My ninth fanfiction… ugh. I hate this one. It's so short because I had a TOTAL writer's block. But anyway, it is Michael/Raphael. Huzzah! Cute pairing. My third and fourth favourite characters those two *hugs them*.

Told in Raphael's POV (Spoilers, take into consideration that I've read vols 1-19)

Embrace

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Embrace of Sin ---

Lips. Face. Soft skin. The curl of an embrace of an angel in my arms. Pressing… supple… female forms aligned with flowing hair and wide eyes. Soft voices and moments blessed with pure joy, like a shining light. Everything united and as one, the ecstasy of that which is forbidden.

People call me a womanizer. A violator of the strict taboo. No relationships between angels. But I have been unpurified, washed in a dirty black ray of sin. Am I ashamed? If you looked at me, would you think that? Even I do not truly know now. The amount of woman I have kissed, touched, flirted with, held in my shameless arms… All after Belial…

Lust and longing, they are primal senses, even for us who are holy. The controlling glare of love and the binds it wraps around its pawns. Is this what God created for us?

Even her. Sara. She would not let me hold her, embrace her, feel her lips upon my own. For her lover. Someone whom she has given her spirit too. Chained for as long as their sinful lust is carried out. She refused, when I wanted her so. That long flowing hair, that innocent face… so naïve, idiotic really. She looked deep inside me that she exposed more then I could bear. Exposed every fibre of me that I was too scared to admit to. And I did not know how to respond, so I responded with lust. Typical of me. Raphael.

I spend such time in the company of women, it is often questioned whether I even enjoy the company of men. Except for Mika-chan, that is. Loud and brash. Idiotic and violent. Michael. Closer than a brother, which is bitterly ironic seeing as his relationship with his own brother is the tragic past that haunts him. But it is easy to forget that. When he shouts or yells, it is hard to imagine him acting in pain. I know it hurts him deeply… but if neither of us talks about it we can reach a deeper understanding.

He pulled me from the darkness. With that loud voice. After my purity had been stolen from me. He reached out his hand, and I took it, for I had no one else. And he helped me. Became my friend. Yes, he was selfish, loud and conceited… but he was the only one I had. Those women were just to be discarded, they could grant me pleasure, yes… physical, sinful, forbidden pleasure… but Mika-chan could heal my soul.

Opposites. That is what we are. Me… vain, uncaring, a lazy womanizer. He, so loud and arrogant, woman hating and violent. Yet the only one who I can trust for normality. No confusion. To tell me when I'm being idiotic… Mika-chan…

I lust for Sara. The unobtainable. The messiah's forbidden love. My forbidden conquest… Mika-chan always asks me why… why I look to her so much. Is it because she was the only one to see me? See beneath me? Or was it Mika-chan who always knew how to lift me from the darkness, remove the black veil that covered my soul.

The embrace of a man is so cruel.

Realization of the Sinner ---

He is sitting, arms folded, a scowl set upon pale features. None of the elegance and beauty of a female form. The dragon rising from his pale face, almost licking his burning eyes. His hair scarlet, soft. The man who embraced my soul without question. He looks so young, but his eyes burn with such passionate rage, and experience of life, though his tongue lashes with ignorance.

The only one willing to embrace my soul…

I tilt his chin and press soft dry lips upon his. If only for an instant… it seems more pleasurable then all those times I held women close. A sense of safety and trust… security…

He roughly shoves me away.

"What the hell do you think you're doin', ya' freakin' perv?!" He snaps, spitting onto the ground. "Has Sara made you go nuts or something?"

I smile.

Mika-chan.