"Water&Wings(Chapter Three)" by Katherine Nicole ´dys´ VanHoorn

"Jagkie?"

He linked and looked at his best friend, his almost-brother. Jagkie stood, turned away from Sparrow but Sparrow still saw his face. His eyes were sad, and alone. Horrifically alone. He wore a version of SParrow's usual outfit. His collar, though, was brown and looked more like a necklace, a choker. His pants were the same black leather SParrow had always worn, but he wore shoes. His hair was cleaned, and prettied up, but his eyes were so sad, they made him seem years older. Tenku stood, squeezing SParrow's hand reassuringly. Then, he saw... saw the man Jagkie stood with.

The man was tall, enarly a head and a half taller than Jagkie. His skinwas veyr veyr pale, white even, and he wore a white longcoat and black pants. The only blakc thing about him. Even his hair was a whitish-silver color and his eyes were pink. He looked exactly like the man in Sparrow's dream. Well, not his hair color and everything, but his features, the way he was set up, was exact. A cold chill rna through him, from head to toe. This wasn't happening... this coudln't happen.

"Jagkie!" He called the name out desperately. Hear me, he prayed, hear me I'm alive and you do not need that man....

Jagkie turned, and his eyes widened when he saw Sparrow, the golden color softening to something closer to amber. Sparrow thought of the way the light shoen through the stained glass windows at a church he had once gone to, the yellow part of Christ's crown and it looked like Jagkie's eyes right now. Before the pale man could stop him he ran for SParrow, held him, hugged him, cried into his hair with relief. Sparrow held on jsut as tightly. He could feel the pale man's disapproval and feel Tenku nearby, watching them with a bright smile. he was happy. Jagkie was ALIVE. And that was what mattered in the end, right? That was all that really mattered. THey were here. Together.

"Sparrow, oh my god, you're alive... I thought you were dead, when the waves ripped us apart. I called for you, and asked people if they ahd seen you. They ahdn't. And then.." he turned to look at pale man, still watching disapprovingly. His pink eyes made SParrow shviered. No eyes were ever meant to be that color. This wasn't even the bright pink some girls had. This was an evil pink. It reminded him of the huge white rat he had seen when he was very little. It had been enarly the size of a small cat, and its fur had been matted, dingy, and more gray than white from its life. And it's eyes had been that color, a pink tinted with puremmalice. He hated the man then, absolutely hated him with evvery fiber of his soul. And he hadn't even spoken to him yet. Jagkie didn't seem to think too badly of him, but Sparrow reminded himself of his dream. About how lsot Jagkie had looked. Maybe he was the same right now. Just in a different way. He didn't KNOW he was lost right now.

He watched silently as Jagkie pulled away from him and brought the man closer. Tenku pressed himself against Sparrow's side, a silent reassurance that no matter what happened, he had protection. How much protection could a webbed little boy be? The man smiled with thin white lips and held out his hand. His fingers were long, so long they almost looked wrong. The nails were painted the color of new fresh blood when it leaves a cut and hits the air for the very first second. He stared at them for a long time without mvoing, finally his hand went out and he shook the pale man's hand. His hand was cold, like marble statues in December, like ice. The man kept smiling and Sparrow coudln't force a smile back. "Hello, Sparrow." His vocie was soft and melodic and like the voice in his dream. The voice that had made him sleepy. It didn't work now. He pulled his hand back when the man hung on just a moment too long for his liking. "My name," the man said, softly, lovingly. Looking at Jagkie with eyes that said, I own you. Sparrow swallowed. Jagkie wasn't looking back. His eyes were on the dirt like it was the most interesting thing he'd ever seen in his life. "My name is Asadd Mua'nii." He spoke the name with a slight Eastern accent. Sparrow swallowed again.

"He's from Arrabea." Jagkie spoke up again, shyly. In a way Jagkie had never spoken. Oh, no, no, Sparrow thought. Jagkie, you fall under spells this quickly? "I'm Sparrow," he said, quietly, watching Jagkie. Jagkie coudln't look at him. The pale man simply smiled and nodded, leaning over to whisper something in Jagkie's ear. His hand touched Jagkie's wrist, and Sparrow already saw the bruises. They were faint, barely there but he saw them. Blood roses. Jagkie. jagkie nodded and the man walked off and Jagkie looked up at Sparrow. His eyes were hard. They weren't Jagkie's eyes. "I need to tell you something, Sparrow.." Looking downa t Tenku, who stayed by Sparrow's side, eyes wide and watchful. "Alone."

