Hey homie G Skillets! Welcome back to Phases of Accidia! Here is Chapter Cinco for your reading pleasure!
A/N: This chapter beat my ass. Seriously. But here it is! Slight angst toward the end, and it is bel-centric, despite the fact that he's absent for a good chunk of it.
Warnings: Gratuitous amounts of alcohol, cursing and drunken theories. Enjoy.
V. His Extraterrestrial Majesty
It was over a traditional Italian feast one night at the Varia headquarters that Lussuria came to a startling realization. As he delicately twirled some fettucine onto his fork, he thought with a slight frown, half-watching a nine-year old Belphegor ram breadstick after breadstick into his mouth, marinara sauce coating his face and the entire front of his shirt.
Lussuria ran shaded eyes over the mop of blonde hair and down to the prince's dirty face. The more he thought about it, the more it bothered him. What on earth does Belphegor look like? It occurred to Lussuria that the youngest of their group had been with them now for about five or sixth months, and he was fairly certain no one had ever seen the child's entire face. He was snapped out of his thoughts by a small, but by no means timid voice.
"The prince knows he cute, but could you please stop staring? It's kinda weird." He realized then that everyone (the core Varia members only) around the table was staring at him in mild amusement. He blushed.
"Oh my~! I've been caught staring at the super adorable little prince~! He gushed, trying to cover up his embarrassment at being caught. Belphegor blanched.
"I hope you're aware that pedophilia is a crime." Said the snooty prince as he returned to the massacre on his plate that was his chicken and four cheese Penne. Lussuria would have been insulted, were it not for the fact that his curiosity was officially peaked and thus, he completely brushed of the jab. He returned to his Alfredo, still in deep thought.
He finally brought it up later that night, when the young boy was forced to go to bed, and the older teens of the assassination squad sat around in one of the many plush lounges scattered around the castle.
"Hey guys?" Lussuria asked, in an uncharacteristically quiet and serious voice. The others ceased their boisterous rough-housing and arguing to look at the green-mohawk donning boy.
"Yea what?" Squalo demanded. He still wasn't completely comfortable with Lussuria, and his…feminine... personality, for lack of better description. As a result, he was always a bit snappier with the younger teen.
"Well, I was just thinking, doess anyone know what Bel looks like?" He glanced around as everyone's face momentarily blanked. Even Xanxus, who was slouched in his favorite chair a few feet away, glass of wine in hand, looked up with slightly widened eyes at the question.
"I got no fuckin' clue!" Squalo answered in typical Squalo fashion, as the white –haired sword wielder knocked back his fifth or sixth shot of tequila. Lussuria turned to Levi. The older teen shrugged. He didn't know either. Which isn't suprising, considering its Levi.
"No one knows?" Lussuria couldn't believe it. After all this time, they really didn't know anything about the newest addition to their group. They should at least know what he looks like under all that hair, right?
"I wonder what color his eyes are…" Lussuria thought out loud.
"Pshh… I bet they're bright red, like a demon." Levi spouted out. He, for one, thought the homicidal prince was really creepy. Especially with that little laugh of his, coupled with that giant smile permanently glued to his face…Levi visibly shuddered.
"Now that I think about it, is he even Italian? I mean, he speaks it perfectly, but he said he ventured from his 'kingdom' when he joined up with us, remember?" Squalo piped up. For all they knew, it seemed that Belphegor, in the very least, was not a full-blooded Italian. When he spoke, they noticed a nearly imperceptible accent. It was just a matter of matching it to a country.
"Nah, I don't think so. Look at the kid's nose; it has that little hook at the end. That's like an eastern European thing, I think. I'm betting on Germany or Norway." Surprisingly, Xanxus was the one who offered up that piece of intelligence. So, even the temperamental Varia boss was curious.
"Hang on, the fuckin' tequila's empty. I'ma go get another one." Squalo slurred a bit. He was already a bit buzzed. The others continued to throw out ideas.
An hour passed.
Over that time, the four of them had somehow ended up in a circle on the floor, respective booze of choice planted next to them. Yes, even Xanxus, in an almost unheard of display of sociability. 'Thinking caps' on, the four teens pondered the enigma that was Prince Belphegor.
