Of course Orphée seemed to hate him as he always did, but Torin was an avid observer and he knew enough to know that he didn't know what Orphée thought at all.
When they'd met a week ago after their 'research trips', Torin had been dismayed to find that they had the same basic answers and it didn't bode well. There was no way that Heaven and Hell would ever work together, even for the common good. Well…if Jesus had his way, he thought they might, but of course if it was ever found out WHY the Son of God would work together with demons came out he thought Heaven might implode.
Yuuko didn't, however, seem all that surprised at the news, nor that worried. He frowned, wondering if he'd have to get back into the main stream of things in Heaven. Already he was getting the feeling he was being followed and the only ones that would be able to follow him as well as they were would be a celestial or demon and he'd know instinctively if it were a demon. Orphée also seemed exceptionally jumpy.
"Is there something wrong?"
Orphée glared at him, frowning in what Torin figured he was supposed to take as not being happy to be stuck with him again. And maybe, he granted, Orphée was a bit justified, as this WAS his home and didn't want an archangel there. "Well isn't that the million dollar question. Of course there's something wrong, idiot! They've found me and I'm not happy to say that that doesn't make me feel good."
"The other demons?"
Orphée suspiciously peered out of his window and nodded glumly. "They haven't approached me yet, but I know they're out there." The demon sighed and flopped back onto the sofa, stretching out, while Torin watched from his seat in a chair. "I gotta say, me and you got the short end of the stick this time, archangel."
"Why's that?" he asked curiously, and a bit cautiously. Orphée was talking to him more, which he found he liked, but he was also hesitant to say anything lest it break whatever reason it might be that caused such a thing to happen.
"Well, think about it. The Walking Pheromone has got himself a bodyguard and behind that is Yuuko. They don't care whether Heaven or Hell gets involved, because when it's all over, they won't have to worry about it anymore. When Heaven and Hell find us involved, do you really think they'll leave us alone when the crisis is all over? All my years of hiding out in plain sight GONE down the drain."
"I must admit, that's true," Torin agreed with a sigh.
"Say…what was your price?"
He looked into those intrigued burgundy eyes and felt his stomach do a minor flip. Orphée had flipped over to peer at him, as if not caring about how personal the question was. Then again, he already knew what Orphée's price was. Yuuko had told him and it didn't appear if Orphée cared if he knew. "It was…in two parts, I suppose you could say. The first was that I had to be available if she needed my help, no matter what I was doing, and the second was my armor." Was he actually having a decent conversation with Orphée?
"Seriously? I'm surprised you parted with it, as all you celestials seemed to love that crap like it's a security blanket." Well…perhaps not decent in the strict definition of the term, but insults were part of Orphée's being, so he didn't take it to heart. It was just how he talked.
"I admit that I was extremely fond of my armor, but that's why she asked for it. I suppose I'm lucky she didn't ask for anything more than those two things."
"You're just a bit dense," was the reply, but there seemed to be a mix of amused pity for Torin in his gaze, as if it were a fond despair of his intelligence. "That's all she SAYS she's taking, but it's always more, you know. You have to deal in specifics. If she said to you, 'go and have sex with Orphée' you wouldn't be able to say no because she made such broad terms. So long as she said it would 'help' her in some way to have sex with me, you'd have to do it."
Torin had gotten used to Orphée's blatant speaking, but the suggestion of doing such an intimate act with Orphée didn't bring the expected result. It caused, oddly enough, butterflies in his stomach. Celestials were pure creatures, but that didn't mean they didn't do such an act. The only difference was that for angels, they could only physically react to such stimuli for someone they CARED about. Would he, if they were put in that situation, react? It was beginning to terrify him that he no longer thought of 'putting up with' Orphée, but just…being around him.
"See?" Orphée continued, mistaking his shocked silence as disgust. "You should have been more aware before accepting those terms. I don't think she'd do that, but at least you get the point." He had that smug grin that when they'd met, Torin had hated but now…didn't, and patted his shoulder. "Fine, fine. I take pity on you. Next time she has some terms for you, bring me along and I'll negotiate. 'Course, it'll cost you. Then again, paying ME is significantly less painful than paying her. All you'd have to do is pay me a fee for negotiation itself."
"What exactly would that entail?" he muttered, trying not to think about all the things that he could ask for.
"Well, for starters, since I just KNOW she's going to ask you something, when she does, your payment will be my excuse to my editor."
"…Excuse for your…editor?"
Orphée stood and went to his kitchen, coming back out with a beer and taking a long guzzle from it before answering. He didn't offer one to Torin because they both knew he would refuse. "Yeah. You wouldn't believe it, but my job is writing books. I got roped into it and my editor is as close to a devil as can be while still being purely human. I swear, I think she should have a whip."
That piqued his curiosity. "What sort of books?"
