prompt: family matters

It isn't so often that Beelzebub is the one in crisis. More often than not, Azazel was the one curled up at their mother's side, shivering with fever and eyes wet from fear. Today is different.

"Bub.." He bleats softly, pressing his nose to his brother's neck. He pushes once, twice, three times, but is met with no response. The cold winter wind whips over them as they lay huddled against a tall rock wall. "Bub, you gotta wake up.." He pushes him harder, harder..Beelzebub doesn't respond.  "Bub..!"

Azazel tries fruitlessly for some time, his own knees knocking together from cold. No movement... barely a heartbeat. The wind continues to howl and scream, as if taunting the pair with their impending deaths.  Azazel himself is just holding on to consciousness, maintained in his waking only by the thick sweater he had put on before leaving this morning.

This journey was supposed to be fun, and new, something Beelzebub had envisioned for them and planned out in almost no detail. Go out, have fun. Despite that intricate plan of action, the two had strayed off the safe path up the mountain and gotten trapped in a storm. If he doesn't act soon, Azazel will find himself caught in a deadly winter, and then he'll find the afterlife. The weather gets worse by the second. Flakes of snow and frost land on the parts of Azazel exposed from the rock wall, cooling his furless body even further.

There's gotta be a way.. I gotta save him.. ! Simple thoughts, but concentrated deeply in his mind and body as he digs his hooves into the ground. Azazel parts his jaws and clamps them down thoroughly on his brother's scruff, before he struggles backward. Beelzebub is stronger, and bigger, and smarter than him. It should have been me.. Beelzebub would have had no issue carrying his younger brother away and to safety. The strong one, like always.

Azazel manages to drag him a few feet, into where snow has started to coat the ground. Their mother had told them to dress warm whenever they left, but Beelzebub was stubborn and prideful. His bare skin lays exposed to the snow, the cold seeping into his body like a toxin. The thought crosses Azazel's mind to give his brother his own clothes, but he remembers.. he has to be the one to take his brother to safety. He has to be strong enough to get him out of the snow first.

Krrchk.

A  stone under Azazel's hoof skids out from under him, and he trips. Beelzebub having only just been pulled from his jaws goes flying past him, and the two begin to violently roll down the mountainside. Azazel bleats for help, or perhaps for mercy, as his vision spins. His body bangs and crashes against the rockside, aching and screaming at him all at once. He barely notices when the movement stops. Only when his vision slowly starts to come back to him, and he feels the aching of his tiny body that he realises they're stopped.

Everything a blur, Azazel raises his head.. His neck aches from the motion, some muscle in him twinging with pain as he scans the knee-deep snow for his brother. Beelzebub lays nearby, groaning softly.. Pain pushed out of his mind, Azazel wobbles to his hooves and wobbles to his brother.

"Azzy.. What the heck are we doing down here? We were.. gh-.." Beelzebub bows his head, grinding his chattering teeth a little. "-supposed to go to the top.."

"You're crazy." Azazel replies softly, bumping noses with his brother. "There's no way we're getting up there in this weather.." He shivers as well, but at least he's doing so in harmony with his stupidly brave brother.

"M-maybe you're not..!"
"You're impossible..!"

While the two are arguing, a beating of wings above signals their rescue.

"Mom!" Azazel cries, quickly bumping heads with the Vespire as she lands, and looking to the still-collapsed Beelzebub. "Bub passed out in the cold..! And.. !" She breathes from  the sides of her mouth, a warm and magical smog quickly surrounding them. The snow around them melts, and small flowers bloom.

"You naughty little things," she chides in her deep and gravelly voice. "You're lucky I found you in time.." She nestles her chin against Beelzebub, making sure he warms up by her side even more. "Your mother is going to  be quite irate, I think. Naauuuughty~!" the elder Vespire laughs, wheezing a little bit from the effort of it.

"It was an adventure!" argues Beelzebub, watching as his brother is relentlessly groomed by their mother. "We were going to see the world from the mountaintop!"

"In this weather? Alone?" she scoffs, nipping the bloom's ear. "If you wanted to see that sight, you should have asked your mother!" Azazel flattens his ears to the side of his head, feeling scorned. Beelzebub is not quite so regretful, his eyes sparkling with determination even now.

"Then take us, mom!"

No sooner had Beelzebub demanded such a thing that their mother scooped the pair onto her back and spread her wings. Azazel can barely react before she shoots off, leaving only clawmarks in the dirt beneath them. Her pneumir trails behind them, heating up the air and creating an upcurrent to lift her further.

The three soar together, Beelzebub smiling with utter delight, and Azazel screaming with everything he's got. This view, this moment without danger, this time with his family.. It's one of many from this time in Azazel's life. It's beautiful, it's simple.. he almost forgets about the pure fear he felt only moments ago. Family is everything to him, and these bonds, for now, are unbreakable.