Nicholasmas : Shortie

"So that's what you want for Christmas, little boy?" he asked with a wry smile.

"You know I hate it when people call me that," I stated flatly, shooting him a glare.

"You can always change your wish and make it that I never refer to you by or call you that again," he offered.

I lost my glare, remorse dimming my eyes as I slid them away from him. "While that would make me happy, that's not what would make me most happy," I stated flatly.

"And making him most happy would make you most happy?" he asked, finally sounding serious.

"Making them most happy would make me most happy," I said softly.

"And you believe that will make them most happy?" he asked.

"…I think it will make them as happy as is possible presently. It won't give them the happiest ending they could ever have had, but it will give them a happy ending. It's the only way that I can see their relationship working out without a bad ending. It's the only way they can be with each other for as long as they want and be happy together as much as they deserve. They probably will hate me for it at first, just like with what I did before, but I know that they'll be happy that it happened in the end," I said.

"How can you be so sure of that, if I may ask?" he asked.

I turned my eyes back to him now, giving him a smile more closely related to a grimace than a grin. "You didn't notice, then…" I said softly, reaching up to run a finger along my right eye and then through my hair on the right side, "I gave up my right eye to the Seers and my right horn to the Sayers to check and double-check that this course of actions will bring them happiness."

His eyes went wide with surprise, his jaw actually dropping open in shock. "Y-You-I…I had noticed your aura was weak….but I thought it was just that spending time on Earth had sapped you of energy… You…You fucking moron. I can't believe you-What the Hell makes a Kys devil give up two of his five sources of power?!" he responded, slowly working through his shock and into a rage. By the time he was done speaking, his eyes had gone from wide to narrowed into slits, and his jaw was now clenched tightly rather than hanging ajar.

"I just told you what made me do that. And it's exactly that which also makes me willing to give you any one or even all three of my remaining sources of power," I stated flatly, not in the least bit frightened by his fury.

"I will not take even one more of your power sources from you, Sseldog," he hissed, making a furious motion that signaled the rejection of my offer, "Do you even know what that would mean?! You would have less than half of your true power left! You would be incapable of traveling between Hell and Earth, and you would be unable to survive when restricted to one or the other! You would be as good as dead!"

"I am willing to die for this wish!" I screamed. Immediately he stopped and stiffened, his eyes going wide again even as his jaw clenched only harder. I took a swift, sharp breath now to calm myself before I said anything else. "…I killed…my own chance at happiness long ago. I killed the one I loved. And now I have killed my brother's chance at happiness-am killing the one my brother loves," I stated flatly yet softly, "Even if that priest continues to take the anti-venom twice a day for the rest of his life, his life will inevitably be shorter because of the venom he originally took from me. God himself cannot save that human's life….but you can."

"I refuse to take the life of a devil to save the life of a human," he stated.

Goddamnit. I had already lost my pride by coming to him with this wish. Now I was going to have to lose my dignity to get him to grant me it. "Eden, you don't seem to understand… What I have done-ruining that man's life, my brother's love-I…." I whispered, my voice deathly low and my eyes turning down as my one working eye grew misty, "…I cannot live with myself, having done that to them. Whether or not I have any or all of my power sources makes no difference. I will not be able to survive much longer with the knowledge of what I have done. I may be a devil, but I am not without a heart. I may not feel love, but I do feel regret. I cannot live with myself if I do not rectify this."

"….Fuck. How do you even know this human will be able to live with himself if I grant you this wish? He's a goddamn priest, for crying out loud," Eden growled lowly, "I mean, you know that I won't simply be saving his life. There is no way to cure a Kys's poison. I will be taking his life from him, and giving him a new one. One that he may very well hate with all of his heart and soul."

"I told you, I already checked. Twice. I know that it will work, and I know that it will be worth it. For the love of all things holy and not, Eden, please, grant this wish for me. You're the only one that can," I said, now turning my eyes back up to him.

"I'm not the only Witsh devil there is," he stated, a growl accenting his words. He still didn't want to agree to this, but he was not quite capable of saying "no" outright anymore.

