Midnight City (boyxboy)

|Twenty: Runaway|

When the angel finally woke up from his restless slumber, his back ached from the uncomfortable position he had put himself in on the couch. Bleary eyed and blinking, he watched Nancy flip over a page of the book she was reading, perched on the armchair adjacent to their old couch. They weren't a matching set, the couch being a muted green while the armchair was a hideous floral pattern he knew Nick definitely wasn't most fond of. 

At the sound of him stirring, Nancy folded over the page as a marker to where she had stopped reading, before pointing at the full mug of steaming coffee that was sat on the stained, wooden coffee table in the middle of the room. It barely fit, their furniture was crammed into a tiny space that he knew they weren't keen on living in forever. 

Sitting up, he winced at the shooting pain that went down his spine, rolling his neck to ease the muscle pain there as well. His hands grasped the hot, ceramic mug, thankful for the fix of caffeine she had given him. 

"Thanks," He mumbled quietly, aware of her judgmental gaze on his being. Nancy's brown eyes narrowed, obviously curious as to why her fiance was unable to inform her of the reason they were offering their friend refuge. They sat in an uncomfortable silence, the only sounds in the air Sam's sipping, amplified by the tension between them. 

Loudly, his stomach grumbled and he looked down at it quickly as if telling it to be quiet. With a roll of her eyes, Nancy stood from her seat and set the book she was reading aside. He wondered how long she had been sitting there, watching him as he slept, wondering what trouble her friend had gotten into. 

She returned moments later with a small plate, two pieces of toast stacked one on top of the other, butter spread finely and evenly across each slice. Immediately he took a bite, starving since he never got to eat his dinner the night before. Instead he had to ingest the fear of two vampires invading their home, afterwards stomaching that he had killed them both. 

Her eyes scanned him warily, looking at the bruises that covered his pale skin, the cuts that were still healing, the dark circles under his eyes. The way that the marks on his body were visible under his white t-shirt, like someone had beaten him so badly that they wanted to leave them there for everyone to see. 

"What happened?" She asked hoarsely after he'd devoured both slices of toast. Nancy was inclined to get her friend more, but she wanted answers first. He didn't look good, not at all. And she wondered if the reason Nick had failed to question him was because he already knew, or was scared to find out the answers. Recently he had been so distant, so hard for Nick to even reach him that they all wondered whether there was a problem. And looking at the state of him, his disheveled appearance and marked body, she knew they were right to be concerned. 

However when he finally met her gaze, his blue eyes boring into her own, she could tell there was something different about him. Though his body was adorned with scrapes, bashes and bruises, his physique was far less frail. The skinniness of his arms had been built upon by muscle, his slender face more filled out, more in proportion. Though he had always been beautiful, always been a sight for sore eyes. 

Sam didn't know what lie to tell her, what would sound convincing but not completely concerning. What would deflect her attention from his appearance? What would nullify the feeling of worry, the feeling of fear?

But he couldn't think of anything, a reasonable explanation for his appearance or presence. 

"I..." He trailed off, words caught in his throat as she looked at him expectantly. I'm a murderer, was what he wanted to say. He killed people last night. He speared their hearts with sunlight arrows, the weight of their deaths on his back almost as heavy as his feathered wings that allowed him to soar through the sky. "I..."