As per usual, the editing is not the best so I apologize for any glaring errors.

I do not own Blue Exorcist characters or plots just my characters and my plots.

"To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work."

Mary Oliver

Grounded for Life

"Kotori! I need your help with this display case!"

Three, four, five, six, and that's seven there. I pointed vaguely at all the nearly full assorted chocolate candy dispensers.

"Kotori!"

So that means that there's only two here I need to refill. Looking at the label I made a mental note, chocolate covered malt balls, I looked at the container with an appraising eye, about a scoop and a half should do.

"Earth to Kotori!"

I moved to the next one and appraised it as well, and this one looks like three scoops of the…cocoa dusted toffee chocolate almonds - yuck.

"Oh for the love of – Kotori Ueda!"

I turned slightly towards the central dispensers in the candy shop and pointed vaguely at them. Then I'll go ahead and refill the hard candy and lollipop disp-SMACK! "OW! What'd you do that for, Chou!"

"I've called you like four times now!" My co-worker, Chou Hamasaki, frowned at me before continuing, "I need your help with the window display, the display case is too heavy and I can't move it by myself."

"Oh," I shrugged and smiled apologetically, "why didn't you just say so?"

She scoffed, "I did!" Chou was a very pretty (beautiful would be just as accurate a description) girl. Like me she was a sixteen-year-old high school student (who also happened to attend the same high school as me) but, unlike me, looked very mature for her age. Also, her hair wasn't bright blue and nor was it shoulder-length and wavy like mine, it was a glistening black, perfectly straight (not a single frizz in sight) and cut into a very classy bob. She also had very elegant facial features and furthermore, she was tall and thin but not without the curves that men found appealing, much like a model. She was the epitome of an Asian beauty and we often had trouble with young men wandering in to the shop to hit on her.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little envious of her. I mean don't get me wrong, I was…cute; I was thin (like a stick and with only the faintest of curves) and my face was dainty with big round blue eyes (which isn't really a bad thing), but I was short (and definitely not a model) and, let's face it, blue hair tends to be a little off putting (of course, I really don't mind, I like my hair blue).

All that being said, Chou's exterior was a little deceptive. Because hiding behind that beautiful and angelic face was often a holier-than-thou, I'm better than the world, devious sadist. Now I didn't dislike Chou, she wasn't all terrible – at least not to me – and we had actually been good friends since we started high school a year ago, but I've seen her do and say some pretty mean things to some of the boys who've tried hitting on her as well as some of the kids that annoyed her.

Chou did not like kids. Which always left me wondering why in the world she was working in a candy shop, but then again it wasn't really any of my business.

Anyway, we walked together to the large display case sitting in front of the window. Without needing to say a word, we each stood at one end and leaned down to grip the bottom edge and lift. Unfortunately, I was not as helpful as I would have liked to have been. This was entirely due to the state of my palms. Regrettably, though they were properly bandaged, my hands were still in a poor state after the fiasco I endured the night before, and at the moment when I went to lift the case, the pressure caused a shooting pain to travel from my hands and up my arms. In the end, I instinctually yelped and pulled away and dropped the heavy thing with a thump.

"EEEK! KOTORI!" Almost immediately I heard Chou's side of the case fall to the ground with a bang as well and upon looking at her I saw she was holding her hands close to her chest as one would do after pulling away to quickly avoid smashing his or her fingers. "Jeez! You nearly crushed my hands!"

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to! Are you alright?" Frantic and flustered, I was quick to apologize and rush to her side to check on the state of her hands.

She sighed, "I'm fine, but," her eyes narrowed on me, "what's wrong with your hands?"

I did try to pull them away from her and out of sight, attempting to explain last night's incident was very difficult no matter how I tried to spin it and I didn't want to lie, or rather I was a really bad liar. Just ask my parents. If nothing is said I'm fine, but the moment you bring attention to a matter I can't lie; I can't even hide the smallest detail while trying to tell a partial truth. I'm an open book if there ever was one.

Nonetheless, she snatched them before I could hide them from her. "Don't try to hide them from me; tell me what happened."

"I fell down last night."

"What? Did you land in glass?"

"No. I just fell…a lot." Chou frowned at me, clearly aware that I was not telling her the whole story. However, in the end she smiled kindly and nodded.

"Well, if that's all…" I probably should have seen this coming, especially considering who she was, but alas I did not. Instead of releasing my hands she held them far tighter within her own, making sure to rub against my palms where I had securely bandaged them. I yelped in response and eventually managed a glare at her while attempting to pull my appendages from her. When she did release me she finished her statement, "Let that be incentive to pay more attention when you're walking." Then she smiled. Again. But more sweetly than before. It was sickeningly sweet and only made me want to bash her teeth in.

