Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Thranduil didn’t leave his kingdom without a good reason, such as to annoy his ever patient father in ‘heaven’ or to let another disaster eliminate the majority of the, at that time dominant race on earth, which were currently humans. Most of his time he sat on his throne, craved out of white bone surrounded by a pair of white, spread dragon wings, with an expressionless face and listened to whatever important new his servants had for him. And while he went through the never ending torture of information how many souls his demons had collected today and what kind of them and if any of them were special, he would swallow souls like a drunk emptied glasses filled with alcohol. In case that he wasn’t sitting on his throne, visiting ‘heaven’ to annoy his father or creating another illness like the black plaque, he would be wandering around his beautiful but dark realm.
It was a breathtaking place, not in any way like the stories humans told each other, there was no fire burning sinners for eternity, there were no torture instruments ripping bodies apart, there were no ugly demons eating poor humans alive and feasting on their pain, no it was ironically enough peaceful.
His kingdom was a place that reached from dark and deep woods to high mountains. It was filled with creatures of great beauty but danger as well, there were swirling streams, howling winds and whispering trees that told stories from times where there was no earth formed yet.
So it was quite surprising to find Thranduil, ruler of the world humans called ‘hell’, walk upon earth without leaving a path of destruction and death. No, instead he walked unseen among the mortals in a place that was filled with pain and grief- a hospital. Places that contained a high amount of sorrow, death and despair attracted him and his servants, since it was easy to find creatures willing to sell their souls there for worthless wishes that were in no way worth selling a soul for.
He didn’t know what had caused him to leave his kingdom and visit earth, the last time he had spent a longer time on the godforsaken planet had been during the middle age, which hadn’t been called ‘The Dark Ages’ without a reason. And he had certainly no idea what had driven him into this hospital that stank with death.
His pointy ears heard everything around him, the beating of countless hearts, some stronger than others, the rugged breath of the sick, the silent prayers of visitors, the tears that dripped down the cheeks of those, who feared for their loved ones or lost someone close to them, the loud beeping of one of the machines that told the doctors that they hadn’t been able to save another human, the chased steps when another patient showed signs of dying, it was a mad place filled with even more insane people.
But something was in here that had awoken his attention, something called him into this place, and while his steps echoed quietly down the hallways, he was hidden from every human’s eyes.
There was something that attracted him, something pulled him closer. It came from a room with a closed door. A smell hit Thranduil’s nose and he shuddered with anticipation. Oh yes, behind this door was something special waiting for him, a soul that wasn’t just like any soul. A soul so pure and shining that it tasting it would drive him into states of bliss that he experienced rarely.
With a grin he entered the room, still hidden from the blind eyes of mortals and looked around. It was a normal hospital room with only one bed. There were a few pieces of furniture, a TV, a big amount of flowers, chocolate, ‘get well’ balloons and plush animals with happy faces on them.
But only one thing caught his attention, it was the body in the bed. Lithe, tall, fragile and so unbelievably pale that he could hardly believe his ears that still heard a faint, irregular heartbeat and a breathing that stocked every now and then.
Thranduil inhaled the smell of illness and close death deeply, but there was something else, something that caused a sudden flicker of unknown hunger deep inside him and made his sharp teeth pierce his bottom lip. He couldn’t resist but step closer to the human that was laying in the bed. The smell got stronger and so did the hunger inside the king.
Delicious, better than everything he had ever been smelling in his eternal life. He felt how his hands began to turn black, how his fingers grew and formed to sharp claws, how his wings began to expand from his back. He would swallow this soul, even if it would cost him everything he had.
“Thranduil, you know that you’re not allowed to swallow his soul yet.” A soft voice interfered and the mighty ruler squinted his eyes, when a sudden bright light appeared in the room. Out of it stepped a beautiful women. Golden hair surrounded her pale face, her deep blue eyes sparkled and seemed to have caught the starlight itself inside them, she was dressed in white, even the crown on her head was bright and so were the golden wings that expanded from her back and softly moved almost unnoticeably.
“I do not care, Galadriel.” He hissed through clenched fangs and stared at her with his intimidating gaze. Thranduil noticed how she shuddered visibly, even though she belonged to one of his father’s most powerful angels.
“It’s the law, the law that bounds you. He hasn’t joined a contract, you haven’t claimed his soul, there for you have no right on feasting on it. This soul will be one of our kind once death freed it from its ill vessel.” Galadriel smiled softly at the body in the bed.
“One of our kind…” Thranduil snarled and straightened his back even more. Something like a laugh escaped him, which caused birds in a nearby tree to flee even though they weren’t able to hear it. The body in the bed flinched visibly, a shudder went through the mortal, the smell of adrenalin filled the room. It appeared that this human was very sensitive to his surroundings.
“Don’t forget that I am nothing like one of your kind. I am better and higher, made from my father’s flesh, from his power, from his spirit. While you’re just a light, formed into a servant for him. I am not simply one of your kind, no, I am an angel, but don’t forget that I am also the true son of Oropher, his real child, the child his wife and equally strong being gave birth to. You are in no right to tell me about the law.” His dark voice made the angel shiver in fear. Her wings trembled, but her face remained stoic and cold.
“I am not indeed, but I have the right to watch over this soul and welcome it into Oropher’s realm where it will spread its wings and explore unknown worlds.”
“Not if there is a contract, and I will do everything possible to get this mortal to sign it.” Thranduil was calm now, but his eyes still burned into Galadriel’s.
“There is no way for you to…” But the angel stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes widened and panic spread across her features. She wasn’t the only one who noticed it, Thranduil had realized as well, what just had happened. A cruel smile formed on his lips and turned is angelic face into a horrible grimace.
“What kind of contract?” A thin and throaty voice asked, that sounded like music to the king’s ears.
His gaze flickered to the human in the bed, where the mortal had sat up. It was a boy, merely 17 years old and so pale that he seemed more dead than alive.
A child, not yet fully an adult but almost there.
Thranduil quickly changed his appearance. His white hair shortened and became hazelnut brown, his blue eyes adopted the same color, his pale skin got warmer and a soft blush appeared on his cheeks, everything on him became soft and…cute. Disgusting but necessary if he wanted this child to trust him.
“I know you’re in here, even though I can’t see you I’m able to hear your voices. Show yourself to me, there’s a reason I called for you.” The boy demanded, sounding stronger and more confident than Thranduil had expected. He chuckled and allowed his figure to become visible to the boy.
The child almost yelped in surprise and its eyes widened, when it saw the devil.
“It appears that you called for me.” Thranduil said with a soft voice and smiled softly. It was an angelic smile, which could turn into a grotesque face in seconds.
“I don’t think so…” The boy mumbled, brows furrowing and nose scrunching. “I called for a demon…not for…that.” He made a motion with his trembling hand that hinted that he meant Thranduil’s entire figure.
“What did you expect to find?” The king chuckled with his natural, dark voice. This human was amusing him.
“Well, I don’t know. Some ugly creature with horns and wings like a dragon and a long tail. With claws and red eyes, like something out of one of those scary movies. But you look like a cute puppy instead of a nightmare.” The boy shrugged, apparently unimpressed.
“Oh believe me child, I am what your nightmares are made of. I am the reason you’re afraid of darkness, I am what you fear might live under your bed and creep out of your closet at night.” He tried to sound intimidating, but the boy only grinned.
“Well, if you’re that what’s living under my bed then you have a very bad taste. There’s only dirt, old socks and dust bunnies under my bed. But if you like those kind of things…”
“Dust bunnies?” Thranduil’s brows furrowed. What was this mortal talking about? What on earth were ‘dust bunnies’? Some kind of animal?
“Yes, don’t tell me you don’t know what dust bunnies are! Don’t you have those in hell? Or are you cleaning so regularly that they don’t even exist?”
“Stop this nonsense child!” The king growled angrily, more in confusion than in actual anger. How was he suppose what ‘dust bunnies’ were? Human languages changed quicker than he was able to blink!
“You’re calling me a child but you don’t know what dust bunnies are?” The human questioned teasingly and slowly but steadily he was starting to annoy Thranduil. And the soul of this feisty, annoying child was supposed to become an angel? It seems that his father’s expectations had sunken even lower than he had expected.
“I’ve existed before anything in this universe had been created, you’ll always be a child in my eyes.” He tried to be intimidating but maybe it was because of his current form, that the mortal merely giggled.
“You’re that old and you still don’t know what dust bunnies are? What have you been doing all the time? Lived under a rock or something?” The boy asked and hot, burning anger rose within Thranduil.
When he heard an amused laugh he remembered that Galadriel was in the room as well. He shot a burning gaze into her direction that shut her up immediately, then he made a swift motion with one hand and the angel disappeared, leaving nothing but a little dust swirling around in the air.
“I have more important things to do than to busy myself with the tedious task to keep track of the human language. Your race won’t last for mere a blink of an eye, so why shall I bother with something like ‘dust bunnies’?” He tried to calm himself, but the boy giggled again.
“You’re funny.” The mortal said grinning with sparkling blue eyes that reminded Thranduil of his own.
Just when he was about to deny the fact that the boy had stated, the human’s eyes widened and he grabbed his chest with one of the fragile hands. He began to pant heavily and the machines around his bed started to beep alarmingly.
Thranduil knew what was happening immediately, he had known the mortals illness from the beginning. And he wouldn’t let this pure soul escape his grip when he was already this close to owning it. With two steps he stood next to the boy that had his eyes widened in fear and pain, and pulled away the hands that were furiously scratching on the chest, covered by a thin shirt. Then Thranduil pressed his own hand on the boy’s upper body, right where the heart was and the alarming beeping of the machines stopped immediately, as well as the panicked breathing of the boy.
“Your heart must be very weak if you are not even able to laugh without almost dying.” He said with an almost amused voice, before he let go of the fragile body.
“Yeah, sorry about that. I’m usually not laughing that much, this whole thing got me a little too excited.” The boy grinned, while his breathing got more and more steady.
Thranduil eyed the boy curiously. This one was weird, normally mortals that wanted a contract with him or one of his servants were frightened and stuttered their wishes out, but this one was joking and even teasing the devil.
“I’m Legolas by the way, might be important to know my name for the contract.” The child- Legolas, introduced himself. “And what’s your name? Should I call you Satan or Lucifer? Or maybe Devil? I haven’t met any of your kind before. But you’re just a demon servant right? So probably not Lucifer or anything…I don’t know any demon names though…”
The devil rolled his eyes. “Stop with those ridiculous names, that’s what your kind named me. My name is Thranduil, and I am no mere demon servant! I am the king of my realm, the ruler of the place your race calls ‘hell’.”
“That sounds a lot better than Lucifer. So you’re really the ruler of hell? That’s so awesome? I thought I had only called a demon servant or something.” Legolas seemed to be cheerful. Was this child totally insane? Or simply stupid? But who was Thranduil to question, as long as he would be the owner of the pure soul he didn’t care about the personality that came along with it. And it wasn’t like humans cared if the cow of their steak had been nice or mean, as long as the meat tasted good.
“Well, Legolas. Why did you call for one of my servants? Do you wish to be part of a contract with me? Are you certain that you would like to accept my services? You’re a child after all…” Why on earth did he care about this mortal being a child? He only wanted the contract to be sealed.
“Obviously.” The boy rolled his eyes. “And don’t call me a child, I’m 17 and not 7!”
“Fine, I won’t call you a child.” He agreed, but it felt weird, since Legolas looked so very young. So fragile, pale and lithe, with big blue eyes, long lashes and the bright, long hair that reminded Thranduil of his own. They were very similar indeed, it was almost amusing.
“Good.” Legolas smiled once more. “Let’s talk about the contract.”
“What is your wish, Legolas?” He sat down on the bed next to the ill human to seem more human.
“It’s pretty obvious that I want to be healthy, isn’t it? I was born with a weak heart and I’ve spend most my life in hospitals. My wish is to have a healthy, strong heart, to be healthy and strong. I want to be able to run, to swim, to climb on trees and so much more. I want to enjoy life, to live it to its fullest. To experience everything I wish for, and if that means that I’ll want to do the halo jump then so be it.”
“That’s quite a wish. I can fulfill it for you, and I will call one of my servants so you just need to say it out loud and it will happen. The servant I send you will always be there and if you want to dive with sharks or…climb a tree…” Thranduil didn’t understand why someone would sell a soul for that “…then he or she will be there to make sure you get to experience it.”
“So I basically get a friend that lets my wishes come true?” Legolas asked disbelievingly.
“That’s it in a nutshell.” The devil tried not to roll his eyes. Why were humans so…naïve?
“Awesome! And I can chose who I want it to be?”
He sighed. “Yes, you can. Sign the contract and you can chose who it’ll be.”
“Great!” Legolas looked too cheerful for someone who was about to lose their soul and with that their eternal life as an angel.
“Good. Just to make sure that you know everything: I will grand you your wish for a healthy body and that everything you could possibly wish for in life will be fulfilled, but in return I get your soul in 5 years from now. That means you’ll die in 5 years in case you didn’t understand.”
“5 years? In the movies it’s always 10 years. But 5 years are a long time for someone who has spent all their life in hospitals. Where do I sign the contract?”
“So you agree?” Thranduil asked with anticipation. The soul would be his and he would swallow it in only 5 years from now. He couldn’t wait for it to happen.
“I do.”
“Very well.” The devil tried not to smile too huge, before he laid his hand on the boy’s chest, right where his heart was. He would burn his mark on the pure soul, to show his claim of the beautiful thing. It would seal the contract.
Legolas gasped for air, as soon as he felt the touch, since the process was quite painful.
“Do we have to seal the contract with a kiss or something? I’ve heard that’s what they do in the movies…” The teenager asked breathless but with a smug grin, still in pain from the marking.
“Those are movies, made by humans. There’s no need for a kiss.” Thranduil straightened his back and let go off the fragile body. He had finished his work, now he would only need to heal the body and pick one of his servants to keep up with this annoying human being. He would send Galion or Lindir so they could take care of Legolas.
“I will present some of my best servants to you now so can chose one.” He lied a little and was about to call them, when the human interfered.
“I’ve already decided who I want.” Legolas chirped with a grin.
“Oh…” Thranduil arched one of his eyebrows in surprise. “And who would that be?” He asked, almost startled.
“You said that I can have whoever I want, right?”
“I did indeed.” The mighty kind agreed.
“Good, then I want you.”

