Slowly Melody got into a good routine. The Devildom foods were becoming less intimidating to her, although she still flatly refused to eat anything with the word ‘brain’ in it. As she got used to the classes, they became less stressful as well, though the students in them never really felt much safer. Most of the demons kept looking at her as a cross between a meal and a prize to be won; they certainly didn’t make many friendly overtures. Luke remained a tiny ball of anger and indignation. Simeon and Solomon were both equally unreadable. Mammon continued to escort her to school, but she only rarely caught sight of him during school hours, before walking home with her. While she no longer felt threatened by him, they didn’t really become friendly with each other either.

It was really starting to feel lonely for Melody, so one evening she found herself standing outside of Levi’s room. Since the night she delivered Seraphina, they hadn’t really talked, except a few passing words coming and going. Levi spent as much time shut in his room, while Melody was mostly in hers. But, she thought several times about the comforting reflection of water that rippled across Levi’s room, the more modern aesthetic compared to the old Gothic style of the rest of the house, the familiar sight of a computer screen and gaming consoles. And, if the worst happened, he would tell her to go away, and she would do so. But, the first thing to do was to knock on the door, so she raised her hand and took that first step.

“Who is it?” Levi’s voice on the other side of the door didn’t sound pleased, but Melody wasn’t surprised. He didn’t seem to get along with his brothers half the time, and the other half they were ignoring him while he mutually ignored them.

“Oh, um, it’s Melody. I was wondering if you were busy.” Melody fell silent after making her statement, straining her ears to make sure she didn’t miss Levi’s response. It seemed to be a long time in coming.

“No, I’m not really busy right now; just grinding some levels. Not a big deal,” Levi said. Melody could hear the door unlocking and it opened. Levi’s expression was neutral and wary, but not overtly hostile, which was a good sign as far as she was concerned. She didn’t want to make anyone angry, especially since the nearest human was in another building, and she wasn’t even sure he would help her other than during that first day of classes.

“I was wondering if I could just come in and sit for a bit, maybe look at what games you have. To… you know… compare them with games I have,” she said nervous.

“Yeah, I guess that would be okay as long as you don’t make any sudden loud noises or bring up any boring normie subjects,” Levi replied with an indifferent shrug, stepping aside to let the human into his room for a third time. He didn’t even bother looking both ways this time, but even so, he was really quick to shut the door behind Melody.

“I didn’t say it before, but I think you have a really nice room,” Melody said, looking around. “The blue, watery lighting is soothing.”

“If you say so.” Levi shuffled his feet a bit awkwardly, but looked slightly pleased at the compliment. He wasn’t going to admit that he also found it soothing, that the watery patterns made him feel more at home than the much ‘drier’ spaces of the House of Lamentation. After all, he doubted a human normie would understand anything about his other form. “My console games are all on the shelf there,” he gestured to a low-lying shelf near his TV, “while my computer games are along here,” and he pointed to another shelf. “They’re all in alphabetical order, by title, so make sure you put them back where you found them. Leave all the instructions where they are; don’t lose any of the inserts. And keep your fingers off the disks.”

Melody didn’t bother retorting that she knew how to take care of video games. Somehow she didn’t think that it would do any good, and there wasn’t really much pride there to hurt to begin with, so she just absorbed the blow. There was no reason for Levi to believe she knew anything at all, so, she just let it lie. However, once she got to the shelf and started looking over the titles, she realized one major flaw: a lot of them were in Devildom languages. Oops. Still, she pulled one out, just to look at the cover art. Even without being able to read the text, the cover art and graphics on the back were entertaining. But it also meant she went through them fairly quickly, and soon she was left kind of hovering.

“You can sit over there,” Levi offered from his seat at his computer, pointing to a koi-patterned bean-bag chair. Melody nodded and sank gratefully into it. For a while, there was quiet between them. Melody listened to him click his mouse and type away at his keyboard; his headphones were on, so she couldn’t hear anything from his actual game. Nor could she really see his screen, though the colors from it reflected on surfaces nearby. Quietly she took out her DDD and worked on some tasks as well as reviewing her homework. The clacking of the keyboard was actually very soothing to her, and after a bit, she just put her phone down on her lap, closed her eyes, and listened.