With no small degree of sarcasm I retorted, "Yeah…thanks."

"No problem." One day I'd wipe that smug smile off her face, but let's face it, today was not going to be that day.

To be honest, sometimes I wondered why we were friends. But deep down inside I knew that she was a good person…probably. "Anyway, lets try this again. This time I won't drop it…I promise." She looked at me suspiciously; clearly not liking the way the final word had rolled off my tongue. But nonetheless we did take our positions.

With a heave ho and no small amount of stinging in my hands we managed to move the display into its new position. Afterwards, I pulled my hands away and flexed them in an attempt to stretch the throbbing away. I was largely successful. Out of my peripheral vision I noticed Chou turn to face me. "So…do your parents at least know what happened?"

I turned to face her and shook my head; "they've been out of town for a while now."

She snapped her fingers as if she just remembered something, "That's right your mom's a pilot and your dad's a steward right?"

"Err…reverse that and you'd be right."

"So when do they get back then?"

"Ton – gasp – " I froze in horror when the realization hit that my mom and dad were coming home far sooner than I realized. "Oh. My. Gosh! They're coming home tonight!" I had completely lost track of the time. My parents were coming home tonight and I still hadn't fixed the kitchen island or replaced their favorite vase (assuming I actually would have been able to do either of those of course). I turned to face Chou, my puppy dog eyes set on her causing her to flinch away from me and narrow her eyes.

"What? What do you want?" she asked.

Without any hesitation and with my voice full of hope I answered, "I need a favor."

"What is it?"

"You get off at the same time as me right?"

She frowned, "Oh no, I see where this is going. I am not walking you home just because your sense of direction sucks."

Oh, we'll see about that.


Its moments like these that I am reminded why Chou is my friend, because you see deep, deep, oh so very deep down inside she is a big softy and a huge pushover. Especially when I gave her the puppy dog eyes she hates so very much. She simply couldn't resist.

At this very moment in time, Chou was dragging me through the streets towards my house on the fastest route she knew of. "Come on, Kotori! You're the one that's making me do this – the least you can do is actually keep up!" She certainly sounded cross and that did motivate me to at least try and keep up with her pace. Don't misunderstand, however, it wasn't that I wasn't in just as much of a hurry as she was; rather it was that her legs were much longer than mine and she was in far better shape.

Actually, as I was now I couldn't really even manage a proper response because I couldn't catch my breath enough to do so. You would think since I do a lot of a walking every time I step outside of my apartment I would be in much better shape – and yes that may or may not be due to my supposedly bad sense of direction (although I still maintain that my sense of direction really isn't that bad). Yet, I was not. Of course, I didn't really walk this quickly when I was lost. No, at those times it was usually like a relaxing stroll (last night clearly being the exception), and unfortunately, right now it was more like a marathon. So I suppose it was understandable that this would be a little more difficult. Okay, a lot more difficult.

It was only a few more moments before I saw my apartment building and broke out into a dead sprint leaving my companion behind. "THANK YOU CHOU! I'll see you later!" I yelled back at her, my hand briefly waving a good bye.

"This is seriously the LAST TIME, Kotori! Learn the way to work already!" She hollered after me before turning on her heels to head towards her next destination.

I didn't bother waiting for the elevator – initially – but by the time I got to the third floor I was too tired to keep climbing the stairs and ended up taking the elevator the rest of the way to the seventh floor. Fortunately for my impatience, our elevators did not have any speakers installed so I wasn't forced to listen to the annoying elevator music that always seems to be playing in movies. Actually, I'm not sure I've ever heard that music anywhere but the movies or on the phone when I've been placed on hold. But I digress.

Having finally made it to my apartment in record time I tossed my bag into my room as I passed it and made a beeline for my biggest problem – the kitchen counter. I stared at it for a moment, critiquing the damage. There was no way I was going to be able to fix it on my own and certainly not before my parents came home, which was no doubt in a few hours (if I was lucky).

That being said, I could at least try my best to make it look a little less broken. Not sure how I going to do that but I could at least try. Perhaps along the way I could come up with a more believable story as to how it happened in the first place because, let's face it; the truth was very hard to believe.

Getting down on my knees in front of the counter I grabbed the frame of the countertop and gently pushed some the loose pieces back into place. I was happy to see that the lines caused by the cracks didn't look quite as noticeable when I did that, so I kept doing it until I was satisfied. Furthermore, somehow, the countertop had escaped damage – lucky – so the only other thing I had to work on was the surface it sat on – the wood paneled wall.

