CHINGUX 2014: even though i walk through the valley (1/1) for coffeeromances
Title: even though i walk through the valley
Author: gdgdbaby
Recipient: coffeeromances
Pairing/Focus: D.O-centric, OT4
Rating: nc17
Warnings: consensual underage sex
Length: 3,909 words
Summary: no normal person could possibly handle three demons out for a piece of his soul. then again, young master do isn't exactly normal.
For as long as Kyungsoo can remember, there have been demons living in the Do household.
Sometimes, Kyungsoo's favorite kitchen ahjumma-the one who always sneaks him extra dessert after dinner-lets an impatient blast of fire out of her mouth to warm the bread. Their gardener waters the roses with a point of his finger when he thinks no one else is watching. One of Kyungsoo's earliest memories is of a midnight thunderstorm, the very air saturated with the metallic tang of magic. He'd scurried down the long hall to his parents' wing, frightened for a reason he didn't understand, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. Peeked into the master bedroom and saw his mother sitting in the center of a summoning circle, beads of sweat gathered at her temples, a class-five marid floating in blue fire on the other side of the room.
As the son and heir of two of the most powerful sorcerers in the country, magic is woven through every aspect of Kyungsoo's life. His mother starts teaching him young. Simple casting, beginning with levitation and telekinesis and moving on to basic day-to-day spells. Nothing too complicated. When Kyungsoo is eight years old, Jongdae opens his palms and shows him the lightning dancing between his fingers. During his casting lesson the next morning, when he's trying very hard not to nod off over a History of Magic text by sneaking glances out the window to watch his three playmates climb the big oak tree in the garden, he asks, "How come Chanyeol and Jongdae and Baekhyun don't have to learn with me? They aren't like Seungsoo-hyung. They can do what I do."
His mother lets out an amused huff. "Your companions don't need to learn magic," she says, brushing a fond hand through his hair. "They are magic."
If they're magic, they don't seem like much. Kyungsoo's friends are constantly underfoot when Things have to be done. Chanyeol once set fire to the dining room table because he tripped over the leg of Jongdae's chair. Kyungsoo always seems to swing by the kitchens in time to see Baekhyun being scolded by Song-ahjumma for stealing another pastry from the kitchen.
"I think we're supposed to be your butlers, or something," Chanyeol says, waving a vague hand in the air. "Your parents weren't very specific when they contracted us."
"Some butlers," Kyungsoo says, kicking him off the end of his bed. "I'm pretty sure Baekhyun makes more of a mess than everyone else in this house combined."
"See if I steal anything for you again," Baekhyun mutters. He tries to snatch Kyungsoo's plate out of his hand, but Kyungsoo shovels the last huge bite of pastry in his mouth and chews thickly. It's apple. His favorite. Baekhyun grins, his mouth sticky with cinnamon, and pushes his face into Kyungsoo's bedspread.
After a fantastic row that he has with Baekhyun when he's fourteen, his parents tell him they'd originally only wanted one. "We thought you could use a friend," his father explains. "Our family has always kept company with demons. Your brother doesn't have your talent for magic, but he did so well with his demon that we thought-why not?"
"But I guess yours only wanted to come in threes," his mother says. "We summoned one and the other two popped up with him. Refused to go." From the view in Kyungsoo's study, he can see Baekhyun perched atop the highest tree in the garden, the slouched slope of his back, his bright shock of purple hair. A minute later, Jongdae's head pops up through the canopy. Their heads bend together. "If you really want, we could send two of them back. A demon's duty only lasts as long as its contract."
The fight had been-stupid. Kyungsoo was tired from casting all day. Baekhyun had been in his space, chattering incessantly with Chanyeol and being a general nuisance when Kyungsoo was trying to nap. "They're very noisy," he says carefully. "And annoying. They don't call me young master like the other demons, or listen to what I say. But I like them, I think." He bites his lip.
"That's good," his mother says, and laughs.
It doesn't occur to Kyungsoo how rare demon summoning is until he starts going to boarding school on his own that fall.
Attending a school for magic in the city is pretty boring. For one, he isn't learning anything his parents haven't already taught him. He could sleep through all his classes and still make perfect marks, but his parents had insisted: you need to socialize! Get to know your future peers! Kyungsoo thinks he socializes plenty, what with Jongdae pulling him out into the sun all day, stretching across the lawn like a tanning lizard, and Baekhyun and Chanyeol goading him into all sorts of trouble. Still, his parents persisted. Kyungsoo keeps quiet and goes anyway.
After living with the three rowdiest demons known to man, everything else seems indescribably dull. He wakes up in the morning and expects a loud chorus of voices, hands dragging him to the breakfast table, and then, after the food has been cleaned off all their plates, out into the garden to play. Instead, he's greeted by the still silence of his dorm room, and his suitemate Joonmyun's even breathing through the thin walls. No grinning faces. No occasional glimpses of a forked tail. Kyungsoo hadn't expected to miss it.
There's no summoning course at K-WIZ. Kyungsoo has to wait until the winter holiday to see his demons. In December, he hops off the carriage with his luggage, swallowed by his puffy coat, and lands in a snowdrift just outside the gates of the Do estate. A minute later, Chanyeol skids to a standstill in front of him, orange hair unkempt and windswept. Jongdae's grinning behind him, a big bouquet of flowers in one hand, arm hooked in Baekhyun's, and then all Kyungsoo can see is Chanyeol's broad chest. He's as warm as a furnace. "You're taller than I remember," Kyungsoo wheezes, letting himself be squeezed for a moment before maneuvering a draft of wind between them.
