The two sat in silence for what seemed like an eternity to Azrael. She couldn't make herself look at the stranger without becoming red in the face.

Pull yourself together. She thought to herself.

"Care to explain why I'm here." Raden broke the silence. He held the small cup of tea in his lap. Azrael looked up at him then back down at her tea.

Azrael nodded. "It's not a very long story. Um... okay. So I went hunting for mushrooms and you know how that's hard this time of year so I spent all day out in the woods hunting for these tiny mushrooms under all these leaves and..." Azrael drifted off realizing she was getting carried away with a completely unrelated topic. She looked up to see Raden studying her intently. "Sorry." She blushed and took a deep breath. "I came back home when the sun started to set and that's when I saw what I thought was a meteor and wanted to see if I could collect some of it. Well, clearly to my surprise it was not a meteor."

"My question is how did you get me back here?" Raden asked. "I mean no offense but I doubt you could've dragged me here."

"Levitation charm." Azrael simply said. She didn't quite catch that Raden was insulting her.

Raden tilted his head and smiled a bit. "So you are a witch." Azrael nodded slowly. "Hmm. Well, I can see from your sorry attempts of healing that you aren't a very good one." His smile faded and a frown replaced it.

Azrael knew she shouldn't let a stranger dictate how she felt, but what he said struck a nerve with her. "I've tried my best," Azrael answered. "I tried my best. Would you have preferred me to leave you out there?" She grasped the mug a bit tighter in anger.

"What I would have preferred was a competent witch who knew how to perform a basic healing spell." Raden snapped back.

Azrael stood up quickly and walked out of the room. "I won't stay here and take this from some ungrateful prick..."

"Maybe I didn't want saving."

