Mara traded glances between the canvas and her sketchbook. Her sigh brought Shiro’s eyes up to her. The large dog yawned, dazed with sleep. She caressed his mane to soothe him back to his nap. It was a rare occasion that Shiro found himself spent from the long walk they had earlier, before a short trip to the vets to collect his monthly boosts, but her pup also enjoyed some quiet time under the sun out on their balcony. This would give her a chance to fully focus for the rest of the afternoon. She’d just wrap this up and then resume packing. 

A determined stare fixed itself on the unfinished painting. She almost had it, but not quite. This wasn’t the first time she had painted Pox from memory, yet the ox’s sturdiness and the curves of his horns still eluded her. Something was off with the eyes, too.

Another zug roll might help her see it. She had become too attached to Hell’s delicacies, with these pastries ranking first for a few weeks now. Each was filled with unpredictable fillings she didn't recognise, but it was thrilling to find traces of those she did know, like dark-chocolate mousse, or lemon curd and vanilla, or her favourite, a spread she couldn’t quite identify, but recognised the poppy seeds and the tang of sweet cream cheese. Maevis kept to her word and ensured Mara received her stock of freshly baked goods to start the week. In fact, she was due a fresh new batch tomorrow, after the doctor’s appointment.

When she finished to roll, she sighed, unsure whether the treat went down too quickly, or whether she grappled with the lack of progress. Mara caressed her waist, where Lucious had pinched her the other day during their nuzzles, and felt the soft handle that might have got bigger since then. Flabby. She groaned and pushed the tray of pastries away.

Lucious hadn’t been helping either, seeming to enjoy her fullness during their intimate hours. She even believed him when he said she wouldn’t put on weight during her stay in Hell. Well, the tight button on her jeans was saying otherwise!

She chewed on the tip-end of her brush, glaring at the incomplete form of Pox on her canvas. She’d finish this one last roll. The rest she’d give to her mother when she saw her next. Food was not wasted in her family! Then she’d ask Miina for strict exercise routines. Maybe she’d consult a nutritionist, too…

“Oi, you decent in there?” The voice sounded in her mind.

Mara nearly choked on the mouth full of the pastry. She looked around, seeing no one, yet unable to have misheard his voice. But wait… Wait a whole long minute. Leviathan… here? On Earth?!

“You souls call us weirdos, but I’ve met plenty of you who like to air out their privates in balconies just like that.”

Mara rushed inside. The sight of the tailed demon king in the middle of her living room had her cover her mouth with both hands, as if they could stop something unearthly from coming out.

Since the engagement party Leviathan had gifted her and Lucious in Hell, their meetings had been more frequent. The king would say he had many other issues to discuss, but the conversation would always end up with Miina. It had been a few months since their last meeting, and they had never met on Earth. Showing up in her flat wasn’t just unplanned. It was unthinkable.

Leviathan cocked his head and raised an eyebrow, restoring some sense to his presence before her. Even if he didn’t look pleased, his coyness reminded her of who he was; his unpredictability made for half of his make up. Mara couldn’t help but take in his imposing presence. In her small flat, Leviathan’s impressive figure stood out even more. So did his indignation.

“You never said you lived in a dinky playhouse.”

“This is my flat. Please be respectful.” She said it aloud, but also signed, to which he waved dismissively, “come on, spare me that.”

Shiro darted toward the demon, and Leviathan squatted to greet him, ruffling her dog's ears and neck. Sometime ago, the king had discovered Shiro liked tooshie rubs, too. Shiro was a frequent visitor to Hell where he had grown accustomed to Leviathan and Kiruna. The dog and the tail engaged in their sniffing greetings while Leviathan stood, again, looking around unimpressed, and unencumbered about showing it. “And the boxes?” He tapped the closest one with the side of his boot.

“Lucious didn’t tell you?” Mara used her mind, but again, she hadn’t realised she used her hands. Leviathan’s dry stare flagged it to her. Mara was certain the king picked up on some sign language, but as one of his whims, he refused to engage with it. “I’m… we’re moving. It’ll be a bigger place, outside the city.” She said, trying to hold back the widening grin.

“Lucious’ too busy posing as an idiot for me.”

The insult and the lack of interest came like a splash of cold water, but Mara judged it was not worth protesting. Like a child, it would just increase his taunts.

Her silence called his eyes. As though she might’ve not understood the meaning of his first insult, he continued. “He is. An idiot, I mean. An arse. An arsehole. A ripe twat with—”

“Alright! Okay! If you came here to insult him, you can turn right back around.”

A faint smugness painted his smirk before he threw himself on the small sofa that was wrapped with transparent plastic. “If I can’t complain to you, who else is there?”

“Anyone from your vast kingdoms, ought to do. And how are you here? You being the king… doesn’t that mean you can't come to Earth?”

“Old rules; new rules. Old king; new king.” Leviathan let his hand travel from his chest to his abdominals. “I’m a much nicer king than my father was.”

Mara resisted the eye roll she knew only Miina could surpass.

“This isn’t about her, by the way” Leviathan said, losing his smirk.