"But you are the most powerful," I stated, "And the only one that I trust with my life and with all of my heart." I had gotten to him, finally. I could actually see his entire body twitch just slightly, as though he had teleported only to reappear a millimeter from where he had already been. That wasn't what that motion was a sign of, though. The was the nearly impossible to notice and almost unrecognizable motion that he had accepted my wish. It was a motion that wouldn't be caught by any human's eye, and that I myself had almost missed due to lacking sight in my right eye.

"It will require very much of me to do this. It will also require most of you and all of the human," Eden said suddenly, "Under normal circumstances, I would gather the essence required from most to least, meaning I would start with the host, then the wisher, then myself. Due to our time constraints, however, I will have to not only start with myself, then you, then the host-that human-but I will have to do all three of the gatherings at the same time. I have already started with myself. I will start with you when we go to Earth quite shortly. I will start with the priest as soon as you divulge to him the deal you've made with me. If we're lucky, I will have gathered all I need just in time to make your Christmas wish come true."



"Who is your friend?" the priest asked, having been the first to catch sight of Eden and I as we entered the church and walked up the aisle.

My brother looked up only now, his eyes going wide with horror and then narrowing sharply with fury in the span of a single second. I didn't even have time to smirk at him before he had lunged the great distance between us and struck me to the ground. "What in God's great name do you think you are doing bringing a Witsh here, Sseldog?!" he shouted furiously.

I didn't answer immediately, first swiftly glancing over my shoulder at the Witsh in question-I had warned Eden that my brother would react violently to his presence and had asked him not to return any of the assaults. I hadn't mentioned to him, though, that I was likely going to be the victim of the assaults that would likely happen. He looked pissed. No, he looked beyond pissed. He looked like he was going to raise all Hell if I didn't intervene.

I now jumped to my feet, releasing an overdramatic sigh as I struck a pose. "How can you be so cruel to me, Ossgeld? I only brought a dear friend of mine home for the holidays, and here you are pitching a fit before introductions are even made! And you call yourself a priest!" I exclaimed, laying on the drama a little more thickly than usual.

"Don't lie to me, Sseldog! You can't have a good reason for bringing someone like him here! You're up to something, so just spit it out now!" Ossgeld snapped, "Or do I have to beat it out of you?"

"Ossgeld!" snapped the priest. All attention and eyes immediately turned to him. "Ossgeld, your brother has been on very good behavior since we relocated here. Treating him so harshly is uncalled for, even if it is suspicious of him to bring this other demon here," he stated sternly, his mouth drawn into a tight line.

My brother drew his own mouth into a tight line, giving me a look that promised me that he would have already been beating my ass if his little boyfriend hadn't spoken up. "….I apologize for being so harsh and rude, brother. Please, do tell why you have brought this lovely friend of yours home for the holidays," he said, his voice very dark and wavering slightly as he forced himself to be polite and priestly.

I stuck my tongue out at him and then stuck my nose in the air now. "No, I don't think I want to tell you anymore. You can just die of curiosity," I stated lightly. Actually, I hadn't even wanted to tell him in the first place. Because then he would whoop my ass, no matter what his darling human said. While it was absolutely necessary for me to tell the priest about everything as soon as possible, it was absolutely unnecessary to tell my brother about my plan until it was too late for him to do anything about it.

Before my brother could say anything, Eden stepped forward and spoke finally. "Perhaps it would be best to just take the opportunity now to tell them, Sseldog," he stated softly. All attention and eyes turned to him now. I was quite shocked to see that none of his previous rage was present. He looked just as calm as he sounded.

"N-Not yet!" I blurted out, "I'm not ready yet. Just-We don't have to tell them right away." Crap. Not exactly a way to hide the fact that I was keeping a secret from them. I couldn't just blurt out that I only wanted the priest to know, though. Probably should have mentioned that to Eden before. Now he would think I was just outright putting the whole thing off.

"You have to tell them sometime. The sooner, the better. I can do it for you, if you wish," he stated. He definitely thought I was just procrastinating.

"No! I can do it! Just not yet!" I exclaimed, only now actually turning around to face him fully. I was hoping to maybe gesture to him to make him understand I didn't want to let my brother know about this. However, before I could make any such gestures, his hand flew out and slid around my neck, holding me still as his lips crashed against mine.

