Celestial Fragments

Old pals...

No matter the amount of physical exhaustion, Angelique could not pull herself together. There was no amount of exercise that seemed to be able to rip away the vivid scenes and touches she had felt yesterday, and above all that, she could simply not stop her brain from repeating some of his words all over again. ...I will make sure you will live the life you deserve....

Each and every single time his words popped back into her mind, she could feel herself choking with emotions and feelings she had thrown under the carpet long ago.

With a loud sigh, she sank onto one of the benches and wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand, her eyes closing as she tried to still her mind for at least one moment.

"Wow! You really are giving it all today, aren't you?" a very familiar voice forced Angelique away from her thoughts, and for the first time in the last couple of days, brought some stillness in her head.

Her eyes opened and she turned around to find Louis, sitting in the doorway of the gym, with a bunch of papers and what seemed to be an unopened water bottle. Through his glasses, his gray eyes seemed just as joyful to see her as she was to see him. His black hair was styled like always, gently combed backwards and pinned in place with gods knew what sort of magical product. With ease, he tossed her the bottle and Angelique caught it clumsily, without getting up from her spot.

"If you need anything, you need to come here, cause these-" she pointed at her legs, "-don't work right now!" she joked, with a big goofy smile, opening the bottle and drinking from it.

Louis was quite a gentle looking fellow. He wasn't too buff or big. Tall and maybe just enough muscle to fill up the suit he was wearing. He wore glasses that gave him a dorky appearance. He was always clean shaven and his hair was always in place. His face held not too many sharp edges, but it was quite pleasing to look at.

He stepped inside and walked to sit beside her.

"You stink." he joked, smiling. "How long have you been working out for?"

"I'm sure i stink. Hopefully it will keep away all the unwanted attention!" Angelique grinned. "A while..." she answered, looking at the small screen of her smart watch.

"Do you think you can fit some time for me into your busy schedule today?" Louis asked, his smile gentle as he watched her unpin the messy bun and fix it all up again.

"Hm? Of course! What is it that you want?"

After a few moments of just watching her, the man turned to all the papers in his hands.

"As you know, a bunch of our staff is gone, and even if we are very capable of running this whole thing by ourselves, we still need to make sure everyone here knows where and what to do in case of anything. We have the Fragmnets to shield, study and try to understand as much as possible about them, we have a lunatic alien on our hands, then we have the diplomatic meeting with the Mhalaks, in another attempt to have them land a hand with resources and-"

"Please don't make me dress up and greet some strange alien again!!!!" Angelique immediately interrupted him.

Louis narrowed his eyes and turned to look at her a little confused, but he immediately remembered all the fuss she went through multiple times playing that role. He huffed, amused and shook his head.

"No. Nothing like that."

This eased her weary heart and for a split second you could actually see her melt into a puddle of comfort.

"We are moving our dear prisoner to a more secure prison-" Louis continued, and the comfort on Angelique's face suddenly vanished. "Blanche managed to find a high-security prison planet, where, usually, beings of his kind are sent."

"And where will that be?" she immediately followed.

"Somewhere around Orion's belt?" he murmured, pulling out a paper and putting it back immediately. "not entirely sure."

"And what's my purpose in all of this?"

"Counting on the premise you are one of our strongest members, we need you to be in the team that will transport and supervise the whole thing." he finally decided on what paper he needed and scanned it with his eyes. "We can speculate he has some sort of liking tendency towards you, since he did not display any violent behaviour-"

"Speculate all you want!" Angelique hissed and suddenly got up, despite the aching in her legs.

With his lips parted and interest perked, the man looked up at her, his eyes narrowing slowly.

"What do you mean? Did he hurt you?" he asked, getting up and following after her.

"What?" Angelique paused, watching him get closer. "I mean-" she sighed and started stretching her body slowly. "No! But he's still very unpredictable, so you can only speculate he likes me." she corrected herself, avoiding his gaze.

Louis stopped behind her, watching her reflection in the mirror in front of them. She was gracious and, despite having not seen her in just a few days, he could tell there was something different about her. Without too much hesitation, his hand moved to sit on her waist, forcing her to give him her attention.

"Did he harm you?" He asked, his voice now low, the gray in his eyes brightening and switching to a pale blue color.

His touch brought a hint of melancholy within her, melancholy that was immediately replaced by repulsion. There was a good reason the two had decided to stop being private with each other, and she did not want to bring everything back right now. Not when his touch was far from Aellioahs... not when her body craved something different.

She stopped and slowly moved away from him, walking to grab her jacket and bottle of water.

"Where am I supposed to be and when?" she asked crossing her arms on her chest, eyeing him. "You know what, don't bother. I'll go ahead and ask Blanche myself." she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Angelique-" Louis suddenly dropped the anger and turned to her, but before he could reach her she walked out of the door, leaving him behind.

This was unnecessary. Any sort of private relationship with anyone here was unnecessary and whatever had happened with Louis was supposed to be left behind and not repeated. In any way, no jealousy, no protection, no anger, no nothing.

Her thoughts started to swirl and get agitated once again, but before she made it too far, the ground started to shake once again. There wasn't any time to react. This time, the earthquake was rougher and she lost her balance almost immediately. The lights in the hallway went red immediately and the spotlights themselves started to flicker. The walls and ceilings started to crack and bits of debris started to fall, dusting the place.

"Angelique!" Louis' voice rang over the sirens and the woman turned her head to him as he rushed to her, a pair of feathery wings extending behind him.

In a split moment, he was covering her with his body, his arms around her as his wings wrapped around them like a shield, while the ceiling started to give in under the shockwave.

"We need to get to the bunker!"Angelique shouted over the sirens, but Louis shook his head almost immediately.

"This is not an earthquake. No matter the magnitude, the building was built to resist... this is something else."

Aellioah....