A/N: I don't have shit to say except enjoy~
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble. -Matthew 6:34
Brushing sandy, sweat-licked locks out of his face, Kenny couldn't help but stare up at the beaming golden and periwinkle sky. He took a deep breath, knowing full and well the kind of sky that Kyle was stuck with, the one stained like autumn leaves swept up and heading into clouds of charcoal billowing from the ground. Even with that notion, it was nice to pretend that they were looking at the same cloud, both of them just resting for a bit, letting themselves roll the stress of the day off their backs until they could see each other again. He sighed, resting his chin on his palm and smacking his lips, looking down into the arena as Uriel went across the way battling an array of guards.
His eyes swept across Repentance, glowing a vibrant orange down to the hilt encrusted with thick diagonal stripes of ruby coloring. He watched with wide pupils, completely absorbed in the show below him. Uriel watched a group rushing him from the left and glanced to another incoming from the right. He hopped up and swung his sword towards the left, a strand of flame bursting from the blade and propelling him backwards as the group was taken down. He yelled out as he managed to use his momentum and twirl himself in midair, coming to a stop with the help of his wings and sending another screaming line down towards the opposing group. He landed and breathed heavily a few times, pushing his blonde curls out of his face and smirking self-righteously. "Come now, you've all fought me before, you're better than that!" he called out light heartedly.
Kenny scoffed, wondering why they procured the testy angel's favor. Apparently none of them had a kidnapped fiancé infected by the anti-christ. Well weren't they all just so goddamn special?
"Jealous, are we?" A playful voice teased. Kenny looked back to see God standing behind him, watching him with a gentle smile.
"Hey, God," he nodded. "What's up?"
He shrugged, moving to stand beside him, looking down at Uriel's showmanship and chuckling. "He's quite a showoff, isn't he?" He asked.
Kenny shook his head, "Nah, honestly I'm kinda jealous. He's movin' around like he's a goddamn cartoon character and my powers are still so...clunky, ya know?" he winced.
He patted his arm with a gentle paw, "You'll get there. You're just now delving into what you can do."
"I'm trying," he smiled weakly.
"And I'm very proud," He assured him. Kenny cleared his throat and blushed, only used to that kind of statement from Kyle when he didn't completely fuck something up. He couldn't help but wonder if the redhead would say that if he could see him now, or if he'd be pushing him to work even harder. Knowing him it'd be some oddly comforting combination of the two that included a blowjob if Kenny was being very well behaved and trying his damnedest. "Believe it or not, you're developing faster than Uriel ever did," God commented offhandedly.
"Oh really?" he smirked. "From the way he talks, you'd think he figured shit out in an hour."
He chuckled lightly, "Remember, it's been a few thousand years. He forgets that it doesn't start out so easily, and you weren't made for this job like he was." He glanced at Kenny's thoughtful face, "For a mortal fighting just for another mortal, you're doing fine," He assured him. "Better than fine, in fact. Raphael can't stop bragging about you to Michael."
He shifted a bit and laughed awkwardly, "Well, he has been my main trainer. He probably just wants t' show off how 'great' of a teacher he is," he smirked amusedly. "Everything I've done so far is because of him...and Jegudiel telling me how to spin like a fuckin' ballerina," he rolled his eyes.
"So long as it keeps you from getting hurt, be thankful for his teachings," He laughed.
"Gotcha," he winked a bit. He jolted with a soft kick to his back, looking up to see a brunette head looking at him amusedly. "Well, well, speak of the gonna-help-me-beat-the-Devil," Kenny teased.
Raphael smirked, "Shouldn't you be training?"
He pointed into the arena, "I actually have an excuse this time. Uriel's down there and I don't wanna deal with wanting to rip his wings off and beat him with 'em."
He nodded, "Understandable." He moved over and plopped down to the opposite side of the blonde, staring down with him. "Are you learning anything?" he asked.
