Wings. Out of everyone Ajax could have anticipated opening the door, it hadn't been the small man with beautiful wings. He was glad to be out of the way from any prying eyes, or anyone who could have been following him now he was inside, a distant thought feeling bad for getting blood all over this guy's home. All he could think about was the searing pain that seemed to grow worse the more he was moved, especially that stupid bullet wound.
"I think- I think the bullet is still wedged in me." Ajax breathed, tipping his head back to try and hide how badly he was hurting. He hadn't felt it come out the other side, but it was bleeding considerably less than the rest of his injuries so there was a very high chance it was still stuck in him. Not the most pleasant of experiences, "Hurts like hell." Talking was getting difficult, but Ajax hung on so he could at least give this man a basic explanation of what happened. He didn't need to know everything, especially not with his line of work. Chances of him being found were low, but rational told him to lean on the side of caution, and with another life at stake, an innocent life, too, it was even more important to him. Ajax might have been an asshole, but he wasn't that much of an ass to get another man killed for simple helping him.
"Alright, alright… um…" Nathaniel rushed back to Ajax's side, bandages and other treatments spilling out of his arms. "It's going to be alright, okay? Um… it's weird, and don't ask why, but I've actually dealt with bullet wounds before, s-so…" He checked the wound and carefully turned Ajax so he could check the other side. "You're right… there's no exit wound. I'll have to get the bullet out of you." He sighed softly, pulling a long pair of tweezers out of his box along with a washcloth. "I'll be right back." He hurried back to the kitchen for a moment.
Soon, Nathaniel had returned with the washcloth, which was now damp. He offered it to Ajax. "Here. You can bite down on this. It's… um… definitely going to hurt, sorry." Once he was ready, Nathaniel carefully, slowly put the tweezers into the wound and managed to grab the bullet with them. He instructed Ajax to take a deep breath before he started to very carefully pull the bullet out.
For such a small and timid man, Ajax was surprised to see how many medical supplies he had, and the fact that he had dealt with bullet wounds before. But he guessed when you had wings, it might make you more of a target. He took the cloth, "Not the first bullet I've had pulled out of me." He mumbled before biting down on the cloth. Ajax was more upset that he'd ruined one of his best shirts.
When Nathaniel started pulling out the bullet, Ajax groaned. The pain was immense, but he stayed as still as he possibly could so he could work the bullet out. It would pay off in the long run, but man was it painful now. A mumbled slew of slurs came out, Ajax doing anything he could to distract himself until the bullet was successfully out. The cloth dropped from his mouth, "Jesus Christ that couldn't have been any worse if you tried."
Nathaniel was visibly pale and seemed like he was a bit distant as he worked the bullet out. As his wings shifted, the bullet hole in the joint of his left wing was now visible. He exhaled shakily in relief when the bullet was out, setting it on the coffee table beside himself. "Sorry, s-sorry… I tried to be as careful as I could." He grabbed some gauze and used it to put pressure on the wound, hoping he could stop the bleeding. His hands were trembling a bit now, and he bit his lip to keep it from quivering.
He managed to grab a gauze pad and some bandage tape to carefully fix over the wound after he'd properly cleaned it. Once those were in place, he sat back and rubbed at his eyes with the hand that didn't have so much blood on it.
Ajax sighed, shifting to sit up straighter as he got a better look at Nathaniel. Small, pale, visibly scared. He did his best to try and look less threatening, but Ajax wasn't quite sure it was working, "Thank you," He said after a moment, "For helping, not many people would have done that." Most would have probably left him to bleed out on the street. At least he would live now and hopefully repay back the favour that he now owed.
"What's your name?" He asked. Ajax was surprised he'd never seen or heard of his guy before. The man with angel wings living in such a big city. There were so many questions and Ajax was eager to learn. It might have been stupid, but he couldn't help his curiosity surrounding this man.
Nathaniel looked up at Ajax meekly and nodded, starting to fidget with his stark white wings to try and calm himself down somewhat. "N-No problem…" He whispered softly in reply. "I… I c-couldn't exactly leave a man to bleed to death on my doorstep in good conscience." He laughed weakly, rubbing at his eyes again. It was pretty easy to tell that he was very stressed, and this was bringing back some memories he'd hoped to forget.
He only looked up again when Ajax asked him his name. "Oh, u-um… it's Nathaniel… Nathaniel Windsor." He replied with a weak smile and a small, polite bow. "Pleased to meet you, although I wish it were under lighter circumstances. What's yours?"
"You'd be surprised how many people would have left me there." Ajax wasn't one to feel bad for stressing people out, not usually, especially strangers, but seeing the way Nathaniel was clearly uncomfortable with what happened, it was hard not to feel awful for intruding and bothering him on what would have been a calm night, otherwise.
