Chapter title from Borderline by Tove Stryke

Your name is Dirk Strider, and you hope things aren't going as shit-flipped bananas as you think they are.

You and Rose walk side by side, preferring the quiet over Roxy and Dave's loud theorizing over Bro's texts. You'd be lying if you didn't admit you were thinking about it, too, but Roxy and Dave are reaching so hard with their theories they'll need arm surgery.

Their chatter echoes through the dark alley, maybe the only sound in this dead night. For a human, it'd be dark as all hell out here. For you? Different story. If you were completely in human form, you'd retain human view, but both you and Rose have done the smart thing. Smart thing being, let your eyes revert. Not like there's anyone else around to see it.

You run a hand along the wall as you navigate, letting the coolness of brick run up your arm. Your breath turns white as you breathe out, and if you were younger, you might have made a deadpan joke about how you're an ice dragon.

As you glance at Rose, you notice that her now-glowing, purple eyes are narrowed. Her cat-like eyes dash from side to side, like there's something there. This doesn't put you on edge. You're confident in your own senses that there's nothing there.

You walk faster, listening to lone cars speed along some nearby road. Roxy yelps something sharply, but you don't bother looking back. From Dave's voice, they're still exchanging theories, and you don't need to listen to that.

Suddenly, Rose grabs your wrist, so hard that her nails dig in to your unfortunately human skin. The sharp pain almost makes you shudder.

"What?" You ask. Her eyes are closed.

"Shortcut." She opens her eyes and points at a nearby side-alley.

Looks sketchy as fuck, but hey, she wouldn't lead you to it if she didn't know it was safe.

As you turn into it, somehow it manages to be even darker. You're not worried, despite that. You're chill.

"You listenin' to the Horrors again?" You ask Rose.

"They are restless." Rose stares straight ahead now. "I suspect it might be because of the possibility of peace with the angels."

"Do they not like that?"

"Even though it will be beneficial for both sides if it goes well, their hate for angels still stands."

"Right." You nod like you don't think the Horrorterrors are just petty as fuck. "Must suck being a medium when they're restless."

"I'm used to it." Her voice lacks emotion, but hey, you can't really talk.

The alley turns into another, and your brain goes ah, familiarity.

There's a steep slope downwards into seemingly nothing, the only lightsource being a dull, red lamp on the ground nearby. You take a moment to soak in the atmosphere, because damn, it's kinda an aesthetic.

Roxy and Dave push past to shuffle down the slope, and Rose prompts you to follow by tapping your shoulder as she tags along.

"Can't wait to get outta this form," Roxy says, bounding down the slope.

"I'm gonna be so fuckin' glad to spread my wings, you won't believe it. I'll be like a dog that's been kept in a cage for - I don't know - a year, maybe, that was just released." Dave makes it his mission to get to the bottom of the slope before Roxy.

You and Rose exchange a glance as the two race, but with Roxy's longer legs, she has an advantage and beats him there, slapping her hands against the stone and sticking her tongue out at him.

Dave swats at her when he gets down there, but Rose very obviously isn't pleased.

"You two compete over the most immature things," she huffs.

Roxy says, without skipping a beat, "oh yeaahhhh, surrrre, you're one to talk, Miss I'm-gonna-be-passive-aggressive-about-everything-and-"

"Point," Rose says, before Roxy can say anything further.

Silence falls over all of you. It turns into a staring contest.

You clear your throat before it gets too awkward. "Someone gonna open the fuckin' door, or what?"

Dave opens his mouth, but Roxy cuts him off. "I will!"

Dave tried to move but Roxy pushes him. He doesn't fall over, but it's a distraction that works.

The corner of your mouth twitches at their antics. Look, they're funny.

Roxy raises a single hand and runs it against the stone. Fingers splayed, her wrist begins to glow with a symbol. She moves her hand around, almost like she's rubbing the stone, and then it begins to move.

She steps back, grinning, as the stone begins to move down like a wall, but if a human tried to mine through, they'd find nothing. There's no sound to it. You've been doing this your whole life and you're still not used to the lack of sound that comes with the action. It just feels like there should be something. A rumbling, a grinding.

It opens to darkness. A pitch-black tunnel to your destination.

