Fallen

“Banana milk latte with 3 shots of sugar, please."

The barista threw Yangguoh a very skeptical, and slightly amused look.

"You sure about that buddy?" the barista asked.

"Yes," Yannguoh replied, without a moment's hesitation.

The barista turned around, muttering a little "if you say so" and a chuckle, before going off to make the order. The barista must have been new at the cafe, Yangguoh couldn't recall seeing him here before. Yangguoh wished he'd turn back around, wanting to stare at his drop dead gorgeous makeup this morning. A heavy cat's eye wing that you could tell took years of practice to perfect, saturated yellow eyeshadow and the prettiest shade of pink lips. It took Yangguoh a good few seconds to look away from admiring the barista's thick curves, features that normally one would think belong to a woman, but the blue and white striped band on the barista’s wrist said otherwise.

Yangguoh looked down at their own band, a saturated yellow one. 

"Why'd it have to be yellow?" they'd complained many times before, their large rabbit ears drooping down the sides of their head. "Why can't it be a cool shade of purple likes yours, Anjuah?"

"What's so bad about yellow?" Anjuah would fire back. Yangguoh chewed on their straw at the time. "Just some bad memories around it is all."

Yangguoh was snapped out of their little trance when the barista turned back around to announce the latte was done. They paid the amount due, thanked the barista for his service, and walked to the front corner of the little cafe, latte in hand. Yangguoh took a sip, slightly cringing at the sickening sweetness. 

Perfect, just the way they liked it.

Anjuah was already at their usual table, a small wooden one right by the big windows of the store, giving view to the main strip of the entire town, the palace not too far off in the distance. Already nose deep in some thick text, mumbling a language Yangguoh didn't understand, Anjuah hadn't seemed to notice Yangguoh seating themselves down at the opposite chair. Yangguoh gave a quick look over Anjuah's outfit of the day; a flowing magenta silk dress, long silvery hair tied in a braid pulled around the head, golden hoop earrings dangling and swaying from the bustle of the cafe.

Feminine today, Yangguoh thought, though slightly fancier than usual.

"What's the occasion?" Yangguoh shot.

"Hm?"

"What's got you all dolled up?"

Anjuah sighed, putting her books down and finally looking at Yangguoh. 

Uh oh, she only reserves that sigh for a very specific kind of situation.

Didn't take long for it to hit Yangguoh. They could already guess what this was about.

"Celoran and I have a meeting with the king and are planning to discuss his father's plans," Anjuah said rubbing her head. "Again."

Yangguoh sipped on their latte disapprovingly. "The old dimwit's still at it?"

"He refuses to let it go," Anjuah replied, her exceptionally deep voice getting even deeper gritting out the words. "he's determined on removing the bracelet system."

"Let me talk to him, maybe I can knock some sense into that geezer," Yangguoh offered, but Anjuah waved them off. "No, no, that would only make things worse. You know how he feels about hybrids, especially with the crow prince making recent advances against the kingdom. I fear if you tried something it could have consequences on how your species is treated as well.

"And we totally didn't try that already.." Anjuah mumbled under her breath.

Yangguoh practically growled into their drink. "Well I gotta use these thunder thighs for something." As if to show off said thunder thighs, Yangguoh stomped their leg onto the ground with a loud thud, though taking care to not use too much force. The full strength of a Speedfoot Rabbit's kick can easily shatter a wall, after all.

Anjuah snickered. "You'll get your chance, I'm sure. Soon."

"Yeah, well, we'll see."

The two fell into a content silence for a bit before Yangguoh groaned, complaining of boredom. "Whatcha readin' today?" they asked, aiming to start up a conversation. Anjuah practically lit up at that, excited to introduce today's overly-complex-and-weird-but-probably-interesting-I-guess topic of the day, as Yangguoh called it.

"I'm glad you asked," she said, pushing up the round brimmed glasses resting on her nose. "Angels."

Yangguoh waited for her to continue, but she didn't, rather looking at Yangguoh as if expecting them to continue to topic. "Angels?" they asked back.

"Angels."

"...Ok? And? What about them?"

