Summary: The feel of your bullet slamming against its target, of progress and of personal development, of love and death and loss mean nothing against the weight of this world's deceivers. This is a story about the upturning of the status quo. [SI in a DxD AU/ Kind of Multi-cross]
This production is inspired by End of Fantasy by Pumlumprump and sponsored by my love for blue-haired fictional women. Seriously, it's kind of like an addiction at this point.
Another Time
Another Life
"Hey." I felt a cold can being pressed against my face. "You okay?"
The chill of the can brought me back to reality. I frowned at the label as it was dropped in my hand. "Dr. Pepper really? I know you like this, but you know I kinda hate this right."
"I know." She says, giving me a cute smile. She tapped her own can on mine. "Samesies."
I sighed slightly before we sat down together on the front porch. We were both sitting in front of her house, enjoying the quiet for a brief moment. In my left hand I held the laptop I was typing away on just a few minutes earlier. It was still warm to the touch.
In my right hand, I held her hand. She was cold.
Thief, I called her in my mind, with an ocean's worth of reverence. I still felt hurt in my body, almost as if my insides were inlaid with skin, I could make out the contours of pain and blood in my body where a spear had been rammed through.
She saved me then though. She stretched time to infinity, stole her brother's belongings and then saved me. She changed me into something new; something that was supposed to be superior. Something not-human.
The scars lingered though.
"Though, seriously. Are you okay?"
I hesitate for a moment but my lips move on their own. "I don't know." I confessed. She holds my hand harder, squeezing it.
"I think I am? But… just because you think you're okay doesn't mean you are actually okay, you know."
"I know." Her soft voice cuts in. "I know."
Silence. Her house was located at the very edge of a densely populated city, in an isolated area right outside city limits. The front yard was an empty, arid thing, showing off only a sizable grassy field. Around a kilometer and a half behind us, a highway existed, connecting the city I called home to the rest of the planet.
We were not in the city. We were nowhere in the city, but I could almost feel the buildings sprout around me; pillars of stone and cement trying to box me in. Even now, I feel like I am in a jail, confined and isolated.
"Hey, hey!" I heard her voice again. She places a gentle hand on my cheek. It's too gentle really, like cotton on gravel. "Focus on me, okay?"
I did. She was right in front of me; there was barely a few inches of distance between us. The luster of her shining blue hair gleamed almost for a moment, as she held my face in her hands.
Pretty. Agonizingly so. My heart hurt right now, almost as if it were being squished by an armored noble knight's kneeling knees.
"I am scared." I mumbled out. "I am so scared right now."
It's bright out right now. The sun shone down on us. Behind her, I could almost see a falling invisible feather ripple in the starlight.
"I know… I know…" She said, pulling me closer to her. "I'm sorry… I am so sorry…."
I feel a spear ramming into my stomach. Blood spurting out like a fountain. I feel death. I feel life.
I feel her. Her touch and her gaze… they feel like poison, pouring into every cell, into every breath I take.
"I feel scared." I repeat, feeling like a parrot stuck in a cage.
"Hey…" She mumbles, as she moves. She was kneeling in front of me before, but now she was sitting on my lap. She was close, almost stiflingly so, as she held me with an affection I did not deserve.
I am not supposed to be here. I want to say. I feel her grip on me tighten. I am not supposed to be here.
"I love you, you know that?" She says in a soft tone, that sentence a dagger to my heart. I gulped slightly, but her hand snaked its way to the back of my head, pushing it downward.
My forehead met hers. I was certain that she wanted nothing more than to push further, to press her lips against my own.
But she didn't. My heart swelled with gratitude for that. I felt like glass at the moment, and I wasn't sure even she could put me back together.
"I know you're scared, dear. I am too." She admitted. "I don't care about the rest of the world; you're the one person I absolutely cannot lose."
The luster in her eyes was almost bright enough to make my eyes water.
"But… we can't be scared forever, can we?" She says as her fingers travel downward, along the highway on my neck, shoulder, arm and to my own fingers. She grabs my hand and holds it with supreme confidence, my heart racing wildly at the gesture. She pulls it towards her lips and plants a soft kiss on my knuckles, the lingering sensation of her touch almost burning that spot.
"There were times I was afraid too." She says, and suddenly she feels much bigger. Much older. Much wiser. Beyond me. "When it came time for me to do my duties, I hesitated. A lot, actually. Father spoke to me and raised my spirits. He said something to the effect of that fear is an acceptable response, even to celestial beings. It's expected really, fear of failing, fear of death, fear of missing out." She shrugged.
"But what's more important than fear, is the ability to muster courage to oppose it."
A sad smile came over her face. Her words earlier may have been like dagger, but seeing this was true torture. I could confidently say that I would take the brazen bull by its horns rather than see her sad.
"Father said he would always catch me if the burden ever broke me. If I were to fall. Father isn't here now, but… he treated me better than I deserved. Gave me more than I needed. Loved me more than I could ever handle."
Just like you to me.
"I… I understand your fear. Which is why we will work through it, together. You're my responsibility now, after all." She says, giving me a small grin. "I will catch you if you fall."
For a second there, I hesitate. But I placed my hands behind her, and pull her closer. She leans in as well, wrapping her arms around me. Her hug was tight and warm and she smelled of chocolate, the dark kind.
"You'll catch me?" I asked after a moment, as we untangle ourselves from each other. She's still sitting in my lap, gazing up at me. She nods furiously at that. I reached down and brought some strands of her deep blue hair, pressing it against my lips and kissing it softly. I sniffed in the light scent of ash and sulfur from her.
I let those strands go. I breathe in. A moment of focus, as suddenly a pair of wings of the most radiant white burst out from my back, unfurling with inhuman grace and splendor. Angel wings; but there were very subtle differences present too that one wouldn't normally be able to identify: there was an odd metallic sheen to my feathers, making them look more grey than white.
"Teach me to fly?" I asked hopefully.
She beamed at me.
No, the beginning chapter of my story isn't short, it's perfectly average.
This chapter should make more sense with coming events, methinks.
