"Really, is this what we're doing now?"
Penryn should be scared right now. A few months ago, she would have been able to muster up a very respectable amount of terror if four men armed with blunt objects had her surrounded.
Now? Nearly a month after the angel war had met its end with Uriel's death, and over three months since the world had gone to hell in a handbasket? Please. She had fought demigod warriors, had been to hell and back, had stared certain death in the face so many times that she had lost count.
After all that, she couldn't bring herself to be very afraid of a few half-starved men whose best defense were a couple of beaten-up baseball bats.
It also didn't hurt that Alpha and Tattoo were lurking somewhere nearby, and some of the Watchers that had come along on patrol could probably hear her right now, even if they were currently out of sight.
But she doubt that she'd be needing much help.
At her hip, Pooky Bear pulsed in disappointment. Penryn could feel how it was itching for a fight after so long.
Not today, buddy.
The leader-well, he was the ugliest and surliest of the bunch-sneered at her.
"You shouldn't come into our territory if you weren't looking for a fight, little girl."
"Boss..." One of the men behind him nudged him. "I think that's her…"
"Who?"
"The angel slayer," another man piped up.
All four men turned back to stare at her.
Penryn gave a little wave.
"Seriously?" The leader looked at the sword resting on her hip. "What are you, ten?"
Penryn shrugged. "I'll be eighteen in a two months."
"Well, happy fucking birthday to you, princess," said the leader. "Now get off our territory before we wipe the floor with you and use your little sword as a toothpick."
Big words, but the men behind the leader shifted nervously.
They should be nervous. Pooky pulsed again, enraged, itching for a fight.
Penryn crossed her arms.
"I don't think so."
"Excuse me, princess?"
"Well, it's not your territory anymore, is it?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she say Howler and Cyclone land on a nearby roof. She subtly shook her head, knowing they'd be able to see her signal with their advanced sight.
"I mean, the apocalypse is over," she continued. "The vacation is over and you guys can cut the Mad Max crap. It's time for all of us to rebuild."
"You little b-"
"I'm not done. The angels are leaving. The world is going back to normal. There's no room for grown men trying to play warlords. How long do you think this can last? Seriously? Let's pretend that we won't bother and let you be kings of a burned down, stripped neighborhood. How long before another gang comes in and wipes you out? Or the government eventually decides to clean up the streets?"
"That won't-"
"Shut up. I'll tell you how long: not long as you think. There's no room for people like you anymore. So stop clinging to this. Come back into the fold. Become people again."
"Like you'd accept us." The leader's hand tightened around the bat. "You talk to us like you're trash. You don't know what it's like. You have no idea what we've had to do to survive-"
"I know exactly what it's like." Penryn crossed her arms, mostly to quell the urge to give Pooky the chance to come out and play. "Except, I wasn't only trying to defend my family from the apocalypse. I was also busy protecting them from people exactly like you."
Penryn took a step forward. All four edged back.
"I don't have sympathy for you. I don't have the time or patience to listen to your threats or your sob stories. If you want, you can come back to our community. We won't ask questions as long as you don't make any trouble. Or you can stay here and starve and wait to die."
With that, Penryn turned and walked away. It probably wasn't smart to turn her back to her potential attackers, but she wanted to show she wasn't afraid of them. And she didn't really consider them to be threats anyway.
She had walked two blocks before Cyclone and Howler decided to swoop down and trot beside her.
"You're getting mighty confident there, maggot slayer," Howler said. "Especially for a little Daughter of Man that looks like a ten year old."
Penryn snorted. "What can I say? Your commander has been rubbing off on me in the worst ways."
"Nah, you're pretty scary on your own," Cyclone said. "Did you see their faces? They were practically cowering when they realized who you were."
"They were scared of the killer of angels, not of me, Cyclone. But having a scary reputation is convenient."
"And what, you're not the killer of angels?" Howler asked. He grinned. "That's what you said in your little broadcast before the blood hunt. I never saw the Commander more scared in my entire life."
"Well, the angels aren't trying to kill us anymore, so I'm not trying to kill them."
"Generous," said Cyclone.
"Yep, that's me."
The angels snorted, but both took over to finish the rest of their sweeps.
Penryn sighed. It might have only been a month after the war had come to an end, but the real work was only beginning. Any dreams of pig farms had to put on hold while she and Raffe helped rebuild civil society and keep the angels quiet as they waited for Michael's arrival.
It was only temporary though. She might have stepped into Obi's shoes for the reconstruction, but that was only because people insisted on her doing it after the Battle of Half Moon Bay. It might take months for Michael to arrive, but by that time she was sure she could hand off the reins to someone more...adultish.
