“Brother, eh?” Crone commented, conjuring an image in his mind as to what a male sibling of Hana would look like. Probably someone just as annoying as her, he thought, amusing himself as he followed the girl through the hallway. He observed with fascination as Hana reached up to retrieve the cardboard boxes, her face beaming as she peeked inside. With a raised brow and crossed, unsure arms, he walked up to Hana and peered down into its contents. The square photos quickly caught his attention; snapshots of memories caught between threads of the past, and as Hana tried to dismiss and hide the images, he couldn’t help but smile. “Seems decent enough for a human,” he lied, actually liking, more than he anticipated, the selection of clothes the box had to offer. Crouching down to the floor, he fluttered his fingers through the different materials. They seemed of good quality, soft and tidy - it would definitely serve more practical for outside environments. “It’s not exactly plush wolf brushstroke-styled fur, but it’ll do-”

Knock, knock.

Hana quickly left Crone to himself. The man wryly smiled; it was a good chance to do a little bit of snooping. He began to dig out the various glossy paper images that Hana had tried to obscure, and for a while, he stared at the various pictures of her brother. “Yup, just as weird as I thought,” he mumbled, using a particular image as a reference for an outfit. It featured a plain grey shirt, black pocketed cuffed jeans, a slim belt and simple brown lace-up boots that just went a little above the ankles... He fished through the boxes for the exact items, and to his surprise, found all of the elements required. Since he was trying to please humans, he thought that he may as well follow their weird sense of fashion. His robe slid away from him and crumpled to the ground... Right beside a certain image he’d forgotten to analyse. Reaching down, he picked up the photo of youthful, cheery third-grader Hana. A snort soon followed from Crone. He had to admit - the image was quite charming. Demons such as himself never ‘aged’ in appearance, so he found himself constantly intrigued by human quirks. In only such a short amount of time, Hana had currently looked so different. Less bright pink and more mature in colour. Less irritatingly happy and more... Calm. Balanced. Huh.

Moments of soft cursing, awkward pushing of material, and struggles with tightening shoelaces passed by before Crone had followed through Hana’s brother’s photo perfectly. Looking down, Crone could barely recognise himself. He had undergone a complete makeover today, and could feel the confidence of wearing comfortable hair and clothing take over him. Tucking the photos back into the boxes, as well as storing his robe in there, he headed back through the hall. “Hey, Hana, am I wearing these stupid things ri-”

And then Hana’s magnetism struck him like a chord in his untuned heart. Shocked, he gripped his chest. They weren’t alone.

He frowned, taking quiet but long steps towards Hana’s strengthening aura. Raising his head upward, his mouth parted in part anger and part shock as a dark mopped boy had begun to lean into her!... Wait, no, this wasn’t no ordinary boy. He was trying to absorb Hana’s aura. In other words, trying to claim Crone’s prey. Panic surged through his limbs. He had to do something, anything, in this lanky awkward human physique, but what?! To hell with it, may as well give it a shot, Crone thought as he raced towards the two and slid between them in a surge of heated emotion.

Boop.

Crone’s lips met Hana’s, and at the same time, the stranger’s met the back of Crone’s neck. Although Hana, weak from magic, could do naught to react, Crone’s whole face fumed red with anger as he felt the soft boy’s lips kiss him from behind. For a long second, the three were sort of pressed together in a strange sandwich of mixed feelings and messages. As soon as Crone broke his brief kiss with Hana, a warm blue light exuded through his whole body. “I’m regenerating?” He paused, staring into Hana’s eyes for any sort of response from her, feeling a strange strength suddenly grow within him. “I’m regenerating, you little devil! Can’t absorb a demon’s aura, now can ya?!” He repeated with more confidence, feeling his power suddenly burst into his hands. He instantly swiveled around to let Hana’s drained body fend for herself, gripped the boy’s shoulders, and pressed him into the door behind them. Strong, coal, tenacious claws pressed into the stranger’s clothes, paws replacing where his hands should be. Crone, at this newfound power, grinned like an excited child at Christmas, a chuckle rumbling from his throat like he could almost feel his good ol’ demon self return into his core. “Now, tell me, kid - You don’t feel to me as cool as a demon in essence, so what’re you? This is my turf now. No touching my resources.” Like a protective pack wolf, he tried at a growl, huffing as he felt the claws start to turn diaphanous and fade away. It seemed, as a human, this burst of power had a time limit. Damn it. He pushed the boy away from them and stepped back to protect his meal, and newfound source of converted demon energy. If this man’s one of the locals, he thought, they were going to have a very unique relationship. He thought it a shame that he couldn’t source the powers to get rid of the guy then and there.

It was then he realised, no matter how hard he tried to look human, his old ways were ultimately never fit for this container. Crone's body buzzed with excitement at this influx of power, unable to control such concentrated surges that a wolf form would usually regulate. And for that split second, he felt at home.

