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Leviathan had assured you that he’d hit his stride again as a Bunny Boy before the event had ended, and Satan’s advice about looking at people’s necks instead of their faces and pretending he was cosplaying had made everything much easier for him, but he hadn’t come out of his room for two days.
Lucifer took personal offense that he hadn’t joined everyone for meals, especially dinner, but neither entreaties nor threats had budged him. He assigned you the task of finding out what was wrong with Levi - and fixing it.
It was nerve wracking enough being expected to take charge and fix things all the time with this bunch, but it seemed to you that fixing Levi’s social anxiety was an unreasonable demand. Still, you cared very much for him and would have wanted to try to help him on your own. In fact, you’d sent him messages and knocked on his door to no avail. Your nervous Bunny Boy had hunkered down in his burrow and showed no signs of emerging.
In reality, all Lucifer’s demand had done was given you another reason to renew your efforts.
“Go away” was all you could understand from Levi’s response when you knocked on his door. He’d never said this to you until now, and it made your heart hurt.
“I’m not going away, Levi. I’m worried about you.”
“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Go.”
“I’m going to sit on the floor here right outside your door until you let me in. I won’t even get up to go to the bathroom, so don’t blame me for the puddle of pee on your floor.” Desperate times called for desperate measures.
He opened the door, dragged you in by your elbow, and closed and locked it once you were inside.
“Do you need to be so gross?”
You looked around his room as if you were casing the joint. “It worked, didn’t it?”
He flounced over to his desk and went back to the computer game he’d been playing for who knows how long at this point. Just because you were now inside, you weren’t going to let him off the hook.
“I know you needed to decompress after all the socializing with strangers, but you don’t need to hide from everyone who cares about you.”
“Nobody cares about me, I’m just a yucky otaku.”
This was bad. He hadn’t spent these last two days recovering, but mentally torturing himself. He had taken a bad situation and made it worse.
You knew there was a limit to how much you could disagree with him without making him shut down even more, so you thought about your words carefully.
“Has something made you think I don’t care about you? Did I say or do something to make you think I don’t?”
You’d maneuvered yourself so you were facing him, leaning on the edge of his desk so that even if his eyes were glued to his monitor, you’d be in his field of vision. His eyes widened at your words, and eventually he actually looked at you.
“Y…you…you didn’t do anything wrong! It’s…it’s not even about you!”
“What am I supposed to think when my best friend won’t even text me and tells me to go away when I knock on his door? How can I not think I did something that hurt you?”
Turning it around like this was kind of a cruel tactic that you’d never use with your human friends, even with most of your Devildom friends, but Levi sometimes needed a shock to the system to knock him out of a funk, and this was the deepest funk you’d ever seen him in. You’d apologize later, profusely, but you had to get him to talk to you first.
Before he could launch into a bunch of excuses that deflected from the issue, you dropped to your knees, crossed your arms on top of his lap, and looked up at him with concern. “I never want to hurt you, Levi, and I’ve been really worried. I hate feeling helpless, and I hate that you’re upset and I can’t do anything for you.”
He could meet your gaze for only so long. He knew you were sincere; that much you could tell. You were prepared to sit in silence until he was ready. He stared up into space for a long time, but when he finally spoke, he looked at your hands, not your face.
“I thought it would bother me if I got touched again, but it’s different when it’s you.” He tentatively laid one of his hands on yours, and breathed what sounded like a sigh of relief. “I don’t really want to talk about it, but if you hold me, maybe I can.”
“I’ll hold you for as long as you want.”
He stood, gently sliding out from under your arms, looked around, then finally pulled out the cushion that lined the bathtub he slept in and laid it on the floor. Without needing to be told, you laid down next to where he sat, opened your arms, then hugged him after he’d settled his head on the hollow below your shoulder. He was almost in a fetal position against you, except for the one arm across your ribs, and you petted his soft hair soothingly.
“This is b…b…better,” he stuttered. You felt the dampness on your shirt, and realized he was crying as silently as he could.
“I’m glad, Levi. I want you to feel better.” Impulsively, you kissed the top of his head and told him you loved him, and were rewarded with a squeeze.
As you laid there together, he gradually relaxed, straightened his legs to contact more of your body, and eventually threw one over you, which made you smile from relief.
“S…so…um…some of the customers were a little grabby.”
That was true. Beel had had to physically toss a couple of them out when they didn’t respect personal space.
“Yeah. I definitely saw some rudeness. That must have bothered you a lot.”
“I, uh, didn’t want to make a big scene, so I just walked away the first couple of times it happened.” You’d wondered where he’d gone and just taken his tables yourself, figuring it had been his normal sensory overload. You wished he’d said something, so the offenders could have faced some consequences, but you held your tongue. Let him keep talking.
“The last night, there was a t…t…table of incubi, and they were making me really uncomfortable. So I went and hid in the hall past the kitchen. Th…then…one of them found me. He…he touched me. Like, the way I like you to touch me, but I didn’t like this. And…he tried to…kiss me…with his tongue. I almost…I almost summoned Lotan. I used…different magic, instead.”
“Oh, Levi! This is terrible!” You could only imagine how traumatizing this was for him, and you would have forgiven him if he’d actually summoned Lotan. “Where is this bastard? He needs to pay for this.”
“He did. I didn’t…I didn’t quite kill him. I knew you’d get upset if I did. But…parts of him got turned to water.”
Your tears were spilling at this point. In this horrible situation, he had thought about how you’d perceive his actions. You held him tighter and rocked a bit from side to side.
“Levi. You didn’t need to keep this a secret. My sweet, sweet, Levi. You did nothing wrong. I would have held you like this and told you that two days ago if you’d let me. I wish my magic could just make it all better.”
Levi finally lifted his head. He propped himself up on one elbow so he could look at you. “Your magic already made me feel better.”
You stroked his cheek and smiled halfway. “I didn’t do anything, Levi.”
“You didn’t need to. You…you’re magic. Being with you is magic.”
Under normal circumstances, this would be when you kissed him, but he needed to be able to call the shots tonight, so when he leaned down and kissed you, without even asking, you knew he felt better from unburdening himself.
“I know I told you to go away, but if I ask you to stay instead and just hold me all night, would you do it?”
“Nothing would make me happier, Levi.”
He settled back onto your shoulder, and eventually you both dropped off to sleep.
The Levi who came down to breakfast was back to his old self. Lucifer was obviously pleased, but if he asked you for details, you would have to politely decline. It was Levi’s secret to share or not, and you treasured his trust in you.
But if you ever found that incubus, he would be in for even more unpleasant magic…