Matthew rushed down the hall head lowered as he headed for his room. He wasn't sure what he was going to do when he got there but at least he would be out of sight for a while.

"Mathieu?" Francis's voice came from up ahead and Matthew lowered his head a little more pulling his halo close against his stomach like he could hid it there.

"Not now. I'm busy." Matthew muttered in passing before someone grabbed his arm making him snap his head up intending to growl at them only to be met with concerned blue eyes that didn't look like Francis's.

"You're hurt." Joan said softly but still loud enough for The Frenchman behind her to hear and step closer.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Nothing." Matthew replied quickly wanting to jerk his arm away but not wanting to be rude to the lady. "I'm fine release me."

"Come now let me have a look." Joan pressed on tugging Matthew into Francis's bedroom leaving the Frenchman to follow after them and shut the door as she gently eased Matthew into a car. The small short haired woman knelt on the floor before him and set a hand on top of his, tugging a little at the halo to ask him to let it go. His heart ached but he released it and watched while she smiled rewardingly at him and set the weapon on the floor off to the side.

"Mathieu! What happened?" The long haired blond man asked in shock as they all looked at the red welted hands. His left one was sticky, covered with the liquid that was leaking out of one of the popped blisters.

"You can't tell!" Matthew said weakly looking pleadingly up at Francis who frowned but nodded back. "I was going to see Ice and talk about when he thought his mate was coming and found out the man was already here. We got into a fight…he's a fire demon."

"Whoa wait you got into a fight?" Francis asked. "Mon dieu! Whatever for?"

"Matthew sighed heavily and watched as Joan said nothing standing. "I will be right back. I need some things to clean this."

"It was just a misunderstanding." Matthew muttered feeling ashamed for having caused trouble again. "I can't let Holland see, Francis! He will tell Mathias and he'll kill them! They already marked each other without permission!"

"Calm down! Clam down I won't tell anyone. You know I'm a sucker for a love story." Francis said with a slight smile touching Matthews head as Joan came back in. She set down her supplies and knelt again, getting to work on Matthew's already leaking hand.

"Let me know if I hurt you." She said dipping a washcloth into a bowl of water and gently running it over the sticky palm. The woman worked carefully, explaining each step as she went along.

"I need to cut off the blister."

"Why?" Matthew asked looking at the small set of scissors in her hand wearily while Francis watched them from his spot he'd taken up on the bed.

"These bubbles your hands are forming are to protect the burnt skin. They fill with this liquid that soothes the flesh and tries to encourage new growth. The problem with it is, like you saw here already is that the bubble pops and leaks deflating. Then the hole will clot over and again the extra skin will fill with the serum but therein lies the problem. Once it pops you have the chance of getting infection inside leaving it to fester. They only way to prevent this is to peel off the extra skin of the bubble." Joan explained clipping the scissors together to make her point with a smile.

"Ma chere, you are making my stomach turn." Francis complained drolly.

The woman giggled smiling up at him before looking back to Matthew who was silently agreeing with Francis. "The nerves are dead Matthew. You won't feel a thing."

The angel pulled a non-believing face but nodded anyway. "Go ahead."

The golden haired woman smiled once more reassuringly before she set to work popping the bubble again and trimming it along the edges. True to her word Matthew couldn't feel the skin being cut away but watching his skin be cut off his palm and his fingers made his insides flip flop uncomfortably and the over exaggerated grossed out noises Francis were making weren't helping at all. It would be beyond embarrassing if he threw up in front of a chick.

"There we are." She said drawing Matthews gaze away from the ceiling back down at his pink, raw hands. "Now I have to apologize in advance for this, but I need to scrub the skin now to make sure it's clean before I wrap it."

"Scrub it?" Matthew squeaked out closing his hands into fists as best he could to hid them from her. "I think they are clean enough."

"Matthew dear…" Joan pleaded softly helping him stand as they headed towards the bathroom and Francis followed after. "Burns aren't like cuts. They need to be handed with the upmost care of they won't heal correctly and will cause serious infecting. We don't want that so please just let me help you."

"Is it going to hurt?" He asked nearly whining already before she even started. It seemed strange that for all the pain he had been through thus far on his journey that these little burns had his stomach rolling.

"It will." She replied honestly. "But I will be very careful not to cause any more pain then is necessary."

Resigning himself to the pain Matthew held his hands out to her with a huff making Francis chuckle. "You have been through worse." He offered helpfully sitting on the counter as Joan started up the water in the sink and lathered up a new washcloth.

"I am aware thank you." Matthew muttered sullenly before hissing as Joan started to scrub. True to her word she was as gentle as possible but the raw exposed skin burned anew with each pass of the cloth.

"There…almost done." She reassured as she rinsed the soap off and pat dried his hands. "Now I just need to-"

Joan was cut short as the door burst open and a pissed looking Gilbert stormed in. "What the fuck has got you all in a fuss!" The vampire growled glaring at the sunlight streaming through the window before marching over and jerking the curtain closed bathing the room in darkness.

No one moved as the three of them watched Gilberts glow red eyes from across the room as he slowly stalked towards them. "Gilbert." Francis said weakly stepping forward to block the other two angels. Suddenly Gilbert was gone, evaporated into the shadows that he loved before appearing right before Matthew.

"Your heart-" He purred walking closer and running a finger from the back of Matthew's ear down his throat to his jugular. "has been pounding so hard the last hour that I can't fucking sleep angel."

Matthew suddenly realized why Arthur said both demons and angel feared vampires. In the darkness like this Gilbert could be everywhere and nowhere at the same time. No matter how strong you were you couldn't stop something you couldn't see.

