This story Originated from HateWeasel's Devils Like to Dance. Read some of that to get a sense of the AU for this story.

He hated waking up. It was like waking up and knowing you're too tired to move, so tired that when you tried you're body felt heavy with lead. His body wouldn't stop tingling though. Still feeling the remnants of his dream. He hated having dreams like that, wet dreams, but he was a teenager, so it wasn't something that should surprise him in fact he wasn't. He knew he'd been having these dreams for a while. It was waking up that made him feel weird, so weird that he wanted to go back to sleep. And he did not want to go back to sleep.

He blinked wearily, so tired that his eyes lingered when they closed, but he needed to get up. He tried again, finally coming to as he took note of his surroundings through watery eyes. He blinked, his mind eager to sleep with every closing of his eyes. His throat was parched he realized when he tried to swallow. A glass of water would be good about now. He was itching for it, his tongue so dry he could feel every one of his taste buds rubbing against the roof of his mouth. A shuffle and movement gave him a start. His eyes finally giving leeway for him to look around.

A blonde teen, looking no older than Yuki himself was crouched over him holding a glass of water. He jumped at the sight, but a hand on his shoulder kept him from actually fleeing the bed in terror. A gentle smile was curled across his roundish face, his eyes a dark blue that seemed to glow with an impossible light.

But he knew that face.

Those eyes.

And the blood...

"Its okay." The blonde teen offered the glass gently gesturing for him to drink. "Its okay."

Yuki drank his eyes moving to and fro about the lavish and expensive looking room, before coming back to the teen in front of him. Glass empty the teen leaned over him, his hands coming around his waist as he sat him up in the bed.

"How do you feel?"

Yuki nodded as the glass was taken from him and placed on the night stand. The blonde sat quietly with his legs crossed waiting patiently. His head was tilted to the side, his eyes never blinking. It was creepy. Even when he did blink, it was slow reminding Yuki that the male before him was literally staring at him.

With a gulping swallow Yuki spoke. "Who..." His voice was still hoarse, from unuse or over use, he wasn't sure, but he cleared it as best he could. "Who are you?"

"Otera Shini." He bowed a little as he spoke his hands folding in his lap. His tone was bizarre, as if he expected him to know this. His gaze still held with an un-blinking stare.

It was giving Yuki chills.

"Do I know you?"

His brow crooked as he frowned. "Kinda. I've been with you for a while now. Maybe not always like this but definitely for a while." he blinked as he sat back on his hands, his head tilting more to his left as he gave Yuki a once over before settling on his face. "You don't remember me?"

Yuki thought back, his memories were a bit frayed but he was sure he'd never seen the teen before him. "I know a Shini. But that's my pet cat."

'Shini' perked up leaning forward as a wide smile graced his lips. "You do remember me?"

"No." Yuki shook his head pushing back into the pillows to avoid how close the blonde had gotten. "My cat's name was Shini. I don't know you."

"That's not what I meant silly. I am your cat. I'm Shini!" The teen sighed as he sat on his knees. "I was worried for a moment, you'd been hit in the head a few times. And then you lost conciousness. Kirill had said to be careful." The last part was whispered, but Yuki still heard it.

"What do you mean beaten?" Yuki frowned as he tried to think back. He remembered seeing blood, and hearing someone screaming, and an arm, a bloody torn arm. "Did someone attack me?" His head gave a nasty throb as he tried to think hard. "I was going home...right? From school... and someone just up and attacked me?"

He was looking at Shini as he said this, but the teen was no longer smiling. Instead his eyes were narrowed his gaze had gone from blinking to that unnerving stare again. "You're in China, because you left to find your brother, and a gang of men attacked because they received the order to kill you..." Yuki watched as Shini pushed blonde hair behind an ear his blue eyes falling to the bedspread for a moment before coming back to him.

That couldn't be true. Yuki looked about himself. He didn't feel any pain, just stiff and a little tired. And he couldn't get past the throbbing that would fade, then come back, only to fade again. He couldn't stop thinking about that arm, and little snippets that he was sure he was imagining. Like he was sure that he'd seen the blonde flying across the room sprinkling blood everywhere.

That had to have been a dream.

People don't fly.

"But..." Yuki placed a hand to his head to quell the throbbing that wouldn't stop. But he could see it like a blurred image waiting to be focused. "That's right, I left Japan to find Ryou..." Yuki jumped forward starling the other for a moment. "Did I find him? Where is Ryou?"

"Ssshhh." Shini pushed him back into the bed. "We didn't but..."

"We?!" Yuki pushed him away causing the other to fall out of the bed from the side. "But I don't know you!"

"But Yuki-kun... I..." He backed away a little giving the shaken boy some space.

Yuki stared for a moment his mind reeling as he wondered how and why. He hadn't found Ryou, and apparently he had been attacked while looking. He could feel his eyes widening as he replayed the screaming, and the torn arm with the dangling meat and little spurts of blood. Something wasn't sitting well, he could feel it in his gut.

His eyes widened as it finally dawned on him.

