Demonic Influence (I hate my co-workers)

Technicalities

"Honey, I'm home," Eddy called out, opening the door with his free hand and closing it behind him once he had stepped inside.

Almost immediately he was hit with all the force that a faded angel in fuzzy socks can generate sliding across wooden floors. Brett collided with his stomach with a quiet oof, and Eddy grinned despite himself. "Hey there, sleepyhead." God, when did he get so soft sounding?

Brett looked up at him with hopeful eyes. "Did you get the bubble tea?" He asked.

Eddy rolled his eyes endearingly. "You mean, this bubble tea?" He held it up above Brett's head, away from the smaller boy's reaching fingers.

Brett pouted. "Give it here!" He made another halfhearted jump for it, crossing his arms as Eddy raised onto tiptoes. "I swear, I will climb you like a tree."

That got a chuckle out of Eddy. "Now, is that really any way for you to be treating your bubble tea savior?"

"Dude, this isn't funny!" Brett's cheeks were flushed. "Give it to me!"

"Give it to me... please?" Eddy tried, now unable to keep the grin off his face.

Brett huffed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of his eyes. "Come on, dude."

"What was that?" Eddy said, thoroughly enjoying himself. "I can't hear you."

A louder sigh. Brett looked up at him. "Please?" he said quietly, and wow did Brett look adorable when he did that.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so?" Eddy passed him the bubble tea, giving Brett a moment to do his best to inhale it before asking his next, slightly more pressing question. "How was everything while I was gone?"

"Fine," Brett managed between sips. "All good."

"Do your wings still hurt?"

"Only a little."

"Did you stretch them out at all or anything?"

Brett looked guiltily past him, focusing instead on the wall across from them. It was peach colored, with a small painting of roses. He scratched the back of his head absentmindedly, focusing most of his effort into looking anywhere in the room that Eddy wasn't.

Eddy sighed. "Brett, we've discussed this."

"Have we? I can't remember it ever coming up..." Brett sipped his bubble tea loudly.

"You know for a fact that underuse of your wings can hurt just as much as overuse. You need to stretch them out or else they'll get weak. I know you're nervous about people seeing them, but It can't hurt you to open them in here, where there is literally no one around but me." Eddy chided him lightly. "And I'm pretty sure I already know that you have wings." He didn't want to sound too mean, and he had only mentioned this to Brett in passing, but still. The boy was two hundred years his elder, he should know this!

"But it hurts when I open them," Brett said, barely more than a whisper.

Oh, love. Eddy could feel a heavy weight in his chest as he looked at Brett, putting himself in his shoes. He's just scared. "Do you want me to take a look then?" he said quietly. "If you just stretch them a little I can make sure you're all good and no more feathers have fallen out."

Brett nodded, slowly turning his back to Eddy. "I don't want to look at them." If he spoke any quieter, then Eddy might have assumed it was nothing more than the wind. He frowned, giving Brett ample time to shrug off his shirt and open up his wings.

Eddy couldn't help it, his hands flew to cover his mouth, muffling his small gasp. Brett's wings were mangled, but that wasn't new. What was new were the spreading blackened portions of feathers dotted amongst the white. It was no longer just the tips of Brett's wings that looked blackened and almost burnt. Even as Eddy watched, Brett shook out his wings softly, completely unaware.

Slowly, hesitantly, Eddy reached out to run his fingers through the closest part of Brett's wing, but almost the moment his fingers touched the soft primaries, one of them sizzled. Okay, that can't be good. Eddy watched it in confusion as the blackened portion of the feather expanded, looking almost as though paper was being burnt before his eyes. Well this is new, he thought eloquently, as he physically felt his blood pressure spike.

"Brett?" he asked, very very quietly. "Are you feeling okay?"

"Yeah, why?" He could almost feel the panic beginning to swell in Brett's throat. "Is there a problem? Is something wrong? You aren't touching my wings yet, why aren't you touching my wings yet?"

"No, no, everything's fine," Eddy hummed quickly, awkwardly reaching out and nudging at the offending primary, before deeming it cool to the touch and beginning to run his fingers through the surrounding feathers as well. "Just checking in on you."

"Well," Brett considered. "I am a bit cold."

"Yeah," Eddy said, his frown deepening. "You did mention that..." He trailed off, concern clouding his mind.

Eddy sat alone in the basement, doing his best to write a letter back to his boss. He would have done it much earlier, if not for Brett's wings exploding. Since he was interrupted, however, the letter had just sat around collecting dust on their kitchen counter for a while. Eddy was currently doing his best not to appear rude, for any of multiple reasons.

Fred,

Thank you so much for the care package! I can let you know that I, for one, was immensely pleased by this one's lack of cockroaches. More importantly though, Brett was also quite pleased. Brett, who's still alive and kicking. So, I don't quite know what information you got to lead you to believe that he had met an untimely demise at the hands of one of his higher ups (have I mentioned recently how much I like you?), but that information was incorrect.

However, I do have a question of sorts. Brett's wings are covered in crumbling black patches, and huge chunks of his feathers have fallen out. I can't figure out what it is for the life of me, and seeing as our wings are already black, I think I can rule out this being an issue that demons also experience.

Apart from that, he's very cold and generally unhappy, though it occurs to me now that that last one might just be because he hates not knowing what's happening to him. Anywho, I checked the Bible, Wikipedia, and I even got scammed into purchasing some 'ancient texts' in pdf form that really weren't of any use whatsoever.

I'm not any kind of expert, so I figured maybe you could help me out, whether with some of your own infinite wisdom or by asking around the office. It would be pretty great if you could.

Thanks a ton,

Eddy

Eddy put his head in his hands. The one thing he didn't want to be happening to Brett was seeming more likely by the day. Hopefully Fred would come through with an answer for him. Hopefully...

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A/N: Ack! I'm so sorry for not uploading yesterday guys! It's been a tad stressful and it all just kinda caught up with me.