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Chapter Text

"What about something yellow?"
"Preposterous! Yellow is not a dignifing color at all!"
 Once again, Clara and Asmodeus were at odds with each other. Some things simply never change. Iruma was actually glad his new title had basically no effect on almost anything in his life.
"Maybe I should try it anyway, it is a happy color and I want to make others happy." He tried to pick a middle ground. They've been in this shop for three hours now, just because Azz didn't deem anything worthy to be worn by his king. It was sweet at first, but now it was borderline annoying. To be fair, the only reason he hadn't intervened yet, was that he actually had even less of a clue about demonic clothing habits than Clara. And that really said something.
Azz halfheartedly agreed but continued pouting even after they had left the shop with both the yellow shirt and an outfit that Azz had gotten to pick all on his own. 
To be honest, I was kinda scared that Azz would become even more of a pushover once I ascended the throne.

Luckily that didn't seem to be the case, but that was probably because Iruma had finally come clean about his origins which caused the demon's urge to protect the human to increase tenfold, as he had now taken it upon himself to "not only be his spear, but his shield as well" (Azz's words, not his.) It also meant that the two friends were now more attentive to situations in which Iruma wouldn't know how to respond like a born demon.
The evening sun shone down upon the trio as they made their way back to the carriage, carefully avoiding detection.

Among the busy noise of crowds, there was also the sound of laughing children, Iruma made sure to check his surroundings so that he would not bump into them and disturb whatever game they were playing. But there were no playing children. There was however a group of them near the fountain, sat in a circle around an old looking demoness. He subconsciously parted from his companions who started bickering about something unrelated again, tuning them out completely.

"And that was the story of the demon princess and the dead merchant."
"Princess Liliane is so cool."

"Can the next one not be romantic?"

"Yeah! Tells us another one!"

Tell us another, tell us, tell us!!!"
Children were now screaming with excitement. The old woman chuckled, before giving in. 
"Alright, alright, do not be impatient."
Iruma sat down amidst the youth. Fairytales? I don't think I've ever even heard one.
Indeed he had not, his parents mostly left him to fend for himself, thus did not consider spending their time on raising Iruma in any capacity as a beneficial endeavor. Therefore -even though he was fammiliar with the concept- he was never actually told one. He suspected demonic fairytales were probably quite dark and morbid in comparison to human fairytales, but a desire kept growing bigger inside him, begging him to stay and listen. In his many years of hanging out with the president of student council, now the security chief of Demon border control Ameri Azazel, Iruma had learned to listen to his desires. He stayed put, unnoticed by the children.
The storyteller laughed and Iruma could swear she had sent a wink in his direction.
"Which one would you like to hear next?" she asked.
A tiny girl dressed in pink with ram horns excitedly raised her hand:" I wanna hear the story of the sleeping demoness!"
"No fair, Mnemosyne has already told us that one yesterday! I want to hear the story of the enchanted lake." A young boy, who looked like he couldn't be more than five chipped in, sounding rather upset.
Is this what kindergarten would have been like? Personally, Iruma couldn't care less about what story got told, only that he'd be allowed to hear it.
While the demon king was deep in thought, the chatter quited down. He looked up, fixating his attention on the lady he know knew to be named Mnemosyne.
Good lady, won't you tell me a story?
"Alright, alright! Calm yourselves. How about one I have never told yet?" The children uttered a collective gasp. All eyes were glued on her, but hers remained on Iruma. Iruma checked his face. Despite still wearing detection warding glasses he had a feeling she knew he was there.

If she noticed his unease, the woman didn't visibly acknowledge it. Instead she smiled as her tale begun with "Once upon a time..."

A long long time ago, just shortly after the demons came down from the heavens, the rule over our kingdom was entrusted to a mighty demon king. He had everything he had ever wanted: power, wisdom, respect, trust, gold and many subjects who gladly devoted their lives to serving him. Yet, there was one thing he lacked. The king was not immortal, just as everyone else, and our world was fickle. He yearned to find himself a bride. In those times, things were much more complicated than they are now. The king wanted for himself a demoness of great beauty, elegance, poise, assertiveness and with a waist he could cup with his hands.
Such a demoness however, as far as anyone knew did not exist. There were many fair, elegant, dominant women in his land, but none fit that last requirement. They did try, but all had untimately failed. Just as the king was about to give up, an old woman sought an audience with him.
"What is it you seek old woman?"
"I seek nothing, but I believe I possess information that could be of use to you." She bowed to him, a grin plastered on her face. The king paused in thought. "Speak then."
The hag stood up, a small frail hooded figure, of a most unassuming presence. "There is a lake hidden in the Wanderer's forest. A fair demoness befitting of you and in form compliant to your desires comes there every morning to admire her reflection." She raised her hand pointing at him: "But be warned, one who desires perfection in others will be surely disappointed."
The king ignored her parting words, hurrying past the hag.
 At long last he finally knew where he could find someone who fit his criteria.

Deep inside the wanderer's forest indeed laid a lake tranquil and serene. The king waited alone for the girl of his dreams. And as confidently as the hag said she would, she came. An image of true beauty, with hair of the fairest pink. She moved with grace like a snake, and alike one also posessed a dangerous aura 'round her. The king approached her, offering her a fiery bloom. The woman she laughed so cruel. The king thought he had been refused, but a while later just as he was about to leave, she quieted, accepting the gift that would make her a queen.
The kingdom rejoiced, but only for a short time.  The king suddenly passed, slain in battle. As is the custom the queen was left to handle the affairs in his wake, till a new king was crowned.
Soon all good things turned sour. Bodies slain, butchered or defaced would turn up like clockwork each week. For a while demons struggled to find the cause, until one day, a victim-to-be escaped.
A lad of a poor family, but with intelligence unmatched told his tale in a tavern the very day the murderous pattern broke.
"I stood near the river when a woman approached, all of her body pale as snow, with her face covered with a black cloak.
I admit I could not resist, but when we embraced I could see the dagger about to be plunged in my throat."
The man showed the tavern the marks on his wrists 'fore he unveiled the shocking truth.
 "As we fought, her cloak came undone and I saw her face. T'was hard to believe, but it was- the queen!"
Hearing the accusations the queen defended herself, no one daring to cross her. Days passed as the killer laid low, and the would-be victim had gone quiet, as he realized he was not believed.
Unbeknownst to demonkind, a brave demon had already set up a trap for her. A charming demon to lure the killer out into the open, where her identity would be revealed.
That demon was well known for his striking beauty and charming personality, but now he begun walking alone more often, staying well away from other demons. As days passed he could sense a shadow following him, choosing not to pay it any mind, the demon did not let the creature know she had been spotted.
A week passed in this manner as the demon begun thinking he would not be approached.
"Ara, ara, aren't you a pretty one? What are you doing out here all alone?" He heard a sweet voice somewhere behind him.
"Good lady, I wish I could give you an answer that would not paint me in an unflattering light. However, I am much too drunk to think of a lie on the spot."
A hooded figure appeared before him, her white teeth ominously reflecting the moonlight. She approached the demon with light steps, as the man turned into a different street.
"My dear, where's the rush?" 
"I must go home my dear, before my cheeks become more flush."
The hooded figure followed.
"Say now love, why don't we stop? If you comply I assure you, you'll be rewarded with delight."
"Fair maiden, that's quite a surprise, I now know for sure, you're a fragment of my dreams."
Her steps quickened their pace as the demon rounded another corner.
The figure charged blinded with desire-
Right into a busy street. Before she could hide the knife, she was surrounded by demons, her hood, pulled up revealing the cruel murderess' identity.
Her pink hair unmistakable- it was the queen.

The demoness stood trial, unrepentant. She merely laughed when they declared her guilty, never stopping to so much as draw breath till the nook round her neck stopped her giggles. The nether world then got plunged into lawless anarchy untill a new demon king was chosen. The young demon who exposed her became the seventh member of what we now know as the thirteen crowns. His name was Azamuku Giman- The first head of Deception.

"The end."
For a bit everything was quiet.
"I don't like this story." A little demoness deadpanned. "Aww, is someone going soft? That queen was so cool! A real demoness unlike you." That other kid from before punched the girl in her shoulder. She ignored the boy as though he had neither said nor done anything.

Mnemosyne only smiled wryly.
"True tales tend not to end happily. This was the tale of king Prospherous' queen, my great-great-great grandmother was still a young girl during their reign..." Iruma stood up, knowing that somehow, she indeed knew he was there. That this particular story was chosen for him to hear.
Mnemosyne wasn't done yet though:
" Many good demons died in the anarchy that followed the death of both leaders in such quick sucession. Same thing happened after Delkira's disappearance. The thirteen crowns always take such a long time to get anything done. It's why it's better to always have a sole demon to unite us."

Her words still rang in Iruma's ears as he scrambled away to find his companions. He didn't realize the two were right in front of him until he practicaly crushed into them.
"Iruma? Where did you go? We were looking for you!" The greenette asked in worry, grabbing onto his shirt like a little kid, only she wasn't little anymore, she was just Clara being Clara.
"Are you alright master? You look as though you've seen a ghost!"
Iruma took a deep breath, calming his nerves until his thoughts were no longer running a hundred miles per hour.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Let's just go, the carriage is already waiting for us. We don't want to get spotted, now do we?"
The two reluctantly agreed, clearly taking issue with his statement but not willing to force any answers out of him. Iruma took the lead, not wanting to walk side by side with the two demons right now.
The king was glad they trusted him enough not to drill furter, he desperately needed some time to think. 
To figure out what that demoness was getting at.
Even once the trio settled in the carriage, the two silently eyed him with worry.
I don't actually have to tell them everything. Just a bit to quench their curiosity a little.

"There was an old lady in the square." Iruma diverted his gaze to the window. "She was telling fairytales to the kids and it made me think."
"We are always here for you, if you have any questions about the Netherworld." Asmodeus tried to encourage him enough to elaborate. "I know, and I'm really thankful for that."
Iruma didn't want do that just yet. He wasn't even sure yet what the question Mnemosyne wanted him to pose was.

Chapter Text

"Can I ask you something?"
"Of course master." Azz continued scribbling onto a large piece of parchment without pause.
Iruma shifted in his seat.
"I was thinking about yesterday. The old lady mentioned that spouses take over the kingdom if a demon king should die, is that still so?"
The scribbling ceased, as Asmodeus remained quiet for a bit, perhaps unsure of how to tackle the question.
"Yes, that is true. They also take over the monarch's duties, if they were to become sick, or left for traveling purposes. Though their primary role consists of being a moral support to the ruling partner, a consultant and a public figure that upkeeps public relations." Azz turned his head toward Iruma, his gaze analytical.
"You're not actually considering marriage are you?"

Surely he would tell me if he got that close with another demoness.
"No, of course not. Like I said, I was just thinking about something I heard yesterday." Iruma nervously stated.
But basically a queen's job is what Azz is doing right now.
It would be kind of nice though to let Azz have some more free time, the dude had no clue how to chill.
"Marriage is very important to demons, do not take it lightly." Alice continued "Once a demon promises their loyalty to another, that is until death tears them apart. That can mean centuries spent together. Most never go as far as marriage, so it is a sign of utmost trust."
Although it's hard to imagine anyone would reject a king's hand in marriage if it were offered to them. And that wasn't just because there was already a fifty -fifty chance they already harbored feelings for him.
Alice did his best to ignore the funny feeling in his stomach. Iruma was just curious about demonic traditions!
It means nothing.

Iruma was absolutely considering marriage. He was a human for goodness' sake, he was only going to live for what, 50, 60 more years? That is nothing in comparison to a demon's lifespan! He didn't know how the food or even the Netherworld itself affected a human's lifespan. He made a mental note to ask his ex professors about that.
Bottom line is- making sure there's someone to take over for a bit after he passes was not only prudent, but also a good measure to avoid another spiral into chaos so shortly after a king finally got elected. 

There was only one problem.
"Who in the Netherworld would agree to this?"
Iruma sighed, resignedly letting a long list of names of the demonesses he knew fall to the floor. No one he knew would be right. Most demons he knew were already dating someone else and two were actually married already.

 Elizabetta had fallen seriously ill at the last second so obviously Irumi had to fill in Kurori's maid of honor role. It was...an interesting event for sure... And more blackmail material than anyone would possibly need in their life. 

But that's neither here nor there.

He didn't want to marry a stranger for well, obvious reasons. How would he know if they were capable of leading of a country, or even not spilling the beans if they ever got drunk?

The best options were Clara and Ameri, but those two were actually in love with him and he most certainly didn't want to trap them in a loveless marriage when he absolutely did not reciprocate their feelings. He seriously doubted he could even fall for someone, since no girl from his school had ever achieved that, despite various and some rather creative attempts. Clara and Ameri included. He has a lot of admirers, but he has never fallen in love with any of them, so asking someone who was already harboring romantic feelings to marry him was out of the question. There was no doubt in his mind, that a marriage to someone who didn't return your romantic feelings would be absolute hell.
Wait, what about...
Of course! Up until now I have only considered women, but if the sole purpose of this marriage is to provide demon kind a backup ruler, then their gender doesn't matter at all! 

In a single moment his list of potential candidates grew three time longer. He picked up the parchment again, happily returning to his work table. He settled down in his comfy chair and quickly scribbled down all the names of his single male friends with a quill.

Once the list was completed, he slowly begun crossing out names of demons he wouldn't trust to rule a kingdom (sorry Lied) or he didn't think could keep a secret this big (sorry Sabnock) one by one. He worked his way up on the trust scale until he was only left with a few names.

Purson doesn't really want to stand out... I don't think he wouldn't be comfortable being a center of attention.

Gaap was a good choice but... Well Iruma wasn't exactly sure what that thing he had going on with Agares was. They acted like a couple, but still weren't official so... A maybe?

Allocer... He was by all means a perfect fit. But there was still another name under Schneider's that allured the king even more.

Three mere letters made Iruma's heart beat faster with excitement.

Azz. The thought of spelling his name out didn't even cross the king's mind. To be honest, the king must've known deep down he could only trust one person with this scheme. If he couldn't get his hand in marriage, the whole idea was a bust. Iruma sighed, running his hands through his hair. Welp, at least he was sure his right hand man would be as silent as a grave about this matter no matter what his answer would actually end up being.
Iruma gulped. This could go over very easily or result in a complete disaster, but his mind was already made up.
He stood up, leaving the paper behind, safely hidden in one of the many lockable drawers. Not that anyone could figure out what the list of names was for, even if they did actually chance upon it. He'd just rather not be questioned about it.
The demon king exited his office with nothing but the name of his most trusted friend -and maybe also his future husband- on his mind.
Alice Asmodeus.

It was 7:30 AM and the royal chambers were already empty. It wasn't something completely unheard of per say, but it usually meant the king had not gone to sleep at all for the night. Alice Asmodeus, demon king's right hand man, his most trusted advisor and designated breakfast carrier was pissed. Ever since Iruma had come clean about his origins, Alice insisted to be by his side at all times as a precaution. Yet for some reason the king still decided to sneak back into his office after explicitly telling Alice he was going to hit the sack yesterday! The pinkette pouted. He would've stayed up if Iruma just asked him! But what if his master didn't want him there???

Asmodeus wondered what could be so sensitive Iruma wouldn't even share it with him. He set out to find the man who was probably going to be sleep deprived enough to let it slip. Just as he turned around the corner to head toward the office, a small figure barreled toward him.
"Azz!" Iruma grinded to a halt. "I need to discuss something really important with you." The bluenette glanced around, before pulling the pinkette into his room. The man was luckily born graceful, otherwise the king's breakfast would not have survived that quick motion.
Alice noted the king had big circles under his eyes. Poor guy probably didn't sleep a wink last night, but was so pumped with adrenaline Alice wasn't sure the other has yet realized it was morning yet.

Iruma smiled nervously, fiddling with his fingers for a bit, before looking the other straight in the eyes and asked:
"Alice Asmodeus, will you marry me?"
If this were a romantic comedy, Asmodeus would have fainted on the spot. But it isn't, so Alice merely swayed a bit from shock studying Iruma's face to see any sign that his king was joking.
Oh devi, he is serious.
Asmodeus bit his lip, feeling his cheeks heat up: "If I may ask, what brought this on so suddenly?" Is it sudden, if the person in question asked questions about marriage the day prior? By devi, he should've seen this coming!
Iruma visibly deflated, but started explaining his thought process:
"That demoness in town said something that has been keeping me up. I don't want to cause anyone worry, yet my subjects are at unease since if I die, everything will get thrown back into chaos. I want to give them this layer of protection, so there's still someone who will take care of them, when something happens to me."
And I'm human so that's a lot more likely to happen. Humans are fragile.
"I would never allow for anything adverse to happen to you!" Azz assured him.

"But why me? You already have so many admirers who would kill for your hand." Not that it wasn't incredibly flattering and Alice wasn't sure that he could handle Iruma courting someone else, but still...
"I spent a lot of time thinking about this."
The whole night actually.

"Is that what you've been doing in your office tonight?"

"See Azz! This is why. We're on the same wavelength."
Iruma lowered his gaze: "I've never been in love before Azz, I don't even know what it is supposed to feel like. So this marriage will only be out of convenience, not love."
The bluenette scratched his head in embarrassment "I don't want to give my partner the wrong idea. I don't want them to hang onto the possibility I will fall in love with them over time, it would just make their life miserable. I'd be close to them, yet unapproachable at the same time."
Alice refused to meet his eyes: "Marriage is a huge commitment. I suggest we talk about it once you've rested properly."
Iruma bit his lip "Is that a no?"
By devi, that is a "I need time to stop panicking and think about it rationally!"
Not that Alice would ever vocalize his inner moments of gay panic.
"I think both of us should be rested for a proper discussion. It is morning already, you should take a nap."
It is?" Iruma looked outside, indeed it was already bright. He didn't bother stiffling a yawn as Azz led him toward his large untouched bed. The taller man set the food on Iruma's bedside table to tuck the bluenette in with a promise to take care of his duties as he slept.
"See, you're already doing everything a queen would, nothing would even have to change." Iruma murmured.
Asmodeus was now as red as a nether beet.
"Rest well." And for at least the next eight hours.
Iruma descended into dreamland almost instantaneously as Alice's departure was already accompanied with quiet snoring.

Alice barely had time to lock the office door before starting to hyperventilate
Iruma just proposed to me. The man I've been in love with for more than a decade has proposed to me. He squealed with joy. This moment usually signaled he was about to wake up from a wonderful dream, but this time his departure from the land of Morpheus would not come. Because it wasn't a dream and for all his daydreaming Asmodeus didn't actually know what to do.
If the circumstance were any different, the pinkette would have no problem saying yes, but there was a big, big issue.
Iruma had made it clear he didn't intend the marriage to be of a romantic nature as well as put forth very good reasons for why he wouldn't consider demons already in love with him as options. The issue here being that Asmodeus was very much in love with the man. Not that he was ever exactly subtle about it, but for all his limitless wisdom, Iruma was basically blind to love unless you actually pointed it out to him.