It was completely impossible to make that look any better. It was splintered all over and completely caved in. With a sigh I worked on removing the broken pieces and throwing them in a black trash bag. It was slow going and certainly not fun and the entire while I worried about what I was going to say to my parents.

I spun one absurd theory after next but no matter how hard I tried I couldn't come up with one even the least bit believable. At this point, I might as well be honest – none of the other stories I could come up with was going to help me avoid punishment anyway. I sighed in despair as I threw the last splinter away and tied the bag close. Standing back up I froze in shock as I considered the sight before my eyes.

What the?

When did they get in here?

What are they doing in here anyway?

Moreover, do they ever knock?

I answered my own question, Of course not. He never uses the front door, why would he knock. I noted that even when he carried me home and I told him not to, he still climbed in through the window – which was totally terrifying by the way (Furthermore, I'm still not clear on what the deal was with his aversion to doors). And somehow he seems to be in the habit of entering other people's homes without permission, which was another detail I noted from the first night he'd come into my house.

Oh right! While I'm sure that at this point it is perfectly clear, I should probably describe the 'sight before my eyes' anyways. Well, sitting on top of the counter I was working under sat none other than the green-haired demon king Amaimon. He was sitting cross-legged and sucking on a lollipop while he watched me work. Next to him was Behemoth, who was seated calmly while being stroked on the head.

A few more silent and, in my case, frozen in shock moments went by before Amaimon rose his hand, waved, and broke the silence, "Hey."

I blinked a few times as I cleared my mind and recalled how to form words, "Uh…hi." I looked around once or twice and rested my gaze on him again, "Um…did you need something?"

"Not really."

I nervously glanced at the door, "Then you're here because…?"

He shrugged, "I was bored." He certainly looked bored, but then again he always looked bored.

I sighed and picked up the trash bag full of debris, "Look Amaimon…" I started walking out of the kitchen towards the front door, "I'm kind of in…a situation of sorts and can't really play with you right now. I'm really so-." I stopped short when I turned around and he was nowhere to be found. "…Amaimon?"

"What's in the bag?" I jumped out of my skin when he spoke again due to the proximity of his voice. In less than a second and without my noticing he had relocated to my side and was eyeing the bag I was carrying.

"It's - " I was cut-off by the most horrific sound I had heard in weeks. It was the sound of the lock on my front door rattling. Someone was unlocking the door and judging from the muffled chattering on the other side it could only be two people: my parents.


"It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best."

~Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 10: The Wake


"Who's that?" I turned to face Amaimon, and without really thinking it through – at all – I came to the decision that it was imperative that I hide him and Behemoth.

Snatching him by the collar I started dragging him to my room, "You come with me. Now." He didn't really resist all that much; I think he was too confused to resist, to be honest and as a result I started explaining my behavior – though considering how frantic I was I'm not sure anything I said made much sense. "My parents are coming in right now! I'm going to be grounded, you're going to hide in my closet -" I said this as I opened the door to my closet and stuffed the bag in it, "they can't find you, if they find out I had a pet in here - a demon in here - I'll get grounded for life! I don't want to be grounded for life. It's bad!" He cocked his head at me and frowned a little, but did not resist as I maneuvered both him and Behemoth into the closet. (Looking back on it, I'd actually argue that his facial expression was rather humorous since he seemed completely and utterly shocked by my sudden display of overpowering strength). It was a tight fit but they did fit. "Please! I'm begging you! Don't let them find you! Just stay here until I come get you! PLEASE! Think of it like a game!"

"A game?" His face lit up a little in clear excitement, "What game is this?"

I paused and stared at him, "Uh…hide and seek. You hide and wait for my parents to come find you! If they do you lose! So don't let them find you! Mmkay?" He nodded enthusiastically and I shut the door at about the same time I heard my name.

"KOTORI! WE'RE HOME!"

I whipped my head around towards the door and mumbled, "Oh…peaches." After stealing a glance at my closed closet I marched towards my doomed fate. Peeking around my bedroom door and into the main hallway towards the front door I saw them.

The people who raised me, the people who were the cause of my birth and would no doubt be the cause of my death.

My parents were both in their early forties, well my mother was, my father had only just turned forty. Anyway, my mother's hair was perfectly straight, extremely short - about the same length as my father's - and dark as night. Just like me (or rather I took after her) she was baby faced and had lively blue eyes that usually had people guessing her at a much younger age, which was much to her immature delight. My father however had short and curly russet colored hair – which I inherited from him as well (although I die my hair blue so if it wasn't for my curls you'd never guess that). His eyes were brown as well and very stern; often he was guessed at a much older age than he actually was because he seemed to be someone who had seen many unpleasant things.

