Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“There’s hundreds of demons in New York, why the fuck do we care about this one?” Frank grunted, settling down into a particularly fluffy cloud.

Karen tapped her foot in mid-air, wings flapping lazily. “Because this one is different. He doesn’t care whatsoever about staying hidden.”

Foggy, hovering next to her, nodded along. “Yes, he’s flashy. He goes out at night in nothing but his birthday suit, horns and all, and sets stuff on fire.”

Frank snorted. “You’re telling me there’s a naked demon running around? No way. The humans would have noticed and we’d have received far more prayers than we did.”

Karen glared. “You know how humans are, they’re not exactly an observant bunch. But our intel is sound: another angel saw the demon three nights in a row.”

“Really? Who?” Frank asked, eyebrows raised.

“Turk.”

Frank laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“We know he may not be the most… qualified angel, all in all. But he saw what he saw,” Foggy said, shrugging.

“Alright, so let me get this straight. You want me, me! to fly downstairs and kick that demon’s butt back to hell, yes?”

Karen and Foggy nodded.

Frank crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Two questions: Why me? And why the fuck should we care? Seems like a problem for the guys in hell, not us up here.”

“Think, Frank,” Karen sighed, exasperated. “One demon runs amok, no big deal. But the as soon as the whole bunch learns we’re just sitting this out? They’re gonna take over New York, maybe the world, faster than we can blink. It would endanger the balance and might lead to war.”

Frank groaned. She was right.

“Fine. But why me?” he grumbled.

Foggy shrugged. “You’re the meanest of us. I mean, I could kick a demon’s ass, too, of course… but you’re kinda more impressive than either of us.”

“Speak for yourself,” Karen grunted, punching her fist in her palm. 

Frank rolled his eyes. “Alright. Fine. I’ll do it. But you owe me, you hear?” he said and pulled his harp out of the cloud.

Foggy squinted. “That looks like it’s made out of AK-47s…”

“So?” Frank asked, eyebrows raised.

Foggy held his hands up. “Nothing. Please go on.”

Frank nodded and stood up. “Thought so,” he said and glared at the other two angels. “Nobody sits on my cloud, or I’ll play you a song on my harp!” he grunted, flapped his wings and dove down to Earth. 

The demon wasn’t at all hard to find - Frank just had to follow the fires the hellspawn ignited along his way.

The angel frowned. They were fires, alright, but he’d expected buildings going up in flames, not some trash here and a dumpster there. Small fires, nearly insignificant. Not at all what Frank was used to when he was sent to deal with a demon wreaking havoc. Huh, he thought. Maybe this demon is more like a trickster than a really malicious one. All the better, one easy mission coming right up. 

A scream sounded through the night, and Frank swore. He’d been so deep in thought, he’d forgotten about catching up to that damn demon, and now the hellspawn had hurt someone! Frank flapped his wings and flew into the dark alley the scream had come from, ready to show that demon what an asskicking from an angel felt like - only to stop dead in his tracks, eyes widening. Turk had been right, a demon with his horns out for the world to see, beat up someone in the alley. Rather confusing, though, was the lady cheering the demon on, while the hellspawn wiped the floor with what looked like some pretty bad guys, given the knives and guns on the ground. 

Frank would never admit it, but he gaped a little and was glad he’d stayed invisible. The lady didn’t seem to be in immediate danger, so the angel took his time observing the demon.

Something was strange about him. 

Well, apart from the fact that a fucking demon was kicking bad-guy-butt, of course. 

Frank frowned. The demon looked… off. Like the skin he wore wasn’t quite right, didn’t quite fit. 

The fight didn’t take much longer. Bad guys on the ground, handbag back with the lady, the demon grinned a little, showing his fangs. His small fangs. His really small fangs that, again, seemed kinda off. What the fuck was going on here? 

Frank watched as the demon jumped up some stairs and disappeared over the next roof. Why didn’t he just fly? Why help that lady? And why hadn’t the demon tried to kill the bad guys? Frank would have intervened, of course, but it obviously hadn’t been necessary. What strange kind of demon was that?

