As soon as the words left his mouth the reaction to the area was instantaneous and fantastical. The weak flickering flames of his little birthday candles burned black and the very air gained a certain ethereal luminescence. More of the lambent pitch blazes appeared midair around him, floating up and down, bobbing in place, so close to the boy that he felt as if he should have been able to feel their heat. And yet there was none. In fact a shiver rolled down Lance's body, for a chill had been set upon the atmosphere.

Against his palm the branch began to vibrate, and his gaze snapped back to the front. He couldn't let go and his other hand flew up to his wrist, heart beginning to pump faster and faster as if he were running. A glow lit up the small wood like a star had fallen into it.

This did burn, but his cry of pain was locked behind his gritted teeth as he tugged on his arm. Wind picked up around him, dragging at his clothes and lifting his hair, stinging at his eyes and swirling the loose gravel into the brief mandala of stone and leaf before wiping them away once more. No sound accompanied this gale.

A crack appeared in the stick, splintering up and out from beneath his palm, another formed, and the plank shattered like glass. Debris rocketed outward, past him, some of it embedding in his flesh. But Lance couldn't feel it, his very being was trembling from the energy held in this liminal space.

The hovering blazes extinguished as suddenly as they'd ignited, the glimmer that came from the very quality of the setting itself went dark as if there had been a switch flipped from the other side, and once more the normal sounds of the night resumed as if nothing had happened. Only one candle remained, the small fire settling after the eerie storm.

Lance waited with baited breath. Sensation slowly returned to him, the first was a warmth, that dribbled down his right cheek. Before the stinging pain of the multiple cuts set in. He resisted the urge to lift a hand to wipe away at the blood dripping down, but was too worried that if he moved at all, even allowed so much as a blink, he would miss something of vast importance.

Only… nothing really did happen.

"This can't be it!" His own voice startled him as he shouted into the swiftly chilling evening.

Maybe he'd done something wrong… well, he had, but he'd hoped…. He'd prayed that all of his shortcuts would somehow be enough. They simply hadn't been.

He could feel the prickle of tears teetering on the very edges of his eyelashes, a breath away from spilling over as his tenuous grip on this very last ray of hope slipped.

The boy couldn't start crying now though. He doubted that he would ever stop. He spun on his heels, ready to run straight back into the woods. Unsure exactly what his new plan was, only that he'd find another one of those damned faeries and ask, no demand, that they-

He barely spotted the looming shadow in time and almost fell back as he over corrected. Had he not Lance would have collided with the figure that stood suddenly alongside him at the crossroad. Even in the gloom of the night this silhouette was darker still. Despite the low illumination of the stars, and of the waxing crescent that was just now cresting over the tops of the trees, it was as if an obscurity hung over them both, and it was only due to the single, small, weak candle light that Lance was able to make out any details of this stranger at all. In this stunted tuscan glow that quivered, deceptively over the features. He noticed, first and foremost, the eyes that were focused with such incredible intent upon him were like a violet inferno rimmed by deepest eventide, set into an almost angelic face, which veritably gleamed in the gloom it was ever so pale.

More particulars became apparent as the boy looked on. Like how those teeth, set behind a wicked smile, were pointed like…. Like fangs.

Lance gulped, thoughts stuttering over the next terrifying minutia his eyes took in, and he was unable to drag his gaze away despite the fear that very suddenly had his blood turning to ice in his veins and his breath freezing within his lungs.

Horn's the color of ash, only a few shades lighter than the dusky locks, twisted up out of his hair, curving ever so slightly back, like some wild beast from an exotic foreign land, or long forgotten god of the hunt. The textured ridges, rough and sharp, spiraled up to the very tip. This almost human form was clothed in almost normal clothing. A crop top, the hue was a vague soot in the dim lighting. A look that the boy would normally pair swiftly with more feminine features, and yet the outline of muscles that could be seen in the twilight were definitively masculine. And at first glance it appeared as if the ebony jeans that clung seductively to his hips held no distinction between the fabric and the coarse fur that covered the cloven hooves that were present, instead of normal human legs and feet. Which might explain how this creature seemed so tall. At first all of this seemed like nothing more than an illusion, something that would shatter as soon as Lance looked away, or tilted his head at just the right angle of incredulity.

