Susannah's head fell back as she gazed heavenward, her eyes stuck on something she couldn't see. The unfamiliar burn in them, contorting her vision, causing a surge of trepidation and confusion to surface.

She had never known what it was to cry before. She has always wondered if it relieved the sadness, now she knows it doesn't. No more than scratching an itch.

The angel cannot help but think back to when she had first seen a human shed tears. Couldn't help but wonder if she looked that pathetic...and quite frankly weak. The heaviness of them only serving to infuriate her and bring forth a fresh wave of insufficiency.

She was a flawed angel.

A misdesign.

The loose thread in the blanket that could cause the whole thing to unravel unless you cut it off.

Why? She can't help but ask herself as she brushes the back of her hand roughly across her face, only to feel a new pulse of tears start again. Why shed tears for a family who has none for you?

Except she knew why, the answer just didn't feel like enough of a reason.

Susannah had always been different than the other angels, just like Arael. Susannah understood order; she followed the word of god, his lord; she was a good obedient soldier. But when God created Susannah he must of been a touch tired, or maybe he was thinking of a few of his other children- some of his oldest- because Susannah, unlike most of her siblings, had pure unadulterated, curiosity seated deep within the core of her being.

To let her curiosity roam free was an indulgence she had never been able to partake in.

The angel ran her hand over the beautifully decorated bedspread of the room Elijah had offered to her, she had always longed to be on earth, however never under circumstances such as these. On earth, Susannah could expand her knowledge, she could learn everything. She could follow theories, religion, learn history as it happened, watch how the fates magic flowed and shaped humans. She even wished to witness the birth of many faith based gods.

But never like this.

The wings unseen by any human now felt like weights on her back.

Closing her eyes she brings her hands to her face. The air of earth is tampered with raw emotions. She wants to laugh and scream and let them devour whatever divinity remains.

Through her blurry vision she seeks out Arael.

Arael's wings are as black as the spaces between planets they used to float in between. So black they seem to absorb light. But if you got close- no one got close- but if you did you would see they were not just an inky forever drawn darkness. They were starlit galaxies, exploding stars and constellations, streaks of green fire.

Unlike Susannah, Arael could not pretend to be like the rest of the heavenly host.

His mere existence was an act of rebellion. A rebellion that lived, able to infect and spread among others like some strain of a disease. Somethings are simply toxic, and even when you know it you cannot stay away. They are bright blue eyes with messy dark hair and a million questions about humanity. And it happens to be Susannah's main weakness.

He was made to be broken and unfixable. So he wouldn't be like the others.

And Susannah knew this. She knew Arael couldn't be saved. Yet he smiled- he smiled at her- and even though she knows she will regret it...Susannah would damn heaven and herself for that smile.

"Sister please do not cry," Arael begged, awakening from his slumber. His words although spoken in a babyish tone of voice were solid in their pronunciation. His blue eyes large and animal like.

The last time Arael begged, she turned against heaven.

She cannot help but flinch at that thought.

Susannah's expression remains blank as she faces her youngest brother. Seeing past his physical human facade and staring directly into his being.

The wounds inflicted on his being remain, disgust churns in Susannah's stomach. Hurting a fledgling was considered ghastly. Unless of course that fledgling was with black wings.

Healing is nothing. For all it's drama healing is nothing but a touch. The angel had once breathed life into dry bones and spun grace into flesh with less than a thought. Healing her own physical form had been simple, mostly because it was only a container. Something she could easily wipe away if need be.

It just goes to show how weak the angel truly is at the moment.

The power she can feel beneath her skin is bruised and sickly, unable to do such a task as healing her own brother. The powerful tear between her and the host, along with the force of the fall branding Susannah as handicapped.

Placing her hand on her brother's arm, a tingle of power racing through her. Arael's faltering grace strengthens and his breathing steadies as the wounds begin to close, Susannah indulges him in a grim smile.

A moment is granted before pain drills through her chest. Looking down she sees Arael's fierce glare, odd on such a childish face.

She had never met a creature who hated being saved as much as him.

A second later Arael's wounds are hers to burden and her brother is healed.

"Sleep brother,"Susannah says with a voice not unlike an order. The angel can't help but notice how frail her voice sounds. As if she were a second away from drowning beneath the pain.

"What of you?" His lips tremble as she begins to see tears and sorrow dance lovingly together in his eyes. His wings sitting uncomfortably still.

"I will still be here when you awaken." Susannah responds offhandedly, forcing her body to relax despite the pain. Feigning easiness, as if the pain was nothing.

"That is not-"

"Sleep brother." She lays his body into the mass of blankets, silently begging her brother to give her the solitude she so desperately craved. He stared openly, before nestling his body closer to the warmth. Susannah could not deny hearing the gentle snuffles he gave before the rhymes of his chest exposed his rest.

Susannah's grief surged with every expelled breath, never sufficiently soothed by her long drawn out drags of air. Now that Arael had found solace in sleep her emotions found it safe to wander and come out freely.

All she wanted was some breathing space in which to hurt.

