Chapter 21

When Hansel closed his eyes to sleep, he felt a familiar presence and opened his eyes. "What do you want?" he said and Nathan kissed him roughly.

Hansel was surprised by this but kissed him back. "You seem happy," he said breathlessly as Nathan hugged him when they were done.

"It's nothing," Nathan said smiling. When Hansel told Astrea he had a fiance, he was incredibly happy, he nearly appeared physically.

Hansel felt a bit helpless and he sighed. 'He's quite clingy,' he thought, not that he was complaining, but he was quite upset with the intrusion, but he's not going to complain about it.

"I want to sleep," he said.

"Do you want me to give you a nice dream?" Nathan asked.

"There's no need for that," Hansel replied, he had expected Nathan to let him go, but he didn't. "No," he said.

"What?" Nathan replied blinking innocently.

"We're not going to be sleeping together on the same bed," Hansel said.

"Why not?" Nathan replied. "I also want to sleep too," he said.

"First off, the bed isn't big enough for both of us," Hansel snarled, then saw the bed had suddenly increased and felt even more comfortable. "Second I don't trust you to keep your hands to yourself," he said.

"I can keep my hands to myself," Nathan said, then demonstrated it, by keeping his hands folded and laying down, keeping his hands crossed and to himself. "You can trust me," he said. "Can't you?"

Hansel sighed heavily. To put it simply, he doesn't fully trust Nathan, he took in a deep breath and said, "Would you promise this under a blood oath?"

"Of course," Nathan said and Hansel smiled and lay beside him.

~~~~

Astrea stomped her feet over to Felix. "Oh, I thought you were going to confront the Demon General," he said surprised she was here.

"I did," she said her face puffing up angrily.

"Really?" he said with great interest. "So how did that go?" he asked.

"It was utterly humiliating!" she groaned and let out her frustration telling Felix in detail how her encounter with Hansel went. "...Then he almost left me stranded in a desert to die!" she exclaimed.

Felix listened with a smile on his face. "Is that all?" he asked expecting something more.

"If not for his kind and beautiful-hearted younger brother, I would have shown him who's boss," she said.

Felix's eyes twitched. He was expecting her to say something like she fought Hansel and was defeated but she was left alone because he didn't want to kill the owner of this body or something like that.

He sighed deeply in his heart and thought, 'You are more pathetic than a fat person trying to get out of a chair.'

"So what are you here for?" he asked her.

"I need more power than what I have at the moment," she said, seriously. "This kind of humiliation does not go unpunished."

"I don't have enough power to share at the moment, and I don't think I'm powerful enough to undo the seal of a God, and a major one at that," Felix said shrugging.

"How did you know--"

"I have eyes and ears everywhere, child," he said calmly. "You should go and ask your mother kindly," he said.

"But she isn't going to do so unless I've earned my halo," Astrea muttered loud enough for him to hear.

"Oh you poor thing," he said then patted her head. "I know how to get the Goddess to do your bidding," he said in a playful tone.

Astrea looked at him teary-eyed. "Really?" she said.

"Yes," he replied gently, then looked at her blankly, "Now wipe your tears, it's an ugly sight to behold."

Astrea quickly wipes her tears. "What am I going to do?"

"Hmm?" Felix said thinking.

"What?" she said.

"The information I'm about to give you is not free," he said playfully. "If you don't want to wish to make a deal with me, then you can forget it," his tone slowly changed from playful to cold, serious, and almost frightening.

Astrea felt unsure at first, but swallowed it and nodded. "I'm sure," she said.

"Great," Felix said playfully and took out a pocket knife. "We'll do this under a blood oath to further validate it," he said. "You don't mind this," he said slicing open his palm and looking at her. "Right?"

"No," she replied collecting the knife, first wiping it with her handkerchief and slicing open her palm as well.

They shook hands and their blood dropped in together and a dark red magic circle appeared beneath them and a mark appeared on both their hands before fading.

"It's done," Felix said. "You will return to your mother and ask her who is your older sibling," he said.

Astrea was surprised by this. "I don't have an older sibling," she said, and Felix shrugged.

"You can never know unless you tell your mother this and see her reaction," he said.

"So what will I say next," Astrea said impatiently, she didn't believe this would work.

"Then proceed to blackmail her into doing your bidding," Felix said casually. "Just make sure to take a strong enough dark charm to not kill you," he said.

"I can't blackmail my mother!" Astrea said refusing to commit such heinous acts against her mother.

"She's more Goddess of Justice than mommy, child, she would disintegrate you just for saying those words," he said. "Unless you don't want your power back, then this is the only way... I'm sure the other gods wouldn't try to help you since they all think you are an entitled brat, am I wrong?"

Astrea pursed her lips. "Fine," she said after giving it more thought. She needs her full strength to bring the Demon General to justice.

"Great, now I'll send you back to our world and give you the perfect charm for the mission and you should be good to go."

~~~~

Nathan watched Hansel quietly as he slept. He's been watching for the past fifteen minutes and he was smiling like a love-struck fool.

He knows he's not supposed to touch Hansel, but it is so difficult to do so with him being so close, he doesn't touch him of course, but there was nothing said about bringing Hansel closer.

Now, Mansel was lying down close to him he adjusted his body to face him properly.

'I would have heaven and earth fall by my hand to keep you by my side.'