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It was raining.
Not the kind of drizzle that softened the ground enough for the worms to come out, and that put dew on the grass. Nor the kind that made you use the least important object you had as a substitute for an umbrella. No, it was raining .
Lightning danced across the sky muddled with dark clouds, with deafening claps of thunder not far behind. Water overflowed out of the gutters lining the academy, the rain falling too fast for the drainage systems to handle. The stone pathways lining the courtyard were completely flooded, effectively barring anyone trying to pass without drenching their feet.
And where were you in all of this? Stuck.
You stood under an awning for one of the side doors leading out of the academy, just staring dejectedly into the storm as it raged on. Your very-much-NOT-waterproof bag was slung on your shoulder, safely out of harm’s way.
The weather forecast for the day said it was going to rain, mildly , and you figured you’d just walk back to your dorm and deal with a damp head and clothes. But this was anything but mild. As if to accentuate this point, thunder rumbled ominously in the distance.
Unfortunately, you had brought your paper for Wards and Sigils with you despite cram school being cancelled due to some demonic emergency. If you tried to just run back to your dorm with your bag exposed, it would be ruined and you would have to redo it. And it wasn’t like you could use your key anyway, it would just dump you out of one of the cram’s exits, you’d have to walk in the rain regardless. You glared out into the sheet of falling water, as if you could clear the path through sheer force of will.
“What a pain in the-!”
“Why’re you standing there?”
You jumped and whirled to face the stranger behind you.
“Whoa! Dude, you scared…. Uh….?”
A boy who seemed to be about your age was staring at you with a completely blank expression, his golden eyes looking straight into yours. He looked like he was spit out by a Halloween store and trudged through a swamp on the way out, judging by his tattered clothing and the abundance of skulls on his jacket. His green hair- okay that had to be dyed - was pulled up into a spike that looked utterly ridiculous. He didn’t look like a student and he definitely wasn’t a teacher.
He leaned closer into your personal bubble, fast enough that you instinctively took a step back.
“I asked you a question. Why are you just standing there? I don’t like being ignored, you know.” He was practically burning holes into you with that unblinking, dead-eyed stare. You’re proud to admit it only took you a few more seconds for what he said to register.
“Huh? Oh, I’m just trying to figure out how to get back to my dorm is all. Can’t really do much with all this rain anyway.” Despite the fact that he made you deeply uncomfortable, you kept eye contact with him. Who is this guy anyway?
After a few more tense seconds, he broke away to gaze out at the courtyard.
“It is raining pretty bad.” No shit Sherlock.
He reached a hand into his coat and pulled out a lollipop, quickly unwrapping it and popping it into his mouth before shoving his hands back into his pockets. You could catch a glimpse of claw-like black nails that looked sharp enough to disembowel someone. Who cuts their nails like that? It’s pretty cool looking but still….
You waited to see if he would say anything else, but he just sucked on his candy, seemingly oblivious to your staring.
“So, uh….” He looked at you from the corner of his eye.
“Why are you standing here? Waiting for someone to pick you up?” Why am I making conversation with him?!
He looked up for a moment, before turning back to you.
“No. I don’t want to get wet. Big brother would punish me if I got water in his office again.” You hummed. You could understand that. Your roommate wasn’t the friendliest of people anyway and she would rip you a new one if you tracked water into the dorm.
You grimaced at a particularly loud boom of thunder that shook the academy a little.
“Doesn’t look like it’s gonna let up anytime soon.” He just nodded and went back to his candy, playing with the wrapper in his pocket.
….
An idea struck you. A brilliant, stupid idea.
“Hey, where do you live exactly?” He raised an eyebrow at you, before silently pointing towards Faust Manor in the distance, looming above True Cross Academy Town. You blinked. He must be related to the director then. A nephew maybe, or wait, didn’t he mention an older brother? Well regardless, I’ll need him if this is going to work.
“Okay look. I have some really important papers in this bag that cannot get wet, and my dorm is on the other side of the academy. Faust Manor is in the same direction though, so we could travel together and use each other to keep dry. I know we’re, like, complete strangers but this’ll be beneficial for the both of us, yeah? So what do ya say? Wanna work together?” You gave your best sales-pitch smile, even doing little jazz hands to sweeten the deal. He stared silently at you, long enough that doubt started to creep in. Maybe he doesn’t really care -
“What’s in it for me?”