Though Lance felt as if he could not take in any more "odd" after everything, his eyes raked back up this uncanny body, a strange heat he didn't quite recognize as anything familiar, dripped like molten lava down through his center, thawing out his terror, which still remained, but transformed into something else, persisted in such a peculiar way, until, instead of that frost in his veins, flames pumped hard with his quickened heart beat, charring his insides. Heat crept up his neck into his cheeks.

There was so much more to take in. at Lance's initial pass he'd missed the long tail that swished back and forth as abruptly this larger than life figure somehow seemed to grow. It took the boy's mind a moment to catch up with what his eyes were seeing.

Wings. Almost like a bat's. Larger than life and the color of early morning mist rising through the woods. Their chroma was a gradient, moving from a darker ashen gray to an almost ghostly white closer to the tips. As they opened, spreading wide, the outline of gnarled bones were visible through the paper thin flesh. He looked somehow larger with this wingspan, and Lance tried not to shrink away.

This demonic entity before him, for that was all that could describe this overpowering presence, was…was…

He was stretching. Arms pulling back languidly, spine arched, pinion spanned as wide as the path through the trees around them would allow.

Lance took a step back, and another. Stumbling he almost fell again.

"You can't be the one who summoned me." The accent, similar and yet distinctly different from those beings of light and magic who dwelled in the woods, his voice was deep and the tone incredulous. The demon's lip was raised in a sneer that flashed more, sharp, pearly whites.

The boy swallowed hard, tongue flopping uselessly as he tried to gather himself up, along with some words to create a retort. But none came.

The monster's gaze had already slid off of him, as if he were no more interesting than a drifting speck of dust. Now he looked about in a lazy sort of way, obviously unimpressed with everything he saw. Maybe he thought there was someone else there. Well he would be even more than sorely disappointed. Lance wiped his hands, now slicked with cold sweat and utterly numb, on his jeans, appreciating now the normal movement as an anchor. With a small cough he cleared his throat and his words, prepared in this short amount of time that the beast had been looking around, now repeated in his head. Yet he still almost lost them as that intense gaze focused on him once again, more appraising than before.

Such a weird thing was happening to him, his breath came faster, a shortness of breath as he locked eyes with the creature. Lance felt pulled in by those mesmerizing irises, more enthralled by this terrifying devil than any of the sprites from earlier. Lance felt as if a spotlight were trained upon him, and suddenly like butterflies were set upon him, dusted wings fluttering in anxious crescents within his stomach.

"I wish for you to heal my sister Rachel!" He stated in the clearest voice he could possibly muster, which still trembled as it left him, breathless once more.

"You have got to be kidding me~" this sentiment was practically growled out in the demon's obvious annoyance, and Lance tried not to flinch as the other reached up, only to scratch the back of his own head with his dark, talon like nails. The boy wondered if he'd been heard, and he took in a steadying breath, readying to repeat himself, louder than before. But he didn't get to even clear his throat before the creature was speaking again. "you're just a damn kid." It was hard, even in this gloom, to miss the way those heliotrope eyes rolled heavenward. "What could you possible want, a new bike or something?" He snorted.

Immediately Lance bristled, not just at the words, but at how impressed this complete carbon seemed to be by them.

"Excuse you!" His mouth was running ahead of him as it usually did. "I see that you got ears, but they must not be working." His voice no longer shook, his fear momentarily forgotten in his sudden flash of indignation.

Thick eyebrows rose into the coal hairline, and the sneer dropped from his darkly handsome features, just for a second, before it was hitched back up into place, somehow harsher than before…. A sharpness set too it. Lance didn't allow the man to get in a single other word though. Bolstered by his sudden burst of either bravery or stupidity he took a step forward, and another, squaring his shoulders as he did so.

"What I wish for isn't small, why would I call on you—"

An unreadable look passed over the beast's face, but the boy tried not to let himself be distracted by what it could mean.

"Save—my—sister." Lance stated slowly, as if he were speaking to a child. He jutted his chin out and stared this damn condescending demon down.

Realization dawned over the other's features slowly, and his eyes widened, the blackness surrounding that vibrant burst of color, all looks of disdain were replaced by sheer shock. Before, with an obvious effort, a blank mask of calm slipped down. But for just an instant lance thought he caught a glimpse of…. Worry?

"You should not have summoned me."

"Do you not get it! I had no other choice!" His voice echoed back at him through the trees. His shout surprised both of them, and the frightening creature took a startled step back.

