Diamond in the Rough (Reserved)

Sephiroth couldn't help but continue to glance at the angelic young man who now seemed to live in Cayden's house. He wondered how long he had been here, he still looked rather awkward, Sephiroth found it quite amusing and the smirk continued to grace his long pale features and he could feel Cayden watching him, seeming to worry about his reaction. Maybe worrying about something else, something more apparent, but Sephiroth had time for stuff like what he knew Cayden was thinking about late, he would rather play with Cayden's new pet in the meantime. He watched the TV for a moment, thinking over the things he could possibly do and the silence seemed to really put Cayden on edge, simply making this more amusing.

Glancing down at the boy again his gaze rested on the rather fluffy looking white wings sprouting from his back. They really did look much like the one Angeal had had. It was amusing and rather nice to think about despite himself. He decided he could play with that...he wondered if the boy had ever seen another person with wings...or a wing... he would like to assume not and think that what he was about to show him was something he had never witnessed before in his life.

Cayden couldn't help but be all nerves, it was plainly written on Sephiroth's face that he was up to something, which was strange for Sephiroth who tended to keep all his emotions hidden except for the odd amusement or indifference. It was so unnerving Cayden could hardly stand it, but like Sephiroth he liked to hide his emotions as well even Sephiroth could read him like an open book he liked to think others couldn't. He was sure that is anyone were to look at him right now they would simply see a rather peeved expression and not a distraught one. At least Angel was behaving, it was one less thing Cayden had to worry about. He had to admit he was more worried of possible advancements from Sephiroth, it would ruin his whole plan of trying not to scare Angel. But so far Sephiroth did nothing.

Sephiroth waited a minute before letting his long black wing unfurl from his back, spreading it out to its full length, barely avoiding hitting Cayden in the back of the head with it. He made sure to make as much noise with it as possible. The action seemed to shock Cayden who looked at Sephiroth with furrowed brows and gaping jaw. Sephiroth just laughed lightly, "Just stretching." Sephiroth stated making it sound almost teasing and it seemed to click with Cayden that this was something directed at his new little pet. Sephiroth pulled the large black wing closer again and leaned forward keeping it off the back off the couch. He wondered if the boy would say anything. Sephiroth looked at him and smiled as invitingly as possible. It was clear Cayden wasn't happy but the man didn't say anything.

Angel held his hands in his lap, looking at the clean floors, amazed still at how clean everything was here, compared to the grimy little store at least. He could feel eyes on him off and on, unsure of which of the men was looking at him, but he didn't look up to check. The comfort he had felt only minutes ago was gone, and he was back to being tense and nervous. Idly, the boy traced patterns onto the floor, bright blue eyes focused on his pale fingers.

Chancing a glance upward, he caught Sephiroth looking at his wings, and he looked back down, feeling rather self-concious, which was very odd for him. He drew his wings closer to his back, running a hand through his white hair. He kept his eyes trained on the floor again, until there was a rather loud rustling noise, and his head snapped up. Angel's eyes widened at the sight of the large black wing coming from the man's back. The boy's mouth and eyes were both round, and he couldn't help but stare. He had never seen any kind of wing on any other person, and he had a strong urge to get up and touch it. He closed his mouth before opening it again, wanting to say something to this Sephiroth man, but he thought back to Cayden's previous warning.

Making up his mind after a moment, Angel drew in a breath. "Your wing is very pretty" he said quietly, his own rustling slightly against his back, a million questions going through the boy's head. Why did he only have one wing? What was he that made him have a wing? Was he going to get in trouble for speaking out of turn? The smile on the man had made him believe that the answer to the last question was a no, but he was weary just in case, simply admiring the wing from his spot on the floor.

Cayden sighed when Angel turned to Sephiroth and gave the man his attention, and spoke to him. This would not end well but Cayden couldn’t just tell the both of them to stop talking. He stared at the television screen and tried to ignore the both of them. He would intervene if necessary but he didn’t want to have to. He did give Sephiroth one sharp look but he knew the older looking man would ignore this silent warning, in fact he would probably take great pride in ignoring Cayden completely. He didn’t even bother to wonder whether Angel would notice that he was rather bothered by this.

