Chapter Text
In Wilbur’s defense - it had been a long night. A long week, really, full of far too much rush and stress. Three big assignments due, all barely a day apart, on top of nine hour shifts at the electronics store on his day off, and also the fact that his Latin professor was now threatening to kick him out of the class if he couldn’t get his grade up.
Which meant that Wilbur had been trying to cram in some studying at three in the morning. Combine that with the fact that he was running on a twenty minute power nap he had taken the previous morning and approximately thirty two ounces of espresso-filled coffee, and it meant that things were obviously going to go awry.
He just… hadn’t thought that it would end up with… this.
This, being a half-feral child hissing at him, back pressed to the opposite arm of the couch he was sitting on.
But it was only almost a child, because it was definitely not human. Those teeth looked far too sharp to be real, and Wilbur was pretty sure that no one had yet figured out how to make hair look like living, burning fire. Not to mention the red, leathery bat wings that were currently pinned to the thing's back, or the red eyes that were glaring hatefully at him.
"The fuck are you staring at?!" The thing snapped at him, curled up and defensive.
Wilbur just blinked slowly, trying to clear his mind. "... I think I've had too much caffeine." Or maybe he just hasn't gotten enough sleep recently. Honestly, that was going to be true whether or not he was actually hallucinating at the moment. He really needed to sleep more - if only had the time for it.
The creature in front of him snorted, posture slowly uncurling as he took in Wilbur's posture. "You look like shit."
"I know," he mumbled.
"Like, you look like you need twenty hours of sleep."
A quiet groan of agreement left Wilbur, as he slung an arm over his eyes. He was too tired to deal with this at the moment, he really needed to just… have a quick nap. Before dealing with the demon child on his couch.
The worst part was that he had almost slipped off into sleep like that, before he felt a sharp poke at his side. On that teetering precipice of blissful sleep, it was a rather rude and startling jump back into consciousness. He flailed an arm out, weakly slapping away the offending clawed hand that had poked him.
"Wh'?"
"C'mon, bitch. Don't tell me you fucking summoned me for nothing, you can't fall asleep on me now."
Blearily, Wilbur offered a half-hearted glare. "Bet."
The demon stared back at him with a rather annoyed look now. Distantly, Wil knew that he really shouldn't be pissing off a demon - all his research into ghost hunting had taught him that much - but once again. It had been a long week, and frankly he couldn't give a damn. All of his fucks had been given. He was a fuckless, broke, exhausted college student, there wasn't much that a demon could do to him at this point.
That wasn't true, but y'know. It was the thought that counted.
“You can’t just sleep, I-” The demon frowned, glaring harder in return. “You summoned me. That- that means that you want something, doesn’t it? So what the fuck do you want??”
“To not get kicked out of my Latin class, I guess,” Wilbur said. “Honestly if the class is going to end up with someone summoning demons, there should be a disclaimer on the paperwork.”
“I don’t think that people expect anybody to fuck up pronun-ciation so badly that they summon demons on accident, fucking prick.”
“I am… far too tired for this,” Wilbur groaned.
The demon huffed, his fiery hair flickering in agitation. “Then get more sleep, idiot.”
“Does that mean that you’ll let me sleep?”
“What? No! You have to tell me what you want!”
The college student slowly blinked at the demon. “I want you to let me sleep.”
“But- I- ugh, fuck. You’re supposed to ask me for something, so that the summoning can be done and I can go back home!”
A long sigh, and Wilbur stared up at the ceiling. “Fine- just. If you’re a demon, do you think you can help me study my Latin?”
“I- I mean I guess?” The kid pouted, looking down at the papers that Wilbur had spread out over the floor of his room. “I don’t actually know all that much Latin, y’know. Just because I’m a demon doesn’t mean shit.”
“Well, fuck.” Wilbur, irrationally, felt tears prick at his eyes. He just wanted to pass his class, and now he was sat here in his room with a demon harassing him because he was so bad at the class that he was trying to work on.
A few moments of silence passed between them, before the demon prodded him in the side. “You’re not falling asleep again, are you?”
“No, I’m not, stop fucking poking me you child,” the brunette hissed. “Leave me alone, I think I just need to… sleep. I can’t think properly.”
“I’m not a child, and that sucks for you, cause I wanna go back home.”
“And I don’t know how I’m supposed to help you do that, so you’re just going to have to let me sleep,” Wilbur begged. “Please, I can’t- I can’t do this anymore right now, okay? I’ll figure something out for you in the morning.”
