A child's cry

[Xaver]

Xaver had known it was coming.
He would have been playing ignorance, if he would have suspected otherwise.

"No.. Let him talk," he murumured to Ginny, his eyes fixed upon Cody, and not once wavering.
"If you wish to know these things, my son, why, then, have you never asked?"

[Ginny Weasly]

"Because," Cody stressed, "I knew you wouldn't tell me." He paused, looking slightly ashamed of himself, "And I was scared of you. And I though you might leave if I asked you. I didn't want to make Momma sad 'cause I made you leave."

He continued to frown, "You left us. And you made Momma cry. I just want to know why you left us. Why you made her cry."

Ginny bit her lip to keep from speaking.

[Xaver]

"No," Xaver corrected quietly, "you assumed I would not answer you."

For a moment, he looked at Cody - and then that strict composure broke, and his features pulled into a stiff, forced assertiveness, the dark blues of his eyes softening, as if the steel reinforcements behind them had been kicked out. His gaze dropped away, flickering out the window - and when he looked back, that sudden emotion that had erupted within him had been compressed, and pushed away. His creature was in no way cold - just self-assessing. And there was no one harsher on Xaver, than himself.
Self-conscious.

Perhaps Cody was right to be frightened..

"What do you think?" he asked, very quietly. Gently. His eyes meeting Cody's, his similar blues still very mellow. Saddened. "Why do you think I did it?"

[Ginny Weasly]

Cody was taken aback by Xaver asking his opinion on something so serious. He bit his lip, not knowing what to say, then just saying it, "Maybe you didn't want me or Momma." He shrugged, avoiding Ginny's eyes.

She had told him many times that Xaver would have wanted him if he had been around. But they had thought Xaver was dead.

[Xaver]

"If there is anything in this world, or the next, that I ever want you knowing - it is that I have always loved and wanted your mother, and you, no differently."

His arms folded loosely over his chest, Xaver felt a shudder slowly run through the length of him, prickling its way down his spine, and rubbing his nerves raw.
Suddenly - memories floated up from the recesses of his thoughts, and there was no containing them.

"I remember the time before the last, that I was away.." he said slowly. "I had been injected with some sort of drug that to this day have had an uncertain effect. I went to your mom for help the first moment I could, much like this last time when I appeared at your grandparents' home. I had awoken in a Muggle hospital, then.. They were unknowningly doing more damage than help. I was seriously injured, and I remembered little, until much later."

He frowned, darkly, at the thought.

Realizing now, how similar the situations were.

How similar his words had been, upon his return.

Xaver felt sick again.

"I had been fish-hooked."

He knew he had gone off on a tangent - but he didn't care. Frustration was setting in, and he didn't know what to do about it. That was just it, too - he didn't know what to do about a lot of things, and most, it seemed, he didn't even have a choice with, anymore. And, with Xaver, he hated being penned, and hated having little or no choice over his own life.

[Ginny Weasly]

Cody's mouth opened slightly as he listened to Xaver, imagining what he said. Especially the last part. A shudder went through him, and he was quiet then, thinking his own thoughts.

Ginny frowned, "Don't tell him that! He'll get more nightmares."

"No I won't!" Cody said, snapping his head up, "I won't. Tell me more, Daddy." He said, looking at Xaver.

[Corbin]

you guys are really good you should really right a book.

[Xaver]

"You will," Xaver said shortly. "I do. Always.."

He sighed, very softly - and slowly, he let his guard and shields down.

It was a very rare, and unusual thing for him to do, but no words would explain.. Only his thoughts.
His memories.
Only that way could Cody's questions be answered. Xaver didn't know any other way. He knew it was wrong, and Ginny would be rightfully maddened, he concluded..
And Cody, he thought, solemnly, would never look at him the same, again...

Xaver's memories, his trail of thought, was almost a physical thing. His unnaturally lowered guard allowing Ginny and Cody to link to him, and follow the movie of his thoughts..




....His mannerisms became less confident, and Xaver looked down. He paused for a moment, then unsnapped the end of the bandage, and slowly, clenching his jaw, he removed the bandage around his middle, and let the soiled cloth drop to the floor, his arms at his sides. At his right side, was a wide, poorly stitched wound, that ripped up into his ribs. Three of his bottom ribs were broken unpleasantly, the bottom at his left, shattered in a few places. If he would turn around, one would see similar damage to his back. For he had been assaulted from behind, and it had gone all the way through him, and when it had jerked upward, he had been ripped along.
What looked like huge claw marks were scorched into his skin, three wide, unhealed burns, starting at his stomach, and running all the way across his chest and digging deeply into his shoulder.