Sephiroth smiled at the young boy looking at his wings again. He stood and moved around the table ignoring the acidic look he got from Cayden as he did so. He kneeled in front of Angel and opened his wing again. “It’s not nearly as wonderful as your own.” He said reaching forward and running a gloved hand over one of the boy’s wings. Cayden was glaring at him out of the corner of his eyes and trying to not make it obvious that he was watching the both of them, it was quite amusing.

Sephiroth could see the questions bubbling up inside the boy and he smiled as gently as he could, he pulled his hand away and resting his arm on his knee, some of his long silver hair spilled over his shoulder. Unlike Cayden he never had the need to tie his back, though Cayden’s was nearly double the length of his own. He would like to hope he was doing a good job of looking innocent; he had had some experience in roping in pure young men before. This should be no challenge, by the sharp look he was given by Cayden he would have to assume he was doing pretty well anyways.

“Your questions are clear on your face.” Sephiroth said stroking a leather clad knuckle over Angel’s jaw, “Feel free to ask them.” He said in that smooth voice of his. After this he was going to have to get what he came her for, what he wanted from Cayden. But playing with the pet for a while first could lead to even more fun in the future; he could have laughed finding this very amusing. The bothered look on Cayden’s face while he still tried to ignore Sephiroth was also quite a trophy in itself.

Angel was a bit startled when the man got to his feet, wondering what he was going to do. He tensed slightly as the man kneeled down in front of him, the black wing opening again. His eyes were instantly drawn to it, mentally comparing it to his own. The winged boy was silent at the compliment, not knowing that his own wing was as beautiful as people seemed to think. He flinched as a gloved hand moved over one of his wings, but he tried to keep still after the initial movement. He fought the urge to raise his own hand to touch the black feathers in front of him, now within reach. He wanted to see what they felt like compared to his own.

For some reason this man seemed a bit less intimidating now that the boy could see the wing, but he was still weary, almost breathing a sigh of relief when Sephiroth moved his hand off of his wing, but he held the sound back. His gaze flicked to Cayden for a moment, noticing the glances he was giving the two of them, unsure of why he seemed bothered by this interaction. There was clearly something for him to be afraid of if it was bothering his master. This man looked nice enough for now, but from what Cayden had told him, he wouldn't trust it. He had gone through enough in his life so far to know that looks could be decieving.

Angel bit his lip lightly at the feeling of the leather against his jaw, his body stiffening at the contact, averting his eyes. He glanced at Cayden again, unsure of what to do. The questions were sitting on his tongue, waiting to tumble out, but asking questions was always something he was weary about. "I. . . uh. . ." he struggled with his words, at a loss whether or not to ask something, and if he did, what to ask. He finally settled on the one that was most prominent in his mind, taking a breath before asking. "Why is there only one of them?" he asked, looking up at the man with wide blue eyes, his fingers curling against the floor.

Sephiroth was very pleased to see that this boy didn’t seem all that scared of him anymore. Sure, he was still very tense, especially at the physical contact, but he was visible warming up to the one winged man, it was very apparent. The look on Cayden’s face, that he understood this fact as well, was also very amusing. So Sephiroth would gain this boy’s trust before Angel’s ‘master’ did, just because that had one thing in common. It didn’t matter how different Cayden was, if this boy didn’t know any sort of similarity he could connect to he was going to stay distant. Sephiroth, again, had dealt with quite a few cases like this in the past so this was really nothing new to him. It was all like a game to him.

Sephiroth smiled at the question. He had expected that, but what he hadn’t expected was the rather curious look he got from Cayden and he quickly realized that even the other silverette hadn’t heard anything about this. Generally no one seemed to care about the fact that he only had one wing and more the fact that he had any at all. It was very amusing. Sephiroth dragged his gaze back away from Cayden to the young winged boy. “One...that’s a good question that I don’t know the answer too. It’s always been like this, and yes, I can fly perfectly fine with just the one.” He explained, Cayden didn’t seem all too pleased with the rather boring answer and he turned back to the TV with a small pout on his pale face. He could see on the young man’s face that he wanted to touch the silky black feathers that burst from Sephiroth’s back. They were probably far from the soft downy feel that Angel’s had. “It’s alright if you want to touch it.” He said with a small laugh and a gorgeous smile.

