Of Evening Primroses and Chrysanthemums - A Douma x Reader fic

Lovely Plateau in to a Pleasant Hell

You woke up late the next day, and yet Douma had waited for you to wake up the whole time, remaining still as you slept on top of him.

You gave a tired, mumbled noise to let him know that you were now awake, and he gave you a gentle pat on the back before softly rolling you off from him, still holding you close afterward.

He let a few moments of silence pass by before speaking.

"Are you still upset with me, Y/N?"

you shook your head, laying slumped in his hold and letting him pull you closer.

"Are you tired, still?"

You nodded, looking up at him with half lidded, sleepy eyes.

He gave you a nod in response, and lay there with you, and you relished in the peace the two of you had found in that moment.

When the two of you were ready to get out of bed, life's usual schedule started off as it did every day. The only changes made were that, at night, you would go tend to your garden after having dinner, and Douma had his dinner while you were out. He asked once if you wanted to watch, and you politely declined almost immediately.

Nothing ever came of that pregnancy scare the two of you had, and although you had a sliver of a wondering of what a child between the two of you would even look like, you both decided that you were better off not having that kind of responsibility on your hands. After all, the two of you had an entire cult to look after.

But, every now and then he would use his blood demon art, Crystalline Divine Child to make little miniature ice versions of himself, and would entertain you with them for a short while as if they were real, the only drawback being that you would need to stay bundled up or take a hot bath afterward from having played with literal ice dolls.

Akaza made a few more sparse visits with the two of you, scolding Douma for "keeping you hostage" and would only leave after talking to you, making sure that you were not, in fact, here with Douma against your will. Douma always feigned having his feelings hurt after being scolded so harshly, at it only took about 2 times for you to get used to the shock of seeing Akaza punch straight through Doumas head every so often if he got too annoyed with him.

Your little garden grew as more time passed, but you made sure not to let it get nearly as large as your old field that you had for your shop. You wondered how it was holding up without you there to water and tend to it every day, or if someone in the village had taken pity and started tending to it themselves.

But, while digging up some soil for a new patch of Chrysanthemums, you made a startling discovery, something smooth and off-white on the exterior, but jagged and worn on one end. A bone...? You couldn't tell if it was from an animal or a human, but the next thing you found would make you certain of the latter.

Little scraps of torn, no, shredded fabric strewn around in the dirt, it was a familiar pattern too, not one you were fond to see, but seeing it again in this kind of context brought you some sort of horrible satisfaction, and a wave of memories washed over you horribly.

Anger. Snapping back and forth. Cheap cloth. The strong smell of liquor.

The drunkard from all those nights ago, demanding you give him flowers with no pay. So this is where he ended up, huh? Serves him right.
You chuckled to no one but yourself under the moonlit sky, knowing your lover was busy devouring whoever was next in line.

While you were sowing new seeds into the ground you'd prepared, you heard light, quick footsteps approaching from afar in the surrounding woods.
You set your tools down, and tried to identify what was coming toward you, and you were only a little startled to see it was someone you didn't fondly recognize.