And yet even as Maou watched, the kind, happy look in his eyes faded and his face was shrouded in darkness. A faint red glow came from his eyes as he suddenly realized how cruel life truly was.

'No matter what happens,' Maou thought, 'no matter how this ends, I'll never have her.'

Maou had endured over three centuries of the most intense and grueling physical training, on top of countless headaches from trying to grasp at some semblance of order in a world of chaos. He'd seen and been a part of atrocities performed and he'd simply swallowed past the guilt. So why was he so angry and frustrated now?

To put it simply, her, Emilia the Hero.

She was the reason for Maou's intense agony. Maou had done and seen things that would destroy lesser beings and yet here he was, angry because he couldn't have the woman he wanted. It was like dangling a mouse in front of a python. It was tantalizing, and Maou wanted Emi more than food or air or life. But no, destiny had other plans. They were to remain upon opposite sides of the board in the grand scheme, where Maou could only watch and wait.

He felt himself be shaken as Emi swayed to and fro with an unseen tempo, her eyes still closed as she danced upon his aching feet. Perhaps it was symbolic that the woman of his affections remained oblivious to the pain she caused him while he simply remained quiet, obedient: a tame Demon King.

After their kiss at the museum, Maou had been certain that something would change. He had been so excited to think that the dynamic between the Hero and the Devil might shift even an inch, and now he felt like nothing had changed at all. Maou's face, shrouded in darkness as it was, lit up with a smile that looked more like the painful grimace of a feverish madman as negative thoughts whirled through him. And still the woman he cared about, the woman with whom he'd shared a moment of passion, continued to dance, unaware of the demon that rose in Maou's heart.

The Hero and the Devil turned on the spot, Maou slowly guiding Emi as they danced. A few steps would bring them to the edge of the bed, where it was a long drop to the floor.

'How easy it would be,' Maou thought, sadness etched into every syllable of his inner voice, 'to just let her lean back too far… to let her fall from her perch upon my pain. Let her go, let her fall, and let her trouble me no more.'

Emi felt nothing as she danced with Maou. Sure, she obviously felt him, but she also felt a deep sense of warmth within her as she remembered the vague memories of rainy days spent dancing with her father by the fireplace. A serene calm washed over her and she kept her eyes closed so as to let the feeling linger. She swayed with a light, long rhythm in her head that made the warmth in her chest even hotter. She began to lose awareness of her surroundings, and soon it was just her and some dark stranger as they danced about her head.

'Maou is a pretty handy dancer,' Emi thought as she went.

She felt Maou steer her as the dance went on, and she figured he might be moving for a more comfortable spot so as to spare his sore feet. She smiled and leaned back, letting her neck loosen as it did, but then she felt a sudden lack of support and Emi reeled back. Maou had steered her towards the edge of the bed and now Emi was about to fall off. Her eyes opened and she gave a small yelp as she prepared to fall. She looked to Maou, but found that his face was obscured in shadow, his arms limp at his sides as she lost balance. Something was clearly amiss, but Emi was so panicked by the fall she hardly had time to register it.

'She is a weakness,' Maou reasoned with himself, 'she is obviously not healthy for me, it's best if I just let her…'

"Uwah- Maou," Emi cried as she reeled back, frightened by the sudden lack of support.

'My name,' Maou thought, his red eyes widening, 'that's it, she hasn't been calling me 'Demon King', she's been calling me 'Maou'!'

The Demon King had saved the Hero, time and time again, without reward. Even though he had been haunted by the red haired beauty every night while he slept, even though he felt his sense of reality fade a bit more with each passing night, Maou found he couldn't blame the Hero. In fact, now that he heard proof that their relationship had indeed changed, he calmed down a bit.

A hand shot out and grabbed Emi's wrist, steadying her and stopping her from falling backward onto the floor. Emi looked at Maou, and she saw the red glow in his eyes, the same glow she'd seen when she'd accidentally cut herself.

"Sorry, Emi," Maou said, his voice incredibly weary, "I must've zoned out."

He pulled Emi up with one hand and used the other to run his hand through his hair. Emi landed upon the bed with her face mere inches from Maou's, and now that she looked at him, she saw the large dark circles under his eyes. Perhaps she wasn't the only one who'd had trouble sleeping.

