Secret Santa Event,

Day 7

This little story belongs to my Christmas project, a series of stories leading up to Christmas Eve! Check my Event Masterlist for more information, and have fun!

A/N: might contain interactions with my MCs Cloverand/orViolet(no spoilers ofc), but you don’t have to know them to understand the story!

Click, click-click, click.

“Uggghhhh…”

Click-click-click.

“Nooo…”

Click-click, click-click.

“That’s not it either…!!”

Click, click-click…

Thud.

Levi’s head landed harshly on his desk.

“Damn it…”

Only to shoot up in great agony a second after.

“Why can’t I come up with anything good?!”

——

Somebody knocked on the door to Leviathan’s room.

“Hey! Wassup! My man!”

“What’s the passwo-”

Mammon stepped inside, throwing himself on the giant cushion before Levi could even word his shock.

“Mamm-?! You-!? I have a password for a reason!!”

From the corner of his eyes, he saw how another face was peeking inside as well.

“Uhm…” She gave an awkward mumble.

Levi rolled his eyes in a sigh. “You may enter.”

So Clover stepped inside.“Levia-tan!” she cheered.

“We’re bored” Mammon groaned.

The avatar of Envy pulled a frown. “I don’t care how you feel, scumbag.”

“Eh?! You should pay me some more respect, y'know?! I’m your elder brother, so it’s your duty to entertain me when I’m bored.”

While talking, Mammon kept touching Levi’s stuff around him, picking up the Azuki-tan plushie, squishing it carelessly. Levi watched, his eye twitching as he hold back the urge to choke Mammon to death.

“We wanted to play some board games” Clover explained softly. “Wanna come play too?”

Levi’s expression turned conflicted. A little sad, even. Clover noticed immediately, and her gaze drifted over to his monitors.

About five gaming websites, as well as an anime streaming service were opened around a big list with lots of game and anime titles written on it.

“I’m not in the mood for social interaction” was Levi’s response, and he wanted to turn to his computer again.

“‘Sleep Simulator 6.66’? 'I overslept 69 years of my life so please help me stay awake, senpai!!’? 'Fuwa-fuwa magical sweet dreams island’?”, Clover read a few of the titles listed, obviously confused.

Now Mammon was trying to sneak a peek as well.

“Yo, Levi, you have problems with sleeping?”, Mammon asked.

“N-no…” Levi hushed. Stressed, he began closing the tabs on his screens. But Mammon had already went up to him as well, mustering the scene with Clover, both wearing confused expressions.

So Levi panicked.

“I-I don’t want to play with you and don’t want to talk to you so go away, I’m busy!!”, Levi blurted out, quickly turning his monitors off completely.

He wouldn’t spare them another second of attention, instead he stared at the black screen. Clover and Mammon exchanged a worried glance.

“… If there is anything you need help with, feel free to text us anytime, yes?”, the girl mumbled.

“You can’t help me”, Levi hissed. “… I’m too pathetic to be helped…”, he added after realising his own harsh tone.

Mammon raised an eyebrow. “You’re being an idiot again.”

“I don’t want to hear that from YOU, Mammon…”

Of course, the avatar of Greed threw a fuss over that, going on about he wasn’t the one having apparent sleep problems, some that Mammon put off as consequences of Levi’s Otaku lifestyle.

But while the brothers were fighting, Clover’s face grew more concerned.

She knew a lot of the titles she was able to read on the list, meaning that Levi must’ve told her about them already. So he watched and played them already. So why would Levi…?

“… Oh” Clover made, realising. “Mammon”, she then called out. “Come, we’re leaving.”

“Huh?!” Mammon huffed. “Human? Don’t ya care about Levi’s sleeping problems?!”

“Levi doesn’t have sleeping problems, Mammon.”

“… Huh?”

The human let out a soft sigh, then grabbed Mammons jacket to pull him towards the door.

Levi was quietly watching, still frowning.

“Levia-tan?” Clover said after having successfully pushed Mammon out of the room, standing at the door herself. “Please don’t worry too much. I see the effort you’ve put into thinking of something good. And I’m sure that you-know-who will do, too.”

With that, she shot him a supportive wink before closing the door.

Her words rang in Leviathan’s ears for a while, then he sunk deeper into his office chair.

“Pff, as if he’ll understand… As if anyone would want to get a present from me…”

———–

Hours passed, titles kept being added on Levi’s list.

But not a single one would satisfy him, would be what he was searching for.

He was sure that the recipient of his secret Santa present… That Belphegor would hate his present either way.

Nothing seemed good enough. Not a single game, not a single anime stroke Levi as something that Belphie would enjoy, not if it was a gift from Levi.

Because the titles themselves were amazing, the Otaku chose only his best recommendations, looked at countless reviews to judge their quality.

But with Levi’s already not existent confidence, and with how impressive and well-thought Satan’s present for him had been, the demon just couldn’t believe he’d be able to deliver anything that’s not terrible.

It was already past midnight. On the next morning, Levi would have to hand over his present, and Belphie would be so disappointed to see that he had to get his Christmas present from someone as useless as Levi.

The avatar of Envy bit his lip.

It was all pointless anyway.

Growing more depressed by the second, Levi turned in his chair to not have to look at his lousy list anymore.