“Huh?” He leaned in again, close enough that you could touch him.
“I’m not going to help you for free, so what do I get in return.” Oh, so he’s one of those people.
“Well, what do you want?” He looked thoughtful for a moment, or at least, that’s what you assumed . He hadn’t properly emoted this entire time, so you weren’t really sure what he was thinking.
“Do you have candy?” He rolled the lollipop in his mouth around a little. Your face scrunched up.
“Well,” you reached over and dug around in your bag, “I have this.” You pulled out a nearly full pack of fruit flavored chewing gum and handed it to the wide-eyed kid.
He took it carefully and tilted the box this way and that, even bringing it up to his nose to sniff it. Has he never seen gum before? You decided to elaborate.
“It’s gum. You’re supposed to chew it until all the flavor’s gone and then spit it out. That type’s an assorted flavor pack.” His eyes darted from you, to the box, and to you again. Finally, he pocketed the entire thing.
“This will work. What did you have in mind?”
Suddenly, a strike of lightning, close enough to illuminate the two of you. For a moment, just a small moment, it reflected off of his eyes, narrowing his pupils to cat-like slits and making his golden iris’ glow .
I’m talking to a demon.
….
It passed
“U-um…. Well I thought we could layer our coats together and just run like hell.”
You could feel your face pale slightly. But otherwise, you showed no outward reaction to your discovery that you were talking to a demon in the center of a supposedly heavily warded town.
This should be impossible, the wards are supposed to keep mid-level and higher demons out, and we’re in the center where the wards are strongest! No way a low-level demon could possess a body and keep so much control like this, not to mention get all the way here without someone finding out.
“How would we do that though? One of us would be without protection then.” Oh I really fucked up this time. Wait. What if I accidently sold my soul in exchange for his help? Oh shi-
“I was thinking that since you were taller, you could layer both of our coats on top of you, and then you cover me as we run.” He actually was a little shorter than you…. If you didn’t count the hair spike that is. No, there would have been a verbal agreement at least, I already paid the price using gum. What demon accepts gum as payment though?
“That’s a stupid plan.” You couldn’t stop yourself.
“Do you have a better one, swamp goth?” …. God, I’m so dead. I haven’t even written my last will and testament. All my grave will say is ‘Here lies Y/N L/N. Died as they lived, stupidly.’ At least I can add ‘Maimed by a demon’ to my list of accomplishments!
His eye twitched, but otherwise he made no indication if what you said bothered him.
“.... No.” It seems divine intervention is real after all.
“Alrighty then,” you shrugged your jacket off and held it out to him “Put this on.” The demon hesitated for a moment, before taking his own coat off and draping it from the spike on his head. He then took your own jacket and layered it the same way he did his own. The end result looked downright hysterical.
“Now what?” You switched your bag so that it was hanging off of your front.
“Now,” you faced away from him in the direction you would start running, “You hop on.”
You didn’t have to turn around to feel the confusion radiating off of him.
“Look, we’d probably just trip each other if we ran separately. I used to help my parents lug heavy boxes in their shop and you look pretty light so I’m like, 70% sure I could carry you without a prob-!” You stopped talking when you felt the sensation of something landing on your back. The demon looped his arms around your neck and rested his chin on your head, draping the coats over both of you effectively. You instinctively grabbed his legs piggy-back style to keep him from falling off.
“Okay then, let’s get going.” I am the biggest moron alive….
“.... Hold on!”
You broke off into a dead sprint, weaving around fallen branches and deep puddles of water. Your bag thumped against your chest with every stride you took, beating even harder than your heart. The only sound you could hear was the rhythmic slapping of your feet and the raging storm. Though, your waterlogged shoes were proving to be a good distraction from the warm body against your back.
Your companion had yet to say a word, although he did tighten his grip when a flash of lightning shot through the sky overhead. Who knew I’d be carrying a demon on my back in a storm today? Man, I should’ve stayed home….
Soon, your legs began to ache, and you almost stumbled to avoid a small river creating a divot in the pathway. You kept running though, you had to. This demon could rip my throat out at any time. Better keep him happy.
Should be there in…. Aha!
