Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD.

Welcome to My Life

Something was going on.

Joshua wasn't sure what, but something was definitely off about the ongoing meeting with the Phenex at that very moment. For one, they had brought Ravel, but he wasn't too surprised by that. The girl was adorable and they probably realized, or had heard, that he might or might not have a weak spot for children. Even if his real relationship with Kunou was hidden, it was very well known that he spent a lot of time with her as a "tutor".

Yasaka had helped spread that even more for their little plot to get him more political standing. On top of that, the fact that he was housing and guarding Asia had been revealed by Heaven and the Church on that side of the scheme. They had asked for permission, since it would kind of put a target on him because of the civil war, but he wasn't too concerned.

He was sure that this fact couldn't really make things worse for him. People were probably already out to get him as it was, between Khaos Brigade and the opposing side of the Church civil war. He was probably also forgetting one or two on that short list too. Asia's situation wasn't going to bring even more trouble, or at least he doubted it would.

So, Ravel being there wasn't too weird.

No, the weird part was that the Phenex were agreeing with a lot of the points being made in that meeting and they were looking happy about it. Curious, very curious, but also kind of concerning, admittedly. They had tried to fight back before, at least, even if they folded like a cheap suit every single time because their situation was just that bad against him. He imagined that they would look worse if they didn't. Otherwise, it didn't make much sense for them to do that.

They had to look terrible to others doing that with him, really, but he was no political expert.

Except that something had definitely changed, because now they were giving him everything he asked for. No arguing, no compromises. They weren't even asking questions to get more information on the proposals. Joshua was honestly starting to worry that he'd missed some kind of previous point that was reassuring the Phenex with the fact that they were actually winning the negotiations.

Serafall didn't look worried or anything though, so he tried to calm down. Not that he expected she would show much of that if something were going on. He just had to hope that she'd step in if something bad really happened.

And if nothing else, there was always the nuclear option, he supposed, but he'd prefer to avoid that.

"I think that's the last point, Mr. Davis?" Lord Phenex asked respectfully, which for him might as well have been the man beaming and singing happily. It was weird, very much so.

"I think it is," he agreed, trying his best to keep his doubts and concerns to himself. The last thing he wanted was to make the others either think they had him or realize that he knew something was going on. He really wanted to get things over with so that he could check with Serafall. Speaking of getting things over with though… "The last of the last, actually," he added, trying to get a read on the Phenex.

For the first time, their content expressions broke a little, revealing displeasure underneath. It was a tiny amount though, both on what they showed and what he picked up with Life Sense. Very interesting indeed. They weren't pleased with the agreement as a whole, but something had made it more palatable, evidently.

"We'll prepare ourselves for the announcement and what'll follow then," Lord Phenex said, giving him a nod. "I hope we can work together without issues, Mr. Davis," he added, extending a hand towards Joshua. Shaking it with a smile of his own, he went to respond.

"I hope the same, Lord Phenex. I'm sure we'll both find this agreement satisfactory in the end, even if you have your doubts now," he said, trying to be reassuring. Hopefully it was taken like that and not as condescending or mocking. Serafall had said it was probably fifty-fifty in regards to that.

"I'm sure we will. That said, good day, Mr. Davis," and with those words from Lord Phenex and a few pleasantries more, they teleported away… Except that only he and Lady Phenex did, followed by Sirzechs and Grayfia a moment later. Ravel, for her part, remained sitting on her chair, looking like nothing was wrong.

As he was about to go and ask what was up with her, Serafall spoke up.

"Give us a minute, would you, Ravel? I have something to discuss with Joshua and then you can start working," the woman said and Joshua blinked. 'Working?' he wondered, but he had no chance to get further than that before Serafall cast a privacy spell around them. "I'm sure you noticed that went very easily."

"I was actually going to ask you if I should be concerned about that," he replied, having an inkling that she'd done something now. He was missing something for sure and he was starting to think that it wasn't a ploy on the Phenex side.

"Nothing of the sort. I just struck a little deal on your behalf with them to help things along," she reassured with a smile, waving off his worries.

"And that deal was…" he urged, trying to make sense of things.

"Ravel will be your secretary," Serafall said, nodding to herself as if that answered all questions and made all the sense in the world. When he didn't respond to that and simply stared at her for a long moment, she pouted. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Why… is she my secretary and how in the world were they happy about that?" he asked, eye twitching.

"Well, because you need someone to help you out with your schedule and such, Josh. We talked about that the other day, remember?" she asked before pouting again. "Don't look at me like that. You said I could do things on my own if they'd help speed things up!"

"I know," he breathed out, bringing a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose. "How does getting her as my… secretary help things though? I imagine they'd hate to make one of their own work for me."

