Chapter 17

Matthew awoke disturbed from the dampness on the sheets beneath him. He picked up his head, scrunched his face, and muttered, "Ew." He lifted the collar of his shirt and sniffed, but due to his cologne, it did not smell as bad as it felt...at least, he hoped it did not. Still pinching his shirt, he shook it in hopes of generating a cool current over his chest.

The lump of blankets beside him murmured worryingly, and he tensed. Of course, without his glasses, anything more than a foot from his nose was a blur, so he patted around the mattress. Once situated and all-seeing, he propped himself up by an elbow, smiling at his still-sleeping bedmate. With the enormous wings sprouting from his shoulder blades, it was no wonder that Ivan was a stomach sleeper.

Matthew shook his shirt again so his hand would not creep across the sheets to touch the light scores across and up Ivan's arms, to test the firmness to his shoulders that lingered while he slept, or tease the strands of platinum sticking from the back of his head...

He grunted and flopped onto his back to focus on the dark canopy above their heads. He put his mind to his family, wondering if they were worrying, but obviously, it was a bit too late for regrets. Nothing tried to eat Matthew yet, so he still followed the best case scenario. While Francis remained oblivious overseas, his brother would just have to look the other way. Simple.

Alfred irritated him from Hell and back, but now that he was in Hell, Matthew started to feel the distance. Too quiet. Too strange wake up without his brotherly alarm.

Ivan grumbled as his tail lashed back and forth, hitting Matthew's leg, but he did not wake up yet.

Matthew lifted his head, turning over to push himself to sit. A terrible idea popped in his mind. Twitches ran across the demon's wings. A door opening, feet pattering on a soft carpet; he wondered if Ivan could feel a sense of foreboding like he did just before Alfred awoke him.

'Awoke' him by leaping onto his sleeping body. Matthew shrunk to the side and lunged forward. He landed between Ivan's wings and excitedly tapped his shoulders and arms. "Wakey, wakey-"

Matthew's greeting cut off to a startled yelp when the body beneath his gave a great jerk with a loud, horrid snarl. He tumbled off of Ivan's back and onto the mattress again while his glasses made their grand escape. Before he could push himself to sit and investigate what the Hell was going on all of a sudden, large and warm palms roughly pinned his wrists to both sides of his head.

"Holy shit!" Matthew sputtered at the blur of a pissed demon, "Ivan, what are you doing?!"

"What are you doing?"

"Wh-what?"

"I asked you what you are doing." Looming closer, hot breath scraped his skin, "Why did you jump on me like that?"

Matthew tried to pull his hands away, training his eyes anywhere else, but his captor pushed down harder. He probably would have enjoyed it if there was not so much murderous intent tied into it all. "I-I was just fooling around! Alfred jumps on me all the time to get me up for school! It was a joke!"

"A joke? That was a joke?"

"Yes, you ass!" Matthew started squirming, and managed to jut his knee against Ivan's hip, but the dumbass kept still, glowering down with a stumped expression he could see even without his glasses. "Ivan! Come on!"

Ivan did not even flinch in the slightest from all the hollering.

"Seriously?" Matthew scoffed, wondering if he should be afraid, but that proved a bit difficult being under such a nice, warm body. His hands, however, were starting to fall asleep, so he murmured a bit urgently, "I'm sorry. Maybe I'm the ass. I have no business calling you one."

A snort, then the great weight against Matthew's legs lifted. Ivan scrabbled all the way across the bed with some odd chitter coming out of his face, and plopped himself in the corner and stared at the wall.

"Um...Ivan?"

No response.

Matthew pulled himself to sit and gave his wrist a squeeze, reminiscing from the lingering sensation against his skin. People have nightmares. They get startled out sleep. But that...

What was that?

Matthew did not like it, but a sickly kind of heat flooded over his face. So, so stupid. I should have just gave him a gentle shake to get him awake. I'm such a dumbass.

"No."

The short rasp made him look up. Ivan had not turned around, but he finally spoke, "I do not want to hear you call yourself a dumbass again."

