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Kiami grinned and watched them, “They’d make a cute couple.” She dropped her eyes back down to the others. “Alright enough playing around,” she said as she pushed herself up from her seat. “We have work to do.” She stood tall, putting her heals together and her hands behind her back. “Everyone is ready right?” She looked at Draqx and Lucid. “We can go into details on the trip there. If we brief here we’ll never get anything done.”

((someone mind sending me a handy pm with a little story update, I caught a cold, thankfully I've had my character "brooding" in back story, I am now ready to act, just got to know whats happened over the last few days ninja ))

Meredith waited for Leonardo to finish his sentence, but he never did. Instead, he leaped into a tree without warning, and this time Meredith did let out a yelp of surprise. He soon felt a branch beneath one foot, but before he had even a moment to feel relief, that foot slipped. Certain he was going to hurtle to the ground below and equally certain he did not want to see it coming, Meredith immediately squeezed his eyes shut. Leonardo was quick to action, wrapping an arm around Meredith before turning to pin him to the tree.

It took Meredith a long moment to accept that death was no longer imminent. He cracked open one eye to see that Leonardo held him, quite close in fact, and he was not falling after all. He opened the other eye and listened to his heart pump so fast and hard from adrenaline that he almost could not understand a word Leonardo was saying to him. When the words finally sunk in, Meredith mumbled an unconvincing "I'm not scared."

"I don't want to go down yet." That was true, at least. Now that he was up here and perfectly fine outside of a bit of shock, he wanted a chance to enjoy the experience. He wasn't likely to have another chance after showing Leonardo how much of a baby he could be about it.

Meredith didn't move a muscle; he'd already slipped once and didn't trust his footing on this tree. That of course left him still pressed close to Leonardo and that sudden realization made his heart beat faster for an entirely different reason. Startled by his own line of thought, Meredith lowered his eyes. Which did not help much, since he was still looking at Leonardo's chest. "What is it like up higher?" He asks suddenly.

Leo smirked at Meredith's unconvincing words, but he didn't want to go down. That sounded convincing. So, Leo didn't move. He looked up to the sky and squinted, trying to keep the sun out of his eyes. "Well, it's...amazing. I mean, they say the clouds are all wet and stuff, but thats all on the inside. And when you're nearly weightless, you can just lay on them and cuddle them like giant pillows. And being on top of a thunder cloud is the best! I mean, it is just awesome! To see the wrath of such a powerfull thing and not be affected at all is just superb. I love it up there..." Leo looked back down at Meredith. The grin he had on his face faded and he hugged nervously. "But, it's not all that great." He said, trying to sound tough and macho. He blushed a bit from the sudden change in tone and the sweat that was accumilating in at his hands. 'Thank God I wore my gloves,' He thought to himself. Leo giggled nervously and looked down at the people below the two. He turned his attention back on Meredith. "They don't seem to be moving. We can stay here, or go higher, or we can go back down." Leo then blurted awkwardly, "If you want, of course. I don't want to make you do anything you wouldn't want to, you know. I mean..." Leo sighed and smiled. He was very nervous. Maybe it was the fact that Meredith wasn't so nervous anymore. Or the fact that they were close. Or maybe because he wanted to stay or maybe even go higher which ment that he would end up loving it and want to spend more time wiht Leo flying. Leo put his free hand to his head and pushed his fingers through his cyan locks.

The body of Amarantha smiled wickedly at Zenn, trying hard to not revel in his misery. How easy it would have been to fix him, but she wanted to see his blood, just for a bit longer. Consensio would not let him die, she needed him far too much for that inconvience. Fallen angels, angels in general, there was something mystically beautiful abou their demises, if only she could harvest their deaths more appropriately, such as, ripping off their wings, torturing their minds, her most favorite things. But Zenn had been loyal to a fault. Even now, bleeding at the threshold of her footsteps, he pledged his loyalty to her. The least she could do was fix him, that much, was worth in return.

Consensio wrapped her hands around the neck of her body and applied pressure until she could feel her handle on the body slipping away. Right before death, Consensio would withdraw without the worry of Amarantha getting away because she would be so far gone in the back of her mind and asleep, it would not matter if she left the body for just a few moments. Consensio's soul poured out from Amarantha's nose, mouth and eyes, and gathered at Zenn's feet.

"This wont hurt.." Her many strange voices emminating deep from the bowels of that strange pale fog. "Stand still..." Whispering, she decided to enter through the pores, with this she was just infecting his blood stream rather than invading his mind. This was one of the perks to her... lack of a body. Tracing through his veins, Consensio gathered near the spots that had been open on his body, and forced the blood to clot, and finally close. Amarantha was waking at this point, and Consensio hurried back to her body and took control once more. Atleast for the time being, he would stop bleeding, however, if those wounds were punctured, they would begin to bleed once more. She was a demon, not a miracle worker.

"That will do until you can heal on your own. If they will come to us, best thy be ready... I have some work to be doing..."

Meredith found it more than a little strange to climb onto his friend's back, but he had asked to go higher. And so onto Leonardo's back he went, clinging to him a bit nervously. Leonardo had to move his hand, reminding Meredith of the required skin contact. Just a little slip like that and he could fall... needless to say, he removed the second glove as the older boy requested. Leonardo began to run and Meredith could only gasp as they went up along the tree's trunk. He closed his eyes for just a moment as Leonardo launched himself from the tree with Meredith in tow, but quickly opened them again not wanting to miss anything. His heart was beating too fast again and he could not say for certain whether it was fear or excitement.

They shot right through the cloud, Meredith releasing a squeal of childlike glee. He relaxed his grip some, though he was careful not to move his hands around too much. As some weight returned to them and both boys drifted down to land on the cloud, Meredith looked beneath them in total awe. They were standing on a cloud! Well, to be entirely accurate, Leonardo was standing on a cloud with Meredith clinging to his back.

"Why don't you just stay where you are. That way, we dont' disconnect and you don't go crashing to the earth. I couldn't bare loosing you."

That startled him, making him look up just as Leonardo looked back at him. Meredith reminded himself that Leonardo was just being a concerned friend... just as Leonardo began saying the same. Was he disappointed? What would he have expected Leonardo to say?

"I mean, I'm not into you like that. I mean, I am, but you know what I mean! We're just friends and thats what we should be and..."

Meredith nodded numbly and could not meet Leonardo's eyes. This entire conversation was not only confusing, but completely unexpected! Though Meredith could not help but think Leonardo seemed to be trying to convince himself, more than anyone.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Judging by my complete inability to grasp what 'it' is, I am going to go with no. It really isn't very obvious at all. So let me try instead." Meredith rested his chin on Leonardo's shoulder and almost seemed to be hiding his face against the boy's neck. Which was just as well since he was embarrassed to even think about saying what came out of his mouth next. "Being friends and being... more than friends are not mutually exclusive properties." That really did not clarify things at all, did it?

Spoken word seemed entirely over rated at the moment. Meredith could not for the life of him come up with anything less awkward to say than Leonardo's confusing little speech. Frustrated with this impasse and pulse beating loud in his ears, Meredith chose action instead and kissed Leonardo. He did not think it would get more clear than that. Now, hopefully Leonardo wouldn't forget he couldn't fly and push him off. That would be... distressing.