Patreon LogoYour support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep [Sevatar x Degu]

Degusaurusrex

Supernova
Joined
Apr 5, 2019
wlop-10se.jpg

"I'm telling you, there's no way to have that building successfully finished by the holiday. That's less than a month away, what the hell are they thinking?" Eve paced around her living room with the phone held to one ear, a look of frustration etched onto her face. Ever since that company had decided they wanted to add another location and sell more merchandise to the hefty shoppers of the nearby city, they'd been pushing at codes and restrictions left and right in their determination to have it finished and opened before the holidays. How they expected to have it completed, much less stocked and full of employees by Christmas was beyond her! Even to expect it done by the New Year, when so many people were traveling and taking time off to be with family was absolutely insane, and her patience was wearing thin with their inability to understand that.

"Fine, then I'll march myself down there and tell them to their face that the structure is unstable and they're going to end up sued when someone gets hurt! No, I don't care if they fire me, I—No, I really don't care, I'm not going to be the reason that someone gets hurt because I overlook yet another fuck up of theirs! It was bad enough half the crew quit because they were docking pay and then forcing them to rush through some of the electrical work, I'm over it."

A pause.

"Yeah, I'll let you know how it goes, I'm sure I'm going to get an earful from them, but I don't even care anymore."

She swept around her house like a furious tornado, donning her boots and coat before making sure she had the necessary belongings to go into the world before making the trek to the job site. This meant dealing with the dinner rush on her way into town, something that she loathed on its own, let alone when she was dealing with a pesky customer or potential employer. Why had she stuck to a job checking on paperwork and safety issues, again? Right, because most of the time she could work from home and manage her own hours. That was incredibly useful when you had insomnia as bad as she did. In fact, how many day had it been since she'd slept yet?

"How many days has it been since you slept?"

"I've been up since Friday morning, so two."

"It's Monday."

"..Fuck."

"Demons aren't real. Just take a sleeping pill and get some rest, you're starting to hallucinate again."


Right, it was Monday, she'd just gotten into an argument with one of her friends earlier that day before managing an hour of undisturbed sleep before the phone had woken her. Bloody assholes, they were getting on her last nerve, and she was determined to never, ever work with them again after this job was done, regardless of the dollar signs on her paycheck at the end of it. No amount of money was worth the hassle these people were providing her, between the lost sleep and annoyance, to the logistics of their insanity when it came to what they considered to be safe for the public. But hell, it was going to pay her bills for the next while, so she just had to suck it up a little bit longer and she would be in the clear, not to mention it would be another successful job to further her reputation in the business world. She hadn't busted her ass once leaving home, bought her own home, just to fall short because of some annoying man-child.

The drive into the city was boring as usual, her hands gripping the wheel just a bit too tight as she forced herself to split her attention between the road and calming down so she could work without distraction. Doing her job properly when this sleep deprived could be difficult enough as it was, and the distraction of being irritated with a client would only make it worse if she couldn't cool her head before going face to face with him. Deep breath in, slow exhale out and repeat.

"It's about time you got here, it's almost six!" All of her hard work on the drive in went down the drain when she arrived at the site, staring at the half done building before turning her attention to the man standing in front of her. As per his usual, he hadn't remotely dressed for the situation, still clad in a perfectly pressed business suit while workers toiled on around him covered in dirt and sweat trying to complete the project.

"That's because it's rush hour and I don't exactly live five minutes away. You're aware of this, Mr. White." Eve spoke calmly despite the irritation that she could feel steadily building up, her hands still paused on the coat she'd been prepared to take off while standing inside the building. She abandoned the task and moved further inside, glancing around at the workers who were looking between her and their boss with growing interesting.

Considering that she stood at barely more than five feet and their boss was clearly at least six feet tall, they were intrigued by the way that she had spoken to him on the multiple visits to the site in the past. Today, however, there were far less workers than she had remembered there being last time, which meant he had either lost more of the crew from his outrageous demands, or they were refusing to work today due to the extreme chill outside and the half finished state of the job that was borderline dangerous.

Scratch, that, the exposed wiring she had just seen spark made it definitely dangerous.