Bottom line- he should have been disqualified immediately. But Iruma asked him anyway.
Which is weird.
Humans are weird.
And since Alice is a masochist, he's obviously going to say yes.
Iruma is absolutely right, nothing has to change. But hat was only partially the truth. Because while their relationship wouldn't change, the Asmodeus clan would gain a lot more influence because of their ties to the royal family. Alice would also have more authority than he could ever even dream of having in the position of king's right hand man or even as one of the three greats. It also meant that he could disguise his constant fretting over the king's wellbeing as merely the actions of a dotting husband.
Azz blushed, hiding his heated face into his hands. All in all, Alice couldn't see a downside.
Well besides the blatant disregard of the one rule the King posed for his to-be groom. But if Iruma hadn't noticed Alice's affections until now, he surely wouldn't notice them after their marriage.

Azz would just have to keep his secret well guarded and never ever tell a soul. He's been doing it for ten years now, surely he could successfully take that fluttering feeling in his chest to his grave.
He was still happy to have some time to fully calm down. If he had to answer now he couldn't imagine himself able to say yes without positively squealing with glee like some teenage school girl. 

There is still so much to do! Asmodeus now had to come up with the perfect plan to make their arrangement as believable as possible. 

Afterall, the wedding of a king was a grand affair, there will surely be many questions to answer, especially since it all happened so suddenly. As far as anyone knew the king had no interest in relationships and now he was suddenly engaged to his pinning right hand man? Scandalous.

Unless. Asmodeus already had a plan on how to convince people they'd been secretly courting for years. He was just going to have to pitch it to Iruma after he awakes.

He squealed again.

"Sir Asmodeus are you alright?" Someone asked through the closed door.

"I'm fine! Just dropped something on my foot!" Right. Enough dreaming, let's get to work.

Alice unlocked the door, taking the large pile of papers out of the aid's hands.

The man glanced inside "Where is-"

"His majesty is taking the morning off. If an urgent issue arises you may report it directly to me." The green haired man scoffed, but left without saying a word. Alice sat himself down onto the slightly smaller chair next to the king's throne.

His own words echoed in his mind.
Marriage is something you shouldn't take lightly.
Even if Iruma did, Asmodeus wouldn't. He was going to be the husband of Iruma's dreams, whether the king intended for that to happen or not.

Chapter Text

 By the time Iruma woke up it was already noon.

 His gaze landed on the giant mountain of breakfast food leftover from that morning. He must've been exhausted, there was no other explanation as to how it was possible for the food to still be in tact. Instead of questioning it, Iruma merely mentally thanked Azz as he dug in.

 Azz. Thinking back he could have definitely approached the subject more… Tactfully. Oh well, he was never that great in beating around the bush.  A ball of nervousness formed in the king's stomach. He didn't say no. But he also didn't say yes. Man, he was in for a scolding of a lifetime. Asmodeus was absolutely going to chew his ear off about the sanctity of marriage and how he couldn't just go around proposing to demons.

 He sighed. Maybe he could blame it on drowsiness. He wasn't going to, but he could. It would mostly depend on how Azz was going to react.

 Iruma checked his phone. It was late afternoon already, so there was about a hundred percent chance the demon pinkette would be found be in the royal study pouring over numbers Iruma didn't have enough braincells to understand.

 “Good afternoon, your highness.” A maid bowed passing him.

 Iruma nodded to the scurrying maid.  Was she waiting before my door? Guess Azz must've told them I was taking the morning off. That particular code was by now universally understood to be a stand in for “asleep, because I stayed up all night stressing out way too much over things that probably never warranted that in the first place.”

 Anyway, that wasn't the most important right now.

 He stood still before the large ebony french door that separated him from Azz.

 He knocked. He didn’t have to, but it was curtesy.

 “Come in.” Azz's calm baritone beckoned the visitor inside.

 Whelp, now he knew how demons requesting audiences felt when dealing with Azz. A nervous wreck before you even enter the room.

 The king entered the office as Azz kept his head over the parchment rapidly scribbling away.

 “Hey Azz, about this morning-”

 “I'm in.” The pinkette sat aside the quill, pursing his lips to lightly blow over the freshly written cursive.

 “You are?” Sure Iruma was the one who proposed the whole ordeal, but the immediate answer gave him unexpected whiplash.

 “I've thought it over and see no issue with it.” Azz set the parchment aside in order for the ink to dry. He kindly smiled to calm down the visibly nervous king.

 The pinkette pointed at the parchment.

 “So long as we are on the same page about expectations and boundaries.”

 Iruma walked around the rectangular table setting himself down to Azz's left.

 He carefully took the animal skin into his hands, careful not to create any smudges.

 Rule number 1: No one can know this was an arrangement.

 Rule number 2: From now on, you will tell me when something’s bothering you. I’m here to stand by your side and help you bridge any obstacle you may face.

 Rule number 3: No dating other demons behind each other’s back.

 Rule number 4:  We will dedicate a week of time before the announcement to coming up with believable lies about the more basic aspects our romance. If anyone directly confronts us, we will say we have already been dating for five years. We must request that they keep it for themselves until we make a formal announcement.

 “You've already thought about this a lot.”

 “It has been a quiet day.” Azz smiled. The giant stack of papers under the table pointed to the contrary, but Iruma thought better than to question it.

 By now he knew Azz had a wide set of skills. Flawlessly speeding through needless papers was one of them. It was as if he could tell by a single glance what was important to read through and what wasn't. It was a skill he had attempted to relay to Iruma without much success.

 “There’s still half a page empty.”

 “It's your half, you need to write down your expectations and your boundaries.” His aid explained with a smile.

 “It is important to me that I don't accidentally make you do something you aren't comfortable with.”

 Shouldn’t I be the one more concerned with that?

 “Thanks Azz.” The pinkette had already put way more thought into this than Iruma had. Maybe he should let Azz take the lead in this matter. 

 Though…

 “How come you didn't list any boundaries?”

 “But I did. Number 3?”

 “I’m asking you to marry me because I don’t like anyone like that.” Iruma deadpanned.

 But you may one day change your mind and my heart wouldn’t be able to take that. “Then you should have no issue with it,” Azz responded in a defensive tone, begging the human not to press further into the matter.

 Iruma just thought it didn’t need to be said. How was it possible that Azz- voted “handsomest demon of Babylis” for six years in a row- had never dated when his standards were just Don’t be a cheater. It occurred to Iruma that perhaps Azz was in the same boat as him. That would explain why he would go along with charade so easily. The demon had already promised his eternal servitude, perhaps he didn’t care how they labelled it. Speaking of servitude…

 “You’re not just agreeing to this because of the servitude rule, right?”

 Azz gasped in shock, taken aback that Iruma could even consider such a thing.

 “I assure you, the possibility of you making me do something I wouldn’t agree to is ludicrous. Because I would do and would tolerate anything for you. It was something the man had demonstrated plenty of times, including the one instance in which Iruma had asked him to compile a comprehensive herbarium of all the plants in the Nether world for “research purposes” back at Babylis. Once he eventually handed it over after a few eventful weekends, Iruma looked shocked and the class erupted in laughter.

 It turned out that on one of the class’s usual Saturday meetups -which Azz was too sick to attend- the group had dared Iruma to let Lied send one text from his phone to any person of his choosing, with the added amendment that he was not allowed to talk about the dare in the future or look at what the text was and to whom it was sent. Apparently their annoying classmates were making bets on how far Azz would go because Iruma asked him to. Turns out the answer was to the highest mountain, the hottest part of the desert, the darkest cave and the bottom of the ocean, because Azz wasn’t sure if Iruma wanted the sea plants as well. Azz was weary of unusual requests via telephone from then on, lest the next prank resulted in a murder.  Whether as a part of the request or as retribution to the unfortunate prankster your guess is as good as anyone else’s.

 “Besides, I wanted to know where you stood with your boundaries first, mine can be very flexible,” well, that was the least pinning way of putting it.

 The king nodded, already deep in thought.

 The rest of the afternoon passed in comfortable silence as the two worked together, Iruma on the list and Azz on something completely unrelated to their arrangement.

 Iruma stole a glance.

 “Final plan revision for Stix river Bridge connecting Autuny and Helliny in Hadris county, coordinates…”

 Azz was double checking the math with a Netherworld map in his lap and various papers neatly organized around his side of the table filled with calculations and formulas that made Iruma's head spin.

 He refocused on the parchment. It was amazing how quickly Azz could recalibrate and move with the flow. Iruma silently congratulated himself. He could not have made a better choice.

 Alice focused on the plans. Math was easy. You just had to write down a formula, put in the numbers, and a result would come out. It was automatic, it was repetitive. It was a good way to keep his mind occupied so his thoughts wouldn't wander. Iruma had no concrete complaints about Asmodeus' expectations, he knew Iruma brought rule three up as a matter of curiosity and not genuine disagreement. Other requests were met with no complaints, or perhaps he would voice them out his half of the list was complete. Right now communication was vital.

 Either way was fine. They couldn't exactly afford big mistakes, hence the week for preparations. Of course that could be extended depending on how quickly the demons caught onto their “relationship”. Azz had been in the middle of planning ways on how to get the rumor mill going, as it would benefit them if there were already rumors which they would only have to confirm. It would make the lie of a long secret relationship more believable.

 Odd. Alice rechecked his calculation, even going so far as to redo the entire thing.

 His result slightly differed from the one written on the paper. He marked the number in red ink to be re-checked. This is a bridge after all, the math must be perfect.

 As must be their behaviour. There cannot be a single move that could clue in to the fact that Iruma wasn't madly in love with Alice.

 Yes, like a bridge. Every move especially calculated before it's taken, otherwise the entire plot will come crashing down.

 Alice did not share that observation with Iruma. There was no need to bother his fiancé  with that this early into their engagement. Azz was perfectly capable of making all the calculations for them.

 Now isn't that a nice thought.

 “I think that's it.”

 “Let me see.”

 Azz leaned his body over to the king's side.

 There were four new rules added under his own.

 “Umm, I was thinking about your rules. Why don't we just tell people we're together?  Why wait a week and lie about being together for years?” Surely that would be easier to pull off?

 Azz tutted. *Oh you poor naïve thing.

 “As stated before, demons take marriage very seriously, shotgun weddings very rarely happen and are viewed as doomed to fail. Add in the fact that you are not some guy from a street, but the demon king-“

 “I see your point.” Iruma scratched his head in embarrassment.

 “As of now, we do not act like a couple, we should give our friends and the staff some hints that we are romantically involved before dropping the bombshell that is our approaching wedding.”

 The pinkette’s chair scrapped over the floor, as he moved closer to be able to see the writing. His head was now just a few centimeters away from the king's face, letting the faint scent of lavender grace Iruma’s smell neurons. It looked soft too. Iruma leaned away in order to fight the desire to bury his face in Azz's hair.

 I should open a window, it's getting hot in here.

 “-'ll make our lie that we had been dating for years in secret more believable.”

 “Besides,” Azz was now looking at him with an mischievous grin. “Demons are more susceptible to believe a conclusion they reached on their own rather than one they were just verbally informed of.”

 “Ah, is that so…” Iruma bit down on his lip.

 “Demons love rumors master, we must use that to our advantage.” Azz seemed to take pleasure in the prospect of conning an entire population, which was just as well because Iruma was terrible in the lying department.

 “Any other reservations?”

 “Ah no.”

 “Then let's address your rules.”

 Rule number 5: You must call me by my name. The word master may not be used to refer to me.

 “But you're the king!”

 “And your fiancé. We should be on equal grounds.”

 Azz pouted. “Your majesty.”

 “No.”

 “Iruma-sama.”

 “No.”

 “My king~” Azz grinned as he stressed my in a rather possessive manner.

 The king flushed.

 “It's also a term of endearment.” Azz quickly supplied. “Other options include honey, sweetheart, love, dearest, the light of my life, my sole reason for existing…”

 “My king is fine!” Jeez, what do you have against using my name?

 Rule number 6: The first people we will tell are our families. We should also tell Clara before any other ex classmates of ours. 

 “Ah, I should've thought of that. Very good ma-

 My king.” Azz bit down on his lip to stop himself from breaking rule 5, mere ten seconds after it had been set.

 “Although, I would be willing to bet it will be Clara who will confront us about it herself. as with everyone else, we should drop enough hints for her to come to that conclusion on her own. It'll be more believable if she thinks she caught us rather than if we just tell her outright.”

 “And we can use her confrontation as the switch for us to come clean to our classmates as well.” Iruma added, to which Azz hummed in agreement.

 Rule number 7: I’d like you to discuss plans with me before you carry them out. You don’t have to fly solo, we’re a team.

 “That is exactly right! Coordination is vital if we want to pull this off.”

 Rule number 8: I don’t mind holding hands, but no kissing

 “Please do not take this the wrong way, but we need to convince others we're in love.”

 But we don't have to kiss for that! Maybe we're just not the PDA type.” Iruma countered.

 “Do you realize we will have to kiss on the wedding day? Are you certain you can handle that being our first kiss?”

 Iruma went beet red. “Well um… The truth is… I've never kissed anyone before.” He whispered.

 Azz blanched. I've never been in love before. He did say that didn't he?

 “It's really not as big of a deal as everyone makes it out to be. It’s like a touch, just with lips.” Azz pressed a light kiss on the back of Iruma’s hand.

 “You didn’t die did you?” Iruma shook his head.

 “You should try kissing me now. Just as practice.”

 “Wha-” The king was taken aback by the proposal, looking at Alice with an expression of utmost horror, as if the other had just proposed they should go murder hell puppies.

 “I won't bite, just kiss me and don't think about it.”

 Iruma was frozen on the spot. Azz waited, his face still turned toward the other, but didn’t lean any closer. He wanted Iruma to initiate it. He had wanted a kiss for a decade now, so sue him.

 “Fine, we’ll first kiss on our wedding day, just don’t freeze there, ok-“ The end of his  sentence was cut abruptly as Iruma pressed his closed mouth on Azz's, his eyes shut. It passed far too quickly as the king backed away right after the contact was made.

 The pinkette went red, before mumbling out a: “So… Did I bite your head of?”

 Iruma had to admit it wasn't nearly as terrifying as he thought it would be. He licked his lips. Roses.

 “Can I try again?” he could feel his face heat up. Azz was right, it would look odd if Iruma had his first kiss on the wedding day. This wasn’t some sort of purity cult, this was the Nether, where desires of the flesh were encouraged.

 “Certainly.” Azz smiled encouragingly, his pale cheeks still tinted a slight reddish colour.

 Iruma steadied himself before bringing their lips together again. Instead of pulling away as if he'd been shaken with electricity, he forced himself to stay still. Azz rotated his head slightly, biting down on the other's lip.

 Iruma pulled back, his entire face on fire.

 “So, think we can amend rule 8?”

 Azz had no right to look so calm after what just transpired. His face was red, but he was just as composed as always.

 “Will you just, give me a sec to think about it.”

 I really need to open that window.

 Asmodeus Alice had just exchanged his first and second kiss with the love of his life. The man in question was now opening up the window, taking in deep breaths.

 Azz puffed his breath into his hands.

 Please tell me I don't have bad breath.

 He was mortified, but his hands didn't smell at all.

 Is it because I am a demon? Was it because of the bite? Perhaps cutting kissing out was a good idea. If he couldn't help himself from biting, who knows what he might feel emboldened to do in the future and scare Iruma off in the process.

 “Was it bad?”

 “No. I just… I don't think I'm a fan of kissing.”

 It did weird things to him, a tumble in his stomach, a sudden dizziness in his head… He rolled up his sleeve. Goosebumps.

 I think I might be allergic.

 The doors flew open.

 “Dinner's ready!” An overly happy aid barged in.

 He stopped when Azz fixed him with the glare of a thousand suns.

 ”Gee, would you look at the time I think I have forgotten I had something to do far, far away from here.”

 The man disappeared as quickly as he appeared.

 “It is late.” The sky was a dark purple, the moon already lazily traversing it's great expanse.

 Iruma touched Azz's shoulder. “Let's go eat and we'll talk more tomorrow.”

 Azz nodded, quickly hiding the rule parchment under his shirt.

 “We can't have anyone finding it.”

 “Right.”

 Azz leaned closer to his ear, quietly whispering: “Operation Rumor mill is a go. Just follow my lead and don't act surprised.”

 The two friends/soulmates/ fiancés/whatever-they-were made their way toward the dinning room. The two walked side by side, which was unusual, as Asmodeus usually trailed at least a few steps behind the king. The servants quietly mumbled among each other as Alice sat himself down just a little closer to the king as usual. Only quieting down whenever either of them glanced in their direction. Though it was mostly the right hand man who did so, whenever the “not-observers” became a tad too loud.

 In reality, the pinkette was more than pleased.

 It really didn't take much for the gossip to start. Now they just had to add oil to the fire in moderate amounts.

 “Ah, let me hand you the salt.”

 “Thanks Azz.” As the taller man passed the bottle he made sure to make their touch linger just a second more than appropriate.

 A female voice squeaked somewhere in the background.

 Iruma briefly glanced back, before Azz lightly kicked his leg under the table.

 “You've got something on your nose.”

 Azz used his own clean handkerchief to wipe away the totally-not-made-up stain, going so far as to lean closer as if to inspect the king's face.

 “Relax, nothing is out of the ordinary.” He whispered quietly enough that no one else could hear.

 The rest of the dinner passed in relative silence as the cooks returned to the kitchen in order to gossip among each other.

 Azz accompanied Iruma to his chambers.

 “How long do you think it'll take for them to notice?”

 Oh trust me, they already have.

 Alice leaned his head to the left as if listening intently.

 He grabbed Iruma's hand, bringing it up to his lips. “Let us talk again in the morning. Until then…”

 Azz's kiss burnt on the back of Iruma's hand.

 “Have a good night's rest.” Azz grinned. Iruma was unsure what for, he just nodded, closing the door behind him.

 Who knew Azz was such a good actor.

 Iruma buried his head into his hands.

 I really need to get on his level.

 It should be noted, that rumors about the nature of king's oddly close relationship with his aid had actually been circulating among the staff ever since Iruma took the throne. But there was never any proof that they were anything more than extremely close companions. On the king's side that is.

 Anyone with eyes that had spent any amount of time in the same room with the two knew very well that Alice Asmodeus was head over heels for the monarch.

 That's why even the most miniscule change immediately raised a giant cloud of dust in the servant circles. 

 “I swear something is up!” The chief maid said for the fourth time that day.

 “You say that anytime you see them together. Which is always.” A girl deadpanned.

 “They were acting weird when I came to announce dinner. I think I disturbed something… Spicy." That glare was so worth all the attention he was getting right now.

 “Think Asmodeus is finally getting lucky?”

 “Think it's about time. Maybe he'll be a little less stuck up now.” A brunette added, his hair still had burn marks from when he accidentally scented the king's sheets with Vanhella and not hell roses.

 “Here I thought the king was just being a sadist, ignoring him for all these years and so on.” Another guy scratched his head.

 “Think this has maybe been going on for a while?” A woman piqued up.

 The gardener scratched his chin: “I saw ‘em in the garden last week, Iruma gave Asmodeus a hellrose. Said it was to “liven up your room a little.”

 Gasps.

 “How romantic.” A teen cooed.

 “Or how about those “excursions into town”, surely they're code for  “secret dates”.

 “Yeah, no offense to miss Valac, but she isn't that hard to loose. It makes total sense.” The chief of staff sagely added her two cents.