I had no idea what the Hell he was doing. I mean, I knew he was kissing me, but I didn't know why. Nonetheless, I immediately returned the kiss, parting my lips and thrusting my tongue into his already open mouth. Upon returning the kiss, I instantly recognized what he was doing-he was engaging my essence so that he could begin to take it from me-but I still didn't know why he had so suddenly decided to do this in this very second.

Had this been any time before now, I would have seemed completely unaffected by the kiss. However, as I now had only three-fifths of my original power, my face was deeply flushed and I was gasping for air by the time Eden broke away from me. He, on the other hand, wasn't the least bit affected. As calm as ever, he turned his eyes to the other two and spoke. "Sseldog has been watching your relationship, and he has grown quite envious seeing you both together like you are. He decided it was time he try to find himself a lifelong mate," he stated simply, lying through his teeth.

There was a long span of silence now as my brother and the priest both stared at us in shock, probably struggling to picture me actually settling down with a single person. "…Why in the Hell would a Witsh devil select a Kys devil for a mate?" Ossgeld asked finally. Ah. Guess he had been struggling more with picturing Eden settling down with a single person.

Eden got a devilish little smirk of a smile on his face, kindly tilting my head straight up with a single finger. Still wearing that peculiar smile, he lowered his head down, brushing his lips to mine in a much sweeter, softer kiss than the one before. Never once taking his eyes off of my brother and not taking his lips off of mine, he spoke again. "Who aside from a Witsh could make a Kys settle for a single mate?" he asked, "…Other than a priest, I mean."

Ossgeld frowned now, narrowing his eyes suspiciously. "He's not even a pureblood. Why would a devil as powerful as you choose a mix breed-of all the devils that would love to be with you-as your mate?" he demanded.

"Well, you just said it yourself," Eden said simply, now taking the time to end the kiss, stand up straight, and pull me flush against him before continuing, "Countless devils would love to be with me, for I am a Witsh. …But only he wishes to be with me, for he loves me."

As lovely as this lie was, I really needed to cut it off. It did provide me with a good excuse for not and escape from telling my brother the truth, but it was…embarrassing, to say the least. I mean, I had kind of spent the last month ragging on Ossgeld endlessly for falling in love with the priest. So this obviously hurt my image and integrity-or, rather, my lack thereof. "Okay, I think you've said more than enough," I half stated sternly and half mumbled under my breath. Eden glanced down at me, his devilish smirk-smile now melting into what was simply a loving smile.

"…You're embarrassed," the priest stated out of the blue, sounding absolutely awed.

"You're embarrassed," Ossgeld repeated disbelievingly, even as his eyes went wide with shocked realization.

"I am not embarrassed. Shut up, the lot of you," I growled, shooting my brother and his lover a glare. I didn't glare at Eden, of course, because…well, just because I was too embarrassed to look at him after seeing such a loving look on his face. Even if I knew he was only acting for the sake of this excuse he had spun out of thin air, it was embarrassing to have him looking at me like that.

"Oh my Lord. My brother is embarrassed. My fiendish, devilish, heartless, ruthless, cruel, cold, moronic, idiotic brother is embarrassed," Ossgeld said, his jaw dropping open now as he gawked at me.

"I said shut up! And I am not moronic, nor idiotic!" I snapped, now glaring solely at him.

"But you are embarrassed," the priest stated.

"I told you to shut up, too!" I snapped.

My brother now turned his shocked stare to the priest, putting a hand to his heart as though to slow it and keep it from breaking free. "He's not denying it. Oh my God. He's really embarrassed. He's truly in love," he said. Had he not still sounded so truly shocked, I would have thought that he was trying to get me back for all of my prior insults about being in love and falling in love and his love.

"I think that we've talked about this more than long enough!" I shouted, now positively blushing from ear to ear with embarrassment.

My brother returned his stare to me as his eyes suddenly narrowed and he smirked devilishly. "Oh, no, we have not even begun to talk about this, my dearest brother," he purred. Oh, fuck me, no. Don't tell me he was going to be as much of an ass about this as I had been to him. There were twenty-five days until Christmas. Twenty-five long days, during which I could not correct him nor argue with him about my relationship with Eden, due to the fact that it was really all a cover-up.