"Get that wiring covered up, for god's sake! You can't just leave that out for people to walk by, you're going to get someone killed!"

"We'll be on it shortly, ma'am, we're fixing some crucial supports that are needed to keep the main room standing." The worker passing by received a death glare from the man in the suit as he spoke to Eve, but he only shrugged and went back to chewing on what smelled suspiciously like chewing tobacco. Eve wrinkled her nose, now more interested in what he was saying than the wiring she had deemed dangerous. An unstable support beam, or many, was a far bigger danger than some potential electrocutions. There was the possibility of structure danger, employee injury, not to mention the financial drain on fixing it and any liabilities if someone got injured and decided to sue...

"Right, let's see this. No, not a word, Mr. White." She cut him off as he opened his mouth to protest, holding a hand in the air and starting at the worker who was sauntering off toward the aforementioned task. Whatever babbling the businessman was doing in the background was tuned out as she went down the hall and entered the main room they were working on, eyebrows shooting sky high as she stuttered and stared at the concrete pillars that were most definitely off center and worrisome. Where were the proper construction materials to get this thing standing properly?!

"That thing looks ready to come down any minute! Is it just the lot of you working on it?" There had to be ten people, tops, including the useless man in the suit trailing behind her looking nervously around the room. He clearly hadn't expected her to come in and start ripping apart his operation vocally, and Eve found herself glaring at him furiously before crossing the room to press a hand to the very uneven concrete pillar.

"Honestly, sir! You could probably put the littlest bit of weight on this thing and it would all come..." She trailing off as the concrete trembled under her fingers, abruptly stepping back and looking at the worker that was coming to check on it with a grunt.

"Get this fixed immediately, I don't want anyone other than the actual crew or personnel in here until it's passing safety standards. You're going to get everyone in here ki--" The tremble had turned into something far more ominous now as the worker approached, ready to judge the situation and determine what type of equipment he needed to right the situation. Eve took another step back as she watched the pillar seem to vibrate and shift slightly before the worker jolted back with a shout, turning to wave his arms at the others standing nearby with earplugs and other safety equipment.

"Oh, fuck me."

The pillar was moving far faster than she had anticipated, between the touch from her and the other worker it was rolling and grinding against the floor as it descended, ripping down parts of the above structure that had been meant to add stability as they built the room around it and continued their work. Now all of that was coming crashing down, starting with that first pillar that was grinding and crumbling as the metal beams above it began to crash down, striking one of the workers and pinning him as the rest of them seemed to simply disintegrate and begin their downward spiral.
 
Xarl watched Eve silently as she strolled around the construction site, intimidating the foreman and yelling at the different workers to fix certain things. It brought a soft smile to his face, watching the confident woman that his charge had turned into. He had been with her for over fifteen years, and he had seen her go through life, changing and growing up. From being an awkward high-schooler, into a college graduate, and now a young woman with her own place to live, and a high-paying job, that she seemed to enjoy.

He was withdrawn from his thoughts by a harsh curse that spilled from Eve's lips, and the rumbling filled his ears as he glanced up at the collapsing roof. "Oh fuck indeed..." He whispered under his breath. He glanced around at the situation, the options that were in front of him. There was no way that Eve would survive this without him intervening. With no other option, he took a deep breath, and mustered his powers.

As the building collapsed around her, rubble and rebar colliding with Eve's body, she would be treated to the view of a man manifesting in front of her, a pair of black, billowing wings attached to his shoulders. He rushed towards her, even as the metal beams came crashing down around them. He threw his arms around her shoulders, pushing her to the floor, preventing any further injury from coming to her... At this point however, there were several injuries covering Eve, and a muffled curse spilled from Xarl's lips as a sharp piece of rebar pierced his wings, rubble and debris pattering against the feathery cocoon.

He wouldn't say a single word to Eve, even as he mustered his powers to teleport the two of them away, even as the building finished it's collapse, leaving everyone else inside dead, or dying. The two of them re-appeared in an instant, inside of Eve's bedroom, the young woman being deposited on her bed. Another mustering of his power sent Eve spiraling into unconsciousness, before he assessed the situation before him. It looked like Eve had had a lung pierced by falling debris, and there were a series of nasty impact wounds along her shoulders.

