A/N: I've had a question about my recommended listening once or twice. It's not that the lyrics match the characters, but more so the feel or emotion the song gives off. For sad scenes, I need music that's slow or melancholy and for fight scenes, I need fast paced music. Make sense? So that's why the recommended listening may not match up lyric-wise, for those others out there who wonder. Also, the recommended listening can come from what I listen to when I write the chapter, but that's rare.

On with the fic!

Recommended listening: Breathe no More by Evanescence

My Angel

Chapter 14

The courtroom was just like one on earth, but there was one major difference. This was not any case on earth. This was one of higher hierarchy and the punishments were more severe. Even the God who had made all and loved everything, even loved the sinners, He still had to judge them if they were to roam in His heavenly home. It seemed that the whole population of His home was there, fitting into that one single courtroom that was painted in pure gold, the design just like one on earth with the benches and the witness stand, as well as the jury seats. Because this was the act of defiling His rules, He would be the one to judge in the trial, but this time, he decided upon selecting a judge in this court trial.

Angels flooded into the room, taking seats in the far back first in class order, having the highest or most powerful to be seated at the front whilst the new angels sat in the back where they were, looking upon the empty witness stand the empty chairs that would seat the defendant, or in heaven's case… the sinner.

Green eyes hid behind sandy bangs as the owner walked down the short aisle, not daring to look up to meet the disgusted or surprised looks of the angelic population as his steps sounded around him, each one like a large drum pounding in his ear. He could hear the murmurs and listen to the shocked thoughts as they flowed from other angels and into his head.

"Isn't that Hisoka?"

"Wasn't he the one who—?"

"Shh! Father said not to mention it!"

"But him of all people..."

Hisoka tried to keep to himself as he heard the comments, both verbally and nonverbally and he sat down at a small table, folding his wings to curve into his back. Already, they felt heavier, but his heart seemed to be at its limit. It was beating quickly, too quickly. He knew he was nervous and afraid, but it did not show on his face. His heart felt like its strings were going to snap, letting the already fragile, emotion-filled spiritual orb fall and shatter on the cold, tile ground. It ached.

He felt a shift next to him and risked a glance up. Dark black hair flew over the purple eyes regarding him with concern. In reply to the silent question, he merely nodded, taking in a deep breath as he eyed the witness stand. In just a few moments, he would be called up and tell all of Heaven what he had done, down to the last detail. Hisoka wasn't sure if he could do it. He felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced at Diego again.

His friend nodded behind him and Hisoka risked looking that way. His breath hitched in his throat as a pit of despair formed in his stomach. 'Oh, no...'

Long brown hair and icy brown eyes glanced back at him, a smirk tracing thin lips, the angel owning them sitting at the other table across the room. His wings behind him shone a deep navy blue and his eyes seemed to get colder. He was, quite obviously, the opposing attorney. Hisoka knew this angel and sometimes, he wished he didn't. The angel's name was Velken. This angel had to be one of the most stubborn, arrogant, but most calculating of all of them. His smarts weren't favored for nothing.

Hisoka bit his lip and looked back to Diego, who caught the look in his eyes. Before the black-haired angel could say a word, a guard came through and rang out in a deep voice, "Please stand for the honorable judge Kira Tsukiori."

Simultaneously, everyone in the room stood, heads bowed, as a door to the far left of the room swung open, revealing a girl, no older than nineteen, walking out. She had shoulder length blonde colored hair, her eyes were a deep blue, and she wore a long black robe that hit only just above the floor. She nodded in reply to the angels in the room and walked to her seat, overlooking the room. In a soft, but equally strong voice, she spoke only four words. "You may be seated."

Hisoka sat down with Diego once more and faced ahead. He knew the judge. She was Kira, one of God's right-hand angels. She was an exorcist of demons, but more than that, she was one of Hisoka's few friends. She was kind to him and always seemed to find him when Diego could not. Which was rare, for one thing, but that didn't dismiss the fact that she was smart. Sometimes Hisoka wondered if she had some empathy of her own. Kira looked up at him, nodded once before turning to show attention to the court.

"Please call up the defendant," she said after a moment of silence.

Diego turned to Hisoka and nodded once, giving the teen the tiniest bit of nonverbal pushing to get him up and walk to the stand. The angel was stopped by the guard from earlier, holding out the real version of the Bible, written in stone and in Hebrew. "Do you swear to tell all the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth or so help you, God?"

Hisoka hesitated once, glancing back at Diego. The purple eyes gave him the answer. Hisoka turned front again. "I do."

