly an hour…everything’s scheduled with him. Satan, too, reads a lot, studies a lot…Asmo’s always in the middle of his skincare routine and sleeps right after, then I always catch Beel before he raids the fridge--oops, I maybe shouldn’t have said that. And Mammon, he’s…well, he’s Mammon...still upset with me going back here, so he sometimes turns off the call when I say something he doesn’t like.” Ren counted each brother one by one on his fingers. He frowned at that last part about Mammon, but he does understand the reason why and figured he had to be patient with his friend. He continued, “It’s either you or Belphie I always get to talk to for more than an hour…well maybe just you, Belphie falls asleep sometimes.”
A tinge of red formed on Levi’s cheeks as he grinned, “really?”
“Yeah…oh hey, you’re blushing,” Ren grinned. “I wonder why.”
“I-it’s nothing, it’s not that I’m happy I’m the only one you spend a lot more time talking to…”
“Ah, but it seems it is, Levi.”
“No, it’s not!”
“Spoken like a true tsundere.”
“No, I’m not!”A pause. Ren looked at Levi expectantly. The latter squirmed in his seat as the uncomfortable, staring contest through video call continued. In the end, Levi finally gave in.“Alright fine, maybe. It’s rare for me to hear that I’m doing better than my brothers at something, you know? Especially when it comes to connecting with friends… So maybe I’m just happy about that…”
Ren smiled and said, “Well, you have your own kind of charm, Levi. Your brothers may be good at some things but, you’re also good at things your brothers don’t excel at.”
“Ah, stop it, stop it with the flattery!”
“Alright, alright…” Ren chuckled. “How about you, how have you been?”
“I’m fine. Still me, I guess. I miss-- ah, nevermind.”
“What? You didn’t finish,” Ren said. He has turned his PC off, headed to his bed, and sat on the edge.
Levi sighed deeply, thinking about how to make up for his slip. “My brothers…” he whispered. “It hasn’t been the same since you leaving, b-but in a kind of a good way, I guess. Belphie’s…we’re all in better terms. Even Mammon, he’s paying off his debt to me slowly, not sure how long that’ll last though, but it’s nice to see him try.”
Ren chuckled, proud of Mammon. He had told him to do that one night but didn’t think he’d come through with it. There was no use telling Levi about that, however, so Ren decided to keep it to himself and simply said, “Knocked some sense into him, huh?”
“Yeah, but look, what you said earlier…about Mammon being mad? It’s just that we miss you. They talked about it at dinner tonight. Everyone deals with it in their own way, I hope you’re not upset about that…wait,” Levi sat straight when he saw something above Ren’s head. “What’s that hanging up there?”
Ren was perplexed for a few seconds before he finally remembered. Earlier in the week, he had made hanging mobiles above his bed that looked like five medium-sized jellyfish that spiraled upward. They light up too; he wrapped a color-changing lantern with cotton fluff and put that inside the jellyfish he made with wires and transparent plastic. He forgot to take it out of the frame and hide it from Levi after being so immersed talking to the man. Ren may or may not have intended to copy the design inside a certain demon’s room. And he wasn’t planning to admit to anything when there was nothing to admit! He laid on his bed and hugged a plush that had red and white hair, two different colors parted in the middle, but the action did not make the warmth that crawled it’s way up to his cheeks disappear, merely hidden from the other.
“What do you mean?” Ren replied with another question, trying so hard not to seem obvious in deflecting.
“Hm,” Levi hummed. “It looks a lot like what I have in my room here.”
“Ah, no, I, uh, don’t think--”
“It really did,” Levi chuckled. “We both like anime, we both like games, we have a similar design in our rooms…Ren, we are totally fated to be best friends!”
Levi looked so happy saying those words that Ren couldn’t muster the strength to argue or get mad.
The orange-haired male took off his glasses, folded, and put them overhead. Although, admittedly the word hit him with a little twinge to his heartstrings. Friends, he massaged the bridge of his nose at the word. He looked at Levi through the screen, the guy was expecting a response from him. He forced a grin, thankful for the changing lights and moving shadows that hid the strain. “Yeah, of course.”
