Violet has Gabriel turn around, a large black and green bruise on his back. She sighs, "Is this from Ben?"
"No."
She tilts her head so she can see a little bit of his face from over his shoulder. "What happened?"
"Silver fell out of the sky and I caught her…. And cushioned our fall."
She nods and continues to treat his back, his wings relaxed on either side of her.
Without turning around to look at him, Violet demands, "Ben, take your shirt off. You're bleeding."
His face instantly goes red and he defensively crosses his arms, "No??"
Vi stands, handing Silver the hot rag to clean the cuts on Gabriel's back, and heads over to Ben who is now standing. She takes one of the rags from his hands. "Do I have to pry it off of you?" She asks quietly.
He glares.
Silver took the rag, gently cleaning the dirt and grass from Gabriel's back. "You didn't have to catch me." she whispered. "Gabriel…" she sighed, taking in the giant bruise.
Miki dramatically turned her back on Ben. "Don't worry, we won't look! Or I won't, at least. I think Silver is quite content with her view right now."
"Miki!" Silver snapped at her. "Will you cut it out??"
Ben slowly removes his shirt, obviously uncomfortable with the idea, and Kissa returns to the railing, invisible. She looks over both boys.
Hmmmmm
Gabriel chuckles at Miki's comment, setting his hands in his lap. "Sil?"
Cage opens the front door, smiling as he comes in. "Wow, you guys look like trash."
Miki kept the water hot and exchanged the used rags for clean, hot ones, walking backward when she had to approach Ben and Vi.
"Yes?" Silver replied, her voice small, pressing her free hand against her burning face.
"I know right?" Miki said to Cage. "They both did a great job."
Gabriel turns around just slightly, trying to see her face. "You blushing?" He says with a grin.
Violet exchanged rags with Miki. "Thanks, Love."
Ben glares at Cage, who approaches him. "You missed Robin!"
"I'll tell her I'm sorry."
Cage shoves him, apologizing quietly after Vi glares. "You'd better apologize. Did you guys really have to fight? Geez."
"Shh!" Silver said, trying to hide her face from him. "Don't move, I'm cleaning you up."
"But we still had a good time! We made her eat the ice creams and she lied and said they were good!" Miki said.
Gabriel looks ahead again, grinning. His grin fades and his eyes narrow. He suddenly goes invisible and looks up to he balcony. “Kissa!”
She shushes him, a hand to her lips.
Ben pretend gags. “You made her eat that? Yuck. I’m never letting you have her over agai- ow! Vi!”
She glares up at him, treating a cut on his right side near his pant line. “Shush.”
Silver let out a little yelp as he vanished, but carefully reached out and found him again by touch. She brushed her fingers over his skin to find the spots of dried blood to wipe off.
"Awww, but she was so nice about it! You should have seen her." Miki laughed. "She kept saying, 'No, you did such a good job!' and I was like 'IT'S DISGUSTING'. It was hilarious."
Ben rolls his eyes. “Augh, Cage you let her torture Robin like this?”
“Worse. I helped.” Cage responds.
Violet turns her head to the balcony where Kissa must be. “Go back to your room!”
Kissa sighs/growls and slouches, heading back and slamming the door behind her.
Gabriel materializes again, sighing.
Miki grinned. "She's so sweet. Maybe Cage used to be sweet like that. Before we became friends." she laughed.
"Guys, she's just worried about Gabe." Silver said, realizing what had happened. "Can't you have her come down and talk to her while we're cleaning them up?"
Violet glances over to Silver and sighs. “Alright, fine. But if she calls anybody wench, or anything bad, then she’s going right back up.” She turns her attention back to Ben’s wounds.
Kissa slips back down the hall and jogs down the stairs to Gabe, kneeling in front of him. “Did he beat you?”
Gabriel glares. “What does it look like?”
"They both won." Silver said. "Because they're both still alive." she finished with his back and moved to sit beside him, going to work on a wound in his side. "Eeeesh, Gabriel, he burned your arm so bad." she held her hand over a burn near his shoulder, not quite touching it.
Miki brought her a fresh, hot rag. "Silver, Kissa called you nasty evil names. Why are you being so nice to her?"
Silver glanced up at Miki, but only for a second. "Because she's worried about Gabriel and being mean back to her doesn't help."
Gabriel glances at the burn. “Ah, yeah. I guess so.” He gives a small shrug, obviously not caring much.
Kissa observes the burn on his ankle. “This ones worse.”
Cage joins them on the floor. “You’re talkative.” He chimes.
Gabriel rolls his eyes.
Augh. Like the 40th time someone’s said that.
