I made the mistake of writing this directly on the site last week and it had an error when I saved it, completely losing it. Needlessly to say, I was pretty salty about it, so it took me a while to get around to rewriting it.

This is uneditted.

As always, thanks for all the love and happy reading.

Levy grit her teeth as the whirlwind in front of her nearly knocked her off her feet. Briefly, she worried about the safety of her books, but then the wind suddenly let up, and she was left staring at a tall, black skinned demon in the center of her room.

He groaned as he stretched and then cracked his neck. "That trip always makes me stiff." The demon sniffed as he opened his eyes, revealing bright red pupils. He grinned, putting his razor sharp teeth on display. "Hey Shrimp. What can I do for you?"

Dear gods above, she'd actually done it. She hadn't really expected it to work, but now that it had, she considered backing out. She glanced over his shoulder, at a picture on her shelf that had managed not to be knocked to the floor.

No. She had to do this.

She straightened her spine. "I want-"

"Wait." He held up his hands. "Let me guess. I don't get to do this much, and I don't want it to end too quickly." Somehow, the demon had managed to move without moving, suddenly appearing across the room in front of her bookshelf. "Hmm… Did you find one of our books and decide to just try it out for fun? No, I got it." He appeared in front of her startling. "Boyfriend troubles? Hmm…"

He leaned down so he was eye level with her. "Maybe not. You look a bit young for that."

"I want help with-"

"Wait wait wait, just give me a minute." His head cranked around and looked behind him and then at her again. "Save a life? Or bring someone back?"

Levy straightened her spine. "I need you to heal someone for me."

"I was right. Save a life." He crossed his legs, not losing anything in height as he floated midair and lazily moved around the room, studying it. "So, who's the lucky soul?"

"My mother." Levy fought to keep her voice level.

"Sick?"

"Cancer."

He looked around and frowned. "Serious?"

"Yes," Levy said. "Stage four."

He groaned and flopped backwards, still floating in the air, and rubbed his face vigorously. "You sure she's still alive?"

"Yes," Levy answered firmly.

"Any way I can convince you to let me just bring her back healthy after she dies?"

"What?" She put her fists on her hips as she glared at him. "Why on earth would I let her die when you can just fix her for me?"

He began to speak softly, quickly in a language she didn't understand. He stood up and returned his feet to the floor. "Alright, here's the deal. If you make a deal with a demon, you get to have one wish granted, and then get to stay in the human world until the price for the wish has been paid, understand? I probably won't be here bothering you, except to make sure you're keeping up on your end of the deal. Or maybe I will because I'm bored, it's hard to say.

"But there are some gnarly requirements for different wishes."

The demon ticked them off on his fingers. "Sacrificing an arm. Losing years off your life. Actual animal or human sacrifice. Losing your life. Etcetera etcetera etcetera." He looked at her again. "You sure you're up for that?"

"Yes." Levy clenched her fists to keep from shaking. "Yes, I'll do anything."

He stared at her without moving for a long time. Eventually, he sighed and asked, "Are you sure I can't just bring her back after? It's a better deal."

"No." Levy shook her head. "I don't want to put her through that."

"How old are you?"

"Twenty three."

His head jerked toward her. "For real?" He studied her for a moment as she glared before the surprise disappeared from his face. He groaned loudly and raked his hands through his long black hair. "Fuck." Suddenly, a tome appeared floating in the air before him.

Levy gasped when he aggressively flipped through the pages as he muttered to himself. The book looked old, older than any she'd ever seen before. Her mother had taught her how to properly care for a book before she could walk, so seeing him manhandling the book without a care had her wanting to rush forward and save it.

"Fuck," he repeated as the book disappeared.

"Is there a problem?" she asked.

"Of course he sent me." The demon growled and began to pace. "I can practically hear that assclown laughing at me. Fucking Rogue."

"Who's-"

He cut her off. "It's cliche and dumb and I didn't actually wanna be here that long, but the price," he said, " for one healed human is your firstborn child."

A strangled noise left Levy's mouth. "I'm… I'm sorry, what?"

"You successfully summoned me, you're female and you're over eighteen years old, so that's the price." He crossed his arms and refused to look at her. "Your firstborn, or you choose another wish."

Levy wrapped her arms around herself and began to pace. She couldn't seem to align her thoughts, couldn't figure out how she felt or even how to answer him.

It was for her mother, though. The woman who had raised her, had given birth to her. She would do anything for her, and if this was what she had to do…

"Okay."

The demon flinched and then turned her way. "You sure?"

Levy nodded, positive that even from across the room, he could see the occasional tremor coursing through her body. "Yes, I'm sure."

He cleared his throat. "I could get another demon if you wan-"

"You're already here," she said firmly, "and my mother has suffered long enough."

He groaned again. "Alright. Fine." He put his hands on his hips. "Am I going to her or doing it from here?"

"From here." Levy chuckled despite the discomfort. "She'd kill me if she found out what I did."

"Fine." He stepped close. "Then I need you to think about her. A mental image as clear as you can make it."

Levy closed her eyes and focused on her mother's face. Her dark hair and eyes. Her matching earrings and necklace. The freckles on-

His fingers pressing against her forehead distracted her. His touch was surprisingly gentle and his skin felt just like a human's. The true difference was the heat. Natsu's skin was always warm too, but not like this. It was almost painful-

"Mental picture, Shrimp. I can't heal her without it."

Levy jerked away, surprised by the quiet of his voice. She opened her eyes to glare at him, but was surprised by just how close he was. Hastily shutting her eyes, she focused on her mother once more, and a few seconds later, the demon pulled away.

"Alright, all done."

Her eyes flashed open. "Are you sure?"

"Yep, she's all healed." He leaned back and reclined midair as he began to mumble to himself.

Levy ignored him for a while as she worked on containing her emotions. Her mother had been sick for nearly a year, and to hear that she was going to be okay was a huge relief. Her father had been a wreck at the thought of losing her. She chuckled as she cleaned up her tears.

Saving her mom was worth any sacrifice.

With a long cleansing breath, Levy got to her feet and stepped closer to the demon. "What's your name?"

He cracked open an eye to look at her. "What's it to you?"

"Well, we have a deal, don't we?" She fought to keep herself relaxed. "So what's your name?"

The demon rolled his open eye before closing it again. "Gajeel."

"That's a nice name." His only response was to snort at her.

She gathered herself once more and asked, "So… what do we start?"

"Excuse me? She's already healed, I told you," he said, eyes still closed.

"Not that, I mean… your end of the bargain."

His eyes slowly opened as he looked her way. "I'm not following."

"Well you want my firstborn, right?"

"Not me, but yeah, that's the price."

"Then when do we start?"

"What are you-"

"I'm sorry, does it work differently for demons? Can you not make them the same way as humans do? I haven't tried with a human before, so I don't have any experience with-"

"Wait wait wait, you think-" Gajeel jerked and fell to the floor. She stopped to stare at him, face completely red, as he gaped at her.

"Oh…"