Head back home...
It mawed at his leg as he tried desperately to run away, but he had lost too much blood already, and they had stormed upon him in such a frenzy. With his broken wing digging into the ground behind him, slowing him down, he raised his hand and tried to swat the small demon away, but another sank its teeth into his arm.
Then a third and a fourth, followed by hundreds more, each wanting a bit of the feast. The darkness of their wormlike bodies wrapped around him, suffocating him, enclosing him in the darkness of their teeth and his blood.
Mouth drawn tight and thin, he felt the pain from each gash, each slash of teeth. The blood flowed from his wounds in rivers, in streams, in darkness to bathe that blood-driven darkness.
He would die soon, he heard the ghosts around him say to themselves. The only mercy for him will be that he'll be unconscious before it was over.
There was a shout, and a shriek from the phantasms and, as if it was some sort of cue, the darkness washed over him and away like the low tide. Their teeth and their bodies slid away, leaving behind his pain and his barely conscious body to face whatever scared them off.
His eyes wouldn't focus. Above him, silhouetted against a bright light, was a figure. A man.
The man grabbed him and gently lifted him up and into his warmth. With one arm secure around his waist, the man help up some sort of lamp with the other. As he stared at his rescuer's fierce expression and hard scowl, a peace came over him and he closed his eyes.
He awoke to a sentimental rock tune and the smell of some sort of tea. Some sunlight filtered through the curtains near the bed. In the next room, someone was moving about.
The memories of the demons eating him alive and the man who saved him washed over his mind like a cold wave.
"Oh, hey! You're up." A man with a friendly expression on his face leaned against the threshold between the bedroom and the kitchen. In his hands were two mugs, steam floating out of them almost lazily. "Would you like some tea?"
Without waiting for a response, he walked to the bed and sat down by his legs. "You know, as a way to greet the living world the right way?"
"Where am I?"
"My apartment," the young man said with a bit of flourish, tossing his head slightly to the side as a way of pointing. There was a stir of familiarity within him as the young man did that. "Didn't think you had anywhere else to go."
He lifted himself into some sort of sitting position on the bed. As he did so, he realized how bandaged his hands, and his entire body, were. He also realized...
"My wings," he whispered with a bit of shock.
"I had to fold them in," the young man said, his voice more cryptic, serious than before. "Washing you with them out like that would have been a big hassle," he added.
At this his eyes narrowed. "Who are you?"
The young man smiled. It was a rather closed, cautious expression. "My name is Duo," the young man said, pressing a mug into his bandaged hands. "I'm amazed you don't remember me."
Unsure as to what Duo meant, he stared at the contents inside his mug before taking a hesitant sip.
"And this," Duo said as they came to a stop at a small park, "was where I found you."
He took a good look at the seemingly cheerful place and smiled. "Children play here all the time, don't they."
"Yes, they do," Duo replied. "Which doesn't explain why there were so many of them that night. You must be very special." He gave the angel a very wry smile, as if he knew more than he let on.
"I don't feel so special," he whispered to himself as he stared at the spot where he fell. The gravel there was much darker than the rest of the park area. He was so weak after the fall that he didn't stand a chance against that darkness.
Duo's hand slipped into his, its warmth guiding him out of his thoughts. "Hey, you may have been abandoned," he whispered in a serious tone, giving his hand a squeeze, "but you're still special.
"Especially to me."
Duo wasn't human.
He realized this last night. As they sat side by side on the floor, watching something on television with Duo, he felt an urge to touch Duo. To feel Duo tremble with pleasure. He couldn't do anything, because of what he was, but Duo... He had done so much for him. He hadn't felt so much emotion, so much love, for anyone or anything before... before the fall, but he barely remember anything past the moment his wings broke days ago...
Desire filled him, and all he wanted was for Duo to know of his love and devotion.
With flushed cheeks, he reached for Duo and rested his hand against his affection's chest. He pressed his lips against Duo's, the same way he had seen the woman in the film do.
Duo tasted of Earl Grey, with sugar and milk and lemon.
Duo reacted immediately, his hands clasped Heero's shoulders to keep him close. "Heero," he moaned softly as Heero's hand slip underneath Duo's shirt and flicked a nipple.