Chapter Text

“You said that I can have whoever I want, right?” 
“I did indeed.” The mighty kind agreed. 
“Good, then I want you.”
Thranduil stared at the human disbelievingly, almost doubting his own ears. Legolas couldn’t have possibly said that, there was no way in hell that that would happen.
“You want me? That is out of question.” He denied then with a snort.
The boy wrinkled his forehead but his expression remained teasing. “Then the contract is invalid. You said I can chose my servant and that there are no restrictions, so I say that I chose you. If you don’t want to do that, then you’re in no right to claim my soul. That means if I would die right now, you wouldn’t get anything.”
“If you think that that nonsense has any effect on me then let me assure you that you’re mistaken. My servants collect thousands of souls each day, your souls is just another one, it’s not that important to me!” Thranduil lied with a stoic voice, but the child grinned simply.  
“It isn’t? Good, then I’ll die now.”
“You can’t simply die by saying it. That’s not how death works.” The devil sighed slightly annoyed, which made Legolas giggle.
“I know, but I could jump out of the window. This is the fourth floor after all and the ground is very hard stone. I’m close to death anyways, the doctors say I could die every day.” The mortal made an attempt to get out of the bed, but Thranduil grabbed his arm before he had a chance to even get one foot out. “Alright, alright!” He said a little too fast and from the satisfied look on the mortal’s face he knew that Legolas was aware of the fact that he had the devil under control. This stupid, annoying child had found his only weakness and was now toying with him carelessly. Normally a thing Thranduil did to others. He didn’t like to be in his new found role as a toy.
“So you’ll be the one accompanying me?” Legolas asked with a crocked eyebrow and the immortal nodded while he clenched his teeth to swallow the curses that would cause earthquakes to destroy continents.
“I shall accompany you for the rest of your short life, child. The contract is there for valid again.” He smiled tightly and wanted to slide his fingers through his long, bright hair but then he remembered the form he had currently taken. Only short brown strands. This day wasn’t going the way he would’ve wanted it to go. Why had he left his throne this morning again? Surely not to keep up with this brat. But now he was bound, if he wanted the soul he had to finish this job. He hated to do this sort of work, there was a reason he had servants that did this tedious task after all. But he forced his face into a friendly one instead of a grimace, before he continued. “Now, being healthy means that your heart gets repaired. It should just take a second.” Thranduil stepped forward and reached out for the human’s chest.
“You can repair my heart? Does that mean you can heal illnesses? Like cancer?” Legolas asked curiously and watched closely to what the devil did to him. Did this child never shut up?
“I am able to give you a healthy heart and to erase every illness your body is infected with. That obviously includes cancer.” The devil smiled and proud filled his voice. Cancer was one of his favorite physical illnesses, not his favorite one by far, but still. Cancer had made it into his top 10. He still remembered the day he had created it, he had felt especially creative and the result was brilliant. So many different forms, so many different stages, it had been heaven. The only thing he liked more than physical illnesses were the mental ones…but that was a different subject.
“So you could heal everyone in this hospital?” The boy wanted to know with an excited voice.
“Obviously and now shut up, I’m trying to work here.” ‘Work’, he only did the job of a low servant, that wasn’t any form of work! Especially not for a king, he would torture this boy’s soul before he would swallow it.
“Answer my questions and I will be quiet.” Legolas grinned smugly and Thranduil was tempted to remove his ability to speak as well as the ill heart.
“Can’t these questions wait for another couple of seconds?” The devil asked and tried not to roll his eyes, while his fingers began to turn darker, first grey and then black. The human watched the process with sparkling eyes.
“Not really…” He answered.
If this mortal would’ve had a normal soul then Thranduil wouldn’t have hesitated but immediately infected him with an illness that humankind would yet have to discover, that was so terrible and destructive that it appeared to be out of a nightmare.
“So if you can heal everyone, why don’t you do it?” Legolas wanted to know and that was probably the most stupid question someone had asked the king since the universe had been created.
“If I would heal everyone I wouldn’t be what I am, then I would be my father’s son again. The devil doesn’t heal people, he makes them ill.” Thranduil tried to be patient like he normally was but now his patience was wearing thin. This goddamn child.
“But do you like what you are? Was it bad to be your father’s son?”
The devil stared at the mortal for a few seconds, somehow almost startled by that question. He had never asked himself that, never doubted what he was. And now this stupid brat showed up and started to confuse him. Did he like what he was? Probably, he was it after all and he was very proud of his power, the way everyone was intimidated by him and how his servants respected and almost feared him. Had it been bad to be Oropher’s son? No, never. Not until his father had chosen that he could form light into creatures that were very similar looking to his son and treat them as equally important.
“That is from no importance for you. Stop asking those questions, save your breath, this might hurt a little.” And with that Thranduil clawed his fingers into the boy’s chest.
Legolas’ eyes widened in surprise and he took a sharp breath at the strange feeling. The devil knew how the child felt, he was able to look into the human’s mind, to feel the emotions and sensations that flooded through the warm body. It didn’t hurt Legolas, it was more like hot water that spread through his chest.
“Why do your hands glow? Shouldn’t they be black?” The mortal asked and Thranduil supposed that there was no use in ignoring all these question, the brat would otherwise annoy him again for the next five years.
“Healing doesn’t include darkness, it is made out of light just like my abilities. While my skin turns black when I use my powers, it depends on what I use them for. In case I destroy something black smoke appears, but when I heal or save something…” the warm light brightened even more and filled the room. “…the light I was born with becomes visible.” His eyes captured the sight of the soft light that seemed to glow like a second sun. It was beautiful, he had forgotten how beautiful it was. When was the last time he had seen it? A long time ago…
“So you’re not really a bad creature, you just chose to hide your true self?” Legolas wanted to know, while he raised his left hand to touch the light. The skinny, trembling fingers got a hold on the devil’s claws and curiously traced the outline of his long nails.
Thranduil’s brows furrowed. No, it wasn’t like that. “What do you know, you’re just a child.” He quickly pulled his hand away, almost as if the touch had burned him. Who did this human think he was? Daring to touch him just like that.
“Don’t get your knickers in a twist.” Legolas snorted and rolled his eyes, before he looked at his pale, unharmed chest. It looked just like before, no visible change was done. “So I’m healthy now?” He wanted to know, almost disbelieving. “Just like that?”
“You are indeed. Your heart is flawless, every infection, every other illness got removed from your body, including that…” Thranduil raised one finger and pressed it softly against Legolas’ forehead to fix one last thing “…’nasty’ cancer that was forming in your little brain.” ‘Nasty’, more like beautiful. It would’ve evolved into a beautiful tumor. What a shame.
“Wow, seems like God decided that it wasn’t enough to punish me with a heart that sucks. Thanks a lot.” Legolas mumbled sarcastic, but there was a sly grin on his slowly reddening lips. He began to get a little color. A soft blush on his cheeks, a little more blue in his already sparkling eyes, his sick looking white skin became a beautiful tone of paleness. Even the trembling of his hands stopped.
“Why would my father punish you? He has more important things to do than to punish humans.” Thranduil mumbled a little confused by those words. He didn’t exactly understand humans…why were they so vain that they even believed that Oropher would’ve time or interest to bother with them?
“I didn’t mean it, it’s something humans say just like that. It wasn’t meant serious. Lord, when was the last time you’ve visited earth? You don’t seem to know much about us.” The child explained patiently and even teased the devil.
“Your race isn’t fascinating enough to stir my interest. You’re not intelligent, not unpredictable and certainly not any different than any other animal even though you like to believe it.” Thranduil almost hissed, but tried to keep a friendly face. He was supposed to serve this child occasionally, that included being polite. He hated being polite.
“Ouch that hurts.” The mortal joked. “Well, if we’re so boring the next five years should be torture for you, shouldn’t they? Being trapped on this uninteresting planet with stupid, predictable creatures that aren’t any different than animals must be annoying for such a mighty king like you are.”
For a second the king smiled, since he had a weak spot for flattery, but then he realized what the human had said. “I obviously won’t spend my entire time here, I will be in my kingdom and should you have a wish then you will call me so I can fulfill it.” He explained almost laughing about the boy.
“I don’t think so. You said that you would do as I say and I want you to keep me company 24/7. That means for every single day for the rest of my life. Unless I decide that you get a day off…” Legolas smiled sweetly, too sweetly. And if it hadn’t been Thranduil who would’ve needed to endure the torture of spending so much time bound to this child, then he would’ve been amused by this mortal’s personality. Legolas could easily be one of his demons, he had no similarities with angels! If he didn’t have such a pure and delicious souls, Thranduil would’ve offered the boy to become a demon before they had sealed a contract. But now it was too late for that and Thranduil had wanted the soul more anyways.
“You want me to keep you company? Don’t you have friends to do that for you?” The devil snorted and noticed how the boy flinched at those words. Interesting…he had found a weak spot.
“You don’t exactly get the chance to find many friends when you spend the majority of your life in a hospital instead of school. I have two or three but that’s it and after 17 years of visiting me in the hospital they don’t come that often anymore.” Legolas mumbled and fiddled with the thin blanket that covered his body. “I think they already accepted my certain death years ago and said their goodbyes silently. I understand them, I would’ve reacted the same way if I was them.” Were those tears in the boy’s eyes? Yes, they were indeed. Thranduil smiled, he loved to see pain and sadness. But then he remembered that he had to spend 1826 days with this brat. Normally a time not worth noticing, but now it seemed like an unbearable eternity and his smile vanished.
“That’s the reason you shouldn’t be friends with humans. They are unreliable and betray you easily. And all of you are terribly egoistic. All those stories in which you would sacrifice yourself for a person you love are lies, no one would do that.” The devil simply said, which seemed to be the most comforting thing he had ever said to a human being. Then again he didn’t talk to mortals often.
“And you won’t betray me? You won’t lie? You’re not egoistic? Does that mean I can trust you?” There was hope in the boy’s voice and the older one had a hard time not to pull a grimace, this fool. Who would trust the devil? Only a desperate, stupid child. Funny enough the answer was yes to a large degree. He would be able to trust Thranduil.
“I won’t betray you, my payment is everything I want and I have to give you the five years you deserve as well as to fulfill your wishes. As for the lying part, I will try to be honest. Of course I’m egoistic, I wouldn’t be the devil if I wasn’t and last but not least…do you trust me?”
“It may sound weird, but yes. I do trust you. After all you would lose my soul if you would betray me, right?” Surprising…this child had actually been able to understand the contract correctly, unlike many other humans.
A chuckle escaped Thranduil. “It appears that you are a lot smarter than the rest of your kind. Except that you sold your undying soul for five years on this sick planet.”
The teenager grinned. “Who would’ve thought that I would get a compliment from the devil one day…”
“I don’t give compliments child, it was merely an obvious fact.” The devil denied with a bored voice and sighed quietly. It appeared as if there was no way he could get rid of this annoying human being for the next five years. He thought about simply duplicating himself and sent his second version to accompany Legolas but if the boy would find out the contract could be seen as invalid. Damn this soul. “Now then, that you have a ‘companion’ for the next five years I might as well ask you what you’re planning on doing. Would you like to go a special place? Do something specific?” He asked patiently and with a fake smile.
“Not really, I want to get a doctor to call my family and tell them that because of some miracle I can be brought home and all that. I want to live a normal life for now, you know? Go to school, do what people my age do, spend time in the normal life of a human being.” Legolas grinned and slowly Thranduil began to think that this child was trying to make his entire existence a torturing misery for the next five years. There was nothing more boring than the domestic life of a human.
“You can do everything there possibly is in life, I can grand you every wish you have and you want to live a normal life?” Thranduil said slowly, just to make sure that he had understood the situation correctly. It just seemed so absurd.
“Yes, I can’t simply vanish now, can I? Besides I want to see my family whenever possible and I want to experience high school. I should graduate at the end of this school year and after that I can pretend that I’m moving far away to go to University while I’m in reality experiencing all the awesome shit this world has to offer, with you. That way I’m still able to visit them as many times as I want to before I die.” The teenager mumbled, as if it was the most reasonable thing in the world and it somehow made sense. “So now I need to get a doctor call my parents and tell them that I can go home because I’m surprisingly enough completely healthy.” It was an unspoken order and Thranduil clenched his jaw in annoyance, before smiled tightly.
“I’ll take care of that.”

