A/N: Yay! The exciting chapter has finally arrived! Not that it took long. We're only on chapter 3 anyways… but that's besides the point. Prepare to be amazed and have a million fangasms at once. This part is a little steamy. It isn't a lemon, or even a lime, but it does get a little compromising for Shuichi. Which I find absolutely delicious…
Chapter 3: Encounter
"Shuichi! Shuichi, wait up!" Hiro called after his friend in a hurry to catch up.
"C'mon Hiro! If you want to make it as a Guardian, much less an Arch, you'll have to be faster than that!" The boy teased.
"Why you…" The red head got his game face on and raced after his fellow Junior. After catching a wind current, Hiro rode it down to where Shuichi was flying and pressed his wings against his back for aerodynamic speed. When he zoomed pass Shuichi, the boy gave a surprising yelp.
"Ha! Looks like you're the one that needs a little more training."
"Huh?! How'd you… oh, that's not fair! You cheated!" The magenta-haired angel increased his speed and shortened his wing span.
"Life isn't fair Shuichi. We learned that when it was taken from us!" Hiro made a good point…
The two angels didn't have a clue where they were going, but their home forgotten, they simply enjoyed being with each other for the limited amount of time they had on Earth.
"Okay! Hold on… phew… I'm getting tired, Hiro." Shuichi stopped in midair and put his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.
"And I thought you were the one who wanted to race." The red head flew up next to him with a smug look on his face.
"Hey, our energy decreases by half on Earth, you know that." Shuichi defended himself.
"No excuses! You can save those for when you explain to the teacher why you weren't in class the past few days. Besides, being a Guardian is all about speed. If we don't hurry back to the Lord with our host's prayers and return as quickly as possible, the human could be in danger of spirit demons entering them. Or worse…"
"Demons. Yeah I know. But think about it, there's not many people who pray nowadays. The Lord has declared it himself, people are loosing faith. So it's not like we'll have a ton of prayers to bring up to him. If we're lucky, we'll have enough room to store them and won't have to bring them up until the end of the day!"
"What if you get a monk for a host?"
"Um… well then I feel sorry for the guy that gets him." He shrugged and took off again.
"Oh boy. Where are you going now? In fact where are we going?" Hiro inquired while flying right behind his friend.
"I don't know. I was gonna go visit home, but now I'm not in the mood. How about we explore a little bit?"
"Explore? I don't know. Your explorations are usually what get us into trouble in the Kingdom."
"Yeah, but we're not in the Kingdom, are we?"
"No, but…"
"Then let's go! I haven't toured Earth in months!" Shuichi twirled around in the air with joy.
"Sigh… we better be back before sundown. I don't want no demons coming after us."
"Don't worry, we will! It's late afternoon, we have plenty of time!" Shuichi swooped down to graze against the tree tops below. Hiro trailed behind and looked at the sun.
"Hmm…" His brow furrowed in anxiety, but the Junior angel dismissed his worry and decided to join his friend along the leaves.
----------------------------
----------------------------
"Sorry for all the trouble Michael-sama, but the guy wouldn't stop screaming."
"He was just in a hysterical state. It happens once in a while when a human all of sudden finds themselves not among the living. He probably didn't know he died and was panicking when he appeared here."
"Maybe he died while sleeping?"
"Possibly. Or maybe a car wreck he died instantly from." Michael observed the scene of two of the angels leading the now calmed man to his new quarters. "It's a sad way to go… without being able to say goodbye to your loved ones… dying without the knowledge of it…" The Arch's eyes took on a sad look.
"… M-Micahel-sama? Are you alright?" The gatekeeper asked.
A pause. "… Yes. I'm fine." He turned to the man and smiled, almost too comfortably. "I guess I'll be on my way. If anything else comes up, drop me a message again." The angel spread his dazzling white wings and took off in the direction where Shuichi said to meet up.
The gatekeeper looked up at the Arch until the sun blinded his vision, and when he regained sight Michael was gone.
-------------------------------
-------------------------------
It had been half an hour since Shuichi and Hiro had arrived on Earth. They were having too much fun fooling around to notice anything else. Shuichi had stolen Hiro's crucifix necklace and laughed while dodging his friend's every attempt to grab him.
"You may be fast Hiro, but I'm nimble! I have cat-like reflexes that no one can match up to!" He dangled the jewellery in the red heads face and snagged it out of the air when Hiro's hand came up to snatch it.
