Work Text:
They say that boy almost had his soul stolen by the devil. No one actually believes him when it gets brought up by others, and Johnny is smart enough to never let the words pass his lips, but rumors persist, and soon everyone is chattering about it. That boy had beaten the devil, they say the devil is obsessed with him, and they say he has a golden fiddle buried in his back yard to prove it.
The fiddle is kept there for safety’s sake. Never know when the devil might come back. Though old scratch is much more likely to be excited about proving himself to Johnny in an entirely different way nowadays.
This is the second rumor, which starts as a series of soft whispers and innuendos. Johnny never disputes these flights of fancy. The real truth could melt their minds. So he keeps his body to fiddling and he keeps his mind to dancing. His silence is considered a request for respect and his friends are more than willing to give him this much.
What he does when he’s alone they never do ask.
***
He doesn’t know why the visits started up again – maybe the devil is as lonely as he was. Maybe it’s because the rush of competition can be so easily transmuted into sexual adventuring.
But he soon knows the burn of the devil’s tongue running down his spine, and the sound of these words whispered from a forked tongue.
“Are you really the best, Johnny?
Wanna prove it?”