Night time flight (A Xibalba and La Muerte story)
"Xibalba, what's it like to fly?"
The god in question turned his attention from watching the humans as they decorated the tombstones with flowers and candles to the beautiful goddess standing next to him.
Ever since their first encounter all those years ago, Xibalba and La Muerte had been spending a lot of time with one another. Whenever they had any free time from their busy duties as gods, they would go visit each other in the others realm (although most of the time it was Xibalba coming to the Land of the Remembered) and they would always spend Dia de los Muertos together.
Xibalba pondered the question for a moment. "It's liberating," he answered and when La Muerte gave him this curious look, he continued with, "I feel so free. Almost like there's nothing that can bring me down. Flying is one of my favorite things to do…next to toying with the mortals of course."
La Muerte rolled her eyes a little at his last statement, but smiled none the less. "You make it sound so wonderful."
"It is…" Xibalba tilted his head to the side. "But why do you ask, my dear?"
La Muerte look up at the night sky. "When we first met and I saw your wings, I admit I was a little envious of you." She confessed. "Birds are one of my favorite animals and I always wondered what it was like to fly like that…" Her voice trailed off a bit after that, but that was fine. Xibalba understood more or less what she was getting at.
It certainly explained her fascination with his wings. He just wished there was a way to somehow make her little dream come true. An idea suddenly popped into his head. He never actually tried something like this before, but it was still worth a shot. There was just one little thing he had to take care of.
"La Muerte?"
"Hmm," she turned her attention back to him. "Yes?"
"Would you mind taking off your sombrero?"
A puzzled look made its way onto the goddess' face. "Why?"
"Just trust me."
La Muerte was confused, but she complied none the less. Snapping her fingers, her large, wide-brimmed hat disappeared.
"Now the candles on your dress," he added.
She gave him this slightly exasperated look, but snapped her fingers again causing the candles on the long hem of her dress to vanish as well. "Now what?"
"Now," A mischievous smile spread across Xibalba's skeletal face. "This."
The dark god scooped La Muerte into his arms (he was much stronger than his bony, thin frame implied) so that he was carrying her bridal style.
"Xibalba, what are you-?!"
"Hold on tight." Xibalba spreads open his large, black wings and with one mighty flap had them take off into the air.
"Xibalba!" La Muerte shrieked, squeezing her eyes shut. She wound her arms around his glowing green neck and hung on for dear life.
"Open your eyes, dearest." She heard Xibalba's voice say. After a moment of hesitation, La Muerte slowly did as he said and gasped in awe at the sight before her.
They were so high up! So much that she felt like she could reach out and touch the clouds and everything below them look incredibly small.
"Oh, it's so- this is amazing!" the goddess exclaimed.
Xibalba grinned at her obvious glee. "I thought you'd like it. Although I must admit this is the first time I've ever had a passenger."
"Really? Are you sure I'm not too heavy for you?"
"Nonsense my dear, you're as light as a feather."
"Can we go higher?" She asked and grinned in delight when he did. Xibalba then proceeded to fly them all around San Angel and La Muerte cherished every moment of it.
'Xibalba was right. This truly is liberating.' She found herself thinking as she relished the feeling of the wind blowing through her long hair. 'I can't believe he did all this for me. It's so sweet of him.'
The queen of the Land of the Remembered glanced back at the lord of the Land of the Forgotten, but he was too busy watching where he was going to noticed. She continued to stare at Xibalba, lost in her own thoughts, yet they were mostly centered on him.
She really did enjoy his company. He was charming and always trying to find ways to impress her. She also thought it was cute how he got so flustered around her sometimes and he was pretty handsome in his own way and…and…
'I love him.' Realization hit her and it hit her hard. She, La Muerte was in love with Xibalba.
'What should I do?' She wondered silently and somewhat frantically. Something inside of her was telling her she needed to do something. But the question is what? Maybe…
"Balby?" La Muerte called out to him by the little nickname she had come up for him during some of their first encounters with each other.
The god turned his head to focus on her again. "Yes, my dear?"
This was it. She had to do it now before she lost her nerve. With that thought in mind, she moved her head forward and pressed her mouth to his.
Xibalba was shocked. So much that he actually stopped flapping his wings for a moment. That proved to be a mistake because in the next moment, they both realized they were falling.
"Xibalba!" La Muerte cried out in panic as she pulled her lips away from his, tightening her grip on his neck.
Xibalba didn't hesitate. He flapped his wings as hard as he could to regain the altitude they just lost and stop them from having a rather unpleasant meeting with the ground. Once he was satisfied that he had gotten everything back under control, he asked La Muerte, "Are you alright?"
The goddess loosened her hold on his neck slightly. "Yes. But I rather we not do that again."
"Agreed," the god said with a nod of his head. "Shall we head back to the cemetery?"
She nodded her own head in silent agreement.
Xibalba soared back towards the graveyard. Once there he landed back on the roof of the church bell tower and settled La Muerte gently back down on her feet.
"Thank you Xibalba," La Muerte said, giving him a warm smile. "This was a wonderful experience."
