Chapter 30 - Bone

Iris

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When Valkyre awoke again, he knew it even before he opened his eyes; he could feel the other's presence through the black, whispering nothingness around him, like a candle lit in an empty room. It let him forget, if only for an instant, that he was still trapped somewhere deep underground, surrounded by damp earth and soil and the spiders skittering over his skin.
He saw Iris.
The boy lay across from him, half curled up on his side, eyes closed, gray hair falling over his calm face, body still but for the slight, gentle breathing.
Valkyre felt a sigh escape his lips. He'd barely had time to think about it earlier, but he'd been worried about the boy, terrified Iris wouldn't be there, that something would've...
Corryn.
The angel bit his lip as he suddenly realized that the other was next to Iris; in the dim light, he'd never seen the tanned form beside the pale alabaster skin of the young boy that seemed to glow in comparison to the rest of the darkness around them.
The other's eyes blinked open, not at all surprised. Corryn flashed a grin, golden-black eyes glinting through his tangled hair. His gaze held Valkyre's, even as he slowly moved closer and touched Iris' still form, drawing the boy's body up against his own, protectively.
Valkyre stiffened, immediately wanting to move and stop him, but he was still bound, immobile.
"Don't touch him," he hissed, scowling. The angel wasn't quite sure what made him so angry, but he wanted to get out of this, wanted to take Iris and leave this place, never see this other creature again.
Corryn cocked his head to one side, giving the other a feral, crooked grin.
"You care about him, archangel?" He picked through the boy's tangled hair calmly, brushing at a spider that skittered over Iris' ear, "That he cares about you as well?? You think you mean something to him?"
Valkyre turned his eyes away, uneasy, frowning. "What... What do you mean?"
The angel looked back up as Corryn barked a laugh that seemed to turn into a cough, hands stopping, eyes turned dark. He was shaking his head.
"It's obvious that you're not the only one who wants Iris for his own. He draws people to himself, he does. But it doesn't mean he wants to, or that he needs them."
Corryn looked down at the boy resting against him, eyes still peacefully closed, breathing soft. "But do you honestly think you mean anything to him?"
Valkyre stifled back a response, biting his lip.
He was probably just falling for a trick, he thought, just being turned into a fool.
But he could see no reason as to why Iris would truly want to be with him. The angel had hunted him earlier, had then tried and more often than not failed to protect the boy, but even then, hadn't Iris wanted to die...?
Corryn chuckled under his breath. "Why should he care about any of us, hm? He has no reason to. We are selfish, and we have hurt him to reach our own goals. We are nothing, and stupid for thinking that we mean anything to him."
Valkyre wanted to protest, but he didn't know the right words.
The angel stopped as Iris suddenly stirred, reaching out and lightly touching Corryn's shoulder, pulling himself up slowly. The boy blinked, then closed his eyes, whispering something in the other's ear. Valkyre was more stunned by the action than in what might've been said; why would Iris touch Corryn like that...?
The other seemed to stop, listening. He tilted his head to the other side again, scratching idly at his cheek. His golden eyes found Valkyre's again, taunting.
"You still think you mean something to him, Valkyre?"
The angel clenched his teeth, trying to ignore the laughing eyes, the mocking.
"Iris," he whispered, trying to attract the boy's attention, at the same time struggling again to break the thread holding him down, feeling the creatures skittering quickly over his body, spurred by his movements.
The boy looked up at him, gray eyes unchanged, soft and hollow. Iris smiled, softly.
And then he closed his eyes and curled up against Corryn, sighing softly to himself, body completely relaxed, unconcerned.
Valkyre stared in disbelief, flinching as Corryn stole his gaze, own black-ringed eyes bright, triumphant. He was taunting him, wordlessly, trying to draw him forward again.
The angel sank back instead, breath hitching in his throat. He felt like he wasn't seeing anything, like he was somewhere else. He couldn't, didn't see, didn't want to care.
...Why??
Iris... ...Was it all just false, all along? No, it couldn't... could it? Valkyre thought of how much he'd done with the boy, how much they'd gone through... The fleeing, the sadness brought back up, the tattoos, the small smiles... ...and the kiss?
...But all along, Iris had always been so quiet, so emotionless. Was he made like that, or did he simply choose to be that way??
Valkyre felt a drop in the pit of his stomach as he suddenly remembered the small abandoned building, of Iris awake in the morning, calmly watching the spider skim over his fingers, over his hand and arm.
...Had he known, all along?? Had he waited for this?? Why? Why Corryn...?
