It's been so long… and I feel like I'm writing crap… I'm forgetting what I wrote, and I feel Ryoma is slowly falling out of character.
Achromatic Colors
IX. Thief Angel
"Hi."
That was the only word the brunet said as he smiled at the glaring Ryoma.
Ryoma had hoped that his absence the day before yesterday was enough of a message to tell the brunet that he wants to be left alone. He even thought he had succeeded yesterday when the devil didn't show up. If he did, Ryoma would have used Momoshiro-sempai. That was the only reason Ryoma didn't sent the teen scurrying for investigating him – with the appearance of more angels, he hoped it would deterred the devil from ever appearing.
But the brunet appeared, a day late, with Karupin on his lap – again.
"Why the hell are you here? Let go of my cat!" He fumed.
Obligingly, the brunet lifted his hand up in the mock form of surrender, but Karupin did not left his lap, only rubbed herself against him apparently wanting the brunet to continue petting her. 'Traitor,' Ryoma glared at her. From the corner of his eyes, he caught the devil smiled and that irked him slightly.
Ryoma sighed dejectedly and sat down on the grass with a light thud. "I hope you waited until midnight two days ago." He muttered bitterly.
"Ah good, so you didn't come?" Fuji returned to petting the cat. "And here I was thinking of apologizing for my absence."
Fuji had spent the last two days teasing his poor younger brother and as soon as Yuuta flew back to the maze, he was bored again. He remembered about the anomalous angel and decided to kill time with him. He was rather intriguing, so it was okay. But even if Yuuta didn't come home that day, he would not have gone anyway. Obviously the angel would plan to not show up on purpose on the time Fuji said he would appear.
Ryoma frowned. "Apology accepted. Now leave."
"But I have to make up to you don't I?" He tilted his head slightly to the side.
"You could make it up to me by leaving." Ryoma said, knowing full well that the brunet would do no such thing.
"You didn't miss me while I was gone for two days?"
"I am annoyed that you're back after only two days." Ryoma stated simply.
The teen grinned. "Does that mean you'll miss me after three days?"
Ryoma frowned, appalled at the thought. "What do you think?" He shot him a bored look and rested his cheeks in his hand.
"Saa, I think you are opening up to me. Compared to when we just met, you have become a lot friendlier." He smirked at the angel's light snort. "Of course you still have a long way to go."
"Since my cat likes you more, I feel as if I am not needed here." He eyed the cat still curled up in Fuji lap.
"Hmm what's her name?"
"Karupin." The boy stated and becomes slightly startled when Karupin turned her head at his direction and mewed happily. She immediately left Fuji's lap and immediately pounced on to the angel's. "Now you recognize me." He said bitterly to her, nevertheless a slight smile in appeared on his lips.
"Maybe you should try calling her name next time?" He added helpfully. "I think she doesn't appreciate being claimed by someone."
The angel grinned at the cat. "I never knew you were so smart." The cat just yowled in response.
"Animals are smarter than you think." He smiled. "You have a rare cat. But what is a wild Himalayan doing in Athens?"
The angel looked up in surprise. "Huh? Himalayan? How can you tell?"
"She has extremely long, fluffy white fur and blue eyes with the points of a Siamese. The body of a Himalayan is white or cream, but the points come in many different colors: blue, brown, lilac, chocolate, flame, red and cream. The points can also be tabby or tortoiseshell-patterned." He poked Karupin's nose to tease her and she sneezed. "She has chocolate, which is the hardest color to produce along with lilac because it is an autosomal recessive gene. Himalayan cats are a crossbreed from Siamese -for the markings- and Persians -for coat length and the laid back personality-, and share the characteristics of both breeds."
The angel looked thoughtful as he tried to digest all the information and then stared at him wide eyed with what looked like newfound respect. "How do you know so much about cats?" He marveled.
"It's called eternity of boredom and doing nothing but reading." Fuji grinned and went on. "Karupin is more prone to kidney disease and hairballs than other cats, but if you give her a potion or two she will be fine. Where did you find her?"
"Here, actually. Why?"
"Hmm, her breed is not supposed to be found around here. Persians are from Persia (A/N: now Iran) and Siamese are from the sacred temple cats of Siam (Thailand)... which are in Asia." Fuji added once he saw the angel's confused look. "…Basically the other side of this planet. You don't know the geography do you?"
"No, the mortal world has nothing to do with me." He shook his head. "The other side of the planet? That's not far at all." He contemplated.
"Not for us, but for earthlings. For them, that's more than several lifetimes."
Ryoma shrugged. "Well I found her here and that's that." Human minds are impossible to understand. "I'm leaving." He said suddenly and got up with the cat in his arms. "Are you following me?" Ryoma asked.
Fuji smiled and dusted his hands. "Now where are we heading, my prince?"
The angel froze. "…prince?"
"You claimed that was your name."
"Oh." Apparently he had forgotten. It didn't matter.
"What is my name?" The angel probably had forgotten, but it doesn't matter.
"As if I would remember," Ryoma paused for a second and smirked. "Actually I'd like to call you the most annoying devil on the planet… and cat expert."
Fuji chuckled. "Please do."