"Well, that's because we aren't telling the world that," Serafall said, as if it were obvious. Because of course. "Officially, you and little Ravel are working side by side on the Phoenix Spell initiative. Equals, even if it's only on paper. People will probably realize what's going on, but if you play the cards right, you could help them save some face and I convinced them I'd help them get you to do that once in a while."

"Ok…" he sighed exasperatedly. "And you didn't feel the need to tell me about this because…"

"Surprise~" she sing-sang and Joshua almost wanted to sigh again. "Cheer up, Josh. You are thinking too much. Have a little faith in me."

"I guess I can do that," he replied, running his fingers through his hair. "And I do need help with stuff, so… Thank you."

"No problem~" she said, clearly very happy that her "gift" had been well received in the end.

"I'd appreciate a heads-up next time though," he commented, drawing a giggle.

"Where's the fun in that though?" Serafall asked before "innocently" placing her magic staff behind her. "What are you gonna do if I don't? Punish me?"

"I just might."

"Promises, promises~" she replied, apparently very amused. "Now, I have to go, so I'll let you get acquainted with your new secretary. You can thank me more later. She's a fourth in line daughter, after all. She knows all she needs to know about helping others with their business. It's what she was taught so that she could be a good wife eventually, probably."

"We'll see," was all he said, even though his lips pulled up into a smile. Not at Ravel's situation of course, but at Serafall. The girl wasn't in too bad a situation from what he remembered from canon. He could be wrong though, so maybe he'd have to keep an eye out on things. "See you later, Sera. Try to have some fun in the stuffy meetings."

"If only that were possible, Josh," she huffed with a pout before teleporting away. Joshua stared at the spot she'd been standing on for a long moment before sighing. 'No way around it, I guess,' he thought to himself.

That's what he got for giving Serafall more power regarding the agreement. Then again, she'd helped him a lot and maybe what she'd done was good. He remembered Ravel helping Issei with stuff like that in the novels, at least. It was kind of a blurry piece of knowledge though, but if nothing else he could trust Serafall, he supposed.

Turning around, he paused.

Ravel was sitting there, straight and patiently with a notepad and a pen already in hand. She looked… kind of adorable while trying to look professional. She looked very eager too, even if she tried to pass it as seriousness. 'Well, it could be worse, I suppose,' Joshua thought to himself.

"First things first," he said, moving back to the table and taking the seat across from Ravel. "What did Serafall tell you?"

"The exact agreement was that I'd help you as a personal assistant. Help you keep to a schedule, provide information regarding certain things that might be out of your area of expertise but in mine and generally provide assistance in matters that might not be priorities for you," the girl explained, a resolute expression on her face as she clearly quoted that from somewhere.

It took Joshua a moment to figure out that that last part was basically saying that she'd run errands for him. Why was she looking so eager to basically be…? He wasn't even sure if there was a name for that. It sounded to him like even a secretary or a personal assistant would do more than that, right?

'You can overthink later,' he thought to himself.

"Ok then," he replied, and he almost grimaced at the way she was hanging from his every word already. He wasn't equipped to deal with this bullshit. Serafall… Oh, who was he kidding. He couldn't be actually angry at her if he tried.

It was still annoying though.

"Schedule first then," he said and the girl beamed at him, preparing to write down whatever he informed her of. So, he did just that and as he spoke, her eyes seemed to widen for every thing he told her about. In fairness to her, his schedule was kind of insane.

There was "tutoring" Kunou, who was his daughter and a sweetheart, but also the daughter of one of the two Youkai factions. There was teaching classes in House of Water. There was Working on several projects, one of which was the Sleep Disease cure. There was training time every day or almost every day if one of them was particularly busy. There were some scattered free spots to train Rias' peerage, Sona's peerage – both of whom were the sisters of the Satans – and even Issei or Aika.

And finally, there were visits to the Church to set up their defenses.

He'd paid attention to her through the whole list. He hadn't told her any secret things, like his relationship with Yasaka or Serafall, or some of his more serious projects like Project Ascension or Project Freedom, since those involved other factions. However, through it all, he kept a very close eye on her with Magic and Life Sense.

Unless Ravel was ridiculously good at masking her presence to both of those senses, she seemed surprised by the things she was told but nothing else. There was no annoyance in regards to him helping other factions. There was no elation at finding out "secrets" that could cause some problems, if small ones.

"You got all that?" he asked, watching her continue writing with a frown on her face that reminded him of Kunou working on particularly difficult homework.

"I did, Mr. Davis-"

"Joshua," he corrected with a smile. "Call me Joshua, especially if you are going to be around a lot."

"I can't- That'd be- I'm sorry, I-"

"Relax, Ravel. Breathe," he told her softly and she did as he said, taking a deep breath in and then letting it out. "You can call me Mr. Davis if you want," he told her, his smile dimming a little. It'd suck, especially if she was around a lot, but it was what it was. He could put up with it. Things had changed from the time when he couldn't stand that at all.

