Archive of Our Own

Sebastian was a self-made specialist in everything human, from their manner of dress to the niceties of their vernacular. From the nuances of exchanged pleasantries to the scantily veiled breadth of their innate avarice — an apex predator had to absorb every detail, down to how each individual took their morning tea. How else was he to mimic them so flawlessly?

Humans were, by nature, predictable creatures readable to the marrow with a fleeting glance. Humans were, by nature, selfish beings leading meagre existences of duplicity and hedonism. Indeed, in the latter respect, they were not unlike most demons. Plus ça change. And yet, as of late, one man seemed determined to undermine Sebastian’s millennia of accrued wisdom and prove his generalisations wrong. Namely, Agni.

Standing at his side while they dealt with the dishes from their slumbering masters’ suppers, Agni remained as exemplary as ever. He was taciturn, yet cordial, and effortlessly capable of keeping up. While Sebastian’s eyes lingered on the unbandaged right hand steadily dripping beads of water, he retracted his fangs into his gum with the sharpening tip of his tongue. Agni’s soul radiated an impenetrable aura of inextinguishable warmth, even through this bitterest of winters.

“I say,” Sebastian pat the plate handed to him dry with a tea towel, “your name is rather fitting.”

Agni smiled. “My prince chose well.”

“In your faith, Agni is the god of fire, is he not?”

The cutlery in Agni’s grasp slipped back into the water. “How surprising for an Englishman to know!”

“I admit, my knowledge of Hindu scriptures is limited, but doesn’t the god Agni serve the god Soma?”

“In a way, yes.” Agni was unfazed by Sebastian’s growing smirk. “May I enquire, Mister Sebastian, what is the significance of your name?”

Sebastian’s smile fell to a frown. “If I recall, something about veneration. A martyred saint bore this name, thus it became popular among Christians to honour him.”

Agni’s brow furrowed. “Horrid, isn’t it?”

“Hm?”

His gaze strayed from Sebastian’s. “To take someone’s life simply because their belief system differs from yours.”

“Such persecution has happened, is happening, and will continue to happen everywhere. That is the nature of the human species.” Sebastian studied his reflection in silverware. “They admonish the devil, yet worship the angels, forgetting he was once one too. They preach about precluding demonic possession while they’re none the wiser to the demons standing right before their eyes.”

“I believe there is a saying in your language — ‘ignorance is bliss’?”

“Those are the words of the poet Thomas Gray — known as ‘Miss Gray’ to many, owing to certain proclivities of his.” Sebastian took the teacup handed to him, yet didn’t bother drying it before setting it down on the work surface. “Do you feel quite the same, Mister Agni?”

In neither a glare nor an oeillade, Agni stared.

Sebastian chuckled. “As expected of someone by your title.” With a hand on the counter, he leaned in. “You burn with passion in everything you do. It is palpable even in your coy attempts to temper it.”

“Passion, you say?” Agni’s smile returned. “Well, naturally. My prince bestowed upon me such qualities with my name.”

“Are you quite sure of that?”

“Pardon?”

“Your true name is rather apt, too. Don’t you think so?”

In the middle of rinsing a bowl, Agni froze up. “Whatever do you mean?”

“Arshad means ‘one who follows the correct path’. How ironic for you to have denounced it so.”

Agni grasped the sink’s edge. “That man is dead.”

“Oh?” Sebastian drew closer, speaking into Agni’s ear. “Is that so? I’m quite certain the deceased’s heart rates are meant to decrease rather than increase. Have I got that wrong?”

When Agni turned towards him, Sebastian flashed his fangs. They weren’t extended enough to arouse suspicion, but enough to arouse the intrigue required for Agni to advance. If only for the thrill of the chase, Sebastian took a few steps backwards, though he kept the distance between them narrow enough to feel Agni’s hastening breath on his skin. Itching to break free of its human form’s fleshy confines, Sebastian’s tongue flicked over his lower lip.

Agni took in a staggered breath. “How do you…?”

Sebastian smiled, sweetly. “I am a man of many talents.”

“My prince would not have told you. He swore by flame never to utter that name again.”

“Oh, my. Is your faith in him truly so frangible?” 

Agni’s right hand twitched at his side. Before he could summon a verbal response, Sebastian spun on his heels to depart.

Straightening out a non-existent wrinkle in his tailcoat, Sebastian loitered in the doorway. “If you wish to learn more, I suggest you pay a visit to my room tonight.”

Humans were, by nature, easy to entice. Even easier so were they to rile up precisely how Sebastian preferred them — full-throated and heavy-handed with teeth bared in their coarse caricature of a hunt. Thus, it came as no surprise that at the strike of midnight, a knock sounded on his bedroom door.

“Come in,” he said, letting the words flow from his mouth like honey.

The door opened haltingly, with all the grace of Prince Soma bounding along London’s most idyllic expanses atop his favourite elephant.

“I won’t bite,” Sebastian reassured. Yet, he added internally.

With that, his visitor pushed further. Once inside, they revealed themself by the glow of candlelight from the chamberstick in their hand.

“Ah, Mister Agni. I’ve been expecting you.” Sebastian rose from his perch on the edge of his bed. “It is terribly bad manners to keep a suitor waiting.”

“You are a remarkable man, Sebastian.” Shutting himself in, Agni let go of his mainstay in the doorknob. “Far be it for me to question your methods, but even you should not know that.”

