A sigh escaped Devin as he strolled down the sidewalk of Rosebury, his eyes fixed on the piece of lined paper in his hands. It was a list - a grocery list to be exact. While Barry was a better choice at shopping as he was the fastest at it, Devin needed something to do. Ever since that mission...He grimaced, becoming faintly aware of a lingering pain in his chest. He hadn’t been out much since he had been recovering.
But, things had been good. Life hadn’t changed that much, which was a relief. But it had been the second time of him losing control and turning into a demon...It worried him. Aleta seemed to have accepted what happened and treated him the same, but he became ever fearful when the next moment would be. Of course, both times had been rather high-stressed situations of life and death.
Focused on the list as it was something to do as he walked, he paid little mind to the sound of life in Rosebury. His eyes would flicker up every once in awhile to make sure he hadn’t walked pass the store, but it was a bit of a walk. So, he simply read the shopping list over and over, his tail flickering and his wings flexing slightly. At one point he looked up, he was taken aback as all he could see was the body of somebody before he slammed into them.
He stumbled backwards as the sound of conversation the person he had just rammed into was having stopped. His wings flared a bit to keep his balance, shaking his head with a soft moan. It had felt like running into a brick wall. His eyes flickered up as he flashed a sheepish smile as he rubbed his head. “I-I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I wa-”
“My baby!” A high-pitched voice squealed, taking Devin by surprise as a body suddenly slammed into him, arms wrapping around him in a warm embrace. His mouth hung open for a few moments, as his gaze focused on the person hugging him. He tried to find the words to speak, but the shock left him speechless.
“Well, look at that,” another female voice hummed, causing Devin to peak around the body that was hugging him. It was a person he easily recognized - Hosa Corvina. She smiled happily, a finger resting on her cheek as she beamed at somebody next to her - his hugger blocking his view to see whom. “I think my job here is done.”
A laugh followed, a bit rough yet...Sweet. Deep, yet filled with joy. “Well what are the chances of that?” The deep voice spoke, sounding heavenly to Devin’s ears. “Thank you for your help Miss…?”
“I’m Hosa Corvina,” the Guardian purred softly, before letting out a laugh as she turned her attention to Devin. “Um...Mrs. Morris? I think you are squishing him.”
At that, his hugger pulled away, turning her face to look at Hosa. “Oh...You are right. Dearly me, I got carried away. It's just been so long…”
Finally, Devin found the words to speak as the grip lessened. “M-Mom? Dad?” he gasped in surprised as he finally got a good view at the person he had ran into - his father.
His father - Blake - was a tall, well-built man. He had a rugged look to him, mostly with the stubble he had grown since Devin had last seen him. He was wearing a black t-shirt, showing off a pair of muscles arms. With wide shoulders, one could mistake him as a construction worker or maybe even a biker. Yet, he was the most sweetest, honest man that Devin knew. A pastor loved by all.
“Hello Devin,” his father beamed as he strolled over to his son, ruffling Devin’s hair as he towered over the young Autumn with a grin. “How has Beata been?”
His mother - Ciara - looked much like one would expect a teacher to. Her brown hair was done into a bun, her blue eyes blinking behind a pair of glasses as she looked down at her son. Her eyes lingered on something behind Devin, biting her lip daintily. “You have...Wings?” She spoke carefully. Devin knew his mother well enough to know that from that voice, she knew, but just hadn’t been expecting it.
Devin shifted uncomfortably at his mother’s words, folding up the shopping list as he stuffed it into his front pocket - it seeming unimportant seeing the current events. “Um...Yeah. Didn’t Ellen tell you about them?” he asked, recalling his sister’s visit almost six months prior. Had it already been half a year since then?
His father responded with a soft smile, nodding. “She did, but it's one thing to hear about it and another to see them for yourself.” He paused for a moment, blinking his eyes before he turned to Hosa who was watching on in interest. “Thank you very much for your help, Miss Corvina. I hope it wasn’t to much of an inconvenience to help us.”
