A/N: Now, there's been a lot of fanart of my work rattling in lately, and I put the links up in the chapters they apply to; but if you don't find them or they don't work, there's a complete "hall of fame" on my author profile (which doesn't butcher links, O Glory~!). If you do go take a look, make sure you're nice to the artists. (They don't bite: I suspect they would have bitten me already if they did.)

I do not own or profit from any of what Kazue Kato has created.

…Jesus. How many hours of sleep had he gotten…? By the time Mephisto had dropped him off at Kiridani Ryokan he'd been just awake enough to tell the toothbrush from the razor: and when he woke to the blearing of a heartless alarm clock some time later, he came as far as squeezing toothpaste over the razor blade before he realised he'd gotten the wrong article.

"What's this slovenly appearance?" Mephisto frowned disapprovingly, hands on his hips, as Shiro came shuffling towards the meeting hall. "You are attending a conference of great importance, and representing your school: some manners, if I may!"

Shiro fished the rolled-up tie out of his pocket with a facial expression that made words superfluous. Mephisto had poofed the uniform to his room the night before, in a neatly folded stack that ruined Shiro's use-and-re-use knot. The demon cocked an unimpressed eyebrow.

"Nineteen years of age, and you still don't know how to do a tie?" He plucked the garment out of Shiro's hand, tugged the collar up, and slung it around his neck. "You're lucky I had plenty of practice on my younger brothers."

"Playing dress-up on them instead of dolls, Princess…?" Shiro smiled sweetly.

"Only Iblis", he replied blithely, gloved fingers deftly working the tie into a knot. "He had such great lines, looked good in anything you put him in."

"Pfffnnhehehehe don't do this to me…! I'm attending a meeting with just two hours of sleep, you're only making it worse…!" Shiro covered his face with his hand, shaking with unhinged laughter. He was tired alright. Just imagining Mephisto with a pair of curling tongs… "Man, I'm glad I'm not your brother…"

"So am I."

"What, I wouldn't make a good prince?"

"I have six brothers", Mephisto emphasised. "Younger brothers."

"Well, I have zero brothers, so I don't know what I'm missing."

"Two centuries of teaching Astaroth table manners. Fifty years' vain attempts to get Amaimon to stop biting his claws. And so on and so forth. I don't want to think of how long it would take to make you quit smoking." Mephisto smoothed the collar down over the tie. "And cursing." He adjusted the tie and tucked the narrow end in the hoop. "And picking your ears!" he grumbled with a pained grimace.

…Shiro felt the tiniest twinge of regret that he wasn't Mephisto's brother.

A/N: Six younger brothers? Seen Rin in ch 39 of AnE? 'nuf said. ;P