Work Text:
-two months after the demonic portal was opened near the town-
Faye woke up to the thin beam of morning light filtering through a crack in the curtains of her room and rose slowly, stretching her arms out as she yawned; still shaking the shackles of sleep from her mind. As soon as she got out of bed she shivered suddenly. The weather was cooling recently and the mornings were downright chilly before the sun had enough time to warm the land. “Ugh, stupid chilly mornings, in the demon realm I had attendants to stoke the fires and keep me warm all the time” Faye grumbled as she exited her room groggily and walked down the hall towards the dining room for breakfast. At this point her magical energy had mostly replenished, but she remained in this diminutive form in order to conserve energy and not draw unwanted attention to herself, or at least that’s what Faye told herself…
“Faye! Good morning!! Do you wanna go out and pick apples today? Or should we go check on the pumpkins to see if they’re ripe yet??” Annie ran up, shaking Faye out of her half-asleep state, both literally and figuratively as she bounded up to hug her.
“Isn’t it a bit early to be running around the orchard? We haven’t even had breakfast yet”, Faye replied. She had grown comfortable with Annie’s presence a long time ago, but recently she thought that the human child had been overly rambunctious… Although she couldn’t deny that she found it adorable.
“There’s still so many yummy foods to eat even though it’s autumn, so we gotta plan out our activities early!” Annie responded, her face flushed with excitement.
“Alright alright, lets talk about it while we get some breakfast” Faye interjected before Annie could go off on another tangent. “Let’s go help serve the porridge”.
The routine of breakfast came as second nature to Faye now. She really understood why sister Dahlia liked it here so much now, though she would never tell the scheming nun that to her face. Annie scarfed down her breakfast with unusual speed, she truly seemed to be excited to go out with Faye to the orchard today.
As soon as they had finished washing the dishes from breakfast Annie practically raced to get outside. “Come on Faye, hurry! Hurry!” she shouted as she ran out the door and over to the hill where the orchard and fields were located. Faye jogged up beside her “I’m here you don’t need to rush so much, I’m coming too”.
Annie grabbed Faye’s hand as she continued up the path to the orchard, and this was yet another thing that Faye had become used to during her time here. She had maybe even come to like the warmth of the human child’s delicate hand while Annie swung their hands back and forth.
On this brisk fall morning Annie’s hand felt especially warm, almost too warm… and why was her face so red? Going up this gentle slope shouldn’t have been enough to make the normally boisterous Annie out of breath…
“Hey! Slow down! Faye shouted as Annie continued to walk quickly.
“I-I’m fine! Let’s keep going!” Annie said while panting slightly. Faye’s face scrunched up in displeasure as she realized the girl was going to be too stubborn to turn back.
“I said STOP!” Faye’s voice boomed with a mature gravitas as she tapped into her stored magic and grew to her full size, scooping up the now-puny human child into her arms.
… “You have a fever don’t you. Why didn’t you say anything before?” Faye brought her forehead to Annie’s to feel her temperature, which seemed to make her face flush an even deeper shade of red. The girl didn’t say anything in response, but having been stopped from her inexorable mission all the energy seemed to have left her, and she muttered about not realizing as she leaned into Faye’s shoulder to rest.
Faye started back towards the orphanage with Annie cradled in her arms before stopping after a few steps. Annie was burning up and needed rest and treatment immediately, but Faye needed to get her back to the main dorm room without being seen by the other kids. She had already made Annie promise to keep her true form a secret from the others, so she didn’t want to complicate things. But at the same time, there was no way she could carry Annie back if she was in her mana-saving form either. Annie had closed her eyes and accepted being held by Faye quite easily, but now she groaned from discomfort as the fever continued to ravage her small body.
She had to act fast. Tapping into the vast wells of demonic magic she had accumulated, Faye took a sudden running leap, and while shifting Annie to be cradled in her left arm, reached out her right hand as a red chain shot from her palm and stuck onto the roof of the main building. The empowered demon lord shot forward as the magical chain swiftly pulled her through the air and onto the roof, where she landed gently on her feet. Annie would have definitely thought it was cool, she had spent almost a month clamoring to see Faye’s full power form after the incident with the demonic portal.
There was no time for reminiscing though, as Faye silently padded across the roof to the small sky light above Annie’s room. She delicately opened the window and dropped down, before gently laying Annie out on her bed. The girl was unconscious at this point, and upon being removed from Faye’s embrace the girl shivered. Faye quickly put a light blanket over her, and shifted back into her typical energy saving form to run over and find Dahlia.
She still didn’t fully trust the nun, Dahlia always seemed to know something she didn’t, but Faye knew that she did genuinely care about all of the human children. Faye ran through the halls, and burst into Dahlia’s room where the nun often was at this time of day. The nun was sitting at her desk writing in a parchment book and looked up calmly as Faye slammed open the door and stood there panting from the exertion of running without the aid of her mana stores. The only indication of Dahlia’s surprise was the slight quirk of her brows, which quickly passed.
“What seems to be the matter, Faye?”
“It’s Annie, she has a fever and she was running around even though she wasn’t feeling well, and I had to bring her back in but shes asleep now and she-”
Dahlia had stood up as Faye tried to explain the situation and walked over to her medicine cabinet and grabbed a small vial of pale blue liquid. She cut in as Faye continued to ramble; “Alright Faye, I’ve got an idea of the situation and it sounds like a seasonal cold to me. I know you’re worried about her so could you take this vial and help her drink it? This should ease the discomfort from her fever and help her body recover faster.”