"You sure you don't want to change your wish, little boy?" Eden asked me, smirking cruelly.

"Shut up. I hate you. This is all your fault," I whined pathetically. I had every right to be pathetic, though. It had been almost a week since I came to him with my wish, we came to Earth, and he came up with our cover-up. And not for a single second in the six days since then had my brother left me the fuck alone. He was harassing and hassling me constantly and continuously, allowing breaks only for mealtime and bedtime.

It was presently the latter of those two times, but neither Eden nor I were going to bed. We were just sitting at the front of the church that the priest had been relocated to and we lived in for the time being, enjoying the first peace and quiet we'd had since getting up. "All those things he said you said to him-did you really?" Eden asked, arching an eyebrow at me doubtfully. So much for enjoying the peace and quiet.

"Duh," I responded brilliantly.

"And did you really mean and do you really believe all of them?" he asked, now arching his other eyebrow curiously.

"Depends," I said simply.

"The ones about love being more effort than it's worth?" he asked.

"Did mean," I stated.

"The stuff about all truly open relationships ending badly?" he asked.

"Didn't mean," I admitted.

"The ones about how any person, if given the choice, would fling their lover into Hell and go to Heaven alone, rather then descend into Hell together?" he asked.

"Do believe," I stated.

"That one about how anyone would rather never sleep with anyone than always share their bed with the same person night after night for the rest of their life?" he asked.

"Don't believe," I admitted.

"Why do you say the stuff you don't mean and don't believe?" he asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" I asked.

"You're secretly jealous and want to make them suspicious of betrayal from each other," he said, obviously not guessing seriously.

"Well, you're half right," I said, chuckling darkly and softly.

"….You were really trying to do that?" he asked, both of his eyebrows now riding high in surprise as he looked at me.

I looked away from him only now, smirking to myself. "Obviously. I wanted to test their trust. Neither of them really have a single good reason to trust each other. Ossgeld was lying about everything about himself for the first nine months they knew each other, and it's no secret that he still has many secrets he keeps. Doctor is only human and also a priest, both of which naturally make him untrustworthy to any unholy creature. They both trust each other completely and without hesitation, though. They have the same blind, uncalled for faith in each other that they have in the Lord. It annoys me all to Hell and back, but it's exactly what I wanted to see from them before I could decide that it was worth the price to pay to see if they would be happy if I paid an even greater price," I explained lightly, as though it were something simple.

There was nothing for a moment, and then all at once Eden wrapped his arms around me, dragging me over to him and into his lap, pressing my back against his chest and his face into my hair. "You are really too saintly to be a devil. Yet you are too devilish to be a saint. It's actually an extraordinarily nice contrast and combination. So why are you so afraid to show others that you can be a nice guy?" he asked.

"Who the Hell said I was afraid? I'm not afraid of anything," I snapped, shooting a glare at him from the corners of my eyes.

He just ignored me, acting as though I hadn't even spoken. "I don't think you're afraid of being taken advantage of. You're more than smart enough to avoid that being done to you," he said thoughtfully, "Is it because of your father?"

I stiffened, my fists and jaw both clenching tightly. Who did he think he was, so thoughtlessly and casually mentioning my- "Father!" I exclaimed, all at once jumping to my feet. Both Eden and the priest were startled by my outburst.

"Uh, am I interrupting something?" the priest asked quickly, glancing between Eden and I.

"Yes," Eden stated, reaching for me again.

I paid him no mind, though, swiftly moving over to the priest. "Not in the least. Actually, I have something to talk to you about, Father Doctor," I said. This had been the first time I'd gotten him alone-or, rather, gotten him without my brother-since getting Eden to agree to grant my wish. I still needed to tell him the truth and fill him in on the facts, otherwise Eden wouldn't be able to gather his essence and grant my wish.

"Oh…? You know, I think this is the first time you've addressed me by anything other than "priest" since after Halloween," he said.

"Per your request. I apologize. Should I go back to just that, then?" I asked.