"I've known him longer than you have, archangel." The other seemed to be reading his mind, grinning, arm wrapped around the boy curled in his lap, fingers lifting idly through the silvered hair. "Why do think you'd be anything to him??" Hissed words, narrowed eyes. Protective.
Valkyre was startled to realize something; in this matter, he and Corryn were alike. They were both protective over Iris, both wanting him. ...But who did Iris want?? Why were things suddenly like this?
Valkyre felt the despair weigh heavily on him. What was he doing here, trapped with an insane lab experiment underground...? Why did he need Iris so much? Why couldn't he let this go??
He felt betrayed, suddenly alone again. It was a loneliness that tore at him now, burned at him. A loneliness he felt he couldn't stand. He's been wrong all along... ...Had he? ...Iris.
The angel looked up again after what felt like an eternity of silence and stillness. He felt somehow jaded, apart from it all.
What Valkyre wanted most of all now was escape.
As to whether or not he left with Iris... He no longer knew.
"...Corryn."
The other blinked up at him, looking like he'd been about to doze off.
"Would... Would you let me down?"
It sounded pathetic even to his own ears, but Valkyre was obviously not getting down any other way.
Corryn snorted, closing an eye calmly to let a spider crawl up his cheek and over to disappear in his dark, tangled hair.
"Why should I?"
Nothing less than what he expected. Still.
"Why not?" Valkyre countered. "What do you want me for? All you want is... Iris, isn't it?"
The other grinned, the truth glinting in his eyes but not to be given over so easily. "I know you're of some value, Valkyre. I know Raguel wants you, for one."
Valkyre blinked, surprised. "...Why?"
Corryn laughed, gently pulling himself away from the sleeping form of Iris, crawling with a smooth gait over to him, golden eyes gleaming in the rippling darkness. "He believes in his cause, and he thinks you're a part of it. I honestly don't think you're worth anything."
The other reached up, touched Valkyre's face lightly, thin fingernails grazing just underneath his eye. The angel didn't move.
"So why are you keeping me here? ...Why aren't I just dead?"
Corryn tipped his head to one side, grinning. "It's amusing," he confided, smirking devilishly. "But I don't see any point in letting you go."
Valkyre shook his head. "I can't escape, you know," he stated. "I don't know my way out of here, and I'm... ...I'm not leaving without Iris. So I know I can't just run away from you."
Corryn laughed again, brushing strands of inky bangs from Valkyre's face. "Don't try and fool me, archangel. I know you'll try to find a way out. Or you'll try to kill me." His eyes so cool and apathetic as he spoke, as if death wasn't something that concerned him at all. "And you don't know you can't run away from me."
Valkyre let out a sigh, trying to shift around just slightly. It didn't work.
"...You managed to trick Raguel. You escaped from the labs when they were destroyed. You're not weak," the angel stated.
Corryn chuckled, slipping around behind Valkyre, out of his view. "Is that so then?" his voice floated from behind, switching places, whispering against the other's neck, ear, over his skin. "You just want to put up a fight when I let you go?? Try and run anyways?"
Valkyre shook his head again, trying to see behind himself but finding only darkness, and shadows that just sometimes seemed to shift.
"You don't know who I am, Valkyre."
Suddenly right up in front of him, both earth-smeared hands gripping his cheeks, his chin, forcing him to look straight into those golden-black eyes through the dark mess of hair, the tattoo on the shoulder seeming to jump out from the tanned skin.
"You have no idea what I am."
His lips drew back in a snarl, teeth glistening in the dark, hiss between them, eyes bright. Corryn backed away, wide eyes staring back almost blankly, suddenly changed again, someone else. His hands dropped to the ground, his body hunching over, broken by shudders, trembling. Things moving, things alive. Spiders rushing away.
A sickly, wet crunch and rip, splash of crimson blood and tear of flesh.
Corryn lifted his head slowly, mouth agape, breathing heavily, painfully.
His back had ripped, and twisted, spindly limbs had sprouted, dark appendages slicked with blood, trembling in the cool, damp air, reaching down slowly one-by-one to tentatively touch the ground, the soil on the walls, the spiderweb strands.
"Look at me, Valkyre." Corryn's voice was harsh, breathy.
"Look at me, and tell me what the hell I am."
The angel could only shake his head, staring. Blood dribbled down the other's back from the open wounds, the shredded skin raw and fresh, bringing the tangy, salty smell to his senses, the metallic taste brushed to his lips.
One of the limbs jerked up, brushed quickly against Valkyre's cheek, leaving a stain of hot, slick blood. He shivered.
"You gave me a name, archangel. Can you do this also?? Can you tell me what I am???"
He darted forward suddenly, lips almost pressed to the angel's ear, clutching his face and neck too roughly in his smeared hands, his body shaking. He was snarling, hissing. "Tell me what I am!"