"What if he has some disease that fucked up his eyes or something? You know, like that one that those dogs have." Squalo pictured Belphegor in his mind with one blue eye and one brown eye.
"Heterochromia, retard." Xanxus muttered lowly, earning a snarl from the slightly older teen.
"Voi! Shaddup!"
"What if he's blind?" It was Levi's turn to speculate. The thought of the slasher prince with glassy, opaque eyes gave him the willies, but he didn't walk around feeling everything like Levi had seen blind people do. Also, when he looked at you, you could tell he was looking at you, and not just in your general direction. So, blindness was unlikely.
"Maybe he has a scar~?" Lussuria, sipped daintily on his glass of Pinot Grigio as he pictured Belphegor with an ugly slash across one of his eyes, like from a sword, like he had seen on a picture of a samurai in Japan a long time ago.
"I don't think the runt would be shy enough about a scar to grow his bangs out that long. That can't be it." Xanxus said, reaching for a bottle of pure Russian Vodka Squalo had brought back along with his tequila and had left over on the table. He chugged straight from the bottle.
"What if he's horribly disfigured? Like a monster?" Ever one gave Levi a stupid look.
Levi glanced around at everyone abashedly.
"What? It's a possibilty, right?" He imagined Belphegor lifting up his thick bangs to reveal one huge, bulging irisless eye, paired with one eye that was way to tiny. Kind of like Igor. Levi cracked a smile. That would be hilarious.
"What if he has no eyes? Maybe the kid's an alien?" Squalo speculated loudly. Squalo's mental image was one of the blonde prince with a blank space were his eyes should've been, gravitating toward him, arms outstretched and trademark smile in place.
Let it be known that by this time, the four were fairly intoxicated, and weren't letting up anytime soon.
"Whoa… that's fuckin'trippy." Squalo said, chuckling a bit.
This back and forth discussion over the young prince's mysterious face continued for over three hours. It was early into the twilight hours, and by now the four were so completely inebriated that they were giggling and seeing doubles of everything. Despite that, their heated speculatory session was still in full throttle.
"Seriously… I bet one of his eyes's fucked up! Didn't him an' his brother hate each other? Maybe he stabbed him in the eye wit' a fork or some shit like that." At this point, Squalo was on his back, lying across one of the tables, arms and legs dangling off the edges. He stared up at the ceiling, absently marveling at the deep red of the paint in the room.
"Could be. He gets iffy when anyone mentions his family." Xanxus sat near Squalo, albeit upside down in the recliner. He was still chugging the bottle of vodka.
It was then that Levi got everyone's attention.
"Hey. What if Bel's a cyclops?"
Everyone turned to look at him.
"A…cyclops." Xanxus raised an angular eyebrow at the other hitman cynically.
"Yea like in that one greek story! The cyclops was the one that had the one eye-"
"Voi! We know what it is jackass…He means why would ya think that?" Squalo leaned his head back to glare at Levi. But Levi was undeterred.
"Think about it! It's not completely impossible, you know. There's this disease that makes babies be born with one eye. It's really rare." Levi reasoned, surprisingly logical for one so drunk.
The other three mulled over that piece of information and collectively glanced up at the ceiling, to where they knew the prince's room was.
Xanxus stood up suddenly, if not a bit clumsily. His comrades turned to look up at him. The boss pointed drunkenly toward the prince's room.
"Let's go find out!" He, again drunkenly, declared as marched out of the room with surprising determination, like a general leading his troops into battle.
And so, the four intoxicated teenagers made their way steadily to the other side of the castle. It took much longer than necessary, since one of them would trip on the stairs and laugh every few minutes.
At last, they stood outside the door to Belphegor's room. It occurred to them simultaneously that they had never even been inside the kid's room before. Naturally, it was Levi who was having second thoughts about entering the slasher's domain.
"You sure about this boss?" He whispered heatedly to Xanxus, who just stood glaring at the door knob.
Well, either he was glaring at it, or trying to concentrate enough to figure out which of the two doorknobs was the real one, and why the hell they were spinning so fast. He reached out and took hold of one of the gold knobs. Hopefully the real one.