He stared at me for a moment, looking completely stupefied. "…I know that love changes people, but this is….quite astounding-you having actual manners, I mean," he said finally, looking very uncertain and uneasy.

"Hey, you said yourself I've been behaving well since we moved!" I snapped. I really didn't want to have another week-long interrogation and humiliation started over me acting a little tiny bit out of the ordinary. Especially since I had only dug my manners up in the hopes that my being polite would keep the priest from telling my brother on me when I told him the truth. As they say, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Not my personal motto, but one I was willing to adopt for the time being.

"Well, that is true… Anyway, what is it that you need to talk to me about? Is it something your brother should know, too?" he asked.

Swiftly I put my hands up, laughing nervously as I moved them back and forth to signal that was really something that didn't need to and that I didn't want to happen. "No, no, no. This is, as it so happens, a thing that he is best left without knowledge of. But it is something that you absolutely must know of, or, in all honesty, I wouldn't tell you in the first place. So, I was kind of hoping that you might maybe agree to keep this thing a secret before I actually get to telling you what the big secret is," I said somewhat weakly.

He stared at me flatly and silently, obviously thinking over whether or not he could trust me enough to make that promise. "…I'm thinking that, if you don't want to tell Ossgeld, it's probably something that he should know," he stated finally.

"And he will know!" I exclaimed brightly, "…Just not until after the big secret is revealed to him."

"And when will that be?" Doctor asked, crossing his arms across his chest now. This polite thing didn't seem to be going over so well.

"After," I said shortly and swiftly.

"After what?" he asked.

"Uuuum…after it's over," I said.

"After what is over, Sseldog?" he demanded flatly.

"Can't you just trust me and promise not to tell?" I asked weakly.

"Can't you just trust me and tell me without any promises?" he asked.

Fuck. I couldn't exactly say no. But there really was no other answer. I trusted him about as far as I could throw him. But still…. I knew my brother trusted him endlessly…and part of me probably trusted him well enough, for me to trust him with my brother's happiness. I let out an overly heavy sigh, my whole body slumping slightly as I looked away. "Okay, fine. You better be as fucking trustworthy as you act, priest," I grumbled, more thinking aloud than talking to him.

"I should hope the same thing," he replied simply.

"…Okay, here's how it is: I've told you before, there is no cure for the poison that you are infected with. That does not mean there is nothing that can be done, though," I stated flatly, turning my eyes back to him and straightening up again, "Your current body is doomed. There is no way to ever remove the poison partially, let alone entirely. But that is only your body. Your soul, on the other hand, is perfectly pure-or, as pure as it ever was. Anyway, the point is that you can escape the effects of the poison not only by counteracting it day in and day out, but by altogether shifting your soul into another body."

I paused here, waiting for that information and idea to sink in. He was silent for several beats, staring at me with slightly wide eyes and a partially dropped jaw, obviously shocked by this. It was something neither my brother nor I had even mentioned in passing before. "You…I…That can be done? Something like that-another body?" he asked finally, barely breathing the words.

"Yes, it can be done. Not…Not by any ordinary person-or, rather, devil, though. It takes a very powerful-extraordinarily powerful-devil to be able to do it. As a matter of fact, there is only one type of devil known to successfully be able to do such a thing without the devil or the person changing bodies being wiped from existence in the process," I stated softly. Again I paused, this time turning slightly to look at Eden, allowing the priest to follow my gaze and understand the implication without me saying it.

"….Is…Is that why Ossgeld reacted like that to the sight of him? He suspected something like this?" Doctor asked.

"Perhaps," I said, sliding my gaze back to him now.

The awe was all at once wiped from his expression, his brow furrowing as he drew his mouth into a tight line. "If that is so-if this is why you said you two chose to be mates-if this is what your big secret is-then there must be a reason for it all, a reason why Ossgeld would not like this idea," he stated sternly.

"Yes, there is a reason-you. A Witsh is a powerful devil, but not omnipotent. Eden will need a very large amount of your essence-your energy-to be able to make a new body for you. It will take nearly a month to gather all of the essence needed for him to do such a thing. Over that time span, you will slowly but surely come to feel extremely drained and weakened. It's not like your life will be at risk, but you will ache terribly and eventually entirely. Not just before the body is made, but also for awhile after you are in your new one. And it will be indescribably painful when your soul is being removed from your old body and placed into the new one," I explained bluntly, not bothering to sugarcoat it any.

