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“Levi, I know you’re there. Could you open the door?”
The fact that the third oldest wouldn’t immediately answer the door when you knocked wasn’t old news, as he was usually too immersed in his games or thoughts as to pay attention to the outside world. That was exactly why you persisted - you’re used to his personality, after all. However, it was different this time.
You felt justified in your persistence due to Leviathan’s attitude this past week. It’s not that you blamed him, as it has been a real nightmare to your favorite otaku. First, he was unlucky enough to miss out on the pre-sale of the latest Ruri-chan limited figurine (which resulted in two nights in a row of him grumbling at how his online friends were able to get it, loud enough that you could hear him from your room). However, he did manage to get back some of the money that Mammon owed him - which was excellent timing, as a new gacha featuring a Super-Ultra-Rare Ruri-chan was approaching, and of course Levi was extremely excited to get it. And so comes second: no, he didn’t get it.
To make matters worse, Lucifer has been suggesting (threatening being the right word) that he start taking classes over at RAD instead as virtual classes had been suspended until further notice due to an error in the academy’s system. This series of misfortunes was responsible for this new Levi. You could talk for hours and have long gaming sessions with him before, but now it’s been two days since he’s left his room - food being the only exception, and even then he made sure to grab some in the middle of the night when nobody else was around. And you were aware of this; you heard the very quick footsteps in the hall at 4 in the morning, leaving you with no time to ambush him when he passed by your room.
But two days was more than enough. In fact, it would’ve only lasted a few hours if Leviathan hadn’t stuck so stubbornly to his guns.
However, tonight you would kick his door down if it were necessary. Not literally of course, but the fact that he still wasn’t answering only made your heart even sicker with worry. He’s your true friend , after all. You wanted to cheer him up the only way you knew how.
Dropping the pillows you’d brought with you, you knocked a little harder on his door, trying to grab his attention.
“Levi.”
Nothing.
“Levi, please.”
Nothing.
You cleared your throat. You hadn’t wanted to go this far - you wanted him to share his grief with you on his own.
"Leviathan, come out," you said in a firm voice, lightly touching your wrist as you felt the mark of his pact burn a little, hoping it would work. One, two seconds.
A hiss was heard inside the room along with another couple of sounds, and not a moment later you were greeted by the sight of his unkempt purple hair and a depressed, almost angry expression, frowning at the command.
"Leave me alone."
You crossed your arms across your chest, imitating his expression. That wasn’t the only striking thing about his face - there were bags under his eyes that showed just how much he had gone without sleep. He looked like an abandoned puppy, but you put the urge to hug him aside to maintain a firm attitude. "Let me in."
He knew that you hadn’t used the pact in those words, and you knew that he was capable of easily breaking any orders you could give him. Thus, despite his grunt in annoyance at seeing you so determined, he stepped aside to let you into his room, causing you to smile slightly. He didn’t even stop to look if anyone was in the hall , you thought as you lifted your pillows off the floor and made your way into his room. Levi raised an eyebrow upon seeing what you were carrying.
"First you force me to let you in, and now you fill my room with pillows. What do you want, normie?" he asked tiresomely, ignoring how quickly you collected all the pillows in his room and put them inside his bathtub, letting himself fall into his chair.
"Let's make a pillow fort," you said with a smile.
Levi blinked. "Huh?"
Ignoring his confused response, you began to arrange the pillows around his bathtub, pulling the sheets off of it and spreading them over the top. With the help of his lamp and a small coat rack, you created a small ceiling. After arranging the pillows on the edge of the tub and creating a roof, you left no opportunity for Levi to complain that you got inside. That didn't stop him, though.
"W-what are you doing? Get out of there! Can't you see I want to be alone?"
Lifting the sheet as if it were a door, you watched him as he stood, looking at you with a tired expression. "Come," you said simply, pointing inside the bathtub.
His cheeks turned a slight crimson rose, so you mentally prepared for another of his I-want-to-be-alone speeches, but to your surprise, he only sighed slowly as he entered his now fort.
The two of you remained silent for a few minutes as you watched him with your hands holding your legs, which were bent against your chest. Levi on the other hand, trying to assimilate the situation, only looked at his hands, hiding the slight nervousness that was growing inside him as he realized how close you were.
"When I was little, I used to spend the summers at my aunt and uncle's house," you cut through the silence, drawing his attention, "I loved spending time with my cousins. Being an only child, I felt they were like my brothers. We were always causing mischief, and their parents would always scold us. One of my cousins loved to create pillow forts - said it was a shield against the outside world," a slight laugh escaped your lips, as you recalled old times. "I know you've been on your own shield from the outside world these days but..." You were going to go on, but Levi interrupted you.
"It's not like I want to isolate myself, at least not now..." he mumbled. You internally cried victory, thank you for finally speaking . "But the others will laugh at me. And you know it! Th-They know it! Oh for Diavolo’s sake, I don't want to imagine their faces of disgust at seeing me depressed for so long because of my disgusting otaku things. You are, too, aren't you? That's why you're feeling sorry for me now!"
“Levi.”
"You're even telling me things about your past, do you want to sympathize with a being as disgusting as me? B-but I really wanted that Super-Ultra-Rare of Ruri-chan! And the figurine! It was limited!" Ah, he's back. "And those bastards rubbing it in my face online! Aaaggghhh, I hate them! I wish I could have their luck! Th-that's not fair!"
