"You know…there was a time I thought you were something other than a human," Donovan mused out one night when Farley and him were stargazing on the rooftop. The topic just escaped his mouth before he had the time to think what he said. Now that it had gotten out, he turned his head to look at Farley. Okay perhaps a part of it was to admire the other in the moonlight, but his biggest reason was just to face the person he was talking with. His statement got a slight chuckle out of his companion, who only shifted himself to half hug one of his knees as he responded.
"Oh really? What did you think I was then?" Something in the way Farley's eyes held a small spark of mischievousness in them as he spoke made Donovan's face feel a little warmer against the cooling night aur. Donovan turned to look back at the stars, smiling slightly as he thought what to answer. "Honestly I never could put my finger on anything specific. Something in the way you carried yourself as well as the presence you held from the start piqued my interest." Also the fact that the brunette seemed to smell like flowers all the time, but that tid bid Donovan kept to himself. He might be more comfortable to use his voice with just Farley around, but that never took away his ability control how much he actually said.
There wasn’t much else said between them for a while, but they never had needed much words anyway. Donovan only smiled softly when Farley moved close enough to slightly lean against him. A comfortable silence took place, both men happy to admire a beautiful view and sight with the person they loved. For a brief moment a ghost of what had once been pure white angel wings sprouted from Farley's back, but neither noticed. One because they were too focused on looking at the stars and the other because they were content with their decision and didn't need the wings anymore. In a blink of an eye the wings disappeared and Donovan felt Farley's hand on his.
For some heaven and what it has is a dream, but sometimes even the angels just want to feel a little human.
Natsuki took a deep breath and let her body relax, allowing herself to slump a little and lean against the familiar shoulder. Today…had definitely been one of her favourite days ever. From right when she woke up to this calm afternoon moment the day had only been one she could remember happy things about. The sun was still shining on them, little peeks of the light painting small swirls and dots on them from between the leave, shifting every now and then in the calm breeze. She liked watching the spots move and in moments like these oftentimes imagined them as little fairies dancing in the shade.
"The fairies seem to be having fun today," a calm voice commented from beside her and Natsuki couldn't help but smile more as she glanced up at Christian even if to just see the gentle love in them that made her always feel at home. Christian was one of the few people she hadn't been shy to tell about her magical theories, since there had been zero thoughts on being ridiculed. Little comments like this one always reminded her of how lucky she was to have someone this wonderful by her side. Natsuki looked back at the sunspots and laced her fingers with Christian's while she was at it. "Yeah… They are," she responded happily before snuggling back against his side for this moment.
They stayed silent for a while after that, just enjoying each other's company. It wasn’t until Christian gently squeezed her hand that Natsuki shifted from her position at all. "Let's stand up, shall we?" She easily listened and did as mentioned, but was surprised when her companion didn't exactly follow suit. Their hands were still held together and the moment he shifted onto one knee her heart skipped a beat only to start beating faster right after.
"Natsuki Llwellyn. From the moment we first met you have been someone special in my life. A friend, a protector, a guide, a partner. Because of you I have gotten to do, see and experience a myriad of things I never thought I would get in my life. You have given me courage to be myself and supported me in more ways than I can name." There was a pause as both of them were getting teary eyed and Christian needed a moment so he wouldn't get overwhelmed with the emotion. Natsuki gave his hand a small squeeze, naturally trying to encourage him on. The smile she received thanks to that melted her heart in more ways than one. "I truly and honestly love you from the bottom of my heart. For years we have walked on this path together, no matter how rocky it might have gotten, and I hope to have you by my side for much, much longer. Natsuki Llwellyn, will you do me the honour and marry me?"
Natsuki felt like she was floating in emotion. Tears of happiness openly fell from her eyes and made her unable to answer right away by anything else but nodding. A few seconds later she had her voice back and immediately moved down onto her knees to hug the man in front of her. "Of course...yes, yes, yes…please,yes." The moment Christian's arms closed around her, Natsuki felt that she truly was living a dream and finally, truly had a home for the rest of her life.
