Chương 26: Angels Have Acne Part 1

"Noe," Daniel's voice whispers in the gentle dimness of the bedroom. Immediately, Noe opens his eyes, springs off of his mother's lap where he slept, and stands in front of Daniel.

"What's wrong?" Noe's head darts left and right.

Daniel places his hands on Noe's forearms, "Nothing's wrong really; I don't want you to sleep uncomfortably. Let's go sleep on the couch."

Rubbing a half-lidded eye, Noe takes in Vivian's snoring form. Vivian turns over and gives her back to Noe and Daniel before, unbeknownst to them, opening her eyes and staring at the bedroom's wall.

"Are we sleeping together on the couch?"

Daniel softly clears his throat, "You must not know what sleeping together means."

"No, I do," Noe looks deeply into his eyes.

"We are just going to sleep next to each other... on the couch," Daniel exits the room.

"What a shame," Noe breathes before deftly closing the door on his way out.

Vivian soon snoozes back to sleep.

After ten minutes of preparing for bed, one lamp remains lit as the soulmates find themselves in a precarious situation.

Lying on their sides, Daniel and Noe share eye-contact on their nerve-wracking journey to falling asleep beside one another. Noe can see the tiny droplets of water that crystally cling to Daniel's curly locks. A white blanket covers them in a mist of warmth.

"There's enough room on the couch for us to sleep separately," Daniel states.

"Yes," Noe shuffles closer toward him, forming another blanket between Daniel and the rest of the world, "there is. But, there's only one pillow," Noe's logic is astounding.

Blue eyes close against black as Daniel musters up his courage.

"I'm sorry, Noe."

An apology.

A beat between uncertainty.

A bridge to the future.

"What are you apologizing for?"

"All the words I said out of fear. The way I behaved for my own self-interest instead of thinking about how you would feel. You deserved to be loved in as many different colors and emotions as there are across the universe and beyond realms. As your soulmate, I know the magnitude of all that love is within me. I've thought about it a lot and you were right - I cannot continue to live my life to appease other's opinions or I'll risk losing what truly matters to me."

"You're forgiven," Noe grins. "Can I hug you?" he asks softly.

"Yes."

Engulfing Daniel in his presence, they sink into each other until their bodies lock into place. Noe lets himself linger in the comfort and peace this linkage gives him - the deep breaths he feels he has never had a chance to take in his life, the rhythm pulsating against the flesh of his neck, the scent wafting into his nose.

"I'm sorry for raising my voice at you when we argued near the hall in the shantytown," Noe begins. "You are the most precious possibility I shall have in this eternity. I was so scared that I would lose you but that is no excuse for yelling. I guess we should both just work at getting better at this... together?"

Daniel's arms tighten around Noe's broad shoulders, "Together."

Noe and Daniel are all smiles as their crescent eyes meet. Noe's hands roam the encompassing heat of Daniel's back and travel down the tiny hills of his spine. An atmosphere becomes them.

"I really want to kiss you," Noe whispers.

"We can't do that until you know who I really am."

"I don't care who you are. You are Daniel."

"And you are Noe."

Falling deeper into each other's eyes, they swim in the golden ambrosia of Veren and disappear down the rowing boat of slumber.

Wind whistles in Noe's ear as what feels like Daniel's hair slips into his mouth, sticking itself on his tongue. The strands do not taste too bad but the overwhelming waves of drowsiness Noe is experiencing are alarming.

"Mgh," he utters attempting to speak, open his eyes, roll over, do something.

"He's waking up," Rosalind's incessant tone reaches to him in the padded and insulated chasms of complete relaxation.

"Mgh," Noe tries again. After ten minutes of struggling, the trance finally breaks and he leaps into action.

Shielding Daniel's body with his own, Noe asks, "Where are you?" Flames flicker onto Noe's fingertips fed by the raging wind about them.

Noe's eyes slide open like granite doors to the black chambers of infinite knowledge,

"You said he wouldn't be able to wake up until we got there!" Rosalind berates Feng Mian.

"He shouldn't have..." Feng Mian adorns a calculating expression. "I put my strongest will into keeping you asleep. No Ephrene would be able to overcome it. How did you break past my defenses?"

"What is the meaning of this?" Daniel stands up beside Noe and the two use each other as stabilizing walking sticks - using their slight swaying as an excuse to intertwine their arms and waists and sides.

"We've been betrayed," Noe informs Daniel.

Finally surveying their environment, it appears that they stand upon Rubin in the mid-morning of the day, heading North over the wastelands of the Earth.

"By all of my friends," Noe adds, watching Rubin happily wave her tail as she flies along.

"We didn't betray you," Feng Mian defends them.

"We told you that we'd only be grabbing your soulmate before going to Northville for our own. You can't be selfish enough to expect us to have quietly remained in Westville with you and your teacher," Rosalind scorns.

"You? Talking about not being 'selfish'?" Feng Mian scoffs.

"Did yo- did you just scoff at me?" Rosalind gasps in mock horror.

"I'm just saying that I didn't expect you to be a hypocrite too," Feng Mian retorts.

