Fletcher x Elliot (story)

*This is a back story for Elliot and Fletcher please do not erase this. Also, small warning, there is a bit of abuse, nothing graphic. LET THE FLUFF BEGIN! -Snowclaw5553.*

## Fletcher’s point of view

### Who is this kid I just saved, and why is he red?

It was a normal day for me. I had just finished Flying practice, the only class I *had*  to be social in. It was a good feeling to get away from the others. In truth the only person I felt close to was Obsi, but he was interested in Amath, I didn't stand a chance. I took my scythe from my cape as I entered the training center. It felt normal, the breeze blew through my arms and legs making my scythe tilt the other way. Under my cloak my wings felt heavy from pratice and my cloak ruffled against my ankles. The nearest dummy was made in the shape of the Minotaur. It was slightly charred from Ivie’s fire power practice. I figured I would clean it up for her. I swung my scythe into the wind and onto the minotaur dummy. Black veins spread from my scythe as my energy took it over. When it was almost completely covered in black energy it exploded. Not enough to hurt me, but enough to destroy the dummy. I stumbled back wards. “Okay Fletcher, sit down.” I told myself, grabbed my scythe, and sat against the stone wall, catching my breath.

For a minute every thing was calm. Then a kid with dyed purple hair, cinnamon colored skin, and purple eyes ran in through the trees surrounding the arena, opposite of me where the wall crumbled. He saw me and ran to me, his arms covered in scratches and faded marker alike. “HELP ME!” he cried obviously scared.

I held up my hands “Okay, Okay, whats happ-” I was saying when two hell hounds came in growling and circled us. “Great, we’re cornered.” I said and the boy whimpered. I stood up and he crawled behind me. He was only about 5’4 in height and 9 in age. A year older than me.

I looked between the two huge hell hounds with drool dripping from their hungry mouths, and glowing red slits for eyes. They growled at me. I growled back. I pulled my knife and my scythe ready for a fight, ready to give my life for this other demigod to have a future. I was already faded, I really didn’t have much of a one my self.

They pounced at me but I swiped with my scythe that was already glowing with black energy, quickly banishing it. The other one scratched my face and knocked me to the ground scattering my scythe away from me. It’s claws where extended at it was about to shred my chest when I went into mist form. I could feel every particle of my being extend and turn to mist. Instead of shredding my chest, it went through it. I could see the confused look in it’s eye as I stabbed it with my black iron knife and it disintegrated. I returned to normal right as the gold dust landed underneath me. I breathed in and my lungs reinflated and I let my body recover from mist form. In this time the kid crawled over to me and looked over my face, blocking the sun out of my eyes. His face was flushed from the running he had done, though it was going down considerably.

”Wow.” He said. His voice was high pitched but then again he was scared and it was coming back down gradually “How did you do that?” Yeah his voice wasn’t high pitched, more distinct and whistly, with a deeper undertone that was barley there.

I caught the rest of my breathe and panted “Practice.” And I tried to get up, only for my body to lose tension like it normally did and I fell back on the ground. The kids eyes widened. “I’m fine, this happens normally. I’m Fletcher. What’s your name?” I said wincing at my twitching muscles. For a second he had wide eyes and the redness came back, why I had know idea.

“El-Elliot.” he stuttered

### Did, did he just, sit in my lap?

Sullvia has a sense of humor. She really does. Unfortunately her favorite game was ‘One minute of truth’. The rules where simple. You where given a topic, and you had to tell as much truth about it for at most a minute. You could lie, you just couldn’t get caught. You got caught, you had to do something embarrassing with your partner. The only way to get caught in a lie was if you were exhibiting lying behavior. Such as twitching, rapid eye movement, smiling, or blushing. Since Sullvia couldn’t see, that ment she couldn’t see the people staring at her if she did get caught.

It wasn’t a way to always tell the truth, it was a way to tell better lies. It would be one of my favorite as well, except my parterns where notorious for making me do stupid, embarrassing things. Mostly, my partner was Elliot Martin, king of embarrassing me.

The first night it happened I brushed it off, but he kept doing it. Three more times to be exact. The first time we were paired up, he was asked to tell the truth about his home life, something we *all* lied like rugs about, and had gotten away with it. Except this was his first time, so if he did lie, he had a very good chance in getting caught, which he did.

”Um, let’s see, well, home life was okay until my step father came into the picture. He accused me of poisoning his drink even though I didn’t, so he beat me up,” so far he either was good at lying, or telling the truth. If he was telling the truth, I had the urge to go over and comfort him about it. Why? I have no idea, this was one of my only friends here. Him along with Obsi seemed to give me a reason to stay and not chose death. But of course he had to get caught right after I was thinking this. ,“my step father never hit my dad in front of me,” the he paussed long enough for people to come suspicious.

“He’s lying.” Ivie calmly stated. I started noticing a hint of sadness in his purple eyes as he looked at the ground briefly. Then he looked up with a bright look in his eye that had replaced it.

”Of course I’m not lying. Why would I lie about something like that?” as his partner, I had to support him, and I did.

”Yeah, it would be traumatic if that had happened to the point were he wouldn’t be able to talk about it.” since I didn’t talk much, and they all knew I knew about trauma, those words carried some weight and everyone went quiet. Except Hayley Warren, who for some reason had a good sense if someone was lying.

“He looked down after he said it though as well as a pause, that means he’s lying, he is traumatized by it, but enough so he can cover it up and lie about it.” Elliot cursed, which was a foul proof way of knowing that someone had lied. I smacked my face onto my palm. Since Sullvia was the one picking the embarrassing acts, we where probably about to play leap frog while wearing cat ears. Obsi wasn’t happy about that one.

Sure enough, Sullvia had one ready for us. She had way to much free time somedays. She stood up, her sister, Gwendolyn, called for silence. Sullvia spoke up. “Elliot, you were caught in a lie,” was it me or did she sound like an executioner when she did this? “Because of this,” she was smirking now ,“You have to sit in Fletcher’s lap for the rest of tonight.” It’s my turn to curse. Both me and him were now blushing furiously. The only difference was that it looked like fire light on his cinnamon colored skin, I however, probably looked like a tomato.

“Ooohhh, Fletcher’s blushing.” Ivie said in a teasing voice, and I blushed harder. I could feel the light brighten as Sullvia ‘saw’ if we had done her punishment. We hadn’t yet.

”Come now now two, the quicker you do it, the quicker the night finishes.” Sullvia finished, looking in are direction expectantly. By now all of them had there heads turned to us. Obsi and Amath started chanting for Elliot to sit on me.

I hissed to him; “Get it over with, Martin.” That only made him blush harder. Then he got up, and sat on my lap. He was an inch taller then me, so I was almost completely hidden, coming to about his ear. As the rest if the crowed cheered, I ducked behind him, and Elliot hung his head to hide the blush that was becoming more prominent on his face.

They soon moved on to Obsi and Amath, Amath had to answer what happened last week when we where attacked last week. She was lying like a rug, but she wasn’t getting caught, yet. During this I asked “Was it a lie?” For a whole minute, one of my most trusted friends, and one I enjoyed spending time with, and one I knew enjoyed my company, sat in silence. But if it was a lie, I wanted to know why.

