Theoretically, it was impossible for Alfred to be dragged out of Hell by a simple summoning circle, especially since most that did it were unexperienced, desperate, and didn't care which demon they got so long as they got one. The only ones that came to mind who had the utmost power necessary to do so were his brother, Matthew, and his Father—and they knew that doing so would shatter the tense peace between the two otherworldly realms.

Yet here he was, snarling as his eyes burned fiercely with his magic, trying to fight the pull. It certainly didn't feel heavenly (that would feel like his skin was being pulled off his skin by slugs, salt burning into his veins), but that didn't solve the mystery as to who was—

There was a knock at the door to his office, and in that lapse of concentration where he tried to shout at the inferior demon to "Go away!" was enough for him to get ripped out of hell and confined to a chalk circle with symbols surrounding the circumference. A faint green glow rose from the ground, contrasting against the agitated blue flames that danced around Alfred's hands and eyes. Roaring in rage, he blindly charged forwards with his vision tainted red, only to collide with the barrier, sparks flying as the summoning magic painfully charged through his body and flung him back. A high-pitched scream filled the room as he writhed on the ground, his body trying to heal his injuries

Snarling and furious, Alfred rose to his full height and took stock of his surroundings. Other than the lingering feeling of the summoning circle keeping him confined, he was unharmed. He wasn't given much wiggle room; he could stand up and sit down, but he couldn't really spread his wings too far without them brushing against the barrier, about an inch of leeway.

"Gil, you said the book was a dud!"

"It was! I bought it at a Pawn Shop, and the guy said it wasn't real. This was just a stupid thing for fun!" Alfred let out another growl as he looked at the small group of teenagers surrounding him. The two on his right (who he was pretty sure that one of them was the one who screamed) were now frozen in fear as the Fallen Angel raked his eyes over their shivering forms, the one with brown hair looking close to pissing himself in fear. In front of him was another duo, one lying on the floor groaning as the other was shaking his chest, muttering in French.

Ugh, French. Raging religious fanatics, most didn't enjoy deals and would pray up and down every day to 'repent' for their 'sins.' Said sins would be stepping on a bug, or thinking "Huh, I don't need God!"

Alfred didn't like them.

"Which one of you summoned me?" He growled, taking a small amount of satisfaction at the resulting flinches. "Which one of you?"

The one with bleach-white hair frantically pointed at the boy lying on the floor. "Arthur, it was Arthur!"

The Frenchman whipped his head around, an irritated expression on his face as he assisted the other boy—Arthur—to sit up. "Gilbert!"

"What? Do you want to piss of the demon? I don't!"

Alfred rolled his eyes and focused on the summoner. The tips of his hair were dyed green, a scaffolding piercing in one ear and a double helix in the other. He wore a ripped leather jacket, and one green eye was cracked open to stare at Alfred.

The Fallen's eyes widened. His soul had changed—the innocence replaced with a crescendo of self-hatred and confusion and an utter lacking, like he knew he was missing something but couldn't put his finger on what—but it still had the underlying layers that made the boy so, so recognizable, so delectable. Alfred's own soul cried out in victory, reveling in the sheer fucking odds that led to this moment.

"Arthur Kirkland," Alfred whispered, smiling and showing his fangs, gleeful as the boys on his right took a step back, and the Frenchman curled protectively over his friend (lover? He had abided by the contract, and as such, had stayed out of Arthur's life. He didn't know the other boys, but he would kiss all of them for giving him this astronomical of a chance). "It's a pleasure to see you."

"How do you know his name?" The Frenchman demanded, keeping Arthur out of Alfred's direct eye contact. "How do you know his name?"

"A little birdie told me." Alfred replied, casually putting his hands in his jean pockets. "But, he's the only one who can make a deal with me. Kind of rule of thumb here, only the summoner can dance with the summoned."

"Hahaha, no." Said Gilbert, shaking his head and flailing his arms. "No, no, nonono, we are not making a deal. This was a joke. Please go back to Hell mister demon."

"Can't do that! Circle's keeping me here and, unless you have the balls to do it, then you have to break it by getting rid of the chalk line. And if you do that, who's to say that I won't kill you and string out your corpses along the walls and paint a couple pictures with your blood?"