I was about to experience something unpleasant myself, but I couldn't hide in my room forever. So with yet another final glance at my closet and swallowing down the lump in my throat I stepped out into the hallway. "Mom, dad! Welcome home!" Heading towards them I met them in front of the front door and quickly found myself in my mother's arms. "How were your flights?"

Squeezing me even tighter in her arms my mother squealed, "Oh they were fine but I was missing you the entire time, sweetie!"

"I'm glad to hear that. What about you, daddy?"

He turned to me and narrowed his eyes suspiciously causing me to flinch in my mother's arms, "okay Kotori, what is it you need to tell us?" In response to my father's question my mother pulled away and glanced between us curiously.

Focusing her gaze on my father she responded to his question with her own, "Now what in the world makes you think she needs to tell us something, Daiki?"

"It's the same reason you know she wants something when she calls you mommy."

She nodded then looked towards me, "O~oh."

Beneath the power of both of their stares I averted my eyes in complete shame and terror; I knew my days were numbered but I had hoped I'd at least be able to prolong my life a few moments more. But alas, I was not so fortunate since my parents knew me far too well. So well, in fact, I wouldn't even make it through the welcoming pleasantries. "Well, you should probably follow me…" I decided it would be best just to show them instead of trying to explain it. I was certain that trying to explain it first would only make the entire situation worse.

With bated breath I slowly led them towards the kitchen. Then I waited. Fortunately they didn't notice the missing vase, but I think that might be because it was overshadowed by the hole in the wall of our island counter. "Kotori!" My mother sounded genuinely appalled and shocked as each syllable left her mouth, after the fact she was completely speechless.

My father not so much, "Kotori Ueda! What did you do to the kitchen counter!?" I grimaced and stared at my feet – they were just so interesting. "I asked you a question young lady."

"W-well, it was an accident. I…" rubbing my hands together I felt the stinging in my palms again and was struck by a sudden stroke of genius, "fell." Okay, so I was no Einstein. But at least I had injured hands to show I did in fact fall at some point, and it was a living body that caused the damage.

"You…fell?" My father clearly wasn't convinced. My mother was by the counter inspecting the damage; she had already decided to leave this conversation to my dad unfortunately. She was always kinder in her punishments so I would have preferred her be my executioner.

"Y-yeah. Really hard."

"How'd you do that exactly?"

Still staring at my feet I did my best to rack my brain for some believable excuse and came up with one that would be at least half believable since, let's face it, I was always late, "I was running late and running in the apartment. I hadn't tied my tennis shoes yet, stepped on the lace, and fell into the counter…" I really hated lying, it made me feel guilty and let's face it – I sucked at it.

"Are you lying to me Kotori?"

"N-no…if I was lying I'd make up some story about a candy loving, green-haired, clownishly dressed demon climbing in through the seventh story window while I was running around naked in the living room. And then I'd say he got into a fight with his hobgoblin familiar that I found in a park and brought home and I'd mention – just in passing – nearly dying twice…and…stuff." No need to mention that's what actually happened.

By this point my mother turned towards me, "And are you okay, Kotori? I'd imagine a fall like that must have hurt."

"Yeah, it happened a few weeks ago so I'm fine now."

"I'm glad to hear that, sweetie."

With a relieved sigh and yet still ferocious eyes my father started again, "I am glad you're all right as well, but this is still unacceptable – you should have informed us of this incident as soon as it happened and you should have been far more careful in the apartment as well. You're lucky you didn't sustain more permanent injuries. As your father I need to make sure you learn from this so that I can justify allowing you to continue living on your own. So…" I flinched in preparation, "you're grounded."

I knew it.

Groaning I responded, "Yes sir."

"Now go to your room."

"Yes sir."

My mom spoke up, "I'll be making a quick dinner so I'll call you when it's ready honey." She sounded at tad bit disappointed, and I'll be honest I don't blame her. This isn't how I pictured our reunion going either. But nonetheless I nodded enthusiastically and forced a smile on my face as I headed towards my room.

Now I just had one more thing to deal with: the two demons hiding in my closet (well that and the vase – they hadn't noticed that yet). Fortunately, I had a window in my room so they could sneak out through there. Actually, thinking back on the entire ordeal, I'm not sure why I didn't just force them to leave through that window to begin with. I resisted face palming in front of my parents despite the desire to do so and entered my room making sure to close the door behind me.

Then I faced the closet.

The feeling that I was trapped between a rock and a hard place crept up on me. On one side were my parents who had already grounded me once and on the other was a demon that probably didn't even know what the word inconspicuous meant and could very easily catch the attention of my parents.