For a second I thought he hadn’t herd me, but a very slight nod told me, that yeah, he had lied.

“Why?” I hissed it was more of a question then angry, but that’s what came across. Or at least that’s what I thought. I didn’t want to lose one of my closest friends so in a lighter tone “You don’t have to answer that.” I wasn’t expecting a reply. But he did reply.

”I’ll tell you tomorrow.” He whispered back to me. After that the camp called curfew, and I went to my cabin after saying good night to Elliot and Obsi.

The next time we had to butterfly kiss. Trust me, I about smacked him with my wing if he didn’t flinch when I spread my left wing. The third time we had to hold *hands* until curfew. We had played in the morning that time, and I did hit him with a pillow that time. The fourth time we where playing at lunch time, and he was asked to lie about friends, and people he had a crush on. After he stopped laughing, he started lying like a rug. He was getting better at lying, but only because I knew he was shy to everyone except me, mostly because he came to me for answers instead of asking Gwendolyn. Then he got to the part about crushes, where he said ‘I don’t have any crushes.’ his eyes moved quickly to me, then to the others, looking over them to see if they caught him.

I hadn’t been sure if that was a lie, but Amath thought it was. “He’s lying through his teeth.” he was caught in a lie. So that meant he had a crush. Well, if he needed advise this time about, I don’t know what I think I would say, I didn’t have experience in that sort of situation. He had a light pink on his ears as Amath said this.

”Okay, for the challenge.” Sullvia said. Elliot looked at her in a horror mixed with humor. As if he thought about it has a humorous way to get shamed. Sullvia continued, “If asked by that person, Elliot must kiss them on the cheek.” Okay, not immediately embarrassing, but embarrassing to him when he was asked.

### Maybe we should talk

Elliot and me where practicing sword against knife, I had the knife and was beating him so far. “Okay, you need to apply more pressure to the right side of the blade.” He did and I pried as he did, taking my knife out of the fight and jabbed back in. Out of pure reflex he blocked it and knocked it out of my hand. “Woah.” was all I said.

“Thanks.” he said breathing heavily. I went and retrieved my knife. “Can we take a break?” Elliot asked. I didn’t see why not. So I nodded and we sat at the back behind the dummies catching our breath. “Isn’t this where we met?” He asked me and I nodded. “How long has it even been since I came?”

I looked at him, he was a year older then me, and liked to follow me around. Despite the fact that it had been 6 months since he had came, he looked older. He had a fresh wound above his eyebrow from a feral demon attack last week. “6 months.” Elliot let out a snort.

“Feels longer.” He said taking a sip of his water bottle and I realized how thirsty I was. He looked at me, wiped the bottle rim and offered it to me. I shook my head no, and pushed it back towards him. “We need to stop lying to each other, I can tell your thirsty.” and he offered it to me again. I hesitated then took the bottle, and trickled the water into my mouth, my lips not touching the rim. I gave it back to him and wiped my lips.

“Thanks.” I said after and he shrugged. Bryce came in and waved at us. It was his turn for the arena. “Okay, it’s water elements’ turn.” We both got up and left. Mid-way to the common place I asked, “So, who do you have a crush on?”

He looked at me like I was crazy, “You wouldn’t believe me.” He said. I snorted.

“Try me.” I replied, I knew if he had any idea of who I had a liking for, he would think I was stupid. Instead, Elliot shrugged to himself, leaned toward me, and kissed me on the cheek. For a second I couldn’t move or think. I couldn’t remember who I was either. I remembered Sullvia’s words; ‘If asked by that person, Elliot must kiss them on the cheek.’ I was his crush. How? Why? Before I could form a complete sentence Elliot shook his head.

”I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.” He told me, sounding rejected, then he ran for the common place. When my brain finally started working normally, Elliot was still in view, and I herd a stifled sob. Did he think I rejected him? I had only been EXTREMELY suprised.

”Wait!” I yelled and started running, he didn’t stop, nor did he run faster, could he not hear me? Either way, my wings were aching to fly, and I let them spread. Mid-stride I took off shrinking the space between us, missed a curve in the path, and slammed into a tree. “Ow.” I said, got off the tree and landed in front of a stunned Elliot. Panting, I held up one finger and caught my breath. “Wait.” I repeated, “Let’s talk about this before either of us jump conclusions.” I panted out. ”First of all, I’m sorry-” I was cut off by Elliot.

”Why?” I blinked and shifted my wings as he asked me this.

“Why are you sorry?” he asked me.

“I just stood there.” I replied blushing. Seeing me blush, I guess, provoked him to blush because he was also a red color.

“That wasn’t your fault, I’m the one that-” he trialed off and I stood straight, still catching my breath.

“It was Sullvia’s request.” I said looking him in the eyes. His violet eyes where dancing with different shades of purple, and now that I was concentrating, I could tell they where hiding something. “That was not your fault.” he shifted his weight from foot to foot. Nervous to say anything. “Sorry if I hurt you.” I said, taking a step forward.

“You didn’t hurt me, I was scared of being rejected...” he paused and looked away from me. “....... again.” now I was confused. What things had happened to Elliot to make him feel this way?

”Hey, let’s go somewhere more private.” I stated before going up to him and offering my hand to him. He looked up at me with wide purple eyes, with a little fear. He took my hand anyway, and we started cutting through the forest. I did ‘t let go of Elliot’s hand, neither did he let go mine. “So when where you planning to tell me?” I asked as I pushed a branch put of our way.

“At your funeral.” Elliot said in matter of fact tone. I turned to him.

“Really?” I hissed. He nodded cheekily. I rolled my eyes and kept pushing through.

“Where are we going?” he asked after a minute or two of silence. I ducked under another branch.

“Flying practice.” I replied without looking back. I could feel him bristle at my words.

“I can’t fly!” He reasoned sounding panicked. Again, I rolled my eyes.

“Just because you can’t fly doesn’t mean anything, I’ll show you when we get there.” I kept walking, looking for the chasm. I stopped right before I feel of off it. Elliot, instead of being a knuckle head and going over the edge by not stopping. He stopped right beside me and looked down, eyes wide.

“This is flying practice?” his voice was timid and he shook a little. I didn’t think he realized that he was squeezing my hand and trying to hide behind me. Quickly and without warning, I took my hand away, wrapped my right arm around his torso, my left around his knees, picked him up and pressed him to my body. I then ran off of the cliff, wings spread and flew to the nearest ledge. When I let go of Elliot, he was clinging to my shirt collar and was shaking.

“Wh-what was that?” he asked slowly letting go of my collar and backing up slightly, his eyes scared and wide.

“Sorry about that, but I don’t think you would have agreed to that if I asked.” I said picking at my cloak in nervousness. He looked past me and out into the dark abyss before us.

“It-it’s okay, I probably would have said no as well.” I went closer to the sheltered part of the ledge by him. “It’s silly really, being afraid of falling.” he said with wide eyes still looking at the pit.

“It’s not silly, it’s normal for a human to be afraid of falling. Here.” I said, I turned him around, away from the pit and sat opposite of him. “Or do you want to go somewhere else?”

