...i think at this point i'm just BEGGING for flames. have fun to you all who hate laharl's fluffiness! i can relate to you even though... i'm the one who wrote it. strange, huh? XD

-Chapter Nine- Too Deep of Sleep

True morning and he had expected to be alone in this old bed.

He was not.

Atsu still lay beside him, motionless. Sleeping. Sleeping? Or… It was a very uncommon thing to see her sleeping at such a time. It was nearly noon, he knew this, and she had always been up and about long before that. It made him terribly nervous.

"Atsu," it was almost a command. "Atsu, wake up…" Laharl sat upright, a cold feeling rising in him and he trembled lightly. "Please Atsu… Get up…!"

She did not.

He shook her shoulder gently at first, and found it limp. "Atsu!" he was becoming more frantic and propped himself further up to kneel. "Atsu!!"

If she was supposed to ignore him like this, she was a really good actress…

"Atsu, please…! This isn't funny!" his words were weak, unsteady. He felt hot tears trickle down his face before he'd even admitted to himself the worst possible.

Shakily, he crept over to her side to check for any trace of a heartbeat.

Nothing.

Fear struck him and he jerked away. Grief… everything hit him all at once, and he jumped off of the bed in some kind of panic. "dammit…" he rambled. "I need help… Atsu needs... she needs…" he stopped himself for two reasons. One, this was again one of those times where he found himself talking to the air after someone had gone. And two, standing there rambling to himself wasn't getting Atsu help any faster.

He bolted outside to into the small town pleading for help anywhere he saw people. Most of them acted as if he simply wasn't there.

At last, turning to the last person he would suspect to for any sort of help, he ran to a familiar stand-market and found the shoppe keeper who had sold him the Harusame flower. "Please! Can you help me?" he pleaded, bracing himself against the counter. He was unsure why he wanted to ask this man in the first place anyway, after all he'd said… but then, that had been just a dream.

A very realistic, terrifying dream, but still just a dream.

"…what, Laharl, was it?" the man rumbled, turning to face him slowly. "whatsa matter, kid?"

"Please… my friend Atsu needs help, she wont—"

"Boy…" the keeper began almost sharply. " 'Round here, no one really… helps other folk. Every demon for himself." He bent over the counter and Laharl flinched, expecting to be smacked. He leaned back away from the nearing man. "And you know… I been watchin' you run around ta other places… y'just don't get it, do ya?"

"…huh…?" he didn't understand where the kindly, 'normal talking' old man had gone from when he bought from him. That was probably the problem, he figured; he wasn't a customer anymore.

"It's cuz you're cryin. The reason you're being ignored s'much is cuz no one answers ta cryin. No cryin here; num'er one rule."

So what. That was something he couldn't stop even for the world right now, and how the keeper had said it, only made things worse. "You bastard!" he kept his voice strong up until this point. "I can't help it…!" as hard as he willed it not to, his words lilted at the end with a sob. "Atsu is… Doesn't anyone care that she's in trouble!?"

"Boy," the man snapped bitterly. "Did you even check for a heartbeat?"

He shook his head, not trusting his voice. All this talk about the heart…

"Th'n no one c'n help you, son." He leaned back, a calm yet stern look in his eyes and face. "She's dead."

A low mumble caught in Laharl's throat and he sobbed past gritted teeth. "You bastard… none of you care, do you…? That your town's nicest devil just… died…"

"Don't blame it on me, boy. Besides, if y' ask me, that woman was a little messed up in th' head. She was always ranting about love an' care an' all that." he grunted when he said the words.

"Because that's what you're SUPPOSED to do!!" he admitted loudly and whipped away from the plump man's dirty counter and found himself in the square of the town.

Out of breath, he scanned the area from a stationary position; looking small, helpless and crying.

From a small distance off, only slightly off of his view, a young angle trainee noticed him. "It's Laharl!" she gasped lightly, wanting to run to him.

Etna jabbed her with the wood of her spear.

As if like the obedient dog Etna thought she was, she settled down, eyes still set on the distressed demon, concern clear on her face. "Oh, but Etna…" she complained sadly and grasped the devil's hand, tugging lightly, trying to get her to follow. She did not move.

"Help!! Please!! Someone help me!!" his unstable voice carried even to them and Flonne shook herself.

"See!? He needs help!"

"Is that really something you should be saying after what we did to him the other day?" Etna muttered viciously.

"Etna!" she insisted further. "Come on!" Flonne pulled at her arm again with all her strength.

"I will NOT!" she roared, tearing her arm away. "Listen to me! You chose to be one my side—"

"I didn't choose anything! You forced me!"

"I didn't tell you what to say, Flonne, and you could have said no."

"You threatened me with my life!" she protested loudly, a fierce glint in her sapphire-violet eyes.

Etna grumbled impatiently, yet still finding her protest amusing. "Listen, do you really think he'll want your help after all you said to him yesterday…?" she mused acrimoniously.

"After all I said…? Etna, all due respect, YOU said most of it!"

"I did," she smirked happily. "And unlike you, I meant it all and don't regret any of it!"

Flonne hesitated for a moment, watching him run to another shoppe keeper and plead for help. "Just look at him, Etna…"

"Pathetic."

"No! He needs our help!!" she was getting tired of this.

"Flonne, he said it himself; he doesn't want our help! Why do you think he hasn't come looking for US for help!?"

"Because!" she yelled hotly, stamping a foot. "You're a selfish devil who will do ANTHING to make poor Laharl feel bad!!"

"You were like that too, yesterday!" Etna retorted just as loudly.

"Only because you told me to!"

"Like you didn't have a choice!"

"You were threatening me, Etna!"

At this she threw her head back and gave an evil laugh.

"You're a bitch, you know that?!" at this point she didn't care she'd cursed. Now she was serious.

"Why, thank you…!" Etna took a deep bow, and it gave Flonne a string urge to knock her down while she had the chance. "But you know, you're quite the devil yourself."

"Sure! Whatever!" she shrugged it off, glancing around to find Laharl again.

"Flonne." She stood very straight, a stern look on her slack face then. "Just know this; you chose to be with me yesterday. He's not gonna take too kindly to you again. You chose to be like me yesterday. You chose to be—"

"Well I chose to be his friend now!" at this, she turned and stalked away and began to Laharl. She ignored the fact Etna had completely left out how she'd also been threatening her to do many other things. Not just for the sake of her life. Etna had told her that if she refused her, she would take control over he body and force her to do it all anyway… and throw in a few extra things that more than likely would have caused Seraph Lamington to consider his dear Flonne a sinner.

"Laharl-san!" she cried, rushing to him, arm outstretched as Etna walked the opposite way in disgust.

His ear flicked backward and he spun around. For a moment he didn't recognize the concern in Flonne's voice and mistook it for something else. He backed himself up against the counter of a random demon's market-stand, his hands pressed tightly against the wood behind him.

"Flonne," he said almost delighted, almost surprised when he had intended it to be bitter, angry. His own voice was betraying him at this point.

"Laharl…! You were calling for help!"

He shook his head, wanting to refuse her and he almost came out with 'no, not you, I don't need help from you' but he realised of course now was not the time to be angry or choose who got to help. "Atsu is—" he swallowed past he iron in his throat. "She won't wake up…!"

"Who is Atsu…?" Flonne asked as gently as she could be.

"My friend…"

The shoppe keeper behind them scoffed something terrible and Flonne stamped her foot loudly.

"You stay out if this! I don't see you helping him!" she turned back to Laharl when the man backed away and was silent. "C'mon, Laharl… take me to her…"

Already, she was doubting.