"Emi."

"Yeah?"

Their voices were quiet as their faces were so close, but Maou did not meet her eyes, he kept them firmly planted upon the where they stood, with Emi's feet once more upon his own.

"I've been wanting to talk to you, about what happened," Maou said quietly.

"Have you been having nightmares too," Emi asked.

Maou said nothing, but Emi pressed on.

"I just-I saw the rings under your eyes and I figured you hadn't slept much," Emi said, just now noticing how close their faces were.

"I'm pretty tired, yeah. Anyway-"

"If you like you could stay the night," Emi offered quickly, "er, I don't know, it's morning now. I guess you could get some shut eye before you left… if you wanted."

"No, Emi," Maou said, feeling strangely numb as he stared at the bed beneath him, "that's fine. I plan on staying up for a while, I don't want to overstay my welcome. Pleasant dreams."

Maou stepped back, carefully removing his feet from under Emi's as he slid off the bed and prepared to leave.

"C'mon Maou, it's so earrrrlyyyy. And I'm so tiiiirrrred," Emi slurred, sliding down and throwing her arms over Maou's shoulders, "stay here, get some rest. It's the least I can do to repay you. You can sleep in the guest room."

"Actually," Maou said, a faint smile crawling across his face, "I should sleep in here. If you have nightmares I'll suck them out before they escalate."

"But how are you going to sleep if you're watching over me," Emi plied, sitting on the bed and rubbing at her eyes.

"I wasn't really planning on doing much sleeping," Maou said quietly, "right now I just need some time too… think things through."

Emi was shocked at the sudden change in Maou's behavior. One moment he was fine and making snarky comments, the next he looked so preoccupied that Emi found it amazing that he was still talking to her.

"Suit yourself, but try to get some sleep, Maou, ok? We're all counting on you to stay in tiptop shape. I can't fight the Demon King if he starts going soft."

Emi rolled over and hit the switch on the lamp next to her bed before throwing a pillow and a blanket onto the floor for Maou, who ignored these and sat in a chair instead. In the darkness, he could hear Emi's breathing, and with his demonic powers, which were made to hunt creatures of lesser power, he could hear the blood pumping through her veins, and he could practically taste her muddled thoughts.

"Goodnight Maou," Emi said quietly.

Maou, who'd wanted to distance himself from Emi and think things over rationally, felt her words cut through his mental shielding and shatter his inhibitions. For a moment, Maou considered simply climbing into bed with Emi. He didn't want to do anything awful to her, but just to be nearer to her, to be able to feel her heat on his chest, would make his night better.

'That's a great way to get yourself killed,' Maou thought as he leaned back, crossed his arms and closed his eyes so as to get some thinking in.

The Devil was furiously debating with himself, and asking how he'd fallen for the Hero. He wondered if he shouldn't just vanish, renounce his throne and hide from Emi for his remaining lifespan. Or perhaps he should've just told the Hero that he would stay in Japan so that she would leave. All these thoughts and more chased themselves through Maou's throbbing cranium for hours as the light outside the window grew brighter. When it became clear nothing would happen with Emi, whose dreams were quite calm and peaceful, Maou settled onto the floor, the only conclusion to his quandary still eluding him. He knew one thing though, if it ever came down to it, if his loyalty was ever tested, he would be unable to break away from Hero.

'If my actions tonight have proven anything, it would be that I am unable to let her go, even when she's a pain in the ass,' Maou thought as he drifted off to sleep.

As per usual, he tried to think of just about anything but Emilia as he waited for sleep to take him, and as per usual, he failed quite miserably. Her green eyes, long red hair and kind smile were the last things to cross Maou's mind before he finally gave in to his severe exhaustion. All throughout his rest, however, he was caressed by the Hero of his dreams, the one who reciprocated his love and made him feel like reality was slipping farther and farther away whenever he woke up.

Emi, on the other hand, woke up a few hours later, the sun now bright in the sky as it speared beams of bright sunlight through her curtains. She rolled over and found Maou was sleeping on the floor, his body pressed tight against the frame of Emi's bed, as if he'd gotten as close to her as he could without being obtrusive. Emi shook the thought from her head, it was more likely that he simply needed the back support.