His mouth opened and closed a few times before he was finally able to force out a cryptic statement that almost sounded like a warning, and only managed to anger Lance more.

"You don't understand what you've done."

"Yes I do!" Lance was trying and failing to keep his tone even, his voice steady and low, but it shook with the effort, no longer in fear. "I'm biding you to me! Like how Shiro bound the others to him, like Allura and Cor—"

"Wait—you know Shiro?" If a demon could blanch than this one just had, his shock clear.

But the boy plowed straight on through the other's inquiry, "nevermind that! Please I—"

And the beast steamrolled directly over Lance's words.

"This isn't like that! It is a binding but it's different kid! It's not an equal exchange it's…. it's…. hard to explain, I can't—"

"I don't care!" Lance was yelling against and he couldn't hope to reign it in this time. "I don't need an explanation! I just need Rachel to be okay again!"

The hands that gripped his shoulders did not give in the slightest as normal human flesh would. They were as hard as sone, but instead of the chill or sculped rock this touch seemed to burn, even through his clothes. "Listen to me Lance. The price for that would be your soul." The demon's face was so close to his own, breath upon his lips. Distraction enough from the other's words, at least for a few exhales as they slowly swirled in his mind.

Once they finally did though they brought the boy up short, mid-thought, caught between a question and a revelation just barely out of reach. He blanched, breath caught in a tight knot balled up in his throat. Lance didn't even have time to wonder if he'd told the other his name, for how else had he known?

Finally Lance was able to dislodge his voice and breathlessly, his words all slamming together, he managed to spit them out. "But-but-that's-not-what-the-book-said!"

"Yeah it wouldn't, books can be tricky that way." As the demon withdrew his hands the chill of the night came all at once rushing into Lance and he shivered violently, teeth clattering together in a pathetic, noisy display. "You gotta learn how to read between the lines there boy." An emotion almost like panic rippled across the demon's features in a close to human way.

"I—No-! I can't just—there has to be—" Now Lance couldn't finish a sentence, dismay roiling in him like a living thing. He was so close! His vision slanted, blurred and he found it difficult to focus on the other, who shifted restlessly from hoof to hoof, body moving in such an alien way that the boy felt as if, had he been looking straight on, he might have been hypnotized. He might have also noticed how agitated the demon was.

But all of these things remained overlooked and unseen as the boy fought to regain any semblance of control.

"Usually, you brat—" He finally interrupted Lance's halting silique, "I can't leave ~this realm~ until I've… procured a contract from the one who summoned me. But never before have I been called up by … one so young—" As he spoke he began to pace back and forth, arms gesturing in Lance's direction, tail lashing the air in a vexed manner, pauses unintentional as he sought out just the right words. As if he did not often think before he spoke. He neared the single birthday candle that remained and sneered down at it in disdain, as he did so the last life of the fire spluttered out. "Really?" He muttered under his breath, obviously more to himself than to Lance, losing the thread of his previous train of thought. "I'm surprised this even worked at all…" With a snort he shook his head, hair shifting with it, and tail slowing to a mere twitch. His wings he had folded back in against his body. "Perhaps…. If some part of the spell were to be…. Disturbed… the offering dug up?" He was now definitely talking to himself, thinking out loud. A clawed hand was held out, hovering over the loose mound of dirt.

Following along with all the words the demon said was making Lance feel a tad dizzy, head spinning with so much information, concepts of his world expanding, and fluctuating. Soon enough though he realized what the demon was suggesting. The boy sprang into action and dashed over.

"Wait no!" Lance tackled him, or it would have been one if the demon had budged at all. Instead his shoulder collided with what felt like solid granite, still his arms wrapped futily around the torso, feet skidding over the gravel which rolled beneath the rubber of his sneakers. "It's worth it." The words were nothing more than a quiet sob, muffled from where his face was pressed into the cloth of the demon's shirt.

"What?" The voice that resounded above Lance's head was a low rumble of thunder in the distance, the tail now whipped around with such harshness that a sharp sound cut through the air. With ease he unhooked Lance's arms and pushed the boy away. "Try again, and maybe this time don't cry about it."

Lance clenched his fists and screwed his eyes shut tight, as he pulled in a deep breath. Trying once more, this time not allowing even a slight tremble to enter through his words, undermining them. "I said it's worth it—"

"You don't know what you're talking about kid—" Lance was interrupted, but he kept on talking over the other, tone wavering only as his volume rose.