He could’ve been sitting on his throne now, chasing his thoughts away with delicious souls, numbing his body with bliss. He could’ve been wandering around his realm, listening to the old tales the trees had to tell and which never bored him no matter how often he heard them. Even throwing his father a visit would’ve been nice considering in what situation he was right now.
Thranduil, mighty king and feared devil, was standing in front of a hospital room, dressed in a fine suit and with a doctor’s kittle thrown over. There was an ID tag on the left side of the kittle, with the made up name Dr. Coutell. Right next to the name was a picture of him, in his current form. He had stuck to the brown hair, but it was longer and laid differently, but he looked older, more like he was in his mid or even late thirties. Then the light beard on his face that gave him a more serious appearance.
He heard voices from the inside, a woman and a man fighting over the fact that they had been called into the hospital so suddenly. While the man saw it as a positive sign and trusted Legolas who had said that he was feeling a lot better, the woman had an entirely different view. She was sticking to the theory that Legolas would die soon and that his condition had gotten even worse than before.
Before the fight could get more annoying he decided to step in. With a swift motion he opened the door and stepped into the room, which caused both of the adults to finally shut up. Legolas, who sat on his bed dressed in sweatpants and a lose shirt began to smile satisfied and so huge that Thranduil was sure that it hurt his cheeks.
“Ah, nice to finally meet you Mr. and Mrs. Greenleaf. I’m Doctor Coutell, after Dr. Conner left this hospital recently I was put in charge for your son and I have very good news for you.” He said with a charming voice and a heartwarming smile. He was a great actor.
“What? No one informed us about that.” Legolas’ mother said confused and skeptical.
“I’m sure we did inform you.” It was easy to let those words flood her brain. Humans were so easy to manipulate, it was sad.
“Yes, you’re right.” She mumbled slowly and her husband nodded almost as if in trance. “We must’ve forgotten about it. Apologies.”
“No need to apologize, I’m sure you’re very busy caring for a sick child.” Now a little bit more emotions and he would’ve them wrapped around his finger. “I cannot imagine how I could gather all the strength in case my child would need to go to the hospital.”
Legolas’ mother, who had been delighted by his looks already, almost melted at his kind words and Legolas’ father seemed just as affected as she was.
“It costs a lot of strength. Do you have children Doctor?” The woman asked with a soft voice, trying to get a better view on the new doctor.
Thranduil’s eyes flickered to Legolas, who seemed to be annoyed by his parents’ reaction. He grinned, it would be fun to push this conversation a little more.
“Not yet but my fiancée and I plan on expanding our family as soon as we get a little more settled. It always takes some time to get used to a new city.” He then said softly, stirring Legolas’ parents easily into asking further questions.
“So you just moved here? Where are you from?” The man asked now fully concentrated on the ‘doctor’.
“We’ve moved here so recently from the south, it feels like it was just yesterday.” Thranduil tried not to grin too wide. He heard the teenager giggle from the bed and almost chuckled amused.
“Well, hopefully you get used to the slightly colder weather, you seem like a very qualified doctor, we wouldn’t want to lose you because of the hard winters here.” Legolas’ father joked and the devil quickly forced himself to laugh.
“There’s no need to worry Mr. Greenleaf, I’ve already found something that captures my interest here, I won’t leave that fast.” The king threw a glance at Legolas, who understood the reference easily.
“Well, it’s good to hear that, Dr. Coutell. It’s always great to know that a competent doctor is taking care of your child.” Mr. Greenleaf didn’t seem to notice the glances between his son and the fake doctor.
“Thank you. Now that we’re talking about your son already, I’ve news for you.” Just for show he grabbed the board that he had brought with him and pretended to look through the papers pinned on it. It originally belonged to an elderly lady three rooms to the left who couldn’t breathe without tubes anymore and wouldn’t survive the next months.
“Good news or bad news?” Legolas’ mother asked with a nervous voice and her husband seemed just as worried.
“Great news in fact.” He smiled and felt how his eyes began to glow. “Your son had a heart transplantation and is completely healthy again. He is able to go home, you don’t have to worry about him anymore. Everything is fine.” His voice had grown lower and lulling, he could almost see how it sneaked into the adult’s minds and clouded them.
“Heart transplantation, of course…” Legolas’ father mumbled in trance.
“Completely healthy…he can go home…” Mrs. Greenleaf joined in as well.
Their eyes were glassy and gazes lost. A soft smile played around the corners of their lips.
“After this you won’t remember Dr. Coutell, you won’t remember this conversation, you won’t remember that I called you here.” His lulling voice was angelic.
“Can you make that they don’t remember the school work I was supposed to do in the hospital over the last three months?” Legolas chirped in and Thranduil had a hard time not to groan in desperation. Why had Oropher damned him to get this annoying human in combination with such a delicious soul?
“The purpose of this is to get you out of the hospital, not letting your parents forget your unfinished homework!” He almost growled but Legolas seemed rather unimpressed.
“Well, I don’t really care. You’re here to serve me after all, aren’t you? And I want that you make them forget about my homework, and about that time I accidentally set the living room on fire, yes?” The brat was too clever for his own good. Thranduil would make sure that the moment the five years were over, he would kill him slowly and painfully and then, after he had had enough fun he would allow himself a treat in form of the pure soul.
“I shall do as you say, Legolas.” He said then in a polite voice, before he focused on the two adults again. “And you will forget that your son hasn’t done his homework yet, he has finished them brilliantly. And your memory of him setting your living room on fire by accident will vanish as well.” Thranduil, king of hell, demon of destruction, feared fallen angel, mighty son of Oropher, felt for the first time in his never ending existence like a stupid fool. And he didn’t like that feeling very much. This was ridiculous! He used his godlike powers to convince two adults that their child had done its homework. How much lower could it go from here? Not very much!
“You started at the bottom as my companion and now you’re here, even lower, convincing my parents I’ve done my work.” Legolas laughed, highly amused and Thranduil regretted that now the child didn’t get a heart attack as soon as it laughed too hard.
“I’m just holding myself to the contract my granting you your wishes.” He said tightly and tried to keep his human façade up. He didn’t want to change into his real form right now in this public place. It would be too bothersome for his stressed mind to deal with hysterical humans, or even to call some of his servants so they would deal with them. He really, really needed a good soul now, preferably a young one as well…As soon as Legolas would sleep, he would call Lindir or Galion to bring him something delicious to relax after this terrible day.
“So you’re not only my companion but also my servant? Just like a dog?” This child….
“You may view me as whatever you would like me to be.” If this brat would make him his servant he would kill it with his bare hands right in this hospital bed and let a super virus destroy the entire hospital and preferably 1/10^th of the human race as well.
“Nah, I’ll stick to companion. A servant wouldn’t be much fun now would it? And neither would a dog…Also the idea of you calling me something like master gives me the chills.” Legolas shuddered in obvious discomfort and Thranduil was sure to take a note on that just in case he wanted to use it on later occasions when he couldn’t deal with Legolas anymore. (He didn’t know yet how many of those occasions would be awaiting him).
“Now that I already have your parents in this state, is there anything else you would like me to say?” Thranduil asked while his perfect smile began to twitch slightly.
“Yes, just one thing though…”
“And that would be?” The devil wanted to know with the last little bit of patience he had left.
“Tell them that I can eat as many sweets as I want whenever I want!”
God, this 17 year old was really behaving like a child.
“And you will allow your beloved child Legolas to eat as many sweets as he wants, whenever he wants.” Thranduil added with his luring voice, before he let their mind escape from his tight grip. Both adults began to blink slowly and shook their head as if they had just woken up out of a dream.
“Have you packed your things honey? We don’t want you to spend more time in this place than you already have, after that heart transplantation you’re perfectly fine now, aren’t you?” Legolas’ mother smiled still slightly confused and looked at her son, who grinned.
“Yes mother.”
“Would you like to stop for a milkshake on our way home? We can also quickly stop by at a grocery store to get you some sweets, you deserve them after doing all your work so nicely.”
The teenager smiled wickedly as he heard that.
Yes, Thranduil was sure, this child could’ve been his own spouse if it weren’t human.

Thranduil regretted more things in this exact moment than ever before in his life. He regretted leaving hell to take a look at a goddamn hospital, he regretted his body’s thirst for souls, hell he even regretted that he had left his father’s realm! If he would still be at his parent’s side he wouldn’t be swallowing human souls and would’ve never made this pact. And that would mean he wouldn’t have to sit on the back seat of a goddamn black family car next to a 17 year old who was texting on his phone furiously while nibbling on a milkshake at the same time, while Legolas’ father drove the car listening to Legolas’ mother who told some gossip about their neighbors that interested literally no one, not even her husband and oh god he would infect her with some nasty STD!
He had obviously hidden himself from their eyes and the only one that could feel, hear, smell or see him was Legolas, who had chosen to ignore him. Well, that was quite nice actually, after all the child had no chance to annoy Thranduil in here without his parents wondering why the teenager would talk to some imaginary friend.
So the devil desperately tried to get his mind distracted by looking out of the window. They left the center of the city quickly and got on the highway, after around 30 minutes of simple, plain driving they left it again and eventually reached one of these posh, peaceful neighborhoods that looked like they were out of a movie. How hateful.
They pulled up a large driveway and parked next to another car, right in front of a big two story house. Perfect mowed lawn, a white fence, two cars parked outside, maybe another one inside the garage, a basketball that laid in the front yard, rose bushes, a big tree with a swing close to the white fence, garbage cans neatly placed next to each other, the red little flag on the postbox was pulled up…torture…it was terrible torture.
Thranduil left the car with a sight and without opening the door. His ability to walk through things helped him immensely while accompanying this little devil called Legolas, who was walking into the house without a glance towards his new companion. The brat probably expected Thranduil to follow him like a dog. The devil clenched his jaw at that thought and tried not to growl. On the inside the terrible normalcy of Legolas’ life seemed to become even worse. It fitted perfectly to the picture painted outside. A dog greeted the teenager with a wiggling tail, before it looked at Thranduil with a confused whimpering and decided to stick to the human he knew, but not without a bark in the devil’s direction. He glared at the animal that hid behind the teen’s legs.
“Don’t be mean to Sammy.” Legolas mumbled, while he petted the pet. “Who’s a good boy? Yes, yes you are, you are my good boy. Did you miss me, Sammy?”
Sammy, it had to be Sammy. Was there a more domestic dog name than Sammy? Especially for a golden retriever Labrador mix?
“Yes you did, yes you did!” The mortal sounded ridiculous. “Good boy.”
Thranduil used the short break he got thanks to the dumb dog, to take a look around. He walked silently through the living room, dining room and kitchen. There were goddamn drawings pinned on the refrigerator by magnets. With smiling suns and happy family faces. But there was always one stick figure that was somewhat different, always very pale and very thin, with long blonde hair and blue eyes and always in a bed, with machines surrounding it.
But something else caught Thranduil’s attention. It was some sort of machine that smelled somewhat tasty. Curiously the devil stepped closer to it and glanced around to make sure that no one was watching him, before he sniffed the strange thing. It was a bitter smell, dark and rich and made his insides feel a little heavier. Thranduil would have to find out what that smell was later on, it was familiar to him, he was sure that he had faintly smelled it in the past, but this one seemed ways more tasty.
“What do you want for dinner, darling?” Legolas’ father stepped into the room that second and Thranduil cringed, even though he was invisible for the man.
“How about something with chicken and salad?” Mrs. Greenleaf shouted back from somewhere else in the house. “Legolas, go and say hello to Fion and Lia, they missed you terribly.”
Fion und Lia? Thranduil sensed the house and if it had been possible, he would’ve jumped out of the next window.
Legolas had two smaller siblings, a boy and a girl, twins.
Thranduil hated children.

Chapter Text

Fion and Lia turned out to be, just like Thranduil had sensed, twins. Both close to be 5 years old, one a boy, one a girl, with big brown eyes, pink lips and dark hair. All of Legolas’ family appeared to look quite similar, expect for the boy himself who tended to stick out with his bright hair and his eyes that seemed to have trapped the sky itself in them.
But if Thranduil thought that meant that the other members of the Greenwood family were more pleasant to be around and less exhausting, the devil was deadly mistaken. Only minutes after his first encounter with the twins he knew that out of all these humans, Legolas was by far the most bearable one. The boy was a brat and seemed to have fun by teasing the devil, but that was still better than the rest of them.
Legolas’ father was the most uninteresting man Thranduil had ever seen. He was a dentist, drove a black Porsche, spend his free time with his children or by reading old literature. There was literally nothing interesting about the man, absolutely nothing. No achievements, no extraordinary experiences, and hell the man hadn’t even left his own country once.
Then there was Legolas’ mother and Thranduil would rip out her throat if he could. She was so very annoying that her son seemed like a harmless kitten. She was working as a judge, had ways less free time than her husband, who was doing all the cooking instead. Mrs. Greenleaf had been studying abroad and was able to speak three languages fluently, including Japanese. But all she had to talk about was gossip that no one listened to. Not even her own husband, who preferred to think about what kind of teeth would await him tomorrow at work instead of listening to his wife’s story about who had cheated on whom with the neighbor or secretary or whatever. Not even Thranduil listened.
Next there were the twins and if he hadn’t been the devil himself and known better he would’ve thought they were Satan’s spouse. They looked ‘adorable’ for human children, with big brown eyes and pink cheeks, rosy lips and cute curls, but they were devilish in their personality. And while Thranduil looked around the dining room for something interesting and new, invisible for everyone except his soon to be dinner, he couldn’t ignore the children fully. They were playing with their food, threw chicken pieces at each other, kicked each other under the table, whined that they wanted to watch TV and refused to eat their vegetables until Legolas’ mother lost her patience and told them if they wouldn’t eat their greens, then they wouldn’t be allowed to watch TV for the next two weeks. That caused the kids to start crying hysterically and for a second Thranduil was tempted to rip their heads off.
There were children in his realm, it would sound weird for humans if they knew that demons had families and on top of that were demons very loving parents. They wouldn’t hesitate to kill whoever wanted to harm their children, but at the same time they read them old tales, took them into the deep and dark woods and taught them how to speak to trees and taught them how to use their demonic powers patiently. And as a result of the loving, caring and patient care they got, they were comparably pleasant to be around.  Thranduil didn’t enjoy their presence, but he didn’t exactly mind if they entered his throne room together with their parents, when those wanted to report to the mighty king.
So yes, compared to the utterly boring and annoying family, Legolas’ was more than interesting. The teenager didn’t show it much but he was unusually sharp and there was a small part inside the devil that was strangely fascinated with the way the mortal didn’t seem to fear him. It wasn’t stupidity, it wasn’t arrogance that caused Legolas to treat the devil the way he did. No, it was the knowledge that Thranduil couldn’t harm him, simply because that would break the contract.
“Fion and Lea, if you don’t stop whining now then I’ll take away your video games as well.” Mr. Greenleaf suddenly interfered, apparently done with his daydream about what kind of terribly rotten teeth would await him tomorrow. Thranduil had looked into the man’s mind for a second and was surprised that Legolas’ father was able to eat while thinking about certain examples of terrible teeth hygiene.
The twins stared at their father with big eyes, before their mouths turned into determined frowns and they crossed their arms before their chests. Now they wouldn’t eat anything for sure and Thranduil would’ve loved to simply break the contract and retreat into his realm.
‘Why does this mortal have such a tempting soul, father? Are you playing one of your jokes on me again?’ He groaned internally since his father was quite the prankster and decided to leave the room to check out that machine from earlier once more now that the kitchen was empty.
“Look Fion, the vegetables make a sad smiley face because you don’t want to eat them…” Legolas said suddenly and Thranduil raised one eyebrow while his eyes followed whatever was happening at the dinner table. His young meal was arranging the greens like a sad smiley.
Fion, who was still looking stoic and unwilling to eat seemed to hesitate. “They’re not alive, they don’t care…” he mumbled, but seemed unsure.
“Well they look pretty sad to me.” Legolas argued softly and the boy began to chew his lip, before he picked up his fork and began to eat the formally abandoned vegetables. Lea, who watched her twin hesitated, her gaze flickered between her own plate and the one of her brother, before she gave in as well and started eating the abandoned food on her plate as well.
“Now they’re not sad anymore.” Fion said, with a full mouth and an already chewed piece of pea landed on the table.
Thranduil grimaced, such thing wouldn’t happen in his realm. Demon children knew how to eat without leaving half their dinner all over the place. Then again, it wasn’t hard to eat souls, you just had to swallow them, let the rich taste flood your mouth and coat your tongue while your sharp teeth pierced them like there were butter. The devil felt hunger arise in himself, he needed a good soul now, being around Legolas for a longer time caused his body to thirst for something, anything. But then again…souls always tasted even better for a starved demon and Thranduil had stopped eating whatever soul he got millenniums ago. So he decided not to call Galion to bring something.
“I ate it all, now they are happy.” Fion cried out and Lea agreed with him by stuffing the last vegetable in her already full mouth and chewing them.
“I bet they are.” Legolas smiled softly and pressed a soft kiss on his brother’s forehead.
Oh how dull, he had hoped that his future meal and current master- Thranduil shuddered at the word in discomfort since he personally was a very dominant character- had some cruel side, liked to play mind games and knew no mercy when it came to his enemies, but sadly it seemed as if Legolas was a precious, untouched lamb who wouldn’t harm a fly.
Thranduil sighed and massaged his forehead, he wasn’t able to actually get a headache even though he could feel pain, but right now he had the feeling that he got a migraine. The little noise caught Legolas’ attention and the teenager looked at him questioningly, before he seemed to understand. A smile formed on the perfectly drawn lips and something started to glint in the blue eyes that told Thranduil that the boy wasn’t an innocent lamb at all, at least not fully.
That brat.

