So her sass wasn't completely lost. Zophe almost smirked in response and watched her leave the room to retrieve his painkillers as asked. His eyes took in the sight of her wings, clipped at the edges because that was the only way he could trust her not to flee. It was a sad thing to look at, but it couldn't be helped. At least feathers grew back. But for now, his eyes would have to look upon that poor form.

When she disappeared, Zophe turned his gaze down to the work she'd managed to do. Truly her care was marveling. She had no opinions towards him when treating him, did she? She looked at him as someone injured, not the man who imprisoned her... wasn't that right?

Waiting for her to come back was taking a little longer than he expected, but Zophe didn't fret just yet. Soon she came back, and without a hint of mischief in her gait or eyes. This was reassuring. He didn't think Angel to be so cunning as to mask her true intentions. Her eyes would probably give it away. He took the bottle from her and found it to be the right one. It had the easy-open top, so he could do it with one hand.

He shook out a couple pills into his palm before glancing up at Angel, spying that smile on her lips. "...Water would be nice, so I don't choke," he replied before closing up the bottle again. He set it aside for later use, so that it wouldn't be too far away whenever he needed it again.

Angel was glad that he could at least tell she was trying to tamper with his medication or poison him somehow. She nodded her head as she headed into the kitchen and found a glass. She filled it with water before she came back to the living room and handed the glass to him so he could take the pills and have the pain lessen. She moved over to the cage and looked over the wolf for a moment. His injuries weren't nearly as bad as the deep bite that Zophe was suffering from.

She turned back to Zophe for a moment. "I'll go make you something." She stated before she left for the kitchen. She looked around for a moment to try and figure something out that she could make, she finally decided that she'd just make him a sandwich since she wasn't extremely talented in the kitchen. She moved about and got some meat out of the fridge as well as other condements.

It didn't take too long, and she felt rather satisfied with her work as it was a good looking sandwich. It was full of a variety of things that balanced each other out and would be filling as well as good for Zophe.

Angel picked up the plate and walked back to the living room before she handed him the plate. "Here you go." She stated before she took in a deep breath. Angel wasn't sure if she was daring enough to ask, but she figured that it was better than staying quiet. "I know you don't want me to go outside, but I'd like to see the stars." She mumbled feeling a little embarrassed as she didn't look at him.

It had been too long in her opinion, she wanted to see the sky again.

Zophe popped the pills in his mouth and took the water from her. He swallowed them down, glancing over the rim of the glass as she went over to the cage. She was rather fond of that wolf, wasn't she? He supposed they were birds of a feather, in a sense, and it was only natural for the both of them to get along. Not to mention Angel gave it personal affection that Zophe didn't.

Swallowing down the drink, he lowered the glass and waited for her to return once more. He didn't ask for anything to eat. He wasn't that hungry that he would think to ask. He didn't argue about it either, though. Angel seemed to be making herself at home here, with her newfound freedom and opportunity to walk around the house as she pleased.

He had no reason to stop her, nor particular want to. She had yet to cause harm, and she wasn't screaming her head off, so the situation between them was rather mellow in comparison to before. One could say their civility was the beginnings of a positive relationship. Zophe found that arguable, but at least she was doing things for him without his prompting her.

Taking the plate from her, he settled it in his lap and started to eat. It seemed she found the deli meat and made him a surprisingly normal looking sandwich. (Zophe had to wonder where all her skills and knowledge came from. Did the people she used to live with educate her about the basics of human living? Did they teach her these things?)

Looking at her across his sandwich, Zophe didn't answer right away. He took his time to think and consider the request, swallowing down his bite. "...Perhaps. I'll think about it." That was as agreeable an answer he could offer. He'd have to think about it a little more and see if he thought it okay to let her out. He didn't want to make a mistake while he was handicapped like this. Even if Angel didn't really give him a reason to think he would make a mistake.

Angel was not satisfied with his answer at all. She knew that he had left room instead of giving her a flat out no, but she really did not want to be left hanging. She sighed for a moment before she stared him straight in the face. "Zophe, I've been here for months, I know that the facility is looking for me, but it's not like I would go back to them." She stopped before she shook her head. "I can't fly, where would I go even if I could? I'm far safer here than anywhere else in the world, I understand that."

