Soft padding feet took him from your bed and led him to the recesses of your volcano cave. A lazy, winsome smile trailed off like a dangling dream as he wandered to the heated pools, the hot spring children of the lava pools that existed below.
     Had it ever been so passionately felt between you before? Intensity is always your hallmark -- no Malakim of Fire, now Malakim of Brilliance could love gently. But on this occasion -- and the multitude of occasions that were contained within it -- you shone in him, your illumination wracking him like lightning.
     In the geyser, Christopher bathes. Such a wonder. Naked he stands in the center of the pool. The steam eases around him, and the condensation makes his feathers glisten. Desire and the Desired. Has he ever been more beautiful? Desire and the Desirous. Has he ever been more magnificent?
     Could it be the moment only, the echo of what has come between you this day? Or could it be the residue of his own experience with Andrealphus?
     Christopher cups the water in his hands, the gifted ring sparkling on his promise finger. He scoops it up and lets it pour over him as the heated water soothes tested molecules and atoms. The Sentinel of Aspirations...
     And, perhaps, the dream of Desire...
     Who but one of Blandine's could coexist so easily with the concept...

     The motion in the bed causes Soldekai to turn his face. He is slow to move, having given himself over to the water outside. The feathers sigh beneath his moving weight as he sits up on his elbows. It's enough to see his lover in the geyser as well as to keep his senses outside.
     His mortal blue eyes linger, but it is not in lustful intensity. Instead, his gaze stares through, as if seeing more than what is visible on this plane. Soldekai exhales a burst of energy, letting something go.
     "Are you alright?" Soldekai says softly, his eyes to the jagged ceiling.

     He takes pleasure in the slow bathing. To watch the water bead upon the surface of this form given weight for this mortal space. To watch his wings shine with starlight. He sees the aura around him, the corona that announces to the universe that he has been in your arms.
     Christopher enjoys how being with you changes him. How it betters him. Strengthens him.
     He turns his head and the rest of him follows. "I am," he replies as softly. And then he smiles. Slowly he steps out of the heated spring and pool, leaving the cleansing geyser behind. Flapping wings dry him as he approaches your bed. The cherub places a hand upon his chest as he nears. "You are in bed, we are here in our sanctuary," it is now a tether built for two, "... together. I could not be more alright."
     He pauses at the bedside, giving his wings a stretches, and then his arms. "Hmm... I should be more honest. I have a wish you cannot answer for me. That of a long vacation." But he does not ask more than this. These moments. He knows that is what he has. And he treasures them.
     "And you?" His hand extends, fingers moving over a wing.

     Soldekai is indeed pensive, but he brightens as you approach. That energy of earlier? It recedes like a wave sucked back to the ocean. All sent out to sea, into the deep. He only gives a faint nod about himself, but immediately adds, "I wish a vacation for you," his lips angle in a gentle smile. "Aren't you on one?" he teases. It always returns to you. His thigh is heavy as his foot comes to rest upon the golden mattress. Knee moves from side to side, and his wings outstretch, taking up the available bed and then much more. There is no hiding himself from you - what of him do you not intimately know?

     Christopher grins, "I am on a vacation. But ... I meant with you." He folds himself warmly upon you, resting on you, covering you like a warm blanket. A very warm blanket. His wings unfurl, extending to either side, draping off the sides of the bed.
     "I am unable to work much. I have too much idle time," he murmurs against your chest, his head settling beneath your chin. "I have a lot of time within which to miss you." His finger traces along a pectoral. He wonders: is his name scrawled somewhere beneath?
     Christopher turns his head against you, his curls soft upon your skin, and he kisses his strong pillow. "It has been ..." he lets out a breath. "...sitting there on my little carpets, floating in the room, it is like I fought your battles in my mind. It has been hard to lie down when so much is happening. But I do no one a service by wearing myself out, I suppose."
     His arms surround you. A finger strays out to tickle against one of your feathers nearest your shoulder. "I treasure any moment I have with you," Christopher murmurs. "My archangel..."