She stepped over him and crept for the door when she heard the Demon King speak.

"Emi… heheh, Emiiii."

She turned, but instead of seeing Maou awake and talking to her, her eyes fell upon a sleeping Demon King with a peaceful smile upon his face.

"Maou," Emi asked quietly, sure that he was talking to her.

"Emi, you're so…," Maou said before rolling over and hugging his pillow.

Emi's eyes opened wide for a moment before she turned and left her room. At first she was unsure of what had happened, but then it hit her, if the Demon King had not been awake, then he must have been dreaming of Emi. Why else would he speak her name as he slept?

She turned the knob of the faucet and let the water pour for a moment, making sure it was cold before she put a glass beneath it, but after taking a drink she found that the Devil's words made even less sense to her.

"He was dreaming about me," Emi said, sure that it was true, "I suppose that explains why he hasn't slept much. I mean, you don't have good dreams about your sworn enemy, do you?"

But then Maou's face floated to the forefront of her mind, and she remembered his peaceful, serene smile as he slept and spoke her name.

"Maybe…"

Emi couldn't quite tell when she'd begun to not hate the Devil, but she now knew that she regarded all of her Ente Islan comrades with a certain level of trust founded upon the mutual want for their lives to continue as they were now. Was it so surprising that Maou no longer viewed Emi as an enemy? In truth, he'd only fought her because she tried to kill him, he never actively sought conflict with her. Perhaps he was just as happy as she was that Bernael hadn't managed to rip their little group apart. The image of her mind's eye flashed again and she saw herself and Maou, kissing furiously as they fought to restore Raphael's power.

It had been a necessity, and while Emi couldn't quite explain how she felt about it, she got the feeling that Maou wasn't troubled by nightmares. But then why would he be dreaming of her? She set the cup of water down on the counter and quickly left the kitchen, intending to go and shake Maou awake and demand to know the reason behind his nightly visions.

"EMI, PLEASE!"

Emi heard Maou's scream and froze for a moment before she took off for her room, running as fast as she could, and wondering what had happened.

But as soon as the door to her room opened, she knew that something was off. Maou was now awake, leaning against the bed, tears streaming down his face as he gently wept.

"Oh, Emi," he said, turning away from the Hero, "I was wondering where you'd gotten off too."

"Maou, what's going on, why'd you scream?"

Maou said nothing. He did nothing, he waited. He wouldn't give up any information unless specifically asked, and even if he was asked directly…

"What do you mean?"

"You've been acting strangely since you came here. I heard you say my name when you were sleeping and just now when you yelled for me, and now you're crying! Something's been eating at you, spill it!"

…he could always just lie.

"Emi, I wasn't dreaming about you," Maou said with a laugh as he folded his hands behind his bed.

"Then why did you say my name?"

"Well, you were in the dream, but so were Ashiya and Urushihara and Suzuno and Chiho. We went to the park and had a picnic, but then you got stung by a bee, so I sort of laughed at you and I said 'Emi, you're so fat now!'"

Emi, hearing how easily the lies rolled from Maou's tongue, had no choice but to believe them as they did.

"Then you pulled out your sword and attacked me and you… you killed Dullahan the Second as I watched and pleaded for mercy," Maou said loudly, looking thoroughly put out as his eyes became wet once more.

"So… you weren't dreaming about me," Emi asked, looking rather cross as she looked down at Maou.

"Not really," Maou laughed, "in fact, you only appeared after the bee stung you, like an afterthought."

Meanwhile, moments before Maou's awakening, he had actually been dreaming quite vividly about Emi, as he often did during the night. It was an excellent dream too, one that might even make him consider missing work, if he'd actually had to work that morning. He was sitting upon a fine golden throne, his limbs muscular, long, and draped in fine robes; his horns were wrapped with golden ornaments, both horns perfectly whole and well, and between them hung a burning crown. The throne was covered in pelts, silks and other fine fabrics and though Maou's body was actually technically human due to the lack of goat legs, that wasn't what held his attentions. They were entirely focused upon Emi, who sat sideways upon his lap as they gently held each other. Nothing could be seen aside from Maou's throne and the two people upon it, but somehow Maou knew that all was well.

