[rapturia] gabriel x raphael
water child
Rapturia, Raphael and Gabriel
01.
Raphael Delacroix is ten when he first meets the water child. He stands in the back corner of the training room with palms so slick with sweat that he barely feels the hilt of the rapier. It's quiet, so quiet. When the footsteps start, so soft, the child nearly jumps out of his damp skin. Raphael whirls around.
In those days, the water child walks like a mirage. Later, Raphael will ask where he has been, because sorcerers do not usually walk with their powers streaming like silk around their ankles. But the water child, on that first day in the training room within the depths of the Parisian Headquarters, walks as if he were dragging his feet through the water, and stops at the center of the room.
"You're not allowed in here," Raphael suddenly interrupts. "Who are you anyway?"
Those stormy blue eyes swiftly turn towards the boy with the sword, and the edges around the water child's skin fix. He speaks with an accent reminiscent of those east of Paris. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"
Raphael levels the sword at him, even though every inch of his body screams to back down, not now, not against this strange boy with that dark blue hair and walk of a mirage. He licks the sweat lining his upper lip, and states as firmly as possible, "I'm Raphael Delacroix of Hastur, the son of the Leader of the Order of Bounty Hunters, and you are trespassing on my property."
"So?" the water child laughs. The air suddenly grows damp, heavy, blurry with fog. Those stormy blue eyes narrow and the child adds, "Who cares who you are? I'm the god of the sea! Who are you, to challenge me?"
And so, Raphael Delacroix is ten when he first meets the water child, the love of his life. He is ten when he falls on the receiving end of one of the most powerful water-based magicks on Exile, and he is ten when he fights back and wins. After the storm washes away, he, the boy with the sword, holds the water child by the throat and demands for his name.
Beneath the long blue hair plastered against his face, the water child smiles like a shark. "I'm Gabriel. Nice to meet you."
02.
Raphael has barely reached seventeen when Tobias returns. During those days, Raphael has been established at the leader of the Amsterdam House in the New World-- one of the two branches of the Order across Exile. He is updating the case files one afternoon, when Chime invites herself in. He takes one look at her glassy eyes, and knows.
Tobias hasn't changed much, but then again, they have never expected anything less. Later, Raphael sends an update back to the Parisian HQ to inform his step-father that a distant Hastur relative has come to live with them, and begins sketching out possible explanations. Gabriel catches him buried in heaps of papers that night.
"Hey, who is this guy?" Gabriel asks from the door.
"Hmmmmm," Raphael murmurs as he scribbles something nonsensical.
"Hey, who do you think I am?" the blue-haired Hunter retorts. He walks over and parks his ass right on Raphael's papers. "Why are you ignoring me for him?"
Raphael stops and stares up as if seeing his boyfriend for the first time. He squints. "You. You've fantasized about this moment, haven't you?"
Lips pull back into a shark-bite grin. "Yeah, on this table? Yeah, so what? You want to trade places?"
"Get off."
"After you."
Raphael rolls his eyes. "Get out."
"After you tell me what's wrong."
The blond frowns. "Look, you know those family members who you just want to .. pretend like you don't know?"
That shit-eating grin grows wider. "Yeah, you're asking some one who grew up in the slave trade. But okay, okay stop, don't make that face, okay. You know what Tobias is doing right now? Eating the fridge out. Chime's about to kick his ass; I think he ate her lettuce or something-- I don't know, that girl eats like a rabbit. So okay. So did he eat one of you Hasturs or Delacroixes or whatever, or something?"
"No," Raphael grumbles and rubs the bridge of his nose. "He's just an idiot. I don't know how to deal with him. Look. It's okay. Drop it."
And so, Raphael is barely seventeen when he tells the love of his life the worst of all lies. But Gabriel does as he's told; he drops it. Later, when he catches Raphael glaring pensively at Tobias' back, when he catches Raphael calculating just the right words to say back to this mysterious new Hunter, he still lets it go because every night, the blond returns to his bed, and every night, the blond kisses him before falling asleep.
03.
