Stop crying. That was easy for him to say. Azrael wasn't crying on purpose. It was totally involuntary and more than a little embarrassing. Maybe it was eons of depression and regret finally able to manifest itself. Or maybe it was a reaction to feeling the heavenly presence that simply flooded off of Metatron. Or perhaps it was no more complicated than Azrael's inability to control all these new feelings and such. Regardless, it was at least a half-hour after Metatron had finally left before the water works stopped.

Nana served him his first meal as a mortal. Soup and sandwich on a tv tray in bed. He'd become an old pro at chewing food, but eating while a demon was mostly an empty gesture. Tasting was one thing, but actually having to force this stuff inside was totally different. It was difficult at first. It was disgusting also. Somehow or another he managed to clean his plate and bowl, and by the time he'd finished he was almost enjoying himself. Not that it was any less disgusting, but it was a new experience. It made him warm inside, and inner warmth wasn't a feeling he was accustomed to.

Of course, what goes in must come out; which gave him a crash course in the more undesirable aspects of being human. He wondered how they could do this all the time. And, why had God not made a more efficient version of man? Humans are far too fragile and wasteful. If they were a product, no one would buy.

After he'd gotten over the trauma of taking his very first shit, Azrael sat on the edge of the bed and tried to search out with his mind. Metatron had said that he wouldn't be able to do that, but he thought he might as well try. He closed his eyes and called out to anyone he could think of who might answer back. Nothing aside from a headache came about. He sighed and was surprised at how air felt as it passed through his lungs. He had actual lungs now. Not just the completely transparent breathing that his kind did for some reason, which technically wasn't even breathing at all. He'd have to remember not to forget to breathe.

He looked around the room and found a pair of pants draped over the back of the chair that Nana had been sitting on earlier. They were jeans, which he soon discovered had a hole in one of the knees. He smiled at this. If he was going to be a human for a while, he might as well dress completely opposite than his usual neat appearance. He threw on the pair of Doc Martens that he found under the bed, grabbed his wallet, and was out the door in a matter of minutes.

He squinted out into the sun. It was bright outside, but it didn't really hurt his eyes so much. Maybe he could get used to this mortal business. He looked back at Nana's house, taking it in so he wouldn't forget which one to come back to. It was white with little flowers running along outside. Across the street was a two story brick building that simply radiated evil. He had never seen it before, but somehow Azrael knew that the ones who owned that house no doubt had ties to the underworld. That they were the type of people who wouldn't think twice about stealing from someone who's down on their luck. He stared at the house for a moment before realizing that a girl with light brown hair and skin was sitting on the steps staring back at him.

She called back inside the house, "Hey Joe, there's some perv across the street staring at me."

Azrael ducked his head and walked away quickly, hoping that he wouldn't have to deal with this Joe character. Joe… that reminded him that his name was Joseph. You'd think there would be enough names in the world without so many people having the same ones.

He walked to the end of the street, which was only a few houses down from Nana's. He glanced up at the street sign… Louis Street. At least he knew where he was now. He looked back over and saw that he wasn't standing beside another house, but it was a liquor store. Odd place for a store of any type, much less a liquor store. But, he wasn't one to argue. Well, actually he was, but he had more important matters to attend to. He hadn't been drunk since the night Loki lit a few fires around Sodom and Gomorra.

He went in and emerged five minutes later holding as much beer as he could carry and a giant Slim Jim that he carried in his mouth. He walked back to Nana's. Just before he went inside, he noticed that there was a steady chorus of "la la la la la la la la… I just can't get you outta my head…" absolutely blasting from the upstairs of the house across the street. He wondered how anybody could stand to live there.

Once he was back inside his bedroom, he dumped the beer onto the bed and took his boots off. He picked up one of the bottles and looked at it for a moment. Sam Adams was a far cry from the stuff he and his former angel friends used to drink. He hit the corner of the bottle cap against the edge of one of the tables, knocking the cap off and putting a little dent in the table. He went through two beers before opening the Slim Jim and happily ate it. On the third beer, he started to rifle through the drawers of the tables and dresser. Most of them contained clothes. In the sock drawer he managed to find a single playing card, an open pack of Nails cigarettes, three toothpicks, a marble, and a cassette. According to the cassette's label, it was a homemade compilation of such groups as Home Alaskan and Lou Ford. He popped it into the player in the radio, thinking what better to get drunk to than the music of obscure alterna-folk bands. Midway through Storz's Bar and the sixth beer, he fell asleep sprawled across the bed. His head hung over the edge, along with the arm that had the bottle. What remained in the bottle ended up on the floor.