I Have Friends In Both Places
BEFORE

Atlas Axel sat on one of Galen Rabattre’s couches. The human was scrambling around his house, trying to replace all the correct ingredients to a spell while he constantly looked over to a large book he had laying on his floor. The old, dusty thing had impressed Atlas a bit when Galen had come home with it a few days ago. There were things in there that could definitely work, and he was wondering where the human had gotten it.

Atlas pulled his wings toward himself as Galen rushed past him. The boy was mumbling under his breath before he plopped down on the ground, letting out a sigh from anxiety. Atlas chuckled at the boy’s nervous behavior.

The guardian angel sat up a bit as Galen began speaking a spell, dropping some things in his bowl and mixing them together as he spoke in Latin. Atlas furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, sitting on the edge of his seat as Galen’s voice grew louder and louder until it was deafening. The human screamed out a foreign word and threw something into the bowl, causing it to go up in smokes.

Galen coughed loudly, and Atlas cursed, jumping into action to make sure the boy was okay and get rid of the toxic chemicals in the smoke. “What the fuck,” Galen yelled out making Atlas shake his head at the foul language, language the angels would disapprove of.

The smoke cleared slowly, and Atlas was left facing the human once again, Galen’s chocolate skin was covered in soot, and Atlas silently questioned how that could even happen. Galen rubbed his eyes with an annoyed huff before opening them slowly.

Galen let out a shriek at the sight of Atlas only a few inches away from him and backed up quickly, muttering out profanities. “Who the fuck are you?”

Atlas looked around for a second, confused. Nobody else was in the room except the two of them. “Who?”

“You, you idiot. Who are you? Why are you in my house? Why do you have wings? What the fuck?” Galen was frantic as he scrambled to his feet, looking around for a weapon in case he would need it.

“Wait! How can you see me? That’s not supposed to be possible!” Atlas was slowly becoming frantic himself, huffing. He was over at the book in a second causing Galen to screech again and grab a bat he had gotten as a housewarming gift from his mother. It was to keep intruders out, though he didn’t know what use it would have here.

Atlas studied the page Galen had read from quickly and turned to the boy with wide eyes. “Where did you get this? This is magic for advanced level witches. The spell should have killed you! Seeing me should have killed you!”

“Well, I’m pretty alive here, and you’re still not explaining yourself!”

Atlas let out an exasperated sigh and lifted the book, frowning in annoyance. “You read a spell to see angels and demons, you absolute potato chip.”