Blood Bonds: An Angel's Love

Chapter 5

Lloyd’s large liquid eyes, honey gold in their center, a mirror of pure love, soul shinning bright in his orbs, reflected Kratos’s image. Lost in the seraph’s beauty, he grasped the ring around his finger murmuring, “Are you sure it okay, Kratos? You said we share the same blood?”

Lloyd’s soul searing question searched Kratos deeply. He imagined they were cousins, Kratos somehow related to his mother, but never imagined the seraph to be his very father. The angel’s love crystallized as tender kisses he showered on Lloyd. Running his fingers through Lloyd’s fine hair, brushing back the bangs that fell in his face, the seraph pulled him closer. “…We both said we would trust our hearts, remember?” he recalled, banishing Lloyd’s doubt.

Lloyd nodded, blinking, hugging Kratos hard. He loved the feel of Kratos’s manly body against his, the timbre of his deep voice reverberating in the back his throat, whispering his name.

“Lloyd, rest.” Breaking their sweet embrace, Kratos retreated to his lone post outside the entourage’s dying campfire.

“Yeah…” Curled up in a ball facing away, positioned slightly outside the circle of sleeping bodies, Lloyd drifted off, clasping the ring Kratos gave to his chest.

Dim yellow light glowing from the embers flickered softly off Lloyd’s form, scintillating shadows played in crevices between his legs, under his arms and neck, exposed and inviting. Kratos wondered if Lloyd preferred light kisses or teeth grazing across the smooth column of his neck, as his eyes soaked in its texture and perfectly sloping curve. Taut muscle tightened under his skin as he curled in a smaller ball, kissing the ring Kratos gave him in sleep. Lloyd’s lips, full from youth, parted, a contented sigh escaping. He stirred, batting his thick black eyes lashes against his rosy boyish cheeks, the very image of tenderness melting Kratos’s heart.

“…So cute, an angel’s child, my child,” Kratos said, gently stroking his cheek, speaking both as a parent and lover. “I could never take your innocence. The smell of the battlefield, its blood stains me. You are pure, sweet, everything I was as a human long ago before I walked the path of blood and immortality.” All for the sake of Cruxis, Yddrasill’s twisted dream, playing God as one of the four seraphim lords.

“…mm…Kratos…” Lloyd murmured asleep, pressing his lips again to the ring. “…It aches, down there.” His young frame twitching, Lloyd thrust his hips forward, drawing Kratos’s attention to the intimate zones of his body.

Sighing heavily, Kratos’s loving touch traveled down Lloyd’s neck between the dip of his collarbones, in the valley of his pectorals, over the smooth planes of his stomach, pausing above Lloyd’s mounting arousal. “You are dreaming about me, are you not?” he surmised, scooping his son up into his strong protective arms.

“…It pains me to see you, unable to sleep,” Kratos sighed again, carrying Lloyd to safety of darkness not far from the dwindling fire. Lloyd’s unease from sensual thoughts of Kratos reminded him of his own human fragility, before cursed immortality and wings.

His back resting against a thin tree trunk, he cradled Lloyd supportively, his muscular body radiating warmth that enveloped his slumbering son. “You saved me from my loneliness, love me like no other,” Kratos confessed. “…Like Anna once did.”

Stars twinkled above in the wheeling sky like diamonds strewn from the Goddess’s celestial basket. Moonlight showered the couple in silver light, a most brilliant singular ray falling on father and son entwined. Brows furrowed, eyes sliding open, Lloyd’s umber irises, gold speckles glinting in their depths, reflected dancing starlight. Crooning over, Kratos drowned in their autumn-dark tones, encircled by Lloyd’s arms snaking up above around Kratos’s tilted neck.

“Kratos, you even invade my dreams,” Lloyd sighed, his arms pulling Kratos down until their lips barely brushed, Lloyd’s eyes fluttering half shut, clouded with visions of Kratos blurred against night sky whirling.

A phantom smile broke over the seraph’s taciturn features, barely there but the brown hair boy saw it. “Hmm, you seem to have matured, Lloyd.” He inclined further down stealing Lloyd’s sweet lips, caressing his forehead. “To admit so openly how you feel. An adult is one, who is honest in themselves, without reacting in anger.”

“Opposite of my instinct, eh?” Lloyd chucked, hoisting himself up against Kratos’s broad shoulder.

Kratos’s arms wrapped snugly around Lloyd, weaving their hands together, their cheeks pressed so close, Lloyd felt Kratos’s pulse pounding beneath his hot skin. “Well, then, as an adult I would like you to be honest,” Kratos queried, his warm breath hitting Lloyd’s ear, making him quiver in his father’s tender grasp. “How much do you truly understand of where children come from?”

Lloyd broke from Kratos, his cheeks flushing bright red, jaw wide open. “Damn! I slept through sex-ed in class. When I awoke, Genis told me to ask the Professor. She slapped me so hard my face was black for a week. I tried to read Genis’s notes, but they were so hard, I found it as boring as hell like math.” He muttered, scowling at the thought. “Your answer is no, so don’t lecture me, okay?” He crossed his arms, frowning.

“…I am not of that temper,” the auburn haired man replied calmly, rising gracefully to his feet. His cape-tails swayed out behind him, his ruby steady gaze studied Lloyd coolly. “When you physically mature to manhood, you are old enough to have children. That is why it is important to know how life starts.”

