Black Wings

Chapter 2

Do I just accept that you almost died again Kai?"

I ask him while we both sit on the cave floor in the dark considering we lost the matches a while back and Isaac had managed to blow out most of the candles. He's struggling to respond and the words just won't form on his lips to answer my question. Kai isn't a fan of the constant care and attention we give him even if we both know it's necessary which is why instead of replying he decides on fiddling my hair. His fingers glide through my hair and he starts to mumble utter nonsense on how soft my hair is. Neither of us say anything accepting that we need time to calm down. I should be sterner and demand an answer from him but I don't and relax into his touch. There's no surrounding noise for once. Everyone is calming down from what just happened including Astoria who was insistent on being alone to reminisce about what just happened. We sit there on the wet floor just embracing the comfort the other gives us. Eventually Kai speaks up, my question remains pushed to the back of our minds since neither of us want to admit that we are living under constant threat from people we believed we could trust.

"Do you think I'm using you Ol?"

I want to slap him and tell him that he's being ridiculous. He loves me just like he loves Astoria and Irene and I love him back in exactly the same way. We are meant to be for one another but the words that were thrown are still raw and he doesn't need a scolding, He'll get one later from Storm, for now he needs the reassurance and I need it as well. Instead of joking as I normally would I look up at him so both of our eyes meet and I grip his hands.

"No, I think they're filthy liars who have never seen a healthy relationship!"

He smiles at my words and hugs me tighter in case anyone tried to take me away. I don't think anyone would be that stupid but I embrace the protection he's projecting and I lay my head on his shoulders. Unconsciously, my hands find his hair and start trying to brush through the tangles that have found their way into the bird's nest of hair. I know he's smiling even though I can't see his face. He knows that I will soon drift off into an uneasy sleep but he does not stop me fiddling my way through the hair.

I start at the scalp and the second my fingertips touch his mane the silky feeling rushes back. I start to drag my fingers down to the right and whenever I hit a knot –which is relatively often considering he never brushes the stuff- I move back to where I started and go again. It's therapeutic for both of us. I slow down and feel myself go slack first while Kai follows later. I continue to drag my fingers through the mop while he starts to move my hand. I've asked him about when we started doing it but he stated that if I didn't protest there was nothing stopping us from doing it. His hands warm on my skin as well but it's nothing compared to what Astoria feels like or how Irene clutches us all. Kai gives us the motivation with his stoic personality that only the four of us know how to break. I still appreciate the action as we continue to plough through the hair. Every time we push down I feel eyes creep shut a little more however I am determined to not sleep. It's futile since Kai notices and starts moving my hand for me and uses the hand he has spare to draw circles on my back. Neither of us want to be caught with tear marks down our cheeks from the battle clinging to one another but at the moment we're in everyone else feels so far away I stop caring as I go limp in his hold. I fight sleep for as long as I can, refusing to give into the temptation and lies of dreams.

Kai knows he's won this battle just like how he has won the others. I bury myself into him embarrassingly and press myself into his shirt. I look like a child in his arms right now but no one's around.

I stop feeling his hair and sigh; by the time we're both awake it will be just as knotty as before. Instead he wraps the hand he now has free around me and hugs me. I fall asleep like that, my eyes fluttering shut and breaths come regularly.

Kai falls asleep at some point as well and Irene and Astoria hunt us down as when I wake up we are all together. I must have fallen out of his grasp since I am also curled into a ball at his feet. Ria's black wings shield us to the best of their ability. I want to go back into their embrace and I know that they would not mind but now that light shines through the cave I take it as a chance to search for the matches. We need them considering not everyone else has a knack for finding the way around the cave while the stars glisten in the sky.

The cave is empty on the most part, there are some books and clothes lying around but nothing that could hide a bright red box of matches forever.

I peek under rocks and double check every book for one lone match yet I find none. The only thing that awakens me from the trance I have managed to drag myself into looking for the darn things is Astoria waking up with a groan as she closes her wings back around her.

"How did sleeping with them open feel like?"

She groans again and I laugh at my idiocy and her patience with me.

"It felt like sleeping while doing the splits if you haven't trained." I try not to snort when she describes the feeling like gymnastics but I say nothing else. She laughs as well at her own joke that was not even made intentionally.

"So what you up to?"

I look at her and point to a candle, "If you failed to notice then we lost the matches. I am attempting to discover them from the hiding place."

We both look at each other trying to find a way to use magic around this issue but we come up with nothing and waste at least half an hour looking back and forth at the candle each other. We come up with nothing and Astoria gives up after a while and settles to sitting on the floor watching me struggle. It reminds me of playing hot and cold but instead of saying warmer or cooler my girlfriend snorts louder the further I get and quieter as I get closer.

"Okay where are they?" I demand an answer since she knows where they are hiding but instead she smiles.

"Isaac took them, or did you fail to see them on him during the fight yesterday?"

I search her for any trace of a lie but when I find none I groan and accept the truth that we have lost the matches and thus any warmth or light we need for the darker hours. I really want to murder Isaac that second.

You can hold a grudge on Kai and pick fights if you really wanted to. Karma was going to come bite you one day but that was your choice but to decide to punish anyone in the area because you din't like one person. I was fuming and had Ast not held me back and screeched that violence would only make everything worse I would of turned him into a bouncy ball and thrown him against a tree until begged for death, If he wasn't dead already.

I had no pity for Alex and Isaac and the two really needed to be taken down a peg or three but I did not for several reasons. One of them was that Astoria was clinging to me to stop me going. She liked a fight more than anybody but the idea of me going into a fight alone seemed to set off a parental alarm in her.

Instead I spent the next few hours of my life sitting in the floor questioning my life choices. Kai and Irene were either still asleep or ignoring the world as long as they could. I had no doubt that they were doing the latter.

The cave was silent in those minutes other than our breaths. Everyone else was off on an adventure of their own while were stuck. It was for the best, it stopped people getting involved in fights that were not there's to engage in. Astoria was clearly thinking about her death since she was holding where her heart once was frowning softly. I wrapped an arm around her and shuffled closer. She looked at me when my arm fell to the floor and made herself physical allowing me to actually feel her and for her shoulder to have my elbow propped against it.

"You'll come back don't worry." I mean my words. We all want Astoria back and no judge of life and death can stand between our begs. If she doesn't then we all pledged a while back to sit by her feet and annoy her until we get her back. Astoria took it as a joke at first but after seeing the determination plastered on our faces I think she realized were serious. We were serious for Kai so why we would not be for her made us question a lot. It was mostly babble about the sheer number of people she had killed before we reminded her that we had all killed. Kai had hugged her and told her that he had killed yet he was standing there alive and healthy and he was never going to leave her. None of us were going to let her leave us.

"Okay." Astoria mumbles signalling she believes us, she knows we wouldn't lie to her and she moves her hand away from her heart. The silence from there is comfortable as we wait for Kai and Irene to awaken from the peaceful slumber that holds them still.