His expression had softened as I spoke, as he thought on my words. "…But I will, afterwards, be the same as I was before you poisoned me?" he asked uncertainly.

"…I'm afraid not. You will never again be the same as before, Father Doctor. Nothing in this world or the next can undo what I have done," I said softly, "However, this may help that. It is not the best thing in the world, but it is the best choice of those that you have now. Changing bodies will make you inhuman-you will be something like an imp. You will have no actual powers-either unholy or holy-nor a given alignment. You will have far more stamina and a far longer lifespan than any human or animal, but you will not be a match for any form of devil or angel. What is most important, though, is that your body will not be infected with my poison."

"A longer lifespan… Longer than yours?" he asked, only now moving his gaze from Eden back to me.

"It's possible," I stated.

"…I would go to Hell if I did such a thing," he said softly, not taking his eyes from me.

"What are you, deaf or dumb? I already told you before that you're definitely going to Hell. I mean, come on, your body has been corrupted by two devils, one of which you now have an intimate relationship with. Sure, you haven't slept together yet, but you're still totally screwed," I said, scoffing and rolling my eyes.

"There are those who have gone to Heaven even after having done worse than that," Eden said suddenly. Both my eyes and the priest's immediately snapped around to him, widening in surprise. I hadn't known that. He hadn't known that. We hadn't known that.

Oh, God, no. Why the Hell did that motherfucker have to be so merciful and forgiving? I swiftly turned my eyes to the priest, seeing that he had already wiped all emotion from his expression. Goddamnit. "Oh, my bad. Guess we can end this discussion here, then," I stated flatly, pivoting on my heel and moving to leave.

"And why do you say that?" Doctor asked.

The sheer stupidity of his question stopped me in mid-step. Wearing possibly the ugliest sneer ever in all of existence, I tossed him a dark look over my shoulder. "It doesn't take a goddamn genius to know where this conversation is going to go," I snarled, "So forget I fucking brought this up in the first place."

"You think you know me that well, do you, Sseldog?" he asked simply.

"I don't have to know you well to know what you're going to do now. You're going to do the same fucking thing any other goddamn priest would do. No, check that-you're going to do the same thing any other goddamn human would do," I growled, giving him a most lovely death glare.

He sighed lightly now, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, Sseldog, I can't believe you're enough of a dumbshit to put your trust in me at all if you're going to snatch it back so swiftly. I can't tell if it's lack of faith in others that you have, or lack of faith in yourself," he said airily as he finished rolling his eyes and slid them back to me.

I rounded on him now, narrowed my eyes sharply. "Just what in the Hell are you saying, priest?!" I snapped, feeling more than ready to snap his neck

"I'm saying…" he said slowly, again sighing and rolling his eyes, "…I will keep this a secret from Ossgeld. I can't promise anything, though. As you explained quite frankly, this is going to take a lot out of me, so I might not be able to hide it the entire time. Besides, your brother isn't half as stupid as you, and he already felt suspicious of this, so he'll probably figure it out on his own, in time."

"…What?" I asked both stupidly and suspiciously.

He smiled only now, rubbing the back of his neck thoughtfully as he turned to leave. "I figure, if God can forgive me for this much, he can forgive me for giving up Heaven. I don't think-check that-I know I couldn't forgive myself if I passed up the opportunity to strengthen and lengthen my relationship with Ossgeld, though," he said softly as he headed for the door, "I don't know what it's like to be in Heaven, so I really won't miss it if I don't get in. But I know what it's like to be with Ossgeld, and I would miss him if I did end up going to Heaven without him."

About five minutes after he left, I recovered from my shock enough to regain my motor skills. I did not, however, recover from my shock enough to regain my motor coordination. And so, I fell right over on my ass. Or, I would have, had it not been for the fact that in those five minutes Eden had gotten up and come over to stand behind me, allowing for him to easily catch me when I finally fell over from my shock. "Are you okay?" he asked simply, staring down at me as he held me on me feet and against his chest.

