Genre: Angst/Horror
Rating: PG (this chapter)
Warnings: Shounen-ai (*waves Demon Diary excuse flag*)
Notes relevant to text: Thoughts are back to plain old italics again.
Notes not as relevant but still important in my opinion: *gapes* Mein Gott, thankyou so much for saying such nice things about this...I genuinely can't come up with a way to put across how blown away I am by your comments. I'm happy people are enjoying it, and it makes me even happier when people come back for more.
Countdown to shutup...5...4...3...2...1...By the way, I lied about the upchuck. :)
Startled awake by the wave of frightened energy emanating from his liege's chambers, the last thing Eclipse expected to find was Raenef bent ineloquently over the edge of his blankets, shoulders still shuddering with the occasional dry heave. Amidst the heavy breathing and far less pleasant sounds, Eclipse thought he could hear his name being called.
"Ec...Ecl...'clipse...w-why...?" The boy burst into noisy tears and Eclipse hurried to his side, crawling over the bed to avoid stepping in the smelly mess on the floor. He'd deal with that later.
"Master Raenef? Whatever is the matter? Are you ill?" Stupid question, Eclipse.
Raenef's teary eyes spilt over again as he clamped them shut, flinging himself at his mentor and burying his face in the crook of his neck. Eclipse's hands automatically moved up to stroke Raenef's hair and back as he continued to blubber, fisting his small hands in the silk of the robe Eclipse had thrown on before teleporting. They sat there, Raenef almost completely in his tutor's lap, rocking quietly until the hysterical sobbing subsided. Eclipse tried again, rhythmically stroking the sleep-mussed hair beneath his fingers.
"Master Raenef, what's wrong? Please tell me."
"It's nothing," the boy managed, his voice thickened by sleep and crying. "Just a nightmare...it's not real..."
He snuggled closer, now gripping a handful of dark hair. Before Eclipse could respond to his proclamation the door flew open to admit Erutis, looking terribly worried, and Chris, half-asleep and holding his nose.
"What in the name of Holy Rased did you do to him, Eclipse? Did you give him food poisoning?" Erutis scuttled across the cold floor in socked feet and clambered up onto the bed, pressing a hand against Raenef's temple. The boy had been sweating and was now shivering slightly where it had dried icily on his skin and clothes, but he didn't appear to have a temperature.
Chris began chanting through his plugged nose, "Gweat Wased, pwotect yoo chiwd fom d' poisons of dis foul demon..." 'Enlightenment' thwacked him on the head, and he too pointed an accusing finger at Eclipse. "You were twyig to poison us id d'first pwace, weren't you?!"
Raenef sniffled miserably, and Eclipse resumed gently stroking his hair while he glared daggers at the human intruders. (Multitasking was, naturally, one of his specialties.)
"I most certainly did not poison him, girl," he snapped at Erutis, "and while you're at it, stop leaning on me. As for you," he growled at Chris, "you can rest assured that if I ever did try to kill you, Rased himself couldn't stop me. Now if you'll kindly remove yourself from Master Raenef's chambers, you may check on his ongoing state of life in the morning."
"But--"
"Out, knight!"
Erutis felt the tingling that usually predicated Eclipse setting her on fire, and she backed hastily in the direction of the door. Chris fled past her, already shrieking. Edging around the doorframe, she cast one final concerned glance at Raenef. He was still huddled against Eclipse, tracks of tears drying on his face as his back was stroked soothingly. Gods...that demon really is guarding him...it's just...
"So cuuuuuuute!" she squealed aloud. The longhaired demon's
face lost its momentary serenity, and Erutis fled down the corridors in search
of water to extinguish the flames erupting from her posterior.
Dawn's first light found both demons bleary-eyed and ill-rested. Raenef had curled himself up in Eclipse's lap, muttering occasionally, and Eclipse had carefully shifted one arm free of the boy's grasp for long enough to tug a blanket over his thin shoulders. When the sun had risen far enough to warm the chill from the marble floor, a soft knock sounded at the door.
Erutis peeked hesitantly into the room, rubbing the remnants of the magical burn on her behind self-consciously.
"Raenef...? Are you awake?" she called softly.
A slight shuffling from the canopied bed. "Erutis? Yes, I'm awake."
"Chris and I made breakfast, if you're hungry." Eclipse's left eyebrow shot up in alarm, and Raenef's head finally inched into view. He looked haggard, but was smiling ever so slightly.
"Really? What did you make?"
"Pancakes."
"Yay!" Raenef squeaked, in a fairly convincing imitation of his usual joviality. He tugged at the belt of his tutor's robe, which Eclipse quickly re-tied before Erutis could move in for a closer look. "Come on, Eclipse! You don't have to cook for once! Pancakes!"
Eclipse was none too certain exactly what had been placed in front of him, despite the flour-coated cleric boy's claim that the charred smelling mess was, in fact, a stack of pancakes. His lord, on the other hand, seemed determined not to offend his friends and chomped happily away. Demon Lord or not, he still had the iron stomach of a thief. Carefully, he picked at the edge of one with his fork and even more hesitantly brought it to his mouth. Had a casual observer been well-versed in reading the demon's expressions (or lack thereof), they would have recognised the abject shock on his face which manifested itself as a tiny twitch of his right eye. The stuff he'd put in his mouth didn't actually taste that bad, aside from being a tad overcooked. Not that he'd ever admit it to the two chefs-in-training; oh no. He'd visit Krayon dressed in a frilly pink ball gown before he ever even contemplated the thought.