Elliot, who know had a little redness to him, shook his head no, and sat down. “You train, in a pit every day?” he asked, looking everywhere but my face. I shrug.

“Not at first. First you have to be able to fly up the tallest tree. Then you come down here.” I brought my knees to my chest. “Your not not afraid of heights are you?” That snapped him out of his thinking and he shook his head vigorously.

”No, no. I’m not afraid of heights, just falling.” He chuckled a little “Even falling out of bed has me shaking.” he tugged at his shirt as redness filled his face. He looked around the small alcove, finally looking at me, then quickly looked at his feet. “Your sure, no one will find us?” He asked me, not looking up from his feet.

“Very sure.” I replied. “I can feel other people’s lives. If anyone comes near us, I’ll know.” Elliot looked up at me, locking eyes. Quickly I looked down.

### Obsi stop butting in!

Obsi, Amath, and me where on the roof of my cabin having the most sibling like talk I have ever had in my life. It was my fault though, I had been the one to tell them I had wanted to help dad.

“Do you even know what that means?! It means-” I cut Obsi off.

“It means I die.” I looked at both of them, severity and protectiveness in there eyes. “But I’m not going to chose that anymore.” They both let out a sigh of relief, but I continued “That doesn’t mean I’m choosing life either.” They relief in their faces dropped and they gapped at me.

“W-Why not?” Amath asked me.

“Because,” I explained “I’m more powerful like this. I can avoid attacks, and I can get to places easier. Plus there is no reason for me to go back.” Obsi cuffed me on the head after I said this. I hit him back with my wing.

“You really need to stop talking like that Fletcher” he hissed at me.

“And you need to stop talking to me like I’m 5.” I retorted.

“Stop acting like it then.” Amath said. Obsi started laughing at me. She turned to him and smacked him outside the head good and hard so that he landed with a thud back on the roof. “That goes for you too, dumbass.” Obsi just laughed. I rolled my eyes and laid on my back and looked up at the stars, closing my eyes.

I must have fallen asleep for a bit because the next thing I knew, Amath was yelling at Obsi ‘to leave the poor kid the hell alone or she would beat him to kingdom come.’ That’s when I knew that if I didn’t get up, a fight would ensue and I wanted to see this. I opened my eyes and looked around Amath was at the edge of the roof looking over the edge towards the door. I got up and creeped to the edge and looked down.

Obsi was in front of my cabin looking up at Amath and so was- oh gods. Why must Elliot be here? Why must the kid who had kissed me in the cheek a year ago and had confessed he liked me be at my door step? We hadn’t been avoiding each other exactly, we hadn’t been the same either. The others had been whispering behind us, we both heard it. The only difference is that Elliot pretended not to hear, and then ranted about it later. I yelled at them out right.

Elliot didn’t seem to see me because he called up at us. “Do you know where Fletcher is, I want to talk to him.” my eyes widened when he said this, my first thought was that if Obsi scared him off I was going to help Amath drag him to Kingdom come. My second was to use the open skylight to the door, and that’s what I did.

I heard Amath say “Well he’s..... down there now.” Before I landed on a bed and ran down the steps for the door. I heard the flap of wings as Obsi went back up to the roof and through the sky light. I motioned for him to go away. He shook his head no and leaned on the door frame to my room, watching. I shook my head and rolled my eyes. I took a deep breathe before I opened the door.

Elliot’s head wiped back to me, his purple eyes wide. “Oh, uh, hi!” He said, nervous as all hell. I heard Obsi clear his throat and I got annoyed. I looked Elliot dead in the eyes, fake smiled and told him to wait for just a second, and that I would be right back. Then I turned on Obsi. Obsi might be taller, stronger, and a year older than me in human terms, but at that moment, I was angrier. I took Obsi by the wing, he yelped in surprise. I took him up to my room and hissed.

“You interfere with this *once*, and I will drop you into Tartarus and throw away the key.” He just looked at me. He had never seen me this angry at him before. Soon he nodded and I went back to Elliot, though he followed me and went back to where he was before. “So what do you need to talk to me about?” I said cooly like I hadn’t just threatened my older brother figure.

It was at that point in time that Elliot started to turn red, though you could only notice if you knew him. “Well, um, well you know what happened last year...” he looked for a response from me. I nodded for him to keep going. Though I turned around and glared at Obsi when I heard him say ‘oooh’. I turned back to Elliot and nodded again.

“Well, heh, I guess I’m doing things backwards” he said looking at the floor hand on his neck. In the back of my head I knew what was going to happen, but it shocked me nonetheless. He looked back up at me between his bangs and asked “Do you want to, to go on a date with me.” Then I froze up again. It was a bad habit of mine to freeze up when I was around Elliot, specifically when he showed me affection, he had gotten used to this over. Though I heard Obsi laughing, that snapped me out of it.

“Before I answer that, I’ll be right back... again.” I turned around to face Obsi, he stopped laughing when he say the look on my face. I didn’t notice at the time but my wings hunched, making me looking more broad shouldered then I really was. For a second or two a glared him down, then I wipped out my knife and threw it by his ear. He froze where he stood eyes wide and I growled “I won’t hesitate, Obsi.” and turned back around to look at Elliot.

Elliot had raised his eyebrows, but had other wise not looked surprised at all. Over the year he had gotten used to me attacking things without warning. “So.....” he trailed.

“Tell me where and when, I’ll be there.” I said with finality, Elliot smiled wide at me. I heard a muffled ‘Yes’ from the back of the room and I just rolled my eyes. After we quickly worked out a time and place, and he told me not to worry about anything. This was before he turned around and ran off of the steps. When he thought I wasn’t looking he cartwheeled three times in a row and whooped. I couldn’t help but laugh.

When I turned around, both Obsi and Amath where standing there, a knowing smirk on their faces. Obsi had moved away from the knife, and Amath was leaning on the wall in front of the door. “You look happy.” She commented and I forced the smile off of my face.

“I do not.” I retorted, got my knife out if the wall, pushed past Obsi and Amath, going up to my room. I hung up my belt and let myself smile to the point my face hurt. My wings fluttered so fast they matched the faded-butterfly wing beats in my stomach. Amath came on in without me noticing until she cleared her throat.

“Are you okay there, your wings look like there going to fly off of you.” I wiped around to see her. I nodded without a word, my emotions where most likely written all over my face. “Me an Obsi are leaving know, just wanted you to know.” I nodded and waved by. Before she left my room she turned to look at me. “Good luck on your date tomorrow.” She teased and shifted to a bug and dogged the pillow I throw at her.

When I heard the doors close, I couldn’t help but screemed into my pillow. I tried not to, but I did. I really didn’t know this feeling, I always had the same rush when I was doing trick flying that I spent months perfecting. Or when Elliot had given me a bear hug after I had brought him to flying practice for the second time. Whatever it was, I was happy, and that was an emotion I had felt little of in my life.

