Author's Note: A fic, a fic!   Wow.  One that might actually have a plot… Even bigger wow!

Warning: Yaoi (male/male), plot-ness, fluff, weirdness…

Disclaimer: I don't own Demon Diary.  Well, actually…I do own the books that I bought but I don't have any share in the royalties.  Does this seem unfair to you? *sniffle*

A.C.I.D.

by Ryuuza

Prologue

It dawned a beautiful morning in the demon world.  Tints of violet and rose kissed the brightening sky as the golden rays of the sun emerged to embrace the land.  The air was cool and crisp, bringing reminders of the approaching autumn.  The trees stood tall and leafy, green in defiance of the cooling temperatures.  The birds—well, the birds would have been chirping merrily except that they had suffered the misfortune of irritating Eclipse with their incessant noise the day before and had become the subject of an efficient Death Drill much to the horror of one traumatized demon lord.  So today there was no heralding of the dawn, merry or otherwise.  Still, the day with the knowing winks of the last fading stars promised to bring a surprise.

And so it did.

"A demon what?" chorused Erutis, red-headed knight and swordsman (er, make that swordswoman) extraordinaire, and Chris, cleric.

["Successor to the High Cleric of the Holy Temple of Rased!" shouted Chris, shaking his fist angrily.

Bah…too long.]

"A demon crematory," the terrible Demon Lord Raenef the Fifth repeated.  He blinked his wide green eyes artlessly.  "That's what Eclipse said!"  He looked defensively across the table at his mortal friends and wondered why they were sweatdropping.  A sigh from the black-haired demon to his right drew his attention away.  "Right?" Raenef asked Eclipse hopefully.

"A demon cemetery," Eclipse gently corrected his liege.

Erutis slumped back in her chair.  "So they don't burn dead demons," she muttered to herself, "they just bury them.  Gee…so much better."

"Ghost!" Chris yelled very suddenly.

"AAAAAAGGGHHH!  Where?!"  Erutis fell off her chair.  By the time she'd untangled herself from the heap of limbs she'd created on the ground and straightened, she had very pointedly familiarized herself with the truth.  Raenef decided that he was glad he wasn't Chris.  Besides not being with Eclipse, he'd also have to be on the receiving end of Erutis's current may-your-mother-weep-for-you-because-I'm-going-to-skin-you-alive-and-feed-your-miserable-guts-to-poisonous-maggots glare.  Raenef swallowed.

["Wow," Erutis said admiringly.  "My glares are real eloquent, aren't they?"]

The ensuing chase, capture, and beating proceeded on for a good ten minutes before Erutis, hair tousled and sitting on Chris's back (who was facedown on the ground), glanced back at the dining table where Eclipse and his lord were continuing their breakfast and asked, "Er—why are you going to a demon cemetery?"

"A ceremonial extravaganza to honor the achievements of all demons and commemorate the greatest of those who have passed away."

"What?"  Raenef blinked.

Chris wriggled beneath Erutis, seeking to sneak out from under her.[1] "A party," he grunted.

The blonde demon lord's eyes lit up.  "Ooh!  Really?  A party—how fun!"  Flowers popped into the air beside his sunny expression.

Eclipse sighed.  "Yes.  I suppose you could call it that."  He batted the blooms away from Raenef but a few petals dropped onto his plate, decorating the food.  He sighed and brushed them off.  A smile tugged at the corner of his lips as a bright-eyed Raenef turned on him.

"So are we going, Eclipse?" he asked eagerly, puppy dog eyes in full force.  "Can we go to the party?  Pleeaaase?

"Yes, we're going," he replied, trying to school his features back into his usual impassiveness.  He cast a look at the pair brushing themselves off (Erutis had finally decided that Chris had been punished enough and had allowed him to get up) and let himself smirk . "By the way, attendance is limited to demons only."

"WHAAAAAAAT?!"

Ah, the sound of horrified screams.  This was familiar.  This was how a demon lord's castle should sound like.  Eclipse had to suppress a sigh of pleasure.

