"Right there," Mino said with a little nod after her neighbor slid her table-blanket just a smidge to the right.

"Thanks." Quickly, it was clipped in place and Mino returned to her own setup. She had her new book, of course, in a nice stack in the middle of her table, and on either side were previous books that she still had a few copies of. Then came older books and a few small prints beside a sign neatly listing prices for everything.

Hopefully it would be a good day.

This was a new event, in a new location, and while the group that had gathered inside to sell their creations was impressive, Mino was also hoping there were a lot of attendees and that she could have a lot of fun conversations.

Those? Those were the best.

After one last long look at her table, Mino circled back around to sit, careful of her wings and her neighbors displays. She'd already politely traded books with both of her immediate neighbors, along with a small print of Lord Shiva that was certainly going to get referenced in the future for important anatomical reasons.

She yawned, not at all surprised. The room had at one point been a sea of yawns; nobody had properly slept between excitement and last-minute preparations. No matter how hard Mino tried, she always had things to do, even though she had a good checklist and had left work right on time, with Charon's amused blessing.

It wouldn't be long now. There would be a final warning, and then the doors would open. It would be-

"Get inside!"

Instead of a final warning, there were screams and the doors were flung open, dozens of panicked bodies flooding into the space.

Mino was on her feet without thinking, rushing towards the doors along with a few other participants. Before she could ask what had happened, she saw the orange sky and unnatural grey clouds.

Two women beside her were carrying swords and were reaching for the hilts.

"What are you-" One of the organizers, still clutching her clipboard, stared at them.

"Keep anyone who can't fight inside," one woman replied, drawing her sword. "Anyone who can..."

Mino summoned her scythe into her hands and nodded. She was going to do this to protect her hard work and happiness and all these people who shared her hobby. She was going to do everything she could and she was going to do it off the clock.

"I'm a shinigami," Mino quickly explained. "But don't worry, I just want to get this over with so we can get back to what's important."

The other woman laughed and nodded.

They were not the only ones who stepped out to defend the building from what Mino was fairly sure was yet another attempt at the apocalypse. She did not enjoy those, and this time she didn't have her coworkers with her, or even that knight.

But she had, glancing back, a surprising number of allies. Not just the women with the swords, but another group who had grabbed what they could as weapons, mostly from their own displays. She also did not want to cross the older lady brandishing a folded chair, nor the other group who clearly meant business with only little knives and other implements and instruments and obvious magic.

Beyond the building, there was a town, likely now aware of its potential doom. But they were the first and last line of defense, surely.

The first monsters landed a moment later, hideous and misshapen but very dedicated to their task. Mino wasn't exactly built for this kind of combat, but she didn't care. As her scythe met flesh, she cut through as best she could, at least stopping the monsters for long enough for the knife-wielding mages to do some proper immolation.

She stepped back from their flames, breathing deep, before lunging into the fray again. There was no time to dwell on the obvious; they were being pushed back and they were definitely out-numbered. All their hard work was going to be destroyed and she was not even getting paid and-

The sky darkened again for a moment, and the sound of wings filled the air. Mino looked up from where she'd felled another monster and was suddenly very sure she'd already died.

She had already died and had gotten her reward for a life lived in service of not working unnecessary overtime and also hot men quite frequently having interesting interactions of various types with other hot men.

That was the only explanation.

Her scythe bit into another monster but not deep enough. She was almost pulled off her feet, but suddenly another pair of hands were over hers, forcing the blade straight through the beast.

"Good job," a warm voice said, and Mino's knees nearly gave out. Truly, she had never seen such a gorgeous man let alone been helped by one, though his wings- Oh! A gorgeous demon. That made sense, this all made sense.

He shouldn't be helping her, though. He should be helping one of his group, wouldn't that be a scene? Wrapped around each other, making that final attack on an otherwise unbeatable monster. Oh! If she only had her sketchbook...

Mino blinked and he was gone, off to keep fighting. She did as well, even as the sky began rapidly returning to its proper color and the number of monsters fell off dramatically. Before long, there were only beast corpses littering the area and a group of exhausted women staring holes through their pack of saviors, almost all of whom were half-dressed male demons and fallen angels.

One, however...

"Mino? Is that you?"

Mino wasn't quite lost in thought. She'd stopped thinking entirely, lost in a haze of questionable thoughts and the nagging question of future paperwork that she kept trying to push away. She hadn't released her scythe and was instead leaning on it.

She wasn't expecting to the see the knight, but he was the knight of salvation, after all. Of course he'd saved her. Of course he'd saved all of them.

And he was with the entire group of handsome demons. That... could be very interesting to consider later.

"What happened?" she managed to ask, before promptly forgetting what were words were when she realized that standing beside the knight was Lucifer himself. She'd seen him before, of course, and had been in similar orbits both through work and knowing the knight, but...

