A common demon on the street caught your eye. You slowed, almost to a halt, just to gaze at them. They paid you no mind at all. You were two strangers with no connection in the middle of a crowded street. As they passed, you turned your neck for one final glance before continuing on.
The seven demons you were walking with noticed your little stare. Some of them exchanged quizzical looks. None of them had ever seen that random demon before. They didn't look special. Leviathan paused in his tracks to glare daggers of envy at the stranger, cursing them in his mind for stealing your attention.
"Someone you know?" Satan asked. It was hard to hear him over Mammon shouting, "Who was that?"
"What?" You fixed your eyes on them, confused by the sudden outburst. Beelzebub tenderly placed a hand on your back and guided you around some uneven pavement.
"Who was that demon you were staring at?" Belphegor asked.
"I wasn't staring at anyone."
"Yes, you were." Lucifer didn't question you, but he crossed his arms expectantly. His brothers would do all the work of wrestling an answer out of you for him.
"I saw you rubberneck so hard, I thought you were going to chase after them!" Asmodeus must have been exaggerating. You only glanced at that demon for a second max, or so you believed.
You didn't think it was a big deal, and brushed the incident off with, "they just reminded me of something." You hoped that would suffice as an answer. It did not.
"And what would that be?" Satan sounded like a courtroom interrogator trying to corner a lying defendant.
At some point, the eight of you had come to a stop in front of a closed and shuttered business, letting the foot traffic flow around you. The seven of them boxed you in and blocked your view of the rest of the street, circling you like a pack of hungry sharks. You waved your hands at the ridiculous bunch.
"I was just looking! What's it matter to you guys?"
Mammon got right up in your face. "I'm in charge of protectin' you! I can't be lettin' you stare at every chump lookin' to take advantage of ya!"
Asmodeus pulled him aside, claiming, "you should just look at me! I'm the only demon you'll never get tired of staring at." He gave you a wink of fan service that would have sent anyone else into a lustful fervor.
"I... also... don't want you looking at other people," Leviathan mumbled while lacking the courage to look you in the eye. His hand fidgeted with the bottom of his jacket.
"There are many dangers in the Devildom. You know that we have a responsibility to keep you safe, both as an exchange student and as someone very dear to us." Lucifer always had a way with words.
"So, who was that?" Beelzebub asked. He was followed up by Belphegor wondering, "do you know them?"
"No! They just..." You took a deep breath before your admission. "Ok. They look like the demon I would pretend to be when I was a kid."
There it was, the truth. Out in the open. There was a long beat of silence.
Belphegor was the first to go "huh?"
Leviathan caught on quickly. "Like, a demonsona? You had a demonsona?"
"It's something a lot of human kids do," you hurried to explain. "On playgrounds and stuff. When we're little we imagine we're secretly vampires and demons and cool monsters. It's fun but we grow out of it, usually."
Belphegor tried to clarify. "So you pretended you were a demon, and that you looked like the one who just walked by?"
You swear you heard Lucifer snort, trying to hold back his laughter.
"That is sooooooooo cute!" Asmodeus did not hold back. He started cracking up, his high-pitched laughter ringing around the street, and wiped a tear from his eye. "So, for years you played pretend demon?"
"Want me to go get them and ask for their picture?" Beelzebub offered. "I can catch up pretty quickly.
"No!" The offer was mortifying. "Lets just go, we have to finish our errands."
"You had a demonsona," Leviathan repeated with a smile and a chuckle. "That is kind of cute."
"Why somebody like that loser? Why not imagine someone cooler, like me?" Mammon flexed his wings in a show of vanity, as if he could make child-you change their mind.
"I didn't know you then, Mammon. I was, like, ten. All demons were cool."
"That's funny. Humans are so silly," Belphegor chimed.
"I was a child!" You spun to look at Belphegor, sticking an accusatory finger in his face. "You don't get to make fun of me, seeing as you pretended to be human when we met. You're thousands of years old! Act your age!"
"Ok, but I can do that because I'm a demon." Belphegor explained. He ran a hand through his hair, making his horns briefly disappear. "It's what we do."
"Yeah, it's different for us," Satan agreed.
Lucifer cleared his throat and stated, "I imagine we should continue this conversation while walking, now that we have an answer. Unless you lot want to spend all night on the street." He took a step back and gestured down the road in the direction you all were headed.
Sensing an escape from this topic, you nudged your way through the wall of demon brothers and followed after Lucifer, hoping to leave this memory behind. One by one, everyone else followed suit.
Leviathan sped up to match his pace to yours. Once the group was back on track and you thought the conversation was in the past, he asked, "so did you imagine having any cool powers?"
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