What am I in here for? To read? I don't read...

The almost considered tiny figre of Lucifer Valentine brushed past someone, who'd been in his way, and nearly knocked him over because they weren't looking where they were going. The kid was a girl, about eleven, so he forgave her, mentally, before going on to slink into one of the aisles of books, an unnoticed figure that didn't matter.

I should've died when I got the chance.

He sighed, heavily and sulkily, pulling out a book at random... which, unfortunately so, triggered two books to fall onto the floor... or rather, on his worn-out combat boot.

Ah, shit. Just my luck.

He stooped down to the floor, set the book he picked out aside, and took the two books that fell, stood back up, placed them back on the shelf, then bent down and grabbed the book he'd been looking at.

Today, was like always. Lucifer's brown hair was pulled up into a pony-tail that hung, basically, at the base of his neck, and the hood of his black sweashirt was pulled over his head, shading his eyes. No one would recognize him, except for his very, very bright green, big, sad, mournful eyes. His view was partly obscured, because of stray strands and chunks of his hair that fell into his eyes.

He had jeans on, and there's nothing interesting to say about them, besides they're stained, muddy, grimy, blood-stained, and have holes in them.

He shuffled to a little nook in the shop, to read.

Fuck... I don't belong here.

He sat himself down.

...why?

A lot of people might have not have known it was Lucifer, aside from this man.

Then again, not many people have a tracker on this kid.

Bomani came slinking around the book case, finally pulling the sunglasses away from his gold eyes, a tan hand reaching out to tug lightly on the German's hood. "Lucifer.." He was worried, but his voice came out gruff as it always did when he was troubled by the younger man's actions.

"You left for a long time." Which translates into 'You've been really depressed and I don't want you to do anything stupid'. Lately, Bomani's been a little nicer than usually when first confronting Lucifer. Sometimes, he eventually was blunt as ever with him.

Crounching down besides him, Bomani brushed off a speck of dirt that seemed to be on his jeans. No one likes dirt, which was shown that Bomani wasn't a fan by his spotless white shirt.

"Are you okay?" He mumbled, long fingers brushing away the whisps of brown hair from his eyes.

Lucifer blinked, and turned around to see who it was that would be tugging on the hood of his sweatshirt. Who would want anything to do with him? Who would care enough so much as to reach out their arm and tug at his hood?

"Jehov--" Lucifer had thought it'd been him, but stopped in mid-sentence. So he didn't have to talk to his monster of a half-brother. It was Bomani.

"Bomani.." he corrected himself, staring at Bomani with one of those, sad, empty stares of his, and swallowed.

He wanted to turn and bury himself in a hole and die. No, he wasn't okay.He wanted to cry. It might've shown on his face and might be noticable in his voice.

"Yeah." Yeah, he's perfectly fine.

Not.

Bomani frowned maybe a little more and he slipped an arm slowly around Lucifer, "What brings you in here?" He figured that maybe if they just took a rest in the book store instead of the apartment where most things blow up in would be a nice change of scenery.

Oh, by the way, he doesn't believe Lucifer.

He swallowed again, and looked away from Bomani. He was scared, still. Not of anything in particular, just scared in general. He was hurt, still. He still didn't care about himself. He still wanted to drown. He still almost drowned himself yesterday on purpose. And he still had new bruises, over which were fresh cutes, hidden artfully by his sweatshirt.

"I don't know." Lucifer admitted.

"I see." Bomani mumbled, watching Lucifer. "What bothers you?" Well, aside from the 'normal' problems. What's currently bothering him, hindering him. "You make me worry, Camel." And Bomani didn't like to worry.

Lucifer stared sullenly down at the book in his hands, managing to supress a sigh. "There's nothing bothering me, Bo." Don't know if I mentioned, but that is the name Lucifer accidentally created for Bomani, and now he's stuck with it.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine." He's doing a very fine job of faking it, too.

Well, Bo is fine with Bomani. It's nicer than Camel. "You know I don't believe you." That's his nice way of putting it. "Something's bothering you." He turned ever so lightly, looking into his eyes. "I don't want it eating away at you. You know what happens." Bottles up and someone's head explodes.

Much nicer, if you ask Lucifer. But now Lucifer likes being called Camel. There's some sort of emotion and meaning in that name that almost makes him feel... needed, or something.

Lucifer looked away. He doesn't like people looking him in the eyes.

"..."

He shook his head, lightly.

'nothing, wrong, okay? Just let it alone."

"You wouldn't be avoiding me so much, Camel. Something is bothering you. Like they say, your head will explode if you don't get it out." Least he came out with the superstition that he actually did believe in (just a little bit, but he'd never fess up to it). "I don't want to be cleaning you up. I would much rather you in one piece."

"..." (again. This generally means 'my mouth is open but I'm not saying anything')

"...it just doesn't matter anymore, Bo." A gentle sigh. "But I want it to." He probably didn't know just how badly he wanted it to matter. But it really wouldn't happen, because nothing had much value to Lucifer anymore.