"I-I'm sorry-"

"No apologizing."

Words spewed out of Matthew's mouth, "I swear I didn't do it to hurt you. I-I was just playing around! I didn't know-"

Ivan held up a hand.

Silence for a moment.

"Next time, we will play when I am awake. Okay?"

"Yes!"

Quiet again.

Nausea squashed Matthew's stomach as he slowly crawled across the bed. He stopped a little ways from Ivan's wings, yearning to just hug the guy, yet could not bring himself to do it. "Hey..."

Ivan slightly turned his head in his direction.

Maybe then it would be all right for him to scoot around and settle on the pillow in front of the beast. "Hey..." Nothing this time. Matthew slowly leaned forward to press their foreheads together and closed his eyes. "Please be all right."

"Matthew." Something unpleasant wreathed in Ivan's throat. "Please do not do that again. I almost hurt you."

"Don't blame yourself. It was my fault."

A light, almost amused scoff, "I will not take that."

Stumped, Matthew said, "Too bad." He slightly pulled away, feeling stupid, but a warm hand wrapped around his. "Oh, what happened? Bad dream?"

Ivan gazed at their hands for a long time, before barely shaking his head side-to-side.

"It's okay. I don't deserve to know-"

"Don't say that!" Matthew started from the jump in Ivan's voice. "You deserve anything I have to give, but I...! I-I..." What a horrid look in his eyes.

"Hey, Ivan? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"What?" Ivan blinked. "Um, one?"

Matthew tapped his nose and smiled. "Let's just drop the whole damn thing, all right?"

"Uh, what?"

"Let's put it behind us. We're here to have a good time, and you! You still lots to show me."

"Oh? Oh," their foreheads grazed again, and Ivan let out a little purr, just like an overgrown cat, "Matthew."

Fuck, just kiss me already.

Matthew found himself leaning forward, which enticed Ivan to wound his arms around him, but he stuffed his face into the crook of Matthew's neck and blew a raspberry against his skin. Matthew immediately hunched up with a surprised shriek, "Eek! Agh! No!" Ivan kept doing it, rocking the both of them side-to-side in absolute delight from the minor chaos he unleashed.

"Stop it! Ha-ha-ha! Ivan! Ugh! You suck!"

"What?" Ivan leaned away to ask with a big grin, "I suck what?"

"You know what? Never mind." Matthew slipped from Ivan's clutch, but latched onto his hands to coax him to stand on his bed.

"What are you..."

Matthew bobbled before bouncing on his toes.

"Why are you jumping on my bed? Ha-ha, beds should not be jumped on! Silly Matthew!"

"Come on! That's what makes jumping on them more fun! My brother and I used to do it all the time on Dad's bed. At least, we did until he started locking his bedroom door."

"You want me to jump up and down on my bed? Why? Is it supposed to do something?"

Matthew impatiently sighed and wagged Ivan's arms up and down. "Try it! Come on! Try it!"

"Ha-ha, okay!"

The frame clacked against the wall repeatedly, and they separated, leaping in their own directions around the ungodly large bed. "Like this! Use your knees, not your feet!" After a few hops and test jumps, both of them were almost hitting their heads on the ceiling, whooping with glee. "See? It's better than any trampoline!"

"What is...a tramp-oh-lean?"

"Anything is a trampoline if you try really hard!"

Ivan twisted in mid air, but Matthew clumsily rammed into him, intercepting his performance with his own spin. Legs flew out, both taking one another down with themselves, and they toppled onto the cot with a great heave. They rolled away from one another, gasping for air and laughing and gasping for air to laugh.

Matthew's hands immediately went to work patting the bed. "Oh no, my glasses! They went somewhere..."

Ivan grabbed them, which were right behind Matthew, and put them to his own face. He flinched and shook his head, holding the glasses out for their owner to take. "Ugh, I thought these glasses are supposed to help you see."

"They do. What you just saw," Matthew put them in their proper place, and smiled at Ivan rubbing his eyes, "is what I usually see without them. Don't worry, you're not the only person that put them on and proceeded to call me blind."

