The Three Dark Angels

"Azreal-"

"Whatever Aegis, guess what, I got news for you. I don't give a shit what you have to say. I'm my own person and I don't-ugh!" Aegis, during Azreal's speech, had dashed in front of Azreal and punched him hard in the gut, cutting Azreal off completely as Azreal, caught completely unaware, fell the floor in pain.

Aegis followed with this by flipping Azreal on his back while he was still clutching his stomach in pain, and Aegis planted his left foot on Azreal's chest.

"Be careful on where you tread, Azreal. True, I have my own personal issues, just like you, but, I will not have you treat me with such disrespect. And there is no reason for everything to come to this. I, at least, deserve that much."

"Yeah, yeah, such a great fucking job, dad. You've done such a great fucking job so far." Azreal said, still wheezing and clutching his stomach.

"Don't blame me for everything that has happened to you. You should understand by now that the world is a cruel and unforgiving place. Not everything works out the way we want it, nor do we always get what we want." Aegis said, raising his foot off of Azreal's chest.

"Shut the fuck up with your stupid ass fucking 'sage' advice. It's all a crock of shit, and sure as fuck doesn't help at all!" Azreal snapped as he slowly rose back to his feet, facing Aegis once more.

"I've had enough of your shit, and your babysitting! I'm moving the fuck out so that I don't have to put up with this shit anymore!"

To Azreal's surprise (and slight concern), Aegis smiled at this.

"And where would you go? What would you do? How would you honestly find any sort of path to any sort of future? Are you really ready to face the world alone?" Aegis fired in rapid succession.

"Yes! I don't fucking need you! I can take on the world all by myself!"

"Is that so? The world will just keel over to the glory of Azreal just because you ask it to? Is that what you think? Don't kid yourself. As you are, you are not qualified to venture into the world by yourself. However, I'll make you a deal. If you manage to beat me, I will allow you to move out without another word of protest. But, if you lose, you stay until I decide that you are qualified."

Azreal spat. "Such fucking-"

"Do we have a deal or not? As it stands, if you decide to try to move out on your own, I will simply beat you and drag you back here by force. If you want independence, then defeat your guardian. That's the deal, take it, or leave it."

Arrogant cock sucking son of a bitch!

"Deal." Azreal replied.

"Let's take this outside then." Aegis said as he turned and began walking towards the front door with Azreal close behind, who was excited at the possible prospect of finally kicking the shit out of Aegis, something he has been wanting to do for years.

Aegis led the way outside and into the street in front of their house, and Aegis, seeing all of the houses, (this was a residential area of Templar, after all) realized that this might be a very dangerous spectacle if this gets out of control.

Aegis stopped and turned his head to Azreal. "We'd better find a more suitable location for this."

"Fuck no! I'm not going to be doing anything except punching you in the face like I've wanted to for so fucking long! No way in hell I'm going to let you talk your way out of this!"

"Suit yourself. Don't expect me to stand up for you if you do something and get thrown into Confinement."

"Let's just get started already. I've been waiting for this for far too long as it is." Azreal replied, cracking his knuckles as he and Aegis stood facing one another in the streets.

"Then by all means, come and try to claim your independence. If you can." Aegis responded with both a confident and grim smile.

Azreal growled at Aegis' calm confidence. "We'll see if you talk that big once I knock your ass to the fucking ground!" Azreal yelled out as he began running at Aegis. However, Azreal's primary concern was that even though Azreal was running at Aegis, Aegis was still smiling.

The first round clearly belonged to Aegis, as Azreal's charge got him little more than a few blocked punches before until Aegis spin kicked Azreal away from him, with Azreal falling on his back a few feet away.

Aegis was still smiling as Azreal's head raised to meet Aegis' eyes. "Just as I thought." Aegis commented.

"What!?" Azreal shouted out at Aegis as he rose to his feet.

Instead of answering, still wearing that same smile, Aegis simply beckoned Azreal with a single finger, daring Azreal to try again.

Azreal accepted the challenge without a second thought, and ran at Aegis once more, his fists flying once he got close, with only one major difference between Aegis and Azreal, which Azreal had not noticed yet.