In his dreams, he and Emi were closed off from the world, and yet Maou knew that the world was at peace. Humans and demons lived and worked side by side, peace spread throughout Ente Isla, and the Devil had his Hero.

"Someone's coming."

Emi spoke, her voice sweet and unworried as she slowly turned to look at the darkness right in front of Maou's throne.

'This isn't right,' Maou thought, 'there aren't supposed to be any interruptions.'

"No, but I'm done letting you try to hide from your feelings in here," said a very familiar voice, "it's time you face them!"

"You," Maou said, his red eyes flashing dangerously as he stared at the person before him.

There, standing before his throne, was Maou. But even though there were two of them, one was so very different from the other they might have been two different people. One Maou was comfortable, at ease and lounging upon a golden throne with his lover, the other was… refined. He was vivid and so real that Maou knew that he should not be in the dream… and yet there he was, standing as bold as brass before the full might of the Devil and the Hero.

"Maou, I've let you enjoy your time with her thus far because it has been a good way to help you heal," the real Maou said, "but it's gone too far, now."

"Who are you, and who do you think you are, invading my dreams," the dream Maou asked, looking angrier by the moment.

"I am the demon instinct that you so kindly invited in here. Now, usually I don't bother you, but this is starting to get out of hand. If this woman means so much to you, let her know! Stop using your head as an escape from reality," the real Maou retorted.

"She's not an escape," dream Maou said, looking at the Emi that lay strewn across his lap, "she's the most beautiful woman in the world."

"She's an afterimage of the real thing, a device that allows you to dump your unrequited affections onto it. But now it's becoming more than that, it's becoming an obsession. Look at yourself, Maou, your mind is so busy trying to recreate her in detail that it spared little thought to you! You are a vague shadow, pouring yourself into this endless nothingness!"

"Lies," Maou shouted.

"I do not lie! I speak out of concern for you! You saw what happened to Bernael, didn't you? In the end he was so bitter that Beliel chose you that he killed the woman he loved! Do not become him, do not let this unhinged fantasy of yours take you over! You have subordinates, Generals, and humans that care for you! Let her go!"

"I can't," Maou shouted, "she means far too much to me."

"Then I shall help," the demon said, stepping forward and gently lifting Emi into his arms, like a princess in a fairy tale.

"Where are you going? Come back," Maou shouted after the retreating figure of his demon form carrying his love.

"I am taking her away from you, if you want her so bad, talk to the real thing about having lunch sometime."

"EMI! NO GIVE HER BACK! EMIIII! I SWEAR I'M NOT OBSESSED, JUST GIVE HER TO ME, PLEASE! EMIIII!EEEMMIIIIIIII!"

But call as he might, Maou found himself stuck to the throne he sat upon. Helpless, as the vision of perfection that he'd spent the last week creating, perfecting, and loving, was wrested from him forever.

"Salutations, good Ashiya."

It was Suzuno, who greeted Ashiya politely as she swept past him into the Demon Fortress. He let her enter, looking very tired and unhappy as he peered out into the hallway, as if waiting for someone else to show up.

"The Demon King is not here, did he have to work today?"

"No," Ashiya said, "and he spared no time to wake me and tell me where he went. I've been stuck with Urushihara all day. The only pleasurable company I've had so far has been Chiho."

"Hey, Suzuno," Chiho said, looking over her shoulder from the oven, "I thought you might come over. We haven't all really sat down together since last weekend, and even then you were all so tired and sore I didn't get to really interact with you."

"It is good to see you as well, Chiho, but Ashiya, where exactly do you think he could have gone," Suzuno asked, clenching her fists under the table as she thought of the possibility of the Devil slipping away in the night to do evil deeds.

"I have a hunch," a voice said as the door to the closet slid open.

"Urushihara, you knew where our lord went and you didn't bother telling me," Ashiya asked, threateningly waving the ladle at the fallen angel.

"I don't know for sure, but I know I heard him answer his phone and say Emi's name," Urushihara said, "so wherever she is, I'd guess he's somewhere nearby."

"Emi called the Devil in the late hours of the night," Suzuno asked, causing Chiho to stop what she was doing at the counter.

The fallen angel's eyes flickered to the unusually still high school girl that he knew was infatuated with the Demon King before he grinned evilly.