Dave spends no time starting to run, shoes scraping against the ground. "Last one there's a rotten shitstain!"

"Dave, gross!" Roxy says. She pauses. "Also, unfair!" She runs after him.

You roll your eyes. So immature.

Rose gestures to you from the entrance, hand outstretched. "Shall we? I want to give them hope that at least half of their queen's spawn are mature."

You nod, take her hand, and then you both walk in.

With the sudden darkness comes a drastic change in temperature. The previous coolness is replaced with nothing. Not warmth, not coolness. Your body shudders at the sudden change, human flesh not used to it. You feel Rose shudder, too, though she definitely tries to suppress it.

Soon, light becomes visible at the end of the tunnel, and you step into the realm of demons.

Screeches and calls fill the air, accompanied by shadows that constantly fill the air. The buildings are always purple, modeled after old human buildings. The sky is infinite, yet suffocating. It looks like the roof of a dark cave, without actually being one.

You are, in no part, afraid. You take a deep breath.

"Home," you say.

"Home." Rose nods.

She sheds her human form so quickly that you miss it when you blink. Her formerly brown skin is a dark grey, and though she can't spread her wings due to her horrid human clothes, you can see them try to stretch. Her purple eyes are brighter than ever, with nice little purple freckles to match.

She gives you her trademark smug grin, making sure to show off her sharp teeth. "Well? Do you intend  on remaining vulnerable?"

"Absolutely not." You nearly shudder at the thought of wandering any further while daring to stay in this form.

You let your true form take shape quickly. Feeling your horns sprout from your head and your tail take shape is never going to stop being one of the most satisfying feelings in your life. Even just feeling your teeth return to their hella sharpness is a relief, and you feel them with the tip of your fingers - now claws - just to feel their curves.

You run your hands along your horns, too, feeling their smoothness and sharp tip. Rose does the same, albeit quicker than you. When she's done, she sighs a relieved sigh, and brings her hand up. Light sprouts from her fingers.

"Careful," you say, "you know how jealous citizens get."

"All the more reason for me to show off my royal-blood-bestowed powers," Rose retorts.

"When you get gutted by some guy because you were foolish enough to be a show-off in town, don't come running to me for help."

"I'd gut them first."

A yell interrupts you. "Holy shit guys, how slow are you?"

Dave waves at you with a clawed hand. You reply with the beautiful gesture that is your middle finger, and you see Dave snort. However, the gesture also makes him turn and fly off, evidently not wanting to stay and wait for you.

"In his defense, Bro is an impatient person when it comes to matters like these," Rose says.

"I know." You watch him fly off until you lose track of him. "I think he tore his clothes just to fly."

"Oh well, he'll be the one that suffers when we can't get any human clothes for him." Rose's tone is surprisingly light considering the situation.

You nod in agreement. Rose holds her hand out to you, like an invitation. You hesitate, because that's going to look childish as fuck when walking through the city/town/it was never given a name. You do accept, though, because why the fuck not.

To your (hidden) surprise, when you go to take her hand she weaves around and links your arms together.

"You could've just asked," you point out.

Rose shrugs, and without another word, starts to pull you along.

Your shoes tap against the stone below, which quickly turns purple to match the houses as you continue. There's shady looking demons everywhere, and you can feel the looks you get when you make it to the streets.

Despite the stares and glares, nothing makes a move towards you. They recognise their royals. You're practically untouchable, unless someone where to jump you, which is unlikely. You and Rose have both had your fair share of assassination attempts that you know how to ward them off.

The main street is filled with demons of all ages, huffing and screeching and growling. You think you see Rose move closer to you, but you're not entirely sure.

There are a few passive aggressive pushes against you, shoulders from demons and hisses from strangers. You do nothing in retaliation, though you know it would be so easy to slit their throat with your katana and use your royal status to dodge punishment.

Eventually, Rose just pulls you into a side alley. It's better in terms of the crowd being smaller, but the shadiness of the demons grows by a fuckton.

It's relatively darker, and your lips almost curl with disgust as the smell of smoke reaches your nose. A lot of smoke. Rose glances at one of the demons that you pass, and you both spot the cigarette. A human one. Must've stolen it.

You pick up the pace.

