Chapter Text
Sasuke sighed as his hands curled around the railings of his balcony, overlooking the fiery plains and the souls trapped in eternal damnation spreading before him. He was bored. There were only so many centuries of torturing souls one could take before it got tedious, and Sasuke had long since passed that point.
It wasn’t that he didn’t like his job, it was the one thing he was good at, and he didn’t have any other occupations available to him anyways. Being a demon sort of narrowed his options down to… well, to this. And most of the time he liked it, he just hadn’t found as much enjoyment in it lately.
He was probably just going through a rut, that was bound to happen eventually. He just needed a more interesting soul to work with. Someone that was different from the parade of white men that had stepped on the lives of others in their greed to get more power and money. Hell was practically overflowing with them.
He was contemplating going back inside and getting back to work when he felt a pressure around his neck, like fingers tightening around his throat, and his eyes widened in shock as he tried to stand only to find himself held firmly in place by some invisible force.
His fingers dug into the railing, claws elongating as they curved into the iron it was made from. He tried yelling as the pressure increased, a band of unyielding power around his neck, holding him tight.
Then, like there was a hook deep in his gut, he felt himself getting tugged. Not through the air, but through the fabric of time and space itself, and then there was only blackness, the world spinning around him until he landed hard on his feet, barely managing not to fall over.
With an annoyed groan, he looked up and saw a pair of bright blue eyes staring back at him.
***
Naruto was panicking. Now, that was nothing out of the ordinary, as a college student he spent most of his time panicking, but this time it was extra bad. He had a huge assignment due, and somehow he had misread the date because he thought he’d had another week, but it was due at midnight, which was exactly fifty-five minutes from now.
At least his roommate was out, so Naruto had spread out over the entirety of the dorm room, with papers, notes and books strewn all around him in haphazard piles. It had started sort of organized, but that had devolved at some point as stress overtook him, and now it was a mess. His mind was mush, and at some point he had just started drawing mindless scribbles on scrap pieces of paper, hoping somehow it would make his brain work again. It wasn’t working, so with a frustrated groan, he threw his latest scribble to the floor and pulled a book closer. The light of the laptop was the only light in the otherwise dark room, harsh on his eyes, but at least it was keeping him awake. He started writing, realising that in some mysterious way he’d managed to write a couple of pages so far. It might be complete bullshit, but at least it was words, and something he could hand in. Now to get a couple more pages done and he could collapse.
It was going—not well, but at least going—until he made the fatal mistake of reaching for his energy drink (the third of the evening, which was probably not particularly healthy, but was the only thing powering him through) when he overshot and pushed the can rather than grab it. He watched in horror as sticky energy drink poured from the can, soaking into stacks of papers and taking a few of his notebooks down the drain along with them.
He dove for the can, grabbing it before it could keep wreaking havoc. He only stared dejectedly at the mess, realising that there was no way to salvage it. He lifted a piece of paper, saw the smeared ink run down the page, and was about to crumple it up when there was a bright flash of light, and a cloud of foul-smelling smoke billowed over him, rotten eggs making him gag.
He waved his hands in front of his face, trying to clear the smoke, still processing what the hell was going on when he finally saw that there was someone else in the room with him.
Naruto was on his knees on the floor, so the other man seemed to tower above him, and when Naruto peered up he couldn’t help the way his jaw dropped a little.
The man was wearing a pair of leather pants and nothing else, arms crossed in front of his chest. He was glaring down at Naruto, but the look didn’t distract from how handsome he was. Sharp jaw, dark eyes and black hair that fell into his eyes.
Oh.
Heat flared in Naruto’s cheeks as he stared at the half-naked man, and it took him an unreasonably long time to realise that the man had horns. From the top of his forehead, pushing through his hair, two horns rose, curling backwards, black at the base, but fading to blue at the tip.
Now, normally the fact that a horned man had popped up out of nowhere in his dorm room would have freaked Naruto out, but he was too wired to react like a sane being. Panic would probably set in later, but now Naruto could only stare.
Finally, the man spoke up, voice icy. “How dare you summon me?”
Naruto blinked up at him and saw a flash of sharp teeth past the man’s pink lips. “Huh?” he finally stuttered.
The man took a step closer, walking right over Naruto’s things, caring little that he was messing up Naruto’s notes. “Who are you to dare to summon the Prince of Hell?”
