Demon Lord Raenef the Fifth woke with a lazy stretch of his arms and hit something solid next to him.
“Ow,” came a slightly annoyed voice from his side.
Raenef turned and smiled apologetically at Eclipse, his mentor, his protector, his steadfast companion and for the past fifteen years, his lover. “Sorry, Eclipse,” he grinned cheekily, bending over to kiss the crimson eyed demon on the tip of his nose, the spot where he had inadvertently punched him.
“After all this time, you can still forget that I am around?” Eclipse sat up, the covers falling off to reveal a tantalising bare chest. He didn’t sound annoyed, merely curious. This was a recurring ‘argument’ they had been having for ages now. He had learned that Raenef tend to forget almost everything when he woke from slumber. He was probably the most reluctant riser Eclipse has ever seen.
Raenef laughed, a low throaty sound vibrating in the base of his throat. “Last night, someone tried to make me forget my own name.” With another happy laugh, the young demon lord bounced off the bed. He took some time to find his carelessly discarded robe, which happened to be on top of his massive wardrobe. How it got there he didn’t have a clue.
Even with his back turned, he could feel Eclipse’s hot stare on him. While no longer young by human standards but in a society where beings lived almost perpetually, Raenef was still considered barely out of his teens despite being in his thirties.
He had grown from that awkward, gangly boy to a man, well, demon of incredible allure. Despite his body’s best efforts, he knew he would never reach his lover’s height but was merely a few inches shy of it. The thin body had filled out with age and wide shoulders tapered to tantalisingly slim hips. Perhaps it was his coming into his powers, but an aura of confidence hung around him and added to his charm. Women and men alike found him utterly irresistible. He was far removed from the clown as he was referred to in his early days in his post as a Demon Lord. However, due to Eclipse’s urging, he still wore his soft blond hair in the adorable top knot he preferred when he was younger. His genes were being kind to him and still retained very much of the boyish aura that endeared many to him in the past.
He was jerked out of his reverie by warm arms encircled his waist and the feel of a pair of lips buried into the crook of his neck.
“So, what do you intend to do today?” Eclipse asked, continuing his exploration of his younger lover’s smooth, creamy neck.
Raenef felt his eyelids flutter close as Eclipse’s nibbling caused a thrill of desire to course through him. “If you decide to,” he took a deep breath, “stop, I might decide to pillage and plunder today.”
With a last kiss, Eclipse released his master from his embrace and watched him make a quick exit into the bathing chambers. He crossed his arms casually, a soft smile curving his lips. Outward emotions were still very much a barrier to him, but he found himself showing them to his master without any apparent difficulties. The road to love for them had been a rather bumpy one. Eclipse had known his feelings for Raenef long before the Demon Lord recognised it in himself. Being older, wiser and a hell of a lot more cautious, Eclipse didn’t even consider professing anything to Raenef. So, both of them spent rather lonely years after the departure of Chris and Erutis (prior to her returning as a Demon Lord’s woman) moping around the castle until one day when Raenef had gotten injured protecting his realm from some rogue demons.
After a crazed and vengeful Eclipse had taken care of the demons, he had personally tended to the then unresponsive Raenef, allowing no one to touch him, not even the Healers. One night he had broken down, begging his master to be returned to him. He spoke of his love and everything else that was out of character for him if he had his mind screwed on right. When he raised his tearful face to meet wide blue eyes, though still clouded with pain.
And that had been the first step. Subsequent steps had proven awkward but Eclipse found out his master returned those feelings in equal measure, though ten times the fervour. Some nights, Raenef turned into an inexhaustible, insatiable passion starved fiend and others, the sweetest, gentlest lover Eclipse had the honour of clasping close to his heart.
Even after fifteen years of being together, they still acted like love-sick fools in the privacy of their own home. Eclipse had been shocked to realise one fine morning when he considered the castle of the Demon Lord Raenef his home where in the past he had none.