"You may be seated." The guard took away the tablets into another room. Hisoka blinked once at the chair. It had three legs. There was no way it would support his weight. Taking a deep breath, knowing it was a challenge for him, he sat in it. He was surprised that it did not wobble in the slightest. He had balance. He took in another deep breath. Silently. His nerves were already jumpy and his heart felt heavier.

Kira looked at him for a moment expressionlessly before turning back to her pad in front of her. "You may begin questioning."

Diego stood up, looking at a piece of paper in hand before setting it down and walking up to the stand. He thought for a moment before he nodded once. "Hisoka, you were raised in a wealthy family, correct?"

Hisoka nodded, already knowing what Diego's strategy was. Build up a background check and use that to win the case. It was fairly easy. "Hai. The Kurosaki lineage traced back to the Kamakura Shogunate. I was the 17th head of the family."

"How were you treated in this family?"

Hisoka took a deep breath, probably one of the many times from before the trial even began. He felt small with all the eyes in the courtroom staring at him. "Horribly."

"Can you explain?"

Hisoka nodded gravely. "My parents didn't approve of my empathy. They found out when I was four, after I asked why my mother was sad. I had been small at the time, so I didn't know what it meant to be able to feel emotions around me."

"What did they do to you?"

"They locked me in a cell for nine years. I was hardly fed and whenever my father felt like it, he came to me in my cell and whipped me. He said he was trying to exorcise the demon within me. That's what they referred my empathy to."

"Hisoka, how old are you?"

"Thirty-six, mentally."

"How old were you when you died?"

"Sixteen."

"How did you die?"

Hisoka hesitated. For some reason, he found this easier to say since he had already told Tsuzuki. What in the world was Diego doing? He knew he was trying to build up a sensitive background so the jury would agree with his case, but... "I was raped. Then cursed. It took three years for me to die by it."

A few startled gasps murmured throughout the room. Hisoka looked down at his hands in his lap. He felt so inferior now; he wished Diego would just take him out of there. Diego caught Hisoka's movement and shook his head. In a soft voice, he whispered, "No more questions."

Hisoka looked up through his hair and caught Diego's comforting look. It wasn't as strong as Tsuzuki's, however, and that's the look he needed now. But Diego was his friend and he appreciated it just as much.

-X-

Tsuzuki shuddered as a pain tore through his heart. He instinctively looked up at the sky through his bedroom window as he lay on the clean bed. In the past few hours, he had washed the sheets while taking a shower and now he lay with hair slightly damp and his body clad in black pajamas, his amethyst eyes staring out at the night sky. The moon was shining and the weather had let up.

Tsuzuki frowned as he sat up, a hand reaching up to grip his chest as he closed his eyes. His cross pendant was radiating some form of energy, a sad kind of energy. The aura was green. Tsuzuki felt its coldness seep through his shirt and opened his eyes, taking the cross and putting it inside his hands. 'Hisoka... be strong. Be safe.'

-X-

Velken stood up, sending a smirk to Diego, as if he had planned for his move. Diego stared expressionlessly back, not wanting the other angel to feel satisfaction of already getting to him. Velken walked up to the stand, staring down at Hisoka for a moment. The teen raised his head and little and tried to stare emotionlessly back. His icy barrier had cracked since Tsuzuki had found him and now it seemed hard to hold up his gaze.

Velken frowned, obviously displeased with his stare. "Kurosaki-kun, you say you were raped and cursed at thirteen, is that correct?"

Hisoka nodded mutely. He felt strange emotions radiating off Velken now. Where was this going...?

"Who was your rapist?"

Diego stood up. "Objection. Relevancy?"

Kira looked to Velken, who merely shook his head. "The background check is necessary to draw the conclusion needed to find out the true meaning of Kurosaki's act."

Kira frowned, obviously disagreeing with Velken, but sighed. "Overruled. Answer the question."

Hisoka found his eyes beginning to glare. "Kazutaka Muraki."

"You said in your earlier statement that your parents locked you in a cell for nine years, correct?"

Hisoka nodded. Velken frowned, deeper than before. "What made them take you out?"

Hisoka shook his head. "They didn't. I snuck out. The basement was hot that night and I couldn't breathe. I went out the small window."

"Why didn't you do that earlier in your life?"

Hisoka saw Diego about to make an objection and his green eyes narrowed. "I had never thought about it before."

Diego sent Hisoka a strange looked from behind Velken's back. Hisoka tried hard to ignore it. These questions were getting to him already and they weren't even to his case yet.

"Hisoka, you had never had sex before, have you? At least voluntarily?"

Hisoka shook his head. "No. I didn't even know what it was."

"Then aren't you saying that what you did with Tsuzuki Asato was something you had no control over?"

Hisoka found himself glaring. "I never said that. I said I didn't know from before I died."

"But you know now?"

