Devil Contract
Suoh Mikoto stared down at the pair of pale violet eyes that squinted at his being. Without thinking, he squatted down to lock eyes with the pouty child in front of him.
"Those are…. Wings." The child stated, staring intently at the feathery appendages on his back.
"Yes, they are." Mikoto agreed easily, deciding to indulge this curious child just this once. He spread out his wings to their fullest, shaking out a few loose feathers as he did so. "Do you like them?"
The child didn't seem to pay heed to his question, much to Mikoto's annoyance.
"Are you an angel?" The dark blue haired kid asked bluntly, unabashed at his constant scrutiny of the other.
"Starting today, I'll be your angel." Mikoto corrected the child carelessly. "My name is Suoh Mikoto."
There wasn't an immediate reply from the other, and Mikoto idly wondered what were the thoughts flying through the other's mind at the moment. Amazement? Disbelief?
The bland response he'd received was the total opposite of all the replies he'd thought he would get.
"Is that so." The six year-old said disinterestedly. "You can call me Reisi. I'm Munakata Reisi, and I don't need an angel."
Mikoto gave a shrug at that and stood up languidly. "You're not cute at all."
The only reply he'd got from Reisi was a cross huff and an unrelenting glare.
Shaking off the feathers that had fallen down his shirt, Mikoto stared down at the petulant child. "Well, Reisi, you're stuck with me whether you need me or not."
"You'll have to try harder to convince me that my life is gonna be all moonlight and roses just because I have an angel now." Reisi finally said evenly. "I outgrew stupid things like fairy tales three years ago."
The pair of eyes that met Mikoto's this time shockingly mirrored his own jaded ones.
Walking towards the single window, Mikoto found his lips twitching upwards into a smirk- the first one he'd worn since two hundred years ago.
"What a coincidence. Neither do I."
"You got into a fight again."
Reisi sighed as he placed down his book bag neatly beside his study desk, closing the door behind him with a snap. He touched his swollen cheek absently as he rummaged around his room for his first aid kit.
"It's fine. I've been hit worse before." He said easily, rubbing medicinal ointment on his swelling cheek.
He paused in his actions as a cold hand landed on the side of his face. Reisi waited patiently as his guardian angel turned his face this way and that, the other's amber gold eyes assessing the new injury he'd gotten.
"Where else?" Mikoto asked simply, disapproval laced in his voice.
"'Couple of bruises on my right." Reisi replied uncaringly, looking away from the upset angel in front of him. "Nothing that wouldn't heal with time. Now stop mother-henning me and get back to wherever you came from."
The angel ignored his words with practiced ease. "Just my luck to get a suicidal charge." He grumbled, throwing himself over the wooden chair.
"I'm not suicidal." Reisi huffed, taking out his homework for the day with the intention to get started right away. "They just don't understand simple equations, and it's annoying."
"What's more annoying is that you can't seem to fight back." Mikoto snorted blandly. "Besides, which twelve-year-old calls master level theories 'simple'?"
"But they are." Reisi replied brusquely. "Those injuries will heal. Everything does."
"Not all of them do." Mikoto said tersely. That incident two hundred years ago rose up to his mind at those words, but Mikoto squashed it down ruthlessly.
Things were different then they were before. He had a charge to look after now- one lone prodigy who wouldn't lift a finger for himself.
And one who had eyes so similar to his that it was too painful to watch.
"At least the pain goes away." Reisi said softly from his desk. "And all that you're left with is the feeling of being numb."
"Reisi." Mikoto spoke up tersely. "Your mother did what she had to-"
"She sold me to this cursed orphanage so that she could lead a life of luxury." Reisi snapped. "I won't let you call that love because that's exactly what it isn't."
Mikoto stared at the enraged child, before closing his eyes and let loose a sigh. "Don't let your rage get the better of you, brat."
Reisi seemed to collect himself back at those words, and pushed up his silver framed glasses, looking peeved. "Then don't bring her up in front of me ever again."
Mikoto didn't deign himself to reply. Looking up, all Reisi saw was an empty chair, and a single, white feather sitting on it.
Fire was one thing in the world that Mikoto hated with a passion. Flames. Eveything he held closest to him seemed to go up in flames.
Two hundred years back, Mikoto watched helplessly as Totsuka Tatara, his long time comrade and friend died taking the brunt of the explosion meant for himself.
He should've been the one dying that day, and he'd swore that he'd never let such a thing happen again.
Fate was cruel, it seemed. Because that night, Mikoto lost yet another precious to him to the burning red fire.
