Tortoise and Fox [BL]

2.8

This wasn't any Angel, it was Tincan.

"Hmph!"

"Li, are you angry?"

"I'm not."

"But your tone is curt and your walking pace is abnormally quick."

"...Alright, I am a little angry. Just, just leave me alone for a few minutes. I'll find ya later. And make sure Yu isn't followin' me as well."

The footsteps behind him stopped, but Li didn't turn around. The pale youth stalked around the corner, pulling ahead in a separate direction.

The West Sector was practically a ghost town. With blindfolds pulled tight and snow a transparent white, it all existed without the footprints of human life. It felt abandoned and untracked, even more so than usual.

But Li didn't care. His emotions were swirling around in a pot, overflowing.

The fact that Tincan had always been watching him, the fact that Yu was not only Yu but also Tincan...

It almost—almost felt like he had been betrayed. The personal times he had with Yu...even that moment then with the fox, it was all overheard.

Li drifted farther and farther away from the address he was supposed to stop at. Why was he so angry at Tincan? Normally...normally he'd never get so caught up in someone like this. Why not just laugh it off and move on?

He faltered, touching his earrings. They brought a cool, metallic feeling to his heated fingertips. Why did he care so much?

"I'm, I'm..."

A slow, cherry red crawled up his cheeks; a flaming flush licked the corner of the black rose on his neck.

Li wasn't mad, but embarrassed? The Ume that had stayed by his side this whole time, had unknowingly brought down Li's enclosed walls. And more so, his presence felt more special than anything he had known before.

Being exposed, feeling exposed, the rawness of it all seared warmth into his cheeks. Not only that but...the things he had said unwittingly in Yu's company. His constant complaints of how attractive—how attractive—

"Ahhhhh!!"

Li squatted down, embarrassed.

"I just yelled at him earlier... I feel so bad now."

He was embarrassed, but his whole chest felt a strange relief. Like a burden lifted off his chest that he didn't know he had.

He could already imagine walking with the Tincan, with his lost, puzzled stare watching Li as he attempted to apologize. Then, when they got back, he would sit Tincan down and ask—ask if he was at all interested in being more than friends—

BANG! BANG!

The shocking noise permeated the quiet unease, piercing past Li's eardrums and into the hammering of his heart. Li felt nauseous.

He darted through empty streets, realizing he was even farther than he thought.

Li had been taught—by himself and others—that discretion was his strongest weapon. To be silent when it was loud, to run when approached, he understood this well.

Yet...yet...!

Li cried, the name ripped out his throat by fear.

"TINCAN!! UME!!"

A more callous Li would scoff at his decision, but right now, none of that mattered.

"UME!!"

He turned past a corner, stumbling into the street he initially ran from.

"Li?"

A calm, questioning voice responded among a group of fallen humans. The black-haired youth stared in shock.

Blood dripped down, past the unraveling hem of a varsity jacket to the defined knuckles, staining white boots crimson.

Ume stared narrowly at his hand, flicking his wrist.

"I incapacitated them, as they were threats. Li said to trust no one but Li, after all."

The clean, deep voice sounded harsh, scraping against Li's ears. His face glinted even brighter in the cloudy light, features unusually cold and perfect. It was as if Ume had just come in from shoveling snow.

Li subconsciously took a step back, feeling unwell. The sight was like thunder sinking down on him.

Right. Ume wasn't some sweet, harmless animal. He was an Angel...after all. There was a reason those things were called Angels of Death.

An emotionless robot made to wipe out humanity. The things that killed his parents.

"Li? Are you alright? Your heart rate has increased by a large margin."

The clumsy attempt at voice inflection and eyebrow scrunch shook Li out of his wild thoughts.

This wasn't any Angel, it was Tincan. He was different. Li couldn't swallow the hard lump in his throat. He was different...right?

"I'm fine. I heard gunshots so I came back."

Like his feet were no longer stuck in mud, Li rushed over.

"You...you aren't hurt are ya, Tincan?"

"No, I am not."

Li exhaled. His feelings were in complete turmoil, twisting into a knot of relief, worry, and shock. Li shuffled his feet, stepping over unconscious limbs, his concern increasing and nervousness lessening. He pulled over the bloodied hand, inspecting it with care, then checking the Tincan once over.

Phew, no holes.

"Who are these guys?"

Ume didn't respond. Rather, he hesitated to. Why? Li probed further, the heavy feeling in his gut making him more uneasy than all his nerves combined.

"You can just spit it out, Tincan, I won't faint over it."

"They said you were their target. For associating with Angel scum and..."

"And what? How did they know where we were? The only person who knows our route is O."

Before Li could further process, a small movement shook in the crook of his vision in Ume's blind spot. A person on the floor was raising their gun...!

"UME!"

In a moment of discrepancy, Ume allowed himself to be pulled around as the darkly dressed youth hugged him, pulling Ume down with more strength than he calculated could appear from a human.

BANG!

The Angel's eyes widened.

"Li?"