Knights of Hell

Chapter 4 :)

After dealing with the Knights for four hours straight, he finally went to bed when they had all left, having made no progress, especially with Lucifer refusing to answer the line, and none of them wanted to travel to Hell to cuss the man out. So, to ease himself from the stress, Azure got dressed the next bright and early day and travelled to Kai’s place.

His best friend lived ten minutes away, and the streets were quiet in the early morning. Some fog made it harder to see, but with his enhanced eyesight, Azure had no problem. He sighed as he walked through them. He knew today would be a dull day, and he would have to make the best of it before Lucifer finally decided to tell them what precisely the Knights needed to do, and Azure knew he would have no spare time once that happened.

He arrived at Kai’s apartment complex. Kai lived in the more developed area of the neighborhood, and honestly, Azure was glad he did. It meant more protection from the creatures that went bump in the night. The building was much cleaner, with darker brickwork to help it blend in at night, though it stuck out like a sore thumb during the day. The so-called government always said they would get around to painting the rest of the buildings to match soon, but they had been saying that for almost three years, and still, Kai’s building was the only one that was a dark grey.

The large floor-to-ceiling windows were shatterproof, so no demon could break through to get inside, even on the higher floors, and the lobby was scarcely decorated. A reception desk, where three humans stood, a man and two women, with a sitting area and grey wooden flooring. Even on the inside, it looked so much better than Azure’s lobby.

Azure smiled at the three of them as he walked up the stairs and to the fifth floor. and he walked to Kai’s apartment door. Just as he was about to knock on the black door, Kai opened it. His hair was slightly dishevelled, and he was still adjusting his work clothes as he fixed his appearance.

“Azure?” The man asked, slightly out of breath. “What are you doing here so early?”

“I had time to kill today and thought I would stop by. Where are you going in such a hurry?” he asked, stepping back so as not to graze himself on Kai’s clothes as he was still putting them on.

“I have work, a call came in. Let yourself in, I’ll be back soon.”

Before Azure could even ask if that was a wise thing to do or if it was even safe, Kai was already running down the hall and hitting the elevator button repeatedly, and when the lift didn’t come up fast enough, he went down the way Azure came up.

Azure swallowed before letting himself into Kai’s place, and once he had taken his shoes off and hung up his jacket, he sat on the couch, unsure of what to do. Usually, he would always be here with Kai, with the man in the kitchen, looking at him through the breakfast bar that looked into the living space or in the bedroom where Azure would impatiently wait for him to change his clothes so he could touch him casually without any worry.

When a gentle knock came on his mental wall, Azure sighed but allowed the man to enter his thoughts. Only Cedar was that gentle, and he wasn’t wrong.

“Azure?” he asked softly.

“What is it?”

“It’s abot Lucifer,” he replied.

“Of course it is, what about him?”

“Have you heard from him?”

“No, have you?”

There was a slight pause, and he heard Cedar sigh. “Should we be worried?”

“He is the literal ruler of Hell. I’m sure he’s fine and that one of his kids is finally snapping at him to do his work instead of pawning it off on us.”

“But Lucifer has never gone this long without contacting us.”

“He’s fine, Cedar. I’m sure he is.”

“Would you be willing to go to-”

“No,” Azure replied, cutting him off. “I can’t. Not anytime soon.”

“Why?”

“I have Kai to worry about, and the boys have a trip to the in between coming up and if something happens to any of them, I need to be on Earth to make sure i can get to them as fast as possible.”

There was silence, and when he probed around his mind a little, he realised Cedar had left. Azure groaned, grabbing a pillow and groaned louder, muffling the sound that came out of his mouth.

“Who pissed in your cereal this morning, Mr Azure?” Azure put the pillow down to look at Chirch and Mint standing there, looking slightly amused at the demon.

“How long have you been stadnign there?”

“Enough time to see you stare into space and then groan not once but twice.”

“Right. Why are you not at university?”

“We had three hours of religious studies, and I was not about to sit there and listen them slander demons for three hours straight,” Mint deadpanned, taking a seat on the couch beside the man. “Where’s Kai?”

“Work,”

“Ah.”

“No, Mr Nether, today?” Church asked, looking around the space, trying to see if he could see the red-skinned demon lurking anywhere.

“No, he doesn’t like Kai.”

Mint nodded and then went into the guest bedroom, which was his and Church’s for when they decided to stay over, and they both returned in their pyjamas. Mint went into the kitchen and made a massive bowl of popcorn and a platter of snacks, while Church grabbed an enormous bottle of soda from his bag, placed it on the table and went into the kitchen to get three glasses.

The two were back on the couch, with the curtains closed and a pile of blankets. They got comfortable as Mint turned the TV on and played a Television show.

“What the hell just happened?” Azure deadpanned. He had been squished between the two, with the blanket thrown over him, and a glass of wine had been poured for him and handed to him with the popcorn bowl in his lap.

“We’re spending the day bingewatching a show.”

“Why at Kai’s?”

“He has the best sound system and the biggest TV.”

Azure sighed as he nodded. Sure. Sure. “What’s the show about?”

“Grip reapers. They know when someone’s about to kill themselves, and they try and stop them.”

“That’s not allowed,” Azure replied. “Reapers aren’t allowed to interfere with human affairs.”

“Put that to the side and watch it. It’s good.”

Halfway through episode one, Kai came home and looked out of it. He stopped when he saw all three men on his couch, and with the TV paused, on a really pretty woman with pink hair, he stared at them in disbelief. “What am I witnessing?”

“They wanted to watch a show.”

“They should be at uni.”

“They roped me into it.”

“You’re the adult.”

“Whoops?” Azure said, but he had seen the little splatter of black on Kai’s face, and he frowned. He threw the blanket off of him and walked over to the man, who looked exhausted. The collar around his neck had seemed to have grown, not by a lot, but about two centimetres and Azure stared at him with worry.

“Are you okay?” he whispered, wiping the blood away from his face, trying his best to avoid the clothes, which he knew would burn his hand, and with Kai so close, he would see it and possibly even smell it.

Kai leaned into the touch with a soft exhale, looking up at the man. “I’m fine; I’m just tired. I’m going to have a shower.”

Azure watched Kai leave. He went down the hallway at the back and heard the bathroom door close before returning to the couch, where the boys stared at him. They leaned over him to caress each other's faces.

“Are you okay?” Church mocked, holding Mint’s face close.

“Just tired,” Mint replied, leaning into his touch.

“Let me kiss you and make the pain go all away.” They both made kissy faces at one another before Azure rolled his eyes and smacked the two of them on the back of the head. They laughed as Church got up, took Azure’s glass from him, poured him some more wine, and got another glass for Kai. He handed Azure his while putting Kai’s on the table,

When Kai came out in some silk pyjamas, he sat on the armchair, and Mint threw the man a blanket and some pillows while Church handed him his wine glass and a chocolate bar.

“We’re going to do nothing, but watch this show tonight, and when we starve, we go out to dinner and eat,” Mint announced, and Kai nodded.

At the start of the second episode, Azure looked around, and something similar to peace washed over him as he realised this was what he wanted. For him, Kai and the boys to be domestic, for simple things like this to matter to Kai as much as they mattered to him, and when he looked over Church’s head to look at Kai, the man was already looking at him. They smiled at one another softly before returning to the TV.

~*~