He did not open his eyes right away, merely lay there and savored the world around him. He had not awakened like this in a long time, to such peace. The warmth of the early Hawaiian summer morning was just enough to be comfortable. Sunlight filtered through the halfway open drapes along with a faint breeze that carried the scent of faraway rain.
Never mind that the light was streaming in at the wrong angle, from a point somewhere beyond his head when it should have been coming from his right. Never mind that he distinctly remembered shutting the window and drawing the drapes closed. Never mind that he was lying in the wrong direction anyway and a warm body lay beside his where, some groggy voice in the back of his mind told him, there definitely should not have been.
"Oh, God," he mumbled to himself. "I've woken up to a cliché."
He never would have expected the soft chuckle that answered him. It came from his left, where soft lips brushed just there, that sensitive spot right below his ear, and made him shiver. He almost was not aware of the hand that traced a feather-soft trail across his torso to thread fingers with those of his right hand.
"Good morning to you, too, Raphael."
Somehow, he found his voice and returned the greeting. "Good morning... Michael..."
And then they lay there again in silence, listening to the sounds of the morning, the whisper of the wind, chirping or trilling of birds greeting the day, the occasional hiss of air as a car passed down the street. Michael's breathing slowed again to the steady rhythm, happiness and content radiating from him. It almost made Raphael wish that they could remain like this for a long while.
Almost, because he knew it could not be so and was not one for foolish wishes.
'Except perhaps this,' he thought to himself, smiling at Michael as the archangel propped himself up on an elbow to look at him. 'But it came true, so maybe it wasn't so foolish, after all.'
"It's tomorrow," he murmured.
A smile. "I know."
"I should probably..."
The other's expression did not change. Then again, he did not expect it to. They had reconciled facts last night, about 'tomorrow' and all that would come after that. If there was any reluctance on either of their parts, Michael did not show it and he did not acknowledge it.
"I know," his partner repeated.
Partner. There was a word he thought he would not think the same of. Oddly enough, it did not change in any way. But he found that it was fitting, that the meaning he had placed on that word had been and was enough. Whatever that meaning was.
He rose, Michael pulling away from him as he did so. Then, poised to get out of the bed, he turned to his companion.
"I--"
"I know." The archangel sat up, pulled him close, placed one last kiss on his lips. "Go, before someone comes to check on us. Or before I decide I don't want to let you go."
No more words were exchanged after that. None had to be.
Raphael gathered his clothes and dressed before returning to his room to get a new outfit he could change into after a shower. He and Michael were the last to wake, he noticed, hearing strains of conversation from what was probably the dining room downstairs, light banter interrupted once in a while with laughter.
He had to smile, stopping at the stairs for a moment on his way to the bathroom. All things aside, he liked that he was able to see Kagetsuya and Chihaya once again. Three years was a long time and he had truly missed them. The dark angel had grown, still with that slender build that bordered on effeminate -- far more common with male angels, Raphael noticed, than with the Earthians -- but perhaps two or three inches taller, and was ever the cheerful optimist. Kagetsuya seemed to have softened a bit, though it might have only been Chihaya's presence that helped in that; the blonde was still possessed of his proud air though that probably stemmed more from his blood rather than his personality.
He would miss them come the time he had to leave. More so than before, sure that he would not be able to see them again. Rules were rules, after all. Technically, he was already breaking the no-contact one, but what could he do? He had not known the two would be here and even then, he could not have helped it. His priority had been -- still was -- Michael. However, he reminded himself, his partner and Uriel were still liable.
'I can't condone it,' he mused. 'There is no one but us to know. And no one coming here, the assigned already done with this area of the sector. Still...'
He shook his head. He was here for Michael, he told himself again. Should contact with the two banished angels be found out, he would have no choice to report, despite it being against two of his friends. But if nothing happened, he would say nothing, he decided.
He met Michael on the way down, the blonde presumably having used the shower in the master bedroom. The archangel flashed his usual sunny grin at him, running a hand through saffron-colored curls that were still somewhat wet. Raphael nodded a reply and joined him, following the sound of their housemates' voices to the dining room.
"There you two are!" Uriel was the first to greet them. "You see, Raphael, I've taught our dear Michael-sama the art of getting a normal amount of sleep. Now all you have to do is make sure he doesn't sleep in."