“So, do you like sleep or what?” Legolas asked, after he closed the door to his room and threw himself on his big bed. It was the first time he had spoken to Thranduil in six hours, since they had left the hospital. The little mind manipulation had caused Legolas’ parents to treat him as if he had never been sick in the first place. He lived like a normal teenager.
“I am physically able to sleep if I want to, but there is no need for me to do so. Theoretically speaking could I live without sleep forever.” Thranduil answered truthfully and got an interested look from his master.
“Really? What do you usually do instead of sleeping then?” The teenager asked interested, while he grabbed a teddy bear bunny and pressed it against his chest.
“There’s a big forest in my realm, filled with trees that are older than this world and they reach high into the sky. I often wander around at night and listen to the old tales they have to tell.” The devil said and remembered the fantastic stories that still fascinated him no matter how often he had heard them.
“That sounds so beautiful, I always thought hell would be a torturing place where demons rip apart humans who have been bad in their life.” Legolas mumbled.
“There are no humans in my kingdom and even if there were we wouldn’t torture them…”
“What is in your kingdom then?” The child wanted to know and seemed very interested all of sudden. Thranduil preferred the hours in which he had been ignored by his ‘master’.
“Beautiful forests, grass fields that go on until they reach the horizon, mountains so high they seem to touch the clouds, filled with treasures that sparkle like the stars and seem to have captured the moonlight and beautiful seas with soft waves branding on the white shore while the sun softly arises in the background.” He described while his voice seemed to get lost. His eyes flickered to Legolas, who looked at him with a soft smile.
“That sounds very beautiful.” The teenager said softly and that was, what made the devil aware that he had allowed this child to look behind his stoic, intimidating façade.
“Of course it’s beautiful, it’s my realm after all! But how would you know, you’re only a human.” He snapped and expected Legolas to snap back or be hurt, but the mortal surprised him.
“You’ve got a point there, but at least I know what dust bunnies are.” He teased and Thranduil rolled his eyes.
“That subject again, do I have to repeat myself? I’ve more important things to do to occupy myself with the human language and such unimportant things as ‘dust bunnies’.” The king snarled but it only caused the boy to laugh loudly.
“You’re adorable you know?”
That made the devil freeze. “I am not adorable.” He almost growled and his eyes began to glim dangerously red.
“Well I’ve never seen your true form so how am I supposed to know if you’re adorable or not.” Legolas fell back into his pillows and glanced at Thranduil. “So go ahead, show me what you look like, it’s weird to see you look this…human.”
The dangerous demon hesitated slightly, for the first time he didn’t know how a mortal would react to his appearance, Legolas was unpredictable and seemed not to fear the powerful creature.
“I don’t want to frighten you.” The devil said so their shared five years wouldn’t be more comfortable than they would already be. “While my appearance as son of my father is nothing but beauty, I am a demon after all.” Thranduil knew that he was beautiful but he had demonic sides, including black wings, long claws, red eyes and sharp fangs.
Legolas seemed to think about those words, before he smiled. “Can you show me your beauty then? You’ve been an angel right? And partly you’re still one I heard your conversation with someone called Galadriel. I would really like to see that side of you, if you want to hide the demonic parts.”
“You could always order me if you want to see my true form, including the evil parts.” Thranduil said, since he didn’t know if Legolas understood the contract fully.
“I know, but I’m asking you to show me your true self, at least as much of it as you think is appropriate for me to see. You can always say no.”
The devil stared at the human for a moment. He had served humans before, when he had grown so bored that not even numbing his mind with souls had helped. His former masters had never asked him if to do something, they had ordered it, this was surprising and new…
He sighed and nodded eventually, why should he care about what the human would think of him anyways? It was probably his worry that the pure soul could get stains.
It was easy for the devil to change his appearance, his hair grew long and the color became brighter, his eyes changed from the hazelnut brown to a clear blue, much like Legolas’ own and his skin got pale as snow. He felt his sharp cheekbones, his more muscular body, and his unhuman beauty.
A small gasp caught his attention and his gaze flickered to Legolas, who was still on his bed but now sitting up again.
“You’re beautiful, like an angel without wings.” The boy stunned and got up to step closer.
“I am an angel after all, the only true one there is.” Thranduil said, almost arrogantly and angry that the mortal had dared to call the useless servants of his father angels as well.
“Right, I forgot about that.” Legolas raised his hand hesitatingly. “Can I touch you?”
“I’m your servant, you don’t have to ask in case you want to touch me.”
A smile was painted over the boy’s face and his cold fingers touched Thranduil’s cheek. They softly stroke over his cheek, down to his jaw and then touched his pointy ears. Then they softly stroke over a single strand of his hair before the cold fingers grabbed one of his hands to look at them. His own skinny, long fingers- normally decorated with beautiful rings- were pale and very soft, Legolas’ were slightly smaller but seemed more fragile.
“You’re so warm, a lot warmer than my fingers are.” The mortal realized with a curious voice.
“In this form I am filled with the light that holds my powers, in my form as demon my fingers grow cold.” Thranduil explained, his eyes fixed on their joined hands.
“But they’re soft so I don’t think I would mind if they were cold as ice.” Legolas smiled softly.
The devil blinked startled, before he realized that he allowed this worthless creature to touch him just like that! With a quick movement he pulled away his hands.
“It doesn’t matter if they’re cold or warm, the only thing that matters are my powers.” Thranduil said with a hardly polite voice, still taken aback by how the teenager didn’t seem to mind touching him.
“I guess you have a point there. Anyways, if you want to you can stay in this form, or whatever is mostly comfortable for you. I’m the only one who can see, hear or touch you anyways, right?” The teenager fell back on his bed and had wrinkled his forehead slightly.
“Yes, you are right.”
“Good that means I can take you to school with me.”
Thranduil cringed at the words alone.
“I’m tired so I’m going to sleep, do whatever it is you like doing unless it involves, I don’t know, killing one of my family members or my dog.” The boy then suddenly said and lifted the covers of his bed.
The devil stared at him with a crocked eyebrow, but didn’t move from where he stood. He would be able to stand like this the entire night without growing uncomfortable and so he decided to simply keep this position until Legolas would wake up again. Even though he had been allowed to do whatever he liked. Sadly there weren’t any things that could catch his interest in this world- except for this human’s soul.
And said human was just turning the lights off, slipping under his covers and closing his eyes.
“Goodnight.” The mortal mumbled but Thranduil didn’t answer, since he didn’t expect his master to want him to answer.
For a couple of minutes nothing changed except the few cars that drove by outside and whose headlights were throwing dancing shadows at the walls. Then suddenly Legolas sat up again.
“Alright, I really can’t sleep with you standing like that behind me at my bed. It feels like a goddamn horror movie when I think about what you are even though I’m not afraid by you. Your presence simply lets my body tense as soon as my mind drifts off to sleep, so would you mind not standing in the middle of the room staring at me while I’m sleeping?” The mortal asked with a patient voice and a small smile.
“Where would you like me to stand then?” He asked the smaller one, who thought about it for a second.
“Preferably I wouldn’t have you standing at all. Can’t you just lay down on the couch and pretend to sleep? If you decide to stay in this room it would be the most pleasant option.” The student made a waving motion across the room, where a black couch was waiting to be used.
“Would you like me to leave the room? I can always disappear for a while, you just have to call me and I’ll be at your side immediately.” The devil informed his future dinner, while he crossed the room and laid down on the piece of furniture.
“Like I said, do whatever you like to do while I sleep and if you decide to stay in this room I shall allow you to do so.” The boy mumbled, apparently satisfied and fell back into his mattress.

Half an hour later the teenager was softly snoring on the bed and sleeping so deep that Thranduil would’ve been able to let a thunderstorm lose in the room without the boy noticing. He shook his head in confusion, this boy was stupid. How on earth was he able to fall asleep just like that, with the most dangerous creature there was in the same room with him?
He sighed and stretched himself out on the couch. It wasn’t such a bad place to spend the night, not really interesting though but probably more entertaining than staring at some spot on the wall. From this angle he was able to look out of the window at the things humans called stars. They weren’t really stars of course, but humans were like mayflies so it didn’t matter what they would call those blinking things on the sky.
Indeed they were like mayflies, preparing themselves over years until they had reached their glory, only to die minutes later.  And now the human race had reached its glory. They had more technology than before, they had gathered more knowledge than the devil had expected them to able to gain a lived a secure and steady life. At least a large amount of them. Soon their end would be coming, and the reason for it would be themselves. Maybe it was a war, maybe the sheer arrogance they were better than the rest of the world, the end wasn’t clear just yet, but it would only take a few more centuries, maybe one of two, probably less.
But that didn’t matter to Thranduil, another race would follow, another area of creatures like humans would begin, it had always been like that, he had witnessed many species rise an fall. Species, whose name he had long forgotten together with their appearance and living habits. He still had souls of those beings stored in the depths of his palace, some were more delicious than human souls, but none was comparable to the one he had resting only a couple of steps away from him.
A sudden energy pulled Thranduil out of his thoughts and he quickly jumped onto his feet and tried to resist the light, but it had already captured him. Damn his father, who had used this one moment of him letting his guard down ever so slightly.
When the devil blinked again he was standing on a white marble floor, just a few steps from him was a deep chasm that seemed to never end and all that prevented unknowing creatures from falling was an elegant parapet. A dark waterfall fell into the emptiness and the night sky and water seemed to melt into one, since the waves reflected the countless ‘stars’ that were spread across the darkness.
“Isn’t it beautiful?” A soft voice mumbled lost in thought and Thranduil’s head quickly darted into the direction of the thought. Only a few steps away Oropher stood, leaned against a white marble pillar that was partly covered by some plant that had wrapped around it. Its silver blossoms seemed to glow in the darkness. Just now the devil knew where exactly in his father’s kingdom he was currently standing, it was a hidden spot deep in the gardens of his father’s palace that allowed a view like this.
“I don’t know what you think is beautiful. All I see are your ‘angels’ and a couple of souls dancing in the sky and some water falling into emptiness.”
“It’s not emptiness that awaits the water at the bottom of the chasm.” Oropher said with a soft smile and touched one of the blossoms next to him, which seemed to glow even more under his touch.
Thranduil rolled his eyes but bit back the comment he was about to drop, instead he stared at his father and tried to figure out why he had called him here against his will exactly.
Oropher was dressed in white and silver garments, his bright hair was moving softly in the warm breeze and his blue eyes sparkled with a light that only he and Legolas possessed. His expression was like always soft, a light smile, dreamy eyes and even the silver crown on his head garnished with holy jewels didn’t let him appear as the powerful being he was. No it was his presence, his appearance, the feeling one got while being close to him that gave away that Oropher could do everything, no matter what it might be.
“Why did you call me here, father? Please allow me to doubt that this is a mere invitation to spend a lovely dinner with you and maybe talk and laugh about the ‘good old times’.” The sarcasm in his voice caused his father to sight.
“Why are you always as impatient as this?” The beautiful god asked with a sorrow filled voice and pain flickered over the otherworldly face.
“I am not impatient, I am only questioning you what caused you to call me here while I was…busy.” His words were cold, just like he was himself.
Oropher stepped closer to him until they were only a few centimeters apart, before he rose one hand and softly brushed his warm fingers against his son’s cold cheek. Thranduil narrowed his eyes at the sudden touch but nevertheless allowed his father to proceed.
He felt his father’s energy tickling on his skin, felt the change of his appearance. His father was forcing him to drop his last illusion of appearance and left him as the grotesque creature he had become.
Sadness filled Oropher’s eyes as he saw his son.
Thranduil saw his own reflection in the blue orbs. He knew too well how he looked like. The sharp canines that were visible even with his mouth closed, the snake like tongue that sneaked out of his mouth to lick his dry lips, the snow white skin, the red glowing eyes with slit like pupils, the darkness on his hands, the long claws and the black mist that appeared to dance around his fingers. Then there were the horns on his head, not longer than his little finger, his huge wings unfolded, black like the ones of a crow, the dark energy that surrounded him, his long lost heart that couldn’t beat anymore. He had no beauty left in him, he didn’t want to have beauty inside him, it was from no use.
“Do you like what you see, father?” He hissed with his suddenly darker, smoother and dangerous. “Do you like my true form?” A grotesque smile formed on his face. “Your ridiculous servants call it disgusting, deterred, odious, obnoxious, despicable and repulsive.” He tasted each word on his tongue and saw how the dancing lights on the sky began to tremble when they heard the echo of his voice hall throughout his father’s realm, some of them even extinguished out of fear to hide from the piercing, glowing eyes.
“Are you satisfied with what you have driven me into by calling those worthless creatures your children?” His tongue darted over his lips once more, tracing his long fangs that could cut through everything.
“You will always beautiful in my eyes, my son.” Oropher mumbled softly, while his fingers wandered up to touch the firmly attached horns on his son’s head. The god was at least a head taller than the devil, a fact that would always annoy Thranduil. “No matter how you might appear.”
A snort was the answer he got from the beast that couldn’t be tamed by anything, not even by its own father.
“You’re talking nonsense, it’s the useless rambling of an old man. Tell me father, why did you call me here? Allow me to doubt that the reason is so you can tell me I’m what was the word again? Beautiful.”
“I called you because Galadriel informed me that you have put claim on one of those souls who I intended to turn into angles. Currently held in the body of a young boy, apparently you have tricked him into a contract with you. Is it true?” The immortal wanted to know with a soft voice and the slight hope that it wasn’t the truth. Thranduil couldn’t wait to destroy that hope.
“As true as the fact that I am your child. In five years from now I shall receive my reward and swallow the purest of souls. I should thank you for the gift you gave me, it’s a feisty thing, this human. But his soul is worth it all.”
“Why did you trick him into a contract? He would’ve become such a beautiful angel, such a bright creature.” There wasn’t any judgement in the voice of his father, only sadness.
“I didn’t trick him into a contract, he asked me for one in return of a healthy life. If you had wanted him to become your angel, then you shouldn’t have made his life an endless misery. Maybe then he wouldn’t have called me.” Thranduil grinned and saw how the beautiful God furrowed his brows.
“Perhaps I am the one to blame. I thank you for your answer, son.” Oropher’s gaze flickered to the devil’s right wing and a little smile formed on his lips. “Let me allow to help you with this.” The immortal said softly, while his hands began to groom the black feathers that were slightly tangled. Thranduil was startled by the sudden touch but didn’t move away, instead he kept his wing still and allowed his father the access to his beautiful feathers.
The warm fingers softly stroke through them, fixing each and every single feather until they were laying perfectly again.
“This reminds me of when you were little and always flying through the trees with your white wings until they were full of leafs, sticks and dirt. And while you told me from your adventures each evening I would be grooming them patiently and listen to what you had to tell me. Do you remember those days?” Oropher asked, while his fingers softly brushed over the dark feathers.
“I do not cherish childish memories like those. After you betrayed me I banned every memory of my childhood from my mind. The nonsense you’re talking about isn’t interesting me at all.” The devil hissed in response, before he vanished as quickly as he had turned up, leaving nothing but black feather that were slowly falling down on the white marble, where his father picked them up and softly caressed them while his lips were covered by a faint smile, caused by the memory of the days in which he had still been able to hold his beloved son close to him.

