Violence warning ⚠️
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*BOOM*
(Y/N) shot awake at a loud rumble that slightly shook the apartment. Her eyes darted to the window in front of her to see the sky completely dark and cloudy, no stars or moon could be seen. But the window looked... wet? Droplets of water rolled down and covered the glass as more and more came too.
She moved to go take a closer look but something was stopping her. She felt an arm tighten around her waist and pull her back into a chest that made her stiffen up. Following the arm from her stomach, across her side, then to her back, she saw the sleeping form of Ki in her peripheral vision then she slowly panned back to the window with a blank face.
'How did we get in this position???'
Trying not to wake the demon, she lightly grabbed his arm with two fingers and lifted it up from her waist. His arm escaped from her hold and went back around her waist while his head buried itself deep into the back of her neck, making her freeze up even more. 'Ki, why?!?!?!'
He wouldn't let her go. Even in his sleep, he had a firm grip on her body and held her up against him.
She could feel him breathing against her neck. Her face scrunched up at the feeling and she desperately looked for a way out. Maybe she can scoot away or wiggle out of his hold? She can use a pillow as a decoy!
But the only other pillows were... at the foot of the bed... and Akai was sitting there?
The blond was sitting on the foot of the bed with his back turned to her as he waved around her knife in his hands. He tossed it into the air and spun it around between his fingers all while not managing to injure himself.
He was her only hope out of this situation, unfortunately.
(Y/N) tried using her foot to get his attention but he was out of reach. "Akai!" She whispered.
He dropped the knife, spooked at her sudden voice. He leaned down to pick it up before turning around to look at her. His eyes landed on the sleeping demon and for a second, he looked annoyed. He looked back to her, not pleased at all by any of this. "Comfy?"
Ki moved a bit to where his hand found its way to her chest and she mentally screamed. "Help!" She pointed to the pillow by his side and opened her hand out to take it.
Akai looked at the pillow, then to her, then to the pillow again. He grabbed it and made his way to her side before crouching down to her level and glaring at Ki who slept soundly with Akai's girl in his arms. 'This bastard..'
(Y/N) grabbed the pillow from him and sneakily inched it in between her and the arm while taking her time to move off the bed. Slowly but surely her plan was working until Akai got impatient and decided to grab her arm and rush her with getting off the bed. The sudden motion caused Ki to growl deeply and pull her back in with the pillow now in between the two. She almost yelped at this while Akai had a dark look painted on his face.
(Y/N) could see the fire in Akai's eyes as Ki subconsciously kissed her head in his sleep before settling back down into a deeper slumber.
After several attempts at escaping with the same results each time, she finally managed to slip the pillow in her place and crawled off the bed without waking the demon. She sat down on the floor and let a breath she was holding in.
Akai, however, had been leaning against the wall watching her multiple failures with an unreadable expression. On the outside, he looked calm, but he was burning with rage on the inside. Deciding not to wake the demon and start unnecessary/necessary trouble, he helped the Keeper to her feet and they both moved away from the bed as to not bother Ki.
Another loud rumbling like the one from earlier came and the sounds of droplets hitting the windows caught (Y/N)'s attention. She went to the kitchen window that was cracked at the bottom, allowing some of the droplets to fall inside the apartment. Her fingers touched the wet surface curiously as a more distant rumble sounded from far away.
"What are you so fascinated about now?" Akai watched her with narrowed eyes at what she was doing. First the ivy now rainwater?
She peeked over her shoulder at him as she pieces together her thoughts. "Is this rain?"
"No, water falling from the sky is the Earth crying. What else could it be?"
She deadpanned at his obvious sarcasm as a light flashed in the sky behind her. "Asshole."
*BOOM*
She jumped from the window and fell back onto Akai's chest. The demon covered his mouth to muffle his laughter, almost waking up Ki and Tuca. The way she got scared from thunder of all things was hilarious to him.
While Akai was enjoying her fright, she was gripping his shirt and staring wide eyed at the sky. Her view out the window was becoming covered in water and the storm seemed to be only getting worse. She heard a small chuckle coming from the demon behind her and she looked up at him and glared. "This isn't funny!"