It might even make up for the hell he'd go through at the Annual Celebration of Immortal Demons (aka ACID).  He sighed in shame at the name.  Demons were feared.  [Well, most demons.  He cast a despairing look at the bubbly demon lord beside him, happily arranging the food on his plate in the shape of a smiley face.]  Therefore demons did not need to come up with creative, more frightening names for their rituals.  Though "The Blood Sacrifice of the Moon Shadow's Eve" had a nice ring to it.  No one would have guessed that it meant a free-for-all night of BDSM the night before a solar eclipse.  Heh.  So demons were wanton creatures of both pleasure and pain.  Not particularly world-shattering, that revelation.

Eclipse collected his wandering thoughts.  Gah.  Those idiots were rubbing of on him.  He smirked.  And there was only one idiot he wanted to rub off on him and … he trailed off.

--

Krayon, as the fifth eldest demon lord in existence [2] ("Damn, he sighed, "I'm feeling my age again.  Where's my beauty cream?"), had quite a share of the responsibilities for ensuring the success of ACID.  However, he was currently—ah, taking a momentary respite, because demon lords did not slack off.

But he was tired, okay?  Spending three hours trying to wheedle out of Meruhasae any and all information on Raenef IV did that do a person—and a demon lord too.  The Seer was inordinately stubborn and vicious with that fan of hers to boot.  Krayon conceded that irking her was perhaps not the best way to glean the information he desired.  Nor was annoying her or whining at her or ordering her in his most superior I-am-a-terrible-and-mighty-but-very-pretty-demon-lord-fear-my-wrath-vermin voice.  He rubbed idly at the bruise forming on his shoulder.  It'd go nicely for sure with the other sets on his arm, thigh, and backside.  Great.  He'd have to wear long sleeves to the celebration.  How depressing.

The thought of the celebration gave him pause.  He leaned back against the tree trunk, sitting comfortably on an outstretched limb, and contemplated the papery whisper of its green leaves.  Spring green leaves…the color of his eyes.  Krayon sighed and twirled a lock of golden brown hair.  Raenef's eyes.

So he missed his lover.  A demon lord was allowed to do that, wasn't he?  [Krayon wasn't sure.  He'd have to check his rulebook again.]  He brought a finger to his lips and tapped the nail against his lip.  ACID was an overly lavish extravaganza the demons put on every year (hence, the "annual" part) to give due where it was due and have an excuse to get mind-blowingly drunk.  All the demons and demon lords who had passed through existence and left a significant mark (the Sphinx's nose would never be the same) and those who were still alive were honored in the celebration.  But what made Krayon's heart ache was that Lord Raenef IV would be one of those demons that had "passed through existence" to be honored this year.

Would that he was still alive, demon lord of Egae thought wistfully.

Damn.  Demons weren't supposed to be sentimental, were they?

But besides missing his lover, Krayon had an unsettling feeling that all was not as it should be.  He wasn't going to go as far as to say Raenef wasn't dead, but there was just…something…that made everything seem wrong.  Which was the reason behind his impromptu Spanish inquisition of Meruhasae and the ensuing beating.  Krayon tilted his head back and watched the sunlight filter through the leaves.  Lovely late summer day, he thought.  How absolutely miserable.  Why couldn't it be cloudy?

Cloudy days were always more suitable to dark magic.  And may have lent Krayon a better hint as to what was bothering him. The ominous messages of thunderclouds sent frissons of invisible magic skittering through the air, which all demons (but demon lords especially) were attuned to.  He may have been able to learn something useful.  But alas, the day was unbearably sunny and cloud-free.

Krayon considered getting out the tree and actually attending to his duties to ACID.  He decided braiding his hair was a better use of his time.

--

Violet orbs bobbed gently in the breeze, sending a warm glow into the room.  Meruhasae rested at her open window, peering out over the dark forests that surrounded her home.  In those very forests, foreboding to all mortals and thereby effectively preventing their unwelcome presence, the 3513th annual ACID would be in preparation.  The fifth eldest demon lord in existence would be among the ranks sent to see to the preliminary details.

