#sleep deprived quinnposting

[trivalentlinks]

i am very sleep deprived again, so here is sleepy trivalent's Leverage Prompts Part n for some large value of n:

So, pre-canon demon AU where human-demon interaction is rare. Where it exists, it's usually in the form of the human binding the demon to themselves for the rest of the human's mortal life (so the demon has to do whatever the human says for the rest of the human's mortal life, which, for magical reasons, they cannot extend indefinitely) in exchange for the human's immortal soul after the human dies.

Demons cannot actually move around the human realm without a contract allowing them to do so, and even with a contract, they can only use their magic as dictated by the contract (usually, this means they can only use their magic to carry out their human's orders)

Anyway, Quinn is a demon, going about his normal demonly life in some other dimension, when he gets summoned to San Lorenzo by Eliot at Moreau's request.

Moreau proposes the usual kind of deal to Quinn, Eliot's soul in exchange for Quinn being bound to Eliot for the rest of Eliot's life.

Quinn takes a look at Eliot's whole Situation with Moreau and says to Eliot,

"Hm, I don't know, your soul's not in the best state, maybe you can sweeten the pot for me."

And Eliot's thinking, look, he's at rock bottom here and still digging, what else could he possibly have to offer?

And Quinn's like, "How about this, make me some human food--I haven't had that in decades, and last time was... not your species's best work. If you can make me something better than the tuna salad jello the last guy fed me, then we can talk about a deal."

And Eliot... Well, Eliot hasn't cooked in a while. Thinking about cooking reminds him of a kitchen in Belgium and a man who taught him how to use his hands to create instead of destroy...

In other words, Quinn's found the one thing that hurts possibly more than offering up his eternal soul. Eliot wonders if it's a demon thing that Quinn was able to do that. [It's not. Not entirely, at least. Quinn does actually like human food (except what he was fed last time).]

Still, Eliot's pretty sure he can do better than tuna salad jello from the 1950s, so he heads to the kitchen.

However, after deciding that Eliot's food passes the better-than-tuna-salad-jello test, Quinn secretly tweaks the contract in demon legalese in such a way that it's not immediately apparent that instead of

(Eliot's eternal soul + Eliot routinely cooking Quinn meals) in exchange for (Quinn's service for the rest of Eliot's mortal life)

it's actually

(Metaphorical pieces of Eliot's soul, expressed in the form of a meals cooked for Quinn) in exchange for (Quinn doing tasks at Eliot's request for the rest of Eliot's mortal life, as long as the offering of Eliot's (metaphorical) soul continues in a meaningful way)

Eliot, who is Not Doing Great, does not actually notice this changed meaning.

Moreau knows that something is off, but he can't see a way in which Quinn's end doesn't work out for him, since he has total faith in Eliot's loyalty to him, so as far as he's concerned he will get everything he wants out of Quinn for as long as Eliot's alive. And anyway, it was fucking hard to summon a demon in the first place and Quinn is flat out refusing any other kind of deal, so Moreau's like, alright, we'll take it.

As far as Eliot and Moreau are concerned, the contract works; Quinn is doing what they ask for, things that require a lot of powerful magic, which would only be possible if the contract is working.

It's only years after leaving Moreau that Eliot realizes he hasn't actually sold his soul.