Chapter Text
Sometimes, Kain asked himself why the pact marks on his body were in such different (and strange) places.
The first pact he ever made was with Mammon and the greed sigil appeared on his neck the next day. He justified this by saying that the second born was "a pain in the neck", so it was a fitting place for it to be.
Jokes aside, he didn't know why would it appear there. It was true that they both had their arguments in the past, when Kain first came to the Devildom, but he doubted that was enough to place the mark on such spot.
Probably.
He didn't like to remember all the trouble he got into when he began to know the brothers, but he had some free time while waiting for the food to get cooked on the oven and, once again, his brain kept repeating those past scenarios.
"What a pain..."
***
It was true that it took them some time to get close to each other. He tried to approach him politely at first, just to be completely ignored. He wasn't hopping to be friends right away with the brothers, but at least he was hoping to be treated like a normal person, not like if something was wrong with him. Some of them at least cared to pretend.
Kain was tired of Mammon's continuous insults, so he just decided to do the same. Probably not the best idea he had, yet he was not going to let a demon step on him just because of some self-esteem problems.
Then the whole 'Goldie' thing happened and... Well, he wasn't satisfied with having a pact with Mammon but at least it could solve some of his problems.
Still, if he thought he was unhappy with the pact, Mammon was taking it worse; he already had problems with his brothers and now everyone was certainly laughing at him for making a pact with a 'useless human'. Kain noticed this as the days passed but didn't intervene. Why should he? It's not as if Mammon would appreciate it, he would probably just claim he didn't need help. He felt bad for not doing anything and yet he knew it wouldn't change a thing on their relationship.
But the world sure is full of surprises, so a fortunate day he had the opportunity to have a somehow proper talk with him.
They had come back from RAD and were on their way to their respective rooms. As always, Kain followed Mammon because Lucifer considered it was safer for a human than going alone. As if Mammon could do something to protect him, thought Kain, he would most likely sell him to some random demon on the streets. Still, he obeyed, just to be yelled by Mammon when he made sure no one was nearby on the hallway.
"I told you to stop following me, human." He didn't like his tone, not a single bit.
"And I told you, demon, that I'm following you because that's what your brother asked me. I thought you were supposed to watch over me but apparently I'm the one babysitting you."
"Hey, I don't need supervision, I'm a responsible adult." Kain tried not to laugh, more like irresponsible adult. "Also I have a name, it's about time you show the great Mammon some respect!"
"Pff, sure... If you want respect you should stop being a cretin. Ever since we've made a pact you've been complaining."
"None of us wanted this to begin with!"
He wasn't completely wrong. Nonetheless, it was somehow convenient for Kain. Obviously he wouldn't say it out loud or the avatar of greed could easily use that to his advantage.
"You were desperate to get your fucking credit card back, dude, that's pretty pathetic."
Mammon had enough. He turned around violently, doing his best to look intimidating.
It was futile, Kain didn't flinch, he just stood there, in the middle of the hallway with an apathetic expression.
He tried, he really tried to get along with Mammon and his brothers, but sometimes he felt so pissed that he wanted to talk back, like he just did. He knew you can't always please everybody, but this? It was horrible, how could he live with them for a year if everyone is against him?
For the time being, he decided not to intervene and let Mammon vent, staring back at him as if he didn't care.
"Listen, you better get things straight. I don't give a damn about what Lucifer says, I couldn't care less about what happens to you-."
"Oh, hi, Lucifer!" Kain interrupted his speech.
"I see what you're trying to do! You're just pretending he's behind me so I stop talking, right? Well, you're not fooling anyone! You think you're smarter than me?"
"Good evening, Kain. You two came home earlier today."
Mammon's face turned pale, still not daring to turn back. The human just looked at him, smug grin on his face. Finally, he was getting what he deserved.
"Well, Mammon, please do tell me, what were you exactly telling him? Care to share?"
The avatar of greed stuttered, looking for a way to escape punishment.
"Oh, he was just telling me how glad he was for making a pact with me." Kain's arm rested on Mammon's shoulders, embracing him "We've became really close friends, best friends even. Am I right?"
The demon looked at him hesitant. He was going to be in debt with him for that and he hated it.
