"I worry that there might be something we're forgetting."

Mikhail shot upwards in his bed and stared down at the man who had just whispered into his ear from a position lying just behind him. "Georik. What are you doing here?"

Georik smiled lazily up at him, apparently in no hurry to stir. "Have you forgotten what day it is, Mikhail?"

"Monday," Mikhail says, "which means that you're attempting to tarnish my virtue a full week before my next visit to the church." He glared down at Georik, although it was admittedly difficult to remember exactly why the was a bad thing when the man was sprawled out on his bed, bare to where his body disappeared beneath the blanket, his hair flowing everywhere around him.

"I suspect that the angel who helped redeem Lucifer himself has little need to worry about being corrupted," Georik said dryly, and grabbed Mikhail's wrist to pull him slowly back down onto the bed. "Don't tell me that you've honestly forgotten."

"Of course I haven't," Mikhail said testily as he allowed himself to be tempted into Georik's arms, although it wasn't the honest truth. Now he remembered, as his mind woke up and dusted off the memory of the only other time he'd woken up like this, on that exact same day and an entire lifetime away. In truth he'd done his best to forget, holding onto the important events of that time while letting the exact details, the exact dates, fade away. "Today's the day I was meant to leave for the war. If it existed in this world."

"The last good hour we had before everything went worse than it already was," Georik said, slowly sliding a hand up the skin covering Mikhail's spine and letting it rest between his shoulder blades. "As I said, I worry there might be something we're forgetting. Something that will make it all go downhill from here once more."

"Don't such be a pessimist, Georik," Mikhail grumbled, sleep already trying to reclaim its grasp on him now that he'd gotten over the shock of suddenly realizing there was an apparently naked man in his bed beside him. "There's no need to fear the future so long as God is on our side."

"Don't be so hopelessly faithful, Mikhail, though I know it may be difficult for you. Don't they say that heaven help those who help themselves?"

"We did help ourselves, Georik. You've slain your demon, kept Bruno from entering the kingdom, kept Lilith and St. Germant safe, had the Hellfire Club rooted out. You've already been redeemed; even I think you're just going to extremes to atone now."

Georik sighed, and held his hands up to examine the neatly manicured nails, nothing like the demonic claws he'd once had. "I know," he said. "I know. Still, it's difficult to believe that the demonic blood within me won't burst forth in a few days time if any little thing has been missed."

Mikhail shook his head, and turned his face into Georik's shoulder. "Then you'll make your way through hell and rise through purgatory to reach me once more. I'll be waiting for you at the end, however long it takes, and we'll start again." He covered Georik's mouth with his hand before the man could say anything more, and closed his eyes. "Now be silent, Georik. If you must repent for something more, let it be for waking me at this ungodly hour and stay still."

There was a smile in Georik's voice when he replied. "Very well. Sleep well, Mikhail." One of his hands raised to toy with the end of one of Mikhail's curls. "Perhaps if you're still by my side at the end of the day, that will be all the proof I need that our fate has truly changed."

"Where else would I be?" Mikhail asked tiredly, before sleep finally reclaimed him.