I came to with a pounding headache. I squeezed my eyes closed and grabbed my hair. It was like my head was in a vice. "Get it off! Get it off!"

Wait... I sat straightened up. Where was Toni? I was sure I held on...

"Toni!" I screamed as I shot up. Where was he? He had to be somewhere in all this white. Not a single splotch in the white fog. I couldn't have left him...

No...I couldn't have left him down there. I had to have taken him with me. If he didn't come with me then...

I kept my fingers pressed together. I had to do it. I had to snap. I needed Toni. I needed him but...

I was scared. I was really scared. I was so scared I was shaking. If I couldn't bring him out of hell, I'd need to stay there with him. But there was so much pain. I was in so much pain. I had to snap. I had to no matter how painful it was.

Something grabbed and tugged at my hips. It pulled hard, and I was brought back down. A pair of arms circled and squeezed my waist. My ears picked up the mumblings of insistent, fast Spanish.

Nothing could describe the ecstasy of relief I felt then. He was okay. We were okay. I turned into him, my legs hooking around either side of his torso as I sat in his lap. It didn't matter that the hem of my dress was frayed and scorched. It didn't matter that we were both burned and bloodied. This was honestly the most beautiful moment in existence.

Toni desperately clung to me. My back curved into him. His face was buried into my chest. His words became muffled into my clothes. I wrapped my arms around his head, holding him there to me.

"There, there, baby," I said. I ran my fingers slowly through his messy locks. God, it felt amazing to have him here with me.

He stopped talking. His head rolled up under my fingers. Toni gave me a scolding glare. His eyes were strained red.

"Don't you ever do something like that to me again, Christina," he growled. His grip around me tightened.

"What? Save your sorry ass?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Don't you ever go to hell. Not even for me," he said.

I scoffed. "Well, excuse me for wanting to be with you, you ungrateful bastard. You'd have to be loco to think I'd do otherwise," I said adding in a bit of his Spanish. "You're just jealous because I rescued you."

He grunted and started planting kisses at the neckline of my dress. I laughed as his curly hair tickled my neck.

"I'll take that as a yes," I said smugly.

"Tina, you don't understand. You don't understand how many times I've lost you."

His words had a sobering effect. I remembered what hell was like. The "Tonis" there to greet me. How many "mes" had he seen?

I pushed back his hair and planted a kiss at the top of his forehead. "Well then, you can have me that many more times."

He looked at me funny. Then, a devilish glint went over his green eyes. He raised an eyebrow at me and grinned. "I can 'have' you? And how do you suggest I do that?"

I rolled my eyes at him. I knew what he was getting at. I knotted my fingers in his hair, pulled him up to me, and kissed him fiercely. He kissed me back desperately. He rocked back and forth as our kisses intensified, our balance constantly in question. He gave a final heave forward, knocking me onto my back. My legs unhooked from around him, allowing him to do as he pleased. I laughed from the bliss as his kisses made their way to the soft skin on my neck.

"Oh, I missed you so much, mi amor," he said hungrily. His hands inched up under the skirt of my dress.

I gasped as his hands curved further up my inner thigh. "Toni..."

"What? There's no one here. Just you and me..."

Wait... I sat up, pushing Toni back. That wasn't right.

Toni didn't seem offended. He did have me for all of eternity. He was more of confused. "Tina, what's wrong?" he asked.

"Where are we?" I wondered out loud. It was disorienting but oddly familiar.

Toni ran one of his hands through his hair. "I don't know. I thought you knew. It does seem a bit boring for heaven. No wonder you got out so often."

Something caught my attention as his hair bounced back into place. "Toni, what happened to your horns?"

"Hmm? Oh, Lucifer took them away along with my tail when I let go of all of the souls I collected. I'm technically not a demon anymore," he explained.

"You released your souls? Why?" I asked.

Toni shrugged. "It just sort of happened. I knew... I knew I didn't want to be a demon anymore."

There was more to it. It didn't even need to be said.

"By the way, what happened to your halo?"

"What about my halo?" I asked.

"Your halo is gone," Toni said.

My eyes went wide. I grabbed my head. It wasn't floating nor was it plastered to my head. It couldn't have just...

"Shit..." I said.

"What?"

"I think I got rid of it."

"What? Why would you get rid of your halo?" Toni said incredulously.

"Because it was squishing my head," I groaned. That would explain why the pain in my head had so suddenly gone away.

"So...does this mean you're not an angel anymore?" Toni asked.

"Shit..." I whispered. I grabbed my hair, clenching my fists. "Shit shit shit shit shit shit."

"Tina..." Toni wrapped his hands around. As mine relaxed around his, he eased them away from my head and toward his lips. He lightly kissed them. "Relax, mi corazón. It's okay."

