Disclaimer: I don't own jack!
Discord Prompts
Belphie/Kagome
Crossover Series: Obey Me!
Warning! Spoilers Ahead for Lessons 5 through 16 in Obey Me!
Sanctuary
The silence was comforting.
It'd been her steady companion for as long as she'd been here. The quiet solitude had offered something that she hadn't had in the years spanning before her arrival in this home. It'd offered her peace—a sanctuary far removed from the things that had weighed upon her mind day after day.
There were no noisy text messages endlessly blaring across her phone. There were no midnight missed calls nor the sounds of heavy fists banging on her front door every few hours.
It was quiet.
In here was the silence she had longed for but never knew.
Her eyes flicked to a stack of books piled neatly in the corner of the room. She'd already read through the majority of them. Most were old murder-mystery novels that'd taken her interest from the start. However there were a couple of odd romances and even an encyclopedia. The last book was her current endeavor.
She shifted to pull it from the stack as carefully as possible. It'd be easy to simply lift the other books first and set them aside, but the weight upon her lap and arm curled about her waist reminded her why that was currently not a possibility.
Kagome kept her movements short, stretching her arm across the gap that separated her from her goal.
If she jostled around too much then he'd wake up. Being roused in such a way was never a pleasant experience; either for her or him. So she remained careful, moving only as necessary and plying the encyclopedia from its stack before settling back in place.
She dropped one arm over the man's back while she used her other hand to flip to the bookmark she'd left between the age-worn pages.
Silence hadn't been her only companion. More recently, another had been given the same punishment as her. Tossed inside the room like a prisoner being thrown into a penitentiary.
He'd railed, thrashed and snarled like a wild beast that'd been ensnared in a hunter's trap. For hours he'd tried to break through the iron-latticed gate that held them captive. Each attempt draining him further of his precious energy.
By the time he'd noticed her huddled in the corner of the attic space, he'd been spent. His limbs weary from the fight and his body unable to do anything more than collapse to the ground in a heap of exhaustion.
She'd tended to him that night and every night that'd followed since.
The young man stirred upon her lap. His brows stitched together and he slowly began to rouse.
She closed her book partially to peer down at him.
"You up already?" Kagome lowered her hand from his back.
"Yeah," Came the sleepy reply.
It always took him a while to fully come to. Usually their conversations were short and often odd at this point of the day.
He sat up fully. Pulling on the hood of his coat, her companion slowly shifted to face her.
"It's been six months but you still haven't told me why you were thrown in here." Violet eyes narrowed at her in what she could only describe as a pout. "I want to know what you did to piss off Lucifer so much."
She set the book down.
It looked like she wouldn't be able to get any reading done tonight after all. Once he got something in his head, it was very difficult to get him to let it go. These past few weeks in particular he'd been bound and determined to discover the truth to her imprisonment here.
For so long she'd been stashed away in the attic of the House of Lamentation that she'd nearly forgotten what'd sparked her capture in the first place.
"Do you really want to know that badly?" Her question was met with a piercing stare. She knew that look all too well.
He was annoyed.
"You already know everything about me," He tucked his legs under himself, casting her a baleful look. "So I'd say it's fair that you return the favor."
She couldn't argue that.
He had told her about himself after only a few weeks of being trapped together. He'd made it clear that he held no love for her kind and although she hadn't said it at the time, she empathized with the sentiment.
It was curious that Lucifer had decided to hold them both prisoner within the same cell. Surely he would've accounted for his youngest brother's hostility when he'd made that decision. Then again maybe that was what he'd been counting on.
Her brows knitted together at the thought.
An index finger prodded at her cheek sharply.
"Don't go daydreaming again. I still want answers," His lips pursed together petulantly.
It was times like these that he reminded her of a sulky child. Crouched beside her with his arms folded over his knees and an expectant look on his face; he truly had no intention of letting the subject drop without getting the answers he wanted from her.
Kagome sighed.
The sound broke through the silence between them. The tension that only anticipation could create snapped all at once.
"It was two years ago now," She began, folding her hands over her lap and settling back in a comfortable position.
He leaned forward, much like an eager child waiting impatiently to hear the tale of an intriguing story.
"I used to live on a Shrine," She could still recall those days of sweeping the grounds and tending to the gift shop. The elderly neighbors had swung by frequently. Both to support the shrine and to ease some of the loneliness that only age and impending death could bring. She continued, "I'd noticed some strange things happening around the Shrine and tried investigating it."