This morning was the same as others with them waking side by side in Raenef’s ridiculously immense bed, though Eclipse was glad of the size. There were nights when they somehow found themselves on the floor enjoying a second round of post coital bliss without any knowledge of how they got there. Eclipse let Raenef get ready while he retired to his own room to bathe and dress. Soon after, they would share a sumptuous breakfast before retiring to the study where Eclipse would train Raenef further in the many intricacies of being a Demon Lord. Despite the years that have passed, there were still much to learn, many spells to master. Raenef had mastered quite a few and created more but knowledge, as Eclipse found out, was an endless road fraught with many hills and valleys.
Eclipse was already seated at the table reading through an old tome regarding dark magic and partaking in some fruit when Raenef breezed in through the main doors. Raenef still haven’t changed his taste in clothing and still opted toward light coloured long coats and pants that sometimes cling onto him in sinful delight. To Eclipse’s sinful delight to be more accurate.
They spent a quiet morning enjoying each other’s company before a missive called Eclipse away. It was one of the many demon councils he was required to chair, much to his annoyance. In the presence of the demon, Eclipse bade his master a farewell before disappearing.
Raenef was left alone, slumped into this chair, feeling a little irritated at the rather cold goodbye he just received. He understood that they still had to be careful about public displays of affection. While not forbidden, the high council frowned upon relations other than that of master and servant. Raenef risked Eclipse being taken away from him if he wasn’t careful.
Left alone with a day to kill, the blond Demon Lord wandered the libraries searching for something interesting to kill his time. He had only been into one other Demon Lord home, which was Krayon’s and that was due to Erutis’ bullying but he found the libraries there were just as well supplied as his own. He had learned to appreciate books and reading, and was currently learning the language and script of a culture long forgotten.
Levitating himself, he rose to the highest bookshelf and retrieved an old book fortified with many protection spells to keep it intact. Soon he was settled into a comfortable armchair, his legs draped over the sides as he struggled to decipher the rather spidery script and cryptic meanings. Nearly half the day had gone and lunch long forgotten before his eyes fell on a rather interesting entry.
“M... Fi…” He squinted at it. “Something Heir…” Excitement thrummed in him when he realised what he was looking at. Eclipse had told him about this spell. It was the spell that a Demon Lord cast to find his heir.
It was a lesson that Eclipse had drummed it into him. It was up to the current Demon Lord to name their heir, but Demon Lords were not known for their fidelity, so there was a possibility that there were existing heirs running around. The Demon Lord in question would cast the spell and if there was an heir apparent, it would locate him. It was then up to the Demon Lord if he wanted to acknowledge his heir or to have him terminated. In his case however, Raenef the Fourth died unexpectedly, thus never had the chance to cast that spell, forcing Eclipse to go to Meruhesae for help. Anyway, his appearance was rather unusual to begin with. However, this spell was rather complicated and required a lot of practice.
Eclipse had always admonished him for jumping into an incantation.
“Always read the instructions on a spell,” Eclipse had warned, hitting his young lover upside the head.
Deciding to give Eclipse a surprise, Raenef began the long process of poring through the incantations. His proficiency in this archaic language was still wobbly if best but it wasn’t hard to learn the incantations, they seemed pretty straight forward enough.
So it went, evening gave way to night as still Raenef sat in that armchair committing the incantations to memory. He couldn’t wait till Eclipse returned and he showed his lover the spell. He just wasn’t comfortable with Eclipse holding his hand all the way for everything. He loved the older demon more than life itself, but he also wanted the teacher to be proud of the student. Admittedly, he had screwed up on a few of these little forays but it doesn’t mean Eclipse had to keep such a close eye on him. It was annoying to be coddled like a child.
He check the time piece and realised that Eclipse would be back in a few hours. Then it hit him. What if it didn’t turn out? What if he ruined the whole thing? Wouldn’t it be wiser to try the spell out first? Nodding to himself, Raenef set the book out on the table and started chanting softly under his breath. A ball of soft glowing light formed in his cupped hands. He smiled as he realised that it was working, the spell was working as he expected. There were only a few more verses before the spell was completed and he knew he shouldn’t lose concentration on it. He lifted his hands, ready to launch the spell into the air when…
“Master Raenef?” A faint voice he recognised as Eclipse called from the hallway.
Damn, he was early!
His concentration gone to hell at the mere sound of his lover’s low, sensual tones, Raenef turned, releasing the ball of light… straight into a mirror.