### Birthday celebration

Elliot was laying on my chest, sleeping peacefully. Over the past couple weeks, me and Elliot had faced trial, over test, over trial. Now that it was July 7, I was super apprehensive about my terrible luck, that returned without fail today. So far, Elliot had broke three fingers, somehow gotten attacked by demon bees, and set fire to no less then four trees. He was know on cabin arrest for the rest of the week. It was tiring to know that even a slight mistake, could take Elliot from me. I tightened my hold over Elliot with this thought, and mentally did an overview of Elliot’s cabin. The door was locked. No creaking in the rafters, no movement outside. We where safe.

I felt movement from Elliot as he shook awake, faced me, and sighed. I raised my eyebrows, sensing a wavering fear, coming off of him.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, worry mixing into my voice as I looked him over. He was slightly shaking and he was clutching at my shirt, like he did when we went into the chasm. He had this look in his eyes that told me a lot. I pushed myself off the pillows I was laying on and held his shoulders straight in front of me. “Which nightmare?” for a second he looked like he was going to tell me, then he shook himself and told me cheekily.

”Nightmare? What nightmare? I don’t get nightmares.” I raised an eyebrow. “Night terrors maybe, never nightmares.” He added shaking out of my grasp, climbing over my legs and under my left arm, resting his head on my colar bone. He tugged at my wing and I wrapped it around him. Why was he so cuddly?

For a couple seconds we where just fine, then Elliot asked me, “When did you become faded?” I raised an eyebrow. He almost never asked about me being faded. It just wasn’t a good talking subject. He nudged my chin when I didn’t answer. “Sorry, that was a-” I cut him off.

“July 8, 2007, tomorrow.” Elliot nodded, gripping my shirts as much as he could with his broken fingers. For a second he was still, then he pulled away looking at me.

“When did you tell me your birthday was?” I looked down. It was almost the end of the day, and I didn’t want to make him feel bad. He poked me in the ribs. “When?” He insisted. I glanced up at him and smirked.

“Today.” I said. Elliot’s jaw dropped and he looked at me like I had done something scandalous. He narrowed his eyes at me and pushed me in the chest.

“Jerk.” He said. Then went back cuddled back on my chest. “So how old are you?” I wrapped both my arms and my wings around him.

“15.” he hummed against my chest, and I saw him get a marker out. I moved my face away from his hand. “What are you doing with that?” he smirked.

“Give me your left arm.” I did as I was told, rolling up my sleeve and watching Elliot. He adjusted so that he was facing my left arm, but pulled on my wing to drape over himself. “Now, stay still.” He told me. I had been told this numerous times, and I knew how he reacted if I did move. I stayed as still as possible, without letting my limb turn to mist. He used multiple markers, and used a fine tipped black marker and wrote something. Soon after that he announced “Finished!” and smiled, looking proud of himself. I peered at it. Elliot had drawn a broken heart half, colored in Gay Flag colors, with a banner that said my name in curly writing. I looked at him with slitted eyes.

”Why is it broken?” I asked. Elliot was grinning wide now. He had this glint in his eyes like he had just done something stupid. Then he rolled up his right sleeve, showing off another broken heart half, this time, with bi flag colors and his name in the curly letters. He looked extremely proud of himself, like he always did when he showed me new designs.

“Do you like yours?” He asked, leaning against my wing. I looked back down at the rainbow colored heart and smiled. “I’ll take that as a yes!” He replied, yawning right after. “What time is it?” he leaned into my wing more heavily now, almost falling off his bed. I pulled my wing closer to me, pulling him closer to me as well. He nuzzled my chin and laid his head on my shoulder.

”It’s 12:30. We should get some sleep before five.” I whispered into his ear. He nodded sleepily, and within minutes, was asleep on my shoulder. I followed after him after I checked are surroundings one more time.

### No, I-I can’t

We where being attacked by a rabid demon. Normally Ivie would take these on and would be done with them within minutes. Unfortunately, she was in the infirmary from getting blasted by steam from a mechanical seal (don’t ask). Elliot ran at the rabid demon, sword swinging. A war cry parted from his lips as he charged. I soared into the sky ready to dive bomb the monster when need be. Elliot sliced the demons’ leg off, and the demon swung at him, tearing his chest open. A brutal cry of pain went up as he staggered backwards. For a moment I flew in place, horrified out of my skull. Then as the demon knocked Elliot over, I went into action.

“HEY, BLACK EYE, UP HERE!” The demon looked up right in time, to get hit in eye with my scythe. Dive bombing the demon as black webs shot out from my scythe, stabbing it in the neck. The demon swayed, then was blown up. Retrieving my scythe, I ran to Elliot. Elliot was know flat on his back, his breathing was short and came in spurts. “Elliot, where going to get you to the infirmary, your going to be just fine.” I said, a little more frantic then I would have liked. I was very panicked as I tried to stop the bleeding. My specialty was death, not medicine. Now that I thought of it. Why wasn’t anyone coming to help him. I looked up to Zorro, why was he just staring at us? Before I could yell out, Elliot coughed.

”Don’t ask for help.” he sputtered. “I asked them if you could fade me,” he coughs some more blood as my spirits fade. He asked me once about when I got faded, I hadn’t told him much, only the date. I regretted that know as he lied dying at my hands. He also told me once that he want to be faded, we had dropped that conversation after I had given him an absolute horrified look. Barley breathing, Elliot finished ,“They said it was okay.” I didn’t reply. I took my already blood stained hands away, already feeling the life drain from him. I nodded my head to show that I understood. I didn’t like it, but I understood.

Just when he was almost dead, I snatched him up and started fly upwards. “What are you doing?” He asked, I could feel his blood soaking onto me.

“You want to be faded right? The only way to do that is get you to the hall of the dead. To my dad.” I could feel him nod, his arms barley moving around my neck to try and hold on. The action made me want to cry. At about 100 feet in the air, I could sense him loosing consciousness. “Hold on Elliot, just a little longer.” I pressed my lips to his forehead. “I promise.” I didn’t know if he heard me, all I knew was that I was sticking to that promise like glue.

At about 120 feet I whispered, “Sorry about this next part.” and dove down towards the earth. The wind whistled past my ears and I braced both of use for impact. For a couple seconds, I felt Elliot’s fingers clutch at me shirt. This probably wasn’t good for his fear of falling. We neared the earth and I stopped flying and covered our heads, I closed my eyes. There was still a chance that we would die instead of going to the hall of death.

There was a bright light, and open space surrounded me. I opened my eyes. We where in the hall of the Death. Very carefully I laid a dying Elliot on the floor.

”LETUS SHOW SELF!” I yelled when I didn’t see him right away. Black wisps of smoke started forming on the días in front of me. Soon the Roman god of Death stood before me, anger started rising in me as he just looked at Elliot dying before me.

“Fade him, Letus.” I hissed. He looked at me with a mixture of humor and awe. “FADE him!” I insisted. Anger was laden in my eyes as I stared him down.

“Fine, son.” He finally said. He walked over to the body and brought out his scythe. During this I could sense Elliot’s heart beat flutter, and his breath slow. If my father messed this up, I wouldn't hesitate to hurt him in the only way I knew how. I guess he saw this in my eyes, as he was very carful when taking the soul.