"But you said…"

"It's fine. I prefer just Joshua. Mr. Davis was my father and he passed less than two years ago. It's still kind of fresh for me but I'm getting over that," he explained to her, making her wince a little.

"I'm sorry."

"So, you were saying?" he urged her, trying to move on. Maybe he should have kept that correction for another time, he supposed.

"I did get everything, Mr. Davis," she mumbled, clearly a little unsure after that little interruption. "So, according to this, you need to work on one of your projects now?" she asked, reading over her notes and making him smile.

"All magic projects can be moved around. I work on them when I can, which is usually at the times when I said. Same goes for training, really. The only time sensitive things in that list are the tutoring, the magic classes and the Church jobs," he told her and waited for her to note that down. He also watched her for a reaction once more, but he got nothing again.

"I see," Ravel said, keeping her eyes on her notes, probably organizing the hours in her mind or something. "I'll keep that in mind, Mr.- Er… Would… Would it be better if I call you "sir"?" she asked then, and he tilted his head.

"Let's keep it to Mr. Davis, I think," he answered, getting a nod and pursed lips from the girl. "I think that's all, really. I don't think there's anything I need help with at the moment, particularly," he continued then, unsure. He'd talked with Serafall about getting a hand to help him out, but she'd kind of dropped Ravel on him out of nowhere, he didn't even know what he could have her helping him wi-

"I understand," the girl said, calling for his attention as she looked up. "I'll look into the Magician Associations to better understand the picture then. Probably the Youkai factions too, although I'm sure you know all about those since you've been working with them for a while," she said, writing down what she was saying by the looks of it.

Joshua wondered how she'd react if he told her that no, he had little idea about the Youkai factions besides some snippets he'd gotten from conversations with Yasaka. He knew little to nothing about the East branch, for one. Just in case, he'd keep that to himself. No need to ruin whatever good image the girl seemed to have of him.

For the moment, at least.

"The Church and Heaven…" Ravel continued, pursing her lips once more. "I might not be able to help as much, but I'll see what I can do."

"Already have ideas for how to help then?" Joshua commented, making it seem as if he already had some ideas of his own when he really didn't.

"I've heard that you have a reputation of not asking for payments when doing favors or jobs," she told him and he felt his eye twitch. That was the reputation he seemed to have now in the supernatural world, he supposed. On top of everything else, that is. Not the worst thing, but everyone always said it like it was a bad thing. "I'll help you keep track of everything you are owed, so I'd appreciate help making a list of previous things. That way, I can help you better use the favors you've amassed with several factions, Mr. Davis."

"I see," he said, processing that as best he could. It seemed that maybe, just maybe, Ravel would be more useful than he initially thought. Joshua also had a feeling that some people would either love or hate her, since it sounded like she'd help him better collect favors when he needed to.

Serafall knew what she was doing, as he should have expected.

Didn't mean he couldn't be annoyed by how she'd gone about it though.

"Well, Ravel, only one thing left to go over," he told the girl, making her straighten on her seat. Extending his hand to the side, he pulled some things out of a Storage Spell. "Which one of these do you like the most?" he asked, while Ravel blinked at the small collection of necklaces and bracelets.

"Uh, um, Mr. Davis?" the girl asked, looking very unsure.

"They are all engraved with communication spells. That way we can get in contact with each other when you aren't around," he explained and her eyes widened slightly, giving the accessories on the table a much more thorough inspection.

"We also need to talk about when I will be around, don't we, Mr. Davis?" she pointed out as if it were very important.

"I thought you'd prefer not to. It'd make this agreement more obvious from the, er, official one, right?" he commented, raising an eyebrow. He was even more caught off guard by the way she fixed him with a serious look.

"Be that as it may, I have to assist you to the best of my ability and that requires me to be around you so that I might help you when you need me. Calls help, but personal presence might be essential," she said, sounding entirely too professional for someone her age, even if Joshua didn't remember exactly how old she was. 'Isn't she Koneko's age, actually?'

Then again, devil and different culture? Whatever.

"... I get the feeling that you just want to do it that way yourself," he commented and the sheepish look she gave him was all the answer he needed. "Your family isn't going to be happy about it, right?" he added, and if anything she grew even more sheepish, her cheeks growing pink. "Oh well, they probably already hate my guts anyway."

"Yay~!" she cheered, hands shooting up in the air before she caught herself.

Her attempt to look professional again was less effective than it had been before.

Which was saying something, really.

[}-o-{]

[Kunou]

"... I don't like her," she mumbled, glaring at the blonde devil girl that had followed Joshua and butted into their time. Now Joshua wouldn't be able to be her tutor and her dad. He'd only be able to be her tutor, because she was here.