"Ajax," He didn't give his last name, not yet, "It's good to meet you as well, Nathaniel." A fitting name for him. As much as it hurt like hell to move, Ajax knew that the longer he stayed, the more he put Nathaniel's life in danger. With a groan, grabbing onto his wound like it would stop the pain, he stood from the couch, "Thank you, again, but I'll get out of your way now." He did his best to offer a smile, though he wasn't very good at them, "Hopefully the rest of your night is peaceful."
Nathaniel watched Ajax closely as he spoke, and seemed startled when he stood up. He stood as well, paling a bit more when he realized just how big Ajax was compared to himself. He shook his head, clearing his thoughts and refocusing himself on the task at hand. "S-Sir, please don't do that… you really need to get some rest, okay? You shouldn't be wandering around with an injury like that. Just… you're welcome to stay until you've recovered a bit more." He was quiet for a moment, looking down at the ground. "U-Um… I was making dinner already when you came in anyway, s-so… if you're hungry, you can have some. You should probably have some fluids in you, too…"
Ajax raised a brow. He was more than capable of getting home. It was a fair walk, but all the same, "Please, don't call me sir, Ajax is fine." He did his best to soften his tone, not wanting to scare Nathaniel more than he already had. He could have just pushed past him and out the door. Ajax might have been a criminal, but he had some manners and decency. Sighing, he nodded, "Fine. But I would like to help." It was the least he could do when Nathanial was letting him stay. He'd have to let his people know he was okay, but he would do that later when he wasn't focused on coming across so scary.
"Alright, alright… you really shouldn't be straining yourself, though." Nathaniel sighed and reluctantly made his way to the kitchen so he could continue making his chicken fried rice. The rice was well overcooked and mushy by now, so he threw it out and put some more into the rice cooker. The chicken was still waiting to be cooked, but it was chopped and seasoned.
"Um… y-you won't tell anybody about my wings, will you?" He asked nervously after a bit. "I… um… I-I normally hide them when I'm out in public, but that's pretty uncomfortable, so I don't do it when I'm at home, and… I don't want to know what they would do to me if they found out…"
Ajax leaned against the kitchen counter, slipping a hand into the pocket of his jeans as he watched Nathaniel busy himself with preparing the rest of his dinner, "I won't. You have my word." He might not have wings but considering he had heightened abilities or 'super senses' as Max called them, he understood not wanting to have your secret exposed, and Nathaniels was even bigger than his own, "You saved my life, Nathaniel, I'm in your debt for that."
He didn't like owing people. Too many complications when it came to repaying favours or helping someone out. But Ajax could tell that Nathaniel wasn't a threat, not in the slightest, so there was no worry when it came to that. He would keep his secret, among other things, if it meant repaying him for keeping him alive.
Nathaniel smiled shyly and laughed a bit, a light flush rising to his cheeks. This smile was genuine, at least, and showed his dimples. "W-Well… thanks. You don't really owe me anything, honestly, but I appreciate it anyway…" He was quiet for a moment, considering what all he should say. "Um… most angels—that's what I am—get their wings taken when they're banished, so they acclimate to acting like humans pretty easily, but… my wings were already crushed, and… I dunno. They didn't take mine." He sighed and glanced to the bullet hole in his left wing.
"I didn't really do anything wrong, if that's what you're wondering. I was banished for crippling my wings. I was useless to them… but I thought they might let me stick around until I was a little more self sufficient, you know? I was… I was only eight years old." He started to cut up some vegetables to add into the food. "Ah! S-Sorry, I'm… probably sharing too much. You don't care about my backstory." He nicked himself with the knife and yelped, bringing his bleeding finger up to his mouth with a wince.
A smile of his own tugged at Ajax's lips. He listened intently, intrigued by the fallen angel, "Please, keep talking, it's interesting." A shrug of his good shoulder, "I'm sorry about what happened. Do you have any family?" Ajax couldn't remember the last time he had been genuinely interested in someone else that wasn't a mob or a gang leader. Came with the title of 'most feared gang leader in the city.' Not many people gave him the chance to talk, and from the way Nathaniel was, Ajax realised he had no clue who he was, a blessing.
Moving to the first aid kit that Nathaniel had brought out before, he rummaged around to grab a bandaid, peeling it off before offering it to the small man. Ajax would have put it on himself, but he was taking it slow. Considering he was practically a foot taller than Nathaniel, and he could hear his racing heart beat as clear as day, he wasn't going to do anything that could have him kicked out.
