Chapter Text
CHAPTER ONE
As I tumbled headfirst off of the bridge, I thought it was all over. Woah, woah, woah, let me rewind a bit. This will make no sense if I start here.
“As you all know, bonds are an incredible thing that has not been seen in over a millennia. As you all know what a bond is, I'll spare you the boring details, and skip straight to the description. Bonds are visual, just as much as they are emotional. When a bond is formed, there is usually a glowing line connecting them, or a circle surrounding them. If you see this or experience this, call 119 immediately….” The teacher droned on and on and on about the topic that we had all been taught about for years. I was so. Freakin’. BORED!!! Why couldn't Mikado be in the same class as me!? That way I could bug him instead of listening to this mind numbing lesson! I sighed and let my head slam into the desk below.
Time skip
As the bell rang I was the first out of the classroom. I stretched, popping my back, when a familiar sound caught my attention. The soft patter of Mikado's footsteps. A mischievous thought entered my head, and I ducked into the nearest corridor and pressed my back against the wall. As soon as the footsteps we're almost on top of me, I jumped out screaming
“RAAAAAAGH!!!!!!”
“Masaomi!!!” Mikado sighed clutching his chest like I had given him a heart attack.(which I probably almost had.) “ Geez Louise! Why do you scare me like that!?!!”
“Because it's funny how you always scream like a girl when you get scared.” I said, like that was the most normal thing in the world. Mikado gave me a look that he usually reserved for particularly hard math problems, one that screamed I will never figure you out. I just grinned right back.
“ *Sigh…* Anri told me to meet her at the bridge outside the school.” Mikado said turning his eyes towards the floor, becoming his usual shy self. Oh no. He was not going back in his shell. Not on my watch. Yeah, he had a screwed past but I was going to make sure the rest of his life was the best it could possibly be. He was going to laugh, smile, and be happy just like the rest of us. And for that reason, I sling my arm around his shoulders and dragged him towards the exit.
“ We can't keep Anri waiting, now can we?”
He gave a sheepish smile and clutched his bag closer to him. Not the best, but it was a start.
I smiled and enthusiastically waved to Anri who was sitting on a bench on the bridge over the road. I honestly could not understand why they would put a sidewalk over a busy road when there was literally a crosswalk right underneath us. Especially if they weren't going to keep it in good shape. The chain mail fence that once served as a guard against falling people, was full of holes, sagging in far too many places, and all in all just dysfunctional. Not to mention plants had taken over the place. Sure, we were on a bridge, but you would be surprised at how high vines can grow. I grinned, running the rest of the way to Anri, dragging Mikado along behind me. When we reached her side, Mikado rested his hands on his knees and said
“Remind me to never let you do that to me again.” Anri giggled, shutting her Ruby red eyes in the process. Mikado gave her a weak smile before bending over to catch his breath. He leaned against the fence without a second thought on the matter, and my eyes widened as me and Anri dove for him at the same time, latching onto his school shirt and pulling our selves close to him squeezing my eyes shut in an attempt to ignore the inevitable fall. Only…. It didn't happen. I slowly opened my eyes only to see the chain fence still in place and Mikado still leaning against it, with Anri squished between us. Mikado slowly opened his eyes, and relaxed when he realized that we hadn't fallen.
“Well, that certainly could have been worse.” I said as I started leaning back towards the sidewalk.
Suddenly there was a crunch, and I paused in my actions, my eyes widening and I tried to pull my friends back in time, but it was to late we were falling through the air and all I could do was clutch my best friends close to me as the fence gave way and were falling, falling, falling, and oh God this is how I die! I pull them close to me and let the memories of better times wash over me.
But then suddenly, I wasn't. For the second time. And again, I cracked my eyes open to see what was happening, and I almost gave myself a heart attack.
There was a glowing golden thread surrounding us. My mind scrambled for what could possibly be happening, and surprisingly, the information was right there on the surface. This was a bond thread. And we were bonded.
