21.

Warning: Violence. Although it's not very well written.

Aether lifted his arm again, and slammed it back down into Tom's face.

"You think..." Aether growled lowly, stalking towards Tom, while he staggered back onto his feet, obviously not backing off in front of everyone. Now, a big crowd had formed. Most, of course, had their phones out, recording and snickering behind the camera with their friends. Others were frozen in shock and fear as their great prince, kind and always happy, had cracked, and was now beating the shit out of the school's asshole. What a weird sense of déjà vu I thought to myself, before snapping my head back to Aether and Tom's little WWE match.

"...You can out me and Alex like that?" The modern gods voice was hellishly low, as he finished his sentence, riling everybody up even more. Currents of hushed, cowardly word rippled around me. I stared at my feet, wishing arms would pull me down and swallow me into the ground. Everything was becoming too familiar, too close to what I ran away from years ago.

"To hell with you! Everyone has the right to know their precious, perfect prince is actually a sick gay in love with some skinny nobody!"

My fist clenched at those words, though I wasn't surprised. I lifted my head just a fraction upwards, to see what would happen next.

Tom began throwing punches towards Aether, who effortlessly avoided and blocked. After a few tries Tom managed to land a thunderous punch to Aether's face, sending gasps and loud voices, some screams of worry, some guys cheering. Even after such a powerful punch, Aether didn't react in anyway and recovered immediately. It looked like he was done messing around, as he finally took 2 powerful strides to Tom, and flicked his leg up and jammed it right in the middle of Tom's stomach, sending his body flying back and shoving him into the lockers, leaving him huffing and gasping for air. He lifted an arm, weakly swinging at Aether from the ground, but his bloody arm missed Aether's leg by a whole foot. Aether's tongue clicked in irritation. After a short pause, Aether's leg had struck Tom on the chin, flicking up straight, Tom's head pushed pack and slammed on the lockers, an echo of a slam and a dent in the locker, showing just how strong the kick was. The dead silence from our audience around us was deafening, even I was shocked. My mouth hung low, but I shook myself out of it. I knew I needed to get us out of here as soon as possible.

With a heavy sigh, I step in between the two, cutting Aether's step short. I first looked at Tom; his shirt had become bloody from the blood dripping from the gashes from his face and mouth, bigger, darker blood pooled and soaked on the side of his shirt, where Aether and kicked. Fists where bruised and bleeding as well, probably when Aether was blocking his harsh attacks. He looked pretty beat up from just that, but his face was the worse of it. One eye had blown up, puffy and dark, I shuttered at the thought of how dark it would be the next morning. His face looked like a cut itself. Every inch of his skin has blooming bruises, or had blood from wounds around his face. To sum it all up, he looked like a plum. A plum that had been slammed into the ground by professional wrestlers, then sat on, then re-pumped, to form a deformed oval.

Turning to Aether, his body and arms seem to be fine. Tom made only one successful attack from what I saw, seeing as Aether's punches where like being crushed by a planet. I looked to his face, my eyebrows dipped in concern. He had A bruise forming under his right eye. His flawless, tan, impossibly smooth skin was flawed.

When our eyes met, his darkened eye instantly lit up. I took his hand slowly into mine, as I walked with him to an empty classroom, far away from everyone.

It was a bit of a walk, but we eventually made it to the very top of the building. Hands still linked, I took Aether into one of the many vacant rooms and sat him down at a desk closes to a window. I made an effort to detach out hands to grab the first aid kit from the front of the room, but Aether gripped my hand tighter.

"Please, just stay with me for a bit."

He pleaded softly, gently crushing my heart as I pulled up a chair as noiselessly as I could, and collapsed next before him. I hummed silly nursery rhymes to fill the silence, while Aether played with out intertwined hands.

"Let me help you, I don't want that pathetic dick to leave that on your face." I raked my hands through his hair, planting a tender kiss on his forehead, as I walked towards the kit. I sped walked back, placing the box between us, as I began to rummage around, looking for the right things. In no time at all, I managed to find a cream for bruising and swelling, as well as a big, square patch to put over. Aether squirmed while I strived to apply the cream on his face. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed his jaw with one hand, turning his face to me, and craftily and triumphantly got the cream on the growing bruise. Finishing up with the patch, I smiled at my handiwork, but Aether didn't smile back, causing mine to falter. A warm hand placed itself on my face, making me melt like always.

"What happened back there? I was only going to threaten him a bit." I whispered gingerly. Aether squinted his eyes at me and huffed. Taking his hand in both mine, I looked at him for a a serious answer. After some time he finally caved in, explaining to me why he did all of that.

"I meant only one punch, to give a warning too, or something like that, but then he just- he talked bad about me, which I was fine with, but you. I couldn't let me get away with that." He looked guilty, but not towards Tom, more to me. I choked out a strained laugh and kissed the inside of his palm.

"Thank you then, just- next time, maybe don't try to send someone to the hospital." Our laughter synced, like it always did with each other, trying to ignore the thought of what would happen tomorrow.