Unlike Azreal, who was mostly throwing his fists around hoping for a hit, Aegis fought in a very calm and controlled manner, reading most of Azreal's moves and finding ways to block and even counter them when possible. Azreal would be forced to the ground two more times before outside interference jumped in.

Angelus, deciding that he had done enough for today and wanted to come home to eat, was simply walking home and basically daydreaming at how powerful he is now, and how powerful he could be, and how when that day comes, the world will start kissing the ground he walks on. As he approached his street however, any and all thoughts of food or anything else flew out the window once he saw what was going on.

Azreal and Aegis were going all out at one another right in the middle of the street. And better yet, Aegis currently had his back turned to Angelus as he fought Azreal. A massive grin formed on Angelus' face as he decided, fuck it. This was an opportunity he would not miss, and it would feel so good to finally kick the shit out of Aegis.

Angelus broke into a run, though he could not run at full speed thanks to the exercises he had just finished, and kept his eyes on Aegis. If Aegis turned and spotted him, Angelus would simply force himself to run in a full sprint as fast as he could.

What Angelus didn't consider, however, was that Aegis might be able to hear him approaching.

Of course, Aegis didn't know who it was, only that very heavy and pounding footsteps were quickly approaching him from behind, forcing him to shoot a glance behind him barely in time to see a fist coming right for him.

But it was enough time.

Aegis stepped out of the way just as the fist went flying past his face, which he grabbed at the wrist as his leg swept the legs underneath the newcomer, causing him to fall flat on his face, whom Aegis now recognized due to the fire red hair.

"Greetings Angelus, how was your day?" Aegis asked, and it was all he could manage to do before Azreal jumped in on him, forcing Aegis to take a few steps back in light of Azreal's assault before Aegis bested him once again as Angelus rose to his feet.

"My day was alright, but it will be the best day ever when I finally kick your ass for good." Angelus responded with an eager smile.

"Stay the fuck out of this Angelus! This is between me and Aegis, no one asked for your fucking help!" Azreal shouted in frustration at Angelus, furious at both Angelus for intervening, and his growing frustration at Aegis, whom he still could not beat for some reason.

"Fuck you Azreal!" Angelus snapped. "Who the fuck gives a shit about you anyways!? I'm here to beat the shit out of Aegis, but since you seem to be in such a fucking jolly mood, I'll kick your ass too while I'm at it!" Angelus challenged.

Azreal shot Angelus a glare as he rose. "Fine by me." Azreal said grimly. "Every fucking man for himself."

Aegis smiled inwardly at this. 'Been quite a few years since we've done this.' Aegis thought to himself. In the old days, fights like this between them were more common, due to the stress of their lives during those days. And as strange as it might seem, things would improve after a big fight between the three of them like this, since they would burn most of their built up anger and frustration, with these fights playing the role of a very physical and powerful venting system for their pent up emotions.

All in all, this fight might be exactly what they need.

Secretly, however, Aegis also enjoyed these fights from time to time. He too, after all, always sought ways to improve himself, and the abilities of Angelus and Azreal, no matter how sloppy they fought, could not be denied. They were strong competitors to test Aegis' own abilities.

By this point, those that were in nearby houses and could hear some of what was happening out in the street had decided to come out and watch was going on, and now the fight in the street had a small but growing audience forming in the yards around them.

An awkward period of time passed after Azreal had made the official declaration, as all three sat and waited for the one of the other two to make the first move. This brief period of indecision ended in the most typical way possible, as the one who would be famously known as 'Hothead' five years from now, Angelus, decided to just simply charge Aegis, the one that Angelus wanted to beat the most, putting his frustration with Azreal aside for the time being.

Unlike the previous charge by Angelus, however, it was Aegis who was taken by surprise this time.

Though Azreal was fast and strong, and showed some capability to fight, his technique and style was sloppy at best, since Azreal never sought to improve himself in this capacity. Because of that, Aegis was able to beat Azreal with a sense of ease. And though yes, Aegis knew Angelus was going out to train and improve himself, Aegis had quietly assumed that Angelus wouldn't push himself that hard, and would be a mere step up from Azreal, rather than fighting as Aegis' equal, standing toe to toe with Aegis as the two traded fists.