Raenef glanced at him, offering a tired smile to wash his pride down with, and Eclipse found himself memorising the way his master's eyes slid almost closed when he was happy. He sighed quietly in relief; anything, even sitting at a noisy, uncouth table with a pair of human ruffians was better than the night he'd spent holding Raenef, too frightened to sleep, shivering and miserable, while he himself was powerless to do anything about it.
He shook his head to clear it of morbid thoughts. Gods willing, there would never be a repeat performance.
The rest of the day passed without incident. Chris attempted to avoid completing his practice swings, Erutis thumped him for it, Raenef fell asleep in his lessons and his tutor, filled with a sense of nostalgia at the airhead the boy had once been, allowed him to get away with it for once.
It was as the four of them sat down to dinner and the previous night's unpleasantness was only a shadow in Raenef's memory that the blonde demon was struck with the awful feeling he'd forgotten something.
Said something breezed airily through the door, cloak swirling dramatically behind him as he took a seat at the table by Erutis, who edged away from him.
"Great. Just great. What on earth are you doing here?" she whined as Krayon attempted to 'casually' scoot closer to her.
The Demon Lord of Egae aimed a pointed, hurt look at Raenef. "I know you're not the sharpest knife in the block, kid, but don't tell me you've forgotten out little agreement already?"
"What agreement?" Eclipse snarled as his skin prickled with the realisation that it could have been Krayon himself who had sent the nightmare to his charge.
Before Raenef could open his mouth to blunder his way through a response, Krayon pouted prettily and leaned over the table in front of Eclipse, twirling a lock of the other demon's dark hair between his bejewelled fingers.
"Well now, somebody's unjustifiably hostile today...sleep well?" He laughed airily and drew away as Eclipse snatched his hair back, obviously making a mental note to wash it as soon as possible.
"Krayon, what agreement?!"
"That's 'Lord' Krayon to you," the other man snapped before smiling as disarmingly as he could manage (which wasn't, let's face it, particularly reassuring to anyone at the table). "Your dear little master invaded my realm last night, without my permission. I let him go on the condition that an open invitation to this castle was extended to me for the period of a month. I'm simply making good on my end of the benefits, mate."
He shot a sideways glance at Erutis, whose scowl deepened as the bridge of his nose tinted a slight pink. "Of course, if you'd like to...modify...the agreement in exchange for your own services, I'll be only too happy to revise it. The offer is always there."
"Thankyou for your offer, Lord Krayon, but I'm perfectly content where I am," Eclipse replied politely through his clenched teeth.
Dinner was, considering the unwelcome company, almost as uneventful as the day had been. Krayon, for his part, ignored Raenef completely, opting for harassing the sword master instead. Said sword master soon discovered that the eccentric demon had once more deigned not to appear in person when he trailed a hand up her thigh and she attempted to lop his arm off.
"Opacity, love," was all he offered in explanation.
Eclipse watched silently as his lord and master withdrew again, becoming pale and quiet. He had no idea what the curly-haired fop had done to him the night before, but Krayon had to go, and soon.
"It appears your cooking has had an adverse affect on Lord Raenef," he quipped at Chris, whose response was to look more confused than affronted. "My lord, perhaps you should retire for the night."
Raenef's head shot up from where it had been studying the pattern of his plate. "Eh? ...Oh. Yes, you're probably right. Sleep would be nice."
Erutis and Chris took their cue to flee before Eclipse could bully them into clearing the table or shooing Krayon.
"G'night, all!" Chris bellowed from down the corridor.
"Sweet dreams, cutie!" Erutis added.
"She thinks I'm cute..." Krayon giggled behind his steepled fingers in an uncanny impersonation of a twelve-year-old.
"Go home. The girl was hardly talking about you," Eclipse snapped as he vanished in search of his master's requisite bedtime cookie and glass of milk.
The two demon lords eyed each other over the table, Raenef looking for all the world like a blonde deer caught in star-shaped headlights. It was Krayon who broke the stalemate, sweeping his cloak about him and pushing his chair in neatly.
"Thankyou for your kind hospitality, Lord Raenef. I guess we'll be seeing a lot more of each other from now on, hm?"
As he passed behind Raenef's chair on his way to the door, the Lord of Dreams paused and laid a hand on the boy's shoulder as he stooped down to eye level. His breath blew hotly against Raenef's ear, and the boy could have sworn he felt the malicious smirk the other demon wore biting into his skin.
"Do you want to know the clincher of that little dream I sent you?" Krayon paused for effect, obviously not expecting a response. "All those pretty, pretty creatures of heaven...they weren't soldiers. They were hardly even conscripts - that's why your feathered friend treasured the thought that she could live by pleading. Your lovely mentor plays by numbers, not fairness or empathy, kid. And I guess numbers rise when you rip a bunch of all-but-civilians into pieces. He'll teach you that one day, but until then you've got the memory of that girl's sweet mouth bleeding and twisted to remind you."
By the time Eclipse reappeared holding a tray, Krayon had vanished.
Endnotes: Poor little Raenef. Grumpy old Eclipse. Bitchy mean Krayon. Rather long chapter. Next chapter painful. Want to see?