Chapter 5
Book Chapter 2
Ian, roughly tidying his tousled hair, leisurely boarded the elevator that had just arrived and pressed the button for basement level 6.
The building he had seen the angel off from was a tall building, and fortunately the elevator reached deep underground. The road for angels, who had to fly from buildings over 30 stories high, was troublesome, but the road for a demon, who had to find an elevator reaching basement level 6, was equally troublesome.
Well, at least there’s no need to spread wings, so is this a bit better? Suddenly the white, soft angel fluttering his wings came to mind again. Ian, arranging his hair while looking in the mirror, smiled quietly as he thought of the angel’s clear face.
The angel, who had smiled regretfully, saying he really had to go now, had, contrary to those words, held his hand for a long time. As he flew up gradually, the hand falling away brushed slowly until it reached his fingertips. Even though they had definitely promised to meet again, his fingertips parted so wistfully.
“…Even though we just met for the first time.”
Ian, slowly clenching and opening his hand as he looked down at it, glanced sideways out of the elevator that had just arrived at basement level 6. A cold, quiet parking lot showed for a moment, but Ian did not get off. The door closed slowly after a while. He reached out and pressed the B6 button again.
A few seconds later the elevator’s lights went out briefly and came on again, and an alien air rippled through the narrow space. And outside the elevator doors, opening with a soft slide, was not a parking lot but a dark space continuing on. A cold outside wind blew in with a whoosh.
“What?”
This is much closer to home? Why didn’t I know?
The moment Ian got off the elevator, he slowly looked around at the familiar road and surrounding buildings. The closed elevator melted quietly into the exterior of the black building that traveled to and from the human world. Ian, glancing back behind him for a moment, took a light breath and walked along the road as it was.
The forest stretching long along one side of the main road glittered faintly, and the low buildings continuing on the other side were dark, their lights out. Whether it was because the time to return to the Underworld had passed a little, it was only very quiet. Is everyone asleep? Well, whether they played here or went to the human world to play, it was a time when everyone would be asleep now.
He didn’t know what Heaven was like, but the Underworld had been similar to the human world since he was born. As the human world became convenient, the Underworld became convenient by that much. Of course it was a bit more alien and dark, but it wasn’t as if fires burned everywhere as in human movies, nor was it far from anything slick or sticky.
Since there was no sky to speak of, it was dark. But the trees and flowers growing in the black forest gave off soft lights of many colors, so it had its own charm. Around them, fireflies flying slowly were everywhere.
Just like a whole sky of stars fallen, flowing as a Milky Way.
“Come to think of it, they look alike.”
…The angel. Looking at the fireflies glittering by, Ian smiled quietly. The angel’s clear eyes, glittering just that much, came vividly to mind. Even his face, full of curiosity, looking with wonder at something as simple as opening a beer can.
Ian opened the black door of his house, which he arrived at sooner than usual. Inside the house, nothing was different from when he had left.
“…Hmm?”
What is it? Ian, hanging his rider jacket on a chair, suddenly narrowed his eyes at something fluttering down from inside the jacket. Bending down, he gazed quietly at the white feather that had fallen at his feet. A white, pale feather about the length of his palm fluttered faintly. Its tip was stiff but extended softly, and its lower part was fluffy like down.
Ian picked up the white feather. The feather, fluttering easily even at a breath, seemed to tickle even his fingertips that were just barely touching it.
When did this get in here? When he grabbed the ankle? When he held the angel in his arms just as he was?
Ian sat on the edge of the bed, then leaned his body over and lay down as he was. Bringing the soft feather up before his eyes, he looked at it with a gentle gaze. Ah, the angel becomes vivid again. The angel who, the moment his wings were stroked, smiled shyly with a face flushed red. And even my own mind, wanting to touch more, as if to prove I’m a demon, at seeing that.
He spun the lightly fluttering feather around with his fingertips. Somehow it seemed to give off a soft scent. Ian, who had been lost quietly in thought, soon sat up with a satisfied-looking smile.
Right, that will do. Not a single feather teasingly wrapping around him like this, but a whole wing, fluffy and complete, filling the spaces between his fingers.
If he touched every nook and cranny of the white wings stretching from his back down to his toes, that innocent angel would flush again and say, not knowing what it was, that it tickled. Smiling shyly, he’d twist his waist.
And if he kept touching him even then, what kind of expression would he make then?
“Since it’s a wish, will he just endure it…?”
Or will he mumble another clueless remark, not knowing what to do? That, too, seems like it would draw the eye. Looking at the pale feather, a deep smile was already spreading across Ian’s face. With a pleasant feeling that made even his waist tingle, Ian opened a book. On top of the black feather of his own, which he had been using as a bookmark for some time, he laid the angel’s feather over it and smiled with a still deeper gaze.
