Outlaw Blues: Algophobia

“Reuel?”
Slowly the concerned voice above him caused the fallen angel to open his eyes. He groaned as the mid-afternoon light struck him from the window above the couch. Raising his left hand to hide from the bright glare, he turned to look over at Kenneth who was crouching down beside the couch. When their eyes met, the boy smiled with relief and laid a cool, wet cloth on the man’s brow.
“Are you feeling better?”
“I feel fine.”
Reuel was surprised to find that his statement wasn’t entirely truthful. As soon as he spoke, his head seemed to rotate slowly in place. He closed his eyes again swallowing hard against an unusual sensation of nausea. Forcing himself to breathe deeply, he lowered his hand to his side with a shiver.
“I can see you feel fine.”
Kenneth’s voice was soft and condescending as he pulled the comforter up higher over the reclined man. He shook his head as he watched the tattooed face pale to a light green.
“You’ve been asleep for three days. Kiaria wanted to stay home from school today to help tend you, but I convinced her go. The wound on your shoulder is healing now, finally.”
Rising to his feet the blonde carried the bowl of water into the kitchen and poured it into the sink. He had fought with his sister to get her to go to class today in truth. She hadn’t wanted to leave the angel anymore than he had, but after the parent teacher meeting had gone so badly, she couldn’t really afford to get into any more trouble.
Turning on the faucet, Kenneth refilled the metal bowl and carried it back into the living room to kneel by Reuel’s side. The fallen angel groaned again, and the boy could detect a wave of pain from him. Two days ago, the sick feeling had woken him from a deep sleep. He had thought at first that the sensation was coming from his sister, but the instant he left his bedroom, he realized his mistake. Reuel had been struggling on the couch fighting whatever fever had consumed him.
“Ki, should be home soon, and if you’re feeling better, she said she wanted to make you some dinner.”
Reuel glanced at Kenneth with one partially opened, gray-violet eye. He swallowed hard and nodded.
“That should be okay.”
“What happened? I tended the cut on your shoulder. How did you get it?”
“Demon…”
Kenneth’s eyebrows raised in surprise at that answer. Shaking his head to clear away the shock, he removed the wash rag from the fallen angel’s forehead and dipped it into the basin of water beside him. He wrung it out and gently mopped the cold sweat from the man’s face and neck.
“Why?”
“Mmm… It was influencing a human and trying to get him to hurt somebody at the club where I was.”
His mouth falling open, Kenneth scrambled to his feet and went to the kitchen. He lifted a newspaper from the countertop and carried it back to Reuel’s side before reading the headline aloud.
“’Gunshots at the Grey’s Gears… Casey Landers was arrested last night after firing shots in the Grey’s Gears dance club late last night. An unnamed guest helped to calm the situation… One bouncer was rushed to the hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg, the only causality of the evening…’”
Reuel nodded slowly. The chances of the man staying out of jail were pretty low, and the chances of the man keeping his angel were almost none. He had lost faith in this angel and hurt someone in anger.
“You were the ‘unnamed guest’?”
“Yes.”
Kenneth read the article in further detail before looking to the fallen angel.
“They’re looking for you to speak at the trial.”
“It won’t do them any good. I’m not getting involved any further in this matter. I kept him from hurting more people. He has to deal with the problems he created. I pity him for listening to the demon, but he did make that decision on his own.”
Frowning at the chill in the fallen angel’s voice, Kenneth sighed and set aside the newspaper. He could feel the man’s resolve and knew better than to argue with an injured and likely to become irritated man. He sat down on the edge of the couch.
“If you’re feeling up to it, I’d like for you to take a bath so I can change the bandages better.”
Nodding, Reuel allowed Kenneth to assist him into a sit. The world darkened slightly as he rose to his feet, but with the boy’s help, he made it into the bathroom and sat down on the toilet while the bath was run. The blonde pulled down bandages from the cabinet, and carefully removed the stained wraps from his shoulder. Glancing down at where the demon’s talons had sliced into his muscle, Reuel was pleased to see that the shallow cut was nearly sealed. Lifting his opposite hand, he prodded at it when Kenneth went to turn the water off.
“It doesn’t look that badly does it?”
Turning, Kenneth frowned angrily at the man.
“You were unconscious for two days. You didn’t get to see it when it looked bad.”
Taken aback, Reuel swallowed hard and shying away from the rightful anger. He looked down at the steaming water of the bath and then back at the boy before nodding.
“You’re right. Thank you for tending me.”
“Oh stop it and get in the water before it gets cold. Ki’s coming up the steps. If I know her, she’ll already be planning your dinner, and she’ll expect you to eat well now that you’re up and moving.”
Kenneth stepped to the door and pulled it almost to before glancing back in for a moment as Reuel began unfastening his jeans.
“I’ll set out the kimono for you. Your mesh shirt is ruined by the way. I got the blood stain out, but it’s torn, and I can’t fix it.”
“That’s alright. Thank you.”
“If you need anything else, call me.”
