Work Text:
Syalis paced back and forth in her cell, a finger tapping on her cheek as she pondered over something. A predicament, to be more precise. It finally had come to her attention, though it was a slight observation she hardly batted an eye until now, that there was a huge height difference between her and Leo. It didn’t help that humans leaned to the shorter side, even the adult male ones, while demons were on the enormously tall spectrum.
Truly, it was unfair but nothing much she could do. That she understood, still the issue glared at her like a certain annoying blonde boy from her childhood; and that being her head barely reaching past Leo’s chest whenever her eyes wandered (to measure his height to hers, of course) from his neck and down to his chest, then up again until she saw the back of his head. Even wearing her working heels did little to reduce that gap.
Ah, what she’d give to be much taller than him and the rest of the demons in the realm! But alas, no one had quite perfected that kind of potion yet. There came that one time she drank a prototype of it had transformed her in an actual giant that almost destroyed half of the Demon Castle, accidentally if she might add. So there truly was not much she could do.
Why would she be making a big fuss out of it, you ask? It was to surprise him with a kiss in a standing position, obviously! They had yet to do it in that specific posture, so their first time must be a surprise to Leo no matter what! After all, she’d only already given him those warm pecks whenever they shared beds, him sitting, or down on one knee thus far. But much to her dismay, doing just that when standing would prove to be a far more difficult experience than she initially imagined.
No matter, she had tricks up her sleeve that could counter that little issue. A wide grin made its way on her face as she went over each of them.
Not far from where she was, a few demons passed by her cells and not without exchanging weird looks at one another. The Princess was making that evil face again, after all. “She’s definitely up to something no good again,” while muttering this to themselves, a couple of them just merely shrugged their shoulders and walked their own paths to attend to their duties. They wanted nothing to do with whatever schemes she was brewing for today’s agenda.
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Syalis’s neck was cranked downward and a pair of purple eyes pointed at her nightstand, glowering at the vacant space that was once occupied by her grimoire. Although the fault of his absence was none other than her own doing and wrong timings coming into play. She’d return to her cell to seek him with the intention of teaching her a levitation spell. A brilliant idea, she admitted at first.
But then, as she reached this place, it was when she remembered her doppelganger asked her to borrow the grimoire (since the succubus wanted to improve on her defense-type magic) and to which she agreed to. As it turned out, she just received word from the other demons regarding the return of the succubus’s older brother who invited her on a trip somewhere.
As a result, her doppelganger brought her grimoire along with her on that trip. It didn’t help that the latter had forgotten to inform her beforehand. So now, here she was, standing aimlessly in her room and even glaring at her stand wouldn’t make them return at once.
‘I still got other options,’ a reassuring thought meant not to distract her from the annoyance of having her spell book temporarily gone. Thus, she no longer dwelled further into it and moved on.
{First attempt: Failure}
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Before she knew it, her face was then planted on cemented floors. The facial and muscle stings, from suddenly collapsing to the ground, didn’t hurt as much as it did irritate her. But more than that, she could hardly lift her legs since these platform shoes with the freakish long heels were stuck to her feet. And once again, it was because of her doing.
As someone who’d only ever worn three to four inches heels her entire life, she should’ve known better. But since she could carry items that weighed far heavier with her arms, she waved off the other possibilities without much care. Little did she know that her legs weren’t as built sturdy like her upper limbs. Now here she was, lying on the cold-stone floor and unable to get up with these stupid fifty inches heels you called a footwear!
‘Twilight has such tacky tastes in fashion,’ she brooded like a cat who had been holed up in her owner’s house all day (despite the fact it was her fault for steal– erm, borrowing said shoes from the Demon King). Closing her eyes as if to blank out from this awful day, she thought. ‘I really should teach him so his tastes can be more refined, along with that fluffy dog of his…’
“Princess, what are you doing on the floor?”
At that familiar gentle voice, Syalis opened her eyes and slowly turned on her back to see Leo. His brows knitted tightly together and his lips were stretched in nervous waves, it seemed so from the sight of her.
“I can’t stand up because of these shoes,” wearily, she moved her arm through the floors and then pointed at them. In response, the worried look on his face faded a little as a smile appeared in them.
“Then, I’ll remove them for you!” Leonard said with a calm cheery tone, his face beaming more than it did with frowning. She blinked, utterly puzzled at what her eyes made her see; there seemed to be a bright aura around him. Perhaps it was because the light source of those glowing scones was aimed at his back.
‘Huh, Leo looks like a heroine from those shoujo mangas the Bird Girl keeps insisting that I must read,’ she couldn’t help musing to herself. The more she looked at him, that mellow smile and those soft blue goat eyes from him made it seem more the case. Truly, such a healing presence to be around.
Nonetheless, she was relieved to free herself from such torturous footwear even though it came along with a sense of disappointment due to being unable to get to her objective.
{Second attempt: Failure}
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Hanging onto a chandelier, she waited with the rare patience of an unholy saint whose name would sometimes leave Leo’s mouth (as if praying when awake wasn’t enough for him). Two hands latched onto the golden finish of its metallic arm and two legs dangled midair. Still, she did little movement as possible, not wanting to increase her risk of breaking the furniture and her falling to the ground like earlier.
Though slowly did soreness spread throughout her arms from clinging onto the chandelier’s for so long. Surely only half an hour had passed since then, right? Right? She had to think this way, lest her patience ran out before she could carry out this plan. She’d already failed her two previous attempts, so she can’t have this one happen the same way.
