About an hour into painting, both got a little giddy. None of the windows were open and neither had noticed. Trowa began laughing at a joke that only he seemed to have heard, grinning idiotically, �Ok Amber, get this. If a hippopotamus steps on a flea, does the flea need first-aid?� Amber laughed equally as hard, dropping her brush on the plastic that covered the floor, �I think it would need flea-aid Trowa!� They burst into a new round of laughter, Amber falling to the floor along side her brush. The silencer sat down beside her, clutching his stomach, �That was good! Flea-aid! Does that have anything to do with sugary drinks?� The two teenagers continued to giggle for several minutes longer until Amber slapped a handful of paint on Trowa�s chest, �Hand of doom!� He stared at the light blue splotch before dipping his hand into the paint; he wrote �Trowa� in large letters across her chest, �You�ve been claimed! By me!� He started to laugh as maniacally as he could in his current state. Amber growled, �You want to play that way then? Take this!� She wrote �Amber�s� across the butt of his jeans and �property� down the back of his left leg, �There! It�s art!� Suddenly, Trowa locked his mouth over hers, pressing his paint covered hands against her back. Amber grabbed the back of his head, holding him there. As both sank back against the tarp on the floor, flame consumed them from inside.
This was virtually the same position that Duo found them in as he came up the stairs, �Wow, um, am I interrupting something? If I am, I can leave�What is that smell?!� Duo sniffed the air tentatively, �It smells like fumes or something, what have you guys been doing up here?!� He looked around the room when they didn�t respond; seeing the paint cans and brushes, he knew the answer, �Didn�t you guys open the windows or anything. No wonder you�re fried. Come on, time to go downstairs!� Both groaned as he pulled them up and towards the stairs. Amber attempted to punch him as they went. Once in the living room, both began to return to their normal state, a headache throbbing in each of them. Trowa glanced over at pilot six and was forced to stifle the sound of his own surprised laughter. She glared at him, �What?� The tall green-eyed pilot shrugged, �Nothing�but, can you promise not to hit me when you look in the mirror?� Amber now regarded him with suspicion, �Why?� �Just promise me that you won�t hit, shoot or stab me, please.� Her curiosity growing, the huntress got up to head into the bathroom, but was intercepted. �You have to promise me first!� She stomped the ground with frustration, �Fine, I promise! Now move!� He did what Amber asked of him but began a silent retreat up the stairs. Her yell from the bathroom sent him running, �I�m going to kill you Trowa Barton!� Turning on her heel to follow, she stopped in her tracks. The mark she had left sent her into a fit of giggles, �Never mind.� The silencer paused halfway up the staircase, �What?� When he reached the bottom again, she was already gone. Light laughter drew his attention to the door that separated the kitchen from the living room; a small blonde stood there, �She�s become very possessive over you Triton. Unless I�m wrong.� The tall Latino cocked his head to one side with his continued confusion, �What are you talking about, Quatre, and what�s so funny?!� The younger angel shook his head, a slender hand covering his mouth, �Its nothing, don�t worry about it.�
Both stopped as a faint ringing was heard; it came from a backpack on the floor. Trowa stooped to pick it up, �Amber, your phones� ringing.� When she didn�t respond, he dug it out of the bag. Quatre frowned, �Don�t dig through her stuff Trowa, she won�t be happy. What are you doing?!� Pilot three pressed talk and held it up to his ear, �Hello?� The voice on the other end seemed to hesitate, the deep tones were heavily British, �Is �Eather there?� Grinning wickedly, Trowa answered, �This is Miss �Eather�s personal secretary, how can I help you?� A quick hand struck the back of his head, �Give me my phone you jerk!� He gave it to her, laughing hysterically. �Daniel? Sorry, that was a friend of mine, he was just being a jackass�today? Sure, I�d love to�I know, it has been a while�That sounds good! See you then!� As she put it away, the tall youth poked her side, �Who�s Daniel?� Amber rolled her gray-green gaze at him, �None of your business, besides, why does it matter to you?� Quatre shook his head and left, feeling a storm brewing between them. Trowa noticed that she�d donned a fresh shirt, but said nothing about it, �Is it your boyfriend? Lemme� guess, you�re going on a date with him today?� She sighed but he continued before she could utter a word, �Can I come?� His last words seemed almost sincere as he said them, Amber faltered, �Why?�No! Trowa, no, you�re not going to follow me on my date! I�ve known him for years and am not going to let you come!� The green-eyed teenager looked down on her solemnly, �Have you researched his background? Are you sure that he is who he says he is? I know almost all of the Oz spies by the sight of them alone, I could make sure that you weren�t in something without realizing it.� Amber paused to consider him; she had looked up his background and could find no match, but that could be blamed on the fact of the record keeping. She sighed again, �I don�t wasn�t to see you and I don�t want him to see you, got that?� The dark golden Arch nodded with understanding.