Angel couldn't help but get to her feet as she looked down at Zophe. "Please Zophe, I love the freedom I have and I appreciate it beyond anything else, but I need more than just being able to wander around your house. I'm an animal! I need to be around nature!" she exclaimed before she calmed down. "I'm sorry," she mumbled before she sat back down again.

She closed herself off from him after that, she just stared straight at the wolf as she didn't want to think about anything else. She was apart of nature, it was infused to her DNA. She couldn't just go on without ever seeing the stars or smelling rain after the storm was gone. At least at the facility she was partially outdoors and could enjoy the warmth of the sun on her skin and the wonder's of the sky at night.

Here she had nothing but man made creations and Zophe. It wasn't really that much.

((Sorry for the long wait. >.<))

Zophe was a little surprised at her outburst. And yet, at the same time, not so much. He looked at her, knew her to be exasperated, and said nothing of it. Months? He didn't think it really months. Weeks, maybe. But probably not months. He knew he was out of touch with reality some times, but not that much. But perhaps to her, it felt like months with the way day and night just seemed to drag on forever.

Continuing to eat, he didn't say anything in response when she finally calmed and sat down again. He didn't strike up a conversation with her for the rest of the meal, focusing instead on simply eating and swallowing without chocking and trying not to drop his sandwich while he ate one-handed. It wasn't that fun a task to participate in. Never was. He didn't really like being one-handed during times when two hands were far more convenient.

Oh well. That was his own fault he supposed.

Setting the empty plate aside, he got up and went to his laptop. He set it against the coffee table and pulled up a page. Typing was one of those other times when he wished for two hands. He'd become proficient enough in doing it one-handed though that he wasn't too hindered. Looking at what was displayed, he commented idly, as if he were merely thinking aloud instead of speaking to Angel, "The sky will be relatively clear tonight. ...It looks like the moon will be three-fourths full, too."

He continued to look at the screen, clicking around and looking at various things before he shifted his gaze to look at her where she sat.

Angel sat where she was, not really moving as he hadn't said much. She didn't really expect him to, and she knew that he was probably getting used to her occasional outbursts. How else was she supposed to channel the large amount of excess energy? She was so used to working hard and excersising her wings muscles that she wasn't used to being so idle and it was making her a little cranky and a bit ornery.

Angel had a pillow in her lap and was tracing invisible patterns on it before she looked up. By now Zophe had retreived his laptop and he commented out loud that the sky would be clear that night. Angel glared slightly before she threw the pillow at his head. "Unless you want to torture me and provoke me into really poisoning you...don't even talk about it." She said in a cool voice before she looked away from him and curled up on her end of the couch.

She stared at the wolf for a while, before she finally felt unnerved by its gaze and closed her eyes. It wasn't too long before she slipped off into sleep as she was a little tired from the night before. Sleeping on the floor had been a strange experience, and even though it wasn't that bad of a place to sleep, it had caused her enough discomfort to keep her from having a good enough night's sleep. So she slept quietly against the arm rest of the couch, blocking out anything that might wake her up.

Zophe brought his hand up to block the pillow, though it was with the wrong arm. His mouth twitched into a grimace but held back as he leaned over to pick it up. He set it beside him on the edge of the couch, so he could rest his arm against it. It throbbed slightly, the pain dull, but it wasn't so bad as it probably could've been had he not drugged himself up on pain killers to muffle the impact.

Glancing over at Angel who sat on the other side, he lifted a brow. He hardly had a word in before she felt asleep. He shook his head and sighed lightly. "Then I suppose this means you don't want to go tonight," he muttered, though it was more to himself than her considering she couldn't even hear him. And here he thought he'd actually consider telling her yes. Apparently she didn't understand his intentions.

Clicking around on the laptop, he opened up his email and found a letter from his editor. Nosy. And annoying. But diligent, he would say that. Credit would be given where due. Flipping out his phone, he dialed his editor's number and cradled it between shoulder and ear. He listened to it ring before the other side picked up.