"Hey… will I get to see you again?" Reisi smiled up at him, trying to get a good glimpse of the other's face amidst all the blood clouding his vision.
"Don't talk so much. Reinforcements will be coming soon." His words were a lie, and they both knew it. The higher-ups couldn't- wouldn't- save a mere human like Reisi.
As for the human side of things, well, there wasn't any besides Reisi left alive. The roads and pavements surrounding them was cracked and uneven from the earthquake that had taken place upon the town. It was a natural disaster, but the two of them knew otherwise.
Hell had literally broken loose upon them, and there was only so much Mikoto could do by himself. He'd killed all the bastards that had dared mess with his charge of course, but in that few minutes he'd left Reisi defenseless, the young man had been brought down by a stray attack.
"So you can't take down a few demons by yourself?" Even with a huge gaping hole in his body and third degree burns covering his left side, Reisi still had a sharp tongue. "I thought you used to be a fearless Archangel before they coerced you into being a nanny."
"Guardian angel, brat." Mikoto corrected brusquely. Debris from the fallen burning buildings started raining down upon them but they paid it no heed.
"Now stop talking. You'll live." Maybe he was deluding himself. But at this point, Mikoto didn't give a damn.
"Hah." Reisi snorted, his lips quirking up into a smirk- probably a habit he'd gleaned off his angel. "Well, whatever. It was a good life. Quiet. No one around to bother me."
"No one dared to bother you, you mean." Mikoto corrected again without thinking. He spread his wings out to their fullest, to futilely shield his dying charge from the raining concrete.
Reisi's pale violet eyes focused on those wings like they did nineteen years back. "Will I get to be an angel now?" He smiled, trying hard not to choke on his own blood that filled his lungs. He made a weak gesture towards Mikoto's open, protective wings. "I've always wanted one of those."
"Reisi… I-" Mikoto tried to get the words out, to tell the other how much he meant to him. But his voice betrayed him, as he started at a dying man's face so similar to the one two hundred years back.
'Live on.' Tatara had whispered to him then, smiling softly, knowing he was breathing his last. 'You still have a lot of things you've yet to fulfill, King.'
'Don't leave me.' He'd wanted to reply then, but those words never left his lips in time for Tatara to hear them.
And now, it frustrated Mikoto that he wasn't able to convey his feelings properly the second time around.
Reisi, however, didn't need Mikoto's verbal enunciation to decipher what the other was trying to say. "Wait for me." Reisi said, reaching out to touch Mikoto lightly on his cheeks, his eyes focusing on Mikoto's face. "It might take a few years, but I'll definitely find you for sure."
Mikoto let loose a harsh laugh. Even while dying, Reisi still took everything with a light heart. "It wasn't supposed to end this way." He whispered brokenly, wiping of the blood dribbling down the side of his charge's mouth with a thumb. "Some angel I am. I'm supposed to protect you. And yet-"
"You did." Reisi interrupted, blunt as ever. "You might not know it, but the reason I managed to live till now was because I had you by my side, Suoh. You kept the loneliness at bay."
"… You've never called me by my name before, brat."
The corners of Reisi's lips quirked up into a smirk once more. "You've never let me see you cry before, Suoh." He chided in return, closing his eyes and let his head fall back as black started creeping up his vision. "This isn't goodbye. It's just… a short vacation. Don't miss me too much."
"That's a promise, brat." Mikoto's rough voice drifted into his ears. "We'll meet again."
Mikoto was too brash for a guardian angel. He constantly wore a frown on his face, and was always subconsciously robed in an intimidating aura. But Reisi wouldn't wish for any other angel besides the redhead.
Munataka Reisi smiled and let the darkness consume him.
"King. There's trouble in the fourth sector. A few lesser demons are revolting." If the expression on the usually calm Izumo's face was anything to go by, the 'trouble' was a big one indeed.
Mikoto grunted to show that he'd heard, before standing up and walking out of the door. He could feel Izumo keeping pace behind him. It didn't take long for the other to speak up.
"Yata-chan's doing a splendid job in holding them at bay, but he's going to tire out soon." Izumo informed him calmly. "And the rest of Homra are keeping the humans in check."
"Any reason they'd stop following orders?" Mikoto asked blandly. Not like knowing the answer would change the fact that they were going to be slaughtered soon though.
"Not really." Izumo scoffed. "But if I had to figure a guess, maybe they just didn't like that the two heads of Homra are angels in disguise."
Mikoto chose to keep quiet at that.
"Five hundred years ago, we'd never imagined we'd be where we'd end up now." Izumo mused quietly, tapping orders into his communication pager. "And now we're in charge of Hell Homra. Hah, Tatara must be rolling in his grave in amusement."