Xarl took a deep breath, looking down at the young woman.. "The things I do for your family, Damien" He sighed, before a blade appeared in his dominant hand, and with another hiss of pain, he sliced open his wrist, blood spilling down onto Eve's wounds. In an instant, the injuries disappeared, and he felt a familiar state of agony settle over his body. Within moments, his head felt wobblily, and he didn't even have the time to mask his presence, before he was falling backwards, unconsciousness claiming him as well. A loud thud was the last thing he heard, along with a sharp pain to the back of his head as he collapsed on the floor.

-----

Xarl groaned, his entire body in agony as he rolled over, staring up at the ceiling of Eve's apartment. Fuck. Everything hurt so badly. The memories came flooding back within moments. The building collapsing due to the shoddy maintenance. Eve had nearly died... again. He had barely been able to save her life. Which is why it felt like he had nearly died, because he had in fact, run that risk, by taking Eve's injuries onto himself...

Speaking of Eve.. Her shrieking was what had awoken him, and a muffled curse spilled from his lips. "Calm down" Xarl mumbled, finding it challenging to move his lips to form the words. "I promise, I don't mean you any harm." He groaned, forcing himself up so he was sitting upright. "I'm the reason you're alive, after all" He stared at the young woman who had fallen out of bed right in front of him. "I really hadn't met for us to meet like this..." He sighed, shifting around, before glancing up and noticing his wings were still there... With a simple thought, they disappeared, and he turned his attention back to Eve, a sheepish look on his face. "Hi. I'm Xarl."
 
The last thing Eve remembered was how hard it was to breathe and how loud it was with everyone screaming and the building collapsing around them. She had known the building was unstable, known those idiots were doing things way too fast and too dangerous, and now it was going to be the death of her. The noise, the pain, her body had felt battered when she'd lost consciousness, and when she woke abruptly it was with a loud gasp as she sat upright.

Had it all been a dream?

She was in her bed, her heart racing and a hand to her chest as she struggled to breathe through the panic taking over her. She wasn't in the building, she wasn't pinned down by anything, and she wasn't listening to the horrifying screams of everyone around her anymore. Had she even gone to the site to lecture them, or had it all been a delirious hallucination from lack of sleep? It wouldn't be the first time she had hallucinated or dreamt that she'd done something that hadn't actually happened, but never to this extreme.

"What the fuck?!" Now that her eyes were open and she was realizing she truly was in her own room, there was the problem of the other person in the room. She shrieked and tumbled out of the bed, tangled in the sheets as she struggled and tried to unwrap herself as she spotted the man with wings mere feet away from her! Not just wings, but black wings that he made disappear before giving her a sheepish look.

"What are you doing in my house?!" She'd never seen this man before in her life! Once she had finally managed to untangle herself from the sheets, Eve disengaged them and scrambled for something to defend herself, throwing the blanket at him first and then the first book she could get her hands on. "Get out! How did you even get in here?!"
 
Xarl let out a sigh as he stared at Eve, watching her scramble backward and start to throw things at him. He simply pushed the blanket to the floor and allowed the book to batter against his face. "I can answer all your questions, but you need to calm down and listen to me" His voice was soothing, or at least, the most soothing he could muster. He forced himself to his feet, letting out a groan of pain at the way his knees nearly buckled from underneath him. He was going to be feeling Eve's injuries for days... But that was a lot better than the weeks or months she'd be feeling them.

"As I said. My name's Xarl. I'm your Guardian Angel" This wasn't a time for subtly or beating around the bush, and so Xarl got straight into it. "I saved your life. That 'nightmare' you had? It was real." He informed her, before sighing as she kept throwing things at him. "As for how I got in here... I did it like." He cut himself off, mustering his powers and teleporting across the room, until he was right in front of Eve, looming over her.

