The White Rose (Painted Red) (4/6) | NC-17

[meh_forget_it]

White Rose (Painted Red) Part Four

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Six Years Earlier

"Okay, here's the deal. We split up, like we did for the First World War. Only this time, we help those that we think need it. We punish the ones that deserve it and help the innocent people in all of this," Veles stated as he and Loki sat underneath yet another dogfight.

The war had been going on for a fair while now, and things were starting to get more and more desperate on both sides, thus Veles and Loki had decided to finally try and do something about it without influencing anyone's free will - which was just a damned pesky thing but some rules really weren't made to be broken, not if you wanted to stay existing - and had decided ton a plan of action.

They were going to target the instigators of the current war and see if they could terrorise them into stopping the damned thing. Or at the very least, distract them in the most lethally amusing ways possible.

They also had a bet going to see who could set up the most outrageous and humorous tricks without drawing the attention of anyone that might be able to put a stop to things. Loki had some good ideas set up in his mind of what he was going to do, though first they just needed to decide on who was going where.

"So, where do we go? We going for Britain versus Germany? Or Allies versus Axis?" Loki asked, leaning back to lie down in the grass, wincing when one of the planes took a fatal hit and began its lethal dive into the ground.

"Hmm, Britain and Germany seems good. Dibs on Britain," Veles said, lying back to join Loki, turning to watch the remaining two planes try to shoot the other out of the sky. Really, it hadn't been all that fair two against one, but things were a little more even now. No thanks to either of them. Nope. He and Loki had had no hand in the current battle going on whatsoever.

"That's fine. I'll take Germany. Someone has to," Loki muttered, surreptitiously clicking his fingers and grinned at the bag of Twizzlers that appeared on his stomach, he offered one to Veles, who snorted but took one all the same.

"Rather you than me. Never got the hang of the German language."

"You're speaking it right now," Loki deadpanned, snickering at the genuinely shocked expression on Veles' face.

"Really?! So what in the hell were we trying to speak last year?"

"German."

"But… that was not what I'm speaking right now."

"It was," Loki admitted with a small shrug, then grinned, "but apparently your linguistic skills become non-existent once you've imbibed a whole litre bottle of Absinthe."

"The work of the Devil."

"I know the Devil. Lucifer was never creative enough to create something that evil. The genius of Absinthe is entirely down to the minds of twisted humans."

"Ah, that explains everything."

”Did it work? Did it?” Gabriel jerked as much as a conscious could jerk and had the curious sensation of having been in free fall for a few moments before hitting the ground.

“It worked. He’s still around.”

Fifteen Years Earlier

Loki sat in the small café in London city centre waiting for Veles to show up. He'd gotten the message - delivered to him by a very exhausted and somewhat traumatised owl - from Veles to meet him there, and not having anything else to actually do, he had decided to go along and see what he needed.

He looked up when the tiny bell rang when the door opened and saw Veles enter and head straight over to him, nodding once in greeting to the girl behind the till.

"Vel! You okay? Wondered what was wrong? Alright and I also had to wonder about the owl. I think I may have scarred it for life, he found me mid-trick," Loki admitted with a grin as soon as Veles sat down at the table. Veles just looked at him with a small grin and shook his head.

"I'd wondered what happened to him when he got back. Glad you got the message though. Any of your tricks have anything to do with this stock crash?" Veles asked him, smiling widely in thanks when a coffee was placed in front of him.

"Of course they have! You think I'm not going to take advantage of this? This is a gold mine for us! I'm going to assume you have been doing the same?" Loki asked, getting his answer straight away from the wicked smirk on Veles' face.

"You'd assume correct! It's really quite amusing all the faffing going on and the panicking. Of course, I still haven't and refuse to step foot on American soil, so I haven't witnessed the worst of it, but it's still amusing over on this side of the pond."

"That's very true! So is that the only reason you sent for me?" Loki finally asked, taking a sip of his own overly sugary coffee and looking at Veles closely, noticing him fidget in his seat in a clear show of discomfort.

"Not really," Veles admitted quietly, then sighed and looked straight at Loki, "do you ever just get a little lonely sometimes? Constantly alone with only the occasional meeting with other gods, because gods are really the only other beings out there that would understand?"

Loki looked at Veles and shrugged, not entirely sure how to answer. He could see what Veles meant, and felt it all the more since he wasn’t the most popular god out there and of the ones the did tolerate him, Veles was the only one knew who he actually was.

"You do have a bit of a point," Loki conceded eventually. Veles looked at him and smiled softly, looking a little depressed now that Loki looked more closely. Apparently it wasn't just the humans going through a great depression.

"So… I have this strange request. It's random and it's a little unusual, but well, there it is," Veles said with a shrug. Loki just stared at him silently and then blinked. When it looked like Veles wasn't actually going to share his idea, Loki decided to nudge him towards telling him the damned thought.

"Right, brilliant, you know I can't actually read you mind, right? Humans? Sure, they're all kinds of weak in the mind, vampires? Werewolves? Yep, those too. Gods, upper or lowercase g? Nope. So you are actually going to have to speak this plan out loud for me to give you a valid input," Loki told him, and Veles just stared at him, blush slowly rising up his face, made all the more obvious by his pale white skin tone.

"Of course, right, yes, you do have a point there."

