We Are War

4. T is for trauma

The house Valentine shared with Genesis was outside the city, it was about twenty minutes drive to the centre of the city and it was located in the quiet neighbourhood – most of their neighbours were elderly people, couple of small families here and there, but the area had a lot of old people around. And despite being rather young the place fit them perfectly, the streets were quiet during the night – a hugely important thing for Valentine, he could sleep without waking up to any loud noises and thinking he was back to the field. They were gone long times when they were working, the neighbour right by was always more than happy to look after the fence and whatever flowers there was to water, neither of the warriors was any good with flowers and plants so they hadn't planted any. The house was average, there were many just alike it around the same neighbourhood, two levels, three bedrooms, couple of bathrooms, big kitchen and living room space that let them spend time with people there. But most importantly, especially for Valentine, the backyard opened up to the woods, the backyard had high fence – there was a lot of space for them to practise and wrestle, and during anytime when Valentine felt like he needed to burn off energy he could run in the forest as a wolf, most of the neighbours went to bed early, no one was there to watch what they did on their free time. And they also knew Valentine had been in service (on human fronts) so they respected their privacy thanks to that.

There was a small lantern on the front steps, with a poison green light in it, the candle was no normal candle, it had been bought from a voodoo shop and the light would be on whenever either of them was home, to indicate it was safe – the candle wouldn't light if someone else was in the house. This had become a safe haven for the both of them, especially the massive comfortable couch that ruled the living room, Valentine more often than not chose to sleep on it rather than bother to go upstairs to the bedroom.

Tonight however he'd need to break the news about the trip to Genesis and it was going to be tough, but he had pushed it off for long enough, he couldn't push it off longer – Genesis needed to know what was going on. Why he was running from one place to another all of a sudden instead of staying home and relaxing like he did usually before work called again. But as the first thing he had done was to make sure the coffee maker was on and then he was ready to face the music. Genesis of course knew something was going on, he was able to read Valentine like an open book, and the angel was hovering around, waiting until Valentine was ready to spill his secrets – though judging by his stance Valentine was able to tell he was itching to ask what was going on. The werewolf took a deep breathe, turning to face the man again, his back to the coffee maker while he waited for it to brew.

"Ezekiel is in troubles", he could already see it on Genesis' face, he didn't like this, the man wasn't particularly fond of the slightly older angelic warrior. Ezekiel had always loved to pick on Genesis, especially when the man had been younger and not know much about the world going around them. Genesis didn't like to deal with him, and that only fuelled Ezekiel on, to pick on someone who was like a little brother to him. Valentine had never got mixed up into it, and he knew Ezekiel wouldn't mess with Genesis too much, he didn't actually want to get into a fight. And Valentine was sure Genesis had never completely understood why Valentine and Ezekiel were so close, or why Valentine liked Ezekiel at all.

"What kind of trouble?" the warrior wasn't impressed and Valentine took a moment, to gather everything he knew inside his head and sort it out before he opened his mouth again. He didn't want to tell too much, if Genesis wasn't in on this case, the man wouldn't need to know much.

"He got into bad work, a failure from the beginning – now he's in demon city with no way out. The elders won't accept a rescue mission even if we've volunteered, so we're going in with no permission to do so", he could tell Genesis thought this was a bad idea, and yes it was a bad idea but they were going to do it anyway, they were going to save a friend. Genesis could help or not.