Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Your eyes glazed over the screen of your computer as you searched Google for the nth time for a cure for your insomnia. Nothing worked well so far.

You were even on the 5th page of Google! That had to be a record or something. It also felt vaguely cursed.

And then, at the bottom, is where you hit it. "How to Summon the Demon of the Night and Sleep | Unusual Sleeping Tricks most people don't know"

Well… You might as well try it, right?

Somewhere in your sleep deprived brain, you wondered what in the hell you were doing. But the rest of you couldn't care less as you sacrificed your lovely bedroom carpet, drawing a sigil in chalk as described in the article. It would wash out with some soap. Probably.

You scavenged some candles out of your closet, deciding it didn't matter if they were different sizes and scents as you set them up around the circle. You prayed you wouldn't knock one over and set something on fire by accident.

The article had specified you had to do this in whatever room you slept in--hence, bedroom floor. You didn't have a lot of free space in here, but whatever. It would have to do.

The ritual wasn't too complicated--a lot of sleep related stuff, like being in the bedroom, nice smelling candles, wearing comfortable clothes, and of course, doing it at 3 AM. Plus the circle sigil and salt circle around said sigil drawn on the floor. The salt was allegedly used to keep demons inside the circle, and you didn’t feel like using the brain power to try and combat the claim. What was a little salt in the carpet anyway when you had just rubbed tons of chalk in?

Relaxing or calming music was recommended but not required. So, with your phone playing some soft background music, you were ready to go.

The words were… complicated, but with some more searching, you got to pronouncing it in a decent manner.

Oh and of course it had to be pitch black in the room. No light, aside from maybe a little moonlight and the light from the lit candles, was allowed in. The lights were off in your entire apartment just to be safe, curtains drawn to block out light. You had to stumble your way around, using your phone flashlight to see.

Stifling a yawn, you sat cross legged on the floor around four feet away, which was about as much space as you could manage in your bedroom. You switched off your flashlight and turned the screen brightness down as low as it would go, hoping it wouldn’t interfere with the ritual.

You did the brief chant with as much confidence and command you could muster for it being three AM and you having not slept almost at all for a while now.

You turned off your phone, letting the music softly play while you waited for something to happen. You knew this was a longshot, and you probably just did all of this for nothing…

You sat there for a while. By the 15 minute mark you were dozing off where you sat, struggling to keep your eyes open.

Then a menacing chuckle rang out, sounding far too giddy to be good for your health.

Your eyes snapped open, heart rate skyrocketing. In the circle you made was a lanky demon bathed in shadows--when had the candles gone out?--narrowed red eyes peering out at you.

“Hello, little human,” the demon greeted with a dark chuckle, voice raspy and gruff. The candles had been blown out when it appeared, so it was too dark for you to make out any real features aside from its glowing red eyes, and the glint of metal in the sliver of moonlight from the window.

You stared right back in pure shock. Holy crap. That actually worked. You summoned a real demon in your bedroom. At 3 AM.

Damn, you should’ve recorded this, it would’ve gotten so many views.

Swallowing hard, you forced your voice to work again. “You’re that night or sleep demon or whatever?” you asked quietly, uncertainly, not quite whispering but close enough. You both couldn’t seem to talk any louder and didn’t want to wake your neighbors and have them get mad at you.

The demon tilted its head. “Sure,” it replied smoothly. A non-answer, in true trickster demon fashion.

Too tired to care if it actually was or not, you nodded and stood, stretching. With the initial scare of the creature appearing worn off, you were just really tired.

“Great, glad that’s settled,” you sighed. “Now, could you please make me sleep? I’ve got insomnia, and I haven’t been able to get proper sleep in weeks. I have a job I have to be able to

function at, so getting some sleep would be really nice,” you explained tiredly.

The demon stared at you, gaze unblinking and unwavering. After a long few moments, it finally responded, “...And what do I get out of it?”

“Oh, shoot, right, the whole ‘deal’ thing.” You kind of forgot about that part. “Well, what do you want?” You paused, then added, “And I’m not giving you my soul.”

The demon almost seemed to pout, but thought a moment before replying, “Hmm… If I help you sleep, not just tonight but every night, then you have to set me free.”

You blinked at the unblinking red eyes in the darkness, tired brain not quite comprehending it. “Free from what?”

Red eyes narrowed, and you couldn’t tell if it was angry or just thought you were stupid. “This circle,” it replied after a moment, “so that I can roam the mortal plane as I please.”

You thought about it for a second. “That sounds… ominous. Are you planning to wreak havoc and kill a bunch of people? Not to, like, judge, but that seems like something a demon like you would do.”

“No, never~” the demon replied, sounding a tad too gleeful to be truthful. Righty then.

“Well, can you at least not kill innocent people? Like, kill people who’ve already committed crimes, y’know?” you suggested, sitting down on the edge of your bed.

There was the faint, soft sound of a bell jingling, and a glint of moonlight caught on something metal moving in the darkness. Red eyes tilted and narrowed, and the faint sound of metal--maybe chains?--clinking accompanied it.

“Adding stipulations to my freedom?” it asked, sharper and snappier than before. Sounding annoyed.

Hm. Probably not great for you for the demon in your bedroom to be annoyed.

You shrugged, stifling a yawn. “I guess. I just don’t want that on my conscience, y’know? That’s all I can really think of to request though, so… do you need me to, like, rub the chalk away or something?”

A beat of silence just a tad too long before they replied, “Sure.”

Reassuring. You trudged over, squinting to try and see in the darkness and getting nowhere. You based the distance on how close the red eyes were, then smudged your foot into the carpet and hoped you actually got the chalk. “You good now?” you asked, already turning around to head back to your bed.

A low chuckle filled the quiet, which was more than answer enough, sending a chill down your spine. You shivered to get it away, flopping face first into bed and pulling the covers over and around yourself until you were comfortable.

“Can you do your thing now?” you mumbled into your pillow. “Make me fall asleep or whatever?”

The soft, almost soothing sound of bells jingling surged closer until it sounded like it was above your head. You kept your eyes closed and face in the pillow. ‘I can’t see you, you can’t see me’ or whatever. You were just praying that applied to it touching or harming you, too.

“As you wish~” it replied, far too smooth and giddy to actually be obeying your orders, but too low and menacing to be happy, either.

The soft chiming and jingling of bells reached your ears, a soothing and almost hypnotic sound. Your body seemed to sink into the mattress, brain fogging over.

Before you knew it, you were sound asleep.

~~~~~~~

Your eyes opened slowly, stuck together and crusty from sleeping for… You weren’t really sure how long, actually.

Your limbs and eyelids felt heavy, brain stuffed with cotton and pounding, throat like sandpaper, and you squinted in the light as your eyes fluttered open halfway.

Ugh, what..?

Was… was that whole demon thing a dream? Honestly, it seemed like something your subconscious would make up, just to screw with you and make you think you got more sleep than you actually did.

Light was streaming through your window, so it was likely morning by now, meaning you got more sleep than normal, but not a lot.

It took a lot of effort to drag yourself into a sitting position, rubbing at your eyes and stretching to try and wake your body up. A quick fumble later, and you checked the time on your phone.

11 o’clock, noon.

Hm. Not bad. That was about seven and a half hours of sleep, which was pretty high for you.

You were going to shove it in your pocket and get out of bed, maybe down a glass of water, when you caught sight of the date and had to do a double take.

No. That wasn’t right. You turned your phone off and on again.

Still there. Your phone was saying that it was two days later. You had been asleep for two full days and a couple hours.

Holy shit. No wonder you felt both well rested and the most tired you’d ever been.

You stumbled out of bed, rolling your ankles and forcing yourself to get up and walk, one heavy foot in front of the other.

You paused upon spotting the sigil and candles still on your floor. Ah. So that wasn’t a dream, then. Lovely. Great.

Deciding to put off the revelation of demons being real, you splashed some water in your face to wake up, brushing your teeth to get the foul taste out, then downing two glasses of water one after the other. Who knew being asleep for two days straight would have this effect on you?

You also popped two painkiller pills because your head was pounding like someone had taken a jackhammer to it. It was the worst headache you’d had in a long time, that much you were sure of.

You slumped down onto your couch, drinking another glass of water, while you tried to recall last night's events. It was all a little hazy, given your extreme tiredness and the fact that it was 3 AM.

Then, a certain detail came back to you. Like ice had been poured down the back of your shirt, you remembered that you never told the demon it couldn’t hurt you.

Sure, you said no innocents, and you never committed any crimes, but then again, you didn’t define ‘crime.’

Crap, you just let a demon loose into the world without banishing it or even trying to keep it inside your room or apartment. Oh no, that could not be good. Could you get arrested for that sort of thing? It would be kind of hard to deny, given the sigil on your bedroom floor.

Well, most people didn’t believe in demons, right? So it would probably be written off as some mysterious murderer, and not at all linked to you.

You switched on the news, flipping through channels. Who even said the demon did any damage?

You flipped through and scrolled online for a solid hour, in that time finding only one murder, though there were a lot of random reports in other places online of people having weird sightings. Some were even posting about weird dreams they had.

When you went to look more up on your phone, you finally noticed the missed emails. With a few inventive curses, you realized you just accidentally missed classes at college the past two days, and you were currently an hour late for your class today.

You scrambled to email your teacher back and get dressed at the same time, forgoing breakfast in order to get out the door with an outfit hastily thrown on as quickly as possible. There were a couple small assignments you missed that had been assigned while you were passed out, and you knew you had very few to no unexcused absence days left.

You sent a quick email about being super sick and forgetting to email earlier, and sleeping past your alarm today. You all but sped to the college and prayed an hour late wouldn’t tip it over the edge into getting you called after class--or maybe even detention.

The gods had at least a little mercy on you, it seemed, because though you got mildly humiliated walking into class in the middle of a lecture, you weren’t punished for it. Your professor just shot you a very tired, disappointed look and kept teaching.

Unfortunately, despite the burst of adrenaline and your determination to not mess up, it seems the gods only had so much mercy. Your body must hate you or something because despite giving it tons of sleep for the past two days, your eyes kept closing and sticking shut the moment you stopped moving.

This led to you fidgeting restlessly the entire class, shaking your head constantly to stay awake and making the headache even worse in the process.

All in all, this was the worst class in your life, and that was saying something. Exams and group projects--specifically with people who didn’t pull their weight--were the absolute worst.

When you finally got home, you collapsed into bed, barely even kicking off your shoes before you were out like a light.

~~~~~~~

You startled awake to your phone alarm blaring. What…??

Oh.

Cursing to yourself, you shot up and checked the time, having to pause to blink back black dots from your vision and stop your head from spinning.

Sometime during your shift yesterday, you had the bright idea to set some alarms to wake yourself up if you fell asleep. Apparently this one had been going on for some time now, being snoozed twice. You didn’t even remember doing that.

Christ, you must’ve been out cold. It was 10 in the morning right now, so not bad, and you didn’t have any lectures or classes today, which was a relief. You didn’t think you could do that again.

You all but tripped over the candles still on the floor, chalk still there as well, lightly smudged in one spot.

Ah, that reminded you that you should probably actually look up the demon some more. So, you did.

And, after all the articles on sleep paralysis, what you found was… not exactly comforting.

No one knew what its name actually was, but it was a demon that would make you sleep--forever. It was rumored that you would sleep a lot at first, and then be tired, and then you would keep nodding off until finally you fell into a coma and never woke up.

You couldn’t find an abundance of cases, but it was just enough to solidify the claims as at least semi-fact based. At this point, given what you saw, you would believe it.

Based on one Reddit post and subsequent comments you found--look, you were desperate--people had tried combatting it with everything they could think of, from copious amounts of caffeine to energy pills to one straight up getting adrenaline shots (aka, an EpiPen).

None of it had worked, and the person eventually fell into a wakeless slumber. Sometimes they died randomly on their own, or the plug was pulled on them, but none of them lasted longer than 2 years in a coma.

All in all, this was a horrible situation for you, and apparently the sleepiness was taking effect on you faster. Whether it was the demons doing, or because of your insomnia, you had no idea. You’d think insomnia would help you stay awake, but perhaps it was your body's inner exhaustion taking over finally.

Either way, you were falling asleep fast, struggling to keep your eyes open as you researched, always blinking hard or shaking your head to clear it. You needed a remedy for this, because you didn’t really feel like going into a coma, thanks. Not to mention it would be a bit before anyone would come to visit you. In all likelihood, it would be your landlord coming to get the payment you would miss who would find you first, and wasn’t that a lovely thought.

So, you kept on Reddit to search because as much as people lied on here, there must be some nugget of truth somewhere, and you were desperate for anything.

Eventually, you began to find little bits about something that might work: another demon. Hey, fight fire with fire, right? It’s not like you had anything to lose by doing this, you already summoned one. What was one more?

Your brain didn’t cooperate in trying to read what this demon was about past the initial description of it keeping people awake. This post didn’t say anything about it killing people, so that was nice.

The summoning requirements were basically the opposite to the other one. It had to be done in a bright room, preferably with windows, done around noon, or at least when the sun was up, with candles as usual. You decided to sacrifice your main room this time, which thankfully had a hardwood floor.

After setting up the circle, with the same salt around it--though with different symbols--and dragging the candles from your room into the new one, you were ready to go. It was just past noon, the sun still up, so this would have to do.

You opened your blinds to let more light in, turning on all your lights as well. With that, and after practicing the chant a bit, you were ready.

A quick ritual chant later, and… you were staring at nothing. You slumped into a seat at the kitchen table, staring at the space on the floor between the table and the couch, near the wall, where you had set up the circle.

Ugh, of course, it was probably some weird dream you had, and the ritual didn’t actually work…

The second you closed your eyes, there was an odd sort of… poof sound?

You snapped your head up, then nearly fell back over your chair when you saw the tall demon standing there, white smoke it had evidently appeared in drifting away like clouds.

“Heeello! How lovely it is to be out,” it greeted brightly, clasping its hands together and okay hold on there was no way this thing was a demon.

It was dressed in vibrant colors, mainly red and orange, skin a cream color with dark orange splotches. It had a sort of cape thing that had two tails, like one of those jester hats, with large bells at the end, and a smaller bell at its neck. The inside fabric had a checkered pattern in reds and yellows, while the back was a soft blue to orange, with a bit of pink at the bottom, reminiscent of a sunset. Not to mention how the clouds on the fabric seemed to shift and change like real clouds.

The clouds on the bottom of its puffy pants did the same thing, with long rays going up the pants making it look like a setting sun, going from yellow to red. The skirt thing was just as vibrant, with horizontal stripes of yellow.

The pants led to feet that looked like they belonged on a cat or some kind of animal, even as it stood upright on its platforms. Oddly enough, there seemed to be thin golden chains on its feet, starting from its ankle(?) and connecting to each toe, like one of those hand chain things--which it had on its hands, too.

Looping down its legs and under its arms was a sky blue, see-through silk that shimmered with threads of gold, looking like a river or waterfall as it moved, tied to its wrist with more bells. The outfit looked regal and bright enough to belong to a god, or at least some minor deity.

And then there was its head. Large white eyes stared at you with no pupils, a wide smile with almost cartoonish slits for teeth going straight down. Things you weren’t sure if they were ears or horns of some kind stretched out from its head, looking like the rays of the sun, or petals of a sunflower.

And behind its head, floating, were two glowing golden rings connected by lines of varying length, looking like one of those fancy headbands.

Or, like an angel’s halo.

You didn’t realize you had been staring as long as you were until the demon--angel?--spoke again, sounding upbeat and pleasant.

“Come now, don’t you know it's rude to stare?” it asked, sounding almost as if it was teasing you.

You shook yourself out of it, standing. God they were tall as hell.

“Y-you aren’t really a demon, right?” you found yourself saying. “I-I mean, you just look so… like an angel.”

It looked a bit surprised, then quite literally brightened at this, halo thing and rays glowing brighter as it perked up a little, clutching at its chest. “Aw, you really think so? You’re too sweet!” it exclaimed with a soft laugh, like the tinkle of bells or windchimes, warm and pleasant.

You swallowed hard, shaking your head to clear the fog still plaguing you. “So, uh, does that mean you… aren’t an angel?”

It hummed, tapping its chin, which is when you registered that it didn’t open its mouth to speak. “Hmm, not in the literal sense, no. But I like to think I’m just as sweet as one!”

“And as pretty,” you blurted without thinking, then thought to add as it gasped, “Uh, not that I’ve seen an angel before but you know, myths of them being pretty and all that.”

“Aw!” it cooed, hands clasping together in what appeared to be delight, smiling wider. “Flattery will get you everywhere,” it chuckled, waving a hand.

“Actually, are angels even pretty?” you wondered suddenly, mind starting to gain some energy back. “Or are they like those big collection of rings with eyes and stuff? Like super creepy and weird looking.”

“Depends on who you run into,” it shrugged. “Just like us! You won’t always get someone as gorgeous as me,” it said with a wink.

“That’s fair, I guess. Your outfit especially is super… pretty? Handsome? Uh, do you have a gender?” you asked, faintly realizing with bafflement that you were asking a demon their pronouns.

“I’m a demon, darling,” it replied pleasantly, waving a hand as if to swat the idea away. “We don’t have genders, not really. It’s all a silly thing you humans made up.”

“Fair. Then, do you have a preference?”

“Not really, though I gather I’m mostly seen as male,” they replied with an easy shrug, still smiling.

“Cool--wait, does that mean you read the articles written about you?” you asked, suddenly curious.

They shrugged with an easy chuckle. “Well, I don’t get summoned too often, and I find it just hilarious to read what you humans think of me.”

Huh. That was fair, you supposed. If you were some demon who had been around a while and was trapped in hell with nothing to do, you would probably find it entertaining to see what stories people made about you, too. You wondered idly if that's how urban legend monsters felt, if they were real, like bigfoot or mothman.

You shook your head. Not the time.

In your pause, the demon--definitely a demon but man it didn’t look like one---spoke up. “So, not that I don’t love chatting with you, dear human, but I hope you summoned me for a reason?”

Oh, shoot, right. “Oh, yeah! I need you to give me some energy, because I’ve been falling asleep every other second for a while now, and I would like to actually function at my classes in college,” you explained, stifling a yawn in the middle of the sentence, as if your body was helping to prove your point.

The demon blinked at you, as if waiting for something, before chuckling, “Well, that’s easy, darling! Unfortunately, I can’t exactly do my job if I’m stuck inside this old thing,” he said, gesturing to the circle below him.

You stared at them for a second, then shrugged, too tired to bother. “Alright,” you agreed, stepping forward and smudging the circle with your foot.

Almost immediately, a wave of energy hit you, making you almost dizzy as your heart thumped uncomfortably fast in your chest.

“My thanks, dear human!” they said brightly, stepping out and around you elegantly. Then they sucked in a sharp breath as they looked around, hands twitching. “Oh, my,” they said slowly, turning back to you and looking almost anxious. “Say, you wouldn’t mind if we cleaned up some, would you?”

Confused and still a bit overwhelmed by the energy, you shrugged. “Yeah, sure, why not,” you agreed.

The demon clapped in delight, brightening, already moving with long strides around your little apartment. “Lovely! Come on, no dillydallying! Let’s get this cleaned up.”

With a surge of motivation and energy, you moved to the kitchen and began doing the dishes that had been piling up. The demon flitted about your living room, finding a broom and sweeping up the floor, dusting and vacuuming as well, basically everything under the sun they could seem to think of to clean.

You certainly weren’t about to complain about the sudden burst of motivation you had. You had been meaning to clean for a while anyway, and if it just so happened to be with the help of a demon, then so be it.

For hours, you cleaned alongside the demon, cleaning your entire apartment. You did have enough brain energy to smartly keep this demon out of your bedroom, where the other summoning circle was. You weren’t sure how well that would go over, and didn’t want to risk making them mad.

They agreed easily, thankfully, handing you the vacuum. You vacuumed up the salt, though unfortunately the chalk seemed like it would be sticking for a while unless you mopped it up, which you didn’t feel like doing at the moment.

You worked until the sun was setting, at which point your apartment was nearly spotless. “Whew! What a relief,” the demon sighed, looking pleased--not that they ever stopped smiling. “I am afraid I’ll have to part for now, though. I hope I can return?”

“Y’know what, why not?” you agreed, shrugging. “This is the most productive I’ve felt in ages, I certainly wouldn’t mind you coming back.” A thought struck you, making your heart sink slightly. “Hey, uh, you aren’t gonna go out and kill anyone, right?”

“Why in the world would you think that?” they asked, tilting their head.

“Well, you are a demon,” you pointed out, “And it’s not like I made a deal with you not to, so I just don’t want that on my conscience, y’know?”

They chuckled lightly. “Of course! I understand,” they replied, smiling down at you reassuringly. “No worries, no deaths will be on your conscience,” they promised, holding one hand over their heart and the other in the air, like an oath.

That made you relax, even though you knew full well they could be lying. “Cool, great, thanks. I’ll see you around?”

They nodded, then waved goodbye. “Toodles!” With a puff of white smoke and a flash of yellow light, they were gone.

The energy they gave you remained, though, so you decided to make yourself some dinner finally because man you were starving. You hadn’t eaten all day, too busy cleaning.

That night, unfortunately, it seemed your insomnia was back because you only fell asleep around 2 AM, after hours of tossing and turning restlessly, mind and body buzzing with energy. You caught up on some school work, which helped in tiring your brain out a decent bit until you finally fell asleep.

When you woke only a few hours later to your alarm at 7, you still felt restless, body simply uncomfortable. It felt like you needed to go and run a lap to burn off the energy in your limbs, but also like you didn’t want to go anywhere. Unlike normal, your brain was wide awake, and you didn’t feel tired in the least.

Well, you certainly weren’t going to complain. You had classes today, so you needed all the energy you could get.

