CONTRACT (Azul x Reader) [Twisted Wonderland]

Chapter One

When he told you that you were getting a new contract, you immediately felt sick.

It had been almost a month since your last one. Demons went with lesser breaks all of the time, but you had been hoping for something a little longer. This was going to be your seventh contract since you'd been put to work, just as many years ago. Most demons started young, but you couldn't have been more than ten or eleven when you'd first been chosen.

You had thought you'd gotten into the swing of things. But, as you felt your essence being pulled away, your stomach twisted into knots in that same foreboding dread that you'd felt every time you were summoned.

You never knew how long a contract would last. Sometimes you could tell by looking at someone how long they could go, or how long they would want to go. Many summoned with a specific plan in mind. But other times things were cut much shorter, or dragged on for much longer. You always preferred the shorter, though. It meant that you could be free sooner. The more alone time you could get, the better. And the less likely you were to lose your life in the human world.

Earth. That was what it was supposed to be called. It was the actual name. You knew as soon as your feet touched the ground that you were there. Your feet didn't have to touch the ground, not now and not ever, but then, technically they did. You could float, or fly, or even phase through walls, but all only in the hypothetical. Because you couldn't do any of that without permission. Not anymore.

You felt your full power re-enter you as your presence waxed, and you felt it cornered, captured, and chained inside of you. It was like being given the entire world, only to have it pulled back a thousand miles away again. It may still have been inside you, but you knew where it really lay.

Your eyes fell upon the contract. It wasn't like the others. Well, in content it was, they always were, but it looked different. Instead of the classic white paper with variations of thickness and texture that all your previous contracts had come on, this one was written on a leaflet of shimmering gold. It looked unnaturally theatric, and you were certain it had to be magic in nature.

You looked up, and met eyes with it's maker. You knew his name without him even having to say it. It was written right there. Azul Ashengrotto. You said it aloud. It matched his face perfectly.

Azul had blue eyes. The kind of blue that was almost lavender, but bore twice the hue. They looked at you with both weariness and victory, set with a conviction. He looked like a man who'd just lost. And who didn't intend to ever lose again. You knew that look very well. You'd seen it six other times.

Azul picked up the golden paper, and furled it like a scroll. "The contract is complete," he said. You already knew that.

"Then I will serve you," you said. Azul's lips bent into a wicked smile. Then, he collapsed forward into his desk.

You didn't catch him, why would you care to, and his head made a sound against the wood. He'd fallen unconscious, no doubt. Used up all of his energy making the deal. With one as young as he was, it was no surprise.

There was about a fifty fifty chance of your contractor keeping his body going for a full five minutes after you were summoned. The magic took a lot out of them. In the past, you'd imagined your contractors making the deal on the edge of a cliff, or somewhere in the air. High enough that they would plummet unconscious to their deaths before they could even speak the words for you to save them.

Azul didn't need you to save him though. As soon as the thump resounded on the walls, two similarly dressed men were at the door, rushing inside to see if their master was okay.

You could tell that he was their boss by the way they reacted to seeing him fallen. They hurried to his side and one of them asked aloud, "Azul? Azul," as they tried to lift him up and wake him.