Aoba had scrambled off much too quickly to notice Kuro’s lack of reaction. The whole trip to his room consisted of him willing himself to relax. “Just because something is new doesn’t mean it needs to be...feared.” But, he wasn’t scared, just embarrassed by his… obliviousness? Lack of knowledge? Well, he was embarrassed by a few things about himself, he was sure. 

He made his way into his room, drying his hair and fumbling around for pajamas at the same time. Aoba’s multitasking was a little more of hectic pacing until he finally heaved a sigh and stopped in his tracks. “It’s fine. This is fine.” Sure he was trying to be calm, but the tension in his wings betrayed that and in traveling around the room, he realized he’d done a good job of looking a mess in his own clothes, so he straightened himself out and sat at the window sill. While he waited, he began to pat down his feathers a little more to make sure they were thoroughly dry. He glanced out the window a few times, daring to glance over at Kuro, though the most he got was steam. 

“These are...dry as they’re gonna get.” He patted his feathers down, taking a moment to examine them again. The change from the light gray to how dark they were now was almost instant. Aoba had reason to believe it was because of the fight earlier, or even from a few minutes before. But, it didn’t matter anymore. Aoba was slowly but surely becoming more confident with the decision he made. [i]’I’m happy here. I don’t need their approval.’[/i] A few of the looser feathers fell on the floor, which made him notice the other stray feathers he had forgotten to collect. Picking up feathers turned into Aoba methodically cleaning his room up more than it needed to be. It was very unnecessary, but it kept him busy and being busy kept him from focusing on what made him get all tensed up in the first place. 

The angel hadn’t finished his over cleaning when he heard the knock, so he called out for Kuro to open the door while he rearranged the last few clothes. As the demon walked in, he pulled himself away from the ‘chores’ and looked around his room as Kuro did. The small pile of feathers were tucked off to the side on his side table and he made a mental note to put them somewhere else later. He then started to realize that he wasn’t kidding when he said they had a long day. He had just gotten back from living in the church, watched two brothers fight until one was a bloody mess, up until now. While he didn’t do much, it still took a lot of energy away from him.

When he was questioned, he straightened up. “Oh, hm… Well, I usually sleep near the wall.” Normally, when he slept near the wall he didn’t have to worry about his wings being splayed out on the bed and it made him debate whether he should sleep on the edge or not. He decided against it though, more comfortable just choosing the side near the wall and tucking his wings so as to not bother Kuro. “Being able to make demon wings disappear is a pretty nifty trick.” He mused his thoughts aloud without realizing it as he climbed onto the bed and unceremoniously flopped onto his stomach before rolling to his side and moving his wings out of the way. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Learning that this small city was near where had been living made him a little worried. He tried to ignore the idea of the angels’ and demons’ paths crossing, but couldn’t help but think of the disastrous possibilities both for the angels scouting and the demons protecting Aoba. “I think-” Fenrir bit his tongue. He couldn’t possibly be entertaining the idea of going down to Earth to check on Aoba? The doctor was surely losing his mind, he thought. 

[i]’No, no...this is to make sure all of the angels get home safely.’[/i] He hadn’t been a field medic for years, and he had to admit being in an office did get stuffy sometimes too… “By the sounds of it, some of these angels need immediate attention. I’ll go along with the group to attend to those enough for them to get home safely without tearing into their injuries.” 

The angel leading the way didn’t have any qualms about the decision. Fenrir was his boss after all. He knew what would be best for the injured. “That sounds like a good plan sir. I’ll go tell the others of the plan. We’ll be ready to go in a few minutes, I’ll let you know when.”