<< Funny Mouth - Charli xcx >>
Uriel held his hand up in front of his heart and gently pressed it against Kai's with a bright smile.
The first thought that entered his head was how long and slender his fingers were, and how cold the Angel's skin was. Cold but smooth, like satin.
And then he laced his fingers between Kai's.
A wave of heat rushed into his face and he tried to jerk his hand back, his heart hammering in his chest, "Whoah! What are you doing?" He exclaimed, high and panicked.
Uriel grinned back, but mercifully let go of his hand, "You're warm." He stated, simply.
Kai opened and closed his mouth, internally debating whether it was possible for his heart to give out for no good reason.
'Stupid, beautiful Angel. Stop smiling at me like that!'
He shook his head clear and opened his mouth to ask a question.
Before he could do so, a dark figure shot out from the treeline.
Kai had approximately half a second of warning, the snapping of branches and a loud rustling from the undergrowth, before something hit him from the side and took him down to the ground with considerable force.
He landed hard on his injured shoulder, a burst of white hot pain shooting down his arm and his body immediately reacted.
As though the response were ingrained in his every muscle, Kai forced his arm between himself and the attacker and twisted his other hand free from their grip, and as they wrapped one strong arm around his middle, pinning him to the floor, Kai made to drive his palm straight up into -
"Kai, stop struggling. It's me."
Kai stilled. He recognised that deep, husky voice and the surprise of hearing it here, in this forest, locked his limbs into place even as his heart lurched and stuttered in his chest.
'What the hell is he doing here?'
"Stay away from him." Rameses half-growled up at the Angel, pressing Kai into the ground with one arm wrapped around his waist and another gripping the end of a curved blade.
Uriel however, was regarding them both with the same expression that he had worn when Kai had first appeared - genuine and uncomplicated curiosity.
Kai blinked up at him in shock for a moment longer, desperately working to ignore the way he could feel every hard line of his body pressing him down into the grass. The smell of the forest was radiating strongly from his clothes, even muted by the thin layer of sweat that covered his tanned skin.
Kai sighed heavily, "Rami, he wasn't going to attack me. Get the fuck off, you giant idiot."
Rami's body was positioned between Kai and the Angel with the defensive urgency of someone who had arrived expecting violence and had organised himself accordingly. He was breathing hard, his gaze fixed on Uriel with a sharp assessment that was now rapidly recalculating.
At Kai's words, he looked down at him, his blue eyes shining with a bright phosphorescence as they roamed over his face, settling on his shoulder with a dark expression. He looked back up at Uriel and then back down at him again, before slowly releasing his hold on his waist and pulling him up from the floor as he sheathed the blade.
Kai watched his face in amazement. He found it incredulous that anybody could be so unphased by the sight of Uriel; Angels were not known to humans after all, he wasn't meant to exist in the first place.
And yet, with the exception of his initial, overly defensive reaction to what he assumed was a potential threat, after Kai's reassurance, Rami was regarding the celestial being with nothing short of indifference.
He jerked his thumb at Uriel who was now watching them both with cheery amusement, "He's an Angel. The one I mentioned before I left."
Something shifted behind Rami's piercing pale eyes as they roamed over Uriel's patient and cheerful form, and then his face settled back into its default blankness.
Rameses looked back at Kai and then - shrugged.
As though the beautiful, otherworldly perfection standing before them, with giant silvery wings from a celestial plane was simply a stranger; a random man they were passing in the streets, that he was being begrudgingly introduced to.
"Ok."
Kai stared at him, open-mouthed, "Are you serious? An Angel gets a shrug and an 'Ok'. An actual Angel, Rami. Could you try and look shocked?"
Rami paused for a moment, "Do you want me to fake it?" He asked.
"By the An - ugh, whatever." Kai stopped himself with a groan, "What are you even doing here? How did you follow me?"
For a moment, a subtle look of confusion swiftly passed over Rami's handsome features, and then he stared at Kai with the same serious, blank expression that he often did, "Aida showed us the map you marked when you didn't return. It's been fourteen days, Kai, didn't you realise? There are multiple search parties scouring the forest for you. And, Aida - she stopped speaking last week."
'...fourteen days.'
'Aida stopped speaking.'
A deep, gnawing sense of dread crept through his veins as he remembered Neave's words:
'Time flows a little differently in the marsh.'
Despite the measures he had taken to ensure that search teams would be raised to look for him if he didn't return within five days of his trip, Kai had never expected to be gone for that long.
He didn't truly want to place Aida in that position. To worry his father. To put others in danger in their search for him. Or to alert the council.
It was at that moment, as his heart dropped into his stomach and his legs grew weak, that he really looked at Rameses.
In contradiction to his calm and steady reaction after seeing Kai was largely unharmed and that the Angel posed no apparent or immediate threat, he was not in good shape.
There were dark circles under his bloodshot eyes, his cheeks were hollow as though he had lost weight, there was a shallow cut just below his hairline that had left dried blood in his dark curls and he was subtly shifting his weight to his right side, as though he had injured his left leg.
But his gaze was fixed on Kai's shoulder as he spoke.
"Ely was ready to join the search parties but I convinced him not to. I didn't think you'd want your father out here in the forest, so I came instead. Sorry for leaving them alone." He explained in a flat voice, reflexively reaching up and pulling a dried leaf out of Kai's hair.
He simply nodded back, numb and dazed.
Kai hadn't considered that his father would do that.
Before their mother's death, he had been a Demon Hunter. Travelling for weeks or sometimes even months at a time with the small, underfunded team of mercenaries responsible for keeping the area around Nasiru clear of outside threats.