"Like that." Xarl sighed, staring down at Eve. "Are you going to calm down now? Or are you going to try and keep throwing things at me?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as he stared down at her. Spotting a wound that he had missed, he leaned down, his fingers resting against Eve's shoulders, and with a whispered word, the wound disappeared, and Eve would be treated to the view of an identical wound appearing at the base of Xarl's neck. "I promise you that I do not mean you any harm"
 
"I'm not calming down until you tell me how the fuck you got into my house!" Eve was still grabbing at anything she could get her hands on, throwing them in the direction of the large intruder as she darted around the room trying to get closer to the door. If she could just get out of the bedroom, she could get to the rest of the house and then maybe out onto the street to escape this maniac.

"Guardian angel, my ass!" She was going to be sick. Between all of the running around and throwing things as her chest heaved, the panic at having a random man inside her house, and the inability to comprehend what he was saying, her stomach was threatening to turn itself inside out.

"No way." Now that he had magically manifested himself right in front of her and loomed over her like that, Eve could see just how much larger than her this man was, and it terrified her. She flinched when he leaned down, trying to dodge the touch as his fingers brushed over her and she spotted the skin on his neck parting into what was very clearly a somewhat deep cut.

"I'm hallucinating. I'm fucking hallucinating." Getting hysterical was only going to make her hyperventilate and pass out, which wasn't something she wanted to do on the off chance that the man himself was real but the rest of the situation was a wicked hallucination she couldn't snap out of. "You're not real, this is all a bad dream or a hallucination." She darted around him and to the doorway, slipping out of the bedroom as her stomach lurched and she stumbled toward the kitchen.

"I don't care how early it is, I'm going to drink until you go away, magic winged man." She shook her head as she reached the kitchen, digging around in the cabinets until she found a half empty bottle of liquor and pulled it down from the shelf. She didn't bother with a glass or anything to pour it into, simply took the cap off, tossed it on the counter and took a hefty chug from the bottle before gasping and wiping her mouth.

"Not today, Satan, not today."
 
Xarl let out a sigh as he stared down at Eve. "Well, I answered that question, so, you need to calm down, yes?" He raised an eyebrow before sighing as she refuted him b being her Guaridan Angel. "Yes way, Eve" He sighed as she started to go on and on about how she was hallucinating, and before he could stop her, she was dashing out of the room, and scrambling into the kitchen.

"Eve..." He sighed, strolling into the kitchen himself, watching her find a bottle of liquor, attacking it with vigor. "You havent slept for nearly 3 days, and you think I'm the worse thing your brain can hallucinate? And you think booze will help?" He couldn't help but chuckle, making his way across the kitchen, until he could steal the liquor bottle from her, snatching it from her fingers. "Eve, you need a reality check"

Xarl let out a sigh at her next comment, and he opted to pour the rest of the liquor bottle into the sink. "Fine. You want proof I'm your Guardian Angel? Here's something else that no one else in this world knows about." He fixed her with a stern glance, taking a step back over to her, and his hand found her shoulder, grasping her tight, not giving her the chance to get away. "Remember when you were fifteen, and Father Donovan tried to rape you? But something stopped him?" His gaze narrowed. "When he got pinned against the wall, and you were able to get out of the room?" He let out a frustrated sigh. "Remember on the drive home that Annabelle and Sarah were so focused on yelling at you, that you got into a car accident? And they called it a miracle that you survived?"

"Think that over for a minute. But just know, I'm not going anywhere, Eve"
 
"Give that back!" Okay, so clearly this wasn't a hallucination, unless it was a very, very interactive one capable of taking away her alcohol. "Don't--I paid good money for that!" She smacked at his hands in an attempt to still the way he emptied the bottle down the drain, letting out a loud noise of frustration when she failed and her expensive liquor was wasted to the sewers. Asshole.

"Get your hands off me, asshole!" He'd managed to pin her between him and the counter, somehow managing to hold her in place with just the one hand on her shoulder. How was it possible for one person to be so strong? "Let go--" The color drained from her face at his next words, the hands that had gone to swing at him falling to her sides as her stomach churned again and her breathing picked up. She hadn't told anyone about that, no one except for the people involved knew anything about that incident, and he was speaking about it in detail like he'd been in the room with her, or the car with her. That was impossible.

