A/N: This fic was originally written in October of 2005. I just found it gathering dust on my HD. Just another of my silly one-shots.

The sun was just rising in the city of San Francisco when a monotone, disembodied voice began to shout, "Another day, another sack of money!" The miserable figure which at the moment found itself beneath green sheets grunted and stuck its head under the also green pillow.

"Another day, another sack of money!"

"Not yet..." moaned the man clad in green pyjamas while he pulled the side edges of the green pillow over his ears in a very futile attempt to block out the noise.

"Another day, another sack of money!"

"Just five more minutes..." he begged.

"Another day, another sack of money!"

"Hnnnggghhhfff..."

"ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER SACK OF MONEY!"

"SILENCE!" roared a demonic voice that muffled that irritating sound that had been taking over the room, followed by a fire blast that pulverised the source of the monotone voice (as well as half the room).

Green sheets fell, forgotten, on the floor as a man with sky-blue eyes and long, pale hair rose from the bed. His eyes were only half-open, despite his already ill humour, and his hair was in disarray.

"Blasted alarm," he whispered with a British accent.

"I'll say," replied the demonic voice from the same lips.

The man took a look at the burnt side of his room and let out an exaggerated sigh.

"Shendu, was that really necessary?"

The fire demon possessing him scoffed.

"It is your fault for purchasing those infernal devices, Valmont!" he snapped. "Back in my days, it was much better..."

Shendu remembered the times when he had been sleeping peacefully in his luxurious room at his palace in Ancient China. Since back then there had been no such things as digital alarm clocks, one of his human servants would always come to wake him up. They would tiptoe over to the dragon's huge bed and shouted at the top of their lungs:

"Another day, another dead human, Lord Shendu!"

Unfortunately, Shendu wasn't a morning demon, especially when a lowly human had the nerve to interrupt his dreams.

"Another day, another dead human, Lord Shendu!"

After the servant called three of four times, the dragon was awake enough and in a very bad mood. It was at these moments that he would then silence those foolish humans with a breath of fire that incinerated half of his room. Only, being such a clever demon, he had never bothered to have it be fixed.

Valmont interrupted the memories that Shendu had brought to his mind when he abruptly got up and clenched his fists in anger.

"But this is—" He counted quickly on his fingers, "—the thirty-fourth time I'll have to fix my room!"

Somehow, he could feel the fire demon's spirit inside him shrug, as absurd as it seemed.

"That is precisely why you should follow my example and leave the room as it is. I do not think it looks that bad, myself. Oh, and you could also change the colour while you are at it. Frankly, this fondness you have for the colour green is beginning to turn into a sick obsession!"

Ignoring Shendu's babbling, Valmont lazily made his way to the bathroom. Suddenly, Shendu fell silent and hissed warily.

"Valmont..."

"What is it?" muttered the Englishman, whose brain had not yet returned to full-time work.

"You're not going to take a bath, are you?"

Stupid fire demons and their aversion to water, Valmont thought.

The End