Amari was in a hellish nightmare of fiery red colours and themes. Lilia's room didn't resemble much of a teenage girl-demon's room at all. Her walls were splattered with vibrant fiery red colours.
Several miniature trinkets hung from the walls. He could make out a few feathers belonging to unknown demon beasts, some horns and what looked to be a lamp.
"Ugh,"
A small groan alerted his attention. He jumped out of the reading chair easily and looked towards the cozy bed in the corner of the room. He felt a little guilty. However, he hadn't been able to get much sleep, seeing as he wasn't in his own room.
Lilia's body squirmed on the bed, messing up the plain white sheets even further. She got up from her lying position and looked at Amari.
"What happened?"
"You fainted after having one cup too much alcohol," he replied, trying not to look at her undignified self.
She slowly slurred from sleep, "What?".
'Any moment now,' Amari counted.
Like he expected.
"Huh, why are you in my room?"
"I'll leave now."
He rushed out of the room and closed the door behind him, sighing. He had two options at this point. Head to his room and hit the hay, or head to Fuller's room and chew him out.
It wasn't clear what option he chose.
A few seconds later he stood in the middle of the familiar hunter-esque room. Fuller stood opposite him, staring daggers into his skull. Much like Lilia, his usually well-kept hair was a big mess. Was that an Ifrit thing?
"Damn, did a tornado hit your room?" he whistled as he stared at the demon, forgetting for a brief second that he could kill him at any moment.
Amari chuckled to himself as he remembered a popular meme from Earth.
'Bro thinks he's Einstein,'
"What do you want?" Fuller spat out.
Amari remembered what he was there for.
He stepped closer, shortening the distance between them. "You never told me I would have to stay in Lilia's room and babysit her!"
Fuller followed his lead and moved forward. Amari tensed up and prepared to flee in case anything went awry.
"What…" The other demon started "Are you talking about?"
"You really don't know?" Amari frowned.
"No, I don't know a thing about what you're talking about. But from what I hear here, it might look like you have a problem on your hands right there."
Amari moved back a little, reaching for Fuller's table and leaning against it, which drew a frown from the other teen. He seemed to like his things a certain way.
"Exactly. How am I supposed to put her down gently?" he muttered, deliberately pushing some of the things on Fuller's desk to see the reaction.
Fuller, had bigger things on his mind.
"That's what you're worried about? I was talking about her father! The man would kill you if he ever found out his daughter liked you. And if he found out you rejected his daughter, that would be even worse! Oh, let's not go into detail about her mother! She's the devil!"
Amari was surprised. Those were definitely more pressing issues.
"What am I supposed to do about her then?" he asked again.
Fuller walked over to his desk and adjusted the things Amari had moved. After doing that, he let out a visible sigh of relief.
"I don't know how you'll do that but get out of my room!"
After a whole lot of bickering, Amari was violently thrown out of Fuller's room. He stumbled into the hallway indignantly and heard the slow creak and final heavy push on the door. Then a slow, antagonistic click noise from the key.
"Okay, now you're mocking me!"
He looked around and saw no one in sight. All wasted from a bit too much booze probably.
Even as a teenager back on earth, he was never prone to intoxicating substances. He would always remain conscious during long booze binges with his brother. The trait probably had something to do with his mind and soul.
Again, he debated with himself.
Go back to his room or back to Lilia's room to explain.
"As shit, here we go again." He turned directions and walked towards Lilia's room.
After a while, he stared at her door in apprehension. Sweat ran down his forehead and his knuckles white. If what Fuller said about her parents were true, how was he supposed to handle this situation?
He raised a fist to knock, but the door flew open.
Lilia reeled back in shock, about to close the door again. Amari's eyes widened, and he quickly raised his hand to stop the rapidly closing door.
It wasn't very difficult, especially with Lilia's strength.
"Wait. Let's talk about it." He said, his arm relaxing.
She stopped pushing the door forward and let him in.
Amari never expected to return to the room so quickly. He restrained his gaze but still couldn't help looking at the boyish fiery theme of the room.
Lilia, head down, walked over to her desk and pulled the chair out, and twisted it in the direction of the bed. In response, Amari took her seat and looked at her. She had moved to the corner of her bed, her head buried in a pillow.
"Hey, what's wrong?" He asked quickly, hoping he didn't make a mistake.
"Uffing," she replied words muffled by the pillow
Amari cocked his head. "What?"
"I said nothing!"
Amari picked up a piece of paper and rolled it into a ball, and then threw it. This caused the paper to land squarely on her head.
"Come on, just talk to me. You never had trouble doing that before."
Lilia shot him a dirty look, taking him aback.
"That was different." She continued. "Back then you'd never been in my room and seen me sleep!"
Amari threw another paper ball at her.
"What was so different about that?" He asked.
She caught the paper this time without much difficulty and threw it back at him. Amari caught it and was prepared to throw it back.
"You don't get it!" She said, hugging the pillow even harder and making him pause.
"Enlighten me then, young Miss Lilia," he joked.
Lilia looked up sheepishly and sat up.
"Well…" she explained.
After a few minutes, he understood the general gist of the situation.
He paused, throwing another piece of paper. "So, you're saying according to your culture we have to get married now?"
She caught it, threw it back then nodded.
"Then who cares?" Amari said, getting up from his dormant position.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, why would anyone need to know in the first place? Let it remain our little secret. To anyone else, I just carried you to your room after you got drunk and then left."
The cute demon girl nodded studiously.
Amari peered into the girl's eyes and squinted. "Why did you get drunk anyway?"
The girl froze like a thief caught stealing.
"Well, I just wanted to talk to you without sounding dumb…"
Amari expected a lot of things but that was not the answer he'd anticipated.
"Pfft!"
He collapsed to the ground, clutching his guts.
"What's so funny about that?" Lilia smiled in a small pout as she threw the paper balls at him.
"Nothing…" He tried to regain his calm, but his expression betrayed him. "It's just that. Why did you ever think you sounded dumb when talking to me?"
The girl pointed an accusing finger. "Don't act dumb, I saw you acting like a child!"
Amari paused, stopping his laughter.
'Did I do that?' He thought to himself.
Nothing came to mind, but it was true that she acted more like an individual now. When they first met, rather than being humans, they just acted like character archetypes. Amari never liked that.
"I'm sorry if i ever made you feel that way." He kept his thoughts to himself, bowing mockingly.
"Don't mock me!" Lilia tapped his forehead gently.
Amari grinned, "Sure thing, dumbo!"
Before the barrage of attacks could land, he was out of the room.