"I know. I'm awesome like that, you've still yet to share the plan," Loki calmly pointed out, deciding to add another lump of sugar to his coffee and stirring it a couple of times in the hope that not giving Veles his undivided attention would get the God to spill.

"Fine! I just think, I'm lonely, you're lonely, we're both tricksters and we're both completely amazing in bed together, I just… I think we should maybe stick together for a little while. See if we can tolerate living together for longer than a weekend."

"We’ve stayed together for a whole weekend?" Loki asked, trying to think back to that, but not really succeeding.

"Sure we have! Moscow, 1891! Great time! Right?" Veles told him, sounding uncertain of the fact. Loki was fairly certain he hadn't been in Moscow in 1891, but he couldn't actually remember anything of 1891, so it was entirely possible Veles was right. Which was why he just nodded his agreement. "Exactly! And we're still alive, so clearly we survived that!"

"Clearly. How long are we intending on sticking together exactly?" Loki asked, not that he was completely against the idea. The more he met up with Veles, the less he wanted to leave against afterwards. His time in the God's underworld just solidified that. Loki just wasn’t quite ready to look into his reason behind that feeling.

"Well, until one of us has to leave for some reason or another. You know, religious duties of whatever. Plus, think about it, not only would we have company, company that accepts and understands all there is to the other, but my presence would cover your own, so should we ever bump into one of your delightfully glowy brothers, they won't be able to sense you under my own magic!"

"That's… actually, that's a good idea. Fine, I'm in. So, your place or mine?" Loki asked with a wink, ignoring the jump his heart gave when Veles smiled widely at him. He just wasn't ready to look into it just yet. Maybe another time.

Right now he was just going to carry on as he always has. And ignore his deeper feelings.

”I never realised how hard this would be.” Gabriel was frustrated at some level to realise that, with the voices having returned, so was his continuous feeling of being lost.

“It’s harder because of what he became.”

Eight Years Earlier

Loki wandered through the many souls that occupied Veles' realm, all waiting for their time that they would be given a new life when they were reincarnated. Which was never something that Loki ever thought Veles would do, but apparently the souls were given a choice by Charon, the gatekeeper to the realm. Upon their passing through, they were asked if they wished to pass on and disperse, or if they wanted to stay and wait for a chance to be reincarnated.

According to Charon, about seventy percent chose to be reincarnated. Though, there was a small percentage of that seventy percent, that then got given a different role. Every so often, apparently, Veles needed new workers, be they ankou or something else. Charon had admitted that he had been the first to be recruited. He'd been wandering the realms for decades before Veles had found him and told him that he could either be reincarnated or given the role of gatekeeper.

Loki could see why he had agreed to the latter option. It looked to be a fun job. Loki had spent a better part of the seven months he had been there, bothering the poor being and generally making a nuisance of himself. He had also taken the time to follow Veles' advice and had searched out the small section of the underworld that held all of Veles' creations before he introduced them to the world. He'd once sat and watched Veles create a strange creature that looked to be some sort of monkey cat hybrid. It was both an odd and adorable creature. And he couldn't help but notice just how differently Veles and his Father went about making their own creations. He knew they each put a bit of themselves in their creations, but for some reason, he felt that Veles gave his attention to each creation. Loki actually quite liked the little monkey-cats, or MonKats as he had unoriginally decided to mentally call them - he was a trickster god, not a creator, names were not his thing - and had spent a decent amount of time just playing with them in the underworld. Apparently Veles had not gotten around to introducing them just yet, Loki got the impression he had been too upset by the destruction of the leanbraiochs and hadn't quite dared introduce anything new.

Right now though, he was searching for a soul, something he had been doing during the times he wasn't tricking Charon. He searched out the souls that gave out the least light, that seemed to hide in the shadows the most. He had learnt, during his first week of being there, that they were the troubled souls. The ones that had been murdered, abused, hurt in some way or just forgotten about whilst still alive and had died alone.

He searched these souls out and tried to put them at ease. Gave them the confidence they never had in life and used his grace to let them feel some peace at their decision to try again. Because he respected that choice. He had no idea what they had gone through in their life, but as bad as it had been, they had still decided to give another life a chance in spite of it. Or perhaps it was because of their previous life. Loki didn't know, but he liked them and felt joy in being able to give them something.

Loki had decided that he had been hiding in Veles' realm for long enough, seven months of never leaving, watching the occasional victim of the First World War arrive and worrying over how Veles was taking it. He could still remember the look on Veles' face when he found him seven months before in the trenches.

So he was searching for one last soul to help and then he was going to return back to the mortal realm, and hope that the brother that he had sensed, hadn't sensed him in return and thus was not looking for him.

He really hoped that wasn’t the case. That would completely ruin any and all of his future plans if he had to live the next several decades hiding from his brothers. Or down here. As much as he loved it down here, and he did, it was peaceful and quiet. Which was something he secretly loved, even though he'd never admit it. He still wouldn't really want to spend an indefinite time down here. Charon would probably end up sobbing uncontrollably.

Gabriel slowly started to realise that certain things he hadn’t realised he’d forgotten in the first place, were being returned to him. Then wondered at the flush of shame he had for forgetting chocolate.

Seven Months Earlier

Loki froze as soon as he sensed one of his brothers near him, and then silently cursed them, trying to feel if he was giving off enough magic and grace for the other to sense him. Cursing again when he felt just high up the other angel was, he could chance whether or not he could be sensed in return, and vanished from the house he had been setting up a trick. The victim was highly lucky that an angel apparently had business in the same town as him. He had gotten off lightly.