"I stopped believing that god exists seven hundred years back." Mikoto snorted. "There aren't any regrets on my side."
Izumo shot him a shrewd glance. "Just one, you mean."
"Hn." Mikoto chose not to comment further, but Izumo seemed satisfied with his answer as it stood.
Just one.
He wasn't able to keep his promise with Reisi anytime soon.
They were outnumbered, trapped, and cornered, and if a miracle didn't happen at that moment, all of them were doomed to die. It didn't stop their optimistic nature, however. Homra clansmen were currently fighting over who'd be the first to kick the bucket.
To sum the situation up simply, Homra had been swamped, lost the fight, and lost their escape route to boot. The lesser demons were quick to take advantage of their plight and were cornering in on them quick.
Mikoto felt a migraine coming as he watched his underlings verbally battling out, on who would be the sacrificial scapegoat to allow the rest to get to safety.
Maybe the word 'verbal' came a little too quickly. "I already said that the one protecting Mikoto-san is me, you little fatass!" Yata Misaki screamed and launched a flying kick at his long time friend, Kamamoto. "Now piss off and throw yourself down the gutter!"
Izumo seemed to be at a loss for what to do, as he watched his clansmen punch each other silly on who's life was worth lesser.
"I knew this was my calling ever since I entered Homra." Bandou Saburouta earnestly exclaimed. It was doubtful words, as he was in the midst of being squashed to expiry, by at least a dozen of his fellow clansmen. "Let me do it! It had always been my childhood dream to be a hero!"
"That's enough." Mikoto sighed. It was soft, but the rest of Homra fell silent at his words nonetheless. "I'll be the one providing the distraction."
The magnitude of the protests that rang out probably destroyed his eardrums.
"You guys should place more faith in your king." Izumo intercepted quickly before Mikoto snapped and burned anything within a ten meter radius to ashes. "If Mikoto say's he'll get the job done, he will."
Izumo paused and turned around to face his fellow angel. "You will, won't you?" He asked, doubtful, one eyebrow raised questioningly.
Mikoto shot him a glare in return at the lack of trust in his abilities.
Izumo seemed to get the hint as he chuckled. "Don't get yourself killed, King."
"I won't." Mikoto said simply, but the look in his eyes said otherwise, and they both knew it. "Now scram before I burn every one of you up."
His clan didn't need telling twice; each and every one of them all too familiar with his volatile temper. Narrowing his eyes, Mikoto took off into the opposite direction, releasing his aura as he did so, drawing the demons towards him like moths to a flame.
He didn't know how many he slaughtered then, but the blasted creatures of hell kept spawning themselves as though they were on the verge of extinction. Mikoto couldn't remember when was the last time he'd felt this drained. Oh, he remembered now. It was the day when he failed his duties as a guardian angel and let his charge bleed to his death.
"Forgive me, Reisi." He murmured, eyelids drooping shut from near exhaustion. "I've failed you yet again."
"You are not forgiven." The voice that hissed angrily from behind was too familiar to be true.
"Even my hallucinations refuse to let me have a peace of mind." Mikoto sighed, stubbornly refusing to turn around. "I'll probably die and reborn as a vengeful ghoul."
"Spare me the theatrics, Suoh." Scoffed that all-too-familiar voice in reply. "I won't have anyone dying on my watch."
"Even someone like me?" Mikoto questioned easily, finally turning around to get a glimpse of the other.
Through his hazy vision blurred by fatigue, he idly noted that Reisi still looked the same as he did that fateful night. He had grown out his midnight blue hair, sweeping the longer bangs carelessly towards the side, and he now wore the stiff blue uniforms of the guardian angels.
But those jaded pale violet eyes that scrutinized his being was had remained the same; untrusting and disdainful.
"Especially someone like you." Reisi confirmed. With a precise flick of his wrist, two-dozen blue clad angels flew from his side, to dispatch the demonic spawns terrorizing poor, unsuspecting humans.
"I'm honored." Mikoto stated stiffly, before turning to take his leave now that the angels had finally decided to step in.
"Five hundred years." Reisi cut in harshly, refusing to let the other go just yet. "Five hundred years of searching, and I never would've thought that this would be how we would meet."
Mikoto paused in his step. "Making it to captain of the guardian corps in less than five hundred years. Not bad for a brat."
That label seemed to have sparked off something within Reisi, as an undecipherable emotion filtered through those violet eyes. "Don't call me that again. I'm not a brat anymore." Reisi hissed. "Now answer me this, Suoh. Why?"