 “I've always found it odd that mister second in command would be so insistant on carrying breakfast to him. Food is the way to a man's heart and what is the first meal of the day?” Chef's assistant exclaimed.

 Obviously it wasn't the fact that the woman had dropped his breakfast twice while carrying it upstairs. And by devi depriving the king of food is a crime of the highest degree. So of course Alice had to take it over.

 The others nodded their heads in agreement.

 That is enough! None of you have tangible proof that anything is going on. All of this is mere baseless speculation.” Allocer tried to shut the conversation down.

 “Boo, you're no fun.” No one knew exactly why the archive keeper was present in their nightly gossip hours, since he always just tried to shut the rumors down, but he was too close to the king for them to be able to kick him out.

 “Actually we do.” Another girl spoke up.

 “And what may that proof be?” Allocer asked already annoyed by her.

 “The way they interact,” she stated so as if it were as obvious as that the sky was blue.

 “She's right, the gardener agreed: "It's obvious they're together, just observe 'em for five seconds.”

 “You know what? I think I will.” That was the last thing he would say on the matter. And so the staff dispersed, still quietly whispering to each other long into the night.

 After tonight every single member of staff was going to be even more careful to keep a hawk's eye on their behaviour. Because that's the thing with rumors, they spread like wildfire and once they are present in one's mind every seemingly unimportant interaction is studied in great detail.

Chapter Text

By day two, two different factions had already formed among the servants.

 The innocents, led by Allocer and marginally smaller in their numbers still maintained their belief that nothing untoward was happening. Despite the ex-classmate’s best efforts, the rest of the staff confidently identified themselves as the romancers, a position especially common among those who didn't work very closely with the king. They kept strict notes on anything that could be proof of a secret relationship. The romancers didn't need to exactly look deep before the usually more reserved half of the pair conveniently begun leaving behind breadcrumbs of information they were free to blow to impossible proportions.

  Case and point:

 "Did you notice?"

 "That Asmodeus smells of hell roses, I sure did."

 "Damn, you guys are bold. That is, if you actually dared to get close enough to smell him and aren't just making things up," an innocenter stated condescendingly.

 The two maids elected to ignore her.

 "Amy, do you understand what this means???" The blonde tried her best not to excitedly scream as she shook the other girl’s arm. "That is Iruma's favourite smell, duh." Amy responded squealing at the very end.

 "Maybe he just wants to experiment a little, his majesty doesn't have exclusive rights to hell roses."

The two women fixed the much younger girl with a rude glare, daring her to say one more word.

 Amy continued: "No, I didn't mean that. Well sure it's a cute idea, that he would change a shampoo for him, but consider this: Hell roses are," she whispered into her ear, well, attempted, she was still loud enough for everyone else in close vicinity to hear her, "the smell of king's bedsheets."

 "AMY!"

 "Scandalous I know,” the girl seemed pleased with herself, sure that her discovery would blow the case out of the water.

 "He slept in his own room yesterday though." Another aid stated. Amy glared at him, her eyes screaming betrayal.

 "That may be, but he was in the king's bedchambers for an awfully suspicious length of time yesterday evening." A small group was now beginning to form, everyone wanted to give their own opinion on the matter. The first woman shook her head. How could they act so...obvious. In reality the servants were having the time of their lives and were desperately searching for their next fix of possibly romantic interactions.

 "I even know when he left," the woman suggestively wiggled her eyebrows.

 "At eleven," she stated that as if it were a big shocking revelation.  It was actually nothing out of the usual for the two to finish work at midnight or even later. But because they were in the demon king’s bedchambers and not in the study it stood to reason…

"And what pray tell were you doing in front of the king's bedchambers until eleven?" the innocenter asked.

"I plead the sixth."

 "Ah, Aza, I was just looking for you." 

 "Is there something I can do for you?" The maid asked, knowing full well that was the only reason Asmodeus ever spoke to her.

 "I am running out of hair balm, I would like for you to pick some up for me."

 "Um, sure? Mountain lavender right?" the white haired woman quirked her brow.

 Asmodeus grinned "Actually, I was thinking of switching to Hell roses for a change."

 He left before Aza could clear her head enough to actually confirm his request.

 By devi, that's the king’s favourite fragrance!

 The woman was too excited about the new tid-bit of information she failed to question why Asmodeus would ask her for hair products when he had always gotten them himself until now.

 The Hell rose debacle spawned quite the discussion in the both communities. It made quite the impact among the Romancers. half maintained that it was purely because the king liked the smell, the other half wouldn't budge away from their claim that Asmodeus didn't even use rose balm, but that him asking Aza for it, was merely a diversion tactic to throw everyone off scent.

 That is until a wise woman brought up the perfect circumstantial evidence that proved the latter right. It was the timing.

 "The hell rose scent is indeed a diversion tactic,” she tutted.

 "It has only happened now, because everyone is onto them. If he had continued using lavender, then Amy would've detected the two scents had mixed. But of course, since he so conveniantly begun using the same one as the bedsheets, we can't use the scent as evidence." Obviously.

 "He has no clue we're onto them though. Asmodeus would've scorched us if he did," a rather beat up brunette objected, he was well fammiliar with how volatile the right hand man could be.

 "But he even went so far as to verbally alert us to the change! You can't tell me that was accidental!" one of the aids rebuffed.

 The romancers eventually agreed that the convoluted explanation made the most sense given that Asmodeus was notorious for being extremely attentive to detail. They congratulated miss detective and were very proud of the fact that they had managed to unravel Asmodeus's deceit.

 Somewhere in the castle Alice wondered if he was perhaps being too subtle.  As the frequency of stolen glances by the staff in his direction increased, so did his confidence that he must be on the right track.

 The Innocenters remained split, half remained convinced it was a spontaneous decision that had nothing to do with Iruma at all, and the other half believed it was another pathetic attempt at seduction, one that would ultimately fail, as had all others. That half was predisposed to disliking Asmodeus, as they had to work with him the most. They could not believe anyone would fall for the man -as beautiful as he was- after spending any significant amout of time working with the nitpicking menace. If they were completely honest, their main reason for even being among the innocenters in the first place was that they secretly enjoyed the right hand man’s misery. His failed love life was the only thing that could make him genuinely sad and not just an angry ball of spiteful fire, so if he got his crush too… Well, fate would reveal who her real favourite was.

 Weather was rather nice on the third day. Asmodeus had inquired if they could prepare the table outside so the king could enjoy his lunch overlooking the gardens.

 Ordinarily, the staff wouldn’t have thought twice about it, but given the recent developments... They would be watching like hawks.

 The second clue they received that not everything was as it seemed, was a simple hair tie.

 Addie had been cleaning the many armoires with old relics that littered the castle when she was passed by Asmodeus.

 “You should wear a hair tie, you could get your hair stuck in the hinges.”

 “S-sorry about that, mine broke and I didn’t think-“ the girl sputtered.

 “Here. Have mine.” The right hand man untied his hair, passing the pink circlet to the girl. She accepted it, her mind still wrapping around the fact that Asmodeus, the man widely considered to be the most stern and cold demon in the entire castle -the man who would and did scorch the staff on the regular for their mistakes- had just given her advice. And was nice about it. Scratch that. He had given her his hair tie! By devi, this man must be having an absolutely amazing day. She had to report this immediately to others. She waved over another girl letting her know exactly what had transpired. And so one by one, the entire castle knew of the unusual occurrence before the hour passed.

 “They are having a date! I am certain of it.” The head chef momentarily abandoned his post to gossip. The dough needed time to rise anyway.

 “He inquired this morning if it was possible to arrange for the king’s lunch to be outside today.”

 “He usually just tells us it’s happening,” the kitchen aid supplied when the news bearer failed to understand how significant the statement was.

 “I see.” The girl grinned. "We’ve gotta set up observers then, don’t we? Maybe something interesting will happen.” Really what kind of investigators would they be, if they failed to take advantage of this situation they had so generously received from the great deity above?

 “Girl, I love you, but what you just said was creepy, they still deserve privacy.” The girl pouted, but the aid did have the moral high ground. Well, if she did end up glancing out there every now and again, that was just healthy curiosity.

 Her view was unfortunately not universally shared, as a tiny group still decided to pick the middle of the “date” as the perfect time to go out to hang their washing. They couldn’t hear much, but they could see that the two were alone. Usually Clara would’ve joined them, but she was off visiting her family at the moment.

 “Do you see his hair?”

 “What about his hair?”

“It’s not tied up.”

 “And that is relevant because?” One of the two guys in their little group asked.

 Amy flipped her hair: “Everyone knows women let down their hair to appear more seductive, Asmodeus is doing the same thing here.”

 “He gave his hair tie to Addie.” Hana deadpanned. She was the only innocenter there, the rest of her group wouldn’t give this “date” the time of their day. Hana still believed the truth was the most important thing there was, so she had to make sure romancers didn’t take things out of context.

 “Well he could’ve gone and gotten another one in this time,” the other guy pointed out.

 “The hair tie situation is merely another ploy, the fact that he gave away it away provides the perfect excuse for why he has his hair down.” Amy hmphed triumphantly. She would not be fooled again after the hell rose debacle. To her credit, she came to the exact conclusion Azz had wanted her to come to. Except he only planned to untie his hair at lunch, the incident with Addie was a mere coincidence. Believe it or not, he possessed some sympathy and he had embarrassingly enough gotten his hair stuck in the hinges before while he was filing away paperwork. He had to spend a good amount of time before he could move again, so now whenever he saw a long haired girl next to cabinets his scalp immediately begun hurting.

 The group was finishing up quicker than anticipated. Well, there were four of them, for what was usually a one person job. They would have to head back in soon, before the sweet time they were taking would become suspicious. The two men were already glancing in their direction, so they had extra reason to hurry before Asmodeus decided he had to force them out via friendly fire.

 “This is getting ridiculous. They keep gawking at us- in the corridors, at work, at lunch. I feel like an animal at the ZOO.” Iruma hated admitting that the attention was slowly getting him. The late nights did not help either. He yawned. Azz's bad habit of keeping him up until the ungodly hours of morning had worsened recently. Yesterday was a bit of an outlier as the king did manage to convince him that both would be useless the next day without sleep. Not that it made much of a difference for the demon, Azz had dark circles under his eyes and barely ate.

“Is insomnia getting to you again?” Iruma inquired.

 Azz wanted to lie and say he was fine, but it was such an obvious one, Iruma wouldn’t believe it for a second.

 “I’ve been hardly sleeping for the past few days, I’m always stressed over the possibility that I might do something wrong and everything will come crushing down,” he lowered his head, admitting weakness was still difficult for him.

 “Fatigue won’t help you with that.” They both knew that very well.

 “I’ll grab some sleep medicine tonight.” Azz assured him. He wasn’t a fan of using medicine to cure insomnia, but he preffered that over adding even more concerns to the ever growing pile of worries the bluenette had to shoulder.

The king grabbed one of the plates. “You’ve barely eaten, have some.”

 “I’m not hungry.” Iruma pouted, impaling a piece of ghost radish on his fork.

 “Open up~”

 “Wh-“ Alice sputtered-“ I’m not a child yo-“

 “I’m not marrying a skeleton Azz. If I have to feed you myself, so be it.” Azz did eat the piece of food he had been force fed.

 Iruma picked another piece up. Azz refused to open his mouth, so the fork was left awkwardly pressing down on the pinkette’s lips. Iruma looked above.

 “Hey look, Clara’s coming.”

 Azz glanced up: “Whe-“ Iruma grabbed the opportunity  and shoved the food in. Azz nearly choked, though the prospect that he could have had just as easily spit the vegetable out was even more mortifying.

 He ate the rest of the dish of own volition, just so would not have another piece of cutlery shoved down his throat in a game of “look, Clara”. He had heard that feeding each other was something human couples did, but the demon couldn’t see the appeal. He appreciated the effort though, even if there was thankfully no one left to see Azz being treated like a petulant child. Small mercies.

 The temperature dropped. It was autumn after all, so when the sun hid, the temperature change could be very sudden. Iruma shivered.

 “Here.” Azz passed him his jacket. He could heat himself just fine with his fire magic. Iruma gladly accepted the garment, thanking him with a smile.

 When the two returned, the staff immediately noticed Iruma was wearing the white coat that belonged to Asmodeus.

 Amy gasped: “ Do you think they-“

"Honey, it's cold outside."

A young girl sighed dreamily: "Aww, he gave up his own comfort for him, how romantic...” That they could agree on.

 For a few days, nothing really significant happened. Well, save for the little touches between the maybe couple that lingered a tad too long here and there, the two's general proximity that seemed to shrink by the hour, the constant whispering, the evenings they spent together in the king’s room... Y'know the usual secret lovers behavior.

 But the thing that dealt the Innocenters the final blow was the so called "hell cat incident". Witnessed by Rosary, the castle gardener. The man was minding his own business, trimming down the decypresses when he heard a loud meowing from one of those weird pink trees the king had planted shortly after his inauguration.

The man glanced up. Sure as day, a tiny little hell cat was stuck on the thick branches, meowing in fear. It happened at least twice a week, so he was slowly getting sick of it. He didn’t even know how they got here! They just magically appeared to inconvenience him.

 "Just shut up, I'll go get the ladder." Indeed he did get that ladder,  but as he was approaching the kitten in need of rescue again he heard familiar voices...

 "Hey kitty, kitty, come down pretty one." 

 "I will go fetch the gardener to help get her down."

 "I can get her down faster, I’m sure of it! Just look at her, she's so scared!"

 The meowing somehow became even louder.

 Rosary was just about to make his presence known when he heard those words.

"We can get her down on our own, just lift me up Azz."

 Rosary dove into the bushes against his better judgement. Opting instead to spy on the two voices. Sure as day, it was the king and his aid.

 They are standing under that tree way closer to each other than it is appropriate. They weren't, they were just far away from him and talking to each other.

 "But Iruma, the cat can wait a bit."

 He called the king by his name! Asmodeus never did that, at least not in public. The staff absolutely did, but the right hand man wouldn’t budge on the matter, saying it was disrespectful to ignore titles. What a hypocrite.

 "Azz, please."

 Ah, the puppy dog eyes, a classic move.

 Asmodeus glanced around, probably making sure no one could see them. Rosary went unnoticed. That is good. He moved his face closer in anticipation of what he would witness.

 Asmodeus finally relented beckoning Iruma closer. He grabbed the shorter man by his waist, lifting him up, like one would a child.

 Rosary was certain he heard the king make an undignified yelp.

 "You could've just given me a boost."

 "Then you should've been more specific." 

 The king laughed, before reaching for the cat. His arms were too short to reach it yet, his fingers could barely brush against the fur as dark as the night.

 "A little higher Azz."

 By devi.

 Rosary could not believe his eyes.

Asmodeus threw the shorter male a short distance up before gripping him again, this time by his things. It lasted a total of two seconds, but Rosary was fairly certain Asmodeus had even touched the butt.

 Iruma took the kitten into his arms.

 "We're good, you can let us down no- EEP!"

 The king yelped as the pinkette loosened his grip so that the other almost fell to the floor, before he was caught again mid-air in a hug. 

 "Don't do that again!" Iruma laughed as Asmodeus slowly lowered him to the floor, while still tightly hugging him from behind.

 "Now..." Iruma looked straight into the cat's six eyes. "Don't go running off into places you can't leave again okay?" The bluenette bopped the cat's nose, petting it's surprisingly soft black fur. Azz tried to pet the kitten as well, four scratches on his hand were to be his payback for helping the kitten out. It was probably mad about the short fall while it was already safe in Iruma’s arms.

The king gingerly lowered the animal, letting it go on it’s merry way, before breaking out of the hug to inspect the other's hand. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. It didn't draw blood for one. The king brought Asmodeus' hand to his lips, pressing his lips softly on the wound.

The sound of a broken kettle drowned out the already barely audible words. If Rosary hadn't been such a romancer he would've heard something about "kissing it better." Well, whether that would make the situation more or less of a romantic one is anyone's guess.

The bell struck five times.

"Back to work?"

"Back to work." Iruma half-heartedly agreed.

The two demons already left by the time Rosary had finally processed what he had seen.

By devi, the romancers are going to have a field day with this.

 Meanwhile, somewhere in the royal gardens, Azz just congratulated himself for being bold enough to initiate a hug with Iruma in public.

Chapter Text

 While Azz was busy messing with the servants heads, Iruma remained pretty much unaware that anything had even changed between them. But the rumors were going wild, if the behaviour of his staff was anything to go by. So whatever Azz was doing proved to be effective. What exactly he was doing, well, Iruma had asked him, and Azz did proudly tell him about the “breadcrumbs” he was leaving, but the king felt that it wouldn’t be enough to warrant attention. It clearly did though, so he stood corrected on that particular front.

 The two agreed to spend evenings together in order to come up with believable information about their “romance”. The fact that a lot of demons by now already firmly believed the two were shamelessly sleeping together during this period of time completely flew over both of their head.

 There were many things they could luckily skip, like basic information about each other as they already knew each other like the back of their hands. On previous nights they discussed more of the human world and their childhoods which ended in Azz more than willing to fight border security to go light some bastards alive. Thankfully Iruma was able to talk him down from it. Eventually the holes in their knowledge about each other had been patched up and they could move to things that concerned their relationship.

 "What would you consider a perfect date, besides a lot of food available of course?" It's the fourth night, and they're slowly running out of easy questions. 

 "I guess being far away from others, preferably somewhere in nature." Preferably just looking at the clouds. The bluenette answered. 

 "I don't really care where we are, or what we are doing, just that I'm with someone I love. Holds true for friendships as well." Azz provided his own answer. Iruma had begun to notice a certain pattern.

 They've been only answering truthfully until now, phrasing the questions in a deliberate "What if" manner, but they would have to tackle the harder ones soon- the answers to which were actual lies. 

 It was Iruma's turn to think of a question: "What do you like the most about me?"

 "I love your eyes, I could get lost in them and then you'd have to bring me back ashore." As if to prove a point, Alice looked longingly into the king's eyes.

 "Honestly, you strike me as the type who would write beautiful poetry to their spouse." Iruma teasingly stated. Who knew Alice was a hopeless romantic. 

 "I would be honored to write you a sonnet." Azz bowed his head, outstretching his arm to take in the king's, pressing a teasing kiss on the back of his hand. 

 The bluenette stifled a chuckle. Yep, that was one hopeless romantic alright. The thought filled him with a sense of sadness. How could it be, that someone so loving and loveable was eternally single? Nope, stuffing that thought far away into the most abandoned part of the brain. He had a question to answer. He paused, how could he pick only one aspect of his best friend. Didn't someone somewhere state favourites were for children?

 "I love your personality. Your patience with me, your courage, your ambition. The way you make me feel safe when I'm around you. Plus, you've got really soft hair." The pinkette blushed as his fiancé ran his hands through his pink locks. By devi, they had to move to a different question.

 “What would I ask me, if I were a curious girl with no respect for other people's boundaries…” Azz imagined Clara’s “interrogation face” scrutinizing him. That image did wonders to cure his blushing. He even imagined her with those ridiculous fake glasses and the moustache. She always wore those, as if she actually believed cosplaying a retired cop would help her get the info she wanted. Knowing Clara she probably did.