After a while, he noticed that his Azuki-tan plushie had been carelessly left on the ground.

Gasping, Levi jumped up to pick it up.

“Tsk… That scumbag Mammon, doesn’t even know how to treat other people’s properties with the slightest care…” He stroke some dust off the plushie, sitting down again. “How could he, Azuki-tan?! You’re the most adorable, soft, perfect little pillow there is! Not only are you limited edition, and Ruri-chan’s loyal companion, but your pillow filling is so sweetly soft that one just has to drift off into slumber when holding you close…!”

He softly embraced the pillow, dwelling in the comfort it gave him as he buried his face in the fabric.

Levi was actually about to fall asleep.

Then, he found the answer to his problems, his head laying right on it.

The demon sat up, an uncomfortable feeling settling in his stomach as he stared at Azuki-tan.

He… He couldn’t. Only a very limited number of this Azuki-tan version was created. And he loved this one in particular very deeply.

But, then again…

He knew exactly how amazing it was.

And the humans said that Christmas is a time of jumping over your shadow, of kindness…

So… Maybe… If Levi would… Give Azuki-tan into Belphie’s hands, then his brother might actually be a little happy over his present…

Maybe then, Levi would be at least a tiny bit good enough…

“W-well, then… Azuki-tan, I think this is the last nap we’ll be taking together…”

Almost at the edge of tears, Levi placed his head onto the pillow again, being so terribly tired that he fell asleep immediately.

—————-

The next morning, someone stepped inside Leviathan’s room again.

“Levi, wake up… You missed lunch and dinner yesterday, Lucifer will kill you if you skip breakfast today as well.”

Slowly waking up, Levi felt somebody coming to a stop next to him.

He didn’t have much sleep at all, so opening his eyes seemed like such a difficult task. However, at some point, Levi registered the clicking of his keyboard, causing him to finally lift his head.

“Belphie…?” Levi mumbled, mustering his younger brother as the avatar of Sloth stared at the monitor that he must have turned on just now.

“Four-hundred anime and game recommendations?” was all the youngest brother said.

Levi jumped up in an instant, trying to block the screen with his body.

“D-d-d-don’t look at that!!!”, he screeched.

“But it said 'recommendations for Belphie’. So why wouldn’t I be allowed to see it?”

“Because you’re not!!”, Levi screamed. “Why are you touching my computer in the first place?!”

“Mammon might have spilled some infos when you wouldn’t come eating dinner yesterday.”

“Ugh… I will kill that idiot…!”

The blue haired male was stressed. Like, very stressed.

But now, when Belphie was here already, now was the best time to give him his present…

“Uhm…”, Levi mumbled, “Belphie, uhm… Well, if Mammon gave you some hints now anyway, I might as well…”

He choked on his words a couple of times, before shaking himself back to his senses. Belphie was watching his brother patiently.

“B-b-belphie!! I, uh, got you as my secret Santa, uhm, partner, s-s-so…” Levi swallowed heavily. “M-my present is… Well… I tried to, you know, think about what you like, and, uhh…”

With shaking hands, he grabbed the Azuki-tan pillow and held it out to Belphie.

“M-m-merry Christ… Christmas, Belphie… This, uhrrm… So, I guess it’s not very cool getting a present from some Otaku, b-but I can assure you that this is the best pillow you will ever take a nap on, s-so… Take it.”

He said that all while looking away, not bearing the sight without starting to cry. After a little silence, Levi noticed that nothing was happening.

As he dared opening his eyes again, he was met with an irritated expression.

“You’re giving me your anime pillow?”

Oh no. Levi had failed after all.

“Oh, you hate it, don’t you..”, Levi laughed, laughed about his pathetic self. “I mean, of course, this must be garbage to you, only weirdos like me like stuff like that… Maybe I should just-”

“Levi”, Belphie called out, tone so serious that it actually managed to pull Levi out of his monologue.

“Levi… Look. You know why I would hate getting that from you? Because obviously, it hurts you. A lot. And I wouldn’t want you crying over something that was supposed to be nice, so I’m not accepting that gift.”

Puzzled, Levi didn’t know what to do. This had turned worse than a game’s bad ending so quickly.

However, Belphie pointed at the computer again.

“What about that, though? Looks like you put effort into making that… You even rated everything on a scale.”

“Y-yeah, and I wrote descriptions to all of them, so you could find something you like easily… It’s like, a list for different sleepy moods. When you want to sleep, when you need to stay awake…”

“Well, I hope you kept the descriptions short”, Belphie chuckled.

Tilting his head, Levi did not understand.

“B-but… Isn’t that a pathetic gift? How would that ever satisfy anyone?”

Belphie let out a sigh.

“Levi… Stop being so hard on yourself. That is, in all honesty, the only thing that isn’t satisfying me right now. Because all this…”, he pointed at the list, “and the mere thought that you were ready to give away that plushie of yours is enough.”

“I-I… I…” Levi was errored completely.

“Thank you for the present, Levi”, Belphie smiled. “I was sceptical about this Christmas thing, but actually, it’s pretty nice to see how much people care about you… So, merry Christmas to you.”

“Y-yeah…”, Levi said, a smile forming on his lips as well.

“Merry Christmas, Belphie.”