Mars

Wednesday, February 18

10:59 PM

I'd thought that I could do it; I'd thought that I was strong enough to leave Angel behind. But I obviously wasn't.

"Angel!" I hissed, pulling her window open from the outside where I was hovering. She was lying on her stomach on her pink bed, a magazine open in front of her. She made no move to let me in, merely stared at me reproachfully. But she didn't cry for help, which I took as a good sign.

It would have been better for them both if she had cried for help, or attacked him, and he had found someone else with her in her room. Any of those things would have made him angry enough to leave, for good this time.

And she really needed him to be gone from her life, even if she didn't know it.

"Mars," Angel finally said, rolling to her feet gracefully and approaching me. She threw her arms around me. "I am so happy to see you!"

I couldn't help but hug her back. She fit so perfectly against my chest. She looked up at me, and for a moment, I almost kissed her.

"I'm sorry," she said, staring into my eyes. "I shouldn't have pushed you like that. It isn't fair for you. I'm just not used to not knowing what people are thinking, and it makes me uncomfortable. Its one of the many things about myself that I'm trying to fix."

My hands cupped her face by their own volition. Her cheeks were soft against my thumbs as I stroked them. "You." I told her "Have nothing to apologize for."

She wasn't like me, wasn't causing pain to the people I cared about with every decision I made.

But I couldn't worry about that now, not when she smelled so good and her lips were so close to mine.

I closed the distance between us with a groan, and then her lips were on my lips and they were so soft.

I never wanted to stop kissing her.

From somewhere far away I heard the door open, and a shocked gasp. Something shattered on the floor.

"Nudge!" Angel gasped, pulling away from me.

Angels adopted sister stood in the doorway, her face a mask of shock, a puddle of hot chocolate was radiating around her from the shards of a mug.

Their eyes met for a moment, then Nudge turned and ran out of the room with a squeak.

Angel turned to me with an anxious look. "I have to- to go and-" she gestured after her friend. I pulled her in for another hard kiss before releasing her and throwing myself out of her window.

It was probably for the better. She didn't want to know where I was going. I didn't want to know what I was about to do.

The night was crisp and cool and perfect for flying. I reached the warehouse far sooner than I would've hoped, but it was long enough to hate myself with every flap of my wings. Just a job, I reminded myself as I settled on the roof and made my way downstairs.

The scientists were waiting on the ground floor. I perched on one of the beams, high above their reach. "I want to see him!" I called. "I wont say anything until I see that he's okay!"

The scientists looked up at me, their beady eyes cold and calculating. One of them nodded and barked out an order. One of them walked to the side of the warehouse and pulled a sheet off of a cage. Huddled inside was the figure of my little brother.

"Ansel!" I called, diving down next to him.

"Mars?" he asked, baby eyes wide; he stretched his hand through the bars to grip mine. I squeezed warmth into his cold digits and glared around me.

"What do you want to know?"