Chapter One: Thoughts Make a Lonely Companion

Amaimon sighed for the thirteenth time that hour. At this point, he was walking just to walk, dragging Behemoth by a chain as he went. He had no idea where he was going, in fact, he didn't even care. Wherever he went, no matter what direction, there was nothing but the sandy wasteland of Gehenna. He hated this place because it was so boring. And quiet. He didn't like the quiet most of all, because it left him at peace to think.

He started wondering about irrational things, like if anyone back in Assiah noticed his disappearance. He immediately thought of his older brother, Mephisto. Well, they got along, and were rather close, but Mephisto was always consumed in his Directorship and other responsibilities. He hardly had time to play with his much-less mature little brother, who lacked an attention span longer than two minutes. Amaimon was also not the only little brother he had. He couldn't expect his elder to take time out of his day to worry over him when he knew he could take care of himself.

At the mention of little brothers, Rin popped into the Demon King's head. He was different. He was practically drowning in people who cared about him. He and Yukio were almost inseparable despite their fights, he had more than one close friend who was all willing to throw their lives away in order to protect him, and he had that girl… What was her name? Shami… shimi… Shiemi! There it was.

A fourteenth sigh left his pale lips.

He focused his gaze on his feet as he treaded through the hot sand, unable to pull himself away from depressing thoughts before he was completely submerged in their venomous waters. He began longing for someone to come looking for him, or at least have some simple conversation involving his name. He cursed the heaviness in his heart. Such human emotions. That Rin kid must have rubbed off on him or something.

Momentarily disgusted by himself, he made a face and kicked a mound of sand, only to slip and fall on his butt. He didn't bother getting back up. He was tired of walking anyways; he had been doing so for quite a few hours now. Behemoth crawled over into his lap and growled a throaty purr as his master rested a hand on his forehead.

"You won't forget about me, right Behemoth?"

The demon gave him a slobbery lick in return and he laughed for the first time in weeks. They sat there in silence for a while, listening to the soft whistles of the wind kicking up the sand, making it hard to see great distances away. A single thought blew into Amaimon's head along with the gales.

What does Rin have that I don't?

Amaimon hopped up to his feet, shaking the thought away. The sudden movement startled the demon resting in his lap, who had fallen asleep. And just like that, the Demon King was running down the dunes of sand with new energy, yanking Behemoth along with him. He was going to find a way back to Assiah and find out. Who cares if they didn't like him? He needed to know.

Yes, it was about him. Not the others. He was a selfish demon and that's all he would ever be. Perfectly content with his mind's conclusion, he had no reason to question himself any longer.

-xxx-

The darkness that so comfortingly hugged Amaimon's shape slowly drifted away as he drew near to his destination. He felt a little more than out of place, especially because he had left Behemoth behind for now.

Harsh light engulfed him, causing his green eyes to squint. He had traveled through realms and into Assiah, but he had no idea where exactly he wound up. The fresh scent of cut grass let him know he was somewhere near civilization. That was a good sign. He practically stumbled out into what he found out was a park. Regaining his sight with a hand shading his eyes, he searched for anyone who might be nearby.

It must have been early morning, because there was only one person at the park, and she was sitting on a swing, still and silent. A twinge of remembrance entered the back of the Demon King's head. Short blonde hair, a pink kimono, sandals, and a shy round face. It was Shimi-er Shiemi.

Not entirely sure what he should do, he just did what he always did.

He hung from the bars of the swing set by the back of his knees and came face to face with the girl. He put on a bright smile that really didn't fit him, "Hey there!" He wasn't sure why, but he was actually trying to be nice. Man, there really must be something wrong with him.

The small blond shrieked in surprise at his sudden appearance. Instinctively, she hit him across the face in a defensive movement. His smile faded, but he didn't flinch or even budge at the blow, and she didn't hit all that softly. His face returned to his normal bored expression with barely a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

"I didn't mean to scare you," he tried again.

She was about to apologize heavily for her actions, but she apparently realized who he was and fear entered those innocent pale green eyes.

Amaimon expected as much, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

"What do you want?" She asked him with such a bitterness he thought was impossible for a woman as kind of her to harbor.

He sighed. He didn't feel like terrorizing her. He jumped gracefully off the bars and onto his feet, completely ignoring her question. Then he just walked away. Even she noticed he was acting weird and she didn't even know him well.

He guessed he would see what Mephisto was up to, like he always did when he went to Assiah. He plucked a phone from his pocket and dialed for him so he could let him into the school.

-xxx-

"Excuse me?" Mephisto finally looked up at his brother and away from the papers on his desk.

"I said I wasn't hungry," Amaimon repeated. He had been in the Director's office for ten minutes and it was when Amaimon refused his offer of junk-food set aside on the table that he looked at him for the first time in months.

The gentleman of a demon held up a baggie of fried squid, "But I bought you these cute little snackies. How can you be so heartless and ignore your big brother's offerings?" He tried to coax his younger brother out of sheer hopes he'd snap out of it.

The Earth King stayed positioned in a corner of the office, his frame stiff and awkward, as if he really didn't want to be there, but had no other choice but to be. His green eyes were fixed on the ground and he just shook his head at Mephisto's question.