Loki just hoped he would be just as lucky.

Not really having anywhere else to go, he went to where he could feel Veles, and arrived in the middle of a battlefield. Literally. There were dead bodies all over, reminding Loki of the reason that he had been laying lethal tricks on the people that were partially behind the war that no one knew the reasons behind. It had been the plan both he and Veles had come up with upon hearing the first whispers about this so-called 'Great War', and this would be the first time since it had started that they'd met up again.

He walked over to where Veles was wandering over the grounds, glancing at the dead bodies as he passed, and Loki noticed another reaper - or ankou, as it appeared to belong to Veles - was taking the occasional soul of a downed soldier on the field a couple of metres to his left.

"So this is what I've been missing? Looks… messy," Loki commented once he had finally found his tongue. Veles spun around quickly to face him, and raised an eyebrow upon seeing who it was. Loki stalled the inevitable question by turning away and looking over the field, No Man's Land if he remembered correctly. It sounded rather apt, in the most morbid of ways.

"Hmm. Messy is one way of describing it. How goes your own task?" Veles asked him and turning back to face the direction of where he had been heading. Loki shrugged and then moved to follow Veles, wondering how to approach the subject of why he fled.

"I've had a break in things. An old family member was lingering around a bit too close to where I was staying. Didn't want to be found," Loki finally muttered, making Veles stop and turn around to look at him in concern.

"Well… shit. Did they sense you before you left?"

"I don't think so," Loki admitted with a shrug, rubbing the back of his neck and then shoving a Twizzler in his mouth, having gotten a taste for them when he had last gone over to America. He looked up to see Veles looking at him curiously and tilted his head in silent question.

"You don't… what is that?" Veles asked him instead as he watched Loki nibble on the candy. Loki had the fleeting thought that it was a terrible thing Veles not knowing what a Twizzler was.

"Huh? This? It's a Twizzler. Like… a liquorice stick," Loki told him and then passed one of them over to Veles, who warily took it and looked at it strangely, before looking back up at Loki. Loki couldn't help but compare it back to their first meeting when he'd force-fed the man chocolate.

"Liquorice doesn't tend to be red," Veles pointed out, still not putting the sweet anywhere near his mouth,. Loki just watched him in amusement, and shook his head with a chuckle when Veles looked at him.

"Have you noticed we have the most random of conversations in the most inappropriate of places? And it's strawberry flavoured. I think," Loki added hastily, with a small shrug, finishing off his own Twizzler and pulling another out of his pocket.

"We do. But recently, there hasn't actually been anywhere that is appropriate for any light-hearted conversations. Back to the original topic however, are you certain they didn't sense you?" Veles asked him and Loki paused with the Twizzler in his mouth and then shrugged, pulling it out and sighing.

"I don't know. I hope not, but I'm not too sure. If they did, chances are we don't have long until they will be here," Loki admitted, grinning at him sheepishly and truly hoping that that wasn't going to be the case. He had no doubts that Veles would be fine should he be confronted by any of his brothers, but he'd still rather avoid it all the same.

"Why did you come to me then? I mean, why didn't you go somewhere they wouldn't be able to find you?"

"I don't know of anywhere and I figured, who better to hide me than a god of death?" Loki asked with a cheeky grin, making Veles roll his eyes and nod his head.

"I'll take you to my underworld. You'll be safe there. Let me go grab that soul over there, Friedrich Wewer is about to come to an unfortunate demise," Veles commented lightly, making his way over to where a German soldier was getting ready to charge over the trenches with his fellow soldiers.

Loki walked after him and watched, flinching when the bullet hit Friedrich in the chest and made him drop to the floor, his comrades having no choice but to fall back and having to leave the body behind.

"Friedrich, come, it's time to leave here. You are of no help to your friends any longer," Veles told the soul quietly, and Loki watched them before quickly rushing over the rest of the distance between them to stand next to Veles when the God looked over at him.

"Will they be okay without me?" Friedrich asked him, looking over his shoulder at the soldiers behind him. Veles sighed and placed a hand on the souls shoulder, getting his attention back.

"They will be fine," Veles told him, and Loki knew it was a lie. He wouldn't be surprised if Friedrich knew that as well. Veles turned slightly to grip Loki's wrist with his other hand and then locked eyes with Friedrich, "it is time for you to move on now, let's go." And with that, Veles took them all down to the underworld.

Loki followed Veles to him rooms once they had left Friedrich in the hands of Charon, the Gate Keeper. He wondered just how long he'd be able to stay down here, hiding from his brothers and his past, and how long it would be before he got fed up of his own cowardice.

Veles closed the door behind them once in the room, motioning for Loki to take a seat and making a bowl of assorted sweets appear on the coffee table in front of the chairs. Loki made a small noise of interest in the back of his throat, before throwing himself on the couch and grabbing the bowl of sweets, tucking in whilst looking up at Veles, waiting for what he was going to say about it all.

"So do you know which family member it was?" Veles asked him, moving to sit on the chair opposite Loki.

"I don't know, no. Why? Would a name actually mean anything to you?" Loki asked him curiously and quite validly, given he hadn't actually known the name Gabriel off the top of his head.