“You may be an imposter nun but you have my gratitude this time, hmph.” Dahlia tried not to chuckle at Faye’s parting remark as she raced back out of the room just as quickly as she came in. Dahlia closed the door and sat back down at her main desk, remarking “that girl certainly seems to have adapted well to this place” as she chuckled slightly.
Faye raced back down the halls towards Annie’s room, clinging to the medicinal potion tightly as she careened around the corners and bounded up the stairs to Annie’s small room. Upon returning she was relieved to see that Annie was sleeping peacefully, although her face was still a deep shade of crimson and the blanket Faye had lain on her had been kicked off while she was gone.
As the demon lord it was a given that Faye had never been sick before, and due to her intense upbringing she had never seen a sick human or demon before either.
“Ugh to think that I’ve stooped so low as to be nursing a lowly human back to health.”
Faye stood at Annie’s bedside awkwardly, then reached out to lightly shake Annie’s shoulder. “Annie, I brought medicine you need to wake up.”
Annie groaned slightly but didn’t stir from her rest. Faye shook her a few more times, but it was in vain. The human would merely grunt and roll over to the side.
“Ugh, you ungrateful human! Let me help you!” Annie didn’t respond, so Faye had to reconsider how to give her the potion. Seeing a thin sheen of sweat on Annie’s forehead Faye didn’t have time to think, she knew she had to act fast.
In one swift motion Faye uncorked the bottle, poured the liquid into her mouth, and reached down to prop Annie’s head up. As Faye’s lips pressed against Annie’s she gently inserted her tongue to open the girls mouth and allow the potion in so she could safely swallow all of it. As she fed Annie the potion Faye leaned in more in order to establish a secure connection as she channeled a fraction of her magic into the girl’s body to help bolster the healing effects of the medicine.
After what felt like a lifetime, Faye sat up and backed away from Annie, feeling slightly hot in her cheeks. “There’s no way that brat would be able to get me sick, right?” she thought, as she dragged over a chair to sit and watch over the girl while she continued resting. Just in case, Faye did some circulation exercises with her magic to ensure her body was in good health, though every time she looked at Annie she felt like her temperature rose back up again.
***
Annie woke up in her bed as the light of the setting sun filtered through her window. Though groggy, she felt well rested and oddly enough somewhat invigorated. She had been feeling unwell earlier, and the last thing she remembered was passing out in Faye’s arms (and what arms they were). As the girl rubbed her eyes she noticed Faye, slumped over in a chair with her face directly on the bed, snoring softly. Annie’s heart couldn’t help but quiver at the sight of the small demon lord, looking so innocent in the dappled light of late afternoon.
“Faye~ wake up, I’m feeling better now!” Annie called softly to the sleeping girl in front of her. Faye’s eyes fluttered open and she looked at Annie with sleep addled confusion for half a second before shaking her head and sitting up rapidly.
“AH! Annie! Are you feeling okay? Is everything alright? Faye moved in to stare directly at Annie, which she felt her heart respond to once again, uncontrollably.
“Your face is still red Annie! Do you need more medicine? I can go-”
“I’m fine Faye, I feel much better now! Should we go out and play now?”
“Absolutely not!! You need to rest you precocious human! I will not let you out of this room to go run around and pass out again!”
Faye’s eyes narrowed slightly as she looked intently towards Annie (her heart did continue to quiver at that). “Why have you been so insistent on playing with me all the time anyways? You clearly overdid it this time and ended up getting sick, so what’s the real reason?”
Annie’s eyes couldn’t continue to meet with Faye’s burning gaze, and she glanced to the side and hesitated.
“I… I just wanted to seem useful to you.”
Annie looked at Faye and saw the confusion written on her face, so she continued.
“It’s just that, ever since that time you saved me from the demons, I realized that you’re such a cool and powerful person, and that means you will probably have to leave soon, and I just thought that maybe if I show you some new delicious foods then maybe you would still wanna stay during the winter and then we could keep playing together and I thought that maybe you would think that I’m useful and stay here with me and-”
“Annie what are you talking about? What a load of nonsense.” Faye’s words cut through Annie’s rambling and she froze, words dying as she stared in shock at Faye. Annie felt herself begin to tear up as the words echoed in her mind, realizing she had made a grave error.
“S-sorry Faye, you’re right, how could I have thought that I’d be use-, useful to you…”
Annie looked down at the sheets as she tried to will away the tears that were sliding down her face, when she felt her cheeks grabbed by Faye’s hands suddenly and her head was jerked up to face the young demon lord.
Faye looked half annoyed and half embarrassed as she held Annie’s face in her hands. “That’s not what I meant at all you lowly human! You don’t need to run around and bring me different kinds of food to be useful, and I am not leaving here anytime soon. Hmph!”
Faye gently brushed some of the tears away from Annie’s eyes as she continued; “Didn’t you already tell me that we had become family? We aren’t in the demon realm, you don’t need to constantly prove yourself to me. I’m here because I want to be here.” Faye paused, and then smiled with a glint in her eyes as she said “The day I want to return to the demon realm, you’ll have to come with me, as my trusted retainer. How’s that? Heheheh…”
As Faye said that, Annie had a starstruck gaze as she tried to imagine a future where she was as tall and powerful as Faye, fighting evil together with her demon lord… That’s right, Faye is her demon lord from now on…
“Ohmygoddess, Faye I LOVE that idea!! I gotta start training right now so I can be your retainer!!
Faye’s smirk froze on her face as she tackled Annie into the bed; “Not now you idiot!!!!!!”
Annie could only laugh as she was “caught” by her demon lord.