"You motherfucker's ready?" He turned to his subordinates. The three nodded, although slightly hesistantly. The Varia leader turned the knob, which he apparently found, slowly and pushed. Their eyes were met with darkness.
The prince's massive, canopy style bed was located in the farthest corner of the room. The posh velvet curtains were still slightly drawn back on the gigantic window, allowing the pale moonlight to pour into the room, illuminating the youngest member in the group. The prince was lying on his stomach, in a mess of pillows, limbs and sheets, snoring softly. His trademark tiara sat on the nightstand next to his bed. Toys and gadgets of all varieties littered the floor. They found that out when Squalo stepped on a toy robot. Hard.
"OOWWW!" The others quickly turned to slap all of their hands over the teen's mouth.
"SHH!" They all hushed him, and turned to the sleeping prince. Thankfully, he didn't budge. The four older teens slowly ventured on toward the boy until they all surrounded the king-sized bed. Squalo crossed his arms, staring acidly at the others. Xanxus in particular, who looked like he was having second thoughts.
"Well, what now, oh esteemed leader?" Squalo drawled out sarcastically, promptly earning him a wack on the head from Xanxus.
"Shut the fuck up you piece of shit." Xanxus growled back in a low voice. He turned back toward the sleeping child.
"We'll just look, okay? It'll be quick."
It should have been that easy. But the four boys' collective drunken state proved to be a major hinderance. Levi had sat down on the floor while Xanxus and Squalo bickered, leaning against one of the bed posts. The teen rubbed his rapidly closing eyes in an attempt to keep himself awake a bit longer. It wasn't meant to be, however. He passed out immediately.
"Looks like Levi's out~!" Lussuria pointed to the lightning wielder. Now that he thought about it, he was suddenly starting to feel the effects of the alcohol. He felt his eyelids begin to droop. While the two others debated about how to go about their little 'plan,' Lussuria dragged himself over to a comfy looking couch across from Belphegor's bed. The Muay Thai expert curled up and fell asleep.
It was down to two.
"Just fuckin' do it already!" Squalo pushed Xanxus lightly towards the occupant of the bed. The sky guardian pushed him back.
"Shaddup! I was getting ready to!" Xanxus glared down at the little boy. He slowly inched his hand towards him, and promptly withdrew it back when the boy stirred.
"Shit! He's gonna wak-" Xanxus slapped a hand over Squalo's impossibly loud mouth in irritation, pinning him with a disbelieving look. How fucking hard was it to speak in a normal volume? The blonde prince stretched out and rolled away from the two teens hovering over him. He ended up back on his face, arms splayed at his sides and legs, bent at the knees, folded under his skinny torso. His butt was sticking up in the air, like some kind of strange yoga position. He sighed contentedly and drifted back into dreamland.
Squalo snorted. If only he had his camera.
Xanxus released him from his deathgrip. "You trying to wake him up or something, foghorn?" He whispered heatedly. Squalo just glared back. The Varia boss turned back toward the bed, and smirked at the kid's interesting sleeping position.
"How can that possibly be comfortable?" He thought out loud, yawning into the back of his hand. That made Squalo yawn as well.
"Come on, just look already! I'm fuckin' falling asleep." He glanced behind him to see his two comrades thoroughly out of commission.
"Levi 'n' Lussuria passed the fuck out." Squalo had a habit of pointing out the obvious when intoxicated. He stretched, his bones popping satisfactorily. Scratching his flat stomach under his shirt, he turned back when he heard a light thump. He saw his boss and friend (relatively speaking), slumped over the edge of the prince's bed, snoring rather obnoxiously. He was out too. That was quick. He glowered, slapping a hand over his face.
Squalo was the only one left standing.
It was his job to see this impromptu mission to its bitter end. He edged closer to the slumbering boy, inwardly wishing he could somehow send the picture of Belphegor sleeping in a "receiving" position telepathically to his camera. If only the fuckin' baby was awake. He thought. Unfortunately, Mammon was just that, a baby, and thus had retired much earlier in the evening. If anyone could do that, it was most likely the little psychic Arcobaleno.
