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He was towering in his true form, 8 feet tall at minimum if he were standing, not counting his pairs upon pairs upon pairs of feathered wings that seemed to command the light breezes with their sleek but grand size. Stratosfear took a step back.
"Anshine?" he asked, using more effort than he'd admit keeping his voice from cracking.
Anshine's head tilted up slightly, but, at least from Stratosfear's stance behind him, he appeared to have no other reaction.
Stratosfear took another step back, his heel bumping into a stone that skidded away, the loud interruption seemed to echo endlessly throughout the marble pillars. He completely froze at the noise, stuck in an unknown fear.
Stratosfear lost count of how many seconds passed, it could've been minutes, it felt like hours. He didn't notice it at first, but one wing of many drifted down invitingly, for what he didn't know. It paused just in front of him, feathers outstretched and still, as if waiting for a handshake. Touching the quill closest to him, its wing curled up his wrist eagerly in response. He gasped at the sensation, resisting the shock-driven urge that jumped at him to pull away. The feathers were incredibly soft; their light, fluffy texture pressed into Stratosfear's skin soothingly, albeit a little ticklish. After he got used to the feeling, he grasped at tufts of the wing curiously.
More began to drift down in response, caressing his arms, neck, waist, with many beginning to gather at his back. His nerves lit up; he couldn't help but giggle at the constant movement of feathers in more sensitive areas. The wings took note of this, taking quick slides across his waist that had him bubbling with laughter.
"Stop---Stop---!" he pleaded with a smile on his face, squirming in the wings hold around him. After a few drawn out seconds, the wings ceased their torture, instead pressing into Stratosfear's back, drawing him closer to their user with their graceful, comforting movements.
As the wings walked him around Anshine, Stratosfear couldn't help but stare at each new angle, watching as the wings dimmed from their brilliant, almost hued shine to a now silver undertone of shadow. Even at his destination, Stratosfear continued to stare at the radiant light at the edges of Anshine's sitting silhouette. He gradually brought himself to the ground with both legs folded beneath him, still taking in the scene.
Anshine was motionless, his symbol facing Stratosfear fidgeting his hands with what must've been his equivalent of a gaze, for, unlike in his normal form, he had no mouth to smile or eyebrows to quirk up to signify it. Stratosfear felt like he was being analyzed or contemplated but by a force he had no idea the intentions of, it made him hesitant to even move. He knew it was Anshine in front of him, but something about his manners, especially lack of speech, was certainly alien.
"Can you... talk? Like this?" he asked, bouncing his sights from wing to wing. Anshine's shoulders softly bobbed as if he were chuckling, his wings curling in slightly. Stratosfear flushed up, wondering if he asked something stupid. Anshine sensed this, of course he did, gently leaning forward and caressing his palm to Stratosfear's cheek as an apology. Even with his strict rules in mind, Stratosfear resisted shifting back out of politeness, and though he hated to admit it, wanted to feel the warm touch linger for just a second more. As soon as the hand was there, it was drifting away, Stratosfear's eye darting nervously until Anshine's arm was completely back at his side. Anshine tilted his head, prompting the much shorter to speak again.
"Can you talk?" he repeated slowly. Anshine "stared" at his face longer before responding with the shake of his head.
"Oh," Stratosfear looked to the ground, "I've never seen you like this bef-forre---" his voice faltered when Anshine's broad fingertips tilted his head back up, symbol continuing to stare at him intently. Heat rushed to Stratosfear's face at the abrupt touch and eye-contact, completely forgetting where his sentence was going. Anshine nodded his head, urging Stratosfear to try again.
"I-I've never seen---" Anshine silenced him with a finger hovering just above his lips, interrupting him a second time. Stratosfear huffed and furrowed his brows in confusion and, though he wouldn't admit it, very slight annoyance.
Anshine slid his hand down Stratosfear's shoulder apologetically, Stratosfear knew he was using his "politeness" as an excuse at this point, soaking up every moment of that touch despite what his fears yelped at him to shift away from. He didn't have time to argue with himself, his attention now captured by Anshine folding his left arm closer to his chest, and with his other hand, trailing up his wrist with a flat palm.
Slower, he signed.
It clicked in Stratosfear's mind, then.
"I understand," Stratosfear said, pronouncing each syllable fully.
"Can't hear either?" he asked in a similar fashion. Anshine raised his flat palm and tilted it side to side.
So-so.
Anshine's shoulders shook with silent laughter at Stratosfear's ever confused expression, though he quickly stopped---Stratosfear appreciated that--- and signed once again. He went slowly and simply, knowing Stratosfear's knowledge of sign language, although notable in his mortal days, had gotten quite rusty in the centuries past.
Don't understand you.
"Why not?" Stratosfear asked. He cringed at how the words' tone fell out but sacrificed it for both of their ease.
Anshine didn't seem to mind, shrugging and raising his right hand to answer.
L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E, he finger spelled.
