Be Free With Me

I looked across the table as my brother looked at me with eyes that said he wasn’t sure what to think of me, or more he wasn’t sure what to think of the small kitten lying against my side, sitting on my lap.

“Who is this?” He asked, looking at him. My arms around the boy’s waist tightened as I held him closer to me, naturally protective of anything against my kitten, and of keeping things away from my brother so that he couldn’t’ hurt them. He wasn’t always a boy who held an angel against him and kissed his cheek. He used to be someone everyone feared.

“This is Gizellent.” Mortifer murmured, gesturing to the angel, “and I am Mortifer.” He said, introducing himself to Cualli.

“This is my kitten Cualli, and I am Esseker.” I said to Gizellent. He looked at Mortifer, as if he was afraid of something, and shivered slightly. Mortifer pulled him closer.

Butler walked in with food, the atmosphere so thick it could be cut with a knife. “Can I interest you in some tea or another beverage sir?” He said, immediately falling into the ‘royal butler’ façade the moment Mortifer walked in.

My brother though, the one that once threw a glass at Butler for not having his coffee with enough cream in it, shook his head. “Nothing for me Butler, but could you bring a glass of water for Gizellent?” He asked, and I was rather astonished.

Butler merely nodded and left.

The old Mortifer that I now realized was almost completely expunged by this angel would never have addressed Butler directly like he did now, it would have been “beneath him” yet here he was doing that and more, putting the needs of the angel above his own.

“Much has happened, tell me what you have been up to, and when this….dramatic change occurred.” He said to me, his eyes on Cualli who was rubbing his tail contentedly against my arm as Butler walked back into the room with a cup of water for Gizellent and a saucer of warm milk for Cualli. He knew the kitten so well already. “And Butler?” Mortifer spoke up, drawing the butler’s attention. “You don’t have to play butler now, you can go spend time with that snow-white kitten who so desperately wanted to be by your side earlier.” He said, and while I was even more surprised, my jaw was already on the floor Butler smiled and nodded at him.

“Thank you, but should you need anything else, then don’t’ hesitate to call.” He said, and left and my gaze averted to Cualli, who was lapping out of his bowl that he was holding with his tail wrapped into a tight circle at the end.

“You talk about me having a dramatic change…look at yourself.” I said, smiling in jest.

Gizellent sipped at his water softly and handed it to Mortifer who drank a little as well. The angel offered him more, but the demon shook his head. “No, you need it more than I.” He whispered, and kissed the angel’s forehead, then looked up at me. “I met him at a ball. It was nearing the end of the night, and I saw him from across the room. His beauty stunned me, and I couldn’t even be distracted from his eyes to notice the garb he wore. He was not just any ambassador, he was the ambassador our king had been making a deal with, and…from there one thing led to another and that was that.” He said simply, a smile on his face as he gazed at Gizellent and moved hair from his eyes that told more than his words of his love for the boy as he resumed speaking.

“I fell in love with him at first sight, I just had to make him realize it, so I courted him; in the garden every night, two hours after the lamps went dark, we’d meet and talk, and then, when he told me he loved me back, we decided to make our relationship public.” Suddenly, his voice turned dark. “And they rejected us wholly and completely.” He said with a scowl, looking down at his hands. Gizellent leaned over and kissed Mortifer’s jaw to reassure him as my brother continued.

“They threw us out of the castle. The peace with the angels had already been made, so when one denounced us, as did the other shake us off their feathers.” He whispered his voice quiet now. “There was no other place I knew where to go, and….I know this is neutral territory, the shifter land, so they wouldn’t say anything…” he finished, shrugging.

Sitting up a little, and almost knocking Cualli’s milk over, I set the kitten on the couch beside me and held out my arms to my brother who stood up and hugged me tightly, and I could tell there were tears in his eyes by the way his cheeks glistened. Pulling away, I kissed his cheek. “You’re always welcome here.” I told him, and he nodded.

“Thank you.” He whispered, and smiled softly at me, stepping back to take Gizellent’s hand. “You don’t know how grateful we are for that; those simple words. The only thing I regret is not being a better brother to you.” He said quietly, and I shrugged.

“That was in the past, you’re obviously not the person you were then, you were just overcome by hate and anger, it’s what we grew up around in that noble house.” I told him, not wanting him to feel bad for something that wasn’t fully his fault.

“But you grew up there too, and you didn’t turn out like I did.” He told me, and I shook my head.

“No, brother; the things you did were the things I thought about. I held it all inside me, and that maybe was worse. Then Cualli came over here to stay, and…I’m happy for once. He makes me happy.” I said, looking at the kitten that blushed and leaned his ears against my hand to rub them softly on me. I looked up to Mortifer who was holding hands with Gizellent; “and I am happy that we are able to meet again now, we can’t change what happened in the past, but we can make the future what we want it to be.”