A blood red sun sank slowly behind the city line, two sets of eyes watched it go down. One pair hazel, the other a light gray-green. Amber sighed heavily, �It�s been a long time since the last time we�ve done this. How long has it been since our last actual date, Daniel?� The blonde British man casually draped an arm over her shoulder, �Seems like ages, eh� �Eather? Probably two, three months.�
Another set of eyes watched them from across the street; these eyes were a dark emerald. Trowa was sipping blandly at a soda he�d purchased so he could stay on the restaurant�s patio. He frowned deeply, he knew this demon, it was not one he trusted with his friend�s heart. This demon had been known for entering a relationship only for a girl�s body; he didn�t trust him at all. The silencer subconsciously crushed the can of soda in his fury, dark, sticky liquid flowing between his fingers. Determining that he couldn�t just sit back and watch Trowa paid for his half empty soda and left the table.
Makima, as the demon�s true name was spoken, was about to suggest a movie to his quiet date when a familiar form came up the park�s sidewalk. The darkly clad demon leapt to his feet, �Poseidon! What are you doing out �ere? I �aven�t seen you for our usual drinks�This is the fabulous girl I�ve been telling you about, �er name is �Eather. �Eather, this is one of my friends, Poseidon.� She nodded to him, thinking that she�d seen him somewhere before. In order not to be noticed, Trowa had managed to change his appearance a great deal. His usually spiky hair mass was brushed back into a well-controlled ponytail and he�d bought an all new set of cloths for the occasion, some that had never been seen in Amber�s wash cycle at least. For final touches, an earring stud adorned his left ear. He smiled faintly, �Pleasure, on my part of coarse.� Poseidon took her hand, knelt and kissed it, bringing a growl from Makima; �I was just introducing you, not inviting you to steal �er.� Smile broadening, Poseidon rose to his feet, �Tell me, Makima, how am I not to resist? She has some charm to her.� Amber blushed faintly and frowned, �Makima? I thought it was Daniel.� The blonde demon tensed, but answered smoothly, �It�s a nickname, love.� Trowa tapped his shoulder for returning attention, �Makima, can I pull you from your date a minute, I have something to tell you.� Daniel excused himself and followed his drinking partner out of earshot, �What?� Pilot three cracked his knuckles, whether for intimidation or habit, Makima couldn�t tell, �Look, I just want to get something straight with you, Heather is a good friend of mine and if you hurt her, you�ll be answering to me. Understand that?� The older, darker of the two cocked his head with a smirk, �If you know �er that well, then why didn�t she seem to recognize you?� His thick accent made his words difficult to grasp, but it was something Trowa was used to, �Because she�s never seen me with my hair like this, she won�t recognize me unless I tell her it�s me.� The demon nodded, �Alright, I get it, but what�s she mean to you?�
Amber sighed and swung her feet; Daniel and his friend were still talking. She ran the image of his face over in her mind; she knew him from somewhere but couldn�t place him. The park was quiet today; she�d only seen one other couple walking a dog. The animal vaguely reminded her of Fang, black and white all over. It was much smaller than her hound, though, and skinnier. It probably had a name like Oreo or Cookie; she was getting hungry. Daniel was heading back towards her, the man she couldn�t place watched him for a moment then turned to leave. Amber grinned at him, �What was that about?�
The house was nearly silent: Jess cleaning various pieces of furniture, Quatre making minor adjustments to Sandrock, Duo playing some sort of shoot them up game, and Heero heading upstairs with a scowl on his face. He reached the top and paused to collect himself, speaking with Wufei had not been something he�d wanted to do today. Placing a callused hand on the doorknob, pilot one knocked lightly before entering, �Wufei, can I have a word with you?� The berserk angel was sitting cross-legged on his futon, playing aimlessly with a severed finger. He held it up as Heero came in and pulled on the dangling tendon, the finger bent, as it should, �Hello Heero!� Those blank eyes seemed filled with unnatural glee at making the detached appendage move with his words. The silver arch subdued his urge to hurl violently and glared at the creature that had once gone by the name of Chang Wufei, �Where did you get that?! Throw it away!� His glee melting instantly, Themis tossed it in the trash and showed Heero a perfectly good, five-fingered hand, �From here.� Helios furrowed his brow, �What do you mean, �from here�, you still have five fingers.� To show him what he meant; the berserker proceeded to pull out a dagger and slice off one of his fingers. The bloodstain on the carpet was quickly renewed and Wufei held up the newly severed digits, �See.� Bile filled Heero�s throat as Themis began to play with this new one, �Stop that, throw it away!� Doing as he was told, Wufei promptly grew a replacement and peered at Heero curiously, �What did you need of me?� Taking a mental note that he could regenerate, Helios set his mind back on its original task, �I wanted to know why you have made no attempt to kill Duo yet.� Knowing that when Duo was occupied, he could erase what remained of Jess�s memory of winged beasts.