“Oh? Why ever not? I seem to recall a saying — ‘let us have no secrets among friends’? Haven’t you read Austen?”

Agni dipped his head. “Though we are friends, you should be a stranger to my past.”

“Friend, stranger — such rudimentary appellations are tiresome.” Sebastian stepped nearer. “I don’t have to be either. If you’d rather me be something else entirely, I shall accommodate those desires however you see fit.”

Two fingertips on his chin repositioned Agni’s downcast gaze. Sebastian’s gloves felt as luxurious as their wearer looked. No matter the hour, Sebastian was ineffably immaculate — not a hair out of place, nor a blemish upon his lily-white complexion. His name suited him; to Agni’s eyes, Sebastian was the epitome of saintliness.

Agni rather knew himself to be the very antithesis. He had succumbed to the thought, after all. Once or twice. Perhaps more, dreams considered. On solitary nights, by the time he’d tended to all duties and had nothing but the moonlight bleeding into his bedroom accompanying him. His whirlwind of a mind always had been one to conjure up the most sordid scenarios.

Sebastian was a recurring character in Agni’s dreams, albeit most often stripped bare of everything that made him…well, Sebastian. His hair became a ruffled muddle of ebony, his erstwhile alabaster skin was dyed pink, and those Assam-steeped eyes had glazed over in the agony of bliss. In the saffron-shaded shadow of such fantasies, Agni could no longer deny his yearning to see what became of Sebastian once the uniform was off.

“We are no longer at work, Agni.” Sebastian brushed a featherweight finger across Agni’s cheek. “Shall we shed the formalities? You understand I did not invite you here merely to chin-wag.”

“You…fascinate me. Truly. I…”

Sebastian softly kneaded his cheek. “Mm?”

When Agni’s bandaged hand met his, Sebastian almost deigned to grin. Victory seemed assured — until Agni’s firm yet forbearing grip lowered the offending glove, halting further action.

“Forgive me. This is unprofessional. I shall return to my—”

The hand around Agni’s wrist returned the blow with full force. “It is terribly bad manners for a guest to depart before being prompted.” Sebastian pulled Agni closer. “What troubles you, Agni? What have I said?”

“How is it that you know my name?” Agni hissed. 

Sebastian’s fingertips toyed with the end of Agni’s sleeve. “Would you like to learn?”

“Why else would I come?” Agni wanted to say, but in truth, he’d have jumped at any chance.

“Well?”

“Yes.”

“I’m afraid…” Sebastian’s palms trailed down Agni’s chest, “…I’m not one to snitch. Without provocation.”

As quickly as he blinked, Sebastian sensed the fist closing around his tie. When he was pushed against the wall, he made no effort to fight. Instead, he laughed breathily, slinging an arm over Agni’s shoulders. When the flame rose to illuminate Sebastian’s face, he held his mouth ajar in a mock grin, leaving his fangs far too sharp (by human standards).

“Stay put.”

That command was music to Sebastian’s ears. But then, he thought that about Agni’s voice in general. Yet this time, it wasn’t hymnal, nor incanted. It came into being sometime between the snarl of a beast and the polishing of a dagger’s edge. Settling in striking range, Sebastian obeyed.

A vague reverberation was the only hint of the chamberstick being lowered onto Sebastian’s bedside cabinet — to human eyes, at least, incompetently diurnal as they were. Once emptied, Agni’s hands found Sebastian’s waist. His touch was far more stationary and insubstantial than Sebastian had anticipated.

Agni met Sebastian’s eyes. “Is this all right?”

“Are you intending to strip me within the next century, or shall I simply wait until—ah?”

Although his fingers shook, Agni made short work of removing Sebastian’s tie and tailcoat — and even shorter work of tossing them aside. While he fuddled with Sebastian’s waistcoat, Sebastian undid the knot around Agni’s hips to pull off his sash.

With the waistcoat in hand, Agni stepped out of range. “I shouldn’t be—”

With a hand on the back of his neck and a conniving set of lips, Sebastian shut him up. After his initial jolt of shock, Agni reciprocated almost instantly. While one palm held Sebastian’s cheek to deepen the kiss, the other rested on Sebastian’s lower back. Ungainly and dare Sebastian say crass, Agni kissed like he hadn’t been granted so much as a peck in years. Sebastian wouldn’t have been surprised if that was the case, with how insistently he was being pressed into the wall. It was most fortunate that he didn’t have to breathe, for Agni seemed deadset on draining his lungs beyond their capacity. Sebastian could hardly keep up with the motions of Agni’s lips on his, so he drew in the tiny horns forming from his hair and consigned himself to devourment.

It was, of course, an exceedingly human devouring — all clashing teeth and an inquisitive tongue tasting vaguely (or perhaps strongly; Sebastian never could tell with earthly aliments) of ginger. Such primitive physicality couldn’t hold a candle to demonic conventions. Even so, wasn’t it nice to imbibe from time to time? There would be little point in having a flesh form if it wasn’t put to good use. Lingering on that thought, Sebastian let a hand wander upwards to undo Agni’s turban. As it fell to the floor, Agni similarly relented, pulling back with heavy breaths.

“You have no idea,” Agni stole another brief kiss, “how long I have wanted this.”

“You needn’t wait anymore. Partake as you please.”

