.blue is the same old misery

[Xaver]

Xaver mopped his hands over his face, careful to avoid skimming over the open fresh, and still oddly unhealed gash that ran deep into his left cheek and up into his hairline, closing his eyes for a moment as he walked, soundlessly, down the dark and dreary cobblestone street toward the Hogs Head. Xaver had been having a fair few more scuffles than ever, recently - and he was no immortal. Xaver was just as suceptible to pain, to injuries, as the next.. Even if he wasn't human.

He dropped onto a barstool, unable to hide the sheer, uneasy exhaustion that stung every nerve, and ordered a drink, at about the same time another figure sat down, beside him.

When the tall, thankfully clean, glass of water was set before him, awkwardly, Xaver picked up the glass and drank, giving no inclination to if he'd even seen the other.
It wasn't until the man beside him spoke, that Xaver set the glass down with a dull clunk on the wood.

"They are going to kill you, Milord."

Xaver looked over at him. Calmly
Expressionless.

"They will try, I know."

The figure beside him pulled down the hood of the black cloak that had concealed all of him, his features young -younger than Xaver- and urgent. Stressed.
Concerned, and, badly-masked, scared.
"They are SERIOUS, my l-"

"Xaver," he cut in, tones low, but sharp.
The younger man swallowed, and shrinked away a little.
"It's Xaver. Not 'my lord', not 'my king'.. Just Xaver. Do me that little respect, please, whilst you sit in my presence upon the request that took me from my home.."

That wasn't exactly true - Xaver had been out for a little while before he heard the boy's summons, trying to clear his head.

The boy looked pained.
"That's exactly what they are on about! They feel threatened, and you are never around!.. These aren't like the others!"
His voice rose when Xaver stood up, and started away.
The boy jumped from his stool, after him, ignoring the stares.

"They know.. GOLD! That's it! They know about your-"
He faltered, upon Xaver's cold, unnerving stare, and then suddenly dropped to one knee.
"Please, Milord, take heed to me! You saved my baby sister her life and I would give my wings before see you lose yours - you've been a friend to me, despite everything! Listen to me!"

Xaver sighed, very quietly, looking at the boy for a moment, before he went to him, gripped his cloak, and drug him to his feet.
"I am listening to you," he said, quietly.

"OK," the boy nearly panted. "Now, what I brought you here to tell you, most importantly. Xences-"

He stopped, and his eyes widened, and Xaver could smell the blood before he saw it. Glancing down, he saw the tail end of a blade portruding through the boy's middle. Xaver wrapped his arms around the boy and brought him carefully to the floor, removing the blade and throwing it to the side, leaning over him, as the rest of the pub rushed around, and fled.
The boy was pale, though his skin was naturally a very soft browninsh hue, deep chocolate eyes, now wide with still silent terror, stared out from thick strands of his mop of chestnut hair. Xaver messed the boy's hair, distractingly, looking over the wound, and looking around at the same time.

WHERE had that..?

A foot connected squarely with Xaver's back, and he toppled foreword, over the boy, hearing the brown-haired boy's squeak of protest when he faded from view. Xaver rolled to his feet, and turned in the same movement, ducking beneath a fist and kicking out into the middle of the attacker.

It was all so odd..
Nothing felt right.
What was wrong..?

All of it.

Xaver screamed when the blade ripped through his lower back and up his shoulder, his knees buckling when a hand gripped his neck and pulled him back, driving the blade completely through until Xaver could feintly feel the hilt brush his shoulderblade.

Gold.
Of course it was gold.

Fate had never been kind to him, and he didn't expect her to have an epiphany any time soon.

The hand around his throat slid up the side of his face, and gripped his hair, jerking his head to the side. Xaver closed his eyes, his chest heaving, snarling against the pain that boiled from his shoulder, as he was tugged, the blade still an ominous presence within him. He looked around, almost frantically, when he heard the boy's screams. Silent even when he'd been stabbed, it was blood-curdling now to hear his cries. Xaver thrashed, despite being literally fishhooked by a blade he was fatally allergic to, kicking, and crying out - but by the time he'd ripped himself away from his captor (who lay in a series of pieces, behind him, amongst the gold sword) it was too late.
The rest of the group disappeared in their places, content, even as Xaver threw himself.. more like fell.. to the floor beside the boy, gathering his will and forcing it into him, though in vain.
The boy was dead.

