During the fifteen minutes it took Oga to walk to his house, he very carefully did not think about the picture. He particularly didn't think about Misaki's caption of the photo, and everything it suggested. And he absolutely did not think about the things he had thought about his best friend in the photo. He did not think about the picture so much, that by the time he closed his front door, he had it memorized.
"I'm home," he called out, sitting down to take off his shoes. Somehow, one small walk and one very small picture - that he was definitely not thinking about - had left him feeling more exhausted than most brawls.
Focusing on his shoes, Oga ignored Beel's warning smacks to his head.
"Yeah, yeah, she'll feed you in a minute, just - " but Oga never managed to finish that sentence as he was suddenly sent flying into the floor.
Shocked, Oga looked up at Misaki, his surprise attacker, "what the fuck was that for?"
"Welcome home, " his sister beamed down at him, "I know your secret."
Oga blushed, the picture leaping into his mind. Mentally shoving the image down, he stood up, dusting off his pants, and tried to think of a way to explain to his still beaming sister that - amazing pictures aside – he wasn't sleeping with his friend. Misaki however moved faster than he could think, and before he could begin, she spoke, punctuating every sentence with a small punch.
"Why are you keeping this a secret eh? You should be proud of yourself, I am! Oh and I showed mum too, she's in shock that you have such a "normal" hobby!"
Misaki stepped back, waiting for a reply. Unfortunately for her, Oga was now more confused than ever, and could only manage a "what hobby?!" while rubbing his abused arm.
Surprisingly, it was Hilda who came to Oga's aid.
"We have seen your website, the one with all the pictures of the young master," she explained cooing at the little demon lord in her arms, Beel having leapt to safety before Misaki first struck.
Oga looked from his sister to the demon nursemaid in yet an even greater state of confusion. "What website?"
"The one with all the pictures of Takachi and Beel!" Misaki said, heading into the kitchen, "a friend of mine who studies art showed it to me today, and I recognised them immediately! I could barely believe that my little brother could be such a great artist!"
Whle Misaki loaded up her laptop at the kitchen table, Oga was attacked by a second hurricane of a family member, as his mother threw her arms around him in tears.
"My Tatsumi, oh, my clever little Tatsumi, I always said you were a deep soul, I always said, didn't I always say Misaki, that Tatsumi was an artist."
Hilda sniffed in disapproval as Oga awkwardly patted his sobbing mother's back. "Just this once, you have done something right. You have managed to capture the young master's essence of great power and wisdom, as well as his truly cute personage – but you need to focus more on the young master and less on the rest."
"Don't listen to her Tatsumi, the pictures of 'the rest' are great too," Misaki said, disentangling Oga from his mother and sitting him down in front of the laptop, "you should be really proud of these. I don't how you did it, but I feel like I'm dreaming when I look at these."
Oga had to agree. It was while looking at the laptop screen that Oga experienced the greatest level of confusion he had ever known. After meeting so many demons, he had come to accept that there existed other worlds that he could not even begin to imagine. He'd just never expected to stumble into one at his kitchen table, and the more Oga looked at the laptop screen, the more he became convinced that he was actually looking into another world.
A world in which his bitchy, pervert of a best friend, might possibly be a fairy princess. A fucking beautiful fairy princess.
Oga stared at the pictures of Furuichi, dozens of them, taken at different times, in different places. Smiling, laughing, studying, walking, eating, every image was different. But just as Misaki had said, they all seemed to Oga to feel dreamy. He spotted the cafe picture Misaki had sent him. It had the same feel as the others, as if the young man in the picture was about to float away, but the eyes still seemed to be looking straight into his own.
Oga sat back quickly and pushed the laptop away, to the annoyance of the three women looking over his shoulder. Before they could complain properly, he said the only thing he could think of that might return his world to normal.
"I didn't take these pictures. I've never even seen them before."
Given the day he was having, he should have known that wouldn't work.
As his mother and sister pointed out that these were obviously pictures of the person he spent most of his time with, Hilda enlarged an image.
It still had the same dreamy feel of the others, but this picture was of baby Beel, standing on the footpath playing with a large leaf. The little demon had such a look of pure joy and wonder on his face as he held the leaf up to the sun, that just looking at it made Oga feel more relaxed.
Until he remembered his own words. Even if the three women didn't believe him, he knew they were true. Closing the big picture he looked again at the rows and rows of images, this time trying not to get drawn in to the pictures of Furuichi. Among the dozens of images of his friend, he counted about ten images of Beel.
Oga looked back at the expectant faces of the three women, and repeated "I didn't take these pictures." Something in his face must have convinced them that he was telling the truth, as they looked back to the screen, but this time with confusion and a little fear on the their faces.
Hilda hugged Beel closer to her, and Oga could see the darkness gathering around her. But the rage he expected to see on her face was absent. Oga knew he probably had the same look too – afraid. Someone had been that close to Beel, and they hadn't realised.
Oga looked back at the screen, something was nagging at him about the pictures, but it wasn't until Misaki spoke that he realised what it was.
"I just, when I saw so many of Beel and Takachi, but none of you, I thought, you must have been taking the pictures."
Oga sat back again. That was it, that's what was bothering him. Nearly fifty pictures of the two people he spent all his time with. But Oga himself was in none of them. Where had he been when someone got this close to the two people he needed to protect?
Author's note: Thanks for all the positive feedback guys, I'm just getting back into writing after a long time, so any advice and reviews is welcomed. I'm trying to keep the humour of the comic, but as you know, this is a stalker-fic, so my writing style changes a bit, i hope its not too extreme.
Chapter 3 is coming soon, and so will Oga ;)