Owari no Seraph / Seraph of the End:

The Taming of the Demon, Chapter 3: Make Yourself At Home

Insert standard disclaimer here

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More on the continuing adventures of the oddest of couples! Enjoy!

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Chapter 3: Make Yourself At Home

The next morning: Asuramaru woke up to find himself under a very heavy and very soft comforter. It was cozy-warm underneath it, and the demon was tempted to just stay there, in the lovely warmth… "Wait," he said, seeing Yu moving back and forth in the room, getting dressed, straightening his uniform. "What is this?" he said, plucking at the blanket.

"Hm? What is what?"

"This…this covering. It wasn't there when I went to sleep last night."

"I know. I put it over you. You were shivering."

Asuramaru sat up, holding the blanket to himself. "You covered me with this blanket? Last night?"

"Yes," he replied absently, still straightening his uniform, making sure everything was in order. "You were cold."

"Why should you care?"

"Because I'm your friend. That's what friends do. They take care of their friends."

"I am not your friend!"

"I didn't say you were. I said I was your friend. You were cold and shivering, so I covered you up."

Asuramaru shivered again, but not with cold. The human's sincerity was actually rather frightening, all by itself. "Well, now what? Have you figured out what went wrong with the spell?" This last said hopefully, as the demon rolled out of the futon and stood up, automatically wrapping both futon and blanket around him and pulling them up towards his head, pulling his hair, with its attendant gold pin, out from underneath it in an automatic gesture. His captor (as he saw it) had also provided him with a nice, fluffy pillow, and Asuramaru grabbed it and stuffed it into the futon with him. He wanted to keep them both as close to his person as he could. Demons know all about theft and taking something from another, and Asuramaru didn't want to lose these items that had become…important to him, even in the short time he'd had them.

"No, and that's troubling. I know I have the right scroll. I mean, it brought you here; it should say how to reverse the spell. Maybe I'm reading it wrong. Say," he turned to the demon, "Maybe you could take a look at it? Maybe you'll see something I don't."

Asuramaru shook his head, angrily. His hair no longer blew in any astral breeze, so it fell down to his ankles. Now wavelets of it rippled down his back. "No. YOU got me into this mess; it's YOUR responsibility to get me out!"

"But you might-*"

"NO, I tell you! It—no! YOU must get me out!"

Yu narrowed his eyes at his unusual and unwanted guest. "Asuramaru, what's wrong? I'd have thought you'd jump at the chance to see the spell scroll. I mean, you could read it and-*" Realization made his eyes widen. "You can't read, can you? You've never had to! That's it, isn't it? You can't read!"

"I can, too!"

"Okay, prove it. What does this say?" He held up a can of bug spray.

The demon squinted. "Uhm, it says, 'use only in case of fire.'"

"Not even close. Admit it, 'Maru, you can't read. Now can you?"

"I can so read!" Pause. Then, in a lower tone of voice, "Just…just not any modern language."

"Which amounts to the same thing. Maru, you can't read!"

Asuramaru turned away in a huff. "Well, what of it? So I can't read. It was never considered all that important, where I come from. And don't call me 'Maru.' It's demeaning."

"I have to call you something besides 'Asuramaru.' Otherwise, I might as well plaster a sign on you saying, 'Demon over here!' Calling you 'Maru' allows me to ease you into human society without any friction from any anti-demon elements, and at the same time, protects you from Purifier agents. Remember, I told you there've been reports of spies, infiltrators. There could be some right here in the base, for all we know. And they're absolute fanatics; I saw them at work. If one of them got what he saw as a good or even a halfway good opportunity to take out an actual demon, I doubt he'd hesitate, regardless of any consequences."

The demon huffed again. "I'm not exactly powerless, you know."

"No, but you are physical now, and, as such, subject to physical injuries. You may even be mortal, for all either of us knows." Asuramaru's eyes widened at the thought. "So…a little precaution is called for. It can't hurt, now can it?" The demon said nothing, his face turned resolutely away.