It still looked better than it had.
Xaver closed his eyes, and biting back a murmur of pain, his wings expanded, and came into view. They expanded slowly, stretching, then he faltered, and they dropped back, as he winced painfully. Injuries.. There were many. Long, deep wounds, a few laced up. Why they had not healed, was unknown to him. It was taking a long time, and his will wasn't responding. He petted over one of the stitched, sore areas, and then jerked at a sudden pain, cursing aloud. His sudden movement had torn the remaining stitches. He gave a low, pain-filled sigh.
There were two, gaping wounds on either wing. Punctures. And the flesh surrounding was dark black, unhealthily shredded. The feathers of both wings were matted with blood, cut and torn, jagged, and dull, from their former gleaming obsidians. It hadn't been too long since he'd been hospitalized for a long stretch of time..



"My story?.."
His tones were younger, and oddly different from Xaver's voice in real time. "I ... I don't know.."
He frowned deeply, and shook his head.
"I get.. bits and pieces. Just fragments of memories. I know I was drugged. I don't remember. I don't know. I get hit with violent flashbacks that knock me completely over even now.."
He sighed, uncertain, raking his fingers through the soft feathers of a wing.
"I don't remember a lot of whatever happened between the time I went back home.. and when I woke up in some hospital .. somewhere... I can't imagine what they were thinking.. With my wings and everything.."


The scene blurred.


"I have missed you. More than you know," he said softly.

Feeling as if he'd already said a little too much, he went quiet, not moving away, not being able to even force himself to, but looking to the floor, running a hand through his hair.

Ginny looked at him, and suddenly she stepped forward, closing the distance between them. She placed her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Her arms hung by her sides, as though she was too wary to wrap them around him.

"I know how much. Because I have missed you as much. ...I thought about you all the time. I wanted to find you, but I didn't want to interfere with whatever you were doing. When you stayed away, I assumed whatever you were doing was simply of more importance. I decided to just wait for you. But I can't keep doing this. I can't stand loving someone so much, then having them leave me for months on end."

Without hesitation, because it was, so very natural, Xaver wrapped his arms around her, bowing his face into her hair. He gently kissed the top of her head, listening to her.
His throat tightened.
"Nothing is more important to me, than you.. Nothing, my love. When I left I thought it would be a quick, and possibly one of the last of my trips away. I was trying to end my connections with my other realm."
He closed his eyes, and held her close, his heart beating heavily against his chest.
"I was attacked. I hadn't expected it - I was overrun. I was held captive from almost three days after I last saw you.. and about a week ago, when I found myself in a mortal hospital. They couldn't help me, though they tried. A magical healer could not. But only until the day I saw you in the pub, was I even strong enough to search for you. For I knew you were everything I needed. Everything I've ever needed. I would have contacted you, Ginny, I give my word to you. I do not remember much.. bits and pieces.. though what I do remember.. like being hung through the belly on a meat hook.. I wish I would not have remembered.."

Xaver ran his hands through her hair, stepping back slightly to look at her, though just slightly, barely bearing the distance.
"I am sorry, love. It will never happen again. I will never let it. Never will I leave you. For not only be it too unbearable, but impossible.."
He kissed her forehead.
His words, his tones, had softened, his voice husky.

"Just know that I never left you.."


He loved her.
He knew that then, more deeply than he had ever, before.
And it shook him.


"I don't think I could stay here if you hadn't returned when you did. It was getting harder every day...instead of easier," she said, her face against his chest.
Xaver gently brought Ginny close, wrapping his arms around her. He kissed the top of her head.
He was wordless. Breathless, really. Amazed, and humbled, to be with her again. He had missed her more that any words could make up.
More than she would ever know...

The scene blurred again, as Xaver's thoughts rerouted.

[Xaver]

"Cody! Wait!"


Xaver stirred, the wild, deep blue oceans of his eyes springing open, though he winced against the lights overhead.

Cody?
Who was Cody?

Xaver had recognized the voice - it was the same that had been a lullaby many a nights in his dreams... Ginny.

He turned his head, though the effects were dizzying, his eyes searching for her - looking, almost desperately, drained, and his shields almost impossibly low, his senses so muddled he couldn't even tell if he was alone in the room, let alone feel anyone out, and recognize them.