Elijah was never one to pry on anyone's privacy unless necessary. He knew everyone needed space and time to break down and rebuild themselves without the embarrassment of being seen. His eyes however disobeyed his order of leaving her form. He watched her get smaller and smaller with every passing second, as quiet sobs racked her body.

It was disorientating, wrong.

Every instinct inside of him recoiled at the sight of her tears.

It was a brutal thing to watch.

No. It was a human thing.

"If you wish me to leave I will." Her voice was washed out and drained. She stood casting him a sidelong look in his general direction.

Momentarily stricken by the musical like vibrations of her voice, Elijah wondered if their will come a day when the power her voice had no means to affect him. Her chin was raised ever so slightly, and for a second Elijah wondered why anyone would ever associate blonde hair and blue eyes with pale skin as being angelic when this woman, with hair darker than night holding glints of red and browns adding depth and eyes that seemed to be a color humans have yet to name, was everything celestial, divine, and angelic.

That intensity, he wondered if it was something all angel unanimously held. She slowly walked forward with precise and light movements. Her eyes begging for something, anything.

He can't help but wonder if she's aware of how unsure she looks. Inhaling without any actual need, he basks in her scent. Pure and clean, like the forest after rainfall, with an underlying light scent of pure femininity. It wasn't her looks that always struck him first, it was her scent.

"I will not burden you, Elijah."

She meets his eyes. Susannah had never seen eyes so dark with so much light in them. His eyes were black as of now, not soulless nor lifeless. Instead they were two pristine stones of onyx, that lit with an orange flame when the light hit them.

Brushing her tears away with the back of her hand.

Though the angel was nothing less of enchanting, perhaps it was the way she carried herself with a shallow; almost otherworldly grace. Elijah could immediately tell she came from another place, maybe even another era, something about her seemed to fit perfectly into the landscape of extravagance but at the same time she couldn't be more foreign.

"I won't ask you to."

She blinked multiple times in surprise, crossing her arms as goosebumps rose along the line of her skin." I do not wish to a burden placed upon you."

"I chose this, if there are any consequences they are of my own selection," Elijah replied, his voice diplomatic and stable. Tilting his head slightly he takes a moment to appreciate the beauty the angel emitted so readily. If he wasn't completely positive she was an angel, he would've accused her of being a siren, succubus, or maybe even Aphrodite herself.

Her mouth falls open slightly, her rose like lips puckered as if begging to be ravished."You are a very confusing man, Elijah."

For a reason Susannah is unable to name, calling Elijah a simple abomination no longer felt correct. More realistically, she was the abomination.

Elijah hummed in reply." How so?"

Susannah has seen her share of damage. She has blown apart buildings with a single thought. She has killed with nothing more than her voice. A single glimpse at her true power is enough to permanently destroy a humans soul.

Susannah knows destruction.

She knows death.

Yet parts of Elijah seemed to be made of death, a death she hadn't seen before.

"You are strange, for beneath your exterior you are frightened and sickened by your own savagery. And sometimes seem to have no heart for violence and rebel against such atrocities utterly."

"Death is no stranger to my hands." Elijah explained openly to Susannah, he expected wrath. He lifts his hands for her to see, and Susannah sees the scars of hard labor etched into them, but no blood.

Instead she raised an eyebrow. "Do you really believe that I am that blind and hypocritical that I won't even ask why you do what you have done?"

"There is no justification for my behavior concerning human life."

"Yet there are plenty."

She doesn't go into greater depth with her words. A wisdom greater than that of any library echoing in her voice.

"Your brother is considered a complete contrast to nature. A hybrid they call him." Susannah said in a whispery tone, moving so she could look out the window and see the moon dipping low in the sky.

"That is true." Elijah responded, moving to stand besides her willowy frame. Her hair lifting by the soft current of air that flowed through his home.

"Did you find it difficult to accept him after finding out his true nature?"

It was a story all knew. The corruption the original witch had left, blurred the lines between the living and the dead, between man and nature, between the physical and etheric.

Elijah is silent.

He had only ever asked himself that question.

"No." Placing his hands on the windowsill he leaned forward. Watching the flowers in the garden move against each other. "Niklaus has always been my younger brother, and no matter how much he distorts that image it will remain."

Susannah smiles. For such an animal, Elijah Mikaelson was that much more of a man. "And the idea of disownment- was that ever a thought in your mind."

"No. I know for certainty that was not an option...only in recent years have I considered such things." Elijah frowns, the honesty in his voice shocking even himself. He couldn't help but suppose that was a ramification of being in an angel's presence.

Susannah shook her head, the dark strands of loose hair hitting the sides of her striking cheekbones. Liquid stinging her orbs.

"To shun my true family is a crime even I, a creature of blood and night, refuse to partake in."

Elijah's voice seems to leak from the shadows and touch over her form. Wiping the tears off her cheeks before they spill off her chin. She hated being seen as weak, but Elijah didn't seem to see her as such.

"You disappoint me, Susannah. You are no sibling of mine."

Then, all but instinctively, Elijah took her into his arms. Pressed against him, her whole body trembling, she continued to cry without a sound.

The contact was simple enough to be placed into the context of a hug. She could feel the warmth of affection and that was more soothing than she thinks Elijah is aware of. Her body sagging in his, giving him the full weight of herself.

