A/N: Continuity errors: Regal says his room is on the floor above Sheena's but he gets off the elevator first.
Fun Fact: I based Alex's Wind Whip, Fire Whip etc spells on Indiana Jones's ever-present handy-dandy whip.
Fun Fact #2: In the original outline for this series, Pandora's name was going to be "Maxine", and in fact I actually had a minor character mention a Maxine. I later went back and edited it to say "Pandora." Chapter thirteen of RUNAWAY is the first instance of anyone (namely, Zelos) calling Pandora "Pip".
Fun Fact #3: I consider Kloitz to be a bit like Dracula- he's the major villain in the story but he only ever appears four or five times in all the chapters of RUNAWAY and PARTNERS.
Fun Fact #5: Mizuho things are now Mizanese. You know, like Japanese, only not.
Alex- "Fabricated Background" composed by Yasushi Ishii.
Ken- "Resolution" by Motion City Soundtrack.
Too many years fighting back tears- Why can't the past just die?
Enjoy
OoOoOoOoOo
There was a flurry of gossamer wings and the angel took to the skies. Sheena stood on the earth, taking a few steps back to look up at the nameless figure rising into the heavens, feeling her dread grow with every second they were apart. She fought the panic threatening to bubble to the surface, looking around her as if there might be a staircase handy to let her follow the winged figure.
"-----,wait! Wait for me!" she said, waving one arm glowing with mana. Using Gnome to nullify the gravity around her and the Sylph's winds to guide her, she leapt into the air and raced after them. She was clumsy at first since this was the first time she had attempted such a thing, spinning head over heels through the air until her natural ninja instincts kicked in and she adapted to the new motion. After a few more somersaults she gained control, picking up speed as she ordered the Sylph to put more power into the winds at her back. The angel in the distance seemed small and delicate, wings shining white in the moonlight. When Sheena was finally close enough to grab them, they shrank back out of reach and turned around to smile at her from behind a face awash with blood. The wind blew from behind the figure, whipping flecks of blood onto Sheena's face and bringing with it the scent of death.
Strawberries, she thought dizzily, her ascent slowly halting as she felt the wind pressure drop and gravity take hold. With agonizing slowness, she began to tilt back until she was hurtling through the sky headfirst like a falling star, drops of blood falling like rain all around her.
With a jolt of fear Sheena saw the blood was on her hands as well. It was everywhere, on everything, drowning out the light of the moon. Suddenly she was on the ground again, kneeling in a pool of blood, watching it spread to cover the white marble floors and seeping in through the cracks, filling in the void. Because that's what red was, Sheena realized as the bile boiled up in her throat. Red was white in disguise, because White was only ever one step away from being any other color at all. Because when the blood spills, the snow dies.
The blood sizzled and popped like acid, burning a hole through the floor where she was sitting, unable to move away from the inevitable until she began to fall again, further and deeper into the abyss. The moon was only a silver coin now, the figure a black speck. She was picking up speed again, hurtling towards the ground with the moon and the winged figure receding from vision until the trees reached up and the ground yawned open in a cavern to suck her in and SPLAT! She hit the ground.
Sheena jerked awake to find her vision filled with red.
She lashed out in fear with her bare hands, losing her balance and falling onto the floor where her ninja training kicked in and she leapt to her feet, her cards out and ready as she found a wall to stand against to keep her back covered.
"Ow," Zelos said, rubbing his head as stretched in the couch they had been sharing. They had been taking turns watching over Matias. Sheena had set up a protective, invisible shield in the area around the bed where the pseudo-angel was currently huddled up into a ball, fast asleep. She must have also fallen asleep with her head resting on Zelos's shoulder and woken up to see his flaming red hair.
Sheena put a hand to her forehead to try and stave off a sudden headache only to realize her hand was aching as well. She looked down at it to see her grandmother's charm glowing faintly and cursed under her breath. She clenched her fist, waiting for the pain to subside while being painfully aware of the sunlight streaming through the open window. She cursed loudly, and then cursed again because she broke her self-made promise not to curse so much. "What time is it?" she asked when her impressive display of language was over with and Zelos was left with a slightly shocked look on his face. Zelos shrugged, and she growled and turned to go downstairs.
She walked out of the room. "I'm late, damn it!" she said, slamming her fist against the button to open the elevator doors. She bruised her knuckles and swore again, kissing at her hand. "Damn it!" She kicked the door once before pausing, hopping around on one foot with the other cradled in her hands. "Shit!"