Naruto looked the man over. He was very good-looking but clearly delusional. Was he dangerous? Should Naruto call out for help? There would be plenty of other students in their dorms, so someone would hear and hopefully call in campus security. Unless they thought it was a case of your regular midterm panic. Screams of frustration were common enough around these parts.
“I didn’t... summon you, I swear,” Naruto said placating, waving his hands in front of him.
The man looked around at the papers scattered around the floor, grabbing the nearest one and unfolding it, looking at the scribbles there, just whatever lines and dots Naruto’s hand had made as he was trying to make himself focus on studying. Naruto could see drops of acid-coloured energy drink drip from it.
“Where did you learn these symbols? This is the language of hell,” he said and pointed at a scrawl in a corner. “The rest is gibberish, but this is an insult.” He grabbed another paper, smoothing it out and frowning at it. “This, this is the summoning,” he said. “What do you want of me?”
“Nothing, I swear!” Naruto said, trying to look for an exit. The man chose that moment to stretch his back, and leathery wings unfolded from it, large enough to hit the beds on either side of the room. When he looked back down at Naruto his eyes were black.
Oh… crap.
“Release me, and I may let you live,” the man said, voice deeper than it’d been, sending a shiver down Naruto’s back. In his current state, he wasn't sure if it was fear or arousal. He’d been going through a dry spell, okay?
“I didn’t summon you, so you’re free to go,” Naruto said, gesturing to the door.
The man. or well, the Prince of Hell , narrowed his eyes at Naruto.
“I can’t just go, you absolute dumbass, I’m bound to you now.”
***
So, here was the situation. Through absolutely no fault of his own, Naruto summoned the Prince of Hell and bound the demon to himself. This led to him forgetting about the assignment he was working on until the time limit passed, so he failed that one spectacularly. Which he would be more upset over if not for the whole demon-summoning thing.
Currently, the demon in question was sitting cross-legged on Naruto’s bed, picking at his nails as Naruto crawled around the floor, picking up the paper pieces scattered all around, sorting them through actual notes and scribbles that were apparently capable of summoning demons.
Really, they shouldn’t make it this easy, anyone could mess up and summon someone. Not even a little sacrifice was needed apart from a can of energy drink, what kind of bullshit was that? Naruto would have thought you needed to sacrifice at least a small animal.
“There has to be some way to send you back, yeah?” Naruto said as he was growing more frantic. “Some encantation or something? I don’t think I know any Latin, but I can research!”
The demon glanced up from his nails—oh wait, that was definitely claws— and lifted one slim eyebrow.
“You think it’s as easy as saying a few words in Latin? No one even speaks that anymore, why would we do so in hell? Besides, it wasn’t me who did the summoning and bound me to themselves, so don’t look to me to clean up your mess.”
The disdain in Sasuke's voice was hard to miss, and Naruto threw the papers he was clutching into the air and sat back on his ass.
“Then how do I send you back? Believe me, I don’t need a demon around.”
“Not just a demon , mortal. I’m the Prince of Hell, show some respect.”
Naruto felt annoyance swirl inside him. “I’m not going to call you prince, you gotta have an actual name or something.”
The demon sighed. “Fine. It’s Sasuke. Now, get rid of this mess, the place looks like a dump.”
“For fuck’s sake, Sasuke , just tell me how to send you back, then you won’t have to see the mess!”
Sasuke sighed. “I don’t know how, okay? It’s not like people go around summoning the Prince of Hell on a regular basis, I have no idea how you un summon. When people summon demons they usually have a reason, something they want. Eternal riches in exchange for a soul, or something of the sort. Considering you never had an actual reason there’s no deal to settle.”
“So what, you’re just gonna… be here?” Naruto gesticulated around the room.
Sasuke shrugged and laid back on the bed. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for a while.”
“You don’t seem particularly bothered being bound to me,” Naruto said, giving up on the mess of papers altogether.
“Hell gets boring. Might as well take a vacation.”
***
All in all, Sasuke figured things could be a lot worse. He’d heard what some humans summoned his kind for, and it was usually pretty awful reasons. More power, more money, more looks; always so selfish. To give up your soul for a few years of enough money to save the planet but then buy nothing but self-indulgent shit.
Sasuke peered up at where the blond-haired boy that had summoned him was sitting dejectedly in the middle of a pile of papers. “You already missed your deadline, Naruto, might as well go to bed, you look like you are about to collapse.”
