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Kidd could never keep a fucking secret. Not from Law. Even if the mottled patterns emerging under his pale skin and the infernal heat in his breath weren't more and more obvious every day, his fierce, expressive face wasn't one that hid anything.
“We have to go,” Law insisted, back to him as his big companion struggled to calm his rearing horse.
“Well cast some spooky shit on this fucking beast so she does what she's told,” Kidd snarled, impatient. And embarrassed, Law knew.
The horse had been getting more and more agitated as they traveled, smelling the change in Kidd. And now that even the insects in the earth crawled away from his every step, making the ground writhe, the sturdy old mare was refusing to recognize her master.
“You don't want me to do that,” Law warned, easily saddling his own horse.
“You did yours, didn't you?” Kidd observed. “I know how horses act, and yours is weird.”
“Hm,” Law conceded.
It was true — Law's mount was forever silent, obedient, stoic in the face of every monstrous thing he'd come across in his travels. Its eyes were dark and staring, and no flies landed on it. Law took his time buckling and barding his mount, then buckling on his own armor and robing himself with his feather trimmed cloak, while Kidd tried to reassure his horse.
“Girl, it's me. Whoa, whoa. It's me, you fucking KNOW me. Victoria, STOP, CALM.”
“We're at the foothills now,” Law consulted their map. “We'll have to start sleeping in shifts. No fires.”
“I fucking know. I'm the one who knows the place.”
Law ignored the man and his horse for a while longer, pointedly studying the map, before Kidd finally lost his temper and stomped over to him.
He hauled on Law's shoulder, “DO SOMETHING about this DAMNED BEAST.”
“It's your fucking problem.”
“Nah, it's YOUR fucking problem, if you want us to get to the Scorch before the new moon.”
Law gripped the arm squeezing his shoulder with a gloved hand, and wondered briefly how many wards he'd need to use against something like Kidd.
He took a steadying breath. “If I manage your mount, she won't be the same after.”
“Like it matters. We're not coming back from this,” Kidd huffed bitterly.
“Yes we are,” Law corrected him. “I told you, I'm going to manage everything when we get there. I'll be okay. You'll be okay—”
Kidd's face contorted into a sneer, then kept contorting, and he pushed away from Law suddenly. He marched away, clearly hiding it.
“Just… do it,” he snapped after he'd controlled himself.
Law hesitated, but… the day was wearing on. Even as grey as it'd been, he could feel time rushing by like a gale. They couldn't wait. They HAD to go.
The horse shied away from him, but didn't buck and rear like it did for Kidd. Law pressed a hand to its shoulder, feeling for the panicked heartbeat inside the shell. It was strong and easy to find.
He stopped it. Blackness clouded from his hand and filled the horse's veins. She stumbled, foaming, and sank slowly to her knees.
“What are you doing?!” Kidd objected, too late. He grabbed Law and threw him back.
Law hit the ground with claw marks stinging his shoulder, despite his hardened leather armor. He winced. “I did what you told me to do. Shut up, it's already done.”
“You killed her…” Kidd held its head.
“Yeah. Now let me finish.”
Law ignored him and focused on the next part. More touchy, especially out here, this close to the site of so, so many unnatural deaths. If he wasn't careful he'd catch something more troublesome than a spooked horse.
The thing that finally filled the empty shell of Kidd's old mare was bigger than she had been, and it twisted and churned like a hand into a shrunken glove. When the reanimated mount stood once more, it was tall and broad, and full of new, restless energy. It champed at its bit and snorted angrily at Kidd.
“That’s not her,” Kidd observed through clenched teeth.
“No. But it'll do what it's told.”
Kidd stood looking at it, gripping its reins.
“Eustass, let's just get going,” Law mumbled, pushing sweat off his face.
“That what you gonna do to me?”
“What??” Law looked back at him.
Kidd was still facing the demonic mount, but Law could see the restless forces shifting under his skin too, like they had within the horse. Kidd turned to face him, not bothering to hide the twisting of his features.
Law was the one who turned away first. “No.”
“Liar.”
—
They rode until it was too dark to see. Or, too dark for Law to see, anyway. The clouds were so thick here that no celestial light at all shone through, making nights all the more dangerous.
Kidd took first watch. Law felt exhaustion dragging at his limbs as he removed his more uncomfortable pieces of armor and settled in. Kidd watched him, silent and accusing. He'd been tight lipped and testy all that day, since their exchange that morning.
“I'm not going to kill you,” Law insisted, eyes closed.
Kidd snorted.
Law opened his eyes, but it was so dark it made no difference. Above them was a deep starless nothing, like they were at the bottom of an endless pit. He looked over at Kidd, though, and could see him perfectly by the red glow radiating through his skull. His outer form was still the one Law knew so well, but more than ever, it seemed like a thin outline barely containing something else. Kidd looked back at him, his eyes sparks in the red hollow of their sockets.