"What sort of things?" He tilted his head curiously.
"Odd feelings mostly," Kagome pressed her palm to her collar bone. It was an old habit she hadn't quite managed to break. "For a while there was just this vibe of being watched by something I couldn't see. I tried looking for whatever was causing it but there was no evidence of anyone or anything having been on the shrine grounds."
She could still feel the phantom glare of beady eyes piercing her back. It felt the same as someone pressing the blade of a knife against her back in a threat. She knew it was there but hadn't been able to trace it. She hadn't been able to even see it.
Violet eyes remained riveted as she pressed onward.
"It started with a couple disappearing after taking a nightly stroll in the woods. Then more people started to go missing. After a while anyone who went inside the forest either never came out or were so torn apart that they weren't recognizable. Teenagers started showing up in droves. They kept talking about all the disappearances, so a local legend was started about the land being cursed." She could still recall all the times she had to shoo them away. So eager to chase the thrill of a living ghost story, they'd nearly placed themselves in real danger.
Something had taken residence in the woods just beyond the shrine walls. Had she let those droves of teenagers go, she was certain they would've come back as mangled limbs or, worse yet, never have come back at all. Just like everyone else who ventured into the forest.
Just like Yuka.
"Eventually the police were forced to investigate since all the people going missing were connected to the forest somehow. So I let them in." It'd been right after her closest friend had been reported missing. Still reeling from her sudden departure, Kagome had been desperate to get answers herself. Instinctually she believed it to be a demon, but logically she knew she could never say that.
That was how she'd met him. A man who's name now escaped her. She remembered that he'd been a rookie officer. He'd been thin and wiry for a cop. His youth apparent in the roundness of his cheeks and exuberance of his gate. The case had been his first one—she remembered because the grizzled man who was his partner had said so upon their first meeting—and his gaze was a lit fire of determination. The way he'd stared at her had caused her body to run cold. It was the same sort of look her mother had given her when she'd done something wrong, but it was stronger, more dangerous than that.
It'd been a silent accusation.
The first of many to come.
Her companion prodded her after a long moment.
Kagome started once more, "After a while I decided to look into things on my own."
The officer had demanded her phone number before he'd left that first day. Out of a sense of duty she'd given it to him. What'd followed afterwards was a barrage of questions, calls and text messages that never seemed to end. They were so frequent and aggressive that she stopped responding altogether. She'd known that the only way to end the nightmare was to stop it herself.
Whatever lurked in the forest needed to be brought to heel. She'd known that she had the power to do it, she just had to find the bastard first.
"I went into the forest around midnight," For that was the time when it preferred to hunt—picking off stragglers that'd gotten lost in the thicket and tormenting the few idiotic souls that managed to sneak past the walls of the shrine. "It didn't take long to find it. I think it was some sort of snake demon. I didn't get a good look at its face before it tried to flee back through the portal it'd arrived through."
One shot.
That was all it took to kill the beast.
A single arrow and the nightmare had ended. No more would the demon stalk the forest at night. No more would the innocent go missing. No more would there be lingering whispers of doubt and accusations.
At least that was what she'd believed.
"I hadn't known what that portal led to at first so I figured I'd just try to seal it and be done with it." Which was the truth. She'd sealed the Bone Eater's Well when her journey to the past had come to an end. She'd believed that sealing another portal would be just as easy.
She'd been wrong.
"It was when I was in the process of sealing it that I'd been pulled through by accident." Kagome could still recall the gloved hand that'd shot through the black mass and yanked her towards the other realm. She hadn't any time to respond before she found herself hauled to her knees in front of a man she'd never seen before. She'd sensed his power long before she could take in his features and she'd known in that very instant that she had discovered a world she was never meant to see.
"So you're saying that it's Lucifer's fault that you're here?" The incredulousness in his tone was palpable.
"To be fair he thought he was apprehending the demon that'd opened the portal in the first place," Kagome countered quietly.
Lucifer's face had been a picture of surprise followed by anger.
What were you doing?
His question had been so sharp that it'd taken her a moment too long to respond. When she did, he hadn't believed her. At least, not at first.
He'd tried to push her back through the portal but she'd found herself thrown into a wall—the power that existed there before staunchly refusing to grant her access a second time.
He'd then dragged her to another portal where the process repeated itself.