Hosa jolted slightly, taking by surprise by him turning to talk to her. Her gaze snapped up to him, before she shook her head with a smile. “It wasn’t a bother at all, Mr. Morris,” she said with a grin. “I’m a Guardian - helping others is what I do. But...I suppose I should go. I was on the way to the Daycare and I don’t want to keep the kids waiting.”
She waved goodbye to the three of them, before turning the way she came from and strolled away. Devin watched for a few moments, half-expecting Hosa to turn into an animal of some sort but she didn’t. After she was away for a bit, his father turned to look at him. “Can you remind me what exactly a Guardian is, Devin?” he asked softly.
Devin nodded quickly - almost not even thinking about it. “A Guardian is a person who has almost complete or total control over their powers and serve to protect the school. Hosa was a prior student who has the power to shapeshift into animals. I think she was one of the strongest students.”
“And she works at the daycare?” his mother breathed, a happy tone in her voice. “Bless her soul for that.”
Devin nodded softly. He could remember Leo mentioning having worked with Hosa at the daycare during one of their workout sessions, but it was still something to behold. After all, she had won the Summer Tournament a year prior! But he decided to shift the discussion away from Hosa as he looked at his parents. “What are you two doing here?”
“Well,” his father rumbled, almost sounding like a purr as he smiled softly at his son. “It's been awhile since you wrote a letter and seeing how the school year is now over, we thought we would visit. We wanted to make sure everything is going well here.”
Ah...Devin frowned softly as he opened his mouth, but it quickly closed as he thought about whether he truly wanted to say that things hadn’t been all that well. Sure, he had friends and school was great but the two events with his powers...His wings shifted at his side as he glanced down the street. “Oh, sure,” he said as he turned his gaze back to them with a soft, slightly forced smile. “Do you want to stop and get something to eat? We can talk over lunch.”
His father raised his eyebrow, pulsing his lip slightly before he nodded. “Sounds like a fine idea. I’m guessing you know of a place we can go?”
“Yeah, we can go to the cafe,” he stated as he stepped forward, brushing past his parents. He paused to look at them with a smile. “Follow me!”
His mother quickly caught up to him, her blue eyes sparkling as she stared down at her darling boy. “How has school been? Are you still friends with that Leo boy? Have to met anybody special?” The way she leaned forward at that final question easily gave Devin an idea of what she meant.
A sharp blush flushed its way into his cheeks as his wings curled tightly at his side. “Moooom,” he whined as he glanced at his mother with a pout and an embarrassed hiss. “I-I’m not old enough for a relationship! Besides, I don’t even know who…” he drifted off, his eyes focusing on his feet as he lead them toward the cafe.
Ciara gave him a gentle hug as the walked, smiling warmly at him. “I just want you to have somebody to make you happy, Devy. Are you sure there isn’t anybody who comes to mind?”
Devin opened his mouth a few times, trying to find a response but he finally sighed. He knew his mother well enough to know that if he didn’t give her a real answer, she was going to keep badgering him about it. “I...I guess there is Aleta? She is Leo’s little sister but...” he said weakly with a slight shrug before he shook his head. “I don’t know what she thinks of me after what happened in…”
Blake flashed Devin a concerned look with a slight frown. “After what happened?” he asked in a careful tone, raising an eyebrow. “Devin, did something happen with your gift?”
Devin’s gaze remained on the ground, unable to meet his parents’ eyes. “I…” he started, trying to find the words to say. “...I’ve might of taken my demon form...” He winced with a soft sigh. “I was lucky I didn’t hurt her…”
There was a few moments of silence, only broken when Devin’s gaze flickered up and he came to a stop. “We’re here,” he announced as they stood before the cafe. He quickly moved forward and stepped inside, waiting only a moment to see if his parents were following before continuing on. He led the two of them to a window booth, sliding into one of the seats as his parents sat down across from him.
They sat there without speaking for a few moments, an uncomfortable silence in the air until his mother gained the will to speak. “What exactly happened to make you take your...Demon form?” she asked, a bit of hesitation in her voice.
