Gathering Post - London Calling

[londoncallingmods]

The world at large seemed heavier this week, bad news from across the pond drifting over like a bad storm and raining down on the city. Still, stiff upper lip and all that. If London had stopped every time things had seemed bleak, it would have fallen long ago.

And so life went on, as it must. 

The skies were a bit grey and the streets slightly damp, but the Christmas lights were coming on early this year, and Harrods already had the streets lit up with wonder and sparkle. Cafes and bars followed suit, and twinkling lights were everywhere you looked, casting a much needed bit of whimsy and wonder over the stark looking faces that passed by. It was hard to stay grim when children and adults alike seemed so entranced by it all.

There were plenty of events going on as well. From the Lord Mayor's Show or the Dulwich Christmas Bazaar, to the usual concerts, festivities, and even bowling. 

London may have looked a bit foggy and miserable, but there was pleanty of joy to be found for those who went looking.

(Gathering post! Just a nice mellow post to combat those post election blues, and balance out the drama from Halloween. As always, this post will be open for at least a week, so tag in and check back often to tag others. <3)

Comments

[whispersoflove]

"Of course," Anael agreed without missing a beat. "Give me an address and I'll look in on them. I can't guarantee how often that might be, but... yes, of course."

[akatawitch]

The words of thanks choked in Sunny's throat and she leaned over and kissed Anael's cheek. She swallowed hard against more tears, not wanting to lose her composure again.

[whispersoflove]

Anael traced a couple of fingers gently down the side of her face as she leaned back. "Would you like to go somewhere and curl up? We don't have to talk. Or we can. I'll tell you anything you like." Physical comfort and potential distraction. He had a lot of stories to tell.

[akatawitch]

Sunny nodded. "Yeah. Yeah, I would." She didn't have many people in London she could go to for physical comfort, less because no one would and more because she hated being this vulnerable even around most of her friends. That of course only made it stranger when she did cry and the cycle enforced itself.

[whispersoflove]

"Let's go, then," Anael offered, standing up and offering her his hand. "Do you know where we might go?"

Not only did he not have a place to offer, but he would not presume what she might feel comfortable with. As long as it was somewhere conducive to curling up, it would be fine by him.

[akatawitch]

"Could go to mine," Sunny said with a shrug, tucking away her book before taking his offered hand. It wasn't far, and really the only reason she'd come out at all today was to just be outside her flat and prove to herself that life went on.

She wasn't in the habit of bringing men or man-shaped beings home as it had implications she just didn't want to get into most of the time, but... this was different.

[whispersoflove]

"Is it very far?" Anael asked, simply because he would offer to fly them there if it was.

[akatawitch]

Sunny shook her head. "Few blocks. C'mon," she said, abandoning her half finished tea and leading him outside.

"Y'know, when I think about it, I don't ask nearly enough how you're doing. That's pretty terrible of me."

[whispersoflove]

Anael shrugged to say he didn't mind, his hand warm around hers. He wasn't dressed nearly warmly enough for the weather, and didn't seem to realise it. "I don't like what's going on either. Hate is on the rise, and I wish I could do something to help it."

[akatawitch]

But Sunny did mind. She wasn't sure exactly how to be a proper friend to an angel, but this did seem like a gesture of basic decency. Her hand in his squeezed a little tighter. "It's been worse, right?" She knew a fair amount of history for a young person. She knew it had been, but the question had been almost a reflex.

[whispersoflove]

"It has been," Anael confirmed, "but I still don't like the flavour of it." Or its steady rise in recent years. He smiled at her. "Thankfully, there is still more than enough love to counterbalance it."

[akatawitch]

"I don't understand," Sunny mumbled. "Why being different is so threatening." It had been the truth of her life since she was small. She'd never had a chance to fit anywhere, had spent most if not all of her life on the outside somehow.

[whispersoflove]

"I don't think I'll be much help trying to explain that," Anael answered honestly. But then he grew quiet, thinking back to the days when he had fallen prey to Hatred, and raised his weapons against his brethren. The threat had been very real, but had the emotions been any different? Betrayal had tinted everything a different shade. Love had led to hatred, as it often did. He sighed, shaking his head. "All Hatred is a perversion of Love. It feels wrong. Twisted, and sick. Your lives are so short, and you frighten so easily. You feel every emotion so strongly."

