Chapter Text
“Tell me again how this happened?”
“I got drunk last night, I passed out after wishing I had some company, and when I woke up, it was there.”
“On the ceiling?”
"On the ceiling.”
Manuela’s apartment is, as usual, a wreck. However, that isn’t the most noticeable thing about that anymore. Oh, no, far from it.
The woman with curled horns and a tail on the ceiling is, understandably, a bit hard to miss, even among the mess, mostly because she’s on the ceiling, but also because she’s licking herself like a cat, which, as a general rule, most people, even people on the ceiling, don’t do. When she’s not doing that, she’s staring down at Manuela, the apartment’s owner, and Seteth, her exasperated neighbor and a priest of the Church of Seiros, with glowing eyes.
“So you mean to tell me that you somehow summoned a demon whilst being blackout drunk?”
“That about sums it up, yes.”
Seteth takes off his glasses, rubbing them fiercely with a handkerchief. It’s a habit that he’s picked up when he’s not really sure what to say. “Manuela, every day you find new ways to astound me.”
“Aw, really? I’m touched, Seteth.”
She gives him a wink. He gives her a frown.
The demon on the ceiling accidentally drools a little as she stops to stare at them, and Seteth fairly shrieks when it drops on his head. Darting to the side, he puts his glasses back on and stares at her with an even deeper frown. “Why on earth did you call me over?”
“You’re a priest, aren’t you? Exorcise the damn thing! Get it out! If men were already scared of coming in here, imagine what they’ll say when they see that on the ceiling!”
“Your chief concern is what men will think, and not the fact that you have a demon in your home?”
“Yes!”
“Unbelievable,” Seteth mutters. “Very well. I will do my best.”
“Rude,” the demon finally snaps. “I am not an ‘it.’ You should treat your guests better.”
Seteth and Manuela, to their embarrassment, both scream unfortunately loudly as they flee.
Three hours later, the demon is still on the ceiling, despite all of Seteth’s praying, invoking, and readings from the Book of Seiros.
“This is boring,” the demon says, licking the back of her hand and rubbing her forehead. “Why can’t we just hang out? That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?”
“Quiet,” Seteth snaps. “Manuela, I am at a loss. Maybe we can at least get her down.”
“Perhaps a broom?” Manuela suggests.
“Perhaps.”
The demon’s eyes light up at the mention of a broom.
It’s near impossible to find any sort of cleaning implement in Manuela’s apartment, and so Seteth makes the tired trek back to his own to fetch one, and returns. “This should do the trick.”
Predictably, it does not do the trick; instead, the demon bites the broom, and eats half of the bristles before Seteth yanks it away, utterly horrified.
“She ate it?!” Manuela shrieks, staring at the neat bite mark taken out of the lime green plastic.
“She… ate it.” Seteth stares in disbelief at his broom, then back up at the demon, then back at the broom.
“It was delicious,” the demon giggles, but her blank expression doesn’t change. “Can I have more? I’m hungry.”
Sighing in defeat, Seteth surrenders the broom, and the demon somehow eats it all in two bites.
“Manuela, you are going to drive me to drink.”
“You can come over and drink with us!”
Seteth just received the news that Manuela, after three weeks of trying to get rid of the demon (whose name they have now learned is Byleth), has decided that she wants her to stay, especially after learning that she (drunkenly) sold her soul to the demon in exchange for company. The fact that she doesn’t seem to want it back (“What good did it do me, anyways? I don’t even realize it’s gone!” she claims) is only the cherry on top.
He is not taking it well. Not in the slightest.
“I would prefer not to.”
“You’re no fun,” Byleth says, from where she is perched against Manuela’s shoulder. She no longer sits on the ceiling all the time (even if she still does occasionally, for fun, as she puts it). Instead, she prefers to float, often in contact with Manuela, if possible.
Manuela is adoring the attention.
“Please, Seteth! If you got to know her, you would change your mind! She’s very sweet. I know that broom was special to you, but-”
“This is not about the broom,” Seteth sighs. “But yes, it was special to me.”
“I’ll buy you a new broom,” Byleth offers, but he shakes his head vehemently.
“Certainly not! I am a man of the cloth! I will not… fraternize with demons!” With this, he slams the door of his apartment, and Manuela shrugs and walks back down the hall to hers.
“He really is no fun, isn’t he? And he’s so handsome, too… what a waste.”