<< Wish That You Were Here - From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" Original Motion Picture - Florence + The Machine >>
After Kai had fully bathed and dressed, carefully avoiding the fresh new bandages, he grumbled incessantly under his breath at the distinct lack of dirt and grime covering his body.
'The sicko cleaned me too, that piece of shit...'
He pulled a fresh shirt over his head, one that covered the bandage entirely and filed all thoughts of Rameses back into his comfortable, locked box.
Taking a deep steadying breath to prepare himself, he made his way downstairs.
When he pushed the door open, he lingered in its threshold, absorbing the smell of burnt flour and something else that smelled of far too much spice.
Before his eyes could scan the room for Uriel or his sister, however, his father turned towards the sound of his entrance; away from whatever culinary catastrophe he had been in the midst of producing.
His youthful face crumpled immediately, crossing the room in less than three strides and Kai opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. And then, he was caught up in a tight hug around his shoulders that not only knocked the air clean out of him but also sent a shooting pain through his wound.
"...my boy." He gripped him harder around his shoulders and Kai bit back the yelp that threatened to escape him when he pressed against his hidden injury, "What were you thinking? Do you have any idea - I thought -" He stopped, his voice rough and shaking, "Don't you ever do that again."
He leaned back and grasped the sides of his face. He was clearly making an attempt at appearing stern but Kai could see the way his pursed lips quivered and the red rims around his warm, but exhausted, brown eyes.
A sharp pang of guilt stabbed at his heart.
"I'm so sorry dad, for scaring you...really. I didn't mean to be gone so long, it was an accident." He explained in a low voice, already feeling the corners of his own eyes prickling.
Kai swallowed it down.
His arms wrapped around him again and he thought his father might actually be trying to squeeze the life out of him as penance.
"Dad -" He tapped against his back, pointedly, "I'm fine, but...ow."
He was hurriedly released, Ely mumbling a swift apology underneath his breath whilst his eyes scanned Kai's face like he had believed that he might never see it again.
Kai turned his head away and immediately caught sight of Uriel, sitting at his kitchen table as though it were entirely normal for an angelic being to be nibbling on a bowl of salted cashews like they were drugged candy.
He beamed at Kai and waved, his long legs stretched out underneath the table, in Rameses' seat and with the relaxed demeanour of someone who had been casually observing a dramatic street performance.
Wearing his more human appearance, he could at least be looked upon now without it feeling as though it were a deep sin for a mortal to do so, but the way he smiled was still causing his heart to race.
Kai grimaced back, his gaze sliding over to the far wall, at the back of their sitting room.
Aida was standing, watching him, her back pressed to the wall and her arms folded over her chest, in a way that appeared less angry and more like she were attempting to hold herself together.
She didn't move when Kai crossed the room towards her, but her wide, brown eyes lifted up to meet his with a steady gaze.
He crouched down a little until they were level, "Hey, Addy." He greeted, softly.
Her jaw tightened at the old nickname, the one he hadn't used since she was eight and had informed him with tremendous indignation that she was far too old for it. He watched something shift behind her eyes, the way she swallowed heavily, the way her arms dropped to her sides, and then she opened her mouth.
"Hi." She replied, quietly.
That single whispered syllable she uttered made Kai feel as though he had been simultaneously punched in the gut and pulled back from the edge of a steep cliff; both guilt and relief flooding through him like a wave.
It had been eleven years since the last time his sister had stopped speaking. It had lasted a full year after the day their mother died.
And he had never wanted to experience that again.
He reached out and pulled her in before she could object or push him away, and Kai felt her stiffen like a board, her chin raised in clear protest.
Kai fought back the urge to cry through the relief. But he hadn't done so since the night he kicked Rameses out of his bedroom and he'd be damned if he opened those floodgates now, and Aida didn't shed a single tear either.
She hadn't for eleven years.
Yet, he felt the moment her stubbornness cracked when she hesitantly raised her arms to hug him back, "I hate you." She grumbled into his shoulder, "I actually, genuinely hate you. You promised."
Kai felt another stab at his heart and let go of her.
He gave her a sad smile and ruffled her hair, eliciting a deep frown as she smoothed it back, "I'm sorry. Are you mad that you won't get to take my room, little Addy?"
She flipped him off, out of sight of their father and stuck out her tongue, "I don't want it anyway, it reeks of boys."
Kai chuckled in amusement and steered her towards the table gently nudging her into her chair.
She shot Uriel a strange look as she settled down beside him that caught Kai's attention.
At that moment, he realised that he had left an Angel wholly unattended with his family for hours, and had no idea how much he had told them.
He walked back to where his father stood, spreading what looked like a strong meat paste over pieces of singed flatbread.
"Did Uriel introduce himself properly?" He probed, leaning towards him and lowering his voice.
His father looked up and then peered back over his shoulder at the painfully beautiful figure who was attempting to smile cheerfully at a wary Aida.
"Mmm, about that. Kai, you're - friend. He's...a bit odd." He remarked, lowering his voice also.
Kai knew that Uriel could likely hear the muted conversation, but if he could, his expression did not betray him.