Absolutely not!
And so, she waited and waited as a sharp gaze inspected every demon who passed her direction. Some turned to look at her with wide eyes and others didn’t bother to. No matter how varied their reactions were at the sight of her, they all went and left to do their tasks as dutiful workers of the Demon Castle. However, Leo had yet to–
A dark blue head soon appeared in her vision. Speak of the devil, there he was finally! Tightening her grip on the chandelier, she took a deep breath and narrowed her vision to Leo who soon approached her direction. As she did, she also took notice that his head was buried in those documents he was holding. ‘Good, this should make the surprise even better,’ she thought, grinning widely while applying more force into her arms to move the chandelier.
After a few swings and him soon close to where she wanted him to be, she let go before thrusting herself into the open air. Breezes greeted her face and arms, slightly blurring her vision but she still saw that hues of blue. She then stretched her limbs out, bracing herself for impact…
Only that Leo ended up shifting to the left at the very last few seconds, thus he ended up entirely missing a flying princess who came his way and instead she landed hard on the ground. Much like her attempt with the platform shoes, it resulted the same way where she dealt a heavy blow to her face except a far worse impact than that. The next seconds in and she felt it. ‘Ouch, I think I broke my nose,’ she thought, wincing from the terrible aches she felt from her face.
“Princess?!”
And of course, Leo would break away from paperwork and rush to her side. In the corner of her eyes, she saw that anxious expression written all over his face. Though that was soon replaced by a sense of urgency as he got to work. Carefully moving her around and his hands hovering her, Syalis watched dark shadowy glows coming from them and they floated about her face until the facial pain and more had gone. It was really convenient to have a demon healer for her lover, but…
Her plan failed yet again! The pain of having her face possibly broken was nothing compared to that utter defeat weighing down on her shoulders. And more importantly, Leo didn’t look all too happy once he was done with healing. She can already expect as to what will soon happen.
“Princess, what were you thinking?! I may have been able to heal you multiple times, but there’s a limit to my powers for a day! What if you got hurt and I was out of MP by then?!”
Ah, yes. The lectures that will surely take three to four hours of their time. Thus, she could only subject herself to it since technically, it was her doing in the first place.
{Third attempt: Failure}
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With her repeated failures, Syalis was soon growing annoyed. A thumping was heard in each of her step and a mad smile was plastered on her face all while she made her way into Leo’s bedchambers. In her arms, she held a certain item to reduce the gap in their heights. Compared to her previous plans, this one in particular was much simpler (even to her tastes) but there was no other choice as it was the only one she had left.
Upon her entry, Leo whipped his head around and initially panicked at the sight of her. “P… Princess, is that a severed head of,” he paused for a good second once he got a clearer view of what she holding. Then, breathing a sigh of relief, he continued, “oh, it’s just a crate. Thank goodness.”
“Tsk, tsk,” a few clicks of her tongue and then commenting, “you really think I’m like what I used to be? That’s a pity,” with sad shakes of her head to accompany it.
“Ah, I’m sorry–”
“It’s fine. But can you stand there?”
“Eh, what for?”
Smilingly, she said while forcing down her fear of yet another failure in her plans, “you’ll see.”
“Oh, alright.”
With Leo still in place, she took a couple more steps forward and then set the crate down in front of her. As she climbed on it with her hands lifting a bit of her skirts, Syalis saw the puzzled looks Leo was sending her way. She smiled nonetheless once she got a stable footing on the wooden thing. Tiptoeing a bit more so that their faces were inches away from each other, she then told him. “Leo, close your eyes.”
And so he did at once without a shred of doubt, much to her glee. It seemed those fretting thoughts soon subsided from her head as she leaned in and…
A soft touch of their lips, that she felt. Grinning under their intimate contact, she pushed her body a little more forward to deepen it and her arms slowly wrapped themselves around his waist. Soon enough, she could feel him shaking and saw those blue eyes of his flutter wide open to look at her. Yet, he didn’t break away. Shy and nervous in his movements but eager to catch up with her.
And she knew from the way those goat blue eyes glowed gently, with all that he saw was of her. She took a brief moment to savor that gaze with her own before continuing. Slow and soft sensations lingered in her lips as they went on. She wished this would last long, but she knew by then that she’d have a collapsed man in her arms and so…
After a short while, Syalis then removed herself from him and smiled as she witnessed that red tomato face that she’d come to adore. “You taste sweet as always, Leo,” she informed him so, a dainty finger raised to feel up her own lips which only made him grow redder. Along with her curious finger, her tongue also danced around in her mouth, still tasting fresh camellia sinensis leaves, the sticky sweetness from the red bean cakes, and some more that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. But she loved them all the same.
Because all of it came from him. Nothing more, nothing less.
“Y… You sure enjoy teasing me, Princess,” in an attempt to hide his face, he brought an arm up but his slight trembling was too obvious. Not to mention, she could still see a part of that adorable face. In contrast, she didn’t bother hiding her giggling, letting them all out in the open.
“But I can’t help it.”
Really, he was so endearing. And more so, her chest warmed at having fulfilled her agenda for the day. She then mused to herself, joy keeping her light and bouncy on her feet, ‘now, I can see why Leo would much prefer doing things simple…’
At that, she smiled even more.
{Fourth attempt: Successful}