His wings had been torn off, their soft white-brown entities lying still, beside his body.

Xaver gaped at him, panting, kneeling over the boy's ravaged body until it seemed just as much of his own blood stained the dirty floor. He fought it, and tried to stand..
But it was only a matter of moments before he, himself, slumped over, and fell still.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny hadn't seen Xaver since earlier that afternoon, but that hadn't bothered her at all. Not even as it got late enough for her to start dinner for her and Cody. And dinner came, and still no Xaver.

But Ginny wasn't worried, until she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her heart, and the breath left her. She dropped the plates she was holding and they smashed into the floor. Cody jumped at the noise, looking at Ginny with worry.
"Momma?"

Ginny looked up, knowing something was wrong with Xaver. She grabbed Cody's arm, biting her lip for a moment, wondering if she should take him or not. He was safer with her at the moment than anyone else, but she didn't want to take him inot danger. She kissed his forhead, "You are going to Grandmum's for a bit." She told him, and he was gone, whisked away by her magic.

Then Ginny was beside Xaver, turning him on his back and touching his wrist. She scowled at his wound, not sure how to heal that big of one.

[Xaver]

He felt hands on him, softer than he expected - and it took a moment for him to realize it was Ginny. He moaned, softly, when she rolled him over, his body screaming in protest, but he lacked suddenly the strength or wit to do anything about it. He felt her small, warm fingers against his wrist and was thankful he wasn't so much a beast that he had a heart that would beat, and tell her he was still there, still fighting.. even if he couldn't wrap his mind around what the heavy, suffocating feeling in his chest was.

It burned, like liquid fire.

Xaver could feel it, the gold excess, his poison, slowly moving through him, and it was all he could do, for the moment, to keep a cool head.
Slowly, though, his will waned, and a focused mind succombed to grit teeth, a clenched jaw to gasps of breath, panting, to low moans - and soon he was crying out in pain. Oblivious to his surroundings. Oblivious to anything but the searing intensity that scorched and burned him within, rubbing his sanity raw..

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny shuddered as he began to moan, and when he began to cry aloud, she bit her lip to keep from crying with him. She leaned down, holding him still as much as possible, whispering to him softly, "Hush, baby, hush."

She didn't know what had happened, but wasn't blind. She could see the dead pieces of what had once been a live being, and amongst them a golden sword. That chilled her. Xaver had gotten extreamlly sick once when he had been pricked by a golden fork. This was going to be a lot worse than that. The last time, he had gotten delusional, sick to his stomach, bled alot, and gotten feint.

What to do?

Ginny was unsure, knowing very little about extracting metal elements from a body. Too much could go wrong. She could pull all the iron from his blood instead of gold. She kept her hands on arms, looking down at him, biting her lip. If she didn't do something, he'd die.

She knew that.
But she was scared.

[Xaver]

Xaver could hear her, feel her, blindly through the the thick haze of pain and disillusionment that threatened to push him over. He moaned, and thrashed against her hold. And screamed. Silvery liquid swam and leaked from the dark blue oceans of his eyes, wide, open, and wild, and there was nothing he could do to summon the strength to brush the streaks of pain-ravaged tears away.
He felt her touch him, but his certainty became less and less sure - it was as if he was alone in this.. abyss. Alone, and drowning, despite his attempts at clawing at the surface. He was being swallowed.'
Xaver screamed again, though this time, his low, ragged tones were cut off abruptly, and he gagged, blood in his mouth, and half coughed, half moaned.


There was a sharp crack in the doorway, though Xaver was completely oblivious to it, a tall, broad male figure standing where a moment ago, there had been nothing. His face was cool, and impassive, strongly boned, thick of eyelashes and eyebrows, his hair the color of luminescent gold, and his eyes a light, spring blue. A black cloak concealed the rest of him, shuffling slightly, when he started toward them...