"Everything!" she quietly shouted, not wanting to disturb the cafe atmosphere. "I may or may not have raided the palace library for every angelical book I could find. Lately I've been working on trying to translate their ancient language, but some of the mythology around them is so...fascinating."

Fascinating was Anjuah's favorite word, or so Yangguoh liked to believe. Everything she talked about was fascinating to her. Be it an abandoned civilization or a beach side crab; Simply fascinating.

"Oh yeah? How so?" Yangguoh asked.

"Well for one, no one can seem to agree how they work. Some legends say they're born with wings, others say they have to perform miracles to gain them. Same with their halos. The idea of performing miracles in order to achieve a higher angelical status seems to be a generally accepted idea, though." 

Yangguoh ooh'd in response. It was at that point that Yangguoh tuned out, allowing Anjuah to go on and on about her research. They kept their rabbit ears perked up to give the illusion of paying attention, even though they were only catching snippets of things here and there, like: "...and sometimes they can be totally mischievous too! Like occasionally they'd go around using their powers to appear as ghosts to freak people out!" or: "...and this legend talks of one that ended an entire war just because one human was killed. Though that one has little details because everyone on the battlefield vanished."

It was during Anjuah's spiel about fallen angels, in the middle of a story about one who "made a deal with the devil and killed hundreds of people to get his wings back," that their conversation was interrupted by a tall, cloaked figure stepping into the cafe.

Both Yangguoh and Anjuah stopped mid sentence (or mid thought in Yangguoh's case,) as the hooded figure walked over to their table. A simple turn of the head in Anjuah's direction was a sign for her to start scrambling to pack up her books and throwing her old bag over her shoulder, the two of them following the hooded figure out of the cafe. Yangguoh knew exactly where this was going.

The trio was barely out onto the streets before the hooded figure dragged Anjuah into a nearby alley, slamming her against the brick walls.

"Hey, wait-" she began, cut off by a pair of lips hastily crashing onto hers.

"Mh-mhf! Wait!" She tried pulling off the figure but they attacked her lips once again.

She giggled. "Baby, baby wait - you knocked all my books down, at least let me pick them up before you kiss me."

The figure stepped back, allowing Anjuah to bend down and collect her books, before pulling off their hood to reveal the panting face of Prince Celoran.

"I'm sorry, I just - god it is so suffocating being around my father like that, I just needed to see you."

Anjuah neatly patted the bag of books against the wall before turning back to her lover. "Well I'm all yours now baby." she smirked.

Celoran made no hesitation to connect their lips again, the two hastily going at it, moaning and melting into each other against the alleyway. Violently making out, as Yangguoh called it.

Standing off at the edge of the alley the whole  time, Yangguoh watched the entire scene unfold, scrunching up both their nose and ears in "mild" disgust and cringing back every time Celoran's bright, almost holographic hair shone into their face.

Ugh, soulmates, Yangguoh mentally spat.

Having witnessed this similar routine before, Yangguoh just let them kiss it out, the two eventually breaking for air. Celoran giggled at his handiwork and then went to fix Anjuah's now very disheveled hair. "How's my baby boy doing today?" he cooed.

Yangguoh stood confused. "Wait - boy? I thought you were feminine today."

Anjuah smoothed out his dress. "Ah, yes, I apologize for confusing you. I'm masculine today, but, since we're meeting with Celoran's father I was hoping that presenting feminine to him might...help our case better? You know, with him being so "conservative" and trying to go back to the "old traditions" and all." Anjuah explained, air quoting the phrases.

Yangguoh clicked their tongue, wondering what it's like having a fluid soulmate. Wondered what it's like having a soulmate at all-

"He's still not letting you two get married?" they asked in disbelief.

 "I know, stupid isn't it?” Celoran began. “If that weren't the case, we'd have been married years ago and wouldn't have to have these little makeout sessions in the alleyways, rather being allowed to do whatever we wanted in the bed-"

"Woah woah woah okay I'm stopping you right there, you freaks." Yangguoh cut in. Celoran simply laughed.

“I will never understand my father's way of thinking,” Celoran remarked. “It's like my mother meant nothing to him. If she was still here she'd have given him a good whooping by now.”