“Yuri…”
The smooth name felt, just in its pronunciation, like a bead rolling on his tongue. Rolling his tongue tip, which felt strangely bothersome for no reason, Ian stroked the feather one last time and closed the book. The moment he lay on the bed and closed his eyes, the angel with white wings spread smiled brightly. Calling his name, Ian.
Somehow the inside of his chest tickled.
***
“Why can’t I sleep like this…?”
Yuri made a groaning sound, “eung,” and tossed in bed. He pulled the white blanket up, fumbling with it, and forced his eyes shut. I have to go to the central temple later. I need to sleep quickly to go pray. He muttered in his anxious mind, but sleep only fled further away, cruelly.
Damn it. Yuri, slowly calming his noisy mind and keeping his eyes squeezed shut, got up abruptly from the bed not long after. I can’t sleep because it’s ticklish. Making a tearful face with his eyebrows drooping, he rubbed the wing-bone area, sliding his hand over it. Even scratching lightly with his fingers raised, the ticklishness didn’t go away. In the end he spread his wings and touched them here and there, but the bothersome feeling was the same.
Is it because my hands can’t reach…? That doesn’t seem to be it. Yuri, who had been unable to sleep in this state since a while ago, let out a heavy sigh with a whoosh. Thinking, let it be whatever it will be, he sat leaning against the bed and only blinked his eyes blankly.
“I’m definitely sleepy…”
His slowly closing eyes and his limply drooping body seemed as if they would fall asleep at once, but the moment he lay on the bed, sleepiness vanished cleanly. Ah, I don’t know. Letting out a short sigh again, he leaned his arm on the wide-open window and rested his face on it.
A clear breeze blew softly and scattered Yuri’s curling hair. The dawn sky he looked at with a quiet gaze was dyed pink and blue from below, and more stars were out than he had seen in the human world.
When I came back, it wasn’t this bright, but while I tossed and turned unable to sleep, the sun has risen this far.
Even when he folded his wings at the end of the cloud path after passing through the gate to Heaven, the surroundings had been dim.
…Did I have too much fun today?
Yuri lifted his head, which had been resting on his outstretched arm, and spread his fingers. The hands that had experienced so many firsts today were ticklish.
Still, the thing that stays in my memory most is that. Yuri, gazing quietly at his fingertips, buried his face in his arm and smiled shyly. The cool temperature and soft touch of the white hand he had held until parting lingered at his fingertips.
Ah, my wings are ticklish again. Yuri spread his hidden wings again and pulled the ends toward him. Fiddling between the feathers, not knowing where it was that bothered him, he pouted his lips, but somehow a warm feeling surged in his mind.
When he touched them, it wasn’t just ticklish like this. Yuri, stroking his wings with a blank expression, gently scratched around his waist. His own hand touching his wings felt just like that touch that had come to him insinuatingly. Slow, leisurely, and somehow heated as well.
“…Haa.”
Tormenting his lips, biting them with a slightly heated face, he leaned on his arm again. His cheeks were hot.
Pretending not to know the state of his body, Yuri only closed his eyes to the cool breeze and carefully pictured the languid face.
The question he had thrown out with difficulty, asking if they could meet again, had become a next appointment with that one laughing answer. Yuri, the moment he got home, wrote it down on his calendar with a very excited expression, pressing hard. Adding even a cheerful drawing after the letters “Ian.”
What shall we do then? Everything we did today was fun. Listening to music was good, the drinks were tasty, and dancing was too. When my ankle was grabbed I was a little surprised, but that was good too…
Ah, come to think of it, there had been a wish, too. If it was something I couldn’t do, it wouldn’t work. Yuri murmured the day’s events to himself, then smiled with his eyes closed.
He had blurted out a wish to a demon he was meeting for the first time, but strangely, he had a feeling that demon wouldn’t ask for anything he couldn’t do. After all, that demon had caught him several times today when he staggered. He had done everything Yuri said he wanted to do. Even while teasing him about nearly getting into danger, he had blocked it all himself.
It really feels like it’ll be fine… With that demon, it really feels like it’ll be fine.
Savoring the hazy smoke and the sharp smell of liquor, Yuri also recalled the demon’s arms around his waist. He had said dangerous things, but he didn’t feel dangerous, so with that demon, really, it all felt like it would be fine.
Yuri nodded with a faint movement. Leaving the ticklish feeling around his waist just as it was, he spent a long time smiling, lost in thoughts of the demon.
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