So Beelzebub canon has never been very exact when it comes to timelines, so judging by the clothes they wear and my own vague estimation, this story takes place about a month after the St Sent Christmas Battle, a week after the fight with Takamiya, and about a couple weeks before the trip to LA. Probably not accurate, but there you go.
Story Warnings: Some violence and strong language. Mentions of deceased OCs.
Disclaimer: If you recognize any names, terms, or concepts it's because they don't belong to me.
CHAPTER 1 - Instigation
Arrows and steel and little bits of flesh, falling like rain. Hot blood slicking icy mountain passes. No sure footing, even for him, him and his people, people falling and crying and never standing up.
It's over, it's over, but why is it so cold? He's never been cold before, but now he's numb, no feeling but cold. How odd. Not in a good way. Maybe? OH-
And now he's falling, no sure footing after all, NO SURE FOOTING, slip and slide down the mountain, just like he and Sybreon used to do when they were small. It's not fun now, though, not without Sybreon, where's Sybreon, where, where? Just saw him…yesterday maybe? Last night? THERE!
Behind the rock, the great big rock, STOP HIDING HIM! There was Sybreon, he'd recognize that armor anywhere, had to get him and GET OUT because it was all all all over now. Grab his shoulder, turn him around, oh thank Trinimac, thought he'd lost him, dear friend, closest companion, and oh GODS-
Where was his face? Just blood and bone and bits of hanging skin.
…Sybreon? please, don't go…need you, need you, whywhyWHY-
AVENGE HIM, PRINCE!
But the Prince can't.
He's dead too.
Furuichi retched into the toilet. This was the eighth time in as many days he'd been awoken by some terrible, bloody nightmare, and each time, fear of the visions had kept him from going back to sleep. He'd attempted to stave off sleep for the night, if it meant not having to see anymore, but his body had apparently disagreed; he'd fallen asleep a few hours past midnight.
People at school were starting to take notice, too. The dark bags beneath his eyes and the sallow, waxy skin of his face had prompted the Red Tails to start calling him Creepichi again, despite their promise a few weeks ago to let up on the teasing. Himekawa had commented yesterday that his obvious sickness was divine retribution for having disrespected his upperclassmen, when Furuichi couldn't be bothered to raise his head from his desk the whole day, not even to admire the Red Tails when they walked by.
He rinsed his mouth out and splashed warm water in his face, examining his reflection in the mirror. Jesus, I really look like shit, he thought dispassionately. He took a deep breath and ran a shaky hand back through his hair, only to let out a pained hiss when his palm grazed the shell of his ear.
"What the hell…?" he muttered, leaning closer to the glass to get a better look. He brushed his hair away from his ear and frowned in consternation. The shell was red and swollen and faintly radiated heat; it looked infected, but there was no wound anywhere. The other ear was the same. He poked a bit at the inflammation, but could see no obvious cause. There would be no answers for this new ailment tonight.
"Maybe I should see a doctor about all this crap," he murmured. He huffed a bit then pushed away from the sink, turning to head back to his room, already resigned to another sleepless night.
He settled onto his bed and leaned back against the wall to watch out the window, wrapped tightly in his blankets and sheets. It was just so damn cold lately, despite the encroachment of spring. Furuichi glanced down at his white-knuckled hands, clenched tight to keep from shivering, and examined their purple-blue nail beds. It's definitely not just my imagination, if I can see the effect of the cold, he thought groggily. He put in his mp3 player and settled back to watch for the sunrise.
He left early for school that morning, long before Oga would have passed by on his own way. The second day after his nightmares had started – two days after he'd lost his soul and died – Oga had started questioning him in an awkwardly roundabout way about his appearance. He couldn't tell him about the nightmares – it was bad enough to be the absolute weakest in a school of delinquents and to have everyone know he was afraid of fights, but to start having bad dreams about blood and battle too, like some little kid? There was no way whatever pride he had left would allow him to admit some kind of trauma. He just told Oga that he probably hadn't quite recovered yet, and that maybe he'd caught something while his immune system was down, too. Oga had bought it the first few days, but had started looking suspicious after Furuichi had only gotten worse. He hated lying to his friend, so he had decided to avoid him for as long as possible instead.