“Given him a good whooping?” Anjuah laughed. “I think you've been hanging around Ikari too much.”

Yangguoh took another sip of their drink. “That's fair, he's a generally bad influence, especially to a goody two shoes like you, Celoran.”

“I am not a goody two shoes!” Celoran said in shock. “Does me sneaking out to see Anjuah not prove that? You know what, just to prove that, I'm going to-”

As Celoran had begun making his way out of the alley and back onto the main street, he saw something that made him stop mid sentence and promptly begin walking in the opposite direction.

“Hey, speaking of Ikari, how about we go pay him a visit? I have to pick up a shirt from him anyways, one that Anjuah so graciously tore during-”

“O-okay so we're going to see Ikari? Great!” Anjuah interrupted, laughing nervously.

Yangguoh simply smirked. They looked down the street to where Celoran had been looking before, and was greeted with the site of a certain cat angrily stomping around the square.

Ah.

That's why he's running away.

“How's my favorite fox doing today!” Celoran exclaimed as he burst through the door of the tailor's shop.

“Ai, dead soon if you keep shouting like that. Can't you make a more quiet entrance?” Ikari pouted, leaning over the store counter. He looked like he was in the middle of a stitch, working on his newest outfit on a mannequin behind the counter.

“I can't be quiet, silly. You of all people should know that.” Celoran winked.

Ikari's mouth curled up mischievously. “I think Anjuah of all people would know that, actually.”

“HAHA wow great to see you too, Ikari!” Anjuah said awkwardly. His face was beet red now, getting redder by the second. Yangguoh chuckled behind him.

“You didn't answer my question.” Celoran said, resting an arm on the counter side opposite the fox.

“I'm doing just fine, thank you.” Ikari replied.

“I take it you had a good night?” Celoran asked wryly.

Ikari shook his head, his floofed up hair falling over his right eye. “You know I always do, but I can assure last night was quiet for me. I just look this good all the time.” 

Yangguoh really couldn't tell if that was a lie or not. He was right: Ikari always had his fluffy white hair style up and around, neat yet in a way like it was freshly disheveled. His lips were naturally large and red enough that you couldn't really tell if they were kiss swollen or not. It seemed his shirt was down another button each day Yangguoh saw him, sleeves rolled up as far as they could go. He looked permanently flushed, and yet, his makeup was always perfect.

The answer to Yangguoh's question, however, and the truth to Ikari's lie presented itself in the form of a bright eyed, flushed brunette poking his head out of the doorway from the living quarters of the building.

“Hey Ikari have you seen my pants- Oh! Hey guys!” Obero called happily. His already messy hair was more tangly than usual, and his face was fully reddened.

The entire room went silent for a moment, nothing but the sound of Yangguoh slowly sipping their latte to fill the room.

Celoran slowly turned his head back to the white fox. “A quiet night, eh?” he asked sarcastically.

Ikari just shrugged. “What can I say? I've got my urges. Your pants are by the bedside table, baby.” Ikari called back.

“Great, thanks!” Obero said, far too happy for the current embarrassing situation, and ducked back into the apartment.

“So what brings you here?” Ikari asked slowly, as if he wasn't just caught red-handed.

“Weelll I totally didn't sneak out of the palace again to visit an ultra-adorable high priest and absolutely am not trying to avoid a certain kitty in coming here. Also I need that shirt I gave you a few days ago.”

Ikari perked up at the second to last statement. “He’s in town?”

“Yes but that's not the point - anyways have you fixed up my shirt yet or-”

“Prince Celoran.” A rough voice called from the entrance to the shop. Celoran squeaked upon hearing the voice he knew all too well. Yangguoh stepped out of the way, snickering, to reveal the very displeased face of the Head Knight.

Celoran slowly turned to face the Nightstroke Cat, a nervous smile on his face.

 

“Safir!” he gulped. “What a pleasant surprise to see you here! Say, Ikari, why don't you tell him all about your fun night last night? I'm sure he'd love to hear it!”

Ikari opened his mouth but was promptly cut off by Safir raising his hand to shush him.

