The clipping sound of her heels slapping against the tiles sent vibrations up her, already shaking, nerves. Her hair was soaked and clinging to the back of her neck, her leather jacket beaded with rain-droplets.
Upon hearing her approaching, Red turned around and lifted a hand in greeting, puffing on a cigar.
"Where did you go?" Sonya said, barely covered anger in her voice.
"I went to get more cigars and beer." He shrugged.
"And you left me there. To find my way back here. In the rain. At night. In a city I'm not familiar with." She growled at him, her jaw tightened in rage, punctuating each word carefully.
"Well, the important thing is you found your way back, right?" Hellboy smiled arrogantly.
"You will never do that again do you understand me?" Her tone was dangerously calm as she spoke.
"You may be my new 'nanny' but that doesn't mean I don't get to go off on my own every once in a while." He blew a puff of smoke in her direction, and she let out a frustrated cry that was somewhere between a hiss and a growl.
Hellboy knew that he shouldn't be intimidated by Sonya. She was only five foot five, a full foot and an inch shorter than he was, there was no doubt that he was more muscular, and he had a pair of broad shoulders. Yet, when she was backing him up against the wall, yelling at him and jabbing her finger harshly on his chest, he did nothing but stand there and take it.
"You will listen to me. The next time you directly disobey me like that, I will smite you. I have no intention of being disrespected."
"I—"
"This isn't up for discussion, Hellboy." She snapped, her eyes flashing murderously. "Now," She said, shaking her wet hair out of her eyes. "You will treat me respectfully and don't you dare blow that smoke in my direction again."
"Or maybe I could just treat you like a monster would, right?"
Sonya sighed. "That's what this is about?" He remained silent. "I'm just...not used to working with a demon is all. By nature, they should be my enemies. But I have to admit...you're different. And I know times have been difficult for you as of lately."
Hellboy's eyes narrowed. "'Scuse me?"
"I know about what happened your children and Elizabeth."
"Shut up."
"You know, I lost my entire family too."
His eyes softened slightly but he remained quiet, jaw clenched.
"My brothers and sisters now hunt me."
He realized that she meant her fellow angels and suppressed a groan. "That's different, that's not—"
"They were my siblings, my flesh and blood. And now I have to fight them, and my favorite brother, Michael, turned on me, threatened to kill me himself." Sonya seemed breathless, as if speaking about this was causing physical pain. "If you'll excuse me, I'd like to go take a shower and rid myself of this wet-animal rain stench. Remember my warning."
"Hell of an angel you are, threatening people," He sneered.
"Read the Bible, angels are warriors."
Silently, Red watched her turn around and leave. Under the cover of her shirt, he saw something twitch, something that looked soft, feathery. Her wings, he could bet, he wondered what angel wings looked like exactly. Shrugging it off, he laid back against his bed.
His room seemed inadequate. Too small, he thought while feeding his cats. There were no decorations, they had stowed away all of his records and everything else after he last quit. He remembered quite clearly the few months when he had left this place. Everything had gone south, Liz and Hellboy had visited the doctor—a doctor who Abe had told them specialized in supernatural pregnancies—and they had gotten the news that Liz had a miscarriage. Things went even worse after that; Liz wouldn't talk to him and as strong as she was, she started to lose control of her powers again. And then she had left him, without even so much as a note or an explanation why.
He needed to sever this thought process; he could feel that incessant and unwelcome bubble of sadness beginning to cloud his sanity again. He needed a distraction and a good one too. Hellboy stood up and headed toward the shower rooms. He only stopped when he heard the sound of a shower running in the female side. Sonya, he knew, maybe he could go sneak a peek at her wings, that would clear his mind.
"This is a bad idea." He muttered to himself as he went forward. He could readily admit it, and did, even though he was the originator of this plan. Walking quietly toward the showers, all Hellboy could think about was the plethora of ways this could blow up in his face.
