Demon's Hide

Puck the Satyr

Female Main Character x Male Monster

When I was a little girl, my mother was a pediatrician. Sometimes, when her patients were really sick, it was her bedside manner to tell them stories. She comforted them, telling them that fairies visited the sick, giving them kisses and watching over them. It helped her young patients not feel so alone, it made them feel special in a way. Even I had fallen for her stories a time or two. I even took those stories when I became a doctor myself.

I took over my mother's practice, becoming a pediatrician was my dream since I was small. I wanted to be a doctor just like my mother. She warned me though, someone as tender-hearted as me might have trouble.

"It's hard seeing people you come to care for get sick. It's hard enough being a mother. Kids have a way of weaseling in, making your heart hurt, making you work yourself until you're nothing but a bloody pulp." My mother told me as I started medical school.

She had always warned me that being a doctor was hard and sometimes thankless work. But still, I wanted to follow her footsteps, I wanted to heal like she did.

When I joined mom's practice, she sent me to all the conventions and conferences. She told me to build relations with other doctors and providers. Also, she hated going to them, so I gave her an out for not having to go anymore.

It is at one such conference, during a massive thunderstorm, that I first meet Dr. Westley. He is this tall, aloof man who keeps to himself, sitting alone. Because of the storm and flooding on the roads, a lot of us are trapped in the convention hall. Not the best place to be, and I am shocked at how many doctors aren't actually good under pressure.

The convention hall has a small coffee shop, and the poor staff is working themselves to the bone trying to keep up with the demand of these suddenly trapped doctors. I have gotten my coffee and rather dry ham and cheese scone, and am trying to find a place to sit down.

"If you must sit somewhere, sit here," an exasperated sigh reaches me.

I turn, looking down at the blonde head of Dr. Westley. He's moving his papers off the table, and he motions towards the empty chair across from him.

"Stop looking like such a sad puppy and sit down," he huffs again. He never looks up at me, so I never see his eyes.

I am relieved, and I sit down at the table. "Thank you so much." I look up at him, only seeing the gleam of his golden hair. "Uhm," I look down at the scone. "Would you like half?"

He tilts his head just enough to look at the food. A bemused smirk crosses his lips, and he shakes his head.

"No," he chuckles. "No, thank you."

I am silent then, looking around and watching the trapped doctors swarm the little coffee kiosk as if the world was going to end.

"Just a storm," I murmur under my breath. "You'd think they'd never been left to their own devices before."

Dr. Westley snorts, and he tries to cover it up. "It's a much more pathetic Lord of the Flies situation."

I smile and glance at him. "And, why aren't you worried?"

"Like you said," he replies. "It's just a storm. We're at least inside, and there's no one trying to kill us."

I chuckle and shake my head. "Excuse me?"

"Isn't that usually what happens?" He lifts his head for the first time, and I can see his eyes are such a beautiful shade of blue. "In those...awful horror movies? Isn't it always during the rain or something?"

"I uh-" my words are stolen by his handsome features and periwinkle blue eyes. "Rain?"

A soft smile spreads across his face. "Yes. Like it is now?"