Nathaniel accepted the band-aid from Ajax with a soft 'thank you', rinsing his finger before he carefully wrapped the band-aid around it. "My family is… complicated. I had an older brother named Lloyd, but… um… he was killed in a battle when he was fifteen, while he was protecting me…" He replied softly. "I don't know what state my parents are in these days. They weren't ever around a whole lot, to be honest, and they always liked Lloyd more than me." He smiled sadly and continued cutting the vegetables. "Heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be. I can tell you that much. Well… I don't know what it's like for humans, but it's not great for angels."
"Oh, I'm sorry." Ajax knew what it was like to lose family members, he wasn't a stranger to loss, but he couldn't help but feel sad for Nathaniel's heartbreaks, which was strange for him, considering he just met the dude, "Well, I can tell you with certainty I'm definitely not making it into heaven." A dry chuckle. Not with the things he'd done. Ajax had learned long ago there was no place in heaven for people like him, who killed and dealt with anything that might put them in jail or even worse, "I don't have any family, not in the blood-related sense. Killed, like your brother was, in a way."
"It's fine… and you never know. I don't really know what the guidelines are for human heaven. It might be much more lenient. There's a hell that demons are from, and they're our biggest issue, but I can't say for sure whether or not there's even people in hell. That's one of those things they don't like to teach us." Nathaniel laughed weakly and tipped the chicken and veggies into the pan to start cooking. "I'm sorry about your family as well… Lloyd was much older than me. I was about six when he was killed. And I was about seven or eight when… when that guy shot me." He was quiet for a moment before he stretched out his left wing as much as he could to show the bullet hole. His wings weren't quite the right shape; they still looked a bit crumpled, and he couldn't completely extend them. "Some duck hunter shot me down and left me there to die. I'm lucky a patrol found me, honestly. But they were much too late to have any shot of fixing the damage. I doubt it was fixable anyway. The bones in my wings were pretty much completely crushed, and they healed back wrong."
Ajax resisted the urge to reach out and touch the wings before him. He couldn't imagine the pain Nathaniel must have been in when it happened, especially so young and alone, "Trust me, whatever guidelines there are to get into heaven, I've broken all of them." A small shake of his head before he was moving to help with the dinner, turning the chicken over with a wooden spoon laid out to the side to make sure it was cooking correctly, "You seem okay now, though. I mean with your place and all that." Ajax wondered if he had a job, or if it was some angel magic that kept him living comfortably down on Earth. He'd never been a religious man, never cared whether he got into heaven or not, couldn't in his line of work, but it was kind of comforting knowing there was something else after death, "For someone who has gone through so much at such young ages, it's impressive you're still here, honestly."
Nathaniel smiled weakly as he listened, keeping his gaze firmly on the dinner. Talking about his childhood always brought back a flood of memories, and most of them weren't good. "I'm glad you think so… it was definitely pretty close when I was younger, to be honest. Pretty soon after I was kicked out, I was understandably really upset and unstable and… I dunno. I was just a little kid. I wanted to see my parents again. I wanted to go home so badly, and I didn't know how it all worked and how I could get back, so I considered…" His voice trailed off.
I'm probably telling him too much… I'm stupid. This is probably making him uncomfortable, but… I haven't been able to tell someone this in so long. "I could never quite bring myself to do it. I was scared. I'm sure I'd have been kicked out eventually even if I hadn't hurt my wings. They don't especially like… my type."
Normally, Ajax would have simply tuned out the conversation by now, but that strange feeling to get to know the man who saved his life was overwhelming, and he listened surprisingly well and intently. He understood what it was like, especially after his parents both died and was forced to take on the role that they had left, it had been overwhelming, and he had been a teenager at the time, not a kid like Nathaniel had been. For someone who seemed so innocent, Ajax had no right to be sharing a space with something such as him, even more so considering he was an angel, fallen or not. It didn't feel right to him.
"I- I'm so sorry," It was a genuine apology, that much was clear. Ajax might have looked like a brute, but his words came out softer than even he had been expecting, "I know what that's like, to feel that way, not the whole being kicked out thing but, I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm glad you didn't, if you had I might not be standing here right now, either."
Nathaniel offered Ajax a weak smile as he separated the food onto two plates. "It's silly, but I still miss them sometimes… I know now that it was terrible up there, and that it isn't a healthy environment for anybody, but I can't help but miss my family. Lloyd especially, but… obviously I can't see him again." He handed a plate to Ajax and sat down at the table so he could start eating.
"It's very strict up there, and the angels are trained for battle from a very young age. Pretty much as soon as they're able to hold a sword, they start training. So… anywhere between three and five years old, I would say. I was about three, and so was Lloyd I believe."
"Heaven doesn't sound as good as everyone makes it out to be." Ajax shook his head slightly, sitting down across from Nathaniel with a small wince, doing his best to hide it. It didn't sound good at all. Being trained for battle as a mere child, being kicked out for no reason. He took a couple of bites of food, surprised by how good it tasted, and made quick work devouring nearly half before the spoke again.
