Chapter Text
You were drunk.
That had become your normal in the few nights off you had. Your mornings were dedicated to office work, staying well past your scheduled off time, and your evenings you worked in a convenience store close to your apartment. Whenever you didn't have to be up early the next day, you bought a few bottles to bring home and drank yourself close to blacking out. The drunker you were, the more jumbled your thoughts were, and the less likely you were to get caught up in your own head.
You were really drunk.
Your night had ended in a stew of frustration, a customer had done what customers do, and acted as the world revolved around him. Your last straw had been when he reached across the counter to grab your wrist, and it was only your manager's intervention that kept you from leaping across the counter and bashing the guy in the head. Though your manager had scolded you as if it were your fault, you did get to leave early. You had grabbed three bottles of soju and a case of beer, checking out before heading home.
You were really, really drunk.
Your apartment was small, one bedroom (if you could call it that), with heat that never worked in the winter, and AC that never worked in the summer. It was barely better than a cardboard box, but it was yours. Your silent, lonely apartment that you held nothing but pride and hatred for. The moment you turned 18, you had moved away from your parents, getting rid of your old phone and buying a new one as soon as you were able to, doing everything you could to cut ties to the abusive people who claimed to have raised you to the best of their abilities. For the past few years, you've run on spite and a need to prove to everyone you were better than how they described you, but every night when you lay at home, staring up at your cracked ceiling, you felt empty. The heavy weight of loneliness sits on your chest, constricting your heart and making breathing hard.
You were a drink or two away from blacking out.
That's how you had gotten the brilliant idea, fingers flying over your cracked keyboard. You were no stranger to making wishes— shooting stars, a single birthday candle on a cupcake, 11:11, wishing bones, throwing coins into fountains as you passed, praying at shrines. Your desire was probably a bit childish, but it was a desperate type of childishness. What person didn't want to feel loved? To have a family? Your wishes had never come true, and you were beginning to suspect the world was waiting for you to give up. So through a drunken haze, you looked up ways to get what you wanted.
You might be closer to being blacked out drunk than you thought.
Why else would there be a very tall, very oddly dressed man in your living room, looking as perplexed as you felt? He was ducking slightly, the tops of his horns rubbing against the ceiling, scraping off the cheap paint. His mustache reminded you of the logo of the chips at your store, and despite the spinning of your head and the creeping darkness of your vision, you chuckled at your thought. His head tilted as he stared at you through his round glasses.
His voice was deep as he spoke, so intense you could feel it in your chest, "What is it you want, human?"
You said nothing, staring up at him from where you were seated on the ground, lips parted.
Human?
Oh. You blinked, glancing down at the crude drawing on your wood floors— you were not getting your deposit back— done in the cheap eyeliner you had bought that was too watery. Right. You had drawn a summoning circle. For a demon.
You looked back up at the guy— at the demon.
"You're a demon?" Your words were slurred together, and his eyebrows furrowed slightly.
"Yes, you drew a summoning circle and—"
"And it worked?" Your voice was growing more shrill, shaking your head as you stumbled to your feet, swaying unsteadily, "What the fuck."
"Did," He looked almost confused, clearly thrown off by your responses, "You summoned me for a reason, did you not?"
"Uh," You swallowed, wincing at the acidic taste of leftover alcohol in your mouth.
Had you summoned him for a reason? Sure, technically you did. But in your defense, you didn't think it would work! The website you had found this one was called 'Demons R Us' for gods sake! You blinked, trying to ground yourself in the present as your mind began to wander. The demon looked a bit annoyed, arms crossed, and his foot tapping impatiently. You snorted, trying to muffle the noise by pressing your palm against your face.
"'m I keepin' you?" You couldn't help but ask, voice muffled behind your hand.
The demon huffed, clearly not finding this as amusing as you were, "Yes, you are. I was having a lovely dinner with my darling grandson, but a human— a very drunk human, at that— somehow found my summoning circle and called me away."
You threw your hands up in faux surrender, the movement causing you to tip slightly, and despite the fact that you just stood up, you lowered yourself back to the ground, feeling your stomach begin rolling. "Demon's have grandkids?" You lay back on the ground, feeling like you were either going to throw up or pass out, "That's- that's so sweet."
"Listen—"
"That's what I wanted," Your voice was quiet, but it still cut him off, and your eyes were beginning to burn. Tears were building behind your eyelids, but you closed them, trying to keep them from falling, and trying to keep yourself from seeing how the world was spinning around you, "Just wanted a family. Why's that so hard, huh? 'm I that shitty of a kid? I feel like 'm not."
You were beginning to lose consciousness, the familiar void of drunken sleep creeping in. You forgot, for a moment, you had apparently summoned a literal demon into your apartment until he spoke, startling you as he spoke.
"You summoned me to wish for a family?"
With a shrug, you threw an arm over your eyes, blocking out the light of your living room, "Why not? Wishin' never worked f'r me. Stars ignore me, I feel pathetic on my birthdays wastin' a candle wish on it. Nothin' else worked, so why not try a demon summonin' thing?" You shot up after that, as if it had just dawned on you, and you swivelled where you sat, staring at the demon with wide eyes, "Wait— you're a demon!"
He didn't respond, though his posture seemed a bit more lax than it had been before. "My child, I believe I can make your desire come true."
You blinked at him, head spinning and feeling your heart racing with drunken adrenaline. The last thing you remember was his hand reaching towards you, and you had noted that his nails were insanely long— almost like claws. Sleep claimed you before you could feel any sliver of fear at the notion that a demon was reaching towards you. Whenever you passed out after drinking, the nights were peaceful, your mind was blank, and you weren't bothered with a dream or a nightmare. Of course, you always paid the price when you woke up with a splitting headache, but the quiet sleep was worth it.
This night proved to be different, however, and as you found yourself wandering in this odd dream world, you couldn't place why. It was warm, wherever you were, and comfortable. You found yourself walking in what looked like a field of clouds, and you let yourself feel relatively tranquil here, smiling to yourself as you lay down, fulfilling the childhood dream of lying on a cloud. You giggled, rolling around comfortably, wishing to remain in this dream as long as you could. There wasn't much to it, but it felt warm, and it felt safe, and that was more than you'd get when consciousness called you.
And call upon you it did, with the familiar splitting headache and roll of your stomach. You groaned, keeping your eyes shut as you willed yourself to fall back asleep. It was as if you could still feel the cloud beneath your hands—
You paused, palm flat against your bed, before pressing harder, feeling the mattress and blanket beneath you. It was soft, it was the cloud from your dreams. It wasn't your bed.
That realization hit you, and you shoved away the hangover discomfort as much as you could, shooting up from where you had been lying, eyes wide as you looked around, taking in the unfamiliar, very pink bedroom you were in.
Just how drunk had you been last night?