He spoke about the contents of the email and noted that he was injured and wouldn't be able to set to the task right away. Of course, concern was flung his way but he dismissed it soon enough. He didn't want to be fawned over, he just didn't want to be pushed into meeting the deadline when his hand was all but useless for the time being. He didn't give many details about his injury, just said that he came across a hostile stray dog. After that, a deal was met, compromise was set, and Zophe snapped the phone close, cutting off his one true connection with the outside world.

Settling back, he passed the time fiddling with his laptop, playing around while the television provided background noise. When evening appeared and nighttime seemed underway, Zophe closed his laptop, set it aside, and got up. He grabbed a large jacket from the closet and draped it over his shoulders as he went to the back door. He unlocked it and went outside to the patio. He left the door open as he tossed the jacket across one of the chairs and took to another to lounge in it.

The weather this time of day wasn't too chilly and wasn't too warm either. It was pleasurable and with the sky growing ever darker with every passing minute, it was almost enough to lull a person to sleep. Zophe sighed and looked up, glad that a tall wooden fence blocked the view between him and his neighbors' houses.

Angel had a very odd dream. It was so strange, unexpected, and just down right bizarre, that when she woke up, she just stayed where she was as she was trying to comprehend where a dream like that could've come from. Why in the world would she ever dream about Zophe? Let alone kissing him. She scrunched her nose up and shook her head. There was no way she even felt inclined to feel for him like that. It was just too strange, and quite impossible. It was the most unlikeliest thing she could ever even think of. So why was she dreaming about it now?

Was it because she was being nice to him and taking care of him? That didn't mean that she liked him that way, it just meant she was trying to help him out since it was obvious he was struggling with normal every day things.

She looked around and realized that the house was completely quiet. That meant one of two things; Zophe was asleep somewhere, or he had left. She raised an eyebrow in complete confusion as she felt a slight draft roll over her arm. She smiled to herself, circulating air meant there was a window or door open somewhere. It wasn't as if she was thinking of leaving, no, she was much more interested in glancing at the sky and feeling the cool night air and breathing in fresh air.

Angel finally found the unlocked door that led outside. She saw Zophe sitting in a chair and hoped that the unlocked door meant she could come out. She opened the door carefully and came out into the dusk. She smiled instantly and closed her eyes as she breathed in the air. It was as if she was a fish just put back in the ocean. She began to breathe deeply as she was trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

Perhaps five minutes had passed before she opened her eyes and looked at Zophe who seemed rather comfortable where he was. "The sky is beautiful." Was all she said as she stepped down from the patio and onto the soft grass. She curled her toes in it before she sat down and ran her hands over the grass, enjoying the sensation. Her brilliant wings were splayed out behind her as she smelled the grass before she looked up at the sky. A longing came into her eyes as she wanted nothing more than to take off right then and there, but she had done a lot to earn Zophe's trust, and she wasn't ready to lose it.

Angel sat there, taking in the smells and the sights as if felt as if it had been forever since she had seen such things and breathed in such smells. She closed her eyes before she laid down in the grass and folded her hands on her belly as she simply took in her surroundings. She wasn't sure when he'd ever let her back out, so she was trying to absorb this and remember it as much as she could manage.

Zophe watched her quietly, every moment passing by slowly as thought time itself had bent to his will and nearly froze it. As she walked across the patio, he almost felt a rise in panic, not wanting her to suddenly take this moment to run off on him. But as she sat down and seemed to relish in the mere thought of being able to be here, out in the open, he calmed.

Of course she wouldn't run. Of course she couldn't. It took time for those clippings to heal, and whenever they grew too long to aid in her ability to fly, he clipped them again to make sure they never became fully developed.

But God he almost wished he didn't do it at all. Pushing up from his chair, Zophe quietly stepped off of the patio and came up behind Angel. He crouched by her wings and reached out. Fingertips brushed along the edge of those powdery white feathers, almost as soft as silk. Her wings had been magnificent when he first saw them, even when stained with the red of blood.