"Not really, no. I know your name and er… Hmm… Michael? That's one, right? He's an angel thing person?" Veles asked. Loki snorted and started to choke on the sweet in his mouth as he thought about what Michael's reaction would have been had he heard Veles saying that.

"Michael? Yeah, he's an angel. He's a dick, too." Loki muttered, once he had stopped choking. Veles raised an eyebrow at him and then snickered.

"Such a loving family. Aren't Christians all for family love and stuff?" Veles asked with a negligent wave of his hand. Loki just looked at him in amusement and shook his head.

"What about you? You don't have any siblings?"

"Nope. I'm an only child. Per se. Uppercase G God, that's me," Veles told him with a very proud look on his face, even going so far as to puff his chest out in pride. Loki snickered and shook his head, silently pondering if the God's head would grow to accommodate the size of his ego.

"I'm a god too, you know."

"Lowercase g, makes all the difference. I'm more important. It's a proven fact. You have other gods to contend with and all that. I have all my people to myself, no one else to share my delicious little worshippers with," Veles informed him with a smug smirk, making it sound like he considered all his worshippers as tasty snacks. Loki just gaped at him and made a small indignant noise at having been brushed aside so easily.

"Yeah? Well… I'm an uppercase A Archangel! Beat that!" Loki exclaimed with a proud nod, though he felt his pride deflate a little when Veles scoffed at him.

"God beats Archangel… and technically, you're only uppercase A when someone is referring to the Archangel Gabriel… otherwise… still lowercase I'm afraid," Veles told him. Loki huffed and crossed his arms over his chest, pouting and glaring at Veles with narrowed eyes.

"Oh go choke on a dictionary, you freak!"

"Don't get your Twizzlers in a knot, dear," Veles said with a smirk, before he frowned and shifted in his seat. "Upper or lowercase g, you're still a god. You feel when something bad is coming, don't you?"

"If it's going to be really big, then yeah, I do. Why?" Loki asked, though he had an inkling that he knew exactly why Veles was asking, and knew he wouldn't be able to say all that much. Mostly because he was so out of touch with everything to do with his past, that he didn't actually know if any of the plans had gone ahead yet, or if they ever would. Though, knowing Michael and Raphael, he'd be surprised if they didn't go ahead with everything.

"Because I feel like something really big is coming. I've been feeling it for over a century now. And even with this stupid war going on, it's still there," Veles told him, nibbling on his lip.

"Ah, which means that it's going to be even bigger and more devastating than this. Yeah, I'm getting the same feelings as well." Loki admitted with a sigh, but that truly was all he could admit. Times like this, he wished he hadn't cut off all ties with everyone.

"Well, shit. So what now?" Veles asked, standing up from his chair and moving to sit on the same sofa with Loki, sitting sideways to look at the other man.

"Nothing we can do," Loki admitted with a shrug, shifting in his seat at the discomfort he felt at that fact.

"So I go back to convincing dead soldiers that they don't want to become future victims of hunters, and you go back to driving the leaders of this war round the bend?" Veles asked, looking at him with a completely unimpressed look on his face.

"Ah… actually, think I can hide out down here for a little while? I have no idea how long they're gonna be in the mortal realm for and really don't want to go back." Loki admitted, pouting slightly at the thought that he was hiding from his brothers once more. Veles looked at him and rolled his eyes, but nodded all the same.

"Fine, stay here. Wander around, chat up the unsuspecting souls waiting for reincarnation, and terrify the creations I have yet to send up. I really do need to go back up though. My ankou are becoming overrun," Veles said with a weary sigh. Loki reached out and grabbed Veles' wrist before he could stand up from the table, making Veles pause and look at him.

"You have to leave right now? Because I can think of something that we could do that would take your mind off of everything for a short time," Loki told him, smirking at him and leering to exaggerate his point. Veles snorted but still shook his head, much to Loki's disappointment. He really was beginning to think he'd gone celibate again.

"You're absolutely certain you weren't lying to me when you told me you're actually an angel? Horny buggers, aren't you?"

"You've met other angels?" Loki asked him, fairly certain of the answer if he thought they were all horny. Most of the angels he could remember would have look scandalised at the word horny. Or thought you were talking about a goat or something. Some angels were a little on the special side. His Father never truly believed in making everything equal in all ways. A couple of his siblings were proof of that, being a couple of colours short of a rainbow. Raphael came to mind.

"Well… no."

"Ah, see. Not all are horny. You should meet some of my younger brothers. I doubt they even know the meaning of the word horny," Loki told him, still grinning his Cheshire Cat grin and getting a chuckle and mock shocked look from Veles.

"Really? And you haven't taught them the meaning? No corrupting the little fluffy angels of the Christian Heaven? No tarnishing their halos?" Veles asked with a sly grin on his face. Loki chuckled and shaking his head as he imagined any of his brothers looking like what Veles apparently thought angels looked like.

"You do know that we don't have halos, right? Where did that even come from? What is practical about having a metal hoop hovering above your head? Hardly inconspicuous," Loki told him. He gave a small tug on Veles' wrist and grinned when Veles snorted and moved to lean against him.

"Hmm, never know if some random demon is going to pull it down and throttle you with it. How about you try to corrupt me instead?"

"Corrupt you? I'm the innocent angel here, you're the one corrupting me," Loki exclaimed with mock innocence, though judging by the look on Veles' face, he didn't buy it. Not that he blamed him, given the things they had done together.