Raphael is twenty when things begin falling apart. They've returned to Paris after Sage destroys Amsterdam and shatters everything Chime holds dear. He finds the girl, the quiet little girl who he has grown up with, hiding in her room in the Dionsia branch of the HQ, and invites himself to sit beside her.
She rests her head on his shoulder, and asks where Gabriel is.
"I don't know," Raphael responds, and places an arm around her shoulders and a hand on her head. He kisses her hair and adds, "How are you holding up?"
"Raphi, I broke my promise, I broke my promise."
He kisses her head more urgently. "No, no, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know."
"I still broke my promise." She begins to cry, to hiccup, but swallows down immediately and clears her throat. "Is Dan okay? Where is he?"
"He's fine. Everyone is fine."
"Don't lie to me. I broke my promise. Tobias--"
"Tobias is fine," Raphael sternly responds. He presses his lips against that crown of dark hair one more time, and glances down at a chin that tries so hard to stop quivering. "Everyone is fine, Chime," he assures. "We're just worried about you."
We are just worried, he repeats later on in his head. His room at the HQ, the one which he has grown up in, is empty and dark but the light shining through the crack beneath the door adjoining his bedroom with his mother's spins cobwebs through the dusk. He holds his breath and tiptoes to press his ear against the door. Recently, his mother has caught a cold. Her breath sounds raspy and forced. The blond, the young man (now), swallows down hard, swallows down the urge to check up on her. As his hand reaches for the door knob, he summons those crimson memories of the jabbing fingers, hard broken nails, tugging fistfuls of hair, scathing accusations, and the burning reminders that he has been born of sin and disappointment. Raphael releases his breath, shaking. His hand moves away from the door.
Gabriel must sleep in a servant's room; that is the rule which he and his stepfather have agreed upon. Raphael slips in at night when Gabriel's roommate knows better than to be present. He dives under the covers, where Gabriel can hold him and tell him that he is worth everything in the world.
04.
Eventually, the sea swallows Gabriel back up. Raphael is twenty six when only emptiness greets him back at the flat. He spends the night staring at his bed, suddenly too large, and walks downstairs to knock on Chime's door.
She, also, cannot sleep.
They sit in the darkness for some time before Raphael attempts to summon the courage to explain to a woman who he has known as far back as he can remember --who he has helped to change clothes back when she was very ill, who he has confessed his first crush to (her brother!), who he has shared the burden of Tobias' terrible secret. And still, it hangs at the back of his mouth, unable to tumble forth.
"It's okay," Chime whispers. "I know."
"No. You don't."
"What?"
Raphael clutches his head. His nails dig in deep and his fingers twist around those long, cornsilk locks which his mother has tried so desperately to rip out and then grow. He clenches his teeth to fight down the screams jolting through his body so that only a gasp escapes his mouth. He buries his face into his elbows, and shakes.
"Raphi, Raphi," Chime says, hovering above his clenched form, "Raphi, please, tell me. You need to talk about it. It'll make you feel better. You need to tell me."
You don't know what I need, he wants to yell. You don't understand, do you? We've done everything right, everything was, so, so right. We've loved each other; we've never cheated. We've seen couples--you, Tobias, Hisashi, Nicks, Dan--ripped apart by spite, jealousy, hatred. Gabriel has never been anything but perfect, we've been perfect, so why, tell me why, did this happen to us-- Tell me, Chime, tell me; ask the world, and tell me. Tell me, he wants to yell.
But the words never quite make it off his tongue and he simply collapses on Chime's shoulder. The woman wraps her arms around his waist and hugs her dear friend in close. "Raphi, we'll get Gabriel back. I promise. We can get him. We'll take Tobias along too."
"Fuck it, I don't want to go anywhere with Tobias," Raphael mumbles.
"You know, you can't keep pushing people away like this." Chime hugs him tighter. "Life really isn't fair, is it? But we can fight back. Please let us help you."
A contemplative silence. Slowly, Raphael sits back up and wipes his eyes in a hurry. He sniffs loudly. "You want to go chasing after a mirage with me?"
Chime smiles softly. "He's not a mirage, Raphi. He's the love of your life."