"Yes."

"And you did it voluntarily?"

Hisoka hesitated again, looking to Kira and Diego before he realized that they couldn't help him get out of this. He put his head down. "...yes."

Velken seemed to consider it for a moment. Hisoka found his heart beginning to beat faster. By the strange emotions he could feel, he knew that this was only going to get worse. He bit his lip and waited for what seemed like hours, hours that had no beginning or end or limit to their instance. Velken finally turned back around. "How many clients have you had, Kurosaki-kun, as part of your guardianship duties?"

Hisoka put his head up, a weird look on his face. Velken was sinking that low... 'Oh, God.' Hisoka's hands twitched for a moment. "Not many. Three or four in the past few years."

"Did you ever have sex with any of them?"

Hisoka found himself glaring, green eyes intense as his wings pulsed in some anger. Velken was trying to call him a whore, in the middle of a courtroom, no less! How dare he even think...? Diego stood up, eyes also intense, but he knew he couldn't say anything to object to. Velken had the high ground.

Hisoka was honest. "No, I didn't."

"So what makes Tsuzuki Asato any different than all the others, Kurosaki?"

Diego glared. "Objection!"

"He shouldn't be, especially by status, now should he?" Velken continued, ignoring him. "Considering his secret?"

Hisoka felt his eyes beginning to burn. Velken was getting to him. He was trying to twist his thinking. No. He couldn't let that happen. Not now, not when he had finally found something he had always longed to have. He put his head down.

Diego's hands fisted. "Objection!"

Kira turned to Velken. "Sustained."

"Tell us how Tsuzuki is different from those clients," Velken re-stated his question for the third time.

"Objection! Badgering the witness!" Diego said loudly.

Kira held up her hand. "Sustained, Velken! You will be seated or be thrown out of the courtroom."

Velken smirked and walked back to his seat. "No more questioning."

Diego looked to Hisoka. The boy's wings had drooped somewhat and their color was no longer a burning red. It was a depressing grey. The thing about empathic angels was that their wings changed color depending on their emotions. Diego sighed, closing his eyes. "Your Honor, may I request a recess?"

Kira nodded, banging her gavel. "One hour recess."

Diego nodded and walked up to the stand, placing a hand on Hisoka's shoulder. The teen looked up through hazy eyes and Diego bit his lip, his hold on the small shoulder tightening a little. It took a few minutes for Diego to coax Hisoka off the chair and walk out of the courtroom to a secluded break room at the far end of the crowded hall. Once there, Diego led Hisoka to a seat and closed the door.

Hisoka let out a shaky sigh and put his head on his hands, elbows set on the table. He wasn't crying, but his shoulders were shaking. Diego frowned and walked over, setting his hands on the empath's shoulders, offering silent support. Hisoka took in a shaky breath. "It's so unfair..."

Diego tilted his head slightly. "What is?" he asked softly.

Hisoka finally looked up at him through his ashen blonde bangs. "Velken called me a whore. He thinks I'm so needy that I'd just fling myself at anybody."

Diego frowned. "You love Tsuzuki. Velken doesn't understand that because he doesn't know you."

"Why does he hate me so much?" Hisoka asked, putting his clenched hands to his forehead, closing his eyes. He then found the irony in his question and sighed. "I don't even think that question has an answer. I often asked myself that with my parents. Like they gave me an answer..."

"Hisoka... look at me."

Hisoka did. He looked into the purple eyes, the twined purple eyes of his client and the twined purple eyes of his friend. His breath hitched a little before he let it out. Slowly.

Diego continued to frown, but he put a hand on top of Hisoka's head. "What your parents did was wrong. What Velken is trying to do is wrong. What you did with Tsuzuki... wasn't wrong." Hisoka just looked at him as the older angel went on. "I know this is hard for you, because you've never been under this kind of pressure before, but I think that you can always find a way out, even if Velken tries to twist your thinking to get you to feel guilty. Understand?"

Hisoka nodded mutely. Diego smiled before he stood up, holding out his hand. "You're probably hungry."

Hisoka looked up at his friend for a moment before he took the offered hand. Despite how Diego felt and despite his feelings for his friend, his heart was and always would be with Tsuzuki. Hisoka followed Diego out. He was hungry and he knew he needed to strength. His eyes narrowed. Velken wasn't going to get to him. Not in this life, not in death, not ever.

(1) Objection: The attorney is opposing a question in thinking that it has no relevancy to the case or it is out of line.

(2) Sustained: This is where the judge agrees with the objection and that tells the attorney who's asking questions that he won't get an answer.

(3) Overruled: This is where the judge does not agree with the objection and tells the attorney who objected to sit down and be quiet while the defendant must give an answer.