The female shower rooms were more spacious than the male ones and he spotted the particular shower cubby in which Sonya preparing to shower, hiding behind the wall that extended out to hide most of the tiny room, Hellboy peeked around the corner, feeling the heat emanating from the large shower that lay in the back of the room. There was a mirror on the wall and a sink but he wasn't looking at any of that, his gaze was fixed on Sonya.
Sonya tugged the ponytail holder from her hair, smiling at the feeling of her heavy hair being released. She shifted forward to slip off her shoes and her shirt gaped wider, revealing the full curve of one breast; his mouth went dry and he knew that he should turn around and leave but he remained frozen.
Hellboy stood in the shadows, concealed by a wall and the steam from the shower room. Swallowing hard, he peered closer. He watched with rapt attention as she abandoned her clothes. She was shedding her layers, shirt, jeans, camisole, a caterpillar evolving into a butterfly. In a moment she was left only in a rosy bra and panties. He should have averted his eyes, he knew that, but felt powerless. His mind roared, reminding him that perhaps there was more to his gaze than clinical evaluation.
The bra came off first and then her underwear, pooling in a puddle around Sonya's pale, slim ankles, Red's eyes flickered back up. The luminescent skin on her back was tainted by plum colored, feathered, folded down wings. Her violet wings suddenly extended and she sighed as if unraveling them felt like she was stretching a sore muscle. His gaze shifted lower, her thighs were a creamy color, nearly flawless, except a scar on the inside of her right thigh. Her legs were muscular and his eyes moved higher, scanning over her tight stomach and coming to rest on her full breasts that were moving slightly with her breathing. Swallowing dryly again, his eyes continued upward to her neck and then her face.
Sonya's daintily touched the running water with her foot before sliding in, her hair slipping forward, creating a curtain of darkness around her. She let the water run over her and he watched with curious intensity as it beaded on her skin. The curve of her hips shifted as she allowed the water to drench her dark hair. Hellboy's breathing had turned heavy as the water soaked her naked body, rolling off her purple-colored wings and running down her breasts.
As if detecting his presence, her head pivoted around and he barely had enough time to duck back behind the wall. He faintly heard her voice calling out 'hello?' but he was darting away from the shower room, there was no way he was going to caught.
Hellboy decided he was the one that really did need a shower. A cold one. He moved silently toward the exit of the female shower rooms and exhaled loudly once he reached the male showers. As he undressed and stepped into the cold water, his mind was overtaken with images of Sonya in all of her nude glory.
Her eyes flickering closed when the water hit her, the stream cloaking most of her ivory body from his view, her mouth parting just slightly as she ran her fingers through her hair.
No. No. This was his new liaison, his annoying, too perfect, too strict new babysitter.
Hopping out of the shower, he toweled off and changed into a pair of pants and a skin hugging black shirt. The cold water had helped him a bit. But the next time he saw he had to express exactly how much he hated her, and that she had no place here, maybe then he could get some peace of mind from her. This would work, Hellboy could bet.
Hellboy's eyes flickered to the doorway as Sonya came in the next morning, pushing cart with his breakfast on it. He could honestly say that he hadn't really planned what he would say to her; he was never any good at knowing what to say.
Sonya was silent as she placed the cart in his room, her back turned to him, and Red eyed the back of her head, noting the strained muscles in her shoulders and the way her body curved beneath her clothes. Sonya was, easily, one of the most attractive girls he had the displeasure of knowing. She seemed almost untouchable in the way she held herself in public, yet she was wearing tight clothes that were definitely made to accent every delicious curve she had.
"Are you going to eat?" The angel asked him, thankful for the break from his thoughts as she turned to face him, he shrugged. The way she took deep breaths that strained the fabric across her breasts, he couldn't help but watch, especially after seeing her naked- he cut across the thought, he had to stop-he had to stop thinking about her.
He knew it would happen again. Another fight. Unavoidable because she continually insisted on being irritating. Although, Hellboy had found that he rather liked when she was mad. The way her blue eyes turned molten, the crack of a whip in her tone, and that made her all the more irritating.