Chanyeol grins. "Maybe you're just short." He yells when Kyungsoo zaps him with a stinging hex.
"It's so boring without you here," Baekhyun admits, kicking at a rock. "Can't you take us with you?"
"What have you been up to, anyway?" Kyungsoo asks, when they're toasting in front of the fireplace. He watches the three of them exchange long glances.
"Things," Jongdae says at last, waggling his fingers enigmatically. Kyungsoo doesn't think he's ever seen them so tight-lipped. "We'll tell you when you can summon us properly."
Kyungsoo spends all winter break taking notes from the archaic magic books Baekhyun helps him steal from his father's study, piecing together his own rudimentary summoning circle. When he tries it out at school in the spring, it turns out Kyungsoo doesn't have the juice or finesse for a full summons, only talking heads.
"It's okay," Jongdae says with a grin, head poking out of the demon's circle Kyungsoo had penciled into the floor of his bedroom. He's in his original form, dark brown hair standing on end, crackling with electricity. "You'll get better with practice."
Anything is better than nothing. They spend hours talking into the night, Kyungsoo listening sleepily as Jongdae and Chanyeol tell him about everything that's happening back at the estate. When they get to the invisibility unit in Practical Magic, Baekhyun helps him out with the specifics of light-cloaking. "How do you think I got so good at stealing Song-ahjumma's pastries?" he says, squinting down at the textbook Kyungsoo shoves under his nose. "This shit is a piece of cake."
Joonmyun finally catches him at it during second year, when Kyungsoo's managed to consistently summon all of Chanyeol's fiery form inside the pentagram, but isn't so strong that Chanyeol's corporeal enough to step out of the circle. A floorboard creaks behind Kyungsoo and Chanyeol winks out of existence as his concentration breaks. Joonmyun's pale as a sheet when Kyungsoo's head snaps back to stare at him.
"That was-"
"Yes," Kyungsoo says, picking himself up and dusting his knees off. "A demon. A class-two ifrit, I think, but who knows? Maybe he was just lying to impress me."
"You-" Joonmyun's voice cracks. He swallows and tries again. "You should be careful. I know you're in the advanced class, but it isn't-demons aren't safe."
Kyungsoo frowns. "What do you mean?"
Joonmyun shakes his head. The air in Kyungsoo's room still smells faintly of smoke, Chanyeol's essence, the fire that had covered him from head to toe. "There's a reason we don't learn this stuff at school. Demons only want one thing." His mouth twists into a grimace. "They want to steal your soul."
Kyungsoo snorts loudly. Steal his soul. Baekhyun couldn't even steal a pastry without getting hit. "Don't be stupid. That's ridiculous."
"You don't have to believe me," Joonmyun says, shrugging. A bit of color returns to his face as he shuffles backward toward Kyungsoo's bedroom door. "Just read the chapter about it in our history of magic textbook."
Kyungsoo flips to it the next morning during his casting lesson. The chapter on demons is titled SOUL-EATER and outlines the gruesome ways people have died in summonings. Wizards eaten alive by fire while still in their pentagrams, accidentally summoning an ifrit you couldn't control when you'd been trying for a simple water imp, all manner of things that could go wrong with the chalk or the candles or the shape of your circle.
Fearmongering, really. Kyungsoo couldn't imagine Chanyeol burning anything out of malice, not even the stray cat that had wandered into the garden when Kyungsoo was eight and made Chanyeol sneeze for weeks every time he handled it. Jongdae had always been the picture of politesse, especially around the guests Kyungsoo's parents entertained, had a voice like an angel, and was so nice it was almost stupid. Baekhyun, maybe, but his specific brand of assholery tended toward putting itching powder in people's underwear and less fire and brimstone. And even then-they helped Kyungsoo. That was what they were contracted for. They would never hurt him. Right?
The beginning of third year, Kyungsoo gets a job as the school librarian's assistant. It doesn't pay much, but he does get a tiny office off the main hall and enough extra spending money to buy snacks at lunch, which are nice perks.
His ulterior motive, though, is access to the restricted section. He spends all of fall semester learning the ins and outs of the library, how to enable and disable alarms, which locking spell to use for which sections. The evening of his sixteenth birthday, after the school's settled down for the night, he sneaks into the restricted section and takes out the slim book on demon summoning.
The front cover reads HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DEMON. Chapter 6 is the one on corporeal summons. Kyungsoo lays out his chalk and sketches the demon's circle, hands sure and steady. The one he has to draw around himself is a bit more complicated. To protect you from any harm, it says, and encourages lighting five candles for each corner of the pentagram.
The book doesn't say anything about multiple summons, but Kyungsoo figures he'll start small, like he always does. One step at a time. He reaches inside himself, feels his magic expand outward to fill the summoning circle, and then-
With a resounding crack, Jongdae appears in the mirroring circle. He's holding a soapy sponge in one hand and a bar of soap in the other, totally nude, and staggers a bit as he blinks the water out of his eyes. "What the hell?"
