My Roommate Is The Devil

Kapitel Eins

Mephisto stood in the empty lot watching as the blue flames consumed the body before him. This was just another one of his many failed attempts to summon Satan. He'd been so used to listening to his father's wishes that he'd forgotten the reason why he was fulfilling them in the first place. Was there a reason? Or was it just habit at this point?

The demon had failed, yet again, with his attempts. This person wasn't strong enough to hold Satan. It would seem that no human was strong enough to hold Satan. This would be a long and tiresome search. It had already been a few weeks since he'd started. Mephisto's roommate, Shiro, didn't seem to worry too much about what Mephisto did. Mephisto couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. In any case, it meant that he wouldn't have to come up with bogus excuses or explanations. That was a relief. But, Mephisto couldn't help but feel a bit sad that the guy he just met (and instantly wanted to get to know better) didn't seem to care about him in the slightest. This wasn't the first time Mephisto had fallen for a human, and it probably wasn't the last time either. The demon liked to think that he was just an avid lover of humanity as a whole, even though that was only partially true. Yes, the demon did have a soft spot for the stupid creatures, but he also had a soft spot for specific stupid creatures. It would seem that Shiro had become one of the specific.

The body stood up and lunged for Mephisto. This wasn't anything new, he'd had to avoid the flames before on the previous attempts too, but this time the body actually managed to hit him. A small blue flame burned on Mephisto's torso. It hurt like Gehenna itself but there was nothing Mephisto could do about it anymore. He took his umbrella and shot the body in the head, exactly three times, before turning around and leaving it behind to be destroyed fully by the flames of Satan. It was better to kill the vessel than to just assume that it would die on its own.

The flame had disappeared just before Mephisto got back to the apartment. He knocked on the door (because he had forgotten his key, again) and waited for his angry roommate to come and answer. It didn't take long before he did.

"Mephisto! I've told you countless times that you need two keys to get back into the apartment. What would you have done if I wasn't here? You idiot! Stop forgetting the second key! It's a pain to have to stop what I'm doing every single time just to answer the door because you're an idio-" Shiro stopped scolding Mephisto when he saw blood ooze out of a tear in his clothing. "Did you get shot? What happened? Are you okay?!" Shiro asked. He promptly helped Mephisto inside the apartment and sat him down in the bathroom, right next to the first aid kid, and got to work.

"I'm fine, it just hurts a lot. You don't have to do anything. And no, I didn't get shot," Mephisto tried to stop Shiro before he touched the injury, but nothing he said impacted Shiro's actions. Before Mephisto knew it, Shiro had already taken off most of the clothing that covered Mephisto's upper body and had begun dabbing  the wound with a cotton-ball covered in, what Mephisto thought to be, alcohol. 

Mephisto cringed, "What do you think you're trying to do to me?! I just told you that you don't have to do this!" he snapped. Shiro didn't seem the slightest bit concerned.

"Listen, I don't care what you think you are," Shiro pointed to the wound, "but that clearly is a human wound and needs to be treated as such. So grow a pair and let me disinfect it since I know you won't let me take you to the hospital." Mephisto stopped fighting back and allowed Shiro to do whatever it was he intended to do. He didn't like it, but Shiro had a point. The blue flames leave wounds that a demon's body can't heal quickly. It would heal at the same rate a human's wound would. Mephisto regretted the fact that he hadn't sped up time on the wound to make it heal before returning back here. He could've avoided this whole conversation, but he was tired and didn't want to get to that level of exhaustion.

"Are you a member of a gang or something?" Shiro asked. Mephisto chuckled. He knew that sooner or later Shiro would ask about him. Curiosity always wins with humans. Mephisto was just surprised at how long it had taken Shiro to ask.

"Sure, if you want to think of it like that," Mephisto began, "but I've already told you what I am and what I'm doing." Shiro and Mephisto held eye contact for a few minutes but neither individual said a single thing. Shiro looked away only to apply the final bandage on Mephisto's body. 

"I don't understand," Shiro started. "What exactly about you makes you a demon? Is it your pointy ears and teeth? The fact your hair is purple? Your mischievous eyes and grin you always have on your face? Or maybe it's just your weird sense in fashion? No matter what kind of explanation you give me, I won't understand. You just don't seem like a demon to me. If anything, you're an angel wearing a devil's mask."

Mephisto laughed and laughed until tears escaped from his eyes. There was truth in what Shiro said but it was simply because Shiro had said it that made the words all that much more hilarious. The demon laughed at the fact a human could notice so much about him when they hadn't even known each other that long. He didn't know what was more disgraceful: the fact he wasn't demonic enough or the fact that Shiro, a human, knew he wasn't.

The demon stopped laughing and held his head in his hands. Painful memories flooded back from the depths of his forgotten past and invaded his thoughts. Feelings he'd sworn never to feel again came back to him. Pandora's Box had opened and Mephisto silently sobbed. It's the truth that hurts, because with the truth you realize all of the lies that were told. Mephisto never wanted to be a demon. He never wanted to hurt people. At most all he wanted to do was to play a few pranks on them. But simply because of who he was, or who he was the son of, he'd been cast from heaven like all of the others. His wings were torn off and he was forced to become dealer in lies. 

How many years had it been? After all this time, why had Shiro been the one to notice his facade?