The demon frowned at him, shifting in place on his couch. Honestly, he looked pretty young - maybe twelve, if Wilbur was basing it off the appearance of a human. Who knew what that could be when translated to a demon, but he was pretty sure that he was a child anyway.
Slowly, the college student's eyes started slipping closed, until he was once again starting to fall asleep where he laid. He might end up having a crick in his neck later, but he would deal with the consequences later. For now he just wanted to grasp this chance at sleep while he still could, even if that meant leaving a pissed off demon in his dorm for the time being.
But then, of course, he heard the front door of his dorm open and knew that he was still much further away than he wanted from getting some fucking rest.
Shooting upright seemed to startle the kid, as he huddled backwards on the couch.
“Fuck-” Wilbur hissed, grabbing the demon by the arm and darting into his thankfully open bedroom door, shutting it behind him as lightly as he could manage. He could only hope that Tehno hadn’t seen the kid during their mad dash to the door, but for the moment he had other concerns.
Mostly the fact that the kid had flaming hair and leathery wings. It would be pretty hard to explain that to his roommate, but he couldn’t just let Techno deal with this, as he would try to insist on doing. This demon was Wilbur’s own responsibility, and he would be dealing with him as such. Not to mention that he really didn’t want to have to explain just how he managed to summon a demon in their dorm room.
“What’s your name?” He kept his voice low, so that Techno hopefully wouldn’t immediately hear.
The demon scowled at him, young face undeniably annoyed. “Theseus, prick,” he whispered back, glancing at the door as well.
Well that wasn't subtle at all, Wilbur wasn’t going to go around calling this kid Theseus like some hero from one of those Greek myths that his roommate enjoyed so much. He’d have to figure out something else for the time being, especially if Techno was around, he didn't want his roommate asking questions.
A knock at his bedroom door had Wilbur jumping in his skin, glancing back at the entryway, making sure that Techno hadn’t opened it yet.
“Wilbur, you doing okay? Your homework is still out here,” the deadpan voice of his roommate called through.
It took a moment for Wilbur to answer, his voice a croak. “Yeah- yeah, it’s fine, uh. I’ll get it picked up in the morning, sorry, I’m just… tired?”
Theseus snorted, not quietly enough at all to hide from Techno’s hearing, the prick.
“Do you have someone else here?”
“UH- nope, no, no one else is in here, Techno-”
“Wilbur.”
The brunette turned back towards Theseus, shoving the boy towards the closet, voice once again dropping into a whisper. “Go- go, into the closet, just hide for the moment-”
A sigh from outside the door, and Techno opened it. Usually he wasn’t one to poke into other people’s private spaces, but Wilbur knew that he wasn't acting normal either. He whirled aorund, trying to cover Theseus as much as he could, praying to any god that might be listening – was there really a god, if demons apparently existed? – that the boy’s flaming hair wasn’t too obvious. The wings could be explained away as some sort of weird cosplay, or even a furry thing if needed, but the fire sprouting out of the kid’s head in place of hair-
“... why do you have a kid in your room?” Techno’s voice was as flat as ever, but there was a lack of something more surprised than Wilbur would have expected.
Glancing behind him, he was also surprised to see that Theseus… despite a moment earlier having looked like a demon, was now sporting blonde hair, blue eyes, and a distinct lack of wings.
“Uhhhhhh…” Wilbur dragged out the word, his tired brain lagging behind a few paces where he would usually be rather quick with his words. “He- he’s my brother?”
A pause, and Wilbur looked back at Techno to see the man blink slowly, apparently fitting that tidbit of information into his mind. “Your… brother.”
Already regretting this lie of his, he nodded. “Yup!”
“What’s he doing here?”
Wilbur grimaced as he tried to think quickly. “He just ah- kinda ran away from home?”
Techno gave him a long stare, not responding for a moment that seemed to drag on for far too long. “He ran away. I thought you lived in Brighton or something?”
Fuck. “I have- some family here, I guess my brother was staying with them for a bit and found his way here.”
Techno seemed a little… Wilbur didn’t know how to put it other than ‘squicked’ by the new information, but he only nodded and turned away. “Alright then. Just don’t let him wreck the place, alright? And make sure you clear up your papers, don’t want any of us steppin’ on them.”
Wilbur nodded, watching as his roommate turned away and shut the door behind him. Thankfully he didn’t question anything too much, though he really wasn’t the type to prod into someone else’s business too much.