"And we're going down the hallway with our bare faces hanging exactly why?" For once, Asuramaru's expression of hostility was replaced by nervousness. Maybe he'd taken Yu's warnings to heart.

"I have to get you into some proper clothes. None of mine fit on you. I can't get you a uniform because you're not a JIDA officer." Boy, are you ever not a JIDA officer. "So that leaves getting you some nice clothes that would fit. I don't think any men's clothes would fit you, so that just leaves some decent women's clothes…"

"What!"

"Will you keep your voice down? Now, look at yourself. You can't tell me you think men dress that way these days!"

Asuramaru plucked at his dress. "These are perfectly good clothes! Why do I need any more?"

"Because," Yu explained, with the air of one with infinite patience, "you're a physical being now. That means you sweat, you get dirty, and you'll need a change of clothes. And that reminds me: I have to show you how to use the shower. And the toilet."

Asuramaru groaned, holding his stomach. "I'm feeling sick…"

"And how to use barf bags. And let's see…I'm sure you're in good physical health, but, but for all I know you may need, need, I dunno, demon vitamins or something. We'll have to go sho-*"

"Hello, Yu!" Shido Ichihara, one of the newer recruits, and a group of soldiers from the Division came around the corner. "Long time, no see!"

"Ah, yes, Shido. Uhm, how, how have you been?" He hoped he wasn't sweating, and cast a glance at Asuramaru beside him, who was standing, arms crossed, his usual angry expression on his face.

"Hey, good. Say, who's your friend?"

"Oh, yes. Where are my manners. Shido Ichihara, this is…Maru, a, a distant cousin of mine from across the Eastern Sea. He'll be staying with me for, ah," another glance; Asuramaru's face showed no reaction, "I don't exactly know how long."

Saito stuck out his hand. "Oh, well! Any friend of Yu's is a frie-* Wait. Did you say, 'he'?"

"Yes," said Yu, calmly. "Maru is a guy."

The other squad members looked Asuramaru up and down in a way the demon found incredibly disquieting, taking in his slim, exposed shoulders, long violet hair, and legs. Especially his legs. Then, as one, they said, "Daaayyyuuumm!" In the back, one serviceman put his hands to the side of his head, and moaned, "Oh, God, strike me gay, this instant!"

A furious Asuramaru turned to Yu, fists on his hips. "What," he began, "is that supposed to mean?!"

"Oh, come on. They didn't mean anything bad by it. Take it as a compliment."

"Oh? And would you take it as a compliment if a group of women og-No, strike that. You probably would." The demon hadn't calmed down much. Yu had hustled him away from the group as quickly as he could. "And what was all that about me being your 'cousin'? We couldn't possibly be less related than we are."'

"Cover story, cover story. It was the best I could come up with on the fly. Civilians aren't really supposed to be in here, unless they're relatives. So, we're related. So there. Now." The two were in the base's apparel shop. They were browsing in the women's section, though it had taken some convincing on Yu's part to get the demon to agree to it. Uniforms, custom tailored to the individual were one thing, but none of the men's standard civilian clothes would fit, and Yu didn't want to take the risk of the added exposure by having Asuramaru measured for custom-fitted clothes. But the demon had still argued, simply out of spite. "Now, let's see. What size are you? What do you mean, you don't know? Oh, hell. So we'll just have to wing it. Try some things on."

"I will not!"

"You will," he whispered, "that's an order. Now come on. Work with me here. I'm trying to help you. Or would you rather wear that outfit until you stink?"

"What, you mean the way it stinks every time you come out of that thing you call a bathroom?" The demon waved his hand under his nose, face scrunching up in distaste. "You'd better pick up some heavy duty incense or something."

But Yu just nodded. He was becoming accustomed to Asuramaru's continued sniping. Actually, that kind of worried him, in a way. "I'll put it on the list. Now. There's blouses over there, and-oh, hey. I almost forgot. We need to see about underwear."

"Underwhat?"

Yu did a double take, taking in the demon's slender, delicate form, the skirt, split up almost to his waist, revealing a pair of…really great looking legs, by anyone's standards. "Maru, please tell me you're wearing underwear underneath all that!"

