Kaede kneeled... three meters in front of the Dark Emperor... with his brother Ichiro at his other side. No one wears anything inside the Inferno.
Together, the two young devils gave respect for their father.
"Now I know the reason why you have short horns." Kaede managed to look straight at the grave stare of darkening indigo orbs... or he'd only heat the Emperor's temperance even more. "SHORTER THAN ANY DEMONS IN HELL!"
The angry voice echoed on the rock formations inside the cave... startling the other creatures breathing in the area.
"How long have you been doing this?"
The Emperor kept on walking back and forth near his throne... trying to absorb the unnerving event he had just seen in the boiling pot a while ago.
"I can't help it," Kaede mumbled. It wouldn't help to lie in the Lord of Darkness.
"You can't help it?" Astounded, Hisashi examined the hackneyed face of his young son. "You're telling ME.that an angel had captured you in his feigned HAVEN.and you CAN'T help it?"
"I'm in love with him!"
Finally, love conquers all his weaknesses... his fears. Kaede found the courage to say the words of truth even in front of the horrifying stern eyes of his father... with assertiveness... with bravery and with a free heart to dominate all his anxiety.
However... the action didn't impress the Dark Emperor. He wanted to strangle his son... and filters him from the stupefying walls of LOVE... the word that heaven treasures above all.
Hisashi aimed his crooked fingers at Kaede's location and threw the devil at a huge hole with all might.
Hitting the deepest ground of the hole, Kaede felt his right arm that hit the hard floor... becoming like a vegetable from so much aching. He intended to stand up... and surprisingly, he was faced by the husky body of the Dark Emperor.
Hisashi attacked him with electric currents from the ionosphere... passing through his fingers. Kaede screamed loudly and his knees dropped dead on the ground.
"No one... disobeys... the Dark Emperor."
Kaede's raven bangs messed at his forehead... partly covering his sapphire blue eyes.
"You're from my own blood," Hisashi continued without taking his wrathful gaze at the pain-strickened devil. "My own flesh... my own life!"
In a one quick and forceful movement, Hisashi grabbed his son's horns and broke it off from his head.
Kaede shouted from the paroxysm... and even louder from the grievances his heart was having. And if a devil still has a soul... it was melting from the qualms of his fate... of suffering in the hands of the Dark Emperor.
Meanwhile, Ichiro was watching everything in the boiling pot. He didn't want to witness the hardships of his brother... but if it's the last time he would see Kaede alive... he'd rather know what death is bound to happen to his twin.
Ichiro saw his father pointing his bronze three-arrowed septer towards the poor Kaede who was standing at the center of the ground.
In nanosecond... an irregularly-shaped transparent crystal imprisoned the now hornless devil.
Ichiro shut his eyes... convincing himself to harden his mellow heart. His brother... his twin... was trapped in the crystal and only the Emperor knows how long.
"Lord Ichiro." A naked lady demon kneeled in front of him. "The angel is still on earth... waiting for Lord Kaede."
Hanamichi perched above a huge rock... holding a yellow sunflower on one hand and the other was pricking each petal of it.
"He loves me..." The angel said as one petal was taken from the flower. "He loves me not."
"He loves me." A happy smile formed at Hanamichi's face as the last petal bid goodbye to its origin. It's true... Kaede loves him... and he'll comeback for him. It's all he believes in and gives him hope.
Glancing towards the mountain top, the orange sun was setting from the horizon.
Darkness was soon to cover that part of the world... and Kaede hasn't appeared in front of him.
"He's not going to show up." A voice caught Hanamichi's attention.
A figure in black cloak... camouflaging the hood over its head... showed itself on the redheaded angel.
Slowly... the hood was taken off from the head and Hanamichi saw a being who looks exactly like his Kaede.
"Ichiro." The angel lowered his gaze at the newcomer. It's not about the length of the horns... but the comfort in his heart that could perfectly distinguish Kaede from Ichiro.
"Yes, angel." A mischievous smirk taunted the heavenly creature.
"Where's Kaede?"
"He's dead."
"Don't say a kind of lie... like that."
"I'm telling the truth."
Ichiro's emotionless face annoyed the angel. The devil wanted to stop the love growing between his brother and that angel... and the only thing he could do was to bring Hanamichi away from earth and never let him return.
"I don't believe you."
"There's nothing left for you here."
"No." Hanamichi's tan face was turning pale. "He promised. He'll comeback for me."
"Promises are meant to be broken."
"I'm not leaving till I see him."
"You're waiting for nothing!" Ichiro was loosing his patience. The angel was not easy to succumb on his words. "Go away!" Leave my brother alone.
Tears swelled on the chocolate brown eyes... making it glimmer in front of Ichiro's eyes.
"I promise... I'll wait for him, fox!"
Ichiro was taken aback. He never thought how much trust existed in the word called LOVE. His father never taught him that... no one ever did.
And if this is what they call LOVE... that sprung from two creatures sharing mutual concerns for each other... then LOVE must be the most dominating power to overwhelm such being.
"Then do as you please, stupid."
"I'm not stupid." Hanamichi corrected, with a slight trace of hurt on his face. "Kaede would never say that to me."
"Well I'm not Kaede... he's dead... and you're stupid."
The angel's brows knitted. He hugged his knees closer to his chest and murmured over and over.
"Kaede loves me. Kaede won't leave me. Kaede loves me. Kaede won't leave me."
"Shut your mouth! Angel!" Ichiro disliked to hear those words... the words that harmed his brother.
