Eratos
Part Five: Rainy Day





"Damnit!!!" Leon shouted out loud, almost dropping the flowers in his hand. He sucked on his finger as the bee that stung him fell to the ground.

"A-are you okay??"

"Yeah, a fucking bee just stung me!"

Karl took Leon's hand in his and carefully plucked the stinger out of Leon's skin. For some reason the venom collected on the skin, it hadn't sunk into the skin at all. He looked up at Leon as he muttered swear words from a language Karl didn't understand. Wiping the accumulated venom from Leon's finger, Karl smiled and looked up at the arch-mage.

"You're the most powerful being in the universe and you whine when you're stung by a bee."

"Hey, now.... no need for that. I'm all grown up."

Karl chuckled and wrapped Leon's finger in a bandage, he looked back and saw some beautiful white roses. Walking over, Karl touched the soft pedals with his fingertips. "Those are so pretty. And the dew on them make them even more so."

"Please, do not compare the beauty of a rose with your natural elegance. The rose will surely get jealous." Leon smiled while he tucked a flower in Karl's blonde hair and followed the moment with a kiss on the cheek.

"Shall we have roses or forget-me-nots?"

"I can't decide. Roses are very beautiful. And anyway you look at them, they still mean love."

"True." The green-eyed angel lifted the rose from its' bouquet and sniffed it. "It'd look foolish for just roses, how about some black lilies to go with it."

"That would be a lovely bouquet indeed." Leon smiled, then kissed Karl's neckline. "Anything for you."

"Mmmmmm." Karl tipped his head back, giving Leon better access to the more kissable parts of Karl's neck.

"Damn." Leon whispered, looking out the window. "It's raining out."

"Oh!" Karl broke from his trance and looked outside, then growled. "The uniform will get ruined, the tailors didn't bag it up."

Waving his hands around, Leon smiled. A plastic bag formed over the uniform, protecting it from the elements. "There ya go."

"Thank-you."

After ordering their flowers and bouquets, Leon and Karl walked out into the rainy streets with each other's arm around the other. The air smelled sweet and fragrant, the capital of the Imperial nation was one of the prettiest places to be during a summer rain. Leon suddenly sneezed, then wiped his nose with a handkerchief.

"Catching a cold?"

"You know me. Every summer, the Imperial Blue Violets bloom and give me the worst hay fever." Leon sneezed again, almost knocking his hat off. "The hay fever gets worse when the rains hit."

"Maybe I should fix you some warm herbal dew tea when we get back from shopping."

"That would be wonderful."

Karl smiled and rested his head on Leon's shoulder, but they didn't go far when they were suddenly stopped. Four muggers stopped them, aiming guns at them.

"Well, lookit the happy gay couple." The lead mugger laughed, still aiming his gun. Five more bandits appeared behind them. "Hand over your cash!"

"You dare attack officers of the Imperial court!?" Karl shouted, dropping the white roses and black lilies.

"We gotta eat too, ya know."

"There's such things called a 'job', dude." Leon looked back at the five bandits.

"The pretty boy's a comedian! Everyone laugh!"

Leon and Karl stood back to back as the robbers advanced. Leon looked back at Karl as he sized up his opponents.

"If these guys are playing for real, they'll not take any prisoners. Watch yourself."

"I can take care of myself, Leon. Try not to turn these guys into red paste, k?"

"I got ya covered." Leon winked, then dove at the five bandits.

Karl grabbed the wrist of a bandit with a knife and flipped him over his shoulder. The bandit horked and held his stomach, dropping the knife. Turning his head to watch the bandits charging, Karl swiftly swung his foot around in a roundhouse kick, smacking one of them in the face. He fell with a thud, but the other one kept running. Karl kept his leg in the air, but bent the knee. He held his hand upward and kick-jabbed the bandit a few times on various parts of his body. The fourth bandit dove behind a car, watching the colonel and his lover clean house.