"What's 'underwear'?"

….

Later: they'd taken a break from shopping in the commissary that served the base. "I know it's not blood, but it'll do. Plus, it'll do double duty of promoting our cover story. You can eat regular food, can't you?" The two were sitting across from each other at a small table by the wall.

Asuramaru poked a chopstick into the miso soup. "I don't know. I've never tried." He clumsily tried to spear a floating bite of shrimp.

"You don't know how to use chopsticks?"

"What do you think, idiot? We vampires come with our own built-in eating utensils, remember?"

"How can I forget?" He absently rubbed his neck where he'd bitten him. "Well, look, here's how." And he picked up his own set. "You hold them like this," he demonstrated. "See? Not all that hard."

"I didn't say it was hard," fumed the demon, "just that I was unfamiliar with it. I'm sure, if an amoeba-level form of life such as yourself can do it, I certainly can." But repeated attempts only resulted in the shrimp successfully avoiding capture. Yu noticed people watching.

Okay, thought Yu. Can't have his unfamiliarity with our ways attract attention. "Here," he said, reaching over with his own set, picking up the shrimp, and holding it for Asuramaru. "Here. Go on. Eat it."

"Eat this, mortal!"

"Okay, no more of that. Ground rules: I hereby command you to never refer to me—or any other human—as 'mortal.' Not in public, at least." The demon visibly seethed further. Yu wondered if he could really stay this angry this long. Well, he was a demon. "That'll blow our cover for sure. Now, try this. Aren't you hungry?"

"Hungry for your blood, maybe." But Yu waved the shrimp under Asuramaru's nose, and the demon's angry expression faded just a bit. It did smell pretty good. Not as good as blood, but…he reached out and closed his lips around the shrimp.

Flavor exploded in Asuramaru's mouth, and he nearly choked, putting his hands to his throat and spitting the shrimp back into his bowl. Yu reached over and patted him on the back. "There, there, it's okay. You just gotta take it a bit at a time. Maybe just some of the broth…you aren't used to anything of a solid nature…" And he got up to get some spoons.

Damn him, thought Asuramaru. That crazy human had known this was going to happen, and had planned it all along just to humiliate him further. But…that shrimp had tasted pretty good. He picked up the chopsticks and began to practice. Yu came back with the spoons. "Never had anything like that before? Well, that may've been my bad. You aren't used to it. We'll just go slow…" He filled a spoon with soup and offered it to the demon.

"I…I've had enough. It's not for me. Can we just go back to the room now?"

"Ah, I guess." For a first outing, he guessed it wasn't so bad. At least nobody died.

An older couple sitting across the restaurant smiled at them as they left. They'd watched Yu feeding his companion. The man turned to his wife. "Young love. You remember how we were, when we were that age?"

She reached across the table and took his hand. "How could I forget?" Her gaze traveled back to the retreating pair. "They seem so young."

He smiled, nodding. "They get younger every year. So do you." He kissed the back of her hand, and she smiled back at him.

But theirs were not the only eyes that followed Yu and Asuramaru.

….

"I am NOT wearing that!"

"You picked it out yourself!"

"That doesn't mean I'm going to wear it! I was only humoring you." His expression turned crafty. "And getting you to waste some of that precious 'money' of yours on items I'll never wear."

"Oh, you'll wear 'em, all right. Now, come in here." He led the demon into the small bathroom. "This," he said, "is the shower. Here's how you operate it." He turned the lever and demonstrated how to make the water different temperatures. "This is also a good way of warming up, you know." Now his expression was crafty. Asuramaru's look of studied annoyance slipped, ever so slightly. Inwardly, Yu resolved to turn the heat in the apartment up. He didn't want his guest to catch a cold. Could a demon catch a cold? But he was physical now…and maybe with no immune system, or at least not one that could handle modern germs—it could be a Level One Stage alert. He'd have to see if the infirmary had anything for that, just in case. "And this device," he said, patting the toilet, "is for the disposal of bodily wastes, both liquid and solid. Don't tell me you don't know about those."

