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"Well, this is awkward."
What could be weirder than sitting on your couch with a total stranger, who had just happened to appear in your house? Well, that stranger could be a demon. One that you had summoned by an accident. And that, more or less, described Jack's current situation.
It started out in a pretty innocent way. The green-haired man was fooling around with his friends, getting drunk at a house party at his own place.
And as always, there would be that one weird guy that had the strangest ideas in the drunken state of mind. That happened to be Wade, who brought up the most bizarre thing they could do in the middle of having fun.
Performing a demon summoning ritual.
And even the weirder turn of events? They all agreed to that. None of them obviously believed in that, or that it could work. Or that there would be consequences.
So when Jack woke up on the next day with his head throbbing, announcing the worst hangover ever, he certainly didn't expect a creature straight out of the pits of hell to be sitting on his couch.
"… Who the fuck…" the Irishman stared at the demon, who returned it with the same amount of intensity. It took a form of a tanned, well-built man in his late twenties, with raven-black hair swept to one side in a messy manner. Its eyes were black with bright red irises, and it seemed to be completely naked save for a piece of clothing around its waist.
"Hello," once the creature spoke up, the deep voice sent chills down Jack's spine. His attractive looks were enough to make the green-haired man hold his breath, so it only added more to Jack's nervousness. "What do you wish for?"
"Uh… what?" the Irishman squinted his eyes, only now realising that there was something off about the stranger. Other than the fact that he was in his living room in the first place. Jack was way too calm about the situation, though he only blamed it on the headache killing him.
"You have summoned me. So here I am, ready to make a deal with you."
"What… Who the fuck are you? How did you get into my house? What the hell are you on about?" The green-haired man shook his head and the questions spilt from his mouth.
"I have just said that you summoned me last night. I do not mind you not remembering though, it does not matter. As for my identity… Humans call me Dark. I appear whenever I am needed, to fulfil the wishes of anyone who performs the ritual. So I take that you have some kind of a dream you wish to come true."
The way he spoke so formally flew completely over Jack's head. He walked towards the kitchen to get some painkillers and drink at least a glass of water, his mind unable to think clearly in that state. Once he chugged down enough water to stop feeling thirsty, he groaned and let the demon's words sink in.
"Dude. It's… a misunderstanding," he rubbed his temples, trying to gather his thoughts. "We got drunk and chose a random ritual from the most shitty-looking website."
"I fail to see how it should matter. The fact still stands that I am here," Dark stood up, still glaring at Jack.
"Can you just… I don't know, go home?"
"No."
"Why not?" the green-haired man was not in a mood for a discussion, wanting to be left alone.
"The summoning always serves some kind of a purpose. I cannot simply return to my realm without making a deal with the human that requested my services."
"I didn't-" Jack let out a sigh of irritation. "We were fooling around, okay? None of us thought it would actually work."
"It did nonetheless."
"Just go and pretend it didn't happen."
"I am afraid you are in no position to order me around," a hint of anger appeared in the demon's voice.
"How can I make you go away then?" The Irishman paid the change of tone no mind.
"You can request anything once you agree to the deal."
"No, thanks."
And with that, Jack went back to his bedroom, somehow hoping that once the headache went away, so would the demon.
So he felt more than just annoyed as he found a couple of hours later that Dark was still in his house. And he stayed, showing absolutely no interest in leaving until he got Jack to wish for something. The worst part was that the demon seemed not to know much about the human world, especially the term of personal space. He did everything to get on the Irishman's nerves, constantly following him and nagging him to agree to his deal.
The fact that he had the most attractive body Jack had ever seen in his life did not help at all. The green-haired man was admiring it in a way every single day. Of course, if you asked him, he would deny it with all his might, because that would be just too ridiculous to find a damn demon hot.
Yet his 'resolve' was slowly crumbling, and with every interaction Jack found himself getting more and more interested in Dark. The only good solution to his problem, he supposed, was to constantly avoid the red-eyed entity, hoping that he would eventually give up on his goal. To the Irishman's horror, it turned out that he was doomed to the demon's presence until he asked for a wish. If he had known that the deals with demons worked that way before the party, he would have kicked Wade out of the house.