At least her day was almost over. She usually either began or ended her day with patrols, which basically meant combing the streets for any dangerous and unruly elements as well looking for survivors who wanted to be brought back into the fold. The gangs were still a problem, but many were already shrinking or scattering. The council had decided to adopt a policy of something like amnesty towards them, if they chose to come in freely and promised to turn over a new leaf.
According to DeeDum, she had a talent for "recruitment." Howler, on the other hand, thought she had mastered the art of naked intimidation and supreme bitchiness.
Whatever. Like they never got grumpy once in awhile.
"...and so they lived happily ever after," Penryn whispered, shutting the book as softly as she could.
Raffe leaned against the doorframe as he watched her. Penryn placed the book on the nightstand. She moved a sleeping Paige off of her shoulder to lay her back on her own bed. She tucked her baby sister in, smoothed over Paige's rumpled hair, and kissed her forehead.
Even in the dim light, Raffe could make out the glint of razor teeth and the ridges of stitches criss-crossing Paige's skin. Still, she looked undeniably young and sweet under the pink covers, surrounded by stuffed animals that had been collected religiously for her by her sister and mother.
He moved aside to let Penryn turn off the lights and tiptoe out of the room. She closed the door behind her.
"Hey," she said. She smiled at him and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Hi." He cocked his head. "Why do you always finish the story even after Paige falls asleep every time?"
She shrugged and grimaced sheepishly.
"It's really stupid, but I hope that it'll help her dream of happy endings and other good things."
She was leaning against the wall opposite of him.
Too far, too shy. Even a month after his decision, she still instinctively put a little space between them. Before, she had stolen touches and kisses from him like there had been no tomorrow, because, let's face it-there hadn't been. Now, she treated him like a skittish animal that would bolt if she edged to close.
Raffe wasn't having that at all. He stepped forward and crooked his fingers around the belt loops of her jeans, tugging her against him.
"That's a little stupid," he said. He grinned as she huffed against his lips and smacked his chest.
"You should at least pretend to disagree."
"I'm just trying to be an honest boyfriend."
"You're no boy."
"Damn straight." He kissed her, sweet and slow until she turned soft under his hands and the natural tension dissolved from her shoulders.
He couldn't deny the twinge of satisfaction he felt when he pulled back and saw the slightly dazed look in her eyes. Call him cocky, but he knew the effect he had on her and he thoroughly enjoyed it.
"Come on." He walked backward down the hallway and tugged her along with him, with his fingers still hooked to the loops on her jeans. "It's my turn to get tucked in."
Penryn wrinkled her nose. "Ew. Even you can't make that sound sexy."
"I have my limits." He lead them into their bedroom and kicked the door closed behind them.
"Can you repeat that? I could've sworn I heard you being modest-" She gave an indignant half-shriek, half-laugh as he pushed her none too gently onto their bed.
"Such a rude little monkey." He sat down on the foot of the bed, unzipping her boots and pulling them off her feet.
They had technically never agreed to share a bedroom. In the immediate aftermath of the battle, however, Penryn had split her time, waking and otherwise, between him and Paige. It had simply been easier to spend his nights in her family's apartment, rather than in the Watchers' one floor above. And if he were being completely honestly, it soothed him to have her so close.
Well. He took in Penryn, laid out before him on their bed, giving him that half-shy smile of hers. He brushed his fingers over the exposed sliver of skin between her shirt and her jeans. She shivered.
Soothing was one of the feelings she evoked in him.
He straddled her legs and leaned forward, kissing the bare skin at her waist. He hid his smile against her stomach as he heard-and felt-her inhale sharply at the contact. He continued upwards, leaving a trail of kisses as he slowly unbuttoned her flannel shirt.
"What are you doing, Raffe?"
"I'm seducing you." He took a detour to her left, brushing his lips over her ribs while his nose brushed the underside of her breast.
"Oh." She sounded a bit dazed. "You're doing a really good job then."
Her hands brushed over his back.
"You still have your bandages on," she said, touching his back more firmly over his shirt and sounding decidedly less breathless.
Sensing that his seduction was about to get detoured, Raffe quickly shifted his attention to Penryn's neck. He kissed the spot where her throat and her shoulder met, knowing it was one of her favorite spot thanks to many fruitful hours of exploration.
"I forget to get them removed today," he murmured against her skin. He kept on peppering kisses, hoping to keep her distracted. "But it's still the 27th. Today's the day I get a clean bill of health."
"Then we should get those bandages off now," she said. She pushed his shoulder. He groaned into the crook of her neck, but relented. He sat up.
"What about getting me off?" he grumbled.
Penryn's cheeks flushed pink but she still pushed him so he was sitting next to her instead of on top of her.
"Get your mind out of the gutter and help me take off your shirt," she said, trying to tug it over his head and demon wings.
"That's definitely not helping me keep my mind out of the gutter," he said as he obliged her. "Definitely the opposite, in fact."