Kyungsoo leans forward on his knees, eyes wide. The inside of his throat has gone curiously dry, and it takes him a moment to unstick his mouth. "Jongdae?"
Jongdae drops the sponge and takes a step forward, dripping over the edge of the summoning circle. "I was taking a shower before you so rudely interrupted me," he says, slicking his hair back.
Kyungsoo squints, suspicious. "I didn't know demons needed to shower."
"We don't," he says, grinning. He cocks his hands on his hips, unabashed by his state of undress. Kyungsoo decidedly doesn't look down. "It just feels nice. Water, electricity, sparks. You get the idea." He peers around the room. "This isn't your dormitory."
"No," Kyungsoo says faintly. "I wanted to try something new, so I decided to go somewhere with a little more privacy. This is my office at the library."
Jongdae whistles. "Not bad. So what was it you wanted to try?"
"Uh," Kyungsoo says, swallowing. "I think you're here. Like, here here. In corporeal form. If it worked right, anyway."
Jongdae's eyes narrow. He toes the edge of the summoning circle with interest. Every time Kyungsoo tried in the past, his demons have gone up in a plume of smoke when they tried to leave the summoning circle. This time, though, Jongdae pushes through the boundary around the pentagram like it's viscous jelly, the air rippling around his hand as he extends it out past the chalky line.
"Did it work?" Kyungsoo asks, heart in his throat.
Jongdae slides out completely and runs his hands along his body, checking for damage. When he looks at Kyungsoo again, the grin on his face is almost feral. "I'll say."
"That's-great. Mission accomplished."
Jongdae pads toward the chaise in the corner of the room, leaving puddles behind on the floorboards. "Do you have a towel or something?"
The moment Kyungsoo exits his summoning circle, he can feel Jongdae's presence bearing down on him like physical pressure, even though he's only sitting innocuously on the other side of the room. Class-two ifrit, Chanyeol had told him, when Kyungsoo asked what type of demon he was, which meant Baekhyun-and Jongdae-
Kyungsoo sucks in a long breath and tries to relax. Jongdae's brow wrinkles as he watches him. "Hey. Are you okay?"
"Yes," he hears himself say. "I just-" He takes a step toward the couch, two, three, and staggers a bit as the rush of blood in his ears roars louder. This hasn't ever happened to him before, but maybe it was the fact that he'd done the summoning this time, not his parents.
The switch clicks on in Jongdae's head. "Oh," he says, looking aghast. "Wait, I get it." As he sits up straighter, the pressure suddenly diminishes, the popping feeling in Kyungsoo's ears easing off. Kyungsoo hops two steps forward and ends up half-bent over Jongdae's still form, staring down into his dark eyes. "Sorry about that."
Kyungsoo lets his forehead drop onto Jongdae's, eyes closing for a moment. He can still hear a dull ringing in his ears. "Stupid," he mutters. "No wonder the book said to stay in the circle."
There are hands on his hips. They guide him into Jongdae's lap. "Oof," Jongdae whines, "you're getting heavy," but he doesn't push him off. Only shifts into a more comfortable position and rubs soothing circles into Kyungsoo's aching lower back. A bit of water seeps through Kyungsoo's uniform slacks. "What book are you talking about?"
"I took a book from the library and to figure out how to summon you for real."
A pause. "You stole it?"
Kyungsoo opens his eyes to see Jongdae grinning up at him. He follows the cat-like lift of Jongdae's lips down to the strong line of his jaw. "Don't say it," he croaks.
"We'll make a troublemaker out of you yet," Jongdae says, sounding pleased.
Kyungsoo squeezes his knees around Jongdae's waist and wriggles. "You're getting me wet."
"You're a wizard, aren't you?" Jongdae says, even as his skin starts steaming gently as he evaporates all the excess water off his skin. "Don't you have a spell or something that can deal with this kind of thing?"
"Maybe," Kyungsoo says. "But I'm tired." And he finds, as he says it, that it's true. Summoning a corporeal demon had taken out a bigger chunk of his energy than he'd expected. He doesn't think he'd be able to stand even if he tried.
"That's okay," Jongdae murmurs, voice soothing. "You did good." His eyebrows rise as Kyungsoo shifts. "Happy birthday, by the way."
"I almost forgot," Kyungsoo says, yawning. He buries his face into the soft chaise cushions. "But, you know. Birthdays are the height of the magical year, so I thought I'd give summoning a try."
"Do you want anything?" Jongdae asks. His breath tickles Kyungsoo's hair.
"This is good enough."
"Are you sure?" There's an odd quality in his voice that Kyungsoo's never heard before. He pulls back to gaze at Jongdae's face and finds himself riveted, eyes tracing the generous bow of his mouth. "We're-I mean, you have three ifrits at your disposal. We could technically get you anything."
Anything. Kyungsoo's tired, tense after a long day of practical casting at school. He really just wants to sleep. Jongdae makes a comfortable pillow. It only seems natural to lean his head down, their breath mingling in the cool air of his office, and press their mouths together.
