Ivan woke up slowly. Sleep wasn't something that he needed but being in a mortal realm seemed to affect him. His body wasn't exactly 100% human and it would never be. He was a demon after all, human appearance or not. Even if his horns and eyes weren't in sight, still a demon. His eyes shunned out the red and were replaced with a dark green that seemed more human. Ivan rubbed a palm on his eye and looked at his hand. No black claws. Good. Last time he checked, humans didn't have long black claws. Well, not naturally at least. Some of them liked to add things to their body for fun. Ivan liked it too. He had given himself some piercings for fun. He was very fond of them.
His eyes moved up as he heard footsteps approaching. He assumed it was the scared human from the night before due to the lightness of the footsteps. He watched the door as the footsteps approached and the door was opened. Ivan stirred as he looked at the human in the door. It wasn't the one from the night before. It was a taller and somewhat younger human. It seemed to be female as well. She wore a pair of penguin patterned pajama pants and a loose gray t-shirt. She looked at Ivan with wide eyes for a moment before throwing her head back and stomping to the other side of the room. She swung open the door that Brandi had went through last night and threw the backpack she had in her hand at the bed across the room. A shriek sounded from the room.
The girl pouted. "Get out of my bed!" she whined, grabbing the bag off of her bed. Ivan watched the exchange in silence. He thought of a similar relationship he had back in Hell. He snapped his head back up as Brandi stumbled into the room that Ivan was in, rubbing the back of his neck and yawning. The girl opened her own door and peeked out. "Mom!" she shouted down the hall. "There's a naked stranger in Brandi's bed!" she called.
Ivan watched as Brandi went from tired to alert and raced to his own door, leaning out of it. "That's a lie! She's lying!" he shouted. The girl shouted back. "You're the one lying! Mom, come look! Brandi does indeed have a naked stranger in his bed!"
Ivan watched as Brandi shut his door and slid down it. He slapped his hands on the floor before shooting back up and moving to Ivan. "Ok, ok. Just don't say anything. I'll talk to my mom. It's fine. I'm sure she won't even care at all! I'm sure she-"
The door swung open.
In its frame was a woman that looked like the other girl but taller obviously older. Like Brandi had said, she was wearing flimsy blue clothing and had her hair in a messy style. She looked wide-eyed at the two in the room. She stared at Ivan and then back at Brandi. She moved forward and grabbed him by his ear, pulling him down. "Brandi Michael Miller!" she shouted. Ivan internally cringed at the second word. "Why is there a naked stranger in your bed? What is going on?" she shouted. Ivan decided that he liked this woman.
Brandi hissed and raised his arms to the hand at his ear. "He's not naked!" he cried. "And he's not a stranger, Mom! He's-he's my uh-" The demon locked eyes with Brandi for a second. "He's my friend, ok?" The woman let go of his ear and moved her arms across her chest, crossing them. "Explain what he's doing here, in my house, uninvited." she demanded.
Brandi leaned up and swallowed. "Ok, yeah. Well, he's my friend from, ya know, uh, the skatepark and he needed a place to stay because, um-" he looked nervously at Ivan, looking for help it seemed. Ivan kept quiet. "Because he can't go home." Brandi whispered the last part, rubbing the back of his neck. "So, yeah." he said, looking up at his mom.
The woman's gaze had softened and she looked kindly at the boys. She turned to Ivan and smiled softly at him. "Is that so?" she asked. Ivan nodded. Brandi's mom sighed. She smiled at her son and placed a thin hand on his shoulder, rubbing it softly. "Where did you learn to be so kind?" she said warmly. Brandi smiled. "Definitely not from Dylan." he laughed. The woman smiled and turned back to Ivan. "You can stay anytime you want, honey. My home is yours."