Well I couldn't very well leave them in there…or could I? I shook my head furiously in an attempt to shake that line of thought away. I couldn't actually do that, after all. My experience told me they weren't that tolerant. I had to let them out. Darn it.

With a sigh, I walked to the door and gripped the handle then I cautiously opened it. Admittedly, I was half praying they would be there and half praying they wouldn't. On the one hand, if they weren't there I'd have a meltdown wondering where they got to and if they were elsewhere in my house. On the other, if they weren't there that could mean they got bored and left the apartment all together and that wasn't a bad thing at the moment.

Fortunately, my prayers were half answered. Not that they couldn't be considering the fact I had guaranteed they would be, but that's beside the point. The point was Amaimon and Behemoth were both still in the closet.

Of course, considering what they were doing in the closet I really wished they weren't. You have to understand; when I shoved them into the little space I hadn't properly considered what exactly I kept stored in it and what they might get into. If I had I would probably have found an alternative hiding-place. Like under my bed or something – that would certainly give a whole new meaning to monsters under my bed.

Unfortunately, the point here was I hadn't and as a result they had found their way into some things that I would have rather they didn't. Specifically the clothes I kept hung up there; even more specifically, some of my nicer undergarments. While I certainly don't have anyone to admire my lingerie sets aside from myself, I still decided I'd buy myself matching black lace hipster underwear and a demi-cup brassiere just for the sake of having some, which I then hid far away in the back of my closet both from my parents and my own self-confidence (or lack there of). Never in a million years did I ever think that a teenage boy would lay eyes on them – well maybe not a million years but at least not yet.

Of course, this was much, much worse.

He wasn't just looking at them, he was trying them on. Incorrectly, mind you. He had the underwear on Behemoth's head and was about to put the bra on his except I interrupted him. "W-What are you doing!?" I half whispered-half yelled. The green-haired demon turned to me and held up the little piece of lingerie.

"What's this?"

My face started to burn as my head flitted between Behemoth and my underwear, to Amaimon, and then to my bra as I stuttered for the words, "Th-th-tha-that's m…n…give me that!" My hand flew forward in an attempt to snatch it from the boy, but he was quicker than I as he pulled it out of reach.

"Why should I, what is it?"

Still trying desperately to grab hold of the bra, I followed the demon into my closet, took hold of his shirt, and pulled him and my possession towards me. "I-I-It's my… it's my… it's … none of your business! Just give it back!" Yet again, I did something I would quickly end up regretting. In my desperation to regain my undergarments, I tried to pull the demon boy out of my closet and wrestle his arm down lower so that I could snatch back his pilfered goods. Unfortunately, I kept most of my shoes in the floor of my closet so when I stepped backwards the heel of my foot caught on one and sent me tumbling backwards. Even more unfortunate was that my fall must have surprised Amaimon since he offered no resistance when my fall pulled him forward just enough to trip on a shoe as well.

We both yelped due to the shock of our sudden stumble. And we both reacted a little different but equally poorly – I tried to hold on to Amaimon's shirt; I was thinking he'd be a sturdy solid thing – Amaimon barely did anything at all except ensure I still wouldn't be able to get my bra from him, which wouldn't have been my priority if I had been in his position.

Anyhow, my backside was very quickly introduced to my bedroom floor with a resounding thump and a slightly louder squeal. A squeal that was cut very short. By shocked silence and a sharp pain to both my forehead and the upper left corner of my lip, the latter being the reason for my silence – Amaimon was usually pretty chill anyway so I doubt that it was his sole reason.

You see, by the end of our fall I had ended up lain out on the floor while Amaimon had ended up sprawled out above me. Furthermore, during the initial collision the sides of our foreheads collided causing me both a welt and a headache. Lastly, and probably the most notable thing to occur, his left canine bit into the upper left corner of my lip in an almost but not quite kiss that drew blood.

While it wasn't quite a kiss, it was certainly close enough to make my face flush and my eyes widened as I stared up at Amaimon. At the moment, he was sitting back up so that our roles were reversed from the last time we had ended up on the floor like this. The first time I ended up straddling him; now, he was straddling me with both hands on each side of my head. My face heated up even more as our position became more apparent and my hormones started painting pictures.

"Your face."

I blinked a few times as I tried to process the words coming out of his mouth. "W-what?"

Sitting up so that his weight was fully on his heels and his arms were free, he poked my lip with the hand still holding my bra (which had caused this entire awkward situation), "It's bleeding."

Eyeing both his hand and my lingerie, I began to feel annoyance claw its way into my head. Clenching my teeth, I simultaneously smacked his hand away and snatched the bra. "MINE!" The look on his face when he realized I had successfully snatched his prize was priceless and made the aggravation disperse and a smirk take its place. But the moment of victory was short-lived as a green hobgoblin wearing my underwear on its head snatched it from me.