Frank decided to stay invisible and just follow and watch.

Well. After putting out the dumpster the demon had set on fire.

He found the demon again a short time later, and this time the demon seemed to be fighting off the mob - and he seemed to be losing, judging by the many guns pointed at him. Frank was utterly confused. Why would a demon care about guns? It’s not like a bullet could actually kill them. But this demon stood at the edge of the building, with his hands up and a grim look on his face, teeth bared. 

“Go on,” the demon hissed, and Frank was surprised to hear such a melodic voice. “Shoot me!”

As Frank watched, the demon’s heartbeat suddenly skyrocketed - and why would an immortal being be so afraid? - right before he locked his jaw and stepped off the building.

The mobsters shouted in surprise and Frank snorted. Well played, demon, well played. Escaping in the most dramatic way possible, fitting for a demon such as this. Any second now the hellspawn would flap his wings and disappear into the sky.

Any second now.

It was a really high building, so there might be some more time for the demon to fly away.

But no wings were opened. The demon didn’t soar up, and Frank didn’t think - he flapped his wings and caught the demon mid-fall.

To the angel’s surprise, however, the demon didn’t even seem to realise Frank had caught him.

Huh, he thought. Well then, better set him down on the ground a little harder than strictly necessary, so that the demon could stay oblivious. 

With that thought, Frank let go of the demon, who fell onto a conveniently placed mattress right next to a dumpster, which promptly caught fire. 

Frank slowly began to recognize a pattern. 

It didn’t take long for the demon groan and roll off the mattress and tilt his head into the flaming dumpster’s direction. 

“World on fire, literally,” Frank heard the demon mutter under his breath. “I wonder what asshole keeps torching stuff around here.”

The angel’s eyebrows went up to his hairline. Did the hellspawn not realise…? What kind of fucking dumb demon was he dealing with here?

Foggy and Karen so owed him. Frank shook his head and continued to follow the demon, who now seemed to have a destination in mind, judging by the speed he flipped with over the roofs. 

To Frank’s surprise, the demon climbed through a roof access and entered an apartment. The angel didn’t follow inside, who knew what kind of cruel traps that demon had set. Instead, he hovered in front of the huge windows, still invisible and imperceptible, even for creatures of hell.

He watched as the demon stepped inside the apartment and got himself a beer, before flopping down on the couch. 

The demon lived here? Like people? Like a human? What was going on?

And then Frank gaped because the demon began fucking skinning himself, he freaking pulled his red skin from his body and - oh. 

Oooh! 

No wonder something had felt off. No wonder the demon’s fangs were as small as they were. No wonder he’d been nervous around guns. 

And no wonder Frank hadn’t noticed sooner - after all, nobody had seen a half demon in millenia. 

That…. could be a problem. 

Chapter Text

“I saw what I saw,” Frank grumbled, crossing his arms.

Foggy nodded seriously. “And we believe you, of course… but…”

“A half demon??” Karen squealed, flapping her wings excitedly like the young angel she was. “I have never seen one, oh my boss!”

“You wouldn’t have,” Foggy said, “they haven’t been around in your lifetime. At least not that I’m aware of.” He looked at Frank, squinting. “You’re sure?”

Frank glared. 

Foggy squinted harder. “The chances are kinda slim, so…”

“If you don’t believe me, look for yourself!” Frank hissed, annoyed.

There was squee, a whooshing sound, and then Karen’s cloud was empty, save a few loose feathers gently floating between them. Foggy pinched the bridge of his nose.

Four hours later, Foggy was ready to fly down himself. Karen still wasn’t back with them, and while she was an angel, she was a young and inexperienced one. Not defenceless, never that, but a bit naive. 

