We've Got Time

It was so much more.

So close.

A feather light touch begging to take hold.

Zero opened his eyes and waited.

Watching.

Violet appeared as Ivy rose over him, her forehead gracing his.

Eyes closed.

Connected.

Voiceless.

Heard.

While his hand slipped to the side of her thigh.

We have to go

Hers to his cheek.

We can’t

His trailing higher.

We’re already so late

Her fingers pressing.

Our place is still here

On her hip.

Alright

Caressing.

We’ll get there soon

Crimson returned with violet, lips meeting, pulling apart.

Ivy smiled, bright and welcoming. “Good morning!”

She was so beautiful. So loving. So caring. The way she always gave without ever asking for anything in return. How she knew what was needed. How she carefully and gently tended to it. The way she took from herself so that he wouldn’t have to. How she comforted. How she guided the way.

She was everything.

Everything he needed.

“Good morning.” He smiled back as he pulled her back down to him, lips demanding and greedy.

How he wanted more.

To quell the fire, the burning.

To further bask in the light, the warmth.

To completely become one.

But we all make sacrifices.

So, he would continue to wait.

Patiently.

As he had for so long already.

The girl separated and lowered herself to his chest, resting above his beating heart. “When do you think we should go back in there?”

The devil stared at the roof of the tent that they had taken refuge in. There was no way the pair was going to attempt venturing into the cottage the night before, not with Sakura screaming, throwing things, and carrying on the way she was. Even Ren, the one who thrived on pushing the vixen over the edge on a regular basis, was hesitant to go anywhere near the home that was barely managing to contain the chaos within. There certainly was a lot of talk from him though claiming that he was going to rectify the situation and calm the woman, but he held off for as long as possible with one excuse after the other of having to get the floor done. The man probably would have worked through the night had Ivy not scolded and shooed him away to deal with the consequences of his actions. He had created the mess, and it was his responsibility to fix it.

Zero kissed the top of Ivy’s head and held her tighter, grateful to be in a place of security than one of savagery. “Not anytime soon. Let them clean up the mess they made first. Just go back to sleep.” The boy was sure the house was in shambles, but as Ren had said, it wasn’t Zero’s home; therefore, not his problem. Ren had also told them to stay out of his castle and now was definitely not the time to disobey the man who saw himself as a king.

When they finally did build the courage to take a peek at the aftermath hours later, they found the home mostly already cleaned up, and the woman in a fantastic mood as she bopped around pleasantly putting items back in their proper places.

The fae and devil had fortunately avoided the worst of it.

However, there was someone who hadn’t.

Ren turned to the pair, broom in hand, irritated at having had to clean all morning for a mess he didn’t physically make. “Oh, look who’s here. Nice of the two of you to show up when everything’s done.”

“You told us to stay out of your house,” Zero nonchalantly reminded him.

Shit.

The devil was right.

The man grumbled to himself, having nothing to say, knowing full well he did this to himself.

Ivy observed the pitiful angel, trying to make the connection of what was different about him before it clicked. “Why are your wings out?”

“Oh!” He glanced back, now remembering they were there. “Kinda misplaced my bracelet yesterday. It should be around here somewhere. Hopefully.” A smile followed after the girl as she went on the search without a further word. “Thank you, Little One.”

The boy looked around, his eyes falling on the open door to his room, seemingly in pristine condition. “Did you already clean my room?”

“Lucky for you, it was conveniently avoided in the devastation.” Ren glared at the untouched room with snarl to his lips before getting back to work. “Unlike my shit.”

That seemed like a hardship that wasn’t Zero’s concern. “Are you still going to The Kingdom?”

“Sure am!”

He watched the angel sweep up some shattered remains of Sakura’s rage into a dustpan. “When?”

“Whenever I get around to it. They can wait. I got other more important kingly duties to tend to.”

“Like what?” Cleaning didn’t seem like the noblest of causes.

Ren stood and pondered it carefully; face scrunched in deep concentration. “I don’t know, I didn’t plan that far ahead. Want to go down to the river and fish when I’m done here?”

The boy did want to go fishing. He enjoyed it very much, and it was one of the only times when the angel wasn’t babbling constantly. He said it was because you never know what a fish will do, and he had to focus. A fish could take the bait or pass it by. Sometimes open their mouths wide like they’re going to swallow the entire hook just to spin around and swim off. Zero liked to fish. He liked the quiet and tranquility of it while still having the feeling that he was doing and achieving something. “Okay.”

The man nodded, just as excited for the outing. “Alright, let’s go catch some fish. What about you two? You coming?”

Sakura snorted and rolled her eyes as if she were above it all. “I have a parasite to kill. I don’t have time for fishing. I need to prepare.”

“No, thank you. I think I’ll stay here and help Sakura,” Ivy said softly with a small pout while she poked around the fireplace, sifting through the ashes. She never liked watching anything suffer, and she certainly didn’t like being the cause of that suffering. “What’s a parasite, though? Why does The Kingdom want you to kill it?”

“Raz said they were pests that an angry soul sacrificed themselves to,” the woman explained as she examined a cast iron pan she had nearly folded in half in her rage, reluctantly concluding she’d have to buy a new one. She really did need to learn how to control her temper long enough to make it into the yard where less of her things would be ruined.