"You can take my soul if it saves Rachel—"

"—it's more complicated than that—"

"—Just do it already!"

They were both yelling at each other at this point, but Lance had already come so far, risked so much. He would not have done this all needlessly! Put his family through the hell he already had!

"You need to… just slow down! Understand that at the very least!"

"You don't get to tell me what to do! And I don't hafta 'understand' the magic for it too work!" Lance quieted slightly still, crossing his arms, "What does it even matter to you?"

A tormented look passed like a cloud over the demon's eyes, darkening the features there for just a heartbeat, and passed so quickly that Lance wondered if it had been there at all, or if he'd just imagined it.

With a dismissive, flippant gesture of his hand the creature went silent. He brought his claws to his mouth in what could almost be construed as a nervous gesture, and for a moment there was nothing but silence, heavy in the atmosphere around him.

"You doing this is on you child."

"Of course—" Lance didn't yet allow himself to feel anything, "you'll… you'll do it?"

There was nothing more than a single, curt nod.

Lance laughed, tears cascading down his cheeks in a sudden rush, and if he hadn't just fallen, dizzy with this victory, onto his haunches, he might have run to the demon, given him a huge bear hug that would put Hunk to shame.

"Graci—"

"Don't thank me." The growl shook everything, even the air that Lance gasped in. "you don't get it do you? If I take your soul… now- you die kid…"

The reality of the words took a few excruciating seconds to sink in. when it finally did his blue eyes widened and the tears stopped. Everything stopped. His breath held captive and growing stale in his lungs, his heart frozen mid beat.

"And… you won't be able to… go back home… until I… do this?" Lance wasn't entirely sure how he managed to force these words out as he was still choking on his very own breath. Nor did he fully understand why, of all things, this was the question he asked, the possibility he focused on. But he pictured the ludicrous prospect of this very obviously not human guy just, following him around in school, sitting with him at home between Rachel and Veronica at the dinner table. It was too much and the boy felt laughter like bubbles… or thorns building up within his chest, about to burst from him if only he'd release his breath. Hysteria sat like a blade across his throat. Once it spilled forth from him he wasn't sure if it'd ever stop.

"That's not what I'm worried about." The demon muttered rubbing a hand back through his hair, fingers dancing around the base of his horns, stray strands curling about them. "There are much worse things than being stuck here."

Lance was barely listening. He wasn't even calculating his options. The answer was easy. He'd come this far, after all.

"Do it." His voice scratched out of him. Lance looked up as he said this, meeting the demon's gaze with clear, sure eyes, hue as light as a clear afternoon sky.

It was so strange to watch as such a imperial creature such as the one who stood before him fidget shifting from hoof to hoof, the gravel clattering beneath him.

"There might be some leeway…I can… no not quite… you could reword your wish… I can add stipulations to the contract. It will mean that…. It'll give you more time. You might be able to live longer, but…" It felt as if every word the other forced out was chosen with great care. Despite this caution Lance's heart regained a normal rhythm once again, and a new type of hope pulsed within him. The boy had not expected his soul, or his death, to be a part of the price. Honestly he'd been foolish to think that there wasn't a price at all. This gift of being able to have his cake and eat it took, was akin to the floor falling out from beneath him, but a rope appearing right before he fell, saving him.

"That's good-great!" Lance shook his head, trying to find some steady ground to to gather his bearings. "What—" He cleared his throat, licking his lips, "what should I say?"

The demon's mouth was moving but Lance wasn't quite following along. It didn't matter. Everything would be so perfect again. And once his time came? Well… he'd… he'd have to cross that bridge when he got to it, and until then he'd create as many happy, lasting memories with his family as he could… if he didn't spend the entire duration being grounded for running away.

"-You can't tell anyone about this for obvious reasons. If any of these terms are breached there will be varying, and extreme conseq—are you even listening?" Lance's focus snapped back onto the demon.

"I—Yes! Just tell me what—"

"I was Lance. The most I can do… you weren't really listening were you?" He looked more pained than Lance had thought possible for a creature such as him.

