I will note that I am in no way sure how all of this works. How do people become Shinigami? Are their bodies still dead or what? I know they can be physically hurt, but not everyone dies cleanly... I'll just make up that their spirits become their bodies. Yeah, that works!

...is Mitani his first or last name?! I think it's his last, but for the sake of my sanity, it's the first name. V-chan came up with a last name, I'm just too lazy to dig through my Yami no Matsuei manga bag next to me to find what she picked. **gets stared at** Fine! **reaches two feet to dig through said bag** Here, Mohitei. V-chan picked 'mohitei'. I don't remember what it means, but I think it's something like... mourning denial? Dunno.

Yes, V-chan! I'm posting it without you BETA-ing! Mwahahahah!

Chapter 1-

Angel's Tears

"Okazaki Izuru, you have been assigned to Area One, Okinawa." Konoe-kacho peered at him, the boy's case still rather fresh in his mind as Tatsumi behind him shuffled through papers.

The boy nodded his head, uncrossing his legs and standing up from the chair.

"However," Konoe continued, "you will not begin work until you have a partner. Remember, Shinigami always work in pairs."

"Yes sir." The boy nodded.

Tatsumi now spoke up. "EnMaCho has provided an apartment for you and your partner in your area." He handed him a piece of paper. "Here is the address."

"You may go now." Konoe nodded.

"Thank you, sir." Izuru bowed and left the room.

As he looked at the sheet of paper, Izuru reviewed his life right before and after death. He had fallen in love with his teacher, Mitani-sensei, and they had a relationship until Izuru got it into his head that perhaps Mitani-sensei didn't really love him.

I shouldn't have made a deal with that damn demon. I would still be alive and... with him. Stupid child. He had scolded himself like this over and over again.

He remembered the night he died- it was the night he allowed the demon to take over his body. The demon controlled him, and he himself was unable to stop events from occurring. The demon used his body to make love to Mitani-sensei, and then killed Izuru's body sadistically.

It had been cold and dark after that. That's all there was. There was no light and no warmth. He had spent what felt like an eternity in that dark, cold place, unable to speak, but with hollow words ringing in his head. Certainly, he would not make it to heaven, but this wasn't hell either. Was his soul lost?

The next thing he remembered was a tug at his heart. He had felt something happen, but was unsure what.

After that, he opened his eyes and saw sakura blossoms. It was out of season, but there were sakura blossoms.

"Am I in heaven?" He asked himself, sitting up.

"No, not quite." A voice answered. He had turned to see a man with amethyst eyes and a boy with blond hair next to him.

"Who are you two? And where am I?" He asked, holding his head. "That demon! That demon killed me!"

"Yes, we know." The boy answered. "We know your story and worked on your case after you died."

"But if I'm dead, then where am I?" Izuru wondered aloud, staring out the window at the falling blossoms.

"You are in Meifu and a province called EnMaCho. Meifu is where the dead report to be judged and sent to their final resting places." The man with amethyst eyes explained.

"Then, I am to be judged and sent to hell for my sins on Earth." Izuru lowered his eyes and moved back, resting his head against the wall behind him.

"No." The boy answered. "Your will to live is strong; you wish to continue living so that you may see Mitani-sensei, your lover, again."

"We had a hell of a time getting your soul back." The man bit his lower lip in an aggravated fashion.

"You never explained who you are." Izuru looked up at them again.

"Well, I'm Tsuzuki Asato and this is my partner, Kurosaki Hisoka. We are Shinigami, angels of death sent to earth to claim the souls of those who died. One becomes a Shinigami by wishing to live after death, such as you." The man explained this simply, a smile on his face that did not go with the mood.

Izuru's eyes widened. "Does that mean that I'm a Shinigami?"

"Only if you want to." Tsuzuki commented. "Konoe-kacho was commenting that he did have an opening for two Shinigami in some area or other. But remember," his eyes narrowed seriously, dangerously, "Shinigami deal death on a regular basis. I don't know if someone your age could handle it."

Hisoka, who had been silent since the introductions, gave a small cough.

Tsuzuki jumped nervously. "Well, Hisoka was a special case! He had good reason!"

"Ano..." Izuru looked at them again sadly. "If you investigated my case, you do know that Mitani-sensei was innocent, right?"

Tsuzuki's face became solemn. "He killed others after you died. At least one other boy and the old priest."

"Mitani-sensei?!" Izuru's heart pounded, hurting as it seemed to attempt an escape from his chest. "So then..."

"But he was still in love with you. He was confused, but he loved you more than anything." Tsuzuki interjected. "That other boy, Fujisawa-kun, he did not feel anything for. It was only you."

Hisoka glared at Tsuzuki before going into a yelling fit about tact and that mentioning other affairs may hurt Izuru's feelings.

