Summary: The pot grows by two during the after-hours.

Notes: We've reached the point of no return. Get ready~

Recipes of the chapter:

A giant ass rock

Cold hard cash

Tears

"You sure you don't need help closing up tonight?"

Shima waved Rin out the door, all but shoving him as he laughed. "No no, we're fine, we know the drill by now."

"Ok, thanks, guys, goodnight!"

He watched the door until Rin was well out of sight, held it for another minute because he had his suspicions about Rin's hearing abilities, then dropped the blinds on the windows and whipped around with a grin.

"Boss man's gone, everybody, who's got Koneko's eta?"

Bon sighed and rolled his eyes but answered, "He's just pulling up around the corner."

"And Izumo?" Shima said, directing it towards Godaiin.

"I'm here," Izumo said with irritation in her voice as she shut the door behind her and Koneko. "Can we make this quick?"

"Did you rope Shura and Yukio into this too?" came Bon's pointed question. He crossed his arms, brow raised when Shima laughed.

"No no, they made it very clear they're not changing their minds, it's just us tonight," he said, giving a thumbs up before running to the back room and retrieving the whole point of their secrecy.

"Ok gentlemen, lady," Shima said, broadcasting for presentation's sake as he swept his hands over the wager jar he'd set on the counter. "It's been about six months now and most of us have been disqualified from the pool."

"Tch," Izumo grumbled, the first of them to lose, "it's not my fault, who could have guessed Amaimon would show up?"

"Ding ding ding! Exactly," Shima crowed, "None of us could have anticipated a whole new suitor into the mix, and it's not a fair game if Shura and Yukio both added their wagers after the fact."

The muttered "who cares, why are we even doing this?" from Bon didn't deter Shima, who knew his poor, grumpy friend better than that.

"I propose we recast our bets with the new stakes present," he said over Bon's exasperation.

"I'm in," Izumo said immediately while Shima grinned at her. He knew she'd been pissy about her early loss. "After what that smug cheater pulled on Rin, I need to remake mine."

"As long as everyone else is ok with it, I don't see a problem," his good buddy Koneko added.

Godaiin shrugged, as laid back as always, and seeing he was outnumbered, Bon gave in.

"If it'll get us out of here faster, yeah sure, whatever."

"Wonderful! Let's begin with the lovely Izumo," Shima's bow accompanied his words, once again ignored.

"I still don't think Rin's going to ever get a clue," Izumo began, "He could wake up in bed with one of them and still think they were just being nice."

Ouch. But also Shima couldn't say it wasn't a strong possibility, so he nodded and gestured to the pot. "My heart goes out to all of them. So, what's your wager?"

She slapped her bet down, stating, "Rin's never gonna catch a clue and they're leaving here blue-balled by next year."

"That's the most painful thing I've ever heard, thank you, Izumo," Shima chirped, collecting the bet.

"Bon?" He turned to the next in the line-up.

Bon opened his mouth to speak-

-smoke poofed into existence in the small room and Shima's heart stopped.

"Good evening, little mice," the smooth curl of Mephisto's voice rose from the dissipating smoke as the demon king grinned at them with fang, "I'd like to place a bet."

Oh, score. Shima's grin matched the one bearing down on them, even if his knees maybe were currently jelly under that terrifying presence.

"Your wager, sir?" Although Shima wondered if he should mention the other contender.

He took in the glinting fangs and remembered how possessive Rin got sometimes—increasingly often in recent days-and thought better of it. Besides, it wouldn't be right for fairness' sake to skew the results by letting them know more than they did.

If Mephisto and Amaimon weren't aware of each other by this point he wouldn't be the one to broach the subject.

A snap from Mephisto brought a check to his hand, and Shima's eyes widened as he saw a long string of zeroes.

"I'll place enough money down to make the victor never need for it again on dear Rin accepting my claim by winter's end or I'll forfeit the wager." His green eyes flashed, smile stretching too far and voice a sibilant hiss that raised Shima's hair, "But I'm going to win, darlings."

The tension built along with the urge to whimper. He definitely had to accept because that was a lot of zeroes, but the thought of sticking his hand anywhere in the vicinity of the entity smiling with too many teeth kinda made him want to piss himself.

"That'll be all," Mephisto broke it with a cheerful wink. "Have a good rest of your night, ta ta!"

Another poof and the cloud of smoke replaced the grinning devil in the room. Shima turned his head to the betting jar to see the check neatly folded in the pile and thanked his lucky stars they had lived through the experience.

It was rough being near a demon king when Rin wasn't around acting like a clueless buffer.