/He is kind, gentle, open, I can’t help but love him/, Lloyd reflected, his eye trailing the angel from foot to head, his tight purple clothes revealing every sinew and curve, deliciously attractive. But thanks to my answer, he probably thinks I’m dumb.

Kratos instinctively read doubt sown across Lloyd’s agonized features. He maneuvered behind Lloyd, clapping a hand his back. His ancient eyes softened, their warm red hue almost pink like rose quartz, shinning with love. “…You are human to feel pain. Do not fear, Lloyd. I shall teach you the answer to your question.”

A guiding arm around Lloyd’s shoulders, Kratos led his son back to the gravel clearing with the gnarled tree sheltering the pair. Lloyd noticed a whispering stream wandering by, adjacent to the tree. Sounds of running water soothed his dreary mind. As nighttime drifted on, clouds from the nearby Ossa Mountains rolled in close to the ground as fog. Mist wafted in, heavy and damp obscuring Lloyd’s view. Clinging to Kratos’s side, he shivered, the air chilled and thick.

“…Do you remember your birth?” Kratos asked, sinking against the gnarled tree’s twisted trunk.

Shyly shaking his head, Lloyd slumped down beside him, boyish face innocently searching. “What kinda a question is that? Why must I?” he mumbled.

“You learn through experience, not intellect.” Head turned towards Lloyd, Kratos’s gaze locked with his, delving deep into his son’s wounded psyche. “That is why you fell asleep in the classroom.”

“You’re…the first person to say that.” Lloyd sniffled, feeling his emotional wounds churn deep inside, wondering if his father possessed some innate magical power. “That I’m not dumb.”

“Lloyd, close your eyes. Let yourself go within.” Kratos low, rich voice pulled Lloyd into another world.

He sank in Kratos’s grasp, head pillowed on the older man’s lap, sprawled out comfortably on the gravel, relaxing as Kratos’s firm fingers massaged his tired temples. Kratos’s musical voice hypnotized Lloyd, drawing him into a trance inside to a place of inner silence, where memories harbored in his subconscious freely surface, swirling in his mind.

“Everything is tight…like a wet cave squeezing me. Mother is in pain, but I can’t do anything except let Mom push. After many hours, I’m outside. It’s cold, bright, I’m scared, but Dad’s hands catch me. He’s so happy I’m born…he’s crying, smiling. Dad is there, he loves me.”

A watery droplet hit Lloyd’s face from above, trapped in the valley under his nose, rolling between his lips tasting salty, Kratos’s tears. Lloyd opened his eyes to see Kratos knelt above shedding silent tears. For the first time in 14 years since Anna’d death, he finally cried.

“…Now I understand how I came to exist. But what did Dad do to make me exist, too?” Grinning, Lloyd sat up, stroking Kratos’s face, brushing aside auburn strands that covered the left side of his somber face. “What’s wrong, Kratos? Tears aren’t you.”

“…I apologize.” Moonlight penetrating through fog glistened in his tears, watery diamonds that sparkled. /Born, just opening his eyes, taking his first breath, I was the first thing he saw. My son truly loves me, even if he doesn’t know me/. The seraph swallowed hard, forcing his stoic guise, hands spread over his face in embarrassment. “How shameful a warrior should…cry.”

“You are human to feel pain, remember?” Lloyd echoed Kratos’s words, removing Kratos’s hands from his teary face, cupping his cheeks. “And tears is part of it. Would you cry if you weren’t…human?”

“…No, Lloyd.” Kissing the back of Lloyd’s hands wet with his tears, Kratos smiled sadly. “Even with wings that curse me to immortality, my heart is still…human.”

Clasping Lloyd’s hands between his, pressed to his chest, feeling Anna’s spirit pulsate through Lloyd’s living Ex-sphere, wind twisted around Kratos, blowing away mist to reveal the starry sky. Bathed in a shower of moonlight, he glowed light blue like a thousand suns blinding Lloyd in bright effulgence. When the afterglow of his radiant aura dimmed, Lloyd squinted to see dazzling orbs of light circling Kratos like fireflies, falling from transparent aqua wings sprouting from his back. Lifted in Kratos’s arms, hovering above the ground, suspended with this being of light, Lloyd gasped.

“I cannot bear to be human, to feel the pain of loosing those I love,” Kratos whispered, /like I did Anna/, his face illuminated from the inside out, his eyes alight like fiery rubies ablaze, he squeezed Lloyd tight. “So I shall make you an angel like me, Lloyd. Then, we shall spend eternity together, you and I.”

“Kratos!”

“Angel blood runs in your veins. Thus, the transformation should be smoother, unlike the Chosen’s. Now, your Ex-sphere will merge with your flesh permanently, until all aging ceases. You may stop eating and sleeping too, if you so chose.”

Feeling the pressure of Kratos’s hand on his Ex-sphere, Lloyd cried, his entire body shuddering as the blue jewel hissed, growing tendons into his skin like claws ripping in. Dirk’s key crest mounted in shattered, Kratos placing a new one on to force the Ex-sphere to evolve into a Cruxis crystal without killing Lloyd. His mind blanking out from pain, Lloyd passed out, falling within to a dark cold world.

TBC

A/N: So should I add a lemon, lime, or have Kratos and Lloyd get married? Plot ideas, let me know. Thank you for reading.