Honestly, this didn’t seem like it would cause any more problems than normal. It was like you had insomnia again, but now you actually felt awake at work.

~~~~~~~

You were starting to think God had it out for you--or maybe Satan, given all the demons involved.

It had been three whole days with no sleep. You didn’t have the same overwhelming energy from before, but you still weren’t tired in the slightest. Your body buzzed with an uncomfortable mix of energy and fatigue, and your head was running a mile a minute about the most random things, thoughts scattered everywhere.

Sure, you were awake and not tired, but this was almost worse than being constantly tired. It was like your body was trying to protest and be tired, but the demon's power pushed back and kept you awake and energized anyway.

After you got home from classes and a part time job on the third day, after scarfing down some dinner--because you were really hungry too for some reason--you stared at the chalk circle still on your bedroom floor. The bright demon had put all your candles away and cleaned the one in the main room, but this one was untouched.

You stared at it for a while before deciding that yes, you were desperate enough and dumb enough to summon the creepy sleep demon. Again.

So, once the sun set--ignoring the recommended 3 AM time because you were impatient--you set up the candles and turned off the lights in your room. Already sitting on your bed, you read the chant to summon it, then closed your eyes and waited.

After a few seconds, the sound of bells rang out, soft and melodic. The voice that accompanied it was quite the opposite.

“Still up?” the demon asked, red eyes staring at you. “What a pest.”

“Yeah, sorry, but it’s not like I want to be awake right now. I haven’t slept in three days, okay? I need you to knock me out again,” you sighed, then added, “Please?”

Red eyes narrowed, and you heard something like a growl building up in its throat. You leaned back against the headboard of your bed as it crawled slowly onto the bed--ah, right, you hadn’t repaired the circle. Oh well.

“Three days?” it questioned, sounding both annoyed and perplexed, slinking onto your bed like a cat. “Tch. Annoying human.”

“Yup, that’s me,” you agreed, not really bothering to care. You’d been called worse by your boss, especially after missing those two days of work. “Now can I please sleep?”

It kept staring at you, crouched on your bed like a frog. You noted that there was definitely metal on it, the moonlight catching on something by its eyes, and places near the mattress that must be its hands and feet.

Finally, it growled out, “Fine.”

Just like that, your body grew heavy, the fatigue setting in properly as your brain fogged over, only vaguely registering the sound of bells and something metal glinting and moving behind the demon.

Then you were out like a light.

…

Only to awake about a minute later to find light flooding from your door, with the tall bright demon hunched through the threshold, seemingly frozen. And the dark sleeping demon was still on your bed, hunched down further with wide eyes that were now black with slitted red pupils, staring at the door as a hiss died in its throat.

You blinked rapidly to clear your vision and make sure you were seeing it right. Yes, you were.

There were two demons in your apartment, currently having a tense starring content.

Then the bright one sighed with what sounded like soft curses in another language, while the dark one slumped further, looking tired and annoyed as it cursed something far more recognizable.

“Ah, fuck.”

Chapter Text

“And what would you happen to be doing here?” the bright demon asked, still in the doorway, voice like honey.

The darker demon blinked and its eyes flipped back to full red, growling, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“Hm, true--but! I asked first,” the bright one said with a clear glee, almost smugness, which was hidden under innocent happiness.

As the one by you growled and seemed ready to launch themselves at the bright not-angel, you rushed in to do damage control.

“Woah, hold on you two! Look, I got us in this mess, alright?” you sighed, and they both looked at you, one far more obviously with a ‘WTF’ look. “I have insomnia, so I couldn’t sleep, so I summoned you,” you explained, gesturing to the sleeping demon. “But then I couldn’t stay awake, so I summoned you.” You gestured to the bright, energetic demon. “And then I couldn’t sleep again, so I summoned you again, and… now we’re here.”

The one near you looked both incredulous and murderous, while the one in the doorway looked blank, smile stuck on their face.

“Let me get this straight, human, dear,” the bright one said slowly, clasping their hands together with a soft jingle of the thin metal chains on them. “You summoned them,” they said at length, gesturing to the scowling demon, “to counteract your insomnia… then you summoned me to counteract their abilities… and then you summoned them again to counteract my abilities. Do I have that right?”

You nodded. “Yup.”

“Right then.” They sounded a bit strained, hands still clasped tightly, eyes narrowed just slightly. You couldn’t quite tell if they were secretly pissed or trying not to laugh, or just utterly baffled at your actions.

The demon still perched on your bed had much less of a problem being forthright in that department. “You summoned a demon to counteract a demon, before you tried anything else?” they asked, and they were definitely baffled and vaguely angry.

You shrugged. “Yeah. In my defense, I was kinda struggling to function with you making me tired, and I found that nothing worked to combat your abilities, so I thought, ‘what better to help fix a demon related problem than with other demons?’” You paused as they stared at you. “I admit, not my brightest moment, but give me a break, this has been one hell of a week, okay?”

After another moment, the night demon sighed and turned away, slinking off your bed like a moody cat. “Whatever, idiot. I’m leaving.”

“Hey! Absolutely not,” you huffed, then felt a chill run down your spine when the demon froze, then very slowly turned around to look at you, red eyes narrowed to slits.

“...What.” It wasn’t a question, cold and low. A threat. Even Mr. Sunshine had stilled, head tilted and eyes narrowed slightly, though the smile was ever present. They seemed more interested in the events playing out than anything else, like someone about to watch drama go down.

You shook off the cold feeling and locked eyes with them impatiently. With the two here, your energy levels seemed to have leveled out to “normal human being”, aka you weren’t tired but you weren’t really awake or energized either. It was a neutral in between, but you didn’t want that right now. You wanted to sleep.

“We made a deal. You help me sleep at night, every night--you said it yourself, every night--then you go free. So you have to make me sleep tonight,” you explained. Though the events of the night were a bit blurry from exhaustion, you did remember that. The demon clarified that themselves.

A low growl bubbled in their throat, and you were pretty sure you saw their hands curling with sharp claws. In fact, now standing--still hunched--you could see a lot more of them as the light from the doorway hit them.

It wasn’t enough for details, but you could spot sharp teeth set in a scowl, horns on the side of their head, and some kind of long hat nestled between them. Their outfit was dark, seemingly partly made of darkness and blending into the shadows of your room, but you could see the outline of a ragged cape of some kind, much shorter than the not-angels but there all the same. Their pants were similarly baggy, with a skirt thing around their waist, but the ends were incredibly tattered.

On their hands and feet appeared to be the same kind of chain thing that the bright demon had, but silver. Interesting. Their outfits and accessories were similar, and actually so were their builds. Tall, incredibly skinny, with those odd feet and even odder head shape.

Well, that was a train of thought for you with more sleep.

You were dragged from your observing when the demon's growl shifted into an annoyed sigh as it slunk towards you again. “Deal, yes,” they grumbled. “How tedious.”

Before they reached you, they looked over at the bright demon still there. “Unfortunately, certain annoyances interfere with sleeping,” they grumbled, glaring daggers.

The other demon only smiled wider. “Who, me?”

The dark one sneered, but ignored the comment to instead glance at you and say, “They keep you awake. I make you sleep. Can’t do both at the same time.”

The bright one sighed, smile looking a tad strained. “I hate to agree with you on anything, but that is true,” he said slowly, reluctantly, to which the ragged demon's head snapped to them with a viscous, victorious grin.

“Oh?” It was said with the utter glee and victory of someone winning a bet or an argument.

The regal demon didn’t bother with a reply and kept talking to you. “You’re going to have to release one of us, darling.”

You blinked at them, understanding but also not. “No?” you replied slowly, dragging the word out. “I don’t, I don’t think so. Why don’t you make me sleep at night, and you keep me awake during the day? Win win, right?”

They both stared at you again, looking baffled in their own ways, smiles frozen.

They had no pupils, but you could swear the red eyed demon rolled their eyes as they groaned. “Ugh, this one is so dumb, I don’t....” they trailed off as the two demons locked eyes.

Another staring match began, this one less in surprised shock and more so seeming to be a test of… something. Will? Who would say something first? Whether to agree or not? It was hard to tell, but something about it felt weirdly familiar.

Finally, the bright one broke the staring contest to look at you. “Well!” They clapped their hands together. “When you put it like that, how could we resist?”

“Awesome. So, I have classes tomorrow, so you can come by at around 6 in the morning to wake me up,” you said, setting your alarm on your phone just in case. “And then, you can come by at like… 10 PM? That gets me basically 8 hours of sleep.” You had read, over and over when you tried to find cures for your insomnia, that getting seven to nine hours of sleep was best.

Though the demon grumbled, and the angel-like one hummed in thought, they both ended up agreeing with varying degrees of excitement--aka, none and a polite amount respectively.

The red eyed demon turned to the bright one with a sharp grin. “You heard them. Out. Sleep.”

The bright demon didn’t twitch, staring right back before smiling at you. “Well, I’ll see you in the morning, dear human!”

With a dramatic bow, they shut the door and plunged the room into darkness. Only the glowing red eyes stood out, turning back to you.

“Sleep.”

With the simple command and the chime of bells, you were out like a light.

~~~~~~~

Moon stood there and watched you, the perplexing, annoying, pest of a human, for a few more moments. They had never understood humans, but this was stretching the limit of what they could handle.

When he felt his powers being interrupted slightly a few days ago, he ignored it, occupied with feeding off other humans. It had been a while since someone summoned him, so if he rushed the process with you a little, so what? He was hungry and impatient, sue him.

But now it turned out that dear old Mr. Sunshine had been the cause, and now they were both here. Despite essentially being twins, they didn’t interact regularly, especially once summoned--which hadn’t been in a while for both of them, but Moon especially. They had opposite “work hours”, so to speak.

And now this stupid agreement-deal-schedule thing? A second one? What a pain.

Moon sighed and turned away, hopping up on the short dresser to open the window and crawl out, but tensed when they heard the door click open.

“We need to talk,” Sun said, thankfully quiet for once in their life, the door barely open.

Not that volume would really matter with Moon's powers at work, but just to be sure, they glanced back at the little human.

Sound asleep. Sun must be reigning in their powers then.

Hmph. Good.

With a heavy sigh, Moon reluctantly turned away from the window and slinked to the door, fumbling for a light switch without stepping into the bright room. Sun stepped back and let them fumble, watching with that stupid, ever-present smile.

Eventually Moon found it and slipped out into the dim main room. The kitchen light was still on, which Sun stood under, while Moon hopped onto the kitchen table and squinted at him. Light didn’t hurt them or anything, but it was certainly annoying with their more light-sensitive vision.

“What?” Moon sighed, settling onto the table, hat-tail flicking impatiently with a soft jingle.

“I’m afraid we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other if we plan to keep up with this human’s plan,” Sun said, ever polite.

“Okay, then just--”

“No. No killing,” Sun interrupted.

Moon scoffed. “Since when were you all high and mighty?” they grumbled, deciding not to state the annoying fact that even if Moon wanted to--and they did--they couldn’t kill you. Unfortunately, you were included under the “innocent” pool of no murder they had agreed to.

“Well, someone has to be the bigger demon here--”

“Bigger demon?” Moon barked with a harsh laugh. “Funny, coming from you.”

“I am not any shorter than you,” Sun huffed immediately. “With your constant hunch, you’re the shorter one.”

“Just because I hunch doesn’t mean--”

“I mean it’s just terrible posture, making us look bad--”

“Us?”

“Demons,” Sun clarified. “With your whole evil act, it gives us a bad rep.”

Moon stared at him. Had he gone insane? “Act? We were made to feed off of and kill humans.”

“Sure, but at least I act presentable,” Sun replied with a shrug, making Moon hiss.

“I am plenty presentable.”

“Oh yeah? That’s what you call hissing and glaring at the human who summoned you?” Sun scoffed, all high and mighty and reminding Moon exactly why they hated being around him. “I have a thing called manners, and being discreet. It gets you summoned a lot more than blatantly murdering everyone you come across.”

“Tch. As if groveling to humans is any better,” Moon muttered, rolling their eyes.

Sun stiffened. “I do not grovel--”

“Definitely do.”

“Do not.”

“Do too.”

“Do--oh stop it, you’re being childish,” Sun snapped, breaking off their back and forth.

Moon recoiled at that. “Me?”

“No, God,” Sun replied dryly.

“Oh fuck off,” Moon spat, to which Sun gasped.

“Language! That’s going in the jar,” he tutted, making them scowl further.

“Shut up. If you don’t have anything worthwhile to say, I’m leaving,” Moon snapped, sitting up to leave.

Sun took a breath, paused, then sighed and begrudgingly replied, “Look.”

“Looking.”

Sun twitched, smile tight and not what one would call friendly, but didn’t reply to that. “We don’t have to hang out or anything, but we will cross paths, and I request you act at least somewhat civilly, please. I don’t want any of your reputation infecting mine.”

Moon had many scathing remarks they could say to that, but, recalling Sun’s earlier remark about them being childish and not wanting to prove him right in any regard, swallowed their tongue to instead bite out, “No promises.”

“I assumed.”

After a beat of silence, Moon hopped down from the table and slunk to the doors to the balcony, the much nicer night sky awaiting them, feeling Sun’s eyes on their back.

As they walked, a thought hit them that made them grin and call back in a sing-song voice, “Oh, and I’m never letting you forget the fact that you caved first to the humans schedule.”

Moon reveled in how Sun sputtered for a few seconds before hurrying to defend, “You would have agreed anyway, if I didn’t.”

“But you caved first,” Moon reiterated, walking backwards now to soak in the open indignation on his face, rays pressed back. “So that means you caved to a human~” they said, practically singing.

“I--you--it was a deal--we can’t--” Sun spluttered to a stop, taking a deep breath to gather himself before saying calmly, “You know what, this argument is pointless.” Always calm and placating, taking the higher ground. It made their skin crawl.

“Cause you know I’m right,” Moon crowed with a grin, stopping by the doors.

Sun twitched.

“You’re not denying it~”

“I--you were about to give up on the human,” Sun countered, crossing their arms petulantly. “Which means I would’ve won.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t,” Moon said with a shrug, taking their turn with the calm higher ground and loving how ticked off it made Sun. “Which means you lost this one, and I win.”

“You do not win. Winning would mean you get to kill them,” Sun replied.

“No it doesn’t. In this case, my win is cause you gave in to them,” Moon insisted. “You were always soft on humans. Remember what I said about groveling?”

“I do not--!” Sun huffed and switched gears. “I may have given in first, but you still agreed,” he pointed out, and dammit Moon hated him.

“You agreed first.”

“But you agreed too--”

“Nope, I win this one,” Moon said, speaking louder to drown him out, unworried about the little human waking up with their power at work. They backed up to the door, sliding it open.

“Do not!” Sun called after them as they turned away.

“Do too,” Moon muttered to themselves, but Sun heard and blew a raspberry behind them. Moon did it right back, before with a puff of white smoke and flash of light, Sun was gone.

Moon scoffed and slunk off into the night to find more humans to feed off of.

… They still won.

Chapter Text

Instead of your alarm, you woke to a flood of light and a chipper voice calling, “Wakey wakey, human!”

You rolled over slowly, stretching and yawning, body waking up as you opened your eyes.

You jumped and were suddenly wide awake when you found the circular face of the bright demon inches away from yours.

You yelped, scrambling back. “Jesus!”

“Not quite,” the demon chuckled.

Sighing, you forced yourself to calm down, rubbing at your eyes to clear the last of sleep. “Ugh, right, hey there,” you yawned. “Didn’t expect you to actually show up.”

“What kind of demon would I be if I didn’t uphold a deal?” they asked, a hand over where their heart would be. Did demons have hearts? Like literal ones?

Then you paused. “That was a deal?”

He hummed, leaning back. “Well, we never said the word ‘deal’ but it was close enough I think it counts,” he said, shrugging, eyes never leaving you--or, he never stopped facing you, who knows if he was actually looking at you.

The thought turned over in your brain for a second as you debated how much to look into that or care. You decided not much. You hadn’t promised anything to them, anyway, so it would be fine. “Great. Sadly I have to get up and go to work, so…”

The demon moved back and let you climb out of bed, leaving the room when asked so you could get dressed. You downed a quick breakfast, energy flowing back into you as the demon puttered around, making your bed and gathering things to clean the sigil still on your bedroom floor.

“You won’t need that silly thing anymore,” they chirped as they wet a cloth. “Not now that you’ve got us on a schedule, huh?”

You blinked, then realized yeah, you kinda did put them on a schedule. Shoot, would they be mad? “Hey, uh, I could probably release you both, I mean I don’t want to piss anyone off and get murdered for it--”

“Nonsense! This is the most fun I’ve had in eons,” they sighed dramatically, waving a hand. “All humans usually ask is eternal energy, or for someone dead. This is much more entertaining.”

“I’ll… take that as a good thing, then,” you replied slowly with an uncertain smile. The demon beamed back. A happy demon was--usually--an alive human, or so you assumed. Best to keep it this way.

Soon enough, you were off for college classes, and the demon bid you farewell and promised to see you later--also scolding you to buy some more food and ingredients, as according to them your fridge was, “the most pitiful thing I have ever seen, and that’s saying something.”

So, after an energized--if slightly distracted because holy shit two demons--day at college, you grabbed a few ingredients and snacks, then headed home.

True to his word, the bright demon was waiting for you when you got back, his presence giving you another burst of energy. While you prepared a quick dinner with the motivation, you brought up something that had been bothering you all day.

“If you are both going to be around more, I kinda would like something to call you other than ‘demon’,” you said.

The bright demon blinked, then chuckled. “Oh? You didn’t find a name for us when you found the rest of the summoning ritual?” They sounded amused, almost perplexed like they both were last night. And god somehow that was only last night.

You shrugged. “Maybe I did? The first time I was working off of very little sleep, then I couldn’t stay awake or think properly, and the third time I just repeated it without thinking,” you explained. “I saw a lot of names, not that I can remember any of them. Do you have a preference?”

They hummed, tapping their chin in thought. “I’ve never really thought about it. Usually I just go with whatever a human starts out calling me, with whatever name they decided was the real one.”

Real one? “So does no one know your actual, real name?”

“I don’t know, do they?” they replied cryptically. “I mean a ‘real name’ is pretty subjective, don’t you think?”

“You’re the demon expert here, not me,” you huffed, making the demon laugh, warm and light.

He tilted his head. “My, you really are a marvel, aren’t you?” Before you could process what to make of that, if it was meant as a compliment or not, the demon continued, “Most summoners always claim to know more of demons and hell than I do. It’s incredibly amusing, every time without fail.”

“Huh. I guess that would be pretty frustrating,” you agreed, “having someone think they know your job better than you.”

“Right?!” they exclaimed, halo brightening as they leaned forward, bouncing slightly, seeming to lose some of their composure. “Satan, someone gets it!”

And that had you laughing, making them lean back, head tilting like a confused puppy. “Sorry, sorry, it’s just--I didn’t think demons actually swore with Satan instead of God,” you laughed, struggling to reign it in.

The demon chuckled along, clasping their hands behind their back. They mumbled something you couldn’t catch.

“Seriously, though--do you have a name you want me to call you? Any preferences?” you asked.

The demon paused in thought, then shrugged, “Not really. A lot of them are a mouthful, though.”

“And I’m guessing you won’t tell me your real name?”

“You’re interesting, dear, but no.”

With a sigh, you pulled out your phone and pulled up the site you were on before, where you found the bright demons ritual. Sure enough, there was a surplus of names listed, but… none of them really felt right. You also didn’t want to embarrass yourself trying to pronounce them.

You set down your phone.

“Nothing?” they prompted.

“Eh. None of them feel right,” you sighed. “I’ll figure out something else for you. Gotta burn off this energy somehow.”

So, while you finished making a quick dinner, you thought up names, glancing back up at the demon every once in a while. He had decided to put away the rest of your groceries while you worked, also re-arranging stuff in your fridge and cabinet. You would never be able to find anything, but you let him have fun.

After eating dinner, you settled down to watch some mindless TV, the demon peering over your shoulder from his position behind the couch. “What’s this?”

“Oh, just some reality show,” you said, shrugging. “I don’t really pay attention to it, but it’s good background noise with some fun drama.”

“Oh? Mind if I watch?” they asked, stepping to the side of the couch.

“Not like I’m gonna kick you out,” you snorted, and the demon beamed, halo thing pulsing with warm light, horn-things out wide, and just then it hit you.

After a second of deliberation, you spoke up. “Hey, I think I found a good name for you, but uh, it’s kinda dumb, so I need you to promise not to laugh.”

They gasped, clutching at their chest. “I would never!”

When you stared, then held up their hands with a smile. “Okay, okay, no laughing.”

“So… how do you feel about Sun?”

The demon stared at you, stilling, their smile stuck in place.

You stared right back for a solid couple of seconds, your brain taking way too long to recognize the possible danger of a demon stilling and staring you down. “Uh, if you don’t like it, I can come up with something else. I know it’s simple and kinda dumb--”

“Oh no no, not at all!” the demon, now dubbed Sun, said quickly, waving their hands. “No name is dumb. Either way, I quite like it. Simple, but effective.”

You relaxed at that, relieved they weren’t mad like you had thought at first. It felt better to have a proper name to call them.

The day wound down, and it turned out Sun found reality TV incredibly entertaining, gasping dramatically and commenting on each twist and turn. It made it way more interesting to you, having someone actually paying attention and able to sum up certain twists and who was who and why they were so shocked over something.

It made you want to laugh, the idea of a big scary demon being so genuinely invested in a stupid reality show like this. You wondered about the other demon, which made you realize you would need a name for them, too.

Time flew by binging the show, and before either of you knew it, it was 10 PM. You knew because your bedroom door creaked open, and red eyes peered out, narrowing at you and Sun.

“Sleep,” they growled while Sun stood up from leaning against the back of the couch.

“Nice to see you too,” Sun greeted.

You stood and stretched, turning off the TV, energy dying down with both demons in the room--or, close enough.

“Oh! Before I go to sleep,” you said, turning to the red-eyed demon in your doorway, “I was hoping I could come up with something to call you? I gave a name to your friend here, because none of the other names I saw online felt right, and he said that no one actually knows your real names.”

The door opened a bit more, just enough to see the baffled, almost incredulous, maybe slightly pissed, look on their face. You saw Sun do a motion out of the corner of your eye, maybe a shrug.

“Unless you have something else you want me to call you,” you added, a tad more apprehensive about this demon's reaction, given their more snappy tendencies. Although, with the deal they made, you weren’t too worried about them hurting you.

With a long, drawn out sigh, the demon replied, “Fine. What is it?”

Oh. Oh, he wanted a name right now.

“Well, since I decided to call him Sun…” The demon's red eyes widened, stilling, and you pushed on before they could get a scathing remark in because you suddenly had an idea looking at the two of them together. It was sorta dumb, yet weirdly perfect.

“You can be Moon,” you declared.

Both demons turned to stare at you.

You glanced between them, landing on the night demon to explain like you did with Sun. “I mean, mainly because you deal with sleep, always at night, so it seemed kind of fitting, y’know? And since I chose Sun for your frenemy there, I thought it would track.”

The two kept staring, before the demon in the doorway slowly turned their head to glare at Sun.

“You.” It was accusing and pissed, but Sun held his hands up defensively.

“I did nothing!” He mimed zipping his mouth shut, which didn’t have the same effect with it being constantly set in a wide smile, although now it looked more nervous. “Said nothing, zip zilch. Quite rude of you to accuse me.”

They were growling now, turning the glare to you. You blinked back, more confused than anything. Nervous, sure, because that glare was deadly and they looked ominous standing there, but you made a deal with them--no hurting innocents. You were innocent. Well, of any technical crimes, anyway, you weren’t sure where demon summoning fell on the “innocence” scale.

“So…?” you ventured slowly.

“No,” they snapped, bells crackling unpleasantly behind them somewhere, like a horror movie version of bells. Deeper tones rang low and echoed in a room that definitely didn’t echo, opposite to the usual soft jingling you were used to. “Absolutely not.”

“Woah, okay, got it, not Moon,” you said, hands up in a similar way to Sun. “Can it be space themed? Or, in another language? Like, Lunar?”

“Definitely not.”

“Star? Midnight? Nebula? Look, I used all my brain power today with Sun, not to mention school work and my job,” you sighed. “You gotta help me out here.”

That seemed to really tick them off because they suddenly snarled, “I do not have to do anything. You are a lowly human, and I don't have to do anything you ask."

You thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess you're right. I didn't specify that in the deal or whatever I made with you, so aside from helping me sleep at night, you don't," you agreed.

The snarl died away, but the glare remained. You heard a noise behind you from Sun, sounding suspiciously like a strangled snort of laughter. Not-Moon bristled.

“Sleep. Now,” they ordered, gesturing sharply inside the bedroom.

“Alright, alright, fine, demon man,” you chuckled, holding up your hands in surrender.