I turned my head up to look at him, shock still written all over my face. "Is it okay?" I asked stupidly.

"Is what okay?" he asked.

"Him going. Don't you need to, like, connect with him so you can collect his essence?" I asked.

"No. I started collecting his essence the moment I was positive he was going to agree to this. I don't need to come into contact with him to connect with him. All I needed was his consent," he replied lightly.

Slowly I turned my head back down, staring after the priest even though he was long gone. "…I guess it's easier to connect with humans than other devils," I said softly, more thinking aloud than questioning Eden.

"Not really," he said, drawing my attention and eyes back to himself, "Rather, that's to say, neither humans nor devils are hard to connect with. All it takes is their consent, and nothing more. Now angels, on the other hand, are very hard to connect with. It takes more than just verbal consent there. Contact is necessary to connect with them, and sometimes even for the entire time one is connected to them. Depends on what sort of angel they are and how much strength they have, really."

I continued to stare up at him. There was still a small amount of shock on my face, but it was mostly overshadowed by deep thoughtfulness. "…Wait a minute, if you didn't have to touch me to connect with me, why the Hell have you been kissing me left and right for the past six days?" I asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked.

"You've been trying to reaffirm for my brother that we're mates so that he doesn't get suspicious again and catch on to the plan?" I guessed.

"Not even close," he said, chuckling lightly and softly.

"Then why?" I asked.

"It's not only obvious, but simple: because I want to," he stated simply, smiling sweetly down at me.

I stared up at him for a beat, and then I all at once ripped away from him and whirled around to face him. "Y-Y-You-I thought-I didn't know-I let you kiss me!" I blurted out, my thoughts running around my head so fast that I could hardly catch them.

"You did. Many times. So I don't see what the problem is," he stated simply.

"Ah-but-I didn't-I thought it was because you needed to!" I exclaimed, a furious blush coming onto my face now.

"Are you saying you won't kiss me anymore?" he asked point blank. That stopped me. Did he really just ask me that? Or, rather, was that really what he was asking me? He wasn't insinuating that he wouldn't grant my wish if I didn't grant him kisses, was he? He didn't sound particularly threatening when he asked that, but he also didn't sound especially friendly. If I didn't respond well and respond soon, things might very well go bad very soon.

I stared at him for a beat, and then I all at once moved over him and dragged him down into a kiss. Before he had a chance to respond to or return the kiss, I broke it off and broke away from him, blushing furiously and staring furiously at the floor. "Happy Saint Nicholas Day," I said flatly. Despite what you may think, I was not in the least bit angry. Not at him, anyways. I was positively furious with myself, though, because I couldn't believe that I couldn't bring myself to not kiss him. And it wasn't damn well because I was afraid, either. I actually didn't not want to kiss him.

"….Saint Nicholas has nothing to do with a kiss," he stated flatly.

"He does! Indirectly! He gave dowries to that one poor father for his three daughter's to get married, didn't he?!" I snapped, shooting him a glare now.

He stared at me for a beat, and then all at once grabbed me and dragged me to him and into another kiss. Immediately after the kiss, he released me, and then simply stood there and stared at me again. "What was that about?!" I exclaimed, blushing and glaring even harder than before.

"Happy Day of the Candles," he said, "Because, as of one second ago, it's after midnight. So it's December 7th now, and that's the only holiday I know of that occurs today."

"…What does that holiday have to do with kissing?" I asked.

He shrugged now. "I don't rightly know. This day is the unofficial start of the Christmas season in Columbia. So it's sort of connected to kissing, what with mistletoe and all that. I don't really think it matters either way, though. Any celebration is cause enough for a kiss," he said lightly.

"You're going to come up with a holiday every day as an excuse to kiss me, aren't you?" I asked. He just smiled at me in that scarily (and embarrassingly) sweet way. I could only look away yet again and blush still more. I was too embarrassed to tell him that he could go ahead and kiss me whenever he wanted to. Maybe after Christmas. I trusted that he could manage to come up with one-if not several-holidays every day until then. After all, it was only nineteen days away. No, check that-eighteen days away.