If he had her sincerest promise not to ever run away, he would stop clipping her wings. He would let them grow back into their full length again. That would appease him greatly... Glancing up at the sky, Zophe continued to watch it as he gently stroked those wings under his fingers.

Angel didn't really pay too much attention to him as he was sitting in his seat. She was just so happy to be outside and experiencing the night time and the smells of the grass and the other things that lingered in the air. She glanced at Zophe for a momen as he came over to her. She was a little perplexed as to what he was doing. She shivered slightly as he touched her feathers.

She knew that he was captivated by them, and that they were probably the sole reason she hadn't been sold off to the highest bidder. She was grateful she was still with him, since she knew that she wouldn't survive so well with anyone else then him. It made her greatly nervous to think what would happen to her when he finally did sell her. It made her extremely sad, but she decided to push that out of her head for the moment.

She hardly moved as he continued to stroke her wings gently. She was unsure what was going through his head, but found that she wanted to know. "Do you ever want to fly?" she asked him in a curious, but very quiet voice.

Zophe paid her no personal mind even as she looked at him in that brief second. His fingers continued to brush against the feathers lightly, a soft touch that someone like him probably shouldn't be capable of being able to do. His harshness towards humanity was evident. And with Angel being mostly human, one would think that same harshness would continue to her.

But it wasn't so. With a gentleness that he only administered to other species upon this earth, he touched her, enjoying in a way only he could understand the softness of her feathers and the slight, minute way they trembled against his fingers. He didn't think Angel was even aware that her wings shook; perhaps it was an unconscious reaction to someone foreign touching her and treating her kindly.

As his fingers danced along the tips of her wings, circling round and up to the base where they attached to her back, he replied, "Not really. The freedom given is only temporarily. Eventually I would have to come back down. That sort of disappointment is something I wouldn't want."

He lightly touched the junction between limbs, and that empty space between shoulder blades. He imagined her skin would be rough, toughened to support the weight of these added appendages. And yet, against the cloth, with a light press, it didn't seem so. Of course, he couldn't tell for sure without slipping his hand under her clothes, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't dare try it even if he wanted to.

Angel closed her eyes, even though her wings were large and magnificent, and probably intimidating to quite a large amount of people on earth, there was a lot of feeling in them. She could feel every touch of his fingers as they traced of them, and finally came up to where they connected to her back.

"Coming down isn't a sad thing, it's actually quite a happy one. I suppose, you realize that even though you can fly, you've got a home down here on the ground. Flying is more freedom than anyone actually thinks. I'm surprised you wouldn't want to fly." She said and could feel his hand lightly touching her mid back, right between where he wings were.

Angel instantly knew the question and thought on his mind. She shook her head. "No, it's completely smooth there. I don't know how they did it, but I'm perfectly flawless...at least that's how I appear." She sighed.

"I'm straight from a book, I look exactly like an angel. Of course I know my personality has a few flaws, and that's probably what would throw anyone off and give them reality that I'm not fake...but I was designed to have the perfect image." She sighed a little disgustedly before she shook her head and looked back up to the stars.

Zophe shook his head slightly at her defense for the joys of flying. Coming down was as "sad thing." It was very depressing and disappointing. If Zophe wanted to go up, he never wanted to come down because it was the things "down here" that irked him and made him want to puke. It was the things "down here" that made him want to go up in the first place. Why would he ever want to come down?

But what would Angel know? She seemed pretty content being grounded despite her ability to fly. She probably liked it here, on the earth, in a place where she could interact with people and do things she normally wouldn't be able to to. Or so he assumed. He wasn't quite sure what her past was nor what her expectations or hopes were.

He didn't really care either way. But what he knew thus far was enough to tell him that they were different in more ways than one. Not just physically, but mentally too. Well, that was a given, but now the gap was even more evident than before.

Saying nothing at for the while, Zophe merely listened to Angel as she spoke. Indeed she was perfect, in every way, if someone was to simply look at her without delving into the depths of her personality and soul. Then would the flaws be noticeable. But on glance alone, she did seem very much like God's own creation. Too bad she wasn't.