Even more surprising was the result of this skirmish, which Angelus had won, thanks to a quick jab to the gut followed by a real good right hook into the left side of Aegis' face, knocking him to the ground.

Angelus threw both of his arms in the air in triumph.

"Yes! Yes! YEAHHH!!! I-oof!" Angelus, so lost in his celebration, didn't think to consider how quickly Aegis would recover from that hit, or that Aegis would simply kick Angelus in the gut while he was on the ground.

As Angelus fell to the ground, Aegis rose to his feet, wiping a small amount of blood from his lips with his fist as he did so.

"Spend too much time patting yourself on the back, and you miss what is right in front of you." Aegis said quickly to Angelus before he turned to confront Azreal, who was on the move as soon as Angelus had fallen.

The bystanders on the street, still slowly growing, began cheering from the nearby yards as everyone began picking who would win the fight. Most of this cheering, however, was drowned out in the minds of Aegis, Angelus, and Azreal, who were currently too engaged in their fight to really hear these cheers.

Much to Azreal's continued frustration, he was beaten again by Aegis, and Angelus' next assault on Aegis yielded yet another victory, though this one was much smaller since Angelus only got a light jab in Aegis' chest, and Aegis blocked Angelus' follow through strike.

Azreal growled as he watched Angelus go toe to toe with Aegis. What the fuck makes Angelus so fucking special!? It's not like Angelus really does anything, so what the fuck is this!? Why the fuck can Angelus fight Aegis while Azreal himself keeps on getting beaten!?

Azreal rose to his feet, his sights now set on Angelus instead of Aegis.

Though Aegis had seen Azreal rise to his feet, and had seen him coming, what Aegis hadn't expect was for Azreal to completely blindside Angelus instead of himself, and Angelus went down hard thanks to the double fist which struck the back of Angelus' head.

"No one asked for your fucking help!" Azreal repeated to Angelus, who was now on the ground, before turning to Aegis. "This is my fucking fight!" Azreal shouted as he charged Aegis once more.

Running on pure fury, Azreal raged against Aegis, throwing both his fists and legs in a completely random and chaotic fashion. So chaotic, in fact, that Aegis could not block everything that Azreal was throwing at him, and Azreal got in quite a few good hits before Aegis finally kicked Azreal away from him to give himself some breathing space, only to find Azreal back on his feet, and throwing himself at Aegis once again.

Aegis, however, in the back of his mind, was becoming distracted as a major concern just appeared in his mind. Would Azreal go out of control? That may not have happened before, but, at the same time, Aegis has never witnessed so much fury and hatred in Azreal, and it was exploding all at once.

Angelus' head was pounding by the time the world finally reformed around him and came into focus and he realized where he was and what he was doing. Angelus hissed through his teeth in pain as both of his hands moved to the back of his head in the hopes of smoothing out the current focus of his immense pain.

Realizing quickly that the pain would not go away, Angelus instead turned to where Aegis and Azreal were fighting. Even Angelus could clearly see the rage Azreal was throwing around, and though it concerned him a little, Angelus was far more concerned that Azreal, like the fucking asshole that he is, had sucker punched him in the back of his head.

That was when Angelus decided, fuck Aegis, beating the shit out of Azreal now takes top priority. And just as Azreal had sucker punched himself, Angelus fully intended to return the favor, which he did.

Except this time, instead of changing his focus to Aegis, instead kept his attention on Azreal as Azreal fell to the ground.

"Take that, fucking bitch!" Angelus shouted as he kicked Azreal while Azreal was on the ground. "Take your fucking shitty ass bullshit somewhere else, I've got a fight to win." Angelus said to Azreal as he turned to Aegis, who was standing patiently, and hiding his concern beneath his very well built mask.

Typically, almost none of these fights had gotten this violent with this much hate. Perhaps there are far more deep rotted problems that Aegis wasn't even aware of, and this fight wasn't just a simple...fling, to crudely put it.

Before Angelus could make his move, Azreal, now running on pure adrenaline and unable to feel pain in the normal manner, managed to recover himself enough to sweep the legs of Angelus while he was still on the ground, since Angelus had made the mistake of not moving away from Azreal while Azreal was on the ground.