 Gosh, those were so tacky, how did anyone even take her seriously with those on her face-

 “When did you fall in love with me?” Iruma asked.

 Alice blanched, “First day of school.”

 “Didn't we agree to say we've been dating for five years though?” the king eyed him confusedly. Alice let out a nervous breath.

 “But I only confessed to you when we were both of age, on your birthday exactly. That was five years ago.”

 “Oh I see, I guess that could work. You can be pretty intense when it comes to doing things the right way.” Iruma smiled, Azz's Freudian slip had gone unnoticed. Huzzah! The pinkette mentally cheered, while also chiding himself for even making such a stupid mistake in the first place.

 Honestly there were so many instances to pick from, he could very well have chosen one that was closer to present, like one of the festivals, each of which Iruma had excelled with flying colors. Or when they defeated six fingers in joint effort, honestly, Iruma was so attractive when he was being protective over his class. They could have even gone for a friends to boyfriends trope and say it was a rather gradual thing.

 Eventually Asmodeus decided that the Pinning Asmodeus version of events would be the most believable to their friend group. Afterall, the demon was not exactly the subtle type so he seriously doubted his affections had gone unnoticed by anyone that wasn’t Iruma, the current champion of obliviousness.

 “Where was out first date?” Iruma asked.

 “If we said it was under your cherry blossom tree, would that be too obvious of an answer?” It was a common date location. Azz got invited there a lot. He never showed up though. It seemed that Iruma agreed as he jotted the answer down.

 “That would be our last year on Babylis right?”

 “Yes.”

  “Why did we decide to keep it secret?” Clara was going to ask this for sure.

  Well, for most demons, privacy would suffice. We were always important figures since we were both candidates for the demon king, the notion that we were romantically involved at the time could have impacted our chances of being selected.”

 Plus, outside pressure can kill a budding relationship. They could observe that in real time as all of Crocell’s relationships failed because of her busy schedule and the secrecy one had to maintain while dating a devidoll with a secret identity. Well, that is until she started dating another devidoll who could handle the pressure just fine.

 “Though we still need a reason why we “hid” it from our classmates and our families. I doubt privacy will be an adequate explanation for them.”

 Azz made air quotes at the word “hid”.

 Iruma blanched. “Opera will see through us. They always do. This was a bad idea!”

 Iruma started hyperventilating before he was quickly pulled into a hug.

 “It'll be fine.” Say it.

 “It'll be fine.” Iruma's breathing slowed down.

 “We can handle it together. We always do,” Azz smiled assuringly, though Iruma could not see it because his face was still pressed against Azz’s chest. They sat there for the few moments Iruma needed to recollect himself. He eventually untangled himself from Azz’s embrace, pushing his hands through his hair and closing his eyes before taking a deep breath signalling he was ready to continue.

 “Okay... What's the question again?”

 “Why did we hide it from our families and classmates?” Asmodeus helpfully supplied as if it were just a test question with zero impact on their lives.

 The two mulled over their options, but none seemed good enough.

 “What if we went with the idea of us just being really, really shy?”

 “We stared death in the face multiple times with only our classmates as backup, they'll be hurt we didn't trust them enough to tell them.” Plus, while that could work for Iruma, Azz was a different story. If he got a date with the man of his dreams, you could bet both your wings he’d be shouting about it from the rooftops by the end of the day. And the next day the whole school would know about it from the school paper, because the broadcaster battra just loved writing about anything that involved the human.

 “Six fingers!” Iruma excitedly exclaimed.

 “Six fingers?” It was Azz’s turn to be surprised.

 Yes, they were after me, I thought that if I exposed our relationship they would come after you too,” Iruma explained, with a big smile on his face.

 “I wouldn't care about that.” Azz responded with a tinge of sadness in his voice, as if he were trying to assure his friend that he would stand by him even in a false reality.

 “You wouldn’t, but I would.” Blue eyes meet scarlet. “And you wouldn't force me into doing anything I wouldn’t want to do.”

 “That's fair, I suppose.” Azz begrudgingly conceded. The thing was, there were still some followers of the Six fingers remaining- they were not as organized and definitely not as strong as before- but it made sense to still keep everything that was private in Iruma's life out of the spotlight. It was a damn good explanation. Sure there would be some questions remaining, but their classmates would understand. Iruma had always been a caring person, never one to put someone in harm’s way if another option existed. And Azz would keep quiet if Iruma asked him to be. He kept secrets well. More secrets than their classmates would ever know about.

 The people they were closest to knew Iruma was human, so they would know why the Six fingers were after him in the first place. Who knew what the group would’ve done to a powerful, high ranking demon who knowingly abandoned his position in order to willingly serve a human. A demon who didn’t just serve a human, but who loved a human more than his own life.

 Iruma hated the thought that he would have to lie to everyone, but that was something he had to do. The thing was… He didn't mind getting married to Azz. He liked the idea more and more each day, so he knew he wouldn’t back out, even there was backlash. He was the demon king, he could do anything he wanted, but what he really wanted was his subjects’ approval. For them to have faith in his decision. This whole charade was to assure them after all.

 Everything was so confusing now. It seemed straight forward mere four days ago and now everything was already turning on it's head.

 “Would you like to finish up for today?” Azz could tell their productivity was about to drop, so he deemed it wiser to just end things here and call it a night.

 Iruma nodded. Sleep sounded absolutely divine right now. Azz used his fire magic to carefully dry the ink on the parchment before hiding it under his shirt next to their list of rules. The demon tucked the king in, wishing him a good night.

 As the pinkette exited he saw a maid hurriedly scurrying past him.

 She couldn't have heard anything, we put a spell on the door to prevent that. Azz assured himself before leaving for his own room.

 The chef's assistant eyed him suspiciously the next morning when he went to the kitchen in order to pick up Iruma's breakfast.

 It seemed that the rumors were doing their job well.

 How ironic, I usually detest gossipers, now I am utilizing them for my own benefit. My, how the tables turn.

 The assistant wasn't the only one, virtually everyone was gawking at him when they thought he couldn't see them. He couldn't help but scold a few. It would be too out of character for him, if he hadn't.

 He knocked on Iruma's door.

 “Five more minutes!”

 “It's me!”

 He could hear the bed creak. That meant Iruma had just turned on his stomach and wrapped the blankets closer around him.

 “I have breakfast.”

 Muffled noises.

 Asmodeus took that as invitation to enter.

 He sat the tray down on king's bedside table.

 “Should I tell everyone you'll be taking the morning off?”

 “How are you awake…”

 Bold of you to assume I ever get sleep. Azz decided not to voice that thought out loud, lest he’d be the one ordered to take a morning off.

 “You kept me up so long last night, I'm tired…” Iruma mumbled still half asleep.

 “We were only up until eleven,” Azz pointed out. “But if you'd like we can end things early today. I don't think there's much we have left to discuss anyway, we’ve been quite productive yesterday.”

 “I've been meaning to ask-” Iruma motioned for Alice to give him the plate. The pinkette gladly complied.

 “Do you ever get the feeling that you’re being watched at every step?”

 “The rumor mill mission has proved itself to be very effective. I am quite certain everyone is already watching our every move by now.”

 Now that thought finally woke Iruma up, as he jolted in surprise, accidentally dropping his croissant.

 “Agh. Don't say such things with such a calm expression.”

 The pastry rolled under the blanket. Iruma lifted it up only to see that the vanhella filling had spilled onto the bedsheets.

 “I shouldn't eat in the bed.” He sighed already dreading what the maid would think when she saw the proof of how embarrassingly clumsy he was.

 “This has only happened two times before.” Azz assured him. “You're just tired and therefore jumpy.”

 “I'll even take the sheets down to the laundry room myself if you’d like.” Azz offered, as if he could read the king’s thoughts. It wouldn’t have surprised Iruma one bit.

 “Thanks. I think I will go eat the rest in the office.”

 The pinkette nodded in agreement, busying himself with the sheets as his fiancé got dressed.

 Fortunately the cream didn't make it to the under sheet, now that would've been a problem.

 Azz folded the fabric so the stain wasn't visible before exiting the room, not once glancing at the now changing human.

 A few maids were gawking at him again. Patience, it’ll pass.

 Did they really have nothing better to do?

 Asmodeus placed the sheets in the dirty bin and took a replacement from the supply cabinet.

 “Can I help you?”

 Azz turned, it was Aza, the housekeeper. That woman was everywhere.

 “I'm just changing out some sheets.”

 “I wasn't aware you had taken on the role of our king’s personal maid as well. Should the cook be concerned as well?” She grinned as though Asmodeus was a kid she had caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

 Alice frowned, why the hell did she care if he took care of one of their tasks, they are just sheets for devi's-

 Oh. OH!

 His face went hellbeet red “It's not what it looks like!”

 The woman laughed out loud.

 “I've been alive for a lot longer than you kid. I won't tell anyone though, demon's promise.”

 Translation: I am going to tell everyone the second you get out of ear shot.

 “It's just a food stain!”

 “Mhm. Go run to his majesty's side, I'm sure he misses you already.” She winked.

 Alice took her up on that, unsure of what he could possibly say to improve the situation. He groaned into his hands once he was out of the laundry room.

 “Why me…”

 Some girl giggled as she went past him.

 Ugh. Don't fight them, if it benefits your goal.

 The insinuation was… Unfortunate, but it worked to his advantage as far as the rumor mill was concerned.

 Darn. Being the head of lust didn’t help matters at all. Azz really didn’t want them to think anything untoward was happening, though now it couldn’t be helped.

 Little did he know that particular ship had already sailed a while ago.

Chapter Text

 The innocents were dwindling in their numbers as more and more time passed and even Allocer, the faction's leader had to admit something was up with the two. Not because he saw a deeper meaning in Asmodeus' sudden lack of respect for the king's personal space, but more so because Iruma had completely stopped talking to him. The king was instead always busy conspiring with the pink haired demon, which just made the entire situation seem more suspicious. He could tell the rumor situation was nagging at the bluenette.

 Which is why he- someone who proudly considered himself Iruma’s ally- had to do something about it.

 Therefore, he decided to tactfully ask Clara if she knew anything about the situation.  The greenette was due to return later that very day. If she couldn’t get to the bottom of the situation, then there was no demon in the Netherworld who could. He just had to patiently wait until the demoness would loudly announce her arrival. Probably with an explosion or two. Thankfully her sparkles era had ended a few months ago, but one could never be sure with a Valac.

 The lion-headed demon seated himself on the steps leading to the archives. The stairs were covered with wooden panels, curtesy of Iruma who had insisted on softening the outer side of the cold stony stairs once he noticed demons would often sit on them while they waited for one thing or another.

 Something about catching a cold. The demon opened a rather large book, already comfortably prepared to leisurely sit a few hours away.

 Three hours later the apocalypse happened. Allocer wasn’t sure how it happened, only that one second he was reading a particularly interesting passage about the correlation of lunar phases and the growth of dragon lilies, and the next moment his entire vision was filled with a thick green mist. Somewhere at the bottom of the staircase he could hear tapping sounds as if someone was dancing.

 Mere moments later a high feminine voice confirmed Allocer’s suspicion.

 “Hey guys, I’m home!” The woman sing songed as the fog slowly dissipated. She smiled widely, her shark like pointy teeth glistened in a vaguely threatening way.

 “Aww, you made me a welcome party, I’ve so much to tell you guys about!” The greenette giggled as she descended into one of her well known rambles.
 “You should’ve seen Rin Rin, he’s all grown up, and Koncie’s givenmeareallynicewelcomegift,I’vebeenmissingthetrademarkValachandknitglovesand-“

 Allocer listened patiently for an opening. It was still a difficult task, what with her speech being so fast, but one learns to master it after a few years.

 “Quite a lot has happened here as well during your absence. Some… Unusual circumstance has come to light, I was hoping you might be able to provide an explanation.”

 Allocer attempted to create an air of vagueness in their conversation until they could move safely out of earshot. Preferably into the archives.

 The demoness skipped each second stair in excitement. “You’ll have to tell me what happened then, I haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about.”

 “It is about Iruma and Asmodeus-“ the demon firmly closed the doors behind them.

 “What about them?” The woman could not stay still, already investigating what lay on Allocer’s table.

 “The have been acting differently this week, I fear the staff has taken it upon themselves to speculate on the nature of their… involvement. It has been rather intense.”

The greenette dramatically held her hand to her chest: ” You wound me, if there were anything going on between them, I’d be the first to know. We’re soulmates don’t you know?” Allocer did not know, but that was not relevant.

 "But they have been acting distant this past week... The curiosity killed the cat, and I fear I may be close to joining it."

 "Did you ask them what's up?" The woman placed her hands on her hips, the expression on her face making it clear she already knew what the answer to that question was going to be.

" I have not. I do not think it is my place to ask them questions about things they clearly aren't prepared to share with me." The man admitted. Plus, knowing Asmodeus, bringing such senseless rumors to his attention would either result in -at best- a vehement denial and in the worst case scenario some major first degree burns.

 “Awww, that's fine Allo, I'll ask them what's up, and then I'll scold them for causing a civil war inside the castle." Seriously though, she had been off visiting her family for a few days only to come home and be faced with... Whatever this was. Iruma and Azz-Azz were totally helpless without her.

 "Iruma!" A green ball came barreling through the office door, taking both its occupants by surprise.

 "Clara, you're back!" Iruma was nervous. Something was definitely up. The two jumped apart the moment she barged in. Azz-Azz thought he was being sneaky when he tried to hide a piece of paper, but the demoness was quicker, pouncing for it immediately. A scuffle ensued, a loud "You can't keep secrets from me!" could be heard through the entire hallway.

 Clara tried to climb up Asmodeus as he kept his left arm extended far above his head to keep the writting away from her. She elbowed him in the stomach, using the moment of distraction to grab the piece of paper. Her victory was short lived however as the words disappeared in a blaze before she could see them.

 Iruma visibly exhaled at that.

 Oh, so that's how it is.

 "You're being so mean! You can't hide secrets from me." She stood before the two, her cheeks cartoonishly puffed out in anger. 

Iruma ignored the girl, instead going straight to Azz-Azz taking a hold onto his arm: "Hey are you okay?"

 "Just peachy." The pinkette caught his breath, before glaring at the intruder. Geez, he almost made her feel like one. Almost.

 Don't! you're the one they wronged. Stand your ground. She reminded herself, still glaring at the two expecting an explanation. And it had better be a damn good one.

 "I'm n-not sure what secrets you're referring to." Iruma stumbled through the obvious lie. Hah, he still couldn't lie to her if his life depended on it.

 "The castle is on the brink of a civil war." She put her arms on her hips. The walk from the archive to the office had taken her five minutes, and she could already tell the situation was way out of hand.

 "I wanna know why three fourths of the castle think you're sleeping together."

 "Sleeping together?!?" Iruma exclaimed horrified. For what it's worth Azz looked terrified as well, but it had been mixed with a prominent look of guilt.

 Iruma noted that look, silently telling Alice they would address that later. The taller demon bowed his head in apology, already moving toward the doors in order to close them. Iruma took a deep breath, recounting the words Azz and he had agreed upon beforehand.

 Ah yes, that piece of paper Azz had burnt? It was a word by word script of what they were going to tell her. Though it seemed some improvisation was going to be a must.

 “Okay, I'll tell you what's going on, but you have to promise me you will let us handle telling everyone else."

 Clara's body language calmed, if anything she now looked a little scared of what she was about to hear. She slowly nodded in agreement.

The king steeled his nerves, Azz had already returned to his side so that the shorter man could grab ahold of his hand for moral support.

"The rumors, are partially true."

 "WHAT?!?" Ow, Iruma's ears hurt from the loud noise, if the office weren't under a spell he was certain half the castle would've come flocking to see what that unholy screech was.

 "Azz and I are dating. We have been for a long while now."

 "I wouldn't exactly classify five days a long time." The woman rebuffed. She was dumbfounded by the revelation, but still curious what the hell had caused this to happen.

 Iruma paused for a bit, his arm muscles clenching Azz’s arm for dear life. The movement and his expression kinda scared her, her gut told her she was in for a bombshell.

 "You know how I'm human right?"

 "Yea, but what does that have to do with whether you and Azz are together or not?" She crossed her arms.

 "Well, when I realized I was in love, I was being hunted by the Six fingers. They wanted dead anyone who wasn't a pureblood demon.” The bluenette looked down in embarrassment. Or maybe it was fear of a memory? Clara knew that group had traumatised her friend quite well.

 “I was on top of their list. A human. I considered myself a threat to anyone who knew. It's part of the reason why it took so long for me to tell you the truth about my origin. It was even worse with Azz, because I liked him a little more than I should’ve. And I really wanted to be with him, but I thought... If demons are supposed to find human flesh irresistible, what would they do to Azz, if they found out that he not only didn’t attempt to eat me as a demon would, but instead decided to dedicate his life to me? They would consider him a disgrace to demon kind. So I never confessed. But then he did. That was years later though. I was stronger, and the Six fingers were weaker. I thought we could maybe give it a shot.”

 Iruma bit down on his lip. Azz enter twined their fingers, gripping his hand tightly. It is okay, go on. " I asked him to keep it secret until Six fingers weren't a danger anymore. Neither of us really minded that no one else knew. Just being with each other was enough.” He could tell by her expression that she believed what he was telling her. He felt awful lying to her, but he had to, otherwise she would absolutely try to put a stop to this sham.

 “As far as the rumors are concerned...  They are true. I admit, we've been less careful than usual, I guess it's because i'm just not as scared anymore… I don't know, does that make sense?”

 "Oh Iruma." She pulled the bluenette into a hug.

 “You know you guys can trust me with anything.” She assured them she’d be there for them. Iruma let out a deep breath.

 "I haven't told anyone yet. Not even grandpa."

 "You mean I'm the first first person???" The girl exclaimed in surprise.

 "Yes..."

 “Okay, okay wait... I had a feeling Azz was super clingy to you since, well… forever, but when did this happen exactly?” She was dying to know. Admittedly she wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, especially since that shed was called the misfit class, but c'mon surely there were signs.

"Since the last year of Babylis." Azz answered the question, the king looked about ready to pass out from stress.

"WHAT?!?" She screamed again even louder. That revelation was an even bigger bombshell than that the two were involved in the first place, and the man she believed to be her bestie dropped it as calmly as if he’d been telling her about the weather.

 "Damn, you're good... But I don't believe you’re fit for each other yet!" She pointed her index finger to the taller’s face.

 “First date, go:”

 “Cherry blossom, Iruma's birthday!”

 “My 19th birthday, under the cherry blossom!”

The two exclaimed at the same time.

 The greenette observed them with suspicion.

 “First kiss, go:”

“Same place, same time,” they answered in perfect sync. Iruma couldn’t help but feel like he was in a game show where the top prize was just his friend’s blessing.

 “Iruma's pet name, go:”

 “My king.”

 Iruma's eyes begged her not to question.

 She didn't.

 “Future pet name, go:”

 "Skipper."

 "Must be a hell cat though." Azz supplied.

 "I like other animals too!" And that wasn't even part of the question.

 "But you said and I quote; I just want something that will laze around and of whose lifestyle I can be jealous of." Oh the confessions made in tired stupor...

