Anael

[goodfellow]

Robin loved museums. All the history, all the memories. Paintings especially. All the painters he'd known over the years, all the subjects, all the models. Sometimes it was a strange sense of melancholy, sitting in a room full of images from the past, from his past, ad feeling consumed by it for just a few moments.

A little masochistic even, sometimes.

He sat on a bench in the National Gallery, looking at a painting of Achilles and Patroclus. It had been so long since he'd seen them. Those souls, the pair of them, sometimes brothers sometimes not, who had appeared over and over again throughout the ages. Achilles and Patroclus were just one of the incarnations. And it had been decades since Robin had watched a version of them die again.

Still, these were some of his favorites. Even if the Trojan War had been a hell of a time.

His gaze lingered on Achilles. The beautiful body, the blonde hair. Something tugged inside him.

Comments

[goodfellow]

"Yes well, I feel as if the very fabric of the universe might be offended by such a statement," said Robin.

[whispersoflove]

Anael was silent for a second, mock-contemplative. "It seems as if it might get over it." He shrugged again, slightly. "If you cared that much about not offending it, I might recommend not feeling such love in the first place. But I couldn't ever bring myself to do that."

[goodfellow]

"I think your spidey sense might be off," lied Robin dryly. "That wasn't love, it was indigestion." He did, however, turn towards the angel and have a better look at him. "Which one are you?"

[whispersoflove]

"Anael," he answered, very honestly. It might not be the name he was most known by, the name most associated with being an archangel, but it was still true. "And I'm never wrong about love."

[goodfellow]

The name was familiar, though honestly Robin tried not to pay much attention to their kind. "I once had one of you guys stalking me for years," he said. "Peri now though. Think he owns a bar somewhere. So you're all about love, are you? Do you feel it, too?"

[whispersoflove]

"I feel yours, when it comes to them," Anael replied, with a tilt of his head towards the portrait beside them. Few of his brethren had chosen an earthly life, but he still frowned in curiosity at the knowledge. "Stalking you. Why?"

[goodfellow]

"Oh who knows," said Robin. "He was a pain in the ass. Probably had a crush on me. Can you blame him, really?"

[whispersoflove]

"I could never blame anyone for loving another," Anael replied, amused by what he assumed was an attempt to provoke him. "Even less so a puck capable of actual love."

But a family of mortals were walking closer, clearly intent on seeing the portrait of the Greek heroes.

[goodfellow]

"I didn't say he loved me," Robin said, sounding slightly scandalized. He didn't bother to correct him on the second bit, but he really hoped he didn't decide to spread that around.

"I was thinking more along the lines of how terribly easy it is to lust after my magnificent ass."

[whispersoflove]

Anael took the time to look at it, then smiled up at the puck (he was shorter than him, in this body). "It is lovely." The word was very much chosen on purpose.

[goodfellow]

Clear surprise registered on Robin's face at that, and then he laughed. "Really." He'd thought he would scandalize the angel, not draw his admiration.

[whispersoflove]

"'Magnificent' is a tall order," Anael confirmed, still smiling slightly, and clearly playful. "But I can tell lovely, at least."

This would hardly scandalise.

"But let us move along," he suggested as the humans drew closer still.

[goodfellow]

"Oh, don't even pretend my ass isn't utter perfection," Robin said cheerfully. "Where are we moving to? Lead the way."

[whispersoflove]

"Away from the humans we might yet scandalise with our conversation, Master Puck," Anael replied with a smile, resorting to the form of address of centuries past as he took the puck's arm to move on to a painting a few frames down. It was one of Heracles, a hero for which Anael had never found much kinship.

[goodfellow]

"You're unusual," Robin commented once they stopped in front of the painting. "You aren't scandalized by my puckish, whoring ways?"

[whispersoflove]

"I might disapprove of the puckish," Anael replied, and once again, clearly focused his attention on the puck, rather on the painting, "but anything that is born from love, I have no issue with. What name do you go by?"

[goodfellow]

Robin's eyes widened a touch, and suddenly, he looked absolutely delighted. "You tramp. And I mean that in the best possible way. Robin Goodfellow, as your service."

[whispersoflove]

Anael smiled, then chuckled, absolutely unwilling to hold that in, given the puck's reaction. "Let me doubt that, Robin." Pucks would hardly ever be at the service of his Lord, even if they were capable of love. Even Anael knew better than to think the one equated the other, and being at the service of an angel would certainly mean being at the service of God.

[goodfellow]

Robin laughed, shaking his head. "It's just really funny, come on, you have to admit. Here you are, stumbling on what you think is the only puck capable of love - " He didn't specify whether the you think was for the "only" part or the "capable" part. "And I find an angel who likes sex. It's funny."

[whispersoflove]

Anael paused, thoughtful for a second. "A lot of my brethren do think that sex is funny." Whether he was playing or not was entirely left to the puck's imagination.

Anael, for his part, was certain of what he had felt off of Robin. He was hoping that the 'you think' had to do with the 'only'. He did not exactly think so, but he would be glad to be officially wrong, all the same.

[goodfellow]

"Come have a drink with me," said Robin. "Can angels get drunk?"

[whispersoflove]

"I don't think so," Anael replied with a quick smile. "I've certainly never managed. Perhaps that is reason enough to feel safe having a drink with you."

Now he was definitely playing.

[goodfellow]

Robin threw up his hands. "No, I refuse to believe that there is a creature who can drink me under the table. Come along, we're going to the hotel bar across the street."

[whispersoflove]

Anael chuckled at that, absolutely unrestrained. "I wager there are several." But he did lead the way towards the way out. "But don't let me stop you. Let's go and find out."

[goodfellow]

Robin seemed positively cheerful as they made their way out of the museum. "You'll find paintings of me scattered across the world, you know," he said. "I was quite the model, back in the day. Though they're usually not to scale."