Gadreel glanced up as Abner was pushed back into their cage, back into the dark, back into the slow pain of their everyday life. Inside this cage, there wasn't the intensity of the torture they went through when they exited, always to be attacked by the other angels, by Thaddeus, pushed to the limit. Outside, pain was blinding fire, lye on skin, and daggers; inside, it was sandpaper grating incessantly on infected wounds. The only thing that made it better was that they were there together.
Gadreel slowly embraced his darling, placing his hands carefully to avoid pressing on the sorest spots, stalling a little of the bleeding with his fingers as he manifested his wings and wrapped the blanket of coal dust colored feathers around both of them. Abner, even broken and bruised, brushed his hands through those beautiful and soft feathers and manifested his own cloud white wings and wrapped them around the pair as well, pressing them together, if only to be that much closer to Gadreel. They sat in silence this way for a while, neither saying a word, both basking in the glory of the other's wings.
Abner had always loved those dark wings. To him, they were unique and warm, reminiscent of the flames which created the charcoal color they were. They weren't cold, like the more common white wings he possessed, but kind and a calmer, more nocturnal kind of protection. For Gadreel, Abner's perfect white wings were the greatest light he had in the dungeons, the only thing that was comforting and pure. They were infallibly good, naturally filled with the incessant innocence Gadreel felt in the one he loved. With wings protecting the both of them from harm, they embraced a while.
Gadreel pressed sweet kisses onto Abner's forehead, smoothing the wrinkles of stress and pain with the sweeping calmness and oxytocin. Gadreel gently massaged Abner's skin with hands that could no longer heal, and silently chided himself, wishing again and again that he could make his lover feel better, until it weighed deeply on his mind. Abner silently enjoyed the gentle touches until he felt Gadreel's form shaking. Abner looked up from where he'd lain on Gadreel's lap quickly, to see his partner crying softly.
He got up and pressed into the other man softly, his wings a protective shield from the outside world. "What is it, my love?" he asked softly, leaning up to gently kiss Gadreel's jaw. Another mournful tear slipped as Gadreel spoke.
"I long to, but I cannot heal you. I cannot protect you, and have no way to ease the pain you feel." he hung his head in shame and didn't look Abner in the eye for embarrassment.
Quickly Abner kissed away the next stray tear. "Gadreel," he whispered, leaning into the angel he loved immensely. "You do ease my pain. You ease it by being here for me, and you don't need your energy to heal me. You do it with your love. You are enough, and you're all I want. We're together, and that's what counts." He smiled softly at the other man, who looked up and smiled back; a broken smile, but a smile nonetheless. Gently they hugged each other, a mess of wings and drying blood and old tears, and for the while neither was hurt or afraid. The sandpaper and infected wounds were gone, and it was a sweeter softness than either had felt for a long time.
