Of Devils, Angels, and Heartbreak

Comforting a demon king

~Several days later~

It was day five of Arthur's stay in hell, and to his surprise he was enjoying it very much. He had made friends with Vladimir and Lukas, who taught him how to control his magic. He mostly stayed away from Natalya, as she still scared him quite a bit. The British angel often bickered with Francis, but it was all friendly, and mostly Arthur yelling at him and the others in his room to shut up at night. God, they could be so bloody LOUD. No human video games, no matter how entertaining or scary, should cause more than century old demons to scream like little girls. Arthur saw Alfred at least once a day, but he was often preoccupied with kingly duties. Hell was often busy, but surprisingly small. Alfred had explained that once a soul had burned off its sins, it could choose reincarnation as a new person, with the final goal of achieving heaven. The cities were for the ones who had chosen to become demons, and cast down angels. Arthur suppressed a shudder at the thought that if his powers, along with his growing attraction to the sweetdevil king were found out, he would also become a fallen angel.

Muffled screaming and wailing reached his ears as he walked down the hall, and he quickened his pace, intending to yell at Francis, Antonio, and Gilbert to shut up and stop playing their ridiculous horror games. Antonio strode past him, expression devastated, comforting a sobbing Francis while also crying himself. Gilbert was about to follow them, but Arthur stepped in front of him, blocking his path. "What the bloody hell is going on?" he questioned, glaring up at Gilbert and jerking his head down the hall, where a fresh wail reached his ears. The Prussian demon stared straight ahead, face stony but red eyes shiny with tears he was fighting to keep back.

"Zhe Köing vas just forced to sentence a child to zhe pits." Gilbert choked out, a tear slipping past his defenses and rolling down his pale cheek. "He iz devastated." Almost as if on cue, an agonized scream echoed down the hallway.

"Anything I can do to help?" Arthur asked softly, edging past Gilbert.

"He likes jou, maybe jou can help him. I'm going to find Roddy." Gilbert mumbled, stepping to the side and letting Arthur pass, more tears tracing patterns down his face.

I didn't realize children mean so much to them... good grief Alfred has a set of lungs. Arthur thought as he hurried down the hall, hearing loud sobbing and wailing. He knocked on the door hesitantly, the light rapping of his knuckles on the wood drowned out by a fresh wail. "Alfred? You alright in there? I'm coming in." Arthur opened the door hesitantly, gasping a bit at the scene that greeted him.

Alfred was curled up in the middle of the room, crying his eyes out. The bed was flipped over on the other side of the room as was the desk, preventing Arthur from opening the door all the way. "A-Alfred?" the angel whispered, shocked. Alfred lifted his head, looking at Arthur with eyes drowning in tears.

"A child, Artie." He croaked, voice hoarse from screaming. "A sweet, innocent soul that was handed a shitty life and couldn't handle it." he coughed, a tear falling from the tip of his nose. "She was only 13 years old... Heaven wouldn't accept her. When I became king, I swore that I would protect the young, so they never face the torture of the pits. Now a child is burning in hell, ALL BECAUSE OF ME!" The last words became a scream as he launched himself up and threw something across the room, the object shattering. Arthur threw himself in front of the distraught sweetdevil before he could cause any more damage, half expecting to get tossed across the room himself. He froze and collapsed on Arthur's shoulder, crying softly. "A child in hell Artie. A child in hell." they sank down to the floor where Arthur rubbed his back soothingly, trying to calm him down

"I know but it's not your fault. Destroying your room isn't the way to deal with it." Arthur hushed, pulling away and cupping Alfred's face in his hands. "Get that ridiculous idea out of your head."

"I-I..." Alfred tried to begin, more tears leaking out of his bright eyes.

"Did you tell her to commit the sins?"

"No..."

"Did you affect her life in any way?"

"Not that i'm aware of..."

"Then it wasn't your fault." Arthur said firmly. "She was of age and you had to do your duty as king of hell." he swiped his thumb beneath Alfred's eyes, wiping away any traces of tears. The demon king smiled weakly, finally calming down. "Now what do you say we clean this mess up?"

"On it!" Alfred chirped, his previous cheerfulness returning to his face. He sprang across the room and picked up the bed with one hand, leaning down and picking up Arthur easily so he could set it down. The sweetdevil placed the shocked angel on the bed and tidied up the rest of the room, happily whistling. After he finished he turned back to see Arthur's shocked face, and rubbed his neck sheepishly. "I forgot to mention that I might have abnormal strength. Whoops." he smiled a bit, seemingly unaware that he was still holding a desk in his hands.

"That's bloody fantastic." Arthur said genuinely, impressed. Alfred grinned widely and jumped on the bed, grabbing a remote from the nightstand. Arthur immediately curled up on Alfred's chest, shifting so he could see the screen.

"Ummmm dude what are you doing?" Alfred asked, puzzled.

"You're warm and I have no desire to move." Arthur answered, grabbing the remote and scrolling through the channels until he found something satisfactory.

"Yeah centuries of hellfire tends to do that to a person."

"Lovely now shut up I didn't ask for a vibrate function with my pillow." Arthur grumbled, feeling the deep rumble of the other's laughter, along with strong arms embracing him as he drifted off to sleep.