It was little footsteps, though. Light feet, and short strides, that padded across the floor, and then carried the attached body around the couch - and finally into Xaver's line of vision.
If his heartbeat wasn't already so irregular, already, he would have sworn it had stopped.
He forgot to breathe.

Xaver knew he made an awful sight, spread out on the floor, his wings open, and folded over the couch and lamp table awkwardly, enormities fitted into a confined space, his figure torn up, and bloodied, and covered in mud... Like some odd creature, a (F)allen (literally) hero out of the storybooks children read. He froze, his wide blue eyes taking in the fresh, similar blues of the little boy not feet from him, the toes of his little shoes grazing the tips of the same black, satin feathers (though Xaver's were inordinarily ruffled, and covered in mud, blood, and unimaginables) that adorned the wings of the boy himself.

However, the boy was unwavering – unfazed, by Xaver's appearance, and he moved closer still, closing the distance between them, and finally reaching out, the soft pads of his fingers brushing Xaver's cheek.

Xaver stilled beneath his touch, his gaze gentle, though startled, unwavering from the boy, until he spoke.
"He has wings...Like me."

Momma?
Ginny?
A mom?


The world was swimming.
He could have sworn it.

Xaver's gaze finally flickered over to Ginny – and the shock, written so clearly about her features, disarmed him of everything he had thought about saying. Everything he'd thought he'd known.

Darkness, what?—
A bout of pain washed over him, and Xaver winced, hitching a breath, closing his eyes for a moment, until it had passed.

All of the powers that he was slowly re-accumulating, were being automatically converted into his healing of himself. It left him unnervingly vulnerable, his lifesources being so low, on all accounts, but he didn't care. Not where he was...
He was healing, literally, before their eyes.
It was a slower process than ever, for him, in his condition, but a millionfold faster than way of a human's healing... But darkness, it hurt like the devil.

"Sorry about your table, Mr. Weasley..."
Well. Wasn't that that stupidest thing he had ever said?!

Cody's fingers fell when Xaver spoke. He took a small step back, looking between Ginny and Xaver with suspiciously. Then, he looked up across the room at a large mirror, his eyes flickering between himself, and Xaver, confused.



By all rights, Xaver should have been dead.
He hadn't even known the true extent of the peril he had been living in for years, until it had come crashing down upon him, just recently. He should have been dead. Or worse. But certainly not where he was now, escaped and free of the wrath of terrors worse than hell. Was it luck? Chance? Whatever it was, Xaver wasn't going to push it.
Not for the moment, anyway... He could barely move.

Arthur Weasley was a brave man, a sturdy man, and Xaver watched him almost dully, as he stepped foreword.
What business did he have here?
...He didn't know if he was allowed to have any business, anymore.. It was just..
This had been the only place for him to go. And, the only place, given his chance, he would have ever gone. ..Ginny...
Ginny soothed Arthur, and more or less called him off, and when she said his name, his eyes zeroed in on her, his heart swooping with the effect of it. Ginny.. His Ginny, for there was no other beside her, and could never be.. Not for him. The rubix-cube beauty, he had once called her. Had he been so wrong?


Slowly, Xaver reached out and gripped a remaining leg of the trashed lamp table, and, despite a sharp wince and a wave of dizziness that nearly sent him sprawling, he moved to his feet, in a slightly closer resemblance to the usual liquid, seamless grace of his movements. He released the table, allowing his hands to fall to his sides, in a sort of disarmed manner, his huge (and admittedly, dirty) wings folding behind him, despite painful protests, their smooth, silken qualities lacking their usual luster and shine. Standing, was a feat in itself, given his condition - though the wound at his side, from where it had been a gaping and mortally wounding injury before, was still long, but now it was a very shallow, graze of a cut, despite the mess of blood that already stained his skin.


"That was my daddy's name."
His heart had jumped before.. But this time, Xaver swore it had stopped.

Xaver had a son?
A little boy?
The little boy?
It wasn't unbelievable, but Xaver found himself in shock, gaping, almost. Shaking, slightly.



