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When a person turns twenty, an angel comes to meet them, promising that the heavens are looking out for each of their children through the watchful eyes of a guardian angel.
It isn’t a promise that means much. There aren’t enough angels to assign every person a unique guardian angel; no one is truly being guided and protected by the heavens from the moment they reach adulthood. If anything, it’s more accurate to say that the moment a person meets their guardian angel is the last time that the heavens might bother to pay them any attention before their ultimate death.
Still, it’s a part of life, and so Shen Yuan has good reason to worry when no angel appears before him on his twentieth birthday.
Did Shen Yuan somehow get his own birthdate wrong? Is this the heavens’ way of saying that he doesn’t act his age? Is there such a shortage of guardian angels that they can’t even meet their assigned people once, anymore?!
Shen Yuan frets about it for three full days before a demon shows up on Shen Yuan’s doorstep.
“Hello, Shen Yuan,” the demon says. “I’m your guardian angel.”
Shen Yuan swallows thickly, his grip on the front door tightening. Even if he shuts the door, it would certainly not do anything to actually stop the demon from entering Shen Yuan’s apartment.
Hesitantly, Shen Yuan opens the door up a bit wider instead, eyeing the demon carefully.
He looks - mostly human, Shen Yuan supposes. His ears are too pointy and his teeth are too sharp and his eyes glow a dangerous red, but it's the dark energy that bleeds from his person that gives him away as a demon. Without that, he could pass as someone just really into body modifications.
He’s also the single most beautiful person Shen Yuan has ever seen, pretty in a way that makes it hard for Shen Yuan to even recall the heavenly beauty of the few angels he’s seen in the past.
Shen Yuan swallows again. His throat clicks uselessly, and the demon’s eyes dart down to trace the column of Shen Yuan’s neck.
“My angel,” Shen Yuan repeats, knowing with every fiber in his being that it’s a lie.
“Mn,” the demon agrees.
Shen Yuan gestures weakly at his forehead, looking up at where the demon’s brow is marked with a crimson tattoo that pulses with dark energy. “And your - the mark on your forehead?”
“My halo,” the demon answers, smiling sharply.
“Oh,” Shen Yuan says numbly.
He stares at the demon for a moment longer, but in the end, what can he do? His twentieth birthday has come and gone - if an angel had been assigned to him, it isn’t coming to save him.
Shen Yuan takes a shaky breath in.
“Okay,” he says. “My - uh, angel. What’s your name?”
“Luo Binghe will do,” the demon answers, leaning into Shen Yuan’s space in a way that makes the hairs on the back of Shen Yuan’s neck prickle. “Can I come in?”
Shen Yuan stares up at the demon - at Luo Binghe - with wide, terrified eyes. The way that Luo Binghe looks at him -
Shen Yuan shudders. “Alright,” he says, and then lets the demon inside.
---
Luo Binghe doesn’t live in Shen Yuan’s apartment so much as he haunts it.
He stalks the hallways with the slow, purposeful motions of a man who is used to others moving out of the way for him, and even when doing something mundane like examining the figures on Shen Yuan’s shelves, his intensity lends an air of gravitas to his actions. Often, Shen Yuan will catch Luo Binghe watching him with the lazy gaze of a predator, or wake up in the middle of the night to find that the shadows in his room are stretching unnaturally in Shen Yuan’s direction.
And for all that Luo Binghe is watching Shen Yuan, Shen Yuan is watching him, too.
It’s for his own safety that he watches Luo Binghe, of course. A pretty man moving with confidence and intensity is already dangerous; a demon who dares to play the part of an angel is even more so. It’s only natural that Shen Yuan finds his eyes constantly drawn to Luo Binghe - he’s only assessing the danger, only checking that he’s still safe.
There are so many dangerous parts of Luo Binghe to watch for, too. The way Luo Binghe’s shadow seems to betray a shape so much larger and with more limbs than Luo Binghe’s physical form has, the way his claws extend like a cat’s, the way the very light seems to distort and darken around Luo Binghe’s frame…
Shen Yuan forces his gaze away, focusing on the book he’s been pretending to read all day. If he wants to keep watching Luo Binghe - for his safety, just for his safety - then he must ensure that Luo Binghe tolerates him enough to let him keep looking.