"—If—you agree to never see this Rachel again, I can push it out to…" The beast looked upwards, holding up fingers as some unknown equation played out in his head, "seven years before I come to claim your soul. That is the most time I'd be able to give you. It's—" It was so hard to follow along with the demon's explanation, this was why the exhausted boy had lost focus to begin with!

"Dios get to the point!" Lance hadn't meant to snap, and common sense dictated that he maybe just shut his mouth.

"You can never see your family again." Lance asked for succinction…. Not for this bluntness. He blanched, falling back.

"Wait what? Why? How does that even—"

"I'm not explaining it all again you absolute child." Lance balked, voice catching in his throat like the scratch of a skeletal finger.

"At least—" The boy scrambled after something, anything. "At least let me say goodbye!"

The demon shifted, arms crossing as a thoughtful look passed over his face. "That'll take some time off, but I can—"

"I don't understand how this works—" Lance moaned, dismay crackling through his system, but the demon spoke over him, ignoring his statement.

"Five years."

Lance opened his mouth, but torn nothing came out from it. He blinked slowly, gradually processing, torn between so many emotions. Five years was so much time to a thirteen year old! But he knew it wasn't that long at all… a steep price to pay for only getting to say goodbye.

Even with all of that culminating into a storm of thought in his mind Lance knew what his answer was. Still his voice would not push out from him and his mouth tongue would not form the words. So at first there was nothing more to do than to unstick…. Well… everything.

The demon waited not so patiently, shifting and fidgeting endlessly. The energy he'd raised elevated the hair on Lanc'es body like static.

"Deal—" Lance finally managed to croak out. "Do we uh… shake on it? Or should I sign something?" Lance raked his mind for other adult like things that would be done in this situation.

But the creature had stopped moving. Even his tail halted mid swing. Had gone so still that Lance's gaze flicked to him nervously. Red flooded up into the other's pale features adding a depth to the previous monochrome countenance with the crimson juxtaposed nicely with the purple in his eyes… Why had he just thought that?

"is something wrong?" He croaked out, and thought he might have to ask again, ready to repeat himself, louder and more distinct than before, when finally the other spoke, a bit more hoarse himself.

"Actually it's a—" He cleared his throat, which was such a strange thing to witness, coming from a monster that looked as he did. "A kiss."

"A what!" Lance squeaked, his own flush rising in his cheeks to mirror the demons. It was his turn to flush, hand coming up to cover the lingering blush, as if in that way alone he'd be able to play it off.

"Hey it's not my favorite part either kid!" The creature threw his hands up in the air, though Lance doubted very much that the other was as flustered as he was, not that he wanted to say… "It's not like I wanna steal some brat's first kiss!"

"Wha—no way!" Lance's voice was too loud in the quiet of the night, his laugh lasting much too long. But the boy wasn't quite able to deny this, or brush it off in any natural fashion and as his hysteria faded an awkward silence filled the air around them. The heat in his cheeks grew and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

He glanced quickly up at the demon, regretting that decision instantly, for the otherworldly ma had one eyebrow raised and a smirk upon his face that reminded Lance of the teasing, flirtatious expressions on older boy's faces at school. The boy closed his eyes, readying for the barrage of mocking, when nothing came he peaked out.

The demon was closer now, a breath away, and Lance was not at all prepared. His hands dashed out to push the creature away. His hands dashed out to push the demon away. It did little and his eyelids fluttered. Warm hands cupped against his cheeks. "don't worry." If he had any will left Lance might have bristled at this, denied it to his last breath. "You'll be seeing me before you're times up—I'll be around." Lance couldn't even begin to imagine what all the demon meant by that before there was no more time left to think at all.

The demon's lips were so much softer against his own than Lance would have ever expected.

The initial sensation hadn't even ended when there was a sudden searing pain that sank in against the flesh of his neck, right over his pulse, above which the other's large hands lay.

The boy gasped and pulled back, a low hiss of discomfort escaping him as his eyes scrunched closed against it. His hand came up to his neck, feeling beneath his pads how quickened his heartbeat had become, but due to what? The burn or the kiss? Lance couldn't quite tell, but there was another sensation beneath his digits. Raw and raised flesh, sensitive to the touch and formed in a specific pattern. The boy couldn't quite discern the shape or purpose of.

"What the he—" he began, planning on questioning the creature in depth about what in the world that had been for, whatever that was.

But he was alone in the darkness of night once more. Not even the whisper of wind nor the flicker of a flame to keep him company.