Outside, in the cold October air, Shiro let out an insane cackle, dashing down the street after the faintly darker smudge against the moonlit sky. He skidded around a corner, hooked a hand onto the fire escape of their apartment building and took the ladder steps three at a time. There was no way he was letting his prize get away tonight, and he only had about eight hours before the dawn would end the Contract.
The demon's ears twitched at the sound of shattering glass from the residence he'd just left. The corner of his mouth quirked just the slightest, and he spiraled higher in the air, relishing the chance to stretch his wings to their fullest. Oh, it had been so long since he had flown! He let out a triumphant cry as he executed a series of corkscrews and loops that left him nearly dizzy, tail whipping wildly behind him.
The wind was fresh in the albino's face as he swung from building to building, chasing after the shadow that crossed the moon. Damn, that unrivaled speed wasn't a joke. But fuck, the demon was gorgeous. The albino had to gather all of his strength to cross the steepled roof of the local church, and it took a nimble feat of extreme agility to swing back around the bell tower and up onto the roof of the office building next door. Alright, enough of this.
"Ulquiorra!" Shiro called, crossing his arms over his chest.
The shadow pulled up short. He was being addressed. Called by name. His true name. The summoner. Finding it only courteous to reply, and in no way because of the tug from deep within his soul, he swung into a tight turn, stopping in midair just inches from the man. His wings flapped to keep him suspended as he looked the other right in his gold-on-black eyes. He was all politeness, tail waving in a slow arc behind him to keep him stable. "Yes?"
"Not that this ain't fun," Shiro wasn't even out of breath, "But yer mine. I summoned you and the Contract says yer mine until dawn."
The demon's mouth quirked. "You are incorrect. While you forge a decent verbal contract, you are certainly no Paladin. 'Until dawn's bright light you will answer to me'. Well, I'm answering you. No, if you wanted a slave to obey and dance attendance, you should have put that in your Contract. I am simply available to answer to you until dawn."
Shiro did his best to school his features. He hadn't thought of that. Running his blue tongue over his teeth, he turned his head to the side and snorted. "Well, fuck. How about a game then?"
Ulquiorra allowed himself to land, wings arching high above them both as he hunched slightly forward, body inclined toward the other pale creature. He replied carefully, making a slightly vague gesture with one long-taloned hand, "I...I am as amenable to games as the next demon."
"You fly, I'll chase. If I catch ya, I get to fuck ya. If I can't, ya have the rest of the night to do whatever ya want." Shiro arched an eyebrow that was barely darker than his skin.
The demon frowned. "I have a slight issue with this game. I do not...what is the term you humans have taken to using? I do not 'bottom' for anyone. So no matter the circumstances you cannot fuck me. I suggest you choose better wording."
Shiro rolled his eyes. "Who bottoms doesn't matter, but fine...how's 'have sex' instead?"
"Define 'sex' for me. It seems to change every time I am summoned and I agree to nothing without knowing exactly what it is." Ulquiorra tilted his head slightly. It had been a long time since he'd spoken to a human face-to-face.
"Eh...well, ya see...erm..." Shiro's composure faded.
The only person he had any sexual experience with at all was his King, most people found out about his obsession with the supernatural and stayed as far away from him as possible, and the ones that weren't turned off by his hobbies, were already turned away by his appearance.
He rubbed the back of his neck, "Uh...I guess we'd just do what King always does ta me. Stick his dick in my ass an' ride me 'til I come." He looked a little sheepish.
"Preferably with lube." A ruffle of the creature's wings was the only indication that he knew something about sex without such accessories, and he added under his breath, nodding. "I can agree to that. Restate the game and its terms, completely."
"You fly, I'll chase. If I catch you, we'll 'have sex'. If I don't, you have the rest of the night to do as you please. Deal?" The albino didn't quite see the point in restating it, but several of his texts had described something similar so he deliberately enunciated as clearly as he could.
His answer was a grin that showed the demon's teeth followed by Ulquiorra abruptly not being there anymore and a gust of wind pulling at Shiro's clothes with eager hands to point at which direction his quarry had gone.
Tossing his head back in another manic, full-bodied laugh, Shiro took off after the mostly monochromatic demon, jumping from building to building. Then his features clenched as a thought crossed his mind. He almost missed his next step and he poured on the speed calling out as he got close, "Oi! No magic! Only physical abilities allowed!"
"That," the demon called over his shoulder, "was not in the 'complete' description of the game and its rules! You cannot simply add rules as you go along!"
"No, but you never actually agreed either! Ya just took off. That's not an explicit agreement." Shiro was keeping pace with him. How was not evident, but he was.
"Point conceded," Ulquiorra said with no small amount of respect. Maybe the boy was a budding Paladin after all. "If you can catch me, we will engage in 'sex', and if not I will do whatever I like with my night, and I will not use magic to evade you. It is a deal. Naturally, the magic of the curse that made me a demon in the first place is exempt," he added.