She had almost dozed off until a shout woke her. Levi’s focus was still intent on his screen, but now he was yelling into his mic, presumably at a team mate, or maybe an opponent. He was speaking so rapidly, Melody took a few moments before she could even grasp what he was saying. Yup, it was definitely video game rage. While Melody rarely raged at a video game, at least out loud, she knew they could be incredibly frustrating. Still, the anger was unsettling, probably because she was well aware that he was a demon. Her body tensed, and she curled up smaller in the chair. But, eventually Levi calmed down, though he pulled his headset down and moved away from the computer, almost tripping over Melody in the process.

“Wha…. Oh! You’re still here? I thought you left ages ago!” Levi said, staring down at Melody.

“Um… you don’t mind… do you?” Melody managed to gasp out, wondering if she had messed up somehow.

“Well… I guess not,” said Levi slowly, eyes shifting to the side. “Usually if someone’s in here with me, they’re yammering on about something, or asking me a million annoying questions, or screaming in my ear because something on the screen startled them.” His expression gentled so mildly that Melody wasn’t sure if she was actually seeing anything or not. “But you were just quiet.”

“I didn’t want to disturb your game,” Melody said. “It sounded pretty intense there at the end.”

“They were totally using hacks,” Levi grumbled. “I hate cheaters; all the work and skill can’t stand against them. It’s so not fair!” Melody was about to ask a question when her DDD beeped. With an apologetic smile, she checked it. There was an alarm for her to look over all her assignments and make sure they were up to date.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“Thanks for letting me spend some time in here,” Melody said, picking herself up out of the beanbag chair. “But, I need to go double check to make sure all my homework is done. I get nervous if I don’t,” she explained, feeling a bit lame. Levi raised his hand in a lazy wave.

“Yeah, sure. I guess it’s okay if you come back some time,” Levi said a bit grudgingly, more out of habit than any issue with Melody. “If I don’t answer, just assume I have my headset on and I’m busy.”

“Okay, I’ll do that,” replied Melody, giving Levi a shy wave in return. Quietly she slipped out of his room.

After that, Melody found herself going to his room many times, and just sat in the background, working on her homework, or reading a book, or listening to something with headphones. She never bothered him with questions or unsolicited advice, so he tolerated it, despite the fact she wasn’t a 2D girl or even an otaku like himself. He even found she was kind of useful, sometimes getting him drinks from the fridge or snacks from the kitchen. And if he ever said he was busy, or didn’t want company, she didn’t try to push herself into his space. It was far more pleasant than dealing with his brothers.

Mammon was concerned at first, and would often listen at the door. Not that he cared about Melody as a person, or so he told himself, but Levi wasn’t always the most stable person, and he worried that Melody might make him angry, so he made sure things were okay. But, usually all he heard was the sounds of Levi playing his games. From the sounds of it, they weren’t really doing anything together at all, which made him wonder why the human was in there at all. Maybe she just really liked water, or jellyfish. Mammon didn’t get a lot of what Levi was into, but even he had to admit, Levi’s room was kinda awesome. When he was certain that Melody was safe in Levi’s room, he took it as a good sign; it freed him up for other things. After all, if Melody was holed up with Levi, she wasn’t running amok in the Devildom at large getting eaten by some lower level demon.

Up to a certain point, it had always been Melody approaching Levi. But one evening, a few weeks into their new pattern, Levi texted Melody on her DDD, asking her to come to his room. He wouldn’t explain what he wanted, but by his use of all caps, Melody could guess he was feeling very excited, or angry, about something. She was a bit worried it might be anger, but she was more inclined to believe it was excitement. After all, she was pretty sure she hadn’t done anything lately to upset him, and she was hardly in a position to help him with anything that would make him angry. So, she found herself knocking on his door. Levi opened it so quickly she suspected he had been waiting for her right there instead of sitting at his computer.

“Quick, get in here Normie,” Levi said, and he was bursting over with excitement. Melody was relieved that he wasn’t angry, but she also felt really disappointed that he was still calling her by that name.