"Luc, if you want something, it will happen. I want things to matter." To be honest, Bomani wanted everything to be okay, but he knew there was a long and windy road to follow to get what he wanted. He attempted a smile at Lucifer, "You still have time before your head blows up, things can be talked about."

Indeed, a long, windy road, that'd take ages and ages to trek down, if Bomani happened to be lucky.

He gave up on avoiding itand supressed another sigh. "Can't explain here."

"Then let's go home." Emphasis on home of course. Because it IS their home. Slowly, Bomani got to his feet, his hand held out to help Lucifer stand up. "C'mon, faster we get there, the quicker we'll save your head." He REALLY didn't want Lucifer to go KABOOM.

Still, Lucifer thought of it more as Bomani's home, but he didn't feel like correcting him and saying, 'your home'. So instead he just nodded. Home would be good.. he hadn't been to the apartment in a long time.

"mm, I gotta put away this book first, though," Lucifer said thoughtfully

"Alright."

Yeah, well, Bomani thought that it was their home. No matter what Lucife would say, it would always be their home. Well, til one of them croaked. Then that would be a little hard to share it.

Bomani moved a little ways away, to the end of the aisle, waiting for Luc.

Lucifer almost stumbled (I think the term is 'tripped lightly') over his own feet, but caught himself, and the book, beofre he fell, and then he went back to the bookshelf, and placed the book there, exactly where it was before.

"Let's go home, then."

Bomani grinned at Lucifer. That was truly funny. Though, he figured that the German wouldn't appreciate him laughing about it so he stifled his grin, only starting to walk once Lucifer reached him, ending up to open the door for him. "Home it is, Camel. It's been as lonely as the pyramids."

"Mm," Lucifer murmured, nodding slightly, and stepped outside. "I guess... I guess I'm sorry about that." He shook his head now. He would've supposed, since Bomani lived alone, he would've been used to it... but now that he lived there too, it would make sense that it was his fault.

He shook the thought, mentally, out of his head.

Bomani erached out and ruffled Lucifer's hair, "That's alright. I'll think of a way that you can pay me back later." Poor Luc, he never gets off the hook with Bomani, now does he?

Then again, he never seemed to get off the hook now like group of punks that decided to pick on the two because they wanted a nice hefty sum of cash. Being like any enemy, they went for the weaker looking one (Sorry Luc~! buttt, aka Lucifer) and slammed the frail shoulder into the wall, screaming something along the lines 'MONEYYYYYYY *drool*'.

He offered a somewaht forced half-smile when Bomani ruffled his already messed-up hair. He didn't care about it, so...

The expression that hit Lucifer's face next was something along the 'deer-in-the-headlights' stare, when his shoulder hit aainst the wall very violently. He opened his mouth to speak, but found no words. He stood, frightened, frozen in terror, like usual.

Bomani, unfortunately, had no gun on him which was unusual for the Egyptian. Unfortunate events always happen in a bad sequence, don't they? Well, this would be one unfortunately one.

Being resourceful, he used his fist to knock the guy off from Lucifer.

After that, things happened fast. The group and Bomani battled more or less. Bomani kicked a few of their arses, but alas, he is just one man and not a match against a gun when all he has is just himself. One man shot Bomani, but when they realized that the growing red spot on his white shirt wasn't stopping anytime soon, they left in fear that they'd be thrown in jail.

So, this leaves a stunned Lucifer and a bleeding Bomani, his hand stained in red as he tried to cover the wound, swaying a little on his feet.

Mind you, he wore this wound proudly for his efforts to protect Lucifer.

He would’ve liked to help Bomani in kicking people’s asses, but Lucifer was too stunned to make his feet move at that moment, and he probably wouldn’t have been able to help much anyway. In fact, he probably would have made the problem worse if he had, in fact, tried to help.

So instead he whimpered, leaning his back against the wall, and stared at Bomani fighting. Somewhere he wished he could beat them all, somewhere he wished they would just all go away, and somewhere in his mind… he knew none of the two options would be possible.

He halfway expected that to happen, but when it did… Lucifer was really shocked. More than shocked. Angry. Very, very angry. Hurt. Very, very hurt. His jaw hung open slightly, slack, and then he clenched his teeth. Without any further thought, he was screaming at the punks, and running to Bomani’s side.

“Bo!” The smaller man cried, wrapping his slender arms around the Egyptian to keep him from falling. He didn’t know what else to do. “Bo, you can’t die…” He was quite hysterical at this moment.

Fuck! This is all my fucking fault! Bo, please don’t die! Please…

Bomani's head lolled to the side, leaning against Lucifer, smiling vaguely. "Can't die yet, Camel.. Gotta protect you.." He would have said more, but Bomani knew his time was running out and that wasn't good. Plus, he knew the people that talked too much and died. For Lucifer, he had to live.

