It was an ordinary Sunday afternoon and Crowley had spent the day lounging on his sofa in his favourite black pyjamas - with stylish red detailing - watching a particularly good detective series he had found on Netflix.

He sat forward as the detective gathered all of the suspects together in a room. His eyes went wide in excited anticipation as the detective's voice boomed: "The murderer is-!"

Crowley was on the edge of his seat, and then he wasn't.

There was a disorienting jolt, his vision blurred and when he was able to see again he was no longer in his living room but in the empty office of what he would later learn was an abandoned warehouse.

Without a sofa to support him, he dropped inelegantly to the ground with a surprised yelp.

Scrambling to his knees, he looked around. He was dismayed but not surprised to find himself in the centre of a pentagram with a painted circle surrounding it, the pattern drawn crudely on the concrete floor with black paint. The circle was glowing faintly red.

Well, at least it wasn't painted in pig's blood like last time.

Crowley had been in this situation more times than he would care to admit.

For centuries, there had been a collection of extremely rare demonology books circulating out in the world that explained how to perform summoning magic that teleported and trapped whichever demon was nearest to the summoner. Seeing as Crowley was usually the only demon on Earth and Hell was a much greater distance away than anywhere on the mortal plane, it was typically him that got summoned. Crowley thought he had managed to destroy all of those books and felt angry and frustrated that he clearly hadn't.

Sometimes the summoners were Satanists, witches, or members of a cult, all wanting him to use his occult powers to grant them riches beyond their wildest dreams, but usually it was just people doing it for a laugh and they didn't think the spell would actually work. Those people were so shocked by his sudden appearance that they would run away in a panic, then all Crowley had to do was wait for all of the candles around the circle to burn down, breaking the spell, and he would be free to saunter off, taking the demonology book with him which he could then destroy.

This seemed the most likely outcome today, considering the two humans in the room with him were both young children.

Normally when he was summoned he would do everything in his power to terrify and scare off those that had summoned him, but these were just two kids and he didn't want to traumatise them.

"Hi," Crowley said with a wry smile, expecting them to run away.

The two children, both girls, shrank back and huddled together. One of them let out a squeaky yelp whilst the other just stared at the demon before her in wide-eyed horror. The colour had drained from their faces. One of the girls looked a couple of years older than the other, but neither of them looked a day over ten years old. Crowley took pity on them.

"Don't worry. I won't hurt you."

The older of the two spoke up, her voice shaking. "You're not allowed to hurt us anyway! The book said so!" She held up the book.

Crowley nodded. "Yes, you're right."

Crowley stared at the book, reading the title on it. Now he understood. He had not failed to destroy the original books, this was a copy, written in English if the title were anything to go by. It should really have occurred to him by now that humans might decide to make copies. Bugger.

"Are you truly a real-life demon?" The youngest child asked quietly.

The older kid cut in before Crowley had a chance to reply. "He doesn't actually look like a demon. Maybe we did it wrong."

"And he's wearing his jammies!"

The older child crossed her arms. "I don't think you're a demon at all. I think you're just a normal person."

Crowley raised an eyebrow. He moved to kneel at the edge of the circle closest to the kids. "Do normal people have eyes like this?"

"Kitty eyes!" said the youngest excitedly.

"I have serpent eyes, not cat eyes. I'm a serpent-demon."

The older kid leant across to her friend. "A serpent is a sort of snake."

"I know that!"

"And I have a serpent tongue." Crowley flicked out his forked tongue. One child recoiled, the other made an awed sound.

"Mr Demon? What's your name?" asked the youngest child.

"Crowley."

"I'm Lilly, and this is H-"

"Don't tell him our names, you idiot!"

"I'm not an idiot," Lilly argued.

Crowley wondered which girls names began with the letter H. "Heidi, Helen, Hannah, Holly. Er… Heather. You look like a Heather."

"I won't tell you, even if you get it right."

"I'll just call you Heather then."

"Whatever. Why are you named Crowley anyway? It's not a very evil name. You should be called Killer or Nightmare or something cool like that." She stopped and looked him up and down, thoroughly unimpressed. "You don't look very evil at all actually. I expected you be more demonic. I thought you'd be big and red with horns and wings and stuff. That would've been awesome."

"That's more Satan's look. I do have wings though."

Crowley tried to wish his wings into appearing but it didn't work. Of course not. He needed permission from one of his summoners now to perform any magic.

"Show us then," demanded the girl that he had named Heather.

That was apparently permission enough because he found himself suddenly able to unfurl his wings. He flapped them a couple of times for dramatic effect, the tips of black feathers brushing against the invisible barrier that contained him within the circle.

The girls staggered backwards.

"Wow," gasped Lilly, "you have feathers like a raven!"

"Or… like a…"

"A crow! Ah! That's why you're called Crowley! Nice!"

Crowley was feeling very impressive, up until the moment that Heather spoke.

"You're supposed to have bat wings, like a proper demon." Heather gave a disappointed sigh. "Well, I suppose you'll have to do. Now, you need to grant our wishes."

Crowley was about to point out that he was not a bloody genie, but he'd just seen the remake of Aladdin and had rather enjoyed it. They were just children after all, so he could humour them for a little while. "Okay. You get three wishes each."