The demon frowned and as if he couldn't bear to say the words, he tossed a book from his bookshelf onto the table in front of Torin. Just looking at the cover caused him to flush in embarrassment and shock. "Romance novels?" When Orphée blanched and nudged it closer with a foot as if it would bite him, Torin got an even better look and frankly thought he'd die on the spot. "MALE romance novels?"
"Gah, I don't know!" he screeched, ranting as if he'd been waiting for this opportunity to do so for ages. "I hate romance novels. Even Lucifer thinks that it's pure torture and won't ever let it in Hell! He has a special area for any writers that do this stuff and go to Hell, a special hell! And it's not like I even like men! I mean, I can do it if necessary, done it once, but I prefer women! And so how I end up doing this is beyond me! And that damn editor of mine refuses to give me anything else to write because she says that my works are 'wonderfully dark, seductive, and hugely popular'!"
"And how…?" he managed around a constriction in his throat that he didn't understand.
"I always look for excuses not to write and I can say you're a…friend from out of town and that I have to look after you." Orphée looked a bit contemplative for a second. "Farfetched, but plausible. All you need to do is act like you don't hate me."
"I don't hate you."
Orphée laughed and kicked him lightly in the knee as he drank his beer. "And I thought angels couldn't lie!"
"We can't," he whispered, but Orphée didn't hear him. He wasn't sure he wanted to right then.
---
The first time Watanuki saw an angel that wasn't Torin was on his way home from school. All he could remember later was that the sheer light of his aura had blinded him and left him dazed. Unlike Torin who seemed to want to hide as much of his power as he could to remain under Heaven's sight, this one didn't seem to care. And he was absolutely, stunningly gorgeous.
When questioned about it by Torin, Orphée, and Yuuko, all he could say was that he'd been asked a lot of questions. None he could remember. Torin frowned and Watanuki heard him mutter something about a charm spell. He'd gotten used to thinking of archangels as being much like Torin, upstanding people that were compassionate and pure. Now he was beginning to get a little afraid of them to. Charm spells? It seemed so…insidious, unlike demons, which always gave the impression of just coming straight at you if they were going to hit you.
Doumeki stuck closer to him than usual and rarely left him alone, but that was okay. He was beginning to feel a little less guilty now. Yuuko had shown him the vial with Himawari's spirit in it, though she'd said it was against her better judgment, and it had…eased something inside of him. Just that soft, pure light reassured him that nothing bad seemed to be happening to her as she floated calmly in there.
The fact that there wasn't another attack seemed to be putting everyone on edge. Orphée seemed to be having his own problems and was even shorter tempered than before. Torin often looked either heavily worried or lost in contemplation. There was a strange atmosphere between the angel and demon and he thought that maybe it was their dislike escalating, but as if she didn't care about that, Yuuko kept forcing them together. At first he'd thought it was much like himself and Doumeki in the beginning, but then realized that it wasn't at all. Watanuki had only ever really found Doumeki annoying and Doumeki had never hated him. Orphée and Torin were something like 'racial enemies'. How could there be anything but hate between them?
Yuuko's only comment when he asked her about it was 'there is a fine line between love and hate'. Knowing her as well as he did, he figured she was in matchmaker mode again and despite the tension in the very air as of late, he worried about the two. When he had a chance, he sought out the archangel, as he was closer to Torin and figured that he'd at least listen. He still wasn't sure how to deal with Orphée yet and he was also quite hard to catch. He'd disappear for days on end and then suddenly pop back up as if he'd never been gone.
All he'd ever say about it was that he was 'working on the damn crisis'.
Torin spent most of his time in secluded, nature-like areas, generally where there were many trees. Maybe he liked the beauty of the leaves or the way that he could hear the wind ruffle through the branches. They'd spent the three months they'd known each other learning about each other and yet, he thought with fondness, Doumeki never liked it. Watanuki thought he was jealous and it made him happy to think so because it meant that he was loved.
"Torin-san?"
Torin looked up from his book when he approached and then quickly hid what he was reading. Watanuki didn't want to pry, when it was obvious that Torin didn't want anyone to know, so he pretended he hadn't seen the hurried motion. "What is it, Kimihiro?"
Watanuki sat down next to him on the dirt. "I just…thought I should warn you. About Yuuko-san. She's, uh…well…I think she's putting you together with Orphée-san a lot because…I think she's trying to do matchmaking. I have no proof, but I've worked for her long enough to recognize it, I think."
For a second, Torin's expression didn't change and then he smiled, but Watanuki swore he thought it looked a little strained with mixed emotions at its edges. "I don't think you need to worry about that, Kimihiro. She knows that that would be futile. There can't be any love between angel and demon, so there's no need to worry. Everything will be fine."
"Then why do you sound so sad?"
There was no answer to his question.
---
As you can probably guess now, yes Torin and Orphée are an item...sooner or later. :) I threw in a bit of TorinxWatanuki to throw people off, but I think a few of you got the scent real early :p
