Author's Note:
Hi! I am LifeLivedVicariously and this is my first fanfic so constuctive criticism is greatly appreciated. (Please don't be too cruel okay?) Well, obviously I don't own the Bible (since then there'd be slashfics in it if I had my way). This is slash which means "male on male" so if you don't like, don't read. Later chapters might get a bit AU (if I actually write them) so...Enjoy!
"Is this the best you can do little angel?" Chains clanked and scratched against one another in a futile attempt to break. Scornful purple eyes glared yet a smile was plastered on the owner's handsome face. That smile was more violent than amiable. The pale skin of the creature's visage was distorted with madness, only highlighting the amethyst slits on the sides of his face. They were the markings all demons had, regardless of which order they were from. "Satisfied with yourself? Going to throw a party and hang my corpse as the prize?" Short black hair spiked rebelliously from the demon's head. They flowed together to form one body of black that defied gravity. Traces of purple highlighting also shimmered in the light. "I'm sure you and Michael will have a wonderful time parading me throughout Heaven." His long limbs were awkwardly tied behind him and jerked oddly in a vain attempt to be free. "God sure will be pleased won't he Raphael."
"Have you anything intelligent to say demon?" The angel patiently waited for the demon to stop ranting. His long blonde hair was drawn into a loose ponytail at the back of his neck and draped lazily over his shoulders. A cross with an arrow tip on each end centered itself on his forehead. His cream skin was tanned from the sun. Presently his blue eyes were more closed than normal. He was tired. Chasing, trapping, and binding a demon would be enough to drain any angel; even a seraph wouldn't be in that great of a shape afterwards. Now add in a desert and you have what Raphael was doing, well, did.
"Why, my talking is too 'brainless' for you angel?" Raphael shrugged. He did not want this assignment in the first place but since Michael and Gabriel were higher in the "nonexistent" divine hierarchy, he was given it with refusal not an option. Trying to complain about a mission was senseless because then you were frowned upon as a winy little spoiled brat and that was not the reputation this seraph wanted. Sarah was the only person he felt somewhat sympathetic towards in this whole mess. Imagine having seven of your husbands killed continuously after each wedding. At least Tobias was a kind human. This whole incident is going to have repercussions in all three worlds, he thought and groaned inwardly. Being diplomatic was not going to be fun.
"Hey, Raph. Why so glum? Did you just realize you're an idiotic git who has no right keeping me from Sarah?" Why wouldn't he stay quiet? Angels know when to not speak. Surely, demons were taught something like that in Hell too, Raph thought.
"In case you haven't realized, Sarah was the one who summoned me to hunt you Asmodeus."
Silence seemed to cling like palpability and lasted for what felt like years. No movement, no noise, no insults. Asmodeus really was awed. His eyes slightly widened from shock. Raphael preyed that this would shut him up.
"Liar." Asmodeus, if possible, seemed to triple in rage. He didn't even have his friendly façade anymore. He was simply furious. His intense lavender eyes began to glow menacingly and he was no longer smiling. Blackness started to swirl dangerously at the edges of his chains as he sat up, emanating with rage. He was using magic to corrode the metal.
"Stop. You know I won't let you rust them away." Raphael said non-chalantly as he stood up and burned off the shadow with white light that radiated from his hands.
Asmodeus glowered and looked at the floor. It wasn't really a floor. It was just a massive accumulation of dust, he noted, made of gold sand like shards of the sun. This filth was arrange haphazardly on the land and therefore formed this portion of Earth. Analyzing was something Asmodeus did when he felt a surge of any emotion because it quickly and effortlessly removed any feeling he had or could've had.
Something brighter than the sun loomed into his vision. They were slivers of daylight so pure that all it laid upon looked dirty in the process. It was Raphael's hair. When did he move, Asmodeus asked himself. Is he gazing at me? Wait, for a second, he actually seemed concerned. Raphael knelt down, razing a small ball of dust that made him seem all the more heavenly. He looked Asmodeus square in the eye.
He's kneeling on this disgusting ground just so he could observe me, the demon thought. Observe? Doubt crawled into his mind but then he pushed it away. Yes. Because I'm nothing but a specimen, he recalled, I'm just an inanimate object. Then he felt that familiar burn on his chest again. This was why he hated all of these emotions. This was why loneliness was the one thing he cherished and despised. Of course, came the defeatist acceptance of Asmodeus. Loneliness meant isolation and isolation meant no one to interact with. Loneliness would've kept me from finding Sarah and believing that I had found someone to care about because I love loneliness, he told himself.
