Firewall

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

By now, the sunset was long gone, only the light of the stars and moon was left to illuminate the room. Vanoss was staring out the window, seated in the chair that Mark once occupied. His brown eyes and short black hair were silver in the light, his face almost emotionless in the bright glow.

Jack watched Vanoss with a strange sense of curiosity. While they were indeed friends, Jack never really talked to him all that much. Vanoss tended to socialize with his own group of friends, and the only time they really interacted was ether out on patrol or if they happened to run into each other while on the Firewall.

Even though they never really talked, Jack knew some things about Vanoss... One little factoid being that the Asian man was a sucker for the scenery that nature provided, much like Mark, but Vanoss took joy in actually being in it rather than just looking at it. He flew out beyond the Firewall several times a day, and took more patrols than anyone else.

Jack actually found entertainment in watching him fly, since it was quite beautiful in a way, even if he was usually a speck in the distance. Just as Jack let himself be absorbed by the memory of such, he was suddenly brought back from the depth of his thoughts by a flash of yellow pixels and the sudden disappearance of the bed sheets that covered him.

"Whoops, sorry" Vanoss quickly got up and picked the covers up from the floor, tucking his wings in tightly against his back so they wouldn't knock anything else over. That was another thing Jack had noticed: the fact that Vanoss didn't have the best control over his transformation. He could summon it just fine, and could keep it out for as long as he needed, but suppressing it was difficult. MatPat once told Jack that Vanoss had a subconscious urge to be 'free' or something along the lines of that. Transformations usually depended on two variables: will and emotion. Anyone could summon a transformation at will, but emotions could be hard to handle. For example, Ken would undergo a transformation if he got too angry, and Sky could also do the same regarding that same emotion... This tended to happen a lot out during a fight for some reason.

Just thinking of Sky made Jack's heart lurch, his memory kicking up to the horrible vision he had witnessed of the usually smiling and goofy Expert. Jack suppressed his curiosity as hard as he could as Vanoss handed the bed sheets back to him, but his mind was whirling out of control. He was barely aware of himself thanking Vanoss and covering his body once more.

Vanoss was unaware of the sudden turmoil of emotion within Jack and sat back down, making sure his beautiful wings didn't hit anything else on the way. He didn't even bother to put them away as he saw no other hazard and continued to look out the window. Another thing admirable about Vanoss was his ability to not give a damn about looking weird. Most of the time he took enormous pride in it.

Jack tried to ignore the curiosity and focused on his wings. He hated feeling envious but right now he needed a distraction. God they were beautiful. The yellow of them turning silver in the moonlight as well as giving Jack the illusion that they were glowing. At that moment, Vanoss looked like a fallen angel.

"And here I was, giving Mark a hard time about being whimsical over the silliest of things" Jack tore his gaze away from the wings and focused on Sam, who was wiggling around in the palm of his hand "but god... It must be the best thing in the world..." he closed his eyes, taking a deep breath before looking back up at Vanoss "hey, can I ask you something?"

"Hm?" Vanoss turned to look at him, blinking rapidly as he saw Jack struggling to continue.

"Th-This might sound weird but... Can... Can I touch one of your wings?"