The shock of another mouth against his goes away quickly. Kyungsoo's never kissed anyone before. It's not the kind of thing that's ever concerned him much before, but now, here, it feels good to stroke his tongue against Jongdae's as it slides past his teeth, so he does it again. He hears Jongdae let out a muffled sound, his grip on Kyungsoo's hips tightening to pull him closer, and-
Their crotches slot together, like two pieces of a puzzle. Kyungsoo goes light-headed as his cock stiffens, trapped tight against his leg. Jongdae kisses him harder, lips wet and slick, and lets his hips roll up to meet him. Magic spikes in Kyungsoo's veins, crackles down his spine, and another loud crack rends the air as he ruts down into Jongdae. A beat later, Chanyeol's voice is crooning into his ear. "You finally learned how to summon us properly? Look at you, I'm so proud."
It occurs to Kyungsoo, through the warm buzz in his ears, that he'd forgotten to break the summoning circle. It was still live, still siphoning energy off him, and now Chanyeol was here. Solid, real, hands roaming over his back. Kyungsoo isn't sure if it's the magic recoil or the way Jongdae's palming his erection through his pants that makes him feel so dizzy. Either way, he slumps toward Jongdae as they unbutton his shirt and pull it off. A warm mouth inches down the knobs of his spine, thumbs digging into the cramped muscles and working the kinks out. By the end of the impromptu massage, Kyungsoo's so relaxed he doesn't even protest when they turn him around to slide his slacks off, just drops his head back against Jongdae's shoulder and stares up at Chanyeol.
"Hi," Chanyeol says, beaming. The ends of his orange hair are alight with flame, casting a glow around them. He looks-beautiful, really. Like magic come to life. "I have to say, your uniform is pretty sexy, but I think I like you better like this."
Kyungsoo watches as he drops neatly to his knees. "What are you-?"
The question chokes off into a whimper when Chanyeol wraps a hand around Kyungsoo's dick and pulls. His eyes taper with concentration, pupils narrowing into slits. A fiery lock of his hair trails against Kyungsoo's thigh as he jerks him off, but it doesn't burn. Just feels warm, like the palm around his erection, the thumb curling over the head, every part of Chanyeol giving off heat, like his own personal sun.
Kyungsoo tries to buck up into his hand. Jongdae's arm around his waist keeps him bodily in place, but the corner of Chanyeol's mouth jumps. He leans in and sinks his entire mouth around Kyungsoo's cock, hot and wet, and Kyungsoo wonders, faintly, if this is what they'd meant when they said demons wanted to eat your soul.
He feels like he's going to burst when Chanyeol swallows, lips inching down the shaft of his dick. Kyungsoo buries his hands in Chanyeol's hair, twists his fingers through the silky strands. Arches his spine, the crown of his head digging into the back of the chaise, rolling against Jongdae's shoulder, and feels his very joints thrum with energy. There's one last crack, bright light cascading from the ceiling to fill the summoning circle, and then Baekhyun's voice floats over the wet sucking of Chanyeol's mouth, sounding incredibly miffed. "I can't believe you forgot to invite me."
Jongdae laughs, open-mouthed, into Kyungsoo's neck. "As if you ever need an invitation." He lifts a hand to flick at one of Kyungsoo's nipples, a jolt of electricity hopping from the end of his finger and humming across Kyungsoo's chest. Kyungsoo groans, breath leaving him all at once, and feels Jongdae smile against his skin.
"We have-" Kyungsoo starts, but Chanyeol hollows his cheeks out and Kyungsoo bites on the bottom of his left palm to muffle another moan. "We have to be quiet. The walls-they have ears-"
Baekhyun pays him no heed, as usual. Just climbs onto the chaise, sprawls out next to him and folds his mouth over Kyungsoo's. He kisses rough and fast, licking behind Kyungsoo's teeth and along his gums, a thin hand smoothing over the damp skin of his neck. Kyungsoo can't move, can't breathe, the tangle of arms and legs and mouths anchoring him in place. Chanyeol's nose hits his pelvic bone just as Baekhyun bites down into Kyungsoo's soft lower lip, sharp canines scraping his skin. Kyungsoo arches his back, Jongdae's bare arm like a brand over the swell of his ribcage, and comes in Chanyeol's mouth, electricity fizzing all the way down to his toes.
They wipe him clean, after. Or rather, Jongdae does. Baekhyun starts doing it with his mouth, eyes sparkling, and Kyungsoo has to shove him away before he gets hard again, his pulse stuttering in his neck. Jongdae lays him out on the chaise and manages to find a set of clothes to put on, curls up on top of Kyungsoo's feet and doesn't budge, not even when Kyungsoo tries to shake him off. Baekhyun sits cross-legged on the floorboards, head leaned back against the seat of the couch. When Kyungsoo lifts his right arm, there's a triple Venn diagram of seals setting in on his wrist like a tattoo, tiny pentagrams webbed in between each circle.
Baekhyun scrunches his nose when he sees them. "I guess that means we're really yours. For however long the contract lasts, anyway."
Kyungsoo props his chin up on an elbow. "So will you finally listen to me when I tell you to shut up?"
"Don't count on it," Chanyeol says, and dodges the throw pillow Kyungsoo tosses at his head. There's definitely not enough room for another person on the sofa, but Chanyeol flops on top of him like a blanket anyway. Kyungsoo groans as the couch creaks. He falls asleep to the sound of Baekhyun's laughter.
For as long as Kyungsoo can remember, he's had three companions. They're too loud, don't listen to anything he says, and have an unfortunate penchant for roughhousing, but Kyungsoo doesn't think he'd trade them for the world.
