A Date to the Zoo

Abdullo wondered more about Joseph's kinda mother, the one that saved him from hell. He wondered if he'd get to meet her one day.

"You look great Joseph." He said, pulling the demon in closer, his arm still around his shoulder.

Josephs blush turns brighter, he does eat up complements. He scoots a little closer to Abdullo, his tail swaying behind him. It occasionally taps Abdullos butt without himself really realizing its happening.

"You.. You look great too! No.. More like amazing." He nods his head a couple of times, smiling bigger over at his date.

The tall angel turned to face Joseph and placed his hands on the demons waist, turning him so that they were both facing each other. He leaned his forehead on Joseph's and looked into his eyes.

"I think you're incredibly attractive Joseph." Abdullo said, a smile on his face. He liked the back and forth complimenting, as mentioned earlier he really just likes compliments in general, both giving and receiving them.

Josephs heart about skips a beat and his whole face turns as red as a tomato. He timidly wraps his arms around Abdullos neck so that they're resting on his shoulders, its a slight strain because hes so tall but hes too flustered to notice that now. He looks into his dates eyes.

"You are too~" He coos out. "I mean you're tall and handsome and just good all around.." He averts his eyes for a few seconds then looks back up at him, his redness not faltering.

Abdullo let out a very soft laugh, noticing how red Joseph's face was and thinking it was extremely cute. He let his big thumbs slide up and down Josephs waist as he held him. In that moment he really wanted to kiss the little water demon, but decided that he didn't want their first kiss to be in public, in a reptile house. He'd always been a bit of a romantic at heart, and he wanted their first kiss to be more classy then that. So instead he just kissed Joseph's forehead and then stepped back, taking Joseph's hand again in fear that someone else will make a comment about their public displays of affection.

Joseph closes his eyes when Abdullo kisses him on the forehead and holds his hand back, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't expecting a kiss right then. He gets kind of paranoid.

Maybe he didn't want to kiss me? Did I do something wrong? Maybe I was too touchy when I wrapped my arms around his neck.. Why'd he laugh? I must have done something weird... He thinks, and shakes his head slightly.

He gives Abdullo hand a little squeeze and looks up at him, wanting to search his eyes to try and figure out what he was thinking.

Abdullo smiled down at Joseph, his eyes showing nothing but lighthearted affection for the young man.

"There's a lot more to see Joseph." He said, walking them out of the reptile house. "What's an animal you've always wanted to see?" He asked, pulling the map out of his back pocket and taking his hand away from Joseph's just so he could open it up and let the demon see too.

Joseph smiles back at him, reassured. He entwines his fingers with Abdullo's and leans his head on his shoulder, looking at the map. He hums softly to himself while looking it over, wondering what he wants to see. He notices the bears are closer but... Abdullo said to pick an animal he always wanted to see. Tigers? He doesn't think hes ever seen one of those before. He recognizes the name, probably from reading something about them in a magazine but he can't quite put his finger on what they look like.

"Umm... Well maybe we can go see the tigers?" He looks up at Abdullo. "I don't think I've ever seen one of those before." He nods his head, ruling out he hasn't. "Then maybe we can go see the bears on the way too?" He smiles, giving Abdullo's hand a little squeeze.

Abdullo leaned his head on Joseph's as well while they looked over the map.

"Oh yeah, the bears are literally right along the path to see the tigers so that works really well." He said, giving the map a little flick so that the paper stood up straight. "It's kinda a walk though so maybe we could get some sort of slushie or something since we're gonna be out in the sun now." He suggested, smiling down at Joseph as he put the map away into his back pocket again.

Joseph smiles bigger, looking from the map back up at Abdullo. Slushies, this was something that the water demon had only tasted one time before, and oh how he loved it. He remembers the first and only time he tasted one was when Rachelle had brought him one after a long time of her being away. It was grape flavored and he slurped it down in less than 5 minutes about, and got a brain freeze afterwards. Ever since then hes always wanted another.

"Yeah! Thats what I was thinking." He grins, feeling smart. "I really like slushies, I haven't had one in a reallllllly long time too!" He can't help but wiggle out of excitement.

Abdullo smiled big at Joseph's enthusiasm, walking them along the pavement as the sun beat down on the two. He wondered to himself why he wore a black shirt again with weather like this. At least if his pits sweat it wouldn't show up. Though Joseph's idea of a light colored tank top was a lot smarter.