“I um…Levi?”

“What is it?” Levi looked a bit annoyed at having his enthusiasm interrupted, but let her speak anyhow.

“Could you please stop calling me Normie?”

“Why? That’s what you are,” retorted the Avatar of Envy. He had important things to tell Melody, and she was quibbling over what he called her. Which felt exactly what a Normie would do.

“Well, it just doesn’t seem quite right. This is the Devildom, and so the normal here is demons. I’m one of only two humans here, so that makes me less than normal.” Melody shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “There is more than one way to be an other,” she said, more gently, worried that he actually would get angry at this point.

“I… that’s… that actually makes sense,” said Levi, starting to protest and then finding his reasoning unable to hold up against the human’s words. After all, Pride was his brother’s vice; Leviathan stood for the opposite. He was too well acquainted with not feeling good enough, for being overlooked and underestimated. And he sensed some of that coming from Melody. Not exactly envy at the moment, but the other feelings that often built up into Envy. She was hovering on the edge of his sin without falling into it. Part of him wanted to push her over the line. “Is that why you keep coming in here?” he asked a moment later. Was she also some kind of other or outcast?

“Well, yes, part of it,” Melody returned slowly. There were a lot of reasons she went in there, some of them which even she hadn’t realized at first.

“Why do you never say anything?” he asked. At first he hadn’t minded the silence; he found it refreshing. But, he often wondered why she was there. If she was interested in games, as he thought she might have been from her original request, then why didn’t she talk about them?

“Um…it’s because I find you intimidating,” Melody confessed.

“Wait…me? Intimidating?” That was a new one; she hadn’t even seen his demon form yet. Without it he just looked like some guy who couldn’t beat anyone in an arm wrestling match, couldn’t charm anyone to do a single thing, or couldn’t outwit anyone with clever lies. What was there to find intimidating? He was just the family shut-in.

“At first, it was because you’re a demon, and bullied me into making a pact. So, you seemed pretty scary. But, then I realized that you’re just so intense and passionate about the things you like,” she said, a blush creeping across her cheeks. It wasn’t easy to say these things out loud. “You have all these facts in your head that you can recall at a moment’s notice, and you don’t let anything get in the way of those things that you love.”

By the time Melody was done speaking, Levi was blushing harder than the human. Most of his brothers either made fun of his interests, barely tolerated them, or couldn’t even understand what he was saying half the time. But he got the impression now that Melody had heard his one sided conversations with people online and followed the bulk of it. Often he had forgot she was there in the room, but other times he was fully aware she was there, and he wondered what he had said that made her see him that way. And, as flattering as it had been to hear someone say he was intimidating, it was even more flattering to hear that she thought well of him because of his intensity rather than the fact he was a powerful demon. He vaguely recalled being indifferent to the arrival of a human exchange student during the meeting it was voted on, and he just voted to get back to his games. Now he was actually glad the program had happened.

“Well… um…” He was too flustered to make much of a response, so he took refuge in distraction. “ANYHOW! I called you in here because there’s this really cool game that just started today; it’s called Mononoke Land, and it’s only on the DDD. It’s a big, big deal; people are going crazy over it! You go around and collect spirits, and it’s one of those games that you need, really NEED friends to get anywhere. So you totally have to install it and send me a friend request.” As Levi was talking, Melody was already tapping away on her DDD.

“On it,” she said, smiling at Levi. Although he didn’t address what she told him, the fact that he launched right into talking about a game with that same excitement just illustrated her point. And, oddly, it made her happy. She was watching the installation bar creep across her screen, and it seemed to be taking forever. Levi had already slouched into one of his beanbag chairs and was playing on his DDD.

“You can sit too,” he told Melody without looking up. But she thought she caught a smile on his face when she sat down. When her game started up, Levi was pretty insistent in imparting his wisdom for starting to Melody, and she didn’t want to burst his bubble by telling him she knew how to navigate a video game. Instead she just listened to him and followed his suggestions. Pretty soon she had done all the tutorial stuff and they had set each other up as friends: mission accomplished.