Foggy sighed. He wasn’t exactly old himself, by angel standards, but prided himself on being the practically thinking type, and with Karen basically missing, who knows what has happened to her. It was possible the hellspawn got the better of her and now she was paraded down to hell, to be plucked like a chicken and… no. Foggy had to go after her, and if it was the last thing he-

The sound of a horribly out of tune harp tore him out of his thoughts. Even Frank, who had been napping on his cloud, slowly blinked his eyes open. Both sets of eyes zeroed in on a ball of dirty feathers, slowly flapping their way up to them. Within the ball, a harp played a terrible version of “Girls just wanna have fun”, accompanied by Karen’s usually melodic voice. 

Foggy’s eyebrows climbed up and he flew down to their youngest angel. Who was clearly very, very drunk. 

“Uhm,” Foggy said.

“Found the half demon,” Karen slurred. “‘s a nice guy. Also found Josie. And then I found the eel!” she continued, sounding proud, and promptly fell asleep in Foggy’s arms.

“Uhm,” Foggy said. 

Frank snickered. 

“THE EEL!” Karen yelled and went limp once more. 

Foggy looked at Frank, helplessly. “I have no idea what to do with this information.”

Frank shrugged. “I mean, she basically confirmed that there’s a half demon, didn’t she?”

Foggy nodded. “Okay, so that means we have to go to a higher authority and tell them about what’s going on.”

“...hn,” Frank grunted.

“....’hn’?” Foggy asked.

“...it’s just…,” Frank sighed.

Foggy felt a migraine coming. “It’s just what?”

“He didn’t seem like a bad guy, ya know?” Frank said, shrugging.

Yep, definitely a migraine. “Frank,” Foggy said carefully. “He’s a demon.”

“Half.”

Foggy nodded patiently. “Half. Demon .”

“He helped some old lady.”

“Demon!”

“And some really sketchy looking guys wanted to off him.”

“Those were probably priests. Because he’s a demon !”

Frank sighed. “Look, can you just hold off on going to the bosses? Imma go down again and confirm.”

“....” said Foggy.

“Just, ya know, take another look. We can always kill him later,” Frank needled. “But this is the first exciting thing happening in… well, since the last apocalypse. I’m bored as fuck.”

Foggy looked from the passed out angel in his arms to the one with the straight face, but whose wings were quivering with barely restrained excitement. 

He sighed.

“Fine. I’ll give you a month to see what’s going on.”

Frank nodded seriously, cocked his harp, and was off. 

Chapter Text

Frank’s plan was foolproof: get down to earth, enter the half demon’s building, wait for him on the staircase to leave his apartment, and follow him around for however long it took to be certain of his motives. All invisible, of course. 

A surefire way to find out more about the hellspawn without being detected. There was absolutely nothing that could go wrong in any way whatsoever.

Step one: check. Frank’s on earth. 

Step two: he’s invisible and inside the building with a lazy flap of his wings.

Step three: wait for the half demon to show up. 

Frank settled down on the stairs and pulled out his harp to tune it to earth’s pressure. Holy duties and such. 

He was close to finishing up, when the apartment door opened and the hellspawn, dressed in a suit and tie, with a leather suitcase, stepped out. There was a white cane in his hand and red sunglasses covered his eyes, but his head was tilted slightly as if listening to something. 

Time for step four: following the half demon around. Silently, always staying invisible and intangible, nothing would be able to touch him, everything would just phase through, so there would be no way for anyone - least of all that half demon - to know he was there and-

Frank grunted in surprise when that white cane whacked him in the shin full force.

The half demon’s eyes grew wide behind the glasses. “Oh no, I am so sorry! Did I hurt you?”

Frank blinked. “Uhm.”

“I really didn’t mean to, didn’t see you there for a second,” the half demon laughed. “Are you here for the apartment next door? My new neighbour?”

“....uh…” Frank said, eloquently. 

The half demon started to frown. “Otherwise… what would you be doing here? Are you here to rob me? I will scream for help right now!”

