Demon Diary Fan Fiction ❯ Distortion::Twilight ❯ Distort::Innocence ( Chapter 1 )

Hello again! This is an AU fic that takes the story of Demon Diary and shifts it to the left a bit. I don't want to tell you too much - I'll let you figure out what's going on for yourself. (Not that it's terribly complicated, mind.)

Let's get the disclaimers out of the way first:
- This is Male/Male. You have been warned.
- A warning to those of you who read my last fic - this will be quite different. While it won't be completely devoid of fluff or humor, it will be in large part fairly dark and rather gritty. There will be non-consensual sex. There will be elements of sadomasochism and bondage.
- I don't own any part of Demon Diary. Like, no shit sherlock. =3
- If you're wondering how far I'm planning on taking this - I'm not sure yet. I might retell the whole of Demon Diary, or I might keep it fairly short and compact. We'll see what my brain throws at me.

Distortion :: Twilight

A prism; light shifts, bends, twists. The child destined to become a Demon Lord is taken in not by a benevolent thief, but by a far less savory sort, eager to capitalize on an innocent boy's beauty - until one day, a dark savior appears.

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[ Distort::Innocence ]

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"Keep away from him!"

"It's just a child, isn't it? And such a pretty thing. Look, it's crying."

"Don't be fooled! He's a devil's child, I tell you! He's a bad omen!"

"Hnn. Well, if no one else wants it, I'm sure it's a good omen for me…"

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"Wake up, Raenef! For pity's sake, wake up!"

Raenef tumbled out of his chair in a flurry of green satin and limbs, chest heaving in mortal terror. In his mad scramble to gather his bearings and figure out where he was, he only managed to further entangle himself in his clothes until he was rendered quite immobile.

"Raenef!" Bronzed hands shook his shoulders urgently. "You're going to be late!"

Raenef peered blearily up at the dark splotch above him that slowly morphed into the beautiful, sharp boned face of his Master's mistress. "Mnn… Sani…?"

"Don't, 'Mnn, Sani,' me! You're going to be late! Pull yourself together! He's in a monstrous mood today and you'll get in trouble if you don't hurry!"

"Whaa…?"

"Oh good gods, Raenef!" the woman cried out in exasperation, musical voice careening. "You have a guest to meet! This one's very important and if you don't please him the Master is going to string you up from the tower, don't you understand?!"

Raenef leapt to his feet in alarm and promptly fell into Sani, tripping over the loose wrap that hung from his waist. The woman caught him, but as he fumbled to right himself again an ominous riiiip knifed through the air.

"Um…" Raenef muttered, still holding on to Sani's caramel arms. Looking down he saw that he'd managed to get the wrap caught on the chair, wrapped around one of the tacks that held the velvet covering on the giant, overstuffed thing. He'd managed to tear the hem almost completely off the garment. "Oops…?" Raenef ventured.

The woman groaned mournfully. "Oh, for heaven's sakes, get out of those clothes while I find something else…"

"But there's no clothes in - "

"Just do it!" Sani snapped.

Abashed, Raenef obediently began to disentangle himself from all the satin while watching Sani run around the room in a panic. Finally she spotted a sheer, white tablecloth and snatched it off its table, dashing back over to Raenef, who was just managing to get out of his rather complicatedly laced vest.

Sani tore the ruined wrap from his waist with such haste it made Raenef blush, and proceeded to throw the tablecloth around his shoulders. Dazedly Raenef wondered what on earth she was doing. But then she proceeded to twirl him around, crossing the two ends of the translucent silk over his chest and wrapping them around his hips, gathering the loose fabric in front. She yanked a jade pin from her own, chocolate-colored tresses and jabbed it through the fabric - Raenef's eyes went very wide as he watched the long pointy object so violently shoved near his nether-regions. She quickly tied a fanciful looking knot around it and fluffed the loose trail of fabric at the bottom.

"There!" she exclaimed triumphantly, and herded him across the room to stand before the large, decorative looking glass hanging from the wall. Raenef had a brief moment to marvel at the woman's skill as she ran her fingers fussily through his mussed hair. He couldn't remember the last time he'd looked so… so…

"…Wow!" Raenef blurted, slack-jawed.

"Now isn't the time for being impressed! Go, go, go!" Sani planted her hands against the boy's back and pushed him over to the door and out of the sitting room. "He's in the room you usually meet the prince in."

"Which prince?" Raenef wondered dizzily.

"Aglan! Prince Aglan!"

"Um, okay!" Raenef started down the hall, pausing to call over his shoulder - "Thank you, Sani!"

"Yes, yes, now hurry!" came the weary reply.

Sani watched the boy go, hand anxiously clenched into a fist at her breast. She hadn't told him who he was meeting - it was probably best he didn't know. Such a sweet kid. Why did that horrible man have to ask for him?