"I never told anyone about that." Her voice sounded distant when she spoke, struggling with her words as the panic coiled deep in the pit of her stomach and she felt waves of heat rushing over her body. Why was she still in that damn coat? Had she honestly fallen asleep in it without burning to death in her sleep? "That's impossible." Neither her mother or sister would have told anyone about that, would they? Her mother surely wouldn't have, it would spoil the image she held of a perfect, devoted mother, and as for her sister, she didn't think she'd go so far as to tell a random person it to taunt Eve.

"I didn't tell anyone about what that bastard tried to do, or what they blamed me for. No one would have believed me anyway, they would have just taken their side, and, and.. Fuck, I can't breathe." If not for the fact that she hadn't eaten for some time before her trip out to the now apparently demolished building, she might have gotten sick on the spot, her fingers twitching as she tried to work at the buttons on her coat with a curse.

"Angel with black wings. Fucking angel with black wings."
 
Xarl rolled his eyes. "The last thing your sleep-deprived ass needs right now is booze. I'll get you new, and better booze, later." He sighed as she protested and fought, and he'd hold her there until he could watch the color drain from her face. Yup. That hit home alright. It made him feel bad as he watched her reaction. He took a step closer, watching her start to fumble with her jacket, and it made him a little sad.

"I know. You didn't need to tell me, because I was there." Xarl released his grip on Eve's shoulders, and reached down to help her unbutton the coat, fingers deftly working with the buttons. He peeled the coat off of her body. "Trust me when I say that I believe you, and I know what happened. They were wrong to blame you, Eve." He tried his best to reassure her, finishing peeling the coat off of her body, and he'd fold it, setting it down on the counter. "Take a deep breath. Everything is going to be okay, now?"

"I didn't want to have to bring that up, Eve." He sighed, gently reaching up to rub her shoulder, still trying to soothe her. "You need to get something to eat." He took a step back, opened the fridge up, and let out a sigh. "You really need to go grocery shopping again..." He shook his head before in a moment, there was a cupcake in his hand. "Here. The sugar will help" He gently pushed the cupcake into her hand, the heaped frosting threatening to fall over onto her arm. "Eat, Eve." He ordered her.
 
"You stopped him." The realization amidst her panic attack was enough to give her pause, bright eyes lifting to look up at him in a mixture of shock and awe even as she struggled to breathe. The large hands working at her coat to remove it gave her a small, but immediate relief, the extra heat lifted from her body as she nodded her head but otherwise made no effort to voice her thoughts. Even her lips were tingling, between the lack of food the last... Well, however long, and the panic that had made her heart race and her oxygen levels spaz out.

"Eat?" She hadn't realized how badly her hands were shaking until he held the cupcake out to her and she reached for it, fumbling slightly before managing to grab it and lean back against the counter. Had there been cupcakes in the fridge, or was this another magic trick that black-winged angels were apparently capable of? Hell, didn't all the stories she'd heard growing up say that angels with dark wings were bad?

It was hard to believe the man standing before her, sans wings or not, was bad when he was shoving a cupcake into her hand and ordering her to eat. Unless he was planning to kill her via diabetes, it seemed like she was speaking to someone who had saved her in her younger years, and apparently just hours before when a building set for opening had gone crashing to the ground.

"I need to sit." She slid down to the ground with the cupcake held between her hands, managing a small bite as she numbly stared at the part of his legs that were in view from her spot on the floor. "Wh-What happened to the other people?"
 
Xarl nodded, gently reaching his free arm around Eve's shoulders, massaging the top of her shoulder very gently. "I did." His voice was barely a whisper, locking his gaze with those bright sweet eyes. "Yes. Eat. It's been nearly a day since you've eaten anything, it's a cupcake. It won't kill you" He murmured, smiling softly as she slid to the floor.

He took a step away, before he slid down next to her, gently reaching to find her free hand, grasping it gently. "Ah..." He sighed, his heart heavy as he looked at the already depressed woman. "You're the only one who survived to my knowledge... They've been finding bodies in the rubble all evening, and the death toll is currently in the hundreds."

