when I was young and just getting started [ psl ]

[devilsinthedetails]

WHO Belthazor (devilsinthedetails) and Chris Halliwell (chriscross)
WHAT A summoner and his summon go on a quest to prove themselves, but end up saving the world instead.
WHEN After Chris's fourteenth birthday at some point
WHERE In a town along their path
WHY because Leo will always be the most terrible of fathers

It was going to be a good day to be traveling. Even early in the morning as it was, Belthazor could tell that it was going to be ideal conditions that wouldn't slow them down. They were at an inn, taking advantage of the rare times they were able to stop in a town and rest. Chris was still sleeping, though Belthazor was about to change that. Walking over to his master's bed, he reached down and poked his forehead gently, making sure to not scratch him with his claw.

"Summoner." Belthazor's mental 'voice' rang sharply through the link, using emotions and memories to convey his intent to Chris far better than his own made up sign language could. Besides, it was hard to make hand signals that a sleeping boy could read, thus poking and mental communication. Seeing that it wasn't quite working, Belthazor poked the summon sigil on Chris's abdomen none too gently. "Summoner, you need to wake up."

Comments

[chriscross]

Chris wasn't really ready to wake up. Although it had been weeks, almost months since the Event that killed his mother and cemented his status as a full-fledged summoner, the memories still haunted him and attacked in his sleep. It was nothing he wanted to face, but nothing he could really deny as being accidental or unrelated to him. Not being able to summon Belthazor in time was definitely his fault, being bound to something that wanted to hate him probably had to do with Chris, his inability to let Belthazor physically speak was definitely a shortcoming of his ability and power. So far, his time as a summoner had been filled with personal failures and only minor victories in the towns they'd visited that needed their intervention. His rest was constantly troubled and Chris was often reaching for more when he could.

Grunting in aggravation, Chris curled up and turned away from the offending finger. The voice in his head was all too familiar, reminiscent of disappointment and strict business talk, someone who didn't care but should. It was Leo's voice that Belthazor's own disdain conjured in Chris's head and he wondered if the summon knew how his thought projections were received or if it was all just a translation on his own end. Not that he was willing to ask, anyway. "No," he mumbled sleepily. They were safe and in a town for once, why couldn't they sleep in to fully regain their strength, anyway?

[devilsinthedetails]

Their relationship was a complicated one. As a summon, Belthazor adored Chris and wanted to do best by him, but as the free demon that he truly was, he hated Chris and his family for taking his freedom and power away from him. Even now, poking him awake far too early in the morning, was a small rebellion against his summoner. He wanted Chris dead and could really do nothing about it with the way his contract with Chris was. Belthazor could not harm his summoner no matter how much he wanted to.

"You need to wake up," his mental tone reminiscent of a younger Wyatt bouncing on the bed to wake his little brother up. "Nothing will get done while you're still in bed, sleepyhead, and you know how these towns are in need of a summoner."

[chriscross]

Giving a large and dramatic groan, Chris began to unfold and slowly sit up. He rubbed at his eyes to wake himself and blearily gave Belthazor a baleful stare for the insistence. He really couldn't say no for long, no matter how much he wanted to pretend he could ignore the world outside and their problems that summoners were sworn to help solve. Being a public servant was something Chris had prepared for all his life, but that didn't mean he didn't wish it was a little more kind on his own wishes as a person.

"I'm up," he mumbled, reaching up to press the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I'm up. Tell me we've at least got food before we go?"

[devilsinthedetails]

He rolled his eyes and let out a soft huff of amusement. Just because he wanted him dead didn't mean he wasn't going to feed him. There were much better ways to kill him after all and he wasn't going to subject the kid to starvation if he didn't have to. Belthazor then reached over and pulled Chris's hands away from his eyes and snorted quietly, a soft exhale of breath instead of any sort of sound.

"Don't rub your eyes. You don't want them to be red when we go out." He then pointed over to where he had Chris's clothes for the day waiting for him. "Get dressed and I'll take you to breakfast. They're graciously providing for us as long as we work for it."

[chriscross]

It wasn't unusual for Belthazor to guide Chris around, especially in the mornings when he had trouble getting himself awake. That was just kind of expected from the creature that was bound to him, a sort of give and take for the unspoken contract formed at Chris's birth. He mumbled to himself, moving his hands to wipe them on his sleep pants before shuffling out of bed to the pile of arranged clothing.

"They want us to search their farms for disturbances, don't they?" he asked. The tasks were jumbled up in his head and he didn't really expect Belthazor to care, either, but it was the act of conversation that helped him get going. "Something like that. Shouldn't be too hard. Anything that takes up a seat in a farm won't be a match for you."

