When Melody came to, she was safely back in her room. Her face and arm hurt, but she quickly realized the latter had been bandaged, while something cool was on the former. Groaning, she sat up in bed, her body protesting. Slowly she pieced together what had happened as her memory sharpened into focus. She had barely seen it coming when Leviathan’s tail snapped straight towards her, hitting her with surprising force. She must have passed out, because she remembered nothing after that, but she definitely had been injured. But, someone had obviously brought her in here, and taken care of her injuries. Thinking about it for a few moments, she shot a text off to Mammon. After all, he had been given the role of looking after her on her very first day in the Devildom.

Within moments, there was a knock on the door. There was only the briefest pause before the door opened; Melody didn’t even have a chance to respond before Mammon stepped into the room. His blue-gold eyes immediately locked onto her, and he just shook his head. Melody again noted how soft and fluffy his hair was; it made her think of a Persian cat, but she kept the thought to herself. She doubted Mammon would care for the comparison. Stepping over towards her bed, Mammon looked down at her and made a slight huffing sound.

“You really are trouble, you know that?” he said, the question largely rhetorical.

“I don’t mean to be,” Melody objected, though her words came without much conviction.

“I know, I know,” Mammon said, waving aside the protest impatiently. “You really get it now, don’tcha? Even someone like Levi, who is usually just harmless and annoying, is a real danger to ya,” he pointed out bluntly.

“Yes, I saw,” Melody replied, hanging her head. She didn’t have much of a chance to really get a good look before she was knocked out by Leviathan’s tail, but there was no doubt that he wasn’t human. And, as scary as the moment had been, she hadn’t felt any malice towards her. She had been overlooked, true, but she was used to that. What worried her more was that she found herself curious to know what everyone else looked like. Did they all have tails like that? But she felt it would be rude to ask.

“Oi, human! Get your head out of the clouds,” Mammon said, noticing that Melody’s mind was wandering. Not only did Mammon hate being ignored, but this was a serious subject that even he couldn’t just dismiss.

“Sorry.” Melody took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “I’m not sure what else to say,” she admits. “I’ll be alright, though. Nothing seems to be broken; I’m just really sore.” A thought crossed her mind. “Levi is okay though?”

“Really? That’s your concern?” Mammon let out an exasperated sigh. What was with this human? Well, he supposed it could have been much worse. She could have been a jerk, or a rebel, or a pact-abuser. “Look, ya could’ve been hurt real bad in there,” he grumbled. “Levi might be useless in a lot of things, but remember this, he’ll always be stronger than a human like you, even if he can’t run laps or anything.”

“I wasn’t asking about him physically…” Melody said softly. It was so quiet, Mammon wasn’t completely sure she was talking to him anymore. Which irritated him, but, at the same time, it was just proof that his charge was a good person. Mammon might tease and insult his younger brothers, but he certainly wouldn’t stand around and let someone outside the family do the same. Certainly not some insignificant human brought here just to fulfill Lord Diavolo’s whims. Not that Mammon hated humans, or even disliked them, but he did know they were greedy and some of them were downright scary, particularly witches. But Melody came across as quite harmless.

“Anyway, I should let Lucifer know you’re up; he’ll want to talk to ya,” Mammon said, his voice oddly neutral. Melody wasn’t sure if it was because she was in trouble, or if Lucifer just wanted to make sure she was okay as well. Perhaps both.

“Oh, alright,” Melody said. “Thank you for coming.”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t mention it,” mumbled Mammon, blushing slightly. The human was a little too nice, but her politeness didn’t have the stiff and forced feeling of Satan or Lucifer’s. Mammon exited the room, and Melody leaned back in her bed, shifting slightly to get comfortable. Her eyes were closed, but she wasn’t sleeping, just thinking. About fifteen minutes later, there was another knock on the door, this one quite sharp.