Azreal immediately pounced on Angelus, pinning Angelus down with his own weight, and began to throw punches at Angelus' face, who was doing all he could do to protect himself.

"Fuck you, you prick ass son of a bitch! Your fucking ignorant ass with your ignorant mouth needs to shut the fuck up once and for all!" Azreal spat at Angelus while continuing to throw his punches, getting several good shots during this time.

It was here that Aegis decided that he could no longer simply watch, and also decided that it was time to bring this fight to an end before it gets any further out of control.

Aegis dashed to behind Azreal, where he literally picked him up and threw him off Angelus, landing a few feet away. Both Azreal and Angelus began rising at the same time, and glared at one another as they did so, completely ignoring Aegis' presence and ready to jump at one another.

"ENOUGH!" Aegis thundered, stepping in between the two, snapping the tension between Angelus and Azreal as they looked up to Aegis, though both were still clearly ready to continue, and didn't appear to care who stood in their way, something Aegis found to be very dangerous.

The next step would be that the eyes might start appearing, and since Aegis could not decipher their current mental state accurately, he was not about to allow that risk if he could help it.

As Aegis had hoped, the shock of his sudden voice snapped the two out of their glare at one another and turn upward to him, a little surprised and confused. A quick inspection on both of them that both of them had a number of open cuts and wounds, as well as bruises. Aegis was sure that he was wearing a few himself.

"For all three of our sakes, that's enough. At this rate, we'll draw more attention than we want, and end up being recruited while we can still avoid it. At the same time, there is that element of us to consider. We may not like each other at the moment, but all three of us agree that we do not want to fall to that, correct? Nor would we want to deal with the ramifications either, is that not true as well?"

Aegis saw that both of them wanted to defy him, to just completely ignore sense and rise to continue to fight, especially when their glare turned to one another once again, and Aegis feared that he might have to step in with real force.

Thankfully it didn't have to go that far, for the tension slowly began to fade away as Aegis' words got through to them, who did make very good points that couldn't be ignored.

"On top of all of that, I think we can all also agree that food is more important than anything else right now, and the fact that we have a rather large audience now is pretty embarrassing." Aegis said with a thumb gesture to the crowd.

Both of them followed Aegis' thumb to the crowds that had gathered on the laws, who were now waving and cheering as Angelus and Azreal were now looking at them. Quite a few were even openly pointing and laughing.

Neither Angelus nor Azreal could resist the temptation.

"Hey! If you guys want to pay us, we can do this once a week!" Azreal shouted out to the crowds.

"Yeah! This is nothing, you should see us on a really bad day!" Angelus followed with, to the amusement of the crowd, and to the hidden relief of Aegis as he sighed and shook his head in mock embarrassment.

"Let's go. They've had enough entertainment for one day." Aegis said as Angelus turned to follow Aegis.

"Hey ladies! I'm here all day and single! Now that you know I'm a tough guy, my door is open any time!" Azreal continued, now to the real embarrassment of both Aegis and Angelus.

"That was probably a little too much." Aegis commented as Azreal caught up with Aegis and Angelus.

"Eh, you might be surprised. They did just see some serious ass kicking."

"Ha! My-"

"Angelus! Food!" Aegis cut in before Angelus could continue, and Angelus went silent as Azreal's mood fell immediately, now brought back to reality with the light distraction over.

"I had steak in mind tonight, but I think we'll take sandwiches instead, agreed?" Aegis asked as they entered the house.

"Yeah." Angelus grumbled.

"Sure." Azreal grumbled as well, and without a word they went to the kitchen, each silently making their sandwiches as they saw fit, and it was here the silence was broken, as Aegis noted the two of them trying to rush to escape.

"Stop. We'll eat together."

"Fuck no." Both Angelus and Azreal replied at almost the same time.

"We...owe... it to each other. Now sit...please." Aegis said, almost on the side of...of...of pleading...?

Aegis, begging? No way, there was no way. No way possible.

And yet, Azreal and Angelus were witnessing the impossible. Aegis, the Aegis, the granddaddy on top of the world overpowered bastard was actually begging for them to sit and eat together.

The shock of that, more than anything else, is what convinced both Azreal and Angelus to silently take their seats at the round kitchen table.