Author's Note: I started writing this a long time ago, but I didn't have the drive to finish it until the last book of the manga finally came out in English. I'm not sure if Alexiel really makes any sense in hindsight, but this is really about Kira anyway. And he doesn't know the truth about himself yet. It's really little more than a random hormonal moment. A what if without much substance. And I'm not even sure if there was actually time within the story for a scene like this to happen. Oh well.

This story takes place in the Book of Hades while Setsuna is in Alexiel's body, right after the creepy scene in which Kira tells him about his history with Alexiel.

Devil's Advocate

Kira woke to the feeling of being watched. His hand was on his sword before he even registered telling it to move, and the blade of his sword was pressed against the neck of the voyeur before his eyes made out the shadowy figure hovering next to his bed.

"Kira! It's just me," Alexiel's voice said, though Kira knew it was Setsuna speaking through her. Alexiel's voice had sounded different when she used it. Setsuna gave it a lighter inflection…less sensuality…less biting cynicism. Setsuna had his own share of cynicism, but his was on an entirely different scale.

Kira sheathed his sword and reached for the light. "What is it?" he asked, trying to hide some of the weariness in his voice.

The bed gave slightly as Setsuna sat down on the edge. Kira could see the slender curve of Alexiel's back in the dim light and he clenched the sheets to keep himself from reaching out and touching those long, dark curls as they swayed against pale skin. "We need to talk."

"About what?" Kira feigned boredom, looking at the darkness on the other side of the room to keep himself from looking at things he had no right to touch.

"You know what. About what you said earlier."

"I was trying to throw off that Mad Hatter," Kira answered quickly. "It didn't mean anything."

Setsuna turned to look at him with Alexiel's face, but the expression was all his own—half fear, half something else that Kira couldn't identify. "I thought you were going to try to rape me for a second there, Kira."

"Well, I didn't." Closing his eyes and hoping Setsuna would take the hint and leave him alone, he rolled onto his side with his back to Setsuna.

The bed did not shift, but Setsuna was so quiet that for a moment Kira tricked himself into thinking he might have left. "It's weird," Setsuna said quietly. "I'm not interested in guys or anything, but when you did that…this body reacted. It…wanted you."

Kira's eyes were open again. "Why did you come here in the middle of the night to tell me this, Setsuna?

The bed shifted slightly and Kira knew Setsuna had turned toward him, but he made no move to face him. "You obviously had some feelings for Alexiel. I just thought—"

"I told you. I hated her."

Setsuna threw his original explanation back at him. "You said that your words didn't mean anything. That you only said them to deceive the Mad Hatter."

Sighing, Kira buried his face further into the pillow. Setsuna was being annoyingly persistent. "What difference does it make to you? Why do you care either way?"

"I don't know."

"You should get some sleep, Setsuna. There will be new enemies to fight tomorrow."

"Why won't you talk about this?"

Kira sat up too quickly, the action making his head spin, his heart hammering in his chest. "Why do you want to talk about it?"

Setsuna's eyes were wide in surprise at the ferocity of Kira's reaction. "I couldn't sleep."

"And keeping me from sleeping is going to help that?"

Setsuna shifted uncomfortably, a blush washing across his cheeks—the sight unnerving against Alexiel's immaculate skin. Kira was quite certain he had never seen embarrassment manifest itself on her body in any form before; she had always been utterly self-assured. Finally, Setsuna murmured, "This body wants you, Kira."

Repressing a shiver, Kira abruptly turned away and climbed off the bed on the opposite side of where Setsuna was sitting. "I don't believe that. Alexiel had no interest in me beyond her uses for me."

"That can't be true." Setsuna slammed a fist into the covers where Kira had been moments before. Looking at him was dangerous, but Kira had already looked before he thought better of the impulse. Alexiel's hair spilled forward over her narrow shoulders, and the way Setsuna had her body positioned was such an unconsciously sexual pose that Kira could imagine Alexiel was really sitting there on the bed instead of Setsuna. His eyes drifted down over the curve of her breasts and the edge of the tattoo obscured by the large shirt Setsuna was wearing.

Turning away to keep himself from doing something unforgivably stupid, Kira said coldly, "You should leave." He had no desire to repeat his act of desperation from Alexiel's last lifetime.

"She doesn't want me to leave," Setsuna said quietly.

"She isn't here, Setsuna," Kira sighed. "It's just you and me."

"You are so stubborn, Nanatsusaya."

Kira spun around at the change in tone, recognizing the smooth, sensual alto that used to mock him endlessly with such satisfaction. Alexiel's eyes were missing Setsuna's fire, burning dimly instead with that dark intensity he remembered all too well. "What did you do to him?" Kira demanded.

