Belldandy darted around the kitchen, pulling ingredients from various cabinets and containers, a soft hum in her throat as she went about preparing dinner. She'd fallen into a better mood with the house repaired, and even though the constant presence of the Angel Biter on Urd had been stressful, she'd found the conversation between herself, Urd, and Keiichi somewhat of a relief. It helped somewhat that Urd had taken off the awful illusion seal she'd placed on it. At least for the moment, Belldandy could keep track of it's location.
Even now, she could feel it's presence, an old, familiar aura that was tinged with an ever constant demon magic, proof that it was, in fact, a product of the infernal realm. The Norn turned as the aura grew stronger, tendrils reaching out to brush her mind. Belldandy easily turned them away, feeling them retreat from her form and returning to the old weapon that housed the aura.
"Urd." She greeted, a small smile on her face as she greeted her older sister. The older Norn returned the smile, perhaps sensing her sister's change in attitude. "Cooking always did put you in a better mood, didn't it?" She asked, moving from the kitchen entrance to lean up against the counter, being sure to stand in a spot safely out of Belldandy's way.
Belldandy's only response was a smile more enthusiastic then the last. "Is there something you want, Sister Dear?" She asked, taking a brief pause to run through all the items she'd gathered, making sure she hadn't missed anything.
From her place near the counter, Urd shook her head. "Nah, just wanted to tell you that I'm going out for a while." She fell silent once more, and Belldandy looked up at the dark skinned woman. Sensing that her sister had more to say, Belldandy waited patiently, knowing that Urd would get to it when she was good and ready.
"Are you planning on making Skuld ice cream when she wakes up?" Belldandy hid the smile that appeared on her face. She'd been right. "Well, yes, I was. I'm sure she'll have a strong desire for it when she wakes up again. Why do you ask, Urd?"
Urd shifted her weight from one foot to the other, looking more then a little uncomfortable. "Could you…not make her ice cream?" She asked. "I was…planning on taking her out when she woke up. My treat." The woman said, staring down at the counter top with a sudden interest.
Ah, so that was what this was all about. She was still feeling guilty about the Angel Biter's attack on Skuld. Now why did that feel so familiar? Belldandy's eyes softened. "Of course." She said, more then happy to help her sister make amends for the accident. The middle sister moved to her older sibling. "Excuse me for a second, I need to grab something…" She trailed off, reaching into the cabinet above Urd's head and withdrawing a measuring cup.
The item in the Norn's possession, she paused, meeting Urd's violet eyes with her own sapphire-blue ones. "After all, this time you have World of Elegance to help you. And really, wasn't it the angel who was hurt more then the goddess? I'm sure things will go easier for you with an angel of your own to help comfort it."
Belldandy then turned away, but not before catching her sister's amethyst eyes widening in surprise. She made it three steps away before she felt her sibling's arms wrap around her in a tight embrace. "Thanks Bell."
And then the hug was over, leaving nothing but the retreating tingle of the Angel Biter in her sister's wake. Belldandy stared down at the measuring cup in her hands, a soft smile on her face. "Anytime Sister." She murmured. "Anytime." She moved once more to the various ingredients lining the counter. "After all, what good is family, if you cannot rely on them in a time of need?"
~*~
The night air was cool against her skin. Urd breathed it in deeply, feeling both refreshed and rejuvenated as she stepped outside. The woman had changed her clothes, leaving behind her purple dress for something a little more fitting for what she had in plan for the night.
Her new dress consisted of a pair of black jeans with stylish tears running up each side of her legs and a sleeveless white shirt that left her belly exposed to the world to see. Over the shirt, a simple leather jacket. A small bag hung from her back, the contents of which only she knew of.
The night was alive with the nocturnal, their songs strong and flowing through her, seeming to ask the goddess to join them. Somewhere above her head, an owl hooted. Urd smiled, feeling an itch run along her shoulder blades. She had a sudden desire to spread her wings.
~*~
Mara kicked her feet idly from where she sat on the unfinished construction building. She sat alone on one of the many beams that protruded from the tower, like bones from a dead and rotting beast. Ironically, though Mara didn't know it, the building she rested upon was the exact same building a child-sized Urd had brought a young Shohei to several months ago.
