Peter padded into the dimly-lit living room where his uncle Mathias was sitting on the couch nursing a beer. Peter couldn't sleep, not since Tino left. It was like he lost someone very important and it left a hole where he should've been. Peter climbed up onto the couch and curled into his uncle's side.

Mathias just wordlessly put an arm around his nephew.

Finally, Peter broke the silence by saying, "I've tried praying again… but I guess it isn't working."

Peter sounded so heartbroken, that Mathias didn't know what to say in response. Instead, he could only bring in the boy closer.

"Uncle Mathias?" Peter spoke up again after a few minutes.

Mathias looked at Peter. "Yes?"

"Is Papa sad?"

Mathias nodded in the darkness, and then he said, "Ja… I think he's very sad." He looked over to the door that led out to the garage where he knew his brother was working away to distract himself.

Berwald concentrated hard on his work, but he often found his mind wandering. He couldn't help but think of the angel who tumbled his way into their little lives… his lonely life. Tino… the angel who devoted so much time and work into their lives only for it all to backfire in the end. He tried so hard to find the perfect person for Berwald to spend the rest of his life with, but he was unsuccessful. In the end, there was no one for Berwald, and there was no one Berwald wanted that way.

But that was a lie.

There was one person, and Berwald realized it too late. The only person who could truly make him happy like that and ridiculously in love was Tino. And he didn't realize it until the end.

But what could he have done? Tino was an angel. Angels were beings who lived with God in heaven and could fly. Not to mention their extremely long lives. Were they immortal?

So, Berwald couldn't be with Tino. It was impossible, and even if it was possible, there was no way Berwald could tell Tino that. He couldn't do that to Tino – to have him make a choice between heaven, his home, and the imperfect Earth. It was unfair for him.

But he still couldn't help the guilt that rolled in waves in his stomach. He after all was the reason Tino failed another assignment. He knew Tino had trouble with them, and now he couldn't complete this one as well. All because Berwald had to fall for the one impossible person.

Berwald tried shaking away the angry tears that filled the corners of his eyes and the shame that filled his heart.

Berwald and Peter tried to go back to their regular routine that was their lives before Tino. It was hard, but they were coping. Peter was more quiet than usual, and it worried Berwald. He tried talking to Mathias about it but his brother just said, "Peter's just missing his new best friend. Give him some time, he'll come around." And then somehow, the conversation will turn around and focus on himself.

Berwald was fine. He didn't need anybody worrying about him. Besides, this was not a real problem. It was silly of him to fall for an angel of heaven. What was he even thinking anyway?

Berwald gave a quiet bitter laugh to himself. Everything still reminded him of Tino, even three days later. Heck, washing the dishes reminded him of Tino and how they did them together. He missed having his drying partner... and now his thoughts are back on the angel. God, for some reason he can't get him off of his mind!

He tried playing the music off of his phone loudly, to distract him as he was doing dishes. Yet, not even music and furious scrubbing could succeed. Is he really going to be cursed with thinking of Tino forever?

Speaking of which, if God assigns the angels their individual tasks, why had he assigned Tino to Berwald? Didn't he know that Tino wouldn't complete it? What was the point of even assigning Tino? Why not another, less-cute angel?

"-Napoleon did surrender. Oh yeah, and I have met my destiny in quite a similar way."

Berwald ears immediately picked up on the song that had begun playing.

"The history book on the shelf, is always repeating itself… Waterloo - I was defeated, you won th-"

Berwald quickly shot over and switched to the next song, almost knocking his phone onto the floor in his haste. He couldn't bear that song right now… he didn't know if he could ever bear to listen to it again. Thank you world for being ironic and enforcing the whole "everything reminds him of Tino" thing…

Berwald frowned and looked out to the backyard through the window above the sink. He slowed down his scrubbing as he quickly lost himself in his thoughts again. He noticed a brown patch of dead grass… wasn't that where he threw out Tino's "breakfast" all those weeks ago? At least the rain did indeed wash it away, but the dead area it left behind worried Berwald. Was the area contaminated or something? Should he call some sort of poison control to check it out?

For now he'll just rope off the area and tell Peter to stay away from it… he should tell Mathias too… Berwald shrugged. Oh well, he'll worry about it later.

Berwald looked down at his hands where he realized he had been scrubbing the same plate for four minutes. Well, that plate was definitely clean, and he set it on the drying rack. He grabbed the next bowl and went back to work.