You slipped past the sleep demon, and the second you crawled into bed, you blacked out.

~~~~

Sun watched, moving to the kitchen, as Moon turned off the main lights as he exited, closing the bedroom door.

“How?” Moon snapped at Sun with a scowl.

“I have no idea--”

“They can’t know, they--they can’t be normal,” he rambled, clawed hands gesturing about.

“I thought we established that already,” Sun chuckled. “My bets on a divine--or perhaps demonic--prophet, personally.”

Moon growled, “Take this seriously, for once in your life.”

Sun sighed like it was the hardest thing in the world, only ticking Moon off more. “I don’t know what you’re so worked up about,” they sighed, polite smile and composure maintained.

“What I’m--?” Moon cut themselves off in apparent disbelief, whipping around to face Sun like he had grown a second head. “That little human brat just ‘decided’ to call us our names. Our actual, real, proper names,” Moon snapped, growing more frantic and angry the longer he ranted. “And you--”

“--had nothing to do with it,” Sun interrupted, eyes narrowing at his tone. “Our little friend asked me earlier about what to call me, I let them pick, like usual. But they didn’t like any of the names online,” Sun explained, chuckling to himself at the memory. “So they made one up. Or, they thought they did.”

“You expect me to believe that?” Moon scoffed, stalking towards the kitchen from where he had been circling the living room.

Sun shrugged calmly. “You believe what you want, little brother.”

“We’re twins.”

“I’m pretty sure I was created a second before--”

“Not true, I was--”

“Nope, definitely me, I remember--”

“Oh shut up!” Moon snarled, and Sun actually did. Not because he told him to, mind you, just because he chose to, independent of Moon's order. Completely on his own.

“Ugh, I know you know how dangerous this is,” Moon sighed, crawling onto the small kitchen table. “It never ends well. Never has, never will, for either side. Especially us.”

Sun sighed softly, forcing himself to sober up and be serious, because Moon was, of all demons, and they hated being serious. Well, this kind of serious, anyway.

“I know,” he replied, unable to hold Moon’s burning gaze, claws digging into the table. “I know…”

Because he did understand why Moon was freaking out so much, why he was furious with you for seemingly guessing such a thing.

For a demon, their true name was something only they knew, plus a select few whom they shared it with. They knew it from the moment they were created, with titles or nicknames being used in its place by those who the demon did not share their name with.

For a demon, their true name was power. Power that could be used by a human to control them in whatever way they wanted.

It has always been used for evil, true names tortured out of the demon until they spilled, then made to do whatever the human wanted.

The two of them were lucky enough to have never been through that, but they’d heard more than enough tales to be wary, and there had been close calls.

So, yes. He understood why his twin was wary of the human knowing their true names.

Basically no other demons knew each other's true names, either, they simply used titles. If a demon did know another's true name but hadn’t been given permission to use it… oh, it was hell.

But.

“Despite what you like to think, dear Moony, I’m not stupid,” Sun finally said after a heavy silence, and Moon looked up from where he’d been scratching light patterns restlessly into the wooden tabletop.

“I did consider all of that while the little human rambled on,” he explained with a cursory glance to the bedroom where you slept. “But I also realized something else: this marvel of a human doesn’t know those are our real names.”

He let that sink in for a second, but Moon clearly didn’t follow, so he continued. “And if this human doesn’t know that these are our real names, then they will continue to look for a different ‘true name’. Or maybe they’ll ask. But, if this human continues to think that Sun and Moon aren’t our true names, then they will never guess that they are, since they would never think to consider some ‘random’ nicknames they made.”

Moon stared at him as he explained, and even after he was done he kept staring. Sun let him, staring right back, waiting for him to process.

Finally, Moon sighed, looking away. “Okay, sure. But they would never consider such… hm, simple, names as our true names anyway. Not that they’re looking. Even the humans who do look never guess it.”

“Yet you're on edge that this one will.”

“Guess so.”

A tense silence stretched between them. Moon remained hunched on the table, picking at the wooden table, defensive and prickly, but also nervous.

Much as they may not get along, or whatever had happened between them, seeing him like this was something Sun never reveled in. So, he broke the silence with a light joke. “You know, usually I’m the big worrier between the two of us, but a method that’s worked so far is that if I think hard enough that this will work and won’t backfire, then maybe it’ll transfer to reality.”

Truth be told, he had worried quite a lot over it on his own time, and in the brief moments before making the rash decision to let you use his true name. Only way to keep it from spiraling was to just convince himself it would work. Optimism or whatever.

That got a soft snort out of Moon, the twitching of their tail slowing, but they still didn’t speak.

Sun shook his head, then got another idea to prod them into being themselves again. “Anyway, I’ll let you think about it… but do you know the heart attack this would cause our dear mother hen?”

Moon straightened up and seemed to regain himself, a slow smirk coming onto his face as he replied, “Hm, I would kill to see the look on their face when we tell them a random, dumb human guessed our names where everyone else failed.”

Sun gasped jokingly, “Are you finally agreeing with me on something? Admitting I’m right--”

“Absolutely not,” came Moon’s immediate response. “Besides, what would you be right about?

“Oh, I don’t know, a lot of things. I can’t wait to say I told you so when nothing bad comes of this human using our names, though,” Sun said.

Moon’s smirk turned feral and sharp, slinking forward quickly to shove into his personal space, legs twisted up like pretzels entirely unnecessarily. “What are you willing to bet?”

Sun grinned in turn, gladly taking this bet because 1) he set the bait and would never dream of backing down, and 2) he had confidence he would win. He liked to think he was pretty good at reading humans by now and this one posed no threat, and certainly had no ill intent as far as Sun could see.

“Hmm… If nothing bad comes of this--which it won’t--then you have to explain to them what happened if they find out,” Sun declared, crossing his arms. “And if I lose, I have to explain.”

“Hmph. Deal,” Moon grumbled, but they grinned despite it, and they shook hands in a mock-serious manner. Moon broke into a manic sort of laugh, half-heartedly trying to stifle it as they slinked away, down the counter they had been perched on.

Sun smiled, swallowing down a little chuckle of his own. It wasn’t actually a deal, in the binding sense. Demons didn’t make deals with other demons. No one was stupid enough to do it, unless they had very good reason and were very thorough. It hardly ever ended even decently.

And because this wasn’t binding, when the time came, no doubt they would fight over who had to explain to their other-sibling-and-mother-hen, but they both knew this, and both didn’t care one bit. It’s how it always went, and they weren’t keen on changing it.

Chapter Text

Despite the weird night, with not-Moon knocking you out so suddenly, Sun still came right on schedule.

“Rise and shine, darling!” he exclaimed cheerily, pulling you out of sleep.

“Morning,” you yawned, dragging yourself out of bed slowly, stretching and shaking away the stiffness of sleep. Sun left your room to let you get dressed.

“What do you have planned for today?” they asked as you stepped out, energy beginning to flow through you with the demon so close.

“I have two classes today, one at 2 for two hours, and one at 5 for an hour. Plus a short shift from 8-1,” you said, glancing at your calendar. “I’m lucky the store I work at is so flexible, really.”

Sun hummed, ducking into your room to make your bed, then hovering around as you got ready and ate breakfast. As they did, the last bit of your conversation before you blacked out came back to you. “Oh hey, did the other demon give you a verdict on the whole name thing?”

Sun shrugged. “It was unclear, but until they say otherwise, the safe bet is either a name already in use, or nothing at all,” he replied lightly but with a certain air of command that led you to believe this wasn’t a suggestion.

You nodded easily, unbothered. You did a quick search online to find the different names for them… yeah, about the same results as last time. You didn’t like the names people used online. They were a tad too grand and menacing for the grumpy cat demon you had encountered so far. Terrifying at first glance, yes, but more grumpy and closed-off than anything.

Or maybe that was wishful thinking to stop yourself from considering they might actually be terrible and dangerous and would kill you at any moment given the slightest opportunity.

Eh, tomatoe tomato. Best not to dwell for your own sanity.

With a brief goodbye, you were off to work and college. It was a boring day, though you got through it a bit easier with the energy Sun was giving you. Where he went all day you weren’t sure, actually, nor how he gave you the energy if he wasn’t there in person.

When you got home around 7 with some takeout dinner you picked up, you found no one home. Normally, that would be a very good thing, but you wondered where Sun was. “Sun?” you called, setting your food and bag down, peering around the empty apartment.

“Yes, dear?”

You jumped, spinning around to find Sun standing behind you, regal and composed as ever. They tilted their head at you curiously. “Apologies, did I startle you?”

“Just a bit,” you admitted with a sigh, trying to calm your now racing heart. “Where did you come from?”

Sun shrugged. “Oh, I wasn’t far,” they replied vaguely.

You stared at them for a second. “I’m not getting a better answer on that, am I?”

“Afraid not.”

“Got it. I suppose you also won’t answer where you go all day while I’m out?” you asked, sitting down to eat your dinner. “You don’t stay here, right? I haven’t accidentally trapped you or anything?”

“Oh no, nothing like that,” Sun laughed lightly, waving a hand. “It would take far more effort and intent to do something like that, darling. No, I’m not trapped here. I can go where I please, thanks to you, in fact.”

“Oh. Right. That.”

Sun hummed agreement, clasping their hands behind their back. “It is rather lovely to go where I please, after all this time. And no murder of any innocents has happened, don’t fret,” they assured you. “No killing on your conscience.”

“Better not,” you mumbled around a bite of food.

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” Sun replied, a hand over their heart in possibly-mock sincerity. It was hard to tell with them.

You ate in silence before offering to turn on the show you were watching last night. Sun agreed with a smile, his rays glowing briefly just that little bit you were beginning to gather betrayed his true excitement. So, you put it on and let Sun watch and narrate while you finished your food.

The rest of the night passed by fairly quickly, with you finishing up homework while Sun watched the TV. It made it hard to focus on your work, but you would distract yourself anyway, so you didn’t mind one bit.

Right at 10 PM, just like last night, the other demon opened your bedroom door and peered out at you with glowing red eyes. “Sleep.”

You yawned and went easily, leaving your books and papers on the table to continue working on tomorrow. “Sun, don’t clean those up please, I want to keep working tomorrow.”

Sun gave a two fingered salute. “Aye aye, captain,” he replied with a joking smile.

When you turned back to not-Moon--star boy, perhaps?--they looked close to snarling. To keep them from fighting, you hurriedly said a goodnight to Sun and slipped into your room. The demon closed the door behind you, plunging you into darkness.

Blinking rapidly to adjust your vision, you carefully felt your way over to and into your bed, plugging in your phone. Not expecting an answer, you idly asked, “How do you get in here? Can you, like, teleport, or do you crawl in through my window?”

Their glowing eyes moved closer, bells jingling softly with their movements in a way that sounded somewhere between creepy and soothing. “You have so many pesky questions, human,” they drawled. “Ever wonder what might happen if you ask the wrong one?”

You thought about it, then shrugged. “Sometimes? In classes, yes, definitely, because I hate asking a question and then realizing right after that it was really obvious. But not with you and Sun. You both promised not to hurt me, so I’m not really worried.” Okay, kind of a lie, but if you said and thought it enough maybe it would transfer to reality.

The demon snickered at that, high and mocking. “Oh, what a cocky human.”

“Huh? Oh, no, I’m not trying to be cocky,” you rushed to say. “I mean, is it cocky to assume you won’t hurt me? You made a deal with it, and you can’t break those.”

“Since when did I agree to not harm you?” he asked, eyes narrowing as he slinked closer.

You blinked. Thought about it. Then, “Oh. Guess you didn’t, directly. I was operating under the assumption that I counted as one of the innocents you agreed not to harm or kill,” you replied, realizing your mistake as your heart skipped a beat.

The end of your bed dipped as the demon crawled on. “Assumptions, hmm? Dangerous game, assumptions. What else do you assume about me?” he asked, tilting his head, a sharp smile glinting in the dim light. The question was posed to be innocent, but there was a dangerous undertone that threaded his words.

Ok, so this was definitely a trap, but you figured it was best to answer quickly and honestly if you wanted to keep your soul, so you replied, “Well, I assume you normally wouldn’t hesitate to kill me under any other circumstances, but the deals I made with you and Sun are stopping you. And you don’t like that, but kinda can’t do anything about it.

“Oh, that reminds me, another reason I assumed you couldn’t hurt me is because Sun’s half of the deal prevents either of you from killing me the way you normally would. I’m not actually sure if you would be able to kill me the old fashioned way… I’m hoping not.

“Aside from that, though, I don’t actually know or assume anything, or I try not to. I didn’t do any research before summoning you and was too tired to really pay attention after, so I don’t know much.” You paused. “So, does that answer it?”

They stared at you, eyes narrowed in a way where you couldn’t tell if they were baffled, annoyed or incredulous. Maybe all three. It was a few seconds before they replied slowly, “Yes, you can shut up now.”

A wave of exhaustion flooded over you with the soft chiming of bells, and you flopped back and pulled the covers over yourself. “Oh, hey, what about your name?” you yawned.

“Hush,” they shushed. “Sleep.”

And just like that, you were out like a light.

~~~

The next few days passed in a similar vein to the last, not much of note happening. When you settled down to watch TV at the end of the day, a few days after the whole naming thing, you remembered to ask Sun why he was so invested in the human reality TV show.

Sun shrugged. “I simply find it fascinating what you humans come up with for entertainment. Nothing like it where I come from.”

“What, hell?”

“If that’s what you believe it to be, then yes,” Sun replied cryptically but lightly. You tilted your head curiously, so he elaborated before you could even ask. “Demons aren’t just from one specific religion. We aren’t from one at all, really. Humans made religions around us, and the angels and other creatures alike. They all see us in different ways, and we tend to appear based on their beliefs.”

“Huh. Interesting. Well, what about me?” you asked, twisting around on the couch to fully face him, leaning against the back of it.

Sun chuckled, their long double cape thing swishing with a light jingle. “If I’m being honest dear, you had no specific pull to our appearance, so how we appear was up to us.”

You paused, taking that in. “Huh,” you said again. “Must’ve been the exhaustion.”

“Perhaps. Even exhausted or mad, humans have their view of demons. Your desire, when I felt it, was simply to solve a problem--to stay awake. So I came as I was. No need for dressing up.”

You snorted. “This is not dressed up?” you asked, gesturing to their whole… everything.

“Oh trust me, I can appear as much more, if I choose,” Sun assured you with a proud little smirk, preening like a peacock. “But it wasn’t like you were some dark sorcerer I needed to scare, so this sufficed.”

“So you can choose how you appear?”

“For the most part, yes. Even if I intend to appear a certain way, some people’s beliefs may still influence how they see me. It doesn’t change me, it merely changes how I appear. Like a mirage,” Sun explained with a little shrug.

“That’s so cool.”

Sun beamed, horn-ray-things emitting a slightly brighter glow. “Why thank you! I like to think it is,” they replied brightly.

“Quit spilling secrets,” a voice growled, making you jump, spinning around to see the other demon peering just as ominously as ever out of your bedroom. Was it 10 PM already? You hadn’t realized how late it had gotten.

Sun didn’t jump, and you realized he must’ve seen the other demon open the door. Sun replied, as pleasant as ever, “I’m not spilling secrets, I’m simply answering questions. It’s nothing serious.”

They scowled. “Anything can be used, no matter how small.”

“Ah yes, because telling them I find TV interesting, or that we appear differently to different people is going to get us a slow, painful death,” Sun mocked dramatically, still with a smile on his face.

They said nothing in return, and despite the lack of pupils you could feel the heavy eye roll. “Sleep,” they demanded, turning away into the room and leaving the small opening pitch black.

“Well, looks like I’m sleeping now,” you sighed, hopping off the couch and trudging over.

“I’ll see you bright and early, dear,” Sun replied, inclining his head to you in a mini bow.

You mimicked the motion. “Yup. Look forward to it.”

Then you slipped into the room and closed the door. It took you a few seconds to find the demon as you made your way into bed, the soft sound of bells eventually drifting from above you.

Above you?

You looked up and found red eyes peering down from the ceiling. How in the world were they staying up there? Did they have spiderman powers or something?

“I’ve decided to let you use your nickname,” they said sharply.

You blinked up at them in confusion for a few moments before it clicked. “Oh! Right, the name. Awesome, cool,” you replied, stifling a yawn as you climbed into bed. “Good to hear it.”

There was a beat of silence, then something muttered you couldn’t quite catch, but you were pretty sure “annoying” and “human” were in there somewhere. Oh boy, so many things that could be referring to.

“You insulting me up there?” you prodded sleepily, the soft waves of it beginning to take hold.

“Nothing you don’t deserve,” he replied, the grin evident in his voice. A soft chiming of bells, and the eyes were moving down, down, before the end of your bed dipped under his weight. The way he moved down from the ceiling was concealed in darkness, but the angle of his eyes made you sure it was done in an entirely unnatural way.

“I’m sure,” you agreed mildly, settling into bed. You hesitated, unsure of the answer, then asked, “What’d I do exactly?”

There was a longer silence than you expected, and you almost thought Moon had left. But then he replied with a tilted sounding sort of glee, “If I told you, you could atone, and we don’t want that, now do we?”

“Don’t we?”

“Can’t have your soul otherwise,” they replied flippantly.

“Hm. Well, you aren’t getting it anyway,” you mumbled. “S’mine. Can’t have it.”

Moon chuckled dangerously, high pitched and definitely not friendly. “We’ll see, little human.”

You fell asleep to the distant sound of bells and a dangerous laugh.

~~~~~~

Moon could hear Sun muffling laughter in the main room, and they heavily debated just leaving through the window. That was until they heard Sun whisper, knowing full well Moon could hear him, "Looks like you gave in after all."

"I did not give in," Moon snapped quietly, knowing Sun could hear them just as well.

Even so, Sun pretended not to hear and continued mocking. "Gave in to what you so love to call 'lowly' humans."

At this Moon opened the door and joined him in the main room, shutting off the lights. Sun was already in the kitchen under the soft light there. "I did not give in," Moon repeated snappily, glowering at Sun's shit eating grin. "I chose to let them use it."

"Uh huh, uh huh, sure," Sun agreed in the most mocking way possible. Moon had to resist lunging at him, his long hat flicking in annoyance, making a sharp, unpleasant ring of the bell on it.

"Shut up. You caved quicker, letting them use your name," Moon countered, crossing their arms.

"Maybe, but I never protested it in the first place," Sun pointed out with an easy shrug. "Therefore, I can still mock you for fighting it before giving in."

Moon swallowed back a growl. "Yeah, whatever. We both know you're the real soft one when it comes to humans."

"Am not."

"Am too."

Sun's smile grew tight, but he didn't rise to the bait. Fully. "Just because I find them interesting doesn't mean--"

"Sooooft," Moon drew out, grin growing at Sun's annoyance.

“I’m not the one who made part of my deal not to hurt ‘innocents’,” Sun countered smugly.

Now it was Moon’s turn to be annoyed. “Well, I intended this to be over much faster,” they snapped. “Likely you did the same.” To be honest, Moon only agreed to that stipulation 1) because it was very vague and they could still get away with a lot, and 2) because they thought this deal would be over far sooner. With you dead, the deal would no longer apply, Moon could feed and have your soul, and it would be much simpler.

But instead, this mess.

Sun shrugged, back on his high and mighty stance. “Oh sure, I assumed it would be over quicker, but I never agreed not to hurt anyone. I told them after, but that wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Oh? How come they seem so convinced then?” Moon prodded.

“Well, I told them no deaths would be on their conscience, which is entirely true. They’ll be on mine,” Sun replied brightly, and Moon could feel how pleased he was at his own brilliance. “I pride myself on never lying to a human.”

Moon flicked his tail irritably, resisting the urge to jump at him for his smugness. “Yeah, some beacon of truth you are,” they mocked. “Because not lying to them makes it so much better.”

“Why thank you! I like to think so,” Sun replied, blatantly and purposefully ignoring Moon’s sarcasm. “Especially when it’s something like you just did. ‘Can’t have their soul otherwise?’ Trying to make them do good?”

Moon snorted, grinning, “No, I just think it’d be funny to see them try when they’re already doomed. Wanted to see if they’re dumb enough to believe it,” they snickered.

“You’re insufferable.”

“Aww, you too.”

“And soft.”

Sun twitched in clear annoyance, but he only waved a hand to dismiss them. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Moon only chuckled. "Deflecting, huh?"

"I am simply being considerate of both our times," Sun replied curtly. "Unfortunately, I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Unfortunately," Moon agreed.

Then, just like that, Sun was gone in a flash of glimmering light, and Moon slunk out one of the windows into the endless night.

Chapter Text

And so, a schedule was born. It went on for about two weeks in relative peace, and you relaxed into the familiarity, even as school and work sent waves of stress over you every other day. Sun woke you up, you would go to work and/or school, then come back, eat some dinner, then settle down on the couch to watch TV and schoolwork while Sun narrated. Then Moon would open your bedroom door, and you would be sleeping like a rock in minutes.

Moon hardly spoke to you much, and you had to instigate if you wanted to have any sort of conversation with him. Most nights you didn't feel like it, but occasionally you would lightly pester him with questions until he got fed up and put you to sleep.

On the first weekend you had with this schedule, Sun left not long after waking you up, expressing almost regret but explaining he had “other matters to attend to.” You were just a tad too afraid to ask what that meant, so you let him be.

Moon still came back at night at the normal time, still sent you to sleep with the same curtness. It was the same the next day, though this time Sun did return in the evening to watch TV with you.

It was the weekend after where something new happened. You came back with groceries later than normal, around 6:30 PM, and Sun started helping you put them away.

“Out late?” Sun inquired as they carefully picked the food out of the bag and put it away in their own organizing system. (when you had insisted at first that it was organized in its own way, Sun had barked out a scathing laugh. “You call this organized?” he had asked, in such a way it made you laugh in surprise at the pure sass emanating from him. He had insisted on organizing it ‘properly’ after that)

“Yeah, I have a big test tomorrow morning super early, so I accidentally stayed in the library later studying. We aren’t allowed to take the textbooks out for whatever reason, and my online account was being buggy, so.” You shrugged. “Library it was.”

“That sounds quite inconvenient,” Sun agreed.

The fancy phrasing made you chuckle a little as you nodded, putting away some spices. “Yeah, it was. Got it all done though, and my brain is officially kaput. I was actually thinking of turning in early.”

Sun hummed mildly as he put the bread away. “That makes sense. Although--how are you going to do that, exactly?”

“Do what?”

“Fall asleep,” he clarified, tilting his head. “You can’t with me here, even if I did try to let up on my powers.”

“I’ll just call Moon then,” you shrugged. “Can you finish the groceries for me? And be back here by 5 AM if you can. I’ll set an alarm, but having you would be nice.”

“Of course, wouldn’t miss it--but you plan to what?” Sun asked, cutting himself off to clarify, even though he definitely heard you right.

“Call Moon,” you repeated. “I don’t know if I’ll need to do some special summonings, but it’s worth a shot.”

Sun glanced outside as he rounded the counter, where the sun was only just setting, and spoke up sounding like he wasn’t sure whether to be apprehensive or laugh, “Oh I really don’t think that’s a good idea--”

“Hey, Moon, could you come here please?” you called into your bedroom, feeling mildly stupid as you did so. Moon always came at ten, it wasn’t like--

You yelped and stumbled back when Moon swung down into view from the ceiling, now hanging upside down with only their head and shoulders visible through the doorway. You fell back, surprised to hit something solid and not fall to the ground, a similarly surprised noise coming from--oh, Sun.

He caught you, setting you back on your feet before taking a step back.

“What,” Moon demanded, eyes glowing a dangerous, sickly bright red. His long hat thing hung down, the end curling and twitching with clear irritability, like a cat.

“Jesus--have you been there the whole time?” you asked, trying to calm your racing heart.

Moon didn’t reply, only growling low in their throat, lips curling back in a clear threat. Low, deep bells echoed behind them, off-tone and unnerving, the bell on their hat/tail letting out unpleasant, sharp jingles. The shadows in the room seemed to writhe and twist like they were alive, an uncanny glean to them like oil but darker.

“Right, ok--I want to go to bed early,” you said, answering his earlier question (more like a demand) of ‘what’. “I have to get up earlier tomorrow, so if I want to get enough sleep I have to go to bed earlier.”

“Not even seven yet,” Moon stated dryly, sounding entirely ticked off.

“Yeah well, I have to wake up at five in the morning,” you said with a shrug. “I thought you’d be happy to have me thinking about getting more sleep.”

Moon opened their mouth, as if to make some kind of remark, then closed it with a sharp huff of air and an annoyed flick of their tail. “Fine. Bed. Now.”

You ducked under them, trying to ignore how cold the shadowy room felt. Their long tail swept out of the way, and you heard them mutter “pest” under their breath.

“Rude,” you muttered back in a whisper, then promptly got smacked in the back of the head by the metal bell on Moon’s tail, the harsh jingle uncomfortably loud in your ears.

Looking up and behind you, you found Moon contorting his way from the hanging position to crawl over the ceiling in the most unnatural way possible.

Mm. Freaky.

You turned away and crawled into bed, rubbing the back of your head. Before you could get any more words out to poke at him, you blacked out.

~~~~~~~

“Someone get woken up from their beauty sleep?” Sun called from the kitchen, faux sympathy evident in his voice, barely holding back laughter.

"They did, in fact," Moon growled to themselves, annoyance bubbling in their chest, even more prevalent now with the tiredness dragging them down. Moon poked their head out, eyes barely open in the bright light, and said much more clearly, “Piss off.”

“Aw, someone’s grumpy,” Sun cooed mockingly, badly concealing his laughter, and oh how Moon wanted to kill him. His voice was so grating, they couldn’t stand it, especially right now.

If Moon wasn't bound by the deal--and wasn't fully aware this was the consequence of letting you use their real name--you would be so dead for waking them up. Moon was still heavily considering the consequences with Sun if they just killed you now, currently finding it mostly worth it--not quite enough, though, unfortunately.

As it was, Moon forced back a yawn and took notice of what Sun was doing. Putting away the human's food for them. Realization dawned and made them snort, amusement making up for some of the annoyance. "Doing the humans work? Got you good, huh?"

“I volunteered to do this,” Sun replied curtly, putting away some noodles. “The way they had it was atrocious. You should've seen this place before…" Sun shuddered.

Moon snorted wryly. "Right, you're weird about cleanliness or whatever."

"I am perfectly reasonable about cleanliness," Sun corrected pointedly, then waved a hand. “Either way, they made me do nothing. Unlike you--”

“I also chose to,” Moon snapped shortly. “Didn’t feel like dealing with whining.”

“Mm, that’s what you call that?”

“Like you can talk.”

“I can, actually--”

“Oh quit being a smartass.”

“When you stop being a pain in my ass, maybe,” Sun agreed with a false pleasantness that made Moon want to tear him to shreds.

Moon growled and replied scathingly, “What was that about us having to get along again?”

“I said act civilly,” Sun corrected, “And only so your… unpleasant reputation doesn’t infect mine.”

“Hasn’t, mister prissy,” Moon scoffed, then struggled to stifle another yawn, turning away. “I’m going back to sleep. Tell the pesky human not to bother me again.”

Sun smiled, far too sweet. “Of course, mister grumpy.”

Moon narrowed their eyes at him. “If you purposefully tell them to get me in the middle of the day, I won’t hesitate to rip your eyes out,” they snarled.

Sun gasped in mock offense, dramatically clutching a hand to his chest. “I would never do such a thing!”