And why was it that every other time Joshua picked someone up they were blonde?!

"Be nice, Kunou," her dad told her, planting his hand on top of her head while the devil girl fidgeted with her notepad nervously under her glare. She better be nervous. Kunou didn't know how she'd do it, but she'd make her pay. "Besides, Ravel here might be able to help you with your politics classes or, if nothing else, be someone you can talk about that kind of stuff with. Everyone knows I'm useless with that."

And indeed, everyone knew that, not that her dad really needed to be savvy in such a subject. He seemed to get whatever he wanted anyway. Kunou was actually writing down a study on why that was herself out of curiosity. Still, if he thought she'd go to this Ravel for help or to talk then her dad was dumber than she thought he was… sometimes.

"You are thinking mean things about me again, aren't you?" Joshua asked, making her huff, cross her arms in front of her and look to the side. "Stop being a brat, will you?"

"Am not!"

"You did the same thing with Asia. Give her a chance. Ravel seems nice," her dad said and Kunou really didn't like the way the other girl beamed at him after that compliment. She was liking this devil even less than she liked Asia. At least Asia was nice, but this one girl didn't seem to care that she was interrupting her time with Joshua.

Which was all sorts of rude, really.

"Kunou," Joshua insisted.

"Fine," she mumbled. "She doesn't matter anyway."

"No being rude," her dad chastised her, giving her a light chop to the head that had her pouting and rubbing the spot. "Now, apologize to Ravel and we'll get to work. She has her own things to do while we are at it."

"Ah, there's no need, Mr. Davis," the devil said, looking nervous with what Joshua had said. As well she should. As if Kunou would apologize to her, even if she weren't annoyed with her-

"Yes, there is. Apologize, Kunou," Joshua pressed, giving her the this unimpressed and disappointed look that she hated. Immediately upon seeing it, Kunou deflated, drawing into herself as if that would protect her from The Look.

It did not.

"... I'm sorry," she mumbled, looking anywhere but at the devil.

"Don't worry about it," Ravel mumbled back, clearly surprised and not knowing how to deal with the situation. Stupid Joshua. There was no need for Kunou to apologize to her. She didn't even seem to want the apology anyway.

"Now, that wasn't so hard, was it?" Joshua asked, his expression turning amused, thankfully. Kunou really didn't like The Look. "Where did we leave things last time?" he continued then.

She was grateful that from there it turned into more or less the same kind of class she'd usually have with Joshua. She still didn't like Ravel being there though. Every so often, Kunou would have to remind herself that she couldn't call Joshua dad with her around and she had to hold back certain things too.

It wasn't fair.

That was supposed to be extra time with her dad!

At some point though, she blinked, looking at the sheet of paper in front of her. Not because the exercise was wrong or she'd written an incorrect answer to something, but because the text shifted in front of her. Soon, the piece of paper said something entirely different.

'Sorry about having her here, but she's helping me with some important matters,' she read in her dad's writing. 'I'll make it up to you, ok? Ice cream?'

She glared at the paper.

'Favorite dinner with ice cream?' Her glare lessened. 'And a story?' Kunou almost caved at that, but she knew she could milk it a little more. She just had to resist and hope that Joshua didn't decide she was being gree- 'You can sleep with your mom and I tonight.'

Victory!

Maybe Ravel wasn't so bad, if Kunou could get Joshua to make up for it like that. Although, she imagined it'd be a one time thing, either the devil's presence or the bribing on Joshua's part or both. Still, she'd take it all the same. She'd been asking to do that ever since she first learned that her parents were sleeping together, after all.

She couldn't wait for that night already. It'd be nice to sleep in the middle of both her parents, as she'd hoped she could back when she was younger. She'd gotten to sleep with her mom sometimes, but she had never wanted to be a bother and it was different now that she had a dad too.

It'd be great!

So, she hummed happily to herself, imagining the great night that was ahead of her.

Meanwhile, across the table from her, Ravel could only look on, very confused.

Then there was Joshua, to the side, who shook his head fondly.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How's it going?

I can't shake the feeling that I wrote that last part wrong someway. If anything looks awkward or something, I'd appreciate someone pointing it out so I can see about correcting. Or maybe I'm just paranoid. Wouldn't be surprising if that were the case.

Also, what in the fuck is up with this chapter? It was supposed to be like 1k of Ravel becoming Joshua's assistant and somehow it turned into a full chapter. How did that happen? How?!

*sigh*

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

As always, if you can't wait until next week for next chapter, there's up to three new chapters in my Pa tre on:

P a treon . com (slash) AdrianKing

Discord Link: discord .gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Do you write fanfics currently? Have you written fanfics in the past? Have you tried? Do you want to try? Yes, that's four questions, but I felt it was better to get them all in one go than separately.

See you.