"Ba boom." Gilbert whispered against the shell of Matthew's ear, tapping a fingertip against his neck in time with his words. "Ba boom, ba boom, ba boom. Over and over and over again." The fingertip stopped taping and a hand wrapped around Matthews throat squeezing dangerously as the angels eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness. "It's rattling around in my head like a god damn drum calling me eat and I can't fucking sleep with your heart making all that fucking noise."

"Let go of me Gilbert." Matthew said weakly and the hand on his neck loosened a little.

"Why are you so upset little angel? So upset that you won't let me sleep." The vampire asked lazily leaning back finally giving Matthew some space to breath.

"I burned my hands."

Red eyes flicked down to said appendages frowning before pulling them into his own hands to get a better look at them. "I can fix most of this damage…If I heal them will you calm the fuck down?" he asked lazily his anger dying away with his exhaustion.

"Yes." Matthew replied back and gasped as Gilbert jerked his hands up to his mouth and lapped at them with long strokes down each finger and across the palm before dropping them and tilting his head to the side listening.

Slowly the pain in Matthews hand subsided and sure enough even with his fear of Gilbert his heart rate slowed from the dulling of the pain.

Gilbert sighed in bliss seeming satisfied with the results. "Try and stay out of trouble little Matthew. I don't want to be woken again."

"I will do my best." Matthew replied holding his hands to his chest as Gilbert walked around Francis, mindlessly toying with the man's longer hair while he walked by.

"If you wear your Halo around your neck it will heal by the way." The vampire said leaning down to pick up the blackened ring twirling it around on his finger. "It will take some time as it is rather pissed off at you at the moment for letting demons touch it but it should be fine."

"Wear it?" Matthew echoed confused.

"Mmhum." Gilbert replied walking forward again making Francis step aside. The albino pressed the halo to Matthew's throat in a way that would have been threatening if the weapon was working. The cool metal made the angel shiver though he tried to suppress it.

"Angel power-" Gilbert purred apparently enjoying making Matthews heart rate spike again. "Connection."

The Halo made a humming noise and for the briefest of moment Matthew felt it's power flicker before suddenly the black ring was clamped around his throat. "There…" Gilbert said standing upright and running a finger along the new collar. "It can now feed slowly off your power till it gains its own back. It's your badge of dishonor for letting it get so wounded stupid angel."

"Thank you Gilbert."

"Anything for you birdy." The vampire replied yawning and dropping his hand.

"You should go back to bed." Joan said softly finally speaking up drawing Gilberts eyes to her. "You don't want to be grumpy when you wake up this evening do you?"

"We wouldn't want that now would we." Gilbert chuckled. "How have you been Joan?"

"Very well. I am much enjoying having company these past few days." She replied walking forward and hooking her arm through his leading him towards the door.

"Yes well Francis makes for fine company indeed." He said playfully and she giggled as lead the man out of the room closing the door behind them.

"Jesus that about scared the shit out of me." Francis whispered going over and jerking the curtains open.

Matthew nodded in agreement looking at his healed but still pink hands. "I don't know what to do Francis…How do I help Ice and his mate and keep Mathias from killing them?"

The other angel sighed shaking his head. "I don't know Mathieu…I don't know. Maybe you should ask Holland for help. He would know how to handle the other demon lord better. Are your hands alright?"

"Yes. Between Joan and Gilbert they are as good as knew." Matthew replied dropping them to eye his new 'necklace' in the mirror. "I should go. Holland has been talking to Arthur and Alfred this whole time. Lord knows what they have been saying."

"I will pray for you." Francis joked dropping gracelessly back onto his bed as Matthew headed for the door.

"She is pretty Fran…Real pretty. Are you two…" He left the question open and Francis smiled and shrugged.

"I don't know. But I would like to be. Though to be honest I'm content with just being around her for now. Take it slow you know."

Matthew smiled at that nodding. "That's good. That's really good Francis. I will see you later alright." The other man nodded and Matthew left the room intent of finding his partner only to almost run into him.

"Oh Holland!" he said in shock before his eyes widened. "What happened to your eye!"

"Your brother really doesn't like me." Holland replied with a shrug looking more than a little annoyed.

"You didn't hurt him did you?" Matthew asked horrified and the large man scowled down at him. "No." he snapped heading for their room. The angel trotted after feeling slight bad for asking but he knew first hand Holland's temper when it came to people disrespecting him.

"Holland I have to talk to you about something." Matthew said hesitantly shutting them in their room making the demon lord look at him hesitantly.

"What?"

"Well..." Holland frowned harder walking towards him making him pause. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"What happened to your hands?" Holland questioned lifting the pink appendages to look at them.

"No nothing. It's not a big deal I really just need your help with-" Matthew faded off as Holland leaned in to smell him. The demon lord looked furious. "You smell like four different demons Matthew." The anger Matthew saw in Holland eyes made him stay quiet mouth opening and closing like a fish trying to find the words to explain.

Holland pressed closer and Matthew backed up into the door Holland's hand slamming down on either side of his head to keep him trapped there as he breathed deeply again. "Mathias touched you. Ice…Gilbert too." He sniffed again and frowned. "A fourth I can't place. What have you been doing Angel?"

"Don't talk to me like that." Matthew growled shoving Holland back a little so he could sneak out from under his arms. "I haven't done anything wrong."

"Then why do you smell like anyone else but me!" Holland yelled and Matthew looked at him wide eyed.

"Holland what is wrong with you?" He asked.

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