Over and over again he'd tried to send her back to no avail. It was then that she realized with horror that what she'd sealed wasn't the portal between their worlds but her soul itself. She'd trapped herself in a world where humans didn't belong.
She was stuck.
"So after that failed he brought me back here. I think he just wanted to keep things quiet until he could find a solution." Kagome rubbed at her collar bone again.
She'd been content with that too.
So long as she was here she didn't have to worry about that officer breathing down her neck.
He fully believed that she and she alone was responsible for all the disappearances. After all, a girl who'd spent much of her middle school years sick with strange illnesses and abandoned high school altogether was bound to have 'mental problems' as he'd so eloquently put it. Although she suspected that he doubted her illnesses due to all the strange excuses her grandfather concocted and lack of doctor visits. The missing paper trail was what'd sparked the officer's suspicion.
He'd shadowed every step she made. He bashed her doors so frequently that permanent dents had been pocked into the very frames. Her phone, oh dear lord her phone! It never stopped. The calls. The messages. The voicemails.
She'd tried to file a complaint just once. Instead of speaking with him, she'd found herself being handcuffed and pulled into an interrogation room for ten days. They would've kept her for the full twenty three days* had it not been for her mother.
Her heart gave a painful lurch at the thought.
"You've really been okay with just sitting up here for two whole years?" Her companion's voice sharpened. "Don't you have family waiting for you back home or something?"
"Not particularly." She averted her gaze, her answer coming just a little too quick even to her own ears. "My dad died when I was little and both my mom and grandfather passed away in a traffic accident."
At least that's what they'd called it.
A police cruiser had sped through an intersection with its lights and sirens blaring. Her mother and grandfather had been trapped in the middle of the road. She'd fallen behind them by just a few steps, distracted by a poster of an upcoming film she'd been excited to see. Her feet were still rooted on the side walk when she'd spotted the car careening down the street. Her family tried to move out of the way but it was too late. She could only watch in horror as the vehicle struck them. She didn't need an ambulance to tell her that neither had survived. Holding them in her arms had been enough.
What's more, the officer that had hounded her for weeks on end had stepped out of the cruiser. His face had been a blank mask. His eyes even more cold. His movements slow and purposeful as he tended to the scene.
It wasn't an accident that'd killed her family.
It'd been murder.
She'd known that instant that she would be next if she didn't do something fast.
"No siblings?" That time he crouched forward. There was a flicker of empathy in his gaze. He hated humans, sure, but he wasn't completely without feeling. In fact, she'd call him more human than the officer that'd hunted her. Although she knew he would find offense to that comparison and avoided stating it aloud.
"We don't exactly get along," Kagome palmed her collar bone again.
Souta was only twelve when their mother and grandfather died. She had barely been eighteen and didn't have a stable job. So police were quick to move him into a new home. Thankfully one of his friends had opened their house to him before he could be sent into the system. So Souta had always been nearby.
When their family died, she'd confided to him everything. The demon she believed to be living in the forest. The disappearances. The officer out to pin her for it all.
It was a moment of weakness she shouldn't have let happen. She should've never said anything to him, nor dragged him into her suspicions. It was a foolish move that could've gotten him killed too.
You're crazy.
Those were the first words Souta had said to her afterwards.
All that crap with the Shikon made you go insane. There aren't any demons in this era. The Noh Mask was just a fluke because you brought those shards back. Whatever happened, demons are gone now.
Maybe he just didn't want to think about it, or maybe he was just tired of hearing her rambling on about the supernatural. Regardless, Souta had shut himself off from her after the fact. He'd blocked her number and refused to speak with her. At the funeral he'd kept his eyes trained on the headstones and nothing else.
She was a ghost to him now.
Just a memory of something he'd rather forget.
Her companion was silent. She knew that he wanted to argue with her about that. Say that maybe things have changed—maybe Souta had changed. The truth was that it wasn't her brother that needed to change.
It was her.
She had to be the one to stop dragging him into her messes. She had to be the one to keep her mouth shut. For Souta's sake if nothing else.
So that's what this was.
A prison and a sanctuary. One that kept her far removed from the dangers of the human world, and one that protected her brother as well. So long as she was here and out of contact then he'd be safe. The officer would either wither away and die from his lack of access to his obsession, or he would move on to a new case—a new target.
Soft lips pressed against her own without warning.
"You're doing it again," The male sighed in exasperation as he drew back. "Don't shut me out."
Fingers threaded through her own carefully.
