WHO GAVE YOU THE RIGHT | PRIVATE

[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] He was tired of the rumors. The gossiping. The looks he got from random ass people whenever he was with Cassius in public, or sometimes just when he was on his own. And it all started after his return from Jester, and when he f#cking fought Pixel not long after. Yeah, he kinda got his ass kicked, but in his defense he was still a bit broken. Now he was totally healed. Physically. Mentally the guy still gave him night terrors and cold sweats.

Right. Jester. That was something he needed to bring up with her. He needed to get some sh!t cleared out and just taken care of first. Did he really want another fight? Nah. But he could say that it really did hurt when she blew off his suffering as just him trying to get away from Cassius. That...that wasn't the case at all.

And the there was the issue of him being apparently abusive. Again, ouch. He understood her point, but there was so much more then what she somehow knew. Seriously, that was creepy, it freaked him out.

Music blaring from the headphones he had on, hands shoved into his jean pockets, Alfred kicked over a small rock on his way to see the angel, trying to keep his blood from boiling. Okay, he could do this. He could talk to her and not try to throw a punch. Yeah. It could be done.

"Pixel?" There was the tea shop thing she owned. Okay, hopefully she was in there. Look, he really need to talk to her, face to face. Without her weird animosity towards him.

He opened the door, sliding his headphones down to around his neck, pausing the music blaring from his phone so she wouldn't lecture him about the violent sounding guitar and screaming from them. Something told him Pixel wasn't one to listen to hard rock.

[color=#3a9ddd]"Pix, I need to talk to you about some sh!t. And I need you to actually listen to me."

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "No need to be so snappy, dear. Like I said, I'm just here to talk. Get some sh!t settled. Maybe ask some questions." Man, this was difficult already. Frowning a bit, Alfred blew his bangs out of his face to focus on something other than his desire to march his happy ass right back outside. But, no. Alice told him he might as well try to talk, and she would rip him a new one if he didn't take her advice and continued to be stubborn.

[color=#3a9ddd]"Okay, so I know about the whole 'contract' sh!t and all, just to throw that out there. Cass is your client or something. A.k.a, 90% of our arguments. I got it." He pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a long sigh, shoving his hand back in his pocket and rocking back and forth on his heels. He'd spent time thinking about that, but when it came down to it, he still didn't get why she was so adamant about keeping him and Cass away from each other. Not that it ever worked, but still. It was annoying.

[color=#3a9ddd]"The thing is, Pix, i'm just trying to get you off the list of people who hate me, so I can live easy again. Ya know? Yeah, I'm a prick, we both know that, right? Yeah. Guess I wanted to apologize for all the times I was a pain in the ass. I'm just worried about losing Cassius, alright? There, I said it. Pixel, I love ya, but could you maybe stop making me feel like sh!t? Maybe try not to split us up, okay?"

He looked down at his phone, scrolling through some music before looking back up again. Something a little less crude. Okay. [color=#3a9ddd]"And then there's the issue with that one time I disappeared. Yeah, I was captured, Pixel. Uh...captured, beaten, tortured...and...worse." He rubbed the back of his neck, closing his eyes and frowning a bit as if he was remembering it all. How about no.

[color=#3a9ddd]"Look, I...I guess I just wanted you to know that i'm really not a selfish, abusive bastard. I just...I've got a lot of issues. Daddy issues, trauma, depression, you name it."

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] // god pixel is so cute

"Don't you dare!" A grin spread across his face when she said she'd call him Timmy from that point on, and he leaned up against the counter. He was about to think of something to call her in return when she spoke again, and he listened. She listened to him, it was only fair. Besides, he wanted to hear what she had to say.

[color=#3a9ddd]"Are you kidding? Your little angry bursts are nothing compared to mine! But hey, you know what? It doesn't matter. We're gonna start being nicer to each other. Because if you're going to be contracted to be the guardian angel of Cassius, we might as well not hate each other's guts! Besides, we're the last survivors of the Knights of Eden. We made a pact to stay together, and we're gonna do that."

Standing up straight, which in return caused him to almost tower over Pixel as he was a pretty tall guy, Alfred crossed muscular arms over his chest and grinned brightly for the first time in a long, long time. It was a good feeling, actually not feeling paranoid and depressed. Now, that part of him would never go away, but sometimes all the demons in his head actually sat the f#ck down for once and let him live.

And then she offered him a cookie. He just blinked in surprise before accepting the gift, chuckling a bit at her awkward, squeaky self. [color=#3a9ddd]"Thanks, Pix. So, we good now?"

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "You know who I am, darn it! Don't do me in like this!" He had been a bit confused, but when he realized she was just playing with him, he just shook his head and sighed, brushing his bangs out of his face. F#cking Pixel, teasing him like that. Rude.

