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Oz had lost count of how long he had existed, for eons of time he had met with myriads of gods and entities and had traveled through numerous different dimensions. He had even seen and experienced some of the most historical events that shaped the present that he now currently resides in; and yet deep inside, as much as he reluctantly wants to admit it, none could quite compare to the feeling that he is experiencing right at this very moment. He tightened the grip on the neck of the molotov cocktail in his hand, he felt a bizarre mixture of excitement and uncertainty in his stomach, he sneakily drifted his eyes towards the person next to him, although he had his back to him, Oz knew that the tall red demon boy had a toothy, smug grin plastered upon his face, and oh how he longed to see it.
The air around them was cool and crisp, spring had barely begun; and although much of the blankets of pure white snow from winter had already melted, there was still a lingering chill that remained present in the atmosphere. Oz couldn’t help but shiver as a draft blew by, he cursed to himself, as earlier on prior to his meeting with a certain red devil, he was debating on whether or not he should wear thicker clothes, he had stubbornly decided not to do so despite the scoldings of one of his phobias.
“I know it’s going to be cold out but won’t it be bold of me if I went out in normal clothes?” Oz asked the phobia on his shoulder who just pouted at him in response, it then proceeded to repeatedly point towards the dark yellow coat that was hung on his closet.
Looking back, Oz knew that he made a grave mistake, but it was way too late for that now, he needed to own up to it. Many years ago he wouldn’t have minded such coldness, there was even a time where he once ventured through an icy dark dimension that he had long forgotten the name of to meet with its eldritch ruler. Nowadays it wasn’t the case, considering where he is now, and how long he had lived in it, he had grown to become accustomed to more mild and stable weather. And as a result...a simple draft of cool air is enough to render him shivering as if he was nothing more than a mere human being.
“A-choo!” Oz let out a timid sneeze, apparently, his resistance to cold had gotten so bad that it was enough to render him sneezing.
“Hey noob, Are you okay?”
Oz looked up to where the voice came from, the taller boy towered over him by several inches, he took a deep breath then focused his eyes on the guy’s horns, normally he would have averted the other’s gaze by looking away, but Oz felt like that wouldn’t be what the other would want, and he needed to prove to himself and to the demon that he was not a guy that was easily intimidated.
“Y-yes, I am.” Oz straightened his posture and fixed his cardigan, he mentally cringed at himself for his rather “uncool” response.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, yeah don’t worry about me dude, we have more important things to do.” Oz held up the bottle in his hand, prompting Damien to grin in response.
“Fuck Yeah! We’re gonna wreck this joint!” Damien flashed his sharp teeth, he had on the same toothy grin that Oz wanted to see earlier, the shorter boy felt his cheeks warm up upon seeing such a sight.
For the past six weeks, Oz had been trying to get the attention of the fiery ball of chaotic hell known as Damien Lavey, it originally started off as a little challenge between him and his friends to get someone to take to prom with its date drawing near. After much thinking and deliberating on who to go with, Oz decided to go for Damien, as he had always envied his bold behavior and “I don’t give a fuck attitude”, unlike his friends who was deadset on getting someone to bed after prom, he initially never thought of it as something sexual or romantic, instead he saw it as a challenge for himself, will he be able to become cool enough for Damien, that the demon boy would be willing to go to prom with him? Or will he fail miserably and end up embarrassing himself as he faces rejection from one of the most charismatic and badass monsters in school?
Despite the risk, Oz was very much up to the challenge, and so he ventured on, trying his best to become as bold as he can be, cutting classes and hanging out in the bathrooms, joining the outdoor raves behind the school building to seem more fun, and even buying a badass-looking temporary tattoo from his somewhat suspicious feline classmate who always seems to have a weird assortment of various items for sale.
And his hard work and effort worked, Damien noticed him and brought him along to various crime and arson-related escapades. In order to appear bold and impress the demon prince, Oz did things for him that he never thought he could do, he gave him advice on how to hide a corpse, he sabotaged another student just so the demon boy could win a hotdog eating contest and Oz somehow even convinced him at one point to get gun hands as well (which luckily didn’t happen) despite Damien’s insistence to do so upon hearing such a “Fucking Metal” idea.