He didn't respond with words but instead shifted his vocal cords around to imitate the rumble of thunder to tease her. She hit him on the chest and left the window to go sit on the kitchen counter, annoyed with crossed arms. "Not funny."
"You're like a baby deer running away from the smallest noise. How does thunder scare you?"
She shrugged like the answer was obvious. "Oh, I don't know! Maybe because I didn't grow up on the surface like you!"
The sound of Tuca shuffling on the recliner made them both quiet down. (Y/N) looked over at him, their whispering was getting a bit too loud.
Akai leaned down on the counter next to her and placed a finger on his lips and shh'd her. "You don't want to wake up the little shit."
"Stop calling him that! You and Ki are so mean to him." Tuca hasn't done anything but exist and both demons treat him so badly.
Akai rolled his eyes, here she goes defending him again. Ignoring her comment, he grabbed her thigh and slid her in front of him so quickly that she didn't realize until he laid his head in her lap and took her hand to massage circles into it. She sucked in a surprised breath when his other hand rested next to her bottom but didn't make a move to do anything.
He just laid there and didn't say a word. No flirts or dirty moves. His red tail waved around soundly behind him and for the first time in a while, he seemed relaxed. (Y/N) has noticed that he's been more uptight lately and although she's glad that he finally gets some peace, she doesn't like the fact that that peace was her...
"Akai?"
"Hm?"
"Can you move?"
"No."
'No?!' Great! She gets away from Ki's clutches only to fall right into Akai's. Did they really require this much physical attention from her?
"I'm gone for hours risking my ass to make sure your ass is safe while Sir Quiet over there gets to snuggle you like some teddy bear. I'm tired so shut the fuck up and let me have this." He mumbled.
'Wh-?!' Speechless couldn't even describe how she's feeling in this moment. His words were aggressive while his tone was weary and calm, she couldn't tell if he was being passive-aggressive or not.
She sighed. "I'm not something you two can cuddle with whenever you want."
"But you do such a good job at it!" He teased, earning a smack on the head.
The next morning came and the group was now heading out to start their journey to leave the city. Ki and Akai argued about which direction they should head in. Ki wanted to go east towards his old forest while Akai wanted to go west to the countryside. They both had their reasons, some good some not, but in the end, they couldn't come up with a decision.
What settled the whole matter was Tuca suggesting they go north. The countryside was too open while the forest was too crowded. Both locations were bad ideas. When Ki asked 'What's so special north?' Tuca explained that there's a small town that wasn't too crowded or too open. Since the town was pretty remote, he doubted that any demons would choose to live there.
It took a lot of convincing but eventually, they chose to go north to this small town.
Even though it was a suggestion from Tuca, (Y/N) couldn't help but think that he had other reasons for wanting to go. He wasn't urging them or anything of the sort but she remembered him saying he wanted to find his 'family'. If this family of his was up north, maybe she can try getting help from his father, Tuca said that his father is up to helping others.
After the storm had settled early in the morning, it left the streets of the city drenched in rainwater. Areas of the streets were partially flooded while the many plants growing all around were covered in dew.
Since they were close to the outskirts of the city, Tuca stated that they needed to take a long highway in order to reach a road that goes straight through the town. How long the walk across the highway would take? He didn't know but it might take a whole day until they reached the end.
Akai was in the middle of pulling open a chain link fence so (Y/N) can get through to a park area when he felt the sudden urge to look off towards the park in a completely random direction. Ki was already on the other side and noticed Akai pausing. (Y/N) watched him too and tried following his gaze but all she saw were trees and bushes. "Akai? You alright?"
His red eyes squinted at whatever he was looking towards and he suddenly looked angered by something. He huffed out a familiar annoyed breath that (Y/N) had recognized, whenever he did that, something was bothering him. He turned to Tuca, who was in his own world tracing his fingers on old graffiti and grabbed his shoulder, pushing the boy through the fence and towards the park. "Remember when you said you pretended to be a kid to hunt people?"
"Yes?" Tuca tilted his head, confused. Where was he going with this?
"I need you to do that now. I think we're being followed."
Ki's eyes widened and he turned to look around at the park. Did Akai sense someone around? Ki wasn't picking up anything.
Tuca went to refuse but Akai forced him anyways. "You used to do this as a hobby. Go!"