"Whatever." She scooted so that his back was facing her. Her fingers ghosted gently over his bare skin and the bandages. This time he was the one being forced to bite back shivers.
"Everything looks okay. I'll be right back." She climbed off the bed and scurried off to the bathroom.
Raffe grabbed a pillow and buried his face in it.
Four weeks. It had been four weeks since the war had ended. It had also been four weeks since the night of their first (failed) attempt at consummating their relationship.
Raffe wasn't exactly proud of it. He had made all these plans and promises to himself. Reminding himself that Penryn was far less experienced than him, that she was special, that she deserved the very best he had to offer. He would be patient and take the physical part of their relationship slowly, day by day. They had all the time in the world now.
All those thoughts and good intentions went out the window the first night they shared a bed. He would have been happy to lay all the blame on Penryn, but he had been just as enthusiastic as she had been. After weeks of longing and restraint, it had taken less than 10 minutes for them to tear the clothes off each other.
Things would have gone much, much further if Penryn hadn't tried wrapping her arms around his freshly scarred back.
It had hurt like hell. Worse, Penryn had jumped away from him like a scalded cat. And proceeded to refuse any of his advances beyond kissing.
At least until he healed from his injury and subsequent surgery to graft on his new wings. Which was today.
"You are so dramatic," Penryn said as she returned to the bed, sitting behind his back.
Raffe lifted his head up from the pillow. "I am not being dramatic. I am having a reasonable reaction as a demigod warrior who's being coddled by a human schoolgirl."
"Totally, completely dramatic."
She began peeling off the tape keeping the bandages attached on his back and around his new, old wings. Her touch was impossibly gentle, working patiently on the tape to avoid it tugging on or tearing his skin. She carefully pulled off the white bandages next and then waded them up with the tape and threw them in the waste basket nearby.
Her fingers trailed over his uncovered back, lingering on the sensitive area around his wings.
"It almost looks like nothing ever happened," she whispered. Her finger traced over the skeletal edge of one wing.
"I told you I was fine."
"And now I believe you." Something cold touched Raffe's back. He almost flinched.
Penryn scrubbed the wet towel she had brought from the bathroom lightly over his back.
"You...you don't need to do that."
"It's okay. I just wanted to make sure the area under wrap was clean. Laylah's been doing a good job switching out your bandages."
"I like Nurse Penryn better. She gives sponge baths."
"In your dreams." She rubbed a dry cloth over his back, dabbing the areas she had covered earlier.
He tried to turn around when he felt completely dry but Penryn pushed him to stay in his position.
She squirted some sort of white ointment onto her hands and rubbed them together. She began her ministrations again, rubbing her hands over his back and massaging the lotion into his skin.
"It's supposed to good for muscle aches and pains," she explained, referring to the lotion she was spreading over his back. "I know everything looks fine and you heal insanely fast, but I figured this might help if there was a little leftover pain."
"There's no pain," he said huskily. He closed his eyes and just enjoyed the feel of her hands on him. He was definitely feeling even better than before, but he didn't care if God Himself had given Penryn the lotion. It was her touch alone that was doing wonders for him.
She rubbed in soothing circles and eased the knots in his shoulders, working methodically to cover every part of his skin.
Her gentle, reverent touch brought back memories from when she had bandaged up and nursed his feet when they had first met. They barely had known each other's names at that point. Even then, he couldn't help but be surprised by her-this scrawny little human, so full of terror and desperation and anger, had handled him with such tenderness. All the while telling him that she despised him and his kind.
That experience alone should have prepared him for how she was now constantly. She wasn't as bad with him as she was with Paige, but she was so attentive in that shy, awkward, grumpy way of hers. Raffe didn't think Penryn knew how to not try to take care of her people.
On his part, he couldn't remember the last time anyone wanted to take care of him, let alone a time when he ever wanted to return the favor. So all of this was completely uncharted territory.
Not that he didn't like it.
Penryn had finished his massage. She was still but for her hand stroking his left folded wing. He inhaled sharply when she leaned forward and pressed a kiss against his back, right between his wing joints.
She pressed her cheek against the spot and wrapped her arms around his torso, hugging him tightly from behind.
Raffe placed his hands over hers. "Penryn…"
"I'm okay."
Liar. He felt something wet trickle down his back. She was crying.
He twisted around to look at her, to hold her, to comfort her-to, Christ, do something, anything. But she slipped off the bed and was already backing away towards the door, furiously scrubbing her cheeks.
"I...I just need a second."
With that, she fled.
Okkkkkk. Sorry for the cliffhanger, angst-filled ending. This was supposed to be a one-shot, but it was taking too long and I got impatient so I cut it in half. I'll do another chapter of my AU fic, then come back to finish this one. Also, for anyone who might be curious, this takes place in the same timeline as Michael.