And despite how wild and illegal his activities with the demon boy were, Oz felt an excitement that he had never felt before in the many years of his life. It’s not as if he hasn’t done anything similarly crazy before, so at one point he wondered what was so different, why is it that all of his shenanigans with Damien so damn fun? And then one day it hit him like a truck, it was not as if anything’s different, it was more of, he enjoyed that time because he was with someone different.
The day he realized his affection for the red demon, his bold and cool facade started to crack, compared to the earlier weeks where he had no problems blending in by suggesting and doing over the top things, every now and then his mask would break and Oz would act like a mess, stuttering shyly, blushing uncontrollably and being more conscious of what he was saying, he was starting to revert to his original self, and whilst this issue caused Oz much panic, Damien seemed not to notice, and luckily he still successfully snagged a date with the demon, who surprisingly enough, was the first one make a move and ask him out under the condition that Oz suggests what the two of them should do.
“Dinner and a movie, only the dinner is arson and the movie is also arson.”
Although Oz initially only blurted it out due to panic, his object of affection was very much impressed with his idea, gladly agreeing to it.
And so here we are in the present, the two of them were outside of the movie theatre that they had been in earlier on, after watching the movie the two decided to proceed with their very romantic plan of committing arson.
Damien took out a lighter from his pocket then lit up his molotov, he then handed it over to the yellow-clad boy, the tips of their fingers brushed over the transfer, Oz tried to suppress his blush over this fact and proceeded to light his own bottle.
This was it, this was the penultimate day before prom, Oz knew that it was the best moment for him to drop the question, all six weeks of him pursuing the fiery demon will go to waste if he doesn’t go through with it.
Oz stared at the flaming bottle in his hand, the way the flame flickered reminded him of one of his friends. They probably already asked out their respective target of affection as well, so why can’t he?
Oz took another deep breath as he clenched the bottle tight in his hand.
“Alright, let’s fucking do this!” Oz screamed out, mustering all the courage that he could. He then looked at Damien, then motioned an “I’m ready for this” nod.
Damien stared at Oz in awe, for about a second or so, his expressions looked like he was slightly taken aback, but it was immediately replaced with his signature smug grin that showed off the sharpness of his fangs.
“Shut up, let’s fuck!!”
Damien yelled out loud, as he raised the flaming bottle of molotov above his head, but then he immediately drew his arm back down after realizing what he had just said.
Oz looked at him with confusion and shock, his eyes looked like huge white halos at this point, and if one were to look really close they can see that a small ajar mouth had appeared below his nose which was normally devoid of such a thing.
“I-I uh...shit.” Damien’s cheeks were red, even redder than his actual skin. Oz stared at him in amazement, it was such an unlikely event to see Damien fluster, but before the embodiment of fear could savor the rare event he remembered what the demon had said earlier on and soon enough he also found himself with very red and warm cheeks.
“What I meant to say was...Let’s fuck shit up!” Damien tried to explain, there was very much a panic in his voice that’s hard not to notice.
“O-oh...I see.” Oz replied, slightly relieved yet somehow also disappointed with the explanation.
Instead of talking further, Damien kept quiet then threw his Molotov towards the movie theatre, it landed on the carpeted entrance, and soon enough the fire spread out, Oz followed the demon’s example and threw his own bottle as well, which helped spread the fire even further. The two then silently watched the movie theatre burn down. Several monsters ran out of it in panic and yet despite the chaotic events occurring in the background, Damien and Oz felt nothing but pure awkwardness.
As another cold breeze blew by, Oz crossed his arms together hoping that it would help with the cold. He knew it was a feeble attempt and wouldn’t do much but surprisingly he felt warm, he inspected the cause and it seems to be that Damien had draped his signature tan jacket over his shoulders. Oz looked up and he met the gaze of the demon who now has his forearms exposed.
“I know you’re trying to act bold for me Oz, it was obvious the very first day.”
“W-what are you talking about?” Oz weakly attempted to deny the truth.