After Agni smashed their mouths together, Sebastian sensed precious little beyond the echo of his shirt buttons bouncing off the floorboards. Next, his gloves came undone. He didn’t resist them being removed, for nothing untoward could be glimpsed in this lighting. Making up for this sensory deprivation, the sound of ripping fabric filled the air as Sebastian’s shirt was torn off his shoulders and summarily discarded. Complaining crossed his mind, though the thought was swiftly overtaken by his face hitting the wall.

It hadn’t been too forceful — no rougher than the hand holding his wrists together behind his back — yet the disorientation proved difficult. It had been…a while since Sebastian had found himself in such a position. He pondered on just when the last time was, before a stray flicker of light beside him caught his attention. True to his title, Agni had retaken the still-lit candle into his unoccupied hand.

When molten wax met bare skin, Sebastian unabashedly moaned. His back arched so swiftly it had to be unintentional, and when lower regions pushed back onto Agni, Sebastian was rewarded with a firm slap across his backside. More wax dripped onto his back, and the ensuing sound seemed sufficient to cement Agni’s commitment in a prolonged sigh. Though Sebastian’s hands were now free, they lay in wait, pressed flat against the wall.

“Tell me how you know,” Agni ordered, sounding more imposing than Sebastian knew he could.

When no answer came, more wax dripped. When another shameless moan escaped, Sebastian was slapped harder than before. And then, for good measure, once more.

“I might be more inclined to speak once stripped.”

Sebastian’s voice was hazy, yet his characteristic clarity lingered. Agni contemplated how long it would remain. When he lowered the final few droplets of wax from the drip pan, Sebastian’s vocalisation was less of a moan and more of a hushed squeal. With that, he planted his forehead on his forearm, shifting his weight to his elbow to hide his extended claws. The heat on his back felt so much like bathing in hellfire, so much like home, that keeping up appearances seemed a daunting task.

As if spiting him, Agni banished the burning candle to the bedside cabinet. Sebastian opened his mouth to protest, yet let it leave him in a hiss as Agni’s hands brushed over tender skin while removing Sebastian’s lower garments. Sebastian had taken the liberty of discarding his shoes before Agni even stepped foot in his room.

Humans were all the same, at day’s end. Sebastian was yet to meet one who could resist his charms.

Sebastian’s next vocalisation wasn’t too far from a yelp. Agni’s right palm — now bare, Sebastian noted — came down on him harder than he’d expected. Though he had no biological need to respire, he laboured his breathing. It was better to overact than underact — another exaggerated moan came with the next slap — if he wished to look the part for a while longer.

“You must’ve been dying for this.” Sebastian laid it on thick. “You should have told me so much soon—ahn!”

“Would you have accepted me?” Agni all but murmured, ensuring Sebastian hadn’t more than a few seconds of respite between each spank. “Knowing this would happen?”

“In a heartbeat.”

Sebastian, of course, didn’t actually have a heartbeat.

Sebastian barely sensed Agni’s shift in position before a searing stream of wax trickled onto the raw skin of his arse. The moan expected was, this time, replaced by a staggered gasp and the buckling of a knee. Keeping him upright, both sets of Sebastian’s claws embedded themselves within the wall. Guarding irises imbued in the same colour as his skin, he closed his eyelids. When fresh droplets of wax joined their predecessors, he indulged an uncompelled moan — far from subdued, yet far from theatrical. Agni slapped him once more, spreading the semiliquid remains of wax over a wider area of intimate, inflamed skin.

His voice was, still, far gentler than it ought to be. “Are you planning on telling me how you know?”

“I think,” Sebastian panted, “I haven’t been taught a good enough lesson yet.”

When Agni set the candle down on the cabinet, a twinge of disappointment infiltrated Sebastian’s abdomen. That disappointment morphed into rather the opposite, however, when a hand entwined with his hair. After tugging him a few steps backwards, Agni lowered Sebastian to his knees. Emanating the same authority Sebastian sensed in Lucifer’s sesquicentennial speeches, Agni stood before him. While Agni divested himself of his remaining items of clothing, Sebastian gazed up at the view through slit pupils. At least he’d managed to inhibit the irises’ infernal glow (for now).

Sitting on his calves only intensified the sting, Sebastian noticed. When he shifted his weight, the resultant friction forced out a soft sound of exhilaration. Still, this was not yet enough to even remotely curb his appetite.

Sebastian hardly remembered to retract his fangs before Agni, already hard, tentatively entered his mouth. He opened himself up for receipt, yet he hadn’t even enveloped half of Agni’s length before all action halted. As soon as he heard Agni inhale, Sebastian took him to the hilt, saving himself from yet another vexingly gallant check-in. Dragging his tongue along the underside from base to tip, Sebastian let out a muffled noise of contentment. It was about damn time someone staved off the starvation. Although flesh and fluid couldn’t compare to the wholeness of a well-cultivated soul, they worked well enough as an emergency lifeline in such dire straits as his.

Sebastian settled into a rhythm of relishing this haut goût like second nature, for every inch of a demon’s body was sculpted for satisfaction. Every orifice held a thousand receptors, primed for acceptance. So too did every appendage, primed for pursuit. Through the appendages, they poached. Through the orifices, they fed. No matter the technicalities of species, natural law had its indomitable way.

