They had come a long way.
"An angel," Tsuzuki murmured, intrigued. "Are you sure, Tatsumi?"
Tatsumi nodded, caressing Watari now and then. "I know what I saw. You would have been, too, Tsuzuki. There's no mistaking it. The being that protected Watari and drove off the devil was an angel."
"Don't angels need a body, just like devils?" Hisoka wanted to know.
"Yes. Like demons they can't exist outside a corporeal form for very long. They seek a vessel."
Tsuzuki looked at his friend, frowning thoughtfully, and Watari sighed.
"It's not me," he said, sitting up a little more. "I checked. I think I'd know. Like a demon, an angel leaves a mark on the vessel's body."
"You bear none," Tatsumi agreed.
Watari gave him a little mischievous smile. "You should know."
Blue eyes briefly danced with shared amusement. "Yes, I would."
"If it isn't Watari, and I think we can exclude Tatsumi, too," Hisoka spoke up, "then what was it? And why Watari?"
"I wish I knew," the scientist muttered.
There was a soft hooting noise and 003 rubbed her head against his cheek in a comforting manner. He reached up and scratched her belly with one finger.
"For an angel to protect someone, it must be serious. Guardian angels are assigned to a person as long as their service is required," Hisoka said. "I read about them in the library," he added when Tsuzuki shot him a quizzical look.
"Who assigns them?" the older shinigami wanted to know.
"The Lord of Heaven."
Silence reigned and Watari felt it rest heavily on his soul. He had been assigned a guardian angel... why him? Why would he be special enough to have a guardian angel? Well, he could think of a reason or two, but they certainly didn't involve Heaven ... or did they?
"The Lord of Heaven gave me a guardian angel," he murmured, shaking his head. "It can't be. It must be a mistake. Maybe the angel was there by accident..."
He didn't buy his own explanation and from the looks the others didn't either.
"Maybe there's a way to find the angel," Hisoka finally said. "I'll pay the library a visit. We can find devils, so why not angels?"
Tsuzuki nodded and rose. Hisoka did the same and the two younger shinigami left their friends. Watari just lay against Tatsumi again, sighing softly, arms curling around the other's waist. He felt very alone and insecure all of a sudden, and the well-known warmth and protection his lover's body provided was more than welcome - a secure anchor in a world that had suddenly taken a very sharp leap to the left.
You were so easy, Yutaka ...
Tatsumi wrapped his arms around the form of his lover and leaned back, stroking over Watari's back. He had healed quickly after he had finally let his immortal body run its course, let the healing power do what needed to be done. There was still a twinge now and then, but he would be back to normal in another day or two.
Watari was breathing against his neck and shifting slightly, one leg gently pushing between his thighs and Tatsumi almost moaned when he felt an unmistakable hardness. Watari's hold on him tightened, his fingers sliding under his shirt and resting on his bare skin, but otherwise the scientist kept still.
Tatsumi slowly ran his finger through the silky blond mane and pulled Watari's face toward him, gently pressing their lips together. He felt Watari sigh into the kiss and all but melt into his embrace. Tatsumi rolled them both around carefully, deepening the kiss in the process, and Watari responded in kind.
Tracing his fingertips lightly over Watari's skin Tatsumi slowly unbuttoned his shirt, nibbling at his lover's earlobe and working himself down his neck. The blond sighed again, arching into his body in a silent request, and Tatsumi answered it by sliding the shirt off his shoulders, placing Watari's hands above his head on the pillow. Looking down on his lover, Tatsumi felt himself fall all over again for this man. Tousled blond mane, golden eyes clouded with desire that was directed at him, breathing hard, Watari was a sight to behold. And this man was protected by an angel.
Whoever sent it to you, Tatsumi thought as he bent down to remove the pants, or for whatever reasons I'm going to be entirely thankful.
Trailing down the lines of muscles on his lover's ribcage, seeing the stomach flutter when he hit an especially sensitive spot Tatsumi watched Watari close his eyes, his legs falling open. The Shadow Master smiled, pressing his lips on the knee next to him and working himself slowly north. Watari made a soft sound and spread his legs even farther, exposing himself completely. Tatsumi caressed the soft skin of his lover's inner thighs with his fingertips, nipping and kissing himself upwards until he reached the hip. Looking up he looked into a pair of golden eyes watching him and Tatsumi slid up the slender body, claiming those kissable lips again. This time Watari did moan, arms and legs closing around his body.
"Seii," he whispered hoarsely, an Tatsumi knew what Watari needed right now.
His own clothes followed Watari's, and he rested between his lover's thighs again, hands roaming over Watari's body, teasing every spot he knew until the other man was reduced to a whimpering puddle on the bed.
"Seii, please..." Watari finally moaned, and this time Tatsumi didn't let him beg twice.
########
It had been ridiculously easy to find Fujikama again, Tatsumi thought as he strode through the streets of Nagasaki. The man was old, had made a deal with the devil, but he wasn't all that smart when he was running. It had been a matter of following very obvious clues and in the end it had taken just a single strike to take him down. Fujikama Yukihito had been nothing but a mortal who had thought he was smarter than Enma-Daiou, who had thought he could cheat death when he was already on top of the list. He had lost that bet. Not only had the devil been chased off and was no longer protecting him, but his own soul had now been sent straight to his Judgment.
Tatsumi stopped at a park and watched some of the young couples, the children at play, and he smiled briefly.
It was over. At least for Fujikama. He still didn't know what they could do about the fact that a contract had been made with Watari's soul as merchandize to be traded between a human and a devil. Maybe with Fujikama now serving his life sentence in Hell, the devil would be off, too. He doubted it, though. Devils loved their contracts and this one would just lay in wait for another chance.
Watari still had to work through the shock of it all, but he was getting better. Tatsumi sighed and resumed his way.
This would need time. And a lot of thinking. Especially since between Fujikama and the devil a third factor had come into play as well-- the angel.
########
Watari had gone to the library to read up on angels. What Hisoka had found had been interesting, but he felt it was important to get all the information there was. If he had a guardian angel, if there was some heavenly being assigned to him, he wanted to know why. And he needed to find it. He wanted to talk to the angel, ask it why him. It had to know. And it was a good task to silence a certain voice he hadn't heard for a long time.
You were very good in bed, too...
Watari took off his glasses and rubbed over his tired eyes. Feathers tickled at his fingers, and they were gently nipped at. Watari smiled at the little owl who hooted softly and he stroked over her head gently.
"Yes, maybe you're right, 003. I'm a scientist, and I have research to do." Putting back his glasses he reached for the first book.
It was an hour into the research, with Watari buried with his nose in books upon books and 003 dozing on a shelf, that a huge explosion rocked the library. Books tumbled and foundations creaked. Watari was almost thrown off his chair and there was a protesting hoot from 003 who had nearly been hit by a tumbling book.
"What the...?"
And then the alarms started to screech. The intruder alerts.
There was a sudden rise in demonic aura energy and another explosion shook the building. Watari stumbled to the reading room, but he never made it that far. The door exploded inwards, off its hinges, actually tearing them out of the concrete walls. Watari was slammed into the book case behind him by the blast and quickly got to his feet, the demonic aura rising exponentially.
There was a loud snarl.
A fetid stench reached his senses.
Coughing through the smoke and the dust, he looked around and met a pair of deeply red glowing eyes.
"Shinigami," the devil growled over the din of the alarms.
Watari's eyes shot open wide in shock and he scrambled back. A devil! The devil! The thing that had tried to kill him before!
Baal - here!
In Meifu!