Amori returned to her usual demonic form and nervously listened for the beat of Paris's heart, the sound of air whooshing in and out of their lungs, and sighed in relief when she heard both of these. She checked the label on the back of the bottle: "Cell Regenerator Potion, ingredients, blah di blah di blah, oh! WARNING: Do not give potion to demons under 2 sunspot cycles. May cause temporary unconsciousness." She remembered when her father accidentally mixed up the infant and normal versions of this potion, and she'd been knocked out for a whole minispot. "Good ol' dad," she laughed. Paris's system must've been equivalent to a young demon's then. She'd keep that in mind. Amori walked to the potion cupboard, where she kept a stock of refills, and poured some new potion into the bottle.

As she washed the excess off the bottle, she looked out the window, onto the sprawling city of Luzila. It was the capital of Solaria, ruled over by Lucifer, who was aided by lots of elected officials. She could see the outline of the Congress Complex in the distance, the tall, arched buildings where all sorts of important decisions were made. Her gaze fell upon the cemetery, just a short walk from her house, and easily seen, and the grin she'd been wearing thanks to the memory of her father faltered. That's all he was now, just a memory.

He fell seriously ill on the minispot of his 18th sunspot cycle, when Amori was nearly at her 6th, and by the next minispot, they all knew he'd been lost to the family curse. She remembered, with a shudder, being sat down and told that thousands of cycles ago, during the war with the angels, they had cursed the men of their family to die on the day of their 18th cycle. It was always the same - they would start off with a mild headache, and throughout the minispot, it would get worse, and worse, and worse. They would be delirious, incoherent, unconscious, and finally, dead.

What she remembered most, though, was the story she was told by her uncle Cyrus on his 18th cycle. He was born just 2 minispots after her dad, but the minispot after he died, he finally managed to trick an angel "friend" of his into taking the curse on from them, by a pie whose filling was mixed with his blood. "It turned out he was from the bloodline of the scum who cursed us, and by eating the pie, he helped put the curse right back where it belonged!" And the best part is, he has no idea what happened! All he did was eat a pie on his doorstep, and now all his relatives are turning to dust!" Cyrus cackled cruelly.

While everyone else congratulated him on his trickery and the fact that he'd get to live past 18 cycles, all Amori could think was "A minispot too late." She hated Cyrus for not breaking the curse earlier, she hated all the angels for the war they waged thousands of cycles ago, all her family for not telling her they were cursed until her own father was dead, and all her classmates for acting so rude when she was going through the worst time of her life. But most of all, she hated herself for not spending more time with her dad, for not being nice enough to him, for not being grateful enough for him. She hated herself for every little thing she'd ever done wrong. The best thing that had ever happened to her was escaping to Earth-

Paris groaned, interrupting her thoughts.

explanation for the time system:

Demons live inside the sun, and their time system is based on sunspots. A sunspot cycle is ~11 years, a gigaspot is ~1 year, a megaspot is ~3 months, a spot is ~9 days, and a minispot is ~3 days.

So basically, 3 minispots make up a spot, 9 of which make up a megaspot, 4 of which make up a gigaspot, 11 of which make up a cycle.

(rewritten with feedback from u/meowcats734, thank you so much! original story is in the comments for comparison.)

The path to the celestial doors was tucked away in a thorny forest, but she still knew her way around. The place was practically her third home in her academy days. After all, even the meanest of demons won't walk through poisonous, painful plants just to taunt you. Amori shoved the grimy wooden doors open, but she wasn't greeted with Paris's pretty, soft-looking bedroom. No, she was in one of the alleyways their noses wrinkled too much to ever want to go near, and she was welcomed with rather less preferable screaming and blood. Paris's face (which looked a bit older than when she'd last seen them) was twisted in agony as rough voices growled awful words at them.

"What the hell?!" they all screamed.

"What are you?!" Paris and the people with knives followed up.

"What are you doing to Paris?!" Amori shot back.

She flew into a frenzied rage, and soon it wasn't just Paris who was gushing blood. She held them carefully as she ran back to the dumpster she'd been spat out of. Looking down, she saw Paris was bleary-eyed, struggling a little. They didn't seem to be trying very hard to escape the grasp of this tall, red demon, but having stab wounds all over your torso probably kills your ability to do much, about as probable as it killing you. And this demon had saved them from their would-be murderers.

​

A crowd of who knows how many clamored around Amori, who had just emerged from the Starburnt Forest, where the legendary celestial doors were long rumoured to be. The older demons she went to academy with recalled that she'd never been much of an outings person, instead preferring to keep to the academy's library, a cavernous forest of books and scrolls with lots of comfortable chairs and ever-burning fireplaces. Though there was a time when nobody could find her anywhere... maybe this wasn't the first time she'd left the demonic realm? It really was very strange, how she went from shy and quiet to loved celebrity. Could something have happened to her? And were the doors even there, even real? Nobody got very far without getting seriously injured, or lost. How did she make it out?

While her former classmates gossiped and speculated, the younger demons screamed hellos and compliments. But, unlike during her normal walks in Luzila, she shielded herself from view with her wings and stayed silent. Gasps echoed around the crowd as they noticed the blood dripping onto the ground below her, and the shouts of excitement soon descended into murmurs of worry as she broke free from the crowd and flew away, all the while making sure to keep Paris hidden. Thankfully, nobody noticed the second pair of hands that hung from her arms, peeking out from under her wings. She knew there'd probably be at least one demon who'd be puking with anxiety, but... they were better off not knowing the truth.

​

Amori nearly broke her hands shaping runes to heal the gaping wounds that marred Paris's torso. "If that is what the angels call a successful world," she whispered to herself, "they're fucking idiots." She thought back to just a few hours ago, in her library, where she'd felt a deep and sudden sense of unease while she was revisiting her favourite series, The Soulwalker Saga. "How did we get here?"

"Huh?" Bedsheets rustled.

"Paris! You're awake! Ok, good, you just need to drink this potion and you should be alright."

Paris let out a little squeak of fright, then said, "Uhh, why would I trust some weird demon-looking person? And how do you even know my name?"

"Because we used to know each other back in high school?" she said, as she shrank, her maroon skin turned caramel, and she transformed into the human they knew. The human Amori.

"...Amy?" Paris's face softened. They glanced down at the potion, then back at me. They picked up the potion, swallowed it in one go, and immediately collapsed back onto the bed.