Revelation

Chapter 22: Juliette

 'I love you,' I whispered, 'and I have since the beginning.

'What about Astin?'

'What about him?'

Angel smiled, pulling me into his torso, my hands resting on his chest, his hands on my back. It felt right. He felt right. This felt right. For some reason, Angel has always felt like home. More so than Astin ever did.

'Besides, Astin only acted the way he did because he wanted to spite you. He has no romantic attraction to me. He just does not think we should be together.'

'Haden was right.'

'Pardon?'

'I needed to know if you fancied me or him and Haden and I were talking about it. Haden said that maybe Astin was trying to keep you away from me.'

'I really have tried to spend time with you. He just usually refuses to let me out of his sight. I wonder why he did not follow...'

'I had Haden distract him for a few minutes.'

I laughed, a true laugh. For the first time since I left Hell and tried pushing my feelings toward Angel away, focusing on the impending war. I forgot how nice it was to spend time alone with Angel. How nice it was to spend time with anyone I love, and the only one I love at the moment is Angel.

I pulled away from Angel and looked up at him, a small smile threatening to show up on my face. I felt my lips trying to pull into a smile. Angel noticed and gave me a smile. A real smile. Not one of his signature smirks or his sinister grins. He looked truly happy. He also looked more healthy than he has since our groups met up to fight together.

Despite my efforts to put distance between me and Angel, he kept his arms around my waist, holding me close to him. I bit my lip and tried to pry his hands off of me. He frowned at this and growled a little.

'Why are you trying to pull away from me? I thought you loved me,' he sounded so defeated. So sad. So... so... betrayed? I sighed.

'Of course I do. However, right now, it is not good for anyone to see us. Besides, if anything happens between us, we will be pulled apart soon. Even if it is a few months or even years away, it will be too soon for us. I am not sure if it is worth it in the end.'

'I think it is. However, I get it that you do not want others to see it. It would probably cause some problems. Especially between the two sides.'

'I was thinking more along the lines between you and Astin.'

'Ah, right. That would probably be the foremost problem.'

A small laugh escaped my lips and Angel looked at me strangely. I ignored his look and began walking back to the base, 'By the way, do you want me to actually look at the battle plans you made?' Maybe I could give useful advice on what he came up with.

'Yeah, that would be great. That would be great.'

I nodded and slowed my pace to walk next to Angel. He lit a cigarette and gently placed it between his teeth. I bit my lip looking at him. I never realised how attractive Angel really was. I always refused to look at him long enough when I was in Hell due to my frustration of being there. Now that I had the time to observe him, I wanted to do it. I wanted to engrave his image in my head for when we would be inevitably separated.

If he noticed my staring, he did not react to it. He just ignored me, keeping his eyes focussed on the path ahead of us. For that, I was happy. Despite the fact he knew how I felt, I did not like the idea of him truly catching me staring. Not out of embarrassment, but out of fear. Fear that he would ask me why I was staring and me having to explain I wanted to remember his image for when we would be forcefully separated.