"Y... Yeah! We were just going to... Discuss some things on his room, right, bro?"
"Yup."
"That's good to hear, because if I discover that any of you is up to trouble you better be prepared for the consequences. Is that clear?"
Lucifer's glare turned cold for an instant. Kain nodded, and continued walking to his room followed by a fearful Mammon. Once they entered the bedroom, Kain sighed in relief, closing the door.
It was probably his sixth sense acting up but whenever he was next to the eldest brother he felt uneasy. Survival instinct, he supposed.
He could understand Lucifer though, he was responsible for one of the exchange students and if anything went wrong it could be bad for Diavolo.
"I can't believe you made me say that. Friends, pf, sure... Also why are we in your room?!"
Ah, of course, Mammon couldn't wait for much longer without complaining.
"Because he would suspect if we went in separate ways. Besides, it was you who spoke about going to my room! You were so scared I don't even know how you managed not to shit your pants..." Kain took off his uniform jacket, throwing it to the ground. "If you want to leave then be my guess, I definitely don't want to face Lucifer right now."
"So, now you're not acting like the tough guy? All it takes is Lucifer to appear to make you scared"
"I'd take your comment seriously if your legs stopped shaking. I may be scared, but at least I can pretend while you're clearly horrified."
"It's easy for you to say that when you've only known Lucifer for a couple of weeks."
"You may be right on that, but it's not as if you couldn't look intimidating to others if you tried. I mean, you're the second oldest, you could totally try to be more like him."
"We are not the same, so do me a favor and stop."
His first reaction was teasing him, but Kain restraint himself. The situation was kind of familiar for him.
"Sorry about that."
Kain's voice sounded so sincere it almost startled Mammon. Or maybe it was their bond which let him knew it was genuine.
"Oh, uh... It's ok. I guess."
"My father used to compare me a lot to my little sister so I get it. I should have been more careful."
"I said it was ok, jeez... No need to make things more awkward."
Obviously, he shouldn't have said that. He was being honest with him and Mammon just decided to ignore him.
"But, thank you, I guess."
Or maybe he was wrong.
"Do you... Want to talk about it?"
"Hell, no. I don't need to tell some human my problems."
It was worth a shot.
"Listen, I'm not asking you to be my friend, but if we're going to spend a year together then the least we could do is get along, don't you think? Especially if we've made a pact."
"Whatever..."
"See, this is why they don't take you seriously. Mammon, you need to take responsibility. I did, that's why I'm trying to get along with you even when you clearly dislike me, because we're on this together."
Mammon clearly had mixed feelings about it; he didn't want to listen a human like him, but he could know Kain was completely serious. It was not like him to trust humans so easily, yet he sounded confident of himself.
"Fine, I won't make any promises but I'll try..."
"Thank you, really."
His chest felt weird.
Kain just thanked him, why would that make him feel like that? Was he sick?
"If you ever need to talk-"
"I won't! Also, you better not tell anyone about this conversation!"
With that, Mammon left the room, face red. Kain was worried he could be angrier than before. Still he felt relieved.
The next day he decided to tell his best friend everything that had happened, just to know her opinion on the matter.
Irene was, to the surprise of lot of people, Kain's best friend. They've been friends more than 7 years and he was glad she could be with him during his stay at the Devildom. In fact, Irene started attending RAD the year before, so she knew how things worked, helping him in everything she could. She also had her problems to fit in; apparently half-bloods weren't exactly well seen among demons, but she managed to get along with some other succubus and even with Asmodeus. He had seen her from time to time in the House of lamentation to hang out with him.
"So, you're friends now? Cool." Said Irene, finishing her food.
It wasn't really the most comfortable of places, still they liked to spend their lunch break at the end of the stairs at the second floor instead of going to the cafeteria.
"I don't know, it's so weird... Like, we hated each other until yesterday and now we're fine? That's definitely not normal."
"You're overthinking it. If he's fine with you now, then don't worry too much about it."
"If you say so..." he turned his attention back to his lunch box, toying with the food.
"Hey, that salad did nothing to you, don't look at it with such a long face."