Amethyst eyes were entirely absorbed in the television, war trained hands clutched a controller with all the might they contained, except what would break it. Duo didn�t recognize the white energy that neared him as a threat and didn�t acknowledge it, to taken in by his video game. Black demon wings twitched furiously behind his slender back, also moving with the speed of a game that flashed brilliantly on the forty-eight inch screen. The dark youth flexed the leather appendages as he reached a calm point in his play, �Ha, thought he could take me!� Wufei paused near the door, pondering how he was to attack that luring opening of Duo�s exposed back. His blank gaze roamed slowly over Shinigami�s ebony, claw tipped wings; he had an overwhelming urge to tear at their darkness. He loathed them for the evil they radiated, the darkness spread from them as a plague. A sword of nearly three feet of freshly sharpened steel floated gently from his grasp to hover lightly in the air by his temple, but it did nothing to satisfy him. The berserker wanted those wings to be impaled with more than just one length of steel; he wanted many piercing them.
Dozens of weapons pulled themselves from their places on the wall in Wufei�s room, summoned by his will. They came to hover with his blade all about him, waiting for further order. A grin spread wildly across the Chinese warrior�s face and the deadly pieces of metal shot forward as though he�d fired them from a taut bow. The first to strike was a sword, driving itself to the hilt and continuing its forward motion. Pain exploded across the tender membrane of flesh and rocketed down Duo�s spine as though it was chased. Then the rest hit. Their force shoved the demon forward several yards, most slicing straight through. The edge of Duo�s wing ended pinned to a wall graffitied with weapons and splashes of crimson. Gasping to catch the breath he�d lost to his silent screaming, Duo pulled his tattered wings tightly to his back. They were yelling with a different voice that consisted of jolts of red hot agony that seared down the creature�s shoulders and sent spots dancing before his unseeing eyes. Reaching up with trembling fingers, he released his flesh from the wall with the hard jerk on a throwing star. Its edges ate into the pads of his fingers, biting sharply at bone. Dropping it, he realized that he was still in danger. With his last burst of will, everything around him crawled to a standstill, including the blood rolling smoothly down the once whitewashed walls. He turned slowly to find his assumption true, the point of a dagger was suspended inches from his head. A wave of sheer anguish swept over him as he rose unsteadily to his feet, he muttered several statements in his own harsh tongue and glared furiously at the berserk that still stared at the crimson stain that marked where he�d been kneeling. Managing to build the courage to assess the damage, Duo craned his neck carefully to take his first good look at the tattered leather that had once had the semblance of a pair of wings, �I�m going to need help with this.�
Once this was affirmed, the soul collector edged his way around his foe and out the door. Speckles of scarlet traced his steps down the stairs, streaking across the wall in several places Duo had leaned for support, and made their way into the kitchen. The trail abruptly halted there and formed a small pool as the demon had paused to stare into his girlfriend�s eyes with disbelief. Dull silver gazed back at him, replacing the familiar emerald he was so fond of. The reason for this was still standing in the kitchen, his arms crossed with satisfaction over his chest. Not wasting the precious time he had left, Duo turned from the malicious look on Heero�s face and felt desperately for the gold power that was ever present. It filtered softly from upstairs, a comforting hope. Making a slower pace going up than down, the blood caked youth used the last of his remaining strength to push open the door to Trowa�s room and release his bond on time. A tired grin cut his face as darkness eased the hatred, pain, and exhaustion that fought each other fiercely in his mind. The welcoming ebony consumed him.
Triton barely managed to catch the crumpling, tattered form that had appeared in his door-jam. He lifted Duo�s unconscious body with a furrowed brow; his eyes wandered over the collection of wounds the longhaired teen had managed to obtain. Laying the slender, but powerful body on its stomach, the golden fallen summoned his power from the catacombs of his undying soul. It filled his hands at command and paused faintly in its transition to the darker boy. Healing demons wasn�t what the angelic force agreed with, but it was willed and it went. Trowa smiled lightly at some private joke as he remembered that he wasn�t yet a full fallen, it explained the power�s stubbornness. The process was difficult, but the leather of Shinigami�s wings sealed themselves up nicely, leaving only faint traces that there had ever been injuries. White brilliance flared up somewhere close by causing Trowa�s head to whip up; the angelic presence was blazing with fury. Someone with feathered wings was very angry and very close. The chestnut-haired pilot rose quickly to his feet and hurried to shut the door. He suspected that it had something to do with the demon that lay, unconscious, but healed, on his bedroom floor.
