Breakfast

{Raziel}

The late afternoon light was almost blinding.

Yet Raziel was shielded from it, protected. He curled further under the thin sheets and sighed, enjoying the sense of warmth and safety that always came when he was curled so close to his father.

He savored moments like this, brief and all too far apart moments when he felt like a fledgling again, safe and protected by the one creature on Nosgoth everyone was afraid of. Everyone but him. He smiled a little into the sheets, still refusing to open his eyes, still refusing to accept what had happened.

Instead he nuzzled forwards, curling against his lord who currently still lay sleeping, his back to his fledgling. Raziel smiled more so, feeling the ever so faint heartbeat through the soft skin of his lord’s back. He almost purred, pressing against the slightly warm skin as he felt the muscles twitch in response.

His smile faded slowly as he felt himself brush up against newly healing skin. It still had a thin texture, and was not quite as smooth as the rest of Kain’s back.

Crinkled slightly, and still obviously sore.

It was then that he opened his eyes.

The illusion was completely gone, destroyed. Raziel moved back a little and swallowed, looking at the injury he had caused. The left side of his Lord’s back was still a complete disaster.

Admittedly it wasn’t as bad as it had been last night. A brief flash of raw burnt, bleeding skin flashed in his memory and Raziel pushed it down. Now the skin was faintly pink, taking on his lord’s natural painless as it healed. The burn fading, thankfully. 

He leaned back further, not wanting to touch it, least he hurt his lord more so.

It was unusual for him to be so timid. Normally, he enjoyed it when his lord managed to get scraped. The healing skin was always so wonderfully sensitive, and the scars rarely left behind were always such fun.

The thin scar than ran from the bottom of Kain’s ribs into his stomach was always his most loved. He loved how remarkably responsive the skin was, the fact Kain would twitch and the small hairs on his arms and legs would rise to attention when he ran his claws over it and how his lord would all out purr when he licked it.

But this wound was different.

This one was his fault.

It was pathetic really. He was three hundred years old. Three hundred years in this world and still he couldn’t be trusted to look after himself and his followers properly or even accomplish the simplest commands.

It had been a basic task, one he had completed before many times without fail, and that must have been what had made him so arrogant. He had underestimated his enemy and ignored his father’s words.

“The humans are dying out fast, they are desperate and nothing is more dangerous than a desperate human, trust me.”

And because of his recklessness, his arrogance and his pride many of his men had died He himself had almost died . . . Kain had almost died.

He sighed louder than he meant to and froze when his Lord mumbled something in his sleep and half rolled over before falling still again.

He had to some extent been showing off in the raid, he knew this; he had known it while he had been doing it, and yet he had not slowed down, had not thought, he had just continued on. He was the first born, he was the most powerful of his brothers and . . . Kain had been watching.

He thanked what ever dark gods that approved of them that Kain had been or he most defiantly would be dead.

To his everlasting shame he’d been cornered, driven backwards by several human warriors. He had half wondered why the further back they had driven him the more excited and frantic they became, he hadn’t understood, until he’d glanced up at the wall he’d been driven to.

On the rim perched an oil vat, no doubt full of water.

He’d watched as it started to fall.

He’d watched as the water had started to fall, tumbling gracefully down, the droplets catching the moon and fire light, making them shine like falling stars.

It was beautiful.

As he watched, it was as if time had slowed, he was able to see the individual droplets as they fell, getting closer to him where they would turn his pristine skin a horrid black. Yet he was unable to tear himself away. He knew it would burn him, kill him, but it had been beautiful.

Then suddenly he’d been staring at a boot, a boot that was half an inch from his nose. He’d coughed, spitting out what soil had managed to find its way into his mouth, and had turned.

Kain had moved quickly, but it hadn’t been quite quick enough.

The water had fallen; most of it was uninterrupted on its journey to the ground, but not all of it. The entire left side of his lord’s back had been caught in the blow. Raziel watched aghast as the skin turned crusty black and melted away, revealing raw muscles beneath, yet as fast as the skin was melting it was re-knitting. But that did not stop Raziel from gasping when he caught a glimpse of pristine white spine. 

A spell caused lightening to fall from the sky and it was enough to send the humans that survived it fleeing. Kain had slumped to his knees, teeth gritted for a moment. Raziel had watched him open mouthed, holding his breath, trying to ignore the scent of burnt flesh.

Kain had looked at him, and where Raziel had expected to see anger, he saw worry.

“Raziel, are you alright?”

A few moments, later when Kain had found his feet, Raziel had snapped back to himself and had almost dragged his Lord to a healer. Kain had protested every step of the way - he was healing fine on his own thank you very much, and did not need some inexperienced fledgling prodding at him – yet apart from the verbal protest he hadn’t really protested.

Eventually Kain had terrified the young healer enough into letting him leave. Raziel had tried to put up a fuss protesting that they stay in the war camp with healers on hand should it get worse, but as usual he quickly lost the fight and had been swallowed in the energy of teleportation, opening his eyes in the sanctuary.

Slowly Raziel reached out to touch pink skin with the tips of his claws, wanting to see if it had improved at all. Kain grunted at the touch and rolled from his side over onto his front, groggily opening his eyes. Eyes locked with his child for a few seconds before Kain sighed and yawned, displaying elegant and deadly dentistry.

“Stop it,” he muttered, slightly muffled by the pillow that he spoke around.

“My lord?” Raziel asked, sitting up on his knees, the thin sheet pooled around his waist showing a scarless torso.

“Stop sulking,” Kain grumbled, moving a little and tensing his shoulders while trying to hide how much it hurt him to do so.

A smaller clawed hand rested lightly on his shoulder. He glanced up again and saw a look of worry on his fledgling’s face. Once more Kain sighed.

“I’m fine, Raziel,” he muttered.

“You could have died and it would have been my fault,” Raziel said slowly, knowing how pathetic he must have sounded, but not caring. Kain looked at him seriously for a moment as if considering something. He looked sad for a moment before speaking.

“If I had to die, I would prefer it to be at your hand,” Kain spoke softly. Raziel blinked confused “I would rather die by one that understands me, even if only vaguely,” he smirked, “than by one who would never even if given a thousand lifetimes.”

“Kain . . .” Raziel whispered, not understanding. Kain’s smirk widened.

“It will take more than you to kill me,” his father replied, and for a moment Raziel could have sworn he saw something flash behind Kain’s eyes, an almost overwhelming sadness, but it was gone instantly.

“You’re not angry?” Raziel mumbled, eyes downcast.

“Should I be?” Kain shrugged, reaching up, placing a claw beneath his fledgling’s chin, lifting him so amber eyes met his own.

“It would make me feel better,” Raziel answered, confused at why his lord seemed so complacent, considering the amount of pain he must have gone through at his child’s hands. It was confusing why he wasn’t fuming.

Raziel, so lost in his thoughts didn’t feel the mattress dip as Kain moved, sitting up despite the pain, and was only snapped from thoughts when he felt cold lips brush up against his own.

“It will take more than you to kill me,” Kain said again, but the subtle glow in his eyes told Raziel he didn’t believe what he was saying.

The end

Authoress note: short and uneventful but it was spewed forth by my mind anyway.

I hope you enjoyed

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