Half the knight's explanation vanished as Mino tried very hard to both look at and not look at the sheen of sweat clinging to Lucifer's body and the beauty of his muscles. But the important part seemed to be something with a rogue demi-god and a sorcerer and they were taken care of and now it was just clean-up and good job...

Mino nodded.

"We're nearly done. None of the beasts got to the town."

They all glanced to Azazel, who had quietly approached to report.

"Good work," Lucifer replied. Mino did not miss how he quickly touched Azazel's upper arm in a surprising and deliciously familiar way. "This is one of the knight's friends..."

Azazel nodded at Mino and Mino stammered out a greeting.

"You must be exhausted," the knight said, and he wasn't wrong. Wait, Lucifer was still touching Azazel. Actually, their wings were also touching.

Their wings were touching.

Mino had wings. She knew what it was like to have wings and accidentally brush against someone with them. It was like bumping shoulders in a tavern; you didn't stay that way unless it was someone you wanted to stay that way with.

And their wings were touching and they were not doing anything about it.

Taking a deep breath, Mino debated her next words.

"Would you all like to come in and rest and get something to drink?"

They all turned to look at one of the organizers, who looked mildly singed and had probably been out fighting with everyone else.

Mino said nothing.

"If you don't mind," Lucifer replied.

"Not at all."

Mino let her scythe flutter away to nothingness as she, too, was herded into the building along with the knight, Lucifer, Azazel, and the entire group of nearly a dozen demons. A harem, Mino thought for a brief moment before wondering if that would be okay. That might cause more problems, though. Maybe more of an orgy? She'd have to think about that.

Surprisingly, the inside of the building was untouched. Everyone who'd sheltered within had done so politely and without much fuss. They were even helping reassemble displays and quickly set up extra chairs for their sudden saviors.

Mino sat back down behind her table, exhaling as she felt her body try to turn to pudding. That had sure been a lot. And now she had a clear view of the knight and Lucifer and Azazel and the entire group accepting proper hydration after hard work. Lucifer and Azazel were still close and their wings were absolutely still touching.

"Their wings are touching," her one neighbor leaned over and whispered.

"Their wings are touching," Mino confirmed.

They both reached for their sketchbooks. Maybe, if the group stuck around, there would be time for a few pose requests. Nothing too questionable, just some basic anatomy.

"I know the knight from my dayjob," Mino added. Nothing suspicious there. She was fairly sure she'd had a few jealous eyes on her already, actually.

Once everyone had gotten their tables and themselves reasonably presentable, the event officially began. Mino almost managed to forget about their surprise guests until the knight stopped at her table and picked up her newest book.

"May I?" he asked. He had a bag on his arm that looked heavy enough to suggest he was buying something from everyone. Truly, he'd earned his title many times over. And if he'd been looking at the contents of every book, well...

"Sure," Mino replied before putting on her best smile. "I have older books available as well."

"I have that one already," the knight replied, pointing at one of her oldest. "I didn't realize..."

"You do?"

"Nightmare turned me into a girl for awhile and... It's kind of a long story," the knight admitted with an awkward little chuckle. "I learned a lot."

Mino blinked. That wasn't what she was personally into but she could tell her neighbors were paying attention to the knight's every word. Interesting, interesting...

In the end, he bought one of everything she had and Mino leaned back, warm coins in her hand. She'd already done better than she'd expected and was about to finally sell out of some of her old stock. It was a good feeling.

She leaned under the table to drop the coins in her little box and grab another handful of her new book to put out.

"May I look?"

Mino sat up quickly, staring at the demon who'd helped her earlier. He, too, had acquired a bag and seemed to be shopping. Actually, after Mino had replied an affirmative, she glanced around to see that the whole group had started to spread out and were happily shopping.

Unexpected, but not bad. Not bad at all.

"Thank you for your assistance earlier," Mino added after a moment.

"My pleasure."

"If you'd like a copy, please just take it as thanks." It was the least she could do.

The demon shook his head and offered her a coin, which she quietly accepted. He tucked the book into his bag and moved along while Mino did her best not to actually swoon or melt or even slide onto the floor in a little puddle of squee and glee.

The rest of the day continued in much the same way, until one of the organizers called out that it was nearly that time.

Mino's table was noticeably empty; packing up would be easy.

"Do you have time for one last sale?"

Mino was just fishing out an empty box from under her table, but she nodded quickly. Both Lucifer and Azazel were holding copies of her new book and oh, their wings were still touching and there was certainly space enough that they didn't need to be. In fact, she'd been able to see, during the day, just how polite Lucifer was, otherwise, with his wings.

"You can just have them, if you'd like," Mino tried. It hadn't worked on a single one of the demons, but she had to always make the offer. "As thanks."

Lucifer shook his head and they both paid, both copies shuffled into their bags carefully.

Before they left the table, though, Lucifer quietly slipped his free arm around Azazel's waist, something far more intimate than their day-long spree of wings-touching.

There was silence, dead silence, as everyone stopped and stared.

Best book-fair-and-almost-apocalypse ever.