Zakeri sat on the low wall by the cafeteria, an uneaten sandwich sitting on its wrapper next to him. He held his wrist up to the light, looking at the number on it: 69. Even injured, in the hour long break between classes, he’d taken out ten more demons. Kissa had complained the whole time about how he was going to tear open his stitches, but he wasn’t using his swords. His gun didn’t require all that much movement- in fact, for most of them, he’d been sitting on that same wall shooting them right before they entered the safe zone.
Zakeri kicked his feet against the brick, bored, his gun in his lap and Kissa laid out in the sun next to him. “I hate lunchtime,” he sighed, checking the clip; he was down to a measly twelve bullets in the enchanted clip, which could hold a total of thirty. He was going to have to sneak away from the boys’ dorms to make more of them. As a human, he could make the blessed bullets on his own, but if any of the demons saw him doing it they’d know what he was immediately. And he hadn’t graduated yet.
If you’re bored, why don’t you go find Abriel? Kissa inquired, raising her face just enough to look at him hopefully.
Zakeri laughed at her. “You just want to see his familiar again,” he accused.
If Kissa had still been in her human form, she would have flushed red. Shut up, she hissed at him instead, tucking her nose under her paws and flicking her tail over it.
Her embarrassment only made Zakeri laugh harder, shaking, his hand on his stomach. “You’re just too cute,” he said, rubbing between her ears, her favorite place to be scratched. She tipped her head into his hand, purring, imagining he meant it in a way that didn’t mean she was just his pet.
“Hey,” an awkward greeting interrupted their sweet moment. Zakeri looked up to find Abriel, a hand rubbing at the back of his neck, his eyes down and his face flushed, “Are you… uh… are you going to eat that?”
Zakeri followed Abriel’s pointing finger to his sandwich and frowned. “What kind of question is that?”
A bitter laugh made its way out of Abriel’s mouth. “They’re not letting me in the dining hall after what happened in the classroom, when I lit up like the Human Torch.”
“I’m surprised you know anything about superheroes,” Zakeri said with a slight smile, scooting over on the wall so Abriel had room to sit. Mace hopped up, too, laying with Kissa, his head resting on her side.
Abriel shrugged, looking wistfully at Zakeri’s untouched sandwich. “It’s not I ever had anything to do but watch crappy movies.”
“Didn’t you have friends?” Zakeri picked up the sandwich, handing it to the demon, waving his hand dismissively when Abriel tried to give him half.
Abriel smiled gratefully; unlike most demons, he had a voracious appetite. He thought it was because of the flames requiring an insane amount of energy to fuel, burning him out quickly, but even Rahil wasn’t sure. Whatever the reason, Abriel dug into the sandwich with gusto. “Kids don’t tend to be friends with the weirdo who put his hand in the campfire and didn’t get burned,” he said without looking at Zakeri.
Zakeri looked sideways at the demon. “Well they don’t get along with the girly boy with the weird silver hair who plays every school sport and then some, but still gets perfect grades- especially not after the freak tries to kill himself,” he said reasonably. Then his eyes went comically wide, and a hand flew up to cover his mouth, as if by doing that he could stuff the words back in them.
Abriel laughed softly at Zakeri’s reaction. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. Just another one of your secrets I’ll have to keep,” he said with a sly smile.
“Shut up,” Zakeri muttered, glaring at the yin-yang of their familiars curled together, “I didn’t mean to tell you anything like that. It just sort of… slipped out.”
Abriel’s expression softened. “You think I meant to tell you any of that, either?” he questioned.
“I guess not,” Zakeri said, shifting uncomfortably, his eyes focusing on anything but Abriel- until something brown was shoved in his face.
“Eat this. Rahil will dismember me if I let you go without eating anything- he says you have a bad habit of going hungry, and I should bait you with something sweet,” Abriel said, wiggling the chocolate cupcake in Zakeri’s face.
Zakeri’s mouth watered at the rich scent of chocolate, but he sent a glare in Abriel’s direction. “You’re not my mother!” he snapped.
Abriel knew Zakeri was going to turn his face away before the silverette had the chance to do it; so when Zakeri did, he found his nose deep in the frosting. “What the hell!”
“I told you to eat it,” Abriel said, laughing as he took Zakeri’s hand and made him take the cupcake.
Zakeri glowered at him, but when Abriel made the motion anybody would understand as a threat to hit his hand and shove the whole cupcake into his face, he took the wrapper off the cupcake and took a bite out of it, getting more frosting on his nose. Abriel laughed watching the human try to be neat while he ate something deliberately chosen when he’d gone into the cafeteria- because, of course, he’d lied to have a reason to talk to Zakeri on Rahil’s behalf.
Zakeri reached out for the napkin that he’d picked up along with the sandwich and wiped the frosting off his nose, grimacing at the amount of the sugary brown stuff that came off. It had almost been worth making a mess of himself, though, seeing Abriel’s eyes so light, that carefree smile. “I am so never forgiving you for that,” he sighed, crumpling up the napkin and expertly shooting it into the trashcan at the end of the wall- the napkin sailed over Abriel’s head and went in without even hitting the rim.
When Zakeri smiled victoriously, Abriel found his eyes drawn to those lips, and the speck of frosting that remained. Without thinking, he leaned forward, and swept his thumb across Zakeri’s bottom lip to remove that errant bit of frosting.
He could feel Zakeri’s breath hitch; surprised, he looked up to meet Zakeri’s eyes. They were wide, those dark depths filled with something Abriel hated to think about. Because it wasn’t an emotion he could put easily into a box, push away as if it was nothing; it was the kind of emotion he would be forced to recognize, an emotion he’d have to do something about.
While those thoughts filled his doubtful mind, his body leaned forwards on its own, putting him closer and closer to the bewildered silverette who didn’t understand his emotions any more than Abriel wanted to face them.
“A… Abriel,” Zakeri stuttered, “W-what are you doing?”
Abriel didn’t reply, too caught up in the moment, and his lips met Zakari’s in the sweetest, softest way.
Zakeri froze under the touch of Abriel’s hand on the back of his neck, keeping him in place as Abriel’s lips moved against his. His thoughts moved in frantic circles- he didn’t know what to do, didn’t know why he felt so flushed, didn’t know why his face had turned bright red and why his heart thrashed in his chest. All he knew was it all had to stop. He threw himself back, and found himself on the ground, looking up at Abriel with a hand firmly over his mouth and his face redder than it had ever been.
Abriel, bewildered, had to blink himself back to awareness- shake his head so he was as horrified as that moment called for. “Zakeri, I… I’m sorry, I thought-” he stumbled to a halt, putting his hands out as if the right words would just fall into them, “I’m just… so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He was on his feet, stumbling over them as he stumbled over his words, leaving Aokasai leaning against the low brick wall and Zakeri staring after him, his hand still firmly in place and his face still red as he wondered what in the world had just happened.
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