Frank saw the other take a deep breath to apparently make good on the… thread? he guessed, and hurriedly put his hands up in an appeasing manner. “No, no, I mean yes, I mean… yes, I’m the new neighbour!” …whatever that meant. 

The half demon tilted his head again, then smiled. “Oh, why didn’t you say so? Oh, I know, I must have surprised you when whacking my cane against your leg. Does it still hurt?”

It never had to begin with, really. “Uh. No?” Frank said, feeling out of his depth. 

The half demon nodded, satisfied. 

“Great, so now that we’ve established that, let me get the keys for your apartment! You know, the landlady had asked me to keep them with me in case you showed up…” he babbled, entering his apartment and coming back with said keys, “...and here you are, just as I was about to leave for work! You’re lucky I’m late today,” the hellspawn went on while opening the apartment door on the other side of the hallway. 

Then he handed Frank the key and shoved him in. 

“My name is Matt, by the way, nice to meet you. But now I’ve got to run, late for court. Hear you later!” the half demon said cheerfully and off he went, leaving the doorstep smoking slightly.

Frank stared after him.

Then stared at the key in his hand.

Then at the apartment.

Then at the slowly growing fire on the floor. 

He put the fire out and sat down.

….what the hell just happened?

Chapter Text

It took Frank about three minutes to realise that a) the half demon had no problem whacking his intangible form with a stick, and b) he, Frank, was the proud new owner of an apartment right next to the one the half demon occupied. Who apparently was at… court?

Frank shook his head to clear it and think. Half demons shouldn’t exist in the first place, and if they were found the standing order was to, well, smite them on sight. So it stood to reason that some of the information on them was out of date or plainly wrong, because obviously making himself intangible does not work on this one, even though at least the hellspawn was not able to see him when invisible. Small mercies and such.

For a second, Frank thought about killing his new neighbour and be done with it. Just smite him like the annoying fly he was, flap his wings, and be home in time for dinner. Then settle on his freshly fluffed cloud, play the harp, float over to the gym to push some weights. Sleep and do it all over again. 

And again.

And again.

….

Frank raked a hand over his face. It was all so incredibly boring , and if he could find an excuse to not immediately smite the half demon his life would be slightly less boring for the next month. He hoped. 

And anyway, it didn’t seem like his neighbour was a danger to humanity, really, Frank reasoned with himself. Also, he had managed to fly under their radar for some time now, and who was to say there weren’t any other half demons lounging around and- oh. Oooh! There’s his excuse! 

So. New plan’s the same as the old plan: following the half demon, learning about him and what he does, finding out if there are others - and then smite him until there’s nothing left but a smoking pile of ash. He just had to be more careful this time.

Fluffing his wings, Frank went invisible and jumped out of a window. How hard could it be to find “the court” anyway.

As it turned out, and after Frank had been zooming around half the country for hours, this specific “court” had nothing to do with royalty. Frank silently cursed his inability to just detect nearby demons as he slowly touched down on the stairs of the courthouse after finding the place the old fashioned way. 

Meaning looking at the name on the apartment’s letterbox, opening the yellow pages, and calling Matt Murdock’s office to find out about his whereabouts. 

The courthouse’s security didn’t pose a problem, as expected. Frank’s invisible form simply marched through the building until he found the room he was looking for.

The hellspawn at law was in the process of delivering a speech when Frank entered the room and sprawled on the last bench, spreading his legs and wings for comfort. He let his heart beat the same artificial way as the last time he went to earth. Didn’t really need it, but it kinda reminded him not to do anything angelic and be more careful with his surroundings. 

The door opening must have somehow irritated the half demon, Frank thought, as he interrupted his speech for a second to slightly tilt his head, before continuing speaking in defence of his client.

Who seemed to be a little old lady getting evicted. 

Frank frowned. He had been seeing the half demon defending some poor guys the night before, sure, but apparently this was also his day job? Huh. Wasn’t exactly what demons were known for, but whatever. Probably some sinister plan to get… something. 