The light reflected off the large mirror and shot right into Raenef again. He gasped as a warm feeling rippled pleasantly through him. The spell quaked through his body, leaving a soft energy behind before fading.
Just then the door opened to admit a rather harassed looking Eclipse. “There you are!” He stared at Raenef for a while, before asking, “What’s wrong?”
Raenef huffed indignantly, deciding not to tell Eclipse on that little accident with the spell. Since he didn’t feel sick or anything, it must mean the spell worked. After all, he was the heir. “Must anything be wrong?” He complained, walking over to Eclipse.
Once he was close enough, he was enveloped in a tight hug, and a pair of feverish lips was pressed against his. “I missed you, and those idiots were so boring.”
Raenef was unable to suppress a laugh. He couldn’t believe this was the same Eclipse he had met so many years ago. That Eclipse was outwardly emotionless and had no other facial expression other than stoicism. This Eclipse smiled, laughed, pouted, and showed a hundred other emotions to his master on a daily basis.
“What is it you find so hilarious?” Eclipse demanded, throwing Raenef over his shoulder.
The only answer he got was another laugh. Soon humour and mirth were long forgotten as passion and pleasure took over the two lovers who were once reunited again in their desire for each other. This night, as all their nights, were filled with one another and nothing beyond their bedroom door would intrude.
There was something different with their love making tonight. Eclipse couldn’t put his finger on it. It wasn’t anything overtly horrible; instead, it was sweeter, more poignant and had increased in intensity. When it was over, it left them breathless and limp with satisfaction. They slept in the same position adopted since long ago; Raenef cuddled in the protective curve of his older lover’s side, one arm draped carelessly over Eclipse’s slim waist. The older demon lay there, stroking Raenef’s arm idly, still wondering at the difference but unable to pinpoint on where things had changed.
Weeks went by and they fell back into a comfortable routine they had when around each other. Lessons continued and Eclipse was once again the teacher. However, this time around, where he was usually affectionately indulgent of some of the ‘attention deficit’ that afflicted Raenef at odd times, he found himself frustrated and not a little concerned. Raenef, in current months was not only a reluctant riser. In fact, he no longer rose from bed before noon. He was listless most of the time and was prone to nodding off at the table, be it the study table or the dinner table. He had lost nearly all appetite for food and those dishes that once tempted him the most reduced him to a pale shuddering nauseated Demon Lord who pushed the platter aside and quietly excused himself.
Eclipse wondered if he had been a victim of a curse or if his master was hurt in any way.
“Just leave me alone, Eclipse,” Raenef snapped when his lover had started hovering around him too much. “I’m fine. I just need to take another nap later.”
Eclipse recognised that tone as his liege talking to him and not his student or his lover. With a curt inclination of his head, he backed off from the confrontation and continued with the lesson of the day.
“Yes, Master Raenef,” he intoned, flipping through his book to begin his instruction. He saw the blond flinch at the use of the honorific. It was an agreement with them that in private the terms Master, Lord or any other such honorific should not be included when addressing the Demon Lord. He had not done so unless he was completely irate with the blond as he was now.
Deciding to let Raenef think about that, he started reading from the book. “I hope you have been practicing your reading, my Lord. There is a spell that I want you to try and it would require your knowledge on that language we have been practicing.”
Raenef nodded, hurt still present in his eyes and shining slightly with unshed tears. Eclipse had never been that cold to him for the longest time. But he was used to it right? Wasn’t he? Then why was he trying so hard to hold back tears? Eclipse was just being… Eclipse, the one he had met that many years ago, the Grumpmeister, so why was he reacting so badly? Does this mean Eclipse didn’t love him anymore? Would his lover leave him now? A soft sob escaped him as fat tears dropped from his sparkling blue eyes. He dashed them away in frustration but was unable to keep himself from escalating to a full scale wail. He sat at the desk, sobbing his eyes out when he felt warm arms he recognised as Eclipse’s surrounding him in a hug.
“Raen, what is wrong?” Eclipse murmured, panicked. He had never seen Raenef lose control of his emotions in this fashion for a long time now, ever since he found him lying in rubble that was once a town and returned him back to where he belonged. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to sound like that, please forgive me.” He continued a litany of soothing, apologetic murmurs, stroking Raenef’s shoulders, back and head gently until the younger demon got his emotions under control.
