<html> <head> <title>Pact</title> </head> <style type="text/css"> <!-- .style1 {font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif} body,td,th { font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; } --> </style> <body> <p><span class="style1"></span><strong>Title:</strong> Pact<br /> <strong>Author:</strong> Kristen Sharpe<br /> <strong>Date:</strong> September 10, 2019<br /> <strong>Rating:</strong> K<br /> <strong>Warnings:</strong> None<br /> <strong>Continuity:</strong> Alternate universe.<br /> <strong>Disclaimer:</strong>  Ao no Exorcist/Blue Exorcist belongs to Kazue Katou, Shueisha, Aniplex, and various other parties.</p> <p><strong>Author's Note:</strong> Inspired by a story prompt a friend sent me, but it then veered off in its own direction. I'll probably try something a little closer to the original prompt again eventually.</p><hr /> <p> Okumura Yukio was, to all outward appearances, blandly normal. And, that was how he liked it.</p> <p> He got enough notoriety being an orphan living in a state run facility. He didn't need anything else about him to stand out.</p> <p> Certainly not the fact that he could see invisible monsters. See <em>demons</em>.</p> <p> And, definitely not the fact that, alone and terrified, he had somehow summoned his own demon at the age of seven.</p> <p> It was one of the few lucky things in his life, Yukio reflected, that he'd summoned a demon as young and inexperienced as he was. The demon hadn't known what to ask as payment for driving off Yukio's tormentors. Hadn't known much of anything. And, Yukio had only known bits and pieces he'd learned from manga and other pop culture.</p> <p> He'd learned more since, quietly researching folklore.</p> <p> At least enough to know that offering to share his blood could have ended badly.</p> <p> As it was, his once ghostly demon had grown more solid with each passing year.</p> <p> But, blood and childish dreams had built a bond he didn't know how to break. A bond that felt like they were remaking something rather than creating it.</p> <p> Still, it was just a feeling.</p> <p> Even if the demon looked disturbingly like him and always had.</p> <p> But, why shouldn't it have assumed a familiar form? Something he would accept? Wasn't that what demons did?</p> <p> <em>"Th--this is Assiah? You summoned me?" Blue eyes looked at him warily with a poorly hidden desperation he knew too well.</em></p> <p> "You're thinking too hard again." Rin's face blocked his view of the sky above the school rooftop and a finger poked him between the eyes. "If you keep frowning, your face will stick that way."</p> <p> Yukio batted the hand away.</p> <p> "Stop that."</p> <p> Rin grinned and poked him again. Waited. Then, slowly inched a finger toward him before delivering another, slower poke.</p> <p> Yukio sighed and closed his eyes. He should be grateful his younger self hadn't unwittingly bargained away his life or his soul.</p> <p> There was another poke, and Yukio opened his eyes to glare at Rin. "I thought we agreed that you were my <em>older</em> brother?"</p> <p> Because his younger self had been more interested in family than control.</p> <p> "I am," Rin, his demon, said, smiling wide. "Your big brother who protects you from demons, bullies, and permanent frowns."</p> <p> In hindsight, he should have offered his firstborn.</p> <form><select name=select size="1" style="background-color:ffffff; font size:12pt; font-family:ARIAL; color:000000" onchange="location.href= (form.select.options[form.select.selectedIndex].value)"> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane">Click Here for the Next Chapter!</option> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane">Back to Blue Blazes Home</option> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane/fanfic/fanfics.php">Back to Fanfiction</option> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane/fanfic/pact.html">Pact</option> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane/fanfic/pact2.html">Revelations</option> <option value="http://www.fyresight.com/ane/fanfic/pact3.html">Brotherhood</option> </select></form> </body> </html>