“You should,” Kidd breathed, making the air shimmer with heat.
“Why.”
Law stubbornly closed his eyes again, but he could feel the air thicken as Kidd stalked closer.
“Look at me.”
“I know what you look like.”
“You've been trying not to look this whole time,” Kidd accused.
“You've been trying to hide this whole time,” Law countered testily.
The heat was settling heavy on Law's face now, Kidd hovering over him, daring him to look. Law didn’t open his eyes until he felt rough hands unbuckling his chest piece.
“Kidd.” Law grabbed his arm. They looked at each other, bathed in red.
Kidd had always looked a little alarming — too tall and too rough to be anything but a threat to most. His bright red hair and heavy, scowling brow didn't help. All of it was more pronounced now, the jutting angles of his face becoming ridged and the veins starting to show black under his pale skin.
Kidd pushed him back down and kept opening his clothes. “You got your eyeful. Let me see you.”
Law scoffed, but let him peel back his leather shell and linen shirt. Underneath, Law's chest was damp with sweat from Kidd's heat, his tan skin reflecting the dim red glow, except for where it was covered by dense black tattoos. The large curved symbol at the center, and the many wards inscribed around it were clearly magical.
Kidd sneered at these. “Knew it. You're an exorcist.”
“That's about half of it, yeah.” Law admitted, propping his head up on a fist.
“So what's the other half?”
“Summoning.”
“Doesn't feel too inviting,” Kidd pressed a hand to Law's chest, and his flesh started sizzling.
“Ah…” Law winced, “Kidd, it'll damage you.”
“Cuz I'm a demon?”
“You're not actually a demon yet, as far as I can tell.”
“Hah.” Kidd pulled away his hand and examined the smoking flesh on his palm. “Close enough that I guess I can't touch you anymore…”
Law sat up so he was close to Kidd's scowling face. As alien as his features were becoming, that expression was so familiar it made his chest ache. It had been so, so long since they'd seen each other…
He pushed his lips against the black ones. Kidd jerked back in surprise, but when his face didn't start crumbling off, he responded hungrily. The taste of ash and metal was overpowering in Law's mouth, making him dizzy. A sharp tooth tore his lip and he flinched.
Kidd didn't notice. He pushed him onto his back and got on top of him, grinding them together hard and sending a deep throb through Law's entire body. The eerie light inside him was flaring.
“Ah…”
“FUCK,” Kidd brushed Law's arm tattoos with a stray hand and got seared again.
“Chest, arms, and back of the hands are warded,” Law mentioned casually.
“Great. Turn over. Cmon, move.”
“Also my back,” Law kicked away his trousers.
“And your fucking back…”
—
Getting fucked by a demon hurt about as much as Law had expected, but it was Kidd, so he knew how to make it good too. He rutted into Law with fast, even strokes, sliding in slickly and stretching him almost unbearably. That part was good enough to curl Law's toes, and he arched into it needily. The heat radiating from Kidd's core was more uncomfortable, making Law's skin drip with sweat and Kidd's grip on him slip. The emerging claws were the worst part, though. Kidd didn't seem aware of them and they dug painfully into Law's hips and thighs. They scraped and gouged as Kidd manhandled him, pulling him onto his dick and pressing down on his lower back. Law kept his voice controlled, so Kidd couldn't hear how much it was hurting him.
Kidd noticed him holding back, though. “Now who's hiding,” he delivered a hard thrust and Law gasped through his teeth.
“I’m not hiding, you wanted me face down.”
“You know what I mean.”
Law stubbornly held his tongue.
Kidd pushed Law flat against the ground and smacked into him over and over. He was so heavy, so much larger and stronger than Law, and his cock seared inside him…
“Kidd… Kidd, I'm coming, I'm coming…”
Kidd pulled out and let Law flip over on his back. Law worked a fist over himself until he peaked, painting his stomach.
“Fuck… fuck…”
Kidd was looking around them when Law came back to his senses, tracking something Law couldn't see.
“What is it?” Law shifted and groaned. The open wounds in his hips were fucking stinging now.
“I guess we attracted some shit,” Kidd mused. He felt for his sword.
“Ugh. Probably the blood.”
Kidd glanced over at Law's wounds with a slightly guilty look. “Maybe. Maybe the fucking too. Some of them are drawn to that.”
“Can you see what it is?”
“Kinda. It's… big.” Kidd went back to watching the sky around them.
“How big.”
“Bigger than us.”
“Bigger than your patron?” Law wondered.
Kidd looked sharply at him.
“What,” Law frowned. “Like I didn’t know you made a deal with a demon for power? That's generally how one gets in the condition you're in.”
Kidd's face started contorting again in agitation. His eyes tracked the thing above them as it circled, and he hefted his sword. “Not as big as him, no.”
