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"......" A tired young man was laying on his couch, exhausted by the sheer will power it took to stay awake during the day. The sound of little feet pitter pattering across a busy class room, to the time it took to get the very last child down for a nap.. It was so much work, But it was all worth it.

You see, during the time where everything decided it was going to go down hill, The Kindness child had finally made a large decision of what to do with his life..

There were so many kids who were alone.. Who were sad and hurting... And more than anything else, he wished to protect those children, to give them a reason to want to wake up in the morning.. So... He had decided that he wanted to learn how to take care of them.

Granted, he, himself was rather poor, his apartment was nice, but empty, for he had left his father's home with just enough money for a deposit on the place. For a while, he had worked in a rather immense green house, taking care of the plants for a few rich snobs while they lurked around him, expecting him to make a mistake just so they could fire him. But now, he was all out of it, working pay check to pay check, but content with the job of preschool assistant he had now..

Needless to say, life was hard.. But there was one thing that topped it all, making his life near miserable... For months, he had been searching for the one who gave his one life meaning... He was bitter towards that boy.. So many times the other hand sought comfort in his arms, but.. No, this time, not only was he not here, when he needed help the most, but he was the cause of all this. It was the love Edes held for that boy which broke his own family apart, Forcing him to rebel against his father and find a life somewhere far from where he was raised, to live where there was no sense of security, no family, no friends...

Even so.. He held no hate in his heart for that boy... Sure, he could be angry, but the fear that settled in his heart, and the worry that seemed to engulf his entire being kept him form baring any real resentment.. He just wanted the other to come home safe... He wanted to know if he was even still alive... With the work he used to do, it could be entirely possible that the other were dead.

A soft knocking on the door stirred him from his temporary slumber, where he sat up, stretching. The sound had almost been drowned out by the pouring rain outside, but his rather large ears had proven successful, and had caught the sound quite quickly.

"Coming!" His voice still seemed unable to get very loud, but should have been heard none the less. He had no idea who would visit him, since he had moved so recently, and no one knew where he lived.. Well, except old Mrs. Rosie.. Maybe she was bringing him another house warming gift.. A sweet lady, really.

With a smile, he opened the door.

Who was this? Who was this filthy, unrecognizable man before him? So disheveled, looking as if he had been broken down over and over again.. The words that slipped through the other's lips hit him like a 16 wheeler. The Facility..? Is that where this man was...? The feathers... The wings... Yes, yes of course, it was him, it was the one he had longed so hard for..


Was he crying? No, the boy he knew never cried... He got scared, but he never cried.

He had to be sure...

"You can't be him.." He murmured to the other, closing the door behind him and standing in the rain himself, staring up at the other.

"He made me a promise where he would be good.. That he would do his best, not simply vanish! You can't be Cody.. " It was just like when Cody grew when he was just a toddler.. He didn't believe it was him then, and he wasn't going to believe it was him now..

"Show it to me." He wouldn't ask for anything more than that. The gift he gave the other such a long time ago.. Almost so far back that he could not remember. "That gift I gave you... Please.. Just show me I was important enough that you would have fought for it.."

He had decided, even if the other did not have the item, he would let him in his house, he would bath him and feed him and hold him like none other.. After all... It was decided long ago that no one owned Edes except for Cody.. And.. Who was he to decide any differently?

By this point, Edes was beginning to get soaked as well, and uncomfortably shook before the peach boy.

But his look was unwavering, and his face a near complete shield of blankness.

"Show it to me."

He had them.. He had every last one.. He wasn't expecting him to have them,especially if he had said that he wasn't allowed to leave the facility.. He personally did not hate the place, but so many of the other spawn did... The way they described it, it was as if they could never have anything..

"Cody..." His words were soft, pleading, as if he was still uncertain the man before him.. With just a bit of hesitation, he reached up, pressing his small, but still warm palm against the other's cheek. Before he knew it, he had begun to cry, taking one of the other's hands into his own, holding it tightly against his chest.

"I've waited... I've waited so long.. I didn't know if you were alive or dead!! I... I almost gave up... But.. You came back.. You came back like you always do...."

"I never wanted to get rid of you, Cody.." He whispered again, his eyes buried against the larger boy's chest, and his rather large wings hanging rather miserably behind him, tightened so that they were out of the way, but drenched in a fashion that would take forever to dry.

He wanted to tell his love everything, about the troubles at home, about how he had to leave, about his new job, about his financial problems, about how much he had cried when he left.. But.. As the thunder rolled, and lighting crashed above them, he couldn't say another word.

No, he didn't WANT so say anything else.. His boy had returned.. Just as promised.. And for the first time, their lips met, a tender, loving, forgiving kiss, one that could never be forgotten. It would be his first, and an amazing one at that..

It was so powerful that small shivers were sent down his spine, and the entire world was blacked out except for himself, and the one that held him so gently, so tenderly, as if he had never left at all..

Edes hadn't even noticed that he had begun to cry. Rain mixed with the salt water the lead, no, flowed from his eyes, blurred his vision, and he could barely see the boy before him. He could only nod, as he opened the door that was behind him, and with an unsteady hand, he led the other inside.

"D-don't worry about the floor being wet.." He murmured, closing the door behind him and locking it. His gaze was turned down, almost scared to look the other in the eye again.. He went over to a closet, pulling out a robe.

"P-put this on, and I'll go run you a nice bath.. You must be almost frozen solid.." His words were barely above whispers, and as soon as the other took the robe, he vanished upstairs, running the water...

"Your bath is ready.." Edes called from the top of the stairs, near gliding down them to reach Cody. "I set out some clothes for you.. I think they should fit.." He murmured.. For just a moment, he rapped his arms around the boy, feeling how cold he was.. How utterly soaked he had been.. A good bath would do him good.

"Go ahead and soak for a while... Rest up.. I'll have something for you to eat done quickly, okay?" He wasn't quite sure what to say.. He didn't want to let the other go.. He finally had him back, his love, the one HE wanted to protect.. Pulling away, he stood up on tip toe to kiss the other on the forehead, before leaving the room, going to the kitchen to see if he could remember what Cody's favorite food was.