Not that any of that mattered. The demon stared down at the land below her, where the lights of the city shone back at her, a perverted reflection of the sky that hung above her head. The woman bit the nail of her thumb. She'd been lost in thought all day, and as night came, she'd moved away from her temporary base of operations in the hopes of catching some alone time after several frantic rats had found her and demanded she get Senbei back under control. They had only left her alone when she'd threatened to blast them into their next incarnation.
Red eyes distant and unfocused, the first-class demon almost didn't catch the odd pair of wings flying below her. In fact, if she hadn't actually sensed the owner of the pair of wings, the chances were high that the goddess they belonged to would have flown right under Mara without her noticing.
However, as it was, Mara had left her senses open for exactly that reason. After all, it would do no good for her to allow some damn Norn to sneak up on her while she was daydreaming. Her Gramps had beaten that into her after one too many times of a young Urd getting the better of her when she wasn't paying attention.
With a blink, the red eyes snapped back to the present, automatically seeking out the goddess that was, quite literally, flying under her nose. "Urd has an angel…" She murmured, a flicker of surprise crossing her ruby orbs. The blonde demon scowled. "Idiot. Of course she has an angel." She berated herself. "She's a goddess, after all, not a demon."
Still…this had to have been the first time Mara had really seen any solid evidence of Urd's angel. Had she caught a glimpse of an angel with a black wing back with Hild and the Angel Eater? She couldn't quite recall…
The demon shrugged a shoulder. If she had or not, it didn't matter now. Not when the owner of the angel in question was slowly gliding up to her.
Mara felt herself grow tense as Urd, who must have sensed her from below, flew up to meet her. The demon stood, shifting into a guarded stance as the goddess approached, flying over Mara's head before somersaulting in the air, the white and black wings disappearing as she landed on a metal beam parallel to the one the blonde woman was standing on. Show-off.
"Urd, just what the hell are you doing here?" Mara hissed, her crimson eyes narrowing in suspicion. Across from her, Urd smirked, unshouldering the bag that Mara had failed to notice and rifling through it. "Urd…" She growled warningly.
"Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses, Mara." Urd said, apparently unconcerned with the demon's present state of mind. "Ah, here we go!" The dark skinned goddess pulled out a bottle, and any feelings of hostility Mara had been feeling flew out the window, replaced, instead, with curiosity.
"Care for a drink?" The silver-haired woman asked, brandishing the bottle of Dragon Tears Whiskey like a peace offering, smiling as the woman across from her relaxed.
"Is that what I think it is?"
"Have I ever settled for anything less then the real stuff?"
"No, which is why it was always a bitch getting gifts for you. You do realize that we could get into a lot of trouble if someone catches us up here."
Urd's smirk was devious. "Why Mara, whatever are you talking about? It is only through sheer coincidence that the two of us met up. It isn't as though either of us actually went out looking for the other, am I right?"
Mara remained silent for several seconds, before smiling ruefully and shaking her head. "Alright, fine you win this time." The woman moved to sit on her beam once more, watching as Urd mirrored her actions, one leg dangling in the air, the other tucked securely underneath her.
That done, she grabbed her bag once more, rummaging around inside before withdrawing two small shot glasses, one of which she filled and offered to Mara. Her companion accepted it with a thin smile, reaching over and taking the glass somewhat stiffly from Urd.
Urd's eyes flashed, and she frowned in concern as she poured her own drink. "Shoulder bothering you again?" She asked, keeping her voice light and easy. Mara never had been one for pity, and she couldn't stand it when it sounded as though someone was actually concerned about her.
Across from her, Mara glared into her glass. "Only a little. It's fine, really." She said shortly, growing defensive at even that small bit of talk. She downed her liquor, gasping slightly as the potent alcohol raced down her throat like a bush fire. The woman held her glass out to Urd, silently demanding another shot.
Urd complied, waiting for Mara to lean back and grow comfortable once more before downing her own. "You know, I can make you a potion to help ease the pain. No one is forcing you to live with it."
