Chapter Text
Egyn was called a King, but they were a female, the only princess of Hell; the Queen of Water. She was the quickest to heal and basically the healer of the Palace; when some of her little brothers got hurt, she healed them. After that there was a huge scolding that made them fear for their ears, but she was the sweetest of them, maybe because she had spent too much time in Assiah being that, a healer, a doctor.
But that were just applied to her family, her father (who sucked in showing affection) and her little brothers (she happened to be the third child so…), her older brothers were in Assiah so she wasn’t in contact with them.
When her father told them that they had new brothers (twins, no less), she had sighed. More little demons with too much power, after having taken care of her four little brothers she had already learned her lesson about they being a pain in the ass most of time (she still remembers Amaimon sending goblins after her when he was having a tantrum…), but there were some moments when they were cute… and she forgave everything.
Her father used to not get very involved until Egyn got fed up and told him that he would have to deal with HIS sons because she was getting a vacation in Assiah. Her eyes red from exhaustion and her growling at her father, surprised him so much that Satan didn’t register what she had said until she was stomping in Gehenna’s gate. She has always been his sweet little girl, his little princess.
Two weeks and all the demons were tracking her down and begging Egyn to go back home. Not because the Demon Lord
When Egyn came back her four little brothers crashed her; WTH?! Since then… well, her little brothers were far TOO clingy. It had been a pain.
So she took some vacation in Assiah, again. Her little brothers had already grown up and she missed Assiah’s water, the blue deeper than her eyes which were praised by the entire demonic court, they said that they were like Assiah’s skies in summer; different from her father’s.
Where should she go? Japan maybe? Yeah, she would go there. It has been a while after all.
.
Rin has been beaten again. They kept calling him ‘demon’, and one kid, older that the others, had called the police. They had discovered his hide (again) and they tried to catch him (again). Once they had managed they were fixed in sending him to an institution, well that wasn’t happening any time soon.
So he was now wandering around the city when he found a bakery. It was brand-new, pristine and clean, no old paint, no dirty hall. It seemed to be closed so he just entered by the back door and hoped it was really closed. It seemed a, more or less, good place to hide.
Egyn was finishing somepaper work when another presence came into the building. She sent Ruth to see who was, it wasn’t completely human but it wasn’t a demon either. Ruth came back in less than a minute; she was perplexed to say the least. Why her familiar did look so worried?
My Lady, the one who entered… he was slightly out of breath.
“Be clear.” She ordered; her browns frowned.
He, my Queen, if my suspicious if correct… she was losing her patience. Like a whip her tail lashed the floor, cracking a tile.
“Which part of be clear didn’t you understand?” The frozen fire in her eyes sent shivers down Ruth’s spine.
Is possible that he is your youngest brother, my master. Her eyes widen exponentially. Her heels composed a symphony of clicks and clacks (presto tempo); when she reached the kitchen a boy was half-sleeping in the floor.
Rin woke up in the instant a shadow appeared in the sunset light that filtrated through the French doors made of stained glass. It was what made him choose this building in first place; a beautiful patter of circles made of different colors that when from the deepest blue to the burning red and passed for everything in between, as strange as it could seem he felt like this bakery was drawing him inside.
Her hair flowed and was tainted by the colors, the light danced across her skin like water would. Rin thought she was pretty; he did what he used to do with people like her, run away. She was an adult and adults were bad, from that man to this woman.
She snapped her fingers, all doors were locked now. Her platinum blonde tail was tucked around her middle, it was starting get numb.
No matter what the boy did or tried there was no escape. But she wouldn’t subdue him, she knew better than that, too many little brothers for trying to do it by force.
“Whenever you think you are ready to eat come to get me. I will be up stairs.” She told him. Rin thought that she also had cute eyes, some shades paler than his own, the color of the sky reflected in the river.
The stranger turned back and looked loving to her side; she petted the thin air and smiled. What a weird woman.
He was confused, she hadn’t being angry at him because he just barged in, she hadn’t tried to hit him or kick him out. She had just snapped her fingers and told him to get her when he wanted to eat, odd. Maybe she was going to call the police… he needed to get out. Now.
He tried to open the doors, with no result; he wasn’t strong enough to lift something heavy like the tables and chairs in the dining room, and they were also out of his reach; he didn’t think he could do something with the cooking tools. He started to run, until he reached some stairs, he climbed them. Surely, there were some windows that weren’t closed. He stopped when he felt something painful; he must have scratched with something.
A big black dog was in front of him, his eyes blood red.
