Author: ZeroSlashOne
Pairing: Ophanimon/Seraphimon/Cherubimon
Word count: 597 words

Knowing what the common mon thought about their love affair displeased Seraphimon greatly. He was frankly not certain how people had come to believe these things, nor how the rumors had coalesced into active hearsay.

Some believed that he and Ophanimon were the ones in love, so passionately in fact that they both defined and redefined the concept of a love story, and that Cherubimon was only romantically attached to them due to a sense of pity or because it did not feel right to exclude him, or some other reason that was not that they loved him.

He wanted to release a chuckle. They were far older than a dozen millennia, and had together lived through things even he could not believe now that they were over; surely it was not unthinkable that they were emotionally mature enough to manage their own love lives without them being so emotionally taxing?

Seraphimon didn't think so, but apparently the gossip-mongers did not regard the matter in the same manner. Seraphimon sighed.

If anything was closer to the truth, he reflected to himself, it was the reverse that was closer to the truth.

Ophanimon was dear to his heart, and he did not doubt that she cared just as much for him (at the thought, he felt a pang of amusement, certain that she would playfully chide him to specify which kind of love as she had a habit of). Yet, she and Cherubimon could spend the nights together as well as the days, a privilege his lack of a physical body didn't give him.

Moreover, he found that he could not remember her having ever looked at him the same way she had him. He liked to think he was fine with that. What he and she shared was different from what there existed between Ophanimon and Cherubimon.

Some believed that, after everything that had happened and everything he had done, they hated him and only tolerated his presence because such was the way of things.

Seraphimon could understand how people might arrive at this conclusion, but that did not make them right in it. What they had, was a love and a friendship and an understanding that had been built and fortified over thousands of years - longer than anyone else in the world had lived.

Thirty years or so of imprisonment, he could forgive. ... though, he wouldn't have blamed Ophanimon for being peeved about it...

Turning to his left, the archangel spotted them down in the courtyard. His stance relaxed as he leaned forward.

They noticed after a brief moment that he was looking their way. Ophanimon gave her armored friend and lover a bright wide grin, and raised a hand in informal greeting. Cherubimon simply shot Seraphimon a curious look.

Today, Seraphimon thought, was another beautiful day. He sank deeper into his own thoughts, leaning further forward and looking squarely at them, shifting his stance to rest his head on his arms.

Contrary to what a certain few thought, he realized full well how fortunate he was. Blessed, even. Ages ago, he had fallen in love with them both, and it was thanks to a miracle of compassion and understanding on their parts that he had not been forced to choose.

For all the inter-personal dissonances that they occasionally experienced, regardless of what troubles the wider world and the other ones brought them, even if one day they would cease to reciprocate his feelings towards them - no matter what, there was no place he could think of that he would enjoy more than where they were.