_________________

Hana was frozen in fear as her terrifying new neighbor zeroed in closer to her, leaving little space left between them. She wanted to scream and kick his head in, but her body refused to move an inch from his hold. It was just then that she could hear a quick bust of footsteps racing towards her as Finn continued to close in on her lips.

Boop.

Hana had shut her eyes tightly, hoping that something as ridiculous as this could shut out this entire experience. But something was off about this forced lip contact. She could smell something very familiar in the air as she slowly dared to pry her eyes open and look at the sight before her. What she had been smelling was the familiar floral scent of her own shampoo, which she had used to wash Crone's massive knots of hair only a mere hour ago. Her mind quickly put together the scene taking place, and she could feel her heart rate spiking dramatically.
Crone had managed to intercept the kiss that Finn was trying to place on her....by kissing Hana himself. Crone's lips were on her lips. Crone was kissing Hana. Crone. Mouth. Contact. LIPS. KISSING. EACH OTHER.

Hana could feel her thoughts moving a mile a minute as she stared at Crone in pure shock. Finn was having a very similar reaction to Hana as he found himself staring at the messy hair of a young man and placing his delicate lips on the back of this dog's neck. They were all frozen in place, like a strange conglomeration of statuette figures. It wasn't until a strange aura seemed to fill the air between Hana and Crone that anyone started to resume movement.
Hana could feel a strange warm swelling in her torso build up inside of her and being slowly removed as Crone held the kiss with her. Her body felt strangely fuzzy the longer they held that embrace of shock. Eventually, Crone did remove his lips from her own and simply stared back at her, with equal confusion as to what had just happened. Before either of them could say anything at all, a strange blue aura exuded from Crone's body, leaving Hana shocked and Crone quickly starting to grin like a child.

["I'm regenerating?!"]

Hana watched as he looked at her for confirmation, but his gaze was only met with confusion and wide-eyes. "You're regenerating?!" she questioned back before he turned around. She couldn't believe this! She had no idea how a kiss would have possibly allowed Crone to regain some of his demon-like power, but now was not the time to question a miracle. Her body was still very weak from Finn's spell and she would need to get a safe distance away from the two very dangerous demons, both of which could easily turn on her if she drew much more attention to herself.
---
Finn was flabbergasted at what had just taken place. He had been quickly pinned against the door behind him, causing his eyes to turn a bright crimson red and a snarl to leave his lips. The demon spirit sharing his body had suddenly taken control, "I am something with more control than you, you impudent pup!" Finn's voice seemed a few octaves lower as he yelled. As Crone's power began to wear down, Finn raised a brow and couldn't help but smirk. "You makin' fun of me now? Letting me go unharmed is a big mistake pal!" he snarled, seeming to think that Crone was pitying him. He didn't seem to notice Crone's powers slowly dissipating away.

"We get the message then! You better make sure you watch your food carefully, pup....I won't hesitate next time" he warned. It was evident that his retreat was more out of confusion than anything though, seeing as he thought the demon's power had been sealed away completely. Apparently he had been misinformed....

Finn quickly opened the front door and quickly ran off the house property, disappearing behind a large barrage of houses on the far end of the street.
---------

Meanwhile, Hana had managed to prop herself up against her counter and try to regain her sense of balance. Whatever spell Finn had used was making it hard for Hana to move her body without any resistance. As she tried to stand up properly, the young mage couldn't keep her mind off the kiss that had just taken place. Somehow a kiss was able to transmit small pieces of her aura to the person she was kissing. She would need to look into aura related magic to see how this phenomenon was possible, but she would need to be able to walk properly in order to do that. She noticed that Crone was no longer yelling and Finn had declared a swift and cowardly exit from her home. Good.
She peaked over to see Crone walking back towards her and she watched him carefully, wondering how he was feeling now that he had felt a rush of his old power, "Do you know what just happened?.." she asked hesitantly.

“I am something with more control than you, you impudent pup!” Finn roared with a deep tone and the wolf demon clenched his jaw.

‘Crone shall be your name, for you are as shameless as a naive puppy yet your heart withered like an old hag…’ Crone remembered the woman’s husky, melodic voice as her curly locks wove around her fingers. With a gaze as strong as steel, he remembered how her fingers felt icy cold to the touch when she stroked his muzzle, how strong her grip was as sturdy digits tightened around the back of his neck - an invisible collar of deceit and vengeance. ‘You are a demon, are you not?’