Baby steps.

One outburst at a time.

“What does that mean?” the girl asked. “How do you sacrifice yourself to a pest?”

“It means someone was pissed off and decided to kill themselves by allowing a pest to eat them.”

Ivy gasped, her heart dropping with the revelation. “That’s awful! Why would they do that?”

Sakura shrugged, unable to even feign concern. “I don’t know. Why does anyone do anything that they do? For whatever reason, a person will let the pest eat them, and they become parasites. They’re mostly harmless until they latch onto another being, and then they can start consuming their host and everything around them. You have to be a real fucking idiot to let a parasite take you over though. It’s not like they’re tiny. If one’s on you, you’ll know. It takes time, and it’s painful. That’s why you never see them. It’s uncommon enough for one person to sacrifice themselves to a pest and even rarer for a second person to find that parasite and let it consume them, and they definitely don’t get big enough to do as much damage as the one in The Kingdom has done.”

“You’re wrong. It wasn’t an idiot who let the parasite take them,” Ren objected joyfully as he finished sweeping the debris from the floor. “It was a Rogue One, probably the only one with half a brain in their head, and they knew exactly what they were doing. That’s why he took it back to the North Wall. There’s nothing around for miles. No one goes that direction. It would have plenty of time to consume the wall and forest and grow before anyone would even realize it’s there.”

The poor, sweet girl was having a terrible time comprehending such atrocious things. “I just don’t understand why anyone would want to do that. Why would two people let a pest eat them and then take it to the heavens?”

A giggle bubbled from behind the angel’s ruthless smile. “Because they were fucked, and they wanted to fuck The Kingdom along with them. It’d be a real shame to let that Rogue One’s hard work go to waste. We’ll give it some time, let it fester, get bigger and stronger, take out some more of The Kingdom. Pay tribute to the one who sacrificed so much for the betterment of the people. They deserve it.” Ren was having a great time, and he wasn’t even in The Kingdom yet. Things could only get better from here.

If only everyone felt the same.

Ivy abandoned the search for the bracelet and rushed to the man, clasping his hands in hers, her eyes pleading. “Please, you can’t just let all those poor people suffer.”

Ren didn’t agree. “Fuck those people.”

Her rosy bottom lip jutted out. “There are babies and children up there, Ren.”

“Fuck those kids.” Panic rose in the man as the girl’s tears welled and threatened to fall. The passage of time should have made her hair-trigger distress easier for him to tolerate, but it didn’t. It only made it harder. “No, no, don’t do that. I didn’t mean it like that. Well, I did. Those little fuckers are assholes, even worse than the adults. You have no idea.” Her increasingly somber gaze and small whimpers made his stomach drop. He hated to see her like this, but he knew that nothing he wanted to say would fix this situation. He needed help. “Talk some sense into her,” he demanded of the demon with a forceful whisper. “She’s being unreasonable again!”

Sakura raised her hands in defense and stepped back, chuckling at his foolishness. “You did this to yourself. You deal with it.”

The man was in quite the frustrating predicament. He had already enraged his woman the night before and had just barely trudged out of that hole. Now, he was on the verge of making his girl cry, while all he wanted to do was go fishing with his boy. If he didn’t tread carefully, then he’d definitely make Ivy cry which in turn would probably anger Sakura once again, and him and Zero would miss out on outsmarting the fish in the river.

He didn’t like the option he had, but he knew that it was certain success.

Cave and give the girl what she wanted.

“Fine! We’ll go tomorrow, but not a moment sooner. Today, we fish.”

“Okay, thank you,” Ivy sniffled and wiped at her tears, content with the compromise.

Crisis averted. “What are you two doing?” The man looked between the devil and fae. “You staying here or do you want to come?

The two looked at each other, Ivy smiling sweetly at the boy.

“We’ll go,” Zero decided.

A fiendish grin spread across the angel’s face, blue eyes nearly glowing while onyx wings twitched with anticipation. “We have to fly up there.”

“I know.” The boy was not looking forward to it and was certain that the man would make it the roughest journey possible and do so with glee.

“Ah, don’t look like that!” Ren laughed at the paling in Zero’s face. “We’re going to have a great time. Just like we always do.” He glanced over at the room, his attention shifting instantly. “Oh shit, there it is. Of course, right when I stop looking for it.” The man went into the room and reached under the bed, pulling out the onyx bracelet and slipping it on. The wings vanished without a trace, and he returned to the boy. “Come on, let’s get out of here. We’ve got fish to catch.”

The devil nodded and turned to the girl, accepting her affection and giving his own, as he ignored the man’s groaning and complaining to hurry up and get it over with.

Sakura observed the pair: their bodies, hands, eyes, lips. The ritual of their goodbye. The reverence of one another. How it had shaped and shifted over time into what it was now. How it felt incomplete. How there was something more, just out of reach.

Ivy released the boy, and he made his way to the door following behind Ren.

“Zero,” the woman called out and he turned back to her. “Do you know what inbred means?”

His eyes narrowed slightly as a small sigh escaped. “I do.”

She pursed her lips. “Why do you let Ren tell people that?”

Zero shrugged. “Because it works.”