"He's sleeping." She shifted slowly, her back swaying into a more feminine posture as she crawled across the bed to him. Her lips curved into a smile as she knelt on the edge of the bed before him, thin fingers snagging the tail of his black shirt and sliding over the fabric delicately.

He swallowed, looking down at her hand and considering swatting it away. "Go back to his room. I have nothing to say to you."

She clutched his shirt when he began to move away, rising up on her knees and leaning toward him. Her eyes sparkled darkly in the muted light. "You wanted to touch my hair," she purred. "I might have let you touch it if you'd asked."

Scowling down at her, he pulled out of her grasp and turned away. She snatched at the waistband of his pants and pulled him back before he could take a step. He had forgotten her uncanny strength. "Tell me the truth, Nanatsusaya," she whispered against his back. "There's no point in denying it now."

Anger beginning to cloud his mind, Kira gripped her wrist and pulled it away, spinning around to face her again. "What's the point in admitting anything?" he hissed. "You can't take possession of that body again unless Setsuna dies, and I don't intend to let that happen."

"Are you saying it's only my body you're interested in?" She smirked in that sensual way that never failed to make his body temperature rise a few degrees. "This sinful body created by a sadistic God?"

"Go back to his room," Kira said again firmly. "Let Setsuna sleep."

"I don't follow your orders, Nanatsusaya."

"And I don't follow yours either. Not anymore."

A smile spread across her lips as she sat back on her heels. "You won't get this chance again. You know that you won't."

His eyes narrowing, he growled, "It doesn't matter."

That soft, melodic laugh that he remembered so well bubbled out of her throat. She grabbed his hand and pressed it against her chest. "Stop lying to yourself."

Trying to ignore the smooth heat of her skin, he glared at her. "You don't want me. Stop pretending that you feel otherwise."

She lifted his hand and kissed the tips of his fingers, tracing a tongue over his palm. "What difference does it make?" she asked, her voice dropping into a low, seductive tone. "You want me."

Kira's eyes narrowed. "And you enjoy being wanted? That's not like you at all."

Smiling coyly as she pulled him toward her, she said, "I never did get to taste your blade, Nanatsusaya. Maybe I've come to regret that."

He shook his head, though he was still allowing her to close the distance between them. "The metaphor's a bit thick, don't you think?" he asked, though he was frustrated to find his voice was raw with suppressed longing.

"Thick?" she said, grinning as she leaned back on the bed, pulling him down on top of her. "Mmm…interesting word choice." Following the movement to its conclusion, Kira found himself balanced above her on the bed. He had managed to make as little physical contact as possible, but her body was still close enough for him to feel its warmth. Need clouded his thoughts as he looked down at her, and he ached to close that miniscule distance.

Her fingers danced lightly over his face, her expression softening as she looked at him. "It would be so tempting to get used to you like this," she whispered and he tensed immediately, sensing the secret she had held over him for so long being dangled before him once again. "To pretend that you are something other than what you really are." Arching up against him and brushing her lips against his lightly, she added with another smirk, "To pretend you aren't destined to betray me."

Kira couldn't hold himself back any longer, and he found himself eagerly attacking those smirking lips simply to destroy their satisfied smile. Alexiel responded eagerly and he lost himself in the moment, pushing her down firmly against the bed. Her hands slipped beneath his shirt and wandered over his back, sharp fingernails grazing his flesh with delicate menace. Pushing the hem of her shirt up over her thighs and searching for more skin, he forgot momentarily why he had been holding himself back and how important it was to not let her win.

Coming up for air briefly, he froze when the body beneath him flinched.

"Kira," Alexiel's voice gasped, inflected with Setsuna's consciousness again. "What…?"

Pulling away swiftly and feeling the heat of the moment drain from his skin as quickly as if he had just been doused with ice water, Kira tried to catch his breath. Without looking at her body again, he managed to keep his voice even though it was still a bit brittle. "Go back to your room." She had tricked him again. Had she only been seeking confirmation of his feelings all along? Had that been the only reason she had made an appearance?

"Kira," Setsuna pleaded again, obviously confused.

Wondering momentarily whether Alexiel has actually intended to slip away or whether Setsuna had simply managed to take control again on his own, Kira hesitated. But when Setsuna tugged at his sleeve to get his attention, he found himself snapping, "Get out. Now."

He felt Setsuna jump in response through the vibration in the bed, but he still refused to look. He couldn't face that body right now. Those sensual lips. Those eyes that burned with secrets.

Setsuna fled the room with a whisper of fabric and the soft slap of bare feet against the floor, and Kira breathed a sigh of relief. He didn't know what Alexiel had been after in the first place, but the fragments of memory fluttering at the back of his mind made him feel as if he were merely forgetting something important--the one piece that would have completed the puzzle. Not that it mattered anyway. Whatever he had been, whatever secrets Alexiel had used to control him—none of it mattered. He had already chosen his path and it was too late to change his course now.