"No, no, if she called late, we would've been awake. Ashiya likes to keep us awake so that we can welcome Maou home; as such we're often up until midnight, sometimes later than that. No, Emi called early in the morning, at a time when most usual people are asleep, and the ones that aren't are either insomniacs, third shifters or… well, engaged in other activities."

The knife in Chiho's hand clattered to the floor as she became red in the face at Urushihara's insinuations. Before she could turn around and smack him, however, Suzuno beat her to the punch.

"This is for making Chiho uncomfortable," Suzuno growled, flicking Lucifer's ear, "and this is for insinuating such a relationship between the Hero and the Devil!"

Suzuno picked her sandal up from by the door and thrust it under Urushihara's chin, making his teeth clatter before he hit the floor with a groan.

"Say what you like, but the fact remains that Maou has been acting weirder and weirder by the day, and then last night he gets a call from Emi and he's out the door! Something's up, whether you acknowledge it or not," Urushihara said, wiping his lip and checking for signs of blood.

"I was hoping I'd only imagined it," Ashiya said, stopping halfway as he cut an onion and ignored Suzuno's assault of the other Demon General in the room, "but I think Lucifer has a point. This last week, my lord has been increasingly resistant to my efforts to rouse him in time for work. The result being that he's almost been late three days in a row."

"Yeah," Chiho said, "I noticed that as well, and his work performance has been down. I was gonna ask you guys about it when I got here, but I wanted him to be here when we discussed it."

"My lord has not been performing at work," Ashiya inquired, knowing how proud the Devil was of his job at MgRonald's, "how so?"

"Well, for the last week, he looked like he hadn't gotten much sleep. On his breaks he'd just sit in the break room, lay his head on the table and not move until it was time for him to go back to work. And even when he was working, everything he did was sort of sub-par, like he had other things on his mind. And whenever there were no customers, he'd just sort of… grow still. He'd stare off into space and act like nothing existed."

"I can certainly vouch for Maou's lack of sleep," Urushihara said, "I haven't gotten much sleep either. You have no idea how awkward it is to get up to get a glass of water while Maou is just staring at the ceiling like a crazy person."

"Why haven't you been sleeping, Urushihara," Chiho asked politely.

Though Chiho had never really been a huge fan of the NEET angel since he abducted her, she still found his input to be entertaining, though irritating. As a person, he might not have been the nicest, but Chiho had hope for the jerk, yet.

"I just haven't," Urushihara said, crossing his arms, "you try sleeping in a closet when your limbs are asleep.

"I'll admit to not having gotten much sleep since the museum, either," Suzuno said, looking at the ground, "and if I had to guess, that is what has been affecting us all."

And suddenly Urushihara thought he understood why Maou had been summoned by Emi so late in the morning, as he was privy to the details of their arrangement involving the extraction of her feelings to supply Maou with demonic power. Maou, Ashiya, and Urushihara had each other for support, such as it was in a house with three demons. And then they had Suzuno, who was always close at hand, and Chiho, who often brought them spare goods from her parents' freezer and pantry, to lean on during tough times. Emi had no one. After long days at work, she could only return home to be by herself, only able to talk to her Ente Islan comrades by using the phone unless she traveled to see them.

"Oh yeah," Urushihara said, looking profoundly proud of himself, "I bet if someone called Maou or Emi, we'd find them together."

"Imbecile!"

"I didn't mean it like that!"

But that didn't stop Suzuno from throwing her sandal at Urushihara, and nor did it staunch the nosebleed it caused.

Emi looked Maou over with a sharp eye as he sat against her bed, telling her lies. Of course, Emi knew they were lies, she was the Hero. But more than that, she knew a bit about psychology herself. Whenever someone lied, there was a physical reaction. Whether it was a twitch, a muscle spasm, flickering eyes, or a nervous sweat, there was always something. Even though Maou was an expert at hiding these symptoms, there was something he must not have known: the fact that when humans lie, they often look to their left. A strange fact, one that stuck with Emi even though she didn't know where she'd picked it up, but when Maou had told her the dreams he'd had were not about her, she watched his eyes flicker as he looked to the right, which would've been his left.

'He's lying,' Emi thought as she watched Maou.