Moon didn’t bother with a reply, rolling their eyes before leaving into the dusky sunset.

~~~~~~~~~

Just as promised, Sun woke you up early the next morning, just as cheery and chipper as ever as they helped you wake up and function enough to eat some breakfast and get out the door.

After the arduous, painfully long test, you had to go to work, which was simply draining, and by the time you got back your brain felt half melted. You would entirely blame that for what happened next.

“How’d it go?” Sun asked, and you jumped, turning to find him in the kitchen, leaning on the counter and tilting his head at you.

You groaned, flopping face first on the couch.

“Good, then?” Sun teased, the amusement clear in his voice.

“No,” you groaned, rolling over with a lot of effort, slinging an arm over your eyes. “I mean, it went fine, I guess, my brain’s just… blegh. Kaput.”

Sun chuckled lightly at that, and the sound--or perhaps just his powers, who’s to say--warmed you and lifted your brain fog a considerable amount, limbs no longer quite as heavy. “Thanks,” you sighed.

“You’re quite welcome!” Sun said, and the soft, light jingling of bells told of his approach until he stopped next to the back of the couch. Said couch creaked, so you moved your arm just enough to open one eye. You found Sun leaning on the back of the couch, peering down at you with his perpetual smile.

Looking up at him, a thought occurred to you that had been lurking in the back of your mind, brought back into the mix with the new energy. “How was Moon, by the way? After I fell asleep? He seemed kinda grumpy.”

Sun chuckled, though it leaned towards a snicker. “Oh, well…” His eyes crinkled up. “Why don’t you ask them yourself, dear?” It was said lightly, a harmless suggestion.

You still blamed the test you just took for frying your brain, because you shrugged and replied, “Yeah, sure.” You tilted your head to the bedroom door. “Hey, Moon, are you still mad at me for last night?”

Silence.

“Moon, you there? Are you not coming out because you’re mad at me?” you called again.

Slowly, with a creaking the door didn’t usually make, the door opened into the room. The only thing you could see was a sliver of red that was trained on you.

“You,” came the dark snarl. The darkness around the red twisted unnaturally, slick like oil and seeming to spill out of the door even though it wasn’t moving an inch.

You waved, glancing up at Sun when you heard a weird noise. Their shoulders shook, a hand halfheartedly over their mouth, though the smile still stretched above it. You looked back to Moon. “Hi. Sorry about last night, if that annoyed you,” you apologized. “Hope you aren’t completely canceling the deal?”

There was a moment of silence before there was a sound. It started low, and then grew into a manic laugh, high and grating. It wasn’t gleeful, leaning into something sharp and dangerous. “Oh, you are funny,” Moon laughed, but his voice was not happy at all, red--what you realized was a pupil--shrinking. “Annoyed? Me? For something you did last evening, which you have done again?”

Oh.

Well, shit.

“And you.” The red pupil shifted only slightly up, but the voice grew far more malicious.

The eye blinked out, and then the curtains over the windows and sliding door slid shut, and the lights flickered out, making you yelp in surprise, adrenaline spiking. Sun didn’t move, looking only mildly amused.

“Really, this is just childish,” Sun tutted. “I don’t know what you’re--aACK!”

He was cut off with a shriek when something dropped from the ceiling right on him and yanked him away from the couch. You sat up and turned to watch. It was dark in here now, but sunlight still filtered in from the lackluster curtains, so your apartment was at a sort of midpoint.

And in that midpoint, Sun and Moon were… fighting. But not like a cool fight you might think of between demons. No, this was a catfight, even though you could see how vicious Moon was. Claws and horns flew as they tumbled on the ground, rolling, almost in a comical manner, but the hissing and snarled insults in other languages was certainly real.

You hunkered down on the couch, watching with slightly terrified amusement as they fought. Though they scratched and clawed, and Moon snapped his teeth, and certainly both of their horns were sharp enough to stab, you couldn’t see any immediate blood. Whether they were both dodging the others attacks, or if they simply didn’t bleed, you weren’t sure.

It reminded you very strongly of watching two cats fight, just as nimble and long limbed, Moon’s hat thing and Sun’s cape waving around in a mimic of their tails. But it also was like a cartoon fight in how they pulled at the others “tails” and scrambled on the ground in a blur of long limbs and sharp points, along with the incessant, sharp jingling of bells.

Sun managed to get away enough to dart away from Moon, running around the coffee table, and Moon followed in a manner far more similar to a feral cat. They chased each other around the living room, and Sun, in a surprisingly polite move, took precious seconds to make sure none of the items around your apartment fell over or were broken in their scuffle.

You slowly untensed as you watched them, no longer in fear for your life, rather amused instead. You almost wished you had your phone to record this--though they both might actually kill you if you had a video of them, especially like this. But man was it tempting.

Watching them do this though, occasionally falling to the ground in a scuffle, tossing insults back and forth--only half of which were in English--it made you realize something. It had been on the tip of your tongue for a while now, but watching them scuffle like children and insult and bicker…

“Oh my god you’re siblings!” you exclaimed in realization.

Both of them froze and stumbled in surprise, but at entirely the wrong moment, and their momentum carried them both into one of your wooden chairs at the small round table for your ‘dining room’.

You winced at the sudden crash as the two demons landed in a tangled heap of limbs on top of the now very broken chair. It took a second for them to gain their wits back and to untangle themselves--which they did with great haste--before Moon whipped around and demanded, “What.”

His eyes, however, were back to simple red, and this ‘what’ sounded more baffled than furious.

You didn't respond to that and instead scolded them, “Hey, what the hell?! There was no need to break my chair. Those things cost a lot, you know, and you can't pay for it, so I have to get a new one. I'm a broke college student, I can't be paying for this!”

The two sat on the ground, staring at you in baffled surprise, utterly silent as you scolded them. Moon's smile had disappeared, eyes wide, while Sun's smile had gone completely default and blank. You might even go so far as to call them both rather sheepish.

You sighed sharply. “I know it was an accident, and I appreciate you not wrecking my whole place, but I’d still like an apology,” you said, crossing your arms.

They looked at each other. After a few long seconds, neither wanting to be the first to speak, Sun sighed deeply and turned to you, smile switching to something a little softer around the edges. “Apologies, dear,” he said smoothly, with as much pride and elegance one could muster sitting on the ground, outfit crumpled and torn in places, sitting on top of broken chair pieces after having just been in the most comical fight you’d ever witnessed.

You looked at Moon, who glared right back for almost a full minute. You stared back just as stubbornly.

“You started it,” Sun prodded helpfully, making Moon bristle.

“Not helping,” you said, not unkindly.

Sun blinked, then gave a little shrug, looking down. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

“I’m not going anywhere until you say sorry, don’t even care what synonym you use for it that still means the same thing,” you said, staring them down.

After another minute, maybe a little more, Moon finally groaned, head tilting to the ceiling, before he grumbled, barely audibly, not quite looking at you, “S’rry.”

You smiled. “Great! Now come on, you can go back to sleep or wherever you were. Sun, would you mind helping me clean this up?” you asked as you finally climbed off of the couch.

“Not at all!” Sun said chipperly, quickly standing and brushing off his outfit, which was now in pristine shape.

Moon blinked at you, stared for a second in a way you couldn’t tell if he was judging, going to kill you, or just thinking, before he scoffed and slunk off back into the bedroom. With a last jingle of his bell, the door swung shut, and with his retreat, the curtains came back up, and light flooded the room once more.

Sun shook himself off, straightening. “Ah, much better!” he exclaimed, sighing with apparent relief at the return of the sunlight.

That brought a thought to mind, which you blurted out on impulse as you bent to grab some of the pieces. “So would you be like Moon if I called you during the night?” you wondered out loud, then hurried to add, “Entirely hypothetically, I’m not making the same mistake twice. …or, well, a third time.”

Sun only half glanced over his shoulder from where he crouched to grab a trash bag, not enough for you to see his face. “Well, I like to think of myself as better mannered than that. But, to be frank, I would not appreciate it, no.”

“Yeah, fair enough,” you shrugged.

You worked in silence for a while before you went down to throw the chair parts away in the big bin downstairs, and the second you walked in, Sun asked, “So what was that about us being siblings?”

“Oh! I just said it because, I mean, you two look really similar when I finally saw you both together. Not in color or demeanor or anything, but your builds and outfits are pretty similar in how they’re made,” you explained, then shrugged. “But mostly it was seeing you scuffle and insult each other like petty siblings. Also the ‘you started it’ comment, which really is sibling argument number one.”

Sun stared at you, expression unreadable. Then, he chuckled, shaking his head slowly. “My, you are quite the marvel, darling,” he sighed, sounding exasperatedly fond. “The things you come up with never cease to astound me.”

“So am I right?” you prodded.

“Well, I won’t say you’re wrong that we appear very similar,” Sun replied calmly. “I can definitely see how you might have come to that conclusion. However, demons don’t really have ‘family’ in the sense that humans do. We aren’t born the same way as humans, or any Earthly creature for that matter, so no two demons, however similar, could be called siblings. But if you mean it as a term to define a dynamic, then perhaps it might be relevant to our case.”

You searched his face, but it gave nothing away. You sighed. “You are annoyingly good at saying so much yet nothing at all.”

Sun laughed at that, light, nothing like the pointed laughter at Moon he tried to hide before. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“Fine by me. I mean, that’s neat, though, the whole thing about you not being born,” you said, moving past him into the living room and plopping down, retrieving your fallen notebook. “If it’s true, anyway.”

“It’s only true if you believe in it,” Sun said, another non-answer.

“Cool. Power of imagination.”

“Exactly,” Sun replied brightly.

You laid out your notebook and grabbed your laptop from your bedroom--Moon was nowhere in sight, the shadows inconspicuous and nonthreatening looking, no colder than the rest of the room. You sat down on the couch and opened your laptop to do some work. When Sun tilted his head, you explained, “I’ll go get the chair another day. As amusing as that fight was, I currently feel very out of whack and do not have the motivation to buy a chair right now. Besides, I should do this work, so I might as well.”

“Whatever you want,” Sun shrugged, going around and straightening any displaced objects and putting them back in their proper place.

“Also,” you started, cutting into the silence after around 30 minutes, “you totally nudged me into calling Moon to start that fight.”

Sun was silent a suspicious second too long. “I had no intention to start the fight,” Sun replied, “although I will say that the idea of annoying him was… perhaps at least mildly amusing.”

You rolled your eyes, but weren’t really annoyed. “See what I mean? Sibling behavior.” Sun huffed but didn’t reply to that.

Despite the hectic day, it all wound down alright, and finally, at 10, you were off to bed. Moon didn’t call you in, so you went in on your own.

The darkness sent a chill down your spine, but it wasn’t totally unpleasant, just a bit odd. “Sorry again, Moon,” you whispered into the darkness, despite catching not even a glimpse of their red eyes or the sound of bells. “Hope you got some more sleep after.”

As you settled into bed, despite his lack of appearance, you felt the same wave of sleepiness wash over you with the familiar, slightly dissonant yet comforting sound of bells and chimes that pulled you quickly into darkness.

Chapter Text

It was a full week later when you finally got the chair to replace the broken one. Though Moon didn’t talk to you much, as per usual, they at least didn’t seem to be actively avoiding you anymore, and you would spot and wave at the red eyes in the darkness. All you got was a little swish of their bell in return, hardly any words, but at least they didn’t seem angry anymore.

You didn’t feel like going out to buy a chair, so you went online and found the IKEA website, searching until you found the same type of chair as before. You had placed the order the day after the scuffle, and it finally arrived today after dinner around 7 PM.

You explained it to Sun as you opened the box and began to take out the pieces. “I ordered the same type of chair that the one that broke was, same as the other two. Only problem is…”

You pulled out and unfolded the directions, which unfolded to a comically large degree. “Yeah. Plus I’m fairly certain none of this is in English, it’s Swedish or something. Want to have a crack at it?”

“Sure! Technically, we can speak any human language,” Sun said, taking the directions and searching for the start.

“Neat.” You spread out the parts on the floor while Sun scanned the directions. It was a full five minutes later when you looked up at him and sighed, “Don’t feel ashamed if you can’t understand it. I don’t think anyone can.”

“I can read it perfectly fine,” Sun defended. “It just doesn’t make any sense. I can’t even find the first step. This is a truly inefficient design. How do you humans come up with this?”

“I think it’s some kind of secret torture device, honestly,” you replied, squinting at the bag of bolts in your hand.

“I’m inclined to agree,” Sun huffed, now looking at the directions like they had personally offended him in some way.

You spread out the different parts on the floor, which were labeled but not in any sort of helpful way. Sun sat on the floor with you, and for the next 3 whole hours, the two of you struggled through it at a snail's pace. By the time 10 PM arrived, you had two of the legs attached successfully to the base of the chair, but you were currently deliberating whether or not these legs were in the right spots or if it mattered at all.

The door to your bedroom opened with a soft click. It was another long few seconds before the night demon spoke. “...What is happening?” they asked, flatly but with blatant confusion.

“Oh, hey. We’re trying to assemble a new version of the chair that was broken,” you explained with a sigh.

“Not together?” Moon questioned.

“Unfortunately no, especially if I wanted the same type of chair,” you grumbled. “We have to put it together, but we’ve been here for hours and gotten nowhere. The directions are confusing as hell and basically unusable.”

“Inefficient.”

“Yup. Wanna take a look?” you asked, leaning over and grabbing the messily folded directions, tossing them to Moon. They plucked it from the floor and leaned back into the darkness. Why--? Oh, did they have night vision? That would explain a lot and make sense for what they were.

You kept working, and called out after two minutes, “Don't worry if it makes no sense, neither me nor Sun could read it. No one can read those things.”

The directions were tossed back out a fair distance into the living room like trash, and Moon's face emerged again. “Dumb.”

“Yup.”

“...Need help?” they asked after a few moments of watching the both of you struggle.

“Sure. The more the merrier,” you shrugged. “But also if you two break anything else I'm gonna be pissed.” You knew you couldn't threaten them with anything concrete--a threat to break the deal would be seen as a positive, most likely--so you just ‘threatened’ your annoyance.

Whether it worked remained to be discovered, but Moon slunk out on all fours nonetheless and sat under the table, at the edge of the array of parts. As they did, all lights flickered off, which Sun tsked at and snapped to turn the one above the table on so you had some light to see by. Despite the light right above the table, the shadows under the table obscured Moon’s form unnaturally well, darker than they would be normally. You could see their general form, but no real details. The two locked eyes for a long few seconds, and you watched them warily.

“Not leaving?” Moon finally asked, smile not friendly but not outright murderous like the other night, which you would take. They gestured to the night sky outside the windows.

“I started it, so I would like to see this challenge through,” Sun replied neatly, his smile the perfect picture of politeness but tight around the edges.

Moon's eyes narrowed, bell jangling, so you butted in. “Look, you both broke it, so you can both help me put it back together. Okay?”

Moon glowered but gave no further protest. So, the three of you set about trying to put the chair back together. It was a little more tense now, with the two demons not happy to be around one another, yet both seemed too stubborn to be the one to leave.

Joy.

You explained where you had gotten to so far and the current dilemma with the legs. Moon looked at the four legs, looked at the other chair of the same type, and decided it probably didn't matter as long as they were the same length. They were, so you moved on.

Sun helped you attach the other back two legs, holding it still while you drilled them in.

“Let it be known,” Moon said after the drilling stopped, “this could be done in an instant if you wanted.”

You looked at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”

“Magic,” he stated, like you were dumb.

“Oh. Right. I forgot you both can do that,” you mused.

“Oh come on,” Sun sighed dramatically, “putting it together is part of the experience!”

“Only you care about that,” Moon grumbled.

“I intend to see this through,” Sun said, ignoring Moon's comment. “Besides! It's sort of fun in a way. The things you humans come up with will never not amuse me.”

“Ugh, not this human shit again,” Moon groaned, head leaning back.

Sun huffed, “You can't say that to me when we are literally in the human world.”

“I just did.”

Sun took a breath, then let it out slowly. “Well. I find them fascinating and I won't take it back.”

“Weirdo.”

Sun seemed to roll their eyes--no pupils to tell--and turned back to the parts without deigning him with a reply.

When you saw Moon bristle, you leveled him with a stare. After a second, he huffed but backed off. You gave Sun the same stare the second he seemed about to be smug about this.

Sighing, you all got back to work. Whenever it came to a new piece being added, very rarely did the two demons agree fully, and neither liked admitting they were in the wrong, too stubborn and prideful. Sun would do it easier, but only apologized to you, and Moon would only huff but stop arguing.

It was a marvel they hadn't launched at one another yet. It was only you reminding them and staring them down often with a warning “Sun…” or “Moon…” that kept them in their places.

Why, you couldn't be sure. It probably had something to do with the deal, but you hadn't made any sort of deal to have power over them like this, so who knows. At least it worked to preserve the chair as it was built.

As it got later, Sun quieted a bit, but suddenly Moon paused and looked at you, as if remembering something. “Siblings?”

“Huh? Oh, right, you weren't there,” you remembered. “Yeah, I said that because you look kinda alike in build, but mainly because of how you fought like petty siblings the other day, which broke my chair. They didn't give me an actual answer,” you huffed, gesturing to Sun.

Said demon only shrugged. “What can I say? It's simply no fun if you aren't kept guessing a little bit.”

“I'm sure.”

Moon looked at you, sharp grin in place but seeming… perplexed. Finally, he scoffed, tail thing lashing once. “Weird human.”

You didn't respond to the jab, instead adding idly, “Despite almost definitely being siblings, you two couldn’t be more different. I mean, Moon, you look like how I might have imagined a demon, vaguely--from what I can see of you anyway--but Sun looks like an angel, so I really don’t--”

You were cut off when Moon burst out laughing, high and mocking but also highly amused. Sun, though they maintained their composure, stiffened, their smile seeming more of a grimace.

“Angel?!” Moon cackled. “You let them call you an angel?”

“It’s called looking presentable, and not chasing off every possible deal by arguing,” Sun sniffed, but Moon only laughed, leaning back against the base of the table and clutching his sides. It seemed a tad dramatic yet also somehow the most genuine laugh you’d heard from him so far, even if it was at Sun’s expense.

“Angel! Oh, wait till I tell--”

“Don’t you dare,” Sun interjected lowly, grip on a chair part tightening as their smile thinned, eyes narrowing. The glow around their horns seemed to brighten a little.

Moon grinned back, undeterred, stifling laughter and failing, tail swishing with delight. “I’m never letting you live this down. Angel…”

“I only meant that as a compliment,” you tacked on honestly, “since you look so regal and stuff. Is that, like, offensive to call you?”

“Offensive?” Moon laughed, clearly not taking you seriously. “No no, goddamn hilarious is what it is.”

You looked between them and asked, “So do you guys, like demons in general, hate angels then?”

“Hah! Hate? No no, best friends, kin,” Moon laughed mockingly, answering you but directed at Sun.

“Yes,” Sun answered, ignoring Moon but clearly hearing, judging by the twitch in their eye. “We are not on good terms, let’s say.”

“Putting it lightly,” Moon scoffed, laughter finally beginning to fade, though his tail thing still swished against the floor, jingling.

“What, you guys got some war going on?” you asked, genuinely curious now.

“Eh,” Moon shrugged, grin turning sour. “Used to. Technically not anymore, but they don’t like us. We don’t like them.” Then he blinked at you, as if in surprise, and quickly looked away, grumbling something or other not flattering about you with crossed arms.

Sun glanced his way but said nothing about whatever just happened, instead turning to you with a more relaxed smile. “In any case, it doesn’t matter. Angels don’t get involved like demons do, so you won’t have to worry about them.”

“Can angels be summoned?” you wondered, then at the look both turned on you--not hostile but definitely something--you hurried to add, “I wouldn’t! Just a hypothetical, for curiosity's sake.”

Sun seemed to think about that for a second. “Hmm... to be quite truthful, I’m not sure if they can be. I’ve never heard of it, at any rate. They only visit if they choose.”

Curious now, you pulled out your phone and began searching on a whim. It was unlikely you'd get anywhere concrete, but your brain was tired from staring at the chair parts. You reasoned you needed a break.

“Slacking?” Moon asked, and you couldn't quite discern if he was annoyed or poking fun at you. Perhaps both.

“I'm just looking to see if my deep dive weird searches can find anything on angel sightings,” you replied, not looking up, then paused. “What would I be looking for? Like, nice angels or horrifying biblically accurate ones?”

Sun hummed. “I suppose both, though less horrifying because they like to try to keep up their image with humans.”

“Wait, so do they all look weird with tons of eyes and stuff?” you asked, search pausing.

“Yup! Well, some of them. It depends, but generally yes,” Sun said.

“Do demons have biblically accurate forms? Or, would those count as eldritch forms?” you wondered.

“These aren't our ‘true forms’,” Moon scoffed, fiddling with some pieces of the chair back, not looking at either of you. Idly beginning to assemble different parts, it seemed, though whether they were right you couldn't tell. “Our true forms would melt your little human minds.” This was said with a confident smirk and a glance over at you, then down again.

“I’m sure,” you agreed, not quite sure if you believed him, but you were inclined to, and at any rate you didn’t want to test the theory.

You searched a bit more while the twins--you assumed, anyway--worked in silence, not acknowledging one another outside short glares, but you would definitely take it over fighting. As expected, your searches for angel sightings came up with even more garbage than searching for the demons did, given it was more vague and even more prone to religious jargon.

Giving up, you joined back in the construction. It took another whole hour, but it went quicker now, with three of you. Plus you were more inclined to fudge some of the parts and put them together even if it didn’t seem like it was a perfect fit. You were growing tired--was it their powers, or just mental exhaustion?--and so you wanted to get this over with as soon as possible.

Finally, at almost midnight, the chair was finished. You gave a little cheer as Sun gathered the trash and Moon slunk back to the bedroom to wait for you to join them.

“Thanks for staying up so late, Sun,” you thanked them. “You really didn’t have to.”

Sun smiled. “Oh, it’s not a problem, dear! I don’t know if enjoy is the right word, but I did not mind our time together, even with this chair.”

You smiled in return. “Good to hear. G’night.”

“Goodnight, darling.” With an inclination of his head, Sun turned and vanished in a pop and swirl of light.

You headed into your bedroom, energy rushing out of you now that Sun was gone, a yawn forcing its way up. “Thanks for your help, Moon,” you yawned into the darkness, the door clicking shut behind you even though you didn’t touch it.

There was a long silence as you climbed into bed and got comfortable, and sleep weighed heavy on your mind. Just at the edge of chiming bells and fuzzy consciousness, there was a quiet, almost inaudible, “....Welcome.”

Then you were out.

Chapter Text

Moon stalked across the rooftops, each footstep silent because he willed it so. Passerbys may hear the soft jingle of bells, but his form was merely a shadow to them because he willed it so. The night and shadows were his domain, and he controlled them as such. Here, he was powerful, silent and deadly as he idly fed off of the slumber of hundreds around him.

So how come he could not will it so that he didn’t speak around you?

They huffed to themselves as they slipped into the shadows of one rooftop and stepped out onto the building next to it. Stupid human. It was all going just fine, but when you were asking questions, they just… talked. Willingly.

First they spoke about the angels, those bastards, without even realizing they were talking. It was vague, sure, but they weren’t their idiot sibling. They could just lie, it wouldn’t matter, they didn’t feel some moral obligation to explain it to you.

But they did.

And you hadn’t said their name, either, they just talked.

How bizarre. Was it some effect of the deal, they wondered? They hadn’t felt compelled, but perhaps…

And they apologized! And stopped arguing! All just because you gave them a look. The thought aggravated Moon, tail lashing harshly as the shadows warped and twisted. They could kill you in an instant, they were a powerful demon and it was midnight, they could do whatever they liked! You hadn’t even invoked their name most of the time, and when you did there was no command with it, just a warning “Moon…”

When had they become such a wimp? Maybe they had been here too long, gotten too soft from the humans around them. Not that they were going to willingly give such a good deal up, hell no, but maybe being back in Hell might at least snap some sense back into them because they were clearly losing their mind.

You thanked them for helping. Such a weird human. Sure, humans had profusely thanked them for whatever deal or trade they made, but that was typical groveling. This wasn’t that. They knew what groveling and sucking up sounded like.

So then why did you thank them so genuinely when you had kept giving them looks the whole night and had talked so sternly to them at times? Why thank them for fiddling with some parts and sitting around for hours? Thanks did nothing, got no one anywhere, yet here you were.

Their hands flexed, twitching, so they traveled through the shadows to the first thing they saw--some sort of metal pipe on the side of the building. They tore off a chunk of it and began to bend it around, scraping at it and gnawing at the ends irritably. Stupid human…

The metal rod was too thin, it wasn’t satisfying to bite, only ratcheting up their frustration more. It was tossed away.

Taking a deep breath, he shook himself out and tried to clear his head. He focused his energy out, searching for “not innocent” humans to feed off of. Nightmares were the best, but truly any sleep would do. It wasn’t as filling as it was to feed off of your sleep, given the deal, but it helped since they could only feed off of you for so long. They made due.

An hour before the sun would rise, they traveled into a sequestered off forest, safe from human interaction. Alone. There they found a small, quiet, shady spot and drifted off to sleep.

~~~

“Rise and shine, darling!” Sun chirped happily, and you blinked blearily up at him. You yawned but energy soon began to push away the fog and dreariness of sleep. Sun provided you a sort of energy, yes, but at the same time he fed off of the natural energy you created by being awake. It was complicated.

He stepped back to let you get dressed, pulling out the ingredients you normally used to make breakfast but leaving them separate. Best not to meddle with them.

He tidied up while you woke up and ate, thanking him for the setting out of ingredients, which he waved away with his perpetual smile. “Not a problem!”

He was watering the plants by the windows--you had instructed him how much to give them, and he quite enjoyed it, the poor things had been dying by your sporadic care--when you spoke.

“Woah, you look gorgeous in the sun, like all glowy and stuff,” you said, staring at them from the kitchen counter where you stood eating cereal.

Sun stilled, turning their head to look at you in well-concealed surprise. They smiled brightly to cover it up with a bashful wave of their hand. “Aw, you flatter me!”

“I mean it,” you said, as if Sun didn’t believe you. “You look really pretty. Like, scary sure, but in an angelic and ethereal way, y’know?”

Sun couldn’t help but chuckle at the description. “I’m afraid I don’t, but thank you anyway, dear,” they replied.

It was odd. You were always commenting about how they looked angelic and pretty--the former of which was a rather backhanded compliment to a demon, but they knew you meant well.

Humans were prone to complimenting when groveling and begging for their lives or in order to try and suck up. But you had never groveled, not once, and practically your first words to them were a compliment.

They weren’t lying when they said you truly were a marvel. They had never met a human like you, so… unabashed and so strange, yet weirdly kind.

They didn’t think anything of the compliments at first, used to getting them from humans upon arrival--though certainly none had been dumb enough or brave enough to compare them to an angel. You were just lucky they were so civil about it (and Moon was lucky you were there to stop them from throttling him).

But he was starting to think that perhaps, however implausible it was, that you meant what you said. You meant when you called him pretty or handsome or cool, it wasn’t just a beg or sucking up.