Author: gdgdbaby
Recipient: coffeeromances
Pairing/Focus: D.O-centric, OT4
Rating: nc17
Warnings: consensual underage sex
Length: 3,909 words
Summary: no normal person could possibly handle three demons out for a piece of his soul. then again, young master do isn't exactly normal.
For as long as Kyungsoo can remember, there have been demons living in the Do household.
Sometimes, Kyungsoo's favorite kitchen ahjumma-the one who always sneaks him extra dessert after dinner-lets an impatient blast of fire out of her mouth to warm the bread. Their gardener waters the roses with a point of his finger when he thinks no one else is watching. One of Kyungsoo's earliest memories is of a midnight thunderstorm, the very air saturated with the metallic tang of magic. He'd scurried down the long hall to his parents' wing, frightened for a reason he didn't understand, the hair on the back of his neck prickling. Peeked into the master bedroom and saw his mother sitting in the center of a summoning circle, beads of sweat gathered at her temples, a class-five marid floating in blue fire on the other side of the room.
As the son and heir of two of the most powerful sorcerers in the country, magic is woven through every aspect of Kyungsoo's life. His mother starts teaching him young. Simple casting, beginning with levitation and telekinesis and moving on to basic day-to-day spells. Nothing too complicated. When Kyungsoo is eight years old, Jongdae opens his palms and shows him the lightning dancing between his fingers. During his casting lesson the next morning, when he's trying very hard not to nod off over a History of Magic text by sneaking glances out the window to watch his three playmates climb the big oak tree in the garden, he asks, "How come Chanyeol and Jongdae and Baekhyun don't have to learn with me? They aren't like Seungsoo-hyung. They can do what I do."
His mother lets out an amused huff. "Your companions don't need to learn magic," she says, brushing a fond hand through his hair. "They are magic."
If they're magic, they don't seem like much. Kyungsoo's friends are constantly underfoot when Things have to be done. Chanyeol once set fire to the dining room table because he tripped over the leg of Jongdae's chair. Kyungsoo always seems to swing by the kitchens in time to see Baekhyun being scolded by Song-ahjumma for stealing another pastry from the kitchen.
"I think we're supposed to be your butlers, or something," Chanyeol says, waving a vague hand in the air. "Your parents weren't very specific when they contracted us."
"Some butlers," Kyungsoo says, kicking him off the end of his bed. "I'm pretty sure Baekhyun makes more of a mess than everyone else in this house combined."
"See if I steal anything for you again," Baekhyun mutters. He tries to snatch Kyungsoo's plate out of his hand, but Kyungsoo shovels the last huge bite of pastry in his mouth and chews thickly. It's apple. His favorite. Baekhyun grins, his mouth sticky with cinnamon, and pushes his face into Kyungsoo's bedspread.
After a fantastic row that he has with Baekhyun when he's fourteen, his parents tell him they'd originally only wanted one. "We thought you could use a friend," his father explains. "Our family has always kept company with demons. Your brother doesn't have your talent for magic, but he did so well with his demon that we thought-why not?"
"But I guess yours only wanted to come in threes," his mother says. "We summoned one and the other two popped up with him. Refused to go." From the view in Kyungsoo's study, he can see Baekhyun perched atop the highest tree in the garden, the slouched slope of his back, his bright shock of purple hair. A minute later, Jongdae's head pops up through the canopy. Their heads bend together. "If you really want, we could send two of them back. A demon's duty only lasts as long as its contract."
The fight had been-stupid. Kyungsoo was tired from casting all day. Baekhyun had been in his space, chattering incessantly with Chanyeol and being a general nuisance when Kyungsoo was trying to nap. "They're very noisy," he says carefully. "And annoying. They don't call me young master like the other demons, or listen to what I say. But I like them, I think." He bites his lip.
"That's good," his mother says, and laughs.
It doesn't occur to Kyungsoo how rare demon summoning is until he starts going to boarding school on his own that fall.
Attending a school for magic in the city is pretty boring. For one, he isn't learning anything his parents haven't already taught him. He could sleep through all his classes and still make perfect marks, but his parents had insisted: you need to socialize! Get to know your future peers! Kyungsoo thinks he socializes plenty, what with Jongdae pulling him out into the sun all day, stretching across the lawn like a tanning lizard, and Baekhyun and Chanyeol goading him into all sorts of trouble. Still, his parents persisted. Kyungsoo keeps quiet and goes anyway.
After living with the three rowdiest demons known to man, everything else seems indescribably dull. He wakes up in the morning and expects a loud chorus of voices, hands dragging him to the breakfast table, and then, after the food has been cleaned off all their plates, out into the garden to play. Instead, he's greeted by the still silence of his dorm room, and his suitemate Joonmyun's even breathing through the thin walls. No grinning faces. No occasional glimpses of a forked tail. Kyungsoo hadn't expected to miss it.
There's no summoning course at K-WIZ. Kyungsoo has to wait until the winter holiday to see his demons. In December, he hops off the carriage with his luggage, swallowed by his puffy coat, and lands in a snowdrift just outside the gates of the Do estate. A minute later, Chanyeol skids to a standstill in front of him, orange hair unkempt and windswept. Jongdae's grinning behind him, a big bouquet of flowers in one hand, arm hooked in Baekhyun's, and then all Kyungsoo can see is Chanyeol's broad chest. He's as warm as a furnace. "You're taller than I remember," Kyungsoo wheezes, letting himself be squeezed for a moment before maneuvering a draft of wind between them.
