A Friend? Or Devil?

( Author's Note*** (A/N): Sensitive thoughts/ actions are present. Readers are advised. Please seek help if you feel this way. )

Kalani's eyelids snapped open, dispelling the nightmare just before him. Like always, the gloom of his cavernous abode greeted his bleary eyes.

Squinting his eyes shut, the boy then let out low hiss of pain at his throbbing head. It felt worse than the guard's punch to the face. Yet amid the incessant drumming of his ears, he began to sit up, but his limp limbs refused to listen to reason. Losing control of his arms halfway, Kalani collapsed onto the rocky ground—hard.

His mind, which was already swimming, went blank from agony as he lay there sprawled on his back.

Then unlike his usual self, hot tears began to well in his shut eyes and rolled down his hollowed cheeks onto the chilled ground.

'It hurts. It's so painful… It's not fair. Just… why am I even alive alone?'

He shuddered and weakly reached out for something—anything. His palm scraped against the uneven ground, his blackened fingertips clawing.

'This can end,' the thought flashed through his mind, and his fingertips grasped a jagged rock. A flash of madness clouded Kalani's mind.

'Just one cut…and it will be over.'

Though before he think of more, a comforting warmth touched his burning forehead.

"Are you all right?" a soothing voice entered his ears, but Kalani did not answer or move.

In that moment, the cooling warmth of the palm made him relax his grasp on the rock. The touch reminded him of the past— of a mother long gone, and he leaned against the hand, slowly sinking into the memory of happier days.

Yet, the person seemed to not notice this and retracted their hand. Perhaps in last-ditch desperation, he grabbed the wrist and pulled the hand toward him; however, the hand he craved then suddenly struggled to break free from his grip.

"Don't leave me…" he murmured, delirious and fatigued, and the hand paused, still resisting his pull but not flailing around anymore.

Discomfort laced his words as Kalani recalled to mumble out, "Please…" A flash of clarity ran through his mind then as he realized what he had let slip out. He had never said this since their deaths.

A faint outline of his parents crossed his mind, and he winced at the return of the searing headache.

'Just live, even if all I do is for revenge…' the boy gritted his teeth amidst the blurring ache in his head.

But as the agony progressed, Kalani stopped caring to reason anymore; with his body subtly trembling, all he wished was to be released from this torture.

Another hand—apart from the one he grasped—then touched his cheeks. It seemed to flinch at the wetness by his shut eyes before gently wiping it away.

"I won't leave," the voice then replied softly. "Rest…"

Whether it was the voice or the chill numbing his fever, the boy was gradually lulled to sleep. Beside him, the winged girl watched silently, unmoving.

…

A faint sigh of relief left Nyx when she finally stretched her hunched back and wings after an hour of pure torture.

A crack in a joint made her sigh with relief at the released pressure.

'Holding that position almost killed my back,' she mused with a halfhearted grin. Leaning back from her sitting position, Nyx then let out a hiss. A quick glance revealed a bluish mark around her wrist, a sign that Kal's earlier aggression wasn't a dream.

She exhaled deeply, though not loud enough in case he would wake up again.

After a few moments however, Nyx then soured at the growing pain on her wrist. It seemed like she would have to deal with this for the next several days.

She poked Kal's cheek lightly several times, just enough to release her anger a bit at the perpetrator. Then a splendid idea popped into her head.

'I'll give you a new look buddy,' her upturned grin widened, painting a devious picture. A few minutes of fruitless searching later, Nyx finally found what she was looking for near the pile of mining tools outside Kal's abode.

She tentatively scraped off a layer of the sooty coal onto her palm before sneaking back in. A dab or two later, she giggled foolishly at the black mustache she had—oh so perfectly—drawn on Kal's face.

Then with visible glee, she inched her black fingertip toward his forehead. But in the middle of drawing the unibrow in, she felt something distinctly wet.

She immediately frowned, checking his forehead temperature with the back of her hand. He felt feverish despite the cool sweat beading on his face.

"He's going to catch a cold at this rate," she murmured in concern. "If I wrap him in my wings, he should get better."

'Maybe after I take off his shirt,' she then mused when she came into contact with his soaked clothes, but Nyx halted midway at the resurfacing words of her elder brother in the past.

[Remember Nyx, don't ever take off a boy's clothes until you're all grown up, alright?

