XI
NICO
"Nico, do you know why I tolerate the punishments given to me?" Bob asked looking up at the stars. His big hands were clasping the bars of the railing.
Nico opened his eyes. He regarded Bob. "Why?"
"Because it's worth it. If you are just going to look closely, mortals are actually cool people." Bob grinned at him.
Nico was about to retort, but then Will's face suddenly flashed in his head. He decided to keep his mouth shut because he was starting to agree with it.
"But this could not happen," Nico suddenly stood up. "I mean, if the higher-ups learned about this, I'm screwed, and there's no second chance."
Bob stared up at him. "Do you think this Will guy is worth the trouble? Besides I am the only one who knows about it. My mouth is sealed with duct tape and extra cement. So you can count on me..."
Nico's gaze softened at Bob. "Thank you, I-I am really grateful..."
"See, Nico my friend. You're more human than I thought you could be. You already knew how to be grateful!"
"Shut up. This is not funny." Nico glared at him.
"Who said it is. Love should never be taken lightly much less taken for granted." Bob said. "So Nico are you willing to take the risk for Will?"
Nico took a deep breath. "I don't know… yet…"
Bob nodded sympathetically. "What does your heart tells you? Because my dear friend, your heart is beating back alive and that's something…"
"Bob I don't know what to do..." Nico said. There was a tinge of desperation in his voice. He tried to swallow down the helplessness rising in his throat. He hated feeling so vulnerable.
"Choose something that you would not regret in the end."
"How will I know that?"
Bob shrugged. "You just do. Does everything should need an explanation?"
"But Bob you know what happened to the death angels that fall in love," Nico said.
Bob nodded grimly. "Ah yes, like what happened to Sierra… suffered eternal pain in the fields of punishment. That's why I am asking you if you are willing to take a risk..."
Nico closed his eyes again, his head tilted up in the sky. "Bob if you were in my position, what will you do?"
"You already know the answer to that. I kind of envy you, because you already felt what it's like to fall in love. I like to feel that too you know, knowing is different from feeling. I've seen people who fell in love and they have this brightest smile on their faces. Although I think that happiness is just a portion that makes up love, still I think love is priceless."
Nico's eyes opened again. "I have to get out of here. I need to think."
Bob stood up too. "Okay. Just remember, if you need any help, you can always count on me."
Nico tapped Bob's upper arm. "Thank you, Bob, you don't know how much I am grateful that you are here."
Bob smiled widely at him. "Of course you are my friend! I will help you."
"I'll go ahead now," Nico said.
"Sure, I also have a soul to escort," Bob said.
They both dissolved in black smoke at the same time. Nico appeared in a dark empty hallway. He internally groaned. He immediately recognized that hallway. He was in JHH. Of course, he would be pulled there. He traveled in darkness without much thought of where he was going, so his subconscious had steered the navigation. He looked around and froze. At the far end of the hallway was a stretcher and someone was lying down on it. That someone was in a long white coat and had a familiar mop of blond hair. Nico vanished.
He materialized next to the stretcher. Will Solace was lying on his back and snoring quietly.
Nico stared at Will as he grasped his chest. Inside his chest was a heart, heart that was only an accessory to a death angel's body. But for Nico, his beating heart had a purpose now. It was now beating for Will.
I am in love with him.
He tried to roll that thought in his head. Unexpectedly, a tentative smile appeared on his face. It felt so weird to smile because this was the first time he smiled as a death angel.
It felt... good.
Hesitantly, he reached Will's face. He delicately brushed aside the curly strands of blond hair resting across Will's forehead. Then softly, Nico let his knuckles ran down Will's cheeks. Will suddenly stirred. Nico paused. Thankfully he did not wake up.
Will's face turned to Nico, as his lips slightly parted open.
For once, Nico let his heart took over because his heart wasn't just an accessory anymore, it was now substantial and it had the power to rule over certain things.
Nico leaned forward, his lips touched the tip of Will's nose, and then his head moved a little bit down, his lips hovering, inches away from Will's lips.
He was not surprised that he had gotten attracted to the same gender. It was because long before he had become a death angel….
Nico abruptly straightened up. He froze. Suddenly, he wasn't seeing Will anymore. He was now looking up at the series of pictures. He was surrounded by black and white pictures, pictures of his former life before he had become a death angel. The images started to rotate anti-clockwise, faster and faster, that he was starting to get motion sickness.
BAM!
All pictures snapped and shattered. Nico staggered backward. He was back at JHH. He leaned back at the wall gasping for breath.
He had vanished millisecond before Will opened his eyes.
Nico reappeared on the parking lot. He stumbled down towards the back of a car holding onto it for support. He was still gasping as if the oxygen and strength had suddenly left his body. It was all because of the images that flashed in his head a while back.
He remembered now how he had died.
Back in the 1940's he had been tortured and bullied to death because of his homosexuality, and Bianca had also died protecting him.