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Ryoma and Fuji were cloaked in Greek attire to blend in. It wasn't that hard to find some random togas. They dodged their way through a crowded market, avoiding vendors selling their goods on the streets, guards patrolling the area, nobles shopping around and street rats running around—probably looking for some money to steal from the nobles. There were animals carrying the cargos. Some of the shops, Ryoma noted, were selling various things such as pottery, bronze wares, ornaments, and images of the Greek deities. He saw from the corner of his eyes that some of the slaves that were being sold out in the street as well, well poor them.
Fuji was a bit confused at the behavior Ryoma was now exhibiting. 'What was his intention?' Fuji questioned. Ryoma's head twisted and turned as he looked around for something; searching amongst the crowd. A satisfied smirk appeared on his face as he eyed a noble. The noble was a bearded man wearing a silk robe with a silver chain hanging—his clothing was practically screaming of his wealth. The noble was currently chatting with a pretty youth who has yet to show the signs of a beard; without a doubt the boy must be his lover.
His eyes on his target, he absentmindedly talked to Fuji. "Here, hold her for me." Ryoma suddenly dumped Karupin in Fuji's arms and headed toward his target.
Casually walking by, Ryoma swiped the silver chain hanging on the noble's belt without even touching him.
Fuji gaped. Angels weren't supposed to steal. He had witnessed thievery on countless occasions, but angels were not supposed to steal. In the underworld, thievery will not even receive a bat of eyelashes except maybe ridicule earned at the incompetence of guarding one's own processions. Burglary was not even illegal. It was common for devils to challenge one another in thievery to prove their own stealth. Fuji himself had welcomed those dares, both on the receiving and implementing end. But seeing angels committed the same thing was a whole different matter.
After the swipe, Ryoma headed toward the side of the crowd and Fuji followed. He eyed the angel strangely, showing his blue eyes.
"What? I needed money." Ryoma answered playfully, after regarding Fuji's strange expression. He toyed with the silver chain is his hand.
Currency hasn't been invented in the mortal world yet. To get what they wanted, they must trade their possessions.
"Are you even an angel?" Fuji grinned.
"Saa, who knows?" The boy smirked, copying the devil's tone. "Don't tell anybody okay?" He joked.
"If you are changing sides anytime soon, just find me and I'll help you out."
Ryoma looked back over his shoulder. "That was an insult wasn't it? Be thankful I'm not offended."
"With what you did, I'm serious." Fuji said in a playful tone.
"You don't sound it," Ryoma shrugged. "And I told you before, if you think angels are all nice, cute and smiley, you're in for a rude awakening."
"Not earth angels, at any rate."
Ryoma flinched. He became aware that he had pretty much given that information to him earlier and relaxed. "That is correct." He smirked. He would have to be more careful from now on.
"Stop being so formal like when we've just met. You were doing a fine job earlier."
"Hmph."
"So prince-ling, what are you going to do with the item you took?"
Ryoma frowned at the new nickname. "Get fish for Karupin of course." He answered matter-of-factly. "She doesn't need to hunt at night that way."
"Have you been doing this often?"
He shrugged. "Should be my third time."
"You do realize that you could afford a whole cart of fish with just one silver bead?"
"Eh?"
Fuji sighed.
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Ryoma watched Fuji traded one of the silver beads on the chain for a whole bag of bronze painted ornaments – it was well made for human quality. He then used one of those small decorations to trade for a large fish at the market several.
"You have no sense of monetary value." Fuji sighed. "That fisherman was ripping you off badly."
"I'll curse him later." Ryoma was unconcerned about the money he was cheated off, but the price of deceiving an archangel must be paid. For now he was just content watching Karupin digging into a freshly caught tuna. As for the fisherman who became suddenly rich in the span of two weeks, true to his words, the man was found dead several days later and none of the healers understand how he died.
"Are you sure you were not exiled from heaven?" Fuji asked once again. Earth angels wouldn't be able to even go near the harbor because of the fish displayed, let along watching a cat slowly and tenderly chew its flesh with its sharp teeth. Earth angels could not stand killing. But for this angel, he could see the formation of a simple death spell heading towards the fisherman.
"No," Came the simple reply.
"Hmm, well I see you another day then."
"You're leaving?" Ryoma looked up. There was a hint of slight shock in Ryoma's voice.
Fuji looked back. "Unlike you, I still have work to do."
He frowned. "Now you're making me sound like a devil."
Fuji chuckled. "It won't be long now."
"Ha-ha, very funny." Without looking to see whether the devil had left, Ryoma resumed back to his watching Karupin eating.
This story is set in Ancient Greek. I'm not sure about the time period yet and it's not really that important. But it is at least 1000 years before Christ was born so I could ignore the OMG you're anti-Christ accusation.
I'm an atheist, fantasy lover (so I will twiddle with religious themes), and this is just a story so for sensitive people, just don't read it okay?
I read a little bit of the bible and guess what? You know in the beginning, I wanted an excuse for Tezuka to send Ryoma to earth so I let him play Zadkiel's role and stop Abraham from sacrifice his son Isaac. Now I found that it was not because Abraham went insane, but God was testing the old man's faith on God… by ordering him to kill his son. No comment. (Trust me you don't want to hear it) But let's just say in AC, Yukimura didn't do that and the old guy was really insane… and he's Greek cuz it's set in those times.
Published: 26/09/08
Revised: