Moth and Flame [Dew x Reader] {Complete}

Chapter 7 - the chasm at your toes

Tw: Sister is just a meanie in this fic

"Oh, Cardinal!!" Sister Maria was in the hall as you entered.

"I'm a bit of a sorry sight, huh, Mari?" You pouted, "But don't you worry, I heal quickly~"

"Heal..??" Bother Lindin stuck his head out of the dining hall. "Oh, Cardinal!"

"Was it you?" Maria's eyes pinned Sodomiser beside you. The way her black eyes narrowed—now that was incredibly attractive.

"Oh, Snack, if this was on me—I would've left nothing left," he leered at her. "As it is, I'm still fucking hungry."

She flinched back, but you were still impressed she'd tried to stand up to him in the first place; most of the clergy was terrified of Sodo. His tantrums were legendary.

"Dickhead," you smack his arm.

"Come, come, we'll get you patched up," Maria gave another narrowed look to Sodo before she pulled your arm with her.

"You know how much I like playing doctors and nurses~" you twinkled at her.

"I'll get Sister Lidia," Lin nodded and stepped back into the dining hall.

"More the better~" you beamed and caught the furrowed brow of Sodomiser. "You're not invited, by the way..."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Sparkles; I have a whole den waiting to lick my wounds," he tilted his chin slightly.

"Whole den of asshats," you muttered, happily being dragged away by Sister Maria.

"What was that?" Sodo hissed in a way that said you were about to brawl again.

"You two," Sister Imperator's voice was glass. "In my office."

You felt Mari's arm tighten around you. "Mam, May I attend to them first? They're..."

"They are a ghoul, Sister Maria," she informed harshly.

You flinched.

Sister recovered composure, "They heal quick enough on their own."

You didn't think that's what she had meant the first time.

"I'll wait for you," Mari said sweetly.

"Thank you, Mia Rosa," you smiled softly.

"That won't be necessary, Sister Maria; I know you're on clean up tonight."

"Sister—" she began to implore.

"Your ghoul will still be in one piece tonight."

"It's okay Mari," You promised low and squeezed her before letting her go. "I'll see you tonight, hum?"

"O-okay, Cardinal," still her brows drew.

***

"Tell me what happened," Sister Imperator loomed like a great buzzard behind her desk, cloaked in black and green eyes lined in kohl. The kohl made her trademark scowl that much more menacing.

The chairs must have gotten shorter on your side of her desk than you remembered them being. She had never seen her so large. "I hunted this morning," you tried to smile and appease her, "found a couple of wild turkeys, so that should be...good eats." It didn't reflect on Sister's face if that was 'good' at all. "It was a quick one, so Sodo hadn't made it to the basement yet..." out of some kind of ghoulish loyalty—you couldn't go on. You should enjoy it seeing him punished for being a dickhead. But being a ghoul... sucked. Your life was dictated on the whim of your summoners. You could only look down and hope Sodo had his own way out of this. He was going to lose his motorbike for this. You had scoffed to his face, but it was his actual freedom.

"In my contract, I destroy all threats to the clergy," is all Sodo said. "I saw a threat; I killed it."

"From what I hear, the surrounding forest is now overcome with cherubs—so you did not kill it," she showed her teeth in telling him so.

You swallowed and found your gore-splattered shoes very interesting.

"I will admit, I'm not surprised in you, Sodomiser, but Cardinal—if you were with him, you should have known better when assessing the situation and informed the clergy before further action."

"I..." you frowned. What kind of double standard? Perhaps once you would have nodded and accepted that as true—but what the fuck? "Sister—"

"They might have said something like that..." Sodomiser leaned back in his chair, folded his arms and shrugged nonchalantly.

Did he just—take the heat off you? What was he playing at? Was he trying to hold something over you? His every cunning bullshit trick came rushing back—right down to the time he stole your grucifix and hid it in Swiss's underwear drawer so when you went looking for it, you had to have the worst and least convincing conversation of your life. Swiss still looked at you weirdly sometimes.

"They might have said something about that? And did they do anything?"

He was silent.

You were also silent.

"You understand that this will be a warning on your name, don't you, _______?"

Panic pinched you by the heart. "'Mam... I can clean up the forest in my spare time and make this right—I..." but she raised a finger.

"A warning," she said again.

You felt the inky blackness or the abyss at your toes. The clink of metal on black glass and the marching of the inverted mountain. So many demons it was as if the chasm breathed in time with the breaking of stone. She was going to send you back there. "It will not happen again," you bit your lips together. It couldn't happen again; you had one warning left.

"See that it doesn't; I know you both have a basement to clear—so on with it."

You stood promptly and ignored the pain in your body to stand a little straighter.

"Sodomiser, behave yourself if you want to keep that bike."

You saw his jaw tick before he nodded, and that was all the punishment he received.

What were you doing so wrong?

A/N: Whatever could that little imp be planning?