He absentmindedly scrubbing, attempting to keep his mind blank and not think of anything. He didn't want to think. Thinking led to possibilities and what if's, which were the last things Berwald needed. It hurt too much to think.

"Look into his angeleyes, one look and you're hypnotized."

Beautiful, light purple eyes appeared in Berwald's mind. The color of clouds at sunrise. Or lilacs in bloom.

"He'll take your heart and you must pay the price."

Berwald snapped out of his thoughts and glared at his traitorous phone on the counter.

"Look into his angeleyes. You'll think you're in paradise."

Like he said, the world just loved to be funny.

"And one day you'll find out he wears a disguise. Don't look too deep into those angeleyes. Oh no n-"

This time Berwald shut off the music on his phone. ABBA had officially betrayed him. Berwald didn't know how to feel about that.

Tino wasn't his usual self. Any angel could see that. He tended to stare off into the distance and sigh. His pretty white-golden wings drooped sadly and he didn't even go about his new assignments with his usual enthusiasm.

Finally his two best friends couldn't stand it anymore, and together they agreed that they needed to talk to him.

"You go over there."

"What? Me!? Why me?" Emil hissed back at Lukas who gave an innocent shrug.

"Because you're good at being nice to people," Lukas said bluntly.

Emil rolled his eyes. "No I'm not. I'm good at making fun of people. Tino's not going to like that. You're better at helping people."

Lukas snorted. "Yeah, helping. Are you kidding? I'm everyone's worst enemy."

"Apparently not everyone," Emil muttered making a reference to a certain infatuated Dane.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Anyway," Lukas starting, ignoring the other's offhanded comment. "You really are much nicer to talk to. You should go."

"Hell no."

"C'mon, please?"

"No way."

Lukas gave the smaller angel a sad, kicked-puppy look and Emil stubbornly looked away.

"No. That's not going to work this time."

There was a pause, then, "Emil…?"

He couldn't look. He wouldn't look. Emil peeked over his shoulder at Lukas' stupid pouting face and his resolve broke.

"Oh my freaking goodness fine!" Emil cried throwing his hands up into the air. His wings ruffled up before he took to the air and quickly flew over to where Tino was slowly walking along one of the garden's paths.

Emil landed next to Tino gracefully (not) and said, "Oh, hey Tino! How are you- oh wait that was bad, lemme start over. Hey Tino! What's up?"

Tino looked at Emil suspiciously and Emil gave a small, awkward smile in return. Tino sighed, "Really, guys, I'm fine."

"Guys? What are you talking about? I'm the only one here." Emil let out some awkward laughs. Tino just looked at him with an eyebrow raised.

"Emil, I know Lukas is there. You guys aren't exactly subtle when talking."

Emil stopped smiling and pouted. "It was his idea."

That was when Lukas landed on the other side of Tino. "It was a joint decision," Lukas said before turning to Tino. "Are you sure? You know you can talk to us."

"I am," Tino insisted with a soft smile. "Thank you, but it's something that I assume will just take some time. Until then, I'll just do my assignments like I'm told."

Emil frowned. "But then nothing's changed."

"That's right!" Tino said spreading his arms out. "Nothing's changed, so everything's back to normal!"

"But is that for the best?" Lukas asked, watching his friend closely.

Tino stopped smiling and gave a shrug. "Probably. After all, it's what I know."

Emil thought for a moment before saying, "Sometimes my charge says 'normal's overrated and boring. If I get to live once, I want my life to be exciting.' I don't know, but maybe you should take that into consideration… he also adds YOLO to the end of it too but I don't know what that is." Emil shrugged. Lukas rolled his eyes. Idiots…

Tino let the words sink in. It was true. He hadn't truly felt happy since he's been back to heaven. It felt like something was missing. It was like he was incomplete, and Tino was only a shell of an angel walking around up here. But… every time he thought of the family…. of Berwald… his heart pounded a little faster and it felt like the emptiness was trying to fill itself back up. Of course he loved Berwald. He loved all of humanity. But with Berwald, specifically, it was different. He didn't notice it before on Earth, but now it was unbearable. But… how could he possibly know for sure? If you couldn't tell, Tino sucked with love.

"Speaking of your charge, why aren't you with him now?" Lukas pointed out with a raised eyebrow while Tino was thinking over Emil's words.

