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No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t wrap his head around it.
She was up early, earlier than Lucifer for Demon Lord’s sake!
If she wasn’t nose deep in a book, she was reviewing notes, making flashcards, or watching Deviltube videos about her classes.
And always a cup of coffee in her hand.
He guessed she averaged, four, maybe five hours of sleep a night. Maybe. Even on weekends.
He sighed. It was exhausting just to watch her.
Lucifer didn’t seem to have an issue with it at all.
“She is diligent in a way I wish you all would emulate. Her hard work shows in her grades.” He waved his hand curtly at the 7th born, dismissing the notion that too much work wasn’t a good thing.
Satan wouldn’t listen either, refusing to acknowledge that the girl needed more sleep and fewer books, when Belphie suggested they cut back on their study dates.
“I suspect you are jealous she won’t spend more time with you. Perhaps you should take that up with Leviathan; envy is his domain, not mine.”
Belphie scoffed. The girl wasn’t a demon; she couldn’t exist on caffeine alone. But caring for her wasn't his job. Maybe he could talk to Mammon about it.
It was the day before the break, and they were all looking forward to a week off after midterms.
Lucifer sat at the head of the student council reviewing the grades, unsurprisingly unimpressed.
“Mammooooooon! How do you explain this?! If you fail another test, you’ll be required to repeat a year." He shook his head, “How could you bring such shame to the Student Council? To Diavolo? Have you no pride in yourself?”
"Oi, Oi! I didn’t fail, See?” he pulled the records sheet out of Lucifer’s hand, jabbing his finger at the red marks under his name. “62% ain’t a fail. Besides, when am I ever gonna need Arcane Chemistry anyway? Pfffft. That’s lab-worm stuff; no money to be made there.”
While the two bickered away, Belphie noticed the human look up from her chair in the corner, bags dark under her eyes. She’d slept even less this week, and it showed starkly in her face.
“Are all the marks in then?” She asked quietly, but her voice was anxious, holding an edge of uncertainty. Lucifer turned to her.
“Hmmm? Yes, they are. I need to review all of the results before the break so that Diavolo can use them to help guide the next semester.”
“Does that mean you can see my grades too?”
The eldest paused briefly and hit Mammon in the head, causing the other demon to drop with pain.
“Owwowwowwoww. Come on! Was that really necessary?’
“Of course. Now, let me see…” he straightened the scattered papers before finding the sheet he was looking for. “Ah, yes. 89% overall grade.”
“Oh, okay.” Her tone sounded down, defeated almost. Belphie looked up from his pillow.
Lucifer frowned.
“Were you looking for me to praise you? Very well then. Good job.” His voice was flat and he turned back to his paperwork.
“Thanks,” she said, and disappeared back into her books.
The council meeting dragged on until well past dinner, until Beel started chewing on the table loudly in protest.
Sighing in resignation, Lucifer agreed to pick up pizzas on the way home to both save time and reward them for their hard work (mostly anyway).
She was happy to skip her turn on cooking duty, but it meant she was responsible for the cleanup. Dwarfed by the mountain of empty boxes, Belphie helped her cart them all out for the trash, noticing how oddly quiet the human was being. She seemed distracted ever since the meeting.
“Well, now that we don’t have exams, you just have to come with me to The Fall tonight. We need to celebrate!” Asmo hung off her neck as soon as she came back into the dining hall. She smiled, but weakly.
“I’m actually really tired, Asmo. Raincheck? I wanted to catch up on some sleep.”
“Oh, aren’t you the cutest! How about we have a spa day tomorrow, you and me! We can relax, give each other massages, facials-”
“Oi! Hands off my human! No massages allowed! Who said you could touch her?”
Asmo batted Mammon away. “Stupid Mammon! She isn’t yours!”
“Sounds great Asmo. I’ll see you tomorrow!” She said, pulling herself free from his hold, making a dash for the hallway.
“Hey! You’re just gonna ignore me?! I’m trying to protect you from this horndog!”
“Who are you calling a horndog, Scumbag!”
Belphie watched her disappear around the corner, oblivious to the fight that was breaking out behind her.
‘Smart,’ he thought, ‘not to let anything get in the way of her sleep. Good human’.
Once everyone had finally gone to wherever they were off to, Belphie found some quiet in the planetarium. The dome of stars blocked out everything else in Devildom, locking in all of his senses. Time stopped existing as he slid into dream space. Here he could rest, floating between dreams.
He took a deep breath, relaxing into -
*sniff sniff*
Coffee? The smell pulled him out of his haze. Grumpy he glanced at his D.D.D. 2:47 glaring right back at him.
Who could still be up at this hour?
‘Pah, stupid Mammon probably back from his stupid schemes, making stupid coffee at heathen o’clock. Probably left the stupid pot on the burner’.
He debated the value of letting the mansion burn down around him, if only to see the look on Lucifer’s face.
He smirked, but sighed. Too much effort. He didn’t feel like living in the dorm with the other students; living with his brothers was tough enough.