A/N: This is a very self-indulgent crossover of aph and a non-aph oc, but hey I can write what I want. I hope me including my oc doesn’t drive anyone from reading this... Arthur and Alfred are still in it!! Warning for horror themes, mention of violence and death.
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A mansion stood in middle of the small forest, empty to the bare eye. Four floors high, the building held it's somewhat graceful tone, though said gracefulness was highly damped by the dirtiness of the building and the odd broken windows. A garden that had probably once bewitched even the eyes of a passing bird was now overgrown and partly taken over by weeds. Rumours of who once live in the mansion years ago, and what happened to all of them, spread in the nearby town like any other ghost story. People had done tests of courage in the mansion, but most people had avoided it after those tests led to said people disappearing inside or coming out wounded. Despite the obvious danger that going inside came with, the story kept circulating within the residents. To some the sense of danger only made the place more enticing. Of course the world is full of people who don't believe stories of ghosts or the supernatural, some who stay away from such things and some who tell the stories forward since they find it thrilling even when they think it's completely made up.
Whatever was spoken of the mansion in the city, the residents of the building never heard any of it. Only the rare visitor would ever catch the attention of who was left.
The sound of a creaking door from downstairs captured the attention of a young woman. Brown wavy hair fell to her face and hid some of the freckles speckles across her face as she slowly crept to the top of the stairs, making sure to hide behind the banister to asses the situation, after all if it were burglars this way she would have the advantage of spotting them first. Oh her day had been going on wonderfully before this!! For once the whole family had been excited to spend the bright summer day all together instead of being cooped away with their own plans. She had even donned her favourite summer dress, but was now left to listen to two sets of shaky footsteps! The once homey surroundings around her cracked away to show the rundown reality, illusion broken by the entrance of people.
"See, Alfred? It's just an old house, no need to be so scared."
"I'm not scared! I only asked you to come along because I didn't want you to be left alone.."
She slowly stepped forward until she could see two blonds at the end of the stairs. Neither was familiar to her so she stayed quiet. When it seemed they weren't dangerous, elation warmed her chest at the thought of getting visitors to join in on the fun, but said warmth went cold the moment she went right through the duo in her rush to greet them in. Images started flashing through her head and though the duo of blonds felt icy shivers go through them, both were oblivious to the scream of pain she let out to and continued on with their exploration. The girl was left to fight the images of warm smiles, silly grins and other warm moments. It was the pleasant images that brought the pain but the patchy memories of mixing paste and drinks while mumbling to herself. The warm smiles turned to pained faces twisted with fear and betrayal. Her hands tugged at her hair to try to silent it all as the last sight of each lost person flashed in her head in a loop over and over again. The memories of a white ribbon getting dirtied by blood and pale hand reaching for her brought on a bigger wave of pain. Choked voices that had whispered her name in as their last words rang in her ears… "Natsuki".
The ghost slowly pried her hands away from her head to look at them. There was no trace of blood or dirt nor any paste, but she couldn't keep herself from rubbing them together as if to cleanse them. She was still conflicted as to what was real and what was not. As far as Natsuki was concerned the whole family had lived peacefully in this house, right? The more she thought of it the more she could only remember the last 24 hours clearly, though the pain inducing memories weren't far either. She was broken away from her thoughts by a scream from upstairs. The confusion easily turned to anger and madness, two things she could grasp with ease. How dare these invaders come and bother her family?! She had to stop them before they would break anything precious to her.
"What in the…" The duo had found themselves in the second floor and were met by a hallway filled with doors. For some reason they thought it would be smart to split up and go to different rooms. Arthur hadn't told Alfred that the building had weird vibes to it, the American was freaked out enough as it was. That's why he had ran over to his friend the moment he heard his scream.
He had imagined the other to have gotten spooked by an old curtain or something, but instead he found him flat on his arse frozen still on the floor. Arthur slowly looked at the room itself and soon realised what scared the other. One of the corners of the room had burn marks, which he could blame on people camping or something, but the scratched up walls with splattered runes and...welsh? written across them certainly brought up the fear factor. Despite all that, it was the centerpiece of the room that obviously had scared Alfred. A pile of broken and dirtied, what seemed both animal and human, bones stood proud on the ripped carpet, though parts of the pile were scattered around the room.
