Niris stretched. He was finally done with his work for the day. Hastily closing all the files in front of him, he piled them on the side of his desk before getting up. He took his winter coat and put it on his shoulders to protect himself from the coldness of the corridors. The palace was too big to be thoroughly heated, and Niris was naturally chilly.
He left his office humming, anticipating the coming night that he expected to be thrilling. He was planning it for a week now, he had everything prepared. He only needed Seiran to follow him willingly without asking anything. And that was actually the hardest part. The demon wasn't the type to let himself be guided by the angel. He liked being the one organizing things and surprising his boyfriend.
For once, Niris wanted to be the one to prepare for the surprise and get to see the demon's reaction. Just the thought of it was enough to put him in a good mood. He accelerated to reach their room. Even though the angel did his most to finish his work early enough to spend the evening with his lover, it had been dark for a while and you could see the stars in the clear dark blue night.
Once he was finally in front of the huge wooden door painted white with golden lines highlighting its shape, he opened it without hesitation and entered the room, determined.
"Seiran!" he called, unable to contain his excitement.
But no one answered. He looked around the place, surprised not to see the demon waiting for him. Usually, at this time of the day, he would be sitting on one of the sofas that furnished the room, reading or playing on his dematerialised swoutch. But neither was he in the living room or in their bedroom.
"Where has he gone ?" he muttered, very dissatisfied to be unable to see his boyfriend happy to see him back early.
Niris turned around to look for him one more time, uncertain of where to start his search. He was about to call him through his identification chip when he heard voices coming from the small cabinet that was attached to their room from a hidden backdoor.
He went in the direction of the voices and slowly opened the door. His smile instantly faded. Seiran was inside, talking with a close friend he knew from Ornikarn and who was here for god knows whatever reason! Niris was upset. He didn't hear anything about her coming to Egea.
He slammed the door behind him and came in, sitting between them, forcing the newcomer to move aside and make room for him. Seiran who hadn't seen him entering the room, turned to him just to see the angel ignoring him with a pouting face.
"You're back already? I thought you had a lot of work to do and wouldn't be off before late," he said, seemingly surprised to see his boyfriend.
"Yeah well, of course, you'd think that because I told you I'd be late because of work to surprise you by coming early. But you don't seem to care as you seem to have such a pleasant time with that rabbit girl. You dumbass demon." The angel thought.
"I'm done earlier than expected," he just said bluntly.
Seiran felt the coldness in his tone and looked at him questioningly but only got an angry ignoring look as an answer.
"Hi Niris, It's nice to see you again," said the girl who had forcibly emigrated to the other side of the small sofa that was only for two persons.
The angel secretly hoped she'd move to the other one in front of them as it'd become too uncomfortable for the three of them but she didn't seem to be willing to. What an annoying girl!
"Hi Efty," he answered with a deadly glare.
An awkward silence took place in the small room. Niris didn't move a finger while the other two looked at each other in embarrassment, not sure what to do or say. When Efty was about to say something, Niris open his mouth and cut her before she could even say a word.
"So what were you two talking about so lively?"
"Oh, we were just reminiscieng the old days at Yerpena and all the stupid things we did when we were young," answered Seiran with a nostalgic smile.
Niris didn't react. He knew what would be the answer, so he wasn't surprised. Efty was the daughter of the ambassador of Jum, a planet inhabited by a rabbit-human population, the jummies. She grew up at Yerpena as his father stayed in his position for fifteen years, and became really close to Seiran as they were taking the same classes together.
The angel knew the demon only saw her as a friend, but he had doubts about Efty. She has been annoyingly getting between them a few times, ruining Niris' mood and giving him the feeling she was trying to separate them. And he didn't like that at all. What he hated more was that Seiran didn't see her actions like that and even defended her when the angel tried to warn him about her true intentions and feelings for him.
He also hated the idea of making him aware of one of his closest friend he shared memories of his childhood but he felt a strong danger coming from the rabbit girl. And the more it was going on, the more her behaviour was raising an alarm in his mind. It was happening more and more often and on occasions, he found it very bold of her to act this way.
"We really did stupid things," continued Efty, laughing with a hand covering her mouth shyly. "You remember that time we put a frog in the great intendant's hat ? He didn't realise it for twenty minutes and the frog poop on his head!"
"Yes, I remember! That was one of the funniest things we ever did!"
They both laughed while recalling the moment. They were back to talking as if Niris, who was right between them, didn't exist at all. The angel closed his eyes. He was mad. He was done trying to be nice and understanding. This girl obviously had feelings for his boyfriend and she was doing everything in her power to make him look bad in Seiran's eyes. He didn't care. This stupid girl wouldn't be the reason for their breakup. Never. He'll take Seiran away from her forever even if it meant being the bag guy in the demon's eyes.
"I think you should leave," he said while opening his eyes slowly.
The air around them instantly froze. Seiran looked at the angel with round eyes. He knew he didn't like the Jummy, but it was the first time the angel was acting so cold toward her.
"Ah don't worry, I'll leave after having dinner with you guys. We planned to eat together with Seiran but I guess you can join us..." Efty then answered in a light tone, trying to liven up the mood, but it only made the angel angrier.
This time you could see lightning coming from his eyes. Niris clenched his fits on the fabric of his pants, trying to keep in the anger that was growing in him.
"You planned to have dinner together ?" he asked in a white voice.
"Yes, she's staying only for tonight so we decided to have dinner and then go around the city tomorrow before she leaves," explained Seiran with a worried look on his face at his boyfriend's reaction.
"Such a coincidence! She's staying only for the night, and it has to be this new year's eve!" He thought with a grin.
