Chapter 002

I wanted to laugh at his face, but unfortunately, I was a little too tired to do that.

My eyes squinted at him, trying to squeeze the water out of my eyes while also trying to tell him that I didn't believe a word he said.

He remained firm, steady and calm waiting for my response. I finally found my voice and asked, "What the fuck?" I cleared my thought and continued, "My guardian? Don't make me laugh. Who are you? Why do you have wings? What do you want? Why did you save me?-" My curiosity hung in the air as he cut my words off. I didn't get to ask any more questions which I definitely would've rambled out of my mouth.

"I am your Guardian. I was born with wings. I am there to protect you, you absolute moron. And I don't want anything." He paused for a moment, as I took his words in, my head pounding from what all just happened. Guardian? What? Why? Then, suddenly, I raged. How dare he assume that I needed his protection or anyone's for that matter? "Who do you think you are to protect me? I don't need your protection. I can handle myself just fine." I struggled to get up, and leaned against a fuzzy, velvety fungus tree as I spoke almost coughing again.

"Yeah, right. I think we already saw how you struggled to get to the surface of water before giving up when you realized that no human can stay underwater for so long, and breathe." He spoke.

As calmly as he let out the words, the rage ignited more and more in me. "I didn't ask you to save me!" I argued.

"I don't need your permission to save you. That's my job as your protector and that's humanity," He let out, annoyed.

"Fuck you!" I raised my voice a little in an attempt to scare him away. But who was I kidding? He looked like a warrior, and he had wings, and a toned muscular body. And I was five feet four inches.

"I advise you not to use profanities in front of me. I don't tolerate them much."

"Does it look like I care, nerd?! Plus you use them too."

In a flash, he was in front of me, crouching down, just staring at my lips. He was creeping the hell out of me as he got closer. I didn't know why my cheeks were heating up, out of anger of course. It had nothing to do with how perfect his face was.

Out of instinct, I threw my hand forward and punched him as hard as I could. A growl escaped his mouth as he glared at me.

"Why the hell did you punch me?"

I panted, "You are staring and you're coming very close. Stay back! I know karate." I didn't. But he didn't know that.

His jaw clenched, "I didn't fucking sign up for this." He eyed me, if he could kill from looking, he would have killed me. "You've changed."

What now?

"Shut up, you asshole. Who are you anyway to make assumptions about me?"

"I am your guardian. In how many times will you understand the fact?" He spat, his jaw still clenched.

"That's fucking unbelievable if you haven't yet realised, dickhead."

"Look, you are an idiot. As your guardian, it's my duty to fucking assess your abilities. I make you hallucinate, and you fucking attempt suicide?" He stood up, scoffing.

"What the fuck are you talking about? You made me hallucinate?! Is this the reason why I woke up running?!" I stood up, my damp hair on my neck adding to my irritation. I almost felt like I was in a dream because what in the heaven or hell was happening?

"I had to assess your abilities." He said. That didn't answer a single question.

I scoffed, a mix of irritation and amusement bubbling up inside me. "First of all, that didn't answer my questions, and assess my abilities? Really? Is that how all guardians go about their business? By scaring the living daylights out of their wards? Even if you are my guardian, which is still unbelievable by the way, I've read enough books and seen enough movies to know that's not how it's supposed to work."

He raises an eyebrow, his frustration evident. "Well, forgive me for not adhering to your fictional guardian handbook! Maybe next time, I should send you a beautifully written invitation stating, 'Dear Ward, I will be evaluating your skills tomorrow at 3 p.m. Please be prepared to punch me in the face. Sincerely, Your fucking Guardian.'"

I couldn't help but chuckle, despite my lingering annoyance. "Oh, please. I would have appreciated that invitation. At least I would have been mentally prepared to clock you in the jaw. But no, Mr. Mysterious Guardian decides to pop up out of nowhere and save me and then stare at my lips like it's the most fascinating thing he's ever seen!"

His cheeks redden slightly, a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. "Look, it's not like I wanted to stare at your lips! I was about tap your lips-"

My eyes widened. My so-called guardian was such a creep. I cut him off, "Newsflash, dickhead, that's even creepier!"

"I swear to god," He came closer to me, trapping me between the tree behind me. My cheeks flushed and my heart raced when he spoke in his husky, honey like voice, "I wanted to do this." He tapped my lips, and I couldn't say anything because I was too flustered to do so.

He left me and then I collected myself and spoke up, at least tried, but to my utter astonishment, I could not speak. My eyes widened when I saw his lips curving up ever so slightly.

"Tapping your lips makes you shut up. Magic." He spoke up. "That's what I wanted to do."

God, I wish I could punch him again. But then again all of this gave me adrenaline rush making me feel alive. It felt good, as much as I hated to admit, arguing with him.

"You can speak now." He said after a while of making me glare at him.

"Speak?" I scoffed, eyeing him with defiance. "Just because you granted me permission doesn't mean I'm at your beck and call. You may have some strange powers which is unbelievable," I said, shaking my head in disbelief, "but you don't own me. So don't get too comfortable thinking you can control every aspect of my life."

"Remember, I'm not here to control you. I'm here and I've always been there to guide you, to help you, to challenge you, and perhaps even to help you discover sides of yourself you never knew existed."

What? Where were you when everyone was blaming me for my parent's death then? I gulped. There were so many questions.

"I don't believe you. Yes, you saved me from whatever the hell I was thinking to jump and all. But, you've not been there. I was alone." My eyes watered, and I had to blink the tears away. "I mean I never saw you."

"You don't remember."

That just added to my frustration because how did he know, and I yelled at him, "I remember everything! Asshole! You were not there! And so don't fucking say whatever comes to your mind-"

He tapped my lips again, making me glare at him, my eyes goggled in shock when he picked me and threw me over his shoulder like I weigh nothing but a feather.

Put me down! I wanted to scream but I couldn't because of his tap-the-lips-shut-everyone-up technique. So annoying.