Grumbling the whole way to the kitchen, he thought of different ways to exact his vengeance for the disruption.
Should he take pictures of Goldie trapped between scissor blades and demand ransom? Or would be it better to have Levi hack his Devilgram account and post all of the pictures from the horror movie night?
The pot was starting to smoke by the time Belphie clicked off the coffee maker.
“That can’t be good for the machine. Maybe Lucifer will punish him for me.” He filled the burnt vessel with water, happy it was no longer his problem.
Light caught his eye on his way out, slipping out from the cracks under a door. Wait, that was her room.
He paused, bringing an ear to the wood, hearing a pen scratching and papers rustling. How was she not asleep? Even Levi was asleep by now.
He pushed the door open gently, but she still jumped, throwing herself backwards.
“Aaaaaahhhh! Belphie! What in the hell are you doing up at this hour?” She ran a hand through her frazzled hair, trying to calm down.
“Huh? This isn’t Hell. What are you doing up?”
Papers were scattered all over her table. Half eaten crusts of pizza had gone stale on a plate nearby. Was she STILL studying? Her coffee mug had steam rising from it.
‘Ah,’ he thought, ‘so it wasn’t Mammon. Shame.’
“Oh, nothing, I couldn’t sleep. I figured I’d just do some light reading.” Her scattered response matched the shake in her hands.
“You left the kettle on,” he said, looking pointedly at her mug.
“I - I did? Sorry. I don’t remember that. My bad, I’ll go shut it off.”
“I already did.” He looked between the papers on the desk and her face. She dropped her eyes, chewing her lip nervously.
“It’s hard to sleep if you keep drinking that stuff.”
She shuffled awkwardly. A spot of blood weld up from her torn up lips. Nervous tick maybe?
“But you know that.”
He stepped forward. She leaned away, uneasy.
“Anyway, I was just going to bed so…”
“You’re lying.”
Her eyes snapped up, flashing at him. Satan was rubbing off on her. He chuckled.
“You really think you can fool me? I can smell the exhaustion pouring off of you. Don’t be stupid. That’s Mammon’s job.”
“I’m just going to finish this chapter, then I can sleep.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
He put his hand on the papers, notes and textbooks, shoving them away.
“Belphie be careful! You almost-”
He grabbed her hand, pulling her close. Her bloodshot eyes were painfully obvious at this distance. He felt her shaking, either from exhaustion, caffeine, or maybe fear.
“I haven’t said anything about your weird sleeping habits, because I thought you were worried about school. But this-” he paused and let her go, waving at the mass of notes littered around her, “it isn’t healthy. Or normal.”
She slumped down on the chair, too tired to fight anymore.
“We’re on break now,” he implored her, trying to find a reason she’d understand. “You’re supposed to rest.”
She mumbled something under her breath, resting dropping her head onto the table. Her hair fell forward, hiding her face.
“Can’t hear you, human. Speak up.” He yawned. Just being around her was making him sleepy.
“I only got 89%”.
“Huh? That’s good. That’s better than me actually.”
She sighed. “But it’s not good enough.”
His jaw nearly dropped. “Eeeh? Wha?? For who?”
“Lucifer,” she mumbled.
He’d had it.
“Fuck Lucifer!”
She sat up quickly, looking both shocked and confused. “Belphie! Don’t say that so loud! What if he hears!!”
“Fuck that! Let him hear. Do really think exhausting yourself over a stupid grade like this will mean anything in the long run? You could fail all your courses. Every. Single. One. And so long as you don’t get eaten by some stupid demon, Diavolo will still consider this program a success! Who care what Lucifer thinks!”
She gaped at him before a small chuckle started. She tried to hold it in, but soon she was laughing, hands over her mouth.
The sound was contagious and he felt himself starting to laugh. He rubbed the back of his head, blushing. She looked better when laughed.
“Thanks, Belphie. I needed that.”
“What you need is sleep.”
She nodded, wiping a few tears from her eyes.
Oh no, he wasn't about to deal with her crying too.
He pulled her toward her bed, ignoring her protests.
“Hey, I need to brush my teeth still!”
“Too late. Nap first, brush later.”
He waved a hand, commanding the lights to shut off, closing the door with a flick of his wrist. Falling down into her sheets, he tucked her into his chest. Her bed was the softest of all of them and her body melted into it.
A cuddle was long over due.
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep, Belphie. I think I’ve had six cups of coffee tonight.” She hid a yawn behind her hand.
“Don’t worry about that. Rest will always find you.”
Gently he pulled his power over her eyes, dusting her vision with dreams, lacing her breath with the heavy pull of sleep. A small kiss pressed against her head before he could stop himself. She sighed, and snuggled into his chest deeper. She mumbled something against his chest before he felt her mind shut off.
“Stupid human,” he murmured into her hair. Stale coffee smell stuck to the strands, tickling his nose.
He felt himself going under, slipping into the void with her.
He’d guard her tonight, keeping her dreams safe.
But tomorrow they needed to have a serious chat with Lucifer.