A Fallen Angel

Chapter Six

"A cat."
Everett turned to look at Robin, a confused expression etched in his face at her sudden comment.
"A cat...?"
The girl didn't seem to be paying any attention to him, her eyes fixed elsewhere, gazing off somewhere. Confused, Everett slowly followed her stare, quickly realizing that she was looking up into a tree. Upon taking a closer look, squinting up in between the branches, he came to the realization that there, stuck on the branch, was a terrified looking grey kitten.
Why was she staring at the cat?
It wasn't her problem it was stuck up there. The two of them were among the living now, and that meant that they had no connection to the things or people residing in this world.
But even so....
Everett could only watch, dumbfounded, as Robin, a petite, frail looking girl, worked her way up the trunk of the tree, undaunted, the kitten mewing at her as though it were cheering her on.
Everett could not understand.
What was there to gain from helping it...? Surely it could manage to climb down on its own. Even if she saved it, it would run off and get stuck again. What if she hurt herself trying? Was that worth it? No matter how many times he wracked his brain, he couldn't wrap his head around the fearless little girl's actions.
Robin came down from the tree with the grey cat coiled in her arms and a grin plastered on her face. "Look, Everett! I saved her."
Why was she smiling like that...? There was so much life in her eyes... She was smiling at him as though they were friends. The girl really didn't hold anything against him....did she....
"Wanna pet him?"
Everett was snapped out of his thoughts as she called out to him, the smile still plastered on her face as the cat mewled in her arms. He paused for a long moment, only eyeing her face expressionlessly. Robin, unsure of what he was looking at, found herself fidgeting under his intense gaze.
"W...what is it...?" She asked a bit shakily.

"... No. It's nothing."

Robin growled inwardly at his unsatisfactory response. There he went with his low caliber answers again...
Turning away on her heel before he even got the chance to respond to her earlier question, Robin let the kitten go, watching it as it scampered away.
She barely had the time to look on in triumph when she was struck with a sudden question.
"What is your plan?"
Robin blinked, caught off guard, and turned back around to stare down Everett blankly. "My....plan...?"

"Just what is it you're going to do with me? Surely you don't really think that you can fix me."

The way they always seemed to, Everett's words made Robin's blood boil, and as she glared at him, mouth opened to speak, a new voice broke the atmosphere.
"Chester!"
Chester?
Robin and Everett both found themselves hardening in place as they turned to see a young woman, probably only in her early twenties, crouching there just outside the clearing. There, coiled now in her arms, was the familiar grey kitten.
Robin's expression softened in realization.
That kitten must've belonged to her...
Neither Robin or Everett said a wordー that is, until the woman raised her head and the two found themselves locked in place as realization struck them.
"You helped him down, didn't you?" The woman asked them with a vibrant smile. "Thank you!"
Surely... She wasn't talking to them, was she...?
But as Robin looked all around the clearing, no other person could be seen, and so she opened her mouth, testing it.
"... ah... you're welcome..."
The woman smiled at her brightly and stood up straight, the kitten happily curled in her arms.
"What are you two doing out here anyhow? Ah, is it a date..? Haha, I'm sorry to intrude!"
Robin blinked and whirled around to look at Everett, who could only look back at her just as surprised.
She couldn't just see Robin.
She could see Everett, too.
Everett, who stood out in the open, jet black and mangled wings branching from his back where anyone could see. Yet, at the same time, the woman said nothing. The only explanation the two could come by was that people could see them as two normal human beings, blissfully unaware of their situation.
"Well, thanks anyway!"
Not even prying at them, the young woman gave a final wave and disappeared into the trees from whence she'd come.
The second she was out of sight, Robin whipped around to Everett.
"She can see us!!"

"Yes, I know. An unexpected twist."

Then Robin stopped dead in her tracks, and a little smile spread across her face. Robin, who was quite a beautiful girl, naturally had a lovely smile, and yet something about it made Everett's stomach lurch...
"Everett?"

"What...?"

"... I have a plan."