A laugh escaped Crone as his thoughts snapped back to the situation, though it didn’t sound entirely genuine. Rather, it had a fake, teasing sound to it, as though he were a proud child trying to amp up their accomplishments. Crossing his arms, he sniffed back and let his tongue do the taunting as the opposing young man backed off. “You will hesitate next time, for it will be me who makes your head flinch backward! You are some sort of lame demon, aren’t you? Then you should know your place.” As Finn ran off, Crone gave a loving and admittedly relieved flutter of the fingers to dismiss them, just as he had seen people practise. “And thanks for the tip, honey!” He called down the street before slowly closing the door of Hana’s house.

The sudden calm after the storm of the situation fell heavy upon his shoulders, as the ‘demon that thought he couldn’t use his powers but now suddenly kind of can’ slid down the door and crumpled to the ground in a sullen moment of reflection. What the hell…? Did he really just kiss something as filthy and annoying as the human he was supposed to eat yesterday?! Good lord - this would be a hard story to explain if anyone from the underworld were to discover this. And moreover, what sort of soul-eating creature takes the form of a dark haired, bratty human? The bratty part was self explanatory, Crone mused, but the human part? This town was full of crazy people, it seemed.

Like a snake shedding its skin free from tenacity, Crone rose back up the door and shuffled onto his feet. Scratching the back of his neck, it felt somehow itchy although nothing had disturbed that particular part of skin today. He caught Hana’s gaze, who had seemed to recover pretty well despite the overwhelming shock of everything that had just taken place. “I dunno what just happened, but I’d be damned if it didn’t feel satisfying.” He smirked, still a little buzzed from the immense power that had flown through his bones like a wave of electricity. He had never heard of anything like this being possible; well, it wasn’t everyday that such circumstances of a 'super cool' demon suddenly being zapped into a human by a 'really weird' witch lady had taken place. “Is this somehow part of your voodoo magic, Hana? I wouldn’t put it past ya for this to be some sort of experiment on your part.” With narrowed eyes, he still offered a strong, open hand towards her to help her balance, abruptly suspicious for a moment as his other hand scratched his cheek. “Although, you look terrible. Well, I mean, you normally do, but this looks a little bit worse.” His stern gaze seemed to lift as he snickered at his own joke. Wow, am I funny, he thought.

Looking down at her, his gaze seemed to turn sympathetic and concerned for the girl’s sake. That was, until he opened his condensending mouth. “Oh, and for heaven’s sake, why do I have to peck you to feel like myself again?! Eurgh, you must be really lonely to conjure that sort’ve cursed spellery.” He snorted, but behind this arrogance, his gesture did seem willing to help her keep from toppling over as she tried to walk.

_________________

Hana grumbled as Crone revealed how satisfying it had been to feel that temporary rush of power. Now that she thought about it, they had barely pecked for a few seconds and it had caused Crone's demonic power to practically surge into his arm. She wondered what could of happened had that kiss lasted longer. She tried to stand up completely but ended up leaning against the top of her counter, using her index finger and thumb to quietly twirl a piece of her bangs. Her eyes weren't particularly focused on anything as she thought about what was the best course of action.

She looked up at Crone as he spoke again and shook her head at his question, her face contorting into a disgusted frown, "What? Um, no. Sorry, I want to avoid further contact with demons, not make out with one". She kept that disgusted look on her face as he commented on how horrid she appeared at the moment and looked at the hand he offered her. She denied his hand and sighed, "I'd hit you upside the head if I could walk properly..." she muttered as she tried to stand up by herself. Why did she expect a straight conversation from a demon?....especially one being so annoying towards her. Although, she was acting no better than he was.

She carefully turned herself around, using the counter top as a sort of crutch and her eyes settled on a chair not too far from where she was. She harshly pushed herself forward and managed to land herself right next to the chair, although her launch ended up with her back on the tiled floor. Hana groaned and pulled herself up onto the chair so she could sit down properly. It had been a hell of a lot harder getting to a chair this way, but she didn't really care about that at the moment.

Her annoyed gaze landed right back to Crone as he started to ask about the kiss. "I didn't conjure anything, you weirdo! Spells all react differently depending on a lot of random variables!" she tried to explain. Spells and curses worked in very strange ways, some with weird little catches attached to them, others came with a time limit. She looked away from him to twirl a small piece of her hair again, she needed to think properly! Her thoughts were running a mile a minute but nothing was adding up in her head. She was too stressed.
She gripped her head and grumbled angrily, "Eurgh! I can't concentrate properly! This whole situation is confusing!" she complained as her hands ran down from her head and cupped over her face. She was so done with everything..

Hana went quiet for a minute as she rested her face in her hands and just sat in her chair.
['okay.....calm down...calm down.....that dumb wolf is just as lost on this as you are...']
Why her thoughts were so sympathetic towards him was beyond her, but it was a fact...she couldn't deny that. Slowly, Hana peaked an eye out from behind her hand to look up at Crone. A sigh escaped her as she removed her hands completely, "This is going to sound dumb....but it might be a good thing that we only have to kiss to get some of your power back and not some blood ritual...getting all your power back may not be too hard after all" she admitted to him. Thinking back on it, many curses in history could be broken with a kiss...weird. The difference here seemed to be that a peck only seemed to bring back a small increment of his power for a limited time. She wasn't particularly interested in things like kissing, and having to do that with a demon she clearly didn't like wasn't making things any better. But yeah...at least she wouldn't have to do anything too crazy like a sacrifice or something medieval.

