The Prince of Demons

Luna

Lunch was quite fun as Nil told Helga the truth about our mental ages. As soon as Helga and Nautilus left our field of view, the smuggest smile in the world stretched across Nil's face. I cannot believe he actually said it. Helga went apoplectic when the words left Nil's mouth; her face as she processed what Nil told her was priceless. Nil poked me in the cheek, looking so forling pleased with himself. I was still kind of annoyed at Empress Senna for letting Nil just ask me to the Festival of Renewals with no context. I had a minor panic attack before I realized it was Nil asking me. Nil was so clueless sometimes; he just so casually asked me! Empress Senna found it endlessly amusing, and I could tell from her tone of voice that she truly enjoyed our reactions. I mean, she seemed to relax a bit on us as a couple, switching to teasing us more when the opportunity arose. I guess that's a win now that I think about it. To be fair, Nil being a clueless brick made it easy to just let him generate the situation on his own; Empress Senna seemed to be having a grand old time seeing me get all flustered as the dork used that endearing cluelessness of his to charm me. Just casually planning a date like that was a normal request.

Nil had no idea the full implications of his request. Then, I jokingly told him I'd do one request of his if he said about the dumbest thing he could to Helga, and what did Nil do? Just casually say it before apologizing to Helga as she was about to utterly lose it on him. Nil had the most self-satisfied expression on his face. I could feel I was crimson through my ears as I looked at Nil. What did he even want? Nil told Helga to her face with zero hesitation that he was innocent, so he clearly had some idea of what he wanted. Nil gently poked my cheek with immense confidence on his face. What has him so confident? We were standing by ourselves currently while I was processing Nil's actions. He checked with his Papa to see if he needed to train with him some more, but Papa left with his uncles to discuss something. Hopefully mediate what they have been bickering about. Nil returned to my side, looking quite elated.

"Luuuuuna." Nil chimed happily. You are such a dork.

"What?" I squeaked. Why is he so calm currently? He normally gets flustered in situations like these.

"Yes world." Nil added on. Dork. Dork. Dork. When did Nil get this smooth? How is he doing this? Maybe I was overreacting?

"Why?" I probed, trying not to feel too embarrassed.

"Someone is so crimson." Nil taunted. Absolute dork.

"You just casually asked me to the Festival of Renewals!" I hissed at him. Nil just hugged me.

"Is it that big of a deal?" Nil probed. He clearly did not fully grasp his request still. Does Empress Senna just bank on me filling in the gaps?

"Yes, it is a massive deal usually." I informed him. Nil just cluelessly looked at me in response.

"I mean, you said its used as a means of proposal, but we are just going because it is a romantic activity. Is there more to it?" Nil inquired, looking quite oblivious. Nil, how can you be so dense?

"Nil, do you understand what marriage means to demons?" I checked. He may not grasp it.

"I am guessing a lot more than I'm thinking." Nil quipped, looking less sure now.

"More than likely, yes." I told him. Nil was now looking curiously at me.

"Why is marriage such a big deal to demons?" Nil probed with his wanting to learn expression going.

"Demons live for a long time, have massive amounts of <Mana>, and can grow at a fast rate, but one of drawbacks to being a demon is demons imprint their <Mana> with their partner's. Demons can have only one lover in their life, period." I explained to Nil. Nil bobbed his head back and forth as he thought about it.

"Is that why demons have a low birth rate? I noticed demons live for a long time, but the size of families is roughly the same as humans despite that." Nil asked as he cocked his head to the side.

"Part of it. Demons struggle to have kids. Not as important currently, but demons take relationships quite seriously because of their <Mana> bonding. It was why Helga initially had some reservations about dating Nautilus, as she couldn't tell how serious Nautilus was." I informed Nil.

"Is there a reason demons imprint their <Mana> like that?" Nil probed, looking absolutely intrigued by the notion.

"It's a property of our <Mana> as far as I can tell; the Lords felt like balancing demons by making it so we can't reproduce like humans can." I told him. Nil thought it over a bit while he formulated his next thought.

"My uncles got married after about a year, was that fast?" Nil inquired. This was likely going to be a much longer conversation.

"Nil, let's talk in our tearoom." I suggested to him. Nil took my hand and used <Warp> to bring us there.

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"So, was that fast for my uncles to get married?" Nil repeated. Nil sat in his chair as I sat across from him in mine.

"A bit, yes. That is on the faster end for demons unless something happened." I told Nil.

"Like what?" Nil inquired. I do not think I ever have to worry about Nil trying to make a move on his own. The densest dork in existence in front of me was so innocent.

"What did you think I meant earlier when I said lover?" I inquired. Nil thought it over for a few moments.

"They get married?" Nil tried, clearly guessing by his tone of voice; I nearly facepalmed. Nil did not have that much of a life before; his life was controlled and in an abusive, toxic quagmire he couldn't escape. He asked a girl out before and it blew up horribly in his face.

"If two people get horny, what d-" I began as Nil looked immensely embarrassed.

"I realize what you mean." Nil interjected as he could no longer meet my gaze.

"It's fine Nil. You never had much experience or interest in relationships, did you?" I checked. Nil's face almost answered the question by itself.