“I’m not gonna lie, I honestly thought it was pathetic at first, why would that dorky loner from school suddenly start skipping class and be willing to commit crimes? It was way too obvious, even for me...” Damien explained further.
Oz felt embarrassed when he realized that the demon had seen through his guise, but that embarrassment was short-lived as his expression turned to surprise when Damien grabbed his arms and guided each of it to the jacket sleeves so that he was now properly wearing it instead of it just being draped over his shoulder.
“I went along with it for shits and giggles but I honestly found myself enjoying hanging out with you. Surprisingly you have a lot of good ideas, and even if you were faking it, I thought it was kind of cute that you would do such a thing, and I found myself genuinely liking you.”
“I-I just wanted to be bold for a change...” Oz knew that his face was red, how else was he going to react when the person that he likes told him that he genuinely likes him and called his attempts to woo him “cute”? And to add fuel to that fire, Damien even lent him his jacket. Maybe his bold choice to not wear a jacket was the right thing to do after all.
“What you did is pretty fucking metal, lemme tell you that. I kinda see myself in you.”
“You see yourself in me?” Oz questioned, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
“Yeah I do! W-wait NO, NOT LIKE THAT!! At least not yet…” Damien’s face turned redder than before, Oz found Damien’s flustering adorable albeit he was confused about what the demon meant.
“I do like crimes but sometimes I feel like I’m acting way too bold to overcompensate for something…”
“Is it about the hairstylist thing? Or your dads?” Oz looked back to the few moments of vulnerability that Damien showed when he started hanging out with him. His dream to become a hairstylist, his complex regarding his dads’ expectations of him. Oz knew that there was much depth behind the hot-headed demon he had grown to love.
“A little bit of both maybe?”
“I see...”
“But the thing is, at the end of the day, we should just be ourselves right? We should just do whatever the hell we want. It’s our life after all…”
“Y-yeah you should do what makes you happy!” Oz replied as he pulled up the sleeves of Damien’s jacket, so that his hands were free as it was slightly too big for him.”
“You’re the one who makes me happy.” Damien flashed his signature smug smile but before Oz could react to it, the taller boy brought up the hood of his jacket so that it’s now covering Oz’s head.
“Why are you suddenly saying something so nice?”
“Because love is fucking badass and makes you say and do things for the people you care about.” Damien flicked Oz’s forehead lightly then proceeded to zip up his hoodie.
“Love??”
“Yeah, you fucking noob, love is badass...for fuck’s sake I wasn’t planning on confessing right away but that little freudian slip earlier felt like a sign that I probably should, my subconscious is probably getting impatient.”
Before Oz could reply he felt something warm wrap around him, he then found himself pressed against Damien’s chest, Oz looked down and inspected the culprit, it was the demon’s tail. He then felt another warm thing press against his forehead, this time it was soft, it touched him exactly on the spot where Damien had flicked him earlier on.
Before Oz could realize what was happening, it was over. Damien had tenderly pecked him on the forehead.
“I’d kiss you on the lips but I don’t even know if you have a mouth, hell I don’t even know how you were able to sneeze earlier.”
“Does that mean that you...” Oz trailed off.
“Yeah, you dumbass...I love you, maybe you should have raised more of your smarts instead of boldness.” Damien teased then proceeded to grab the smaller boy even closer by the waist then planted another kiss on his forehead.
“I love you too…” Oz meekly whispered, there were butterflies in his stomach, he felt pure bliss, he couldn’t believe that this was happening.
“And uh...I have a mouth, but I just don’t show it often.”
Damien didn’t reply back, instead he buried his face unto Oz’s neck. He then brought his mouth closer to the shorter boy’s ear. “Oh? Then how about you show me your mouth after prom night...please?”
“Y-yes…” The warmth of the demon’s breath tickled his ear. Oz felt high from the happiness, he felt like he was going to melt. He didn’t even consider the possibility that Damien would be the one to pop the prom question.
“Now that that’s settled with, do you want to commit more arson?” Oz wrapped his arms around the demon's neck.
“Oh fuck yeah!”
And so the two walked together hand in hand as they went on their way to a well known restaurant, they still planned on having dinner and arson after all. How romantic.