Literally. He stole my bra.

And then there was a knock at my door.

Alarmed, I whipped my head towards the entrance to my room as my father's voice rung out from the other side of the entrance, "Kotori? What was that? Are you all right? I'm coming in-"

"NO!" I yelped in horror. If my dad walked in right now while Amaimon was on top of me like this there was no way he wouldn't misunderstand the situation. And let's face it, explaining that he was hiding in my closet and in a tug a war to get back the sexy lingerie I kept hidden he ended up on top of me in this compromising position wouldn't make the situation any better.

There was a momentary quiet during which I saw the doorknob twist tentatively and as a result I screeched the only thing I knew would stop him since it worked every time, "DON'T COME IN! I'm changing!" The doorknob returned to its normal position as my father obviously pulled away on the other side.

Amaimon who had yet to move was sending jaded glances back and forth between the door and I. My gaze flitted to him just in time to see him open his mouth to say something, but panicked and flustered hands flew up to cover his mouth and I gestured for him to be quiet. Fortunately, he obeyed.

"Well, it's time for dinner so come out when you're done." I heard his footsteps as he walked away and I breathed a sigh of relief and moved my hands away from Amaimon's face.

"Who was that?"

I looked up at Amaimon and narrowed my eyes, my face was still a little – okay – a lot red so it kind of ruined the effect of my glare but that didn't stop me from trying to shove him off of me – he didn't budge. "My dad. Now get off already!"

His eyes flickered from my face and to his position seated on my hips. He looked a little surprised to find that he was, in fact, seated on me, and after cocking his head, gracefully stood up. I would have stood up immediately after him but I was internally fretting over the fact he seemed so completely unbothered by the whole event. He hadn't even been the least bit flustered by our almost kiss and didn't seem to notice that he was on top of me in such a…fashion…at all.

Either I was really unappealing, or he was really dense. I stole a glance at his face and then myself. It might be both.

Not that I had time to consider that, I quickly reminded myself. Leaping to my feet, I quickly ran to my pajama drawer and fished out one of my many ratty pairs of sweats before turning to Amaimon and Behemoth. "Okay you two, you need to leave through my bedroom window before my parents catch you in here! I'm supposed to be grounded after all."

Amaimon furrowed his eyebrows in thought before directing his gaze to me, "grounded?"

Of course he wouldn't know what that means, "It's like being under house arrest and solitary confinement at the same time – with the exception of visitation from your parents. Basically, except to eat, do some chores, and work, I'm not allowed to leave this room and I'm not supposed to see any of my friends. If you get caught in here, I'll get punished."

"…" I watched as enlightenment brightened his face for a moment, but a second later his eyebrows knitted together as yet another question arose, "Why don't you just get rid of your parents?"

I stared at him, horrified, as words poured out of my lungs, "What!? I could never do that! I love them and they're family – the only one I have. I've got to look out for them just like they do for me." My gaze flickered to the floor as I really thought about his words, "is that what you'd do to yours?"

"…" His response was a nondescript shrug.

After the fact, it was uncomfortably quiet for a moment. That response probably shouldn't have surprised me. I knew that while demons may have been capable of affection – it was clearly present in Amaimon's relationship with Behemoth – they were also not well known for possessing strong familial ties and I definitely always knew of the violence they were capable of. I guess sometimes I just forget. Admittedly though, I wasn't scared or repulsed, if anything I felt sad on his behalf – though he probably wouldn't want me to or understand why I did.

My thoughts and feelings were interrupted, however, when I saw his shoulders droop and his gaze fall to the floor. He was pouting, I realized.

Guilt and curiosity gnawed at me, which was totally not fair since none of this was actually my fault and certainly not my business but he was just so…so…endearing, and that meant I just had to ask, "What's wrong?"

"That means when I get bored I can't come over here to play anymore."

For a moment, I stared blankly at the sudden topic change, but, nonetheless, I still managed to follow his train of thought. Furthermore, despite realizing that he thought of me as nothing more than an instrument to relieve his boredom, I still couldn't help the heart warming feeling it gave me to know that he liked spending time with me and a small smile crept onto my bleeding lips. "Well it's only temporary…" I looked at my bedroom window, "and if you get really bored you're welcome to sneak in through my window – you just have to make sure you don't get caught by anyone but me. Think of it like a game."

Far faster than any normal person would have, Amaimon had covered the space between us so that he could lean over me a big, excited smile on his face, "YAY!"