Xaver had had a family, once upon a time. A mother, a father, a darling little sister, and yes, perhaps a wretched twin brother, but a family all the same... And he had loved them.
Cherished them.
Family had always been the most important factor in his life - a trait his mother had adored, and perhaps passed down, herself, for his father hadn't been much of a homely creature. His mother had passed on, and his father had followed, when Xaver had been enrolled in Hogwarts. And then, one day, not much longer, Xences had forever severed the bond of being anything remotely close to family, to Xaver. He had killed - murdured - their little sister, Kylie. The little girl that Xaver, himself, had more, not even less, raised, after their mother had passed away.
Kylie had stuck to him like glue, and it was that way for years, the relationship between them more like father and daughter, than brother and sister. He had loved her dearly and losing her, had been the harshest of blows. It had been like losing a sibling, and a child, in one... She had been his last semblance of family, too.

That had been a long time ago...

"Was your daddy's name?" he asked softly..
"Yup. He was nice. I think." He smiled at Xaver again, "But Momma doesn't know what happened to him. She thinks he's gone forever..."

They blurred.

[Xaver]

Xaver gripped the couch, leaning his weight into it for stability, looking up as he heard her soft footfalls, his eyes lingering, and taking in the sight of her - her, Ginny, being everything, and the only, that he had ever dreamed of. There were, and had always been, desires - temptations - but none so strong, for him, as the way she smelled.. The way she fit, so perfectly, in his embraces - the way only she could steal his kisses, his heart, and jumble his thoughts without even one of her own.
She pulled out a long feather - one that had, no doubt, been formerly attached to his creature, and he stared at it, for a moment, before meeting her eyes.



"Cody?.." he murmured softly.
It took far greater effort than Xaver would ever had admitted, but, despite the thready weakness of his magics, he strengthened his telepathy, and found Cody's thoughts, his own link not intruding, but a warm, familiar presence to the boy. He delved into Cody's thoughts, creating a bond, with his own power encasing them both, protectively, as he reached out to him.

-I did come back, you know.. It took me a while.. Too long.. But I did come back, Cody. And I am very sorry that I have missed you, all this time... Your mother is not ashamed of you. If there is one thing I could tell right off, it was of how proud she was of you.. How protective she is over you.-


He looked at Ginny, as he mentally spoke to Cody, and, one hand gripping the couch, he opened the other, offering himself, and his embrace..

Ginny chewed her lip, hesitating, and Xaver was surprised his heart didn't burst, for how hard it was beating in the confines of his chest, thudding rapidly against the cage of his ribs and working up a storm in his thoughts. Finally, she moved to him, and he wrapped his arm around her middle, closing the space between them and bringing her flush against the hard planes of his body, forgetting his shirtless-ness, and the injuries that, though in a majority were mostly healed, but had just earlier nearly been the closure of his life. He bowed his head, slowly pressing his face into the curve of her shoulder, breathing in her soft, familiar scent, the power of her presence nearly pushing him over the edge. He fought the tide of emotions brutally, keeping his composure in the end, though what he really wanted to do was bawl. Gently, after a moment, he raised his head, planting a soft, loving kiss upon the top of hers.

"I, am so sorry Ginny. I'm sorry I've been away for so long. ...I've missed you so much."
Xaver gathered her closer still, into a squeeze of a hug, with whatever strength he could muster, in the moment, his one hand still firmly locked onto the back of the couch.
"I don't know what will happen, baby, but I love you... And I'm truly sorry.."
"I love you too. I have always loved you. I never stopped. I couldn't." She reached up, slowly touching his cheek.

Letting go of the couch, but leaning back against it as he held her, he brought his hand up, the other still wrapped securely around her middle, his fingertips brushing the top of her hand, that grazed his cheek. He leaned foreword, pressing minute kisses here, and lingering kisses there, over her lips, and eyes, and nose, and cheeks, feather-soft, light carresses as he slowly kissed away her tears, trying to soothe her, and word everything he couldn't figure out how to say...
Finally, he wrapped both arms around her, drawing her close again, one hand across her back and the other entangled in the red enchantment of her hair. He shook his head, leaning back just slightly so he could see her. Marveling.

-You're even more beautiful than I remember..- he thought softly to her, before he gave in to temptation, and kissed her.
-I'm scared, Xaver.-

They kissed, and that longing, that hunger, that had been put at bay for so long, flickered back on like lighting a match, becoming a renewed, burning sensation within him. It was everything he never wanted to end - plundering lips, and touches, and a closeness he had missed with all his being...