"If you want to speak to me, you speak to Tenku, too. It... he's part of the deal." Tenku nodded, blinking its large eyes. Its wings curling tighter against its back. Jagkie sighed, softly, tiredly, and nodded, pulling Sparrow to a place where he, Jagkie and Tenku could talk in private. "I'm really happy you're alive, Sparrow," he began, "don't get me wrong. You're my best friend, and I thought I'd die too when I thought you were dead, but... Asadd is really good to me." He's sucking the life out of you, Sparrow thought. But didn't say. He let his hands wind around each other and hang on tight, let his wings shiver as the air grew cooler. They had been here all day, it was nearing nightfall. "He's... I think he's what I've been searching for my whole life, Sparrow. He lets me tell him everything, he shares my secrets with me and he doesn't mind them. He doesn't judge. I think.. I want to be with him."

When Sparrow didn't speak, Jagkie grew edgy. Finally Sparrow looked up, with dead eyes, and then shook his head. "You're under a spell, Jagkie," he said softly. "caught in a net. And if you don't get yourself out, soon, I... I just don't know." He turned around and left, Tenku behind him. Finding a dark alley he collapsed and began to cry again. They were silent tears, he didn't allow himself to make any sounds. Tenku wiped back his hair and kissed his tears away. The salty water probably tasted like the warmest sea to him. To Sparrow they were bitter tears. Jagkie.. he had just gotten him back. And now the man, that Asadd, had done something to him, to his mind. Changed it, turned him inside out and upside down. Tenku whispered to him, that they would find out what had happened to Jagkie, and they would help him. "His eyes," Sparrow whispered finally. "his eyes."

"What?" Tenku held, its child's body pressed against his. Sparrow sighed. He wasn't really a child, now, was he? He apparently was hundred of years old. And in love with him. SParrow sighed and shook his head. It was all too much, too much too soon. "What?" Tenku asked again.

"His eyes were bruised." He woudln't say anymore, no matter how much Tenku goaded him. Eventually it got him to get up, and took him to a local inn. Producing coins Sparrow had a sneaking suspicion he had stolen, he got them a room for a week. There were no rooms with two beds, but since they were posing as brothers they accepted one. Tenku went up and got bathwater for Sparrow and Sparrow bathed himself while Tenku lay on the bed and pretended not to watch. Sparrow sighed, staring down at the soapy water. Jagkie. His heart ached, hurt and ached like fire. He wished, with all his heart, that they had never boarded that ship. He coudln't remember now why they had even done it, what their reasoning had been. When he was done, Tenku took a turn and then they changed into the nightshirts they found in the dresser and clibmed into the one big bed. At first SParrow wouldn't let Tenku touch him. He had never let anyone touch him while he slept. Not even his mother when he was really young. VERY young. BUt Tenku was sad and crying in the way that things like Tenku did, with shaking hands and shaking scale-covered legs. Finally he rolled over, and Tenku slid his arms around. That night they slept more like lovers than they had before, wrapped in and around each other. Tenku did it because he had already fallen in love. Sparrow did it because he wanted something warm to make him feel better about Jagkie.

He was walking along a sandy beach, by himself, at night with stars everywhere. He heard the steps behind him and turned to see, confronted with a man with dark hair and red glowing eyes. The man looked at his eyes, straight into them, and he was lost. He coudln't think. All he could think about was the eyes. How they were beautiful and horrible at the same time. The man held out his hand and he took it, and they danced, on the beach. Music came from somewhere. They danced, and danced, and he was growing tired but the man woudln't let him stop. They danced, and danced, until his body burned with it and his throat was empty and he was lost forever inside redness, swirling about him sending him down, down, down, down into a deep hole of pure blackness that absorbed him and took his soul and ripped it into tiny peices, putting it back together the wrong way. Now he wanted. Didn't care about anyone else, he wanted the man in front of him, wanted to follow him, wanted his hands, his touch, his eyes.... he wanted to dance until he died, until the redness all burned out and he was left straining to sea in a pit of darkness that was neverending, knowing he would never again see the light.