Gods, she hoped he'd be all right.

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"If you don't wish to sell yourself, then why do so?"

"Well… Because… I can't leave. They won't let us leave."

"If you truly wished it, you would escape, would you not?"

"Maybe… But then… Where would I go? How would I survive? This is all I know how to do."

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A new guest for the evening.

Raenef shifted nervously from foot to foot as he lifted his hand, gulping as he tried to work up the nerve to knock on the door. He didn't like it when he had to serve new ones. It was impossible to predict just what they wanted from him - and often a wrong guess resulted in a beating for Raenef. This guy was supposed to be important, besides.

Briefly Raenef wondered whether it might be that strange black-haired man he'd seen wandering in the courtyard earlier today. Twice he'd happened by him. The first time he'd seen him, he'd been fleeing from the cook's wrath after raiding the kitchen with some of the other boys. That black hair had made him pause for a moment; he'd never seen hair so dark before, a deep violet-black, just like the night sky.

The second time he saw him he recognized him right away. Then the man had even spoken to him. And he'd spoken to him like he was… a normal person. Despite what kind of place this was that Raenef lived and worked in.

…And even despite the fact that he'd just given that hypnotically swaying hair of his a good sound yank.

Raenef… hadn't meant to do that. It had just been so pretty and long and he'd never seen hair so dark and shining like that and before he'd even known what he was doing he'd reached out and…

Oops.

Somehow Raenef didn't think it would be that guy, though. Even though new faces weren't common around here, he just didn't think it was likely. The man had looked so regal and reserved and proper, and not in the falsely decorated and perfumed stink sort of a way that so many of the people who came here were. He'd seemed intense and pure, somehow, like a person who'd sooner die than hide what they were. It was nearly impossible to imagine that sort of person purchasing favors from a place like this.

Raenef didn't know whether to hope it was him or not - the man was certainly very lovely, and really, it was less far less unpleasant to serve an attractive patron. Sometimes it was even almost… fun. But somehow Raenef didn't want to think that man had this sort of pastime.

The little blond shook his head and set his jaw, and forced himself to knock on the door in front of him. In his determination he knocked on it rather louder than he meant to.

"Enter," spoke a low, smooth voice, muffled by the door.

Raenef swallowed thickly, and hurriedly fussed at his silks. Running a hand through the wild blond ponytail his customers so loved, he slowly opened the door, the old, heavy thing creaking painfully in protest. Raenef peaked around the edge, but he didn't see anyone in the richly furnished room. Hesitantly, he stepped inside.

Turning his head to and fro, he still didn't see anyone - when he heard a rustling behind him. Jerking around with a start, he came to face his customer for the evening. Raenef felt a strange twisting in his belly.

It was him.

The man's simple gray cloak furled slightly as he stood up from his chair, situated in the corner behind the door. So… tall! Looking up into that pale, shadowed face, Raenef felt his heart bang once against his ribcage in alarm, and he took a step back - and promptly stumbled into the door, knocking it closed with a resounding thud.

Raenef winced and struggled to regain a shred of composure.

Piercing violet eyes combed over the boy, taking in the pale golden flesh, the taut, long limbs, the translucent white silk wrapping that barely covered him. Raenef fought not to squirm under the intensity of those unearthly eyes. There was something strange about the way that man was looking at him. Raenef was used to such evaluating stares, combing over his body and drinking in its youthful beauty, but this man's gaze was different. There was no hint of the lust that darkened most men's eyes when they looked him over like this.

This man's eyes were… cold and detached. Unsettlingly observant.

It took Raenef a few moments to find his voice. He hadn't the faintest clue where to begin seducing this one. "Ah - I saw you earlier today, didn't I?" Raenef stammered. He winced again. Gods, he sounded like an idiot.

"…I believe so," the man answered quietly. The deep, silky voice sent chills down Raenef's spine.

There was a long and very tense silence. Raenef gulped. Better get on with it. He walked slowly over to the stranger, trying not to let the tremble in his hands show as he swayed his hips a little. As he approached, Raenef leaned up against the man - dear gods, but he was tall - and placed one palm against the swath of chest left bare by his robe and cloak.

"I guess…" Raenef murmured, peering coyly up through his bangs, "you liked me, then?"

The man just stared at him silently, expression unchanging. Raenef felt a bead of sweat forming on his brow. Geez, he's really not helping me out any here!

"Um, so…" Raenef's fingertip traced nervous little circles on the stranger's skin. "What do you want, mister? I can…" Inexplicably, Raenef felt his face begin to burn, and he had trouble continuing with the sentence, despite all the years he'd been here, doing this very same thing. He swallowed. "I can just do what you say, and let you lead… Or I can - "

"What is your name?" the man interjected brusquely.

