Wings Of Despair - Book 1

Chapter 7

Greg's eyelids fluttered open; the sunlight creaked its way into the small room. He tried to stretch, but his limbs were held back. Greg was reminded of the horrid nightmare, his anxiety slowly rose as he started to squirm, eyes squeezed tightly. A soft groan caught Greg from his minor panic attack, which made him to turn curiously. He released his eyes from the strained eyelids. It was Yuto. He peacefully slept against Greg's back, with arms carefully wrapped around the others' waist. Yuto's face was squished against his neck, slightly snoring with a tad of drool dripping from his parted lips. Greg met eyes with Yuto's closed ones, as he took in his thin coat of eyelashes laying helplessly from his eyelids. A boost of confidence resonated through Greg's blood, as he snuggled his head in between Yuto's shoulder and neck. Yuto had hummed in response and shifted closer. After ten minutes of basking in each other's warm embrace, Yuto had finally awoken from his comfortable sleep.

"Good morning, sleepyhead." Greg greeted, his smile lopsided and squished against the pillow.

"Mornin'." Yuto beamed, eyes squinted from contentment.

"How did you end up in my bed?" Greg questioned, only then realising Yuto hadn't entered the bed with him last night.

"What do you mean? You snuck into my bed."

"No? You were the one who tucked me into bed."

Yuto then took a moment to take in his surroundings, realising that it was indeed not his room.

"Oh, you're right. Sorry." Yuto apologised. "I must have mistaken this room as mine, I was up late last night binging movies on tv. Goddamn, how out of it was I?"

"You dumbass." Greg chuckled.

A comforting silence fell upon the room.

"Do you have work today?" Greg's voice broke through the silence.

"Not that I'm aware of, why?"

"Well, I'm planning to go into town and shop for food. I don't know about you, but I don't want to eat soggy food that is quickly going off for majority of this trip." Greg replied, as he crawled from Yuto's soft grasp. He stepped off the bed, stretching his numb limbs.

"Alright, I'll quickly check if I have any jobs." Yuto got out of bed as well, reaching for his tablet and started patting his fingers along the screen.

Greg removed himself from the room, walked into the kitchen and opened the cabinet, not surprised to be met with the smell of salt and sea. Greg sighed, as he grabbed the remains of a vegemite sandwich and bit into it. He slightly gagged from the strong, sea salt taste lingered on his tongue. Greg heard footsteps, feeling the presence of Yuto as he approached the room.

"James said I don't have any jobs today, which means I can come with you!" Yuto smiled, slightly bouncing on the balls of his feet from excitement.

"Who's James?"

"Are you serious? I told you about him, right after I defeated the Negative Emotion in Australia!" Yuto reminded, giddy from the mention of his wanna-be father figure.

"Oh shit, that's right." Greg recalled, whilst Yuto took his wings out and stretched them.

It was only then Greg realised how pristine Yuto's feathers looked.

"How do you keep your wings so clean looking?"

"Well, I never have them out in the first place. They don't get a chance of getting dirty in the first place."

"I don't think that's a good thing." Greg replied, contemplated of even offering to help Yuto clean them.

"I'll clean them soon, it's fine." Yuto waved off and grabbed his shoulder bag – which was stuffed with Snab. "Hold on, let me change into something more comfortable."