There's a Demon Following Me and It Thinks It Owes Me Its Life

Chapter 1

You are on your way home from a very long day of work when you get a message from a friend asking for a favor. Because heaven forbid Karkat Vantas takes a break for once in his miserable fucking life. So obviously you tell him that of course you'll help him, because that's what you're supposed to do when a friend asks you for a favor. He's pretty close by, which is good because you don't have a driver's license at the moment for reasons you'd prefer not to disclose. About a block later you see something hunched over on the side of the path. You're taking a shortcut through a pretty well abandoned part of town. As you get closer to it, you can see that it looks like a small person with horns and a tail. The horns spiral out of the top of its head and the tail is long, black, and has a barbed tip. Upon closer inspection, you see that it also has light grey skin. Its face is covered by a mop of curly black hair. There is purple blood pooling under it from several injuries. From what you can tell, it's still breathing, but barely. Now, it's important to note that you are not, by far, a very stupid or ignorant person. Your parents and teachers and almost every adult in your life growing up have told you repeatedly about the dangers of demons, and you've had your share of close calls with pretty common ones. The wise thing to do would be to call your local Demon Patrol and let them take care of it, or even to just leave it here and forget about it. This is not what you do. Instead, you fish out your trusty First Aid kit from your bag and kneel down in the dirt. You clean and dress the injuries as well as you can with what you have. Then, because you don't really want to leave the demon here, but you can't take it into town with you and also you have blood and dirt staining your pants now, you message your friend. You tell him that something just came up and you can't meet up with him right now, but maybe you'll be available later. He tells you it's fine, he'll just get one of your other friends to help. He seems a little bitter about it, but you've been friends with Sollux for a long time and you're sure he understands. You sigh, trying to figure out what to do with the thing. According to its blood color, it's semi-rare and very powerful, though powerful demons are supposed to be bigger... A lot bigger. You sigh, deciding on tucking it under your shirt and taking the backroads back to your apartment. You get a few odd looks, but noone questions you and you get there without much trouble. You lock your apartment door behind you, taking the demon out if your shirt and setting it on your couch. Jesus, what the hell are you gonna do now? What if it wakes up and tries to attack you? Oh god, this was a bad idea. You sigh, taking it to your room. At least so it can have something comfortable to sleep on. You look through your fridge for any raw and bloody meat. Of course you find none. Maybe it'll just eat hot dogs? Those are pretty raw, though not bloody. Does it really have to be bloody? Maybe they're just carnivores and can eat any kind of meat... You startle as you hear a noise from your room, going to check on the demon, because you're just that dumb. When you get there, it's gone, and the bandages lay in a pile on your bed. A trail of blood, getting progressively thinner, leads to a mouse hole in your wall. Fucking shapsifter- You hope it didn't leave your apartment, it probably wouldn't get very far in its state... You hear a scuttling from the kitchen and rush in, to see a cat with odd markings eating the torn open package of hot dogs. It notices you, turning into a rat as it darts past you. You lunge after it, managing to catch it. It squeaks and squirms, still bleeding everywhere, and then it's a snake and it's wiggling out of your arms, and you grab its head and hold it as still as you can so you don't injure it further. You try to shush it, holding it to your chest. Surprisingly, it stops squirming and starts to calm down, shifting back into its main form. You sigh. "Hey... do you speak... my language?" It looks up at you and for a moment you think it hasn't understood, but then it nods slightly. "Okay, I'm going to try and heal you as much as I can, okay?" It nods again. You take it to the bathroom and get a rag, soaking it in warm water and starting to take it's torn clothes off. It lets you move it, and you start to wash it off in the tub. It shivers a little, closing its eyes. You start to bandage it up, it doesn't look like it needs any major medical treatment, which is good, because you don't think you're fit to provide that. "So, do you have a name or what?"

It's silent for a minute before shakily saying its name, "Gamzee..."

Well, that was easy. You nod. "Mine's Karkat- er, sorry to be rude, but, how should I refer to you? Like, pronouns?"

"Demons don't have gender or pronouns. Call me whatever you like, motherfucker..."

You nod, finishing up the bandages. "Do you need a place to stay until you're better?" They hesitate, then nod. You pick them back up, laying them on your bed and taking the dirty bandages to throw away. You come back with the half eaten package of hot dogs, handing it to Gamzee so they can eat it. They devour it hungrily. Looks like you're going to have to buy more food...