Thranduil landed in the middle of the street in front of Legolas’ house, since he didn’t want to appear in front of his new master in his true form. It would turn things unnecessary complicated and he didn’t want that to happen. So instead he had chosen the still road that was abandoned at this hour of the night.
As soon as his feet touched the ground and his wings came to a rest, the streetlamps he stood under began to buzz louder and suddenly exploded with a loud noise, before the light vanished. A shower of sparks fell down on Thranduil and he grinned, before he continued his way down the road. Each streetlight he passed died, always showering him with glowing sparks before the darkness swallowed it. It was like a dark shadow was following wherever he went, the shadow of his dark wings extending into endless darkness.
The devil grinned as he had reached the end of the road and looked back at the unforgiving night that allowed creatures like him to terrify humans in their sleep when there was no light to calm their fluttering hearts.
Time for a little bit of mischief.
First he chose the house to his left where he felt the presence of a small boy that had been woken by the noise of the streetlamps exploding. He was trembling under his blanket, fear filled the air and in the blink of an eye the demon had left the street and hidden himself in the closet of the boy. The door was closed, but he knew how the room looked. He was able to see through the human’s mind after all.
The boy was 7, was afraid of the dark and the monster that lived in his closet. The streetlights were the only thing that allowed him to sleep at night ever since his mother had decided that he was too old for a nightlight.
‘The smell of fear.’ Thranduil mused silently, before he began what human’s would probably describe as ‘fun’. He pushed against the closed door, it was just a soft noise, and felt how the boy shuddered in his bed and pulled the blanket over his head. Next he grabbed the cold door handle and turned it, a screeching noise echoed through the room, responded by a fearful whimper. The devil chuckled while he played with the door handle for a few seconds, before he pushed the closet door open in a very slow motion. The darkness hid him, except for his glowing eyes that were clearly visible in the dark room.
He crept up to the boys bed until he was standing right in front of it, then he kneeled down and scooted closer before he whispered “Come, play with me.”
With a terrified scream the boy jumped out of his bed, scrabbled into the direction of his door and left the room in a speed that almost amused the devil. He heard how the child woke its parents, soon the mother was scolding her son who had apparently wet himself and the boy crying and repeating over and over that the monster had wanted to eat him.
With a dark chuckle he hid himself in the closet again, hearing how the mother stomped into the room and turned the light on.
“There is no monster in your closet, you’re watching too much TV, from now on no more video games!” She snapped at her child before she opened the door and was eye in eye with the demon. He had changed his appearance, taken on the form that was a mixture of her biggest fears combined and grinned at her shamelessly.
A terrified scream escaped her and turned off the light by a simple flicker of his finger. Darkness surrounded them and he used the given opportunity to vanish out of the room and hide at the window.
Only seconds later the husband came into the room, disturbed by his wife’s loud scream and quickly turned on the light again, just to find his beloved wife terrified standing in front of the closet.
Thranduil grinned and flew silently to the next house. It belonged to a young couple, it would be so much fun to give one of them STD.
He had his ‘fun’ in three more houses, stilling his thirst for Legolas’ soul by feasting on the mortals’ fear, before he decided that he had to stop before the humans began to suspect that something was going on. They would obviously never realize it was him, but it would be bothersome and his master could get angry.

It turned out that Legolas eventually knew about it after all. The next morning while Thranduil stood in the kitchen, trying to figure out what all these weird machines did, the boy crept up behind him.
“Care to tell me what you did last night? I heard that the Smiths called the police and that his wife was taken to the hospital to make sure she was alright. Apparently she had seen a monster in the closet of her son last night and is now deeply traumatized.” The teenager asked with a crocked eyebrow and went over to the machine Thranduil was trying to figure out, just to press a few buttons. Only seconds later the thing began to live and made weird noise, before it let a deliciously smelling liquid flood into a mug that was standing underneath an unseen opening. “That’s a coffee machine by the way.”
Thranduil decided to ignore the last comment, instead his eyes focused on the boy in front of him. They were alone in the house so they didn’t have to care about curious eyes or ears watching and listening to Legolas how the human talked to himself.
“I did what you told me last night, I did whatever I wanted to do, so I had some ‘fun’.” He simply answered and eyed the black liquid in the cup. It was more interesting than the mortal in front of him.
“Your definition of fun is to drive people mad?” The teenager asked disbelievingly and furrowed his brows in something that appeared to be utter shock.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘fun’, but it amused me and allowed me to be entertained until you would wake up again.” The devil grinned, slightly surprised that it stunned the mortal so much. What had he expected? That Thranduil was doing something ‘good’? That wouldn’t be happening.
“You entertain yourself by torturing and freaking out innocent people?!” It sounded judging.
The king’s eyes began to glow in annoyance. “Do not forget what I am child.” He hissed. “I am a demon, a grotesque creature filled with nothing but darkness, I have no feelings like humans do, I have no sympathy for your race. I enjoy the smell of fear, the terrified heartbeat of your kind when I lurk in the darkness, waiting until I get a chance to drive them out of their mind. I enjoy killing other things, I am the most dangerous thing there is, a deadly weapon that always wins. My form that you saw last night wasn’t my true self, it was my appearance as my father’s child, as an angel the only one there is. It’s not what I am anymore. I wouldn’t even blink while ripping out someone’s heart. You would just have to tell me who I should kill and I wouldn’t hesitate a second. I don’t feel, do you understand that?” He hissed with his suddenly darker voice and saw how the mortal shuddered visibly, this time in fear.
Finally the boy seemed to learn his lesson that Thranduil was not a small dog that he could keep on a leash without fearing to be bitten. Eventually the beast would turn against its owner and rip him apart without mercy.
But then Legolas surprised the devil again. The child began to grin. “You’re pretty melodramatic, you know? But know this. I am not afraid of you, after all you won’t hurt me until our contract is over and I don’t care if my death is peaceful or not, after all it results in the same, doesn’t it?” He almost giggled, before he grabbed the mug filled with the black liquid and walked over to a cabin to grab something out of it with the name ‘Lucky Charms’.
“Anyways, do you want any breakfast? I have really awesome cereal.”
Thranduil would so enjoy killing this human as soon as their five years were over. He feared that it might give him more satisfaction than consuming the pure soul that had called him here.

Chapter Text

Thranduil narrowed his eyes as he watched Legolas fill a bowl with cereal. The boy was standing with his back turned to the devil and didn’t seem to mind that at all. Had he seriously just asked the devil if he wanted cereal for breakfast? The demon sighed, before he stepped closer to his master.
“I expected more from you.” He leaned against the smaller body and allowed his voice to sound more lulling, darker, richer, and deeper.
Legolas jolted at the sudden closeness and gasped for air, before he laughed and continued what he did. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. If you mean the whole breakfast thing, we have toast, eggs and bacon as well in case you prefer meat over vegetables and stuff. What do demons eat?”
Thranduil rolled his eyes. “I am not talking about breakfast.” He almost cooed and noticed with satisfaction that a shudder went down the mortal’s back. A natural instinct, the gazelle shuddered when the lion was close, the lamb tensed when the wolf was starting to play his deadly game.
“What do you mean then?” The teenager asked and sounded mostly confused but also curious.
“I’m talking about how you decide not to use me as a weapon but instead keep me as a lap dog.” He mumbled with his low voice that could leak into people’s minds and cloud their thoughts.
Legolas turned around to stare at the devil with a wrinkled forehead. “I don’t know why I should possibly use you as a weapon.” He shrugged before he walked past the king to get to the fridge.
Thranduil bit his tongue so he wouldn’t sigh and followed the soul he desired to swallow.
“Because I am the most powerful one there is.” Thranduil explained with a grin, while the boy grabbed a carton of milk and opened it.
“And why should I need a weapon? It’s not exactly as if I’m living a dangerous life.”
“Then why don’t you change the life you’re living? I could help you, all it needs is a few words from you.” The devil whispered as promising as he could.
“Why would I want to live a dangerous life? I like how mine is now.” The mortal shrugged and concentrated on his breakfast again.
“To feel alive. Imagine how it’ll be once the adrenalin is flooding through your body, spreading through your veins, when your heart races in your chest until you fear that it might break. Imagine the smell of death in your nose, the blood dripping from your hands- or mine if you prefer that.” A wicked grin spread over the beautiful face as he described it to Legolas, who stared at him with an unreadable expression.
“Don’t you want to know how it is to feel the life leaving another creature, how the scent of death fills the air, how their bodies grow limp and cold? It makes you feel powerful.” His lulling words resembled the ones of a siren that tried to attract a sailor, just to drown him in the sea. “And you want to feel powerful, don’t you?”
The child remained silent, but stared at Thranduil with observant eyes.
“And don’t you want to revenge for what the world did to you?” That should work. Revenge was something found in the human nature, just like violence, hate and murder. No matter how pure the soul.
“What the world did to me…?” Legolas repeated confused and wrinkled his forehead slightly.
“They made you suffer, put you in a hospital. You were born with a broken heart but did they ever help you the way they could’ve? Why do you think they haven’t given you a new heart? They didn’t think you were important enough, they preferred other patients. Everyone got a heart, the secret pedophile, the drug addict, the man that had cheated on his wife for years and abandoned his own children after the divorce for his new girlfriend. They all got new hearts, but you didn’t.” Thranduil rose one hand and placed it under the boys chin so he could look him into the eyes. They were so close, he could feel the boy’s warmth on his cheeks, taste the smell of his soul on his lips, so very sweet and tempting.
“They all betrayed you, so did your friends. When was the last time they visited you? Do you think they ever cared about you at all? No, while you were in that hospital room, alone, sick and dying they had better things to do. They had fun, lived happily and didn’t think one second about their ill friend that needed them. They didn’t care about you at all, while you cared about them. They simply dropped you. Worthless, that’s what they thought you were, absolutely worthless.”
Legolas eyes narrowed slightly and he seemed uncertain. “Do you think I’m worthless?” He then asked the devil with a quiet voice, the words merely a whisper.
Thranduil began to smirk. “No, I do not think that you’re worthless at all.” He promised the human who was staring at him intensely.
“Are you lying?”
“I may be the devil but I’m not lying, I’m speaking the truth when I say that you’re invaluable for me.”
Legolas smirked all of sudden. “Because of my soul, not because of who I am.” He pushed away the devil’s hand that was still laying on his skin and grabbed his cereal bowl instead.
“Better luck next time.” The boy then simply called, while he left the kitchen to go into the direction of the living room.
Thranduil was left behind in astonishment. Never, in all the endless years he had been alive, had there been a mortal to resist him. No one, not a single creature that had ever walked upon earth. And Legolas brushed the entire thing off as if it had been the simple question how the weather would be tomorrow.
How was this creature able to resist him? Why did the mortal not give into his lulling voice and whispered words?
But he didn’t have any chance to think further about that, because he heard a whistling sound come from the living room, almost as if someone was calling a dog. It came from Legolas and with a sight Thranduil followed his master, utterly insulted by the fact that he was a mere dog to the child. Behind him Sammy showed up, slowly getting used to the presence of the dangerous creature and ran into the living room, where he jumped on the big couch to lay down next to his human. Thranduil refused to do such thing, instead he stood in the room with a clenched jaw and tried to resist the urge to rip off the smug grin that was plastered on Legolas’ face.
“At least you’re coming when I call you.” The boy grabbed the remote of the TV to turn it on and stretched himself out of the couch to get more comfortable.
“I am bound to you by contract, whenever you call me, however you call me, I have to obey your orders.” 
“It was a joke.” Legolas laughed. “You don’t have to repeat yourself, I get it. And now sit down or something, I would like to watch some TV, Sundays are made for being lazy.” The mortal made a dismissive wave with his hand and Thranduil, using all the self-control he had left, did sit down on the opposite end of the couch.
“Whatever you wish.” He grumbled with a forced smile on his face and brushed through his bright hair with his pale fingers. Since the form as his father’s child was the most comfortable one for him, right after his natural one, he had decided in that way to his young master instead of all the fake forms he had masked himself with.
Legolas sighed and looked at the devil.
“Would you mind cutting out this whole ‘Whatever you wish’, ‘I’m bound to you by contract’, ‘I have to obey your orders’? I know you’re technically my servant and all that but in the hospital I didn’t ask for a dog, I asked for a companion, a friend. So please stop treating me as if I’m a king and you’re my slave. You can hang out with me or do stuff on your own, just like you do with your friends.” The boy groaned slightly frustrated at the entire situation. “Like I know it’s hard to pretend to be my friend but can’t you at least act like we’re friends?”
Thranduil blinked in surprise and needed a second to understand what the child had said to him.
“Act like we’re friends?” He asked with a confused voice and wrinkled his forehead ever so slightly.
“Yes, just pretend like I’m one of your friends, how do you treat them?”
The king didn’t know the answer to that since he didn’t have friends. He had his father, who was his father, he had his mother who was his mother and he had his servants who were his servants. Then there were the angels that feared him and the souls in his father’s realm that tried to hide from him. He did have a dragon but he doubted that they were friends. Well, there was Galion after all…Galion probably came to the closest thing of a friend that he had. He respected the servant, talked to him in a friendly matter, accepted personal advice and favored him over other demons. Galion was able to do things that would usually punished hard but Thranduil tolerated it and humored him. Did that mean they were…friends?
“Or don’t you have friends?” Legolas asked with big eyes, when he didn’t get an answer from his personal devil.
“I am the devil and a king at the same time, I don’t treat my servants as my friends.” He answered honestly as close as it got to reality, still thinking about his servant Galion.
“Well, I don’t really have friends either so I presume I’m as inexperienced as you are so we’ll simply have to figure it out, don’t we?” The mortal smiled cheerfully and Thranduil nodded, the contract didn’t really leave him any other choice even though he wished he could avoid the bothersome task of faking affection.
“May I ask for a favor then?” He suddenly said and got an interested look from Legolas.
“Of course, go ahead.” The boy made a waving motion with his hand as if to encourage the beast to talk.
“Would you allow me to return to my realm while you’re asleep? There are urgent matters I have to take care of since I cannot leave my kingdom without a ruler for 5 years, no matter how short that might be for a creature like me. I would return before dawn so you shouldn’t notice my absence.”
“What a ridiculous question, of course. If you need to take care of important things don’t bother asking me as long as it doesn’t take too long.”