"No, after a certain point I stopped trying. I kind of blocked those thoughts out after a while after I sort of lost hope." Nil confessed with a grim expression. Kind of what I expected. I got up, walked over, and sat in his lap as I nestled in.

"It will be okay Nil. You and I will have a lovely date tomorrow." I assured him. Nil hugged me into him, nestling his head on top of mine.

"Your <Mana> does feel nice." Nil informed me. That is such a Nil compliment. It undeniably made me smile though.

"Someone is paying attention to my <Mana> now?" I cooed. It always felt pleasant around Nil; I let my <Mana> out a little more, feeling Nil's <Mana> swirling around it. His <Mana> does have a nice sensation to it.

"I never thought about it before; I wonder what that feels like. It sounds so different." Nil mused as he ran his hand up and down my back.

"One day you'll get to know." I told him, enjoying how cozy it was with him.

Nil froze in place. After a few moments, I noticed he completely stopped moving. I shifted around as to not hit him with my horns, seeing his face was a deep shade of red. Nil's face was completely flustered, his mouth stammering as he was struggling to phrase his thoughts. Why was he so red? Wait. I replayed what I just told him in my head, realizing how it could be interpreted. My heart leapt into my throat as I tried clarifying myself, but my face felt feverish as I was struggling to form a response. I didn't mean it like that! Nil, you dork! It kind of slipped out as I was trying to be encouraging! I mean, one day with him maybe; I just needed to clarify so he'd be less crimson. My ears felt like they were on fire as I tried formulating words. Was that my heart rate or his I could hear in my ears?

"Not like that!" I stated quickly, not sure if my voice was even audible because it was so high pitched.

"W-w-w-what d-d-do you m-mean?" Nil probed. His eyes were wide while his gaze was into the distance.

"I…I…I meant. Uh. I um. Uh. I…I…I wanted." I stammered. My brain felt fried at the moment.

"Yes." Nil tried. I could feel his heart absolutely racing in his chest from where my hands were; his voice was as high pitched as mine.

"Y-y-y-you. I…I…I mean. W-was t-t-trying t-to b-be enc-couraging." I told Nil. Nil looked like he was trying to process my words.

"I see." Nil quipped. He was slowly moving his hand again.

We sat there for several minutes, each of us taking calming breaths. Things with Nil have gotten serious after all. Our thoughts would just drift in awkward ways occasionally; I could still hear my heart in my ears. Was it his heart I was hearing? I just settled onto Nil as he shifted in place. I looked up at him, seeing Nil make an adorable expression while he contemplated what to do next. I shifted up, wrapped my arms around his head a bit, and kissed him. Nil went slack for easily ten seconds before he hugged me tightly back and enthusiastically reciprocated. We continued for a bit before we just kind of looked at each other.

"Thank you." Nil told me. He has such a cute face.

"You don't have to thank me for being your girlfriend." I replied. Nil smiled widely at me, looking like he was on top of the world.

"Because you are amazing." Nil complimented me. He nestled his head on top of mine, hugging me into him.

"I appreciate and love you Nil, but we should probably avoid those kind of topics as it gets a bit awkward." I suggested. Nil happily nuzzled me a bit.

"I agree. We need to be older before we approach that kind of topic again." Nil stated. I was glad we were on the same page.

"So, what are our plans from here?" I checked kind of wondering what all Nil had planned.

"I didn't really have a plan for the rest of today. My plan was go to Temple tomorrow, pray to Kron to see if I can get some insight on where Krahinn is, and then go to the Fesitval of Renewals with you. Did you have some plans for today?" Nil probed. I leaned a bit more into him, enjoying how warm Nil was.

"I need to train more with Nautilus, but I imagine I need to give Helga a bit more time to process the fact we are mentally in our thirties." I answered as I hugged Nil a bit tighter.

"She handled it well all things considered." Nil added on with a bit of a chuckle.

"Helga has always been a patient and understanding individual, which is quite lucky for you." I teased Nil.

"She has been a great caretaker. I do owe her a lot, as she has been quite helpful throughout the years." Nil confessed. I was glad he recognized how much Helga did for him.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked Nil, kind of curious as what Nil was thinking.

"Nothing at the moment. Currently, I am hoping that you have an idea I can borrow." Nil answered. We both chuckled a little at that.

"You will have to think about it a bit more. On that note, how does one borrow an idea? Once you use it, the idea has been taken." I teased Nil who sounded immensely happy.

"Nah, it is definitely borrowing. Maybe the general concept and repurposing it to fit the idea of Nautilus and Helga more." Nil explained. I did not need to see his face to know he had his dorky smile going.

"Sounds like trying to cover the fact you're taking the idea, and how would you repurpose it for those two if I came up with the idea for how to make it up to Helga?" I continued. Nil hugged me a bit more.

"You would have to help with that as well." Nil added on. I shifted up and poked him in the cheek.

"You would just want me to help you come up with the idea. You can just admit that you know." I pointed out. Nil had his dorky smile in full swing.

"I would need your assistance as it is something I would struggle with on my own." Nil conceded. He held me tighter, seeming to love me in his arms.

"We can work on it." I informed him as we just enjoyed each other's company a bit longer.