The sun was bright and relentless as Inn strode out of the changing room, Lion scurrying after him.

Inn looked around, surveying the land. Lion had warned him it would be crowded but Inn figured this just meant more opportunity to pick a suitable human heart.

“Oof!” Lion let out a small, winded sound as Inn stopped moving. The smaller boy had run into the back of him and was now sidestepping sheepishly around Inn’s bulky frame.

Inn rolled his eyes, looking up and down Lion’s slender form. The other boy clearly needed to eat more, Inn could see his ribs and sharp hipbones jutting out under soft caramel skin. Inn had acquired himself some knee length black swim shorts for the occasion. Lion’s shorts were a pale, powdery blue and stopped just above his bruised knees.

Lion had appeal, Inn could recognize that. His figure was toned from dance but not overly large. The smaller boy’s eyes were large and a warm coffee brown, his lips were full, if bitten and his hair was healthy and thick, just touching the nape of his neck where lines of freckles took up the path down the groove of his spine.

However, Lion was also weak, breakable and hopelessly naïve to the point that Inn no longer found it amusing or indicative of a potential toy. Instead, there was something about Lion that irked the demon prince. Lion was so desperate to please his damned Hanuman that he was practically tripping over himself to do Inn’s bidding. It would be all too easy to use such obsequiousness to sate a myriad of Inn’s vices.

Inn huffed as Lion voiced his apologies to a nearby family for getting in the way of their photograph. It hadn’t even been the small human’s fault. Inn scowled at the family, causing the young girl to whimper and cling to her father before he steered Lion away towards the attractions.

Lion’s shoulders felt fragile as Inn guided him through a crowd of tourists towards a bridge crossing an ornamental river. There were large stone sculptures of various menacing mythological figures dotted along the walkway.

Conjured images of Lion being snapped apart by large, gripping demon hands caused Inn to shudder suddenly.

“You okay?” Lion asked, turning round with a frown.

“Fine,” Inn grunted, squinting up at the strange metal construction above them. “What is that?”

“It’s a water slide,” Lion laughed. The sound, whilst it had first grated on Inn, was now starting to do strange things to his stomach. Inn figured he probably had gas from all the strange human food.

Inn flinched as a screaming couple on some sort of inflatable dinghy went hurtling past, clutching at each other for dear life.

“I see,” Inn nodded, satisfied, “it is a torture device.”

“What?” Lion exclaimed giggling. “Noo, P’Inn – it’s meant to be fun!”

Inn looked at Lion suspiciously. The human hadn’t yet tried to take advantage of Inn’s unfamiliarity with this dimension.

“It’s like a rollercoaster,” Lion explained, “only with water!”

Inn had no idea what a rollercoaster was but before he knew it Lion had gripped his hand and was pulling him forwards to a large queue. The line of people were ascending a spiral staircase that went up all the way to a raised platform.

“Are you okay with heights?” Lion frowned before shaking his head. “Of course you are, you’re a monkey – dumb question.”

“I am not –“ Inn began indignantly before catching himself, he cleared his throat. “No, I am not afraid of heights.”

The smells of sunscreen and ice cream permeated through the gathered bodies as Inn and Lion finally neared the top of the staircase.

“Wow, you can see the whole park from here!” Lion beamed, peering over the side and gasping as it let out an ominous creak. Inn sighed and hooked his fingers in the waistband of Lion’s shorts, pulling him backwards onto the more stable platform.

“Oh,” Lion squeaked, looking a little flushed as he regained his balance. Inn tried not to think about how hot and smooth Lion’s skin had felt under his fingertips, the dimples of Venus that sat just above his pert…

“Your turn!” an attendant announced, ushering them forwards until they were stood next to a strange looking raft. “So the heavier person needs to sit in the back,” the attendant instructed, looking up at Inn expectantly.

Inn climbed into the device, spreading out his feet as the man told him to.

“Then you climb in next, between his legs,” the man grinned at Lion who looked a little awkward.

“Ah, sorry,” Lion dipped his head as he carefully positioned himself in the raft. He was sat at an odd and rigid angle, clearly attempting not to make any skin contact with Inn.

The light above them changed from red to green and the raft lurched forwards, causing Lion to scramble backwards, pressing himself hard against Inn’s front.

“Sorry!” Lion gasped in repeated apology as the rushing water swept the raft around a tight bend before gathering more and more momentum.

Inn hissed as Lion’s elbow made contact with his crotch on the next downwards slope. He growled before wrapping both of his arms around Lion’s squirming torso. “Stop moving,” he stated firmly in the smaller boy’s ear.

Thankfully, Lion seemed to acquiesce as he fell still in Inn’s tight hold and the raft continued to throw them about like an enraged sea serpent.

“Oh my god!” Lion cried as a conveyer belt portion seemed to be drawing them upwards, the glass sides and open top of the slide revealing just how far they were about to fall. Inn grinned, he finally understood why humans found this fun, it was similar to some of his training exercises back home.

Although in Longka there would be fewer rafts and more rabid bats chasing him.

“Oh my god, that’s steep,” Lion continued to panic. Inn rolled his eyes as Lion began to writhe again, straining against Inn’s muscles as if he could get free and frantically paddle in the opposite direction. “Why isn’t the slide enclosed?” Lion whined. “We’re going to go over the sides!”

“None of the other rafts did,” Inn commented drily. He could smell the anxiety dripping from Lion’s pores. Normally, human fear would excite him but now it seemed like an inconvenience. Hadn’t it been Lion who had wanted to go on this ride after all?

He guessed that Lion had probably never actually been to a theme park like this before, seeing as the ticket price had deprived them of a hefty sum.

“We will not fall,” Inn stated, hating himself slightly for wanting to reassure this pathetic creature.

“Really?” Lion managed to crane his neck enough to make eye contact with Inn.

“My magic will not let us fall,” Inn lied with a shrug. He was pretty sure even if they did go over the side he would be able to save himself at least.

“Okay,” Lion nodded, he looked more confident now, shuffling back into Inn’s arms as they finally tipped over the edge, the raft teetering for a moment before it plunged downwards.

Inn cackled as he heard Lion’s scream, diluted by the wind as their stomachs jumped up and head butted their lungs.

By the time they finally reached the end of the ride and the raft had been spat out to wallow lazily in a shallow pool, Lion had his face tucked firmly against Inn’s chest.

“We are being told to get out,” Inn announced, not that he cared about the instructions of the attendants but Lion’s lips trembling so close to his nipple was starting to do strange things to him.

“Shit,” Lion groaned, extricating himself from Inn’s front and sliding heavily into the pool as the attendants fished out the now empty raft and placed it on some kind of pulley system to go back up to the starting platform.

Inn chuckled as he watched Lion wobble like a new born faun up the steps to dry land.

“So, did you find it fun?” Inn smirked, guessing they would spend the rest of the day in the wave pool or the gift shop.

“I-“ Lion turned round, his eyes big and round, “It was amazing!”

Inn blinked in surprise.

“Oh my god P’ did you see how high we were?” Lion laughed, clasping his hands together in excitement. “I thought we were going to go upside down at one point!” Lion giggled, pointing back up to the slide above them. “Let’s go find some more rides,” Lion added, grabbing Inn’s hand and tugging along the pathway.

Inn wondered if he might have underestimated this little human?