His father continued:
"When you arrived, I saw - well...were those wings?" He asked in a hushed whisper.
Kai repressed the urge to groan aloud and swiftly settled on the easiest lie he could use before his father's entire world view crumbled to pieces, "Yeah, it's his - Artifact, you know? It lets him fly." He replied.
His father's eyes lit up in recognition, the tension fading away into immediate relief, "Oh thank the Gods. I thought it must be something like that, but when I asked him, he just...well, he seems to think he's an Angel." He chuckled, nervously, "Crazy, right?"
Kai closed his eyes for a brief moment, torn between the conclusion that either Uriel was somehow bound to tell the truth no matter what, or he was simply an overly honest and naïve fool with no sense of what you should and should not say.
He chuckled along with his father, waving off the revelation as if it were only an eccentric quirk, "Must be his Artifact flaw I guess. He has wings to fly, but in return he's deluded into believing he's an Angel. Otherwise, he's completely harmless, I swear. He helped us a lot in fact, and he brought Rami and I back from the forest safely, so -" Kai paused, searching for the right way to ask for permission to keep what his father now thought was a complete lunatic, in their family home with them.
"If you really think about it, I was in a bad state and Rami didn't look good either, so really, he saved our lives, you know? I owe him one for sure." He nodded at his own words and watched the expression of gratitude that passed over his father's face when he looked back at the Angel once more, who was now eagerly showing Aida a strange magic trick.
He had placed a cashew, clearly in the palm of his left hand and then, held out both of his closed hands towards her and asked her to pick one.
Aida raised her eyebrow questioningly, "What do you mean, pick one? I saw where you put it, it's in that one, obviously." She scoffed, pointing at his left and crossing her arms back over her chest.
Uriel grinned at her, flashing his straight white teeth and perfect dimples in a way that would melt the iciest of hearts.
To her testament, Aida held firm, with just a single twitch of her clenched jaw.
"Are you sure?"
He opened it.
And sitting on his palm, where the cashew nut had just been, was now a small bronze coin that he promptly tipped into her hand as she stared at it, dumbfounded.
"How…how did you do that? I saw it, it wasn't a coin."
"It's just magic, all Angels can do a little magic." He shrugged, utterly straight-faced and unconcerned.
She blinked back at him.
"His Artifact." Kai interjected hurriedly with a nervous laugh, "It's just a trick, Aida. His Artifact makes him think he's an Angel. He's not insane, I swear!"
Uriel turned his ocean blue eyes toward Kai with an expression of polite and total bewilderment.
Kai looked back at him very steadily, screaming at him in his head to please act like a human or at least a being with a sane mind.
"Ah, yes, I'm -" Uriel nodded, adding a moment too late, "Perfectly sane."
Aida's lips pressed together very firmly as though she were using every ounce of her willpower not to smile and laugh at the beautiful man who thought he was an imaginary being with magic powers.
She looked down at the coin in her palm and then, without a word, tucked it into her pocket and turned away from him.
Kai repressed the urge to laugh at the display.
She was very clearly and obviously refusing to be charmed by the stranger that was sitting in Rami's chair and had brought her brother back with his arm around his waist.
'Still one supporter left for team Rameses I guess.' Kai shook his head.
At that moment, his father placed the food on the table, and Uriel's ocean blue eyes lit up at the slightly charred lahmacun's, covered in a layer of salad leaves and herbs to hide the suspicious meat paste and burnt edges.
And Uriel was staring at this dubious meal with nothing short of genuine wonder and amazement.
When he lifted the bread to take a bite, peeking at Aida beside him to mirror her actions, Kai wondered for a brief moment whether Angels could even get food poisoning and silently prayed that, if so, it at least would not be lethal. He still needed his assistance after all.
He had nothing to be concerned about however, when after taking his first bite from flatbread, Uriel's eyes flashed and he swiftly began demolishing the entire thing in several large, enthusiastic bites.
For a moment, everyone froze, and his father stared at their odd dinner guest in wide-eyed shock.
"Y-you like it?" He asked, stumbling around the words as if he couldn't quite believe it himself.
Uriel nodded eagerly, licking his fingers and staring at Ely as if he were also some form of magical being that had just conjured up an unknown delicacy straight from a celestial plane, "This is...the best thing I've ever eaten in my life! Can I have more, please?" He asked, with such absolute sincerity that Kai caught a deep red blush immediately creeping over his father's face.
Ely opened and closed his mouth for a moment in utter disbelief before nodding slowly as though he were in a dream.
Kai even caught him pinching the skin of his arm when he turned away to hurriedly prepare seconds.
"Seconds...no one's ever asked for seconds before." He heard him mumbling under his breath, dazed.
'Nice one, Uri, you beautiful charmer! Thank the Gods he has no taste. This is going to be too easy.'
He cleared his throat, careful to keep his expression steady and clear of the triumph of a battle already won, "So, dad. What I was going to ask earlier is...can Uri stay with us for a little while? He used up all of his energy saving us and bringing us here and he's very far from home because of it. You'd be ok with that, right?"
**