In no time, he trudged towards the redheaded angel and held his both cheeks. "If you don't stay silent, I'll kiss you."
Hanamichi didn't surrender on his order. It's the only thing that could give him courage and more strength to hover for the return of the love of his life... and not a Devil Ichiro could stop him.
"Kaede loves me. Kaede won't leave me."
With his patience being tested to the limit, Ichiro plunged his lips over the angel's ones and remained on that state for seconds.
It suppose to be a mere chaste kiss, but Ichiro fancied the taste of an angel. It was the sweetness to enthrall his senses... a salacious affinity that confirmed his prurience for a lovely being.
The devil's fingers travelled down the long slender neck... preventing his sharp nails to hit the soft flesh.
Hanamichi's head swirled in the comfort the touches were giving him. The night had visited the earth... and its coldness would only remind him of the warmth he should have around Kaede's affectionated embrace.
Since the devil, his life had cared for wasn't around... the substitute caresses of his brother did the job.
Ichiro stripped the angel from its white clothing and so as himself. He landed his wet hungry kisses on the smooth chest and Hanamichi curved his back... offering his body for the devil to feast at.
Hanamichi woke up from a tranquil slumber.
The sun had already appeared in the vast sky... and as he roamed his teary eyes around... he was reminded that he's on earth... and he's with Kaede yesterday.
Suddenly, a soft and cool cloth landed over his naked body... like waves of water.
"Cover yourself in a hurry." He looked at the voice' origin and met the stoic face of Ichiro. "We have visitors."
Puzzled from Ichiro's words, Hanamichi pulled the white cloth over his body and followed the devil who hid behind an old oak tree.
"What do you mean with visitors?" The angel asked.
"Shhh..." Ichiro silenced him and gazed forward... like expecting someone. "Humans are coming up this hill."
"Humans?"
The devil looked at Hanamichi sternly... showing that he would kiss him again if he doesn't stay quiet.
The redheaded angel frowned at him. Ichiro has no right to boss him around.
"Papa... look!"
A little voice coming from a human child, caught the devil's attention... making him forget about the angel who was frowning at him.
"Oh, what a cute kid!" Hanamichi exclaimed with exuberance. "I remember the first time I met Kaede... right in this place... we were very little.
"You are not going to give up, aren't you?" Ichiro sharpened his gaze at the redheaded angel... for being so loud... and for being so persistent in seeeing Kaede again. "Your heaven might be looking for you."
Hanamichi sniffed as he watched the little boy perching on his father's shoulders... with a face worth of a million smiles.
It was only yesterday... but it seemed like a century that had passed. Kaede and he was enjoying the nature above the hill... running, sprinting and jumping... chortling and laughing... and teasing each other.
He misses him so much. He wanted to help Kaede and release him from whatever that had imprisoned and barricaded him from keeping his promise. He wanted to nab him away from his cruel father... from his brother... or from whoever is hindering him to return in the angel's arms.
"You're crying again?" Ichiro wondered with irritation... when would the angel's tears dry.
"Ichiro." Finally, Hanamichi turned to face him. "Tell me where I could find Kaede. I want to see him. I want to help him."
"Stupid! What makes you think I'll tell you?"
The two creatures kept their voice in low tone... enough to hide from the two human beings having fun just a few meters from them.
The angel looked more intently at the father-and-son picture... and cried harder.
"I don't even know why I'm here. Heaven is such a nice place... a paradise of eternal happiness. No one cries... no one gets mad... we love one another." Hanamichi gazed at the sun with his wet and solemn eyes. "But I choose to be here... to be with Kaede. When I'm with him it feels like I'm in heaven... and even if I have to surpass every grief in being with him... I will because I won't trade him for anything."
Ichiro was bombarded. He was frozen by the warm words uttered by the gentle angel... who was waiting for the love of his life... even for eternity.
"In heaven... everyone is my friend. We would fly in the sky with jolly faces." Hanamichi reminisced about his unforgettable days with glimmering eyes. "Sometimes my mom would caress my head so lovingly and tell me different stories... then when my father comes... he would carry me... cuddle me and we would play in the castle's garden."
The devil's body lose its dense... he felt like floating as those stories enveloped his being. How would it feel if his own father would play with him? Carry him... and not make him an instrument for sexual arousal?
"My mom and dad would kiss me on the cheeks before I go to sleep... often, my mom and I would have a nose-to-nose fight... as my dad tickles me in the tummy. Then we would chuckle hard all together."
Hanamichi spoke with consistent exhilaration that triggered the devil to grip his fists tightly. Ichiro had his grievances rising up to his throat... and bursting from his body.
Hisashi had never done that to him. If the Emperor would tickle him, there's no sound of laughter produced from any of them. Their bodies enjoy the contact... but not him... not his father.
"And I trade all of it to see the loving face of Kaede."
Ichiro gritted his teeth... trying to relieve himself from the ache those stories had given him.
This must be what they call LOVE. It's so dominating that the Dark Emperor himself loathed it... it is something above his powers... encircling him with its superiority.
"If I had given up all those for Kaede," Hanamichi mumbled... his tears continuously dropping on his cheeks. "Waiting here is nothing... because I know... in this place... he would come back for me."
Ichiro felt his actions dragging him to guilt. He intended to throw the angel far far away where he could no longer step on earth... and in the life of his brother.
He wasn't aware of how much pain he had caused the angel.
"Hanamichi," the devil called and the angel looked at him. "I know where you can find my brother."
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