He kept his eyes peeled for a vendor selling the icy treats, leading Joseph by the hand when he finally spotted one.

"Joseph over here." He said as they walked up to it. He pulled his wallet out of his other back pocket and pulled out a few dollars, enough to pay for both of them.

"What kinda flavor do you want?" He asked, looking down at Jomo with a grin as they waited in the short line.

Joseph looks up at Abdullo when he asks him what flavor he wants. He quickly turns to see which flavors they do have. Should he get grape..? No, he rules that one out, he'd much rather try something new. He thinks about his favorite food, the mango. That was almost all he ate when he lived around the beach, and all he wanted to. Rachelle would have him write a list of everything he needed and most of the time all that was on there was just a lot of mangos. He smiles, remembering how he would stick his toes in the water and take a bite out of the mango.

"Mango?" He turns his head to look up at the angel.

"One mango and one orange slush" He told the vendor, handing him the cash bills. He stepped back and put his hand around Joseph's waist as they watched the vendor pour the ices and syrups, as well as some frozen fruit into the blender and whirl it around. Abdullo's wings flickered a little bit as he waited, really excited to get something cool in such hot weather.

The vendor placed the slushies in front of them, all ready forming little icy droplets on the outside of the clear plastic cups. Abdullo picked up Joseph's and handed it to him before picking up his own and taking a few sips of it as they started walking towards the bear display. He let out a little "ah" noise after drinking some down, immediately satisfied. He walked with his arm still around the water demons waist, enjoying being close to him on a day such as this. Then something caught his eye. He looked down and saw that Joseph's fingers had some sort of blue forming on it. He removed his hand from Joseph's waist and gently held up the water demons wrist.

"Oh hey, is that that thing you were telling me about? The marks that you get when your skin touches water?" He asked, really interested to see this. It was from the condensation on the outside of the cup, no doubt. He didn't at all seem appalled or disgusted by it, just intrigued.

Joseph smiles when Abdullo wraps his arm around him, so he wraps his arm around the angel in return and leans his head on his shoulder. He holds the slushie to his lips and sucks the icy treat through the straw. Within an instant a flood of memories come back from the grape one he had a very long time ago with Rachelle, and he smiles. He licks his lips, thinking this one tastes much much better and much sweeter. His water markings start to glow faintly with the dew on the side of the cup, making his fingers glow, and other parts that are supposed to although they're much dimmer. He blushes when Abdullo points them out.

"Um.." He swallows the slurp of slushie he sucked up earlier. "Yeah actually. I mean its really dim now though, it glows much much brighter when I'm in the ocean or when I go swimming at all!" He nods his head a couple of times. "So... When we go to the beach you'll see that~" He smiles bigger, his blush growing.

He tries to think of what the beach will be like together with him.. He tries to hold in an excited squee as he imagines him and the angel laying together in the sand and leaning up to kiss each other. But.. That'll have to be after they have their first kiss I think.. He looks up at Abdullo, thinking he wants their first kiss to be sometime today.

Abdullo stared at the glowing marks a little longer, thinking they were really something else. And yet somehow Joseph managed to make them really cute at the same time. He gently let go of the water demons wrist so he could go back to sipping on his slush.

"That's gonna be a lot of fun." the angel said with a smile, just thinking about it. "What's this beach like anyway? Crowded? Isolated? Clear water, rocks? Any of that stuff? I'd love to hear." He said, wanting to be able to picture what it was going to be like.

The two approached the bear exhibit, where large grizzly bears roamed in an open environment, separated by only a mote and an invisible shield. All the outdoor exhibits had force field shields on them to prevent the angels and demons that could fly from getting in. One large bear in particular was rather close to the pair, lounging on a large rock and looking at them with lazy eyes.

Joseph is snapped back into reality and out of his fantasies when Abdullo asks about the beach. He smiles, glad hes interested. He tries to think of the most memorable features of the beach, his home. He thinks back to when he first saw coconut trees, it was when he first moved into the beach house with Rachelle, and for the longest time he just watched the browning coconuts fall, not knowing what to do with them. One day, a day more boring than most, he decided to climb one. It took him a few days to get the hang of it but before long he was able to shimmy up palm trees no problem.