He inched closer. His heart was racing in his chest. Why was he suddenly so nervous? It was just Bel for crying out loud! It's not like the kid sleeps with knives under his pil- Squalo stopped. This was the Slasher Prince. Slasher Prince. I take that back. He probably has a goddamn chainsaw hidden under there somewhere. Nonetheless, he perservered. He leaned in closer to boy, shaky hand outstretched and reaching toward the long golden bangs. He gulped. Here we go…
At that moment, Squalo's stomach, in ironically horrible timing, decided it was time to forcibly remove all the alcohol from his system. The rain guardian slapped a hand over his mouth as he raced toward the prince's bathroom and proceeded to spill out his stomach contents into the bowl of the toilet.
The sun shone on a crown of blonde hair. Belphegor's hidden eyes cracked open slowly, before blinking shut again, wishing for the sun to explode. He was not a morning person. The young prince sat up on his elbows, stretching languidly, scratching at his neck and hair alternately. It was then he noticed an unfamiliar weight on his stomach. Looking down, the young assassin saw an arm draped across his torso.
I don't remember killing anyone last night…what the hell… He thought to himself as he examined the arm closely. No blood. And… it was still attached to a body. The body of his boss, to be exact. Well… this is awkward… Belphegor wasn't quite sure what to do. Should I just go back to sleep? Or move his arm and risk losing a limb? The prince debated within his mind. In the end, he took the risk, because he really had to pee.
Socked feet padded softly onto the floor as Belphegor did his best to step over Xanxus's prone form. Phew. The prince thought, as he turned to make his way to his personal bathroom…only to trip over a leg. The storm guardian rubbed his forehead in annoyance. What now? He glared at the leg, which belonged to Levi.
The prince was confused, but he reeeally needed to go. He could ponder about why his boss and the ugly perve were in his room after he relieved himself. He continued the mini-trek to his bathroom, spotting Lussuria over on the couch, still curled up in a ball. Belphegor wondered at that moment if he was dreaming. Rubbing his eyes tiredly, he made his way into the bathroom, and stopped.
The last member of their squad, one Superbia Squalo, was draped over the toilet, head resting in folded arms on top of the lid. He was snoring loudly, as expected.
"Did they have a party in my room while I was sleeping or something?" The slasher thought out loud as he kicked Squalo's head off of the seat, and resumed his morning business. The shark awoke a few moments later, as the prince was washing his hands.
"Voi," he croaked out, "where the hell am I?" He looked around in confusion, before he remembered what had transpired less than five hours ago. He sat up quickly. The young boy casually walked over and smiled, sitting on his hauches to stare at Squalo in amusement. "Shishi~, you passed out in the prince's bathroom."
Squalo shook his head to get rid of the sleepiness, and immediately regretted it. A wave of dizziness made his stomach turn. Hopefully he wouldn't throw up again. Belphegor just stared him down for a bit longer before walking out of the bathroom, clapping his hands loudly.
"Alright everybody! Wake the hell up!" He continued slapping his palms together as he walked over to Lussuria first. The martial artist stirred a bit and finally sat up, hair and ever present sunglasses askew, yawning lightly into his hand.
"Good morning~!" He smiled at Belphegor, who waved back before dumping a glass of water on Levi's head. The older boy jolted awake.
"W-what?" He stuttered, shaking stray droplets of water out of his hair and off of his face. He glared up at the young boy, who had already moved on to the last sleeping person in the room. He stared at Xanxus, biting his lip and juggling his options. Wake him up, or not. Should I? The prince crouched down next to his sleeping commander. Oh hell yeah.
And he yelled. Loudly.
"XAAAAAAAAANXUUUUUUUUUUUUUS-SAAAAAAAAMAAAAAAAAAA!"
The older teen shot up from the side of the bed, whipping his gun out of his hammer space. A bit of crusted drool ran down the side of his lip to his chin.
"What the fuck!" He looked around wildly, only lowering his pistol when he realized he wasn't under attack, but was surrounded by his squad. He sighed, brushing a shaky hand through his dark hair, trying to retain what remained of his dignity. He wiped his chin when no one was looking.
"Why are you guys in the prince's room?" Belphegor asked up at him, confusion and irritation apparent in his whispery voice.