Asuramaru dithered. "Well, not from personal experience." He sniffed, disdainfully. "That's why we demons are superior. No bodily wastes to deal with. You physicals, vampires as well as mortals, could take a lesson."

"Not exactly sure how we'd make a go of that, but I'll give it due consideration. Now, I don't know about how you are, in this state, but there's no harm in preparing for the worst. If this body you're wearing is, basically, like what I see," he looked Asuramaru up and down, "then it will require some maintenance. And that will be up to you. I'm not bathing you."

"Thank the gods."

"Yes, I quite agree. Now. I got you something at the store." He fished around in the boxes that had been delivered. "Here." He held up a pair of pink pajamas. "Here you go."

"What! Mortal, have you taken leave of your sens-*, no wait, I already know the answer to that question! What are those?"

"These are for you. You'll go into the bathroom and slip out of that gown, and into these. I'll send your dress out to be cleaned, and it'll be here tomorrow morning. Couldn't be simpler. You do want to wear clean clothes, don't you?"

Asuramaru dithered, thinking. Well, the crazy human had him there. "Well, okay, but only because I've no intention of wearing those abominations you bought today! This is my look, I've had it for a thousand years, and I'm keeping it!" But he went into the small bathroom and changed. Came out and, very reluctantly, handed his dress to Yu. "You're not going to do something perverted with it, are you?"

"The vaguest shadow of the merest thought," replied Yu, "had never even begun to remotely consider the slightest possibility of the logistics of the beginning of any plan to begin mapping out a way to cross my mind."

….

Later: Asuramaru lay on his futon, thinking. He was still furious, of course. Demons don't relent from anger easily. But unless he could still his mind somehow, he'd never get to sleep. And he'd discovered this new, physical body of his seemed to need sleep.

Okay, so the crazy human was responsible for bringing him over to this physical plane in the first place. One strike against. No, make that a thousand. No, a million. But he'd also gone out of his way to accommodate him, and to conceal him from those who, presumably, would want to harm him. Asuramaru didn't know how his powers would work on this plane—his dream powers evidently did—but he didn't know about anything else. It could easily be that he had no other powers.

And that was a sobering thought. Because it meant he was basically at the mercy of the crazy human, dependent upon him for…for everything. Food, if he needed it. Clothing. In spite of his protests, Asuramaru knew he'd have to have a change of clothing sooner or later. On the physical plane, his garments wouldn't last forever; they weren't designed to. Shelter. Right now, the only thing keeping him from sleeping outdoors, in some filthy alleyway maybe, with gods only knew who or what sniffing around, was Yu's good graces. If the human really wanted revenge for Asuramaru's taking over his body, it would be child's play to simply kick him out. Yet he hadn't.

But all that just served to grate on Asuramaru's nerves all the more. Okay, this isn't helping. How can I relax? Teasing Yu only seemed to get him all the more worked up, especially since such teasing seemed to just bounce right off the crazy human's skin. "Yu?"

"Mm?" Sleepily.

"I…can't sleep."

Yu turned over, eyes still half-shut from sleep. "You can't sleep?"

"Yes," grated Asuramaru, "that's what I said. Nothing wrong with your hearing, I see."

Yu sat up and swiveled around to where he was sitting on the edge of the bed. He rubbed his eyes, sleepily. "Okay. So…what do you want me to do? Read you a bedtime story?"

"What's that?"

"It's a story"—that parents read to little children to help them get to sleep—"that's supposed to help you sleep."

"Oh. I've…never heard of one of those." He turned his head towards Yu. "I…would you?" Maybe it'll irritate him a little.

"Hm. I don't know that I have any. I sure don't know any." Yu's childhood hadn't been one of nursery rhymes and bedtime stories. "Let me see." He got up, barefoot, and padded over to his small bookshelf. There wasn't much in the way of entertainment; it was mostly military manuals. "Here. Here's something." He pulled out a battered copy of Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War. "This is about the closest I've got." He sat back on the bed and began to read.

Asuramaru was asleep almost instantly.

To be continued…