Chapter Text
University-aged Mihawk drawing random pentagrams and circles he's been looking up in a used book he picked up the past weekend. He's doodling sigils during class and then the door to the classroom slams open and a very handsome red-haired man with a claw-marked scar over his left eye steps in and looks directly at Mihawk, saying, "I've never had someone call for me so desperately, or persistently."
Everyone in the class turns their heads as one to look at Mihawk, who frowns. "Who are you," he says.
"Only the demon that can grant you your every desire," the man says flirtatiously, sauntering toward Mihawk.
The professor clears his throat. "Mister Dracule, you and your friend are disrupting our class."
"He's not my friend," Mihawk snaps, confused and irritated. "I don't know who he is."
"You wound me, Hawky!" the man cries, clutching at his chest with both hands.
A shiver runs down Mihawk's spine. How does this man know Mihawk's name?
The man finally makes his way to Mihawk's desk, and plants his hand firmly onto the notebook Mihawk had been doodling in.
"Mister Dra—" his teacher starts, but doesn't finish, as the red-haired man snaps his fingers, and suddenly everything is still. No one moves. No one breathes. The sound of the air conditioning is gone, as is the humming of the old projector the teacher was using, both unnoticeable to Mihawk until they were silenced. The teacher's mouth is still open mid-syllable.
Time has stopped entirely—but for this man, and Mihawk.
The handsome, bewildering stranger leans forward, face inching toward Mihawk's own. With a crinkle of pages, he holds up Mihawk's notebook between them, the doodles prominently displayed.
"You called?"
*
For a demon, Shanks isn't very demonly. More personable than Mihawk by a mile with a grin as bright as sunshine, one would never think to associate this man—this creature—with hell. The only thing hellish about him is his seduction manner, and even then, it's only the sort of devilish that tends to succeed in getting one into a bed.
Not that Mihawk's been thinking about it.
Mostly, Mihawk's been thinking about how to get the demon away from him and back into his own goddamn dimension, but apparently—
"These sigils are binding, Hawky," Shanks says, not even trying to contain his glee. "I can't leave until you tell me what you want."
"What I want is for you to leave!" Mihawk exclaims, throwing his hands up. He's tired from all the googling he's been doing to figure out how to un-summon a demon. Unsurprisingly, his research has yielded nothing but a pair of extremely dry eyes for him.
"Nuh-uh," Shanks replies. "That's not your heart's desire."
Mihawk growls at him. "Wanna bet?"
Shanks smirks back, clearly delighted to be meeting him in his irritation. "Bets are the devil's currency, Hawky," he says, leaning in closer to look at Mihawk through dark red lashes. "I would love to bet."
A shiver runs down Mihawk's spine, and he's not sure if it's dread, wariness, or... something else. Ignoring the way his cheeks heat up, he turns back to his laptop and doesn't respond.
*
Extra context:
Roger can be king of demons, with sons Shanks and Buggy.
Rayleigh can be human, dubbed the dark king for his powers/association/alliance with the demon (night) realm. He answers to Roger, a sort of second-in-command that overlooks the human (day) realm, and in return, the place he reigns is safe.
Mihawk is Rayleigh’s son. When Shanks shows up, he calls him his prince, or dark prince, prince of darkness. It comes off as a pet name, but Mihawk finds out later it was 100p serious, because his dad is actually the dark king.
Mihawk doesn't know about the night realm. Ray wanted to keep him out of it, having seen the kind of life one leads when associated with All That.
It was working too, as Rayleigh manages things but in a way that’s kind of freelance-y (or maybe mafia-like). And Mihawk was protected because Roger was king of demons, but then Roger dies.
Ray still more or less manages, as he got Mihawk blessed in order to lock up his powers, but one day Mihawk picks up an occult book and starts doodling the sigils he sees during class out of boredom, and he accidentally sort of opens the gates for all kinds of demons.
Shanks comes, and comes fast, because he recognizes Ray’s energy but knows it’s not Ray himself. Shanks has been hearing about Mihawk all his life, and is thrilled not only to meet the man, but to find such a handsome one at that. He already knows Ray's gonna give him the third degree but Ray’s just gonna have to deal because man is Hawky sinfully attractive.
Now, politically (in the night realm), Shanks is already an emperor. He'd been sort of acting regent alongside three other big-name demons in the absence of the king of demons. He’s been overseeing Ray’s role as well, as the man’s stepped back to train Luffy, who’d been chosen by Shanks to take up the mantle of king of demons—Roger’s kid Ace is absolutely not interested, and Luffy is not only Ace’s adopted brother, but also has the same vision as the late demon king. (Mihawk’s actually met Luffy, but he only thinks he’s a really weird kid that Rayleigh’s training at the gym.)
*