Devin glanced at her, pouting slightly. He knew his mother wasn’t used to gifts, or at least wasn’t very used to them. She had only learned of them when she was dating Devin’s father, who didn’t wish to keep such a secret between them. Even with Devin always having the horns and tail, he was sure that his mother still found gifts unnatural but put it aside for her family’s sake.
He shook his head as he slumped forward slightly, leaning on an arm as he turned his gaze to the window. “There...Was a mission that I decided to go on, and Aleta ended up coming along. We went to the Congo rainforest in search of a creature that had been causing trouble there. But it...Found us instead.” He gritted his teeth, his tail lashing at his side as his wings tightened as he recalled the events.
“The first hit it got on me knocked me down the hill we had just climbed. I...I got knocked out but quickly came too. I...I realized that Aleta was still fighting that thing and I was useless as I had a concussion and couldn’t get up. I let my emotions get the better of me and...I transformed. I saved her. I saved her but I killed that creature without thinking about it. I’m just lucky that I didn’t hurt her. Even as a demon...I just couldn’t bring myself to do harm to her. She snapped me out of my demon form but...we haven’t really talked since we got back...Well...More like I haven’t been will to try to talk to her since.”
He paused as he turned his gaze back to his parents, who both stared at him in stunned silence. “That wasn’t even the first time I transformed,” he lamented with an angry shake of his head. “The first time was when I went to Alaska. The school sent a bunch of us on a camping trip out there. I was with Leo and three…” He paused. “No, wait, four other people. A few days in, I went to go get wood by myself when I was attacked. Apparently there was a goat-like creature living in the woods that Beata wasn’t aware of.
“I got pretty hurt but I managed to scare the thing off when I transformed from pure fear. Only...Leo ended up showing up and we got into a fight with him - both of us kinda blinded by our natural hate for each other. Luckily the others showed up and broke us apart - one of them managing to turn me back with her power.”
Having explained both of the events, he allowed himself to slump fully onto the table, a hand resting in his hair as he let out a shaky breath. He glanced up at his parents with a faint, slightly forced smile. “But...Other then those two events things have been good. Leo and I made up after the whole Alaska trip, my roommates have been there to support me. I even got a cat.” Devin chuckled softly at the thought of his little Munchkin kitten. “His name is Merlin. He’s an adorable munchkin kitten even if he is a bit of a trouble maker.”
As he finished, Devin’s father leaned forward and placed a hand on Devin’s arm, a concerned look flashing in his eyes. “Devin…” he cooed softly. “Do you hate your gift?”
The simple, straight-forward wording of the question took Devin by surprise as he shifted slightly. He opened his mouth to reply, but quickly swallowed his answer nervously as his gaze focused on his father’s hand on his arm. He allowed the question to sit in his mind before he shook his head sadly. “I...I don’t know,” he finally responded.
HIs green eyes flickered up to his parents as he gave them a weak shrug, biting his lip slightly. “I mean...I suppose I do. All my gift seems to do is hurt others... Sure, taking on my demon form saved me in Alaska and saved Aleta in Congo but...I lose myself to my dark feelings. I know it's a gift - in name and from God. But...So often it feels like nothing more than a curse.”
“That...Isn’t a bad feeling to have, sweetie,” his mother spoke up with a weak smile, placing a hand on Blake’s shoulder. “Heaven knows that your father’s family felt the same way. From what I learned with my single meeting with them and the stories that your father tells...It was rare for them to ever control their gift. Instead, they scorned and cursed it. Why, when your father told them that they wanted to marry a Christian like me…” A wistful sigh escaped her. “I think it was some miracle that they didn’t transform then.”
Devin raised his head slightly with interest as his father continued on. “Your mother is right, my family always did scorn our gift. We believed in God when it suited us...But only believed in Him so that we could have someone to blame for our gift. When I met your mother, when she taught me what God was really like...I knew our family was wrong. It wasn’t a curse - it was a gift. We had just been seeing it in the wrong light.”