Arthur could barely take a step into the room to help Alfred up before the freezing feeling from before went through him again. It seemed that Alfred felt it too, if the whine he let out was any indication of it. Seconds after, what probably once was, a girl appeared in front of them. Her eyes were barely visible from the dark circles and veins that surrounded them and her arms were full of self-made scratch marks that probably once drew blood. Even he felt frozen for the brief moment before she opened her mouth. "Get out!!" her voice rang in his ears and clearly switched on his run reaction. Arthur nearly beelined towards the stairs, but was ripped away from the door as Alfred sprinted past him in his panic. The worst part was that the panic blinded teen went upstairs rather that down so Arthur was left with no opinion but to run after him so they could both get the hell out of this place.
His legs felt heavy from fear even as he ran, but nothing could have made him stop moving. The brit could feel his heart beating wildly in his chest even faster when he stumbled on the stairs and ended up on his fours. It was significantly harder to get up than usually from such a stumble but there was no option but to get up. He promptly ignored the splinters on his hands and went looking for Alfred, even when his instincts were telling him to just get out and save himself. Stumbling into another hallway of doors was the last thing he needed, but was what he got. The worst part was having no clues in sight where his panicked friend had ran off to and he felt that the spirit girl wouldn't leave things at that. He had find Alfred and fast.
Arthur tried to listen where Alfred was, but all he heard was his heartbeat going wild. "Alfred get your arse over here!" He felt the shakiness of his voice more than heard it, but he darn hoped that Alfred heard it. There was no reaction so his only option was to peek into the rooms one by one. Focusing on the rooms was the last thing he wanted to do, he just checked in to see if the American was in any of them. Finally he found him curled up against a corner of the last room on the floor. Arthur walked over to him and had he himself not been so panicked, he might've thought to stop enough to help Alfred calm down some. As it was, he just wanted them both out so he shook the man enough to get him to look up. "Alfred for God's sake it's just me. Now get your arse up so we can get the hell out of here!!" He could see his hands shaking even while he held onto Alfred's shoulder. There wasn’t much of a reaction, blank blue eyes staring back at him and seeing the usually bright man this scared only made Arthur feel more in danger, but it also helped him sober up. He could freak out once they got out, but right now one of them had to at least try to stay calm. It was then that he noticed Alfred was hugging something.
"Alfred what… Is that a cow plushie?" Arthur was confused at the sight of the clearly worn out, barely recognisable toy. Realising this wasn’t what he should focus on, he started guiding Alfred to stand up. By some miracle he got them both moving, though the only reaction Alfred gave him was holding onto his arm with bruising force. They made their way to the stairs as fast as Arthur could get Alfred to move while keeping an eye out in case the spirit appeared again. He hesitated at the top of the stairs, but begun descending them only to stop half way at the sight of the spirit at the foot of the stairs. She seemed angry, perhaps even angrier than before, and she seemed to stare at something specific. Arthur forced them both down a few steps to see how the spirit would react and only managed to get her eyes on himself.
"Give him back," she growled out, words heavy with icy anger. Arthur couldn't understand her request at all until he saw Alfred throw the torn up toy at the girl. Surprisingly she caught. He wasn’t given much more time before Alfred was tugging him forward, past the girl and down the other flight of stairs. Arthur thought they were fine, but then felt himself falling as a hand grabbed his ankle. A yell came out of him as nails dug into his skin and his voice came out only louder when Alfred just yanked him free from the grip. They didn't stop running even once they got out of the house and didn't stop until they reached Alfred's car. The drive away was tension filled and all Arthur could remember was crying out of fear that got freed again.
With the intruders gone, Natsuki picked up Herr Dadel and took the soft thing back to its place. Time ticket on and by the time the next day rolled around, the ghost was living the party day over again, everything from the day before completely forgotten. She got her party just like she had gotten every day for over ten years. Over and over again, in a comforting loop she was completely blind to.