“Galion?” Thranduil asked later, while he read through a report that his servant had given him. It was quite a relief to be able to leave the human world for some time while Legolas was asleep and Thranduil loved his realm more than he had in a long time, after spending only two days on earth. It was so quiet, so peaceful and calm. It was heaven for the demon. After finishing his work he would take a walk through the forests, would listen to the trees and allow his busy mind to drift for a short while. A luxury that he needed!
“Yes?” The demon asked with his dark voice and looked up from his place at the huge bookshelf that reached to the ceiling of the palace’s study chambers. Galion was a rather pleasantly looking demon compared to others of their kind that were only dark stone with a huge glowing mouth. He had soft brown hair that was cut short, a pair of white horns stuck out of it, he had very long ears that ended in a pointy tip, his eyes were nothing but black, his skin white as snow and his smiling mouth showed rows of needle sharp teeth. He had the wings of a dragon and funny enough a tail that resembled the ones of a snake. His fingers were very slender and his veins were traced black from the back of his hands up to his shoulders.
“Would you consider us to be friends?” The king asked and earned a perplex look from the immortal, that seemed to be surprised by the question.
“But aren’t we friends already?” The demon returned the question with a smile that only another demon could interpret as friendly and caring.
“We are?” Thranduil was surprised at the answer and put the document down, now more interested in the conversation.
“In my eyes we are. We’ve known each other since childhood days and played together daily in your father’s realm, I didn’t hesitate when you decided to leave our homes behind because I didn’t want to remain alone in Greenwood. I call you by your first name instead of your title, we spend time together while I’m not on duty, dine together from time to time, treat each other with mutual respect and care about the other one’s advice. Also you don’t treat me as if I’m your servant, wouldn’t you say we are friends? Or have I misinterpreted our relationship?” Galion seemed amused by his king’s surprised face.
“I presume you are right indeed. We are friends, forgive me my foolish question, I merely thought it would impossible for me to have something like a friend.” He shook his head to end the conversation. It was true, he wouldn’t have asked anyone to forgive him his question, if it wasn’t Galion.
“May I ask you where you got the sudden thought about friendship? I have never witnessed you bother about such things as friendships or relationships before.” His friend asked and put the book down he had picked out of the shelf.
“You do know that I am currently bound to a mortal by contract, which is the reason for my absence. And while his delicious soul is worth serving him, he doesn’t want me as a servant or a dog, he asked me to be his…friend.”
Galion’s eyebrows furrowed. “A human engaged into a contract for you to have a friend? I do know that he wanted health and experience life as well, but this surprises me.”
“I thought so myself. There’s something about that child that I don’t understand. He surprises me too often, is unpredictable and when I think I trick him into something he shrugs it off and laughs about it. Every time I begin to think I’ve figured him out he shows me that I couldn’t be more wrong. It’s unsettling.” The devil groaned and rubbed his forehead slightly as if to reduce a sudden headache.
“That sounds like a very interesting soul, or a very foolish one. Don’t your abilities to read his mind help you to predict him? ”
“That’s the surprising part, I don’t think he is stupid or naïve. He knows very well what I am and what power I possess but instead of fearing me he mocks and teases me however he likes. Not even reading his mind helps, his thoughts are too random, jumping from one subject to the other without making any sense. Then all the daydreams, sometimes I don’t know if it’s reality or a fantasy that plays in his head. It is all very distracting.”
An amused chuckled left Galion’s grotesque mouth. “Well Thranduil, I think you’ve found yourself a very interesting human there, and from the way you describe him it almost sounds like a waste to eat his soul, he would make an incredible demon. Not one to fear or one that finds satisfaction in swallowing souls, but a feisty little thing that would be very amusing to have around.”
A laugh as dark as the night itself, forced its way up the king’s throat. “I thought so myself Galion. But you should smell his soul, it’s so very tempting that I have a hard time controlling myself around him. It would truly be interesting to see him as one of our kind, I bet he would look quite fascinating and behave feistier like than most of the creatures living in my realm.” A smile played around the corners of his lips and he stared at the wall for a few seconds, before his eyes found his friend.
Galion had narrowed his black orbs slightly and seemed a little concerned. “Be careful that you don’t get attached to that human. It doesn’t happen often but every now and then a demon begins to get attached to his or her master. And you know that there is no happy end, no way to save the mortal, no way to break the contract. I wouldn’t want such fate to happen to you. A contract involving true emotions would make a very sad story, save yourself the pain, it would never end happily. In the end he would die and you were the one to take his life.” The demon sounded very worried, but the devil only laughed loudly, causing an earth quake to happen in the human world.
“Oh Galion, you amuse me. As if I would get attached to a mere human. No matter how good they would be as a pet, do not forget who I am. The devil can’t get friendly feelings for a human and even more importantly, the devil can’t fall in love with a mortal.” Thranduil shook his head but continued to chuckle, ignoring the worried look he got from the other one.
“I hope you’re certain about that…” Galion bit his lip and was lucky that his skin was strong enough not to break under the needle like fangs.
“I’m absolutely certain. I don’t feel love, affection or anything that comes close to such an emotion and while I know that our kind is able to love in rare occasions, I doubt that it’s a privilege of mine to do so. My heart has stilled such a long time ago that I have forgotten the feeling of it beating. The closest thing I feel to romance is lust, a burning, consuming lust that can only be satisfied by complete surrender.” He tried to calm his friend, who didn’t seem too convinced.
“I understand, what a ridiculous though that a mere human could stir your interest in a friendly or Oropher forbid, a romantic way.” The demon then decided and Thranduil had the feeling that he was talking to himself more than he was talking to the devil.
“Talking about Oropher, he most recently called me into his realm.” He mentioned then and Galion arched an eyebrow in surprise.
“He did? How long has it been since you last talked to each other? A few centuries or even longer?” The dark haired one asked thoughtfully, trying to remember when it had last happened.
“I think it was around 2 or 3 centuries ago, I try to forget about our encounters as fast as possible.” Thranduil sighed. “Sadly I don’t succeed.”
The other demon chuckled. “May I ask why your father…required your presence? Without your consent I assume.”
“Without my consent indeed. He asked me if it was true what Galadriel had told him about my contract with Legolas. The boy was supposed to become one of his angels and my interfering was not to my father’s liking.”
“His angels?” Galion sounded surprised and impressed. “He most certainly must possess a very pure soul! A soul that’s only found once in countless millennia and the rarest of all treasures.”
“Believe me Galion, there is no soul that will ever be as delicious as this one is. Sadly a very unique little thing, I thirst for the day I get to let the taste flourish my tongue.” His long tongue sneaked past his lips to wet them in a movement that was as quick as the mere blink of an eye.
“I start to become quite jealous, hearing you talk about the pleasure that’s awaiting you.” The other demon chuckled and grabbed the book he had chosen to study once more.
“You have every reason to do so, my friend.” Thranduil laughed, before he turned towards his work as well.

“Would you like some?” Legolas asked the next morning, after he had woken up, gotten ready for school and gone to the kitchen to fetch himself some breakfast.
Thranduil looked at the offered cup filled with black, steaming liquid that had a bitter and tempting aroma. His eyes flickered to the coffee machine that was working on a second cup. After a second of consideration he decided that it wouldn’t harm him to try this drink. He had tasted coffee before, a few centuries ago and the taste had been surprisingly pleasant to him, hopefully it had improved by using such kind of machines to produce it.
“Sure.” He mumbled and grabbed the cup carelessly. Instead of taking the handle like Legolas had he grabbed the cup itself and felt a burning heat immediately spread through his fingers.
The mortal’s eyes widened in shock as he saw how the devil didn’t seem to care about the heat that caused his skin to redden and Thranduil simply chuckled about the astonished expression on the boy’s face.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” The child asked in confusion, almost sounding worried.
“It does, but pain isn’t something that bothers me, it’s barely worth noticing.” The king answered, before he raised the cup to his lips and tasted it. The coffee spread through his mouth, covered his tongue and caused him to blink in surprise. It was a pleasant taste. Much more pleasant than many centuries ago.
“Do you like it?” Legolas grinned, even though the answer was pretty obvious.
“It is surprisingly to my liking.” Thranduil said, taking another sip.
“Who would’ve thought that I would get the devil to like coffee?” He giggled and surprisingly enough the devil joined with a slight chuckle, before he could stop himself. 
“Well, in case you should ever want to have coffee, I don’t really want to do it for you all the time. Simply press these two buttons, put a cup right here and then press this circle that has ‘start’ on it.”
Thranduil arched one eyebrow in disapproval. “I am not stupid, I know how such a thing works and can quickly figure things out on my own.” He defended himself and Legolas smiled slightly.
“Alright I’m sorry, if I was in your position I don’t think I would ever understand how shit works, I’m not that smart.” The younger one shrugged about that, as if it didn’t bother him at all and turned around just in time to snatch the two waffles that left the toaster with a small ringing noise.
Thranduil didn’t answer to that sentence, instead he looked out of the window to look at the grey sky, it would start raining soon. And it would be heavy rain, he tasted it in the air.
“You should pack an umbrella on your way to school, it’ll soon start to rain in 17 minutes.” He noticed simply.
Legolas, who yawned while putting a generous amount of Nutella on his toasted waffle looked at the devil with sleepy eyes. It was shortly after seven in the morning, no wonder the human was so tired.
“I don’t really want to go.” Legolas grumbled while he took a bite of his breakfast.
“Weren’t your exact words in the hospital that you wanted to experience a normal life? That includes going to high school and from what I’ve heard, no one likes to go to school. So there you have your normal life experience.” Thranduil teased with a devilish grin and Legolas joined him with a smile.
“True, I presume it’s only natural for me to behave like this then.” He liked a bit of Nutella off his finger, before eating his second waffle. “But I heard that normally teenagers my age had their own car so they could drive to school. I have to fucking walk or take the bus instead.” The teenager pouted while chewing.
“Why can’t your parents drive you?” The devil asked simply.
“Because they leave the house around six and the Nanny pics Fion and Lia up at 6.30 so when I’m about to take a shower everybody has already left home.” Legolas explained, halfway done with his breakfast and poured a lot of milk into his coffee before starting to drink it as well. “And when I’ll come home I’ll be alone as well, my dad should show up around 18.30 with my siblings and will prepare dinner, my mom around 19.30. So no one is really able to pick me up and since I don’t have my driver’s license yet…”
Thranduil rolled his eyes and in the mere blink of an eye a card appeared in his hand.
“Apparently you do have a driver’s license. Seems like you’ve lost it…” He simply said, handing the small thing to the boy, who looked at him confused.
“You can get me a driver’s license just like that? And it’s a real one?” Legolas asked disbelievingly but also impressed.
“Of course I can. What do you think the reason is why everybody is treating you so normally? Because in their minds you were never sick, all your life. Everybody in school thinks you’ve always been there, technically they all think you’re a normal teenager.” The demon explained, finishing his coffee.
Now the teenager looked absolutely confused. “But in the hospital you pretended to be a doctor…”
“Because I couldn’t exactly manipulate their minds while you were laying in the hospital bed. So I simply put in a temporary manipulation so they would take you home. And during the night, after I had finished scaring a few mortals to make their souls more delicious and to drink their fear, I had time left to take care of the memories everyone has of you. A bothersome task but at least you can live normally like that. The part with the driver’s license is just as easy.” Thranduil listed with a shrug, not really impressed by his own abilities. It was child’s play what he had done. “I didn’t think you would actually want to do all the driver’s classes and that since you only have 5 years to live…”
“No, it’s fine.” The mortal grinned. “It’s perfect actually.”
“Well, I’m glad that it’s to your liking.” The devil answered with a smile, before he looked at the kitchen clock again, 11 minutes until the rain would start. “Do you have an umbrella?”
“Yes but it’s only big enough for one person…I wouldn’t want you to get wet or sick.” There was real concern in Legolas’ voice and it somewhat amused him that the boy would care for him, even though he would be the one taking his life.
“I cannot get sick and in this form…” He looked down at himself, dressed in rather unusual clothes. Thranduil had decided not to wear his usual robes that were certainly not fitting in this world, so he had changed into a white shirt and normal, black pants. His long hair was put up in a ponytail and while it had been slightly strange to walk around without the weight of his crown, he slowly got used to it. It was a lot easier to move like this and didn’t irritate Legolas much.
“And neither can I get wet, rain doesn’t affect me, nor does wind, sun, cold or heat.” He explained the boy, who nodded understandingly, still drinking his coffee.
“That does sound pretty awesome. It must be nice to be a demon.” The younger one mumbled with a slight smile on his lips.
“It does have its perks compared to being a human, even though I fear that I my lack of experience in being a human could influence my judgement.” Thranduil responded amused before he looked at the clock. “Speaking of your race, since you’re bothered to organize everything, including time, you should leave the house soon otherwise you’ll be late.”
“Fuck!” Legolas looked at the clock as well, quickly jumped off the kitchen counter, left his coffee behind and rushed up the stairs into his room. The devil remained in the kitchen, not really interested into following his master, and stared at Sammy instead, who looked back interested.
Humans had very dull senses and didn’t notice Thranduil because of that, every other animal on the other hand was able to sense him and the longer he was around a certain animal, the more it was able to feel him until it could even see and hear the devil.
“What are you looking at?” He asked the dog with a tired voice and rolled his eyes as the stupid thing began to wiggle its tail, happy about the attention it got.
“You should be scared of me, you know?” The demon informed the creature, who didn’t seem to understand him, instead its already fast tail wiggled even more until his entire body was affected by the fast movement. “I presume you’re simply too stupid to know what I am. And since I’m even bothering myself by talking to you I might be stupid as well.”
“Are you talking to my dog?” Legolas asked in that moment from the kitchen door with a grin on his face. “I’m pretty sure you’ll be a dog lover at the end of the five years, or do you have a dog already in hell?”
Not really wanting to give an answer, Thranduil changed the subject. “You’ll be late.”
The mortal sighed and rolled his eyes. “I know, I know. I can’t believe I sold my soul for getting up early in the morning to go to school.” He then joked, before he grabbed his backpack and opened the front door. As soon as he saw what the weather was like, he groaned.
“For fucking real?” The student mumbled sarcastically and Thranduil couldn’t help himself but chuckle slightly.
It was raining so heavily that it was almost impossible for human eyes to see what was going on 50 meters away from them. Everything was a grey curtain and the wind was so strong that it caused the raindrops to come more from the side than from the sky. An umbrella wouldn’t be helping, especially since the quick forming puddles would wet Legolas’ shoes as well.
“Perhaps you should’ve gone earlier.” He grinned and got a very evil glare from the smaller one, who seemed to think about something very intensely. Then he began to smirk.
“You’ll fulfill every wish I have, don’t you?” The teenager asked interested.
“Yes, except breaking the contract, releasing your soul or killing myself, the last one mainly because I cannot die.” The devil explained patiently, not really knowing what the boy wanted.
Legolas’ smile widened. “Good, then I want you to get me a car this instant.”

