Uriel managed to convince the archangels to stay one more day. No one knew exactly how he did it, but he did. But another was out of the question. They all agreed on that.
So it was that Michael was out on the patio in the back of the house, gazing up at the stars, playing a silent, idle guessing game on which was which. The star around which Eden orbited around was easiest to pick out, but then again, it probably was for all the angels.
"Chihaya will miss you."
He half-turned so he could smile at the figure at the sliding screen door. "And you, Kagetsuya?"
There was a slight pause before the angel gave a reluctant, "Me too."
Michael gestured to for the other to join him. He did not have to wait long before he heard the door slide open, then closed. Kagetsuya went to his side, gaze following his to the heavens above.
"Do you ever wish you could go back?"
"...Always."
"Would you?"
There was no hesitation this time. "I decided years ago. Home is not Eden. Or Earth. Whatever Chihaya would decide, I'll be with him."
A soft smile. "You love him a lot, don't you?"
"And then some."
Michael turned to him then, smile still on his lips, if a bit more subdued. He remembered his words to Raphael the night before, those concerning Kagetsuya. The young angel had grown, he thought again for what must have been the millionth time. Chihaya had called Kagetsuya beautiful, those years ago when they first met on the dark angel's first day at Valhalla. And beautiful he was, golden hair long and flowing when he wasn't in his Earthian disguise, green-blue eyes fiery, confident and proud. The exact image of someone Michael knew many years ago. Even, he imagined, down to the way they expressed themselves, their glares, their frowns, their smiles.
'She smiled a lot more, though,' he mused.
Out loud, he said, "Your mother would have loved to see you all grown up. She would have approved."
He saw Kagetsuya stiffen and wanted to laugh. It was the same manner in which his mother had expressed the mix of surprise and consternation.
"You knew my mother?" the younger angel asked.
There were several ways he could have answered that, so he opted for, "I'd like to think I knew my own sister."
The widening of those teal eyes meant only surprise this time. "Lu... Lucifer-sama?"
"You look just like her," he replied by way of affirmative. "Had you not been male, you could be her clone." He grinned. "If you want to know what she was like, just imagine yourself as female."
It was a moment before the corners of Kagetsuya's lips quirked up in a slight smile. "Michael-sama..." He trailed off, looked away, then back again. "If... I'm not hoping it'll happen, since that's more up Chihaya's alley, but... If I ever see you again, would you... I mean..."
"I'll tell you everything about her," he promised.
Then, eyes lighting up as an idea formed in his mind, he took Kagetsuya's hand and led him to the pair of patio chairs placed by the door. There was no protest from the other angel, but then again, respect for his elder and former superior might have stopped any he might have made.
"It's too early to sleep yet," Michael explained, sitting only after making sure his companion was also seated.
It was not, by any chance, what he had first intended to tell Kagetsuya. Part of it, perhaps, and not this much detail. But the more he thought about it, he did not think he could tell the truth he had planned on telling. Even despite the way his heart ached its protest to the decision. This would be enough.
It would have to be.
So he kept on smiling. "Even if it's only a little bit, we could start now," he told the other angel. "Now, when we were younger, we were always together..."
Three of the four archangels left the next morning, at dawn. Uriel, having been there to train and monitor Eden's investigators in the first place, was the only one who remained. He waved his colleagues goodbye, Kagetsuya and Chihaya flanking him. The latter two had close to a week left in Hawaii and he would stay with them -- no one on Eden would know of course -- until they had to return to Shinjuku.
Like Gabrielle said, explanations for Michael's extended absence were ready. This, of course, meant another round of well-wishers sending gifts of sympathy to him, most of them flowers, like the last time. He bemoaned this good-naturedly to Raphael for the few days that the tokens poured in, who only smiled and offered the usual light banter.
"We'd like you to join us, now," Gabrielle had told them in the few hours' time they had to themselves after their return. "No one has to know anything beyond the fact that you want to join out of interest."
Perhaps they would some day, they told her, when work was not so pressing and time-consuming. When they were alone, they looked at each other and nodded, yes, perhaps they would.
And if anyone noticed that they spent the occasional night in each other's apartments, they attributed it to Michael's now-known habit of keeping late hours having leaked over to his partner.