Chapter Text
A queen bee buzzed through the thick jungle growth, only pausing in quick moments to snap down neat looking flora or small critters. Maybe she should be collecting them for the festivities, but all around her she could hear and smell her hive tracking and running supplies, they got it handled, she was sure.
Bee remembered when she bit, torn and swallowed her way free of hell’s bubbling and broiling muck in the earliest days, a victorious nuptial flight, but one that didn’t end in a hive, and left her bereft its honey.
She could have nibbled the muck for sustenance, but it had become dull after those first glorious bites—it could satisfy her stomach, but it would do little more than wet her appetite.
She prowled for a time, slowly she began to come across more demons. Quite a few were tasty, but none were fit for her hive.
The canine insect tracked her way through the amber ring with scent and sound as the muck under her paws became brush on her legs, became thicket scratching her torso, became undergrowth catching her ears.
Until she stalked through dense jungle, and creatures surrounded her on all sides.
The noise was constant, they snapped and bit and snared each other as much as she did, endlessly. But they weren’t as hungry as she was.
Beelzebub knew that because they never managed to eat her, but she always managed eat them.
They were salty and savoury and abundant, but they didn’t sate her.
When she first tasted the fruit of sprout, one that curiously didn’t try to so much as nip at her; she finally understood what she craved. Sweet.
Stronger than this, she had to find stronger sweetness.
Queen Bee first heard the hounds then. Howling over the canopy.
They weren’t hive workers, diligent, hard working and industrious—they were hounds, loud and bombastic and carefree. Their taste would be salty and savoury and abundant should she bite, not sweet like a bee gorged on honey.
But to announce a meal in the amber ring should have been a death sentence.
But they did, and they lived, because they were many and no one could match that. They ran together, they shared the catch, they ate together. Her heart and stomach ached just watching them.
They were not a hive and she was not a hound. But to look like one was easy enough. She was shocked at how easy acting like one came to her, to share her meal—she’d never imagined doing that before.
They brushed their fur against hers and invited her to run with them: they tasted sweet.
They shouldn’t have, she hadn’t taken so much as a nibble yet, but it filled her mouth and stuck in fangs anyways. They were many and all shared in her meal, she was less full than she’d been since the sky was still visible past the trees, yet just for that moment she was sated.
They called themselves a pack, called them pups instead of pupa, called her prince or boss or alpha—so she did too, at least out loud, it didn’t matter.
They were her hive and she was their Queen, she made them happy and they made her honey. The happier the sweeter.
Hellhounds exploded in numbers, the jungle falling under their claws and jaws. They'd start to pour into the rest of hell soon, the other sins had already began to throw her sideways glances and stained comments as they prepared.
But Beelzebub barely hunted or prowled anymore; she tended to her hive as a good queen does, making combs and raising young. However much her workers brought back would be enough to go around, enough to sate her.
She thought it was around then she knew she was a Sin, or at least she realized she was Gluttony. She didn’t know of ‘Sins’ until she met Ozzie, as a little flame.
She bounded over the edge of the half completed hive, the base dug far enough into the soil for only a hound’s ears to peak over the edge. Wax supports stretched high into the treetops but only outlined a frame. Roots of the remaining trees shaped to give the floor structure.
But that all was work, and as eager to be praised as hellhounds were, they didn’t like thinking about work, especially not during fun.
The party hadn’t started yet, plenty were still finishing setting out food and barriers to make sure no one knocked over the food. In centre the most complete piece of the in progress hive, a twisting wax pillar reaching up past the first layer of foliage; the grooves open for hounds to display any decoration or interesting trinket they thought would add to the festivities.
Someone had climbed on a friend’s shoulders for a more visible spot.
But some's patience had worn thin, play wrestling in the middle of everything forcing everyone to walk around them, that's what the barriers were for after all.
Bee sniffed curiously, angling her antenna towards the scuffle. She turned her head around the pillar, slightly hovering for a better view.
She had to admit there would be no other nuptial partners, no males.
She had gotten everything she needed from hellhounds, she’s sure they’d make fine drones. The well-built ones, the well-filled, the well-bred. They were all at most half her size, she wondered if any were strong enough to pick her up anyways, her tongue swiping out past her lips.
A small commotion and a few discordant howls peaked her ears.
She twisted around to greet the new guests.
Lucifer had just exited through a portal half heartedly waving at the crowd fluttering around him, eyes flickering around the surroundings. Blissfully unaware the hard pats and bumps on his back and shoulders were as much a reminder of the Amber’s ring current independence as a genuine warm welcome.
“Lucifer, moi ami!” She leaned down to false whisper. “Belle told me that means ‘my friend’ in her secret speak.” Before popping right back up. “Come on, pups! Is this how we say hello to first timers?”
The group met her with a cry of howls, spreading out across the entire group to the further corners of the gathering with no clue what they were howling for.
Lucifer waited until the noise faded, pulling in a breath of confidence. “Thank you, its uh, good to see you too, Bee.”
“Where’s the Night? I didn’t think you could be seen without her!” She laughed.
“Oh, I-” Wow, Lucifer really couldn’t say anything to that; as Lilith pulled herself up from her shadows beside him.
The pointed grin Bee flashed between him and her could nearly be called subtle as she moved to greet his wife. Taking her shoulders and licking both her cheeks.
“Greeting, dear Beelzebub, just as delightful as I recall.” Lucifer shot a look, she was acting stiff, was she that stressed about this? “I cannot express how excited I am to see your renowned celebrations.” She interlocked her elbow with Bee’s lower arm, pressing her to lead Lilith around.
She threw a brief glance Lucifer’s way but he doubted she saw his nod of support. Eh, of little matter, she knew.