Turning back to Theseus entirely, he let out a long sigh and nearly deflated. “Christ,” he muttered to himself, a hand running through his hair, wincing as his fingers pulled at a few hidden tangles.
“Uhhh…” Theseus now was staring up at him, eyes wide. “I don’t think you’re actually my brother, y’know.”
Wilbur sighed. “I know that, you child. That’s why it’s called lying – I can’t be going around calling you Theseus though, that name is weird. What about Tommy?”
The demon’s nose wrinkled up in distaste. “What’s wrong with Theseus, prick?”
“I just told you, it’s a weird name, no one is named Theseus nowadays. So it’s Tommy or we can look up some other names online for you to choose from.”
“Ugh, whatever. Tommy is fine,” he said, waving a hand.
“How did you hide your-” Wilbur waved a hand at him, gesturing broadly. “Wings, and stuff? That was really quick.”
The demon shifted, looking a little uncertain. “I’m not sure, honestly? I just did, I didn’t want someone else seeing me, you’re the only one that summoned me, so…”
“No, no, that’s a good thing. I don’t think that Techno would have taken very kindly to a demon in my room, honestly.” Wilbur rubbed his hands over his face, groaning, head swimming from the sudden rush of adrenaline that had come with the anxiety of lying to his roommate’s face. He really hated lying to Techno, the guy had been nothing but helpful since the two of them became roommates, though he wasn’t the most social of people.
Theseus finally flopped down onto the bed, kicking his feet off the side as he stared at the brunette. “So…?”
Wilbur sat down beside the boy, breathing deeply, a steady pattern. “So, I’m going to help you get home tomorrow, and then we’ll never have to speak about this again.”
The demon nodded decisively. “Alright big man, whatever you say. Where am I going to be sleeping?”
Groaning, Wilbur threw his one extra pillow onto the floor next to the bed. “There, you gremlin child, sleep on the floor.”
“Bitch,” came the retort. “What about a blanket?”
“... I don’t have any extra blankets.”
“...”
“...”
“You’re sharing the bed, prick.”
Wilbur shrieked as Theseus dove under the thick blanket that he had on his bed, wrapping himself in the material before he could stop him. “Absolutely not! You fucking gremlin, get out of my bed-”
“Share! I’m not sleeping on the fucking floor, asshole!”
“You can’t just steal my bed, you were the one that invaded my space in the first place!”
“You’re the one who’s so shit at Latin that he sum-”
The brunette slapped a hand over the demon child’s mouth to stop him from shouting, glancing at the door. “You can’t just go yelling about me summoning a demon, Tommy-”
“It’s Theseus to you, prick-”
“Oh my god, just go to sleep already!” Tiring of the child’s bickering, Wilbur grabbed up the pillow he’d thrown down just moments earlier and slammed it over the kid’s head to shut him up.
In response he got a hiss, and a flicker of fire that made him pause- but it seemed like Theseus wasn’t actually going to burn anything, hopefully, so Wilbur smacked him with the pillow again.
“I’m going to tear that thing to shreads if you don’t stop-”
Another hit, and that was the end of that pillow. The child hooked his hands around it, claws tearing through the fabric with a rip of sound, and the room was filled with feathers.
Wilbur sat, wide-eyed, at the edge of the bed as he watched the feathers slowly fall to the ground. It was barely a beat of surprise before he turned his gaze to the boy, who was already glaring back in defiance.
“You fucking-”
“You hit me first!”
“I already agreed to share my bed with you, I’m allowed to bully you!”
“Oh my- you were going to make me sleep on the floor!”
The door swung open again and Techno stuck his head in. His eyes caught onto the feathers still drifting to the floor around them and he gave a heavy sigh.
“You’re going to wake up our neighbors, Wil. And me. Just go to sleep already. I’ll throw you an extra pillow for tonight.”
Both of the occupants of the room grumbled a bit, but Wilbur nodded as his cheeks flushed, knowing that Techno didn’t offer his bedding out very often. If he was willing to hand off a pillow so easily, it probably meant that he really wanted some peace and quiet.
As did Wilbur, honestly. He desperately needed to get some proper sleep.
So when the extra pillow nailed him in the head and knocked him onto the bed, he didn’t fight the gravity dragging him down. In fact, he only struggled enough to steal a proportionate amount of his blanket back from the gremlin sharing his bed before he shut his eyes.
This night had been far too long, and he needed some peace and quiet for now. He'd figure everything out in the morning.
~~~