The story about his paternal family wasn’t a new one to Devin, he had heard the story many times when he was young when he would question why they never visited his paternal grandparents as they had the same gift as Devin and his father. But...He supposed he had never thought of it like this before. “But...Why didn’t they have control over their gift while you do, dad?”
His father chuckled with a smile, his eyes flashing a bright emerald green for a quick second - a quick activation of his gift. “Because I stopped fearing it. Our gift is one of dark emotions, Devin. I was much like you when I was young, afraid of my gift and to lose control. Now, when I told your mother of my gift, she was surprised...scared. It was a reaction one expects. But when she worked past the hard truth of supernatural gifts being real...She helped me understand that it didn’t have to be a curse like my family thought, but a gift.”
Devin was silent for a few moments before he gave his father a confused frown. “How did the fact you stop fearing it help you gain control?”
“Because when I feared my gift, I did not control it. It controlled me,” Blake said with a soft nod of his head. “‘There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.’ You are afraid of what you become Devin, and you lose yourself to that. My family saw their gift as a punishment, and so feared it. But when I saw the true light, I did not push away my demon form but instead accepted it.” He paused, before giving Devin a soft smile. “Do you remember what the 12th and 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians was about, Devin?”
1 Corinthians? Devin paused as he thought about it, finally sitting upright in his seat. It had been a while since he had read that book of the Bible, but he was sure he could remember if he just...Ah, right. Those were chapters that his father told him a lot about when he was a child. “Spiritual gifts, unity and diversity in the body of Christ, and love.”
“Good!” his mother chirped happily as if he had just given the right answer to a very hard question. She leaned forward, clearly seeing what her husband was getting at as she took over. “Do you not think the messages in those chapters to the church apply to the Gifted community? Every gift was given to each family for a reason, and each have their own purpose.”
His father nodded in agreement as he spoke up. “Almost no gift is alike. Each are their own. Each gift has a weakness, and the Gifted community should strive to be one. Your gift, Devin, was given to you for a reason. You may not see it all the time, but it can be used for good. You saved your friend Aleta, didn’t you? And you said yourself you couldn’t bring yourself to harm her. That means that you still have some control over your gift. You simply need to let go of the fear you hold toward it, and then you will be able to gain complete control.”
Blake leaned back with a knowing smile. “Now...It still won’t be easy, but with somebody that you care about at your side, like how I had your mother, you will be able to get complete control. I say try to talk with Aleta, see if she is willing to walk with you through the trail of gaining control and mastery of your gift. I say if she is even a bit like how you described her brother, then she will be willing and be a great friend.”
Devin glanced between his parents for a few moments before he let out a sigh of relief as he nodded his head quickly. “A-Alright, I will. I’ll talk to her when I get the chance. Thank you. I...I really needed a talk like that. I suppose...Fearing my gift just seemed like a reasonable thing to do with the whole...Turning into a demon fact,” he chuckled weakly.
His father smiled at him. “Remember what I told you when you were a child, Devy. Think past the appearance. What matters is inside - your heart. After all, love never fails Devin. When all else fades away, faith, hope and love will remain. But-”
“The greatest of these is love,” Devin finished with a soft smirk. “1 Corinthians 13:13. Now...Should we get something to eat?” he asked, a small grumble of his stomach following. “I am a bit hungry after all.”
Ciara smiled in response. “Yes, we should! And you can tell us all about your friends and your darling cat Merlin.” She paused thought with a frown. “You are taking allergy medicines, right? If not, you should. You are allergic to cats so I hope you took that in mind when yo-”
Devin waved his mother off with a laugh. “I am, I am. I even brought the allergy medicine before I even got Merlin. Now...Where to even start…”
The rest of the morning was spent chatting with his parents about his life at Beata minus the whole two events with his gift. He told them all about his friends, his roommates, Merlin, how he had gotten his wings...His parents told him stories of their life was going. For a long time in a while, Devin was truly happy.