“Come in,” Melody said quietly. She was unsurprised when Lucifer entered with very little fanfare. While she hadn’t thought much about it when Mammon came in, she felt far more vulnerable with Lucifer there, not for any immediate sense of threat, but because he was so formal and immaculate, it was awkward for him to be in the room while she was lying all broken in bed.

“Ah, Melody. It seems as though you are recovering well enough from your ordeal,” Lucifer said crisply. Technically, he couldn’t help but look down at her, given that he was standing and she was lying down, but he didn’t think less of her personally for being fragile: that’s just the way humans were.

“I’m still sore, but I don’t think there’s anything that will be permanent,” Melody said tentatively. She looked uncertain, and Lucifer held back a sigh. He was used to people not feeling free to speak around him. In fact, he counted on it most of the time. But, if something was weighing on the human’s mind, he wanted to hear it. He could hardly do his job to make sure the program was a success if she held back too much.

“Feel free to speak your mind, Melody,” he said, his tone carefully neutral. He didn’t want her to feel too liberated or see him as ‘friendly’, but he didn’t want her to be afraid to express any legitimate worry or need.

“Um… Levi’s not in too much trouble, is he?” Honestly, the question surprised Lucifer, and he peered more carefully at Melody.

“Not too much, no,” he said slowly. “But you won’t be going back into his room any time soon,” Lucifer announced. He noticed that Melody’s face fell at this. Interesting. He hadn’t thought she would be too eager to return after what happened. Was she really that foolish and reckless, or was there more than met the eye to the interactions between her and Levi? He doubted both options. Shifting his gaze, he noticed that her soul was a bit brighter than when he had first met her. She seemed actually concerned about Levi. Perhaps more so than his brothers at this point.

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“Is… that is punishment?” Melody asked tentatively. It didn’t seem like much of a punishment to her, since she didn’t think she was very good company. Not that she wanted him punished, but, it seemed strange to her.

“No. But we can’t guarantee that he won’t be angry again and hurt you, and it might be worse next time. If you recover quickly enough, we won’t have to tell Lord Diavolo, but if you had been more severely hurt, I would have had to mention it. Levi would definitely be punished in that case.”

Melody let all this sink in. Levi wasn’t being punished, but they wanted to keep her safe. Not just wanted: needed. It wasn’t about Melody as a person, it was about her role as an exchange student. While this was a little bit of a sad thing for Melody, she understood it, and wasn’t about to make a fuss over it. What bothered her more was the reminder that she really wasn’t like any of them, and she was only safe because they had a reason to keep her safe. What was worse, she didn’t know how Levi felt about it. Did he care that he had hurt her?

“I… I understand.”

“Good. I would hate to have to repeat myself,” Lucifer said, relieved that she wasn’t going to protest. “Remember that we are all more dangerous than you are when something makes us angry,” he added firmly, echoing Mammon’s earlier words.

“I will.”

The next little while was tense for Melody. She didn’t see Levi at all during meals, and when she asked about the matter, she was told that he had started taking his meals in his room. But she was too afraid to ask the more important question: why? Was he angry? Ashamed? Melody could only guess. And it felt lonely without someone to talk to. She still saw his activity in Mononoke Land, so she hadn’t been taken off his friend list. But even that was little comfort, since friends were needed for the game. All it proved was that he didn’t hate her enough to remove her. Sometimes Mammon would try to make her smile, and occasionally it worked. Sometimes he would just tell her to stop sighing and moping. The other brothers mostly left her alone, though sometimes Asmo would make an observation about wrinkles, or Satan would tell her that her sighs made it hard to read. Beel’s appetite remained strong, however.

Fortunately for everyone’s sanity, this didn’t go on for too long. About a week after the incident, Melody received a text on her DDD. Levi told her to meet him in the Planetarium. Even though Melody had seen it a few times, she had never gone in there, only glimpsing it from the entrance of the music room. With a nervous feeling swirling in her stomach, she went to meet him there. After all, she had been told she couldn’t go to his room, but Lucifer had said nothing about meeting him outside of his room. It occurred to her that she should ask, just to be sure, but decided that Lucifer would have been very clear when instructing her.