After three days it slowly became too much, and Jack couldn't take the presence anymore, feeling that his cheeks heated up whenever he looked into the red eyes. As he was sitting on a couch - with Dark right next to him - watching the TV and eating a sandwich, he felt that he needed to talk to someone to get any kind of help he could. Because seeing how everything was going, at that rate Jack was afraid he would end up blurting out a love confession to get the demon off his back.
Once he finished eating, he dashed straight to his room, praying that Dark wouldn't follow him. Thankfully, the creature stayed behind in the living room, watching whatever boring drama was currently on TV. The Irishman grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts until he got to the letter 'F'.
"Well, look who's calling! How's it going?" A cheerful voice greeted him once the call started.
"Felix, I uh… I need some advice," Jack's voice was shaky. His friend picked up on that, so his reply gave out his worry.
"What's wrong, bro? Did something happen?"
"Yes. No." The Irishman had to take a deep breath to calm himself down. "It's complicated."
"Go on, I'm all ears." The Swede went quiet after that, waiting for Jack's story.
"So…"
"So?"
"So, uh, t-there is this really hot looking person…" the green-haired man barely managed to stutter that out before he got interrupted by a holler from his friend.
"Ooooh, Jackaboy's fallen for someone?" Judging by the tone of his voice, Felix must've been grinning.
"S-shut up and just listen, okay?" Jack huffed.
"Okay, okay. Tell me about that dreamboat of yours."
"Urgh, Fe, you're not helping!" the Irishman hated the fact that he could feel his cheeks burning. "He's kinda handsome but…"
"He?" the Swede couldn't wait as he butted in Jack's sentence again. "Didn't know you swing that way, man," he joked.
"I don't!" The green-haired man groaned in annoyance. "Let. Me. Finish!"
"Dude, you're too worked up over this. So you've got a crush on a guy. What's the big deal?"
"Yeah, but he's not… normal?" Jack finished the sentence off like a question, unsure himself how to word it out without saying the word 'demon'.
"Quirky, you mean?" Felix chuckled and continued in a teasing tone. "You find it adorable, don't you? Is that what made you fall for him?"
"There's nothing adorable about him!" The Irishman yelled into his phone. Unfortunately for him, that was enough to get Dark's attention, as Jack heard him approach the bedroom.
"Oh shiteballs," he only managed to let out a swear before the door opened. To the green-haired man's irritation, the red-eyed demon was still walking around shirtless with nothing but the ragged piece of clothing wrapped around his waist.
Dark opened his mouth to say something, but Jack's reflexes were quicker. Between the giggles and more questions coming out of the phone's speaker, the unsettling gaze of a hellish entity set on him and a terrible case of a red face he was currently sporting, the Irishman's body did the first thing that popped up in his mind.
So the phone was sent flying towards Dark's face.
"Excuse me, but I do not know how to use your funny human devices," the demon spoke in his deep, rumbly voice as he caught the phone midair. "That is also what I wanted to ask about," he went on, not seeming to pay any mind neither the hard blush on Jack's face or the noises from the phone. Before he could finish and ask his question, the green-haired man started waving his hands like crazy and shouted out an apology.
"S-sorry! I didn't want to… I-I mean… Fuck! Ha--hang up first, okay? A-actually no, shit! Felix heard you, didn't he?!" the words came out of his mouth in an incoherent string of anything that came to his mind. "Argh, nevermind, I'm screwed!" Jack settled on hiding his face in his hands, feeling as the skin burned with embarrassment.
"Was that an order?" Dark cocked his head.
"Out, please. Go back to watching the TV, or anything," the Irishman sat down on his bed, his elbows propped up against his knees as his hands moved upwards to tangle in his hair.
"You know you cannot tell me to do anything yet," the demon crossed his arms, still holding the phone with Felix yelling on the other side.
Jack groaned and decided to ignore him. Though it proved to be much more difficult as he felt the unwavering gaze burning holes at the back of his head. Dark was ignorant to his secret wishes as he approached the bed and plopped down right next to the green-haired man.
"Though I will admit, that voice is starting to get on my nerves."
Jack peeked through his fingers, trying to set his eyes on the phone and not let them wander.
"You have to press the red button to hang up," he decided to man up and mumbled. To his relief, he quickly heard the sound of a call ending.
"Since you are clearly avoiding me lately, I think it is time you answered my question, no?" Dark was still showing absolute bliss, not noticing the Irishman's embarrassment.