"Yeah, Uriel belongs in Hell," he twisted his mouth a bit. He felt the two of them staring at him and he shrugged listlessly, "Okay, his sword belongs in Hell. I mean, who the fuck thinks of angels going with fire?" he complained, gesturing wildly down towards the ground.
God chuckled, "Fire is not inherently evil, Kenneth. It's a cleanser above all things."
"It's Hell below all things," Ken raised his brow. "You know, the enemy? Torturers of souls? Suckers of dicks? Kidnappers of important people to someone sitting next to you? You know, fire?"
"Do you consider light to be evil?" He asked innocently.
He blinked, "Well, no..."
"What is fire but a living light?" Raphael continued with a shrug. "I mean, think about it, fires are needed for things like building the world in the dark, lighting candles, providing warmth. Simple, innocent things. Do you consider those to be evil?"
He scoffed, "Well it's evil if those candles are cinnamon because Kyle's allergic to the fake smell and end up sneezing so damn hard the walls shake."
His face dropped in an unamused line and he shook his head, "You don't need to be a sarcastic ass about everything, Kenneth."
"Ay, you can't call me that no more, you lost your right when ya stopped," he said snobbishly. "You ain't my mom. Or God. Or...any of the other pretentious dicks around like you," he waved his hand aimlessly. "And only Ky is allowed to call me that when I'm in trouble so you don't get that privilege," he declared. Raphael shook his head even slower as the blonde continued, "And furthermore, I do need to be that way because otherwise I get really depressing really fast," he admitted with a shrug.
"...You're an ass."
"And proud of it," he smirked, punching the angel's arm lightly. God watched the two of them, laughing quietly to Himself.
"Ken!" a voice called from behind them. They whirled around to see Nathaneal swooping down towards them.
Kenny hopped to his feet, nearly stumbling backwards over the edge of the balcony before his wings caught and propelled him back upright. He watched the angel land in front of the three of them, a hint of worry lingering in his eyes. "Did you find Kyle?! How is he?! Does he look like he's eaten?! What's going on?!" He asked in a blind haste, not liking the fact that the angel did not have a smile on his face.
Raphael put a hand on his shoulder, raising his hand and slowly lowering it in front of his face. "Calm down," he coaxed. "Now...Nathaneal. How is Kyle?" he asked.
He crossed his arms and shifted, "It's...not...great," he winced. "Though he's alive and feisty, I can tell you that much."
"Well Kyle would have to be dead for that to stop," Kenny smiled weakly.
He gulped a bit, "Ken...he looks like a disaster," he admitted. Kenny's face fell and he took a deep breath. "He has this...wound on his arm," he pointed to his own, "It looks beyond infected. I could smell it," he scrunched his nose, easily recalling the vile stench that leaked from the arm tossed over his shoulder.
"Damien's access point," God clarified. "It's where Damien stabbed him with his blood. His old skin can't handle the poison."
"Poison?" Kenny repeated softly. "Like...a literal poison?"
He nodded solemnly. "His blood is completely toxic by now," He sighed. "His body shifted when Damien turned him to be able to handle it without completely destroying him..."
"But it still hurts," Nathaneal finished, another sad nod coming from the deity. He looked back at Kenny's worried face. "He's suffering, I'm not going to sugarcoat it for you. I...I watched he and Damien in confrontation," he sighed tiredly. "Kyle told him of his faith in you and it...nearly crippled him," he winced.
"How?" he narrowed his eyes.
"According to Damien, he's not tapping into what he needs to control his powers," he explained. "Apparently he needs to be selfish and fight only for himself. Whenever he tries to defend himself from an attack, he unleashes it. But if he tries to defend you or humans in general it just makes him collapse," he gestured to the ground. "He's burning from the inside out, Ken."
His jaw dropped a bit, "Will it-"
"No," God interjected hurriedly. "His body will remain intact, it'll just hurt," He assured him. "This cannot kill him. If it could, he wouldn't have even made it a minute past Damien's ritual."
Kenny looked at the clouds below him, gulping down an anxious lump forming in his throat. "Anything else?"