Xarl gave Eve another gentle squeeze, staring at her. "And... well. You would have died as well, had I not saved your life. You got impaled by a piece of rebar, right about here.." He whispered, gently pressing a finger above one of her lungs. He withdrew his hand, staring at Eve with concern in his eyes. "I'm sorry." He added on, staring at her, unsure of what he could say or do to comfort her with the knowledge he had given her
 
Had it really been that long since she'd eaten anything? Considering she wasn't even sure if it was night or day that was entirely possible. Judging by what he was telling her now it was at least evening, likely night now, and the look on her face when he told her the outcome of the building's collapse was absolutely broken. Even the hand reaching for hers and then grasping it went unnoticed at first, and it wasn't until he squeezed it that she jumped and nearly dropped her cupcake on the kitchen floor.

"I'm the only one who made it out?" She should have gone to that site sooner and shut the entire project down, then all those people might have had a chance to survive. Had it taken down the buildings beside it too, that the death toll had reached so high when the crew inside was so small?

"I should have shut the project down sooner." She finished the cupcake, setting the wrapper down on the floor and rubbing at her eyes with a sniffle. At least she hadn't worn any makeup to smear all over her face, so there was that small blessing to count, not that it changed anything else that had transpired that day. "It's my fault all those people died."
 
Xarl knew what was coming, and he didn't have to look at Eve to know there would currently be a guilty look covering her face. "So far, yes. They've been digging for hours, and nothing. Only bodies." He squeezed her hand as he delivered the news. "The construction company, and the foreman have been found to be at fault for the collapse, and the deaths. It appears they had paid off other inspectors, and that's why the project reached the state that it did before you arrived."

The sniffle nearly broke his heart in two. While this may have been the first time that him and Eve had ever talked, he had been along-side Eve for fifteen years. He was not foolish enough to claim that he hadn't grown fond of her, given the time he had spent around her. Plus, he would have never chosen to bond with someone he disliked. He had chosen Eve, and even fifteen years later, he didn't regret that choice in the slightest.

"No." Xarl's voice was firm, silencing those words before Eve could sink further into the guilt he had known was covering. "It is not your fault, Eve." He used his powers to conjure another cupcake, this one larger and even more frosting covered then the one before. He pushed it into Eve's hand. "I want you to take a deep breath, and eat this." Once Eve had taken the cupcake, and started to eat it, he would reach an arm around Eve's shoulders, gently pulling her up against him.

"How can it be your fault?" Xarl inquired, his voice soft, soothing and reassuring, even as his fingers squeezed hers gently. "You weren't the manager of that construction site. You didn't choose to ignore safety standards." Knowing he was going to have to break out the big guns to soothe Eve's guilt, he released her hand. Carefully reaching around her so that his hand was resting on her far thigh, he used his strength to haul Eve so she was sitting between his legs. "You went to the site twice. The first time, you shut the site down for two days, and then you gave them a list of things to fix, and a time table to fix them. You came back after that time had gone by and they had skimped on the work." Reaching up, Xarl started to gently massage the base of Eve's neck, hoping to relieve some stress. "You did your very best Eve. There was nothing more then you could have done. Please believe me when I say it is not your fault"
 
Her previous panic at a total stranger being in her house, and even discovering she apparently had a guardian angel, had been overridden by the guilt of knowing she was the sole survivor of the building's destruction. Despite the fact that Xarl was insisting it wasn't her fault, that it was the fault of those who had ignored safety in favor of money, the feeling was stuck deep inside her, a dread weighing her down as she watched him manifest yet another cupcake of ridiculous proportions.

"Do I have to?" She sighed, taking the cupcake and nibbling on the edge of it even though she wasn't particularly hungry. The hand on her thigh made her jump as she was hauled between his legs and placed there carefully, her body tense as she found herself in a position she never found herself with men. Even the fact that this was her guardian angel trying to soothe her guilt didn't stop her body's natural reaction, and it was a long minute before she was able to relax slightly. The fingers working at her neck certainly weren't hurting that, her eyes fluttering closed as she set the partially eaten cupcake to the side and took a deep breath even as she sniffled again.

"I'll be lucky if I don't lose some of my contracts over this." She'd worked so, so hard over the years to get to where she was at now, and she'd be damned if that all fell apart because of some idiots who didn't care about safety. "All I want to do is get some sleep, and you poured my good booze down the drain." Well, fuck. Now she needed to set up some sort of arrangement for her apparent guardian, because even she wasn't cruel enough to make him sleep on the floor. Where had he been sleeping for the past several years? Did he even need to sleep?