"Wait, curse? Which curse?" Shiro was intrigued. Wasn't there a legend? Something about a false-god that created the Four? The ashen brows knit together as he tried to remember his thousands of manuscripts and notes.
The demon slowed his flying speed enough to elaborate without the wind snatching away pertinent information. "The King's Curse," he replied. "A blood-based curse, the 'key' to which is a particular person born at a particular time and of the line of the First King."
"I KNEW YAMA-JII WASN'T LYING!" Shiro shouted and jumped, pumping his fist in the air.
The sudden shout—right in his ear—sent Ulquiorra's head spinning and his wings faltered, sending him into a downward-spiral so sharp his horns cutting through the air created a high whistle. He was able to correct before crashing, but hovered several feet away from Shiro warily, his left ear still ringing so loudly he could not hear out of it.
"Eh...gomene!" Shiro ducked his head and blushed a delicate dark grey.
"Forgiven," the demon replied, digging in that ear with one claw. Stupid ringing! "I know you did not do it out of malice. However, keep in mind that if the key is 'damaged' before I should find it, I will be cursed for eternity. There is only one chance for me, and the other Three who were Cursed. And when I say 'damaged', I do not mean harmed physically, but that one of the four conditions ceases to apply to my Key."
Shiro had actually stopped with his hovering quarry, because now his intuition and mental gears were running and he couldn't do both at the same time. "What are the conditions?"
Ulquiorra drifted slightly closer. The game had not officially started, and this was important. "First, they must be uncorrupted by this world. Second, they of course must be of the line of the First King. Third, they must be born during a particular age. What year is it?"
"2020." Shiro answered, a little distracted.
Uncorrupted...hmm, that could mean anything. Yama-jii had spoken of the First King often, and he'd absorbed any story the old man wanted to tell, including hints about who the First King had been and why he'd gone into hiding.
"What's the fourth condition?"
"They must be Untouched." Was the soft reply.
Shiro flushed, "Completely virginal, or just no sex with women?"
"I am amused you assume my key is male. However, I am not sure...I will check."
The demon drew his claw down the air and held out his other hand. From a tiny rip an enormous book with a dark brown cover dropped into his waiting hand, title emblazoned on the front and spine in bright gold: Compendium of Terms for Curses, Deals, and Contracts. He flipped to the relevant section and skimmed the page until he found what he was looking for.
"It appears one can only lose 'virginity' in magical terms by having sexual relations with the opposite sex. So 'just no sex with women'." With that, he shut the book and simply let it drop; it disappeared back into the same ether from whence it came.
Shiro blushed deeper, he hadn't even thought of the implications of his question when he had asked. His best friend was a lesbian, and he didn't think the demon understood that often women slept with women these days. He shook it off however, as his memory brought him a snippet of the last story his Yama-jii had ever told him before the old man died, "Well, according to the legend the First King's blood line results in only male heirs. Though they may have daughters, the first born is always male."
"Naturally. And the King's line is also extremely prone to twins. 'An heir and a spare', as the phrase was coined so...distastefully around the Victorian Era. However...according to my calculations, my key...has been born. And is likely still young, perhaps near twenty years in age." Ulquiorra frowned. "But there is no way to find him...if it even is a him."
"Doesn't the legend say he'll find you? At least, that's what Yama-jii always said." The albino cocked his head to the side and scratched absently at his temple.
The demon shrugged. "I am cursed and damned. I am not privy to all the details."
Unbidden, Shiro reached out his hand to touch the porcelain cheek in front of him, the gauntlet on his wrist glinting in the moonlight. Gold met emerald, and his breath caught, spell-bound by the power of the demonic male in front of him.
Ulquiorra was also held by those golden eyes, swimming in a sea of black, and didn't know what to make of it. He had been deprived of emotion much too long—he couldn't handle it. His wings flaring to their full extension, both in height and length, was the only clue aside from the absolute panic suddenly in his eyes before he straight out bolted, disappearing so quickly his departure left a buzzing sound.
"Shit." Shiro swore, and whipped around.
He'd heard of the demonic flit before. It was briefly mentioned as a means of immediate escape. With no sign of the enchanting male to be found he cursed again and took off for Tokyo Tower. At least from the roof he'd be able to see the sky in all directions without impediments.
Ulquiorra's last visit had been a thousand years ago—he ran into Tokyo Tower. Head spinning with pain, he spiraled slowly upwards, trying to figure out what the hell it was. What was the purpose of such a towering structure? What was it made of? As he came up over the top, he was truly a sight—wings in full extension as he came gliding in, one leg tucked up and the other extended to hit the roof, tail curving over itself in two places gracefully, horns glinting in the moonlight. He needed to land—his head was killing him.
Shiro, having just emerged from the service hatch on the roof of the observation deck, latched onto that graceful tail as it arched past him. He leered at the beautiful creature above him, and licked the tail tuft. He truly only meant to guide the demon to land, but his gesture was rather lewd. He took Ulquiorra thoroughly by surprise—so much so, his wing muscles froze mid-flap, causing him to plummet the last few feet directly. Clutching his head and cursing in about seven dead languages as those treacherous appendages caped his body protectively.