"Damien broke his femur," he muttered. Kenny cringed. He'd experienced that before when a fated death at 15 missed him just enough to just throw him down a hill and snap it clean in half. The pain was so unbearable he'd ended up throwing himself into Stark's just so he could drown and come back without the agony. The angel continued, "He's covered in scars and bruises and he just looks like a complete mess to say the least."
"Dammit," Kenny muttered, unable to find so many other words lingering at the surface.
He cleared his throat, "He also seems to have made companions with a Hellhound."
Kenny blinked, raising his brow, "Kyle doesn't even like dogs that much. How the hell did he befriend one of those fucking things?" He could recall a pack of them staring him down on more than one occasion, growling so menacingly with those damn vicious teeth before turning and ripping right into a tortured soul beside them.
"It seems as though it's just attached to him," Nathaneal shrugged. "It was extremely protective of him when Kyle showed anxiety upon seeing me for the first time. Besides, I think considering where Damien's keeping him...any friend is better than none. He's using him as a pillow in his cell," he attempted a soft grin.
He smiled back meekly, "That's Ky. Using everythin' he can as a pillow. Dogs, coffeepots, textbooks, me..." he attempted a laugh, but it came out so deadened it only seemed to lessen the mood.
"Damien," the spy started again, biting his lip anxiously, "Damien said he wants to...break him."
"Break him?" he repeated. "How?"
"By whittling down his resistance to the powers," God answered. "He wants Kyle to experience the full brunt of how much control they can have over him."
"I told him of how Damien plans to keep him," Nathaneal continued, looking at the ground and rubbing his arm sheepishly. This just seemed so hard to admit to the already emotionally persecuted archangel before him. "He seemed very scared by the notion. He mentioned how Damien treats him like a pet...And I noticed the bastard telling him how he owned him, petting his hair, and...and getting very close to him," he looked once more at Kenny, backing up a bit at the fire spitting from the ice-cold stare dead set on him at his words.
"Close how?" he demanded, voice a deep, even staccato.
He shifted a bit on his feet, "He had Kyle's neck exposed and...looked as though he were about to...bite it," he admitted softly.
"WHAT?!" Kenny screamed, losing every bit of his control at keeping an even temper.
"Ken, calm down," Raphael grabbed his arm, blinking at the tenseness running through the defined muscle.
"BITE. HIM?!" he repeated, ignoring the angel beside him and staring down the one in front, as though piercing through him via sight alone would somehow transmit his fury to Damien. His possessive streak was starting anew, eye twitching and trying to shift colors. His fingers brushed against the hilt of Resurrection, begging to rip it out of its sheath and let it taste Damien's venomous blood.
Raphael intervened quickly, knowing just how far this could push the blonde over, "But he didn't."
"Only because Kyle used his powers," Nathaneal confessed awkwardly. "Or maybe he wouldn't have, I don't know. I'm just telling you what I saw, Ken. And I told you how off putting this situation felt to begin with."
Kenny growled, gripping at his hair with one hand, tearing at the roots. Damien was trying to take Kyle from him, he was trying to mark him. Making him into the creature that he flaunted about himself, picking Kyle apart piece by piece. He knew this game, he'd seen bits and pieces of it in his multiple trips down below. But Damien had never gotten so close to a mortal before, claiming that they were too inferior, too worthless to devote so much effort to. Why was Kyle so different in this game? Because of their connection or because the thrill of the chase was just too much for Damien to pass up on? "Fuck," he spat, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "I hope Kyle can keep the powers up then," he said flatly. "Because if Damien lays one fucking finger on him I swear I will-"
"Calm. Down," Raphael repeated.
God put a paw on his leg and patted it gently. "It's all right, Kenneth. Kyle is strong. He'll be all right."
Kenny looked down at the creature beneath him and took a wavering breath. He was right. Kyle was strong. There were far too many instances of proof for that to override even the severity of the situation. At least, that's what Kenny would just keep telling himself, unable to dwell on the possibilities of what it was Damien wanted with his redhead. He looked back up to the sympathetic noirette's stare. "Did he say anything?" he questioned softly.