Fading was a careful process. Only an experienced reaper could possibly be cable of it. Fading included reaping the soul almost all of the way. But stopping right before the soul was completely disconnected to the living world. You then lifted the soul up, put body somewhere where no harm could come to it, then lower the soul down, carefully. The only person that fit that description was Letus and Thantos, Letus’s greek version. That’s what Letus told me anyway.

Letus picked up the barley severed soul, and put his body in a corner. Next to-, I shuddered. The sight of my seven year old body was freaky, even for me. Letus placed the soul on the cracked marble floor. I regained my anger after this, and flared my wings.

”Please go, Letus.” I hissed. He just smiled at me. Like I was a prize he just won. I stepped over Elliot, stood face, to face with Letus, and looked him dead in the eye. “Please leave.” he smirked. I could sense Elliot’s heart beating at a regular pace now, but his breathing was severely labored.

“Remember to keep him here until he can walk.” He said backing away from me and too the shadows. Before he disappeared into them, he looked back at me.

“Do you remember the deal?” He asked, a wicked look in his eyes. I felt my eyes go wide and I nodded. I hated that deal. But it was going to be worth it. The deal was that I became a ‘reaper in training’, where I had to help him at least once a week, and even then he sent me images of the death and war zones that he saw daily. Wether I liked it or not, he had already been showing me images night and day. He quickly disappeared into the shadows after seeing me nod.

Looking back at Elliot, I could still feel his breath becoming harder to take in. I sat on my knees and gently put his head on my lap, his breathing became easier to take in. After I did this, I looked back at what had just happened. I had just done the one thing I had hoped not to do. I had just brought another soul to be faded. I started shaking with realization of what that ment. It ment that Elliot had lost *all* of his previous memories. Every memory he had ever had was now erased into oblivion, only to be dreamt about in the week to come. By the way Elliot had spoken about his home life, I knew he wasn’t going to have a pleasant start to this week.

## Elliot’s point of view

### Who- Who are you

The last thing I remembered was hitting the ground at a high speed. I hated heights why would I agree to-, what did I agree to again? I couldn’t remember. Come to think of it, I couldn’t remember who was holding me. I remembered that they where very important to me, but in what way? I couldn’t remember. I could barely remember my own name. Light scorched my eyes at some point, but it soon faded, and I felt something cool beneath me. After this, It became hard to breath. I could feel my head being pulled upwards, and set at an angle. Breathing became easier after that.

A memory jolted me. A younger version of myself was looking in a bathroom mirror, standing on a stool so he could see himself. His eyes where puffy from crying, and he had a bruise on his fore head and was bleeding from a small cut on his cheek.

“Dale is wrong! I’m Elliot Martin, and no one can change that!” He sniffed. His anger seethed off of his little body, and he glared into the mirror with violent purple eyes. I got a bad feeling when he said Dale’s name. For some reason, I absolutely hated the person attached to that name. The door opened and a blurred out person walked in. When they spoke it was garbled, and I couldn’t make out what they where saying. What ever it was, the little version of me ran to them and gave them a hug. The memory whipped past me right after it ended.

In the next memory I was leaning over a boy, their features where undistinguishable, but what I could see was that he had dark brown eyes, black hair and clothes, and pale skin. When they spoke it was low and smooth. But his words seemed like they weren’t his.

“Find Fletcher Sidle.” his body was calm and steady, though he looked like he couldn’t stand up. Again, the memory faded as fast as it came. This time I was in the woods, with the same boy from the last memory, except he had huge, croaked black wings. At this point he was folding his wings in. He looked at me, and what I assumed was a smile on his face. At the sight of his smile, my heart raced. Apart of me knew that whoever this was, they didn’t smile much. Again he spoke with a smooth voice, and again his words didn’t seem like his.

“Fletcher will protect you, he promised.” They sounded more like my words, but they came from his mouth. Either way, when the memory started to fade, I reached out trying to stay in the past. Instead, I woke up panting. I looked around frantically. Every where I looked, was white. White colums, cracked white marble floor. In front of me there where huge white marble doors, with a black lock on them. In one corner a limp foot stuck out. I quickly turned away from there. I glanced to my left. There was a días that went from wall to wall. On the steps to the días, was a boy, around my age, curled into a ball and appeared to be sleeping. Huge black wings wrapped around him. A voice in my head whispered, *Find Fletcher Sidle.* I stared at the sleeping figure. Was this same kid from my memory? Finally, I swallowed and called.

“Are, Are you Fletcher Sidle?” The kid shook when he heard my voice and looked up. His eyes where tinged red as if he had been crying. When he say me awake, his eyes widened, and jaw dropped. His voice didn’t seem to work at first, as he moved his mouth, as if to speak, but no sound came out.

“Are you Fletcher Sidle?” I repeated myself. The kid nodded vigorously and walked over to me, trying to contain a skip in his step that came from his wings trying to fly him.

”Y-yeah, I’m Fletcher Sidle. H-how did you know my name?” He said sitting down next to me, his wings folding behind a black cloak. He was slowing down his movements, trying not to panic maybe?

“I had a dream that said ‘Find Fletcher Sidle.’” I replied. He nodded as if noting this to himself. I tried to sit up. He let me, though after I got on my elbows, my arms gave out. Lightning quick the bow caught my head before it banged off of the marble floor.

“Your muscles are still adjusting from being faded. They will take a while to recover.” He said, gently putting my head down on the cold floor.

“Unfortunately, there is no such thing as a pillow here, so you have to lay on the floor.” Fletcher frowned at me. I could tell he was on the verge of crying but didn’t let himself. I could also sense that he was trying not to hug me. Why would he want to do that? More pressing, how could I feel that he was trying to hug me? He was simply sitting still next to me, watching me with an unreadable expression.

“I’m sorry, I don’t remember anything. Was I someone important to you?” Fletcher sighed and pulled his knees up, crossing his arms over them. As if to protect himself. He looked at his feet when he spoke, his voice low and smooth. With a hint of sadness.

“You where very important to me. You made a faded life worth living.” He squeezed his eyes shut and didn’t look up. I could feel my cheeks burn. Had we been that close? Now to think about it, how many friends had I left behind. Come to think if it, he didn't say that ‘You made my life worth living’, he said ‘a faded life’. He had also said that ‘from being faded’. What was faded?

“Hey, Fletcher. What is ‘faded’.” I said looking at him. He opened his eyes and starred at me for a couple seconds. Finally he sighed and shook his head.

“I told you once, your reaction wasn’t calm. It’s better if you just remember instead of me telling you.” In other words, he wasn’t going to tell me. “Plus, it’s complicated.” He added looking at me apologetically.

“MY MEMORIES!” I shouted “When do I get them back!” he widened his eyes at my sudden out burst, but quickly regained his composure.

“You will get them back within seven days.” He said calmly. Despite the fact that I wasn’t standing, I could feel my shoulders slump. Seven days that I wouldn’t know who exactly I was.

### Why is this so awkward?

Eventually I could stand without falling. But Fletcher still needed to help me with walking. When we went out of a side door on the right, and into the world of the living. Fletcher had told me that there was a fine line between life and death, and that being faded, was on the middle. I silently watched as we where enveloped in darkness, we kept walking forward.