"I did not say you were blind. I was just thinking that they will fall off at the wrong times. Is there a way we could stick these," Ivan poked the bridge of Matthew's glasses, "to your head so they will stay?"

"Whoa, what are you planning that would make these an issue?"

"We need to eat, yes? What better way to do that than the demonic way? That involves hunting, and lots of moving. Lots of glasses falling off your face at the wrong moments."

"Hunting? Like, shooting guns or arrows at things? I'm not really good at that. Frankly, I never went out with my dad or anything."

Ivan shook with laughter. "No, with your hands." He tipped his head as he lifted one of Matthew's palms to his face and stared at his nails. "Although, I am not sure how that will work. Show me your teeth."

Matthew was taken back from the statement, but awkwardly bared his teeth anyway. "Is there something in there?"

"No. This is not good. How does your kind get so much food without any claws or the eyes or fangs for hunting?"

Wonderful things called bullets...and farms. "I ask someone else kindly if they could do it for me?" Matthew dropped his eyes to their joined hands so he would not grin stupidly in his friend's face. "It would only be fair after that all-you-can-eat buffet you seemed to enjoy a lot."

"Ah," Ivan caught on fairly quickly. "That...yes, that would be fair. I will make something work, or if all else is not well, we could go to a butcher. Although, that would be a walk!"

"I, um, greatly appreciate it. Either or is fine."

Ivan brought Matthew's hand to his cheek, and managed to not look like a flustered idiot when he smiled. "I look forward to it, and I will make sure you will, too. You do not have to worry about that school place while you are here. We do not have to look over our shoulders for those pests...angels, I mean, and best of all, if you need to sleep or eat, there is no need to ask."

"Woo, free mini-vacation."

"Yes, you will have fun. Just..." Ivan pulled Matthew's forearm to his chest to get attention, "Stay close to me when we are out of here. Do. Not. Wander."

"Okay. I mean, yes, sir!" Matthew giggled when Ivan stuck the back of his hand to his face again and affectionately rubbed his cheek against his skin. "You're crazy..." He almost apologized again for earlier, but stopped himself before he could ruin the mood. That was a time for Fun Stuff!

Someone else lightly cleared their throat, and both occupants gasped and snapped their heads to the face peeking through a break in the curtain. Ivan was still smiles, however, and greeted his sister, "Irunya, we did not hear you come in."

Irunya dropped her sky blue eyes to the mattress. "If I am interrupting a private moment-"

"No!" Matthew blurted and yanked his wrist away to shake his hands at her. "No, no, you're fine. We were just about to get up...right, Ivan?"

Ivan did not act like the situation was dire. "If you are ready to go, then yes." He pushed himself to sit, and turned to Irunya, "I was going to take Matthew to hunt. Will you join us?"

"That is what I came in to ask you." Irunya smiled at Matthew with a deep tip of her head. "Since you offered, too, I think you know my answer."

"You should wait for us in the entrance hall. We will be down shortly, but we, ah..." Ivan glanced to Matthew digging in his book bag. "We have to do some things first."

Irunya promised, "I will be waiting, but not too long, Vanya."

Once the door closed again, Matthew raised his eyebrows at his bedmate. "Vanya?"

"Yes?"

"I've heard that before..."

"Irunya likes her 'Nick' names. It will not be long until she gives you one, too. Also, I never found out who this Nick is."

Matthew grinned from all the way across the bed. "It's just a saying. Do you have a nickname for me?"

"Some call you Mattie." Ivan took a long breath, and his smile grew uneasy. "I have come to think of you as my Inquisitive One."

That's...so lame, Matthew thought endearingly, but did not say that aloud. He fidgeted with his glasses to hide some of his face, which earned him a befuddled look. "That sort of has a bad connotation to it."

"Sometimes," Ivan admitted, "but that means you care enough to ask a lot of questions."

"Oh!" Matthew jerked away, too noisy for his own liking, and rolled to the side so he could pull the curtains back and set his feet on the floor. "I have to get dressed now, so..."