"Err… Is there a problem, darling?" Zelos asked, standing up and hooking his thumbs in his belt, leaning back to examine her from a safe distance.
"I was supposed to leave this morning," Sheena said, tapping the elevator button over and over with increasing annoyance. "I was supposed to head out to Izoold. But then this-" she waved at Matias, "-happened, and I completely forgot. So I have to leave now or it might be too late to catch up with Kuchinawa."
Zelos's face lit up at that. "Excellent! Our shift was almost over anyway!" He moved up to her and linked his arm with hers, pressing the button for the elevator doors to open. They did so with a friendly chime, and Sheena cursed under her breath again. Ignoring the steady throb in her hand, head, and foot, she wriggled free from him. She stood in the elevator and barred the way with her arms.
"You're not coming," she said. "I need you here to watch over Matias. And… I need to be alone…" she said the last part softly, her words trailing off as the hypnotic glow of her own charm caught her eye. She shook her head. "I work better on my own anyway."
He frowned. "If what I hear from Pandora is true, the last thing you need is to be alone." He cupped her dangling charm in one hand, watching the stone glitter in the hallway light. "Besides, you need to get over yourself. And how can you do that without me?"
"Wh-what?"
"That's right," he said, putting his hands on his hips in a disapproving gesture. "For the past eight months you and Raine both have put us all through hell, both of you pushing away the other and everyone else who cares about you to boot. You've been neglecting your friends… Have you ever stopped to consider someone other than yourself?"
"Like you're one to talk!" she shot back, her face heating up. "You've been a slacker your whole life and you know it."
"I've been changing," he said, thrusting out his lower lip in a pout. "I have my own business now."
"Don't give me that look!" Sheena said, her temper flaring. Zelos immediately stopped pouting. "I do nothing else but put others before myself! It's my life, for Martel's sake. I'm the Chief of Mizuho now, and I have more than my own well-being to consider now. I have responsibilities, and part of those responsibilities is producing a living heir." She stepped forward, jabbing him in the chest. "So do not even go there, Zelos."
Zelos was unimpressed. "Yeah, but we're not talking about me. We're talking about how you've been acting like a lovesick teenager. And it's not just me!" he added quickly when she moved forward with a raised fist. He put up his hands, palms out, and took a few steps back. "Everyone agrees that you two need to get back together or get over it. So do you love Raine or do you not? I think once you find the answer to that question, a lot of your problems will find their answers as well."
Sheena snorted, pushing the button to close the doors. "This isn't the time for your matchmaking games, Zelos. I need to go do my job."
She hoped that would be the end of it and turned around to look out the glass elevator at the sparkling blue depths of the Altamira Ocean. But before she had time to react, Zelos slipped through the doors as they were closing and wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on top of her head. She stiffened, expecting him to try and cop a feel like he always did.
"Why won't you marry me?" he asked. Sheena could see his expression reflected in the glass- dead-pan. Sensing that this time wasn't like all the others, she slowly relaxed in his embrace and tried to copy his emotionless façade.
"'Cause you're already engaged," she said. This was a conversation they had already had many times before. "'Cause I don't like you that way. 'Cause I'm already engaged. Cause grandpa wouldn't have approved of me marrying a foreigner. 'Because you're a pervert-"
"You don't really believe that, do you?"
"If you act like a pervert, talk like a pervert, and think like a pervert, you're not a duck." She put her hands on his arms, gently trying to get loose again but he was adamant on not letting go.
"You don't know how I think," he said, affronted. "I really do want to marry you. It could be fun, Sheena! You're the only girl for me, seriously." he changed his tone abruptly, rocking from side to side with her still in his arms. "And don't say you don't like me that way. That's a lie. You are attracted to me- everyone is, regardless of gender or sexual orientation."
"It must be your overwhelming modesty," she muttered, rolling her eyes.
"No," he said, "It's my Cruxis Crystal."
Sheena was silent for a moment before turned in his arms, putting her hands against his chest and pushing him away so she could look up into his eyes. "….What."
He grinned. "I found out about it a little bit after the World Reunification Journey."
Sheena pushed him farther away from her, clenching her fists tightly over the fabric of his shirt. "What?!" she said again, sharper.
"It produces pheromones," Zelos explained, chattering as if he didn't notice the growing tension in the elevator. "Obviously I didn't know before the Journey 'because I always left my Crystal in Seles's care."