Tainted by the hands of men, she wasn't quite so perfect as one might initially think. No, she was far from it. Leaning in, Zophe touched his cheek to her wing, merely staying like this as though it meant something deep. Yet there really wasn't. He just had the urge to touch, and relish that touch, for reasons of his own that probably would never be understood. Fingers stroking that empty space between her shoulder blades, just along the spine, Zophe sighed quietly to himself.

Angel closed her eyes, enjoying the feelings of his fingers dancing gently on her feathers. She thought silently to herself as he pressed his cheek lightly against her feathers and his fingers gently stroked the spot between her feathers. She knew that she was strange and anyone would want to examine her, but right now it just seemed that Zophe was enjoying the abnormalities of her.

Any bystander looking at the two would instantly think it was an intimate moment between the two, but it really wasn't. There wasn't really anything going on between them except a silent understanding as they didn't move too much.

Angel found it nice, to just under the sky with no real worry, and it was odd that she found Zophe added to the moment more than he took from it. She wanted to know more about him, but for now she was merely content to just sit there and let him go on with his fascination with her wings. She smoothed the grass with her hand, enjoying the cool feeling of it against her skin. This was so much different from what she had expected.

"You know, I though that I would live my life out alone in the facility. I had no interaction really, they thought I was stupid. I really never imagined that I'd have escaped, but it's nice." She mumbled slightly before she shifted slightly so she could see him. "Are you really going to sell me?" her tone was soft, and showed the fear she felt. She held a lot more feeling for Zophe than any other human she had encountered, and she was afraid that once she was gone from him, her easy life would be gone and she'd be stuck in a cage with no company.

Hearing that question, the answer should have been simple. Yet Zophe offered no reply. He said nothing about what he would do with Angel, be it sell her or not. Likely, he would. But... for some reason a part of him was hesitating. He wouldn't quite understand it, though perhaps it was a sort of pride and natural possessiveness that made him reluctant to commit to the deal.

Every animal he had ever taken under his wing had in a way become a part of him. To let go of them was somewhat painful. And yet... not entirely so considering how he detached himself once determining he would be handing them over to a new owner. There was just no point in getting too attached to something he would eventually give away for better or worse.

All for the sake of money. Because money led to many goals and achievements that would benefit him the best.

Even if he was the only one that would feel satisfaction from the act.

Pulling away silently, Zophe said nothing in return. He stood up and went inside the house, not quite so comfortable as he was before when he was content with just stroking Angel's feathers. Her question had brought forth a million other inside him, and answers that didn't quite compliment each other in any way. Stuck in contradiction, in a place and mindset he couldn't quite get out of, he decided to simply return indoors. Finding the couch, he laid upon it as before and rested for the while.

He didn't have an answer for Angel. Not at all. In fact, it was that lack of answer that upset him the most.

Angel was surprised that he just got to his feet and left. She couldn't help but frown as he had not answered her question. That probably frustrated her more than a no would. The fact that he was not giving her a straight answer meant that he was indecisive, and that meant she would have to wait even longer. Why was he indecisive though? There was nothing that needed real thought. Either he was wanting to keep her for his own personal collection, or he was just going to sell her at a ridiculous price for cash.

She sighed as she wasn't ready to go back inside. She was enjoying her small moments of freedom in the quiet dark. She wondered just what was going to happen. She knew that it could be only a matter of time before Zophe heard from the scientists who would be looking for her. They would do anything to get her back, and she didn't want to go back. She wondered what he would do if he was offered something irrisitable. Would he instantly cart her off? Or was he going to keep her?

The next few days passed in silence. Angel didn't feel much like talking to him and had taken to just staying silent for once. She wasn't angry with him she was merely confused. She wondered how soon he'd sell the wolf, but she didn't voice her question. She opted to just be silent, and let him figure things out without her chatting in his ear. She was starting to feel a little torn. She was having dreams about him, and they were strange. She had no idea what they meant, and wondered what was going on.