Chanyeol grins. "Maybe you're just short." He yells when Kyungsoo zaps him with a stinging hex.
"It's so boring without you here," Baekhyun admits, kicking at a rock. "Can't you take us with you?"
"What have you been up to, anyway?" Kyungsoo asks, when they're toasting in front of the fireplace. He watches the three of them exchange long glances.
"Things," Jongdae says at last, waggling his fingers enigmatically. Kyungsoo doesn't think he's ever seen them so tight-lipped. "We'll tell you when you can summon us properly."
Kyungsoo spends all winter break taking notes from the archaic magic books Baekhyun helps him steal from his father's study, piecing together his own rudimentary summoning circle. When he tries it out at school in the spring, it turns out Kyungsoo doesn't have the juice or finesse for a full summons, only talking heads.
"It's okay," Jongdae says with a grin, head poking out of the demon's circle Kyungsoo had penciled into the floor of his bedroom. He's in his original form, dark brown hair standing on end, crackling with electricity. "You'll get better with practice."
Anything is better than nothing. They spend hours talking into the night, Kyungsoo listening sleepily as Jongdae and Chanyeol tell him about everything that's happening back at the estate. When they get to the invisibility unit in Practical Magic, Baekhyun helps him out with the specifics of light-cloaking. "How do you think I got so good at stealing Song-ahjumma's pastries?" he says, squinting down at the textbook Kyungsoo shoves under his nose. "This shit is a piece of cake."
Joonmyun finally catches him at it during second year, when Kyungsoo's managed to consistently summon all of Chanyeol's fiery form inside the pentagram, but isn't so strong that Chanyeol's corporeal enough to step out of the circle. A floorboard creaks behind Kyungsoo and Chanyeol winks out of existence as his concentration breaks. Joonmyun's pale as a sheet when Kyungsoo's head snaps back to stare at him.
"That was-"
"Yes," Kyungsoo says, picking himself up and dusting his knees off. "A demon. A class-two ifrit, I think, but who knows? Maybe he was just lying to impress me."
"You-" Joonmyun's voice cracks. He swallows and tries again. "You should be careful. I know you're in the advanced class, but it isn't-demons aren't safe."
Kyungsoo frowns. "What do you mean?"
Joonmyun shakes his head. The air in Kyungsoo's room still smells faintly of smoke, Chanyeol's essence, the fire that had covered him from head to toe. "There's a reason we don't learn this stuff at school. Demons only want one thing." His mouth twists into a grimace. "They want to steal your soul."
Kyungsoo snorts loudly. Steal his soul. Baekhyun couldn't even steal a pastry without getting hit. "Don't be stupid. That's ridiculous."
"You don't have to believe me," Joonmyun says, shrugging. A bit of color returns to his face as he shuffles backward toward Kyungsoo's bedroom door. "Just read the chapter about it in our history of magic textbook."
Kyungsoo flips to it the next morning during his casting lesson. The chapter on demons is titled SOUL-EATER and outlines the gruesome ways people have died in summonings. Wizards eaten alive by fire while still in their pentagrams, accidentally summoning an ifrit you couldn't control when you'd been trying for a simple water imp, all manner of things that could go wrong with the chalk or the candles or the shape of your circle.
Fearmongering, really. Kyungsoo couldn't imagine Chanyeol burning anything out of malice, not even the stray cat that had wandered into the garden when Kyungsoo was eight and made Chanyeol sneeze for weeks every time he handled it. Jongdae had always been the picture of politesse, especially around the guests Kyungsoo's parents entertained, had a voice like an angel, and was so nice it was almost stupid. Baekhyun, maybe, but his specific brand of assholery tended toward putting itching powder in people's underwear and less fire and brimstone. And even then-they helped Kyungsoo. That was what they were contracted for. They would never hurt him. Right?
The beginning of third year, Kyungsoo gets a job as the school librarian's assistant. It doesn't pay much, but he does get a tiny office off the main hall and enough extra spending money to buy snacks at lunch, which are nice perks.
His ulterior motive, though, is access to the restricted section. He spends all of fall semester learning the ins and outs of the library, how to enable and disable alarms, which locking spell to use for which sections. The evening of his sixteenth birthday, after the school's settled down for the night, he sneaks into the restricted section and takes out the slim book on demon summoning.
The front cover reads HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DEMON. Chapter 6 is the one on corporeal summons. Kyungsoo lays out his chalk and sketches the demon's circle, hands sure and steady. The one he has to draw around himself is a bit more complicated. To protect you from any harm, it says, and encourages lighting five candles for each corner of the pentagram.
The book doesn't say anything about multiple summons, but Kyungsoo figures he'll start small, like he always does. One step at a time. He reaches inside himself, feels his magic expand outward to fill the summoning circle, and then-
With a resounding crack, Jongdae appears in the mirroring circle. He's holding a soapy sponge in one hand and a bar of soap in the other, totally nude, and staggers a bit as he blinks the water out of his eyes. "What the hell?"