Ivan did not make any motion to budge from his lazy position. "So?"

Matthew pointedly cleared his throat, and nodded his head toward the door. "A little privacy, please?"

"You are trying to shoo me from my own room?" Before he could stammer anything, Ivan busted into hearty laughter. "I am pulling your leg, Matthew." He scuffled across his bed and put his feet onto the floor, too. "On one condition."

"What could that possibly be?"

A clawed hand snatched something that peeked out of the book bag and held up an expensive silk night shirt. "Wear this!"

"Yeah, maybe for bed," Matthew retorted, grabbing it, but the demon weaved out of reach with a playful hiss. Instead of giving chase, he kept rummaging through his small collection, grateful for fishing his cargo shorts from the summer stash in his dresser drawers. "Fine, keep it, but it may be a little snug." He yanked the curtain closed and walked to the middle of the bed to shed his shirt. The hooks scratched on the top of the frame, and he tensed at the intrusion. "Hey! I'm getting dressed! Go away!"

Ivan's face still remained peeking through the cloth, and a cheeky smile crinkled his eyes. "Peek-the-boos!"

Matthew quickly shoved a fresher shirt over his head. "I thought I told you to go away."

"I thought I told you on one condition," Ivan nodded to Matthew's top, "which you did not do. So, I do not have to go anywhere!"

"Pervert." Matthew leaned over, snatched a small pillow, and flung it toward the peeper.

The cushion collided into Ivan's face and flopped back onto the bed. He blinked in surprise, but brightened with a broad smile. "You win this time, Matthew. This time..." He shut the curtains and the bedroom door behind him.

Matthew pushed his glasses back into place as a final touch and announced, "Fuzzy pillow versus demon; fuzzy pillow wins." He pulled the curtains back and glanced around the room, but it was empty of anybody else. "Ivan? You can come back in now."

With no signs of the fiend, Matthew slipped from the bed and tugged on his sneakers before walking to the door. He reached for the knob when a light weight rested against his lower back. He gasped, and whipped around with his arm ready for punching, but a stronger hand latched onto his forearm. He let out an exasperated sigh, "Really, Ivan?"

"Matthew is a jumpy one today, yes?"

"You were creeping!"

"I flew around the house and came back through those balcony doors. I left like you asked me to do."

"Oh, wow, okay. Sure. You win this round."

"Really?" Ivan released his clutch to make determined fists. "That makes the score one-to-one."

"All right, but it's time for food. Let's not keep Irunya waiting."

It was a quiet trip downstairs. Irunya stood in front of the big chairs in the throne room, looking up at the carvings around the upstairs balcony. Before Matthew could step into her range of sight, something hooked onto his shirt and pulled him back. "Wha...? Ivan, what is-" A pale wrap of cloth fell in front of his face. He reached up and grabbed at the thick scarf that Ivan repeatedly circled around his shoulders. He tried talking, but it muffled his words. He pressed on it and craned his neck back. "Hey! What'd'ya doing?"

"Keep it clean, Matthew. I do not want to soil it while hunting," Ivan patted his head, causing him to shrink into the bundle. It did not even match his outfit.

Matthew caught a glimpse of a white wrapping around Ivan's neck, feeling his wide eyes probing as he approached his sister. Is he injured?! He quickly dropped his gaze, and adjusted the scarf so he could breathe easier. "This would be more appreciated when we were still running around my place in winter, not in the middle of Hell."

The siblings turned in curiosity to his hesitation, and Matthew hurried to meet them. "Hey, is...uh...the other one coming with us?"

Irunya tipped her head slightly as her eyes zoned on the cloth around his neck. "No, not this time, and let's leave it at that."

Ivan did not say anything, breezing out of the throne room, and left the other two to follow. The demons glided across the squishy landscape at a paced tempo, and Matthew had to scurry after them, even on long legs. Irunya paused at an edge between a stream of lava and a sharp pile of rocks rutting out of the landscape, and gave her wings a sharp flap before lifting off the ground. Matthew adverted his gaze out of mannerism to his sneakers sinking into the loose soil. The ground suddenly pulled from him, and his stomach flipped as he was taken to the sky without warning.