 "She doesn't have to know that," Iruma pouted.

 "Hahahaha!" The greenette laughed, clunching her stomach.

 "You're already bickering like my grandparents always did."

 Clara wiped away a stray happy tear, enveloping the two boys into a tight hug.

 "I won't say I never wished I could be with you Iruma," her smile faltered. Because that would be a lie. “But I'm really happy that you found someone to love."

"Please don't tell anyone yet okay? We want to tell everyone else on our own terms." Iruma had to ask her again. It was absolutely crucial she keep her lips sealed.

 “I will. But you should really hurry with that then, Allocer is having a hard time keeping a handle on the romancers." The girl let them escape her embrace.

 “But I still wonder... And this is the last question, pinky promise.” The demoness winked, extending her pinky to signal her seriousness.

 “What exactly changed for you to mess up your act so badly?”

 Asmodeus smiled: "We stopped being boyfriends."

 Iruma nudged him, an annoyed frown on his face: "Azz! That's a terrible way to tell someone we're engaged."

 The scream was high pitched enough to break glass. Which it did. There was actually no spell on the windows, so this one scream actually did manage to clue in every single person in the castle that yes, something was absolutely going on.

 Clara managed to convince them to break the news to Allocer as well. He apologized for prodding, but was secretly extremely happy to finally know the truth. Although... He honestly doubted the whole Six fingers excuse. Even knowing the two were now planning to get married (which to be completely fair was pretty early by demon standards as the two weren't even a quarter of a century old.)

 He was certain there was another piece of the puzzle he was missing. Clara seemed to have the missing piece though, as she wholeheartedly supported the couple. Allocer knew well that the demoness was closer to the couple than anyone else in the class, so if she didn't take issue with the story, then he would take it at face value as well.

 He asked Clara who's maid of honor she was going to be, which sent the woman spiralling as she just could not decide. Azz harshly denied her request to be the officiator instead so she would have to come to a decision sooner or later.

 On one hand, she loved Iruma a lot, on the other hand, if she didn’t become Azz-Azz’s maid of honor he could very well end up without a single groomsman on his side. The comment sent Iruma into a fit of giggles as Asmodeus unsuccessfully tried to plead his case. He abruptly stopped laughing when Azz threatened he would get their Babylis professors into his party. They knew better than to ignore that threat because Azz could absolutely get at the very least Balam and Robin sensei to be at the wedding. Balam was too kind to leave any student stranded, and Robin would find the situation way too funny to pass up.

 Iruma found himself pulled into the planning far too easily, it was fun.

 The greenette then thought of a rather important question she hadn’t addressed with the two yet: "When is the wedding?"

 "Clara, I need you not to scream." Iruma touched her shoulders.

 "It's tomorrow isn't it!”

 Iruma snorted: "No." 

 "Then when?" The demoness asked, already mentally prepared for whatever answer they could throw at her.

 "In two months."

 "WHAT?!?" Well they didn't ask Allocer not to scream.

That evening, the couple closed the king’s bedchamber doors as per usual, but the air around them was heavy.  

 "You knew what our staff thinks of us." Iruma didn’t accuse him, he state it as if it were a matter of fact. Which it was.

 "I did not want to tell you, because I knew it would upset you. They came to that conclusion all on their own." Azz knew he was at least partially responsible for that, even if it was unintentional.

 "How???" The king ran a hand through his hair. He was kept up to date with everything Azz did, and for the life of him he could not figure out where they got that idea from.

 "I took your dirty sheets to the laundry room." Azz reminded him. Yes, he should’ve been more discreet about it. Although right now he was rather doubtful letting the maid take care of it wouldn’t have made things even worse.

 ...

 "Azz.” The king sounded exasperated. “The next time there are inappropriate rumors circulating about us, I’d rather have you tell me in private that be blindsided when eventually someone else tells me about it in public.”

 The demon solemnly nodded, though he wondered what the next time could possibly be given that their relationship would very soon become public knowledge. Sure, the demons would latch onto a different story once their suspicions got confirmed, but who really knew if those new stories wouldn’t revolve around them as well. He decided to tell Iruma as much. It was slowly getting easier to share things Azz knew the other would find uncomfortable to deal with. Iruma however stood his ground, pointing out that was exactly the problem. If they addressed the issues together, he could keep his composure better if it ever came up in public.

 Asmodeus eventually conceded, knowing Iruma well enough to realize this was a hill he was willing to die on.

 Iruma even went so far as to insist they add it as an amendment to rule 7:

 I’d like you to discuss plans with me before you carry them out, You don’t have to fly solo, we’re a team. + If something goes wrong, we will tell the other about it and figure a solution together if necessary.

 Right, now that that matter was settled they had more imperative matters on their agenda.

 The two conspirators silently sat on Iruma's bed with their phones in their hands. The silence that settled over them was uncomfortable, neither was exactly looking forward to what they had to do next. Eventually Asmodeus broke the silence.

 "Do you want to kill two birds with one stone?" Asmodeus asked.

 "I mean why not, Amaryllis and grandpa talk often, so it might be a bad idea to let the other one on without telling the other." As if Sullivan could keep his precious grandchild's engagement a secret. Iruma was already mentally preparing for the inevitable confrontation from their classmates that would follow immediately after he told Sullivan what's up.

 If he knew his grandpa at all, he was going to have about a hundred messages and missed calls by the next day, all asking him why in the Netherworld Sullivan was calling them out of the blue asking for photos for a “wedding scrap book”.

Oh well. Iruma bit the bullet and called the only two current members of his Netherworld family. The phone didn’t even finish ringing once, before a very happy voice boomed from the speaker.

 “My sweet little grandchild~ 

Won't you visit us sometime???

I miss you, Opera says they miss you too. Your absence is saddening us both more than you could ever imagine!”

Azz, stifled a laugh. Probably because the image of Opera being anything other than dead face serious was something he could not imagine. The bluenette jabbed him with his shoulder to quiet down.

"Actually that's why I'm calling. I have some big news and I wanted you to be the first to know." Technically the third, after Clara and Allocer, but the man didn’t need to know that, it would crush his heart.

"Oh my, news too big for a phone call?"

“I do wonder what that could be, even terrorists aren't too big for a phone call.”  Sullivan asked on the other side. If Iruma had to take a guess he was probably turned away from the microphone since he was difficult to hear. Not that it mattered because he was on speaker, likely so that Opera could hear as well.

“You told them about that over the phone?” Azz whispered.

"You handled those two assassins in less than an hour. I didn't think it was that important." Iruma actually covered the microphone to answer Azz.

"Sorry about that. Azz is just being a little annoying here. He'll be coming too since it concerns him as much as it does me."

"But of course dear! You're like two devipeas in a pod, I couldn’t separate you if I tried."

"Thanks guys. Have a good evening and we'll see each other tomorrow."

"Bye Iruma dear!"

Now it was Azz's turn to jab Iruma.

"Ow!" The bluenette quirked his brows. What?

"Amaryllis" he whispered. Oh shoot.

"Are you hurt?!?" Sullivan’s voice boomed over the phone, worry clear in his tone of voice.

 "Ah no, I nearly forgot to ask if it's okay if Amaryllis can come as well? It's important news for both of you."

Iruma could hear snickering from the other end.

 "Grandpa?" No, the voice was too high to be Sullivan’s.

 "Oh I'll be there sugarplum~"

 Azz squeaked.

 “Good evening mother.”

 "I know what this is~"

 "You do? Tell me tell me tell me!" Apparently Azz’s mom had stolen the phone from Sullivan’s hands, but didn’t yet turn the speaker mode off.

 “Aww, sorry Sullivan, I’d love to tell you but I don't want to spoil our kid's special moment~"

 "I think I know what you're thinking."

 "Why thank you Opera."

 "Why are you guys leaving me out of the loop again???"

 "Moooom."

 “I'm not saying anything! Oh Alice you sly dog, I'm so proud of you!”

 "Goodnight mother." Azz exclaimed in a high pitch, grabbing Iruma’s forearm "Please end the call," he pleaded with unusual urgency in his voice.

 "Goodnight everyone." Iruma said into the phone.

 "I beg you, end the call."

 "I will, calm down-"

 "Don't sleep in the same room~"

 *Click*

 Asmodeus let out a loud breath, his cheeks red with embarrassment because he knew Amaryllis was going to say that. "I guess that means we only have to tell your grandpa."

 "Are you sure Amaryllis won't tell him?" Iruma questioned. The woman sounded far too ecstatic to keep her theories to herself.

 "She may be a gossip, but she's also a sadist. It's far more likely she'll tease Sullivan just enough that he won't figure anything out, but will be at his wit's end."

 Azz did not have the best opinion on his mother, but Iruma knew her enough to know the pinkette was probably right. Although maybe he shouldn’t be thinking about his future mother in law like that.

 Iruma checked the clock, it was only around 8:30 PM, so they still had some time work some kinks out if necessary. He placed his phone away, now prepared to devote his attention completely to the demon before him.

 "What were you planning for tonight?" He asked. The pinkette’s cheeks turned redder as he begun playing with his hair: "I thought it might be time to get engaged."

 "Aren't we already?" Iruma asked, dumbfounded.

 "Only verbally" Azz brought up Iruma's left hand.

 "My, for an engaged man, your ring finger sure looks bare." Oh. OH.

 “I’m so sorry Azz, I didn’t even think of that!” The king didn’t even know demons exchanged rings, Azz had certainly never brought it up before.

 “It’s another tradition that has evolved through time. At first the engaged parties got cuffed to each other with heavy chains for the entire time between the engagement until the wedding.” The king’s face paled at the thought. Well yes, they do already spend all of their time together, but this is on a whole another level.

 “But that proved to be problematic in battles, so nowadays we just wear a ring to symbolize our link to each other.“ The human let out a huge sigh of relief. Seriously, you’d think by now he would get used to over the top traditions evolving into customs suspiciously close to human ones.

 "I've alredy taken it upon myself to take care of the rings.” Azz brought out a small box, opening it to reveal two matching silver bands decorated with small gemstones, one with sapphires and the other with rubies.

 "They were my grandparents'."

Azz was now blushing profusely. 

 "There is a special pair of rings for the royal couple, but we can only get those after the ceremony." So while we're engaged...

 "They are beautiful!" Iruma took a closer look admiring them. "May I?" Azz nodded as Iruma took out the ruby ring. It was a perfect fit.

 "So, how did we get engaged?" Iruma asked.

 Azz gushed:

 "My, it was absolutely beautiful. We sailed across the moonlit sky when you popped the question."

 "Shouldn't we make it some grand affair?" Iruma was the king afterall and Azz was high nobility, you’d think an engagement would be a public affair.

 "My king, we are attempting to convince demons you are a reserved man who could and would hide a relationship for half a decade from everyone. A quiet private affair fits right into the image we are trying to portray." It would almost be more suspicious if they did make it a grand affair.

 “Plus, something like that would need planning and wouldn't fit into the two month deadline we have because someone insisted we should get the wedding over with as soon as possible.” Azz playfully jabbed the shorter man to show he was not at all upset over the short deadline. To be completely honest, he already quite liked the idea of having a small gathering without strangers when Iruma first proposed it.

 The demon looked through the window.

  "The sky is very pretty tonight." Azz suggestively wiggled his eyebrows.

 "Tonight?" Iruma squeaked.

 "We'll just sneak out for a few hours, exchange rings and be done with it."  Azz mentioned it like he was proposing a walk in the park and not secretly exiting a high security castle.

 "Sneak out? Azz, we’re not hormonal teenagers, we can just say we did that and no one will be any the wiser."

 "But think of the rumor mill potential! Sneaking out at night is very romantic. And when we make the public announcement, everyone will be able to connect tonight to our story." Azz exclaimed. Fine, maybe he was acting a little too romantic, but was it really too much to ask to have a proper engagement? Besides, wasn’t Iruma already convinced Azz was a bit of a romantic? No self respecting romantic would give up their engagement.

 "That's why we will make sure that we sneak out in a way that we will absolutely be noticed, but act as though that wasn't our intention." Azz leaned into the rumor mill mission excuse, even if it was already a success that didn’t need any extra fuel to to the fire.

 Iruma pondered his words for what felt like an eternity, until Azz got the feeling he had made a mistake.

 “I suppose we don’t really have to go,” Azz backed down, unable to school his expression away from looking like a kicked puppy.

 “NO!” Iruma exclaimed, before lowering his voice. “No, you’re absolutely right, I was just thinking what route we should take.” Asmodeus beamed at the answer like a kid who got exactly what they wanted on Christmas day. Naturally, he still insisted Iruma should dress a little warmer before heading out.

 Iruma would’ve promised anything to never have to see that expression again. The crestfallen frown sent a kick straight to his heart, reminding him that it was Azz who was doing him a huge favour here. Asking for his hand in marriage properly was the least he could do.

 That smile though. It sent shivers down his spine. Not the “I’m afraid I’ll be eaten” type of shivers, but more along the lines of “a fluffy hellcat just bumped my leg asking for snuggles” type of shivers.

It grounded Iruma’s decision further. So what if the staff found them immature, he was the king, he could sneak around as much as damn well pleased!

Which actually brings us to the issue at hand.

 Iruma was an expert at sneaking, but just pretending to be sneaky? Not so much. Let's just say armoires were bumped into and porcelain got broken that night.

 Now Azz on the other hand was good at pretend sneaking. He kept making sure to  “subconsciously” draw attention to himself.

 They eventually snuck out through one of the bottom windows. Azz had to catch the shorter man so he wouldn't fall too far down.

 "Think they noticed us?" the bluenette asked.

 "Your sneaking abilities are as impeccable as ever, my king," Azz really meant that. There was no way there was a single awake person in the entire castle still unaware of their escapade. And Iruma looked so believable while doing it, even Alice almost considered for a moment that perhaps the broken porcelain wasn't purposeful.

 For a moment.

 Alice released his wings. "Would you like a ride?"

 It was a rhetorical question since Iruma couldn't fly. Well, theoretically he could levitate himself with magic, but that was a lot less fun. Asmodeus knelt down to let the king climb on his back. He was a little heavier than Clara, not that it mattered since Azz had more than enough upper core strength to carry him.

 Soon enough the two were above the clouds.

 The misty water droplets refracted the white light in a way that made it seem as though the white blanket under them was glittering like thousands of tiny gems.

 This was far from their first time above the clouds, yet it was the first time they were here at night. Iruma was nervous, it didn't matter how much he told himself he had no reason to be. Nothing unexpected would happen.

 "Azz?"

 "Yes my king?" Azz sailed on the winds with a grace that came to the pinkette like second nature.

 Iruma lowered his head closer to Azz's, his warm breath caressing the other's ear.

 "Will you marry me?"

 "I would go to the ends of Netherworld for you. There is nothing I would love more than be there for you until our dying breaths part us."

Iruma's face was on fire. Surprisingly this wasn't even in the top five sappiest thing Azz had ever told him. 

 It fit right between number 5: "Even if the whole world were against you, I would never stray from you" And number 7: "If you wanted the moon from the sky, I would give it to you, sea tides be damned."

 "Alice, when you're next to me, I know there is not a single force in the Netherworld that could hurt me. So be next to me for the rest of my life."

 Azz's breath hitched, causing the other to giggle.

 "Don't say sappy things if you can't handle them getting returned."

 Iruma fished the small velvet box from his pocket, handing the sapphire ring to Azz, before putting the ruby one on his own left ring finger. 

 "Did you put it on?"

 "Yes.”

 "Woah!" Azz threw him into the air, this time catching him so that the two were face to face.

 "Could have warned me," the king whispered.

 "But you weren't scared." Azz grinned.

 "Didn’t I just tell you? I fear nothing when you’re near. I know you would never let me fall." Iruma stepped on Azz's feet for extra support. 

 "Let's not go back just yet." Azz looked away, his hair did a good job hiding his face.

 "Did you have anything in mind?" Iruma asked, letting his left hand travel down to Azz's waist, his right intertwining their fingers. Solomon’s ring and Azz’s engagement ring clinked against each other with a sound that was barely noticeable, but still made Iruma's stomach do somersaults. Now it’s really official.

 "We could celebrate with a dance?" Azz seemingly got the same idea, as he put his own right hand on Iruma's shoulder.

 The two swayed in the wind, just relaxing for a while, far above the stresses that had been plaguing them since pretty much forever.

 "I don't think I can handle all of the whispering for much longer."

 "We'll tell our families tomorrow, and then the rest of our classmates." Azz threw the shorter man up for a spin before catching him again. "And then everyone will have their suspicions confirmed and they'll knock it off once something else catches their attention."

 "You said they might still talk about us though."

 "You know what? If they don't, I'll give them another rumor to mull about." Iruma laughed at the thought. Hopefully it wouldn’t backfire spectacularly.

"Out of curiosity, what might a rumor like that be?" Well if it was going to backfire, he might as well know about it beforehand.

"We're not there yet."

"Do indulge me, my future husband." Iruma couldn’t help but sing the last worlds to the melody of that one Meghan Trainor song. Thankfully Azz didn’t comment on it, though if he ever did somehow find out about it, it wouldn’t surprise Iruma one bit if he actually took the lyrics as instructions for human marriage.

Azz thought for a bit.

"There are secret tunnels all over the castle."

"Everyone knows that though." Iruma pointed out.

"But do they also know there's a ghost living inside the castle walls?" the demon asked, his voice completely serious.

Iruma blanched. 

"It's a lie."

"That may be, but it's also nightmare material." 

Azz smiled "I can always put a lock on the door from your room."

"That would be great," Iruma wholeheartedly agreed, snuggling closer to the always warm demon. It was getting late, combine that with a high altitude, and it became understandable that the human would find the cold uncomfortable.

 By the time they returned back to the castle it was already way past one in the morning. Azz all too happily carried the now snoring man to his room, gingerly tucking him in as he had been doing for years now. 

 Just two more months and he would sleep here as well. Right by his side.

 Asmodeus quietly closed the door, before making his way to his own quarters. 

 He went through the motions automatically. Untying his hair, undressing, slipping under the sheets. The demon quickly realized sleeping was going to be a problem, the ring on his hand burning like it was on fire.

 He started absentmindedly rotating it. Every second of the dance he shared tonight with Iruma was seared deep into his brain. Perhaps it was wishful thinking, but the demon could've sworn he could see a fire light up in those blue eyes. A fire far more intense than just friendly affection. He could feel his cheeks turn red as he turned to his side, instinctively covering his face.

 By devi, I've got it bad.

Chapter Text

 Ah, the divine smell of freshly baked pastries...

 Iruma opened his eyes, Azz already standing above him with a plate of baked goodness in his hands. The bluenette worriedly eyed Azz's face. There were big dark circles under his eyes. Again. 

 “Did you even go to sleep last night?” Not that it was particularly easy for Iruma either, but...

 “I did, though I admit it was far later than recommended,” he slept for maybe two hours, before he had to start going about his day. Which was surprisingly good, he didn’t expect to sleep a wink that night, but he supposed the fatigue was getting to him. It also meant that he felt even more sleep deprived than usual since the coffee hadn’t kicked in quite yet.

 Iruma stretched his arms, yawning wildly as he moved his arms above his head and back down so that they were relaxedly settled on the pillow.