“Levi…”
"And Lucifer! Forcing me to go to RAD! I don't want to see other people's faces, and you expect me to face the class? No, no, no, n-"
"Leviathan." You put one of your hands on his, abruptly cutting off his speech and you watched that crimson rose return to his face. "Well?"
"W-what? Well what?" the envy and anger subsided all at once, returning to reality.
"Don't you think this shield is better?" you finally asked, tilting your head a little to the side, giving him a warm smile.
If you could touch his face right now, you'd bet everything you had that your hand would burn. It took him only a few seconds to process it, and once he became aware of what you meant, the red on Levi's cheeks intensified and spread to his ears. Don't you think you'd better share it with someone else? Me? He interpreted, and he was right. You thought his blushing was contagious, because when you saw him shake his head quickly as he tried to open his mouth to speak, a heat flooded your stomach, making you smile.
"How about tomorrow after school we spend the whole afternoon playing and trying once more to get Ruri-chan?" you suggested in the hope of killing two birds with one stone. You weren't the best good luck charm, and you couldn't make up for the fact that the figurine was limited, but you really, really wanted him to leave his room and go back to being the same old Levi.
"B-but what if we don’t make it?" Levi frowned again, his eyes still focused on your hand over his.
"Mmmmm..." you faked doubt and removed your hand from his to place it on your chin. You noticed the way he grimaced at the lack of contact - how cute, you thought, repressing the desire to embrace him, "maybe I'll have to sacrifice my savings so that Ruri-chan comes home..."
"W-what? No way!"
"Why not?" You knew he'd rather keep insisting Mammon to return the rest of the money than accept yours. And you weren't just offering it to lift his spirits, but because you really wanted to. What was wrong with that?
"No freaking way!" he grunted, moving from his place, stretching one of his legs to kick you slightly.
"Hey!" you complained laughing. "Okay, okay," you raised your hands in defeat with a sideways smile, squinting your eyes. "I won't invest in your precious Ruri-chan if you beat me in a game of my choice."
"Beat me? Me? " Levi raised an eyebrow accompanied by a slight smile, the twinkle in his eye returning. "Hah, keep dreaming normie! Tomorrow I'll bring Ruri-chan home, but tonight I'll have to remind you who the real king is here!"
With the energy of a child, he came out of the fort to drag his small portable TV along with his console and controllers back inside it. You were about to question why, but as if he’d read your mind he muttered, "this shield is better," avoiding eye contact and giving you a controller. You smiled as you saw a familiar colour in his ears, accepting it with pleasure.
─
The noise of the others gathering their things brought you back to the present. After that response from Leviathan, you two had stayed up late playing, even though you’d convinced him to start attending classes again today. You yawned for the thousandth time that day, how come he looked so good this morning when he’d slept so few hours?
You couldn't stop a smile from appearing on your face again. You were grateful, despite your lack of sleep, that he looked so good this morning, as well as the fact that the others didn’t comment on Levi's one-week-long absence. You were even surprised that Lucifer praised Levi for finally agreeing to participate in the classroom classes again. Today will be a good day.
As soon as you left the classroom you saw his purple hair at the end of the corridor. Your heart began to beat rapidly while you felt your cheeks turn to a soft pink. He even came to pick you up...?
You smiled, raising one of your hands in greeting, "Levi!"
Leviathan turned his gaze to you, picking up the pace to get to you. "You won't believe it!" he said excitedly in a slightly higher tone than usual, and you started to walk up to him as well, "I have great news, even more important than-”
Because your eyes had been focused on him, you hadn't noticed. You hadn’t noticed that one of his shoelaces was untied. Because if you had, you would have told him to stay where he was, that the two of you would walk together from there to the entrance. A situation straight out of a manga, you were sure he would say - his untied lace became the cherry on top of this whole series of unfortunate events for Levi, leaving him with no time to react before his face slammed to the floor.
Silence.
Not a second had passed before you reacted and found yourself crouching to try and help him. Fortunately, there were not too many students in the hall and none of the brothers were around to make the situation worse for Levi. However, small murmurs could be heard as some of the girls laughed softly at the sight.
You suppressed the need to tell them off, worried about the demon that was still lying on the floor, too ashamed to raise his head. A knot formed in your stomach as you tried to take one of his arms and sit him on the floor. "Levi, did you hurt yourself?" you asked, worried. You wanted to get him out of there as quickly as possible.
You managed to get Levi to kneel on the ground, even though his face was completely red from shame and he didn't want to face yours. Damn it - a wave of courage went through your body at the possibility of insisting that the others who were looking at the situation would gracefully leave. But seeing Levi like that, you felt something click. And damn it again, you didn't want it to be here, not like this, but someone had to shut those people up seeing that Levi had no intention of getting up yet.
Oh, screw it.
You held one of your hands to his cheek, drawing his attention, noticing how his face tensed at the sudden touch and his eyes met yours. Levi opened his lips to complain, but when your lips touched his, any thoughts that might have been running through his mind vanished. Everything faded away. The murmurs and the shame made way for the silence and the blush on Leviathan’s face - you could swear you had never seen him so red in your life when you parted.
You took his hand, both of you rising from the ground, guiding him to the exit.
Arriving at the front door, still trying to process what had just happened, you simply smiled at him. "Today's the last day of the gacha, right? Let's get her!"
Levi, still dazed, let out a slight laugh as he squeezed your hand, allowing himself to be carried away, "yeah." He would have time to panic about the show he just put on in the corridor later, as all he was interested in now was not fainting from the touch of his favourite normie.