Chapter 20

Twenty

It had been time for Jon to open the shop after all their cuddling (luckily today the shop had a slightly later opening time). Jon had an employee who occasionally worked, though, and he'd called her in to open up for him. Beel felt bad, but Jon insisted.

"We get the day together. I want that," Jon had declared, and Beel wasn't going to argue.

Then they'd showered together, and of course they ended up having shower sex. Beel could not be blamed; Jon was just too fucking sexy. They had ended up with making out, frotting, and enjoying some very fun tail play (Jon thoroughly approved of the tail).

Then it was back to the table and the brownies, because sex was hungry work. They were also contemplating actual food, because brownies were not the best breakfast.

"Pizza?" Beel asked hopefully.

"You heathen. It isn't even noon yet," Jon replied, but he got up and walked over to grab the pizza menu anyway. Humans were so weird about menus—they always got the same couple dishes from favorite places, yet they always looked through the choices like they were gonna order something new.

"You know," Beel mused as Jon flipped through the menu, "I was a frog for 7,607 days."

Jon turned, sputtering. "You kept count?"

"I'm good with numbers," Beel admitted. "This is the first day in over twenty years where I haven't been a frog," he added.

"Day one, then," Jon said, coming over and sliding onto Beel's lap.

"Yeah, I guess it is," Beel admitted. "And it's a hell of a lot better than my first day one."

"Hmm, how come? You loved being Gabe's frog," Jon said, stealing a bite of brownie off the spoon in Beel's hand.

"Not at first. I was running around, I think doing something for a demon of wrath, which is pretty cranky work, and then suddenly I was topside and I was a frog. A blue and orange frog. It was… not what I was expecting. Summoning can be kind of fun, but I was stuck as a pet. Not much havoc to cause as a frog," Beel added. "But it didn't take me long to realize what a sweet kid Gabe was, and it ended up being a nice break from errands. I was planning to go back, but… well, here I am."

Jon leaned in and kissed him. "Here you are, and I couldn't be more thankful."

Someone's stomach gurgled—Beel wasn't even sure whose—interrupting the lingering sweetness of their kiss, and they both laughed.

"Pizza," Jon said, grabbing his phone. He looked at it for a moment instead of dialing, though. "I have a text from Az."

Beel put his spoon down. "Yeah, I guess we'll need to fill them in. Him and Gabe both. We made a lot of decisions. I'm not sure how Gabe is going to take it."

Beel felt guilty. Over twenty years with Gabe. He wouldn't be leaving him, but moving out was a big step. Gabe had Az now, though. He wasn't sure he would have been able to do it if he didn't know that Gabe had someone there for him.

"You wanna call them? Or you wanna wait?" Jon asked.

Beel sighed, then he grabbed the phone and dialed the number on the text. It was labeled Gabe, but the message had clearly been from Az. Gabe would not use that many question marks, exclamation points, and emojis. Especially not those emojis.

He put the phone on speaker, and Az answered on the first ring. "Well?" he demanded.

"Is Gabe with you?" Beel asked.

"Beel? He's in the other room, but I can put you on speaker and get him. He knows what's going on," Az added.

They heard some rustling, and then Gabe was saying hello into the line.

Beel felt suddenly shy. Gabe had never heard his voice before.

"Hey Gabe. It's Jon and Beel," Jon said, taking over.

"Is Beel ok? Are you ok? I know this must be such a shock, and I'm sorry that I sprung a demon frog on you, and it was totally Az's idea to have Beel stay there longer, because we're actually home. And Beel, if you need to come home, we're here. And Jon, if you need to talk, we're here. And the suspense is killing me… Are you guys ok?" Gabe rambled out.

Beel chuckled. "Yeah, Gabe, we're ok. We're actually really good."

Gabe gasped. "Beel? Is that you?" And then Beel swore he could hear Gabe getting teary as he said to Az, "It's Beel! Beel is on the phone!"

"Yes, my love, that's Beel," Az assured Gabe. "Our little baby all grown up into a human."

Beel heard a playful smack and couldn't help chuckling again.

Jon took over then, because Gabe and Beel were both a little emotional. He explained what had happened and how he had taken the news of Beel's demonhood. Az insisted on asking about sex (of course—he was a lust demon, after all), but Jon dodged those questions pretty artfully. Eventually Jon wound down on the story, and Beel knew it was time to give the news.

"Soooo…" he started off, feeling nervous. "I think, maybe, if you guys will be ok, that I might stay here with Jon."

"For like the rest of the week?" Gabe asked.

"Longer than that," Beel answered quietly.

"Oh," Gabe said, and Beel could hear Gabe's sadness.

"But we'll still do movie night, and you can visit, and I can visit you. And I'll still be a frog sometimes, because I love my heated rock, and I can just pop over whenever you"re lonely. Although I'll always call first, because eww, you guys are likely to be up to all sorts of weird things without me there," Beel declared.

"Yes. I would like that. I'm gonna miss you, Beel," Gabe murmured.

"I'll still be there for heart to hearts. If that lusty asshole gets under your skin, just call and I'll portal in on my heated rock for a chat. Just make sure you leave my aquarium up," Beel told him.

Gabe laughed at that. "What, I don't get to meet human Beel?"

"Maybe eventually," Beel admitted. "But I'll always be your pet frog, Gabe."

"No, Beel. You'll always be my family," Gabe assured Beel. "And I'm so happy for you both."

Beel smiled softly. He had a soulmate (he was sure that was what Jon was), a loving family, and so many possibilities for his time topside. Home, family, and a future—Beel really was the luckiest lesser demon in creation.