-I have never been more scared, nor more sure in my life.-
Xaver drew back, just slightly - enough so that he could see her, his eyes fixing upon hers.
"I have missed so much..."
Ginny nodded, lowering her eyes away from his, "But...you don't have to miss more..."

Xaver looked at her, calculating her words, and the weight of what she said. She had looked away from him, bowing her head slightly, her magnificent red hear tumbling down, and concealing her features.

Options.

To back out, and go back to the near non-existence of a life he'd known before, and leave them? To leave Ginny? And Cody? To abandon them ...and his heart? It was all one in the same. He couldn't deny that any longer.

No, sir.

Xaver couldn't leave, even if it came down to it.
He couldn't take it - not again. Leaving her, his love... No, it mightn't kill him, persay... But it would destroy him.

He had come to realize, that with all of his creature - he truly loved Ginny. He had understood it a long time ago... Three years ago... And he'd been fighting three years for his own salvation - to come above the turmoil that had plagued him for so long...
And now, he was here.
In the arms of the woman he loved - where he truly belonged.
He was home.


Xaver hooked a finger beneath Ginny's chin, gently lifting her head, finding her eyes.
"If you allow it..." he said softly, a feint smile brushing the corners of his lips, "I will remain with you. With you both. And love you, like I have been dreaming of doing not only for the last three years – but since that first time I saw you, and your pretty face in the forest at Hogwarts, all those years ago..."
He looked at her, his eyes moving over hers, searching, as his heart gave a nervous stammer.


"I almost blurted it the last day I saw you, and it took me by such surprise I almost seized up...But now?.."
Xaver released her chin, gently trailing the tips of his fingers over her smooth cheek, down, until his palm gently cupped her jaw, his thumb gently tracing over her lower lip, before his hand fell away, to grasp one of her own.
"If there's anything I've learned, while I've been away – it's that there's nothing truly like what I feel.. when I'm with you. I love you, Ginny. And I have never known that so strongly..."

Xaver paused, gathering his courage.

"Would you be mine, love? Would you marry me?"



The thoughts blurred, and then slowed, as Xaver stalled over thinking about breaking the contact. He seemed to force himself to submit, however, allowing Ginny and Cody to remain in his thoughts, even his most private of some memories, the way he felt and had thought.
He forced himself to let go..
He had said once that Cody had a lot of questions.. And that he, himself, owed him his answers....



"I have one request of you if you want to stay with me and Cody," She told him now, her voice soft, but firm.
"That is?"
"You must never, ever break his heart." Her eyes locked onto his, and she gave his wrist a small shake.

"You mean, like I broke yours?"
Don't break Cody's heart, like he had once broken Ginny's.
Xaver felt his heart lodge, somewhere between his chest, and his throat.
"..Do you think I will do that?"

"Yes, like you broke mine."
She looked at him.
"I don't know if you'll do it to him. I didn't know you'd do it before."

His heart gave a powerful, hard jolt.

It was much harder to keep any kind of composure, now, when he felt as if he was suffocating.
He cursed himself.
Hell - who was he to complain? He didn't even remember being gone. She'd endured it.

Like he had broken her heart...

There was no mending that. No way any amount of apologies or time could make up for it.
What had he done?
Everything wrong.


"You are willing to take that chance? With him. With yourself? That I won't hurt you again?"

"I don't know... I'll live if you leave again...as for him, it would devastate him..."

"You can tell me to leave, you know," he said softly. "Tell me to go, and I'll let you raise Cody the superior way you have already begun, into the great man he will one day be. You can tell him whatever you think is best, and I'll not come around to say otherwise."
His heart numbed.
"...Tell him I was the man I was born to be, supposed to be. And that I went back to that life... Leave out the part of the father I was trying to be. The lover I longed to be, again."

"I don't want you to leave. ...I just don't want my baby getting hurt."
"I already hurt my baby. Before I even knew I had another one."



The scene blurred again, fast this time.

[Xaver]

"PLEASE, Xaver... show me the mercy I taught you to understand!"

Xaver looked down, his gaze empty. Relaying nothing of any thought, or emotion going behind the deep blue eyes that were shut off from the world, with an effort that was forced. The chill about him, dangerous.

"You ..betrayed me. You. You did it."
Xaver blinked.
"You. Of all people. You did it," he repeated, almost as if he had to hear it again, just to make substance of the words. To make them real.
And there was nothing to stop them from becoming real.

