Brothers. The ones who are supposed to both protect and nurture you, and crush your soul while at it. People who have them hate them, and people who don't also envy them. They do not to be of our own blood, sworn brothers, brotherly relationships, they all exist, just to different degrees. Sometimes... Circumstances force people to be brothers despite both parties protesting.
Ash and Sebastian were one such case.
As the ceremony closed and the angels got up and left to their duties, Sebastian stayed back with a variety of emotions welling up inside him.
"Come now," Micheal cajoled him happily, clapping him on the shoulder. "You did fine, and imagine that! I have Morningstar's own spawn as my new sworn brother! You should be proud! Come on... Ash! Oi! Come here and quit sulking!" With that Micheal left to try and coax a grudging Ash to come by and give Sebastian a halfhearted congratulations.
"Meta- Sir," Sebastian corrected himself softly, craning his neck to look at the huge angel. "What duties will I have?" The larger angel thought for a brief moment, and the gears in his head literally turning as he hmm'ed.
In the end, he shook his head quietly. "The lord has made no reply, nor has he decided upon your act of penance, however, he bid you learn our ways, and settle in with your new brothers. I will send a messenger for thee when the time is right." With that, he raised a great hand and flicked his wrist, dismissing sebastian from his presence.
Huffing with silent indignation, Sebastian turned and made his way to his new brothers in arms, making sure to match Ash's hateful gaze with every fiber of his being. He knew how childish it was, but being the stubborn ass that he was, he couldn't accept the fact that Ash was about to out-hate him.
He couldn't lose to him, of all people. No matter what the contest.
Micheal coughed, bringing the passive aggressive warring to a temporary truce. "We'd best be heading to our new quarters now," he said, forcing himself to sound as cheery as the situation allowed. "And Michealis needs to learn our rules, purify himself, get his robes... There is much to be done, Ash, Michealis. You may squabble later."
Then, with the same manner a disappointed schoolteacher would, he shook his head and turned, motioning for them to follow.
With the reluctance of children about to be caned, the two lesser angels followed, being led to a cosy little cottage with ivy creeping up the front of it, growing around the door and almost to the second story, where there was a small little chimney extending out the red-bricked roof.
To most humans, they would call it comfortable, compact, cosy even. It looked like something meant to be in the english countryside. However, to a demon that had spent most of its life in the lap of luxury, with minimalised contact with houses that were anything less than a football field in size, this was less that ideal.
In fact, this house was downright tiny.
"I... I am to reside in that?" Sebastian questioned in a mild state of shock, blinking rapidly to hopefully wash away this sick illusion presented before him.
"Correction," Ash butted in with a scowl. "We have to reside in this house. As housemates, dearest brother of mine," he spat out the words mockingly, taking no joy in addressing him as such. The next thing the two angels felt was a rather painful slap to the back of their heads.
"Can the two of you resist the urge to bite each other's heads off for even a moment?" Micheal snapped hotly, rubbing the bridge of his nose in irritation. He seemed to be having a bad day, Sebastian found himself thinking. That was, if they even had bad days here in Heaven...
"Now look," Micheal snapped sharply, immediately earning him the attentive gazes of the two others. "I have duties to tend to, so I'll trust you two to be intelligent enough not to spill blood and bring death to the holy lands, alright? Ash, show Michealis where to get his robes, maybe introduce him to some other Angels, get settled in. That sort of thing, alright?" Seeing them incline their heads, albeit only slightly, Micheal sighed, then spread his wings and took to the skies, leaving them alone.
"I detest you," Ash muttered, brushing past Sebastian as he went and opened the door to the cottage. "Wouldn't have it any other way," Sebastien replied with a smirk, walking inside. Instantly, he felt his eye twitch.
The inside of the cottage was painfully empty, save for the one matching brick red fireplace set in a corner, presumably connected to the chimney outside. "Is this some sort of joke?" The irate raven-haired Angel snapped immediately. "Or are you so desolately poor that your lord-" he spat the word coldly. "Can't even see fit to furnish the inside of this atrocious exc-?" He was cut off, however, as a sharp jolt shot through his wings, making them twitch insanely and jerking him off balance in the process. Simultaneously, his delicate little halo - his father's, in all honestly - let out an ear piercing sort of sound, making him fall to his knees and grab at his ears in pain. It was excruciating, to say the least.
"Get up," Ash demanded hotly, lightly nudging him with his foot. "And don't ever slander out Lord again. Consider it a warning, a light one at that," he added with an evil smirk.