Mara shook her head. "Drop it Urd. You know as well as I do that it only bugs me when the damned blade is being used. Otherwise it's like it's not even there. You're only offering it because you feel guilty for what happened."
"Marller."
The woman looked up in surprise, frowning when she caught the look on Urd's face. "It's been a long time since I've been called by that name. This really is bugging you, isn't it Urd?"
Urd dropped her gaze, staring in sudden interest at her empty shot glass. "A couple of things happened today. Some of which reminded me about what happened that day. Guess I'm just getting a little too caught up in the past."
Mara snorted, shifting her position to stretch out on her beam, propping her head up with an arm. "Don't tell me you're getting all emotional on me Urd. You know as well as I do that what happened back there had been an accident. You were no more responsible for what happened then I was."
Urd scowled, holding back the sudden urge to throw her glass at Mara's head. "Don't be stupid. Of course I know it was an accident. But I can't help but think that if I was a little faster, if I'd done something differently-"
"If you'd done anything differently, the results would have been either Belldandy dead or in a coma, or you critically injured." Mara interrupted, slamming her hand down onto the beam and leaving an indent of her fist behind. No doubt the construction workers would have a tough time explaining that to their boss. "Be happy that all that resulted from the whole thing was a small injury on my behalf."
Urd glared moodily at her friend, before leaning back with a sigh. "You're right, scarily enough. I've just been moody all day because of what happened. Once Skuld wakes up again, I'll probably just brush it off as another 'family adventure'.
Mara raised an eyebrow, but didn't ask for Urd to elaborate. Something Urd was secretly greatful for. Instead, the fanged woman shrugged her shoulder and said, "moving on then. So tell me, what's with the wings? Usually you just use that broom of yours to fly, or you simply levitate with your magic. I've never really known you as the sort to use an angel for transportation."
The subject moving on to more lighter topics, Urd grinned, pouring herself another shot and offering the same to Mara when she noticed the demon's glass was empty once more. "Just had the urge to stretch my wings, I guess." She replied lightly. "Why, are you jealous, Mara?"
Mara snorted in amusement. "Yes Urd, as the granddaughter of an Angel Slayer who grew up listening to how he repeatedly disemboweled one angel several different ways, I am envious of the fact that you have an angel." She said, her words dripping with sarcasm and earning a chuckle from the violet-eyed woman across from her.
The blonde cracked a smile of her own before growing serious once more. "But seriously. When did you get an angel? I honestly can't recall having seen you with one up until this point."
Urd tilted her head to the side. "Oh? Not even with Hild and the Angel Eater? I thought she'd brought you along on that mission of her's." She said, staring at the demon with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.
Mara grunted. "Yeah, I was with her on that mission. Too bad I was tied up most of the time by that brat sister of yours and your other sister's boyfriend." She snorted, idly swirling the amber liquid in her glass before drinking it. "Hell, the only time I wasn't tied up was when everyone left me to deal with Hild and her 'pet'. Without any of them watching me, I was able to escape my bindings." She smiled ruefully. "And that, of course, was around the time the stupid thing decided to go bonkers on us. I didn't exactly have time to look around and see what type of angel you had, Urd."
Urd nodded in understanding. "That's true. I'd been out of it for most of the time too. From what the others said, I was the thing's first victim, planet-side. Of course, I can only remember hearing that damn screech it made before World of Elegance popped out of me and decided to get herself eaten."
Mara raised an eyebrow. "World of Elegance? That's the name of your angel?" At Urd's nod, the demon laughed. "You goddesses…I swear you come up with the most ridiculous names for things sometimes."
Urd sent Mara a dirty look. "Oh? Is that a fact? Do you want to test it?" From her back, the black and white pair of wings Mara had glimpsed before appeared, as well as the angel they were connected to. She had to give Urd some credit at least. When it came to unique, you couldn't find an angel more worthy of the title.
Urd pointed to the angel behind her, shifting to cross one leg over the other. "I bet World of Elegance could wipe the floor with you, right here and now." Behind her, the odd tattooed angel smirked at Mara, as though trying to bait the demon into a fight.