"What the heck are pheromones?" Sheena asked her voice unusually shrill.
Zelos took a moment to have a moment of thoughtful, silent contemplation. He sighed, putting a hand to his chin as he gazed out of the glass elevator doors. "In laymen's terms…" he said, struggling to think of a simple way to put it. Then his face brightened and he snapped his fingers, smiling cheerfully. "Ah! In laymen's terms: I smell sexy."
The elevator doors opened with a ping on the lobby floor. Regal Bryant was there with Presea, discussing the possibilities of hiring guards to monitor Matias- assuming normal guards would be enough to restrain him if he decided to escape. Personally, Regal felt a moral obligation to handle the situation himself, and said as much to Presea.
Presea had a simpler option: "We could kill him," the girl said, sitting on the concierge's desk with her short legs dangling in the air. She was wearing an Altamira uniform, but one tailored for a boy much bigger than she. Her pink hair was once again piled up under a bright red cap, and huge sunglasses covered most of her upper face like giant insect eyes.
Regal frowned.
"I'm not saying that because he's Rodyle's son," she said. I'm saying it because it would annoy you. "The sins of the father don't carry on to the son, and by the look of him he's had his fair share of torture." Presea absent-mindedly stroked the Ex-sphere she replaced her Cruxis Crystal with, feeling the smooth, hard bump under her shirt. "I suppose it was only luck that made me more suitable for the Angelus Project than whatever experiments were preformed on Matias. Or hey- maybe he volunteered for them." She shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is that he snuck up on me while I was sleeping and tried to kill me. Regardless of whom his father is, that makes him an enemy in my eyes."
Regal had to give her that, even if doubt nagged at his mind. His frown deepened and he ran a hand through his electric blue hair, trying to think clearly. "We still don't know his motives," he said. "He might not have been trying to kill you."
"Oh no," she said, smiling. "He was just trying to abduct me and that's much better, is that what you're saying, Mr. Bryant?"
"Presea…" he said, "Stop."
"Sorry, Regal."
"No, you're not," he said, wishing the day would end even though it was just starting.
She grinned, "You're right," she said, "I'm not."
That's when the elevator doors opened to reveal Sheena in the process of choking Zelos to death with her bare hands. "You mean to tell me that this entire time it's been nothing but a stupid chemical reaction?" she yelled, her face bright red.
"Wahh! Don't kill me!" Zelos wailed, pounding his fist on the floor in surrender.
"You- you stupid! You Idiot Chosen!"
"Ex-Chosen," Presea corrected under her breath, not willing to say it to Sheena's face. "Oh, boy."
Regal looked down at her with interest. "Do you happen to know what they're arguing about?" he asked, but before she could answer Zelos barreled into him, hiding behind the taller man with a pitiful whimper.
"Regal! Friend!" he said, "Protect me from the banshee!"
The elevator pinged again and Genis and Pandora stepped out, standing a good three feet away from each other as they surveyed the most current chaos in their life. They exchanged a glance and then sneaked their way to the front door, deciding that it would be useless to ask questions anyway.
OoOoOoOoOo
"Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop!" Genis yelped, crashing into the crystal clear Altamira waters. Pandora had disappointed Genis by buying a one-piece swimsuit at the hotel instead of the bikinis on display, but it was still a pleasure to see so much of her exposed. Genis didn't mind that she had a lot of scars from years of sword practice- in fact, he thought they made her even more beautiful. She waded in after him, letting her hands trail through the water as she admired the view, smiling softly. Genis decided she was acting far too dignified for a proper teenager at the beach and hefted her up, tossing her protesting into deeper waters.
Pandora surfaced with a splash, angrily striding towards the beach. "I'm not going any deeper than that rock," Pandora said to him as she passed him, pointing to her left at a spire jutting out of the water. "The ocean is different from swimming pools and bathtubs, so stop horsing arou- ow- wow-! Put me down, Genis!"
"Give me a few good reasons why," he prompted, looking down at her with all the innocence of a fox.
"Undertow, among other things," she said stiffly, holding onto him with her arms around his neck. "If you toss me in too far I might get sucked in."
The half-elf rolled his eyes towards heaven, looking for guidance from above. "Now you sound like my sister. Do you have a form of hydrophobia you never told me about?"
Pandora fixed him with a frosty stare. "I'm a poor swimmer," she said. "I don't get out of Meltokio often."
"Really?" he blinked, loosening his grasp on her a bit.