“How long has it been since we left?” I asked. It had felt like 2 hours, at least. Even though I was just going off the feeling I had in my gut, and was clinging to the last memory I had of the living world. Even that was fading.

“We have been here for 30 minutes, 1 minute in the living world.” He replied without looking back at me. As we where walking, he started chuckling to himself. “Once, you asked me why I got back so quickly after reaping. I told you that same bit of information. You where confused for 3 hours, and you wouldn’t stop ranting about it.” he went back to laughing to himself as I ingested this information. It only brought up more questions. Like, what did he mean exactly by ‘reaping’. Or when he said that I ‘ranted’ about it. I decided not to answer, I’d rather find out from my own memories.

We got to a black wall and Fletcher looked at me. “The others are going to tease you and me, don’t listen to them.” he said before taking my wrist, and slamming into the black wall, causing me to land on top of him. Before I did fall on him, his wings shifted, so that I wouldn’t land directly on them, but instead land on his back. I landed hard on him making him cough. Two kids where there. One looked a bit like Fletcher, except with horned wings, red and black eyes, and noticeably taller. The other kid looked like a humanized fox. He had a pointed nose, amber eyes that where in slits, pointed grey ears, and multiple scars along his cheek bones, hands, and legs.

“Hey! Look at that. Elliot had his memory erased, and he still lays on top of Fletcher!” the winged one said half laughing. I could here Fletcher growl. He had just told me to not listen to them. I guess he ment that I could take offense if I did listen. Either way, I rolled off of him, and gave him some space. Fletcher got up and brushed himself off, glaring at the winged guy.

“Obsi, what would Gwendolyn do if you said that in front of Sullvia?” He hissed. Obsi shrugged not at all hearing the threat in Fletcher’s voice. A memory tugged at me, though when I tried to see it, all there was, was blankness. I hated not remembering. The fox kid went right past the snickering Obsi, around an angry Fletcher and in front of me.

“Need help up?” He said, his voice was high pitched, but not squeaky. I nodded, and he extended his hand. “You don’t remember me, I’m Zorro, the camps’ field medic.” He told me helping me up with a grip like steel. I glanced over at Fletcher. He had a black knife in his hand and was glaring at a laughing Obsi, who was slowly backing up. Zorro turned to look at them as well, and sighed in exasperation. “FLETCHER! Put the knife down.” Fletcher looked at us, and begrudgingly, sheathed the knife.

Zorro and Fletcher helped me to the infirmary because I still couldn’t take a step without falling on my face. I laid down on a bed, and Zorro put and IV in me. I winced as he did this, I think I had an IV once, I wasn’t sure.

By the time I was ready to walk, it was curfew for Fletcher and Zorro, so I had to sleep in the infirmary. I understood why Zorro had stayed as long as he did, he was a medic. But Fletcher stayed by the door way, muttering to himself and every-once-in-a-while glanced at me. He cared about my well being, that much was evident, why I didn’t know. When he did leave he said ‘good night’ to me, though his eyes where troubled, what did he know.

I slowly went to sleep that night, and was instantly assaulted by dreams. In all of them a guy with dark brown hair and crisp blue eyes was with me. My dad. A lot of the dreams where blurred and fuzzy as little me grew up. First day of preschool seamed vivid though, as I quickly gained a reputation for a class clown. Realization dawned on me as I remembered these ‘dreams’. They where my memories, at my fourth birthday, they stopped, and went to the memories I had seen in the hall of the dead. This time the blurred out man, became my dad, and the picture of the boy became Fletcher. This time when he smiled, his entire face lit up, and my heart raced even faster.

### The longest week of my life

I went to breakfast after Zorro cleared me from the infirmary. I ran out to the outside cafeteria, and everyone was watching me. Obsi glanced up saw me, and chuckled to himself. All-n-all, there was 15 kids in total watching. Though there where 6 tables.

Zorro came up behind me, and sat at a completely different table, by himself. Fletcher looked up at me and waved me over, along with four other kids. Fletcher sat alone on one side, while the other four sat on the other, their eyes following me as I sat a seet away from Fletcher. The second I did that, everyone stopped staring at me and started whispering. Except for three girls at one table, they seemed not to care. Had I done something wrong?

“What is everyone whispering about?” I asked. They all had a different reaction to my question. Fletcher blushed and looked at his food. One boy on the end snorted, while the other boy and a girl with black hair laughed a little. The other girl rolled her eyes and gave me an answer.

“You two where a ‘thing’ before you got faded, Elliot. You where the kind of person to drag Fletcher into all kinds of stuff. The fact that you two are not siting side by side is surprising to say the least.” the answer was in a matter if fact tone, and she went back to eating her breakfast.

“It also means he doesn’t remember anything from his past life, Abigal. I know what he’s going through. I’ve been there and it sucks not knowing who someone is.” Fletcher hissed. That just encouraged the boy’s laughter and he put his head on the table.

“Didn’t you tell me that it would take a week for them all to come back?” I asked. He looked at me with pain in his eyes. I could feel that he regretted turning me into this, he was sad, and he felt more alone then ever. Knowing the one he cared for was right there, yet so out of reach was killing him inside.

Wait. No. These where not my thoughts, these where his! How could I possibly know his thoughts just by the look he was giving me? Fletcher nodded and picked at his cloak.

“Yeah, it will take a week for them all to come back.” He frowned to himself and added, “It’s worse when your 7, and appear in a place where you din’t know anyone, though it’s easier to restart your life.” He glanced at me and asked, “Which ones did you get tonight?” the boy and girl had stopped laughing and where watching us with intent eyes.

“Don’t mind us, we won’t tell.” The girl with black hair told us, then waved with her fork, “Keep going.” The boy nodded in encouragement. I looked to Fletcher, who was in the process of rolling his eyes at them. I tugged at my shirt hem.

“1-3.” I said to him. He nodded.

“That means tomorrow you’ll get 4 and 5. Wednesday you’ll remember 6 and 7. And Thursday you’ll remember 8 and 9 and so on.” This was half to himself and half to me, and not at all loud enough so that the others could hear.

“Well Fletcher. Are you going to re-introduce us or what?” The black haired girl persisted. Abigal rolled her eyes. Fletcher just stared at her with cold eyes. She didn’t back down.

“Elliot, this is Katie Sims, Abigal Wright, Bryan Sipes, and Robert Alchem.” as he introduced them he pointed them out. Bryan and Katie where the kids who had starred laughing. Abigal had already made an introduction, and Robert was the quiet kid, who smelled of herbs, berries, and acid. Fletcher looked at me with purpose in his eyes.

“We’ll talk more later.” I nodded. This was going to be one of the longest weeks of my life. It think.

### Now I know why I don’t want to go home

I said good night to Fletcher after he walked me to my cabin. The path seemed familiar, though I probably wouldn’t have found it without Fletcher’s help. After breakfast, the day had been filled with getting to re-know my old friends. Of course when I turned my back, I could hear their pitty about my memories. But if Fletcher heard, he would glare at them so that they would stop talking, and I was grateful. Before he left me there he reminded me that I would remember the 4th and 5th years of my life.