"Normal, nothing. You know I get my sleep when I'm not backlogged with work," Michael protested with a laugh.
"Which is how often, again?" the singer countered with a grin of his own, then gestured for them to sit at the table. "Now get over here and eat. Kagetsuya volunteered his excellent culinary talents and whipped us up an English breakfast fit for the queen herself!"
Even Raphael had to smile over the angel's exaggerated flourishes. Sitting across the table next to his lover, Kagetsuya ducked his head in an attempt to hide the pink that lightly stained his cheeks. Still, as Chihaya had always written in his letters to Eden and as Uriel just proclaimed, the food was excellent. And varied as well, Belgian waffles, warm biscuits, eggs, ham, bacon, and an array of fruit. Raphael now saw what Chihaya meant when he said that his partner always went all out with his cooking.
"So, were you two all right here while we were gone?"
Raphael stiffened, glance going to Uriel, who had posed the question. Just at the edge of his vision, the storm-eyed angel saw Kagetsuya and Chihaya, dishes in hand -- they both offered to clean up, then rose and did it anyway amid protests that they should not be the ones to do so -- give a slight pause on their way into the adjoining kitchen. There was something in the singer's voice, a particularly suggestive tone that sent warning bells ringing in Raphael's mind. Sitting beside him, he could see that his partner had the same reaction.
Michael was quick enough that the pause before his answer was not too long. "Of course," he said, waving his hand in a dismissive manner. "Sorry we couldn't join you three. But it was your fault for dragging me around beforehand and tiring me out."
Uriel looked like he wanted to say something, then decided against it. Raphael watched him carefully as he looked thoughtful, then made a face, then gave them a sheepish smile.
"Oh, hell, I can't dance around the point as well as you two can." Even without having to listen closely, Raphael picked up on the meaning hidden beneath those words. "I like blunt, so I'll do blunt. Jig's up, you two. We know."
To his credit, Michael did not miss a beat, despite the way he paled then. "Know? Know what?"
The singer wagged a finger at them. "Why, about the two of you, of course." Then, light brown gaze going to the swinging door that led to the kitchen, "Kagetsuya, Chihaya, would you be so kind as to escort our lady out here?"
There was a pause as the other two archangels turned to watch the door. Then one more as it swung open and still another as the two younger angels entered, followed by another. One that they all knew very well.
"May I present the mastermind behind it all," Uriel said, but he sounded as if he was far away.
"Gab...rielle...?"
Raphael stared at his wife, who bowed a greeting before taking a seat beside the Miracle Voice. "Good morning. Michael-sama, I trust Uriel's been showing you a good time while you were here?"
At a loss for words, Michael merely looked from one to the other blue eyes wide with surprise and maybe a little bit of fear. Raphael schooled his features to show nothing but a questioning look at the both of them.
"I suppose you could say," Gabrielle continued, giving the both of them a smile, "that you have me to thank, or blame, for this little getaway."
"You... you knew?" Raphael asked.
"Forgive me, dear, but yes. I did. If I told you, would you have come?"
He did not answer right away, pondering her question. He had kept in touch with her throughout the days following Michael's disappearance. Always had she been worried, eager for any news he might have for her. At least, that was what she had shown, while she already had the answers beneath her worried frowns. He had even showed her the letter once, a day or two into the searches for the missing archangel. Had she told him, would he still have come down to Earth himself? Probably not, he decided. He was needed at Valhalla in his superior's stead, to keep the moon base in line and the operations running. Things had steadied in the couple of weeks after, which was why he had been able to leave as easy as he could.
"There are only a few people who know anything about this," Gabrielle answered his question before he could ask it. "And the only thing they know would be 'why.' Uriel and I know the details, nobody else."
"But why..." Michael finally spoke. "How..."
It was a moment or two before she answered. "I could say that I wanted the both of you to be happy and that would be the truth. But not the only one." She shared a look with Uriel. "Plainly speaking, we were using you."
Kagetsuya and Chihaya, Raphael noticed, looked unsurprised at what was transpiring. Perhaps Uriel had told them everything the night before, when they were out. It was the only time he could have. Still, they kept careful expressions of polite disinterest, unsure if they should leave or stay. If they knew, it did not matter much either way.
"We're participants in a debate, see," Uriel explained. "Within Eden's judiciary system. One of the things that came up, as it has time and again for many years, is a certain law. One for which a trial was held in recent times."