Mara fell silent, taking a moment to observe the angel before flashing Urd a fanged smile. "Have I told you you're an idiot? The last thing I need is to start picking fights with angels. Or have you already forgotten the Angel Slayer's blood in me? If I start fighting angels now, the next thing you know I'll be trying to kill them, and none of us want that."
She hadn't taken the bait. Looked like her self-control had gotten better. Urd could recall a time when a younger Mara wouldn't have hesitated to let herself get goaded into a fight like that, be it with an angel or a goddess. She smiled, her teeth a bright contrast against her darker skin. As if it was a signal, she felt World of Elegance sink once more inside her. "You forget Mara, I have Angel Slayer's blood in me too. Hild is, after all, their leader." Her grin turned bitter. "Hell, it's probably stronger in me then it is in you."
"Kind of makes you wonder what would happen if Hild called upon it, doesn't it?"
This time Urd didn't bother holding back, taking careful aim and launching her shot glass at Mara's head. The glass hit it's intended target with a dull 'thump', before letting gravity take over and sending the item tumbling towards the earth below. Mara snatched it before it fell too far out of reach.
"Damn it Urd!" She snarled. "What the hell was that for!?"
Amethyst eyes glared back. "You should know. Don't even joke about things like that. I'm plagued with enough uncomfortable thoughts as it is right now. I don't need you adding to the mix." Urd growled out.
Mara narrowed her eyes. "Come off it. I was just being realistic." She moved to sit up, one hand rubbing the spot the shot glass had hit, the other lightly tossing said glass up and down. Baring her teeth, she sent the small cup flying back to it's owner, her lips quirking upwards in a victorious smile as the tiny glass bounced off Urd's left shoulder.
Urd scowled, shifting into a more comfortable position on her beam. That done, she sent a light bolt of electricity at Mara, something too weak to even be called an 'Urd Bolt' and thus, going unnoticed by any otherworldly beings within range. "You can be 'realistic' all you want. Just don't share them with me." The bolt hit Mara's arm, leaving the woman's black sleeve smouldering and smoking, but otherwise unharmed.
Mara leaped to her feet, patting the smouldering sleeve and sending an angry glare Urd's way. Urd followed the motion, the shot glass that had landed in her lap after striking her shoulder once more falling to the ground below. Neither woman paid it any heed.
"I'll share whatever the hell I want with you, Urd!" Mara snarled, small embers dancing harmlessly across her form as she gathered her magic around her.
"Not if I shut you up first, Mara!" Urd hissed, her own magic gathering around her in the form of tiny bolts of electricity.
Mara let loose an angry howl and leaped at Urd, knocking the goddess from her beam and sending the two down to the streets below. The bottle of Dragon Tear's Whiskey lay all but forgotten on the metal beam Urd had placed it, right next to the small bag Urd had carried it in. No doubt, had it had the ability to think, it would wonder, hadn't it been brought along to prevent such an incident from happening?
The two combatants, meanwhile, were decending to the ground at a rapid pace. In fact, if they weren't so busy trying to singe one another, they might have noticed that, due to their fall, accelerated all the more by their various abilities, they had caught up with the falling shot glass. A second later, and the glass was above them, both woman too preoccupied with one another to bother with a simple levitation spell.
Urd and Mara hit the ground with all the intensity of a stone elephant, leaving a rather sizable crater around them. Once again, it would be something the construction workers would all scratch their heads about come morning, but neither goddess nor demon had such thoughts on their minds at that particular moment.
With a groan, Urd staggered to her feet, her outfit ripped and singed and covered with dust and dirt. Below her, Mara rolled off her back and onto her stomach, having taken the blunt of the impact. She coughed before pushing herself to her feet, stumbling slightly as gravity fought to pull her once more to the ground. Like Urd, her outfit had suffered from their little mid-air battle, but otherwise, both Urd and herself were, for the most part, uninjured.
The duo climed out of the impact crater, both collapsing to the ground at the depression's perimeter. Sitting across from one another once more, the two lapsed into silence, neither one suddenly in the mood to strike up a conversation after their somewhat brief fight. So they settled for the next best thing. Glaring at one another.
