“You look tired.” Gabriel saw the piles of journals surrounding Maefyl and could not begin to imagine what he had exposed himself to thus far, but he was still diligently looking for answers. Gabriel hoped he was not doing so at the cost of his own sanity. “You need a break from all of this.”
“Give me a little longer.” Maefyl insisted, closing the book in his lap to accept Gabriel’s desire to lean in and kiss without breaking any promises to Lucifer that he was the only one to see the books. He was glad of the moment of warmth from Gabriel, but it was bittersweet with the anguish his poor angel felt after his visit with Samael. Maefyl sighed and stroked Gabriel’s face before he stood. He shouldn’t leave him alone, but the longer this took the longer it would hurt them. “I just need more time. There has to be something here.”
“There is not.” Lucifer stepped over a pile of his journals and sat in a nearby chair. “Well; there is plenty. Just nothing that is going to satisfy the questions you have. I hadn’t started writing yet.”
“Convenient.” Maefyl glared at him.
“If you want your answers.” Lucifer oozed with a confidence that mocked Maefyl’s efforts. “You are going to have to grow up and have a conversation with me.”
“Maefyl, just come home.” Gabriel had witnessed too much unneeded cruelty for one day. He was uneager to stand between these two as they waged another war on each other.
“He can clean up this mess first.” Lucifer grinned at him cruelly. “I shouldn’t have to pick up after you anymore.”
“You clean it up.” Maefyl threw the journal he had been reading hard at Lucifer and glared at him as Lucifer caught it easily between two fingers and smiled back unstirred. “Consider it step one in proving how much you give a shit.”
“What is step two?” Lucifer asked as he watched Maefyl through the books that quickly moved across the room and found their proper places on the shelves around them. “Should I write this down?”
“Go fuck yourself.” Maefyl grabbed his cigarettes from the small table beside him and prepared to leave.
“I’m not quite the deviant you are.” Lucifer taunted him. “You’ll have to send me the instructions for that one.”
“Enough.” Gabriel grabbed Maefyl’s arm and pulled him closer. “Both of you.”
“Since you are going.” Lucifer pushed for one last twist of the knife to see how far he could take it. “You should pay your respects. What’s left of your ex-wife is in the hall.”
“You sick fu…” Maefyl moved to lunge at him, but before he could attack he nearly vomited from the pain that hit him as Gabriel removed him from the situation. He landed on his own bed seconds later still reeling from the pulse of pain from Gabriel’s use of the collar that bound them so completely together. Worse than the physical pain was the look of disgust on Gabriel’s face before he headed of toward the bathroom.
“Stay out here girls” Maefyl insisted sadly as he followed after Gabriel. Stopping in the doorway to watch the angel quietly running a bath. “I should have just left when you asked. I’m sorry.”
“You let him bait you.” Gabriel pulled the ribbon from his hair and tossed in onto his suit jacket on the floor. “Again.”
“I said I was sorry.” Maefyl could still feel the pain seeping through him as Gabriel attempted to regain control of his temper. “You could be a bit less effective at letting me know you’re pissed off.”
“I should let you suffer longer.” Gabriel snapped at him. He was hurting himself just as badly, an unfortunate side effect of how deeply they were bonded but it wasn’t physical pain he was fighting with. He was wounded far more by Maefyl’s sudden renewed concern over Shiroi. “You are fortunate I’m not a cruel man.”
“Just a stubborn one.” Maefyl rushed over to Gabriel and pushed him over the edge of the bathtub into the water hoping to shock some sense into him. “And you can stop being an asshole now. My urge to choke the smug out of Lucy has absolutely nothing to do with Shiroi. Not in any way that should matter to you.”
When Gabriel hit the water Maefyl felt most of the frustrated tension melt away from him. He was still far from over the day’s events, but he was at least clear enough to focus. Maefyl knelt beside the tub and turned off the water before he pushed the hair away from Gabriel’s face.
“Samael tore her to pieces, Maefyl.” Gabriel wished he could spare the details, but they were so well etched in his memory and Maefyl’s gift would ensure he would see every grotesquery. “It was worse than I anticipated. If he had let me, I would have been kind.”
“Would you?” Maefyl smiled sadly at him. “I know you would have tried to be, but she always pissed you off.”
“I am not Lucy.” Gabriel looked at him crossly. “I would not torture someone for my own pleasure.”
“I know.” Maefyl shook his head. He had already seen the day through Gabriel’s eyes like he had witnessed it firsthand. They had both seen plenty of death and played their fair share in much of it, but Maefyl could feel the weight Gabriel felt for so long wanting Shiroi gone. That guilt and the extreme nature of her death was part of what had made Gabriel so quick to snap at him. He needed an outlet and he found it in the assumption he had lost a part of Maefyl. “I just wanted you to remind yourself of that. You aren’t responsible. You didn’t do this. So stop torturing yourself.”
“Forgive me.” Gabriel sat against the wall of the bath and slicked back his hair. “I hurt you without reason.”
“You don’t need to ask my forgiveness, you idiot.” Maefyl climbed over the edge of the bath and sat beside him. “With the amount of shit I put you through, I think you’re entitled to slap me around a little now and then.”
“I’ll have to add this ridiculous moment to things you put me through.” Gabriel put his arm around Maefyl and pulled him close laughing as he began to cry. Here leaned against each other after another horrid ordeal; the two of them fully clothed sitting in the bath, their hair a mess. Gabriel couldn’t be more grateful for moments like these. Even when he noticed the sneaky hands creep around the edge of the bath with a camera. “Don’t you dare, Sanguine.”
“Oh, damnit.” She giggled and ran off as fast as the flash.
“I’m exhausted.” Maefyl just latched his arm around Gabriel and fell asleep.
“Aren’t you going to take him to bed.” Gory asked from the counter.
“In a moment.” Gabriel closed his eyes feeling foolishly content with his ridiculous situation.
Tsuriai 