“Spare me the details of your disgusting orgy.”

Ikari snapped his mouth shut and pouted. “It wasn't an orgy…” he mumbled.

“Celoran,” Safir growled again.

“Haha why yes that is me.”

“I'm sure you know exactly why I'm here.”

Celoran put on his most surprised, curious (yet stupid looking) expression. “No I do not at all why don't you tell me.”

The blonde haired cat groaned, a very long, annoyed groan, and threw his head back all the way. Yangguoh snorted, nearly choking on their drink.

“Your idiocy-” 

“Rude.” 

“-snuck out again during the MIDDLE OF A MEETING WITH THE ROYAL ADVISORS-”

“Yes that I did.”

“-into the town, for the 8th time this week-”

“Sounds about right.”

“-To visit his soulmate, someone who ALREADY WORKS AT THE PALACE-”

“Hey if they're not there 24/7 then why do I have to be.”

“-And as you can imagine, the king is highly upset about this. Again.”

Celoran blinked, waiting for Safir to continue with anything else.

“Well sure sounds like it sucks to be the king, anyways Ikari about your wonderful night last night-”

“CELORAN.”

The entire room, sin Safir of course, promptly broke down into giggles.

“Did you really think you could hide from me, your highness? After playing this game for so many years you think I can't get ahold of your scent instantly? I can smell you from a mile away.”

“Kinky.”

“CELORAN!” Safir shouted, the giggles quickly devolving into full laughter.

Safir dragged his hands down his face. “I'm going to die at thirty at this rate. You know what, be glad I found you before the crows or their prince did. You've certainly got a bounty on your head from them. Why did you even hide here, of all places? Normally you hide in a place I'd hate going-”

“... Ikari are you sure my pants are by the table-Oh hey Safir!”

“-Nevermind this is exactly why you came here.” Safir finished, barely a moment between statements.

Obero walked in to the shop part of the building, in all of his pantsless glory. 

“Didn't expect to see you here today!” Obero exclaimed, excited. He shook his little fists as if he was getting a gift for Christmas, orange bracelet shaking wildly. He lit up - literally - both his butterfly wings lighting up in blue and orange respectively. Safir had to put his hands out in front of his face to protect his eyesight, nose cringing up in disapprovement. 

Obero's light quickly died back down.

“Anyways, Ikari - are you sure those are my pants? Was I even wearing pants last night?”

Safir groaned loudly. “You're killing me. You're actively killing me.”

“Aw, come on, don't be so grumpy when you're with your best buds!” Obero said happily as he went to wrap his arm around Safir's shoulders.

“This is exactly why I hate coming here.” he hissed.

“Not even to see me, kitten?” Ikari pouted, puppy eyes on full blast and his three tails curling around him to appear more innocent.

“You're double the reason I don't like coming here.”

“Maybe you just need a hug~” Ikari cooed, going over to lock his arms around Safir's other shoulder.

Celoran laughed, a spiteful laugh, watching as his trap for Safir unfolded before his eyes.

I'll kill you, Safir mouthed through the sandwich of bodies, nothing but scorn in his eyes. He then pushed the fox and butterfly off of him, and sighed. “Alright veggie boy, no more games, back home you go.”

Celoran acted insulted. “How dare you use that vile nickname against me!”

Safir's mouth curled up evilly.

“Celery.”

The Prince let out a loud, exaggerated gasp. 

“Call me that one more time and I'll pull your tail.”

“Try it, I fucking dare you.” Safir challenged.

“Language, boys.” Ikari scolded.

Celoran paused, argument stuck on his tongue and finger up in the air. He stayed there for a few moments, at a loss for words and what to do, before making a mad dash for the door, yelling “You'll never catch me alive!” as he ran into the streets.

Safir rubbed his eyes again. “Why do I put up with this..” he asked himself, before turning to Yangguoh. “I feel like you're the only sensible one here.” he said. 

They laughed. 

“Nah, if anything I encourage his behavior. It's hilarious.”

Safir shook his head, and made his way out the door after the prince.

Yangguoh stared at the prince and his guard, chasing each other in circles outside, before turning back to Anjuah.