And natural law dictated that few men could retain their composure in a situation such as this. Agni, as evidenced by the noises flowing from his mouth and the hands pulling at Sebastian’s hair, was not one of the lucky few. Sebastian was, despite daytime appearances, clearly no amateur; he took Agni’s entirety deep into his throat without so much as a gag. Sebastian’s tongue glided across his cock with fluent elegance in every movement, drawing circles around his tip before swallowing him whole again.

Flattening his palm, Agni petted Sebastian’s hair. “You are perfect.”

Sebastian hummed his appreciation. Although it couldn’t come close to coherent speech from the voice he could listen to uninterrupted for an eternity, the vibration still sent a shiver down Agni’s spine. At that, Sebastian quickened his pace, prompting Agni’s fickle fist to close up in his hair. Sebastian pushed himself forward and back again so insistently it must have been uncomfortable — indeed, Agni felt the spasming in Sebastian’s throat — though he never broke away even for a second. And so, Agni took the initiative, pulling Sebastian away by the hair. When his mouth was emptied, Sebastian whined.

As if wiping away an imaginary tear, Agni’s thumb stroked over his cheek. “You are going to hurt yourself like that.”

Sebastian scarcely managed not to roll his eyes before uninhibitedly filling himself once more. With a murmured ‘don’t’, Agni protested, though Sebastian thought it such a disservice not to suck his cock the way a man so devout so justly deserved. Selfless ascetics were the best sort of fun; Sebastian could have them snap their vows in two in seconds. Agni had put up more of a fight than most, though the way his cock now pulsed so responsively against Sebastian’s tongue more than made up for it. Ah, he did have a nice cock — much nicer than Sebastian could’ve hoped. The blatant neglect of something so fit for worship seemed sinful, even to a demon. As it pushed his throat’s limits, the urgent tugging at Sebastian’s hair only spurred him on; after getting so far, he knew he for one simply couldn’t make do with anything less than satiety.

Only after expending a not insignificant amount of his strength did Agni detach his partner. “Stop now,” was all he said.

Sebastian mourned his loss with another hum. “Good shout.” On wavering legs, he stood. “I might’ve mistakenly sucked out your soul had I carried on. I shall need to atone for my impudence, shan’t I?”

Sebastian hadn’t regained his balance before he was shoved face-first into the wall. The subsequent spank was weaker than before, only eliciting a whimper.

“You still won’t talk?” Agni sounded well and truly done with this charade.

“Mm,” Sebastian glanced behind him, “you may have to probe a little more for your answer.” He nodded towards the bedside cabinet. “In the drawer, if you please.”

The biggest downside to imitating the human body was how inefficient its mating mechanisms were. What use was a hole without a natural embrocation? Honestly, what an oversight. As if Sebastian needed any more proof that the gods were all cruel, pent-up killjoys!

Aided by candlelight, Agni fumbled around the slim drawer, finding it empty but for a small tin. Once he set down the chamberstick, he twisted the lid open. A scent so redolent of home met him, making his nostrils twitch. Unmistakably, coconut oil. And, by the looks of it, untouched.

Sebastian, with his forehead still pressed to the wall, perfectly presented himself by the arch of his back. To test the waters, Agni lightly coated two fingertips with a smear of oil. Leaning in close, he caressed Sebastian’s waist with his left hand, while the other gingerly encircled Sebastian’s rim. The oil melted within a millisecond of coming into contact with Sebastian’s skin, and when those fingertips slipped inside of him without even trying to, Sebastian hissed.

“Are you all right?”

“‘All right’?” Sebastian nearly wheezed. “I’m positively elated. Deeper.”

Agni swallowed. “We will need more oil.” Before they’d even made a dent, Agni withdrew his fingers and pulled back. “But this is okay?”

“Agni,” Sebastian spat venom, “anything is fine. I will not break. Use me as you see fit.”

Agni’s eyelids fluttered. He wasted no time in fully slickening two fingers, before returning to Sebastian with good grace. They slid inside faster than Agni could control; by the time he’d realised, he was already knuckle-deep. Sebastian was so much warmer inside than anyone else he’d felt. Tilting his head back, Sebastian emitted a low sound not unlike a cat’s purr.

“More.”

Sebastian was again slapped across his backside, wracking his frame with a shudder. To the best of his constricted abilities, he rocked his hips back and forth, effectively fucking himself on Agni’s fingers. With this, it only took seconds to coax Agni out of his overawed trance and have him pumping his digits in and out like he’d waited lifetimes to do so. Grasping his hip, Agni leaned into his partner to pepper kisses along his neck.

With irises saturated in bloodshed and a full set of fangs on show, Sebastian grinned. After an eternity of searching, he’d found an equal — someone who shared not only his endurance but his edacity. With every thrust, Agni pulled Sebastian back onto him by his hip, ensuring he couldn’t escape this ecstasy. Before now, Sebastian hadn’t known a human could induce ecstasy. Ah, but granted, Agni wasn’t exactly an ordinary human. They didn’t call it the right hand of God for no reason.

Between a chorus of moans and his half-suppressed purr, Sebastian chuckled (though it left him as more of a hoarse splutter). A demon such as himself — an incubus (or, well, a succubus on this occasion) at that! — was literally being fucked by the hand of a god. Ah, this was almost Biblical! He should have to thank Kali for Her blessing, once he finally met Her.