[color=#3a9ddd]"Anyway, how's the tea shop thing you've got here going? Get a lot of people in here or what?" See, he didn't drink tea. There was one time he actually poured out a cup of tea into some water near his old home just to piss off a British friend with a Boston harbor joke. It was great. One of the few good memories he had in his human life.

But most of the time, he was actually out drinking. Like, the bar and sh!t. Couldn't help it, really, everyone drank way back when, and it was just remnants of his war life now. Hard to explain.

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "That old, huh? All I remember from the nineteen hundreds was a sh!t childhood and war. It was great, really." His voice was laced with sarcasm, and he just shook his head at the thought of it. He wasn't about to go in depth, mostly because he wanted those dark, dark memories locked away in the back of his mind forever, but he could shed some vague light on it. Wouldn't kill him.

He shrugged, messing with his dog tags as if to prove his point. [color=#3a9ddd]"Hold up, were you like, reincarnated or sh!t?"

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "Yeah. Pretty bad war. Death and destruction everywhere. No good, no good at all. Hell, I lost all faith in humanity in that war."

Going to sit down at the table Pixel picked out, Alfred leaned back a bit in the seat he chose, right across from her. He leaned his head back for a few moments, looking back at her when she asked the question about him being an angel. Oh. That. He tended to forget that sometimes. [color=#3a9ddd]"It's true. Well, more or less. I got kicked, so I guess fallen angel is more specific. Technicalities." He waved a hand nonchalantly, not seeming bothered by it at all. [color=#3a9ddd]"I try not to think about it, because it honestly freaks me out. Reminds me that I died, and I'd rather not remember my death. Even as vivid as it still is to me, I try anyway." He slid his glasses off his face and set them on the table, glancing at Pixel with something unidentifiable in his blue gaze, even if half his face was covered by his bangs. And yet he still had a small smile on his face. [color=#3a9ddd]"But yeah. Angel since 1944."

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "My body's fine, my mind is horribly destroyed and I've got more scars than I'd like to admit to. But hey, what'cha gonna do?" He shrugged, a little relaxed to be admitting something that seemed so dark to say. But that was just Alfred.

1942. The year he went to war, if he could recall. What a time to be alive. Couldn't remember his rank for the life of him, but that didn't really matter. He fought, he died in a blaze of glory. Not to mention the torture of being captured. Oh, christ. Not going into that one. Nope. [color=#3a9ddd]"Yeah. You died, I was on death row. Ironic. Sh!t, London was a mess when I stepped into it." Ah, yes. He remembered that city, too. Had some good times there, aside from knowing sooner or later it would end and he'd be in France and then eventually Germany.

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "Yeah, believe me. It was horrific. Nightmare fuel." War was a terrible thing, an invention of man to kill each other and call it justified. And people did say he was justified. He called himself a murderer and people praised him as a hero. That was one of the few reasons he stopped talking about it. That, and it brought everything back to him.

[color=#3a9ddd]"And then everything after that point remained hellish for me. Life hates me, I swear to god. I've got way more enemies than friends, and everyone wants to beat me the f#ck up. My friends are dead, my clan is gone, and I went from being a powerful leader to a psychopath who got totally taken advantage of by a crazy freak. Life is great."

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "Darn it, i'm not Timmy!" Would he punch her for that? No, of course not! Not now, anyway. They just got things settled.

Leaning back again, crossing his arms over his chest, Al just shook his head with a small smile. Alright, he had his moment of weakness, time to cheer up again. [color=#3a9ddd]"Sorry about that, just needed to vent a lil' bit. Nothing too bad, I'm all good." He put one arm on the table, leaning forward. His bangs just refused to get out of his face. [color=#3a9ddd]"Come on, let it out. I know you wanna laugh at that."

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[fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 400px; font-size: 8pt;text-align:justify; line-height: 120%][fancypost bgcolor=; border:0px; width: 75px; height: 75px; float: left;][/fancypost] "Yeah, it's all good. So, you're turning into the clan mom, how're the kids doing?" Almost forget that was like her unofficial title. Almost, it was hard to completely forget. But maybe this place needed someone to completely mom everyone. Most of the people here were f#cking nuts. Including yours truly. Maybe he could get a crown for the worst piece of sh!t here. It was possible, he just needed a little bit of effort and a lot of his trademark personality, the one usually under the depression. [color=#3a9ddd]"I've seen you've taken some interest in Ben. You gonna guard him, too?"

Alfred leaned back in the chair again, blowing his bangs out of his eye so they didn't totally blind him. Dammit. Maybe he should pull his hair back.

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