“Are you like .. okay?” they asked.

Anjuah simply yelled from behind his hands, his face impossibly red, suffering from second hand embarrassment the entire time.

Yangguoh patted his shoulder and made their way out of the shop, Ikari, Anjuah, and a still pantsless Obero following suit.

The group was now making their way back to the palace, after a lot of yelling from Safir and convincing from Anjuah. Though Celoran did what he could to stall their trip as long as possible.

The prince was practically dancing around a tree when Safir hissed at him to put his hood back on.

  “Your obnoxiously bright hair makes you a target. Hide it before a crow scout spots you and the whole tribe is flying at you!”

Celoran waved him off. “Psh, it's fine. There have been a lot less scouts than lately and the prince has calmed his advances. There hasn't been a conflict in nearly a month!”

“That doesn't mean they're not planning something!” Safir warned.

“I'm going to have to side with Safir on this one,” Anjuah said, “the crow prince is known to have cunning battle strategies, ones that would only belong to a warrior with years of experience. Who knows how long he was trained by royal guards.”

“Crows are fairly ruthless as well,” Safir reminded. “even with the prince's masterful plans they're still likely to go haywire, making them all the more unpredictable.”

“Crows…” Yangguoh hissed, clenching their drink so hard it crushed the cup and nearly exploded the contents all over them. To say Yangguoh had a “bad history” with crows was just putting things lightly.

“If I ever see one I'll beat the living hell out of it.” they growled, gaze darkening dramatically.

“You terrify me when you're angry but I am also very turned on right now.” Ikari stated nonchalantly.

Yangguoh threw a look of minor disgust at him.

“Anyways, do you guys think the crow prince is hot? I've heard he's deceptively beautiful.”

At this, the entire group paused to look at Ikari.

“What? It's a valid thought!”

Safir sighed. “You are NOT gonna try to fuck the-”

“I'm gonna try to fuck the crow prince.” Ikari said, smiling from ear to ear.

“Oh my GOOODD” Safir groaned loudly.

He quickly whipped around, hiding his embarrassment-tinged cheeks behind his blue scarf, and power walked ahead as Celoran cackled behind him.

“As I was saying,” Celoran continued, “I really doubt I should have to worry about the crows anytime soon. Besides, what can they really do? Blow something up? Those little gremlins can't do much more than caw loudly at each-”

A loud explosion not too far off interrupted Celoran's words. The group turned around to see none other than crows flying around the crowd of smoke, chasing the panicked crowd.

Safir snapped his head back at the prince. “Blow something up, eh?” he mocked.

“Oh, shut up!” Celoran shouted.

Safir unsheathed his katana, preparing for whatever battle may ensue. Celoran cursed himself for leaving his own blade back at the palace.

“Guys, get Celoran back to the castle, now!” he shouted.

“I can fight melee!” Celoran protested.

“I don’t care!” Safir yelled back. “Just go!’

“I’m not just going to stand by as my people are attacked!”

“You’re not gonna have any people if you’re dead! Yangguoh, can you run fast enough to get Celoran back safely?” 

“I’m a Speedfoot what do you think.” Yangguoh spat. “But I’m not taking Celoran back. You think I’m going to miss out on the opportunity to crush some crows?” 

Safir growled. “Is anyone willing to escort Celoran back to the palace?”

He turned around, only to be met with Anjuah quietly murmuring ancient runes, his hands glowing purple.

Safir sighed. “Guess that answers my question. Just- someone make sure Celoran ass doesn’t get taken.”

“Hey!” Celoran shouted, insulted.

“Ai, ai, captain.” Ikari saluted, unfurling his claws.

Safir then ran off, fending off any crow grunts that flew their way, easily slicing them out of the sky. Anjuah followed suit, waves of force blasting out from his palms, sending multiple crows sailing backwards through the sky.

Yangguoh stopped to ask a citizen that had run out of the commotion, who was bent over to wheezing from sprinting away. “What’s going on?” they asked.

“C- crows...attacking..the village...just destroyed the market..” the villager said through wheezes.

