100 Puppies and Dragons

Author's Note: Follow-up to Slow Down.

Shattered

"Uhn… Fuck…" Joey hugged himself and bit his bottom lip as he stared at the pieces of shattered glass around him. "What did I do wrong?"

Seto traced his finger over the chalk on the wrought-iron mirror frame. "You put a scry-rune where you should have put a time-rune." He smirked and turned toward the blond. "You've finally made your mistake, Joey, and I'm ready to take you back to my domain."

Joey dodged his hands and stumbled to his feet, rushing to the door of his room. He yanked at the knob frantically and shivered as the demon cackled, spinning to face him and pressing up against the door. "Stay away from me-!"

"I told you what I'd do as soon as I had the opportunity," the brunet purred, advancing on him. "It's been quite a while since you summoned me, Joey. Perhaps I should punish you for it."

"It's only been a week and a half-! No!" Joey ducked his hands again and ran toward the window, but ice crept over the glass and wood, locking the window in place. He turned to face the demon and gasped as the brunet grabbed him by the shoulders and slammed him into the wall. "Seto-!"

Seto pressed his face into the blond's neck and moaned. "You smell delicious. I want to eat you up. Take your clothes off."

"Nngh-!" Joey jerked in his grip, trying to escape, even though he knew he couldn't. "Lemme go!"

"But Joey, I already told you that I'd be taking you to the immortal plane." The brunet growled and dug his claws into the human's side, beginning to gently kiss and nibble his neck. "Don't you want to see it?"

"No!" Clawing frantically at the wall for anything he could get his hands on and use as a weapon, his fingers closed around a single claw from a dragon that had been pinned up as a trophy. Ripping it from the wall, he jammed the claw into the demon's chest and lunged away from him.

Seto stumbled to a stop, stunned, even as he felt white-hot fire traveling from the wound to the rest of his body. He whined, scrabbling wildly at the claw but unable to touch it as it burned the flesh from his fingers. Letting out a bellow of agony, he turned confused, hurt eyes on the blond staring up at him in horror, whispering, "Why would you do this to me?"

Joey didn't even have a chance to respond before the demon seemed to break apart before him, the tiny pieces flying back through the pieces of the broken mirror to the immortal plane. The claw he'd used to protect himself clattered to the ground uselessly.

"…Seto-?" Hesitant to believe that the demon was truly gone, he crawled over and looked into one of the larger pieces of glass.

Seto was hurriedly scurrying away, running on his hands and feet and tail tucked up against his stomach. He dodged slaps and kicks from other demons as he ran by, getting jeered and laughed at until he finally took refuge in a small cave. Only once he was deep against the back of it did he still, lifting his hands to examine them sadly.

Joey's breath hitched as he saw bloody burns on his fingers down to the bone, the skin of his palms torn to ribbons. The demon pulled his shirt aside to examine the stab wound, which had been burned shut by the power the claw emitted. He whined, then curled up in a ball on the floor, looking so lonely and sad that the human felt his heart wrench a little bit.

As if sensing he was being watched, Seto glanced up, frowned, then turned so he was facing the back of the cave.

Joey stood, frowning, then reached toward the mirror frame and wiped the chalk away, making the scene in the shattered mirror fade away. Then, he turned to look at the dragon claw, grimacing when he saw the blood and skin still stuck to it.

He sighed. He needed to clean everything up before someone came and saw what he'd done. He didn't want to be scolded after what he'd just been through, especially since he couldn't get the demon's broken whisper out of his head.