He trudged his way wearily down the streets, ignoring the strange looks he was receiving for the heavy winter coat, gloves, scarf, and hat he'd covered himself with. Even still, he couldn't quite suppress his shivers. The brand-new, heavily graffitied school buildings came into view, and seeing it Furuichi realized he just…couldn't. It was just too cold, and he was just too tired to bother with class and classmates today. But he couldn't go home either, not after assuring his mother that he was fine. He shuffled into the nearest doorway, hoping to at least get out of the open and into the warmer buildings. By luck, he happened across the one person who could tell him the one place he wanted to be right now.
"Hey, Toujou!" Furuichi called, spotting the large teen walking down the hall beside Aizawa and Jinno. It seemed today was one of the rare days he wasn't working. The seniors stopped and turned to regard him.
"Eh, Furuichi? You… You look like shit," Toujou said, frowning a bit, crossing his arms and looking him up and down.
"Yeah, thanks," he deadpanned. "Look, you built the school, right? Where's the boiler room?" Toujou cocked his head and his frown deepened into one of confusion, but he obligingly pointed Furuichi to the basement of building two. Furuichi ducked into a side hallway and made his escape before Toujou could question him further.
On his way there, he skillfully avoided any of the Saints crew, not wanting to deal with their awkward, half-curious, half-concerned questions. Heh, Furu-nin is born, he snickered to himself as he rolled past a room Hanazawa's excited chatter was echoing from, and slipped into the shadowed space between a pair of vending machines to evade Kanzaki and Shiroyama. A few fodder thugs had noticed him duck in, but he unabashedly took advantage of his position as Oga's best friend to keep them quiet – Keep your traps shut or the Child-Rearing Badass will shut them for you!
Furuichi immediately noticed the difference as he found the stairwell down to the boiler room – just opening the door let out a burst of warm air. He sighed in relief and rushed down excitedly. Three huge metal boilers and an intricate series of steaming pipes filled the dark room, the heat of it all keeping other thugs from invading. Furuichi grabbed a couple of dirty leftover construction tarps from the corner and stuffed them in between two of the boilers, settling himself in the fabric. God, it's so nice in here… he thought sleepily. Within minutes, the chill had receded from his torso and limbs, and a few more minutes had drained his fingertips and toes of their numbness. He let his head fall against the metal beside him, and was too comfortable and lethargic and relieved to notice anything but the fact that he wasn't cold anymore.
He was understandably shocked when he was jolted from his short doze by large hands clamping onto his shoulders and forcefully dragging him out of his nest. He yelped and flailed, startled, a kick and two punches connecting with the other body but having no effect.
"What the hell, Furuichi! Didn't you even feel it?" Natsume said, his voice uncharacteristically raised. Furuichi hadn't even noticed the door opening.
"Natsume, what…?"
"Your face, idiot! It was pressed against the boiler! Shit, you're all burned." The tall senior took his chin in a firm grip and tilted his face to the side, trying to better survey the damage in the dim lighting of the basement room. Furuichi could only feel vague warmth emanating from his cheek, although his fingertips were already starting to numb from cold again.
"No, no! Stop, I'm fine, lemme go! It was so warm there," Furuichi cried, pushing against the other man's chest and pulling at his wrists, but having no success at removing his hands.
"Yeah, it was really fucking warm alright! Jesus, look at this, you've got blisters, Furuichi. You seriously didn't even notice?"
"No, you're seriously overreacting right now! I'm sure it's not that bad," he protested, still struggling to free himself from Natsume's iron grip. The senior snorted.
"Right, whatever. C'mon, let's go to the nurse," he said, switching his grip to Furuichi's wrist and dragging him bodily up the stairs. He gave a bit of token resistance but ultimately gave up. He knew he was weaker than even those fodder he had threatened earlier; there was no way he could break away from someone like Natsume.
"Hey, what are you doing!" Furuichi exclaimed, seeing the other pull out his phone.
"Calling Oga. Oi oi oi, hands off, no arguing! I'm not gonna be the one who didn't tell our leader his boy got hurt," he said, dialing the number one-handed while holding the phone above his head, out of Furuichi's shorter reach. He was unprepared for Furuichi's body slam, however. The phone clattered to the ground and Natsume grabbed him by the shoulders again, spinning him around and slamming him into the wall. "Eh? Just what do you think you're doing, freshman?" he said lightly. There was nothing light or friendly about the pissed off look on his face, though.
"Don't tell Oga. It's not his business, and it's really not yours," Furuichi said firmly. He was really just hoping he could annoy Natsume back into his normal detached behavior. He was sure the senior was only acting like this because he was amused by or interested in something; Furuichi had never seen him with any other kind of motivation, let alone any kind of concern.
