"Is this a goodbye Michael?"
It was an innocent enough question, but enough to change everything. Michael tried to maintain his poker-face as he looked at me. Below, on earth, we could hear the sounds of thunder. We could hear Lucifer.
The Viceroy stood before me. The supreme commander. The Head of the Heavenly Hosts. But in that moment, he was just Michael to me. My childhood friend. The one I had grown up with. The one whom I knew inside out. The one who always shared everything with me.
He slowly turned into the brave Prince of Heaven. The one everyone looked up to and respected. But to me he never changed. He was still the boy too scared to fly for the first time. The one unwilling to fight because he was afraid of hurting someone. The person who came and cried on my shoulder when Father asked him to banish Lucifer.
For me, he never changed. And though the world fell for the charade, here he was again, standing before me, with the same terror in his eyes as I had seen the night before Lucifer's fall.
The two of us just stood there, words not enough to capture the gravity of the situation. There was no coming back from this for either one of the two, and I knew Michael was at a disadvantage.
He raised his hand and stroked my cheek affectionately. He snaked his other hand around my waist, before pressing me flush against his body. His blue eyes met mine, before he slowly leaned in, stopping with his lips barely a centimeter away from mine. His breathing was heavy as he whispered, "I am so sorry for this."
The tears slid down my face as well as his when he pressed our lips together. He brushed a strand of my jet black hair from my face as he deepened the kiss. His tongue slightly ghosted over the roof of my mouth as I gasped. The kiss became more passionate without either one of us fighting for domination.
It wasn't a kiss out of love.
It wasn't a kiss out of lust.
It was a need. A need to say so much without saying anything at all. And this was the best way Michael could think off.
He broke off the kiss and took a step back, eyes both knew it was time for him to leave. It was time for Armageddon. And it was possibly the last time you we would ever see each other.
The tears rolled down my face, as I looked him in the eye and asked with a firm voice,"Is this a goodbye Michael?"
The eldest Archangel spread his wings, turned his back on me and walked away.
There was no reply to this question.
He had no reply to this question, because he knew one thing. The world may fall for his mask of bravery but I won't.
He couldn't lie to me.