He fed on Duo's warmth, his heat, as a hot hand slid into his hair and pulled him closer still. He wanted Duo's desire, his mind sang in a mantra as a hand slipped downward. He wanted to feel and fuel Duo's pleasure, he whispered to himself as his hand encountered nothing but air.
"I'm sorry," Duo whispered as he moved away from Heero. His face was blank, almost sad as he shifted away from Heero's surprised hands and mouth. The glow of the television hit his downcast face in such a way that Heero couldn't see his eyes.
The only sound was the television show as the woman began to smile and laugh.
"Why?" It took a couple of minutes for Heero to realize that he had said this out loud. He couldn't understand why Duo did not want it...
Duo stood up from his spot on the floor, shadows in his eyes. "Because I'm the same as you." He went to the closet and pulled out some blankets and a pillow.
Heero watched as Duo began to set up a sleeping place on the floor by the bed. "What do you mean?" he asked, consciously moving for the blankets and pillow.
Duo let out a sigh and answered in a soft, clipped voice. "I fell a long time ago, Heero. I'm a demon now."
Heero sat quietly as Duo removed his oversized shirt. He was able to make out thin pink scars here and there on his chest. The urge to touch Duo's skin filled him, but the determined, stiff frown on Duo's face squashed that urge immediately.
Black, glossy wings burst from behind Duo and stretched only partially in the small apartment. They were almost dull gray in the glow of the television set.
Heero slowly stood up, his eyes never leaving the raven wings of the demon before him, his heart full with strange awe. Duo had become Heero's everything in a span of a few days, becoming his guide and mentor in this vast, illusionary world. He had aided and healed him after his fall.
Now to find he was, essentially, the same as those worms, Heero was unsure as to what he should feel.
The red tips of Duo's black feathers brought forth warm, pleasant feelings within his heart, but he was unsure as to why.
The wings folded in and disappeared with a whoosh of air.
Heero slept in the bed. Duo slept on the floor. That was a good thing, for Duo was a kicker. He moved so much when he slept.
Heero, on the other hand, couldn't sleep at all. Only when Duo gave him a sleeping aid, then he would be able to rest, but even then...
His lack of memory was alarming. He felt that something was wrong. He knew that he was once an angel. He knew that he fell. He didn't remember why, or even who he was, really. The lack of some clear multi-dimensional personality on his part was disturbing.
Duo has been sad since last night, and that too had Heero nervous. Except for that night with the worm demons, Duo has always been cheerful and kind. Now...
"Why are your wings black, Duo?" Heero asked that afternoon in an attempt to cross the uneasy distance between them.
Duo paused somewhat as he hung clothes in the balcony, but for only a second. With deft hands, he shook a pair of trousers and pinned it to the clothesline. "I was the first to fall," he said in a matter-of-fact voice, as cool and clipped as before. "I get to keep them, but you..."
Heero's hand unconsciously strayed to touch the place where his wings connected to his body. The first few days with Duo, he had to learn to live as a human being. He had to get used to his body without his wings, Duo had told him with a little sad smile, but, before Heero could ask for an explanation, Duo grabbed Heero's hand and led him to the train station so that they could explore other parts of the city.
"If you release them, the gusanos will come after you," Duo continued as he grabbed a shirt and gave it one good flap. "The wings will draw them to you like flies to honey."
He sat still for a moment before continuing. "Why did you fall, Duo?" Heero asked hesitantly.
Duo did not answer right away, but pinned up three t-shirts and two pairs of blue jeans before answering.
"Because I wanted a choice."
Duo had blue-tipped wings in heaven, Heero suddenly recalled as he watched him sleep from above. He was at least certain of that small bit and added it to the rest that he knew.
He was a fallen angel. The first, but obviously not the last.
He was casted down because he demanded for a choice, and had the choice taken from him. He hates heaven for that.
He had blue-tipped feathers and kept his hair loose all the time there. Here, he had yet to see Duo’s hair loose. He would wash it and urgently braid it up once more.
It was slowly coming back to him, but so far all he can recall was how Duo fell, not about himself.
With an arm dangling down for the bed, he fell asleep.
"Doca!" he cried, his heart and voice full of unexplainable fury as he faced his former friend, and all he received for his cry was a wry little smirk.
