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Audric hadn't expected Azerim's reaction. He'd expected a sleepy head to arise and look about, perhaps blink and ask him if he'd opened a window. Audric would laugh, and point out the horns and they'd have a good yuk over the whole affair.

But no.

NO.

Azerim sat bolt up and screamed, clutching his head and writhing about in agony. Never opening his eyes, the normally bright facial features were contorted from the hellish experience. His figure twisted as the muscles fought to remove the source of the pain, and he fell from Teak's shoulder, falling the entire six foot legnth to the floor, and

BLOWING IT UP.

Audric shrieked in suprise, and Teak leapt away from the undulating floor, wincing both from the yelling demons so close to his ears, and the fact he jumped so high he nearly smacked his head on the roof. The floor shifted and formed a barrior around Azerim. Audric's hold on the ice vanished and it evaporated into a fine mist, escaping just as he was hidden from view. Audric quivered from where he sat, visably fearful eyes watching the spot where Azerim fell.

"What the hell just happened?" Teak asked, more in bewilderment than anger. Curious eyes turned to Audric.

Damn it all, Audric KNEW he was a harbinger of death! HE KNEW it! Forget that death brought new life, death brought nothing but pain and anguish! He killed everything he touched, and he just proved it by killing Azerim! His friend, he'd finally made another friend, and then just went and killed him! He should just lock himself in the freezer and never emerge again. Maybe if he locked himself in a block of ice for a million years and apologized every single second, maybe Azerim could forgive him. He didn't mean any harm! That was good for something, right?

RIGHT?

Azyre was more concerned for Dark, who fell clear from his chair and lost a one on one battle with the floor. Sliding from the counter, the halfbreed dryad crouched beside Dark and lifted him, examining the wound he suffered. He hadn't fallen too hard, thankfully, but he'd need care. Azyre closed bright cerulean eyes and hovered his fingers above where Dark's head had impacted the floor, his energy flowing into the teenager, knitting the wounds together and healing them.

Audric flew from Teak's shoulder, fleeing from the scene of the crime. Running as fast as his little legs could carry him, he darted through the storerooms before coming to one in the back that was dark and secluded. Rolling, Audric slid under the heavy framework of the shelf, ignoring the collected dust back there and crouching down into the corner as much as he could. There hidden, he clenched his eyes and curled up, willing himself away.

Azyre watched the act of sculpting with facination. These oni all seemed to be quite gifted in their own particular way. Audric and Azerim had ice and stone, respectively, and each were powerful sculptors. Melek had the power to give and manipulate life. It was almost, almost like a stone hologram.

The tingling was a feeling experienced quite commonly, a residual effect of the extra energy lingering in Dark's body. Azyre wasn't concerned.

He was glad to see Azerim was okay, though the reason behind his sudden trauma was unknown. As far as Azyre could tell, nothing had happened that could have brought about the severe reaction. Teak was just as puzzled. It couldn't have been his shampoo, right?

"Don't worry about the flooring, I have extra planking in the back. How has Azerim been acting lately? How strange?" Azyre asked, curious to see the nature of the beast, and wondering if this might somehow occur in another oni, he might be prepared. There was something different and unique about the bond between Dark and Azerim. Not that the bonds between Dian and Audric, or Kitty and Melek, or Tento and Tasuda were distant, or less special, but Dark and Azerim seemed more tightly interconnected.

They truly needed one another.

It was kind of sad, in a way, because Azyre noticed the two of them, well, the potential for disaster haunted them. With Dark's intense attatchment to Azerim, if something happened to the demon, well...
Azyre would not want to be the ones to pick up the pieces.
It was fortunate, then, that because they were so linked, that it was unlikely that one would be too seriously hurt while the other was okay. Azerim in particular was a hardy fellow, forged from the very rock itself that survived untouched for millions of years, it would take a lot to sunder him.

Azyre took comfort in that single fact that whatever went their way would likely be buffeted away by the sheer power of their devotion and stregnth.