Naruto blinked up at him, sluggish. “Hey, how do you even know my name?”
Sasuke just pointed to a handpainted sign on the wall with the name Naruto written in large block letters. “Wild guess.”
It was easy to see which part of the room was Naruto’s and which belonged to a luckily absent roommate. Naruto’s side was a mess, and not just because of the papers and notebooks on the floor. The walls were plastered with pictures and posters, and his desk was stacked high with empty cans and unopened cup ramen ready for late-night snacking.
Having been a demon for his entire remembered existence Sasuke had never done anything like attend university, so maybe it’d be fun with this little peek into human life. Sasuke had never been summoned before so his interaction with humans was all through tortured souls, which didn’t really paint the best image of them as a race. Maybe the angels had a different view, considering they got all the good guys.
He could hang out for a few days until he figured out how to break the bond, and then he’d go back home. He hoped Kakashi wouldn’t be too pissy with him vanishing, but knowing the King of Hell he would hardly notice, and if he did he’d be amused most likely.
“I guess I’m gonna go get ready for bed,” Naruto said, getting to his feet, and Sasuke waved him off.
The moment the door clicked shut after Naruto he felt a tugging sensation around his throat, the bond stretching the farther away Naruto went from him. Growing restless he got up from the bed, pacing circles while debating whether he should go find Naruto, or if he could wait. The itching was growing worse, but it wasn’t too bad yet. Sasuke knew that Naruto couldn’t be too far away, or the itching would have turned into burning and then excruciating pain.
It didn’t take Naruto long to come back, now wearing mismatched PJs.
“I guess I’ll sleep now, ah, do… do demons sleep?” Naruto asked, looking between Sasuke and the bed.
“We do. And I hope you know that I will not sleep on the floor.” Sasuke crossed his arms, making himself look extra menacing. He was not about to sacrifice his back sleeping on some dirty floor, thank you very much.
“Sure, sure. I guess you can take Shino’s bed, he’s not in tonight, then we’ll figure something out.”
Naruto pointed to the bed across the room, which had to be this Shino’s bed, so Sasuke laid down on it, turning his back towards Naruto and spreading out his wings so they were comfortable. “By figuring something out you better mean giving me your bed, Naruto.”
Naruto whined in protest, but Sasuke just ignored him in favour of sleep. Being yanked from the depths of hell by your throat sort of took a lot out of a demon, so it didn’t take him long to drift off.
***
With a blare that demolished any nice dreams Naruto was in the middle of his alarm went off too early the next morning, and with heavy eyes, he barely managed to shut it up with a groan. He was too tired for class but knew he had to go, so he grabbed a towel and shuffled his way towards the showers.
Midway through shampooing his hair, he remembered a dream from last night, where a demon popped up in his dorm room, and he snorted out a laugh. The things his brain came up with when he was sleeping.
He finished off and headed back to his room wearing only the towel because he had completely forgotten to bring clean clothes, but it wouldn’t be the first time he walked through the hallways barely dressed, so he wasn’t too bothered.
Back in his room, he turned on the overhead lights, and then he screamed.
Someone was standing in the middle of the room, but rather than his roommate, which would be expected, this someone had horns, and wings, and—
“Fuck,” Naruto hissed, slamming the door shut behind him before anyone looked into the room.
The demon, who had not been a dream after all, was standing right there, very much real. Still wearing leather pants and nothing else. It was too much for this early in the day, Naruto’s sleep-starved brain was not computing. Did he really summon a demon last night?
“Ah, good morning?” Naruto finally said. The demon just looked at him, and then stretched his wings out, and oh— that was impressive.
“So, I… have class. So, just hang out, or something?” Naruto continued, scurrying over to his closet to pull out something to wear because he was feeling a little too naked in only his threadbare towel.
The demon—Sasuke, wasn’t that what he’d said his name was?—lifted a hand to his throat, gesturing at the black band around it. Naruto had thought it was a tattoo, but maybe not.
“I can’t. You bound us together, remember. I have to stay close by.”
“Huh, so, you have to go to classes with me?”
Sasuke didn’t look particularly pleased with that. Maybe demons weren't into higher education, even if lectures and exams were pretty evil in Naruto’s eyes.