"I-I told you, I have no use for a…"
"Ah-ah. Humans always say that, despite having hundreds, nay, thousands of wishes they want to fulfil."
"And most of them can be achieved through normal means, usually hard work," Jack retorted, yet still not being able to look at the demon. To his doom, Dark didn't let up.
"Look me in the eyes and tell me you do not have any dream that seems impossible to make come true at the moment."
The green-haired man felt hot, coarse fingers wrap around his wrists. His own hands were pulled away from his face, and the fiery red orbs were staring right into his blue eyes. Jack's heart stopped for a moment and the corners of his vision went blurry. His whole body was now flushed, and the air in the room felt like the heater got cranked all the way up. He watched Dark's lips move in a slow motion, as the other continued.
"I could make anything happen. Just say a word, and you will get anything you could ever wish for," the demon's voice was the most pleasant sound Jack's ears had ever experienced. It was sweeter than the most delicious chocolate, soothing like honey and milk. "I can even give you things out of this world. You would be a fool not to take this opportunity."
The Irishman was completely lost for a moment but as one sane thought passed through his head, he realised what was happening and yanked his hands away from Dark, falling off the bed with a shriek in the process. The demon looked unfazed, though he raised an eyebrow.
"You… "Jack was taking quick, shallow breaths. His heart was back to thumping hard in his chest, hard enough to ache. Once he got the control over his voice back, he screeched again. "You touched me!" Over the past days he'd learnt that Dark could not lay a hand on him until the Irishman asked for that but again, that would be a request that he could not make until agreeing to a deal.
"Ah, so that is the problem," the red-eyed entity only nodded. "I was able to because you seem to actually want it. I could pick up the desire practically beaming off of you."
The green-haired man had no idea how it was possible but he was pretty sure his cheeks were turning into a shade of red that was even brighter than the demon's eyes. "U-uh… w-w-what?" He quickly stood up, dusting himself off and clearing his throat awkwardly.
"I do admit I find it quite puzzling. You refuse to accept my offers even though you clearly have some kind of a strong wish." Dark casually got up from the bed, not taking his eyes off Jack even for a second. "I do not understand why you would be holding back."
"M-maybe I value my soul over my whims?" the Irishman tried to find a distraction, he knew he had to. Hoping that it would stop the conversation, he left the room. To his disappointment and rising anxiety, the demon decided to follow.
"Have I ever mentioned anything about taking your soul?" Dark didn't want to let it go, feeling that caught Jack up in the questions. "The deal has to be fair, so it is only natural for you to be consent with the choice on my part."
That caught the green-haired man off his guard. "Wait, so you c-can just accept anything?"
The red-eyed demon scoffed at that.
"I have my standards. I simply said that I can be satisfied with something less than a soul."
Jack cursed his mind for giving him weird thoughts again. The sheer presence of Dark was doing unimaginable things to him and he kept theorising between it being the demon using some kind of a charm on him and his own pathetic self just getting attracted to the first living creature that spent a day with him. He felt that he was pushing his luck there and he could get to the point of no going back, yet he decided to press on. If he couldn't get rid of the hellspawn, he could at least get himself an acceptable deal.
"T-then what would you want?"
Dark's eyes lit up - if the red orbs could glow, they would have probably done at the moment.
"Depends on what you'd wish for."
The Irishman shuffled his feet, feeling embarrassed again. Maybe he was damn desperate, he couldn't really tell.
"What if my wish was… for you to stay?"
The demon furrowed his brows.
"You never fail to confuse me. The last three days you have been giving me clear signals that you do not want my presence around you, and now you come up with a request that contradicts your behaviour up till now?"
"Well, that's because you follow me everywhere and don't listen to me," Jack bit his lip and looked away, setting his gaze on the view outside of the window. "I get that you want that damn deal. Invading my personal space constantly was good tactics, I'll give you that."
"So you have found that irritating," Dark chuckled. "The cheap way to bend a human's will, even the lowest of the demons know about that."
"You didn't answer my question, though," the green-haired man retorted.
"You are right," the demon nodded and stretched his arms over his head. Jack was pretty sure he didn't have to do that and was only showing his muscles off, which made his mind go crazy again.