But of course, the surprises didn't stop there. I felt an intense, almost painful heat on my back and heard the sound of clothes tearing (my clothes specifically) and out of the corners of my eyes, there's a flash of white and feather, and when I look over anri's shoulder and I could hardly believe what I saw. Perched on her shoulder blades we're a pair of black wings that we're still growing to accommodate her mass. I felt my eyes widen and the blood drain from my face as I whipped my head around to peer over my own shoulder, and sure enough, there they were. A pair of golden wings, almost the same color as my hair, maybe a little lighter, sticking out of my shoulders like they had been there my whole life. I began hyperventilating. What was going on!?! What kind of sick joke is this!?! I clutched my friends close to my chest, and instinctively covered us with my ever growing wings.
That was when I realized that we were still falling, though more like slowly drifting down, and in the time it had taken me to process the bond and the wings, we had gotten to the point where we were only a few feet away from the ground.
But what I then realized, was that we were not the only ones that were shocked by this turn of events. Many people had stopped to stare, some were filming, and some were jabbering away on their phones with frantic tones of voices, their eyes never leaving our figures. I groaned. I knew what they were doing. They were calling that 119 number. I really would rather not get shipped off somewhere to do who knows what. But at the same time, I could barely bring myself to move. We had just fallen off the top of a 50 foot bridge, sprouted wings, and become the first bondmates in over a millennia. Not to mention this happened in under five minutes. Needless to say, I felt more than a little deserving of a break.
Then, I heard something. Something other than the whispers of the shocked crowd around us. It came from close by, and at first I couldn't make my mind work for long enough to register that this was the sound of someone crying. Then I felt wetness on my shoulder. I looked abruptly over to see the quivering form of Mikado with his head resting on my shoulder and his Raven black wings drooped awkwardly onto the asphalt as if he wasn't completely sure what to do with them.
Suddenly, I felt something. A something that was most definitely not my own. It was like a rope being pulled taut in my chest, urging me to goin Mikado's direction. And in a flash I felt his emotions. Overwhelming confusion mixed with fear, pain, and an underlying layer of warmth from the bond. I hugged him tight. This may be the beginning of a very…. Confusing new experience, but there was no way either of them were going to have to deal with it alone. Then I felt something warm across my back, and silently thanked Anri. Just her presence was a comforting one.
I wished I could just lie there forever, not having to worry about reality, and just life in general. But, despite the thick blanket of happiness and distraction contact with my bondmates provided me with, there. Was still the nagging sensation that nipped at the back of my mind that refused to go away. So, with much annoyance, I cracked my eyes open and slowly, like a new born deer, began to wobble to my feet, doing my best to help Mikado and Anri do the same.
Once we were all standing, still leaning heavily on each other, I was able to fully take in the sight of the crowd that had gathered, still standing back apprehensively, as if we were going to hurt them. Somewhere inside me, it stung a little that people could go from acting like you were their next door neighbor to acting like you were what would cause the end of the world.
But then there was the sound of cars screeching to a stop, and heavy boots hitting the pavement and the annoyed grunts of people being shoved to the side. They came charging towards us and before I could even react Anri did. She slid in front of me and Mikado, black wings spread wide to act as a shield, purely on instinct. However that didn't last long, as the men just kept charging through the crowd towards us, only stopping when they had completely encircled us, blocking out the crowd that had formed around us. When they reached their apparent positions, a man's voice yelled "halt!" And the men stood there, guns out and aimed at us.
We quivered in fear, quickly squishing closer together. My wings encircled my friends, and though tears were coming to my eyes, and I was shaking like crazy both because of my own emotions and my flock mates, I still felt the overwhelming urge to protect them.
"What are you doing?!! They're a bunch of middle school students! They're obviously terrified! What the hell do you think threatening them is going to accomplish? Put the damn guns away!!" We heard the same man's voice yell, and with it I saw a tall and wiry man in a lab coat with a scarred face and a stern glint in his eye step forward, steadily striding towards us. When he got too close, I flinched back, pulling Mikado and Anri with me. He stopped when he saw this, seemingly realizing his mistake, as his features softened a little. “ We’re not here to hurt you,” he said, kneeling down about three feet away from us with his hands out in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “ We do however need you to come with us so that we can register you and your bond. I promise nothing else will happen to you or about you without your consent.”
I looked at him, then at my friends. However, before I could say anything, Mikado jumped in, much to Anri and I’s surprise.
“W - what about our families? What about school? How do you expect us to deal with that after we’re obviously going to be on the news? And how to we get rid of these stupid - what even are they? - wings?!?!” I could tell that Mikado was starting to panic. I could feel it, actually.
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