“I don’t know what happened, Eclipse,” Raenef sniffed, wiping away the traces of his crying fit. “I guess I am tired.”
Eclipse bit back a remark about sleeping more than twelve hours a day, not wanting to start another emotional outburst. Taking a long good look at his lover, Eclipse realised with a jolt that dark rings under his blue eyes that were never present in the past and the lines of fatigue etched into the normally smooth skin.
“What were you saying about the lesson?” Raenef pulled his attention back.
Eclipse wondered how much of a fight Raenef would put up if he was to insist the blond to get some rest. Noting the defiant tilt of his lover’s chin, probably a whole tonne of it. He cleared his throat and returned to the day’s lesson. Raenef’s mind had sped up phenomenally from the initial but there were always these little hiccups that reminded Eclipse of the winsome, air-headed blond he took back with him.
“We were discussing the lesson on how to find your heir.”
Raenef resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his teacher saying, been there, done that. That would mean he would have to admit his rather spectacular mistake of rebounding a spell onto himself. Fortunately, after almost two months there weren’t any side effects.
“I don’t need to find my heir, right?”
“Your heir doesn’t have to be one of your blood, it is the entity that would take on your position in the event something…” Eclipse stumbled on that, unwilling to think along those lines. Nothing would happen to his lord while he was around. “Well, you know what that means.”
Raenef smiled and continued to let Eclipse carry on his monologue. He found himself nodding off, fatigue swamping him like a tidal wave.
“Lord Raenef,” Eclipse intoned. That meant Eclipse was annoyed with him, not angered. Then he sighed. “Just repeat after me.”
Raenef tried to blink the sleep from his eyes and listened to Eclipse repeat the incantations of the spell. A frown started to form as he realised that this spell was different from the one he uttered so many weeks ago. Perhaps it was another spell? He refused to believe he misread the wrong spell.
“Repeat after me, Raen.”
“Oh,” Raenef blushed lightly, realising he was keeping silent and uttered the words along with Eclipse. What he didn’t expect was when the spell culminated with the mirror in the study shimmering slowly. It looked like water lapping slowly in a pond. “What’s happening?” Now he was getting worried. This seemed like a totally alien spell.
Eclipse pointed. “That mirror will show you your heir. Or rather the heir to the position you currently hold.”
“But isn’t…” Raenef clamped his mouth shut.
Eclipse levelled a sharp gaze at his lover even as the shimmering mirror cleared. “What isn’t? Raen, did you try something?”
“Look!” Raenef pointed as the imaged sharpened to reveal his smiling features. He huffed in disappointment but quite honestly he expected that. He hadn’t exactly had any relations with women these past years, not that he desired any. Oddly, to both their confusion, the image shifted again. This time it was focused on Raenef’s midsection, for a split second before the spell ended.
Eclipse tilted his head in confusion. He found it odd that the spell didn’t end when Raenef’s countenance swam into view. Something odd was going on. “Raen, tell me, did you try something?” He refused to be swayed and repeated the earlier question.
Embarrassed, Raenef looked away, scuffing his feet on the plush carpet. How was he to admit something like that to Eclipse? His lover would then decide to lock all the spell books from him.
“Lord Raenef,” Eclipse snapped.
“Well, I tried this spell the last time you went for the demon council,” Raenef admitted in a small voice. “But it turned out differently. The incantations were also different.”
Eclipse sighed deeply, rubbing at his aching head with one hand. “I think it was a different spell, Raen. Tell me what happened?” He sank into one of the plush chairs and stared at his blushing lover.
“Uhm… the spell kind of…. Rebounded off that mirror,” Raenef pointed. “And… into me.”
“What?” Eclipse shot out of his chair, panicked. He ran a concerned hand and a practiced eye down the length of Raenef’s body, trying to ascertain if his lover was somehow affected by the spell gone wrong. “What the hell did you think you were doing?” He ranted, all the time, keeping his hands gentle as he ran them down Raenef’s body. “Didn’t I tell you to be careful when reading and casting incantations? Didn’t you read the instructions properly?”