"Three? No we don't! The book says we can make as many wishes as we like until the candles burn down."

"You lied," Lilly said gravely.

"Well, I am a demon after all."

Heather looked thoughtful. "I wish for one hundred pounds!"

"I wish for two hundred!" Lilly cried.

"Wait, I want two hundred pounds as well!"

Crowley waved a hand dramatically and a few twenty pound notes fluttered down from the ceiling above each of the children. The girls squealed in delight, grabbing at the cash.

Heather stuffed the money into her bag and then pulled out a page of lined paper that had been folded in half. "I made a list of wishes!"

"Me too." Lilly said as she skipped over to Crowley and carefully pushed her own folded up piece of paper into the circle for him to take, careful not to put her fingers through the invisible barrier.

Crowley read Lilly's list. At the top of the page it said, 'Dear Demon,' and then it went on to list the toys, books, and sweets that she wanted.

Heather folded up her own list a few more times then threw it into the circle at Crowley's feet.

"I feel like Father Christmas," Crowley murmured to himself as he picked up the paper, then he started miracling things into existence.

Heather got very excited over a Nintendo Switch games console and wished for a television to hook it up to and another controller. She turned to Lilly. "Let's play MarioKart!"

"Yeah!"

"Oh no," Heather said, "I can't plug the TV in. I can't find any sockets."

"Oh, you don't need to plug it in," said Crowley, who had never plugged in an electrical device in his life. "It'll just work by itself, as if by magic."

Lilly grinned at Crowley. "I want you to play Mariokart with us too!"

"He can't play with us. He's a demon."

Lilly looked dangerously close to tears. "But I want Crowley to play too!"

"Ugh. Fine. Whatever. Crowley, wish up another controller. I suppose you can play too for a little while."

Lilly tore open a bar of chocolate which Crowley had miracle up for her. She hesitated and looked at Heather. She lowered her voice. "What if he poisoned it?"

"He's not allowed. He can't do anything if we don't ask him to, and he's not allowed to hurt us. It's part of the spell."

Lilly immediately devoured the chocolate.

They played video games for a few hours and Crowley found he enjoyed himself once he got the hang of the controls.

Lilly put down her controller for a moment to shift how she was sitting on the floor. She put out an arm behind her and then let out a scream. She sat up straight and hugged her hand, crying hysterically.

Heather moved to sit beside her. "What's wrong? What happened- eww! Your hand is bleeding!"

"It- It hurts!" Lilly whimpered. She looked behind her. "There's a nail on the floor!"

Heather leapt up and kicked the offending nail to the far wall, then turned to Crowley. "Demon, I wish for a plaster for Lilly's hand, quick!"

"Sure." Crowley craned his neck, trying to see how bad the injury was. "It's alright, Lilly, let me have a look."

She moved over to him where he sat in the circle, and reached out her hand, palm up. Crowley saw a little, red cut in the centre.

"Don't get too close to him!" Heather warned, running to stand beside her friend. "And don't put your hand in the circle or he'll get you!"

Lilly nodded. "I won't."

"Magic up a plaster already," Heather said impatiently.

"How about you ask me to heal it instead."

"Demons can heal people?" Heather asked, amazed.

"Yep."

"Please heal my hand, Mr Crowley."

"Hold your hand a little closer to the barrier. That's it."

Still sat on the floor, Crowley held up his hand close to Lilly's, only the faint red glow of the barrier between them. He could see Heather watching him, suspicion in her eyes. Lilly smiled at him innocently.

The injury vanished, the skin healing as they watched.

Lilly grinned, inspecting her hand. "Wow, that was really cool! Thanks Crowley!"

"Yeah, well done, demon."

"No problem."

"Oh no!" Heather said worriedly whilst looking at her watch, "It's almost six o'clock! We've got to get home!"

"It's dinner time!" Lilly shouted, jumping to her feet.

They started packing away their new things into their bags. Crowley put down his controller whilst Heather packed away the Switch. He looked at the candles. If he waited for them to burn out, he would be stuck here for hours all on his own.

"I'd really appreciate it if you could blow out those candles so I'll be sent back home."

Heather's eyes went wide. "No! I've read the book! If we blow out the candles it will break the spell, but you won't be sent back home at all! You'll just be able to step out of the circle and come get us! The book warns us to keep the candles lit! You must think I'm stupid!"

Crowley had hoped that they would free him so that he could take the book away from them and destroy it. He wanted to make sure that these children never ran the risk of summoning another demon, someone who might manipulate and hurt them. If he could get them to break this spell, then he would be able to use his powers once again and hypnotise the children so that they would never do something this stupid again. He could also hypnotise them into telling him where they got the book in the first place.

"I won't hurt you, I just want to go home. I'll be stuck here in this circle for hours otherwise, and- Hey! What are you- no!"

There was a cardboard box in the corner of the room and Heather had just unpacked several very tall candles from it and was now placing them around the circle. She started lighting them.

"Nononono! Stop that!"

"No! We are coming back in the morning so we need you to stay here. We have lots of wishes to make."