[akatawitch]

"Love?" Sunny murmured. "What love turns complete strangers against me just for being colored this way?" It was a real question, not indignant, not angry, not mocking, as she might be with someone else. She expected Anael to know what he was talking about.

She had meant it when she said they weren't far from her flat. She fished out her keys as she saw her building.

[whispersoflove]

"Love, fear, hate," Anael replied, glancing at her. "It's a short path from beginning to end. They love their families, their lives, their cultures, and they cling to what they know and love fiercely, for fear that it will be taken away from them. They do not know, they do not understand. They only fear."

[akatawitch]

"Oyibo akata winch," Sunny murmured. White girl. Foreign girl. Witch.

"Here," she told him. She climbed steps and let them into the building--in that sweet spot of both too old and too new to be fashionable--and then up a couple of flights of stairs to her apartment.

It was very much a student's apartment--small, furnished on the cheap, and the tiny kitchen table was clearly doubling as a desk the way it was covered in laptop and books, but perfectly tidy. And care had been taken to make it comfortable, in the usual ways and... less usual. The walls were laced with spells and covered with pictures of her family, her friends. Her father was conspicuously absent from most of them.

"I don't invite many people here," she admitted, almost shyly. It was one of the few places in London she could be exactly what she was in peace.

[whispersoflove]

Anael understood the words, of course, speaking every language of Men as he did. But he also understood at least some of what they meant to Sunny, from the complex mire of emotions that twisted inside her as she said them.

But he said nothing, and let her show him into her flat, looking around curiously. It was small, and full of things, of life, her life, displayed on the walls as much as it lay on her kitchen table. At her words, he turned back to face her with a small, fond smile. "Thank you." He held a hand out to her. "I believe curling up together was mentioned." He wanted to hold her, and make her feel better if he could.

[akatawitch]

Sunny nodded, shedding her jacket and her shoes before taking the offered hand. "Would curling up on my bed be weird?" she asked. She felt like it should be, and yet it didn't feel that way. She didn't mean anything sexual by it, nor did she think he'd take it in that context without invitation... that was just what felt safe right now.

[whispersoflove]

"Not if you're comfortable with it," Anael answered easily. His jacket was gone with a thought, along with his shoes and socks, and he was ready to curl up wherever she might prefer, including her bed.

[akatawitch]

Another nod, and she led him into her bedroom where she resisted the urge to curl up in the fetal position when she lay down. Sunny wasn't sure if Anael made her feel vulnerable, or if she always felt this way and she had just deemed it safe to let it surface around him.

[whispersoflove]

Anael joined her on the bed and pulled her into his arms, reclining against her pillows and kissing her hair tenderly as they settled down. There wasn't an ounce of self-consciousness to him as he held her, warm and comforting. He was honoured that she would bring him here, and let him hold her, but he did not say so; this moment was for her, and he would not bring it back around to himself. "Comfortable?" he checked, his voice as gentle as his embrace.

[akatawitch]

Sunny nodded, amazed at her own lack of shyness. At how much she needed to be touched. At how much she wasn't freaking out because, y'know, an angel of the Lord in her bed. "Thank you," she murmured.

[whispersoflove]

"You're very welcome," Anael assured her, squeezing her briefly, and just as warmly. "Now, tell me if you don't like this," he added, and let some of his Grace seep through into the physical plane. It manifested as warmth, not just physical but also spiritual and emotional, and Anael was ready to pull it back in if Sunny was adverse to it, but it could be so very comforting. It would have felt wrong not to offer.

[akatawitch]

Sunny's answer was physical before it was verbal. She hadn't even realized how tense she still was until her muscles started to relax, and she moaned softly and snuggled closer. "No, that's fine."

[whispersoflove]

Her response was both physical and emotional, and Anael was already smiling softly when she answered him verbally. He nuzzled at her hair, then settled down again, letting her relax in God's Love. If she wanted to talk, they could talk. Otherwise, he was happy to simply hold her.