"Hfeuria," Doca said with that little smirk still on his lips. "Heaven sent you to kill me? So you're Its hand in this matter."
There was a sadness in Doca's voice that Hfeuria refused to acknowledge. "Yes." The sharp glor in his hand felt heavy for only a moment.
"Then kill away." A wind, probably created by Doca, dramatically moved his hair about. "It's nice to see I don't even have a choice in how I will die." His smirk turned self-defacing. "I was always destined to be killed by you."
Hfeuria frowned at Doca's choice of words as he raised the glor and charged.
They bumped against each other, against the other passengers, as the train made its way toward S station. Duo insisted to take the loop train the long way, but Heero did not mind. He was enjoying the feel of this world, despite everything. Human beings have such energy within themselves. They must feel special as well.
There was a blast of a horn, and the train came to a literally screeching stop. People, men and women and children with their odd bookbags, lurched forward in a mass with little noise.
The door to the platform side opened and the conductor began to speak over the intercom.
"We are terribly sorry for the delay, but there has been an accident up ahead. Once again, there has been an accident up ahead. Please be patient and we will be on our way in a few minutes."
As the humans looked about, trying to decide what to do, Heero caught a bit of a smirk on Duo's lips.
"The woman threw herself," he said in a whisper, though the humans around wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying. He wasn't speaking their language now, but Heero's. "Thirty years old. No sense of purpose. The poor child."
He let go of the handrail and made his way to the door. "Come, Heero," he said over his shoulder. "She's waiting for us."
The police haven't come yet. Somehow, Duo was able to get them there faster than time itself, on paths unknown to anyone except himself, for they arrived a good two minutes before the delay and the 'accident' that caused it.
"Duo," Heero whispered in their language as they weaved through the crowd to a young woman in a peach suit. She looked anxious, with the way she twisted the handkerchief in her hands.
Duo did not respond to Heero's hesitant question as his black wings burst out of the back of the thick hooded pullover he was wearing. They unfurled out to its full length and no one around them said anything, saw anything.
Only the woman saw it, her eyes growing wide with fear as the black-winged figure walked up to her and took her hand. She was trembling so much, her brown hair shook almost violently. Somewhere in the shadows, Heero was able to make out gusanos and childlike imps lurking, watching.
"Who are you?" she was able to whimper to Duo. Her eyes were filled with tears, black as Duo's red-tipped feathers as they shadowed the two of them from the light of day.
"You asked for me to come." Duo gently stroked her hand once, twice, in comfort before letting go. "The train's about to leave." Heero saw a sad flicker of emotion in Duo's eyes.
"Yes," she said, almost detached. There was a whoosh of air as somewhere nearby, a pack of crows fluttered into the air in a panic.
"You wanted to do this all morning." There was concern in Duo's voice that Heero hadn't noticed before.
The woman nodded. "Yes."
"There's nothing here for you, is there."
"No."
The doors of the train a good five, ten feet away closed.
The flock of crows sat on a nearby roof, watching. "God will take care of me."
"Yes, he will," Duo replied as the woman steeled herself and jumped down to the tracks.
There was no chance of the train stopping in time. She jumped, and a second later she was hit.
"How can you do that!" Heero yelled across the room as Duo sat on the bed, calmly mending his undershirt. He gave up on fixing the hooded pullover. "She wasn't supposed to die."
"Yes, she was. I was only there to comfort her."
"But you let her! You let her kill herself. How could you?" He slammed his fist onto the table he sat at. That shouldn't have happened. What was the point of arriving early when Duo wouldn't save her.
"It was her choice, Heero, not mine," Duo stated again. "If I took that choice from her, I'd be no better than heaven was with me." The needle in his hand weaved in and out of the white cloth.
"You're a monster."
"Yeah, well, so are you, Heero, or did you forget? You're on earth now. There's death here. Get used to it, angel." Duo spat out those few words venomously.
"So... you killed him."
"I... couldn't. I'm sorry."
She frowned slightly at the apology. "It doesn't matter. He's been punished, nonetheless. He wanted freedom, so let him have it." Her face turned cool and detached once more. "Let him enjoy that freedom forever."
~~~tbc
Notes:
Please send me comments at jezebel_17@hotmail.com
Or sign the guestbook instead...
Trust me, I'll appreciate it big time.