He had no need to elaborate on that and went on. "It's outdated, and very much so. It was designed to promote the improvement of the low angelic birth rate. But as you can see"--he shrugged a shoulder--"it's done nothing. We can't even say it's steadied the rate-- It still fluctuates from time to time.
"Most angels enter marriage more because society dictates it than to have children, some, like what would have happened with Kagetsuya, for political reasons, in his case to continue the royal line. Many of them do it because there is love between them and their partners, anyway. But whether or not it is of their choosing doesn't matter. In fact, there have been no connections between couples who produce children or those who don't. It's not love, nor any kind of compatibility anyone can come up with. It's just some biological luck of the draw, I guess.
"Anyway, about the law. The kids over here aren't the only ones who've broken it." He nodded to the two angels who had taken the seats on Gabrielle's other side, flashing a disarming smile at Kagetsuya, who had bristled at his choice of words. "They just had the unfortunate luck to get caught. But we know of others -- anonymously, of course. Still has to be kept secret, and a secret's not a secret if people who don't need to know, know, and we -- everyone in on the debate, of course -- don't so we don't ask. It doesn't really matter who they are anyway, just that their unions exist. And the birth rate? Because it's so important, connected to this law? Still the same."
"One would think this debate would be a popular one," Michael mused. "Why isn't it?"
"Oh, but it is. Workers, bureaucrats, some military. Even Sakura knows something of it. It's not some sort of secret, but no one advertises it, either. We only talk when someone asks. You're too busy with Valhalla and the investigations to notice, maybe."
"And where do we figure into this?"
"The two to add to the list. Which we have a feeling will be presented pretty soon." Uriel held up a hand for silence before either could speak. "And because we really do want to see the two of you happy." He paused. "And, amusing though it is, we wanted you to stop acting like fledglings on the verge of their first mating season. After, what, twenty-some-odd years, it tends to get annoying."
"All right." The Valhallan commander looked thoughtful, pointedly ignoring his faint blush and, Raphael suspected, trying to hold back a smile. "Then how do you know what you're implying is true?"
The singer nodded to Gabrielle. "All yours. You answer."
"I arrived last night. I thought you'd all gone out since the house was so quiet and was going to head up, but I saw you, Raphael, in the upstairs hall. And where you went." She winked. "I decided to stay downstairs and wait for these three to come back from their gallivanting. Honestly, Uriel, even if you knew it wasn't safe to do so, would you still be breaking so many rules?"
"No." He was oddly gleeful. "And you're breaking them, too, now."
"Only because everything's covered. Even Michael's 'trip' here."
This caught both Raphael's and Michael's attentions. "What?"
The two shared another one of their looks before Gabrielle replied. "If there is ever a way to leave Eden's notice, it's definitely harder than this. Coming down here? It's unofficially authorized. We told you, there are people who know about this. Not where you are or who you're with, just that you're gone and you're safe. Those searches? The ones continued after Raphael stopped heading the searches, they've all been engineered. Actually, Michael-sama, since it's known on Valhalla that you had fallen ill that one week, we had that information circulate a little more -- after a few embellishments, of course -- and let people draw their conclusions. There's already a report prepared for when you return, detailing a retreat you had been ordered to take."
"You've..." Michael muttered, with an awed smile. "You've really planned for everything, haven't you?"
"Of course. I settle for nothing less. And, by the way, Uriel was wrong. You two are far worse than fledglings."
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Note: This was hard. I don't think I can ever do it to the point that I'm completely satisfied with it, but I like it well enough now. Besides, I'm attached to Conniving!Gabrielle. (And Rambly!Uriel, too, while I'm at it.) The lovely, brilliant woman. And before anyone says anything, she does know. Everyone knows, in fact, everyone and their dogs (or the Eden equivalent of dogs). It's kinda hard not to tell. (Personal view.) I just think since the two obviously aren't going to do anything, she'd be the one to get something happening. Got the impression that they're friends first and foremost, all of them, and, well, that's why. Don't think any of them could stand the far-too-complicated relationships they are all in otherwise. That, and the really horrible, immature fangirl in me likes to dangle the idea that Gabrielle-sama's a closet yaoi fan. (I'm kidding. X3 Amusing though the thought is.)