Shiro, for his part winced, and tried to soothe the fur in his hands. "You alright? Running head first into a bullet-proof glass window isn't generally a smart idea."
"Into a what-proof what window?" Maybe it was just the hit, but it sounded like words he'd never heard before. What on earth was the little sort-of-mage talking about?
"Well, the glass." The albino pointed down at his feet, "Of the observation deck. You ran into it."
"The fuck is glass," he stumbled over the unfamiliar word, still rubbing his head.
"The...shit...how long have you been gone? The see-through stuff." Shiro marched over to the edge of the circular platform high above the Tokyo skyline, crouched down and carefully leaned over the edge, knocking on the glass making a soft ringing sound. Only his favorite non-research-based hobby made it such that he wasn't fazed by being hundreds of feet up above the ground with no safety cables to anchor him.
"It's been roughly a thousand years since my last summoning. I think. Damn...'glass' hurts," He grumbled, tail lashing slightly.
"Well, yeah," Shiro laughed, "When ya run into it headlong, it's gonna hurt. Lemme see, ya might've bruised your skull or some shit."
"I highly doubt it," Ulquiorra snorted, but bent his head. One horn was chipped, near the base, but other than that and a nasty purple bruise on his scalp he was fine.
On impulse, Shiro kissed the bruise, much like he would have done if it had been one of his little sisters, and chuckled, "Yer fine. Guess yer head's harder than it looks, ne?"
"You have no idea," he replied dryly, wings flaring as he attempted to get back in the air.
Injury or not, he didn't want to waste any time he could possibly spend in the air. However, he misjudged the exact location of the steel pole atop the tower. He now hung from said pole by his wing, tail knotted from the sheer pain as his body curled and he held his head. Right between the goddamn horns!
Shiro winced, and tried desperately not to laugh as the previously straight pole now bent at a fifteen degree angle. "Oi! Steel is worse than glass. Git over here."
Ulquiorra hissed in his general direction like the injured animal he was, his other wing sweeping down to brace his body as he dropped to the little platform at the base of the pole, eyes still crossed.
Rolling his eyes, the albino stepped back a few paces, then ran across and up the nearest steel girder to hook his hands over the first I-beam. Once he'd hauled his feet up to it, he was immediately running along it. Then he was hauling himself up to the next one. Moving from I-beam to I-beam in a fair imitation of a cat, until he stood just below that platform, now another twenty or so feet above the observation deck.
Shiro swung up onto it, and reached out slowly, palm facing the demon, "Easy now. Shh."
He whispered, his other hand reaching into his pocket. He drew out a pink quartz crystal and offered it to the demon. When the other did nothing but sink into a crouch, the albino shifted closer, extending the crystal to hover over the demon's head. Pained, unfocused emerald eyes watched him with guarded curiosity.
Closing his own eyes, he began murmuring, "Brigid, Apollo, Ebisu, and Eir, attend to my voice and hear my prayer. Give to me strength out of history, that I might heal this injury. Through the Earth's salt and grain, make Your servant hale again. By the power born in me, I humbly ask, so mote it be." The crystal glowed a soft pink.
As the bruise faded, and the pain with it, Ulquiorra's vision straightened out from its doubled state and he frowned. He was—well, he was damn impressed. It was rare to find a human who knew how to properly call for aid even in times when Magic ran rampant and wild. "Humans have advanced far in the years I have been suspended in the darkness...and you know the Arts."
Shiro's blush was back. "I...uh...Don't tell King 'bout this. He thinks 'M weird 'nough as is."
He shoved the crystal back in his pocket and backed away, no longer feeling like giving chase. He always got touchy-feely after a healing spell, though no one else had ever actually witnessed him doing it, and he knew better than to think that grabbing the demon's tail counted as catching him. His hands in his pockets, he scuffed his shoe on the platform and leaned against the pole, nonchalantly. He took a cigarette from his other pocket and lit it with a flick of his thumb over the butane lighter from the same pocket. After a long drag, with his eyes closed, he sank down to dangle his leg off the edge and spoke again.
"Dun' worry 'bout the game. If ya wanna fly fer th' rest of th' night I won't stop ya."
Ulquiorra watched him a moment, wings half-flared. Then there was a sound in his ears—a heavy 'whip whip whip' of something large and sharp, cutting and beating the air. He had no idea what a 'helicopter' was, so it seemed to him that another demon, a rather dangerous one by the sound, was nearby. He swept down upon the white creature, picked him up, and used his wing on the bent pole to slingshot himself and his now-cargo off the building and into the air. Wings beating hard to escape what he considered danger, he held the human so close to his chest he could feel their heartbeats synchronizing. This was his human! His mage! He wasn't sharing!
...and watch as the First starts with a prayer, and is met by one who rules in the air...