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The night air felt cool on Nathaniel’s face as he stepped out onto the balcony of his room. It was summertime in the Devildom, but the weather hardly changed here, remaining in a perpetual state of fall year-round. Leaves rustled about in the courtyard, blown by a wind that held a paranormal presence.

His eyes rested on the endless lineup of trees that bordered the school from the west. The black forest was the place that unsettled him the most. Twisted thorns wrapped around the forest, like teeth waiting to tear into flesh, and the shadows of unseen creatures moved branches as they waded through the foliage.

He had never been inside, thank goodness. And hopefully would never have to.

“Nate! Dinner’s ready!” The voice of his roommate shook him out of his thoughts, which were silly to begin with, weren’t they? Who would be scared of a forest? Still, in the Devildom, one could never be too sure of these things.

“Hey, what’s up bro?” Beelzebub was the first to greet Nathaniel, reaching out a long arm to perform their habitual secret handshake.

“Hey,” Nathaniel replied, as they bumped fists, jiggled their fingers and pressed their palms together.

Matilda rolled her eyes at them as she set a piping hot casserole dish onto the table. “Can one of you grab some plates? Oh, and call Kathryn down too, please.”

Beelzebub leapt to his feet in a flash, practically sprinting over to the cupboards and flinging them open. He grabbed a stack of plates, much more than needed for four people, and carried them over to Matilda, who furrowed her brow and began to admonish him for always eating so much.

When Nathaniel got to Kathryn’s room, the first thing he noticed was that it was dark. Was she perhaps sleeping? He rapped his knuckles against the door and cleared his throat.

“Erm, Kat? Are you in there? Food’s ready, if you’re hungry.”

The faint sounds of Matilda and Beelzebub's conversation drifted up the hallway to Nate's ears.

"Are there doctors in the Devildom?" Matilda wanted to know. "Do demons get sick? I feel as if your constant hunger is a medical condition of sorts."

"Could be," Beelzebub mused. "But I've been this way for as long as I can remember."

"Your brothers, they don't suffer from this constant hunger. Surely there must be some medicine, or treatment, that would cure you!"

"Medicine can be tasty, especially the cherry flavours. And I do enjoy eating cured meats, yes, especially cured alligator meat..."

"Beel!"

Nathaniel chuckled, well aware of his friend's insatiable appetite and fondness for food. Moments passed as he waited for Kathryn's reply. Should he knock again? Maybe she hadn't heard him the first time.

He decided to try again, leaning closer to the door. "Kat? Are you joining us for dinner?"

Kathryn was known to be fairly airhead most of the time, at least in the public eye anyway. On her own, it wasn't quite the same story though. She got lost in her tasks all the same, but she liked to think what she did in her spare time was fairly important.

She knew during the afternoon they didn't have any after class activities or study groups to attend, so she was free to dabble in her own personal activities. Lights turned down low, candles lit around her, and an extremely steady hand to draw sigils straight onto her floor.

She was always jealous of the power Matilda had. So she practiced. A lot. She was going to animate her bones, damn it. Even though it made her head ache and her eyes blur, she was going to do it.

Until the second knock and call pulled her from her concentration as she yelped, her sleeve catching one of the flames of her candle.

"Ah!! Shit! Yeah, I do, sorry!" She tried her hardest to hide the sigils on the floor, pulling a totally inconspicuous rug over the symbols, making sure she didn't catch anything - or herself - on fire. "I'm coming, go ahead!" Oh boy.

Satisfied with her response, Nathaniel headed back down to the common area. Beelzebub had somehow talked Matilda into giving him three heaping plates of cheesy casserole and was happily munching away.

“She’s on her way down now.” Nathaniel took his seat and picked up his fork. “Was probably taking a nap or something.”

Although Matilda arched an eyebrow in suspicion, she remained silent as she prepared a plate for Kathryn. She could have sworn she smelled smoke a few moments ago. Against her better judgment, she shrugged it off as her imagination.

Kathryn bounded down the stairs after a while, having cleaned up most of her mess. Pulling her hair up as she came into the room, she made a show of smelling the air.

"Wow, it smells so good Mattie!" She enthused as she went to go kiss her friend's cheek. She might have been spending too much time with Asmo. When she was denied the access to Matilda's cheek, she reached to take the plate instead, grinning. "I love when you cook."

She settled in the spot next to Nathaniel, turning to him suddenly. "Let's tell scary stories tonight! We should set up a tent and sleep outside. Come on, don't you wanna have a sleepover?" As if they didn't already live together.

Nathaniel and Beelzebub exchanged glances as Kathryn bounded to kiss, or attempt to kiss, Matilda on the cheek.

"Girls are weird." Beelzebub's voice was muffled by food. Nathaniel nodded in agreement. "I like sleepovers though. We can stay up together and eat snacks all night... like popcorn, or roasted marshmellows... mmm..." Beelzebub's eyes seemed to glaze over as he started daydreaming.

"I don't think Lord Diavolo, or your dearest Lucifer, would approve of us going outside and pitching a tent like some homeless people do," Matilda sighed. As much as she appreciated Kathryn's kind compliments, she always felt the need to be the level-headed one in the group. "And even if we did get permission, do any of us even own a tent?"

"I believe there are some tents in the gym storage room. For the football team's (ooc: lol I dunno what the demon football sport is called I forgot sorry) camping trips. I'm sure we could get away with borrowing a couple," Nathaniel suggested. But he had an eerie feeling about this.

Kathryn sighed at Matilda turning down her idea immediately. She got Beel on her side though, so that was a good sign at least. When Nathaniel said he could probably borrow some tents, her eyes lit up.

"Also, there's nothing you can say to convince me that Lord Diavolo wouldn't be hype about a little camp out. If we got Diavolo to approve, Lucifer would have to agree. ....Ooh, do you think he would share a tent?" He wouldn't. He probably wouldn't even want to sleep over. Unfortunately. "I'm gonna text Diavolo."

Before anyone could argue, she had her devildom phone out, asking permission to sleep outside in tents tonight. She was ecstatic when Diavolo immediately called her DDD.

"That's a fantastic idea, Kathryn!" The voice on the other end of the line was loud, full of laughter. "What a human thing to do! I have the perfect place for you all to go camping, too. Call whomever you would like to join, I think myself and Barbatos will come along! How fun. Gather your things and tonight Barbatos will come to get you and we can set up our campsite."

Kathryn grinned when he hung up, sticking her tongue out at Matilda. "I told you he'd be stoked. Let's finish dinner so we can get snacks together Beel. We'll make smores tonight."

At the prospect of going out to buy snacks, Beelzebub inhaled the rest of his dinner, and when Nathaniel did not do the same, he sat there tapping his orange fingernails impatiently.

"Do you need help?" Beelzebub asked, gesturing towards Nathaniel's half-eaten plate. Nathaniel eventually relented and pushed the plate to the demon sitting across him. The food disappeared before their eyes like someone had performed a magic trick.

"I'll grab two tents from the fangol team's storage room," Nathaniel said. "You two go and get some snacks. The convenient store's open 24/7, isn't it? Could you grab some DEMONADE, Kat? I'm all about those electrolytes."

Matilda couldn't believe that Kathryn was getting away with another one of her outrageous ideas yet again, but the redhead certainly had a way of livening up a weekend. Although she wasn't the biggest fan of the outdoors, Matilda thought it would be nice to get out of the stuffy dorm for a little while. She would never dream of letting Kathryn know this, though.

"You know Kathryn, you can't always get your way with Lord Diavolo simply by labelling something as 'what humans do'," Matilda said. "But it seems his mind is already made up about this matter. So, what's the plan?"