Devil's Love

From Drax's Point of View

I open a letter from the school. They have offered me my degree in exchange for taking over my father's job.

Blade sits at my table, sipping a coffee.

I hastily write a response, "Dear Board of Education. I accept your offer with the understanding that my teaching method will be greatly different from my father's. Sincerely, Your King Drax"

I summon a hawk and send out the letter.

Blade pushes a mug of coffee towards me, "your highness."

I drink the coffee quietly and stare out the window.

My hawk returns and I let it in, removing a letter from it's leg.

I open it and see that the board has approved my conditions. Great, another responsibility.

Blade stands and moves around behind. He wraps his arms around my neck softly.

I shrug him off, "off of me now."

He obeys me and sits beside me, "shall I make you some breakfast?"

I shrug off the idea, "no. Get ready for school. We leave in 20 minutes."

He looks at me, "are you sure you are ready to go back?"

I sigh, "I am a teacher now. I have to."

He smiles a little, "congratulations."

I dress in a button up and slacks, no tie, tops two buttons of my shirt undone.

Blade comes out of his visiting room, dressed casually.

I dump my coffee in a travel cup and take one of Blade's fresh baked muffins.

He drives us to school, and I go to my classroom.

I clear some trinkets from the desk and place them in a box to take home.

I use magic to change the name plate on my desk.

The first class comes in and I scrawl my idea for today's lesson on the chalkboard.

The students sit and murmur amongst themselves. This is the freshmen A block. The schedule goes up through the A block students, all the way to seniors and then start at freshmen B block, ending the day with seniors B block.

I clear my throat, "I am Professor Drax. I am taking over for Professor Lucifer."

I sit on the front of my desk, "does anyone care to explain what they think the board means?"

An eager girl in the front raises her hand.

I call on her by name, "go on Medusa."

She smiles, "you are hot Professor."

I roll my eyes softly, "the board Medusa."

Her eyes scan the board, "all history is made by the here and now. So like, we are the future?"

I nod, "precisely yes.

I stand, "so with that idea, that we make history in the here and now, what would you suggest that we begin doing?"

I grab a piece of chalk, "rapid fire is fine for this."

One of the students from the back yells, "banging your mom."

I turn to look at him, "ah so you're into necrophilia? Because my mom has been dead for roughly fifty years give or take."

He gets quiet and everyone laughs.

A guy off to my right raises his voice, "we could begin better help and representation for LGBT demons. It is legalized but no one actually provides resources for them."

I scrawl that idea under point one.

I add a two underneath it, "other ideas."

Someone else whispers, "more understanding for people that don't date in the demon pool."

I add that too, "anyone else?"

Someone calls out, "better mental health for us. We're demons but we have feelings and sometimes they aren't good feelings."

I add that, "maybe one more thing."

Someone calls out, "no more fighting our own kind. It doesn't prove anything. We all know we are strong. All fighting does is cause hard feelings towards each other."

I add that, "and why is it important to change these things?"

No one answers. I return to sitting on the front of my desk.

I twirl the chalk, "well in my opinion it is about better caring for one another, right? To better ourselves so that we enhance our likelihood to survive into the future?"

Medusa looks up at me dreamily, "I bet those are things you're going to change as king."

I look away from her, "I don't know what will go along with me being king, but these are ideas that you all came up with together right? So, each and every one of you has the chance to bring these changes to the future."

I gather a few notebook pages. I write the prompts on them.

I call out the students who said the ideas, "Okay Lynk, Dex, Exie, and Finton. Come here."

I shuffle up the prompts, face down, "Dex first."

She slips a notebook paper from the middle and looks at it, "I have better resources for LGBT demons."

I nod and look at Lynk, "you next."

He chooses a paper from the end and looks at it, "I have no fighting amongst ourselves."

I look at Exie and she draws better mental health resources, leaving Finton with better understanding for people who don't date demons.

I write under my title, "the project is simple. The leaders of the projects will choose their members in turns and by..."

I look at the calendar, "the end of next week, I want a display and a presentation on how this will affect our lives and what we can do to enact these ideas."

I sit on my desk and let them pick their group members in turns. There is 4 groups of 4 now.

I look them all, "feel free to move around the desks so you can work in groups."

There is noise as the tables drag together.

I go through the rest of my classes, giving each of them the same assignment with whatever ideas they present.

When Blade's class comes in, he gives me a smile.

I look away, "everyone sit down."

I present the idea and Blade instantly calls out, "better understanding of rage forms. Because I only recently learned that it isn't just anger that cause the change."

I write, "better rage form education."

There is other ideas and I write them and then let them split into groups.

Blade picked my archrival as his group member. I bite my lip, trying to contain the angry feeling in my stomach.

I sit in my chair and review a few of the homework papers that my father had collected. I don't really understand this form of teaching but the grades still have to go in.

I grade through a few of the essays and pack the rest to go home when the bell rings.

Blade hangs behind and sits on the edge of my desk when everyone is gone.

He smiles at me, "hello your highness. Did you miss me?"

I gather my things, "I don't approve of you hanging out with that fuck face."

He stares at me, "I invited them over to work on this project."

I nod and we all meet at his car.

I sit in the front and the other members of his group get in the back.

When we get home, I go into my father's... My office and sit down with the rest of the essays. I begin to grade where I left off.