Reaching a shaking, bloody hand into his pocket, he pulled out a cell phone and tried to push it open to dial '911'. Though, something was wrong. "I can't make out the numbers, Luci.." He sucked in breath, swaying even with the help of the German.

"No.." He whispered back. "Nononono..." He would've held on tighter, but he was afraid he'd squeeze too hard and end up killing him. He stayed completely still, frim in position, so Bomani absolutely would not fall. "You're not gonna die... you can't die."

911. Of course! How could he be so stupid as to forget that?

"Nuh uh, Bo. I'll call." His voice was very shaky.. hegrabbed the phone, with one arm around Bomani, dialed, and put the phone to his ear.

"Hold on Bo... don't die.."

"I won't die." He turned his head a little to kiss Lucifer's cheek, and that's all he could really do. His head fell down against his neck and he fought to keep from his knees buckling, but ever so slowly, he was sliding down Lucifer.

"Your head won't explode.. Will it?" What a time for Bomani to be worrying about Lucifer's head. But still, it must apparently be important that it doesn't. "Not to go.." What a time to forget words, "movie crying on you," Eh, dramatic, "but you know you're the most important to me. Just in case.."

Bomani felt that he should at least get this out if he didn't make it, but he would hold onto life for as long as he was allowed to.

"Shhh.." he whispered, clutching onto Bomani, as if to keep him in the world of the living for longer. His hand that held onto the cellphone was shaking rather violently, but his other hand remained still for the most part, because it had something to hold on to. Something important.

On the other end of the phone, someone answered. Lucifer quickly explained the situation, as well as their location. Then, before she could even mention to him not to hang up, he hung up.

"Shh, Bo. I'm fine.." He amde a feeble attempt to keep him from slipping anymore.

He couldn't manage a smile, like he wanted. "C'...c'mon.. don't talk like that. I won't let you die... okay?"

Bomani smiled a little, "Glad to hear you won't let me go.." He reached up his own shaky, unusually pale, clammy hand and laid it over top of Lucifer's. "You'll take care of yourself, mmn?" Even if he was at the hospital, he wouldn't want Lucifer in the mean time to neglect himself.

"Lucifer, I'm getting sleepy.." But he knew he musn't give in.

"Mhmm." Yes, he agreed to take care of himself, but simply for Bomani's sake. "Don't worry about me.." he whispered, taking Bomani's hand in his. He didn't like that dead, cold, feeling in Bomani's hands. It worried him.

He hated to keep saying this, but... "just hold on a little longer, 'kay? They're coming..."At which point he was hurt and angrily wondering where the hell that damn ambulance was.

He gripped onto Lucifer's hand, smiling, "Good, good.." Even his hand was getting heavy to hold up and it started to slip down, but true to the Egyptian, he held on. "Mn, Luc, 'M not too heavy, am I?" He tried tilting his head up, blinking maybe a little more than necessary to keep his gaze focused.

Lucifer held onto Bomani's hand perhaps a bit tighter than he would've liked. He couldn't help it. "No, it's fine..." This man, had afterall, carried a 250 pound man, on his back, up seven flights of stairs. It was amazing Lucifer, though. that Bomani was thinking about how heavy he was qhwn he was going to die.

There was a noise from far off... the sound of sirens wailing. Lucifer wish they'd hurry up before he died.

"Good, I don't wanna be heavy for you.." He mumbled off something that was indescribable, but he probably was telling Lucifer did he did love him. Probably a lot of people said that right before they thought they might go. Well, Bomani wanted no regrets, just in case.

"Hey, Luc, what's that sound..?" He tried to look over his shoulder, but now his knees completely gave out and he was unable to stand on his own anymore.

Lucifer shifted slightly from the change in weight, but did not fall. In fact, he now made a greater effort to hold Bomani up. It was working, somewhat. "'s an ambulance... they're gonna help you."

Just as he said that, the sound got louder... and the ambulance approached.

"Oh..? You won't leave, will you?" He wrapped his arms around Lucifer in his strongest hold which was rather loose, but he wanted to make sure that the German wouldn't slip away. "Don't go away.. I thought you were going to disappear so many times lately.." Ooh, the truth comes out that Bomani worries for him.

"Shh... It's okay, Bo... I won't leave you, I promise." It made him sickeningly sad that Bomani worried. And he felt so very guilty. He'd taken the man for granted completely and totally. He never wanted him to die!

Two paramedics came out of the vehicle, presumably with a stretcher for Bomani.

I'll tell you one thing. Even though Lucifer didn't want to leave Bomani, he still didn't like hospitals any more and would not enjoy a high-stress ride in an ambulance.

Bomani knew that rationally, he'd have to let go, but his hazy mind didn't want to let go of the German. "Good, 'cause you can't leave me.." Because Bomani now simply wouldn't let him.

Well, til the paramedics forced him onto a stretcher and even then, he searched the blurry faces for the familar pair of green eyes. "Luc, I'm sorry.." And that's when he finally went under, long eyelashes hitting down.