It was around the time of this revelation that Hana had the feelings in her legs return. A small breathe of relief escaped her as she wiggled her toes to check and hesitantly stood up. It seemed that she could move completely again. At least one good thing had happened.
"Listen, I'm going to take a shower and get dressed...after that we need to figure out how we're gonna handle that weird Finn kid and this curse of ours" she noted before making her way past him and making a bee-line for her bathroom. She needed that shower....anything to help her relax a bit.

His brows furrowed slightly at Hana denying his hand, somehow agitated at watching her in such close proximity not allowing him to help while being rather useless at trying to stand up herself. In fact, it reminded him of a certain someone… Damn magic-wielding humans.

However, such concern was immediately lifted along with his raised eyebrows, simply blinking at the witch’s contrastingly more angered response. Like the gradual rumble of a dragon, a deep chuckle begun to conjure from his chest, seemingly exuding from the back of his throat as her poor attempt of threatening him with a hit upside the head brought him more amusement than anything else. This is kind of nice, actually, being in the position of power. Crossing his arms over his chest, he smugly observed her desperate moment of fumbling about the counter…

And then she fell back onto the freakin’ floor.

She found his tipping point. Crone’s mouth cracked into a barking cackle of a laugh, erupting a few sharp sounds. Surprising himself as much as the sudden fall, he brought a hand to his mouth to stifle the noise into soft snickers, calming down when Hana eventually made her weak butt to the seat. Her brief, rather tired explanation of how spells and curses functioned seemed to bring about more questions than answers, though. Hm… Yep. That’s it. Crone mentally betted twenty bucks that Hana was secretly some sort of loner nerd who reads too many magic books to go outside and find a compatible mate, so was using her strong aura to her advantage to attract young, innocent, century year old demons that would make for an attractive metallic-haired boy. Tsk, tsk, tsk, Hana. For shame.

A twinge of concern fell over his complexion when Hana exasperated into her palms. “Eurgh indeed, witch,” was his meek response, reaching out a hand in an attempt to awkwardly pat her back but abruptly decided against it, tucking his hand back into his folded arms while the two of them marinated in the aftermath for a minute. A lot had happened in under two days, and there was a sinking feeling in his gut that things were only just about to begin. An aura like Hana’s would definitely attract a vast array of underworld and magical weirdos had someone of that kind attempt to search for her. It would definitely be a dead giveaway of their location wherever they went, so Crone thought he had to be on his best watch to ensure no other demon he knew saw what was going down here…

"This is going to sound dumb,” Hana spoke, “….but it might be a good thing that we only have to kiss to get some of your power back and not some blood ritual...getting all your power back may not be too hard after all.” Crone snuffed. “Woman, my pride can only be wounded so much. It’s hard enough knowing another demon-seeming-thing has already caught me taking a peck of what’s supposed to be a food source in the worst possible way…” Colour drained from his face at the thought of having to do that again. Despite it hurting his ego, it couldn’t be denied that it had been the closest they had both gotten to figuring out the possible antidotes of this mysterious curse. And the power he had regained… Hell, it felt too good for a quick kiss to ruin, anyway. Ugh, only a dumb human could come up with this sort of gross solution to their spellery.

A long, drawn out sigh slumped his shoulders as Hana managed to regain her balance to stand up. “Uh, sure-” Crone swivelled around to see her rush past him before dragging his feet to the kitchen sink and making a glass of water for himself. Sitting on a chair closest to a window to the garden, he took slow sips and pondered about how the outside world would look through human retinas. As a scavenger demon, he was more of the nocturnal sort, sunlight now feeling surprisingly… Pleasant to his pores. Huh. For the next half hour or so that Hana got herself ready, he took mental plans to pack away the open boxes of storage that they had left outside the hall closet. Like an open box, Crone may have felt exposed and weak as a human, but it didn’t stop him from being able to be useful. Perhaps, to make himself feel better, he would think of their newfound forced partnership as more of a demon-bound contract than anything else. And with that, Crone too stood up again.

_________________

Hana had taken some time to properly dress herself before returning to where she had left Crone, who was resting by a window. She had changed into a pink t-shirt with a design of a deer on the front. Over the shirt she wore a grey hoodie and a pair of black leggings. Her usual messy mop of short hair was properly brushed as well, finally leaving her looking less tired and frazzled. The shower was supposed to help her space out and let her thoughts wander but she couldn't keep her mind off of the curse. Crone was just as unhappy as she was about the forced lip contact. Unfortunately, that was the reality of things and they had to work with what they had. She figured that there were other ways to access his powers, but they were stuck with just this one for now. Hana made a mental note to find every book in her study about curses later tonight and find other ways to get his powers back...hopefully one to lift this curse entirely.