"Really."
Whap-pow!
"Owww!" Genis complained, doubling over and pressing both hands to his throbbing skull. Pandora waded closer to the shore, not sparing him a second glance. "Now you're really acting like my sister! Get back here!" he straightened out, making a large sweeping gesture with both of his hands. The water around him suddenly turned alive, rearing up and crashing around Pandora to drag her back. Genis snatched her up again, this time not being as gentle as he held her in a way that prevented movement. It was a trick Yuan had taught him when fighting a smaller opponent.
"Uh-oh, Pandora," he said, grinning wickedly. "Looks like things are a little different when I'm wearing my Ex-spheres."
"Cheater," was all Pandora said, struggling against the suddenly iron-strong grip. After a moment though, she gave up, glaring spitefully at the jewels embedded on the backs of Genis's hands. "Where can I get one of those?"
"You have to ask Lloyd very politely," Genis said, releasing her and depositing her safely on the ground, his hands on her hips. Pandora smiled at that, standing up on the tips of her toes and reaching around his neck. Expecting a kiss, Genis closed his eyes with a fluttering heart only to feel cold, gentle fingers pulling his goggles off.
Pandora pulled the goggles down her own head, grinning. "I'm not hydrophobic," she said, grabbing at his hand and pulling him deeper into the water. "Let's go see what we can see."
OoOoOoOo
"Oh yes, of course I want to take a break from my normal job to watch over this freak," Presea said, still in her Altamira uniform. For the past few weeks she had been working among the employees at various jobs, always in disguise, to give Regal a better idea of who was worth keeping or firing, and to check if there were any ill feelings stirring up among the workers. More than once, even though he clearly benefited from using Presea like this, Regal had demanded that she stop and get a less labor-intensive job the park or stop working altogether and go to the academy in Neo. She told him to stuff it.
Regal tapped a pen against his gold watch. "Zelos and Sheena already left for Izoold. In two hours, either Pandora or Genis can take over, and then I-"
"Of course, of course," Presea said, cutting him off. She was already tired with this conversation though it had just started, and felt no need to argue it further. "I hear you, Regal. I'll get to it."
Regal bit his lip, suddenly finding the need to straighten his tie as he cleared his throat. "I don't mind doing two shifts, on second thought. And I need to have a word with the boy."
Presea raised one pink eyebrow.
"I just don't want you to feel pressured," Regal said.
Presea cocked her head to the side in her trademark curious puppy way. "How come?"
The former convict could think of several reasons- because he was her legal guardian, because he was her friend, because in a better world he would have been her brother-in-law. "Because it's my duty to protect you," he ended up saying.
The girl smiled. "I can protect myself," she said, stepping into the elevator and pressing the button for the fourth floor.
OoOoOoOoOo
The last person they expected to see in Izoold was Yuan. Sheena spotted him first, waving at him wildly. He paused to look at her, his face uncomprehending, before turning towards the dock and leaving her behind. She blinked, taken aback at his lack of response, and looked to Zelos for guidance.
"That was Yuan, right?" she asked.
"His hair's different, but no one else has that armor and swooshy cape," he answered, nodding his head with authority. "C'mon, let's follow him!" He pulled at Sheena's sleeve, dragging her along behind him as he chased after the seraph.
"Yuan! Oh YUUUUUAAAAN!" he called out, ignoring Sheena as she tried to escape him to go find her contact and dodging frightened pedestrians. "Yuan Yggdrasil! Hey!"
Yuan turned around at the mention of his full name, pulling his cape across his frame to hide his right hand as he stared warily at the two of them. His fingers inched towards where his sword should be, though right now his hip was bare. Sheena felt the beginnings of something very wrong and managed to pull back, but Zelos was adamant. He marched up to the seraph.
"Yeah, you!" Zelos said. "Pah! The Homo Seraphim thinks he's too cool to acknowledge me, huh?" He put his hands on his hips, tapping his foot impatiently. "Plus, you never write and you never visit! You should be ashamed!" Turning away, he sobbed dramatically and put one hand to his eyes.
Yuan looked over his shoulder, as if hoping there was another Yuan Yggdrasil standing right behind him and that was who Zelos was addressing. Then he sighed. "I'm…very sorry?" he ventured.
Zelos paused. Of all the answers he had been expecting, that was not one of them. He quickly got over his shock, though, and snorted. "You will be," he said, pulling Yuan close. "Here- for all the indignities I've suffered, I demand a kiss."