Dian and Audric...He couldn't be so sure. Both of them were emotionally unstable, though Audric picked it up from Dian. The slightly older man was a passionate being, who loved as fiercely as he lived. He grew intensely protective over those he loved, and shattered when they were lost. For all he seemed a formidible fellow, it all crumbled faster than a statue of sand.

Azyre had to protect him, not just physically, but emotionally. Dian buried himself in his work to avoid thinking about upsetting issues, but in doing so drained his life away as he created, inbuing his life in his work, that it might live on after he had withered away.
Raissen was a constant source of self inflicted torturous grif, and Azyre knew it.
The lad had already grown up a lot, and was ready to move out from under Dian's watchful eye, but he knew not of how intensely Dian loved his son. It tormented him, the conflicting feelings of love, from fatherly love to the kind that could get him arrested. Raissen had become his everything, whether or not he wanted to be. When he left, what would Dian have left?

The coon couldn't take solice in Audric, for as much as he did adore the small demon, he was a new addition to the house and did not posess the passion that Raissen had, and that Dian adored- no, Audric could provide no comfort to him. Not that the demon would even care to have such a heavy burden as that anyway.
A'Hallei? No, he was never around, and was uncaring and apathetic to any advances Dian made toward forging a familial relationship.

He asked again, what was left?

Azyre smiled a little ruefully at Dark and Azerim. As long as they had each other, everything would turn out okay.

Audric sat under the shelving hidden in complete shadow, the only indication he was even there the cool air that emerged from underneath, like when a window was cracked open barely. He curled up even tighter, crunched in the corner, trying to encase himself in the very ice he now loathed. Like armor, it slid up his legs, freezing him solid.

Azyre listened with silence, his face a perfect poker mask, still and enigmatic. The thoughts that churned behind those bright cerulean eyes were hidden for as long as he wanted them to be. Iruini....Iruini. The effect this being had on them was intense, and it seemed really that Dark was more afraid than Azerim, since Azerim was the one portraying the warrior and speaking of him on a regular basis. Was Iruini a guardian to the small rocky demon?

At long legnth, Azyre spoke. His words were calm and measured as he put voice to his thoughts.
"I do believe that you might be channeling. If Iruini ever visits you, it might be benificial to ask him questions." He offered, not much else help than that. The Dryad looked at a loss to offer better advice, he felt a little helpless when he should have been spouting comforting information. He cast shining blue eyes to the shelves around him. What did he know, anyway?

Azyre watched the demon grow more and more distressed as the awareness of the dissappearance of Audric grew. Where had that overly sensitive little oni ventured off to? If Dian were here, he'd be able to spot the demon quickly, as their minds were linked, but Azyre held no such bond with anyone.

Audric's emotive blue eyes were shut tight, blonde dusted head pressed into his knees, arms wrapped securely around his legs. The barrior of ice was slow coming and Audric realized he'd largely spent his power already. It would take very long to completely ensconce himself. And to make things worse, he was hallucinating.

He had to be.

A faint and upset voice wafted toward his hiding spot, and Audric clenched his teeth, shaking his head no.
"Where is Audric?!" The voice that was clearly Azerim's demanded. Great, his ghost was already seeking retribution for his horrible horrible sin. The sting of tears welled in Audric's eyes as he imagined the oni he'd already become so attached to rolling in smoke in flames coming for him.
He heard the voice again closer than before, and would have been shaking had he not been half buried in solid ice. Audric gasped weakly in distress.

"Audric?! Where are you?!" The voice called again, very close, very intense. It was all the ice demon could to to keep from yelling out in fear.
The condensation that could really be described as fog flowed freely from him, rolling in great plumes. His eyes were still shut tight, and he did not see Azerim approaching. He didn't want to see the look of his friend, couldn't face it. Audric pulled himself tighter.

"I'm sorry." He whispered, voice faint like the soft whosh of wind, carried by on the air.
"I didn't want...to hurt you."

Audric's large ears twitched slightly, he was truly repetant. For all he was devious, the oni hadn't a truly malicius speck in his body, not one even the size of one of the smallest of Azerim's many freckles.