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny pulled Xaver's body into a sitting position when he began to gag on his blood, forcing his face downwards to keep the blood from collecting in his mouth. She didn't notice the man walking towards them.

[Xaver]

Xaver's breath hitched, when she pulled him up, the agony of moving blinding. Blood ran over his lips, and chin, in a stream down his neck and pooled at the collar of his navy blue shirt, seeping into the cloth, and his ashen, ghostly pale skin. His face pulled into a tight expression, he was soon coughing up as much blood, it seemed, as was pouring from his shoulder, from both front and back. Dark, and warm, it was all over him; everywhere, but where it was supposed to be.

The blond was suddenly kneeling beside Ginny, his light blue eyes intense, but still empty, white, blue-tinted wings folding neatly behind him as they appeared. He did not try to conceal the wonder, shock, almost, as he watched her hold him. Watching Xaver almost as if curious to where his reaction was. Glancing at Ginny, as if amazed she could hold him, and not be ripped to shreds..

"I know not what ..did go on," he said slowly, his voice heavily accented with Xaver's language. "But, if the blade, there, is the ..source.. then Milady, he needs help. Now."

[Ginny Weasly]

"I know..." Ginny said, not looking at him, and her voice caught in her throat, "I know...I don't want him to die...he just came back to me...how do I help him?" She looked towards the man, tears in her eyes.

"You have to know! Tell me what to do!" She practically begged him. This was so unlike Ginny, she never begged for anything. But she begged now, she would, for Xaver, she'd do anything.

"Please...help him...help me help him..." She pulled Xaver's body closer to her's, ignorant of the blood and put her face against the top of his head, hiding her tears-now coursing down her cheeks-in his black hair.

[Xaver]

"GI-" 
He hiccupped, amid a loud, ragged moan. 
"-NNY!"

Xaver clamped his teeth together, his eyes squeezed shut, both hands spread completely out, his entire form shaking with the shudders that raked through him, as he tried to control the pain.
Tried to control himself.


The blonde stared at them, his light blue eyes wide when she pulled Xaver close.
"He does not fight you..?"

He looked unnerved, almost frightened, by her tears - though he did nothing to contradict them. Or assure them.
They were well placed, her worries, and he knew it. If she was, who he thought she was...
The blonde, Zeil, sighed, very softly.

"I.. will try."

He placed a hand upon Xaver's chest, and Ginny's shoulder - and suddenly, they were in a rectangular, stone room, windows aligning one of the longer walls, and a handful of beds lining both, draped with clean, crisp, white bedsheets, and pillows. A small hospital wing. Outside the tall, thick-paned windows, were sloping, rolling hills. Meadows - covered in a blanket of crystalline, seemingly untouched snow.
Zeil released Ginny, and stood, then, despite Xaver's groans, and painful howls of protest, he levitated the dark haired lord, gently placing him on one of the beds, though even the slightest movement felt like it was tearing him to pieces. Xaver lay on his back, writhing, his movements jerky and stiff, his head pressed back into the pillow, blood slowly staining, and creating a dark pool in the white linen beneath him.

Zeil looked at Ginny, his lips pressed together uneasily.

"I don't know.. if you know the true extent of how ..unique.. Lord Xian is... But this kind of injury - I..."

Xaver gave a loud, ragged moan, and Zeil turned, walking to his side again. He hesitated for a moment, before waving his hand over Xaver's torso - the shirt disappearing revealing the ragged, seeping wound. Dark black, purplish vines of color ran from the injury like venom, discoloring his skin as it slowly spread.

"Bastards.." he muttered softly.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny was beside him, her hand gently pushing Xaver's hair from his forhead while she watching the blond vanish Xaver's shirt. She made a small noise at the sight of the wound. It frightened her. She wasn't squeamish, she had seen people's insides often. But the sight of this on Xaver...

...her Xaver...

It was more than she bargained for, and she felt more tears fall down.

"Help him..." She half whispered.