…He didn’t know what to do with that.

~~~

A week later, the routine was disrupted. You were sitting at your counter on a high chair to study for a big exam you had tomorrow, books and study packets spread around you. Sun kept looking at them with a small twitch but didn’t disturb you, instead tidying up the kitchen and wiping surfaces until they shined. You had tried to tell him he didn’t have to do any of that, but he insisted.

The soft click of your bedroom door sounded, and that was your cue to leave and go to bed. But dammit you had procrastinated studying and this was the only time you had left to study now, so you were cramming.

Sun made an obvious glance between you and the door even without pupils, but you ignored it. A minute later, there was a soft jingle and the door creaked open a bit more.

“Sleep.”

“I’m studying, I’ve got a big test tomorrow,” you replied, not looking up.

A beat of silence, and you caught Sun shrugging out of the corner of your eye.

“Sleep is more important,” Moon said, tapping a finger on the doorframe. The sound was annoying, but maybe that was the point.

“Yeah, not tonight though. Besides, I can always sleep in a bit later, since the exam is later in the day.”

“Then study tomorrow.”

“Not that late, it’s at 9 AM.”

“...Study tomorrow.” He sounded done with you. Too bad.

“No. I’ll go to bed eventually, but I need to cram for this. It counts for a lot of my grade,” you replied firmly, ignoring the chill that ran down your spine.

“Can’t think if you’re tired,” Moon reminded you dryly. “Remember?”

“Well yeah, but I mean no matter how little I sleep, if Sun is here I won’t feel tired,” you pointed out, gesturing vaguely.

There was a crack and a discordant, sharp jangle of bells. Sun paused his cleaning as another chill swept over you, forcing a shiver. The shadows at the corners of your vision grew noticeable and darker, almost moving.

“We have a deal,” Moon growled, voice low and dangerous. “You sleep at least 8 hours overnight. 10 to 6. That’s the deal. No less.”

“What’re you gonna do if I don’t?” you shot back petulantly, trying to focus on this stupid notes packet and your own at times very messy handwriting with notes shoved in the margins that you struggled to read now.

Snap.

The lights shut off, curtains shutting, and you were left blinking into the darkness. The only thing you could make out now was Sun standing in front of you because he literally glowed in the dark, especially around his horns. His annoyed expression was perfectly clear as he snapped his own fingers, and the kitchen light turned back on. He sent a sneering smile in Moon’s direction at the growl they gave.

You finally looked towards your bedroom door, and the only thing visible were red slits in the unnatural darkness that swallowed the rest of the room. “Sleep. Or I drag you in here myself.”

“You wouldn’t.” The words had barely left your mouth when the red slits moved and a hand grabbed the back of your shirt and pulled you up off the chair. You yelped, then coughed as the shirt collar pressed against your throat. “Aghck! Moon, put me down!” you demanded, pulling your collar away from your throat, legs kicking empty air as they started to walk you to your room.

They stopped walking, then dropped you with a scoff. You stumbled back, catching yourself on the kitchen table. Sun looked caught between worry and amusement, the latter of which he tried to hide but was failing at. “Afraid you’re on your own, dear,” he said with clear restrained laughter. “My time’s up. You’ve got this.” He was gone before you could ask him to stay or point out the hypocrisy that he would stay up until midnight building a chair but bailed when Moon held you like a cat by the scruff to drag you to bed.

You looked up at Moon to scold him for that, but the words caught in your throat when you did.

With the dim light coming from the kitchen, though shadows darkened behind them, Moon was actually fully visible for once. They stood halfway to the bedroom door, turned towards you, arms crossed with a scowl full of sharp teeth and all black eyes with bright red, slitted pupils.

For the first time, you actually saw what they looked like (and that time they fought didn’t count because you had been focused on other things, plus he had partially hidden themself then). Two large horns emerged from either side of their head, curving back into sharp points. Two silver metal rings, almost like cuffs, were on each, with thin silver chains hanging between them.

They had a short cloak over their shoulders, black with a frayed edge with blue-gray patterns along it, held together with a yellow pendant. Their skirt-thing was almost identical in shape and pattern, just slightly longer and with no yellow pendant.

The pants seemed black at first glance, but you realized they were more of a very deep blue, more apparent as it faded towards the tattered bottoms. Swirling lines of silver stretched up with pale yellow dots in the curves, emanating a subtle glow. Their feet and hands were adorned with the same chains Sun had, but silver. Blue ribbon with hints of silver along the edges was wrapped around their wrists and lower arm, bells included.

Their skin was a light gray-blue, with darker splotches in the shape of a crescent moon on their face and in trailing splotches on their fingertips, feet, and up their lower arms.

Most notable was the long hat in the style of a nightcap with a large yellow bell at the end. Said hat faded from a light blue into a deeper blue that edged on purple with faint patterns swirling down it. The hat would’ve hit the floor if it wasn’t held up, flicking like a cat's tail. How that possibly worked, you had no clue, but you did know one thing.

“Damn, you look really cool,” you blurted, the only thing that came to mind. “It’s scary but in a pretty way.”

Moons narrowed eyes widened as their whole body went rigid, hat/tail movement freezing. They blinked, the red pupils disappearing and leaving them just black as their scowl shrunk. Bafflement was written across their face, and you took the time to wonder at their changing eye color. Was it purposeful or subconscious?

“...Why?” The question was quiet, seeming almost involuntary, perplexed as black eyes became red and they narrowed at you, tensing.

You blinked back. “Why? Because it’s true,” you replied honestly. “You look stunning. Not the same bright elegance as Sun, but still beautiful, more like the way the night is. Guess that makes sense, huh? With you being a demon of the night or whatever it is.” You looked them over again and couldn’t help but smile. “So cool.”

Moon stared back at you, frozen, with an expression somewhere between bafflement, surprise, suspicion, and some other thing you couldn’t quite make out.

At last, they scoffed and looked away, tail swaying slowly back and forth. They grumbled something in another language you couldn’t understand, then turned back with a clearly closed off expression. “Bed. Now. No complaining, nuisance, sleep. The stupid human brain doesn’t function as well with less sleep, you’ll only do worse on this test of yours. So, sleep,” they explained as if you were a kid while also complaining about the very thing they were explaining.

You looked at their face and swirling, inky shadows and decided yeah you probably shouldn’t push your luck with a murderous demon at night, in their element. With a dramatic sigh that turned into a yawn, you put your papers back into a folder and stacked your textbooks together, bookmarking which pages you needed most.

With their powers weighing you down, you slipped into bed and fell asleep almost immediately.

Chapter Text

“What's ‘Halloween’?” Sun asked, tilting his head at your calendar and the circled date that was tomorrow.

You gasped. “You don't know what Halloween is?! I feel like as a demon you'd love it! Or hate it, who knows. It's when humans dress up as scary creatures or just characters from shows they like and go out, knock on people's doors, and get candy,” you explained.

Sun hummed. “Interesting.”

“Yeah. Started as trying to scare off the bad things or something, now it's just for fun,” you said with a shrug. “You get free candy out of it though.”

“And you just trust these strangers not to poison you?” Sun asked, almost sounding incredulous.

“I mean yeah. Every once in a while there's a razor blade in one of them--”

“What”

“--but it's not often enough that I’m worried about it,” you replied flippantly.

Sun stared at you. You huffed, “Don't give me that look like I’m crazy. You're a demon, and I'm talking to you, and you've killed people. There are worse things.”

“That is--not even remotely the point,” Sun said, eyes narrowed and smile tight, once more baffled by your actions. It was a fairly common reaction between the two of them. You idly wondered how well or badly they would take it if you mentioned that their baffled faces were nearly identical when directed at you.

“You willingly risk people putting razor blades in candy to get some from them, rather than just buying it yourself?” Sun clarified, though it didn’t quite sound like a question, and more like a tired conclusion he was drawing.

“I don’t want to have to buy it,” you reasoned calmly, unrepentant.

Sun sighed, pinching where the bridge of his nose would be if he had one. “You--I can’t even say I’m surprised, unfortunately,” he sighed, looking at you once more. Though he certainly seemed exasperated, you thought you could see a hint of amusement in the crinkle of his eyes.

“I told you, it basically never happens, so there’s no need to worry about it,” you insisted.

An idea popped in your head, and a slow grin spread on your face. “What if you guys dressed up?”

Sun raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “Pardon?”

You were grinning fully now. “That would be so fun! You two should dress up when I go out.”

“I hate to break it to you, dear, but we don’t exactly blend in,” Sun pointed out wryly, gesturing to himself.

You waved a hand dismissively. “You have magic, can’t you just magic yourself to look like a human.”

“I would rather die.”

The deadpan bluntness of it made you snort in laughter. “Fine, fine, hate us lowly humans. Couldn’t you just make it so you're, like, invisible to everyone but me or something? Or maybe so other people see what they think makes sense? Like the mist from Percy Jackson!”

“... The what?”

“Nevermind.”

Sun hummed, finishing writing all your classes and job times for the next month on the board (he insisted, as always) and capping the pen. “I suppose I could do the first option, but I am not promising a costume.”

“Aw, come on, please?” you begged. “It’s the best part! It’s, like, the whole reason people do this, minus the candy. It makes it so much more fun than just walking around and getting candy normally.”

“Right. And what would you suggest I wear?” Sun asked with a smile, clearly humoring you as he handed the pen and phone back to you.

‘An angel’ popped first into your head as an answer, but he had said demons and angels didn’t get along, and he seemed tense talking about them, so while he might accept your roundabout compliments in comparing him to them, never would he actually wear an angel costume. Sadly.

A better idea, though… “What about a vampire? Like one of those old fancy ones with the cape and suit?”

“Well, I’ve met vampires, and they aren’t quite as sophisticated as you make them sound,” Sun chuckled.

You took a moment to be baffled by the fact vampires were real, before moving on just as quickly to look up an image of what you were thinking of. “This is just one way humans imagined them, I guess. It’s the most popular though.”

Sun hummed at the image in your hand of a fancy, fairly stereotypical vampire costume. “It’s a tad… bland.”

“Feel free to make it as fancy as you want,” you replied with a shrug. “This is just a costume version, and they make them cheap and simple. I’m sure with your magic you could make one way better.

Sun hummed again, but his smile stretched a little more and he seemed interested, clearly thinking about it. You smiled in turn. Got him.

“I suppose,” Sun sighed begrudgingly with every bit of drama in him, “it wouldn’t be too bad to dress up as one of these inferior creatures. Just for a bit.”

You grinned. “Awesome!”

Sun huffed a soft laugh, calming from his dramatics to pause and ask, “What time is it at?”

“It starts at 6, I think,” you replied.

Sun raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “You sure you didn’t plan this from the beginning to drag us into it?”

“Not really, it hadn’t even occurred to me honestly. I’m kinda forgetful.”

“I hadn’t noticed,” Sun teased, then shook his head and elaborated, “6 o’clock is almost exactly sunset, dear. The perfect time to haggle us into both being out for a bit before it switches over. You may have to do more convincing on Mr. Grumpy’s end, though.”

Huh. You hadn’t even realized that, but it made a lot of sense. Sun stayed longer than sunset usually, with all your lights on, but switching over at sunset and presumably sunrise actually made sense.

“Probably…” You grinned mischievously. “What do you think they’d say to being able to scare a bunch of humans during it?”

Sun snorted, a not very sophisticated sound, but every bit genuine. “My my, you really have gotten to know us.”

Later that night, when the bedroom door creaked open and Sun had left, you pounced at your opportunity. “Hey! What do you say about dressing up and going to Halloween with me tomorrow night?”

Narrowed red eyes stared at you from the gap in the open door, clearly baffled. Gosh, so similar.

“The Hell is that?” came the wary reply.

You explained it as you did to Sun earlier. “I already got Sun to agree! Please, it’ll be fun!”

“Absolutely not.”

“You get to scare the shit out of anyone else there.”

“...”

“That’s what I thought,” you chuckled with a grin. “Now, for a costume, how about a vampire?”

“Why would I dress up? We’re already demons.”

“Yeah, but this way it’s more fun!”

“Uh-uh,” came the disbelieving reply, so flat you could hear the deadpan expression that went along with it.

“Please,” you begged, drawing out the word. “Vampires in how humans depict them can either be really fancy, or super dark and, like, grungy. Seems like your style,” you explained, moving over to show them a picture of what you were referring to.

There was a long silence as red eyes narrowed at the phone in your hand. You turned it off, flicking off the main room lights as you headed into the room. Moon moved out of your way as quietly as ever, the only indication of movement the glowing red eyes and faint jingle of bells and thin chains clanking.

As you moved to get into bed, Moon finally spoke. “What time?”

“6 PM. They should have most of the lights off, for mood lighting, so…”

Moon heaved a sigh, nearly as put upon as Sun’s, though just a bit more genuinely annoyed. “You really know how to toe the line, huh?” they huffed. You didn’t get time to question that before you were out.

~~~

The next evening, you all but bounced into your bedroom to change into the costume you had made out of a mix of thrifted and closet items, plus some DIY things. You had actually made this last year, but didn’t end up using it. It still fit, and you had added and improved some things, so why not use it now?

You had debriefed Sun already about how it would work. It was a college event, which meant lots of candy and drinks and probably a lot of inappropriate costumes. You didn’t plan on staying long, just long enough to get a bunch of candy so you could come back and watch a scary movie and eat way too much of it in one sitting.

Pulling on the hat, you called out, “Hey, you both ready?”

“Of course!” Sun called back.

“Whatever,” Moon grumbled, but you grinned in knowing they had in fact showed up.

You opened the door and stepped out, spreading your arms. “What’d you think?”

Both demons--Sun standing in the living room and Moon curled over himself on the kitchen table--started in surprise, Sun stepping back and Moon’s eyes shooting wide.

You raised an eyebrow. You were wearing a homemade witch outfit, with tight black pants, tall black boots, a white puffy-sleeved shirt--like a pirate shirt, but nicer fabric--and a waist length, orange and black cape.

You had made the cape yourself, and it was black with orange patterning in sharp shapes, with an orange trim. You had cut the edges to make a couple triangular points, like strips of a banner. And of course, a witch hat. Plus a cool stick you found and made into a staff!

“What?” you asked, as Sun quickly recovered with a smile while Moon tried to look bored as always, but his flicking tail gave him away.

Sun cleared his throat, smiling. “Ah, nothing! Simply, uh…”

“Reminds us of… someone,” Moon finished flippantly. “Uncanny,” he muttered under his breath.

“Doesn’t matter, anyhow,” Sun continued, waving a hand. “You look lovely, darling.”

You finally registered their outfits. Sun was dressed in the most classic fancy vampire outfit one could think of, but with much nicer fabric and brighter colors. Instead of black, the darkest color was only a deep blood red. The shirt was clearly silk, and the pendant was almost definitely some kind of pure gem, a light blue color.

Moon’s was hard to discern, being folded over on the table, but he was dressed in all black aside from some blood red bits here and there. His hat was unchanged, but the rest looked like a very grunge vampire with a good bit of thin chains all about.

You grinned. “You both look great! Okay now, come on, let’s go trick or treating!”

~~~

You weaved through the crowd and dodged into the main building for the event. There were baskets of candy at some classroom doors, with teachers handing it out. The hallways were decorated with string lights, paper cut-outs on the walls, and some spooky music playing quietly over the loudspeakers.

It was tacky and absolutely great! You had warned Sun and Moon earlier about not being able to talk to them in public, if they were going to be invisible, so they followed behind you quietly. They made the occasional comment--Sun muttering about the quality of the decorations--but they didn’t expect you to respond.

For a bit, you simply went around and collected as much candy as you were allowed to take, putting it in your generic, plastic, orange, pumpkin shaped candy basket. You chatted with a few people you knew, exchanging compliments on costumes and some candy one didn't want but the other did.

Moon had gone off by now to scare people, bored of your wandering. Sun was nearby, having evidently deemed these humans not a threat or something and gotten bored and wandered down the hall.

You headed off the way Sun had gone, taking in the horrible decorations with glee. You would wander a little, enjoy the college after hours, then grab the two and head back. There was a dance in another part of the building, but you weren't feeling nearly social enough for that.

Screams quickly followed by laughter echoed down the hallway. Moon, if you had to guess. Or students scaring each other. Both were equally likely.

A clatter of noise to your left, making you glance over. It was an empty classroom. Weird.

You continued down and something fell to the floor to your right, but still you couldn’t see what.

“Ha ha, Moon, knock it off,” you whispered down the hall. “I don’t scare easily.”

No response.

Whatever, he liked to mess with you sometimes. You ignored it and moved on, weaving around fallen decorations and the occasional passing student. Sun was nowhere down the hall, though, so you gave up with a sigh and circled back.

A scream from down the hall made you jump, much louder than the rest. You turned the corner to find a girl clutching her chest, pressed to the wall, staring at a knocked over bucket of candy on the floor.

Her friends started laughing, though it sounded a little high in terror, but the girl seemed frozen in shock. Weird, but you didn’t want to stare and kept moving. You didn’t see any glowing eyes or hear any bells, but you supposed he could actually sneak when he wanted.

You jumped a little when Sun appeared in front of you. “Hello! How are you enjoying your night so far?” Sun greeted, walking backwards. You walked to keep up with him.

“Not bad. Moon’s definitely been getting around to scaring everyone,” you snorted. “Scared some girl back there half to death.”

“Oh?” Sun hummed, tilting his head. “Yes, they do enjoy that, never quite understood it… Were you planning on heading to the dance I saw happening?”

“Oh, no, not really my scene,” you replied quickly. “I like this college and all, but I’m not nearly popular or confident enough to want to try and awkwardly dance and mingle in there.”

Both of you paused and looked down the hallway, back from where you were walking, when there was a loud clatter of something being knocked over. “Damn. Some students, or Moon, is getting real loud about it,” you muttered. “Hope it’s not a student, or they’re getting in so much trouble come class this week.”

Sun hummed but did not reply. When you turned back to him, you caught a split second of narrowed eyes and a tight smile that seemed just a little sharp at the edges--but his expression smoothed back to normal and pleasant the next second, and you weren’t confident you weren’t just imagining things. It was pretty dark anyway.

You decided not to question him--demons were weird--and headed down the hall back towards the main group of people. The noise didn’t quite drown out the yelps and subsequent laughter of people being spooked by something or other. Names were called out, but no humans fessed up. You glanced around, curious to still not see Moon. Unless he was hiding himself from you?

“Boo.”

You were proud of yourself for only flinching a little, turning around to find Moon hanging upside down, face to face with you. “Hey.”

Moon rolled red eyes with white slit pupils. “Ugh, you’re no fun,” they grumbled, falling and standing upright in one smooth motion you couldn’t quite track. Well, upright being hunched over still, but now on two feet.

“Yeah yeah. Well, you’ve gotten plenty out of half the college by now,” you snorted.

Moon did the equivalent of raising an eyebrow. “Haven’t gotten around that much yet…”

Crash.

More yelps and laughter from only a little down the hall. Moon’s eyes narrowed to slits, all black with a slash of red for the pupils, teeth slowly bearing in a growl as he lowered himself a bit. Sun was a bit rigid, eyes narrowed, but didn’t appear as offset as Moon.

You slowly looked to Moon. “So… those haven’t been you.”

“Not all,” they replied shortly, eyes still focused on a point behind you.

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Sun said quickly. “Like you said, just the other students messing with each other. However, I would advise you to leave before they get to you.”

Sometime during Sun speaking, Moon had melted into the shadows and disappeared. Now you were suspicious. Moon didn’t get all worked up like that over nothing.

… Well okay that wasn’t quite true, but Sun certainly didn’t. They were tense and something was wrong. Unfortunately, no matter your pestering on the topic--registering the looks you got enough to pull out your phone and pretend to be on a call--Sun just smiled and politely badgered you out with excuses of it being late, not liking the tacky decorations or music, not liking all the humans, and so on. Which was bullshit because despite Sun’s higher taste, they were fascinated by humans and had been curious the whole time until now about everything.

You tried to spot Moon in the crowd, but they had disappeared once more. Sneaky bastard.

You made it to the main entryway and were almost out when you heard a soft clink above you, and there were a few gasps but you couldn’t seem to move fast enough to look--

A little glass pumpkin shattered on the ground only a foot from you, making you stumble back in surprise. “Shit!” Where did that even come from?? You looked up and around. Maybe from the banister of the stairs? But who would put that there?

You looked to Sun to ask if they had seen anything, but looking hurt your eyes and head like looking at the sun but something was twisted--and then it didn’t and they were smiling at you and asking if you were alright.

“Uh, yeah, I’m fine, just… a bit surprised,” you managed, shocked at the wobble in your own voice. Weird. You didn’t feel that scared.

Some professor was yelling to clear everyone out around it, and another was grabbing a broom and pan to sweep it up. Sun ushered you out the door and into the chilled night air.

You breathed in the fresh air gratefully. “Now,” Sun started, “stay put for a bit, will you?”

“What? Where are you--?” The door swung shut behind you, and there was no one else outside. You sighed. “Great.” Well, nothing else to do but stand around, you supposed. Besides, after that little crash, you weren’t too keen on going back in. You sat criss-cross on the ground to the side of the door and started snacking on your candy.

~~~

Sun peered around the area, eyes narrowed to dangerous slits.

You seemed to think it was just Moon--or, by now, some rowdy students. But the manner and occasion of these ‘scares’ were a little too convenient. For once he and Moon were on the same page, with Moon having slunk off the moment the commotion started down the hall.

A trickster spirit, likely. They fed on fear and surprise, which meant this sort of environment was like a feast for them, especially with Moon messing around.

Tch. Look at them. A demon--and one of not low standing and power, either--hunting around for a stupid little trickster spirit that wasn’t even causing harm. And Hell, it causing trouble was technically good for them! Didn’t hurt, at least.

But they were hunting it. For the sake of one human, who wasn’t even hurt by it.

Well, might as well get rid of the little nuisance while they were here, Sun reasoned with a shrug. Don’t want it coming back to bite them in the ass later. And best to keep those sorts of things away from you, anyhow.

Especially one bold enough to try messing with you with them around. How insolent.

Resolved once more, Sun set off through the building, listening and watching. They were often invisible, but sometimes…

There! Light shimmered on thin air, twisting away from the most recent bout of yelps and screams.

Sun stalked over, form passing through the other humans with ease, tracking the spirit down the hall. Now that they had seen it once, they could see the slight shimmer in the air as it traveled and changed shape to mess with things.

It made a high pitched laughing sound when a new group of students startled at a loud noise it made, then yelped when it saw him approaching. It turned and zoomed away.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sun huffed, hurrying after it.

As they raced into a more empty hallway, Sun drew in the lights to swirl around and disorient the spirit. It only worked for a few moments though, as his powers were weaker with the night, and he really didn’t want to cause any lasting damage to the surrounding humans who you might be attached to.

When his grip lessened, though, and the creature slipped out of the light catch, an unnatural darkness rose to meet it instead, and it was swallowed into shadow. Sun let the lights dim fully down, and a second later Moon slunk out with a writhing spirit in his teeth. It looked like he was holding only shimmering air, but they both knew what was there.

“I had it,” Sun sniffed, crossing the distance between them as he crossed his arms.

“Sure,” Moon drawled disbelievingly around the spirit, crouched on the ground in a sitting position.

Sun didn’t bother responding, just plucking the spirit carefully out of his mouth, holding it as far away from themself with two fingers as possible. “Ugh. You’re disgusting.” Moon smiled with all his teeth up at him. Rolling his eyes, Sun made quick work of the spirit with a spell and a twist of his hands.

He shuddered. “I hate those little things,” he grumbled, turning to walk back to the way out. “And I hate this place even more. Not only is it tacky, it’s dark, too.”

“Just a little taste of your own medicine,” Moon crowed with glee, hurrying after him on all fours before transitioning to walk beside him.

“I hate you.”

“Aw, hate you too,” Moon mocked with a sharp grin. Sun sneered in return.

They quickly composed themselves as they exited the building, spotting you on the ground.

“Hey! What took you guys so long?” you asked, standing with a stretch.

“Oh, just had to go and find this one,” Sun said brightly, gesturing to Moon. “Got lost.”

“Lost?!” Moon bristled. “I did not--”

“He’s a little embarrassed,” Sun said in a mock whisper to you, making you chuckle while Moon growled threateningly.

“Alright alright, let’s just get home,” you interrupted before Moon could try and fight him. “Well, Sun you’re good to go if you want, I know it’s pretty late, and it’s dark on the way back.”

Sun smiled, hoping he didn’t look as purely relieved as he felt. “Much obliged, dear,” he replied, a hand over his heart as he offered a slight bow, and then disappeared in a swirl of light.

~~~

You drove back to your apartment, yawning as you took off your costume and changed into pajamas. Moon waited outside your bedroom, curtains drawn and the apartment dark as it should be.

“So,” you said as you climbed into bed, bedroom pitch black as always. “You gonna tell me what you two were actually doing in there while I was sent outside?”

Moon was quiet, saying nothing as you got settled. When you did, all he said was a huffed, “None of your business.”

You snorted but didn’t push it. “Well, as long as you two didn’t tear each other's throats out, or anyone else's, I count that as a win,” you yawned.

Moon swished his tail and pushed you over the edge into sleep.

Hm. Moon thought back on the night, and the way him and Mr. Sunny ended up working together by complete accident. Usually running into each other like that would’ve led to a fight, but tonight… they just got the job done and left. Side by side.

Ew.

Chapter Text

“Is this ‘Valentine's Day’ why everywhere is decorated with horribly tacky red hearts?” Sun questioned in the days leading up to said celebration as you walked back from your college building to where the car was parked. He had started showing up sometimes, meeting you outside. (You had to ban him from bothering you in class after you jumped and embarrassed yourself when he appeared in the middle of class and no one else could see him)

You nodded, phone to your ear to fake a phone call. “Yup. Lots of flowers, stuffed bears, and chocolates, too.”

“And it’s for people in ‘relationships’?” Sun clarified. “What exactly constitutes the type of relationship that this holiday celebrates?”

“Mostly it's for romantic relationships, so people who are dating or married. But friends can give each other little gifts too,” you explained. “Aside from gift giving, people will sometimes just do little acts of kindness for the other, or plan an event, just something special to show they thought and care about the other person.”

Sun hummed. “Sounds incredibly sappy.”

“Sure is.”

The two of you stopped at a crosswalk, waiting for it to clear. You asked idly, “Do you demons have any holidays down there? I mean, I assume you came from Hell, anyway.”

Sun shrugged. “It essentially is, yes. And no, we don't have the same defined holidays as humans. Some will commemorate big events in history, like the first time a demon learned to get to the human world. But we don't have nearly as many holidays, and certainly for nothing as cheery and sappy as this.”

“Not even birthdays?” you asked, leading the way as you walked. People passed right through Sun without even a blink.

He made a so-so motion with his hand. “Sort of. Time works less cleanly there than it does here, and though I personally like keeping track of the days and stole a calendar for it, birthdays are not nearly as big of a deal, given we don’t have normal births. Presents aren’t really a thing. The most it will be is an acknowledgement of it. Nothing special.”

“Well that’s got to change!” you exclaimed. “What’s your guy's birthday?”

Sun turned around from where he’d been starting to walk ahead, walking backwards just to stare at you.

You raised an eyebrow. “You do know when it is, right? You said you kept a calendar.”

Sun nodded. “I do.”

“And you aren’t going to tell me?”

“No.”

“Why?”

“Reasons,” Sun replied with a smile as he turned back around.

“I think you just don’t know,” you teased, “and don’t want to admit it. It’s fine if you don’t know, you can just choose a random date and that could be your guy's birthday.”

Sun chuckled. “I’m quite alright.”

You continued prodding, catching up to walk beside him. “Is it a twin thing? Don’t want to share a birthday with Moon?”

Sun made a motion of rolling his eyes, smile thinning slightly, though it was undermined a little with the lack of pupils. “Don’t have to share if you never celebrate it,” he replied lightly.

A smile brightened your features as an idea came to mind. “Oh! I know! What if we celebrated yours on the Summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and Moon’s on the winter solstice, the shortest day with the longest night? That fits, right?”

Sun paused, then hummed thoughtfully. “That isn’t a horrible idea. If we were interested in celebrating them in the first place.”

You grinned. “Oh you bet I’m throwing you both birthday parties now that I have a date.”

Sun chuckled, a warm sound. “Alright, dear. Do whatever makes you happy.”