"Loki, that would be akin to corrupting a whore," Veles told him, yelping and laughing when Loki pinched his side.

"I'm ineffable, I'll have you know!" Loki exclaimed, whilst Veles was still giggling, leaning heavily against him.

"Sure you are. I guess I should get to work on corrupting you then?" Veles asked once he had stopped laughing, moving to press against Loki's side and pressing a kiss to the archangel's neck. "That will be fun."

”What is that?” Gabriel could hear the pure confusion in the voice of the older being, and could almost imagine the younger of the two smirking mysteriously.

“Something important.”

Sixteen Years Earlier

Loki is amused when he senses Veles searching for him seconds before the God appeared in front of him. Chuckling, Loki took in the appearance of Veles, looking completely unruffled for once and was about to ask what he wanted him for when he found himself with an armful of excitable God.

"Er… good to see you too, Vel. It's been, what? Seven months?" Loki asked, amused by the greeting and finally wrapping his own arms around Veles to return to the hug.

A good five minutes later, Veles finally pulled back and looked at him with a wide smile, "Just wanted to see you! You do know it's been two hundred years since we first met! So I thought we could go celebrate that and the new year by being all nostalgic and going back to where we met!"

"It's still there?" Loki asked dubiously, because like Veles had said, it had been two hundred years, and he was doubting that the very same pub they had met in was still going to be there.

"Of course it is! Owned by the same family too, admittedly it's the son of the guy who owned it when we were there, but still, same pub!"

"Son? But… how?" Loki asked, not too sure how someone could still be alive after what must be more than two hundred years. Unless they weren't human, and Loki was almost positive that the bartender had been human.

"Wizards live far longer than humans, I told you that," Veles told him impatiently, and Loki gaped for a second before frowning and shaking his head.

"Fine, but two hundred years?!" Loki exclaimed, waving his hands in the hope that Veles picked up on how baffling this was for him. He wasn't getting the impression that Veles was, however.

"Well, yes, alright, I'll concede that that's a little long even for a wizard. But he's also got the blood of some creature in him. I have no idea what. I've totally forgotten. Harpy? I think it might be harpy…" Veles mused. Loki stared at him, completely amused, and then nudged Veles to get his attention back on track. "Hmm? Oh! Yes. So?"

"Fine, let's go be nostalgic and get drunk," Loki said, chuckling when Veles gave a happy squeak and grabbed Loki's hand, taking them to the pub with a wink and a pop.

Muttering viciously under his breath about ways of travel, Loki steadied himself as soon as they appeared in front of the pub, and glared at a smirking Veles.

"Come on!" Veles chirped happily, and Loki huffed a sigh, rolling his eyes and then following behind Veles, wondering why he was so hyper. He reached Veles at the bar, smiling when he realised not much had changed, and took the seat next to him.

"Okay, fine, this was a good idea," Loki told him, after taking in every change that he could of the pub and turning back to Veles, who was smiling widely at him.

"See! Oi! Barman!" Veles hollered and Loki couldn't help but think both of them were completely different from when they had last been there. The bartender turned from where he had been talking to another punter, and looked at them grumpily. Loki could definitely see the likeness between him and his late father. "Harpy. Defnitely harpy."

"What?"

"The blood in his veins. It's harpy," Veles muttered to him, then turned back to smile brightly at the bartender, getting a scowl for his efforts, "two Firewhiskey's please."

"Firewhiskey?" Loki asked when the bartender turned to get their drinks.

"Yeah, well I couldn't actually remember what the hell we were drinking last time we were here and I have no idea if they still make them. This is the only drink I could remember."

"I can't remember much of that night, if I'm totally honest," Loki admitted, grabbing his drink with a nod of thanks as soon as it was placed in front of him, "So, here's to two hundred years of friendship and insanity."

"And two hundred more of the same, at least!" Veles replied with a wide smile, tapping their glasses together. Loki chuckled and downed the drink, regretting it almost immediately when it almost set fire to his oesophagus. Choking and wheezing, tears running down his face, Loki gratefully accepted the glass of water Veles pushed into his hand.

"Lightweight."

"Lightweight?!" Loki wheezed, staring at Veles in shock, coughing a little still, and feeling grateful for the water that had soothed his throat a little.

"Yeah, I supposed I could have also told you not to down it. Ah well. It was amusing."

"You're horrible."

"Yep. Happy New Years, Lo," Veles told him with a fond smile, throwing an arm over Loki's shoulders and tugging him into a hug that Loki willingly went into.

"Happy New Years, Vel."

”Is that supposed to happen?” Panic didn’t even get to set in before Gabriel suddenly… wasn’t.

Seventeen Years Earlier

Loki sensed him long before he actually saw him. His whole being sensed the other god searching for him and knew the exact moment that he pinpointed Loki's location and Loki sighed, deciding to wait and see what he wanted.

Luckily, he didn't have to wait long, and as soon as he saw him, Loki pushed away from the wall he was leaning on and made a small gesture for Gahnesh to follow him into a small, out of the way pub.

"So, what brings you…" Loki trailed off and grinned cheekily at the god sitting in front of him. "Well, what brings you anywhere outside of Asia?"

"Veles," Gahnesh told him, and Loki felt completely justified in gaping because that really wasn't what he was expecting at all.

"Huh?"