“Stop yelling at me! I was trying to impress you!” Raenef yelled, upset.
“Well, it didn’t,” Eclipse bit back, but moderated his tone. He sat back with a small sigh of relief that nothing was noticeably wrong with his lover. “Show me which spell you tried,” he passed the book to Raenef.
The Demon Lord swiped the book from Eclipse’s hands, still angry at being yelled at and started flipping through the book, muttering lowly under his breath about arrogant old demons who think too highly of themselves. He finally opened to the page and shoved it under Eclipse’s nose. “This one. It said something heir so I just assume it was that spell you told me about!” He stalked away, pouting.
Eclipse turned ashen as he read the page carefully, again and again and yet again. “This says Making An Heir, Raen. You cast a fertility spell on yourself.”
Raenef stumbled to a stop. He whirled around. “So? What does it mean?”
The older demon was also trying to work out what it meant. The image hovering around his lover’s midsection, the spell, his rather odd fatigue. No, could it be? He had heard of it before, but that was a very long time ago and it was a magical fluke. It couldn’t be, could it? There was only one way to find out. He tried something else, something a Healer had once taught him and if it was possible, he turned even whiter. Oh curses, this was an unexpected turn of events.
“Well, Eclipse?” Raenef demanded, starting to look worried at the sickly colour his lover had turned.
“I think it means you’re…” Eclipse took a deep breath. “…Pregnant.”
A dull thud signalled his master passing out.
~*~*~
“It can’t be… it’s impossible.” Raenef muttered over and over, looking slightly catatonic and shivering violently in the shelter of Eclipse’s supportive arms.
It was almost two hours since he had passed out on the study floor and an hour and a half since he had been revived. Eclipse had explained the situation to him, but he just couldn’t accept it. Of course, the crimson eyed demon could see acceptance seeping in, albeit slowly. It wouldn’t be long now before the same awe that now suffused Eclipse would hit his, ahem, pregnant lover.
“I’m a man!” Raenef blurted. “I can’t be pregnant. You’re mistaken.” It had less conviction than an hour ago.
Eclipse brushed the loose tendrils of hair away from Raenef’s temple and pressed soft kisses along his smooth cheek. He was trying very hard not to explode into paroxysm of joy now that the shock was over. He was going to be a father, and oddly enough, and only in his wildest dreams, Raenef was the mother. He had entertained day dreams of having his own children with Raenef in their long relationship but never had he imagined it becoming a reality.
“Raen, love, please, calm down.” Eclipse rubbed Raenef’s back, trying to calm the distraught demon down. “It is not unheard of, but highly unusual. You cast fertility spell, on what would have been for a female. And, love, you get stuck with the results.”
“But… but…” Raenef looked seconds from a panic attack. “Why?” He drawled the last one out until it came as a plaintive whine.
Eclipsed laughed. “That’s what you get for not reading instructions.”
Raenef managed a pout. Almost at its own will, he found his hand creeping from his lap to rest against the flat of his stomach. As the shock faded, he felt a sense of awe. There was tiny life that belonged to both him and Eclipse resting there. Admittedly, it was due to his own incompetence that did it, but still…
He was still afraid what would happen if the High Council found out but he knew that he would protect this child from anything the entire council could throw at him. His child… He shook his head. When he signed up for the position of Demon Lord, he never expected child bearing to be part of the job description.
“I messed up royally, didn’t I, Eclipse?” Raenef asked, a sight calmer now, rubbing unconsciously at his stomach.
“Well, yes,” Eclipse agreed rather reluctantly. “But I will protect you. Nothing will happen while I am around.” He pulled his still terrified lover close to him.
Raenef nuzzled Eclipse’s strong chest, wondering just how he was going to take the next few months. Though he was sure there was going to be phenomenal problems in the future, he was sure he would have the loving support of Eclipse, the motherly cooing of Erutis, the endless sarcastic remarks of Krayon, and probably the laughter of Chris, wondering how in all that was holy did Raenef get into this situation.
The answer? He didn’t read instructions.
The end
Story Notes:
This little plot bunny has been running around in my mind eversince I picked up the manga. It was just a little obvious actually ^_^ Hope you guys enjoy it, and tell me what you think