~~~

In the following days leading up to Friday, Sun found he couldn’t quite shake the idea of Valentine’s Day that you had explained. It was incredibly sappy, yet so incredibly human. They truly made a holiday for everything--every day was many different national days, as you showed him, which was baffling and weird but so fascinating. Weird as they were, he found it interesting.

You hadn’t seemed to express much excitement or interest in the upcoming holiday, but with all you had done for them, Sun figured you deserved something in return.

Sure, their deal as it was was transactional and worked just fine. They fed off your energy, and in turn helped you keep a normal sleep schedule and have energy during the day. But you didn’t seem to realize just how rare and special a mutual deal like this was.

This sort of deal would allow him and Moon to stay in the human world until you eventually passed away, something that was a very hard deal to get under most normal circumstances. It was something every demon wished for--to be able to stay in the human world and feed to their heart's content for years on end.

Well--most demons didn't exactly want to stay in the human world, not finding it as interesting as Sun did, but they did want the feeding part.

Most deals ended up being one off things, with humans often making them for short term things. Some were longer, maybe a few years before they collected their end of the bargain--but until that time for collection, they were sent right back to where they came from. A deal where they could regularly interact with and stay in the human world like this was incredibly rare.

They generally were summoned to the human world in order to get there, aside from some more powerful demons who could do it under certain circumstances or just as they pleased. Sun was, unfortunately, not one of those, but he’d gotten enough experience and exposure in the past in the right circles so he was summoned every once in a while.

There was a way to get to the human world without being summoned, of course, mainly for demons to get their start until they could be sure they would be summoned later on. But it was more risky, more painful, and overall inconvenient. Not ideal, but sometimes necessary.

He had not been summoned since your deal, but that wasn’t a problem with him already in the human world.

Demons didn’t exactly need to feed off of humans or eat the same way humans did. Physically eating wasn’t always necessary--it depended on the type of demon--and they could go much longer without feeding in whatever way they did. They could not be summoned for decades and, though it would weaken them, it took a long while to fully waste away.

Still, being able to get his fill whenever he pleased, and getting to feed off of you every single day--it was certainly nice. A luxury he made sure not to take for granted.

Hence, the plan. The plan being to make a show of thanks to ensure you continued with the deal. And, honestly, just thanks in general for being such a clueless mess that you fumbled your way into this deal, and for being so weirdly kind to them.

So, the next day, while you were at one of your classes, Sun popped around to some of the stores nearby. Sure enough, there were plenty of boxes of chocolates and flowers. You didn't seem the flower type, though they were pretty--Sun had had to save that poor plant in your apartment, so he doubted you would fare any better with a vase of flowers.

He did steal a box of chocolates. Those seemed a safe bet. Then came the problem of what special thing he could do for you… he already cleaned up regularly, did the dishes, put groceries away after you bought them…

Ah! Dinner! Yes, he could make you dinner! He'd seen you make a few simple meals every now and again, and he'd wanted to try his hand at cooking for a while now anyway. So many recipes in your cookbook looked delicious! He wasn't even big on human food, it just looked and smelled nice.

Back in the apartment, he checked over your calendar. Perfect! You had a class and then worked until 6 PM on Friday, giving him plenty of time to cook.

When the day came, he looked through the cookbook while you were out. Sadly, it was a dreary, rainy day, clouds making it even gloomier for such a happy day. He didn’t plan on going outside, though, so it would be fine. It didn’t replace the sun, but all of the lights in the buildings were quite nice to have as a constant place to go to when it got dark.

A soft clatter came from the bedroom. Sun glanced over but wasn’t worried.

There was soft shuffling for a few moments. When he didn’t seem like he was going to open the door, Sun called out, not looking up, “Just because it's dark outside doesn’t mean it’s night. You’re early.”

No response, but he could hear the muffled sound of bells that only confirmed Moon’s presence. As if he couldn’t sense his presence in such a small place.

Sun didn’t bother trying to talk to him again, just looked through the book for something you would like that wasn’t too complicated. After a solid half an hour of deliberating, he landed on a tasty looking chicken alfredo pasta, something he was fairly sure you mentioned liking. So, he grabbed a notepad and jotted down the ingredients.

Then he turned to check the fridge to see what they had already, humming to himself idly as he picked through it.

Creak.

“Found what you were looking for?” Sun asked, checking the expiration date on a package of cheese.

Moon hummed, bells ringing softly. The door clicked shut, and their light steps could be heard over the table and onto the counter as all lights but the one in the kitchen flickered off. Sun threw the cheese out, glancing over to see they had settled in an odd sort of crouched sitting position on the counter, tilting their head to read the book.

“What’s this for?” they asked, narrow white slits in red eyes flicking to him.

“Take a wild guess,” Sun replied dryly, checking the milk.

Moon gave a wry snort. “You think you can make this? You don’t know how to cook.”

“I’ve watched it, and it can’t be that hard,” Sun said primly, straightening as he closed the door to the fridge.

Moon grinned, all sharp teeth and narrowed eyes. “Oh, I can’t wait to see this.”

Sun resisted rolling his eyes, sighing. “Do whatever you like, just don’t get in my way.” Moon hummed a not very convincing agreement.

Sun warped over to the supermarket, nabbed the missing ingredients, and brought them back to the apartment. He set about laying everything out, narrowing his eyes briefly at Moon where they sat on the counter, then just worked around their obstructive presence.

“What are you doing up, anyhow?” he asked as he crouched, grabbing the pot he’d seen you use to make pasta in the past. It was around 4 PM now, more than enough time to make the pasta and make sure it was ready for when you got back.

“Nothing that concerns you,” Moon replied, settling further on the counter, curling their long tail around their feet.

Sun did roll his eyes when he was turned away from them, scoffing. “Stubborn and secretive as always,” he muttered.

Moon mumbled something under their breath he didn’t hear. He did his best to shove down the irritation to focus on making the food.

He read the instructions carefully to make sure he did each step right. He ignored Moon, and neither talked. But after a bit, as Sun was carefully cutting the chicken into even cubes, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

Moon was batting at a measuring cup he had left out.

“Don’t you--”

The cut clattered to the ground with a harsh clang. Both winced at the noise, but Moon still turned to him with a shit eating grin and an “Oops.”

Sun held back a snarl, smile sharpening around the edges as he went and picked up the cup and put it out of their reach. “Don’t,” he warned simply, pointing at them with the knife.

Moon blinked innocently. “Who, me?”

Sun didn’t deign that with a response. He went back to slicing the meat, using the sharp ends of his fingers to ensure the raw meat didn’t move as he cut it.

Movement. He looked up. They locked eyes, Moon’s hand hovering over the bag of cheese.

“I swear--”

The cheese was knocked off the counter.

Sun moved quickly to catch it, grimacing as the juice from the chicken on his hand got on the bag. He swiped at Moon with the large knife he still held, which Moon easily dodged.

“Woah, no need to get so angry,” Moon chuckled.

“If you’re just going to be a nuisance, you can leave,” Sun snapped, wiping off the bag with a paper towel. “I’m trying to do something nice for our human, so I’d rather--”

“Aw, still trying to suck up to them?” Moon sneered.

Sun shot them a glare, one of the bells at the long end of his caplet whacking at the hand that went to move to swat another object. “I’m simply expressing my gratitude for the fortunate deal and situation we have found ourselves in with this human. This holiday seemed like a good time to do so.”

Moon frowned, huffing. “And this whole meal is part of that?”

“They said people do nice acts for the other, to show they thought about them,” Sun replied smoothly, dropping the chicken pieces in a heated-up pot. They made a satisfying sizzle. “Since having this deal continue on would be quite nice, I figured doing this couldn’t hurt. If you are intent on ruining this dinner for them, feel free, but I’m not afraid to rat you out. Do you feel like being scolded by them again?”

“Tch” was all Moon replied with.

“That’s what I thought,” Sun hummed with a smile. He didn’t want it either, in all honesty. It wasn’t exactly scary, but it was effectively chastising. He… didn’t want to upset you.

Anyway! Sun cooked the chicken until browned, as instructed, then put in the garlic, then the broth and pasta.

The cookbook said to let it ‘simmer’, though he wasn’t sure what that meant. He turned it down just a little and let it keep cooking at a solid boil. It said 8 minutes simmer, so he glanced at the clock. Now to wait.

During all of this, Moon simply sat off to the side. When he snuck a glance back, their eyes were heavily lidded, now contorted and folded, laying over their knees in a position that couldn’t possibly be comfortable. Sun wondered again what could possibly have them up during the day, even if it was gloomy out. He turned away quickly when Moon’s eyes opened wider, likely feeling his gaze.

He started. Ah! He had wanted to make a little card as well. Not necessary, sure, but it just seemed like the right thing to tie it all off with.

He scoured around and borrowed some paper from a notebook of yours with a muttered apology, stealing a pen as well. The lights turned on when he walked under or near them, then off again when he was out of range. He wrote it on the table.

Moon gave a questioning hum, head twisted around.

“Just a quick thank you letter,” Sun said, making sure his penmanship was nice. He prided himself on his calligraphy and cursive, though the former was harder without a proper calligraphy pen to use. Still, the idea was there.

He folded it and left it on the box of chocolates on the table, then went back to stir the pasta, glancing again at the time.

Moon slunk off to the table, clawed feet clacking lightly against the wood.

“No chocolates for you,” Sun called over his shoulder. “Not until the human gets their pick, anyway.”

“You’re no fun,” Moon grumbled.

That’s what they always said, just because he liked a little order in life.

He whipped around at the sound of tearing paper, seeing Moon taking a bite out of the corner of the paper.

“Heathen!” Sun shrieked in outrage, darting over and snatching the letter from them.

“Thought the paper would be stronger,” Moon muttered petulantly around the bite of paper.

“Ugh, need you bite everything you can get your hands on?” Sun huffed, folding the paper and stuffing it in his pocket for safe keeping. “That’s one thing that hasn’t changed.”

Moon scowled. “Neither has your pompous attitude.”

Sun’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, my attitude? Says the one constantly antagonizing me.”

“You start it.”

“Do not!”

“Do too.”

They quickly devolved into bickering, and Sun had to briefly scuffle to get the chocolates back, holding them safely away from them.

Both demons paused when they finally processed the smell of something burning.

Sun yelped and all but dropped the chocolates on the counter as he rushed back over to the pan, which was still boiling and smoking and--ugh, totally burnt on the bottom. He cursed every way he knew under his breath as he quickly took it off the heat and dumped it in the trash can.

He swung a glare at Moon when they began to cackle. “Oh shut it, you were the one who distracted me.”

Moon only laughed harder.

Sun went to the sink and scraped out the pan thoroughly until as much of the burnt residue was off that he could get. The pot seemed permanently burnt, but it wasn’t being wiped off and didn’t smell, so hopefully it wouldn’t affect the taste.

Another round of stealing groceries later, he prepped the exact same thing, this time not taking his eyes off the pot or clock and standing firmly in front of it--after making sure all ingredients and the chocolates were in his range of vision to keep Moon from meddling.

Moon settled back into their weird position on the counter, but seeing as they weren’t causing any more trouble, Sun elected to ignore them for now.

Finally, just as it turned 6, the meal was ready. A little overcooked, maybe, it was hard to tell, but it wasn’t burnt, and that’s all that mattered.

He had just finished putting all of the ingredients away when the key turned in the lock. Moon, who had been very nearly asleep, perked up the same as Sun at the noise.

Sun beamed at your entrance, which you returned a little more tiredly.

“Hey Sun--oh, hey Moon, what’re you doing here?” you greeted, noticing the demon's odd presence as you set your bag down on the couch.

“Wait, why does it smell like--oh my god did you make dinner?” you asked, not even letting the first question be answered as you looked towards the kitchen. You sniffed. “Why does it smell burnt?”

Moon snickered, but Sun cut in quickly, “Ah, don’t worry about it, the problem was fixed. And yes! I did! Alfredo chicken pasta,” he confirmed proudly.

“I helped,” Moon chipped in.

“You absolutely did not,” Sun huffed, grabbing a bowl and scooping some into it for you. “Don’t listen to them. They did nothing but cause distractions.”

“Helping,” Moon agreed with a grin.

You chuckled, taking the bowl. “Well, thank you either way,” you said. You took a careful bite.

“Well?” Sun prompted eagerly.

“Dang, this is actually pretty good,” you admitted, eyes widening. “Especially for your first time cooking something. Doesn’t taste burnt at all.”

“Oh, I’m glad!” Sun exclaimed, literally brightening as he clasped his hands together in delight.

“What’s the occasion though?” you asked as you went to sit at the table.

“It’s Valentine’s Day, of course!” Sun grabbed the box of chocolates and the note from his pocket and brought those to you. “Here!”

You gasped, taking the box and note gingerly. “Aw, Sun, this is so sweet of you! Gosh, I don’t even--now I feel bad because I didn’t get anything for either of you.”

“Don’t worry about it, darling,” Sun assured you swiftly, waving a hand. “Having you here as we are is enough.”

You grinned. “Those sappy reality shows and soap operas must be getting to you,” you teased as you unfolded the note. A glance at the bite and a look at Moon clearly answered your question, and you didn’t comment on it.

Thank you for agreeing to this deal and allowing us to mutually benefit from this arrangement, and thank you for being so weirdly and uniquely kind yet stubborn. This truly is more than any demon could ask for.
~ Sun

“Aww,” you cooed. “Of course! You two have helped me a ton, too, in getting my sleep schedule and life on track. My insomnia was kicking my ass before, and you two saved my life, seriously. So thank you, too.”

Sun brightened, rather flattered. Not exactly often a human was ever glad for their assistance, certainly not after this long of knowing them. Usually backfired pretty quick when they got their due reward… But not with you. No, you were truly something else, with a stupid kind of luck to get into this situation.

You dug into dinner and a few of the chocolates before offering them up to the staring Moon as you went to change into something more comfortable for the night.

Moon gladly slunk over and picked at the chocolates curiously. They grabbed one of the ones you tried and popped it in their mouth. Their face screwed up in distaste for a second before slowly smoothing back out in consideration as they chewed. “Could be worse,” they landed on.

“Woah, Sun, did you clean my room?” you called when you stepped into your bedroom.

Sun tilted his head in confusion. “No? You know I don’t go in there.”

His gaze landed on Moon, who was very pointedly not looking up at him and instead inspecting the chocolates. A grin quickly grew as the pieces fit together. “Ah, is that why you were here so early then? You were also, ah, how did you put it? ‘Sucking up to the human’?” Sun teased gleefully.

“I only did it because the mess was bothering me,” Moon snapped back, tail flicking with a harsh jingle of bells. You peered back out of the doorway to watch this interaction, chuckling.

“Well, thank you, Moon,” you said sincerely. The demon bristled a little and only huffed in response. You ducked back into the room to change.

“I knew you’d come around eventually,” Sun continued with pure glee. “Now you can’t judge me for it, because you’re soft to them, too.”

“I still can.”

“You’d be a hypocrite.”

“And?”

Sun scoffed, but you emerged before the bickering could devolve.

Sun joined you on the couch for the nightly TV watching, all other lights off minus the lamp in the living room and the TV itself. Moon, to his surprise, remained on the table, snacking on chocolates quietly.

Sun wanted to call them out on watching the show with them, on hanging out, but that would scare them off, and he… didn’t want that. How strange.

The night ended peacefully, with Moon finally slinking off to the room with you when it was time for sleep.

All things considered, not a bad day at all.

Chapter Text

It was nearing the end of your second semester, and that meant finals were coming up--as was the one year marker since you’d made the deal with both demons. Anniversary?

Either way, it had been… an interesting year at college. You’d had the best sleep schedule possibly ever, though it took a bit before the procrastination was also kicked around into not whining with Moon and staying up late. So, it did force you to work on things a little bit more and be proactive since Moon simply wouldn’t let you pull an all-nighter like you used to.

You’d fallen into a routine, and it was honestly pretty nice. Your apartment never felt draining, lonely and empty to come home to anymore. Even if Sun wasn’t always there, he at least showed up to say a quick hello and bid you goodnight before Moon showed up to drag you to bed. It felt like a home. A slightly dysfunctional home, you had to admit, but one nonetheless.

After Valentine’s Day you had noticed that Moon liked the dark chocolate ones, so you started picking up a bar of dark chocolate whenever you remembered to swing by the store only a few blocks from the apartment that sold good ones. Moon had been confused the first time, then snatched it like you were going to rescind the offer if they waited too long. They’d even grumbled out a thanks!

Your professor walked in and you dragged your thoughts back down to the present. Since you were nearing finals, most classes were just time to review or occasionally review games or little quizzes. Unfortunately, this professor had something different in mind.

A group project. Dammit.

“It’ll just be something easy to review your knowledge and get you more points before the end of the semester,” he said with a smile. “However, it cannot be with someone that you’ve worked with before in this class.”

Nearly the entire class groaned or sighed, you included. You glanced around the room with a nervous tick in your heartbeat. You already hated group projects, but you at least had a semi-normal group of people you worked with. But no. Of course not. This professor just had to pull a beginning of the year tactic to get people to work outside of their friend groups, like that would do any good with only a few weeks left in classes before summer.

To your utter relief, someone else approached you first. It was some guy in a flannel with a bit of a scruffy beard who looked generic enough that you honestly couldn’t say if you’d seen him before or not.

“You want to partner up?” he offered, hands stuck in his jean pockets in a casual stance.

You shrugged and gave a smile. “Sure,” you replied pleasantly. He wasn’t someone you knew to be a horrible work partner, so you’d just have to hope he pulled his own weight. You introduced yourself, just to save either of you from having to ask the other their name an awkward amount of time into the project.

He returned the smile, slipping into the seat next to you. He said his name was Michael. The professor finished up with the project directions, emphasizing that it was due next class. You had this class every other day, excluding weekends, so basically you only had today and tomorrow to work on it. Fantastic.

“Uh, I’ll grab the poster board,” you offered, and he nodded and went to grab some small paper and colored pencils. You had to make a poster--by hand--in a sort of mind-map style with some pictures that covered the units you needed to know. The professor at least gave you a checklist of the information you needed, but still. You hated mind-maps, and doing it on the large poster-board brought you back to high school in the worst way.

Once you were both settled, you offered, “I can share a doc, so we can compile the information there first.”

He agreed, so you both pulled out your laptops from your bags and began to get to work. After only a minute though, Michael piped up. “I like those pins on your bag.”

You looked down at the sun and moon pins on your bag, having honestly forgotten you’d put them on there. “Space fan?” he prompted, with an awkward little smile like he was trying to make small talk.

“Uh, yeah, you could say that,” you replied with a smile you hoped didn’t come off as nervous. “I just think it’s neat.” You had bought them for cheap at Hot Topic one time because you thought it was funny. Sun thought it was sweet that you thought of them, while Moon made an exaggerated gagging motion--which, side note, made you realize he had a tongue, which you either never saw before or never registered, despite Moon being the one to usually open his mouth to talk. It was long and blue and needless to say your sheer surprise was a bit embarrassing because obviously he would have a tongue, but still. You hadn’t been expecting it. Moon now mocked you about it relentlessly whenever he got the chance.

He nodded, and you lapsed into mostly silent work after deciding how to work on it, occasionally asking a question or two to the other before writing down the answer and continuing. You worked as much as you could from memory, as did Michael, and then you went back and fact checked yourself against the online textbook and filled in any blanks you left.

The professors' call about class ending soon startled you out of the work zone you’d fallen into. You stretched from your shrimp posture with a little groan. “We got all the information done, so we still need to finish the poster. I’m fine just taking it home to work on it, if you want.”

Michael shook his head. “No, it’s alright, I don’t want to leave you to do such a big part of the project. Uh, we could meet up tomorrow? I have class, and I’m sure you do too, but we could hang out in the evening to finish it, if that’s alright with you.”

You hesitated only a second before nodding, a little relieved and also annoyed. You were glad he was willing to help, and so you didn’t want to turn him down, but you also kind of preferred to work on posters on your own. Two people or more just got in the way. Still, you just replied, “Sure. Does around 5 PM work?”

Michael checked his phone, then nodded. “Yeah that’s fine. Uh, I would normally offer my place, but I’ve got a roommate who’s got a date at 5 PM and he’s takin’ her back, so I’d really rather not subject you or myself to that…”

You chuckled. “Yeah, understandable. My place is free. It’s an apartment a little bit from here. Do you have a car?” He said he did. “Cool. Then, here, give me your number so we can update if the plans change, and I can send you the address.”

Normally, you might’ve been apprehensive about inviting some random guy over to your place, where you lived alone, with little to no super close friends who would notice you’d gone missing. But, then you remembered your demons, and you didn’t feel as nervous. They probably wouldn’t want some possible creep killing off their deal maker, right? With that thought, you exchanged numbers, packed up and said a quick, awkward goodbye. You dragged the large poster with you, which was awkward to carry through the halls, but you suffered through it.

Sun immediately asked about it when you got back, to which you explained--more like complained about--the group project. Sun humored your complaining with a light chuckle and a pitying hum.

Sun distracted you efficiently by badgering you into making dinner with him. It was late, already 8 PM, due to you having stopped at the store before coming back. “Sorry for not having dinner ready, dear, I just got distracted with some other business.”

You brushed it off and, after a shower and a little homework, you joined him where he was prepping ingredients. He did most of the chopping, which you were totally fine with. You were decent enough, but you always worried you’d accidentally chop your fingers off when you got towards the end of slicing something like an onion or tomato.

Sun had taken to helping you cook, and more rarely tried it on his own when you would be home late, with varying degrees of success. He’d only started a small fire once, and only severely burned things 3 times, so you’d count that as a general success. And he was getting better, the burning thing hadn’t happened in a bit.

You’d turned on some reality TV Sun had already watched the first season of, just to have a little background noise so you weren’t cooking in awkward silence. At some point during it, you slipped behind him just as he was shifting and you ended up bumping into him slightly. “Ah, sorry,” you said offhandedly as you continued to grab what you were looking for and went back to your spot.

You paused when you noticed how Sun had completely frozen, staring in your vague direction. Without pupils it was hard to tell where he was looking. You raised an eyebrow. “Uh, you alright, Sun?”

Said demon startled slightly, white gaze seeming to focus more properly on you as his smile widened. “Ah! Yes, quite fine, dear. Apologies.”

A frown tugged at your lips. “It’s fine. I mean, was it the touch? Sorry, I didn’t realize--”

“Oh, not at all!” Sun hurried to interrupt, waving the hand not holding the knife (you’d scolded him on it before). “Well, yes, that did startle me. But it’s alright, I’m just not used to it from humans.”

You nodded, relaxing. That made sense. You’d gathered, and could generally guess, most humans weren’t as chill with the demon they summoned as you were with yours. Even so, you didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, so you did your best not to bump into him again.

As dinner was nearing completion, you yawned. Both of you paused, then looked to your bedroom to, low and behold, find Moon peeking out of the door. You glanced at the time. “It’s only 9:30, I have thirty minutes,” you stated with a raised eyebrow.

“Late night dinner?” they asked instead, slipping out into the main room. All lights but the one in the kitchen flickered off.

“Yes, because I’m starving,” you defended halfheartedly. Then you paused. You glanced between them. “Are you guys not hungry?”

“Eh?” Moon had settled in a crouch on your table.

Sun blinked. “Why do you ask?”

You frowned a little. “I never actually see you guys eat anything. Well, aside from those chocolate bars I get for Moon. I know you feed on energy or whatever, but don’t you want some proper food, too? I mean, you guys are thin as twigs, it certainly couldn’t hurt.”

Sun seemed almost indignant at your comment about their appearance, but Moon just snorted. “Food won’t affect how we look,” they replied, long tail curling in seeming amusement--likely mostly at Sun’s reaction. “Don’t need it.”

“Well, do you want some?” you offered. Both of them stared at you. “That’s not offensive to offer, right?”

“Not at all, darling,” Sun assured you with a wave of his hand. “It’s just… unusual.”

A smile started to form. “Well now you guys have to try some stuff. We have the dinner, obviously, but hold on, I have other things too.” You took dinner off the stove to let it cool and began to dig around in your fridge and pantry for easy things they could try, from chips to fruit to drinks.

“Do we get a say in the matter?” Sun asked as you moved about, though he sounded rather resigned to it already.

“Nope,” you declared, setting out the food and drinks on the counter. You waved Moon closer, who slunk over to sit on the raised countertop that acted as a sort of bar seating from the other side--or, would, if you owned barstools. Sun remained standing next to you in the kitchen.

You opened a bag of hard pretzel snacks and held it out. Moon, seeming more interested than Sun, reached out and carefully picked one out of the bag. They looked it over consideringly as you explained the name and what it was to the best of your ability. Sun, meanwhile, took one but just narrowed his eyes at it like it had offended him.

After a moment, Moon bit off half of the large pretzel, which about the size of your palm. It snapped easily under their large, sharp teeth. They chewed it, blinking slowly in consideration. They then froze when they realized both you and Sun were watching them, waiting for their opinion. They swallowed quickly, a snarl half forming as they snapped, “Well don’t just watch me chew, weirdos.”

You bit back a laugh, smiling apologetically as you stopped looking directly at them. “Sorry, sorry. How is it?”

“Dry,” Moon grumbled, but still ate the rest of it.