Gilbert visibly paled, backing away quickly from Alfred. The Fallen let out a hearty laugh, tilting his head back as he crossed his arms over his stomach.

"Okay, how do we get rid of you without breaking the circle?" The brown-haired boy said, trying to keep the tremor out of his voice.

"Make a deal, sign a contract, potentially sell your soul for meager things. I doubt that any of you will do that, but your teens, so fuck if I know. Once the deal's done, the circle will automatically bring me back to wherever I was before you dragged my ass out here, and we hopefully never meet again!" Alfred rolled his neck and cracked his knuckles. "So! What'll it be? So long as the Kirk-man says it, it'll happen and tonight will be easy pickings."

"Oh, wonderful, just wonderful—we make a deal, or we die, just how I wanted to spend my Wednesday night!" Gilbert replied, throwing up his arms and marching through the empty factory. "I would sooner volunteer to help Ludwig with his homework than go through this shit! That is how little I want to do this!"

"Well, we don't have to deal with the guy, Arthur does." The brown-haired one said, turning to his friend on his right.

"Antonio we are not leaving!" The Frenchman shouted, helping Arthur to his feet. "It was our idea to do this, and we dragged Arthur into it, so we stay."

"Francis, buddy, pal, Freund, I don't want to die."

"No, no, he has a point." Antonio placed his hand on Gilbert's shoulder. "What if Arthur says that Alfred has to kill us?"

"I'm not that depraved." Arthur said, brushing some of his hair out of his face and glaring at the two. "If I wanted that, I would do it myself." He turned to Alfred and, for a moment, the Fallen thought he saw a glimmer of recognition in his eyes. Before he could solidify this, Arthur threw on a stony mask and bravely took a step forward. "What would I have to give in exchange for a deal?"

"Don't you want to know what you could get?"

"I don't need anything. I'm just going to do give something in return for something stupid that one of these three morons want. What do I need to give?"

Alfred shrugged, tilted his head, and rolled his wrist non-committedly. "Could be anything, really. Most demons simply ask for the person's soul in a number of years, but I know you're not stupid enough to do that. I might ask for a borrowed amount of time, make you die sooner. Might ask for a pint of blood, or a depraved secret only you know, yadda yadda yadda, it mainly depends on what you ask in return."

Arthur raised his brow and turned to Antonio. "Well? You said you wanted information on that one kid's brother. What was his name? Vargas?"

Antonio nodded. "Yeah, Feliciano's older brother. I've only seen him on school grounds to walk Feliciano home, sometimes, but he's enigma in general."

"Are you sure you just want information on a 'Vargas?'" Alfred smirked. "I could give you info on anyone—so you've gotta be specific. Loopholes are the devil's ally, just like lawyers."

"Uh… I think it starts with an 'L'…"

"Fuck it, it's Lovino." Gilbert huffed. "Ludwig goes to tutor Feliciano sometimes, and the kid tells a bunch of stories about how his brother is overbearing and everything. If I'm going to hell I'm dragging all of you with me."

Alfred felt rage rising in his stomach, and guessing by how quickly they backed away from him, his eyes were burning with his magic. "Lovino Vargas? Brown hair, stubborn curl, swears a lot?"

"Er, yes?"

"And he goes to your school?"

"N-No," Antonio waved his hands out on front of him, taking another step back. "He doesn't, but I want to know more about him because… uh, well, it doesn't matter does it? But that's why no one knows about him, and his brother doesn't really talk about a lot of personal stuff, so…"

Alfred punched the barrier, magic curling around his arm and keeping him from breaking through. "That little bitch." He hissed out, eyes flashing dangerously as he checked on the condition of the contract he had made before. If a contract was invalidated, then it would start to rot until there was nothing left. Currently, it was fine, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't start to once this little spying mission had continued.

"Look, it doesn't matter if you know him personally. We want information about Lovino Vargas, what do we have to give in return?" Arthur interrupted, grabbing Alfred's attention. The Demon took a calming breath and pulled back his arm, shaking out the lingering prickles of discomfort traveling along his skin. Briefly, he entertained taking Arthur's soul, or taking a year off his life, but a much better idea came to mind. Repeating what he had done with Lovino, he held out his hand and allowed a contract to form in between them.