It was around that time that the poor abused and forgotten shot glass finally caught up with it's owner, dropping from the heavens above and striking Mara on top of the head. The demon twitched as the glass shattered on her blonde head, no doubt littering her hair with it's broken fragments. Across from her, Urd blinked, lifting her head from where it rested propped up on an arm.
She couldn't help it. Urd burst into laughter. Perhaps it was simply the days events finally catching up to her; the stress of Skuld finding a demon's blade in her room, her sister's agitation towards her over the fact that said blade was still in possession, the loss of some very precious items. It seemed that the poor Mara and the shot glass was the last straw.
The platinum-haired woman's laughter rose in intensity, and Urd doubled over, clutching her sides, her shoulders shaking softly. Mara watched in stupefied curiosity, brushing the glass from her hair before feeling a chuckle of her own emerge from her throat.
Deciding to throw caution to the wind, the demon joined her childhood friend in her fit of laughter, the two seeming to feed off the nervous energy the other was giving off and causing them to laugh all the more harder. The various people passing the building that night would later claim to have heard the crazed laughter of a serial killer, or perhaps the echoing voice of a woman who had jumped to her death from the top of the unfinished skyscraper.
That, coupled with the crater Urd and Mara had created, as well as the indentation on Mara's beam, would eventually lead to various superstitions about the building, to the point where the construction workers hired to build it would refuse to go within a one hundred foot perimeter of the building.
Thanks to the goddess and the demon, the poor building would never be finished, and it would remain abandoned save for the occasional visit of a young boy who would clime to the top of the tower occasionally, loosing himself in memories of the foreign girl who had first brought him there.
But that was neither here nor there. Slowly, both Urd and Mara calmed down, their obnoxious roars of laughter dieing down into chuckles and giggles. And soon even that faded, as the duo slowly reclaimed whatever sanity that had left them in their small fit of hysteria.
Urd looked over at her childhood friend, her mood having lightened exponentially after her bought of laughter. "Crap…when was the last time we had a laugh like that together?" She asked, smiling widely at her friend as she leaned back, her hands propping her up behind her.
A snicker escaped Mara's throat, and she returned Urd's smile with a fanged one of her own. She sat somewhat haunched over, legs crossed comfortably and her hands resting in her lap. "Too long, if you ask me."
Urd nodded her head. "Kind of reminds me of the first time we met, you know?" She asked, her smile turning sly as she regarded Mara with a pair of mischievous violet eyes.
Mara snorted, shaking her head. "In what way? Do you mean how you snuck up behind me and scared the crap out of me, leading the two of us into a fight? Or how you lead that herd of bicorns into a room filled with Angel Slayers and Valkyries that were trying to play nice?"
Urd's only response was a larger smile. "We got into a fight then too, didn't we?" She asked, moving to stand with an exaggerated moan before stretching her arms over her head. "Come on. Let's head back to the top of the tower. I left my stuff up there."
Mara raised an eyebrow before following her friend's lead. "Does that mean you have a spare shot glass?"
Urd laughed. "Mara, if there's one thing I've learned it's that, when it comes to you, I keep a spare of everything." The demon across from her scowled, but let the matter drop.
"Then what are we doing down here? We can't get piss drunk if we don't have any alcohol." The demon casually levitated upwards, looking down at the goddess with a fanged grin.
Urd returned the smile, before following after Mara.
The two spent the rest of the night recalling their shared childhood, drinking to a past that might, or might not have, been better left undisturbed.
~*~
A/N: Alright, for the moment, you can consider this story complete. I'll probably throw up another chapter later on the day after, but that won't come until after I have the first chapter of 'Origins' up. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter, as, for the moment, it'll be the last one you see for a while, most likely. Remember, all the way back in the first chapter where I mentioned this whole thing was originally supposed to be one chapter? Yeah…that's one of the reasons I think I was able to update Angel Biter as a whole so frequently. As it is, I haven't yet started on it's second half, so once again, don't expect an update or anything like that real soon. Until next time.