Naruto hitched a pair of boxers on underneath his towel. “It’s just…” he said, unsure how to phrase it. “I think people might… notice .”
Sasuke's dark eyes narrowed in question, until Naruto gestured at him, with the whole wings and horns and lack of clothes. “I mean, I have clothes I can borrow you, but I’m not sure the beanies can really… hide the horns?”
“Are you embarrassed to be seen with me?” Sasuke said, and Naruto almost thought it was a joke, but that seemed out of character, wasn’t Sasuke the Prince of Hell? Could they have a sense of humour?
“It just might… draw some attention,” he placated.
Sasuke just shook his head and rolled his shoulders, and before Naruto’s eyes the wings turned to smoke and vanished alongside horns. Sharp canines seemed to blunt into human teeth, and the dark claws on Sasuke's fingers turned into nails, and suddenly it wasn’t a demon standing before him, it was a man. A very attractive man in nothing but leather pants, but still.
“Ok, so I guess that works,” Naruto muttered before he grabbed some clothes and tossed them Sasuke's way.
Sasuke sneered at the jeans and the hoodie, but when Naruto turned around to pull on his own clothes he heard rustling from behind, and when he turned back Sasuke was dressed, looking like any other college student. The black band around his throat still showed above the neckline of the hoodie, but it just looked like he wore a choker, and the emo look was a little dated but suited him well enough.
“Ok, I guess we’re going to class then. Ready for college?”
“Never been readier.”
***
Surprisingly enough, considering Naruto was smuggling the Prince of Hell into his lectures, it went fine. They got through two lectures without any problems apart from the one time Sasuke started to lift his arm in the middle of anatomy as if he was going to ask the professor a question. Which was a bad idea considering Sasuke wasn’t actually supposed to be in the room at all, so Naruto quickly yanked his arm down again and ignored the scowl Sasuke directed at him. He guessed they’d have to go over some rules later, to make sure they didn’t mess up.
He was glad to finally get out of the second and last lecture of his day. He’d forgotten all about getting breakfast, so his stomach was making its needs known. Naruto had no idea if demons ate, but he guessed he’d have to spot Sasuke for lunch as well.
The buzz from the food court, dozens and dozens of students chatting and eating could be heard the moment they stepped into the building, and they didn’t make it more than a couple of yards towards the counter before a pair of strong arms wrapped around Naruto’s neck, yanking him into a sideways hug. He didn’t even startle, just hugged Kiba right back.
“Kiba, you’re choking me,” Naruto complained, tightening his arm around Kiba in retaliation.
“Naruto, my man!” Kiba yelled, completely ignoring Naruto’s complaint as he steered them to their usual table. Naruto saw Sasuke trail behind them, and Naruto tried to gesture to another table, hoping Sasuke got the hint that he should sit there, close enough to not trigger the bond but also not raise any suspicion. Either Sasuke was dumb, or he just ignored Naruto, because as soon as Naruto and Kiba had sat down Sasuke slumped into a seat next to them, looking pleased with the situation. Clearly, he was figuring since Naruto did the summoning he would find a way to explain everything.
“Oh, who’s this?” Kiba said, looking between them.
There were so many explanations Naruto could have gone with. Family, friend, family friend, but his brain was short-circuiting, so moments later he yelled out the worst explanation he could have gone for.
“This is my boyfriend!”
***
Sasuke looked over at Naruto, eyebrows lifting in surprise. Boyfriends? That was what he was going with?
Naruto’s cheeks were a little dark with a flush, and he pointedly did not look at Sasuke. Kiba was looking between Naruto and Sasuke, looking completely stunned. Was it that much of a surprise that Naruto had a boyfriend? Was he not out to his friends?
“You got a boyfriend, and didn’t tell me?!” Kiba yelled loud enough that several tables looked in their direction.
“Uhm, it’s, sort of new?” Naruto said, grinning sheepishly. His hand twitched at his side, bumping into Sasuke's, and Sasuke was wondering if Naruto wanted them to hold hands, but then Naruto shoved his hand into the pocket of his jeans, so maybe he didn’t. Or he’d chickened out.
Kiba looked at Sasuke, frowning a little. “I haven’t seen you before, do you go here?”
Sasuke looked at Naruto for guidance, but Naruto just looked a little panicked, eyes wide and pleading. “No, I’m just visiting from the south.”
“You go to school there?” Kiba continued.