“Okay, so a lesser evil, probably a scavenger, out here near the Scorch…”
Law scooped the blood from his wounds and started a pattern on the rocky ground next to him. “Eustass, keep it off me until I finish.”
“What, you need my protection? Hah.”
“Your cooperation. Can you handle it?”
“I can take it without you,” Kidd spat.
“Alright…” Law concentrated on his work, straining to see the little smears of blood in the darkness.
A massive wing beat right over Law's head, fanning decay onto him. Kidd swung at it with a roar and acidic blood sprayed them. Law helped himself to some of it, still painting the ground as Kidd leapt after their quarry.
It was a welcome change to have the time to do a full banishment pattern in the midst of a fight, Law reflected. Normally he'd have to make do with a bunch of small, prepared patterns. Fresh was so much better. He could barely see what he was doing, but he knew this pattern by heart.
Kidd was doing pretty well by himself, it seemed. Law could hear the creature squalling in rage above them as Kidd swiped at it with his sword and shouted things that hit it like burning missiles. Law waited until it passed right over his head, and completed the pattern with his hand.
The sky above them started burning, lighting up the shape of a great serpent. The thing thrashed, turned to embers, and dissolved within moments. The ash rained down on them and Law slumped to his knees.
“Fuck… Yeah it was big.” He watched the blood pattern burning on the ground, exhausted. It flickered out and the ash blew away too.
Kidd was angry, he realized after a long moment of silence. He was standing and looking at Law with his ember eyes, saying nothing. Law felt suddenly how naked and vulnerable he was.
“I always fucking hated you for that,” Kidd spoke finally.
“For what.”
Kidd let his sword fall instead of answering.
“Did I steal your kill? Don't be petulant,” Law rolled his eyes.
“Don't say stupid shit.”
Kidd knelt by Law and gave him a long once-over. The creature had done its own number on Kidd with its claws and acid breath, but Law was unscathed by the encounter. All his damage was Kidd's. He surveyed the deep scrapes and punctures on Law's hips and thighs with a clawed hand, red light flaring again inside him.
“What,” Law challenged, uneasy.
“I can see your heart beating hard,”
“And I can see yours,” Law shot back. “You're lit up like a fucking candle.”
“Not in a way that makes me a target out here. You're the one setting off a beacon for every fucking hellspawn for a mile around… pumping blood and bleeding it all out and coming everywhere. Trying not to scream, but you might as well be.”
Law held still, trying to control his heart rate while Kidd lowered his mouth to the mess dripping from his legs. A long, burning tongue slid over him from thigh to stomach and slurped up everything. It wrapped around his dick and tested the stray beads of fluid lingering there. Law felt himself hardening again… it was so hot and slick.
“And what do the hellspawn want from me,” Law wondered as Kidd pushed him onto his back.
“They want you to fucking scream.”
He took Law's legs and pressed them apart. Law thought about pushing him off but didn't. He let the demonic man spread him open and slowly sink his cock back into him.
“Kidd! Ah! AhAAHH…” Law didn't have the presence of mind left to stop his voice.
“That’s fucking better.”
Kidd fucked him like he was trying to beat him into submission, though Law was hazy with overexertion and could only take it. It wasn't long until Kidd was groaning and slowing his thrusts, and then spilling liquid fire deep into Law.
“Fuck! Ahh!” Law twisted in his grip. Kidd lifted him off the ground and into his lap, and held him there while he pumped the last of it into the exorcist.
“Didn't you wanna get bred with demon seed?” Kidd held him still as he writhed. “I hear it's addictive, if it doesn't kill you. I could fuck you for days, fill you til you're vomiting it.”
“Romantic… fucker,” Law shivered. “Ah, it fucking burns, ahh…”
“Yeah. Little piece of hell for ya.”
Kidd pulled out of him and let it all spill over them both. Then he wrapped a hand around Law's dick and pulled a final shuddering orgasm out of him too.
Law was just about blacking out by this time. He tried to hold himself away from Kidd, so their chests wouldn't touch.
Kidd pulled them close together anyway and let their flesh sizzle while he tasted Law's mouth. Law finally parted them and sank back onto the ground, too spent to worry about the fresh mess. Kidd was already licking it all up, though. The sounds were so obscene…
“Ahh… Kidd, you feel good.”
“You taste good.”
“We're gonna probably attract something else,” Law reflected, belatedly.
“If something else comes sniffing around I'll fucking tear it apart,” Kidd growled.
“Mm.”
Law felt for the other as his head dipped over him, still busily grabbing every last drop of blood and semen. He let his fingers comb through the red hair. On his forehead, bony nubs were forming.
“You're so fucking bad at keeping secrets…” Law fingered the emerging horns. “I could tell you'd made a demon pact, soon as I saw you…”
Kidd sighed. “Hah. That's… not my secret.”
Law didn’t hear him. He was already dreaming of blood patterns and dark power.