At first there had been no reply to his shy apology, and he'd thought he was alone again, though he was yet too tired to resume his act of attempting to bury himself within a cube of the deadly structure. If he thought about it, Audric didn't need air, or food. All he needed was water, water or cold. He could preserve himself for eons if it so pleased him, turning so frozen even his mind would cease, thoughts churning like a rusty mechanism to an end. It would be like death, that stage, except that unlike stasis, death was not reversible, at least, that wasn't what Audric thought.

Apparently he was wrong.

The sudden impact of a warm and decidedly alive body against him caused the oni to squeak in suprise, wondering at first who could have crouched under the shelf, and secondly who in the hell would want to touch him?

Those big blue eyes snapped open, and he saw Azerim, not dead, not an angry ghost in rolling flames! It undid him. Staring at the brown oni, large tears welled up and spilled down his face, the salt keeping the very tear itself from freezing. This was the first time he'd openly wept, and from such an elusive feeling as relief!

Azerim's voice dawned on him, he was apologizing! Audric's arms flew around Azerim, his own apologies running out between hiccups. Azerim's body was warm, reminding him vaugly of a sun drenched pallazio floor in italy, all soothing marble and smooth stability. The ice around him began to melt away, turning into a cold pool.

Audric pressed a finger to Azerim's lips, an awkward task considering the positions they were in. The ice demon's piercing blue eyes regarded Azerim's slate colored orbs, blonde brows furrowed in confusion.
"What do you mean?" He paused, why was Azerim asking why he was alright, if he had hurt him? The copious tears slowed somewhat, still leaving thin streaks on his soft pale skin.

"I thought you were dead. I thought I killed you." He said quietly, letting his slim blue finger fall from Azerim's lips, lightly brushing his chin as it came to rest on a toned brown leg. Audric resisted the temptation to skim his fingers along the stone demon's thigh, as the belt and suspenders left little to the imagination. Audric's sense of touch through the ice on his hands was bizarre, and he generally found the urge to touch everything, in a better attempt to understand it.
"What happened?"

As they spoke, the ice around him continued to melt away, revealing Audric's black clad legs still very much intact, if not frigidly cold. His blue feet peeked from under the hem of his pants, still covered in frost.

Audric just wanted this day to end. It was filled with fear and confusion and pain, and NOTHING good had come from it at all! A near death experience, the jealousy, the anguish...

He'd thought it was going to look up when Azerim came looking for him, and revealed it was all right.

But it wasn't, was it?

No, as soon as he'd stopped hugging him, Azerim looked like he was terribly sick. Not sickly as in illness, but a you-make-me-want-to-vomit sick. Blue eyes followed Azerim's retreating form, but he was still cemented to the floor by his accursed element. Azerim jumped, smacked his head, muttered some excuse and fled. At least he didn't scream in pain, Audric thought miserably, tears coming anew and dropping into his lap. His hand hung limply at his side, blasted thing.

With a strangled cry, Audric pulled his legs free of the ice, wincing as it broke around him with a thick crack. Standing, the Oni emerged from under the shelf, tracing Azerim's warm footprints out to the storefront. He looked up to see Azyre and Teak watching the door.
"Where is Azerim?"

Azyre jumped to hear the coldness in Audric's voice. A wave of sadness came over him at the tearstreaks lining the oni's face. Somehow, he didn't blame Audric for all of this. The oni did enough of that allready.
"They left."

Blue eyes narrowed at the doorway, but he was more resentful of himself than the threshhold. Resentful of his ability to ruin everything precious. A flower, tremulous and tender, peeking up at the sun became a withered and sodden and limp thing under his touch, and Azerim became withdrawn, injured, enigmatic. Where had his energitic and casually optimistic friend gone? Like Azerim would want to come back and visit him again.

His lip quivered, but Audric resolved to stop the waterworks. In frustration, Audric knelt and brought his hand down forcibly to the floor, igniting an explosion of frost around it, splitting the floorboards in a snowflake pattern. The oni turned and retreated again to the kitchen, ascending into the dollhouse in the freezer he lived in.

(Should we acellerate the rp in time?)