Yangguoh rolled their eyes. “Yeah, I got that. But why?”

“I think..they’re here for Prince Celoran,” the villager said. “The crow prince is here, too.”

Yangguoh froze.

They turned back to Safir.

“Safir!” they shouted. Safir stopped for a moment after cutting a crow scout’s leg off.

“He’s here!” They yelled.

“Shit” Safir mumbled. “Anjuah, fall back.”

“What?” Anjuah asked, throwing a miniature crow off his shoulder.

“Fall back!” Yangguoh shouted. “He’s-”

And that's when they saw him.

The crow prince. 

Slowly waltzing out from the smoke as if he didn't just blow up the entire marketplace. A content smirk full of malicious intent graced his lips. He knew exactly what he was doing. And he was proud of it.

“Get Celoran back to the palace now.” Safir commanded.

“But-” Yangguoh interjected.

The crow prince unfurled his massive inky black wings, and the group's blood ran dry.

“RUN!”

The rest of the group took no hesitation to begin running in the opposite direction of the village, back towards the palace. An escape like this would be easy for Yangguoh, Speedfoot's are known for being nearly as fast as cheetah hybrids and yet - they were frozen in place. They couldn't move. 

Yangguoh made the unfortunate mistake of locking eyes with the crow prince. How they did this they didn't know, for the prince was so far away and yet - all they could see was him.

 His platinum, nearly white hair, princely clothing that glistened in the sunlight, his cocky prideful smirk, and most notably his cold, piercing blue eyes that seemed to stare straight into Yangguoh's soul. 

They were completely stuck, shaking in place. Wanting so, so badly to run away yet unable to move a muscle. All they could do was watch as the prince made his way down the street towards them.

“Yangguoh!” Safir screamed back at them, fear evident in his voice. “Yanggie baby, run!”

This seemed to finally break Yangguoh's trance, and they whipped around to sprint away - but it was too late. The prince had already decided on his first victim and was quickly coming upon them. Of course, just at that moment, in Yangguoh's panicked attempt at escape they tripped over their own feet, crashing to the ground.

The whole group stopped amidst the crowd and yelled at them to get up.

“Yangguoh, come on, get up!” Celoran cried.

And they tried. Oh, how Yangguoh tried to get up. But as soon as they did, a pair of unfamiliar arms wrapped around them, holding them in place. Yangguoh struggled, thrashing and kicking wildly.

“Let them go!” Celoran yelled angrily.

Oh, what a mistake that was.

The crow prince smirked. “Ah~ he wants you back now, does he?” His deep voice slurred out. Yangguoh knew the prince had his bait. And Yangguoh hated being bait.

Yangguoh bit the prince's hands in hopes of escaping his strong hold, though to no success. He was much shorter and leaner than Yangguoh but held a tremendous amount of strength.

“Aren't you a feisty one?” he cooed.

Yangguoh tried turning themselves around in his arms, with intent of spitting on the crow prince's face.

With much effort they spun their head around, making eye contact with the prince-

-and their soulmate bond was formed.

Both Yangguoh and the prince stopped. Yangguoh froze completely.

“No, god no, fuck no, please don’t.” they shouted mentally, disbelieving they could be bonded with this asshole.

The crow prince smiled. A wide, cocky smile.

“Oh my,” he said. “I came here for the prince, and it seems I got something much better.”

Before Yangguoh had any time to process the current events, the crow prince tightened his grip around their waist, and straightened out his wings, preparing for flight.

It struck Yangguoh a second too late, what he was about to do.

The prince flapped his wings, and within a moment, Yangguoh was peering helplessly at the ground as everything they loved grew smaller below them. They wanted to scream, wanted to cry out. Wanted to shout ‘help me’s and ‘don't let him take me’s to their friends still stuck on the ground. ‘Let me go’s and ‘don't touch me, asshole’s to the prince. They opened their mouth but only a rough screech came out. 

“YANGGUOH!” Safir screamed as loudly as he could.

Safir's distressed cry broke Yangguoh. They let out all they could muster - a terrified, trembling “save me” as they disappeared into the sky in the arms of their wretched soulmate.