"Xaver, I'm sorry! Milord, please-"
"Darkness, Aaro. My position in our world is right now worthless to me."
"Mi-"
"STOP IT!"
"My-"
"AARO!"
"XAVER-"

Xaver leaned down, and gripped Aaro's shirt, lifting the aged Angel, and swinging him in a sort of half circle, slamming him into a solid stone wall with enough force to shatter bones in the huge white wings crushed behind the man. Aaro had aged, significantly, though it was perhaps his age, and wisdom, that had kept him alive through the recent years. His hair was a soft, very light brown, still, a golden hue, his own eyes the darkest of chestnuts, his figure still fit as would be permitted - the wear, it seemed, had run over his features. Darkened him. But right then, as Xaver slammed him against the wall, and pain licked his expressions and brought out a cry of pain, their features were matched. Both burdened, and filthy, tears moistening the dirt that caked their cheeks.
"You sold me out!--"


The scene was forced then, away.
His thoughts had travelled without his consent, and Xaver would be having Cody seeing none of that. No more of it..
Regret settled deeply into Xaver's thought-patterns, even as he adjusted them. Open, and easy to be felt by Cody or Ginny.

Suddenly,  his mind seared with pain, and everything went white to him, and his thoughts.
It was as if, physically, he'd been delivered a swift kick in the stomach. Xaver doubled over, his knees slamming into the ground, his fingers clawing into his hair, and pulling, his eyes squeezed shut.

He tried to close the link of his thoughts – but it was as if his own willpower was being forced away – and it was too late to close his mind, now. Too late – and the memories were coming. Roaring back – and there was nothing even he could do, to stop it...

"XAVER. Stop it. STOP it!"
Kylie's high-pitched tones screamed at him. She was kneeling over him, her small hands gripping his face, her fingernails digging into the tender flesh of his cheeks.
Xaver gently, but firmly pushed her away, rolling from where he had been laying onto his knees, and slowly rising. He brushed his hands over his thighs, then absently raked his fingers through his lush obsidian hair, avoiding looking at his little sister at all.

"You CAN'T do that! You can't!"

Xaver bit down, hard, on his lower lip, jamming his hands into the pockets of his dark pants.
"I have to," he said, very quietly. "And I will."

He looked over at her as she stamped her foot, not ignorant of her youthful magnificence. She was brilliant, truly.
Her eyes were wide, and wild, ravaged and silvery with fierce tears, her hands now drawn into fists, the frown that pulled her lips down dark, and almost loathing.
"You can't leave me!"

Xaver's jaw twitched – but he restrained himself from giving any more away – even if, he knew, that would have been better. For both of them.
"I have to, Kyles. You know what the agreement was. I go away willingly, or He sends me away. It's not a matter of choice, anymore, but what's better, for us-"
"Don't you DARE speak of bettering for OUR sake, Brother! You don't care about me! You don't care about leaving me! You're leaving me here, alone! And you might never come back! The Humans-"
"Kylie-"
She nearly snarled at him, and he stopped. "They HATE us, 'Aver. After what they did to you-"
"I have both accepted, and forgotten the incident."
"But I HAVEN'T!"

She stamped her foot again, unchecked tears spilling over her porcelain cheeks, and pooling at the soft crevices of her throat.
"I don't forget, 'Aver, don't you understand?! I KNOW! Something is wrong, and you are leaving and-"
"Kylie.. I can't do this anymore.. I have to pack, love."
She stared at him, rocking on her feet as if he'd delivered to her a physical blow.
Xaver looked away – he had to, to keep a firm hold on the lingering threads of his sanity. He fiddled idly with a few trinkets on his dresser, most of the drawers in the tall, dark wood fixture open, revealing the many shades of various articles of clothing.

Kylie sighed, behind him, and clambered up onto his bed, amidst the many suitcases laying open, there. She crossed her legs, watching him as he slowly piled his things into the bags and avoided her gaze. He filled them, slowly – and when, finally, his things were stowed, and ready, he reached into one of the deep drawers, and then turned to her, holding a rather large, neon orange stuffed animal. It was a dragon, of which seemed to come to life at his touch, the beads of its eyes rolling into what could have been real eyes, the fabric of its mouth turning upwards into a sort of grin.

Xaver padded, slowly, to Kylie, and sat onto the bed beside her, offering her a smile that could be nothing more than hopeless. He wrapped an arm about her, his other hand holding the stuffed dragon, and for a moment she remained stiff beneath his hold, until slowly, she broke down, leaning into his side, and pressing her face to his chest, sobbing without any inhibitions, or cares of who heard her.