[Xaver]

Zeil clenched his teeth, grabbing a small, oval-shaped bottle out of the air as it hovered over to him, from a shelf on the far wall. He removed the cork, and dipped two fingers into it, coming out smeared in a purple paste. He set the bottle onto the table, and with his other hand, he gripped Xaver's shirt, leaning over him, and putting all his weight onto his chest, pinning him - with his other hand, he swept the paste over, and slightly into the wound. Xaver cried out, and thrashed, and Zeil forcefully tried to hold him down, though it was difficult. From where he pinned Xaver, the blond's arm slowly began to be covered in an ever-thickening sheet of ice, slithering up toward his body..

"XAVER, ENOUGH.."

The ice stopped, but did not lessen, until Zeil extended his arm slightly, breaking the ice. He pressed his hand over the top of the wound, and Xaver groaned, through clenched teeth his low tones scratchy. A soft, blue haze began, between the blond's hand, and Xaver's shoulder, the hues darkening, slowly, as Xaver's fighting became more profound.

Had Xaver been in a right state of mind, and truly angry, Zeil would have been very dead..
Even so, he swung a metaphysical blow, that had the blond reeling, shaky on his feet, and fighting to re-gather his will to keep Xaver suppressed while he tried to heal him.

"I have to keep him down," he said to Ginny, between pants, "physically.. and mentally. It's the only way I can force this stuff into him... It's killing him... And instinct is setting in. ..He's dangerous if it gets too far."

An understatement, obviously.

Xaver was far more than merely dangerous, even composed...

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny held Xaver's head, her hands stroking his hair now and she put her face next to his, kissing his cheeks, "Baby, calm, please..."She said softly, but her voice found it way to his ears and into his mind, "Darling, stay still, please..."

She glanced sideways at the blond, unable to conceal her own shaking.

[Xaver]

Upon hearing Ginny's voice in his thoughts, his eyes shot open, the dark blue orbs blurred with tears of agony, and confusion - everything was spinning to him.. But he heard her. And he tried. With everything he could muster, and focus, he tried to fight his own writhing, and spasming in pain.. But it was like a balloon... More, and more pressure - he felt as if he was being ripped apart, in every piece and make-up of his creature.
Xaver groaned - and Zeil took advantage of the lessening tension, releasing his hold on Xaver's chest for a moment and gathering an orb, almost, of his will. Then, suddenly, he slammed it down into Xaver's middle, as the bluish haze beneath his other hand intensified into synchronized light.

In the after-effects, the blond released him, wavering unsteadily and leaning heavily upon the side of the bed. Xaver had made no exclamation - instead, he'd fallen oddly quiet, stiff for a moment, before the tension in his form was released, and, his eyes closed, he became still. His shoulder was still very injured, the wound still very open, and bleeding - though the unhealthy hues, and deathly tints to his skin, were gone.

"He taught me so much... But I hope I NEVER piss him off..."

Ashen, the blonde pressed his fingers to Xaver's throat, catching the pulse beneath the pads of his slightly quivering fingertips.

[Ginny Weasly]

Ginny let go of Xaver long enough to throw her arms around Zeil, this stranger, hugging him and kissing his cheek, leaving her tears behind as she bent back over Xaver, kissing his forhead and softly, gently touching his face.

She ran her fingers through his hair, kissing his lips softly now and placing her forehead against his and closing her eyes.

"I truely thank you...you just saved my life..."She murmmered to Zeil.

[Xaver]

Zeil gaped at her when she hugged him, remaining still, even after she'd let him go and had returned to Xaver, pressing kisses over his face.
He looked from her, to the unconscious Fallen lord, and blinked.

"Well.." Zeil said softly, "let us keep both of you alive, Milady.."

He smeared more of that paste over the top of the wound, on both his front, and back, and willed enough of his power into Xaver that the bleeding stopped, and the wound was slightly healed, before he dropped onto the bed beside them, completely spent.
He'd barely made any headway on the true wound, but he wasn't powerful enough to keep going. It was going to take a while to restore his energy, as it was.

"He'll have to heal himself... It'll take a lot longer than usual, with all the lifesource he has lost..."

Zeil rubbed his temples, exhausted.

"Now ...it's all up to his strength, my lady.."