Time to Steal a Cyan

Arlo trembled all over, Sho had left the room momentarily but had been a bit more rough than usual today. The weirdest thing about it? Arlo had loved it, he wanted Sho to gobble him up very roughly in the future and that thought scared him a lot. Why did everything Sho did feel so good?

Sho returned to the room with an arrangement of food and Arlo gulped. Had Sho not had enough dinner or something? He sat back down next to Arlo and used one hand to mess with him a little while at the same time he was eating an actual snack.

Noticing Arlo's stare he muttered "What you want some?"

Arlo muttered under his breath and Sho's grip on him tightened a bit. He whimpered and gave up trying, instead he just relaxed and let the demon have him for the night.

...

It had been almost a week of traveling and Arlo was leaning against Sho as they rode into Raven's Caw on Blacky. The demon had gained an annoying habit of 'playing' with Arlo while riding the wolf. Too bad he wasn't a huge fan of checkers. Thankfully right now Sho seemed more focused on the demon with a potential cure instead of on Arlo.

Raven's Caw, Arlo had expected a normal human town, but this place felt a little creepy like a deserted ghost town, but it wasn't deserted there were people everywhere. How did a town even get that vibe?

Cyan was supposed to appear and heal his chosen person tomorrow at noon, so Arlo just had to find him before that. Finding him wasn't hard, he was basically a celebrity. Getting him alone, that would be more difficult.

Arlo watched the demon walking around amongst the humans with a fan club following his every move. At this rate he might have to wait until dark to snatch him away.

Sho ended up getting a room in the city then joining Arlo in watching the demon's movements. Stupid humans didn't even have human sight as a skill. They had no idea the demon was near them, although since he was more focused on fame than dinner, it wasn't a problem.

Arlo grumbled and leaned against the side of the building for hours until the sun finally went down. Even then Cyan's mock party never seemed to end. It wasn't till after midnight that the crowd finally dispersed with several, 'I love you Cyan' 'You're the best' 'I'll see you tomorrow' from his adoring fans. Two guards remained outside Cyan's inn room.

Arlo climbed into his room using stealth to get by the fans that had camped by the inn. Lucky for him the humans weren't very high leveled. He paused and chocked out a sound, unable to hold back his laughter when he saw a sign that said 'Shotian and Cyan Water the savors of humanity' little did they know they were holding two demons in their hearts.

Then he slipped through the window and into the room. Cyan was sleeping in a corner and Arlo grabbed him and stuffed a sock in his mouth before using stealth on the both of them as he fled the room.

Cyan let out a muffled yelp and the guards peeked into the room just in time, for their high levels, to see a dark cloaked figure leaping out the window with a Cyan in tow. Needless to say an uproar followed. Arlo somehow managed to get him back to where Sho was in their inn room.

Only once they were there did Arlo remove the sock.

"Hello" he said brightly trying to sound friendly while Cyan stared at the two of them his expression unchanging.

"Let me guess, another group of kidnappers who want me to heal them." Said Cyan stiffly. "I hate to break it to you but I have a tracking device and my guards will be here momentarily. Try again next year."

His eyes fell on Arlo, "hey you're quite cute, want to spend the night with me?"

This immediately earned him a knockout punch from Sho. "Jerk" Sho muttered. Although were they really the ones to talk considering the kidnapping?

Arlo had hoped the tracker was a lie, but soon he heard a knock on the door clearly trying to break it open.

With a hiss Arlo grabbed Sho and jumped out their own window. It was time to find a new room for the night and a new plan.

Plan one had failed but Arlo had a backup. He hated the idea of it though. He glanced through his skills his eyes landing on the one he hated to most.

Copycat: allows the user to untangle and copy any skill they've seen in the last 10 minutes. Time to go copy a Cyan instead. For Sho he would make an exception in using this skill.

Untangle, skills were like rubrics cubes. Or at least Arlo didn't have a better way to describe them. It took him about half a second to make two turns on the rubics cube and cast his own stealth, ten minutes should be plenty of time to not only copy the skill but also find a place to cast it away from prying eyes. He had been able to do any rubrics cube in 5 minutes in his past life.

How to tell Sho this though... he didn't want to tell him he had a weird ability to absorb other demons' skills, and he especially didn't want to mention the method of it. Sho had already seen his other 'skill' as he had passed it off. His ability to pull a dagger from his shadow. Sho also thought that was his standard demon unique skill which mind you demons were only supposed to have one of. Arlo had no intention of fixing this slight misunderstanding.

This made things harder to say the least. How to heal someone without them even knowing it..... not only that but he had to talk Sho into watching Cyan heal someone else. That couldn't lead to anything but a negative experience, could he untangle the cube while walking back to their inn? If he just snuck out for a few minutes to get the copycat skill to activate. Yes that was probably the safest choice.

Since it was late Sho was already asleep now while Arlo finished his planning. Arlo could feel his slight breathing on his neck.

"Don't you dare go dying on me." He whispered. Then he shut his eyes to get a few hours of sleep before dealing with tomorrow.

...

A chill crept in on the wind. Arlo had muttered something ridiculous about how cold air might be bad for Sho's health and locked him in the inn. Sho had laughed but finally stopped fighting Arlo about it.

Arlo now stood near a plaza where a pavilion and stage had been set up. Apparently Cyan was healing some random person with cancer who had won his drawing. The place was packed with people.

Cyan arrived a minute later followed by his guards and fans. A small lady human walked up looking very nervous, she must have been the drawing winner. She and Cyan stood next to each other on the stage and Cyan reached out his hand the edge of it started glowing. Light surrounded the lady for a few seconds then vanished.

The crowd erupted into cheers for Cyan the savior. Arlo closed his eyes and focused all his energy on the copycat skill.

[Copycat: now active: Heal of the Year: remaining time 9:58]

Arlo pulled up the skill in his mind to work on the cube as he headed to the inn and froze. It wasn't a cube, it was..... it was like 180 cubes came together and had a horrific child. What the heck was this? This could take a normal person years to solve! Even him as a mastermind, this would take at least five hours. He felt his blood drop 20 degrees. He immediately started working on it anyway.

Slide this part here, that part there. He focused everything he had into it. 2/180's done, 3/180 4/180.

[Time out: skill Copycat now inactive.]

Arlo's hands fell to his side and he watched the skill fade away. This couldn't be happening! How long did Sho have left? He had been looking paler every day. Could he last another year? If Arlo trapped Cyan for a year would he heal Sho? He should have been more careful with his first kidnapping attempt and wrapped him in tin foil or something. Did demons even have tin foil?

At his side his fists clenched. He had arrived back at the inn door, but his plan b had failed, could he even come up with a plan c.... wait plan z.... the one he definitely didn't want to use. Arlo gulped, if he used this one he might save Sho, but he also might lose him forever.