"What's wrong, Feng Mian? Do you have a cold?" Daniel steps forward to assess Feng Mian's forehead for fever.

"Stop," Rosalind warns Daniel. "Stop it. Don't touch her!" Before she has a chance to grab Daniel's arm, Noe smacks her hand away.

They come to a standstill with Noe glowering at Feng Mian and Rosalind, Feng Mian and Rosalind glaring down Noe, and Daniel pondering the cause of Feng Mian's change in temperament.

"When you were figuring out this master kidnapping plan of yours, did you ever think about the hundreds of thousands of people waiting to become destitute? The desperate parents who need us to uncover the truth to their childrens' deaths," Noe accuses.

"Oh, please. They don't 'need' you to do anything for them," Rosalind rejects. "They are completely capable of fending for themselves. Didn't you see the number of shantytown residents who secretly attended the rally? I'm sure they have their own plans in mind. Stop trying to play hero."

"And you should stop trying to play innocent," Feng Mian interjects.

"When did I ever disguise myself as the victim?" Rosalind turns to look Feng Mian dead in the eye.

"What are you two talking about?" Daniel asks.

"We're talking about none of your business," Rosalind tells him.

"Don't speak to him like that," Noe's flames of fury reemerge.

Sensing the surge in Noe's emotions, the small flames that consistently flicker on Rubin's skin surge sending heat down Feng Mian and Rosalind's legs.

"Hey!" Rosalind shouts with her spittle drizzling Feng Mian's face.

Dragging a palm across her forehead and eyes, Feng Mian says to Noe and Daniel, "We couldn't wait any longer to go and get our soulmates. Watching you and Daniel every day being by each other's side while we were alone caused a tear in our hearts that can only be fixed by our pairs. As soon as we find them, we can go back to Westville and complete our mission. Are you content with that answer?"

Noe and Rubin's flames calm. Without sparing the two a glance, Noe sits down and brings Daniel in his arms, reclining against the side of Rubin's armor. The surface of Daniel's eyes reflect the white of the clouds and merge with the blue of the beyond.

"It's cold up here," Noe tells the man.

"Thank you for lending me your heat."

"My body is yours as much as it is mine."

Hearing that, Rosalind and Feng Mian scurry as far away from them as Rubin's silver armour allows, almost opting to jump into the nucleic radiation to flee from Noe and Daniel's sweetness.

Daniel speaks, "Since we seem to have some time to kill, now seems like a good time to ask you what you are."

"It is a good time."

"So, what are you?"

"I'm an Angel, the Ephrene of Forgiveness."

"Can you tell me exactly how you found that out and what that means?"

"I was sure I was going to die the day I disappeared from Sympathy. Instead, I woke up on the back of a dragon, Copernicus, the companion of Angel Adelaide. They took me to the Fields of Ziraeth, a place similar to heaven but not, where I learnt that my Father is the Omniscient, the Creator of all things.

"I spent four years learning exactly what it means to be the Ephrene of Forgiveness; my abilities lie in the manipulation of oxygen and my duty is to forgive resentful souls lingering on Earth. The girl who grabbed your hand in the ally and all the zombie-esque students at The Ridge Public School were resentful souls that you can see only because our souls are intertwined. Being soulmates means half of my soul now belongs to you and half of your soul to me."

Thus ends Noe's comprehensive history of his angelic life.

"That was rather short but effective," Daniel impulsively comments on Noe's language after having taught and critiqued for many years.

"Why did you stop working at Sympathy?"

"I joined that school because I wanted to help kids who had similar experiences growing up as I did find their passions in life. After you left, a few problems were revealed to me about Sympathy that I could not even tolerate the thought of. I had filed many police complaints against the school in the past that had not been addressed. I tried to publicize the problem but the school's connections run deep and true. I ended up punching the Headmaster in the face and was asked to turn in my letter of resignation. There was no better way to go about it - what is one teacher against decades of systematic ignorance and exploitation?"

"One teacher is everything," Noe snuggles closer into Daniel and Daniel nods his head deeper into Noe's chest.

"Do you have any more questions?" Daniel murmurs.

"Why do you always smell so nice?" Noe inhales the scent of dewy wood, pistachios and sunlight that radiate from Daniel's hair. "You always smell so nice."

"Nice isn't a good adjective but it sounds so nice when you say it. Oh," Daniel chuckles shortly and softly as the two soulmates drift into sleep as one. Noe smells nice too.

Five hours later, Rubin's hesitation rouses Noe. Bringing Daniel into his arms so as not to detangle them, Noe stands beside Feng Mian and Rosalind who look in anticipation at the dome marked 'N' on its side.

At the base of the ever tall domescrapers, it seems as if the cement juts up bumpily. Only upon travelling into the lead barrier does Noe realize what the cement bumps truly are.

Millions, no, billions of ghosts cover the land within the dome forming a sea of bodies that remind Noe of a zombie outbreak.

"How did you survive living in there all your lives?"

Rosalind and Feng Mian share a glance as Rubin draws closer and closer to an ocean of trouble.

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