It was a beautiful room, truly, and if Melody had been more relaxed, she would have been very much appreciative of it. But her eyes immediately fixed on Levi, who was standing in the middle with an awkward look on his face; he looked as nervous as she felt. She offered him a shy smile, hoping to show she wasn’t angry with him, or had any hurt feelings. Yes, she was still a bit in awe of his power, but, that wasn’t her strongest feeling at the moment. Levi shifted from one foot to another. Finally, he coughed.

“I guess you’re wondering why I called you down here,” he said, looking anywhere but at Melody’s face.

“Yes, though, I’m glad you did contact me,” Melody said. Startled, Levi looked directly at her, only to look away just as quickly, his cheeks pinking slightly.

“Well, um… okay.” Levi coughed again. “Listen, and don’t interrupt, because this isn’t easy for me to say,” Levi mumbled. Silently Melody nodded to show she understood. Without any other reason to hold back, Levi spoke up again. “Lucifer told me that I can’t have you in my room anymore until I can find a way to keep you safe. But I know I’m going to get mad again, so I can’t promise it on my own.” His cheeks went even pinker. “I miss having someone to talk to though, someone who gets all the game terms I use, and even when you don’t, you learn them really quickly.” Levi found himself smiling, in spite of how awkward this whole meeting was. “It’s not as fun playing Mononoke Land without you either.” Levi shook his head. “And, I know you’ll probably say no to this, because, I mean, I’m just a yucky Otaku shut in, and you’re not likely to really miss me at all and…”

“Levi?”

“I thought I told you not to interrupt,” Levi reminded Melody, his expression a mix of angry and petulant.

“Just ask me what you want to ask,” Melody said gently, her expression sad. She couldn’t deny that Levi was a shut in, or an Otaku, but she certainly didn’t think he was yucky. Although she didn’t have the best self-esteem, she never thought of herself as gross, so she wondered where Levi got that idea for himself.

“Melody would you… maybe… make a pact with me?” Levi asked, the words almost agonizing to get out. He wasn’t sure if the fear of rejection was worse, or the fear of her accepting. Melody’s eyes went wide, and then she blinked furiously a few times.

“I… is that the only way to make sure I’m safe?” she asks, her tone hesitant.

“The only way I could think of,” replied Levi glumly, sure that she was about to say no.

It was true Melody didn’t like pacts, but… she could see where Levi was coming from. When Mammon had threatened her near the beginning, she had felt the pact’s power bubbling beneath the surface. She hadn’t used it then, but she also hadn’t known if Mammon had meant to attack her. She didn’t know if she could use it against Levi, but, she also felt like it would be cruel to turn down the offer, since he was giving her such a precious thing just so she could be safe in his company. Finally, she smiled, her mind made up.

“I’ll do it,” Melody said. “I’ll make a pact with you.”

“Just as I thought you… wait… you will?” Levi’s jaw almost dropped. He had been so sure Melody would say no. Flushing deeply, he shuffled his feet again. “Um… would it be okay if we did a high-five to make it official?” he asked, peering through his heavy bangs. Melody laughed when she heard the request, but she wasn’t laughing at him; she sounded delighted.

“Okay,” was her simple answer. Levi held up his hand, and Melody reached up to give it a firm slap. The moment their hands touched, she could feel that band of power wrap around her again, the same as it had with Mammon. Only this time, she didn’t feel ill inside, just a bit warm. By the surprised look on Levi’s face, he had felt it too. For a few minutes they just looked at each other in awkward silence. Finally Levi pulled his eyes away.

“Well, uh… now that that’s done and over with, let’s go catch up with Mononoke Land!” It was an excellent distraction, and Melody nodded her head. She was sure she would need to sort out how she felt about the whole situation, but she still had the feeling that it was the right call to make, even if pacts themselves were an uncomfortable topic. She only hoped that it didn’t make her a bad person.