"Shuichi, I'm warning you…" Hiro was smirking evilly now, but Shuichi had the upper hand.
"What's the matter? Afraid no one will be around to save you from the demons? You sissy!" Shuichi stuck his tongue out.
"That's it!" Hiro boosted his speed ten fold and tackled an unexpecting Shuichi.
They had a tickled fight for about two minutes until Shuichi gave into Hiro's masterful fingers and threw the necklace on the other side of some bushes.
Hiro got up to retrieve his cross, leaving a panting Shuichi on the ground, and moved his way past the brush. As he bent down to pick it up, the red head angel saw a most pleasing sight.
"Hey Shuichi! Come check this out!" He motioned with his hand.
The pink-haired Junior got on his feet and dragged himself over to where he was. "What? What's so amazing that you're acting like a little school…"
Shuichi stopped and stared with wide eyes at the scene laid out before them.
"… girl."
It was a small clearing with a sparkling blue lake in the very middle. Trees surrounded the area like a fortress and a small rock cliff stopped the water in it's tracks. A gentle waterfall splashed down into the pool, every single bead of liquid reflecting off the sunlight to reveal a mini rainbow.
"Wow…"
"I know…"
"It seems so… sacred."
The place looked completely untouched, like it was meant for some kind of ritual. Sure, heaven was beautiful and all, but it was supposed to be. Now when Earth had a place like this, it was awe inspiring.
"It's awesome how our Lord can make something like this."
"Yeah." Shuichi agreed with his friend. It was an enchanting place. "I bet Michael would love to see this." He sighed breathlessly.
Hiro stayed silent for a while, thinking of something. "Hey, today's our one day to spend with him, so why don't we go get him? It'd be rude for us not to be where we said we'd meet him."
"Oh, right! That's a good idea. But how about I stay here so we don't forget where this place is? I'll wait for you guys."
"Are you sure? I don't want to leave you alone…"
"Don't worry, mother. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself!"
Hiro nodded at his friend, smiled, and took off. "If it gets dark, come back okay?" He shouted back.
"Hey, you're the fastest Junior angel around! It'll be fine!" And with that, Hiro disappeared.
"Sigh… now what? Guess I'll look around this place." Shuichi took a walk along the edge of the pond, admiring how the sun shimmered across the ripples of the water. "This area is close to my town. Why had I never found it when I went exploring on the outskirts?" Shuichi traced his finger through the crystal clear water and a delightful shiver went up his spine. "Mm, the water feels good." After all the flying and tickling, Shuichi was feeling a little worn out and sweaty. Earth took a lot of strength out of an angel.
"Hmmm, maybe, since no ones around…" Shuichi stood and rubbed his chin. He looked intently at the water around the waterfall. It was light blue over there too, which meant it was shallow.
"Well, that's that!" In a split second, the little angel started stripping off his clothes.
----------------------------
----------------------------
Eiri strolled through the forest alone under the shade of the trees. The rapidly lowering sun was welcoming to him, being surrounded by heat 24/7. He ditched his so-called "friends" a while back when they went through a cavern. It was dark so no one could see him leave. Coming to Earth, Eiri had to admit, was one of Aeroth's best ideas yet. A chance to escape that demon pit felt refreshing. Not that he hated it down there, no, no. He completely and utterly loathed it. Heaven wouldn't have been any better, but he probably would've chosen that over where he was today. At least it was room temperature up there.
To him, Eiri didn't think he belonged anywhere. Hell was too… well, whatever it was that made it one of the top ten crappiest places to travel. Heaven was too goody-goody. All the angels up there would treat him like a prince and there'd probably be bird song to wake every one up in the morning… not to mention that, in heaven, everyone's beauty is shown as opposed to how they looked while alive. It'd be torture for him to see all those angel babes walking around with their new perfect bodies and cherubic faces. Huh… cherubic… he made a joke.
On Earth, Eiri made a point to be sexually active in order to keep his sanity from slipping away from him. After being a demon for almost a year now, he found humans to be so useless and irritating… not that he didn't already think that when he was living.
Eiri enjoyed his old life compared to heaven or hell. It was a place in between good and evil, a place where he didn't have to choose sides. A place where he, Eiri Yuki, was able to fit in.
And now, because of that stupid mistake he made so long ago, he ended up here, with guys like… cringe… Aeroth.
