LIKE FREAKS OF NURTURE

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It took about fifteen minutes for Tom to exit Angel's room, eyes weary and heavy with concern scanning the house for Erebus. "Hey, magpie," he greeted softly, walking over to him. Erebus glanced up from his hands, watching as Tom grabbed a chair from the dining table, pulling it over to him.

"How's she doing?" Erebus shifted a little where he was sitting, moving closer to Tom as he sat down beside him.

"She's..." Tom sighed heavily. "She's going to need some time to recover from seeing her parents again. We helped her calm down initially, but she's still quite upset. However, she did ask for me to explain the situation to you, so that you understand everything going on."

Erebus nodded. "If there's anything that she wants to omit, that's alright," he told Tom. "All I care about is her comfortability."

Tom smiled softly. "I admire the bond that the two of you have," he said. "Despite how upset she was, she still wanted to make sure that you were going to be alright, and that you understood what was going on."

A sudden rush of warmth flowed through Erebus at Tom's words. "That's... That's very kind of her," he mumbled. Tom looked down at his hands.

"Forgive me if some of this is hard to relate," he said. "Much of the important stuff only happened about a year ago, and it still has had an effect on Angel, Clara, and I."

"Take your time," Erebus told him, offering him a reassuring smile.

"How much do you know about Angel's parents?"

Erebus thought back to his time in Minecraft, when Angel had told him details about her parents to distract him from the aftermath of Malacoda's torture. "I know that they weren't accepting of her being a girl," he stated. "I know they made her live in a bad place that she shouldn't have grown up in, and I know that they believed very strongly in a God, and that they tried to get others to believe in that God as well."

Tom nodded, letting out a dry scoff. "Very strongly is an understatement," he mused. "My brother, Joseph, Angel's father - he was a pastor, which meant that he preached the word of God officially at a church. Of course, this made him think that everything he believed was right, which rubbed off on his wife, Lydia. To put it simply, everything that Angel believed that wasn't strictly aligned with their own beliefs was shut down as soon as possible. This included the music she listens to, the clothes that she wears, even the thought of wanting to transition..."

Erebus's brow furrowed with unease. "That's horrible," he murmured.

"It gets worse," Tom told him gravely. "In March of 2012, after her eighteenth birthday, Joseph and Lydia decided that they wanted to save Angel from going to hell because of the choices she made. They believed that God wouldn't allow her into Heaven due to the fact that she enjoyed the things that they had prohibited, so they..."

A heavy silence weighed down on the atmosphere, and Erebus's nervousness only grew further. Tom's gaze met the ground, and it did not return to Erebus for some time afterward. His hands trembled ever so slightly.

"My own brother..." he murmured. "My brother and his wife thought that the best way to ensure Angel's redemption was to perform a second baptism - a cleansing of the body with holy water. Except at that time, they didn't just want to baptize her."

The firm weight of realization settled inside Erebus, and he practically went rigid in his seat at the thought. "They tried to drown her?"

Tom nodded. "They believed that the holy water was pure enough to cleanse her soul, so that when she died from it, she would go straight to Heaven." His hands tightened into fists. "Such delusional people, torturing an innocent girl like her for enjoying something... I am embarrassed to be related to them."

Erebus watched Tom in silent disbelief. The mere thought of Angel having to experience such a terrible sensation for no reason other than having a personality was... horrifying, to say the least. He knew what it felt like to drown, and even without the searing pain that came with touching the water, it was something that he wouldn't have wished on anyone else, with the possible exception of Malacoda. Broken fragments of his nightmare flashed in his mind, causing him to shudder at the thought of Angel going through the same panic-inducing feeling of drowning as he had.

"What..." He paused for a moment, trying to figure out what the most important thing for him to ask in this situation was. "What can I do to help her?"

Tom glanced up at Erebus, a gentle smile starting to make its way across his face, despite the story he had just told him. "You are very kind for asking that," he told him. "Just... be gentle with her. I wouldn't leave her alone for too long, but I would also respect her boundaries if she asks to have some time to herself."

Erebus nodded, starting to grow slightly flustered as Tom told him that he was kind. He was still getting used to compliments like that, and it was hard for him to figure out how to react.