“You’ll kill yourself.” Thranduil informed the mortal calmly, while they rounded a corner a little too sharp for it to be considered safe.
“You shouldn’t complain about that, in case of me dying before the five years are over, you will get my soul faster.” The boy answered, not really bothered by his driving style. “And for this being the first time I’m driving a car I’m doing pretty well, don’t you think?” He added proudly, ignoring a red light.
“Since I am bound to you by contract my first reflex wouldn’t be to simply let you die but instead to save your life. And I would be successful.” Was all he answered because the boys driving style was certainly not something that could be described as ‘pretty well’. Even though the devil didn’t have much experience what it meant to drive with a human together, he was sure that this wasn’t how it was supposed to go.
“That’s good to know.” Legolas grinned, pressing his foot heavily on the gas and the car made a jump forwards, speeding past three other cars dangerously close.
“I shouldn’t have gotten you this car.” Thranduil realized, slightly amused by his humans driving style. The boy was bolt and seemed to like the little risk, or maybe he was simply enjoying his life like he had wanted to.
“Yes you should’ve. It’s a German car after all, and everybody knows that the best cars come from Germany, at least the best expensive cars.” Another red light, this time the boy stopped at least. “Have you ever been to Germany? I would like to know what it’s like there.”
“When I last visited it, it was still called ‘Heiliges Römisches Reich’, in English Holy Roman Empire, I presume the country has changed a lot since then.” Probably, since the entire world had changed a lot.
“Do you speak German?” Legolas asked interested as he heard the German words falling off of Thranduil’s lips fluently.
“I speak every language there is and ever was.” The devil explained simply.
“That’s impressive. What do you speak in your world?” Why was the child’s curiosity never stilled?!
“In my realm we speak Sindarin, in my father’s Quenya is spoken. There are other languages, dark languages, spoken by demons to curse, to destroy, spoken with hatred, but those are rarely used.” He told his master, who was pressed his foot on the gas as soon as the red light allowed them to continue their way.
It was close to a miracle that the boy was able to drive without hurting someone even though the rain was preventing human eyes from seeing much. At least this car was ways more comfortable than these damn carriages that had been invented to make nobles feel as uncomfortable as possible on their long ways from the city to their manors in the countryside.
“I doubt that you will ever show me how these dark languages sound.” Legolas was right.
“Oh I could easily show you…” Thranduil’s lips formed into a smirk. “…if you can live with the knowledge that you caused some kind of natural disaster with it that will kill hundreds of innocent souls. Those dark languages aren’t made to be spoken on earth, unless to cause disaster, chaos and catastrophes.”
The mortal took his eyes off the road to stare at the devil with big eyes. “They’re that dark?” He stunned.
“They’re not called dark languages for nothing, boy.” The demon answered with a grin as he saw how the child shuddered, probably in fear.
“That’s so awesome, I wish I could hear them without it causing some major destruction.”
Thranduil blinked in surprise. Legolas hadn’t been shuddering in fear…it had been excitement. Why wasn’t he able to predict this human? Why didn’t the mortal react how he was supposed to react? It began to slowly bother him.
Luckily, before Legolas was able to come up with new questions, they reached the boy’s school and parked in the already halfway filled parking lot. And since no one was able to notice Thranduil, his master wasn’t exactly able to talk to him or annoy him with questions.
Luckily the mortal didn’t know that the devil was able to read his mind, otherwise their conversation would be going on forever, no matter if he wanted it or not.

Chapter Text

The last time Thranduil had entered a human school was many, many years ago, when teachers were still allowed to hit the students, wrote on blackboards with chalk and the children were dressed in lumps and starved half to death. And those were only the poor people’s schools, nobles had home tutors of course, so most students had to leave school after a few years to start working in factories.
So when they entered the school building he was pleasantly surprised, he did know that the humans had made progress, especially in the last 20 years, but this was more than he had expected.
They entered through a big glass door and immediately stood in the middle of a big hallway that was filled with students. The ceiling was at least 10 meters above them, right in front of them was a wall that was made entirely out of windows and a huge glass door and that lend into a huge library, everything was in the colors of the school’s symbol and there were trophies displayed in a show case to their left and right.
“This is different than it was last time I visited a human school.” Thranduil noticed, not getting an answer from the human, because of obvious reasons.
“Do you know where your first classroom is? I know that you were already registered as a student at the beginning of the school year but due to a sudden worsening of your heart’s condition, you had to stay in the hospital. A shame since it would’ve been the first time you were actually able to go to high school. The last time you participated class was…in middle school for around 3 months. Anyways, I found your registration and in your room an apparently chosen schedule.” Thranduil looked around to look out for room numbers. “Your first period is Calculus, after that follows some advanced English class, then AP Biology, continuing with some high level history class, French on the highest level there is on this school and last but not least…physics. Since this is your last year you get one period off and it only seemed logical to use to 7^th period for that, considering that your lunch is right before 7^th period and with that you get off even earlier.” He concluded, a little proud of himself for figuring it all out and understanding the system that easily.
But as he looked at his master, he saw how pale the boy had gotten.
“Are you fucking crazy?” Legolas whispered with a slightly high pitched voice. “That schedule was made by my parents for me! I didn’t want to take any of those courses, I don’t even speak French! I don’t know a single word except Oui and I guess I even pronounced that one wrong! How am I supposed to pass any of those classes?!”
Thranduil blinked in surprise, before a grin spread out on his face. “I would say that you have a lot of studying to do in your free time.” He threw a glance at the clock. “And you should hurry up, your first period is in room 4348, down that hallway, up the stars and the third room in the left hallway, to the right.”
Legolas threw a glance that could possibly kill someone in Thranduil’s direction, but sighted only seconds later and seemed to be close to apologizing, before he began to march down the hallway into the right direction. The demon followed him with a smile still dancing on his lips.
They found said classroom after two minutes of lost wandering and found that it was half full.
For a second Legolas seemed unsure where to sit and looked at the devil, who only shrugged.
“I have no idea where your usual seat is.” He told him simply, looking around the room to get an impression of the current state of human schools. There was a lot more technics and electronics involved, computer, beamer, a whiteboard used to project mathematic equations on and a couple of computers in the back for the students to use.
“Hey Las, come here.” A voice suddenly said and the immortal as well as his master looked into the direction of it.
It appeared that a dark haired boy, around the age of Legolas, had seen the younger blonde one and called him excitedly.
With a confused smile the vessel of the pure soul crossed the room, to step closer.
“Hey Aragorn.” Legolas smiled slightly.
“How was your weekend? You should’ve really come with Tauriel and me to that movie Saturday, it was amazing! Promise me that next time we go to the movie theater you’ll join us again, it’s unbelievably boring without your jokes.” The dark haired one laughed, before he wrinkled his forehead.
“Don’t you want to sit down?” He then asked perplex that his friend still stood in front of the desk.
“Oh yeah, sure.” Legolas dropped his backpack on the floor and sat down next to him. “Next time I’ll come with you again.”
“Awesome!” Aragorn grinned but wasn’t able to say another word, because in that moment the teacher, a very small, dark haired man a slight bear, a prominent nose and a bulky figure stepped in and clapped his hands.
“Alright, alright!” He shouted with a dark voice, walked over to his whiteboard and picked up a black marker, with his short, thick fingers. “Attention class, today we will quickly review Polar Functions to see how much you can remember from last year before we move on.”
Many students groaned in despair.
“But Mr. Oakenshield, I can’t remember anything from that.” A guy in the second row whined and most of the other teenagers agreed with him.
“Then you should pay attention, take notes and study the entire afternoon or simply leave my class and start taking Algebra III.” Was the only answer Mr. Oakenshield gave his student, before he cleared his throat and allowed his gaze to wander through the class to find a victim to torture.
“Does anyone volunteer to give us a quick definition?” He then called out and many students looked down on their folders, pretending to take notes while they were only trying to avoid his gaze.
“If no one volunteers I’ll chose one, Aragorn, you should know what Polar Functions are.” The teacher had a grin on his face, which gave away that he knew that the called student didn’t have the slightest idea what they were talking about.
“Uhm…” Aragorn looked at Legolas helplessly, who looked just as confused.
“Just as I thought! This is easy guys, you shouldn’t be helpless when hearing the term. Did you sleep the entire last year?” Mr. Oakenshield looked annoyed, before he turned to the whiteboard and began to scribble a few graphs, equations and definitions on the board in such a messy handwriting, that Thranduil doubted that any of the students was able to read it.
“He made a mistake in the second equation, he needs to put a minus in there instead of the plus; otherwise it makes no sense. Raise your hand and get a few extra points.” Thranduil told Legolas, while strolling towards the front of the class to get a better view on things.
“Right here.” His hand pointed on the mistake that he had easily spotted. This math was child play; nothing he couldn’t solve within a blink of an eye.
Hesitatingly Legolas raised his arm.
“Yes Legolas?” Mr. Oakenshield sighed, as soon as he noticed the risen hand and glanced at the blond boy disinterested. The devil felt anger rise within him when he heard what the teacher thought about his master. Mr. Oakenshiled had no right to think so badly of such a pure soul as Legolas’.
“You made a mistake in the second equation, instead of a plus you need to put a minus there, otherwise it doesn’t make any sense.” Legolas chirped politely and with a small smile, obviously not minding the dark glare he got from his teacher.
The small man turned around, confident that he hadn’t made a mistake, just to clench his jaw as he saw that his student was apparently right.
“It appears as if you know the subject very well.” Was all he said with a forced smiled and corrected his mistake; obviously not very pleased by the fact that a student had called him out on it.
Thranduil grinned and glanced at his master, who smiled slightly with a soft blush on his cheeks. Was the boy shy? Apparently, how interesting. He didn’t seem shy with the devil, did it mean he was more comfortable around him? Or that he simply had more respect for a teacher than the mighty king?
Another riddle, what a tiresome task.

English followed math and it was the complete opposite of the earlier class. The teacher, another short man with brown hair, a cheerful expression and a nervous habit of biting his lip, was the perfect opposite of Mr. Oakenshiled.  Mr. Baggins, so his name, seemed to love nothing more than he loved his books.
He began the class reciting his favorite poem, before moving on to some adventure book that he had written himself and published a couple of years ago and then continued the lesson by reading a couple of chapters of his book that was about some kind of quest and dark creatures, dragons and dwarves.
Thranduil barely listened, instead he was busy looking through the small man’s mind to search for some information. He quickly found out that Mr. Oakenshiled, first name Thorin, and Mr. Baggins, apparently called Bilbo, had a secret relationship going on, that had started as a hate/love thing and slowly turned into a tender romance. How bothersome, romance, feelings, love.
The devil shuddered, rolled his eyes and instead looked for some delicious souls.
Mr. Baggins had quite a nice soul, but nothing extraordinary. Most of the students were plain as old bread, a couple had sour smelling souls that made the devil cringe in disgust, then a few ones that were barely acceptable and brought no joy swallowing.
The demon asked himself if it was because of Legolas, that every other soul appeared distasting to him. Had smelling this one delicious thing changed his entire view on this drug that allowed him to find bliss?
If yes then he wouldn’t be able to ever enjoy another soul after the five years were over.
Not that he needed them, he didn’t need food or souls to survive. It was simply a drug to him, just like alcohol was to a human. And it wasn’t as if Thranduil didn’t have other ways to find bliss, his kind was driven by lust, and lust was easily to be stilled.
But he shouldn’t bother with such thoughts, maybe the only reason he didn’t find anything that made his mouth water was because there was nothing mouthwatering to be found in the room.

Thranduil preferred the English class over biology. While the teacher was pleasant and young, the subject itself bored Thranduil. He knew everything that could possibly be mentioned in the class and many more things since he had been there and seen it with his own eyes, so he was unbelievably bored. In English he did have the chance to at least enjoy a little bit of the adventure story that had been told, but in Biology there was no story, only the explanation of evolution and that highly incorrect. At least these mortals weren’t that naïve to believe the story of creation.
Legolas was sitting next to another ‘friend’ of his, a redhead called Tauriel.
Those friends only existed because Thranduil had found old memories of them in Legolas’ mind. They had been childhood friends and so he used the opportunity to manipulate their memory in believing they were still as close as friends could possibly get.
 Legolas seemed to have understand what the devil had done, but didn’t seem to be too bothered by it, instead he accepted the sudden change of his life with a small smile that indicated that he was very happy about experiencing a life that he never had the chance to live.
The king sat on the desk of another student, who was taking notes to everything their teacher said and didn’t notice the immortal right in front of him. But how should he? His dull senses were preventing him from doing so. Thranduil could’ve slapped him right in the face and the boy wouldn’t have felt the slightest bit of the touch.
And while listening to the endless monologue with a ‘funny’ power point presentation in the background, he noticed the glances between his master’s ginger haired friend and the dark haired, very young teacher named Kili. They were obviously flirting with each other, which was surprisingly enough not noticed by anyone. Well, anyone except one.
Legolas appeared to notice it very well and rolled his eyes about it.
The devil used that little moment to slip into the boy’s mind to see what was going on.
He could felt obvious distaste of the things happening between student and teacher, a little shock and at the same time guilt about the way he felt.
Quickly Thranduil pulled back. This was the only way he could ‘feel’ human emotions, by slipping into their head. And he didn’t like it at all, especially the slight feeling of guilt.
But it appeared as if Legolas seemed to be pretty good in biology, he understood everything perfectly and even knew more than the rest of the class even though it was almost the end of the school year and he hadn’t been to school a single day.