Emil scowled. "Because if I don't get a break every now and then, I'm going to make him your responsibility real soon."

Lukas smiled a bit and snorted. "Well, you're doing a terrible job of protecting your charge up here."

Emil shrugged. "He'll be fine… unless he's not. Then, well, maybe he'll learn a lesson or two."

"Harsh."

"It'll be okay."

"Y'know, you're probably the laziest angel I know," Lukas pointed out. Emil looked a bit offended.

"Like you should talk!"

"But at least I do my job."

"Touché. Well, what about Antonio?"

"He spends his excess energy chasing Lovino."

"Ah true that," Emil nodded. "What about Gilbert?"

"Well, he's definitely lazy but he still likes to play too many pranks… I think he's actually getting more complex with them," Lukas added thoughtfully.

"Yeah," Emil agreed. "Did you hear about the one he set up for three years?"

Lukas smirked. "You mean the one against Roderich?"

"Yep, that's it!"

"Yeah, I heard it was amazing."

Emil shrugged. "I dunno, I wasn't there… Tino was though, right? Tino?" The two looked around, just noticing that their friend was gone. They looked at each other and shrugged.

"So, what about Heracles?"

"Oh no, he's definitely the laziest."

Tino may be the worst angel when it comes to matters of the heart, but he did know of one angel who was very keen in love. One specific angel who helped him in the past.

Tino flew into the archives hoping Francis was still there. That's where Antonio said to find him. He also said that he saw him a few hours ago. Who knew if he was still there?

Hopefully, he was though! Tino really needed to talk to somebody and learn if what he was feeling for Berwald meant something more than what he felt for everyone else.

To be honest, Tino was afraid. Not like thunder-afraid, but a different kind. What if it was that special feeling? What then? Berwald didn't like him that way, after all, there was another human waiting for him out there – his soulmate! Tino couldn't take that away. Besides, Tino didn't even know if he wanted that confusing emotion. He's heard about this kind of love, after all, and people do weird, crazy things for it.

Tino quickly walked up to the main desk, where Monica was diligently working. She was a cute short angel, with long dirty-blonde hair in a braid and glasses. She was really nice and liked to organize things, and she also had a bad habit of gambling (but she was damn good at it too).

"Monica! Do you know if Francis is still here?" Tino said when he reached the cluttered desk.

Monica looked up from the papers she was alphabetizing – or doing some sort of filing to – and said, "Oh sorry, you just missed him. He was called away on an assignment."

"Well, do you know where he might be?"

She shook her head. "Sorry, Tino, I don't. Maybe he'll be back soon?"

Tino frowned. He didn't have that kind of time to waste. He had to hurry and find his answer. He was too impatient, and besides, who knew how long Francis would take? After a successful assignment, the laid-back angel liked to take a self-appointed mini-vacation (much to Arthur's displeasure, as usual).

He thanked Monica and left the archives feeling even more down. He was at a complete loss as for what to do. Maybe he should ask another angel of love…?

"Tino?"

Tino looked up and found the very angel he had been looking for who had just landed in front of him. Francis had a book in his hands and he was grinning while looking a bit surprised.

"I was just about to look for you! How lucky of me~!" Francis chuckled.

"You were going to look for me? Why?" Tino asked, with a tilt of his head. He did give back those glasses right…? Yes, he did. He was sure of it.

"Oh, well, I just wanted to talk to you about something. No big deal," he said dismissively with a wave of his hand. "But first, I need to return this before Monica has my head, hm?" He held up the book in his hand with a wink and headed inside the archives. Tino followed behind him. He didn't want to wait outside and risk Francis getting lost or distracted… like he usually does.

"Monica!" Francis said cheerfully, and set the book on her desk. "How are you ma chère?"

Monica rolled her eyes. "You know you're not supposed to take these very important documents out of the archives, right?"

"Ah, but it was très important! It was for l'amour!" Francis said dramatically, with an over-exaggerated French accent.

Monica just gave him a glare, not at all impressed by his antics, and grabbed the book to be put in its proper place later. "Oh, by the way, Tino was looking for you," she said before noticing the golden-winged angel standing back a bit. "But I guess you already knew. Sorry Tino, didn't see you there." She gave an apologetic smile as Francis turned to face him with a raised eyebrow.

"You were looking for me?" He asked with a small grin.

"Er, yes?" Tino said nervously.

