Chapter Text
Uriel huddled in a nook inside of an old coffee shop, fingers gripping a thick paper cup. Fingers tinted purple as they nearly trembled from the burning that ran through them. The hot liquid's promise of scalding his tongue did not stop him from taking hurried sips. Anything to get warm, anything to hurry up the process of icy burn running through him. Amber colored eyes peered out, darting nervously as he moved in his seat, trying to make himself appear all the more small. Not taking up any more space than needed, paranoid ofanyone noticing, anyone complaining to the owner. The man had been eyeing him since he first wandered into the shop, fleeing from the snow and wind that stole the air out of his lungs, brought the horrible burning sting, and settled into his bones that made Uriel wonder if he had ever felt warmth.
His first stop had been the restroom, darting before anything could be said and hurriedly trying to clean himself up with hot water. Washing away any grime on his face or hands, any reason for them to try to refuse him service. A crumpled five dollar bill hidden away inside of his pant pocket, protected by a large coat and thick man's thermal kept any pickpockets or the possibility of the wind stealing it away to a minimum. Now as his tongue and lips were scalded, he reminisced that the hot chocolate was well worth the starving nights and the temptation that had gnawed at the young male countless moments. Tonight was a horrible storm. One he barely managed to escape, but had. The setting was perfect, the twenty-four hour coffee shop was not too popular especially in a harsh storm as this. But the two customers, a couple who also were seeking shelter from the storm, kept the fidgeting owner from closing too early.
For these few moments, Uriel allowed himself to sigh in relief. Allowing himself to drift along with the wordless music as the cold slowly left his bones. Gripping the hot chocolate to keep himself from nodding off, the boy savored the feeling of being in a heated room. The old brown chair he sat in could have been a king sized bed to him compared the hard street outside. Amber eyes flickered out of the window now and then, feeling an unsettling pit in the bottom of his stomach just looking out to the darkness. Smells of hot sandwiches and pastries called to his stomach and the spare change in his pocket, but he had to save it. A few nickels could be the difference between life and death during Winter. He had seen it too many times, store owners jumping to the chance to kick people out. People like him while they fumbled with the money. Everyone thought it was the food they were after, sometimes they were. But hunger was something many could deal with, one could only get so cold until they were no more. One bad night had left Uriel finding too many familiar faces frozen and far from the world.