"If that was your only wish then I suppose I would not have any need to take anything away from you."
"How so?" the Irishman didn't hide the surprise in his voice.
"I could feed off of you every single night in your sleep," a sinister smile crept up on Dark's face.
Jack gulped audibly. "F-feed off?"
"Humans tend to call this process as 'devouring dreams'. For some reason, unknown to any of the demonkind, they find it quite… uncomfortable."
"So what, you'd just give me nightmares? Is that it?"
Dark cackled, his shoulders moving up and down in amusement.
"You need to understand that we do not see any difference between the 'casual dreams' and 'nightmares'."
"Wait… Does that mean that I would… have no dreams at all?" Jack couldn't believe himself that he was actually considering it.
"Precisely."
Silence fell between them as the Irishman sat down on the couch in the living room. Sure, he managed to calm himself down in Dark's presence but the fact that he was constantly thinking about actually sealing the deal with the demon made him anxious. It could either be the best or the worst decision in his life. The fact that the entity was looming over him did nothing to soothe his thoughts.
"You have not answered my question either."
Jack's head snapped back up at the words. "Which question?"
"Why would you suggest that you wish for my company if you tried so hard to get rid of me?" the green-haired man picked up genuine curiosity in Dark's voice.
"I… Er… N-no reason," Jack turned his gaze away to stare at the TV idly playing in the background. It would be too embarrassing to admit that he had a crush on the demon.
"Hm. There it is again," the red-eyed creature muttered. "Your unusual desire for me to get closer."
"How did you know?!" the Irishman squeaked. "I-I mean--" It was hard for him to form any coherent response, being caught like that.
"I can pick up on any of your emotions as long as they are connected to me. Most of the time it is simple discomfort. Right now it is… That disgusting feeling I would rather not speak of," Dark scrunched up his nose.
Jack felt the blush come back to his cheeks.
"Oh… Oh shit…" he covered his face, hoping that he could hide his shame. "You know…"
"You do realise that I could take advantage of your outrageous affection?" the demon leant in, his lips twisting into a smile once again. "In fact, there should be absolutely no reason for me not to."
The green-haired man thought it couldn't get any worse. He was wrong. So wrong, that Dark proved it through grabbing his hands once again and pulling him up in a sharp motion, so that Jack bumped into his bare chest. He instantly wanted to get away, but the arms wrapped around his small frame faster than he could even yelp in surprise.
"If I wanted to, I could manipulate you into willingly giving up on your whole soul for me. If there is one thing I have vast knowledge in, it is how to control human minds," the demon spoke with confidence overflowing from his voice.
"T-t-then why didn't you d-do it?" Jack had little choice in the situation, so he played along.
"As I said it before, I could satisfy myself with only feeding off on your dreams. Your soul is so pure that I would not even have any need to take your memories away, let alone the entirety of it."
They went silent again. The Irishman unmoving against the body that radiated the pleasant heat, though his mind was going haywire with the amount of thoughts and possibilities on how to get out of the clutches of the demon. Eventually, he had to realise that there was no way out, as Dark wouldn't do anything he was told to unless Jack agreed to the deal.
"I don't really have a choice here, do I?" he mumbled.
"Perhaps you do," the red-eyed entity mused. "You have the choice to wish for anything."
"I wish I could wish to get out without consequences."
That only earned him a tighter squeeze around his waist.
"So which will it be, Jack?"
Maybe it shouldn't have shocked him as much as it did but the green-haired man nearly jumped at the demon using his name for the very first time. He took in a shaky breath, reconsidering his choices.
He could either earn himself the eternal damnation in hell for asking Dark to go back to where he was from, probably making him take more than the human could bargain for.
Or he could admit to having fallen for a creature that was not even a human and never have dreams again to get his personal space back.
For some reason, one of them sounded like a win-win situation.
"I think you already know."
The reply came off as a short chuckle. Dark seemed to be fond of that particular way of expressing himself.
"Still want to hear you say that aloud."
Jack burrowed his face in the demon's shoulder, muttering the words under his breath. That seemed to be enough for the red-eyed creature, as a grin spread on his face, and he placed a soft kiss on top of the human's head.
"Okay, so now that it's over you can… you know."
"What?"
"Oh for fuck's sake," Jack huffed. "I swear, the first thing you're learning about is personal space."