"I don't know how much of that my heart can take," Godaiin said the words they'd all been thinking, weak laughter following because what else could anyone do?

"The check he just put down will cover therapy for the rest of our lives," Shima assured him, patting the jar.

"I'll need it," Bon said with a stress-lined scowl. He turned it on Shima after shaking himself, jabbing a finger his way. "My bet isn't changing, Rin's still gonna royally piss one of them off and end with us all as smears on the pavement."

"You and Izumo are so pessimistic," Shima sighed.

"Oh yeah, then what's your bet now that you're changing things?" Izumo shot out, joining Bon in her irritation.

Cackling erupted from Shima as he propped his hands on his hips. "I'm glad you asked!"

"I've been giving this serious consideration, you know," he said to the eye rolls sent his way and two fond sighs Koneko and Godaiin were nice enough to give.

"On the one hand," his hand shot out like it was a scale, "you have the enigmatic and flirtatious king of space-time putting on the moves."

His gaze twinkled with implication as he grinned. "If Rin bags him he's gonna have the best sex of his life and probably never need to work again!"

"Don't be crass, dammit!" Bon shrieked at him as he dodged the swipe and continued.

"And on the other hand," Shima's hand raised to complete the scale, "You have the adorable and terrifying king of earth. He's got his own familiar just like Rin's got Kuro, so you know they've got a lot in common already. Think of the cute pet playdates they'll have!"

"Could you stop grandstanding and put your damn bet down?" Izumo said.

"I'm getting there, I'm getting there," he said to placate her. "No one appreciates a bit of pizzazz and showboating-anyway!"

"I'm going to wager-"

Smoke erupted for the second time and Shima fought tears.

Oh no.

Golden eyes flashed with threat, something they always carried even when closed with pleasure while their owner swallowed food whole like a horrible snake.

Amaimon stalked forward and Shima would have fallen back if he'd been capable of moving.

His hand came down on the counter next to the jar with a thunk.

Shima spared a brief thought that he'd broken their counter, possibly in the hopes of getting more free food after he fixed it for Rin and-

He blinked, staring as Amaimon's hand lifted to reveal…

"Ok, worms, put this on me winning," Amaimon said in a tone Shima wouldn't argue with even if he had that big check from Mephisto as stakes. Settled next to the jar was a gleaming gem the size of a fist that Shima would bet the entire jar on having been grown by the earth king himself and therefore infinitely more valuable-possibly priceless-than what the counter was worth.

Danger oozed in a stifling miasma from Amaimon as he drew a sucker from the air and stuck it between his fangs while surveying the room. He snorted eventually and said, "Rin will accept my claim and forget about that other demon when I see him next."

Right then, Shima also wanted to forget about that other demon.

"Th-thanks, Amaimon sir," he managed to stutter, heart tripping over itself when it got him Amaimon's direct attention. "Uh, good luck?"

Nothing. Amaimon didn't bother responding to him, raising a hand and poofing away in a snap.

Was Shima alive? His heart was still beating, right? He checked, then checked again because he was still numb after not just one, but two demonic encounters in the span of an hour.

"Are we alive?" Godaiin echoed his thoughts.

"They sure do know how to make an entrance," Koneko said in a weak joke Shima listened to fall flat in the silence.

"Could you just make the bet so we can go home, Shima?" Bon hissed.

That was probably a good idea. With their luck Astaroth would pop back up to make his own wager and then eat them, or something.

"Ah-ha, yeah," he coughed, "Well, I'm a real friend to our poor Rin, so I'm gonna bet that he gets some tail in the end from both of his dashing suitors and they all live happily ever after, terrifying everyone around them until Rin is old and gray."

"Love the optimism," Izumo said with a shake of her head. "Can we go now?"

"Godaiin?" Shima said to round out the bets.

"Um, well, I guess just put me down for us making it out in one piece and this all being a bad memory later."

"And I'll keep mine at them all maintaining a friendship in the end," Koneko added after, cementing the wagers.

"That's so wholesome, dude," Shima said as he gathered the new bets into the jar and very carefully collected the giant hunk of precious gemstone to place back in the storeroom.

Oh well. If Koneko wanted to bet on something so positive and wholesome that was on him, Shima wouldn't be changing his soft spot any time soon.

"Alrighty, you're all free to go, secret meeting adjourned, see you guys tomorrow," he sang as he made his way to the store room, a little pep in his steps to the various responses he got.

With a last fond caress of the bet jar, Shima closed up the shop, whistling as he made his way home.

End notes: The pot's simmering but it's about to boil over ;D