Azrael threw a hand up in frustration before leaving Raden alone seething with annoyance. She slammed her mug down on the table and climbed down into her workshop closing the hidden door behind her.

~~~*~~~

Hours had passed and Azrael hadn't reappeared. Raden kept his eyes trained on the hatch but it never opened. He let out a frustrated groan.

Dick move being an asshole. Raden cursed to himself.

He carefully stood and tested out placing weight on the affected side. There was little pain with each step but his wings still felt like heavy weights dragging behind him. Careful he made his way over to the door and opened it with ease. He climbed down and was amazed by the workshop that lay before him. He took a step forward and saw a head pop up from behind a stack of books. Azrael then walked around carrying four decently sized books to another corner of the room.

Raden folded his arms and smirked. "You're cute when you're focused."

Azrael jumped and dropped all the books at the sudden voice. She turned and immediately turned away from Raden. She picked the books up and continued cleaning.

"You know I could've been dead up there all this time. Never came to check on me or anything." Raden sarcastically stated. Azrael ignored him and continued what she was doing. This pushed Raden more to annoy her. "I could've been in some kind of danger of bleeding out."

Azrael slammed the books down causing a loud thud to echo and turned to Raden. "Given you wanted to be left for dead in that crater I figured I'd grant that wish for you. Just leave me alone asshole."

The smirk Raden had plastered across his face was smacked off. His eyes narrowed as his tempter flared. "You better watch what you call me."

Azrael spun around. "Or what?" She folded her arms challenging Raden.

"Don't get smart."

"You going to harass me some more, or will you insult my attempts of helping you?" Azrael questioned. She watched Raden closely unable to read his face. After a few moments of silence, Azrael let out a frustrated huff and went back to cleaning. "You know what. Why don't you leave."

Azrael disappeared again leaving Raden standing at the base of the ladder. His anger eased as she left and was replaced by a tiny bit of guilt. Something he wasn't used to feeling. He sighed and leaned back on the ladder.

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Asshole. Raden rolled his eyes and internally groaned.

He carefully walked around the clutter that was a bit overwhelming at first glance. Raden tried maneuvering around to amok sure his wings wouldn't knock anything over. Easier said than done. There was a small walkway that narrowed between two large stacks of books that he wouldn't try and make his way through but he saw Azrael on the other side cleaning out a bookshelf.

"Do you need any help?" Raden asked trying to peer through to Azrael.

Azrael leaned over from the bookshelf and frowned. "I'm perfectly fine. I thought I told you to leave?"

"You did, but you also looked like you needed some help." Raden pointed out. This wasn't the right thing to say.

Azrael walked over quite angrily. She found herself facing the bare chest of Raden, but she couldn't let him see her blush. She tilted her head up a bit to catch his eyes. "So not only am I bad at being a witch, but now you think I'm not capable of cleaning my workshop perfectly on my own."

Raden rolled his eyes. "That's not what I said."

"It's what you insinuated."

He leaned down a bit. "You humans and your insinuations. It gets quite tiring." He stood straight again and took a step back running his hands over a few jars on a shelf. "What's exactly in these jars?"

Azrael rolled her eyes and huffed. "None of your business. Now get out before you break something."

Raden looked back over and smirked. "You know what I change my mind. You're cuter when you act all angry."

Azrael was left speechless. Her anger was bubbling more and more as this stranger continued to annoy her. At this point, she realized he wasn't leaving and there wasn't a way for her to remove him without blowing up her home in the process.

She took a deep breath trying to ease her anger. "You want to help? You can stay here and organize my potion ingredients." She left before Raden could say anything against it or give some smart-ass comment.

Raden scanned over the cabinets and small desk seeing it was in a completely chaotic mess. He sighed and started cleaning up the mess. After about fifteen minutes, Raden found himself with somehow a bigger mess than he began with. He ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath before trying to figure out a better way of cleaning this up.

"Are you always this unorganized?" Raden asked. He was met by silence for a brief moment until a head popped out.

"Are you always this judgmental?"

Raden turned and held two jars up he chose to ignore Azrael's question. "Butterfly wings and clover. What are these for?"

Azrael walked over gently taking the jars out of his hands. "You ask too many questions." She placed the jars down and wiped her hands on her dress. "I see that you haven't made any headway here."

"Well yeah. The more I try to fix this the more it seems to become more chaotic."

Azrael nodded and sighed. "I've never once been able to get this place in order." She looked up at Raden. "Today it seems is not the day either."

Raden sat down on the stool he had moved over. "So now what?"

"I'm going back upstairs. You're free to join or stay down because it seems I can't get rid of you." Azrael answered as she walked away. She said a few more things but nothing Raden could make out.

Upstairs Azrael began cleaning up the mess she had left when she stormed out. She stoked the fire some to keep it going and checked the simmering pot. Soft footsteps made their way up the ladder and Raden poked his head out. He quietly pulled himself up and closed the door before going to sit at the small table that was placed under the only window in the cottage. Azrael moved swiftly through the house lost in her own world. Raden watched her closely. He took note of how her hair would sway as she walked and ignite in a fiery red as it caught the sunbeams streaming in through the window. Her face held a soft frown and a small crease between her eyebrows would form ever so slightly when she concentrated just a bit.

"You know most witches I've seen would tidy this all up with a snap of their figures." Raden pointed out. Azrael turned to him her frown deepening. "What? I was just pointing out that you guys normally use magic at any given chance."

"Uhuh, and don't most angels have healing properties?" Azrael fired back. She stood hands on hips challenging Raden.

Raden crossed his arms and sat back in his chair and smirked. "You got me." Azrael nodded and turned back to cleaning. Raden watched for a few more minutes until the silence became too much. "I never got your name."

"Why does it matter?"

"I don't know. Thought it would be nice to know the name of the person who dragged my unconscious body a good mile it seems to tend to my wounds." Raden explained. He leaned forward elbows on knees. "Listen I'll tell you my name if you tell me yours."

Azrael contemplated if she wanted to tell a complete stranger her name. The tiny fear in the back of her mind that he could be a part of the hunters wouldn't go away. Raden could sense something was up.

"Um..." Azrael was racking her mind around an answer quickly but it seems that was failing.

Raden raised an eyebrow and tilted his head a bit. "Did the cat get your tongue?"

Azrael's shoulders slumped forward a bit. She knew he would catch on to her lie if he hadn't already caught on to her hesitance. "It's Azrael."

"That's a nice name." Raden softly said. Azrael watched him smile and she felt her cheeks heat up. "Well, Azrael it's nice to meet the girl who decided to save me. I'm Raden."

Azrael nodded and smiled softly as she returned to her cleaning. Raden watched intently for a time but became fatigued and began to struggle to keep his eyes open. Azrael changed out the dimmer pot, but she saw Raden nodding off out of the corner of her eye. She quietly went over and help him up and guided him back to bed.

She stepped back and stared at Raden unsure about the situation she had found herself in. "What are you doing Azrael?" She whispered to herself.