Disclaimer - I don't own The Devil is a Part Timer!/Hataraku Maou-sama! or any of its characters. Copyright to Satoshi Wagahara, White Fox and Funimation. Momoko and Shizuka are original characters created by me.

Am I late again? Why do I even bother with an update schedule? Anyway, it's time for the second-last chapter~! But things aren't completely winding down quite yet, I have something big planned to close it next week ;) And if anyone is interested, I'll hopefully be doing a one-shot collection for the musical 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee next. There's also a chance I'll do another Devil fic, something shorter probably, for my Demon Family AU, but that's still just an idea. Now that's all been said, onto the story!

Chapter 19

Five words. Just five words, but he had to read and reread them over and over again to get himself to believe it.

Could I come over today?

Momoko actually wanted to see him. The message had popped up almost out of nowhere while Urushihara was scrolling down his dash, feeling distant. Those words pulled him back to reality immediately but it took him a minute or two to respond.

Sure. Whenever you want.

He held his breath. A few seconds passed.

Sometime this afternoon. Villa Rosa right?

Then...

Shizuka told me.

He let out a sigh. It looked like things were starting to get better.

Right. I'll see you then.

There was nothing else after that. He sat back and thought. Maou had just left for work and would be back late in the afternoon. Urushihara only hoped he wouldn't interrupt them. He turned to look at Ashiya, who was busy washing up after breakfast. It might be worth getting him out of the apartment as well, but he could worry about that later. Right now, he just wanted to relax before he had to face his fear. He closed the laptop and pushed it aside, making room for him to lean forward on his desk. He sat there for what seemed like ages but couldn't really have been more than five minutes. It didn't take much longer for Ashiya to notice.

"What's wrong?" he asked, his tone more curious than concerned.

"Momoko's coming over later," he mumbled, not looking up, "To talk, I guess."

Ashiya rolled his eyes and turned back to the sink.

"There you go again, making plans without his Majesty's permission."

"Since when did I ever do that?" Urushihara snapped, tilting his head ever-so-slightly to sneer at his roommate, "And anyway, this is important. So if you're going shopping or anything today, take your time."

"This whole ordeal started because you decided to sneak out without either of us knowing," the annoyance in Ashiya's voice faded, "But I suppose I could give you the time you need. After all, I think you've suffered long enough over this."

Urushihara raised an eyebrow, looking skeptical.

"... You're just sick of me sulking, aren't you?"

"Well, yes, I am, to be perfectly honest with you. Still..." he turned around to face him, "I can see this has taken its toll on you. And I'll bet you've learned a thing or two about getting along with others."

"... Yeah, maybe..." Urushihara muttered under his breath as he turned away again.

Ashiya finished washing up and quietly went about the rest of his everyday chores in the apartment, leaving Urushihara to his thoughts. At this point, he was just waiting. After Ashiya left, he stayed where he was. He tried to force himself to stand up and at least look out of the window, just to see if Momoko was there, but his nerves and anxiety got the better of him. Sometime later, he heard footsteps outside on the staircase, then the opening and closing of the door into the hallway.

Part of him was scared, but another part of him was happy. He couldn't tell which part was stronger.

The footsteps stopped. She was hesitating. At least he wasn't the only one. Urushihara slowly stood up, still not moving any closer to the door. Not until he heard her knock. When he opened the door, Momoko stumbled back but caught herself quickly. Clearly, she was fretting as much as he was.

"Uh, hey... H-Hanzo..."

"Hey... Come on in."

He offered a soft smile, hoping to reassure her, and stepped aside to let her in. He closed the door again and they silently sat down opposite one another at the table. Neither of them knew what to say for a while and at first they couldn't meet each other's eyes. Until Urushihara decided to speak up. His eyes stayed fixed on the surface of the table but Momoko watched him with cautious curiosity.

"I... I'm sorry," he said, "For scaring you so badly, first of all. And for keeping this from you. But I guess it's pretty obvious why I didn't want to tell you..."

Momoko felt the tension that she had built up inside herself begin to break. He sounded completely sincere.