But then again, pointed out by the cunning part of his character he survived on, loneliness was also the reason I had searched for her as well. "Heh." Then bubbles of insane laughter started to pop from his mouth. Oh well, I'm just a stupid hypocrite aren't I? I'm only a puppet. He laughed even louder as he tried desperately to drown out his own, useless revelation. He felt tears well behind his eyes but they smoldered away before they could drip out. Is that what I was to Sarah too?
"Why are you sad?"
Asmodeus continued staring at the ground as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "Demons cannot feel pain, correct?" asked Raphael. The seraph was genuinely interested but pity laced his voice and the demon caught the emotion's scent. Anyway, it's not as if he gave the angel a damn. Raph continued speaking regardless. "At least, that's what they say in Heaven."
Silence.
"Are you not pitiless like all the others?"
No response.
"Is it pain you feel or are you just moody? Are you sad or is this fake so I would release you out of sympathy?"
No response.
"I'll take that it's the later then."
No response.
Raphael sighed. Just when I thought that maybe he'd talk with me about something worthwhile. He ran his hands through his blonde hair. Even a snide remark like that couldn't get him to do anything. How pointless of me to try and comfort him. Soundlessly the angel rose and brushed off his white robes. He walked to the entrance of the cave and looked across the golden desert. Michael still wasn't here yet. Well, at least it was quiet.
A couple of hours later the demon reverted to his old self. "Going to let me rot in this crevice of your stupid God's creation?" Yes, Asmodeus was back to his usual obnoxiousness, and at full throttle too.
Perhaps his temporary lack of rudeness was something I imagined Raphael thought, sighing again for the umpteenth time and running his fingers through his golden hair again. The angel was sitting rather lazily in a chair he had materialized from the cave's wall and was counting how many stalactites were hanging from the ceiling with his eyes. This is more mind numbing than endless combat drilling with Michael, the most prudent (and egotistical) soldier in all of Heaven (and Earth too even though we're not suppose to interact with humans) Raph said to himself. He sighed another time. Why did I take this mission again?
Asmodeus, unlike Raphael, was grinning happily. Oh, how he loved digging into people's skin and leaving maggots of frustration there. And to make it sweeter, it was an angel's perfect little "infinite patience" skin. Any previous depressing sentiments were locked in the dark recesses of the demon's mind so he wouldn't feel them until later. After all, he didn't need them ruining his fun. Pain could wait for the privacy of his own room when he returned to Hell.
"Hey angel, I said are you going to let me rot in this crevice of your stupid God's creation."
Raphael turned around with an expressionless face from his current activity of counting. There was no way he was going to give a demon the satisfaction of seeing him vexed. So, he calmed his features even more before he started the arduous and possibly impossible task set before him: conversing with Asmodeus. There's no better time than now, he thought to himself bitterly.
"Regrettably no, although leaving you here yourself seems like a far better alternative, I alas, have no authority to do so. I am waiting, instead, for Michael who will take you into Heaven's prisons. My mission was only to apprehend and keep watch over you until he arrives." But killing you might not be so bad sneaked into Raph's (now slightly annoyed) mind. I wonder how much trouble I would get in if I actually did that? Then he smiled to himself and chuckled softly. No, I don't really like to hurt anything, but I won't tell him that. Suddenly he remembered how he foolishly failed at fighting for the Divine Legions. Lending a hand and healing your opponent's wounds was apparently not the thing to do on the battlefield. Spending "precious" sparring time to categorize herbs and their functions on different types of injuries was also not a thing a "real" soldier was meant to do. But then again, he thought, that is what made me realize that I was destined to be a healer.
"Have you gone mad angel because you're laughing for no reason." Raphael was snapped unhappily from his reverie.
"Well, I didn't say you were behaving bizarrely when you started to cackle out of the blue and then became somber Asmodeus. Besides, I was reliving some of my cheerful memories."
"Hey, I was having a life-changing revelation then." He growled out.
"And what did you conclude from you "life-changing revelation"?"
The demon was mute. That my life is nothing for I'm lower than even the most deprived of beings because I'm just a fucking object. No one cares about me and I was tricked by the only person I had ever conceivably "loved". That I'm just a puppet that Sarah had the strings of.
"Nothing worth noting."
"What a waste of time then." The angel said, resting his head on the arm of the stone chair while his long hair that wasn't confined by his ponytail spread languidly about him. He slowly closed his eyes but said clearly and truthfully. "But I think that you are lying." And with that, he fell asleep.
"Well, perhaps I was."
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