Hana snapped out of her thoughts to see Crone standing up from his chair, his gaze glued on the garden outside. She noticed how serene his expression was and almost felt bad for entering the room and drawing his attention back to her. Her eyes locked on his as she took a few steps closer. It had crossed her mind while she was drying her hair that she had acted brashly during their earlier conversation. If she wanted to keep her aura under control, she needed to verbally communicate her feelings to Crone. She couldn't afford to let her emotions build up like that again.
Hana leaned against her kitchen counter and took her eyes off of Crone and focused on the floor.
"Sorry...about my attitude earlier. I was all **** off and stuff..." She muttered the last part and looked back up to him. If they wanted to get through this, she had to try and communicate with him effectively. "I'm not happy about any of this, but I know you aren't either. So I'll do what I can to fix this" she said, a more determined tone to her voice as she looked at him.

With that off of her chest Hana felt a bit better, like a small weight was lifted off of her. Although, there was still a mound of problems to take care of. First they needed to discuss this curse of theirs, then she could figure out what to do about this weird new demon boy living nearby. 'One step at a time....'.
Hana turned her gaze to the garden Crone had been focused on earlier, one of her hands wandered to her hair and twirled a piece of it around her finger as she tried to think. "So...we know that lip contact can temporarily give you some of your power back. Not much else to go on for now. All I can guess is the longer the contact is, the more power you get back" she explained. The facts were plain and simple, but as to why these were the parameters set was still a mystery.
"I read somewhere that curses are weird and have certain rules to them. Maybe we need to make lip contacting because of some past emotional trauma?" she threw out some ideas to see if Crone could maybe elaborate on them.

Noticing Hana had returned rather promptly than he expected, he turned his body for the moment of eye contact before directing his eyes back towards the garden. His thoughts a bit more simmered down now, he was able to quietly pay attention to what Hana had to say. Then, slowly, he folded his arms like they were two settling snakes clinging to his hips. “…Your attitude was fine. It’s not any fouler than a demon’s.” A soft, sheepish smile flashed across his face at his rather back-handed compliment. “But I’ll choose to believe you and help you out for now because I’d rather not hang around with you for too long, just as you’d rather see me bugger off.” His eyelids lowered and with narrowed eyes, he peered back at Hana as she leaned on the kitchen counter. Huh, he thought, she looks less like a crazy witch and more of a normal human being with her hair combed out a bit more properly. Taking slow steps, he plopped into a stool by the counter to take a closer look at her face.

“Alright, sour puss, your deflated aura is killin’ me over here. I like you when you’re feisty! Gives ya more character.” Propping an arm on the table to support his head, he nodded when hints of her usual determined, strong self flickered in her voice. She began to talk further about aspects of the curse and Crone contemplatively stroked the side of his face with his digits. “Power came back in my claws because I really wanted to rip out his stupid neck had it not been illegal as a mortal… Perhaps your voodoo attaches this power to my thoughts at the time.” It was a curious thought, and Crone mused about what could happen if he had simply thought really strongly about wanting to be a full-fledged demon again. But on second thought, curses and magic as complicated as this wasn’t usually so easily fixable like that. Hm. He tilted his head to the side a bit, staring, perhaps unknowingly a little bit too intently as he pondered about his dilemma. Did he seriously really have to kiss her hoo-man mug again? Jeez.

“Emotional trauma?… Maybe it’s because your unfortunate soul has never been in a proper relationship, huh? Are you worried about not having a boyfriend? I doubt loners like you would, haha.” Mocking the gestures of a gossiping school girl, he poked her shoulder a few times, as though he were lightheartedly trying to prod out some friendly banter from her as he waffled on about his past conspiracy about her. “I’m tellin’ you girlie, putting voodoo on a demon in order to trick his attractive face into kissin' you just won’t ever work out for you.” He snorted at his own words, understanding his own irony and hypocrisy. It wasn’t as though Crone had much of an underworld romantic life, either… But he wasn’t going to tell her that upfront. Besides, that was different! Humans were way less picky than stubborn, straightforwardly demanding demon women! Huh, sounds like another girl he knows…

He hopped out of the chair to finish the task bothering his mind. Quickly running into the hall to file away the boxes, he hopped and performed a dramatic model-like spin back into her view. “By the way, not trying to sidetrack, but did I dress convincingly human? I was going to ask until we got disturbed.” A sharp tooth peeked from the corner of a wry smile as he looked down at himself. Clothing was surely a weird constricting entrapment, but he did admit it felt rather comfortable.