This was another reason she couldn't hate her captivity here.
The company was far too pleasant.
A soft smile broke across her lips, "I'm not—"
"—You are." He shot back with that same petulant determination she'd grown used to from him.
"—Trying to." Kagome finished, "Some things are just harder to talk about. Like with Lilith."
She didn't want to bring up his sister. She'd seen him bare his soul the night he confessed to her everything that'd transpired during the Great Celestial War. His previous love of humans. His introducing Lilith to the human world. Then her falling for a human man before committing a grave sin—all for the sake of sparing his life from a fatal disease.
He'd blamed himself for her subsequent death during the war. It'd been his actions that'd led her to that man and sealed her fate. Beneath the veneer of hatred for her kind was a self loathing he had never come to terms with.
The night he told her all this he'd collapsed into her arms and spilled every last self-doubt that'd accrued within his heart. His hatred. His despair. His loathing. All of it. He'd shown her his true self and had been more honest with her than anyone had ever been before.
So she'd held him close to her heart until his tears had stopped and his pain became just a little less unbearable for him to carry on his own.
Ever since then they'd been bonded in a way that words could never begin to describe. She could sense his moods and he always seemed to know when she was shutting down—something he hated more than their current imprisonment within the attic.
His mouth slanted over hers more fiercely.
The message was simple enough.
Trust me.
His fingers curled over hers as she felt her back being pushed against the hardwood floor.
"Don't think, just do." She felt him smile against her lips. "That's what you always tell me."
"Belphie—" The reprimand was cut short by the heat of his palms sliding over her hips.
"I want you to rely on me," Belphie paused to shoot her a firm glance. "We've come this far already. Don't shut me out now."
It wasn't fair to him. She knew that. Yet the words she wanted to say never formed. The officer. Souta. Her family. All of it just seemed to slip away before she could ever form the sentences.
"I'm trying," Her face contorted as she fought against the torrent of pain threatening the spill forth. "It's…"
"Hard." Belphie finished for her. He lowered his head to the base of her neck, "But I won't let you bottle it up any more. Even if we weren't trapped in here together I'd still want you to trust me."
Her lips turned upwards in a wry smile, "You say that now."
"And I'll keep saying it for as long as it takes." Violet eyes thinned at her, "Until the day you show me everything."
Kagome closed her eyes as his mouth lowered down past her neck.
One day they would escape this room. One day they would both be free from this imprisonment.
For now though she would take solace in this moment.
It wasn't the attic that made her feel safe, nor was it the distance between her and the problems that still existed in the human world. What kept her alive was the warmth of the embrace that she now found herself in. It was this companionship, this bond, that'd made her feel protected for so long.
Belphie wanted her to rely him. The truth was that she already did.
Kagome sighed at the first point of his intrusion. She folded her arms over his back, pulling herself closer to him.
They'd done this many times before. From the night he'd opened up to her until now, it'd become part of their routine. He had become a permanent fixture in her life. A pillar of stability amid all the fear and anxiety that threatened to swallow her sanity whole.
She laid back and took solace in the comfort of his touch.
This was what she'd needed for so long. It was neither the attic nor the solitude that gave her comfort. It was the strength of his arms curled around her in a protective barrier. It was the feeling of security that came from his mouth pressing softly against her ear. It was the belief that the connection they shared went far beyond just a temporary physical linking.
It was Belphie.
His very presence was more than just a comfort. It was a sanctuary.
Kagome closed her eyes as his pace quickened.
They would escape from this room one day. This prison was little more than a stop gap in their lives. Although leaving here was a terrifying prospect, she knew that so long as he was with her then she'd be fine.
They both would be.
"Trust me," He pleaded next to her ear.
Her smile softened.
She already did.
A/N: So I had been addicted to Obey Me for a while now (thanks UB! Lol). From the very start I just adored Belphegor's story arc (minus the plot hole and rough glossing over in the end there). But the whole thing sort of clicked with me. I'd been doing some snippets for a while but I kept running through ten different ideas. Finally had one strike me that I ended up liking a lot which was how this came about. I sort of figured that it'd be fun to put a twist on the whole "locked in the attic" thing. Although the rest sort of just happened organically. In any case I don't currently have any plans for any full length stories for Belphie but this was fun regardless. Let me know what you think and as always I greatly appreciate you guys!
***Twenty Three Days – The length of time in which police can hold someone who's been arrested without charging them in Japan.