A/N: Just a little tidbit for Beelzebub fans! Beelzebub, its characters do not belong to me.
Weekends usually constituted of a marathon of video games for Tatsumi, but for some reason he found his routine disrupted when Hilda simply handed Baby Belze to him, telling him to keep him entertained for a few hours. Since concentrating on a game and making sure Baby Belze doesn't fall off high objects was impossible, he had to be content with reading some new manga he had borrowed from Furuichi.
The second sign that something wasn't right was when Lamia appeared without so much as a 'by-your-leave' and headed straight to Hilda's room. Usually she spared an insult or two for Tatsumi, but not today. He wondered why. But he didn't wonder long, for Alain Delon had spit out a familiar figure from his interdimensional gate right at Tatsumi's feet.
Furuichi sat up, enraged. "I was about to ask a cute girl on Facebook out! Why did you spirit me away, damnit!"
"Furuichi-dono, why would you go to such lengths to get a date?" Alain Delon looked comically wounded. "Am I not enough for you?"
"I WANT A CUTE GIRL!"
Furuichi's rant was conveniently stopped when Lamia came out of Hilda's room and beckoned for the two boys to follow her. In the relative privacy of Tatsumi's bedroom, she gave them a very grave diagnosis.
"She has a cold," Lamia said simply.
Oga Tatsumi blinked. And then blinked again. And then…
"You mean that bitch can actually fall sick?"
That comment earned him a sharp kick to his family jewels, courtesy of a very irritated nurse. "Don't call Sister Hilda that, you worm!"
Tatsumi clutched soundlessly at his crotch, his face scrunched up in indescribable agony. Furuichi sighed and scratched his head. "So… It's a common cold right?"
"Common to demons, yes. But she can't recover properly in this atmosphere," Lamia looked around thoughtfully. "The human world's miasma level is pretty low. At this rate it could be two… no, a month before she is fully healthy again."
From somewhere in the house they heard Hilda sneeze, and then a clap of thunder sounded outside their window.
In sunny weather.
Lamia smiled apologetically as Furuichi paled. "Look, not to point out the obvious but… a sick Hilda can actually influence the weather?"
"Not exactly," Lamia chose her words carefully. "What she can control is the miasma in the air. Usually she keeps it low, but on occasion – like when she's fighting, she manipulates the amount of miasma around her to be used in various ways. That's what you call 'demon power'."
"So when she's sick, she loses control of it?"
"Pretty much, yes. It's only obvious here because your weather is so… boring." Lamia shrugged. "I suggest she return to Hell to recover. It'll take maybe a week."
"A week," Tatsumi gasped as he sat up slowly, still reeling from the kick. "So you're gonna take her and Baby Belze back?"
Lamia opened her mouth to answer but Hilda's voice interrupted them. "No, the Young Master shall not return with me. I am in no condition to care for him." Hilda stood in the doorway, a little pale. Misaki had lent her a light green shawl and instead of her usual lolita dress, she was in her flannel pajamas.
"Not a problem is it?" Furuichi frowned. "There are other demon maids – URK!" He choked when Hilda kicked him flat onto his back. "Why should I allow any of them near the Young Master? Are you an idiot? Do you think any of them can care of him properly?" Her tirade spent, she lapsed into a coughing fit.
Tatsumi giggled at the twitching Furuichi, always one to take delight in someone else's misfortune. "You're an idiot. Furuichi. Idiot."
"Master Belze won't listen to the other nursemaids," Lamia tipped her head as if forgetting something. "But…"
Hilda looked at her, and understanding dawned in her emerald eyes. "I see. If it's him, the Young Master will certainly obey."
"Who wouldn't?" Lamia muttered as she went to get Alain Delon. There was an awkward feeling in the atmosphere, so much that Furuichi dared to venture; "Who is this 'him' you're talking about? You can't mean... the Demon King?"
"You surely belittle me if you think I have the audacity to rely on the King for such a trivial matter," Hilda glared. "We're summoning someone whom the Young Master will obey without fail, however it wholly depends on whether he is actually available or not."
Two hours later Tatsumi returned from the convenience store to find Hilda talking to a tall man dressed in an immaculate black swallowtail suit. Though by all rights Tatsumi should be surprised that Hilda was talking, not commanding, and that said conversation was taking place in his room of all places, he wasn't. He was too used to strangers popping in and out of his personal space that this latest event held absolutely no significance in his mind.
But the fact that the stranger was holding Baby Belze was surprising. And Belze looked… well… obedient, to put it simply. He was just lying still in the stranger's arms, his large eyes trained on Hilda.
Hilda noticed Tatsumi and nodded in a bleary, sleepy way. "This is the Young Master's human parent, Oga Tatsumi," She turned to her guest; "I hope you will get along for the next few days."
The stranger fixed his gaze on Tatsumi, who suddenly had the strongest urge to run. Far away.
Instead he twitched. "S'up?"
"A pleasure young man. You may call me Sebastian," The man smiled. Tatsumi felt his skin crawl, and it appeared that Sebastian noticed it too because that creepy smile just widened. "I will be looking after the prince while Hilda is away, so let's get along, shall we?"
"I've informed your parents that he is my brother," Hilda said heavily as she got to her feet and approached Alain Delon who had already opened the portal to Hell. "Of course, you are to support that story, Tatsumi. Do behave while I am away."
And with Sebastian's smile burned into the back of his head, Tatsumi had that fleeting thought that he'd endure all the freaky weather for a month if he had too if it meant keeping Hilda's pseudo-brother away from him.
"Dah," Baby Belze said flatly.