Dybbuk
Summary: Roxas is a student willing to sell his soul just to find love. When someone decides to take him up on his generous offer, what will happen? AU
Pairing: AkuRoku, RiSo, maybe a hint of Zemyx and Leoud? Who knows? (btw, I do pairing anonyms by seme-uke. That's why it's not Cleon.)
Rating: OT, may go up.
Comments: Listening to Gackt, I heard a song called Dybbuk, and if I remember right, that's either the name of a lesser devil or another name for the devil himself. And then came this idea. So please enjoy.
Contract 1: Hereby the undersigned revokes his right to his soul
"Man, I'd love for just one Saturday night, just one, to not see me in the dorms, listening to a bunch of drunken fools." Roxas sighed. Sora poked his head out of the closet.
"Then come out with Riku and me! We're going to meet Kairi, Namine, Demyx and Zexion at the mall. Maybe if we're lucky, Yuffie won't show up this weekend… Leon was ready to kill her last weekend…"
'Nah, thanks. I don't really like the mall…" Roxas sighed. He didn't say it was because of Yuffie… the girl had shoved him into Hollister one day and followed him into the dressing rooms to make him try on a lot of clothes that didn't fit his style. Sora sighed at his cousin, and scowled.
"How do you expect to find someone if you don't let go of the fact that Namine is interested in someone else and look?"
"How am I supposed to accept that she's into that Seifer guy? I grew up with him, he's an ass! Besides, I thought he and Fuu were supposed to go together…"
"Well, he and Fuu aren't, and Namine likes him. Let it go." As the two heard a short knock, Sora sighed and looked back at his cousin one last time. "Are you sure…"
"Yeah, I'm sure. I may go catch a movie at the union or something, just go have fun! Sheesh, don't keep Riku-dear waiting." He laughed as Sora shot him a miffed look and left. Roxas didn't leave for a movie, he just turned the music playing on his computer up louder and sighed, staring at the ceiling above his bed. As he rolled onto his side, he looked at the photo of him and his friends on the beach just before they had all split up to go to different schools… Olette was smart, she'd been accepted into a prestigious girl's college off in Radiant Garden. Hayner and Pence, though smart, had stayed in Twilight Town, saying it was cheaper to do that. Roxas was the only one out of the group to go to Hollow Bastion, where his cousin was going to school. Sometimes he felt so lonely…
"Man…" he sighed as he rolled onto his back again. "I wish I weren't alone… I swear, I'd sell my soul if I could find love."
"Wish granted." Said a cocky voice. Ironically, as Roxas sat up to get a look at the intruder, the song Dybbuk by Gackt came on… and all he could figure was this guy was a devil.
The smell of fire and flame hovered around him like a mist, long red hair spiked and reminiscent of fire itself. An angular face held eyes as green as emeralds, made more striking by the triangular tattoo under each eye. The body went with the face, all sharp angles under a long black trenchcoat. Even the aura fit that of a demon.
"Are you… the devil?"
"The? Well, hell, don't I wish." He laughed. "Nope, the name's Axel. Commit it to memory, because we are going to be together for quite a while… Roxas Matsumoto." Axel helped himself to a seat in the chair before Roxas's computer, smiling as he conjured a flame from thin air. "I am not the devil, just A devil. You said you'd sell your soul to find love? Well, strange thing to sell your soul for but I've seen stranger. So, if you could just sign this contract for me…"
"Wait, that's it? It's always different in the stories!"
"What, expect me to try to talk you out of it? No way. I get paid on commission, and you're the first I've had in a while. So not only am I not going to try to talk you out of it, I'm going to encourage you to sign this and I will cheer you on every step of the way." The flame materialized into a long scroll of paper with a sharp pen attached, and Axel extended it towards him. "So, here ya go. No second thoughts, good, let's go."
Roxas hesitantly took the paper, and unceremoniously shoved Axel from his chair. "You're in my chair," was all he said as he sat down, leaving Axel to stand behind him. All Axel did was put the song on again, tapping his foot with Gackt's beat, muttering it under his breath. Roxas looked over the paper quickly, trying to figure the terms.
Hereby the undersigned does give up the rights to his soul, in exchange for his heart's desire, to find true love, to the demon Axel. Hereby the undersigned also agrees that upon the moment of his death his soul will return with the demon Axel for judgment to be passed on him… the rest was a bunch of legal gobbledygook that he had no idea what it all meant. He supposed if he had more time, he could take it to Zexion; he was smart enough he could probably translate the jargon, but if Axel put that song on repeat one more time he'd kill the demon himself. Seeing no ink but an incredibly sharp point, Roxas made the logical leap and pricked his thumb on the tip, adding a short line of script on a whim, reloading the pen, and quickly scrawling his name.
"There you go." He said as he headed for his bathroom and a first aid kit. Axel grinned and produced a pair of flaming chakram from nowhere.