Naturally, the easiest way to endear yourself to someone is to figure out what they want and give it to them. Even a demon wouldn’t pluck the watchful eyes out of a human that proves themselves useful.
And since Luo Binghe hasn’t left yet, he must want something.
“Luo Binghe,” Shen Yuan says, still looking only at his book, “If there’s anything you want - well, as your host, I should make sure you’re taken care of -”
A shadow falls over him, and Shen Yuan’s fingers grip the sides of his book tightly.
He isn’t as afraid as he’d been just days ago when he’d let Luo Binghe into his house. He’d broken out into goosebumps as soon as Luo Binghe had approached, and his tongue feels leaden in his mouth, but -
Shen Yuan glances up at Luo Binghe, looming over him, and his eyes instinctively begin to trace all the same features that he’s been quietly observing from afar for the past few days.
Fuck, it can’t be fair that something so inherently evil is this pretty! He thinks desperately, and then, his heart jackrabbiting in his throat: I need to make him like me.
Luo Binghe’s mouth curls in a cruel smile.
“Your intentions are not hidden well enough,” he says, and Shen Yuan shudders, overwhelmed with the heady feeling of being looked at so closely by something so powerful.
“Isn’t that alright?” Shen Yuan asks weakly. “Regardless of my reasons, aren’t I still trying to be helpful?”
“Does it make you feel better, justifying your scheming in such a way?” Luo Binghe sneers, leaning into Shen Yuan’s space. “Do you feel better with these sorts of plans, thinking of me as something you can leash?”
Shen Yuan jolts, stunned into silence. He stares up at Luo Binghe with wide eyes, taking in the sharp flash of Luo Binghe’s teeth, the inhuman slits of his pupils. He’d never thought of taking control of a creature as dangerous as Luo Binghe, his vague intentions all focused on ‘befriending’ rather than ‘overpowering.’
But now that the idea has been put into his mind…
Shen Yuan swallows uselessly. It isn’t his fault. Luo Binghe is the one who said it.
And fuck, Luo Binghe would look good in a leash.
Shen Yuan jerks his head down, hiding the flush of his cheeks in his book. His breath is short and shallow, and he has to take a moment to compose himself before he can answer.
“...I wouldn’t dare to collar a creature of the heavens.”
It’s exactly the wrong thing to say. What sort of creature of the heavens would look the way Luo Binghe does - would feel the way he does, charged with the static electricity of a dark energy so powerful it makes the hairs on Shen Yuan’s arms stand on end?
I wouldn’t dare to collar a creature of the heavens, he says, and Luo Binghe surely hears the unspoken second half: but oh, I would collar you.
Luo Binghe draws himself up, the shadow he casts over Shen Yuan growing darker and colder. The burning intensity of Luo Binghe’s gaze feels like a thousand tiny paper cuts, racing up Shen Yuan’s spine like a violent shiver.
Distantly, Shen Yuan realizes that he’ll probably be killed for this. Whatever Luo Binghe wants, he surely doesn’t need Shen Yuan for, and a being as unholy and powerful as Luo Binghe has no need to tolerate disrespect from a little human he doesn’t need.
And yet even thinking that he’s going to die, Shen Yuan can’t bring himself to swallow down his words and pretend he hadn’t meant them. Isn’t what he said normal? Wouldn’t anyone be tempted by the idea of leashing something as pretty and horrible as Luo Binghe? It doesn’t mean anything - it’s only objective, which means that Shen Yuan shouldn’t be punished for it -!
Just as Shen Yuan thinks he can’t wind himself any tighter in apprehension of his own death - of Luo Binghe’s teeth sinking into his neck, or his claws reaching in to grab his heart, or a million other awful things - Luo Binghe suddenly turns, whirling away from Shen Yuan and retreating into the other room.