As Agni nibbled at his neck, Sebastian sucked in a breath. Agni’s teeth were woefully blunt. Sebastian would wager they couldn’t draw a speck of blood, regardless of roughness. Ah well, no matter; he made up for it with how obligingly he sucked at Sebastian’s neck between each bite. Ah, humans had a peculiar reaction to that, didn’t they? Though he loathed to interrupt, if they weren’t careful…

“Agni, stop it.”

In an instant, Agni pulled away and out. “Are you all right? Was it too much?”

“No. Not at all,” Sebastian gasped out. “But I can not face my master in the morning with a love bite.”

Sebastian was, of course, far from fazed by the presence of but a bruise. This was simply a way of shifting the focus — of moving things along.

“I apologise. I-I cannot think straight. You are so beautiful, Sebastian. You must have been hand-crafted by the gods.”

“I assure you, I’m nothing to do with them,” Sebastian sneered. “They could never create something so vulgar.”

“Never.” Agni planted a feathery kiss on Sebastian’s neck. “Nothing about you could ever come close to vulgarity. You are angelic.”

Under roaming hands, Sebastian’s skin (or, rather, skin-suit) crawled. Agni’s use of Abrahamic terms felt wrong, although Sebastian knew it was intended for his benefit.

“A saint among sinners, just like your namesake. I am undeserving of your heavenly—”

“How long are you going to wait to fuck me?” Sebastian interrupted.

Agni stopped in his tracks. “Would that be all right?”

“Curse your tenderness! Yes!”

After Sebastian raised his voice, silence saturated the room. With a snarl, he reined himself in.

“So help me, Satan,” he entreated half-underbreath. “If you do not fill me within thirty seconds, I will throw you onto that bed, hold you down and do it myself.”

“Are you sure it’s enough preparation?” Agni’s voice remained merciful and melodic. 

“Yes,” Sebastian snapped.

With a thumb, Agni traced the edge of Sebastian’s rim.

“Please,” Sebastian mumbled. “I want you. Now.”

Without a word, Agni smacked him again. Though it was weaker than it ought to be, Sebastian still jolted at the contact with his smouldering wax burns. He had intended to follow up on his promise of shoving Agni to the bed and riding him hell-bent for leather, though his mind had gone fuzzy and his limbs had gone stiff in the interim. Mmff, this gangly form was all show! He could’ve so done with the support of a pair of wings at his back, and perhaps a tail for balance, plus a few tendrils for precaution.

As he clung to his human façade for dear life, Sebastian’s only salvation came in the form of the tip of Agni’s cock nudging at his entrance. Regaining enough autonomy to push his hips back, Sebastian signalled his wish to continue. With his palms on Sebastian’s stomach, Agni entered him with such caution it made Sebastian want to scream. He might’ve, if he had the energy. Instead, he stood still, letting Agni gradually fill him without so much as a taunt.

At the halfway point, Agni halted. “Are you all right?”

“More than all right.” Sebastian’s words came out half-slurred. “Deeper.”

Agni bit the bait. With his length, he would be expecting to encounter a second hole within, so Sebastian fashioned himself one just as it was reached. Bottoming out, Agni sighed deeply. Sebastian was already so open for him, so accommodating, that Agni had no qualms about withdrawing almost completely within seconds. As he re-entered, the pace he gathered was slow (subdued, even), intended only to gauge Sebastian’s limits. Sebastian merely guided Agni’s right hand to his cock, standing stiff yet scorned between his legs. Agni stroked him in rhythm with his restrained thrusts, eliciting curses in a language he didn’t understand while Sebastian writhed in his hold.

“Harder,” Sebastian growled.

As soon as Agni complied, Sebastian gasped. Buried inside him, Agni paused, circling the head of Sebastian’s cock with his thumb. With Sebastian’s responsive sound and wreathing hips, Agni deemed it safe to carry on. Sebastian only needed a few more powerful thrusts to turn to putty in Agni’s protective palms. When his knees buckled, Agni held him up in one hand while still stroking him off in the other, his rhythm rough-hewn yet resolute. At the onslaught of tainted bliss, Sebastian threw his head back onto Agni’s shoulder. The only thing suppressing his uncompelled noises of glee was Agni’s lips on his, attacking him with open-mouthed kisses.

With a hum again threatening to shift into a purr, Sebastian’s body went limp. Agni drastically slowed his pace (in all three aspects of stroking, fucking, and kissing), tending to his lover with deep, drawn-out movements.

“Will you tell me what I want to know?” Agni whispered into his ear.

“I think,” Sebastian replied likewise, “you’ll have to be a bit rougher.”

“Do you think you can bear it?”

Sebastian exhaled another hum. “Fuck me within an inch of my life, for all I care. You’re good.”

Sebastian seldom said that to humans. When he did, it was heavy flattery at best and a downright lie at worst.

Ah, but with Agni, ‘good’ was an understatement. How his hips and hand moved in harmony as he slammed into Sebastian (just as he’d instructed) could tempt even the haughtiest of demons to abandon their painstaking pursuit of choice souls and live entirely on energy syphoned from scortation. It might finally relieve the famine — after all, Agni harboured the unexpendable energy of a goddess in his palm.