 "Sit down with me," he patted the empty space on the mattress beside him. Asmodeus shuffled on his feet, passing the plate to the king before seating himself down on the foot of the bed.

 "Let's share!" 

 "But it's your food-" No one messed with the king's food, that much was general knowledge!

 "I insist," The king smiled nervously, extending the plate closer to the demon. Azz reluctantly picked up a small devi-macaroon.

 "And you? Did you sleep alright?" 

 "Given that we were out until two in the morning, I suppose so." Iruma fiddled with a cupcake, clearly wanting to say something, before eventually deciding not to. Well, whatever it was, Azz could wait for his fiancé to tell him on his own terms.

 "Soon enough you'll be able to have as much rest as before." The pinkette assured him.

 "The nerves are getting to me." Iruma admitted.

 "I can tell," Azz bit off a piece of a red pastry. Food and sugar in particular were good for nerves, or so he had heard. Honestly he couldn’t tell much of a difference.

 "I'm sure grandpa will be very happy for us." Iruma sounded confident and he was probably right.

 Azz thought.

 "Think he'd give me away if I asked nicely?"

 Cough cough

 Azz leaned forward to pat the king's back.

"What about your dad?" Iruma had never met him, but he gathered a few things about him whenever Alice did speak about him, which while it was a rare occurrence, did happen occasionally. Thus he knew the man was alive and just traveling around after an amicable split with Amaryllis. He also knew Asmodeus looked up to him despite the man’s long term absence. Well, he admired him during their schooling, sometimes mentioning in passing that a specific move had been developed by the demon. But sometime after Iruma became the king, something just changed in Alice, and he no longer mentioned his other parent not even in passing. Surely he'd make it for his own son's wedding though. Right?

 "I’m sure he’ll send a very nice congratulations card from wherever he is currently,” Azz answered bitterly.

 “Even if he did come here -which I doubt- I’d rather walk myself down than let him hand me over.” Azz nearly crushed the macaroon in his hand.

 “Lord Sullivan has been far more involved in my life than him." Iruma knew Azz's father was a sensitive topic, but from his perspective this wasn’t a ruined relationship, but more of one that didn’t get the chance to properly form.

 "But he's your dad." Maybe they could even use this opportunity to amend their relationship.

 "Would you invite your parents? They abandoned you."

 “That’s not the same thing, they used and abused me, selling me off without a care of what would happen to me afterward,“ Iruma pointed out. Ironically that was the best thing they’d ever done for him, the man was just glad his parents were eccentric enough to offer him to a demon and not people smugglers.

 “I didn’t mean it like that,” Azz bowed his head down in regret.

 “I know you didn’t,” Iruma assured him. It wasn’t like the Suzukis were a taboo topic by any means. As far as he was concerned, they were something that happened in a completely different lifetime.

 "It would be the first time I even met him anyway." The pinkette muttered.

 What? That was news for Iruma, he had assumed the demon was in his life at least when the boy was little. he looked at Azz. He had that look on his face Iruma knew how to recognise well. The “I'm going to pretend this doesn't bother me" look.

 "I'm sorry."

 "You still haven't answered the question." Azz looked up, urging the other accept the change of topic. Iruma let the heavy matter drop.

 "I think grandpa would be ecstatic."

 "Iruma baby!" The tall demon came barreling toward them the moment their carriage rounded the corner. Sullivan pulled his grandson into a bear hug. "You should visit more, I'm all alone here-"

 Yeowch, grandpa really knew how to make Iruma feel bad.

 "I apologize lord Sullivan, the past couple of weeks have been rather hectic." Especially the last one. They really had to get Alice to drop the polite formal tone, not that it was still there for a lack of trying.

 "Oh I know, but you-" Sullivan turned to his grandkid, bopping the king's nose in a playfully scolding manner"- haven't called me at all this past week, something must be really wrong if you could just forget about me."

 "Lord Sullivan, please let the visitors settle themselves." Opera made their way toward the pair at regular speed.

 "It's really fine-" Iruma noted that the cat demon's ears were raised in happiness.

 "I have prepared some hell grey tea, so we can have a discussion in peace. Mistress Amaryllis is already inside, she has been very eager to see you," the security demon gestured toward the mansion.

 "Oh no I'm not!"

 "Mom-" suddenly the pink haired demon was enveloped in a hug as well. The woman came seemingly out of nowhere, surprising about everyone minus the cat demon who was physically incapable of being taken by surprise.

 The woman lifted her much taller son off the ground, twirling and moving them both a little further away from the group, as if he weighed absolutely nothing: "That's what you get for ignoring me." She pressed a quick kiss on his forehead, still giggling as she tried to feign anger.

 "Ignoring is what you get for always embarrassing me in front of my future in laws-" Asmodeus straightened his now rumpled coat.

 Amaryllis had a look of pure shock before she quickly grabbed his hand bringing it close to her face for inspection. Sure enough, there was a very familiar ring nestled on her son -who had been very single his whole entire life-‘s ring finger.

 "When did this happen?" She asked, her tone difficult to read.

 "Look, We'll tell you everything inside." Alice pulled his hand away, hiding it behind his back, his eyes trained on the woman’s face in an attempt to decode what she was thinking.

 Opera eyed the two pairs, the Asmodeuses quietly conversing as the mother observed her son's left hand. Interestingly enough the human was hiding his own left arm behind his back.

 It couldn't be, surely it's too early... Then again, Iruma is a human, their timelines may be different. But Opera knew one thing. Tonight’s dinner was going to be glorious.

 Eventually the five managed to shuffle inside the mansion. 

 Azz and Iruma sat together, Azz even going so far as to move the stool closer, immediately latching onto Iruma's arm again.  Sullivan immediately moved to sit by his grandkid's side, but was pulled back as a very pissed off Amaryllis grabbed ahold of his coat: "Oh no you don't."

 "Amaryllis?" 

 "You're going to sit next to me on this side." She gestured to the complete other side of the table.

 Sullivan protested, but was quickly dragged to take his place next to her.

 Amaryllis was glaring daggers at the bluenette as Opera placed down everyone's teacups.

 Iruma briefly considered their placement. It felt a little too much like an interrogation for his taste. Azz squeezed his hand.

 "So what's the big news that's got Amaryllis so upset?" Sullivan accusingly glanced toward the aforementioned woman and Opera. How dare they not tell him anything. Backstabbers.

The young pair glanced at each other. 

 "We um..." Iruma had prepared an entire speech but he found himself at a loss for words now that he had to lie in his guardian's faces.

 "We are getting married."

 "Marriage?!?" Sullivan exclaimed, almost turning himself and his chair over through the sheer power of shock.

 "Yep!" Iruma nervously scratched the back of his head as the grip on Azz's hand strengthened.

 "Oh my devi, I'm so happy for you!" The older demon lifted himself up as the demoness by his side moved just a tad too slowly to catch him. He strutted over to the couple enveloping them both in a tight hug.

 "Oooh, I always knew you two would end up together,” Azz gasped for air as the demon’s hold became almost lethally strong “-You've always been so cute together!"

 Iruma wasn't given the time to process what his grandpa had said, before the elder’s Anaconda’s grip loosened, placing them safely down on the ground again. Without even giving them a moment to catch their breath, the demon was already grabbing for the king’s hand.

 "Let me see!" Iruma extended his arm, the demon pouncing on it immediately and observing the red gem in awe.

 "Aww, it's so lovely!" The demon cooed in bliss only a parent could feel when they knew their kid had found true happiness. 

 "I'll go grab my camera, we need to memorize this." One would not believe the demon was more than a millennia old by the way he speed off.

 Thus, leaving the pair alone with a couple of not nearly as ecstatic demons.

 A deathly silence filled the room.

 “I suppose you had been dating for a while then? I’m surprised neither of you had said anything until now,” Opera, bless their soul finally broke the awkwardness. His eyes narrowed, the tone of voice investigative, as if they weren’t completely sure what to think and were searching for more information before they would form a judgement.

 “We had actually been dating since Babylis, but I begged him not to say anything because I was scared the Six fingers would do something to him.” Opera quipped his eyebrow in disbelief, Amaryllis on the other hand furrowed her eyebrows, her expression morphed into one of genuine concern.

 “I’m sorry Opera, you know very well how afraid I was of them. Not knowing how far their strings reached really messed with my head.” The possibility of another crown besides Baal, being in cahoots with the organisation had been a serious possibility ever since Behemoth’s appearance on the Deviculum. Then came the reveal that the organization had eyes and ears everywhere, including tapping phone lines that were supposed to be secure. Then there were the listening devices Opera found in his own home… It had messed with Iruma’s head that he could never be sure, if he was being listened to and it made him paranoid to the point of nightmares.

 Azz was a part of the equation back then as well, but that had been the case for both him and Clara, since they were his best friends. Iruma was honestly glad romance wasn’t something he had to account for back then, it would have made him go crazy.

 Opera nodded their head, thinking very deeply about something. Iruma really hoped his guardian had bought the story, but he couldn’t really be sure until Opera said something.

 Amaryllis put her palms on the table, lifting herself up, her expression unreadable once more: “Alice, I want to talk to you.”

 The king was about to say something when the woman cut him off:

 “Alone.” The woman hissed at the bluenette, making him feel a kind of genuine fear for his life he hadn’t felt since- well since the Fingers were eliminated.

 Azz followed her, effortlessly maintaining a poker face, though Iruma could tell his fiancé was nervous.

 The two demons exited the dinning hall. Azz took a deep breath as he closed the doors behind them. He really thought she’d be happy for him. Maybe a little upset. But the open hostility was unexpected, Amaryllis was never so… openly angry.

 "What the hell do you think you are doing?" she asked, gripping his arms tightly so that her long nails dug into his skin. That was going to leave a mark.

 "I am getting married to the love of my life-" 

 “Who you've been unsuccessfully pinning after for a decade and a half. Now apparently you've been together for five years. Do you think I’m an idiot Alice?"

 "Of course not,” By devi, that woman may sometimes act like an airhead, but in reality she was as sharp as a knife.

 “I don’t buy it,” she hissed, bringing her face much closer to his. “Tell me the truth.”

 “That’s rather unfortunate then, because that is the truth." He countered.

 "I am trying to look out for you.” Her rage got replaced by worry: “Iruma must have some other reason for doing this and frankly, I do not care what that reason is. I do not want you getting hurt and I won't let him use you.”

 "This is everything I've ever wanted in my life mother. Why can't you just be happy for me?" Tears threatened to spill from Azz's eyes. Why can’t you understand?

 "Because I know what falling in love is like. It makes you go mad.” Her tone became full of sadness. “I was just like you once. I got married after two months of knowing him and I haven't seen my husband for decades, do not make the same mistake I did," she pleaded. 

 "Iruma isn't my father!" Wasn't that much obvious?

 "I’ve known him for nine years. For nine years we’ve been joined at the hip, always by each other’s side through the good and the bad. I am never moving on. I physically cannot. I had been trying to get over it for years and it's just not possible. Iruma is the only one for me." The demon had raised his voice, nearly screaming at her by the end of his rant.

 "And if you ever force me to choose between you and him, I will pick him."

 Amaryllis knew it was the truth. The sheer power of his love for the human rendered Alice unable to think straight or question his own decision once it was made up.

 "Your lust is consuming you. You cannot let it control you." Or you'll be just a marionette to him.

 But just like a mountain, Alice was unmovable. It was her fault too. She had raised him into an ideal. Fierce, loyal and a rock to hold onto in peril. Iruma had won her son’s loyalty, it meant there was nothing she could do. 

 She hated feeling powerless. But she couldn't stand the possibility of Alice cutting ties with her.

 Alice took a deep breath, calming his voice: "I understand your worry. I'm not stupid, I've considered how my own emotions might have impeded my decision. So please-” he took her hands into his, apologizing silently as he looked her in the eyes again “-please trust my judgement." A stray tear rolled down his face. He wanted her to be happy for him.

 "This is the path I need to walk, I just know it," he said with a finality in his voice. 

 "If you support me, you'll support us. If you don't, there's no need for you to attend the wedding."

 Alice left his mother alone with her thoughts, lest he might actually break down in tears.

 As Amaryllis stood there alone it finally hit her that her little Alice wasn't so little anymore. She couldn't protect him from himself.

 She entered the hall again where Sullivan was busy fussing over the new couple.

 Opera made eye contact with her, she could tell they were equally concerned with the new development as she was.

 "I will be taking my leave."

 “But Amaryllis dear, there's so much we need to do!" Sullivan exclaimed in surprise. Iruma looked to his fiancé in concern, silently asking what happened. The man shook his head, latching onto Iruma’s hand, unwilling to look in her direction.

 "There is much you need to do. Do not count me in.” The woman turned on her heel. "Iruma be a dear and walk me to the door," she called behind her as almost an afterthought.

 The king rose up to accompany her, squeezing Alice's shoulder as he tried to follow them.

 The two walked silently until they were out of earshot before Amaryllis turned to him.

 "You are not the person I thought you were. Congratulations, you truly fooled me." Iruma blanched.

 "I-I'm not sure what you're talking about," he stuttered, looking away in discomfort.

 Suddenly a strong force pulled his arm until he was face to face with his future mother in law.

 "Alice isn't your toy to use as you please." Her voice took on a cold tone.

 "I promise you, Azz and I are on the same page about this." Iruma tried to assure her. Every muscle in his body screamed at him to run away. The woman growled actually growled, leaning closer to him.

 "Iruma, I do not care if you're the demon king. I do not care if you're friends with deities. If you hurt my son-" she leaned even closer, her breath sending chills up the man’s spine.

 “There will be hell to pay," the demoness whispered into his ear before pulling herself back. She slammed the gate after herself.

 This was the first time Iruma was the target of her fury, by devi, she looked furious enough to skin him alive right there and then. 

 What in the Netherworld did Azz say to her?

Epilogue:

 "Amaryllis."

 "Sullivan."

 “They lied to our faces. Why?” The woman wiped her face. Her son’s words stung like a sword through the heart.

 “You never had to see your child silently suffer from a broken heart Sully. And all you can even do is be there in case he ever comes to you, but he never does. Alice loves your grandson, but as of now it's not a two way street yet. Not completely. Alice cannot exist without him, it would break him.” The older demon gently guided her to a chair, setting himself down on her side.

 "Perhaps they deserve a little trust,” he gave her hand a squeeze.

 "What if they're making a mistake?" the woman let out a desperate sigh.

 “Sometimes it takes a leap of faith to get what you want. Iruma himself was a leap of faith, now the Netherworld is his oyster." The demoness' breath slowly became calmer. He let her think, so much happened that day, things were said in the heat of the moment and now both Asmodeuses were hurting over it. Only two things could mend their relationship now, time and a good two-way conversation.

 They must have a good reason to do this right?" Amaryllis sighed.

 "I'm certain that whatever brought this on was not born out of ill-intentions," Sullivan patted her shoulder.

 The woman sighed, unhappy with both the half-answer and her own decision to follow the older demon's advice. She hoped against hope that it wouldn’t end up blowing up in her face.

 "I swear Sully, if your grandson hurts my baby's feelings-"

 "Then you will find a way to make him regret that for the rest of his life. And I won't do anything to stop you. Devi promise." Sullivan held a hand over his heart, the other high in the air.

 Amaryllis wiped away her tears again, recomposing herself.

 "So... You'll be giving Alice away?" It was a little thing Opera told her about that grounded her decision to talk her concerns over with Sullivan.

 The demon brought his hands up to his chest, already full of excitement: "It will be perfect for the scrapbook!"

 "A scrapbook hmm~" the pink haired demoness paused, her eyes still slightly red from crying.

 "I think I might have some useful material back at home," the woman grinned: "That is if you want your future son in law's baby pictures." 

 "Oh Amaryllis you really know how to knock on an old man's heart.”

Chapter Text

It was a beautiful morning, perhaps even more than usual; the sun was up, birds were chirping, and the roses in Elizabetta's bedside vase were wafting with a pleasant fragrance. Ah yes, that was truly the perfect way to wake up.
 It was rather early for her biological clock to have already started dictating her to begin her day. She always let the body decide on the hours of sleep it would receive, it was hardly predictable, but it did wonders for her skin.
 The demoness begun her usual routine, allowing herself to spend as much time as she very well pleased to get herself in proper order. In her humble opinion, rushing very rarely yielded satisfying results.
 And a bow to complete the look.
 She smiled into her reflection, just a little action that took no time at all. And yet, it automatically gave her all the confidence she would need to tackle whatever the day could throw at her.
 Finally she turned her phone on, immediately getting bombarded by a plethora of loud pings in quick succession.
 The last ones were from the class group chat; at first glance she could tell most were from Lied who had likely stayed up and a few other early risers debating on what Iruma and Asmodeus meant. What? She scrolled up, but couldn't see any messages that would clear up the confusion.
 Eventually she made an effort to check her official communications, figuring that if Asmodeus had anything to do with it, that's where she should look. Low and behold, sitting there under a red urgent marking, was a memo about an additional important matter on today's agenda. It had been written by the righthand man- as she had suspected- he requested specifically that everyone should be present as the matter was of grave importance to the future of the demon realm.

 Which... Sounded over the top, but knowing her ex-classmate as well as she did, just might have been an exaggeration. Then again that man did consider terrorists mild annoyances, yet devi forbid the king runs out of his favourite pastries, then it's a national emergency. In other words she was none the wiser as to what the matter could be.
 The woman re-opened the chat, now with some context she could finally at least partially understand what the fuss was about. Lied ranted about how he got zero sleep the night prior, and that they "couldn't do this to him". Ix wondered if he genuinely thought anyone would fall for that, given that everyone knew he regularly went through days without a wink of sleep. It was far more likely that he was actually dealing with a serious case of hangover and didn't want to admit it in writing. Whatever the case, she had a hunch that he'll come anyway, he had expressed far too much curiosity to now skip it out.

 Meanwhile, Goemon and Sabnock had begun arguing whether it was about a threat or something important yet still incredibly boring- as most politics unfortunately were.
 It is rather unusual for Asmodeus to be this vague. The demoness pursed her lips in thought. She had heard about a certain rumor from a friend of hers that worked at the castle, but surely there was no truth to it. She would’ve figured it out herself if there were.
 Should I bring it up anyways? Eventually she decided against it, merely tapping away a short nonspecific reply to calm the discourse down.

 LilithTheSecond: I'm sure that if it was an imminent threat, Alice would have called us. ;)

 The woman turned her phone on silent again. She may as well properly enjoy some breakfast before whipping the crowns in the line again.

 They weren't here yet, good. Elizabetta did a quick headcount. It seemed that the only ones missing were the news bearers. She made a metal note that Sabnock was here too, despite not being a crown. Yet. The conversation was in full swing, some were catching up on what they'd been up to since the last meeting, others were scrolling down their phones or, in Purson and Allocer’s case, pretended to be busy reading some documents as they tried their best to ignore the cacophony of voices that made it impossible to actually focus. Red eyes travelled up the wall studying the giant goldleaf clock. Fifteen till nine.