Kyungsoo leans forward on his knees, eyes wide. The inside of his throat has gone curiously dry, and it takes him a moment to unstick his mouth. "Jongdae?"
Jongdae drops the sponge and takes a step forward, dripping over the edge of the summoning circle. "I was taking a shower before you so rudely interrupted me," he says, slicking his hair back.
Kyungsoo squints, suspicious. "I didn't know demons needed to shower."
"We don't," he says, grinning. He cocks his hands on his hips, unabashed by his state of undress. Kyungsoo decidedly doesn't look down. "It just feels nice. Water, electricity, sparks. You get the idea." He peers around the room. "This isn't your dormitory."
"No," Kyungsoo says faintly. "I wanted to try something new, so I decided to go somewhere with a little more privacy. This is my office at the library."
Jongdae whistles. "Not bad. So what was it you wanted to try?"
"Uh," Kyungsoo says, swallowing. "I think you're here. Like, here here. In corporeal form. If it worked right, anyway."
Jongdae's eyes narrow. He toes the edge of the summoning circle with interest. Every time Kyungsoo tried in the past, his demons have gone up in a plume of smoke when they tried to leave the summoning circle. This time, though, Jongdae pushes through the boundary around the pentagram like it's viscous jelly, the air rippling around his hand as he extends it out past the chalky line.
"Did it work?" Kyungsoo asks, heart in his throat.
Jongdae slides out completely and runs his hands along his body, checking for damage. When he looks at Kyungsoo again, the grin on his face is almost feral. "I'll say."
"That's-great. Mission accomplished."
Jongdae pads toward the chaise in the corner of the room, leaving puddles behind on the floorboards. "Do you have a towel or something?"
The moment Kyungsoo exits his summoning circle, he can feel Jongdae's presence bearing down on him like physical pressure, even though he's only sitting innocuously on the other side of the room. Class-two ifrit, Chanyeol had told him, when Kyungsoo asked what type of demon he was, which meant Baekhyun-and Jongdae-
Kyungsoo sucks in a long breath and tries to relax. Jongdae's brow wrinkles as he watches him. "Hey. Are you okay?"
"Yes," he hears himself say. "I just-" He takes a step toward the couch, two, three, and staggers a bit as the rush of blood in his ears roars louder. This hasn't ever happened to him before, but maybe it was the fact that he'd done the summoning this time, not his parents.
The switch clicks on in Jongdae's head. "Oh," he says, looking aghast. "Wait, I get it." As he sits up straighter, the pressure suddenly diminishes, the popping feeling in Kyungsoo's ears easing off. Kyungsoo hops two steps forward and ends up half-bent over Jongdae's still form, staring down into his dark eyes. "Sorry about that."
Kyungsoo lets his forehead drop onto Jongdae's, eyes closing for a moment. He can still hear a dull ringing in his ears. "Stupid," he mutters. "No wonder the book said to stay in the circle."
There are hands on his hips. They guide him into Jongdae's lap. "Oof," Jongdae whines, "you're getting heavy," but he doesn't push him off. Only shifts into a more comfortable position and rubs soothing circles into Kyungsoo's aching lower back. A bit of water seeps through Kyungsoo's uniform slacks. "What book are you talking about?"
"I took a book from the library and to figure out how to summon you for real."
A pause. "You stole it?"
Kyungsoo opens his eyes to see Jongdae grinning up at him. He follows the cat-like lift of Jongdae's lips down to the strong line of his jaw. "Don't say it," he croaks.
"We'll make a troublemaker out of you yet," Jongdae says, sounding pleased.
Kyungsoo squeezes his knees around Jongdae's waist and wriggles. "You're getting me wet."
"You're a wizard, aren't you?" Jongdae says, even as his skin starts steaming gently as he evaporates all the excess water off his skin. "Don't you have a spell or something that can deal with this kind of thing?"
"Maybe," Kyungsoo says. "But I'm tired." And he finds, as he says it, that it's true. Summoning a corporeal demon had taken out a bigger chunk of his energy than he'd expected. He doesn't think he'd be able to stand even if he tried.
"That's okay," Jongdae murmurs, voice soothing. "You did good." His eyebrows rise as Kyungsoo shifts. "Happy birthday, by the way."
"I almost forgot," Kyungsoo says, yawning. He buries his face into the soft chaise cushions. "But, you know. Birthdays are the height of the magical year, so I thought I'd give summoning a try."
"Do you want anything?" Jongdae asks. His breath tickles Kyungsoo's hair.
"This is good enough."
"Are you sure?" There's an odd quality in his voice that Kyungsoo's never heard before. He pulls back to gaze at Jongdae's face and finds himself riveted, eyes tracing the generous bow of his mouth. "We're-I mean, you have three ifrits at your disposal. We could technically get you anything."
Anything. Kyungsoo's tired, tense after a long day of practical casting at school. He really just wants to sleep. Jongdae makes a comfortable pillow. It only seems natural to lean his head down, their breath mingling in the cool air of his office, and press their mouths together.