Oh, rapture and bliss.
Alright, enough with the negativity. He came to Earth for some down time, no more thinking about your god awful life in Hell. Focus on what's around you now…
Eiri concentrated on the softly waving trees, the swaying grass, the cute little bunnies hopping into their cute little holes to feed their cute little babies… okay, maybe that was getting a little too deep.
He instead closed his eyes and decided to focus on sounds rather than sight. He kept walking though, completely capable of navigating without a vision of where he was going.
He heard the rustling leaves, the skittering of animal feet, the low howl of the wind, and… running water?
Did someone leave the faucet running? Where was it coming from? Maybe it was a stream, or a creek? Eiri was anxious to remember what water tasted like again. Angels and demons didn't need food or water to survive. Just the air they breath. But it didn't mean they couldn't eat or drink, it just wouldn't have any effect on them.
The blonde demon followed the trickling sound until it got to be louder, more like a bath running. Then as he got closer, the water was more forceful, like a waterfall. He made his way through some brush and peered into a wide open clearing consisting of a lake with a waterfall at the end coming from a cliff. He found the water source.
It was a quaint little place, away from the rest of civilization, away from the rest of nature even. It was like one of those sacred springs a traveller would magically come upon in the mountains… and then get smitten for discovering it by some great divine force who protected it. Almost every wilderness story he heard had this scenario tied in somehow.
Eiri stood at the edge of the forest encasing this clearing, observing the rest of the area and wondering if anyone knew about this place, until he saw something else that peaked his curiosity. It looked like some sort of animal in the waterfall doing something…
That's when he realized…
It wasn't an animal…
A body, a human body, as limber as a grape vine, was bathing underneath the flow of the waterfall. Maybe this really was a spring… and that was the unfortunate traveller?
The creature was letting it's face get drenched in the water, running hands through it's rose-colored locks and down it's chest. It's back faced Eiri, one leg slightly propped up on a small stone he assumed. The sensual curve of it's back lead down to it's lower area and nicely shaped legs. He couldn't tell because of the waterfall abstracting the picture of this person if it was a man or a woman.
Whatever the case, Eiri had never seen something so elegant, so enticing, so… ominously inspiring.
…A water nymph? Were they real?
He pushed these ridiculous thoughts out of the way and continued watching the form cleanse itself in fervor. He was beginning to feel like some kind of pervert, but finally the creature emerged from the watery cage.
The person threw it's shoulder length hair out of it's face in one motion and just stood there, letting the water drip from the face, to the neck, to the collar bone, and down the rest of the way. And before Eiri could examine the gender of this perfect creature, those big violet eyes opened right up, burning like the blue of a flame at the water that surrounded it… or more precisely, him.
Yes, upon further notification, this was indeed a male. But a human? He felt there was something more…
Just as quickly as the demon could blink, the stranger looked up and saw him standing at the shore of the pool with that heated gaze.
Neither could move. They stared into each other's eyes, looking for a reaction, any at all. But none came. Eiri kept his ground, closing his mouth, and didn't intend to lose this staring contest.
Shuichi didn't know what to do. He was panicking, but at the same time, he was intrigued. Who was this guy? Could he see him? Humans don't have the ability to see angels. But why was he looking at him so intently? The man looked like an angel himself with that golden hair and heavenly face. Michael almost couldn't compare…
It was a connection. A connection beyond human proportions. Something that could only be read from between worlds in order to understand it. What was this tug at their hearts? What made them so stock still after getting a glance of one another's eyes? Why was it so hard to explain?
Why, all of a sudden, did that feeling of something missing… disappear?
Why…
"Yo Eiri!"
… did they have to show up at a time like this?
A/N: Oh no! Here comes Yuki's friends! What's gonna happen next? I'll definitely be putting up the next chapter right away. Even I'm impatient to see what I come up with! I assure you readers that the next chapter will be a productive and exciting one. A few secrets will be revealed (or at least part of them), and who knows how that encounter will effect our two star-crossed lovers… what's more, what will those demons do to poor little Shu?! Good thing I'm so passionate about this fic, or you'd have to wait a long time to find out.
DEAR REVIEWERS
HyperAnko: Aw, thanks for the virtual hug! I don't get many of those.
rynn: And you shall read more, because I'll be working on this story a lot along with My Chobitchan, which I also suggest you to read! It's a Gravi fic as well with just a few Chobit related events.