 Mara had forgotten her mind-defences. The shock of seeing Leviathan in her flat perhaps shook her too much.

Leviathan looked at her over his frown, as though judging something by himself. Whatever it was, he seemed to prefer to keep it to himself.

Then he spotted her canvas and the tray of Zug bread behind Mara. He teleported to her balcony, and when he appeared, somehow he was already holding one pastry in his hand. Taking a bite, he lowered his gaze at her unfinished painting. “You should know, she got herself hurt, and she’s being another arse-hole about it, too. If you want to talk some sense into her, I won’t stop you. Maybe even share some of these?” He waved the sweet at her. “Seems you have a bit of a… surplus.”

Mara didn’t have room to feel embarrassed. “… Miina’s hurt?!”

“A broken arm in a couple of places; nothing super critical. But it could’ve been…”

“Please, take me with you. I want to see her.”

 “Yeah, sure.” His eyes strayed to her belly, and Mara awkwardly crossed her arms. “You can get that checked while you’re at it.”

“…Get what checked?”

Leviathan’s eyes narrowed, and Kiruna lifted and tilted her head as though it had misheard her.

Was it disturbing that not two days earlier, her mother had looked at her with a similar kind of look? Mara had planned a mother-daughter afternoon tea at the Imperial hotel, finally accepting the senior hotel’s manager invitations, who had been buying several of Mara’s paintings since before her first exhibition in Tokyo. Instead of enjoying the lavish trays of cakes and sandwiches, her mother seemed paused between the uncharacteristic stares. It was at her mother’s insistence that Mara was going to Kanazawa tomorrow to see their family practitioner. Was this a weight thing?

“Whatever,” Leviathan said, clicking his tongue before guzzling the last piece of the pastry. “I didn’t come here to deal with that.”

“Why did you come here?”

“What, I can’t come see my favourite sister-in-law?”

“According to you, I’m your only sister-in-law.”

Mara then instinctively closed off her mind and bit her lip.

Leviathan chuckled, though he didn’t seem amused. “I’m not here to torture you to find out where Beelzebub is, you can relax.”

Mara clenched her teeth, pulling effort into not bringing Bell’s image into her mind. If she focused on something else entirely, that would be the best thing.

“This is what you’re missing,” he said, drawing a line with his finger on her canvas. Mara leaned and narrowed her eyes at it. It was faint, but she could see a line of sparkling blue delineating Pox’s horns. It was Hell’s Blue. Leviathan added another stroke to the ox’s torso, and another that brought out his broad solidness. With a few simple lines, the image finally came to her.

“You… draw?”

“You call this drawing? It’s just a few lines.”

She insisted with a wordless stare.

“I used to; a long time ago. I spent a lot of time waiting in chambers while dealing with this one,” he tilted his head at Kiruna. “I had a lot of time to kill when I wasn’t trying to kill her; or the elders weren’t trying to kill me. There was a lot of killing going on back then.”

Anyone else admitting to such a harmless skill would probably leave her mildly pleased. This fusion of Leviathan’s rawness with the subtlety of art was unexpected. The knowledge that this demon possessed the skill, the patience and the depth to create something she deemed most beautiful was as exhilarating as it was unnerving. It was too close to home. It could only confirm Leviathan was capable of so much more than he was willing to show.

“You should also know, Court was attacked,” he said.

Mara’s stupor almost refused to leave her, and the meaning of the words inside her mind further blurred in confusion.

“We’re still hunting the last of those bastards, so it's not exactly safe.”

Mara’s heart raced. “Lucious…”

Leviathan kissed his teeth. “Hold your knickers, he’s fine. You’ll trigger him here if you panic right now. And that wouldn’t be good… for me.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m the arsehole who’s not supposed to involve you. Especially since you’re…” He cocked his head. “The Focus eye doesn’t show us that kind of stuff. Anyway, I’m here; As I said — as the arsehole.”

Mara shook her head in confusion. “You’re not making much sense.”

“We think they were after you, whatever those things were that attacked us. There’s one still loose in my city, and I can’t kill it if I can’t find it. I want to lure it out.”

Mara looked down at Shiro who was nudging his favourite tug-toy at Levi’s leg. Kiruna was very still, observing the large pup from above.

“You think I can help?” Mara asked.

“Lucious doesn't think so. But if you’re it, I’d have better chances to raze the bastard before he can get within ten feet of you."

Mara paused. It wasn’t like a demon to ask for consent. Certainly not a demon like Leviathan. Something said, maybe in the way he was acting, that if she refused, he would not force her. Maybe not when he had arrived, but now something else gave him a faint pause. And then there was the matter of Miina. "Was this how Miina got hurt?"

Leviathan crossed his arms. "Not as a direct attack; but she wouldn't have been if it weren't for how things turned out. I..." He avoided her eyes. "I couldn't find her in time."

Mara looked down, meeting Shiro’s excited stare. Her pup seemed to be waiting for someone to make the first move with his favourite toy, his earlier tiredness long dismissed.

"Let's go," she said.