Xibalba couldn't help but smile back. "You're welcome. But you know it doesn't have to be the last. I'd be more than happy to take you flying anytime you want."
"I'd like that. That is as long as we don't almost crash again." She suddenly remembered what had almost caused them to crash in the first place and felt extremely bashful. Ducking her head down, she softly said, "I...I want to apologize for…for kissing you when I did. I shouldn't have done that especially when you were-."
"No, no, no," Xibalba said quickly, waving his hands in protest. "There's no need to apologize!" When the queen fell silent and kept her head lowered, his expression softened. "La Muerte," he reached out to take her small hands into his larger, gloved ones. "Please look at me." He gave her hands a gentle squeeze.
Slowly almost shyly, La Muerte tilted her face back up. Their eyes locked together, gold meeting red. "While it did take me by surprise, I can assure you it was not an unpleasant one. But…" There was a brief pause. "Why did you do it?"
La Muerte knew in that one, single moment she was going to have to tell Xibalba the truth about her feelings. Oh, she could have easily told him she had kissed him due to the heat of the moment…but that would have been a big, fat lie. And she cared too much about him to ever lie to his face about something like this.
So taking a deep breath to calm her frazzled nerves, the goddess began to say, "I did it because…" her eyes flickered down for a split second before making eye contact with him again. "…because I realized I love you."
Shock was easily registered onto his face, but he didn't pull away from her and that encouraged her to continue. "Xibalba, I know this is sudden but now that you how I feel…I need to ask…how do you feel about me?"
To say Xibalba was stunned in that moment would have been the biggest understatement in the world. La Muerte just said she was in love with him! This was so…so unexpected and yet…it was everything he could have hoped for.
He had been in love with her for years now, but had been far too nervous to tell her. And now here she was before him with her hair windblown from their little night time flight and looking so fearful and so unlike her usual confident self, waiting for his answer. And he knew just what to say.
La Muerte bit her lower lip. Why wasn't he saying anything? Oh no, what if she had made some horrible mistake? She probably just ruined her relationship with him forever. Oh, how could she have been so foolish?! Maybe she should just-
Her thoughts were suddenly brought to a halt as she felt one of Xibalba's hands cup her cheek. She looked up and saw a tender expression of the king's face.
A beat and then…
"I love you too."
La Muerte's eyes widened a mixture a relief and hope coloring her lovely features. "You do?" Her voice was barely above her whisper.
Xibalba grinned. "Yes, I do," he said in a sure, confident voice.
La Muerte grinned back and then without another word, the two immortal figures leaned forward and pressed their lips together for the second time that night.
'This…this feels right.' La Muerte thought absentmindedly as she brought her arms up to his neck, fingers gently touching the three bones that stuck out of the back of it. Xibalba shivered at the pleasant touch. One arm slipped around her slim waist, drawing her in closer to him while his other hand ran through her long, raven hair. He wished he had taken off his glove so he could feel the silkiness of those wavy, dark strands.
When they finally pulled away, La Muerte couldn't help but giggle at the goofy smile on Xibalba's face as well as the dazed look in his skull-like eyes.
"Mhm," To La Muerte, Xibalba looked like he had just woken up from a pleasant dream. "You have no idea how long I've been wanting to do that."
She cocked an eye ridge at him. "Then why didn't you?"
"I…" the winged god snapped out of his dream-like state, white eyebrows furrowing together till they almost touched. "I suppose I was just too afraid to do anything because I didn't want to risk ruining what we have." He removed the hand that was in her hair to gently trace the golden swirls that decorated her face. "I wanted to wait until I was certain your feelings for me were the same as mine."
"Oh Balby," She was so touched how considerate he was of her feelings. But to think he had been in love with her for who knows how long and she had never really notice. It made her feel a little silly. The queen reached up to lay her hand on top of the one pressed to her cheek. "You don't have to be afraid anymore, because now you know…I feel the same way."
"After everything that's happened tonight, I would certainly hope so." The king said with comedic relief.
He gently laid a kiss on her forehead before letting his forehead rest against hers. Their eyes slipped shut as they simply stood there in silence for a long moment just taking in each other presence and essence.
"Tonight was…perfect." Xibalba said quietly.
"Yes, it was." La Muerte agreed her voice equally soft, "but do you know what would make it even more perfect?" One of her sugar coated hands trailed up his chest to toy with his white, curly beard.
"What would make it more perfect?" he asked curiously with a small frown on his face.
Her crimson lips curled into a smirk while her amber eyes twinkled with playfulness, "If you were to kiss me again."
Xibalba let out a hearty laugh, "with pleasure, mi amor."
Author's notes: I saw the Book of Life today and it was amazing! I love Xibalba and La Muerte. I've been reading a lot of fanfics about them on Tumblr, so I figured I try my hand at one. Hope you guys like it! And be sure to check out thebronyphilospher, suzubelle-chan and xensilverquill on Tumblr for more Gravepainters (That's Xibalba and La Muerte's ship name for those of you that didn't know) stories. I also have more Gravepainters stories on Tumblr that I plan to post of Fanfiction as well.