"Oi, what's going on? Natsume?" Toujou to the rescue again! Furuichi thought gleefully, watching the redhead stride down the hallway. Natsume's expression cleared and he stepped back, bending down to pick up his phone before turning to speak to Toujou.
"I'm trying to take him to the nurse, but he's being a bit stubborn," he laughed nonchalantly. Toujou cocked his head and opened his mouth to ask more, but Natsume just pointed to Furuichi's cheek. Toujou's open mouth dropped further and his eyes widened. Furuichi glanced away and would have blushed, but heat was already gathered in his cheeks. Seriously, it wasn't that bad, was it? He would have noticed if he was hurt…right?
"I found him sleeping against a boiler," Natsume continued, rather less jovially. "Think you could let Oga know?" he asked, grabbing Furuichi's wrist again and setting off without waiting for Toujou's assenting nod. He didn't stop again until they reached the nurse. Furuichi couldn't see his face from where he was being dragged along behind, but he figured the senior must have been exercising his rarely-used evil eye to part the sea of thugs filling the hallways; they met with zero resistance on the way.
"Maybe you should sit," Natsume called to him cheerfully as they bustled into the nurse's office, the senior finally releasing Furuichi's wrist and moving over to the medicine cabinets.
Despite the wide, close-eyed smile and chirpy tone, there was no mistaking the order in Natsume's voice. Furuichi sat. The older man poked around the shelves and had just pulled out a few sheets of gauze and some kind of salve when Oga burst into the room, Toujou at his heels.
"What the fuck, Furuichi?" Oga growled. Furuichi took egregious advantage of Natsume kneeling in front of him and applying the salve to hide his face from Oga.
"Nothing. I was just cold, that's all," he muttered stiffly. And on that note, there were several unused blankets scattered across the bed. He gathered them up and wrapped them tightly around his shoulders, busying himself to distract from the unwelcome conversation.
"Doesn't explain why you were stupid enough to fall asleep there." Oga wasn't letting up, not that Furuichi really expected him to. Stubborn bastard.
"I didn't mean to, it was an accident," he sighed. He really wished Toujou and Natsume weren't here, it made everything doubly embarrassing. Oga didn't speak for a moment, waiting until Natsume had finished and moved away from Furuichi to continue.
"Oi, idiot. You should sleep more," Oga said gruffly. Furuichi shook his head, still not meeting his friend's gaze. Oga frowned and shoved his face in front of Furuichi's. "Sleep, or I'll make you, dumbass!"
"Goddamnit, Oga, just fuck off, okay? I'm fine! Jesus," he shouted, pushing Oga back with a hand to the face.
"You're obviously not fine, moron! Look at you, you look like you're about to fall over dead!"
"Again, you mean?" Furuichi sneered nastily, gratified when Oga dropped his eyes and Baby Beel let out a small whimper. In the back, Toujou shifted uncomfortably and Natsume let out a playful "Ooooh~"
"Is that what this' about? You're fucked up from what Lucifer did?" Oga asked, glancing back up at him. Furuichi sighed and hugged himself a bit tighter.
"I dunno, man… It's just, other stuff started happening after that fight."
"Then the others might know about it," Oga said decisively. "You wait here, I'll go find them. C'mon Toujou. You stay," he said, directing the last part at Natsume. The senior nodded with a guileless smile and stepped further into the room. Furuichi glanced up at him.
"How'd you even find me down there?" he asked. The taller man shrugged a bit.
"I overheard you ask Toujou where the boiler room was and got curious. I thought you might be doing something fun. But that was seriously no fun at all," Natsume finished lightly, the pout in his voice at odds with the uncharacteristically firm gaze he directed at Furuichi.
"I was just cold. You guys are making a bigger deal out of this than it is," he muttered. The other man just regarded him coolly, head cocked to the side. He pursed his mouth and tapped a long finger against his lips faux-contemplatively.
"No, I think we waited too long to bring it up as it is."
Hello there, welcome! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter. Please note that this will be a MINOR crossover with the Elder Scrolls video game series. It'll take place entirely within the Beelzebub world, but will include some lore from ES. No game spoilers, and no playable content will be detailed. Can't say anything more, I don't want to ruin it!
This will predominantly be a hurt/comfort, friendship story with some action, but I'm considering adding a love interest for Furuichi. Note that if I decide to do romance, it'll probably be a slash pairing. Let me know what you guys want on that front: Romance or Gen? And which pairing, if any?
Until next time~