Usually animals have nice, curious eyes, sometimes weary or even wild when they felt cornered… but the eyes of this dog wasn’t like that at all, they were sharper than any other animal he’s ever seen, cold like the ice and hard as steel. Rin started to shake when he felt something soft caress his cheek, its tail. It was too long to belong to a dog; it would have had more common sense if it belonged to a horse. Those crimson eyes looked at him now half-opened, sending chills down his spine.
But suddenly the hound looked up and away from him; its tail stopped stroking his skin and practically ran through the hallway, as if it had heard his master calling for it.
The boy fell on his knees as the sun descended and hidden away, as if it could support the sight of the world anymore. On the other side of the horizon the moon started to rise in all its silver magnificent, severe as a mother scolding her children for being up so late.
Rin didn’t know how long has he been in the floor, wondering about the woman, and dog and that black things like bugs that kept pestering him. He was growing desperate and he didn’t have any more space to run away, he was going to fall down stairs; he lost his footing.
But instead of the hard wood he felt smooth fur pushing him up, to the landing again. He looked back and saw the dog of earlier, he growled and barked; Rin coiled and put his little arms in front of his face, closing his eyes and waiting for it to bite him. Nothing happened.
The boy opened his eyes fearfully, slowly; just to find that all the bugs from earlier were gone. The dog had chased them away. He looked at the dog in a new light; it hasn’t only saved him once but twice. He stretched out his hand hesitantly and it met it half way with his wet nose, it tickled; and Rin smiled. He petted the dog until they were among the shadows of the night and he could only tell apart its scarlet eyes, the hound tugged his dirty t-shirt and leaded him through the hallways of the upper plant until a half open door.
Inside was the woman from earlier, humming a soft tune with a sweet voice and gentle eyes. It pushed the door open and trotted up her feet, waving its unnatural long tail; she petted his head and it panted in delight. Now that she was in an unnatural light Rin could see her long hair in a ponytail, it fell over her shoulder and curved ever so slightly at its end in a natural way that would be impossible to get through a tool; her lips full and red like pomegranates, fair skin that seemed really smooth and beautiful icy-blue eyes. The most gorgeous he had ever seen.
She wasn’t Japanese, he could tell by the angles of her face, her round eyes and the shape of her body. She wasn’t like the woman he was used to see passing by on the streets, the typical Japanese average woman. But there was something that was unsetting, then he discovered it…A tail, the same color that her hair, platinum blonde, swinging from side to side lazily, as the tail of cat would do.
He started to back away in fear.
“Do you want to run away?” she asked, looking at him in a loving manner. Like a sister or mother would, but Rin didn’t knew this, after all, he never met his mother and didn’t have an older sister to compare either. “Have we done something for making you uncomfortable?”
Rin shook his head slowly, looking at it from a new light she and her dog have been nicer to him than any human until now have ever been.
The prey… is deceived with sweet words and dragged into the darkness.
“Bu-ut you are a demon and-” He couldn’t get the mangled of words that he had hear during his earlier years, when he still had a place he could call home; in the monastery, with that man and his little brother.
“Why would I want to harm you? Where’s the gain for me?” she asked, appealing to the logic. “Demons make lure men when the can gain something in exchange.” She told him patiently, never angry, never rising her voice from a honey like whisper, never leaving his eyes.
“But I told you to come and get me when you got hungry, didn’t I? And can’t have a little boy like you starving under my roof, can we?” she got up and Ruth mirrored her motion, her heels marked a score where the musical notes were the click-clack sounds she made. Ruth would define it as a pianissimo.
“What would you like?” she asked him kneeling to reach the level of his eyes. Rin was griping the dirty t-shirt he had got in the dirty laundry of some random house when the housekeeper was out. “My dear, you have to take a bath right away! Or else you may catch an infection!” she acted like she was surprised and tucked some stray locks of his face; he still had baby-fat.
To not notice the demon’s concealed power…skillfully.
Rin was somewhere between the marvel and horror, she looked like a faery-tale princess. And she was been so, so nice and sweet to him. She exited the room and made her way to the next door at the left, there was a hybrid between Japanese and western like bathroom. There was a sink and cupboards, a toilet, a big round mirror and a bigger shower.
“Well, I don’t have a bathtub but I have a huge shower.” She looked critically at the shower, and then at Rin. He looked troubled because he couldn’t reach, but didn’t wanted to mention it because she was even letting him get a good nice shower with shampoo and bath soap and delicious hot water. “I need to get a shower too. And I don’t want to waste hot water, so can I go in with you?”
Saying that he got flushed was the understatement of the year. She just laughed softly when after seem like he was going to burst of embracement nodded.
Sweetly…
She went to her bedroom with Rin and Ruth in her heels. She took out two white shirts, one of her and one for Rin, and some panties.