     He chuckles softly, slightly ticklish, or at least aware of what your touch does to him. "I should have sent word to you more," Soldekai confesses, "...or seen you more myself. Maybe I would have been different today. "I'll remember," he offers. A consideration for his lover. "You should get out more," he suggests. "Perhaps...you should rest here, if you are going to rest. Or to the Glade?" he offers as other alternative.

     "I do not think Blandine will want me to leave. I do not yet know what my... assistance to Andrealphus will mean to me." Or him for that matter. "I will ask," he says, propping his chin on your chest. "Maybe the Glade...I will see what He has to say."
     Christopher smiles at you, shaking his head. "You were working. I do not expect you to send me love letters while you are fighting. When you came for me," he blushes in recollection, "... you swept me off my little blanket. I did like that. Very much."
     He leans forward and kisses you. "I think I would like to stay in the Glade. Here, I would get lonely." He grins. "Even with the bathing pools and the chatty little bubbles." Another kiss and then he rests his head upon your chest once more.
     "What will you be doing now that the battle in the Far Marches is done?"

     Behind you, a large wing rolls around, providing another layer of warmth. Within, Soldekai's arm wraps around cherubic shoulder so that his fingers might slide into dark curls. Much like earlier. "I could write love letters," Soldekai blushes faintly, "...not that they would be very long. Maybe I should practice," he offers. Another consideration.
     "You might like the Glade. There are many parts," the matter-of-fact voice creeping in. "Much to explore, take up time while you recuperate. I would like if you were here, but you are right, it would get...quiet." His sort of quiet. Malakim quiet. "I should not wish that on anyone," he tickles.

     Though he has not been given leave to assume his celestial form, the old panther inside the Sentinel rumbles a purr as you envelope him. You hold him so completely, how could he do otherwise? His body shifts just slightly, his fingers padding against you mimicking subconsciously the contented kneading of large paws.
     "I will write you, too," Christopher whispers. "And you will know how I love you and miss you when the stars sing the letters to you." His mouth begins to wander the broad plain of your chest, his form shifting at the tickle. He laughs, your cherub, sliding his cheek against your skin. "I cannot be in the stillness like you and your brothers," he speaks of the Malakim. "I would get into trouble. And you know how I am about getting into trouble."
     Curling into your hold, Christopher sighs. "So strong, so warm, so perfect," he says to himself. "I will see what Blandine says. It may be that... he has to keep me in his palace, even as he is keeping Andrealphus."

     That name again. "Maybe," Soldekai murmurs softly, closing his eyes. "Your health and safety is important to all this. I know that now," he whispers, kissing your forehead with parted lips. "My victories," Soldekai explains, "...are important to the Council. We..." he acknowledges, "...are...important in this." Though he may not understand why or how such has come about. "I would trust your Archangel, Sentinel."
     "As for stillness," Soldekai smirks, "...well, we all cannot be perfect." Like me. "It is very quiet here. Isolated," he says dreamily, a confession. And such he has been in his Place, until you.

     "I will speak to Him. I should like to go to the Glade. It would be good to explore. And you could visit me there?" Christopher lifts his head and looks to you before lowering it back to your chest and purring again. "I could enjoy the solitude of your island," he grins, "...so long as you join me."
     That sort of negates the whole 'solitude' thing, though, doesn't it?
     "I am certainly not perfect," he teases back. "Though I do like the way your Brilliance lingers on my wings. That is perfect," he notes. You can feel his smile as he lifts and stretches a wing, your light glancing across it like star-rise over the universal plain.
     "I wonder what is going to happen now," he says, dreams in his cadence. "To all of us. I am not worried about myself," Christopher says suddenly, softly. "I will answer Dominic's questions, but this time I will not be afraid."

     The curl of his arm flexes brick bicep. It is an embrace, if hard. "There is nothing to fear," he says with much earnestness and belief. "There is..." joy, desire, delight, love, "...so much ahead. For us," he brings back to the point. Not the grandness of the War or its details. At the end, all one can worry on is truth to self and Word. "For me...and for you."
     Soldekai's kiss presses like his arm. He grins after it, the room slightly more illuminated than before.

Posted by rowan at January 11, 2006 09:15 PM