Izuru didn't know what to feel now as he only halfway listened to their voices. He was numb in the heart now as it slowed down to its normal pace. His eyes watered and his chest started to hurt. Why was this...? "Is... is Mitani-sensei happy now, at least?" He looked up at Tsuzuki and Hisoka, who were now silently staring at him, with tears forming.

"He... died." Tsuzuki turned away from his face, hurting too much to continue.

"The demon Fohkaroru killed him." Hisoka added. "It was his love that made him blind to our warnings."

"So it's all my fault." He could no longer hold the tears that his eyes relinquished. "It's my fault that he's dead now."

"No." Tsuzuki shook his head. "It's mine. I-I couldn't protect him. I tried, but Fohkaroru got to him anyway."

"But I'm the on who sold myself, remember! You investigated my case, you know everything that happened! If I had never sold my soul, we would both still be alive and I-I could tell him..." He buried his face in his hands.

"Tsuzuki." Hisoka nodded his head out the door. Tsuzuki nodded and left as Hisoka came to sit next to the bed. "Okazaki-kun, listen to me."

Izuru lifted his eyes a little to make miniscule eye contact.

"I will admit that it was very stupid to make a deal with a demon, but it isn't all your fault." He sighed heavily. "If I wanted, I could blame myself for going out for a walk the night that man was there. But no, I blame him for my death, and I also blame that demon for yours and Mitani-sensei's. So blame Fohkaroru for everything, not yourself."

Izuru did not answer him, preferring to stare at the floor.

"When you feel you are ready, ask, and Tsuzuki and I will take you to Konoe-kacho to be tested."

So here Izuru was now, wandering around aimlessly and wondering how to get to Okinawa. It was a good week after that time, and he had past the tests well enough. He could use the Shinigami powers of invisibility and flight if he so willed, but something about being up in the air with nothing to support you seemed slightly uncomfortable.

Then he started wondering something: if you could die again as a Shinigami that meant your body had to be a physical one- and obviously in good working condition. Wasn't his body... mutilated and stuff? Or destroyed? So why was this body perfectly fine? Did his... spirit manifest itself in a physical form or something?

"Oi! Okazaki!"

Izuru looked over in time to see the inu form of Tsuzuki barrel into him in a furious glomp.

"Tsu-Tsuzuki-san?" Izuru flushed.

"Gomen, gomen." He smiled sheepishly, sliding off of the boy and standing up. "So, where have you been assigned?"

"Okinawa, area one."

"Ah! That's near us- area two." Tsuzuki gushed happily.

"Ano..." Izuru smiled sheepishly. "Are you two reporting there anytime soon? I sort of don't know how to get there."

"Sure." Tsuzuki smiled. "Come with us."

Izuru sank deeper into his warm bath, mind going over a hundred different thoughts at once, as it seemed. He dunked his head under, trying to clear out all of those thoughts.

"I love you, sensei."

I was stupid. I shouldn't have tried it- it only ended in our deaths. I loved him... and then I sold my soul to a stupid demon because his nervousness made me edgy. Idiot Izuru! Idiot, idiot, idiot!

Finding air becoming necessary, he rose over the water's surface and breathed in. Sighing, he relaxed against the tub's edge. "I love you, Mitani-sensei... and I hope you made it to the afterlife safely."

He soaped down his body now, trying to wash away the dirtiness that he felt inside. Every time he had thought that Mitani had not loved him was like a new spot of dirt that covered his body, but was never able to be taken back, for he was never able to apologize now. He would stay dirty for his entire afterlife.

The door to the front of the two-bedroom apartment opened and footsteps trekked across the living room area. They were pretty light, but still the heavier footsteps of an adult.

Rising from the bath, Izuru wrapped a towel around himself and stepped out. "Hello?" He asked, peeking out the door to his new partner.

The door was halfway flung open as Izuru and his partner stared at each other in silence, both unable to move as blue and hazel met.

"Izuru..." the dirty-blond mumbled, moving his bangs from in front of his face to join the ponytail behind his head.

"Mitani-sensei."

They both sat there a few minutes later, Izuru now dressed in some new wardrobe that had been left for him by two other Shinigami. He didn't catch their names, but they were said to have taken a fancy to him and were both female. Hisoka had warned him against taking up acquaintances with them, however.

The shirt swept down into a split in the front that turned into its own cape whilst showing a little midriff. Izuru fingered the little ropes that connected the V-collar. After that, the pants and boots seemed pretty modest.

Mitani could not help but look at the boy before him that had once been his student and lover. He was still dressed in a long, white-sleeved shirt and khaki pants.

There was still an uncomfortable silence in the air.

"Kami has gained a grim sense of humor." Mitani commented. "Either that, or a couple of the boys upstairs."