"Veles. You've been avoiding him. I do not care for reasons why, but I know that he is going to need you now. For some reason he actually cares for you," Gahnesh told him, the look on his face a clear indicator of what he actually thought of that. Not that Loki was all that surprised, he'd never got on with the weird elephant god.

No sense of humour.

"I haven't been avoiding him per se. I've been trying to get my thoughts in order," Loki muttered and frowning as he glanced down at his hands on the table.

"Well, I think perhaps you should put them in order a little quicker than you have been. Veles is currently on a small island called Pulau Surtung. You might wish to get there as soon as you can. He trusts you much more than he trusts any of us."

"What's happened?" Loki asked him, feeling his worry niggle in his stomach, shoving aside any problems he had had been stewing over. Not that he didn't continue to wonder over his friendship or whatever it was that he had with Veles. He had no clue how to deal with any of it and he hadn't heard anything from his Father for centuries. He looked up sharply when Gahnesh placed a hand over his own and looked at him shrewdly.

"Go and find the newest God." Loki narrowed his eyes at him, eyes darting down to look at the hand over his own when it tightened in a way that could be considered threatening. "When you do, do not mess with him, Loki. There are many of us who hold that God in high esteem. We will get any and all retribution we think he needs should someone hurt him. Even though we know he would rather we didn't. Remember that, Loki."

Loki sat, gaping at where Gahnesh had sat for a good fifteen minutes after the other god had left him, before he shook his head and stood up to leave. Concentrating on the whereabouts of his feather, and appearing there.

There was devastation. That was the only thing Loki could think when he appeared on the small island. Pulau Surtung if Gahnesh had been right. All around him was destruction. He had, of course, known on some subconscious level, of the eruption that had happened not all that long ago. He just hadn't seen the results of it.

Until now.

Loki looked around him at the barely recognisable burnt figures that he could only assume were once people. As he slowly made his way closer to where he could sense Veles, the corpses started to look more and more recognisable as just that. Though that was about all they were recognisable as. Loki had never, in his entire existence, seen anything like the tiny, crimson-skinned creatures huddled amongst the bodies of other magical creatures that Loki did recognise.

He finally came across Veles crouching down next to one of the small red creatures, brushing a finger across it's forehead tenderly, and Loki felt his heart twinge at the look of sheer loss and pain on Veles' face. He stepped nearer to make his presence known and Veles straightened up and spun around quickly. He visibly reared back in shock upon seeing Loki standing there and Loki took the time for Veles to get over his shock by glancing once more around him, then looked at Veles in shocked confusion.

"You look how I feel," Veles informed him in a hoarse voice that made Loki wonder how long he had been silent for and feeling some guilt over the thought that some of this might have been his fault. Veles brushed past him as he passed by to kneel next to the body of what Loki thought was possibly an incubus, tapping it's head and whispering something before standing once more and turning to look at Loki, "where have you been? I was beginning to get worried."

"I know. A mutual friend of ours told me. He informed me that you might need a friendly face, and now I understand what he meant. I don't think I had ever been to this island before. Didn't even know it had occupants," Loki admitted as he looked around him once more, memories of Sodom and Gomorrah flashing through his mind, and making him wince in guilt for an entirely different reason than a few minutes before.

"No, no one really did. It was only truly inhabited in the last century or so. When I created these tiny people," Veles murmured, and Loki watched him run a finger down the face of one of the crimson-skinned creatures, Loki noticing absently that they had pure silver hair as well and looked like miniature nymphs of myth. Loki walked closer to Veles and titled his head to the side as he examined them, taking note of the long, delicate fingers and long pointed ears. Veles was right, it was really quite small, only reaching two foot in height, had it been standing.

"What is it?"

"They were a kind of sprite, I suppose would be the best description. They thrived in hot climates, but needed to be close to water. This place was ideal. Clearly not as ideal as I had hoped. This is the second species I have lost to extinction now. I really quite liked them," Veles admitted quietly before he sighed and stood to face Loki once more. "Enough about my troubles however, we need to talk about you. It's not good for a Trickster to be walking around with a bottom lip he might soon trip over. Lo, what's wrong?"

"I don't - I can't say. It's nothing really. Nothing important at least," Loki insisted, looking away from Veles to glance towards the islands in the distance, nibbling on his lip as his insides twisted in indecision. He looked towards where the volcano had erupted, ash and smoke still billowing from it and frowned to himself at his selfishness.

"Nothing important? You've been like this for over a century. I think that would suggest you were lying," Veles told him dryly, then narrowed his eyes at the stubborn god and stepped up to him, almost touching and forcing Loki to look at him, "come with me. I know somewhere we can talk that will be safe from anyone that may feel inclined to listen."

Loki looked at him in confusion and Veles smiled at him softly, placing the palm of his hand to Loki's head and closing his eyes. Loki closed his own eyes and had the sensation of being squeezed through a straw, before it stopped and he opened his eyes.

He looked around him in confusion, taking note of the high ceiling of the room they were in, the walls seemingly made out of obsidian or something similar. There was a large bed in the room, with a deep blue cover over it, and two blue sofas facing a fireplace.

Veles stepped away from Loki and clicked his fingers in a way very similar to Loki, making the fireplace come to life with blue and silver flames, which made Loki frown and then look at Veles. Blue flames were just odd. Though, they were quite nice to look at. Still odd though, and made Loki wonder if Veles perhaps had some sort of chemical in there that made the flames blue. He wouldn't have put it past the strange man to have copper in that fireplace.