Mikoto couldn't bring himself to look at his first and only charge in the face. "I couldn't trust them anymore." He said simply. "They let too many people die."
'They let you die.' Those words were unspoken, but it rang out loud in both their ears.
Seeing as Reisi didn't know how to reply him, Mikoto opened a portal leading towards Homra and stepped into it. Reisi made a half-hearted fumble, as though unsure of whether to chase after him, or to bid the other good riddance and help with the ongoing fight below.
Without a second thought, Mikoto made the decision for him. "It'll be for the good of the both of us that we never meet ever again," He paused, before throwing a sardonic smirk towards the other, "Munakata."
The name simply felt wrong on his tongue.
The frustrated expression on Reisi's face felt even worse.
He didn't remember how many years had passed by then. A hundred. Maybe two hundred. Mikoto hadn't bothered himself to count.
Each and every time they met, they would fight with each other like cats and dogs. On better days, Mikoto only got away with a furious tongue-lashing; Reisi's silver tongue was just fearsome as ever. Verbal spars were something Mikoto found himself outclassed in, and they both knew it.
On bad days, both of them would go back, sulking, to their respective headquarters, nursing bruises and burns to the dismay and outrage of both their respective lieutenants.
Their conflicts and squabbles were infamous to both their clans, and it served as a source of entertainment for many. The cunning ones had already set up a betting pool to make profit for themselves when another fight broke out.
But both Reisi and Mikoto didn't find their squabbles amusing at all. It was tiring, bitter and melancholic. And filled with more regrets than they could ever count.
It was on one of the nights on those bad days that Reisi woke up of light footsteps in his expansive room. Shifting to see who would disturb his sleep at three in the morning, Reisi let out a sound of surprise to realize that it was none other than his ex-guardian angel.
Who was clutching a gaping wound on his right side and dripping blood all over his carpeted floor.
"What in the high heavens are you doing in my room?" Reisi hissed, throwing the bed covers off himself and heading towards Mikoto. "And in that state to boot."
"There was a surprise attack." Mikoto admitted grudgingly. "I didn't want to face Izumo's nagging. It's troublesome."
"So you decided to come here, halfway across the world, and splatter blood all over my furniture." Reisi intoned sarcastically. "Well thought, Suoh."
If Mikoto was annoyed, he didn't let it show. As it was, he made himself at home by throwing himself on the cushioned couch, staining it with his bloodied clothes as well.
Eye twitching in irritation, Reisi wordlessly yanked the other's shirt off his toned frame and got to work in patching the redhead up. Mikoto let out a hiss and a glare as Reisi jabbed his wound a little too viciously to his liking, but the latter simply rolled his eyes and continued his work, undisturbed.
It was nostalgic. Seven hundred years back, it had been Mikoto who has nursing his wounds whenever he returned from a fight. Mikoto refused to acknowledge those bouts as fights however, seeing as Reisi himself hadn't lifted a single finger to defend himself, much less attack back.
It seemed as though Mikoto was thinking similar thoughts as the captain, as he stared down at Reisi's pale face with unfocused eyes.
"What." Reisi snapped, pulling the ends of the freshly wrapped bandages with a bit too much force than necessary.
Mikoto grunted, unabashed that he had been caught staring. "Sometimes I wondered if I was doing it right."
Reisi stared at him, as though wondering what Mikoto was referring to. It didn't take him long for it to click in his mind. "Obviously, you didn't."
Mikoto raised a questioning eyebrow, doubtful that they were on the same wavelength.
It was a challenge, and Reisi didn't back down from it. Fighting back a smirk that threatened to betray his amusement, he regarded Mikoto coolly. "A guardian angel." He stated bluntly. "You suck at being one."
Mikoto snorted. "Piss off, brat."
"After that… incident, I searched everywhere for you. I even joined this nanny division just to see you again." Reisi said quietly, searching the other's face for an answer he won't get. "But you weren't there anymore. They told me you'd left."
"There wasn't anything there for me anymore." Mikoto said with a shrug, not denying Reisi's statement.
"And did you find what you're searching for in the underworld?" Reisi questioned curiously.
Mikoto paused briefly before he gave a terse nod. Homra. The both of them knew what he had now, and what he had given up to obtain it. "Forgive me, Munakata."
"Hah." Reisi snorted, pushing up silver-framed his glasses. "You'll have to try harder than that if you want to get me, Suoh."
Mikoto glared and stood up, closing the distance between themselves. Before Reisi knew what he was doing, the other had already drawn him into a rough, albeit sloppy kiss.