"Uhh…" Xanxus looked to Lussuria, who looked to Levi, who looked to Squalo, who was stomping out of the bathroom, rubbing his face where Bel had kicked him a few minutes ago.
"We came to see if you were an alien." He said honestly. Belphegor gave him a deadpanned look.
"No, we came to prove he was a cyclops!" Levi shouted from the floor, still shaking his hair dry.
"I wanted to see if he had a scar, like that samurai~!" Lussuria piped up from his corner of the room.
"I…I dunno. I was drunk." Xanxus shrugged, pinching the bridge of his nose. He felt a massive hangover coming on.
"No, he's an alien!" Squalo.
"A monster!" Levi.
"Oh my, don't fight~!" Lussuria.
Xanxus yawned, but remained silent as the three others bickered. Through all of this, Belphegor looked between them in exasperation. So, that was it. He knew they'd get curious sooner or later. Belphegor seriously contemplated whether he should show them or not. It was really nothing shocking, but the fact that he purposely grew his hair out just to cover his face would most certainly raise a lot of questions. But nonetheless… he figured he'd better do something quick, as the two hungover teens were about to come to blows over this.
"Shishi~ guess I'd better show them before they kill each other." He said to himself as he pushed his thick blonde hair out of his face.
"Hey guys." He was ignored. The prince pouted. He turned to Xanxus, poking him in the ribs. The older teen looked down at him, eyes widening at the new face. The sky guardian growled out to the still arguing boys.
"Yo trash! Shut the fuck up and take a look at the kid!" the three teens ceased their argument to look at the youngest member.
They were met with two, evenly proportioned clear grey eyes, framed by thick black lashes. They reminded Lussuria of the shade of grey the clouds would turn right before it snowed; a grey so light it was almost clear. They were absolutely breathtaking. The two eyes were set in a pale, ethereally regal face; the skin looked to be as smooth as a baby's (not Mammon) bottom.
The four older boys were stunned silent. The rain guardian was the first to break the tense quiet.
"Damn…you look…normal." Squalo's shoulders slumped a bit. Belphegor frowned at that. What the hell were they expecting?
Lussuria on the other hand…
"OMG~! What a doll! You are gonna be a little heartbreaker when you get older!" The flamboyant martial artist pinched the boy's cheeks, gushing about how many perspective lovers he would have once he reached adolescence.
"Whatever." The prince said tiredly as he shook his head free from Lussuria's claws, letting his mop of hair fall back over his face and yawned.
"Get out already! I'm going back to sleep." He pointed to the door in annoyance.
"Later trash." Xanxus, having met his "friend/big brother" quota for the year, didn't need to be told twice. He immediately made a bee-line for the door, presumably to go sleep his hangover away. Dejectedly, Squalo and Levi followed soon after. Neither tried to hide their apparent disappointment at the fact that Bel was indeed a normal human being. In the technical sense of the word, anyway. Lussuria also began to make his way to the door, before he stopped and looked to their newest recruit, who had slipped back under his covers and was fluffing up his pillow.
"Why do you cover your face, Bel?" He asked, tone serious for once. The blond prince stopped. He looked up from his pillow to the sun guardian corners of his mouth turned downward. He looked at the floor and sighed. It was only a matter of time before someone asked. He was surprised it took them this long.
"I'll tell you guys when I'm ready. You don't know me well enough for me to trust you yet." And with that, the blonde settled himself back under the plush black covers and fell asleep.
Lussuria smiled sadly. He got his answer. Belphegor certainly had the face of a handsome prince. But one answer always leads to more questions. Unfortunately, it seemed the little prince wouldn't be devulging any more information for quite a while. He'd have to settle for now. Whatever the boy had to hide, he had to be absolutely sure that he could trust the others with his life before sharing. The eccentric Muay Thai master slipped out of the room quietly, and walked back to his room for some well deserved rest.
It would be a long time before Belphegor would tell them his story.
There its done! Man, I had a hard time trying to end this, but hopefully I did alright. Meh. Anyway, this will be my last post 'til probably Friday or Saturday. School is ruining my life, as usual and I have some serious studying to do! So, until then, read, laugh, cry, whatever, and then review! Or the Varia will creep into your room and fall asleep on your toilet!