Nathaneal cocked his brow and nodded slowly. "Yes, he said to tell you 'Morrison's up his ass, but the apartment's not on fire'?"
Kenny broke into a real smile and chuckled, "Good. That's good." He took a deep breath, knowing just from that that his Kyle was still out there, that Damien hadn't broken through him yet. The bastard would have to try a lot harder to get through Kyle's stubborn-ass shell...Kenny grimaced. Unfortunately, he knew well enough that Damien's favorite thing to do was to try harder to get someone to crack under his hand, and Kyle was far from being one to just give in and get it over with. A broken femur could very easily be the least of his problems were he not careful enough.
"What does that mean?" Raphael asked confusedly.
He looked at the three of them staring expectantly and laughed. "So, When Ky started grad school, he had this professor named Morrison," he started, looking up and smiling fondly. "He taught this class on culture in early modern Europe, and he hated Kyle," he snorted. "He couldn't figure it out for the life of him, he was doing great with the coursework, but the guy just had this vendetta against him and kept pushing him harder than anyone else in his damn class. He kept calling him out for answers or making him do the brunt of presenting his ideas and just overall driving him crazy. Ky was pretty positive he was homophobic and saw the two of us together before he started," he shrugged. "He made Kyle miserable. He'd come home almost every day and punch the shit out of a pillow for about ten minutes, have a cup of coffee, and walk around the block or else he'd lose his mind."
"Okay..." Nathaneal raised his brow.
"And I used to work a really shitty shift at my job," he shrugged. "We'd get lucky if our free time overlapped at all and we got to see each other for more than a half hour outside of sleeping. He started planning his dinner around when my lunch break was and we'd call each other to talk while we ate. And, ya know, I'd ask how his day was because common courtesy or whatever," he waved dismissively. "And when he was having a particularly horrible day outside of just that dickhead, he'd tell me the apartment wasn't on fire. It was just how he told me that life was going to shit and he was on the brink, but he'd survive," he smiled sadly. "So Damien's treating him like a piece of shit and he wants to kill him, but he'll make it through okay."
Raphael smirked a bit, punching his arm, "See? Even he's telling you that he'll be just fine."
"Not if Damien keeps getting in his face like that," he murmured, the smile dripping from his profile. "What's he gonna do to him?" he asked, almost afraid of the answer. He looked down to God who let out a long breath.
"I'm not sure," He answered. "I will keep my eyes open though."
Nathaneal cleared his throat, "Ken, is there anything I can do while I'm down there?"
Kenny looked at him and nodded sharply. "Keep an eye on him while you can," he directed. "And if anything starts going wrong...Get back here and tell me. Immediately," he added harshly.
The angel nodded. "Absolutely. That's all I have for now...But I won't let Kyle get far from my sight, I swear it."
"Thank you," he breathed out gratefully.
"Thank you, Nathaneal," God nodded. The angel smiled, looking back at the starry-eyed blonde.
"And just so you know," he said softly, "I've never seen anyone so relieved to hear what you wanted him to hear. I can tell he misses you something awful."
He smiled crookedly, "Well, the feeling's definitely mutual. Keep me updated, yeah?"
"Of course. I'll be in touch," he promised, turning and heading back from whence he'd came.
Kenny took a deep breath, looking back at the cloud below his feet and kicking at it listlessly. "Is Kyle going to change? If he unleashes his powers...will he...?" he asked almost noiselessly.
God's sharp hearing perked and He looked at him with empathetic eyes. "I don't know," He replied. "But to be honest, I really don't think so. Kyle's holding on very well."
Kenny shook his head, looking back up and into the distance, eyes grazing over the sky tiredly. "Maybe for now. But I have a feeling Damien's just getting started."
A/N: Idk why but this chapter was super fun to write? I have no clue why it was just a really smooth ride from beginning to end which usually I have to step away for like an hour to think things through. Idk.
Thanks for R&Ring!