“I work in management,” Sasuke said, glancing over at Naruto out of the corner of his eye. Managing the torture of souls, but Kiba didn’t need to know the details.
Kiba didn’t ask any more questions, and soon enough they were heading to get their food. Sasuke wasn’t much impressed by the soggy burger he got, but he was hungry enough to eat it anyways. It tasted awful, but at least it was sustenance.
He’d get something nicer, but the problem with being summoned from hell was that he had absolutely nothing but the clothes he’d been wearing. Not as much as a dollar to pay for anything, so he’d be stuck eating whatever Naruto could afford for them. He’d see if there was a way he could get some cash of his own because something told him a college student wouldn’t be much of a sugar daddy.
Sasuke wasn’t paying any attention to the conversation between Naruto and Kiba, so when Naruto suddenly reached out and grabbed his hand he was startled, nearly yanking his hand away before he remembered that apparently he was Naruto’s boyfriend and should probably play the role, so he curled his fingers around Naruto’s. It wasn’t something he was used to. Demons didn’t do relationships in the way humans did, so he’d never held hands with anyone before. Naruto’s palm was warm against his, and all in all, Sasuke thought he got the appeal of it.
He glanced down at where their hands lay on the tabletop. Naruto’s skin was tanner than his own, and his hand maybe just a little bigger. Sasuke tightened his grip just a little to test it, and Naruto reciprocated.
Yeah, Sasuke didn’t hate it, so he let Naruto hold his hand as he talked to Kiba.
A short while later the others seemed to be done with their eating and stood up. Sasuke followed along, his hand still linked with Naruto’s. He wasn’t sure if Naruto was still doing it to make it look like they were boyfriends, or if he’d forgotten all about it by now. Sasuke figured Naruto know more about how boyfriends acted than he did, so he just went along with it.
“Do you have more lectures?” Sasuke asked Naruto.
Naruto just shook his head. “Not for the day, so we’re just hanging out for a bit, is that okay?”
Sasuke just shrugged. It wasn’t like he had any plans. He was choosing to see this as a vacation. He heard they were a human thing.
He still wasn’t sure what he thought about this whole college thing. There were a lot of people everywhere, so it seemed exhausting. He was used to delegating tasks and hanging around in a vast palace, not just a small shared room, so he wasn’t sure how humans dealt with other humans everywhere all the time.
The lectures itself he sort of saw the appeal of. The first had been anatomy, which Sasuke already knew because it was handy when you were to torture humans. Had to know all their weak bits after all.
He’d wanted to ask the man talking in front of the class some more in-depth questions, and he thought he’d done the right thing lifting his hand to indicate that he wanted to talk, but Naruto had yanked his hand down again and hissed at him to sit still, so maybe not. It was fine, Sasuke could ask later.
When they stepped outside the air was chilly, but the others didn’t seem to mind, so they walked through campus, talking. Sasuke just followed along, his hand still in Naruto’s. He was only halfway paying attention to their conversation, there was too much other stuff to look at, and the conversation wasn’t that interesting after all. He knew what football was, they had plenty of former players down in hell, but he couldn’t care less what they were doing before they got there.
“Hey, Sasuke, how’d you meet Naruto anyways?” Kiba asked suddenly, and when Sasuke glanced towards him Kiba was looking at him, eyebrows lifted in question.
So, it was up to him to come up with a story then. He could go believable, or he could make Naruto’s life hard and make up something absurd, which he would deserve after this whole accidental summoning debacle.
Behind Kiba Sasuke could see Naruto, eyes wide, probably imploring him to go with the first option.
“Through mutual friends,” Sasuke went with, vaguely enough that it would fit somehow.
“Dude,” Kiba said, turning back to Naruto. “You have more friends than me?”
“Shut your mouth, mutt! I have so many friends!” Naruto yelled back, and then they were, was that wrestling? and Sasuke just let them at it, happy enough to hang around without having to work for once in his life. It was sort of nice, this whole fresh air thing.
Yeah, all in all, the situation wasn’t too bad.
***
Even hanging around with a demon didn’t mean Naruto could get away from school work, so the following day, after yet another night where Naruto was very aware it wasn’t his roommate but Sasuke sleeping in the bed across the room, Naruto pulled Sasuke along to the university library and found a secluded table where he could get some studying done. He didn’t have any classes, but the number of assignments to complete was evergrowing.