_________________

A small smile sneaked its way onto Hana's lips as he poked her shoulder repeatedly. His imitation of a gossipy high schooler was as stereotypical as it got, but she remembered a few people from her school days that were actually like that. She looked back up at him, a grin still on her face, and poked his forehead, "Yup! BUSY people like me don't have time to fall in love. There's work to be done! I'm sure you have all kinds of romantic ventures as a demon though", her grin turned a bit more mocking. "Also, it's not voodoo ya dumb wolf, it's just magic. They're very different" she added, rather snootily. His attitude was annoying enough, the thought of kissing him again wasn't her idea of a good time. And although Hana would never admit it to Crone, she didn't have much experience in the department of romance. Not that it didn't appeal to her, she just preferred reading romantic novels over going through the experience. Everything was easier to stomach when she was reading about it from an omnipotent third-person point of view...

As Crone stood up and walked away to put the box away, Hana watched him quietly. It was when he did the model spin and looked himself up and down, she couldn't help but crack a smile at the pose. Her expression calmed to a relaxed smile, "Yeah you look good. Completely human and inconspicuous" she said. Her smile went away as she noticed that he had a pair of boots on though. She pointed to them, "Don't wear shoes in the house though. This place is already trashed enough, so I don't need a messy floor along with that" she pointed out before pushing away from the counter. She did have to admit that he looked rather nice in the outfit, much better than the robe he had been conjured up in.
She shifted her thoughts to the next topic that needed some immediate attention-- their new neighbor.

"So...that Finn guy. I don't know exactly what he was but he wasn't entirely human, so we need to make sure he doesn't jump us like that" She noted before scurrying past Crone to her study. She began to shuffle through the large piles of books until she came upon a small blue novel. She came back out of the room and frowned, "I don't think I can destroy him...but I can try to gather some materials for a barrier spell for the house" she explained to him. She wasn't very experienced with defensive spells like these, but she would need to put it at the top of her priority list. The only issue would be that she would have to leave the house to gather the herbs she needed to conduct the spell. She would need to leave sometime before dawn tomorrow morning to get them.
Hana groaned as she looked over the amount of wild herbs she would need to find in the dark; the list took up a whole page and a half. But it needed to be done.

Hana's aura spiked as she grew more and more frustrated with the state of things. "I thought things were going to be better out here.." she sighed, obviously more annoyed. "I must be cursed or something" she remarked before moving back to the kitchen counter. She set her book down roughly and moved both of their breakfast dishes into the sink to be washed later. She leaned back against the counter once again, stress and frustration affecting her aura as she tried to hold in her worries and think everything out in silence.

Crone hummed in sheepish satisfaction during her positive review, at this human camouflage that mortals described as ‘fashion’... Until she commented on the shoes. A childish puffy-face flashing across his complexion, he made his way towards the garage, briefly sitting down to untie them and set the pair aside. It would do them well not to stress out too much, he thought, so Crone didn't bother with his usual sassy retorts for now. Hana's aura definitely spiked way too uncomfortably for Crone whenever she was too potent of a single emotion. And you know what the saddest thing was about that notion, at the end of the day? If Crone tried to kill and consume her, he would lose his only chance of ever becoming a beautiful, fully functional demon again. Sigh. Hashtag: first underworld problems - kill me now… As if it were even possible to, anyway.

He took a sharp, collected breath as he stood back onto his feet, black socks cuffing his ankles. Thinking about it, things could've been worse. However much the pessimistic demonic spirit inside of him wanted to call these the worst days of his life, she did trust him enough to not ‘voodoo-magic’ him away into a jar of pickles or something. It was kind of nice to think of it that way. Trust. Crone had only ever experienced the noun through trust inherently being in the nature of his previous contract-bound work, albeit the stern side of trust; of his master knowing that Crone would serve them as faithfully as a dog. Without such a permanently binding document in place, it felt rather refreshing to do things not because one felt bossed to, but because one had to… Did it make a demon like him a sadist to enjoy struggling like this with an obviously lamer, mortal witch? God, was Crone good at making himself internally laugh.

Crone made himself a glass of water and sunk his upper body onto the counter, propping his forearm up to his lips for the laziest access to the drink as possible, as Hana started rambling about their stupid yet mysterious neighbour. “A barrier spell, ey? Sounds fancy,” his lips quirked, raising his eyebrows to look over the pages she was reading. He wasn’t great at reading the human tongue in prose. The symbols and overly complicated shapes were too confusing to bother learning, but he could make out a few words here and there that he had needed to know in the past. He noticed her groan as she read over a certain phrase. Putting two and two together, the words ‘forest herbs’ and ‘nighttime’ gave him an idea.