"Arthur Kirkland, should you sign this contract stating that I give you all the knowledge I can obtain about Lovino Vargas—and I do have a few juicy tidbits—you will have to be tutored by me for a month in the art of magic."

"Non. Non, that is not happening, Arthur you are not signing that." Francis said, shaking his finger at the both of them like a doting mother.

"That's the only thing I'm offering, and trust me—I have an actual good reason to do this." When the teenager's attention was on him, he explained. "Listen, I would've bartered a month off your life, or something really trivial like that. But you summoned me. I don't know if you have any idea how high up on the chain I am, but you also targeted me. That doesn't happen, normally a summoning circle just grabs a demon at random, and I doubt that out of all the demons that exist, you got me based off of a random fuckin' draw.

"You have the potential to be incredibly fucking powerful, kid. I tutor you for a month, no strings attached, and if you want to keep it going after a month, then we can talk that out."

"How high up are you?" Antonio asked, tilting his head. Behind him, Gilbert was backing away slowly, muttering a prayer under his breath.

Alfred grinned. "I'm the highest you can possibly get. You are looking at the Devil, the original sin, the King of the Damned! Do you want to start bowing, or praying to a God that isn't here?"

"No! I am gone! Bye Arthur, you are on your own bitch! I was never here!" Gilbert shouted as he turned tail and ran for the door. Running after him was Antonio, who tried to convince him to come back. Francis and Arthur stayed, starring in shock at the Demon that was only restrained by a thin line of chalk and a few fancy scribbles.

"Two questions:" Arthur asked, ignoring the pleading look from Francis. "What happens if I die, and can I add something else to your side of the deal?"

"The contract becomes useless if you die before each side is complete, so the deal ceases to exist. However, if you say you can provide something but really can't, I immediately get your soul, no matter what the reason. And so long as it's within reason with your last request, then yes, you can add another requirement."

"Alright, so long as the contract is in effect, you cannot harm Francis, Antonio, or Gilbert. I'm the one who signed this, so only I have to deal with you. If that's included, I'll sign."

Alfred stood up, pushing the contract closer to Arthur. "I can most definitely do that."

"Arthur, wait, think about this—"

"You were the one who dragged me into this, Francis, so I'm going to go through with it. Give me that damn feather." With a scowl, Arthur grabbed the feather and signed the contract, his signature somewhat messy due to his inexperience with writing with it. The contract burst in a plume of green and blue flames mixing together, and the glow surrounding the chalk circle faded. Alfred stood up once more, spreading his wings and stretching his arms above his head. At that moment, Gilbert and Antonio came back in, the former nearly bolting again at the sight of the demon.

"Alright, Antonio, get over here. You were the one who wanted to know about Lovino right?" The brown haired teen nodded, and Alfred gestured for him to come closer. "Listen up, it's painfully fucking obvious that you have a crush on this kid. Don't know why but trust me when you say it's either not going to work out, or it's not gonna happen, because he ain't human. He's an Angel, servant of God and all that bullcrap, so he's going to outlive you or just turn you down.

"Not only that, but his brother is an angel, to, and I have absolutely no clue why they're here, but I can make an educated guess. I made a deal with Lovino a few years back, told him to quit being the Guardian Angel of a kid, so he might be sending his brother to do recon and check on the kid for him.

There was a long pause as the quartet waited for Alfred to continue. After a certain period of time, Antonio's eyes widened and he cried out. "That's it?"

"You asked for information about Lovino Vargas. You didn't specify how much and, in my opinion, I was generous. I could've just told you how old he was and what he looked like, and left it at that, my side of the bargain would be done." Alfred rolled his neck and yawned. "Ah, well, I'll see you tomorrow for our first lesson Arthur!"

Tendrils of darkness swarmed around Alfred, encasing him in a cocoon. After a few seconds, the delicate weaving snapped, and the Demon was gone.

