The day Kitty had been waiting for had finally come. Damien was being discharged from the hospital.
Before he and Claire left to pick him up, he had made their bedroom as perfect as possible. Not a pillow out of place, nor a speck of dust to be seen. He was rather proud of himself. He'd never been one for cleaning, so it was a major achievement.
They left for the hospital at 3 p.m. in Mr Kita's car and arrived there half an hour later. They got back home another 30 minutes later.
The first thing Damien did when he came back was head for the bedroom. Once there, he flopped onto the bed and sighed in relief.
"It's nice being back in my own bed." He laughed, arms folded behind his head.
Kitty watched him being adorable with a grin.
Damien sat up and patted the bed, signalling Kitty to sit down. He climbed onto it and settled on his knees next to him.
"We haven't had the chance to talk for a while." Damien said with a concerned face. "How have you been?"
"How have I been?" Kitty blinked.
"I mean, how have you been feeling? Emotionally?" Damien shifted to cross his legs. "The attention's been on me so much lately, so I was worried about you. Wondered if you were coping."
Kitty's heart fluttered. "Oh." He smiled. "Well, I've been fine. A lot better than I was, actually." He played with a lock of his hair. "I've been going to therapy."
"Really?" Damien beamed. "That's great! Is it working for you?"
"Yeah, it's been really helpful. I-I was a little worried about telling you, in case you thought I was crazy or something."
"I wouldn't think that. I have mental health issues myself." He rubbed his neck. "I've actually recently been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Guess it explains all the things I was seeing and hearing."
"Oh no!" Kitty said. "Are you OK? Why didn't you tell me?"
"Same reason you didn't tell me." Damien chuckled. "Anyway, back to you. Talk to me."
"About what?"
"Anything. The first thing that comes to mind."
Kitty chewed his lip and thought. "Well, I've been thinking lately that candy shoelaces would be a good thing. Do you think anyone would invent that? Should I invent that?"
Damien stared at him in disbelief for a second, then snorted. "I did tell you to talk about anything, but I didn't expect that." He laughed. "But that's why I love you."
It was Kitty's turn to stare in disbelief. Did he really just say that? Did he mean to say that? Damien seemed to have realised what he had told him. His face went bright red, and he turned his head.
"I-I mean as a friend, of course!" Damien laughed nervously, scratching his neck.
"Oh." Kitty felt a little disappointed, but he smiled anyway. "Yeah. That's what I thought you meant."
"So," Damien cleared his throat. "Are you still feeling depressed? You can tell me the truth."
With a sad sigh, Kitty decided he would. He trusted Damien not to judge him. "I still feel sad at times. I still have nightmares, and I have moments where I don't want to live. But I'm managing that now." He looked Damien in the eye. "You helped me get better."
Damien gave him a coy grin. "It wasn't all me. The therapists helped the most, and you made that progress yourself." He lowered his head. "I wasn't here to support you for months. I'm not the one who should be praised."
The guilt Damien felt upset Kitty. He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and kissed his cheek. "You did more than you think. You gave me a home and a new life after I lost mine, you supported me when I felt the lowest. You saved me."
Blue and red eyes widened. Damien smiled and held Kitty's waist. "You did the same for me."
Kitty gave a shy, but happy giggle, and pressed his lips to Damien's. Damien kissed his neck a few times, making his whole body tingle.
They both lay down, Kitty resting his head on Damien's chest and Damien stroking Kitty's hair. He could hear his heart thumping in this position. He closed his eyes, adamant his own heartbeat was in tandem with Damien's.
☽☾
As they lay there together, Damien smiled to himself. He had never felt so content, so glad. For the first time in his life, he truly felt safe. Kitty gave him a reason to live.
He wrestled with himself over whether to reveal his love for Kitty. It would be best not to, he decided. If he told him and he didn't feel the same way, it might be so awkward for him that he'd terminate their friendship. He valued Kitty and wanted to stay by him, even as a friend. He didn't want to lose him. If that meant keeping his feelings a secret, so be it. As long as he still had Kitty, he could live with the pain of not being in a relationship with him.
It hurt, but at least he was still around to pine after.
☽☾
That night, as Kitty slept, Damien put his plans to rescue Satan into motion.
He waited for it to get late enough that no one would be on the streets. He left and travelled to the abandoned house he used to change into his Nyuujaku costume. If he'd have changed at home and left wearing the costume, he would have been found out. He had to keep his identity a secret, not just for his own safety, but for the safety of everyone he knew. It had been a while since he'd worn it, but it still fit perfectly.
Now dressed, he stepped outside and felt the ground for vibrations. Like a spider, he pressed his hands on the pavement and closed his eyes to concentrate. He could sense footsteps and voices a few miles away, but none near where he was. Good. He was safe.
Damien raced, jumping from building to building, and made his way to the Golden Temple. He was nimble and quiet on his feet, a skill he had honed from four years of being an assassin.
When he arrived, he saw four guards with guns standing at the front gates. Of course it was heavily protected. Damien already knew that. He had prepared for them. He'd had Leviathan scope out the area before he left, so there weren't any nasty surprises. If he stayed back and avoided a full on battle, evading the guns, he could deal with them without anyone getting wounded.