The Seer brought her closed fan up to her lips, her silver eyes shadowed, at the thought of Krayon.  He was more perceptive than the average demon, which was to be expected, as he was a demon lord, but he had an intuition that far surpassed the standards of even demon lords.  Only Seers had a finer sixth sense, and this particular Seer was worried.

Krayon was right.  There was something unsettling around the circumstances of Raenef IV's death.  She'd seen…she'd seen things she didn't understand.  And a part of her was afraid to.

What disturbed Meruhasae the most, as she stepped back and swept the billowing violet curtains across the open window, was the fact that she'd seen a future.  A possible future, out of the endless possible futures, that included another war she'd gladly give her powers to never see.  And in the murky corners of this vision, she'd seen a visage that greatly reminded her of the late Raenef.

--

The unlate Raenef, who was very much alive and tried to be as prompt as he could, was tugging at Eclipse's robes.  "When're we going to the demon cre—cemetery?" he asked curiously, now tugging at Eclipse's hair.  He scrambled all over his tutor's lap, looking for something else to tug on and distract the other demon from his lesson book.  "Can we go soon?  I like parties!"

Eclipse smiled down at the blonde terror that was squirming in his lap.  [Really, this was becoming unacceptable.  Demon lords were not allowed to smile nearly as much as he was beginning to find himself doing so lately.]  He ran his long fingers through Raenef's ponytail—it was growing longer, much to his delight.  "We shall leave tomorrow at daybreak."

Raenef paused in his assault on Eclipse's neck.  "Yay!" he cried happily, licking his lips.  He loved the way Eclipse tasted.  The little demon lord fastened his mouth on the pale skin below his tutor's jaw again when—his head popped back up.  "Daybreak?" he exclaimed in dreadful tones, his summer green eyes wide.  "But that's so early!"  He pouted.  "What if I'm sleeping?"

A small, smug smile—no, no, let's call it a smirk—settled on Eclipse's face.  His garnet eyes narrowed lazily at his liege, who had reattached his lips to Eclipse's skin, and murmured, "I doubt you will be, my lord."

But a fleeting thought crossed his mind before he let himself be distracted from the day's lessons at Raenef's all too enthusiastic urging… It had begun raining outside, pitter pattering gently along the castle rooftop, not yet having roiled itself into a storm.  As the young demon lord slid his arms around Eclipse's neck and brought their mouths into full contact, Eclipse remembered that the previous Raenef had died in the rain.

Cursed by heaven's creatures, doomed by time, and fallen in Eclipse's arms.

But then he buried those memories in the heat of an eager, willing mouth.

"Raenef…"

--

Erutis and Chris stood in an empty hallway doing nothing more than looking at each other, gazes intense.  The air was charged and it was silent, except for the sound of the rain.  Eclipse and Raenef were in the library for lessons and the arguments of knight and cleric had ceased for the moment.  Pale gray sunlight filtered through rain clouds and stone pillars to illuminate the castle in a soft glow.

There was still silence.

Finally:

"So we're agreed.  We're going to sneak into that demon cemetery celebration."

Chris stared at her.  "Is that what we were doing?" he wanted to know, looking bemused.  "I was staring at the zit on your nose."

[The following scene has been edited out to maintain the rating.  Just know that it was violent and painful and not the fun way either.  Poor, poor Chris.]

"Ahem," Erutis finally said, using the wall to wipe a smear of blood off her finger.  She straightened her clothes and glared down at the whimpering cleric sprawled on the ground.  "We'll be going with Rae and Eclipse tomorrow," she stated, no questions about it.  Then she paused.  Lifting her sword, she examined it, bent down, and wiped it clean with Chris's tunic.  "And you better be ready."

::tbc::

[1] you know Erutis would never let him be top…

[2] they keep saying "one of the fifth eldest demons lords" ne?  well, if he were the fourth or third eldest, they'd say "one of the fourth/third eldest demon lords" so he must be the fifth eldest.

More notes: Er…notations.  Yes.  Review!  And just to be nice, I shall tell you that I would never write an EclipsexRaenef4 fic.  If it eases your mind any… Review!!  Review!!!