“Okay, just make glass. Focus on not ruining this glass.”

Kou carefully maneuvered his pots filled with the molten glass, and picked up his iron blowpipe. He knew this was the hardest part, and when he was most likely to hurt himself if he was distracted. After all, he had spent all night melting the sand and ash to make glass, adding in different amounts of nickel to each pot to get various shades of black. The lightest shade needed to be pulled and flattened as soon as the sun rose, and so Kou did his best to focus on the pots in his hearth. 

And not the demon in his house.

Not the beautiful, blind demon sleeping in his bed.

Kou groaned, closing his eyes as he leaned against his table. He had always known a demon would be lovely; after all, demons were known to have a Loveliness of 9 or 10, but hearing was not seeing. Kou had not been ready to see that lovely face, with pale skin and that sleek, inhuman grace, with a voice that sounded like river stones shifting beneath velvet. Even with dark holes where their eyes had once been, Kou had still found them mesmerizing. The long red hair, vivid and silky, tangled from the fight and the wind… Kou had nearly burned his hand just trying not to stare. 

He gripped the edge of the workbench tighter, knuckles whitening, and forced his breath to steady. The lightening sky told him the sun would rise soon and he needed to focus, needed to have the same calm he always had when shaping glass. Kou exhaled slowly, fingers twitching nervously as he steadied the pipe and checked the color of the glass. Even in its molten state, Kou knew what color it was; grey, ashy, a sign that the glass would be a tinged shade, barely perceptible until the light hit the sheet just right.

Just right,,, what would Vi look like in the sunlight?

What would Vi look like on top of him?

Kou’s eyes flickered toward the dark window of his home, unable to help his obsession. It was here; what he had craved ever since he woke up in the doctor’s home, carried there by the demon who slayed his parents and saved his life. A demon, alive and real, and within reach and Kou had no idea what to do with that want, now that it sat quietly across the threshold of his life.

Kou had obviously always hoped, quietly in the back of his mind, that he would have a reason to come across a demon again. Not just to finally see what one looked like, but to have as well. After all, it wasn’t impossible. There was the merchant who came to town sometimes who talked about how his brother had married a demon. The traveler who always had his angel wife with him. It wasn’t common, but it was clear that love between humans and their guardians wasn’t impossible. It just had to be wanted, pursued.

Kou scoffed, running his hand through his hair. The traveler had told him that angels and demons didn’t care about Loveliness, but Kou couldn’t help but be a little self conscious about his low score. Not that it was uncommon for his town, almost no one had a Loveliness higher than four from what he knew, but considering it was rude to brag, its not like he knew for sure. But it didn’t change that Vi obviously had a high stat, and Kou…

Well Kou, did not.

Kou glanced again at the sky, realizing he still had at least another hour before even the first pot would be ready. Dropping the blowpipe, Kou decided to inspect his annealing furnace, to ensure it was properly heated to receive the glass cylinders which would carefully be flattened into the sheets. It was familiar, routine, and Kou added some more wood, watching the flames shift as they swallowed the dry branches. The flames danced, oranges and red, with no hint of yellow; a clean burn, meaning the temperature wouldn’t fluctuate too much. 

Red. Just like Vi’s long hair, rippling and moving as the braid had flowed behind the demon as they leapt through the air, colliding with the monster that had been about to pounce on Kou. Vivid, dancing red that could be dancing around him, enveloping him, filling… 

“I am a mess,” Kou complained, standing as he started to inspect the frames and the press, needing to stop having his thoughts always turn back to Vi. The demon with the voice like dusk and fingers steady enough to snap a beast’s neck mid-air. Kou scrubbed a hand down his face, half-laughing to himself. It was then Kou noticed that one of the frames was cracked, and the man froze. 

A long, jagged crack went through the frame diagonally, not quite all the way through, but Kou knew if he tried to use it, it would break. If the frame broke while the glass was cooling, then the glass could crack or be malformed as well. Kou stared at the metal, his mind slowed, thoughts stuttering the way his hands did in the cold.

The frame being cracked wasn’t that big of a deal; Kou had plenty of spare frames and could repair it if he wanted to, especially with all the scrap metal he kept around his home. The problem was all of his spare frames were inside. 

Where the demon was. Where Vi was. Which meant Kou had to go inside. 

“It’s okay,” Kou reassured himself, leaning away from the annealing furnace as he retrieved his tongs, carefully working the cracked frame so he could pop it out. Despite his rapidly increasing breathing, his hands remained steady, working the metal back and forth until it popped free. “I just have to go inside and grab the frame. Just the frame. Nothing else. I don’t have to talk to them.”

Kou paused as he carefully leaned the still hot frame against the ground, glancing back toward his home. He could do this. It was simple, easy, routine, he just had to do it quickly. His fingers curled tighter around the tongs, the cool metal biting into his palm as he stared at the window again. The same window behind which a demon—an actual, real demon—was sleeping. Or resting. Or… whatever it was demons did after tearing a monster from the sky and smashing it against a tree with the kind of precise violence Kou had only ever seen through blurry memories.

And yet Kou’s heart seemed to pound louder in his ears with each step he took toward the front door. Even once he stood in front of the door, Kou struggled to calm down, his hand hesitating on the latch.

“Just a frame,” Kou repeated, taking a deep breath as he finally pushed the door open. 

The demon, Vi, still sat on the bed, but Kou’s eyes were immediately drawn to the demon’s open shirt. Five eyes, various in size, were open across the demon’s chest, and as soon as he opened the door, all of those eyes turned to look at Kou. Kou stared back, quickly noticing that the eyes all had silver irises. They didn’t seem to blink, and Kou glanced up at the demon’s eyeless face before returning to the chest. This demon was more masculine than the one that had saved him when he was a child, and Kou felt his head swim from his increased heart rate. 

“You… can see?”

“With these eyes, yes.” Vi’s voice made a shiver run up Kou’s spine and he nodded slowly, no longer thinking about the frame as he finished stepping in. Vi… was looking at him, could see Kou’s uncharacteristically white hair, his tan and freckled skin, his Loveliness of three. Kou’s heart jumped into his throat and he found himself walking toward the demon on his bed, those lovely silver eyes following his movement. “Is something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, no… not at all.” Kou knelt down, looking at the eyes as they met his gaze and leaning closer, his head suddenly heavy as he stared. He knew he was exhausted, but he couldn’t afford to sleep yet; if he didn’t start working on the glass at sunrise, all of it would be ruined. “I… need to get back to the glass.”

“Why?”

“It… needs to… be blown before it melts too much,” Kou answered, but he wasn’t really thinking anymore. All he could feel was Vi’s body near his and his exhausted mind fighting to keep his own eyes open. He watched as the chest eyes closed, seamlessly disappearing back into the skin of Vi’s chest. Kou smiled, his heart still in his throat as he laid his head on the demon’s lap. Firm. Real. Almost His. “I just… need a frame.”

“Frame?”

“Mhmm. Once the sun rises, I… have to work the glass…” Kou answered, closing his eyes. He didn’t want Vi to leave, didn’t want to lose this one chance to have what he wanted. He placed his hand on Vi’s knee, trying to wake himself up before he passed out. He needed a way to make sure Vi wouldn’t leave, wouldn’t take this away from him. “If… I followed you, would you stop me?”

“Why would you?”

But Kou didn’t answer. Exhaustion had finally won out, and Kou relaxed against Vi’s lap.