Shen Yuan stares at the space where Luo Binghe had been, uncomprehending. Luo Binghe hadn’t killed him.
If Luo Binghe hadn’t killed him…
…doesn’t that mean that he can’t?
---
It takes several weeks for Shen Yuan to figure out how to test his theory.
Although guardian angels don’t stick around after introducing themselves to their assigned humans, they’re still beholden to their charges for the short window in which they’re present. Some people use that moment for influence, strutting about somewhere prominent on their twentieth birthday to show off which angel gets assigned to them. Others take their twentieth birthday as a chance to do something especially dangerous or to commit a crime, knowing that their angels will protect them.
Now, one of those delinquents is pointing a knife at Shen Yuan and trying to mug him. Their angel hovers behind them, splendid and holy and brilliant in all the ways that Luo Binghe is not. Its divinity is the exact sort of beautiful that Shen Yuan would expect it to be.
…How ugly, Shen Yuan thinks, and then he kicks his mugger in the balls.
Instantly, the knife at Shen Yuan’s throat is replaced by something far, far more dangerous, and Shen Yuan’s field of vision is blinded by the light of the heavens as the angel closes in on him. The angel’s hand around Shen Yuan’s throat is scalding hot and mercilessly tight, and the angel’s fingers are unnaturally long and thin, stretching to encircle his neck entirely.
“Do no harm to my charge,” the angel says, its voice ringing clear over the sounds of its assigned human moaning in pain on the ground.
Shen Yuan winces, his head throbbing from the pain of hearing an angel’s scolding and the agony of being choked by the divine. He can’t speak, but as he scrabbles at the angel’s fingers around his neck, he shoots a desperate look at Luo Binghe and thinks: if you don’t save me, I’ll die.
Luo Binghe takes half a step back. His eyes don’t waver from the angel’s hand around Shen Yuan’s throat.
And then between one blink and the next, all the holy light of the angel seems to vanish as Luo Binghe’s own form releases an explosion of dark energy. The hand around Shen Yuan’s neck vanishes, the angel blown back and slammed into the opposing wall of the alley, its countless wings splayed out behind it.
“Demon!” The angel cries. “The heavens will - hrk!”
Luo Binghe cuts his claws through the angel’s chest as if its flesh is made of nothing more substantial than butter. The angel flinches violently, golden blood oozing from around Luo Binghe’s hand, its wings twitching uselessly. There are less of them now, few enough that Shen Yuan can count them, and - and then there’s only one set of wings, and then - only a few rumpled feathers that fall to the ground at the angel’s feet, and then -
And then the angel is gone entirely. In its place, the shadows that stretch around Luo Binghe seem darker and more powerful, fed by the divinity of the angel they consumed.
Shen Yuan takes a shuddering breath in, and Luo Binghe’s attention snaps to him. In this form, Luo Binghe’s presence is massive, his limbs stretched long and his silhouette dominated by a pair of wings that look - wrong, as if someone had taken all the wings on the angel that Luo Binghe had just killed and grafted them together into one massive set of dark, artificial wings. The demonic sigil on Luo Binghe’s forehead pulses with awful energy, casting a red light onto his face and the curved horns that crown his head.
And yet despite looking so horrific, Luo Binghe seems to be watching Shen Yuan with the wariness of a child caught doing something forbidden. It’s… startlingly cute, coming from a demon.
“...Well,” Shen Yuan says, “would you like to try introducing yourself again?”
The shadows around Luo Binghe quiver.
“Doesn’t Shen Yuan already know?” Luo Binghe asks, his voice sharp. “Didn’t you just watch me consume that angel?”
“I want to hear it anyway.”
“I ate your angel too,” Luo Binghe continues, his wings spreading out behind him, wide and imposing. “I’ve glutted myself on the heavens of this world for as long as I’ve been here.”
“I figured.”
“Yours was one of the weakest,” Luo Binghe hisses, and with every word he seems to grow larger and larger. “It never could have protected you from me.”