Stratosfear paused at the information, wondering if Anshine meant a language barrier, just English, or language in general. Would Anshine understand other languages, then?
"Potesne Latine audire?" He asked.
'Can you hear Latin?'
Now it was his turn to chuckle at Anshine's puzzlement, full on laughing when he rolled his head in what must've been the equivalent of an eyeroll. He didn't even bother asking Stratosfear to repeat, playfully flicking at his head to snag his focus back to his signing hands.
I don't understand... he paused. Person. L-A-N-G-, he swirled his hand in the air, implying the rest of his previous finger spelling.
Stratosfear couldn't help but wonder if Anshine's knowledge of sign language was worse than his, though he questioned how he had a grasp of it in the first place. It clearly wasn't enough to be a long-time hobby, if anything, it looked like he had only been at it for a couple weeks, but Stratosfear kept coming up dry for a reason he did so.
O-N-L-Y P-O-I-N-T L-A-N-G, he signed with frequent pauses.
"You only hear points?" Stratosfear asked, now certain this was some language barrier only in his true form.
So-So.
Stratosfear softly laughed in exasperation, raising his hands in defeat and simply faulting their miscommunications. Anshine grazed his hands down Stratosfear's arms a little desperately, having no other way to show remorse. Stratosfear completely jolted at the unexpected and intimate touch, indirectly guiding Anshine's hands away by holding them for a moment. Boy, was he pushing his rules today. "It's okay!" he said, making sure Anshine could read his lips.
His wings stretched across the sky in response, their large, thin shapes painting stripes of shadows across the ground. The effect made his silhouette utterly angelic, the rays of sunlight a stunning contrast with his dark shadow.
"You are," he started in awe, "very pretty," he slipped out, saying the words intentionally quickly and mentally punching himself. Anshine tilted his head, asking for him to repeat to Stratosfear's dismay. He thought for a moment, wanting to keep the truthful compliment but knowing he couldn't, at least in that way.
"You look very grand," he settled with, staring at Anshine dead on. He leaned forward in suspicion but did nothing more than stare at Stratosfear's lips like they had the real answer for his silly lies. Stratosfear had to look up at his looming shadow to keep their eye-contact, feeling something inside him cowering unconsciously. The closeness had him parting his lips in exhale, quickly pursing them in guilt. He didn't notice the wings drifting down until they were at his back, lightly grazing him tauntingly in their ticklish nature. His nerves forced him to arch away from the touch immediately, failing to suppress a laugh which came out in a high sound as he inhaled sharply and shut his eye tight.
Anshine must've enjoyed his show, introducing a hand around his waist that pushed him closer exactly the way he used to---
"Stop---" Stratosfear suddenly let out.
Anshine and his wings immediately complied, drifting to... nothing? He opened his eye, watching the remaining ones as they appeared to disintegrate into some sort of shimmer that drifted in golden plumes before disappearing completely. The effect was mesmerizing, dragging his eye along in the hopes of catching just a few more seconds of the spectacle, even when he knew it was over.
"Did I hurt you?" a familiar voice asked. Stratosfear turned and found Anshine back to his normal, still taller size. His brows were drawn together in a worried expression, making Stratosfear's chest swell in nostalgic heartache.
"No," he said simply with a thread of guilt, not knowing how else to respond truthfully. He tucked his knees closer and shifted so he faced towards the edge of the platform and the bright clouds, Anshine did the same.
Stratosfear could feel Anshine staring at him, but he refused to meet his gaze, instead scratching at the marble below them in quick, quiet movements that only increased as his anxiety rose.
"...I can only talk to other points when they're in true form too," Anshine said, if only to fill the silence. "Otherwise, I can't talk or listen at all. None of the others have it, just me..." he finished with his voice slightly muffled in his arms.
His words flickered something in Stratosfear, like a glimmer barely visible in the sand. He couldn't enter his true form in his shattered state, not without a hell of a physical pay for it. Had Anshine learned sign language just to…?
The realization sparked butterflies in his core so strong he had to hold back his threatening smile. The rosy thought battled ruthlessly against his fear, yet it lost and was caught, adding onto the terror of Anshine already caring for him that much.
"Stratosfear---"
"I should go," he stood up quickly, already on his heels.
"Wait---" He couldn't take two steps forward before Anshine's hand was on his shoulder.
"If I did something wrong, I want you to tell me," He pleaded.
You're hurting him.
"You're always leaving so suddenly," he started, grasping Stratosfear's hands lightly. He didn't want to let go.
You need to let go.
"I just want to know why---?"
"I'm sorry," was all he could get himself to say, releasing his hands from Anshine's a little slower than he should've, picking up his pace and refusing to look back because he knew he'd find creased brows, lips parted in sorrow, and a calling hand that wouldn't fully lower until Stratosfear was out of sight. But it was better than tears and blood, he repeated over and over and over until the words blended into a disheveled mess of woes that rang in his head louder than any physical sound he could've picked up. And he welcomed it, embraced it, acted on it.
For he could never hurt Mason again.