Cayden couldn’t stand how this naive little boy was falling for this man’s cunning exterior so easily. Getting this close to Sephiroth couldn’t end well. Cayden had seen a couple of the adorable young men Sephiroth had managed to find himself, and it was almost shocking, now that he thought about it they were all sort of like Angel in one way or another. This cunning, deceiving, One Winged Angel was surely up to no good, but what use would it be saying outright that Angel wasn’t allowed to talk to him when they already seemed to be bonding. Cayden, again, knew that it wouldn’t be that much longer for Sephiroth to switch his attention back to Cayden and the real reason he had come here.

Angel was afraid for the answer to his question, worrying that somebody had cut off the other black wing. He had had it threatened to him a few times, the owner of that stupid little shop telling him that if he didn't cooperate, he would have one of his wings cut off. He couldn't imagine that fate on anybody, no matter how cruel they were, or scary, or anything. That would just be terrible. The winged boy tilted his head to the side when he recieved the answer, whihch did nothing to satisfy his curiosity. If anything, it made him wonder even more. What was this man? Angel blinked when Sephiroth told him it was fine to touch his wing, not knowing that he was that easy to read. He bit his lip, thinking once again to what Cayden said, but he couldn't help himself. He had never met anybody with any kind of wings, other than his own.

Blue eyes flicked between the two silver haired men, the smile on Sephiroth's face making him feel like it was fine to touch his wing, but the serious way Cayden had told him to watch out for this man made him biased. His fingers were itching to run through the feathers on his man however. Lip still between his teeth, Angel reached his hand up, eyes glued to the large black wing. His hand was hesitant, but he leaned forward slightly, almost flinching when his fingers met the feathers. It shouldn't have been a shock to him, seeing as he had his own wings, but it was so odd seeing one on somebody else, plus the fact that this black wing felt so different from his own soft ones. Running his fingers through the dark feathers once, the boy withdrew his hand quickly, sticking his hand back in his lap, looking at the man in front of him before at the floor, almost forcing himself to be afraid of this man now. "Thank you" he said softly, unsure of what he was thanking the man for, but he was sure there was some reason behind it.

Cayden could see how Angel seemed to now debate every single one of his actions. Sephiroth had offered to let him touch his wing, something he would have thought Angel would do very quickly without even thinking about it, but he had looked between Cayden and Sephiroth and had gotten even more tense then he had been. Cayden was quite pleased though, it finally seemed like he was taking the words he had said to heart. An almost smug look came to his face, showing more in the corner of his mouth and the position of his eyebrows then anything else. Sephiroth noticed it to and his silver brows furrowed for a moment, which only made Cayden happier as he let himself sprawl back against the couch and look at the TV, his arms propped up on the back of the couch.

Sephiroth was a little bit disappointed by how reluctant Angel suddenly was to move forward and the one small movement seemed to drag out forever. At least until actual contact was made then the hand was gone almost as quickly as it had been there. Sephiroth frowned for a mere moment before putting that sly smile back on his face, "It's not a problem, but it really is nothing like your own, is it?" He prompted though he was a bit more preoccupied with that all to smug look on Cayden's face to really pay all that much attention to the small man in front of him. Angel definitely did seem frightened by him now. Somehow, indirectly, this was Cayden's fault.

"If you still have more questions please feel free to ask them. I know I must be the first human creature, aside from yourself, you've ever seen with a wing." He said sitting so his legs were out to the side and he could lean on his right hand, the wing extended almost as far as it could go to his left, "Actually, I have a small question for you." He said as he thought more about it. It seemed to get Cayden's attention to as the older man looked over at him with a sharp look from those dead eyes. "How well do you fly?" He asked with a smile, it wasn't like he was actually curious but he thought he could get Angel outside and in the air. He was pretty sure if he could show the other his abilities with just the one wing he would feel a little more connected to him, or at least that was what he was going to hope for.

Angel's blue eyes flicked to his master, unsure of why he looked so smug, though he figured it had something to do with him being more weary of the man on the floor in front of him. He still wasn't quite sure what to think of him, but he would judge him as their conversation continued. He fiddled with the bottom hem of one of the legs of the boxers he was wearing, not really noticing he was doing it. Not exactly sure where to look, he focused his gaze now on a spot on the floor next to Sephiroth, highly intimidated, being in a room with these two men, whom he had known for less than two hours, he would guess. The taller of the two silver haired men he could only have known for about ten minutes, maximum.