Akai made Ki teleport back behind the fence and they used the leaves that grew along it as cover. (Y/N) was worried if something would jump out on Tuca but she believed that he'll be able to take care of himself... hopefully.
Before Tuca stepped any further into the park, he started the process of shrinking his body. His arms shrunk into his long sleeves, his height went down to 4'5, and his straight faced features finally developed a more child like look. The pants he was wearing slipped off of him and his shirt was now like a dress. When he was done, he turned to the group and smiled widely at them before his smile dropped and he seemed more focused.
(Y/N) watched closely as he turned back around and his head lowered down while his shoulders started shaking. Soon, she heard quiet sobs that turned into full on crying as he trudged his way out into the open. Tears streamed down Tuca's child like face uncontrollably and his breath hitched in his throat with every sob. When he got near a fountain, he dropped down to his knees and wailed out like a 5 year old would, loud and in need.
"Moooommy! Where's m-my mo-mommy?! Heeeelllppp!"
If she didn't know that this was all an act, she would've ran out to comfort him immediately. He was really dedicated to his role as a child in need.
Akai snickered at the sight. "Heh, so he wasn't kidding."
As the boy cried his heart out, the bushes near him started to rustle. The three behind the fence looked closely at the bushes and Ki spotted a dark lanky figure walking around through the trees. "There's something there."
The figure finally emerged from behind Tuca, revealing it to be a dog looking demon with six legs and an infected looking coat. It towered the boy by a lot, almost half the size of Ki. It was huge! From where (Y/N) sat, she could see that it also had multiple bony tails and it was so skinny that its rib cage was poking through its stomach. The dog looked deranged and it was solely focused on the crying boy.
The dog crept up to Tuca with its teeth bared and body low, ready to pounce at any second. Tuca heard the low growls and he stopped crying to look behind him. The two demons met eyes for a second before the dog decided to attack. It snarled its sharp teeth and ran full force at the boy.
(Y/N) gasped and went to go help him but Ki grabbed her arm and pulled her back. She tried pulling her arm away but Ki held his grip on her. "Don't go out there."
Well from what she could see, Tuca was just sitting there watching the hellhound run towards him. But as it got nearer, the demon boy stood up and faced the dog. Before it could snap its teeth on his neck, Tuca's eyes flashed a bright green and suddenly he spat out a large bile of acid that covered the dog and instantly started burning it.
"Oh shit!" Akai muttered, enjoying this a little too much.
The dog fell to the ground and growled in pain while the acid tore its skin apart and burned its face from where the substance landed.
Tuca giggled, watching his target suffer as he circled the mutt.
It finally got to its feet and went to attack Tuca again but the boy ducked away and spat out more of the acid towards the dog's legs. It fell to the ground again, unable to run or move at all.
Tuca crouched down next to the beast with a crazed smile and snake eyes that pierced into the demon's soul. He brought a hand up and his fingers started to grow sharp and develop a purplish color. When the dog made a lasting effort to bite him, Tuca held its head down and plunged his hand into the demon's neck, releasing a corrosive acid-like venom directly into its bloodstream.
It didn't take long for the demon dog to finally die as the acid ate away at its body. Tuca pulled away with an excited grin at the kill and it made (Y/N) tremble a bit. How could something so cute look so evil?
Akai slow clapped his hands after the show he just witnessed. He thought the little shit was a softy but now he's impressed. Ki on the other hand seemed more shocked than blown away. The acid Tuca used must've been really strong to take down that big of a demon. He thought the boy would be a liability to them but now he's proving to be more useful.
Tuca skipped back over to the three, his shirt sleeve coated in the demon blood that was starting to harden by the second. When he reached them, he smiled happily at (Y/N) for his first kill in years. "I did it! I killed it! Are you proud?"
She scratched her neck nervously. How was she supposed to respond after seeing that?! She meekly smiled and patted his head while he beamed up at her. "You... did great Tuca! Good job."
The boy giggled and nodded.
Akai looked around the park again, not sensing anything anymore but he was confused. That dog thing wasn't what he sensed... but now that the feeling was gone, he shouldn't have to worry anymore.
Still, he's gonna keep an eye out just in case. Hopefully, what he was feeling is wrong...