Thankfully, he didn't have to - the door to Angel's room opened, and Clara stepped out. "How's it going out here?" she asked. Tom stood up.

"It's going well," he reassured his wife. "I told him everything he should know about what happened."

Clara softly smiled, though the expression was only fleeting. Erebus could tell how much everything that had happened beforehand was affecting her. "She'd like to see you now, if that's okay," she told him. Mildly surprised, Erebus stood up, moving over to her.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course, dear." Clara placed a hand on his shoulder, gently squeezing it in reassurance. "She wanted to make sure you were okay the whole time, but wasn't in the right mindset to talk to you then."

Erebus hesitated for a moment before nodding, stepping into Angel's room and peering inside. She was sitting on the edge of her bed, looking down at her hands, still and unmoving. She didn't look up as Erebus stepped further into the room, closing the door behind him, not until he sat down on the bed beside her.

"Hey," she greeted weakly, forcing a small smile. Her eyes were red. "Are you okay?"

Erebus was taken aback by the question. "Why wouldn't I be?" he asked. "Shouldn't I be asking you that?"

Angel softly scoffed, looking down again. "Nah..." she mumbled. "I feel like shit... I'm sorry that you had to see me like that."

"It's not your fault," Erebus told her. He knew better than anyone how hard it is to act a certain way while in the presence of someone he feared. "Tom told me about what happened..."

"Yeah... I didn't want to be the one to explain, I don't think I could've handled that." She chuckled a little, sniffling as she kept her gaze on the ground. "So yeah. Now you know my tragic backstory... my not-so-happy reason for wanting to be in a different reality."

Erebus reached up, gently placing a hand on Angel's back. "Sometimes I wish we weren't so similar," he murmured, almost to himself. Angel let out another weak scoff.

"Yeah..." She briefly glanced up at him, forlorn eyes meeting his own for a second or two before she quickly returned her attention to the floor. "I'm sorry, by the way, for, like... everything."

"What do you mean?"

Angel sniffled again. "Being a dick to you... I probably could've done a better job getting you used to the physical world, and - I dunno, maybe not shouted at you and called you selfish, or told you to go back to Minecraft."

Erebus's shoulders sank. "Angel..."

"I don't want you to go..." Her cheeks were shining now, and her voice barely seemed to be making it out of her throat. A single tear dripped off of the end of her nose onto her hands below as she broke, the calm and confident exterior she wore for everyone else giving way to her true emotions. "I really don't, I swear... I was just so scared of losing you that I got so upset, and I'm happy with you here, and I-I've never been this happy with anyone else - please don't go, Erebus, I-"

Her words dissolved into nothing as Erebus's arms wrapped around Angel's waist, pulling her into a warm embrace. He could feel her body softly hitch against his own as she silently cried, and he rested his head on top of hers, just wanting to give back to her the love that she had unconditionally shown him for so long.

"I'm not leaving," he whispered, reaching up and placing a hand on the side of her face. "I don't want to be anywhere other than with you. I meant every word that I said, Angel, I promise." He felt Angel's arms wrap around his torso, holding him just as close as he was holding her and refusing to let go; it made him feel so warm. "And yes, I was being selfish before. I got defensive because I thought you wouldn't like me anymore if I wasn't a King, and I'm sorry for that too."

Tilting his hand slightly, he brushed his thumb against Angel's cheek, wiping away the tears that stained her skin. "I'm happy that we're together like this," he told her softly yet sincerely. "I'm starting to learn to appreciate myself because of you, and I want to give back to you the same love that you've shown for me. Whatever happens, I'm going to do my best to protect you, Angel, I promise."

Instead of replying, Angel reached up, taking his wrist and pulling his hand off of her face. At first, Erebus was afraid he had done something that made her uncomfortable, but she seemed to be examining his hand - more specifically, his thumb, slightly shiny with her tears, tears that weren't burning into his skin.

"It doesn't hurt you...?"

Erebus watched as her gaze met his, gray eyes shimmering as each experienced the same realization that the other did - that Erebus truly was - in every way, shape, and form - human. His fingers slipped in between Angel's as he took her hand in his own, dark skin pressing against pale as he smiled softly at her.

"I don't think that you could ever truly hurt me," he murmured. "All I feel is you."