Matthew's hands scrambled for purchase, and nearly shoved his face into Ivan's bandaged neck. "You could told me you were going to do that!"

"I could have," Ivan curtly replied. He followed his sister at a slower pace over more ridges and valleys spanning over a great expanse of land. Eventually, the landscape started to be dotted with trees, growing more dense as they approached a sharp mountain that rose amongst a forest of spindly and pointy structures. Much to Matthew's relief, being away from the huge pits of lava made this area a bit cooler, if that was the right term to use for the setting.

Irunya swooped down, folding her wings upwards, to plunge toward a flat expanse of land before the forest began. Ivan followed soon after, landing heavily with added weight, and steadied himself before his sister could approach them to help. "Matthew, we are here. You can breathe again."

"Who says I wasn't breathing?"

"The lack of air in your voice," Ivan panted, and bent forward so his luggage would slip from his shoulders.

"Is he...well?" Irunya put a hand to her mouth as Matthew stumbled a little ways from them on unsteady legs. He held his arms out from his sides, wobbling uncertainly.

"Ah, ha-ha, he is not a flyer."

Matthew snapped, "Yeah, funny. Are we going to do something instead of pointing and laughing at me?"

Irunya gasped, "We were not pointing at you, Matthew!"

"We should get started now." Ivan patted his belly. "My stomachs are going to escape my abdomen soon."

"You said it." Irunya raised an arm, "I will scout around the thicker woods."

Ivan nodded. "I will take Matthew toward the plains." He let out a low, excited growl, "Happy hunting, Irunya."

"Likewise," the she-demon giggled, not hesitating to glide off to her grounds.

"Is there something...more interesting to the plains?" Matthew asked, and followed his friend when he gestured to the trees.

"Irunya likes to hide amongst the thick foliage, then drop down. Where I frequent, the forest is less dense."

"Less running into things."

Ivan grimaced. "Or getting caught inside of a tree."

Matthew looked around the field. "These are trees?" The dark structures sprouting from the ground grew to a sharp point instead of having any branches spreading from the trunk. Others looked more familiar, with their sparse branches covered in a thick, ugly green moss. "Wow, these look horrifying up close."

"You think so? I could say the same to the trees on the surface. So many branches!" The forest thinned to larger stretches of dark soil, and Ivan stopped before an unparticular patch of dirt. "This will be perfect."

Matthew tossed his head side to side, not seeing the charm. His friend took several deep sniffs, fingers and tail twitching at the prospect of food. When he tried to take a whiff, he could only smell the eternal smell of ash and smoke. Ivan turned to face him with a creepy smile, revealing all of his teeth, "You want to see things? I will show you things, Matthew, but remember, you promised not to scream and run away."

"I-I won't!"

"Good. Very good. You see that nice looking tree over there? You should get in there for the time being, and try not to break any branches. The sap will sting if it touches you. Oh, ha-ha, and do not lick the bark."

"Eugh, why would I lick bark?"

"Because you are a silly Matthew." Ivan swiped his hand over Matthew's cheek before suddenly (and very quickly, given his size) darting into the field of 'trees.'

"Well," Matthew exclaimed aloud, "that just makes me want to lick bark more than ever!" He spun around, and crept toward the tree that Ivan pointed out to him. The fuzzy trunk appeared innocent, as far as plants go. He reached for the lowest branch and hoisted himself into the clump of twigs, and after awkwardly wiggling to avoid snapping anything, he found a V shaped crevice that he could get cozy against.

Matthew did not usually lick tree bark, since that is how he would get bugs and dirt in his mouth, but staring at the velvety moss, it made him start considering things from a different perspective. "Stupid," he told himself. "That's stupid. Don't be stupid."

Yet, he was in Hell, full of lakes of lava and demonic sisters; licking bark would not be the craziest thing he done.