"SSHH! Keep your voice down! And hurry up and go for tonight – I need to get changed and eat dinner! Come back another day." I forcefully whispered while pushing him towards the window, which was quite difficult – he was much stronger than he looks.

By the time we reached the window, I was panting for air and he was watching me with an amused and mischievous glint in his eyes. It made me question whether turning this entire grounding ordeal into a game was the best of ideas. More than likely not. Nonetheless, it wouldn't matter what I said now since he tended to have a bit of a one-track mind, so I might as well make the best of it.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, he opened my window and started climbing out of it, "Behemoth, come." I watched for a moment as the two of them crawled through the opening and leapt forward. For a moment, overwhelming fear for their safety washed over me and I found myself leaning out the window to check on them. Both to my surprise and not, they were perfectly fine but I did make a different shocking discovery. It was one that horrified me and one that I sensed would come back to bite me in the ass later.

Behemoth still had my undergarments.


"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."

~Ralph Waldo Emerson


I poked at my lip in the mirror. It looked much better than it did at least. The night Amaimon's tooth cut my lip, it had swollen up hideously and I had forgotten to wipe it clean of the blood before running out to the dinner table. Yet another thing I had to create a story for and explain away.

As far as my parents were concerned, I was the most uncoordinated girl known to man.

After a week of healing, the swelling was gone and the scab was pretty much gone. All that was left was a small red blotch that would fade after a few more days. Thank goodness. Looking in the mirror kept causing my face to heat up and redden because it served as a constant reminder of what caused it. I analyzed it as closely as I could without making the irritation worse before I finally moved on.

I moved through the steam filled bathroom and grabbed a hand towel, which I then rubbed through my hair – wiping away any stubborn loose water droplet hanging on to the blue strands. I had gotten a hot bath tonight, even though I wasn't very fond of baths, and was feeling quite refreshed. It was a much-needed feeling of refreshment. The last couple of days had been fun but hectic.

Amaimon had taken the idea of playing a game with my parents very seriously and had responded very enthusiastically. This of course meant I now saw him every day and that was both as bad and good as it sounded. Bad, because that demon zapped all my energy by stressing me out and keeping me on my toes. But good, very good, because he could be very fun company and he kept me entertained by playing all kinds of simple games (many of which I hadn't played in years) and by having one of our many curious conversations even when I was supposed to be under house arrest.

I had to admit that when compared to past groundings, I spent more time smiling and giggling during this particular one – that meant I was most definitely enjoying it more than I should have been.

That being said, I had also had more heart attacks during this one, the number of times he had almost been caught by one of my parents – usually my father whose hearing is uncannily sharp – was immeasurable. Fortunately, demons were unnaturally fast and sneaky. Imagine that.

Now that my hair was no longer dripping wet, I hung my damp towel up on the towel rack by the bath before stepping out into the living room – already dressed in my fuzzy pajamas (my lesson was quickly learned after all and plus, my parents were home) – and said my goodnights to my parents still sitting on the couch and recliner.

This was the last night they'd be in town, tomorrow they would be leaving for a few weeks because of work yet again. As a result, today was also the last night I'd be grounded. Of course, this also meant that I had gotten to spend the evening watching movies and television with them as a way of attaining quality time together before they left. (I was still technically grounded however.)

Finally, I turned towards my bedroom and started on the journey to my beloved mattress. Today had been a particularly long day. Amaimon had visited me earlier that afternoon right before lunch, which meant that he had to sit quietly in my room while I ate lunch with my parents. As you can imagine, the usual fear involving him getting impatient and leaving the confined space nagged at me the entire time and, as I said before, I'm no good at hiding things from anyone anyway.

Actually, considering the demon's impeccable timing, this entire week seemed to have consisted of an unusual number of meals that seemed to drag on for hours longer than they did and left me utterly exhausted by the end.

But back to the point, Amaimon had already made his daily visit today and since he only ever makes one that meant that I'd get to go straight to bed tonight. Or at least, that was the plan, but I find when you have befriended a demon the best-laid plans tend to go straight to hell.

Opening the door to my bedroom, it quickly became apparent that this would be one such plan. As was often the case with my initial discoveries of Amaimon in my apartment it wasn't a smooth encounter. Rather, it was one that had me recoiling backwards fast and hard enough to leave a door shaped bruise on my back.

Perhaps if I spent more time looking forward and less time habitually watching my feet when I walked I'd be less startled by his 'sudden' appearances since they would be far less sudden, but habits were hard to break. As it were, when I closed my door behind me and looked up instead of having the sight of my empty bedroom greet my eyes, I was instead met with Amaimon's face, upside down, and less than an inch or two away from my own.