he woke up in the darkness, under the sheets soaked with cold sweat, Tenku burrowed against him. He felt the warmth of the other's skin pressed into him and smiled a little. He had a protector for life, curled against him, sweet and innocent. He leaned down and brushed a kiss across the little one's forehead, knwoing he'd never know about it. Despite it all, he liked the boy. Liked who he was and how he was and why he was. Being born from a fish was an interesting thing. He hadn't considered that that could happen before. "I hope you love me, forever, little fihs," he murmered, burrowing closer, letting his hands touch the soft, water-silk hair. "I need someone who cares."

Time went by so slowly.. it seemed hours until dawn and he stayed there the entire time, holding onto the small little mermaid-boy in his arms. Thinking about Jagkie and the man who had taken Jagkie and what he could do to change it. He had seen the look on Jagkie's face, the helpless desire, the wanting. He had seen it, a look Jagkie never wore. It was something he coudln't help, he was too far gone to get himself out. SParrow frowned, then shook Tenku until it woke up. "Can you help me free Jagkie?" He whispered. Barely daring to hope.

"We can try." it sounded hopeful and it sat up, watching him. Sparrow wondered how it kept from touching him sometimes. it seemed filled with this NEED, this LONGING. Sort of like Jagkie but not quite. "We can get him away from the man, and see what's wrong with him, exactly. And try and see if we can't bring him back. Let's start tonight."

Sparrow sighed and nodded, laying on his back in the bed. The sunlight streamed through the cracks in the windowboard, making patterns on the floor beside them. The room was warm and seemed lit up with something far brighter and better than any candlelight. The walls, some of which had obscene things carved on them, even looked pretty in the morning's light. And he looked at Tenku, saw Tenku watching him. Even Tenku seemed warmer, more aglow. His whitish hair was more yellow from the light and he was beautiful, a beautiful-looking little boy. SParrow smiled and held out his hands. "I know you love me, Tenku. I know you do. I know you can't help it, but I don't know what to do about it."

Tenku shook his head, slowly, as if he were thinking long and hard about it. He slid into the arms that wer eoffered him and kissed Sparrow awkwardly, hesitantly as if afraid Sparrow would pull away. He didn't, so Tenku only burrowed closer. DIdn't try to kiss him again, knwoing that would be pushing his luck. "Let me love you, Sparrow," he murmered. He voice so low, and lovely. "And maybe one day you'll really love me back." Sparrow wanted to say he doubted it but that would be mean, would be a horrible thing to say. So instead he simply laid there with the Airfish burying his face against his neck like a child frightened of a storm and wondered how he had gotten into all this. One thought was over everything else, though. One thought stuck in his mind like a burr: Jagkie. He had to help Jagkie. And first off they had to get him away from that horrible pale man. Asadd. He hated the name, hated the person behind it, the icky pink rats' eyes. Jagkie, I will help you, he thought. I'll find you and make you see somehow. Somehow. "I wish I was a star," he said finally. Feeling Tenku look up at him more than seeing it.

"Why?" The voice was questioning, confused, even.

"So I wouldn't have to feel. I would just BE." Oh, well... letting out a deep breath he lay his head back against the pillow, rolling onto his back, Tenku laying across him like a puppy sometimes lays on you if you'll let it. "Everything will be all right, right Tenku? Airfish?"

"I can't promise that. But everything is for the best." Maybe so, Sparrow thought. But right now his heart felt wrong. Like it was covered in cracks. He got up slowly and went to go get dressed, leaving Tenku in the bed. He turned and looked at Tenku, sighing, as he pulled his pants on. "Do you believe in magic, Tenku?" It was a stupid question... but he felt like asking it.

"I believe in light. And light IS magic." With that Tenku left himself the two retreated into their own thoughts. It was going to be a VERY long day.

Sparrow wished he'd never come.


END OF CHAPTER THREE