Just wanted to thank everyone who has given me a favorite or followed me or my story and I would like to thank the guest that reviewed by story, my Beta and I have no laughed like that in a while. Your review was great! By the way I apologize about the formatting issue I am working on it. Now on with the show!
-
It had taken Mal a little while to find everything she needed while still avoiding her foster parents. Michelle came home from work in an even worse mood than when she left. Mal snuck out of the house and just spent the rest of the time until it was dark in a park that nobody used anymore. It was basically her safe place. The only place she didn't need to worry about anything. It was also where she went when she didn't want anybody to know what she was up to. Around 11 Mal started to make her way to the only dirt crossroads in the small town of Redwater. The irony with it was that one of the street's was called Beggar's Road. The other was called Majesty Lane. Getting down on her hand and knees she dug a hole in the dirt not caring about the dirt that was now shoved under her nails. She almost felt silly doing this. It was just a rumor. There was no way it was true, right? Mal continued to argue with herself while she dug. When it was deep enough she dropped the old metal box in and covered it with dirt. Pushing herself back up Mal looked around. Nothing. With a shrug Mal tried to remember the quickest way home, that was if she wasn't locked out. She wouldn't put it past Michelle to do that.
"You rang?" Turning around Mal found a man in his early 20s. He had windblown golden blonde hair and blue eyes. He was taller than her by about a foot and nicely built. He wore jeans and a black button up, with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and the first two buttons undone. Mal raised an eyebrow at this man.
"Who are you?" she asked. Where had he come from? Was he here to make a deal too? So many questions ran through the confused girl's head. He smirked at her and his eyes flicked to red.
"Why Sweetie I'm the crossroads demon, what were you expecting? A little red man with horns and a tail?" his eyes changed back. Mal made a face. A snarky demon, just what she wanted.
"Are you going to make me a deal or not?" The demon blinked at her for a minute. He wasn't expecting her to be so forward, not to mention tiny.
"Honey are you sure you're old enough to be making deals?" she glared at him.
"Stop calling me names and yes, yes I am." Were all demons like this one? On second
thought she didn't want to know. He chuckled and threw up his hand in a mock defensive stance.
"Alright, alright. What is your heart's desire?" Mal sucked a breath in. Even in her head it sounded stupid, but it was what she truly wanted. More than anything. Taking another calming breath she spoke.
"What I want is...a friend and to be happy." She said the last part in a rush embarrassed by it. The demon looked at her for a minute. He blinked several times.
"I'm not actually sure how to handle this. I..." he trailed off. Of all the reactions he could have she wasn't expecting that one. She wasn't sure to be relieved that he didn't laugh or worried. "I need to go ask my boss." with that the demon was gone leaving Mal alone in the crossroads again.
"What the hell just happened?" Mal asked herself. With a sigh she decided to wait for at least a few minutes before heading home, it was nearing 1 in the morning. A few moments later the demon reappeared but he had somebody with him. The second man confused her.
"Would anybody care to explain to me what I am doing here?" He sounded angry but seemed to be focusing on the demon and not her. The demon took a step back in fear before disappearing leaving her alone with the strange man.
"So he left me with his..." she trailed off for a moment. "Father?" that seemed to bring his attention to her. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing.
"I am not that imbecile's father. The name's Crowley, king of the crossroads." The two decided to study each other. Crowley was not impressed to say the least. He thought the Winchesters were dirty but they were nothing compared to this girl. She was a head shorter than him with long curly hair that was so dirty he couldn't tell if it was blonde or brown. Her pale skin was dusted with freckles on her cheeks and nose. Her light jeans were old and ripped at the knees the bottoms barely holding on and they were too big for her he could tell as the ends dragged on the ground. He could just see a white shirt peeking out from under the ugly (in his opinion) army green hoodie that was zipped all the way up. She was cold, shivering slightly in the night but she tried to hide it. Her sleeves were rolled up and her hands were dirtier than the rest of her. Her shoes some American pop brand he didn't recognize were practically falling apart at the seams. What really drew his attention though was her eyes. They were large and round with long lashes framing them. Her left eye was a golden hazel and her right eye was bright blue. She snorted at him as she looked him over.
"Is that so?" Her voice was a bit rough but still feminine. She was obviously just a kid and not a hunter. He was older than she'd thought he would be. He had short chocolate brown hair and peachy skin. His smug smirk didn't reach his hazel eyes. Instead that looked her over with vaguely masked curiosity. He wore dark dress pants, a pressed black button up with a silvery gray tie and black suit jacket. He had a jacket on over his suit. It was soft and obviously very expensive. It was probably worth more than all of Mal's possessions combined. Thinking about the jacket reminded her that she was still cold. Pulling on her sleeves as subtly as she could not wanting to give him the satisfaction of knowing that she was cold and he was not. She ignored the fact that there was know dirty finger prints on them.
"You do know that this isn't a charity right?" He spoke taking a few steps towards her. She didn't move away like most people did when they realized what he was. Her face twisted into a snarl, her eyes blazing.
"I don't want your charity, I want to make a deal." She spits. Crowley couldn't help but chuckle at the ferocity that she spoke with.
"Well somebody's in a bad mood." He chuckled again. "Now why don't you run along home and play with your barbies." This time she snorted at him.