As you rounded a corner the dormitory came into view, you could’ve cried tears of relief. You pushed yourself even harder now that salvation was in sight.
* SPLASH *
In your haste, you had failed to notice the small pond that occupied a pothole. Your foot plunged straight into it, water coming up to your mid-calf before you even managed to tilt. In a rush of pure terror, you clutched your bag to your chest, as if doing so would save it from its’ watery demise.
Your knee burned from where it smashed into the stone and your face would have had a matching bruise had it not been for the clawed hand that jerked you up and onto a shoulder. In the midst of the fall, which in all honestly probably lasted a few seconds, the demon you’d been carrying had jumped off your back and threw you onto his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. In three large leaps that left you feeling nauseous, your acquaintance had carried you to the front doors of your dorm which were, thankfully, covered.
With no amount of grace, he dumped you onto the stone steps.
“That didn’t work out very well.” The demon made no move to kill you, or threaten you, or…. anything, really! He just stared down at you with that same bored expression as before.
You chuckled, and your chuckles turned into full-blown laughter. To any passerby you would have looked like a maniac, dripping with water and practically rolling off of the steps cackling while some weird guy was watching with a stony expression. What was I thinking?! This guy isn’t some ruthless killing machine, he’s like a big kid! Can’t believe I was scared there for a second!
When your laughter had died down to the occasional giggle, you decided to respond.
“No, that -heh!- that didn’t work at all! ” You looked up at the demon with teary eyes.
“But regardless, thanks for the save. If you hadn’t carried my ass over, we both would’ve been done.” The boy shrugged.
“Eh, our deal was to make it here together, I was just keeping up my end of the bargain.” He peeled your sopping wet coat off and tossed at you, with you just barely managing to keep it from smacking you straight in the face. His own overcoat was damp as well, but otherwise he seemed rather dry.
“Well, you still have to make it the rest of the way yourself…. Oh! Wait here!” You jumped up and ran into the dorms, trying not to slide across the wooden floor, leaving the demon standing awkwardly in the doorway.
With a bang you threw open the door to your shared room. Paku startled with a small shriek while Kamiki just glared at you from the top of the manga she was reading.
“Y-y/n! You scared me! What are you- oh! You’re soaked!” Paku stood from the homework she was working on to get you a towel, but you denied it, rifling through one of your boxes.
“Seriously? Didn’t you look at the weather forecast today? It said it was going to rain, idiot!” Izumo, despite apparently being deeply engrossed in her reading, decided she could also hassle you from across the room at the same time.
“And you’re getting water everywhere!” Paku softly admonished her friend while still trying to hand you the towel.
“Yeah, well, didn’t think it was gonna be this bad. Had to run with someone to get here, was working pretty well until I ate shit and he dragged me the rest of the way.” With an exclamation, you lifted the item you were looking for out of its’ box and made your way out to give it to your ‘helper’.
“Anyway, I kinda left him standing out there, so I’m gonna go give him this. Be back in a second!” You cut off Paku’s concerned questions and Izumo’s glaring with another bang of the door. You jogged down to the front doors again to see the demon was still standing right where you left him, looking bored. Although, he did perk up once he took notice of you.
“Hey! Sorry about that, I wanted to give you this, like a token of appreciation!” You held out the little umbrella you’d had since when you were a kid, it had smiling cartoon frogs in galoshes patterned all over it. You refused to get rid of it after all these years, but you could part ways with it for a little while.
The demon slowly took the umbrella from you like it was going to bite him, and you pretended to not notice how he startled a little bit when it opened up. He stared at you.
“You’re…. Giving this to me?” He held onto the little thing like you were about to snatch it from his hands. You laughed softly.
“Well, I can let you borrow it. Consider it thanks for helping me out. You can always return it to me later anyway.” You smiled at him, and in doing so missed the way his eyes widened a bit before returning to normal.
“Okay….” He stood there for a moment.
“Bye.” He turned to leave, but you stopped him quickly.
“Ah! I don’t even know your name! I’m Y/N, by the way.” The demon looked at you, and with the ghost of a smile tugging at his lips, he spoke.
“My name is Amaimon, I’ll be seeing you around, Y/N.” And without another word, the demon King of Earth took off into the storm, leaving you standing there shocked to watch his retreating form vanish in the rain.