I took one of my hand from his. The one that remained squeezed his hand tight. I closed my eyes and thought of heaven. I thought of Veni and my family. I snapped.

I opened one eye at a time. Toni was still across from me. He gave me a small smile and shrugged his shoulders.

"Shit," I sighed. "We didn't make it to heaven." No one this place was so familiar. I had been in this situation before.

"That makes us in purgatory, right?" Toni said as he looked around.

"Something like that," I said. "More like a waiting room."

Toni's necklace was wrapped around my wrist. I uncoiled it and placed the cross on my palm.

"I guess this thing is out of holy juice, too," I said.

"Well, I have had that blessing for centuries. It was bound to wear out sometime," Toni said.

I held out the chain in front of me. I lassoed it around Toni's neck and pulled him closer for another kiss. Not that I needed the stupid chain to hold him there. He was just overly enthusiastic that I was in the kissing mood again.

"Come on, we've got heaven to find," I said.

"But I've already got heaven right here," he said with a smile.

"God, you're so cheesy." I gave him another quick kiss, which turned into about five quick kisses, which turned into about twenty.

"No really, let's go. I think the gate was somewhere around here," I said.

"Oh, you actually have been here before," Toni said as he got up with me.

"Yeah, right after I died. You didn't?"

"Nope. Straight to hell for me," Toni said.

"Really?"

Toni nodded.

"Huh? I could have sworn there was an angel with a stick up his ass sitting at a desk judging everybody."

"You mean that desk?" Toni said.

Sure enough, there was the gate and the desk. Surprisingly, the desk was empty. No angel. No gigantic book of life.

"Huh? I guess Luddy's just dropping the ball today," I said.

"That's...your sister's boyfriend, right? The one I'm not supposed to call Luddy?"

"Oh God, it's spreading. You did not just hear me call him that," I said.

"I may have heard it. I may have not," he said with a smirk.

"You're evil, you know that," I said. I hooked my arms around his neck.

"So I hear..." he said.

I let him kiss me right there at the entrance of heaven.

"Now, what did you hear again?" I asked.

"Hmm, what did you call him again?" he teased. He stole another kiss. "What was it?" And another. "Potato bastard, maybe? Did I say that right?"

Oh man, he was sucking up big time. "Good boy," I said. It was working of course. He deserved that long kiss. And a little something extra.

"Tina!"

I turned towards the voice while still in Toni's arms. "Veni!"

"Tina! You're okay! You're alive!" Veni wiped at her face. There were tear stains on her cheeks.

"Veni! What the hell happened?" I said.

"I-I thought I lost you! I was really scared," Veni said.

"Where the hell is Ludwig? Why isn't he here?" I asked. God damnit, why wasn't he with Veni?

"Um, well... Um, when you disappeared, he went to go get an archangel," Veni explained.

"Shit." I broke out of Toni's arms.

"Hello...again...Veni," Toni said awkwardly.

"H-hey, Toni," Veni replied. "Um, are you guys going to come in?"

"Yeah," I said. "Just give us a second, hun."

I put my hands on the pearly white gates and immediately withdrew them.

"Fuck!" I yelled.

"Tina!" both Toni and Veni exclaimed.

Toni grabbed my hands and examined them.

"Stop babying me. It was just really really cold," I said.

"Don't scare me like that," Toni whispered. He started to lightly kiss my fingers, sending ticklish sensations down my spine.

"Toni... Toni... Stop! Not in front of my sister," I giggled out.

"Tina... This isn't funny," Veni stammered.

I sobered up and approached the gate as close as I could get without touching. "Veni, I can't get in right now, but we're going to figure something out." I could see Veni starting to well up again. "I'm sure some desk guy will show up any minute now and let me in."

"I'm afraid it's a bit more complicated than that this time, Tina."

"Luddy!"

I was relieved to see him, too. Veni went straight to his chest. He wrapped an arm around her, still looking bewildered by all of this.

"Thank God, could you open the gate?" I said.

"I... I can't do that. Things are kind of...chaotic," he said.

"Why not? You've already let me in once," I said.

"He means heaven's gate been temporarily shut down." Some random poser angel showed up on this side of the gate. I had no clue who he was. "Old souls just flying around all over place. Very confusing. Don't know where they came from. Got my main man Roddy on the job of organizing them all up."

So what, this guy was Roderich's boss? He seemed a bit...strange. For one, he was wearing blue jeans. The only thing "professional" looking about him was his white button down shirt. His hair was blond and messy. He did have a giant halo, though. Not to mention about a 15 foot wingspan.

"You guys want in?" He opened up the gates of heaven with a single angelic push."I'll 'escort' you in or whatever. My name's Alfred. I'm the archangel."