My fight or flight instinct kicked into gear and I squeaked and retreated backwards until I slammed myself into the closed door behind me. My heart rate had hastened due to the initial shock and fear but as the cogs in my brain turned and I felt the first signs of recognition I relaxed.

However, as I became fully aware that the person settled on my ceiling was none other than Amaimon I frowned and whispered my irritation, "Darn it Amaimon! You scared me!" Taking in his choice of seats, I continued, "and for the last time, don't sit on my ceiling!"

As per usual, Amaimon didn't apologize for frightening me – to him I'm sure it only seemed natural that he'd be frightening so I guess it makes sense that he wouldn't. That and I don't think he especially likes apologizing for anything. That being said, he did drop down from the ceiling as per my demand. I watched in jealous awe as he did so; he was always so nimble when he did these unrealistic and incredible things. I could only dream of being so graceful myself, and let's face it – my dreams were always too realistic to grant me that particular wish. Figures.

After recovering my posture away from the door and listening for any signs of stirring from my parents, I cocked my head in question and eyed my companion. He met my gaze with his normally bored one and after a few moments of silence I realized he wasn't going to say anything unless I asked, so with a smile and a slight step forward I spoke, "You're back."

He opened his mouth to respond, but instead of saying anything he froze for a second and then close it. Then he cocked his head and without a single change in countenance started sniffing away at the air.

Feeling confused, my smile falter and I glanced around the room. He followed his nose in a very dog like fashion, which tested my self-control as I fought to maintain my composure and resist the curiosity demanding me to start sniffing at the air myself. It wasn't until his nose started to clearly lead him towards me that I did take a whiff of my hair.

Nothing unusual, just my candy cane scented shampoo, perhaps a little stronger than normal since I just got out of the bath. However, he clearly smelled something on me that I could not cause he kept coming. Without my realizing it, I had begun to back up away from him until I couldn't anymore because of the bedroom door. When it did become apparent I had no escape I finally asked the question that I had been dying to ask but had been putting off because of the demon's blunt nature, "Does something smell funny?"

He stopped in front of me, still wearing his uninterested expression, before he leaned down, nestled his nose behind my ear causing me to flinch and giggle a little (I was very ticklish there), and then sniffed my hair. "You smell like candy."

I would have deadpanned – of course; he would be smelling my shampoo it is candy cane (why hadn't I thought of that?) – unfortunately he was close enough to me that when he spoke I could feel his breath prickle my ear, so instead of deadpanning, I blushed and my heart started fluttering away in my chest.

As nonchalantly as I could manage, I hid my scarlet face behind my hand and moved across the door and wall as I escaped the thoroughly dense demon with no sense of personal space, "d-did you need something?"

"AH!" His eyes lit up as if he had just remembered why he had shown up in my house in the first place – he probably had. Still blushing and hiding, a small grin grew on my face as I watched him start digging around in his pockets. He always had so much energy and did everything in his own unique way – it was hard not to smile when I watched him.

After a moment of searching he pulled out what looked like two tickets from his pocket and held them up, "These. My brother called them tickets. He said they were for an amusement park and I should bring a," his eyebrows furrowed for a moment as if he wasn't sure he had the right word but he continued nonetheless, "friend. You said that word before so I thought to bring you."

My eyes widened in surprise. This might be the closest he's ever gotten to calling me a friend – though he still managed to somehow not. Nevertheless, my lips parted in an ear-to-ear Cheshire grin as the excitement and joy from his first invitation to do anything with him poured in to me. I covered the distance between us in nearly the same fashion he does when he gets excited – clearly he was rubbing off on me – and leaned in close enough that I could look up at him while clearly seeing the tickets to…Mephy Land.

After a few seconds, I snatched one of the tickets from his hands and held it up, "Go to Mephy Land with you? Okay, I can do that."


~ Fin ~

"It's a lot easier to say when something ended rather than when it began. Most of us can recognize the end from a mile away, but the beginning always slips up on us, lulling us into thinking what we're living through is yet another moment, in yet another day."

Steve Yarbrough, Safe from the Neighbors


Finally finished this one. I don't know why but I really struggled with it. Meh. Anyways, next chapter will be a fun one – though difficult one – to write since we'll be meeting some of the other characters from Blue Exorcist and Amaimon and Chou will be introduced to each other as well. Anyway, I don't want to give too much away. (Though I guess I kind of did give away a lot…) The only other thing I'll mention in this little author's note thingy is that I have a set path…sort of. What I want to know is whether or not most of the people reading this do want to see a romantic relationship form between my characters. I don't really swing strongly either way so I figured I'd ask for my readers' opinions. Anyway, that's really all I have to say at the moment. Until next time! And please don't forget to review if you feel so inclined!