Valkyre flinched, squeezed his eyes closed, not wanting to see the mutilated back, the terrifying apparations rising from Corryn's body, the ugly branding on his shoulder and on the base of his neck.
"...I'm sorry," he whispered.
The other jerked away, pulling out of touch immediately, until Valkyre could feel nothing but the silence around him, and the rough breathing that seemed to come from everywhere.
The angel opened his eyes again, blinked them slowly. He stared at nothing, at Iris lying across from him on the ground, peacefully oblivious and asleep.
He felt something pulling at the silk threads of his arm, and he looked over.
Corryn met his eyes, expression calm again as he leaned over, fingers tangled in the threads, spiders coursing over his arms, to slowly part his lips and run his tongue along one of the invisible, gossamer strands.
It seemed to melt suddenly, the thread loosening and the lower end floated down, broken, in a ragged tangle over the angel's bare arm.
Corryn's fingers strummed over the other threads, touch almost delicate, like a musician's hand to the strings of his intrument. The strands melted away, as soft and easy to dissipate as clouds, as fog.
Valkyre flexed his fingers as they were freed, the rest of the silk somehow loose and wispy now, not like the steel cords of before.
The last ties fell away, and the angel drew his arm back. He bent it slowly, feeling the blood return to his limb, feeling regained to his fingertips.
"Do you think it's because of your pity?" Corryn murmured, switching around to the other side, tongue and fingers silently snapping more strands, golden eyes never leaving his face. "Because of the name, perhaps?"
His fingers slipped over the ground, soft earth yielding to the touch, threads along the angel's legs snapping silently. "Do you think I'm letting you go because of Iris?"
He finished, stepping away. Valkyre pulled his arms so his sides slowly, taking his time in pulling up his legs, then straightening them out again. He knew the other was watching his movements, and he knew he couldn't get away that fast. He tried to keep his gaze from wandering to the jutting, bone-like structures, drying slowly in their coating of blood.
"Or maybe," Corryn spoke up again, slinking over and touching the angel's cheek, making him look back up; "Maybe it's because you've already poison in your blood, and you won't last to the night."
Valkyre froze, staring back into the laughing, mocking golden eyes. Panic rushed into him, then flooded out again, leaving him cold, empty.
The angel tried to stare into the eyes, to see if it was true or just a lie to make him afraid, to make him tremble with a false, unanswered fear.
Corryn's eyes were laughing, but Valkyre couldn't tell if it were true.
The other sat back leisurely, and the angel knew then that it was a truly ingenius move; by saying so, he'd almost entirely guaranteed that Valkyre wouldn't be able to leave, at least not for as long as he'd said. No one could live with the possibility of death in that duration. They would have to know, and until they were told, or the night time as said had approached, Valkyre could not leave. And if there was truth to the statement, he might not ever leave.
The angel breathed slowly, unconsciously flexing his fingers, his hands, feeling. Nothing felt out of place, but he couldn't really tell.
Valkyre sighed in expasperation, then sat back slowly, gently easing his cramped body so the blood could circulate again.
"...I'm not leaving," he stated.
The angel stared at the other, stared directly into the golden eyes ringed with black, at the blue-black letters inked into the skin, at the twisted deformations arching up from the torn back.
"...Tell me who you are, Corryn," he whispered.

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AN: I can't begin to say how sorry it's been for the impossibly long update. So much has been going on, and I have to admit, I have finally been hit by a genuine writer's block. It hurt.
Because of my stumbling and tripping over it, this chapter is obviously not up to par. It's loosely tied together and it jumps from one idea to the next, very roughly. I'm sorry, but I'm rather tired and sick of it to edit it out much more right now, so you get it like this. Crappy, but it's better than nothing, right?
I have pretty much gotten over the block though, and I should be progressing nicely, I hope. I'm trying, but there's school and homework.... ...the usual bothers, and the usual apologies. Sorry.
On the up-side, some very nice things have come about! This is chapter 30, and a really, really record number for me. Again I have to say, I can't believe how far I'm getting with this story, and I thank you all for sticking with me! Thanks a lot!
And for my recent birthday, Deffy [DefyDeath_DefyMe] has drawn me a beeeeeeeeeeautiful Iris fanart piece! You all should really check it out!!! It's so pretty, and it fits with this story so beautifully. :)
Thank you Deffy, and thanks to everyone else for following with and reading!! I promise never ever ever to give up on Iris!
Thanks once again for waiting, I will try to whip up the next chapter as fast as possible, or if not, another one-shotty to keep you amused. X3

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