[Netherworld]

[Gone]

Belial stood, shaking, his hand comming up unconciously to touch his trembling lips. Lucifer... had kissed him...

He knew it was a motion of anger, but... nevertheless... such a gesture made him feel just a little bit better. Perhaps he had meant it to be so?

Either way, Lucifer was right. He couldn't continue to feel sorry for himself like this... He couldn't change what he was, nor what Lucifer was. Which was an utter whore. And a schizophrenic bitch.

But then, who wasn't now-a-days?

Sighing, he shook his head and smiled. "Damn me for loving you..." He murmured to himself before following Lucifer to earth.


~~~~~~~~~~


Kami-sama... well, he hadn't noticed the boy at all. "Oh! Oh! Look!" He shouted joyously, jumping up and down like a kid in a candy shop as he pointed at an icecream stand in the distance. "It's been AGES since I've had a good cone of pistachio icecream!" He smiled happily. "I say we buy some!"

[The Wonder Fox]

Two steely emerald eyes stared directly into the voids of a skull as dust particles floated all around, clinging to the owner of those eyes. "...Ew." was the simple reply as Lucifer found himself sitting in a dusty little corner of the Rome catacombs, surrounded by the bodies of the dead.

Just like home, or...Well, sorta.

It was still too damn cold up in the mortal world...

Of course, the Devil had taken on a disguise, as not to draw too much attention to himself; Luci had gotten a few inches taller and now stood at a charming 6'4 with shoulder length, neatly groomed platinum blonde hair and lightly tan skin. His eyes, like two perfectly cut emeralds, were so fierce, and so handsome. He was dressed in a forest green turtleneck top, black pants, and a long chocolate-colored coat.

Standing up slowly from his nestled little corner in the catacombs, Satan simply cracked his neck to the side, and proceeded to brush the dust off of his new image.

A few minutes later, he was wandering the distanced streets away from the main buzz of the city as an interesting presence caught his attention.

Something heading towards a nearby graveyard...

[Ed-chan]

Indeed, that black-haired child now headed toward the graveyard, a lonely little fielded area some few feet away now, decorated with headstones and piles of gravel, the occasional spot of flowers. The place looked so peaceful from far away, but when little Fiorello finally arrived there, to that one special headstone he always went to see, he often couldn't contain himself for long and burst into tears.

A sudden gust of cold wind brought the boy's attention away from his thoughts, and he shivered, pulling the sinking gray sweater back up onto his shoulders. The sweater was a hand-me-down, much too big for him, but comfortable at least, and it kept him warm most of the time.

As soon as his mind had been satisfied at the amount of warmth his small body was taking in, Fiorello's attention soon returned back to the graveyard, that troublesome place. Why would someone so young be going here, alone for that matter?

...his mother was buried here. She had been for years. It had been so long since she died, yet to the child, the twelve-year-old, it seemed so much shorter.

Fio soon continued on his way, his pale green-blue orbs slightly glassy from the cold, and his attempts to keep his emotions at bay.

XxxX

"...ice cream..." Azrael shook his head, his white locks hanging limply in from of his eyes. "I just thought I sensed that immortal...and you're worried about ice cream."

Honestly, the grim reaper thought he was the only serious one of the trio at times. Sighing, he rethought the other's statement, thinking about how long it had been since he had had any type of human dessert.

...well, there were those donuts a few days ago, but it had been quite a while since he had had ice cream.

"...though...a double scoop of neopolitan would be nice..."

[The Wonder Fox]

Those cold green eyes had watched the sobbing child from behind a rather large headstone as pity soon flooded them not much afterwards. Luci never did like watching children cry, it was just one of those things that showed he actually had a heart. Squinting to take in the boy's image from far away, the blonde-haired creature blinked as he tilted his head to the side. Hmm, the boy was cute, and that was an understatement.

Lucifer waited until the boy walked away from the headstone, and it was only until the was really sure, did he make his move.

Walking briskly next to the younger male, staring down at him with one steely emerald eye, the blonde gentleman dug a hand into his pocket and offered the youth a small handkerchief.

"My, my lad," he said suddenly in his faux British accent; it was pretty alarming, considering the fact that he had snuck up on the kid, "may I ask as to you are crying like that?"

There was no doubt about it.

This was one of those Immortals.

[Gone]

"Yay~" Kami shouted, waving his arms in the air happily. One would never be able to tell from just looking at him that he was the creator of this world.

He bounded over towards the icecream stand. "One double scoop of pistachio, and one double scoop of neopolitan please!"

"That will be five euros." The icecream man said.

Kami just stared at him. "... huh?" Money? He didn't bring money!


~~~~~~~~~


Belial, who had also landed somewhere in the catacombs, had just finally found his way out of the dark maze. Looking around he spotted his Lord a good ways away among a field of headstones.

"A graveyard?" He started to head towards him, when he stopped. Who was that... with him?

[Ed-chan]

The dark-haired child gave a small sniffle, wiping those annoying tears from his freckled cheeks on his sleeve. He seemed not alarmed by the sudden company of the other, yet moreso embarrassed at being caught crying so.

"I-I'm fine, Mister..." his voice, so soft and gentle, its only fault was that slight accent. Fiorello forced a smile, a weak one, just to reinforce it and keep from worrying the man. "See?"

Truthfully, he was always like this when visiting his mother, and during this visits, come to think of it, he had never seen someone else lurking around the place before.

"Are you visiting someone too, sir?"