Leon dove under the first bandit's swipe and with two fingers, he pushed himself upward. Using the heel of his boots, Leon kicked upward, making the bandit bite his tongue off. Then leaping to his feet, Leon grabbed the collars of two of the bandits and smacked their heads together. The slender, lanky bandit threw a knife at Leon, but the crafty arch-mage caught it by the blade and then tossed it back. It got the knife-thrower in the eye. The fifth bandit looked at Leon as quintessence flowed from the cut. With a psychotic look in Leon's eye, the arch-mage licked the quintessence up with his tongue. Making a flicking motion, Leon cast a spell, causing the bandit to fall on is ass unconscious.

"Is that all of them?" Karl asked, looking around.

"One's behind the car." Leon looked back, but was interupted when a gunshot rang out. Karl lerched forward, holding his gut.

"KARL!!!!!!" Leon screamed, catching Karl as he fell.

"L-leon...." Karl weakily whispered, his chin on Leon's shoulder.

Blood began to form in Leon's eyes, his eyes clouded over to white. The bandit with the gun ran off, seeing this happening but was soon mowed over with a telekinetically-flying car. A bus was rounding the corner, Leon took control of it with technomancy and ran it over the bandit. Not satisfied with the results, Leon had the bus run him over 7 more times before he came to his senses. The Major's hand cuffed over Karl's bulletwound, Leon prayed to any god there was to spare Karl's life. With magic, he tried to heal the wound.




"Leon??"

Karl tried to wake Leon up, quintessence leaked into the puddles forming around them from the rain. After the fight with the thugs and being wrapped in barbed wire for an hour on end, Leon was drained of his powers. Karl's hair was plastered on his face, he pulled Leon close to his body with his arms as tears slowly began to fall.

"No, Leon. Don't leave me behind."

There was no reply and reinforcements were still so far off. Clutching Leon's black uniform tightly, getting quintessence on his uniform and hands, Karl really started to crack. Leon had no sign of waking up anytime soon, and the puddles were officially blue now. Burying his face in Leon's shoulder, Karl started to weep.

"Leon, come back. Don't go! Don't leave me. I love you, come back to me."

"Mmmmmm?" There was a soft, kitten-like mew beneath the elegant-yet-soaked colonel. "Karl?"

"L-leon??" Karl opened his tearful eyes and looked up, then down at Leon as the Lieutenant's eyes opened. "Leon...!!"

"Karl.... don't cry. I'm okay."

"First you tell me that it's okay to cry and now you're telling me to not to... make up your mind."

"I'm Eternal, I'll be alright."

"I know you are." Karl hugged Leon again, this time crying with joy. "Silly."

Leon hugged Karl tightly, smiling with a thin trail of quintessence gently dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

"Karl... I.... I heard your words. I love... I love you too." Leon whispered, then kissed Karl's ear delicately. "I will never abandon you."

Their arms were around each other tightly, in loving embrace. Finally the sound of zoids tromping in the area were heard, Marcus's voice spoke from the Molga. "Major Schubaltz! Lieutenant Aethelwulf! Are you here?"

"We been found."

"We sure have."

They both got up, putting themselves in the spotlight.




"Don't leave me, Karl... don't die. I don't want to walk this planet alone." Leon sobbed, blood tears falling down Leon's honeydew cheeks. "Don't die, Karl. I need you, I need you more than ever."

He pulled Karl close, the bulletwound was healed up but Leon was unsure if Karl survived. His body was so still, so eerie... He cried on Karl's shoulder, his arms still around him tightly. A crowd was starting to form around them and the bandit who was the victim of magical overkill. It seemed like all time had stopped... when a soft, weak mew escaped Karl's lips. Leon opened his eyes when he heard the colonel's soft voice call to him.

"L-leon...?"

"Karl.... Karl!! Gods, Karl! Don't scare me like that again!"

"Leon." Karl hugged Leon close, the rain continued to fall gently on them.




-Continued-