Rapturia, Raphael and Gabriel
01.
Raphael Delacroix is ten when he first meets the water child. He stands in the back corner of the training room with palms so slick with sweat that he barely feels the hilt of the rapier. It's quiet, so quiet. When the footsteps start, so soft, the child nearly jumps out of his damp skin. Raphael whirls around.
In those days, the water child walks like a mirage. Later, Raphael will ask where he has been, because sorcerers do not usually walk with their powers streaming like silk around their ankles. But the water child, on that first day in the training room within the depths of the Parisian Headquarters, walks as if he were dragging his feet through the water, and stops at the center of the room.
"You're not allowed in here," Raphael suddenly interrupts. "Who are you anyway?"
Those stormy blue eyes swiftly turn towards the boy with the sword, and the edges around the water child's skin fix. He speaks with an accent reminiscent of those east of Paris. "Who are you to tell me what to do?"
Raphael levels the sword at him, even though every inch of his body screams to back down, not now, not against this strange boy with that dark blue hair and walk of a mirage. He licks the sweat lining his upper lip, and states as firmly as possible, "I'm Raphael Delacroix of Hastur, the son of the Leader of the Order of Bounty Hunters, and you are trespassing on my property."
"So?" the water child laughs. The air suddenly grows damp, heavy, blurry with fog. Those stormy blue eyes narrow and the child adds, "Who cares who you are? I'm the god of the sea! Who are you, to challenge me?"
And so, Raphael Delacroix is ten when he first meets the water child, the love of his life. He is ten when he falls on the receiving end of one of the most powerful water-based magicks on Exile, and he is ten when he fights back and wins. After the storm washes away, he, the boy with the sword, holds the water child by the throat and demands for his name.
Beneath the long blue hair plastered against his face, the water child smiles like a shark. "I'm Gabriel. Nice to meet you."
02.
Raphael has barely reached seventeen when Tobias returns. During those days, Raphael has been established at the leader of the Amsterdam House in the New World-- one of the two branches of the Order across Exile. He is updating the case files one afternoon, when Chime invites herself in. He takes one look at her glassy eyes, and knows.
Tobias hasn't changed much, but then again, they have never expected anything less. Later, Raphael sends an update back to the Parisian HQ to inform his step-father that a distant Hastur relative has come to live with them, and begins sketching out possible explanations. Gabriel catches him buried in heaps of papers that night.
"Hey, who is this guy?" Gabriel asks from the door.
"Hmmmmm," Raphael murmurs as he scribbles something nonsensical.
"Hey, who do you think I am?" the blue-haired Hunter retorts. He walks over and parks his ass right on Raphael's papers. "Why are you ignoring me for him?"
Raphael stops and stares up as if seeing his boyfriend for the first time. He squints. "You. You've fantasized about this moment, haven't you?"
Lips pull back into a shark-bite grin. "Yeah, on this table? Yeah, so what? You want to trade places?"
"Get off."
"After you."
Raphael rolls his eyes. "Get out."
"After you tell me what's wrong."
The blond frowns. "Look, you know those family members who you just want to .. pretend like you don't know?"
That shit-eating grin grows wider. "Yeah, you're asking some one who grew up in the slave trade. But okay, okay stop, don't make that face, okay. You know what Tobias is doing right now? Eating the fridge out. Chime's about to kick his ass; I think he ate her lettuce or something-- I don't know, that girl eats like a rabbit. So okay. So did he eat one of you Hasturs or Delacroixes or whatever, or something?"
"No," Raphael grumbles and rubs the bridge of his nose. "He's just an idiot. I don't know how to deal with him. Look. It's okay. Drop it."
And so, Raphael is barely seventeen when he tells the love of his life the worst of all lies. But Gabriel does as he's told; he drops it. Later, when he catches Raphael glaring pensively at Tobias' back, when he catches Raphael calculating just the right words to say back to this mysterious new Hunter, he still lets it go because every night, the blond returns to his bed, and every night, the blond kisses him before falling asleep.
03.