He glanced to the man in front of him when he spoke, giving a small smile, simply a twitch up of the corner of his mouth, and shaking his head a bit. His own wings were so much softer, but it was rather fascinating to compare the two. He was still amazed that after being freed from his cage for so little time, he had met somebody else with a wing, and he couldn't help but wonder how common they really were. He had never seen anybody with them before, but it could just be that they wouldn't go to a store like the one he had been kept in for twelve or so very long years.

The innocent winged boy bit his lip when more questions were invited, unsure of which one to ask first. He had many quetions, and they all jumbled up in his head. He was saved from having to pick one however when Sephiroth said he had one of his own. He glaced to Cayden for a moment, noting the sharp look the man gave his friend before back to the man in front of him. He blinked slightly at the question, looking to the floor for a moment. "I. . . I don't know?" he said, glancing back up, "I havn't flown in a very long time." There was no way his old master would let him in the air, too worried that he would just fly away, and he was always kept in that cage. He would have to guess that due to lack of practice, his flying skills were less than they had ever been.

Sephiroth smiled slightly thinking that this was his chance to get Angel alone and win over the smaller boy's trust completely. Angel would be as good as his in a few minutes if he had his way. He stood up, pulling his wing in slightly almost pressing it against his body. "Then let's go try it out." He said with a smile. He turned to Cayden and smirked at the silverette, "You're free to come watch us if you want. Even if you are stuck on the ground." He said with a smile but his thin brows were drawn together. Cayden though treated it as Sephiroth hoped he would, as a challenge. Sephiroth smirked to himself more as he turned and headed towards the door which led out into Cayden's extensive backyard with everything from a large pool, a field and a small forest. He was very familiar with the layout of this land. He stretched out his wing and let out a sigh knowing he could take off soon, despite himself, he did enjoy flying.

Cayden stood up, he couldn't turn down this challenge and he would prove to Sephiroth that despite not having wings he wasn't as grounded as he seemed to think he was. He placed his hand on Angel's head as he started towards the back door where Sephiroth had disappeared. "Don't let him get to you. And don't listen to him as much as you are. You can talk to him...just be careful, and don't leave my sight." He stated looking down at Angel, his gaze softening slightly from the sharp look he had been giving Sephiroth the entire time he had been in the room. He actually put on a smile for a second, a real smile and one he meant at that, "I'd actually love to see you fly." He said with the smile before he walked towards the back door where Sephiroth had disappeared, his smile dropping as he laid eyes on the other man, though he had to admit he was gorgeous with his clothing, hair and feathers caught in the wind as they were.

Angel looked up as the tall man stood, blinking slightly at his words. "Ah, okay" he said with a slight smile, eyes lighting up at the idea. He couldn't deny that the idea of flying again made him very happy, which was something he hadn't been in a very, very long time. Before he had been captured, the winged boy had spent so much of his time flying, so content to be above the trees, and the monstrosity that is man. All that was up there with him were the birds and the clouds. He looked over to his master when Sephiroth adressed him, tilting his head slightly, clueless as to why these men were acting this way together. He remained where he was on the floor, unsure of what he was supposed to be doing at the moment. He turned his head to look at the sky out the large window, biting his lip slightly, anticipating getting to fly again, even if he was out of practice. The winged boy looked back to Sephiroth when the man left the room via the back door.

The white haired boy was about to get up to follow when he felt the hand on his head. He looked up into the face of his master, listening closely as Cayden spoke. He was unsure as to what his master meant when he spoke of Sephiroth like this, and what either of the men could be thinking. Sure, he had been treated so terribly for so long, but his mind was still so innocent. He nodded to show he understood, making a note of the instructions he was given, not wanting to do something wrong and make his master angry with him. He blinked slightly, slightly caught off guard by the smile and those words, but he gave a small smile back. He got to his feet to follow quickly after his Master, stepping out into the sun, looking up at the wide blue sky, letting out a content sky. His wings unfurled slightly where he stood, anticipating being back in the sky.