Kain was ready to answer her with a good remark, but he soon forgot as he heard some loud footsteps coming straight to their direction. Irene was also surprised and tilted her head to see if she could recognize the person desperately running.
"Isn't that-?"
“Kain! Have you seen Lucifer?” he denied with his head as he took another bite of his food; Mammon was almost breathless, so something bad must have happened. "Good, you need to help me hide from hi- "Who is she?"
He pointed at Irene, not quite happy about her presence.
"Hello to you too. Name's Irene, Kain's best friend."
"Wait, what do you mean by 'best friend' I thought you had no friends at all!"
"Ow, you thought you were Kain's first and only friend? How cute~."
Mammon blushed, not expecting her to guess it so quickly. He was about to protest, yet Kain stopped him to return to the prior topic.
"Mammon, what did you do this time?"
“It’s always “what did you do?” And never “how are you doing? Are you ok?”
“The fuck you mean? You’re clearly not ok, dude!”
"Ok, ok… I may or may not have failed my latest exam. The thing is, it's better that he doesn't find me."
“Delaying the inevitable will get you nowhere.”
“I don’t need any advice from you, Miss know-it-all.”
“Mammon, stay!”
Unable to disobey from their pact, Mammon’s body became rigid and he stopped talking for a second. The succubus laughed at the sight.
“Omg, it’s exactly how you told me! How fun!”
“It may be for you because you’re not the victim here!”
“You know, if you weren’t so rude we might actually help you with your little Lucifer problem but seeing how things are I rather not.”
“Hah, what can a low rank succubus and a human do against Lucifer?”
“Nothing really, but Irene could help you out with your studies.”
“Just so you know I have good, easy and practical memorization techniques I use for studding. It’s even helping Kain to prepare for his trivia contest against Levi so you could give it a try. I bet Lucifer wouldn’t be so hard on you if he knew you’re willing to learn.”
“Give her the benefit of the doubt, you have nothing to lose.”
Mammon didn’t seem too convinced. He looked at Kain as if asking why was he being so nice out of sudden.
“I told you, I believe in second chances. And this lady here may look like a bitch, but she’s a nice person.”
“You’re ruining my bad girl reputation.” Irene got up and stretched her hand for the demon to shake. “What do you say? Deal? I won’t charge you one cent.”
“Ok, deal.”
Kain could comment on how easy it was for Mammon to say yes to free stuff yet decided not to. Then, the three of them went to see Lucifer to explain the situation and, surprisingly, he thought it was a nice idea. Although he did apologize to Irene for “making her deal with his troublesome brother”.
When the two friends were alone again, Kain asked the real reason why she agreed.
“Well, he seems dumb but doesn’t seem like a horrible person. Plus, he is kinda cute too~.” She laughed, pausing a bit after that. “Now seriously, I’m doing this mostly because of you, that's what friends do.”
She winked at him, leaving to her next class. Before leaving him alone in the hallway she reminded him to meet with her at the library to go over the TSL story once more before the competition with Levi. Kain was motivated by Irene's enthusiasm, which was a mistake; if only they knew what would await them that day.
***
Kain stopped his track of thought; his problems with Levi used to be on a whole other level. But that was a thing to talk about on another day, he should focus on what he was doing now.
Which was...
"Oh, fuck, the dinner."
He opened the oven door to check on the food, which fortunately wasn’t burned. That means he shouldn’t be daydreaming so much…
"Kaiiin! Ah, you here." Mammon entered the kitchen, out of breath "Hey, is it going to take long? We don't want Beel to go on a rampage again."
Mammon entered the kitchen as Kain removed the tray from the oven. Kain answered without turning around to face him.
“It’s done. Can you help me take a couple of things to the dining room?”
“Gotcha! …Hey, you ok? You seem off.”
“Nah, I’m fine… Just remembered some things from the past.”
“Like what?”
“Like how you used to be a total moron.”
“Hey! I didn’t… Well, maybe I used to be a moron but no need to remind me!”
Kain laughed, teasing him a bit more, just to mess with him a little. Their relationship sure change a lot and being honest with himself, he was glad he got to know Mammon better.
Remembering past thing on the way the set the table; it was a nice topic to discus with the rest at the table.