Without a word, the angel stood up.
"Leave. Now."
Seiran stood up quickly followed by Efty who was looking at the angel in shock. None of them were getting what was going on in the angel's mind.
"Niris? Did I do... something wrong ?" the jummy asked naively.
"LEAVE!"
This time, the angel yelled. Offended by his strong rejection, she took her stuff and left with a pained look on her face. His hands still closed in tight fists, the angel was fuming with rage.
"Niris what's wrong with you? You didn't have to yell at her like that!"
Unable to hold back for a second longer, he turned to the demon.
"Have you forgotten what day we are today?"
"No I haven't..." the demon tried to defend himself.
"Then have you forgotten that you promised me you'd give me your night starting when we're both free from work?"
"I haven't but what's wrong with having dinner with Efty? We don't have anything planned for tonight anyway!" he protested.
"And it never crossed your mind that if I asked you to keep yourself free for tonight, it might be because I had planned something for us to do?"
The demon didn't respond. He indeed didn't think about this possibility at all. Niris was a very homely person contrary to what he looks like, so he thought he just wanted to spend new year's eve in a cozy place without doing anything special. And that's why he also suggested having dinner with Efty. But now that Niri was furious, he realized that he might have missed something important.
"I wanted to surprise you for once, and plan something nice for the two of us, but all you're thinking about is spending time with that stupid rabbit who only thinks about laying you under my nose! How do you think I'm feeling right now?"
The angel exploded and turned to the demon with teary eyes. He was so hurt by his boyfriend's behaviour that he couldn't keep it in any longer.
"Niris..." Seiran tried to comfort him by reaching out to him with his hand but the angel abruptly rejected him and walked to the window.
"NIRIS!"
The demon jumped outside and quickly disappeared into the darkness after opening his wings. Seiran followed him. He was still in shock at seeing his boyfriend on the verge of tears after their arguing.
The cold wind made him shiver. He wasn't dressed for the weather and outside was getting quite cold with the days going by. Egea was a four seasons planet so winter was usually already well set for new year's eve.
The angel was flying at a fast speed but the demon didn't give up. He forced on his wings to be able to catch up to him. But angels were renowned for being fast and Niris was an expert at escaping by the sky. Seiran felt his muscles hurting. He ignored it. Suddenly taking a turn, he sped up once more as he was falling behind again. They were now flying at high speed to the top of a mountain in the massif close to the capital.
He had no idea how long he flew towards the top. All he knew was that the wind was furiously running over his skin, freezing him to the bones. After what seemed an eternity, he finally reached the top. Opening his wings wide to slow down, he looked underneath him and saw Niris sitting down on a rock, facing the void.
Quietly, he landed right beside him and sat to his left. He then turned his head to look at what his boyfriend was glaring at with a sad look. His eyes opened wide.
"Wow.." he couldn't restrain from saying.
Right in front of him, a sea of green, blue, and orange lights colouring the sky under the starlight was taking place. A beautiful ballet of large and slowly moving from side to side lights invading the sky completely hypnotised him.
"This is what I wanted to show you tonight," said Niris with a small voice. "The elemental spirits are enjoying the cool temperatures and the strong wind corridors coming from east, north, and west that make it easy for them to fly mindlessly. That's how they gather energy here. Those winds are full of natural energy."
Seiran didn't say a word. The scenery he had in front of his eyes was one of the most beautiful things he ever saw.
"This is so beautiful," he whispered, afraid to scare the elemental away if he talked too loud.
They stayed silent for a moment, admiring the sky. Sharing this silence was healing them. Niris was cooling down his anger, keeping only the sadness that was left in him, and Seiran took this time to reflect on his actions.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have suggested having dinner with Efty. I should have kept my promise and talked to you before deciding anything on my own when I told you I would exclusively give you some of my time."
Seiran started talking slowly, once he felt his emotions settling down after looking at the incredible dance offered by the elemental spirits.
"I should have taken your feelings more into consideration and prevented anything like that to happen. I won't let this happen again, I promise."
The angel stayed quiet. His tears had been swept away by the wind during his flight. He was so angry at the demon at first that he had decided not to talk to him until tomorrow, but now that they were both looking at the dancing elementals together, he felt calmer and more open to forgiving the demon. He wanted to forgive him. The thought of being away from him hurt too much and he couldn't bear it any longer. That's when he saw the beautiful's demon face in his field of vision he knew he wouldn't be able to resist him any longer.
"Would you please forgive me?" finally asked Seiran, with a pleading smile.
The angel looked at him for a moment then turned his head with a soft "mmh".
"So I'm forgiven?" He asked again while getting his face closer to the angel's.
The latter turned his head, still pouting but without rejecting the demon's attempt to get closer.
Melting inside at the look at his boyfriend's cute reaction, Seiran placed his legs on both sides of him and embraced him from behind. Niris let himself in. That was exactly what he had in mind for this night even if things didn't go as planned.
He took Seiran's hand in his and held it. Seiran squeezed it back and put a soft kiss on the angel's soft dark hair.
"Thank you for being my boyfriend, Niris. You're the most precious to me. I feel grateful every day for having you by my side."
He said, snuggling his nose in the angel's neck. Niris gave in and slightly brushed his head on his boyfriend's cheek.
"Me too. Thank you for being with me," he said softly.
Then, he turned his head until he met the demon's gaze. Slowly, the demon bent down to reduce the distance between their lips and kissed him with delicacy. They bumped their foreheads, smiling at each other, and then they both turned back to observing fading lights that were still going on under their eyes. They stayed here, enjoying the moment together, sharing their love with the celebration of nature by the elementals.