"I'm sorry I didn't think I could trust you. And for talking to Sariel. I just thought... well, you weren't telling me anything and he knew why. And I felt like if he told me something you were hiding then that meant he was more trustworthy... Y'know...?"

Urushihara had tensed up at the mere mention of Sariel. He couldn't bear to admit that he was still mad at her for talking to him. He had warned her. He had told her he could be dangerous. And so much of this problem was his fault.

Although, most of it was Urushihara's fault.

"... I understand. I could've given you a little more detail about him without giving everything up."

They could both feel the uncomfortable atmosphere gradually starting to ebb.

Yet they still couldn't make eye contact. One of them was always looking away.

"I'm not... used to it yet. I keep thinking I can accept it but... y-you're a demon, how am I supposed to take that? What am supposed to do with that information? How am I supposed to react?"

For a moment, Urushihara considered pointing out that Shizuka had handled it well enough, but he cut himself off before he even said a single word. Shizuka wasn't completely over the revelation himself yet. He was still in shock. And bringing up the fact that he had stayed and continued talking to him could potentially strike a nerve with Momoko if she took it the wrong way. He didn't want to make her feel bad for wanting to protect herself.

"I don't know. Maybe you don't need to do anything right now. It doesn't matter if you aren't used to it, just... give it time?" he finally met her eyes, "Please?"

It was a rare thing to hear Hanzo Urushihara say "please". Momoko bit her lip and her hand went to her wristband, tugging at it just a bit. But before she could give him an answer, they heard footsteps outside and soon the door opened.

Maou entered the apartment and paused at the sight of Momoko sitting across from Urushihara in the middle of the room. His usual friendly smile appeared almost instantly.

"Oh, hi, you must be Hamasaki. I'm Maou. I know we saw each other before but I guess we didn't really get the chance to talk what with everything that was going on."

It was like he was talking about a minor neighbourhood disturbance instead of the discovery that she had befriended a demon from another world.

As he came forward Urushihara noticed the wide-eyed, panicked look on Momoko's face. Her whole demeanour had changed. Suddenly she was standing up and sidestepping away from Maou with a forced smile. She bowed as she shuffled away from him and closer to the door. Urushihara pushed himself to his feet, about to ask her to wait but she was already excusing herself.

"Uh, yeah, hi... Um, I'm sorry, I should really get going. I forgot I need to pick up my brothers from school... F-from their club activities... But i-it was nice seeing you again...!"

She was gone only a second later. Maou looked lost and turned to Urushihara for an explanation only to find him staring at the door with a frown.

"Hey, uh, mind telling me what just happened?"

"Her brothers don't even have club activities today..." he muttered, as if Maou hadn't said anything at all.

He sat down again and his head dropped against the table.

"Urushihara? Are you al-"

"No! No, I'm not alright!" his head snapped back up again, his eyes cold and glaring, "We were actually getting somewhere, we were talking again, then you had to come in here and scare her off! Everything was fine until you walked in!"

"And what exactly did I do? How was I supposed to know she was even here? This isn't my fa..." he trailed off as he caught sight of a tear beginning to form in Urushihara's eye.

He didn't actually cry. But the tear was there. And now that he was paying attention, Maou could see that Urushihara was shaking. He lowered his voice.

"It wasn't my fault, and it wasn't yours either."

Urushihara went quiet for a moment, curling in on himself more, like he always did when he was afraid or upset. It was the closest thing he could get to wrapping his wings around his body.

"... You're right, though. Anyway, it wasn't going all that great. She's still nervous around me. She's trying but... I don't think she can shake that image of me. As something evil and scary and dangerous..."

"You would've been proud of that image back home." Maou smiled sadly.

"Not here... Not when it's my friend who sees me that way."

There was a pause as Maou looked at him and thought. He crouched down in front of him.

"Forget all that. She still came to see you, right? You talked. That's a good sign. And so what if she hasn't really warmed up to me yet? She's your friend. We can worry about the rest of us later."

"Yeah," Urushihara rolled over and crawled back towards his desk, "I guess you're right."

Maou watched him open up his laptop and return to his practically-default position. He suspected it wouldn't take much longer for Momoko to come around. She just needed some kind of push back towards her friend.

Where that push would come from, however, he had no idea.