"Yeah!! It will be!" He says, smiling back at his date. "Well, its definitely in the middle of no where. Theres only one city near it and its pretty far away.. The waters super clear like.. If you were out 50 feet you could still see the bottom like it was right in front of you!! Yeah theres rocks too, big black ones. Theres only a few though so its not like the beach is covered in them. Oh! And my friend Cam lives there too! I met him just a little while ago because he didn't live there when I did. Hes really nice and I told him about you and he wants to meet you!!" He can't hold back the grin on his face talking about this.

He looks at the bears in awe after hes done speaking.

Abdullo imagined everything Joseph was saying in his head, the image become clearer with the good description the little demon was giving him. He took a few more sips of his slush, trying to make it last.

"That sounds.... perfect." He said, a dream like quality to his voice. "Cam? Sure I'll meet Cam. What's the phrase?... the more the merrier." He said, proud he remembered it. English wasn't his first, or even his second language. It was Russian he was most comfortable with, and as such he had a slight accent on his tongue.

He looked at the grizzly closet to them, a crooked smile on his face at how lazy and uninterested the fat beast looked.

Joseph smiles, happy to hear that Abdullo would meet Cam. He thinks if he should tell Abdullo that Cam actually wants to fly... He did mention it to Cam he would as but.. He furrows his brow slightly in thought. He guesses he should, I mean he thinks Abdullo would be glad to do it.. He knows Abdullo can fly, because he flew off the first time they talked. He smiles and nods his head, making up his mind he should ask.

"Yeah.. And maybe you could give him a few tips on how to fly? He doesn't know how yet. Oh!! He has parrot wings!" He says happily, then starts to think he shouldn't talk about Cam on a date with Abdullo.. "Oh, and I'll invite Harer and X and Maui too." He smiles and nods his head, in the back of his mind wondering if X will even want to return to the beach after what all happened.. Same with Harper.

An angel that didn't know how to fly? Abdullo smiled and rubbed his thumb against Joseph's hip.

"If he doesn't know how to fly... he must be mortuus like us yes?" He asks, not taking his eyes from the bears. He wanted to be able to keep things casual when talking about death. But he knew that was hard for other people, the way they'd look down and murmur sadly. Especially when talking about the ones who had died young.

Abdullo himself had only been thirteen when his life was taken in the civil war that broke out in his country in the late 90's. Being a child as young as he was, he was scared and didn't know what was happening. It took him a few years to come to grasp with what happened and learn to cope. Because of that, even though technically he was 26 years old, he was really only 18 mentally and physically, being time locked for a while after death.

Now that he'd come to terms with it, it wasn't hard for him to talk about at all. But he understood that wasn't the case with everyone. Joseph himself had been born in the 17th century, and yet was still only like a 17 year old boy, meaning he'd just barely been allowed to start aging again. Of course... demons did age differently then angels. He had to keep that in mind.

Joseph thinks about how long he'd been in hell before he finally got out, and started aging. Hes thought about this before but its been really hard for him to track the exact time he was there.. Sometimes its hard for him to remember the year it is now. He remembers the first time he found out that he was in the 20th century.. God, he didn't know what to think! He was already in shock and horror for everything that happened to him and.. He realized just how long he was in that cell. It must have taken a lot to break the young demon.. He knows already that they placed a spell on him that kept him from aging an apparently very, very, long time.

He also remembers he was with Rachelle for a long time as well, having to be rehabilitated, mentally and physically. He couldn't lay on his back for the longest time, or even talk to people come to think of it. He wouldn't let people touch him. It wasn't until Rachelle showed him her own scars that he finally calmed down and started trusting her. Hers were much worse than his.. It had to of been from something else. Hes seen the other slave demons, many of them having scars not just on their backs. It took him a long time of thinking to finally realize that they must have beaten him less because he was a pure water demon, and not a mix of anything. He hates thinking about these things, it makes is stomach churn.

"Yeah." He nods his head a couple of times, his face looks pale and his eyes look watery. He tries not to let Abdullo see them, he can feel his stomach doing summersaults. "Yeah hes died only a year or two ago.. He seems okay but.. He doesn't like talking about it."

Abdullo could sense that he struck a sensitive nerve in Joseph and decided to quickly change the subject.