And yet, as otherworldly as he seemed, Agni was still only human. Human flesh had proved, time and time again, too fragile to withstand the slightest swipe of Sebastian’s claws. And so, he sunk them into the wall, increasing his volume to mask the sound of plaster crumbling under his nails. Not that Agni would’ve noticed, anyhow — he too left scratch marks, white-knuckled through gripping Sebastian’s arse to widen the willing hole he rammed into without mercy.

Their bodies, like gemstones set in gold, entwined with such complementary cohesion it seemed supernatural. Every inch of Sebastian’s body felt empyreal, warping the fabric of reality as Agni knew it. He’d lost all inhibitions the second Sebastian’s heat sheathed his impossibly stiff cock, and all sense of self-restraint as Sebastian’s muscles drew him in and begged him for more. In the presence of such irresistible temptation, the only thought filling his mind was of how hard he could fuck this warm, wet hole until its owner yielded. Sebastian should have long since shattered, reduced to a shuddering and whimpering heap unable to even feel his own limbs, let alone stand! But then, Sebastian never did concern himself with others’ expectations.

Truly, this man was a godsend.

And yet, when Agni reached into his partner’s hair, it was not a halo he found. Something much harder than hair protruded from Sebastian’s skull — something that very much felt like the overgrown horn of a goat?

With full focus directed towards clinging to their carneous cloak, Sebastian’s subconscious hadn’t alerted him in time. As soon as Sebastian noticed the pace falter, Agni pulled out, turning Sebastian around by the shoulders. When he came face to face with his newfound passion, Sebastian’s scintillant, sanguineous, slit-pupiled eyes widened. His jaw slackened beyond what would be humanly possible, as if preparing to feed, although he had no intention to. Stealing a soul as vibrant as Agni’s would be tantamount to sacrilege, and any demon with a modicum of common sense wouldn’t cross Kali. Besides that, tempting reformed souls back into iniquity was something even Prince Belial had told Sebastian was nigh impossible! So, he closed his jaw, returning it to human confines.

Sebastian wasn’t sure how long they’d maintained their mutual stare before Agni made the next move. Whatever Sebastian was expecting (curses and crosses and spit in his face were the usual reactions), it wasn’t this. With the utmost grace, Agni picked him up by his quivering thighs and draped those unsteady legs over his shoulders.

Agni cupped his cheek. “You’re beautiful.”

“I…”

In spite of his mental recitals of the requisite incantations, Sebastian’s eyes and horns and claws still wouldn’t revert to anything resembling humanoid. He had, however, inhibited the worst.

“This is the bare minimum I could show,” he said sotto voce.

“Beautiful.” Agni stole a peck, careful not to deepen it for the teeth. “As I said.”

Sebastian gasped as Agni entered him once again. He was gentler this time, hardly any faster than the flicker of waning candlelight by their side.

“You’re not hurting, are you?”

“Do you honestly believe you could do me damage?”

The reply came in the form of two impatient hands pulling Sebastian nearer, all but impaling him on Agni’s cock. The force of it drove him dizzy, and instincts kicked in as he was filled to this form’s limit. As Agni began a series of shallow thrusts, Sebastian emitted a rumble from his throat.

“What is it?” Agni questioned softly.

“I need,” Sebastian’s sharpening tongue stumbled over the words, “something to scratch.”

Pressing him against the wall, Agni pinned Sebastian’s wrists above his head in both hands. Half-furling his fingers, Sebastian snarled, but abandoned all displays of discontent when Agni hit the perfect angle inside him. At the next thrust, Sebastian tightened around Agni’s cock, driving him deeper. With laden eyelids, Agni whispered something in his native tongue before leaning in to catch a sound from Sebastian in his mouth. Despite Agni’s ardour in choreographing their kiss, Sebastian’s lips remained limp. In his single, half-conscious attempt to reciprocate, his unruly fangs must have grazed Agni’s lip, for as soon as Agni pulled away, a metallic and salty taste dotted Sebastian’s tastebuds. Judging by the pitiful amount, he hadn’t caused any lasting damage, yet it proved enough to provoke Agni into hastening his pace. With incandescent eyes hardly held open and his head lolling to the side, all Sebastian could do was moan as he was reduced to a ragdoll, fucked harder than he’d ever been in humanoid form. He moved only to weakly grind his hips downward, extracting delicious sounds of fulfilment from his partner every time.

Sebastian was supposed to be the siren in this situation, slithering into his prey’s unsuspecting head with hollow promises equal parts tender and tormenting. Instead, he had been so effortlessly stripped of everything down to the barest bones of his vocabulary. The only way to gain comeuppance now would be to consume Agni’s voice, which had so deftly usurped his own. If only Sebastian could keep it ensnared within his mind as an eternal guiding light, in a faultless reflection of its owner.

A faltered cry escaping his mouth — one louder than he knew he was capable of emitting — interrupted Sebastian’s introspection. Agni dramatically slowed his pace, yet the force he exerted with each thrust was nothing short of ruthless. Sebastian’s nerves fizzed, and when his every muscle tensed, every set of eyes widened to the point of bulging beneath the skin barely keeping them contained. When his fingers curled, his claws sank into his palms, and the scent of his own blood filling the air breached his final defences.

Between their intertwining refrain of serene sounds, Sebastian tried to choke out Agni’s name, yet only managed the first syllable at best. When Agni sped up by even a fraction, Sebastian’s legs almost slipped from Agni’s shoulders, twitching as much as his jilted cock. In spite of the abandonment of what should be an integral aspect of attaining exhilaration, Sebastian’s receptors still responded by all but burning him from the inside out.