"Great, now if you could just come with me…"
"Ah-ahn. Don't think so." Roxas smiled. He doctored up his thumb and turned to face a confused demon. "See, I had a feeling this would happen since you said you were paid on commission. While I was stalling and listening to you ramble, and while I was reading that incredibly confusing contract, I was puzzling out whether it was by soul sold to you, or by soul brought in. You wouldn't have been so insistent if it were just soul sold, after all, there's some guy down the hall that says he'd sell his soul to be 21 and legal to drink the night before an exam.
"So I figured it must be on souls brought in. So what do you do when you're on commission for souls brought in? Why, you promise them the sky and more, and you take their soul as soon as they agree to the contract. It's that simple. So I added in a bit of my own, though not in legalese." Roxas grinned as Axel read over the contract, finding the bit written in Roxas's own blood just above his name.
"'In the event that the undersigned's hunch is right and the commission is based on souls brought in, the demon Axel is not to kill the undersigned and is hereby requested to stay with the undersigned until the fulfillment of the above promise.' What the bloody hell?! I can't do this, I have to consult my superior…" Axel said, vanishing in a puff of smoke. Roxas sat back down to wait. Worst case, the contract became null and void after his little addition and he couldn't sell his soul. Roxas drifted off to sleep as the rest of Crescent played.
--
Axel poofed back into the dorm room, furious. That little twerp had hoodwinked him! Axel, a prime demon, up for a promotion from a simple soul-trapper to something more… he still wasn't sure of the hierarchy but he knew it had to be better than taking souls. Not only had Superior declared that he honor the contract, he admired the boy's guts at adding on to the contract and the neat penmanship in blood ink. He looked around the dim room, finding the boy asleep on the bed.
Even Axel was taken aback; the boy (Roxas, he really had to remember to call him that) was adorable asleep. He almost hated to wake him, but it was a necessary evil. Finding the heaviest school book he could, he dropped it onto the floor, reveling in the startled jump that accompanied Roxas's sudden rude awakening. He looked around and finally settled his eyes on a furious Axel. A smile accompanied his gaze, one that said he knew he'd won, the smug little bastard.
"Well, Axel. Do we have a deal or is the contract null?"
"Oh, it's valid all right. Not only did Superior say I have to stay, he added insult to injury by complimenting your penmanship! Where did you learn that legalese!"
"A friend of mine is a law major. So, how are we to manage that staying with portion? To be honest, I didn't think it'd be valid after my little addition…" Roxas admitted. Axel sighed and collapsed back into the chair. It wasn't comfortable, but it was a seat.
"The devil's luck will pull through soon. You're staying with your cousin, right?"
"Yeah, Sora's my roommate."
"Well, I've got a feeling he'll come in here any moment now, unable to see me, telling you…"
"Roxas! Riku asked me to move in with him, so I'm going to leave you here by yourself, that okay?" Sora laughed as he burst in, starting to grab some of his clothing and his toiletries (just the basics right now) and shove them into his bag.
"Really? Congrats. I know you've been wanting to for a while." Roxas smiled at his cousin. Sora walked over and stared at his cousin strangely.
"Are you sure you'll be all right? You're always complaining it's lonely when I'm not here…"
"I'm sure they'll have someone move in with me soon. I won't be lonely, promise." Roxas grinned. Sora hugged his cousin and smiled.
"You are an angel. Seriously. Look, you get lonely, call me. I'll come over with a movie and popcorn and we'll do something."
"Just go, you're keeping your lover waiting." Roxas laughed. As Sora left, Axel looked at Roxas in shock.
"You were willing to sell your soul because you were lonely? Oh for the love of…"
"What's wrong with selling your soul for love?"
"There's better things to sell it for!" Axel sighed, then muttered, "I'd know, trust me…"
"Well… how are you getting entered in the school database? And getting put as my dorm mate?" Roxas shot back, trying to get his new companion's brain back on business.
"I did that while I was in hell. It's easy enough, and the best part is, it looks like we've already been introduced. I'll have clothes in here by the time Sora moves out completely, and it'll look just like everything's normal. Even the fact that we have all the same classes," Axel sighed. "Yanno, first thing we should do is get you some more comfortable chairs."
"If I had money, that'd be great." Roxas sighed as he got back into bed. Axel looked halfway excited.
"I actually have these great chairs… huge, black fluffy things, but the thing is…"
"They'd reek of fire and brimstone, and I don't want to smell that." Roxas said, and turned over. "Good night, Axel. We start class at nine, so I advise sleeping."
"Damn you, you're sadistic! Your cousin was wrong, you're not an angel!" Axel sighed dramatically. When he noticed Roxas was asleep again, he sighed. "I could kill you in your sleep right now… but dammit, you have to look so damn cute. Fine then. That's how you wanna play it, that's how we'll play it." And with that, he went to sleep.