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]

"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."

[whispersoflove]

"I've seen enough live renditions of you," Anael replied easily, the innuendo apparently passing him by. None of the ones he had met had felt any love, but maybe he had just been unlucky.

[goodfellow]

"But I'm definitely your favorite, right?" Robin asked with a grin.

[whispersoflove]

Anael huffed out a quiet laugh, but admitted, "So far." He was the only one he had felt love from, after all.

[goodfellow]

"That's because I am vastly superior to all of them," Robin said matter of factly. "So. Angels. I forget, are you lot always changing faces, or is this you?"

[whispersoflove]

"Some of us might," Anael replied after a beat. "I've never bothered, though." It didn't really matter, the way he saw it. This was just a physical manifestation of himself. Not the true him.

[goodfellow]

"I like it," said Robin. "You've got a gorgeous mouth."

[whispersoflove]

"Are you still trying to scandalise me?" Anael asked curiously, as they neared the exit of the museum.

[goodfellow]

"Nope," said Robin. "That was simply a statement of fact. If I wanted to scandalize you I'd tell you what I thought you should do with said gorgeous mouth. But that is an entirely different conversation."

[whispersoflove]

"Not one much more likely to succeed," Anael gave him fair warning, but he was smiling slightly.

[goodfellow]

"I assure you that my innuendos come from a place of genuine affection," Robin assured him. He couldn't quite bring himself to say 'love.'

[whispersoflove]

"Even less scandalising," Anael pointed out with a smile, eyes sparkling warmly. "The word won't burn you, you know."

[goodfellow]

"What word?" Robin asked breezily, and then smiled charmingly at Anael as he opened the door into the hotel for him.