In Agni’s arms, with all icy embellishments melted away, Sebastian had no need for anything besides the sensation of skin on skin. Caught between realms while he straddled the boundary between his uncarnate and corporeal forms, Sebastian’s vision blurred as much as his hastily sketched line between venery and veneration. Though he’d recited this ritual a thousand times, never before had he felt the presence of such divinity. Each sound from Agni’s mouth was both an insult and an invocation. His every touch was both a consummation and consecration. If it was for Agni, Sebastian was content to play the sacrificial lamb to the pyre.

Letting go of all restraint, Sebastian surrendered to the higher power. In the eye of the inferno, he yielded to immolation. All thirteen eyes rolled back into their sockets as he came, painting himself in the manifestation of his misconduct. His claws dragged through his palm, carving rivers of crimson flowing downward to sully Agni’s pristine hands. As he murmured a sibilant something in his native language, Agni’s grip on Sebastian’s wrists tightened, and with jolting hips of his own, he halted his movements. A stammered sound left him as he prepared to pull out, only for Sebastian to clench around his cock tighter than he knew was possible.

“Sebastian,” Agni hissed through a full-body shudder.

“Stay,” Sebastian breathed out. “Use me until you finish.”

“I-I can’t.” While Sebastian pulsed around him, Agni wrestled back a moan. “Won’t I hurt you?”

As a growl swelled in his throat, Sebastian’s eyes fluttered shut. “I need it, Agni. Your seed. In me.”

Requiring no further instruction, Agni forced his full length in on impulse. As if his neck could no longer withstand its weight, Sebastian’s head dropped. Something along the lines of a ‘yes’ or a ‘more’ escaped him in a whisper, before morphing into a purr as Agni rammed into him with a rigour rivalling Rosier’s. Sebastian was, inside and out, made of widow’s silk and Gloriosa’s petals. Though his afterglow had left the rest of him limp, his contractions continued, synchronising with each thrust. In this symphony of sybaritism, Agni’s senses abandoned him, focused solely on the sultry pressure around his cock and a sharp heel digging into his back.

This was better than he could have ever dreamed.

With a series of low moans broken only by laboured breaths, Agni clasped their hands together and intertwined their fingers as he finished. As legs failed, an arm wrapped around Sebastian’s back, pulling him closer as they both collapsed to the floor.

When Sebastian’s head lolled backwards, hitting the wall with a dull thud, Agni’s palm grasped his cheek and repositioned him. Brushing his forelocks away, Agni planted a kiss on Sebastian’s forehead before withdrawing from within him. Instantly, Sebastian tensed around thin air, clamping down to seal his feed within.

The semen seeping into his inner pores brought immediate reinvigoration. Eleven bulging eyes disappeared beneath pale skin, while fangs filed themselves down inside his panting mouth. A long whine left him, yet harboured no sorrow.

Once he’d regained his equilibrium, Agni gasped. “You’re bleeding!”

Sebastian blinked. “Ah.”

Gingerly, Agni’s fingertips traced the outlines of two vertical slashes in Sebastian’s palms.

“What happened?”

Sebastian grazed Agni’s forearm with the edge of a claw. “These. I told you, didn’t I? Needed to scratch.”

As Agni crawled away, Sebastian raised a brow. In the absence of candlelight, Agni had to feel amongst the pile of clothes on the floor. A minute passed before he re-averted his attention to Sebastian, this time with a length of bandage in his grasp.

“Ah,” Sebastian half-laughed as a vivid glow engulfed his irises.

The pinkwashed shimmer irradiated the supple arm he raised before himself. The pointed tip of his tongue trailed up his wrist, dutifully lapping up his scarlet spill. Reaching his palm, his tongue teased the edges of the cut, flicking over each side before digging into the bloodied slit, eliciting a breathy whimper of gratification from the afflicted demon. With his last lick, the wound closed up without leaving so much as a scar upon smooth skin.

As Sebastian repeated these rites for the cut on his left hand, Agni could only stare. Sebastian’s mouth closed around the incision, sucking out the ichor beneath like it was vital for his survival.

With a satisfied hum, Sebastian let his eyes dim to their usual tea-brown. Almost as soon as his arm dropped to his side, it was again raised — though, this time, not by him. With the delicacy of a glazier, Agni took his hand in his, planting a butterfly kiss on the back. His skin tingled with the warmth, and at the surge in stimulation, his contract seal lit up in a vibrant lilac. Blinking wildly, Agni jolted back.

Sebastian laughed quietly. “We’d best not aggravate that.” He pulled his hand away. “Lest you face the wrath of my master.”

A broken sigh left Agni’s mouth. “Have you a washcloth?”

“You needn’t worry about that.” With a mind of its own, Sebastian’s hand reached for Agni’s. “My body will absorb it.”

“Even the wax?”

“Well, not that. But I can re-melt it, I suppose. Let it evaporate or something.”

“Remarkable.”

“The feeling is mutual.”

Despite himself, Sebastian planted a kiss on the back of Agni’s hand. In reply, Agni cupped his face, dragging a thumb over his cheek.

“You are okay?” Agni questioned.

“Are you?”

It took him a moment to respond. “Yes.”

Sebastian’s lips curled upward. “Then so am I.”