His figure loomed over her younger self, who stood wide-eyed at the scene: the wheezing winged boy currently under Ako's butt. With a cheek caked in dirt and one leg twisted back, it was a sorry sight for the winged boy to be fair…

The winged child, or nestling, pinned under her brother's taller figure hollered back, "I was just asking her to unbutton the back of my shirt you bas—mmph!"

Akos put pressure on the boy's irregularly bent leg for a moment, which sufficiently shut the nestling up. However, the boy did pout, severely aggrieved.

"But brother, I help dress up Merle every day." Nyx recalled herself asking.

Akos turned to her with a blank expression while the nestling beneath him pounded the ground with a free fist, half wheezing and half laughing.

The nestling earned a grand wing smack in the face that day.]

Nyx couldn't help her lips from quirking up at the memory.

'Do forgive your precious younger sister this time, brother…' she thought. Tugging his shirt up, she then froze as her eyes landed on Kal's sculpted abdomen.

A chilled hand grabbed hers.

"What are you doing?" Kalani asked in a hoarse voice.

Nyx could only gape in shock. Unable to process, her eyes appeared to guiltily wander to the side, unable to look straight at him. What was with this terrible timing?!

Unseen to her however, Kalani's lips slowly curled up as he hastily rubbed off the coal streak Nyx had made earlier. It was his turn this time.

Propping himself up, he then leaned toward her with one remark, "What a perv…" A wicked chuckle left his lips.

Nyx choked on her spit, making the first sound he had heard from her; it was only then when she regained her voice.

"You were sweating," she finally managed to squeak out, still averting his gaze while her mind raced to regain its sanity.

"If you wished to touch it, you should have asked," he then whispered huskily into her ear, to which she reflexively swung a punch straight toward his gut— or almost did.

'Seems like she isn't aiming to seduce me,' he mused, coldly calculating as he continued to watch— perhaps with a hint of satisfaction— the blush creep onto her ears.

"Was talking about my clothes; what were you thinking?" Kalani then remarked with a shrug. His cheeky grin spread wider on his face as her eyes jerked back to meet his gaze.

"You!" Nyx then finally noticed that Kalani had rubbed off her drawn mustache and realized that he was most likely awake much earlier.

Much to Kal's surprise however, Nyx didn't bother to hide her glower.

But to Nyx, the boy's evident smugness as he forcefully held back her trembling fist annoyed her to say the least.

Then easing the wry smile on his face, the boy slowly relaxed his grip on her fist until she let out a displeased murmur and shook off his hand.

"Well then, since we have time, shall we practice together… friend?" he drawled, emphasizing the last part much to her disdain.

'Ah, she's too easy to read,' Kalani thought, suppressing the urge to poke more fun at her because of her smoldering stare. Her restrained expression spelled trouble that he was unwilling to deal with later.

However, only a few moments later, the girl changed her ruffled demeanor and chirped out a reply with a new smile, "Sure, friend. What do you wish to know first?"

At this, the boy stiffened slightly. He had the feeling that she was planning something else.

Despite his suspicions though, he cautiously voiced out his inner thoughts. "Is it possible to enhance the sharpness of an object like…" he murmured while waving a jagged rock in front of her, "this— and not break it afterward."

Listening intently with a frown, the winged girl stroked her chin, as if deep in thought. Yet Kalani felt an ominous hunch at this.

Ten minutes later, Kalani could feel his face twitch in disbelief. He had been patiently waiting for an answer for a few minutes before catching onto her scheme. This brat wasn't thinking at all!

"Ahem," Nyx then cleared her throat, "you'll need to start with the basics; otherwise, you cannot retain that state properly." As she sneaked a glimpse at his face, Nyx finally noted how stormy his expression was.

His chapped lips parted with a growl, "You better not play games with me, or you'll never know what will happen to you." His posture now resembled that of a pouncing predator, as though he will easily snap her neck if he wished to.

Yet the girl merely cocked a brow at his warning and replied, "Then you will lose the only teacher you may ever have."

After a minute, a long, defeated sigh slipped out from the boy as he plopped back into a seated position. She had a point, which meant she won.

Then imitating his wry curl of the lips from earlier, Nyx scooted over next to him and hooked a wing around his shoulders. "Don't worry, I won't take it too far. Besides— friends— forgive each other, right?"

Kalani could feel a vessel pop along with his sanity.

…