Keeping himself hidden in a tree a few metres away, Damien manipulated the shadows near the guards to rise and wrap around them. He wasn't going to kill them. They were only employed by Dana, probably against their will. He had no conflict with them.
The guards were tied up. Damien ran past them. He was finally in. Now for the hard part: the actual rescue.
Other than the guards, there shouldn't have been anyone in there. Damien also asked Leviathan to cover him in Hell smoke, so God nor Dana should have been able to find him. But he still had to be careful. You never know what's around the corner – literally in this case.
He crept down the long, dark hallway, glancing around for potential enemies. At the end of the hallway, he came upon a large black door. Satan must have been behind it. Damien opened it, cringing at the creak it made.
The door led to a dark room, in which a medium-sized red box wrapped in chains resided in. That must have been where they'd hidden him. Damien knew it wasn't as simple as waltzing over and grabbing the box. There was most likely some kind of trap in place, possibly an alarm. He had to be careful. Luckily, he had brought an assortment of tools for this situation. Leviathan told him not to come unprepared. He was glad he'd listened to her.
The first thing he'd decided to do was check for tripwires. He grabbed the line laser out of the bag on his back and placed it in the doorway, then switched it on. To his relief, the green light exposed red lines in the middle of the room. They were low enough that he could step over them, but one wrong move would set them off. He had a better idea than just walking over them.
Shadow tentacles shot out of his back, the tips touching the floor. They raised him above the wires so he was hovering over them. He started to feel a bit nervous. He touched his mask to make sure it was still fastened and wouldn't fall off while he was doing this. Once he was confident it was fine, the tips of his shadows stepped over in between the wires like tiny slim feet.
He got to the box and touched it. It was wet, presumably with holy water. With his rubber gloves on, it wouldn't burn him. The problem was the chains. His shadow tentacles were busy raising him off the ground, so he couldn't rip them apart with them. He reached into his bag, making sure not to drop the nail file he took out. The chains were rusty from the holy water, but it was still tricky and time-consuming to cut through them.
In a minute, the chains were off. Damien tucked them under his arm so they wouldn't drop and set off the alarm. He flipped the lid of the box open. A gust of red smoke burst out of it, forming the shape of a devil. Before he knew it, it knocked him to the ground, his mask flying off. This of course set off the fucking wires.
"Shit!"
The alarms blared like an angry cow mooing. Damien had fallen smack-bang in the middle of the wires. The cause of this problem was now rubbing his tear-stained and snotty face on his jacket and giving him a rather painful bear hug.
"Thank you!" Satan howled. "I thought I'd never see you again, son! I missed you so much!"
"Yeah, that's great and all, but we have to go. Now."
Footsteps were coming closer and closer. Damien tried to pry Satan off of him, but he wouldn't budge.
"For fuck's sake, man!" Damien yelled. "The fucking guards are coming, so we need to get the fuck out of here!"
"You swear too much." Satan said with a childish scowl.
"That's not the problem here!" Damien said. "If we don't go now, we're gonna get fucking executed!"
As if on cue, seven guards stormed the room. None were the guards from the front. They must have somehow called for reinforcements. Damien cursed. They were completely fucked.
Damien grabbed his mask, but it was too late. They'd already seen his face, though they most likely already knew who he was since they worked for God. He huffed. The worst case scenario had happened.
They were going to have to fight the guards.
Damien and Satan battled the guards, doing their best not to hurt them too much. Damien blunted his shadow fans to they point where they could only whack, not slash. Once every guard was tied up, they made a run for it before any more could show up.
☽☾
Damien and Satan rushed back to the abandoned house. Damien changed his clothes and gave Satan the disguise he had arranged for him to blend in. It was a tall top-hat.
Satan gave him a sarcastic look. "Seriously?"
"Seriously." Damien said with a blank face. "Put it on."
Despite his embarrassment, Satan positioned his giant horns under the hat. He tucked his tail into his trousers, but it left a noticeable bump.
"OK, now I look like a complete idiot." Satan said.
"No change there, then." Damien muttered.
Satan gave a sulky pout. Damien waited for him to teleport back to Hell, but he just stood there, staring at him.
Before Damien could question him, Satan spoke.
"Er, Damien, look. About Tova and Kenta." He pursed his lips with a guilty look. "I'm sorry. I was my fault. I should have checked in on you and made sure you were all right. I never imagined that anything like that could have happened to you." He sighed. "I could have saved you-"
"I don't blame you, idiot."
Satan's head snapped up to look at Damien. Damien's eyes met his. He looked shocked at what Damien had whispered.
"Y-You don't?" Satan asked.
"No." Damien shook his head. "I mean, I did at first. I hated you. But I realised it wasn't your fault. It was just bad luck that I ended up with them. No one could have predicted that." He looked Satan in the eye again. "You don't have anything to be sorry about. No one does, except them of course."
Tears of relief bubbled up in Satan's eyes. "You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that." He grabbed Damien into a tight hug. "I love you, kiddo."
"Idiot." Damien smiled and patted Satan's arm. "I love you, too, dad."