Battling the lump of his heart that had lodged itself into his throat, Xaver gathered her limp form into the circle of his arms, sitting her upon his lap and holding her, his head bowed into her hair.

"I'm sorry, baby Kylie..."

She sobbed harder.
He glanced at the dragon, then straightened slightly, looking down at her, as she clung to his shirt.

"Look at him, Kyles.."

She did.
He wiggled the dragon in his hand, making him dance.

"Hush, little Kylie,
Let me sing to you,
I may have sharp claws,
and an orange nose,
but what I say is true!
Big brother loves his baby sister,
And you know he misses you,
Next time he'll bring back candy,
and stay for longer, too!"

Xaver chuckled softly, and Kylie shook her head, reaching for the dragon in-between a hiccup.
He squished both her, and the stuffy, into a hug.

"So, with this locket,
I've placed in dragon's hands,
You will always know,
That no matter through what distance, or across what lands,
I'll always be there,
Like we've always been for each other,
You're always Baby Kyles,
And I'm always Big Brother.."

He made it up, yes.
Trying to make her smile. Feel better. Something – trying anything, to relieve a bit of the hurt that he knew ached so raw within his little sister.
She became quiet, fiddling with the silver locket that was the size of her hands, that had been held between the dragon's foamy claws. She twirled it about her fingers, and then looked up at him, her eyes red and damp with tears, and still unshed emotion.

"I'll come back," he murmured.

Suddenly, she elbowed away from him, and pushed her way from his arms, hopping down to the floor, her slender arms wrapped tightly about the dragon. She looked at it, then him, and shook her head.
"I don't believe you!"
"Kylie.."
"NO! I don't believe you! I.... I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU, XAVER!"

"No. No, you don't."

"Yes, I do!"
She screamed it, stamping her feet, tears streaming down her face. Kylie shook her head at him, and backed away when Xaver grabbed for her. He went utterly still when she did so, and she burst into sobs again, turning and wrenching the door open behind her, flinging it wide, and running, bolting down the hallway, away from him, as fast as her little legs would carry her..


Xaver remained completely still when the memory faded, and released him, bowed over his knees upon the floor beside Cody's bed. His eyes were squeezed closed, shutting out the world around him, even as his shields shot up, the protection about his mind that was in place, always, to keep others out like he had just let Ginny and Cody in, securing back up.
Like a wall, almost – that he had built protectively, and effectively, about himself.
And he had let them in, for a glance at the man beneath the said defenses...

Xaver shuddered, against a wave of sudden chill, unable to contain it, his hands dropping finally from his hair, to the floor on either side of his knees...

[ChoChangHP118]

(yo, newbee. get out of here =) your ruining it)

[Ginny Weasly]

Cody watched Xaver, his eyes large. He was clutching his cover so tightly that his fingers were white. He watched his father quietly, a million thoughts going through his mind, the major being; 'I never knew he had a sister.'

Ginny knelt down next to Xaver, her face blank. Absently, she rubbed his head, playing with his hair.

[Xaver]

For the longest of moments, Xaver neither moved, nor seemed to breathe. His eyes fixed upon the ground before his hands, he built up again the shields about his thoughts, into better security.
Colorfully cursing himself for all of the little he felt that he and his stupid memories were worth, behind the now closed and inpenatrable walls of his mind.

Finally, he straightened, sighing softly, gripping one of Cody's bedposts and rising. The threat of his downfall no longer, now, his mind, but his heart.

He turned his head, reaching up and placing his hands over the back of Ginny's, drawing the tips of the smooth pads of her fingers to his lips, and kissing them. And her knuckles. And the back of her hand - his eyes slowly flickering up to her eyes. His own, reflecting the emotions of those of much of the wild animal he was, confused, and comforted by her touch all the same.
Finally, he brought their hands down, lacing his fingers with hers, his gaze moving, and resting upon Cody.

"I let on too much, I know," he said, softly. "I'm sorry."

[Ginny Weasly]

-It's alright. He'll forget the majority of it.-
But not all of it. And in truth, Ginny was upset with Xaver for showing Cody all of that. She had brought him away from her world to protect him from such things until he was old enough. He was only a five year old. A baby...

Cody said nothing, just watched his parents, his mouth open, his eyes large.