"What? It goes with the theme. Red and yellow would have messed it all up. This, Loki, is my realm. Well, my home within my realm. The whole realm is somewhat larger, having to host spirits and such. And nothing and no one can eavesdrop on anything said within this room." Or he could have used magic. That, Loki silently admitted, made more sense than copper. Pushing oddly coloured flames to the back of his mind, Loki looked at Veles speculatively, then looked back at the blue fire.

"So this is where you live?" Loki asked him, not looking away from the flames, feeling calmed just at the sight, which just bemused him. He finally managed to drag his eyes away from the fire and looked over to see Veles watching him in amusement.

"Sort of. Mostly I live up top, got a small cottage in Moscow. Nice place, locals are delightful. Sometimes," Veles added as an after thought, before he moved and sat in one of the couches, looking at Loki. Loki jerked and moved to do the same, sighing and leaning his head back, closing his eyes as he felt his body relax into the warmth and comfort of the sofa. "You don't have to tell me. But I am here to listen."

"I know. It's just… hard. Everything is hard. And recently it's become harder for some reason. I don't really know why. It happens every so often. I get melancholy and think about what things were like before…" Loki trailed off, looking into the fire, not for the first time (and probably not for the last) wondering if everyone in heaven believed Michael and Raphael when they said he was dead. Something Gabriel had been both amused and hurt by. It did stop them searching for him though.

"Before? Before when? Before mortals seemed to get more and more inventive with their reasons to hate one another? I know that feeling," Veles grumbled. Loki chuckled mirthlessly and shook his head, taking a deep breath before he just decided to tell Veles everything. Including who he once was.

"No. I'm not… I don't - I'm not a God like you. I can't create beings, I don't have any followers anymore and… well I'm not like you," Loki muttered, scrubbing at his face with his hands, whilst Veles just continued to look at him in confusion.

"Well no, I never thought you were. For one, you're Norse and most seem to think I'm Slavic. Which I've never understood, can I just say. My people are all over the world. And well… you're a heck of a lot older than I am and your er… your magic is different to anything that I have ever come across. It's amazing to be honest," Veles told him with a small smile. Loki tried to smile back, but got the impression he failed in that slightly. He had an idea of how his magic felt to Veles.

"There's a reason that my magic feels so different to yours. Like I said I'm not like you. I don't…" Loki trailed off and sighed, looking around the room and then back at Veles. "No one can hear us in here? Nothing? No other gods or creatures?"

"No," Veles told him, frowning in confusion and then looking around the room, "this is separate from the mortal realm. This is all mine, you are the only other god that even knows of this place. No one can enter this realm without my say so, I know everyone and thing in this place. That includes gods from all religions. Even the Judeo-Christian God can't get into this place without my say so."

"So I can tell you anything and no one else will hear it?"

"Precisely. Loki, what's going on?" Veles asked, standing up to sit on the same sofa as Loki and placing a hand on the Trickster's arm.

"I wasn't always known as Loki, Norse trickster god. I went as something before I took up that role," Loki muttered, snapping his fingers and feeling his shoulders slump in disappointment when nothing appeared.

"I'm the only one that can use magic in this room. What did you want?" Veles asked him, and Loki just shrugged, then sighed before he answered. It figured he wouldn't be able to do any magic down here.

"Chocolate. I'm going to need lots of chocolate. And anything else sweet," Loki grumbled and Veles chuckled but snapped his fingers together, making a bowl full of sweets and other candies appear in his other hand, which he then passed over to Loki.

"Okay… so you have your sugar intake now," Veles said, watching as Loki nibbled on a chocolate truffle, "want to tell me who you were? What name you went by before you chose Loki?" Veles asked, shifting so that he was sitting sideways on the sofa and was looking at Loki.

"Gabriel," Loki muttered around a chocolate bonbon that he had shoved in his mouth. The melted chocolate sticking to his cheeks and the back of his throat, and making his regret shoving the whole thing in a little. Veles looked at him and tilted his head to the side, clearly trying to think of where he had heard the name before. Not that Loki expected him to know who Gabriel was. Veles had never shown any interest in other religions beyond talking to the actual gods. Loki knew Veles had never spoken his Father.

"You were human? Before becoming a god, I mean? You were a human called Gabriel? I was a human before this, you know? I was called Harry though, which is slightly more boring than Gabriel, though less... gender ambiguous. Is that what's wrong though? You're upset about something from your human life?" Veles asked him and Loki shook his head. He sighed and clutched the bowl tighter, practically hugging it to his chest and feeling like he was hiding behind it. Hiding behind a bowl of chocolates to protect him from the horrible memories of his past.

"No. I was something else," Loki told him and Veles looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I was an archangel. The Archangel Gabriel."

Veles was silent for a few moments before he nodded and then grinned widely. "If I were Catholic, I'd so be kneeling at your feet right now."

"You have to be Catholic to kneel at my feet? Since when? Never stopped you before," Loki pointed out. He felt his whole body suddenly feel lighter as relief flooded him when Veles didn't make a large deal out of who he was. He hadn't realised just how worried he had been about Veles' opinion on everything, and seemingly having his acceptance just took a huge weight off of Loki's mind. Veles chuckled and moved so that he was kneeling on the sofa and moved to almost press against Loki's side.