"I'd love to give him some tips. It's really not hard once you've gotten the hang of it. For me the biggest struggle is distinguishing the flying zones from the non flying zones. Especially in the city. They have these force fields all over the place and crashing into them is... embarrassing to say the least." He said, looking down at Joseph with an encouraging smile. He gave the water demons hip a tender squeeze to pull him in closer. He knew he shouldn't have brought up anything about death. Even in the after life... maybe especially in the after life, it was too tender of a subject.

Joseph nods his head a little, trying to snap himself out of it and think of other things. He smiles up at Abdullo when he talks about the flying zones and laughs. He doesn't want to ask, but he hopes that someday Abdullo will fly with him someday, though, he himself can't really fly so... Abdullo would have to carry him. Come to think of it the water demon had never flown at all. The highest hes been is maybe on a mountain or in a tree but never.. just.. Above ground.

"What??" He laughs again. "Have you crashed into one??" He says, eager to hear a story. "I don't think there are any flying zones at the beach.. Well.. I don't think there are. I don't really have any way of knowing huh?" He smiles bigger and gladly moves closer to the angel.

Abdullo smiled big enough to show his teeth again, a slightly embarrassed but mostly amused expression on his face.

"I don't like to admit it, but yeah I did. Like one of those stupid birds that crashes into a windshield. My friends and I had been drinking and I mean, I wasn't wasted or anything...but I shouldn't have been trying to fly. You know that's illegal? I actually didn't know till after this experience. Not so much for other's safety but for your own safety. So my friends and I were out in the country, you know, cause that's where we like to hang out when he do stuff like that. And we were flying back to the city and I landed right into a force field in a no flying zone. I was so out of it I didn't even know what happened. I broke my arm in three places. I still have a little scar here where the bone came through."He recalled, holding up his right arm so Joseph could see, his left hand wrapped around the demons waist still.

"My friends freaked out and called the police who were... less then pleased with what happened. Luckily my otherwise clean record and the fact that it's a very minor offence helped me get out with bail so... that was good. Sorry if all this makes you... think less of me." He said, a little worried it would.

It was a funny story, but it also let Joseph know that he wasn't some pure angel guy either, and he wasn't sure if that's what the water demon was after.

Joseph grins and laughs out, thinking its really funny. And.. Then he realizes hes never been drunk before. He blushes, feeling slightly embarrassed. Has he been missing out on that sort of thing..? He thinks he should probably tell Maui about it.. Maybe she'll help him get drunk someday? He nods his head, trusting Maui as someone he could get drunk with.

"Oh my god!" He grins and laughs again. "I'm so sorry!! Are you... Are you okay?? Of course I don't think less of you!! I actually.. I've done a few things I wasn't proud of either so its totally alright. Hey Abdullo.. Is it weird I've never been drunk?" He looks up at him.

"I mean.. I guess I wanna. I've done other things that I think were pretty much like getting drunk but.. Not? With Maui." He nods his head a couple of times. "Its kind of hard to remember but.. Yeah." He says, smiling again. He doesn't really realize that its necessarily bad to tell others these things.

Abdullo instantly felt relieved when Joseph laughed and was keen to the story. He thought the water demon had one of the best laughs he'd ever heard. Only one other person could make him melt with their laugh, but the angel didn't want to think about her, especially when with Joseph.

"Yeah yeah, all healed up. Only thing I have left from it is the little scar." He said, smiling big. He had a real casual and friendly vibe to himself. Cool but not too cool. Just one of those people where it was easy to be comfortable around. He also used a lot of small gestures when he spoke. Nothing too big, just little flicks of his wrist, tilting his head, or shrugging his shoulders.

"No it's not weird at all Joseph. It's really over rated let me tell you that. And hangovers almost make it not worth it in the first place... almost." He laughed.

"Hey I don't mean to sound like a creep but uh.. if you wanted maybe I could help you change that you know... just for fun. Besides, that way I'd be able to keep an eye out for you and make sure you don't do anything stupid like I did." He joked.

He thought for a moment, kind of guiding Joseph to start walking again towards the tigers silently.

"Would you mind telling me what you have done?" He asked nonchalantly, not being able to help himself from wondering. There weren't a lot of things Abdullo wouldn't be okay with, but he had a few such as cigarettes, heroin, and anything else addicting. He'd dated a girl before who smoked and he hated the way her mouth tasted. Their relationship was a short one.