Agni awoke to a blur of blinding light and a faint vibration against his bare chest. As he stirred, a certain someone’s grasp tightened around his torso. Sebastian remained in the same position that Agni had fallen asleep with him in — his head resting between Agni’s collarbones and his hands laying flat on Agni’s shoulders.

In the cold light of morning, Sebastian stripped of his usual attire and stained with half-blistered burns seemed so…human. All that suggested otherwise were the star-like pattern beneath the knuckles of his left hand, and the black nails adorning each digit.

Agni opened his mouth to speak first. “What exactly are you?”

Ah. Sebastian should have known that was coming.

“What happened to ‘good morning’?” Sebastian grumbled.

“Good morning.” Agni’s fingers threaded through Sebastian’s hair. “Won’t you answer my question?”

With a scowl, Sebastian sighed. How was he to phrase this to a man of such fervent faith? Every religion had its own portrayals of hellspawn, and none of them were complimentary.

“You wouldn’t want to know,” Sebastian murmured.

Agni chuckled. “In my thirty years of life, this is the most intrigue I have ever felt. Indulge me.”

Sebastian pensively side-eyed him. “If you must know, I am a demon.”

Agni took a second to translate in his head. “Ah. An asura?”

Sebastian hummed. “I suppose that is the closest term in your language. What do you understand of us?”

“Some scholars describe them as evil,” Agni spat the final word. “But the ancient scriptures stray from that viewpoint. Even my namesake, the god Agni, is described as an asura in our sacred literature.”

Sebastian knitted his brow. “You are aware of the connotations of the term ‘demon’?”

“Of course. Asuras were, in ancient times, one with our deities. However, like many creatures, they grew greedy and fell into the practice of perpetual sin, ultimately waging war against the gods. Thus, they transformed into avidous, unholy beings known for wreaking chaos.”

“…Do you find us detestable?” Sebastian’s voice came out barely louder than the silence that bracketed it, sounding meeker than Agni knew it could.

“All creatures on this Earth are worthy of respect. It is not the place of a mortal such as I to deem someone ‘good’ or ‘evil’.”

Sebastian felt a twisting in his abdomen at the mention of mortality — a sensation not unlike a knife to the back.

“It would be hypocritical of me to condemn your sin, whatever it may be, when I spent most of my years committing atrocities daily.”

“…You are a good man, Agni,” Sebastian said hoarsely.

“I am no saint, Sebastian.” As his hand left Sebastian’s hair, Agni’s voice lowered. “You saw that last night.”

“I provoked you,” Sebastian half-snarled. “Purposefully, for selfish reasons.”

“I still hurt you.”

“I asked for it.”

“Sin is sin, regardless.” Agni’s hand resettled in Sebastian’s hair. “And I have sinned far worse.”

“Oh?”

“For much of my life, I used my caste to my advantage. Under my father’s roof, my will was absolute. I…”

Agni’s fading voice cracked. While he was stuck on finding the words for something he’d never once voiced aloud, a palm rested on his upper arm. With a gentle squeeze and a low purr, Sebastian helped him regain his voice.

“I coerced countless into doing my bidding so that they would suffer in my place, while I lounged in the comfort of a home built on the donations of others. While my countrymen starved half to death, I gorged myself on alcohol and sex.” Agni half-choked on the lump in his throat. “They say that a Brahmin guilty of imbibing alcohol will have molten iron poured down his throat in Hell.”

Sebastian stopped purring. “I have never witnessed such practices.”

“I deserve it. I have lost count of the number of people I murdered.” Agni all but whispered the last word. “I took great pride in their suffering. At my core, Sebastian, I am a rotten, selfish sadist.”

“As am I.”

“You do not know the extent of my betrayal.”

“Who have you betrayed?”

Agni’s breath shook. “I took a vow of celibacy when I met my prince.”

As the scent of blood assailed his senses, Sebastian propped himself up on his palms.

“Ah, forgive me.” Agni too sat up, wiping his eyes with the back of a palm. “I’ve dirtied your pillow. I will go and wash it for you.”

Sebastian glanced at the pillow. The single drop of red sullying the flaxen fabric summoned excess saliva, so he averted his attention to the man holding it.

“Have you cried this way your whole life?”

“I assume you mean the blood? No. Not before I met my prince.” Agni sniffed. “I should tend to him. He will soon wake.”

Sebastian scrunched up his nose. “And me to mine.”

Agni untangled himself from their embrace, draping his legs over the edge of the bed.

“Although—”

Sebastian cut himself off when he caught himself reaching out. He drew his hand back toward himself, while Agni glanced behind with a prompting hum.

“I am sure your prince would not mind,” Sebastian saturated his voice in solicitude. “You are only human. And vows are made to be broken.”

Agni gave a crooked smile. On one hand, he leaned in, granting Sebastian a chaste kiss. The heat against his lips made pins and needles flare up in his brain, but before he could so much as process the sensation, it fizzled out as Agni pulled away.

“Before you leave…” Stopping him from rising with a hand on his shoulder, Sebastian spoke into Agni’s ear. “What say you to paying me another visit tonight?”

As Sebastian’s breath hit his neck, Agni shivered, eyeing up the sum of clothing still strewn across the floorboards.

“It does get lonely in these quarters. They are awfully empty.”

With a loose grasp on Sebastian’s chin, Agni made eye contact. “I’d be much obliged.”