Deja Vu

Chapter 22: Confronting Belphegor

"Wait, they asked for me by name?" Belphegor stares at Beelzebub in surprise. He'd been waiting in Leviathan's room because the plan was for the other brothers to take you upstairs to play games and organically weave him into the hangout.

But you're more straightforward than his brothers.

You've shown yourself to be one who cuts through the guff when it comes to something that really matters.

"Yeah. They said before we could hangout that you and them need to have a conversation."

"..." Leviathan stares to Belphegor. He doesn't envy his brother in this moment.

Belphegor nods and begins to walk out the door. "The guest room, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"C'mon."

Beelzebub follows pretty quickly, but it takes Leviathan a moment to recover from the change in plans. He'd planned to show you guys a game he figured you and Belphegor would have a blast with, maybe he can still salvage that plan if your conversation goes well? But if it doesn't..

His mind spins as he follows the two. This could go wrong in so many ways.

---

When you see Belphegor in the doorway, the room goes quiet - But you don't let it stay quiet for long. You stand up, and you head towards the door. "We're going to talk in private." Belphegor stiffens, unsure of what to do or say. So much of this isn't going to plan. His brothers have known you longer - Did they learn nothing about you?

Mammon speaks up, trying to help his little brother a bit; "Don'tcha think it'd be better to talk as a group? Y'know, like when Belphegor and Lucifer talked?"

You shake your head. "That was a familial problem. This is a problem between individuals. None of you were there, so, it'd be pretty damn hard for you to mediate in that problem. Besides.. I'm not really comfortable bearing my soul to an audience."

While they understand the difference, it just makes it harder to watch you two leave. There's no way they can help their brother navigate this. It's all on him.

---

You and Belphegor have stepped out to the hall, and you motion for him to follow you to the kitchen. When you get behind another closed door, you begin to talk. "Alright so.. I've had a lot of time to digest what happened." Belphegor listens attentively, but you take a long pause. He can tell that talking about your feelings is hard.

You're probably a lot more used to mediating other people's problems rather than voicing your own.

In a true show of that, you begin to look through the fridge. "There any food we can eat while we do this?"

Belphegor comes up alongside you and reaches into the fridge, motioning to a container with his name on it. "Leftovers from a trip to Hell's Burger with Beel. You can have 'em. They're safe for a human to eat."

You grab the bag and look inside. To your surprise, what he says is true. Everything in the bag is safe for humans to eat, and it's all pretty good food too.

Belphegor continues to explain, moving back to give you distance. "I usually get extras so Beelzebub can have more food later, but they aren't his yet, so I don't think he'll mind." You hand him one of the burgers and get to eating some of the food yourself.

You aren't looking at him as you lean back against the kitchen island. Unlike his brothers, he's surprisingly patient as it takes you a while to be able to find your thoughts. "... I wasn't actually bothered by you trying to kill me."