You nodded. “Yeah, they aren’t my favorite either. I prefer the little pretzel snacks version, but I don’t have any of those on hand.” You looked to Sun. “Are you gonna try yours? You don’t have to, you could try something else,” you offered, not wanting to force him.

Before he could answer, you squinted at Sun as Moon poked at a cup of orange juice warily. "Actually, can you even eat or drink? Like, does your mouth open--or close for that matter?"

"Obviously," Moon scoffed for him, twisting an apple in one hand. "He's just a priss about it."

"Am not!" Sun shot back immediately.

"Okay, open your mouth then." When Sun hesitated, Moon added with a challenging smirk, "Coward."

With a huff, straightening, Sun relented and opened his mouth with a slight sneer at Moon.
And so disappeared the straight lines for a mouth you had grown accustomed to, and in its place were teeth like Moons, long and deadly sharp.

"Oh," you said belatedly. "Huh. Actually, that makes a lot of sense. The sharp teeth, I mean. Are the flat ones like a mirage?"

Sun paused a second, then shrugged. "Of sorts, I suppose, yes."

"Neat. Is there a reason you have it up?” you asked curiously as you opened a bag of gummy bears. Sun hesitated, so you were quick to add, “I mean, you don’t have to tell me, of course.”

“No no, it’s alright, dear,” Sun assured you, and wow it was weird to see his mouth move and open and close as he talked. “Like my nicer outfit, it’s just a way to get humans to relax a little more around me,” he explained. “It’s become a habit at this point to keep it up.”

Moon grinned wide, teeth suddenly flat, and added without opening their mouth, “I can do it too.”

You couldn’t help your immediate pull back reaction. “Woah, that’s even weirder than Sun having sharp teeth.” Moon snickered and his mouth went back to normal. “Well,” you continued, turning to Sun, “I don’t mind if you drop it, if that would be more comfortable for you.”

For some reason, both demons looked at you weird for that. Even so, Sun smiled, the expression for once with his mouth closed. Strange. Not bad, but certainly not what you were used to. “I appreciate it, dear.” With that, he took a careful bite of the pretzel he still held. You learned your lesson and took care not to stare directly at him as he ate.

“Not bad,” Sun said at last, tilting his head slightly. He still smiled, seemingly just a default expression for him, but it was less wide and forced. “It’s not too dry, but not… amazing.”

You nodded as Moon took a bite of the apple they held. Sun took a sip of orange juice and brightened. “Oh! This is quite good.”

Moon tried the drink but his expression twisted and he recoiled slightly. “Ugh, it’s… tart, is that the word?” He lowered the cup, glaring at it.

“Yeah, tart or bitter--no biting the glass!”

And so it went. Sun took to most of your food and drinks with delight, especially the dinner you made, which you ate while watching them try different foods and snacks. Sun seemed okay with everything, and loved most, perplexed by the range of tastes, while Moon was somehow both picky and uncaring about most of it. Perhaps judgy was a better word for how they scrutinized everything they tried.

However, the night demon did eat nearly your whole bag of gummy bears. “They’re chewy,” they had said by way of explanation, currently gnawing on one. Sun tsked at them for talking while chewing, which of course just made Moon chew more obnoxiously.

It was a fun way to end the night, and you offered up your pantry and fridge for the demons to snack on when they wanted. “Just try to leave some for me, yeah?” With that, Moon escorted you to bed.

~~~

The next day, you cleaned up your apartment as soon as you got back from a shift at work so that it was more presentable for when Michael came over. Sun kept the place clean, but you badgered them into letting you leave textbooks out on the table so you could study and take notes without leaving and coming back to find you had lost your place and your books were put somewhere random Sun deemed their “proper place”. So, you put them away where you actually wanted them.

You had had Sun leave, letting him know in advance about Michael coming over, just to be on the safe side. Even if only you could see him, you didn’t want Michael thinking you were weird by looking at nothing.

5 o’clock arrived quicker than you expected, and there was a knock on your apartment door only a minute later. “Hey!” you greeted with a polite smile, stepping aside to open the door wider and let him in.

“Hey,” he greeted casually in return, looking around as he came in. “Should I take my shoes off?”

“Oh, sure, if you want, by the door is fine,” you said, waving a hand. Once Michael had them off, you led him to your living room. It was an open concept aside from the bedroom and bathroom, so it was easy to see where you had set your laptop and poster board up on the coffee table.

“Nice place,” Michael commented as he followed your lead and sat on the couch a respectful cushion away from you. You thanked him as he pulled out his own laptop from his backpack, looking around idly.

Just as you were about to ask where he wanted to start and how they wanted to divvy the poster up, he asked, “What’s with all the bite marks?”

“Huh?” you replied intelligently, blinking and looking over at him, then following his gaze to cork coasters on the coffee table, which were littered with bite marks. Moon, as you finally noticed, had a habit of biting things, and with him hanging around a bit more often now rather than just putting you to sleep, he did it more. He never bothered to explain why to you, but at this point you didn’t expect him to explain much. All of your cork coasters, the top of one of your chairs (which you had scolded him for), and other random semi-soft items (aka anything wooden) had subtle or obvious bite/chew marks in them, made easily from sharp teeth. Your table was also a tad scratched up from him walking all over it, but it was cheap anyway.

“Ah, I used to own a dog,” you said, only a bit haltingly. “He had a bad habit of biting stuff, clearly. But I couldn’t keep him between college and my job, so I rehomed him a while ago.”

“Aw, that’s too bad, I love dogs,” Michael chuckled. “My mom owns a cocker spaniel, who’s pretty old now. Her name's Daisy.”

“Cute,” you replied with a smile. After an awkward second or two, you shifted and asked, “So, uh, I can do the first half of the information, and you can do the second? After I sketch out the layout we came up with.”

“Sounds good to me. I can read it out, if you want,” he offered. You nodded and agreed. So, you shifted to kneel on the floor and began to draw out the poster design. Awkward silence filled the room aside from your pencil moving and Michael typing occasionally.

“Hey,” Michael suddenly said, and you glanced over. “Have you been having any trouble with your power lately? Like, flickering lights? Because my place has been having some, I don’t know if it reached out here.”

“Oh, no, not that I’ve noticed,” you said.

“Okay, that’s good.” You lapsed back into silence. Weird question, but it probably just popped into his head. Nice of him to check, you supposed? Whatever.

Once you had the outline done, Michael read you off the information you had worked on yesterday, and you copied it down. Then, about halfway through, you paused to switch places. In between, though, when he would finish reading and you kept copying things down, or when you paused to switch between the color of the marker you were using, Michael would ask questions.

They were a little… odd. You brushed it off at first, as he talked about little things like his AC kicking up sometimes without him changing it, and his roommate swore he didn’t. You said you never had anything like that happen to you. He asked about feeling like you were being followed when walking places recently, to which you snorted, “No more than I normally worry about.”

Though, your mind flitted to Moon, who you sometimes could swear was watching you from rooftops when you happened to be out after sunset

At first it was fine, but you were starting to get a little creeped out by all the questions. Mostly just confused. Still, at a gap in the questioning, you tried to return the conversation so it wasn’t one sided. You, as he had done yesterday, asked him about a pin on his bag. It was a design you hadn’t seen before, and it was the only one he had.

He smiled when you asked, but the edges of it seemed a little tense as he answered. “Oh, it’s just something my father gave me. It’s an heirloom, passed down in the family. It’s good luck, he always said.”

“That’s cool.” Finding nothing else to say, you looked down at your computer and began to read the next section out for him to copy down.

Before too long, your poster was fully colored--Michael had politely insisted on doing that part, saying he liked the coloring. So, you very awkwardly bid Michael a good night and showed him out of your apartment. The door closed, and you waited a couple seconds before slumping with relief. Ugh, that had been weird. You really hated group projects.

~~~

The next day, you both presented and it went fine. You noticed Michael around more now, though you reasoned that it's just because you knew and recognized him now, rather than him just being another face in the crowd. Still, you offered stiff little smiles when you passed him, occasionally a short wave, but you didn’t work together in the class, really. He caught you at the start or end occasionally to chat, again asking just slightly odd questions. Nothing out of left field like “do you believe in ghosts” but honestly that’s practically what you felt he was hinting at with all these questions about lights and AC and a polite but kind of off putting “Stay safe” one day after class.

Sun walked you back to your car from the building two of the days that week, and you were glad to have an unbiased party to rant to about classes or tests or whatever else that happened that day. It was also just generally nice to have someone care enough to wait for you and walk you back to your car.

It was also an amusing visual when you finally convinced him to ride with you one of the days because you really wanted to rant, and then he nearly scraped the top of your car with his horns, forcing him to slouch slightly, legs tucked up. You struggled not to laugh at how miserable he looked, default smile tight. He only rode in your car once due to this (but was committed to it by the time he fully climbed in) simply meeting you back at the apartment the other times like normal.

On Wednesday you caught Michael off to the side in the crowd one time when Sun was walking you back. And that made you notice when he was there on Thursday and Friday too. You tried to shake it off. You were probably overthinking, he could be doing his own thing, and you were just now noticing him.

But then, that Friday, you had a later shift and drove back to the apartment. But you had a craving and so decided to pop out quickly to a corner store only a few blocks from your place.

It was late, dark by now, around 7 PM. You could feel someone watching you. You looked but couldn’t see anyone obviously watching you. The streets and sidewalk were fairly empty at this time, but not totally so because it’s still a city, even if it was a more suburban and small one.

You found yourself searching for red eyes in the shadows or on the edge of buildings, because you’d noticed that if you’re out late, you could sometimes catch Moon watching you. But this felt different, and you saw no red eyes or movement on rooftops.

You got your item and was headed back when you swore you could see someone following you, dodging in and out of shadows whenever you turned around. Shit. Crap, this wasn’t good. You were only a few minutes walk from your apartment, but the crowd was thinning out the closer you got, leaving less and less people around to witness if you got snatched or stabbed or something.

So, with no nearby friends and no other ideas, you murmured under your breath, “Hey, Moon, I know it’s a bit early but I’m just walking back from the store and I feel like someone’s following me? It might be nothing, maybe I’m paranoid, but if you could--”

A hand clasped over your mouth and you were yanked hard into a dark, thin alley between two buildings with some dumpsters. The rest was bathed in darkness the further back you were dragged, out of the light of the street lamps. You kicked and tried to pry the hand away, screams muffled, but then something sharp pressed against your sternum and you froze.

“Be quiet, dammit, I’m trying to help you out here,” the man hissed from behind you, and wait you knew that voice.

“Michael?!” you tried to ask, but it was muffled.

You got your feet under you a bit more, standing properly, but the hand was still over your mouth, pulling you close. The sharp tip of the large knife pressed a little less harshly.

“Sorry, but this is necessary. I don’t know if you know it, but you’re being influenced by a demon. I can sense it at college sometimes, and it was strong in your apartment. Did you summon it? Or has it been hunting you?”

You were too stunned to speak. He… holy shit. What in the world did he think he was doing? Also, how did he even know this? He felt it?? What did that mean?

You swallowed hard and tapped at his hand.

“Ah, right, just… don’t scream.” When you nodded, he unclamped his hand but kept the knife at your stomach.

“Uh, why is the knife necessary?” you managed to ask, voice thin with fear.

“In case you summoned it,” he replied bluntly. “You don’t seem the type or any kind of demon fanatic, but I can’t be sure.”

“Right,” you squeaked. Shit. You were so screwed. You stared out at the street and the occasional passing person but were too afraid of what Michael would do if you were to try and call for help. And currently you were too bathed in shadow for anyone to notice you unless they tried to look.

“So?” he prompted, knife digging just a little more. “Which is it?”

A shiver ran down your spine at the coldness in his voice. “How did you even sense it?” you asked instead. “And why are you so invested?”

“I’m a demon hunter,” he scoffed. “We’re trained to pick up on disturbances, and you seem to be at the center of a rather noticeable one, your apartment especially. It’s like a beehive of activity in there, it’s crazy. And you seem oddly unconcerned about this,” he realized, the knife digging in and shit it felt like it might draw blood--

Before you could answer, a raspy voice came from behind you both. “And you seem amateur.”

Michael spun around, knife leaving you, allowing you to quickly stumble away from him, turning around to watch as Michael quickly looked over the darkness. But Moon was already gone.

“You don’t want to mess with me, demon, I’ve banished a few of you now,” Michael spat.

Moon cackled, high and manic and dangerous, the sound echoing in the small alley and seeming to come from all directions. The shadows felt cold and twisting, uncomfortably dark.
“So confident,” they laughed. “But so dumb, if you didn’t realize by now that what you’re dealing with is far out of your league.” Their tone darkened towards the end, all but growling, as you finally spotted red slits for eyes moving down the wall. Michael did too, and his expression shifted from confident to more “oh shit” but trying to cover it up.

Moon’s form was obscured by the unnatural shadow now covering the alley. Bells jingled softly, but the sound was discordant and set your teeth on edge with uneasiness. Moonlight sharpened on their form, illuminating just enough to see how their limbs twisted in horrible ways, and sounds like cracking bones accompanied it even though you were (mostly) certain that Moon wasn’t breaking or even straining anything by doing this.

Michael was breathing hard now, eyes wide as he stepped back, beginning to look openly fearful. “Y-You’re not a hellhound,” he managed, confident tone wavering.

Moon cackled once more at that as they finally landed on the ground, limbs sorting themselves out into a crouch. “No,” they replied, the single word drawn out and near sing-songy with a twisted sort of glee at the mans fear. “Far from it.”

They stood to their full height, backlit by moonlight but otherwise bathed in shadows that writhed and hurt to look at. Michael’s knife clattered to the ground. You felt frozen to the spot, unable to do anything but watch all of this happen. Your heart was going a mile a minute with fear, arms wrapped tightly around your stomach, one hand pressed over where the knife had been to try in vain to reassure yourself.

“You might want to close your eyes,” Moon said, wide smile full of teeth as they stared Michael down unwaveringly, who was now panicking and feeling the brick walls of the alley with a terrified desperation.

Despite where their gaze was, it was clear that their comment was not for Michael. You obeyed, closing your eyes tight. Michael began pleading for his life, and the last thing you saw was Moon lowering into a half crouch, tail lashing as they purred, “Oh, I’m going to enjoy this.”

Michael’s scream lasted barely a second before it was cut off by a horrible squelching sound. Your hands flew up to cover your ears as the sound continued--the sounds of choked screams gurgling on blood and a likely slit or punctured throat or chest or lungs oh god. Bones snapping, flesh and muscles tearing apart with horribly wet, violent noises coupled with vicious snarls and the ringing of lots of bells.

Your ears were ringing faintly by the time the bells and noises finally stopped, but you couldn’t move. You were shaking, breathing coming fast and high in your chest, stuttering unevenly every couple of breaths. It was a struggle to breathe, let alone do it right.

“Ah, I’ve missed that,” Moon sighed, the words muffled but still distinguishable. “Demon hunters, so pesky…”

You tensed further than you already were at the jingle of bells as Moon approached with a soft call of your name, tone practically whiplash from his sadistic glee just seconds before. “It’s over, you can open your eyes, he’s gone,” Moon said calmly, as if he didn’t just viscerally tear the guy apart with horrible noises you couldn’t get out of your head. But you couldn’t move, hands only gripping tighter at your ears.

You knew you should move, should open your eyes and look at Moon, it was rude not to--but your body wouldn’t cooperate. Your muscles were frozen in place, tense, heart still thundering.

After a few long moments, a clawed finger tapped your nose and startled you into opening your eyes and jumping back a step, though your hands gripped harder for a second before drawing away slowly. Only now did you realize how badly your hands were shaking. You stared back at him with wide eyes. The heel of your foot bumped the wall, and your heart jumped at the sudden claustrophobia you felt.

It was dark, but the scarlet blood that soaked around his mouth and the droplets of blood splattered on the off-white of the edge of his hat stood out starkly. Red eyes blinked at you, Moon hunched to be at your eye level. Your throat wouldn’t cooperate to make any words, not that you knew what you would say either way. What did you say after that?

Moon didn’t seem to know either because he finally looked awkwardly away and sighed, tongue flicking out to get rid of the blood around his mouth, the motion for once not teasing. The sight of him licking the blood away honestly made your stomach turn. Moon gestured to the shadows just behind you. “Come on, let’s get you back to your apartment,” he said, voice notably softer as if to avoid frightening you.

You looked at the dark patch of shadow behind you, uncertain. As if sensing this, or maybe seeing it in your face, Moon added, “Shadow travel. Quicker.”

He ushered you into the shadow, and you cooperated, too stunned and afraid to do anything else but follow wordlessly. When you stepped into the darkness, you were falling and weightless for just a second, a weird, light feeling before you stepped out into a different dark room. You had to blink a couple times before the room registered as your bedroom, bathed in shadow, though light shone from the door to the main room.

The next second, your churning stomach finally revolted and you ran to the bathroom, dropping to your knees and pulling open the toilet to throw up from a mix of the weird, disorienting travel and what you just witnessed because holy shit.

You knew Moon killed people, sure, in the back of your head you’d always known. But you had never seen anyone die in front of you--never anyone murdered, killed, so horrifically. Well, heard it, anyway, but that was almost worse because your mind could come up with so many horrible visuals for those sounds, each idea worse than the last and only making you sicker.

Sun called out to you in clear concern, but thankfully you heard Moon quietly interrupting him, likely to explain what happened. They were both quiet for a minute while you clutched the toilet, shaking, thoughts and vision spinning.

“Here.” The soft voice startled you more than it should have, and you looked to your left to see Sun crouched next to you, holding out a glass of water. God, he literally had bells attached to his wrists, you should’ve heard him coming, but you were too spaced out. You managed a nod and very carefully took the water from him. Sun kept smiling, as he always did, but the space where eyebrows would be was drawn inwards slightly. You noted absently that his teeth were back to their flat version.

After you take a few sips of water, Sun asked quietly, “Are you alright?”

You, just a bit emotional and freaking the hell out still, couldn’t stop the incredulous laughter that bubbled up, which mixed with confused, hiccuping sobs as you clutched the cup and managed to ask, “Do you kill people, Sun?”

When he hesitated, you added without looking up, “Just be honest with me, please.”

You could see him grimace out of the corner of your eye as you took another small sip and tried to resist the urge to throw up again, even though there was nothing left in you by now. Finally, he replied, “I do.”

You looked over and started, “But the deal--”

“Ah,” he interrupted, “the deal was they wouldn’t be on your conscience, and they aren’t. They’re on mine.”

You wanted to scream, but didn’t want to alarm the neighbors. Still, you leaned over your knees and groaned, placing the cup down to allow your hands to claw at the back of your head in frustrated helplessness. Tears dripped onto your knees, body still shaking and breathing high in your chest. You couldn’t calm it, and frankly you didn’t care to. You were absolutely allowed to cry and freak out however you wanted after that.

It was a while before your breathing began to even out and you stopped making noise. The crying and vomiting had drained you of any possible leftover adrenaline you were running on up until now.

Finally, you sat up, finding Sun still sitting silently to your left. You looked at him, sure you looked horrible but not caring one bit as you rasped a quiet, “I just… want to go to sleep.”

Sun silently nodded, standing with a soft jingle that made you flinch involuntarily. Sun paused, then continued in moving out of the bathroom, bells now silent.

You dragged yourself off of the blessedly cold floor and over into your bedroom. Your skin crawled at the shadows, so, for once, you flipped the lights on before crawling into a ball under the covers. Moon said nothing, and did nothing about the lights, and you were off to sleep in blissful silence.

~~~

Moon squinted uncomfortably at the light, but he left it on as he slipped out into the main room, door clicking shut. The two demons were silent for a long moment. Moon stared at the door, eyes narrowed to slits against the light.

A snap from behind him, and all but one light in the main room turned off. “That went… badly,” Sun finally said.

Moon’s blank state in the face of your terror finally teetered over the edge into something else--anger. He spun around, glaring at them. “You think?” he snapped, tail lashing.

“Woah! Don’t get mad at me, you’re the one who messed up,” Sun defended quickly, only making Moon angrier. Angry because Sun was right and he hated it.

“I didn’t think it would spook them that badly,” Moon huffed, the excuse weak even to him. “They’ve been so weirdly calm about every other demon related thing, I.. I didn’t even really think about it.”

“Clearly.”

His lips pulled back in a snarl. “There was a threat, I got rid of it. That hunter was going to kill them if I didn’t intervene.”

“Obviously, but you didn’t have to kill him on the spot,” Sun retorted, flat teeth pulled into a tight smile that was neering a sneer.

“Like you would’ve reacted any differently if you were in my place,” he snarled. “You didn’t see him with a knife to their stomach, how terrified they looked. Besides, if I let him live, he could’ve gotten more of his hunters and done something even worse.”

Sun took that in for a second, seeming just as annoyed as Moon felt to agree with him on something during an argument. Even so, they still had the nerve to snap, “Well, with that reckless as always decision, now you’ve ruined the one nice thing we had.”

Moon bristled and had to use everything in him to keep from lunging at Sun, claws flexing. Still blood covered, though it was mostly dry by now. “We don’t know that, they may be fine by morning,” he snapped in return, though they both knew it wasn’t true.

As fine as you were about other things, humans, as he’d learned, generally didn’t deal well with someone being murdered in front of them. They were fragile things--and Moon had just violently broken what trust and comfort you’d seemed to have around them.

Sun rolled their eyes, and that tipped Moon over the edge into leaping at him in pent up frustration and anger at himself and the situation and the hunter. The noise they made didn’t matter, because his power could easily keep you sound asleep. They crashed to the ground, him biting and snapping while Sun mostly went on the defensive, but clawed and yanked at his cap in return.

Sometime during the scuffle, Sun transported them to a random field lit by a not far off town. Moon’s disorientation at the flash of light gave Sun an opening to shove him off. “Satan, are you still this immature?” Sun snapped down at him, expression contorted into a rare, genuine snarl, sharp teeth on display. “Taking out your anger on me?”

“Not my fault you're an easy target,” Moon returned easily, anger still boiling underneath his skin.

“Ugh, I can’t believe I forgot just why I hate being around you,” Sun grumbled as he wiped at the blood splattered on his face, cuts and bite marks littering yellow skin. Long scratches similarly adorned Moon, stinging as he moved into a crouch, long cap lashing.

“Agreed,” Moon grumbled. With a last glare, he turned and disappeared into the shadows coating the grass. He ended up in some random forest where it was still night and found an abandoned cave to curl up in.

As the adrenaline faded, and he was no longer around the ever-aggravating Mr. Sunshine, his anger gave way to guilt. How strange, he’d never felt bad about killing anyone before. But seeing how you reacted certainly made him feel just a little bad.

For the first time, he had trouble falling asleep.

Chapter Text

The next two weeks were possibly the most awkward thing ever. You thankfully had off the next two days after that Friday, which you used to lie catatonic in bed the first day, only eating when Sun gently knocked on your door to remind you. The usually punctual demon woke you up late, and bothered you only once about getting up and being productive.

The break in schedule threw you off when you first woke up until last night's events washed over you again. You were then grateful you couldn’t see Sun at the moment and that he left you alone. You had homework you should be doing, laundry, other things you needed to take care of.

But how were you supposed to do that after witnessing a murder? And, as you could do nothing but think about it, you realized you couldn’t even tell anyone about what happened. No way whatever Moon did to him looked like a human would’ve done it--his mouth was bloody, implying he bit him, or ate--

You threw up a couple times, ending up dry heaving by the third time with nothing left in your stomach. Small snacks and a glass of chilled water ended up on the kitchen table or your bed whenever you left the bathroom, though you never saw or heard Sun. You were too nauseous to eat anything, even if your stomach cramped with hunger, though you sipped the water to ease your pounding headache and wash out the taste of bile.

Anyway. You’d gone back to the alleyway on Sunday, terrified of what you would find but wanting to check anyway, for your own peace of mind. Someone should’ve reported it by now, but you’d checked the news and there was nothing about a crazy death.

However, when you got to the alleyway, his body was gone. You even braced yourself enough to check in the dumpster, but there was nothing. Not even a single drop of blood you could see under the grime. Nothing to indicate someone had died here. He was just… gone.

You wished that that was how it happened, but you knew you saw blood, heard it, so there should’ve been evidence--but there wasn’t. You decided Moon must’ve used some kind of weird magic to pull that off, hunching over yourself and leaving the alley to go back to your place.

You almost would’ve thought you were crazy and made it all up in some nightmare if not for the way Sun was definitely avoiding you, and how at night you never saw Moon. Just the creak of the door at 10 on the dot, then dead asleep once in bed. No bells.

Having nightmares while being put to sleep under Moon’s power was far, far worse than normal nightmares, you decided. When you had the occasional nightmare before, yeah it was scary but you always woke up pretty quickly after the scary stuff reached a peak, your body jerking awake, heart racing.

But due to Moon’s power, you couldn’t wake up. So you just had to keep living the nightmare until Sun got you up, thankfully at your normal time after the first day. Most of the nightmares surrounded Moon turning his vicious teeth and claws and powers on you, hearing and ‘feeling’--in the way you vaguely felt things in dreams--him tear you apart. Or watching all sorts of horrible things happen not only to Michael, but to your friends, family, however distant, or just strangers with vaguely familiar faces.

It was horrible, but you didn’t have the nerve to ask either of them to watch over you to wake you up when you were having a nightmare. You honestly weren’t sure if waking people up was even part of Moon’s power set, and no way did you want him watching you sleep while having nightmares about him. You’d probably end up waking up in a panic and punching him in the face, which was bound to end badly for you.

Sun wasn’t exactly appealing either. Not because he’d done anything wrong, not as horrible as Moon, but… well, he’d lied to you. Not directly, sure, he had said before he prided himself on never lying.

But that didn’t mean he didn’t dodge around, finding a way of saying so much and yet nothing at all when answering things he didn’t really want to. You found it amusing, before, but not when it was him getting around murder. Not when he’d looked you in the eye and promised “no deaths will be on your conscience”.

At least this whole time you technically knew Moon was likely murdering people, even if you tried to never think about it. Not Sun. He was a demon, and you scolded yourself for how stupid you’d been to just take his word at face value. Tired as you may have been trying to avoid Moon’s power when you made that deal, you could look back on it now and see how stupid you were. How stupid you’d been with both of them to allow them to do as they pleased up here. Hurting people. Killing them.

You’d gotten so comfortable with the two of them. Just the day before the whole mess you’d been eating with them, watching them try new foods and drinks and enjoying it.

You were such an idiot. They were demons, of course they did bad things. No matter how they acted around you, they had likely thousands of years of atrocities and deals and shit you quite frankly never wanted to know about under their belts. It would be worse if you did, because then you’d know, and you weren’t even sure what answer you wanted.

Obviously they’d killed, but was there any number you’d be comfortable with? A hundred? Two hundred? A thousand? More? The higher the number in your mind went, the more you were sure you’d be relieved if they said a number less than that--if they counted at all. But thinking about how you’d be relieved with a number smaller than a million just made you feel like an awful person. Though, you weren’t sure what you’d do if the number was larger, either.

When Monday and class rolled around, you had to drag yourself out of bed to get ready and be on time. You could barely focus during class, and the few decent friends you’d made there quickly took notice at lunch, which you followed them to on autopilot. You wished you’d broken off to be alone, but that would’ve been suspicious too.

“What’s wrong?” Alex asked, gaze on the edge of concern but mostly still lighthearted. “Finally ruin that ‘perfect’ sleep schedule of yours?”

You internally shuddered at the thought of Moon, about to deny it, then realized it was a good excuse and quickly forced out a laugh. “Oh, yeah. I just, uh, ended up watching a horror movie a few nights ago, super late, and it… it got to me, I guess, been having some nightmares, so I’ve been staying up later.” The look they and Marcy shared made you think the laugh and your excuse was more pathetic than you thought.

Still, they were nice enough not to call you out on it. “Oh, was it that new one?” Marcy asked, because she actually loved horror movies. “Yeah, that one was pretty good. Definitely got a few good scares. Though not as good as this older psychological horror I watched the other day…”

You did your best to follow along, nodding or chuckling when appropriate. You barely touched your food, but made an effort to eat for the sake of appearances. No use worrying them when you couldn’t explain it anyway. No one would believe you. There was no evidence past your own memory and the demons’ behavior, so you’d be more likely to end up implicating yourself.

The week dragged on, and you did your best to function as normally as you could. Sun was providing you energy just the same, but despite it you felt internally exhausted. Maybe emotionally exhausted was a better descriptor? It was hard to smile and laugh and gather up the energy to talk, let alone make jokes or focus on class material when what you witnessed was still rattling around in your brain.

You barely saw either demon over the week, which was a bit of a relief. The nightmares were slowing slightly, but you still gagged when you remembered it or thought about it too hard. It was hard to look Sun in the face, even with his different colors and flat teeth, and not imagine blood and spray and awful sounds you could never forget.

To say either of them broke your trust would probably be exaggerating but… Moon’s actions, and to a lesser extent Sun’s not-lie, hurt you. It was scary to be so blatantly reminded of what they were. Of what they were capable of, the violence and the deception. It was hard to reconcile the demons they were and the facade they’d hid under for so long. The facade you trusted, stupidly, blindly, believing the best in literal goddamn demons.

You sighed. You likely would’ve stayed up all night thinking about it, tossing and turning, but that would never happen for you. Not so long as you had this deal.

You almost wished you could have a sleepless night, just to feel normal, but you didn’t dare ask and risk upsetting Moon (more than you probably already bothered him by keeping the lights on while you slept). After that display, you became far more aware of how he could’ve easily torn you apart at any other time if you annoyed him, but especially now. Not reporting a murder, and knowing and not stopping the murderer, was a crime as far as you were aware. Aiding and abetting? At least accomplice, you were pretty sure. What law being a non-reporting bystander broke, you weren’t sure, when the murderer was a demon, but it sure felt wrong.

Especially when Michael’s absence was brought up by the professor, asking if anyone had heard from him. You said you hadn’t seen him since Friday on campus. The on campus part was a lie, but the last sighting on Friday wasn’t, so you told yourself it was fine. Not much to do about it, anyway.

Seeing the missing persons poster be tacked up at the start of the next week certainly made you feel awful though, even if he had threatened you with a knife. No one deserved to go out like that.

Well… okay, some did, but not him. Or maybe he did, you had no idea, but it just… You just wished you hadn’t seen it. Heard it.

You wished it was all a dream.