"So do you have wings?" Veles asked, lips brushing against Loki's ear. Loki shuddered in lust and felt Veles smirk.

"I do, yeah," Loki admitted, his voice sounding equally low voice as Veles'. He tilted his head to the side to give Veles access to his neck, and bringing his hand up to grip the God's hair in his fist.

"Can I see them?" Veles asked, brushing his nose against the skin behind Loki's ear and then pressing a kiss to it. He brought his hand up and trailed it down Loki's spine. Loki gasped, fist clenching in Veles' hair even tighter as he tried to press into the touch. This was certainly going much better than he had ever expected.

"Sure," Loki gasped, before he moved quickly, dropping the bowl of treats to the floor and dragging Veles to straddle his lap. Veles gasped in surprise and then moaned into Loki's mouth when the trickster pulled his head down to kiss. Loki pulled back slightly and locked eyes with Veles, smirking, "now?"

"No," Veles told him, rocking his hips down into Loki's, breath hitching in pleasure when their erections brushed. Loki grunted, thrusting his hips up to meet Veles' when Veles shifted to suck on Loki's neck. Loki moved his hands to grip Veles' hips, dragging them closer together and grinding up into him, gasping lightly. "Right now I have other plans."

"I think I like where these plans look to be going," Loki muttered, groaning as he thrust his hips up into Veles, in turn causing the God to bite his neck.

"Oh, you will," Veles told him as he licked at bite mark on Loki's neck and thrust down into him. He then pulled back to look at Loki and winked, making their clothing disappear.

"Neat trick, you'll have to teach me."

"And make you lose your trademark finger clicking? Definitely," Veles told him with a smirk, then gasped when Loki gripped both their erections and began to stroke them slowly. Veles moved his hands to grip at Loki's shoulders and pressed his forehead against Loki's, "shouldn't you be all virginal and pious? Being an angel and all?" Veles asked, voice hitching when Loki's other hand moved to brush against him.

"Not an angel anymore. It was too boring for me. Lube?" Loki asked him, pressing the tip of his finger into Veles, smirking when Veles gasped and pressed back, even as he waved his hand and made lube appear on Loki's fingers.

"We really need to talk after thi-iss," Veles gasped out, voice hitching and making him hiss in a strange snake-like manner when Loki immediately pushed two fingers inside of him, searching for that little spot that would make Veles turn to mush. Veles yelped and thrust down onto Loki's fingers when he found it, Loki just smirked and moved to press his lips to Veles' throat.

"We don't need to talk about anything, Vel," Loki whispered against his skin, brushing almost continuously against that spot in Veles, making the God keen as he pressed himself as close to Loki as he could get.

"Okay! Fine! Stop teasing me!" Veles finally cried out when Loki pushed a third finger into him and continued to press against his prostate. Loki moved his other hand from his erection to grip the back of Veles' neck and pulled his head back down so that he could kiss him.

Loki smirked against their lips and withdrew his fingers, before he spread the rest of the lube over his own erection and then slid his hand down Veles' back and gripped his hip. Veles moved so that the tip of Loki's erection was pressing against him, but not penetrating him, and pulled away from the kiss to look into Loki's eyes. Veles smirked at him and lowered down onto Loki, bringing a groan from them both, and stopping when Loki was in completely.

"You can tell me anything, Lo," Veles told him breathlessly. Loki locked eyes with Veles, grunting when he lifted and then quickly thrust back down. Instead of replying, Loki just gripped Veles' hips and took charge, quickening their thrusts and getting louder groans and grunts from Veles.

It wasn't longer before they both pushed the reasons that had brought them together to the backs of their minds, both choosing to lose themselves in the pleasure of their combined magic flowing over their joined bodies, increasing the intensity and making them both gasp and moan. Loki's grip on Veles' hips tightened as his own thrusts started to get quicker, as Veles pressed almost completely against his chest, pressing open mouthed kisses to his neck as he clung to his shoulders.

Loki groaned when Veles nipped and bit at his collarbone, his hand moving to tangle into Loki's hair. He could feel the tremble in Veles' thighs as his moans became louder and more hitched, signalling to Loki that he was close. Loki looked at Veles when he pulled back from nibbling at Loki's neck, grunting when Veles practically fell forward to press a messy, open-mouthed kiss to his lips. Loki groaned and let his head drop back to the couch as he felt his climax start in the hot curl of his stomach, even as Veles cried out with his own orgasm, muscles clamping down on Loki and finally ripping Loki's orgasm out of him.

Loki huffed when Veles slumped against his chest bonelessly, breathing just as heavily as Loki was. He felt Veles slowly relax his hand from where it was clenched in Loki's hair and moved his head to rest against Loki's neck. Loki moved his arms to wrap them around Veles' waist, gently rubbing up and down his back, and nuzzling his face into Veles' hair.

"I'll always be there for you, should you ever need to talk," Veles whispered, breath brushing against Loki's skin and making him shiver. Together, they shifted and Veles groaned when Loki slowly pulled out of him, his breath hitched when a wave of magic washed over them, cleaning them both.

"I got fed up of the fighting. I had to leave," Loki murmured into Veles' hair, closing his eyes and tightening his arms around Veles at the pain his memories brought. Veles shifted and kissed Loki's jaw, rubbing a hand up and down his chest soothingly. Loki sighed, relaxing into Veles, and steeled himself to tell Veles the reason why he left Heaven behind.

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