 She took her designated seat between Lied and Clara. They both looked far older than their real age. Really it was only thanks to Ix's incredible skin routine that she wasn't in the "stress lines club" yet. Truthfully it was quite surreal to see all of her classmates here in this room.
 A lot had happened in an incredibly short amount of time. It's how the misfit class was able to take up most of the highest positions in the mere five years since their graduation from Babylis in the reformation the scale of which hadn't been seen in the demon world since the crowns' very formation.
 Some drool rolled down Lied's face, as he tried to take advantage of the last peaceful minutes before he'd have to at least pretend to be awake. Ix turned her head toward the bubbly greenette sitting on her left. As usual the girl was bouncing up and down, unable to stand still.
 "Do you know what this is about?" the blonde asked. She figured if anyone knew, it was certainly the third member of the so called “love trio”.
 The greenette's eyes sparkled with excitement, her mouth widening into a toothy smile before immediately dulling as she put a hand over her mouth.
 "Sorry Liz, I'm not allowed to tell you," the short woman mumbled into her hand.
 "Can you tell me at least if it's good or bad news?"
 The twinkle in her green eyes returned: "It's super, duper quacky-doodle amazing news."
 And with that statement Ix was able to calm down not only herself, but also those who had the most trouble keeping their voices down.
 Minutes ticked by as conversations sprung up again, this time in form of quiet whispers that quieted down the second Purson announced he could hear footsteps approaching. The demons sat themselves straight, and the more disorganized demons made sure their phones were actually on silent as unnoticeably as possible.

 "Ready?"
 "As ready as I'll ever be," Iruma stifled a laugh as Alice retied his hair for the twentieth time that day. He could hardly blame him though, they were about to announce a very spontaneous wedding and there were really only a few ways things could go; most of them consisted of a lot of screaming, some included broken inventory and absolutely none suggested a short, calm and rational discussion.
 The couple intertwined their arms, took a deep breath and each pushed the door wing closer to them open. The air inside was stiff as twelve pairs of eyes immediately fixated on the pair.
 A couple demons immediately begun not so discreetly staring at their enveloped arms, while others started glancing around as if dying to say something.
 For a few moments Iruma allowed himself to just look around at all the faces he had grown to trust with his life. So many memories tied them together, both good and bad, historical and mundane. These were his friends, his advisors. This would not be the first secret he would keep from them, but it just might strain their relationships in a way his humanity never could. The warmth around his arm offered comfort, a light squeeze the anchor necessary to ground his thoughts. Surely they'll be happy for him just like they were for Kurori.
 Alright, best not to beat around the bush. Get it over with quickly. Like ripping off a band-aid. Easy.
 "Sooo, did you break a leg?" Thirteen pairs of eyes turned toward Goemon. He was probably just trying to break the uncomfortable silence with a best guess. Even if that guess had very little evidence for back-up.
 "You seem like you have trouble walking." He gestured toward their intertwined arms, his blush well hidden by white hair.
 "I assure you I'm perfectly healthy." The king smiled reassuringly as he gripped Azz's hand tighter. Scarlet eyes met blue and a silent conversation unfolded in mere seconds before the bluenette once more directed his attention to the audience before him.
 "Actually, you might even say I'm more than well."
 He lifted his right hand up to show off his ruby ring: "We are here to announce our engagement!" the king smiled that smile that was just so Iruma- all happy and innocent. It had been getting easier for him to fake that smile in the past years, yet it still retained that the same effect it had when he was still a doe-eyed child. That effect being momentarily blindsiding the recipient from registering what was happening around them.

 It gave him a few precious moments to brace for impact as realization struck the crowns once the word "engagement" finally registered in their brains.
 Then, as anticipated, all hell broke loose. Questions were thrown in every direction as each demon tried to out scream the others, the constructed facades well forgotten as the supposedly prim and proper officers of state reverted to what they truly were deep down- tea spilling young adults.
 Even Ix had to reign herself, her attempt to compete with Sabnock's loud voice box slowly proving itself to be a match she could not win. She glanced toward the oldest crown only to see Bachiko's pocky fall out of her open mouth.

 The older woman's silence grounded her enough to realize screaming chaos will do nothing but delay them in getting the answers they seek. And oh boy, did she seek some answers.
 The blonde coughed to get everyone's attention without much success.
 "Guys!" She raised her voice. Her words were drowned in the noise. The woman rested her palms on the table, the skidding noise of her chair completely unnoticeable as pandemonium heightened.
 That's enough.

 Ix stood up to her full height: "QUIET DOWN!" The sound of her palms hitting the table finally brought fourth the silence she desired. Well, that and her peremptory figure. Even as adults, Ix towered over most of her ex-classmates. An excellent trait for drawing attention if her voice couldn't do the trick.
 The demons quieted down, some quite reluctantly returning to the normal sitting position.
 Well, minus Lied who was still splayed on the table, his brain seemingly working against him as far a basic speech comprehension was concerned.
 Ix fixed a crease in her dress before calmly settling herself back down, with her hands crossed in front of her chest.
"I suppose as a member of the thirteen crowns, I ought to congratulate you." Elizabetta narrowed her eyes.
The second Iruma bashfully bowed his head, she leaned forward with a dramatically betrayed expression: "But as a friend, I am very upset I didn't know you were even in a relationship." 

 How embarrassing…
Ix, the crown of love, prided herself on being able to detect blooming love with deadly accuracy. That she couldn't see a relationship between two of her best friends? This was shocking. Well, she could see Azz's love for the king, but she had always assumed it was a one side thing.
 "I'm sorry Liz, we kept it secret-" By devi she felt bad seeing how upset her words made him.
 She waved her hand: "It’s fine. I guess-“ Darn it… She took another breath to calm herself down.

“There’s no need for excuses, your decision is valid no matter what your reasoning was, even if there was no reason at all besides you wanting to keep it private. I'm really happy you found your match!" She smiled happily, it was the right thing to do and say, even if she was actually still very much perplexed.
 Maybe you do need something extreme to happen to connect the signs and give them a name.

 Clearly their relationship had ever so slightly changed sometime in the past, but she couldn't remember when it happened. There was yet another possibility; It might've been a gradual thing, in which case she could have given the signs a wrong attribution, or hadn't noticed them at all. Just like a frog wouldn't notice the water slowly rising in temperature before it was cooked.
 By now others had at least partially recovered as well and were all expressing their opinions in a way that, while a little less chaotic, was still unbefitting for high members of court. She'd let her thoughts simmer for now, see what others thought first.

 I would say you could do better-" Lied spoke up, earning himself a glare from Asmodeus-" But I don't think that's physically possible without like- time travel or something." The blonde grinned, always in the mood to thread the line, when he knew Iruma would prevent Azz from retaliating in any shape or form.

“Excellent, two less competitors-” Someone, somewhere hit Caim on the head before he could finish his thought.
 "I mean, we kind of figured it out from the hints Clara had been dropping." Kerori examined her blue-painted nails, clawing absentmindedly at a small snowflake decoration that had begun peeling off. This action was the only indication she had been at all taken aback by the announcement.
 The greenette tilted back so far she nearly fell back in her chair, but just before she was sent tumbling down she leaned forward again looking at the blue haired girl in surprise: "Me???"
 "Now that is an exaggeration. We may have noticed something was off, but none of us actually anticipated something as grand as a wedding announcement." Elizabetta attempted to calm the upset woman down by gently rubbing her shoulder. Clara bit her lip, still upset at the prospect she might've accidentally spilled the secret she had been entrusted with.
 A thump alerted everyone to Bachiko's presence as she stomped her foot on the table.

 "Don't put your feet on the table." Lied lazily turned his head toward her, still fully splayed on the table.
 "Y'all forget I'm here, how else am I supposed ta get my say?" The woman surprisingly elected to not call him out for his pot calling kettle black moment.
 She turned her hand toward the pair: "Don’t act so recklessly. Feelings -especially love- change overtime. Take my advice and wait a while. Marriage is not a commitment one should take lightly."

 The "I'd hate for you to make a mistake you'll regret until you die" went unsaid, but was heavily implied.
 Iruma understood where she was coming from, crushes could cloud one's judgement so that they cannot discern what their partner is really like until the rose tinted glasses come off. His friend circle developed crushes rather easily, so he could see the trend for himself. But that wasn't applicable for his situation, since he never had a crush on Azz at all. Iruma knew exactly who Alice was and while it was true that both demons and human alike change with age, he knew his friend had a clear set of values he was loyal to. That loyalty had been tested multiple times and had proven itself to be unshakeable. So even when the demon will eventually change as he grows wiser, the king was certain that his core will remain ultimately good and unable to be corrupted.

 Neither of them were by any means perfect, but whenever either of them did something wrong, they were not afraid to call each other out, whether that be Alice’s first instinct to use violence in order to deal with annoying people or Iruma’s habit to barely think things through before doing them. When they worked together, they could cancel out each other’s worst tendencies. So in a way, they were already each other’s bettering halves, no ceremony necessary. Or was the expression just "the better half"? Iruma forgets.

 Instead of the long speech he just found himself saying: “I understand your concern Bachiko,” he squeezed Azz’s hand, pulling him just a tad closer “But I know what I  want.”

 The older woman stepped off the table and approached the unwavering pair with a confident stride. For a few moments they just looked at each other, neither backing down.

 “You really are perfect for each other,” she whispered. Iruma nearly doubled over in surprise. “Y-you think so?” He subconsciously leaned down, to hear her better. Huh, it really didn’t matter how much time passed, he was still overjoyed whenever his mentor said something positive.

 “Yes,-“ the woman hit him on the head “-you’re both complete morons.” She crossed her arms, yet a small, barely noticeable smile tugging at her lips revealed her true feelings. At least to Iruma, one look at Azz’s face revealed he was still puzzled by the entire exchange and equally torn between the need to retain proper etiquette and his instinct to lunge at the crown, because she just hit the king.

 Maybe it was Bachiko’s action in itself, maybe it was the lack of fiery retaliation. Either way the vaguely threatening exchange broke down the last barriers that kept others in line as they now all shamelessly flocked closer.

 "Dude-" Lied paled "-you're getting married, everyone’s going to go wild." The man extended his arms wide nearly hitting Gaap in the face.

 “I know, it’s why I’m already dreading the announcement,” the king admitted.

 Iruma nervously laughed as the rest of the crowns gathered around him, once more asking questions and competing who could be louder. Attempts were made to reign them back in, with some limited success. The new couple focused on the questions, first answering those they had pre-rehearsed and after a bit got comfortable enough to start making things up on the spot to questions no one could rightfully anticipate.  

 Like if they would still love each other if they were worms. While the answer was obviously yes, one had to wonder how that would ever be relevant.

 But of course, it was Clara who asked the most random questions; Like what type of string cheese they would serve at the wedding. First of all, who has string cheese on their wedding menu, second of all, there is more than one???

 Azz was more than glad to let Iruma answer that one. Apparently that was the right call, given how Clara’s face illuminated when the bluenette answered with “smoked mossarella”. If they were alone, Azz would’ve commented how convenient it was that Alice’s and Iruma’s knowledge complimented each other so well they could cover practically anything. The observation caused a giddy feeling to stir somewhere deep inside of his belly. He would make sure to share the observation with his fiancé later.

 Speaking of observations…

 "Where has Lied disappeared to?" Alice suddenly asked. Indeed the blonde had vanished somewhere into the ether while the commotion unfolded. Which kind of tracked given that he and Purson had begun sharing tips and tricks pretty early into their schooling, so much so that now they could both be as evasive as a gust of wind whenever they chose to do so.
 Iruma glanced up at the demon's wary expression, his scarlet eyes squinting and a frown marred his beautiful face as he continuously scanned their surroundings. The king squeezed his fiancé's shoulder: "I'm sure he's not up to anything-"

 "Listen up dear viewers, you heard it here first and straight from the kelbie's mouth!"
The demon in question had decided to pick that very moment to barge in, his hellphone very much open and turned toward the gathering, presumably recording an impromptu news report much to the horror of the majority of the officials present.
 "Are you out of your mind? You can't just record in here!" Asmodeus made a move to free himself out of the sea of demons surrounding him.
 "Oh it's not recording," Lied smiled deviously as he stepped just a little bit further away "I'm streaming it live."
He pressed the phone closer to Iruma's face as the king did his best to not go into panic mode because he just got put under a spotlight with zero warning.
 "My best friend is officially off the bachelor list!"
 "I mean, it’s true, but Shax-“ Iruma stepped back as Azz reached for the camera, only to be blinded at the last second so the troublemaker could step out of his reach without even breaking a sweat.
 "Wanna tell our esteemed audience something?" Lied smiled as he somehow mannaged to evade Asmodeus again.
 "Lied, this is really not a good idea," the bluenette stared right into the camera, wondering why Azz was the only one trying to get him to stop, while the rest just stood there frozen.
 Judging by their faces... Because everyone else clearly found it amusing.
 "Well yeah, the camerawork will be a tad shaky, but otherwise this'll be gold."
Iruma let out an exasperated sigh, forcing himself not to instinctively facepalm.
 "Yes, it's true, I'm getting married to Alice Asmodeus." Mercifully Lied now finally refocused the camera onto himself again.
 "Ladies and gentlemen, there you have it, I called it, and the poll-''

 "There was a poll?!?"
 Lied turned around, as if he were explaining something that was common knowledge: ''We had a poll on who you'd end up with, 30 k responses, and they all said you'd end up with Ameri, but I kept telling them it'll be Azz or no one." If there appeared a flood of comments calling him out for lying, none of the demons present had to know.
 The blonde once again refocused the camera onto himself as he went on a spiel about a ship turning cannon and something about a ship war ending the king didn’t quite catch. All while successfully evading a now truly pissed off Asmodeus in an unanticipated game of tag.

 "I guess that is one way of making an announcement..." Ix moved a hand before her lips as she struggled to contain her giggles. It must've been surreal for anyone watching the transmission to see two grown men chasing each other down like children. Thigs got interesting after Azz figured out that the now miraculously fast demon was keeping track of him by always making sure the pinkette was at least partially in view of the camera.
 Alice unexpectedly moved to the side, lowering himself to the floor. By the time Shax could follow his movement, the blonde got his path cut by a wall of fire. All it took was that one moment of surprise and the blonde found himself pressed hard down into the floor, as the now quite disheveled demon victoriously ended the video.
 "You're not supposed to set conference rooms on fire," Lied wheezed out as Asmodeus' not insignificant weight pressed his torso harder into the ground.
 "You can't just break this sort of news for views and then reasonably expect there to be no consequences,” Asmodeus pouted as he collected the loose strands of pink hair in order to redo his ponytail.

"Well excuse me for trying to help out, everyone knows that when you dread something it’s better to just get it over with quickly.” Lied looked toward Iruma for help and someone actually burst out in full on laughter.

 The king facepalmed. I can't believe Lied could possibly think this was a good tacti-
Actually, never mind. Yes, Lied was an intelligent fighter. But when it came to judging official business he could be excruciatingly dense. Of course the man would think the easy solution was appropriate, no matter how untactful it actually was.
 Asmodeus finally relented, lifting the man up effortlessly while still making sure to keep the demon’s phone confiscated as punishment.

 “OH!” Ix exclaimed, clapping her hands together. “We need to organize your bachelor parties!”

 “Aw, that’s really not necessary!” Iruma rubbed the back of his head, neither he nor Azz particularly liked parties and he’d honestly be the happiest if there was the least amount of fuss possible over the wedding. In his humble opinion it was a great shame demons didn’t just have a magistrate that would give them a piece of paper to sign and let them be done with it.

 “No offense Iruma-“ Clara rested her hand on his shoulder -“but I now for a fact you have no friends besides us.” She rubbed his shoulder as if to offer consolation.

 “What I meant, is that I don’t need a bachelor party,” the king clarified.

 “Nonsense,” Lied tutted. “This is your last taste of freedom before you willingly tie yourself to another man forever.” The blonde dramatically rested the back of his hand on his forehead.

 “You don’t know what marriage is like; he’ll follow you around everywhere, always debate your choices and you’ll never get a waking moment of peace when he is not in earshot.”

 “That’s not how marriages work,” the snow-haired demoness snapped, agitated by the fact that this moron was trying to skew the meaning of a sacred bond that, need she remind him, he had no experience in.

 “You do know you just described the current state of our relationship right?” Iruma leaned his head to the side, a small smile tugging at his lips.

 Ix cooed as Iruma reassuringly patted Azz’s shoulder. “You know I like it this way though.”

 “Oh, oh! Maybe we could separate into the girl and guy’s group, I call dibs on Iruma,” Lied’s head was already swarming with ideas on how to make the night unforgettable.

 “Well count me out,” Bachiko called out, standing in the doorway. “I’ll let you kids handle this, call me if you eventually decide to start acting productive again.”

 The doors slammed behind her, temporarily silencing the group who had in large part forgotten she was even present at all. Mere seconds later they continued discussing as if nothing had happened.

 I am going with the guys," Azz stated matter-of-factly. Iruma lurched for his elbow, turning him away from the mass of ex classmates that were in a full on planning mode. If they noticed, they didn't acknowledge it.
 "I don't think so," Iruma pouted, there was no way he would force Azz to go with the guys, he knew for a fact Azz would not have a good time with them.
 "What if they get you into trouble, don't you remember how I always had to bail you guys out when something went wrong?" It was mostly Lied who caused the issues, but they did somehow manage to get themselves arrested nearly every time there wasn't someone responsible with them to keep an eye on their surroundings.
 Lied tried to turn anything into gambling, even if it was just a coin flip for the perk of calling shotgun. Sabnock loved to drink, but caused full fledged brawls when he was drunk. And Jazz! Jazz may be an important public figure, and a wealthy one at that but that didn't stop him from stealing the most random stuff just for the giggles.

 Seriously, no one needed a collection of other people’s keychains, he did it just to mess with everyone. So yes, just the mere presence of those three alone made the possibility of something going awry skyrocket. They were called the misfit class for a reason.
 "That's exactly why I want you to go with the girls! You should be having fun, not babysitting a group of unhinged adults," the bluenette pointed out.
 "That goes both ways, if I don't go, you'll have to babysit them," Asmodeus pouted again, still displeased by the prospect of having to hang out with anyone beside the king at all.
 "Azz, you don't actually think anyone's got the guts to arrest the king." Besides, whether the demon liked it or not, Iruma was a troublemaker by design. While it was rarely his fault intentionally, but rather a mix of unfortunate circumstance, the man was perfectly capable of getting himself into trouble without assistance.
 The pinkette thought for a bit, but had to reluctantly agree. Truthfully, his largest issue was being away from his king at all, but he trusted him enough that he’d be able to keep the guys in check.

 He supposed a quiet night with the girls would at least better be for his stress levels.

 So it was decided, Azz would have a quiet night with the girls and Iruma would let the guys have fun without his shadow dampening the mood. Only Clara pouted a bit, wanting to go with Iruma instead, but realized it probably wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things. It also helped that Elizabetta knew exactly what to promise to win her over.

 It's always an interesting occurrence to see gossip get its confirmation. Though admittedly no one quite expected that the devi-tubber turned crown would be their news source. Though stranger things had happened before, so the community decided to focus on the delightful news instead.