But after her death, Ely Seraphall had immediately exchanged this dangerous vocation for an administrative role at the city treasury. A safer, if rather boring and unexceptional job, that allowed him the stability to care for them in her place without ever leaving the city.
For him to even consider leaving Aida behind to search for his son would not have been an easy one for him to make and the guilt began to weigh heavily on Kai's already exhausted shoulders.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be out here so long." He mumbled, looking away from Rami's injuries and the concerned gaze that kept falling back down to his shoulder.
'Aida stopped speaking.'
Rameses didn't answer except to give a single nod and look back at Uriel, his eyes narrowed.
"Are you done here? I need to get you back so the search can be called off. I went the long route, but the others were planning to cut through the marsh."
Uriel beamed back, entirely unbothered by the charged exchange, filled with unspoken accusations.
"Where are we going? A human city? Are there more of those mushrooms there?" He asked eagerly, his wings rustling with excitement.
Rami's eyes widened, "What? You're bringing it back with you?"
"Yes. I'm going to show him around the city and stay with us for a while, he's helping me with something in exchange." Kai shrugged, wincing when the action pulled at his wound.
Rameses watched him silently, clearly displeased with the idea but seemingly unwillingly to argue against it when Kai appeared so drained, both physically and mentally.
When he didn't receive a reply, Kai turned his attention back to Uriel, who at this point was almost vibrating with barely concealed enthusiasm at the prospect of living amongst humans.
"Can you make yourself look more -" Kai gestured vaguely at all of him; all 6ft 5" of otherworldly perfection.
"Human?" Uriel brightened further, "Yes. Easy!" He grinned.
Kai glared at him doubtfully.
But in the next moment, he blinked and then his eyes widened in disbelief.
In less than a second, the Angel's appearance had drastically altered.
The long feathered wings had entirely disappeared as though they had never existed to begin with, the subtle radiance that had seemed to emanate from beneath his skin was gone and his long, pale blonde hair had shortened.
His features were still that of an impossibly attractive young man, with a sharp jaw, a dimpled smile and wide eyes of a bright ocean blue. But now at least he might only cause a minor cart collision instead of sparking the fall of a city.
The clothes that Demetra had made him, although plain and non descript, did little to mute the beauty of his face or cover the obvious perfection of his toned physique. But at least they would pass for normal attire in Nasiru.
Kai sighed, eyeing the way his wavy hair now fell effortlessly into his bright eyes with an endearing grace, "It'll have to do, I suppose..."
Uriel did a slow spin, admiring his own human form with utter delight.
Suddenly, Kai swayed on the spot and Rameses took a step closer to him, his arm hovering behind his back without touching.
"Use the Rune, Kai. Let's go." He remarked.
But Kai shook his head, no, "Too expensive. Just give me a minute. We'll go back the way you came." He drawled, his voice slurred, rubbing at his head when Rami's words grew louder, echoing back on repeat:
'Aida stopped speaking!'
"I wouldn't recommend that. I took a red route, the one that encircled the marsh." He informed him, flatly.
And then, without warning Uriel appeared behind them, the giant wings phasing back into existence and spreading widely behind his back; so tall that they blocked the little sun that filtered into the clearing, "I can take us!" He chirped, his voice still far too clear and beautiful to pass as human.
He wrapped a cold arm around Kai's waist and grabbed a now, finally startled Rameses by the back of his jacket.
"Wait, Uri, no! Someone might s-" But before he could finish his sentence, Kai gasped, his stomach dropping and his breath catching in his throat when the arm around him tightened and his feet left the floor.
Faster than his mind could process, the forest swiftly fell away, the giant trees rapidly decreasing in size the higher they climbed, and for a long moment Kai wasn't able to breathe.
They flew across the sky, Kai pressed against the Angel's hard chest and Rameses dangling like a rag doll from his hand, the air battering his tired body mercilessly.
Kai desperately took in a mouthful of air and choked out against the hot wind streaking past his face:
"Slow...down..."
He wasn't able to raise his voice, but Uriel clearly heard his quiet plea, immediately slowing their flight.
"Oops. Sorry, Kai." He breathed against his ear in his lilting musical voice, raising the hairs along the back of his neck.
Kai breathed a quiet sigh of relief and raised his hand to point towards the southern horizon, away from the northern forest, "The city's that way."
All thoughts of the risk of being seen left his tired mind when he noted the slowly setting sun. Hopefully most citizens would be departing the market to return home by now and may not even notice. And for those who did - Kai had ceased caring.
He could think of a way to explain it later.
Right now, he could only think of home. His family. Sleep...
Uriel landed softly in the garden behind his house, the icy cold of the forest, the smell of moss and dead vegetation finally replaced by the familiar scent of freshly turned earth and homegrown herbs and flowers.
Kai breathed it in.
Relief washed over him, the tension in his muscles fading away and without warning, everything hit at once, as soon as Uriel released his hold.
The long, anxious trek through the forest.
Escaping the Spider Demon.
The poison that had spread through his body.
The Marsh of Spectres.
Those damned voices.
Her voice. Bitter and cold: 'It was your fault after all, you gave it to me.'
The Witches Grove.
Demetra draining away a part of his lifespan, leaving an empty jagged hole in his chest.
Meeting Uriel.
Rameses.
Fourteen days.
Aida stopped speaking…again.
His fault…again.
His legs, which had been operating on the last reserves of his now non-existent will to stay conscious, buckled.
'Damn...it would be nice to go one day without passing out.' He thought weakly whilst the ground came up to meet him.
Rami's arms shot out and swept underneath his legs and shoulders, wrapping around him before he could reach the floor.
The last thing that Kai was aware of was the smell of pine trees and the solid warmth of someone who had, apparently, been waiting to catch him.
**