"Why are you holding me?" Her voice cracked as more tears spilled out of her eyes, staining Elijah's suit jacket. Her voice is muffled from his form.

Even though she doesn't understand it, Susannah doesn't want it to end. His shape is so different from hers. Whereas she is soft he is hard, his body almost holding an unbreakable like quality to it. Every delicate curve pressed into every crevice of muscle. His body swaying naturally and her's immediately weilding to his.

"Shhh," The sound causes her eyes to fall shut. "Just trust me. Even if it is only for a second."

But how?

Feelings sprouted beneath Susannah's exterior. The slight awe struck affinity, which was pure and innocent and not tampered by the whole of society. Childlike in the sense of being new and unfamiliar.

A long moment passed too soon, and Elijah pulled away from the electric feeling of touching her. Susannah's scent imprinting itself on his skin.

"I am not sure I understand."

She stared into his eyes, remaining tethered to him.

"I know," It was endearing watching her stumble through the thick of her emotions like a confused bambi.

Her eyes narrowed as her head fell to the side. Physical contact was something she was not particularly used to.

"I now see why humans touch each other so much. It is very pleasant." Susannah muttered, her nose scrunching up adorably.

Yeah pleasant. Elijah could think of far more inappropriate words to use.

Susannah shook her head, the dark strands of her hair hitting the sides of her tan cheeks and striking cheekbones. Her lips turning upwards into a shy elfish smile. And while that smile caressed her face, Elijah lost all sense of time and reality until she turned away. How much time would he lose because of this angel? "You are not like the others I have known."

"Others?"

"Humans-" She said softly.

Elijah's mouth fell forward. His muscles straining against the constraints of his suit." And what is it that makes me so different from them?"

Combing through her dark hair she glanced upwards at Elijah with a simple smile."Humans are base. They are so willfully ignorant, so naive, so resigned to their lot. They often refuse to believe anything that doesn't fit into what they are used to believing. They are a renewable source. You, Elijah mikaelson are not."

Elijah coughed, words stuck in his throat. His tie suddenly feeling much tighter around his neck.

"Sometimes humans do things so purely human. So beautiful. So kind. Sometimes I catch glimpses of that and it reminds me of you."

A sensation soon spread from the area beneath his collar bone outwards. Stretching across his skin with a fiery vigor, as if a detailed image light was being drawn over his body.

The idea of reaching out and touching her felt so natural.

Elijah had never been a touchy man. He preferred his space, coveted it. However his had refused to acknowledge that as it lifted and reached for Susannah.

Dragging his fingers over her cheek, feeling the shape of the bone beneath her skin, her skin hot like fire. A physical comfort to know she was right beneath his hand. Extending down to her throat he lets his fingers run through the hair at the base of her neck.

A shiver racking Susannah's unexpecting mind. She felt as if his touch was submerging her under something she truly wasn't able to quite understand yet. Her mind struggling to catch up with what her body already understands.

Her eyes are equal parts, soft and hard. All of her words painfully authentic. "You make me feel." She said quietly, fiercely.

Elijah wants to ask her what he is making her feel. To describe it to him. He wonders if he feels the same.

Swallowing hard he doesn't stop. He can't stop. It feels as if his hands are no longer his.

There are a couple of freckles on the span of Susannah's shoulders and Elijah traces the space between them, then drags his palm down the long curve of her spine to the small of her back. Gooseflesh rises in the wake of his touch, along her shoulders, across her back. Elijah touches it with his fingertips. He knows she isn't cold.

He thinks, what are you doing?

He had never before felt the most intimate need to touch someone so carelessly. Without any sexual intentions behind it, just merely to feel and discover.

She doesn't push him away. She just stares, her eyes blazing into his.

"Why can't I see your wings."

"Why would I let you?"

Elijah chuckled like an entertained wolf," Because," he drawled, forcing his hands to his sides. A heat pooling in his palms, only to be cooled by a different flame through the feel of her. "I wish to see you as you."

Susannah giggled breathily, one of the first real laughs. Like the chiming of a sweet single bell.

She flutters her eyelashes as if clearing something out of her vision. "You may not like what you see."

"Where would I find something better?" Elijah wished the question was only flattery and not so damn genuine. He didn't know why but seeing her made him feel like less of a deadly abomination. She was something out of a dream-a dream where he was not a spoiled young prince- but a king.

She stepped forward, her chest touching his. "Earn it," She vocalized coyly with a hint of dalliance. Twisting away from him in one clean motion."If you wish for me to show you one of the most sacred and precious thing an angel has you must earn it."

The edge in her voice was like caressing hands, molding the original into putty. Her voice pulling a dizzying stillness over the ancient vampire. His lids heavy and the hungry savage beast inside of him calming to her whims. Arms relaxing over his chest, crossing for comfort.

"How would you propose I do that?"

"Your fairly intelligent, I'm sure you can think of something."

A chuckle fell from his lips as he examined her, finding his eye particularly stuck on the curve of her lips.

"Pardon me for interrupting, but Elijah it seems you have forgotten to introduce me to your guest."