XxxX

Seemingly out of nowhere, the reaper offered a small amount of euro to the vendor. He had a few decent amounts of currency from different countries, seeing as he had to make such frequent trips down to Earth and would often be tempted to buy something that randomly managed to catch his eye.

"I'm sorry, my brother tends to act before he thinks..." Azrael shot a smug look at his older brother, a few instances coming to mind. Like the whole Adam and Eve incident, for example...

[The Wonder Fox]

"Oh, I see...You had me worried there lad, I can't stand the sight of crying children..." Nodding his newly-blonde head as he looked down at the other with a smile himself, Luci ran a hand through the said hair as he looked up at the sky and let out a sigh. At the question, those emerald eyes glanced back down to the young man, a grin now spreading upon the Devil's disguise.

"Actually...I was looking for someone, I heard from a friend he was in this city, but I haven't had much luck..."

He gave the boy a charming little laugh, until it died away at the sensing of a presence behind him.

Craning his neck, he just barely caught sight of someone following, and after a squint of his eyes, he could tell just who it was.

But no matter, there were other, more important matters at hand.

"My, aren't you cold in that outfit, boy? I know I am, it's positively freezing in this city!"

[Gone]

Kami-sama shot his younger brother a look that obviously said; "You'll pay for that comment later" before smiling at the icecream vendor apologetically and taking the two cones that he handed him.

He glared once again at Azrael before handing him his "neopolitan" cone. "You're lucky I'm so forgiving, brother. Any other being would have been dead for such a comment." He said before licking languidly at his pistachio icecream.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Belial, who was watching the two from a distance behind a large headstone, scowled at Lucifer's actions. He knew just exactly what he had in mind. The monster! And he had thought he'd seen the worst of his Lord! It was one thing to want to mate with one of the immortals if one of them was female, but... this was a child! And a male child at that!

[Ed-chan]

"Well...um...a little." Fiorello trembled a bit as another brief gust of cold air flew by, pulling up his sweater once more to cover his slim shoulders. So small the boy was, it was a wonder how he could find anything that fit him. Still, as he performed this action, he took a moment to give a shy smile up at the man.

"What's your name, sir? Have I seen you before?"

This older man did have a slight...familiarity about him, and Fio had met a lot of people in his lifetime. It was definitely a possibility.

XxxX

"Yeah, yeah, I know." Azrael couldn't help but smile in between bites of his delicious cone. How odd it was that the reaper preferred to chew his ice cream, even though his teeth were so sensitive. This was evident when he suddenly drew back with a frown, rubbing at throbbing cheeks.

"So...where to next?"

[The Wonder Fox]

"My...name?"

Giving a slightly alarmed expression, to which he tried to hide from the boy, the Devil had absolutely no idea what to say. He couldn't just royally introduce himself as who he actually was, and that left him without a name.

What a fool.

"Oh, um, my n-name is..."

Emerald practically flew around, looking for anything that might be able find something, anything that could give him a name. His eyes fell upon a headstone nearby, with a name luckily not worn from age. Yes, that name would be perfect.

"Ah, forgive me," he said with an easy little laugh, "my name is Lucentio, Lucentio Bavaro...And might I ask as to what your name is, my darling lad?"

[Gone]

"Hmm..." Kami licked slowly at his cone, thinking. "Where to go... let's see..." Looking around he spotted a small church with a graveyard nearby. "There!" He exclaimed, pointing towards it. Ah, yes. Churches. Full of pathetic little mortals who worshiped him. What fun~!

[Ed-chan]

A small giggle soon left the boy's lips. This man was...nice.

"I'm Fiorello, sir." One of the boy's arms extended, the large sleeve extending and fully covered his small hands, yet he still persisted. It was obvious he was requesting a handshake. That sweater of his soon began drooping off of one shoulder, slowly being following by the other side. If only the boy's clothing weren't so loose.

XxxX

"Hey, Kami..." Azrael gave a bored frown. "Why do you like making fun of mortals so much? You know...besides the fact they fail at everything they do."

He was a third done with his ice cream by now, working on finishing the second scoop. He didn't mind visiting churches, however, seeing as how most of what the foundation of the humans' worshipping of God was a myth. (The fact that there were no churches dedicated to the Grim Reaper, however, made him a bit jealous.) He figured this could be fun.

"I guess it wouldn't hurt. Maybe there's a baptism going on."

[The Wonder Fox]

Damn the human sense of lust, it hit him every time he came up to Earth.

Shaking his head as he continued to stare at this public peepshow, Luci still managed to shake the boy's hand, but didn't let go when he should have. Instead, his other hand gripped the boy lightly by the shoulders.

"Little Fio," came Luci's natural lusty deep voice, the voice that everyone knew who it belonged to, "I know what you are, and I'm willing to offer you a bargain..."

Uncovering more of that youthful baby flesh with a brush of his hand, and not before long did he manage to remove the oversized sweater.

"Fio, Fio, Fio...one of the Five, don't worry, however, your secret will be safe with me, you only have to do one thing for me..."

Pushing the smaller figure behind a mountain of headstones and out of the few of peeping eyes, the blonde Devil laughed lowly in his throat.

"God and the Reaper are after you, I'll protect you, but it's gonna cost you..."

[Ed-chan]

The cold soon began to eat away at the poor boy's flesh, his eyes wide with alarm. He didn't like this man anymore, he soon decided, and soon he found himself trying to squirm away.

He didn't care if anyone was after him; this man was too scary to stay around any longer.

"I don't want to do anything for you...You're..." a choked sob escaped the child's lips as he felt those dreaded tears returning. "You're scary..."

Fiorello wanted to go home now so very desperately...