When I got into the cabin, a warm glow instantly came on, coloring the walls red. I looked around the huge cabin, though there was 6 beds on each wall, there was only one that looked occupied. It was in the corner, had a black comforter draped over it with a dark blue pillow. I closed the door and went over to what had been my bed.

When I did get to the bed side, there where polaroid pictures of me and Fletcher. One was me putting a black knit hat on an unexacting Fletcher. The caption read in purple ink, ‘I gave Fletcher a hat, he wasn’t to happy with me at first.’ Just bellow that, in black ink, ‘....... I like the hat, thank you’. There were other pictures though this was the only one with two captions. I sighed and looked around the rest of the bed. There was a suitcase marked ‘For saving my home.’ under the bed. I didn’t look in it and instead looked for a pair of extra clothes for tomorrow.

After finding a pair of clothes, I brushed my teeth. Looking in the mirror, I saw a skinny, cinnamon skinned, scared kid looking back at me. What would I find in my past? What would I find in the suitcase? I took a deep breath, went back to my bed, got out the suitcase and set it out on my bed. Gritting my teeth, I opened the suitcase.

Inside were three pairs of clothes, two pairs of pajamas, granola bars, a bottle of water, and a folded piece of paper. I unfolded the piece of paper only to find a picture of my dad and me on halloween. I was dressed as a purple spider, with a black bow tie. We where both smiling widely, I was missing a tooth. That only made the picture more heart reaching. I put the picture back in the suitcase, and the suitcase back under the bed.

I laid down comfortably in the bed. As it turned out the underside of the comforter was dyed magenta, lavender, and dark blue. When I laid back down the light extinguished itself and I was left in darkness. I went to sleep almost instantly, I hadn’t realized how tired I was.

Like last night I was assaulted with dreams of my past. These ones started out okay, but then a new guy, Dale, had entered my life. He verbally abused me, but I never told my dad. He was happy so far, I didn’t want to ruin that. They got married, and he biffed me on the head ‘on accident.’ It just got worse throughout my 5th year. There where more ‘accidents’, and I still didn’t tell my dad. Finally on my sixth birthday, the dreams stopped coming and I experienced the other dreams. Again the same ones from the hall, taunting me with their message.

When I did wake up, it was early morning and I was laying on my stomach. I pushed myself up and looked around, the cabin was light up with sunlight, and I felt very alone. I got dressed, still disturbed by my dreams from last night. I went outside, the refreshing morning breeze ruffled by hair, and blew straight throw my arms. That caught my attention. As I watched the breeze, again it blew straight through my arm.

Alarmed I started walking on the path. I thought I was going to the dinning hall, instead I found myself going deeper into the woods. I looked around me as I walked. The shadows where larger as the trees grew untended to. Mist came from a small lake off of the path. Spider webs where everywhere, getting on my shoes, and in my hair. Despite all of this, it didn’t scare me. There was a feeling in my chest that told me that I was perfectly safe. When the path opened up, it opened up to a cream colored house, half way into the side of a hill, with a sky light on the right side of the roof. Creepy, yes. Instinct had told me to come to a house in the woods, and it was still pulling me toward the house.

Going up the steps and to the wooden door. The door had a chalk plaque that read. ‘Death element cabin.’ and bellow it ‘Residents: 1’. The place eerily familiar, I knocked on the door. Muffled foot steps came walking to the door and when the door opened, Fletcher stood there. He was dressed in only a black tank-top and pajama bottoms. His arms, I had once taken for skinny, were actually well defined, and his huge wings where also exposed. His wings unfurled when he saw me.

“Oh, Elliot. Your awake.” He said, slowly recovering from shock. “What are you doing here?” He looked at me with concern. I shrugged.

“I just woke up. I started walking, and wound up here.” I said looking down at my feet and leaning from side to side. He forced my chin up to look him in the eyes, and he nodded his head for me to come inside. He went into the cream colored house. I followed.

“I need to finish getting ready, you can sit in here.” He said. He seemed nervous that I was here. His cabin was a split level house, half of which was buried in the ground. The upper half, Fletcher disappeared up those steps, where the light came from.

I sat down a black bean bag chair, with claw marks on the bottom. Suddenly, a furry black weight dropped onto me. I looked down at the floating black cat in front of me. The cat seemed pleased to see me, as she rubbed against my chest wanting attention. I scratched the little cat in-between it’s ears. For a couple of minutes I petted the cat. They didn’t have a collar, though loved the attention.

I heard a little chuckle from the stair way and I glanced over to see Fletcher. He was now wearing a pair of black knit pants, a black shirt with a brown belt going across his body with a knife strapped to it. He had a black cloak covering his neck and shoulders, and going down to his ankles. He had grey running shoes on.

“I see Re-Re found you again.” He said, a smirk played on his lips. He sat down in the blue bean bag chair next to me. “Before you were faded, you two where best friends.” For a little while we sat there. Me petting Re-Re, and Fletcher watching us with a pained smile. Finally she had enough attention and jumps off of me.

“She got enough petting I see.” I remarked to Fletcher. He just shook his head, a small smile on his lips. Just that small smile got my heart to beat faster. Though the smile faded fast, it was blazed into my memory. How could I forget something like that?

“We should get going to breakfast before someone goes to your cabin. I’ll explain some things on the way there.” Fletcher told me standing up from his bean bag chair. I stood up and followed him out of the house. He soon matched my pace and we walked side by side.

“So why are you awake?” I asked, trying to get the ‘explanation’ started. For a second Fletcher was silent, and his expression unreadable. He answered me shortly.

“I’m assuming you got to sleep early last night.” I nodded, wondering how he knew that. “You and me are awake because are ‘bodies’ put us to sleep earlier. As faded souls, we waste energy easier.” He told me. He continued without me asking any questions. “We can take a nap, though it would take 3 hours and we would be late to breakfast. So I wouldn’t recommend that. For faded souls, like us, missing a meal is not an option. Normally, if we are ready for a decision, we can ask to either be returned to life, or ask for death. If we skip a meal, it’s game over, we won’t have the energy to stay alive, and we will die.” This was all straight faced, he didn’t look at me while he explained, though now that he mentioned it, I did feel hungry. After a couple of minutes of silence Fletcher asked, “Do you want a granola bar?” That was a weird question.

“Why?” I asked turning to look at him. Fletcher was still looking dead ahead. He answered.

“Because we have two hours til breakfast.” That just made me more confused.

“Then why would they check my cabin.”

“They check cabins one hour after curfew and two hours before breakfast. I don’t know why they do it at those times, they just do.”

### I remember Fletcher.

It was the 27th of July, and I had all of my memories back. I remembered everything. Meeting Fletcher, the years at camp, the sleepless nights because of nightmares, and a two weeks ago when I asked Fletcher to talk in my cabin, and we fell asleep on the floor. So what did I do after waking up? After I got ready, I ran as fast as I could to Fletcher’s cabin, not even caring that the mist made the ground hard to walk, let alone run on.