“Sorry, I don’t have boxers.” Then they felt silent. “I can wash your boxers and put them in the dryer, so you can wear them before going to bed.”
“Can-can I stay?” he asked so amazed he couldn’t believe it. She didn’t know him for more than ten minutes perhaps? Maybe she was trying to lure him in to a trap! He raised his guard.
“Yes you can, but with one condition.” She said looking at him seriously. Well, Rin thought, this is the part when she kick me out. “You must help me in the bakery.” The boy blinked. “As long as you do so you can stay while I’m here.” But she didn’t say when she would be parting from this place. She had just said ‘while I’m here’.
Quietly…
They took that shower and, while flushed, Rin allowed her to wash his hair. Her fingers were careful and massaged the scalp gently sometimes using her nails to scrub the dirt. She hummed a tune in a foreign language, a song that talked about a woman who tells the travelers to tell her long lost love how to get her love back; this man was at the Scarborough fair.
Rin felt so content, he felt like he could trust her. Her songs and hands were so nice, he had forgotten how good it felt when someone takes care of you; how delicious was feeling the hot stream of water wash his body (they had to scrub him twice to get him really clean) he had been washing himself in the early morning at the river, the only thing he had to scrub with were his broken nails.
After she got out of the shower Rin realized that they didn’t have each other names. It was weird really, trusting another person, no, a demon; more than a human. It felt like the water was washing away his year in the streets. And truth to be told, this demon was treating him better than any of his fellow human beings.
“What’s your name?” he asked enjoying a bit more the shower while she dried her hair and tail. She didn’t answer because she knew he wouldn’t hear her over the hair dryer noise, when she stopped a waterfall of pale blonde fell over her shoulders. She put on the shirt and her underwear and took a fluffy white towel big enough to cover Rin completely.
She opened the towel and her arms in the same motion, inviting him in. He became red and without thinking twice stepped in front of her, she wrapped him with the towel, from head to toe, and kissed his head over the fabric whiteness.
“My name is Egyn.” She answered in a whisper, as if in it laid all the secret of oceans and seas. Maybe it was like that. “And yours, little one?”
“Rin.” She didn’t ask for a family name, Egyn didn’t need it or she seemed it look like that.
“What a fitting name… it means ‘dignified’, doesn’t it?” Rin could hear the smile in her voice. “I will make the laundry and put your clothes in. Ruth will guide to this floor kitchen.” Like that she released him from his hug and went to other room taking the clothes he has been wearing for a moth now.
He was a bit red and lightheaded, like a dream he found himself failing in love with the gestures of this woman. A hot shower, food and making his laundry could not be much for some people but it meant the world for him. A tender kiss of a kind demon, if only… he was her family, her real family (because blood is thicker than water).
If only, she, they shared that undeniable link. How happy would he be?
Rin knew it, that he has only known her for an hour or so. But his heart cold as the ice until now had been melting and even if he still was unsure and hesitating; who could blame him? No-one had shown him this kindness, as sugary as honey, delicious in every way and warming as blanket.
Dripping sweet poison, luring them in, making them fall in your arms.
He dressed himself and followed Ruth (the black hound) to the kitchen, it was in the opposite hallway. The wood complained under his feet emitting creaks and groans, the lights were on, it sent yellow light that made him feel a little bit warmer.
The kitchen floor was made of tiles like Egyn’s office floor; they were a light blue, lighter than Egyn’s eyes. Baby blue was it called? He didn’t know that much but once he had slept in the back of an art studio. The artist was complaining about the paint been baby blue instead of icy blue, he didn’t understand it though.
Then Egyn was in the kitchen, she smiled to him and put an apron on it said ‘I’m a Hell of a cook!’ He snickered, and Egyn giggled a bit while taking food out of the fridge.
“I’m going to make pelmeni and, do you like peach tea?” she asked. He was half lost by that strange name what in Hell was pelmeni? “Oh, pelmeni is a Russian dish. I went there for a while, it resembles to Japanese dumplings.”
“Can you set the table?” Egyn asked while taking the mass she did in the morning and a jar full of cold peachy tea. Rin wanted to say yes but he didn’t have any idea of where everything was. Ruth rubbed its nose in his arm and went to a cupboard, it started to claw it.
The boy opened it and found a tablecloth, it was white and had the exactly the size of the round wooden table in the center of the room he carried it and climbed one of the two craved chairs and with Ruth teaching him where everything was he set the table by the time the pelmeni were served.
Just like the water, wrap them gently, lull them and with the sweetest kiss trap them in your claws… dragging them to the deepest pit of Hell.