"How crass of you." Reisi said once they had broken free for air. Mikoto gave a noncommittal grunt as he waited for the other's reply. It didn't take long.
Reisi had enveloped Mikoto into a tight hug, hands gripping the other's muscled back, as though afraid that the latter would disappear on him once more. "Don't leave me again." Reisi said at last, voicing out the words Mikoto himself had failed to say all those years back. "Just stay by my side."
"Mmm." Mikoto agreed huskily, his tone sending shivers of anticipation down the other's back. "It's too late if you think I'm going to let you go now." Reisi shuddered as the other trailed butterfly kisses down his neck and collarbone.
"Mikoto." Reisi whispered shakily, gripping the other's toned forearms so hard that it'll probably leave a mark. "That's all that I've ever wanted from you. Thank you."
"Hmm." Mikoto murmured, his liquid gold eyes locking into his Reisi's pale violet orbs. He reached out his neck and in a smooth, languid motion, locked lips with the other.
Reisi let himself be absorbed in the other's heated, passionate embrace. Their tongues were entwining with each other unshakingly, neither relenting, now that they've finally got what they'd so desperately wanted in their hands.
"Reisi." Mikoto whispered once they broke the kiss, reaching out one calloused hand to caress the side the other's handsome, pale features. "I'll protect you for sure, this time around." He promised.
"Hmm." Reisi's lips twitched up slightly into a small smirk, letting his head fall back to rest on Mikoto's chest. "You're seven hundred years too late for that, old man."
There wasn't a reply from the redhead, but Reisi jolted out of his comfortable position as Mikoto snaked an arm into his shirt. "Wha-"
The sharp, piercing gold eyes of the other silenced the remaining of his words entirely. "Less talk and more moving." Mikoto said simply, reaching out to kiss Reisi once more on the lips, his hands already making fast work of the buttons on the latter's shirt.
Reisi made a sound of disapproval at the back of his throat at the other's brash nature, but he let himself get carried away by Mikoto's embrace all the same.
Opening his eyes, Mikoto immediately locked into the pale violet pair across him. The very same pair had the same, scrutinizing intent they had all those years back, when he'd first laid their eyes on them.
"They changed." Reisi finally spoke, reaching out a slender hand across the bed to gently touch the pair of wings on his back.
"Aa. They've been black since I've left to the underworld." Mikoto confirmed. After all this while, it seemed that Reisi still held an unnatural fixation on Mikoto's wings. He spread out one wing to shield both their eyes from the morning rays. "You like them?"
"There's nothing to like." Reisi huffed, turning away from the other. He made to get out of bed, picking up the clothes they'd haphazardly strewn across the room from the previous night's activities.
After putting on a new set of robes from his wardrobe, he tossed Mikoto's set carelessly onto the other's face, ignoring the disgruntled grumblings as Mikoto unwillingly removed himself from the comfort of the large bed.
"Are you going back?" Reisi questioned curiously, as he watched Mikoto dress himself.
"Do you see another alternative?" Mikoto shot back, rolling his eyes.
"Well, I could always take you captive." Reisi jested, but the gleam in his eyes suggested that he was taking that option into serious consideration.
"Damn brat." Mikoto grumbled, and now fully dressed, made his way towards the open balcony of the room to leave.
"When will I see you again?" Reisi asked, silently cursing as the foreboding feeling of loneliness crept up his mind yet again.
Mikoto could apparently detect that his tone was off, as he turned to shoot Reisi a calming glance. "We'll see."
"I'll pay you a visit once in a while to make sure you won't miss me much." Reisi's narcissistic nature was shining through once again, it seemed.
That absurd idea wasn't even worth a single second of consideration. "No." Mikoto denied the other bluntly. He didn't even bother with an explanation why.
"Oh?" Reisi's eyes gleamed as he picked out a challenge from Mikoto's words that wasn't even intended to be there. "You can consider it payback, Suoh. For what you did to my carpet and couch."
Like always, Mikoto hadn't bothered with a reply.
Reisi let his eyes trail a single black feather as it fluttered down from the skies. He allowed the ghost of a smile to filter through his face, before briskly marching into his room, snapping shut the balcony doors behind him.
"I won't let you leave me this time around, Suoh."
-FIN-
Author's Notes:
Thank you for reading this oneshot!
Both Mikoto and Reisi were difficult characters to portray, and I hope you find them acceptable in this fic.
I also suck at proofreading so please forgive me if you spot any spelling/grammar mistakes.
Additionally, if you've yet to read the companion fic 'Angel Business', please do give it a try!
Reviews and constructive criticisms are highly appreciated!
TenkuuBatsu