"Why even bother showing up here at all?" He asked.
"What?"
"You clearly don't like me and don't really give a shit about this job so why even bother doing it?"
"Because staying in this place is safe for me, so why not do a job while I'm here." She offered.
"Go work for Abe then."
Her laughter made his face twist into a scowl. It was the sort of look most would cower from. "You know, Hellboy, want me to be afraid of you like everyone else is. And to take every threat you make seriously. And I won't." She paused, smiling at his anger. "It's why you like me."
"Like you?" The cigar he'd just inserted into his mouth fell out. "No, no, no, I do not like you. In fact, I hate you, you walk around here like you're better than everyone, you think you're so fucking clever-"
"I think we can both agree that I am fucking clever," She cut in, if she had anything against swearing, she didn't show it.
"And you talk like you have it all figured out. And then there's that arrogance-"
"You act like you can't be a little arrogant sometimes."
He ignored her. "And the way you think you can control me just because you have a thing against disrespect. Let me tell you something, buddy-"
"Stop. I understand fully what you're getting at." Sonya said, he expected her to more but she didn't, she turned around and left.
Sonya was laying across her bed, sure she had been a bit harsh at Hellboy recently but he had it coming. Disobedience was a top crime up in heaven and he done just that. But then again, this wasn't heaven, she was on Earth now. And he had no idea how dangerous it was to go off on his own, without her there, the angels could get to him so easily, could finish the job she was supposed to do and use him to start the apocalypse.
She knew that her brothers were getting closer to her, she could feel it in the air, in the buzzing atoms that gossip to each other in screams and hisses, warning of impending collapse of her tired soul. But with each breath she grew closer to acceptance, closer to the signature line of her already-voided contract. Her whole plan was a record scratching on a phonograph, needle nearly reaching the part right before the crescendo.
There was a knock on her open door, and she twisted to see who was there, inattentive, but pretending as if she was. Hellboy was standing there, looking stoic as ever.
"You got a minute?"
Her ebony tresses dangled in front of her eyes, as she sat up and gestured for him to come in. He had not moved, only stood regarding her from the doorway. For a fragment of time, her mind pieced together a recollection of their entwined, jagged path that he had no idea about.
Guilt pooled in the recesses of her mind, unnecessary and confusing, and she refused to poke at the idea that maybe once her brothers had dispatched her they could get to him. In some small, derelict way, she felt responsible for the grotesque way in which he would die if they did.
Some morbid curiosity etches itself into her face as she surveyed him, half hidden in a shadow, still silent. Of all her time spent watching him from up above, not knowing whether she could go through with using him, the most tiring part was after she'd actually met him, and then she knew that their time together was a stalled countdown leading to his arrival in the next world, a train taking what felt like forever to cross the horizon, to reach the station.
He broke the silence with a small breath, "Last time I saw you-"
"You had a rant about how much you despised me," She sighed, "Yes, and?"
"No, it's just," He growled through connected teeth.
"I already know that your temper can get out of control."
Letting the aggravating comment roll off, he began, "It's not that, it's...The other day I walked in on you...showering and-"
She blinked, she had not been expecting that. "You were spying on me?"
"No, I was trying to see your wings and after I saw them I planned to leave but—"
"So, you were watching me?"
"It's not a big deal, but—"
"You watched me, nude, in the shower and it's not a big deal?" She arched a brow, she knew she should've been furious at him for that but she couldn't bring herself to be. Sonya didn't know-couldn't identify-the feeling that swelled up in her chest and the sudden stain of red across her cheeks. "And how do you feel about me now?" she asked in a rush, desperate to free the words that had been lodged in her throat.
"I-" He went quiet again, and maybe she shouldn't be as satisfied as she was. There was a quiet smile on her lips when he looked away, knowing that she had some sort of affect on him.
"It didn't change anything."
It was a lie. Sonya could bet.