Raenef blinked, startled. "Ah… Um. They call me Peach. What's - "

"I meant your real name."

Raenef's voice died in his throat. Well this was odd. "Er… It's Raenef," he stammered, perplexed.

The man stared at him for several long moments, unmoving. Just as Raenef began to recover from his surprise and opened his mouth to say something else, the man's eyes slid closed, and a long, slow sigh trickled out of him.

"Impossible," he muttered, weakly sitting back down in the chair.

Raenef just stood there gaping. Not that he didn't have a tendency to get confused and stay that way during every-day events, but now he was really confused - and maybe even a little put out. He'd been standing here half-naked and coming on to this man, who he was supposed to be entertaining tonight, and he didn't seem the least bit fazed.

At the moment he didn't seem to even be paying him any attention. A long, ebony trail of hair was slipping over the man's shoulder and pooling in his lap as he sat there holding his head in one hand.

Raenef cleared his throat. "Um… mister? What's impossible?" he asked meekly.

The man twitched. "I would ask that you please not call me 'mister,'" he said, his voice strained. "My name is Eclipse."

"Er… okay. Eclipse." Raenef hoped he could remember it. It was too nice a name to forget. Eclipse. Eclipse. Eclipse. "So, um, Eclipse? What's impossible?" Eclipse. Eclipse. Eclipse.

The man said something but it was muffled and Raenef was so busy trying to memorize his name that he missed it. Finally Eclipse turned those eerie violet eyes up to face his own again, and sighed. "I suppose there is nothing for it, then," he murmured tiredly. "You - "

A man's voice shouted angrily, distant and incoherent as it drifted through the barrier of the thick oaken door. Both of them glanced at the door, startled.

"Is something happening?" Eclipse asked, blinking.

"I don't know…" Raenef replied. "I - " Suddenly a thought occurred to him. The voice had sounded awfully familiar. "Oh… I think… Tonight's the night I usually see Prince Aglan…" In this room, even…

Eclipse's eyes widened subtly. "Ah. I see."

Raenef squinted at Eclipse, wondering how it was he'd been given what was supposed to be the night of a prince's once-weekly romp with his favorite boy. "Mist… I mean, Eclipse?"

"Yes?"

"How much did you pay… for tonight?" Raenef asked, feeling his face inexplicably flush again.

An elegant, dark eyebrow quirked upward. "Nothing." A simple, clear answer.

"Huh?" Raenef blurted bewilderedly - and for some reason, Eclipse cringed in response. Raenef watched the man rise to his feet and place a hand on his shoulder, gently but firmly turning the youth around.

"If you would please come with me," Eclipse said in that rich, cultured voice, steering Raenef toward the door.

"What…?!" Raenef looked at the man - with some difficulty, given the boy was being pushed out in front of the taller man - his green eyes wide and apprehensive. "Did I do something wrong, Mist - Eclipse? I can - "

"No, my liege, we should simply be leaving now." Eclipse opened the door.

"Wha…" Raenef mouthed uselessly - 'my liege?' What was that supposed to mean?! And leaving? Leaving for where?! His mind reeled as that slender, long hand kept a tight grip on him and herded him through the threshold. Eclipse said nothing to quell his bafflement.

Somehow Raenef noticed even in the midst of his confusion that Eclipse's fingernails were startlingly long, well kept - and very sharp looking. Almost like claws. He could feel them biting into his shoulder as they breezed through the candle-lit hallway - not painfully, but certainly the potential for pain was there.

Raenef gulped and decided not to complain for now.

They finally emerged into the great hall, where the Master of the house and several servants were struggling to restrain a very irate and red-faced man with long brown curls. Those curls, which were usually so well-groomed whenever Raenef saw them, were mussed and frazzled.

"I don't care who the man is!" he was screaming hoarsely. "I am Prince Aglan and I demand to see my Peach! This is MY night! Give him to me or I will have you all hanged!"

The master was trying to reason with him, but Raenef only heard snippets above the din made by the prince's struggles. "Please, my lord, you must…" "…demon of the third order…" "…can't possibly…"

"I DON'T CARE!" the prince raged, wrenching himself out of the servant's grasp. As he did so, he stumbled to his left - and looked straight at Raenef. There was a long, silent moment in which the world seemed to pause; Raenef realized all of a sudden that Eclipse had stopped walking, and was just standing beside the young boy and watching this spectacle unfold.

"YOU!" the flushed prince finally exclaimed, raising his arm and pointing dramatically at the dark-haired man. "Give him to me THIS INSTANT!"

Raenef looked up at Eclipse; Eclipse's eyes narrowed as he stared down his sharp nose at the prince. Then, oh-so-slowly, those slender, pale lips curled into a smile - a smile that froze the blood in Raenef's veins.

::TBC::