Request pairing! Kinda pre-ship because I ended up trying to write this seriously so it ended up more getting to know you than falling into each other's arms. I would say I'm sorry but I'm not sorry at all! It was fun to write!

Notes: Word of God at this point is that Sock didn't kill Jojo (an old plan that was changed) so I went with that and fiddled around with the idea of why she hates him. Also playing around with Mephi's fallen angel status.

Jojo decided she was off duty. Lil was happy for the moment. It was safe to leave her with Jonathan, both of them distracted by listening to some weird music they had found. More importantly, Sock had decided to take a break and slipped off.

Stalking her adversary, Jojo run through justifications in her head. He had far too easy access to her client. He was acting suspiciously. Didn't being a guardian mean laying down a little ass-whooping when necessary?

Sock ducked into an alley between a café and a new-age boutique. He looked around nervously, completely neglecting to look up where Jojo was hovering.

She fell on him like the perfect image of an avenging angel. Sock could only let out a startled yelp, flailing and trying to push her off while she tried to lay down as much damage as possible. Jojo was dimly aware that she was shouting, "I'm gonna kill you, you didn't die hard enough!" in response to Sock's verbal scrambling wanting to know why she was hitting him.

Then someone grabbed her around the waist, pulling her off of Sock. Jojo twisted to fight her assailant, only to realize she was staring down another demon. He wasn't quite like Sock, and not just because of his mature face and suave suit. His skin glowed from within with a color she had no name for, like one of the first tier angels. There was only one inhuman angel with the mark of a demon, meaning she was staring down the devil himself.

"Hey there, angel face. Can you do me a favor and not pummel him until we finish this meeting?" He turned a smile on her, sharp as a lie.

Jojo tried to punch him in the face, only to have her arm caught. She kicked out, digging her heel into his stomach hard enough to knock the air out of him. There was a sudden searing pain in her arm before his grip loosened enough that she could jerk herself free and fly.

She didn't go far, landing on a roof overlooking the alley and clutching her arm. There had been no pursuit, and she could still hear them talking.

"So, you've got an angel in the way. Is that why you're not having any luck, Sock?"

"N-no! I mean, she doesn't care what happens to Jonathan, so she's not really in the way," Sock babbled. "I'm just trying to be subtle, because nothing else I've tried worked. So it's taking a while, is all."

"And here I was worried you were getting distracted."

Jojo peered over the edge of the roof, watching Sock fidget. She wondered if she was going to see some kind of infernal punishment. It sounded like Sock was not doing well at his job, and he hadn't done much she was aware of to really hurt Jonathan. Instead, his boss simply clapped him on the back.

"Well, he is your first. Think of it as job experience!"

"Sure. Then I should get back to making him miserable," Sock stammered.

Sock escaped, and Jojo lay back, confused by how anticlimactic that had been compared to reporting to heaven.

"I haven't forgotten about you, angel face."

Jojo stuck her head out again to find the devil looking up at her. His sideburns framed his face in a jagged mane, and she didn't trust his relaxed pose. "It's Jojo," she told him.

"Alright then, Jojo. Call me Mephistopheles." He paused for half a second, as if waiting for her to test out his name and then asked, "Can't heal that burn yourself, can you?"

The burn on her arm throbbed in response, and Jojo gritted her teeth. "It's fine. What do you want?"

"A civil conversation would be nice. But, barring that, She does tend to get vengeful if I harass any of Her angels."

In a blink he had gone from standing in the alley below to standing on the roof behind her, just out of range with his hands tucked in his pockets. Jojo scrambled to her feet and backed away, eyeing him suspiciously and suddenly afraid to turn her back in case he blinked closer.

"You realize I'm offering to heal you, not harass you." Mephistopheles sighed, reaching up to rub his temple. "I didn't intend to hurt you."

"Yeah, well you did!" Jojo snapped. If felt like fire was still eating into her skin. Was this what hellfire felt like? She wasn't sure how anyone had decided the damned deserved this all the time.

Mephistopheles frowned. For an instant, even with his well-pressed suit and his hair that stood out like static flames, there was something sulky and almost childish in his face. It was more interesting than the slick smile.

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he amended. "Now will you let me fix it?"

Jojo edged closer, watching for any sign of danger. He held his hands out, palms up, and she hesitated. "I'm not sorry I kicked you," she blurted out.

"Yeah, well. You had a reason for that."

Jojo put her arm out, flinching at his careful touch. He took her arm in both hands, one cupped under her elbow and the other cradling her wrist, and pressed a kiss right in the center of the burn.

The burn faded into nothing, leaving only a feeling of tingling warmth in her skin. Mephistopheles released her arm and took a step back.

"You're not supposed to be able to do that," Jojo exclaimed.

"I hate to tell you, but the rules aren't always consistent."

Jojo rubbed her arm to make the tingling sensation go away. "More like you break the rules."

"Oh, that too." Mephistopheles favored her with a serpentine smile. "Now, are you going to tell me why you were throttling one of my employees?"

Because he's too close to my client. Because he's a demon and I'm an angel and we're supposed to fight. There were a hundred excuses and no one should judge her for lying to him. Wasn't he supposed to be the prince of lies? Yet Jojo burst out, "Because I hate him!"

"You know, most people would be satisfied knowing the person they hate went to Hell."

"It's not like you're punishing him."

"You think you can do a better job of punishing someone?" Mephistopheles paused and studied her while she glared, not willing to risk another burn. "Actually, you might be right. It does beg the question of why you're wasting that energy on Sock, and not the person who killed you."

"What he did was worse." Jojo could feel the too-familiar churn of memory in her gut, the bone-deep pain of betrayal. What Sock did to her was personal. It was unforgivable.

"Ah, well. Far be it for me to argue with your priorities."

Jojo hugged herself, rubbing her healed arm, trying to will herself not to care what he said. Everyone had always turned it into a discussion of intent or character and tried to tell her how to feel about what happened. But now the ruler of Hell himself was saying he didn't want to argue with her. "Thank you. For understanding."

"Oh, don't get me wrong. I don't understand at all. I do know you people tend to take death very personally, but I don't see any reason why you can't feel differently. Then again, no one's ever killed me."

Jojo let out a startled bark of laugh, and she could swear she saw the flash of a warm smile on Mephistopheles' face before he paced to the edge of the roof, arms crossed behind his back as he looked out over the rooftops.

"I do know what it feels like to be betrayed," he added. "I won't tell you to let that go."

In the history she had been given, he was the betrayer. He was the one fallen angel. Jojo almost wanted to ask what he meant. Even if he lied. She wasn't sure how much the truth mattered anymore.

"So you know, I'm not going to stop trying to get Sock back."

"Fair enough. You know if you keep him from doing his job you'll be getting another visit from me."

"I'll see you then." Jojo didn't think it would be bad to see him again. The embodiment and the arbitrator of sin, definitely not someone she trusted, but just knowing that she didn't have to trust him was a brand new sort of security.