The castle spirals up in the distance, looking like the most intimidating fucking castle that ever existed. There's spikes of stone on every surface possible, just to look extra. It's taller than any other building in the entire realm. It's pretty impressive.

You just wish it were more comfortable to live in.

You and Rose match eachother step for step, pace for pace. You weave through alleys and around other demons, getting closer to the castle by the second.

Then you reach the castle, in all of it's dark glory.

There's no gate around it, nor is there some kind of moat, but shit, it's still impressive. You even take a moment to step back and look up at it as Rose heads towards the large, wooden doors.

You catch up to her as she swings the doors open with a large creak.

The interior of the castle would look impressive to anyone that hadn't ventured in it before. You can barely stand looking around in it, with it's shiny purple stairs and it's shiny purple pillars and it's shiny purple floors.

There's no slaves to be seen. Interesting.

As you walk in, your footsteps echo throughout the room. Rose lets the doors close with a creak so loud it makes a shudder run up your spine.

"Honey, we're home," Rose calls out into the empty space.

There's no answer.

"Think he's in the throne room?" You ask.

Rose snorts, "Of course, just for the sheer dramatic effect of it."

You nod, then start jogging. Bro's probably going to be annoyed that you didn't take the faster route, like Dave and Roxy did. Rose opts for walking, but that's her loss.

You make your way up stairs. A lot of fucking stairs. You don't bother with quietening your steps, and let your feet thump against the stairs. The stairs that lead to your destination spiral upwards, so high that you can't see the top.

Your feet start begging you to ditch your shirt and fly up, but like hell you're ditching this shirt. Besides, it feels like some kind of tiny bit of rebellion to walk instead of fly, for whatever reason.

By the time you get to the top, your legs hurt ever so slightly. There's only one thing at the top, and it's...a door. Surprise surprise.

You kick it open lightly and there, on the other side of the room, is Bro.

He sits casually on a throne of purple, Roxy and Dave already in front of him. His eyes narrow as you walk in, studying you with complete lack of emotion. Along with the silence, it used to intimidate you. Not anymore.

"You're so fucking slow, dude, goddamn," Dave says.

You don't answer him until you take a spot standing next to him, in front of bro. "Not as slow as Rose."

Roxy makes a quiet snort.

Bro rests his elbow on the side of his throne, piercing orange eyes flicking to the door behind you. Unlike you and Dave, he decides not to wear 'human shades'. He doesn't need them.

You hear Rose enter behind you, and then she takes her place next to Roxy.

All eyes are on Bro, now.

His head tilts to the side, but only slightly. He gives you a flick of his wrist, and then an order. "Kneel."

None of you kneel. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Dave start to, but he quickly straightens up when he realises that the rest of you aren't. Roxy clears her throat, and Bro's attention turns to her.

"Do we really gotta? I mean, we know you're the king and all, but this is super important news and-"

Within a second he's out of his chair, just a flash in your vision. You feel yourself tense up, fists clenched and knees bent, ready to move, but you know he's not going for you. No, it doesn't take too much common sense to know that he's moving towards Roxy, but you see Dave make the tiniest flinch.

It takes a second to get his fingers in her hair, and two to force her onto the ground. You hear the quiet thud her knee makes against the ground.

He ignores the quiet 'ow' that Roxy makes, and his head whips up, cat-like pupils turning to slits. He makes eye contact with you and you feel like you can't look away, even though, by all means, you should be able to because of your shades. He's got your eye contact in iron chains.

"Kneel." His voice is firmer when he commands it. Dave shuffles.

Slowly, all while keeping eye contact, you start to kneel. You look up at him when your knee hits the floor, but your muscles are still tense and ready to go.

When he's satisfied with the rest of you, he lets Roxy go.

He doesn't speak, but he stares. He stares as Dave slowly lowers his head and as Roxy rubs where Bro had grabbed her. He stares as Rose looks like she's going to speak, and he stares as you beat her to it.

"So," you say, pausing only to make sure you aren't overstepping anything. Bro doesn't move. "Mind filling us in on what the fuck's going on?"

"Makin' peace with the angels." Bro rumbles.

"Yeah, okay, we know that, but how?"

He pauses. Whether it's a hesitation or just being dramatic, you're not sure.

Then, he answers.

"You're gonna marry their king's kids."