I ducked a low branch cutting across the path in a straight line instead of curved. I arrived at Fletcher’s cabin breathless. I caught my breath, but hesitated before knocking. Fletcher had always been so cautious not to mess things up with me since we started dating. Always protective, always making sure I had a smile on my face. I was scared of how he would react when I told him that my memory had returned, despite bad things I also remembered. Finally, I knocked on the door.

Muffled foot steps came and opened the door. For the second time, in the span of a week, Fletcher came to the door in a black t-shirt a pajama bottoms. His wings didn’t flare this time, and a flash of delight crossed his face. “Hey, Elliot” was all he said.

“Fletcher, I remember everything again.” I told him, still winded. I suspected he had already figured that out already, I just wanted to hear myself say it. In full honesty, my memories from the first night where now blurred to the point that I didn’t know what really happen. When I had been faded, I only remembered to the point of falling, and it made me shudder. Fletcher let relief flood onto his features.

“Do you want to come in.” he asked, regaining that cautious nature, but still struggling with his inner feelings. All I could do was smile and nod. He gave me some room to get into the cabin and closed the door. I had barely turned around when Fletcher tackled me in a tight hug, he pressed his head into my neck. By the way he talked, I could tell that he was letting himself be upset. With himself, not me.

“I was so scared when you told me that you wanted to be faded. I should have told you, about, this.” he almost whimpered. I wrapped my arm under his wings, and the other arm over his wings and around his shoulders. Normally I was the one to be held, but by the way he was shaking, I didn’t care. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.” he whimpered again. I put my chin on his head.

“I’m sorry I put you through it.” I replied, and he pulled away to look at me with those hard brown eyes, that where now straining not to cry.

“No, it was my fault.” Sometimes I really hated his stubbornness. It drove me crazy when he blamed himself. I pouted.

“Stop that, I hate it when you blame yourself.” I said and pressed my fore head to his and closed my eyes. For a second I felt his hesitation that always happened when I showed him affection. Soon though, I felt him stretch up, since I was an inch taller than him. I couldn’t help but smile.

Our moment ended when Re-Re started rubbing against by leg and mewing for attention. I opened my eyes and toke away my head and looked at her. Fletcher did the same when I took my head away. We couldn’t help but laugh at the insistent black cat.

“I guess I should finish getting ready for breakfast.” Fletcher said, though he seemed reluctant to let go and lingered for a second. He had his arms at his sides but he didn’t pull away to go up the stairs. Instead he kept looking at me with his wide brown eyes. Was he always this cute when he was silent? Finally I let go so he could ready. Also so I could pet Re-Re because she wouldn’t stop mewing for attention. He went up stairs again, though I could tell that his shoulders had sunk since I let go. The second I sat down, Re-Re jumped up on me.

A couple minutes latter he came back down, wearing the one grey shirt he owned. He looks at me and with smile that brightens up his entire face, but it faded soon. Re-Re soon jumped off and we headed out to breakfast. On the way there I slipped my hand into Fletcher’s hand. At first, he stiffened at the physical contact, like always. A couple of seconds later he eased his fingers in between mine.

The thing with Fletcher, is that he had lived in house, where physical contact was rare. It was given as a reward, a hug for good grades, holding shoulders to stay with each other in a crowd. It didn’t help the fact that he had two years of absolutely no contact except from the little lite touches when I came. Add that to the fact that had spent a week where I didn’t know how important I was to him, so the only touch he had received was the hug he gave me. He was touch starved, and absolutely terrified of touch. Not so much the touch I think, I think he was more afraid of hurting anyone.

I glanced at Fletcher, he had the slightest smile on his face. The smile was small enough that you wouldn’t see it if you didn’t know him.

### I want to save him

I was pressed against Fletcher’s chest, trying to sleep. Normally he was the one that had trouble getting to sleep, now I was laying awake on his chest, my head just below his head. I had just turned 19 today, and was lying awake thinking about my dad. I hadn’t seen him in 10 years. Ten years had passed without me giving it much thought. My dad had told me to never look back. But since I had been faded, it was a little hard. It made it worse that every time I went to sleep, all I saw was his face, broken and unconscious.

Fletcher’s wings ruffled themselves and I looked up at his face. It was twisted in some from of fear. His wings flapped harder, as if he was trying to fly backwards.

“Fletcher.” I hissed rocking his shoulder and pressed a lit kiss on his chin. That didn’t seem to help. His arms got tighter around my back, and his face contorted into something like pain. “Fletcher!” I hissed again, this time tapping his face, waking him up. Even when he was asleep, he didn’t like his face touched. He looked at me with brief fear in his eyes. “You okay?” I asked. He studied my face, slowing down his breathing from the nightmare.

“Now, yeah.” He nodded and wrapped his wings around me. “Why are you still awake, it’s 12:00.” He said, bringing his left hand up to my head and held my face there, looking at me. I knew I couldn’t lie to Fletcher, he knew me to well, but I tried.

“Couldn’t sleep.” I said laying my head back down on his chest, his hand still on my cheek.

“That’s a lie if I’ve ever heard one.” He said removing his hand and sitting up, forcing me on my knees. He held me at arms length and looked me in the eye. “So what is bothering you.” I sighed.

“I-I’m just thinking about home.” Fletcher shook his head and shook me.

“You can’t do that or,” he stopped shaking me, “you’ll drive yourself nuts.” The underlying message, ‘*I don’t want you to get hurt.*’ I knew he didn’t. After the fading incident, he had been extremely attached to me lately. By lately, I meant for the past 4 years. I didn’t mind it at all, actually, because when we were first dating, he was almost unwilling for touch. Now, if I wasn't in his immediate vicinity, he would get anxiety. He wouldn’t say anything, but his fingers would pull at the hem of his cloak, a sure fire way to know he was anxious.

“I know, but, I guess I just feel guilty.” I sighed. Fletcher squinted at me and leaned in slightly.

“Why do you feel guilty.” He hissed, shaking me again.

“Because, I left my dad with that, that,” I couldn’t finish, but Fletcher got the idea. He nodded, his expression darkening. I hadn’t told him about Dale, only that I woke up with nightmares. He knew that someone had hurt me, and that someone had lived in the same house. But other than that, he knew nothing.

"Well," Fletcher started, letting me lay down on his chest again, "we have the end year project we still need to finish, still."

I sat back up to look him in the eye. In the dark of the room, Fletcher's deathly pale skin seemed to glow, his dark brown eyes easily findable.

"You don't mean," I trailed off as he nodded. I put a hand up to my neck, looking of to the corner, "I mean if your okay with it."

"I wouldn't have suggested it, if I wasn't." He raised an eyebrow, tilting my head back up. I grinned, and his skin glowed a soft pink. I tackled him in a hug back on to the bed.

"Thanks." I whispered in his ear. Slowly and gently he wrapped his arms and wings back around me, and I started drifting off.

"Anything for you." He replied, and I fell asleep.￼

 "How do I look?" Elliot asked, straightening his suit jacket. I smiled to myself and walked over, and wrapped my arms around his neck lossly.

"Breathtaking." I whispered in his ear, hugging him.￼