Yuan's eyebrows shot up. Then he rolled his eyes and sighed. "Fine, fine. On the lips?" he asked, not sounding as if he relished the idea.
Zelos paused again. This was going in a strange new direction, though it wasn't an entirely unwelcome one. "Well… sure…" he said at last, his lips twisting into a bemused smile. "Whatever works for you, hunny." And so saying, he tilted Yuan's head up a bit and kissed him, surprised to feel that Yuan's lips were very soft. It contrasted pleasantly from the rough fabric of the thick gloves he was wearing.
Sheena's eyes bugged out and she made a half-strangled noise in the back of her throat.
Yuan jerked his head back after a moment or so, turning his face away with an exasperated sigh. "Hold up now," he said, lifting his gloved right hand and pushing a protesting Zelos back a few paces. "I thought I was supposed to kiss you? If you go around demanding kisses, I think you should at least let them initiate the kiss."
"Well geez, you're pretty picky for someone just out of the closet!" Zelos said, leaning forward to try and steal another kiss. Yuan stepped back, annoyed and adjusting the buttons on his gloves. "Um, I mean…." Zelos scratched his forehead in confusion before arriving at a solution. "Ah! I mean, that one was just for practice. Let's kiss for real now!"
"What the hell, Zelos?" Sheena squeaked, breaking into the odd conversation with her hands clapped firmly over her mouth. Her eyes were still wider than usual.
Yuan looked from Zelos to Sheena and decided that Zelos was the redhead's name, not a nickname that had somehow sprouted for Yuan. As if just noticing her, he smiled charmingly. "Do we know this woman, Zelos?" he asked Zelos, reclining with one elbow propped on the redhead's shoulder.
"Very funny, Yuan…" Sheena managed to mutter, even though she still wouldn't tear her sight away from the two rival seraphs practically fondling each other in the middle of the street.
Even though Sheena didn't know it, Yuan found this all very amusing indeed.
"Yes, this was all very fun but I have a boat to catch," he said, letting go of Zelos and wiping at his mouth with the back of his glove.
Sheena shook her head. "Going back to Crazy-Land?"
"And without me?!" Zelos asked, suddenly very interested in where and when the seraph would be in the next 24 hours. He latched onto Yuan's arm, grinning from ear to ear.
"I'm going to see the Great Tree, not that it's any of your business," Yuan replied in a pleasant tone of voice, trying in vain to shake Zelos off of his arm. "What's your name again?"
"Sheena!" a voice unintentionally answered for him.
Sheena looked up in time only to register a blur of blond hair before she was tackled to the ground, not for the first time and not for the last. "Argh!" Sheena wriggled in Colette's iron grip as the tiny angel squeezed her hard enough to make her pop like a rotten fruit. "Heh… Heh… H-hello, Colette…" she wheezed, trying not to hurt the younger girl's feelings by seeming wounded by her crushing embrace.
Awkwardly patting Colette on the back, she finally managed to break free when Lloyd and Kratos soon arrived on the scene as well. Gulping down as much air as her bruised lungs could manage, she gave a half-hearted wave in their general direction. "Hey," she said. "Where are the dogs?"
"We had to leave them outside Meltokio," Lloyd said, because Kratos was preoccupied with something else.
He rounded up on Yuan, glaring down at him. "What in the name of Mana made you run off like that?"
Yuan waved his gloved hand expansively at his squalid surroundings. Izoold was still only a small fishing town, since the World Regeneration Journey had left it partly trapped by new mountains. "Well, whatever gave you the impression I was trying to avoid being in your jocund company?" he shot back. "You were flying too slowly. I sped up. That's all there was to it." Closing his eyes, he shrugged. "Besides, where would I go?"
"I don't know. To find Yggdrasil, perhaps."
"But if what you say is true, I wouldn't find him. And then I would eventually figure out you were telling the truth on my own and would have come back to you." He smirked. "If what you're saying is true. And if" –he glanced at a pocket watch he produced from somewhere under his cape- "We don't miss our boat."
OoOoOoOo
Presea opened the door to find Matias pacing along the barriers of the magical bubble Sheena had entrapped him in. Arcane Mizanese symbols were etched into the floor in the area around his bed, and though Presea couldn't notice any difference in the room they seemed to work well enough to keep Matias in one place.
