Moth and Flame [Dew x Reader] {Complete}

Chapter 16 - crossdressing for a cause

Tw: sleepy bean

"What the fuck are they doing here?" The dickhead who plays the cowbell called from his place on the common room couch.

You wanted to rip him a fucking new one... but you weren't strong enough yet. You could only shrug. The room was a hub of activity; most ghouls preferred dark places and night fancies. Earth ghouls knew better.

It was laid with leather couches and black furnishings, stone floors and a scent of incense covering the underlying stink of too many demons living in one space. It probably wasn't horrid to humans—but it was too homely for ghouls trying to forget home existed.

"Thought we just got rid of you," Phil looked up from a magazine with Abba plastered on the front.

You shrugged again.

"And here of all places," Mist muttered, "I know it's a common room, but..." she just wrinkled her nose.

This was all just lukewarm. They'd been out of hell for too long; their words held no sting. They had forgotten how to be savage. You shrugged a third time. You'd lived here about twenty human years ago as a ghoul, which wasn't too long ago in the scheme of things.

A pillow was thrown hard and fast from a room out of view, pelting Phil in the head. "Ey, what I fucking say about beauty sleep... fucking..." A grumbling came, and Swiss appeared muttering while grabbing his pillow, evidently regretting having thrown it.

"Don't start that shit again," Alpha hissed, "just recovered from the last pack war—one of you take that one, by the way; we don't want them," he referred to you with his horns.

"Bags not it," Phil raised a hand.

Swiss stilled the dark depths of his eyes on you. He remembered to grin. It was odd to see him out of uniform; he was in dark loungewear—he looked cozy.

You could only imagine what you looked like to them. You were five years different, with five years different hair and scars, and you wore Terzo's short silken dressing robe. Hell had sunk your eyes and made them quicker, wilder. Your claws and teeth were no longer filed down for the clergy.

"We'll be taking them," Swiss informed, "Rain-" he called down the hall. "Hey, ass out of bed!"

Another pillow came flying out to smack Swiss in the nose. Rain followed it out with the softest growl; his thick, dark mop was turned everywhere, and his eyes squinted tiredly. His face was puffy from sleep. He blinked in the image of you, a barely awake smile passed over him, and he strode to you to wrap around you.

"O-oh," you stumbled; he hugged you tight. You caught the slow, droopy wag of his tail from over his shoulder.

He hummed your name softly; if he were fully awake, you wondered if the shy boy would have done what he had. With a pillow under one arm and your wrist in the other, he kissed Sodo's mouth sweetly before tugging you towards his bedroom.

You guessed you were going with him? You frowned at Sodo, who made no move to follow. He stood with his hands behind his back, watching you be taken away.

The bedroom was kept warmly lit with a salt lamp, and you spotted the oversized silhouette of Mountain closest to it. You knew the ghoul's complex had dens for each of them, but there were enough beds in this room for each of the ten ghouls. Most were unused, as most ghouls were more inclined to nestle together. There was something off about it that you could put a finger on. Nesting together was only really done in hell. It wasn't necessary topside, and they hadn't been set up like this when you lived with them...

A head raised from a ghoul sleeping alone, and you saw Phantom in a half-lidded daze. You heard his tail flutter against the mattress as his eyes widened to see you.