Sebastian muttered smooth curses, directed at no one in particular, as he slowly stumbled to his feet, still feeling his ears ring as he leaned against a wall for support.
"Come on," Ash said impatiently, sounding surprisingly whiny for a fully grown angel. "I need you to focus. Can you not even do that, Michealis?" He mocked, arching a perfectly formed eyebrow at the latter's current unfocused state, slapping his cheek a little to bring him back to the glaringly white box they were now standing in.
As soon as he was focused enough to send a hate-filled glare his way, Ash smirked and rambled on regardless of how many times Sebastian tried to cut in with muttered curses and derogatory names.
"You need to imagine," he said, spreading his arms in the process to emphasize his point, a gentle smile on his face. He was met with a stone cold response. "Imagine, you say?" Sebastian intoned dryly, mimicking his earlier action of raising an eyebrow. "Imagine what, may I ask? That this room will magically fill with unicorns and rainbows?"
Ash tsked, annoyed with his response. "No, you imbecile," he snapped, rolling his eyes. "The furniture, the ambiance, everything. And it shall appear. Like so..."
Closing his eyes, Ash smirked a little, his lips moving wordlessly as he carefully thought about how he wanted the room to look like. Immediately, the room's shape morphed, into one with post-modern furniture, low coffee tables, sleek armchairs and a streamlined bar counter with high chrome barstools. The ceiling, too, changed, to a flat, though slightly concave, rectangular structure. Walking around in a mild state of shock revealed that white fluorescent lights were hidden well in the crevice it provided, so that it was bright, but not painfully so, and the wiring and lights themselves were hidden tastefully away. This was a scene Sebastian had never witnessed before, far beyond the capacities of humans currently, and a stark opposite to Hell, though he was not entirely opposed to the idea.
"Impressive," he admitted grudgingly, earning a triumphant grin from the other. "However..." He closed his eyes, allowing the image set before him to melt away, replaced by one that brought familiarity and comfort. He pictured his chambers in Hell, with their dark walls and torchlit hallways with chains and unspeakables dangling from all manner of corners, nooks, and crevices, with bricks worn smooth from years of having demons run on, and sometimes, into them. Despite what he had said, he couldn't help but pine for his homeland, and if this was the best he could do to remake that, then it would have to do.
Opening his eyes, he let out a relaxed sigh as the image he had pictured recreated itself in material form, save for one major difference. Instead of being chained to the wall Ash stood in the middle of it all, a tastefully offended look on his face, arms crossed and foot making muffled whoomp noises on the hard brick floor as it tapped obscenely fast, utterly destroying the relaxing properties it brought just moments ago.
"What is this monstrosity?" Ash half snarled, gesturing about him, where lit torches cast pretty dancing shadows all about the walls, emitting a strange sort of warmth from them, unevenly throwing light around the room. It was a downright hellish scene.
"Home," breathed Sebastian with a happy sigh, sinking down into a sinfully plush velvet chaise lounge, only to be viciously yawned up by the front of his shirt and marched to one of the castle-like windows set into the wall, staring out into the beautiful fluffiness in front of them, a light pink tinge on the horizon, with Angels lazily wandering about, most, from what he could tell, chatting and laughing away with their peers.
"Do you see that?" Ash questioned quietly, his breath tickling the edge of his ear. "All this. All this is what you now call your home. Ever since you renounced your father, your previous name, everything, this is your home. Paradiso. Get it through that thick skull of yours, Michealis, because you will never be able to return to that place." With that, Ash let go of him, turning away as he concentrated on trying to return the room to its original look, the one he had bestowed upon it.
However, barely a moment later, he paused, seemingly puzzled. The room refused to melt away and take on the form he had intended it to, continuing to keep that which Sebastian had created.
"I may have let slip that I still consider Inferno my home still," Sebastian admitted, with a smirk devoid of any happiness. "But I never said I did not find comfort in this-" he gestured about him, "-sort of ambiance and decor. Therefore, I see no reason to change it to anything but. You told me to imagine, did you not, brother?"
With his grin growing ever wider, his burgundy eyes narrowed in contrast, starting a silent battle of wills between the two, both bent on getting the room back to how they had intended for it to be, and neither willing to compromise or give in.
It was a matter of dominance, both knew that as well as the other. Giving in would only show that he was weaker than the other, and even for the most trivial of matters, no one wanted that.
