Archive of Our Own ^beta

Auva sits atop the kitchen counter near the cutting board, idly swinging her feet as she chats with Beel and Mammon about the upcoming retreat.

Beel distractedly replies to them, as he devotes most of his attention to slicing and peeling a Devildom citrus of some kind. It’s large and round and purple. It’s constructed like an orange, and it’s sour-sweet-refreshing kind of like an orange, but with a different flavour. It has a proper name, but Auva insists on referring to it as a purple.

Beel cuts a fruit segment off the peel and hands it to her.

“Levi was complaining about the timing earlier, something about a character’s birthday? I said I’d help him out with packing later today because he’s gonna bring a whole bunch of his figurines with him t—wh? For me?” Auva says in surprise, looking between the purple fruit segment in her hand and her friend who put it there. She has NEVER seen Beel share his food with anyone before!

“Mmmhm,” Beel nonchalantly replies, humming his confirmation through a mouthful of purple citrus.

Stunned and touched at his seemingly automatic—but wildly uncharacteristic—generosity towards her, she pops the piece of fruit into her mouth. Slices of purple have never tasted so good before.

Auva leans over and hugs Beel’s free arm as she chews. “Thank you..!”

Beel smiles at her, then perks up as if he’s had an idea.

Auva feels her pact bond with Beel stirring awake in the vague un-space in the back of her mind. He’s reaching for her. Auva reaches back, making the mental contact to open up their pact bond. It feels like holding his hand, except… closer, warmer, because it’s really their souls making contact.

Auva receives a gentle pulse of ‘protectiveness-affection-friendship-softness’ from Beel, sent directly into her mind. Auva replies ‘warm-soft-appreciation-devotion-affection’, far more clumsily. Less practiced. Still, it works. Beel receives the emotions she means to share with him, letting an echo of it reverberate back through the bond to her so she knows he heard her.

Beel takes a bite of another fruit slice. Leaving one regular human bite sized piece of it instead of eating the whole slice at once. Auva doesn’t have time to wonder why before Beel feeds her the remaining piece.

She swallows it, and the pact bond seems to spark to life! Suddenly, it feels less like holding his hand, and more like being hugged. The emotions Beel shares with her are clearer this time. His soul wraps lovingly around hers and they blend together, the lines between them blurring and melting. It feels so close. Understanding Beel is suddenly easier than breathing. It’s the most intimate connection she has ever felt in her life.

She gets ‘fondness-loyalty-warmth-small human-promise to catch you-promise to feed you-grow healthy and strong-give you bites of my Life-I love you’ from him. Not quite in words, but the sentiment is fully conveyed. The new clarity to their bond is incredible, and the sentiment he conveys to her touches her deeply.

Without a thought, she sends back ‘aww, Beel-would die for you-I love you-big precious friend-appreciation-devotion-loyalty-I love you-I love you-I love you’ to him. Also without words, but the sentiment is completely understood.

Beel puts down the knife and the piece of empty citrus peel so he can wipe off a drop of juice from her face. With one final gentle pulse of ‘warmth-love-devotion’ from him, their bond goes still and dormant again. Her soul is once again hers alone.

“Woah… what WAS that?” Auva breathily asks.

“Strengthening our pact,” Beel answers, fondness subtly colouring his tone of voice.

Auva can’t help but think she must be able to pick up on that now because of that experience. She feels like she understands him a bit better now, having just had their minds linked more closely than ever before in that incredible moment of connection.

Beel picks up the knife again, and a new fruit. He returns to slicing and snacking.

“That’s a thing we can do?” Auva asks, fascinated.

“Sure can,” Mammon finally chimes in. He gets up from leaning against the wall and approaches her. “Here.”

Mammon cups her jaw carefully in one hand, then tenderly touches their foreheads together. He holds them there for a long moment, stroking her cheek with his thumb as he reaches for her through their pact.

Auva reaches back to Mammon. Mentally taking his offered hand.

They breathe together, sharing the same air. Sharing the same breath. This time, the pact bond opens up gradually, pulsing in time with their slow breaths like a flickering candle, until their back and forth exchange of ‘love-trust-devotion-best friend-mine-precious’ becomes clear and strong. Less like a conversation with turns, and more like harmonizing.

As their vitality blends together, Auva feels surrounded by him, wrapped up in his energy like a blanket, thoroughly warm and loved. She feels him languidly pouring ‘affection-care-endearment-protectiveness’ into her mind. She feels ‘mine-I love you-anything for you-my human-stay close to me-I love you’ from him.

Wordlessly, Auva replies ‘would follow you anywhere-I love you-feel safe together-I’m home-I love you-my Mammon-want you to be happy-I love you-stay close to me-would give you the world-I love you’, trying to give him the same warmth right back.

After a minute, Mammon pulls back. The intense connection fades back to normal.

Auva stares at him in awe, and he smiles at her, all glassy-eyed and soft. He taps her nose fondly, then takes a step back.

He clears his throat—as if to banish any hints of emotion from his voice before he speaks—and rubs the back of his neck the way he always does when he’s embarrassed.

“Pretty cool, huh? It’ll make usin’ the bond easier—OI, easy, human!” Mammon had tried to act cool and chill, but gets suddenly cut off by Auva hopping down from her seat on the kitchen counter and nearly bowling him over in a very enthusiastic hug.

“What the fuck Mam, we could have been doing that the whole time, what the fuck, I love you so fucking much!!” Auva says directly into Mammon’s shirt where her face is smushed against him.

Mammon quickly softens again, immediately returning the hug. Who does he think he’s kidding? “I… yeah, alright. I love ya too, or some shit…”

In perfect sync, Auva and Beel roll their eyes and huff an identical soft laugh at Mammon.

(Her mind buzzes excitedly as it drifts to her other pact partner, Levi. Did he know about this too?? It’s incredible, she’s TOTALLY gonna do this with him too when she meets up with him later!! She can hardly wait!)