“Seriously. Do you still not know that your aura can be so irritating? Such a worrywart!” Sculling down the water and setting it down, he frowned, stood back upright and moved over to her side of the counter, poking her on the back of the head. “As much as we both hate it, I’m going to bloody pretend I’m in a contract with you so that we can learn to work together and try to get rid of all of our problems. And eventually, each other.” A small smile formed on his face. “The forests just around the other side of town? I know ‘em like the back of my paw. Er. Hand. I’m not a shabby protector, y’know.” Puffing his chest, he swiftly slid behind Hana, patting her on her arched back. “If you translate the recipe, I might be able to locate some of them.” His speech turned more melodious to the ear, more persuasive, more daring as he fell into character of the ‘contracted demon’. And like any other contracting ritual, he sealed their newfound partnership with a encasing embrace. He hoped that a nerdy witch like her would know of the immense weight carried behind this symbolic gesture amongst the supernatural. At the risk of his dignity, he entrusted a little piece of faith to her, reaching his hands over her arms and entwining his fingers together in front of her.

But that wasn’t all that had embraced them. Not even half a moment had gone by before the kitchen was encased in a sudden, swelling explosion of smoke! The grey matter swirled around them in a calm vortex, but unlike most smoke that rose to the ceiling and would set off the fire alarm, it simply sank to the floor, seeming to pool away into the shadows and cracks of the floor.

Crone yelled in shock, but realised his body weight felt much heavier to stand up. And maybe that wasn’t a yell at all, maybe it was the sharp yelp of a silvery blue wolf! Crone found his long wolf muzzle and fluffy limbs flopped onto the surprised Hana below him. It wasn’t his usual, brushwork-looking, winged, demon self; instead, the man had transformed into a wolf of the earth. Holy hell!

Taken back, the wolf jumped off of Hana and fell backwards, long claws clicking along the floor surface as he jolted away to look at himself. But as soon as he took merely five strides away from Hana, another burst of smoke exuded from him and he found a lankier body back in Hana’s brother’s rather plain fashion sense, in comparison to the gorgeous fur he had only briefly but intensely witnessed. Snapping his head to Hana, he looked at her with a face that said ‘did you just see that?!’ before running back over to her… Or rather, trying to stand up, but the shock in weight balance pinned him to the floor for what felt like the longest moment.

“Holy-! Hana, come over here, this herb-collecting mission demands my presence now! You are a voodoo-makin’ machine today!” Realising how desperate the words sounded, entranced lips puckered a chuckle as he impatiently patted the ground beside him.

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Hana barely took notice of Crone as he quickly made his way to her side of the counter, which left her unprepared for the poke to the back of her head. Her expression quickly changed to suprise as he did so, but sank back into a hard frown. As much as she hated the situation, Crone was right. She needed to try and lighten up or else their time together would be even worse. The brunette tried to lighten her expression and relax her body more as Crone explained his plan of action.

"A contract?" She started, "hmm...I guess it does make the situation seem a little less dire sounding...more voluntary.." she pondered. It did make it sound like they had both chosen to take this path together. She looked back to her book as Crone continued his speech, trying to memorize some of the ingredients. She quickly paused her reading though, after hearing his voice suddenly drop an octave. His presence loomed over her from behind and his words sounded more melodious and smooth. She had always read that demons were persuasive beings that tempted humans into contracts, but it was a whole other feeling being present in the scenario. His arms snaked around her body and she could feel his torso pressed against her back. She had long since stood up straight as she watched his fingers entertwine together around her body. She understood the weight that was carried with this solid embrace, but Crone's deeper tone of voice caused her to feel slightly embarrassed. Her cheeks started turning a little pink as they stood there.

Before Hana could speak up, a sudden pool of charcoal black smoke enveloped them. Everything felt quick and blurry while the smoke cleared away. Her head felt light again and Crone felt like he weighed fifty pounds heavier. The added weight caused Hana to stumble onto the floor as the smoke pooled down to the floor and disappeared.

Hana was left wide eyed as she looked up at the silver blue wolf towering over her. The wold jumped off of her but Hana's body quickly sat up and tried to back away from the animal as quickly as possible. "W-Wait! WHAT?!" She yelled, her hands were shaking as she spoke. She was about to yell at the wolf but it was quickly enveloped in smoke again and turned back into Crone.

"I-I did that to you?.. JUST FROM HUGGING?!" She exclaimed. Her hair was messy and she looked a little frazzled, unlike Crone who looked rather desperate and excited.
As he patted the floor next to them, Hana hesitantly made her way over to sit beside him.
"Wait hold on! We can't go now! We need to figure out what just happened!" She pointed out. She still wanted to know what the boundaries of the curse were. Was physical contact all it took to give him pieces of her aura?