Sasuke took a seat at the table, looking around as if he’d never seen a library before. Which, maybe he hadn’t? Naruto had no idea what the library situation was down in hell, but with the amount of fire that was probably there, he couldn’t imagine paper books were very popular to keep around.
Naruto really should ask Sasuke more about hell. When did you ever get the opportunity to talk to an actual demon after all? But first, he had studying to do, so he left Sasuke to mind the table while he picked up a couple of books he needed.
When he came back to the table Sasuke was sitting there, glancing around, and Naruto was feeling a little bad about ignoring him. It was his fault that Sasuke was here, after all, he could have been happily torturing souls down in hell (was that what demons did for fun, or was it more like work, something they did but didn’t particularly enjoy?) if Naruto hadn’t accidentally summoned him and bound them together, forcing Sasuke to hang around.
“I guess you can find some books or something to read? Or I got a couple of games on my phone if you’d rather do that?” Naruto said as he sat down opposite Sasuke.
The demon looked at him, head tilted a little to the side as if Naruto was some odd being to be analyzed.
“Maybe they have an occult section, there have to be some books on demon summonings maybe, so you can find a way to break the bond, or I dunno, there’s romance books a floor down, if that’s more your… thing?” Naruto knew he was babbling, so he forced his mouth shut.
Sasuke looked at him with a blank look, but then the corner of his mouth twitched. “Romance novels huh? So you think I need to research how to act like your boyfriend, Naruto?”
Naruto gaped and then felt his cheeks heat. “No, no, that’s not what I meant, I’m sorry! I don't know why I told Kiba that, we can fake breakup and just be friends or something instead, I panicked, I swear it didn’t mean anything!”
“Naruto,” Sasuke said, quieting Naruto. “It’s no hardship. I’ll be your fake boyfriend, I don’t mind. Now study, I’ll see if they do have something on demons.”
Sasuke got to his feet and then vanished down a row of shelves, and Naruto slammed his forehead onto the book on the desk, wincing at the burst of pain. He really needed to stop just saying whatever popped up in his mind.
“Come on, Uzumaki, focus on studying now, the Prince of Hell can take care of himself,” he muttered as he started leafing through the books, looking for the info he needed.
***
A few shelves over Sasuke was reading the signs on the shelves as he walked, seeing absolutely nothing that was even remotely about demon summonings but fascinated with the sheer volume of books humans had written on all kinds of subjects.
The black band around his throat was tingling, and he hoped any occult books weren’t in a completely different part of the library, because he wouldn’t be able to get far enough to reach them without having Naruto come along.
Finally, he spotted a screen hanging on a wall, the words SEARCH written above it making it clear what it was for, so Sasuke headed over.
Hell was fairly old-fashioned, so no things like computers, but it wasn’t hard to grasp how it worked. Besides, they got a fairly good picture of the world through the souls they tortured, he knew the basics, so it was easy enough to type in what he wanted into the search bar.
It took a while to get a hang of how to search, and he realised that clue was to use the right terms and be specific enough, but also not too specific, and eventually, he had a few likely candidates. Now to actually find the right shelves in the library.
It took him a while of looking around and deducing how the system worked, but finally, he found the right shelf. It was a level down from where Naruto was sitting, but not too far in, so the band around his throat was only aching, nothing he couldn’t live with, but still he chose to grab the books he was most curious about, stacking them in his arms as he headed back to Naruto.
When he came back he saw Naruto bent over his books, laptop open next to him. Sasuke dropped his stack of books on the table, and Naruto yelped in surprise. Sasuke huffed a laugh as he sat down, pulling the topmost book to him and starting to read.
An hour went by, and Sasuke was no closer to an answer, mostly because the books he’d been reading so far were complete bullshit. Written by humans that had no idea what they were talking about they were all pushed into a pile of abandoned books.
“Demons are twisted images of angels, ugly and misshapen,” Sasuke read out loud before slamming his current book close. “Really? Misshapen?”
Naruto chuckled from across the table. “No luck so far?”
“I don’t know what I thought, that some human library would have books that could help us? All humans do is take the few snippets that they know and make assumptions about the rest.”
“If it’s any help, I don’t think you are particularly misshapen,” Naruto said, not looking up from the book in front of him.