What followed was history. And again Thranduil sat on a desk of a student, grumbling about the teacher, another young man who insisted that the students would call him by his first name, whose name was Fili and who obviously was the brother of the biology teacher Kili. Biology was basically a history class, without all those stupid wars and kings and whatever other stuff humans had come up with, and to his luck they had as their current main subject catastrophes of the past. Oh how he loved that, since he had been the one who had caused most of them. The more the blond teacher talked about it, the more flattered he got. Especially when it came to epidemics.
The words ‘terrible’, ‘deadly’, ‘horrific’ and ‘nightmare’ fell often and the devil would be lying if he said that it didn’t please him to see the horror on the students’ faces when they had to look at a power point presentation that included very detailed pictures of epidemics.
It took exactly 3 slides before a boy in the last row asked to be excused to use the restroom with a pale face and quickly left the room.
Thranduil chuckled slightly, exactly the reactions he wanted!
“But those illnesses are in the past, aren’t they?” A girl asked nervously and many students seemed to have the same question on their lips.
The blond teacher turned around and grinned. “Some of them still exist but a few are curable if discovered in an early stage. Also there are a few that we carry in us but we will never notice them. As an example, every third person in the entire world carries the pathogen for tuberculosis in them, but most of them will never know that because they will never show symptoms and never be affected by it. Also most of the infected people live in Africa, South Asia and partly South Amerika.”
That pulled down the mood of the demon. He hated the modern medicine, it prevented all his earlier, so unbelievably well created illnesses.
“But just because those epidemics are in the past doesn’t mean that there are no new viruses or that they don’t exist anymore. The plaque still exists, it’s possible to prevent her from killing the infected person by treating it with antibiotics in an early stage though.”
“New viruses?” A blonde boy asked with a pale face, looking at his teacher nervously. Was the man purposefully trying to scare these children? If yes, then Thranduil liked him.
All in the room seemed to be a little unsettled. All except one, Legolas sat in the middle, looking unbelievably calm. He didn’t seem to worry about anything, understandable considering that he had a devil at his side that was able to cure him from everything that existed.
“Oh of course. HIV or the Ebola Virus Disease. Viruses are able to adapt themselves very quickly and there will always be some new disease to cause an epidemic. Especially since humankind is able to travel. But you don’t have to worry, thanks to the modern medicine we are able to find a cure for most things. It may take some time, but sooner or later we will have to figure it out.” Fili said with a charming smile, trying to calm his students a little.
A boy raised his hand.
“Yes?” He asked him.
“What about Zombies? Is there a cure against them?” The student asked, being absolutely serious about it.
For a moment the teacher stared at him expressionless, almost disbelieving. “I presume you should spend your time studying instead of playing video games or watching movies about Zombies. They are fictional creatures and no different than mummies or vampires.” He sighed than and the boy blushed embarrassed.
“That’s all for today, your homework is to come up with a new disease, where it will happen, what the symptoms are, if it will result in death and if there is an antibiotic. Be creative, write at least 3 pages and if you want to you can draw something as well.” Fili glanced at the still embarrassed student and added. “And if I read anything that involves Zombies I’ll do a surprise exam about everything we did in this school year. Have a good day, I’ll see you tomorrow.”
All the students got up quickly, grabbed their bags and left the room, before the teacher was able to call them back or give them even more homework. Legolas seemed very confused about the current subject of the class, in his head he asked himself what kind of history class had to do with the history of diseases. Thranduil chuckled about that.

“I really liked your history class. The teacher chose an interesting subject.” Thranduil said, as soon as they sat in Legolas’ brand new car again. The student had forbidden him to talk to him during school unless it was absolutely necessary.
The blond boy shook his head. “I don’t like it at all. It’s terrible if people are suffering. And to give a homework that involves making up a fictional disease is just terrible.” He mumbled in obvious distaste.
“Don’t you think it will be fun?” The devil asked with a furrowed eyebrow, expecting the teenager to be excited about it. Weren’t young adults supposed to be very eager to imagine diseases? They watched many movies about it after all.
“No, I don’t think it’ll be fun at all. Those people died painfully, what about imagining a new, terrible disease is fun? I don’t want to imagine how people can die especially painful with a lot of torture.” Legolas sighed with a sad expression on his face, while his car left the parking spot.
Sometimes the demon forgot that his master wasn’t a simple human but instead a mortal with the soul of an angel. No wonder that he didn’t like to come up with something that could actually kill someone.
“You have the creator of some of the greatest diseases of all times sitting right next to you, with me you’ll get an A in that assignment!” Thranduil was almost…excited about the assignment.
“Then do it for me, I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” They speeded across another red light, luckily there was no car seen anywhere so they weren’t in actual danger.
The devil tried not to sight. Now he would be doing a human’s homework, how much lower could it get from here?
He stared out of the window. Everything looked so grey, the sky was grey, the streets were grey, the walls of the huge grocery stores were grey. Because of the heavy rain earlier that day most grass had turned into mud and looked so just as cold as the rest of the world. It was depressing. He missed his dark but beautiful realm more than he had before.
“What did you do to my childhood friends by the way? They acted as if we were still as close as it could possible be. Did you manipulate their minds as well?” Legolas suddenly asked and caught the demon’s attention with that again.
“Yes I did. I thought it would be easier to get used to this ‘normal’ life if you had friends in school and would not be the social outcast.”  Thranduil didn’t know much about the life of a high school teenager, but he imagined that sitting around alone and without friends- even if they were fake- was not that what a teenager wanted to experience. “And since you only have two month of school left, it does not matter, does it?”
“I presume not.” The younger one mumbled. “Still, it would’ve been nice to have friends.” He glanced over to the immortal. “Human friends, you know?” Legolas added with a grin, which the demon returned slightly.
“I heard that human friends easily drop you.”
“But devils don’t?” The boy seemed not very convinced.
“Of course not. Our social construct is different. Why should we drop one of our ‘friends’? It would make no sense, the only reason why we would decide to do such a thing was if one of our friends would become an angel again, and that is pretty much impossible.”
“Sounds like your kind is a lot nicer than humans.” The mortal mumbled.
Thranduil rolled his eyes. “We are not nice, there is a reason why we get called devils and demons after all.” The mighty king disagreed, but that didn’t seem to bother his master.
“Well, I think it sounds as if you’re pretty nice.”
Luckily they pulled up at the driveway that moment and the conversation was over.
“Won’t my parents question me about my new car?” Legolas asked, while they got out and went to the front door. “Or did you manipulate their mind again?”
“Let’s just say that they will not have a single question about that car.” Was the simple answer he gave and the human shook his head with an amused smile.
“I hope this whole manipulating thing doesn’t have negative side effects like melting their brains!”
“Do not worry, there are no side effects.” Thranduil ensured his master while they stepped into the house and were greeted by Sammy immediately.
‘Good I hate dogs!’ The devil thought as the animal first jumped at its owner, trying to lick his face and then tail wiggling ran over to Thranduil, almost as if he wanted to be petted by him as well.
“Don’t even think about it.” He grumbled, trying to scare the stupid thing, but it only wiggled its tail even more before it turned its attention towards the human again.
“I’m starving.” Legolas sighed, while he threw his shoes and his backpack on the ground and quickly walked over to the kitchen. Thranduil followed and tried to resist the urge to sight. Why did humans have to eat all the time? Or sleep? It was so utterly annoying.
“Are you hungry as well? Do you want coffee?” He offered the demon, who considered that a cup of coffee couldn’t harm him.
“Coffee will do it.”
“Then do it on your own, I showed you how to use the machine.” A grin had found its way on Legolas’ face, while the boy opened the fridge. He took out a half empty pizza carton and quickly grabbed himself a plate as well as a cup for the demon.
Thranduil took it wordlessly, placed it where it was supposed to go and then pressed the buttons he had been showed to press. Immediately the machine went on and the smell of coffee filled the air. In the meantime the mortal had grabbed himself two slices of cold cheese pizza and put it into something called a microwave. The plate began to turn while the machine was making a buzzing sound.
The immortal looked at Legolas, who stared at the kitchen counter with a sad expression. Curiously he followed his gaze, only to find a flower bouquet in a vase. It were around a dozen white roses, most of them still bloomed, but there was one that began to wither. Its white petals had begun to turn brown and it bowed its head.
“I hate flower bouquets.” The child mumbled, while he walked over to the flowers and carefully traced the flawless white petals. “Why would anyone destroy something as beautiful as a flower, just to look at it for a couple of days, watching it die?” It was a rhetorical question, but the boy sounded truly sad.
The devil was strangely enough not annoyed by this behavior, his master had the soul of an angel after all. Seeing something die was of course saddening Legolas, even if it was just a flower. And because he couldn’t stand this pure soul being depressed, he stepped beside the human. The only reason he did it was because he feared the beautiful soul could get stains! Exactly, that was the reason.
“Death is not an end. No matter if it is a flower or a human that dies, it won’t end there.” His hand touched the withering blossom. Immediately the flower turned entirely brown. “Death is beautiful, dark and bright at the same time. Filled with endlessness.”
Suddenly the dead blossom began to straighten up again. Its brown petals turned black, so did its stem and the soft leafs until it had turned into the most beautiful rose of the bouquet, dark as the night itself.
Thranduil felt how the breath of the human next to him hitched in awe and pale fingers were about to touch the beautiful flower, just to stop at the last second, hovering over the plant hesitatingly.
“Can I touch it?” Legolas asked unsure, almost as if he worried that it would harm the flower.
“Of course.” The devil took the black thing out of the bouquet and gave it the boy. “It is dead, it shall never wither again and always stay this way.”
With big eyes the mortal carefully took it and softly caressed the dark petals, before raising it to his nose to smell it.
“It smells like something I have never smelled before. Sweet but dark at the same time, the scent is amazing.” He breathed in again. “And it looks so beautiful.” The younger blond added with a smile dancing on his lips.
“Death is beautiful.” Thranduil said softly, suddenly tempted to touch the human that resembled himself so much. They really looked quite similar. Quickly he pulled himself together and backed off slightly.
“It really is. Thank you.” Legolas looked up at him with big, happy eyes, his entire face cheerful and relieved. At least his soul would stay pure! Thranduil noticed how his hand acted on its own, slowly raising and about to touch his master’s cheek to caress it, but luckily the loud beeping noise of the microwave interrupted them.
The student jumped slightly in surprise, before he walked over to the beeping thing and opened it, taking out a plate with steaming pizza.
“Yummy!” He grinned.
Thranduil was suddenly aware of what he had almost done and a shudder went down his spine. What the hell had just happened? Had he really been close to touching that feisty brat? What had gotten into him all of sudden? Why had he felt the urge to touch the boy softly, carefully?
‘It’s because of his pure soul. I just want to ensure it stays as bright as it is! That’s why I’m so careful around him!’ He thought and nodded satisfied with the reason he had come up with.
“So what do you wish to do today?” He quickly asked the human to get rid of the thoughts that were circling in his mind.
“I don’t know yet.” Legolas answered, while he dipped one of the slices into a small cup with garlic sauce that had come with the pizza. He licked his lips in anticipation and took a large bite. Immediately a small moan left him.
“Oh my God, this is so good. I will never eat something else again!” The boy groaned and quickly took another bite while still chewing.
Thranduil raised one eyebrow. “Have you never eaten pizza?” He asked confused at the sight of his master enjoying pizza as if it was the best food in existence.
“Because of my heart I wasn’t allowed to eat unhealthy stuff like pizza. Just nasty shit that wouldn’t kill me.” Legolas snorted in annoyance. “I would’ve died eventually anyways, so why did they bother? If I live a couple of years longer laying in a hospital bed or not doesn’t really make a difference now, does it?” His voice suddenly sounded very lost and his gaze became expressionless. A moment there was nothing but silence, then the mortal seemed to wake up from his daydream. He quickly smiled again.
“But now I have you so I can eat whatever I want.” He beamed at the devil and took another bite, with garlic sauce dripping on his lips. Quickly he licked it away.
“I suppose so.” Thranduil said simply, while he grabbed his coffee and took a sip of the addicting drink. This was a reason to visit earth. Humans were stupid in many ways, but coffee was definitely something they knew how to do!
“So, what do you want to do today?” The devil then quickly asked because he wanted to forget what had almost happened a few seconds ago.
“I don’t know.” Legolas shrugged. “I have to do a lot of homework…” He sighed, before he grinned a little. “But I presume you might be able to…change that for me.”
The immortal sighed, but did as he was told. “As much as I know, you already finished your homework.”
His master giggled. “I bet every student would sell their soul immediately if they knew that you would do their homework in the blink of an eye.” Another bite of pizza.
“Perhaps they would. Usually it takes a little more than homework to get someone to sell their soul…I thought you sold your soul for being able to live as a normal teenager, why aren’t you doing your homework then?” Thranduil asked, before nipping on his coffee again.
Legolas, who was still chewing on the pizza crust, held up a hand and swallowed, before speaking. At least the child had manners!
“While I was in the hospital I didn’t do anything than school work, watching TV, playing video games, being on my computer, reading and sleeping. I don’t want to do homework, I did it all my life, I sold my soul so I could experience the things I was never able to do.” He corrected the devil then, before he continued to eat.
“Right, how could I forget?!” The immortal crossed his arms before his chest. “Tell me then, what do you want to do that you were never able to experience? Five years are a long time for a human, I hope you have a lot of things in your mind.”
“I have a huge list with the things I want to do. Like laying in a flower field, pet a penguin, see a solar eclipse, ride a skateboard, travel into another country, skydive, camp outside, go swimming in the middle of the ocean, dive with whales and sharks, sleep on a trampoline, jump off a cliff, ride on an elephant, and see Japan and all that.” Legolas began to list and luckily stopped because Thranduil knew that he could’ve gone on and on endlessly.
“Those are quite extraordinary wishes. I can fulfill all of them. You have five years after all.” ‘Five years’ what a ridiculous short time, not even worth mentioning. But for a dying person it was surely an entire lifetime.
“Yes, but I want to do them after I graduate so I don’t have to worry about my parents finding out that I’m miraculously gone all the time.”  The boy looked out of the window, it had begun to rain again. “If it was raining more and warmer I would dance in the rain. I’ll do it in one month, when it’s summer and I’m done with school.” A smile played around the corners of his mouth, before he concentrated on his pizza again.
Thranduil eyed his master with slight confusion. Why was he so…accepting? Shouldn’t he be angry that he had to spend his life in a hospital? That he had missed out on all the things that he had dreamed of doing, simply because he was born with a broken heart? Why didn’t he seem to be bitter?
Instead he looked happy, soft and thankful.
He had sold his soul to the devil and was thankful for the short time he had. And apparently he didn’t even regret his certain death and the loss of his soul.
“Do you regret it?” Thranduil asked suddenly, and broke the silence.
Legolas looked up, still chewing and raised one eyebrow on confusion.
“Do you regret selling your soul to me?” He clarified, suddenly not feeling the urge to roll his eyes anymore.
The mortal swallowed and smiled. “No, I don’t. After all I get the chance to live and like you said…” He grabbed the black rose and stared at it in awe. “Death is beautiful, so I have nothing to be afraid of. My life would’ve ended anyways and this way I can at least say that I lived my life, instead of only having memories of hospital rooms and medicine.” The boy twirled the rose softly, careful not to break the dead plant that couldn’t be broken. “And even though I know that there’ll be nothing for me after death, I am not afraid of it.” He said simply, still smiling softly, before he turned his attention towards his pizza again.
Stunned the devil stared at the one that had carelessly sold his soul. Never in all his years had he heard someone say something like that. Every now and then he had served a mortal, when his boredom grew unbearable and each and every time the poor souls were shaking in fear when they thought about the end that would come sooner or later. But not Legolas, why not him?
Or was it just a mask to hide his true feelings? To hide the fear inside him?
No, Thranduil would’ve smelled the scent of fear immediately and heard if his heart was beating irregularly at the thought of dying, instead it continued its strong, calm rhythm.
Apparently Legolas really didn’t fear what would happen eventually.
How strange…