"I, uh, I can set you up somewhere to sleep."
 
Xarl couldn't help but chuckle a little. "You don't have to. I just figured a cupcake or two would help you feel better, Eve." He watched her jump, and he couldn't help but feel bad. "Sorry..." He murmured sheepishly, working to help ease her body, to calm her down and make her feel better. "It's all going to be okay Eve. Just relax" His voice was still that soothing, calming tone that kept up as his fingers dug into her neck. "You can cry if you need to, Eve"

He sat there in silence, listening to what Eve had to say about the situation. "I'm sure no one is going to blame you... Especially considering that reports of the fore-mans corruption got leaked to the press an hour or so after the accident." His voice was far too innocent. "Who knows how that could have happened?" Yup. Xarl had certainly played a part in that report leaking... But it wasn't like anyone would know.

"Don't worry about me, Eve" Xarl dismissed her concerns, his arms wrapping around her and clutching her in a bridal style carry as he hauled himself to his feet. "Let's get you in bed." He looked down at her with a caring smile on his face. He held her delicately, carrying her through her apartment until they were back in the bed-room. He eased her back down onto the bed, setting her head down against the pillows. "As for the booze..."

A snap of Xarl's fingers later, and there was a very, very nice bottle of alcohol sitting on Eve's bedside table. "How about you enjoy that, and get some sleep, Eve?" He picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor in Eve's earlier struggle to get out of bed, and he tucked it up to just over her stomach. "And just know that you'll be safe. I promise you'll wake up in the morning and feel better, alright?" He gave her another smile, before taking a step away from the bed. "Just call my name if you need anything, Eve" He reminded her, before n a blink of an eye, he was gone, vanishing out of the room and re-appearing on one of the seats in the living room, his eyes already fluttering closed to attempt to get some sleep of his own.
 
"...I guess that would help a little, yeah. Still going to come back to me at least a little." The way he spoke insinuated that he might have had something to do with it, although she wasn't sure how if he'd been passed out on her floor for an indeterminable amount of time. Hell, who knew what someone like him could do? Those thoughts were abruptly disrupted when he swooped her up and stood, her hands grabbing at him to steady herself as her eyes widened in shock. She was so shocked by the sudden movement and the look on his face that she couldn't even manage to protest, instead watching him the whole distance until she found herself laid gently in her bed and a fresh bottle of alcohol sitting on the nightstand.

"That's... That's very expensive booze." Expensive, magically appearing booze because he had snapped his fingers. What. The. Fuck. "Um. Okay." Everything was happening so fast, from being covered up partially to him literally vanishing from the room rather than using the door. If this was her reality and she was going to be cohabitating with her apparent guardian angel, they were going to need to talk about things like using doors properly.

Eve laid there for another minute just staring at the empty room before she leaned over and uncapped the fresh bottle, listening to the satisfying crack as the seal broke and she sniffed at it. Definitely expensive, and the draw she took from the bottle was a reminder of times she had once bothered to spoil herself with things like that on occasion. Of times she had been overworking herself to claw her way up and make a life for herself, sleeping through some of the weekends to make up for staying up several days straight on nothing but caffeine and sheer determination pushing her along.

Surprisingly enough, or maybe not after the events of the evening and the several swigs of high proof alcohol she had, Eve managed to sleep through the remainder of the night, although her head was rather unhappy with her when she woke. It was pounding when she opened her eyes, grumbling unhappily at the light trying to peek through her window as she tugged the sheet up over her head, burrowing down into the bedding before things began registering.

There was a man in her house. An angel. A guardian angel. Her guardian angel.

She nearly took the sheet with her with how speedily she vacated the bed, sliding down the hallway with her socks still on and her hair sticking in multiple directions as she stumbled into the living room. Oh shit, last night had happened. If the alcohol on her nightstand hadn't been a clue that something was amiss then the man sleeping on her couch certainly was, and she stared at him intently for a moment before muttering under her breath and disappearing to the kitchen to start coffee.
 
Back
Top Bottom