“Obviously,” Sasuke said, grabbing a new book with a sigh. It was probably futile. Their situation was nothing he’d ever heard about, someone summoning a demon accidentally. Usually, it was straightforward. The human wanted something, and the demon made a bargain and gave the human the thing. Sure, not always in the way the human had intended, but that was what they got for making deals with demons after all. Problem was that Naruto had nothing he’d asked for, so there was no deal to be made.
If only it’d been as easy as having Naruto make up something, but a wish had to be made while doing the actual summoning, with intent.
So here they were, bound together, and still no closer to an answer.
To summon a demon make a chalk circle infused with the blood of a virgin sacrifice. A summoning should only be done under a full moon.
Sasuke pushed the book away. As if the moon had anything to do with hell. Also, what was the old white human dude's fascination with virgin blood? It was creepy, and he knew for a fact that any human killing young girls to summon demons would be given a special place in hell, whether they were successful in their summoning or not. Assholes.
There were only three books left, and Sasuke was starting to believe they were all bullshit. He almost gave up, but he’d gone through the work of finding the books, so he might as well leaf through the remaining ones.
The next one was old, paper brittle and yellowed. It must have stood on the shelf for a long time, but looked barely used. Maybe not many curriculums with ancient texts on demons on them.
Sasuke scanned through the first chapters and was surprised to find that it wasn’t all bullshit. Maybe just a stroke of luck for the author, but at least this one had some promise.
He started reading, and while nothing actually helpful had come up yet, he was determined to keep reading, because this way he at least felt like he was trying to figure out a way to break the bond. He might enjoy the vacation for now, but he knew he couldn’t keep living in the human realm. He was a demon, he didn’t belong here. Besides, who was going to rule hell when Kakashi finally decided he’d had enough?
“I am so bored,” Naruto complained. Sasuke looked up and only saw the top of his blond head where he was faceplanted into his book. Sasuke glanced around and realised that they’d been here for a few hours by now, the sun having set.
“Let’s go home, I need snacks,” Naruto continued, lifting his head to look up at Sasuke, eyes wide and pleading.
Sasuke shrugged. “I want to bring this book back, can we check it out?” he asked, and Naruto just nodded and started packing up his stuff.
The librarian didn’t seem to care that they were borrowing the odd choice of one ancient occult text and one newer textbook that Naruto had needed for one of his classes, she just checked them both out and handed them over.
***
They made a quick detour by the store, picked up snacks, and then headed back to the dorm room. Pushing the door open Naruto saw Shino lying on his bed, laptop on his thigh and headphones in. He looked up and only nodded at them, going back to watching whatever he was watching on the laptop. Naruto had hoped they’d have the room for themselves, but no such luck. He was back and didn’t look like he had any intention of going anywhere. Which meant he’d sleep in his bed, which meant Sasuke would have to find somewhere else to sleep, and with the small room there weren’t a whole lot of options.
Oh well, that was a problem for later. Naruto’s head was buzzing after studying for hours, he needed to decompress.
“Want to watch a movie?” he asked Sasuke as he tossed the snacks on his bed and dug out his own laptop from his backpack. Sasuke just shrugged and sat down on the bed, legs crossed and back straight.
Like this, wearing Naruto’s clothes, it was hard to imagine that the man in front of him wasn’t a man at all, but a demon, something Naruto hadn’t even believed in up until a couple of days ago. Now he just looked like any other college student, fitting right in.
Sasuke glanced up at him, and Naruto realised he was staring, and quickly headed over, sitting down next to him, placing the laptop on the bed between them, Netflix open.
They spent the next ten minutes scrolling, trying to find something to watch. It would’ve been easier if Sasuke had watched TV before and had some idea what he liked, but apparently they didn’t get Netflix down in hell. Finally, they settled on an action movie, one Naruto had watched before that he knew was fun.
The movie had barely started when Naruto felt his phone buzz in his pocket. He eased it out and saw a message from Kiba. He contemplated ignoring it but knew that if Kiba wanted something he was likely to show up at the door if Naruto didn’t answer him, so he opened it.
“ Hot date tonight?” it read, followed by a string of emojis that were highly suggestive. Naruto felt the tips of his ears heat in embarrassment at the implication. How did even Kiba know they were hanging out?
He didn’t have the time to ask, because moments later another message popped up.
“Should I get Shino to crash at my place tonight, give you two the room to yourself?” More emojis followed.