"We're not so different, I guess then," Ajax said, resting his arms against the edge of the table, "I learnt how to fight from pretty young, too, lost my parents. I didn't have any siblings but all the same." He didn't know why he was speaking so freely about his past, but Nathaniel had a comforting aura to him, and Ajax didn't mind talking about it to him.
"It's definitely not good, no… not for the angels, anyway." Nathaniel started eating as well, occasionally glancing up at Ajax to see how he was doing. "I'm sorry to hear that… it's not good to hear that someone has something in common with my childhood." He laughed weakly.
"It's definitely different there than it is down here, for sure. The people are much different, as well. Angels actually age a little different after a while. I mean, it starts out at the same pace as humans, but it slows and stops somewhere between 20 and 30 years old, I would say. Then they stay around their prime until they get killed. Angels can't die of old age and stuff like that, so… y'know. I'm only 21, so I probably won't look much older than this."
"You look younger than twenty-one." Ajax was quick to finish off the rest of his plate, leaning back in the car with another small wince, "Maybe that's a blessing though, looking younger than you are." He was only two years older but comparatively, he looked at least five years, taking in height, too. Nathaniel was quite short, but he was taller than the average guy.
"No need to be sorry, it's life, I was born into the one I live, as were you. There's nothing I can do to change what happened." Ajax still missed his parents terribly, but he had some to terms with their death, even if it was only recently. He was just lucky he still had a 'family' of sorts, "Do you have anyone else down here? Friends? Surely you aren't alone all the time."
Nathaniel soon finished his food as well and picked up both plates. He took them to the sink so he could start washing them while he talked. His wings hung loosely from his back, in a relaxed position for the moment. He looked like he was a bit tired. At the question, he winced and tilted his head from side to side as he considered.
"Well… not really. I had a couple of boyfriends, b-but they weren't… great people. As far as friends… also not really. People like me well enough, but there's not anybody that I actively spend time with. I'm usually alone."
"Oh," Ajax moved to lean against the counter next to Nathaniel, grabbing a tea towel to dry their dirty plates and dishes after the angel has cleaned them up, "Is that by choice or…?" He assumed it was. Nathaniel was likeable, probably the most likeable person Ajax had ever come across, why anyone would want to either hurt him or not be friends with him was a mystery. He couldn't tell if that was down to Nathaniel being an angel, or just because he was a nice person. Either way, it didn't matter.
"Well… for the most part, yeah. I'm not normal. It's safer for me to be alone, but… I hate being stuck here all alone. That's probably why I'm spilling my whole life story to you." Nathaniel laughed weakly and soon finished with the dishes, leaning against the counter with a tired sigh. "I just wish it wasn't so dangerous for me down here. Makes me want to just… tear out my own wings. But that would hurt so bad, and I'm kind of a baby when it comes to that sometimes…"
Ajax got to cleaning the plates, placing them on the side so they could be put away later, "It's been a while since I met someone not trying to kill me, and someone nice," A shrug of his good shoulder, "I don't mind listening, and I've found I'm quite good at it when I want to be." He offered a small smile. Considering he has hearing better than the average person, Ajax took pride in being a good listener, "Your wings are… magnificent, even if they are broken." It was clear he was being honest, strange for him since Nathaniel was a stranger, "They're a part of you, I, nor anyone, really, would want to see you lose them just to 'fit it'. I'm sure there are people out there like you, it's just about finding them."
Nathaniel offered Ajax a small smile, not seeming entirely convinced. "Thanks, but that's going to be tough for me to do… even other fallen angels wouldn't be likely to want to be friends. Angels tend to be very proud, but also very sheltered. Many fallen angels die because a lot of them are very young when they're kicked out, like me, and we don't really have many practical skills other than fighting. The lucky ones get mistaken for homeless children and get taken in, or at least are put into foster care, and the rest of us grow up homeless and starving or die."
"Well, I'm glad you weren't one of those who died, if you had, I probably wouldn't be alive right now, anyway." There were too many possibilities of ending up at the wrong house, knocking on the wrong door, and being shot in the dead right there. Ajax placed the last of the dishes on the side, placing the tea towel on the side, too, before slipping his hands into his pockets, "But anyway, you look tired, and I might be a brute but I can tell you need rest, and honestly, so do I." The throbbing all over his body was getting hider to fight, and it was getting harder to stay standing.
"Yeah…" Nathaniel yawned and glanced over to Ajax sleepily when he mentioned that he looked tired. He flushed a bit and smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "Ah… y-yeah, it's been a long day… um… the couch is a foldout, so I can help you set that up before I go to bed." He put the last of the dishes away and hurried off to the living room to start putting together the foldout bed.