"You..." He couldn't get the words out. He kept seeing the blood he saw on the blonde's face.

"I did."

Shini's hand was fiddling with a strand of curly blonde hair. He paced his way over to the bed, his eyes glinting as they caught the light, and before he knew it Yuki was off the bed and in the bathroom. He fumbled with the cold metal knob trying to lock it. Then the knob clicked and seemed to stop moving.

"Please don't be afraid. I won't hurt you. I would never hurt you. I'm here to protect you..." The voice went quiet as Yuki moved through the dark bathroom across the cold tile floor. He could feel the cold through his pants as he stared at the outline of what he thought was the dark brown wood of the door. He leaned against it as the cold began to pick at him making him shiver.

"Yuki-kun... I know you're scared, but I promise... I won't hurt you."

"You killed those people!" His head gave a nasty throb at the rise in voice levels. He wouldn't yell again. "How do I know you won't do the same to me?"

"They would have killed you. I couldn't let them." Shini knocked against the door. "Yuki-kun. I swore to keep you safe. I wouldn't dare raise a hand to you."

"No." Yuki exhaled a stuttered breath. It was so much colder compared to the bed. "Who are you anyway?"

"You mean what am I?"

The voice was closer, as if he were sitting next to Yuki on the floor. It scared the teen as he pushed further away until his back hit chilly porcelain. The tub or the toilet he didn't know. Either way, he was scared out of his wits. Sitting in the dark with a calm, spooky voice gave more than enough reason for Yuki to void his bladder.

"I'm different Yuki-kun. Very different." There was a thump as a shadow fell over the crack at the bottom of the door. "There are good and bad types of creatures like me. You know this actually, they teach you in school about us, whether you believe is up to you though."

"W-what are you talking about?" Yuki asked this as he stared at the outline of the door, a glowing rectangle with what one would think, was a monster on the other side. The Japanese did believe in certain supernaturalism, but because people rarely encountered them, people rarely believed.

He was one of them.

And this guy was a lunatic.

"Yuki-kun. You'll get sick sitting in the cold like that. Come out and let me explain everything."

"No!" The freezing teen rubbed his bare arms to rid himself of growing goosebumps. "Tell me who you are from out there."

"You won't believe me."

"Try me..."

"A demon."

"What?"

"I'm a demon."

There was a long drawn out pause as Yuki stared at the door. Then he snorted and snickered as he curled into himself.

"You're right I don't believe you."

"You didn't think it was weird?"

"What was weird?"

"That I killed five grown men on my own. That I tore a man's arm off with my bare hands. That no one bothered you throughout your entire journey here. In today's century, you should have been mugged at least five times by now. Or snatched and sold into the underground. No person in there right mind would just let a stranger sleep in their home just because they have a pet black cat. Sie nicht so naiv sein." He sounded irritated, but there was a patient tone underneath the sarcasm.

"I..." He wasn't sure what the other had said towards the end but he'd done a list of things that should have gotten him killed or arrested. He should have been mugged at some point, snatched, maybe kidnapped, or raped. He knew better than to ask anyone for help, because no one really helped beggars anymore. He figured he was just lucky, maybe too lucky now that he had the time to really sit and think about it. "That doesn't explain you though."

"As if a mere human can fend off that type of trouble."

Yuki's brow was furrowed as he tried to think. Was it possible? For demons to exist? It was according to Japanese cultures and traditions. But then he would have to dive into what type of demon Shini was. Youkai, oni, troll, ayakashi, mononoke... there are too many to actually count.

"So then..." He shivered a bit, hands moving to warm cold and numb toes. "Which are you? How do I know if I can trust you?"

"Because I'm going to help you. You know of the maneki neko right? The black one...Think of me like that. As your guardian spirit."

"So you're a cat spirit?"

"Heh heh no." Shini looked up to the cream-colored ceiling, his black nails scratching at the deep gray carpet. "I'm a demon. One of the good ones. There are good and bad demons and I'm one of the good ones. Here to protect you while you find your brother."

He sat for a moment. Weighing the pros and cons of actually relying on a demon for help. But considering the demon has helped him enough so far...

Yuki pushed through the dark towards the door, searching the dark wood until he found the cool metal of the doorknob and the lock sitting at its base.

"Promise me then. That you won't hurt me. That I can trust you." He knew, he sounded like a child, but he couldn't help how scared he was. Demon or not, the boy in the other room killed five people with no problem. Who's to stop Shini from doing the same to him? "Promise me."

"I promise."

Yuki opened the door only to see Shini standing there like a patient older brother. He held out his hand and Yuki too it with shaking hands. Suprisingly, Shini hugged him, his body radiating a warmth that he hadn't felt since his brother left. It warmed him from the chill of the cold bathroom floor. They navigated back towards the bed and Shini tucked the blankets around him.

"Sleep." Shini smiled an eerily creepy smile. "Don't worry. I promised didn't I?"

Yuki took on last look around the grand room before finally allowing his eyes to droop. He didn't want to sleep, but he suddenly couldn't keep his eyes open. He yawned wide before settling back as darkness took him again.