Raphael is twenty when things begin falling apart. They've returned to Paris after Sage destroys Amsterdam and shatters everything Chime holds dear. He finds the girl, the quiet little girl who he has grown up with, hiding in her room in the Dionsia branch of the HQ, and invites himself to sit beside her.
She rests her head on his shoulder, and asks where Gabriel is.
"I don't know," Raphael responds, and places an arm around her shoulders and a hand on her head. He kisses her hair and adds, "How are you holding up?"
"Raphi, I broke my promise, I broke my promise."
He kisses her head more urgently. "No, no, it wasn't your fault. You didn't know."
"I still broke my promise." She begins to cry, to hiccup, but swallows down immediately and clears her throat. "Is Dan okay? Where is he?"
"He's fine. Everyone is fine."
"Don't lie to me. I broke my promise. Tobias--"
"Tobias is fine," Raphael sternly responds. He presses his lips against that crown of dark hair one more time, and glances down at a chin that tries so hard to stop quivering. "Everyone is fine, Chime," he assures. "We're just worried about you."
We are just worried, he repeats later on in his head. His room at the HQ, the one which he has grown up in, is empty and dark but the light shining through the crack beneath the door adjoining his bedroom with his mother's spins cobwebs through the dusk. He holds his breath and tiptoes to press his ear against the door. Recently, his mother has caught a cold. Her breath sounds raspy and forced. The blond, the young man (now), swallows down hard, swallows down the urge to check up on her. As his hand reaches for the door knob, he summons those crimson memories of the jabbing fingers, hard broken nails, tugging fistfuls of hair, scathing accusations, and the burning reminders that he has been born of sin and disappointment. Raphael releases his breath, shaking. His hand moves away from the door.
Gabriel must sleep in a servant's room; that is the rule which he and his stepfather have agreed upon. Raphael slips in at night when Gabriel's roommate knows better than to be present. He dives under the covers, where Gabriel can hold him and tell him that he is worth everything in the world.
04.
Eventually, the sea swallows Gabriel back up. Raphael is twenty six when only emptiness greets him back at the flat. He spends the night staring at his bed, suddenly too large, and walks downstairs to knock on Chime's door.
She, also, cannot sleep.
They sit in the darkness for some time before Raphael attempts to summon the courage to explain to a woman who he has known as far back as he can remember --who he has helped to change clothes back when she was very ill, who he has confessed his first crush to (her brother!), who he has shared the burden of Tobias' terrible secret. And still, it hangs at the back of his mouth, unable to tumble forth.
"It's okay," Chime whispers. "I know."
"No. You don't."
"What?"
Raphael clutches his head. His nails dig in deep and his fingers twist around those long, cornsilk locks which his mother has tried so desperately to rip out and then grow. He clenches his teeth to fight down the screams jolting through his body so that only a gasp escapes his mouth. He buries his face into his elbows, and shakes.
"Raphi, Raphi," Chime says, hovering above his clenched form, "Raphi, please, tell me. You need to talk about it. It'll make you feel better. You need to tell me."
You don't know what I need, he wants to yell. You don't understand, do you? We've done everything right, everything was, so, so right. We've loved each other; we've never cheated. We've seen couples--you, Tobias, Hisashi, Nicks, Dan--ripped apart by spite, jealousy, hatred. Gabriel has never been anything but perfect, we've been perfect, so why, tell me why, did this happen to us-- Tell me, Chime, tell me; ask the world, and tell me. Tell me, he wants to yell.
But the words never quite make it off his tongue and he simply collapses on Chime's shoulder. The woman wraps her arms around his waist and hugs her dear friend in close. "Raphi, we'll get Gabriel back. I promise. We can get him. We'll take Tobias along too."
"Fuck it, I don't want to go anywhere with Tobias," Raphael mumbles.
"You know, you can't keep pushing people away like this." Chime hugs him tighter. "Life really isn't fair, is it? But we can fight back. Please let us help you."
A contemplative silence. Slowly, Raphael sits back up and wipes his eyes in a hurry. He sniffs loudly. "You want to go chasing after a mirage with me?"
Chime smiles softly. "He's not a mirage, Raphi. He's the love of your life."