Mephisto's face became serious at this point, "would you like to tell me what's wrong?"

Amaimon sighed for the hundredth time that day, "I wish I knew what was. I can't exactly explain it." He knew part of it involved Mephisto and the fact that he greeted him like he had just seen him yesterday. He knew Mephisto was old and time didn't flow the same to him as Amaimon, so he didn't bother bringing up such a petty concern.

The elder brother added another sigh to the air, "Well, when you figure it out, let me know. Maybe I can help." With that, the Director focused his attention back on his papers, sipping his coffee.

An idea suddenly dawned on Amaimon then. He stepped forward and placed his hands on the desk, "Big brother, you should enroll me here."

This caused Mephisto to spit up his coffee, "w-what the- Where did that come from?!" he demanded.

Amaimon suddenly looked a bit nervous as he rubbed his hands together, "Well, I don't want to become an Exorcist or anything like that. I just want to have classes and be around people my own age."

Mephisto looked at his little brother, pure disbelief painting his face, "You want me to risk getting fired for bringing you here and enrolling you just so you can find out what a social life is?"

Well, when he put it that way, it sounded downright selfish, which only reassured Amaimon he was going on demon instincts, although, he was somewhere in-between denial and depression. He wasn't acting a demon one bit, but his subconscious was convincing him as hard as it could that this was entirely normal.

Normal.

"I just want to be normal, like Rin," Amaimon let the words slip out before he could stop himself. Mephisto almost laughed, "So that's what this is about. You're jealous of little brother's power?"

Amaimon shifted his weight uncomfortably, "It's not necessarily his power I'm jealous of…" The green-haired demon trailed off, not entirely sure where he was going with the conversation.

Realizing he needed a little push, Mephisto prompted him, "Then what are you jealous of? He's certainly not normal, so don't give me that sorry excuse of an answer." The elder watched his brother visibly squirm at the question, as if the words were physically coiling around his body.

After waiting patiently for his response, he was rewarded with a heavy sigh. Amaimon turned and perched at the window, about to jump out and escape when Mephisto called after him, "Where are you going? You're not going to convince me to enroll you that way!"

"Forget it!" Amaimon called back, dropping down and hitting the floor with a hop on his heels before he scampered off.

Mephisto's features twisted in annoyance. He actually wanted to know what had caused his little brother to act like a disturbed teenager. His mentality was usually around the age of six, and Mephisto found him the most entertaining and useful that way.

Amaimon was at a loss of where to go next. He decided he didn't want to leave the school because then he'd have to call Mephisto if he wanted to get back in, and there was no way his older brother would let him weasel out of telling him what was up a second time.

Since classes were already in session, the Demon King didn't have an issue getting around without being seen. After a while, he eventually headed down to a beautiful garden that seemed completely out of place surrounded by the bulky buildings of the academy.

The smells of flowers assaulted his sensitive nose as he hopped over the iron gate, the demon ward tickling as it passed over his skin. It clearly wasn't meant to keep out more than middle level demons. Once on the soft grass, he literally dropped and stretched out like a lazy cat. He watched the clouds as they traveled across the sky, noting a few distinct shapes in their tuffs of fluff just before he yawned.

Now that he was lying down, he noticed the soreness in his feet, and the emotional exhaustion he felt was enough to keep him sluggish for a week. He wasn't used to being more upset than when there were missing food items in Mephisto's fridge. He didn't even realize he was drifting into sleep, until it was too late.

-xxx-

Amaimon awoke to a familiar curious face inches from his. As soon as his eyes opened, the blond squeaked and backed away. A little more than confused, and a lot more than drowsy, the Demon King flipped over onto his stomach, "what're you doing here?" was all he could grumble out with his brain half working.

She blinked at the question, "what do you mean, what am I doing here? This is my garden."

The green-eyed demon yawned and stretched, showing no signs of threat, which surprised Shiemi. Yet, moments ago, she was admiring his sleeping form and how peaceful he looked. She couldn't bring herself to kick him out. Her heart was too big, too forgiving.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," was all he said before he sat up, stretched a final time, and got up to leave.

"You don't have to go," Shiemi said without thinking.

At that, Amaimon froze. He felt an odd warmness tingle within his chest. Being the first time his chest had dared to harbor such a feeling, the Demon King nearly mistook it for a heart-attack and was one second away from panicking. At the last moment, he realized there was no danger and he turned back to face the blonde.

"After what I did to you? You're not afraid I would do something like that again?" he questioned, genuinely confused and equally as curious.

She smiled warmly, "if you were gonna do anything like that, you would have already tried. Everyone deserves a second chance."

Her head turned to the front gate where Rin was running up to, calling her name, followed by Yukio and a few others. When she turned her head back to look at Amaimon, he was already gone. He had left no sign he had been there at all. It was like she had been talking to herself just a moment ago.

Author's Note:

I had previously deleted this story because I didn't like how it was turning it out, but I'm going to stick with it to a certain point and tweak it from there. Anyway, thanks for reading! Reviews welcome!