Leviathan chuckled again. “I’ve still got a lot more merch on the box but, I’ve had enough excitement for today…I can’t wait to open the rest tomorrow with you! Ah, by the way, have you called my brothers yet? You could always call me back if you want…”
Ren stretched, one hand above his head. “Nah, I’ve already talked to them for today, I’d hate to disturb them now, especially Belphie when he literally fell asleep during the call…hey, Levi?”
Levi took off his shirt and jacket, and Ren blushed upon realizing he was now topless. “Hm, yeah, Ren?” He hummed and was moving towards his bathtub/bed. He held his phone with the hand that was propped on the edge of the tub.
“I want to get in some archery practice before the day ends, would you like to see that? You seem ready to sleep though…” Ren put his glasses back on and sat up slowly, deciding to ignore the warmth in his face. “I just wanna unwind after a long day.”
“Archery, to unwind? Why don’t we play some games, or do a watch party? You can pick the anime!”
“No, I…if you don’t mind I’d have to decline that. Maybe tomorrow? Today I want to get in even just thirty minutes of practice. You can go offline now, of course, since this doesn’t seem like your cup of tea…”
“Yeah, no, no, I don’t mind at all, and Ren,” Levi also sat up inside his tub/bed. “I’d be honored to be with you while you practice! I mean, that’s so cool! I’m actually a bit jealous. Just a bit, I promise.”
Ren chuckled through his burning cheeks. “Th-thanks, but just a bit okay? Can’t have you come here to my house and trash the place just ‘coz you’re jealous.” He got up from his bed and took the white thing--or rather, things--that leaned against the shelf. Turns out, they were Ren’s bow and arrows.
It was a short walk to the family training room; it was five doors near his bedroom.
“But really, archery? To relieve stress? I mean, that’s like jogging to catch your breath!”
Ren laughed, “That’s a great analogy. But it doesn’t feel that way to me…it- it’s more like, hmm,” he hummed thoughtfully. “Ah, d’you know how to ride a bike? It’s like that!”
“What, ride a bike? Noooo…”
“You don’t know how to ride a bike?”
Levi shook his head. “Nope.”
“Well, that’s…surprising. Hm, how should I explain it… Ah! It’s like muscle memory.”
“Muscle…memory?”
“Yeah, like your body remembers how to do things even though you haven’t done the action in a long time. It’s one of the rare times that I could turn my brain off for a moment. That’s why I was such an anxious wreck when I was still there!”
“Wow, I learn something new about you every day, but Ren, if you don’t mind, if I get quiet…just, don’t turn off the call yet…It feels like you’re here with me right now,” Levi said, in a tone so foreign yet so familiar, that Ren couldn’t put his finger on what’s so different but he nodded.
“Alright,” he said with a smile.
Leviathan was quiet the entire time he was shooting arrows, something that’s just light physical activity for Ren. At first, he watched intently, Ren could see him whenever he glanced back at his phone propped up on a stand. After a while maybe, he assumed, Levi got bored and read his manga instead, only glancing at Ren from time to time through the pages.
It was just as Levi said to him earlier. Keeping the call on did make Ren feel like Levi was with him at that moment. Ren wondered, what was the line people keep on using again? Ah, he remembered, alone together. Levi and Ren were alone in their own worlds together, just like the days after they officially became friends. Happy that the calm was not broken, happy to be free to do their own thing without judgment. So happy…
Eventually, they both had to sleep. Ren got back to his room and told Levi he had to hit the hay but promised he’ll call again tomorrow.
A temporary frown grazed Levi’s face which he quickly replaced with a small smile. “Yeah, good night, Ren.”
“Good night, Leviathan.” The brief beeping that meant he had ended the call echoed in the room for a moment.
Ren laid on his bed and stared that the ceiling, took off his glasses, put them on his headrest shelf, and sighed. The word still repeated like a broken record in his mind. A friend. Some things were left unsaid between them before he departed from the Devildom, and he wondered if this was the effect of that. He sighed again, now deeper, “Sweet dreams.”