~~~

Sun gave you space for the first week, but started coming around more regularly the second week. He cooked you dinner because he could tell you weren’t eating properly still, your fridge even sparser than it had been when he’d first met you.

He’d hoped the week would allow you to calm down and recover, and it did seem to, but not all the way. You were wary of them now, of both of them. Sun had never been more annoyed at Moon. That stupid demon broke the one thing they’d had that was nice. The one reason they’d had to interact at all in hundreds of years. A reason to act nice, to control their tempers and impulses and talk instead of argue. Or, bicker instead of argue, at least.

That was gone in one night, one short decision done to protect you.

Sun could understand why Moon did it, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t pissed at him for it. It was bound to happen in some form eventually, but that was probably the worst way it could’ve happened. Your trust was shattered and Sun didn’t have the tools to fix it. He didn’t know how.

For the first time, he didn’t want a human to be afraid of him. For the first time, he hated seeing someone flinch away when he got too close, wary when he moved around. Fearful.

It hurt more than he would ever admit or show. He’d gotten so used to interacting with you casually, friendly, in a way he’d never dared to let himself enjoy before. He’d always found humans fascinating, part of why he took more care in his composed and nicer presentation, but this was the first time someone hadn’t been terrified of him. The first time he managed to form any type of pleasant bond with one.

You knew they were demons, but you’d never been afraid of them. Not really, even at the start. There were brief pings of it with Moon, sure, but never had you been so consistently wary, bordering on afraid.

Usually he wouldn’t care if a human was terrified, if they flinched and cowered away, refused to talk to them, or whatever else. But with you, it hurt more than he could’ve expected.

Visiting the apartment had become nearly second nature, and he found an odd sense of comfort in the small, unchanging place. He liked watching TV with you, cooking dinner through trial and error. Even visiting you at your college, listening to you rant on the way back to the car, then continuing at the apartment. He looked forward to seeing you each day whenever he wasn’t busy.

But now that option was gone. He visited more regularly again, yes, but you were cold and distant. He didn’t blame you, of course, but it still hurt. It was a hard thing to adjust to after months of peace and companionship.

Still, if that was what you wanted, he would keep his distance. The last thing he wanted was to hurt you, and wasn’t that ironic for a demon? The others always told him he was too soft, too attached to material things--humanity included. He supposed it was partly because he was the one least hurt by the human world, whether due to skill or sheer luck he was never quite sure, so he was less jaded.

He was never stupid about it, of course. He was wary and never trusted a human despite his fascination with them. It wasn’t until you that he spent enough time--pleasant time--with a singular one to see them as human. To get attached.

And of course this was how it ended up. A typical white lie made in a deal leading to breaking your trust in him that he hadn’t even realized was there until it was too late.

He shook his head to himself. My, what a pity party he was throwing for himself. He kept sweeping. Cleaning was easy, even if the apartment was already spotless from how often he did it when you weren’t home in the past week and a half. It was methodical, taking time rather than just using magic. (He did leave any belongings you left out alone though, not wanting to risk your anger if he accidentally put them some place you didn’t want) Keeping your place clean and cooking was the least he could do for you, with how much you’d given them without lifting a finger.

He couldn’t hope to return the kindness and comfort and understanding you gave him, the way you got him and Mr. Grumpy to actually hang out properly for the first time in millenia that didn’t (always) end in fights--but he would damn well try.

..Try at a safe distance, anyway, where he had less of a chance of scaring you. For reasons he couldn’t fathom, it was important to him that you were happy. Even if that meant being merely a transactional part of your life. He’d lived that way for centuries, he could return to it.

It didn’t mean he wouldn’t miss you, though.

~~~

After a week and a half, the shock and horror of it all had mostly passed. Well, ‘passed’ was pushing it, but you could function normally again aside from the occasional mental spiral when alone at your apartment. The nightmares waned and shortened, though still persisted, mostly focusing on the incident. On Moon. You forgot just how terrifying he could be when he chose after so long of adjusting to the more domestic, lazy, haughty, cat-like demon that hung around your apartment. They were demons, obviously, and you didn’t think you’d ever truly forget now.

Despite that, though, after the incident, both of them had backed off significantly. Moon barely talked to you, only speaking when you didn’t notice it was 10 and Sun wasn’t around to nudge you. He didn’t stay up late with you anymore.

You started to see Sun around more after the first week, though only ever in the apartment. He smiled and greeted you cheerily, but thankfully didn’t try to make too much conversation after your very hesitant and awkward responses to his first attempt. He didn’t stick around too long once you ate some dinner, which he cooked occasionally during the week, leaving after wishing you a good night long before 10.

It was strange, and you hated how conflicted you felt about it. On one hand, you were glad he’d left you alone during the first week, and was providing you distance now while still fulfilling the deal. Same with Moon. You were definitely freaked out by the both of them in the days following the incident, memories too fresh.

But at the same time… you missed them. For months, while they weren’t around all the time at your place, they were still a constant you enjoyed coming back to. You were finally beginning to settle into a nice schedule, into the comfort and life the two brought to your place--but then it was all ripped out from under you.

You had friends at college who expressed worry about you that you brushed off, but when you came back to your apartment and Sun wasn’t there, and there was no one to watch reality TV with, and your messy books and pencils were left out on the table, and no red eyes appeared in the dark… It made you realize just how much you took their presence for granted. They made your apartment feel more warm and like a home than it ever had since you moved in. It felt weirdly empty without them to come back to.

Without Sun’s bright chatter, or Moon’s snarky quips, or the two demon’s bickering, it was quiet.

~~~

“I was stupid to believe you, huh?” you found yourself sighing Friday night, two weeks after the incident, as you ate dinner and Sun cleaned up the kitchen. You hated how considerate and kind it was of him to do that.

Sun startled, clearly not expecting to be talked to. You hadn’t prompted a conversation in the past two weeks. “Oh! Oh, no, of course not, dear,” he said quickly, moving to be in your view, though he was still in the kitchen, leaning on the other side of the counter. “It is part of our job to be able to trick humans into deals that are more beneficial for us than they are for them, so don’t feel bad about falling for it. It’s a talent.” He paused. “Ah, I suppose that sounds rather bad, doesn’t it?” Sun trailed off towards the end with a grimacing laugh.

“Not worse than murder,” you replied, the words half meant to come out as a dry joke, half honest scathing. Your tone ended up flat and all scathing, though, and Sun winced, glow dimming and horns shifting back.

“Right,” he said quickly, and went back to cleaning up swiftly, turning away from you. His bells made noise, but it wasn’t bothering you as much as it had initially. His bells sounded different. They were lighter, almost warmer, if that were possible. Soft and unassuming. Just like Sun, you supposed, though the thought wasn’t a volatile one. It was just true.

Moon acted like a demon, never claiming to be anything but. Sun acted more… well, angelic, though you knew they weren’t fond of that descriptor. He was kind and bright and smiled in a not creepy way--though the constant-ness of it could be considered weird after a time. He was bright and unassuming for a demon despite the horns, so despite all you read on them and could guess based on things unsaid, it still came as a shock to fully realize and accept that Sun also murdered people and was able to do so easily under your vague deal.

Yet, despite that murder and the terrifying potential he had to cause harm, he was in your kitchen, cleaning up after you made dinner. He never once complained about the cleaning; he insisted on it, really. And despite the distance you’d put up, he still came back and cooked and cleaned for you.

He had no reason to. You were being cold and distant and frankly rude, even if you had every right to after what happened. But… he wasn’t the one who murdered the hunter (easier to think about without a name). That was Moon. Sun hid the truth from you with white lies and skirting around topics, but you were treating him like those two were equally as bad, as traumatizing.

For the first time in two weeks, you stopped staring down at your dinner and actually, properly looked at Sun.

His smile was the same as it always was, but his eyes drooped more, the space between them furrowed just slightly, and he seemed to glow a little less brightly than usual. When he turned away, you could see that the shifting pattern on the back of his caplet was a light to dark blue gradient with light gray clouds, a far cry from the usual sunset it portrayed. Had it always changed like that? You glanced outside but the real weather didn’t reflect the weather there like was your initial thought. So then… was it emotions?

If it was, even you in your shaken haze could realize the implication of blue stormy clouds.
Sun also tended to hum when he cleaned, and always looked peaceful or like he was enjoying it, if not at least neutral. But not now. Now it was quiet in your apartment aside from the water running as he cleaned the dishes by hand and the soft jingle of bells on his wrists from the movement. He had said he liked the repetition of it.

“Sun?” you finally spoke, breaking the silence.

He startled, head snapping up to look at you, expression quickly clearing to a pleasant neutral as he replied, “Yes?” He dried the dish he had been rinsing, but kept his face angled towards you to show he was listening.

You looked at him for another moment before saying, “I’m sorry.”

That got Sun to freeze. Slowly, he placed the bowl down and turned the water off, tilting his head. “Whatever for, dear?”

You frowned, looking back down at your bowl and pushing the food around idly with your spoon. “For… how cold I’ve been to you--to you both--these past two weeks. I-I’ve just been so stuck in a haze, after what happened, and it frankly really messed me up. I’ve known from the start that Moon killed people and still does, and I guess I’ve always suspected about you in the back of my head, but it was just… very different to see it in person like that, y’know?”

“Oh, of course, I understand, you don’t have to--” Sun started.

“No! Listen, I--” You took a steadying breath. “You don’t deserve how I’ve been treating you, it wasn’t like you did anything wrong. I’ll need to talk to Moon a bit, but… Heh, honestly, if he hadn’t shown up when he did I’d probably be dead. Or, at least, I’d have gotten stabbed, which doesn’t sound fun. It was a bit overboard on the murder…

“But, anyway, that’s for him. What I’m trying to say is that you didn’t do anything wrong, not really, so I’m sorry for how rude I’ve been to you. You’re a demon, and I know that, so obviously you’d make a white lie in the deal. It’s just human etiquette that has me hurt about that, I guess. And I can’t ask you to change what you are, but I just…”

You trailed off, hesitating, before starting again. “You never lied to me, but you didn’t tell me the truth, either. And you don’t have to tell me everything, obviously, and maybe it was just dumb naivety on my part to believe you really weren’t killing anyone when you said what you did, but… it still hurts. To realize, I guess, that you were still a demon. Obviously, but you know, that you could be deceptive and whatnot. It hurts that you didn’t tell me outright, at least at some point, y’know?” Sun didn’t say anything, thankfully, because you were still rambling, but he nodded when you glanced out of the corner of your eye.

“So, if it's not too much to ask, could I request that you stick to the same rule Moon does and not kill any innocent people? No one who hasn’t committed a crime. I know the rule is kind of vague, and I don’t know if I can make changes to the deal at this point, but even if it doesn’t change the deal and it’s just your word I have on it, can you promise me that? Please?” You couldn’t look up, afraid of the judgement or confusion or condescension on his face.

You weren’t expecting him to reply in a very soft, sincere tone, “Of course, darling.”

You looked up to see that his expression was equally soft. His eyes were drooping again but it seemed more in an oddly sad--or maybe bittersweet?--sort of way with the more genuine smile that wrinkled the corners of his eyes. He put a hand over his heart. “I promise not to kill any innocent human who has not committed a crime. You have my word.”

Those words released some ball of tension in you you hadn’t realized was there, and a relieved little smile grew on your lips. “Thank you,” you said, and fully meant it.

“Of course,” he said again. He looked at you for a moment with that same soft expression before he chuckled to himself, shaking his head. You waited a second, but he didn’t elaborate.

“What?” you prompted.

“Oh, nothing, dear, just…” He shook his head again, still smiling. “Nothing at all.”

~~~

With that out of the way, you felt a lot lighter, and conversation with him came easier than it had in weeks. It was refreshing, and tension uncoiled from your chest that you hadn’t even realized was there.

But then night slowly fell, and Sun bid you a good night about an hour before 10. You had the sneaking suspicion the two demons were avoiding each other much like they were doing with you. That was something you could make them confront once you talked to Moon.

The door creaked open at 10, and you were ready. You slipped into bed but stayed sitting and spoke softly into the dark. “Moon?”

The quiet jangle of a bell answered you, though you saw nothing. The bell sounded much gentler, a small jingle rather than the discordant chaos it had been two weeks ago. The sound still stirred some uncomfortable reaction in you, but it wasn’t as prominent as before.

“I’m sorry,” you started, as you did with Sun. “I’m sorry for how cold I’ve been to you recently. It’s just that after how you… took care of that guy, I’ve been… nervous, I guess. I knew you were a demon but I kind of forgot what that really meant after so long of hanging out with you both. So it was a bit of a shock to have that happen. And I don’t really approve of how violent you were, or that you murdered him at all, even if you did save me. The scare would’ve been enough to get him to back off, most likely. I mean, thank you, for saving me, I don’t think I ever said that, but… Do not repeat that in front of me, okay?”

There was only quiet for a minute, but you could feel his presence as you began to feel the slight fuzziness of sleep creep up on you.

Finally though, he responded. “Alright,” he agreed quietly, and you finally spotted his red eyes over by where the summoning circle used to be, the shadows seeming to lighten a little. “‘m sorry.” A pause, then he continued a bit more grumpily. “But he deserved it. He was going to kill you, and he’d killed others before, if they were possessed. Easiest way to get a demon out is to simply banish them, which kills the host.”

You frowned. “And how would you know that he did that?”

“I can read the sins of the souls I target or take,” he replied like it was an obvious fact. “It’s how I know which ones are ‘innocent’ and which aren’t.”

“Oh. Right.” You were both silent for a minute. Red eyes moved closer, now peering over the end of your bed. You shifted to sit in the center of your bed to be across from him, under the covers but not laying down just yet.

Then Moon spoke. “You know, I could’ve killed you a while ago.”

You started in shock. “Uh--what?!” you yelped, undignified.

Moon blinked slowly. “You littered on accident months ago. When pulling your phone out of your pocket, you dropped a receipt. Plus you’ve jaywalked a lot. Technically illegal--so, no longer innocent.” The faint moonlight from your windows just illuminated him tapping at his chest. “I can read it.”

You stared at him, glancing away and then back. “And… why are you telling me this?” you asked slowly, just a little bit wary of where he could be taking this.

Though he had no pupils, the motion of him rolling his eyes was clear. “If I wanted to kill you by now, I could’ve, and I’ve had a thousand opportunities to do so.”

You blinked as it clicked what he meant. He could’ve killed you--but he hadn’t. He could if he wanted--you heard how he tore Michael apart and how it left no traces--but he didn’t. He wasn’t going to kill you, or hurt you, because he didn’t want to.

The confirmation left unsaid undid a lingering knot of anxiety in your stomach, and your shoulders slumped. You found yourself chuckling. “You know, you could’ve just said “I’m not going to hurt you.” Would’ve been easier.”

Sharp teeth glinted in the darkness. “Aw, that’d be no fun,” he replied with a curl of teasing to his tone that you had sorely missed.

“Well, since we have that sorted out…” You reached over into your bedside table drawer and pulled out Moon’s favorite chocolate bar, tossing it to him. You smiled as he (maybe) caught it. “A bit of bribery to never do something like that again, yeah?” You were only half joking.

Moon hummed, the wrapper crinkling. His next words were slightly muffled by a bite of chocolate. “Effective.”

Chuckling, you finally lay down in bed. “Oh, and Moon? I’m sure you and Sun argued over these past two weeks, so whether you need to apologize, or he does, or both, I suggest doing it on your own or I’ll make you both do it.”

Moon was silent, which only confirmed your suspicion.

“Please?” you added.

Moon huffed. “No promises,” he grumbled, but that meant he would try, so you smiled.

“All I can ask for is you try,” you replied. You yawned as you settled in. “Tell Sun the same thing. And no twisting my words, moon boy.”

Moon chuckled. “Never,” he purred.

Shaking your head to yourself, you sighed, “G’night, Moon.”

“Nighty night~” he returned, words smooth as bells chimed and you fell asleep in the complete dark for the first time in two weeks.

~~~

Moon finished off the chocolate bar, then slipped out into the main living area of the apartment, and the lights flickered off around him. No sign of Sun, but that was expected.

He sighed. Satan, he was really going to do this… “Sun?” he whispered into the darkness, letting one light turn on by the couch. “Sun, the human wants us to talk.”

After a few moments where Moon was sure Sun was going to ignore him--he would’ve--there was a swirl of light and Sun stood under the light. They arched a brow, crossing their arms with a haughty air. “Oh, now you want to talk?”

Moon scowled and resisted the urge to growl at them. Instead, he looked away, shifting his weight. “Alright, maybe I attacked you unnecessarily before,” he started slowly, half mumbling the words. “I made the decision. Even if you would’ve done the same…”

“Are you… apologizing?” Sun asked, eyes wide, sounding just as surprised as Moon felt to really be doing this.

Even so, he scowled harder. “The little human insisted I do it now, or they’d make us. And doing it in front of them would be even worse.”

Sun huffed what sounded like a laugh, but Moon knew they agreed. “Well, alright then. Thanks.”

Moon waited a second, then tilted his head with a flat prompt of, “Well?”

“Well, what?”

“Your turn.”

Sun stiffened. “My turn? I have nothing to apologize for.”

“Human said we both had to do it,” Moon prodded, smile slowly growing at Sun’s discomfort. Yeah, suffer. “Only fair.”

Sun’s smile tightened at the edges, eyes narrowing just slightly. They stared at each other for a long minute, though certainly not long to a demon. Finally, Sun broke and looked away as he grumbled, “Fine. Sorry for blaming you so harshly, because… I would’ve.”

Done the same, Moon inferred. He grinned. “Aw, thanks.”

“Shut up.” And Sun was gone.

Snickering to himself, Moon slunk off into the shadows. Wow, if you could get Sun to apologize without even being there, he definitely wanted to keep you around.

…Although, you had the same effect on him. Gross.

~~~

The next night, you got Sun watching some new episodes of one of the crappy reality TV shows that he narrated and found entertaining. It was nice to listen to his recaps and rants about the stupid people on the show again. It was familiar.

You watched all the way till 10 when the bedroom door opened and Moon called, “Sleep.”

“Ah! Wow, it got late fast,” Sun exclaimed, standing swiftly from the couch and brushing his pant legs off despite the fact that he was pristine already. “Sorry, dear, I hope I didn’t keep you from anything.”

“No no, it’s all good. Actually, Sun, could you hang on for just a few minutes?” you said quickly. “I just want to talk to you both for a little.”

Sun paused, turning to face you after a glance at Moon. He tilted his head. “Why does your tone make me feel like I’m going to get scolded?” he asked, lifting one brow in a teasing manner.

You snorted. “Not scolding, I just have some… lingering questions. And I swear I’m not trying to be rude or pushy, I just want to know the honest answer.” Both of them were looking more suspicious by the second, so you powered through.

“Do you have to kill people to live up here?” you blurted, and both stared at you. “With me, on Earth, I mean. Like, what's the point of killing the people you feed on? Can’t you guys just feed on their energy, like you do with me, and never kill anyone? Because, and I’m asking this honestly, feel free to correct me, but if you could not do that, I would very much appreciate it.”

Sun looked uncomfortable but Moon replied harshly, “Yes. It’s necessary.”

Sun cringed, clasping his hands together at his chest. “Well, technically not,” he amended, and Moon shot him a glare, which he ignored. “Theoretically, we could feed and never kill. But, it wouldn’t really be… comfortable. And over time, our powers and selves would weaken. The claiming of the souls we make deals with or kill is a very large part of what feeds us, not just the energy like what we take from you.”

Moon sighed, but nodded begrudgingly when you looked to them for confirmation.

You frowned, taking this in. “Okay,” you said slowly, after a minute. “I don’t want you guys to starve or anything, or weaken like that. But I also don’t really like the idea that you’re out every day or night just… killing people. So, not as a deal but just as a promise to me, can you both please not kill any more people than you need to live comfortably? Just for my own conscience and… Comfort, I suppose.”

Sun and Moon exchanged a look you couldn’t read, as if they were communicating telepathically. You didn’t think they could but… honestly, maybe, you’d have to ask. In a minute.

Then, to your relief, Sun nodded with a gentle smile. “We can most certainly do that, darling.”

“Yeah, whatever,” Moon huffed more flippantly but didn’t really sound annoyed. You were more than familiar with their actually annoyed tone that you could differentiate them.

You smiled gratefully. “Thank you both. That means a lot.”

“Whatever, just go to bed,” Moon grumbled, turning away from the door and disappearing into the dark room. Laughing under your breath, you bid Sun a good night and went to bed.

(You asked Moon, and sadly they couldn’t communicate telepathically)

~~~

Sun traveled somewhere else sunny in the blink of an eye, basking in the light in a beautiful meadow. He sighed in relief, soaking it in. The lights in your apartment were nice when it was nighttime, but it could never compare to the real thing.

What a weird two weeks it had been--the past two days especially. After all the avoidance and tension, it was nice to get back into routine with you. To laugh and watch TV and be comfortable. He was more aware of himself and his demonic traits, but he was just relieved you came back around at all.

And my, when he looked at you as you thanked him for the simple amends to the deal the other day, and just now with their promise, all he could think was that you had no idea just how much you could ask him to do that he would do without a thought because it was you.

You were kind to them, and even after what happened, even after treating them more coldly, you apologized to them for it and were getting back into a more normal routine. He didn’t think a human had ever apologized to them for being mildly dismissive and wary towards them.

You really were something.