The shock of another mouth against his goes away quickly. Kyungsoo's never kissed anyone before. It's not the kind of thing that's ever concerned him much before, but now, here, it feels good to stroke his tongue against Jongdae's as it slides past his teeth, so he does it again. He hears Jongdae let out a muffled sound, his grip on Kyungsoo's hips tightening to pull him closer, and-
Their crotches slot together, like two pieces of a puzzle. Kyungsoo goes light-headed as his cock stiffens, trapped tight against his leg. Jongdae kisses him harder, lips wet and slick, and lets his hips roll up to meet him. Magic spikes in Kyungsoo's veins, crackles down his spine, and another loud crack rends the air as he ruts down into Jongdae. A beat later, Chanyeol's voice is crooning into his ear. "You finally learned how to summon us properly? Look at you, I'm so proud."
It occurs to Kyungsoo, through the warm buzz in his ears, that he'd forgotten to break the summoning circle. It was still live, still siphoning energy off him, and now Chanyeol was here. Solid, real, hands roaming over his back. Kyungsoo isn't sure if it's the magic recoil or the way Jongdae's palming his erection through his pants that makes him feel so dizzy. Either way, he slumps toward Jongdae as they unbutton his shirt and pull it off. A warm mouth inches down the knobs of his spine, thumbs digging into the cramped muscles and working the kinks out. By the end of the impromptu massage, Kyungsoo's so relaxed he doesn't even protest when they turn him around to slide his slacks off, just drops his head back against Jongdae's shoulder and stares up at Chanyeol.
"Hi," Chanyeol says, beaming. The ends of his orange hair are alight with flame, casting a glow around them. He looks-beautiful, really. Like magic come to life. "I have to say, your uniform is pretty sexy, but I think I like you better like this."
Kyungsoo watches as he drops neatly to his knees. "What are you-?"
The question chokes off into a whimper when Chanyeol wraps a hand around Kyungsoo's dick and pulls. His eyes taper with concentration, pupils narrowing into slits. A fiery lock of his hair trails against Kyungsoo's thigh as he jerks him off, but it doesn't burn. Just feels warm, like the palm around his erection, the thumb curling over the head, every part of Chanyeol giving off heat, like his own personal sun.
Kyungsoo tries to buck up into his hand. Jongdae's arm around his waist keeps him bodily in place, but the corner of Chanyeol's mouth jumps. He leans in and sinks his entire mouth around Kyungsoo's cock, hot and wet, and Kyungsoo wonders, faintly, if this is what they'd meant when they said demons wanted to eat your soul.
He feels like he's going to burst when Chanyeol swallows, lips inching down the shaft of his dick. Kyungsoo buries his hands in Chanyeol's hair, twists his fingers through the silky strands. Arches his spine, the crown of his head digging into the back of the chaise, rolling against Jongdae's shoulder, and feels his very joints thrum with energy. There's one last crack, bright light cascading from the ceiling to fill the summoning circle, and then Baekhyun's voice floats over the wet sucking of Chanyeol's mouth, sounding incredibly miffed. "I can't believe you forgot to invite me."
Jongdae laughs, open-mouthed, into Kyungsoo's neck. "As if you ever need an invitation." He lifts a hand to flick at one of Kyungsoo's nipples, a jolt of electricity hopping from the end of his finger and humming across Kyungsoo's chest. Kyungsoo groans, breath leaving him all at once, and feels Jongdae smile against his skin.
"We have-" Kyungsoo starts, but Chanyeol hollows his cheeks out and Kyungsoo bites on the bottom of his left palm to muffle another moan. "We have to be quiet. The walls-they have ears-"
Baekhyun pays him no heed, as usual. Just climbs onto the chaise, sprawls out next to him and folds his mouth over Kyungsoo's. He kisses rough and fast, licking behind Kyungsoo's teeth and along his gums, a thin hand smoothing over the damp skin of his neck. Kyungsoo can't move, can't breathe, the tangle of arms and legs and mouths anchoring him in place. Chanyeol's nose hits his pelvic bone just as Baekhyun bites down into Kyungsoo's soft lower lip, sharp canines scraping his skin. Kyungsoo arches his back, Jongdae's bare arm like a brand over the swell of his ribcage, and comes in Chanyeol's mouth, electricity fizzing all the way down to his toes.
They wipe him clean, after. Or rather, Jongdae does. Baekhyun starts doing it with his mouth, eyes sparkling, and Kyungsoo has to shove him away before he gets hard again, his pulse stuttering in his neck. Jongdae lays him out on the chaise and manages to find a set of clothes to put on, curls up on top of Kyungsoo's feet and doesn't budge, not even when Kyungsoo tries to shake him off. Baekhyun sits cross-legged on the floorboards, head leaned back against the seat of the couch. When Kyungsoo lifts his right arm, there's a triple Venn diagram of seals setting in on his wrist like a tattoo, tiny pentagrams webbed in between each circle.
Baekhyun scrunches his nose when he sees them. "I guess that means we're really yours. For however long the contract lasts, anyway."
Kyungsoo props his chin up on an elbow. "So will you finally listen to me when I tell you to shut up?"
"Don't count on it," Chanyeol says, and dodges the throw pillow Kyungsoo tosses at his head. There's definitely not enough room for another person on the sofa, but Chanyeol flops on top of him like a blanket anyway. Kyungsoo groans as the couch creaks. He falls asleep to the sound of Baekhyun's laughter.
For as long as Kyungsoo can remember, he's had three companions. They're too loud, don't listen to anything he says, and have an unfortunate penchant for roughhousing, but Kyungsoo doesn't think he'd trade them for the world.