Shen Yuan tips his head back, meeting Luo Binghe’s eyes. The glinting red of them is even more stunning than they’d seemed when Luo Binghe had been maintaining a human form. Everything about Luo Binghe is more incredible in this form. Shen Yuan feels nearly dizzy, his brain straining to comprehend the immortal being in front of him.
So powerful, and yet Luo Binghe still looks like a cat backed into a corner, puffing up to seem bigger.
Slowly, Shen Yuan takes a careful step forward, and then another. His vision swims with each lurching motion, and he nearly tips over in surprise when some of the shadows that curl around Luo Binghe gather around Shen Yuan’s feet, like minnows nibbling at his toes.
“Aren’t you scared, Yuan-er?” Luo Binghe asks, his voice lilting and dangerous.
What a stupid question. Luo Binghe is by far the most terrifying thing that Shen Yuan has ever seen, deadly in ways that Shen Yuan can’t even comprehend.
And yet - Shen Yuan wants to stick his hand in Luo Binghe’s mouth and watch him bite down.
Well, perhaps not quite like that. He wants to stick his hand in Luo Binghe’s mouth and feel the gentle pressure of a bite meant to tease rather than harm, like a beast that holds an egg in their mouth without cracking it. After all, Shen Yuan’s figured it out. If Luo Binghe didn’t kill Shen Yuan before, and if Luo Binghe will go this far to protect Shen Yuan, then -
Isn’t the thing that Luo Binghe wants from this world Shen Yuan himself?
“Don’t you know that I’ll bite the head off of even a god?” Luo Binghe snaps, taking half a step back as Shen Yuan continues to move closer. “A little mortal like you -”
“I’m safe, though,” Shen Yuan interrupts.
“Is that what you think?” Luo Binghe laughs, ugly and warped by the power of his current form. “Yuan-er, demons don’t protect mortals. I’m not keeping you the way a guardian angel would.”
“No,” Shen Yuan agrees. “I’m keeping you, aren’t I?”
Luo Binghe jerks as if slapped, his whole body recoiling.
“Insolent -!” He snaps. “I could eat you alive, little mortal -”
Shen Yuan stretches up onto the tips of his toes to reach up and wrap his hand around one of Luo Binghe’s horns, watching the way the demon’s body goes stiff at the touch. Gently, he tugs Luo Binghe’s head down towards himself.
Luo Binghe lets himself be moved without a fight.
Shen Yuan hums. “Indeed, you’re quite dangerous,” he says. It comes out indulgent, like a parent agreeing that their child is quite smart for having figured out something simple. “I’ll have to watch you closely, if I’m to keep you forever.”
Luo Binghe shudders, his form rippling with the force of his distress. Shen Yuan tugs on his curved horn a bit harder, curious, and Luo Binghe’s form collapses entirely, melting back into something more human looking.
Somewhat disappointed, Shen Yuan lets his hand fall back to his side.
“You’ll - keep me?” Luo Binghe asks haltingly. His eyes have a slight sheen to them, as if Shen Yuan had bullied him so badly that he might start crying.
“What else would I do with you?” Shen Yuan asks, genuinely curious. Wouldn’t anyone keep something like Luo Binghe?
Luo Binghe shudders again but doesn’t say anything else. Shen Yuan lets the silence be, instead taking the time to observe Luo Binghe for any bits of him that may not have turned human again. There isn’t much to see. When he’s in this form, Luo Binghe truly looks like he might walk this earth normally.
Shen Yuan will have to figure out what it takes to get Luo Binghe to reveal his true form again, then. Perhaps he’ll have to provoke Luo Binghe into eating more angels, if that’s the only time that Luo Binghe looks like that. It isn’t Shen Yuan’s fault for thinking something like that, of course. It’s normal. Wouldn’t anyone be willing to watch an angel fall, just to see a creature like Luo Binghe pull it down from the stars?
“Yes,” Shen Yuan says at length. “Yes, I’ll keep you. Let’s go home, okay?”
Luo Binghe nods once, his cheeks flushed a delicate pink, and follows Shen Yuan home.