"Don't be nervous! Let's have a talk!" Francis said with a smile and ushered him out of the building.

Francis dragged Tino along as he flew them to wherever he was taking them. Tino had no idea why they left heaven to go to someplace on Earth for a simple talk but oh well. Francis was always kind of strange anyway.

When they landed, Tino immediately recognized they were in Paris. Probably because they were sitting on the support of the Eiffel Tower, where they weren't so high up that they couldn't see anybody but yet no humans noticed them.

Tino looked around. "Um, Francis? Why are we here?" He looked at said angel only to notice the small smile on his face as he wistfully took in his surroundings.

"It's beautiful, no?" Francis said gently but also with a rare air of seriousness in his tone.

Tino gave him a quizzical look and then looked at his surroundings once more. The sun was almost completely set so the sky was just light enough to still see everything. The Eiffel Tower was lit up in golden and people milled about underneath.

"I guess…" Tino finally answered. He couldn't deny it after all. A city like this was always beautiful during sunset.

Francis looked at him with an amused expression. "I think you are missing the point. Take a look at the humans. What do you see?"

Tino sighed. Why was he doing this? Was there even a point? But he humored the older angel anyway. He looked at the smiling humans, taking pictures and enjoying one another's company.

"Um… tourists?" Tino said unsurely. Francis chuckled.

"Take a look again."

Tino frowned but did anyway, trying to focus on more specific humans.

"Do you see it?" Francis asked.

Tino shook his head frustrated. "No, I don't! Francis, what is the point!?"

"Okay, okay," Francis said, giving in. "I'll help you out. See that couple over there?"

Tino looked to the direction he waved in and found a young couple laughing and holding hands.

"It's their honeymoon. This is a popular location for honeymoons. La Ville Lumière. Do you know why?" Before Tino could answer Francis moved on. "That couple over there," he waved to a pair in their 40s. "It's their anniversary. 15 years is a good number, no? And they still have a good future ahead of them. And those people?" Tino looked at an older couple sitting on a bench nearby. "They live here in Paris, and every day they come here together to do what we are doing right now."

Tino sighed. "What are we doing?"

"We are watching love."

A few moments passed by where they were both silent, watching the people below them. Tino noticed the numerous couples holding hands and kissing under the Eiffel Tower.

"I know why you wanted to talk to me," Francis said finally, breaking the silence. Tino looked at him nervously. Francis gave him a smile trying to reassure the other angel. "Don't worry, many angels come to me with matters of the heart. So, what's with yours?"

Tino sighed and looked down at the hands collapsed together in his lap. Where should he begin? His brain was all just a jumble of feelings and Tino couldn't pinpoint a single one. Everything was mixed together and messed up. He was so confused.

"I'm… I'm not sure what to say…" Tino said slowly. "I don't know where to begin or what I'm even doing anymore. I just feel so… so… empty?"

Francis didn't say anything to let Tino stew in his thoughts. He thought about Berwald and Peter and the wonderful memories he made with them. Finally, he said, "Francis, what is love?"

Francis raised an eyebrow at him, but before he could speak, Tino quickly said, "I don't mean love like the love I share with you or Lukas and Emil. I mean what's their love?" He waved to the couples kissing and holding hands. "How can you tell?"

"Well, it's hard to describe, but it's the feeling of wholeness when you look at the person. A feeling of indescribable joy and devotion. A willingness to do anything for that person. A need to protect and care for them. And where being just by their side is enough. It's different for every person of course."

Tino furrowed his eyebrows as he thought carefully about what Francis said. He was still confused. He felt all of those things towards Berwald, but his friends give him joy too. Maybe he's just blowing his feelings and thoughts for Berwald out of proportion. Maybe he's just exaggerating what he feels.

"I still don't get it," Tino sighed.

Francis chuckled. "Sometimes it's hard for angels to understand. Just keep thinking about what I said, hm? Maybe you'll get an idea." He smiled at a poor, lost Tino.

A/N

Okay, sorry for the wait and sorry I lied... this is not the last chapter xD

The chapter was getting too long so I split it up :P (Also so I could get this out). I know it's been like 4 months, but I've been super busy with my last semester of college, not to mention my lack of inspiration that hit me lately.

But hey, we'll get there :) One more chapter to go lol. And sorry this chapter might've been a bit boring.

Not much to say, but I hoped you liked it! Tell me what you think! :D