He scratched his scalp as a small headache throbbed at the back of his head. There was no doubt now - the spell hadn’t entirely turned Crone human, as sparks of magic still swelled inside him, waiting to be unlocked. More excited than ever, a smile refused to leave his chuffed face. “You apparently did do that just from hugging!” He beamed with a tone almost comparable to that of a dazed child as the slightly-stressed-slightly-panicked Hana slowly made her way next to him.

He glanced at her face, curiosity dancing in his eyes. “Our separate states of magic interacting almost works like an explosive chemical reaction of some sort… Why don’t we suss out how this works? Stay there,” he said, turning around on the floor so that they sat back-to-back. He groaned, the muscle pains of suddenly shifting forms still lingering in his long legs. The human limbs rose to his chin, awkwardly pushing away from him in a roundabout way to move his back closer to Hana’s. “I believe this is what they call a ‘butt-shuffle’,” he snorted, feeling sort of lame at this weird movement but nonetheless seriously concentrating on Hana’s aura. Pressing his back against hers… He couldn’t feel anything immediately different, but there had to be a way to gauge how his powers trigger, right? “Well, you did style my hair before without problems, so simple interactions seem okay… Does it have to do it time?”

He sat there with closed eyes. He focused on his heartbeat. His soul slowly swelled, and somehow, after some time, it almost felt like something sparked within him. “Ah.” His eyes snapped open as he felt something crawl down his back. Drawing away from Hana, he lifted his shirt to find a small patch of dark fur line his spine. “Woah, interesting. So thanks to your weird aura, if I will my own magic enough I may be able to transform through merely touching you. Less direct connections like this take more time,” he theorised out loud, turning back to face the witch, “but I think the closer and more directly our auras are able to connect, the more power your spell is able to unlock from within my own soul.” He blinked at her, poking her on the shoulder like a cat curiously pawing at a new toy. How could such a fragile looking, frazzle-haired girl place a demon such as himself in such a mess? Although he relished the day he could leave the house, Crone had to admit that these two days were the most unpredictable action he’d ever experienced in his usually well-organised and controlled life.

“So when I hugged you, I guess it forced our auras to be pressed closer together, huh? I hope you know how to ride on the back of a wolf, lady, because I’m not giving that form up just because I have to stick next to you to transform.” He scolded, flattening down some pieces of hair that had puffed out from the back of Hana’s head. With a smirk, he was unknowing of the fact that this strange moment of shuffling on the floor with this girl, with expressing his troubles to this human, had been the first time in a while that a genuine smile lasted for so long on his face.

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Hana stared at Crone as he began to theorize why he had turned into a flesh-and-blood wolf. All Hana could do was stare at him as he excitedly tried to conjure up words to describe what was going on. She had never seen him look so excited before and she couldn't blame him either. This was very exciting for both of them! The sooner they figured out the curse's boundaries, the sooner they could break it. As soon as he told her to stay there, she straightened up her back, "O-Okay!" she confirmed and waited for him to do something. His back pressed against hers not too long after, leaving her feeling a bit....uncomfortable, at least at first. As soon as Crone called it a "butt-shuffle" Hana couldn't help but crack a small smile and roll her eyes a bit. It sort of looked like they were doing some weird floor dance to her, so they were generally on the same page with how weird this was.

"Maybe we just need to focus on each other's auras. That seemed to work earlier!" she pointed out before trying to press her back firmly against Crone's. She closed her eyes and tried to focus her thoughts on the spiritual energy in the room. She couldn't exactly place how exactly to do that, but she needed to try. At first nothing really happened and the two of them were left sitting on the kitchen floor, back to back. Hana never really ended up feeling much of anything out of the whole attempt...but Crone did. As his voice broke the silence, she opened her eyes and turned to look at Crone's back. She noticed the line of fur that had crawled up his spine and stared at it in fascination. She lifted her hand and began to reach out to touch the patch of wolf hair growing on him, but was stopped short as Crone pulled his shirt back down and turned to face her properly. Once again, his eyes were filled with curiosity and excitement and he was leaning toward her as he tried to explain his theory to her. "That's probably the most solid theory we have to go on right now...we should experiment with this a bit more later on" she implored as he pawed at her arm. As he kept trying to poke her she pushed his finger away to stop him.

The brunette thought that she had thwarted his attempts to touch her, but was sadly mistaken. She was surprised when he began flattening down pieces of her hair and fixing it a bit. Something about his whole attitude had shifted completely, now that he knew more about this curse. His request for her to ride him so he could be a wolf was surprising too. She stared back at him as he smiled, looking as happy as a child on his birthday. Hana blinked and couldn't help but blush a bit at how genuine and eager he looked. "I mean, I guess?" she shrugged, not knowing how to handle this. She didn't want to say no to him when he wanted to be a wolf again so badly. "But you can't go too fast or I'll pull on your ears! Okay?" She instructed, trying to gain more control over this weird deal.