An interesting thing Arthur learned about a month into the school year was his math teacher just didn't give a single shit about what he was teaching, nor was he observant of what happened in the classroom. As such, since he had math as his last period of the day, he normally just left after she took attendance and either wandered around the school or left early.

Today, he was going to swallow his pride and do something incredibly rare that probably would never happen under any other circumstances. Despite every attempt, Francis still knew his cell phone number, and had sent him his schedule. In an attempt to try and lengthen the amount of time he would have to stay in school, he waited until the teacher was sufficiently distracted by his book before ducking out and heading to the stairs, trying to find Francis' class.

He should never had agreed to that damn deal, should've just bargained a bit more and not signed off for a month of 'training,' whatever that would entail. He fiddled with the bottom of his shirt, a nervous habit that he had picked up from when he was a child, and pulled out his phone, checking the time and for any recent texts.

1:42 pm, and a text from Daimhin: ill pick u up after class today so dont be late or else ill ditch u!

Arthur rolled his eyes and tapped at his phone screen. I'm staying at a friend's house for most of the afternoon, don't wait up.

As much as he didn't want to meet with the demon again, he didn't want his sister getting involved in this whole affair. So, for now, he'd simply refer to the actual fucking Devil as a 'friend' and say that he's visiting him, or that they're working on a project, or homework, or some other work that would require him to walk home and not have Daimhin pick him up.

Of course, the moment he hit the send button, the classroom door on his right flew open, and a clawed hand darted out and pulled him in. He let out a quick shout before a hand clamped over his mouth and he was forced against the windows two stories above the ground, a small drive of students walking along the ground oblivious to what was happening above them.

Verdant green met toxic, neon blue that shone brightly in the dim-lit room.

"And where are you going?" The Devil leered down at him, smiling as Arthur began to kick out and struggle against his superior strength. "Aw, that's cute. But really, don't you have nothing to do? We can start practicing and figuring where we should focus—!"

Arthur had solidly driven his foot up and directly into the crotch of the Devil. The horned man's sentence abruptly cut off as he let go of Arthur to protectively cup his crotch, groaning as his wings curled around him. The teen then planted his foot on the Demon's chest and kicked, driving the other into the neat rows of desks before dashing to the door, frantically twisting at the door knob that kept clicking and it won't open why the fuck won't it open—

Arthur screamed bloody murder when the Devil grabbed the back of his neck and forcibly dragged him away from the door. A black band of mass wrapped around his lower mouth, keeping it from opening and silencing him. Two similar bands appeared around his wrists and ankles, limiting him to wriggle fitfully.

"Honestly, dude, I wasn't even going to do anything!" Arthur glared at the demon who hissed as he hopped up and down, limping (Arthur felt a bit of smug satisfaction bloom in his chest at that sight) as he made his way to a desk he could sit on. "I was fucking around, pulling your leg, I wasn't going to do anything. Honestly, I don't know what you've been told but I'm not that bad."

Arthur continued to glare, not bothering to try and mumble a reply through the gag that the Devil had created. However, he didn't miss the brief look that crossed the demonic creature's face, and it made him start.

It almost looked like regret.

"It's weird, y'know? Seeing you give me that look, seeing you run from me. I knew that saving you would have a fair amount of side effects but… do you not remember anything?" Arthur's expression melted to confusion, and his eyes flicked to his wrists when they separated, the bands disappearing from his body. The Devil's form flickered and the teen jumped when he reappeared right next to him, his philosophical mood disappearing as fast as he had moved. "Alrighty then, since apparently you don't, let's get the ground rules out of the way! You can call me a whole bunch of stuff, but I'd prefer Alfred above all else. I can't kill you, Antonio, Gilbert, or Francis, because that would violate the contract, and if I don't abide by the contract my soul is instantly destroyed, and nobody wants that. I'll pick you up from whenever you leave school or don't have anything serious to do on the weekends, and the length of the sessions can vary.

"So, with that all said and done," Alfred grabbed Alfred's upper arm as several black tendrils rose from the ground around them, wrapping around Arthur's body like a tight-fitting, leather glove. "Let's begin."

When a pair of gossiping girls passed by the room a few moments later, all they saw was a group of desks that were forced into a semi-circle facing away from the windows, and nothing more.