His frown deepened when he noticed the way the half demon was shuffling around, as if uncertain of his surroundings. How he only ever looked in the general direction of the people he was talking to, but never directly at them. 

Huh. Blind. The half demon was blind. He must have some interesting demon powers to pull off all the shit at night if he can’t see with his eyes. 

Deep in thought, Frank missed the rest of the speech, but he didn’t miss that apparently the old lady was no longer getting evicted. 

And now there was some hugging going on. The old lady crossed herself and then hugged the half demon, who didn’t even flinch .

Huh.

He watched the hellspawn stuff his papers into a case, smile at his clients, and walk past him through the door. 

Frank got up to follow.

Matt was on edge after the hearing, and not because of Mrs. Smith no longer getting evicted. What was his new neighbour doing at his place of work? He’d felt something off with him the moment he met him on the staircase that morning. Felt like he’d met him the night before, when he apparently got a head injury because there was no possible way he really could have fallen off that building and survived because of a flimsy mattress. 

That morning he’d brushed it off as him being paranoid… but now? After the guy had entered the courtroom and just lounged around, without anybody saying anything? No, there was no way that was a coincidence. 

….and especially not when Matt felt the guy following him to his office, just two paces behind him, without saying a word or acknowledging him in any way. His mood darkened further when he realised that his neighbour seemed to be playing on him being blind to stalk him and by the time he reached his office building, Matt was plotting how to get rid of him.

To his surprise, however, the guy didn’t follow him into the building.

Maybe it was just a coincidence? Matt thought after closing the door to his office.

Then he paused.

Tilted his head.

Was… was the guy on the fucking fire escape? And settling down in front of his window? For real?

Yeah, no. That wouldn’t do. At all.

Matt got up and grabbed a bag. Time to teach the guy a lesson. 

Sitting on the outside staircase to watch the half demon work had seemed like a good idea at the time.

That was, of course, before the hellspawn had chucked fucking bird food in his face, as though Frank was an overgrown pidgeon. 

There had simply been no way in heaven for Frank to not grunt an undignified “what the fuck!”, which, of course, the hellspawn heard.

“Hello?” the half demon asked, sounding uncertain. “Is… is there someone on the fire escape?”

And what was Frank supposed to do? Say “no”? 

“...no,” said Frank.

The half demon frowned. “Uhm. Is this… aren’t you my new neighbour? You sound like it?”

Frank sighted silently. Yeah, there was no way he could wiggle out of this one without straight up flapping his wings and vanishing into thin air.

“Yes,” Frank said in lieu of anything better to say.

The half demon tilted his head. “Oh. Uhm. Okay… why are you on the fire escape? Do you need… help?”

This was getting ridiculous. And awkward. 

The half demon’s eyes grew wide behind his glasses. “Are you stalking me??” he asked, sounding out of breath, and now Frank was scrambling for an answer to calm him down. He really didn’t need for this building to be on fire because of a stressed out demon. 

His eyes caught a delivery guy three floors down, so of course the first thing that came to his mind was “I wanted to bring you lunch as a thank you for letting me in my apartment!”

That seemed to catch the half demon off guard, at least, and got him another head tilt. 

“You, uh. Brought me lunch?”

“Ah, yes.”

Now he got a faint smile.

“You used the fire escape to bring lunch to my office?”

Frank would have slammed his head onto a desk if there had been one conveniently placed on the staircase.

“Yes.” he said instead.

The half demon paused, head tilted, and blinked. 

Then he finally nodded and Frank got treated to another tiny smile. It was kinda cute.

…for a demon, of course!

Said half demon opened the window further. 

“Thank you, but you really shouldn’t have! Come in, I’ll get some plates!” the hellspawn said and turned around to do just that.

Meanwhile Frank, with nothing better to do, flapped his wings to quickly borrow the food the delivery guy was in the process of delivering (he left him some pieces of gold, of course, he was an angel after all), and climbed through the window with freshly acquired pizza. 

At least he wasn’t bored anymore.