"Mm." Izuru nodded just once.

"Izuru- Okazaki-kun, may I... may I please hold you, just to see if you're really here and not just a trick to torment me further?"

Izuru nodded unsurely, tears starting to well up again as he stood. Mitani swept him into his arms and started crying into his hair. Izuru did the same into his shoulder as his head was kissed and caressed fondly.

"Izuru, I love you." Mitani whispered into his ear. "I love you, and I am sorry I was never able to tell you truthfully before. I-it was all my fault- if only I hadn't been so confused about everything."

Izuru shook his head furiously. "No, it's my fault. I'm sorry for causing you so much pain. I'm sorry for ever thinking that you hadn't loved me."

"That's the thing!" Mitani said loudly. "At first, I didn't. But then, the purity of your emotions confused me and I didn't understand anything away from what the Bible taught." He lifted his face away from Izuru's hair. "I love you though, and I was finally able to understand it... I missed you so much." He bent down to kiss the boy before him.

Izuru pushed him away. "No, Mitani-sensei. We can't just go back to that, not after what happened. I still blame myself and I'm surprised that I can even face you without dying again from guilt." He started walking away. "I-I'm going to sleep now." He shut the door to his room.

Mitani watched him go in before sitting on the couch again. "Izuru..." He whispered. "I still love you. That was the last thing I thought before I died: how much I loved you and how I was never able to truly express it. I know that we can't go back to how it was before, for those scars will always be there. But I want us to have some sort of relationship like before, because I love you." He sighed deeply. "I'm going to make some tea."

He went through the processes he always had to make tea, but it felt different. He was dead now, and his afterlife was neither paradise nor darkness. It was a mix of the two, for he was sent back down to Earth, a place of darkness, with his Izuru near his side. That was the light, the spiritual luminescence that flowed from the blond boy in the next room. He yearned for the light, to hold it near his heart in a scene of pure happiness, but such was impossible for the soul that had now been consumed in darkness. The shadows were closing in and there was no escape for he who had sinned.

Angels were falling and being sent to hell for their tears.

His peppermint tea was of no comfort to him right now, and so he sank back to turn on the news. If a mission was to come up, one of the GuShoShin would pop up and tell them. But he hoped nothing would come up tonight, for he and Izuru were having small problems getting back together and he himself was very tired. According to what Konoe-kacho had told him, cooperation was a big part of this line of work and right now, both of them felt too awkward around one another.

Maybe if I buy him a gift or something. Mitani told himself. Izuru had liked chocolate in life, and it was pretty evident that dead people could eat, seeing that Tsuzuki tended to down large quantities of food on many given occasions. But the idea kind of wavered, seeing that they were on a budget. Tatsumi seemed very intent upon keeping them on that particular budget, and seemed to be daring him to go over whenever briefing him on everything.

Well, I'll think about it tomorrow morning. He set down his cup of tea and just sort of drifted in front of the news channel.

Heavy breath covering hot, slick bodies as hands caressed them all over. A whimper from sweet lips as an abrupt entrance occurred lower in the body, and the sound was silenced by firmer, but still gentle lips.

The cool sheets were heating up as two bare bodies danced amongst them, physically manifesting pent-up love that could never be seen in the eyes of mortals and was scorned in the eyes of their Lord.

"Izuru..." The lips seemed to whisper as they traveled the boy's body softly. One of each of their hands entwined fingers as Izuru gasped for all of the physical pleasures that peeked in his body. His free hand ran down his lover's back as he called that man's name to him.

"Mitani-sensei... sensei, I love you."

And they continued on with only the moonlight as a witness to their actions that dared defy God.

Izuru awoke quickly and slowly made his way to the shower, unable to go at much of a quicker pace due to arousing. It was not a dream, but a memory that had occurred. The loss of his innocence, the giving of his virginity to the man he had loved.

The cold water was comforting and calmed down his body after a little while.

After drying and dressing, he made his way quietly back to his bedroom, stopping to notice that the other from his dream was asleep on the couch, a look of peace on his face. Izuru let a small smile come over his face as he walked into Mitani's room and retrieved a blanket to put over the man, lest he catch a cold, if such was possible. He then went back to bed and slept, much more at ease then he had been before.

Angels could cry for their sins, but who would the perverts be, in the end? Who would be the immoral hypocrites in the eyes of the winged beings? Would the damned be those who would scorn them in the name of religion and damn them in the name of morality, or would those who are condemned be the ones who released themselves to their hearts and showed one another the pure emotion of love?

@.@ Aiya~! I hated that chapter~! **scratches at the compy screen furiously** I will note that I haven't the slightest where this is going now... .

**holds up sign that says: READ THE MANGA**

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