I can feel his hot breath on my neck as he kisses down my jaw, our bodies locked in a struggle to dominate the other. He grunts as I catch him off guard and flip him onto his back. His red eyes stare up at me for a moment before he pulls me down into another rough kiss. His kisses and touches are harsh and demanding and my body replies in kind, this instinctual need growing in the deepest part of me. The bed frame creaks under our movements and his touches exhilarate a feeling in me more intense than falling from the sky. As I fall, I can feel my burdens fade and become shadows in the gloom. The loss of my squadron, the yoke of revenge and the war become irrelevant. I can even forget about the black soul that resides in the man that now knows me in the most private of ways. If only I could entrap these shadows of my past in the darkness of this cheap inn and seal them away forever.

Here, we can pretend that none of those things matter. Here in the dark, we are not Sky Knight and Cyclonian. We are just two people in need of something to remind ourselves that we are human. In the heat of our love making, we can forget about what we really are and indulge in this sin.

Our bodies reach a breaking point and we are left breathless and sated. I roll over onto my side, away from him and close my eyes. I can feel his heart through his ribs as I lean back against him, a thunderous pulse as strong as a storm. I stare in the direction of the wall that is somewhere out there amid the dark.

I try again to sleep but my mind won't cooperate no matter how tired my body is. I focus on the feeling of his breathing and the beat of his heart against my back. Who would have thought that this man –if he could be called that, this traitor to the Atmos- would even have a heart? Who would have ever thought that I would be so close as to feel that black heart beat? But then again, I remind myself that he is only human as am I.

It's strange to think of him like that. In war, you can't think of your enemy as a creature of your level. You demonize him, make him something sub-human. That way, you can kill it in battle because it is not of the same blood as you; or so you make yourself think. Lying next to him like this, my views on him shift. Here in the dark, the visage of the monster I've always seen fades to be replaced with this man of burdens. I try to stop these thoughts. We made this arrangement purely for physical gratification. War doesn't leave time enough to form love so we only have the next best thing; this. Emotions can't get in the way.

I try to sleep again but only manage some sort of facsimile of being awake with my eyes closed. The morning rays push through the dusty curtains and I use this as an excuse to get up. The Dark Ace props himself up on his elbows to look at me as I stand to retrieve my clothing from the night before. I ignore him. I have nothing to say to him nor do I owe him anything and I try to impose the images of a devil back onto him. I catch myself looking at him nonetheless, studying him. His shoulders, shoulders that seemed so broad with the pride that he usually carries himself with, seem smaller now. I can almost see his burdens regain their grip on him with every snap of armor as he dresses himself.

He must have felt me staring for he glances up at me, something in his eyes. Those red eyes seem so much deeper than the eyes of a demon who wears a man's skin. There is longing in those eyes but not the same kind of need as the night presented to me with his feverish touches and lust-glazed expression. Something in me, in the most private part of my heart, twinges with some sort of mirrored yearning though I can't quite explain it.

Feeling uncomfortable, I mutter a hasty farewell and leave, feeling his eyes on my back as I walk away. I remind myself that those eyes are not of another human's but of a Cyclonian, a demon-man. The battered wings of my heart will not bear the weight of another and again I admonish myself. There will be no love between myself and that man. There can't be…can there?