It shouldn't have surprised her, but somehow the thought that Maou was lying to her made her feel… jealous? No, what did she have to be jealous of, they weren't in a relationship. Perhaps she was just angry because the Devil didn't trust her…

'Did I just infer a relationship between me and the Devil? And why the hell would I need his trust,' she thought angrily as she listened to Maou's quickly constructed and perfectly fabricated tale of false dreams.

The best lies always contained a bit of truth, and more often than not, the more unbelievable ones could always have a strange detail or two thrown in to make them easier to swallow.

"So," Emi said carefully, "you weren't dreaming about me?"

She watched Maou closely, looking for more signs of untruthfulness, and sure enough…

"Not really," Maou said with a nervous laugh as he averted his gaze and twiddled his thumbs behind his head, "in fact, you only appeared after the bee stung you, like an afterthought."

"I see," Emi said, looking down at Maou with unseeing green eyes as she thought about what their conversation meant. From it, Emi could gather that Maou had indeed been dreaming about her, but she also knew that he would deny it unto his dying breath, so there was no point calling him out for it. And even if Emi tried to summon her holy sword and threaten Maou into telling the truth, the butterflies in stomach were fluttering so violently she felt she didn't have the concentration to pull it off.

"Anyway," Maou said, yawning as he stretched and made to lay back down on the floor, "I think I'm gonna go back to sleep, provided I haven't overstayed my welcome."

Maou looked at Emi quizzically, as her face was inscrutable, and for a moment Emi was tempted to throw the Demon King out on his ass for lying to her. But then the thought of incurring the horrible wrath of the house-husband, Ashiya, and upsetting Maou to the point that he broke off their agreement, or worse, revealed it to Suzuno and Chiho, crossed her mind and she calmed slightly.

'Maou seems to be rather afraid of me for some reason,' Emi thought, thinking back to how he'd reacted when she'd stayed the night at the Villa Rosa last weekend, before Bernael captured Ashiya. She'd tried to help him with a burn on his hand, only to find the Demon King flinched from the contact as if she herself had burnt him. Even when they'd been dancing, Emi felt a certain stiffness from Maou, like he had been holding back and keeping himself as distanced from Emi as he could. With all these things weighing upon her, Emi resolved to do that which she swore she never would…

"No, you can stay, but you'll have to stay in my bed. There will be a pillow boundary, so don't get any ideas, and if you don't like it then you can sleep outside," Emi proclaimed, sounding more like an officer in the military than a young woman.

…she would share her bed with the Devil.

What's that, you came here looking for quality fanfiction with a driven plot, good writing and relatable ideals? Well, keep moving cause I don't have anything like that in stock, all I have is this senseless dribble that I bang out at 4 in the morning because I have a lot of feelings. Anyway, in this chapter we see the Devil and the Hero hashing out their relationship and trying to figure out their own feelings. Maou, in his infinite wisdom, tries to commit suicide by throwing Emi off of the bed, which wouldn't hurt the Hero, but would've sealed his fate by her hand. This is meant to show Maou trying to let her go... but it's not so easy, is it, Maou? Emi is confused and unsure of how to handle Maou's covert affections, and Maou's demon side is getting really sick of his twin's screwy dreams, so he takes the Emi out of his dreams and makes the Devil quit his addiction cold turkey, cause let's face it, that's what Maou has, an unhealthy addiction. And Emi, bless her heart, is feeding this addiction a feast! Anyway, I told you guys that to celebrate this becoming my most viewed story, I'd give you another chapter before I move on to the usual rotation where I update the oldest story. And here it is. Now, when I post music I didn't realize you guys can't copy and paste the youtube urls, so I'm just gonna post titles and artists for you to search on your own.

Save Me - Reaktion ft. The Eden Project

(I've been in an EDEN aka. The Eden Project mood, his songs are just... amazing. Plus they really give a certain depth to Maou's infatuation...)

Gravity - EDEN

Stall Me - Panic! at the Disco

Good night, and pleasant dreams, Devils. I'll see you on the next update. Goodness knows I hope I can get a longer chapter out for you guys. And if you guys usually don't look up the music I suggest... do yourself a favor and give a listen to EDEN, the guy in amazing, seriously. Can't get enough of him. And sorry for spelling errors. After 3am my eyes get kinda blurry and it's harder to write and read for errors.