Silver stifled a grin, sneaking a glance at Gabriel's face but trying to not draw more attention to how unusual to was for him to talk so much.
Miki leaned down beside Silver and whispered, "That's because someon–"
Silver reached back and smacked Miki's leg, hard, making her yelp with pain and run back to the kitchen.
Cage looks over Gabriel’s wings. “Wooooah. You know, I’ve never really seen your wings up close. They’re really cool.”
Gabriel gives another light shrug, “than-“
“They looks horrible. Look at all the scars on them, not to mention the fresh cuts. He does terrible taking care of them.” Kissa snaps.
Cage scoots away from her.
Geez.
Violet had Ben sit down and pushes his hair back to treat the gash by his hair line. “Goodness, how did you get this? Its deep and incredibly dirty.”
“A stick.”
Silver scowled at Kissa, but said nothing to her, just looked over his wings, taking note of the places she needed to attend to. I gotta find a way to help him take better care of them, she said to herself.
"They're just like a bat's wings." Miki said, bringing Violet a new rag and then coming back to join Sil and the others. "I love his wings because they make me think of a bat. Except. Like. If bats were as big as horses maybe."
Silver grinned, unable to hold it back. My vampire bat.
Cage tilts his head. “Ah. I like that they’re skin instead of feathers like Silvers and Kissa’s. It makes them creepier.”
Kissa raises an eyebrow. “You’d think they’d been lighter but they’re not.”
Gabriel purses his lips. “You’re all too kind.” He says dryly.
"I like them." Silver said quietly, touching the nearer one with her free hand. "I think they're pretty."
Miki grinned, biting her finger to not say anything else incriminating about them.
As soon as she touches them, they turn invisible and jerk upward above everyone. He glares over his shoulder. “No touching.” He hisses.
Kissa rolls her eyes. “Like you’re gonna treat those cuts.”
Cage gasps, the sudden gust of wind from the wings scaring him. “Ah! You’re so fast!”
"Ah!" Silver squeaked, snatching her hand back. "I just want to see what they feel like!" she said, fake scowling at him and turning her attention back to his side.
"Ha ha, nope. That's never gonna happen, Silver." Miki said, waving her hand around in the air above Gabriel's head. "See? I can't even find them and they were just here."
Gabriel shoves Miki with his wing. “Hmm, found it yet?”
Cage giggles, covering his mouth.
"Hey, that's cheating! I can't see it!" She swung her arms around where she had felt it touch her. "You can't just make them be gone! They have to be here somewhere."
Silver covered her mouth, trying to stifle her giggles and failing.
He shoves her with his wing again, this time making sure she fell on her butt. “Too bad.”
Kissa rolls her eyes.
You're so irritating.
"Augh!" Miki groaned dramatically and flopped back on the floor. "I give up. I'm no match for magical creatures of weirdness."
Silver snorted, her laughter spilling out. "Well, that was short lived. If you can't even win against Gabriel's wing, you're not any match for a real fight."
Miki waved her hand at her without moving or sitting up. "Y'all go fight. I'll have muffins waiting for you when you get back."
“Speaking of,” violet starts, “since they’re all here.” She whispers, tilting her head towards them.
Ben sighs, clenching his jaw for a moment.
“Ahhmmmm.”
Cage and Kissa peer around Gabriel at him and Gabriel turns a bit to look at him.
He gulps.
Silver paused, glancing at Ben and Violet over her shoulder, sensing the immediate and sudden change in the room. "Yeah… what happened? Why were you gone for so long, Ben?" she asked.
"Cuz he died." Miki whispered very, very quietly.
Cage tries his hardest to quiet a giggle.
Ben clears his throat.
Just say it.
“They know we’re here. And we don’t plan on running.”
Gabriel’s eyes narrow and he clenches his jaw.
D**n right I’m not running.
Kissa’s hands form fists and she glares, despite the rising fear inside of her.
Miki sat up, all serious now, and turned to face Ben and Vi. Silver swallowed, fisting her hand around the rag and taking a deep, slow breath.
"What happened? Was it your meeting?" She asked. "Was it a setup?"
He shook his head. “Not a setup. The place had too many people, so I couldn’t get out without being seen. I took a detour about twenty miles in the wrong direction so I wouldn’t lead anyone here. We’re safe for now. But-“ he pauses to look to Violet. She doesn’t seem to notice, “-But I don’t want them to jump on us when we’re not prepared. You all have amazing potential, but you’ve never really been… trained.”
“Me and Gabriel have been.” Kissa adds.
Silver nodded. "I mean, we've been working on our powers for the last two years but you're right, we haven't been specifically training for… a fight or anything."