Naruto looked up at Shino across the room, who was still sitting in front of the computer, but his phone was lying on his chest like he’d been using it just now.
“It’s not like that, we’re just watching a movie!” Naruto yelled across the room.
Shino glanced over, looking as stoic as ever. “It’s fine if you want to be alone with your boyfriend, you can just tell me.”
Naruto felt heat rush through him at the word boyfriend . He really should have come up with a better explanation. He glanced over at Sasuke, who was watching the movie. They didn’t really look like boyfriends, did they? There was a good foot of space between them, and sure, it’d been a while since Naruto was in an actual relationship, but he was usually a pretty clingy boyfriend, and Kiba knew it.
Naruto scooted a little closer. Sasuke hadn’t seemed too bothered having to pretend to be his boyfriend, and it would make it easier to explain why they were always hanging out together. Maybe he just needed to up the acting a little bit.
Sasuke didn’t say anything, not even when Naruto shifted again a little later, their thighs pressed together. So Naruto relaxed, popped open a bag of chips and watched the movie. He realised he might have made a wrong movie choice when the villain was revealed not even ten minutes later, rising from the shadows, red and horned.
His eyes widened and he peered over at Sasuke, afraid he would be pissed off. Of all the movies on Netflix, he had to choose one featuring Satan. A Satan that was probably portrayed all wrong, and would be super offensive.
Sasuke didn’t look very offended though, not with the way he snorted, shaking his head a little.
“Why are they always red?” he asked Naruto.
Naruto blinked at Sasuke, then at the screen. “I have no idea. What colour is the devil?”
Sasuke looked at him. “Kakashi? He’s just pale as fuck.”
Naruto looked at Sasuke, giving him a quick once-over, from pale face to pale hands.
Sasuke must have caught him because he shoved his shoulder into Naruto’s side. “Fuck you. It’s not like we have sunlight down in hell, can’t be all golden-skinned like you. Eternal darkness and all that,” Sasuke explained with a wave of his hand.
Naruto thought that almost sounded like a compliment, but he didn’t comment on it. “Who’s Kakashi anyways?” he asked, grabbing some chips and munching.
“Kakashi is my boss. The devil as you lot like to call him, King of Hell.”
Naruto thought back to how Sasuke had referred to himself as the Prince of Hell.
“Does that mean he’s your dad then?”
Sasuke sputtered, “Definitely not! The position of the devil is more like the CEO of Hell. It’s a position you need to earn. Lucifer kept the position for the first few millennia, and then he retired and handed it over to his second in charge, and now Kakashi is the one in charge, as he has been for the last few centuries.”
“And you’re the second in charge then?” Naruto asked. He should probably be freaked out at the information he was getting, but it was interesting, so shoot him. He was curious.
“Yeah, I am. So when Kakashi eventually retires, I’ll be the new Devil.”
“Huh, you’re sort of important then?”
Sasuke snorted. “I guess. Demons don’t care that much.”
“So, they won’t come looking for you, taking their anger out on me?” Naruto said, suddenly worried.
“Nah, you’re fine,” Sasuke said, and Naruto let out a ragged breath of relief. He really didn’t think he had much of a way to fight off the forces of hell if they decided to go after him.
They kept chatting through the movie, barely paying attention to it, and even if Shino fell asleep across the room they stayed sitting close together, tighs pressed to each other, fingers occasionally brushing together.
It was… nice. Which was probably an inadequate word for the butterflies that were definitely flitting about in Naruto’s stomach, but he was ignoring those, not ready to look into what that meant, and eventually the movie ended, and if Naruto was going to be able to get up for the morning lecture the following day he really needed to go to bed. So, they packed away the laptop and headed to the bathroom to brush their teeth and get ready for bed.
Sasuke looked soft in the cotton PJ pants and the oversized t-shirt Naruto had lent him, and Naruto had to tear his gaze away as he crawled into bed. Sasuke hesitated in the middle of the room, but Naruto rolled to the edge of his bed, creating as much room as he could, and Sasuke crawled in after him.
The bed was a double, so while it wasn’t particularly roomy, there was enough space for the both of them to lay down without touching, but even with his back towards Sasuke Naruto was very aware there was someone else in bed with him, a warm presence behind him, and a sleep-rough voice that whispered goodnight. Naruto wanted to turn around so he could look at Sasuke, but he stopped himself and fell asleep surprisingly fast.