Soon, the room was made into a horrendously ugly mixture of both their intended designs, with the beautiful white furniture on Ash's part slowly becoming blackened from Sebastian's mystic hellfire torches, and the angel's bright ceiling lighting throwing off the former demon's dark enchanted aura. With strange furniture and amenities popping up everywhere, the room was in chaos, dark and light doing battle in that small confinement, a cottage in the middle of Paradiso.
However, unnoticed by the two squabbling inside, the ground surrounding the house started to turn dark, the clouds getting a dark grey hue and, every so often, emitting small sparks of lightning, taking on the appearance befitting the great tension going on inside and alerting other Angels to the huge argument within.
Immediately a small army of them gathered to see what on earth was going on, Micheal leading them. "Landers! Michealis!" He called out, bursting through the door, hand on the hilt of his sword. Immediately, his senses were assaulted by polar opposites, light and darkness, indulgence and minimalism, making him blink in confusion and take a step back to assess the whole situation.
"What in the lord's name...?" He questioned, looking at the two feuding beings, now tangled in a growling ball of wings, halos (which magically stayed on their respective heads) and pale robes flowing and billowing as their owners furiously clawed and fought their way to dominance. Though, the moment they heard the door being slammed open, both turned to stare at the group filing into the room, ignoring the fact that Ash was currently being pinned to the ground in a very undignified fashion.
"Sire!" Ash gasped out, face flushing in embarrassment. "Kindly order this heathen to get off me!" Wanting to free himself from this embarrassing situation resulted in him thrashing wildly, though all that was nothing more than a token effort. The former demon was almost certainly stronger than him.
"Weakling," Sebastian hissed in his ear, showing off his fangs as he smirked and got up.
Micheal had a very visible scowl on his face as he helped the other angel up. "I turn my back for three minutes and you start fighting like a common mortal. I am severely disappointed in the both of you," He said quietly, his voice surprisingly cold. His exquisitely crafted face displayed his emotions perfectly as his eyes narrowed at the two angels in question. In his hand was a scroll, almost crumpled from the way he was trying to contain his frustration.
Sebastian, now emboldened by the fact that he had not been chided, took it upon himself to question what that scroll in question was. It was tied up with a pretty little ribbon. Red, like the Raven's eyes.
"Sire, what is that?" he questioned softly, not able to tear his gaze from it for even an instant.
Immediately, Micheal softened his gaze as he turned to the inquisitive raven. "This," He crowed triumphantly, holding up the scroll so that they could all see what is was. "Is your act of penance. Accomplish the task which you are now set, and all is forgiven of your past life, and you may move forward with your head held high and your sins forgiven.
Sebastian nodded respectfully as he bowed and accepted the scroll with both hands. "Thank you," he said politely enough, though on the inside he was fighting to keep calm. This was it. The last test before he really got accepted as an angel. No more fighting for a throne, no more watching his back in case assassins were sent after him. No more indulging in mortal desires.
None of that.
... But did he really want that?
Sebastian grit his teeth, feeling that small, nagging voice make itself known in the back of his head. "Shut up," he ordered it quietly, the words going unnoticed by Micheal and Ash as they stared intently at the scroll.
You'll miss all that, came the voice again, and another wave of indecision crashed into him.
Despite that, Sebastian forced himself to shove it all into a dark box back into the back of his mind, focusing on the scroll in his hand as he unfurled it with trembling fingers.
As soon as he did, he felt, more than saw, the words form on the page. He could tell that it had previously been blank. The words took their time, glowing softly as they finally settled on the page, still and unmoving but still emitting a lifelike feel.
"Well?" Ash asked, impatient though still curious.
Sebastian felt his heart jump a little more as he read the words, then read them again. There was no way...
"I am," He said quietly, looking up into the excited eyes of Ash and taking a deep breath.
"I am to be Ciel Phantomhive's guardian angel."
Woooooooohooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Okay, gonna keep this short. I have to apologise for the long wait. I don't really have an excuse, except for the fact that I realised my story was starting to get a little vague and lost, so i had to take some time off to sit down and think about it for a little while. Don't worry, I have it mostly planned out now, so updates should be coming soon... ish... Again, I apologise for the really really late update and would like to thank all those who have stuck with me despite that, and I would like, in particular, to apologise to Vidgealz C Valvatore, who had to wait far too long for this chapter :c
Hope you guys enjoyed and reviews are always welcome and appreciated!