Pulling the door closed behind him, Kenneth turned around just as Kiaria burst into the apartment. She barely took the time to kick off her shoes and throw her book bag in the corner before she began to interrogate her brother.
“Is he awake yet? What do you think he’ll want to eat? I was thinking about making chicken and broccoli casserole. I got the recipe from my friend Charlotte. She said her mama makes it all the time when she’s sick. Do you think he’ll like it?”
Chuckling softly, Kenneth placed a restraining hand on the girl’s head.
“Yes, he’s awake, and I think that sounds wonderful for dinner, but before you start making it, go take your book bag to your room and change out of your school uniform.”
“Okay!”
As the young girl hurried to put her bag away and change, Kenneth pulled a package of chicken out of the refrigerator and set it on the countertop. He began pulling out other cooking things he knew his sister would need as well. Leaving the kitchen, he walked through the living room and into his bedroom to pull the kimono that he had given to Reuel from the closet. Laying it over his arm, he walked back into the bright room and glanced down at the couch. He was having a difficult time shaking the mental image of the almost white-blonde angel lying there as still as death.
“Kenneth!”
Snapped out of his thoughts, the blonde looked up, startled that the girl was already in the kitchen. He walked into the other room and arched an eyebrow at the girl.
“Can you get the casserole dish out of the top cabinet?”
“Yeah, no problem at all.”
Kenneth pulled the dish down quickly and set it on the counter. He left the kitchen and tapped on the bathroom softly.
“Reuel? I have your kimono for you.”
“Oh thank you.”
Cracking the door open, Kenneth laid the garment near the sink. He glanced at the man reclined in the bathtub.
“Do you need anything else?”
“No, I’ll be out in a few minutes.”
Nodding, Kenneth backed out of the small room and returned to the kitchen to help Kiaria prepare dinner. Very little time seemed to have passed before Reuel joined them. The fallen was immediately set upon and hugged by an overjoyed Kiaria as Kenneth put the casserole into the oven. He turned to lean back against the cabinet by the sink and grinned as his little sister became a mothering hen over the grown angel.
Reuel pulled the little girl up into his lap with a grin. After she finished questioning him about how he felt, he began asking her questions.
“I did make a bad grade on the grammar test the other day, but Ms. Key let me make it up.”
“How did your parent teacher meeting go?”
The girl blushed and bit her lip.
“Ms. Key didn’t like that brother came instead of one of my parents.”
“Oh?”
The little girl nodded, and Reuel looked up in time to see Kenneth, flushed with shame, turn his head away.
“She said that she had been looking though my files and Kenneth’s and that she didn’t like that we weren’t living with our parents or that they never came to our parent teacher meetings.”
“Never?”
Kiaria shook her head again. Frowning at the thought, Reuel tapped his chin with a long finger for a minute.
“You said your mother left you… How long ago was that exactly?”
“Ki was five when she left. I’ve attended every parent teacher meeting she’s ever had, and we’ve never had any problems until now.”
“I’m sure Ms. Key is just worried…”
“Yes, and worried enough to send social services out to our home. They’ll be here tomorrow to speak with our absentee parents. Of course, once they find out we don’t actually have any adults living with us, they’ll pack us up and ship us off to some foster house, and we’ll probably never see each other again!”
Kenneth’s words were bitter as he spat them out at the fallen angel, venting the anger he had tried to suppress for two weeks. His temper cooled immediately when Kiaria whimpered and squeezed close to Reuel. Sighing heavily, the golden blonde boy rubbed the back of his neck and turned to look out the small window over the kitchen sink. This was news for her as well. Her teacher had asked her to leave the room before she brought it up.
Thoughtfully, Reuel began rubbing the small back of the softly crying girl. His thoughts kept jumping from possibility to possibility, but inevitably kept returning to the first that had entered his mind. Deep lines creased his forehead as he cleared his throat and finally spoke.
“It may not be the best idea ever…”
Kenneth glanced back around as the fallen angel spoke, hoping against hope that he could offer some suggestion that could work. Feeling the intense, green-blue eyes focused on him, Reuel’s words came slower.
“But… Would they still force you into a foster home if they thought you were living with a respectable adult?”
“No—I already thought of that though. It wouldn’t work I don’t think.”
“Even if I can convince them that I’m your uncle?”
Kenneth snorted loudly at the thought.
“A respectable one at that too, hm? It won’t work. You don’t look like us, and with those tattoos and earrings, no one is going to believe you’re respectable.”
“I’m wounded that you have so little faith in me. They’re not tattoos by the way. They’re order marks.”
“Order—“
“Ask me later. As I was going to say, I can influence humans into believing a lot of things. It’s one of the most powerful gifts an angel has—to protect their humans, they use suggestion.”
Sighing heavily, Kenneth shrugged.
“It can do us no harm to let you try. If they don’t believe you, then we’ll still go to the foster home, but at least this way we’ll have given it a shot…”
He paused.
“Uncle.”

***
End Chapter Algophobia
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