Raising The Stakes

~Eight~

The red-eyed child stares at the human brunet boy grinning at him. They reach for their hand and squeeze it.

"Come on, Izuru, it will be fun!" The brunet pleads, "Just for like an hour or two, come on! We'll be super careful. Pleaseeeee-"

Izuru presses their lips together at their nine-year-old brother. "I do not know. . .it is bad enough that our parents are raising their human son in Hell but I do not want to risk taking you out of our home-other demons will come to devour your soul in an instant. I do not want anything to happen to my kid brother."

"No fair!" The brunet whines, "It's not my fault I got the human gene! And I'm not your kid brother, we're three minutes apart!"

Izuru and this boy-'Hajime' they identified him as were born as twins, to a rare union between a human and a demon. When they accidentally conceived, instead of making some strange hybrid, their genes divided differently with a little bit of magic, causing twins-one fully human and one fully demon. Despite this, the two of them got along great.

"It does not matter. I will not let anything happen to you," Izuru looks away, "You really should be in the human world having a normal childhood, you know. Raising you here is just imprisonment. You are Rapunzel without the hair."

"When will my life begin?!" Hajime sings, "Seriously, it's fine. Now come on."

"No, you are not leaving. Sorry, Hajime. Let us go find something else to do."

"Izuru-"

"No."

". . .Aw."

Kamukura's eyes open, taking in the familiar sights of their chambers. They sit up slowly, shrugging the covers off of their chest.

"Oh. . ," They ponder out loud, "That is why Hinata-san is so familiar to me. He is my twin brother. But he did not remember me either. . .Interesting. I wonder what happened there."

They shake their head dismissively, deciding to deal with it in the morning before laying back down and turning over, shutting their eyes once more. Kamukura is truly a wonder; being able to put aside something so huge so quickly.

-

"What's the matter, Hinata-kun?" He can hear the smirk in the demon's voice, "Can't sleep?"

Hinata grits his teeth, rolling over so he's now laying face-to-face with Komaeda. "You know damn well I can't."

"What, it's not as if we've never shared a bed before."

"No, it's the fact that you've got your damn arms around me and now we're cuddling!" The human huffs angrily.

"I don't see you trying to wiggle away from me though. Just relax. . ."

"I'm in Hell cuddling with a demon, how do you expect me to relax?"

Komaeda pouts. "I was hoping by now you would trust me a little, you know." He grumbles.

". . .Well, I know that at least you're not going to hurt me until Enoshima and Shirogane are gone." Hinata murmurs.

Komaeda sighs softly, pulling Hinata closer to him. The hunter doesn't fight him on this, resting his head on his chest. "You won't be hurt by me." He promises.

"I'm almost certain that soul extraction hurts."

"Only if the demon wants it to hurt, sunflower. They taught me a way to make it painless, you'll be fine." Komaeda sounds a little sad when he speaks.