The half-elf noticed her staring at him, rattled his scaly wings once in annoyance, and sat down on the edge of his bed. He met her even gaze from behind blood-red lenses; he looked ready to go play a game of poker by the way his face was covered up. Smiling without humor, Presea moved up to the invisible barrier and pressed a hand against it. The pressure sent small ripples dancing across the bubble-like surface.
"So," Presea said, pulling her hand back when the ripples began to make her dizzy, "You're Rodyle's son, huh?"
Matias shrugged helplessly, causing his wings to rattle again. Grabbing a fistful of his purple hair and shaking it at her, he raised one eyebrow as if to say, 'What do you think?' Sighing once, he curled up on his small bed, his back facing her.
Presea took the time to examine him properly. His tattered, baggy clothes didn't do much to hide the way his flesh stretched over his bones, and the bandages she could see wrapped around his chest were dirty and frayed. He still had other wounds that no one had treated, including the one in his side from where Presea had stabbed him.
"You know Sheena made the spell big enough for you to go to the bathroom," she said after a moment. The mute flexed his wings, the sharp bat hooks at the joints gleaming in the sunlight. "You can clean yourself up. Each bathroom in this hotel has a first aid kit you can use, too."
Matias didn't respond at first, still curled up miserably on the bed. But eventually he reached inside his sleeves and pulled out a notepad and a stubby pencil, scribbling something and then tossing the notepad over to her side of the room. Despite herself she tried to reach for it, and was surprised when after a few seconds of stretching the barrier let her through. She quickly withdrew her hand, shaking it and flexing the fingers to try and suppress the tingles she felt racing up and down along her arm. When she felt better, Presea bent down, looking through the distorting bubble-barrier to squint at the chicken-scratch handwriting. She didn't dare try to play with the barrier any more.
whats going to happen to me are you going to kill me
Presea shook her head before remembering he wasn't looking at her. "I can't answer that," she said. "This is something between you and Sheena. It doesn't affect me either way, so I don't have a say in what happens to you. But-" she stopped, startled as Matias leapt to his feet and partially glided over to the barrier to tower over her. She couldn't read his expression without seeing his eyes or his mouth, so she didn't know if she was scaring him or making him angry with her words.
He pulled at a strand of his hair for a moment before bending down and picking up his notepad, taking the time to use proper punctuation this time. Aren't you Presea? He asked her. He squatted, hunched over with his arms resting on his knees so that they were almost at eye level, and took off his glasses. She nodded, waiting for him to finish writing the next note. So that gives you reason to kill me.
She punched out at the wall, a dagger seeming to materialize in her hand. There was a few seconds of resistance before the wall allowed her hand to sink through, slicing through a few strands of purple hair. He jumped away like a pack of frightened birds, the scales intermingled with his black feathers clacking audibly.
"You know, it sounds like you want to die," Presea said, yanking her hand back through the barrier with a sick sloooopsh sound. She flexed her fingers, balling her hand into a fist and then relaxing it. The knife was gone again. "But your body reacts to danger, so what are you and I supposed to believe in this situation? Your animal instinct or your higher mind?"
Matias put a hand to his chest, apparently to check if his blood-caked bandages were still holding. He turned away from her, running thin pale fingers over his wounds. "You need some help with those?" she asked. He shook his head, tightening the bandages around his chest even though they seemed "Well, you look like someone tossed you through heavy machinery. Go clean yourself up so you can appear a little less pathetic when Sheena comes around."
Matias's pencil tip hovered over the paper for a moment before he scribbled again. He pressed the paper against the wall, but unlike Presea his hand didn't go through. Can a prisoner get some privacy around here?
Presea grinned, reaching through the wall to snatch his writing materials out of his hands. Matias jerked back, expecting her to try and hit him again, but all she did was write him a note of her own. There's a lock on the bathroom door, doofus.
His hands worried at the frayed ends of his scarf, his purple eyes flickering from Presea to the notepad. The pseudo angel made an attempt to take the notepad back from the girl before he lost his nerve. Instead, he sank down to one knee with one hand over his heart and his head bowed. It triggered an unpleasant sense of déjà vu in Presea, made all the more eerie because she knew that something like this must have happened in her previous life, and must have been important. After his display of thanks was over he rose up to his full height and stalked over to the bathroom, closing it behind him. The loudest noise he made was the rattling of the scales on his patchwork wings, and the soft click of the lock sliding in place.
OoOoOoOo
A/N: Matias is emo.
Yeah, that's all I really have to say. 5,468 words.