[devilsinthedetails]

It was during the mornings where Belthazor was more like a parent than anything else. He made sure everything else was taken care of so that all Chris had to do was wander around in a sleep daze and let Belthazor do all the work. While Chris worked on getting dressed, Belthazor was already starting to brush his hair to make him look presentable. It wouldn't do to have his summoner look like a mess, after all.

"It shouldn't take long," Belthazor said with a shrug. In a place like this, there wouldn't really be anything that'd count as a threat. "If all goes well, you should be able to rest for the remainder of the day."

[chriscross]

Pulling on his pants and shirt and working on the rest of the accoutrements expected for someone of his station, Chris made no fuss over Belthazor taking care of his hair while he worked on the clothes. Being someone notable was a huge bother when it came to dressing appropriately, and there was a reason Chris preferred the quiet of travel between cities where he didn't need anything more than his boots and coat to go with his rugged clothes.

"Mm," Chris agreed as he fiddled with his vest. "Yeah, but we can't stay in town forever, either... We'll have to get moving again tomorrow. That package isn't going to wait forever."

[devilsinthedetails]

What Chris didn't know was that Belthazor knew the pains of being notable in his human life, being a nobleman and forced to deal with all that entailed, so he knew how a gentleman should look, especially one so highly prized as a Halliwell summoner. He went after Chris, adjusting the clothes as he saw fit to make sure they looked neat and proper as they should be. Thankfully, summons didn't have to worry about their clothes and Belthazor had to worry even less. It didn't matter what he was wearing when he looked like a demon, he had found.

"Just for the rest of the day and the night, summoner," he responded mentally with a calming wave of emotions and memories. "You might be an adult as a summoner, but you're still a child in many ways. We can take an afternoon off for you to have a bit of a vacation."

[chriscross]

Chris huffed but let Belthazor take over when he began to straighten out what Chris had started. For as much as he was raised into the family and knew where his responsibilities lie, that didn't mean he was very good at it. Duty was one thing, enjoyment or skill was another one entirely and Chris wasn't sure he would ever get the hang of the presentation side of things. That his summon was so well-versed in it didn't really register with him, it being just one of those things that they synergized on.

"That's cheating," Chris said, some of the edge disappearing from his voice. There was no begrudging Belthazor for using the only voice that he could due to Chris's own lack of power, but digging deeper and throwing pure emotions at him made it harder to combat. "And I'm not a child. We've got a job to do, here and at the temple. They wouldn't trust a kid with that."

[devilsinthedetails]

"It's not cheating if it works." There's a hint of smugness of Belthazor's mental tone lacing the calming emotions. If his manipulation of their link meant that Chris was more agreeable to what Belthazor wanted, then of course he was going to abuse it. "I wasn't trying to insult you. You are an adult to summoners, but to everyone you are still but a child and as a child, you must rest more than an adult should."

Belthazor continued his once over of Chris, smoothing out any wrinkles and adjusting bits and pieces here and there until he was satisfied. He let out a soft huff of approval and place a hand on his shoulder, squeezing only slightly. Chris was acceptable, so now they could go get him food so that he could wake up properly and have energy for the rest of the day.

[chriscross]

While it helped to curb the irritation at being denied the respect of other adults, the calming waves being shoved toward him only served to highlight how sleepy Chris still was. He yawned wide and raised his arm to cover it, giving Belthazor an unimpressed look for continuing on that track.

"That's not what you meant," he denied. For such an attention-deprived person, he tended to have a negative reaction to people trying to do right by him. It just didn't make sense in his worldview, even coming from his very own summon who had no reason to be on anyone's side but his own.

[devilsinthedetails]

He let out a silent laugh at both the yawn and the unimpressed look sent towards him. Belthazor was fully aware of how his summoner reacted to people treating him like a child, but at this moment, Chris was more like a child than usual and it was kind of cute in a way. Not that Belthazor would ever admit it. After all, his eventual goal was to have Chris killed so that he could return to his human body.

Moving in front of Chris, he tapped the young summoner's chin up so that he'd look at him and then pressed a finger lightly against Chris's lips as if to shush him. "That's what I meant, but you're too stubborn to realize that. You are my summoner and I will treat you properly, so do not vent your frustration at me."

[chriscross]

At the censure, Chris pulled his head away and mumbled something incomprehensible to himself. It was more for the effect than anything particularly to be said. His summon had the right of it, although that left Chris without much of an outlet for people treating him like some kind of untested kid. He was a summoner, and that came with responsibilities he'd been preparing for all his life. If that didn't push him into adulthood, what did?

"Fine," he huffed. "You win, Belthazor. Are we going yet or do you want to scold me some more?"