 "Granny, Granny!" A small child ran into the old kitchen, excitedly waving her phone around.
 The demoness looked at her granddaughter over her glasses, her calloused hands frozen mid movement as she rested her knitting needle on the table.
 "My my, little Thalia, why the rush?" The woman finished knitting the current line before setting the unfinished blanket down in order to free her arms. The little girl bounced on the balls of her feet, squeezing her deviphone tight in her hand with the screen flashing on and off each time she unknowingly squeezed the buttons.
 The woman patted the seat next to her as the girl excitedly leapt closer, showing her phone to the woman. On the screen was a news article that stated in big bold letters that spelled: LATEST BUZZ: RUMORS CONFIRMED, SHOTGUN ROYAL WEDDING

 "Isn't this exciting? A real royal wedding," Thalia sighed dreamily, her blue eyes unfocused, as she drifted away into her own little fantasy world. “I wonder if it’s going to be a public thing, I’d love to see the pretty dresses and the pretty flowers, and hear the morningale-” She was brought back to reality when a scrawny hand brushed through the girl's silky chestnut hair, evading the girls ram horns. 

 "I'm glad," Mnemosyne whispered cryptically. The news lifted a heavy weight of worry from her shoulders. She was glad her grandchildren would never have to know the anarchy that had ruled in Delkira’s absence. Peraps it was a vain thought, but the old woman liked to imagine she was a catalyst for the development. Good, it seemed like some external pressure was all that was necessary for the king to find his happy end. She was glad for both him and his betrothed.

Chapter Text

 The news spread like wildfire, soon enough every single demon from the shores of Siren island all the way to the very peeks of the Northern mountain had already been filled in.

 Whether Lied realized it or not- and Asmodeus would never admit such a thought out loud- he had done them a favor with his little stunt. It meant that the couple could peruse the nethernet for the most often asked question in advance of their official statement. Most were respectful and sometimes genuinely helpful to get their story straight. Some even touched upon matters of politics the couple hadn't had the time yet to fully discuss.

 Overall the response was overwhelmingly supportive, with many gushing at the prospect of having a royal wedding occur in their lifetime. Indeed it was no small affair. A royal wedding was special because it was a time all demons could come together in celebration, since there were strict stipulations no fights could break out for the duration of the festivities. It was a time to rest, perhaps even try diplomacy when beforehand both sides were too stubborn to attempt reason.

 Iruma joked it was a Wedding truce, then had to delve into a long explanation of what the Olympic truce was. Long story short, it was the same thing with just a whole lot more sports involved.

 Asmodeus would smile with glee each time he encountered comments from powerful figures lamenting they had to kiss goodbye their aspirations of marrying off their offspring to the highest ranking demon.

 There were also some... Questionable threads that would make even Amaryllis blush.

 Alice clicked the report button with zero hesitation. It isn't silencing, if the post breaks the terms of use. And oh boy, did it often seem like Asmodeus was the only person on this app who had read them.

 That being said, those were in the minority. Much more common were posts with useful questions the couple hadn't considered or haven't given enough importance to. Questions about politics, diplomacy, who would handle Asmodeus' increased work load.   Clearly, many demons didn't realize just how involved Asmodeus had been with all major decisions up till now.

 Alice leaned back in his chair, exercising the knuckles which ached from typing up replies.

 His teachers always used to say 'preparation is the key to success'. If that was true, then this entire escapade should be a breeze.

 On the other side of the table sat his fiancé. A whole week had already passed since this development, yet the pinkette still got butterflies just by mentally referring to Iruma like that.

 The king was busy sorting through letters, with a giant stack to his left and to his right a rather empty waste bin, where only a handful of papers had found themselves abandoned.

 Iruma sighed with relief as one by one each of the allies, he had made during his tenure here in the Netherworld, wished them luck and happiness. Albeit, some were more amicable than others.

 Just like Bachiko, professor Kalego had also decided to take on a more... hostile tone. Although, somewhere deep inside the note, carefully veiled with an at first glance disinterested tone, laid well wishes as well as a barely perceivable concern for his ex students' future. The letter got placed on top of the desk pile.

 Iruma nearly cried at Balam's letter. His mentor sincerely wished him all the joy and happiness the Netherworld could provide, as well as subtly hinting the king was always welcome to come over for any questions concerning the development and any 'subsequential questions that might arise'.

 Which was code for 'questions about dating a demon'. The professor never outright referenced Iruma’s origin, believing it prudent to never put anything outright incriminating into wording, as letters could be stolen and read by uninvited eyes. Iruma appreciated the concern and was rather tempted to take him up on the offer.

 We wouldn't want to be caught off guard by demon traditions on a wedding day, now would we?

 Iruma glanced warmly at the letters. He was lucky and ever so grateful that he got to meet each and every one of these incredible demons.

 Truly, good things come to good people.

 Wasn't it ironic though? His kind nature and forgiving spirit that Baal had so openly mocked him for all those years ago had returned tenfold in form of numerous friends and allies. These demons assured his ascension to the throne, their support invaluable and their loyalty unwavering even in the face of great odds.

 Iruma's smile faltered.

 Now I am lying to their faces.

 He pushed the thought to the very back of his mind, sealing it away into a mental "do not open" drawer. It was getting rather full. Especially for an imaginary drawer.

 He sighed, gingerly putting Balam's letter on top of a growing stack of papers he would keep. He had developed a habit of keeping the kind letters, much like some humans would keep their birthday cards a long time after they had received them. He knew there would never be a time when he would need them again, he merely kept them so that anytime he glanced at them again, he would be reminded of how many people loved and cared about him.

 Some might call it sentimental, he'd prefer to call it 'showing respect to the senders'.

 The letters from most professors took on a similar tone, but were executed in as many different ways as there were teachers. Robin first congratulated them, then went on a spiel of everything that happened since Iruma's class graduated. Noting with much chagrin that things had gotten far more boring since Iruma had last crossed the steps of Babylis. The king on the other hand was certain most professors and students alike would disagree with the assessment that a boring school life was a bad thing.

 Momonoki did her best to remain civil, but by the end of her lengthy note, she had completely derail into gushing. Iruma didn't mind any of it, if anything the way the teacher's personalities flowed into their letter reminded him that they too were his friends. Some less enthusiastic than others, but he considered them friends nonetheless.

 Iruma glanced outside, where Suzi's early wedding gift bloomed in the royal garden. In true Suzi nature, the woman had instead of a letter, sent over a large flower bed of white and red carnations that spelled out 'Happy forever'. He didn't dare ruin the note by letting the gardener rearrange the flowers, even if the lettering appeared out of place in the otherwise geometrically designed park.
 His eyes moved back to the giant stack of papers he had yet to go through. Then he glanced at the clock.

 "We should go now, I'd rather be early that late." Iruma turned his head toward Azz, realizing the man had been looking at him already. 

 The pinkette lowered his head, as if he were caught doing something he shouldn't be. 

 Which was just preposterous, breaks are important for maintaining focus and not something he should be ashamed off. 

 Why, Iruma slacked off all the time, though lately his focus had been wavering even more than usual for a reason that still eluded the king. It was a revelation just barely out of his grasp, giggling mischievously as the king fruitlessly tried to grab ahold of it.

 Oh well, it had waited so long, it could wait some more.

 The two men stood backstage as the female reporter on air continued rambling off script instead of just sticking to the teleprompter. She should consider herself lucky that her guests were the latest hot gossip. Alice had no doubt it would be the curiosity of the viewers that would keep them glued to their screens despite the host's lack of eloquence.

 A small -blink and you'll miss it- squeeze to his hand brings him out of his thoughts, big blue eyes glued to the floor as usual when Iruma felt out of place.

 Alice returned a reassuring squeeze, but no tension relaxed from the shorter man's posture. The pinkette perused the crowd, but he couldn't find what he was searching for. He wasn't sure why a news show needed an audience, but it wasn't irritating enough to warrant a request that they be dismissed for their slot. His gaze moved toward the small congregation of studio staff, each fixated on their task. Who would have thought it took so many people to run a studio...

 His frown morphed into a tight lipped smirk once he spotted the camera man. He nudged Iruma's shoulder, subtly indicating toward the unsuspecting worker with his chin.

 "His horns look like a moustache."

 Iruma looked up in surprise, scanning the crowd curiously. It took him a few moments until he finally spotted the demon with short curved pointy horns and with some imagination he could see the horns and the demon’s imperial style moustache as mirror images of each other.

 Iruma snorted, "Oh no, now I can't unsee it."

 His shoulders shook and the king pressed his free left hand to his mouth to muffle the sound of laughter.

 Alice's smirk widened into a lovestruck smile. The tension was finally broken and he could feel himself relax right along with his partner.

 "You're up." Asmodeus doesn't register who pushes them on stage, only that he is being pushed forward before he can gather his bearings again.

 The reporter waves them over to a large white round table with two empty chairs on the opposite side of where the hosts are seated. She beams, though her cohost doesn't share her enthusiasm.

 The king flashes everyone his signature smile, waving a friendly wave at the excited crowd. Thankfully no one seemed to notice Asmodeus' little stumble.

 "I am so, so, so glad you could spare some time to join us today!" The woman -whose name currently escapes Alice- beams, giddily bouncing up and down in her seat. If she were not on air she would've probably been actually jumping with excitement in a Clara-like manner.

 Iruma lets go of his hand in order to extend his right for a handshake. The reporter gladly accepts, as well as pulls Alice's right with her left, shaking both hands violently at the same time.

 She beams, "Again, having you here is such an honor-"

 "Can we cut the pleasantries? No one cares for that," the co-host cuts into the woman's speech.

 "I believe it is called cordial behavior," Alice frowns so obviously a blind demon would notice.

 Still, he's ever so slightly grateful for the man's interjection as it finally awakes the reporter out of her episode. She finally releases the hands she'd been latching onto with a grip one would not expect a lithe woman like her to have.

 While the couple takes their places, she moves behind the table, subtly kicking her partner in the shin as she sat down. To his credit, he didn't even wince.

 The woman straightens the papers on her desk welcoming her audience with a friendly wave.

 "Welcome to with the Grace and Daemon show, today we have some very special guests with us!" She waves toward the couple who smile politely. 

 The host -Grace apparantly- fixed the audience with a knowing look.

 “Now, usually this is the part where I'd introduce the guests, but I daresay today that might not be necessary." The woman waits for the audience to stop laughing with an assuring smile turned toward her guests to help put them at ease. It is only slightly undercut by the daggers her co-host is currently glaring at them.

 "So how about we jump right in?” She giggles, fanning out the multiple print outs and newspaper fronts.

 “Many sources have already reported on the unofficial announcement-“ to the audience's amusement, she holds up a paper whose front page featured a grainy screenshot of Asmodeus pinning down a giggling Lied in an awkward dutch angle.

 Alice went bright red, reminded of his less than proper behavior. Iruma’s chair scraped closer, reassuring his fiancé with a gentle hand squeeze. While yes, it was an embarrassing moment, the demon world had for the most part taken it in stride and with good measure of laughter, so really no foul was done.

 The woman chuckled, “I must say it was absolutely delightful.”

 “How come we’ve heard nothing of your relationship beforehand? What made you decide to go public with a wedding announcement?” The co-host glares at them as if it would be enough for them to crack and tell the truth. Unfortunately for him, his glare was nothing compared to Kalego’s and they’d become desensitized to his almost a decade ago.

 Alice parrots the answer he knew by heart, “We'd been dating for five years actually, we've  merely been keeping it on the down low-“

 “We’d probably marry in secret too, but since we’re both important figures, so that was kind of off the table,” Iruma joked, though judging by the reporter’s flabbergasted expression and the many gasps in the audience, they didn't recognize the intonation.

 “You’ve hidden it pretty well then,” the cohost finally recollected himself.

 “Well, I guess we're just not that much into PDA…” Iruma responds quickly.

 "A-ha. Is that so..." The demoness smirked as her eyes glanced to their linked arms and down to where the king had his ankle hooked around Asmodeus’.

 "Still, five years is a rather short time for courtship, I know I've dated my husband for two decades before finally saying yes." The woman lifted her left hand for the audience to see a simple golden band.

 "I'm well aware our timeline is rather short," Iruma nervously chuckled.

 "We simply saw no point in putting it off, since no other demon had ever managed to pique either of our interests." Asmodeus tried to cross his hands, but upon realizing his left was still being held hostage by Iruma, he just put his free arm in his lap instead, fixing the crowd with a glare.

 "That is so sweet-"

 The cohost huffed and Grace's easy-going expression quickly changed into one of dread.

 Suddenly the atmosphere changed as he leaned forward with an ugly scowl.

 “Such reckless rushing is unbefitting for a head of state. I don't know what your end goal is, but there's more you're not telling us,” he spat with scepticism.

 “Whatever reason would I have for that?” Iruma asks with a deceptively happy look on his face. Grace jabbed her cohost. This time to no avail.

 The man’s cheeks reddened, but Iruma just continued, feigning obliviousness, “I'm not sure what you're trying to drive at, we’re both consenting adults, what we decide to do with our relationship is first and foremost our business.”

 “Five years is no time at all! Everyone with half a braincell can see it’s still ill thought out-“ he quiets when catching sight of scarlet eyes full of anger.

 "The king -seemingly by instinct- had already reached out, holding the fuming demon in place by gently placing an arm before his chest. All without his bubbly smile faltering for a moment.

 Something they’ve all seen him do before during public announcements once hecklers got a bit too courageous.

 Iruma expertly ignored the tension, continuing, “Look... Daemon right? Sometimes you just know where your path will lead. I knew he was the one since day one. Whether we waited five, fifty or five hundred years doesn't make much of a difference."

 Iruma leaned closer to Alice. “Well that is, with the exception of me being able to officially call him mine-“ Asmodeus went beet red at both proximity and the open possessiveness.

 Meanwhile, somewhere far away Ameri gasped at Iruma reciting First love memories on live television.

 “Okay! Let’s not get too carried away here!” Grace nervously giggled, jumping in before the strongest demon in the demon world changed his mind and let his fiancé maul her co-star.

 “There are certainly worse options you could’ve chosen.” The king blinks at her, as if the thought hadn’t even crossed his mind.

 “Do tell me, what qualities do you admire most in each other?” She asks.

 Now, what she meant was ‘what qualities do you find most appealing in a lover?’, but what Iruma heard was ‘which of his qualities would be most beneficial to the future of the demon world?’.

 And boy, was there a long list.

 “Where do I even begin?” he poses a rhetorical question, immediately delving into singing praises to Asmodeus’ strong sense of justice, loyalty, intelligence, versatility, dependability, unwavering determination-

 “-really, if there is anything Alice can’t do, it’s just because he hasn’t tried it yet-“ neither host makes a move to intervene as he just goes on and on, one too terrified the other too invested to dare tell the king his time was about to run out.

 And then there was Asmodeus, who had gone from feral wolf to harmless puppy within the first few sentences and was now smiling dopily at his partner.

 “And don’t even get me started on his resourcefulness-“the king's words fade out as the silence registered.

 “Sorry, that question was meant for both of us.” Iruma bowed his head bashfully.

 Alice’s smile didn’t drop for a moment, “How could I possibly mind, when my beloved compliments me so earnestly?”

 Iruma knows it’s for show, but still freezes at being called a pet name. One that came out of nowhere, mind you!

 But it felt nice. It filled his heart with warmth, just like coming over for dinner with grandpa and Opera, with his family-

 It felt like home.

 Before he could properly examine that particular train of thought, the male reporter broke the moment with a spiteful mutter, “Right… Surely it’s got nothing to do with him being the son of the head of Lust…”

  Iruma gasped, offended on Alice’s behalf. He felt Azz stiffen beside him. 

 "Azz's lineage has nothing to do with it. He is an incredible person and he achieved that through hard work." Iruma knew how much his friend detested any association to his mother's title. Not that lust was a stigmatized vice in the demon world -because it wasn't- it just made Azz uncomfortable and that was reason enough. 

 Azz's grip intensified and Iruma couldn't help but steal a glance.  To an untrained eye, the change would've been too subtle, slightly raised shoulders, his mouth pressed together just a tinge too tightly, pink bangs falling before his face just enough that his eyes would be obscured from the cameras.

 “Moving past that-“ Grace desperately made cutting motions with her hands to the camera crew. The crew in question merely continued rolling, too invested in whether there would be bloodshed on today's set.

 Daemon however did not share her self-preservation instinct.

 He stood up from his chair, angrily extending his hand as his voice rose in pitch, "Oh please Grace, the whole demon world knows that family is cursed. They won't last a year-"

 The grip on Iruma's hand intensified with each word, as if they cut deep into a real fear. That terrified Iruma more than anger. He knew Azz's anger. He had never seen him afraid.

 “What you believe is contrary to reality and therefore irrelevant,” Iruma snapped.

 The demoness' mouth turned into an o.

 Iruma pretended to look at a watch he wasn't wearing, "Would you look at the time, it would appear our slot is over, thank you for having us Grace." He did give her his best smile under the circumstance. It wasn't her fault her cohost was a rude jerk, but they also needed to disappear. 

Should've disappeared five minutes ago, but better late than never.

 "Pleasure is all mine!" Grateful for the easy out Grace waved them off with a polite smile.

 Daemon sputtered, only to be met with an icy glare. Iruma leaned gently into Azz's side, waking the demon out of his stupor. They rose together, Iruma guiding his fiancé with a subtle lean against his side, easily wrongly interpreted as the actions of an overly affectionate partner by the viewers who didn't know Alice as well as Iruma did.

 "Wait, hold on-"

 "We are done here."

 The first thing Iruma did when they got back to the privacy of their carriage, is give Azz one big bear hug. Only for the man to immediately extract himself away, instead seating himself on the other side, his hands folded nervously in his lap.

 "I am so sorry your majesty. I lost my composure... I ruined everything," Azz murmured apologetically.

 "Ruined? Azz, the one who ruined everything is the guy who thinks it's okay to rile people up for views," Iruma knew what was up, he'd seen the type in the human world too. If anything it was Iruma's fault for assuming Grace would've been able to restrain him.

 Because she usually did. 

 Iruma looked up to Azz who was once again lost in his own head.

 Something caused that chip on Daemon's shoulder and judging from Azz's reaction, it was at least partially rooted in reality.

 "Azz, back when he said your bloodline was cursed, you know he was just trying to rile you up right?" Iruma asked wearily.

 "He just made some dumb assumption based on your family, but he doesn't know the real you," Iruma tried to assure him. It seemed to have worked as Azz at least met his gaze. He wasn't crying, but... his eyes were depraved of the fire that always resided there.

 Daemon didn't know Azz like Iruma did. But man, would he do anything to wipe the frown away.

 " You can't win against people like that, it's just sunk cost fallacy." His opinion didn't matter. it didn't reflect what the kingdom at large thought.

 For once, Alice said nothing.

 Maybe he did have had a lot to say. Just none of the words to express it.

 The two sat in silence as the backdrop rolled past them, a bustling city replaced by blooming meadows, peppered with lone trees. Black crows sat atop the branches, on the lookout for their dinners. 

 Wind blew past the vast expense, playing amid the grain and the red poppies pushing unrelentlessly for their right to stay as everything in their environment continuously fought to tear them down.

 The wheels creaked on the gravel path joined by the clinking of horseshoes.

 Every so often, Iruma would glance up, waiting for Azz to speak his mind, just like they had agreed to do.

 But he wouldn't pry. Not today at least.