"Just summon me again in the morning then, don't trap me here all night! Stop lighting those candles!"

"This is easier, and it stops you from doing lots of evil stuff in the meantime."

"I was literally just going to stay up all night watching Netflix."

Heather ignored him. He gave Lilly a pleading look but she just shook her head. It occurred to him that if they kept adding more candles, they could keep him here indefinitely.

"Guys, listen. If I'm away too long the other demons will come looking for me, and believe me, you do not want to meet them. It's very dangerous for you to keep me here."

Crowley had slept for an entire century once and his people hadn't even noticed. They wouldn't notice his absence now unless they really wanted him for something and he highly doubted that. The only one that would notice his absence was Aziraphale.

"The book says the spell hides your presence here. They can't find you."

"They will notice the spike in magic in the area though!"

"He's lying," Heather said to Lilly. "Demons lie all the time, especially this one."

"I'm not lying. And anyway, don't you have school in the morning or something?"

"It's the school holidays."

Crowley rolled his eyes. "Well, at least allow me to teleport my laptop here so I don't die of boredom."

"No. You'll just email your demon buddies!"

Crowley raised his hands up into the air in frustration. "The other demons don't even know what E-mail is! What, do you think I'm Crowley-at-Hell-dot-com?"

"You can have a book."

Lilly's face lit up. She dug into her bag and grabbed a box-set of books that Crowley had wished up for her. She pushed them into the circle. "You can read mine!"

Crowley picked up one of the books and pulled a face. "Harry Potter? I don't want to read a kid's book."

"They're not just for kids! Grown-ups read them too," said Lilly.

"Yeah! My parents like the books so much they named me aft-" Heather stopped talking.

"Oh! Oh, I see! So your name is in one of these books, is it?" Crowley teased relentlessly. He started flicking through the first novel.

"Give them back!" Heather cried.

"Nope. I don't have to do everything you say."

"Uh, fine. You'll never figure out what my name is anyway."

Crowley grinned. "Is it Hermione?"

"No."

"But you wouldn't tell me even if I did get it right, would you?"

"Yeah, but I swear it's not Hermione."

Lilly tilted her head. "Why do you even care if he knows your name? Do you think he might come after us when we eventually let him go?"

Heather looked grave. "Names have power. They're magical."

"They are?" Lilly worried at her lower lip.

Crowley felt bad for her. "Don't worry, there's nothing magical about names, no one can use them against you. And it's not like I can search for you the human way with only your first name anyway." He turned to Heather, or whatever her name was. "So don't worry, Hermione."

Heather smirked. "It's not Hermione."

Crowley wasn't sure if she was telling the truth or just really good at bluffing. He pushed the books to one side. "I don't wanna read kid's books anyway. Guess I'll just sleep until tomorrow. Can I at least have a blanket?"

Lilly threw a large and vibrant, hot-pink blanket at him. "You can have the one you magicked up for me. It won't fit in my bag anyway so I was already going to leave it behind for now."

Heather laughed at him as he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders. At first he thought she was amused by how he was struggling to arrange it with his wings in the way, but then she said, "you look silly in that."

"Why? Because it's pink? It does rather clash with my hair."

"Pink is for girls."

"It's funny, you know, it used to be the other way around. Pink was for boys because it's a strong colour, and blue was for girls because it's more gentle and calm."

Heather eyed him wearily. "I think you're lying again."

"Can I have some food? I can use my magic to make some appear if you'll let me."

"No. Stop asking for stuff. The book said demons don't need to eat."

"Well, this demon likes eating."

"I don't care."

"Maybe he can have a little bit-" Lilly tried.

"No! He's just a demon, He doesn't need food. He's just being cheeky." Heather lifted her bag onto her shoulder and went towards the door, "Come on, Lilly. Let's go."

"Wait a minute. Mr Crowley? Can you make a scarf for me please?" Lilly asked.

Heather came towards Crowley. "I want a scarf too, one that looks like a fox."

Crowley considered refusing - he was still angry that they were leaving him here all night - but he had become fond of Lilly and decided to humour them both.

"What would you like your scarf to look like," he asked Lilly after having made the fox scarf for Heather with a click of his fingers.

"A dragon."

Crowley saw an opportunity here. He clicked his fingers and a scarf appeared around her neck.

"Looks more like a snake with wings," Heather scoffed.

"I like it," Lilly said with a smile.

The scarf was shaped like a snake and was the same colour and pattern as his serpent form, the wings reminiscent of his own. It was a long shot, but he hoped Aziraphale might somehow see the girl in the scarf and realise Crowley had sent him a clue to his whereabouts. It was worth a try.

Heather walked away towards the door. "Goodbye, demon. See you in the morning."

"Bye Crowley. Sweet dreams," said Lilly.

As Lilly left, she handed Crowley a bar of chocolate while Heather wasn't looking. Crowley smiled.

"Good night, kids."

They closed the door, and Crowley laid down on the floor with a heavy, miserable sigh. It was going to be a long night.

Authors Note: There will be 4 chapters in total. The fic is already written out, I just need to give each chapter a last read through before I post it. I hope you're enjoying it so far :)