"Well here I thought I was summoning a powerful crossroads demon to make a deal but it appears that I got a two bit salesman afraid to make a little deal. Oh well." She had turned around and started to walk away. His eyes darkened and he held up a hand using his powers to keep her from moving. Spinning her around he walked over to her and her smug look. In the back of his mind he knew he was playing right into her hands but was too angry to really listen to that small voice.
"Fine. I will personally take care of your deal. What is it that you want?" Once again Mal sucked in a big breath of air. She just hoped that he wouldn't laugh at her. This whole night had been weird.
"I want to be happy but mostly I want a friend. And you can't just pop somebody out of nowhere. It has to be you. You have to be my friend for 10 years and then you can have my soul. That's how this works right?" Crowley took another step closer to her. He had never heard of a deal like this. Would spending 10 years with this human be worth her soul?
"Yes. Do you know how we seal the deal?" She gulped and nodded.
"We kiss." She took another step towards him so that they were chest to chest.
"I have just one question for you before we seal this." She looked up at him. Was everybody taller than her?
"What is it?"
"Why would you want a demon as a friend?" she laughed but it was a dry humorless laugh.
"Because I'm tired of being alone." He smirked as he wondered if that would be how she would feel in 10 years.
"Time to seal the deal, unless you want to back out." She shook her head, she was going through with this. Crowley bent towards her when she pulled on the collar of his jacket down so she could reach him. Before he could complain about the jacket she kissed him. The kiss was sweet and she pulled away before he could decide what she actually tasted like. He watched as she made a face and he raised an eyebrow. "What?" he asked and to this she chuckled with a small almost taunting smile.
"Not bad. I've had worse." Now it was almost 2 and Mal couldn't deny that she was freezing. "Look I'm freezing so I'm going home. So how can I call you?" He handed over a very nice expensive phone along with the proper charger.
"My number is already in there. Oh and here." with a snap of his finger a jacket much like his own appeared on her. It was a soft black fabric that brushed her thighs and was double breasted military trench coat with gold buttons. It was so warm that she sighed happily. He smirked at her. She would be easy to control he just knew it.
When she reached her house she was still waiting for the jacket to disappear and for her to wake up miserable again. She didn't even realize that the door was locked until she ran into it. Rolling her eyes she pulled the extra key from the crack in the woodwork. Sneaking into the house she started looking around for something to eat which ended again in dry cereal. Making her way up the stairs she sunk into bed to happy to even take the coat off.
When the alarm went off later Mal groaned. She didn't get nearly enough sleep last night. When she kicked off the blankets she giggled finding that the beautiful jacket was still there. With a quick shower and some new clothing she managed to make pancakes for breakfast for the little ones. She really needed to go shopping. She grinned she could get her new friend to come with her. It would be fun. Maybe he would also buy her some breakfast. Rushing through her normal chores she raced outside barely remembering to grab her new phone. Hitting the call button on her only contact she grinned when she heard the same British accent from last night.
"Do you know what time it is?" he groaned into the phone. If only he could see her grinning at him through the phone.
"Yeah but I'm up and I'm hungry with no food in the house and what better way to get to know my new friend than over breakfast?" she could hear him grumbling but moving around.
"You are a twit, you know that right?" She turned around to find him standing right there. Crowley noted that her hair was actually golden blonde and very pretty, not that he would tell her that. She smiled giddily at him. "So where to?" Crowley also had a feeling that he would be paying for breakfast as well.
"Someplace with really good pancakes. I'm so hungry and they sound so good!" with a snap she found herself and her new friend in front of small cafe in what sounded like New York City. Grinning she rushed in pulling Crowley along with her. He almost wondered if she forgot that he was a demon. He watched completely baffled as she managed to put away 6 pancakes, two plates of eggs and several sausage links with several cups of some kind of half coffee half chocolate drink that Crowley didn't know what it was.
"How..." he trailed off again almost afraid to ask. "How did you manage to put all the food away?" she laughed but gave him a smile and swallowed.
"I live with 6 other kids, only two of them are older than me. That's four kids all under 12. Half of them are boys. We never have enough food. The people who take care of us, and I use that 'take care' loosely. They don't care about us. All they want is money. The house is complicated. Lydia is the oldest at 18 and the smartest. She's got the best grades so they treat her well. Toby is the next oldest at 17 only by a couple of months and he is good at every single sport. They think that he is going somewhere. He's already gotten like 5 offers on sports scholarships. Enter me. The screw-up with an attitude. So I often give things up for the little ones. Basically I'm always hungry."
"Which is why you don't-didn't" he corrects himself. "have a coat when we met." she nodded taking another sip of her drink humming happily as the warm liquid ran down her throat. "Aren't you suppose to be in school?" he asked looking over at the clock. Seeing the time she cursed and ran leaving him with the bill which he expected. Following her out he teleported them back to Redwater straight to the high school. As she was running into the school she came running back just as he was about to leave.
"OH! Be at my house by 3: 30. I have to go shopping and the least you can do as my new best friend," she grinned at this part that reminded him of a crazed person. "is keep me company." She started to run back into the school once again when she came back out again "You better be there!" she yelled pointing a finger at him, with that last threat she ran back into the school. He could here the lady at he desk yelling at her for running in the halls and being late. It vaguely sounded like Mal just laughed as she continued to run down the hall. As he walked away from the school before he teleported back down to hell to actually get some work done, he truly wondered what he had gotten himself into?
